There is Only One

Bhakta: How can delusion disappear, Swami?

Swami: When you grasp its secret through inquiry, the many merges in five, the three in one, and the I exists as I. You get headache, you apply ointment; it disappears, you are as you were. The delusion that ‘I am the body is like this. It will disappear if you apply the ointment of vichara or inquiry.

Bhakta: Can everyone adopt this path of inquiry?

Swami: No, my boy. It is only for those whose chitta [will] has become ripe.

Bhakta: Then what should we do to reach that ripe stage?

Swami: Now we have come to the place from which we started! Have you not got things like japam, dhyanam, puja, andpranayama for this? Steadily, through these, you became ripe and become capable of understanding the ‘I’ by inquiry into Reality. For such men, the atma [soul] is not something different from themselves or yourself. All is atman!

Bhakta: But, Swami, You mentioned only japam, dhyanam, bhajana etc. Some advanced persons adopt mounam, the vow of silence. Of what use is it? What exactly is mounam?

Swami: The illumination of the soul is mounam! How can there be mounam without the atma being illumi­nated? Without that, merely keeping the mouth shut is not silence. Some adopt the vow of silence, but commu­nicate writing on paper or slate; or they point successive­ly to the letters of the alphabet on a chart. All this is pseudo-mounam! It is only another way of talking with­out interruption! There is no need to attain silence. Silence is ever with you. What you have to do is only to remove all things that disturb it!

Bhakta: But many persons do not open their mouth to speak. You mean that this is useless?

Swami: Who said so? If you do not use the tongue, if you are silent in order to keep out the external obsta­cles to sadhana [spiritual effort], you certainly can develop your thoughts, you can desist from disturbing others, you can escape criticism and worry from others, you will get concentra­tion, your brain will be saved from unnecessary burdens, and it can improve much. With such a brain, you carry on smarana [remembering] of the Lord’s name better. All these advan­tages you will realize when you do sadhana.

Bhakta: Then for the full jnani [enlightened person] all this is un­necessary?

Swami: There is no full jnani in the world! He is in no need of the world itself; then why does he need all this?

Bhakta: If that is so, who are those people called jnanis?

Swami: The silent men I spoke about just now. Jnani is a term applied by courtesy; a full jnani is non­existent in the world. The jnani must know ‘All as one’! Your jnanis are all either experts in logic, or experts in the knowledge of the world; they have not known the Reality.

Bhakta: Who are the real jnanis?

Swami: He who knows the atma as atma will know himself, as milk added to milk, oil to oil, or water to water. When the physical body dies, they likewise merge in the atma. But some may have some traits still persist­ing. They continue to have some resolutions and desires.

Until these are exhausted, they will wander in the world with body. Such men are called also ‘Bits of Divinity born as Men, Daivaamsasambhuthas.’ This is also as per the Lord’s will.

Bhakta: Why should this difference arise, Swami?

Swami: It arises out of each one’s sadhana and san­kalpa [will]. Eat a mango and you belch its smell. How can you prevent it? The belch brings the perfume of the thing eaten.

Bhakta: Will such men, too, have limitations? Upadhis?

Swami: Without upadhis, how can work get on? They, too, have it, but only in a subtle form until they attain trans-corporeal mukti, videha mukti.

Bhakta: What is that, Swami?

Swami: Their acts are like the line drawn on water, seen while the line is being drawn, absent as soon as it is finished. While being done, you notice it, in an instant it is not noticeable anymore.

Bhakta: Swami, you said that a jnani has renunciation as his hallmark. How does this agree with that?

Swami: That is true! Renunciation is his hallmark. If out of the traits of previous birth he gets attached, he must know that it is only for the body and not for him. This attachment damages the bliss of jivanmukta [liberated person]; jnana[knowledge] is most important for videhamukti [liberation after death].

Bhakta: Even if one has no jnana, can one attain mukti by mere vairagyam [detachment].

Swami: What a foolish question! How can the fruit be sweet without ripening? Vairagyam cannot arise except from jnana. There is no moksha [liberation] without vairag­yam. Be sure of that!

Bhakta: Then where does bhakti come in?

Swami: We have come to the very beginning again! Earlier than jnana it is in the form of bhakti. Earlier than bhakti it is in the form of anurakti, affection. All these are one. Anurakti is the flower; bhakti is the fruit; it ripens as jnanam; Vairagyam is the sweet juicy final stage. Without one, you cannot have the next. To tend the fruit until the juice and taste are deve­loped, you must practice daily prayer, etc., mentioned above. But from the first, have in view the Oneness of all. Understand that there is no ‘other’.

Source: Sandeha Nivarini