True Spiritual Living

by Swami Krishnananda

Otherwise, what will happen? There will be an equal resentment from those sources in regard to which we have shown resentment. There will be disturbance of our mind caused by the resentment produced as a reaction from those sources in respect of which we have behaved improperly. This is why Patanjali is very cautious about avoiding all these unnecessary disturbances before we step into the higher realms of yoga. Therefore, he places ahimsa as the first of virtues, because psychological disturbance is a greater disturbance than any other conceivable disturbance. Subtle disturbances will be there. Animosity will prevail around us, and it can pounce upon us in some form or other and disturb and impede our progress in yoga. So, as I mentioned, ahimsa is a sort of justifiable and proper attitude that we have to develop in respect of others, and brahmacharya is a similar attitude that we have to adopt in respect of our own selves because lack of brahmacharya is an insult to one’s own self, as himsa is an insult to others.

You are a very valuable individual. You are not a nobody. Just as you have to treat other people as equally valuable to yourself in your principle of ahimsa, you have to also treat yourself as a very valuable thing. You are also a great treasure. You are not dirt, because you are a person like anybody else. Others are as meaningful as you are. It is understood that you are also a very meaningful person. How can you insult yourself? And to insult one’s own self is a misuse of one’s own powers, which are supposed to be utilised for a nobler purpose.

Brahmacharya is as difficult to understand as ahimsa. Therefore, we are likely to spend all our time in trying to understand these things and not be able to practice them because the energies of our bodies and our minds are mostly out of our control, and they start leading us in a wrong direction instead of our being able to direct them in the proper way for the intended purpose. Mostly our energies go amok, hither and thither – in any way, in any direction that is available. They are like a river whose bunds have been broken; it is trying to find its way in any manner whatsoever by destroying things, washing away villages, and killing people. It has no care, because it simply wants to find an outlet for its further movement. So are our energies.

Our energies are equally distributed in our personality. It is an equidistribution of energy in our body that makes us look beautiful. A beautiful personality, even a beautiful body, is the result of an equidistribution of energy throughout the body. If it is concentrated in some part, that would be a capitalist attitude of the body which will not be tolerated by the other parts of the body. As we know, children are very beautiful. Small babies look beautiful; but when we grow older and older, we become uglier and uglier in our facial expressions and our entire physical contour. Why is it? What has happened to us? Why do we look shrunken and stupid later on? The reason is that there is a misdirection of energy, whereas in a baby it is equally distributed throughout the body. When we see a small child, we feel happy to look at it. We keep it on our lap and kiss it. It may be anybody’s child; it makes no difference to us. We like children because there is a beauty in their personalities. There is an absence of egoism in their minds. It is these two things that attract us to children: they have no egoism, and their body is beautiful. Perhaps the beauty of their body is a result of the absence of egoism. The more we are egoistic, the more we look ugly – a very important matter to remember.

The ego is the principle of centralisation of energy. It does not allow decentralisation of force in the body, and so the parts of the body and the entire personality, from whom the energies or powers have been withdrawn by this centralising principle, lose their feeling of cooperation with the whole personality. They resent this kind of attitude of the ego, and then it is that they look ugly. They are not beautiful anymore. Why? It is because they have lost the cooperation of the centre and, therefore, they too do not feel like cooperating with the centre.

The beautiful person is either a child or a saint, because in a child there is no ego and there is equidistribution of energy throughout the body. The same is the case with a saint or a great sage. He is also very attractive, very magnetic in his personality, very powerful, and looks beautiful. A great master of yoga, a great sage or a saint is as beautiful as a child, and so we are attracted to him. People run to him even from San Francisco, from even Timbuktu; even from Mars they will come. Why? It is because there is a tremendous power in him, which is the outcome of his harmony with the real source of power in the universe. Children are taken care of by nature itself. Gods themselves protect children, but they do not protect egoists. They run away: “Oh! These are very big people. We do not want them!”

I am reminded of a story, which is not written in any book. I heard it from some friends. It appears that once upon a time, Lord Sri Krishna was having lunch in Dwaraka, and Rukmini, the queen, was serving food. In the middle of the meal, Krishna got up and took up a stick. Rukmini was surprised. “What has happened to you? In the middle of the meal you get up and hold a stick, as if you want to beat me! Who is our enemy here?”

Sri Krishna said nothing, closed his eyes for a few seconds, then put the stick away and sat for his food once again. She asked him, “What is the matter? What is wrong?”

