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Articles
Discourse of Sadguru Sri Nannagaru at Sri Nannagaru Ashram
Arunachala, 26th February 2005
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There is a verse from Bhagavan’s Upadesa Saram. ‘Avyaya, Abhava, Purna, Cit Sukam’ – ‘Happiness of the Self once achieved does not recede’.
‘Avyaya’ – means that which does not recede. Rivers might dry during summer, a millionaire may lose his money by spending and enjoying, but supreme happiness of the Self increases as it is experienced. Every human being knows born happiness, but doesn’t know unborn happiness. If we experience unborn happiness then it is enlightenment.
‘Abhava’ – means unborn happiness. It has no relation to caste, creed or religion. The body is born but the Self is unborn. Now, we only know the pleasures of born things, but unborn happiness, that which is ever persistent, is the Atman or Self. Forget about experiencing it twenty-four hours of a day. Have you experienced it at least for a few minutes during your life? Put aside; scholarship, wealth, respect, glorifying, lands and properties – have you experienced unborn happiness, unrelated to body and mind, at least for a few seconds?
If there is a tasty eatable, you eat it but if eaten in excess one might fear indigestion. We take pleasure in watching a film but after it’s over, our pleasure is gone. Every pleasure we experience has deficiency as well as dependency. Vivekananda’s family was happy as long as his father (who was a Pleader) was alive, but after the death of the father, the family was reduced to living in poverty. Complete happiness is that which does not depend on a specific place or person. How long does happiness that comes from support last? It vanishes when the support is lost. Even if the support lasts our bodies don’t. Complete means independent, devoid of insufficiency. One rupee has a 100 paisa. If you have 99 paisa you are devoid of one paisa. But complete happiness is not devoid of even minute happiness – it’s 100% perfect happiness.
An English writer once said about Bhagavan, ‘His detachment is as complete as it is perfect’. Chit means chaitanya or enlightenment or realisation (jnana). Sat is chit, chit is ananda. Sat-Chit-Ananda. The experience of a thing not related to nature and present at all times and in all states, is jnana and that is true happiness. Ananda is not character, because then it would be liable to change, but swarupa or Self doesn’t change. One should approach Arunachala to attain this.
Everyone wants happiness. We try and acquire; education, money, all comforts – to get happiness. If we have a stick in our hand a dog will fear us. Similarly, when a person has power or status, others will be afraid. But power, money and comforts are all nature-related and have a beginning and an end. If a person has 5000 crores (one crore equals ten million), one might wonder how he could ever lose so much money. But one habit is enough to make him lose everything. Nothing except the happiness which comes from Brahman lasts forever. Everything else will vanish with time. Avyaya, Abhava, Purana, Cit Sukam. Do you have it in your experience? If you have it, you are living, if not, your life is zero.
Even though a person may have great wealth and delicious foods, still he will die. People say of this, ‘God has taken them away’. Having great wealth and enjoyable food isn’t going to stop anybody from dying. If you construct a house worth ten crores, you will not be kept inside the house after your death. What is sat is chit, what is chit is ananda, that alone is ananda. Every luxury will turn into disease. It is said in the sastras, that people have different types of disease and ill health. The luxuries they have enjoyed in their previous births have become their disease now – disease comes from luxuries.
Mind is in a very subtle form during sleep. Sleep is 100% untrue. The waking, sleep and dream states are all unreal and untrue. If we don’t sleep for some time, we die. God has made the sleep state for the body and mind to rest during the period. There is a small nadi or opening (which is extremely subtle) in the spiritual heart, which remains closed in ajnana or ignorance. Our japa (chanting), dhyana (meditation), puja (worship) and sadhana (spiritual practice) are to apply pressure on this nadi. When, by sincere effort and Grace, this opens, like water coming out of a tap, bliss and happiness will gush into the brain and submerge it. Whatever we see, we do so without the brain. The brain is the seat for the mind. When the mind dies and happiness arises, this submerges the brain and the difference between the mind and the spiritual heart is lost and they become one.
