Nitya Saathe Raho

Be With Me My Lord or I will be With You.

This series of Satsang is selected with the purpose of returning to the Self. Coming home. To Bliss Eternal. Whenever you are tired of playing games in the world of duality, come here and be established in that which is your Real Self.

I am here. For ever for you. It is you who likes to stray away from me. I remain here, always, with unconditional love. Your wandering mind plays tricks with you and leads you away. Your sharp intellect deceives you into a promise that is never fulfilled. Your citta shows you scenes which you have seen many many times before and you know what lies at the end. Your thoroughly beaten ego still rises up in insignificant and useless interactions making you tired, sapping you of all your human energies. Your senses seek that which is more out of what you have created in your imagination. You know it is all a mirage and yet you keep running.

Jai Sat Chit Anand

The Power Of Concentration

A man with limited intellect will be prone to abhorrence. A man with expansive intellect (worldly wisdom) does not exhibit abhorrence. When you visit a museum, do you show any hatred towards anything there? Koosang (company of anything or anyone other than the Self) means repeated teasing of the intellect, this way and that way.

The power of concentration is limited and depends on the power of intellect. Whatever a person has brought within his receptacle of intellect, is going to discharge in this life and nothing more. The thieves in India are capable of concentrating on as many as sixteen different things at the time of stealing. The thieves go out to steal without eating a meal and so their power of concentration is heightened. Where to steal? At what point? At what time? Where will the policeman be? Where is the purse? In which pocket? How to pick that pocket? How to escape and from which door? Thieves in India can concentrate on sixteen such things at a time. The power of concentration arises completely out of intellect and not out of Gnan.  The power of concentration may increase but will go down with a heavy meal. That is how strange all this is. If concentration were result of Gnan, it would remain constant. It would not wax or wane.

Questioner: Is intellect the same thing as illusion (maya)?

Dadashri: No, maya is ignorance of the Self. Ignorance leaves as soon as you acquire Gnan, but the inner instrument (antahkaran) remains. Intellect remains and incites one to participate in the things profitable in the worldly life and makes one wander in the world. What is intellect?  If someone was deceiving your son, your intellect will compel you to interfere. In reality it is vyavasthit that does everything but still the intellect interferes. First the mind informs the intellect and then only the intellect can interfere. The intellect interferes in everything. At night when you are dreaming there is no interference by the intellect and everything goes well. So the worldly life is also a dream even in your wakeful state. 

What would happen when a passenger sitting next to the driver grabs hold of the driver’s hand, when there is a bus coming directly at them? There would be an accident. But people are smart, they would not do such a thing because they know that the steering wheel is in the hands of the driver and his job is to steer the car; only he drives the bus. One can comprehend this obvious example of a bus but how can one comprehend what is happening within? Here he cannot refrain from interfering and consequently confusion arises. There would be no confusion if he were to leave everything to the ‘driver’ even in matters within. One has brought the internal driver with him from the past life.

The realization,‘I am pure Soul’ is elemental intellect (tattva buddhi). Once this realization happens, the feeling, ‘I am the body’  disappears.

Chit: The Third Component Of Antahkaran

Chit is the third component of the inner psychic organ. Its function is to wander and show images of things as they are.  It can project scenes of places in America exactly the way they are, even while sitting here in India. The mind never leaves the body. It is the impure chit that leaves the body and wanders. Pure chit is pure Soul (Shuddhatma).

Chit = Knowledge (Gnan) + Vision (darshan)

Impure Chit means impure knowledge + impure vision

Pure Chit means pure Knowledge + pure Vision

The mind shows a pamphlet and The chit shows a picture. These two do the work and the intellect makes decisions, the ego then endorses the decision and finally the action takes place. The chit visualizes a situation. Impure chit comprises of phases of impure knowledge and impure vision. Before the intellect renders a decision, there is a struggle between the mind and The chit. That struggle stops as soon as the intellect makes a decision between the two. If the intellect is set aside, the mind and The chit do not cause any obstructions.

From time immemorial, the chit has been in search of its home. It continues to wander.  It sees all kinds of different things and consequently all kinds of knowledge-perception (gnan-darshan) accumulate within. The tendencies of The chit (chitvrutis) collect whatever it sees, takes its stock, and when the time comes, it shows it as it is in the form of a scene.  If the chit becomes absorbed in what it sees, it attracts atoms (of what it sees), these atoms accumulate and form complex tubers, from which the mind is formed. This mind projects a pamphlet when the moment is right, the chit will see the image or a picture and the intellect renders a decision.

These tendencies of your chit that wander outside, cease to do so once I draw them towards ‘me’ (the Self). The tendencies of your chit thus become bound and that is liberation.

These impure tendencies (vrutis) of the chit have been wandering for endless time. When they keep going to a particular place, if you try to call them back, they will revolt and go to the same place again.  The fact that these chitvrutis return to their own home, the Self, after Gnan is a wonder in itself. Wherever the chitvruti wanders, the body too will have to go there. In the kramik path of liberation one has to cross endless hurdles of different phases of the mind and the chit before one reaches the ego. The ego still needs to be purified. But for you all, I have made you jump over all this and placed you directly in your own abode, the pure Self.

