Vibration, Form and Colour

Phálgunii Púrńimá 1956 DMC

Published in:

Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 4 [a compilation]

Bábá's Grace [a compilation]

Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 3

Notes:

official source: Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 3

this version: is the printed Subháśita Samʼgraha Part 3, 2nd edition (according to copyright page), 1992, version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition. Words in square brackets [[ ]] are corrections that did not appear in the printed version.

The Bábáʼs Grace chapter “The Pond and the Pot” is an abridged version of the middle portion of this discourse.

The Bábáʼs Grace chapter “Offering of Colors” is an abridged version of the last portion of this discourse.

(1) Todayʼs discussion will be on “Vibration, Form and Colour”.

Vibration

(2) From where does vibration come? Whenever an action takes place, its character is established by the nature of its waves and these waves are but vibrations, flowing through different channels. The relative transposition of objects is what we call action. And this is why every action has vibrations due to its movement. Just as action is of many varieties, so is vibration. Every action has its own vibrations. The vibrations of two actions are not identical. Had they been so, there would not have been any difference between the two actions. Vibrations occur according to the shock that emanates from a cardinal point, according to the type of action that takes place at that fundamental point. Have you ever thrown a stone into a pond and seen the result? According to the velocity or strength you apply of that stone, its vibrations also differ accordingly in wave-length and character. Here one more thing should be clearly understood and that is that the cause and controller of these vibrations also imbibes vibrations: it is also a vehicle of energy and not an inert, passive entity.

(3) I will give you a good example of vibration in human body. Take, for instance, the case of anger. A great impact of a shocking provocation has taken place in your mind, as the result of which a great vibration or agitation has seized a particular portion of your brain. The next moment that agitation runs from your brain to your whole body through your nervous system with lightning speed. Then it can be understood that a paroxysm of rage has taken possession of your mind. As the result of this violent vibration in your nervous system, your face gets red and hot and your hands and feet tremble. None of your sensory or motor organs, particularly your motor organs, can function properly and your words become jumbled. Those who stammer a little in their speech, become conspicuously more stammering. Peopleʼs judgment and intelligence with which they keep mean propensities in check, become dulled by the impact of these violent vibrations. A furious man, regardless of place, time and person, resorts to wilful and indiscriminate vituperation. As an aftermath of this excessive physical and cerebral excitement, his brain becomes hot. He cannot think whether for right or wrong. His body and his internal glands begin to feel limp and depressed. His appetite forsakes him. Does it not happen like this?

(4) Since in every action and in every entity there is vibration, human beings receive tanmátras (sensible or ultrasensible inferences) with the help of the vibrations emanating from an action as soon as it is performed, or from the presence of an object. Actually these vibrations themselves are tanmátras, for they carry the subtle, characteristic essence of an action or object and convey it to the sensory organs. Then again the vibrations of tanmátras of a sight or a scene which may sometimes be created by the motor organs, are received by the sensory organs of the perceiver. The various vibrations that we encounter in the world are divisible into five main tanmátras: sound, touch, form, taste and smell. We perceive them with the help of our sensory organs.

(5) The perception of the difference in tanmátras is due to the differences in the vibrations, without the senses of sound, touch, etc. would lose their distinctive features. The vibrational lines in a record are made in a special way. When you bring into play those mute vibrational lines with the phonograph needle, a stir in the atmosphere is created which is but the reappearance of the original vibrations, the vibrations of sound waves, not those of touch, form, etc. That is why you hear the voice of the original reciter or singer, or the sound of the instrumentalists. As the form-waves were not recorded in the record, you cannot visually see the forms and features of the instrumentalists during their performance.

(6) There is a sweet smell in the flower but it would have appeared odourless to you, had not the smell-tanmátras or waves been carried to the gates of your nose by the aerial vibrations. Then again you could not have sensed the existence of the airborne fragrance, had not sympathetic waves been created in your afferent nerves upon their contact with the fragrance-carrying breeze. Similarly you would not have sensed the sweetness of a delicious sweet, inspite of its contact with a particular region of your tongue, had not that contact created a particular type of vibration or sensation in your afferent nerves by means of your taste-organ.

(7) The distinctiveness of vibrations or waves does not end here. After the contact of different types of things with the tongue, different types of contractions and expansions occur on different portions of the tongue and palate, as the result of which their respective vibrations are also different. It is because of these vibrational differences that chilli tastes pungent or hot, sugar tastes sweet and margosa tastes bitter. The interesting aspect of this is that we sometimes become confused and cannot distinguish one object from another if their vibrational differences are less. Such confusion sometimes arises between honey and molasses, among the seeds of tomato, chilli and brinjal, and between a genuine diamond and a fake diamond. In individual life many of you must have noticed that water tastes a little sweet after taking neem. Chemically, there is not very much difference between bitterness and sweetness. By the vibrational influence of the hydrogen in the water, the bitter vibrations of the neem are turned into those of sweetness and we think that the water is sweet.

(8) All that is comprehensible and graspable in the world is but a vibrational play. Just as the tanmátras of sound, touch, form, taste and smell are creating vibrations in our nerves by coming in contact with the gates of our sensory and motor organs, so our mind, being also similarly vibrated by these vibrations or waves, goes on transmuting the citta (mental plate) into the same forms of these waves. As a result we “see” elephants and horses, “hear” Puravi and Bhaeravii rágas, “touch” hot and cold, “taste” bitter and sweet and “smell” shiulii and rajaniigandhá flowers.

(9) Now consider this vast universe. What is the characteristic of this universe? The universe is the psychic manifestation of the Macrocosm: His mind stuff is the universe, which we call the visible world. How did this Brahmic Citta come into being? The Citta is the static result of mental action. The apparently static or stationary entity that comes into being, as opposed to those entities influenced by the sentient (sattva) and mutative (rajah) forces, is created by the static force (tamah) of Prakrti – which, whether it is original or born of saḿskáras (past momenta), is nothing else but citta. The characteristic of the static force is to give form, to create or evolve resultants, to bring inertness or staticity. So citta, the resultative place of he mind, is dominated by the static force and takes the form of objects in the external world or objects created by the mind.

