Masters and the Great Ideals

You are unnecessarily struggling and planning several schemes, thinking about them day and night. In spite of all your struggles, what has to go out of your hands will go. The body is like a water bubble. The mind is like a mad monkey. If you follow this mad monkey, you will get into trouble. In the same manner, if you believe in the body, you do not know when this body, which is like a water bubble, will burst. Nothing is permanent. Only the Atma (Self) is eternal and immortal. 'I', 'Self', 'God' are all different names by which the Atmaswarupa is called. God incarnated as Rama, Krishna, and the like, and underwent several difficulties to demonstrate great ideals. Finally, they too left the mortal coil. The physical bodies of the Avatars undergo changes, but the Divine Atma in their bodies remains the same. It is omnipresent, eternal and changeless. Divinity in all the human beings is one and the same.

In this quote Swami talks about things we plan and think about non-stop and what keeps us busy, and he is telling that everything that has to go will go. Even though we are fighting for it and even if we are day and night busy thinking about it, when the moment comes, we will have to let go. The body is perishable. It is like a water bubble and the mind compares Swami with a crazy monkey, which we can hardly control and if we follow the monkey mind, we will inevitably get into trouble. And the same with the body, which is like a water-bubble, when we believe in the body, one day it will burst, and it will be gone. In the relative world nothing is permanent.

Only the Self is eternal and immortal. We know it as' I ',' Self ', God', the different names we give to the Atmaswarupa, the embodied Atma. God incarnated as Rama and Krishna and others, and they had to face lots difficulties to demonstrate the great ideals, and they also left the mortal coils. The body is not lasting; there is no difference for an avatar. Also the bodies of the avatars change, but the divine Atma is always the same, it does not change and it is as well in every human being, we all have the same potential, the question is if we are able to realize it. It consists of omnipresent, eternal, and unchanging consciousness. The Divine is one and the same in all human beings.

We are One

You may install idols and worship them. But do not forget the inner significance of all that worship. All external activities are necessary only to help you to get the spirit of non-duality and experience unity in diversity. Love and sacrifice are very important. Where there is pure, unsullied, selfless, sacred and sublime love there is no fear at all. Giving and not getting is the underlying principle of spiritual sadhana. Your heart is full of love, but you are using it only for selfish purposes instead of diverting it towards God. God is in the heart and not in the head. The heart is full of love. Every day, remind yourself that God is one; all religions uphold the same principle of 'One God, who is omnipresent.' Do not have contempt for any religion, as each is a pathway to God. Fostering love towards your fellow-beings, receive the blessings of the Divine. This is the goal of life.

Swami mentions here the worship of idols, and it is a help to remember the divine, but he is as well telling us that it is only okay as long as we do not

forget the inner meaning. What is the difference, how do we know if the inner meaning is present and when it is not present? It is important for us to be able to make that difference. Swami mentions that external actions are necessary to make the experience of non-duality and to experience unity in diversity, therefore, no matter what; the goal is unity, the experience of non-duality.

Today is the day when Swami left the body. He is as well telling us that the highest and pure love does not know any fear, and it is the basic principle of giving and not taking as our spiritual exercise or sadhana and it is said that the heart is full of love, but we use it for selfish purposes instead of focus on God. The question is what is selfish and how do we know the difference?

He reminds us that God is in the heart and not in the head, with other words; he is inside and not outside or in our imagination. The head imagines things, but the heart feels love.

Whether it is an idol or based on our imagination in the mind or whether we pretend to see it, it is still a form. It is for us important to get aware of it, because there are people taking advantage of it, telling us that they see Swami as a light form.

The principle of the Divine is 'I am that'; it is alive in all of us and transcends the form, but it needs to be realized. How can we get aware of the difference?

Two Wings are Needed if we Want to Fly

Do not engage yourself in the cultivation of or the promotion of wants and desires. That is a never ending process of sowing and reaping; you will never reach contentment and one desire when satisfied, will fan the thirst for ten more. Do not run after devious desires or crooked satisfactions. All roads leading to the realm of the senses are tortuous and blind, only the road that leads to the path of the Lord is straight. Cultivate righteousness in every action, that will reveal the Divine Self. Straightforwardness will enable you to overcome the three gunas (qualities). No single Guna should dominate; all must be tamed to fill the lake of bliss. It is your internal bliss that matters, not the external, the sensory, the objective and the worldly. If the inner poise or inner equilibrium is undisturbed by external ups and downs, that is a sure sign of spiritual success.

