Earnestness and Devotion

Turn your mind Godward and you will experience the bliss of the Divine. It is for this reason that Swami gives you advice from time to time as to what you should do and what you should avoid. All this is not for My sake but for your own good, to make you take to the path of God Realisation, to teach you the supreme truth about the Brahman and to make your sacred life an ideal one. Shirdi Baba used to ask for two rupees from devotees who came to him. The two rupees symbolised Shraddha (earnestness) and Bhakti (devotion). These are the two qualities He expected from the devotees. The combination of the two is essential for spiritual progress. Only then bliss will emerge like a plant from a seed. Everyone should strive to become an ideal human being. This means that everyone should testify to his Divinity. Imagine how happy everyone would be if the entire world was filled with this pure, sublime and sacred ideal. 

Baba (thought for the day)

Thinking over Baba’s thought for the day is indeed similar to a teacher’s training we had to absolve to be able to teach meditation, but it was in the light of science and scientific proves and just because the West believes in science.

Only in listening to Swami's words it is not about science, but divinity and love and the inner need of the devotee to think it over and to listen and to absorb, it has to come out of the heart of the higher self and it is not a course nine months course listening tapes and no learning it by heart, but it is done by self-enquiry.  

Turn your mind Godward and you will experience the bliss the Divine. It is for this reason that Swami gives you advice from time to time as to what you should do and what you should avoid. All this is not for My sake but for your own good, to make you take to the path of God Realisation, to teach you the supreme truth about the Brahman and to make your sacred life an ideal one.

He is telling us to turn our mind godward is also telling us that if we don’t do it, there will be no bliss of the divine. 

Once in an interview he said, ‘where bliss is there is God’.

But what is the divine? 

It is in all of us, it is everywhere, it is not in a form only. If we focus on his form we don’t get it. Someone came back from her journey to India with her foot fractured and it sounded the same as it happened to me a year ago and even the same tape of fracture. The memory of last year's calamity came up just a week before I should have taken the flight and I didn't believe it that this actually happened. I remember the time we had in the past and the Darshans and it was in the form, in the meantime I know we have to find it in the unity and everywhere.

when it happened I was thinking of the Darshans, only that doesn’t exist anymore.

He has left the body, and we should at least listen to him enough to know that divinity is everywhere and not in his body. As he said always, he is not the body and not the mind and as it seems we still go there and look for him in our mind.

It is in the unity of devotees being together, it can be by singing together Bhajans or with the study circle, whatever we do and practice to find unity, it is in that unity his presence, that is the real divine and not the body.

In the dream it was also about accident.

There had been a dream of Baba on the podium before he left the body and all the country flags were with him, but the devotees separated by height at his feet and all wanting something and it turned into agony in the insight. It felt like masses of people and all wanted something. 

He was with the country flags, a symbol and there was that agony. It felt like exposed to that helplessly actually, it was kind of shocking and sad that dream.

He told us all his life that we all are God and that divinity is not the body, he is a teacher, he stands for the Atmic principle, ‘I am that’, the wisdom of Veda and the divinity in the principle, ‘I am I’. 

If we turn our mind godwards it is not the body, it is beyond the body. If it is not good company, we cannot get the reflection of the divine in the mirror of the heart.

It has not for his sake, but for our own good that we should take the path of God-realization, to teach us the supreme truth about Brahman. That are words in teaching the supreme truth, getting aware of the Atmic principle and we have to know the difference between body and knowing it cannot be in a body, seeing it in everybody. 

Actually divinity is in all, if they would do the right thing as he is telling us here, it would just be great.

He gives us advice what we should do and what we should avoid. He is giving advice, there is no such thing as advice in silence.

Turn your mind Godward and you will experience the bliss of the Divine. It is for this reason that Swami gives you advice from time to time as to what you should do and what you should avoid. All this is not for My sake but for your own good, to make you take to the path of God Realisation, to teach you the supreme truth about the Brahman and to make your sacred life an ideal one.

We have to take his advice, his words and listen to it and think it over to be able to absorb. We did that during the training of the meditation teacher listening to the divine words, only it was in the light of science and not our own experience, it was explained in a scientific way and the result was always the same conclusion, meditate and it will take care of it and nobody took any responsibility for anything that happened and that was the result of it. 

it is what Swami makes us aware of. Already I did that course, because I wanted to initiate with him or it was even his idea and I thought that was the highest at that time. But during the training only it got clear that it was all learnt by heart mostly and if I wanted to do it with him, I had to do it in French. After the course there was the feeling of a ‘marriage’, only the husband was missing, the guy who more or less asked me to do that course first and as it took a long time and he didn't tell me that it should be in French, I forgot about it, but I had no idea that like that the marriage would not make any sense anymore. But in the end no more insight made sense anymore. 

On the science level there could not be any answer and there was a mess afterwards in my own life, that guy who I agreed with to go and initiate with, he had vanished and also my memory of it. I was upset that he didn’t tell about it and I didn’t write him anymore, that is how we lost touch and he said stuff like, it was not meant to be etc., all the bullshit which they use usually because they don’t want to take responsibility for it.

but there was the man in my dream who comes in our dreams to awake us and he said, it is with all of the same, we have no case. 

