Sat or not Sat that is the Question

Company of the pious (Satsanga) leads you to gradually withdraw from entangling worldly activities. When a bit of cold coal is placed in the midst of glowing cinders and when the fire is fanned, the coal too glows with fire. Fire of Wisdom (Jnana agni) operates similarly. Individual effort and Divine Grace are both interdependent. Without effort, there will be no conferment of grace; without grace there can be no taste in the effort. To win that precious Grace from the Lord, all you need is only faith and virtues. You need not praise Him to win His favour. Praise feeds the fire of egoism and fogs genuine faith. God does not like mere external verbal praise and offerings of kind. He is yours and you are His. The entire mankind is God's family. Knock with faith: the doors of Grace will open. Open your door! The Sun's rays waiting outside will flow silently in and flood your room with light.

It is great getting aware of it that the company of the pious, the Satsanga, leads us gradually withdraw from entangling in worldly activities.
It was said that before, the main thing is the satsang. the good company and we know by the man coming in our dreams to awaken that it is Swami and not the mind, it is the only place the mind cannot manipulate it when it is in the dream stage, but we can misunderstand it. 

The 4 F’s: Follow the Master. Fight to the End. Finish the Game

You should make your own conscience secure, and you should have confidence in yourself. Your conscience is your guide and it should dictate your behavior. Either for the good or for the bad, it is your conscience that is responsible. The guilt in you causes the bad; the strength and confidence in you should, therefore, do such things which will promote your confidence in your own self. That is why I have repeatedly told you, that you should follow the four F’s. “Follow the Master” and that is your conscience. The second thing is to “Face the devil”. The third is “Fight to the end”. Then you should “Finish the game”. If you remember all these four injunctions such that they are resounding every moment in you, there can be nothing more sacred than this in your life.  

Today was the question about a Satsang. 

It all began when someone said I should not blame him, but he was just the person to be blamed as he made me go into distance, I didn't want to be part of it,  something terrible had happened in the past. As I got an email from him, I used the moment to answer and to bring the issue up.

I made him responsible for it and why, there was a dream afterwards and it was kind of terrible. We know it is the master coming in our dreams to awaken and we listen to it and we get used those types of dreams and the man coming in our dream to awaken said that he was because of that reason in the wheelchair.

Baba had been in the wheelchair, but probably nobody knows really why, but that is what it said in the dream stage.

The dream stage is a dream, it cannot be interpreted by the mind as it is a dream, if we use the mind it will always be wrong.

How did that happen? It was about a study circle and that person arrived and thought he had to find faults and I was not even sure about it. But it got difficult beyond words, it went on the whole evening as the program was not yet finished, it was just the beginning of it.

No matter what was the reason for his attitude, if he had a reason or not, it was not the right place and not the right time and the other people were already sitting there and had to listen to it. It was in the presence of the circle. 

It is difficult if we have the feeling we talk on one level and the other person is somewhere else really.

We try to make sense, but the other doesn't get it. We try to find words, but no matter what we tell it is wrong or he doesn't get it of he sees something else in it.

The Beneficial and the Pleasant

People today suffer intensely from the fever of the senses and try the quack remedies of recreations, pleasures, vacations, picnics, banquets, dances, etc. only to find that the fever abates but returns after an interval – it does not subside. All the varieties in taste, colour, smell of the various food delicacies, when you consider fairly and squarely, are a mere drug to cure the illness of hunger. All the drinks that people have invented are but drugs to alleviate the illness of thirst. What you term luxury (bhoga) today, is a thing that drags people into excitement and insane pursuits. A fever will go away only when the hidden virus is rendered ineffective. So too, the virus or illness of your mind will die only when the rays of wisdom (Jnana) falls upon it. Discern and always try to prefer the beneficial (hitha) to the pleasant (priya), for the pleasant might lead you down the sliding path into the bottomless pit.

We know it from meditation, we sit down, close the eyes and take a mantra and get refreshed with meditation. 

If we practice every day, it is no more about taking a break, it is part of the day like cleaning teeth, we sit up and meditate for about a half an hour.

What does Swami tell us exactly with those words? 
Suffering the fever of the senses we think it is normal. Whatever we do with the remedies of pleasures, we will just find that the fever returns after an interval and it does not subside, but it doesn't feel like a fever rather like something refreshing. 

So Swami doesn't talk about a time out, he talks about a mental conditioning that turned into sickness and we have to look at it like a fever, but we should not forget that this seems for us normal and not sick, after a certain time we just go for the same pleasure or urge for vacation or dance again to get that break and to feel refreshed and if we do it with mediation, it takes care of it every morning that we start new again, but I guess that is not the same, meditation is the remedy for that sickness. 

People today suffer intensely from the fever of the senses and try the quack remedies of recreations, pleasures, vacations, picnics, banquets, dances, etc. only to find that the fever abates but returns after an interval – it does not subside. All the varieties in taste, colour, smell of the various food delicacies, when you consider fairly and squarely, are a mere drug to cure the illness of hunger. All the drinks that people have invented are but drugs to alleviate the illness of thirst. 

