EVERYTHING IS PURE

 

MAN SEE THINGS TO BE IMPURE BECAUSE HIS MIND IS LIMITED

The Absolute is forever a pure entity, and being a pure entity, it is always a simple entity. All the relativity that we perceive around us is always very complex. The primal simplicity has become complex, and it is because of the complexity that we have forgotten how to recognize the simplicity.

Why, wherefore, and how has the simplicity become a complexity. This has been a philosophical question that has been debated throughout the ages, and no philosopher has ever been able to give an intellectual answer. The reason is that the primal simplicity, which we know as Divinity, is infinite, and man’s mind is finite. The finite mind could never comprehend that which is infinite. A question of this nature can only be answered in a parable form. Great teachers like Krishna, Buddha and Christ used the parables because the abstract value of Divinity can only be interpreted to a limited degree in symbol form. All parables are symbols because the mind works linearly from A to Z.

Infinite existence does not need to progress from A, B, C to Z; it is a continued existence, and all the A, B, C, D, E, F, G exists at the same time, and when it exists at the same time, then there is no space and time. All the dimensions man’s mind can think of is here and now, but because the intellect does not have the full comprehensive ability of comprehension, it cannot take in the entire existence at one glance; that is in the area of Divinity.

Man can only see a section at a time, yet the sections one sees one at a time are not perfect because if you put five people together and even though each one sees the same object, they will have a different interpretation of the same object. This proves that man’s mind functions according to its particular level. Because of these levels, comprehension is fragmentary, and that is why the mind cannot see the whole. Because it cannot see the whole, it sees part, which is logical, and all the problems and all the incongruities, all the problems and all the inconsistencies and all those things that seem impure, we see to be impure because of our limited vision.

EVERYTHING IS PURE

Meanwhile, in reality, everything is pure. Only the unreality of the mind imparts impurity to that which is pure, and that is why we have the old saying that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. A particular object might seem ugly and impure to one person, while the same object would seem very beautiful to another person. That is why a highly evolved person in communion with Divinity only sees the good in everything, and there have been men of that stature like Buddha, Krishna, Christ.

When the greatest sinner like Mary Magdalene, the prostitute, came to the Lord Jesus Christ, he saw the inner essence of purity in Mary. He said, “I forgive you, my daughter, but sin no more.” Be your authentic, pure Self and discard this limited view that your mind and body have given to you. Jesus could see the person as a total whole, while the ordinary people at that time could only see her as a bad woman and everyone wanted to stone her.

To comprehend what is pure, we have to have that total developed awareness, which is achieved through meditation.

RELATIVE LIFE ALWAYS HAS ITS OPPOSITES

I will give you an example; we can take the analogy of the sun. Through the heat of the sun, water vaporizes into the sky. The same water vapour raised by the sun becomes condensed, and when it becomes condensed, it forms a cloud. The sun is not affected, yet the shadow formed by the sun is obscuring the sun and down here on earth, we find it dark. The pure sun has been the cause of creating the cloud, and that cloud has produced darkness, and this is the process of nature. Because of our limited conceptions, we only see the darkness and the cloud and never think of the sun above, which is pure. Yet, the essence of the sun is there in the darkness and the cloud because it is light that has created darkness.

When we see the light and darkness, we look at the pair of opposites, and everything in the relative sphere of life always has its negatives. Pain – pleasure, light – darkness, black-white, everything has its pair of opposites; it has polarity. It is like a stick with two ends, where pleasure is at one end and pain at the other end. Goodness at one end and badness at the other because one cannot exist without the other. Through understanding and realizations, awareness of the mind and opening of the Heart through our practices, we perceive from the ends of the stick to the middle, and when we reach the middle, the ends do not affect us; we are in the middle. If you take a stick and try to put the end of it on your finger, it cannot balance, it falls, but if you put the middle of the stick on your finger, it stays in balance. It is, therefore, a practical demonstration.

GOING BEYOND THE LAW OF OPPOSITES

In our lives, the same thing happens through our spiritual practices; we leave the ends of the polarity and come to the centre, and when we come to the centre, it means that we are coming to the centre of ourselves and the centre of ourselves is forever pure. This means that we go beyond the law of opposites, and when we go beyond the law of opposites and reach the centre, there is no pleasure and no pain, no black, no white, no light, no darkness. Only Bliss and joy, which wells up from within, remains.

Pleasure and pain are transient qualities, temporary qualities, while the Bliss in the centre is an eternal point. Remember that when you go through extreme pleasure, you will also have the capacity to go through extreme pain. When a person becomes very sensitive, he will be able to experience both ends of the stick because here, the essential quality is not the pleasure or the pain but the sensitivity. As far as nature is concerned, the polarities will always remain.

NATURE IS COMPOSED OF THREE QUALITIES

Nature is composed of three qualities. There are three Sanskrit words which have not been translated into any foreign language. These words are Tamas, Rajas and Sattva. Tamas is a quality of darkness and inertia, laziness. Sattva is the quality of light and exuberates the radiation of life. You have Tamas, and on the other side, life, Sattva, and in between, you have Rajas, which is the activating quality. These three constituents of nature are forever eternal, but it is forever changing.

When Rajas activates the quality of Tamas, which is darkness, then all the miseries of life are balanced. It is like a pond of water which is not flowing, it is stagnant, and any stagnant water will pester and produce germs and bacteria. Because of the various forms of bacteria, different kinds of diseases are created in the mind and body because the multiplication of bacteria or, in other words, two different kinds of bacteria could produce a third kind, and Tamas, as we said, is activated by the activating force of Rajas.

The same activating force of Rajas can be directed to Sattva, the quality of life where joy is felt because that Sattva, which is joy, is also forever duplicating itself and multiplicating.

Being embodied beings, we are under the influence of these three constituents of nature. It is man’s free will how he is going to use the activating force, it is his choice to go to Tamas or his choice to go to Sattva, and after experiencing both experiences in the process of evolution, he will find that either extreme is not sufficient enough to give him the supreme Bliss, which is Self-realization, Self-integration is Self-realization. Self-realization is God-realisation.

RISING ABOVE NATURE IS THE ONLY WAY

The qualities of nature that we mentioned are also permanent, like the sun’s heat, and Divinity is also permanent, like the sun. Still, there is a significant difference between the heat and the sun. The sun could be called the manifestor, while the heat is the manifestation. Because of the energy generated within it by the qualities of Tamas, Rajas and Sattva, the manifestation will forever be changing while the sun is changeless.

The process is to start from the changing values of existence to reach the unchanging value of existence. What happens is that manifestation reabsorbs itself into the manifestor, becoming one with Divinity; that is Unity Consciousness. In the whole process, nature cannot be destroyed; there is only one way to rise above nature.

EVEN ON A CLOUDY DAY, THE SUN IS BRIGHT

The clouds seem very high, and the sun cannot be seen. Even on a cloudy day, the sun is bright, so we take the aeroplane for meditation and go above the clouds and see the sun, and we are not affected by what the clouds are doing or all the rain that is falling or the darkness or the snow or whatever. And when we have reached that height above the clouds, we have gone beyond the law of opposites; that is the only way.

Because of our limited vision, that which is pure seems to become impure. It is the same way where the water vapour becomes a solid block of ice. Water vapour does not harm you, you walk through it, but the solid block of ice blocks you. So, melt the block of ice, and that block of ice is there in the Heart. And as that is melted, it becomes vapour, and when it becomes vapour, we march through it to our real nature, which is Divinity, the forever pure.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang Germany 1978 – 02