(10) Wherever there is form, it is of momentary duration and of limited demarcation. The same holds true for the Cosmic Citta also. Hirańyagarbha or the Subjective Entity of the subtle Cosmic Mind is superlatively vast and in this way evolves the different fundamental factors. So His mental plate is also limitless, but however great its manifestation, it does have a shape. There is an aura of thought-waves revolving around the Cosmic Nucleus or Puruśottama, the nucleus of the Saguńa Brahma, as the result of which energy particles are created. The five fundamental factors – ethereal, aerial, luminous, liquid and solid – are the sequential metamorphoses of these energy particles, so this quinquelemental cycle is the resultant of the Cosmic thought-cycle; but this thought-cycle, too is the resultant of pure consciousness. Every revolution of that cycle is the playful manifestation of Prakrti that produces vibration sometimes in consciousness, sometimes in thoughts, sometimes in energy and sometimes in the so-called inanimate objects. This though-cycle, evolved in the Cosmic Nucleus, Puruśottama, is what is called the elliptical universe. All revolving material objects are controlled by both the centrifugal (avidyá) and centripetal (vidyá) forces; and as a result their totality looks somewhat elliptical. No matter how enormous the Cosmic Cycle is, it appears to be elliptical and thus it is called Brahmáńdá (Brahma or Supreme Entity: plus ańd́a or “egg”). Within the Cosmic Cycle every entity represents a different vibration; those small or great cycles, which revolve in a concordant harmony, keeping intact all their rhythms and tempos, are all modulated and attuned to the vast universal vibration. Their microcosmic individual waves find their self expression and development in that very vast universal vibration.

(11) How did this elliptical universe come into being? The Cosmic Citta is the material cause of the world. But the mind stuff or citta finds expression or takes shape only when it comes in contact with psychic vibrations. So we may say that universe is the manifestation of the Cosmic Citta, born out of psychic vibrations. All the tanmátras of sound, touch, form, taste and smell that are composed of different kinds of vibrational currents resulting from the gradually crudifying expressions of the Cosmic Consciousness under the influence of the static principle of Prakrti. They are the analytic expressions of those universal rhythms or vibrations. Thus the visible world is created through the gradual crudifications of His thought-projection. The thought-waves, metamorphosing from subtle to the crude manifestations and then, on their way back to their nuclear origin from the crude to the subtle, assuming the mentally developed human form, are indeed guiding the thought-wave cycles towards their ultimate fulfilment. Since the world is His thought-projection, it may be said that this visible world is only His act of thinking and abides only in His imagination. Due to the vibration of Cosmic Citta these variegated forms have blossomed forth through newer and newer thoughts, forms and waves, following one another in succession.

(12) What is imagination? It is psychic action or saḿvedana. Every action or sensation is vibrative. This universe which is created as the result of the saḿvedana of the Cosmic Mind, must move in accordance with the vibrational law of the thought-process. The internal expression of the five tanmátras takes place in the individual mind in a vibrational flow. Similarly, the vibrations of the Cosmic Mind, also create the tanmátras which the unit entity receives or holds with its own sensory and motor organs and its práńendriya. (The five vital airs, e.g. práńa, apána, samána, udána and vyána). The unit entity receives from the outside world the various tanmátras which pulsate in that very universal life.

(13) What is the nature of this visible world? Each and every object is moving; none is immobile. Not a single entity in this universe is stationary. All are progressing, for none can be static even for a fraction of a second. Whether the mind likes it or not, whether the soul wants it or not, one has to run after things to come, leaving the present behind – this is Prakrtiʼs inexorable course. No matter how dear a person may be to me, I cannot hold that person for ever. Death with its outstretched powerful fangs is fast approaching to snatch my dear one away from me with its vicious grip. No finite entity is capable of thwarting its onslaught, for all finite entities are subject to time and Máyá. Only the essence of all His evolved entities – His characteristic Self that remains as the unexpressed witness of all is supratemporal, beyond the orbit of time. The real awakening of any entity depends on its ability to realize its characteristic self, and in such a state of awakening, the question of station or motion, progress or regress does not arise.

(14) I have already said that relative transposition of objects is action. An action imbibes motion, rhythm and vibrations, and out of these vibrations flow the tanmátras. The vibrations which are excited in the mind through the intake of tanmátras corresponding to oneʼs vrttis or particular bent of mind, will be just opposite to those created by tanmátras, which do not correspond to oneʼs particular vrttis. The former will be pleasant and the latter will be painful. Generally the easier the intake of the impact of vibrations, the more pleasant is the effect and the more difficult the vibrational intake, the more painful or sorrowful is the effect. So the vibrational state in which the citta seeks to remain is called happiness (sukham) and that in which it does not want to remain is called grief (dukham). Even when the object of happiness or sorrow that comes to us as the result of the past reactive momentum of our previous lives, creates any great vibration, we are very often incapable of receiving it at all. Finding someone in such a serious predicament, we say “The manʼs mind has received a serious shock. Will he be able to endure it?” At times, as the result of a great shock and due to extreme tension in the nervous system, a person may even die of heart failure. Suppose someoneʼs dearest relative has died. Naturally, this news will give her mind a great shock. If her mind possesses even a little strength to check the inroad of such a vibration, she will be able to bear it. We call a person “tough” who has greater power of resistance and endurance. Even if a person who lacks such power of endurance survives, even if her heart does not stop, her mind will readily stop functioning. We then say that the woman has become unconscious or is in a coma. Hysteria in women with weak minds and nerves is due to some extent to this vibrational shock; but we call it a disease, for here the weakness is rather excessive.

(15) Similar is the impact of happiness. This shock is also not easy to endure and absorb. If an abjectly poor man suddenly receives a lakh of rupees, the strong vibration of the news that arises in his mind, will violently agitate his whole nervous system. Such a highly vibrative news may even put an end to his life for his limited strength may not be able to bear such vibrational waves. Suppose while your mother is taking her dinner, you receive the news of her fatherʼs death, a great vibration will arise in her mind. If she is informed of this news suddenly, her limited strength may not be able to endure that violent vibrational force. In such a case the news should be disclosed to her gradually, by slow degrees, so that her mind will be able to gain sufficient strength to withstand the vehemence of that vibration. You may start with, “No news from grandpa for quite a long time. I wonder how heʼs getting on.” On hearing this, an ominous, premonitive vibration will arise in the corners of her mind but even this you should say after her dinner is finished. Then after a while, you may add, “Maybe grandpa is very ill and that is why there is no letter.” This will further strengthen her mind. Then you may say, “Perhaps he is no more. No wonder, he was quite aged, wasnʼt he? But indeed his life is so precious to us.” At last you break the news slowly and cautiously.

