AUM — Vol. 7, No.10, 27 May 1972
II. Somehow
1. Somehow God’s Heart is in His Eye2. Somehow God’s Eye has been dreaming for a long time for the transformation of human nature
3. Somehow God does not know how to ignore
4. Somehow man knows how to deplore
5. Somehow love lovingly explores
6. Somehow sincerity soulfully implores
7. Somehow humility throbbingly soars
8. Somehow pride ferociously explodes
9. Somehow purity divinely glows
l0. Somehow jealousy blindly flows
11. Somehow desire secretly binds and openly cries
12. Somehow aspiration unmistakably finds and speedily flies
13. Somehow the inner evolution is outer manifestation
14. Somehow truth’s manifestation is perfection-light; falsehood’s manifestation is destruction-night
15. Somehow yesterday’s world was positive
16. Somehow today’s world is negative
17. Somehow tomorrow’s world will be supremely affirmative
18. Somehow man will eventually know all the secrets of God
19. Somehow man has the capacity to amuse God with his wee secrets
20. Somehow true love is self-expanding
21. Somehow self-expansion is God-fulfilment
22. Somehow the mind knows that its knowledge is not infallible
23. Somehow the heart knows that its illumination directly comes from the Absolute
24. Somehow the body likes to sleep
25. Somehow the vital likes to smash
26. Somehow the mind likes to suspect
27. Somehow the heart likes to expect
28. Somehow the soul likes to respect
29. Somehow the outer ability is the divine reality
30. Somehow the inner ability is God’s constant necessity
31. Somehow God always wants to remain proud of each individual soul
32. Somehow we expect God always to be impartial
33. Somehow God expects us to be truly wise, at least once in a while
34. Somehow woman’s heart almost consciously wants to remain insecure
35. Somehow man’s vital almost deliberately likes to remain impure
36. Somehow doubt is an unbelievably short-lived balloon
37. Somehow faith is the birthless breath of the divine life
38. Somehow God is not proud of man
39. Somehow man is not satisfied with God
40. Somehow God’s Feet are made of Compassion-nectar
41. Somehow the heart-power of the world is increasing
42. Somehow the mind-power of the world is decreasing
43. Somehow the vital power of the world is depressing
44. Somehow the brain power of the world is obscuring
45. Somehow the soul power of the world is illumining
46. Somehow man is possibility
47. Somehow God is responsibility
48. Somehow man is of God
49. Somehow God is of love
50. Somehow love is for all, all for the One, consciously in the heart of aspiration, unconsciously in the vital of desire
51. Somehow the ascending man is destined to grow into the very image of God
52. Somehow God is destined to manifest Himself in and through man unceasingly
53. Somehow man seals and conceals and God reveals and fulfils
54. Somehow God is man's yet to be realised oneness
55. Somehow man is the flood of God’s revealing ecstasy
56. Somehow man can
57. Somehow God shall
God: the Supreme Actor — World: the Divine Audience1
God: The Supreme Actor. World: The Divine Audience.The Supreme Actor reveals His Love.
The Supreme Actor fulfils His Truth.
The divine audience believes.
The divine audience achieves.
Self-awakening is the belief of the divine audience.
God-discovery is the achievement of the divine audience.
AUM
The Supreme Actor acts three times a day. In the morning, while acting the Supreme Actor offers inspiration-light to us. In the afternoon, while acting the Supreme Actor offers aspiration-height to us. In the evening, while acting the Supreme Actor offers realisation-might to us.
In the inspiration-light of the Supreme Actor, the divine audience sees that the attainment of the ultimate Truth is quite possible. In the aspiration-height of the Supreme Actor, the divine audience feels that the attainment of the ultimate Truth is not only possible but practical. In the realisation-might of the Supreme Actor, the divine audience realises that the attainment of the ultimate Truth is not only possible and practical, but natural and inevitable.
AUM
The divine audience looks at the Feet of the Supreme Actor and longs for the liberation of mankind from ignorance. The divine audience looks at the Eyes of the Supreme Actor and longs for the perfect perfection of the aspiring humanity.
The Supreme Actor looks at the head of the divine audience and then enters into the head of the divine audience to fondle its lofty heights. The Supreme Actor looks at the heart of the divine audience and then enters into the heart of the divine audience to glorify its Divinity’s Light and Reality’s Delight.
