Dear Souls, Become Humans First ! Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha -2

Dear Souls,

Become Humans First !

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

True Love Cannot Hate

Love to anyone or even universal love should not be a

cause of breeding hatred to another. This is very

important. Often the mind will try to delude the lover

and make him do several things undesirable.

Discrimination should be used to avoid such pitfalls.

Real love must be constantly delightful, it should delight

him who loves and equally those who look for real love.

To hate any one is bad not so much in respect of those

hated but in respect of the ‘hater’ himself. To hate is

itself hatable. If by love our mind is going to be edified

and ornamented, then be sure that by hate it will be

lacerated and made ugly.

Not to have hatable or blameworthy qualities or traits in

oneself is the first attainment: this attainment is useless

unless it is instantly followed by the next quality of not

blaming the others. Discrimination between good and

bad qualities is no doubt inevitable for the growth of any

one. But this discrimination is to help you correct

yourself. The correction of others can at best be in the

form of a suggestion or advice, and that too only for

those who seek your advice, not otherwise. Even when

Dear Souls, Become Humans First! 59

you find blameworthiness in others, the best attitude to

be invoked will be sympathy towards them. It is due to

lack of viveka that any one chooses to be wrong or

blameworthy. Viveka when dawns in him, will change

his behaviour. To strike at viveka, at best you can only

help, only when such help is possible.

He is blameworthy, all right. But aren’t you, who tries to

hate him on the ground of his undesirable traits, even

more blameworthy? You have chosen the path of

goodness and you are already good. For such a one, is

not the furtherance of goodness even more imperative

than for those who are bad to become good in the first

instance?

Look at the other side. He is wrong in that he has hatable

qualities. But hatableness does not stop in and with one

level alone. As he is hatable, you too will be. His

hatableness consists of having hatable features in his

conduct, thoughts or words. Well, that is because he is

not yet illumined in regard to what is desirable and

what is undesirable. The qualities he has with him have

not yet become a subject of enquiry and correction for

him. Well, we can understand his position. Many people

are there around us who do not devote themselves to the

pursuit of pure wisdom. Mankind believes more in

doing than in thinking calmly and finding out what kind

of doing is correct and helpful. This kind of poverty of

wisdom and judgement is a rampant epidemic amongst

people. So we have enough ground to be consoled.

Dear Souls, Become Humans First! 60

But what about you, in whom evidently discrimination

is already working. It is due to your discrimination that

you recognize what is good and what is bad, what is

hatable and what is not. If at all you regard one as

undesirable, it is clearly because of your discrimination

of this nature. Well, can the process of discrimination be

terminated after finding him hatable? Your

discrimination should applied to yourself as to the other.

If you do so, what conclusion in turn can you draw? As

love is auspicious, hate is inauspicious. The most hatable

quality is hating itself, hating another. The entire

pursuit of love and goodness will be falsified, vitiated, if

in its wake you come to hate anyone, no matter how bad

the other is. Between the two, the one whom you hate,

and yourself, definitely you are more guilty and hence

condemnable. What the other does foolishly, lacking the

human sense of discrimination, you will be doing,

claiming for yourself more wisdom! Is this not a

delusion a great incongruity?

You should examine your own heart and mind clearly

and rise above such pitfalls and wrongs. Of course, it is

too much of a challenge. It is too fine a process of

correction. But in human relationship nothing will be an

excess. In refining the human mind, no effort can be too

much or out of place.

If only everyone is prepared to examine his own conduct

and behaviour every time, how blessed the community

life of man will be?

Antagonisms Persist in Love

Another point that strikes me is the quarrel and fights

that occur even at the most intimate levels between two

people, members of the same family, even when they are

quite in love and appreciation for each other. If one is a

fool and the other intelligent, there will be no trouble or

disharmony at all, for the former can always follow the

latter. But if both are reasonably of the same order and

kind, having good measure of qualities and

steadfastness, then the path is not found to be smooth.

