Vyaptam yena characharam
pervaded by all that is moving and unmoving
Tat padam darshitam yena
that pedestal, that state was shown by whom
Tasmai shri gurave namah
to that glorious Guru, my homage.
Dhyaana mulam guror murtih
For meditation the Guru’s image (is worthy).
Pujaa mulam guroh padam
For worship, the Guru’s feet.
Mantra mulam guror vaakya
For a mantra, the Guru’s speech.
Moksha mulam guroh kripaa.
For liberation, the Guru’s Grace.
Namah Shivaya Guru-dev satchitananda murtyaye
Namah Shivaya shantaya nitradhritaya vedase
Akhanda-mandalakaram
unbroken, complete orb, having the configuration
Vyaptam yena characharam
pervaded by all that is moving and unmoving
Tat padam darshitam yena
that pedestal, that state was shown by whom
Tasmai shri gurave Namah.
to that glorious Guru, my homage.
Who has shown me to that state,
the meaning of the word That,
which is the solar orb permeating
all things moving and unmoving
unto that Guru, my homage, my prostrations.
Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils. With a relaxed mind, no strain. Only observe the flow. Breathing gently, slowly, smoothly. As you come to the end of a breath, let there be no break as you are approaching the end of a breath. Prepare your mind to continue the awareness. As you come to the end of a breath, immediately begin to feel the next breath. Your mantra or your favorite name for Divinity, let that be your only thought. Exhaling and inhaling, the thought flowing along with the breath. No break between the breaths. No break between the mantra thought and the mantra thought. Without breaking the flow, observe how the breath, mind and the name of the Divinity are flowing together into a single stream. Simply observe how the consciousness has become a stream. Observe the flow of consciousness. Continuing to observe the flow, gently open your eyes.
And I join my palms before my heart and I bow my head.
With all the love of the heart,
with all the power of action in the hands,
with all thought in the head,
I give you the love of the Himalayan Lineage
and I worship the Divinity that is within you.
God bless you.
God bless you.
Why is my respected brother [Swami Hariharananda] sitting over there? Swamiji, please. I can’t sit up there.
The sources and origins of the Himalayan Lineage. The Lineage speaks for itself by not speaking. Where there is speaking, the Lineage conceives itself. If you wish to connect with the Lineage, listen to no one, ask for no words, attend no lectures, read no books. Become like Swami Hari, who without reading, he knows. He is one Swami who doesn’t know anything. Do you believe that?
The world of realities in which you dwell and I dwell is not the world of realities. These are forms cut out of the fabric of formless Space. The only fabric of Space is akasha. The only fabric of the universe is akasha, empty Space, and this, it may be the Universal akasha, the Universal Space or chidakasha, the Space of Consciousness. There is no other fabric and all the rest are bubbles and ripples in this fabric, in this vast, incredibly vast, Ocean of Light, Ocean that is Consciousness, Ocean that is the Mind. On the fabric of the Mind, the Mind paints with the brush that is the Mind, with the pastels that is the Mind, paints a painting that is the Mind and renames itself the universe. On the fabric of Light, Light, the Being of Consciousness, holding the brush of Light, with the pastels that is Light, paints a painting. That painting is Light. The Light paints itself with a brush of Light upon the fabric of Light, and renames itself the world.
However many observatories may be put together to observe the extent and the span of the universe, multi-trillion light years – send your thought out – your mind stretches all of that way, and having traversed its own span, returns to dwell within the myth, returns to dwell within the myth that is called you. You are a myth, you and your notion and fear of death. And you are this Reality also that stretches out trillions upon trillions of light years, a vast Ocean of Light in which the currents of space flow, the currents and cross- currents of life, and all of this span of chidakasha, the Space of Consciousness, all of the span of oceanic fabrics of Light, all of this span of spaces heaped upon spaces, carrying within them the tributaries and the promontories and the streams and the rays and the ripples and the bubbles of life and forms. All of this span is contained in one Bindu and is contained in one Pinpoint of Light. The Pinpoint is too large to serve as an analogy for the minuteness of this Light, this Point of Light. All of us, you and I, these myths, all of these spans into which you have sent out your awareness and have returned to the myth called you, all of these pasts, stretching into multi-trillion light years, futures, stretching into multi-trillion light years; all of this is contained in that Tejo Bindu. Hence, we have the Upanishads: Brahma Bindu Upanishad, Nada Bindu Upanishad, Tejo Bindu Upanishad, opened(?) the secret teaching that reveals that one Pinpoint known as Brahman, that initiates us into that Pinpoint that is all of Light that has ever been, that now is, that shall ever be – all of sound that has ever been, that now is, that shall ever be.
