Commentary on Paramahansa Nityananda's Chidakasha Gita–Number 11
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Chidakasha Gita: Verses 32-36

32. If a building has no doors, we cannot call it a house. Without fire, we cannot heat water. Without air, fire cannot burn. Without food and sleep, a man can live for a few days but without air (breathing), a man cannot live even for a few seconds.

Remember that Nityananda would walk into a house, sit down, and begin speaking these profound things No one was prepared for it, and no one was a stenographer. So in some aphorisms we have bits and pieces put together with a lot missing. Some meanings we can guess at, and others are better left alone. The first sentence is a “leave alone.”

The other sentences simply mean that breath and life are identical. When there is breath there is life, and when there is no breath, there is death. In Sanskrit and the other languages of India, a single word–prana–is used for the two. Breath is the prime trait of all sentient beings. It is an absolute. The next aphorism reveals what Nityananda is working toward.

33. Destruction of the world means transforming it into vayu (air). Raja Yoga is the place of indivisible monism. If you enter the One, you lose sight of the many.

This is one of the golden nuggets of yogic lore that we find in the Chidakasha Gita.

• Destruction of the world means transforming it into vayu (air).

“Dissolving” is a better word than destruction, because nothing is destroyed in essence, only the temporary forms. Maya is the net in which we are caught, the prison which confines us. We do not need to tear it apart or destroy it, we need only make it melt away at the advent of our Self-realization.

We cannot really transform the world–only our idea about the world. The upanishads tell us that everything is Visvaprana, the Universal Prana or Life Force. Vayu is sometimes used in the scriptures to indicate prana in its manifestation as breath. The yogi learns to transmute his body–his private “world”–into breath, into prana itself, for the chitta, the mind-substance, is itself prana-breath. When this is done, then the yogi interacts with the external world as it really is–as prana which he can control and alter. At the end of the evolutionary road he dissolves himself and all ties to the world into Universal Breath and attains liberation. Therefore Nityananda next says:

• Raja Yoga is the place of indivisible monism.

Raja Yoga is the science of Prana, the breath being the main yogic instrument for its accomplishment. It is much more than controlling or refining the breath (for real pranayama is refinement, not control), it is the Way of Unity. As Nityananda indicates here, Raja Yoga both leads to and is the experience of unity with the Self and Brahman. Total unity is its only goal. This is important to recognize, because Raja Yoga involves mastery of our inner and outer life, which inevitably involves the emergence of inner powers which can easily be wasted or misapplied. It is pointless to tell a yogi to “shun the yoga powers” any more than it would be to tell a child to avoid adulthood. Certainly, an adult is subject to many more delusions and addictions than a child, and certainly has the ability to work much more harm to himself and others. Nevertheless, adulthood is inevitable. And so it is with the yogi–these powers will manifest in him. If he keeps his eye upon the goal of liberation in Brahman, those powers will ripen into something more–into spiritual realizations, much the same way that sexual energies conserved are transmuted into far higher and greater forces within the consciousness of the yogi. Both sexual energy (and all the body-energies) and the yogi powers are the ore than can be refined into the gold of Self-realization. Those who misdirect and waste them become lost in the maze of illusion–including illusions of enlightenment. But a worthy Raja Yogi stays intent on Unity and lives in that context alone.

• If you enter the One, you lose sight of the many.

A lot of tiresome people with what Yogananda called “intellectual indigestion” talk on and on about unity and non-duality, their incessant conversation (even lecturing) being an act of confirmed duality in consciousness. A friend of mine once commented about a man who talked constantly on “spiritual” topics: “If you could get to God by talking about God he would have been Self-realized years ago.” But it does not work that way. When we enter the One we do not keep talking about the One, we become the One, and then who is there to talk to about it–or talk to? As Sri Ramakrishna often said: “A salt doll went to sound the ocean but it melted away no sooner had it descended into it. It turned into the same form. Who then was to surface and tell how deep the ocean was?…The sign of perfect wisdom is that a person becomes silent upon its attainment. Then the salt doll of the form of the ego melts in the ocean of Satchidananda (existence-consciousness-bliss) and becomes one with it and not a trace of the feeling of distinction remains.”

This statement of Nityananda is very relevant to the business of helping or “saving” others who are “ignorant”–at least in the view of an ego-based teacher (who of course “has no ego”). When you enter–not just see–the One, then the many are seen as the One. When you enter the light the darkness is gone. One of my acquaintances in India has lived there for a little over fifty years. Since he was European, when Arthur Koestler (hardly known to anyone now, but he was famous them) came to the ashram where he was living, he was asked to speak to him. At one point in the conversation Koestler–who considered himself quite a philosopher–asked Vijayananda if after attaining liberation he would then help others to also attain. Viyananda asked him: “If you are asleep and dreaming you are in prison, do you say to yourself: ‘When I wake up I am going to come back and set these people free’?”

