SELF KNOWLEDGE

CONTENTS

1. PRAYER

2. LOVE AND SELF KNOWLEDGE

3. IN CONVERSATION

4. SNIPPETS OF WISDOM

5. CHILDREN'S CORNER

6. SUBHASHITANI

VOLUME :1 OCTOBER 2020 NO. 1

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SELFKNOWLEDGE 2020

वागथा%&वव संपृ+ौ वागथ%-&तप/ये।

जगतः &पतरौ व6े पाव%तीपरमे9रौ॥ १-१

In order to gain mastery in expressing the word and its meaning , I worship the Primeval Parents of the Universe , Parvati and Parameshvara , who are as insepara-ble as the word from the meaning .”

- Raghuvamsam (Kalidasa)

अपा=णपादो ऽहमCचEशG+ः पHाIचJःु स LणोIकण%ः। अ &व &वजाना&म &व&व+Oपो न चाPQ बेचा मम CचSदाहम्

“ I am without hands and legs , of incomprehensible power. I see without eyes, hear without ears. Devoid of all forms I am the knower of everything and there is none that knows Me. I am the Ever Pure - Knowledge.”

- Kaivalyopanishad

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LOVE AND SELF KNOWLEDGE

Swami Suddhananda

The other day I came across a nice statement. And the statement is : One may give something without loving a person. But if one loves, one cannot stop giving. A gift can be an expression of love. But a gift cannot be equated with love. A song can be the expression of devotion. But no song can be equated with devotion. A saint, Tyagaraja or Meerabai, can sing but by singing no-body can become a saint. Giving and loving cannot be equated.

But to give, first one should have plenty or something at one’s own disposal. Similarly, to share love, one must have enough love in one’s heart. In any relationship when somebody says that he loves somebody, what he really means is how much pleasure he/she gets. If the person does not derive pleasure, he drops out of that relationship. That is why the Upanishads, the an-cient most literature in the world, reveals a timeless truth by declaring that everybody loves any-thing only for their own sake and never for the sake of the object (Atmanastu Kamaya Sarvam Priyam Bhavati).

Average man is not prepared to accept this reality. Many a people live under the spell of a fantastic delusion that they ‘love’ others when the fact of the matter is that they are the first beneficiaries . If we analyse we shall see that we love something or somebody as long as ‘that’ gives us some pleasure, satisfaction or security. The moment the sweet causes diabetes, the wealth invites robbery and death, the relationship causes suspicion, anxiety and insecurity, we drop those like hot potatoes. What it goes to reveal is that we all, the humanity itself, love our-selves most before we love anything or anybody.

And this is no crime. We are so much fed with the diet of ideals and idealism that we shall refuse to accept this most obvious but uncomfortable truth. When we analyse we shall see that this self-love indeed is a blessing and sooner a person discovers it the better it is for him and the world around. How long must we cheat ourselves and the world in the name of loving all others when all along we love and care for our own comfort!

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LOVE AND SELF KNOWLEDGE

Swami Suddhananda

There is nothing unnatural about it as a loving fulfilled person alone can share the fullness of love that he/she is enjoying. We have been fed with the idea that we must burn as candles to provide light to others. We highlight the suffering and the denial of a person to give comfort to others. Then the giver becomes a saint and the receiver becomes a helpless person to be sacri-ficed at the altar of somebody’s saintliness. How ridiculous! Please ask yourself a question. Will you like to receive something from somebody who denies everything to himself and his fam-ily, sells his household things, maybe starves to gather something, to give you the required help?

If you are sensitive you cannot accept it as you will not like somebody else to suffer so much for your sake. In case there is somebody, who has plenty and does not even remember how anything comes and goes, it will be easier to accept something from such a person. Such a person will not demand recognition, a sainthood or any special mention as he is part of the natural harmony where everything gives, gives and gives. The river gives water. The mountains give minerals. The moon and sun give light. The cow gives milk. The tree gives fruits. Everything , gives and gives. It is only man who grabs, grabs and grabs. Even in the name of loving, giving, sharing he/she grabs importance, recognition, fame and fulfils a need to be needed.

In order to love, one must find that love within one’s own self. In fact the love is not ‘within’ or ‘without’ in something or somebody. It is one’s own nature. That is why everybody looks for himself in any loving relationship. When in love with something or somebody, the person finds the pleasure in himself. He/she is at rest with himself/herself. But unable to recognize that, they attribute that love to the external something or a passing inner mood or thought.

