Pleasure and Pain

Life is a mosaic of pleasure and pain - grief is an interval between two moments of joy. Peace is the interlude between two wars. You have no rose without a thorn; the diligent picker will avoid the pricks and gather the flower.

There is no bee without the sting; cleverness consists in gathering the honey nevertheless.

Baba

 

It feels like being in a 'vail of tears' living here. 

For how many years we lived here and didn't join the meetings they had, the invitation for dinners and whatever, because we didn't feel okay and I didn't want to be constantly remember that my family let me down. I never went, I guess only once joined the dinner, it just didn't feel okay, and there was constant pain.  

Now it has changed and the only positive thing is the study circle. It seems it has changed, now it is someone elses turn to feel the pain. It is sad, and only about a the study circle and no socializing.

 

There is no bee without the sting; cleverness consists in gathering the honey nevertheless.

Service, the alone Reward

Today, the typhoon of hatred and falsehood is scattering the clouds of Virtue, Justice and Truth to the far corners of the sky. So long as man is capable of prema (love), dharma (righteousness) will exist, do not doubt it. When you direct that prema to the Lord, your mental make-up will slowly and steadily undergo a revolutionary change. 

You will share in the sorrows and joys of your fellow-beings and experience bliss that is beyond the temporary gains and losses of this world. Your devotion to the Lord will undergo several changes.

An important stage is one where service to the Lord alone matters and service alone is the reward - one does not seek anything more than just the opportunity of doing service Unto Him, to the best of one's capacity.

Baba 
 

We cannot put everything in the same pot and tell everything is the same. We are the same 'I am that', but there is a difference, we are different people, man and woman, live on different places and different continents and we have different jobs and different life standards. I know I am focused on self-inquiry and it is not the same for you and there is nothing wrong about it, but it is not the same. 
By all respect, business is not self-inquiry, I have no scruples to tell my life story and to look at my life in the light of Baba's teaching to realize his presence in it, but would you do that?

So long as man is capable of prema (love), dharma (righteousness) will exist, do not doubt it. When you direct that prema to the Lord, your mental make-up will slowly and steadily undergo a revolutionary change. 

Find yourself, save yourself.

Find yourself means to know the difference between love, righteousness and business, it is not the same. We can do it with love and if there is love, our business is on the same level as his, it will be able to take care of others in need and it will be just service to him and that will be the reward.
And what we don't know because we are human, as you said, it is divinity who knows best, therefore, it is the best if he takes care of it. That is a reason why he said in the dream 'endorsement', first it has to be confirmed that it is right, we don't just know. 

He is the man who comes in our dreams to wake us up and to confirm if it is right.

Control of Tongue and Mental Peace

When the tongue craves for some delicacy, assert that you will not cater to its whims.

If you persist in eating simple food that is not savoury or hot but amply healthy, the tongue may squirm for a few days, but will soon welcome it.

That is the way to subdue it and overcome the evil consequences of it being your master.

Since the tongue is equally insistent on scandal and lascivious talk, you have to curb that tendency also.

Talk little; talk sweetly; talk only when there is pressing need; talk only to those to whom you must; do not shout or raise the voice, in anger or excitement.

Such control will improve health and mental peace, better relationship with people and minimize conflicts with others. You may be initially laughed at, but there are other compensations for you. It will conserve your time and energy; and you can put your inner energy to better use.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

That is why I keep usually a diet, because it feels much better than to go by the whims of the tongue.
I went through it again not long ago. I had to begin new again and in the beginning it felt difficult, but with time it got easier, but since yesterday I am taking it easy again, just to loosen up a bit, that is also needed. As I had been dieting all my life, I know what he is talking about.

And the scandal and lascivious talk of the tongue was curbed by silence. As I adapted silence as a means to observe and I began with it in my twenties, there was the much effort to understand the inner view which came up by observing that I had no interest in scandal, because it was never as it looked like anyhow and the inner view kept me always busy as it does now, it is constantly growing in understanding.

Pulling down the Mind

Just as there is a method to pull down an old building, there is a method to be followed in pulling down the complex structure of your mind.

You can definitely achieve success by systematic efforts and become a master of yourself. The ladder must be as tall as the height to which you wish to climb, is it not?

So too, your spiritual practice must be carried on till Realization (Sakshathkaram) is gained. The rice in the pot must be well boiled to become soft and tasty. Until that happens, the heat must be on. So too, in the vessel of body, with the water of the senses, boil the rice (mind), until it is cooked soft.

The heat is your spiritual practice (Sadhana). Keep your Sadhana on, bright and shining; the jeeva (Individual) will at last become Deva (God).

Baba (thought for the day)

 

As long as we know what we are doing, by that method we can pull down the structure of our mind. Do you know how to achieve success in mastering yourself?

Has your ladder the right seize?

He said also that he is the man that came in our dream to wake us. Do you know the spiritual practice you have to carry on until realization is gained?

And did you ever follow that man in your dreams and know him enough to know how he will wake us?

I follow that 'inner master' as he said and since years I try to get it. You have a dream and that dream just shows an 'avalanche'. Do you question that situation or you don't?

When I read Baba's thought for the day, when he said that 'avalanche' means attachment, I began to question the situation.

