Para Sadhana

(November, 1939, Srinagar, Kashmir)

 Sree Swami Amalananda:  

Sadhana should be systematic and regular. Sometimes you recite the name of Krishna, sometimes the name of Rama, sometimes you accept Shiva as your Lord, sometimes, you contemplate on the Absolute, sometimes on your Guru -  This sort of Sadhana produces no result. Select some object of meditation which suits your system and temperament and pay undivided attention to it. If you are not in a position to select your lesson, approach a Sad-guru. He will instruct you what course you should adopt. He who has unflinching faith in his Ishtha, does not beg from door to door. If you change your views now and then, you cannot attain any solid stage in the spiritual world!
 
It is said in the Puranas that who is Vishnu is Shiva, there lies no difference between Hari and Hara, Rama and Krishna, Devis and Devas. Similarly all the scriptures speak of one entity of God. Those who praise one Deva and look down upon another, they strike at the very root of religion! “They are bound for hell,” says Shri Vyas Devji, the great compiler of the scriptures.

A sadhak in course of his sadhana realizes that these deities proceed  from one common point in different shapes and are radius of the same circle, the centre being the foundamental one. With further advancement he feels the deities and himself essentially one!

Do not look down upon any God or Avatar! Do not speak ill of any Guru. Do not ridicule any creed or any school of religion!

All the Gods are nothing but the manifestations of all-pervading Supreme Self! All the Avatars are nothing but the condensed forms of All-Permeating Consciousness! All the Gurus are the representatives of one Jagat Guru, and all the schools of religion are nothing but the different ways of attaining the Self!

Adopt any path. Either Bhakti Yoga—the way of spiritual devotion and beauty, Karma-Yoga — the way of selfless action or Jnana-Yoga — the way of wisdom. Choose any marga which may suit your temperament, but do not jump at any marga all of a sudden and then skip over to another when you will. No doubt you can pass from one marga to another, but that, must be done under the instructions of a teacher. The Eternal inspiration of truth is within you, if bonafide efforts are made, it will positively take you to the final goal!

When the sadhak can concentrate on the all-pervading Self, no symbol is required then to concentrate upon.

“Hail, hail, to Him alone 'Who is the One, the Primal,
Pure, Eternal, Immortal and Immutable in all ages.”

The meditation of AUM gradually brings the aspirant to the realm of all-pervading Self. The more he meditates on its inherent meaning the more he enters the region of silence, and verily through repeated practice of silence the absolute silence is achieved. When the Rishis of yore were requested to define the Absolute, they kept quiet. When they were pressed repeatedly, they exclaimed, ‘The Absolute is Silence.’

On the eve of Kurukshetra war the instructions, imparted by Sri Krishna to Arjuna, were mainly intended to teach him a lesson on the knowledge of the Self. With the intention of enlightening him in self-knowledge the Lord asserted, “Atman is never born; It is Eternal, everlasting and changeless; though its body perishes it cannot perish.” Pointing to this Atma-tattwa, the high-minded and enlightened Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, declared- “I am the Truth and I shall exist in all ages to come.” Jagat Guru Shankaracharya who preached Vedanta all over India and established four Maths as for the culture of Brahma-Vidya in the four extreme parts of India, declares, “Realise the  whole world to be the manifestation of Para-Brahman, there exists nothing except Atman. I am not the body but the eternal and everlasting Self, attaining this wisdom, be free from fear and anxieties.” Mahatma Jesus Christ, the glorious Sun of Christians, on attaining a high stage in meditation declared “I and my father are one.” Ana 'l-Ḥaqq - "I am the Truth"  - by these titterings, Mansur Al-Hallaj, the greatest Muslim Sufi preached the all-pervading Oneness. Swami Vivekananda, the genius soul of India who brought awakening in the East as well as in the West, laid much emphasis upon this point—“O Sisters and Brothers Know Yourself'!” What Swami Ramtirtha, the lion-hearted son of India, preached in the West and what Shree Aurobindo is now preaching in the East, is the same teaching— "Realise Yourself!".

