Vedanta Vani
Welcome! Please scroll down till the bottom to read all the articles in this page.
Contributions this month by Mr Kees Boukema, Prof Paulo Bittencourt, Mrs Francis Schaik, Mrs Mary Saaleman, Marlow, and others. Also read about the Amulet of Sri Ramakrishna, hints to spiritual life, and so on.
Advice to Aspirants
When the consecration of the Dakshineswar Temple had become widely known, itinerant monks on their way to Gangasagar and the holy shrine of Lord Jagannath in Puri began to halt for a few days at Dakshineswar and receive the generous hospitality of the devout Rani Rasmani. Sri Ramakrishna said that many spiritual aspirants and illumined souls visited the temple during those days. It seems that one or two of them instructed Sri Ramakrishna in pranayama and other disciplines of Hatha Yoga. Sri Ramakrishna indicated this one day as he narrated the following story regarding Haladhari. He himself had practised the techniques of hatha yoga and knew their results. He later told his disciples not to practise them. If anyone asked for advice regarding hatha yoga, he would reply: “Those practices are not meant for this age. In this Kaliyuga people are short-lived and their existence depends on food alone. Where is the time now to make the body strong by practising hatha yoga, and then to call on God through Raja yoga? If one wants to practice the techniques of hatha yoga, he or she should stay constantly with a perfect guru and follow strict rules regarding food and other activities according to the guru’s instructions. Even the slightest deviation from those requirements causes serious health problems, and sometimes the aspirant can also die. So it is not necessary to practise hatha yoga. Moreover, it is for the sake of controlling the mind that one controls breath by practising pranayama and kumbhaka. One can have automatic control over the mind and breath through meditation on God and devotion. In this kaliyuga human beings are short-lived and weak, so out of compassion God made their path for Self-realization easy. A person feels anguish and emptiness at the death of some member of his family. If one has that kind of longing for God for twenty-four hours continuously, God will definitely reveal Himself.
Swami Saradananda
Testing the Great Swami ji!
Once Swami Vivekananda was visiting a cattle town in western United States. Hearing him speak of philosophy, a number of university men who had become cowboys took him at his word. When he said that one who had realized the Light was able to keep one’s equanimity under all conditions, they decided to put him to test. They invited Swamiji to lecture to them and placed a wooden tub bottom up on the ground to serve as a platform. Vivekananda commenced his address and was soon lost in his subject. Suddenly there was a terrific racket of pistol shots, and bullets whizzed past his head. Undisturbed, Swamiji continued to lecture as though nothing unusual was happening. this was spiritual poise born of spiritual illumination by which the centre of gravity had come to rest, not in the physical personality but in the divine Consciousness, the Soul of one’s soul. Such illumination brings an entirely new outlook to a man or a woman.
How are we to bring the ego in touch with the Universal? With the help of prayer or hymns, by repeating mystic words and dwelling on their meaning, by meditating on the divine Reality, we can create such a “music” in our soul, such a harmonious state within us, that we rise above our little personality, our little ego, our individual consciousness. Then we feel the touch of the super-ego, the Cosmic Consciousness that lies in us all. It is in this state that the Cosmic Spirit is realized to be more real than the individual consciousness. Here the deepest integration takes place. When the soul comes back to normal consciousness, to the plane of the ego, the mind and the body, it feels a remarkable integration. Then the individual consciousness remains rooted in the universal, and the spiritualized ego remains in tune with the mind and the body, which act as the most obedient servants. Here personality remains integrated in the one impersonal and Universal Being.
About a Person who Attained Wisdom
Kees Boukema
In the second chapter [verses 38 – 53] of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains to his friend Arjuna what the Sankya philosophy (the spiritual path of knowledge) entails:
“Prepare for battle, but with peace in your heart. Accept equally joy and sorrow, gain and loss, victory and defeat. With such a mind you commit no sin. It is the teaching of the Sankhya. In this teaching no effort is wasted; a small measure of insight helps you against fear of rebirth. This is the path of unwavering conviction. The minds of those who hesitate and cannot make up their minds, wander in all directions.
