Question 126: How does one stop the outward going consciousness?

ghatWhen we look at a very young child, wandering (crawling) about its place, it reaches out to take whatever it sees (and usually puts it in the mouth). We are seeing – metaphorically – our own self and our own minds in action: it is outward-going in nature, and the young Rama asks the sage, “How does one stop this?”.


Glossary:

chitta: individual consciousness

jiva: individual soul embodied as a person. Soul with a body.

sattva Hin. m. sattva San. n. sattvoguna (sattva+guna) San. m. one of the three constituents (guna) of nature (prakriti) – the quality of light, the illuminating aspect that reveals all manifestation. It is expressed as harmony, equilibrium, purity, goodness, virtue, honesty, nobility, forgiveness, compassion, charity, wisdom, happiness.

sattvic Hin. sattvika San. adj. endowed with the quality of sattva – pure, good, virtuous, serene and contented.

rajas, rajoguna San. m. the activating quality (guna) of nature that allows the other two constituents to manifest themselves, and therefore this quality is associated with the creator, Brahma. It covers desire and ambition, attachment, passion, righteous indignation, pride, anger and envy.

tamas, tamoguna Hin., San. m. the quality of darkness, gloom and inertia – sleep, passivity, idleness, dullness, stubbornness, confusion, delusion, lack of discrimination, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong or falsehood and truth, having little interest or ambition; lust, fear, greed. Tamas is born of ignorance, yet darkness is not necessarily ignorance – it may yet be the darkness that exposes the light.

Tamasha fun, play, playfulness (not related to above)

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Question 126: Sir, what is the relationship between jiva and physical body? How does one bear the consequences of good and evil actions?

Answer: Ramji, physical body is inert like wood or stone. Just as numerous objects are created in a dream owing to the ideation in consciousness, so the body is imagined by that same consciousness. It is because of its association with ideation that the consciousness attains to the state of a jiva, an embodied individual. The entire universe is a creation of the ideation in the consciousness. Due to its ideation, the consciousness assumes many names and forms. Ego, mind and jiva are the names for the individual consciousness. It is the consciousness, and not the body, that experiences joy and sorrow because of its (the consciousness) being oblivious of Atma. Ignorance (lack of wisdom) is the cause of all such experiences, and when knowledge (wisdom) is attained, the delusion of the universe vanishes and the Absolute Brahman is realised. All sufferings arise owing to ignorance. Due to ignorance, a individual embodied with the Atma assumes ego in a body of five elements, and then he experiences joy and sorrow according to his good or bad deeds (karma).


 

