Ask The Master: 7 Oct 2007

Q. Dear Swamiji, are we in the world or is the world in us?

Neither are you in the world nor is the world in you. The very idea that you are in the world makes you materialistic. The idea that the world is in you, makes you spiritualistic. Both are ideas.

Please be very clear that if you think you are in the world, you become materialistic. You run behind the world. You just run behind it. You want to have it. You want to possess it. If you think the world is in you, you run behind your being, you want to possess it. It is the same running, just that it is diverted a little bit inside. The running for spiritual progress or running for some spiritual experience, we call it mystery mongering. Even the running for mystic experiences is nothing but mystery mongering. Both are actually concepts, both are ideas. When you understand both are ideas, you really allow the spiritual experience to happen to you, which cannot be done by words.

An example: Take the river Ganga. Suppose a small bamboo is floating on the Ganga. Taking that bamboo as the center, if you think that the Ganga has been split into two halves, right-side Ganga and left-side Ganga, would that be right? Can you say the Ganga has been divided?

No, in reality Ganga is never divided. Because you have taken the bamboo as center and divided the river for the sake of utility. For the sake of your understanding, you have labeled it as right-side Ganga and left-side Ganga.

In the same way, just for the sake of utility you name this as the body and that as the world. It is just a naming, a labeling. Just look in, look into yourself. Why do I say look in? You know that for a long time you have only looked out. That is the reason I say look in. When you look inward, you see there is really no boundary between this and that, between you and the world. If you perceive one boundary as stronger you will feel that you are in the world. If you perceive the other boundary as stronger, you feel that the world is in you. The people who are in the world, the worldly people, and the so-called materialists, they say, ‘We are in the world’. People who close their eyes and sit in the caves, the Himalayas, they say, ‘The world is in you’. But both are just concepts. Both are just concepts.

If you feel this boundary as stronger, you think you are in the world. If you think that boundary is stronger, you think the world is in you. Once you drop both concepts, you will see simply that you are, and wherever you are, you are joyful.

Generally the great saints and enlightened people teach you that the world is in you. Do you know why they teach you that way? Because you are already addicted to the opposite idea, that you are in the world. Just to bring you out of that idea, they teach that the world is in you. Actually to remove one thorn from your foot, you need to use another thorn. But once you have removed the thorn, you need to throw away both. The idea that the world is in you is only another thorn to remove the thorn that is already piercing you. In the ultimate sense, both are just concepts. When you drop these boundaries, you understand reality, you understand what is truth. It cannot be expressed by either of these concepts.

If you remove that bamboo from the Ganga, can you say Ganga has become one? No, because it is always one. The very word one exists only if you say there is two. If there is no two, how can you say it is one? Is it clear to you? The word singular exists only as long as the word plural exists. When the word plural is lost, how can you say this is singular? That is why the rishis and sages called this philosophy Advaita.

Dvaita means plural - duality. But Advaita cannot be translated as singular – because that would imply the presence of a plural somewhere, which Advaita does not acknowledge. Advaita can be translated only as non-dualist. It can never be expressed as ‘single’. It can be expressed only as ‘where there is no duality’. Dvaita means duality. Advaita means where there is no duality, that’s all.

If you say you are in the world, you are expressing duality. If you say world is in you, you are doing the same thing. Only if you experience the truth that neither is true, do you experience the truth. The truth cannot be expressed with Dvaita, it can only be expressed with Advaita.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: The Simple Truth, Straightaway!