Suppose one picks up a quarrel, may be for a right cause

or not so much right a cause, the quarrel provokes the

other and once provoked, the latter goes on arguing and

reasoning vehemently. To quarrel is easy, but to prove

or disprove a point with enough of reason to back the

effort is not so easy. Sometimes, these occasions become

grave and often the feelings and sentiments get hurt.

I have heard of the historic king Bhoja and the famous

poet Kalidasa. Bhoja was very wise but obstinate.

Kalidasa, on his part, though a poet of honour in the

King’s place, too was equally inimitable for his fecund

behaviour and ideas. The king had so much of love for

the poet that he would feel miserable without seeing

Kalidasa for a few days at a stretch. But when Kalidasa

was there to befriend the king, the king used to prove

intolerable. On some issue or other they would take

opposite stands with equal strength, principles and

obstinacy, and as a result the king would order the poet

to leave the palace. However after his order materializes,

he would begin feel miserable at heart and through

scholarly and matchless wisdom testing means, he

would succeed in getting back his Kalidasa.

This happens between two people, when they are both

equally fired with obstinacy, wisdom and qualities. The

best will be for both to let the game go on, without

getting affected by whatever takes place. Even when the

worst argument or vilification takes place, each should

take it only as an occasion for sublimating one’s finest

sentiments and find his or her delight in that there is

someone for him to give an intellectual battle to. No one

has improved his goodness through smiles and laughter,

through praises and patting alone. The best levels of

goodness are reached only after passing through the

worst of criticisms and challenges. Truly, the path of

achievement is one wherein every time your attainment

is found to be yet short of what is really optimum and

you are put to a greater and greater challenge. It is like

putting the winning team of a tournament to play with

another equally strong or stronger team. The selection at

every stage of advancement is more and more touchy

and fine.

Whenever you have any such friendly adversary by

your side, may be your husband, wife, brother, sister or

what not, you should only be happy, instead of feeling

hurt or taking your vanity to be hit hard, you should

find a special note of fulfillment. The criticism that

comes from the strangers or outsiders can only be

shallow. Their observation on you cannot be more than

external or superficial. To that extent their criticism if

there be any, will also be incomplete. Whereas the

remarks coming from one who is close to you, who has

access to your personality from various angles and

deeply, are truer. Moreover such a one is the first to

participate in your failures or successes. So, their

concern will be quite well-based and geared for the best

of your success.

But there is this word of caution. In offering criticism or

in receiving it, you should not go out of all proportions.

Human mind, however qualitative it may be, is after all

delicate. Not many are there who can take caustic

remarks on par with praiseful ones, though we know

that even-mindedness is the ideal to be achieved and

practised! So estrangement and any confrontation of

such nature should be avoided. The fact of friendship

and intimacy should be clearly borne in mind always.

Even if one happens to unknowingly wound the fine

feelings of the other, the latter should excuse it, thinking

and reassuring himself that after all the other party is

one dear and near to him. Self-examination and selfcorrection

is the best for all times. Rather than blaming

others, let us blame ourselves for not achieving the

perfection by virtue of which we shall be able to get

along with any provocation. To part is easy. To avoid it

is the hard way. But knowing and endeavouring as we

are, our object is not to resort to the former, but to

accomplish the latter. Let there be always in our life a yet

higher point to reach. Let not the full stop come, for that

will rob us our life and the need for sound endeavour.

Need for Tolerance

As you improve in your qualities and virtues, you will

find the need for cultivating more and more tolerance.

There can be no limit for our tolerance. Especially, for

the intelligent people, tolerance can never be an excess.

Intelligence, keenness, smartness and other qualities are

invariably found to bring in their wake sometimes

greater and greater impatience and intolerance, though

this should not be the case. The body and external things

cannot move as fast as the mind and intelligence. To

translate into action whatever you think in your brain,

will take a lot of time. The difficulty is more when you

need the help and assistance of others and they may

have their own speed and other defects. Naturally there

is bound to be a grave disharmony, if you think of the

matter deeply, impatience and intolerance are the

inevitable offshoots.

