CHOOSE TO DWELL IN TRUTH

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

49. CHOOSE TO DWELL IN TRUTH
Yesterday, we briefly dwelt upon the central experience around which the whole edifice of
the Vedic religion is built. The sages who had this exalted experience declared that everything here
is indwelt by the presence of God. God is immanent in all existence. Isavasyamidam sarvam yat
kimcha jagatyam jagat (All this whatsoever in this universe that moves or moves not is indwelt by
the Lord). Thus they declared this central experience upon which the whole of Hinduism is based.
This central experience was once again granted to Arjuna in the astounding and amazing
vision by which he was blessed, through the grace of Lord Krishna, in the eleventh chapter of the
Bhagavad Gita, when Lord Krishna granted him the vision of His cosmic form. Arjuna saw God
and God alone everywhere. Wherever he turned, wherever he gazed, he beheld nothing but God. He
was thrilled, exalted, awestruck, overwhelmed by this great vision.
Sarvam khalvidam brahma. Neha nanasti kinchana (Verily, everything here is Brahman.
There exists nothing other than This). In the light of this great vision, this great experience, this
central fact of the Vedic vision and the Vedic way of life, how should one conduct oneself? These
detailed instructions were given by the same Lord Krishna in the eleventh book of the great
scripture the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana when He declared His last and final departing
message to the great

Through him, He taught what it means to live in the light of this great vision, to remember it
and to bring it into your feelings, your thoughts, your view of things and the way in which you relate
yourself to life. And this vision and this teaching gives you the key to how to spiritualise all your
life, your actions and your day-to-day dealings with this world in which you have to live, move and
have your being, physically speaking.
Can this physical aspect of your life also be spiritualised, raised up to a spiritual height?
Yes. Not only yes, but if you wish to enter into God-experience, it is indispensable. Otherwise, you
will always be held prisoner to this gross level of consciousness. You will ever dwell in physical
consciousness and relate yourself to this physical world outside on that level only. There will be no
possibility of your rising beyond and going into a higher plane of spiritual consciousness unless and
until you spiritualise the physical—transform it—and in and through it raise yourself to a higher
level of spiritual consciousness. It is through your day-to-day life that you have to gradually
proceed upon the ladder which ascends into the supreme realm of God-vision.
It is up to you to decide whether you will allow the changing appearances to completely fill
you and dominate your life or whether you will allow the inner spiritual fact to infill you and
transform your life. You have to choose.
What is your choice—to allow the ever-changing, physical appearances to be the basis of
your life and actions, or to choose to make the great spiritual experience and fact of your ancestors
to be the basis and means of relating yourself to this world outside? If you clearly recognise that it is
upon this choice that the vision and quality of your life depends, you will reach the ultimate
experience.
If you choose to set aside this great truth, shove it to the sidelines, your life will be an
everlasting groping, stumbling, falling and moving around in circles. If you choose to live in the
light of this truth, then your entire life becomes illumined. You no longer live in the dark; you walk
in the Light. You are able to declare: “I am in the Light; the Light is in me; I am the Light.”
Then your whole life becomes spiritualised. This is a matter of your choice—whether in the
presence of Light you choose to dwell in darkness, or whether you choose to come out of the
darkness once and for all, refusing, rejecting, all possibility of return to that darkness. You say:
“tamaso ma jyotir gamaya. Never more, after having come into contact with the Isa Upanishad, the
Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavatam and with Gurudev who lived all three, never more shall I live in
darkness in the midst of Light. I shall ever dwell in the Light, move in the Light and ultimately attain
illumination.”
If that is the determination, then nothing in this world can prevent you from becoming a
jivan-mukta, from living a radiant life of divine vision and quality. For in this awareness anything
that is petty, ignoble or unspiritual cannot prevail—impossible! Anything that is petty, that is
unspiritual dare not enter into such a life. Even if it enters, it will be discovered immediately, put to
shame and hastily got rid of, not allowed to proceed further. Such is the power of the radiance, the
power of the light of God, that you invoke if you choose to live in this vision.

The choice is before us each day, each dawn. As a matter of fact, the Kathopanishad goes
one step further and says that the choice is before you each moment, at every step. The choice is
always before you within and without, in the realm of your thoughts, your sentiments and feelings
as well as your actions which are only a pale reflection of that which you are, that which, in fact, is
your true field of action.
The Kathopanishad also says that it is not realised, it is not attained, by one who has not
turned away from the wrong ways of living. It cannot be attained by one in whom serenity has not
been established through renunciation, right perception, detachment and the giving up of delusion.
It cannot be attained by one who has not ingathered his mind, overcoming its restlessness and
ceaseless tendency to move outwards and lose itself among the objects of the senses. Unless the
mind is resolutely brought inside and made to stay upon the Atman, one cannot attain illumination.
It can be attained only through the wisdom that dawns when these conditions have been met.
Therefore, verily, every moment of your life you have the choice of adopting a spiritual vision, of
invoking a spiritual bhava and attitude, and seeing in every act that you do an association with that
great Reality that is immanent in all creation.
“I am not far away from God. God is never far away from me. He is everywhere, all around,
within and without. This is the truth. In this truth I shall strive to live.” If you choose thus, you are on
the way to immortality, to liberation, to divine perfection.
All the scriptures are a call to this choice, the right choice: Arise, awake and seek
enlightenment. All the scriptures are a great clarion call to adopt this vision, to live and act in the
light of this vision, and to attain illumination. That is the great, eternal call of the Upanishads to
each and every one of you.
Outer circumstances do not matter. Because it is the inner view and vision that has the
power to transform, to overcome all outer circumstances and to make you see the Divine indwelling
the so-called gross physical universe.
There is no gross physical universe at all. Everywhere only God prevails. Everywhere only
the Divine pervades. You live in that Divinity. The so-called gross world and earthly circumstances
are our creation, our imagination. Brahman alone exists.
Let us live in truth. Let us affirm and assert the truth and not commit the great error of
choosing to live in falsehood. Reject falsehood. Affirm truth. That is the whole of viveka and
vichara, of discrimination and enquiry. May God and guru enable you to lead this lofty life of the
truth-vision and crown yourself with supreme blessedness in this very incarnation, in this very
body!
Ponder this deeply and well. If you make up your mind, there is no such thing that is
impossible to the human soul, the jivatma, richly endowed with a human birth and status. This truth
is to be firmly grasped.

If you consider yourself to be a weak human being, then everything is impossible,
everything is difficult, everything is uncertain. If you consider yourself to be a divine being,
everything becomes possible, everything becomes easy, everything becomes sure and certain.
So, whether you think of yourself in error or whether you think of yourself in knowledge is
the decisive factor. What do you choose? Darkness or light? Error or knowledge? Ajnana or jnana?
It is for you to decide.
Gurudev wants you to live in the light of knowledge, to arise, awake, and attain wisdom.
The Upanishads want you to live in the light of knowledge. The prayer tamaso ma jyotir gamaya
induces you, reminds you, goads you, to live in the light of knowledge. Ignorance has never been
encouraged in the context of the Vedic way of life, in the context of the spiritual culture of India. It
has never been favoured.
This indeed is a crucial, decisive factor upon which you must take a definite stand—without
vacillation, without faltering, without uncertainty.