The Cremation Ground at the End of Victory: Perpetual Diwali and the Battle That Is Illusion
In the morning satsanga of November 7, 2026, Swami Jyotirmayananda taught that every ego-based victory ends in the cremation ground, that satsanga kindles the lamp of light in every heart, and that the battle with ignorance ends when non-duality is seen.
The satsanga opened with prayers to Goddess Saraswati, Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Durga and the Guru, and with the meditation verse on Lord Rama, the Lord of the Raghu dynasty: his complexion like a blue lotus, tender and delightful in appearance, Sita Devi seated on his left side, a powerful bow and arrow in his hands. The Hare Rama mantra followed.
Then came a short reading on the festival of lights. In the serene state of meditation, it says, prepare the lamp of your heart. Place the oil of devotion in that lamp, and kindle it with the fire of aspiration. Place the lamp in satsanga, light up the heart with divine light, and blossom like a lotus that wafts the aroma of universal peace, kindling aspiration in the heart of all. Then comes the line the whole morning returned to: "You are the light of life." And the call: "Celebrate perpetual Diwali," the festivity of light, the dissemination of knowledge.
Every Ego-Based Victory Ends in the Cremation Ground
Swamiji's theme was victory, and he began with the kind that does not last. History, he said, gives countless examples of great kings who enjoyed their victory in war, and every one of those victories ended in cremation. Egoistic people attain great victories too, but in spite of living a hundred years and more, they end up in the same place. Ego-based glory leads to the cremation ground.
Nor is it only people. Swamiji widened the circle to the whole world before us: the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. Whatever is built on the ego belongs to what passes.
The Real Glory
Real glory, Swamiji taught, is the acknowledgment of neti, neti: nothing exists but Brahman. "Brahman alone exists." In that recognition one can say, I am all this, and there is none else.
He gave the image of the one sun and its many reflections. The sun alone creates illumination. The reflected suns seem to be attaining their own victories, but they all move away, and only the one sun shines. When that is known there is no more vision of cremation, no more sense of mortality, no more coming into the cycle of birth and death.
Swamiji recalled the teaching Brahma satyam jagan mithya: Brahman alone is true, and the world is mithya, like a dream. The moment you wake from even the most interesting and entertaining dream, all of it moves away. You have lost everything in it, and yet you are not unhappy. On waking you discover who you are essentially. "You are not the body." You are not dominated by ignorance. You are the light of life.
Kindling the Lamp in Every Heart
As long as an enlightened sage maintains the body, Swamiji explained, the sage guides people by kindling the lamp of light in every heart. That is the dissemination of wisdom, and it is the purpose of all ashrams and of all teachers: to guide every aspirant to that discovery.
The moment you enter satsanga, he said, the Guru gives you the deep insight that you are not a body, you are Brahman. And it is not enough to hear it once. You have to come every day to be reminded, "and to be hammered on your mind." That is the purpose of satsanga. When satsanga becomes most powerful, there is no more kusanga, bad association. There is no longer any dependence on the world, no relation with the world that binds. Then you have discovered: I am Brahman, the non-dual absolute Self, the abode of peace and bliss.
So every day one has to listen, and every day one has to work for it. Prepare yourself, Swamiji said, by the practice of integral yoga under the guidance of a Guru and under the nourishment of satsanga.
The Battle That Is Illusion
Later in the morning Swamiji returned to the theme of victory from the other side. As long as one lacks enlightenment and ignorance rules the mind, one is fighting a battle. You do so many things, and there is so much success and prosperity. Then he asked: "Are you peaceful?"
Ignorance, he said, is the greatest enemy of everyone. Until you leave the yuddha, the battle, you have not attained peace. But by enlightenment, when you see Brahman everywhere, the war is no longer needed, for eternity. Until then the enemy is constantly terrorizing the personality. "Stop being terrorized." Turn to God. "Discover I am Brahman, I am Brahman."
Two eyes, Swamiji explained, bring you multiplicity. But when the ajna chakra opens, all the multiplicity moves away. "There's nothing but non-duality." And of that vision he said: "This is your real victory." No battle is needed any longer. "The entire battle is illusion," and one can no longer be slapped by illusion.
So the morning came full circle. The victory of the ego ends in the cremation ground. The victory of the Self ends the battle itself.
The satsanga closed with blessings and prayers that the grace of God shower on all, and with the peace prayers.
Terms in This Satsanga
- satsanga: the company of truth; the place where the lamp of the heart is set and kindled.
- kusanga: bad association, which falls away when satsanga becomes powerful.
- neti, neti: not this, not this; the acknowledgment that nothing exists but Brahman.
- mithya: the dreamlike, dependent reality of the world, in Brahma satyam jagan mithya.
- yuddha: battle; the struggle with ignorance that lasts until enlightenment.
- ajna chakra: the center between the eyebrows; when it opens, multiplicity gives way to non-duality.
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