But if I would not have read it or not been aware of his teaching and that avalanche means 'attachment', the dream would be maybe there, but I would have forgotten it.

Spiritual Bliss and Pain and That

Many clamour for the experience of spiritual bliss, but, few earn it, because they find themselves too weak to reject the clamour of the senses! Practice assiduously the larger programme of controlling the senses.

A little enquiry will reveal that the senses are bad masters and very inefficient sources of knowledge; the joy they bring is transitory and fraught with grief. So long as one is dominated by sense pleasure, it cannot be said that his spiritual life has begun. For, the senses rush towards the temporary and the tawdry; thus, they foul the heart. God asks from each of you no other gift, no more valuable offering than the heart He has endowed you with.

Give God that heart, as pure as when He gave it to you, full of the nectar of love He filled it with. Your devotion to God is best expressed by achieving the control of the senses.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Only a few earn it, because we don't just get it for free, we have to do something for it, because it needs strength to reject the clamour of the senses. But he tells also that only a little enquiry will already reveal that the senses are bad masters and an inefficient source of knowledge. Everything what is based on the senses is just limited and has therefore, seen out of the highest wisdom and truth, no reality in it and it is for us a deception and will end in grief.

The mind goes out by the means of the senses to merge with the sense-object and that results in sense pleasure. If we relax and are not aware of it, we can be certain that this will happen all by itself, we don't need to do anything about it, the mind goes out by itself and looks for the pleasure in the senses. There is no effort needed to merge with the object of the senses. And he tells us even that our spiritual life has not yet begun, if we are not yet aware of the difference between the senses and a more efficient source of knowledge.

  

For, the senses rush towards the temporary and the tawdry; thus, they foul the heart.

The Eternal Warfare in the Mind

Ravana sought wealth and gratification of desire by utterly violating the principle of Right Conduct (dharma). He was a scholar par excellence who had mastered the sixty four disciplines of learning; whereas Rama had mastered only thirty two. However Rama put them into practice and thereby digested what he learnt, whereas Ravana failed to digest them. The indigestion arose in the form of desire (kama), which ultimately destroyed him.

While Rama was the Embodiment of Dharma, Ravana remained as the embodiment of kama. Thus, there arose a conflict between Righteousness and the unrighteousness.

Rama transformed Himself into the embodiment of Sathya, following the principle of dharma. This eternal warfare between righteousness and unrighteousness, truth and untruth, exists in the minds of every person. It is your primary duty to follow and practice the twin principles of truth and righteousness and win the game of life.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

First when focused on the observer it ended in a light that was beyond the body and in the ocean of light. It was not seen as a personal divinity, I didn't know who it was, it was just a light person and between the body and that light person was a blue ribbon and in it was written self.

The energy flow in meditation has as it seems to do with the ability to fully relax and out of the light of the inner self, if someone is disturbing that level of the higher self, by a presence like described here as not right conduct (Dharma), it can disturb that level of relaxation or make that energy flow not possible.  

Practice and Think of it Always

When the One manifests as Nature composed of the five Elements, do not imagine that its value is affected thereby. When a rupee is changed into ten paise coins, its value is not decreased at all. So too, see the Nature as the Supreme One with many manifestations, not as multiplicity of sense-impressions and attractions. Wherever your eye turns, whatever your ears hear, your fingers touch, your tongue tastes, your nose smells... take all to be God-filled.

Do not allow mere sound, taste, etc. to captivate your senses. Practice to see the Divine, welcome and accept only such thoughts and feelings and discard the others.

Sage Tukaram was once asked how can people keep this monkey-mind controlled from running after sensuous pleasures, the Sage advised, "Let the monkey mind run, you keep the body with you, do not let it go after the mind". He encouraged, "Tell the mind, I shall not give you the body as your servant. Then the mind will desist and it can be defeated."

Baba (thought for the day)

 

During singing when listening to the other singers, if that awareness of 'I am that' is present, it means we are all the same - just 'that'.
The right inner focus sees the others singer as one voice, one being and only our own self, all being the same.

The focus is not on the melody or the rhythm only, but on everything together and mostly on that oneness, being all the same and such a state we can feel and experience as God-filled, because he is present in that inner experience.

Focused on being all one, if the eye gets distracted or whatever disturbance hits our ears, whatever the smell or what our fingers touch, we don't get distracted if we go back to the self, to that what relates us all. The focus cannot be distraced by the senses, but it will be centered on that sameness and that higher self level between us all. If we are that way occupied in singing for the Lord, we are all the same. It is an experience of oneness.

Take care of Vigilant Discrimination

All the five elements have been created by the Will of the Supreme. They have to be used with reverential care and vigilant discrimination. Reckless use of any of them will only rebound on you with tremendous harm. 

External nature has to be handled with caution and awe. So too, handle your inner 'nature,' your internal instruments! While the eye, the ear and the nose serve as instruments of knowledge about one particular characteristic (form, sound or smell) of Nature, the tongue makes itself available for two purposes: to judge taste and to communicate. 