First I didn't get it, but now it is clear, it means nobody sees any responsibility of those people and during a course the air broke in pieces, as nobody saw any responsibility, there was no reason why should the air broke in pieces and I couldn't tell, but it happened nevertheless, there was the national course office, not the international course and the national leader involved, but no answer and all broke into pieces for no reason at all as it seems or all did the same, nobody saw any responsibility for it.

I had no influence on it, felt exposed of it and nothing made sense anymore, that was not funny at all.  But it came only up when I got in touch with that guy again I went into it and as it was the source of it, it got clear that nobody or everybody did the same, they thought everything could be solved with mediation only and it was just not true, it was an easy was to get rid of responsibility and to avoid it. 

That is why he said in the dream that ‘it is with all of them the same, we have no case’, no responsibility and when everything went wrong in the end it was above the head of the yogi that 'criminal’, someone had to be responsible, as it didn’t happen out of nowhere.

No responsibility of it no matter and that is not earnestness on the spiritual path. 

No answers and no trust anymore and it was that difficult to understand.

If we meditate not all problems are solved, but they believe it and like that they don't have to take responsibility anymore, that is why they are that smiling. 

If there is a problem, go and meditate it will solve it, too easy and people don’t have to worry about anything.

And it sounded very much like that when my ex said that he was sent by his former boss to Swami with the idea that he could ask Baba for everything he wanted. 

It felt like the idea of TM, only it had taken another form, it was no more meditate and all problems are solved, but it was you can ask everything you want from Swami.

He didn't go with the idea of earnestness and devotion.

If Shirdi Baba used to ask for two rupees from spiritual aspirants and they symbolized earnestness and devotion, it is not about just meditate and all problems are solved, if it is not true and there is a problem and we just avoid it, we lack of earnestness not seeing any responsibility it also a lack of earnestness, not serene enough to be fit for a spiritual aspirant.
And he didn’t care about the two rupees at all, he went there in the idea that he could ask from Swami everything he wanted with craving in the mind, what Swami calls the disease and the drug of suffering to make the craving a permanent state of mind.

Shirdi Baba used to ask for two rupees from devotees who came to him. The two rupees symbolised Shraddha (earnestness) and Bhakti(devotion). These are the two qualities He expected from the devotees.

What if there is no earnestness and devotion? The craving in the mind went on only now it was projected on Swami. Not only it is essential for our spiritual progress to have that combination of earnestness and devotion, but also only if we had those two bliss will emerge like a plant from a seed.

It is telling us that without earnestness and devotion, there is no bliss possible. 

If we don’t listen to his words there is not enough earnestness, if we allow our mind to project things in Baba which are not there, it is not enough earnestness and there is no devotion as well. 

If he went there with the wrong notion of it that he can get whatever he wants from divinity and I was talking to him about the interview questions Baba had asked, to whom I belonged and what our relationship was and who I was, he went for it as I didn't know that was an opportunity to take advantage of it. I didn't know and I had no idea how sick that was, it was not enough earnestness, he could just ask and get it.

He spoke about being a meditator, what was not true and not enough earnestness only taking advantage of it. It was that simplified that he pretended to mediate, what didn't make sense to us.  If we read that sentence we know that we have to have earnestness and devotion and without those two it is not possible to get to divine bliss or divinity. 

If it is not true, there is that earnestness missing. No wonder there had been no spiritual progress, there was no way we could get on that level insight or answers and it turned out being a mud hole.

The combination of the two is essential for spiritual progress. Only then bliss will emerge like a plant from a seed.

We don’t go to him to ask him for whatever we want, who is doing that?

It is about an ideal and love, and God in the heart, who is going to crave for material happiness? He seemed to have been a burden or a load, he didn't find a job or he didn't want to find a job and it was a way getting rid of him as he also told the fairytale about how he would meditate all is life etc, Swami should take care of it.

He got something that was attracting to his mind, he thought he could ask for everything he wanted, all possibilities as we had learnt it with TM and he could live in the room of his boss as he was a former employee and he said he saw them as part of his family.

he sad in my insight, ‘congratulation, you got a new job’, it was done by Swami and if he would be earnest he would think about it, but he is giving me very much the same feeling, no responsibility. If he is hiring someone that guy belongs to your family, but when it is Swami himself doing it, he doubts it and it doesn’t make sense to his mind, that is all upside down and mind only. There should be earnestness when it is about Swami and more doubts when it is our own mind, that would be right. 

it would be the result if there would be earnestness.  

Demons are part of the family and take advantage of Swami’s Lila and get others into it and after all it is the result of telling that guy that he can ask from Swami everything he wanted, he is too stupid to get it. 

In the inner view the picture of Baba in the dream was a vampire with sharp teeth taking only advantage of it and living of the energy of others and Baba with a long nose, fooling people into it and deceiving others, that was not such a nice way to be awakened.

