4/3/18
Nirvana Darsana Introduction and verse 1
Nirvana is of two kinds:
the pure and the impure.
That which is the pure is devoid
of vasana;
similarly, that is impure which
is conjoined with vasana.
Nataraja Guru’s translation:
Emancipation
is of two kinds
What
is pure and what is impure.
What
is without incipient memory factors, that is the pure;
Likewise,
what is qualified by incipient memory factors is the impure.
Nitya
starts off the final Darsana with a brief yet most relevant introduction. In it
he sets a tone of the crypt, which is certainly implied in the term nirvana,
yet the first verse commentary returns to the affirmation of being alive.
Narayana Guru himself is evidence of how the dynamism of life is only increased
by the reduction of extraneous interests associated with nirvana.
So
far as death is concerned, Nitya emphasizes its central role in an examined
existence:
In one sense the entire life is a
preparation for the final departure. What there is after one dies is a question
which can perhaps never be adequately answered.
There is nothing in Darsanamala about what might loom on the
far side of death. Even death is presented in terms of how it is addressed in
the present:
In spite of the unpredictability
of death, one can prepare for it so that the journey up to a conscious point of
life’s final termination can be made abundantly satisfying to oneself and
exceedingly beautiful to others.
In America, death is often viewed as the ultimate
degradation, leading us from a meaningful place in society to a meaningless
one. It’s an embarrassment, or worse. To view it as “exceedingly beautiful” is
considered morbid. Because of this, end of life issues are fraught with fear
and anxiety for many people. Part of a proper preparation is to reframe the
subject to bring it to its legitimate place as the culmination of our time on
earth:
Death is death. Even then a
contented elderly person led into silence with an inwardly growing contentment,
finally closing his eyes with a thankful smile after watching with satisfaction
his many dear ones standing around him with inexpressible love and veneration,
is something remarkably beautiful when contrasted with death caused by a road
accident or a suicide committed in desperation. In like manner, a well-conceived
and personally opted for merger into one’s universal ground is different from
dying helplessly, lamenting over the fateful attack of old age and disease. In
the present chapter no mention is made of those who have not made a choice of
their final exit.
Here in the Introduction, Nitya gives us the first
definition of the subject matter: “The burning out of the phenomenal mark of
individuation is termed in this chapter as nirvana.”
This total reduction comes about as a result of a tapering of the psyche
described in the two prior darsanas dealing with bhakti and yoga:
In the two previous chapters the
individual psyche is aligned, or rather realigned, with its cosmic counterpart,
at first through the establishment of a bipolarity which is rich in its
fragrance of love and devotion. That realignment is further homogenized with a
process of contemplative absorption of the individualized personal self in the
totality of the universal Self. Now there is only one more step to go, the
ceasing to be of a name appended to a form marked by a perishable aggregate of
an organism.
Moving
on to the first verse, Nitya equates much of human activity as not much
different from that of a programmed robot. When our programs are complete, we
are “switched off” for a period, before the next program is taken on. Achieving
nirvana is not that kind of turning off, because it opens the psyche to a much
vaster interplay:
There is another kind of
cessation of activity: that is, his return to the source. Thereafter he is not
a device and he has no program to perform. This is the case of the release of
the imprisoned splendor of the Self from the shackles or bondage of a
predetermined role-playing. Such a release is called nirvana.
Right at the outset a distinction is made between pure and
impure release. Allegorically these imply either coming back or not coming back
from a state of absorption. The vasanas that make the release impure call us to
return as more enlightened beings to take care of any unfinished business. If and
when these promptings have been laid to rest, there is no call to any further
activity. Obviously, for those of us who are only moderately dedicated souls,
the impure route is the only option.
Deb
opened with a reiteration of the main point, both here and in most peoples’
minds: the nirvana that has no vasanas is the pure nirvana, while all the old
memories, imaginings, projections, and so on, are what keep us creating the
separation. Without the vasanas, there is no separation. Moni added that when
we have interests of any sort, that is a kind of shading, creating distance
from Brahman. Deb synthesized their two ideas as “distance is the shadow.”
I
argued that the term impure has an
unintended prejudicial taint, since thoughtful people always seek purity and
avoid impurities. It’s practically what thinking is for. But that is not
necessarily the sole criterion here. Vasanas give our lives depth, a richness
we can learn and grow from. We want to live a beautiful, expansive life,
offering our best qualities as a contribution to the well being of the world.