This Pinpoint of Light containing Itself multi-trillion light years of times and spaces, containing Itself multi-trillion ishvara kotis, multi-trillion jiva kotis, multi-trillion god-head powers, multi-trillion soul-sparks, all dwells within Itself, by Itself in absolute, total satiety of completeness, plentitude, vastness, bhuma, completeness, perfection purnam – and within It, you vibrate.
This Pinpoint of Light contains within It all of potentialities, making It omnipotent sarva shakti mayam, the potencies of viccha shakti, jnana shakti, kriya shakti (the Power of Will, the Power of Knowledge, the Power of Creativity and Action), together with the Power of Revealing and the Power of Concealing. What It conceals remains ever revealed to Itself. What It conceals remains ever revealed to Itself. That Revelation becomes Grace: the kripa, the anukampa, the karuna. For this Pinpoint of Light is karuna niti, a Treasure of Compassion, trillions upon trillions of light years of the oceanic spans and depths and extents filled with Compassion, otherwise known as Love. That Love is Light. That Compassion is Love and Light. That Love, Light, and Compassion is Grace, the infinite Ocean of Grace.
Impelled by the power of Grace, this Pinpoint of Light bursts, for It can contain its Love no more, and this bursting stretches out, stretches out, stretches out and becomes the Cosmic Mind, yet the Point is not lost. The Ocean of Space is filled with Light, the Light which is the Mind, the Mind that is filled with Consciousness. Reduction in Consciousness is called Prakrti. Reduction in Consciousness is called Matter. This vast Mind filled with Consciousness is the Golden Womb of the universe, Hiyanyagharba, the Golden Womb. And inside the Golden Womb, the Beings who are being nurtured as fetuses are also golden, Golden Lights enwombed in Golden Lights. Golden Lights enwombed in Golden Lights. Golden Fetuses wrapped in the Golden Bless—(?), ——-(?) ——- (?) of the golden fluid of immortality and being nourished and nurtured upon that fluid, on that amrita. On That have we been nursed by our Mother. All of this that we have so far narrated is She and no other.
“Sarvam shakti mayam jagat. Eka evaham jagatyatra. Anya kastimamapara. I alone am in this universe. Who other than Me is this universe? Who other than Me are the deities? Who other than Me are the devas and the devis? Who other than Me are the beings of ishvara koti and of jiva koti? God-heads and soul-sparks are all of these. I am.” So says the Mother in our minds. I send my pleading for forgiveness to Mother, having said “our” minds when She has just said there are no many, only I am. I have erred in saying “minds.”
From that Pinpoint of Glory all the glories diversify all in one Mind, the first Universal Mind, Hiranyagharba, Samasti Chitta, otherwise known as Brahma the Creator, facing in all four directions, containing all Veda, all knowledge. Within this vast, immeasurable, unfathomable ocean of consciousness-filled mind, Hiranyagharba, the Golden Womb, the Golden Fetus, the Golden Placenta, the Golden Amrita, because of the impetus of Kriya Shakti, the power of creativity, whirls and swirls of energy begin to take place. Currents and bubbles begin to flow and rise. The Consciousness has not yet been so reduced that you should become matter and form. The Consciousness has not yet been so reduced that you should become matter and forms. The whirls and swirls in the vast Ocean of the Golden Womb Mind are alive with Life Force, with Consciousness, with chit shakti, carrying within them still the ananda, the Joy, the Bliss of Satiety, nitya trita. These are the First Beings. These are the Manasa-putras of Brahma, the Mind-children of the Mind-mother. These we know as formless, First Beings of Light, in a creation created without gender, filled with the Light of Knowledge, Beings of Light, filled with the Light of Knowledge, suffused with the Light of Joy, Love, Compassion, sending out and receiving waves and powerful currents upon currents of Grace as the ocean sends out currents from within itself. And they flow within it and they return within it. So the currents of Life and Consciousness and Grace flow in this Ocean of oceans. These are the Great Beings, the Brahma-rshis. Brahma-rshis, the first rshis that have emerged from the mind of Brahma carrying His knowledge, Her knowledge, Its knowledge. These are the first Mantreshvaras, as that Brahma, the Hiranyagharba, is the first mantra, the Maha-Mantra, the Mega-Mantra. So from within emerge these Mantreshvaras carrying the Light and the Sound, the Lords of Mantras.
