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.
It is our duty to do it
right and that duty is depending to our state of life. If we are a householder and
we have a family our duty is with the family. If we are a student, our duty is
to be a good student, a duty means we have go to the end and do it right, we
have to take care of it that this task no matter what is a success for us and a
good experience. If we are in a job and an earner, it is as well our duty and
what is understood by that is that we make out of it a service to the divine.
We have usually not only one role to play, we are a householder and an earner,
we have to do both right. If we are a spiritual aspirant we also have to do it
right and serve the divine with doing our duty.
I went once on a
meditation course and I didn’t feel okay and I didn’t like it, but as I had
said A, I had to say B, the course lasted too long time, but I went on and finished
it anyhow. During that course the ‘air broke in pieces on a wonderful sunny
background’ and that didn’t feel right and at the same time I knew I would
never get an answer and understand that insight, we didn’t even know what to do
with insights and after the course I wondered, ‘what now?’ I intended to go on
as before just doing my best.
When listening to Swami
he is telling us, if we separate truth and right action, only pieces will be
left. Even if it was on that beautiful sunny background and nobody noticed it,
something had to be wrong if there were only pieces left and someone had
separated truth and right action. To just get that insight right was difficult,
as long as I didn’t listen to his words without thinking it over it didn’t get
clear, we hear a Swami speech and there is that much in it, we forget it again,
but when we think over the thought for the day and really thinking it over, we
have to reflect on it and see it in our own life, we do not forget it and that
is how we are able to absorb.
In the meantime I also
know that he is telling us, if we blend truth and right action, we will have
peace. These are human values and therefore, they are basics. It is not only
speaking the truth, it is a truth that doesn’t change, like duty is something
that is always the same in every task we have. No mention after that experience
I began to be careful when I said A and when I committed to a duty as it could
have such an effect on my life. And we get aware of it if we listen to his
words, but a Baba speech is too much information to absorb, but a thought for
the day is just okay as we have to see it in our own life.
It is about pure love,
if we want to make the experience of pure love, we need three things, we have
to understand peace, we have to accept truth and we have to accept right
action, only if we have those three things, truth, right action and peace, we
are able to make the experience of pure love and we will only understand it if
we think it over.
The understanding of
peace has to do with blending truth and right action. If we are able to accept
truth, in that sense it was when I said A, I had to tell B as well and that was
true, therefore, it was not possible to end it and to just get out of it and to
tell, I don’t like it, I have enough, but normally we would do that, but as it
was about right action, I went on and everything broke in pieces so there was
no truth and right action, it was not right, when it broke into pieces, the
question was where it was not right and it had to do with the leader. Nobody
noticed it and it felt like huge burden, it was really that bad, as there were
no answers, it was like no way out and such a tiredness was coming up that I
was scared to die from it and it was that overloading and tiring I was scared
to lose my mind, now that we not great experiences.
It is far better to
make the experience of pure love. To get the experience of pure love we need
three things, when it is about truth, it has to be an eternal, non-changing truth
and right action is the reflection of it and when we have those two and blend
it, there is the experience of peace. When only pieces are left, somewhere
right action and truth have been separated, that means someone who was
pretending to be true as in fact untrue and not doing the right thing. The fact
that I was living it as duty and I went on even if it didn’t feel okay, made us
aware that it was not right action on another level, it had to do with the
leader and the organization.
Therefore, we listen to
a spiritual master, we think it over to be able to absorb, when we know why
only pieces are left, we have absorbed it and we can live again in peace with
it. A conflict was created as there was no peace, because I went on that course
and in saying A I had to tell as well B I expected it to be the right thing to
do and it should have ended in peace, but when only pieces are left it is a
sign that truth and right action were separated but somewhere else and in that
moment it was annoying. I had no intention at all to change my life, but after
all, in the course of things I had to, because I had to get a right answer.
That is how I went to
India and I was convinced with Baba to get the answer, but I didn’t know how
and before we start to listen on those three levels, we don’t hear it, we have
to do it as a spiritual effort, we have to listen to think it over to be able
to absorb, if we just hear his speeches, it is not absorbed and it takes time,
we have to think it over again and again until it is absorbed. For some time we
thought it over in writing it down as it had to do with pure love, and we need
three things. I got the three things, but not in details the understanding how
we are getting there. There was not yet the insight that we have to accept
truth first, if there is truth, it is an unchanging truth, it is a principle,
if it can change it is not truth, it is an ideal, it is upholding the light and
then right action will be the reflection of it, thus we have to blend right
action and truth and the result will be peace. That is how the insight deepened.
He is telling us that we have to understand peace, and we are in a realm of all
possibilities, it is always possible that only pieces are left.
That is the first step,
we have to blend truth and right action and it depends to our role and state of
life and our duty is right action, Dharma and if everything works out fine, it
will result in peace, but when they are separated, only pieces will be left.
And he mentions the
example of Lord Rama as an incarnation of Dharma, right action. In that sense
he is an example for everybody how to live up to that duty of right action in
connection with truth, the eternal law.
Also in the West we can
understand that he is a great example and a great leader of humanity and that
people in taking an example on him will do the right thing and when we listen
to these words, we get the reflection of truth and that reflection helps us to
understand it, helps us to absorb it in our own life.
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.
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