We hope to enjoy life too, to experience it to the maximum. All these most
excellent motives place us solidly in the impure category, but that’s by no
means a bad thing. All the sages throughout history who returned to participate
with the human race in discovering our liberation were impure to some degree as
well. So it’s not as if pure is right and impure is wrong here. Just different.
Deb
countered that the pure nirvana is like the sound of the river underneath our
lives. We can have beautiful loving multifaceted lives but when this river
rises up, the individual life is going to end. In a pure state the undifferentiated
water rises up and we meet it without fear or hesitation.
Moni
had more to add. Humans with the help of knowledge become wise, and with the
aid of yoga they are able to cancel happiness and sorrow. Whatever state they
are experiencing is the absolute happiness we seek. She cited Ramana Maharshi,
who was pure and yet utterly present, as someone who could operate without
vasanas.
Maintaining
my position, I pointed out that the course of the river and its bed are
determined by the vasanas, so without them you have no definition. Then it’s
just water, without any shape. Deb still disagreed—it’s the sound of the water rising up, not the
bed or the banks. The water is always there in our lives, because we are it.
She referred to the sweet summation of yoga in Nitya’s last paragraph: “when
the attainment is without blemish, like pure light, and fully harmonized, as in
a love that transcends duality, it is to be understood as pure.” Of course I
had to agree, but I hope it doesn’t dismay those like me who know themselves to
be far from pure in any sense of the word. Absolute purity has a paradoxical
implication of duality: that there are superior and inferior types of people.
This leads some people to give up ahead of time: I can’t be totally pure, so
I’m not qualified for this wisdom. Yet all are invited to participate in wisdom
apprehension, whatever the degree of their burdens.
Paul
played peacemaker, saying the cessation of attending to incoming stimuli along
with our ability to react to it in the form of vasanas — that’s a wonderful way
to die but an even better way to live. He went on to speak of befriending our
insanities. Being self-critical is a particularly heavy vasana, and if we can
accept our screw ups as being inevitable due to the natural limitations of an
embodied person they will have much less negative impact on us. For that matter,
our criticism of others is the same: we should accept their faults as natural
as well. He talked about how when his dad was getting dementia, some members of
the family couldn’t tolerate it. They got angry or upset and tried to force him
to ignore or deny what he was experiencing. Paul was brave enough to listen to
his father and sympathize with his plight, without mounting any cover up. He
could see that this helped his dad to let go of his anxiety, where the blocking
approach made it worse.
I
noted that we are so afraid of making mistakes that we are prone to getting
angry with ourselves for even slight transgressions. Instead of holding onto
the wrongness of our actions like a misbehaving child, we should see the humor
of our follies and laugh them off, along with a large dose of forgiveness.
Humor demands a more expansive attitude, one that includes a universalized
perspective too.
Paul
wanted to apply that attitude to now. He said if you look at history you can
see that 99% of what we think will be proved wrong, so we might as well not
hold so tightly to it. Maybe we could even enjoy a laugh. It’s just our best
guess of the moment, a small dent in our inevitable ignorance.
The
whole topic reminded Deb of a friend of her friends, who was dying of cancer. As
she got more ill, she because more joyous and her inward-going and outward-going
both expanded. This can happen even if you are not literally dying but simply
accessing a whole new understanding of who you are. It is definitely something
we should plan for at the time of death, however.
Nitya
expands on the initial definition of nirvana with some classic imagery:
Nirvana literally means ‘burning
out’ or ‘extinction’. A candle burns only until there is no more wax left to
continue the process of oxidation. From a burned out candle a new candle will
not emerge. This is not the case when a plant fruits and its characteristics
are posited in a seed. Out of the seed there can again emerge the cyclic life
of a plant. Therefore nirvana is sometimes compared to a roasted seed which no
longer has the potential to sprout.
Those seeds, as you’ll recall, are the very vasanas that get
such a bad name. If we were to rename them ‘genetic propensities’ they wouldn’t
seem so dire. Similarly, maya still gets unfairly downplayed. Both Nitya and
Nataraja Guru cite Professor Betty Heimann, in her Facets of Indian Thought (London: Allen & Unwin, 1963, p. 172)
on maya:
The Sanskritist must at the outset
feel repelled when, for example, the Indian concept of maya is translated as ‘illusion’.
