Transformation of the Mind

Rama is the embodiment of Dharma (Righteousness), which is the basis for the entire Universe. However deep and great our scholastic eminence or wealth may be, this birth is of no use without the transformation of the mind. Merely repeating Rama's name is inadequate without realising the Rama Thathwa (Principle). A true human being is one who consistently practices the principle of dharma. Burning is the dharma of fire. Coolness is the dharma of ice. Fire is no fire without burning.

Similarly the dharma of man lies in performing actions with the body, following the commands of the heart, deeply rooted in Divine Love. Every act performed with thought, word, and deed in harmony is an act of dharma. From today, emulate Rama in your daily life and transform yourself by following the path of Love.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Rama stands here for the divine principle and our higher self and we have to transform the mind in the environment we live. How I grew up I always had difficulties to put that into practice. It was a battlefield, only nobody was aware of it.

Even if we don't know Rama, the divine principle is universal and therefore, we have to find it in our own field. We were meditating and repeating the name, but as it is said here it is not enough if we don't realize the principle behind.

 

However deep and great our scholastic eminence or wealth may be, this birth is of no use without the transformation of the mind.

Right Food and what about Manipulation?

I know how systematic you all are in eating and drinking. You take pretty good care of the body. I do not condemn it; I only want that you should take equally good care of the needs of the spirit also. Take a dose of Dhyanam (meditation) and Japam (repetition of holy Names) as the morning breakfast; Puja and Archana (prayer and worship) as lunch at noon; some Sathsang (holy company) or Sathchinthana (holy thoughts) or reading of holy books or Nama likhitha (writing of holy Names) as afternoon tea and snacks; an hour of bhajan as dinner; and a small ten-minute manana (reflection) as the cup of milk before going to bed. This diet is enough to keep your inner being happy and healthy. That is My advice to you today.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

At Baba's 61th birthday at night, I was meditating because it was his birthday and in that meditation he came and it was an inside interview. He opened the door to the interview room and there was a beautiful golden light. That is the kind of spiritual food for the soul we like.

And he asked, why I was so old and not married. And I didn't know, but he said I should not worry, he would take care of it.

I thought it was about marriage and not about getting aware why I was not married. I was not aware of what was missing or wrong. I meditated with TM, we just meditated and were not used to ask questions. Just meditate and all problems solved. And I believed in it as all others did. It was like taking only good food and everything will be good.

At the Beginning or at the End

We are not always in a position to see the wholeness that is behind the pictures in the form of the drama of creation.

We are the actors in this great field of activity called the cosmos. 'The whole world is a stage,' said Shakespeare, and we are all the people who are acting on this stage, but we are not always conscious that we are playing the drama.

This consciousness is wrested out of us by some unfortunate occurrence in us. Look at the fate of a person who is performing one role in a dramatic enactment. Suppose he forgets his relationship with the other performer. He behaves as if he is absolutely independent, and has no connection with the entirety of the play. He does not know that there is a direction of the play.

He does not know the intention behind the performance. He is acting absolutely independent, presenting an isolated picture. He would cut a sorry figure and spoil the whole game.

This we are doing every day.

We are disturbing the game of life, not knowing that we are items in the totality of the dramatic presentation in this grand enactment of the aims of life, of which the Supreme Being Himself is the director. His vision is the totality of the picture of the drama.

The Bhagavadgita takes up this point of view of the completeness that is behind this wonderful picture of creation; and a necessity that is to be there for recognising a harmony in the midst of forces which look like conflicting powers on account of their isolated individualities not related harmoniously one with the other. The difficulty is the excessive preponderance of one of the powers of Prakriti, at some time, on which we lean due to the force exerted upon us by one or the other of them.
We are in a field of the opposition of the forces, which work simultaneously in the universe outside and in the personality of ours inwardly.

Bhagavadgita

 

It is all about balancing those forces, that battlefield is on one side Rajas and on the other Tamas and Sathva is that which is balancing it. 

