22-11-45 Morning
Bhagavan explained how it is said in books that thehighest possible happiness, which a human being can attain or which the ten grades of beings higher than man, ending with gods like Brahma can attain, is like foam in the deluging flood of the bliss of the Self.
Imagine a man in robust health; of vigorous adult age,
endowed with unsurpassed wealth and power, with intellect and all other resources, and married to a fair and faithful wife, and conceive of his happiness.
Each higher grade of being above man is capable of a
hundred-fold greater happiness than that of the grade below. But the highest happiness of all the eleven grades of being is only the foam in the flooding ocean of divine bliss.
In this connection Bhagavan narrated the following story: "A king was passing through a forest in all his pomp and
pageantry, with his army and retinue behind him. He came across a man with not even a cod-piece on him, lying on the
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ground, with one leg cocked over the other and laughing away, apparently supremely happy and contented with himself and all the world. The king was struck with the man's happy state and sent for him. But when the king's men approached the nude ascetic and delivered the king's message, he took absolutely no notice and continued in his ascetic bliss. On being told of this, the king himself went to the man and even then the man took no notice. Thereupon it struck the king that this must be no common man, and said: `Swami, you are evidently supremely happy. May we know what is the secret of such happiness and from which Guru you learnt it?' Thereupon the ascetic told the king: `I have had twenty-four Gurus. Everything, this body, the earth, the birds, some instruments, some persons all have taught me.' All the things in the world may be classed as either good or bad. The good taught him what he must seek. Similarly, the bad taught him what he must avoid. The ascetic was Dattatreya, the avadhuta."
After Bhagavan returned from his morning stroll about
8 a.m., some visitor prostrating himself seems to have spilled out his entire stock — a good quantity — of snuff. Attendant Krishnaswami noticed it and collected the snuff and threw it out. This reminded Bhagavan of some incidents in his life. He said, "Tobacco is a germicide. When I was in Virupakshi Cave, one day I suddenly found one tooth gave sharp pain when the cold rice came in contact with it and I could eat no more. I stopped eating and thought I would have to die of starvation. Vasudeva Sastri was then living with me. He had gone out at the time. When he returned to the cave I told him of my toothache. He said it was nothing and that a little tobacco would cure it, killing the germs. As we had no tobacco with us, somebody who had snuff with him gave me a little snuff and advised me to press it against the tooth and it gave immediate relief, so much so that I was able to eat my next meal. When I examined the tooth there appeared to be something like a dot on it. Gradually it became a
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hole. Later on a gentleman who was a District Munsiff at Tirukoilur and visiting me came to know of it, and sent a dentist from Madras. The dentist came, stayed here three days, charging Rs.300-0-0 for his stay and did nothing substantial, except cleaning my teeth, pulling out one tooth and a part of another.
"Even before I came here I knew of the power of tobacco.
When the Periyar dam was constructed and the water first allowed to pass in the canals, the water came on in a flood and there was plenty of fish in the water. The fishermen used to divert the water by means of a side channel and let it into a pond into which they had thrown a number of bundles of tobacco stems, i.e., the stumps after the leaves had been utilised for making cigars. The moment the fish got into the pond they became unconscious or dead on account of the poison of the tobacco and began to float. And the fishermen got heaps of fish in this way. Afterwards I came across the following stanza in R??U?]Yo (Thayumanavar) which alludes to the above practice of fishermen (in ?P?\?Y 4).
Ds[j? ?s?[ ?V??j?Ru{ V?hӡu\
Ls[d L?|?VV?u L??k RWU??U?
?Ys[j?R U?t? ?Pd?iT?o Sg?h?m
Ts[j?u ?u?T?t T?Rj?Ru TW?TW?U.
Translation: I am struggling like the fish caught in the
pond whose waters diverted from the flood had been poisoned by flesh-eaters. Is it possible for me to understand your hidden kindness. Oh Almighty, who lying concealed in my heart is moving me about like a puppet?"
