Normally people are drawn to sense objects, for they are victims of instincts. Instincts easily seek sense objects - they come along with the body and aren't derived by any training. The infant seeks milk from the mother's breast, and the newborn calf naturally nestles at the udder. However for the infant to walk and talk, some training is necessary, because these actions are either socially prompted or learnt by example or picked up by imitation of others. Training is essential even for the proper pursuit of sense pleasure, for wild untrained search for such pleasure promotes anger, hatred, envy, malice and conceit. Hence to train the senses along salutary lines and to hold them under control, certain good disciplines like repeating Lord's Name (japa), meditation (dhyana), fasts (upavasa), worship at dawn and dusk, etc. are essential. Though sense pleasures are 'natural' at first, by constant practice, training and listening to the wise, slowly the greater and everlasting bliss derived by divine adoration is grasped.
In these words is explained why training is necessary and why we meditate and whatever our method of training, we should never stop it. Swami calls it good disciplines.
He said in an interview that all mantras are okay. I guess it was not just the mantra, but the fasting that was part of my discipline at a certain time of my life, I got used to it and liked the way I felt when fasting, light and actually full of energy.
How do we get aware of the underlying oneness or that we are all the same higher self and that there is no difference? It has to be experienced.
When we meditated with a mantra and we were in the ashram near New Delhi, it was about yoga and I was surprised to notice that the Westerners were fixed on the meditation technique and programs, but not the Indians, they went undisturbed on with their tradition, no matter what ... The big issue of secrecy behind held up high to keep the teaching pure by Westerners was not the same for them.
As it is tradition, the wisdom was available in every bookshop as it seems and they went on with tradition, while we were bound to programs and just listened to the puja, worship, they did next door.
When we get aware of the secrecy in Veda we also get aware what was for the Westerners secret, was for them just normal and it would never become what it had been for them, it is holy tradition and it will always be a secret to the West what is for them just tradition.
When seeing it in our own life we get aware of our own experience and if we don't see it in our own life, we cannot understand it.
Training is essential even for the proper pursuit of sense pleasure, for wild untrained search for such pleasure promotes anger, hatred, envy, malice and conceit. Hence to train the senses along salutary lines and to hold them under control, certain good disciplines like repeating Lord's Name (japa), meditation (dhyana), fasts (upavasa), worship at dawn and dusk, etc. are essential. Though sense pleasures are 'natural' at first, by constant practice, training and listening to the wise, slowly the greater and everlasting bliss derived by divine adoration is grasped.
If we don't train the mind, the mind goes again downwards into the senses and the instincts.
The intellects gets us to right discrimination, knowing that we don't stop with training, we use it to train the mind, but we do not see it as technique by doing it mechanically, but we have to get aware of the divine. The intellect helps to discriminate between right and wrong. If we don't use it for sure we will follow the instincts.
We allow the mind to get to wrong conclusions and some seem to think that everywhere means no discrimination. It is Maya, illusion if we are looking for happiness on the wrong place, what is natural for the instincts and the mind state, has nothing to do with the divine or oneness.
Though sense pleasures are 'natural' at first, by constant practice, training and listening to the wise, slowly the greater and everlasting bliss derived by divine adoration is grasped.
It seems natural at first. Some think God is everywhere, nature is everywhere, therefore it is natural and easy and it is projected on the wrong place. The senses are part of the body and they are an instrument of the divine, but they are not in it. He is in the senses, but they are not in him, it belongs to the body, but he is different from the body, as Swami told said that he is not the body and not the mind.
Krishna says in the Gita, "In all yajnas, I am the Doer, the Donor, the Consumer and the Acceptor." That is the reason the chief priest in a yajna, is named Brahma. He must guide the rest of the ritualists with his wife by his side, or else, his credentials are inadequate. The wife represents faith (shraddha). Without faith, praise is hollow, adoration is artificial and sacrifice is a barren exercise. Really speaking, the heart is the ceremonial altar, the body is the fire-place, the hair is the holy grass (darbha), wishes are the fuel-sticks to feed the fire, desire is the ghee poured into the fire to make it burst into flame, anger is the sacrificial animal, and the fire is the tapas (penance) we accomplish. People sometimes interpret tapas as ascetic practices like standing on the head. This is not correct; tapas is not physical contortion. It is the complete and correct coordination of thought, word and deed. When this is achieved, the Divine splendour will manifest.
