At every level of consciousness

6 June 1978, Summer Course 1978, Brindavan

Professor Kasturi's English.

1

IT is the bounden duty of man in this life, as also in later lives, to know and experience the basic cause of the Universe and all the love and sweetness it evokes in him. When that is done, man can have uninhibited bliss. All his misery is due to separation from that Source of all. He is (Being, Awareness, Bliss Absolute) (embodiment) and he must become aware of this fact so that he may be 'happy. If he believes that he is not , but a lesser principle, subject to decline, decay and death, he will be haunted by fear and uncertainty. If he thinks that he is not , he will be caught in doubt and dialectics and will wander on the devious paths of delusion. If he assumes that he is not , he will be struck by every passing gust of disappointment and be subject to sorrow on every trivial defeat. The basic cause of the Universe is , and since man too is a spark of the same first cause, he too is made of the same components. The Original Will wished all this to be manifested. He who is the embodiment of that Will has to be adored and remembered in gratitude, for we are all expressions of that same Will. He is the One that deserves our love and homage. The (cowherd girls) and (cowherd boys), though they were not learned in spiritual lore or philosophic discipline, knew that was the visible embodiment of that Will and therefore poured their love at His Lotus Feet.

2

Man is Truth, his consciousness is Truth The bubble rises from the water, floats on water bursts and finally merges in the water itself. The bubble is a temporary phase of water with a temporary name and a temporary form. If it should feel that being light and bright, it is separate from water, the idea is a delusion born of ignorance. So, too, with man. Man is (soul), lives as (divine self) and merges in (Infinite Self). Anything conceived besides is false. The fear and anxiety, the grief and pain, the defeat and distress of man's earthly existence - these are the result of his identification with falsehood. Man is truth, his consciousness is truth. So he ought to proceed from one truth to another, from one facet of truth to another brighter and clearer one. No one really moves from untruth to truth. What is called untruth is only partial truth, or dulled truth or clouded truth. The ultimate goal is the uncovering of Truth. The mind is like a boulder which the intellect transforms into an image, even as a sculptor does. If the intellect allows the senses to dictate the design, the boulder will be shaped into a horrid idol. If, however, the senses are sublimated by the spirit, the image wrought by the intellect will be simply adorable. One must have the mind fully co-operating in the spiritual discipline and not obstructing its progress at every step. Liberation is the goal and the mind must help the pilgrim at every stage of his journey. Mind should not admit any activity that is contrary to (righteousness) or injurious to spiritual progress.

3

Women preserve the culture of the country The had trained their minds to help and promote spiritual discipline and so their minds never wavered or strayed into wrong paths. They stuck to - the Friend, the Kinsman, the Comrade, the Companion, the Lover and the Loved One. When was told by His friends and companions that the food packets that they had brought from their homes did not suffice to allay their hunger, He advised them to go a little way into the forest and ask food of the priests who were performing a huge (sacrifice) there. But when they did so, the priests would not even speak to them for their ceremonial purity would be undone by conversing with people born of lower castes! Besides, the was not yet finished and the valedictory offering to the fire had not been made, so how could they even think of handing out food to others before they had eaten themselves? When the boys returned with long faces indicating their failure to get food, asked them to go again, by-pass the men and ask the women instead. assured them that they would return happy and with large quantities of eatables. The boys found the women engaged in the kitchen. When they told them that had sent them to get some food, they left the kitchen and hurried to with huge quantities of the delicious food which had been prepared for the big feast ahead. Their hearts cried at the thought of in urgent need of food. They had heard of the Divine (miracles) of which revealed His Avatharhood (nature of Divine Incarnation), such as the destruction of the demonic force sent by His wicked uncle to slay Him. The priests peeped into the kitchen when the was over and found the vessels empty and the women gone to the presence of and His companions.

4

Every Indian has four mothers to be adored Women preserve the culture of this country with greater tenacity and faith. They keep men on the moral path and inspire them to follow spiritual discipline. Their hearts are tender and full of compassion for the hungry and the distressed. That is why in this land women are adored and revered. Elders quote the (spiritual texts) which say that the home where the floor is soaked by the tears of a woman can never see peace or prosperity. took great care to see that did not take his simple jokes and ridicules too much to heart, for then she might shed tears. We honour the land where we are born as our 'mother country,' the language we learn on our mother's lap as 'mother tongue' and the Universal ancient scripture that teaches us morality as (Mother-Veda). In this way every Indian has four mothers, including the mother who gave birth to him. According to Indian culture, all these have to be adored as Divine.

5

Cultivate non-violence, fortitude, equanimity In order to live up to the high standards, of morality which Indian culture exhorts, you must cultivate love, non-violence, fortitude and equanimity. The last three guard and foster the first, the love that you go out to cultivate. Many people have succeeded, with the help of the latter three qualities, to get their minds established in Universal love, but a large number of (spiritual aspirants) give up the ascent midway because they lose confidence in their true selves. They do not believe in God who is the Embodiment of Love and is their real sustenance. The first faint whisper of doubt disheartens them and they slide back into a life of sensual satisfactions. alone can steel such people to forge ahead on the spiritual path. The wise are buoyed up by the bliss of their genuine awareness; the seekers and aspirants have their urges satisfied by the experiences of people in whom they have faith. The atheists hang on, by the slim thread of reason, to the beliefs they have once entertained. If they had faith in their own selves, they would have inferred that their selves derive strength and joy only from the Overself or God.

6

7

You must have heard some people saying that no living person can be adored as God, even though the (revealed sacred texts) declare, '' (God appears in the human form). Perhaps they can revere only a corpse! Not (God) but (corpse) is what they wish to revere.

8

Truth is God, Love is God, is God Many people fight shy of truth for they are afraid of facing the truth about themselves and others. The declare, '' (speak the truth), but these people have become so accustomed to expediency and temporary profit that they cannot stand the full dazzle of truth. Nor is the path of (righteousness) pleasant to them. They are used to byelanes rather than the straight highway of . The (ancient revealed sacred scriptures) say '' (walk on the path of virtue), but for people used to crookedness, how can be pleasant? Thus people repeat like parrots the two Vedhic dicta mentioned above, but they do not feel the need to observe them in actual life. In reality, Truth is God; Love is God; is God. The and saw in the Embodiment of Truth, Love and . What He said was truth; what He was, was Love; what He did was . They were so immersed in consciousness that they saw, everywhere and in everything, nothing but . for them did not exist as a separate entity in the home of ; He was right in their own consciousness, at all levels of it. These and were true (devotees) indeed.