 

Suppose he forgets his relationship with the other performer. He behaves as if he is absolutely independent, and has no connection with the entirety of the play. He does not know that there is a direction of the play.

He does not know the intention behind the performance. He is acting absolutely independent, presenting an isolated picture. He would cut a sorry figure and spoil the whole game.

This we are doing every day.

The Answers, my Friend, are blown in the Wind

Even sincere seekers feel many a time, "What am I supposed to do after reaching God? I go on looking at Him for eternity, by eating nothing, sleeping nowhere, and having nothing to do. What a drab kind of life!"

Bhagavadgita  

 

That is why I question, what am I suppose to do after reaching him and after he said engaged? If that is only my mind, okay. Why not, it is my mind that means my mind forces me to think constantly about duty, reading the Bhagavadgita is great if we look at it out of our own situation and it seems somehow he created that situation and it is possible to see it as insider, we don't just read a book but we participate in that war.

Therefore, do I go on now for eternity by questioning and not getting the right answer and nothing to do but asking question?

It feels nearly the same, isn't it? Only in the Bhagavadgita we get some answers. 

This is also a very serious point that may arise even in the best of us, what to talk about novitiates, because the thing you call God is not so easy to understand. It is not supposed to be understood at all under the circumstances we are placed, rationally or psychologically.

Possession of the Object

Everyone has inside them a whole set of animals. You must suppress the tendencies of these animals and encourage the human qualities of love and friendship to shine forth. 

Begin the cultivation of virtues even when young, it is very important and more beneficial than book-learning. 

Treat everyone as your own people and even if you cannot do them any good, desist from causing any injury. 

Burn the lamp of love in the niche of your heart and the nocturnal birds of greed and envy will fly away, unable to bear the light. Love makes you humble, it makes you bend and bow when you see greatness and glory.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we would treat everyone like our own people, it would be like a family and in a family we all have our duty and what the Bhagavadgita tells us is that we have a duty in respect to that family, but we should not expect a result in return, but that family has somehow to take care of us, otherwise, it doesn't work.

That is what my ex did, even if he claimed to be a Baba devotee, he was thinking only about himself and how he could enjoy us and take advantage of it, but he didn't see his duty.

Battlefield and Impersonal Law

We always think in terms of human relationship. It is well-known that we argue in this manner.

This is the subject of the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita, where the whole social structure is taken as the stand for the argument in connection with any action to be taken under a particular situation, and taking Arjuna as the symbol of mankind, the epic of the Mahabharata in its gospel of the Bhagavadgita tells us how we think as individuals.

We are faced with a warring situation and our activities in daily life are our efforts to face the battle.

The work that we do in our office, the labour that we put forth in a factory, or any other work that we do in any walk of life, is the effort we put forth to resolve a conflict and solve a situation.
 

: Bhagavadgita - Battlefield
 

That is how we should look at the Bhagavadgita. The first chapter is about relationship and we all have those relationship issues.
If we see it in that light we find our personal story in it. And it explains why Baba asked in the interview, what is your relationship?

It is a main focus, a main issue.

If we read the Bhagavadgita without that inner connection, we just read it, but we will not be able to get the hidden meaning in it.  

And I guess we have here the answer about job and job issues, it is the battlefield, our battlefield and that does makes sense, doesn't it? It is not just about job, it is about hidden answers.

No Worry about Ups and Downs or Ridicule

First, have unshakable faith that can stand the ridicule of the ignorant, worldly and the low-minded. When someone ridicules you, reflect within yourself - Are they ridiculing my body or soul? 

If they are ridiculing my body, they are helping me develop detachment! Ridiculing the soul is impossible, for, the Atma is beyond praise or blame, words or thoughts. 

Then repeat to yourself, "I am the Eternal Self, Pure and Immovable (Nirmala, Nischala) and so I must transcend this feeling." 