After all, none can forcefully improve the others. At best

each can improve himself or herself. The improvement

in others has to come by dint of their own personal

efforts. You can only help the others around you with

sound and patient advice, caution, sometimes with

appeal and similar methods, and that too if and when

possible. An overbearing attitude will never work.

I have found husbands and wives, who have already

lived twenty or thirty years with enough of

understanding, love and regard for each other, picking

up quarrels simply for the lack of a little timely

tolerance. Often the misunderstanding and fight start

with a few words spoken or the manner in which the

person conducts himself or herself. The other party is

displeased beyond proportion. The feeling is that other

is, after all his or her partner, and there is nothing in

being tolerant or forbearing. The retort and explosion

soon develops: ‘why did you speak that way at that time

in front of so many others? Did you not slight me?

Where is my prestige gone now? Haven’t I been made

useless? etc.’ Each begins to talk to the other in this way,

I have seen this happen several times. Some times the

quarrel and heaviness of mind will continue for days

together…… for what, for a few words improperly

spoken!

I feel like laughing over the whole fate. One person

charges the other of impropriety. Well, is not the other

as well behaving with impropriety, because he is

intolerant of the mistake done by the other? Human life

is no doubt meant for mistakes and errors, as well as for

the opposites. In the absence of a ‘wrong’, how can the

thought of ‘right’, its opposite arise? The rule or law of

‘wrongs’ is as true as of ‘friction’ in relation to ‘motion’.

We speak of watchfulness, care, caution, wisdom, etc.

All these become relevant only in the context of wrongs

and errors and the ample possibility for them during our

life and activities. So let no one be afraid to provide in

the thinking for the possibility of committing wrongs

and errors, no matter who the other party is. Even the

most wise man is liable to have many holes and hollows

in his wisdom. There is no act in this world which can be

absolutely right or wrong. That is why the pursuit of

human life becomes so very complex and debatable.

Are not the old values changing? What was considered

fashion in one time has become, in the wake of modern

thinking, primitive. What was primitive once, has on the

other hand become modern and fashionable. Again, the

fashions of yesterday are no more so today. Today’s may

not be tomorrow.

That apart, one should have the discernment to put up

with the slips and errors of the other, more so of those

around one. Simply because of one mistake or another,

one’s friend or relative does not become otherwise. To

accept an all-correct person, one does not need any great

virtue or wisdom. To accept, on the other hand, one in

whom there are mistakes side by side with virtues, is the

real goodness. Human behaviour should be turned to

this end.

Moreover, what is there to be so much afraid of or be

shy about human behaviour? Is not this case with any

man or woman, his or her family, the society at large?

You should not think that slips and errors, or call it

humiliation, in the hands of your friend or partner, are

an exception only for you. In every family this drama is

enacted, this fate forces itself. Why should you be timid

or apprehensive? Have the wisdom and strength to

claim your partner as yours, in spite of whatever

mistake he or she does. In that lies your honourability.

Think of the others around. Suppose your wife or

husband behaves in a less desirable way before you and

the others. May be a word or two are spoken out

thoughtlessly. If you feel hurt and show symptoms of

bitter reaction or intolerance, then the feeling of disgust

and displeasure in the minds of the onlookers will be

more towards you than about your partner. To blurt

forth is not so bad as to see one become intolerant and

abusive about it. If you remain composed and patient,

then all those present will feel very happy. More than

the mistake of the mistaker, the patience of the patient,

namely yourself, will be more in their minds. And that

way both you and your partner become more acceptable

to them.

This is the truth. But often I find that it is not recognized

at all. A lot of discussion and debate becomes necessary

before one comes to accept this basic truth.

