Be What You Are Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha -2

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Be What You Are

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha



The following was written to a youngster in response to his letter stating his doubts about the need and role of marriage, especially for one given to a life of dedication and spiritual sadhana.
Dear and blessed soul,
Harih Om Tat Sat. Your loving post card is before me. I note with interest your ideas about the propriety of married life and the prospects which it holds out. You have tried to match these against the advantages of the unmarried life as also perhaps, of the ascetic‟s life. I wonder whether you have meant to speak about all these on a general basis or on the basis of your own nature and tendencies. If it is the former, then I feel you are too hasty and under-informed in the matter, considering your age and experience.
During my talks in Rourkela, if at all I had made any comparison between lives of the householder and the monk it was all, no doubt, based on our Sastras as well as tradition. As such, there would be nothing in it to be repudiated. However, my assessment was purely general, not particular in any way.
To marry seems to be the rule of Nature, not only with humans but with the rest of the beings also. Therefore, one will have to think and rethink well before violating or abandoning this rule. However, in the case of humans, unlike the other beings, there is the scope for using the intelligence, will, etc. as a result of which they can evolve themselves mentally and spiritually. That is to say, the life of human beings is not static or stagnant. This fact allows the individuals to reform and refine their inner and outer nature so as to choose their way of life. When the refinement reaches a certain level, it will be possible for them to outlive the need for a married life. This outliving,
if it has to be meaningful and beneficial, must be only after keeping in view some nobler spiritual and social aims.
Those who have reached the requisite height of evolution alone can successfully take to the ascetic way of life and pursue it until the end, benefiting themselves and the society alike.
It is no doubt a great blessing to belong to the ascetic order of people. But before any one becomes an entrant to it, he has to deeply analyse his inner nature, tendencies, ideals, etc. If necessary, in making the analysis he must seek the guidance of a competent spiritual preceptor so that no mistake is made. This is what I have to say generally in the matter.
As for yourself, it is an individual case. We have to evaluate it, after going into all the merits and demerits of the personality. I haven‟t had any occasion to study you firsthand. As such, I am unable to give you any advice. However, let me say that the issue concerns yourself, first and last. Hence you are the person to think well and assess the case. Rather it is a duty, which you will have to fulfill yourself. I or any one else, can of course help you greatly.
Do not think of leading an absolutely spiritual way of life in the sense it is generally understood. On the other hand, a way of life with spiritual and social service ideals will be quite good and feasible too. Our present society particularly needs persons leading such a socio-spiritual life. Whatever your aims are in such a direction, I wish them full success. You have my full love and blessings for the noble ideals your heart cherishes. May the Almighty help you fulfil your life. Yours in the Lord,
Swamiji 1969

Respected Swamiji,
Thank you for your letter sent to my Bombay address in reply to mine. Did you receive the booklets I posted to you?
Now I have completed reading the book ‘Vedantic Way of Living’. I liked very much the simple exposition, and the large scope of matter covered in the seven lectures.
The Bhakti Yoga presented as an advaitic path appealed to me much. Most exponents treat Bhakti as a dualistic path, though the final culmination of the lover, the beloved and love is the same as Advaitic experience.
Swamiji, if you allow me, I would like to be favoured with your reply to a question.
Among the four Asramas of life, there are initiation ceremonies relating to Brahmacharya (Upanayanam). Grihastha (marriage), and Sannyasa (deeksha). Is there any formal initiation for Vanaprastha asrama? If so, how and what is it?
Secondly, is it possible and desirable to practice Vanaprastha at home (wife and children)? Mahatma Gandhi did it. It implies Brahmacharya (as continence and abstention) among others, does it not? And other restrictions in food and habits, etc. In fact, these days going to a jungle is not possible-so the Vanaprastha asrama has to be and can be practiced only at home. Am I right? If the practitioner has already acquired some viveka-vairagya, etc. would it not be easy? A formal ceremony will help to clinch the mind’s strength to stay, instead of falling back.
In sannyasa the ceremony and the garb help to hold the aspirant from a fall, though there have been sannyasins who fell back by marrying and becoming
householders. That is why I am enquiring about ceremonial initiation into Vanaprastha.
I shall be very grateful to have your kind reply. I am much indebted to you, Swamiji.
With pranams.
Yours in the Lord,

Dear and blessed seeker,
Harih Om Tat Sat. You letter of 18th August was duly received. The point you had raised was an important one and I did not have the necessary time to give you an elaborate reply so far.
