A Commentary on The Chidakasha Gita, by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Nityananda on the Mind

36. The sea water is boundless; the tank water has a boundary. Our mind must be like the tank water. Mind is the cause of good and evil. A man may be good and bad according to his good or bad thoughts. God does not do good or evil to any man. The reason is, intelligence and knowledge are the divine faculties in man. A man protected by good thoughts cannot be harmed even by a cannon shot. Without yoga, liberation from karma is impossible.

Before analyzing this aphorism I need to point out that Nityananda is talking about the manas and buddhi conjoined, thus making up what we normally mean by “mind.”

• The sea water is boundless; the tank water has a boundary. Our mind must be like the tank water.

Our intention as sadhakas is to return to the Infinite, but we make a mistake understandable in people brought up in the West. Just as we think “eternity” is time without end, when in reality it transcends time--is beyond it--in the same way we think of Infinity as being infinitely big--without boundaries because it is too large to be encompassed--when actually it is beyond large or small. Even though it encompasses everything, it does not do so in a spatial sense, but in consciousness. Many yogis worry about their progress in meditation because they do not swell out like a cosmic balloon, but instead become more and more intent inwardly, deepening their awareness. They will themselves often quote: “The kingdom of heaven is within you” (Luke 17:21), but then forget that when they sit to meditate.

In an article entitled “Different States of Samadhi” (East-West, April, 1933), Yogananda says: “In the most advanced, or Nirbikalpa Samadhi state, the soul does not expand itself into the big Spirit, but realizes itself and Spirit as existing together.” Although it is usual for a yogi to have some experience of savikalpa samadhi, it is possible to almost right away pass to the nirvikalpa state in meditation and work within it for realization. Yogananda said that his greatest disciple, Sister Gyanamata, had gone far beyond the savikalpa state without ever experiencing it. It is in this context that Nityananda tells us that our mind must be like the water in a reservoir--within bounds so we can work on deepening our consciousness and discovering the Pearl of the Self that is with us. Otherwise we are in danger of “spacing out” and just becoming melty and fuzzy around the edges.

Do you know yogis that somehow cannot pull their minds together and focus? Their minds shift in focus and out of focus seemingly of themselves, whimsically, the yogis being unable to direct them. It is their meditation practice that is at fault. They think they are being “spiritual” and beyond materiality, but they are in grave danger of keeping on until they are nothing but a mass of silly putty. I knew a man that lost the ability to focus his eyes through prolonged practice of a wrong meditation technique. When I began meditating I got so tired of ignoramuses telling me that meditation was dangerous, but after years of experience and observation I realized that meditation--wrong meditation--can be very dangerous, indeed. I saw many people seriously harmed through false systems of meditation--all of which were marketed as the highest and the best. Some became mentally ill, and others became physically and mentally impaired to varying degrees. Many just became pious Sillies and liked it that way.

So we must realize that meditation should help us to gather in our mental energies, then still and focus them. When the mind matures in yoga, expansion will naturally follow as does the growth of a child into adulthood, but until then it needs confinement within--so it can eventually expand within.

• Mind is the cause of good and evil.

We have to conceive or think good or evil before we can do good or evil. That is why purification and mastery of the mind is the yogi’s primary concern all along the pathway. The mind is neutral. It is our will that determines its character. We can turn it to either side. If we let it drift, it will inevitably turn completely to folly and evil. That is the problematic condition of birth on this planet in a human body. It has a long past, reaching far back into many incarnations. But since it is under the power of the will, we have the ability to turn it around and make it an instrument of good. A lot of deluded yoga wannabes get all obsessed with fasting, diet (especially “mucousless”) and physical detoxification. Realization does not come at the colonic parlor! It is all in the mind from beginning to end. Yes, the fore-mentioned things can be great helps, but they are only helps--not the one thing needed. Why fuss about oars when you have no boat? As Sri Ramakrishna said: “The mind is everything.”

• A man may be good and bad according to his good or bad thoughts.

Nityananda is not saying that actions do not count, but that the mind, being the root of action, determines the character of our whole life. That is why Solomon said: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). (The Hebrew word leb means mind and intelligence–buddhi.) The mind is the source of life itself--it IS life.

• God does not do good or evil to any man.

Nityananda has not changed the subject. He means that all good or evil comes to us from ourselves, from our mind, and that God has nothing to do with it whatsoever. Therefore the Gita says: “Do not say: ‘God gave us this delusion.’ You dream you are the doer, you dream that action is done, you dream that action bears fruit. It is your ignorance, it is the world’s delusion that gives you these dreams. The Lord is everywhere and always perfect: what does He care for man’s sin or the righteousness of man? The Atman is the light: the light is covered by darkness: this darkness is delusion: that is why we dream. When the light of the Atman drives out our darkness that light shines forth from us, a sun in splendor, the revealed Brahman. The devoted dwell with Him, they know Him always there in the heart, where action is not. He is all their aim. Made free by His Knowledge from past uncleanness of deed or of thought, they find the place of freedom, the place of no return” (Bhagavad Gita 5:14-17).

• The reason is, intelligence and knowledge are the divine faculties in man.

Intelligence (buddhi) and knowledge (jnana) are divine powers inherent in us. They are the highest levels of our being which in their totally purified (shuddhasattwa; vishuddha) state actually “touch” Brahman and act as a conduit through which the Divine Life descends and transforms us. Eventually they themselves merge into Brahman and are revealed as Brahman.