The chit keeps wandering in search of its home, the Self. It seeks happiness. Wherever the chit stills, other parts of the inner instrument (antahkaran) become still also and that is why it appears that there is happiness there. But how long will this state of stillness remain? The chit will then go somewhere else and projects happiness there and the happiness it perceived in the former situation turns into misery.  This is because in the final analysis all forms of external happiness result in unhappiness. The intellect will not refrain from imposing its decision that there is no happiness but misery in the last situation, and so the chit wanders again. There is no end to this wandering. This wandering ceases when the chit returns home, the Self. When it experiences the real, the bliss of the Self, all the other imaginary happiness automatically become bland. Thereafter, that which wanders is the impure chit and that, which observes and knows the impure chit as it is, is the pure chit.  The phases of the impure chit then gradually decrease until they completely cease to exist. Thereafter only the phases of the absolutely pure chit remain and that is Keval Gnan (Absolute Knowledge).

The Gnani Purush does not touch the impure chit but helps you taste your own eternal bliss, the root of endless bliss that is within you. Consequently upon finding its own abode, the Self is attained, which is none other than the pure chit. The shuddha chit is shuddhatma, the pure Self. As this pure chit goes on observing exclusively the pure in everybody, the impure chitvrutis grow weaker and weaker until they are no more. Then,only pure chit phases remain. This is Absolute Knowledge. 

Only the Gnani Can Bestow The Pure Self (Shuddhatma)

All the worldly religions are struggling to purify the impure chit. This is like washing dirty laundry with soap. The soap will remove the dirt from the clothes but will leave its own residue behind.  One will then use Tinopol (bleaching soap) to remove the residue of the soap and the Tinopol in turn will leave its own residue behind. In this manner each medium of stain remover leaves its own residue behind.  This is the plight of the relative religions. Inevitably every process of purifying the chit ultimately results in leaving a taint on The chit. Absolute purification of the chit can only be attained by the One who is absolutely and completely pure Himself. Therefore only a Gnani Purush can do this.  That is why all the scriptures ultimately say, “If you want to realize the pure Self, go to a Gnani. Only He can bestow upon you your pure Self. We have only the tainted and the impure soul, which is worthless.”

On the path of liberation, nothing needs to be done to the mind.  It is The chit that has to be purified, only then can the puzzle of life and liberation be solved. Without understanding this, many seekers become obsessed in trying to control the mind. They are correct from their own viewpoint but if it is liberation that they seek, then they will have to know the facts.  By facts they are completely wrong. Once the chit becomes pure, you do not have to be concerned with the mind. The pure chit will continue to see the film of the mind.

There are many places in this world, which will still the mind, but none to still the chit.  What happiness is there in playing cards? It is nothing but a tool for engaging the chit. But to engage the chit in playing cards will cause one to slip (spiritually), and one will continue to slip downwards.  But for how long can one engage the chit?

The chit will wander excessively to places it likes or fears.  If you had seen a snake in your bedroom during the day, you will remember this even at bedtime. The chit will keep on going there. Neither the sentient nor insentient, but a mixture of the two (mishra chetan), the impure chit wanders in places it likes. It wanders everywhere because it does not need a ticket.  It would have been better if it had to buy a ticket for it, then the chit would not wander!

The word chetan (sentient) is derived from chit. Pure Knowledge (Gnan) + Pure Vision (darshan) = Pure Chetan

That which the chit has seen very frequently in the past life will appear more often in this life. The chit will then become deeply engrossed in it for hours or longer and this leads to sowing of seeds of  karma. As these phases become less intense, the chit will no longer bind to them with the same intensity. It will stick for a little while and then move away.

If you want to talk about gnan and darshan together, then you have to call it chit. Chit will only show you transient things. Whatever one’s vasna (the impression on the mind of past actions whether good or evil which produces pleasure or pain), the chit will go there. What the chit shows is of two types: darshan is indistinct perception and Gnan is exact perception.

While doing darshan of an idol in a temple, what the worshipper sees, the darshan is dependent upon the state of his mind and the chitvruti. So his darshan in the first hour may be different than the darshan in the second hour. Darshan depends on the internal evidences and the external evidences coming together. Darshan of the idol with light coming from the front will be different than that of the light coming in from the side. The face of the Gnani is the same but according to the state of your mind and the restless state of your chitvruti, your darshan will be different. There is only one way to do the darshan of the Gnani.