(16) The power of enduring different kinds of vibrations varies in the same person in different conditions. So you should never suddenly break any news of great joy or great sorrow to anyone. First prepare the ground – create the right atmosphere for the mind and then bring the news to their knowledge. If you can gradually create the right type of waves, the strength to withstand the strain of the vibrations will come by itself. Thus, you should first tell the poor man “If you get a hundred rupees, what will you do with the money?” Then you give him a stronger dose: “If you could get a thousand rupees in a lottery, what would you do with it?” In this way you go on creating more and more pleasant vibrations in his mind – you go on habituating him to greater and greater shocks of happiness, and then at last you tell him he has won a prize of a lakh of rupees in the lottery. You will then see that as a result he can maintain his mental balance to a great extent.

(17) The stamina to stand vibrations differs in different people. Hence various degrees of happiness or sorrow are experienced by different people, and these differences depend on their respective mental constitutions. The subtle causes of these different mental constitutions are their acquired saḿskáras or reactive momenta, and the crude causes are their nerve cells, nerve tissues, glandular secretions, etc. The sudden vibrational impact on the body and mind makes the mind react violently, resulting in the cessation of the cardiac functions. This also explains the death of a person struck by lightning. The sudden contact of the eyes with an extremely dazzling radiance often results in the total impairment of vision. If we look directly at the brilliant sun for a few moments, our visual power becomes temporarily stunned and we cannot see anything for some time. Similarly, when some very high pitched or loud sound strikes the eardrum, the power of hearing may be destroyed. The sensitivity of every organ may be suspended by the impact of any violent vibration; this stupefaction, if the intensity of the vibrational impact is very great, may even become permanent. Yet sometimes powerful vibrations may help stimulate and restore the power of organs which have not been functioning for years. You must have heard of a person who had been blind or deaf and dumb since his childhood, regaining the lost power of his impaired organs in his latter years either by stroke of lightning or by being suddenly informed of an extremely happy or sad news.

(18) In this visible world you receive tanmátras in accordance with your strength and ability. When the tanmátric vibration is more powerful than your strength or capacity, you are unable to receive it. Similarly, when the vibrational momentum is more slow and slack than your power of perception, you cannot receive it either. If people whisper in a soft voice, you cannot hear them – there you become deaf. Then again, if there is a very loud noise somewhere nearby, you cannot hear that either, for your hearing has been stunned – here too you are deaf. Your system may easily endure petty mental afflictions and in that case you do not cry before people. Then when you are filled with extreme grief you become so dazed and bewildered that in this case, too, you do not cry before people. You have seen a child suddenly stops crying in the midst of intense suffering. We call it “choked in crying”, for the child is unable to endure the violent sorrowful vibrations. You can tolerate a small pain with a smiling face and people cannot detect your hurt. An intense pain stuns you into unconsciousness and then, too, people are not aware of it. You are able to utter pathetic cries of “Ah” and “Oh” only in the intervening state to embellish your plight.

(19) You cannot perceive the essences of ultra-subtle and ultra-crude entities: it is beyond your mental capacity to receive their vibrational waves and that is why, you cannot normally detect their existence. There are many birds and reptiles that can receive the premonitive vibrations of an event before its actual materialization. A frog detects the pre-indication of rains long before many other living beings do: it catches the premonitory vibrations beforehand and keeps croaking the announcement of the forthcoming happiness to the four winds. Normally humans, however, cannot know anything before the rain actually starts, for the requisite subtle mechanism to receive the pre-rain vibrations is not well developed in them. So for forecast they have to take recourse to meteorology and use a special type of scientific instrument.

(20) A crow has a natural premonitive instinct regarding storms. An owl and to some extent a dog can sense beforehand the possible occurrence of an earthquake or some other unforeseen natural calamity of great magnitude. Such power of apprehending phenomenal vibrations exists not in ten or twenty but in innumerable species of birds. Such a power is indeed of paramount necessity in their rigorous struggle for survival. Such a power did exist, too, to some extent, among the prehistoric people. But today, in this age of so-called civilization, human beings, having become extremely ease-loving, have lost that power through misuse and lack of necessity; just as their tails, their ability to move their ears and their capacity to hold things with their feet have disappeared. Now the hairiness of their bodies and the strength of their teeth and nails are also becoming extinct. The greater the preoccupation of creatures with the struggle for existence, the necessarily greater must be their power of premonition or prescience of impending danger, or else their existence will be effaced from the surface of the earth – this is the law of nature.

(21) Those creatures that pulsate in the darkness of the deep sea are blind due to the darkness; and hence by natural law, just as their bodies possess the power to radiate light, so as weapons some of them possess sensitive spines, some have glandular poison jets and some have attractive voices. With the help of these, they compensate for their lack of visual perception of form-vibrations and preserve their own existence by their subtler reception of other tanmátras or vibrations.

(22) The capacity of an instinctively wicked person to absorb vibration differs somewhat from that of an average person. The amount of beating that might endanger the life of average people, may be easily borne by those who are instinctively wicked. Very often they remain quite unconcerned about the bleeding that pours out of their cuts and wounds – rather they feel relieved from such bleeding. Such people can also perceive the premonitory hints of nature. In other words in such matters their ways, to some extent, correspond to those of the sub-human creatures. Yet to attain such power even a virtuous person has to perform sádhaná or spiritual practice most diligently.

(23) Living beings receive the vibrations of tanmátras according to their respective mental and physical constitutions. Take, for instance, a very tiny particle like an atom. From this also form tanmátras or vibrations emanate, but human eyes normally cannot perceive these extremely minute vibrations. So human beings have to bring them within the scope of visibility of their sight organs with the help of a microscope or other such instruments. Thus apprehending the vibrations of these minute entities is beyond the capacity of the human sensory organs. Remote sounds or inarticulate vocal expressions may not be normally heard by your ears; for this you will have to take the help of a microphone or a loud speaker, because perceiving these sounds is beyond the range of your ear-organ. There are several tiny creatures that produce faint noises: they are hovering all around you, yet you cannot hear their sounds. You cannot hear the sounds of Calcutta with your crude acoustic power, but through a radio you can receive them very easily, for your radio receiver has a far greater power than yours to receive distant sound-waves. You receive from the aerial vibrations what had been received by the radio receiver and then transmitted by it again into the ocean of air. So it is clear that there are distinctive differences in the vibrational reception of different instruments, and humans and animals receive tanmátras according to the respective capacities of their different sensory mechanisms.

