Swami Rama - Spirituality dawns when individuality vanishes

Swami Rama - It is not necessary to retire to a monastery to lead a spiritual life. We cannot escape from our inherent longings or postpone our utmost needs. In addition to the primitive urges for food, sex, sleep, and self-preservation, there is a higher urge to merge with God. We cannot be at peace unless that inherent divine urge is fulfilled.

We all want to experience the all-pervading, omnipresent God from which the entire universe, as well as each individual, has evolved. Direct experience of the truth that each of us originates from God, and ultimately will return to God, makes us secure, happy, and strong.

Today millions of educated men and women are suffering from a lack of purpose. Lacking also in self-confidence, young girls and boys have become victims of dissatisfaction and frustration. Along with a worldly education, we must provide some spiritual education.

Human beings have done research on three levels so far on mind, energy, and matter. Yet we have not found out a way to live in peace, to attain happiness that is free from all problems, pains, and miseries. We study this “ism,” and that “ism.” We go to this church and that temple. We seek advice from this swami and that other yogi. Yet, we have not found the way.

The whole confusion lies in the fact that we do not understand ourselves, and yet we introduce ourselves to others. We are strangers to ourselves yet we get married, have children, have homes, and claim to love others.

That training that helps us to attain a state of happiness free from pains and miseries, is missing from our daily life. Nobody teaches us how to look within, how to find within, how to verify within.

We are taught to know and see things in the external world, but this inner training and knowledge is missing. When we graduate with flying colors from colleges and universities, we find that we are still unsatisfied. The big questions about life still remain questions:

Who am I? From where have I come? What is the purpose of life? Where will I go from here?

Modern education helps us to understand and to be successful in the external world, the world of means. It doesn’t help us to know ourselves.

To know yourself, you don’t have to go anywhere. If you want to know yourself, you have to follow the path from the grossest to the subtle, then to the subtler, and finally, to the subtlest aspects of your life. You have to search for yourself, because religions do not fulfill this need.

I am not telling you not to follow your religion, or not to believe and trust in your religion. Often religions do not answer certain vital questions of life. Religions tell you what to do and what not to do, but religions do not tell you how to be.

No matter how many temples and churches we build, nothing is going to happen unless we accept one principle—that the greatest of all churches and temples is the living human being.

The scriptures say: "The greatest of shrines is the human body. Look within and find within. There His Majesty dwells in the inner recesses, in the inner chamber of your being." The day you come to know this, you will be happy. To believe in God is not a bad thing. It is a very good thing, because at least you have faith; but you should not forget that God is within you.

As a part of our educational training, we must define spirituality in its most precise and universal terms. Spirituality means that which helps us discipline our thoughts, speech, and actions, that which leads us toward the center of consciousness, and thereby unfolds our inner potentials.

Education based on such spiritual guidelines will help humanity to become self-reliant, confident, and active in the external world. At the same time, it will enable humanity to broaden its world view, and to become inward to search for the perennial Truth. Only a spiritually based education can bring harmonious balance to our external and inner lives.

Knowledge of theories that prove the existence of God is not as important as learning to discipline oneself, so that God can be experienced directly. Children should be taught how to sit quietly and make their minds one-pointed. Through their calm and one-pointed minds, children can obtain a glimpse of true peace and happiness. We need not force them to believe that there is a God; however, we should provide them with the opportunity to unfold their inner potentials, gain confidence, and become inspired to search for God, according to their own inner tendencies and backgrounds. Children need to cultivate divine virtues within themselves.

That which is purely physical has its limits, like the shell of an egg. Spirituality has infinite horizons and limitless freedom. It is full of knowledge and perennial light, life, and delight. When one is completely detached, one realizes oneself in a wider and deeper relationship with the Universal Being.

When ego becomes aware of something that is higher than ego—the individual spirit, or soul—then spirituality dawns. Spirituality dawns when individuality vanishes.

Swami Rama discourse - At the dawn of spiritual enlightenment

Swami Rama - Through self-analysis you come to know that you are not only a physical being, you are not only a breathing being, you are not only a sensing being, and you are not only a thinking being. You have a body, breath, senses, and mind, but you are something more than this.

People continue to build shrines, chapels, churches, and temples. You don’t have to do this, just realize that you are a living shrine. The day you have attained the knowledge that the Lord lives within you, you will be in samadhi. All questions will be answered, all problems will be resolved.

As you progress in the practice of meditation, the mind becomes one-pointed and calm. Such a tranquil mind begins working in accordance with the intellect. No contradiction remains between the functions of mind and intellect. The impurities of mind, such as doubt and conflict that usually pollute the intellect, are removed from the mind. Intellect is no longer disturbed by the activities of the mind, and you experience an extraordinary inner peace.

Intellect is described in the scriptures as a mirror that is in very close proximity to Atman. As long as the mirror of intellect is clean, it reflects the clearest and least distorted vision of Atman. If the intellect is colored with the thoughts and feelings of the lower mind, it presents a distorted picture of the Atman. According to the Upanishads, one should remove all the impurities from the mind, and make the mind free from all doubts and conflicts, so the intellect can be as pure as crystal.

An intellect free from the influences of the lower mind finds itself in a well balanced state. Only such an intellect is capable of making an aspirant self-confident and self-reliant. Through such an intellect, the meditator knows that the goal of life is not far away.

An intellect free from the disturbances of the lower mind attains the illumination of the Atman from above. Darkness belonging to the realms of mind and senses cannot exist in the light of an illumined intellect. In the absence of all thought constructs, the lower mind merges into the intellect.

When intellect is absorbed in the Divine Light, that is the state of samadhi, the state of fearlessness and immortality. As long as one takes refuge in worldly objects, the body, pranic energy, and the forces of the lower mind, one remains a victim of old age, death, and rebirth.

When the intellect is fully illuminated by the light of the Atman, one becomes fearless. At the dawn of spiritual enlightenment, the mind and the intellect find their place in the kingdom of Atman, and one thereby attains freedom from the pairs of opposites such as pain and pleasure. This is the highest state of freedom.

When an individual learns to expand his consciousness or unites with the universal consciousness, then he no longer remains within the bounds of his karma. He is totally free. You should do your duty in the world with love, and that alone will contribute significantly to your progress in the path of enlightenment.

One who dwells in the domain of the Atman does not belong to a particular family, society, or nation. Rather, he is part of all of humanity. He loves the welfare of all, as much as he loves his own Atman.

Swami Rama on Yoga - What is Yoga; is it a religion?

Swami Rama briefly explains the meaning of Yoga in this video.

Swami Rama on time for Meditation and Modern Men

Swami Rama: "Modern man has a problem. He always complains about time. I don't have time. You don't need so much time. You have time to go to bathroom for your ablutions. You have time to eat. You have time to gossip. You have time to talk. You have time to cry, laugh, and do many things. How come you don't have time to sit in meditation? It's a dire necessity."