Behold! The all-pervading and all-permeating Self-existent Lord, with all His glory is present everywhere! This Supreme Self with His impenetrable solemnity is ever present! Besides this Self-shining Truth, there was nothing before, besides This nothing can exist! Only this all-pervading  Eternal deity existed before, only He exists now, and only He shall exist through eternity! This Almighty God is manifesting Himself in all names and in all forms! All that we see, is He, all is His manifestation, and all is manifested by Him alone! He is all-powerful! He is all-merciful! The Vedas and Puranas proclaim Him; the Rishis and Devotees speak of Him! He is the sanctifier of the fallen! He is the evil-destroyer of all! He is the only pilot in the world-sea! He is the purest nectar! He is the supreme ecstasy! He is the supreme peace! Without Him, life is all-misery! When we gain Him, life becomes full of inexpressible divine rapture!

We being the highest creation of this world, and being endowed with rationality, our foremost and only duty is to remember God, live in Him and dissolve in Him! When we look back to the past, we see -  'to contemplate Him’ was the life-long endeavour of the forest-dwelling sages as well as the householders. It was by this contemplation that they attained peace, and left behind, undying fame and everlasting name!

With ardent love and strong non-attachment let us march on to Him! Let it be our life-object to realise Him in thought and in action! Entering into everything through union with God, was considered in India to be the ultimate end and fulfilment of humanity! Let us be always in perfect harmony with the inner Self as well as with all-pervading Supreme Self! He is present everywhere!  He is in air and in firmament! He is in fire and in water! He is in hill and in rill! He is above and below, remote and near, visible and invisible, within and without, pervading the whole! While working or talking, standing or walking, sitting or lying, we should always think of Him, live in Him! By constant thinking peace shall come, it is sure to come, but we must meditate on Him abandoning all lust for result!

Without realising Him, simply breathing, like the bellows of the blacksmith, is no life! We must resign ourselves wholly to Him, dive in Him, melt in Him - Thus, when our Divine consciousness is fully expanded, we shall be one with Him, and one with all! Not only the ancient seers felt Him in their serene depth of mind, but there are some earnest souls at present too, who are realising Him by their constant devotional Tapas. When we realise Him fully, there remains no gap in our luminous vision of perfection! For gaining Him we must be away from the world of narrow necessitie!. Dire destructions will befall us if we envelop our souls in a dead shell of callous habits! By doing so we will become the embodiment of passion. We hanker after pleasures, not because they are truly desirable, but because the red light of our passion makes them appear desirable. We long for earthly things not because they are great in themselves, but because our greed exaggerates them and makes them appear great. It is this greed that leads to seek wealth and power, fame and name. So long as we are self-obscured and lost in the midst of desires, we lose our conscience and care only for the immediate present. It is our desires that limit the scope of our self-realisation, hinder our extension of Consciousness, give rise to sin, which is the innermost barrier that keeps us apart from God! When the last hour comes, alas! we pass away without finding upper help in the wasting pangs of death!

It is no doubt in the path of spirituality that, disturbances and temporary failures, discontent and weariness, dejection and unwillingness may sometimes dishearten us; but at that time we are to cheer up our spirits and with more willingness and eagerness than ever we should cling to our practice of meditation! Pain in the spiritual path is no fixture! But when we lose all pleasure and patience in accepting pain we sink down and down to the lowest depth of degradation! No doubt, our Tapas sometimes seems to be enveloped with a dark veil, but as we press on, it casts off that dark veil and bares its face to us as a revelation of Supreme Joy! We are to gain Him by physical loss and to rise by surrender! Neither disease, nor calamity, nor the rising of sin in us should cause any alarm! With patience and perseverance we are to proceed. Cowards and the faithless will fly away from the battle-field, and in after years weep in sorrow and hopelessness! Holding fast only to Him, we should boldly say, we are reaching Him here in this very spot, now at this very moment!!! Man’s progress in the spiritual path is through a series of renunciations!

When we are above the plane of selfishness, then we attain the highest and by merging the individual in the universal, we become free from the realm of pain! Buddha and Jesus, Shankara and Mahomad, all these great revealers had to sacrifice a great deal in their course of Tapas, but being succesful in their object, they became so many beacon lights to the erring souls of the world!

