The Lord Is Always Intimately Associated With His Creation

May 1974, Summer Course 1974 - Bharath, Brindavan

Published English.

1

One can control even a wild elephant with a tool called . In the same way, for controlling an animal, one would need a big stick. The tool which we use to control an elephant is like a medicine for the elephant. Similarly for an animal, the big stick is the medicine. For curing a disease in a human being, one has to use an appropriate chemical as a medicine. But is there a medicine at all on this earth for transforming an evil person?

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!

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The word refers to the various aspects of God. The words of are given many names and have also told us in many ways this aspect of the divine. The word has got a special meaning in the context of the . is comprehensive and signifies that there is a continuous and uninterrupted practice consisting of , and , that is to listen, to think over and then to digest or absorb. These three aspects are together called by one comprehensive word . If one does not involve oneself in or in the uninterrupted practice of listening and digesting, then it will not be possible for him to recognise the identity of that with this because he is usually immersed in family matters and other domestic problems.

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The has taught us the importance of various such as and . We can say with good authority that true education deals only with those matters which pertain to and . All education referring to aspects other than these cannot be called true education. The knowledge of or the knowledge that relates to and the knowledge that gives you some idea of alone is knowledge and that is what the says. Everything else cannot come under the description of knowledge. Mere recitation of the contained in the cannot be called knowledge. In other words, true education is that which connects with the . The connection between the two must become evident to you, must be accepted by you and you must put it into practice in your everyday life. That alone will be called real and complete education. If there is no appreciation of the or the need for action and the spiritual aspects thereof, it cannot be called education.

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There are many people who every day recite the in the but unless they put into practice what they are learning from the , they cannot really be called Vedic persons. They may be so called only for external descriptive purposes. If one is able to practise what he learns in the and derives the spiritual pleasure, such a person can readily be called a truly learned person. The three processes namely , and which one has to adopt for reaching the end of the in the have already been mentioned. Without going through these three processes, mere recitation can be called just scholarship, knowledge in the context of the world. Such knowledge will not go to the depths of his heart and will not reveal the aspect of to him at all. The kind of knowledge where one does not follow up the process of listening with the process of thinking it over and digesting it, will at best, be learning without proper background or the requisite culture in it. Any piece of matter or even a living individual that has not been purified and attended to and has not been given the transformation that is necessary, will not be in a proper and natural form.

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Every individual has to go through a process of cleansing. There is an illustration for this in the . While was living in as a captive, entered in obedience to ’s orders. did look at several people in the chambers of who had good qualities, good appearance and good ethical standards. While thus did see many beautiful women who exhibited great character, he did not find anyone whom he could picture as . Because had never seen before coming to , he had to go by the description of given to him by . had given certain qualities to enable to recognise . He did look at several women, but none coincided with the picture of he had in his mind. He began to think about this matter and climbed a tree and went up very high and was in deep thought asking himself if there were other places where he should search for .

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At that instant he saw a beautiful garden - the - where there were many mansions and other attractive things. He immediately made a beeline for the . Under a tree, he noticed a woman who did not seem to have any or attention to her personal appearance for several months. Around her were many demons who were causing fear with weapons in their hands. When saw that woman, he came to the conclusion that she was unattended to for several months and also that she had no desire to show her face to anyone. But when he looked at the clothes that she was wearing, he found that they were dark and black. This dark colour did not tally with the description given by . was told that would be wearing a light yellow-coloured cloth because that was the cloth she was wearing when she was preparing for the coronation and when they were asked to go to the forest. As he approached that woman, he was sure that the woman looked as if she was a captive in the hands of someone and she also looked as if she was very distant from all her relations. When he went closer and had a close look, he was sure that she was no other than described by . He realised that she was practising and that is constant thinking of and constant absorbing of the glory of . He concluded that this lady must be and that if this was any other lady, she would have gone into one of the beautiful mansions in the and would not have stayed outside.

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As was having these thoughts in his mind, it so happened that came there with his entourage. As the King was coming into the garden, the demons around cautioned and on hearing this caution she slightly lifted her head. At that time noticed that there was a small patch of yellow colour in the which had been covered all the while by her bent face. was an intelligent person and had the quality of thinking for himself and he concluded that he was unable to recognise because she did not have any cleansing attention or either for her body or for the clothes that she was wearing. But knew the strength of ’s glory, of listening thereto and thinking it over again and he immediately realised that simply because of the and which was going through, he was able to come to the decisive conclusion about her. He realised that she did not go through during the past several months and that is the reason for her being in this condition.

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After some time, came into the garden and uttered many cruel words and threatened her, but would not yield at all. finally said that he would give one month’s time to her to make up her mind and finally went away. The harsh word which uttered did not change her mind at all. In fact they did not shake her at all. She was quite firm and she was all the while thinking about and had pictured quite clearly in her mind. Whatever she was thinking about was all the name and form of .

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realised that her condition was so bad because she had not heard the glory of and he climbed up a tree and sang the glory of . He was convinced that had been reduced to an unrecognisable condition because she was unable to listen to the glory of . began singing the story of , how married , how met , how he defeated , how he gave to the bird , and how took fruits from and so on. As soon as listened to this song, what was lacking for her had been supplied and the necessary had come about and she appeared in her full glory. All the description which gave to appeared in her. On hearing ’s name, immediately lifted her head and started looking up at the tree from which the sound was emanating, asking herself how such a sacred sound could be uttered in . When she looked up, she found a small monkey with a diminutive head. This caused her great satisfaction and happiness simply because the name of was being uttered by this small monkey. This vision had given her far greater happiness than the beautiful and its mansions. She was not attracted by the ornaments which were brought to her by . She was not happy at all at anything, but the sight of the small-headed monkey uttering the name of made her extremely happy.

