Truth, Peaceful Life/Mind, Solely in Consciousness
A man at peace with himself

    Living Peacefully

W. H. Davies

Leisure

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
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On Nature and simple Philosophy

From Here, there, for everyone

Atheists, profit from these ideas

Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization.
Persons who are led by the material conception of life do not know that the aim of life is realization of the Absolute Truth...and they are captivated by the external features of the material world, and therefore they do not know what liberation is. Persons who have no knowledge of liberation from material bondage are called ignorant materialists.
Unless the senses are controlled, there is no chance of elevation to the platform of knowledge, and without knowledge and devotion there is no chance of liberation.
By nature's own way the complete system of material activities is a source of perplexity for everyone. In every step there is perplexity, and therefore it behooves one to approach a bona fide spiritual master who can give one proper guidance for executing the purpose of life. Some literatures advise us to approach a bona fide spiritual master to get free from the perplexities of life which happen without our desire. wisdom therefore advises that in order to solve the perplexities of life and to understand the science of the solution, one must approach a spiritual master who is in the disciplic succession. A person with a bona fide spiritual master is supposed to know everything. One should not, therefore, remain in material perplexities but should approach a spiritual master.
Who is the man in material perplexities? It is he who does not understand the problems of life. "He is a miserly man who does not solve the problems of life as a human and who thus quits this world like the cats and dogs, without understanding the science of self-realization." This human form of life is a most valuable asset for the living entity who can utilize it for solving the problems of life; therefore, one who does not utilize this opportunity properly is a miser. On the other hand, there is the person who is intelligent enough to utilize this body to solve all the problems of life.
miserly persons, waste their time in being overly affectionate for family, society, country, etc., in the material conception of life. One is often attached to family life, namely to wife, children and other members, on the basis of "skin disease." The krpana thinks that he is able to protect his family members from death; or the krpana thinks that his family or society can save him from the verge of death. Such family attachment can be found even in the lower animals who take care of children also. Being intelligent, a human could understand that his affection for family members and his wish to protect them from death were the causes of his perplexities ...on account of miserly weakness, he could not discharge the duties.. A scholarly human, expert in all subjects of knowledge, is unfit to become a spiritual master without being a an expert in the science of consciousness. But a person born in a family of a lower caste can become a spiritual master if he is conscious.
If economic development and material comforts could drive away one's lamentations for family, social, national or international inebrieties, then man would not have said that even unrivaled riches on earth or supremacy like that of the demigods in the heavenly planets would not be able to drive away his lamentations. He sought, therefore, refuge in consciousness, and that is the right path for peace and harmony. Economic development or supremacy over the world can be finished at any moment by the cataclysms of material nature. Even elevation into a higher planetary situation, as men are now seeking a place on the moon planet, can also be finished at one stroke.
When the results of pious activities are finished, one falls down again from the peak of happiness to the lowest status of life. Many politicians of the world have fallen down in that way. Such downfalls only constitute more causes for lamentation. Therefore, if we want to curb lamentation for good, then we have to take shelter of consciousness.

...he would soon be free from the false lamentation resulting from family affection and would be enlightened with perfect knowledge of self-realization, or realized consciousness...

...the words stated here are not for any particular person, society, or community, but they are for all, and friends or enemies are equally entitled to hear them.

...you do not know that one who is learned--one who knows what is body and what is soul--does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition.

...it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both.

It is not that they did not exist as individuals in the past, and it is not that they will not remain eternal persons. Their individuality existed in the past, and their individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Therefore, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone.

...individuality of all will continue eternally..individuality is maintained on spiritual grounds

Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body; and since it is sure to have another body in the next birth--either material or spiritual--there was no cause for lamentation on account of death.
Any man who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul, the Supersoul, and nature--both material and spiritual. Such a man is never deluded by the change of bodies.
In the proper discharge of duty, one has to learn to tolerate nonpermanent appearances and disappearances of happiness and distress.

...in order to rise up to the platform of knowledge because by knowledge and devotion only can one liberate himself from the clutches of illusion.

Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation...the renounced order (sanyasis, monks, loners seeking Truth), is a painstaking situation. But one who is serious about making his/her life perfect surely adopts the renounced order of life in spite of all difficulties. The difficulties usually arise from having to sever family relationships, to give up the connection of wife and children. But if anyone is able to tolerate such difficulties, surely his path to spiritual realization is complete...That is the way of achieving liberation from material bondage.
There is no endurance of the changing body. That the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of the different cells is admitted by modern medical science; and thus growth and old age are taking place in the body. But the spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changes of the body and the mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit. By nature, the body is ever changing, and the soul is eternal. This conclusion is established by all classes of seers of the truth, both impersonalist and personalist.
The words existent and nonexistent refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth.

...to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time.

...Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.