Everyone should strive to become an ideal human being.

Never he even thought of becoming and ideal human being, he thought of the path of least effort and how he could again take advantage of it even in coming here to open up a money box and with the audacity to call it more fun.

This means that everyone should testify to his Divinity.

How do we testify to his divinity?
In becoming an ideal human being, we testify to his divinity and his power as divinity and not in just taking advantage of it. it is not a way to testify to his divinity.
What did happen, when he went there, he involved others and got us into it and all in the name of Swami and it was all not true, there was no earnestness. And when we asked him about it he said, 'can you blame me', what again lacked that earnestness. 

We also were let down by my family they were ashamed that we got into such a deplorable state going to Baba, but in fact, it is not Sai Baba, it was someone elses doing who didn't see his responsibility. 

He went with craving in the mind for worldly happiness unable to enjoy it as his drug is suffering. Too stupid to get it, he thought in telling everybody that you were his friend he could get into the job he had lost, the flow of wealth was for him the water tap not the flow of love. The grace of the divine is a tank, but he thought it was about wealth and money flowing from the water tap instead of love and bliss and he was not ready to give up that tank of wealth and his boss was the tank of wealth and not divinity. 

He was not able to see that it was the grace of the divine and love, he wanted more money and he got attached to the idea that it was that and he was attached to the idea that it was a tank of wealth and not divine grace. He projected everything in Swami's presence into the mind and worldly happiness. He didn’t want pure love to get connected to the tank of grace, he wanted money and stay in touch connected to the tank of wealth in his mind the craving for material happiness went on, not able to enjoy it, when it was there, as the craving is anyhow going on. In his mind the suffering is a drug and that is a disease, he went on craving. That is the real sickness in the mind and still going on and we wonder of how long it takes until we get again one of those books from him about think and get rich.

The craving in his mind goes on not doubt about that. That is the only thing on his mind and it has not changed, not at all.  

So the earnestness and the devotion is not there, the spiritual progress is not there as well and he is no brother and to see him as part of family and us not, even though Swami has made it, it is not earnest enough, not enough thought over and only listening to the mind actually.

Imagine how happy everyone would be if the entire world was filled with this pure, sublime and sacred ideal. 

Yes imagine, how happy we would be if the entire world was filled with pure, sublime and a sacred ideal. For us it would have made just a difference if it would have been my ex filled with that instead of craving in the mind or if you would be filled with that pure, sublime and sacred ideal. 

 We would be much happier if one of you two would have been like that, but now we have two who are not earnest enough and avoiding responsibility and talking to others about the karma which is actually not the others, but part of responsibility we have to see if we are earnest enough and why there was an accident?

It was probably the same reason why it was above the Maharishi as criminal, nobody took responsibility for it. In the end it was above the master's head. As nobody took responsibility of it, it was why in the end it was mirrored above the head of the yogi. 

If it is the same reason and the insights go in that direction making us aware of it, it is a lack of earnestness and responsibility, it went back to him and it seems it has to do with the accident and that he was afterwards in a wheelchair. 

Instead of testifying to his power of love and serenity and earnestness and divinity, it was testifying to impossibility to change and ignoring all responsibility in it.

If we don’t care about earnestness, we take it easy and don’t care about self-enquiry, we nevertheless live in the idea of being great devotees, that we can get detached with silence, when in reality it sounds like another way of least effort.

If we don’t listen, no effort to understand it, we pretend every problem is solved like with the mediation technique and everybody should work out his own Karma and nothing is our business. That is not earnestness, that is too superficial to be a spiritual aspirant. 

Swami said that the world is that bad today because too many responsible people keep silent, what means not taking responsibility, it is the worst with TM and what is really wrong and as it happened with the Maharishi, as nobody took responsibility for it, I guess that is why he was not present as master, that he didn't get hit by it.  

But Baba is present as master and if some don't take and responsibility, he was present as master and he was in the wheelchair. That is what the man in the dream makes us aware of to awaken us … And if we would be awake, there would be no need to come in our dreams to awaken.

if we have a huge family, the most stupid people are part of it who don't understand the earnestness needed and the devotion, it can get back on our own family, that is what is mirrored in the Maharishi  and that above his head was 'criminal' only he didn't suffer it, but with Swami it was not the same. No matter what, we should always be careful. 

  

In the world, you will easily see examples of how some families prospered because of unity and others suffered because of divisions within the family. Today the Universe desperately needs unity. It is through faith in God that unity can be promoted. Look at the diversity of people in the halls of Puttaparthi! People come from different creeds, nationalities and culture, but all are united in their common allegiance to Bhagawan. By this single feeling of faith in the Divine, unity is achieved. All of you are embodiments of the Divine. You are embodiments of love and peace, of Divinity; develop this strong conviction. With the power of the Divine to nurture you there is nothing you cannot accomplish. Karna and Ravana are examples of powerful men who were destroyed because they did not have the power of the Divine. The Pandavas were saved because of their faith in the Divine and their unity.