The doctor first diagnoses the disease and then prescribes the course of treatment. So too, you must submit yourself to the diagnosis of your illness, viz. misery, travail, and pain through Self-Enquiry. Investigate fearlessly and with care, and you will find that your nature is bliss (ananda)! You have falsely identified yourself with the temporary, the frivolous and the paltry, and that attachment brings sorrow. Realize that both joy and sorrow are passing phases, like clouds across the blue sky. Learn to treat prosperity and adversity with equanimity. Just as fish lives only when it is immersed in water, so too human being lives only when immersed in bliss. You must have bliss at home, in society, and in the world, but more than all, in your heart. Your heart is the spring of joy. That spring must be touched by constant recitation of Lord's Name and dwelling on His Glory. Never give way to doubt or despair.
Baba (thought for the day)
If Swami is diagnoses a disease, what is the course of treatment?
He is telling us here self-enquiry is the treatment. Self-enquiry is not possible if we don't listen to Baba's words. We need a mirror for self-enquiry and I guess if you would talk to him and I often told him that if Baba tells mental depression, he had to do something about it and he didn't even think about it.
He would not know what self-enquiry is as it seems most of people don't know.
We cannot enquire about the self if there is no mirror. What we think the self is that is the body and the mind and we know that. With meditation we go beyond the mind and that is transcending the mind, being in a state of just pure being.
That is only real if we do it actually, we cannot think about meditation and benefit of it if we don't do it, transcending the mind has to be done by meditation. We know that as we meditate and self-enquiry is something else.
It is not only asking questions. It is looking in the mirror. What is the mirror? It is present in Baba's words. If Baba said mental depression in an interview and we read now those words, we should be able to recognize that Swami gives us the advise here if there is a diagnosis of a disease, we have to get treatment and what is the treatment? Self-enquiry.
The doctor first diagnoses the disease and then prescribes the course of treatment. So too, you must submit yourself to the diagnosis of your illness, viz. misery, travail, and pain through Self-Enquiry.
We cannot see our own self; we need a mirror to look at our own self. When listening to Baba and thinking over his words, we actually face that mirror.
Investigate fearlessly and with care, and you will find that your nature is bliss (ananda)! You have falsely identified yourself with the temporary, the frivolous and the paltry, and that attachment brings sorrow.
If we don't know how to investigate fearlessly and with care, how can we find that our nature is bliss? Not long ago Swami also said that without contemplation it is not possible to get detachment and contemplation is hardly possible without self-enquiry.
Anyhow, if we investigate fearlessly and with care, we find our nature is bliss.
We had been four months with Baba in Prasanthi and he was giving lectures during 14 days very day. It was a great time, we sat outdoors with the girls and they played in the sand with dolls and we listened in the loudspeakers to Swami's voice.
During that time with every day speech there was a moment I remembered the 'I am that' in the air before in Ooty it had been during a Baba Darshan and I noticed that he was talking about that and afterwards I began to remember what I am not, 'not that and not this', to not forget it anymore. I was scared if I would stop I would forget it again.
That went on over years. It went on during the time I went into dynamic meditation and dancing, the daughter was a teeny and I needed some fresh air. With that focus the dynamic dance was that great and a good experience, not identified and disturbed by thoughts coming up, it seemed nothing left but music or only rhythm.
During the inner child workshop there was still that contemplation about 'not that' going on, getting into troubles with some, some stuff seemed just too strange and not everybody liked that staying out of it. Afterwards the inner master said, stop dancing and so I went back to singing and silent sitting and since I don't go on with that constant focus anymore of 'not that', I guess I am aware of it in the meantime without that I need to remember it always.
I went to sing Bhajans again and it was more about feeling it, I noticed when people were singing in the mind only. Baba was in my dreams more often before he left the body and that is how we got aware of the mirror and he made sure we got engaged in the constant contemplation of the Lord. It is not about an image, but about his words.
He said use my words, and in thinking over his words we get aware of the mirror is in his words. So we begin to listen and not just read him and if he talks about disease and we don't know how many people he said in the interview room that health was not good, but when he did treatment is needed and here he is telling us what treatment actually, self-enquiry. That is why we have to listen to his words.
The doctor first diagnoses the disease and then prescribes the course of treatment. So too, you must submit yourself to the diagnosis of your illness, viz. misery, travail, and pain through Self-Enquiry.
We have to submit ourselves to the diagnosis of our illness or when he said mental depression it is that pain but the means of the treatment is for all the same – Self-Enquiry.
Investigate fearlessly and with care, and you will find that your nature is bliss (ananda)!
If we investigate fearlessly and with care, we get aware that our nature is bliss. He is telling us here directly how to do it and it is not meditation, it is self-enquiry and contemplation.
You have falsely identified yourself with the temporary, the frivolous and the paltry, and that attachment brings sorrow.
And here he is telling us the root cause also of the disease, we are identified with the temporary, the frivolous and the paltry. Like sending around books about, 'think and get rich', that is not the sign of a spiritual aspirtant, it is too focused on the temporary, frivolous and paltry.
We have to listen to Swami's words, when we listen and think it over we get into self-enquiry, we cannot get into self-enquiry if we do not listen and not think it over. In listening to his words only we get aware of the truth, in the light of the higher self is the focus on paltry things just frivolous and temporary, it is cheap.
We use our precious time for stupid stuff, it is only illusion, it doesn't exist. When we die, we cannot take anything with us and it is time waste to focus on such wretched temporary stuff. We are actually in a pitiful state of mind and the remedy to the disease is self-enquiry, no matter how, but it has to be self-enquiry.