Inner Concentration vs. Outer Distraction

Of the 24 hours in a day, use six for earning and spending, six for contemplation of God, six for sleep and six for service to others. Most of you don't even have five minutes to truly contemplate on the Lord, and you are not ashamed. What a tragedy! Ponder over your present condition (sthiti), the direction you are heading (gathi), your capabilities (shakthi) and your inclinations and tendencies (mathi). Then enter upon the path of spiritual practice, step by step, so you approach the goal steadily and swiftly, day by day. Indian culture advises the control of the senses, not catering to them. The car is driven by means of a wheel which is inside it, so that when the inner steering wheel is turned, the outer wheels move. Trying to move the outer-wheels alone is a sign of ignorance! Inner concentration must be developed in preference to outer distraction. Cultivate quietness, simplicity, and humility, instead of noise, complexity and conceit.

Meditation is part of the six hours contemplation. 
We are back from New York and I am still tired. Writing takes time as well, but six hours seems a lot for people with a job and a normal life style, we are not living in an ashram here and our focus is not uphold and controlled by a strict ashram routine. We live in the world and society and we have to work without the nice comforting upholding and sathvic ashram structure in India and that is an all different reality, but usually after being here for some months as I meditated always morning and evening regularly when returning to the ashram I had the feeling I never left, only at that time I didn't understand it, the feeling was not the same, even if the focus was the same as it seems.   

Of the 24 hours in a day, use six for earning and spending, six for contemplation of God, six for sleep and six for service to others. Most of you don't even have five minutes to truly contemplate on the Lord, and you are not ashamed. What a tragedy! 

Ocean of Love

If you attach yourself to the Lord through the path of love (prema), it will be possible to realise Him. God’s love is like an infinite and endless ocean. Simply because God’s love is infinite and endless, you cannot carry all of it with you. What you can carry with you will depend on the size of the pot you take. So the first thing to do is to enlarge the size of your pot, and this can be done through spiritual practice (sadhana). The first step in Sadhana, is respect for your mother. The devotion towards the mother should be such that you recognise the great love and affection with which your mother has brought you up. You must return gratitude to your mother in the form of love or bhakti. The mother will also showbhakti in the form of vatsalya (affection of mother for child), in return to the love of the child.

In listening to his words we get actually away from the form as that is for some people as it seems still a big issue. Here Swami talks about the path of love and if we attach ourselves to the Lord through the past of love we will be able to get God realization. But the next sentence he talks already about the infinite ocean and that is beyond the form and the question for us is how much of it we can put our own vessel. And he explains how it is done, be spiritual practise, Sadhana, that is not only meditation, but all spiritual practises.

But how are we getting away from the form. That is actually easy if we know how to listen. If we listen to his words, we get with his words aways from the form and on an universal and infinite level. If people tell they have a problem with the form, it is not right. They don’t have a problem with the form, the have a problem with listening. If they would listen to his words, there would not be any problem with the form.

If you attach yourself to the Lord through the path of love (prema), it will be possible to realize Him.

The Secret of being Happy in our Daily Life‏

The basic quality of devotion is the yearning for realizing oneness with the Divine. - Baba


Look at a piece of cloth. Truly it is a bundle of threads; and if you examine it more carefully, you will say that it is just cotton. The first stage is cotton, second stage is thread, and the final stage is the cloth. What would you do if you do not like that cloth? You remove the threads one by one and the cloth disappears! In the same manner, your mind does not have any specific form. It is simply a bundle of desires. These desires themselves come from the thoughts of your mind which can be compared to the cotton. Thus in this analogy the three stages are the cotton or the thoughts, the thread or the desires, and finally the desires constitute the mind which is the cloth. So you must try to diminish these desires as far as possible. Desires are like heavy luggage in the journey of your life. Less luggage, more comfort for you!

If we ask about the basic quality as oneness, what does it mean in our practical everyday life?
There is only one and we have to be at the side of that oneness and not on the side of all what is not real and doesn't exist, what is called illusion. We need to discriminate. Oneness actually knows no second, but we live in the world and there everything has two sides, therefore, to be able to be one we have to use discrimination.
In the West if we hold up the ideal of argumentation and the right of it, with other words we use our critical mind trained already in schools to be argumentative, we talk in the spiritual sense about an obstacles. And why an obstacle? It doesn't allow us to realize the underlying oneness. It is based on duality.
If we don't use right discrimination and we don't know how to get to a right conclusion, we look at oneness and call in a kind of confused and stupid way everything God as we had a meeting where we talked about everything and never got to the point, it seems he didn't know how. What was said was in other words that the satsang was also the divine behind and it made the question come up, what is he talking about as he didn't get to the point. If it is not a right conclusion, it is not right no matter how we look at it. It was just the confused notion of oneness and we all had to listen to it.