This path of resolute reason, which is aimed at contemplation, is not suitable for people who are attached to pleasure, wealth or power and whose thoughts are dominated by these. The Vedas know three manifestations of energy: sattva, rajas and tamas. Rise above these earthly opposites; be steadfast in purity. Keep away from profit and loss; possess your soul.
Focus all your attention on action, not on the result. So do not let the result be the motive for your action. Also do not fall into lethargy. Work in the harmony of yoga, free from selfishness and regardless of success or failure. Work for wages is inferior to working in the spirit of yoga. The equanimous man is freed from virtue and vice. The wise man who renounces the results of his actions is freed from fear of rebirth and is in a state of enlightenment. When your mind remains undisturbed in contemplation, you will experience union and attain self-realization.”
After listening to Krishna’s argument, Arjuna asks, “How can one recognize a man who has attained wisdom and whose mind is steadfast? What is his speech, what is his silence, what is his behavior?” [Gita, 2: 54].
Thereupon Krishna replies: “When a man has controlled his desires and experiences the joy of God by the grace of God, then his soul is at peace. If his mind is not disturbed by sorrow or joy and he has no desires and is free from passion, fear and anger, then he is called a sage with a steady mind. He is detached under all circumstances and in all respects. He has neither antipathy nor sympathy; he is steady and controlled in his mind. As a tortoise can retract its legs, so a wise man keeps his distance from the objects of enjoyment. And when his soul has experienced God, the desire for sense pleasures also disappears.
“The self-controlled man who dwells in the world of senses without feeling aversion or attraction, he has found peace in his heart. He is free from suffering; his mind is steady. Such a man has attained wisdom. What is Light for the wise is only darkness for others. Whoever renounces all desires and lives without ego, has attained peace. There is oneness with God, the state of enlightenment, in which a person can dwell even at the hour of his death. [Gita 2: 55-72].
During a seminar in the summer of 1988, my teacher, Swami Ritajananda, president of the Centre Vedantique Ramakrichina in Gretz, France, also discussed some questions relating to these verses from the Bhagavad Gita.
“God-realization,” he said, “is an inner experience, usually preceded by a period of deep meditation and detachment. Such an experience has nothing to do with intellectual ‘understanding’. The everyday waking state changes into a much more intense and vivid state of consciousness. The ‘normal’ state of consciousness then seems no more than a dream. You see God, the unity behind all things. There is no external proof, but those who have realized God do not doubt that experience. We will have to take their ‘word’. A ‘realized’ person is permanently changed; that is the difference with a hallucination. A realized person is ‘transformed’. His words are full of power, he loves all people equally and he is filled with bliss. A ‘transformed’ person immediately recognizes others who have had a similar experience.
What Swami Ritajananda said then is reminiscent of what Ramakrishna once told his disciples. The temple complex in Dakshineswar, where he stayed for most of his life, was a stopping place for mendicants: “Many sadhus, ascetics, all renouncing monks and Vaishnava anchorites would visit this place, (…) on their way to bathe in the Gangasagar or to visit the Lord Jaganath in Puri. They would invariably stop for a few days at Rasmani’s temple garden, setting up their tents to rest. (….) Food was available in the temple garden and by the grace of Mother Ganges there was no scarcity of water (….) Thus, news that there was a nice resting place at Rasmani’s temple garden was well circulated among the monks who went on pilgrimage to Gangasar and Puri.
“At particular times certain types of monks would gather here in large numbers. Once the great paramahamsa sannyasins began to come. They were not like vagabond mendicants looking for food. My room was always crowded with sannyasins. Day and night they would talk about Vedanta, Brahman, the nature of maya and Brahman Absolute (….).
