Aug 18, 2009, 12.00am IST
The all-pervading reality that is the centre of your being is experienced as pure bliss. This experience is non-dual, for no second factor exists. If Brahmn is bliss and Brahmn alone exists; nothing else exists.
If only bliss exists, there can be no sorrow. Then why is it that psychiatrists thrive? Why do people commit suicide? Why do we need to send letters of condolence? Where does sorrow come from when Brahmn, as Bliss, is all-pervasive? Should not everything be filled with the light of wisdom, instead of the gloom of ignorance? We speak of the guru as one who removes darkness. Where is darkness when everything is filled with light that comes from within you?
May be this is something non-dualists say. But most Christians, Muslims, Jews and many Hindus are not advaitavadis, yet they do believe in a universal God. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.” “The Light of Allah shines in man.” So even from a dualistic point of view, when the presence of God is within, and He is bliss, how can one have sorrow?
It’s a paradox. Perhaps we are not perturbed by the contradiction because we don’t think about it. We are too busy satisfying our senses, fulfilling our desires, seeking sensations, getting enmeshed in names and forms and their changeful play. To resolve this paradox, there must be clarity within.
Several planes of consciousness coexist. We need concern ourselves with only two of them. When you are present-minded, then you are conscious that “I am in Uttarakhand, in Muni-ki-reti, on the banks of the Ganga, in Sivananda Ashram, in the Samadhi Hall, early morning, in the spiritual presence of Gurudev.” But if you imagine that you are in America or Canada, then at the same time you are not here. On the mental plane if you have switched channels, then you are only perceiving and experiencing whatever is there, and other channels do not exist. If you have switched to an imagination channel, then your body is sitting here, but you are not here. So it is even possible for layers of consciousness to coexist simultaneously in one and the same time-space frame, in this mental consciousness, which is active in the waking state.
Also present here, now, is your true consciousness, your true plane. You are pure, intelligence itself, taintless, bereft of this samsara. Cast off the sleep of delusion. You are beyond this perceived play, this perceived drishya or appearance, this jagat jal or world illusion of name and form. You are beyond this samsara-maya in your other plane of consciousness, the plane of your nija svarupa, your eternal, real identity.
So, seemingly there is a contradiction, but there is no contradiction. Because the bliss of Brahmn is never experienced. That plane is never active. But a strange delusion is there, a hallucination, thinking: “Oh, yes, I know, I am Brahmn beyond maya.” Being in maya, one says: “I am Brahmn beyond maya.”
We sometimes imagine we are in spiritual consciousness, whereas this is only an idea in the mind. It is not the true spiritual plane of consciousness. Out of 1,00,000 sadhakas, 99,999 are living a spiritual life outwardly, but, in fact, their entire life is lived only upon the mental plane, only upon the psychological plane of consciousness. Very rarely does one rise above the psychological plane of consciousness, because to do so requires immense, intense alertness. And this can only come with hard spiritual practice.
Discourse: Swami Chidananda
Swami Chidananda was the first president of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh. August 18 is his punya tithi.
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