We have twenty quotes to contemplate in this months as it is the time before Baba left the body. That means I am quite busy and it is a very good exercise in sharing it with others we get aware of it. 
Just today he mentioned the two wings we need to fly or the two wheels we need to be able of pulling the cart.
Getting aware of it and contemplating the words of Baba is the other wing, all we do in the Sai centers is the wing of practice, people are singing a lot and like to sing and are great singers and other are doing practice in some service activities, but what I notice often is that something seems missing and it is that basic wisdom. To make it more clear that with contemplation we are not talking about the same wing as we do with practice, I put the picture, I have already in my blog. 

Thinking it over is a great exercise to get aware of it. When we listen to his words, it is about real and unreal, it is about right action and being aware of the difference between what is right and what is not right action and as he is telling us we have to overcome to three gunas, but that means with other words, we have to know the difference between them and that is already challenging our mind to know what is sathva, purity and what is rajas, passion and what is tamas, ignorance. 

Sathva is the path, rajas, passion we have to transform and tamas, inertia we have to give up. He is telling us they must be tamed to be in bliss, but without wisdom it is just impossible to tame the gunas, we need to know the difference between them to be able to tame them and that means we usually start to live a sathvic life style to get aware of it when it is not sathva, but something else. 

18 Service

Jeder muss den Geist des Opfers (thyaga) entwickeln. Du musst den Leuten mit deinem Körper dienen. Du musst gute und edle Gedanken in deinem Geist schätzen. Sie müssen Ihren Reichtum für die Unterstützung von Bildungs-und anderen Institutionen, um die Menschen zu helfen. Gib dem Verhungern Essen. Dies ist der Weg, um ein zielgerichtetes und erhabenes Leben zu führen. Das Leben ist dir gegeben worden, um dich nicht selbst zu fetten. Der Körper ist das Grundinstrument für die Praxis der Gerechtigkeit (Dharma). Dedicated Ihre gesamte Zeit zum Service und für die ordnungsgemäße Entlastung Ihrer Aufgaben. Gott allein kann deine spirituellen Anstrengungen in eine transzendentale Erfahrung verwandeln. Gott ist allgegenwärtig; Er ist überall und in dir. Du bist göttlich! Stellen Sie sicher, dass Ihre spirituellen Praktiken (Sadhana) nicht für irgendeinen egoistischen Grund sind. Es muss das Gute der anderen fördern. Selbstsucht aufgeben, selbstlose Liebe für andere kultivieren und dein Leben heiligen Dann wirst du Sakshatkara erleben, die Vision des Göttlichen aus dir.

18. Everyone must develop the spirit of sacrifice (thyaga). You must serve the people with your body. You have to cherish good and noble thoughts in your mind. You must use your wealth for supporting educational and other institutions to help the people. Give food to the starving. This is the way to lead a purposeful and sublime life. Life has been given to you not to become fat yourself. The body is the basic instrument for the practice of righteousness (Dharma). Dedicate your entire time to service and for the proper discharge of your duties. God alone can transform your spiritual efforts into a transcendental experience. God is omnipresent; He is everywhere and within you. You are Divine! Ensure your spiritual practices (Sadhana) are not for any selfish reason. It must promote the good of others. Giving up selfishness, cultivating selfless love for others, and sanctify your lives. Then you will experience Sakshatkara, the vision of the Divine from within you. 

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Right Action, Dharma, the Code of Conduct and the Ideal

Dharma (Righteousness) is the code of conduct that will promote the ideals of each stage of a per­son: student, householder, earner, master, servant, spiritual aspirant, ascetic (sanyasi), etc. When the code is distorted and mankind undermines its earthly career, forgetting the high purpose for which one has come, the Lord incarnates and leads people along the correct path. Lord Rama was one such incarnation. He truly is the Embodiment of Virtue (Dharma-swarupam) shrouded in an illusory human form; He stuck to dharma in daily practice, even from His infancy. He is the personification of dharma. There is no trace of vice (a-dharma) in Him. His Divine Nature is revealed in His calm temperament and feeling of love and affection. Meditate on Him and you are filled with love for all beings; dwell on His story and you find all the agitations of your minds quietening in perfect calm.

We can ask ourselves, what is our position in life? This question gets us to the basic question, ‘who am I?’

We have to live in the West and we don’t have usually a feeling about Dharma. It is a code of conduct, therefore, how are we going to benefit from it and how do we understand it? How do we get in the West a feeling about it? Swami talks about the Atma and as he said shortly, listening and contemplation is a spiritual discipline in three steps, first we need to listen, second we have to think it over and we usually have to somehow see it in our life to be able to absorb that means to understand it enough to be able to practice. If we just read, we are in the mind as it is only hearing it, when we think it over to be able to absorb, only then we are able to even get close to the reality of the Atma. Therefore, it is a spiritual discipline in three steps; we never get there if we are only hearing it.

Dharma (Righteousness) is the code of conduct that will promote the ideals of each stage   of a per­son: student, householder, earner, master, servant, spiritual aspirant, ascetic (sanyasi), etc.