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15. All growing ends in fading, all rising ends in falling, all meeting ends
in parting; such indeed is the law of this world.
16. Producing Self from Self, and, as often, deluding Self by Self, inner
consciousness leads itself, of itself, to the bliss of Self-realization.
Yogavasistha.
EDITORIAL
CONTENTMENT
( BY SRI SWAMI RAJESWARANANDA )
Contentment is the greatest blessing on earth. There is no greater gain than
contentment which makes man an embodiment of happiness.
'c A contented mind is a continual feast " so goes a maxim.
If man's happiness arises from the subduing of his desires at one time, it can
also arise from the gratification of them at another time; but contentment
balances them and is above them.
Want of desire is the greatest riches and thereby there is neither its
subduing nor its gratification.
Contentment is not the happiness of wealth but is the wealth of happiness.
An ounce of contentment and joy is better than a pound of sadness and gloom.
Contentment can rear a garden even in the desert waste. It is a pearl of
great price a wise man procures by his desirelessness. It is a powerful åntidote for
the poison of greed.
A wise man is always contented with his
condition and lives according to the precepts of
Contentment is not human weakness, does not make any one lethargic and
lazy, and is not a blow to all aspirations and ambitions.
Contentment is a divine quality propelling man Godward, checks vain and
selfish exertions, opens the inner eye of man, turns his energy inward and gives
him an inner life in the reality of the eternal and infinite Self.
Contentment transmutes the gross selfish efforts and exertions into spiritual
energy which
3. Open yourself without reserve and in full to tho divine inflow. It is vital
realization of your oneness with the Infinite Life, It is the central fact of your very
existence. It is indeed the real quality of life.
4. Being has non-being at its head. Pleasure has pain in its womb. Beauty
hides ugliness. Tho fair sex infatuates. Indulgence in tastes reveals tastelessness.
Objects are as poison. Life is but for death. He who rolls in the midst of them is
damned.
5. Bodies are ephemeral as bubbles on water. Youth and its beauty are
evanescent as the shade of a winter cloud. Sense-objects and their enjoyment are
like the hoods of poisonous snakes, Death is certain as falling of ripe fruit. How deep
is delusion?
6. Pleasant days and memories pass away as swiftly as arrows of a bow.
Life slips as quickly as water from the palm of the hand. Sense-enjoyments bite as
soon as they are touched. World is hollow as an illusory appearance and is infested
with imperfection.
7. All enjoyments aro diseases of the world. All affections fetter us down.
All desires are will-o'-the-wisp. All men, entrapped in the net of delusion, are lost in
the jungle of life. All points of view indicate errors and aro over when they are
experienced.
8. No activity is free from deception. No earthly
essence. The Self is the back-ground basis for everything in the universe.
It is a bladder filled with air, ready to burst any moment. It is a pot of filth, ready
to be broken any moment. Master Egoism rules this body with the mistress Avarice
and the ten senses or indriyaa. AB the lightning and the city in the clouds are not
stable, the body is not stable. Cling not to it.
20. Time cuts the thread of life like a rat. In the universe it is all-devouring,
sparing nothing. It spares not anything or any person for a moment. It pervades all
things and yet is imperceptible. It is imperfectly known by the names of seconds,
minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and ages. In pralaya it assumes
formidable form of fire and reduces tho world to ashes. And it loses its exist. once
too by merging itself into Eternity. After rest, it reappears as the creator, preserver
and destroyer and remembrancer of all. Thig is its way of sport.
21. Puruehartha is right endeavoure Through it one oan achieve anything in this
world. Endeavour in tho direotion of Self-knowledge leads to release and in the
direction of worldly wisdom leads to bondage. It can be develop€d by keeping
company with the wise and by studying Scriptures dealing with the wisdom of the
Self.
Right exertion is tho means for the attainment of perfection.
u9
It is a panacea for the cure of avarice or greed. Divine Night shines on the
contented heart. Sovereignty of the world oompores like o bit of rotton straw
before contentment.
•whole world. He longs after no possessions. He gets best repose in right manner.
He is magnanimous and graceful. He is free from the cares and anxieties. All things
in the •world serve him 08 if they are his servants. The Bight of the calm
countenance of a contented man delights one and all in contact with him.