So you must control the tongue with double care, since it can harm you physically and mentally. Without the control of the senses, spiritual practices (sadhana) are ineffective. If the senses are given full sway, it is like storing water in leaky pot. Pathanjali (the celebrated author of the Yogasuthras) said that if tongue is conquered, victory is yours.

Baba (thought for the day)

How do we conquer our nature? 

I decided to go on observing because because there had been a feeling of self-realization, but afterwards it was gone. I had to find it again. And I tried about everything to find it and it seemed impossible. 

And therefore, after I had read about the four pillars of the Salomon's temple, 'knowledge, courage, volition and silence', what is often also called the secret of occult societies, I went ahead. It was about an occult principle, I still didn't have the feeling to know, but anyhow, four pillars means the pillars of a house. 

That was the beginning of observing. I began to observe and didn't tell anyone, because it was about silence. 

Release from Petrification

Offer your heart and your entire life to the Lord. Then your adoration will transform and transmute you so fast and completely, that you and He will be merged into One.

You will be transformed, as a rock is transformed by the sculptor into an idol, deserving the worship of generations of sincere people. In the process you will have to bear many a hammer stroke, many a chisel-wound, for He is the sculptor. He is but releasing you from petrification!

Do not defile time or waste this life and body seeking paltry ends. This life is part of the long pilgrimage you entered when you were born, which may not end even when you die. Never forget this fact. Be pure, alert and humble as pilgrims are. Treasure the good things and the truths you see and hear. Use them as props and promptings for further stages of your soul's journey.

 

I had a dream of an idol in a rock and it was in the sand of the desert and we went together out of it. I didn't like that desert at all. As he tells us here, he is releasing us from petrification.

I don't think I would ever understand all those dreams, visions and insights if I would not be able to write it down. It is in the reflection of it that it gets somehow clear and becomes a real meaning. Often when I interpret it by my mind or intellect it is first wrong and only later I get aware of the real meaning in it. 

With Peace, overcome Low Desires

Unfurl in your heart, the flag of infinite peace (Prashanthi). It should remind you to overcome the urge of low desires, anger and hate when your plans are thwarted; it must exhort you to expand your heart, to embrace all humanity and creation; let it direct you to quieten your impulses and calmly meditate on your own inner reality.

Gradually, the lotus of your heart will bloom, from its centre the flame of divine vision of infinite peace will arise. Practise the disciplines of silence, cleanliness and forbearance. In silence, you can hear the voice of God. Through cleanliness you earn purity. By forbearance, you cultivate love. Feel that each moment is a step towards Him. Do everything as dedicated to Him, directed by Him, as work for His adoration, for serving His children.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

If it looks terrible outside in the inner light, it is because there is no distraction, it is the focus which makes it that heavy.

If we feel there is no way out and we are kind of in a prison, even if it is only because of our spiritual sadhana or to get aware of something, it is probably not a real prison.

The last five years were also like prison, because I couldn't get out of that state of inner exhaustion, which came up with the inner child work and getting aware of the attitude of my mother, who lived a realtionship of co-dependence. 

How can we unfurl in our heart the flag of infinite peace? It was an ex-boyfriend, a neighbor who harassed my life space and the mother who was not able to see it and lived in denial.

Right Conclusion and Inner View

Brindavan is not a specific place on the map; it's the Universe! All human beings are cowherds; all animals are cows. 

Every heart is filled with the longing for the Lord; the flute is the call of the Lord; the sport Raasakreeda (the sportive dance of little Krishna and the Gopees), is the symbol of the yearning and the travail to merge in God. 

The Lord manifests such Grace that each one of you has the Lord all for yourself; you need not be sad that you won't have Him; nor need you be proud that you have Him and no one else can have Him! 

The Lord is installed in the altar of each and every one of your hearts. Revere the gift of this body, the senses, the intelligence, the Will and all the instruments of knowledge, action and feeling as essential for His work.

Baba (thought for the day)

I guess that is difficult to understand for some of our Western devotees. Lots of us don't know Brindavan that well and the story of Krishna. 

I went always in direction of the observer and the higher self, not just God, not being aware of that it is the same.
The higher self is love, it has all those divine qualities and it is only love and white light and when I translate it, somehow I get to the same conclusion, even though I never just think of God. 

In Brindavan the little Krishna was in his divine Lilas with the Gopis, the girls who watched the cows. And he tells us here how to understand the Krishna stories, the Rasa dance. Krishna was playing the flute and attracted at night the gopis to the famous Rasa dance. 

One night in Brindavanam, Baba's ashram in Whitefield at night in the dream I danced with Krishna and the next day during Darshan there was a blue light around Baba's body, that was the Rasa dance in the inner view, it is mostly during sleep because the mind is calm and not obstructing during sleep. 

In that moment, when seeing that blue hue in the Darshan around his body, I knew it was him and the Rasa dance was inside in the inner view and in the sleep in meeting that divinity. 

Mind transformed into Function of the Intellect

The ability to think correctly has to be developed through the "earthly" affairs. Then it can be transformed into a function of the buddhi. For this purpose, the "tentacles" of the consciousness (indriyas) should be redirected from the objects of the material world, even the best ones, toward the Divine Consciousness.
The thinking of such progressively developing people in all their affairs rises to a fundamentally different level, because at this stage they, step by step, begin to learn to see "earthly" problems as God sees them. The egocentrism of such a person gets gradually substituted with Godcentrism.

