The Crow, the Coconut and the Knowledge

[As Swami-ji begins this informal talk, a crow caws in the trees.]

Swami-ji: Kak-tali-niyai. Kak means crow. Tali – slap. Niyai – the form of understanding; justice. But these are just words.

[Swami-ji claps his hands.] You had no knowledge, yet you can clap your hands at the crow in the tree. You had no knowledge, but when one hand hits the other, something else, a third thing, is created.

[He claps his hands again, creating a sharp sound] The crow heard that and flew away. When he flew off, the coconut fell. And you picked it up.

So some of you are aware, have picked up this knowledge and have begun to follow this path. If it happened to you just because of chance information, or if it happens to you when someone begins to speak, it is the same thing. In this you have not to make efforts.

But you have been trained to make efforts. Because of this your consciousness cannot be at ease and is unable to simply grasp everything. You lose so much energy making efforts and you become strained. Once you’ve been trained this way, you have no choice but to grow through that, learning a little bit at a time.

But when I come, you have not to make efforts, I have not to make efforts. Gaining full brain power through meditation

In unhappiness you never grow. But with happiness your brain works. Why is this so?

With happiness your brain gets expanded.

The main goal for a human being is to gain full brain power. And meditation does it. In meditation, you have your attention on the words "Amaram hum madhuram hum, Amaram hum madhuram hum." But your attention is just on the surface level. So I say, "Relax." If you relax, your attention becomes more subtle, and during this period your brain expansion, your understanding expansion, takes place.

The sense of vastness, the sense of inclusion, the sense of no hatred for yourself – all this happens if your brain is fully used.

Children have not been born with a fully developed brain. But you have seen in our Satsang over the last 30 years that this development has occurred. You have developed and have become the purest of the pure. All the senses should be filled with that purity which we call Pure Being. You can watch how deeply you may be steeped in relative awareness, the awareness of much and less, much and less. But you are the Pure Being, unaffected by much and less. You are the purity: Tat Twam Asi.

[At this point, there is a long period of meditation.]

Before you open your eyes, feel that you are breathing in and out fully and introduce baahi or outer kumbak (stoppage of the breath) and aviyantar or internal kumbak. When the breath stops, we say kumbak. When you breathe in we say poorak. When you have taken in a full breath, we say aviyantar kumbak. Your stomach is like a jug. When you fill it with air and put the lid on it, it is kumbak.

You can plan a cycle of 12 kumbak times, using your fingers to count. [Swami-ji demonstrates a way of counting using the three segments of each finger.] On your four fingers, you have 12 segments. In between each there is a little ring (knuckle). In this way you can easily count even if you transcend. Breathe in and put your thumb on the first segment of the first finger. Release it and breathe out, and do kumbak outside. Then breathe in and put the finger on the second segment.

Sanyaas is the sense of unity with sat (truth). When your eyes are open, they see faces and forms, but they have no knowledge or power to know what is sat. We need to make a word for this and nyaas means near – close to sat. Your understanding , however, is always close to toes and knees and shoulders and forehead, never close to existence.

Since you are part of a serious, sincere and aware group dedicated to the upliftment of yourself , ask yourself why is it that the intellect doesn’t always work thoroughly. Everyone’s intellect is so crude and rough that it functions to cause agitation to you. Why is this? Once I told you that intellect has no knowledge yet it functions, just as the tail of a dog has no knowledge yet it functions. If intellect says "I", you say "I". So what is happening? That intellect is some power which is not known yet at the same time is known. You will say this is contradictory. You will ask, 'How can this be?' But the one who asks for non-contradiction is the one who can never be contradicted because that one is non dualistic. That one has no sense of more, no sense of less.

Your inner being is always seeking of the intellect that it should never change. But intellect says, "Well look, you have never given me that which never changes." So intellect can never give you that which is unchanging. It may give you a friend, half-intelligent. It may give you a wife, nagging but beautiful. But what is that which we saw in the person whom we see now as beautiful but who seemed hateful six months ago? What is that? The changing intellect!

