Towards the Light and Follow the Shadow

Step by step, you reach the end of the road. One act followed by another leads to a good habit. Listening, over and over you get prodded into action. Resolve to act, to engage only with good company, to read only elevating books, and to form the habit of remembering the Lord's Name (Namasmarana), then ignorance will vanish automatically. The Divine Bliss that will well up within you with the contemplation of the Ananda Swarupa (Bliss Personified) will drive out all grief and all worry. Develop bliss and joy, then evil impulses and tendencies will vanish, for they will not get any foothold in the heart. Move forward towards the Light and the shadow falls behind; you move away from it and you have to follow your own shadow. Go every moment one step nearer to the Lord, and then the shadow maya (illusion) will fall back and will not delude you at all. Be steady, be resolved. 

There is a lot of information in every sentence. If we just read it we feel that it is beautiful, but we do not get deep in the meaning of the wisdom.

We talked about oneness of thought, word and deed and it also came up that it is not clear and it was also on my mind already for some time.

Step by step is a way of telling us that it needs patience and there is an end of the road and when he came in the dream and said that the self is waiting, it comes back to that 'waiting state' and we heard that word often during Darshan and we knew we had to wait, but to understand it is still a different thing. 

We knew with our meditation practice that there is the path and the goal and the higher self is in the goal, we have to prepare the ground for the soul to merge with the over-soul. 

Step by step, you reach the end of the road. One act followed by another leads to a good habit. Listening, over and over you get prodded into action. Resolve to act, to engage only with good company, to read only elevating books, and to form the habit of remembering the Lord's Name (Namasmarana), then ignorance will vanish automatically.

We always try to know the difference between right and not right and how do we know in our daily life? 

If we talk about right action and oneness of thought, word and deed, we are on the level of right action, as they merge and get one, but how do we understand it? 

The conclusion was that we should listen to his words, he is the embodiment of Veda and he is the knower, he is the doer and he is the lover, if we listen to his words, we also think it over in our own life, but it nevertheless gives us a feeling for his thoughts and the divine principle behind it and that is the deed and so he is the doer, it is all his. 

If we listen, think it over and absorb we get to that oneness between thoughts, words and deeds. 

By listening to his words we get aware of his thoughts and by that also of right action, we can see it between the lines and when using the divine words as he is the giver of the answer, we are also getting aware that only he is the doer and there is no doubt about it, but that we have to let go of our mind and ego, they want to control it. 

Thought, word and deed become one if we listen to his words, by that we get to the thoughts and find the divine duty and the deed and we are just instruments. 

Listening, over and over you get prodded into action.

It is confirming it. We should be listening to him over and over until it settles down in the inner view and it gets prodded into action. 

First we share the experience of listening until it is that clear that it becomes right action, it is about truth when we listen to his words, we listen to truth and in time we just have to get it done and it is right action. 

If we still think our thoughts and our words and our understanding and our action matter, we don't know the difference between Atman and mind. We cannot solve the problem of Atma with the mind, we have to listen and it is a different level, it has to reflect in the inner view and in that reflection we get the right answer. 

If we think we have to understand it, we have to do this and that we are in the notion of the doer, but he is telling us it is in the inner view, we have to go for it no matter. 

We have to get word, thought and deed in oneness and we don't know how, because we are not the doer, we are the instrument and we can only be the instrument, when we realize that he is the doer.

If we listen over and over again we get prodded into action, therefore, we have to listen first until we are able to be prodded into action.  

Someone had a handy and he looked for a text in a Vahini and it really felt right, but he thinks that is listening, and it is not listening, it is only reading, listening means also to think it over and if we just read a text we do not think it over.

It is not enough, it goes not deep enough for the inner attention that it becomes insight, it has to go deep into his wisdom to become insight. 

That is the mind if we think we listen, when in reality we just read it. 

Only if we go deep into his wisdom we are able to think it over and we have to see it in our own life, no matter what is coming up in our mind, it just gives us a feeling for it, but we have to go for that feeling and the process of thinking it over to be able to absorb. 

He again used the word 'engaged' in good company as he did in my dream some time ago and it makes me think that it is because of not good company and we are not aware of it.
He took care of it that there is some good company, as otherwise it is not possible to go and get the experience of it. 

We cannot find a mirror in not good company, we find only the mind and Atma is a mirror and the wisdom is mirrored in the heart and only if there is good company there is also a mirror. 

In a study circle we find that sharing and that focus and the good company and that is also why we feel the divine presence.  

    

Resolve to act, to engage only with good company, to read only elevating books, and to form the habit of remembering the Name (Namasmarana), then ignorance will vanish automatically.