AUM
Believable — the human audience is afraid of darkness.
Unbelievable — yet it is true — the human audience is afraid of light, illumining Light.
The divine audience is always proud of seeing the Light of God’s Beauty.
The divine audience is always proud of feeling the Delight of God’s Beauty.
AUM
The soul is an actor. The soul participates in the Cosmic Lila, Game. The soul enters into the abyss of ignorance. The soul enters into the chasm of inconscience, in order to participate in the Cosmic Lila. For millennia the soul abides there, fast asleep. All of a sudden a spark of consciousness enters into the soul and awakens the soul. The soul makes a little movement. At that very moment a question from within arises: “Who am I?” And the immediate answer also is given from within: Tat twam asi — “That Thou Art”.
The soul opens its eyes and looks upward and it enters into the mineral world. There again, for thousands and thousands of years the soul abides. Then the soul again gets a message from within, a question: “Who am I?” The answer is again, “That Thou Art” — Tat twam asi. The soul makes another upward movement. From stone, mineral, the soul enters into the plant life. From there it enters into the animal kingdom. Again, for hundreds of years, the soul is not fully active or dynamic. Very often it is fast asleep, enjoying the Game in a particular fashion.
There comes a time after hundreds of years, when the soul wants to come one step ahead in the evolving wheel of manifestation. The soul comes into human life. Here the soul becomes either unconsciously active or consciously dynamic. Here the soul gets more opportunity, develops more capacity to look up high into the Beyond. Here the soul remembers quite often its Source, the ultimate Truth, the transcendental Reality.
The soul entered into inconscience to begin the Game and the soul, from the human incarnation, enters into the divine life so that eventually it can go back to its Source, Sat-Chit-Ananda: Existence, Consciousness, Bliss.
AUM
Each soul is employed by humanity and Divinity. In God’s Cosmic Drama, humanity employs the soul to carry its untold suffering, excruciating pangs to a world far beyond the domain of the mind. Divinity employs the soul to bring down the message of Light and Delight into the very heart of the earth consciousness. Divinity employs the soul, asks the soul to be the boatman so that Divinity can manifest its infinity in the heart of the finite. Humanity employs the soul to be its boat so that it can carry the load, the burden of humanity to the world beyond.
AUM
The Supreme Actor is the Beloved Sovereign. The divine audience is the eternal lover. Both the Actor and the audience are indispensable, one fulfilling the other. The audience is receiving and achieving the ultimate Truth. The Actor is revealing and manifesting the ultimate Truth.
The Supreme Actor is also the supreme Dancer. Nataraj, Lord Shiva, the Supreme Dancer, dances. Lo and behold, humanity’s aspiration is being awakened, humanity’s unlit consciousness is being illumined, Divinity’s life-breath is being manifested on earth. Lord Krishna, the Supreme Dancer, dances. Lo and behold, humanity’s passion is being transformed into Divinity’s rapture.
The Supreme Actor wants each individual soul to be the Supreme Actor, in the process of cosmic evolution, for it is only by allowing each individual soul, by wanting each individual soul to act the Supreme Act of the Supreme Actor, that Unity in multiplicity can be offered to mankind. The Unity of the Supreme can only be realised and manifested when each individual soul is given the chance in the cosmic evolution to rise up high, higher, highest into the ever-transcending Beyond. Then alone God, the Supreme Actor, will be totally fulfilled and supremely manifested here on earth.
AUM
The human actor tells the human audience, “Take me. You need me.” The human audience tells the human actor, “We do not need you. We appreciate your capacity, but we do not need your life’s reality.”
The Supreme Actor tells the divine audience, “Take Me, I am for you. Take Me, I am eternally yours.”
The divine audience tells the Supreme Actor, “Our devoted oneness, our surrendered oneness with You, O Supreme Actor, has made us feel the significance of Your transcendental Reality. O Supreme Actor, to You we bow and bow. Our life of aspiration is eternally Yours. Your Life of manifestation is eternally ours.”
AUM 828. Dag Hammarskjold Aud., U.N. Secretariat, 3 February 1972 — No. 11/5↩
My foe
My foe is none but I.All future I reap from deeds of mine.
If I receive not aid
From me, no soul will make me shine.
The evil forces lie
Within, around my symbol sheath.
They seize my knowledge-sun,
And tear my mind with dragon-teeth.
