TattvaTales - Part V

Once Hanuman was sitting in a garden in Ayodhya singing Ram bhajans when Sri Ram came there. Immediately he called out to Hanuman and said, “Hanuman, I have always wanted to ask you something but never had the time as both of us are always busy. What exactly is the relationship between the two of us?” Hanuman thought for a while, scratched his body like a monkey and then said,” Oh Lord! Dehabuddhya Daasoham, jeevabudhya amsoham, aatma budhya Ramoham. As a finite body, I am limited while you are unlimited and so thinking of myself as this body, I am your humble and obedient servant. As the mind and intellect I can reach out and expand my consciousness. I can accomplish many wonderful things, but these powers are still limited as compared to yours. My mind and intellect is merely a part of the cosmic intelligence and thus I am only a part of you. However, as the Self which is beyond all dualities, I am none other than you!” Sri Rama was very pleased with Hanuman’s answer as it brought out all the three standpoints of the relationship between the individual and the Lord.

A god and a demon went to learn about the Self from a great sage. They studied with him for a long time. At last the sage told them, "You yourselves are the Being you are seeking." Both of them thought that their bodies were the Self. They went back to their people quite satisfied and said, "We have learned everything that was to be learned; eat, drink, and be merry; we are the Self; there is nothing beyond us." The nature of the demon was ignorant, clouded; so he never inquired any further, but was perfectly contented with the idea that he was God, that by the Self was meant the body. The god had a purer nature. He at first committed the mistake of thinking: I, this body, am Brahman: so keep it strong and in health, and well dressed, and give it all sorts of enjoyments. But, in a few days, he found out that that could not be the meaning of the sage, their master; there must be something higher. So he came back and said, "Sir, did you teach me that this body was the Self? If so, I see all bodies die; the Self cannot die." The sage said, "Find it out; thou art That." Then the god thought that the vital forces which work the body were what the sage meant. But. after a time, he found that if he ate, these vital forces remained strong, but, if he starved, they became weak. The god then went back to the sage and said, "Sir, do you mean that the vital forces are the Self ?" The sage said, "Find out for yourself; thou art That." The god returned home once more, thinking that it was the mind, perhaps, that was the Self. But in a short while he saw that thoughts were so various, now good, again bad; the mind was too changeable to be the Self. He went back to the sage and said, "Sir, I do not think that the mind is the Self; did you mean that?" "No," replied the sage, "thou art That; find out for yourself." The god went home, and at last found that he was the Self, beyond all thought, one without birth or death, whom the sword cannot pierce or the fire burn, whom the air cannot dry or the water melt, the beginningless and endless, the immovable, the intangible, the omniscient, the omnipotent Being; that It was neither the body nor the mind, but beyond them all. So he was satisfied; but the poor demon did not get the truth, owing to is fondness for the truth.

Uddalaka had a son called Shvetaketu. When he was twelve, his father said to him, ‘It is time for you to find a spiritual teacher. Everyone in this family has studied the holy scriptures and the spiritual way.’ So Shvetaketu went to a teacher and studied the scriptures for twelve years. He returned home very proud of his intellectual knowledge. His father observed him and said, ‘My boy, you seem to have a high opinion of yourself; you are proud of your learning. But did you ask your teacher for the spiritual knowledge that enables you to hear the unheard, think the unthought and know the unknown?’ ‘What is that knowledge, Father?’ asked Svetaketu. ‘Just as by knowing a lump of clay, everything that is made of clay can be known, since any differences are only words, and the essential reality is clay. In the same way by knowing a piece of gold, all that is made of gold can be known, since any differences are only words, and the reality is only gold.’ Uddalaka responded, ‘My teachers must not have known this or they would have taught it to me. Father, please teach me this knowledge.’ ‘I will,’ replied his father. ‘In the beginning there was only Being. Some people claim that in the beginning there was nothing at all and that everything has come out of nothing. But how can this be true? How can that which is, come from that which is not? In the beginning there was only one Being, and that Being thought, “I want to be many so I will create.” Out of this creation came the cosmos. There is nothing in the cosmos that doesn’t come from that one Being. Of everything that exists, this Being is the innermost Self. He is the truth, the Self Supreme. And you, Shvetaketu, you – are that!’  Shvetaketu asked, ‘Please teach me more about the Self, Father.’ ‘Let’s start with sleep. What happens when we sleep? When a person is absorbed in dreamless sleep, he is one with the Self although he doesn’t know it. We say he sleeps but we mean he sleeps in the Self. ‘A tethered bird grows tired from flying in every direction, finding no rest anywhere, and settles down at last on the very same perch on which it is tied. In the same way the mind, tired of wandering around here and there settles down at last in the Self, its life and breath, to which it is bound. All creatures have their source in that Being. He is their home; He is their strength. ‘When a man is dying, speech folds into mind, mind folds into life, life dissolves into light, and his light merges into that one Being. That Being is the seed, the truth, the Self, and you, Shvetaketu, you – are that!’

