Listen to it and Think it Over

People commit the great fault of identifying themselves with the body. They accumulate a variety of things for the upkeep and comfort of the body, even when the body becomes weak and decrepit with age! Can death be postponed? When Yama's (God of death) warrant comes, all must depart. Position, pride, and power - all vanish before death. Knowing this, strive day and night, with purity of body, mind and spirit, to realize the Higher Self. The body must be preserved as a vehicle for this service. But remember, you are not this body; this body cannot be you! Until the realization of the purpose for which the human body is given, it is your duty to watch over it vigilantly and protect it from injury and disablement. Just as woolen clothes help withstand the rigor of the cold gales during winter and are discarded in summer, the material body is no longer essential when the cold gales of material life don't affect you.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we listen to Baba's words carefully, what we always should do, we find that he is telling us in the first sentence that people commit the great fault of identifying themselves with the body.

We should notice that it is a great fault and therefore, we have to think it over to be able to understand it and it is possible to understand it if we know how.

People commit the great fault of identifying themselves with the body.  

Result and Karma

For every being, life is a series of acceptances and rejections, of joy and grief, benefits and losses. Take everything that happens to you as gifts of grace. Of course, you must act with all the skill and devotion you are capable of. And you must do your duties with as much sincerity as you worship God. Then, leave the result to the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful Lord. Why do you hold yourself responsible for the results? He prompted it, He got it done through you; He will give whatever result He feels He must! Can you store gold in a gold box? No! You store it in a steel or iron safe almirah, isn’t it? So too, understand that the gift of joy comes packed in the rind of grief. Do not pray to God to give you only joy; that will be foolish. Pray for the fortitude to realize that grief and joy are but two sides of the same coin.
Baba 

We had been moving in January, because the building we had been living in so far is getting a new elevator and our place got too small, by next months all people have to somehow move out and go to another place. But it was lots of work and it was good to throw away lots of stuff and to clean out things.

And you must do your duties with as much sincerity as you worship God. Then, leave the result to the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful Lord. Why do you hold yourself responsible for the results? He prompted it, He got it done through you; He will give whatever result He feels He must!

First Spiritual Practice

If your minds revel in external objects and in purposeless observation and criticism of the outside world, how then can it be trained to be steadfast? Ask yourself this question: ‘Great souls (mahatmas) and sages were also people like me. If they could attain perfection, so can I if I follow their method. What profit do I get spending my time in discovering the faults and weakness of others?’ Thus the first spiritual practice (sadhana) is to search for the faults and weaknesses within yourself, and to strive to correct them and become perfect. The unceasing toil of each succeeding day has as its aim and justification this consummation: to make one’s last days sweet and pleasant. But each day also has its evening. If the day is spent in good deeds, then the evening blesses us with deep sleep, invigorating refreshing sleep, the sleep which is said to be akin to samadhi.

If we summarize what we thought over, we recognize that Baba is talking about the mind and it makes the mind in us react. 

If the mind is strong we will react on the mind level. If we don’t listen to him, we listen to our mind and it sounds kind of like that probably: 'But I revel in external objects and in purposeless observation and criticism of the outside world, how can I be steadfast? 

The ‘I’ is not the mind, but we hear anyhow that I do it and the mind thinks, if I don’t talk and keep silence I don’t do all that.

That is a mind conclusion and a mind reaction, it is mind resistance and that strong that it is not possible to listen and it is the mind telling; only love and all is done.

With other words, we do not listen.

It is impossible to go beyond the mind and the body and the negative reaction in the mind if we do not listen.

What profit do I get spending my time in discovering the faults and weakness of others?’

Death and Immortality

We must clearly understand the meaning of ‘death’ and ‘immortality’. We regard death as synonymous with all kinds of strength in the body being lost. In other words, death is the ebbing away of the life force from the body. If the life force remains in the body forever, we regard that situation as immortality. This is incorrect. To be able to completely identify oneself with the aspect of God and completely forget the aspect of the body is true immortality. If at all times we are totally immersed only in the thought of the body and its comforts, and forget the aspect of Atma, that is death. It is only when we are able to clearly recognize the connection between birth and death that the sacred desire for securing immortality will sprout in us. There is birth and death for the body, but there is no birth or death for the Atma. To be able to understand this eternity of the Atma is the real meaning of attaining immortality.

How do we understand clearly the meaning of death and immortality?

We regard death as synonymous with all kinds of strength in the body lost. How do we see it in our own life? 

