Higher Reality

Divine Life Society Publication: Your Questions Answered by Sri Swami Krishnananda

Q: The mundane things also go in the Higher Self?

SWAMIJI: By accepting that the Higher Self includes all these mundane things, so that you need not have to ask for mundane things separately, it includes whatever you want, even your train fare is included in that, so, why are you worrying about these little things, when it is already there? The idea of avoiding something is painful, but I am not telling you to avoid anything. Just realise that what is here, is also there, in a better way.

So, why should you go here, when it is already there? And it is in a larger dimension that you will get it there; it is only a fraction you will get here. That is the original; this is a reflection. So, why do you want a reflection, when the original is ready there?

Q: So, that is why I always want to go in the Higher Self.

SWAMIJI: If you want it, it will come. There is no qualification necessary, except wanting it. That is the only qualification. If it is not wanted, it will not come. It comes when it is wanted – but wanted wholly, not a little.

Q: I want all my thoughts always to be in the Infinite, in tune with the Almighty.

SWAMIJI: When you can find everything there, why should you have problems? The problem is that you cannot believe that everything can be found there. "The heart has a reason which reason does not know," is an old saying. So, whatever you may say, the heart will say, "Do not be too optimistic. After all, you are going to some unknown place. Be cautious." So, there is a hesitancy in going there.

So, what to do? Whose voice are you going to listen to?

And the world will tell you, "I have taken care of you for so many years, and now what is your idea of kicking me out, and going like that? Are you ungrateful? What kind of person are you.”

A hundred questions will come from inside. One by one, they will come. Finally, one questions comes: "It is a hopeless thing, a hopeless affair; nothing has come, and nothing may come, also." This trouble also may arise from inside.

It has to be clear what questions will arise. All of humanity has only two or three questions, but it appears to be manifold because of this prism of the ego which converts the issues into a manifold form, and then tantalises, and troubles you.

Place one image, and then keep two glasses on both sides. Then you will see millions of images reflected on both sides. Only one is there, but it looks like millions; likewise, only one desire is there, finally. But it looks like a hundredfold, because it passes through the ego, which is the peculiar medium that deflects a centrality of aspiration, and makes it appear as manifold.

Q: You have said that nothing exists outside; everything is in you. How can we convince ourselves that nothing exists?

SWAMIJI: Who are the "ourselves"? Where are they? You have again defeated your own self by saying, "Nothing exists outside, but I am existing." You have already asserted that you are existing outside, and then you say, at the same time, that nothing exists outside. Thus, your statement is self-contradictory. If nothing is outside, you also do not exist; then, why are you wanting to convince yourself? That means that you are still existing as an outside object.

You are, somehow, by the back door, coming to the same point. By the front side, you say it is not there; by the back side, I am here. So, what is the purpose? It is back-door entry. You close the door from the front, and behind you open it. This is what you are doing.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the two friends you have. Sometimes this man speaks, and sometimes that man speaks. You don't know what to make out.

Q: Yes, that is correct. That is the problem of life.

SWAMIJI: Two voices will be telling you two different things. Sometimes this looks all right, and sometimes that looks all right, according to your mood and requirement and the voice heard from within.

Q: But what is the solution? That is the problem.

SWAMIJI: Already you have given the solution. That which you want is everywhere; therefore, you are also there. Hence, you should not raise a question. If you raise a question, you are asserting your externality still, and then your assertion that externality does not exist gets defeated. The question defeats itself.

Q: Swamiji, what are those two basic questions?

SWAMIJI: The basic desire is to exist, but that existence is conditioned by various other associations. Survival is the basic desire. If survival itself is threatened, then other desires go, automatically. When a person is in water, and goes inside, will he ask for some profession, and a higher salary? Will he want a bungalow? Will he talk all that? He is inside the water. Then what happened to that desire for a bungalow, and salary, and all that? Why has it gone away at that time, when it was there previously?

That means the other desires are redundant, and auxiliary to the basic question of survival. You want to exist, and this basic instinct of existence, survival, has certain tentacles, ramifications, expressions: to possess things as much as possible. You need possessions, what you call wealth, generally. By the desire for wealth, you try to convince yourself that you are secure in this world.

People feel secure when their possessions are large. There is always a hunger for larger and larger possessions because of the feeling attached to it that it will be a great security for the person. If the possessions are not there, security goes. But, simultaneously, there is another feeling that this body will not survive eternally.

There are two desires simultaneously working: a desire not to die, and a feeling that death will take place certainly. Thus, there is a contradictory clash of feelings about one point.

Because of the feeling that death will not occur, we go on purchasing land, and putting investments in the bank, and then building bungalows, and having estates, and conquering kingdoms. Why do you do that, if the certainty is that tomorrow is the last day? The foolish feeling is there that tomorrow will not be the last day – "I'll survive." Who told you that you will survive? This is a jugglery of the mind.

If this foolish conviction was not there, nobody would do anything in this world. People are very busy doing all kinds of things, because they never think that tomorrow is the last day – it may be after fifty years. Simultaneously, there is a fear that death may come.

There is also a necessity felt by the ego to perpetuate itself. Self-preservation and self-reproduction – these are the two basic instincts. We want to preserve ourselves, somehow, by the accumulation of wealth, riches, and all that, as I mentioned to you. But the other feeling that one day death will come creates a fear in the ego, and so the ego wants to see that it continues; and it wants to continue in a very foolish way, through progeny.

That is why there is so much pressure of this particular urge. The desire to continue for all time is actually the pressure of eternity in you. The eternal masquerades in a wrong way in the form of a desire for progeny. And there is also a desire to see that you are secure; for that, another foolish desire is added to it by accumulating wealth, property, this, that, etc. So, two foolishnesses are there which catch hold of a person perennially.

The world is living an idiotic life, under the impression that everything is fine. This is why I do not want to talk about these matters. It has got further implications, so I told you briefly something in answer to your question. It is a very deep subject.

Visitor: Thank you very much.

Excerpts from: Higher Reality - Your Questions Answered by Sri Swami Krishnananda