Love contains all other Human Values

Embodiments of Love! Vijaya Dasami marks the conclusion (samapti) of the sacred Navaratri festival. Samapti confers prapti (deservedness) in every possible way. Today I bless you with the deservedness to develop selfless love. Love contains all the other human values like truth, right conduct, non-violence and peace. Whatever you do, do it with Love. Your heart is like a big tank, and senses are like taps. Fill your heart with the water of Love. Then you will experience Divine Love through all your senses. Undertake good actions from this moment. Let everybody be happy. The essence of all scriptures is: “Help ever, Hurt never.” Do not hurt even an insect, for God is present in every being. Surrender to the Lord and say, “I am Yours,” and live up to it with strong faith. God will protect you at all times and under all circumstances. I bless you to have noble feelings, join good company, give-up vices and attain Divinity.

Here Baba talks about the human values and about the conclusion of the sacred Navaratri festival. Listening to his words we have to get to a right and not wrong conclusion, therefore, the conclusion is important. And Sampti and prapti have to do with deserving it and the way it is done to get to a right conclusion.

With other words, we have to be careful to understand it right, to get to correct understanding and such a festival and the way it is done shows us the way. It is for sure sathvic, what we don’t know always about all our activities and often we just cannot know. By listening to the words of a self-realized authority we get a feeling for it and if we don’t do that, we can be quite sure that in the conclusion is in the mind and not the atma. In another thought for the day Swami said that we cannot know right from wrong or good from bad without listening. In the relative field we always have two sides and it depends the situation, what is good at one time can be bad in another situation, therefore, when we listen to him and inquire about it we get aware of it and it should make us careful to do the right thing and to go in direction of correct understanding and to not trust our mind.

We live in the mind since we are born and we count on it and we are not used to it to think that it is not real, that it is based on illusion and that it is not right. The Western ideal is the opposite, with science it seem we got also the right of argumenting to get right and with the path of sathva we cannot argue and get right, we have to learn to listen and accept truth, if we accept truth there is no more argument.

Embodiments of Love! Vijaya Dasami marks the conclusion(samapti) of the sacred Navaratri festival. Samapti confers prapti (deservedness) in every possible way. Today I bless you with the deservedness to develop selfless love.

Positive Energy and Divine Nectar

Embodiments of Love! There is no need to search for God anywhere, says the Bible. Today people are in search of God. Why do you search for Him when He is everywhere? You are God. All spiritual practices (sadhana) will go in vain if you do not know your true identity. Instead of asking others, “Who are you?” it is better to ask yourself, “Who am I?” “This is my book”, we say. Then who is this “I”? This feeling of “my” is illusion (maya). Know who you are. All this is matter, it is negative. You are the master of this material world. Master the mind and be a mastermind. Make every effort to know your true identity. To know this, you should first give up body attachment. People are heroes in doing experiments in the laboratory, but zeroes in experience. Instead, be heroes in the practical field.


In this thought for the day Swami calls people embodiments of love and the reason for it is not that all realized beings, but that potentially there is only love if there is only one and that one alone exists, there can be only love, but we have to get to the right conclusion.

Embodiments of Love! There is no need to search for God anywhere, says the Bible.

He is telling us to not search for God, also not as Christians as we are used to the concept of duality and we think God is in heaven and far away really.
We are it, there is no need to search for it, but we need to get to the right understanding of it and we should always be aware that we are able to get also to a wrong conclusion when we are in the mind.


Today people are in search of God. Why do you search for Him when He is everywhere? You are God.


That is the basic message and we don't look for God in heaven anymore, but he is in our own self. The question is still there how we get aware of it and how do we know and get the experience of it?
If he is present in the here and now, how do we get the experience and the answer is love, but we cannot just feel love if there is no love and by writing the focus is not on the feeling, but it is nevertheless there behind somewhere in the motivation is love and we mostly experience it with others.


All spiritual practices (sadhana) will go in vain if you do not know your true identity. Instead of asking others, “Who are you?” it is better to ask yourself, “Who am I?”

True Spiritual Practice lies in Controlling our Thoughts

 

Today everyone is troubled by worry and anxiety. There is not a moment when you are free from worries. “To be born is a worry, to live on earth is a worry; world is a cause of worry and death too is a reason of worry; entire childhood is a worry and so is old age; life is a worry, failure is a worry; all actions and difficulties cause worry; even happiness too is a mysterious worry”, says a Telugu poem! Body attachment is the primary cause of all anxieties. It is impossible to experience happiness without undergoing difficulties and worries. Pleasure is an interval between two pains. You undertake various activities, of which some are good and some bad. Your thought (sankalpa) is the root cause of this duality. Good thoughts lead to good actions and vice versa. You are the embodiment of resolutions and negations (sankalpas and vikalpas). True spiritual practice lies in controlling your thoughts and aberrations

We all know troubles and anxiety in our mind in the world we are living and we have out jobs and duties and it has a big influence. We started years ago before we went to Swami with regular mediation in the aim to purify the mind and that is the reason for it that we can control our thoughts and the mind and not the opposite way around, nobody who is not in a way in meditation is able to have control over the mind and with meditation we also got rid of stress and anxiety in the mind.

