February 8, 2006

A doll made out of salt took a dip in the Ocean! Ego is like the salt doll. Once immersed in the ocean of bliss (GOD) it no longer exists. It is that easy. Just immerse yourself in God. You loose yourself in God. That is why Yogananda said, in Savikalpa Samadhi you loose yourself in yourself (meaning the ego self looses itself in the bliss of G0d). You remain as pure consciousness without the I-ness.

True spiritual growth is growth of consciousness.

If an enlightened Guru tookand unlightened soul to Savikalpa Samadhi, you would not understand or appreciate it because the unlightened soul has not had any expansion of his or consciousness. Once immersed in God, since the consciousness is not wide enough the soul is not aware or able to appreciate the pure bliss of God.

This is why, it takes many rebirths before the consciousness is wide and awake enough to get immersed in God and enjoy the bliss.

We can see there are many things that prevent us from reaching that state. The constant activities of the mind, intellect or buddhi and the chitta, mask or keeps the true identity of the ego hidden. Once the 3 things, mind, buddhi and chitta is silenced (the prana is automatically slowed or not moving at all at this point), then the ego has a chance of getting submerged in God. This is why and how Yogananda has said in his book “The Science of religion” – attention is the great director. This is why, he, Yukteshwar Maharaja and my Gurdev have emphasized on Pranayama and Yoga and called it the most direct method of reaching God. Control the prana, and the mind buddhi and chitta are stilled and then you can direct your attention to God and get immersed in God.

The second thing that prevents us from enjoying that bliss is that our conscioussness is not awake (except in the Gross physical world) let alone grown. God is all around us and everywhere but we do not experience it. This growth of consciousness to experience God everywhere and all the time (like Ramkrishna used to say when asked by Vivekananda can you see God and his answer was yes….very clearly more clearly than I can see you) takes a very long time. For this to be fully established, one must have mastered Savikalpa samadhi to such an extent that he or she can reach that state in a second and at will.