Day by Day with Bhagavan 31-5-45 Afternoon

[Guest guest]

It seems avisitor, the Raja of Sivaghar in UP., told Bhagavan that

he had surrenderedhimself to Bhagavan and Bhagavan should give him jana.

Bhagavan referredto an article on Nama Dev's insistence on the

importance of the Lord's name, inthe September 1937 issue of vision,

where it is pointed out that onlywhen the `I', the ego, is

surrendered the significance of the Lord's name willbe realized,

When I entered the hall the story of how `Ashtavakra Gita' came

to be taught was being recounted in English, for the benefit of the

above Raja and other visitors. After the story was read out, Bhagavan

said, "Because Brahmaj nana is not something external,which is

somewhere far away where you can go and get it, you cannot say that it

will take so long or so short a time to attain it. It is always with

you. You are that! The story of `Astavakra Gita' is intended to

teach that for getting Brahma jnana all that is necessary to surrender

yourself completely to the guru, to surrender your nation of `I'

and mine'. If these are surrendered, what remains is the Reality.

Then, it becomes impossible to state what further time it would take

attain Brahma jnana. It would be wrong to state that it takes as much

time as a man would require to put his other foot into the second

stirrup after having placed one foot in the first stirrup. The moment

when ego is completely surrendered, the self shines,"

[Guest guest]

Proceedings, Bhagavan quoted the last two lines of the following

stanza from "Yoga Vasishta" : "Naaneum poruLkaa n>aatoor

Naanavaa kaayang kaan>aar. Naaneum poruLaik kan>door Naanavaa kaaya

maavaarj Naanenu makangkaarangkaL Naanavin>matiyaimuudi naanenap parama

vaampana malara viriyaatanRee." Which state that unless the cloud of

the `I' or `ego' –sense which covers the moon of the

Divine consciousness (chidakasa) is removed, the lily of the heart which

knows nothing of the sense of `I' (ahankara) will not open out

in full bloom.

 

 

Bhagavan also added, "We have to contend against age-long

samskaras. They will all go. Only, they go comparatively soon in the

case of those who have already made sadhana in the past, and late in the

case of the others." In this connection I asked, "Do those

samskaras go gradually or will they suddenly disappear one day? I ask

this, because though I have remained fairly long here I do not perceive

any gradual change in me." Bhagavan asked, "When the sun rises,

does the darkness go gradually or all at once?"

[Guest guest]

Another visitor asked, "How to conquer passions?"

Bhagavan said, "If the passions are something external to us we can

take arms and ammunition and conquer them. They all come from within us.

If, by looking into the source whence they issue, we see that they

don't come out of us, we shall conquer them. It is the world and the

objects in it that arouse our passions. But the world and these objects

are only created by our mind. They don't exist during our

sleep."

 

After all this talk Bhagavan drank a little water from his

kamandalam and turning to his attendant enquired whether he had already

drunk water (i.e., after he returned to the hall about 3-30 P.M) The

attendant said `yes', and thereupon Bhagavan said he had

forgotten it, and to make sure he drank some again. He further added,

almost in an unguarded moment, as he rarely gives expression so such

experiences of his, that sometimes he does not even know whether it is

morning, mid-day or evening and has to look at the clock and try to

remember before he knows what time or day it is. On one occasion, he has

told me that he scratched his skin, where there was eczema once, as we

scratch during sleep. And once when I was concerned over some physical

pain of his, he told me he feels that pain `kanaakkaNdaaRpool' ,

i.e., it was a passing and faint experience like that in a dream. These

are clues to the sort of life Bhagavan leads in our midst, seeming to

act and move and feel as we do, but really living in a world of his own

where the things we experience doesn't exist.