Awareness, Not Achievement
Authored by
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
yatanto yoginaścainaṁ paśyantyātmanyavasthitam yatanto'pyakṛtātmāno nainaṁ paśyantyacetasaḥ
The serious practitioner of Yoga, with an understanding of his self, can see all this clearly. But those who do not have an understanding of the self, however much they try, cannot see
Yogis, sincere spiritual practitioners, lift this veil of māyā, destroy the illusion, to see beyond into the truth of their oneness with the Divine yad āditya-gataṁ tejo jagad bhāsayate'khilam yac candramasi yaccāgnau tattejo viddhi māmaka
The light of the sun, the light of the moon and the light of fire, all their radiance is also from Me
As the sun, moon and the fire, Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate Master who leads us into awareness of our natural state of completion.
gāmāviśya ca bhūtāni dhārayāmy ahamojasā puṣṇāmi cauṣadhīḥ sarvāḥ somo bhūtvā rasātmakaḥ
Entering into earth, I support all beings with My energy; becoming the watery moon I nourish all plant life
In the form of light and heat, Krishna is the sustainer of all beings within this Universe. He is the energy of the watery moon and through this energy He is the life energy within plant life, and therefore food.
ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṁ dehamāśritaḥ prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annaṁ caturvidham
I am the fire of digestion in every living body and I am the breath of life, exhaled and inhaled, with which I digest the four-fold food
Food is divine as Krishna has his imprint on it.
Kṛṣṇa uses the word 'yoginaḥ' in this verse. It is important to understand what He means by this. Yoga has become a buzzword; a trendy, fashionable word for cool people. Yoga is the link, the union, between the individual self, ātman, and universal Self, cosmic consciousness, Brahman. Awareness of this link, awareness that the self is the same as the Self, leads to liberation. The understanding happens in an instant; however, the practice leading to it requires a disciplined approach. In today's world, my opinion is that dhyāna, meditation, is best suited for spiritual progress and for the realization that one's self is part of that cosmic Self.
Kṛṣṇa says that until that awareness happens, however much one may strive, one will not reach Him.
Understand, here we are talking about awareness, not achievement. The truth is that our individual self is an integral part of the Universal consciousness, the Self.
This truth is not something that we need to work towards. It exists. It is. We are blinded by individual ego, māyā, the illusion of our individual identity, in forgetting that we are part of the Collective consciousness. Yogis, sincere spiritual practitioners, lift this veil of māyā, destroy the illusion, to see beyond into the truth of their oneness with the Divine.
Meditation is the path and technique to lift this veil. Meditation enables the practitioner to go deeper and deeper into himself. Meditation brings about awareness of what is.
Light is the sustainer of life. Light is one of the first manifestations of the Divine in creation. Without light and heat from the sun, life as we know it would be impossible. Everything in this world revolves around energy received from the sun in the form of light and heat. The sun is also the dispeller of darkness. Not only does Kṛṣṇa establish that He is the creator of this Universe—the solar system, sun, moon and the fire which sustain our lives, but He also tells us that He is the Dispeller of darkness. Kṛṣṇa, as the Master, as the Guru, is the Dispeller of darkness. Guru means one who dispels darkness. As the sun, moon and the fire, Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate Master who leads us into awareness of our natural state of completion.
You are vibrating a magnetic field. There are two frequencies inside you. There is a self in you which has a frequency of its own, this is what I call the energy of possibility of enlightenment. In Saṃskṛit we use the word jīvātma individual soul. Then, there is the mind in you which it has the frequency of its own, this is the energy of the pattern and suffering present in you, which derived energy from the ātman.
there is a mirror in front of me. I always saw the mirror only reflecting these lights. Because, I have always seen this mirror lit up, I forgot that it only reflects, it does not have its own radiation, its own natural light! In the same way, because you always see the Moon reflecting the Sun, you forget Moon does not have its own light! Same way, your mind does not have its own energy. But, from the time you saw your mind, it was always reflecting the consciousness. Because of that you started thinking, you started feeling your mind as independent energy, which is not! So, the patterns you carry inside you have no