Form

(24) A diagram can be made of every kind of vibration which you can normally see with your eyes or with the help of a particular instrument. For example, when sound-waves are recorded in a phonograph record, you can see those lines on the record with your crude eyes. Then when these soundwaves are again vibrated in the air by the phonograph needle, you can then apprehend the sounds with your organ of ear.

(25) Does only what you see with your eyes have a form and not anything else? No, not at all: all vibrations have forms. Every tanmátra has a form and this form is the resultant of its vibrational expressions. Viewing this vast Cosmic Citta, which we call the Universe, we exclaim in awe, “Oh how vast”. This, too, has a form – this, too, is the resultant of vibrations. Because of its vastness this Cosmic Citta is sometimes called formless, for its form has no limit. It is limitless not because it has neither beginning nor end, but because every infinitesimal fraction of it is flowing through innumerable forms, through countless vibrational expressions towards the inconceivable glory of the ocean of forms. It is a passing show – a panorama of transient phenomena – a changing reality. This vast vibration of the Supreme Spirit, this inconceivable expression of the Supreme Exultation – this thought-projection of the metempiric Entity, your ordinary organs have no power to apprehend. Your sight-organ cannot apprehend the vibrations of this Super-form nor can your crude ears receive its vast sound waves. Where there is vibration, there is sound. The universe is His imaginative thought-projection which is also vibrational, and so it has a sound also. But the amount of self-development that is required to perceive that supramundane sound is generally lacking in human beings. As long as they are aware of their individuality, they cannot receive the vibrations of the Great in the fullest measure, since all the powers of individuals are more or less limited. You can feel any object by touch but you cannot say, “I am touching the Supreme Brahma.” You do not have that sensory capacity, for the power that is required to touch Him is not so developed in you.

Sound

(26) The vibration of the vast Cosmic Citta that has been flowing pauselessly through eternity is called Oṋḿkára. You have been hearing so many kinds of sounds and yet you are unable to perceive that eternal sound which is the seed of all sounds. To apprehend these sound waves, an extremely powerful instrument is necessary: the acoustic mechanism in your body at present is too pitifully weak for the purpose. Your instrument of hearing should be immeasurably more powerful than any radio-set that receives soundwaves from the air. Since your weak instrument is quite incapable of apprehending that sound, you are doubtful about the existence of such a phenomenon. But in order to receive the vibrations of the Infinite, you will have to identify your citta or mind and all your organs with that Infinite. Then alone will you be able to merge yourself in the Supreme Vibrational Exultation, surging through your theopathic trance. It is only when your “I” feeling and His, become one, that you can know and hear His mind – that you can experience His sound with every molecule of your being. Then your unit-mind will merge in the Cosmic Mind. In that auspicious moment when your “I” and the Cosmic “I” will meet in the supreme reunion, all your egotistic frivolities, fevers and frets will cease. An inexhaustible stream of symphony will then flow blissfully in the great void.

(27) Now the question may arise whether the different varieties of sound that arise in the universe are the same or different from those of the Cosmic Mind. Are your footsteps, when you walk, the mute witness of your silence or are they the expression of your motivity? What you eat is also sonorific. Every small or great action of your life, every clash of vrttis (desires), every venous vibration is eloquent of a language. Tranquil mountain ranges, flowing streams and river, dense forests – none are mute, none are silent. They are all absorbed in an inexpressible sonorific meditation. Only those who have ears can hear them. None of these sounds is distinct from that Cosmic Sound, from that boundless sonic manifestation. All are Its inseparable flows. All are manifestations of one and the same Oṋḿkára. And yet due to our analytical minds we perceive these different manifestations to be different types of sounds. Consider, for instance, a village market place. What do you hear from a distance? A medley of howls, is it not? But as you approach nearer to the village, you will notice that the cacophony of sounds becomes differentiated into various meaningful sentences or words: “Give me a kilo of brinjals.” “Your potatoes are too small,” and so on. The some total of all these utterances becomes a howl. Just as all the sounds of the market place have been blended and united into one roaring soundwave, similarly all the sounds of the universe are merged into one Oṋḿkára, the unified form of all sounds. As every action is vibrative, so every expression of the Cosmic Citta is vibrational. Among all the vibrational tanmátras, the subtlest is the sound tanmátra. That is why the sound tanmátra is the first stage of crudification of the subtle mental sphere into the crude physical world. Oṋḿkára is the initial manifestation, the first supersonic expression of the Cosmic Citta; thus, it is called Shabda-Brahma or Sonic Consciousness.

Touch

(28) When you touch some particular object, your individual ego derives pleasure. But your individual ego never feels, “I am touching Brahma”. To feel His touch, your power of touch has to be transported to the realm of infinity: Only if the petty “I” can lose itself in the infinite Cosmic “I” can one feel the touch of that Cosmic “I”. When you touch any object for your own pleasure (and generally you do touch objects for pleasureʼs sake), your ego becomes limited to the desire of enjoying that particular object, and thus, you deprive yourself of the pleasure of Cosmic contact.

(29) So now you can understand that as long as you crave for your own selfish happiness, the happiness of the Cosmic touch will continue to elude you. So take your small “I” with all its pettiness towards the Great – enlarge and broaden it. Be one with that Sublime Entity and then alone can you truly attain Him. When you attain that Cosmic Bliss, you will no longer desire any fragmentary pleasure of the world. When your entire identity is saturated through and through with the nectar of the Great, can your existence then remain as a separate entity? Can the waves of smallness ever overwhelm you?

(30) Now the question arises: will human beings give up all their worldly occupations after the attainment of this Brahmic happiness? Why should they? Those whose lives are saturated with the sweet nectar of Cosmic Bliss. Will go on performing even more perfectly all their worldly duties as the cherished tasks assigned by Brahma Himself. They will not be concerned about their own happiness or pleasure in any work. For the collective happiness of all creatures in the universe they will continue to discharge all their responsibilities carefully and painstakingly, for the collectivity of the universe is the Life of their lives, the Soul of their souls – Brahma. They will employ their insignificant ego to further the happiness of the Great Ego:

(31) Áma sukhadukha gopii ná kare vicára

Krśńa sukha hetu kare sab byábahár

Krśńa vina ára sabai kari parityága,

Krśńa sukha hetu kareʼ shuddha anurága.