It is shameful for us that we are bound up with things lesser than ourselves knowing perfectly well that we are greater than the things we possess! It is this that Maitreyi felt when her husband wanted to give her his property on the eve of his renunciation, and she asked him, would these material things help her to attain the highest. Her husband Replied ‘No’. She said at once, “Then what am I to do with these, which cannot make me immortal?!"

So long as we cannot attain the realisation of Self, all the worlds, with all their enjoyments cannot give us real peace; moreover the chain of activity, along with the chain of pain remains unbroken! It is for this, that the ancient people retiring from active life went to live in the forest in quest of Truth.

Let our soul, flame up to Him as the fire, flow on to Him as the river! We should love Him and meditate on Him in joys and sorrows, in gain and loss, in prosperity and adversity! Let us march on to Him not with logical reflection but with intuitive perception, not with cold dogmatism but with flaming faith! Let us consecrate ourselves, let us merge ourselves in Brahman! Not for one moment is God remote from us. He dwells within us, and we in Him! Not a breath can we draw without Him — our vitality is from Him and in Him; why then, should we seek God in any distant temple?!

Our body is the living temple in which He dwells! He is within us, and He is ever near to us!
When we realise Him, we lose our egoistic self. The individual 'I am’ attains then the perfect end;

it realises it's freedom of harmony in the Infinite ‘I am’! There comes the self-deliverance from all sorts of narrowness and pettiness and the soul ceases to return to its own desires! It delights then, ceaselessly and constantly in all-pervading stillness, calmness and sweetness and is freed for ever from the thraldom of Maya! Death eternally dies there, and waves of turmoil vanish for ever. There reigns the Eternal Supreme Peace!

Since we are attached to the fleeting things of the world for a pinch of pleasure, we fail to harmonise ourselves with the all-pervading Self and the highest bliss. In Yoga-Vashistha it is said ‘that the annihilation of thought, pulling down of desires and the practice of Tattwa-jnana are to be put in action simultaneously in order to get rid of the clutches of Maya and to have a permanent seat in the Blissful land attaining which, a man never returns to the cosmic world'. We lose our resourcefulness only in directing our consciousness to things of the outside world. If, however, it be centered in the Supreme Being, the last kingdom is recovered and the Self is achieved!

He pervades everywhere in the Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Trees, Water and Fire! He talks in human frames. He moves in the forms of beasts. He grows in the shape of trees. He blooms in the face of flowers! He shines in the lustre of lightning! Everywhere is He!

He exists in the blue canopy of sky! He exists in the green lawn! He pervades in the mountain ranges! He exists in the waters of the ocean! He is the murmuring sound of the streamlet and in the rustling of the leaves!

To strive to see Him everywhere is genuine sadhana and to feel Him everywhere is true siddhi.

In Vishnu Purana Bhakta-Raj Prahlad declares, “O, Daityas, this extensive Universe is nothing but the expansion of Vishnu. Feel yourself one with Him. This sort of sadhana is true sadhana of Achyuta!”

 
If one Atman exists within and without permeating every thing, then why should we waste our valuable time in the dry study of Nyaya and Mimansa or in discourse and discussion?! When Apaurusheya Veda declares one All-pervasive effulgent Truth, then why should we doubt the existence of the Lord?! Why should we dispute over Sakar and Sarakar?! Does He not comprehend and transcend both?!

How can the bliss, which lies in the meditation of the Absolute, which is obtained by crucifying little egoistic in the consciousness of all-pervading Self, be compared with the petty pleasures of the world?!  How can the trifling worldly pleasures delude a man of discrimination?! If you desire to realise all-blissful consciousness, you shall have to give up all thirst for any pleasures,mundane or terristrial and to be vibrated in and out with the thrill of SOHAM and thus enter its essence and get merged entirely in It!

A man finds a watery grave if he happens to get drowned in a physical ocean, but he finds immortal life if he drowns himself in ocean of SOHAM, the immortal nectar of Brahman! Anything that finds its way to a salt mine turns to salt!

