Do Not Get Attached To This World Through Your Desires

May 1977, Summer Course 1977, Brindavan

Published English.

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The three : , and , are the three weapons which God has specially given to us in this world. Presently, because man does not know how to use these weapons properly, we are getting into all kinds of difficult situations. There are various circumstances which make these three qualities manifest themselves in different ways. The first one is the creation around us. It is the nature of creation that it continually changes. This has been used as the main instrument in the hands of God. The creation is also called . is that which continually changes.

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The second is or ignorance. It is the opposite of or knowledge. This promotes the in man and gives rise to his likes and dislikes. This will drive man to justify the faults that are in him. This has got the quality by which it can make man recognise the truth and un truth, and sometimes make the mistake of recognising untruth as truth. It is the duty of man to remove such ignorance by various methods.

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The third one is . creates all kinds of surprising things and illusions. There is nothing which cannot do. has the strength to create the entire world and to make the world play the drama by which even to destroy the whole world. is responsible for man’s birth as well. Foolish people are born in , grow up in and end their life in . Their lives are totally steeped in . Why seek such a life which is full of and which ends in ? Because God wears as His clothes, is also called . ’s own is His cloak. This is the reason why we refer to as one who is having as His face. Depending upon the circumstances, we come across these three different forms. The three different forms are called , and . These three - particularly and - differ only in degree and not in essence, only in name and not in the end-result. They are inseparable from each other and are indeed connected with each other. If we can under-stand divinity and how it works, we can make an attempt to get rid of these illusions in our life.

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There are four different kinds of . By using four methods of , we have an opportun-ity to conquer them. The first is to discriminate and distinguish between things which are permanent and things which are transient. By having such capacity, we can achieve a lot of good. By listening to the sacred and , we should be able to understand the meaning of “.” If we get our belief in being the truth only by reading books and by attending discourses and not by our own personal experience, it cannot have a lasting effect on us. In our daily life, we are always seeing changes coming about. What we now regard as truth, becomes untruth after some time. What we now regard as untruth, after some time may turn out to be the truth. Depending upon the situation and the environ-ment around you, truth can change into untruth, untruth can change into truth. These changes are only characteristic of man’s mind and arise out of man’s behaviour, but they cannot be characteristics of truth.

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Truth is One and will never change with time. All those that change should be regarded as untruth. Some things come and go but these things which come and go are neither (truth) nor (untruth), but they are called (truth and untruth). Why do we call such things ? Because, when they come, we think they are true, and when they go, we think they are untrue. This combination of truth and untruth is called . Another word for it is , and this is the characteristic of many things in the world.

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Here, we see that the basis is the unchanging truth, and what has appeared to us as changing is un-truth. To this world, everything changes from moment to moment. All these are coming into the world and going out of the world. The only thing which has neither to come nor to go is the aspect of and that is the basis. It is possible to recognise this basic truth and to experience it by learning from those who know or from elders who had experience of such aspects. The second one is to give up the enjoyment of the consequences of your actions. The essence of this statement is to tell us that the events, which we consider as pleasures, are transient under all circum-stances and the enjoyment of such material pleasures is likely to cause an illusion in you that they are good, but in reality they lead you to sorrow and pain in life.

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The third one relates to the and , i.e., control of working and sensory organs. will imply that you do not turn your thoughts towards the organs and sensory pleasures, but try and direct it towards knowing the significance of . The world you see around you is a creation of your own vision. Your vision should be used to see and realise the sacred . This also means a change of external vision into internal vision. It is only when we can develop an inward vision that we will achieve detach-ment from the outward vision. represents your having a control over your internal sensory organs and thus a control over all your actions. It is only when you have no control over your internal sensory organs will your external organs become dominant. To be able to control these outward working organs, we should de-velop the necessary strength to control the senses as well.

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If the inward sensory organs get the control over you, they become excited; and it will not be possible for you to control the outward working organs. The true , in this context, is the effort undertaken to control the inner sensory organs. If we make an effort to control directly the outer organs, this cannot be the correct and right way of doing it. We must try and understand the nature of the inner organs. If the inner organs are excited to a large extent, we develop defective vision, defective hearing and faulty thinking. When your thoughts are such that they are going to excite the inner sensations and your working organs, you must make an attempt to ask, whether the consequence is going to be for your good or for your bad. You should constantly introspect and ask if this act is worthy of being undertaken or not. Having obtained this sacred birth of a human being and having truth in you in the form of , you should conduct yourself in a manner consistent with your status as a human being.

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The third is . The meaning of this has been given by several people by say-ing that it connotes giving up the world and becoming a or doing only such work for which there can be no consequences. The true meaning of this word is to recognise that the mind is responsible for exciting the inner sensory organs. Mind is the master of your inner organs. When the mind, in the position of a master, can put these organs along the right path, it will be possible to control these organs by controlling your mind. Either to excite the organs or to keep them cool and relaxed, mind is responsible. If the mind, which is in the position of a controller, is not going to control these organs, the blame rests on the mind. This is why it is said that mind alone is responsible both for the bondage of man and for the liberation of man, because mind alone controls the inner organs. Thus, to be able to control the inner organs, we should try and put this mind of ours along the right path.