Secondly, do not worry about ups and downs, loss or gain, joy or grief. You are the creator of your own destiny. You crave for something - when you get it, you feel joyful! If you don't get it, you are in despair. Cut the craving off, and there will be no more swings between joy and grief. Finally, be convinced in the Omnipresence of Divinity.
Baba (thought for the day)

In the case with TM it was not that easy, because we didn't know what we dealt with. 

Even if we know that we are not the body and not the mind and they cannot ridicule us, if we don't understand the source, we don't know what we are dealt with. 

Even if it helps to develop detachment, if we don't know the source, we cannot understand it and therefore, we first have to know and bring up the source of the problem. It means I left TM in 86 and somehow it was still a problem and I wondered always why. It was a problem because it was not understood, it was not seen, it was hidden and we didn't know why. 

What happens if we don't understand it? We cannot fight it. They claim to be invincible because nobody can understand it.

And I didn't know to whom I belonged and that was rooted in the TM movement, but of course, not aware of it. 

It means if we don't know the source, we cannot understand it. 

Pyramid; hidden Power vs. God for all the same

The way in which we visualise any particular thing is the outlook we entertain in respect of that thing. Usually, we do not have a comprehensive idea of anything in this world.

When we gaze at an object or think of any particular thing, we regard it with some sort of blinkers limiting our vision of that object, whereby we ignore certain other aspects which also go to constitute its existence.

A mother will look upon her child in a particular manner though that child may be the king of a country. To the mother, the son is not merely a king, there is also some personal relationship there. To a client, a judge in a court is a particular thing, and he is not merely one among the many other human beings.

The relationship between the customer and the dealer, and various other kinds of relationship in terms of which we visualise objects, are examples of the conditioning factors in our knowledge.

This limitation that is automatically imposed upon the manner of knowing anything gets transferred also to our idea of God, the Absolute, Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, so that it is not infrequently that we look upon God as a father, a mother, a creator, a preserver, a destroyer, a loving friend, a merciful companion, the liberator, and so on.

But God can really be none of these, though he is also, no doubt, the all, everyone and everything. The universe of external experience does not stand outside the existence of God. This world of our experience does not exhaust the being of God. The world cannot contain the whole of God within itself, because it is an effect, and He is the Cause. At the same time, it cannot exist outside Him, for it is inseparably related to Him.

 

: Bhagavadgita

 

Now we get closer to the questions Baba had asked. The question is to whom we belong to be able to perform our duty and to bring work and duty together. Therefore, if we are still in an old relationship to another movement or master, it is not ended, it has to be ended first that we can start new again, otherwise, it is not possible. And it was all hidden, secret, therefore, not really possible to end it.

Our own Self - Adhyatma

Our own self is the adhyatma, the deepest self in us, which, again, is inseparable, ultimately, from the Godhead. It is the essential essence of which everyone is constituted — you, and I, and everybody, and everything.

As every little ripple or wave in the ocean is nothing but the vast ocean, the secret hidden at the recess of every individual occasion is the adhyatma, the Atman, the self in us, which is incapable of further reduction, beyond which one cannot go, and beneath which there is nothing. The deepest and bottom-most being of our personality is what is called the Atman.

 

:Bhagavadgita

 

Nothing exists beyond the higher self or as he calls it here the deepest self in us, the essence of which everyone is constituted, you and I. That is the essence of 'I am that'.

To recognize the Adhyatma our deepest self is not yet on the level of knowing that it is also the essence of the ocean, it needs some time and reflection and realization to get there. It has to be insight to become the ocean. The deepest self is first seen as ripple and it is a matter of realization to get aware that it is part of the vast ocean and the secret hidden behind is that it is everything and not different from the universal Atman.

Sadhana - the most Essential Practice

When you come out of the examination hall, you know whether you will pass or fail, for you can yourself judge how well you have answered – is it not? So too, in your daily life, each of you can judge and ascertain the success or failure of your Sadhana (Spiritual Effort).

