The Problem and Solution is YOU

8/14/2019 The Problem and Solution is YOU

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Swami Dayananda Saraswati

THE PROBLEM IS YOU-THE SOLUTION IS YOU


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1.THE PROBLEMTwo Types of ProblemsThere are two types of problems in life; one is a problem of which the

solution lies outside the problem; the other is a problem for which the

solution is within the very problem.

The problems of food, clothing, shelter, etc. belong to the first category;

one has to seek solution outside. Take the problem of hunger. One has to

go in for food in order to appease the hunger. Here the solution, food,

lies outside the problem hunger. If you do not have a shelter, you have toget since it is not available with you; it is outside you. Therefore you

have to seek the solution in an external situation. There are many

problems of this kind in our individual life, in our social life, in our

national life. These may be called situational problems and they can be

solved by planning and effort, taking into account the resources at our

disposal.

Now suppose someone gives you a jigsaw puzzle involving four pieces

which when arranged in a particular manner, form the letter S. Each

piece has its own shape, angularity, etc., and individually none of them

makes any meaning; they become meaningful only when arranged in a

given manner. But when you are juggling with these pieces, trying

different arrangements, they do not form the letter S. When you are not

able to solve the puzzle in spite of repeated attempts, when you are not

able to see the pieces falling in their place, you may construe that a piece

may be a missing. You may feel that the solution lies outside the

problem, the four pieces, and that, may be a fifth or even a sixth piece is

necessary to solve the puzzle. But that is not the case. The four pieces

alone are required. This is the second kind of problem where the


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solution lies within the problem. Solution of this kind of a problem

requires a pta an informed or an enlightened person who knows thesolution. He has the solution in his head; he can see the letter S within

the four pieces even when they are not assembled. The ptahas to tellyou that the solution is within the problem and that you have to arrangethe pieces in a particular manner to arrive at the solution. It is this

second kind of problemwhere the solution is within the problemwe

shall be talking about.

If the solution is contained in the problem and it is still a problem, the

problem is purely due to ignorance. The problem is caused by the

ignorance of a fact and therefore we have a problem instead of a fact.

The knowledge of the fact alone solves such a problem.

The Problem of Human SadnessThe problem of human sadness is a problem that has the solution within

itself. Generally we think that the solution of this problem lies outside

because we always manage to find a reason for our sadness, external toourselves. It seems there is a factor other than myself that causes me

sadness and that factor has to be corrected, mended, amended or even

destroyed to remove my sadness. A reason for sadness is easily sought

and found also. Why are you sad? Because I do not have a job; because

I am ill; because I am not married yet; because I am married; because I

do not have children; because I have one too many; because someone

has not written; because someone has written! The ingenuity of the

human mind is able to discover the causes for ones sorrow outside

oneself. The conclusion is that sorrow or sadness is a problem for which

solution is outside.

Let us examine whether a solution can come from outside.


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If your conclusion is that you are sad because you do not have a job, it

means that lack of job is the cause for your sadness which should go

away totally when you get a job. The job should be able to make you

free from sadness. But when you do get a job you find you have a newproblem, the place of work is too far away. You have to spend half your

time in travelling; go to the bus-stop, wait for the bus, travel by bus for

one hour and again walk to the factory where you work. It would be

really nice if you had a house close to the factory. You try for a house

and get one right in the colony of the factory workers. But now you

discover another problem. The air is totally polluted on account of the

smoke from the factory chimney. How can anyone stay in a place like

that? The old house was definitely better and you return to the old place.

So the problem of transportation is back again! You solve one problem

and another one crops up in its place. The problems of job,

transportation, accommodation are situational problems or they are

situations and not problems. But sadness is not something caused by a

situation.

If you think given situation is a source of sadness, you will find it is alsoa source of comfort. Mother-in-law is always a source of sorrow but

when you want to go to a movie or listen to a Swami, you prefer to leave

the child at home and the mother-in-law becomes very hand as a baby-

sitter. So even mother-in-law is a source of comfort. Any given thing

which you look upon as a problem also offers you advantages and vice

versa. There is nothing in the creation that is one-sided. You examine

anything or any situation. If you become a Swami there is an advantagewhen you are amidst people; people spare you from questions certain

questions at least! But then you are bothered with other kinds of

questions: Swamiji, do you see palms? Can you tell me when I will get

married? And so on. The other day, I was taken to a famous zoo in

Milwaukee in the United States and I heard a youngster saying to


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another, Hey, look at this new one! So being a sdhualso has its ownadvantages and disadvantages too. If you get married, there are

advantages and some disadvantages too. If you do not get married, there

are many advantages but some disadvantages also. Having childrengives a sense of fulfillment but bringing them up has its own problems.