The booklets you sent were received. The one on „Immortality‟ I read fully. It is quite good. The contents have been forcefully presented, a feature rarely found. I am happy about it.
About your remarks on the changing of life from one stage to the other, sometimes from the higher stage to a supposedly lower one, let me tell you: sincerity of purpose, truthfulness at all costs to oneself and to the ideals one stands for, is the secret of a noble human life. It is more so of the spiritual life. But human nature is very abstruse too. Hence if you find any one deficient in this trait, there need be no surprise.
A true knower of truth, our Sastras say, will not feel surprised even if one day he suddenly finds all the oceans going dry exposing their bottom or the entire Himalayas turning to a molten mass at one stroke. In this queer world of contradictions, there is every chance for anything queer and contradictory to take place any time. Wherever such a thing takes place we need not be surprised. Let this truth be
your consolation. Those who reveal contradictions are, in reality, heading for their fulfillment through them. Those who see these contradictions are also in truth working their way to fulfillment, for only when they are able to cultivate samyak darsana (the vision in which all contradictions dissolve and reveal unshakable harmony), their spiritual search and sadhana will be crowned with success. So let the note of contradiction noticed outside be a factor that will lead you towards your own perfection and inner harmony.
Now the vaanaprastha order of life about which you have enquired: I am quite unconventional in all my ways, although I am true to our own tradition and hoary habits. Before considering the vaanaprastha order, you had better have a clear idea of the other three orders. Then vaanaprastha will become easy to grasp and you will be able to decide matters well.
What is Brahmacharya, to begin with? Until one is initiated into Brahmacharya, he is a mere lad, not wedded to any ideal or given to any healthy routine. Such a boy is initiated into a phase of life, viz. Brahmacharya. He is invested with a sacred thread, an accretion to the body no doubt. As education is the primary acquisition, the Brahmacharin is given lessons on various subjects. In olden days, education meant the study of Vedas and Sastras. Four of the Vedas and six of the Sastras comprised all branches of knowledge, both secular and religious. That is why the Brahmacharin was taught all these.
In order to help him increase his comprehension and improve his memory, he was given a religious discipline. This in truth, is a discipline for the mind and intellect. The japa (chanting) of Gayatri was the backbone of his discipline. For a while every day, the Gayatri japa was made into a bit of contemplation. This contemplation, done twice or thrice daily, would make the student (1) free internally for a
short while and (2) able enough to concentrate his inner faculties whenever he so requires.
Throughout the Brahmacharya period, he was to exert himself for increasing his fund of knowledge, thereby preparing himself to live and work in the world with full success. This period is in a way similar to present school and college life. Of course, the present scheme does not have the old factor, namely the training of the mind and intellect.
On gaining enough knowledge and by then reaching bodily maturity, the role for every one was, as it is even today, to get married and begin to live in conjunction with a chosen partner. To accept one from the opposite sex as a life long partner is (a) a personal need (b) a need of the society and (c) a plan and urge of Nature. The married life - the partnership - will, as you know, lead to a series of problems and challenges, all of a creative nature. The education gained during the previous phase (bramacharya) is to stand in good stead for meeting and resolving them.
This is the general rule. But there may be exceptions to this. That is, one may choose to avoid the marriage alliance and prefer to live singly with whatever ideal or occupation he wishes to foster. It is this choice that sometimes leads aspirants to an entry into the monastic order of life. But wait.
Suppose the rule is accepted and one becomes a Grihastha. The Grihastha phase does not mark the end or the finale of his life on earth. He has to think about the end of the earthly sojourn when he will have to leave everything and everybody that he has caused and loved, and go. Thought of this eventuality is natural to the human mind. The question of preparing oneself mentally and intellectually to meet this eventuality without trouble and agitation is therefore sure
to arise. Vaanaprastha, the third station of life is truly an answer to this.
Is Vaanaprastha the final then? No. there is another order of life, the last, called sannyasa. What does it consist of?
It consists of those things which are just the opposite to those in a Grihastha’s life. You can work out these „opposites‟ yourself. Sannyasa phase being one quite opposed to the Grihastha, obviously it cannot be resorted to all of a sudden. The change from Grihastha’s life to Sannyasa has to be tempered, gradual.
What is the way then? Vaanaprastha, truly, is the intermediate stage during which the Grihastha (householder) prepares himself for the last order, sannyasa.