  1. Thai! Thai! Thai! Thai! Thai! Dummy
    see the Tamasha play of this puppet doll.
    O Jiva, listen to the long, long tale
    of its past, its future, behind and front!
  2. It rolled at first in mushy mire
    of mother’s womb, its prison dark.
    It came with a whimper, but all around
    they smiled in joy and feasts galore.
  3. ‘O tragedy! I am born again’,
    it knew and wept, both loud and long.
    But all the while, they caressed it
    and laughed to raise a laugh!
  4. In its own dirt it wallowed day,
    without a sense of shame;
    it rose and fell, at every step,
    acting daily a childish play.
  5. It runs and skips with gangs of chums
    and learns a hundred tricks and trades;
    it grows so tall and thick and broad;
    from year to year, very fast and fair.
  6. It moves in pairs, and bills and coos
    in rosy rainbow style;
    it sings in tunes unheard before,
    and quaffs the cup, unique and strange.
  7. ‘Tis Brahma who makes these dolls in pairs
    and dolls and dolls in millions,
    but this our puppet does not know
    when it plays with dollies: Thim! Thim! Thim!
  8. This Maya doll like the holly bull
    has the Thamas rope in nostril hole;
    lust and anger are the scorpion whips
    which whack the back of the slave.
  9. It gloats with glee, when others stop
    before it shuddering low;
    it doles them pain; but cannot bear
    a microscopic share!
  10. It swears and shouts and waves its arms
    and frets and fumes with blood-red eyes;
    it is indeed a wondrous sight –
    possessed by devil ire!
  11. It scans and spells, it scribbles and swots,
    it does not know the reason why,
    it runs in panic trying to glean
    fodder for belly, willy or nilly.
  12. Ah, did you see this queer little dummy,
    with so many books in its tummy,
    turning and twisting in jealousy green
    when a learned doll encounters it?
  13. And, you should hear its secret cluck
    when a shameful sensual urge,
    a wicked lurking greed
    is satisfied in sin!
  14. It proudly pats; what? its own back!
    For beauty, brawn, vitality.
    While all the time and step by step
    it moves towards senility.
  15. It totters and blinks through wrinkles and folds;
    and when the children cry,
    ‘old ape’, ‘old ape’
    it gapes and grins a toothless grin –
    its bones do clatter so!
  16. Unto the last, it is lost in fear,
    wear and tear and many a tearsome fray!
    Of what avail, O dummy doll, your gasp and groan,
    your needs must meet the doom.
  17. Aha! The bird! It shakes its wings!
    It files out, brrrr, from out the cage of skin.
    Empty, it tightens; vacant, it straightens;
    o, drag it out of sight; it bloats and stinks.
  18. The elements join their parents five;
    the doll’s desires are dust and ash;
    why weep, you fools, when one of you
    falls on the crowded stage?
  19. Uncles, cousins, aunts and friends
    march in gloom until door of room!
    The Maya doll, alas, forgot its kin,
    the divine name, redeemer true!
  20. O Jiva, do not lean upon this slender reed;
    just a sneeze! This frail skin boat
    endowed with thrice three leaks
    will plunge you, middle stream!
  21. This puppet weeps, it sleeps and wakes,
    When the string is pulled by unseen hand
    The Lord it is, who stands behind,
    But the dummy swears, it is I, I, I.
  22. Dharma, Karma are the hardy strings
    He tightens or He loosens.
    Unaware, the puppet swaggers
    criss-cross, on the planks.
  23. It takes the world as stable –
    this silly strutting dummy!
    A twinkle! He winds up the show!
    Exit the pomp and pride!
  24. O Jiva, you have waded
    through ant and snake and bird;
    seek and find without delay,
    the road to lasting bliss!
  25. Bless your luck! You now can see
    Sai Krishna, He has come!
    Be kin with him and you will know
    your what and why and how.
  26. A million words so clever and nice,
    can they appease your hunger’s maw?
    Light the lamp of the soul instead,
    and, freed from bondage, run out and play.
  27. This song that tells of dummy doll
    makes Jiva sad and wise! I know;
    but, Jiva! See the Leela grand of Sathya Sai Nath
    and – Know Thyself!
Question 127: Sir, you said that all joys and sorrows exist in the mind, and one becomes free from all these when the mind is annihilated. Kindly explain how the ideation in the mind is stopped?

Answer: Ramji, now listen intently about the methodology for the annihilation of the mind. With its practice, you will be able to control your mind. All individuals are the creations of the mind and these creations are of three kinds:

  1. sattvic
  2. rajasic
  3. tamasic

When the primeval ideation arising in the pure consciousness is extrovert, it is called mind — also called Brahma. As is the ideation of Brahma (the primeval ideation), so are the objects manifested. When the ideation of Brahma is directed inwards, the universe created by the extrovert ideation is dissolved. Thus Brahma creates and dissolves many creations. Ramji, direct your ideation inwards or towards pure Atma, and you will attain to the pure state. This way the seven states of wisdom, like those of the moon, will be gradually illumined in your consciousness.

 

ghat

  • Unto the last, it is lost in fear,
    wear and tear and many a tearsome fray!
    Of what avail, O dummy doll, your gasp and groan,
    your needs must meet the doom.
  • Aha! The bird! It shakes its wings!
    It files out, brrrr, from out the cage of skin.
    Empty, it tightens; vacant, it straightens;
    o, drag it out of sight; it bloats and stinks.
  • The elements join their parents five;
    the doll’s desires are dust and ash;
    why weep, you fools, when one of you
    falls on the crowded stage?

 

Hamsa Gayatri
Om Hamsaaya Vidmahe
Paramahamsaya Dheemahi
Tanno Hamsa Prachodayat

“May we realise Hamsa that is our own Self as the Swan. Let us meditate on that Paramahamsa, the Supreme Self. May Hamsa illumine us.”