Satyam shivam sundaram is the same as the Self. It means 'your existence'. One fine morning we were born. And since then we have been divided. One day we feel beautiful. Another day we feel knowledgeable. Sometimes you look truthful. Sometimes you look beautiful. Sometimes you look blissful. But satyam shivam sundaram is one word the way Self is one word and one meaning.

And so it is with sanyaas, sat-nyaas. Any time the intellect is drawn towards 'That' and says, "I am That," that is sanyaas. You are learning something which should be very useful every day of your life: That Thou Art. It’s enough for you to learn. Without it you can’t cook or eat or take bath. Tat Twam Asi.

I wanted to address your your intellect to the notion of lakshana, which means an indication, a symptom.

What do we mean by that? A dog comes. He has been sleeping. But to you he looks -- [Swami-ji makes a face of repugnance] [laughter] . So you get the lakshan, the symptom, that he needs a bath. Through symptoms we come to know who is realized and who is not.

The one who is aanand is neither up nor down, neither much nor less. Who or what in the world has this? A thing, a form, a river, sunshine can all have the qualities of 'much or less'. Everything which has much or less does not have aanand. And aanand is you. Thou art that. To lead your attention, which is always in the state of much or less, we say "unchanging." But the eyes can only see that which is much or less. So you ask me, "Swami-ji, tell me that which is not much or less."

And I answer, why would it be knowledge when it is seen as much or less? It is knowledge only when it does not see much or less! I think in a different way but you come to know my source.

So the symptom of the growth of intellect would be that it somehow changes its style of functioning. So you hear the words of guru-ji. And when he speaks, you transform your intellect, and that is sat-nyaasi.

The functioning of intellect is never gyaan. But in order to train people we say that one who is well-behaved is gyaani and one who is not is agyaani. What has happened now? Your concepts, formed on the basis of your intellect, are transformed. And you are the "I" who gets the knowledge of "I".

You are That. In order to get you diffused, unlocked from this individual "you", the spiritual people say, "You are That." And they say "That" is unchanging." And although you have a hope of knowing That, it still it does not happen.

[A dove coos in the trees above.]

Aatma gyaan (knowledge of Oneness) is not that gyaan with which you hear the dove or the sounds of other persons. No doubt this is knowledge, but it is knowledge of the things. And you want knowledge of "you." You want that which is unknown. And you are brave enough to venture on this path. You know you are supposed to be 'That'. But you’ve been trained to be 'This'!

In the spiritual field, people have advised you to look within where they say "I" exists. So you are seeking "I" in your head or behind your eyes. It is not written in the anatomy books where this "I" is. So where does your "I" exist? Everywhere. When I say this, your first concept of "I" is contradicted and you start to expand. What will happen? You will no longer call yourself a limited something.

So this investigation is called purusharth – making efforts to seek this "I". And it takes many incarnations to mature that. So practice.

The body becomes "I" when it awakes. It becomes "I" when you eat. Everybody has to say "I" and to guru they have to say "you." This is the natural system. So why is it taught that you should surrender to guru with all your tan (body), man (mind), and dhan (wealth)? Your I will remain "I" and guru will remain "you." But in aham (I) and twam (you), am is the source of both. Am – aham. Am – twam.

And in that, the kak-tali-niyai takes place!

To those who have not reached there we say, "Cultivate the qualities, cultivate the qualities." Unity consciousness does not belong to a human being. But because the human being is made of unity consciousness, he or she will one day wonder what unity is. Then pain will start. And he will come to know that the source of all is unity. But he cannot make the leap to think he is the whole. He thinks, "I am a part of the whole." There is nothing wrong with such a person - it is the system, the vehicle. When a person becomes miserable he seeks assistance. And if he seeks assistance from a guru, the guru will say, "Well you are living a split personality." Then questions and answers, questions and answers. Then ultimately, unity consciousness.

The gyaani (knowledgeable one) has so many papers and so many pens and so many books. The gyaani wants to think, "Guru or Self is within me." So he or she should see "me" within and meditate. The bhakti (devoted one) does not work like that. For the gyaani, life is full of questions and answers. For the bhakti, life is all in blessedness: He or she sheds tears in blessedness and smiles in blessedness.