“Once a monk came who was drunk with divine knowledge. He looked like a ghoul: He was naked, with dust covering his body and head, and with long hair and nails. On the upper part of his body he wore a tattered chadar; it looked as if he’d gotten it off some corpse on a cremation ground. He stood in front of the Kali temple, fixed his eyes on the image, and recited a hymn with such power that it seemed to me the whole temple shook and Mother Kali looked pleased and smiled. Then he went to the place where beggars were waiting for prasad. But they wouldn’t let him sit near them because of his disgusting appearance and they drove him away. Then I saw him sitting with the dogs in a dirty corner where they’d thrown away the leaf-plates. He had put one arm around a dog, and the two of them were sharing the remains of food on one of the leaves. The dog didn’t bark or try to get away even though the man was a stranger. As I watched him, I felt afraid that I might end up like him and have to live like that, roaming around as he did.
“After I’d seen him, I said to Hriday (his nephew): ‘That is not ordinary madness, he is mad with the highest God-consciousness.’ When Hriday heard this, he ran out to get a look at the holy man. He found him already leaving the temple garden. Hriday followed him a long way and kept begging ‘Maharaj please teach me how I can realize God.’ He did not respond at first. But at last, when Hriday kept following him and wouldn’t leave him alone, he pointed to the gutter by the roadside and said: ‘When that water and the water of the Ganges seem to be the same and equally pure to you, then you will realize God.’ He said this much and nothing more. Hriday wanted to hear something more and said: ‘Maharaj, please make me your disciple and take me with you.’ But he went on without replying. When he got on a great distance, he looked back and saw that Hriday was still following him. He made an angry face and picked up a brick, threatening to throw it at Hriday. When Hriday fled, he dropped the brick, left the road and disappeared. After that he was nowhere to be found. Such great monks go around like that so people won’t bother them. This monk was a true paramahamsa.”
Mr Kees Boukema is a scholar in Vedanta and Comparative philosophy. His brilliant and thorough-going articles on various philosophical and spiritual subjects are being published since the first issue of the magazine. His latest work is De Beoefening van Meditatie.
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BOB DYLAN AND FIÓDOR DOSTOIÉVSKI
Paulo J. Bittencourt
Professor at UFFS, Erechim Campus
I recently came across that poignant, now well-remembered verse from the song “Not Dark Yet” by Bob Dylan, the “aedo” of modern times.
[The nickname is quite appropriate, since, unlike the rhapsode, the “aedo” of ancient Greece, in addition to composing his own poems, also sang them].
The verse I am referring to states: “Behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain.” Now, ever since I heard the song again and paid attention to the excerpt, I have felt like a bell imploded by simultaneous blows, inside and out, of a clapper and a hammer. And the very act of writing about the issue constituted, for me, the echo of this irresistible vibratory resonance.
I know that, here, I am entering the troubled realm of the commonplace. I am referring to the widely publicized idea that artistic production is all the more brilliant the more turbulent the times it faces and in which it emerges. Who does not remember, for example, the creative and brilliant profusion of Brazilian popular music and Latin American songbooks during the dark times of civil-military dictatorships? I also know that here I am wandering on shaky and delicate ground, since it will not be difficult to succumb to the temptation of confusing (1) the simple relationship between two factors (or a correlation close to zero) [according to which the two variables in play are not essentially related] with (2) a positive or negative correlation [that is, a measurement between two or more variables that are associated in a causal way and move together or in opposition]. In other words, there is no need to advocate a supposed sadomasochistic law of an insane world as a “sine qua non” condition for the production of healthy art. But it seems equally cautious to recognize the relevance of the same movement, at least partially, in the opposite direction. In this other direction, art would fight against the misery of insanity and its driving force that all beauty will be punished. And here I use a suggestive reference to try to clarify the problem a little more.
