Creator and Power

Is there any object in the world without a creator? Consider a loud speaker. It has the power to broadcast sound, way beyond any individual’s voice and must take someone with required knowledge and skill to design and produce it. He or she may be in Germany, Switzerland or Japan, and perhaps invisible to you! Without that person, would this loudspeaker have come into existence? No! Similarly for everything that you enjoy in this world, there is a Creator. The stars that twinkle, the Sun and the Moon that illumine the world have been created by a Supreme Infinite Power. It is obvious to us that no ordinary person can create these super objects and ensure they are still working, after billions of years. Scriptures (Vedas) describe to us that this Super Power is Aprameya (One beyond description, beyond all proofs and limitations). The primary objective of every being in this Universe must be to seek and understand this Infinite Power. 

Baba (thought for the day)

After repeating like a loudspeaker his words, at night it was in the dream and looked like a competition and I used someone else’s words and out of that inner calamity like someone telling me, but you should use your own words, the discussion begins.

We are that loud speaker, like he mentions it in this thought for the day and it is in fact a create example to show how we should see it in our own life. Not the words matter, they are just a tool we use to see it in our own life and to get the experience. What matters is that we are able to see it in our own life.  And as he tells us here that the loudspeaker has the power to broadcast sound and it has to be someone who is able with the required knowledge and skilled to get ‘insights’ to produce it and that is what I am doing here, it is really all there is and nothing more. As Baba tells us that voice may be in Germany or Switzerland or even Japan, for now and with me it is Switzerland and it is invisible to everybody else, why we are doing it, isn’t it? But without Baba behind it that loudspeaker would not have come to existence?

Nature and Precious Gifts

Many of you do not consider the sacred values of Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, Prema and Ahimsa as inner current that are present within you. In fact, they form the basic foundation of human life. Without the basic fundamentals, the more knowledge you acquire, the greater and longer you continue to be a fool, if you do not invest effort to realize your true nature. Truth is present and latent within everyone. It is a precious gift from God. Whether you recognize these facts or not, and even if you consider them as irrelevant, these facts remain. Hence now onwards, you must install Truth deeply in your heart. Love is the natural fruit of developing Truth. If you grow in truthfulness, then as a result, Love blossoms from within. Along with Sathya and Prema, comes Ahimsa. Truth sustains Ahimsa or Non-Violence. You will find that the value of Non-violence is often absent, in every person, wherever and whenever Love is absent.

Baba

It is great to be in Prasanthi Nilayam. As usual we got a room with others together and actually it is good. The last time I had been here it was during the time Baba has left the body. It seemed first that we met only happy people, at least for now. As I know after a while also that will change. But there are definitely some happy people and Baba always said just be happy and I am glad to find some who live it. But you know if you come with mind problems and you are not able to let go, you will not even notice those who are happy. We see the world with our glasses, if we are not happy, we only see those who are also not happy.

Yesterday was a great Darshan and also that is individual. I guess if I would be in my mind and not able to listen and to go deep into it, it would not be that great. It depends always our personal experience. But the children were present from Baba’s schools, he has big schools and colleges and as much as I know free of charge.

You are You and God is God

To hate or injure other beings is as bad as hating and injuring oneself. The reason being that the injurer is as much a living being with God as the core, as the injured is. Until you become aware of your own Divinity (Deva-tatwa) so long as you are conscious of your distinct individuality (Jiva-tatwa) - till you feel you are you and God is God, you struggle, with some attitudes and objectives. This is called the Sadhaka stage. During that stage, you must endeavor to equip yourself with the qualities of love, sympathy and compassion. For, without these, Yoga and Jnana (wisdom) cannot be secured. Love is vital, it is divine. To render an act fit to be offered to God and pure enough to win His Grace, it must be a manifestation of Love. The brighter the manifestation, the nearer you are to God.

Baba (thought for the day)

It was a great experience to get aware of Baba’s presence during singing, but if we analyze it what happened really, it is natural law. After singing someone said, today it was just great and Baba was always present without interruption and it is also my experience.

Isn’t it great to share that?

It seems so easy to tell he is the ocean, we are the waves and we are one, but to live it, don’t you agree, it is not that easy. We should not hate another, because he is inside also part of the self as he tells us in that thought for the day.

To hate or injure other beings is as bad as hating and injuring oneself. The reason being that the injurer is as much a living being with God as the core, as the injured is.