Sathya Sai Baba Teaching

 

That is important to be understood right. The mind is constantly moving outward in direction of sense-objects and the desire involved with that merging with the object, therefore, Baba said in my first interview, just think about God.
It means our mind if we keep it occupied with thinking about God it cannot go in direction of worldly objects.  

If we let the mind move in direction of consciousness and not objects, our thinking rises to a different level and we begin to see the world in the light of the higher self or God, it gets centered in that divine light.

 

How can one get rid of the vicious work of the mind, which impedes further advancement? — Very simply: do not try to "muffle" it, but just think about God! The nature of the mind is such that it is necessary for it to be preoccupied with something, so let it be preoccupied with God! And when it is preoccupied with God, it stops.

Between Practice and Indigestion

Ravana sought wealth and gratification of desire by utterly violating the principle of Right Conduct (dharma). He was a scholar par excellence who had mastered the sixty four disciplines of learning; whereas Rama had mastered only thirty two. However Rama put them into practice and thereby digested what he learnt, whereas Ravana failed to digest them. The indigestion arose in the form of desire (kama), which ultimately destroyed him.

While Rama was the Embodiment of Dharma, Ravana remained as the embodiment of kama. Thus, there arose a conflict between Righteousness and the unrighteousness.

Rama transformed Himself into the embodiment of Sathya, following the principle of dharma. This eternal warfare between righteousness and unrighteousness, truth and untruth, exists in the minds of every person. It is your primary duty to follow and practice the twin principles of truth and righteousness and win the game of life.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

I guess that is why we get problems with digestion. What does this tell us?

If Rama, who is divine, mastered less disciplines of learning than Ravana, who is a demon, the only difference is that he put it into practice?

If we don't understand it and don't make an effort to put it into practice, we are more or less by the nature of our digestion which doesn't function properly on the level of Ravana. 

And he asks us to do an effort to understand it, but most people I know think they don't have to do anything, not even understanding the principle of truth and love, because they are already there, because they think they know love.

That means they are not even getting the disciplines of learning and think they know because it is about the feeling of love, that is foolish.

The only difference is knowledge and if we digested it or not.

Greatness and Glory

Everyone has inside them a whole set of animals. You must suppress the tendencies of these animals and encourage the human qualities of love and friendship to shine forth. Begin the cultivation of virtues even when young, it is very important and more beneficial than book-learning. 

Treat everyone as your own people and even if you cannot do them any good, desist from causing any injury. Burn the lamp of love in the niche of your heart and the nocturnal birds of greed and envy will fly away, unable to bear the light.
Love makes you humble, it makes you bend and bow when you see greatness and glory.

Baba (thought for the day) 

It is very a different experience getting aware of childhood experiences and understanding Baba's teaching in that light or just thinking of the meaning in it. That would probably just be the intellectual level.
If I recall a relationship with someone and that it was manipulation only and nobody of my family was aware of it and I only got aware of it through Baba, there is a different meaning in all that.
It becomes experience and when he tells us that we should suppress animal tendencies and encourage human qualities of love and friendship, it is because we have seen the disaster caused by those animal qualities, because we have been there. The manipulation I had experienced in my neighborhood was there result of animal qualities.

If we just listen to it we could think that we are better because we  had the chance to meet that inner divinity. But looking back at our lives what do we see, animal qualities. Even if it didn't make sense that the animal qualities were there, it was anyhow there and overshadowed my life. 

Life or how we go beyond Death

If you stick to the truth consistently and sincerely, the sense of guilt will not gnaw your heart and cause pain. The easiest habit is speaking the truth and being honest. For, if you start telling lies, you will have to keep count of them and remember how many you have told to whom and be always alert to not contradict one lie with another!

Also be aware that it is cowardice that makes you hide the truth. It is hatred that sharpens the edge of falsehood. Be bold and there is no need for a lie.
Be full of love and there is no need for duplicity, tricks and ploys. Finally, the most important truth is, if you love a person, then you will automatically feel that they deserve the truth and nothing less than the truth.

Baba

 

If we stick to truth, honesty, truth and transformation of mind, that is what comes into my mind in reading Baba's thought for the day, even if it is often just called divinity. It is the same, because what is meant with truth is a non-changing principle and that we find in our own experience only on the level of the observer. 

In the last days I noticed the father present, and father has to do with that higher principle and therefore, it is a good feeling.  

But he died nine years ago. His life was great and he mastered difficult obstacles, but when dying it was different. We have to see his life to understand his death.
He who had claimed the highest peaks by mountaineering, he was on a very dark place and it was too steep to get out of it.
What is it what we have to face in the moment of death?

Transformation of the Mind

Rama is the embodiment of Dharma (Righteousness), which is the basis for the entire Universe. However deep and great our scholastic eminence or wealth may be, this birth is of no use without the transformation of the mind. Merely repeating Rama's name is inadequate without realising the Rama Thathwa (Principle). A true human being is one who consistently practices the principle of dharma. Burning is the dharma of fire. Coolness is the dharma of ice. Fire is no fire without burning.