Nityananda continues this in the next aphorism.

34. In the infinite, there is no finite. To a jnani, there is no ajnani; to an ajnani, there is no jnani. If all the children beat a mother, she does not throw them away.

• In the infinite, there is no finite.

Right now there is no finite, even if it is only in the future that we will understand this by experiencing it for ourselves. There is only the Infinite to a jnani. Again, I saw this in Swami Sivananda. I also saw some people that were supposedly “in the Infinite, “but they were only what when I was young we called “wacked out.” Drugs had definitely assisted some of them in this, and some were just fools without any sense or shame at hoodwinking people. An honest man is hard to find, what to say of a man of wisdom–a jnani.

• To a jnani, there is no ajnani; to an ajnani, there is no jnani.

This is a fundamental truth. A jnani does nor regard anyone as ignorant, for ignorance is itself a false appearance, part of the ignorance/wisdom duality (dwandwa). Since the jnani “sees true” he perceives the true nature of all who meet him. His response is one of respect, love, and compassion for their unawareness of their eternal, immortal Self. That is why Sivananda usually addressed his correspondents as “Divine Immortal Self” and closed with the words: “Thine own Self.” This was not a pose or an exercise in “positive thinking.” He spoke as he saw. This was why he could inspire so many to achieve so much in the realm of spirit. He saw and believed absolutely in our divinity, in our perfection. In some wonderful way this was communicated to us and we began to share in his vision. What joy we had! No one felt he was a sinner or unworthy. Depression and discouragement were not possible in his presence–just the opposite.

Conversely, to the ignorant (ajnani) there are no wise (jnani). These are the sour and bitter “skeptics” who go around saying: “I am a ‘doubting Thomas,’” conveniently forgetting that Thomas was wrong to doubt and in a short time became a fervent believer. They range from those to the kind that insist there are no true gurus or teachers and even make websites denouncing everyone they have known or not known, going to amazing extremes to prove every one a fraud–for example, claiming that Vivekananda was a fake because he had diabetes. Many years ago, Dr. Rotundi, a renowned vegan exponent in Los Angeles, severely reprimanded me for planning to go to India, assuring me that there were no masters there because they did not “warn people against dairy products.” Deliver me. And then there are the ones that just never listen to anyone–no principles or justifications for their deafness; they just do not want to hear because nobody is particularly real to them, including themselves. These are the Misty Flats crowd and they number into the millions.

• If all the children beat a mother, she does not throw them away.

If this is not a disconnected fragment, then Nityananda is saying that it is all a matter of nature. Bad children cannot be unborn, and bad people cannot be rejected by God their Mother-Father. A religion that says otherwise is soul-poison and fit only for rejection. The statement in the Bible (Genesis 6:6,7) that God once killed nearly the entire human race because they were evil and he “repented” that he had created them, is outright evil and a blasphemy toward God. (I leave to you to decide if it is authentic or a corruption–the Essenes and Christian Gnostics thought it was a perversion of the original text–as was nearly all of what we now call the Old Testament.) Anyhow, both jnanis and ajnanis are children of the Infinite and nothing can change that. The jnanis have rediscovered the fact and the ajnanis have not. For that reason the jnanis can never fault the ajnanis, for they were the same at one time, and they know that those who now sleep shall awaken. All is well, as Jesus told Julian of Norwich.

35. You must not leave the feet of a guru. Your mind should not flicker like the reflection of the sun in the shaking water.

Nityananda is not telling us to perpetually grovel at the feet of a guru–something a true guru would never allow. He is telling us to stay sitting at the feet of a guru and learning–not adoring vacuously.

Here is an example from the life of Jesus that applies exactly to the situation: “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42)

Think of all the busybodying “discples” you know, who are running here and there “serving the guru”–or at least the guru’s organization (which in time will be identified with the guru so that whoever questions or leaves it will be guilty of doubting or rejecting the guru). They are selling books (they have never “had time” to read) and magazines (ditto), arranging seminars and world tours, setting up interviews with the rich, the powerful, and the media, immersed in busywork (oops! karma yoga) to avoid facing this utter emptiness (and sometimes the intention to become a big cog in the guru’s machine and maybe in time succeed the guru…). Whether the guru is a fake or not is irrelevant–they are so frantically cramming activity into their lives they could not benefit from the greatest of teachers.

On the other hand there are those that sit their bodies and minds down and listen and learn and apply. These are few. Wherever their body may be, by always following what they have learned, they never leave the feet of the guru. We must be the same in relation to both living and departed teachers whose wisdom we have studied, and in relation to our own soul-intuition, for the ultimate guru is our Self, as Nityananda taught.

Our mind must not waver (“flicker”) like agitated water, but must be steady and calm. Only then can we truly hear and apply the teachings of the wise–and thereby ourselves become wise. “Therefore, Arjuna, become a yogi” (Bhagavad Gita 6:46).

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.