Many venture to describe the attributes of God and proclaim Him to be such and such; but these are but their own guesses and the reflections of their own predilections and preferences. Who can affirm that God is this or that? Who can affirm that God is not of this form or with this attribute? God is inscrutable. He cannot be realised in the outer objective world; He is in the very heart of every being. Gemstones have to be sought deep underground; they do not float mid-air. Seek God in the depths of yourself, not in tantalising, kaleidoscopic Nature. The body is granted to you for this high purpose; but you are now misusing it, like the person who cooked his daily food in the gem studded gold vase that came into his hands as an heirloom. Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, but ignores His Presence in oneself!
We had a nice sat sang last night. For the study circle we were only a few people, but it was still the best. The text was so beautiful and we remembered even some text we had before about patience it was also that incredible just to listen. We were listening and in the study circle we do an effort to think it over and to see it in our own life. It is not a sharing of our problems, it is thinking over his words.
Someone talked about a strange interview she had and they didn't understand it really and one guy he planned to go to Kerala and he called them in the interview and it felt also like that, real strange he mentioned that daughter she didn't have, but behind was the lady who had a daughter and she said, 'I have no daughter', so the lady behind said, it is my daughter. And so the interview went on and it felt total strange, but nevertheless totally like him, it took some heaviness away, so serious people, not in the sense of serene what is good, but heavy in the mind really, how it felt listening to it and it was just lightening up. If we listen to divine words we lighten up, the energy gets transformed into a different type of energy and that is just a wonderful experience.
We had a weekend and talked about study circle and the problem is if we are in a circle we listen to everybody one after the other and we don't interrupt, we listen to everything, but sometimes also not to the right thing and by the time it was my turn I was already fighting my impatience and I said, study circle without listening to Swami's words is no study circle. But it went on they were talking about the weekends topics and that was about conflict management and we went on talking around not getting to the point really.
And that was actually our subject, in the text was Swami and the right answer. So I focused on that text and the issue to get to the point in question and if we don't, we will not get a right conclusion, only nobody listened. When it is limited to the point in question, it doesn't expand and we can still enjoy the good experiences, only that conflict is limited. That is a great thing if we are able to do it, if we are even able to recognize that it is a conflict and we don't just think it has to be like that and it is part of it, what seems to be mostly the case and a wrong conclusion.
"Conflicts happen, but they should be limited to the point in question, the subject of the conflict and not be extended to additional words and feelings. If the conflict is allowed to escalate, the anger will intensify, bitter feelings are coming up and a huge hatred it will evolve. On the other hand, the love begins at a single point, and when it is enabled it will spread until it has fulfilled the entire life of that. This is spiritual truth. If there is conflict and disharmony between two people, they leave it out and do not allow the conflict to continue to expand, then settle down in the long run both parties, and in their relationship can get harmony. The worst what can happen is when the conflict is indeed latent persist, but not continue to grow and no other people involve. "
There was a story of a student who wanted to travel somewhere with the others with Swami and he was not part of it, he had to stay back, he began to fast and he said he is not going to eat until he is starved to dead and the student who told the story said they told it to Swam and he answered, let him die, he will get a better body next life. When I told that story I noticed how serious the people around me were, because some felt shocked the others surprised, but who is really thinking that this boy was going on starving his body to death? He just wanted to change something and get his way, for sure he didn't fast until he died, so it is funny really and we see the humor in it, but some don't.
If we are not listening we don't see the humor. If we listen we get aware of it, we get the feeling for it, and we don't listen to our mind telling, why he is letting that poor boy starve to death? That is not really in question, that is just what we hear and it shows that we are not light and easy listening, but everything seems heavy and loaded by the mind.
But talking about it felt like he was in the midst of us walking around.
On one side we had lots of heavy mindedness and it had to get somehow a bit lighter, easier, happier, not so serious. It felt like Swami was walking around giving Darshan and just making people feel better, with lots of humor and a smile at his face and if someone it telling us with a heavy loaded mind, we just feel that all lighten up in just listening to it. It makes feel easier, less heavy and sathva is light and not that heavy and stern and identified with body and mind.
We mentioned that we have to listen, just listening and we find that precious value in the words, if we are in the idea that we know, we cannot listen, the mind is set and we think we know, we have to be open minded and just listen.
He mentioned how we should listen to the story of Rama and it is not only for that story, but all the holy books and his words we should just listen and see it in our own life, we find the right feeling in absorbing it, that is how we get able to absorb.
Shravana is spiritual listening and we should listen and not think that we know, otherwise, the mind is closed and we are not able to listen.
And in that study circle we listened to his words and we were sharing the insights to get to the deeper understanding of it. We feel it and that is not the same when we just read it, but in sharing with others we get a feeling for it.
It doesn't make much sense if we talk about what we think about it and it is not about that, if we listen and don't share, spiritual listening it a spiritual practise, it is not what we think about it that is interesting, but doing it and sharing it.
