18 May 2021
Smt. Padmaram asked: I am constantly under the grip of very serious tension due to certain serious problems. How can I get rid of this tension?
Swami replied: Whenever you are entangled in such serious worldly problems and tormented with the climax of tension, you should simply follow the philosophy of Śaṅkara and feel that you are God (Tat tvam asi—Veda). You must constantly think that you are God (Aham Brahmā’smi—Veda). Now, you are the creator of this world. You are the controller and destroyer of this world as well. You must think that you are the absolute reality and that this world is only the relative reality, which has no inherent existence. Relative reality means that the world has borrowed your absolute reality and appears as if real, only to give you real entertainment. In this manner, you will gain infinite confidence and the tension will disappear immediately.
As the creator of this world, you will be totally detached from this world. You will simply watch the world-cinema like a spectator (sākṣī), just for entertainment. Of course, there are some weak-minded people who get attached to the scenes in a movie too. They carry the tension and feelings related to the movie in their minds, even after returning from the cinema hall. But you are the absolute God and not such a weak-minded soul. You are God, who is a wise spectator watching the movie just for entertainment. Hence, you neither get tense while watching the movie nor carry the tension from the movie with you, after returning home from the movie. Such wise spectators also exist among souls. As the creator of all souls, you are stronger than even those wise souls. Hence, you are completely detached from this world-cinema. When you are detached from everything other than yourself, there will not be even a trace of tension in you. In fact, such tensions will only entertain you.
In any case, your tension is not going to solve your worldly problems. Then what is the use of that tension? Not only does your tension not give you any profit, but you also incur a terrible loss due to it. The tension weakens your mind and intelligence. You are unable to think of the solution to your problem. Thus, the benefit of tension is zero and the loss due to it is huge.
Usually, the mind guided by the intelligence carries out the process of thinking to solve a problem. With both the mind and the intelligence weakened due to tension, neither is the intelligence capable of giving correct guidance nor is the mind capable of thinking correctly. When Rāma was weeping for Sītā in the forest, Lakṣmaṇa advised Rāma to first stop weeping. Lakṣmaṇa told Him that weeping was not going to help in finding Sītā. So, no benefit would come from weeping. He further said that apart from being of no use, that weeping would cause a terrible loss too. Rāmā would lose His energy, due to which He would not be able to search for Sītā. Lakṣmaṇa was an incarnation of Ādi Śeṣa. Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sūtram, was another incarnation of Ādi Śeṣa. He said that psychological balance can be obtained only by controlling certain psychological processes (Yogaḥ cittavṛitti nirodhaḥ).
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