If we see only one and the same, it is beyond the senses. He is the man who comes in our dreams to awake us, we can understand it on the level of science as it seems easier for Westerners.
If it is about scientific research it is only considered true if we can prove it, but that is the worldly level. Nevertheless, it is similar, truth is threefold, insight, we have to find the right knowledge and it has to be confirmed. It was the same when using sutras, we were thinking the sutra, what becomes insight, we find the right wisdom and we expected a result, it had to be confirmed.
If truth is threefold, first insight. He said, 'follow the master, fight to the end, finish the game.'
First we have the insight as he is the man who comes in our dream to awake us and we find the right knowledge, we fight to the end until we know it is right and it has to be confirmed, we have to finish the game, but he is the absorber, therefore, it is not our doing.
It is only true and absorbed in our own self and beyond doubt and the mind if we have those three things, insight, right knowledge and the confirmation of it.
With contemplation we see it in our own life and it means we get aware of our own experience and if we do not see it in our own life, we don't get aware of the experience and we cannot understand it. If contemplation is neglected we cannot get aware of it and therefore, we cannot understand it, it doesn't make sense.
We have to listen to his words and think it over to be able to absorb to realize that it is present in our own experience. Only by listening to his words we get it confirmed and we will understand what it means to follow the master, fight to the end and finish the game.
If it is not confirmed and if we don't listen to his words, we will not get an objective prove of it and in a way we can compare it to science just to understand it, but on the level of reality it is only he and therefore, we are not the doer, he is the doer.
On the Atma or spiritual level we need to think it over and listen his words to get it absorbed and confirmed and only then it is absorbed. The problem is as long as we don't do it we don't understand it and without self-effort we will not get there.
He is the knower and we listen to his words and get our own experience and insight confirmed by listening to his words. That is how we get aware of the difference between Atman and mind and if we don't practice we don't get aware of it.
Krishna says in the Gita, "In all yajnas, I am the Doer, the Donor, the Consumer and the Acceptor."
He said in the insight, 'I am the One' and we need to get to the right knowledge. We don't get it in the mind. He is the man who comes in our dream to awake us, that is prove that he is the insight and the right knowledge we get by seeing it in our own life, it has to be our own experience and in listening to his words we get it confirmed it is present in the reflection of is words, we have to find that answer which is always true.
In a spiritual center all activities are his doing and we know that he is the doer, we are not the doer, we just go for it and he tells us how to do it and that is a gift because by doing that we are able to make the experience of the underlying oneness. We have the devotional singing, what takes care of the expansion of the heart and yoga is union, if we get to the oneness of all it is Bhakhti yoga and we have the the study circle is the Jnana, wisdom part and if we get to the oneness we are on the level of union and yoga and it is Jnana and we have to service or activity and if that is on the level of oneness it is the union of yoga and Karma yoga. It is a gift that we have the opportunity to realize the oneness on all those levels.
The question about the ego is always coming up again, but when we follow the center activities it is not our own doing and therefore, there is no ego and if we do it together in the group there is also no ego and therefore, it is possible to get to the experience of oneness.
All those activities in a Sai center have oneness in their focus. It is a great gift that we have the opportunity to get aware of it. We are all one, be alike to everyone.
Singing together is developing the heart level, we are all one and there is one voice and if we listen to that one voice, we feel the joy, as he tells us he is the consumer, there is only one, he is the enjoyer and in thinking it over we get a feeling for it and he is the acceptor. We have to listen, think it over and absorb to get aware of the experience. Only our own experience helps us to understand it. We cannot understand it on the mind or intellect level alone. We have to use the intellect to get to the right answer, but it has to be experience only.
There are three different levels, Bhakthi yoga, union in love, Jnana yoga is union in wisdom or knowledge and Karma yoga, union in action, love in action.
We have Bhakthi in singing devotional songs, we are all one, he is the doer, he is the donor, he is the consumer and he is the absorber. He is the doer, we make the experience due to his presence and he is the gift that we are able to experience it he is as well the one who is enjoying it and the one who absorbs the experience in the divine self. But if we don't practice and participate and neglect it, we will not make the experience or get aware of it, but we are in the mind and with other words the mind is stronger and the obstacles are too big.
We have Jnana, the path of knowledge in the study circle, he is the doer, as he is telling us go for a study circle and how to get to the experience of oneness, he is the donor, it is his gift and he is as well the consumer, what we experience is his omnipresence and the absorber if we get aware that we are all one and the same, there is only one reality the higher self and there is no difference we are all the same 'I am that'.