The Joy Of The Chit

Ananddhanji Maharaj says that the One who is free from all attachment and abhorrence, when he does the darshan of the idol of Lord Rishabhdev, he sees the Lord smiling.  The eyes are made of glass. How come they appear to be smiling? It can appear that way because the worshipper has focused his chittvruti, his own living energy, into his darshan and that is why the Lord appears to be smiling to him. This is called the joy of chit. Joy of chit prevails where all element of deceit is gone. Joy of chit and deceit do not go together. Saint Kabir has said:

‘I think the Lord is far away, but in my heart He dwells

The veil of deceit obscures him, which is why I see him not’

The Lord cannot be seen because the veil of deceit obstructs our vision. The chitvruti, which is devoid of any intent, is pure. wh The joy of the chit will begin the moment the mahatmas become free from any wandering of the chit. It is then that they will be able to do the right bhakti(devotional worship, coming nearer and nearer to the target, the Self). People caught up and engulfed by their circumstances cannot even enjoy worldly happiness. If the chit becomes focused in a certain situation it will remain in that mode and its burden will be carried on to the next event or circumstances.  For example if your chit becomes engrossed in a situation, you will remain preoccupied with it for hours, so even when the circumstances unfolding in front of you are that for drinking tea, you drink your tea preoccupied and under pressure. In the worldly dealings, chit is consciousness (chetan), and so it is valuable only  if it’s presence is established in the task at hand.  If the chit is not present while you are eating, of what use is your eating?

‘Absence of wandering of the chit is the religion of all religions.’  If you attain this state, the cycle of rebirth will come to an end. 

Questioner: Dada, last night, in my sleep I saw a very powerful light, like sunlight for a long time. What could that be?

Dadashri: That is called chit chamatkar (miracle of the chit). There is tremendous power in chit chamatkar.

Questioner: Why do they hang bells in the temples?

Dadashri: To focus the chit. When the drums are playing and the bells are ringing, both the mind and the chit remain focused there for a while; however perfect focus or concentration is not possible until one acquires the Self.

Things that distract the chit are all topics or subjects. In this world everything that takes place on the outside, is a topic or a subject. Everything into which the chit wanders is vishaya. Eating and enjoying fritters or ice cream is not a problem but if the chit becomes glued there and keeps reminding you of it, then that is considered vishay.  Everything outside of Gnan is vishaya.

Whenever the chit grazes or indulges in anything but the Self, seeds for the next birth are sown.

The chit always takes photographs, sometimes clear and sometimes blurry. Whatever the quality of photographs you take, that is the quality of the film you create and, you will have to see that film, you will have to endure it. So take good pictures. Do not waste your film.

Ego

The fourth and the last component of the inner psychic organ is the ego. It is the ego, which finally endorses what the intellect decided in agreement with the mind or the chit. As long as the ego does not endorse the decision, no action will take place. The intellect is the light of the Self that comes through the medium of the ego and so when the intellect makes any decision, the ego as a rule becomes involved and the action will take place.

 ‘I am Chandulal’ is the greatest ego and the last ego according to the Gnani. It is the basis of the world’s existence. Liberation can only be achieved upon demise of this ego. The foundation of life exists on the belief of ‘I am’.  ‘I am pure Soul’ is the purity of the ego and it is the only instrument that leads to liberation.  All other forms of ego are instruments for future births.

It is egoism to impose the belief of ‘I am’ on the non-Self (achetan - inanimate). It is not considered an egoism to believe that,' I am the pure Self' (chetan - animate). ‘I am’, means existence is. Therefore you have a right to say’I am’. But you do not have the awareness of who you are and you do not have the right to identify your existence in the non-Self. You have absolutely no awareness of who you are. Once this realization is acquired, salvation is yours.

No one has the power to do anything and yet the world goes on functioning. It is mere ego to claim that you are the doer. Until you acquire the realization of the Self, you are just like a wound up toy.

The Most Important Thing To Renounce

God has said that you need not renounce anything in order to achieve liberation.  Only the ego and attachment need to be renounced, and when you do this, you will have done it all. ‘I’ is the ego and ‘my’ is attachment. I make you renounce both the, ‘I’ and ‘my’ when I make you realize your pure Self (Gnan). As I make you renounce these, do you know what I make you acquire? Your pure Self. Thereafter the question of renunciation-acquisition never arises. All renunciation is for the annihilation of the ego. I take away your ego so then where is its existence? It is placed in the original location of its existence.  Its existence is only in one place and that is where I place the ego.

If you resolve to wake up at five in the morning, you can certainly do it. To resolve firmly is egoism. What cannot be achieved through egoism? One day the Saint Sahajanand Swami met a king, in the province of Kathiawad.  The king told Sahajanand Swami that a very impressive ascetic had come to town.  This ascetic had remained buried underground for two weeks.  Swami told the king to make the ascetic repeat this feat in his presence. The ascetic, through his ego remained buried underground for fifteen days. At the time of his surfacing, the Swami told the king not to send a large procession to greet the ascetic as he had previously done, but instead send just two policemen. When the ascetic surfaced and did not see anyone waiting to greet him, he became enraged and began to shout, “Where is the king? Where is the horse carriage? Where is the band? He collapsed while shouting and died. He lived through his ego and when that ego was not nourished, he died. To impose yourself where you are not, is ego.

In reality ‘you’ the Self never dies. It is the ego that dies and takes birth again. Death does not occur until the ego endorses it, and the foolish do not refrain from endorsing it. When a person is bed-ridden and suffering with pain he endorsees his death by saying it would be better to die than go through the suffering. Here the endorsement becomes inevitable.

Jai Sat Chit Anand

nityasatsang continues

                                                 previous nityasatsang
At the lotus feet of the One for whom nothing remains to be known
January 25, 2004

The above satsang has been excerpted from Aptavani 1