What do you see here? A harmonium. Do you think a few years back this harmonium existed? Do you think this harmonium will exist forever? Of course not, so this was not, and this will not be, but right now, this is present. It is true for right now. But because it was not, and in future will not be, can you call it absolute truth? No. At the same time, you see it, therefore you call it truth. So you have to use the word relative, not absolute. For the nature of absolute truth is, it was, it is, it will be.
The nature of absolute truth is, in short, eternal. So anything which you perceive through the ego, through the mind, through the senses, anything, whether it is sun, or moon, or stars, or this entire world, humanity or your own body, property, house, anything which is visible to you, is it absolute truth? It is all going to change. But you see it. It known as sense perception. So therefore you have the proof known as pratyeksha pramana or things which you can see and therefore believe to be true to your senses. Sense perception looks like true, but it is not absolute truth. Everything. everything which you see will not be the same always. It is perishable. It is transitory. It is definitely going to change and change is the law of the entire cosmos.
So you can say, just for our mind to understand that there are two types of truth, relative and absolute. Absolute truth is neither this life nor this death, but beyond both life and death. A state of permanent peace where there is no duality, where there is no change, where there is no pain. That absolute peace, that perennial joy, that immortal kingdom of heaven is the absolute truth, the Atman, the Self. All masters have realized that and therefore they deal only with that subject. But we believe this world to be true until things as they change bring us a great amount of pain.
As the changes happen, sometimes we may feel good, sometimes we feel very, very pained. The pain and the misery, the decay and death, all these things when we ponder upon them will be making us see the life but clearly, we have to ask this question: is this real? When a fast friend whom you have loved all your life deceived you all of a sudden for any reason, then we begin questioning, is this real? When your health suddenly fails you, and you feel no fun in life anymore because you are in pain, then you immediately ask the question, is this real?
And several projects you had in your mind and all your life you directed all your efforts toward that, and suddenly everything collapsed, you ask the question, is this real? Someone you loved dies, and you ask the same question, is this real? From that question begins our journey towards the absolute. There is another type of pramana (proof) known as anumana: inference. Which means whenever you see smoke, you infer that there is fire. So you need not actually see the fire, you can infer that there is fire.
Like that you see everything here is so precise, in Nature, in the world, in the movement of sun, moon, stars, galaxies, therefore you infer, reflect that there must be some perfect Cosmic Intelligence behind all these. You know that precise law cannot manifest unless there is an intelligence behind it which has made the law. Therefore, you see the laws: of nature, of karma, dharma, love, etc. You can infer that no one could make these laws other than a perfect consciousness, a perfect intelligence. You see the law, but not the Lawgiver. However, you can infer that the Lawgiver exists. Even this type of proof, of inference, has not made you realize the Truth, though, because you have not yet seen. But the Upanishads declare, nothing short of God-realization, or Self-realization could be called as the purpose of life, because purpose of life should be a complete fulfillment. There cannot be any more doubts or questions afterwards. Complete fulfillment could not be possible unless you realize the absolute truth.
Now what is the way through which one can realize the absolute? That way, that method through which you realize the absolute truth is known as revelation. Truth can only be comprehended, not by the senses, not by the mind, not by mere words other than the words charged with realization. Then alone you will have that revelation and the revealed truth. And the masters who had such revelations, when they spoke, there was nectar, there was fire, there was joy and there was a power to make the hearers to see the truth, to feel that peace, and definitely your soul thinks and knows "this is truth". So that is known as arghama pramana (revelation, the Vedas). And that is the Upanishad.
Upanishad means not just the book. Upanishad means the revelation. The truth that is revealed to the guru. That truth could only reveal itself to a pure mind. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It is beyond senses, beyond the mind, where the supersensuous, or superconscious, mystical vision is possible. The Upanishads declare: "Once the soul comes into contact with its Creator, that is God, then all the doubts are destroyed. Karma fuel is reduced to ashes, and the knots of all the desires are rent asunder." And this wonderful, mystical, spiritual experience of the superconscious state is incapable of being expressed; the mind baffles, the mind returns baffled. Unable to express, the highest vocabulary gets dumbfounded.
But the experience of bliss, of peace, of immortality, of that sweetness of love will remain with you forever and ever! No matter what you have, you will have fear until you realize God or Atman. No matter what you have, you will not be rid of total fear, it will be there until you completely realize, until intellectually you are convinced of the presence of truth and develop that faith. You are free from fear by realizing the immortal bliss of your true Self or Atman. The mind cannot explain or think in that exalted state which is beyond its ken. Vocabulary cannot express it. It is inexpressible.
This absolute truth is imperishable because it is beyond time. See, all these things which we see are born in time, and therefore they are going to die. That which is beyond time is imperishable. That which is beyond space is indivisible. It is space which divides everything. And that which is the cause of everything has no causality or causation. Being itself the cause of all the causes. This underlying unity behind all duality or variety is the one, fundamental truth which is continuously expressed in Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahmasutras. In the midst of death, the life persists. In the midst of darkness, the light persists.
