EVERYTHING IS PURE

 

The absolute is forever a pure entity, and being a pure entity is always a simple entity. All the relativity that we perceive around us is always very complex. Primal simplicity has become complicated, and we have forgotten how to recognise clarity because of the complexity. It is through this process that the pure seems to become impure. It is in the same way that 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.

What is the reason why and wherefore, and how has simplicity become a complexity? This has been a philosophical question 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, which is why 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.

The infinite existence does not operate in a linear form because it does not need to progress from A, B, and C to Z, it is a continued existence, and all the A, B, C, D, E, F, G exists at the same time. When it exists at the same time, then there is no space and no 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 units one sees one at a time are not perfect because if you put five people together and 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 incomplete, which is why the mind cannot see the whole. Because it cannot see the whole, it sees parts which is logical, and all the problems and all the inconsistencies and all those things that seem impure we see to be impure because of our limited vision. 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 thing 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 and Christ.

BE YOUR REAL PURE SELF

When the greatest sinner like Mary Magdalene, the prostitute, came to the Lord Jesus Christ, he saw in Mary the inner essence of purity, and that is why he said, “I forgive you, my daughter, but sin no more,” that means that be your real pure Self and discard this limited view which your mind and body has 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 purity, we must have that developed awareness, achieved through meditation. I will give you an example; we can use the sun analogy. It is through the sun’s heat that water vaporises into the sky, the same water vapour raised by the sun becomes condensed, and when it becomes condensed, it forms a cloud, and most times dark clouds, the sun is not affected. Yet, the cloud created by the sun obscures the sun and down here on earth, we find it dark. So, the pure sun has been the cause of the cloud, and that cloud has produced darkness, which is the process of nature. So, 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.

THE RELATIVE SPHERE OF LIFE ALWAYS HAS ITS OPPOSITES

When we see light and darkness, we look at the pair of opposites, and everything in the relative sphere of life always has its opposites. Pain and pleasure, light and dark, black and 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 is at the other end. Goodness at one end and badness at the other end because one cannot exist without the other.

Through understanding and realisations, 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 centre, the limitations do not affect us; we are in the middle. If you take a stick and try to put it on your finger at the end, it cannot balance; it falls, but if you put the stick right in the middle of your finger, it stays in balance. It is, therefore, a practical demonstration. 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, then there is no pleasure, and no pain, no black, no white, no light, no darkness, and one crucial thing happens, bliss and joy which wells up from within that well up pleasure and pain. Pleasure and pain are temporary qualities, while the bliss in the centre is at an eternal point. Always remember that when you go through extreme pleasure, you will also have the capacity to go through severe pain. When a person becomes very sensitive, he can experience both ends of the stick because here, the essential quality is not the pleasure or the pain but the sensitivity.

NATURE IS COMPOSED OF THREE QUALITIES: TAMAS, RAJAS AND SATTVA

As far as nature is concerned, the polarities will always remain. Nature is composed of three qualities. There are three Sanskrit words that 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 on one side 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 forever changing.

When Rajas activates the quality of Tamas, darkness, all the miseries of life are balanced. It is like a pond of water that 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 mind and body because the multiplication of bacteria or, in other words, two different types of bacteria could produce a third kind, and Tamas is activated by the activating force of Rajas, as we said. 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.

IT IS OUR CHOICE TO GO TO TAMAS OR TO GO TO SATTVA

Being embodied beings in our lives, 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 option 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-realisation. Self-integration is Self-realisation. Self-realisation is God-realisation.

Like the heat of the sun and Divinity, the qualities of nature that we mentioned are also permanent. The sun is endless, but 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. So, the process starts from the changing values of existence to reach the constant value of existence. So, manifestation re-absorbs itself into the manifestor, becoming one with Divinity; that is Unity-consciousness.

WE HAVE TO RISE ABOVE THE LAW OF THE OPPOSITES

In the whole process, nature cannot be destroyed; there is only one way: rise above nature. From here, the cloud seems very high, and the sun cannot be seen; even on a rainy day, the sun is bright, so we take the aeroplane of meditation and go above the clouds and see the sun, and we are not affected by what the cloud is doing and all the rain that is falling and the darkness and 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,

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang Germany 1978 – 02