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Articles
Discourse of Sadguru Sri Nannagaru at Sri Nannagaru Ashram
Arunachala, 25th February 2005
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Sankaracharya said, ‘Holy men are angels as well as holy places and holy rivers’. Holy men give peace to the world in the same way that the moon gives coolness at night. A bath in the Ganga is holy; holiness to the Ganga has come from holy men bathing in it. You have no need to worry as Arunachala will slowly reveal Himself. Our ego doesn’t know what is good for us – only God knows because He is all pervasive and witness of all, and He will deepen us slowly. We have to overcome the play of the mind, wondering about realisation.
Arunachala gives us peace and understanding, but to our eyes the Hill appears like just stones and rock. Once you fall under His Grace you can’t come out of it. He will not leave you. He might bring some incidents in your life which you don’t like, but it is for your own good and to improve you, but we get angry and feel like scolding Him.
Since we don’t understand the subject matter we think what is said by Saints is not true and because it is beyond our imagination, we think it’s unreal. Although we exist in God, we think we are different from Him and some even think we exist and He doesn’t. It is the mind that makes us think we and God are different. The mind is the actual punishment. Searching for God is like having a chain on one’s own neck and searching for it everywhere. The Guru has come to tell you to stop searching outside and to show you were it is.
We cannot deepen ourselves by our own effort – His intervention is necessary. But we should not demand or keep wondering when He will intervene. If we do this, then He will not come and we will be left restless.
Birth, death, good, bad, merit, demerit – all these have relevance to the actual Truth and those who come out of all these can have the experience of Truth. Life is a long dream. Rather than treating oneself after being attacked by disease, it’s better to prevent being attacked. Similarly, it is better to observe thoughts before they arise, rather then trying to come out of them after they have arisen. Snakes who roam in the fields don’t come behind us. But, even after the body dies the snake that doesn’t leave us is the mind and it might bite us at anytime. A dead snake is not dangerous but a submissive snake, which may turn at any time, is perilous. It is similar with the mind.
When there is itching we scratch and the desire to gain respect or earn wealth is a kind of itching to the mind. When only the One exists, who is it that expects respect and from whom? Don’t waste time thinking about people’s behaviour, instead learn patience and tolerance. After realising the Truth we will understand that when there was nothing at all, why did we worry through life? All the struggles of this world arise from the feeling of body consciousness. Pride of education, wealth, beauty, self-respect – come out of body consciousness. Without losing body consciousness, even if we lose any of the above, they may return at any time.
When we say so-and-so person said like this, so-and-so person said like that, Bhagavan asked, ‘Who is this so-and-so?’ It’s just the ego. Do you trust the ego or do you trust God? In reality there is no so-and-so, there is no existence for the ego. Is there anything like ego? Don’t follow whatever anyone says – if you do, then if they fall into a ditch you will follow them.
Shakespeare said, ‘Marriages are made in heaven’, and although they are predetermined, the act takes place here. Some people don’t get married and if it stops there, then it’s acceptable. But some unmarried people think, ‘I am greater than married people,’ Bhagavan said, ‘I didn’t think that I shouldn’t marry, it just wasn’t in this body’s destiny!’ To think I should or shouldn’t marry is also a thought. Bala Rama Reddy said to Bhagavan, ‘Though I am not married, I keep getting thoughts related to marriage’. Bhagavan said, ‘Till you lose the body bound ‘I’ idea, you will not lose such thoughts.’
Lord Krishna said, ‘Those who don’t marry, but always think of it are worse than people who marry but don’t give it a thought – such people improve faster. Someone once asked Bhagavan whether it is, ‘Good to marry or remain unmarried?’ He replied, ‘Rather than to be unmarried yet think too much about marriage, it’s better to be married.’
In the palace if asked, ‘Who is unmarried here?’ Lord Krishna would first raise his hand. After lunch if asked, ‘Who is fasting today?’ Krishna would again be the first to raise his arm. This means if the doer is lost and there is no sense of doership, actions don’t affect him. If the one that thinks, ‘I have eaten’, is gone, he is equal to the one who hasn’t eaten. This state is difficult to perceive as it’s beyond mind and intellect.
