Ignorance Is The Cause Of One's Sorrow

May 1977, Summer Course 1977, Brindavan

Published English.

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A bubble of water is born out of water, it is made up of water, it ultimately mixes with water and disappears. As in this analogy, man is like a bubble and is like the source water. Man is born out of , is made up of Him and ultimately merges with Him. What else can I tell you? This is the simple and elemental truth.

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The has three aspects: one is the spiritual, the other is the material aspect and the third is something connected with daily life. These three aspects resemble the deep sleep state, the waking state and the dreaming state. Just as the waves are created out of water and are contained in water, so also the worldly life is contained in the spiritual life.

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The sweetness and the coolness are qualities of water. These qualities are also noticed in the waves and in the foam. , and , are three attributes which may be noticed in an individual. Through the individual, they show up in his worldly life and they reflect the spiritual content in him. These aspects, the worldly aspect and the spiritual aspect are inseparably connected with each other.

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When we talk of the individual, we have to consider the divinity in him or the . The basic content of the individual or the will remain separate and will not mix with anything else. This does not need any direct evidence, and it is being felt in the world at all places and at all times.

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In the same manner, men, who cannot experience directly, do not realise divinity or the sacredness of by themselves. To such people, divine persons, sages and , who have had this experience, must convey their experience. This is not direct evidence and demonstration to the ordinary man.

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As the water, the waves and the foam are all inseparably connected with each other, the three aspects, the spiritual aspect, the worldly aspect and the divine aspect, are inseparably connected with each other. But depending on the environment and the situation which exists around, man uses one word or the other with greater appropriateness. It is in this context of the triple aspect that I have often said that you are not one person but that you are three persons: the one you think you are, the one others think you are, and the one you really are. There is one small example for this. Suppose a potter goes to a place and digs out some mud and makes a heap of the mud in front of his house. After some days he uses this mud, which he has collected, and makes pots, pans, and so on. As a result of what the potter had done, there is a pit in one place and there is a mound of mud in front of his house. As he takes out the mud from the mound and goes on making pots and pans, you find that the mound is diminishing in size and the pots and pans are increasing in number. When we put water into the mud that is in the mound, it gets absorbed easily but when we put water into the pot, it remains unabsorbed. However, the mud that is used for making the pot and the mud that is heaped up as a mound are the same. But the features that are contained in the mud that comes out of the pit or that comes out from the mound are not the same as those of the mud used for making a pot. What is the reason for this? The reason for this is that the mud, used for making a pot, has been treated by putting it in the fire; and because of such a treatment in the fire, the pot has taken a definite shape and water remains unabsorbed in the pot. After using the pot for sometime, if one is careless about handling it, the pot gets broken; and once the pot is broken, the pieces break further and are ultimately reduced to dust and mud. Our body, which can be compared to the pot, breaks into pieces and is analogous to the aspect of the daily life. The phenomenon, which we see when the mound goes on diminishing gradually, may be described as the aspect of divinity where we rec-ognise continual disappearance. On the other hand, the mud which remained unchanged in all the three stages of: the pit, the mound and the pot, can be described as representing the spiritual life. The name and the form may be different from time to time but the essence, the basic material, remains unchanged. What does not change and continues to exist in all the forms and names is permanent, and this is analogous to which is present in all the three stages. In order to recognise the true nature of , we have to make several efforts. It is not as if there is no reason for our inability to recognise the form and nature of . There is a small story to illustrate this.

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The moral of this story is that the non-recognition or recognition of one’s own self, can be the cause of sorrow or of happiness as the case may be. Here it is also established that this happiness which we experience is one’s own form or one’s own self. The permanent bliss that one gets by the knowledge of has been described by several people by saying that is all-knowing and is above duality. is one and not two. is permanent. is unwavering. is above description and above suffering. There are different ways of describing but these words cannot undertake to tell us the form of . It is not possible for anyone to establish its form. One can only experience this for Oneself. It is not possible for others to give a description which enables another person to experience this. Here the bliss or the happiness, which can be got out of demonstration or description, will not be as good as that obtained from direct experience. Thus, knowledge of this can come only out of experience and cannot come out of reading books. There is one other example for this.

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There is the ocean. When we bring water from the ocean and drink it, we find that the water tastes salty. The same water of the ocean, because of the heat of the sun, is converted into vapour, forms clouds and comes down as rain and such water will be sweet and not salty. Where has this change from salty taste to sweet taste come about? The sweetness had come when the ocean water was being changed into vapour as a result of the heat of the sun. There is a possibility, in this situation, to recognise the difference between the sweetness on the one hand and the salty taste on the other. This sweet water is something which you realise with your own experience. The knowledge that the water, which comes directly from the ocean, is salty is something which we acquire by frequent hearing. The knowledge acquired by hearing and by reading is not very satisfactory. Knowledge coming from one’s own experience gives real happiness. How can we get such experience? The knowledge that is contained in the ocean of grace has to be transformed by using one’s intelligence like the heat of the sun. When that vapour can be changed into clouds, it can be compared to the truth. Out of clouds of truth should form rain drops of . When the individual drops of come together to join, out of that will come a stream. This stream is the real bliss. This stream of bliss will go back again and merge with the ocean of grace. As the water, which came out of the ocean became vapour, then became cloud and rain and went back to the ocean, so also the divine grace that comes to us turns into fruits as clouds, turns into drops of , drops join and become stream of and the stream goes back to the ocean of grace.

