Samādhi Described

MASTER (to the Pundit): “What is samādhi? It is the complete merging of the mind in God-Consciousness.

The Jnāni experiences jada samādhi, in which no trace of ‘I’ is left. The samādhi attained through the path of bhakti is called ‘chetana samādhi’. In this samādhi there remains the conciousness of ‘I’ ― the ‘I’ of the servant-and-Master relationship, of the lover-and-Beloved relationship, of the enjoyer-and-Food relationship. God is the Master; the devotee is the servant. God is the beloved; the devotee is the lover. God is the Food, and the devotee is the enjoyer. ‘I don’t want to be sugar. I want to eat it.’

PUNDIT: “What will happen if God dissolves all of the ‘I’, if He changes the enjoyer himself into sugar?”

MASTER (smiling): “Come, come! Tell me what is in your mind. But don’t the scriptures mention Nārada, Sanaka, Sanatana, Sananda, and Sanatkumara?”

PUNDIT: “Yes, sir. They do.”

MASTER: “Though they were jnanis, yet they kept the ‘I’ of the bhakta. Haven’t you read the Bhagavata?”

PUNDIT: “I have read only part of it, not the whole.”

MASTER: “Pray to God. He is full of compassion. Will He not listen to the words of His devotee? He is the Kalpataru. You will get whatever you desire from Him.”

PUNDIT: “I haven’t thought deeply about these things before. But now I understand.”

MASTER: “God keeps a little of ‘I’ in His devotee even after giving him the Knowledge of Brahman. That ‘I’ is the ‘I of the devotee’, the ‘I of the Jnāni’. Through that ‘I’ the devotee enjoys the infinite play of God.

The pestle was almost worn out with rubbing. Only a little was left. That fell into the underbrush and brought about the destruction of the lunar race, the race of the Yadus.

The vijnāni retains the ‘I of the devotee’, the ‘I of the Jnāni’, in order to taste the Bliss of God and teach people.

The rishis of old had timid natures. They were easily frightened. Do you know their attitude? It was this: ‘Let me somehow get my own salvation; who cares for others?’

A hollow piece of drift-wood somehow manages to float; but it sinks if even a bird sits on it. But Nārada and sages of his kind are like a huge log that not only can float across to the other shore but can carry many animals and other creatures as well. A steamship itself crosses the ocean and also carries people across.

Teachers like Nārada belong to the class of the vijnāni. They were much more courageous than the other rishis. They are like an expert satrancha-player. You must have noticed how he shouts, as he throws the dice: ‘What do I want? Six? No, five! Here is five!’ And every time he throws the dice he gets the number he wants. He is such a clever player! And while playing he even twirls his moustaches.

“A mere Jnāni trembles with fear. He is like an amateur satrancha-player. He is anxious to move his pieces somehow to the safety zone, where they won’t be overtaken by his opponent. But a vijnāni isn’t afraid of anything. He has realized both aspects of God: Personal and Impersonal. He has talked with God. He has enjoyed the Bliss of God. “It is a joy to merge the mind in the Indivisible Brahman through contemplation. And it is also a joy to keep the mind on the Lila, the Relative, without dissolving it in the Absolute.

A mere Jnāni is a monotonous person. He always analyses, saying: ‘It is not this, not this. The world is like a dream.’ But I have ‘raised both my hands’. Therefore I accept everything.

Parable of the weaver woman

Once a woman went to see her weaver friend. The weaver, who had been spinning different kinds of silk thread, was very happy to see her friend and said to her: ‘Friend, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you. Let me get you some refreshments.’ She left the room. The woman looked at the threads of different colours and was tempted. She hid a bundle of thread under one arm. The weaver returned presently with the refreshments and began to feed her guest with great enthusiasm. But, looking at the thread, she realized that her friend had taken a bundle.

Hitting upon a plan to get it back, she said: ‘Friend, it is so long since I have seen you. This is a day of great joy for me.