Today everyone is troubled by worry and anxiety. There is not a moment when you are free from worries. “To be born is a worry, to live on earth is a worry; world is a cause of worry and death too is a reason of worry; entire childhood is a worry and so is old age; life is a worry, failure is a worry; all actions and difficulties cause worry; even happiness too is a mysterious worry”, says a Telugu poem!

Formless Pure Divine Energy

So long as one has a form, it is quite natural that they think of that form; but since that form has to be forgotten some day or the other, it is good to concentrate on the formless supreme and give up attachment to a form. Vedanta teaches us the philosophy of detachment (vairagya) to help in this process of concentrating on the formless supreme power which is behind every form. It is inevitable that the soul (jiva) leaves the body. This body is like a water bubble on the surface of water. This water bubble is born out of water, lives on water, and survives on water, and finally it gets dissolved in water. To think that one is full of weakness is not correct. The correct attitude is to regard God as formless, without attributes. We should take it that God is present in us. That should be the right attitude.

Today Swami talks about the body and we know it very well and that we should have the correct attitude to see God as formless and that is good for meditation.
It is the first thing we get aware of when we are born, our body and it is quite natural that we think we are that body and if someone would tell us something else, we would just wonder about it. We have only that body, so why should we not be identified with it and think, wow, that is I.

So long as one has a form, it is quite natural that they think of that form; but since that form has to be forgotten some day or the other, it is good to concentrate on the formless supreme and give up attachment to a form.


As we get aware that we have to die, in the West we usually try first to forget about it and most people like to think live and lets live as long as possible and enjoy life as long as we can.
There is only one problem, it seems not that enjoyable and natural to get to the conclusion if there wouldn't be any pain or suffering, we would enjoy it more and if we listen to Swami and Veda we get to the conclusion that it is not quite right. 


Vedanta teaches us the philosophy of detachment (vairagya) to help in this process of concentrating on the formless supreme power which is behind every form.

Purify the Heart

Every day is a sacred day when you chant the name of God, yearn for His proximity and experience the bliss of His grace within you. The supreme quality of Emperor Bali is his spirit of surrender and sacrifice. Emperor Bali surrendered himself totally to the divine. Under his reign, all the subjects were happy and led godly lives. Saddened by the thought of having to go away from his people, he told them, "Dear people! I cannot be without you and you cannot be without me. Every year I shall appear before you and give you joy." Onam is the day on which Bali fulfills his promise. People wake up early in the morning, take a bath, wear new dresses and worship God, and partake a feast to mark the Onam celebration. What is the significance of wearing new clothes (Vasthra)? Vasthra also means ‘heart’. Wearing new clothes (Vasthra) signifies purifying the heart. God dwells in a pure heart.

For the study circle it is like singing or meditating, listening to Swami’s words creates good energy and purification of the heart field, sathva, it is pure energy.
It is not the same just sitting together as it seems often practised in sharing something, whatever it is what we want to share, if we call it experiences or even human values, it is another word for socializing. 
If we don’t have the one-pointed focus on the words of a self-realized authority, the energy will not be uplifted and in the name of study circle all kinds of things are done, only not sitting together and studying Swami’s words. 
The circle is only a circle if he is in it, a circle is another word for holy, it is whole and that is only present if we have him in it and not the mind. 
If we are in the mind we have many types of half circles, but it is never a circle. To make it a circle we have to study his words and put him in the center of it what means one-pointed focus on his words and by that what is purified is the ideal and the field of the heart.
In that thought for the day he talks about Onam and the tradition of it, the background. We experience with Swami what people experience with emperor Bali, in that story is a reflection.

Every day is a sacred day when you chant the name of God, yearn for His proximity and experience the bliss of His grace within you.

One with the Cosmic Spirit

So long as a person is immersed in body attachment, all types of hardships and misery will haunt. Body attachment is the root cause of thoughts (sankalpas). Hence Lord Krishna exhorted people to give up body attachment. The key derivation from this statement is that every being should experience unity in diversity. Without an individual (vyashti), there cannot be a society (samashti). Without a society, there is no creation (srishti). So all these are connected, and we must first clearly recognise the role of an individual (vyashti). Only then can we understand the principle of samashti, which will in turn lead to the understanding of srishti. One who understands srishti becomes one with paramesthi (God).Vyashti symbolises the individual whereas Samashti stands for God. So long as vyashti identifies themselves with the body, they lead a very ordinary life. Shed the body attachment, then you will find that the individual soul is indeed one with the Cosmic Spirit.

We had a study circle and someone else was doing it and she was good. Our text was from the study help we got and that are selected quotes of Swami and when studying it we get ot a certain insight about his message, it is a great text and also the questions at the end of each chapter are great as they know what they are doing and why those questions and not others are asked. We talked about love only, but one passage it was mentioned that someone afflicted with ego is unable to have compassion and a danger for society.