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“Knowing himself as Yourself , God, man goes beyond not only his body and mind but also Your body and Your mind - the entire gross and subtle creation that includes his body and mind !”—Swami Suddhananda

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LOVE AND SELF KNOWLEDGE

Swami Suddhananda

Let us analyse an experience. We say that we miss somebody or something. Especially we miss people we love or things we love. And what does ‘missing’ mean? It means, the thoughts are there but the object is not there. We cannot miss somebody without a thought of that person. THOUGH IT LOOKS THAT WE MISS THE ‘OBJECT OF THOUGHT’ WHEN ‘THE THOUGHT OF THE OBJECT’ FILLS THE MIND, AT THAT TIME WE REALLY MISS BE-ING WITH OUR OWN SELVES – THE CONSCIOUSNESS. That is why we do not look for a thought to miss somebody or something. We are comfortable with ourselves until the thought arrives! Please think it over. The moment the thought of the object reminds the object of the thought, the ‘I’ hankers to be with the object of the thought to get rid of the thought of the ob-ject. At that time it so happens that along with the thoughts, the ‘I’, the thinker too drops out to be left alone, one with the Consciousness – one’s own self!

That unconscious resolution makes somebody happy for a moment until another thought comes and invokes the thinker to own up the thought to miss the object of the thought. The roller coaster ride continues and man moves up and down with various moods. Alternately, he loves and hates, likes and dislikes, smiles and cries. His search for love continues. His search for himself continues.

It is therefore essential to study, to contemplate to know about one’s own self and this is not a selfish pursuit. If you wish to be a life guard on the seashore, you better learn swimming before attempting to rescue the drowning people. Just being emotional, without knowing swimming, if you jump into the wave to rescue the drowning person then instead of one, the ocean will throw two dead bodies to the shore! Even when hundreds are drowning, you must go to learn swim-ming in a pool – with the sole purpose of returning to the seashore to be the life guard to rescue the drowning people. Nobody must brand such people are selfish. Yes, they are selfish if they choose to be in the pool even after learning swimming.

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LOVE AND SELF KNOWLEDGE

Swami Suddhananda

When people brag about loving without discovering the love in themselves, they complicate many lives including their own. They, loveless in themselves, demand their pound of flesh for every little gesture of love. The gestures – a kind word, a little help, a smile, a gift, little food or attention etc. – can never be equated with love. Those are empty but the person behind de-mands his pound of flesh in terms of obligation, recognition, gratitude, a slavery of a soul. As even an unhappy man can never make others happy, so also an empty loveless man can never share love with others. In case the unhappy man provides a moment of happiness, he will de-mand his price to make himself happy. So also an empty loveless person will demand his com-fort to provide an accidental or an incidental moment of love.

That such a person only loves himself can be easily deciphered. He does not love his own fa-ther, mother, brother or sister who have been with him for the longest time. But for the sake of his own love or beloved, he/she can give up anybody and anything. Even at the end of the day, such a lover or beloved can be divorced or dumped just because the individual never got the comfort for himself/herself.

We equate love with comfort. Since there are million different things to provide comfort in mil-lion different moods, some people claim ‘to love’ by providing those comfortable commodities or moods. Some people provided food to the striving, health care to the diseased, clothes to the naked, attention to one staring for attention, riches to the poor, faith to the faithless and call themselves as the ones who love everybody. Yes, one can do all these when one is one with that love – his own self, but by providing the help, often people, the providers themselves are the first beneficiaries of love and care. Such people do not share to share, love to love but to be loved for a moment.

With total Self Awareness, where a person is aware of himself as the source of the Love, the Happiness, loving and caring flow for their own sake and there is no motive or reason. It is like asking the moon, the sun, the trees or the river as to why they shine, bear fruits or carry water? What else can they do? There is no other reason but to give, give and give.