I feel very much like asking you to dance with me.’ The friend said, ‘Sister, I am feeling very happy too.’ So the two friends began to dance together. When the weaver saw that her friend danced without raising her hands, she said: ‘Friend, let us dance with both hands raised. This is a day of great joy.’ But the guest pressed one arm to her side and danced raising only the other.

The weaver said: ‘How is this, friend? Why should you dance with only one hand raised? Dance with me raising both hands. Look at me. See how I dance with both hands raised.’ But the guest still pressed one arm to her side. She danced with the other hand raised and said with a smile, ‘This is all I know of dancing.’

The Master continued: “I don’t press my arm to my side. Both my hands are free. I am not afraid of anything. I accept both the Nitya and the Lila, both the Absolute and the Relative.

The 2 kinds of ego

“I said to Keshab Sen that he would not be able to realize God without renouncing the ego. He said, ‘Sir, in that case I should not be able to keep my organization together.’ Thereupon I said to him: ‘I am asking you to give up the “unripe ego”, the “wicked ego”. But there is no harm in the “ripe ego”, the “child ego”, the “servant ego”, the “ego of Knowledge”.

“The worldly man’s ego, the ‘ignorant ego’, the ‘unripe ego’, is like a thick stick. It divides, as it were, the water of the Ocean of Satchidananda. But the ‘servant ego’, the ‘child ego’, the ’ego of Knowledge’, is like a line on the water.

One clearly sees that there is only one expanse of water. The dividing line makes it appear that the water has two parts, but one clearly sees that in reality there is only one expanse of water.

“Sankaracharya kept the ’ego of Knowledge’ in order to teach people. God keeps in many people the ’ego of a Jnāni’ or the ’ego of a bhakta’ even after they have attained Brahmajnana.

Hanuman, after realizing God in both His Personal and His Impersonal aspect, cherished toward God the attitude of a servant, a devotee. He said to Rāma: ‘O Rāma, sometimes I think that You are the whole and I am a part of You. Sometimes I think that You are the Master and I am Your servant. And sometimes, Rāma, when I contemplate the Absolute, I see that I am You and You are I.’

“Yaśoda became grief-stricken at being separated from Krishna, and called on Radha.

Radha saw Yaśoda’s suffering and revealed herself to her as the divine Śakti, which was her real nature. She said to Yaśoda: ‘Krishna is Chidatma, Absolute Consciousness, and I am ChitŚakti, the Primal Power. Ask a boon of Me: Yaśoda said: ‘I don’t want Brahmajnana.

Please grant me only this: that I may see the form of Gopala in my meditation; that I may always have the company of Krishna’s devotees; that I may always serve the devotees of God; that I may always chant God’s name and glories.’ “Once the gopis felt a great desire to see the forms of the Lord. So Krishna asked them to dive into the water of the Jamuna. No sooner did they dive into the water than they all arrived at Vaikuntha. There they saw the form of the Lord endowed with His six celestial splendours. But they did not like it. They said to Krishna: ‘We want to see Gopala and serve Him. Please grant us that boon alone. We don’t want anything else.’ “Before His departure for Mathura, Krishna wanted to give the Knowledge of Brahman to the gopis. He said to them: ‘I dwell both inside and outside all beings. Why should you see only one form of Mine?’ The gopis cried in chorus: ‘O Krishna, do You want to go away from us? Is that why You are instructing us in Brahmajnana?’

“Do you know the attitude of the gopis? It is this: ‘We are Radha’s and Radha is ours.’ "

A DEVOTEE: “Does this ‘I’ of the devotee never disappear altogether?”

MASTER: “Yes, it disappears at times. Then one attains the Knowledge of Brahman and goes into samādhi. I too lose it, but not for all the time. In the musical scale there are 7 notes: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni. But one cannot keep one’s voice on ’ni’ a long time.

One must bring it down again to the lower notes. I pray to the Divine Mother, ‘Mother, do not give me Brahmajnana.’ Formerly believers in God with form used to visit me a great deal. Then the modern Brahmajnanis began to arrive. During that period I used to remain unconscious in samādhi most of the time. Whenever I regained consciousness, I would say to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother, please don’t give me Brahmajnana.’”