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The three aspects - , and - are respectively representative of the three ‚ the , the and the . These are also represented by the three aspects of the divine, namely , and . Here corresponds to , corresponds to , and corresponds to . Since one of them was absent for , could not recognise her.

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Because and were present for her, it was possible for to safeguard her honour and respect, but because was not present, totality of the aspect of was not present and therefore the complete picture of and the total happiness which comes with the three aspects of the were absent in her.

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From this story, it becomes clear that with and one should also have . People who merely recite will not get the benefit. To get the full benefit they should recite, listen to it and absorb it. All these three aspects together only will present a complete picture of the . However strong and cruel your enemy may be and with whatever strength and cruelty he may hit you, if the aspects of and are entrenched in your heart, you can never be hurt or harmed. This aspect is comprehensive and covers all the three - , and - but that is not enough. What you get from these three has to be put into practice in your daily life and that is why the whole picture has been described by the word . One should not regard , and as if they are impositions on you. You should adopt them from the bottom of your heart and put them into practice whole- heartedly and not as a compulsion.

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Some people ask that while who is self-effulgent, omniscient and omnipresent should be visualised by everyone, why is it that he is seen and recognised by only some people. It is common experience that even the bright shining sun at a great distance from us is not seen when it is enveloped by thick clouds. The clouds hide the sun to some extent. When these thick clouds are blown away by the wind, then the bright sun presents itself to us again. In the same manner, however much you might try, you will not be able to see your own image when you stand in front of an impure and dusty mirror. When you remove the dust on the mirror and stand in front of it, then you can see your image clearly in the mirror.

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Thus, to say that the sun is not perceptible when the thick clouds are hiding it is only a result of ignorance on your part. While the heart is unclean and filled with several impurities, you cannot have the vision of the Lord. In such a case, it is not correct to say that He does not exist. The sun is not visible only for that individual who is under the cover of the dark cloud. On the other hand, if he comes out of the clouds, he can certainly see the sun. For those who are unable to get the vision of the sacred , it is necessary that they remove the impurity from themselves before they make another attempt.

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The sun is called . The aspect of is synonymous with the aspect of . which is the life principle is like the cloud between and yourself. The aspect of is something related to the . If the aspect of , which is comparable to is to some extent able to control , we will be able to see . But this , and are inseparable. But if you take to the path of , and , it will enable you to make the cloud of thinner and thinner and you will certainly be able to see the aspect of with the help of the .

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Whether it is the total meaning of the set of words - , and - or the total meaning of the three aspects of learning - , and - all these are contained in one word . In the also has been addressing as on several occasions. On some occasions, he addressed him as and as . To a large extent, we are associating with these words a meaning which relates only to our country. We have never been used to give meanings which have a Vedic origin. Earth is a symbol of the Lord and is an image of the Lord and one who is born on the earth gets the name . In fact, the name should apply to everyone born on this earth. In this word, differences either from place to place or from country to country are not relevant. When we take a word with universal application and give it a narrow meaning and apply it only to , it amounts to a narrow interpretation.

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There is another meaning for this aspect of . One who has a pure heart is called . Some of you know that in the pilgrim centre of , there are two deities, namely, and . The name is given to and to . In this means jasmine flower. The word can be explained by saying that it stands for a white, pure jasmine flower. In the word , the first letter means bee. When has taken the form of or is represented by the white jasmine flower, then the mother takes the form of a bee and sucks the honey in this white jasmine flower which is symbolic of .

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Here the name referes to . This shows us the relationship that exists between and , the Lord and His creation. We see that it is only the bee that has the right to go into a flower and suck the honey from the flower. No other insect can go into the flower. All other insects simply go round and round the flower, but it is only the bee that has the capacity to go right into the flower.

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This is the reason why an individual born in and who wants to attain the Lord will have to adopt this kind of close relationship with . “Oh Lord! if you become a flower, I will become a creeper and entwine round you. If you become the big mountain, I will become a small stream and go round the mountain. If you become the infinite sky, I will become a small star and be shining in you. If you become the mighty ocean, I will become a small river and merge into you.” It is only when the relationship between the Lord and His devotee is of this inextricable and inseparable type that one can enjoy the unity of the Lord and His creation. This aspect of nature will not allow it to be separated from the Lord even for a moment. Since , who was born on the earth, never liked to be away from the creator, he was called . He is one in the creation and very close to .

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The second name has two words, namely and . The first word signifies work and the second one , pleasure in work. derived pleasure and happiness in involving himself in work. What kind of work? Work related to ; derived pleasure in doing ’s work and therefore he was called but what is the type of work in which we derive pleasure today? We derive pleasure in idling our time on a holiday when we have no work; but, considered holiday as a hollow day. All the names given to had a Vedic origin. Not a single name of had a different origin.

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The constitute the , which is the sum and substance of the . While compiling these , sage used only words which have a Vedic origin. I am hoping that you will install the aspect of in your hearts and since is identical with , every word should be regarded as coming from and every word should be regarded as coming from and and therefore you should recognise the sanctity and sacredness of every word that comes from your heart.