If you are patient, then the other party will certainly

think of your patience with respect and honour.

Likewise, he will review his own mistake. And thus the

way for correction becomes easy and smooth. On the

other hand, if you begin to fight and quarrel, then the

other party will be tempted to take stand on prestige and

many other such issues and there will be bitter

arguments from both sides. The relationship will

become very strained and each will not even like to see

the other’s face. Everything done by the person who is

disliked, appears to be gravely wrong and it gives rise to

further quarrels.

Many couples live all right in the first few years of their

lives. But later, when they become parents and

grandparents, obviously their problems and concerns

grow in abundance. Naturally, the deeper human layers

in them have to come to the forefront and express

themselves out. Many points become issues and they are

not able to see eye to eye with each other. In fact, with

the passage of time, with growth in age and experience,

knowledge also must grow, and with that qualities like

adjustment, accommodation, etc. But this is not

generally what we find among people. Introspection, the

right pursuit of wisdom and restraint are lacking, and

this is the only reason why human relationship

degenerates.

My greatest pity on the account is because people do not

understand that spiritual improvement and refinement

is truly the improvement and refinement of the mind

and behaviour. It is the mind that brings peace or antipeace.

As the stomach and intestines are relevant in the

context of hunger and its appeasement the mind and

intelligence are the factors relevant in achieving peace

and contentment. So every expression of the mind is

important in the consideration of peace. People

generally develop a flare for religion and religious

routines, and so too for spiritual or yogic pursuits. And

they are indifferent to the day-to-day behaviour and

behavioural expressions. You will find several people

who flare up with anger during the pooja they perform

or the worship they offer. Often the quarrels will be with

their own wife, family members, etc.

Spiritual perfection, as any other branch of

improvement, rests solely upon mind and its

expressions. If at all we discuss anything like God or the

Soul as an item of knowledge, it is purely with the object

of using the services of the intelligence – a faculty

superior to the mind and its functions. For bringing the

necessary correction and refinement in the mind and

what it does. To use intelligence over mind is like using

a steel tool to sharpen an iron instrument. Both are

similar substances, or the same material, but one is

superior in quality to the other.

One takes to meditation considering that it is the

inevitable step in spiritual pursuits. One also reads

scriptures. All this can be appreciated. But whether you

meditate or not, you have ultimately to refine and

season your mind and its outward expressions.

Meditation is no meditation unless it is able to bring a

welcome influence on the mind and its working during nonmeditation

hours.

Take the spiritual science and even the scriptures

themselves and see what they say. When it comes to

discussing the highest and final truths, they clearly say

that the ability is really of holding one’s peace despite

whatever takes place around. It is to keep the mind and

perception in such a way that the mind is able to

preserve its peace under all circumstances. This is the

true spiritual state. How can such a state be had unless

we cultivate the right attitude in receiving and accepting

the behaviour and conduct of the others around us, in

the family or in office, at the market place or at the bus

stand!

I am held to be a sannyaasin or a saint. I do not deny this

fact. But to the ordinary people, who are confused about

spirituality and religion. I say I am more a ‘humanist’

than otherwise. If you come to the Ashram where I live,

you will find me doing no formal worship or any other

religious routine. It is not because I deny the need for all

these. They are necessary and a help for a certain group

of people and for a particular stage. Incidentally there is

a Pooja Mandir in the Ashram and daily worship

conducted there. But it is done and supervised by Mataji

here, and other Ashram inmates and assistants. I

personally like it very much. It is a need of our society as

well as of an Ashram.

My point is not that. Even in highest spiritual life and

practice, one is said to acquire Self or Truth knowledge.

And this knowledge, a property or a becoming of the

mind and intelligence, one tries to preserve always. This

kind of preservation and the attempt at it, is purely an

internal process, which will be going on almost twentyfour

hours of the day.

