Be What You Are Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha -5
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Be What You Are
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
2222
In
the following letter written to a close disciple, Swamiji discusses the concept
of sin and virtue, its meaning and scope, and how it should be dealt with in
the life of a sadhaka.
Dear
and blessed....,
Harih
Om Tat Sat. All along I was not happy with your name. The other day I heard
your sister referring to you as 'A', and that instantly suited me. Moreover,
there is also a purpose in making use of that name by which you are identified
at home by the near and dear ones. All the psychological growth, impressions,
and everything that comes along with these generally get wrought in and through
the name by which we are addressed, through which we live in others' minds.
Psychologically, for near and dear ones, you are what your name implies.
Socially also, you may be what they call you.
I
am wondering about the make-up of the seeker's psychology. What is its make up?
What will be its modifications in the pursuit of Truth? These questions have a
fundamental character. They are also quite personal, especially in the case of
one who was given to a life-style that does not conform to the pattern of
reasonable goodness and nobility.
In
other words, do the religious or ethical assessments like 'sinfulness' and
'virtuousness' mean anything to the psychology of the spiritual seeker? If yes,
how does he respond to the sense of guilt due to a sinful act, past or present?
What is the right nature of his release? Which is the normal healthy note for
the mind in case it gets assailed by the religious impact of the past deeds?
The more and more one becomes good, noble, ethical and religious, more will be
the thought in his mind of the sin he did earlier in his life. An action once
done
cannot be undone. It becomes part of
his memory, his mind's working. The mind's law makes it remember the past and
be concerned with the future. The constant linking of the two – the past and
the future – the process of doing this is what we call the mind or mentation
process.
Naturally,
by the very concern and effort to become good and better, the mind will be
afflicted by the resentment for whatever bad had occurred in the past. The
greater is the present goodness, the more intense will be the sense of the
'past' guilt! And therefore, will not the memory of the guilt co-exist with the
prevalence of the present virtue? Even then does the present virtue obliterate
the past vice? Is there anything like removal, replacement, in the sphere of
the memory storehouse, where the brain cells, like the computer, register and
maintain all that has happened?
If
the storing in the brain does not imply emptying, refilling, etc., what becomes
of the impressions stored there of the past? What do we then mean by
recompense, expiating by noble deeds, the consequences of the ignoble acts done
and registered in the brain earlier?
Understand
the subtle complexity of the whole development. Be personal as also impersonal
and universal about the whole thought. You have to work standing apart from it.
May be you are one of the most suited for the purpose.
I
asked, last night, about the subject to those present here, no one except
Nambiar said much by way of solution. He intellectualises it, taking his stand
partially upon spiritual wisdom, partially upon the worldly expediency. 'As
long as one does not repeat the sinful act in his life, and feels deeply at
heart for whatever had been done earlier, the mental impact of the past will be
minimised; the gravity of the sinful memory will be lesser and lesser, but will
not, by the very
nature of it, become totally extinct.'
Savithri said she does not know but has heard that 'repentance is expiation' (paschaat-taapa
is the praayaschitta).
Even
then, my question remains unanswered: 'How does repentance mitigate the sin of
the past? (By sin you should not mean anything sinful, except the hurting
memory of an incorrect act done in the past). The question is vital indeed,
especially for you all, Swamiji's children or representatives.
I
want a solution afforded by the psychological systems of the individual
himself. The explanation should be purely on the basis of the human systems of
perception, experience, assessment, of past-present relationship, and of any
supreme or final truth about the facts of existence.
Taking
the religious concept of sin, you may give a religiously authoritative
redemption; That is O.K. Yet, that will only be a treatment given to the
psychology of the thinker on the basis of his psychological leaning or
susceptibility. The science and process will even then have to be explained in
terms of physical, mental, intellectual and perhaps intangible Truth.
To
forget, dear seeker, is not the means or answer. By forgetting, the fact of
memory does not become extinct. Memory is the safe survival in our brain of the
impressions forged by a wilful act, the experience that the act has brought
about in the subject consciousness. Once it is forged, it cannot be removed. So
by a blind or faithful forgetfulness administered to it, one cannot sit feeling
redeemed. Will it not be like the Ostrich burying its head in sand? What are
the salvational means then?
Delve
into the inmost chambers of your understanding and find out. These are the
points I want to be laid open before the storehouse of
wisdom in you.
