Punya – A Reflection of Self-Realization

Punya – A Reflection of Self-Realization

[00:45] Support of Nature for Your Desires

Jai Guru Deva. Thank you for listening to my podcast, The Vedic Worldview. I’m Thom Knoles. People are fascinated by the idea of the Sanskrit word punya, P-U-N-Y-A.

Punya is translated in a variety of ways. The most common is “spiritual merit,” but, you know, it’s sometimes referred to as cosmic deserving power, kind of like a cosmic credit rating or something like that. What is it that… to what extent can you get support of Nature for your desires? And it’s a very fascinating subject and one we should dive into at some length, I believe.

Properly speaking, all of us has infinite deserving power. This was one of the treasured statements of the teacher of my master. My master was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his teacher was Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, whom we refer to as Guru Deva. Guru means teacher, and Deva means light—so, the enlightened teacher, one way of interpreting his nickname.

Guru Deva had this saying: “You deserve the best. Never feel unworthy or not justified in having the best. I tell you, this is your heritage;” by heritage, he means birthright, “but you have to accept it. You have to expect it; you have to claim it. To do so is not demanding too much.”

Well, that’s interesting because right there, out of the mouth of the king of the yogis, the master of all the masters of the Vedic tradition, the Shankaracharya, comes the statement: you deserve the best.

Well, then we have to break this down and really analyze and understand it properly. The degree to which we have punya, so-called spiritual merit, is also the degree to which we have realized what our true status is. The degree to which we’ve realized it.

[03:14] Degrees of Cosmic Intelligence

So, as I’m fond of doing, let’s break it down into percentages. If 15% I’ve realized my true status, and 85% I still am unconvinced about deserving the best—because I haven’t yet realized my true status…

What is my true status? Not only am I an individual living in a body, but the backdrop of that individuality—the backdrop—is a backdrop of Universal Cosmic Intelligence. I am the Universe having a human experience. This is—degrees of that.

So 15%, I’m the Universe having a human experience means I really only have 15% of that conceptualization of myself. 85%, I’m just a regular person in a body that’s having to deal with the circumstances of the world as the world throws them at me, and with varying degrees of success in interacting with those demands.

The demands are always… a demand is only a demand if it asks of you change. If a thing doesn’t ask change of you, we can’t call it a demand. 

So, you wanted black pepper on your pasta, but there was only red pepper and there wasn’t any black pepper— to what extent and in what way are you going to adapt to that change of expectation? It’s a demand. 

You were expecting to get a visa to move to Malta, but you didn’t get the visa to move to Malta and you’re going to have to stay right where you are. So we’re making this thing bigger than black pepper on pasta, right? To what extent are you able to adapt to that change of expectation?

And then we can also work into this: to what extent were your expectations based on a lack of deserving power or an idea that “I won’t be supported unless I act in these particular ways,” like moving to Malta or something?

By the way, for you Maltese listeners, wonderful country. I’m just using it as an example.

And so our sense of what we deserve, what’s going to happen if our sense of our need to plan because, “My individuality has to plan; otherwise, if it doesn’t plan, then, you know, all kinds of circumstances could overtake. Let me see if I can figure out all the different things that are going to happen—either in the world of pasta and black pepper, or in the world of immigration visas and governmental moods and changes in geopolitics and all of that. To what extent can I get all this stuff right?”

To what extent do you need to get it right? To what extent is it actually going to make a difference if you stay in the same state of consciousness you’re in?

So if I’m 15% punya, then I have 15% a self-conceptualization of my being the Universe having a human experience, and 85% I’m just a regular guy or gal, whatever. A regular human, whatever I am. Like either a recipient of the benefits of circumstances, or a victim of circumstances. “Mostly it’s all out of my control, and I’ll do my best to plan my way out of it or to deal with it when things come up.”

[07:21] Only Evolution is Happening

Now let’s keep practicing Vedic Meditation twice a day in our hypothesis, because when we do that, we increase contact with the deep inner Self, with the Unified Field of consciousness that is our baseline reality.

