A Letter to a Disciple in India

My affectionate Divine Mother, Maya Ma,

I have received your letter on 22 September 1978 and was extremely happy to read the letter, because you are constantly remaining in the divine stage, also maintaining divine alertness in you.

Your meditation, your faith and surrender to Gurus, enables you to have constant God realization. It is why in your whole gross body you are perceiving the living presence of Hariharananda. In your letter you have put so many intricate questions, i.e., what is nirguna brahma and saguna brahma; and, in spite of utmost attempts, why human being is coming down and committing mistakes? Now I am giving the answers to your questions.

In the Bhagavad Gita it is written manusyanam sahashreshu kaschid yatati siddhaye. Among thousands of people scarcely one strives for perfection, because before their human birth they have instinct-consciousness, or animal habits. And gradually they got the ego consciousness, which means their consciousness is confined in the physical senses, the material world and the gross body. And that habit is so deep that although they are going into the superconsciousness stage a bad environment can bring them down to delusion, illusion, and error. But as they are on the divine level they can perceive soul, conceive soul, and realize soul, and can go above delusion. The remedy is this. Meditate, meditate, and meditate and surely you will reach the divine goal.

Your next question is this. What is the difference between saguna and nirguna brahma? Your gross body, or your physical phenomena, is saguna brahma. The power of God is remaining there. In the Bhagavad Gita (7^th Canto, 4^th verse) it is written that your 24 gross elements, sensory elements, and working organs belong to the saguna brahma.

In the Upanishads it is written, sarva khalidam brahma. That means that whatever you see or feel in the whole universe, the body of the tree, plants, insects, animals, earth, water, fire, air vacuum, hill, sand, that is Brahma. In the Bhagavad Gita (25^th canto, 16^th and 17^th verses) it is written that there are three bodies. One is perishable and that is saguna brahma, which is called the gross body or the balabhadra body.

The second body is the imperishable body, and that is called akshara sharira, or subhadra body. In the Bhagavad Gita (15^th canto, 6^th verse) it is written tasam brahma, mahad yonir, aham bilapradeh pita. Superconsciousness is mahad yonir, the imperishable body, which is known as nirguna brahma, the soul abiding in every human being.

The whole gross body and astral body is Brahma. Because in the Upanishads it is said ayam atma brahma, prajnanam brahma, which means, in our astral body there is the superconscious stage. That wisdom is Brahma. Without the gross body we cannot perceive the superconscious stage. So the gross body is saguna brahma. It is just like a rusty wire. But without the wire we cannot feel the electric current. Both wire and the current are Brahma. But in the Bhagavad Gita it is written, aham bija pradah pita. That means that God is formless, it is just remaining in a latent form in the whole universe. He is the Supreme Father of the Universe (jagat). In Hinduism it is called formless, Jagannath. He is Purushottam. Purush means it has some conception, some super-conception which you can perceive. In Christianity it is called God the Son. But Purushottam, the Lord of the Universe, God, Generator, Operator, Destroyer, He is beyond concept. He is formless, all pervading, omniscient, omnipotent, avyakta, beyond expression. In Hinduism we say Divine Mother, Durga, Rama, and Krishna are all gods. But it is a wrong interpretation, because a god cannot take birth as a man. And God cannot die like a man. Those who are taking birth and dying are human beings only. They may be the prophet, or the Son of God but there is only one creator, and one God, not many gods and goddesses.

You can say Durga, Rama, Krishna and Jesus. They are Sons of God, the power of God; they are prophets. Jesus was referred to as the Son of God. He said, "If you love me, if you follow me, then God the Father will love you and bless you and give you salvation." Similarly, I am also telling that if we love, meditate, and worship Durga, Rama, Krishna, then surely the heavenly Father, the Lord of the Universe, Purushottam, Lord Jagannath, will love you, bless you, and will fulfill your all desires, will give you salvation.

In the Bhagavad Gita it is written in the 2^nd canto, 23^rd verse, nai'nam chindanti shastrani , "no one can cut God." But Durga was cut into 52 pieces, and the 52 pithas (pilgrimage places) of India are named for after each piece. Also Krishna was killed by an arrow. Rama also died like an ordinary human being. So no one can cut God, burn God, or drench God. I therefore want to say to you that you should perceive the triple form in every deity. One is saguna brahma, that is prakriti brahma (natural phenomena); another one is nirguna brahma, which is the superconscious stage; and the third is aham bija pradpita, which is Purushottam, the Lord of the Universe, and which is beyond conception.

Hindus worship so many deities and they say that everyone is a god or goddess. So the question arises, how many gods are there in the universe? For Hindus there are unlimited, 330 million gods and goddesses. Muslims say Allah is God. Buddhists say Buddha is the Supreme Reality. How many creators are there in the universe, As the river Ganga is one, the sun is one, so God is one. That God is all pervading, indestructible. No one knows His birthplace; He cannot expire; He's omnipresent. So, if you seek him in your each body part, even in your skin, flesh, blood, bone, and marrow, you will find him there. If you feel in your all activities, in your all dispositions that He is the actor, then you will always remain in a state of freedom and bliss. That is nityamukta avastha or kaivalya mukti.

For example, the electric power remains in the power station with unlimited volts but supplies current to all the small houses, to each factory, and is managing the work of every place from far away, that may be compared with God. No one can see where the power is, but the power is everywhere. Then, in a controlled way, the electricity is drawn from the power house through cables. We can say that is akshara brahma (immobile God or the imperishable indwelling Self) (Bhagavad Gita, 15th canto). In the towns each house is taking electricity from the cables at 125 volts, we can say that is kshara brahma (mobile / perishable God). So in each body there is a little current of God which is enough to perceive the Almighty, because it is connected by the cable to the main power station.

Each body is a perishable body. That is why in the Bhagavad Gita it is told it is kshara sharira. It has growth, decay and death. So the body is perishable; but the spark of the divine, that is 125 volts, is not perishable. (In the law of Conservation of Energy scientists state that energy can never be destroyed , it is merely changed from one form to another - Ed.) God is constantly supplying the divine current, and like the electric company He has the capacity to disconnect the current, or to take away the life current from your gross body. So the gross body of every human being is perishable. But if you meditate deeply, regularly, and sincerely, you can feel your own body current, and from that you can go to the cable current and become like Rama, Krishna, Chaityana Mahaprabhu, Ratnakar, Girish Ghosh, Vivekananda, and Yogananda. Then you will feel that you are the imperishable body as all the great monks have felt. At last from the cable current you can also go to the main power station and can merge with it. Similarly, the great and realized monks occasionally attain nirvikalpa samadhi. That means they are merging in God. That means they are merging in God the Lord of the Universe, the Purushottam.

I am alright. The work of the Ashrama is going on smoothly, and divinely. Many eager people are coming and taking initiation. I am happy to know that you are conducting Kriya Yoga classes nicely. The more you conduct the more you will be divine.

You all take my deepest affection and enjoy the blessings of God and Gurus.

Yours in divine service,

Swami H. Giri