Brahmacharya commences with the investiture of the sacred thread. This thread is multiplied during the grihastha stage, as you know. Whereas the sannyasin begins his order of life with the removal and burning of the sacred thread and the shikha, which are the marks of the preceding order.
Perhaps the Vaanaprastha should have the middle of these two, as a mark, if you so desire. But I should say it is not the external marks that matter for us. However, the principle is: the grihastha life wants you to „involve‟ in things secular and religious. Vaanaprastha should therefore imply a departure from this involvement. So it should be one of withdrawal. Withdrawing from both religious and secular spheres. But this process should not be sudden, for that will bring about disharmony for others and also tend to upset the harmony and balance in oneself.
The following may be the marks of the Vaanaprastha:
1. Think of yourself always „independently‟, for religious matters, not in conjunction with the family members.
2. Chant Gayatri alone, if at all, avoiding the other auxiliaries, like Arghya, papa-mochana (offering of water, washing of sins), etc.
3. Refrain from all pinda and udaka kriyaas. Also do not expect your sons to perform the same for you, as do the grihasthaas.
4. Do not think of swargaloka or such other lokas and do not do any karma aimed at obtaining them after your death.
5. Avoid ornaments and ornamentation. Wear always simple dress. Better take to white.
6. Put on a Tulsi garland.
7. Stop all bad tastes and do not indulge in gossip. Select suitable friends. Avoid alcohol as also all non-sattvic items in the matter of taste, sound, sight, smell, touch. Take only the minimum of coffee or tea.
8. Be devoted to Brahmacharya, the opposite of the grihastha ideal. Endeavour to get established in it before the youth passes off.
9. Read spiritual and sattvic literature. Avoid rituals like Sraaddha, Rudrekaadasi etc.
10. Instead, take to meditation and the effort to purify the mind.
11. Culture viveka and other similar virtues.
12. If you are a worshipper of God, make a practice of offering the food to Him and then partaking of it as the „prasaada‟.
The principle to be adopted always must be moderation, not suddenness and absoluteness. If you have a full family, nothing should be done to cause misery to any one on any account whatsoever. Your change should be taken as a pleasant one by the others. Adjust yourself accordingly.
Vaanaprastha life as enjoined in our Scriptures is a very rigorous one. It is not feasible in the present times. The point to be noted is that it should signify a retreat in every respect. To accomplish this, one has to refrain from all the religious and social entanglements, which the grihastha life demands. Ceremonies should be replaced by vichara and meditation. The „personal side‟ also should be similarly replaced. That is why celibacy becomes a need.
If one gets well established in the Vaanaprastha order of life, the entry into sannyasa is the natural climax. Sannyasa will mean a step further and the last for the humans.
In short, the Vaanaprastha is a mumukshu. He should hence constantly work for moksha. The difference between him and the sannyasin is that while both of them do the jnaana sadhana, the former does sitting within the household, but the latter outside.
The right and the sacred initiation, I advise, will be the proper entry into the Brahma Vidya Abhyasa and following that the consistent pursuit of that vidya. In the matter of initiation, a preceptor is, of course, necessary.
Write to me if you want anything further. With love and Sivasis,
Yours in Self,
Swamiji 1971
  
My dear Gurudev,
Hari Om Tat Sat. After long waiting, I received your kind and affectionate letter. Yes, I got the news about you and the Ashram from Lalita. The way she described the beautiful site around the Ashram and the life over there and the temple on the hill top, really, if I had wings I would have flown there. I do feel that way. Sometimes I wonder ‘Will there ever be a day in my life when I will visit your sacred Ashram.... am I that blessed?’
You will be glad to know... that I have become very busy. Now-a-days practically every day I go to different places and recite Ram Charit Manas to the ladies in the afternoon. I do feel that they like and appreciate it. My husband drops me and again picks me up. I have no servant. So I remain very busy performing the household duties. I am glad that peace of mind has been the same, not disturbed even under odd circumstances.
Sometimes I feel as if I had no mind. The feeling that I am a blessed one upon whom the Almighty has showered his Grace is getting stronger. I do feel that I have realised the Self and it is only due to your Grace. My own ‘Self’ is the eternal truth and God is the very ‘Self’ within me.
‘Om’ is the eternal truth which is all-pervasive like gagana (sky). It is beyond the mind, beyond the body, beyond the intellect, even beyond thought.
I have realised that God alone is real and this world is an illusion created by the mind. The moment there is no thought, there is no body, neither the mind nor the world. There remains only God, which is my own ‘Self’. Am I correct?