‘Please tell me more, Father.’ ‘My son, bees make honey by gathering nectar from many flowers to make their honey, so no one drop of honey can say that it came exactly from one specific flower. You can’t identify the juice of one particular flower in the honey. And so it is with creatures like us who merge in that Being, whether in sleep or death. ‘And as the rivers that flow from the east to the west merge in the sea and become one with it, forgetting that they were ever separate rivers, so all creatures lose their separateness when they merge into pure Being. Whatever creature it may be – tiger, lion, wolf, boar, mosquito, worm – it only becomes aware of a particular life when it is born into it or is awake. ‘If you strike at the root of a tree, it bleeds but still lives. If you strike at the trunk, the sap oozes, but the tree lives on. The Self as life fills the tree and supports it; it flourishes in happiness gathering food through its roots. However, if life departs from one branch, that branch withers, and when life leaves the whole tree, the entire tree withers. Remember my son, your body dies, but your Self does not.’ Uddalaka told Shvetaketu to bring him a fruit from a nearby banyan tree and to break it open. Shvetaketu did and said, ‘There are seeds inside, all very small.’ ‘Now break one of the seeds and tell me what you see.’ ‘Nothing, Father.’ Uddalaka said, ‘My son, this great banyan tree has grown from a seed so small that you cannot see it. Believe me, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. ‘Now, take this salt and put it in some water and bring it to me tomorrow morning.’ The next morning Shvetaketu looked for the salt but couldn’t find it because it had dissolved. Uddalaka asked his son to taste the water. ‘Salty,’ he said, adding, ‘the salt will always remain in the water.’ “That’s right. The salt permeates the water, just like the Self. Even though we cannot see it, the Self is within all things and there is nothing that doesn’t come from Him. “This invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is reality. That is truth. And you, Shvetaketu, you – are that!’

‘I know not what he knows, but I know he knows’

Thus the pupil fulfilled from the Master goes

A learned visitor had darshan of Swami Sivananda when he expressed to Swamiji certain doubts which Swamiji readily cleared. He first said, “Swamiji, I want to know something about Samadhi. The scriptures say that a person who has attained Samadhi would not publicly say that he has attained it. Then, how are we to know that such and such a man has attained the highest wisdom or not?"

Swamiji replied, "We can know it by observing his actions, behaviour, talk, equal vision, peace, bliss, perfect serenity, balanced mind under all conditions, cosmic love, and steady wisdom."

"How can he himself know that he has attained Samadhi?" was the visitors next question.

Swamiji answered. "If his experience tallies with the experience of the seers of the Upanishads, if he enjoys absolute bliss and peace, if he maintains unperturbed serenity of mind under the worst situations, if his doubts have been rent asunder, if he beholds unity in diversity, if he feels that he is the self in all beings and the whole world is his body, if he is perfectly free from desires for sensual objects, Raga, Dvesha, egoism, anger, lust, mineness, pride and attachment, he can be sure that he has attained Realisation."