Similarly the dharma of man lies in performing actions with the body, following the commands of the heart, deeply rooted in Divine Love. Every act performed with thought, word, and deed in harmony is an act of dharma. From today, emulate Rama in your daily life and transform yourself by following the path of Love.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Rama stands here for the divine principle and our higher self and we have to transform the mind in the environment we live. How I grew up I always had difficulties to put that into practice. It was a battlefield, only nobody was aware of it.

Even if we don't know Rama, the divine principle is universal and therefore, we have to find it in our own field. We were meditating and repeating the name, but as it is said here it is not enough if we don't realize the principle behind.

 

However deep and great our scholastic eminence or wealth may be, this birth is of no use without the transformation of the mind.

Right Food and what about Manipulation?

I know how systematic you all are in eating and drinking. You take pretty good care of the body. I do not condemn it; I only want that you should take equally good care of the needs of the spirit also. Take a dose of Dhyanam (meditation) and Japam (repetition of holy Names) as the morning breakfast; Puja and Archana (prayer and worship) as lunch at noon; some Sathsang (holy company) or Sathchinthana (holy thoughts) or reading of holy books or Nama likhitha (writing of holy Names) as afternoon tea and snacks; an hour of bhajan as dinner; and a small ten-minute manana (reflection) as the cup of milk before going to bed. This diet is enough to keep your inner being happy and healthy. That is My advice to you today.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

At Baba's 61th birthday at night, I was meditating because it was his birthday and in that meditation he came and it was an inside interview. He opened the door to the interview room and there was a beautiful golden light. That is the kind of spiritual food for the soul we like.

And he asked, why I was so old and not married. And I didn't know, but he said I should not worry, he would take care of it.

I thought it was about marriage and not about getting aware why I was not married. I was not aware of what was missing or wrong. I meditated with TM, we just meditated and were not used to ask questions. Just meditate and all problems solved. And I believed in it as all others did. It was like taking only good food and everything will be good.

At the Beginning or at the End

We are not always in a position to see the wholeness that is behind the pictures in the form of the drama of creation.

We are the actors in this great field of activity called the cosmos. 'The whole world is a stage,' said Shakespeare, and we are all the people who are acting on this stage, but we are not always conscious that we are playing the drama.

This consciousness is wrested out of us by some unfortunate occurrence in us. Look at the fate of a person who is performing one role in a dramatic enactment. Suppose he forgets his relationship with the other performer. He behaves as if he is absolutely independent, and has no connection with the entirety of the play. He does not know that there is a direction of the play.

He does not know the intention behind the performance. He is acting absolutely independent, presenting an isolated picture. He would cut a sorry figure and spoil the whole game.

This we are doing every day.

We are disturbing the game of life, not knowing that we are items in the totality of the dramatic presentation in this grand enactment of the aims of life, of which the Supreme Being Himself is the director. His vision is the totality of the picture of the drama.

The Bhagavadgita takes up this point of view of the completeness that is behind this wonderful picture of creation; and a necessity that is to be there for recognising a harmony in the midst of forces which look like conflicting powers on account of their isolated individualities not related harmoniously one with the other. The difficulty is the excessive preponderance of one of the powers of Prakriti, at some time, on which we lean due to the force exerted upon us by one or the other of them.
We are in a field of the opposition of the forces, which work simultaneously in the universe outside and in the personality of ours inwardly.

Bhagavadgita

 

It is all about balancing those forces, that battlefield is on one side Rajas and on the other Tamas and Sathva is that which is balancing it. 

 

Suppose he forgets his relationship with the other performer. He behaves as if he is absolutely independent, and has no connection with the entirety of the play. He does not know that there is a direction of the play.

He does not know the intention behind the performance. He is acting absolutely independent, presenting an isolated picture. He would cut a sorry figure and spoil the whole game.

This we are doing every day.

The Answers, my Friend, are blown in the Wind

Even sincere seekers feel many a time, "What am I supposed to do after reaching God? I go on looking at Him for eternity, by eating nothing, sleeping nowhere, and having nothing to do. What a drab kind of life!"

Bhagavadgita  

 

That is why I question, what am I suppose to do after reaching him and after he said engaged? If that is only my mind, okay. Why not, it is my mind that means my mind forces me to think constantly about duty, reading the Bhagavadgita is great if we look at it out of our own situation and it seems somehow he created that situation and it is possible to see it as insider, we don't just read a book but we participate in that war.

Therefore, do I go on now for eternity by questioning and not getting the right answer and nothing to do but asking question?

It feels nearly the same, isn't it? Only in the Bhagavadgita we get some answers. 

This is also a very serious point that may arise even in the best of us, what to talk about novitiates, because the thing you call God is not so easy to understand. It is not supposed to be understood at all under the circumstances we are placed, rationally or psychologically.

Possession of the Object

Everyone has inside them a whole set of animals. You must suppress the tendencies of these animals and encourage the human qualities of love and friendship to shine forth. 

Begin the cultivation of virtues even when young, it is very important and more beneficial than book-learning. 

Treat everyone as your own people and even if you cannot do them any good, desist from causing any injury. 

