Page fillers, Short Articles and Poetry

Jnana and Bhakti - By Dr. T. N. Krishnaswami

Jnana and Bhakti are like two sweets made out of the same sugar, of which you can choose whichever you like. Giving up 'mine' is Bhakti; giving up 'I' is Jnana. The former gives up all his possessions; the latter gives up the very possessor of the possessions.

Bhakti is turning the mind towards God. Self-enquiry, the path of Jnana, turns the mind to its own inner essence, which is the Self. In Self-enquiry the subject sets out in search of himself. He who seeks must exist. This existence is itself the Self. In Bhakti one is disgusted with one's individual self and feels one's nothingness or unimportance and fixes one's mind on the Higher Power. When the mind at last becomes fully aware of the Higher Power it is awed by it and absorbed into it. This is total surrender of the ego. The man no longer is; God alone is.

The Cloud of Unknowing, a 14th Century Christian work in which the soul is oned with God, says that all creatures have in them two powers, one a knowing power, the other a loving power. To the first, God, the Maker of both powers, is eternally incomprehensible; to the second He is comprehensible. This is the wonderful miracle of love. "He may well be loved but not thought. Love may reach God in this life but not 'knowing'." So far is Bhakti, but the book continues: "And therefore swink and sweat in all that thou canst and mayest for to get thee a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art. And then I trou thou shalt have a true knowing and a feeling of God as He is." This is Jnana. He who does not know his Self cannot know and much less love God.

Here is what the Maharshi says on the subject: "To long for happiness is Bhakti. To long for the Self is Jnana."

It is Jnana to know that the Master is within you, but to commune with him is Bhakti. When the love of God or Self is manifest it is Bhakti; when it is in secret it is Jnana.

To know the Self as bliss is Jnana; efforts to uncover this natural bliss are Bhakti. A bhakta makes no plans, trusting that God who sent us here has his own scheme, which alone will work. He claims nothing. He has surrendered his personality, so that his actions and their results are due to the Higher Power. He accepts whatever befalls with equanimity. He has learnt from the Gita that actions go on of themselves, without an actor. A cyclone causes havoc but there is no actor responsible for it. God has created actions but no actor at all.

One-pointed thought of God is Bhakti; one-pointed experience of Self is Jnana. When 'other' arises there is fear. There should be one alone, whether we call it God or Self.

Resurrection - Lines from the Guru Vachaka Kovai (Tamil) of Muruganar

Tortured on body's cross, the Jesus-self
Suffers and dies.
The Passion ended, see the Christ-self rise,
Immortal Spirit,
God beyond the skies!

The World - By A. Rao

The world's an extension of you
Nothing outside.
Let what will betide
Only ensue
The inner self of you,
For this is true.

For a day you wear
The garb of earth and air,
Knowledge confined
To mortal mind:
Only a spell to break,
A dream from which to wake.

So long it lasts,
Don't think you originate
The play of fate
Its shadow casts.
Be a glass polished bright
To reflect the Light.

But Hui Neng said
There is no glass.
Let the ego-self be dead,
This will come to pass.
Then all fate's teeth are drawn
In that glad dawn.

Living Philosophy

In India there is no such thing as armchair philosophy. Philosophy is not only a way of thought but also a way of life in this country. It is not born of idle curiosity, nor is it a mere intellectual game. Every philosophy here is a religion, and every religion has its philosophy. The philosopher here was not a tall and spectacled professor dictating his notes to the class or weaving cobwebs of theory in his study, but one who was moved by a deep inner urge to know the secrets of life, who lived laborious days of spiritual discipline and who saw the light by the transformation of his life.

From Sri Jaideva Singh's introduction to his text and English translation of the Pratyabhijnahridayam.
Published by Messrs. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi-6.