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Human beings of today are not making any attempt to get some idea of the ocean of grace. How can they transform themselves into clouds of truth? If they cannot realise the clouds of truth, how can there be drops of ? When there are not even drops of , how do we get streams of happiness? The first thing which we have to accept is that there is no which is different from truth.

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Truth has been accepted as the very first basis. For this truth, should become the support. If is present in us, it will be possible for us to earn the grace of the Lord to a large extent. Love lives by giving and forgiving. Self lives by getting and forget-ting. In this context, is a perfect example of one who has taken the path of truth. He has also a title called . There was another title for , i.e., one who was bound by . was another title for him and this means one who could give happiness to a large extent. He was also called a . A king and yet a rishi shining with brightness because of the several great qualities in him. He was a king for the kingdom and was always taking the support and advice of eight persons of his kingdom. These eight persons were such that they always practised the highest . The last one of these eight persons was . He has also accepted two persons and as his . In ’s daily life, he was using these two as his . In addition, when had some doubt or when he found that the people’s prosperity was being obstructed or when he wanted some advice, he used to have six people as his principal advisers. The first among these six people was , the others were , , , and . These six per-sons were retained by him as his principal advisers. He was ruling the whole of . There was no injustice, there was no untruth, there was no crime in the whole of during his rule. At that time he had eight ministers and six advisers. The rule of that day was such that looked into the prosperity of the people. If we look at the situation in some depth and try to understand the significance and the inner meaning, we should note that man has got five working organs and five sensory organs. Alto-gether he has got ten , and literally means the human body which has got five working organs and five sensory organs. symbolises this chariot of the human body which has got ten organs. also attracted three in the form of , and . The four : , , and are symbolised by ’s four sons. was one who proclaimed such a significant inner meaning to the world and urged the people to lead an ideal life.

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is the daughter of the king of whose name was . means one who has no body or one who has no consciousness of his human body. The capital of was . means a city into which enemies cannot enter. had such noble qualities and ideals that he was carrying on the rule of his country in an exemplary manner. can be identified with wisdom, and marries or becomes one with who is . When wisdom comes together with , in the ordinary course, such a good event will meet with some obstacles. It is customary and quite natural that every good thing is met with by some obstacles. As I state often, pleasure is only an interval between two pains. If there is no pain at all, there is no value for pleasure. is the embodiment of wisdom and she had been taken away by , who symbolises selfishness and ego.

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If one wants his little wisdom to disappear, all that one has to do is to promote his selfishness, jealousy and ego. symbolises selfishness, jealousy and ego. To make a search for , who had been taken away by the bad qualities, selfishness, jealousy and ego, , in the form of , along with the other , i.e., , and , makes a journey. Here is to be identified with the mind. We should notice that , the embodiment of , combines with , who is identified as mind, and goes to the forest, which signifies life. In that forest of life, searches for wisdom in the form of . In this context, there is an argument between the two brothers and . can be compared to the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Here the inability or the weakness which is called has been destroyed in the form of ; and , who symbol-ises the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, comes out victorious. Along with , who symbolises , or the ability to distinguish right from wrong, we have . The combination of and is like the combination of and courage. The and courage went to-gether in search of , the wisdom. They meet with one obstacle in the form of an ocean of . Thus the ocean of had to be crossed and this crossing was effected with the help of courage in the form of .

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After crossing the ocean, they encounter the three : the , and on the opposite bank of the ocean. They are , and representing the three respectively. The and the , and , were removed from the scene and finally the gets the upper hand in the form of . He has been crowned the king. After making the king of , has the vision of wisdom, born out of experience in the person of . , prior to finding , could be called a but when he found , symbolising the knowledge of experience, there is a reunion of the knowledge of experience with the pure , and the culmination was the coronation, the story which we called . This descrip tion which has now been given can also be called . It is only when we can understand this interpretation of , there is some benefit for us and a possibility of the realisation of the nature of . If we keep on thinking of in the human form of a king , a son and look only superficially, how can we know the real significance?

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Even , who had established on one historic occasion, had to leave this world and pass away. Everything has to pass away some day. Nothing is going to remain permanently in this world. Even the had to disappear and change. Everything changes with time and nothing remains unchanged. Even , who was an ardent adherent of truth at all times, had to pass away from this world. who ruled over all the world had to pass away. Could he take even a small bit of land with him when he passed away?

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built a big bridge over the ocean. Do we see alive now? Many people have ruled over this land, but could any one of them take away even a small portion of the land? The only thing which you can take and which you should take is the permanent grace of the Lord. A good name is all that you should aspire for during your life.

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Although gave up his mortal body, yet if we talk about , so many years later in this , obviously the good that had done is responsible for this.

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