It is kind of sad that we have those study circles for I don’t know how long in the meantime and there is one lady she is always participating, but she doesn’t get it. 

Ways of Duty and Dharma

Shankaracharya, in the fifth century A.D., travelled by foot from Kerala to Kashi, Badri, Kashmir, Kedarnath, Kailash, Puri, Sringeri, etc! And he lived only until the age of thirty-two! Imagine the tremendous amount of work that he did - writing, expounding, propagating, establishing, organising, inspiring, teaching - all in about fourteen or fifteen years of active life! Activity is the verysine qua non of life. Be active, welcome activity - that is the message that God gives man at birth. The breath teaches you Soham all the time, 'so' when it goes in and 'ham,' when it is exhaled. Choose that activity which is conducive to your spiritual progress, judging yourself the stage in which you are at present. There is no high and low, in the activity. The eye must see, the ear must hear, and the hand must hold. That is their duty (Dharma). So also each of you must conduct yourself, according to your own Dharma and progress spiritually.

After the beautiful picture about the sky and the stars in the sky and the moon and the sun in the heart and the clouds in Swami's thought for the day yesterday, today we go back to the incredible holy tradition of India and he talks about Shakaracharya. He was very exceptional and very holy and I translated once a book and I did that in the time I was here working as I had no much to do really in waiting to go back to Swami.

Shankaracharya, in the fifth century A.D., travelled by foot from Kerala to Kashi, Badri, Kashmir, Kedarnath, Kailash, Puri, Sringeri, etc! And he lived only until the age of thirty-two! Imagine the tremendous amount of work that he did - writing, expounding, propagating, establishing, organising, inspiring, teaching - all in about fourteen or fifteen years of active life.

The Ball and the Impure Heart

If we take a ball and pitch it on a hard ground, it will rebound to the extent determined by how hard we hit the ball on the ground. If we pitch this ball on a soft muddy ground instead of a hard surface, it will not rebound, but will get trapped and stuck in the mud. Similarly, if the pure aspect of Divinity hits a sacred heart, it rebounds. On the other hand, if we have a muddy and impure heart, even when Divinity impinges on this heart it gets stuck and entangled. Therefore, purity of one's mind and an exemplary life are essential. Truth and honesty are to be regarded as our two eyes. Instead, if these eyes are inflicted with the disease of selfishness, then we cannot have a pure and clean heart. Young people should have purity of mind. They should take great care to protect truth and honesty.

This is a good example if we use it for meditation the field of the heart and what happens when it is not pure. The field of the heart is not just pure, we live in the world and it is a mixture between sathva, rajas and tamas and also Swami never tells us that the heart is pure, he tells us to develop pure love. We have to purify the heart to have a sathvic field. He always tells us to purify the heart. 
But some think it is enough and done if we replace bad qualities with good qualities, so they talk about what is bad to find what is good and stay at the surface of a code of conduct and they have even extended the human values to over a hundred in reminding all what they could and should do.

Last time in the study circle we talked about good and we had guests and the lady was sitting at my side and when one person went elaborate into doing good, she said, 'what is good' and I said to her that was the same question in my mind. 

Who is telling us what is good and what is bad? The same thing we see as bad can in a different situation just be necessary and good and if we would think we have to behave good, we would avoid the challenge and not do it right and that is not good, but in that situation it would be bad. 

It is relative what is good and bad and it depends on the situation and it is just common sense really.

Happiness is Union with God

The Vedas teach us that our heart is like a sky and in the sky of our heart, mind is the Moon, eyes and intelligence are like the Sun. In the sky of your heart, treat your thoughts as passing clouds. If in the sky of our heart, there are millions of names of the Lord shining like the stars, and your mind shining like the moon, then you are well-positioned to achieve happiness. Happiness is union with God. Train your minds to be like the full moon and cleanse your hearts. Lord Krishna desires that you keep your mind pure and accept truth and honesty as your foundational life principles. Our own conduct is responsible for the decay or the ageing of our body. Our desires drive our behavior. Do not live in the world to merely fulfill your desires. Pain and pleasure are like passing clouds which move about in our heart. So treat them as such and nothing more.

Today the thought for the day begins with Veda and what Veda is teaching. It is about Veda, even if we have had someone in the study circle when Veda was mentioned he answered, 'who is interested in that'? We should better keep silent and don't answer than to say something stupid it like that as we talk constantly about Veda, it is someone who doesn't listen and has not relationship to the words of Swami and the wisdom in those words.  

Here Swami is telling us what the Vedas teach and it is a beautiful picture. 

The heart is the sky and in the sky of the heart we have a mind and it is the moon, our eyes and the intelligence is the sun in the heart.

We have our own universe in the heart with a moon, with a sun and a sky and lots of stars and we find the reflection of it in the dream stage and we could think that the world of the heart reflects the language the man coming in our heart to awaken uses in the purpose to awake us from the inside. 

In that sense Swami is teaching us here the language of the man coming in our dreams to awaken, it is not just a picture if it is like that in the Veda. 