Probe into it well and deeply. What is that process? It is

the constant watch and observation of the mind and its

workings. Attitudes, qualities like adjustment,

reconciliation with others etc. all come within the sphere

of the mind and its expressions. They are all different

shades of what the mind does from time to time.

When Geeta speaks so much about dvandvas (pair of

opposites) and the need for following the path of nirdvandvata

(free from the pairs of opposites), it stresses

nothing other than the sublimation and refinement of

the mind’s superficial and the so-called natural

propensities.

‘Na abhinandati na dveshti’ means neither praise too much

nor hate too much. Veeta-raaga-bhaya-krodha – always

transcending (this will mean trying to transcend) the

mind’s natural forces of attraction, repulsion and fear.

These are the oft-repeated statements of Geeta. Sri

Krishna describes these as the sure traits of the wise and

the illumined. Are not these the ways of handling and

sublimating our mind and its propensities? If these are

the qualities to be developed is not every bit of thinking

and action, done throughout the day, whether it is

within household in the manner of talking to and

reacting to the relatives, assistants, servants or bosses to

be regarded as a peace of saadhana, the spiritual

refinement process?

Effort at Harmony

Likes and dislikes, preferences and prejudices, ishta and

anishta, in fact the various hosts of dvandvas (parts of

opposites), are the constantly agitating and confusing

factors for our mind. Whether it is in the religious

sphere, in the secular sphere or any other, this itself is

basically at work in man.

For the religious seeker, it takes a very long time to

recognize that real saadhana – religious or spiritual

effort – is to understand that this is so and then treat his

own mind and intelligence with a view to harmonize

these dvandvas. In the ultimate phase, even the thought

of God as opposed to the thought of non-God is a kind

of dvandva and that will be as much confusing and

agitating to the devotee’s mind as any other set of

dvandvas. That is why the devotee is told that

everything is God, God alone is all, thereby giving him

no room to think of a non-God at all.

Look at the ritualistic fights and confusions. A life after

death is posited first of all. Then two alternatives are set

for it, one in the heavens and the other in the hells.

Heaven is pictured beautiful, to the tastes and charms of

the human mind. Hell is pictured as ugly and painful, to

the repulsion of one and all. By this means, the seed of a

strong set of dvandvas is laid. That seed is made to

sprout and grow. Life there and life here, these are the

first set of dvandvas. The life there is then again divided

as heavenly and hell-ly. Another dvandva set. That life

and the one to come after, namely re-birth, are the next

set of dvandvas. This life thus matched with the life that

existed before it becomes another dvandva set.

In the household and the other dealings, the same

dvandva fights go on for anything and everything.

When someone disagrees with you, you instantly begin

the dislike him. Why? No real reason can be adduced.

Let me ask, why should the other always agree with

you. To agree is as much as to disagree. One need not be

preferred to the other. Reasons can be there for both.

Suppose you develop a dislike towards some one. Then

the mind starts feeling a strong contempt for everything

he does and speaks.

Why should it be so? I do agree that this is the case with

the mind of man, with people in general. But when we

think about the ways of wisdom, of propriety and

goodness, we cannot simply approve of it. If something

is incorrect, let it be recognized as such.

The Actual Problem

You may now ask, if this be so, how can we conduct

ourselves in our life, within the household, outside in

the office etc.? Well this is the actual problem, the one

problem of life. Truly viewed, there is no other problem

at all for any one, anywhere, any time, for any reason

whatever.

For those who are able to understand this is the real

problem, the way of the Wise will be great and ideal. To

find out what exactly the way is not so easy. I do agree.

But if you want it, you will have to think and search and

ultimately find it. I am reminded of something I read in

Sreemad Bhaagavatam, where a sage speaks to another

about Sri Krishna in this manner:

The intelligence of even the wisest people finds it

difficult to understand properly the contradictory

nature of your life and actions. You say you have

no desire to work, yet you are born and are acting

variously. Devoid of Samsaara as your nature, yet

you are born with a body in a very troublesome

manner. Fearless and being the soul of even the

God of Death, yet you are found to be running

from your enemies. You say you are sporting in

your own Self and you need nothing besides your

Self for your joy and delight. Yet at the same time,

you are living with thousands of women. All these

are mutually opposite features, so much so that

one gets utterly confused to conclude what you

are in truth and what plays at the back of all that

you say and do.

