Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.daionet.gr.jp!news.yamada.gr.jp!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.optus.net.au!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "THE TRUE QUEST AND NATURE OF MIND AND SOUL" <@HZIH4xA.com> Newsgroups: fj.life.religion Distribution: Global Subject: THE TRUE QUEST AND NATURE OF MIND AND SOUL === 9Smx8z X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 220.240.202.21 Message-ID: <414072e9@news.comindico.com.au> X-Original-Trace: 10 Sep 2004 01:12:41 +1000, 220.240.202.21 Lines: 343 Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:12:42 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.194.27.1 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comindico.com.au X-Trace: news.optus.net.au 1094742762 203.194.27.1 (Fri, 10 Sep 2004 01:12:42 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 01:12:42 EST Organization: Comindico Australia - reports relating to abuse should be sent to abuse@comindico.com.au Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.religion:470 THE TRUE QUEST AND NATURE OF MIND AND SOUL IN RELATION TO SPIRITUALITY --------------------------------------------------------------------- 'The nature of the mind is to become like its object. Superstition of any kind -- social, psychic, or spiritual -- influences the mind to such an extent that the mind, due to its worries, leads a person into difficulty. The mental equilibrium of those believing in superstition is disturbed; and the result is not only do people lose their peace of mind, but they may also be led to perform some action which is detrimental to themselves. This only further strengthens their belief in superstitions: for any ordinary incident is magnified and attributed to some bad omen. It is the characteristic of the mind to become like its object. People who believe in any superstition see ghosts which are purely their own mental creation. If only these persons had the courage and mental strength to catch the ghost, they would very soon realise that their error was believing nothing to be something. Such superstitions have contaminated every field of existence. In the social sphere there is no dearth of superstitions. Witchcraft, the persecution of widows, etc, are curses in society only due to such superstitions. In the psychic sphere also there are deep-rooted superstitions like the belief in ghosts, communicating with ghosts, etc. Not only this, but superstitions of funeral ceremonies, etc, have also burdened even the progeny of a person. In the spiritual field, too, ignorant people have been forced to do so many things only because of their deep-rooted superstition of heaven and hell. All of these only disturb people's psychic equilibrium and bring discord and anxiety in society. For the preservation of peace, the fight against superstitions is of prime importance. These ideas are not rational and therefore it is erroneous to believe in them. The spiritual superstition of heaven and hell and fear of God suppress people and destroy their psychic peace. Not infrequently, fear of such superstitions has had very undesirable reactions on people, totally disturbing their equanimity. Spiritual practices must be based on rationality: a systematic and scientific method of spiritual practices leaves no place for fear and superstitions.' (SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Ta'ttvika Praveshika', 1957) There is no place for dogmas. 'The people of olden days imagined that there was a certain hell*. It was their conception that if one's son would do the ritual funeral offering then one would be saved from that hell. *In the Puranic imagination there is a hell where the god of death, Yamaraj's gate is guarded by sentries.' (VARN'A VIJINA'NA - THE SCIENCE OF LETTERS, DISCOURSE 18, COMPOUND WORDS, 16 October 1983, Calcutta) These things are just superstitions and fantasy. The notion of heaven and hell is full of relativity. All that is relative is subject to a process of generation, operation and destruction. The idea of pleasure in heaven is also relative. 'After death the mind is incapable of any action due to the lack of its physical base, the brain, and has to be reborn for experiencing reactions of its previous actions. Hence the concept of hell or heaven where human beings are supposed to proceed after death is entirely incorrect. It is believed that one experiences all the pleasures in heaven as a result of one's good deeds and pain in hell for one's evil deeds. But pleasure and pain cannot be experienced by the mind which in the state after death is a non-functional unit, until it acquires a new brain at the time of rebirth. Conception of a world of heaven or hell after death is a greatly-mistaken fantasy. There is no other world where heaven and hell exist. It is in this mortal world only that one has to be reborn to experience the pleasures of heaven and the sufferings of hell.' (WHAT IS MY RELATION WITH THE UNIVERSE AND THE COSMIC ENTITY?, A'NANDA MA'RGA (ELEMENTARY PHILOSOPHY)) Fundamentally, it must be remembered that God is omniscient and omnipotent and so loves the entire Creation. 'God - the Supreme Consciousness is omnipotent no doubt, all- powerful no doubt. But He cannot do two things. You may do those things, but the Supreme Consciousness cannot do them. And what are those two things? One thing is, He cannot create a second God -- this is one defect. And the second defect is, He cannot hate you. He cannot hate anybody. But you people, you can hate others, so in this respect you are greater and nobler than the Supreme Consciousness! If you so desire you can hate others, but God cannot hate; even if He so desires, He cannot hate others. And nobody in heaven or on this earth can control Him. He is the Lord of all, He has no Lord.' (UNIT SPIRIT AND COSMIC SPIRIT, SUBHA'S'ITA SAM'GRAHA PART 21, 21 October 1971 DMC, Ernakulam) All have the opportunity to attain spiritual liberation or salvation. This requires surrender to the Supreme. 