Thath Thwam Asi

May 1974, Summer Course 1974 - Bharath, Brindavan

Published English.

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is permanent. No one can destroy this . There is no death or destruction for . As one changes a worn-out garment for a new one, so also, when the body is worn out, the will get into another body.

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!

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Our has been teaching us that there is nothing in this world other than . Not only in this world but any where there is no second to . There is nothing which existed prior to . Therefore we cannot get proof for the existence of from any place other than itself. There are no special qualities which can be attributed to . The point to be noted here is that existed even before all the commentaries or expositions. Hence, no commentary can really expound the true nature of . , the material world or , the process of taking recourse to the non-material world, both of them revolve round and they are close to . All that is existing in the form of knowledge including ignorance is simply . The basis for everything is itself. While is flowing like a stream continually and unbroken, to comprehend it becomes a very difficult task. What we should recognise is that while the stream is flowing in an uninterrupted manner, it is not losing its completeness. This kind of completeness takes the form given by the three names , and . It also takes the corresponding three places of , , and . This strength and form also take three names, i.e., , and . These goddesses are laying down the form in which the world should move. Our has also been preaching that the connection between this trinity of Goddesses is inseparable. These three are always together. The natural place which takes is . The natural place which takes is and the natural place which takes is . , and represent the natural form of . For the name , we can take the word as the true equivalent.

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The name is synonymous with . We have to recognise that this word does not apply only to one country but that it applies to the entire world. For us to think that this word which has adorned the aspect of , has a limited connotation is an incorrect way of interpreting it. These are sacred and Vedic words. It is not possible to describe them fully in terms of words which are not of Vedic origin.

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To try and explain the sacred in terms of words which have come much later will be doing something incomplete, because the themselves are coming from times immemorial. If we make an attempt to use ordinary words which have come into vogue much later to describe the aspect of , it would not be correct as in that way we would be limiting the aspect of . It is in this context that it has been said that it is not possible to comprehend divinity with either one’s mind or eyes or even intellect. This is because existed long before mind and intelligence came into existence. Hence something which was there already cannot be described by means of words which came much later. Is it possible for a newly born son to describe the qualities of his father who has been living even before the son was born? To describe the infinite aspect in terms of limited words and limited experience is not possible. The who were very well versed in the and realised that it is not possible to explain and describe the aspect of in terms of words. Hence, they have been indicating it only by their silence. They have been saying that experience alone can be the correct way of comprehending and exposition is not the correct thing to do.

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In the realm of physical world, it is quite easy to describe something which we do not understand, by means of certain words. We created words like , , etc., but we do not even know the meaning of these words. What is the use of describing something we do not know in terms of words we do not understand? This is a common error which we all commit. gave a beautiful example for this. It is only when something is in existence that we can describe its anti or opposite. If there is not something which relates to the or spiritual in the material world, we cannot think of explaining its opposite i.e .

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If you accept that all materials are one and the same and there is no difference between one another, where is the question of your accepting one thing and rejecting another? Thus, if you have reached a stage where you are able to recognise everything as an aspect of , then where is the question of rejection of something and acceptance of another? In that stage, whatever you do, such as accept or reject, is only a reflection of your own mind.

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If you have not developed a concept of the basic unit, you cannot have the concept of many. You can move on and comprehend the meaning of many only if you have a clear concept of the one basis. That is why we say . We have to realise the truth that it is from the one that several different manifestations arise. The knowledge of wisdom with the help of which we realise this aspect of oneness is called or devotion. This is what devotion enables one to realise.

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It has been the practice in our country that when one wants to worship God, he wishes to visualise the Lord in a form similar to his own form. He will associate with the Lord a head, a body, limitations etc., like those he has. That is based on his own idea about himself. He wants to picture God after his own self. There is also a natural feeling for an individual to think that God is something much bigger and higher than himself in stature. If you ask a he-buffalo how God is, it will probably reply that God is like a He-buffalo, only many times bigger and many times stronger. So also, it is natural that each will picture God as something much bigger than himself, many times more in strength and in abilities. Here we see that God is being given a name and a form by us depending on our own concepts but He Himself has no form or . The that are ascribed to Him are given by us and even the form that we associate with Him is dependent on our notions but God himself has no name, form or .

