A Textbook of Yoga

by Swami Krishnananda

Now you see the stone with your eyes. The microscope does not see it. Are you seeing the thing properly, or is the microscope seeing it properly? Who is seeing it properly? Naturally, the microscope is seeing it properly. Your eyes have a blunt perception. Why does not the microscope see the stone if you can see it? That is to say, the subtler the vision, the better is the perception. When your vision becomes very subtle, you will not see this world, and you will never put a question why God created the world because He never created the world, in the same way as atoms have not manufactured a stone. It does not mean that only atoms sit like that and say, "Let us become a stone."  They have not become the stone. If that is the case, the microscope would see that. It will see the stone there.

So this is an answer which is not supposed to be given to people who are sure that there is some hard brick and all that. The Yoga Vasishtha has warned us that if such statements are made of a transcendental nature which an ordinary student cannot understand, both the student and the Guru will go to hell. So as I do not want to go to hell, I will not answer questions of that kind. [laughter]

Q: According to Vedanta, we’re all one, whereas according to practical experiences, it looks different.

Swamiji: I told you that when you see things through the sense organs, everything is different. When you see through the soul, it is one. It all depends upon what medium you are using for perception. It depends upon what kind of spectacles you have got. If the spectacles are made differently, you will see different kinds of modulations of objects. If it is plain glass, it appears one way. If it is a coloured glass, you will see coloured objects. If the glass is broken, you will see the thing as also broken. Cataract eyes see two moons. Now, are there two moons, or one moon? But you are seeing it. So, seeing does not mean anything substantial, finally. The mistake is in the vision. So if you see many things, it does not mean they are there. I have already answered the question: the stone is not there. Only the vision must change. That is it.

Q: What was the first desire that caused the cycle of birth and rebirth?

Swamiji: They say the first desire was a curiosity. Curiosity was of what would it look like if I assume independence and become myself rather than everything. You try to find out what experience will be there if you become independent instead of being one with all people. There is a desire to become independent. It was a wrong concept of independence. This is what the Bible story tells as the fall of man. The fall is nothing but the desire to be individual rather than the Universal. Somehow that desire arose. Why it arose, nobody can answer because once you answer that question, you will not see yourself existing here. You will vanish immediately.

Anyhow, the answer is tentatively that it is a desire to assume an independence and a locality for oneself which arose in the Universal Consciousness, and as the ocean looks like many waves and ripples, the one Being looks like many people and all the things in the world.

You are happy anyhow to be like that. Even now you are happy. You would not like to be something else. That shows there is a joy even in being independent outside the Universal Being. Are you not happy? You don't want to die even in this condition. You want to protect this individual personality also. Though you say it is not a good thing, you would like to continue it for eternity. Independent existence, though philosophically it is regarded as not a worthwhile thing, is so valuable that not even an insect would like to die. It wants to perpetuate its existence. Even a crawling creature wants to continue that existence for any number of years. That shows the desire of the consciousness to exist, though it may be existing in hell. Existence it is that catches hold of you. So let there be, therefore, the desire to become Universal rather than this kind of desire to be independent as a localised being.

Q: What is the meaning of eternal life?

Swamiji: Eternal life means no birth, no death; always you will be the same thing. It is timeless – no process of past, present, future.

Q: What is the purpose of trying to raise the kundalini?          

Swamiji: The purpose is the same as the purpose in raising the mind to God.

Q: How can we attain one-pointedness of mind?

Swamiji: One-pointedness of mind is possible if you have desire for one thing only. If you desire two things, it will swing between two things like a pendulum. If there is anything which you like wholeheartedly and you want only that and nothing else, then the mind certainly will concentrate on it entirely. So find out what it is that you want finally, and on that the mind will certainly concentrate. There is no doubt about it. But if you have got many desires, then it will go in all directions.

Q: Is it possible to destroy sanchita karma by sadhana?

Swamiji: By doing sadhana, all karmas will be destroyed. Everything. Sadhana is like a fire. It can burn even mountains of straw. A matchstick is so small and the mountain of straw is so big; but even if the straw mountain is so high, one little matchstick is sufficient to reduce it to ashes. Like that is the power of sadhana, meditation. The thought of God is the most powerful energy anywhere, and nothing can stand before it. To light gunpowder, you don't take much time; to light firewood, you take more time; and if you start burning plantain stem, it will never catch fire. It takes a lot of time. So it depends upon what kind of person we are: plantain stem or firewood or gunpowder. [laughter]

Q: Swamiji, if it is the psyche that perceives the psyche in the dream world, then is there a second psyche which perceives the dimension of time and space, subject-object?

Swamiji: They’re all in dream also. Whatever is in waking, you will find in dream – but in a psychological sense, not in a physical sense. The difference is only the content. It is psychological in dream and physical in waking, but the structure is the same – no difference.

Q: What is the root cause of sensual pleasures?

Swamiji: The root cause is the separation of yourself from the Universal bliss; and senses are nothing but certain instruments manufactured by the fallen consciousness so that it may rule in hell, rather than serve in heaven. I am only quoting a poet.

There is nothing wrong with being social with people. Spirituality does not mean behaving in an odd way. Spirituality is nothing but what you are thinking in the mind. I can speak to you, serve you, do anything like anybody else, but you don't know what I am thinking. My thought is my spirituality. God respects what you feel and think, and not what you do with your fingers. You can do whatever you like. A spiritual man is not an odd, peculiar person. It is not like that. He is the most sensible and normal of people; and as you go higher and higher in spirituality, you cannot even know that the person is spiritual. You will look like anybody else. Only persons who are half-baked put on airs and appear to be spiritual; they wear a mala and all this. But the more you are advanced, the less you will appear to be spiritual. That is the peculiar contradiction. Only in the beginning stages you will put on airs. So don't put on anything. Be normal. But where your mind is – that is your spirituality.

Q: Swamiji, what is the meaning of turiya state?

Swamiji: Turiya is a consciousness which is beyond waking, dreaming and sleeping. In waking, of course there is a distracted perception. In dream there is also the same kind of trouble. I told you that in sleep you are existing as pure consciousness. That is true. Yet, there is a trouble there. It is covered with a thick cloud of past karmas and, therefore, you must also transcend that state.

In sleep, by inference we come to the conclusion that there is consciousness and pure existence, but it is not direct experience. Direct experience is nil in deep sleep. You are completely ignorant of all things. That condition of ignorance also should be transcended, and then sleep, bliss or consciousness – which is now merely a conclusion that you draw by inference – will become direct experience. That state of direct experience of Universality is turiya, beyond waking, dream and sleep.

Q: How can we attain it?

Swamiji: By meditation only – deep meditation on that, and thinking nothing else.

Hari Om tat sat. God bless you.