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will come. Further, the last moment is not one moment among many others; it is the
fruit of what man has done, felt, thought, experienced, or passed through during the
course of his entire life. The last thought is the quintessence, the juice, the honey, as it
were, squeezed out of what one has lived through in life. Hence, a continual
establishment of oneself in Yoga is advised. Else, one would be taken by surprise. It is
known that wars do not take place always, but everyone is ready for it any moment. One
does not start manufacturing weapons when the enemy unleashes attacks. Though there
be no apparent danger of that kind, one is prepared for the eventuality as if it is to
pounce on oneself now. While death may take place after many years, it can occur the
next moment, also. Man is not omniscient; he cannot know his future. Hence, he has to
consider the present as if it is the last moment, and, like a good child, be ready by
making necessary preparations, lest he should be surprised by an unexpected summons.
THE SPIRIT OF RELIGION MUST SATURATE ONE S DAILY LIFE
A good life is, in a way, the Godly life. Goodness is a resplendence, a reflection of a
modicum of divinity. The more is man divine, the more is he also good. In fact, goodness
is a characteristic to be found in God alone, and man is good only in proportion to his
proximity to God. When we are advised to set apart a little time daily for the purpose of
meditation, it is also essential for us to carry this mood of meditation through our day-
to-day activities. While it is difficult to bring about a rapprochement between the
religious and the secular, for obvious reasons, a heightened form of religious
consciousness should be able to effect this harmony. The whole of life is a single
presentation, and not a bifurcated community of independent units. The unwholesome
dissociation of psychological functions from one another is the reason behind the
distinction man makes between the secular and the religious. Man has emotions which
are of a given nature, demarcated from other types of feelings, due to which he carries
this distinction outwardly to his practical life, and sets aside a group of his activities,
dissociating them from his religious aspirations. And, often he lives an entirely different
life when he is not in a mood of religion. The spirit of religious worship and meditation
has to saturate and seep into the secular life, if life is to become a healthy whole. Even as
cloth soaked in water absorbs into its very fibre the whole of water, the apparently
secular life has to become a living step to the more organised dimension of religious
experience.
Meditation need not necessarily mean a withdrawal in an antisocial or unsocial manner.
Nothing can be more natural than meditation. Meditation need not suggest the shutting
oneself off psychologically from certain other functions of life. The psyche is a whole, a
Gestalt, as they usually call it. It is not a partitioned house divided against itself. The
psychological organ is a compact indivisibility. Every thought is a whole thought. Thus,
when we enter into meditation, the entire psychic wholeness gets charged, even those
The Philosophy of Religion by Swami Krishnananda
The Philosophy of Religion by Swami Krishnananda 74
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aspects which are connected with the well-known secular engagements.
BACKGROUND OF THOUGHT A NECESSITY IN PRACTICE
Though all this may appear a hard thing, especially for beginners, students may follow
an alternative with advantage, viz., the maintenance of a background of thought at all
times. This is something important to remember. Everyone has a background of thought
apart from the way in which one projects one s thoughts when one is busy working
through the chosen career in life. When we are tired, we withdraw ourselves into the
background of thought. Birds retire to their nests during the close of the day; the mind
should be made to retire into its background. There is a stable ground to rest, and this
ground is to be perpetually there. We should not be off our ground even when working
in an office. The advantage of the presence of this background in oneself can be availed
of even while engaged in any work. One may have to be for eight hours in an office, for
instance. It does not mean that one should forget everything else and be absorbed in a
mathematical calculation or the preparation of a register for all the hours, to the
exclusion of even one s health and other essentials. The background of thought should
be maintained, and it cannot be lost sight of even in an hour of hard labour. An
important occupation cannot be forgotten in spite of other activities which may engage
one s attention on the surface. Though a person may be an officer, or a worker in a
specific occupation or business, while under these circumstances when he is wholly
engaged in his work or the execution of official responsibilities he cannot afford to forget
a principal responsibility of his, or an important function to be performed even in the
midst of the present duties.
Here, one should be able to distinguish the essentials from the secondary aspects of life.
While the secondary aspects are important enough, they lose their meaning when the
essentials are forgotten. The essentials are the soul, and all the other things are the body
of this soul. Even when one is working, one can close one s eyes for a few minutes. This
can be done even in an office. It is not necessary to think, I am in an office; I have to go
to the temple for meditation after five hours. One can put one s pen down for a few
minutes, and the heavens are not going to fall. There should be no difficulty about it.
Meditation is not so much a quantity as a quality of one s inward attunement. It is the
way in which one thinks that is important, and not the time that one spends in thinking.
In a second, one can be qualitatively roused up into an immense strength of union with
God. It will take only a moment to do this feat. It is not conceivable that the work-a-day
occupations can be a real hindrance in this practice of maintaining a background
thought to rejuvenate oneself. The capacity on one s part to rouse oneself into this spirit
of union will depend on the intensity which one feels for the ideal, the love that one
evinces for this achievement, the aspiration for the liberation of spirit from every
shackle and limitation.
NECESSITY FOR INTENSE FEELING IN THE INNER EXERCISE
Sage Patanjali advises in some place, The achievement is rapid where the feeling is
intense (tivrasamveganam asannah). Quick is the result where the aspiration is
burning. Patanjali uses the term adhimatra , which means intensely intense , to
designate the quality of aspiration that is essential for the attainment. It is not enough if
the longing is merely intense ; it should be intensely intense . The extent of the
intensity of feeling will depend upon the extent of one s understanding of the nature of
The Philosophy of Religion by Swami Krishnananda
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