Thought for the Day:
"" Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati
The True Being of the Guru Speech by H.D. Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati
"Brahmanandam parama-sukhadam kevalam jnana-murtim..."
With this mantra, our intelligence stays in the wondrous Kingdom of the Divine, in the realm of unlimited Consciousness which is absolute, all-perfect, eternal. In this world our intelligence stays while we repeat the mantra on the Guru who lives in the truly transcendental regions. Guru or the spiritual teacher is not a physical form, even if he lives for some period of time in a physical body, that is passing. He is not a body. It is great ignorance to make remarks on the Guru's countenance or outer appearance, "Ah the Guru is beautiful, is rich, has a wonderful nose" - this or that. All this is great ignorance, and you have nothing to do with that. There are beautiful people and ugly people, young people, old people, this and that. You have nothing to do with the outer human form which is passing, fugitive, evanescent, a victim, today healthy, tomorrow sick, today two-legged and tomorrow there is but one leg in consequence of an accident, or one eye instead of two.
This outer body means nothing if we are on the spiritual path. Spiritual path means: a path of intensive thought, supreme thought. Nobody can have higher intelligence than the Guru or the really God-loving spiritual person, for his intelligence transcends the human mind, transcends time and space, transcends sense-experience in a sense-universe.
You say you experience galaxies by scientific instruments. This is sense-experience. If you experience the world by your own physical eyes or more over spectacles or a magnifying glass or a microscope - does not matter. The microbes are magnified by it, or the far-away stars become visible by means of a telescope. All this is still sense-experience through the eye, and the eye is no dependable instrument, never. It is deceptive. There are optical deceptions and mistakes ahead. But in spite of that, life on earth becomes possible by such fragmentary kind of experience which presents just a small spectral band of possible perceptions, and there are broad areas below and above this bundle of wave-lengths perceived by our eyes.
In the Guru or the spiritual person, intelligence is evolved and serves but one purpose: to gain true knowledge, eternal knowledge which is and remains valid for all times. Such knowledge is not to be found in the world, even universities are not in a position to render such knowledge, for what passes as science changes again and again. Every year new things are detected, every decade the face of science changes a little, and in hundred years it has a totally new face, and there occur endless combinations of old and new, even very old knowledge is filled into new bottles and sold as the most recent knowledge, and if there is new knowledge, more still newer will be added to it. It is knowledge within time and space. It is knowledge of the mind which works in time and space, and as long as we work within time and space, intelligence is restricted, condemned, we do not attain real Truth, we cannot experience and see the Face of Truth, as long as our intelligence works in time and space, with human language and thoughts, even if these stem from great thinkers. Every thinker is also in the world of time and space, which is a world of ignorance, darkness.
Look, real Truth is beyond thoughts, and Truth is what is valid always, nowadays and tomorrow and the day thereafter. Truth is what stays, what can be seen always, everywhere, at all times. And the being of this Truth is infinite, eternal, absolute Perfection, that is "Brahmanandam" and absolute Joy or "Parama-Sukhadam", supreme Bliss and "Parama-shantam", supreme Peace. We experience this wondrous silence and calmness in deep-sleep. Every day or night we enjoy this. Do you experience this by your intelligence, by learning through sense-organs like the tongue or your eyes or ears or hands? Never. No sense-organ is functioning there. And does your mind function in deep-sleep? Never. You are beyond your mind, beyond thoughts and feelings, beyond all possible incidents, experiences, perceptions. These are only possible where there is intelligence, mind, and this intelligence of the mind is a low form of intelligence working within the sense-universe. We call this universe sense-world because we do not experience it by our innate capacities of the supreme inner Self in us, but by sense organs.
How do we see colours? In the light. How do we experience this light? By physical eyes, and the physical eyes are a sense-organ. We may suffer from colour-blindness as many people do who cannot see or distinguish colours properly. There are so many possible weaknesses and limitations of sense-organs. And we also do not see behind things, we do even not know what our sons and daughters feel. What we know is the outer story from birth on, but what the son or the daughter have brought with them, we do not know. It may be millions of years old what imprints his or her soul and subconsciousness, and we have no idea of it.
Spiritual aspirants and the Guru stay in transcendental regions. What does this mean? A region where the intellect is transcended, where the intellect is left behind as a useless instrument of knowledge. As long as the intellect works, we have no idea of what is Truth, we have no access into the world of Truth-experience. A Guru is a person who stays rooted in Brahman which is transcendental. Fame, wealth, name, insults, calumnies, laudation- all these make absolutely no sense in the life of a Guru. He stands beyond these incidents, experiences, states, conditions etc. He is beyond the body. Therefore our relations with the Guru are to be with his true being, true character, real Life. What is the true life of a Guru?