I have one question for which I seek to get your answer early. The question is:
Why do people say that the body is dead because Atma has left the body and
it has entered another body? The truth is that Atma is immovable, because it is all-pervasive. Being everywhere it should be in the dead body too. When Atma is immovable, then what comes out of the body making the living body dead?
Another question is that my mantra merged into the sound ‘OM’. So should I meditate on ‘OM’ or should I go on doing my mantra? The old mantra became automatic immediately and the new mantra you gave, that very day it merged into sound ‘OM’. The new mantra has not become automatic. Why?
If my questions are foolish, please do not mind, but they are genuine questions.
Respects to dear Mataji and best wishes to everybody in the Ashram.
With lot of reverence,
Your humble disciple,
  
Dear and blessed soul,
Harih Om Tat Sat. Your letter of 19th February was received only on the 27th evening. Hence I could not write at your temporary address to reach you in time. However, this is mailed to the address given by you and I expect it to be redirected to you wherever you are. But will it follow you to Rishikesh and other places? I doubt.
The questions raised in your previous letter of the 9th February are answered below.
Atma is all-pervasive. If it be so, then even the ignorant man must be admitted to be the Atma because everything is Atma. Will it not then
mean that no one has to do any sadhana for realizing the Atma, on the ground that everything is the one Atma?
It is to avoid such a fallacy that the Self is first stated to be a mystic „spiritual presence‟ situated within the body, separate from it. Only when it is described like this, the seeker will begin to seek it as different from the body. Only when so sought he will be able to overcome the body-desires, attachment and identification. You will agree that in the matter of seeking the Self the main factor to be accomplished is the overcoming of the forces which crowd round the body consideration. It is to help this accomplishment that the „separateness from the body‟ of the Self is first posited.
There is another reason also. In spite of the fact that Atma is all-pervasive, it can be realized only by man and that too within his own body. Using the body as a medium for the purpose, living in it, he has to realize that thing which abides within it. It is like using water for getting steam by heating it. The heat and expansiveness are the factors more important than the water itself. Water acts as an agent in the process. Nevertheless it is indispensable for serving the purpose desired.
The same can be said about the body. Without the body, you can‟t realise the Soul within.
Once you have realized the Soul within the body as a thing mystic and spiritual, the ultimate truth that everything is that one Soul, nothing else, has also to be understood, for only then peace and salvation will come to you. The consideration of Atma as all-pervasive will come only in such a stage.
The principle is: Realize the Atma first as the body-different. Thereupon as the all-pervasive. It is a progressive process.
By disclosing the ultimate truth that Atma is all-pervasive, we do not intend to deny the basic facts of our life, namely the birth, death, etc. of the body. On the other hand, only the true perspective with regard to all these phenomena is revealed. That is all. The facts of life are facts indeed. The body is born. It will die too. Nevertheless, the all-pervasive Atma subsists in its own nature. Neither affects the other. Both subsist equally without any contravention.
The existence of the Atma is always absolute. Its manner of expression includes that which you call „the world‟. This is the truth. But this truth will remain a mystery until the seeker‟s mind becomes crystal clear, desire-free and stable under all conditions. The least trace of impurity any time will impair his vision. That is why earnest seekers go ahead and undertake any kind of sacrifices and persecutions in their efforts for self-purification and spiritual achievement.
About the chanting of mantra, I understand what you say. My answer is: do as you feel like doing. That is the best. There is no contradiction or conflict. All paths lead to the same goal
I wish you mangal in your Ram Charit Manas efforts. May they help you and others alike. I also wish you success in your pilgrimage. May your soul flower forth well. Be firm, fear-free but cause no confusion or a sense of loss to any one. That is the golden method of doing things.
Mataji sends you her warm greetings with love and blessings. So too do I. The same to your husband and others.
In the Lord,
Swamiji 1972
  
The following was written to a disciple in Shillong who had wished to know Swamiji’s view on rebirth and the references made to Sookshma (Subtle) and Kaarana (causal) bodies in the scriptures in relation to reincarnation of the Soul.
Dear and blessed ....,
Harih Om Tat Sat.
... Now, about the issue of rebirth of the Soul on which you wanted me to write to you: There is utter confusion in understanding the concept of the Soul of man, its nature and features. This confusion is responsible for the divergent views like birth, death, rebirth and the like.
