How to Abide in The Shiva Truth? On Ribhu Gita
Questioner: Namaste Acharya Ji. What is the screen, Sat-Chit Ananda-Shiva-Self? Is the Absolute a State? How can a thinking mind know about Shiva? How will the mind become still in order for the Shiva state to appear spontaneously? Can we still the mind? Who has to be still? We or the mind and how?
Acharya Prasant: 'Sat-Chit Ananda.' Truth, illumination, or awareness and joy—this is not the Absolute. Sat-Chit Ananda is not a characteristic of the truth itself, though it is variously referred to as verily nothing else but the truth. Sat-Chit Ananda is the relaxation of the mind into the truth.
Sat-Chit Ananda, yes, you could say, is the final state of the mind. Whether you want to call it a state depends on you. If you are speaking from a dissolved point, then you need not call Sat-Chit Ananda, a state. But if you are speaking as a seeker, then you can call Sat-Chit Ananda a state because you are yourself still in a state. Sat-Chit Ananda is the final state. What is meant by the final state? After this, there are no states.
It is existence merging into non-existence. It is like water merging into water, mixing with water. It will be very difficult for you to tell apart the waters.
How do you judge a person's health? One of the first things that you do is you measure the blood pressure, you measure the temperature. And then, if you want advanced tests, then you take a blood sample or urine sample and get it tested in a pathology lab, right?
Tell me, when are you testing health? You are just testing temperature, blood pressure, sugar, blood. When are you testing health? Go into this. Health is that which keeps the body regularly functional. Health cannot be tested. Only the body can be tested.
Similarly, the truth cannot be known, but whether or not you abide in the truth can be known by looking at the condition of your mind. Health cannot be known, but whether the body is abiding in health can be known by testing the body, right?
Similarly, truth cannot be known, but whether the person, the ego, the little self, is abiding in the truth can be known by looking at the characteristics of the person—the mind. Sat-Chit Ananda is a sure-shot characteristic that the mind is abiding in the truth. And equally, there are very certain signs that the mind is not abiding in the truth.
If you remain infected with fear and jealousy and comparison, if you keep feeling small or big, if you keep feeling the need to defend, if you keep feeling lonely, if you feel insecure in front of a new concept, then it is a sure-shot sign that the mind is not abiding in the truth. If the waves of happiness and sadness just carry you away and you start talking of yourself as nothing but the experiencer of pleasure and pain, then it is a sure-shot sign that the body is not abiding in health. You could even say it is a sure-shot sign that the Deh is not honestly abiding in the prana.
Have you ever seen prana? It's not to be seen. And I'm not talking of prana in the classical sense. I'm not talking of the various kinds of vayus. I'm talking of the spirit, the life force.
Have you ever seen something escaping a dead human body? But for sure, the prana and the body are no more united. Some link has broken, and that is what you call physical death, don't you? And it is very obvious that the link has broken. It is so obvious that you cannot confuse a dead man with a living man.
You commonly use the expression that the prana has gone out of the body. I don't want to use that expression, but I will still say that the link between prana and the body has been severed, right? And it is obvious then that the link has been broken. Similarly, when you look at a mind that is dissociated from its origin, from the truth, then it is very easy to tell.
Not as easy as telling a dead body apart from a living one, but still not very difficult. Even the grossest fool will say, "This man is dead," and he will be right. But it requires some wisdom to point out that this person's mind is dissociated from the truth or distanced from the truth. It can be, however, told. It is not beyond recognition.
Absolute is not a state, but all your states keep crying aloud for the Absolute. All the states want to turn into the Absolute state, which means that as long as you belong to a particular state, you will look at the Absolute as a state and that is all right, no problem. Call the Absolute whatever you may, but move towards it. Let it be your sharp and powerful inspiration. You can even call the Absolute the best state if you want to, and if that is useful, please do that.
But irrespective of what name you give it, move towards it. Make it your only goal. I am weighing my words. I know what I am talking about. I am saying, make the Absolute your only goal. Why am I saying that? Because you will not be able to live without goals. Even if you agree at this moment that the Absolute cannot be a goal, you will find that you are helpless due to your own constitution. You need goals. Make the Absolute your goal. You have no option.
