Three important questions

(adapted from Sri OmSwami’s article in Tattvaloka)

Once a king wanted to know

1)    The most important person

2)    The most important time

3)    The most important karma

He posed it as three questions to his ministers and other courtiers.  He got varied answers like King, God etc., for most important person; death, birth etc. for most important time and charity, serving one’s religion etc., for most important karma.  King was not satisfied with the answers he got.  Then his chief minister suggested that the king take his questions to the sage who lived in solitude in a cave on the top of a nearby mountain.  The king agreed with the idea and went to see the sage. After a few hours of steep climb, he came to the mouth of the cave. He left his sword and costume outside and went in a simple dress and prostrated before the sage.  The sage asked the king for the purpose of his visit. The king told the sage about his quest and posed the three questions.  The sage took him to a cliff of the mountain overlooking the kingdom and left him there to contemplate in silence on the questions and retired to the cave. As the king was surveying his kingdom in silent solitude soaking in the serene atmosphere from the cliff-top, he heard a voice behind commanding him to turn back. Startled the king turned back and found himself looking at his sword pointed at him by the sage standing a few feet away. Taken by surprise the king stood in silence staring at the sword when the sage broke the silence and asked him whether he knew now, who is the most important person, what is the most important time and what is the most important karma.  As the king looked back into the eyes of the sage, a calm feeling swept over his entire being and he bowed in reverence signifying affirmation.  The sage handed back king’s sword and the king bowing once again in gratitude left the place and went back to the palace.

His chief minister who was waiting for him there asked him whether he got the answers and the king said “Yes” with a smile. The chief minister was eager to know them as well. The king said that he got the answers from the sage not directly but indirectly and started explaining them, after telling him what took place at the mountain top. When the king was surveying silently his kingdom he realised that he was a king because of the subjects, and the most important karma for him was to love and care for them. When he was staring at the sword held by the sage and was feeling he was a few moments away from death, he realised that the most important time was “Now”, the present moment. When the sage was speaking he realised that the most important person is the person who is with him at the moment.

After narrating the story, Sri Om Swami comments that if one could remember these answers all the time one’s life would undergo a change for the better and explains these answers in detail in a general context.  The important time in life at any stage in life is “Now”, the present moment because that is the only time one can act in.  That is the time one will ever have because past is gone and does not matter and future is not yet born and has no influence.  Giving attention to the present moment is the principle of mindfulness.  To be mindful all the time is the key to success in any action. So one should make “Now” the primary focus of one’s life.

The person one is with, “Now” is the most important person for the one at that time. One gives sole attention to that person, making the other person feel important, boosting the person’s self-esteem. The other person feels cared, feels respected and this makes for positive relations and positive feelings all around. When adopted in respect of members of one’s family, it promotes harmony in the family.

To bestow love and care is the most important karma.  It is the most worthwhile thing one can do not only with others but also with oneself as well.  When one is with someone else one should show one’s love and care through undivided attention. When one is alone with oneself one should not waste one’s thoughts and energy in nourishing the anxieties for the future nor keep nursing the grievances of the past. One should not give room to negative thoughts at any time.

All these; treating the present as the most important time, holding the person one is with as the most important person and having love and caring attitude to one and all, could be cultivated and sustained only if one keeps one’s mind calm and peaceful all the time, which is the case when contentment rules the mind.  When one is contented, one feels calm and peaceful, love and compassion overflows, struggle, anxiety and agitation disappears and one radiates happiness.  This gives room to acceptance of life’s situations, good or bad, beneficial or adverse without judging them or others, when one combines it with a prayerful attitude which, in short, is called the attitude of a karma yogi.   Eckhart Tolle author of “The Power of NOW” states “The moment that judgement stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”

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Silence – the Real Self

Silence can be of body, speech or mind.  As physical silence is called stillness, we generally associate silence with speech or mind.  Of these the popular association is with speech. Silence of speech is practised more as a vrata, mouna vrata.  In mouna vrata also, one keeps the mouth shut but does not stay still and the mind also keeps its chattering and wandering. The silence, I am referring to is the silence of the mind, the inner stillness, which is also referred to as mano-nasa, the destruction of the mind.  Here the mind is not destroyed but only quietened with the thought process of the mind arrested. This state can be achieved only when there is total silence, silence of body, mind and speech.