'When human beings ask for money they must send some application letters, but when God - the Supreme Consciousness - wants something from you, He will not ask for it, He will demand it. What He will ask you for, you will hesitate to give; for He will ask for nothing less than your whole existence. Those who are prepared to give their all, even though they may be the most ,degraded sinners, become the full responsibility of the Supreme Consciousness, because they have surrendered themselves completely to Him. They have not given away ninety nine cents, keeping one cent for themselves. Hence it is the moral responsibility of the Supreme Consciousness to care for such people. Those who dwell in the "Heaven of Knowledge" may say, "Such a degraded person has committed such a dastardly crime -- his spiritual liberation is impossible, for his past was so black!" The philosophers might busy themselves dabbling in knowledge, but those who have completely surrendered themselves to Him, will certainly be cared for by Him. Take the case of flower: it may be defiled with dirt and dust, but if that flower is offered to the water, will the water not accept it? Certainly it will. Likewise the devotees will never be concerned with what a person did in the past. They will think, "I am like a flower offered at His feet which He has graciously accepted." The Lord says, "Even if the worst of the sinners worship me exclusively, they will be liberated from all worldly bondages." This total surrender is not attainable as long as there is any vanity of knowledge in a person's mind--it is not possible for such a person to become an A-grade devotee. (Devotees are of several categories). No matter how sinful people may be, they need not worry about anything if they come within the shelter of the Supreme Consciousness. Only this has to be ensured, that their surrender is cent per cent.' (RELATIVITY AND THE SUPREME ENTITY, Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 10, 29 November 1971, Calcutta) God loves all. To suggest otherwise, limits his jurisdiction. 'Those who are seated in Heaven are as dear to the Supreme Consciousness as those who are ensconced in Hell, scorched in eternal hellfire. Even for those infernal creatures the Supreme Consciousness has unbounded love and affection--even such people are not helpless. Their piteous wailings reach His ears, and accordingly He takes steps to help them. But this is not the case for certain human beings: rather even at the sight of the sorrows and sufferings of afflicted people they will say, "Well done! as you sow, so you reap! Those people are reaping the consequences of their past misdeeds!" In the human mind there is an ingrained sense of hatred for others. But there is no such feeling in the mind of God. The Supreme Consciousness is the all-controlling Entity. No one else can dictate to Him. This is the major difference between a unit human being and the Supreme Being. In spite of such a serious difference, the Supreme Consciousness loves human beings and showers His Grace on them, and out of His infinite love for them, He has given them a valuable treasure -- mind. The characteristic of this mind is that as it thinks so it becomes. Hence if they so desire, human beings can merge their individual minds in the Macrocosmic Mind. While taking the ideation of the Supreme Consciousness, human minds will one day become identified with Him, and one auspicious moment all the inherent qualities of the Supreme Consciousness will be infused in their unit minds. One who knows God becomes God. There cannot be two God's. So in the last stage of evolution, the living beings become completely identified with the Supreme Consciousness, and then only the microcosms will be fully established in their infinite blissful Cosmic Stance.' (PARAMA PURUS'A AND HIS CREATION, Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 10, 17 November 1971, Nagpur) In this regard, God is indescribable. 'Now if we want to write about His qualifications we require ink, we require paper, and we require - what? We require a writer. To write about His qualifications we require these things, So the poet said, 'If we get the mighty Himalayas as an ink tablet - we require ink - and as an ink pot, all the oceans of the world; and then a pen. If we use he biggest imaginary tree of Heaven as the pen and if this entire lithosphere is used as paper, then what - who is to write? If the imaginary goddess of learning, the mythological goddess of learning, Minerva, writes with this ink tablet, ink pot, paper and pen - for how many days? For an innumerable number of days - even then it won't be possible for her to write all His qualifications. God is beyond the periphery of all qualifications.' (THE SUPREME WITNESS AND THE GREAT THIEF, A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 12, 10 May 1979 evening, Fiesch, Switzerland) However, God is both infinitely pervasive and deeply and personally associative. All have a direct personal relationship with God. 'You know if there is an impersonal entity controlling everything, having no link with you, in that case the psychology of discipline won't be created, because in that case an order is followed or obeyed or adhered to due to a fear complex - but in the field of spirituality there must not be any complex, neither fear complex nor shy complex nor any other complex. So the scriptures saying that if you do not obey Him you will go to Hell, like this, these scriptures are the worst enemy of human society. Because these scriptures create a complex, a fear complex, in the human mind, and that fear complex creates disparity in this human society. This human society is one. It is a singular entity. It cannot be divided; it must not be divided; and we won't allow any entity to create any fissiparous tendency in this human society. Whatever a man is to do in his spiritual life he is to do - why ? Because he is in love with the Supreme Entity. Love is the first word, love is the starting point, and love is the last point. And scriptures have no moral right to create a fear complex in the human mind.' (9 May 1979 evening, Fiesch, Switzerland, THE STARTING POINT AND THE LAST POINT, A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 12) Each person must realise from this that the real progress is at the spiritual level. To overcome dogma and more importantly to strengthen one's mind and the urge for spiritual quest, practical steps must be taken at an internal level. 