How can a thinking mind know about Shiva? A thinking mind can know, and that knowing is called Shiva. You cannot know about Shiva, but you can know. And whatever you know is due to the blessings of Shiva. The knowing itself is Shiva. Shiva is anyway not a person, not a deity, not a figure, not an object. There is only Shivatva, Shiva-ness. And that Shiva-ness expresses itself in your knowing.
So 'know', don’t try to know about Shiva. Shiva is not furniture. Shiva is not a tree. Shiva is not a cloud, not even the sky. How will you know Shiva? Do you know of anything that has no shape, no form, and is eternal? How will you know Shiva? But know, do know. What can you know? This world and yourself. Know that. That knowing is Shiva-ness. Shivatva.
How will the mind become still in order for the Shiva state to appear spontaneously? The mind becomes still when it sees that movement is foolish. There is no other reason for the mind to become still. And the mind is captive of reasons. You will have to give the mind a strong reason to not to run.
The mind will never agree to be still. It can only agree to not to run. And this is not merely wordplay. There is a great difference between being still and not running. You can never take the consent of the mind for stillness. It’s like a traveler who is intent on moving, and he is standing at a crossroads. He is a traveler—that’s his definition, that’s his self-identification. You cannot tell him to not to travel. That would be stupid.
Then how do you tackle this situation? He’s standing at the crossroads. He wants to move north. You tell him, “No, no, north is not the way,” so he can’t move. Immediately, he wants to move east. You tell him, “No, no, east is not the way.” He stops. Then he wants to move south. You tell him, “No, no, south is not the way.” He wants to move west. You tell him, “No, west is not the way.” He is still constantly trying to move, but you are constantly able to show him that all his movements are wrong, stupid. They will not take him to the destination. And that is the only way he can be still.
The mind has to know, movement after movement, what is stupid for it. And if you can constantly keep the mind in this realization, only then will it be still. The stillness of this man, this traveler, is not the stillness of the monk who is standing just a little distance, intent on going nowhere, and is just standing. If you look from afar, then you will say that these two are just the same in the sense that both are just standing. But there is a great difference. The monk intends to stand. The mind intends to travel.
Your saving grace is that the mind intends to travel rightly. The mind doesn’t intend to just travel. It wants to travel with a purpose. It wants to travel to reach somewhere. Use the intent of the mind to stall its travel. Tell the mind, “North is not right. See, you just don’t want to travel; you want to travel rightly, and north is not right.” So fine.
Okay, you want to travel east or west. See, you just don’t want to travel blindly; you want to travel rightly, and west is not right. So the mind is still trying to move but can’t move. That is the only kind of stillness that will come to you—not the monk’s stillness. It will take long for you to come to a point where even the tendency to travel disappears or gets burnt out. Till the time that tendency remains, only discretion can help. Apply discretion. Tell yourself, “Yes, of course, I’m going to smoke, but I’ll smoke only a cigarette that doesn’t harm. Of course, I’m free to smoke.” And then smoke. If you can find a cigarette that doesn’t harm, do smoke.
That is the only way you can come to terms with the traveling mind, with the desirous mind. Give it what it wants. But also tell it, “You don’t merely want; you want rightly, don’t you?” And that’s something that the mind will have to, you know, unwillingly agree to.
Then you have asked, can we still the mind? I have taken this up. Who has to be still? We or the mind. Who has to be still? The one who is moving. If you are moving, you be still. If the mind is moving, the mind will be still. Why do you want to get into such verbiage? We, the mind. Are you any different from your mind? Are you? If you are different from the mind, if you are a witness of the mind, then all these questions will be absorbed in the witness. You and the mind are one, totally one. You are so completely identified with the mind that there is just no differentiation possible right now.
You ask, who moves? Or rather, who has to be still? You said, "Who has to be still?" I said, "The one who moves." If you want to say that the mind moves, then the mind has to be still. If you want to say that you move, then you have to be still. It’s merely wordplay, doesn’t matter.
And then you say, how will the stillness come? I have answered it. Stillness won’t come. Only foolishness will have to be seen. If you move, you get hurt. So better don’t move. And there would be times when you would not know that movement can be dangerous or harmful. Then, on those occasions, you will move and get hurt and that is all right. Such experiences are good. But don’t repeat those experiences. Getting hurt one time is acceptable, probably even good. But don’t get unnecessarily hurt the second time for the same reason, in the same way.