Also during devotional singing we sing together for the divine love and it is one and one only, the one without a second and it needs time to realize it and focus and if there is bad company it will take care of it that we stay in the mind only and it will not be possible to keep the focus. 

And it is good to hear that ignorance will vanish automatically if we follow his advice and we avoid bad company and we know how important good company is, only we should know he difference and we cannot see it on the outside level. 

How does ignorance vanish?
We listen over and over again and it will lead into right action, listening has to do with truth and discrimination, after a certain time listening we know what needs to be done and we go for it. It should be prodded into right action and what he said earlier that pure love is only possible, if we have three things, right action, truth and peace, only if those three things are present, we can make the experience of pure love. 

We cannot follow the divine message and his teaching as every devotee should and does if we don't listen to him. He is telling us that ignorance will vanish and that means also we get aware of illusion, but if we are with someone who doesn't listen, we cannot get aware of it, there is no mirror. If there is only taking advantage of it, we cannot listen, it is impossible, because there is also not knowing what he is doing. 

It seems to be a kind of cult resulting out of the American dream, what feels scary. 

It doesn't qualify as good company, even if he visits the ashram, he has not understood the basic teaching and he doesn't try to understand it, he just takes what is in his interest and what he can use and the rest he doesn't care about and that is how it is only taken advantage of it.

It is not possible with someone who doesn't listen to share, there is no interest in the message and he doesn't read it. 

There is a difference between 'good' company and 'bad' company and if someone is bad company, it was not seen on the surface, we were in the ashram, but as soon as we were not anymore in the ashram, it began to show or to be felt and there was not the slightest interest in it we talked about it anyhow but it turned into abuse and making fun of it and it felt strange and in the inner view it was as 'perverted'. 

There was no listening and it was like the obstacles multiplied and the bad thoughts and whatever that was, that is how it went on. It didn't sound good that it is perverted. 

It felt like sickness and he explained that in a craving mind we find it, craving for worldly happiness, and he also said that the craving is the real sickness, a vicious circle constantly finding faults with everything and everybody including himself and not bright enough to realize that there will never be what he is craving for.

And when he had everything to be happy he is not able of it as the craving is going on and he still if finding faults in his mind constantly and he made himself and others feel miserable as he seems to be addicted to suffering, as he said it was like a drug, constantly thinking only the bad and seeing the bad about himself and all others, there was no room for something good actually, but a pittable state of mind.

Swami said in an interview that it was mental depression, a spiritual sickness and that his health was not good, he never did any effort to do something about it of to find the answer why he said it, he never tried to know what it was, he didn’t do any effort to understand it.

He went on claiming that he needed help and everybody was just there to help him and it was present as when  Swami had long vampire teeth, as he was just living of the energy of the others and he took only advantage of it and there was another face of Swami with a very long nose, that was the fooling of it, there was no truth and it transformed into something ugly what Swami explained not long ago as cheaper than rotten food. 

If we see it the right way, we also know why we have to accept right action and what is following behind is the shadow.

We should be able to listen and if we are not, we cannot get truth and if there is no truth, there is no right action. 

If we know truth, we have to accept it and we also have to accept right action and it is part of understanding peace and only if there are those three tings, peace, truth and right action it is possible to have an experience of pure love.

We have to understand what listening means. 

It is not just reading, it is listening.

We have to see the difference between just reading a text and listening and when we have the experience of seeing it in our own life, we know why there is a difference. It is the same difference if we read a good book or we write about it and think it over, there is different meaning in it.

We have to see it in our own life to get a feeling for it, to be able to absorb the wisdom and by practicing we create good habits. That was also the case with our meditation practice, we meditate regularly and create good habits.

If we don't do it, we will not have a good habit and it is the difference between a garden awareness or a wild jungle and when someone tells that he meditates, but he doesn’t do it, he is not aware of what he is doing, it has no value to him, he thinks it doesn’t matter really and it is not impotant. It is a state of improper reasoning and everything is misunderstood and divinity is projected on body level only. 

It is about worldly happiness he is craving and not getting aware of illusion, the craving it too strong. Bliss seen as wordly happiness and he thinks that it would be bliss, but there is no interest in getting aware of the illusion in it and it gets to an improper solution on the mind level. 

Listening, over and over you get prodded into action. Resolve to act, to engage only with good company, to read only elevating books, and to form the habit of remembering the Lord's Name (Namasmarana), then ignorance will vanish automatically.

