A human being has no use for things sublime if heis not an aspiring one, an aspirant, if he is not a seeker after theintangibles, if his world consists only of the tangibles. If you aresuch an aspiring one look for the sources of your emotion, thespiritual sources of your emotion. Those experiences which give asexual awakening to an average fesh-bound individual, those veryexperiences aqaken the energy in the lower centers and makes it flowupwards till it is felt in the higher centers so far as a yougi'sexperience is concerned. We need to surrender all of our emotionsgradually in this manner and let God make of Himself our friend, ourMother, our Father, our Kinsman, our Teacher, our Friend or Guide.When you really find that, not because someone has told you butbecause the presence is felt within you, then all your emotions beginto flow towards that one. Your love flows out, immense, knowing nobounds. Your voice trembles. You begin to cry on the slightestpossibility of separation from the great loved, God. You laugh inecstasy when even the shadow of that divine face is seen. Elevatingoneself is to elevate every emotion to a higher level. In the emotionof sez we bear to unite two into one. In his sublimeness, a devoteeunites all with the all and that is his enjoyment of such aunion.
This is known as the path of bhakti, thepath of devotion. And those who were bhaktas in the past, ohthey never cease to speak of that divine being. They sought outcompany with whom they could sit and talk about the divine mysteriesand the divine love. This sublime devotion is an emotion ofsattva in which a devotee is not afraid to cry, is not afraidto 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. Whenthe bhakta is reading a book, he is looking for whatever will giveindication of how to reach an understanding of the mystery of God. Itis not done through a process of logic, but through a process ofemotion. The emotion says, "I wish to do this for your Mother, andMother of the Divine Mother." Accept that. Give of yourself to ThatOne and when alone, call, call, call, Ma, Ma, Ma come to me. Come tome, come to me.
So gradually, slowly we increase the sublimecontent of your emotion. Then we cannot utter a single sentencewithout remembering the name of Deity. We cannot complete a sentenceof ordinary conversation without the name of the glorious lord comingout of our mouths. We no longer think of this body as our ownpossession. As a lover of the Divine being we say, "This body isthine. This mind is thine. Come and occupy it." And the Lord comesand occupies this body. This body then no longer belongs to theindividual, it only belongs to the Deity. Thus, the bhaktatakes every emotion, every emotion and makes of that emotion aninstrument tofulfill the Divine being's wish for us. Then there is noproblem to overcome fears. There is no problem to overcome angers. "Ilove you, I love you, I love you," he chants, he shouts out withoutshame, without inhibition. When our emotions rise as though they areoh so many rivulets flowing towards a single stream, so many streamsflowing and becoming an ocean; when individual beings thus transcendindividuality and beg and call, the call is always returned. This I,who am the bride of the Divine Being, surrender myself so that Hisspirit may cover me, His light may engulf me, His radiance mayilluminate me and He may ruthlessly, surgically remove all that isimpure within me. In my vision, I see that Divine Being, I see HisShakti, the feminine force, the consort, the primal energy from whereall life began, life force and the conscious force. She wears aradiance for her face and I go to her, Mother, Mother, Mother,Mother. As a child wishes to be uplifted, so I wish to beelevated.
Let me but once still myself. When I am still,will my senses become inoperative? Will my activity all cease? Isthat a state, something to aspire for? Only that stillness, which atpresent lies occluded, will be experienced and it will become knowthat stillness is not absence of activity, it is only the source ofactivity. That silence is not an absence of speech. Silence is thesource of speech. It will be known that non-violence, is not anabsence of violent action, it is overflowing love in which there isno other.
Love ceases when love exists. There shall be nomore love, for another. There shall be no more love towards an alien.When I have ceased the otherness, I cannot love another. When thereis no alien, there is no hate. When love is, love ceases. When loveceases, then love is. If love is between two, the two ceases, so loveceases. God give me that love, that by its very existence ceases. AndI 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 theSelf to the brim. And when I put a sword through an enemy, if I havelove, it is through myself that that sword has pierced. Whom shall Isee 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, andslowly that voice too trials off. And in that dimension, which is nodimension, in the deep heart of a living son, I and the light areone. I, and my father are one. I am the light. I am all the ways. Iam the life force. Whether the father speaks or the son speaks it isI who speak. In the son the father speaks. In the father the sonspeaks. When you meditate, let your senses still themselves and it isin that stillness that the apex of all energy will be reached. It isin that stillness that all will be energized. It is in the stillnessof the mind that the mind will be filled. And it will be so filledthat the whole universe may come and each entity and each one who hasassumed a separateness of being may come and dip their vessel in yourmind and go away, filling their vessel. And you will know thatnothing empty came. Nothing full returned. There is only a forceknown as consciousness, known as life. I am that. Thus, wecontemplate on the great sentences of Vedanta. Sarvam khalv-idambrahma: 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 asthough there were many (phenomena) here. Prajnanam brahma: Brahman ispure consciousness. Tat tvam asi: You are that. Aham brahma-asmi: Iam Brahman. Ayam atma brahma: This self is Brahman. Brahman alone istruth, is real. The universe is a myth. Jiva, that which you call theindividual soul is itself Brahman. It is no other.
Copyright 1999 Museum of European Art
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