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A new born baby is not coming with a name attached to it but on the tenth or the eleventh day, the parents or close relatives give a name to the baby. For a new born baby, parents or relations existed prior to its birth. Therefore, they are able to give it a name. For the , there is no one who existed prior to Him and so no one can give any name to Him. The devotees who worship God begin to give the Lord some name which is in accordance with their own experience and their own notions of the Lord. What people actually do is to visualise this omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent Divinity with some name and form of their liking and then experience the bliss in it. Depending on the strength of devotion of the devotee who worships God and also in accordance with the depth of attachment which the devotee develops for Him, God becomes his companion and helper.

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It is in this context that two words have been used by our ancestors, namely or . means close and means residence and simply means that when you are close to God, all your bad qualities will be removed and you will attain good qualities. The word means that you are sitting close to the Lord.

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The word , also, can be interpreted as - means close and means at a slightly lower level and means sitting. Thus, means to go near the Lord and sit down. The implication of the word is that you have to go close to the Lord and sit down as you cannot take a position higher than the Lord because you are full of doubts. Here you are in the position of and God is in the position of ; that is, He is in a position to clear all your doubts and you have to sit down and get your doubts clarified. The relationship between and is such that knowledge has to flow from to and that is why it has been called . is the place from where questions generate and is the place from where answers come. Because is a position of knowledge, there can be no question from that place. is full of knowledge.

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In this context, we say that depending on the extent of or love and affection with which one goes close to the Lord, God will reciprocate and look at the devotee with the same amount of and grace. There is a small example for this. To such devotees who worship and respect God and who believe in God from the depths of their heart, God becomes a companion and a guide to them. On the ninth day of the battle of , the old grandfather was waging war in many ways against the . All the arrows that were coming from the side of the enemy towards the were full of fire and power of destruction. All these harmful weapons which were intended to harm actually protected , and the reason for this is that the Lord Himself was the charioteer for and under such circumstances the weapons not only did not cause harm but they even helped . never told the secret of this. But on the ninth day , finding that victory was on his side and on returning to his camp, was a little bit arrogant and developed some pride.

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The moment one gets pride and develops ego, it is natural that a situation develops where he forgets even the human nature. It is common experience that when we ride in a car the owner does not get down first but some assistant first opens the door for the owner to come down. Following this practice, would not get down from the chariot first. He had an idea that the charioteer should first get down and open the door for him and then only he wanted to get down with great pride. But, addressed as his brother-in- law and asked him to first get down and go inside. did not listen to this. had the quality of being stubborn on certain occasions. He felt that should first get down and then he would get down. However, a little later, he realised that it would be unwise to enter into argument with , especially when the war was still going on. Hence, he got down from the chariot and went inside. But, insisted on his going further into the house. After went inside, jumped down in an instant and immediately thereafter the whole chariot burnt down and was reduced to ashes. When asked for the reason, explained that all the weapons that were used that day in the war were deadly and were full of fire power and that He had to keep them under control until then by putting them under His feet. He also disclosed that if He were to get down earlier, would have been burnt along with the chariot. He said that in order to protect , he had waited until got down and then jumped out in a moment.

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It is in this context that was also called because of His all-pervading nature. The meaning of this is that the aspect of is connected with and is in turn connected with and therefore if you want to control , you have to put it only in another place where there is .

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Two days prior to this, undertook to protect the in a different manner. was swearing before that he would now enter a crucial and terrible phase of battle with the and would even finish them off. When heard such a statement emanating from , she was quite afraid. She was afraid because she knew that was very strong and that in one moment he could kill all the . She was afraid that would kill all her husbands and render her a widow. In this terrible fear, she had no one to go to and express her fear. She had only one person and He was the omnipresent, omnipotent Lord . She went and prayed to that in view of ’s threat, He had to save her and protect her . The nature of God is such that He would submit Himself to the limitations which He himself has created. The Lord told that He was prepared to rescue and protect Her but said that she must also make her efforts. The Lord said “I am residing in your heart as the . Therefore, when you make an effort on your own, I will supplement your efforts.” If we take a piece of wood and go on moving it up and down, fire is not going to be generated. We have to take two similar pieces of wood and rub one against the other vigorously. It is only then that fire will be generated. Similarly, said “When my aspect of divinity manifesting externally and my own aspect which is residing in you internally as come together, then only useful results will come.” As in the analogy of an electric current, we will not get any benefit of the electric current if only we have the negative or the positive aspect. Unless the negative and the positive come together, current will not be produced. The Lord has emphasised, “I can give God’s grace. But you will have to supply human effort. Unless God’s grace and human effort come together, the result cannot be achieved.” Immediately enquired as to what she should do. She assured that she was willing to do anything to save her husbands. The Lord told that she should go to the house of that night and act as he advised her. It is true that in the battlefield, swore but later when he went home he was in a great dilemma and was asking himself how he could fulfil his promise and how he could kill the who were the embodiments of . He was also troubled because if he did not fulfil his promise, his entire life would be useless. In such a dilemma, he was walking up and down in his tent in the battle field.