Who teaches whom the knowledge of Brahman!
There was once a great sage whose name was Aruni. He was extremely sincere. He had studied the Vedas and he was well conversant with Vedic lore.Aruni had a son named Shvetaketu. Shvetaketu had studied the Vedas under the direct guidance of his father during his early years and he had mastered the Vedas while he was still in his teens.
Shvetaketu was extremely proud of his knowledge. He challenged many Vedic scholars to contests of knowledge and defeated them all. Their pride had to kiss the dust. One day, Shvetaketu heard of a King who was great and powerful and at the same time was surcharged with inner knowledge. Shvetaketu thought that if he could defeat this king with his mental prowess, then he would get abundant wealth from the king.
The name of this great king was Prabahan and he ruled the land called Panchal. Shvetaketu went before the king and said, “King Prabahan, I have come to teach you the knowledge of God.”
The elderly king was amused and said to the young man, “Wonderful. You teach me. Let me ask you five questions. If you can answer these five questions, from your answers I will definitely get the knowledge of Brahman.”
Then Prabahan asked the first question, but Shvetaketu could not answer it. He asked the second question and Shvetaketu could not answer that one either. The fate of the proud youth was the same on the third, fourth and fifth questions, too. King Prabahan was wonderstruck. He had thought that most probably this young boy would not be able to answer one or two of the five questions, but he had not been able to answer a single one.
Shvetaketu’s pride was smashed. His fate was most deplorable. He became extremely angry with his father. He thought that his father had betrayed him by not teaching him everything about Brahman. He thought that since his father had taught him, he must know everything about Brahman. How was it then, that he could not answer these five questions?
Shvetaketu returned home, furious with his father and narrated the story of his humiliation. Then he accused his father, saying, “Father, you wanted me to be humiliated by the king.”
Aruni quietly asked his son what the questions were. When he heard the five questions, he said, “Son, to be very frank with you, I myself do not know the answers to these five questions.” When Shvetaketu heard that his father did not know the answers, he calmed down.
Then a thought entered Aruni’s mind. “I must go to Prabahan and learn the answers to these questions,” he thought. “The knowledge of Brahman may be at his feet.”
But he had a little pride. He said to himself, “I am Brahmin and Prabahan is only a Kshatriya. Kshatriyas are not supposed to be conversant with Vedic lore. It is only the Brahmin who should have God-knowledge.”
But Aruni had a sincere heart, a devoted heart. He thought, “I must not cherish my pride. I must go and sit at the feet of this king and learn from him the knowledge of Brahman.”
So Aruni went to Prabahan and begged him for God-knowledge. Prabahan said, “How can I give it to you? You are a Brahmin. If I give it to you, other kings, one or two Kshatriya kings will be offended. Right now this knowledge is only for the Kshatriyas. If I give it to you, then the Brahmins will have the same knowledge. You have quite a few things that we do not have, but the things that we have are our own.”
Again King Prabahan had a most divine heart. He thought it over and then said, “I know that the Kshatriya kings, my comrades, my compeers, will be angry with me, but my heart sees that you deserve this knowledge. Today this knowledge will go to a Brahmin. From now on, the knowledge that so far has been treasured and cherished only by Kshatriyas will be shared by the Brahmins also.”
A similar incident happened in the life of the great sage, Balaka. This sage has a son named Balaki. Balaki was like Shvetaketu — very proud, very haughty. He used to challenge all Vedic scholars and he used to beat them roundly. He came to learn from the scholars that there was a Kshatriya king who had realised the knowledge of the highest Absolute. The name of this king was Ajatashatra. Ajatashatra was the king of Kashi, which we now call Benares, the most sacred place for pilgrimage in India.
Balaki went to Kashi with his indomitable pride and said, “I have come to teach you, King Ajatashatra.”
The king was deeply amused when he heard that this boy was going to give him knowledge of God and he immediately offered him one thousand cows if he could do it.
Balaki began. “That which is inside the sun is Brahman and I worship Him.”
Ajatashatra said, “I knew it. I knew that Brahman is inside the sun, but I don’t worship Brahman in that form. It is inside the sun, but Brahman is something else, also.”
Then Balaki said, “That which is inside the moon is Brahman and I worship Him.”
Again Ajatashatra said, “I knew it. It is true that that which is inside the moon is Brahman. But Brahman is something else, also.”
