Swamiji: What is the greatest mystery you can think of in this universe? The greatest mystery?
\nAudience: God
\nSwamiji: No, not God. God is not the mystery. Because if there is no God you wouldn\u2019t be here and if you are not here, there is no God. You and God are one and that is not a mystery. The greatest mystery is …
\nAudience: Life.
\nSwamiji: The greatest mystery is not life. It\u2019s death. Death takes place at every moment. Even as I snap my fingers how many people are taking their last breath? At this very moment, as you sit here thousands upon thousands of people are dying. They won\u2019t breathe again. And this process goes on non-stop, continuously. Yet each one of us thinks we will live forever. That is the greatest mystery. Suppose you turn on the radio at the beginning of a long weekend and the announcement comes that one thousand people will die and many more injured over this holiday period. What do you think? Not me. But when you buy a lottery ticket, when the chances are one in ten million or more, what do you think? It\u2019ll be me!!!<\/p>\n
The greatest mystery is death. Death is not something frightening. You\u2019re only frightened because you misunderstand death. Actually there is no such thing as death at all. Our subject this evening is on mortality and immortality. The entire purpose of yoga philosophy is to understand mortality and immortality. In fact it is the purpose of philosophy in all religions.<\/p>\n
When we look at a lighted candle we see the flame. But we don\u2019t actually see the candle changing as it burns. We don\u2019t see the change that\u2019s happening moment by moment, the candle getting smaller and smaller. My clothes are disintegrating. Can you see them disintegrating? No. But they are. In a few hundred years they will be dust. This process is going on right now. So also this piece of iron, rusting, oxidising. And this flower. Can you see it change? No. But is it changing? Yes. How do you know it\u2019s changing? Through analysis, through discrimination we know, but through our senses, everything appears to stay the same. Now, I can accelerate the change. Watch. I can take this flower \u2013 it may last for another ten, fifteen days if properly looked after \u2013 and I can crush it. Look, I have crushed it. What usually happens in fifteen days, has now taken seconds. But it doesn\u2019t matter how fast I accelerate it or slow it down, change is still going on at every moment.<\/p>\n
And we can never stop it. This planet earth itself is changing. California is going where? The American continent is going south; California is going in the opposite direction! In houses built on the fault line, the living room goes to the north and the bedroom goes south! Recent discoveries show that South America, Antarctic and Australia were once the same continent. There were land connections. There were tropical animals existing in the Antarctic area. The sun, moon, stars, galaxies \u2013 everything is changing at each and every moment. What is the present moment? The present moment is immeasurable. It is the interval when the future changes into the past and before it can be measured, it is past, gone forever. And the future is always in the future. All things in this universe change moment by moment, nothing remains in the same state.<\/p>\n
Each one of us has forgotten that we too are changing at this very instant. This is something we understand only when we learn to discriminate. This is an important word for us \u2013 discrimination. When we use the senses\u2014touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste\u2014we don\u2019t discriminate. We usually accept what we perceive as real. Whatever we see, hear, smell, taste, touch in daily life, we accept them as real. This is the greatest mistake we can make. Only when we begin to discriminate do we understand that what we perceive is not real, it is always changing, it is impermanent. The purpose of spiritual practice is to teach us to discriminate to know that nothing is permanent in this universe, that change is the nature of all things. We can\u2019t hold on to anything. We call this the Dance of Siva, Nataraja, the dancing Siva, a symbol of the constant state of change. The candle may disappear but we cannot destroy its essence. As the wax is destroyed, heat, smoke and ash are created. This is the Dance of Siva. Scientists talk about how atoms are constantly dancing. Matter dances. It appears to be concrete, but what is it really? Electrons, protons, neutrons moving and dancing in every direction.<\/p>\n
Are things changing in a positive or negative way? This flower is changing \u2013 is it destruction or construction? Or both? It depends on your point of view. Suppose we take a perfect circle, where is the beginning and where is the end? Construction or destruction depends on your point of view. In fact there is neither, there is only change. Matter cannot be destroyed, it only changes.<\/p>\n
Now, I am going to use a different word for matter. The word is \u2018object.\u2019 This flower is an object, the chair is an object, the cloth I am wearing is an object. This you all understand easily. Now I am going to ask you a question? What about this finger? Is the finger subject or object?
\nAudience: Object
\nSwamiji: What is an object? An object is anything other than me, myself. We don\u2019t know yet what that me is, but we will come to that later. Suppose I give you this flower, here it is, it\u2019s your birthday. This flower is an object. It is something that can be given away or taken back, and as we mentioned before, it changes. An object is transferable and it changes. Now suppose someone tells me that they are working hard and need another finger. Is this finger subject or object? Use the same analysis: an object can be transferred and an object must change. This finger is changing or not?
\nAudience: Yes.