–Caetanya Caritámrta

[The milk maids forget their weal and woe,

For Krśńaʼs joy they reap and sow.

All, save Him, doth repugnant seem,

Their purest love for His happiness trim.]

(32) And what is the result? Those sádhákas or spiritual aspirants who forget their own happiness and sorrow and go on performing the desired tasks of Brahma, do not seek anything for themselves – they desire only to give Him happiness. But strange are the ways of God! As the result of such selfless love the Sádhakas themselves experience inexhaustible happiness: they feel in their heart of hearts how blessed is their little ego as an instrument of His Grace.

(33) Gopi darshane Krśńer ye ánanda hay,

Tadapekśá kot́iguńa gopii ásvádaya.

–Krśńadása Kavirája

[The sight of Milk-maids is Krśńaʼs joy

But multifold more do they enjoy.]

(34) The human mind, small as it is, cannot apprehend the collective tanmátras of the supreme perfection. In order to realize that supreme perfection human beings will have to give up their “I”-ness – they will have to merge their petty “I”-feeling, in the great “I” feeling. And what is this petty I feeling? It is just like a pot full of water in a pond. Both the water in the pot and the water in the pond are intrinsically one. To unite these two waters, the intervening pot has to be removed. After the removal of the pot, there remains no distinction between the water of the pot and the water of the pond – both become one.

(35) Jalameiṋ kumbhaka kumbha meiṋ jala hae,

Báhar bhitar pánii

Phat́á kumbha jala jala hi samáná

Yah tattva bujhae jiṋánii.

–Kabir

[Water in jar and jar in water

Waters both, yet separate surge;

None but the wise can see through better

Let the jar break, and the waters merge.]

(36) The cause of this apparent distinction between Brahma and the unit entity is this pot, or the mind of the small “I”. If Brahma is the sky, then the petty “I” is the jar-like sky-let. The merger of this vast sky and the sky-let is the final realization, the fulfilment of all desires – the eternal death.

(37) Veder ábhása tui ghatákásh

Ghater náshake marań bale.

–Rámaprasáda

[Proud of ken, as vast as the sky,

Knoweth ye, fool, thou, shadow of high

Thy body is but an earthen pot

Crumbling into dust is its final lot.]

(38) If a salt doll goes to measure the sea, it will melt into it. Neither can it measure the sea, nor will it ever return, its existence will merge into the vastness of the sea, releasing it from all cares and worries. If one wishes to take the form of the sea, one will have to become the sea itself; there is no other way. None of His qualities has any limit. His fragmentary manifestations are all passing through unlimited forms, due to His ceaseless imaginative flow: none of them is an end in itself. So no one can hold any of these manifestations in his/her possession permanently. Any transformation means relinquishing the old form, willingly or unwillingly; if you do not forsake the old you will not be able to embrace the new. The essence of the matter is that He is infinite. If you want to realize His characteristic Self, you have to earn limitlessness yourself.

Colour

(39) Among the vibrations in this created world, colour occupies the position of secondary importance after the sound tanmátra. All forms in this universe are chromatic and the distinction between objects is indeed discernible through colour, for colour indicates the attributional difference. The three binding principles of Saguńa Brahma, sattva (sentient), rajah (mutative), and tamah (static), are also colour. Whenever there is an excess of sattva in any particular entity, the vibrations emanating from that object will be sentient. If you perceive those sentient vibrations with your eyes, or through any other means, you will find that they have created a white colour on your mental plate or Citta. Thus, the vibration of colour indicates the attribute or quality of an entity. Sattva is white, rajah is red, and tamah is black. The greater degree of purity, the more predominance of sattva and proportionately whiter in colour. That is why in India whiteness and purity are often used synonymously. What is this white colour? White is not a colour; it is the combination of all colours. And what is black colour? Black is also not a colour; it is the absence of all colours. That is why black is the symbol of inertness, for it is the colour of the static principle. It is due to the absence of any vibration or oneʼs inability to apprehend them that an object appears black. In darkness we see everything as black.

(40) A difference in forms means a difference in colours. While tamah is the prototype of staticism, sattva is diametrically the opposite. Although Saguńa Brahma possesses all three gunas, yet in Him, Sattva is dominant. Thus Saguńa Brahma appears to be effulgent white to the Sádhaka.

(41) Hirańmaye pare kośam virajaḿ Brahma niśkalaḿ

Tacchubhraḿ jyotisáḿ jyotiśtad yadátmavidoviduh.

–Atharvaveda

(42) But the question arises: Is Parama Puruśa or Supreme Consciousness characteristically coloured? The answer is “no”. All colours belong to Prakrti. The colour of that Parama Puruśa cannot be apprehended for He is beyond all colours.

(43) Sa ekoʼvarńo bahudhá shakiyogát

Varńánanekán nihitártho dahháti

Vicaeti cánte vishvamádao sa devah

Sa no buddhyá shubhayá samyunaktu.

–Yajurveda

(44) He Himself is colourless. He has, however, emanated various colours with the help of Prakrti. Through Prakrtiʼs sentient, mutative and static principles, white, red, and black colours are created. That supremely benevolent entity is essentially sentient and this is intrinsically white. This white colour is composed of the seven component colours: violent, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The universe is the play of these colours, like the seven-hued rainbow reflected in water, like the “Seven Horses” of the Puráńas.

(45) The human mind is partial to appearances or forms of tanmátras and it is colour that impresses it most. You may recall that when your mind is attracted to any object, it is form that attracts you most. The science of chromatics is a wonderful science. The ploy of colours determines the affinity between object and object, animal and animal and between human and human. Due to this chromatic affinity we are attracted to an unknown person, even though we are not at all acquainted with him. You must have noticed in your individual lives that you like some people immediately without any apparent reason, and you hesitate to associate with other people, in spite of their widely publicized praise. Behind this experience is the same chromatic play, which you feel but cannot explain.