The true life of the Guru is not in the intellect, not in the body, not in emotions and thoughts, never. Perhaps in what he speaks and writes? Never. He permanently lives in "Brahmanandam parama-sukhadam kevalam jnana-murtim". He is the Form of infinite Wisdom. What is the infinite Wisdom? Infinite Wisdom here means: to recognize is the same as to experience, and to recognize is the same as to be. Being and Knowledge are one here whilst in the world of the intellect, in the world of our daily knowledge there are knowledge and experience as different things, there you know what is God, but you do not experience Him. Here, in the world of the senses and of the intellect- and the intellect also is a sense-organ and functions but in the dualistic world - the Face of Truth, the real Life, eternal Life cannot reveal itself. Truth itself is true life, eternal Life, perfect Life and absolute Perfection. The intellect can never enjoy that Peace, Joy, Stillness we enjoy in deep-sleep.
Do you experience this Peace, Joy, Stillness, you experience in deep-sleep, by studying the Bhagavadgita? How do you experience it? The Soul experiences the soul, by the Soul, not by the intellect, not through eyes, nose or tongue or any sense-organ. No sense-organ, no intellect can exist there. It is a transcendental Silence. Why transcendental? Because it is beyond sense-organs inclusive of the intellect. Does not matter if it is pure reason or impure reason, whatever kind of reason - it is transcended. One lives in the heart of the infinite Truth. This Truth is the unlimited Consciousness, the Center of Consciousness, and the Being of this Consciousness is absolute Silence, absolute Joy. We experience this Silence by Silence itself. We become totally one with this Silence, by oneness with it we experience this. We have knowledge of the transcendental Silence and Peace, which we enjoy in deep-sleep state or in meditation, quite consciously in waking-state as the Guru does, the truly illuminated God-loving person - quite consciously. But here, there are no more three things like the knower, the process of knowledge and the object of knowledge, what is known - these are altogether absent, and there is but one experience: experience by the Self. And what is this Self? Infinite Silence. The experience of infinite Silence by Oneness with infinite Silence.
An example: The proper experience of the Sea is by becoming the Sea. Only then you have full and total knowledge, direct knowledge of the Sea. Scientific knowledge of the Sea is indirect and by instruments, that is through three things - the experiencing scientist, the process of experience and the object of experience. So long as these three things are there, you have no true knowledge of the Sea. The Sea has a psychic personality, a psychic soul etc. of which the scientist has no idea. Why? He works with sense-organs, and sense-organs bestow limited capacities on him to know, to experience and to report on what is experienced.
The Guru experiences the Truth by being one with the Truth, by being Truth itself. He has God-experience by God, in God, by Oneness with God, not through the mind, through feelings and thoughts, by this and that. Therefore our spiritual tradition has given us the true description of the Guru: "Brahmanandam parama-sukhadam kevalam jnana-murtim..." What is the life, what is the biography of the Guru? What is his life-story? You know nothing of his life if you observe his outer physical body and personality, his thoughts and feelings or this and that. There the Guru does not dwell. Constantly his intelligence is in this "Brahmanandam..." He is the centre of infinite wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom is to be distinguished from knowledge about things referring to the body. How to compose a Bircherm'esli of fruits and yogurt and honey, this is not Wisdom, this is knowledge. This is not God-experience. What then is God and experience of God? You must become God Himself to know God.