So Balaki continued saying. “Brahman is inside this, Brahman is inside that,” and the king kept replying, “I knew it, but Brahman is something else, also.”
Then poor Balaki was confused. He thought, “This means that the king has superior knowledge.” He meditated for some time and felt that what the king said was true — that not only is Brahman inside everything, but also Brahman is something else. So Balaki asked the king for the knowledge of Brahman.
This time this boy, unlike Shvetaketu, had the inner nobility. He felt that what he knew he had offered to the king, but this king had knowledge that was infinitely higher and deeper than his own. So Balaki sat at the feet of Ajatashatra and begged the king to give him the knowledge of God.
And Ajatashatra did teach him. What was the knowledge that he taught? He taught that that which is inside each object, inside all of creation, is Brahman. That which trancends form, shape and name, is Brahman. Brahman is within; Brahman is without. Brahman is far; Brahman is near. Brahman is the Universal, Transcendental Reality and again Brahman constantly transcends its own reality. This is the knowledge which Ajatashatra gave to Balaki.
These stories from the Upanishads show that the knowledge of the Vedas and the knowledge of Brahman are not one and the same. The Vedas have the knowledge of Brahman, but it is not inside the pages of the books, or inside the mantras. It is in the message which the Vedas contain, more so in the practice of the teachings. It is in the meditation of the seeker who has studied the Vedas and who is applying the Vedic truths in his outer life. Only by one who applies the Vedic truths in his life — in his concentration, meditation and contemplation — can the real breath, the knowledge of Brahman be seen, felt and realised.
The Upanishads — the Crown of India's Soul2
In the silent recesses of the Upanishadic heart we see and feel a splendid combination of the soul’s spirituality and life’s practicality. In the world of imagination, in the world of aspiration, in the world of realisation, in the world of revelation, and in the world of manifestation the soul of the Upanishads has the divine effrontery to assume the sovereign leadership because that is its natural role. Its understanding embraces all the foibles of weak humanity. Its universal love is the song of self-offering.The Upanishads are at once the heart’s aspiration-cry and the soul’s experience-smile. They have the visions of Unity in multiplicity. They are the manifestations of multiplicity in Unity.
The message of the Upanishads is the life divine, the life of transformed humanity and the life of an illumined earth-consciousness. The Upanishads tell us that renunciation of desire-life is the fulfilling enjoyment of world-existence. This renunciation is neither self-denial nor self-rejection. This renunciation is the liberation of the finite in the infinite for the Infinite. This renunciation demands the transcendence of ego to breathe in freely the life-energy of the soul and yet to live a dynamic and active life in the world where one can achieve Infinity’s Height, Eternity’s Delight and Immortality’s Light.
Each major Upanishad is a pathfinder in the forest of experience that comprises human life. Each major Upanishad offers us the intuitive knowledge and the inner courage to find our way through the labyrinth of curves and dead ends, doubts and subterfuges. We come to realise that life is a glorious adventure of the aspiring heart, searching mind, struggling vital and unsleeping body. We explore the hidden places of illumining individuality and fulfilling personality. Gone is our mind’s obscurity. Gone is our heart’s poverty. Gone is our vital’s impurity. Gone is our body’s insincerity. The train of light has arrived. The plane of delight is come.
The Upanishads teach the seeker that Delight is the manifestation of divine Love, Consciousness is the manifestation of the soul-force and Existence is the manifestation of Being. In Delight Brahman is Reality. In Love Brahman is Divinity. In Consciousness Brahman contemplates on the Vision of perfect perfection. In the soul-force Brahman becomes the achievement of perfect perfection. In Existence Brahman is the eternal Lover. In Being Brahman is the eternal Beloved.
For God-Realisation we need a Guru. The Katha Upanishad says: “A seeker cannot find his way to God unless he is told of God by another.” The Mundaka Upanishad says: “A seeker must approach a Self-Knower for his inner Illumination.” The Prashna Upanishad says: “O Father, you have carried us over to the Golden Shores.” The Katha Upanishad says: “Arise, awake! Listen to and follow the great ones.” The Mundaka Upanishad says: “A guru is he whose outer knowledge is the Veda and whose inner knowledge is the contemplation of Brahman.”