If we watch our heart and are alert and see the mind only as the moon in the sky of the heart, when in reality we think we are the mind outside in our everyday life in the world, it seems to be the same in the heart, but it is not really the same as in the world. 

How do we watch the heart that close if we don't meditate, that is kind of impossible. We need to have silence in the mind to be able to see that sky in the heart that clear and beautiful and with love and if we don't meditate, we don't see anything, the heart is dark and black and nothing to see really when we are living in the mind only, mind is world. 

The Vedas teach us that our heart is like a sky and in the sky of our heart, mind is the Moon, eyes and intelligence are like the Sun. In the sky of your heart, treat your thoughts as passing clouds. If in the sky of our heart, there are millions of names of the Lord shining like the stars, and your mind shining like the moon, then you are well-positioned to achieve happiness.

Constant Integrated Awareness

 

To experience divine love there is no need to practice any kind of meditation, worship or rituals. Selfless love (Prema) can be obtained only by complete absorption in spirituality. It was for this reason that Sri Krishna declared in the Gita: "Surrender unto Me, transcending all rules (Sarva Dharman Parityajya)". Likewise, Jesus also declared: "I am the Path." Buddha, conveying the same meaning, declared, "Surrender everything" (Sarvam Sharanam Gachchami). These statements clearly convey that the essence of all religions, the root of all scriptures, the goal of all virtues, is the experience of spiritual oneness and unity (Sarvatmika Bhavam). The Gopikas exemplified such a spirit of surrender and oneness. Gopikas symbolise thoughts. Radha symbolises the combination of all thoughts in the mind. So all our thoughts, desires and aspirations and our mind should merge in Krishna, represented by Prajna in a human being. Constant Integrated Awareness (Prajna) of the Divine is the significance of the Vedantic declaration, 'Prajnanam Brahma.' 

This thought for the day is not easy if we think it over. 

What does it mean to be absorbed in spirituality or as Swami said, just think about God. For me it meant I began to watch and by watching I was sure that God was there or the higher self and it would be there if we just watched.

And we know it goes to the far end, as it cannot go further it will turn around and he tells us as well what it means in our experience, it goes that far that we cannot take it anymore and then only it turns around, with other words, we experience our limitations and what we are able to take.

Just thinking about God meant for me that he was all what is good and of course, God is love.  

To experience divine love there is no need to practice any kind of meditation, worship or rituals. Selfless love (Prema) can be obtained only by complete absorption in spirituality. It was for this reason that Sri Krishna declared in the Gita: "Surrender unto Me, transcending all rules (Sarva Dharman Parityajya)". Likewise, Jesus also declared: "I am the Path." Buddha, conveying the same meaning, declared, "Surrender everything" (Sarvam Sharanam Gachchami).

Being Recognized as a Devotee

It is not enough if you claim to be a devotee of the Lord. The Lord must recognise you as a devotee. Only then does one's devotion acquire value. Bhagavatam and other scriptures demonstrate how this kind of dedicated life can be led by any person who wishes to be devoted to the Lord. No one should feel that it is beyond his or her capacity to surrender themselves completely to the Lord. If there is firm determination, this can be accomplished. It is only through earnest endeavour that Divine wisdom can be got (Shraddhavan Labhate Jnanam). Today the world is afflicted with the epidemic of egoism (Ahamkara). There is really no basis for this kind of self-conceit. It is born of ignorance. It has to be totally eradicated. If everyone realises that the body has been given for the pursuit of righteousness and acts on that basis, they will most certainly realise the Divine.

What to do if it is not enough to be a devotee of the Lord? It can bring up some other questions and we ask ourselves, what is a devotee really and how do we know if we are one or not? It can feel heavy to face those questions and maybe we just don't feel like it.

Why should we always think about it? 

We don't even understand his words and what about asking always questions? Knowing myself I would just like to think sometimes, not again, I don't feel like it just now. We don't even know why we went to him what about being that?

In our countries people are not convinced that there is something like a Lord and what about being a devotee of that Lord, nobody asks that question really, but we have to because we try to listen to his words. 

All that is present in the first sentence only and we have not yet even started the second one.

It is not enough if you claim to be a devotee of the Lord. The Lord must recognise you as a devotee.

In the second sentence we get to the point.

He has to recognize us as devotees, who - the Lord. After I went beyond the first obstacle in my mind that I don't want to think about it or that we live on a place where people question the reality of the Lord and now how to be a devotee or even how to be recongized by him as one and we don't want to be bothered about it, now we have to face another reality, he has to recognize us as devotees. 

If we don't want to think of the first sentence, how do we take care of the second one? We either just read it anyhow maybe we will get it somehow or later or we don't think about it at all and forget it on the spot again or the mind gets in a blackout and we find a lot of excuses why we don't listen. 

Only then does one's devotion acquire value.