Silent Teaching - (From a record kept by Ethel Merston)

At first, like everyone else, I used to ask questions, but after a time found this to be quite unnecessary. If I were really stuck over some problem, Bhagavan would seem to know it, and I would get the answer silently projected into my consciousness by him … Or, as it once happened, as I sat before him in the hall, mulling over a problem that had been worrying me for three days, without finding a solution, Bhagavan suddenly asked his attendant to hand him a book on the Puranas; he turned the pages until he found the passage he wanted, then passed the book to a devotee and, pointing to me, told him to read the passage aloud. It was a complete answer to my problem.

From Tayumanavar - By Prof. K. R. R. Sastry

Though living as late as the 18th Century, Tayumanavar was one of the greatest of all the Tamil poet-saints. Bhagavan often used to quote him. He wrote pure Advaita. The following lines show how it could be combined with a spirit of bhakti.

I cannot worship at Thy shrine
Or to Thy holy symbols bow;
I cannot pluck the flowers for offering
When in each flower's heart, art Thou.
How can I press my palms together,
My body bent to worship Thee,
How my imperfect service offer.
When Thou indwellest, Lord, in me?

Thou art the vastness of the Void,
The elements, the primal sound,
The Vedas and the quest they bring,
The Goal beyond all seeking found.
Thou art the quest and Thou the finding,
Thou of all seeing art the Sight,
Of knowing, Thou alone the Knowledge,
Of mind and eye the inner Light,
The outer word and inner meaning,
The vocal and the silent Call.
Oh Source of Grace in joy past thinking,
Lone cosmic Dancer in High Wisdom's hall!

So long as you have the egosense you have to struggle. At the end of the struggle you come to know that you have not achieved anything. You feel that you are helpless. Then God comes to your help. But as long as you think you can help yourself you must struggle. Struggle ceases in surrender. Thereafter you say, 'Oh God, You do everything.' Now you find everything is done by His will and power. Surrender gives you this knowledge. The egosense is wiped out not only in the inner silence but also in all your active life.

- Swami Ramdas

Samadhi - By Nagamma

This morning a European who was sitting in front of Bhagavan said through an interpreter: "It is stated in the Mandukyopanishad that there can be no Moksha (Liberation), however much dhyana (meditation) or tapas (austerity) is performed, unless samadhi also is experienced. Is that so?"

Bhagavan replied: "Rightly understood, they are the same thing. It makes no difference whether you call it dhyana or tapas or samadhi or anything else. That which is steady and continuous like the flow of oil is tapas and dhyana and samadhi. To be one's own Self is samadhi."

Questioner: But it is said in the Mandukya that samadhi must necessarily be experienced before attaining Moksha.

Bhagavan: "And who says it 'is not so? It is stated not only in the Mandukya but all the books. But it is true samadhi only if you know yourself. What is the use of sitting still for some time like a lifeless object? Suppose you get a boil on your hand and have it operated under chloroform: you don't feel any pain at the time, but does that mean that you are in samadhi? It is the same with this too. One has to know what samadhi is. And how can you know samadhi without knowing your Self? If the Self is known, samadhi will be known automatically.

Meanwhile¹ a Tamil devotee opened the Tiruvachakam and began singing the 'Ten Songs on Pursuit'. Towards the end comes the passage: "Oh Ishvara,² You are trying to flee but I am holding You fast. So where can You go and how can You escape from me?" Bhagavan commented with a smile: "So it seems that He is trying to flee and they are holding Him fast! Where could He flee to? Where is He not present? Who is He? All this is nothing but a pageant. There is another sequence of ten songs in the same book, one of which goes: 'Oh my God! You have made my mind Your abode. You have given Yourself up to me and in return have taken me into You. Lord, which of us is the cleverer? If You are given up to me I enjoy endless bliss, but what use am I to you, even though You take me? My Father and God, what have I to give You when You have made my body Your temple in Your boundless mercy to me?' This means that there is no such thing as 'I'. See the beauty of it. Where there is no such thing as 'I' who is the doer and what is done, whether it be devotion or Selfenquiry or samadhi?"
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1 - There was an informal atmosphere in the hall and it might well happen that someone would start to sing while someone else was talking. (Editor).
2 - Ishvara signifies the Personal God. (Editor).