Dare to give up the Illusion of Time

A dialogue with Swami Krishnananda

Swami Krishnananda (to Andrew Cohen): There are many people sitting here and they want to listen to you.

Andrew: So the message for today is: dare to give up the illusion of time. Give up the belief that there is any distance or gap between oneself and one’s true Self, and between oneself and the rest of life, the rest of existence. This takes a lot of courage. It takes a willingness to die absolutely and unconditionally right now. So my message for today, and for every day, for every moment, is not to wait one second longer. That’s my message.

K: So short! Please expand it with a little bit more detail.

A: Expand it? Okay. Well, many many seekers believe with fervor and with great conviction that it will take them a very long time and much hard work to bridge the gap between where they are now and where they want to be. But it is this belief and conviction that there is this gap in the first place that creates the illusion of separation. Now if we have the courage to give up the illusion of separation, then we will find that we have no place to stand. And as we look and look we will not be able to locate ourselves. Everywhere we look we’ll see nothing. We’ll see nothing, and we’ll see everything at the same time. So to come to this point, it takes great courage. Because if we want to know that much and see that much and be that much, we have to be willing to let go of every thought, notion or idea that we have about who we are, or about what’s true. In order to do this we have to be willing to die unconditionally to the Absolute, and we have to be willing to give everything—and everything and everything and everything—to that and that alone; even our sadhana [spiritual practice], even that which we hold most precious and most dear to us. So that we’re left empty and naked, and we have nothing and nothing and nothing at all.

K: You said one sentence that was very beautiful: we should remove the idea of the distance between what we are and what we ought to be.

A: Yes, time.

K: Ah, that is called time. Is there a distance/time process between what we are and what we ought to be? There is this belief that there is a long, long time. “I would like to be an emperor,” one might say, “and how long will it take for me to become one?” One doesn’t believe that it is timeless, gapless. We wish to become an emperor. The wish is in the process of time itself, and therefore it appears that there is a long distance temporally from the present condition to the one we want in the future.

All that we seek in this world is like moments inside a dream. So what is the value or worth of anything in this dream world? One may be a beggar or one may be a king in a dream, but both the beggar and the king in the dream are made of the same meaningless substance, of what we call the dream stuff. Even though you are a king in a dream and another person is a beggar in a dream there is basically no distinction between them. They are made up of the same substance. I shall bring an elephant made of sugar and a rat made of sugar. Do you find any difference between them? A rat made of sugar and an elephant made of sugar: there is a great difference indeed, yet there is no difference.

So this little sentence that you said—about removing the distance between what we are and what we ought to be— is difficult to grasp. Time-bound as we are, and limited as we are by the process of thinking only in terms of time, we cannot understand what it means to say that there is no distance between what we are and what we ought to be. For example, we are mortals and we want to be immortal. How much time will it take in order for the mortal to become immortal? Endless ages of births and deaths, people generally say, in the scriptures at least. The unfortunate or fortunate thing is that what you ought to be is exactly what you are. What you ought to be already is hidden in that which you are just now.

You mentioned also the lower self and the higher self briefly. For many of us there is the higher self and the lower self. What you are is the lower self, what you ought to be is the higher self, and both are in the same place at the same time. So how much time will you take to transcend the lower self and become the higher self? It is like, to give a small humorous example, the distance between foolishness and wisdom; how far is wisdom from foolishness? How many kilometers away? There is a tremendous distance, isn’t there?

It is said that “great wits are sure to madness near allied.” But can you say great wit, or genius, is deeper than madness? Because of the unsurpassable quality of genius, it looks as if it is not a normal condition. Can anybody think like Albert Einstein for instance? E=MC2 is his great equation. To some extent you can make sense out of this equation, but there are things about it out of which no sense can be made. For ex-ample, there is no such thing as past, present and future. In a realm far, far beyond the gravitation of the earth where time does not exist, you cannot know which was yesterday, which is today, which is tomorrow.

In the Bhagavad Gita, the great war of the Mahabharata was about to take place. It had not yet commenced at all. No one had lifted a single weapon. The battle had not begun. The great cosmic vision, which we call the “Vishvarupa,” or Krishna in the form of the Absolute, was standing before Arjuna. He is supposed to have said, “I have already executed this war. It is finished. Now we are only to be an instrument, and the thing that it is necessary to do has already been done.” How could Sri Krishna, the Absolute incarnate, tell us that that which has not yet begun is already over? These are transcendental issues. They look transcendental because they are above the limitation of time. What makes us look foolish, silly, finite, idiotic and anxious is the bondage of time. Has anybody seen time? Have you seen time?

Student: No.

