How many are wise? How many use the intellect rationally? We have to analyse the objects of this universe. We have to see them, not as they appear to be, but as they truly are and analyse the experiences from the objects as they really are and not as we perceive them in a state of non-discrimination. We have to enquire. This intelligence which God has given us we must use; and use rationally, not with bias.
If you use this intellect with bias, since it is already in league with the senses, is already a slave to the sensual urges, it will give you wrong conclusions only. It cannot give you the right conclusions. Your rationality may be real and correct, but at the same time, it can be a very ‘irrational rationality’—a sort of pseudo-rationality. It seems paradoxical, but there are very funny stories told in the ancient Indian Puranas to bring out how a person can use his intelligence, yet use it foolishly. They give the example of a very typical being—a young man—who had this type of intellect. He went to cut wood and climbed a tree and went out on a large branch and started cutting the branch. He observed it and said, “The branch is thickest where it is nearest to the main trunk of the tree; and it tapers off toward the end and that part is thinner than the part on which I am sitting. So, I shall get more wood if I cut it off nearest to the trunk of the tree”. He turned around to sit on the thinner portion in order to get more wood by cutting more closely to the trunk of the tree. Someone came by and called to the man, saying, “What are you doing? It is foolish the way you are cutting that branch”. But the man replied, “It is no business of yours. I know what I am doing. I have given it careful thought and calculation. I don’t want to be fooled by this tree. I want to take as much wood as possible”. So he hacked on and on until the branch came down and he with it. He was a person who did use his intelligence. He figured it out and he thought that he would get more wood this way and he was quite correct, but there seems to have been something that was not at all rational. This characterises a great many types of intelligence.
At another time, a man was asked to look after his very old and senile grandmother. India, like all tropics, is a land of mosquitoes and flies, and the man was diligently fanning his grandmother. But many flies persisted in sitting upon her, even though the man fanned vigorously. He finally said, “Look here, do not bother my grandmother,” and continued fanning her vigorously. Eventually he became extremely annoyed with the persistence of the flies and said, “Look here, if you are not going to obey me, I am going to teach you a lesson”; and after a few more moments of vigorous fanning and the equally vigorous persistence of the flies, he looked over and saw a wooden club and he picked up this club and said, “Do you flies think you are more intelligent than I?” So saying, and carefully aiming the club at one fly, he smacked the fly and brained his old grandmother in the process! Most of us are clever, very clever, but we start with fundamental errors. The man should have known whether the life of his grandmother was more important or the killing of the fly. But he did not, and we laugh at him. At the same time, we make the same error of judgement.
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Next: Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 6.The Tumult of the Senses Vs. The Music Of the Soul
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sri Swami Sivananda The Path Beyond Sorrow
Chapter 1
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, Beloved Immortal Atman! I deem it a great pleasure and blessedness that God has given me this unique opportunity of being of some service to you, seeking and aspiring souls upon this earth-plane, and for this privilege I thank Him who is the Indweller of you all, the Source of our very existence, the all-pervading Presence enveloping this very universe, who is amongst us invisibly even at this moment and who blesses us at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 1.Pleasure Is Not Happiness
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 1.Pleasure Is Not Happiness, When we observe life on the human plane, what do we see? Everyone is in constant quest of true happiness. Happiness is the quest of smiles; we have concealed sighs and sorrows, much grief and disappointment. Why? Why is this phenomenon observed everywhere in the world? This question has been pondered over, has been investigated. And we have been answered. With the dawn of discrimination, we come to realise that we have done something very foolish, because we have missed the path which leads to happiness and strayed off into the by-paths of pleasures. Happiness is one thing; mere pleasure is another. Missing the path to happiness and wandering off into the by-paths of pleasures, we are, as it were, lost beings wandering in a jungle where we do not know the correct direction to take, the correct path to pursue, to reach the destination at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 2.Mans Triune Nature
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 2.Mans Triune Nature, Man is a being partaking of a triune nature. As an intelligent human being you have, at the same time, a part which is very base in its expression and full of gross propensitiesdesire, passion, sensuality, greed, anger, blindness at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 3.The Mental Ferment
