SCIENCE IS THE STUDY OF MOTION, WHILE MYSTICISM IS THE STUDY OF STILL
Science and religion find a meeting point, but their approaches are wrong. The scientist tries to measure, while the mystic or the religionist tries to experience. Science has not been successful in measuring speed, for example. If a particle moves from one end to the other, it will not get its proper velocity because as soon as it goes through to that particular particle, it has moved somewhat away. In mysticism, you do not move away; you become still.
We could say that science is motion and the study of motion, while mysticism is the study of still. Yet one could combine the two so well that you could experience motion and stillness. How can this be done? It can only be explained through an analogy. You take a top that the children play with, and if it is spun at a very high speed, it will seem to be standing still. Here, motion is found in that stillness, and stillness is found in the motion.
SCIENTISTS LOOK AT THINGS PERIPHERALLY, WHILE THE MYSTIC LOOKS AT THE CENTRE
We who live on this planet or in this universe are a product of motion, and there will always be motion. When there is motion, you become involved in emotion, where the problem begins. Through that motion of the various psychological factors that operate within you, emotions are created, and emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant, are always conflicting. Where you have pain, you will experience pleasure; where you experience joy, you will experience pain because of a conflict between the two. As scientists call it, the law of polarity is like two ends of one stick. They say this is the left end, and that is the right end.
But the mystic operates differently altogether. Although he knows both ends of the stick, he goes to the centre, but his entire focus is on the centre. So, scientists look at polarities, and they miss the centre. In other words, scientists would look at things peripherally while the mystic looks at the centre. If you take the analogy of a cartwheel, the axle is standing still all the time; only the wheel is turning. If the axle, the centre, were not there, there would be no way for the wheel to turn. But you need the spokes and the rim so the centre can be combined with the periphery, where you know the periphery and the centre. That is the secret of life, where your unfoldment occurs. Is the centre aware of the periphery or the movement of the wheel? It is aware of it because the wheel revolves around the centre. So, the centre must have a specific force, an energy that would be there.
The trouble with people and all the emotional problems is that the wheels are buckled while they go through all the motions in life. The trouble with human beings is that the wheel is warped, so the cart does not run smoothly. What warped it was that the spokes were not well-balanced. It might have had a knock, which bent, giving less pressure to those warped spokes than the straight ones. So, we human beings are warped people. Of course, analysis alone is not good enough. What to do about it: as you all know, I have done over three thousand talks around the world and, as you know, those of you who have attended previous Satsangs, that all theory must be brought down to its practical level. Otherwise, all these philosophies, metaphysics, psychologies, humanities, and what you have are useless.
THE BRAIN IS AN ORGAN, A VEHICLE FOR THE MIND
What do we do when our wheel is warped? Where does the wheel reside? The wheel resides in the head. That is why everyone’s head is constantly whirling around; even if they are total teetotallers, their heads spin.
So, science is of the head, but the axle is of the heart. So, join that axle to the wheel of the mind, and you bring out a balance, and then the mind can work at a far greater speed and efficiency. This brain is not the mind but only a vehicle for the mind. It is an organ, like other organs, such as hands, feet, etc., and they are organs. Because that mind is universal and because of our lack of development of the brain, our lack of bringing the universal mind to the conscious level, the mind is warped, and the external signs of the mind being warped are our daily actions, our feelings, our emotions, how we act and how we react to people, relationships, circumstances.
Can anyone here say that their mind has been filled with positive thoughts for twenty-four hours of the day? No one can. Because as soon as you think of a positive thought, a negative thought arises. I hope my business will take in a thousand dollars today because I need to take it to the bank tomorrow morning. But at the same time, you think you will take those thousand dollars to the bank, or else the Bank Manager knows what to do to you. He will use his foot on the back side of your anatomy.
WE BECOME BETTER HUMAN BEINGS BY COMBINING AWARENESS WITH THE UNFOLDMENT OF THE HEART
So, we lack the balance between the heart and the brain box, the mind, and through our spiritual practices, we open up more and more of these billions of brain cells, and the mind can penetrate through more and more. And when more and more of the mind penetrates our conscious level of life, we develop a greater awareness. This very activation of the brain cells is the job of the mystic. But it can be scientifically combined. I work with a lot of scientists. I get called in as a consultant to various physicians and psychiatrists, and I get called in, especially to people with cardiac problems, and these are things I teach. If you want the stillness inside, if you want that peace inside, wishful thinking is not going to bring it about.