The age and the size of a cosmos, the age, the extent and the span of a cosmos – and how many, who can tell? Who has counted how many Mind-cosmoses there are, there can be? Within these Cosmos-minds, the swirls and whirls and ripples and bubbles and currents and flows still continue forming little smaller ones. They are Deva-rshis, yet without forms that contain within themselves the seeds of the Five Subtle Senses nourished upon . . . .
. . . . the Celestial Fragrances, Celestial Lights to see, Celestial Sounds, Celestial Tactile Sensations, Celestial Tastes. The Consciousness begins to congeal. The Minds begin to congeal. The Light begins to congeal. The bubbles that had arisen as manifestations of space become the minute energy particles, and the subtler dance begins. And these little ones playing with each other, going around each other, swirling around each other, whirling around each other. How many?
The forms of the universe come into being, but these forms of the universe at the same time are Swirls of Light, are at the same time the Oceans of Space. There is no distinction between what is Space and what is contained in Space as there is no distinction between what is water and what is bubble, ripple, wave. As there may be ripples within a wave, bubbles within the ripple, so there are minds now within minds – you might say, less concentrated mantras just the size of solar systems and planets – little fetuses. Just as the force of a bubble is drawn from the ripple, the force of a ripple is drawn from the wave. The force of the wave is drawn from the tide and the current. And the force of the tide and the current is drawn from the entire sea. So also you live the myth of being you, the bubble. Know that the power of this bubble is only an impetus from a ripple. The power of the ripple is only an infusion from the wave. The power of the wave is only an emanation, Divine Incarnation, from the Ocean of Light, Space, Consciousness. And all of this yet contained in a single Pinpoint of Light. No one can count how many of these Angels dance on the point of a single sharp pin, how many universes, how many time frames and time layers.
The first whirls and swirls of the mind force, the first Beings, the first Manasa-putras of Brahma, the first Mind-children of the first Guru, Hiranyagharba, who is puruvesha adhi-guru, the Guru of the previous ones, and the preceding ones, and the preceding ones, and the preceding ones. When these mind swirls choose to be contained in a body made of congealed Light, when these Mind-swirls, Mind-children of the Guru-mind choose to dwell in a body made of congealed Light that has now become matter, these Beings are simply called the first rshis, first pitris, first Patriarchs in the Lineage of Knowledge. They may whirl and swirl within these human forms. They may whirl and swirl without these human forms. Without the human forms, they yet remain the Mantreshvaras, the Lords of Mantras, they yet remain the rshis, they yet remain the devas, the Celestial Ones. And if grace so impels, they may become contents of the body vessels and their whirls and swirls touch the tiny whirls and swirls of – I-make-ever-again – tiny whirls and swirls of our minds, like two whirlpools in the sea, little one meeting the larger one, the little one becoming the disciple, the larger one becoming, being the Guru who was always the Guru, contained or not contained in a body that was a painting on the fabric of Light, painted by Light with a brush of Light, with the pastels of Light. When that Guru-swirl just happened to touch the edges of our mind-swirl, that is known as the first initiation, the mantra that is our mind becoming, being pulled and sucked into the mantra that is the mind of the Mantreshvara, the Lord of the Mantras.
