Home Comfort

Part Two

Our home is full of freedom, comfort—everything. It is a place where there is a natural transaction of faith, love, affection, etc. It is inconceivable. The Upanisads say, “Don’t venture to test the unthinkable plane with your reasoning.” That plane really is beyond the capacity of your thought. It is under a different set of laws. Your mathematical calculations and conclusions in this world are acquainted with points, planes, and solids—at present you are a man in the world of solids, and you have some limited association with planes and points in a somewhat abstract way—then how can you calculate and judge about higher things of which you have no knowledge? The ways of living and the laws of that country are all unknown to you, so you cannot try to debate about that. That plane is of quite a different nature. If your understanding is limited to the laws of water, how can you judge about air? Similarly, if you are familiar only with the laws of air, how can you make any calculation within the sphere of ether? Therefore, don’t rush to bring within your experimental laboratory the items which are beyond the capacity of your thinking, for that will be foolish.

Higher things do exist, but the general man in this world has no knowledge about them. We are indeed experiencers and have some knowledge but only to a particular degree and standard. We cannot venture to calculate what is beyond our reach. But if those who actually have experience of that plane come to us and give us some information, then we can make some comparison, “This gentleman of a particular experience of ether has written in this way, another gentleman who has experience and has also experimented about ether has written in another particular manner.” In this way we can gain some understanding from their investigation and their real connection with the subject matter.

In the section of those investigating about telescopes, we can make a comparison of their findings. The experience of one researcher with his telescope is of a certain type and we can also learn about the experience of others with their particular telescopes. With the information available to us from their actual connection with the telescopes and their experiments, we may be able to conclude that, perhaps, a certain telescope was more powerful, another more powerful in a particular field, etc. So, we have some limited capacity to compare what has been discovered beyond our senses by means of the telescope, even though we ourselves may not have a telescope.

The subject of the higher things discovered by the mental “telescope,” or the soul’s “telescope,” has been dealt with in the scriptures. This subject matter is known to saints, and we are to take their help in order to have entrance within that land. We are not at present in the position to have experience of the higher plane, but later, by the help of saints and scriptures, when we ourselves have that type of telescope, we will be able to have such higher experience.

sve svehadhikare ya nistha sagunah parikirttitah

“To pay attention to your own plane is admirable.”

achintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet

“Don’t let the argumentative spirit overshadow everything.” Argument is not all in all: it is not that it must be the resort of every belief. The spiritual realm is achintya, inconceivable, but still we are to try to understand things according to our capacity, faith, and realisation. Above all, we have to accommodate within our mind that sweetness is sweet and truth is truth—however strong it may be, we should not take any standard from here and apply it to that higher realm.

If one has no eyes but another one can see, the blind man will naturally seek help from the one who has vision. We are also blind to what is within ourselves, otherwise what is the necessity of consulting a doctor? The doctor can see what we cannot: he will diagnose and then we will undergo treatment. Naturally, we will feel respect and give him something for his assistance—it is not unreasonable.

The guru is the specialist doctor. We will understand his qualification when we come to see that what he says is real and not imaginary. Such vision will depend upon the degree of awakenment of the eye. If one who is blind is treated by a capable doctor, he will gradually perceive directly, “Yes, I am beginning to see something. I now have some eye experience.” From that time on, he won’t care for the speculative opinions of other blind people, but he will have his direct capacity to see. With the coming of sight he can understand that the application of the medicine has some real effect.

Scientific understanding is also similar. In earlier days when Faraday discovered electricity, many people laughed, “What is this? It is mere curiosity. What utility can we have from this electricity?” I once read an account of Faraday demonstrating an experiment to show the effect of his discovery. He generated electricity with a machine and then showed small pieces of paper being moved by that electric current. Many were satisfied to see his new discovery, but then a lady remarked, “But after all this, Mr. Faraday, what practical benefit shall we derive from this luxury play of yours?” Faraday replied, “Madam, please can you tell me what is the utility of a newborn baby?” His point was that when a baby is born we are to take care of him, then, when grown up, his energy will be put to useful work.

Similarly, some consider that God consciousness is only a luxury, a fashion, or like playing, that it has no practical application or direct utility. But when God consciousness becomes intense, those who experience it will see all other activities, however apparently important, to have no value. Why? Because ultimately we want to live; we don’t want to die. To live is the main necessity and the general necessity of all of us. No one can deny that they want to live, and not only live but live happily, properly, and consciously. Furthermore, we want to avoid all affliction, misery, etc.

When God consciousness arises within someone, he can see clearly, “Why is everyone engaged in a wild goose chase in this material world? Everyone wants happiness, but everyone is running after an imaginary phantasmagoria.” Happiness can never be with mortal things. We are making a transaction with the mortal world, but that cannot bring satisfaction, it can only be a loss of our energy. What we collect on one side disappears on another side. A wise man should neither accept nor tolerate this sort of waste of energy as the principle of life. Such a wise person can see another plane of life. He can see that he is not a party to this mortal world which is like a playground. He will feel, “I am immortal. I am a member of the eternal world, but I have somehow become entangled in this mortal aspect of existence. So, as soon as I can shake off this connection, I shall stand in my normal position.” He will find that he himself—the soul, the feeler, the conceiver—is a member of another soil, but he has become entangled within this mortal pain-producing world. This is a miserable world. With the strength of his realisation, he can make improvement in his progress to the immortal plane.