The matter medium through which energy flows has a form. But the energy in it is formless. In the same way, the Soul in the body, which is more a presence and existence than any kind of matter, or even energy, cannot but be formless, form-free. In fact, to be formless (shapeless) is a necessary feature of the Soul for it to be permeating in the formful body. Once the form-idea of the Soul is removed from the mind and the basic truth that it is (has to be) formless is grasped, the questions of birth, death, rebirth and the like will automatically vaporize.
If the Soul is formless, and further if it is the subtlest form of existence, then for that very reason, it should be present everywhere. Once this lesson is understood, where does the question of its coming from one sphere to another or going from one place of inhabitance to another arise at all?
This is the real truth. But the human mind, associated as it is with gross forms and shapes, and having the power only to apprehend matters and concepts on this basis finds a seemingly insurmountable difficulty to transcend grossness and think in terms of the subtle and the subtlest. This difficulty is the real delusion and nescience.
Once this „transcending‟ is done, the seeker becomes bold and clear-minded to accept (1) the all-pervasiveness and (2) the singleness of the Soul. And on that basis he will come to feel that the theories and allusions about the birth, death and reappearance of the Soul as also the idea of multiplicity about it are utterly wrong, non-factual. But there is a long way to go between (1) the ability of the seeker‟s mind to grasp matters when he enters into the realm of Vedantic study and sadhana and (2) the state of the „transcendence‟ of physicality.
During the intervening period, in which most of even the staunch seekers are, they should not be left without any prop. Hence the prop assumes great significance. That is why the concept of a Soul different from the body is first presented, and then it is described as surviving the death of the body.
If the Soul is said to survive the body‟s death, then what transpires subsequently should be revealed. It is in this connection the tentative statement that it will hover in the skies above, in the unknown heaven or hell for a temporary period, is offered. That following this period, it may or will take birth again on the earth here, either as human or as a non- human. But mind you all these are possibilities, conjectures, the truth about which cannot either be proved or disproved. Being disprovable, they are more likely to be accepted with faith and fear than refused.
But for persons of higher evolution, whose understanding has become pure and deep, these statements being not provable become more
likely to be refused than accepted.
Thus the theory‟s fate is dependent more upon the enquirer‟s mind, capacity of intellect, purity and boldness of nature than anything else. And this is exactly what is wanted too. The entire purpose of religion and religious practices, whatever be the name or form of the religion, is just one: to inculcate purity of the mind and heart and thereby to make the religionist steadfast, bold and unflinching in his devotion and application. Once this is accomplished, he soon turns into a philosophical seeker or investigator and that transformation alone consummates the religious life.
What is faith in religion has to grow into discovery and realization sooner or later. The God who is unknown to the religionist becomes finally fully known to the seeker and the siddha.
Is not the aim of all religions discovery and direct perception of the Almighty? That means, faith may be the beginning point of religion, but the end point is the actual discovery of what has been believed so far, the actualisation of that which has thus far only been imagined.
So the moment you start enquiring as to whether there is really a rebirth of the Soul or not, you transcend the ordinary realms and cannons. The only purpose of telling you that there is a Soul which outlives the death of the body is to drive home to you that there is something besides the body, in the body of yours. The moment this body-different thing is posited, immediately you will want to know what happens to it at the time of death, as death is of the body alone. The only valid answer will be that the Soul being different from the body, cannot become a party to the fate that befalls the body.
You will want to be told that it takes birth or appearance somewhere. By first speaking of it hovering in the heavenly regions above, which heavenly regions themselves are more fallacious than factual, your
mind is kept in a sphere of indefiniteness and delusion. Then comes the question, “How long will it remain there?” The answer is, as Krishna has mentioned in the 6th chapter of Gita that the soul, after hovering in the far away regions takes birth again in the human womb if it has punya (virtuous acts) to its credit prior to its leaving earth. For the other souls that had been steeped in vicious acts, the birth which they beget on the earth will be among the inferior creatures and animals.
Now think as to where does the religionist stand? He believed in the Soul thinking that such a belief will make him better and happier. But then he finds that if he pursues the line of belief further and further, he has to think of coming back again to the earth but with no promise of anything better or true. Ultimately what is calculable or reckonable is the good or bad nature of the acts that he does during any given lifetime here. So he firmly concludes: “Let me preserve the good and dismiss the bad.”
This is the definiteness of purpose, firmness of resolve (called vyavasayatmika buddhih) mentioned in the 2nd chapter of Gita. This again is the purity of the mind, the one cry of all religions. „Definiteness of purpose‟ and „purity‟, both nurse and tend the seeker in his evolution and he starts discriminating between any two things.