After this, at Dr. Srinivasa Rao's request, Bhagavan
explained the stanza occurring at the end of `?LY??' commencing `FkS??m DP-?X' and the last four stanzas in `UiPXj?u' of R??U?]Yo (Thayumanavar).
Later in the morning, at Rishikesananda's request Bhagavan
recounted his first experience of the Self in his upstairs room at
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Madura. "When I lay down with limbs outstretched and mentally enacted the death scene and realised that the body would be taken and cremated and yet I would live, some force, call it atmic power or anything else, rose within me and took possession of me. With that, I was reborn and I became a new man. I became indifferent to everything afterwards, having neither likes nor dislikes." Dr. Srinivasa Rao asked Bhagavan how he first came to have bhakti [?]. Bhagavan replied, "The first thing that evoked bhakti [?] in me was the book `Periya Puranam', which I came across in my house, which belonged to a neighbour and which I read through. It was however only after the experience described above that I used to go daily to the temple and pray that I should become devoted like one of the sixty-three saints (Nayanmar) of `Periya Puranam'."
Afternoon
Dr. Srinivasa Rao told the Swami, "I have heard from one,
who said he saw it, that when Bhagavan was in Skandasramam, a snake once crept over his body." Bhagavan said, "Snakes raise their hoods and look into our eyes and they seem to know when they need not be afraid, and then they pass over us. It did not strike me either that I should do anything to it."
Later Bhagavan said, "Even though we usually describe
the reality as Sat, Chit, Ananda, even that is not quite a correct description. It cannot really be described. By this description all that we endeavour to make plain is that it is not asat [?], that it is not jada [?] and that it is free from all pain."
Again Bhagavan said, "We are all in reality Sat-Chit-Ananda.
But we imagine we are bound and are having all these pains."
I asked, "Why do we imagine so? Why does this
ignorance or ajnana [?] come to us?"
Bhagavan said, "Enquire to whom has this ignorance
come and you will find it never came to you and that you have always been that Sat-Chit-Ananda. One performs all sorts
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of penances to become what one already is. All effort is simply to get rid of this viparita buddhi [?] or mistaken impression that one is limited and bound by the woes of samsara [?]."
Later Bhagavan said, "The spark of jnana [?] will easily
consume all creation as if it were a mountain-heap of cotton. All the crores of worlds being built upon the weak (or no) foundation of the ego, they all topple down when the atomic bomb of jnana [?] comes down upon them." Bhagavan said, "All talk of surrender is like pinching jaggery from the jaggery image of Lord Ganesa and offering it as naivedya to the same Lord Ganesa. You say you offer your body, soul and all possessions to God. Were they yours that you could offer them? At best, you can only say, `I falsely imagined till now that all these which are yours (God's) were mine. Now I realise they are yours. I shall no more act as if they are mine.' And this knowledge that there is nothing but God or Self, that I and mine don't exist and that only the Self exists, is jnana [?]." He added, "Thus there is no difference between bhakti [?] and jnana [?]. Bhakti is jnana mata or mother of jnana [?]."
Talking of the innumerable ways of different seekers after
God, Bhagavan said, "Each should be allowed to go his own way, the way for which alone he may be built. It will not do to convert him to another path by violence. The Guru will go with the disciple in his own path and then gradually turn him into the supreme path at the ripe moment. Suppose a car is going at top speed. To stop it at once or to turn it at once would be attended by disastrous consequences."
The talk then turned to the names of God and Bhagavan
said, "Talking of all mantras, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says `AHAM' is the first name of God. The first letter in Sanskrit is A ?A? and the last letter Ha `h' and `Aha' thus includes
everything from beginning to end. The word `Ayam' means that which exists, Self-shining and Self-evident. `Ayam', `Atma',
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`Aham', all refer to the same thing. In the Bible also, `I AM' is given as the name of God."