Yoga means union, we can get to the experience of the underlying oneness in all those activities of the Sai centers. It is a gift if we can make that rare experience of oneness, but without the experience of it we cannot understand it. It means we have first to have the experience before we realize it and without seeing it in our own life we don't get aware of the experience and we cannot understand it.
What is practiced mostly Bhakthi, devotional singing and what is seen is service activity all over the world and what is neglected is the study circle and the path of Janan wisdom. But we get the message of the avatar only if we absorb it. It is not possible to get the right answer to questions we have to our insights and we are maybe not even aware of it that we have those questions if we don't contemplate and neglect it. If we don't listen to his words, if we do not think it over we will not be able to absorb. To make the experience we have to realize it, we have to feel it that there is no difference and that we are all one.
If we have insights and we look for the right knowledge we go through the experience get aware of it and by listening to Swami's words and we find it confirmed. In thinking it over, is a Darshan, it is the level of truth and there is his omnipresence, he is beyond the body and the mind.
He said in the insight after the burial that they have lost their leader. He said leader, he is the divine principle, but there is no use of us adoring him outside in the form only as divine, the leader is making us aware of the oneness between all and that there is nothing else but that one and that is the ultimate reality of all of us. The activities in the Sai center are a gift that we can realize the oneness on all levels, heart, head and hand. They should be one. We were not able to give the right answer or we didn't know yet what it means really and why there should be perfect harmony. It is established in our center activities and if we participate in those practices we get to perfect harmony. It seems all over about the same, contemplation is neglected and that why we are not aware of it. If we neglect one level, we can in the others not get aware of it. We have to get aware of the underlying oneness. Contemplation is thinking over his words and by that we get aware of it and if it is neglected, even if we do service activity together and experience it by singing or in the activity, if we don't get aware of the experience and the contemplation value and it is still neglected are not able to realize the highest principle and truth. Oneness is present when it is confirmed in our own experience. He is the leader and if we do what he told us to do, if we listen and are able to understand it. But we get aware of it only if we have the experience and if we don't participate we are not enough into the experience to be aware of it. If there is no contemplation it gets not confirmed and it cannot be realized if contemplation is not part of it. Insight needs to get the right knowledge and we are seeing it in our own life and it has to be confirmed.
We also had in that text that it is done on the level of mechanical job performance and not self-enquiry and by that contemplation is neglected. Singing takes care of the oneness of the heart, we reach union and by that we get aware of Bhakthi yoga, it is not done alone, all the activities are together and in a group, only in the group is no ego, as soon as we are alone we are back in body consciousness and in the mind.
The study circle is a circle if we are going deep into his wisdom and the search for truth in his wisdom it is a circle otherwise, he said it can go on as half a circle forever. Everybody participates with his insight and afterwards we look in the text for that one answer which is always true and that is how it gets confirmed and we can reach the union and get aware that it is Jnana yoga, the wisdom is present when we are all one, it also cannot be done alone, it has to be a circle that we get the right experience and realize the omnipresence.
Writing is a service, it is the level of the hand and thinking it over, but sharing experiences in the study circle is different, everybody is sharing his experience and it is therefore a circle.
Writing is an activity, a devotee was sharing her experience of accompanying the dying. She feels his divine presence, but somehow she seems not to have the benefit of listening to his words and there is always that pain expressed in her words that she doesn't know if the other benefits really, the feeling of powerlessness facing death and she doesn't feel oneness consciously, even if it must be oneness if she feels his presence and it is kind of surprising that it is not enough, and why it is not, it is not yet confirmed it has to be confirmed by his words. The benefit is for sure there, the doubt is in her mind and what she thinks, it is the mind what she thinks about it, but that can end with contemplation, getting aware of it. If the Jnana level is missing and we don't know really what we are doing, but we have to get aware of it. If we are aware of it there is that contentment and the bliss, it is the level of sat-chit-ananda, it we have truth and we get aware of it, the sat and chit, is the right wisdom, the result will be bliss, ananda.
It is present in contemplation we get aware of truth and the difference to untruth and in our own experience and it is reflected in his words and by that we also get it confirmed.
It is in our own experience, without experience we will not feel bliss, as long as the confirmation is missing, there is doubt, he is the absorber, he has to be there that it is true.
Contemplation and seeing it in our own life, that is how we get aware of our own experience and we have to get right knowledge, but only when it gets confirmed by him it is turning into self-knowledge, wisdom and self-realization.
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