If you examine any situation, you will find both advantages and

disadvantages and so if any situation can cause sadness to you, you can

look up on that very situation as a source of comfort too. The one who is

comfortable because of situation will also become sad because of

situation.

Can Positive Thinking Remove Sadness?Anything can be looked upon in more than one ways. Looking at a rose,

one can say, The rose is beautiful but it has thorns, or In spite of

thorns rose is beautiful. Both the views are alright, because they are

based on facts. This brings us to the so called positive thinking.

People talk about these days. It is a way of looking at things. Rose is

beautiful, but it has thornsthis is the complaining way of looking at arose. In spite of thorns, rose is beautiful, is a positive way of looking

at it. There are many people who propound this thinking as a means of

overcoming sadness. But this cannot solve the problem of human

sadness for good because where there is a positive thinking, there must

be a fact that makes it a factual positive thinking. If this is so, there is

going to be another fact forming the basis for negative thinking.

Take the cause of this man who had a very poor self-image. He always

looked down upon himself. He had concluded that he had not made his

life, that he was a failure. People around him also contributed to making

this a firm conclusion and so nobody could really helping him out of it.

He went to a Swami and told him his state of mind. The Swami told


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him, You positively look at yourself. See what all things you have.

You have a pair of eyes that sees properly, a pair of ears that hears

properly, a nose that smells properly. There are so many people who

have no eyes; there are many who are deaf; there are noses which do notsense smell. You have all the senses intact, a healthy body, and (what

should be called) a normal mind. How many people are there who are

not privileged to have these? And you have a good education, a good

parentage. There are so many orphans who do not even know their

parents and countless other who have no education at all. And you have

a nice family, a job and a house. Really speaking, you are blessed.

Why do you have such a low image of yourself? You have so many

positive things about yourself. Told thus by the Swami, the man was

really convinced. He admitted, There is really nothing to complain

about. I am very happy now; no more sad. Thank you Swamiji. And he

walked out.

As the man was even leaving, he saw someone stopping his Mercedes

car on the kerb and coming out. When our man, now equipped with

positive thinking, saw this person, he noticed that this man also had a

pair of eyes, a pair of ears, a nose, a healthy body and all such things that

he had and plus a Mercedes car! He became sad again! He realized that

the other man had everything that he had and a Mercedes car whereas he

did not have a scooter! The positive thinking evaporated! Positive

thinking does not work. It is stilly. If positive thinking is based on facts,

so is negative thinking. It is a fact that one man had the car whereas the

other did not have it. The first one had all the advantages of a car whichthe second one did not have. Thus as long as there are facts, negative

thinking will always exist along with positive thinking and the

conclusion, I am sad will ever remain with you because you think that


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sadness is caused by external world. Positive thinking cannot erase the

conclusion, I am sad.

Can Change in Situation Remove Sadness?If external world is the cause for your sadness, you cannot get rid of that

sadness even if you create a new situation or go to a new place. Let us

say you go to heaven which is equipped to be an ideal situation for

everyone.

There are different concepts of heaven. According to our scriptures,

there is no hunger or thirst in the heaven; nobody is afflicted with hunger

or thirst, old age or death in the heaven. So obviously there is no need

for food and so there would be no restaurants in heaven! There would be

no bhelpur, nopanpur in fact nopurat all! So you cannot get thingsthere even though you love them. All you have in the heaven is dance

and music. You will get bored.

According to a religious sect in the West, the faithful will go heaven and

have eternal dinner with God. Now a typical Western dinner starts with

soup and so the eternal dinner would also start with soup. But since you

must be eternally there on the dinner table, you cannot take even one sip

of soup because if the dinner is started, it will end also. So you will have

to keep the soup-spoon near your mouth but never even taste the soup!

You will not proceed at all. So you are struck with soup!