The western mind, according to the present use of ‘illusion’ sees here
something unreal, deceptive and delusive. Yet this is not even the primary meaning
of the Latin word illusio, from the
root luclere, ‘to play’. Illusio originally, though this is now
forgotten, meant ‘interplay’. As such, but only in its original meaning is it a
near equivalent of maya. Maya, the ‘world of the measurables’ (from the root ma, to measure), is a relative
and transitory
display of forms. In this sense it actually corresponds to illusio, interplay in variant shapes and forms, manifestations
of
the underlying substance. Illusio,
thus interpreted according to its original meaning, truly is analogous to the Sanskrit
term lila, ‘play and display’ of the
creative urge for world-formation and elusive world-manifestation, as taught in
Indian cosmogony. (ISOA, I.435-6)
We impure beings are the ones who continue the play of life,
which is the purpose of having a universe in the first place. So please don’t
feel ashamed: let your light shine forth! Just know that letting go of your
shades and blinds allows it to shine even brighter. Nitya gets to this
immediately after the dire sounding definition:
However, this final cessation
does not spell the exit into nothingness. As the glory and grandeur of nirvana
is inestimable, a number of analogies are given to describe that state. Lord
Buddha compares it to the merging of a dewdrop into the infinitude of the
ocean. Jesus Christ compares it to the return of a prodigal son to acknowledge
the profound love and compassion of an all-knowing Father. The source or ground
of manifestation is also differently described as truth, knowledge, and the
blissful delight of pure love, which is the solvent of all dualities.
Nataraja Guru has a remarkably poetic image describing this
in one of the excerpts I have appended in Part II, from the Integrated Science.
Here’s the part that fits with the above images:
Like moonlight spread equally on
the huts of a quiet and peaceful seaside village, it is the feeling and activity
involved in the uniform spreading of sympathy to all life that is the essential
element here.
Nitya well knew his disciples were the impure sort. I’m sure
you all know his letter to Ananda Evans, where he likened us to pigs who loved
to frolic in the mud. He even admitted to being better suited to animal
husbandry than cultural elitism:
If the muddy waters which I turn
to my pigs who drink with relish is also to be given to noble men and ladies
who would appreciate pure and distilled water, I need someone who can filter
and remove the dirt from what I cater to people. I wouldn’t stop anyone from
doing that. I am not good at it.
In case you don’t have it on your fridge, the full letter
resides on Nitya’s website, here: http://aranya.me/uploads/3/4/8/6/34868315/letter_to_ananda.pdf.
Nitya
goes on to show the degrees of absorption at least begin with a sense of
satisfaction, before that is also discarded in favor of perfect attunement:
The first and immediate
experiential recognition of the release comes from the awareness of a total
satisfaction or fulfillment. This ecstatic state of beatitude is called nirvritti, boundlessness. From there on
there is no role to play, no program to be fulfilled, no mount to be ascended.
The search has culminated in the profound beauty and joy of envisioning. Coming
to such a state, where only peace prevails, is called nirvritti. There is no stir in consciousness. This non-modulated
aspect where the yoga spoken of in the previous darsana becomes a reality, is
described as nivritti. There is no
well-being higher than this to achieve.
Of course the full darsana is going to present the whole
range of nirvana, from impure to squeaky-clean pure. The last is guaranteed by
death, when we will have to let go of absolutely everything. In the meantime we
can selectively dispense with our attachments, starting with our worst
qualities. It is truly amazing how tightly humans want to cling to the very
features that are most binding. By now we are supposed to have come to terms
with this innate fault of our species. The heavy lifting was done in the first
nine darsanas, and now is the time to simply let go. As we do we will expand
logarithmically.
Nitya
sums up with a nod toward perfection, hinting at the total surrender that we
can practice ahead of time, or else let death do it for us:
In reality the individual does
not exist. Only the Absolute is. For this reason, the state of the liberated is
indicated as brahma bhuyam, identity
with the Absolute. In such a state the liberated can be described only as ‘is’
or ‘be’. This aloneness is called kaivalya.
If we have practiced in advance, the final release is bound
to be much easier to bear. Desperately trying to hold on as our identity is
stripped away is a most painful condition. One way or another we will return to
an unconditioned state.
I
often think of another friend’s grandmother, in a tale I have told before. She
was a classic Texas fundamentalist Christian, hard-bitten and self-righteous,
certain her whole life that she was going to heaven and pretty much everyone
else was going to hell. Yet when she found out she only had a few weeks to live
all her false beliefs abandoned her, and she ended her life miserable and
terrified. It’s a good reminder not to lay up our treasures where moth and rust
doth corrupt (Matt. 6), and our simplistic beliefs about things like heaven
must be included. We need to let go of all such divisive ideas. And yes, we are
all still full of them.