\nSwamiji: I cut off my finger and give it to him. He now has six fingers, but the question is whose finger is it? Mine or his? Remember that an object can be given. So I gave this finger to him. Now whose finger is it? I can give this cloth which is mine. I can also give this finger, which is mine. They are both changing and can be given. Suppose one day I have pain. I go to the doctor \u2018Doctor, doctor, my heart is attacking…heart attack.\u2019 Have you ever seen a heart attack anyone? It is actually you who attack your heart through your bad diet and lifestyle! The doctor looks, \u2018Yes, I can see the heart is attacking. Don\u2019t worry. I\u2019ll cut out the attacking heart and throw it in the wastepaper basket. I\u2019ll give you a monkey\u2019s heart in its place.\u2019 So, my sweet heart is gone, and now I have a monkey\u2019s heart. Now comes the question… who am I? What if I think my original heart is part of me, part of \u2018I\u2019 and that part is in the dustbin? With my monkey\u2019s heart do you think that a monkey is speaking to you at this moment? No. It is still \u2018I\u2019 that is speaking. This \u2018I\u2019 is pure consciousness. In Sanskrit we call it atman. We don\u2019t have an equivalent word in English for atman. It can translate as Christ, Siva, Krishna, Self, soul \u2013 whatever name you wish to call it. For our purpose here we call this \u2018I\u2019 pure consciousness. This is the closest we can come in the English language\u2014pure consciousness\u2014\u2018I am\u2019.<\/p>\n
This \u2018I am\u2019 is an awareness. It is not a quality. When my heart has been exchanged for a monkey\u2019s heart the awareness of \u2018I am\u2019 which is beyond quality, beyond name, beyond form, has not changed. Everything in this universe changes but there is one thing in this universe which never changes\u2014and that is the \u2018I\u2019 or the Self or atman or soul. Even with a monkey heart, \u2018I am.\u2019<\/p>\n
Suppose the following day I visit the doctor again. This time it is my liver. My liver is attacking me. He tells me after testing that there is very little blood in my alcohol stream! and advises a transplant of a pig\u2019s liver. Now I have a monkey\u2019s heart and a pig\u2019s liver. Who am I? Am I a pig or a monkey or in between? \u2018I\u2019 did not change. Then the next day I change my kidneys, my blood, and have a nice nose job, a plastic this, a plastic that, everything plastic…. And what about blood? How many bloods are there? American blood, Jewish blood, Hindu blood, white blood, Christian blood, Catholic blood, Protestant blood ..how many types of blood? Only four.
\nThe doctor takes all my Hindu blood and gives me Jewish blood. So now, monkey heart, pig\u2019s liver, goat\u2019s kidneys, Jewish blood. And what about religion? Well, I am tired of being a swami wearing orange robes, so I change my religion and my name. Now who am I? Still that \u2018I\u2019 remains the same. What about my sex? I am tired of being a male. The doctor will just give some hormones and an operation so I can become a \u2018Miss.\u2019 Now with a monkey\u2019s heart, pig\u2019s liver, goat\u2019s kidneys, Jewish blood, \u2018Miss Rabbi So and So.\u2019 Who am I? Still that \u2018I\u2019 remains the same.<\/p>\n
Usually you identify \u2018I\u2019 with qualities \u2013 I am a Jew, Catholic, Protestant, I am male, female, I am a president, holy man, sinner, and so on. You identify with these qualities, but these qualities do not belong to the \u2018I\u2019. Qualities always change, but the \u2018I\u2019 does not change.<\/p>\n
Once I was strong and healthy; I could climb Mount Everest, but now I cannot. I need someone to lift me up, even to get up from this chair. Have I become a different person because my body has changed? No. Only when we learn to discriminate do we understand the \u2018I\u2019 is not Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist. It is \u2018I am that I am.\u2019 These words are in the Bible. When Moses saw the Burning Bush he asked, \u2018Who are you?\u2019 What did the voice from the Bush say? It didn\u2019t say, \u2018I am God.\u2019 That\u2019s a quality\u2014being God is a quality. But God is not a quality. The subject, the \u2018I am\u2019 is… God. \u2018I am that I am.\u2019 That is why there is no other except the one \u2018I am\u2019, nothing more. That\u2019s all. If you add anything to \u2018I am\u2019 it is a quality.<\/p>\n
For example you write the number one and add a zero. How much is that? Then add another six zeros? One million. And another six? One billion. Another six? Trillion. Now remove the number one. You had trillions and trillions. How much is left now? Without one, there is nothing; only zeros. The value of the zeros is because of the one. In the same way, my qualities \u2013 I am Swami Vishnudevananda, I weigh one hundred and forty pounds, I am five foot three inches tall, I am a Hindu, I am a swami, I am a holy man, can only have meaning against an unchanging background and this is the \u2018I\u2019. Who is this \u2018I\u2019, this \u2018I am\u2019? If I ask who are you, your answer will be I am married, a housewife, yoga teacher, and so on, adding the zeros. These zeros change. But the \u2018I am\u2019 is the subject and remains always the \u2018I am\u2019.<\/p>\n
What then is the meaning of mortality and immortality? Mortality comes when you identify with the qualities, the object\u2014I am this body, I am Mr. So and So. These qualities will change and that is called mortality. But your Self, the \u2018I am\u2019, is immortal, it never changes even when the physical body dies. You have forgotten. You think that the immortal Self is the body. As long as you have this body, as long you as you can see and hear, you think that you will live eternally, although you know that one day we all have to die. Yogis do not fear death. Why not? Because they don\u2019t identify with the object. They identify with the subject, I am that I am. Jesus also said, \u2018I and my Father are One. I am in He, He is in Me. I am He.\u2019 Jesus knew that the same Self shines equally in you and in me. We are one. We call it Brahman in Sanskrit. \u2018I\u2019 means the subject, not the body. I and Brahman are one, the soul and Brahman are one. This is the goal of yoga, to realise that \u2018I\u2019 the subject and Brahman are one. This is vedanta, the end of all knowledge. This is universal consciousness. This is Self-realisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Swamiji: What is the greatest mystery you can think of in this universe? The greatest mystery? Audience: God Swamiji: No, not God. God is not the mystery. Because if there is no God you wouldn\u2019t be here and if you are not here, there is no God. You and God are one and that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11],"class_list":{"0":"post-56","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jnana-yoga","8":"tag-swami-vishnudevananda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandesha.sivanandayoga.org\/teachings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}