On any given planet, in any given solar system, universe, galaxy, cosmos, in this vastness of empyrean space, which with all of these whirls and swirls and pools and currents, still you will not accept what I say. With all of these tiny sub-photons, particles of light dancing, yet [She] remains absolutely still, remains absolutely serene. When the myths that are our minds know that nature of the Mother, then it is that the mantra has lead us into samadhi.
Close your eyes, and there is no whirl, no swirl, and all of this is contained in that one single Pinpoint of Light. These beings of Light on this particular planet chose the ancient forests to dwell in, mountains the highest to remind us of the altitudes of the Mantreshvaras, to remind us of their heights, their grandeur, the grandeur of this Light so thick that our tiny minds fail to penetrate it. Sometimes like a pin made of piece of wood trying to penetrate an object of steel, we sit on our meditation seats trying to penetrate into this solid Light which is also the Sea of Stillness and Serenity, which is total Knowledge, total Creativity, total Will, total Awareness, total Consciousness, Perfection Satiety. These Beings manifest themselves as Tejo-rashis, Heaps of Light, Heaps of Brilliance, wandering around at their own free will. Every now and then they reveal to us their glimpse, and we call that Initiation, we call that our energizing shakti-pata. In gratitude to that Grace we receive it, cherish it, resolve to nurture it, are nourished by it as a mother who was first a baby girl and was nourished on her mother’s milk, and passes on now in her full youth the same nourishment to her baby girl, so mother upon mother upon mother. These Beings, our mothers, rshis, wander around, sending to us streams of milk made with streaks of Light and with that of Silence. When these Tejo-rashis, in the history of this particular, just this one of multi-trillion cycles of creation and dissolution on this particular planet, embodied themselves, they became known by the eternal names: Agasthya, Bolaha, Kratu, Atri, Vashista, beings for whom the age of embodiment is no consequence. Therefore, Astyavakra, teaching from within the womb of the Mother.
Sanakaha, Sanandana, Sanatkumara, Sunatsujata, five-year-old quadruples teaching assemblies of rshis. And those who have eyes still see them wondering around in the holy places. Those who have eyes are still graced with their darshana, for their embodiment is of no consequence, just as their dis-embodiment is of no consequence. The whirls and the swirls of the Guru will continue to touch our tiny minds.
Again and again out of that vast, depthless, fathomless compassion they incarnate, incarnate and disincarnate. The patriya, the founder of the Mendicant Lineage, simultaneously the incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. The rshis of what we call the ancient past, still being born from Mother’s womb in our times and wandering the Earth, initiating and guiding, and guiding and touching, and suffusing our souls with that Divine Light, making us again into their Mind-children. And when embodied, the Soundless Sound becomes Word, becomes Scriptures, becomes Revelations, becomes the Vedas, and when we unite with It, we become the Yogins.
Those who have been initiated by the Lineage, let them not for one moment forget this connection of whom you are, whose disciple, whose multi-potent magnet has touched your feeble magnetic mind. Let us never cease to pay homage. What they have taught, when it is seen merely as a teaching, merely as a method, merely as a technique, the connection is lost. And then they have to come again and again and elevate the method and the teaching and the technique into what it’s [meant] for in its reality. The connection through these Tejo-rashis, Heaps of Light, though Reality-made, Divine Mind, all of which, with all of its divergences, having become as the rshi in the Rig Veda repeatedly said, “Vishurupa pavati, vishurupa pavati,” becomes manifest in many forms. All of that dwells in that single Pinpoint of Tejo-bindu. All of this play is happening within that Micro-point. The play is emerging within, is sustained within, is returned to dwell forever in Eternity, in Perpetuity, Perennially to dwell within that Pinpoint of Light.
As you walk your days, as you sleep your nights, dwell in that serene, ever absolutely still Point of Light of immeasurable magnitude.
May our Guru-deva, one of these great swells that touched our bubbles, not be disappointed in us that we have turned his teaching into a mere method rather than linking, surrendering, merging our little swirls into that of the rshis, the Vedas, the founders of Yoga, the founders of the Lineage. Let us remain connected. Dwell in that link of Light with Light, Serenity with Serenity, Stillness with Stillness. May the Lineage and our Guru-dev bless us all that this Vision becomes our reality and we be freed of our myths? and we may dwell in this reality.
