TALK WITH SWAMIJI:
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From Letters:
Q1. What is the need of the ONE to manifest as the Many?

A1. Swamiji:
dt. 13.06.1989

...You have raised an interesting question answering which I have to consider apparently irreconciliable facts. The realisation that body is a divine tool to win God's grace and to attain self-realisation itself is a major attitudinal change...

'Are we diminishing the potentiality of all-pervading consciousness by contenting that body is a divine instrument for self-expression?'

In spirituality body does not mean just one body, it includes all the bodies--samashti sarira-s. The hymn to the cosmic person unveils the supreme consciousness as one with thousands of heads, hands and legs. One who is no more identified with one body can experience the manifestation of consciousness through all the bodies...All the gross, subtle, causal bodies are together known as Maya. And, consciousness is 'Mayavi'--the wielder of Maya...

'What is the need for body for all the pervasive, omnipotent self-principle to manifest, isn't it already manifest?'

Yes! infact the body itself is a manifestation of the all-pervasive consciousness--mayabhih indrah pururupamiyate bahusyam prajayeyeti--(may I become many). So, body is not an external conditioning for consciousness, it in fact is consciousness appearing, without undergoing intrinsic changes(vivarta)...

'What is the need of the body for one who is in Samadhi?'

No Samadhi is possible without the body. What is known as 'jivan mukti' is with the body--navadvarepure dehe aste sukham na kurvan na karayan (Gita ch.5)--When the body of a Jivanmukta falls it is called 'mahasamadhi'. Sankaracharya was a Jivanmukta...Real samadhi is absence of doership (kartrtva)--na karmanam anarambhat naishkarmyam purushosnute (Gita ch.3)--Not doing action is not samadhi, ie. naishkarmyam...

'Is it neccessary for the infinite space to manifest through a pot?'

Pot-space is a euphemism for the infinite space--tatvamasi--Thou (pot-space) =(is) That (infinite space)...We find Muktapurusha-s supremely active--Sankara, Ramkrishna, Vivekananda, Yajnavalkya, Janaka and Sri Krishna. Their apparent acitivities (karma) were not opposed to samadhi (atma-akarma). Bhagavad Gita unfolds a vision of karmani akarma darsanam--actionless in the midst of acitivity-- (freedom in action, not from action). To explain the phenomenon of realised savants being physically active, body's divine instrumentality was suggested. Bhagavan Krishna suggests--Be just an instrument O, left-handed--nimittamatram bhava savyasachin...

Now, you take a pot! Is not pot in space? Of space? and nothing but space! What are clay (pot) molecules but atoms? what is atom except vast space and tiny matter of protons, electrons and neutrons? are they also not just modification of space?!...Vedanta conetents that--atmanah akashah akasat vayuh etc.--ie. consciousness modifies as space, and space modifies as air, fire, water and earth etc. So, pot is nothing but a manifestation of space, is in space, has space--therfore pot is space. Can you say space (the cause of pot) conditions or limits space (infinite space).

So too the body is a manifestation of divine consciousness, is in consciousness, has consciousness--is nothing but consciousness. It is a dance of consciousness...Can you say that the dancer is conditioned or limited by her dance?

The whole universe is intelligence and consciousness...

Meditate upon the Guru and sing his glories, but understand Guru, God and supreme consciousness are the same, like even the wedding ring, ring and gold are the same. One day you may lose value for the wedding ring, but still it is valuable as a ring; then you lose value for the ring too, but you have value for gold. If you can see gold in your wedding ring that vision is real. So too see supreme consciousness in your Guru and sing the glory of Self which you are.

And remember all values are given by you--so you are the ULTIMATE VALUE--Tattvamasi--You are that!

(to be contd.)

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