In the heaven also, different residents have different status and therefore

they experience different degrees of joy because the status can also giveyou happiness. Our scriptures give a detailed account of the degree of

happiness associated with different status. Imagine a young man who is

strong, healthy, brave and clear-thinking. He is well brought-up, well

educated, leads a life ofdharmaand so has no conflicts in his mind. Heowns the entire earth with all its resources, with no rival to share or to


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threaten. All these will obviously give him the highest degree of

happiness that a human being can ever hope to enjoy. Call it one unit of

happiness. Multiply this by one hundred and you get one unit of

happiness enjoyed by Manuya Gandharvs. The happiness enjoyed byDevaGandharvsis a hundred times that ofManuyaGandharvsand soit goes. You keep multiplying by one hundred each time and you can get

an estimate of the degree of happiness enjoyed by the Pits, the jnaDevs, the Karma Dev (who serve the Devs), the Devs, Indra,Brahaspati, Prajpati, Brahm. The idea is that different status givedifferent degrees of joy and so even in the heaven, you will feel

inadequate due to comparison.

Most of our youngsters entertain ambitions of going abroad. First choice

is of course, U.S.A., failing that, Canada. If not that, Saudi Arabia,

Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain. If none of these, well Malaysia, Singapore,

Hongkong .. somewhere. That is the vision, the ambition of most of the

youngstersthere are exceptions I am sure. Now listen to this. There is

this man from Kerala, who is in Kuwait and who has made it. Once

when I was in Kuwait, he says,

Swamiji, how if we go out for aspiritual picnic, a satsaga?But where can we go? You drive for onehour in any direction and you reach the boundary. Where can we go?

Swamiji, we shall go to a place five miles from here.What is there?

Swamiji, there is a tree there. We can all sit under the tree and have

outdoor satsaga for a change. Imagine a person coming from Keralawhich is one of the most green states, running around for miles in search

of one tree! What nanda, joy is there? You can make some money therebut you cannot get everything.

Therefore, wherever you go, whatever changes you bring about, the

situational happiness will always be relative. Every situation has two

sides where one side is fine but the other one s not. In fact, all the


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situations, the whole life, is like a Gujarati pickle which is sweet and hot

simultaneously! Every situation, like a coin, has two sides. If you have

one side, you also have the other. This being the case, there is no way of

solving the problem of sadness by any situational change.


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The Seeking

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2.THE SEEKINGTwo Types of SeekingAnything that is considered desirable by us becomes an object ofseeking. There are two types of seeking in our life. First is the seeking

of things which I look upon as desirable and which I do not have. Things

like comforts, money, power, progeny etc. to fall in this category. I

search for these things, and make efforts to gain or accomplish them

with help of the knowledge, skills and resources available to me. These

things appear very desirable to me at the moment and so become sdhya,

to be achieved. Later on, I may change my view about them.

The second kind of seeking also pertains to objects which we consider

desirable. But there is a difference. Whereas the first kind of seeking

pertains to objects we do not have, this second kind of seeking is for the

objects we have but we think we do not have. Here also, the seeking is

the same as in the first case. I think I do not have the thing and so I seek

it. It is like the case of that man searching for his lost glasses.

This man, one Sunday morning, wanted to read the newspaper. He

needed his reading glasses. He opened the drawer of the desk, took out

the glasses, wore them and started reading the newspaper. While he was

reading, a friend happened to come to see him. He placed the newspaper

on the side, lifted the reading glasses so that they rested above his

forehead and started talking to his friend. The friend went away after

half an hour and this man wanted to resume reading the newspaper. He

lifted the paper, discovered the need for the reading lasses and started tosearch. Where are my glasses? He searched in all the usual places; the

glasses were not on the table, nor in the drawer or on the floor. When he

could not find them anywhere, he started shouting Where are my

glasses? The wife came out from the kitchen and stood there staring


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at him. The children also came out and dispassionately watched the

drama. Finally, the youngest son could not hold it any longer and

pointed at the glasses which were on the fathers forehead! The man

realized that the glasses he was searching for were with him all along.

Now this seeking was there not because the man did not have glasses.

He was the problem and he was the solution. He was the problem

because he thought he was the non-possessor of glasses. There is no

physical distance between the non-possessor and the possessor of

glasses. But still there is a distance which makes him a seeker. This; is

the distance created by ignorance. Therefore one can seek for what one

does not have and one can seek for what one thinksone does not have. Ifone thinks one does not have a given thing and one considers it

desirable, one cannot but seek.

The Seeking in Human LifeIf we look at our life and enquire as to what it is that we seek, we find

that all the varieties of activities that we undertake are prompted by an

urge to acquire something or get rid of something. All the urges that a

human being feels, falls under three basic categories: (1) to life to live

a day longer, (2) to gain happiness, and (3) to acquire knowledge.