Bill
related about his lifelong intimate friend, who is coming to the end of a long
struggle with cancer. He has clearly made a conscious choice about his passing.
He has a date this next Saturday for Oregon’s Death with Dignity medicine, with
many dear friends in attendance, and he hosted his own wake last weekend with a
big party. Nitya’s words about death are perfectly in tune with his feelings.
He has been letting go of all he holds dear, and this had led to a progression
of really deep insights for him. He feels the profound love that comes from
letting go and being absorbed. Bill knows that this deep yogic experience of
union was something we should enjoy in life too. Let’s not wait for the last
moment to tune in!
Deb
mentioned our preparation for death means living our deepest truth every day
when we’re alive, of identifying with what is expansive and true.
Nitya
notes another important distinction to help us discriminate what truly matters:
Only in a state of becoming are
there beginnings and ends, births and deaths. Where eternity prevails, death is
not relevant. That is why nirvana is equated with amrita, immortality. Such a state of perfection is
glorified as purnam.
That purnam, perfection,
is the basis of the chant we do at the end of every class, meaning the plenum
or totality that is the Absolute. The chant states that both this and that are
the Absolute, and even if we remove a huge bundle from it, it is not
diminished. Moreover, if we add a huge package to it, it is not increased.
Nitya’s
conclusion admits us into the final stage even as impure piggies, so long as we
are willing to face the openness that does not take our individuality into
account. We are in good hands with these gurus, beckoning us to a
state/non-state that is nonetheless our true nature:
Even in this final stage there
can be traces of previous conditioning. If any such vestige lingers on
unresolved, the release should be looked upon as impure. On the other hand,
when the attainment is without blemish, like pure light, and fully harmonized,
as in a love that transcends duality, it is to be understood as pure. There are
grades of purity, and they are going to be elucidated in the following verse.
In a way the Nirvana Darsana is the simplest of all the
visions. There isn’t going to be much to say. Because of this I will bring in
some supporting material that has presented itself along the way, mainly from
the reediting of the Integrated Science of the Absolute. These gems will most
often be found in Part II, as they are today.
Susan
has been reviewing That Alone lately, and read out the last paragraph from the
original verse 4. I’ve included more of it in Part II, but this is what she
read. It’s a perfect encompassing of the meaning the class derived from our
first incursion into nirvana d:
At the end of the verse Guru makes this emphasis: this
moving from your small love and small interest into the primeval love and
primeval interest should be such that finally you become that. You should be
able to say “I am that I am,” or tat tvam asi, That thou art. Ayam
atma brahman, this shining consciousness within me is the Absolute. Prajnanam
brahman, all that is visible, all that I perceive here, is the Divine. You
should be filled with that one overwhelming thrill of life, continuously, so
that we all live in the intoxication of that one love. This is for today’s
meditation. Expand your love. Include everyone. Do not push anyone outside. It
takes time but it will work.
Part II
Swami
Vidyananda’s commentary. Mine below it presents a contrasting interpretation:
The topic of this chapter is concerned with the ultimate
purpose and value which has been reviewed in all the nine previous chapters.
For this reason, this vision of nirvana is
of greater importance than any of the previous visions. It is with this vision
that this work comes to an end.
Nirvana
refers to the highest point that is attainable by man. In other words, it
represents the perfection of life. Although the term is used more properly in
the context of Jain and Buddhist thought, those who adhere to the thought of
non-dual Vedànta can also use this term as having the same connotation. The
following terms are synonyms for nirvana:
nirvriti, escape or absolution; nirvritti, release, absence of
functioning; nivritti, withdrawal; paramagati, ultimate goal; paramapadam, ultimate state; moksha,
liberation; kaivalya, aloneness; mukti, salvation;
amritam, immortality; apavargam, salvation; nissreyas, ultimate state; sreyas, spiritual progress;
÷ànti, peace; brahmabhåyam, attaining the Absolute; brahmatvam, absoluteness; brahmasàyujyam,
union with the Absolute; brahmasamsparsham,
absorption in the Absolute; paripurnatà,
plenitude.
The
nirvana usually described under the
term jivanmukti (release while yet in
life), refers to the same state. That is to say, when a man has, by means of
Self-contemplation, attained
(absolute) wisdom, and after attaining the practice of yoga etc. and
while still in life is able to be free from all sufferings, what refers to this
ultimate goal of a spiritual aspirant is called nirvana.