If we don’t feel well, we are sometimes telling, ‘I feel like dead, it means no strength. Or not long ago I said that the relationship with my ex was like dead, he didn’t respond and he didn’t question it, and he just ignored or avoided it. 

There was no life in that relationship and that is why it felt like dead and Baba said, ‘no more husband, nothing left but an empty Western shoe.’ 

That way we can see it in our own life.

Character is Power

As all objects and individuals, rites and activities are transitory, they suffer from decay and destruction. They can at best help the cleansing of the mind. Activity (karma) cannot liberate one from the basic ignorance or award the awareness of the reality as Brahman. Be conscious of this limitation in order to win the right of inquiry into the mystery of the Brahman, the source and core of the cosmos. The one who devotes life to earn the knowledge of the Atma must possess holy virtues and good character. Character is power. No knowledge is higher than a virtuous character. For the person who has dedicated one's years to the acquisition of higher learning, ever good character is an indispensable qualification. Every religion emphasizes the same need; virtuous character is the very foundation of spiritual life. Those who lead lives on these lines can never come to harm. They will be endowed with sacred merit.

Baba (thought for the day)

Whatever is transitory suffers from decay and destruction. What we can do with the transitory is cleansing the mind, what we know from TM, it was the same teaching. That is why we meditated to clean the mind. Focus on the mantra is called concentration, and meditation is the state beyond the mind in silence, between is a small line and that is the contemplation on 'insights' or the teaching.

So therefore, activity cannot liberate one from ignorance or get us into the awareness of the reality of Brahman or 'Atma Vidya'.

Be conscious of this limitation in order to win the right of inquiry into the mystery of the Brahman, the source and core of the cosmos.

Sweet and Cool

A bubble is born out of water, made up of water, and it ultimately mixes with water and disappears. Man is like a bubble and Narayana (God) is like the water source. Man is born out of Narayana, is made up of Him and ultimately merges with Him. This is the simple and elemental truth. The jiva (individual) has three aspects: one is the spiritual, the other is the material, and the third is something connected with daily life. These three aspects resemble the deep sleep state, the waking state and the dreaming state. Just as the waves are created out of water and are contained in water, so also the worldly life is contained in the spiritual life. Sweetness and coolness are qualities of water. These qualities are also noticed in the waves and in the foam. Similarly Sat, Chit and Ananda (Being, Awareness and Bliss) are three attributes which may be noticed in an individual. Through the individual, they show up in the worldly life and thus demonstrate the spiritual aspect present in every individual.

Baba is telling us here that we are born out of water, made up of water and ultimately mix again with water and disappear, not earth, but water.

Yesterday someone sent me a text she had found in the internet, exercises about important Baba quotes and it seemed that difficult, in reading about it it was clear after a few sentences that nobody would be able to do that.

It was not thought over and it was not okay. It felt like just waste of time and it is depressing. We can never do that and more over it said that it was for cleaning the heart and every Bhajan and every meditation is cleaning the heart and singing devotional songs is a great way of cleaning the heart.

I read only few quotes and had enough of it.

Why so many do that, it means not using his words, but they use their own words to explain him and that is impossible. How can we explain him, he has to explain himself and we are just the listener.

Three Methods of Learning

There are three methods of learning namely sravana (listening), manana (constant contemplation) and nididhyasana (to assimilate). Truly, what you have listened to cannot be easily grasped and assimilated just by listening. You have to do some manana or think it over again and again and then absorb what you have listened to. This is nididhyasana. If you do all three then only can you enjoy the fruits of what you have listened to. Will your hunger be relieved merely by looking at what has been cooked? Even if you just eat what has been cooked, will you be able to derive the necessary strength from the nourishment? Only if you digest the food that you have eaten, can you get the nourishment. As cooking, eating and then digesting are three essential processes to get the ultimate result, so also, sravana, manana, and nididhyasana must follow one another in that order, only then can you acquire some aspects of the Atma Vidya.

So that is actually what is happening in writing, it is part of that process of learning. The first is sravana (listening), the second is manana, constant contemplation or seeing it in our own life and nididhyasana, means to assimilate.

Listen, think it over, absorb.

He is explaining nicely here how we have to do manana or think it over again and again and that is just what is happening if we think it over again and again, it sometimes seems always the same, but it changes the aspect and in time it begins to make more sense. 

We have to think it over again and again and then absorb what we have been listening to.

And how is it done?

Baba was once in my dream and asked, 'I am hungry and you?' And in this thought for the day I find the answer.