The Process of Self-Discovery

Today we are celebrating Guru Poornima. The day is usually observed as an occasion for offering worship to the Guru (the religious or other preceptor). There are eight different types of gurus, who impart spiritual instructions of different kinds. Among these, the really important guru is "Vihitha Guru", the preceptor who removes the doubts in the minds of the disciples and reveals to them the process of Self-discovery and Self-realisation. The guru should destroy the darkness of ignorance (about one's Reality) and illumine the mind of the disciple. The illumination must result in the perception of the One Reality that is beyond name, form and attributes. No purpose is served by going in search of gurus. There is a guru in each of us. It is the Atmic principle. It is the Eternal Witness functioning as Conscience in everyone. With this Conscience as guide, let all actions be done.

Swami explains that there are different masters in that thought for the day, with different kinds of instructions.

We find it in his words in the study circle or the explanation of Darshan, it is removing the doubts in the minds of the disciples and he shows us the path to self-discovery and self-realization. 
In an interview he asked, 'why are you here?' We all didn't know the answer and finally he answered it and he said, 'self-realization'.

In the study circle it is about removing the doubts on the mind of people and that is when all the faces lighten up when those doubts are removed.

As the man coming in our dreams to awaken, he leads into the process of self-discovery. Even if it would only be about staying in touch as he made that inside connection, it results in self-discovery. We have to talk about something and what else would there be is in focus when it is about Swami but self-discovery by thinking over his words and that is what we find in listening to his words, self-discovery.

At the beginning I didn't know what to tell and he said, 'not at all ready' and then I began to write and wrote down what came in my mind without too much judging it but trying to make sense and he said, 'now ready'.

He is telling us here what we are doing and what it aims at if he comes as the man in our dreams to awaken, it results in self-discovery.

The study circle is about listening to Swami's words with others together and we share our thoughts and that also results in self-discovery, only the intensity is not as big as it is when we do it every day. People are not regularly and therefore, that growth they were talking about is relative, only if we keep doing it we get familiar with his teaching. That it is removing doubts and clarification of the ideal helps to understand it a lot.

The guru should destroy the darkness of ignorance (about one's Reality) and illumine the mind of the disciple.

The Soul's Journey to Realization

The relationship with the Lord is described as developing from Salokya (in the vicinity) to Samipya (nearness), to Sarupya (Form of the master) and then on to Sayujya (absorption into the Form). You can understand this clearly, if you take Salokya to mean, being in the kingdom ruled by the Lord, or as a servant in the palace where He dwells. You are under His fostering care. In the Samipya stage, you feel you are a personal attendant on the Lord, privileged to be near Him and to be called upon by Him for some personal service. You have neared the principle of Godhead, intellectually; you feel His presence ever, emotionally. Next, the stage of Sarupya is like being the brother of the King. He can wear the same robes. One has the splendour, the glory that bespeaks the full blossoming of the Divine latent within. Lastly, when you are the son, the heir apparent, you approximate as much as possible to the Royal Power and so, you can say, 'I and My Father are One.' These are the stages of the soul's journey to Realisation of the Oversoul.

This thought for the day is for me important as it talks about the brother of the king and it corresponds to dreams and insights I had about it, and he was the king when he left the body, of course it was the man coming in our dreams to awaken present in that way as the king.

Some of it as it feels like the core of it is in that thought for the day and it feels like bringing it together.  

Every insight has its own meaning and its own right and has to get to a right conclusion, he was also in the dream and said that he is the insight and the following step. 

The brother of the king we mentioned already and in many ways as it had been in the dream stage as brother. In these words is the right answer, it is about that brother, it is a stage in the progression of the soul to oneness or the oversoul. 

That oneness is in the Atmic principle and we talk always about that Atmic principle, because it is the basis and the answer to the spiritual question, 'who am I' and everybody has to answer it on his own level and in his own awareness.

It is all about oneness, he is the one, he is 'that' and as he always was telling us, 'I am God', with other words, the 'I' is universal and not identified with the body and 'that' is divine love and God. 

How to Listen and Think it Over

All the five elements have been created by the will of the Supreme. They must be used with reverential care and vigilant discrimination. Reckless use of any of them will only rebound on you with tremendous harm. Nature outside must be handled with discretion, caution and awe. It is the same with our inner 'nature' and internal instruments too! Of these, two are capable of vast harm - the tongue and one's lust. Since lust is aroused and inflamed by the food consumed and the drink taken in, the tongue needs greater attention. While your eye, ear and nose have single uses, the tongue makes itself available for two purposes: to judge taste and to utter word - symbols of communication. You must control the tongue with double care, since it can harm you in two ways. Patanjali, (The author of Yoga Sutras) has declared that when tongue is conquered, victory is yours! 

Thinking about five elements created by the will of the supreme feels for me the divine like a 'person' or it is rather a feeling of how to get it right and as I don't know, it makes me not like listening. It makes the thought come up, the will of the supreme, what is that? 

And we think maybe it is the way it is translated and it should be said in a different way that we can somehow relate to it. What is it that we don't know, about everything if we don't have the experience of it. There are texts I just cannot read it or listen to it, I get just tired and lose all taste for it when I just read a few sentences. 