The ignorant one resides in the mind, the realised in the spiritual heart. For the enlightened the heart and mind are one. He exists everywhere, because he is the one in everyone and everything. So, wherever or whomever he sees, he sees himself. We see forms and character but the jnani, although he sees too, is not affected because he knows it is not true.
The spiritual heart doesn’t open with our efforts – it only opens with divine intervention. The seat for the Self is the spiritual heart and the seat for the mind is the brain. That’s why if we sleep whilst sitting our head falls to one side. The one that exists is always there – everything else is a creation of the mind. Unless one comes into direct experience of the happiness in the spiritual heart, the mind doesn’t get destroyed. The nadi (opening) is called amrutha nadi and we don’t get true happiness unless it opens. A number of lives, our effort and his Grace will reveal it.
The one that resides in our heart is God (Purushatham). He is a witness for everything. If you gamble, he doesn’t encourage you nor stop you from doing it. Some people read the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures and some gamble or drink wine. A light gives illumination to all. Similarly, God sees everything. Each person’s behaviour depends on their individual tendencies. If a drunkard makes friends with a holy man, he will lose his habit of drinking but if the habit is engrained in him (as a deep tendency) it will not leave him.
If we make friendship with the good we develop goodness. Similarly, we become bad from the company of bad ones. This is all nature. And we, as witness, watch all this. You share your love amongst many things. For instance you share 10% love with your wife/husband, 10% with your children, 10% with society and 10% directed towards your work or career. If you want God’s true Grace on you, your entire 100% love should be directed to realise the Truth. What you want to attain, you can’t attain without his Grace. Without divine intervention, one cannot attain Divinity. But when it reveals itself it happens in a fraction of a second, and once it reveals, immediately the difference between heart and mind is lost.
People like Shakespeare had glimpses of Truth. They knew that Truth was within but it hadn’t come into their direct experience. Those who are totally body bound think life ends with the death of the body. But those who have glimpses of Truth will know that even after death, life will continue. (Though we don’t touch fire, when we got near it we feel the heat).
To get eligibility for Truth we must first develop the quality of sattva guna. Only when we become eligible, will we become fit for truth-realisation. Analysis is also necessary and helpful, as it gives sharpness and lucidity to the mind. Everything except truth-realisation is as dust. Yoga is to teach discipline to the mind. Enquiry is to make the mind subtle and logic is to make the mind sharp. Since we don’t understand what God spoke, we think, what he said is untrue. If we think, ‘I am different, they are different’, then jealousy and fear arises – all arises from this duality. A jnani doesn’t have duality and doesn’t see anything different from him.
That mind that catches the spirit will subside, and then the spirit will reveal itself. We do not know what thought we will have even in the next half-an-hour, but God knows everything. Jesus had twelve disciples. One of them had a desire for money. He said, ‘Jesus is the son of God. Within three days for the sake of thirty rupees, you will hand me over to my enemies.’ Jesus was crucified and died. We cannot bear even the pain of an ant bite for a moment. Jesus said, ‘Oh, Lord! Oh, Father! Why have you forsaken me?’ Immediately he felt what he said was wrong. Then he said, ‘I and my father are one’, and at that moment he attained complete oneness with the Lord.
No jnani loves humanity out of compulsion. He loves because he cannot be without loving. He loves all. Love is his nature. He is the one residing in all hearts. Vivekananda liked Seshi. So before leaving his body, he said, ‘Seshi, I am leaving this body in the same way we leave our spit’. (After spitting, we neither look at it nor think about it). Vivekananda’s voice was heard by Seshi hundreds of kilometres away, so immediately he started off so he could be with Vivekananda before he left his body.
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| Translated By: Dr.Usha |
Courtesy: Meenakshi Ammal, Tiruvannamalai |
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