Sadhana is the most essential practice for you. No age is too early for this. Just as you tend the body with food and drink at regular intervals, you must also tend to the needs of the inner Soul by regular japam and dhyanam (contemplation and meditation) and the cultivation of virtues. Holy Company, Good Attitude and Sacred Thoughts are all very essential for the growth and the health of your inner personality. Your body is the mansion (Bhavanam) of the Lord of the Universe (Bhuvaneshwara).

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Meditation is the way to go beyond the mind and be in touch with our higher self, and that was always my aim and if we don't meditate, we are only in the mind and cannot get out of it and don't learn to discriminate. How can we discriminate if we don't have the experience of it?

There are enough reasons to go for it. It seems also important to know that our soul can only be fed with food that is permanent and real. It means if we try to be happy on the relative level, we look for it on the wrong place. The hunger of the soul cannot be appeased on that level, but that always happens that we look for it on the wrong level and that is called Maya, illusion. 
That is another reason why we should meditate. It has to be permantely present, otherwise, it is not real. And we find it in the the relationship to divinity, that is always good and non-changing in its nature, and only on that level we find real human values.

Faith can affect Inanimate Objects

A few elders in Brindavan who revelled in scandalizing Krishna set an ordeal for Radha to test her virtue. Radha was asked to fetch water in a pot from Yamuna to home. Radha, with full faith in Krishna, was immersed in the consciousness of the Lord, that she never bothered to know the condition of the pot. The mud pot she was given had a hundred holes. She immersed it in the river, repeating the name of Krishna as usual, with every intake of the breath and every exhalation. Every time the name Krishna was uttered, a hole was covered, so that by the time the pot was full, it was whole! That was the measure of her faith. Faith can affect even inanimate objects.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How would it be for us to be in such a situation? Imagine you are sent to get some water and the pot has holes. What would we think? What would be our conclusion? Would we think that the pot is just not okay or would we realize that behind are some people who want to test our virtue?

It is a difference if we just have a broken pot in our hands or if that pot was broken in purpose to test our virtue, could be something else being destroyed to test our virtue, couldn't it?

Radha was always repeating the name of Krishna.

Succeed the Trumoil of Life

Learn when you are young how to succeed in the turmoil of life, how to live without causing pain to others and suffering pain yourself. Everyone should cooperate and work with love and devotion. Tolerate all kinds of persons and opinions, all attitudes and peculiarities.

Difference of opinion amongst people must be perceived and resolved like the two eyes, each giving a different picture of the same object; both of which when co-ordinated, gives a complete rounded picture. Examine everything you hear, and believe only what appeals to you as correct.

Baba

  

Trying to find myself in that turmoil of life, I guess that is not that easy and it seems it has a lot to do with self-contempt. You asked me if it was done, I guess it is not. Maybe in the sense that something got clear, but that is only part of it. It seems to arrange you if it is done, whatever reason, for you it is done.
And every time when I watch that film it reminds me at my own life, in the beginning I couldn't catch the meaning at all. What is worse than rape - betrayal (the General's daughter).
The spiritual path learns to accept turmoil in life and to live with it and to learn to see it right to get to the right conclusion.

The Law of Karma and Rebirth

 Your birth is determined. The length of your life is determined. What you will get in your life, your enjoyment, the miseries, are also determined. Why is someone born in Ethiopia and someone else born in Switzerland? Is there any explanation?

Patanjali has. He gives an insight into it. This is the usual question asked, "Why so and so is born there and so and so is born somewhere else? Why so and so is miserable? Why so and so has so much suffering?" This is a big question. No logic can give you any understanding or explanation.

 

This is a comment on the Patanjali sutras, the texts are real good. It helps not only to understand the sutra, but also the teaching in general. Patanjali is the father of yoga and his sutras are famous, but here it is not about powers and miracles, but about birth and death and how we should really see it.  

The higher Self Reflected in every Object

The Lord is the Immanent Power in everything; those who refuse to believe that the image in the mirror (the world) is a reflection of themselves, how can they believe in the Lord, when He is reflected in every object around them?