You carry out a set of activities to keep your life going: I do not want to

die today; about tomorrow, I will see. That means there is no tomorrow

at allevery tomorrow is today. I am alive at the present moment and I

cannot think of decimation of my existence. There is a natural love to be.

I want to live is a natural, universal urge, not planted b someone else.Even a new-born baby has an urge to life; there is a great attempt on its

part to sustain itself as a living being.

There is definitely an attempt to avoid death and therefore aging also.

But then we also find some people who feel like committing suicide and


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there are some who do commit suicide. Thus, it looks as though the urge

to live is not such a universal urge because there is a contradiction

someone is ready to give up ones life. So I add one more clause: I want

to live and live happily. If I consider my entire life and come to theconclusion that the future does not hold any promise of my being happy

and that sadness alone is my lot, I become depressed. This wrong

process of thinking can prompt me to commit suicide. One commits

suicide to escape sadness. Thus to live happily as powerful an urge as

the urge to live.

Again as a human being, one cannot stand ignorance. From childhood

onwards, there has always been an attempt to know. You give a child atoy to play with and the first thing it does it opens it. Questions such as

why? what? How? arise in ones mind without being prompted. There is

a love for gossip, for reading newspapers, magazines, etc., because

nothing should go around without your knowledge. Thus ignorance is

one thing you cannot stand. You are in a great hurry and speeding in

your car but if you find a group of people gathered on the side walk, you

slow down, stick your head out and try to see what is happening there.If you want your wife to miss her sleep during the night, just tell her,

before going to sleep, that you have an important thing to tell her but

that you could not tell her at the moment and she should wait until the

next morning. She will urge you to tell her at least something about it

because she cannot stand ignorance. This is how these magazines and

television-serials keep your curiosity alive by cutting off the story of

drama when it has reached a critical point so you will want to read the

next issue or see the next showing. We do the same thing in our talks

too! So ignorance is bliss only when it is total. If you know a little, you

want to know more.


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Thus, all activities in life are towards fulfilling these three natural urges.

There are activities to stall death and old age because I have concluded

that I am mortal. There are activities to make myself happier than what I

am, I want to get rid of unhappiness, because there is conclusion,I am

unhappy. I feel I am incomplete and so there is an attempt to be free

from incompleteness, unhappiness. There are activities to make me

more informed, more knowledgeable because I have a conclusion that I

am ignorant. These three conclusions I am mortal, I am unhappy or

incomplete, and I am ignorantform the basis of all my activities.

This three-fold conclusion is the problem. Vednta says this is an

unwarranted problem. In the vision of Vednta, you are just the oppositeof what you take yourself to be. I am sad is the problem and that is

solved only when I see that I as other than sad, as free from sadness.

Vednta says that I is free from sadness and we shall presently see

how that is.

The problem of Sadness is Centered on ISadness arises out of the notion,

I am sad

, and so the problem of

sadness can only be solved by seeing the fact, I am not sad. In the

vision ofVedntaI am just the opposite of what I take myself to be andhave to see that fact.

If you say you are bound, you have to be free. If there is bondage in the

I sense, there should also be freedomfreedom from hunger, freedom

from thirst, freedom from being bullied by the world, freedom from

being impinged upon by the world. That freedom has to be centered onyour I; it cannot be outside you, much less inside you. It has to be you.

If the sadness is due to the world, happiness is also due to the world

only. You find yourself sad when you view one side of a situation; but

there is the other side also, which is as good a fact as this side and which


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can make you happy. This is what we call sasra. Sukhaha (I amhappy); dukh aha (I am unhappy). Now understand: sukha(happiness) is one thing and sukh (happy) is another. Dukha

(unhappiness, pain, sorrow) is one thing and duhkh (unhappy,sorrowful) is another. This is an important thing to know. Dukha issorrow while dukhmeans, I am sorrowful, I am sad. Now all ourattempts are to remove dukha to remove sorrow by bringing aboutchanges in the situations. But the problem is not dukham, sorrow; theproblem is the notion, ahdukhI am sorrowful.

The animal has only the sukha and dukha, pleasure and pain. It

does not have the notions, Aha sukh I am happy or ahadukh- I am unhappy. A cow can be a luck cow if it has a master whofeeds it well, maintains it well. It is a healthy cow and does feel the

pleasure, but it does not have the notion ofsukhitva, the notion, I amhappy. It does not have a complex, I am a superior cow, I belong to

such and such family etc. A cow does not have any sense or notion or

judgment like this, centered in itself. If another cow has crooked or ugly

horns, it does not think,I am ugly, other cows are good-looking, I don

t

know what to do. I am struck with these horns because I cannot remove

them or else they will call me a bald cow etc. Cows do not have a

problem like this. If a cow does not get food, it does feel pain and if it

gets food, there definitely is some pleasure. Cows do suffer and they do

experience comfort, but they do not seem to have the notions of

dukhitvaor sukhitva, of being sad or elated.