The material body is perishable by nature. It may perish immediately, or it may do so after a hundred years. It is a question of time only. There is no chance of maintaining it indefinitely. But the spirit soul is so minute that it cannot even be seen by an enemy, to say nothing of being killed. As mentioned in the previous verse, it is so small that no one can have any idea how to measure its dimension. So from both viewpoints there is no cause of lamentation because the living entity can neither be killed as he is, nor can the material body, which cannot be saved for any length of time, be permanently protected. The minute particle of the whole spirit acquires this material body according to his work...
He who thinks that the living entity is the slayer or that he is slain, does not understand. One who is in knowledge knows that the self slays not nor is slain.
For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.
Stressed again: It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body.
For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.
Illusioned by the material energy, people are so engrossed in subject matter for sense gratification that they have very little time to understand the question of self-understanding, even though it is a fact that without this self-understanding all activities result in ultimate defeat in the struggle for existence. Perhaps one has no idea that one must think of the soul, and also make a solution of the material miseries.
he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any creature.
...either you will be killed in life and attain the heavenly planets, or you will conquer and enjoy the earthly kingdom (only if you do your duty). Therefore get up and live with determination.
Do thou live for the sake of living, without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat--and, by so doing, you shall never incur sin.
...individual souls. All these individuals are working in the material world for sense gratification, and under the spell of material energy they are thinking of being enjoyers. This mentality is dragged to the last point of liberation when the living entity wants to become one with the Lord. This is the last snare of illusion, and it is only after many, many births of such sense gratificatory activities that a great soul surrenders unto the Truth, thereby fulfilling the search after the ultimate truth.
In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.
Faith means unflinching trust in something assumed to be sublime. When one is engaged in the duties of Truth consciousness, he need not act in relationship to the material world with obligations to family traditions, humanity, or nationality. Fruitive activities are the engagements of one's reactions from past good or bad deeds. When one is awake in Truth consciousness, he need no longer endeavor for good results in his activities. When one is situated in such consciousness, all activities are on the absolute plane, for they are no longer subject to dualities like good and bad. The highest perfection of this consciousness is renunciation of the material conception of life. This state is automatically achieved by progressive consciousness. The resolute purpose of a person in consciousness is based on knowledge that the Truth is the root of all manifested causes.
In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, ignorence remains. This torments the individual.
As long as the material body exists, there are actions and reactions in the material modes. One has to learn tolerance in the face of dualities such as happiness and distress, or cold and warmth, and by tolerating such dualities become free from anxieties regarding gain and loss.
...to live with sence of duty without attachment to the result...nonparticipation in life is another side of attachment. Such attachment never leads one to the path of salvation. Any attachment, positive or negative, is cause for bondage.
he should concentrate the mind upon the supreme set goal by controlling the ever-disturbing senses...Those who want to enjoy the fruits of their work are misers.

...rids himself of both good and bad actions even in this life.

The wise, engaged in devotional service, take refuge in the Truth, and free themselves from the cycle of birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. In this way they can attain that state beyond all miseries.
When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard.
When your mind is no longer disturbed by the flowery language of attractive books, and when it remains fixed in the trance of self-realization, then you will have attained the divine consciousness.
when a man gives up all varieties of sense desire which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.
One who is not disturbed in spite of the threefold miseries, viz of Ignorence, Passion, and Goodness, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind...one who can agitate his mind in various ways for mental speculation without coming to a factual conclusion.
He who is without attachment, who does not rejoice when he obtains good, nor lament when he obtains evil, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge. One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge. The senses are so strong and impetuous that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them. One who restrains his senses and fixes his consciousness upon the Truth, is known as a man of steady intelligence.
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.
One who can control his senses by practicing regulated principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Truth and thus become free from all attachment and aversion. For one who is so situated in divine consciousness, the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such a happy state, one's intelligence soon becomes steady.
One who is not in transcendental consciousness can have neither a controlled mind nor steady intelligence, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
...even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence...one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.
A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.
A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego--he alone can attain real peace.
That is the way of the spiritual life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. Being so situated, even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of Truth.
On realization of truth: ...there are two classes of men who realize the Self. Some are inclined to understand it by empirical, philosophical speculation, and others are inclined to know it by work guided by faith in the Truth.
If someone takes to Truth consciousness, even though he may not follow the prescribed duties in a religion nor execute the devotional service properly, and even though he may fall down from the standard, there is no loss or evil for him.
One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.
Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work.
Work done as a sacrifice for Nature has to be performed, otherwise work binds one to this material world. Perform your prescribed duties for it's satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached and free from bondage. Be thou happy by this sacrifice because its performance will bestow upon you all desirable things."
Eat to sustain the body not for the enjoyment of food...a person delighting only in the senses lives in vain.
One who is, however, taking pleasure in the self, who is illuminated in the self, who rejoices in and is satisfied with the self only, fully satiated--for him there is no duty.
A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being. Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.
The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.

without desire for gain and free from egoism and lethargy, live.

