A human being has no use for things sublime if he is not an aspiring one, an aspirant, if he is not a seeker after the intangibles, if his world consists only of the tangibles. If you are such an aspiring one look for the sources of your emotion, the spiritual sources of your emotion. Those experiences which give a sexual awakening to an average fesh-bound individual, those very experiences aqaken the energy in the lower centers and makes it flow upwards till it is felt in the higher centers so far as a yougi's experience is concerned. We need to surrender all of our emotions gradually in this manner and let God make of Himself our friend, our Mother, our Father, our Kinsman, our Teacher, our Friend or Guide. When you really find that, not because someone has told you but because the presence is felt within you, then all your emotions begin to flow towards that one. Your love flows out, immense, knowing no bounds. Your voice trembles. You begin to cry on the slightest possibility of separation from the great loved, God. You laugh in ecstasy when even the shadow of that divine face is seen. Elevating oneself is to elevate every emotion to a higher level. In the emotion of sez we bear to unite two into one. In his sublimeness, a devotee unites all with the all and that is his enjoyment of such a union.
This is known as the path of bhakti, the path of devotion. And those who were bhaktas in the past, oh they never cease to speak of that divine being. They sought out company with whom they could sit and talk about the divine mysteries and the divine love. This sublime devotion is an emotion of sattva in which a devotee is not afraid to cry, is not afraid to recite. He begins to cry when he hears someone speak of the Lord. He rejoices in the company of those who will talk the same way. When the bhakta is reading a book, he is looking for whatever will give indication of how to reach an understanding of the mystery of God. It is not done through a process of logic, but through a process of emotion. The emotion says, "I wish to do this for your Mother, and Mother of the Divine Mother." Accept that. Give of yourself to That One and when alone, call, call, call, Ma, Ma, Ma come to me. Come to me, come to me.
So gradually, slowly we increase the sublime content of your emotion. Then we cannot utter a single sentence without remembering the name of Deity. We cannot complete a sentence of ordinary conversation without the name of the glorious lord coming out of our mouths. We no longer think of this body as our own possession. As a lover of the Divine being we say, "This body is thine. This mind is thine. Come and occupy it." And the Lord comes and occupies this body. This body then no longer belongs to the individual, it only belongs to the Deity. Thus, the bhakta takes every emotion, every emotion and makes of that emotion an instrument tofulfill the Divine being's wish for us. Then there is no problem to overcome fears. There is no problem to overcome angers. "I love you, I love you, I love you," he chants, he shouts out without shame, without inhibition. When our emotions rise as though they are oh so many rivulets flowing towards a single stream, so many streams flowing and becoming an ocean; when individual beings thus transcend individuality and beg and call, the call is always returned. This I, who am the bride of the Divine Being, surrender myself so that His spirit may cover me, His light may engulf me, His radiance may illuminate me and He may ruthlessly, surgically remove all that is impure within me. In my vision, I see that Divine Being, I see His Shakti, the feminine force, the consort, the primal energy from where all life began, life force and the conscious force. She wears a radiance for her face and I go to her, Mother, Mother, Mother, Mother. As a child wishes to be uplifted, so I wish to be elevated.
Let me but once still myself. When I am still, will my senses become inoperative? Will my activity all cease? Is that a state, something to aspire for? Only that stillness, which at present lies occluded, will be experienced and it will become know that stillness is not absence of activity, it is only the source of activity. That silence is not an absence of speech. Silence is the source of speech. It will be known that non-violence, is not an absence of violent action, it is overflowing love in which there is no other.
Love ceases when love exists. There shall be no more love, for another. There shall be no more love towards an alien. When I have ceased the otherness, I cannot love another. When there is no alien, there is no hate. When love is, love ceases. When love ceases, then love is. If love is between two, the two ceases, so love ceases. God give me that love, that by its very existence ceases. And I fail to say I love another. For I look around and I find no other. Whom shall I love? Then love becomes my own Self, filled with the Self to the brim. And when I put a sword through an enemy, if I have love, it is through myself that that sword has pierced. Whom shall I see with my eyes, when there is no other to see. My own Self to see, I need no eyes.
In the stillness of consciousness within you, within me, who am one, one hears the still and the silent voice, and slowly that voice too trials off. And in that dimension, which is no dimension, in the deep heart of a living son, I and the light are one. I, and my father are one. I am the light. I am all the ways. I am the life force. Whether the father speaks or the son speaks it is I who speak. In the son the father speaks. In the father the son speaks. When you meditate, let your senses still themselves and it is in that stillness that the apex of all energy will be reached. It is in that stillness that all will be energized. It is in the stillness of the mind that the mind will be filled. And it will be so filled that the whole universe may come and each entity and each one who has assumed a separateness of being may come and dip their vessel in your mind and go away, filling their vessel. And you will know that nothing empty came. Nothing full returned. There is only a force known as consciousness, known as life. I am that. Thus, we contemplate on the great sentences of Vedanta. Sarvam khalv-idam brahma: All this (world of phenomena) is Brahman. Ekam-evadvitiyam: There is only one Brahman, without a second. Mrtyoh sa mrtyum apnoti, Ya iha nameva pashyati: From death to death he proceeds who sees as though there were many (phenomena) here. Prajnanam brahma: Brahman is pure consciousness. Tat tvam asi: You are that. Aham brahma-asmi: I am Brahman. Ayam atma brahma: This self is Brahman. Brahman alone is truth, is real. The universe is a myth. Jiva, that which you call the individual soul is itself Brahman. It is no other.
Copyright 1999 Museum of European Art
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