Section IV
The
Teaching
__________________________________________
Satsang
Verily
that is whole; this is whole. From wholeness emerges wholeness; yet
wholeness remains.
From Prayer Verse of Isha Upanishad
The
words of the mystics have always been difficult to comprehend. The Bhagavad
Gita states that, of the few who have had the cosmic vision, those
who attempt to communicate this essential Truth to others are rare indeed.
It is not easy to translate the Transcendental Reality into terms of
everyday understanding. It becomes therefore a tough, and often thankless,
task for the one who makes an attempt.
The idea of an essential Divinity in and through everyone and everything
is not one to which human minds can easily relate. But the truth is
there have been many persons in every era who have verified the same
fact: We are Divine Beings.
Why don’t we know it? Because it is experienced in another state
of consciousness. For example, suppose there were many people who did
not dream and they were the vast majority. So the minority who did experience
the dream state of consciousness would report it to the rest of the
population. According to the reliability of the reporters, the number
of reports, and the similarity of the experience, the non-dreaming population
would begin to trust that there is a dream state of consciousness. They
might even be open to the idea that it is a potential experience for
human beings. Certainly, there would be some who would want to investigate
the possibility for themselves.
Likewise, the fact that we can know our essential Divinity has been
reported again and again by some of the wisest, most respected individuals
in the history of all religions. Each spiritual master, in directing
his words to the needs of the specific community that he addressed,
gave variations of detail, emphasis and interpretation, but the essence
remained the same. To give these reports in a language that could be
understandable to the modern educated agnostic was Swami Chinmayananda’s
mission in life.
The most meaningful and delightful moments with Swamiji were each day
as everyone gathered around him—on a long veranda, in a sunny sitting
room, under the shade of a tree or on the floor of a temple—to unload
their questions on him. Hindus came with, not only spiritual and personal
difficulties, but with questions concerning their heritage and customs.
During these informal gatherings, Swamiji’s true genius for understanding
life and applying spiritual truths to living shone most brilliantly.
In the traditions of the great teachers of India, Swamiji applied the
tenets of the scriptures to the needs of contemporary society. Established
in the Knowledge of Knowledges, he could engage anyone, anywhere, any
time, to point them to the higher vision. He was willing to use any
technique available to push people beyond their petty concepts of themselves:
praising or joking, mocking or insulting, laughing or feigning tears.
The self-conscious, sensitive ones he praised and encouraged; the egoistic,
aggressive ones he cut down to size.
He was always quick to note the idiosyncrasies of the questioners whom
he knew in the group and would use his observations to respond with
quips and taunts intended to evoke laughter from both the group and
the questioner. His sense of humor could be mischievous, but it was
always backed with a purpose. When the student’s mind was relaxed
from the laughter, Swamiji would strike him with an immaculate logic.
He thereby brought the student to a higher level of awareness as he
cleared each doubt from the web of the mind.
The following section contains a series of excepts from these informal
satsangs, or discussions on the Truth. The questions were not from one
person, as in an interview, but from different people in the group,
who brought up their own point of view, doubt or misunderstanding. Everyone
then would wait with abated breath for Swamiji to shed light on the
dilemma.
Often in the quest for freedom, we reject the yoke of the do’s
and don’ts of traditional religions, yet we go to a Guru
expecting to get specific, absolute answers—a new set of rules.
The Guru is dedicated to addressing the universal Truth and the
techniques of reaching that Truth. Then the student must proceed in
the indicated direction; the path to freedom is an individual quest.
Swamiji had a flair for serving the ball to the seeker’s court
and always stressed independent thinking for his students. He gave personal
guidance for individual problems, but the time arrived when the student
had to take the leap to that other state of consciousness for himself—with
no guarantee other than the words of the countless sages who have gone
before that he would land safely.