We learnt it with meditation. Listen, by listening get to good habits and engage in good company and read elevating texts and form the habit of remembering the Lord's name, Soham is the Lord's name and the breath is in everybody, he is the doer, he is breathing and the breath tells us Soham. It is a way of merging with the over-soul. 

There is a difference between those aware of it and those not aware of it.

The focus is not on meditation, but on contemplation. And if it is on personified bliss, that is divinity in his body, not the omnipresent divine, it is the personified bliss, but our focus is on Ananda and bliss and not on the form and that is a difference, because bliss can be there only if he is beyond the body. He said once in an interview, 'where bliss is, there is God'.

The higher self in the dream stage as light, white beautiful light, love and beauty, was also bliss, as the three things together feel like bliss, only it has to be realized that it is that only, it is about the 'I am that' and it drives away grief and worry.

The Divine Bliss that will well up within you with the contemplation of the Ananda Swarupa (Bliss Personified) will drive out all grief and all worry. Develop bliss and joy, then evil impulses and tendencies will vanish, for they will not get any foothold in the heart.

It makes evil impulses and bad tendencies vanish, if we look at the shadow of illusion and that is only possible with good company and nothing seems more depressing than bad company and someone who doesn't care about the divine message and we have to get aware of it, that there is not only nothing, but the opposite.

Move forward towards the Light and the shadow falls behind; you move away from it and you have to follow your own shadow. Go every moment one step nearer to the Lord, and then the shadow maya(illusion) will fall back and will not delude you at all. Be steady, be resolved.

We have to move forwards towards the light and the shadow falls behind, we move away from it and we have to follow the shadow.

My family ignored everything what happened and they always said, ‘what do you have, there is nothing’, but there was not nothing and nobody cared of how it felt. 

It was already the shadow, it was fear and the shadow follows actually if we like it or not and most of time as it has to do with pain and fear we avoid it. 

If we follow the inner master, we also have to follow the shadow, it is coming up in the inner view and in seeing it in our own life, we have to see it in our own life to get the meaning. When thinking it over and seeing it in our own life, we follow also the shadow.

In the insight people looked very old-fashioned and dressed like about two hundred years ago, it has to do with the mind and misunderstandings, they look like that because it is projected in cultural values, traditions as people were thinking time ago, and it is not about those cultural values, that is again a misunderstanding and it is projected on the outer behavior level as good and not as going beyond the mind into a state of no mind what is meant with good.

The shadow is that is behind and we move away from it. If we walk away and we avoid it we give it power over us and if we recognize it as a shadow and illusion, it falls away.

In the light is no room for fear, but nevertheless it is there, but as a shadow and we don't even get aware of it as we turn the back to it. What is coming up in our mind by thinking it over has to do with the shadow and we go towards it. If we are not aware of it, we actually try to avoid it and we walk away from it. 

As the shadow is illusion it can only be realized as illusion if we follow it, if we walk away from it and avoid it, it is not illusion, but it is real, real enough to be avoided and if we would know that it is not real, we would not avoid it, we can only realize that it is illusion if we follow it.    

If we go forward in the light it is love and light and beauty, but the shadow is there and it is forming behind us.

If we go in direction of light, there is always a shadow forming behind, as long as we have a body, we have also a shadow and it is not light, it is a shadow, but when we walk away from it or even avoid it, we make it real and we give it too much power, as it is only a shadow if we follow it, it loses the power, but when we don’t follow the shadow, we don’t get aware of it. 

If go for the light and think we understand it we don’t get the meaning of illusion, we don’t understand it that is the illusion. It is a paradox and we have to listen and he is telling us how it really is, not the mind.

As long as we don’t know the difference between the mind and Atma, the light, we think we understand it, we leave what is modern behind and go for what is old-fashioned and traditional and it is all wrong understood.

If we don’t listen we don’t hear it and we don’t realize that he is telling us how and why we don’t hear it. If we don’t follow the shadow, we will not understand illusion.

He is giving the answer and not the mind, but we have to realize the difference.

The light is eternal wisdom and truth and we move towards the light and if we think that the light is in our tradition, what has nothing to do with truth and holiness and Veda, we are grounded in the ocean and not in the endlessness of it.

These are not the right traditional values, they have to be based on sat-chit-ananda to be right action. It is in the West old-fashioned and misunderstood, it is what we think that culture has to be, but that understanding is mind. 

We can know if it is right or wrong. If we walk away from our shadow and we don’t want to see it or we avoid looking at it, we are in the mind and if we follow the shadow and we are not afraid of it, we can leave it behind us and we get aware that it is illusion and that is how we go beyond the mind and by realizing that the shadow is illusion we get the experience of the difference between the shadow and the light, Atma.