*** In Search of the Divine World ***

When studying the Upanishads in my early days,
I always visualized the divine abode in the Sun god and
was performing the practices enjoined in certain texts.

Even later, after settling at the abode of Sri Maharshi,
I continued this practice (upasana).

It proved very hard to succeed in this process and
I had to undergo very trying experiences,
so I referred the whole matter to Bhagavan.

"So you want to go to the divine world?" asked he.

"That is what I am trying to obtain;
that is what the scriptures prescribe," I answered.

"But where are you now?" the Master asked.

I replied, "I am in your presence."

"Poor thing! You are here and now in the divine world,
and you want to obtain it elsewhere!

Know that to be the divine world
where one is firmly established in the Divine.
Such a one is full (purna);
he encompasses and transcends all that is manifest.

He is the substratum of the screen
on which the whole manifestation runs like the picture film.

Whether moving pictures run or not,
the screen is always there
and is never affected by the action of the pictures.

You are here and now in the divine world.

You are like a thirsty man wanting to drink,
while he is all the time standing neck deep in the Ganga.

Give up all efforts and surrender.
Let the 'I' that wants the divine world die,
and the Divine in you will be realised here and now.

For it is already in you as the Self,
not different from the Divine (Brahman),
nameless and formless.

It is already in you,
so how are you to obtain that which ever remains obtained?"

"The Self (atman) in you is surely not different from US."
Thus spoke Bhagavan.

~ T.K.Sundaresa Iyer, At the Feet of Bhagavan