Our mind being a product of the satva component of the pancha bhuthas i.e. space, air, fire, earth and water, which by themselves are insentient, is also insentient by itself.  It is made sentient by the pure Consciousness, called Chaitanyam that the mind manifests through its reflection in the mind, called Chidabasa. So in every thought experience called Vritti, Chaitanyam is associated.  One Chaitanyam associated with numerous thoughts is symbolically represented as Rasa Krida.  Krida stands for the coming and going of thoughts and Rasa stands for Anandha, that is Chaitanyam, which is Sat, Chit, Anandha. Rasa Krida is the figurative interplay of thoughts with Chaitanyam, which is one and changeless.  Normally we are experiencing Chaitanyam with Vritti in all our thought experiences. When the mind is silent, it is thought free and we are experiencing the Chaitanyam only and so the peace and happiness experienced in the moment of inner stillness is the peace and happiness associated with Chaitanyam. 

In Kenopanishad this is explained beautifully by the fit student first and later the guru explains it to the mediocre student. In the second verse of chapter 2, the student states as a reply to guru’s question, “I do not think, ’I know It well’, Not that I do not know; I know too.”  The student cannot know it well because Chaitanyam cannot be known as an object or as a concept.  But at the same time he cannot also say he does not know because it is part of his thought experiences. Thereafter the teacher explains this to the mediocre student in Mantra 4, with the oft-quoted statement. “प्रतिबोधविदितं मतम्”.

Here the teacher again explains to the mediocre student that Chaitanyam is associated with every thought modification of the mind.  Every experience we have has a variable component, thought and a non-variable component, Chaitanyam, the pure consciousness principle. One registers only the thought and not the Chaitanyam. To see an object one not only needs good eyes but also a source of light to illumine the object.  For even if one has good vision, one cannot see the object if there is no light and it is totally dark. But when we see an object, our mind registers the object only and not the light pervading it which makes it possible for us to see the object.  This you can experiment, while walking in the daytime.  The mind registers the objects only and not the sunlight that makes it possible for us to see the objects.  Even if there is nothing to notice, the emptiness also is revealed by the light only. In the same way not only the thought but also absence of thought is revealed by Chaitanyam. So in the moment of inner stillness, when thought is absent we have the experience of the revealing Chaitanyam and this explains the deep peace and serene happiness enjoyed at the time of inner stillness.

When mind is silent there is total silence i.e. silence of body and speech as well. And the inner stillness experienced then is the experience of Chaitanyam, which is our Real Self. This is conveyed by Mandukya Upanishad as well  through Mantras 7 and 12. Mantra 7 describes Turiyam, which is Athma and Mantra 12 describes Amatra, the state of silence, and both have identical descriptions. For as we have seen earlier, it is Chaitanyam that illuminates the chatter of mind as well as the silence of mind.  So this inner stillness is Athma that is Brahman, the Cosmic Supreme.   So if you meditate on ‘Om Namasivaya’ or on ‘Om Namo Narayana” or some similar Mantra, slowly spelling out the words mentally, concentrating on the silence in between words and lengthening the period of silence as meditation progresses, then you are  meditating  on Silence, your inner Real Self. 

This is the concept Wayne Dyer employs in his Gap Meditation, through which he says one can have conscious contact with God.  This inner stillness, Eckhart Tolle equates with ‘Now’, the container; the events that take place at any time being only the contents. So in his book “Stillness Speaks”, Eckhart Tolle states “When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself ----- This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.  Stillness is your essential nature” and goes on to equate the stillness with Awareness which is Chaitanyam. From this we can see that what Lord Dakshinamurthy does, is not teaching in silence but teaching ‘Silence’, that is one’s Real Self.

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