The human being, on the other hand, has a judgment centered on I andthat gives rise to problems. The white man wants to be white but not all

that white. This is a complex and so he goes to a beach and bake himself

in the scorching heat to become a little less white. The black has his

own complex: he wants to be a little white; he wants to be a little


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whitened. In India, we have our own complexes. The girl is beautiful,

but dark! Cows do not have such complexes. There are these two cows

which belong to the same breed, are about the same age and give an

equal amount of milk. But there is a great difference in their sellingprice. Why? Because one cow has shapely horns and the other one has

crooked horns! The cows themselves do not seem to be aware of that

difference and so they do not have any complex. It is the owner of the

cows who has problems! This problem of complexes is a human

problem.

The human being is aware of himself or herself as a person and in the

person, one sees sukhitva (the state of being happy) and dukhitva(the state of being unhappy). So there arise such complexes as, I am

sukh (happy), I am dukh (unhappy). I am bound. I am beingheld down by others, etc. These are problems. That I am dependent

upon a hundred million things for my security and happiness, is a

problem. The world is infinitely vast and independent of me and it has

the capacity to limit me. I was born dependent upon the world, limited

by it, conditioned by it. I will ever remain limited and conditioned by theworld. The world definitely limits me and if that is the problem, if that

makes me dukh, the problem of dukhitvacan never be solved. Ifthe dukhitvaarises from the world, if my unhappiness is because theworld limits me, I should always be dukhsad, bound, sorrowful. Butin spite of my being small, being limited by the world, being deprived of

many things I wish to have, I do find myself occasionally, a happy

person. During those moments the very person who looked upon himself

or herself as sad, looks upon the self as happy. What change has taken

place in the world or the self, for me to become happy? The body has

not changed, the emotions, the knowledge, the memories have not

changed; they are all the same. The world has not changed, the job has

not changed; the environment has not changed; the government has not


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changed; I still have any number of complaints against the community.

Thus, the world still very much limits me and still I am able to laugh. I

become happy now and then which means those are the moments when I

look upon myself differently, entirely differently. Formerly, I sawmyself as dukh and now I see myself as the one who is free fromdukha. This happens even when I laugh at a simple joke.

There was this man who thought he was a cat. He was afraid of coming

out of the house because there were street dogs and he thought they

would chase him. He was taken to a psychiatrist who convinced him, by

comparison with an actual cat that he was not a cat; that he had none of

the features of a cat. And by comparison with himself, the psychiatristconvinced the man that he had all the features of a human being, that he

was a human being. Being thus convinced by the psychiatrist, being

relieved of the complex, the man came out happily. But the next day, he

refused to go out of the house anyway! He was again presented before

the psychiatrist, who asked him.

Arent you convinced that you are a human being and not a cat?

Yes, I am convinced.

Then, why are you afraid of coming out of the house?

I know I am not a cat but how do I know that the dogs know it?

You laughed at this now. What change has happened in you? What

problem have you solved? Your job is the same; your wife is ill; the

mother-in-law has not yet left! All the problems are intact and still youlaughed.

It is true that there are problems which have to be faced factually,

objectively. But the problem of sadness has nothing to do with the

external world. The problem of sadness is centered on you and your


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vision or notion about yourself and the world. You are the problem

when you say, I am sad. And when you laughed, what are you? You

are the solution. There was no fulfillment of a desire nor a solution of an

external problem when you laughed. All that happened was that theylooked upon yourself as you are. All that is required to be free from

sadness is that you look at yourself as you are.

It is said in our scriptures that the mind is the cause for both bondage

and liberation. Mind here means your notion about yourself your

conclusion, I am this much alone. This notion, this self-judgement is

the problem and therefore self-clarify, self-knowledge is the solution. In

the vision of the Upaniad, the self is free. Like even in the case of thejigsaw puzzle, when you thought the solution of the puzzle lay outside

the problem, the pta, the one who knows, could see the solution in thevery problem. Here, in the vision of the pta, the i, the upaniad, youare the solution.