In
Vedantic thought, the bondage – namely the disturbed state of one's psychology
and understanding – is described as kartru-bhoktru bhaava. What does
this mean? Is it not relevant to our questions and thought? That fact and
feeling „I am doing, I have done, I will do‟, and therefore „I am
experiencing the resultants, have experienced, will have to experience‟ – the sum total of
these concepts and conceptual states – is what the bhaava implies. In
this basic bhaava – fundamental notions of causalness and
consequentialness – both sin and virtue weigh equally. 'I commit sin, I also
act in virtue', although sinfulness alone stands as a menace. But later on,
even virtuous acts will have the same menacing influence. There the deluding
force will be that of pride and greed for it. Nevertheless, both are a product
of causalness, they go by the name of consequentialness. The
causal-consequential feelings, which imply the prevalence of the ego, the crude
expression of the 'I', are the basic binding phenomena to be dealt with and
disposed of. The entire spiritual pursuit is meant to redress it outright. In
fact, the realisation of Self, whatever it may be as a positive acquisition,
psychologically means the relief and nirvana from this quality called
causalness-cum-consequentialness.
The
kartaa feeling may be due to any act, sinful or virtuous, strong or
weak. Even then it has to be treated and eliminated. Similarly the bhoktaa feeling
with reference to any karma or kartru bhaava also has to be removed.
Besides these two feelings, there is also the thought that „this‟ enjoyment or „that‟ suffering, bhoga, is
a result of that kartritva, causalness. To draw an equation between one
doership and another experiencership, linking the cause with the effect, is
also the habit of the mind. When kartaa and bhoktaa feelings
stand removed, with that should also subside all such mutual connectedness from
the mind. "I am having this experience because I did that before",
this is the relationship-thought that prevails in the mind. This relational
thought
must also vanish for good. All this
must be the experiential outcome of Self-realization.
The
question is how this outcome is generated by the Self-knowledge pursuit. A mere
knowledge of the Self may not bring about this functional outcome in the
seeker's psychology. Much depends upon interpreting the Self in the context of
the world, the individual and universal prakritis, the knowledge of prakriti,
and its working. The role of the individual and his responsibilities if any
in the scheme of things, all these will have to be distinctly known, realised
and lived with. Only then the whole area of release will be validly had. That
is why Gita and other texts come out with a variety of approaches, explanations
and themes to discuss and dispose of the whole problem of the mind and intelligence.
Creation
started when “I laid my egg in the 'Yoni', the 'Mahat Brahma' ”, says Krishna.
If thus the first act of impregnation belongs to the Creator, the Supreme Lord,
what is the status of the similar acts done by you or any one else, who come
after millions of generations following the first generation directly linked
with God? The very birth of one's body is a sequential outcome brought forth by
Nature. And within the ken of Nature comes everything and all, including man's
mind, intelligence and ahamkara(ego). The mind and intelligence work
with delusion, deriving for themselves the properties and compulsions from the
body-association. Ultimately, all these are due to whom, to what, motivated by
what? The final ownership is of Nature, and hence to the Lord! Of course, the
role of paurusha comes in, but even that is not without its bearing on
Nature and its custodian.
Thus,
thinking in all the dimensions and complexities, our thought should find the
substratum of Nature. Confront Her beginninglessness, incorrigibleness,
all-comprehensiveness,
inexorableness and many other 'nesses',
to finally get dissolved into Herself and Her Lord. That is the state of utter
surrender, of full devotion, of jubilant harmony.
If
the ego is itself Nature's creation, find Nature's display in the very ego and
its offshoots as well. I don't know whether this line of thinking is clear to
your mind, and if so what impact it makes on you. Again when the personal
history and behaviour are all right, free from anything menacing or hurtful,
the facility of this great wisdom, the blessing of the harmony it stimulates,
comes easily. But whether in the case of the so-called paapa-acharins too,
the same note of ultimate reconciliation, harmony, elimination of ego, can
become true, is something you and others will have to search, seek and
discover.
Theoretically,
the Self and the knowledge of it, the knowledge of the fullness of prakriti,
etc. is available to the virtuous as well the vicious. But does the vicious
background lend itself as much as the virtuous background to derive the same
benefit from the same source? Or is the vicious at a disadvantage? Think well
before arriving at an answer.
The
impressions of whatever the individual nature has done and experienced are
there indelibly in the brain, or in the spiritual sectors. Naturally nothing in
the way of obliterating can be done about them. What is the redress then? Side
by side with these impressions, including the beneficial benign impressions, a
new note of wisdom will be made to shine, by sadhana and wisdom, in the
light of which the kartru and bhoktru bhavaas relating to the
virtuous as well as the vicious impressions will become extinct. The process of
fusion is what works. What should be the magnitude of sublimity to make the
opposite impressions prove ineffective, is the real question, and not one of
eliminating either. Is it clear?
