River and Sea

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

[This is an extract from the article titled 'Secret of Harmonious Human Development' that appeared in the 
February 1985 issue of the monthly journal ‘Vicharasetu – The Path of Introspection’]

Take the water of Brahmaputra river and seal it in a bottle. It will go bad very soon. The same river flows on to the sea, and the sea assimilates it, without getting contaminated. Why? Sea water is saline, and salinity is imparted to the river inflow. Likewise, whatever impressions and reactions are caused by the world and objects in you, your mind must infuse into them the nature of the Self, like the sea, to get them all spiritualized and harmonized. Let the development outside be a personal, domestic, social, national or international one. The moment it enters your being, instantly the subjective magnitude, the felicity of the Self, must be infused into it, as the sea does to the river flowing on to its depths.

If you strike at the secret of this subjective harmonious development, with every act of your life, with every external outcome, you will start growing internally, spiritually. As the food you eat gets assimilated in the stomach, so too all reactions in the mind will be assimilated by the spiritual buddhi and its psychic work. Know first of all the infinite magnitude of your own Subject, the Self. The anchor of the mind in the Self within, is stronger than that of the body upon a huge tree or mountain.   The earth on which we live, our body  rests, is itself revolving fast; but the Self to which  the mind is tied, does not swing or swerve the least!

If you sit on the small branch of a tree, when wind blows at great speed, you will begin to swing. But if you sit tight on the trunk, you will not. Still more so is the case of the mind which remains tied to the unshakeable Self within. No incident or accident will be able to dislodge the mind.

The modern mankind  has  a  great deal  of objective knowledge and expertise. Alongside, they must try to cultivate the subjective spiritual dimensions also. Then the impact caused by the external achievements will be smoothly harmonized, and there will be no conflict  or  crisis in the mind level.    The need for the mind's harmony, mental stability and intelligential steadiness, is as much today as it was in Treta Yuga, tens of thousands of years ago.  Because, human personality is the same as it was ages ago. The biochemistry and biophysics of the body, I think, have not changed.  The same five senses which were there in the beginning of human creation continue even today changelessly.    Life remains as much an interaction with the outer objects as it was right in the most ancient time. Constancy of the inner need also prevails therefore.

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