So I tried already at that weekend to stay with his words, but it was kind of frustrating that it was not really possible as those who were in charge asked people instead of doing it what they thought about it and what came up is just thoughts about it and not thinking it over.
But he words of Swami were about conflict and kind of amazing because since then they always came up again giving the answer in many ways. I was so busy that I didn't write in my blog about it.
If we look at the conflict, the first thing is to limit the conflict to the point in question and of course, we have to get aware of the conflict. During that weekend we also had a conflict, we talked about conflicts, but we talked around it and never got to the point really.
We had his words in front of our eyes, but as nobody is used to listen, we were talking about it, around it, but never listened to what he said, so we had no right conclusion.
In the text in front of us he was telling us, listen, if there is conflict limit it to one point and they didn't listen, nobody even got aware of it that the answer was just in front of our eyes and that we just didn't see it and we are not used to listen, but we got answers like, he is in the heart and things like that, he is everywhere as we have it in today's thought for the day. Okay, if he is in the heart, but the conflict has nevertheless to be limited in getting to the point and nobody did it.
So we listened all weekend to something that told us how to do it, but the answer was in the text and nobody listened to that. We have to be able to recognize what is conflict and what is not a conflict.
Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, but ignores His Presence in oneself!
It is the last sentence in today's thought for the day and that is the attitude and anwers we get. It sounds like, he is everywhere, he is doing that as well, what means he is the doer and omnipotent. As he is telling us here, those answers ignore the divine presence in oneself and talk about him being the outside performer really planning and doing everything and getting always to a not right conclusion and those answers avoid or ignore the real presence.
What is usually happening in getting those kind of answers is that we lose the conflict out of sight and we go nowhere like turning around in the same marry go around on and on just talking about something, we think we practise, but we don't know and we have no right conclusion. We spent the whole weekend like that with blabla and no right conclusion.
If we would think it over like in that thought for the day, we also get aware where that person is actually when he gives such an answer like that that it is him organizing all of that, so excuse my incabablity to get to the point, it is also his doing. What means he is omnipotent and he has planned that I am not able to get to a right conclusion as he knows everything. It sounds like that, even if it doesn't sound very good, he is seen as omniscient and omnipresent, that are the kind of answers that avoid to get to the point. Somehow telling the listeners, we don't have a right conclusions, but that is also his doing if you just don't think I am the one who is unable to bring it to the point, he is the one who is not bringing it to the point.
If we limit the conflict, we get to the point and that is what he is telling here, we ignore the presence in oneself, the person in charge just didn't have the experience of that divien presence in the heart, how can we know? He shouldn't talk for all the people really because he is probably not the right person.
Afterward Baba is telling us that love is expanding from one point as well and we are with the main spiritual truth. And that is the experience we are looking for, that is what we want.
We don't want to get lost in the conflict and share with the lecturer that he tells us that he knows as we all don't know that we don't know and while he is telling us that he knows, we share with him the fact that he doesn't know.
It is like a kind of indigestion, if the wisdom is digested and understood as he said in the thought for the day yesterday, we enjoy what we have to listen to, but when it is not digested we actually share the indigestion of it. We can digest the wisdom only if we listen, listening is God.
To listen is a spiritual practise and as truth is always threefold, we have to listen, to think it over to be able to absorb. We listen together, in the study circle we think it over together and we absorb together.
Ravana (the villain in Ramayana) sought wealth and gratification of desire, utterly violating the principle of dharma. He was a scholar par excellence. He had mastered the sixty-four disciplines of learning whereas Rama had mastered only thirty-two. However Rama put them into practice and thereby digested them, whereas Ravana failed to digest them. The indigestion on the part of Ravana arose in the form of desire (kama), which ultimately destroyed him. While Rama was the embodiment of Dharma, Ravana remained as the embodiment of kama. Thus there arose a conflict between righteousness and unrighteousness. Rama transformed Himself into the embodiment of sathya (Truth), since He followed the principle of dharma. Since Ravana violated dharma, he became the embodiment of asathya (untruth). There is an eternal warfare between righteousness and unrighteousness, truth and untruth. It is your duty to follow and practice the twin principles of truth and righteousness.
We want to get aware of that spiritual truth and that is how love expands.
It is our aim to see how love can expand from that one point and fill our life and if we allow it, that love will take over our whole life and fulfill our life.
It is wonderful way of explaining it, a great truth how we transform conflict into love.
And when she talked about the interview, it felt like he was actually walking in the midst of us, he was there dark, smiley, jokingly as he always was, it felt like his presence and that was great really.
Many venture to describe the attributes of God and proclaim Him to be such and such; but these are but their own guesses and the reflections of their own predilections and preferences. Who can affirm that God is this or that?
If we think about the divine in the heart and the man coming in our dreams to awake us was present as a tiny dark blue small form of love in the heart, it means we focus on that, it was also present in the sutra, the relationship between body and akasha, heart and the lightness of the cotton fiber, it is light, it is love and beauty.