The moon is reflected in a pot, provided it has water. So too, the Lord can be clearly seen in your heart, provided, you have the water of Love inside it. When the Lord is not reflected in your heart, you cannot say that there is no Lord. It only means that there is no Love within you.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

His beauty is incredible. He is that beautiful, there is nothing else that matters and if we don't have already the experience of our true self, our true nature, we should observe and wait and want nothing else but 'that' until we get that experience, and we will get if, because if we don't want anything else but that, no other desires, he has to react and be there on a certain point.

It needs patience and perseverance, the two guardians of the Lord. Baba tells if we want to see a VIP, the Lord, we have to be able to pass those two guardians.   

It is about experience, the higher self can only be experienced in the reflection of that reality, in fact, it reflects in itself.

Difference between Good and Pleasant

Yet there is something that is finally good, which is the good of the soul of an individual. That which is permanent can be regarded as good. As things in the world are transient and passing, they cannot also be regarded as finally good. We also pass away, as far as our body is concerned, but the soul will not pass away. Therefore, that which is commensurate with the needs of the soul of a person may be regarded as really good.

And, there is nothing in this world which can feed our soul. The world can feed our sensations: our mind, intellect and ego can be fed by the diet of this world, but the soul is suffering.

Our soul is hungry; its appetite cannot be properly met by anything in this world, because the impermanent cannot satisfy that which is permanent. 

"The permanent cannot be attained through that which is impermanent." The impermanent cannot satisfy what is permanent – that is, that which is relatively good cannot be set in tune with the soul, which is the ultimate good.

 

Katha Upanishad

 

In the Katha Upanishad we find the famous talk between Yama the Lord of Death and Nachiketas. He grants the boy three boons and the last one he wants to know what happens to the soul after death.

And finally he explains the difference between what seems pleasant to us and changes in time and what is good always.
And truth has only to do with things which cannot be changed, therefore, what seems pleasant one time, is not in another state of life and it cannot be true.

But what is good, is really always the same and good in the real sense of the word.

 

That which is permanent can be regarded as good.

 

And after Baba had made that Lila and he was inside and said, 'I am hungry and you?'

In this Upanishad he tells why he said that, because the soul is hungry. Of course, he made me get aware with that question that I am not hungry for food or drink, or anything like that, but it is the hunger of the soul starving in that sense already for a long time. 

 

Our soul is hungry; its appetite cannot be properly met by anything in this world, because the impermanent cannot satisfy that which is permanent.

Twist of Fate and knowing your own Self

It is not easy to know your own Self.
Take the case of the food that you eat. You feel its presence as long as it is in your stomach, but do not know what happens in the stages after that, unless you study in depth about your human body. How then can you know, without effort, the Truth that lies behind the sheaths that encase and enclose you.
You must clear the intellect of the cobwebs of the ego, the dust of desire, and the soot of greed and envy, then it becomes a fit instrument for revealing the Inner Truth.

The Scriptures exhort you to know your Self, know your Inner Motivator (the Antharyami)! For, unless you are armed with that knowledge, you are like a ship sailing without a compass in a stormy sea!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

The Antharyami, the inner motivator, is just what I read about it in the Upanishads the last few days translated by Swami Krishnanada. It was about that first 'mantra' he said if we don't understand it, we don't understand the rest too.

But the Upanishads is really in detail looking at the human and its relationship with the universe and it is great, but it is an illusion to think that we just can tell people to 'live in love' and they will understand it. It is not only in love, but about love, anyhow, that can be understood wrong, because it is love as truth, not only a feeling, but if we live truth, the result is love.