The vision of the stra, scripture that I am the solution seems validenough in view of the fact that in spite of all the problems, I do not see

myself happy occasionally. If all these problems and notions were real, Icould never give them up. And I can never be happy unless I give them

up. The fact that I feel happy means it is possible to give up the notions

about myself. Now consider this boy who thinks that his teeth are not

presentable. His teeth are not in alignment and he has two extra teeth. He

does not accept his teeth and is conscious that his teeth are ugly. He

deliberately avoids laughing and closes his mouth as soon as he

remembers his teeth. But even this boy laughs sometimes. Do you knowwhy? Because at that time, he is the person that he really is; he has given

up the notion that he is ugly. That notion being not real, sometimes he

catches himself laughing and so it is clear that the boy is not ugly in


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reality, that he is looking upon himself wrongly. The vision of straisvalid.

My natural longing to be free from unhappiness is the further proof of

the validity of the vision that I, the self is free, happy. There is a natural

longing to be free from being unhappy. I love what is natural and I want

to get rid of what is unnatural. If unhappiness, littleness, were natural to

me, if they were the essential characteristics of tm, the self. I couldnever give them up. But in deep sleep and in moment of happiness, I do

give up all the notions that make me feel small, limited. I find myself

happy when those notions are absent.


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3.THE SOLUTIONWhat is the Nature of I?The question is asked, What is the nature of I? What is the dividingline between I and the world? I feel limited by the world which is vast

and other than me. My existence is confined within certain limits: I

occupy a certain space and no more, and the world begins from the

boundary. It is true that the world begins where I ends, and it is my

conclusion that I is confined to the physical body. My awareness of

myself stops with the physical body and so I conclude that I am the

body. My awareness of myself stops with the physical body and so Iconclude that I am the body I am short, tall, fat, lean, etc. Other than

the body is the entire world consisting of the five-fold sense objects.

Now this physical body was not there before a given point in time and

during the period of its existence also it keeps on changing; it is subject

to aging and death. This being the nature of the body and because I have

concluded that the body is II am as good as the bodyI am subject

to disease and death. There is always a fear of death. I am mortal.

The physical body has certain features, certain abilities and also many

limitations. It is limited in height, weight, health, etc., and since I am the

physical body, these limitations become mine. Timewise, I am limited.

Spacewise, I am limitedif I am here, I cannot be elsewhere. Sexwise I

am limitedif I am a male, I cannot be a female and vice versa. Again

there are limitations colourwise, racewise, nationwise .. hundreds of

limitations. As though this is not enough, we have added complexes like

the concept of beauty. The marketing media have created notions about

norms of beauty: how the eyes should be, how the eye-brows should be,

what the colour of the skin should be and so on. All this creates further

complexes about ugliness. As we said earlier, a cow with crooked horns


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does not have a complex about ugliness; this is strictly a human problem

which is an unnecessary infliction. The Lord has given a body that is

alive and is able to perform various functions for me. It is a gift and

there is nothing more to it.

Thus, with reference to the body there are limitations at every level. I am

a wanting person at every level, insecure and frightened all the time and

so I add a few things to myself to become secure. But an insecure person

remains insecure adding or subtracting a few things continue to keep

him insecure. Acquisition does not make a person secure nor does

renunciationby giving up everything, a person may become a beggar

which is an additional problem; formerly he was begging for happinessand security and now he begs for food too!

Just as the body limits me, the sense organs also limit me. I also feel

limited by my mind. I am wanting emotionwise, I want to remain

cheerful but I cannot how can I be happy with this kind of a body? I do

not want to be sad but I become sad. Again knowledgewise also I am

wanting and I am going to be wanting all the time because there will

always be something that I do not know. More one comes to know, moredoes not become aware of all one does not know. Memorywise also I

am wanting I cannot even remember what I ate yesterday~ And there

are things you wish to forgetlike what your brother-in-law told you

but you cannot get them out of your memory! You remember all sad

incidents and go over them again and again in fact the keep coming

back whether you like them or not! Thus memorywise I am a wanting

person. I also find I am ignorant of so many things and that makes mefrustrated.

Thus, there is a conclusion that I am wanting in terms of time, in terms

of knowledge, in terms of fullness. stra, dismisses this conclusion.


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All the things that are enumerated above the body, the senses, the

emotions, the knowledge, the memories, the ignorance are known to

you; you are aware of them. They are all objects of your knowledge.