In the lightness of it is the soul, it is lighter than a feather even and so light, it goes beyond the body and the mind, if we are identified with 'that' we can indeed make the experience that we are beyond the body and the mind, without any yogic flying in the body.
The Soham meditation is also taking in light, keeping the light in the heart, getting rid of darkness and heaviness on body level, but it is based on the breath, in the Patanjali sutra it was not breath, but it was based on the intellect, the relationship between body and akasha (heart), the lightness of the cotton fiber.
He is also a self-realized authority, the father of yoga, therefore, in his words is the power of enlightenment, we will make the experience of truth and that is the divine presence in the heart.
It is not what Baba is mentioning here about the attributes of God, he talks about the imagination of people, we hear it very often, more or less when they don't know anymore what to tell, we will hear, God is everywhere, those general places, the attributes he is talking about here. We get that answer very often, really always, there is the answer of someone who avoided by that going into it, we hear that he is also doing that and it was also during that weekend, it was said that place he is that too. Sounds like we don't make any sense, it means if we tell he is that as well, we make a bit more sense maybe or we think we are intelligent and as we don't know how to get to the point and how to find a right conclusion, we attribute it to him, we excuse ourselves like that, it is him as well, he is that too and it is also part of not getting to the point ever and as he knows everything and he is omnipotent, he does that as well. We give the responsibility for it to him that we don't get to a right conclusion and that we are all weekend just listening to blabla, that is after all his plan, that is the attributes he is mentioning here and we have to hear that all the time really. We get that about in every meeting by someone and don't know what to answer. We listen to it and think, not that again.
Who can affirm that God is not of this form or with this attribute? God is inscrutable. He cannot be realised in the outer objective world; He is in the very heart of every being.
Swami doesn't only tells us that God is in the heart and the experience is precious, that are the gemstones, but for us if we feel that this experience is not present, not understood and something is disturbing it, we don't get to the point, it is actually painful to listen to that. We know it is not there and we share with the one who is in charge even if he doesn't know that we cannot find it anywhere. Where did it go?
Gemstones have to be sought deep underground; they do not float mid-air. Seek God in the depths of yourself, not in tantalising, kaleidoscopic Nature.
We should not look for God outside of us and in nature, but how to listen if we don't know how? Nature is beautiful and also divine, as God is everywhere, but we have to limit our experience to the existence and direct perception in the heart.
It was no use to tell listen, spiritual listening, it was like a foreign language or talking Chinese, they never heard of it. The study circle is spiritual listening, but also that was of no use mentioning it. The thought that we know and the reality that we don't know that we don't know was present during that whole weekend. It was impossible to tell something else or to direct it into a different direction towards a better conclusion and that is how it went on like that all weekend.
If we don't know spiritual listening, we think we know and we don't know that we don't know and the mind is closed, we are not open for listening and the practise is not about listening, but just about sharing thoughts. But when we really listen it feels like he is part of it and it feels like in a Sai center and not something else. It is joyful to get aware of his presence, if we have him in the midst of it, at least he was present last night and we got that feeling of spiritual listening.
The body is granted to you for this high purpose; but you are now misusing it, like the person who cooked his daily food in the gem studded gold vase that came into his hands as an heirloom. Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, but ignores His Presence in oneself!
If we listen, we are awake, we are able to take in his inspiring thoughts and we are not in our mind thinking we know already what makes it impossible to absorb. We have to learn to listen. Darshan is sight of truth, spiritual listening is the same, but on the level of sharing and listening and absorbing together. In a study circle we learn to listen to his words, we share the insights and we get deeper into the wisdom. It is a wonderful experience of the divine presence, such a great experience that they don't know what they are missing in not doing it right.
If we feel his presence, it is a good meeting, inspiring and fulfilling and we feel really happy afterward and good and like it should and not as something else.
Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, but ignores His Presence in oneself!
We get hear that so often really, the words, he is everywhere, he is that as well, all his plans, that are the words that extol God as omnipresent and that makes us feel uncomfortable, because discrimination is missing.
It feels like a kind of excuse when we have nothing better to tell, avoiding that we have to listen, telling we know he is omnipotent, so he is doing that and also that and he is even that which he cannot possibly be.
He is telling us here that they ignore his presence in oneself, so he is adored at the outside. The experience of the divine is in the heart, as he said in an interview, he has to be there always, we have to keep the focus on it.
That is how we get the feeling of a Sai center and not only in oneself, but in the center and that is after all where we would like to find and feel his presence always and be able to share his wonderful wisdom.
The key is to listen, it is spiritual listening, a practise we have to learn and go for, it opens the mind as we are focused on listening and not on knowing already when we don't know that we don't know.
Spiritual listening is a divine practise, listening is divine and in that moment we are open and ready for it and we are aware that we don't know and we listen.
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