Burn the lamp of love in the niche of your heart and the nocturnal birds of greed and envy will fly away, unable to bear the light. Love makes you humble, it makes you bend and bow when you see greatness and glory.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we would treat everyone like our own people, it would be like a family and in a family we all have our duty and what the Bhagavadgita tells us is that we have a duty in respect to that family, but we should not expect a result in return, but that family has somehow to take care of us, otherwise, it doesn't work.

That is what my ex did, even if he claimed to be a Baba devotee, he was thinking only about himself and how he could enjoy us and take advantage of it, but he didn't see his duty.

Battlefield and Impersonal Law

We always think in terms of human relationship. It is well-known that we argue in this manner.

This is the subject of the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita, where the whole social structure is taken as the stand for the argument in connection with any action to be taken under a particular situation, and taking Arjuna as the symbol of mankind, the epic of the Mahabharata in its gospel of the Bhagavadgita tells us how we think as individuals.

We are faced with a warring situation and our activities in daily life are our efforts to face the battle.

The work that we do in our office, the labour that we put forth in a factory, or any other work that we do in any walk of life, is the effort we put forth to resolve a conflict and solve a situation.
 

: Bhagavadgita - Battlefield
 

That is how we should look at the Bhagavadgita. The first chapter is about relationship and we all have those relationship issues.
If we see it in that light we find our personal story in it. And it explains why Baba asked in the interview, what is your relationship?

It is a main focus, a main issue.

If we read the Bhagavadgita without that inner connection, we just read it, but we will not be able to get the hidden meaning in it.  

And I guess we have here the answer about job and job issues, it is the battlefield, our battlefield and that does makes sense, doesn't it? It is not just about job, it is about hidden answers.

No Worry about Ups and Downs or Ridicule

First, have unshakable faith that can stand the ridicule of the ignorant, worldly and the low-minded. When someone ridicules you, reflect within yourself - Are they ridiculing my body or soul? 

If they are ridiculing my body, they are helping me develop detachment! Ridiculing the soul is impossible, for, the Atma is beyond praise or blame, words or thoughts. 

Then repeat to yourself, "I am the Eternal Self, Pure and Immovable (Nirmala, Nischala) and so I must transcend this feeling." 

Secondly, do not worry about ups and downs, loss or gain, joy or grief. You are the creator of your own destiny. You crave for something - when you get it, you feel joyful! If you don't get it, you are in despair. Cut the craving off, and there will be no more swings between joy and grief. Finally, be convinced in the Omnipresence of Divinity.
Baba (thought for the day)

In the case with TM it was not that easy, because we didn't know what we dealt with. 

Even if we know that we are not the body and not the mind and they cannot ridicule us, if we don't understand the source, we don't know what we are dealt with. 

Even if it helps to develop detachment, if we don't know the source, we cannot understand it and therefore, we first have to know and bring up the source of the problem. It means I left TM in 86 and somehow it was still a problem and I wondered always why. It was a problem because it was not understood, it was not seen, it was hidden and we didn't know why. 

What happens if we don't understand it? We cannot fight it. They claim to be invincible because nobody can understand it.

And I didn't know to whom I belonged and that was rooted in the TM movement, but of course, not aware of it. 

It means if we don't know the source, we cannot understand it. 

Pyramid; hidden Power vs. God for all the same

The way in which we visualise any particular thing is the outlook we entertain in respect of that thing. Usually, we do not have a comprehensive idea of anything in this world.

When we gaze at an object or think of any particular thing, we regard it with some sort of blinkers limiting our vision of that object, whereby we ignore certain other aspects which also go to constitute its existence.

A mother will look upon her child in a particular manner though that child may be the king of a country. To the mother, the son is not merely a king, there is also some personal relationship there. To a client, a judge in a court is a particular thing, and he is not merely one among the many other human beings.

The relationship between the customer and the dealer, and various other kinds of relationship in terms of which we visualise objects, are examples of the conditioning factors in our knowledge.

This limitation that is automatically imposed upon the manner of knowing anything gets transferred also to our idea of God, the Absolute, Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, so that it is not infrequently that we look upon God as a father, a mother, a creator, a preserver, a destroyer, a loving friend, a merciful companion, the liberator, and so on.

But God can really be none of these, though he is also, no doubt, the all, everyone and everything. The universe of external experience does not stand outside the existence of God. This world of our experience does not exhaust the being of God. The world cannot contain the whole of God within itself, because it is an effect, and He is the Cause. At the same time, it cannot exist outside Him, for it is inseparably related to Him.

 

: Bhagavadgita

 

Now we get closer to the questions Baba had asked. The question is to whom we belong to be able to perform our duty and to bring work and duty together. Therefore, if we are still in an old relationship to another movement or master, it is not ended, it has to be ended first that we can start new again, otherwise, it is not possible. And it was all hidden, secret, therefore, not really possible to end it.

Our own Self - Adhyatma

Our own self is the adhyatma, the deepest self in us, which, again, is inseparable, ultimately, from the Godhead. It is the essential essence of which everyone is constituted — you, and I, and everybody, and everything.