(46) I have already told you that the sentient principle is white. So the people in whose minds white vibrations are flowing we call Sattvaguńii or sentient (also known as vipravarńa). The mutative principle is red. So those people whose minds are filled with red vibrations we call Rajoguńii or mutative. Due to the greater crudeness in the mutative principle, the Rajoguńii mind is more partial to crude activities than the sattvic one. Such mutative people are popularly considered to be of the Kśatriya Varńa or warrior temperament, possessing energy and valour. The sentient principle is cognitive, and the mutative principle is energetic. Vaeshyavarńa, the temperament of the business class is concerned with activities much cruder than those of the Vipra and the Kśatriya. Here the Citta or the mental plate is dominated by yellow vibrations, which are created by the combined influence of the mutative and static principles.

(47) Those whose Citta is predominately influenced by the static principle, naturally possess a greater degree of inertness than others: they have neither the knowledge of the sentient persons nor the valour of the mutative ones nor the capacity for activating things of those dominated by the mutato-static principles. This static inertness or crudeness is black. Those whose minds are predominately black are popularly known as shúdras or the labour class. Thus all the colours are related to oneʼs mental waves, and according to these waves a person is called a Brahmin, Kśatriya, Vaeshya or Shúdra. But it should be emphasized that any person can achieve Vipravarńa by means of Sádhaná (spiritual practice). In order to change the form and colour of the vibrations, it is necessary to change the mental tendency. From the Puránas we know that the King Vishvámitra was a Kśatriya in the early part of his life, but he attained Bráhminic qualities through Sádhaná. Lord Krśnaʼs father, Vasudeva, was a kśatriya. His relative Nanda of Gokul, was a Vaeshya for he earned his living through dairy farming. Still another of his relatives, Garga Muni, who christened Krśńa was a Vipra.

(48) The indication of colour is most glaring in the form-tanmátras. But it is not found only in the form-tanmátras. Whenever there is vibration there is tanmátra, and there is colour as well. If the proper instrument is used the colour and the subtle form of every vibration can be detected. Where there is a line, a form must necessarily be there. According to the rhythm of the vibration, sound must also be present. Any variation in the rhythm will cause variation in the sound and colour as well. The radiated vibration of an object in an object in the day will be quite different from that of the same object in the night due to differences in the light-waves, and so the object will appeal differently to your eyes. Why? Because it changes its colour. Since mundane vibrations are mainly dependent upon the sun, the vibrations of the human nervous system vary according to the presence or absence of the sun in the sky. Daylight imposes mutative influence on the human nerves and night-time imposes a static influence, causing the inertness of sleep in the body and mind. The periods of sunrise, sunset, noon and midnight (the sandhyás) bring about a sentient transparency in the Citta. Thus, it is clear how great is the vibrational influence of the variability of colour, sound and mood, and people are naturally disposed to such influences. Ladies are not inclined to choosing expensive saris or cloths at night, for the colour is not then properly discernible.

(49) We apprehend phonic as well as alphabetical difference quite accurately due to these vibrational differences. Short, long or galloping intonations are merely degrees of vibrational differences. The differences in Svaravarńas (vowels) and Vyaiṋjanvarńas (consonants) are also totally dependent on the difference in their vibrational characteristics. In the Saḿskrta language, the letters of the alphabet are called Varńas or colours and all the consonants end in the first vowel “a”. So you see that Varńa-Paricaya (the first book of the alphabet) literally means “acquaintance with colour” and this colour is, of course, the colour vibration. The Giitá also says that the four Varńas or castes are evolved from the differences of attributes of activities. The differences in attributes account for the differences in activities and the differences in activities account for the differences in colours. With the change of attributive activity, the colour will also change. Hence the distinction of Varńa or caste in social life is not an unchangeable or inviolable institution. The varńa has evolved according to oneʼs activities and by changing oneʼs activities one can change the caste.

(50) Paramátman or Saguna Brahma is a beginningless, endless, continuous flow. He is the Supreme Ocean of essences. You with your limited capacity cannot apprehend this Ocean in its entirety; you can only receive one or another of His limited unit manifestations, which you perceive with your mind through its vibrations. But such unit entities are not the whole Brahma. He is beginningless and His forms are countless and limitless. To attain Him you have to become beginningless and endless yourself and the only way to do this is to merge your little “I” into the great “I”. It is only in such a state that you will realize His characteristic Self, with the help of your subtle cognition – then you will always recognize your true essence in your own original Self. Always remember, “Where ‘I’ is, ‘He’ is not. Where ‘He’ is, ‘I’ is not.”

(51) Incidentally, the question may arise why Ananda Marga does not support idolatry. You are endeavouring to realize that endless flow of joy, to evolve your own consciousness to that blissful state. How can you apprehend that endless blissful flow through a particular limited object? In the worship of idols the tendency of the human mind is extroversial, and in this way human beings gradually degrade their minds from the awareness of that Infinite Supreme Entity. Their extroverted minds run after the crude, and as the result of this persistent pursuit of crude objects, they themselves gradually become crude. Discarding all vagaries of pleasure and pain, human beings have to progress from the mortal world towards immortality, towards the touchstone of Absolute Bliss – and when this is attained, everything is attained. Their movement should be towards the calm tranquillity of the soul, forsaking the humdrum of external life. But they will never be able to attain this as long as they involve themselves with idols, apprehensible through the indriyas or organs. They will proceed more and more towards crudeness and negativity, enmeshing themselves deeper in worldly bondages, and ultimately reach a state of oblivion – instead of attaining the ultimate goal of introversion of the evolutionary flow. Their cosmic ideal will become blurred in the darkness of petty desires. Misled in the illusory sports, they will lose sight of the master Sportsman – they will lose their Divine Mother behind Her toys. In the Padma Puráńa, Viśńu says to Shiva, –

(52) Svágamaeh kalpitaestvaiṋca janám madvimukhán kuru.

Maiṋcagopaya yena syad srstireśottarottará.

“O Shiva! You have turned people away from me by your imaginary scriptures (Ágama). And as I am kept hidden from the eyes of people, the lifespan of creation goes on increasing.”

(53) The worship of crude idols makes the worshippers crude, and stimulates their lower sentiments. Such worship is like a childʼs game going on in the name of Brahma. The Tantra says –

(54) Bálakriidańavat sarvaḿ rúpanámádikalpanam,

Kevalam Brahmaniśt́ho yah sa muktoʼnátra saḿshayah.

(55) Worshipping a crude object as Paramátma is nothing but childʼs play. Living beings can achieve salvation only by worshipping Brahma.