Being drowned in the ocean of Self-consciousness, he himself becomes Consciousness. He feels Consciousness and it alone everywhere. What is seen is Consciousness, what is heard is Consciousness, what is thought is Consciousness, what is tasted is Consciousness, Consciousness is right to him, Consciousness is left to him, Consciousness is in front of him, Consciousness is above him and Consciousness is below him! The Gita teaches us the same teaching [4.24]:

brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahma-karma-samādhinā

 "For those who are completely absorbed in God-consciousness, the oblation is Brahman, the ladle with which it is offered is Brahman, the act of offering is Brahman, and the sacrificial fire is also Brahman. Such persons, who view everything as God, easily attain him."

It is not a mere state of being beyond any category of name and form. No human language can describe this peaceful resort! In this Heaven of Consciousness there is no fear of death, no possiblity of a fall, no chance of rebirth, nothing of attraction, nothing of repulsion, no disputes of Gods and no reign of sorrows!

If all that is but one Eternal Truth and one Consciousness, then in this non-dual religion, how can there lie any difference between Hindus and Christians, Buddhists and Muhammadans, Jains and Sikhs?! All are sons of Nectar, all are the emblems of Consciousness, all are the incarnations of Infinite Wisdom!

What teaching can be more sublime than this religion of seeing God everywhere and seeing everything in Him— the religion which teaches God immanent in every object?! What a wonderful religion it is to forget one’s little self in order to find the all-pervading Self! Annihilating the lower self one can be flooded with the current of all-pervading Self! What a magnificient Truth it is— “I am not the little mortal body, flesh, blood, marrow and bones. I am never bound by the affections and attachments of the world, I am formless, nameless, changeless Being,  I am all-permeating Consciousness and all-knowledge!”

Whenever your mind be going to any worldly object, think the object is nothing but Brahman. Whatever attracts your notice, think Brahman is shining there. Mind cannot step into any region where Brahman has not already established His extensive Kingdom.“That thou art”, “that is your Swaroop, Consciousness is your real nature”; "Verily you are the Reality”. Always dwell in the thought “I am Brahman, Brahman am I! I am pervading everywhere, I am effulgent one, I am boundless, changeless, partless Niranjan!” “I blow in the winds. I flow in the waters of the river! I shine in the stars of the sky! If even the fourteen worlds along with all the firmaments come into nothingness, I cannot perish, I am unperishing and I exists forever! I am with all and I am within all! I am the faculty of vision in all animals, the power of thinking am I! I am the air inhaled and expelled in the respiration of animals! In the sounds of human beings ‘me’ and ‘mine’ am I”!

When there was no sky, no air, no day or night, no life or death, I alone existed! When there was no Sun and no Moon, when heavenly bodies were none, I alone was shining with all my splendour! When there was no Brahma and the world created by Him, no Adam or Eve in the garden of God, alone myself was there in the meditation of Self!

“I am the current in waters, I am the radiance in Moon and Sun, I am the word of power—the Pranava in all the Vedas, I am sound in ether, and verility in men! The pure fragrance of earths and briliance in fire am I,  I am the Eternal seed of all beings! I am the reason of reason endowed, the splendour of splendid things am I!”

I am the strength of the strong, I am the wickedness of the wicked, I am the beauty of all beautiful things, the solemnity in snow covered hills am I! I am the extent of the broad open sky, the invigorating power in the winds am I! I am the affection in mother’s breast, I am the cruelty in butcher’s knife!”

The German philosopher Mr. Sehelling says, “There is in every man a feeling that he has been what he is from all eternity.”

I am all consciousness and consciousness alone, not the body am I! Why should I enter the temple of Yama (the king of death), musing - ‘Me’ a body of flesh and blood?! I am beyond the range of attachment, formless, changeless, Niranjan!  Why should I ignore what is True and Eternal, and why should I worship what is false and deceptive?!

“I cannot die. though for ever death.
Weave back and fro in the warp of me.
I was never born, yet my birth’s of breath,
Are as many as waves on the sleepless sea.”

