Satyam Gyanam Anandam Society UK E-Magazine January 2006

* SGAS UK * January 2006 * ISSUE NO: 3 *

Editorial

Dear Readers,

It gives us great pleasure to offer you the third issue of our e-magazine. SGAS UK brings the enlightening articles of our Spiritual Master for you to embrace this New Year with a new resolution – one endowed with mystical and spiritual progress. Our society will be very active this year in spreading the message of the Master with a view to trigger the process of inner realisation in sincere seekers.

With the New Year being a time of renewal and change, why not take the plunge and change your mindset by joining meditation courses under the guidance of a living enlightened master. These meditation sessions are meant to help people attain the ultimate goal of humanity – enlightenment. This is possible through the art of stilling the mind and adopting a more positive outlook towards pure consciousness.

Meditation is not a mere relaxation technique as often tagged. As one practises these meditation techniques, he can derive many other benefits such as deep relaxation, elimination of stress, promoting good health, increasing creativity and intelligence. However, Swamiji guides people to embrace this sacred path of meditation purposely for God-realisation. Furthermore, meditation has to be practised solely under the guidance of an enlightened master, one who has experienced this Infinite Peace. Having himself gone through this process of inner transformation, Swamiji is waiting for genuine and sincere seekers to embark on this holy path towards the ultimate goal.

As time is cruising by, SGAS UK sets forth to be very active this year to assist and inspire more people in embracing the spiritual path. Many activities are already being formulated amongst which are the visit of our Spiritual Master, new discourses and meditation sessions, conference on the Science of Meditation, book exhibitions and fund raising activities.

We hope that we have triggered your interest in meditation and eagerly await you to march alongside in creating the blueprints of this new world.

Please, do not hesitate to contact us for further details. Should you wish to contact Swamiji, you may do so directly through email on sgas@intnet.mu

Editing Team

Listen to Yourself First

The body has its language, so do the heart and the mind, but few people have the art and science of reading, listening to and understanding these languages. Being too busy in focusing on the external world, we have no time to look into ourselves. It is also a fact that we are afraid to listen to and understand the inner language because we are bound to come across much madness. However, beyond all this there is something immensely beautiful and vast. But before we can attain to it, we should be ready to go through the first step of reading and listening to the three languages, which will reveal to us innumerable truths concerning ourselves, our real nature and our relationship with whatever exists.

Body, mind and heart have three different languages. For instance, the language of the body is instinct. When it is hungry , it gives a signal by releasing the gastric fire. When it needs rest, it will release a hormone that will send the whole metabolism into a somnolent state. It has many other languages that we need to understand. The heart too has its ways of expression. For example, it needs love to grow but presently it is polluted by the ways of the mind, which is the master. It has its own desires and needs, just like the mind. Though we need not fulfil all the needs of our body, mind and heart, certain basic needs have to be satisfied. The heart has to be given full expression of emotion, but it should also be seen that it does not overpower the body and the mind. Presently such is the situation.

Similarly the bodily needs should not be a source of trouble. We should not, for example, become a slave to taste. Otherwise, it may cause us a lot of trouble through diseases resulting mostly from non-discrimination with respect to the types of food that may be good for the tongue but harmful to the body itself. Sex is good and beautiful but going through it without discrimination has done much damage to the individual and the society. Emotion is the juice of life but uncontrolled emotion blinds the eye of the mind. As a consequence of our unconsciousness, the three forces of our life namely, bodily needs, emotions and thoughts of desire have overpowered and poisoned our whole life. Humanity as a whole has become a disease and life is hellish. All this is the result of not observing and listening to what happens on the three different layers of our being. Intense observation with a detached and calm mind can reveal a lot about the psychology of our being. Such a revelation can help us to go beyond these three layers and attain to something that is immortal and blissful. But instead of doing so, we have either over-indulged or suppressed the needs of these three layers. Now we are in a mess and prefer to live life as it comes.

These three layers of our being form the greatest library where all secrets of human and even animal life are found. For that purpose, I always emphasise and insist on self-knowledge: “know thyself”. After all, these are the only faithful givens we have. We cannot trust the scriptures or other people’s words more than our own nature. Even the world out there is illusive and a mental reflection. The truly religious or spiritual seeker always starts from the point where he is and that is his own self.

