WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO WORK FOR WORLD PEACE? 8th February, 1938 Talk 453. Three ladies are on a short visit here, Mrs. Hearst from New Zealand, Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Allison from London. One asked: What is the best way to work for world peace? M.: What is world? What is peace, and who is the worker? The world is not in your sleep and forms a projection of your mind in your jagrat. It is therefore an idea and nothing else. Peace is absence of disturbance. The disturbance is due to the arising of thoughts in the individual, who is only the ego rising up from Pure Consciousness. To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide as Pure Consciousness. If one remains at peace oneself, there is only peace all about. D.: If it is a question of doing something one considers wrong, and hereby saving someone else from a great wrong, should one do it or refrain? M.: What is right and wrong? There is no standard by which to judge something to be right and another to be wrong. Opinions differ according to the nature of the individual and according to the surroundings. They are again ideas and nothing more. Do not worry about them. But get rid of thoughts. If you always remain in the right, then right will prevail in the world. D.: What should one think of when meditating? M.: What is meditation? It is expulsion of thoughts. You are perturbed by thoughts which rush one after another. Hold on to one thought so that others are expelled. Continuous practice gives the necessary strength of mind to engage in meditation. Meditation differs according to the degree of advancement of the seeker. If one is fit for it one might directly hold the thinker; and the thinker will automatically sink into his source, namely Pure Consciousness. If one cannot directly hold the thinker one must meditate on God; and in due course the same individual will have become sufficiently pure to hold the thinker and sink into absolute Being. One of the ladies was not satisfied with this answer and asked for further elucidation. Sri Bhagavan then pointed out that to see wrong in another is ones own wrong. The discrimination between right and wrong is the origin of the sin. Ones own sin is reflected outside and the individual in ignorance superimposes it on another. The best course for one is to reach the state in which such discrimination does not arise. Do you see wrong or right in your sleep? Did you not exist in sleep? Be asleep even in the wakeful state. Abide as the Self and remain uncontaminated by what goes on around. Moreover, however much you might advise them, your hearers may not rectify themselves. Be in the right yourself and remain silent. Your silence will have more effect than your words or deeds. That is the development of will-power. Then the world becomes the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within you. D.: If one is to withdraw oneself, why is there the world? M.: Where is the world and where does one go withdrawing oneself? Does one fly in an aeroplane beyond space? Is it withdrawal? The fact is this: the world is only an idea. What do you say: Are you within the world or is the world within you? D.: I am in the world. I am part of it. M.: That is the mistake. If the world were to exist apart from you, does it come and tell you that it exists? No, you see it exists. You see it when you are awake and not when asleep. If it exists apart from you, it must tell you so and you must be aware of it even in your sleep. D.: I became aware of it in my jagrat . M.: Do you become aware of yourself and then of the world? Or do you become aware of the world and then of yourself? Or do you become aware of both simultaneously? D.: I must say simultaneously. M.: Were you or were you not, before becoming aware of yourself? Do you admit your continued existence before and when you become aware of the world? D.: Yes. M.: If always existing yourself, why are you not aware of the world in sleep if it exists apart from the Self? D.: I become aware of myself and of the world also. M.: So you become aware of yourself. Who becomes aware of whom? Are there two selves? D.: No. M.: So you see that it is wrong to suppose that awareness has passing phases. The Self is always aware. When the Self identifies itself as the seer it sees objects. The creation of the subject and the object is the creation of the world. Subjects and objects are creations in Pure Consciousness. You see pictures moving on the screen in a cinema show. When you are intent on the pictures you are not aware of the screen. But the pictures cannot be seen without the screen behind. The world stands for the pictures and Consciousness stands for the screen. The Consciousness is pure. It is the same as the Self which is eternal and unchanging. Get rid of the subject and object and Pure Consciousness will alone remain. D.: But why did Pure Brahman become Isvara and manifest the universe if He did not mean it? M.: Did Brahman or Isvara tell you so? You say that Brahman became Isvara, and so on. This too you did not say in your sleep. Only in your jagrat state you speak of Brahman, Isvara and universe. The jagrat state is a duality of subject and object - owing to the rise of thoughts. So they are your thought creations. D.: But the world exists in my sleep even though I am not aware. M.: What is the proof of its existence? D.: Others are aware of it. M.: Do they say so to you when you are in sleep or do you become aware of others who see the world in your sleep? D.: No, but God is always aware. M.: Leave God alone. Speak for yourself. You do not know God. He is only what you think of Him. Is he apart from you? He is that Pure Consciousness in which all ideas are formed. You are that Consciousness. Alan Jacobs in HarshaSatsanga Ramana Guru
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 10:46:15 +0000
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