But he is talking about care and discrimination. It makes us ware that we don't want to listen really, that has nothing to do with the words, but with listening in general. It is good to know that we don't feel like doing it. And it seems rather nobody wants to do it really and in that sense we can tell, okay that is why we feel like that, it is normal and it has nothing to do with the words, but with inner resistance. 

  

All the five elements have been created by the will of the Supreme. They must be used with reverential care and vigilant discrimination.

Selfless Love is just One

Selfless Love is just one, in the same way Divinity (Brahman) is also not manifold. That is why scriptures state, "Ekam Eva Advitiyam Brahma"! That means, God is One and is the only One without a second. If we choose to understand the oneness in everything, we must seek to understand that oneness by recognizing the latent Divinity (Brahman) in different living beings that come into contact with us. Simply because you acquired a human form, you should not think that you are only human in nature. Your external form indicates that you are human. Never forget your inner self, the real aspect of Divine, who is firmly present in the depths of your heart. When God is firmly present within you, is it right for you to put up pretenses and false and inappropriate appearances? If under these circumstances, you begin to exhibit desires and show distortions, it will be doing injustice to this permanent aspect resident in your heart.

Selfless love is one only and we can ask why it is one. If there is selflessness it is beyond the body and the mind and that is for all the same selfless love. We experience that selfless love when we are sharing his divine words and we think it over or when we are singing as all sing for the same divinity, it is the same love and that is how we are able to melt in that feeling of love and it is a means for us to realize that there is only one love. As soon as there is no difference, as we know it from consciousness, when it is manifest we have lots of forms and names, when it is none-manifest or pure consciousness it is for all the same, there is no difference in our inner experience and that is why we merge in a state of oneness, only with meditation we don't get aware of it, it is just on the being level inside in silence, but it doesn't manifest as love and being one in love as it does when singing Bhajans.

It is none-conceptual, but not just on the being level, as we experienced it with meditation, but on the feeling level in the heart. It is easier to realize the non-conceptual reality on the being level, we just sit and meditate and go beyond the thoughts and in silence, that is easy, we don't need to realize that when we sit together and sing for the divine that there is one love for all, selfless and pure and therefore, there is only and without a second.

In silence we experience it as good, positive energy, but it is not the same as getting aware of the oneness when we are singing, when we merge all in a feeling of love we get aware of Swami's presence and divine love. During Bhajans we sing for the divine and we feel that love and when that love is there, there is also a feeling of oneness, but we need to be inside awake to get aware that all merge in that same love or oneness and that is the man coming in our dreams to awake us who takes care of that part, he makes us aware that we are one and how it is happening. If we see it because the man coming in our dream to awake us in our dream as, 'I am the One', we know that there is only one God and that there is no difference between the I and the One, but we have to listen again and again and again and we have to see it in our own life to get a feeling for it and to be able to understand it.  

There is only one and always the same one and the only one without a second.

Selfless Love is just one, in the same way Divinity (Brahman) is also not manifold. That is why scriptures state, "Ekam Eva Advitiyam Brahma"! That means, God is One and is the only One without a second.

Learn to Give, not to Take

When we look at the Avatar of Narasimha, we get a feeling of terror. When Lord Narasimha appeared, it looked as if Prahlada was standing in a corner full of fear. At that time, Lord Narasimha looked at Prahlada and asked him if he was afraid of the fearsome figure which had come to punish his father; but Prahlada explained that he was not afraid of the Lord as it was the sweetest form one can comprehend. He said that he was indeed happy to be able to see the Lord. The Lord then asked why Prahlada was afraid. To this Prahlada replied that he was afraid because the divine vision which he was then having was likely to disappear in a few moments and he would soon be left alone. The fear which was troubling Prahlada was that God will leave him in this world and disappear. Prahlada wanted to ask God not to leave him. God's divine vision and divine beauty are such that only his devotees can appreciate.

Swami talks about divine vision, the lion known as avatar. He is also an avatar and somehow explaining to us how it felt for his devotee to meet such a terrible looking and fearful figure. 

He said that he is the man coming in our dreams to awake us. He was quite often present as that man coming in the dreams to awake us, but once he had two Baba faces, one with very long sharp teeth like a vampire or like the lion and the other with a very long nose, it didn't feel like terror. In that aspect of Narasimha the teeth are very much like that, very long and sharp and when thinking it over we get a feeling for it and also that it makes actually much more sense for an avatar to be like Narasimha. We know that the vampire is a negative symbol and more the sign of demons, but Narasimha is exactly that avatar who came just because of that reason to kill the father of Prahlada, who had tried already in many ways to kill his son, that is the story of Prahlada. 

It was a so called Baba dream and not used to see him like that with such big teeth, it was not very scary when I had seen it in the dream, but it was not able to forget it.  

It was not about understanding yet. It was far away from listening and thinking it over yet, it was just part of the reality we had to face and what was reflected in the dream was not that nice actually, it was more than a warning, looking back at it it was very scary actually.