Spiritual energy springs up
If somebody was proposing to use the waves as a source of energy, enthusiastic proposals would be put up and people would have to be highly critical of them, but they wouldn’t be furiously determined to disprove them. This is an example of emotional scepticism. Our teacher remarked that emotional scepticism is based on fear, and that devotion is a natural thing for man and if he pursues his spiritual practice he’ll find it springing up in himself.
Then energy appears – the spiritual process, after the depression has been overcome to some extent by devotion, releases energy. The next thing is rejuvenation, the physician of the gods who is a young man with these remedies for all illness and old age and all the defects of life. Rejuvenation, that is able to do something new. Normally, as our teacher said, the lives tend to become repetitive, but when this happens there is the capacity to do something completely new. There is a rejuvenation. He said this has nothing to do with the state of the physical body – the mind can be rejuvenated at any time. Then finally, immortality. What we would call now a sealed jar appears with immortality, and the gods remember the warning and they don’t clutch for it, and then the demons begin to fight over who shall have it. Then an illusion appears, and the demons become distracted by the illusion, because they become attached to it and in the end it is the gods that get the draught of immortality.
This is a story that is told in the Ramayana and in other places; and our teacher told us that this represents an inner process also, as indeed does the whole of the Ramayana. For instance, the poison is not a question of bad people necessarily showing the poison – it can appear at any time. When Rama is in exile, his wife and his younger brother volunteer to go with him, living in the forest. A magician shows the form of a jewelled deer and they see this going past, brilliantly shining. Lakshman recognises this is a magical illusion and says this. But Sita is captivated by it and says, “I must have it”; so Rama goes off and says to Sita “Stay here”. This is a very important word in this spiritual document. “Stay here with Lakshmana, and I will go and shoot the deer.” So he goes with the bow and arrow to shoot the deer and leaves Sita, his young wife and the younger brother, with the instruction, the injunction, “Stay here”. He shoots the deer, and as the magician dies he cries out in an imitation of Rama’s voice, crying out for help. This is heard by Sita, the wife and Lakshman the younger brother. She says to Lakshman, “Go and help him” and Lakshman says, “Even if the whole universe were to fight against Rama it could not prevail. This is an illusion.” Then the poison suddenly comes up in Sita, who is a paragon of virtue. She says, “You’re hoping to get rid of him, then you’ll claim me as your wife, but I’ll never become your wife.” Still Lakshman says, “No. I won’t listen to this. I’ll stay and guard you.” She says, “Probably you’re in league with the older brother Bharata to get rid of him.” So finally under this venom he can’t stand these false accusations and he goes off to help Rama. He draws an OM around Sita and says, “Stay here. Stay in this circle.” Rama Tirtha refers to this circle drawn by Lakshman in his notes. He goes to help Rama. Then the master of the magician, Ravana, appears and he persuades Sita to come out of the circle. She doesn’t stay there, she comes out. He seizes her and is able to take her away. This leads to a great war that Rama has to fight in order to rescue her.
We can say, “What is this story telling us?” There is an illusion, and she knows it is an illusion because Lakshman has said so, but she’s so captivated by this glitter that she takes it as real and says, “I must have it” – because the knowledge that it’s an illusion has no roots, and such knowledge gained from another person doesn’t have roots. For instance, I can say to someone who’s never seen the pyramids, “The stones are enormous, but they have cut little steps in them, and a reasonably active man can run up the Great Pyramid, or go up very fast. And the same with the second pyramid – the stones aren’t the same size.” I’ve seen them, I’ve been there, I’ve climbed them, so when I say this, the listener has knowledge. He knows it. But then he reads in a book, a reasonably active man can walk or run up the Great Pyramid. But to climb the second pyramid you have to have ropes. This too is knowledge and it’s accurate; but these two things are in complete contradiction about the second pyramid. One that you can go up it like the Great Pyramid, the other is that you need ropes. Both these in fact are accurate pieces of knowledge, but they can never have real roots in someone who’s not seen them. In actual fact the Great Pyramid the casing has fallen off and it’s irregular, its stones are now sticking out. The second pyramid is like that, the casing has fallen away and you can walk up these stones; but just at the top, the casing has been preserved, it is absolutely smooth, so you need the ropes for this last bit. So for someone who’s been there, these two bits of information are not in contradiction at all – you can walk up the second pyramid like you can the Great Pyramid. You can walk up the Great Pyramid, but you need ropes to go up the second pyramid. They’re both accurate, but when the knowledge is obtained from another, there would always be contradictions because descriptions can never be complete.
Titles in this series are:
1. Bhagavad Gita, Katha the Mundaka Upanishads
3. Spiritual energy springs up
The full talk is Seeking the Self
© Trevor Leggett