Attraction and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings, but one should not fall under the control of senses and sense objects because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
It is lust only which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world. The living entity is covered by different degrees of this lust. Thus, a man's pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire. (While one enjoys sense gratification, it may be that there is some feeling of happiness, but actually that so-called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer.)
The 1)senses, the 2)mind and the 3)intelligence are the sitting places of this lust, which veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him...curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
Hierarchy: The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and the soul is even higher than the intelligence.
Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus--by spiritual strength--conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time Truth descend onto sentient beings.
One who knows the transcendental nature of Truth does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but the eternal abode of Truth itself.
Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Truth and taking refuge in it, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of it--and thus they all attained transcendental love for it.
One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every act is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker whose fruitive action is burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.
Such a man of understanding acts with mind and intelligence perfectly controlled, gives up all sense of proprietorship over his possessions and acts only for the bare necessities of life. Thus working, he is not affected by sinful reactions.
He who is satisfied with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not envy, who is steady both in success and failure, is never entangled, although performing actions.
Those who are interested in self-realization, in terms of mind and sense control, offer the functions of all the senses, as well as the vital force [breath], as oblations into the fire of the controlled mind.
Yoga: And there are even others who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to remain in trance, and they practice stopping the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and incoming breath into the outgoing, and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Some of them, curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself, as a sacrifice.
Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.
And when you have thus learned the truth, you will know that all living beings are but part of Truth--and that they are in Truth, and belong to Truth.
In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has achieved this enjoys the self within himself in due course of time.
A faithful man who is absorbed in transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.
Do not doubt the existence of Truth. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.
A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them.
The yogis, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence, and even with the senses, only for the purpose of purification.
Truth neither hates nor likes anyone, though it appears to.
When one's intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Truth, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of liberation.
The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle human, a cow, an elephant, a dog etc.
Those whose minds are established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of birth and death. They are flawless like Truth, and thus they are already situated in Truth. A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, unbewildered, and who knows the science of God, is to be understood as already situated in Transcendence. There is only nature or truth and nothing can be good or bad. "Nothing is good or bad thinking makes it so".
Egoism is the identification of the seer with the instrument of seeing: The seer is really the Self, the pure one, the ever holy, the infinite, the immortal. This is the Self of man. And what are the instruments? The mind-stuff, determinative faculty, the mind, and the sense-organs. These are the instruments for him to see the external world, and the identification of the Self with the instruments is what is called the ignorance of egoism. We say, "I am the mind," "I am thought," "I am angry," or "I am happy". How can we be angry and how can we hate? We should identify ourselves with the Self that cannot change. If It is unchangeable, how can It be one moment happy, and one moment unhappy? It is formless, infinite, omnipresent. What can change It ? It is beyond all law. What can affect it? Nothing in the universe can produce an effect on It. Yet through ignorance, we identify ourselves with the mind-stuff, and think we feel pleasure or pain.
We find pleasure in certain things, and the mind like a current flows towards them; and this following the pleasure centre, as it were, is what is called attachment. We are never attached where we do not find pleasure. We find pleasure in very queer things sometimes, but the principle remains: wherever we find pleasure, there we are attached.
Both happy and unhappy thoughts are called pain-bearing obstructions, because according to the Yogis, they, in the long run, bring pain. All happiness which comes from the senses will, eventually, bring pain. All enjoyment will make us thirst for more, and that brings pain as its result. There is no limit to man's desires; he goes on desiring, and when he comes to a point where desire cannot be fulfilled, the result is pain. Therefore the Yogis regard the sum-total of the impressions, good or evil, as pain-bearing obstructions; they obstruct the way to freedom of the Soul.
The 3 modes: of goodness, passion and ignorance are the qualities produced by material nature which conditions, this body of the imperishable living being. Of them, is the mode of goodness the purest; it illumines without reactions, and conditions with a sense of happiness the feeling for knowledge. Know that the mode of passion is characterized by desires, born from attachment and longing, that bind, o son of Kunt�, the one embodied to the outcome of the deeds in the past. The mode of ignorance is the result of a lack of knowledge; know it as deluding all embodied beings, binding them to carelessness, indolence and [more than six hours of] sleep.
...who, despite their development, do not hate the revelation [from goodness] nor the attachment [of passion] nor the illusion [of ignorance], nor desires to stop that development; one who, knowing that the qualities are acting, is never agitated by them staying the witness in continuing selfperception; he/se/it who equal in distress and happiness from within is equal about a clod, a stone or gold, who is the same towards what is desirable and what is undesirable and steady and equal under criticism and praise for themself; they who are equal in honor and dishonor and equal towards both sides of friends and enemies and is renounced in all their endeavors - are said to be transcendental to the modes. A person who unswerving renders service in devotion unto Truth - they, transcending all these modes of nature, will rise to the spiritual platform. For certain Truth is the base of the spiritual, the immortal and the imperishable, the original nature and the ultimate happiness.
Like conservation principles in physics the same can be said about consciousness. Consciounsess can neither be created nor anihilated into something not of type 'consciousness'

In this sense if soul is identical with consciousness then the old adage, "The soul is eternal", has relevance.
However, Truth (still) remains to be realized not merely "known"...