Insights and Natural Law

Purnima means the effulgent fullmoon. Guru is One who removes darkness and delusion from the heart and illumines it with the higher wisdom. The moon and the mind are interrelated, as object and image. On this day, the moon is full, fair and cool, its light pleasant and peaceful; the light of the mind too has to be pleasing and pure. In the firmament of your heart, the moon is the mind.  Sensual desires and worldly activities are the clouds, thick and heavy which mar your joy at the light of the moon. Let the strong breeze of love scatter the clouds away and confer on you the cool glory of moonlight. When devotion shines full, the sky in the heart becomes a bowl of beauty and life is transformed into a charming avenue of Ananda (bliss). That beauty of heart, that bliss in life can be won through the mind, if the lesson of this day is remembered and realized.

Baba (thought for the day)

We had great Guru Purnima Bhajans. It felt like in Prasanthi. I usually like to close my eyes and to listen to Bhajans when it feels like Prasanthi, we could feel Baba's presence, someone else said that there was no interruption during that whole time, and he was continuously present.
During Bhajans we always sing about oneness, nothing else and the oneness of all religions.  That is the ocean and we have to know how to live that oneness.

And there has been another insight about TM as opposed to what we had thought it was.
There was 'one insight', but not a real insight. 
We were lead by scientific research to always the same conclusion. If we meditate all problems are solved, just meditate.

We looked at that same insight from all sides, universally and with science. We believed it to be scientific until later it got clear that not the research mattered, but only the same conclusion getting the intellect to the conclusion that all is done with meditation.
The intellect stops to work if we get always to the same conclusion.

If we look at the sheaths, there is the material body the first sheath and prana, air, the energy level is the second sheat belonging to fire, upward direction.
In the middle we have the mind. It belongs to the moon, downward direction in the senses. The mind is the master of the senses.
Afterwards we have the intellect sheat and it belongs to fire and again upward direction and finally we get to Ananda, the bliss sheath in the center, the heart.

What we need is the intellect and prana, meditation to get beyond the mind into upward direction, that is natural law. 

He is the Doer and Karma

Grief and joy, and pain and pleasure alternate like the dark and bright fortnight by God's decree, to foster equanimity and to lead man towards reality beyond both. If you do not attempt to transform yourself but resort to blaming God for your sorrows, it is incorrect!

You blame God because you announce yourself as a devotee too soon, and expect plentiful grace. Grace cannot be claimed as such; first God must accept you! Use your talent of discrimination to sift the trash and discard it in preference to the valuable. Engage in selfless service; flee from bad persons and win the friendship of the good and noble, who will cleanse you and heal you. Man is consumed by time; God is the master of time. So take refuge in God. Let God be your Guru, your path, your Lord.

Baba (thought for the day)

Baba is life, he is immortal being. Death is the body and related to matter and heavy and flowing downward and related to the mind and we get reborn if we are in the mind. It is natural law.

If we hear that business of business is the same as business of life, it is a wrong conclusion and it seems rooted in TM. TM did that - adabting the technique to the American dream, invincibility and all possiblitites. We cannot tell that Baba is business, he is not business, he is the 'I am that', he is the divine principle, 'I am the One'. He is ocean and we are the waves. 

Swim Across the Sea, but don't call it Business

The Gita offers valuable advice to help one swim across the sea of sorrow. Bear no ill-will against any living being (Adweshta Sarva Bhoothaanaam), always be engaged in promoting the wellbeing of all (Sarva Bhootha Hithe Rathaah), and consider foe and friend alike (Samah Shathrou Cha Mithre Cha) - these are jewels contained in the Gita, highlighting the means to develop Universal Love. By declaring that none should have ill feeling towards the entire world of living beings, the Gita is teaching an invaluable lesson that the Divine is in all beings and objects, as an active illumining Principle, appropriately called Atma. The Vedic assertions also firmly establish this profound Truth. All are enveloped in God (Ishaavasyamidham Sarvam); the inner core of all beings is He (Sarva Bhootha antharaatma).

Baba (thought for the day)

We want to swim across the sea of sorrow. I felt that turned off and fed up of my mother's attitude which could see only faults and was constantly telling us, 'you could never do that' and she meant running around like she did, what nobody wanted to do like her. I was fed up. I didn't understand it; I didn't feel comfortable in it and no more at home. It was a strange feeling to go home and to feel always I do not feel home. It felt to me like, whatever I said, it was not approved, but wrong and criticized.

Drama and the Almighty

Silence is the first step in Sadhana, which makes the other steps easy. It promotes self-control, lessens chances of anger, hate, malice, greed and pride. Besides, you can hear His footsteps, only when silence reigns in the mind. Cleanliness opens the door to Godliness.