Although nirvana refers to one
and the same
subject, as depending on the maturity of certain types of spiritual aspirants
qualified for it, and the conditions applying to them, it has here been divided
into many divisions, according to the types of expression proper to each.
Initially in this verse it has been divided into two (divisions) called the
pure and the impure. What is “free from incipient memory factors” is the pure
and what is “qualified by incipient memory factors” is the impure.
* *
*
My synopsis for the 2013 Kochi conference:
The
final darsana marks the progressive extinction of consciousness in the total
fullness or total emptiness of the Absolute. As consciousness enters in the
first darsana, it exits in the last. Life is not a linear progression to its
terminus, but every bit of the journey—every flower of the garland— is
important. The goal, so to speak, is to be fully present now, rather than
deferring our experience until later.
Nirvana
is often taken to be the goal of realization, but not here. Each darsana is
valuable in its own right. Ends and means are converged. Every effect is also a
cause. If we transpose our happiness to a future state like heaven or worldly
success, we will basically miss out on our life, which, no matter what the
claims, might be our only moment in the sun.
Much
of the popular version of spirituality is about escape, seeking absence. There
is a powerful attraction to getting away from our problems, whatever they may
be, and for injured or abused people it may seem the only option.
Because
of the stresses that beset us, we have to first distance ourselves from them in
order to gather ourselves back together. If our difficulties are grave enough
we begin to imagine that if we didn’t exist, life would be much more pleasant.
In any case, we have to find peace first of all. The hermit fantasy is a
familiar aspect of insular spirituality, of an unwillingness to cope with the
present. In rare cases escape by itself could produce a full cure, but not very
often. Most of us learn much more from meaningful interactions with others,
once we begin to properly know ourselves. That’s what Narayana Guru keeps
underlining: the greatest “escape” is to be here now, to find truth within
existence.
There
is a huge industry built around relieving suffering, or promising to. Come
away, give up your daily chores, cut yourself away from society. It’s very
appealing. But Nitya and his forebears, including Krishna of the Gita, were
also teaching presence, in addition
to absence. It may be that presence grows out of absence. We retire to develop
wisdom so we can be more available, more present. We still strive for absence
from our faults and intractable problems, but not from our value to our
surroundings. For those who have recovered themselves, the practice is to
become more in tune with the world and improve our capabilities to interact
with it. Opting out is tragic. It is the child’s immediate response to a hurt
ego. When a child’s ego recovers from an insult, they eagerly get back in the
game. But if it is battered long enough, the child’s spirit is defeated, and
they only seek surcease of sorrow. They may even commit suicide to escape the
pain. Or they continue to live, but with an unbridgeable abyss between life and
self.
Narayana
Guru’s teachings direct us to restore the connection: to develop presence,
heightened involvement, in whatever we do. We don’t have to follow a formula or
change our lifestyle, but only engage in what we do as completely as possible.
We aim to be as alive as we can, if only at odd moments, when our focused
attention is brought to bear.
Perhaps
the greatest appeal of Narayana Guru’s philosophy is that it is totally down to
earth. There is no separation between the exalted state and us: there is no
special place to go or thing to do. We live realization right where we are, in
our daily activity. He assures us we are already realized. So many great
teachers have an other-worldly air. He does too, and yet it's combined with a
fiery intensity that pressures us to wake up and live, exactly where we stand.
It’s a philosophy that can have a fantastic impact on our life if we have ears
to hear with.