'Actual progress is in spiritual level, not in physical or psychic level. Your progress is auto-suggestion or outer suggestion, when you say something like ...... "Sudarshan, be an ideal man. Sudarshan be an ideal man" When you say internally, what is it? It is auto- suggestion. Sudarshan is giving suggestion to Sudarshan. The conscience goads Sudarshan's mind towards the idealistic stance of Sudarshan -- "Be an ideal man". The mental picture is in the mind of Sudarshan. And the conscience of Sudarshan says, "Sudarshan, be an ideal man". The conscience of Sudarshan goads towards that ideal figure. Do you follow the psychology? What is it? It is auto- suggestion. "I must be a good man. I must be a good boy. I must do something concrete for the world. I won't be afraid of anybody in this world. I must be a good boy. I must do something concrete for the world. No power in Heaven or Earth can check me." What are these things? Auto-suggestion.' (AUTO-SUGGESTION AND OUTER SUGGESTION, A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 14, 23 August 1979, Taipei) Having the ideation of an ideal spiritual awareness, it is then relatively easy to see that God is divine love or what some call bliss. 'It is said about the way in which the Supreme Soul can be seen in the soul: In the same way that something can be seen in a mirror, a person can see the Supreme Soul by analysing the unit soul. The Supreme Soul (God) can be seen in 'heaven' in the same way that an entity is seen in a dream. The sages have said that that God has created this universe from a perennial fount of bliss. Having created the world, God gets joy from the creation of innumerable bubbles in divine sport and dance. Thinking this, He has created the world and continues to do so. By maintaining the creation He gets bliss and the created beings living in the world also get bliss. By appropriating the sportful essence of the created world, He gets bliss, and the created being gets bliss when a unit being loses himself in the Supreme Consciousness in the supreme stance of the divine play. The sole duty of intelligent and judicious beings is to keep oneself in bliss and to conjoin the living being, world and God in the flow of bliss. There is a heaven and hell difference between pleasure and bliss. But by way of explanation, one may say that bliss is the state of endless pleasure. Bliss is above both negativity and positivity. Bliss is not confined to the arena of either one. It is the consummation of the two.' (SHABDA CAYANIKA' PART 1, DISCOURSE 5 A'NT TO A'HIIRA, 12 October 1985, Calcutta) To suggest otherwise through notions of condemnation to hell, is the creation of limited and dogmatic human minds - and a violent approach and outlook. Civil society will no longer tolerate such attitudes. 'There is neither heaven nor hell.' (A'NANDA SU'TRAM, Chapter 2) A devotee of God will undergo anything to please Him. So it has been said: '"If God is in hell and we are in heaven, that heaven will be worse than hell for us. But if God is in hell, we can remain there with Him till eternity. We want to remain with God, whether in heaven or in hell." So the relationship with God is personal, and quite mutual. People speak to God because they cannot help it.' (NA'MA AND NA'MII, SUBHA'S'ITA SAM'GRAHA PART 21, 19 October 1971 DMC, Bombay) We must remember the universal approach. 'These created beings, they being the progeny of the same Father, are members of the same Universal Family. They have got a common tie of the Universal Fraternity. We must not forget this supreme fact. Now, everybody is within God's mind. Can a sinner go beyond the periphery of His mind, when there is nothing beyond His mind ? No, nobody can go beyond the periphery of His mind. And, He cannot say, "You naughty chap, get out". If such an order is given by Him, that naughty child will then and there say, "Oh Supreme Father, where am I to go ? Because you are infinite, everything is within you. If you say, 'Oh naughty chap, get out', then certainly there is something outside Your mind, and I am to go there. And, if there is something outside, then You are not infinite. So, either You please, Oh Supreme Father, withdraw Your order or change Your name." Sinners are also within His mind, virtuous people are also within His mind. The sinners are His naughty children, and He always wants that His naughty children should become good children by their conduct. He cannot expel anybody from His mind, from the arena of His universal mind. Now, after creation, after being freed from the tortures of monotony, what does God do? He is playing His eternal game with His loving children, and this is the world. So, nobody should suffer from the psychology of melancholia. None should feel that he or she is alone in this universe. None should feel that he or she is helpless or hopeless. And, nobody should suffer from inferiority complex or superiority complex. When the Supreme Father is with you, when you are within His mind, then you should not be afraid of any physical or any psychic enemy, that would be stronger than your Supreme Father. When the Supreme Entity is omniscient and omnipotent, no power in heaven or hell can do anything bad for Him. The final goal, the Supreme Desideratum of each and every living being is that Supreme Consciousness, is that Supreme Father. So, all living beings and all inanimate objects came from the same source, they live in the same ectoplasmic field of the Supreme Entity. And, their final goal, their desideratum is that Supreme Home.' (THE CAUSAL MATRIX, A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 1, 21 September 1979, Kingston) from works of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti ====== gebn09swyIYou9H2CbBsRy4