In “The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of Mankind,” geographer and ornithologist Jared Diamond reminds us that art has no transparent function, “and its origins are considered a sublime mystery.” Given the meaning employed in the fields of animal behavior and evolutionary biology, Oscar Wilde seems to have taken a position when he argued that “all art is useless.” I consider the great Irish writer’s warning more than acceptable in order to at least consider the possibility that human art is motivated exclusively by aesthetic pleasure. This alternative is glimpsed in the definition of art as “making or constructing things that have form or beauty,” and, in many cases, for the exclusive delight of artists. [Kafka can be cited as proof of this impetus, when, for example, he prohibited his unfaithful executor from publishing his writings.] But an assumption of this nature tends to safeguard the list of ingredients considered singularly human under the aegis of the narcissistic impulse that characterizes us as a species. Now, Diamond does not fail to point out that this list has already been considerably shortened by modern studies on animal behavior, and in such a way that most of the differences between us and other animals seem to be much more a matter of degree.
But it is clear that, in a certain sense, much of human art has its usefulness, if we consider above all that the artist, through it, communicates something to his fellow men. The work of art shared, whether by the intention of the artist or by the demand of those who appreciate his creation, can then emerge as a significant force capable of driving individual and group survival. We humans are known for expanding our behaviors far beyond their original evolutionary role. Diamond emphasizes that the reason for this lies in the fact that we belong to a typical group of animal species whose aptitude for provisioning leaves them a lot of idle time. In this case, the problems of survival are under relative control, despite the abysmal gap between abundant food production and the hunger that still prevails in the human world. Hence, our artistic behavior can serve other purposes, such as simply obtaining satisfaction or also channeling the neurotic energy that the human experience of killing, exploitation and hatred insists on producing. It is therefore a question of asserting, beyond survival, the rebellious attribution of art as a signifier of life in the face of the theater of the absurd.
Would the principle formulated in poetry by Bob Dylan therefore end with the notion of art as resilience or as a cure for the wounds of the human “spirit” and the world? In the strict sense, that is, according to its use in the field of physics, resilience encompasses the property that certain bodies have of returning to their original form after having been subjected to elastic deformation. However, in a broad sense, resilience alludes to the capacity to recover or adapt to bad luck or adverse changes of impact.
It was this key to reading that allowed me to hear in the verses composed and sung by Bob Dylan the “ethical-messianic” principle of aesthetics, as evoked by Fyodor Dostoevsky when he proclaimed that “beauty will save the world.” Now, when commenting on this same passage from “The Brothers Karamazov,” Leonardo Boff, always with his usual profound sensitivity, emphasizes that beauty works this way because it has the powerful ability to lead us to love shared with pain. “Behind every beauty there is some kind of pain,” whether solitary or shared.
It was then that I realized that, in truth, I wanted to sketch out, in words, something similar to the Japanese circle associated with Zen Buddhism, the “Ensō,” brushed in such a way as not to close the two ends, since asymmetry and perfection constitute essential and inherent aspects of existence. In fact, the initial outline of the circle was given by Bob Dylan. The course of the line drawn in the company of Jared Diamond was completed with Dostoevsky, in two intimately close extremities. And finally, in that most fleeting moment of eternity, with Vitor Ramil, “in melancholy, my soul smiled at me, and I saw myself happy.”
(to be continued…)
Professor Paulo Bittencourt is a brilliant teacher of Ancient and Medieval History at the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul UFFS [Erechim Campus], Brazil. He contributes articles regularly, and is a columnist of a periodical too. He has several books to his credit. He is an ardent student of Vedanta.
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You are not you
Thoughts of Eckhart Tolle
Contributed by Francis van Schaik
Who are you really? According to Eckhart Tolle, there are two dimensions of yourself: your ‘surface self’ and your ‘deep self’. ‘The most important revelation you can have in your life is when you realize that you have a ‘deep self,’’ says Eckhart. Read this article to learn how to become aware of this dimension within yourself.
When you see yourself as your ‘deep self’, you can be compassionate towards everything that makes up your ‘surface self’; your physical body, your personal identity (or your historical identity), the thoughts and emotions you experience, and so on.