Work done with doership is bondage but work done without doership releases us from bondage. Lord Krishna asked Yudhistara (Dharma Raj) to lie. When Yudhistara refused, Krishna said, ‘If you believe I am God, you can lie and as it is I who am making you lie, no sin will touch you. I will bear the sin’. Following dharma, Krishna ran away from Jambavantha halfway through battle, because the death of Jambavantha was supposed to be in the hands of Bhima. But we misunderstand and wonder, ‘Being God, why did he run away?’
If we have proper understanding of the subject – wisdom, knowledge and enjoyment shall come to us. We go to a cinema for entertainment but with proper understanding even entertainment will come to us because there is one rupee in a hundred rupees.
When Bhagavan Maharshi was once asked by a lawyer whether he liked money, he replied, ‘I have neither like or dislike.’ If you say you don’t need money, it means you are thinking about it. Feeling dislike or like means that there is attachment. If someone says he doesn’t like power or position it means he has the liking for power – otherwise he wouldn’t even think about it.
Our body dies – we die. Once Bhagavan said, ‘Death is a hundred percent unreal.’ One man said to Bhagavan, ‘Your Grace is not with me’. Bhagavan replied, ‘If my Grace is not with you, how did you come here? Did someone pull you with chains and make you sit here?’ If anyone should tell us, ‘You are enlightened’, even though we may not be enlightened, still we would be happy to hear it, because we are used to being praised. But Bhagavan would to say, ‘If I am enlightened, what benefit do you get out of it? You should learn to live in a way that leads to you becoming enlightened.’
Some would tell Bhagavan, ‘My mind is not peaceful, it is restless’. Bhagavan would reply, ‘So what if your mind is restless? That is not you. Because you think mind is you, you feel restless. Leave the mind alone.’ A man said to Bhagavan, ‘It seems Vivekananda asked Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to show him God.’ Bhagavan replied, ‘Yes, but don’t ask me to show Him to you. Who is it that sees God? The God that is seen is as real as the mind that sees Him.’
Scientists say the earth was formed many billions of years ago and so on, but Bhagavan would ask why use calculations for the unreal? There are so many subjects relating to the body – how the five elements of the body are formed and how after death they merge with the five elements outside. When the body is burnt, air mingles with air, water with water, mud with earth and so on. But when the body is not you, why bother about anything related to it?
A devotee said to Bhagavan, ‘I have learnt devotion from Sivananda Ashram, seva (service) from Ramakrishna Math, and so on.’ The time was 11.30 a.m., and it was lunchtime at Ramana Ashram, so Bhagavan said, ‘You have learnt what you have had to, now what remains is eating, come let’s go and eat.’ Bhagavan is tricky and provocative. If you said, ‘We are united’, he would say, ‘That means you had differences, if not, such exhibitions of unity would not arise’.
If we gain concentration we will not know time or notice the days and nights passing. Bhagavan never differentiated between castes, creed or religion.
Someone asked Bhagavan, ‘If we go round this Mountain, will we gain merit? Bhagavan said, ‘It’s good exercise which will make you feel hungry so you will be able to eat a little more than usual.’ Bhagavan never tried to make people believe or convince them of a particular philosophy’. A man said to Bhagavan, ‘There is no God’. Bhagavan said, ‘He is there. It’s you who is not there.’
The happiness of the Self is endless and fresh each moment. It is a happiness that feels new every second and which never makes you feel you’ve had enough. If you eat a sweet you like in excess, you will get sick and not want more. But happiness of the Self is not like that, it’s always fresh and new – you can never get tired of it.
A man said to Bhagavan, ‘Someone has achieved realisation not after the death of the body, but while alive and now he is preaching.’ Bhagavan replied, ‘What more is needed? Can there by anything nobler?’
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| Translated By: Dr.Usha |
Courtesy: Meenakshi Ammal, Tiruvannamalai |
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