It is then and then alone that he meets either a Guru, the God in human form, or proceeds with his understanding all by himself up to a certain degree. And his thinking undergoes a thorough revolution – mark, it is a revolution – not just an evolution in the same incline.
What is that revolution? If the Soul is inside the gross, his mind begins to assert, then it should necessarily be subtle. What should be the degree of subtlety which it possesses?
The body contains the ingredients of air and even space. Both air and
space are much too subtle. The latter is the subtlest itself. If the Soul is present in the entirety of the body, constituted of these elements, then it must mean that it is subtler than even space itself. To become so is to become all-pervasive indeed.
So the Soul is found to be all-pervasive by virtue of the mere fact that it permeates our body in full. How can the all-pervasive thing either come or go? Can it ever leave one place and go or come to another?
Thus the seeker‟s views and conclusions now become based upon the all-pervasiveness of the soul. It is then that he finds that all the other concepts like the heavenly sojourn of the Soul, further the subsequent embodiment on the earth, likewise the several other ideas and views, all turn to be mere concoctions, tentative concepts and theories, but nevertheless useful and timely. But this does not solve the problem fully.
For these were the ideas which nursed his religious life and evolution so far and which the Scriptures themselves had clearly declared. How can a paltry human mind dismiss them as fallacious and then hold on to something different? Is it ever possible?
This critical state of the seeker‟s mind, which challenges and gives him pain, is the real precarious condition that marks the Arunodaya before the brilliant sun-rise of Atmagyana. The surrender to and acceptance of a Mahatma, the Human God, will become inevitable at least at this time if not until then.
Doubt is the last hurdle to be overcome for a genuine seeker. And doubt is the most confusing and unbearable too. When the seeker aches under doubts and feels utterly helpless, the Teacher somehow presents himself with all amiability, scholarliness and spiritual benignness. His presence is never a matter for doubt. The heavens may be doubted, the Soul too, but the truth-teller and the truth
revealer, namely the Guru, can never be. So what becomes impossible to believe turns to be easily possible in the presence of your Teacher. Thus the real confidence and thereupon proper evolution begins to work. They naturally find their fulfillment, may be in years or decades, depending upon the seeker‟s earnestness and the Teacher‟s efficiency and spiritual attainment.
Has the matter become clear to you now my dear...?
If it has not, I shall clarify further when we meet. Do not worry on this account for now.
To complete the narration, let me state the following too.
Vedantic thought and finding are based fully upon facts experiential, not imaginary. So experiencialness is the basis and end of Vedanta. Are the heavens a fact? If so, are you able to see them? Did the astronauts to the moon pass through the heavens during their journey in space? Dismiss them then once and for all.
About the Soul: Put the question the other way around. As the Soul is different from the body, you say that the body‟s fate namely death, should not befall it. Agreed it is true. But should not this truth, this principle be extended to the first event, namely birth itself? As the Soul is held to be different from the body, when the body gets born can it get involved in the process? It cannot. That is to say, the body‟s birth is the body‟s alone, not that of the body-different Soul! So, when the body is born, the Soul does not get born.
Say then the Soul is not born at all. First of all dispose of the birth issue and then alone go to the issue of death. Otherwise, will you not be putting the cart before the horse? Why show a preference to death while both death and birth are equally true of the body, and birth is the first event and death the last.
Before saying that the Soul does not die, say it did not get, has not got born at all. If this is understood, whose death are you considering? About whose leaving the body do you want to think and understand?
Can an all-pervasive thing, whatever it may be, come or go, leave or hold? Thus the tentative theories of birth, death, rebirth, soul etc. all turn out to be mutually contradictory and ultimately fallacious. And the problem arises as to how you are to get away from them all and remain founded on the Supreme uncontradictable truth.
About the three bodies which Vedanta speaks of: This point too remains utterly confusing. It is wrong to base the theory of rebirth on the basis of these Vedantic concepts.
What is the concept about the three bodies and how is it to be understood?
A body does not mean a thing with hands or feet and with a certain figuration or shape alone. The bacterium has a body. The trees and plants have their respective bodies. The question of the body arises in respect of that alone which lives and experiences. That is to say, for any living or experiencing thing alone we ascribe a body, because in the absence of the body that thing would not make itself felt. And further it would not be able to do the living or experiencing. That is why you do not consider anyone to be alive except when he is associated with a body through which he lives and experiences.