• A man protected by good thoughts cannot be harmed even by a cannon shot.

This has been seen literally in the lives of great masters. In his autobiography, Yogananda wrote this about Sadasiva Brahmendra:

“Many quaint stories of Sadasiva, a lovable and fully-illumined master, are still current among the South Indian villagers. Immersed one day in samadhi on the bank of the Kaveri River, Sadasiva was seen to be carried away by a sudden flood. Weeks later he was found buried deep beneath a mound of earth. As the villagers’ shovels struck his body, the saint rose and walked briskly away.

“Sadasiva never spoke a word or wore a cloth. One morning the nude yogi unceremoniously entered the tent of a Mohammedan chieftain. His ladies screamed in alarm; the warrior dealt a savage sword thrust at Sadasiva, whose arm was severed. The master departed unconcernedly. Overcome by remorse, the Mohammedan picked up the arm from the floor and followed Sadasiva. The yogi quietly inserted his arm into the bleeding stump. When the warrior humbly asked for some spiritual instruction, Sadasiva wrote with his finger on the sands: ‘Do not do what you want, and then you may do what you like.’”

Friends have told me of the twentieth-century Ethiopian master Abdul Messia whom they knew personally. They said that during the Second World War he would walk leisurely between the blazing guns of the Axis and Allies and not be touched. Cobras were tame with him, and wild animals of the desert would not harm him. As was said of his Master, Jesus (for Abdul Messia means Servant of Christ): “He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him” (Mark 1:13). In the painting of Jesus kept in the Himis Monastery in Ladakh, he is sitting in meditation surrounded by jungle beasts who are tamed by his holiness.

• Without yoga, liberation from karma is impossible.

Why? Because karma is also an aspect of the mind, and yoga alone purifies and elevates the mind-substance (chitta) itself. Since karma is conditioning of the mind, yoga is needed to decondition the mind and bring it into alignment with the ever-free Self.

We recently came across a few articles which we want to share with our readers.

Vegetarians are more intelligent, says study

An article from the London Evening Standard posts some interesting facts from a recent article in the British Mediacal Journal about the IQs of vegetarians. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

“Frequently dismissed as cranks, their fussy eating habits tend to make them unpopular with dinner party hosts and guests alike.

“But now it seems they may have the last laugh, with research showing vegetarians are more intelligent than their meat-eating friends.

“A study of thousands of men and women revealed that those who stick to a vegetarian diet have IQs that are around five points higher than those who regularly eat meat.”

Further:

“The researchers, from the University of Southampton, tracked the fortunes of more than 8,000 volunteers for 20 years....analysis of the results showed those who were brainiest as children were more likely to have become vegetarian as adults, shunning both meat and fish.

“The typical adult veggie had a childhood IQ of around 105 - around five points higher than those who continued to eat meat as they grew up.

“The vegetarians were also more likely to have gained degrees and hold down high-powered jobs.”

The article has other interesting observations which can be read here.

The Theft of Yoga

Aseem Shikla, co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation, recently touched off a firestorm by writing an illuminating article on the distortion of yoga in America and the West, divorcing it from Hinduism and its spiritual connotations. His article, The Theft of Yoga, published in the Washington Post and Newsweek Online, sparked annoyed responses from those who wish to repackage for a secular audience, and make a nice profit at the same time. Here are an excerpt from the article:

“Why is yoga severed in America's collective consciousness from Hinduism? Yoga, meditation, ayurvedic natural healing, self-realization--they are today's syntax for New Age, Eastern, mystical, even Buddhist, but nary an appreciation of their Hindu origins. It is not surprising, then, that Hindu schoolchildren complain that Hinduism is conflated only with caste, cows, exoticism and polytheism--the salutary contributions and philosophical underpinnings lost and ignored. The severance of yoga from Hinduism disenfranchises millions of Hindu Americans from their spiritual heritage and a legacy in which they can take pride.

“Hinduism, as a faith tradition, stands at this pass a victim of overt intellectual property theft, absence of trademark protections and the facile complicity of generations of Hindu yogis, gurus, swamis and others that offered up a religion's spiritual wealth at the altar of crass commercialism.”

Read the full article here.

Monkey Helps Blind People to Drink

A friend sent us the following image from an Indian newspaper which we thought worth sharing with our readers, which we recently posted in the Atma Jyoti Blog. The caption from the photograph reads:

“Two blind people wanted to drink water at the RagiGudda temple, Bangalore. When they were unable to operate the tap, this mother monkey opened the tap for them, allowed them to drink water, drank some water herself and then closed the tap before leaving the scene.”

We have recently posted a large segment of Swami Nirmalananda's Commentary on Paramahansa Nityananda's Chidakasha Gita. You can now read these online at:

• Commentary on Verses 52-55
• Commentary on Verses 56-62
• Commentary on Verses 63-66
• Commentary on Verses 67-70
• Commentary on Verses 71-80
• Commentary on Verses 81-92
  

Below are some of the latest articles from Atma Jyoti Blog:

• Who is a Real Yogi or Sannyasi?
• Nityananda on Aspects of Meditation
• How to Develop Intuition by Paramhansa Yogananda
• Improvements at the Atma Jyoti Blog
• Can the Unknowable Be Known?

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