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 3.The Mental Ferment, That particular element in you which makes you human is the mind. It is a doubtful bestowal by God upon individual soul. It is not a too happy thing to have, for, rationality and intelligence, though no doubt good, are for the most part never utilized, never properly exercised as they ought to be. In most people, intelligence is not exercised at all at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 4.The Mechanics of Sense Satisfaction
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 4.The Mechanics of Sense Satisfaction, What happens is this. There arises a desire, a craving is created, and then you are urged to go after some sense-object in order to satisfy the craving and you feel that it has been enjoyable. You tell yourself: I have felt pleasure. I have enjoyed the sense-object. Actually, this so-called experience which you have undergone is not a positive experience of enjoyment at all. It is just an illusion. The actual experience, in fact, if you examine it, is thisthe experience you get at the end of an activity to obtain a sense-object is but the momentary quiescence that ensues in the mind as a result of the corresponding desire-urge having subsided for the time being at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 5.Instances of Irrational Rationality
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 5.Instances of Irrational Rationality, How many are wise? How many use the intellect rationally? We have to analyse the objects of this universe. We have to see them, not as they appear to be, but as they truly are and analyse the experiences from the objects as they really are and not as we perceive them in a state of non-discrimination. We have to enquire. This intelligence which God has given us we must use; and use rationally, not with bias at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 6.The Tumult of the Senses Vs. The Music Of the Soul
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 6.The Tumult of the Senses Vs. The Music Of the Soul, It is peace of mind which is the condition prerequisite for the experience of true happiness. Is that not more important than the removal of a little restlessness and craving, a little agitation caused by desire? Which is the more important? You may say: If desires come, we have to satisfy them. That is the way to remove them and that is the way to get pleasures. So saying, you remove the fly of desire rather than protect the grandmother of true peace of mind by which alone you can find happiness. Real happiness comes out of peace at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 7.Bliss Is Thy Nature: Bliss Is Thy Heritage
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 7.Bliss Is Thy Nature: Bliss Is Thy Heritage, This name and form, this Mr. So-and-So, this Mrs. So-and-So, this is not the true you. It is just a personality superimposed upon your true being by your parents. They gave you a name. They called you this and they called you that, but this name-form personality is not the true you. Changeless from childhood, into youth, into adulthood, into middle age, into old age is that I which is within you. It was within you when you were an infant; it was within you when you were a child running here and there; it was within you when you began to grow at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 8.Your Unhappiness Is Your Own Creation
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 8.Your Unhappiness Is Your Own This unhappiness is your own creation. It is self-created. It is due to non-discrimination and due to your having become the slave of your own senses. And therefore, what you have yourself caused, you have it within your own power to cast aside. So, even as your sorrow has been self-caused, your happiness too can be self obtained through your own efforts. It does not have to be self-created, because it is there already. It has only to be grasped and this is in your own hands. You are the one who has to move towards that which is awaiting you to experience it at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 9.Develop Virtue: You Develop Happiness
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 9.Develop Virtue: You Develop Happiness, How can you set about doing it? The basic thing is that happiness springs out of a life of virtue. That is what the great science of Yoga tells you. There cannot be happiness without virtue. Here I wish to make it quite plain that I am not sermonizing. Someone told me, In the West, people do not like sermonizing. Dont sermonize. Well, I cannot completely fulfil that wish, for to some extent, this humble servant who stands before you and speaks to you at this moment does sermonize, but then, this sermonizing is of a different variety at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 10.The Higher Happiness of Your True Being
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 1: Bliss Is Within, 10.The Higher Happiness of Your True Being, Thus, developing virtues is the direct way to experience happiness on the lower psychological level. But on a higher level, this is not enough. You should not be satisfied with the happiness that you get on the mental level, though even that experience you will find most exhilarating. That itself is a great gain, but still greater is the happiness that you should aim at. That greater happiness is the happiness of your true being, of your real nature, of the Spirit within, and that comes by constantly being above body, above senses, above mind and intellect. Beyond all these is the eternal, changeless, silent Witness (Consciousness) of all the changeful modes of these lower aspects of your being at energyenhancement.org
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