Our baseline reality is the Unified Field of consciousness, and it doesn’t have any thought about deserving or not deserving or anything. It is everything, the Everythingness. As I touch that state in every sitting of Vedic Meditation, and if I’m a good, regular, twice-a-day meditator, practicing the proper technique of Vedic Meditation, having been instructed by a qualified teacher, not just Vedic Meditation according to some app that I got from whatever, the Mickey Mouse app of meditation.

Mickey Mouse meditation apps in Vedic Meditation, not good enough. Learn properly from a qualified teacher.

Then you have that experience of stepping out of your individuality, and individuality merges with Unified Field consciousness. Then you come out of your meditation, which only lasts 20 minutes, and you have, vibrant in your sense of Beingness, more of that Unified Field quality.

Your punya has just gone up. It’s not that you actually deserve more, it’s that you begin to realize that you deserve more, and it’s this realization that gives you a sense of certainty that only evolution ever is happening. Only evolution ever is happening. Non-evolution is not happening. It’s not a possibility, by the way. Only evolution is happening.

[09:16] How Big is Your Consciousness?

“Oh, but what if I bought a brand new car and then it got vandalized and destroyed, and my insurance company wouldn’t get me a new one, and I have to pay off the car, and I didn’t even have a car that I’m paying off at the end of the payoff? Isn’t that terrible?”

Well, how big is your consciousness? Are you able to see what it is that’s actually being created in this storyline? Or are you stuck in a small storyline? Stuck in a small storyline, you may not be able to see all of the elements that have come into play in what happened to your car and what’s going to happen to you as a result of not having access to that car, or having to pay off a car that you don’t even have access to.

In the largest possible picture, only evolution is happening. To what extent can you see that? To what extent can you see it? That is going to be dependent on your punya percentage. 

So if punya goes up from 15% to 20%, and at 20% I have realization of “I am Universe having a human experience,” but 80% still, I’m just a regular person who’s a victim of circumstances, or maybe a recipient of benefit of circumstances.

Then, you know, there’s that little bit of change, a little bit greater capacity to sense, “Evolution is all that’s happening here.” And then, as we continue practicing our meditation, morning, evening, morning, evening, and realization that, “I’m not just an individual. I can’t really be explained merely by being an individual. That can’t explain me. It can’t describe me. It can’t explain me. I’m an individual and I’m a body. So when the body dies, the individuality is going to die.”

Somebody asked me the question yesterday, “What is the difference in the perception of time as we gain greater and greater illumination? Greater and greater enlightenment? Greater and greater punya?” 

As somebody who is a slave to individuality, “Time is processing me. I’m being processed by time. I used to have a blonde beard and then it went brown, and then it went white. So time is processing me.” That’s the non-punya attitude.

Punya, big punya, big realization of “I’m Universe having human experience.” “I am processing time. I’m processing time.” The tables are turned. “I’m a time processor. I’m not being processed by time. I’m processing time.”

[12:11] Who is the I?

And so then, who is the I inside here? With increased punya, with increased realization of my status as Universe having a human experience, with my increased punya, my increased sense of “Not only is only evolution happening, only evolution is happening, and I am in charge of it.”

Who is the I? It’s not the little individual I anymore. This is the mistake of the intellect that we have to get over, and it is the hardest thing to get over, by the way. 

The idea of enlightenment is very appealing to people, and I hear people going, “Yeah, dude, that’s really great. I’m going to get enlightened because, like, when I’m in Cosmic Consciousness, imagine the power that I’m going to have,” says the guy sitting around in his western button-up shirt and his little cowboy hat on. “I’m going to have lots of power when I get Cosmic Consciousness.”

Dude, it’s not going to be you. That little you inside there who thinks he’s going to suddenly be the big swaggering cosmically conscious you, that’s not what it is. You don’t get to be the little you, the little tail wagging the dog, wagging the Universe. That’s not what happens.

What happens is our individuality gets put in its place. And what is its proper place? It is a servant of Cosmic Intelligence. The individuality merging more and more with the Cosmic Intelligence, with each daily sitting of Vedic Meditation, this happens, our punya increases.

What does it mean, Punya of the Universe? What is the deserving power of the Universe? So when Guru says, “You deserve the best,” Guru Deva is talking to you as the Universe inside there.

