Question : Dear Guruji, I have heard that we were pure souls residing with lord vishnu once upon a time. But due to our selfishness that I am the controller of universe, we fell down to this world. Even if we attain mukti in this life, what is the assurance that we will not fall back. How can one fall back from vaikuntha when he is completely satisfied, which is a qualification to reach there?
Answer :
Dear and blessed Soul:
Harih Om Tat Sat! Your question on Vaikuntha and Mukti has two answers:
- Our Shastras have an order of ascendance. People are familiar with the lower ones, where all these plural considerations feature. Going up, coming down, Vaikuntha, Kailasa and the like come under this.
- When the seeking mind is not satisfied with these interim half-true pronouncements, finding them disagreeable and conflicting, the seeker is expected to go to the higher Texts, final revelations, to find his redress. You have to do this, or at least be ready for it.
In the fullness and endlessness of creation, is there any going up and down? Wherever you stand on the earth, you can only see up, and that too is endless. If you go to the diametrically opposite part of the earth and look, it can only be upward. Is there any down at all?
- So try to comprehend this endlessness or infinitude. Only then problems caused by finite creations and factors will end.
- Mukti means freedom. This is for the mind and intelligence alike. For the mind, mukti results, when it derives contentment in full. In a contented mind, no desire or its manifold forms like hatred, fear, etc. arise. Contentment means fullness and abundance, disallowing all kinds of craving or lacks. For intelligence, mukti means full clarity, enlightenment, with regard to everything and all. You will have no doubts, questions, problems or quests for solutions. The present questions of yours would also be irrelevant then. Is there any Vaikuntha, what is the situation there, will those from there ever come back, if so when, why should they do so? These or any more such queries will not be there at all.
- As Mundaka Upanishad puts it: The knot of the heart (ego) is broken or untied; doubts are dispelled; all karmas, past, present or future, become extinct. This means your mind will not have any thoughts about any of these. Let there be or not be, a lofty place like Vaikuntha. What is it to me? I already have what I wished and could wish for. I am fulfilled.
- Death or life of the body would mean nothing to me. It is like a leaf falling from a huge banyan tree. Let it fall anywhere, in a holy place, a drain, or road crossing. What is it to me?
- Can you imagine? This is the psychological fullness and stability. This is the intelligential clarity and unshakability. Once these two are there, you need nothing more.
This is the answer for you. Outlive the interim statements, and stand on final revelations from the Scriptures. Be firm, clear, stable and full within.
Something more. I wonder whether I should say this, and whether you will be ready to receive and own it up.
If you pursue questions about the world, the answers given by Upanishads, Krishna, Sreemad Bhaagavatam, etc. are clear, firm and final:
There is only one existence – All-pervading and Full. It does not allow anything second or third. So what is all this around? It is an appearance. Appearance can only be on something substantial. That is Brahman or God.
By its own inscrutable power, God can make anything appear. That is how all this manifold is there. All are like thoughts and feelings of the mind. No thought or feeling can be extracted to be a distinct entity. The same mind alone imprints the world and makes it felt. If thoughts and feelings are ungross, unsubstantial, then these others also are. It is a simple finding.
That is why the Upanishads say: There is no evolution, dissolution, no bondage, no liberation. All these are but mentations and intellections. They will be so, till by dint of his own tormenting notes, the seeker will go to their genesis, to find that none of them has a real base.
Mind you, the source from which all thoughts occur, is a no-thought one. From no-thought all thoughts come. From zero has come all. Can the all be true then, or all are verily the zero itself?
I wonder whether I have written in excess of what your mind needs, looks for, and can absorb. I wish it is not, and you will find this quite absorbable.
Love and aashirvaad,
Antaratma,
Swamiji