As proof positive comes before us, we shall be sure, “Now I see these things and hear these things, and this experience is all more real than the world about me. The world is vague, but what I now see and hear is more real than that.” A direct transaction is possible with the soul, with God, and with God’s land. Where we are presently living is the plane of indirect transactions: first the eye, ear, etc. collect experience, then it goes to the mind before we can have experience of this world. But in the case of the soul, we can feel everything directly ourselves without the help of any instrument. Through a microscope we see one thing, and through the naked eye we see something else. There is a difference. Through the eye, ear, etc. we have some experience of this world, but concerning the soul, if we can withdraw from the “progress” in the negative side, we shall be able to feel, “Oh! This is the nature of the soul.” We shall directly feel who we are without the help of any instrument.

The soul can see itself, it can focus upon itself, and through introspection he will realise his very nature. Through the process of introspection, the soul will directly, without the help of any other instrument, perceive all possible conceptions of himself. He will then understand his own soil: he will gain the conception of a higher type of soil. On that positive side he will discover: “I do not die.” The material plane is a plane of misrepresentation and misunderstanding, but in the higher plane there is no misunderstanding. Once admitted there, our conception, though it may be partial, will be clear and true. Anyone having that experience will be convinced and determined to go forwards. Socrates could feel that the soul was immortal. He was so intense with his feeling that he did not give any value to his own life in this mundane world. He neglectfully disconnected himself from this world because with great conviction he knew the soul to be immortal. Christ also was so much convinced of his Lord that he did not give any care for the happiness and pleasures of this world: he neglectfully rejected it all.

There are many things invisible to this fleshy eye that are visible with the eye of knowledge. We can concede that the eye of knowledge can see many things which the fleshy eye cannot. Similarly, a deep vision exists by which we can see things in a different, more hopeful way: “Come and see!” An eye cannot see when it is covered by a cataract, but when the cataract is removed, the eye can see. Ignorance is like a cataract in our eyes that causes our blindness. Our vision is only superficial, but deeper vision can see many things. This eye backed by the eye of knowledge can see many things, deeper and deeper. Our apparent sight has no value. Real value is present in the seer who can see with deeper vision. And all are not equal: there is the wise, the wiser, the even wiser… There is a gradation, so the seer will see according to his capacity.

It is easy to see that at present we are members of this mortal world, but by what are we connected? It is our body that is the member. If we can go above the body, we can go to the mind, then on to the intelligence, then to the soul. We will find that the plane where the souls live is eternal and the soul itself is also eternal. From there we can go on to search after the Supersoul, the origin of all our thoughts. The Supersoul is likened to the sun, the origin of all rays of light. Once we find a ray of light, we can approach the sun, from which all rays emanate. Similarly, from the conception of our own selves—knowing ourselves to be particles of consciousness—we can search out the plane of super-consciousness, super-knowledge, and super-existence. In this way we can progress to the ultimate cause, the source of all. But we cannot do that just according to our own whim and freedom: some sort of help from that plane is indispensable. Such help comes in the form of the guru, Vaishnavs, and other agents of that land. With their help we can make honest progress towards the goal.

At present we are as if monarchs of all we survey, but what we survey is all transient, mortal, and reactionary. If we look scrutinisingly, we will see that it is all reactionary—what is pleasing today will later on turn into pain. Therefore, we must seek a good position somewhere else, a good place to build our home elsewhere. In the course of that search, we will find that we do have our own home, and it is all-perfect. Home. “Back to God, back to home. Sweet, sweet, home.” We shall find this sort of feeling within ourselves if we are fortunate to be allowed a little participation by the grace of the canvassers of that land: the agents of the Lord. We shall be taken to that proper soil and gain some solid familiar type of conception of what our real home is like. In this way we shall progress to that side.

In the beginning we may think that we shall be going to some unknown quarter, “Innumerable living entities are here around me in my present world, but where I am now trying to go, that is uncertain. It seems imaginary and abstract.” However, when we begin our journey, we will gradually find that almost all existence is in that side, the side where all are truthful. We shall find that this material side is very meagre and limited, and there is only a tiny representation of the truth here.

From here we may think that most of the existence is here and only very few special souls, such as Socrates, Muhammad, and Buddha, go from here to the immortal world. But gradually we will come to understand that the higher world is infinitely greater than the mundane portion we see here. We will gradually come to understand that as in a country a few people are confined in a hospital or a prison and are suffering, similarly a few persons are here in this mundane plane as punishment. As this becomes clearer to us, we shall feel more courage to proceed and will run towards our home with a greater speed. Let us go home, and the nearer we are to home, the more and more our speed will increase: “Oh! This is my homeland!”

At present we are outside and our minds are also focused outside; we are moving helplessly. Our only hope lies in the grace of divine agents, who come to pick us up and warn us, “What are you doing? Don’t go on that side. It is the land of danger, the land of death. Come along with me. I shall take you to the land of eternal nectar.” Those agents come to arouse us from our slumber, from our ignorant madness. They are Vaishnavs, and they have also given scriptures which give some history of the land outside and of the saints who have gone there. Our faith will gradually develop through these scriptures, and we will increasingly keep the association of sadhus. In so doing we shall make ever quicker progress.

Your own feeling is the guarantee as to whether you are making real progress or not. Hrdayenabhyanujnato. You will receive approval from your own heart that you are making real progress. Otherwise, you may be coaxingly taken in a particular direction only to feel frustration after some time, but such transaction is not genuine—it is false, a hoax. In the name of religion, so many such things go on like a trade, but that does not mean that real realisation and real emancipation do not exist. Hrdayenabhyanujnato—the ultimate guarantee is the approval of your own heart, “Yes, really, this is what I want. From the innermost core of my heart, I feel like dancing to find that such progress is possible.”

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CONTENTS

Foreword

(1) Part One

(2) Part Two

(3) Part Three

(4) Part Four

(5) Part Five: Sri Guru and His Grace

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