And in ever-increasing degrees of that sense of “I’m Universe,” this isn’t small self attributing to oneself entitlement to boss other people around, you know, and to get compliance from them. This is big Self settling into its universal status with knowingness, that anything that is desirable is able to be arranged. Infinite organizing power. Infinite organizing power.

So, increase of punya is matched, percentage point by percentage point, with increase of capital-S Self-realization. Self-realization doesn’t mean realization of a little dinky you, the little body-bound you that you think you are. Self-realization means capital-S Self.

It means Universe, Unified Field realization, Unified Field realization, and in ever-increasing percentages.

[15:26] Something Happened on the Way to Disneyland

In full-blown, full deserving power, we have, “I am Universe, I’m an individual and I’m Universe. I’m wide end of the funnel and I am narrow end of the funnel, simultaneously. They’re both my reality.”

Narrow end of the funnel, applicability, the applied value. Wide end of the funnel, catchment, catchment of Cosmic Intelligence. I’m all of this. A funnel is not two things. It has two ends to it, but it’s not two things. It has this wide catchment end and it has the narrow applicability end.

So, “Cosmic Intelligence finds application through my individuality.” This is enlightenment. Enlightenment: Cosmic Intelligence, me, finds application and applicability through my individuality, also me.

Big Self, small self integrated. There’s no more “the Universe.” This “the Universe” thing. “Oh, I was going to go to Disneyland, but the Universe had other ideas. It created a traffic jam.”

It, the, that other thing. You know, this is, you’re part of the way, you’re probably 30% punya with that mentality.

“Oh, the Universe. There is another intelligence, but it’s other than me, and it has other ideas, and it guides my individuality around.” This it thing, this the Universe, this is ignorance. We need to remove that.

“My own deep inner Self may have had a plan for this body today that was different to the plan that was conceived at 10:00 a.m., which was to hop in the car and drive down to Anaheim and go to Disneyland. There was a massive traffic jam that caused me to have to sit in my car for four hours until closing time, listening to The Vedic Worldview on a podcast. And so evidently, my deep inner Self, my Universal Self, wanted its individuality, this body, to do this, and not to have a three-hour wait for a two-minute ride.”

So, some other thing happened. Something else happened. And to what degree am I accepting of this? Or to what degree was I convinced that my individuality, the little needy me, needed stuff that the Universe had to provide? “I’m the little needy me, and there’s a Universe out there, which is my sugar daddy, and my sugar daddy’s going to provide for me because I’ve got punya, baby.”

[18:43] Spoiler Alert

If you’re still the little needy me, and you are disappointed because the Universe didn’t provide you with the experience that the little needy me needed, that’s still ignorance. So, more identification with Totality, which removes that article. “Article” is, in English grammar, a term of art.

The word the is an article. And, a, all of those things that separate things from oneself. “A bug”, a is an article. “The bug is over there.” The bug. The Universe, that thing that’s other than me.

So we’re in the process of identification with Universe, not turning it into the, the Universe.

And it would be a very good exercise for all of us, as Vedic meditators, to gradually let go of the word the in our reference to big Self. The big Self. The Universe. Because I have to pander to all of the states of consciousness in my lessons and so on, sometimes I’ll say the Unified Field, but I prefer to say Unified Field. Unified Field.

Unified Field consciousness is responsible for bringing about evolutionary change through the provision of a variety of circumstances. There’s a process of evolution, which is the theme. It’s thematically evolutionary.

Sometimes the story doesn’t appear to be evolutionary, because if you know absolutely everything, it spoils the story.

If you’re reading a story to somebody, like some little kid, and the story has a little twist in the plot that makes it look as though it’s not going to have a happy ending, and you stop the story and say to the child, “It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t get upset. It has a happy ending,” you’ve just spoiled the story. We need to have this, this beautiful blend.

[21:05] Leishavidya – The Faint Remains of Ignorance

In Sanskrit, there’s a phrase, leishavidya. Leisha is actually a word on its own, leisha. It means faint remains. And then a second word, avidya. Avidya… Vidya means knowledge. It’s where we get our English word video from.

Vidya is knowledge. Avidya, knowledge negated. A negates, so avidya, ignorance, and leisha, faint remains. Leisha avidya turns into leishavidya. Leishavidya, the faint remains of ignorance. What are the faint remains of ignorance? The plaything of the enlightened.

