How can we listen to Swami's words and get to the correct understanding and not just stop it in thinking, how do we understand it?
The first thing we need is to know that truth is threefold.
It is a principle. What is meant with a principle?
It is always the same, no change. We have to see the principle to get to a correct understanding.
We have Swami's words. We should not only read, but listen.
It is on three levels, listen, think it over, absorb, as we notice again threefold as it is about truth. It is about knowledge. The truth is threefold; therefore we have three levels of knowledge.
That is the principle, and it we approach his words we will see what happens. We will get to a much better result in correct understanding then when we try to listen with our heart, the heart doesn't know the principle.
Lord Krishna declared in the Gita, "Among sacrifices (yajnas), I am the repetition of the name (nama-yajna)." For curing grief and earning joy, temples where the name of God can be remembered are very essential.
There is no doubt, that it is the third level only. Baba talks the example of Lord Krishna, the words of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. That is third level.
There are only three levels, we have no forth and make a difference with God.
On the third level everything is divine only.
The first level would be on the instrument level, the body and matter and on the second level it is depending on it if we listen to the third level or not if we get to right or wrong conclusions, but it is also the level of science and arts.
If we don't listen we will be in rajas, not in sathva and if we listen it will be correct understanding and only in correct understanding will be sathva, sathva alone knows the truth.
We take his words and listen to it and look first if we can find the right level of knowledge, if it is about truth there are always all three levels of knowledge, direct perception, inference and the words of a self-realized authority. And in that thought for the day he begins with Krishna and no doubt about it we are on the third level.
What does Swami do as he is also Krishna, the divine avatar; he takes Krishna's words and tells us in using Krishna's words that it is not different from him.
He is also the repetition of the name from all the yajnas, worships of the Lord. If we are not sure about yajnas we Google it and find:
We know with yajnas we have all that homage and worship offered to the Lord in the fire and now we also know that He is the repetition of the name. It is our meditation and we know why, with the repletion of the name or meditation we reach the temple of the heart. If we feel the bliss in the heart, we know why he calls it the most fruitful activity.
Remembering the name (smarana) grants bliss; there is nothing more fruitful, charming or blissful than this activity!
Swami is talking about the third level.
He said in our interview, 'were bliss is there is God', it can only be the third level of knowledge.
The first is the body, the second is in between the first and the third and it is the mind and activity. The third is beyond the mind and body and divine, the words of a self-realized authority. Here we have the Gita and Krishna and from Krishna he goes to Vyasa, he wrote the Veda, he is also called Veda Vyasa.
Sage Vyasa wondered, "Having the great yet simple name, on the ever available tongue, and the temple where His enchanting image is installed so that people can sing His glory in an exalted voice... why should people hasten toward the gates of hell?"
With other words he is telling us to meditate and to sing. We have the mantra, the name and as he said also in an interview, 'all mantras are okay', on the ever available tongue and we have the temples and in the West churches, we find people are singing his glory together and we melt in the heart in love for the divine, why should anybody go in direction of the gates of hell?
That is not the same level. It is not Krishna telling, I am the repetition of the name.
There is the difference between heaven and hell, between higher and lower and that is discrimination. If we have self-control and use the mantra, why should we hasten towards the gates of hell, but without doubt there are people hastening towards hell.
In the moment there is no self-control, the mind dictates our life.
It happens by itself, because we take the focus away, we are on the level of sense-knowledge. The first level of knowledge is sense-knowledge. The first thirty three years it is still okay, the following it starts to change, we have to know the difference and realize that life is not only about living in the senses and in the third part of our life if we don't have the words of a self-realized authority. Body and mind are tired in repeating the sense-enjoyments only and we get into depression, it is not very successful and the worst what can happen to us.
It is that easy and simple, why should we not go for it?
What does Baba describe? Self-control, controlling the mind. The people get to sathva with the repetition of the mind. The singing in temples with exalted voice leads to the melting of the heart and we get aware of the divine love in everybody, it melts in the love for the divine and if we repeat the name on the tongue we get aware that God is in the temple of the heart, we turn our attention inside.
So too, Saint Tulsidas, who lived constantly in the temple and sang of the joy he tasted, lamented, "Alas! When people give up the name and the temple, and seek peace and joy in other places, I am reminded of the foolishness of those who forsake the rich and tasty fare on their plates and beg with outstretched hands for the remains from other's plates!"
So he talks about Tulsidas. He is the third example. He began with Lord Krishna, then he spoke about Vyasa and now he talks about Tulsidas.
We have three examples and there is certainly a meaning in it. Lord Krishna is divine, he is an avatar, he is identified with it and tells, 'from all the yajnas in a temple I am the repetition of the divine name'.
Veda Vyasa is a great scholar and saint, he wrote the Veda, but with him it is on the discrimination level, if we have that and it is so easy …, why we should go for the other. That is the second level of knowledge.
With the example of Tulsidas we get to the third level. That is the first knowledge level, sense knowledge. When people give up the name and the temple, they are in the senses and in the mind only, they seek peace and joy in other places. It is all illusion, they don't get what they are looking for, that is why he tells us here that it feels like foolishness as they don't see the rich and tasty food on their own plates, but beg for that what remains on others plates.
If we look at that state of mind, it was present in a person in the center. We had a talk during the study circle and some questions coming up. She felt that she didn't understand it. She is a leading singer and that is important. For some reason she couldn't take that she didn't understand the conversation going on. She the feeling she didn't understand anything and her reaction was instead of listening and keeping her focus on Swami's words, listening to him, she said, 'why can we not do it as we always did' and she even tried to enforce her authority with the words, 'as Swami wants us to do it'.
The question was, 'how can she knows what Swami wants if she is not listening to his words'.
If we know what happens in the mind we know why he is telling us looking for the remains from other plates. She talked about the remains of other plates, the past impressions, she compared it and came to the wrong conclusion that was right and for us we had nothing but a disturbed mind state.
It had nothing to do with the present situation, instead of seeing her full plate in front of her she was begging for the rests on the other plates. She was not seeing the richness she had in front of her in her own plate what would have been the case when she would have listened to Swami instead of being occupied with her own mind stuff and I actually wondered where she was and what she had in mind.
That is the meaning of begging with outstretched hands for the remains from other plates, if we see the tendency of the mind reaching for that which seems better and begins to argue about it, that is all based on wrong conclusions and illusion.
That is the tendency of the mind on the sense level it is comparing with past incidents to justify the argumentation in the present, it gets to wrong conclusions and we have an arguing disturbing attitude and she wants to be right and she even used Swami to enforce her statement, by that telling us all that she knows.
We know that this is also a sign of wrong understanding, because she thinks she knows and it is not He the knower.
"Alas! When people give up the name and the temple, and seek peace and joy in other places, I am reminded of the foolishness of those who forsake the rich and tasty fare on their plates and beg with outstretched hands for the remains from other's plates!"
That is only one example and it goes on and happens all the time and people are not aware of it.
It is the tendency of the mind and as soon as there is no self-control or mantra repetition whatever we do for our spiritual practice if we stop with it, we are back in the mind.
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