All this I said by the way. The main subject we are trying

to understand is the existence of ishta and anishta and the

place they have in the mind of the illumined one. In

other words, what is meant by sublimation of ishtaanishta

(preferences-prejudices)? Where mind is, there

likes and dislikes will also be. For in their absence,

neither the so-called ‘mind’, or vyavahaara (worldly

activities) will be possible. This is a fundamental law, a

basic truth.

This is where the whole mystery comes in. Way for

Truth and Freedom is the way above ishta-anishtas. But

when the meaning of the whole process is studied, it

becomes elusive.

Look at what Sri Krishna says to Arjuna in the Geeta.

Krishna explained him from several points of view that

to escape from war was not correct, not true, not good,

not fruitful by any standard. That means the aspects of

correctness, of truth, of goodness, of fruitfulness or

profitability, all these, were exposed to Arjuna. He even

went on to say that even if Arjuna made a mental effort

to withdraw from the proposed war, it would only be at

best a step in contemplation. In actual fact, it cannot be

implemented in the physical level of things. One may

desire or want to do a thing. But when he really makes

an attempt to actualize that desire, he may not be able to

succeed. Until an act is done externally as well, it cannot

be considered to have been done. Therefore, the choice

was left to Arjuna.

When thus everything is said and done, Sri Krishna

concludes: “Arjuna, I have now told you all that needs to

be told. I have clarified all that which need be clarified.

The whole knowledge about what is to be done, where

and how, also what is not to be done is available to you.

Reflecting over the Truths thus heard from me, come to

your conclusion and whatever you feel like doing, do

that to your heart’s content. On my part, I shall be quite

happy with it. Also I shall be at your front, as am I now,

either to fight the war or to retreat from it.”

Dear seekers, this is the mysterious way of the mind’s

sublimation. In sublimating the mind or its traits, there

is no killing of the present normal traits. Its normal

venues of wisdom are not annihilated. They should not

be too. In addition to what the mind has now, it is given

a new insight, perception. The new insight is that the

likes and dislikes are not to be fought against and

justified, especially the conflicting ones. On the other

hand, they should be kept under check to provide for

any situation for whatever reason it may arise.

Bhishma Shows the Ultimate Harmony

A typical situation comes to my mind. I always hold the

grand father of the Pandavas and Kauravas, namely

Bhishma, in high esteem. He was much respected by the

people around, including Sri Krishna for his great

wisdom, penance, sacrifice and boldness. Throughout

his life he exemplified the magnificent display of human

nature in the background of true wisdom.

He was the grandfather of not merely the Pandava

brothers but also the Duryodhana brothers. His

association with their dynasty began much prior to the

birth of even Yudhishthira and Duryodhana. Somehow,

the two sets of brothers quarrelled and a time came

when Yudhishthira and the rest had to go in exile. The

forest and incognito life of thirteen years over, a moral

war ensued between them. Mind you, Bhishma was all

along with Dhritaraashtra, the father of Duryodhana, in

his palace.

Duryodhana’s mind was filled with greed, intolerance

and jealousy towards the Pandava brothers. He was

being ill-advised by his close associates. As such he had

no moral grounds at all in fighting the war. Yet Bhishma

was on his side, because he had been along with that

family and there was no special dislike or fear for the

sake of which he should leave Duryodhana camp.

Nevertheless, Duryodhana’s intentions and ways he

found to be clearly wrong. There were occasions when

he also told the grandson about the wrongness of his

pursuits. At the same time, he was prepared to fight the

war physically on the side of Duryodhana. Don’t you

find a great contradiction in this? Or shall I say, this is

the ultimate harmonious way of displaying the best

human nature?