Biologically speaking, it is within my
experience that our personality remains personal, shaped and moulded physically
to what it is, only up to a level. In moments and hours of absorption, also
when the personality gets transformed by spiritual nature, the biological
massiveness dissolves progressively, and weightless, shapeless depths begin to
reveal themselves subjectively. In those self-felt, natural states of
inwardness, I do not find anything like a bodily identity. The expanse of
feeling remains, (where I don't know) and the peripheral (that is the
only way I can describe it) segments, in which arise thoughts, emotions or
concerns, are also there. In spite of whatever is the nature of the concern,
the peripheral processes, the central inner expanse radiates joy and
unconditioned freedom, lightness, and what? I don't know. A memory of the past
or a concern for the future, or an occupation about the present, all these can
be, but only peripherally, circumferentially, and the central joyful expanse is
not the least affected by it. This is what I felt and was explaining to those
nearby when I had been to Jamshedpur this time.
Will
you take this as a proof of the Truth about the state of redemption? But of
course I am not that much of a sinner or the vicious. But I can make myself
one, any time in relation to this or that of my life. Anything can assume
gravity, if we think of it in grave terms. And in that way, I can be a sinner.
But will that deliberateness in the making of sin imply an implicit
non-sinnerhood, and thereby colour the proposition! Think it out for yourself.
I
say all this so that you will sink into your own depths, bring out from them
even the most hidden memories, in which there lurk even the remotest notes of 'Kartru'
bhaava. It is no use trying to neglect them or forget them. The normal
biological laws may permit such disregard or ignoring, but not the subtle
spiritual laws. You should be not for yourself alone, but for the others as
well. There is no harm in incorporating in oneself a greater dimension, for
expansion is always
desirable.
Let
the worst memories be revived, activated, stimulated in the brain. Making them
a fiery crucible, melt the wisdom or Self-experience you have gained so far in
it mercilessly, and then see whether the experience of the Self is able to come
out unaffectedly. In that case you can be sure that while these memories exist
safely in the brain cells, side by side with them, also lives the present
Self-experience by the luminosity of which the earlier memory loses its adverse
potency. The salubrious potency prevails no doubt, as a result of which the
system of yours refuses naturally to enter the same habits or pursue
them even in the most diluted form. Does it make sense to you?
So
wiping off, getting freed from forgetting, somehow by a much longer memory and
association making the earlier memory a trickle, reducing its gravity (as 'N'
puts it), none of these will be adequate, if we are to reach a position of
salvation within us. Identify yourself mentally with the worst sinner of
the past or present. And then adjudge the attainment in the background of the
most sublime history and identification, relating to yourself or to another. In
both cases, how does the system behave and react? Find it out.
My
dear soul. I have a special thought and reason to write all this to you. And by
writing I fulfill that mission which I am, perhaps, intended to fulfill for
you, and hence for several others. May impersonality and the benignness which
the deepest wisdom brings with it adorn you as soon as possible.
Yours
Swamiji
1980
2323
Mother
Nature has her own rhythm earmarked for shaping the life-course of a genuine
seeker. Revealed here are the fundamental Laws of Nature which govern a
seeker's life, drawing him on irresistibly, sometimes through adversity and
trials, towards his own perfection and fulfillment.
Dear
and blessed ...,
Harih
Om Tat Sat. Every year, for some time now, I move out from the Ashram with a
lot of indifference (a state in which my mind and sentiments are not able to
get concerned with anything around) – a trait and outcome quite characteristic
of one like me. This year too the spell was there, perhaps in a greater
measure. The first lap of the journey being to Bombay, the situation only
tended to deepen the impact. And when I reached Jamshedpur, virtually I had a
non-reacting mind.
But
Nature and Providence have their own strange ways and means. And so, although
not fully unexpected, I found you and the Srivastavas already there. Perhaps
the best thing of my life was this sight of you all there, then, in such a
background. We should thank all concerned, the persons of the earth and the
planets of the skies, for having done whatever they did to bring about such a
situation, which was eluding us earlier.
My
dear ..., take it from me that the course of life of a good soul, more so of a
genuine seeker, will not usually be in the way he wants it to be. Instead it
will be in a way which will mysteriously lead him to his unfolding and
fulfillment. The seeker does not generally know what is his inner make-up, and
what changes he will need from time to time for its unfolding and further
improvement. To realize one's own complex nature, mental and intellectual, is
much more difficult than
to know one's Self. For the Self is
just one, ever the same, and it remains unaffected at all times. But the
mental, emotional and intellectual characteristics that encircle this central
Self-entity are varied, complex and multi-pronged. So even after knowing or
being in the Self, the understanding of the complex nature – the
individual nature that is yourself, and the world-nature, that is the society
and environment – will be an arduous task. That apart, the supreme truth of the
seeker's life, the life in which his complex personality is led to fulfillment
is there, which you should reckon as well as possible.
Once
you preserve the attitude of wholesome attunement to the Great Order of the
world, in which equally there is a mystic, subtle and full order of the
individual too, then you will, by dint of your pursuit, be driven to such
situations and courses by which your complex nature will get more and more of
refinement and enrichment every time. Thus, the seeker will never have,
whatever the developments be, anything like an adverse fate. What seems to
be adverse will be not so, when studied in the light of its impact, especially
in the context of his seeking and its fulfillment.