So in the midst of all this death and change which we see with our sense perception, both the physics and metaphysics agree that there is an underlying unity, a homogeneous unity in the midst of all heterogenous change which is happening constantly. And this underlying unity, this absolute truth in which move and have our being, that is the one thing which the mind cannot grasp. We are right in It, we move and have our being in It, but our mind cannot grasp It. But when the mind is stilled....
As the mind tries to grasp it, it eludes. It eludes every mind and intellect, but when the mind is calmed, then the truth is revealed. Because truth exists, the mind need not make it up or create it from anywhere. So that which is not truth should be removed from the mind. Then that which is truth reveals itself. The three states of consciousness, wakeful, dream and deep sleep are relative states and not absolute. One is contradictory to the other. In the absolute, there is no contradiction. But if you reach the transcendental, the supramental or supersensuous, there is no contradiction. It is indivisible, being beyond space; imperishable, being beyond time. That is the fulfillment of life, the purpose of life; that is the kingdom of heaven. Revelation alone can make you see God.
The holy scripture, which is the revealed word of God to the gurus, or the saints, that is the one course through which God comes as guru and speaks through him, the revelation. Therefore God, the guru, and the Word; God, the Word and the guru, these three are inseparable. Guru is one who upholds the scripture. Guru is one to whom the word of God or the scriptures reveal their inner secret, their esoteric teaching, their secret doctrines. And when such a one speaks, invariably your mind is taken away from the daily worry to a higher height, in a greater flight to the bosom of the Infinite. That is the test of the guru. Jesus used to say, do not look at my other miracles, my word is the greatest miracle. That is what the Himalayan sages in the Upanishads declare.
What is it we have to do to realize the Truth? The three techniques: listening again and again to the same teaching (shravanam), and then to clear your doubts, you have to reason again and again upon the Truth which you have heard from the guru (mananam). And then you have to meditate deeply upon the Truth (nidhidyasanam). When after listening, the mind is completely convinced--if doubts arise, ask those questions guilelessly and clear those doubts--and when the intellect or mind is convinced, then such a mind is ready to meditate. In meditation when the mind is stilled and senses are calmed, then the Truth is revealed. How will you know how much you have progressed? Whether you are just a beginner or what? Upanishad means the highest yoga, there is nothing higher than that jnana, pure knowledge. THE knowledge. Know the truth and truth is going to free you teaches the Bible. You will know your progress if you have an intense longing, that you just can't wait. That is a test of your progress.
Once Swami Vivekananda came to Ramakrishna, his guru, and asked, why are there are so many people who believe in God but are not yet realized? Ramakrishna smiled and said, do you think that many people believe? So many people have all faith in God? Wait a moment. Suppose a thief knows that just beyond this wall there is a treasure, can he rest? What will he be doing? He will be exploring every method how he can get at the treasure. People, if they really believe, if they have faith that God is not a remote entity, but an immediate presence, do you think they can rest afterwards? How happily people postpone spiritual things. What is the reason? Because they are not convinced. They have heard about it, they have read about it, they want to believe, they think sometimes they believe, but the true faith is that which makes you intense, that you can't wait, that you have to have it.
If you can't wait and you are ready to die to realize the truth, that is faith. You have to have that intense and exclusive longing, like the lotus will blossom only by the kiss of the rays of the morning sun, that is how that intensity should be. One saint sings in a mystical song-sermon that there is a mythological bird called the Chakora bird. The whole day it scolds the sun just waiting for the blessed peaceful moon, for its darshan. And the whole night when the Chakora bird is rejoicing and singing, the lotus scolds the moon. The lotus is unhappy and meditates all night so it can have darshan of its Beloved, the morning sun. When you have that kind of longing, like the Chakora bird for the moon, like the lotus for the sun, your progress is assured.
Tulasidas talks about a bird also, the Chataka. It is floating on the bosom of the Ganges, the holy river, and it is very thirsty, but it won't drink even the holiest water of the Ganges; it opens its beak only for the raindrops. Never to hear anything other than the truth, never to see anything other than the truth, like that, when the soul turns only towards God and the revelations, that is when you shall have God-realization. Our heart should be like Chataka for the raindrops, like Chakora for the darshan of the moon, like the lotus for the kiss and embrace of the rays of the sun. All our thoughts should run towards truth or God just like the river dancing into the ocean. River only wants to become ocean. River doesn't want to become anything else. Like that, soul would only like to merge and become one with God. It cannot become anything else.
Soul cannot become body. Soul cannot become mind. Soul can only become God, because it has come from God, its nature is immortality. Therefore it is not peaceful or happy with anything other than God. People have everything but peace because peace is not in anything other than God. And that peace which is in God is a peace which passeth all understanding. Neither sense perception nor inference is enough to realize truth, both being relative. For absolute truth, you need only revelation. So how to begin with that? You have to begin with a working faith. You haven't seen, but you are hearing from people in whom you have faith. Those whom you know are selflessly giving you the truth, the wisdom ....
transcribed from satsangas on "The Upanishads", 1979-1982