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SELFKNOWLEDGE 2020

LOVE AND SELF KNOWLEDGE

Swami Suddhananda

Every tree does it. Every river does it. But when it comes to human being, instead of helping everybody to discover the Love, the Happiness as their own nature, we make a single person a saint, a loving or extraordinary and then perpetuate most unloving, uncharitable violence to see to it that nobody is greater than that person and everybody must be a follower after that. No-body can be as wonderful or as benevolent as the first one or the last one. In their scheme of things, poverty should never come to an end, or else, there shall be no saints to show their kind-ness! It is like creating ‘a’ mothers, fathers, lovers, brothers, husbands etc. ‘day’, so that a lot of sales are undertaken. It matters not that the human relationship is thrown into winds, but the sales must zoom. The persons may not be aware of themselves, but they must continue to do good work all for others’ sake! How ridiculous! Who is selfish? The one who is interested in knowing himself so that he can really help others for their own sake or the person who helps others to find a little satisfaction for his own sake?

It is time people learn ‘to be’ the Love, the Happiness, themselves to share love and happiness with others. Let them stop burning like candles to provide light to others! When ‘I am the Love’, ‘I am the Happiness’, what else can I give to the world if not Love and Happiness! But the one who needs food , clothing, shelter, education, medicine immediately shall be given those things that they do not have. They ‘are’ Love and Happiness and nobody can give them that by giving them anything in cash and kind including kindness! Those who claim that they ‘have’ love and not ‘are’ love, they shall barter the in-exchangeable to confuse others.

Everybody must find ‘Love’ as his own nature and then share the shareable, the emotions and the things without putting a price tag of any kind on it! Love ‘is’ Self Knowledge. Self Knowl-edge is Love. There is no Love ‘and’ Self Knowledge! Be the Love. Be the Self!

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IN CONVERSATION

Student : What is the significance of snake/serpent on Lord Shiva ?

Swamiji : Uncontrolled ‘Ahamkara’ is like a poisonous snake , whereas controlled ‘Ahamkara’ i.e, the ‘I’ which has seen its reality , is no more a curse , it becomes a blessing . Now it has be-come an adornment . It no more strives to possess this creation but is contended to be just a part of the Absolute . In the vastness of the body SIVA , the tiny individuality of mine is nothing but a lovely snake , a serpent . It no more hisses, injures or poisons anything in this creation . It is just happily relaxed in the body of God Himself.

SNIPPETS OF WISDOM

“If God’s apparent mysterious absence from a conscious presence called creation is to be ex-plained , the message must come from within and there , all that we have picked up in time and space must be relegated to their sources . Thus the greatest learning becomes unlearning , the greatest teaching becomes ‘being’ “.

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“ Immortality needs no form and no form can be Immortal—Swami Suddhananda

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CHILDREN'S CORNER

Once on a cold winter day, Akbar and Birbal were walking by a lake. Akbar stopped and put his finger into the freezing water and immediately took it out saying, “I don’t think anyone can sus-tain a night in this cold water”. Birbal took that as a challenge and said that he would find someone who can do it. Akbar promised a sum of 1000 gold coins to whoever could spend a night standing in the cold water of the lake. Soon, Birbal found a poor man who agreed to undertake the challenge for the 1000 gold coins. Guarded by two royal guards, the poor man spent the en-tire night standing in the freezing water. In the morning, the poor man was taken to court for the reward. On being asked by the King how he could stand in freezing water, the man replied, “My lord, I kept looking at a lamp that was burning at a distance, and spent my entire night looking at it”. On learning this, the Emperor said, “This man is not worthy of the reward as he could manage to stand in the lake because he was getting warmth from the lamp”. The poor man felt doomed and heart-broken. He reached out to Birbal for help. Birbal didn’t go to the court the next day. Akbar visited Birbal to find the reason. To his amusement, the King found Birbal sit-ting beside the fire with a pot hanging almost 6 feet above it. On being enquired, Birbal said, “I am cooking khichadi, my lord”. Akbar started laughing and said that was impossible. Birbal said, “It is possible my King. If a poor man can stay warm by simply looking at the lamp burn-ing at a distance, I can cook this khichadi the same way.” Akbar understood Birbal’s point and rewarded the poor man for completing the challenge.

SUBHASHITANI

गुणायUे दोषाः सुजनवदन ेदजु%नमुखे गुणा दोषायU ेतXददम&प नो &वYयपदम् । महामेघः [ार ं&पब&त कु\ते वा]र मधुर ं

फणी [ीर ंपी`ा वम&त गरलं दःुसहतरम ्॥ Defects turn into virtues when they come from the good persons. Virtues turn into defects when they come from wicked. This is not an occasion to be surprised. The great cloud drinks salty wa-ter and makes rain water sweet. The serpent drinks milk, but emits intolerable poison.

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