31. Association with the wise serves as a boat to crou ithis transmigrating
existence. It produces the fresh blossom Of discrimination with the fragrance of
Self-knowledge. It iis indeed beneficial oven for a moment. It destroys gins,
elevates the mind, wards off disasters, and lends .light to Ithe right path or goal of
life.
32. Mind arises through egoism (ahankara). It wand ters from one object
to another like a strolling street dog. It is a wilderness of errors. The stream of
desires runs -strong and swift through the wilderness amidBt its two 'banks of vice
and virtue. It runs restlegsly after the *Sensual and sexual enjoyments, fickle and
fleeting.
33. Mind manifests the world. Its spell iB hard to {break. It is after all of a
fluctuating nature. It generates grief. It might be easy even to drink up the contents
of the ocean, eradicate the aumeru mountain to its root and swallow the burning
fire, but it seems to be impossible to ibring it under control. It can be annihilated
only through the aemie enquiry, and the dawn of Imperishable and Selfluminous
Atmo.
34. Practisø regularly atmic enquiry. Control your mind bravely. Conduct your
life diligently. Be ever peace*ful and joyful. Keep company with tho sages. Study
books dealing with Self-realization and engage yourself in mystical meditation. Both
148 THE CALL
these flourish like tank lotuses in it. And spiritual illumination and final
emancination will be yours.
37. Then he enters the heart of a man, associates with his spermatoza,
enters the uterus of a suitable mother„ becomes the seed with all his faculties
asleep, and
8 foetus. In this Way an individual goes from one body to another bound by
hundreds of desires, like a bird from onetree to another. He begins his life 08 per
previously attaine ed stages of spirituality.
38. The Absolute Brahman beccmes, so to Bay, Cosmic Mind and spreads
this world. The Cosmic Milld is called BrahmB. All beings originate from it and
culminate into ite As water becomes waves, the Coemic Mind appears as. individual
minds. It is the Lord of Creation. As it ima— gines, so it becomes. This world is its
thought, am imagination.
39. Tho self isa friend or a foe unto itself. One Ebould. save oneself. There
is no ot way. One'B own effort is of utmost importance for any attoinrr ent. No
other agency in the three worlds could be of u80 but the one's
own effort. The control of one's own mind is the source of lasting joy in life. Just as
the earth is the source of all the beauty of crops.
40. Yoga, penances, sacrifices, rituals and ceremonie&
151
-avail you not. Toto, friends, wealth, past acts, charity and fasts are not of much
use. Faith, logical thinking, intuition, Emystic trance and the like are only seoondary
Btepg in the •service of man seeking ultimate and absolute realization. Worship of
God externally, forgetting the God within tho •oavo of one's heart, is like running
after ordinary stones by throwing away the diamond from one's own hands.
JANUARY 1960
41. Perceived objects exist not. Experiences of the and the world are nil.
The knower and the objects of knowledge are naught. Thero ig nothing else but the
Atman. Such a conviction paves the way for the dawn of complete liberation (do-
limitation). The mind becomes •oalm and quite and attains peace by meditating on
the Unity of the Ultimate Reality. And the mind gets dissolved by constantly
contemplating on the Infinite Self. As a gold bangle does not exist as separate from
gold, and a •wave does not exist as separate from water, the mind and the world do
not exist as separato from Brahman. There 'is no other.
42. Do not run after gods and goddesses. Let there
.arige in you a true distaste for the enjoyment of the world.
Mind and world exist together. One does not exist without the other. The existence
of one ig correlative with that Of the other. They live together or die together. Mind
digsolvedxall ideas of unity and duality disappear. Dissolve the mind by thinking on
its real nature. Give up every•thing and everything attends upon you.
43. In the pure infinite sky of the Congoiousnegs the .sun of Self-
realization shines bright and brilliant. Disperge the cloud of ego obstructing the
moonlight of Con*ciousnegø and the bud of Truth begins to bloom. The triumphant
of Liberation crises. It is the Universal Congoiousness. It is the Peaceful
Absolute. It is completely the 'Complete Whole.