Thus it is clear that life or experience is always related to a body, the medium through which the living and experiencing are made possible. Viewed in this way, how many bodies, seats and media of experiencing does a human have? This becomes a valid question, because we are found to experience three distinct states of living. What are these three?
The state wherein we are wakeful and active is one. It is called jaagrat. Throughout this state we are active and alert and our activity and alertness concurrently becomes a subject of universal perception and realization. When I talk, you immediately hear and see me doing so. All those around are agreed upon the fact of my talking. This sort of a common, universal and uniform activity and experiencing (during this waking state) are possible only because of this gross body of ours. We call the body gross because of its grossness, physicality, solidity.
But is this gross body and the experiences born of it the only state and experiencing for us? No. There is quite a similar state called dream, wherein too we do all that we do in the wakeful state. But there is a basic and thorough difference between the dream state and jaagrat.
Dream comes up quite unawares. Secondly, even if two or more people sleep at the time in the same place or room, even on the same bedspread, not all of them dream. Even if they do, not alike and uniformly. The experiences will be different for each of them. Thus the dream state becomes un-common, non-universal and individualistic in nature.
And how do they compare it with the wakeful experiences? While you are lying asleep in a place, you happen to dream of travelling to a distant city. While experiencing thus, it is not a dream, but hundred percent factual for you. How could this „going to a distant city‟ be possible when the gross body with which you generally do such acts as travelling, etc. lies intact there?
We have to a accept a thing or event on the basis of its experientialness. If this test is applied, the dream state cannot be refused. So the need to ascribe the dream experience to a body, meaning a medium or instrument for the purpose, becomes imperative. What is that dream body?
Certainly it is not gross. It cannot be. For the gross body is lying there. That means the dream body is different from the wakeful body. It exists obviously within the gross waking body. For only a subtle thing can exist within a gross thing. It is on this ground that we call the dream-experiencing body as the subtle body of man.
As the dream experiences are fully similar to those of wakefulness, we infer that the subtle body, the factor responsible for producing the dream phenomena, has hands, feet, eyes, etc. This is a compelling inference on the basis of our direct experience and pragmatism.
But I must stress a thousand times that this fact cannot be a ground for arriving at any conclusion about transmigration of the soul.
Now let us search for the sleep body. Sleep, I mean deep sleep without dreaming, is a prolonged state during which you feel unbroken loneliness and aananda. Unlike the other two states, sleep state is noted for uniformity, sameness and a prolonged duration.
In studying the sleep state as well, apply the same principle that an experience will not be possible for you without the instrumentality of a body - body being just a medium. Naturally you have to conclude and concede that there must be another body which enables you to beget the experience called sleep. In as much as no going, no coming, no seeing, no hearing or any other sensing is taking place during sleep, the sleep body is considered as having no shape or parts. The only description you can give about it is that it is the kaarana or causal factor. Why is it taken as the „causal‟ factor, kaarana sareera?
The reasons are (1) you cannot go into dream without first having slept - that is to say without having entered into the sleep state. (2) the wakeful state too is not possible in the total absence of the sleep state (3) the „nothing‟ knowledge which we have during sleep is the foundation upon which all knowledge of the waking state is built.
Even Shankara and others have described the sleep body as indescribable. The kaarana sareera (causal body), they say, is anirvachaniya (indescribable). We are unable to understand its nature at any time for the simple reason that we lose our normal awareness, whereby we understand everything just when it is taking place (for instance seeing, hearing, etc.) during that state.
Thus the three bodies - the gross, the subtle and the causal - are conclusions based upon our experiences. They are the bases for the three states of the mind or awareness of the living man.
The point is that from these bodies or the allusions to them found in our Scriptures or subsidiary texts, you should not seek any proof or sanction for the rebirth or transmigration of the Soul.
The Soul is just one. It is the subtlest thing. And hence it is all-pervasive by nature. Therefore, even birth, which is of the body, does not involve the Soul. As such neither growth, nor change nor again decay nor death can involve it the least. Therefore, the need for going into heavens or hells does not arise. It is baseless. Being so, rebirth too is utterly fallacious.
The right conception and the only truth is that there is only one Soul, which itself is spoken of as God. By virtue of its very nature, it remains transcending birth, death and rebirth. It is devoid of and beyond all these.
A thing by virtue of its very nature is existing. Even so is this Soul existing. As it is devoid of any and all transformations it exists, exists and exists; continues to exist devoid of all changes. Existence, constant and unalloyed existence, this alone is true of the Soul.