I
always quote these few lines of an English poem (from Ralph Waldo Trine‟s book) to govern this
line of thinking, which the true seeker must cherish to preserve:
Asleep,
awake, by night or day
The
friends I seek are seeking me;
No
wind can draw my bark astray
Or
change the tide of destiny!
I
make no haste, I make delays,
For
what avails this eager pace;
I stand
amid eternal ways, and
What
is mine shall know my face.
The
stars come nightly to the sky
The tidal waves unto the sea;
So
flows the good with equal law
Unto
the soul of pure delight.
Trying
to dabble with things, events and persons in an effort to find the right type
of friends is perhaps the usual line. Do not be frantic like that. Let the
franticness be dissolved in your own mind. Rather than playing and erring in
the external situations, better allow the fight and choice-making to be over in
the invisible part of your person, where there is no chance for mistake. It
will all be a thought-process, emotion-process, debate-process, ending up in
the outcome of calm after the storm. The objective outside consequences are
avoided, and elaborate processes of search and seek, missing and rediscovering,
etc. are also avoided. Let the whole process be done through the mind within,
whereby you remain reassuring yourself about the rhythm of life earmarked for
the seeking and elevated minds.
Rather
than seeking out the friends you need, let the real friends come out of
Providence's hiding and reach themselves out to you. And whatever delays occur
in the course of this development, bear them patiently.
Then
there is the psychological law, by which is governed the seeker's inner
prosperity and fulfillment. That law says that as long as you mean to look for
the pure delight – the delight that comes from the pure source, in a pure,
non-harming manner – then the good things to encourage and lead you to your
destination will perforce come to you, as do the waves and stars in their turn
in their respective places at the appointed times.
In
the pure delight, in its search and efforts, we do not cross with the others,
do not compete with others. We do not deny another what is due to him in a bid
to gain a favour for ourselves. Naturally, by the
very nature of it, the course and
process are quite intricate. You should be patient enough to allow enough time and
delays to the Providence to work things out and get you where you should be.
Dear
..., I want you to look into the whole life of yours – the age from which you
have your memory – in this light and see whether you have any complaints to
make about anything that happened any time. Naturally, now also you have verily
nothing to be complaining about. Open your heart and mind in wisdom, in
humility, in pious resignation and resolve to find out that by the very law of
Nature, you have been passing through whatever you should have passed through.
Every development was in time, propitious, and most effective for your welfare
and well-being. Or else, why should anything have taken place? Partly your
obstinacy demanded it, partly your derision warranted it, partly the false and
misplaced values needed all this for their own correction.
Now
it is for you to think and convince yourself that whatever has taken place is
ultimately for your own good. How this good comes about, has come about, and
how in its absence you would not have been happy, will all become clear. The
line of developments from now on will also be to your good.
Neither
Nature, nor the bare elements, nor the Almighty has any animosity towards you
(though you may have towards them, not knowing what they are and what you are
in relation to them). Being so, why should any of them punish you, victimize
you at any time? Whatever hindrances or delays or failures took place, it is
for some inevitable reason. The reason may lie in the objective facts or situations,
in the personal circle of yours, or those with whom you have got allied in one
way or another. And Nature, if at all, tries to get you to the path of
elevation in spite of all these adverse factors encircling your life. And you
can only be grateful to Nature and Her
masterliness in handling you.
In
short, it should always be an unflinching note of optimism, confidence, hope
and a sense of being protected that should nourish your mind, and be cherished
in all situations. You may fall, meaning, slip from the branch of a tree which
you have climbed to a great height. Following the slip, your body may have lost
its hold, and you will even be on the path of falling fast. But just before
striking the earth, you may be held up either by the unseen hands of
Providence, or the seen branch of the same tree, thereby preventing a disaster.
The system of Divinity is intricate, indeed, very much so.
Now
sit, dear ..., reflect and determine whether in the present fate and crisis of
yours, you and your relatives have not stood to benefit, and enlightened in
every way, with every event. Welcome therefore whatever has come about, and
equally open your heart and mind to accept heartily whatever will come from now
on. In accepting them all with confidence, clarity and determination lies the
evolution. Allow Nature to work and allow things to happen, governed by the law
of righteousness alone, not by your preference or prejudice. Remain reconciled
at heart and mind, and live in that reconciliation. Under this general note of
acceptance and conviction all day-to-day events will then look after
themselves.
Love
and Sivasis,
Yours
Swamiji
1980
Om Tat Sat
(Continued
(Continued
(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of H H Swami Bhoomananda
Tirtha ji for the collection)
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