Insight derived from the Inner Vision

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and fail miserably. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief.
If you look upon the world and all its created objects with the insight derived from the inner vision, the attachment will fade away; you will see everything much clearer, with the Divine glory suffused in its Splendor.
Close your external eyes and open your inner eyes – see what a beautiful grand vision emerges from within you, as you go through your daily life. Attachment to the world has limits, but the attachment to the Lord that you develop when your inner eye opens has no limit. Enjoy that Reality, not this false picture from your external eyes.
Baba (thought for the day)

There is a difference between the subjective and the objective world.
Even if we see everything as God as the first mantra of the Upanishads tells, there is subjective experience and knowledge and an objective world and a gap in between. How can we experience that subjectivity to know the difference?
Everything conceptual is on the objective world level. That what cannot be conceptualized is on the subjective level, therefore, it can only be experienced. But we can experience it as reflection.
Atman reflects, reacts and resounds. (Baba)

Who understands the Understanding?

There is no use understanding things," says the Kaushitaki Upanishad. "There is no use knowing what you are understanding. You must know the Understanding itself."

Understand the understander, which is more beneficial to you than to know what is being understood by the understanding as an external object.

Now I understand that there is a tree in front of me; I can see it. But, that is not enough for me; I must know how it is that the understanding is able to understand that there is a tree in front of me. Who understands the understanding?

 

: Upanishads

 

In my first Baba interview he said that is very difficult to understand, but I didn't think it would be that difficult. It is beyond imagination that difficult.  

I mentioned that my friend (boyfriend) was with Maharishi and I was with him (Baba) and as I still called him my friend, I hoped Baba would help me to see it right and not upside down and afterwards I wanted to go back to where I actually came from.
That so called friend of mine, whatever he did, but it ended in seeing the master as a criminal and I tried to do it right and better.

Temptation to ignore Dharma

The temptation to ignore Dharma grows from egoism and the acceptance of false values.

The wish to satisfy the lower desire is the root of adharma (unrighteousness).

This wish takes hold of you slyly, pretending to be a comrade come to save you, or like a servant come to attend on you, or like a counsellor come to warn you. Wickedness has a thousand tricks to capture your heart.

You must be ever alert against the temptation; you often remind others of Dharma when you desire to squeeze some advantage from them.

You must remember not only the rights that Dharma confers but also the duties it imposes.
Baba (thought for the day)

 

The higher self, the reflection of it, had nothing to do with Dharma that came only later on, but it had to do with self-respect and therefore, there was no difference to Dharma. It went into the right direction anyhow.

Years later I went to Baba to get knowledge about that reflection and to understand it right, because there were wrong conclusions and he helped to see it in the right light.
It was not about being on guard of false values, not be able to trust anyone anymore and to live in love anyhow, that was kind of difficult to get it together anyhow.

Desire for the Self is Freedom of Desires

The Upaniṣhad wants also to tell us what happens in the state of liberation, together with its explanation of the state of deep sleep, so that we are given two informations at the same time. In the state of liberation, all desires are fulfilled. You have no desires left afterwards because of the fact that there is only one desire there — the desire for the Self. It is actually not desire for the Self even, because there is no such thing as 'for' or 'of' there in the state of liberation, due to the universality of that experience.

It is A-kāmaṁ. It is not merely Ātmā-kāmaṁ, but actually Akāmaṁ. The desire for the Self is identical with absence of all desires. That Self which we are speaking of in the state of liberation is not an individual self, and so the desire we speak of is not desire of an individual self, but desire of the Universal Self. 'Desire' of the Universal Self is a selfcontradictory term. It cannot be there; therefore it is Akāmaṁ. It is freedom from all desires, and Śokāntaram — freedom from all sorrow.

 

: Upanishad - Swami Krishnananda

 

The higher self when reflected in the dream is very special. It feels like all we want, we ever could be able to want, therefore, it includes everything, but at that same time excluds everything.

 

The desire for the Self is identical with absence of all desires.

 

And why if there are no desires we get that troubled by other minds? Because it is part of our mind. Maybe it is because we have to work out the Karma in the background.

Psychic and Dreams

The bodies of the objects, higher and lower, seen in dream are created out of the substance of the mind alone. Even if a hard brick wall or an object of granite that you see in dream is made up of your own mind.

The mind is regarded, generally, as ethereal and non-physical. How is it then that you see 'physical' objects in dream when they are manufactured out of mind alone?