The actual fight began. The first few days were over.

Some days marked the limelight of the Pandava camp,

while on other days it was the other way round. Bloom

and doom were swinging on both sides. Duryodhana

got disheartened. On the one hand his mind swelled

with anger towards his opponents. On the other hand,

diffidence and fear were harping on it. He went to the

grandfather Bhishma. His was always the way of pain,

of disrespect and challenge. Modesty was never his lot.

So he spoke angrily, “My dear grandfather, it is my

misfortune, my sorrowful plight that I have got my

grandfather in a person like you. You are peerless in the

three worlds. There is none to vanquish you in battle.

Having such a one to command for me, why is my army

slaughtered to death every day? I know you are on my

side only physically. Your mind is for the Pandavas. Fie

upon this double standard! If only you wish, the

Pandava army will fall like moth on fire this very

moment.”

Bhishma was stung to hear these disloyal words. He

replied firmly: “My dear boy, did I not tell you at the

very beginning, your cause is vicious and as such you

cannot have victory in this war? Besides, Lord Krishna is

on the side of Pandavas. Where Krishna is, there success

also is. He will be there only where morality and piety

are. I have all the fighting skill, but with all that the

Pandava brothers, with Sri Krishna to protect them

cannot be exterminated.

However, I shall fight for you as I have always done. At

this late hour, what is the point in blaming you again? I

shall use sharper arrows, more so now that you have

poured fuel into my burning mind. You may see what

transpires”.

What do you say about these words, this attitude of Sage

Bhishma? My dear souls, to understand the intricate

human nature, more so the queer course of goodness

and devotion, you will need a very keen insight, an

extremely sharp intelligence. Things are not so easy and

shallow. When I hear people speak, make remarks, claim

and swear for several things, on many occasions, it looks

funny. He is a seeker who is humble and wise enough to

seek and search. Let us always be open to probe into the

hidden layers of our mind and nature and unearth the

one great centre within it from where both good and bad

have sprung, to which both good and bad point, on

reaching which the good as well as the bad dissolve and

disappear forever, revealing thereby the wonderful

stretch of reality, rhythm and harmony.

The Process of Harmony

Truly speaking, when you near the exact subject and the

actual way to practise it, ‘control’ is a very wrong word

while speaking about the mind and his harmonization.

To control means to apply pressure. Pressure can be

applied only to a material act or thing. Matter alone

would receive pressure and yield to it. But will the mind

and intelligence, which are absolutely non-materialmark

this expression - do so? Be careful the. Do not use

the word ‘control’ and ‘pressure’ in the matter of

handling the psychic elements and features like mind

and emotions – ishta, anishta, (likes, dislikes), etc.

Sublimation may be a far better word. Harmonizing or

evenising may be another. The intention is that you

should understand the difference between the two

words and the process denoted by them.

Any one, as I said earlier, if he looks into himself, will

find a set of likes and dislikes within him. Without them

he cannot exist. He cannot be acting and living. The

trouble is that though the likes and dislikes are

indispensable they are conflicting with those of the

others around. In the family which you live, you will

find these conflicts. In the society in which you are, the

same conflicts will again be there. In the country and in

the world as well, the same will continue. Naturally the

conflicts pose the highest problem. How will you resolve

them? The solution is not in avoiding or annihilating the

ishta-anishtaas in toto, but in understanding them

properly and then making use of them in the most nonconflicting

manner as possible.

Whatever and wherever you may be, at times you will

not be getting or having to do what you like. Again, at

other times, you will have to get or do what you dislike.

In other words, neither your likes nor your dislikes can

be honoured and complied with times in your life. What

are you to do then?

 

Om Tat Sat
                                                        
(Continued)

(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of H H Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha ji  for the collection)