(56) Na muktirtapanáddhomádupavasahshataerapi

Brahmaeváhamiti jiṋátvá mukto bhavati dehabhrt.

–Tantra

(57) By observing such ceremonial fasts as austerities like Ekádashii (the eleventh day of the lunar month) or Purńimá (full moon) or by religious sacrifices (Homa), Brahma will never be realized. Human beings can achieve salvation only through knowledge, and true knowledge never recognizes such superficial rites and rituals as a means of attaining Brahma. Of course, if anyone fasts for his physical health, it is beneficial – but certainly not as a means of attaining Brahma. Is it not that the idol one worships is wholly an expression of the idolatorʼs fanciful imagination? That which is purely a human creation – that which owes its form to the handicraft of a potter or an imagemaker – is nothing but a crude object. No matter what its subtle emotional connations may be, its foundation is crude. Before our very eyes it becomes distorted decayed and destroyed, how can this vulnerable object, born of your imagination, give you salvation?

(58) Manasá kalpitá múrtirnrnáḿ cenmokśasádhanii,

Svapnalabdhen rájyena rajáno mánavastada.

–Tantra

(59) In the world of reality the imagined form of God has no existence at all, and so it has no power of activity. If someone inherits a kingdom in a dream, does he actually become a king?

(60) Mrcchiládhátudarvádi murtaviishvarabaddhaya

Klishyantastapasa jiṋánam bina moksam na yanti te

–Tantra

(61) Can you bind God to an image made of clay, rocks, metal or wood, infusing life into it by chanting mantras for show? Though the image is but a small thing, the temple is much larger and yet Brahma is far greater than even the temple – He is beginningless and endless. The image, the temple all are within Him. How can anyone confine Him in a crude form? Such idolatry will lead you to sufferings. Until you practise intuitional science sincerely your troubles will never cease. So you see, idolatry is not only accepted in the Puráńas as the proper way to worship; rather it has been opposed by them as well.

(62) Some people say that in the first stage they will worship an image for concentration of mind and then gradually give up the practice later on. Such an approach is not correct, for they will eventually become attached to the image and it will be very difficult to remove the resultant Saḿskára (acquired momentum) of that attachment. You must have noticed at home how attached you become to your cats and dogs after having kept them for some time as your pets. Imagine, then, how difficult it will be for you to give up that image which you have worshipped as your beloved Lord with all the sweetness of your heart. So from the very start it is best not to indulge in image worship. Just as a flood after it recedes leaves behind a mark on the river-bank, so the staunch idol worshippers, too, find it painfully difficult to remove the impression of that Saḿskára, even when they learn the introversial worship of Brahma and attain the ability to reach Nirvikalpa Samádhi. You will find this in the biography of a recent great Sádhaka who had to face a similar difficulty. One should avoid this predicament from the very start.

(63) Yet, only opposition to idolatry is not enough: the worship of Brahma should be done scrupulously, or else you will later regret and bemoan the futility of your life with the last drop of your tears at your last hour. You should make your life worthwhile through your Sádhaná. How much can your worldly friends and relations do for you? After your death your relatives may perhaps ask, “How much money has he left behind?” Your friends may go to the crematorium and indulge in flattering reminiscences about you. Your husband or wife may cry for you for about ten or twelve days and then regain their normal composure. Your lot will be only a profound sigh – a record of the futility and frustration of your life. So do not waste your time lest you later have to repent.

(64) Vrthá janma goináyaluin hena Prabhu ná bhojaluin

Khoyáyalu soha guńanidhi,

Hamár karama manda na milala eka bunda

Premasindhu rasaka abadhi.

[Fruitless, O Lord, has been my life

That sang not of glories Thine;

Lost in the worldly strife

And lost Thee, most precious treasure of mine.

Fateʼs long and ominous hand

With compassion, cold and daft,

Strayed me out of Thy Loveʼs strand

Deprived, alas of a single Draught.]

(65) People may ask, “We are ordinary people. If we always keep ourselves absorbed in the thought of Brahma, can we properly attend to our worldly duties?” To this my reply is, of course you can, and you will do them still more beautifully. In the worship of Brahma there is a method by which easily and perfectly every worldly duty can be performed. For the ideation on Brahma a person does not have to become a hermit in the forest. Only go on behaving rightly and properly with every manifestation of Brahma in this universe – remove or rectify the mental disease of the criminals and reform their characters, cure the sick of their sickness, and arrange for their medicines and their diet. Just remember only this: that you have to behave properly and reasonably with every entity of this world. Pay special attention to the word “properly”. By “proper behaviour”, I mean that in which there is neither anger or jealously, neither attraction nor aversion.

(66) You exist in a vast, limitless ocean of rasa or essences. A never-ending, radiant wave of manifestations is surging within and without you and radiating through all the ten directions – the indescribable vibrational expressions of small and great, accented and unaccented, eternally flowing thought-waves. Behave properly and reasonably with every expression, with every manifestation of the Cosmic mind. But always remember the One, Who is the essence of all these diverse vibrational manifestations. Train yourselves in the ideal of the lily, which blossoms in the mud and has to keep itself engaged in the struggle for existence day in and day out, parrying, bracing and fighting the shocks of muddy water and the force of storms and squalls and various other vicissitudes of fortune; and yet it does not forget the moon above. It keeps its love for the moon constantly alive. It seems but a most ordinary flower: there is nothing extraordinary about it. Yet, this most ordinary little flower has a romantic tie with the great moon. It has focused all its desires on the moon. Similarly, perhaps you are an ordinary creature – perhaps you have to pass your days in the ups and downs of worldly existence – yet do not forget that Supreme One. Keep all your desires inclined towards Him. Always keep yourself merged in His thought. Go deep into the mood of that Infinite Love. By this your worldly activities will not be hampered in any way.

(67) Kumud candramá dúrete rahiyá yemati rákhaye priiti,

Temati Shrii Rádhá kánu páne cáhi grha káj kare niti.

[Farther from the moon, yet nearer to him Lily unquelled by her troubles grim; Soʼs Radhaʼs love for her Krśńa Her hand to work and her heart to Him.]