The moment you desire for anything, your all-pervadingness is lost, you are chained to the mortal coil of flesh and blood and the moment you are free from cares and desires, you are the all-pervading Absolute! Mr. Balban says “All the loss is the result of scattered Consciousness. All gain is the result of accumulated Consciousness—the focused, concentrated one-pointed Consciousness.”

You may very well say, Self-contemplation is nothing but Self-hypnotism and your samadhi is nothing but hallucination of the brain. But whatever you say, the contemplation which brings about realisation of the Self, wisdom, bliss and the extinction of miseries, the necessity of such meditation and contemplation cannot be denied so lightly.

The all-pervading Absolute,—who is incomprehensibly profound, formless and nameless, self- effulgent and perfect, who, remaining perfect in His consciousness is creating and protecting myriads of worlds, by whose imperishable and everlasting power the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and Heaven are sustained, by whose fear fire, wind and Yama (the king of death) are performing their respective duties, and in whose hands from Brahma - the author of the world upto the atoms are mere playing toys, whose moulding, sustaining, protecting and perfecting power is immanent in all things animate and inanimate - that all-powerful infinite Consciousness is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Realizing whom the desire of heavenly happiness is burnt, the thirst of Salokya and Sarupya mukti is quenched forever, the perpetual bliss is obtained, and where a man never returns to the cosmic world — that all-pervading Supreme Being is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!
Attaining whom a man never wanders in the mirage of Maya; gaining whom the illusory, the fleeting in the fascinating forms, the attractive objects, the enamouring externals can no more delude a person, sighs and discontent and weariness of failure vanish for ever, the Divine law reveals itself in all its splendour — that permanent and Eternal Reality is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

By whom the animate and inanimate worlds are pervaded, except whom nothing exists, who is minutest of the minute, and the greatest of the great (aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān [Katha up. 1.2.20]) who is homogenious continuum, by whose manifestation all are manifested, by whose Consciousness the world’s Consciousness — that Self-effulgent Brahman is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Realizing whom, who is nothing else but Perfect Wisdom and harmony, peace and bliss, pure and absolute, one feels himself to be the Truth, there the attachment for forms and names vanishes forever, and the attachment for the body melts away, and the heart-knot is opened to luminous revelation, for him doubt and weakness are no more, that Absolute consciousness is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Whom all the Vedas proclaim to be the Supreme Being, Smritis and Puranas declare whose glory, Munis and Rishis speak of whose brightness, who is the Ultimate aim of meditation, that omnipresent Consciousness is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

By whom the whole Universe is manifested and pervaded, directed by whom the mind is thinking, prana is performing his own function, all are uttering words; eyes, ears, and other senses acting (their respective parts — that Chaitanyaatma is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Whom fire cannot burn, water cannot wet,wind cannot dry, but who is the creator and director of fire, water and wind -  that ministering Lord of the universe is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

At the time of final deluge (Mahapralaya) when all the worlds with all the firmaments are reduced into nothingness, when Hiranya Garbha and Mulaprakriti are also extinguished, what exists then also with absolute duration, whom births and deaths cannot touch at all — that formless Eternal Akshar Purusha is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Who is all-love and all-merciful, by whose grace we are moving in the world, by whose existence our existence, by whose Consciousness our Consciousness, by whose bliss world’s bliss—that Satchida- nanda is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Who is beyond time, space and speech, who is perfect, even, infinite, uniform and all-pervasive, who is in the north, in the south, in east and west, above and below, everywhere uniformly pervasive and who was, is and will continue to be for ever the same, who is undivided and partless— that ‘Sivam Sundaram’ is to be meditated and contemplated on and on!

Who is 'Satyam Jnanam Anantam' “Shuddham Apapaviddam', 'Ekam eva dwitiyam', realising whom one gains mystic vision, and the screen of ignorance is drawn aside for ever, Jnana and Vijnana bare their faces as revelation of Supreme joy, gaining whom one remains at the fathomless sea of tranquility — that Paratpara Purusha is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

Realizing whom the chain of Karmas is broken, sins and afflictions are burnt forever, Tritapa comes to an end, mortal is turned into immortal, Paramananda — perfect peace is obtained forever— that 'Santam Sivam Advaitam' is to be meditated, is to be contemplated on and on!

