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Thought for the Day:
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Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati
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Everything Great is within Yourself
There is much more in You than You can Suppose
The Testament of the Common Man:
The heart says things deeper than
those that philosophy teaches.
The soul sometimes knows truths
higher than those the preachers offer.
The judge within us is superior
to the judge without.
We believe because something deep
in us intuits.
Everyone who hears of God seems
to be far more familiar with God than the person speaking of God. Our
age-old, unbreakable inner relations with God, show themselves in daily
life, not unoften.
We have greater affection and
love for the saint than sympathy for the sinner: in this we betray the
truth that everyone hides somewhere in himself a saint.
Our aspirations always go beyond
our needs.
On calm analysis we find our
strength is always greater than our problems.
Though one is not a Beethoven, or
even a music student, one can judge Beethoven, and easily distinguish
which piece of Beethoven is better.
Though one is not an Einstein,
yet one admires easily all that is admirable in science.
The All-Transcending Power within You
Whatever may be the most trying
situation you are in, there is Someone in you who is not involved in, and
affected by that situation. With His help you can easily transcend, and
fully conquer, all the heavy situations, trials, problems, difficulties.
You are troubled and very
unhappy. Who is it in you that knows that you are troubled, and very
unhappy? That Knower is Himself not troubled, and is not unhappy. He is
all-transcending, all-blissful, all-peaceful, all-powerful. Know this
all-transcending, unaffected, untroubled, all-happy Knower in you, this
Kingdom of God within you. A knowledge, an experience, of this supreme
Knower within you, grants you immense peace of mind, strength of will,
clarity of intelligence to see the way, and the power of wisdom, to
resolve your problems, difficulties, trying situations.
Reflect on this infinite,
all-transcending Principle within you, which is other than the mind that
is troubled, other than the body that is disturbed, other than the will
that is apparently helpless, other than the troublesome situation which is
the cause of the trouble. This transcendental Knower in you is the
storehouse of endless and inexhaustible powers. A knowledge of Him takes
away from you the excitement that blurs your vision, the unhappiness that
barricades your enthusiasm, zeal and determination to overcome the
resistances on the path of your fulfilment, peace, happiness, power.
(Extract from the brochure 'The
Solution to the Problems of Life')
Always, there is the Greater in You
Even while sleeping, though you
are unaware of your body and its condition, there is someone who is
observing your sleep and reports to you on your waking that you slept
well.
Even while dreaming, there is
someone in you who sometimes recognizes the dream to be a dream. Even when
you dream that you are dead, as it happens on some occasions, there is
someone in you that finds you dead, and witnesses your body being carried
to the cemetery. This transcendental principle in you is the source of all
real strength, power, peace, joy. All strength comes from above. Life
acquires enduring strength, beauty, joy, richness when influenced from
above.
Always, in every situation, there
is the higher in you. Not even a prison can limit the free operations of
your thought, or of your spirit, or of your love. No one and nothing can
imprison, or affect, or injure, a Soul. No tragedy is too much to be
borne. No joy is too great to be prized; for, there is always the inner
tendency to approximate oneself to the infinite Joy that is within the
Kingdom of God in you.
The higher in you, the
transcendental in you, is the Heaven that never fails, It transforms life,
it redeems existence. It divinises everything.
Like the horizons, your
aspirations always recede, and your knowledge always widens, for, this
must continue until the infinite Knowledge within you is attained. The
transcendental, the greater, the higher in you, makes you unconquerable
either by circumstance, or by time, or by space, or by any other thing.
You are invincible.
The Wondrous Nature of the Consciousness within
You
This omniscient Self is not born,
nor does it die. It has not come from anywhere, and it has not become
anything. Unborn, eternal, perpetual and ancient, this Self does not
perish when the body perishes. Birth is the process of the production of
an effect from a cause, and, hence it is the process of transient
becoming. For the same reason, death is impermanent and, therefore, both
birth and death are denied in the Self.
Ceaseless consciousness is free
from all kinds of change. Change is the character of phantasmal
presentations. Changelessness is the nature of the Self. This Self does
not come from anywhere, and it has not become anything else, because
coming and becoming are, again, transient processes. It has not ceased to
be itself. It does not decay or suffer diminution. It is the most ancient
and the newest of all. An object becomes new when its constituents are
changed and set in a different condition. The Self exists even prior to
and later than the newest of objects. It exists together with everything,
and also after everything. Nothing newer and other than the Self can ever
be produced. In other words, the Self is whatever is, was and will be.
Hence, it is indestructible. It neither kills anyone nor is killed. The
Self suffers from nothing. It is free from the experiences of the
world-process. It is formless or bodiless, and hence, relationless. The
Self is subtler than the subtlest, and larger than the largest. It is
situated as the central being of all. Free from thought and action, one
beholds it through the cessation of distraction and attainment of
tranquillity, and becoming sorrowless, rejoices in the glory of the Self.
It is the subtlest of all; because, it is the Essence in all. It is the
largest; because, it is limitless.
It is possible to know it through
the practice of constant reflection and meditation on its Nature, after
getting oneself freed from desires, and separating oneself from objects,
seen as well as heard of. As long as the mind shakes and the body gets
agitated, it is not possible for one to know this Self. Perfect satiety of
the mind, the senses and the body is necessary before one attempts to gain
the vision of the Self. Those who have got desires and passions are
prevented from the realisation of the Self.
Though immovable and the eternal
here, it moves far; for, it is everywhere. It is the formless in a world
of forms. It is the permanent among the impermanent. It is the great
omnipresent being by knowing which the seeker transcends unhappiness in
all its forms. It is not possible to know this Self through sheer
discussion, or operations of the intellect, and much study. It is attained
through a relationless immediate inner experience in which the Self is
both the subject and the object. A person whose conduct is not good, whose
mind is wandering, who has no peace within, is restless, cannot know the
Self. The Self is beyond all knowledge and power conceivable in the world.
Death itself is swallowed in it, and all processes are put an end to.
- Swami Omkarananda
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