My body has become quite fatigued by now. I am just running this letter on the typewriter, straight from the mind. There is no thought-
process forerunning the actual typing. It is the Soul that does the job through this body‟s fingers. All obeisance to it.
More when we meet. Please let me know when you receive this letter. My love and Sivasis to all of you.
Your own Self,
Swamiji 1972

Revered Swamiji,
.... I’m extremely grateful to you for giving me the assurance that I needed so badly. I’ll now tell you about the problem which troubles me right now. This problem concerns the ‘existence’ of God. In the past I was a staunch believer of God and everything told to me by my elders, but now-a-days my mind has become so doubtful, that I just can’t accept any theory or dogma without rigorous proof. I thought that logical reasoning would at least help me in establishing the existence of such a God. So I enquired on the following lines:-
(a) Is there a Supreme Will, much greater and forceful than all human wills put together; something that dictates every act of ours? I came to a deadlock as I saw the amount of misery and trouble which seems illogical if there’s any God/Supreme Will.
(b) Could everything that I see around me just be there, or is it more likely that it has all been put there by some Invisible Hand? Could all the lives that we see in and around just be an ‘event of chance’ as scientists claim it to be or is it more possible that there’s some meaningful pattern which will explain the ‘mystery’ that surrounds us? I just couldn’t proceed very much on this line as both the contradictory thoughts seemed possible to me.
(c) How much of my own life do I actually control? I understand that as long as I stayed in society I was bound to have interaction with people every now and then and since I have no control over people, I actually don’t stand much chance in controlling my acts when in groups and when I identify myself with some cause like the nation/state etc. Of course this influence which I can’t overcome is my own creation and so does not go to prove in any way the existence of a Superior Will. So again I’m stuck and Swamiji, it is upto you to lead me out. The main problem is to prove beyond doubt
and if possible to realize the existence of this Supreme Will which people do call God/ Bhagavan/ Allah etc. I don’t know how to proceed beyond what I have just got into and so your guidance is very much needed. Please tell me precisely what to do, how to reason as this is the only problem bothering me right now. Many claim that they’ve seen God. Is that possible for me also? I think I should wind up right here for the present.
Obediently yours,...
Dear and blessed soul,
Harih Om Tat Sat, Your letter of the 1st August received. I was away in Bombay and returned only on the 20th. We are preparing for a visit to Canada and US next month lasting for four months.
Your questions: (a) Supreme Will: Supreme Will is there no doubt, but it is quite stretched and spread out through multiple factors like the individual, society, nation, world, previous generations, etc. It works through all these put together. In humans, the all-in nature is quite pronounced. Miseries of nations, societies, including some of the diseases and afflictions are of our own creation, or are not extinct because of lack of effort. For instance, there is no leprosy at all in some European countries, whereas we have it enough in our country. Think for yourself.
(b) “No accident is accidental, but it is caused”, is a saying. So is the case with the world and universe. Can endless incidents and their cluster be born of an accident? However, since this question will take us back to the pre-evolution or pre-creation state, it is bound to be inaccessible for us who have come much later after the creation. But take it from me, from the Dynamic Intelligent Source alone has this perplexing creation been brought forth. Recently I have written on “Space and the Creation of the World, world‟s origin, an objective scientific approach.” Contradictory thoughts are a symptom of a
probing mind. State of absolute wisdom and liberation is that wherein all contradictions stand resolved.
(c) By and large, free will in one's life is there at every stage, but that is strictly within limits and boundaries. It is like tying a cow by a rope to a peg for grazing. She can ramble about and graze, but cannot go beyond the rope's length. Even within it, at times she winds round the rope and the length and freedom get reduced. She can also unwind and restore full freedom. Equally so with man's plight and his freedom.
(d) Man gets more and more freedom when he goes deeper within himself. But it is less when he lives in the outer levels. Why man alone? There is no particle, electron or proton, which is fully independent. Freedom is a corollary or complement of limitation. Equally so, limitation of freedom. Only when both are there, either could be present.
Man's freedom is absolute in finding mental peace – peace is mental alone. But even for that, he has to be in his body, and that implies a host of physical needs. Understanding is fully possible. Freedom follows from understanding. Work for it, my dear boy. Japa, tapas, meditation, introspection, etc. are for gaining the right understanding. May your Indweller guide you well. I shall act as your own Indweller's representative when needed. You have my love, acceptance and blessings. Everything will be all right. Surrender and know.
Swamiji 1973





(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of H H Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha ji  for the collection)

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