Inner and outer cleanliness are essential to install God within your heart. Service saves you from the agony you get when another suffers; it broadens your vision, widens your awareness, and deepens your compassion. All the waves on the sea originate from the same sea and also merge in it. Seva teaches you to be firm in this knowledge. Practice Love. Practice hatelessness. None must be looked down upon as secondary, inferior or unimportant. Everyone has their allotted role in the drama designed by the Almighty. Do not slight, insult or injure anyone; for, He is in every being and your slight thus becomes a sacrilege.

Baba

Sadhana is spiritual practice; like regular meditation on a daily bases and as Baba tells us here it makes other steps easy.

I had an experience of 'self-realization' writing a diary at the age of seventeen and afterwards I couldn't find it anymore. And I didn't know why it was gone, but I grew up in an environment where it was not really possible to talk, not from the side of my mother, not from the side of the father and it ended up with the same type of neighbors. The whole family had been in a friendship with someone who turned into the opposite after he got married. I was young and I had time and I didn't think there would be a problem. With the oldest brother of that family I went for walks sometimes. It was fun, we were young and it felt good, everything was at the beginning.

Knowledge and Silence

When Yajnavalkya resolved to go into the forest to live as an ascetic, he called his two wives before him and proposed to divide the riches he had earned between them. Before accepting her share, Maitreyi asked her husband whether the riches will help her to realise Truth and achieve immortality. When she understood that they will not, and in fact they are mere hindrances, she refused to be burdened. Nachiketa refused the gifts of empire, affluence, and years of healthy life. Prahladha taught the same lesson to his playmates. Buddha solved the mystery of suffering through renunciation of attachment as the first step in his Sadhana. All of them had implicit faith in the existence of God; their lives revolved on the axis of that faith.

Baba (thought for the day)

This thought for the day is about attachment and that riches can be hindrance. We prefer to see it as a gift given by God and that we are able to take good care of it usually than to renounce it. It seems easier, but what is about attachment?  

There are lots of stories in the Puranas about famous people who refused the gift of empire, affluence and even years of healthy life in the purpose to get liberation. It is definitely easier if we talk about it in the Puranas than it is in our life.

If it is about an empire we cannot just renounce it like Buddha and meditate for the rest of your days.

If we talk about, knowledge, courage, volition and silence, the four pillars of the temple, we get to 'insights' only with silence and not with mediation or what we call Sadhana, spiritual practice. It is just 'silence'; it helps the mind go quiet down and it definitely feels better, because we do not have to argue about it with anyone and we do not have to explain things, the commitment is silence.  

The Sun of Knowledge and Character is Power

The scriptures declare that body is the temple and God is installed therein. Hence consider your body as a vessel for cooking food, given on loan for hosting the festival of life. Can we return it to God, the Owner, in a worse condition? Should we not scrub it clean and return it bright and free from rust and dust? When the festival of life began, we received a pure, fresh and bright body from Him, innocent of evil. We have now inflicted dents, leaks and other signs of damage, through lust, greed, hatred, anger and envy. Do not return His property in poor condition. You must return it to Him, as pure as He gave it, to be most worthy of His Grace. Remember the purpose of your birth; and leverage your full potential and capability to achieve it. Wear the garland of devotion around your neck and saturate your thought, word and deed with Divine Love.

Baba (thought for the day)

Yesterday Baba made that difference between knowledge and character. Do you think it is difficult to understand?

I think it is, because knowledge is something we can get from someone or we can learn it, but character shows that it has to do with our attitude, right understanding and our being.

We could see meditation like taking a cloth and cleaning the mirror in the heart, the watchman is cleaning that mirror to be able to look in that mirror. What makes it difficult is our understanding of knowledge on one side and the missing notion that in the heart is a mirror.  

Nobody talked in our culture about the mirror in the heart before we met Baba and if he talks about divinity in the heart and that we should listen to the heart, we rather think of a voice and not a mirror.

Insights and following Steps

You must regard the prosperity and joy of others in the community as your own. Only then will India or any other country deserve prosperity and joy. Your happiness is bound up with the happiness of Society. Your physical, mental and intellectual strength and skills have to be dedicated, not merely to your own progress, but equally to the progress of Society. You must try to benefit yourself and the Society through such service. Use the strength, skills, and spirit of service for such work. A machine gets rested if it is not put to use; the human machine too gets rusted if it is not put to constant meaningful work. The pulse is not the correct indicator of your being alive; work and activity is the evidence and the value of real living. Your role is to translate your strength into activity along the path of duty.