K: Does it exist? You are believing in a thing that does not exist. What makes you feel that time exists when you cannot see it anywhere? At least space you can see, there is a vast expanse. But have you seen time? Yet time conditions the whole world. “Your destiny is in the hands of time,” as they say. How could you accept such a thing called time which cannot be seen with the eyes. How is it that it cannot be seen? The reason for this also must be known. An existent thing must be seen. People say, “There is no proof that God exists, because he can’t be seen with any available means of experiment or perception.” But have you seen time? And yet you believe in time.

Imagine that you were going to be executed tomorrow. What will you be thinking in your mind today? Your soul will tremble and nobody knows what it will do. Tomorrow you will know.

When you are drowning and there is no hope of survival, the true self comes up and sees what can be done. When you have lost everything and nobody wants to look at your face, you will develop a great strength.

A: So the question is then—it’s difficult for people to realize that they are drowning.

K: Who will believe that tomorrow is the last day of man?

A: Exactly.

K: Will anybody believe? There is a whole world of illusion, maya, as they call it. Is it true that tomorrow we shall realize the truth?

A: Nobody knows, nobody knows.

K: One quake on the earth, the earth shakes, and what happens to the king, the emperor and the wealthy man? What happens to them? Look at the pitiful conditions after the earthquake in Japan. And nobody will believe that tomorrow that could happen.

Today you can be a powerful minister. Tomorrow you can be walking on that little street outside of here. I have seen people like that: a minister, important with an entire country under him, and tomorrow he comes and sits here.

So the higher self is not merely inside us, it is us. But we are not allowing it to manifest itself on account of greed and negative habits and the idiocy of the lower self. The lower self is caught up in the time process, and wants to grab the world of perishability. Everything that you want to grab in this world is perishable, and the body which is trained to enjoy those perishable objects also is perishable. The perishable is asking for the perishable. Wonderful wisdom of humanity!

A: This is the greatest challenge I think for the true seeker: to give up time, to give up the future.

K: There is no such thing as the future. When time is gone, the future also goes. There is eternity. In eternity there is no yesterday and tomorrow, it is just here. And if you believe that God exists and God is eternity, it is impossible to conceive what the state of affairs is. The supreme Absolute is dancing in our hearts and we are closing our eyes to that dance.

Thank you very much. Hari Om.

http://www.dlshq.org/messages/gvuptime.htm

Charity

Give, give and give. 

This is the secret of abundance. 

Radiate thoughts of goodness and love. 

Forgive the faults of others. 

Bless the man who injures you.

Share what you have with others.

Disseminate spiritual knowledge to one and 

all.

Use the material wealth, knowledge and 

spiritual wisdom that you possess as a divine

trust.


By Swami Sivananda. "The 18 "Ities""

"Happy Valentine´s Day!"

"¿Qué es el OM?"

La recitación del OM es la expresión de un 

lenguaje universal que contiene a todos los

otros. Esta creencia deviene del hecho de que

sólo cuando cantamos este monosílabo, la 

entera cavidad sonora se pone en 

funcionamiento y vibran todas las partes del

órgano vocal. 

Es por esto que se piensa que cada palabra y 

cada frase se halla de algún modo incluida en

esa raíz sonora que crea el OM cuando es 

recitado. 


Por lo tanto, el OM es una vibración 

omniabarcante: cuando lo cantamos tratamos de

crear dentro de nosotros una vibración afín 

con todas las vibraciones y con el Universo.


Om. Shanti. Paz.

Prepare To Taste Nectarine Bliss

By: Jaya Row on Feb 06, 2013 | 983 Views | 19 Responses

The Vedas speak of oneness, unity and equality. Yet we experience diversity, differences and demarcations. Enlightened masters have merged with the Spirit which is the same in all. They see the one, unifying substratum of the universe. From the vantage point of Atman they enjoy the diversity. We see matter which differs in different beings. We feel threatened by the variations, are affected and get crushed by them.

Michelangelo said that in every block of wood there is a beautiful statue. You only have to remove the excess material. The statue lying beneath is the Spirit. Matter is the excess material that impedes our vision of Divinity. The spiritual path helps us rise above matter to unfold the Spirit.

Matter consists of three gunas or qualities – sattva, purity; rajas, passion and tamas, apathy. Just as the three primary colours combine to create the myriad colours, the three gunas blend to form a variety of beings. Guna in Sanskrit means ‘rope’. Woven together, they bind us to the world. We have all three gunas. It is the proportion that makes the difference.

Tamas is the state of ignorance, inertia and carelessness. In tamas we are oblivious of our potential, have no sense of purpose and take shelter in intoxication and a life of reckless abandon. Steeped in delusion, a tamasika person is not aware of the dignity of human life and finds pleasure in sloth, indifference and aberrant behaviour. All talent and skill inherent in the person lies untapped and wasted. It is akin to trying to drive a powerful sports car with the engine turned off.