In fact every human being is in search of Self-knowledge, he is in quest of Himself. Whomever or whatsoever he loves, he loves himself more than all. He loves him alone, by loving whom his Self is satisfied. In whom his self finds more pleasure, he is more nearer to him. Rishi Yagyavalkya, the embodiment of knowledge, imparted verily this lesson (Tattwa) to his wife, "O Maitreyi, a father loves his son, not for the satisfaction of his son, but by loving his son, his self is satisfied, therefore he loves him. A wife loves her husband, but for her own felicity, by loving her husband, her Self is satisfied, therefore she loves him. All our affections and attachments — everything is for the satisfaction of one’s ownself, as a matter of fact, everyone is desirous of finding out his real self and true happiness”.

When one discovers the Self he feels — “I exist without duality, there cannot exist anything except me! I am Para-Brahman, ever pure, without attachment and without action, always one and the same! Life and death, disease and old age — these can never touch me! I have no form, no desire and no bondage, no attachment and no sadness, no vikshepa and no avarana! I am Prashanta, Ananta and Chidakasha! I am beyond time and space! I am boundless, Changeless homogeneous One!”

 
Dr. Duessen says —the highest and the purest morality is the immediate consequence of the Vedanta. The gospel fixes quite correctly as the highest law of morality- “Love your neighbour as yourself." But why should I do so since by the order of nature I feel pain and pleasure only in myself and not in rny neighbour? The answer is not in the Bible but it is in the Veda — in the great formula — ‘That thou art’— (tat tvam asi), which gives in three words metaphysics and moral together. "The Vedanta gives profoundly based reasons for charity and brotherliness’’—says Sir Johan Woodroffe.
 

Without realizing the Self one cannot be established in all-pervading Oneness. Unless one attains the realization of all-permeating Self, the idea of duality and desire cannot be extinguished. Only by achieving the Self one can overcome desire and death. The Upanishad says, "Persons of self-restraint, realizing the Para-Brahman in every object, after death attain the immortality, but those who see many-ness (diversity) in this world, they enter the valley of death after leaving the body".

Those who are self-controlled, filled with faith and devotion and engaged in constant meditation can only attain the Self!Those who are not self-restrained continued practce is not possible for them, without long practice concentration cannot be achieved, and without concentration there can be no peace and for the unpeaceful how can there be bliss?!

When the mind, being washed off of all impurities, enter the deep concentration, Jiva (soul) merges in Siva — the all-pervading Supreme Soul and feels himself Eternal, all-pervassive and all-consciousness! He realizes: 

Sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma - All is Brahman!  [Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1]

neha nānāsti kiṅcana - There exists no diversity! [Katha Upanishad 2.1.11]

īśāvāsyam idam sarvaṁ - all that is seen or felt is verily Brahman! [Isa Upanishad 1]

Yoga Vasishta says — “The liberation is not confined in Heaven, earth or in the ethereal space. That is nothing but perfect knowledge, born of pure heart. The non-attachment in all desired objects, brings about the annihilation of Samsakaras and that state is called liberation by the self-enlightened souls. The real nature of Jiva is all-consciousness and deliverance is nothing but that consciousness, born of the current (vritti) of blissful 'I' "

When he is all-consciousness, he seeth Him everywhere and everything in Him! He realizes— “I am Brahma, I am Vishnu, Shiva am I, I am the sky, I am the Sun, I am the Daitya, I am the Devata, all animates and inanimates objects am I! I am the Day and the Night, I am the Earth and all the Oceans am I! I am the Creator, I am the Creation, I am the Gods, I am the Godliness, I am the Devotees and Devotion am I! I am without beginning and without end! I am without attributes, without motion, Nirvikalpa and Niranjan am I! I am the pure, I am the enlightened, without sin am I!  I am all-bliss, I am all-peace, infinity and perfection am I!

Aum Shanti! Shanti!! Shanti!!!