A seeker who studies the Upanishads and leads a life of self-enquiry and self-discipline is not and cannot be a mere player on the stage of life, but is rather a spiritual art director and a real divine producer. Further, he has two broad shoulders and does not mind the burdens of the world. He feels that it is his obligation to assuage the bleeding heart of humanity. His life is the independence of thought and spirit. His heart’s dedicated service receives rich rewards from above. He has mastered his own philosophy of life which is to please Divinity in humanity.
In order to achieve freedom, we need energy, power and spirit. And for that, here is the mightiest prayer: “Thy fiery spirit I invoke. Thy manly vigour I invoke. Thy power and energy I invoke. Thy battle fury I invoke. Thy conquering mind I invoke.”
The Upanishads always hold the intrepid view of life. Progress, constant progress, is the characteristic of the Vedic and Upanishadic age. Prehi, abhihi, dhrishnuhi. “Go forward, fear not, fight.” Fight against what? Bondage, ignorance and death. Life is ours. Victory must needs be ours too. Anything that stands in the seeker’s way has to be turned aside without compunction. His is the life that knows no compromise.
The main longing of the Upanishads is for the Ultimate Truth. This truth can be achieved by a genuine seeker who has many divine qualities and whose love for God preponderates over every other love. The seeker needs three things: Vrata "Self dedication", Kripa "Grace" and Sraddha "Faith". This done, then Satya "Truth" is unmistakably attained.
Who wants to remain alone? No one, not even the highest, the first-born Viraj. There came a time when He felt the need of projecting the Cosmic Gods. He projected the Fire-God, Agni, the only Brahmin-God, from His Mouth. Indra, Varuna, Yama, Ishana and others were projected from His Arms. These are the Kshatriya gods. Then He projected the Vasus, the Rudras, the Maruts and others from His Thighs. These are the Vaishya gods. He projected Pushan from His Feet. Pushan is the Sudra god.
A Brahmin embodies knowledge, a Kshatriya embodies strength. a Vaishya embodies prosperity. A Sudra embodies the secret of self-dedication. These four brothers are the limbs of the cosmic being. Although they are outwardly distinguishable by their quality and capacity, in spirit they are inseparably one.
Brahman or the Supreme Self is the greatest discovery of the Upanishads. No human soul knows or will ever know when ignorance entered into us, for the earth found time itself is the creation of ignorance. Again a man swimming in the sea of ignorance need not drown. The Seers of the hoary past, the knowers of the Brahman, in unmistakable terms tell us that all human beings can and must come out of the shackles of ignorance. The knowers of the Transcendental Truth also tell us that the individual soul is in reality identical with the Supreme Self. The only problem is that the individual does not remember its true Transcendental Nature. Finally they tell us that “to know the Self is to become the Self”. On the strength of his direct realisation a knower of the Brahman declares: Aham Brahmāsmi “I am Brahman.”
In concluding this talk on the Upanishads, “The Crown of India’s Soul”, my realisation declares that the mind-power, the heart-power and the soul-power of the Upanishadic consciousness are boundless. In the realm of philosophy, Shankara embodies the mind-power; in the realm of dynamic spirituality, Maharshi Ramana, the great sage of Arunachala embodies the mind-power. The Christ, the Buddha and Sri Chaitanya of Nadia, Bengal, embody the heart-power. Sri Krishna and Sri Ramakrishna embody the soul-power. In Sri Aurobindo, the vision of the mind-power reached its zenith and the realisation of the soul-power found its fulfilling manifestation on earth. These spiritual Giants and others are steering the life-boat of humanity towards the Transcendental Abode of the Supreme.
Harvard University, Boston, Mass., 3 December 1971.↩
Ignorance vast we hug
Our life abides within;Our outer sheath is a cloak
Ignorant of truth sublime.
Outside the more we block,
The deeper within we go.
We all are nature's slaves,
Ignorance vast we hug.
Even death our Spirit braves.
Alas!
In vain for us.
We cry to live in chains
With blind personality.
Before us the sombre main.
Meditations
1.
Science wants competition, perhaps science needs competition.Spirituality wants illumination. Certainly, spirituality needs illumination.
2.
You have either to go forward or fall back.Fall back, lo, you are yours.
Go forward, lo, you are God’s and God is yours.
3.
Suffering is not punishment.Suffering is an experience of God in man crying for the reality's perfection.
4.
He who admires nature's beauty is already accepted by God, the Mother, as Her chosen instrument.