(68) No matter what circumstances you are in, never lose sight of the Infinite One. Degradation is impossible for those who have accepted the Supreme Being as the Ideal of their lives. Indulging in mean thoughts only engenders crude vibrations in the Citta, as the result of which you will have to take rebirth in lower species in order to suffer the lowly Saḿskáras created by those crude vibrations. Thus you must arouse higher vibrations in your Citta. Even a man of King Bharataʼs calibre had to take rebirth as a deer because at the time of his death he was deeply anxious about a fawn. Thus regardless of what you are at present or what you may possibly become in the future, do not digress from the ideal of the Great in any circumstances: do not stray even a step away from the path of realization of Absolute Bliss. Ananda Marga or the path to eternal bliss is the only path for you.

(69) Ki e mánuś pashu pákhi kii e janmiye

Athavá kiit́a-patauṋga

Karama bipáke gatágati punah punah

Mati rahe tuyá parasauṋga.

–Vidyápati

[No matter whether myself a man

Or beast or bird or insect be

Through virtue or sin, according to Thy plan,

Take my all but leave my mind for Thee.]

(70) No matter what I become as the consequence of my deeds – human, animal or insect, let my mind never forget you. Poet Chandidasa said:

(71) Baṋdhu kii ár baliba ámi

Janme janme jiivane-marańe

Práńanátha haeo tumi.

[O Friend of mind, sublime and kind

Words fail to express my mind

In life and death in pleasure and pain

Through every life may I be with my Lord again.]

(72) Whatever be the consequence of your past deeds, your upliftment is guaranteed, if you have unflagging zeal to attain Brahma. Do not look back, look forward. Never take any limited material object for your worship. Accept only the loftiest entity for your contemplation. If your love for Him is genuine, you will ever remain in an Elysian exuberance. Pain will then mean nothing to you, nor will happiness either. When oneʼs movement is towards the Great, when oneʼs ardour is only for the Great, it is called Prema or Divine Love.

(73) The attraction between one object and another is always chromatic, pertaining to rága or colour. The word rága is derived from the root rańj which means “dyeing”. Anurága means to dye oneʼs mind with the colour of that Infinite Entity. Nothing will result from dyeing oneʼs clothes with saffron colour only for show. Dye yourself within. People of some particular religious creeds think that dyeing their clothes or bodies with a particular colour is a part of spiritual Sádhaná. But remember that is all useless, unless you are dyed within as well. Can a person become a shúdra only by wearing a dark dress, or a vipra by donning white garments? Mahatma Kabir used to say –

(74) Mana ná ráuṋgáile ráuṋgáile yogi kápaŕá.

[Saffron and red do not a yogi make

With mind undyed he remains a fake.]

(75) Dye your mind with His colour. Those who have not done so cannot attain Him, for this very coloration is Prema or Divine Love. The differences in colour are signs of distinction; without these differences there is identity. No external sign of Sádhutá or virtue is necessary. [[Become]] sádhu within. Behind the external show of virtuousness of many so-called sádhus exists a pharisaic state of mind. Preserve the true dignity of the word, Sádhu.

(76) Múŕha múŕháye jat́á váŕháye masta phire jaesá bhaesá

Khalrii upar khák lágáye mana jaeśá to taesá.

[With shaven head or matted locks

And ashen body a Sádhu walks

With the swaggering gait of a well-fed buffalo.

And crude mind filled with thoughts mean and low.]

(77) That is why I say that you must bring about a revolutionary change in the flow of your judgment and thought, and see how, after overcoming your fascination with external colour, your mind becomes tinged with the His glorious colour. In Ananda Marga Sádhaná, the method of withdrawing the mind from degrading tendencies, and absorbing oneself in the colour of the Great, is called Pratyáhára Yoga (the yoga of withdrawal) or Varńárghyadána (the offering of colours). All people have a particular attraction for one or another object or activity and as soon as they become attracted to an object, then their minds become coloured with the colour of that object. You can withdraw your mind from the colour of that object and dye yourself in His colour by offering Him the captivating colour of the object that has attracted you: this is the real Pratyáhára Yoga. The word Pratyáhára means “to withdraw” – to withdraw the mind from its object.

(78) The main object of the Spring Colour Festival (Vasantotsava) is not playing with external colours; it is meant to offer Him the colours of different objects which have dyed the mind. When this practice of offering your own colours – your own attachments, becomes natural and easy, you will then merge in Him. Then you will have no need for any colour, for you will become colourless – you will go beyond the reach of any colour. Your unit-ego will become one with the Cosmic Ego. Whichever way you look you will see only Him in His ever-surging glory. There is no “I” nor “you”. By an everlasting, mutual pact the final curtain will have fallen on all clashes of “I” and “you”. At that stage, if you call Parama Brahma as “I”, you are right in calling Him so; if you call Him as “He”, you are equally right; and if you call Him as “you”, again you are correct. The extent of your attainment of Him will be proportionate to your self surrender.

(79) Remember, you have to offer your own identity – not money, rice plantains or other crude objects. The give-and-take of crude things is a business transaction. If you want to attain the bliss of Brahma, you must offer your own self. If you want to have the Great “I”, you must give away your own little “I”. You have to give the full sixteen annas, (the full rupee). Giving fifteen annas and holding back one anna will not do. You must completely surrender. To attain that Infinite One with the help of your mental concentration and strength, you have to surrender yourselves. But, remember self-surrender does not mean suicide. On the contrary, your soul will have its full expression. Your existence will not become contracted, for contraction is inert in principle. Hence in the Sádhaná of self-surrender the ego is expanded, not contracted. In the Mahábhárata, when Duhshásana was pulling the sari of Draopadii, she was tightly holding the cloth to her body with one hand beseeching lord Krśńa with the other. “Oh! My lord, save me!” But the Lord did not then come forward to save her from shame. When Draopadii found no means of escape, she then released her hold on the cloth and appealed to the Lord most piteously with both hands out-stretched, crying, “O Lord, I surrender my all to you. Do what you think is best”. And the Lord immediately rescued her. That is why I say that you will have to dedicate yourselves to His feet wholly and unreservedly. You will earn godliness in proportion to the extent that you surrender yourselves, and finally, after merging that acquired godliness of yours in His Entity, you will attain eternal bliss.

(80) God bless you.

Phálgunii Púrńimá 1956 DMC

Source: Vibration, Form and Colour

Published in:

* Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 4 [a compilation]

* Bábá's Grace [a compilation]

* Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 3

Release: Electronic edition version 9.0.19