They are there because you know them. They are not self-proving. Thesun exists because you know it to exist. The wife exists because you

know she exists. The physical body exists because you know it exists,

that it is fact or lean, male or female, ill or healthy, is it all known or

not? If it is all known, to whom is it known? To you and to others as

well. Others also know this physical body and you also know itin fact

you know it much more intimately than others. Thus the body is very

much an object of your knowledge like even a sunrise or a sunset. This

physical body is known to you as well as other physical bodies are. And

so when you say, I am tall, or I am short, it is just a point of view

you are looking at yourself from the standpoint of the body; then you

become tall, short, dark, fair, etc. All these are conclusions from the

standpoint of the physical body. If you go a little beyond the physical

body and look at yourself, you become father, son, grandfather, husband,

brother, etc. Everything you are; the standpoints differ. From other

points of view such as money, etc. you have further concepts of rich,

poor, etc. These are all loaded notions from different points of view.

There is no harm if you know they are points of view. The problem is

the points of view become the view; they become the very vision of the

self, the very knowledge of the self.

If the physical body is an object of knowledge, if the body is seen by

you as an object, it is definitely not you. You have a close association

with his body, which is no problem. There is no problem even if you

say, This is my body. Then it is like your car. When the car gives

trouble, you send it to a garage for repairs; similarly you can send your

body to a hospital when it has become trouble the difference is, you


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have to go along with it! The problem is when you say, I am the body.

Then you become a mortal.

Thus you may be a mortal from the standpoint of the body. You may be

blind or deaf from the standpoint of the senses. You may be restless

from the standpoint of the mind and wanting in knowledge from the

standpoint of intellect. But from the standpoint ofI that is aware of

the body, senses, emotions, knowledge, memories, ignorance, what are

you? Who are you? The problem is that you are mortal, restless,

ignorant, sinner, etc. There are so man complexes which arise when you

look at yourself from different standpoints. Look at yourself from the

standpoint ofI. What is that I? When you look at it, you can only say,I am a conscious being, an awareful person. Do you require a proof?

I ask you, What is this?A flowerHow do you know?Because I

see! Thus you know things existing and non-existing. Now I ask you,

Do you exist or not? I? I have no doubt that I exist. How do you

know you exist? You exist because you cannot but exist. Everything else

requires proof for its existence whereas you require no proof. The

existence of everything is proven because you exist. If you needed proofof your existence, you would have no knowledge. I is self-evident,

being simple consciousness or awareness.

Awareness has no form. When you see my hand, the hand is within your

awareness. Hand has a form but awareness has no form. So the I of

which the meaning is Awareness or Consciousness, caitanyahas no formno height, no width. This is what is meant by aparichinnamcaitanyam,

limitless awareness. Awareness. Awareness is limitless with respect tospace and time too. The physical body is in time and therefore it is

mortalit comes now, it is gone now. But when time is, Awareness is.

When time goes away, Awareness still is. You are aware of time. Time

is object of your awareness. Time is something that can disappear


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there is no time between two thoughts; there is no time when you are in

ecstasy; there is no time when you are asleep. You are thus aware of

time. You are also aware of space and time and space exist in

Awareness. Everything falls in awareness. The known, viditamand theunknown, aviditam, both fall in awareness.

The I-notion is the ProblemIt is clear that the body is wanting, the mind is wanting and I think I am

all these. Therefore, if you look back at your own life, just remember

from the day you can remember and tell me if there ever was a single

day when you werepra, totally free from desires. Look back and see ifthere was one waking day when you were totally free and from being a

wanting person, that is, when all your desires were fulfilled. On any

given day, you will find you had some desires which were not fulfilled.

On any given day, you will find you had some desires which were not

fulfilled. As a child, you wanted to eat one more candy; no. You did not

want to go to school; no. You did not want to play, go. You wanted to

play, dont. As child, you had a number of unfulfilled desires; you were

a wanting person. As a young man, a wanting person. As an old person,also wanting: nobody listens to me, nobody behaves properly etc.

Logically, it is impossible for you to be happy even for a moment

because all the time, you are wanting. At any given time, you have any

number of desires which are not fulfilled or which cannot be fulfilled.

There always was a situation when you had thing that you did not want

or you did not have things that you wanted. Thus, logically, it is not

possible to be happy even for a moment. But you do become happy

occasionally. That is your experience. You got something you wanted

and you become happy. You heard a joke and you became happy. You

solved a problem and you became happy. Someone said, You

wonderful. and you became happy. Thus logically it is impossible to


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be happy but it was always possible for you to be happy. It these

moments were not there, man would commit suicide. These moments

keep life going. And you gather these moments not by fulfilling all your

desires. You gather them in spite of desires. The world does notdisappear when you are happy; it is very much there. Whatever you

confront is the world for you. The world may be sky, stars, any sense

object, anything you confront at a given time. Your child makes an

enlightening remark, you are surprised and happy. You lift the child. At

that time, the child is the world for you.

