Swami Tripurari: Changing Our Angle of Vision

Changing Our Angle of Vision

An Excerpt from a Lecture Titled: Q&A: To Take Out a Thorn With Another

By Swami Tripurari

It's about changing our angle of vision which means changing our self. Spiritual life is very much about change. You should be simple and should say it's not about remaining how you are. That's the problem. How I am is the problem. It's not just adding something more so I could be more of what I think of myself to be. It's changing entirely what you think of yourself. We look at the world, and understandably so, as a world of things that we are the master of, for our purpose, and have meaning only if we use them. And there's a lot of truth to that. 


From, 'I am the subject', in command of the material objects, which is the illusion, to, '... I'm a subject but that's the  Supersubject.'  So in the relation to the supersubject I have meaning and value as much as he thinks about me. Cares about me. And of course, it's through the agents of divinity that Bhagavan shows his caring. They are the krpa sakti of Bhagavan. Krpa means mercy. The krpa sakti of Krsna is manifest in his devotees. In his sadhus. That's where it's manifest.


But looking at the world is not the only place to look. We should look at our self and realize we are not of the world. So then what is our source? Then we have to look at the other side. As much as I'm the subject and material things are the objects that I may use to my purposes, materially speaking, when I really think about that I realize, 'Here I am. I'm the subject, these are the objects. I'm using them but for material purposes.' I'm being used by them, in other words. Do you understand? I'm not material. I'm not an object. I am the subject. And I think I'm using the things but they are using me. I'm becoming an object...This is visnu-maya. This is very powerful. The illusion is very powerful. 


So if we look carefully on that side we say, 'Oh, hold on a minute here.' And then, 'I am not matter. It's limited. There's no life, it needs someone to animate it. I don't want to become like that. I'm different. So, I am consciousness, what is my source? If I am not derived from matter what is my source?'


The jiva, the atma,  has a natural affinity for its source. It's mentioned in Paramatma Sandarbha as one of the qualities of the atma. It senses that it exists, has a sense of 'I am'. It's a unit of enduring existence, knowing and bliss...And it has a natural kind of bond with, or affinity for its source. It's source is the paramatma. The mahavisnu which is a particular manifestation of Krsna for the world with the lila of creation. It has a natural affinity for its source. That's very understandable. It's like you have a natural affinity for your parents. You have a natural tendency, even, to search it out. 'Where am I from?' It's part of the question, 
'Why am I? What am I about?...From where do I derive?" 


It's inborn in the self to search it's origins.It has a natural bond for its source.And so as it looks to its source it sees from a different perspective. What does it see? 


He was looking at matter and seeing material objects as objects that I am the subject of, I'm in control of. Of course it has just been explained that that's an illusion controlling us. They are controlling us and we are becoming more like them. And that's a problem. 



If we look to our source we find, 'Oh, I am consciousness but I am like a spark of the fire of consciousness. So, in relation to my source I am somewhat like how the objects of the world are to me. I'm like an object. A thinking and feeling one.' You understand? But nonetheless, I am a dependent entity. In my ability to know, my ability to love is derived. I derived ananda. Derived sat, Derived cit...Not independent but its derived from the source. And so, this is the changing of the angle of vision we were talking about.


Krsna, himself, he's lost. He's trying to find whether Radha loves him or not. He knows no suffering except for that. But sadhus, they know something. They've been in the world. It's like a dream, 'Oh, I know what that's like.', so they can be empathetic with us. 'Yes, I remember. That was terrible.' 

Pujyapada Sridhar Maharaj once described our material existence like mushrooms-it has no roots. We are rooted in brahman. We are rooted in paramatma. Material covering is just like that, it's like moss. Moss, it has no roots. It can be swept away very easily. That may seem to us to be very difficult but for someone that can see, that is a small thing. We are too close to it, it looks too big to us. 

...Our spiritual life looks like a great mountain to climb, but it's not...My godbrother Visnujana Maharaj used to say, 'The distance we have traveled thus far before meeting our guru is far greater than the distance we have from this point on.' ...You've come so far, the distance is very short from here...

Say you want to build a house and you commission me to build your house. I have a designer and an architect and a contractor. So you give me your money and I will build you a house and you want to come out and see it...The house is going to be three stories tall but you come and look and there is just a hole in the ground. You think, 'What is going?'So our spiritual life's beginning is something like that. We need a foundation. We need to get some things in place. The progress does move in an interesting path. Like with the highest Mt. Everest, you have to go through the foothills...So, at some point it looks like,  'I'm going down!'. (laughter) But the one who is standing back can see, "It's going up..."...

If you chant harinam with the blessings of Sri Guru, then certainly Krsna is your life. We should think like this: that somebody of spiritual consequence thinks about me. That should be my only concern. That someone of spiritual consequence is actually thinking about me, caring about me, concerned about me. Then I am okay.