The Two Dimensions of Self
There are two dimensions of yourself. The first dimension is what I sometimes call your ‘surface self’; the person with a past and a future. This is your historical identity, which is quite fragile, since the past and the future only exist in your thoughts or as a concept in your head. Most people on the planet identify completely with their ‘surface self’.
The second dimension of yourself is what I like to call the ‘deep self’. The most important revelation you can have in your life is when you realise that in addition to being a historical person or having a ‘surface self’, you have a ‘deep self’ in particular. With this realisation, you no longer look only at your ‘surface self’ when you wonder who you really are, because that is not where you will find the answer at all. You no longer have that frustrating feeling that something is missing in your life or something is not quite right.
Be present
So how do you get that realisation? It comes between two thoughts, the space in which the historical identity of your ‘surface self’ temporarily disappears. What is left of you is not something you can talk about or understand conceptually. All you know is that there is an underlying sense of presence, of your being, that is simultaneously still, alert and alive. That is how you become aware of it. The idea is to feel present in your body every day, so that you are not swept along by the stream of thoughts in your head all day long.
The Illusion of Separation
It is important to realize that your ‘surface self’ and your ‘deep self’ are not separate. Your ‘surface self’ is a manifestation of your consciousness in the same way that a ripple in the ocean is a manifestation of the ocean. If you are a ripple and are not aware that you are part of the ocean, you feel separate, which is of course an illusion.
A Liberating Realization
The realization of your ‘deep self’ is so liberating because it frees you from the idea that there is only your ‘surface self’ and the so-called ‘drama’ that comes with it. When you see yourself as your ‘deep self’, you can be compassionate towards everything that makes up your ‘surface self’; your physical body, your personal identity (or your historical one), the thoughts and emotions that you experience, and so on. This is how you also gain access to your creativity and your true intelligence, both of which are in the formless dimension.
So, welcome quiet moments into your life whenever you can. Such a moment does not even have to last an hour; a few minutes spread throughout the day is enough to let go of your thoughts and to see your ‘deep self’. Over time, you will become more and more aware of your ‘deep self’ in the background of your life. And then you will find it easier to remain aware of it, even in difficult moments.
Written by Eckhart Tolle
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Francis van Schaik is a coach of young people and also a student of human relationships with nature, the world and Truth. She regularly contributes to our online magazine. Francis is the regular contributor of articles in this page.
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The Importance of Mother Ganga
Swami Adbhutananda
SWAMI ADBHUTANANDA or Latu Maharaj was an uneducated and inexperienced shepherd boy. From the time he joined the Master, Sri Ramakrishna, at Dakshineswar, till the Master’s death, Latu was almost constantly present with him. Latu’s recollections are therefore of special value in their richness of detail and insight. Here are Adbhutananda’s words:
It was March 11, 1883, Sri Ramakrishna’s birthday. The Master asked me to bring him some water from the Ganga for his bath. He took bath with a pitcher of water and went with it to the Kali temple. Some had to work in the kitchen. Between one hundred and one hundred and fifty people ate at Dakshineswar on that occasion, and the remainder of the meal was distributed among the poor. Manomohan Babu brought a kirtan-party group from Konnagar, and the Master sang with them. Later he asked us to go with him to the Panchavati. The Master told us that he was not only a sannyasin (monk), but a king among sannyasins.
Once while staying at Dakshineswar, Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda) fell ill. The Master told him, “Take this prasad of Lord Jagannath. Then you will be all right.” That is the effect of prasad of Jagannath! You people do not believe that. ” Eat one or two pieces of Jagannath prasad before taking your food. On Dashahara day (a special celebration in honor of Ganga), the Master asked us to offer fruits etc to Mother Ganga. He told Rakhal, “Mother Ganga is a living goddess, and today one should worship her. ” At that time Rakhal did not consider the Ganga as a goddess, and since the Master knew this, he said to him.