God bless you, bless you.
I can take a few questions, if there are still questions.
Q: Last year at Guru Purnima, you mentioned that in our tradition, there are several schools, such as Buddhism, Christianity, etc. Within the school of Christianity, could you speak about the special case of Mary?
A: Mary, Athena, Isis, Tara, Quan-Yin, Dolma, Saraswati. Human beings have created, according to their surroundings, their prejudices, pre-conceived notions, mental forms, that which they call cultural symbols. Lotus, somewhere, Chrysanthemum somewhere, somewhere the Rose, or any other. When this Mother I spoke of, Who loves me as She loves you – “Mother wear a blue dress today.” “Mother wear that green sari that you wore three centuries ago.” “Mother, I haven’t seen you in white for a long time” – Mother, in order to please Her children, puts on the dress called Mary, whatever the Greeks called the clothing for Athena, or She puts on the Tibetan garb and becomes Dolma, puts on a Chinese face and becomes the twenty-one different faces of Quan-Yin which in India, among the Sanskrit speakers are the twenty-one forms of Mother Tara, becomes the Japanese for her Japanese children. And perhaps you may not know that Mother Mary in Kerala, which has twenty-one percent Christian population, wears a sari.
So Buddhist tradition and Tibetan tradition and…. [People ask,] “Swamiji what do you think of Paramahansa Yogananda and how do you compare the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda with Swami Rama?” Mother, to please her children, today put on this clothing, and tomorrow will put on some other clothing, and three thousand years from now, all the religions that there are on this earth at this time, their names even will be forgotten, just as the names of some very, very powerful religions that were prevalent fifteen hundred years ago, no one even knows today. But Mother will keep making her appearances and three thousand years from now, people will be asking, “What do you think of the tradition of Maitreya as compared to the tradition of our guru, or the prophet who…?” Maybe a new continent will appear where the Pacific Ocean is.
This is the universal view of your question. And in this tradition, for this reason, the lineage of renunciation, of sannyasa, the lineage of the philosophy of Vedanta, the lineage of Shankaracharya, the lineage of the great Sanskrit scholarship, the lineage of the Buddha as we are, in our lineage – and I speak repeatedly of this when I speak in the Buddhist countries. As my Master said the day he initiated me, he said, “We are preparing the way for the Maitreya Buddha.” Okay? All right? The West has mega-bubbles of questions. We answered thus. I told you yesterday how the Master answered my questions in the last seven years of his life. People laughed because they thought he was playing a big joke on me. But no, no. The answers were loud and clear. Let them who have ears to hear. . . . We have not the ears to hear silence.
It is this vast, infinite force, the mind-cosmos, ever vibrant, ever still – Tat tai jati, tan nai jati – that moves, that moves not at all, said the rshis in the Vedas. Tat tai jati, tan nai jati. It moves, vibrates, and it moves not at all and is ever still. Its vibrations touch the little swirl that has become embodied. From this congealed light, the body is formed. Of this congealed space, the body is formed. But the swirl of that mind-energy and light and consciousness remains ever vibrant and that current I speak of touches somewhere within, moves the prana, thereby moves the air, and becomes your breath.
To go back to that connection, start your entrance right where you have emerged from it into the world of forms and trace it back by the same pathway. Trace it back now. Just feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils. Let it not be your breath but an awareness of that oceanic current that in this form, is sending forth its rhythm through your embodied form. Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils. Let the Mantreshvaras, Lords of the Mantras, send forth a mantra with this stream. And as the waters from two streams mingle together and flow as a single stream, so let the mantra stream, breath stream, awareness stream, flow as one stream and let not the stream break anywhere. Resolve in your mind that for the next two minutes, there shall be no interrupting thoughts – only this stream. Make the resolve and begin now. . . .
Without breaking the flow, gently open your eyes. Resolve in your mind again and again to re-enter this stream, until you know your being as one with the Mantreshvaras, the Lords of Cosmic Mantras.
God bless you.
Editor’s Note
This is a transcript of a talk given by Swami Veda Bharati at the Institute of the Himalayan Tradition (IHT) Conference 2000 on July 22, 2000, at St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