Sri Krishna said, “Nothing is wrong. About 100 miles from this place a pedestrian, a poor man, is carrying a load on his head, and robbers attacked him. I thought I would protect him, so I took up the stick. But before I took up the stick, that pedestrian gave a slap to the robber. So I thought, ‘Let him take care of himself. Why should I go there?’ So I kept my stick back.”

It is also said that as long as Draupadi was holding her sari with one hand, no help came. Because she had some strength of her own, why should any help come? When she threw up both her arms and cried before God, help rushed to her as if by magic.

Now, all these are stories, no doubt, but they are of great meaning spiritually from the point of view of yoga. We need not fear anyone in this world if God is our help, but nobody can protect us if God is against us. The forces of nature are nothing but the fingers of God operating. They are not outside God or different from God. Our egoism is a violation of the law of God, which is also a violation of the law of nature. Lack of brahmacharya is one such violation, as himsa is. Any kind of insult to a creation of God is intolerable to God. And what is insult? It is nothing but a violation of a law that is operating; that is called ‘insult’ – a lack of understanding of the operative principles.

As himsa is wrong, lack of brahmacharya also is wrong. We have to guard ourselves from outside as well as inside so that we may be harmonious within and without because this is the call of yoga, the requisite of yoga. We are required to be harmonious with everything – outside as well as inside. So before we try for higher harmonies of a spiritual nature, the yoga system prescribes ethical harmonies, moral equilibriums, by means of the practice of ahimsa and brahmacharya.

As I pointed out, these things are very difficult for us to understand thoroughly, because we have very peculiar traditional notions given to us right from our childhood by our parents, by our society, etc. But they are scientific principles, not merely dogmas or stories told to us. These are great imperatives and necessities in life. One who practices ahimsa and brahmacharya thoroughly will know one’s own strength, and it need not be told by others. The strength will be such that our thoughts will materialise the moment they come out. Our words will become true. Our wishes will be fulfilled, and nothing will stand before us. Nothing can stand before us. We will be undaunted heros. This is the power that brahmacharya bestows upon us, because brahmacharya is the art of equalisation of the force of this psychophysical personality in such a way that our personality stands in unison with the forces of nature outside – as a consequence of which, the forces of nature enter into us.

They do not enter us now because we repel them by our egocentric individuality. The egocentricity of our personality is a repelling attitude that we are adopting every moment of our life. We become hard like flint and, therefore, the forces of nature do not enter us. The sustaining powers of nature are removed from us, so that we become helpless, weak in every sense – bodily, mentally, morally, even spiritually. We start crying that there is no help. We are in a miserable condition. Why is there no help? It is because we do not want help. We imagine that we are very powerful ourselves. Why do we want help from anybody? The imagination that we are well off and very powerful is due to our ego and, therefore, the world outside will not help us afterwards. People will not like us. Nature will resent us. Perhaps God Himself may ignore us.

Ye yatha mam prapadyante tamstathaiva bhajamyaham (4.11), says the Bhagavadgita: “As is your attitude towards Me, so is My attitude towards you.” Very interesting! Bhagavan Sri Krishna speaks in the Bhagavadgita. If we do not want Him, perhaps He may also not want us. If we throw Him out, He may also throw us out. If we are egoistic, He may also assert Himself in His own way and teach us a lesson. We should not become Duryodhanas, Hiranyakashipus or Ravanas with an uncompromising ego, which is an insult to the whole creation of God because creation has no ego, and nature has no ego. It is man that has ego.

So, the abolition of the ego is the final intention of the practice of these virtues of ahimsa, brahmacharya, etc.; and by actual effort put forth in this direction, you can yourself see the result of it. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it,” as they say. Do it, and see what result follows – how happy you will be, how fearless you will be, how strong you will be, how capable you will be, and how self-satisfied you will be, needing nothing from outside. Why should you need anything else from outside when the world is behind you to help you? But the world will be at your beck and call only if you are in harmony with it. If you are disharmonious with it, if your connection with the powerhouse is cut off, then you are in a very bad condition, no doubt – no power, no help, no strength whatsoever.

Ahimsa and brahmacharya are the essential ethical foundations of yoga. Practicing them not merely because of a social mandate but as a spiritual necessity will make you superhuman beings even in a few days. It may not take many months and years to achieve this result, because a step taken in the direction of Truth should produce immediate results. Truth is immediate; it is not a mediate object. So is the reason behind the great emphasis laid by Sage Patanjali on the practice of these principles, the yamas – of which, as I mentioned, the most important are ahimsa and brahmacharya.