The first step towards the self is the body. No one can deny the body. Strangely, some religions teach to deny and hate the body. It is absolutely unnatural because if it were not for the body, we would not be here. If we can listen to our body, mind and heart then we shall be able to listen and understand anybody else, nay, we shall be able to read them as we read ourselves! However, presently it demands tremendous energy to read, listen and understand the real language of these three aspects of our being because they have been poisoned by false education. Therefore, the art or the science has to be learnt, otherwise you may be discouraged and stop all effort and continue as you are.

Try a small experience. For one month constantly observe your thoughts, needs, emotions and bodily gestures, then make out for yourself if they are normal or abnormal. Whatever be the result, do not stop. Go on observing and see whether you or even other people are living in a rational manner. This will be the beginning of self-education. From this a great door will open and a revolution will start taking place in your life. Stop watching the affairs of other people, instead devote that time in listening to your own mind; there is much to acquire from there. Simply be determined, gather enough courage and start right now. If you succeed in listening to, reading and understanding yourself with utmost sincerity, then you will be sure to find God one day.

Meditation : An Insight

We are fortunate to be living in an era when science is making giant leaps in many fields. It has nearly become a divine science as some scientists have even started working on the truth about the mind, soul and God. . Some scientists say that our mind is a quantum – a packet of energy that is not localised but which extends ad infinitum in space. It has been discovered that consciousness is the fundamental nature of the mind. If such is the case, and for the mystic it is, then telepathy and other psychic powers can easily be explained.

Information can be transferred almost instantly from one mind to another. Light can travel at three hundred thousand kilometres per second and there is a theory that particles of light can share information. Since mind is subtler than a particle of light - in fact, it is the subtlest and smallest unit of space or a quantum - then it is not strange that there can be exchange of information and the possibility of materialising and dematerialising almost instantly.

The deeper science goes, the more it is found that particles are illusive - it is the wave that is real. Like the light of a candle, the mind too is an amount of energy whose light or consciousness extends in space. For this reason the ancient seer could say, “I am God” or “Aham brahmasmi.” All those who have realised Him have proclaimed so. We too should be like scientists and go very deep in observing the mind and removing the dust that prevents us from proclaiming our universal status.

The path followed by particle physics in its evolution is similar to that of religion. Philosophers used to think that the basic building block of matter was ether, air, fire, water and earth. Later on the atom was discovered. The subatomic world was unknown; then little by little, through research by means of sophisticated apparatus, science presented a completely different worldview. Today it can be said that the truth concerning the Universe does not stop at what can be seen. It can even be said that life or the Universe, as we know it, is an illusion because its fundamental aspect is a homogeneous ocean of energy.

The mystic initially makes use of the body and then goes deeper through reflection and meditation. He does not have any apparatus to probe beyond the body and the thought process. The only instrument he has is the mind or the tiny ray of consciousness. By directing it inwards, he perceives that the mind is independent of the body and further, that it is not only a bundle of thoughts, impressions, conditionings, emotions and beliefs, but it is like the electron that extends to infinity. The deeper he goes the more blissful, peaceful and powerful his mind becomes. A point is reached where he proclaims the eternal truth, “I am Him” or “Aham brahmasmi” - “ I am the Universal or I am part and parcel and therefore one with the Universe.”

The transformation that follows such a realisation is beyond comprehension therefore to explain it a lot of means are devised such as stories, koans, symbols and parables. It is as if a beggar has become a king. But breaking this human limitation of mental conditioning is a colossal work. It is with much diligence, ingenuity and patience that the realities of the subatomic world were discovered. The scientists had to commit themselves totally and their involvement was absolute; it is only then that they became fit to receive the knowledge of the subatomic world that gave the world a completely new shape. Similarly, the mystic strives hard to break the mental conditioning imposed by society so as to experience the real nature of the mind.

All mystical practices are meant to go deeper within the mind and to realise its essence. But a lot of fuss has been created around this, to the extent that man is lost in his own invention which he proudly calls his religion. The mystic is a scientist in his own way; he is a specialist of the inner science. With the tiny ray of consciousness, body, emotions, thoughts and using the external world as an aid, he realises his essence as the whole Universe and as Pure Consciousness.