The Wholeness of Perfection
by Swami Krishnananda

Salutations and prostrations to Ananta Koti Brahmanda Nayaka Bhagavan Sriman Narayana and to the divine perfections that emanated from Him: Brahma the Creator, Vasishtha the great Master and his spiritual line, Shakti, Parashakti, and Bhagavan Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa who is especially remembered on this day, the holy Sri Guru Purnima, which is also known as Sri Vyasa Purnima.
Here we are, the products, as it were, of this great creative activity of the immeasurable completeness and perfection of the Almighty, the Supreme Being. God is utter perfection, and everything that emanates from Him as His creation has also to be a perfection. An imperfect product does not come out of a perfect cause. Thus, the great, most venerable, infinite Eternal Being, to describe Whom as a perfection would be to say very little, has willed this universe, which also is a perfection. From Purna has come Purna. This Purna, which is the universe, has come from Purna, the Supreme Being, and we are all a part of this Purna, the universe. Therefore, we also are representations of that Purna only, not fragments or shattered personalities.
Thus, in our obeisance today to this lineage of eternal perfections, the latest one which is said to preside over the destiny of this world at the present moment, Bhagavan Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, in this humble dedication of ourselves before these eternal perfections, we also have the blessing and the fortune of bringing to our memories that we have not come from somewhere else. All of us here, and everyone who is in any part of the world or in any other world, all these beings we call living or non-living, moving or non-moving, animate or inanimate, call them by any designation, are also perfections, Purna. Only Purna emanates from Purna, and therefore every one of you is also a Purna. On this Purnima Vasi, which is a symbol of Purnata not only in the activities of nature today but also even in the thoughts of people, on this blessed occasion we contemplate that Purnata which we also are, each one individually. None of us is a fragment. This is very important for us to remember. We are not incomplete in any way.
Many of us have distracted notions of our own selves—poor, illiterate ideas of our being nothings, nobodies, unfulfilled, incomplete and unfortunate. Nothing of the kind is the case with anyone or with anything because a wretched incomplete wreck cannot be manifest from a perfect being. And if you believe you have come from that One Being, you are not that which you imagine yourselves to be under a false notion of yourself in your artificial adjustments and accommodations with a phenomenon we call human society which, to repeat once again, is also, in its essentiality, a symbol of perfection itself.
What do we contemplate, therefore, at this auspicious hour? The whole universe is a radiant manifestation of the Almighty's perfection. Glory is the name of this world. Yasya nāma mahad yaśaḥ (S.U. 4.19) says the Svetasvatara Upanishad. The glory of God is also the glory of this world; it is also the glory of every one of us, every one of you. Each one, even in the littlest of the forms of manifestation, is a completion in itself. Even an atom is a complete manifestation, and is not a little part of something. You do not belong to anyone, and nothing belongs to you. The idea of something belonging to something else is the idea of subservience and fragmentation of personality. A thing that is complete cannot belong to something else, and if everything is complete, nothing can belong to anything. Neither can you belong to anything, nor can anything belong to you, because all these little manifestations of completion, perfection, Purnata, belong to the eternal perfection which is the Supreme Being.
These ideas, these thoughts, these contemplations even for a few moments will charge your personality with such strength, energy, joy and satisfaction that you may not wish to even open your mouth. You will feel that everything is well. This is my short message to you. May God bless you!
Ōm pūrṇam adah, pūrṇam idam, pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate;
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvasisyate.