Divine Speech - Reaching God

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REACHING GOD: THE METHOD:

 

NG Chandorkar: Baba, again I am asking you for the third time, who

God is, what he is like and where he is?

 

Baba: I have already told you. If you act upon what I have said, you

would be equipped with Sadhana Chatushtya i.e., the four helps.

 

NGChandorkar: What are they.

 

Baba:

1. Viveka

2. Vairagya

3. Scama

4. Mumukshuta

First is (Viveka) Nitya-Anitya Vastuviveka i.e., discriminating

between the real and unreal. Some people make others believe that

they are such vivekis and become varkaries i.e., pilgrim to

Pandharpur, without however, knowing who Hari really is, what he is

and where he is. But this pilgrimage is not real devotion, but a mere

device to get respect from others.

 

Persons who merely read and memorise many works without making their

hearts pure, pour out precepts at debates, cavil at others and are

full of self adulation. These are not vivekis and they do not attain

Brahma Jnana.

 

Vairagya is second. The real vairagi cares not for the good things of

this world or of the next.

Baba's Vairagya.

(1) When Damia Rasane offered Baba a share in the profits of his

proposed business Baba said `I am not to be entangled in anything.

(2) Baba's advice to a Madrasi Swami. : If you are so fond of your

mother, why did you assume the garb of a sanyasi. Kashaya and mamata

(attachment) cannot go together. … Utter renunciation alone leads to

bliss. Bo Bhagavatha Sapthaha thrice with intended meditation. that

will quench all vasanas. all illusions will end.

 

Scama, the third. Scama is preventing the mind from going into the

objects of the senses. Dama is the withdrawal of the mind, when it

does go in, by control of external activity.

 

Titiksha is putting up with pain that results from prarabdha karma,

without murmur.

 

Uparati is looking upon wealth, women, children, friends etc., as

unreal and thus escaping the meshes of Maya.

 

Sraddha is faith (Viswasa of the mind)

 

Samadhana is equanimity i.e., looking on pain and pleasure equally

unexited and with firmness of mind.

 

Mumukshuta is the fourth help

 

Mumukshuta is strong desire for Moksha (with dislike of joys and

sorrows of phenomenal existence), accompanied by the idea that

Aparoksha jnana i.e., realisation of Brahman alone is the solution.

Moksha is not Heaven, Kailasa or vaikunta. It is subtle and not

gross. It is the invisible origin of the universe-pure consciousness,

pure being-Suddha chaitanya. Being or becoming that is moksha. That

is immortality and that is the goal of human life. All other alms are

worthless.

 

N G Chandorkar: Pray, tell us about Suddha Chaitanya, what it is.

 

Baba: That is the origin, the essence, the foundation and the

permeator of the entire universe, sentient and insentient, as also

the end of it. The source is Suddha Chaidanya. You cannot exactly

describe `Chaidanya', but every moment it exists in your existence.

There is no place without it but it has no form or name. in that it

resembles air, which has no colour or form to be seen, and whose

existence however is unquestionable, Suddha Chaidanya is called

Brahman. The wise do upasana of it under the name `Brahman' and then,

are called Brahmavit. Vegetable, animal, human and all other lives

are contained within it. It is the original cause of all appearance,

perceptions and knowledge. It is the one root of the many. It

pervades everything. It may be characterised as sat-reality, chit-

consciousness, Ananda-bliss and Ekatva-unity. All of us are that. We

are not distinct from it.

 

N G Chandorkar: Baba, you say Brahman is bliss, i.e., without pain

and that, it is unity, i.e., without multiplicity. Yet you say the

same Brahman is all and everything in the world, wherein there is not

merely multiplicity but also suffering. How can bliss appear as pain

and suffering? How can the one appear as many, How can the real

appear as the unreal, Again, it each of us consider ourselves as

Chaitanya as Brahman there must be many Brahmans (and not one)

because we are so many. Further, if all of us are the one and same

Brahman, each man must feel the pain and pleasure felt by others; but

he does not. Just as our bodies are different, our souls must be

different and not one. Please explain.

 

Baba: You are wrong. Just listen red, black, white, blue, yellow,

etc., are different colours. Add them to water. Is not water still

one and the same water, despite the different colours. That, you will

see by separating the colour from the water. The result will be that

you get water in each case. Just like that, the Atman or Brahman is

one. But the hearts it occupies, are different. It is one and the

same Atman that runs through all the hearts. As far pain and

pleasure, these are not the functions of Brahman or Atman, but only

of the hearts. To make the heart, a heart, is the function of the

Atman or Brahman.

 

I will further explain the matter. Chaitanya appear through three

gunas and is classified further as Paramarthika-Satya, Vyavaharika-

Satya and Pratibhasika-Satya just as one body has three stage,

childhood, manhood and old-age, so Satya has these three stage. A

person in Paramartik stage (called a sage) sees truth as truth and

acts according to sastras, i.e., without differentiation. One in the

Vyavaharik stage (called the Good) tries to follow the sastras but

goes on differentiating at every step selecting the good and

rejecting the evil. One in the Pratibasik stage (called the ignorant)

does not see the truth either entirely as it is or with the addition

of differentiation merely, but sees it quite inverted i.e., in the

way quite opposite to the Vyavaharik person's view. He sees good as

evil and evil as good.

 

But Atman or Brahman is common to all these three stages.

 

I will give one more illustration. There is (1) the King, (2) the

King's deputy and (3) the King's messenger. You see the common point

running through all the three i.e., Kingliness; yet the three are

different. It is just like that, Brahman runs through all the three

classes, which appear different.

 

N G Chandorkar: How can you divide Regality? It is indivisible.

 

Baba: Right. Regality is one and indivisible; but in point of fact we

note the division of Regality in the above three and their difference

between them. Similarly Chaitanya (Brahman) is unlimited but each

limited ego partakes of it, i.e., to the extent of its capacity and

exhibits it, i.e., this chaitanya or kingship. Take another example,

viz., space or Akasha. Aksaha though illimitable is in a small pot

(then call Ghatakasha), in a big pot then called kumbhakasha and so

on. All have Akasha in degrees. Just like that Brahman appears in

different forms in this world which is the play of Maya. It is the

union of Brahman with Maya that causes Bramanda, the universe.