October 11, 2024
All the scriptures that have been handed down to mankind are maps of Life. The problems dealt with are problems that we face every day: sorrow, grief, disappointment, confusion, attachment. What are they? How do they arise - that is, what are the internal causative and contributory factors? A knowledge of the answers to these questions might enable us to deal with these notions and emotions without inviting them, succumbing to them and thus aggravating them.
Defeated, disowned and disgraced by kith and kin, a king and a trader sought the counsel of a sage. They were unhappy, but they kept affectionately worrying over the unhappiness of their kith and kin! Mysterious is mind. Do we love to be unhappy?
Is it possible to look at unhappiness, sorrow and attachment without blaming others or even oneself, and discover what they are made of (just as the substance of the objects seen in the mirror is mirror or glass)? All experiences arise within us; hence we should learn to look within. Three factors obstruct our vision: (1) Pure undivided awareness (or: God-realization, witness consciousness, choice-less awareness, observation without an observer, self-knowledge, Christ-consciousness and so on) is 'asleep'. In the absence of Self-knowledge, 'the other' is experienced as real, and (2) our mind and senses pursue pleasure and thus wallow in the impure divided consciousness. (3) When the reality of inner experiences and so on is sought intellectually - hence, vainly - there arise sophisticated distractions - the noble pursuits of philosophers (and scientists), priests and politicians!
In the three episodes of The Devi Mahatmya we are given a graphic teaching of how to deal with these three so that we might be able directly to become aware - choicelessly - of the stuff of consciousness. Such awareness itself is the destruction of distractions and the realization of the un-pollutability of the undivided essence. It is the instant ending of sin and sorrow. There is natural holiness. All life is recognized to be already divine. The mind and the senses are sanctified by the 'touch' of the divine; they are incapable of diabolical activity and evil vanishes from their view. The entire universe is realized to be the expansion of chit-shakti (the power of consciousness - the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotence of God). We are all one in Him. This is Love.