Three Steps and Tapas (spiritual Discipline)

When you say that Lord Krishna was born in Gokul, grew up in Brindavan, ruled over Mathura and later Dwaraka, what does that signify?

The mind is the Gokul where He was born. He is born to everyone, even today, whoever has taken to a spiritual path. The heart is the Brindavan where He grows. He grows in every heart, where Divine Love develops and expands. Your Intellect (Chitha) is where He begins His rule, and the Nirvikalpa stage (the state of absolute oneness) is the Dwaraka where He firmly establishes Himself as the reigning monarch.

Make your thirst and devotion for the Lord grow through these stages, and you will be saving yourself.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Here we seem to have the problem of different religions and cultures and that we are in the West and a lot of us don't know the tradition of Krishna and if we don't know the beauty of the Krishna stories, we don't know what he did in Gokul and what in Brindavan.
We would have to read the Krishna stories first and because it is not related to our culture, it would be still difficult to feel it inside and to realize that our heart is in Brindavan and why, and why it grows and that the intellect has to do with being a ruler and finally he will be in Dwaraka as the reining monarch.

We know Jesus and of him we have hardly any knowledge of the first twelve years.

The Krishna stories are different, because he is not crucified, he is a king. Even if the unity of all religions is in the heart and it is about love and knowing the heart, there is still a difference between the realization of being the father or the son.   

But what Baba tells us here is that there is a development and it is advancing and progressing on the spiritual path. It begins with the mind. If we go on the spiritual path we wake up Krishna in us.

In Gokul he is very playful and in Brindavan are his wonderful stories with the gopies and the love story with Radha.   

What we get is that only after the intellect is awake he becomes the ruler. 

Also in our last study circle, we always see that our mind gets easily to the conclusion which is not right, we talked about discrimination, but someone was convinced that it was not necessary, because she thought that oneness means no discrimination. 

But we had a text in front of us in which Baba said, first discrimination and after getting aware of what we have realized and being able to go for it no matter what, that is called Tapas and there are three steps to follow.
That is the reason why we had that text about discrimination, because somehow always again that is not seen as necessary, what feels real stange to me sometimes.
It is hard to understand why anyone should not see the need of discrimination, when it is basic and important. We begin with discrimination and end with unity, not the opposite way round.
As we talked about it quite often in our study circle, we seemed to get used to it in our group and it was understood, we thought.

But last time it was there again, and it was someone who had not been in our circle for a while and we noticed it on the spot.

The text said that we first should be able to discriminate between eternal and limited values, between real and unreal, between true and untrue and second we should be able to realize what we have actually realized by that in our own self and third we should be able to not give up, whatever the obstacles on our path, we have to go on.

Baba said in that text that it is called Tapas, spiritual discipline, spiritual work and we should see it in three steps.
So first we had to get aware of it to answer the question what is Tapas.

Funny was that someone related Tapas to the Spanish apero and someone else was convinced in her mind that it was not necessary to use discrimination, because all is one. 
The text and words of Baba in front of our eyes and it said 'first discrimination', written down black and white, but she was that convinced by whatever time she was thinking like that - for her discrimination was not necessary ...
Isn't it surprising what the mind can do to us and how it gets to wrong conclusions and convinces itself that the mind is right. I guess that is what Baba usually called monkey mind. 
The mind is able to express itself in the most strange ways and even if it doesn't make sense at all, still convinced to be right.
Even when it is written down in front of our eyes, it feels like not seen, not understood and just not there, misunderstood oneness.
Maybe the problem is, that we cannot understand oneness, we have to be it.
That is why we call it more often total non-dualism now, because it shows that we go first from duality, we have to have two sides to discriminate and after it will be qualified non-dualism to get finally total non-dualism or oneness.

That problem of the mind is always again present and probably I just have to learn to take it with humor, it shows that the person is not able to grasp it, because the mind is obstructing the realiy, but we should find a way to get there anyhow. 

If the mind goes on for years convinced that oneness means to not think and to not have discrimination, it will go on like that, because it gets used to it, even if nobody knows how it ever got to that inner conviction that it is right like that and probably least the mind itself, it is just a monkey mind.
The intellect stops, because there is no way we can understand it, because we see only one side of it.
We have to first see two sides and duality to get the concept of it. The intellect doesn't work if there is only one side, there have to be two sides, it means duality, difference between real and unreal that the intellect is able to discriminate and to get to the conclusion that there is a conceputal and non-conceptual reality.

Whenever Baba tells God, it is already discrimination between what is good and what is not good or all that what is almighty to what is not.

And like that the monkey mind cannot grasp the teaching, and it doesn't make a difference if it is written black and white in front of us, we just don't see it.

 

Make your thirst and devotion for the Lord grow through these stages, and you will be saving yourself.

 

Also in that thought for the day Baba talks about growth, he mentions stages, first the mind, after the heart and finally the intellect to be able to be saving ourselves.

 

What I am doing here in writing things down, in questioning, that is for me the second stage.
I have to get aware of what I have realized and how I have to understand it, whatever, all that stuff what came up and what was present in insights and dreams with Baba during the past years on that spiritual path, because we have to be able to know what we have realized, that is how it is integrated in our life and the third step is to go on, no matter what obstacles life has ready for us.

It is actually easy to understand, if we look at it more closely and listen, think it over and absorb. 

But if we don't know the Krishna stories and we don't know and we cannot change that so fast. We can get lost in the text, get the feeling we don't understand it anyhow and even if it seems easy and therefore, it is after all not that easy and it helps to think it over to make sure, we understand it right and not wrong.
Listen, think it over and absorb. (Baba)

We have to get to the right conclusion.

And if we don't know, we probably even don't know right from wrong and are not able to put it into practice. 
To put the three steps of Tapas into practice, we have to understand it right first. If we don't understand what Baba tells us, we might think we know, but in reality we don't know.

How do we make sure we develop that level of discrimination first? It is impossible to go wrong in meditating. 
Meditation leads beyond the mind and that is the non-changing and true value and therefore, it leads to discrimination.

With regular meditation we develop discrimination and we will be able to understand it, that is a matter of fact and if we understand it right, we will be able to go on no matter what...

That are the three steps of Tapas, what Baba calls here, awakening Krishna in us ...