At the time of joy, the world is, the senses are, the mind is and I am very

much present. My situations have not changed and complaints have notgone away. The problems are there; the roof is leaking, the sewage does

not work etc. Really speaking, no problem is solved, but I am still

happy. What does that mean? That only means that, at any moment

when I am happy, I am not a seeker; the conclusion, I am wanting is

not there.

With reference to the world, I am always a seeker. I want the humanity

to be different. I want the government to be different. I want the peoplewho are near and dear, to be different. Thus with reference to

everything, I am a wanting person, a seeker moneywise seeker,

powerwise seeker, namewise seeker, influencewise seeker,

friendshipwise seeker etc. Rolewise also I am a seeker; as a daughter-in-

law, as a mother-in-law, as a father, as a son, I am always a wanting

person. I want the world that I am related to be different. All the time, I

am a seeker. What happens at the moments of joy? I cease to be aseeker. There is no division between me and the world. The seeker sought division disappeared at this moment. At that time there is no

judgement about the self how lonely I am; how useless I am; how

worthless I am; how ugly I am .. and so on. All these conclusions are


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completely forgotten; I have forgotten my height, my weight .. suddenly

I became one with the world. Both I and the world become complete,

whole. This is called Pra. What I confront is pra and I who

confront also is pra. There is no bheda, division between I and theworld. I become pra, whole, complete, I am happy because I amwhole. That is the I, Awareness that is full in spite of the body, senses,

mind, world.

We never say that the world is dukha, sorrowful, Sasra is

dukha, is what we say. And sasra, is this notion, I am a seeker,

born of ignorance of what I am. In the moment of happiness, this notion

is absent, there is no seeker-sought duality, there is fullness. What I amsaying is that the fullness, all the time, is you. Fullness does not belong

to the world. Fullness is not a particular object. Your body is not

fullness, your mind is not fullness because they have their limitations.

The I is fullness. In the moment of fullness you forget yourself. Which

self? The notion, I am so and so. The fellow who feels useless,

frustrated, is forgotten ahakara is forgotten, and you are happy for a

moment.You all experience the Self that is happiness but you do not know. Since

there is experience, you want to do the same thing again and so what do

you do? You make arrangements. You arrange the world. You

manipulate so that the same experience comes to you again. But the

same thing does not come a second time. We go on manipulating the

world but it does not work. God alone knows when you will be happy

again. In the moments of joywhenever they happenyou are yourself.You dont have any wish; you dont want anything to change.

The whole problem, therefore, is the I-notion, the notion I am

unhappy and the solution is the knowledge I am happiness. In fact, in

the unhappiness itself lies the solution. The person who is unhappy, has


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the solution just as there is the solution in the very jigsaw puzzle. Once

the pieces fall in their place, the problem is solved, it is no more a

puzzle. Similarly, the world which is a threat to me, has to fall in its

place in terms of the reality it has and I have to fall in my place in termsof the reality I am. When this happens, you find there is nothing but

solution; there is no problem at all. There remain only the problems such

as hunger, thirst etc., which are factual problems. But the problem of

human life is entirely different it is not removing sorrow, it is

removing the notion, I am sorrowful. Duhkham, pain is not the

problem, dukitvam, I am sad, is the problem. Bondage is not the

problem; I am bound is the problem. So you are the problem and you

have to seek solution within yourself.

You are the SolutionSuppose you are in a place which is beautiful. There is luxury of nature.

There is the mountain and greenery all around you. The place is clean

and the people around you are also good. Everything is beautiful and

you find yourself happy. Do you know why? Because you dont want

the mountain to be different; you dont want the colour of the sky to be

different; you dont want your senses to be different, you dont want

your memory to be different. In fact, you just are. Arent you? You

accept yourself totally because you find yourself acceptable. The I is

but awareness. It is already full, limitless. You experience it whenever

you are happy. Whether it is viaynanda, joy coming from sense-

objects, or yognanda, joy coming from yoga, or vidynanda, joy

coming from knowledge or brhmananda, joy that is Brahman, it isyourself alone that you experience, the you that is fullness. You are

limitless because Awareness is limitless, ananta, which is the same as

nanda.


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The Problem and Solution is YOU

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