As every little ripple or wave in the ocean is nothing but the vast ocean, the secret hidden at the recess of every individual occasion is the adhyatma, the Atman, the self in us, which is incapable of further reduction, beyond which one cannot go, and beneath which there is nothing. The deepest and bottom-most being of our personality is what is called the Atman.

 

:Bhagavadgita

 

Nothing exists beyond the higher self or as he calls it here the deepest self in us, the essence of which everyone is constituted, you and I. That is the essence of 'I am that'.

To recognize the Adhyatma our deepest self is not yet on the level of knowing that it is also the essence of the ocean, it needs some time and reflection and realization to get there. It has to be insight to become the ocean. The deepest self is first seen as ripple and it is a matter of realization to get aware that it is part of the vast ocean and the secret hidden behind is that it is everything and not different from the universal Atman.

Sadhana - the most Essential Practice

When you come out of the examination hall, you know whether you will pass or fail, for you can yourself judge how well you have answered – is it not? So too, in your daily life, each of you can judge and ascertain the success or failure of your Sadhana (Spiritual Effort).

Sadhana is the most essential practice for you. No age is too early for this. Just as you tend the body with food and drink at regular intervals, you must also tend to the needs of the inner Soul by regular japam and dhyanam (contemplation and meditation) and the cultivation of virtues. Holy Company, Good Attitude and Sacred Thoughts are all very essential for the growth and the health of your inner personality. Your body is the mansion (Bhavanam) of the Lord of the Universe (Bhuvaneshwara).

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Meditation is the way to go beyond the mind and be in touch with our higher self, and that was always my aim and if we don't meditate, we are only in the mind and cannot get out of it and don't learn to discriminate. How can we discriminate if we don't have the experience of it?

There are enough reasons to go for it. It seems also important to know that our soul can only be fed with food that is permanent and real. It means if we try to be happy on the relative level, we look for it on the wrong place. The hunger of the soul cannot be appeased on that level, but that always happens that we look for it on the wrong level and that is called Maya, illusion. 
That is another reason why we should meditate. It has to be permantely present, otherwise, it is not real. And we find it in the the relationship to divinity, that is always good and non-changing in its nature, and only on that level we find real human values.

Faith can affect Inanimate Objects

A few elders in Brindavan who revelled in scandalizing Krishna set an ordeal for Radha to test her virtue. Radha was asked to fetch water in a pot from Yamuna to home. Radha, with full faith in Krishna, was immersed in the consciousness of the Lord, that she never bothered to know the condition of the pot. The mud pot she was given had a hundred holes. She immersed it in the river, repeating the name of Krishna as usual, with every intake of the breath and every exhalation. Every time the name Krishna was uttered, a hole was covered, so that by the time the pot was full, it was whole! That was the measure of her faith. Faith can affect even inanimate objects.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How would it be for us to be in such a situation? Imagine you are sent to get some water and the pot has holes. What would we think? What would be our conclusion? Would we think that the pot is just not okay or would we realize that behind are some people who want to test our virtue?

It is a difference if we just have a broken pot in our hands or if that pot was broken in purpose to test our virtue, could be something else being destroyed to test our virtue, couldn't it?

Radha was always repeating the name of Krishna.

Succeed the Trumoil of Life

Learn when you are young how to succeed in the turmoil of life, how to live without causing pain to others and suffering pain yourself. Everyone should cooperate and work with love and devotion. Tolerate all kinds of persons and opinions, all attitudes and peculiarities.

Difference of opinion amongst people must be perceived and resolved like the two eyes, each giving a different picture of the same object; both of which when co-ordinated, gives a complete rounded picture. Examine everything you hear, and believe only what appeals to you as correct.

Baba

  

Trying to find myself in that turmoil of life, I guess that is not that easy and it seems it has a lot to do with self-contempt. You asked me if it was done, I guess it is not. Maybe in the sense that something got clear, but that is only part of it. It seems to arrange you if it is done, whatever reason, for you it is done.
And every time when I watch that film it reminds me at my own life, in the beginning I couldn't catch the meaning at all. What is worse than rape - betrayal (the General's daughter).
The spiritual path learns to accept turmoil in life and to live with it and to learn to see it right to get to the right conclusion.

The Law of Karma and Rebirth

 Your birth is determined. The length of your life is determined. What you will get in your life, your enjoyment, the miseries, are also determined. Why is someone born in Ethiopia and someone else born in Switzerland? Is there any explanation?

Patanjali has. He gives an insight into it. This is the usual question asked, "Why so and so is born there and so and so is born somewhere else? Why so and so is miserable? Why so and so has so much suffering?" This is a big question. No logic can give you any understanding or explanation.

 

This is a comment on the Patanjali sutras, the texts are real good. It helps not only to understand the sutra, but also the teaching in general. Patanjali is the father of yoga and his sutras are famous, but here it is not about powers and miracles, but about birth and death and how we should really see it.  

The higher Self Reflected in every Object

The Lord is the Immanent Power in everything; those who refuse to believe that the image in the mirror (the world) is a reflection of themselves, how can they believe in the Lord, when He is reflected in every object around them?

