Reminiscences
Reminiscences of Sargachhi SRIMAT SWAMI SUHITANANDA JI
(Continued from previous issue. . .)
64
September 2021
6.3.61
The Vedanta Kesari
16
Question: The ego projects mind and intellect, they in turn create the vital force, and the vital force builds the body. But in that initial stage how can mind and intellect have any propelling samskaras, as they don’t have any previous experience? Maharaj: It is precisely for this reason it is said that Prakriti is beginningless. There was no starting point at any time. The trees and plants, the tigers and bears that you see in dream, do they truly exist? Similarly, this world has never existed. This Prakriti is perceived only when we look through Maya represented by time, space and causation. But none can understand what is Maya, what is its origin, or what is its cause. Maya is just a statement of fact. That is why it is said that ‘the world has never been; it appears to be so.’ When the medium disappears, the world too vanishes. It is as if the saguna lies beside the nirguna and creates various beings within itself.
The secret of work lies in giving the responsibility of work to someone else, who in his turn cannot work unless he has a sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’! Don’t you see the plan of God? Every being toils his utmost under the impression that ‘this is my room’, ‘this is my house’ and t’his is my wife’; and He simply
silently watches how His work is going on smoothly.
Shankara describes our perception of the world as Jaata iva “as if it was born.” This makes the Vaishnavas very angry. They retort ‘That sparklingly energetic person (i.e., Chaitantadeva) danced and wept in ecstacy, and this man (Shankara) says, ‘as if he was born’? At first even I couldn’t accept that axiom of Shankara. Only later on did I comprehend his view. The observation is valid because an Avatar perceives that he himself doesn’t do anything; only the machine goes on functioning. During the terminal illness of Sri Ramakrishna, many didn’t give any importance to his disease. Almost all belonged to that group. It’s only because Swamiji was there that his treatment was arranged. The incident of Hari Maharaj denying his illness is a different matter. He declared it in the spirit of नैव किंचित्करोमीति (Gita. 5:8), “I do not do anything.”
As long as I feel that I am a jiva, I experience happiness and misery as a consequence of my past actions. When I accept Vishishtadvaita or qualified monism, I see the will of the Lord in everything. But when I ascend beyond this stage, I find that there is no action or inaction, no inclination or disinclination.
The author, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, presents here his conversations with Swami Premeshananda (1884-1967), a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.