* *
*
Excerpts from ISOA, Volume II. If you read only one, read
the last:
On careful scrutiny we are able to recognize that Narayana
Guru has not discarded any of the valuable elements or methodological features
of the six darsanas which have been inherited by brahma-vidya. [i.e. Nyaya-Vaiseshika, Samkhya-Yoga, Purva and
Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanta)] As a composer in a handset printing press
redistributes the types in the cases in a methodical fashion, Narayana Guru
employs a unitive methodology, epistemology and axiology respecting an overall
structure at each stage, integrating the whole series of visions. He presents
the same picture in a more orderly form, relegating to each technical term its
proper place each in its own legitimate context. As we travel from the known to
the unknown it is possible to think of six, ten or any other number of halting
places from which to take snapshots at a moving target, as Bergson understands
this possibility. One has to mentally immobilize oneself for a split second at
least before taking a well- calculated shot. Each shot then results in a darsana,
which each philosopher is free to take as long as he is careful in defining his
own terms. In presenting ten darsanas instead of six, Narayana Guru is not violating
any principle of methodology or epistemology. (74-5)
The final synthesis of brahmavidya
as a complete Science of the Absolute… is perhaps best represented by the
philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita. (76)
Philosophy must be primarily concerned with life’s problems and
not with things of mere sense data. This position is quite correct to take although
much misunderstood. The systematic doubting of Descartes is similarly concerned
with solving problems and reaching certitude where graded doubts prevail about
generally significant abstract ideas. (81)
Nature (prakriti) represents the centrifugal, while pradhana (prime potent power)
represents
the centripetal. There is also a subtle form of reciprocity between nature (prakriti)
and spirit (purusha), which are complementary and fully cancellable. (95)
According to our schematic language, purusha represents the whole of the vertical
axis as a pure, actionless,
neutral reference. On the other hand, prakriti
represents the whole of the horizontal axis. The ‘evolution’ of purusha, if any, belongs to the Bergsonian
context of creative evolution, while the ‘evolution’ of prakriti might perhaps be considered Darwinian
or even better still
keeping in line with a theory of transformation. (99)
As we have often pointed out, the globe is left untouched by
the lines of latitude and longitude marked on it. Schematic analysis therefore
should never be mixed up with the reality of the Absolute. This ultimate Reality
results when the final philosophical paradox is resolved. (126)
Absolutist mysticism cannot draw a line between human happiness
and the happiness belonging naturally to the rest of life. The negative notion
of non-killing is balanced with a positive notion of love of all life. Like
moonlight spread equally on the huts of a quiet and peaceful seaside village,
it is the feeling and activity involved in the uniform spreading of sympathy to
all life that is the essential element here. Understood under the aegis of the Absolute
and under the guiding watchwords of santi
and ahimsa, mystical activity and
expression take the form of an absolutely open or generous outlook for which
intellectual awareness or reason or attitudes of behaviour are but natural
corollaries. (207)
* *
*
Here’s
the longer ending to the original verse 4 of That Alone. If you don’t have the
original 1-8, let me know and I’ll send them to you. This is totally different
than what went into the book:
When
all these frontiers are gone, you come to possess the frontierless love. Each
day you should be able to break one frontier, one separation. Tagore prays,
“Where the head is held high and the world is not broken into fragments of
narrow domestic walls, lead me into that world.” That’s the world we look for.
Some people say a good wall makes a good neighbor, but Robert Frost laughs at
it. He says neither walling in nor walling out works.
That
supreme Light that shines without any frontiers, like the sun that shines
above, caresses the sinner and the saint alike. It falls on the beautiful and
the ugly in equal measure. In our meditation for the day we should look for the
frontiers in our mind, for all the narrow domestic walls in it. We should break
them down and even go beyond that. Walls are built out of fear. The more you
are afraid the more vulnerable you become, and then you want to become invulnerable.
So you make fortresses and mount machine guns on the walls, and inside you are
busy building atomic bombs. We have to disarm ourselves. We have to disarm
others also. A smile can disarm a person, a disarming smile. What pleases me
most in the United States is when you go for a walk, an utter stranger who
passes you will look at you and say “Hi! Have a good day.” In many countries
people go stiff and won’t look at each other. It is a beautiful thing to look
at another person and say how beautiful is the day, have a good day. But we
shouldn’t stop there.
At
the end of the verse Guru makes this emphasis: this moving from your small love
and small interest into the primeval love and primeval interest should be such
that finally you become that. You should be able to say “I am that I am,” or tat tvam asi, That thou art.
Ayam atma brahman, this shining
consciousness within me is the Absolute. Prajnanam
brahman, all that is visible, all that I perceive here, is the Divine. You
should be filled with that one overwhelming thrill of life, continuously, so
that we all live in the intoxication of that one love. This is for today’s
meditation. Expand your love. Include everyone. Do not push anyone outside. It
takes time but it will work.
Part III
More on the roasted seed, from Nataraja Guru (ISOA Vol. II):
Here we have to explain a favourite Vedantic analogy of the
burnt seed which cannot sprout again. The seed is not totally destroyed and its
potency is only abolished to the extent of eliminating the possibility of
sprouting again. In other words, pure vitalistic tendencies which do not imply
the accompaniment of their horizontal counterparts are alone meant to not be
abolished by the burnt state of the seed. In the various lower types of
spirituality this seed remains with different degrees of fecundity depending on
the possibility of horizontal tendencies asserting themselves again when the
seed is only partially burnt. When such a possibility is abolished by more
positive verticalization, the status of a burnt seed intended by the analogy is
attained. (450)