One day , while I was walking along the bank of the Ganges, I had a doubt : “Is Mother Ganga really a goddess?” At that moment I heard the distinct sound of a conch shell coming from the middle of the river. Gradually the sound came closer and I saw a boy traveling on the water blowing a conch shell, and a goddess following him. This vision dispelled all my doubts. Rakhal was surprised to hear this and said : “We know nothing of such things. We know the Ganga only as a river of water, polluted by the boatmen.” The Master replied sharply, ” Be careful ! See that you do not pollute the Mother !” From that day on Rakhal had great respect for the Ganga.
This was also the first year (1883) that I attended the festival with the Master at Panihati. Rakhal, Bhavanath and others went in Ram Babu’s carriage. Many other devotees of the Master were also present. Navadwip Goswami was there and Sri Ramakrishna suddenly started singing along with him. We were all shocked to see the Master going into bhava samadhi. His breathing stopped, his face, eyes, even the palms of his hands, became red. Seeing him in this ecstatic state, many people rushed to receive the dust from his feet. We were in a dilemma. Everyone wanted to touch the Master, and although we had forbidden them, (they ignored us). So there was a commotion!
Ram Babu told me, “Latu, don’t try to stop them. Let the people touch him and be blessed.” But I didn’t obey him, because I knew that if anyone touched the Master while he was in samadhi, he would experience terrible pain. Finally, three of us—- Rakhal, Bhavanath, and I accompanied him from the compound to the room. But how difficult it was to resist the devotees. Even when we went to the room, people kept touching his feet. Do you know what Ram Babu did? He took a handful of dust from the ground and touched the Master’s feet with it and then started distributing it among the people. Thus the Master was freed from the crowd.
The next year (actually this visit was in 1885) I also went with him to Panihati. This time we went by boat. Someone asked Holy Mother (Sri Sarada Devi) to accompany us, but she refused. The Master praised her for this: “See her wisdom. She refused to go with us so that no one would criticize us.” That year the Master took prasad with all of us and danced in ecstasy with both hands raised.
At the same festival the Master was offered five rupees—-other holy men received only one or two rupees. (It is an Indian custom. to honor a holy person with gifts. ) The Master did not want to accept the money. However, the manager of the festival insisted and gave the money to Rakhal. With the money Rakhal bought a basket of mangoes and a packet of sweets for the Master. When the Master came to know about it, he was angry with Rakhal, and warned him: ” Never do such a thing again.”
Mary Saaleman is a devotee of Mother Sarada and Sri Ramakrishna since decades. She translates selections from books like The Master as we Saw Him and presents snippets about the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
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Matter and Brahman
Matter exists in differing forms of density. Thus there is gross matter which is derived from a subtle form [tanmatra] of the same, which is not sensed by the gross ear or other senses but mentally apprehended by the yogi. There are subtle objects which may be perceived through the senses or the mind by one who possesses powers. These powers are mere extensions of the normal faculty. The 100-inch telescope at Mt Wilson revealed, it is said, one eighth of space, and the 200-inch telescope at Mt Palomar revealed a quarter of observable space. As we improve our instruments, we see more, but beyond a certain point, perception takes place not through the senses but through the mind. Everything may be perceived by the mind, except the supreme Self or Atman. This in Itself is never an object, being beyond mind and speech. The experience of objects becomes more and more subtle until the state of Supreme Experience is attained when there is neither subject not object. Mind and speech can only hint at it.
Sound exists only where there is movement or vibration. If there is no vibration, there is no sound, and if there is no sound, there cannot be vibration. The supreme Brahman beyond attributes and activity is beyond sound, but Ishvara [Brahman with Power] is Shabda-Brahman or the Supreme Sound. This is the causal body of sound: shabda-tanmatra or the principle of sound is the subtle body of sound, and akasha is the gross body of sound [apprehended only through the medium of air, the sound waves in which strike the ear.] When the mind is joined to it, the sensation of sound is experienced.
Shabda-tanmatra or the principle of sound is pure natural sound as apprehended by Hiranyagarbha and by yogis who share the experience of Hiranyagarbha.
Swami Ghanananda
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