Rajas is restless activity fuelled by desire, selfishness and ego. Rajasika people are competitive and ambitious, driven by one-upmanship. It carries a huge price, causing struggle, strife and stress, leading to costly mistakes. A rajasika person imagines an antagonistic world of scarcity and peril. He focuses on fighting imaginary battles to gain supremacy. The more he grabs for exclusive enjoyment the more he loses. He is thus a lonely soul, alienated from family and friends. Rajas is like driving a sports car with the brakes on.

Sattva is the state of serenity and purity. Free from the stranglehold of obsession with self, a sattvika person has a clear vision of the transcendental and strives to get there.  A sattvika person sees blessing and abundance and is grateful for all that he has received. He is motivated to serve the world in a spirit of thanksgiving. Resources then come in greater measure to one who is generous and inclusive. In sattva one breaks through the barrier of desire and ego and takes off into sublime realms like a Concorde that breaks the sound barrier.

Only a sattvika person excels, motivated by a higher ideal, the highest being Self-realisation. Rajasiks win some; lose some, remaining where they were. Tamasiks  are on a dangerous downward spiral of self-destruction.    

The solution lies in understanding the three gunas and how they operate in you and others. Identify and cultivate the sattva in you. Refine rajas with a higher purpose, expanding the mind to accommodate the interests of others. Fight tamas with strict deadlines and exercises to overcome inertia.

In the end aspire to transcend the gunas and become one with the Spirit to be undisturbed and enjoy the dance of the gunas in the world. Realise unity in the diversity of beings and be free from the trauma of birth, death, old age and disease and taste the nectarine bliss of Atman.


Link: http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-articles/epics/prepare-to-taste-nectarine-bliss?track=1

"Turning Sideways into the Light" by Margueritte Theophil

The instinctual response in us humans, in the face of stressful, conflict situations is to fight, flee -- or simply freeze. The poet David Whyte offers another challenging option, that of ‘turning sideways into the light.’

Whyte shares the myth of the Tuatha De Danann, a mythical race from Ireland's past, a mystical people devoted to beauty and artistry; wise and influential elders.When another rougher and more brutal people, the Milesians invaded the country, the Tuatha De Danann bravely fought them off in two battles, but then came a third, decisive battle with the odds stacked overwhelmingly against them.

So, lined up in battle formation and facing almost certain defeat, instead of drawing swords and rushing into battle, the wise-ones, as a group, simply turned sideways and as legend has it, ‘disappeared into the light.’

Turning sideways into the light can be seen as acknowledging that some encounters are damaging to all involved: no one can win. There may emerge a ‘winner’ or ‘winning side’, but the true result, when we come to our senses and assess the damage, is loss all around that may take years or centuries to heal.

To conventional thinking it sounds too much like defeat or giving up. But in reality, it is neither retreat nor cowardice -- rather, it is an intentional strategy to change the ground rules.

Essentially, to turn sideways into the light is to reject the conventions of conflict as laid out by your antagonist, and choose another path which will extend, rather than diminish your integrity. It’s a difficult choice under any circumstances; almost impossible in conflict situations. What it involves is the tough choice to ascend – in the midst of chaos and confusing emotions -- to a higher dimension of functioning.

In India we have the example of Gandhiji, and the world has given us others like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela who demonstrated this strategy at different times.

But for most of the rest of us, we are so programmed to either/or options of submission or aggression. And even if some of us have learnt a third way, assertiveness, ‘turning sideways’ is a whole different approach.

Some conflicts obviously, undoubtedly, must be confronted and dealt with. But not all. And that’s a well-kept secret! It is the unnecessary ones which are most debilitating, as they sap our energy and life-force, whenever we ignore our capacity for the judicious use of wisdom and power.

 I like to visualise conflict as taking place along a pathway that takes us to our highest goal. Besides this path is a dim, mist-shrouded path at a right angle to the one we are on, yet going to the same place; one that you can, with one sideways step, get onto and turn and move ahead with life.

However, when we get so enmeshed in the fight, this way is invisible to us; we just don’t see it, we hurtle on, and we often waste precious energy by not just stepping away from the ‘contaminated’ path.

Consider David Whyte’s opening lines of his poem ‘Tobar Phadraic’: “Turn sideways into the light as they say the old ones did ... and disappear into the originality of it all.”

This phrase, ‘the originality of it all’ suggests to me that place behind a mostly-hidden door, one we all have access to – though with some of us, the key to that door is temporarily misplaced – that place within each of us of wisdom, compassion and enlightened power.

Link: http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-articles/science-of-spirituality/turning-sideways-into-the-light?track=1

"Shiva"