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To be able to put your mind along the sacred path, we must first understand the significance of and of good company. For this purpose, we shall have to undertake such things as and , , and . If you cannot do such things, you must at least make your mind take the path of service to the community in the name of God and for the pleasure of God. The mind should be told that all aspects that are present in everyone is the same aspect of . The truth that divinity is omni-present should be impressed on the mind. To our mind, some things may appear to be trivial and look as if they are tiny things. We should make the effort to elevate things to a higher position. But God, who is in a high exalted position, should not be brought down to the level of these little things.

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The kind of which we would do is to elevate things from a low level to a high level. You must worship a picture as God but not worship God as a picture. This means that this piece of paper is God, this tumbler is God, this microphone is God, every-thing is God. You must attempt to take these things from a low level to the status of God. Unfortunately, today, people regard God as paper, regard God as a tumbler, and so on. Thereby we are bringing God from a high position to the position of these trivial things. We should be able to recognise that in every human being, the aspect of is present, and this aspect is one and the same in all. In all these things, you should try and get the vision of your own . This is the good which can do for you.

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The next is called . In this , we should try to regard all things as the creation of God and develop equal-mindedness. Whatever the material may be, whatever the object of your attention may be, we should not show any distinction. We should be able to accept contrary things like darkness and light, heat and cold in an equal minded manner. These opposite qualities are simply coming out of changes in time. Such changes which come about only by a change of time are regarded as inherent changes and they do not exist permanently. Although what we see is one and the same, we regard it as good or bad depending upon the time.

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It is by , or care that one can become wise. If you have , it will be possible for you to acquire any amount of wisdom. What kind of should we promote? in , in sacred things and in how to help the com-munity. We should also develop this care and in selfless work, in doing things which will give pleasure and happiness to others. On the other hand, it will become dangerous to us, if we develop in bad ideas and bad conduct. Here has been interpreted by saying that listening to itself is . means to acquire wisdom, the wis-dom relating to , to be able to recognise what stands for, and come to the conclusion that what is omnipresent is and to understand the truth that there is no place where is not present. If we can recognise this truth regarding the omnipresence of and that there is no form which does not belong to , then we shall be able to rest in equanimity and equal-mindedness.

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The word means that whatever you may do, it should be such that it causes satisfaction in you, in your mind. If there is no satisfaction in your own self, there is no use doing that work. Unfortunately today, although there is no satisfaction in one’s own self, in order to cause satisfaction to the community around, several ways of doing things are being followed. In this process, one’s whole life is being changed into an artificial life. What is the use of un dertaking such actions that do not give satisfaction to your own self? The desire should sprout from within you. In that context, with a peaceful idea, with a sacred heart and with a clean mind, you should try and plan your action. Your thought, your word, your action should all be synthesised properly and be in harmony. After acquiring a human birth, having been told to behave as a human being, if we cannot understand the meaning and the need for this harmony, one’s life will simply turn out to be useless.

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The word means that you should be-have in a manner which does not connote ignorance on your part. The feature that is characteristic of this ignorance is . All the learning that we acquire these days can really be called . What you are acquiring is all for the sake of eking out a livelihood in this world. At least, some part of your learning should be such that it will enable you to understand yourself.

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The fourth type of is called . has been explained by some people by saying that while one’s own house is burning, all attempts on his part to save himself from the burning house will be called . This means that when one is burning in the fire of his , entangled in the cycle of birth and death, to be able to rescue himself from that fire and save himself is called . If you are able to have detachment and not think that some people belong to you and some people do not belong to you, and recognise that the only truth is the and get out of this fire of , it is . The which enables you to decrease your attachment and your is called . To give up one’s desires and experience and enjoy the bliss of detachment is called . One can also explain by saying that it is to get rid of your sorrow and to enjoy bliss. How do we attain this? There is an easy path. Truly, when you have an intense desire to achieve this, there is no other path easier than this. It is difficult for us to get attached to things. It is easy to give up things. You feel that the world is attaching itself to you and because of this attachment, it causes pain to you. If you think that while you make an attempt to detach yourself from the world, the world is not getting detached from you; it is wrong. You have attached yourself to the world. The world has not attached itself to you.

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In the same manner, this enormous pot of the world has got what may be called a selfish mouth. We enter into this pot through this selfish mouth of the world in order to satisfy our desires. For that reason, we are getting caught in it. If we simply give up what we have caught, then there is no bondage. This is called . does not mean giving up your home, giving up your wife and children and going to the forest. To make an attempt to decrease your desires is called . This has also been described by saying less luggage and more comfort make travel a pleasure. If we can decrease the luggage of desires, then our journey of life will become a pleasure.

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Our life is a long journey. In this long journey of our life, we get attached to many desires in the form of luggage and the journey becomes a long and weary one. Less luggage or decreasing this luggage of desires has been called in the parlance of .

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Those of you, who are young and youthful, should promote these sacred ideas and do service to the country and to your parents. You should resuscitate the ancient culture of . You should, by practice, become examples to others. If you take such steps, very soon it will be possible for you to raise this country to the very heights of glory, to take it back to the time when it was known as a and a . You must do that.