Swami is the knower of the higher self, he is the knower of the divine, he is the higher self and therefore, he reflects what is in our own higher self and listening to his we get the reflection of it and we get aware that we are not different and it is the mirror, if we don't listen to his words, we don't have a mirror. If we listen to books like 'think and get rich' the mirror is the mind of the author and that is no mirror of the higher self, he just makes money with it. It is not the voice of an enlightened being and someone who knows.
Realize that both joy and sorrow are passing phases, like clouds across the blue sky.
Why we think it is advisable to study a book like 'think and get rich'? It is an illusion, we don't get happiness in thinking like that, we get miserliness and as Baba said in the thought for the day before yesterday that is creates the behavior of a dog and that has to be transformed or if we go on with untruth. And we should not look for the faults in others and hide our own.
That is what happened when my ex sent us to Baba and Baba told him in the dream that I had to go to him to make peace with him.
He told me about it with the words, who is that stupid and has to go and make peace with a Sai Baba?
It was the highest and a Baba call, for him it was a means of finding faults and he was hiding his own faults behind it.
Before we even left the ashram after four month he caused troubles again in cancelling our credit card and I went with the child to lots of troubles as she had a high fever. He didn't care about peace and the peace was gone before we even left the ashram and he was not even aware of what he was doing.
It is not the nature of a spiritual aspirant to search for faults in others and hide their own. If your faults are pointed out to you by someone, don't argue and try to prove yourself right, and don't bear a grudge against them for it. Reason out within yourself how it is a fault and set right your own behavior.
And there was no us of talking to him because he was rationalizing for his own satisfaction and that had been going on during the time we had been together and it was clear that it would not change and it was just about wreaking vengeance and we were lucky if we could go and that he didn't find a reason in his mind holding us back and that are no traits of a spiritual aspirant or devotee.
No matter how often he tells that he meditates and he knew when he got initiated into meditation that he would to it all his life, he never did it and it is anyhow not the trait of a spiritual aspirant.
Rationalizing it for your own satisfaction or wreaking vengeance on the person who pointed it out —these are not the traits of a spiritual aspirant or devotee.
Here Baba is telling us how to look at depression and why depression. And that will harm our practice and brings ill-luck. As he said before, it is the result of bad thoughts and untruth is causing depression. It explains why there had been no truth and everything he said was based on untruth and not truth.
Depression, doubt, conceit —these will harm one's practices and are akin to Rahu and Kethu (planets which bring ill-luck).
When your devotion is well established, these qualities will be easily discarded. Seek always the truthful and the joyful, and avoid all thoughts which are untrue, sad and depressing. Always be cheerful, smiling, and enthusiastic under all circumstances. This pure attitude is most desirable. Never get inflated when praised or deflated when blamed - be a spiritual lion!
We cannot become a spiritual lion if we don't hold on to truth and if we meditate and claim that we meditate, we have to transcend the mind and go beyond the thoughts and there is no use telling that we do it if we actually don't to it. We cannot experience a state of peace and no thoughts and bliss if we are in the thoughts and only think about it but we don't do it and go beyond thoughts – mediation is beyond the mind.
Learn to treat prosperity and adversity with equanimity.
We never get in bliss if we don't go beyond the mind, going beyond the mind means sitting down, thinking the mantra, transcending the thought process and no thoughts at all, it means the experience of just 'pure being', that is impossible if we just think about doing it, but we don't practice. We don't go beyond the mind if we don't meditate.
Just as fish lives only when it is immersed in water, so too human being lives only when immersed in bliss.
There cannot be any bliss if there is no self-enquiry and no meditation.
You must have bliss at home, in society, and in the world, but more than all, in your heart.
There cannot be bliss in the heart if we don't practice. It is a dream only if we think about it but we don't do it, it is not real.
Your heart is the spring of joy. That spring must be touched by constant recitation of Lord's Name and dwelling on His Glory. Never give way to doubt or despair.
Constant recitation of the Lord's name is like meditation or singing Bhajans or thinking over his words is dwelling on the Glory of the divine. If we meditate or tell that we meditate, we have to do it and if we don't do it we don't tell we do it, otherwise, we base our life on lies and that is the opposite of truth and it ruins our life, there cannot come anything good from it.
People crave worldly happiness; this craving itself is the disease, and sufferings are but the drugs we take. In the midst of these, one rarely entertains the desire to attain the Lord. However, it is necessary to analyse and discriminate, for the spirit of renunciation is born out of such analysis. Without enquiry, detachment cannot be obtained.
Here Baba tells us very clearly that without enquiry detachment cannot be obtained.
And he said before that the remedy for disease like depression is self-enquiry.
And he is telling us that miserliness it the behavior of a god, that anger is the first enemy of a spiritual aspirant and untruth is even worse, it destroys all vital powers. It explains why Baba had vampire teeth in my dream before we left Portland, untruth takes all vital forces away and there was nothing but untruth, that explains why depression, it takes vital forces away and that explains why Swami had in the dream vampire teeth and a very long nose, fooling people.
The reason for depression must be therefore, untruth and theft is the worst, it ruins life and it makes human life cheaper than rotten food. And there was not only one dream about ruin, no truth and taking advantage of others.
We have to listen to it, we have the experience of it, we know that it feels cheaper than rotten food. We had been there and we know that we should listen to him and not ignore it. As he said also in the dream, he is the insight and he is as well the following step.
Miserliness is like the behavior of a dog; it must be transformed. Anger is the first enemy of a spiritual aspirant. Untruth is even worse - it destroys all the vital powers. Theft ruins life; it makes the priceless human life cheaper than rotten food.
Moderate food, moderate sleep, selfless love, and fortitude will help in the upkeep of the health of both your body and the mind. Whoever you are, in whatever condition you may be, do not give room for dispiritedness! Be fearless and remember the Lord with unshaken faith and without any ulterior motive, all suffering and sorrow will fall away.
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