Baba (thought for the day)

There is a difference of time between an insight and the following step. 
The insight was there, it was in the dream. 
At that time I thought first it was a dream and only in thinking about it and seeing it in Baba’s words we get absorbed. We have to realize what it is an ‚insight‘. It is the reflection of reality, Darshan, in our own heart. 
And Baba tells us he is the insight and he is he following step.

Illusion, Achieve the Unachievable

What or who is God? When the answer to this question is sought, one discovers that God is the glory immanent in Nature. The earth rotates on its axis at a speed of thousand miles an hour. As a consequence, we have alternations of day and night, which helps us to live on this globe. Besides, it moves around the sun at the rate of 66,000 miles an hour, causing the seasons which bring rains for crops and vegetation which sustain human life. The earth does not profit in the least by these rotations but human beings survive, enjoy life and prosper on account of them. Nature must indeed be laughing at the sterile frenzies, the endless pursuits, and the countless miseries to which human beings submit themselves to, in their search for achieving the unachievable! You must search in Nature the sacred lessons it holds for you; then, you will understand how deep and how everlasting is the Truth that it conveys to you!

If I ask myself that question and try to see it in my life, what or who is God and even when it is about the glory immanent in nature.

He doesn't talk just about nature, but about the glory in nature. The earth rotates and we do not feel it, even if it is high speed. We know we have day and night; it is just a new day.

Yesterday we had study circle and it was nice. First we talked in the circle and nobody interrupted and I had the feeling that it was a bit stiff and in the end we just talked together about it, our theme was Dharma. One participant said that nobody was thinking of that but we and we said yes, that this type of discrimination is not that commonly used and that most of people don't think at all.

The Watchman

All of you are pilgrims in the journey towards the city of liberation. Every life is but a stage in the journey, your body is a rest-house for a short stay during the pilgrimage. The mind is the caretaker in the place of our rest. Do not treat the Mind as a Master or Owner, but take care of it so that the house we are privileged to occupy is not damaged or polluted. We must treat the watchman politely and not destroy its interiors.

A restless mind is an important source of ill-health. Many are constantly afflicted with some source of worry or other, never free from anxiety. Why? Because they are identifying themselves with the body! One acquires their body, through their past activities and deeds, caused by the twin pulls of love and hate. You can escape from this cycle, if you realize the Oneness of the Divine being present in you and in everyone.

Baba (thought for the day)

  

All of us are pilgrims in the journey towards liberation; Baba calls it here the city of liberation.

On the way we are helped or handicapped by the antics of the mind.

Our life is a journey and we should see the mind as caretaker, but if our place of rest is not taken care properly, it will be a handicapped journey.

How do we know if we treat the Mind as the Master or Owner?

And how do we take care of it that the house we are privileged to occupy is not damaged or polluted?

We must treat the watchman politely and not destroy its interiors.

With these words Baba describes the insight and the meaning of it when my ex was standing in the ruin of that house, there were big holes in the floor and the walls had crumbles and there was no roof and he said that is all I could get in garage sales. That was his hobby to go to garage sales and when I tried to tell him that it was not okay, he began to argue. That is how that house looked after we left and we didn't go back.

God ... and the Higher Self

Know Who You Are and Be Free

Virtuous living, beneficial thoughts, elevating ideals and righteous conduct can confer not only good health, but what is even more precious, Aatmananda, the ecstatic Awareness of the Reality itself. When one yearns for the happiness and prosperity of all mankind, he or she is blessed with the wisdom and strength to mark out the way and lead them towards it.

The person sees one’s chosen God in everyone. Every act of theirs will be as pure, as sincere and as sacred as an offering to God. A very effective way to conquer all sources of physical and mental disease and debility is awareness of one's Divine (Atmic) Reality. That will bring about an upsurge of Love and Light, for, when one recognizes that he or she is the Atma, one would cognize the same Atma in all, and share in the joy and grief, strength and weakness of all.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we are not in sathva, we have no inclination to understand Baba’s thought for the day and we have to get into it and dive deeply into the meaning of it and only then we are able to find some interest first we are able to think it over and finally we get absorbed in it.

So if you think it is much too difficult and better we keep only silent and go on in silence, so we don’t have to think about it, it just should tell you that your mind is probably in the state of passion, Rajas and not in Sathva, purity or light or interested for truth in that very moment in a sathvic way.