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While was struggling in his own mind in this way, everyone else was sleeping in their respective camps after the tiresome battle during the day. Then woke up and said that she should somehow disguise herself by using a big blanket to cover herself and follow Him. was leading and was following him. The reason was that even did not know the residence of and so was leading her. As soon as they approached ’s camp, moved aside a little and told that was struggling because of sleeplessness and that she should enter the house quietly and fall at ’s feet. When was moving gently, found that she was wearing shoes which were appropriate to wealthy people in those days and they were making some noise. Then stopped and asked her to remove the shoes as they were making a lot of noise. She removed the shoes and wrapped them and held them in his own hands. She went into ’s tent where he was moving up and down restlessly. As soon as she was face to face with , she, with her bangles and ornaments making a lot of noise, immediately fell at his feet. realised that she was a family woman and a married woman and he immediately blessed her by saying . That was the blessing which he spontaneously gave to .

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Then got up and she was shedding tears of joy. saw her in that state and was very much surprised. He said “I have now given you blessing that you should be a whereas I took a vow to kill your husbands; what a conflicting situation have I landed myself in. Surely you would not have come by yourself at this dead of night. Someone must have given you this idea and made you do this and extract the blessing from me that you will remain a for a long time.” said that no one else except Lord would help her at this juncture, and immediately on hearing that brought her there, started looking for . walked in with ’s shoes in his hand, tied in a cloth. touched the bundle of cloth and saw that they were ’s shoes. Then shed tears of joy and said that was so great and if his grace was achieved, he would even carry the shoes of his devotees. The next day it so happened that all the weapons released by aimed at were received by and thus was protected.

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found that ’s body was in great discomfort and the latter felt very hurt because for his sake, had to suffer all this. By thinking like this, he became weak in mind and was sure that if he allowed this situation to continue would surely kill him and victory would be on ’s side. At this juncture, jumped out of the chariot and was himself going out to fight and realised that the very God Himself was coming down to kill him and protect . Then prayed to the very person coming to kill him because He was the Lord Himself, in the following terms.

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“As you jump out of the chariot with a leap, the brightness with which your earrings shine fills the whole sky. The universe that is inside you gets so shaken that the world is unable to bear the jolt. As you advance with the wheel in your hand, the cloth on your shoulders slips down. Even as pleads again saying ‘I have staked all my reputation with full faith in you. Pray do not let me down.’ Like a Lion, you roar, ‘Today, I shall kill and I shall save you’ and you ask to step aside to let you go; Oh God! You are advancing like a thunder; you alone are my saviour and none else. Save me as I seek thy protection!” The whole situation had changed suddenly and took great pity on . Here it is necessary for us to understand the context in which had offered his prayers. It is quite natural for us to pray to God to save us if someone else is coming to harm us. Here we must realise that did not recognise any other form of God. The Lord who was advancing towards him was the only God for him and therefore he addressed himself to save him. We have to observe the oneness of the God to whom prayed here. Divine strength can be understood only by divinity and divine strength can be controlled only by divinity. No one else can either understand or control divine strength. The aspect of is that which is in possession of such divine strength which can be controlled only by divine strength. These aspects of which enable us to realise the oneness of divinity are the aspects contained in the trinity of , and . These are the three forms which protect and give satisfaction to the entire world. It is unfortunate for us to think that the word which expounds such an infinite meaning comes from the name of some king and that it is not a Vedic word. This is a Vedic word. It has not come from any king or country. There are many words in our which describe the aspect of and which expound the greatness of .