You go to watch a movie, you don’t want some chatterbox sitting next to you who’s seen the movie ten times, telling you what’s going to happen in the very next scene.

“Oh, don’t worry, don’t worry. It’s okay. You think that’s the good guy? It’s not actually the good guy. You’re going to see in a few minutes that’s the bad guy.” And you know this is the person, you know, you don’t want some chatterbox know-it-all sitting in the movie theater with you, telling you what’s going to happen and what’s not going to happen at every scene.

You want to let the director, the screenwriter, the actors, the expert producers, and the whole production take you through a story that you don’t know how it’s going to end. You’re being set up for a twist in the plot. Fantastic. Let yourself be set up. That’s why you’re there. You’re not in the movies so that you can know everything that’s going to happen at every minute.

Leishavidya. Leishavidya is the plaything of the illuminated mind. How much am I capable of knowing absolutely everything? How much do I allow myself to know? I allow myself to know just enough that I’m not living life in misery. I can still detect evolution is going on. I can sense it, but I may not know absolutely every little detail, because I don’t want to know.

I want it to assemble itself. I want there to be a story, and a story is not a story if you know exactly every element of it.

So, storyline. Storyline requires a large percentage of certainty of evolution, and a willingness for there to be some leishavidya, some faint remains of ignorance, so that we don’t know exactly how it’s going to evolve. We like the little bit of intentionally created surprise. Intentionally created surprise.

And so enlightenment is not all just, “I know everything. I know everything.” I was talking to one of my students the other day, and she said to me, “Thom, tell me what is it?” And I said, “I could know, but I’m choosing not to know. I’m choosing not to know.” That’s also great power. It’s a great power to choose not to know, so that you can have the joy of the story unfolding before you. After all, the entire purpose of the unmanifest becoming manifest, let’s call that “creation”, the entire purpose of creation is story. Story.

[24:41] Nothing is Going Wrong

If the unmanifest wanted to just be one indivisible whole and conscious, and have no change to that, it has the power just to retain individual, whole, and conscious. No thing ever needs to come into manifestation in order for that to be true. Unmanifest can just sit there being unmanifest.

Evidently, unmanifest is not content with being unmanifest. Unmanifest breaks its symmetry and goes into the many. While retaining its oneness, it becomes many. This is what the whole thing’s about.

And so, and the many not content in being many, many wants to go back in the direction of one, indivisible, and whole. So many wants to return to Absoluteness. Absolute wants to become many, and the play and display of all of that grants us story, and story is that which needs to be embraced.

The enlightenment that occurs is the enlightenment to, the shedding light on, the shedding light upon this reality. Unmanifest and manifest coexisting in perfect harmony. That’s the whole thing. Punya. So punya is the extent to which you can realize that, and explore it, and exploit it.

What happens when you have high punya? You have a kind of knowingness. Even in the face of changes that occur in the world, you have a kind of knowingness, “Only evolution is happening here. Let me see how evolution is happening.”

And what happens when we have low punya? “Oh my God, I can’t believe it. No pepper for the pasta. No black pepper for the pasta. I have to have red peppers. No, no, no, no. My whole life is just, you know, this anger fit. Let’s get that whole container of pasta and throw it in the garbage because I’m in a fury because things didn’t go my way.”

Punya, just all kinds of rigid attachment to specific timings and outcomes and evidently not trusting that, in the larger picture, life is only evolutionary. And bewilderment. “What happened? Oh my God, what happened? I was supposed to have black pepper on my pasta. I was supposed to get a visa to Malta. Or a passport. It didn’t happen. Things aren’t going my way.”

Someone who has high punya, things are always going their way. “No black pepper for the pasta? That’s my way, baby. Let’s dive into it and see what that tastes like. Or maybe we’ll try the red peppers. Who knows? I’m into it.” 

Someone who has high punya, things are not going wrong, things are just going, that’s all. Nothing is going wrong, things are just going. And low punya, things are going wrong. The rigid attachment to specific timing and outcomes, that’s low punya.

That’s the whole story of punya right there.

Jai Guru Deva.