A few weeks ago, I took my car to the Christian Brothers automotive workshop for a minor repair. In their shop, they have a board with a quote from the Bible as follows:
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
The above statement is very similar to the declarations from the Vedanta on the paths to attain the realization of the supreme. It took me by pleasant surprise on the uniformity in the proclamation of the Ultimate Truths in all the religions.
The meaning for the words ‘Be Still’ does not mean stillness of the individual in terms of the outwardly activities. No living creature in this planet can be physically still as long as there is life in it. Nor is it meant to remain in a coma like mental state without any reaction to the environment.
The words ‘Be Still’ is meant to indicate the stillness of our minds to the stimuli from outside. What is mind ? Mind is nothing but the flow of thoughts. The stimuli received from our five sense organs (pancha-kosas) cause reactions and thought flow in our mind which results in formation of the desires. The desires in turn create more thought flows and this cycle continues till it saps all the energy in the individual and wastes it through unproductive activities. This is the cause of inefficiency in every individual.
On the other hand, by controlling the mind, a person can control his entire personality layers and direct it towards efficient productive work. Controlling the flow of unnecessary and wasteful thoughts conserves the energy in an individual which can be utilized for productive work. The feeling of tiredness in a person is not always due to exhaustive physical work. In today’s world where most of the jobs are white-collar professions to be done at home (telecommute!) or in an air-conditioned office space with all facilities at the press of a button(!), we still find people tired and not able to do anything else at the end of a day’s work. This situation is not the physical tiredness (as was the case in farming era), it is mental tiredness due to un-necessary stress and tension caused due to wasteful thoughts.
Our Srutis (Vedanta) extort us to overcome the pulls of our BMI layers (Body, Mind and Intellect), so that we can exhaust our vasanas (desires). Vasanas are like the fog which covers our view of the Supreme Divinity within us. Clearing the vasanas through the control of the BMI, through the “Swadhyaya, Sravanam, Mananam and Dhyanam” of the Vedantic scriptures (please refer to my previous posting) and the knowledge gained through them helps us see and understand the Divinity within and attain the realization.
Control of mind brings less agitation and more peace within. As this is continued, mind becomes less agitated and more peaceful, pure and serene. A pure and serene individual can hear the stillness within – it is the calm humming sound of the soul within which is like the ‘Sruthi’ (or under-tones) in a music performance. Aligning our worldly activities to this stillness orients our life to the natural wavelength of this universe and gives us a productive and peaceful life. An individual who has stilled his mind and heard his inner soul realizes the oneness of that soul across the entire universe and merges into that One Supreme Being – the Supreme Brahman. Thereafter such a ‘Mahatma’ (great soul), though walking and acting in this world in flesh and blood, is mentally and intellectually merged into the Divine and is not affected by the worldly limitations.
Adi Shankaracharya, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Ramana Maharishi are fine examples of such individuals, though cast in human form, are verily GOD in themselves.
Hari Om.