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Darshan of Sri Swami Satyananda

Be a witness

As long as you are aware of somebody or something, it exists, but when you are not aware of it, it does not exist and you are not concerned about it.  If the feeling comes to your mind that something or someone is negative or wrong, it is because of your mental weakness or mental perception.  You have to correct your mental perception rather than anything else.  In order to correct your mental perception, you have to leave the situation for some time, and then look at it as a witness, a seer, an observer, a perceiver, not as a participant.  When you have become a witness, you will see everything in the right perspective.  When you are a witness, you can see correctly, but when you are involved, you don't know what is right or wrong, positive or negative.

To leave a situation is very difficult.  There is a true story about Ramana Maharshi.  One day when he was a boy, he was lying down and he suddenly felt he was dead.  Then another person came to his mind: "But who knows that i am dead?  Who is witnessing me as dead?"  He discovered another aspect of his personality called the witness.  In order to search for that witness, he left home.  Ramana Maharishi is the sage of my time.  I lived in his ashram for some time.  To anybody who went to him or asked him a question, he would say, "Be a witness to everything in life and you will not be affected by it."  Remain a witness.  Now, you are witnessing what i am saying.  That is being the witness.  That is how you have to live your life.

It is no use tacking the problems of life with a confused mind.  Just as a partially blind driver cannot drive a car, in the same way a confused mind cannot solve the problems of its own life.  First you should be free of confusion and have a straight way of life.  There would be no confusion.  I am clear, clarity has come to my mind.  It happens to everyone.

Faith and Rationality

Nobody can change destiny.  A guru cannot change the script of your destiny.  A guru can give some tips just as i am giving, but nobody can change destine.  Even powerful people like Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Gandhi could not change their destiny.  There is a force which we do not know.  That power is all knowledge.  You may not have seen God and you may not be able to see Him, but there is definitely an experience, a divine experience, which does come to a human being from time to time in the form of a vision or sometimes in the form of faith.  Gurus have faith in God, but some people can have a vision, like Moses and Buddha had.  You can say,  "I would like to see God."  In order to see God you have to be God.  But once you become God, who do you want to see?  You are That.

Mythological places and stories cannot be understood by the rational mind.  Mythology is history and the rational mind does not accept stories, it can't understand them intellectually.  Acceptance is based on faith.  The rational mind is a very limited area of the mind, a corner of the mind.  The most prevalent, most outreaching and most expansive area of the mind is faith.

Faith covers the entire area of the mind whereas rationality covers a smaller area of the mind, just as the light covers the whole room but a table covers a small area.  Rationality has no answer to any question.  Read the books of Carl Jung, read the books of Berkeley, Spinboza, Schopenhauer, read any books by western thinkers or eastern thinkers.  Rationalism has a limitation, because it is based on doubt.  Faith has no limitation, because faith is based on the truth.

After all, how do you know your father is your father?  Do you have faith that he is your father?  Are you sure you can prove it?  It is a truth, but if you can't believe even the truth, if you rationalize about whether or not he is your father, you will never be able to find the answer.  Faith is where there is complete acceptance.  There is no doubt about who your father, or mother, or brother is;  you know your mother is your mother.  Faith is total acceptance of the truth.  Matter is not beyond doubt, but spirit is always beyond doubt.  Doubt should only come in academic matters, in research, where you question whether something is right or not.  I am ready to accept that.  But there should be no doubt about the spirit.