The moon is reflected in a pot, provided it has water. So too, the Lord can be clearly seen in your heart, provided, you have the water of Love inside it. When the Lord is not reflected in your heart, you cannot say that there is no Lord. It only means that there is no Love within you.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

His beauty is incredible. He is that beautiful, there is nothing else that matters and if we don't have already the experience of our true self, our true nature, we should observe and wait and want nothing else but 'that' until we get that experience, and we will get if, because if we don't want anything else but that, no other desires, he has to react and be there on a certain point.

It needs patience and perseverance, the two guardians of the Lord. Baba tells if we want to see a VIP, the Lord, we have to be able to pass those two guardians.   

It is about experience, the higher self can only be experienced in the reflection of that reality, in fact, it reflects in itself.

Difference between Good and Pleasant

Yet there is something that is finally good, which is the good of the soul of an individual. That which is permanent can be regarded as good. As things in the world are transient and passing, they cannot also be regarded as finally good. We also pass away, as far as our body is concerned, but the soul will not pass away. Therefore, that which is commensurate with the needs of the soul of a person may be regarded as really good.

And, there is nothing in this world which can feed our soul. The world can feed our sensations: our mind, intellect and ego can be fed by the diet of this world, but the soul is suffering.

Our soul is hungry; its appetite cannot be properly met by anything in this world, because the impermanent cannot satisfy that which is permanent. 

"The permanent cannot be attained through that which is impermanent." The impermanent cannot satisfy what is permanent – that is, that which is relatively good cannot be set in tune with the soul, which is the ultimate good.

 

Katha Upanishad

 

In the Katha Upanishad we find the famous talk between Yama the Lord of Death and Nachiketas. He grants the boy three boons and the last one he wants to know what happens to the soul after death.

And finally he explains the difference between what seems pleasant to us and changes in time and what is good always.
And truth has only to do with things which cannot be changed, therefore, what seems pleasant one time, is not in another state of life and it cannot be true.

But what is good, is really always the same and good in the real sense of the word.

 

That which is permanent can be regarded as good.

 

And after Baba had made that Lila and he was inside and said, 'I am hungry and you?'

In this Upanishad he tells why he said that, because the soul is hungry. Of course, he made me get aware with that question that I am not hungry for food or drink, or anything like that, but it is the hunger of the soul starving in that sense already for a long time. 

 

Our soul is hungry; its appetite cannot be properly met by anything in this world, because the impermanent cannot satisfy that which is permanent.

Twist of Fate and knowing your own Self

It is not easy to know your own Self.
Take the case of the food that you eat. You feel its presence as long as it is in your stomach, but do not know what happens in the stages after that, unless you study in depth about your human body. How then can you know, without effort, the Truth that lies behind the sheaths that encase and enclose you.
You must clear the intellect of the cobwebs of the ego, the dust of desire, and the soot of greed and envy, then it becomes a fit instrument for revealing the Inner Truth.

The Scriptures exhort you to know your Self, know your Inner Motivator (the Antharyami)! For, unless you are armed with that knowledge, you are like a ship sailing without a compass in a stormy sea!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

The Antharyami, the inner motivator, is just what I read about it in the Upanishads the last few days translated by Swami Krishnanada. It was about that first 'mantra' he said if we don't understand it, we don't understand the rest too.

But the Upanishads is really in detail looking at the human and its relationship with the universe and it is great, but it is an illusion to think that we just can tell people to 'live in love' and they will understand it. It is not only in love, but about love, anyhow, that can be understood wrong, because it is love as truth, not only a feeling, but if we live truth, the result is love.

Insight derived from the Inner Vision

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and fail miserably. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief.
If you look upon the world and all its created objects with the insight derived from the inner vision, the attachment will fade away; you will see everything much clearer, with the Divine glory suffused in its Splendor.
Close your external eyes and open your inner eyes – see what a beautiful grand vision emerges from within you, as you go through your daily life. Attachment to the world has limits, but the attachment to the Lord that you develop when your inner eye opens has no limit. Enjoy that Reality, not this false picture from your external eyes.
Baba (thought for the day)

There is a difference between the subjective and the objective world.
Even if we see everything as God as the first mantra of the Upanishads tells, there is subjective experience and knowledge and an objective world and a gap in between. How can we experience that subjectivity to know the difference?
Everything conceptual is on the objective world level. That what cannot be conceptualized is on the subjective level, therefore, it can only be experienced. But we can experience it as reflection.
Atman reflects, reacts and resounds. (Baba)

Who understands the Understanding?

There is no use understanding things," says the Kaushitaki Upanishad. "There is no use knowing what you are understanding. You must know the Understanding itself."

Understand the understander, which is more beneficial to you than to know what is being understood by the understanding as an external object.

Now I understand that there is a tree in front of me; I can see it. But, that is not enough for me; I must know how it is that the understanding is able to understand that there is a tree in front of me. Who understands the understanding?

 

: Upanishads

 

In my first Baba interview he said that is very difficult to understand, but I didn't think it would be that difficult. It is beyond imagination that difficult.  

I mentioned that my friend (boyfriend) was with Maharishi and I was with him (Baba) and as I still called him my friend, I hoped Baba would help me to see it right and not upside down and afterwards I wanted to go back to where I actually came from.
That so called friend of mine, whatever he did, but it ended in seeing the master as a criminal and I tried to do it right and better.