With our spiritual practices, more and more of the brain cells open to allow that universal mind to flow through so that you become more aware, and as you become more aware, the heart expands. You will understand the position if you become more aware of the circumstances around you. So, as the mind, through spiritual practices, becomes increasingly imbued with that universal force, the heart expands with the force of the universe. It works in cycles. As the heart expands, the mind grows, so awareness of the mind, through the mind, is connected to the heart.
Auntie Mary said a bad word; usually, you will mope over it for a week. You might have a sleepless night; you know she said this to me, and I got insulted, and you could go on like that. But if the awareness were there, you would immediately look into the Heart and mind of Auntie Mary. You would immediately analyse that, “Look, she said this word to me; what is behind it? What made her do this or say this to me? If it is her fault, then she is going through some emotional state or crisis, and I would have the awareness to recognise that, and I would not be concerned about it. I would sleep peacefully and then say, “Well, if it is her fault, I will say, Oh Lord, give her greater strength and forgive her.” If it is my fault, I will say, “Hey, wait a minute, I took this so seriously; let me do something to better myself.” You see how awareness combined with the heart’s unfoldment can make us better human beings.
To newcomers here, if you are a Christian, I want you to become a better Christian and if you are a Muslim, a better Muslim, a Hindu, a better Hindu. But foremost, the right thing is to become a better human being.
OUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICES MAKE US AWARE OF THE MEANING AND THE ESSENCE OF LIFE
This is what spiritual practices do. It makes us more aware of our surroundings. We walk through life unthinkingly and without awareness. How many of us would walk through the garden and listen to the rustle of the leaves? What a Divine symphony! How many of us would walk through the same garden and see the leaves swaying in an eternal dance? How many of us would look at a flower in its true essence? What makes the flower? What brings out the beauty in the flower? It could be red, white, blue, pink, or whatever. What brings out the essence of that flower? There is something invisible there. It is not only the ground, not only the petals, it is not only the leaves and the colours but there is a sap, an invisible vitality that makes that flower grow, makes that flower bloom and open up into its grandeur, into its beauty.
That is what the mystic does; he finds the sap, the meaning and the essence of life, while the scientist just looks at the outward form of the flower. But the mystic looks at the outward form and tries to penetrate that flower and find that invisible sap, unseen by the human eye but known by the unfoldment of the heart and the awareness of the mind.
There is a story from Ramakrishna, who was talking about a whole group of students that went to a mango orchard, and there, the students started getting busy counting how many leaves and branches were on the tree. But one student plucked a mango, sat in the corner, and enjoyed the mango. So, the scientists study the leaves and the branches while the mystic enjoys the sweetness of the mango.
SCIENCE HAS DONE A LOT OF GOOD AND A LOT OF HARM
It is good to have both, especially in this technological age where science is necessary. But science has done more harm than good to the world, that I promise. It has made people lazy. It has left less time for people to dive into their inner self. Let us use an analogy which housewives will not like. If you need a dishwashing machine, OK, you get one. Then you need this appliance and that appliance and all kinds of appliances; I do not know what appliances are needed. I only know about eating and enjoying the mango. So, all these things are bought on the instalment plan, so the poor woman has to go to work; she is forced to supplement her husband’s income so that they can pay these instalments. But in the first place, if one lived a simple life with simple needs and necessities without competing with Jones’s, that lady would not need to go out to work. She would be more attentive at home and look after the house well. She would look after the children well, and no one could ever tell me that a nanny could look after her children better than a mother. That is true. So, we bring the circumstances upon us.
Another thing happens. The wife comes home from work; she is exhausted, and the husband comes home from work, and he is fatigued. So, the one says to the other darling, “I am so tired I do not feel like cooking; let us go to eat out.” So, they go to a restaurant and eat out, have a wife and two children, and you know what it is: it is easily thirty, forty bucks, fifty bucks. And what are you eating? I very seldom go to a restaurant. Only when I go on trips would I do it, so why not? But if you look at some of the kitchens!
That very meal for the husband, wife and two kids could have been done at home for ten bucks, and do you think the chefs and what have you put love into the cooking? No. They work, and they wait until closing time so they can go home. Everything is dressed very well, of course, but your wife at home cooks so lovingly with her love, and the most significant ingredient in any food is not all the stuff that goes into it but love. I could never eat any meal not prepared with love because I would get stomach aches and become gaseous. So, the main ingredient is love.
