Soothing a Troubled Mind Swami Nirviseshananda Tirtha
An enlightening, moving, and heart-warming correspondence between Swamiji and a young girl, which addresses the difficulties of many intellectuals.
Q: I do hope you will welcome argument and dissent as part of our discussion. I’m an atheist, but only reluctantly. I want to believe, but books by spiritual leaders have completely failed to satisfy me. …
I was never spiritually inclined. Even now I’m not. I would be happy believing in God, a simple, unquestioning belief in a power higher than me. But my mind questions reality and existence.
Our perception of reality is based on our senses. Yet even without a single sense organ, you would still know of your own existence. How then would you define reality? How then would you believe in existence at all? What exactly then is the reality of who you are?
I don’t want to think this way. It brings me no peace. All I want is to be happy and peaceful. …
Swamiji: I have never believed in any God, or questioned any belief. I have only enquired about the ultimate Reality, and finally landed on the Truth about my own Self.
A true seeker of spiritual truth should read the inspiring and enlightening writings of ascetic Saints and Knowers, and not of intellectual giants or erudite scholars. If and when deeper enquiry dawns in them, they should humbly go to the saintly Knowers. Because spiritual knowledge is gained easily and naturally from a person who is living the knowledge. A flame is to be lit from another flame, not from a beautiful picture of fire.
A God-believing person believes in the “concept of God”, while an atheist believes in the “concept of No-god”. Both believe in some concept of their mind. Whether you believe or do not believe – in God or even in the World – the fact remains that you have to believe in yourself. In fact, you cannot call it a belief. It is an “experience” that cannot be denied.
Have you ever thought why man felt like introducing the concept of something like God?
We find everything in the world is governed by causality – cause and effect relationship. The concept of God is an “extrapolation” from the causality we observe in the world. This extrapolation in determining the ultimate Reality is not valid. The Reality, by its very definition, must transcend causality and duality. Our Rishis understood that the whole world is known by “I”, the Subject. And they discovered the “Subject” – the Self, the Consciousness, who is revealing the external world as well as the internal world of mind-emotion-intelligence-ego.
They discovered that the “I” in us is really not limited by our body-mind complex; it is the unchanging Substratum of the entire changeful Universe. This was the greatest discovery of mankind – the discovery of our immortal, all-embracing identity.
The possibility is open before everybody, even today. The question is only whether one wants it.
One has to get rid of all preconceived notions and imaginations. Any desire or ambition will not allow the seeker to have the impersonal vision necessary to overcome delusions. Finally, reasoning itself will lead us beyond reasoning, to get merged in the transcendental Truth.
Anything that can be described becomes an objective concept before the knowing “I”, the Subject. The Truth is beyond the Subject-object duality or division.
True spirituality enables a person to blossom naturally like a flower with whatever qualities he/she has. It makes us see and accept life and the world as they are.
Q: I would have to let you know that over the last 24 years, I’ve been under medication twice for clinical depression. My unanswered questions about life are inextricably interwoven with the fact of my depression, which in turn was triggered off because of stresses that I could not cope with.
Well, if you can be so patient with such an unworthy seeker (having replied so soon and with so much understanding), I can certainly relinquish my impatience, brashness and lack of humility. And the main
reason why I want to do so, is that, finally, through you, I see a glimmer of light at the end of my dark, dark tunnel.
Swamiji: Do not wrestle with your questions. Let them come or go. Answers, if at all required, will dawn by themselves.
Relax. Rely on the all-powerful Presence within. Be cheerful, playful like a small girl. You have to do nothing. Just do whatever comes in front. Do it cheerfully and well, applying all your faculties.
Read very good literature. Have you got the book “In Tune with the Infinite” (by Ralph Waldo Trine)? Listen to our “Song of the Soul”. Do you have our “Prabhaata-rashmih (vol.1)”? See whether you would like to read it – one article a day.
Q: Thank you for your advice. You said to try and feel the all-powerful Presence within. How should I try and feel it? I feel a sense of peace when I read your mail. Do write whenever you can.
Swamiji: The inner Presence is the source from where our ‘I’- sense arises. We are not able to have its relieving touch because of our ‘ego’ associated with various aspects of our personality. In deep sleep, the ego gets dissolved; we get recharged by its rejuvenating touch.
We can very much feel this Presence even while awake, if we relax and forget the world as well as ourselves. Take 1 hr a day, if possible, to RELAX.
Be effortless. Don’t try to become effortless! Don’t try to analyze or interpret. Just relax, and observe what happens.
With loving good wishes, Swami Nirviseshananda Tirtha
Swami Nirviseshananda Tirthaji will be in Delhi-NCR from 5th September 2025, and will stay for a month at our centre in Vasundhara, Ghaziabad. He will conduct a residential retreat from 13-21 September, and will also be available for any personal meetings. For the retreat, please send an email to programmes@bhoomananda.org, or call/WhatsApp Soma (9911577337) / Rohit (8130135050)
