MIND AND SERENITY - SWAMI TATWANANDA

[Guest guest]

"Just as the ocean remains unmoved and still as the waters enter it, so too,

the wise one, into whom all desires enter,. remains unmoved into whom all

desires enter. He attains peace but the desirer of objects of desires does

not."

That man attains peace, who abandoning all desires, moves around without

longing, without the sense of "I-ness" and "mine-ness."

This is to have one's being in Brahman O Partah. Having attained this, he is

not deluded. Fixed in it, even at the end of one's life one gains liberation.

(Chap.2-Verses 70, 71 &72-B.G.)

 

The rivers run towards the ocean. Both the rivers and the ocean are nothing

but water. When moving, it is called river and in its well-grounded vastness

it is the ocean. It is water that is called ocean, river, spring, stream,

pond, etc. Water does not gather any new quality being all these, except a

few new utilities. What a river can be, a pond cannot or a spring cannot be!

 

So is this creation. Its source is Peace/Happiness, which is the svarupa of

Esvara- "Shantam-Shivam-Sundaram." The sastras declare that from "Happiness

alone everything came into being with varied names and forms and by Happiness

alone it is sustained"(anadat eva kalu imani bhutani jayante). Due to

ignorance, which is beginningless and without cause, human activities are

directed to attain the very source, Peace, as an object, instead of the

activities springing forth from Peace. As such, Peace remains remote.

 

Human activity should not be for acquiring peace but be performed in

peacefulness. To such a one, the world is useful as water in the well, which

is nothing but water again. Whether you call the collection of water either

as pond, river, tank, etc., what is always there and not missed is "water."

Similarly, your relative roles as father, mother, brother, employer, etc. are

but different modes to reveal the peace within. Human activities can be

different in terms of utilities and relative purposes, but in the quality of

being the messenger of "peace" it is identical.

 

There is a common belief amongst many spiritual aspirants that as long as the

sense of ego with its "I-ness" and "mine-ness" continues to exist, that one's

spirituality is at stake. While it is true that "ego-lessness" is the seat of

God/Truth, one fact should be well understood. Life does not allow or

accommodate for a conscious being an active moment without these senses of

"I-ness" and "mine-ness." When you are doing your sadhana, you have that

sense of "I-ness" and you have to own your maturity with "mine-ness" in

respect of the growth that is the result of your sadhana. Spiritual progress

does not take place at moments of coma or deep sleep state, where you have no

sense of "I-ness" and "mine-ness."

 

In fact, our relative life's content is this "I-ness" and "mine-ness."

"I-ness" stands for what you think "you are" and "mine-ness" for what "you

have." What you are and what you have are the signposts of your achievements.

"Ego-lessness" comes into being not in removing and replacing things but in

"reawakening to the actual non-ownership of "I-ness" and "mine-ness." The

sense of "I-ness," being that conscious being capable of knowing, is not by

you. Consciousness enlivening the mind brought in an entity who is conscious

of himself and of other things.. Neither Consciousness nor the mind is your

products. As such, you have no ownership over the sense of "I-ness."

 

Similarly what you have and which you claim with a sense of "mine-ness" - the

body-mind complex, life's position, etc. - are Esvara's creation. If you do

not want to accept HIM as the Creator, at least accept one simple fact that

"you are not the Creator." This is enough for you not to have the sense of

ownership over things and situations that "you have."

 

Yet every one of us find ourselves blessed with the sense of "I-ness" and

"mine-ness" bereft of which life in this world is not possible- even being

meaningless! Therefore, the silent owning while more silently disowning -

that is accepting the fact none is ours - is the true ego-free state or

negation of "I-ness" and "mine-ness." This negation is not living without a

reference to "I" and "mine." It is an answer to the inquiry - "what am I?"

and over "what I have?" This is "Truthful living." Attaining this, none is

confused.

 

Once the Knowledge of Self (Atma) is gained, the ignorance that made one take

himself to be limited is negated. Atma is not conditioned by time. Therefore,

any moment is a potential moment for the recognition of this Truth and to be

liberated from all limitations.

 

OM TAT SAT.

 

(Excerpted from Swamiji's talks published in Mind and Serenity-1984)