We create an artificial society by the influence of science. We make unnecessary needs, then work our blocks off to meet the payments, so science has done a lot of harm. Meanwhile, science has done a lot of good as well. If it were not for the aeroplanes, it would have taken me a month of travelling on a donkey cart or whatever to come to Canada from South Africa, on the other side of the world. So, it has done a lot of good.
RELIGION HAS DONE A LOT OF GOOD AND A LOT OF HARM
It is the same thing with religion, and people have forgotten the meaning of religion. Religion means to bind back. What do you bind yourself back to, to that inner self, to Divinity? Religion, too, has done more good in the world than anything else and more harm in the world than anything else. If you study the history of religions, you will find that Islam arose with the power of the sword. If you could convert someone to become a Muslim, you are promised by the Scriptures that you will go to heaven. Let us take Christianity; you remember the Crusades, rivers of blood that flowed during the time of the Crusaders’ religion. You take the history of the Hindus; more wars have been fought on religious grounds and even up to today with religious clashes between the Hindus and Muslims, and what have you.
So much bloodshed, and yet they teach love thy neighbour as thyself. But I suppose they would add, love thy neighbour as thyself if they believe in what you do. They say do unto others what you expect to be done unto yourself. Those are the two most remarkable statements in the Bible. Do not read the rest of the Bible, just those two, “love thy neighbour as thyself” and “do unto others that you would expect to be done unto you”, and you have captured what religion truly means. This is not only said in the Bible but in every religion, and I can quote them to you in Arabic, Sanskrit, and other works.
GOD IS INDEFINABLE, AND HIS EXPRESSION, WHICH IS LOVE, IS INDEFINABLE
We have forgotten that “love thy neighbour as thyself”, but how can you love the neighbour as yourself if you do not know yourself? Through spiritual practices and meditation, you start knowing yourself, and I would repeat this a million times over and over again. From the fragmentation we are going through, we are led into integration, an integration that makes you know yourself. Religion does not say, “Know God,” religion says, “Man know thyself”, and by knowing thyself, you know God. We regard Divinity to be omnipresent, meaning present everywhere. So, He cannot be away from a single cell of your body. He is in this wood; He is in this glass. He is in this light. He is everywhere, and when one’s inner eyes are opened, you will find Him everywhere. You cannot help but love and love and love.
The expression is of God, as He is indefinable. His expression is also indefinable because He expresses himself in love, and love is indefinable. I might have said this before if a boy asked a girl, “Why do you love me?” she said, “Because you are handsome, and you have a pretty nose, and what have you.” It is not love; she is forming an ideal of their mental conception, and when that fades away in that familiarity and togetherness, then there are problems and troubles. Where is the love? Love is an inner feeling; love is God, an inner experience where I can experience my beloved totally within me.
INNER SATISFACTION COMES FROM UNFOLDING THE HEART
So, life should be experienced more than thought about. We find most of our problems because we think of life, that life should be this way and life should be that way, and I must have a certain kind of lounge sofa that will make my life happier. I must have a specific type of car, I must have this, I must have that, and these are all just conceptions of the mind. You can be just as happy sitting comfortably in a chair, which you can buy at the auction mart for ten pounds and have covered for another twenty dollars instead of paying five hundred at the shop.
All this boils down to inner satisfaction and inner contentment, not just to be a show-off to the world. My house is better than the Jones’s; my car is better than his; it is just ego building which detracts from you, takes away your joy, destroys you, destroys your inner self while to build your authentic inner self, you would find that contentment. And to repeat, it does not come from wishful thinking; it comes from doing something about it. It comes by activating those brain cells and unfolding the heart, and the royal road is through meditation and spiritual practices, and then things become smooth. I was here last year less than a year ago, and I met many meditators. And I could see on their faces great calm and greater peace. I could notice their faces, and I thank Divinity for making me an instrument to bring his message of love and peace. Many teachers have taught of love and peace, love thy neighbour, love this, love that, love that, but you have got to have the tools, which is my mission. It teaches you love and peace and gives you tools you can use individually. You might tell your workers to knock the nail in that wall, but provide them with the hammer. That is what we need. Spiritual Masters come from time to time to fulfil man’s spiritual needs as they are required.
You know God is one. The Hindus call him by the name of Ishvara, the Moslems call him by the name of Allah, and Christians call him by the name of Christos, Christ.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang CAN 1984 – 03
