Swami Krishnananda-Self-Realisation Its Meaning and Method, en
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SELF-REALISATION,
ITS MEANING
AND METHOD
By
Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Society
Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
(
Internet Edition: For free distribution only
)
Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org
CONTENTS
Preface
3
Chapter 1
4
Chapter 2
12
Chapter 3
19
Chapter 4
26
Chapter 5
30
Appendix
37
Self-Realisation, Its Meaning and Method by Swami Krishnananda
1
PREFACE
“Know thyself and be free” - this perennial wisdom-teaching rings the eternal message
of the ageless quest of all creation-bound fields of self-awareness, whether these be
persons, things or whatever evolving species. The character of ‘self’ ingrained
everywhere and in everything explains loves as well as hatreds, war as well as peace,
statis as well as dynamis, life as well as death. But for the assertion of an inscrutable and
transcendent apperception and non-objective consciousness playng hide and seek and
masquerading through all forms of existence, perpetually, the drama of the universe
would not have remained that eluding mystery which it purports to be and has been for
ever and ever. Here is an attempt to ponder over this most essential of all needs, this
pressing call from within and without and from all sides in the life of everyone.
The contents of this book form the subject of five lectures addressed to seekers in the
Ashram of The Divine Life Society, some years back, and it is hoped that these
suggestions will do some good to many a searching spirit.
25th April, 1994
Swami Krishnananda
Self-Realisation, Its Meaning and Method by Swami Krishnananda
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CHAPTER 1
The few words that I shall be trying to speak today are intended specially to be of some
benefit to those who are not accustomed to the usual Indian concept of the liberation of
the Spirit, call it Self-Realisation, or God-Realisation. While, generally, the citizens of
India may be considered to be fairly acquainted with a general notion of what liberation,
or the aim of life is, though there may be some, even in India, whose idea about the
supreme purpose of life may not be perfect and perspicacious, yet it appears to me that
there is a greater misconstruing of the very meaning of the aim of life in certain
countries like Europe and America or what you call the jurisdiction of Western culture.
The word Self-Realisation is commonly used in spiritual circles, and is often identified
with what is known as God-Realisation. In spite of this common usage of what should be
regarded as the principal motive behind every human endeavour, there is likely to be the
possibility of the intrusion of the human way of thinking even in regard to what is totally
transcendent to human reaches. It is an inveterate involvement in the human vision of
things that should be regarded as responsible for reading human meaning even in what
you may consider as God-Almighty.
Now, the human way of thinking has certain specific characteristics: Firstly it is involved
in the concept of spatial extension and distance, and the notion of temporal succession,
process and movement, activity and effort, work and achievement of the result or fruit of
work. There is no other way in which the human mind can normally think. But to stretch
this logic of what one may call the three-dimensional way of thinking, thinking in terms
of distance and spatial difference, thinking in terms of temporal process or a terminus
calculated by the movement of time, much worse, to think always in terms of human
needs only, and not to pay any attention to the possibility of there being things in the
world other than human—may be more important than human—should be a matter of
concern for everyone.
What on earth does anyone mean by Self-Realisation? What do you mean by God-
Realisation? We, with all the stretches of our intelligent imagination, cannot but be
human. The human foibles and weaknesses are not merely confined to what we call
desires and aversions, likes and dislikes, prejudice, passion and anger. These are, no
doubt, weaknesses, but there are more subtle weaknesses which pass for the wisdom of
life. There are more dangerous troubles to life in the world than the usually well-known
wickednesses which are listed in our catalogues and available in the notification given to
us through the scriptures. But the more dangerous and surreptitious intrusions of
invisible forms of weakness in human thought are to be a greater matter for our concern
than merely an effort to get rid of likes, dislikes, ego, prejudice, etc., which are all
publicly known. There are difficulties which are not so well known, and cannot so easily
be known also, because these weaknesses are the very constituents of the individuality
of man. Man is made up of these weaknesses only, and, therefore, he has no avenue to
discover the existence of these weaknesses. The components of human thought are
themselves involved in these fundamental weaknesses and, therefore, human thought
cannot be permitted entry for any investigation into these matters which concern its
own makeup, the very building bricks of its existence itself. These matters are serious in
the light of the fact that they are the final barriers, the checkposts, the
chungis
, which
will put to set our hard-earned advantages through the austerities and the
Sadhanas
we
Self-Realisation, Its Meaning and Method by Swami Krishnananda
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perform to the extent of our knowledge and capacity.
The concept of Self-Realisation can stir up divine visions and a highly balanced outlook
of life, a sober approach to every event and factor in life, a policy of impersonality in
regard to any kind of encounter in the world. Yes, this is fine, and this can be there, and
this is sometimes there. But there can also be something else. John Bunyan in his
beautiful work, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” says in a fine passage that even when you are
sure that you are at the gate of heaven itself, you are likely to step into a pit there which
can lead to hell at the very gate to heaven. This pit to hell is nothing but the natural
incapacity to overcome the human interpretation of the nature of God’s existence. And
what is this human interpretation? That God also is positioned in this universe,
something like a large individual, though He may be as large as this universe itself.
Nevertheless, He is there, somewhere, as we are also here. Now, it is not true that God is
somewhere sitting, though we may not be able to understand why it should be so. That
we cannot escape the notion of God being somewhere sitting in some position, whatever
be the extent of His personality, is related to our spatial way of thinking. God may be in
heaven, in
Brahmaloka
, He may be in the highest possible universality and
comprehensiveness of being, yet, He is ‘somewhere.’ The
is-ness
of God ‘somewhere’
creates a subtle difference between the location in which we are and the location to
which we attach God. This notwithstanding the fact that we are honest in conceding an
all-encompassing universality to God’s existence. Our honesty is one hundred per cent,
and we agree that God is universal, is everywhere, and, therefore, He is everything, and
at all times. But, still, I am also here conceiving this universality of God, and that the
permission granted to God’s universality will not permit our existence does not occur to
our minds. This is a fright to many of even the philosophers, both in the East and the
West.
I had a discussion with some brilliant professors of philosophy come from America,
well-known teachers of metaphysics, who have written good histories of philosophy.
And one of the thinkers whom I had the occasion to meet here was a professor of
philosophy from the Cornel University. He mentioned to me during the course of our
discussion, “What good is there in such liberation? What point is there in the attainment
of God if it means the cessation of the very existence of the seeker of God himself? Who
is benefiting? The one who seeks benefit out of God’s experience, or God-experience,
you say, will not be there. If the seeker of God is not to be there, who is seeking God?”
This is a general difficulty with Western thinking, and it persists even today, and it
cannot but persist as long as man is man. Some theologians in the East also have this
difficulty.
Here is a point which may be relevant to earnest
Sadhakas
and seekers who come
especially from Western countries, not necessarily professors from universities. There
are sincere souls coming from the West, and they are sincere in their search for the
finality of God’s Being, the end of human endeavour. But, the spatio-temporal vision of
things does not easily take leave, so that there can even be a hard core of conviction
within these sincere souls that there is some onerous duty that they have to perform
even after entry into the bosom of God. The entry into the universality of God which we
call liberation is only a permit that is granted to man for working greater wonders in this
world, miracles, perhaps even to the extent of larger services to the human brethren.
Again, we are in the midst of human brethren only. We rose from them and we have
Self-Realisation, Its Meaning and Method by Swami Krishnananda
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