Chapter 5 - Rest Within
Day 38
Birth and death are both the same - they happen because of the coming together and separation of five elements. We have called these two processes birth and death.
The body is made up of millions of cells, and when all these cells decide not to stay together but to separate, the body starts coming apart. Love engulfs each and every atom in creation.
The principle that holds everything together is love, and the same principle also separates everything. When you observe the sea from an airplane, you do not see the rising waves.
You see the ocean, but the waves and bubbles look still - you do not see the movement of the water. Only when you are near the sea do you notice that new waves are continually rising.
You do not think that it is one wave, but groups of waves appearing again and again. It is an optical illusion. Similarly, the play of the five elements makes it appear that this creation exists and has no creator.
It is not that someone created all this and then left it and is sitting somewhere far away. When you come close, you can see a river's flow.
But if you look at it from another angle, a river is part of a cycle that includes river, sea, clouds and again the river. All these are one cycle.
However, when you look from the normal point of view, everything looks static. When you see a fan turning, it looks like a spinning plate. You do not see the blades.
This creation and its ways are like this. Let's look at it from another angle- suppose creation is not created by any individual and that the waves rise and fall on their own.
It is the sea's nature. That is why Jain philosophers said, God is not sitting somewhere. All actions happen according to a principle that is called karma.
Guru Nanak called this "hukam," or "ajna." Everything happens because of ajña, karma. If, after creating this whole creation, God left it, then he cannot exist everywhere.
But it is not possible to keep God away from what is, wherever it is. It is like a pot and clay - a pot is made from clay, but now is different from the clay.
However, it is not possible to see a pot without the clay. The clay has become the pot. In the same way, this world has come from God, and it is God.
Therefore God is present in each atom of this creation just as clay is present in the pot. Creation has been created out of five elements in addition to consciousness.
That is to say, the clay has become the pot. There is no potter who prepared the pot. If the potter or God had a different existence then God would not be present everywhere.
Nobody has created waves in the ocean, but it is the ocean water that has become the waves. Did anyone come to create waves? It is impossible.
The waves have started by themselves. Similarly, the creation out of five elements has taken place by itself. The Creator is not different from the five elements, and he is not sitting somewhere else having created the elements.
God is interwoven in this creation. Science accepts the truth that this creation has been created by God. It only searches for how it is created. When pure knowledge dawns in you, everything belongs to you.
When pure knowledge dawns in you, impurities and the feeling of "others" vanish. The moment you come in contact with pure knowledge, everything in this flowing cycle of existence belongs to you.
Everything in creation is cyclic. Only a confused person is unhappy while only a person who has a clear mind can be. This is a sign of intelligence.
Know that if a person is unhappy, then he is not really intelligent, though he may think he is. Unhappiness is born from a lack of intelligence.
When intelligence vanishes, anger comes. When we do not have a broad-vision, intelligence is lost. Where there is greed, the intellect stops working, and intelligence at that point becomes narrow and limited.
When you look at the world with broad vision the intellect has no use. Intelligence understands - "From where did this world l come?" "From where did I come?"
What am I made of?" The difference between people and animals is that in people, intelligence has blossomed, while in animals it has not. The intellect is purified.
Let us understand the distinction between pure and impure intelligence. Impure intelligence looks at the present from the point of view of the past.
It holds on to past experiences and looks at present experiences with those old spectacles. The inability to understand the present as it is, is called impure intelligence.
Pure intelligence sees the present as it is. It helps to distinguish between logic, wrong logic and special logic. Such vision is an expansion of pure knowledge.
Pure intelligence looks at truth as it is without being swayed by emotions. If you look at a situation or person emotionally, you do not see the situation as it.
You only impose your own views and emotions on it. When you look at a situation while you are stuck in your feelings, you say, "Oh, I feel so and so about this situation."
How to escape this trap? Everyone says that, what he sees is true, which depends on his own personal experience. Nobody is ready to see situations as they are.
People tend to cling to just one way of thinking, claiming that only their way is correct while other ways are all wrong. There is so much of ego.
How do we know whether our knowledge is wrong or right? Look at the truth from different angles. When you see it from various points of view, then you have a broad perspective.
Thorough knowledge investigates a situation from different angles. For example, you have impure knowledge, if your wife complains about your mother you get angry at your mother and quarrel with her based on your wife's complaints.
Similarly, if your mother complains about your wife, you believe her and shout at your wife. This situation results from impure knowledge.
What does a person do who has pure knowledge? He will very patiently listen to both points of view and just keep quiet. Do not entertain such complaints, which are short-lived.
Their complaints are an outpour of m bad feelings towards each other, which were present in their minds. Anyway, what was to happen between them has happened.
Patiently listen to them and keep quiet. A similar thing happens between brothers and sisters. Even mothers have the same problem with their children.
Look at each situation with pure knowledge and see the problems simply fade away.