You can hit your head against a dream wall; you can break your nose in the dream if you fall on a granite stone. How is it possible if it is psychic only?

So, the distinction between matter and psyche is ultimately not sustainable on a generalisation of principle.

You do not know what really it is. In this state it, the mind here called a Devata, manufactures various forms and enjoys its objects of sense, laughs, dances, and sometimes cries. 

What we observe is the activity of the mind, but what is behind the mind, nobody can see. The director of the Drama is always invisible. You see only the dramatic performance. There is some secret operating force which seems to be behind the activities of the mind. That is never observed by anyone. You enjoy the pleasures of dream and suffer the sorrows of dream, but you cannot see what is the cause of the dream itself. The mind cannot go back behind itself or climb on its own shoulders, so to say. It can only project itself outwardly in space and time, even in dream, as it does in waking.

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

 

It tells me that my dreams, Baba or not, are in the essence psychic, it means in the dream the desires get fulfilled.

When my ex had a dream and Baba said to him that he lived a dream and that was his problem not Baba's, he said that he needed a Psychic and that he will give.

I never knew what was meant with psychic, because there was no level of awareness and such a disturbance level of not being able to change or look at things a real way, between him an me, it was not possible to get aware of anything, but that it got worse and worse and that we had to stop that downward direction some way or other, before someone would get killed or would be destroyed otherwise.  

This text in the Upanishad is more or less the confirmation of it.

It means in other words, he didn't get the wife as in his dream, but he got the psychic and that was also Baba's Lila, because that is what he needed.

The Heart and Stability

The heart that you are thinking of in your mind as a symbol of meditation is the outer form.

The inner essence is different. The heart is controlled by the unmanifested ether. The unmanifested ether, identifiable with Īshvara or Hiraṇyagarbha or, you may even say, Pṛakriti, the cosmic substance in which everything is woven like warp and woof, in whose bosom you can find the seeds of all later manifestations, that is the abode (Āyatanam), and it is the support.

This has to be contemplated as stability.

Its deity is Brahma, the Supreme Being Himself. The heart is to be contemplated upon as stability, because where the heart is not, stability also is not."

Where your feeling is, there your personality is fixed. This is a matter which does not require much explanation, because you know very well that where the heart is present, there your total being is present, because your heart and your being are identical, by which what we mean is that your personality is identical with your deepest feelings. Feeling is deeper than the other faculties of the psychological organ. Inasmuch as its presence is equivalent to the stability of the personality, he points out that the heart may be contemplated upon as stability. So, Brahma is the deity; Hridaye, or the heart, as we think of it, is the form; Ākāśa, or the cosmic ether is the abode; and stability is its support.

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

Amazing wisdom we find in the Upanishads. 

Meditation on the heart alone is like meditation on the outer form and that is different from the inner essence.

The heart has to be contemplated as stability, where stability is not, the heart is not.

The criterium of meditation is infinite stability and infinite flexibility. In stability is as well safety and in flexibility is freedom.

Now, the Reflection and topsy-turvy

"I know what it is. It is that what you see in a reflection."
Now, this is a difficult passage to understand.
What is it that you see in a reflection? You see things topsy-turvy. You do not see things properly. Suppose you see your face in a mirror, you see something wrong there. Your right ear looks like the left ear and the left ear looks like the right ear. There is a complete reversal of the original in the reflection. Now, in this Ādarśa; Puruṣha, or the reflected being, there is no reality inasmuch as there is a complete topsy-turvy perception, and therefore you cannot say it is connected, really, with the original.

This happens in our daily perceptions with the objects. We do not see things in their original capacity. When you see an object outside, you do not see it in its original form. The archetype of the object is not visible. The archetype, as the philosopher Plato would tell you, is in the heaven. It is not here in the physical world. What you see is only a shadow that is cast by the original.