God-knowledge is there where knowledge and experience become one and the same. Knowledge and what you know, what you experience, the experienced object become one, so there are no more two things. This is Wisdom and true Knowledge, "Jnana". Wisdom is not the proper word for "Jnana", for "Jnana" has a wondrous meaning which cannot be translated by Wisdom. In spite of this: This "Jnana" or direct knowledge of infinite Truth comes through Oneness with the Divine. See, in the deep-sleep state when you experience this timeless, spaceless Silence, you do not use any instrument of experience of knowledge, neither scientific instruments nor physical of psychical instruments or sense-organs. Also not by the psyche or psychical sense-organs you experience this Silence in deep-sleep state, also not by the intellect. How then do you experience It? Nature works a wonder if you sink into deep-sleep state. This fact suddenly occurs, it is unexplainable how it works, you have no idea how it happens. Suddenly you are no more there, and what is there? No activity, no thoughts, no feelings- what then? Timeless Silence. Is man dead? No, he still lives. He can all the time return into waking-state. This Silence is experienced by the Soul Itself. In this manner also God is experienced by God in us, by the Soul itself. It is Self-knowledge. God knowledge is Self-knowledge. God realization is Self realization. One experiences by the instrument of God in us God everywhere. The God in us becomes one with God. But not your ego. It cannot become one with God, and also none of your sense-organs, nor the intellect, does not matter how disciplined and educated it is. Supposedly you get ten thousand years of life time, not just eighty or hundred, and doctor degrees of all universities- all this does not lead you one step closer to God. God-experience needs but one instrument, one sense-organ, and what is this tool? It is a non-sensuous sense-organ, it is the capacity of the Soul Itself, the capacity owned by the supreme Self in ourselves. We do not just have such kind of sense-organs like the physical eyes and ears and tongue, and not only those of the mind, of the psyche, but also still other capacities moreover. The Soul or God in us bears in Itself supernatural, superhuman, super-rational, supramental, suprapsychic capacities to experience God, and these capacities lead to oneness with God and oneness with God gives us true experience of the Divine.
Guru is this experience. If you constantly consider the outer form of the Guru, his outer personality, his thoughts and feelings, this and that, you are erring and have no idea of the Guru in this case. One should understand and bear in his inner intelligence true Knowledge of the Guru, and true knowledge comes by meditation on the true Being, the true Life of the Guru. Guru is always beyond thoughts and feelings. Thus repeat the Guru-mantra "Brahmanandam..." See, this long mantra contains everything, the whole philosophy of life, of God-experience is therein. "We know the Guru, we see him daily, his name is like that or that" - if you speak like that you do not understand anything of the Guru. If you know what is Guru or do not know, this cannot influence the Guru, but it matters much to you. If you think the Guru is a form in which he dwells, temporarily, you are greatly erring. The fate of this temporary body of which you think it belongs to the Guru without having an idea what Guru is, does not matter. All your paying respects and services and loving the Guru are misplaced because you have no true knowledge of what Guru is. The outer death of the physical body by hunger or accident or malady or this or that - all this does not mean anything for the Guru, because he constantly stays in this timeless Silence, Joy, Perfection, timelessly, eternally. Only what is eternal, beyond time and space, can be perfect, is Truth, and this Truth is God, is Guru. You call him Sadguru - why? Because he dwells in his own inner Being, Heart. And what is this heart? It is God. His Heart and the Heart of God are one and the same. His Heart and what you experience in deep-sleep state, without having any idea, is one and the same. It is this wondrous Silence and Peace beyond time and space, beyond what can be grasped by sense-organs, inclusive of the organs of thought, of intellect, reason, intelligence, rationality.
"Ekam nityam vimalam-acalam sarvadhi-sakshi-bhutam", you said this in this mantra of the Guru. "Nityam" is what is eternal, constantly there. Your mind is not always present, and also if it is present it changes from one moment to the other. You say you are an educated person, a reasonable personality, you say you have high-school education. Then please see in this case what your thoughts and feelings are and how they change from moment to moment.
Man is a slave of opposites, torn to and fro between hate and love, envy and selflessness, a puppet of the human mind, and does not get out from this without divine Grace.
As soon as you say, "I have good thoughts" already bad thoughts come in. As soon as you say, "I am happy" there come in news, or a telegram that your mother has died or your child is dead, and you are no longer happy. Sometimes you become depressive without any reason, or joyous without knowing why. Always man falls victim to opposites or contrary experiences. Sometimes experiences change from minute to minute. Never say, "This is a beautiful woman", for this may quickly change and she becomes ugly by anger or other negative emotions or much smoking or drinking or by age. There is no Truth in this statement that she is beautiful, for everything vanishes, youth and strength of the body, all experiences vanish.
You may learn much and become a multiple doctor, and by a small stroke you are reduced to an idiotic condition, incapacitated to think, in spite of five doctor degrees. Or a person is very rich. Suddenly by war or earthquake or speculations on the money-market he loses his money and becomes a beggar asking, "Sir, do you have a cigarette for me?" Such changes may occur in human situations. One cannot find Truth in this world of time and space. Truth is only in the Self, in That which is the supreme Principle in you, which does never change, is always pure.
- Swami Omkarananda
Omkarananda- Kamakshi-Devi Mandir
Shri Mahakala- Bhairava Mandir
Who is a Guru? and other Inspiring Speeches by Swami Omkarananda
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