The Tree of Life: 1.1- Swami Krishnananda

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Wednesday 12, Aug 2026, 05:00.
Books
Bhagavadgita & Hinduism
The Tree of Life: 1.1
Discourse 1: The Twofold Character of Cosmic Life - 1.
Swami Krishnananda

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Sadhakas and seekers of truth from various parts of the country come to this holy abode in search of a mysterious something, the acquisition of which is considered as a rectifying factor or a remedy for the various illnesses of life. They have not come here for nothing. It is taken for granted that their search is for a light, and not for a substance or object. They seek an enlightenment, a torch to illumine the path which they have to walk in the various fields of their activities.

There are doubts and difficulties, problems galore, so that it becomes difficult to take even one step ahead on account of a pitch darkness through the horizon that appears to be hanging heavy before our eyes, which is apparently a common factor in the life of each and every person. It does not appear that we are asking for any particular thing in this world. We seem to be asking for enlightenment and light so that we may move in the direction that is proper, lest we should move in an erroneous direction and fall into a pit.

Our notion that we are asking for things is basically an error. We are neither asking for food, clothing and shelter, nor for the company of people, nor for wealth, nor even for a lengthened life in this world, notwithstanding the fact that it appears we are asking for these things. There is a sorrow that is seeping into the very veins of our personality, and we try to get over this problem of sorrow by various means, just as a patient goes to various doctors under the impression that a physician will be able to cure his sorrow of disease. If he is not satisfied with one physician, he goes to another. He goes to a multitude of physicians in search of a cure for his ailment.

This is exactly what we are doing. We are in search of a cure for the sorrows of life, which is nothing but the illness of life, and we run to various places and personalities as patients go to doctors in search of recipes or magic prescriptions which can instantaneously place us in a haven of happiness and freedom. Neither are we able to diagnose the nature of the illness of our life, nor can it be said that we are in a position to understand what sort of happiness we are seeking. We have a very hazy notion of both these sides of life.

“What is the sorrow that is hanging heavily on our heads?” is not a question easy to answer. At one moment it may appear that the grief is of one type, and at another moment it is of another type. It changes its colour like a chameleon, and we are under the impression thereby that perhaps there are millions of sorrows. Not so is the case. Sorrow is a single structural or organic defect of personality which ramifies itself into various expressions of inconvenience to our personality, and which goes by the name of sorrow, grief, suffering, pain, and so forth.

There is a basic illness which is deeply rooted in us, and we have not the time or the patience to go into the abyss of this sorrow. We seek immediate relief, as is the case with physical illness. There is an asking for an immediate remedy for an acute case of suffering, and this is human nature. The sorrow cannot be borne any further for a longer period, and so we ask for immediate prescriptions of medicine for our griefs, and these are what the world gives to us in the form of experiences.

Unfortunately for us, we are mistaken in the very approach that we are adopting in the redress of our sorrows. No amount of running to doctors of divinity will be able to keep us in that haven of bliss which we are apparently striving for. The world has been what it was, and it has not given any indication that there has been any change in its structure. Perhaps right from creation up to this day nature does not appear to have changed its colours.

But we are endlessly hoping for something, we know not what. There is an endless agony in the hearts of people. Not one individual through the process of history can be said to have passed a life of perennial freedom from birth to death. There have been thorns under the feet of everyone, though the search was for roses, milk and honey in the world. There is a chaotic approach of the mental structure of man. There is confusion in our brains and anxiety in our hearts, and darkness before us.

Well, this is to give an outline of the picture of the life that we are living in this world and the way in which we are trying to acquire freedom and happiness, not knowing the basic structure of the various problems of life. A good physician is supposed to be one who knows the location of the main switchboard in the personality of the human being, by operating which the whole panorama of experiences can be visualised at one stroke.

A disease is a structural maladjustment, and it appears in the form of an agony to the consciousness. When there is a lack of an alignment between our mind, or consciousness, and the nature of our experiences in life, there is what we call unhappiness. Happiness is nothing but the organic alignment of our mind with the various patterns of human experience. When there is a lack of this alignment a jarring sound is produced, as a loudspeaker sometimes makes a noise. There is some kind of defect in the alignment of the internal mechanism. When the mechanism of our psyche in its relation to the structure of the whole of experience in the world goes out of gear, there is unhappiness because happiness is alignment, and unhappiness is the opposite of it. As Ayurveda physicians tell us, health is the harmony among the humours of the body: vata, pitta, kapha. When the sattva, rajas, tamas qualities are in a state of balance, we are supposed to be enjoying mental as well as physical health. So is the case with every kind of happiness. There is a necessity to put the mechanism of life in order, to streamline the way of the working of the mind in its relation to the various shapes that life takes.

All this, when it is enquired into profoundly, will naturally go over the heads of people. We are not taught to think in this manner. We have an education which is supposed to be for earning our bread; today it has failed even to earn our bread, and it has not succeeded in getting anything worth the while. We are in sorrow in the beginning, we are in sorrow in the middle, and we are in sorrow at the end. That is all we see in life. The shape of sorrow may change, but it is there in one form or the other. Whether our creditor is this man or that man, it makes no difference; we have a creditor at our door, and that is enough for us. It does not matter which person it is and when he will come and stand at our gate. So is the sorrow of life.

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