44. Freedom from the ego is freedom from suffering, Gisery and pain. Still the
ego and it becomes eliminated. Live life thus and not run away from it. Put off all
foreign
support and stand alone. That is strength which brings you peace. It is the summit
vision seen. in all splendoure
45. Practi80 atmio-enquiry and gain equanimity of mind and equal vision.
Place confidence in the words or even B ohild, if they are consistent with the
expregeions of aruti, yukti and anubhava. Sruti is Scriptures (pragtana-traya). Yukti is
Guru's initiation and instruction. Anubhava is your own experience. Otherwise reject
as straw the utterances of even Brahma.
46. Meditate on tho Self-luminous Atma, 'I l-less and: 'mine'•less. Be ever
peaceful and joyful. Have equal vision (camata) and balanced mind (gamahita chitta).
færless and angerless. Be calm and rest in the SupremeState (turiya). Identify
yourself with the Pure, All pervading Brahman, freo from dualities, differences and
distinctions, See the Self shining forth everywhere.
47. Tho body is of five elements. It is inert and periBhable. The ten organs are
moved by the mind and are Prana has come out of rajas and is inert. Mind is
root elements (tonmatrae) and ig inert. It is goaded on to action' bythe intellect.
Intellect is inert and not self-luminous. It is energiged by egoism (ahankara) Egoism is
moved by jija and is inert. jiva is only a reflection (abhaaa) and inert. It disappears
when the mind-lake dries up. As such body, prona. mind, intellect, egoism and jivo
150 THE CALL
are inert and have a beginning and an end. They are not 'I'. Tho tørm 'I' cannot be
applied to them.
48. Satchidanando AtmaorBrahman is the realinfinite '1% It is the source, the
support and the substratum for body, prang, mind. intellect and jiva. 'I' am identical
Tith the Immortal Self. I am the absolute consciousness. I am birthless, deathless,
causeless, changeless, timeless, aotionless, beginningless, and endless. I am tho only
&Llity thbt iB Brahman. I am the indivisible self-reqlen•
Ont Self.
the five elements. Rid yourself of the
1ST 153
thoughts of the body and the world. Penetrate into the original source of all. Let
the transcendental light dawn on your mind. Reach the immaculate atmic seat of
inefable splendour. Remain unattached like a dew drop on the lotus-leaf. Rise above
the currents of attraction and repulsion. Analyse your body at each atom from head
to foot and you cannot find what you call the cI' in any part of it. The the supreme
Self, fills the whole universe, being nameless, formless, colourless, attributeless,
neither short nor long, neither small nor great.
50. Reflect thus: "0 Mind: You wander from one objeot to another like a
monkey. You run towards perishable objects and get not even an iota of happiness.
You perform selfish action producing pain. Why Bhould you run after sound, touch,
form, taste, and smell? These are oaeanag woven into net to bind you. Do not die
like a deer through sound, like a male-elephant through touch, like a moth through
form, like a fish through taste and like a bee through smell. Each one of them is
addicted to the gratiacation of only a single sense, but you desire to, gratify all the
five senses. You are entangled in the snare of desires, like the silk worm entangles
itself in its own cocoon made out of its saliva."
51. "0 Mind! Your lot is very miserable. You create differences and
distinctions. Free yourself from all desires and you will be freed from bondage. Do
not deceive your•self any longer and behave like a thief to plunder the jewel of
atma. Go back to your original home. Stop your wandering in tho thorny thicket of
mundane desires. My union with you is momentary and temporary. Become wise
and follow Me to that state of Eternal Bliss whenco there is no return."
52. The individual soul (jiva) is like bull. He is •andering aimlessly in the
dire thicket of the world with its worldliness (samsara). He is tied by strong cords of
dæireg, lashed by the whip actions (karma), bitten by the of diseases,
bruised by the constant oscilotion to
CHAITANYA UPANISHAD
(BY SRI JAGADAMBA, Bhopal)
PRAYER
To whom are we going to pray ?
He, who is Infinite Silence. The Lord of Mystic Silence.
Who encloses the noises of this world and the others.
What are we to pray ?
Pray mm to silence all illusory noises.
Pray Him to make you a clean and empty vessel so thaw He, the Lord of
Silence, may descend in you with aD His grandeur.
Who aro We ?
Silence in a state of Self-assertion.
Man lacks integration or clarity within himself. This Oleor when the following
facts are observed :