What are the four things that stops you from knowing yourself? What are the four eshana or craving?
1. Putreshana – My son. my daughter my my my..
2. Viteshana – money, property
3. Lokeshana – Craving for fame, recognition, for reputation.
4. Jevashana – I want to live forever.
These eshana obstructs us on our path.
~ Sri Sri
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There are four levels of speech – para, pashyanti, madhyama, vaikari. Human beings speak only the fourth level. The language we speak is vaikari.
It is the most manifest form of speech. Subtler than vaikari, is madhyama. Even before you say it, the thought form is cognized. When you catch it at that level, it is madhyama. Pashyanti is cognitive. There is no need for spoken words. Para is the untold, un-manifest knowledge that is beyond.
The whole universe is spherical. It was never born nor will it ever die. It is anadi, beginningless, and anantha – endless. Then what is the job of Brahma, the creator? They say there are many, many Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in every yuga (age). In time and space this keeps happening. So what is the source of this creation?
Knowledge lies beyond the akasha. Knowledge lies beyond the five elements. Vedas which were cognized are not vaikari. This cognition is beyond the space.
All the Divine impulses are established in that field which is all permeating. What is akasha? Akasha is described as vyoma, vyapti – it means all-permeating, all-pervading. What is it that is beyond akasha? It is unimaginable to think of something that is beyond space. Everything is contained in akasha, all the four elements are in akasha.
The most gross is earth, then water, fire, air and space. Air is finer, subtler than fire. Space is the subtlest. What is it that is beyond even akasha? That is the mind, intellect, ego and the Mahat tattva. This is tattva gyan – knowing the principle of the universe. Unless you know the principle of the universe, you cannot know the Self. When you go beyond the akasha, it is an experiential field. The whole realm begins beyond the akasha. The ancient seers have spoken about the relationship between the substance and its quality. There is a very interesting debate – if we can separate the quality from the substance.
The whole philosophy is very interesting and the conclusion was that you cannot separate the quality from the substance. Can the sweetness in sugar be separated from sugar? Will it still remain sugar? Can heat and light be separated from fire? Will it still be fire after that? What brings the quality into the substance? What comes first – the quality or the substance? There are many questions like this. The subtler you go, you reach paramevyoman.
All the devis and devtas reside there, in that space. What is the use of knowing the vedic hymns and mantras without knowing the parame vyoman, without understanding the principles of the universe? Swarupa is the quality of that space. It cannot be fully translated in English. Swarupa is that consciousness.
From Swarupa, happens the Sputa or explosion from which creation flows – Svarita, and manifests with name and form – Sakaara. All the millions of beings in the creation were formed from the Swarupa.
The four elements, except space, create turbulence from time to time. If you depend on them for support, they will shake you and lead you back to space
– Sri Sri
SAMADHI
A single cell becomes the whole body. Somewhere it is nails, somewhere it is nose and tongue but all is a manifestation of a single cell. In the same way, the entire universe is made up of a single substance.
Remembering and FEELING that everything is made up of one thing heals the body and mind and balances the doshas in the body (vata, pitta and kapha). This is savitarka samadhi. Savitarka samadhi means equanimity with logical awareness.
Deep sleep can be jada samadhi (equanimity with inertia). And hence, sleep is the main factor in healing. Even medicines will not help without sleep and rest.
Samadhi with ecstasy has no logic. This is nirvitarka samadhi, awareness with bliss.
Nirvitarka samadhi is even beyond the experience of bliss, undefinable beyond words.
~ Sri Sri
There are five secrets which are sacred and are guarded by the subtle beings and angels in this creation.
They are:
Jananarahasya (the secret of birth): Birth is a secret. How a soul takes a body, the criteria for selecting the place of birth, time of birth, type of body, parents, etc are all a secret.
Maranarahasya (the secret of death): Death is a highly guarded secret. Death remains a mystery. The process of separation of spirit from matter and its journey from then on is a secret.
Rajarahasya (the royal secret, the secret of ruling): The principles of governing; the principles of maintaining the orderliness in creation are a secret.
Prakritirahasya (the secret of nature): Nature is a mystery. The more you know about nature, the mystery deepens. The more a scientist knows, the more he feels there is much more to know. Science, though appearing to resolve the mystery in creation, has deepened it. The knowledge of particles, wave functions, black holes, the vacuum state, etc have only deepened the mystery.
Mantrarahasya (secret of mantras): The mantras and their effect, influence, method and mode of working are all a mystery. Mantras are the impulses or rhythms of consciousness, which itself is a mystery.
Usually in the West, a secret is shameful and dishonest. But in the East, it is honored and regarded as sacred.
~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Atheism is when you do not believe either in values or in the abstract. When an atheist comes to the guru, what happens? You start experiencing your own form and discover that you are indeed formless, hollow and empty. And this abstract non-form in you becomes more and more concrete. The guru makes the abstract more real and what you thought was solid appears to be more unreal. Sensitivity and subtlety dawn. Perception of love, not as an emotion, but as the substratum of existence, becomes evident. The formless spirit shines through every form in creation and the mystery of life deepens, shattering atheism.
Then the journey begins and it has four stages.
The first stage is Saarupya — to see the formless in the form, seeing God in all the forms. Often, one feels more comfortable seeing God as formless rather than with a form, because with a form, one feels a distance, a duality, a fear of rejection and other limitations. In life all of our interactions are with a form, other than in deep sleep and in samadhi. And, if you do not see God in the form, then the waking part of life remains devoid of the Divine. All those who accept God to be formless use symbols, and perhaps love the symbols more than God himself. If God comes and tells a Christian to leave the cross or a Muslim to drop the crescent, perhaps he may not do it. To begin with, loving the formless is possible only through forms.
The second stage is Saamipya (closeness) — feeling absolutely close to the form you have chosen and reaching out to the formless. This leads to a sense of intimacy with the whole creation. In this stage, one overcomes the fear of rejection and other fears. But this is bound by time and space.
The third stage is Saanidhya — feeling the presence of the Divine by which you transcend the limitations of time and space.
Then the final stage is Saayujya — When you are firmly entrenched in the Divine. It is then you realize you are one with the Divine. There is a total merging with the Beloved and all duality disappears. This is that and that is this. Whether an atheist or believer, he goes through these four stages.
~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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