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

I went to Baba because I couldn't understand the reflection. It was reflection which had to do with the hidden TM reality, everything was secret and therefore, we had no prove for it. Everything was just based on blieving it and not in knowing. All scientific research which lead People in the West into the wrong feeling that it was proven and scientific, was just like a make-up reality deceiving the mind, because it had always to do with the fact that the absolute reality was real and not the relative, but it never went into the matter of background and reflection of truth at all. For that the source had to be known and that source is in the higher self.

The Lord knows Best

Forgetting the primary goal of life, man wastes his time. Time is precious.

Death is dangling its sword over every head. Our life span is fast diminishing, like water leaking through a broken pot or a melting block of ice.

Death overtakes man even before he realizes his mission in life. 

When we want to go to a cinema, or for an evening walk, we get ready by putting on our shoes. When we want to visit a nearby town, we pack our clothes in a bag. But what preparations do you make for the ultimate journey, the voyage of death?

All are beggars at the gate of God.

The hero is he who does not beg or cringe or flatter or fawn. He knows that the Lord knows best.

Baba 

What is the primary goal of life? 

I would say it is self-realization and he doesn't tell it here, he just tells us to not waste time. 

If time is that precious and we don't know the primary goal of life, what happens if we think we know and we still don't know? 

We waste not only life, but we get stuck and are on the wrong path. 

To know that death is dangling its sword over our head and we don't know exactly how to take care of that primary goal of life, that doesn't feel too good, doesn't it? How to understand it right?

The Secret of Peace

While studying other things, you should learn the secret of shanti (peace) also. 

This opportunity should not be missed, for that is the wisdom which will save you. For without Peace, life is a nightmare. 

The present system of education aims at making you breadwinners and citizens, but it does not give you the secret of a happy life; namely discrimination between the unreal and the real, which is the genuine training you need. 

The cultivation of viveka (discrimination) is the chief aim of education; the promotion of virtuous habits and the strengthening of Dharma (righteousness) - these are to be attended to; not the acquisition of polish or gentlemanliness, or collection of general information and the practice of common skills.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Shanti (peace) in every day life seems to me like a dream. I tried to realize that dream when I met someone in the ashram and I thought he would have the same ideal. That seemed the opportunity we should not miss in being devotees, I thought, but I guess, it was wrong. It was not only not right, he took advantage of it. 

Meditation and the Mirror of the Self

 

Why Meditation? Japam is the whispered repetition of the mantra with a japa mala and Dhyanam is the mental repetition, we don't even move the tongue. We began first with japam and later with dhyanam. I preferred mental repetition because it was a deeper meditation. Meditation is about self-realization and the self is mirrored in a relationship, it cannot be only technique. We tend to forget in the West that inner divinity and the higher self are not different, it is the same. If we don't have a relationship with the divine, we will also have no relationship to the higher self and if that is lost, we cannot possibly get aware of whom we are and we we got into professional role plays like the meditation teacher. As I was always looking for the higher self and we don't know the difference from a right and a not right path, we just went into meditation.

Know the Truth

There is no use arguing and quarrelling amongst you.

Examine, experience and then you will know the truth. Be silent when you are still undecided or engaged in evaluating. Do not proclaim before you are convinced.

Of course, you must discard all evil in you before you can attempt to evaluate the mystery.

When faith dawns, it is very important to fence it with discipline and self-control. Just as the tender sapling is guarded with a fence to protect against the goats and cattle; you too should stay away from the motley crowd of cynics and unbelievers.

When your faith grows into a big tree, those very cattle which wanted to eat the young plant now lay and rest in the shade of the tree which has spread with lots of branches and leaves.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Do you know what he is talking about?

 

Examine, experience and then you will know truth.

 

Truth seen inside and what we think is true outside are two different things, but in reality there is only one truth, the outer is just appearance and therefore, it is not true.

What looks outside as evil and what it looks like inside, that is not the same and therefore, I guess we have to evaluate the mystery.

But someone who is not looking for truth has no idea about what Baba is talking about here.

Creeping at Tortoise Pace

Life is short, time is fleeting: your spiritual practice (sadhana) is creeping at tortoise pace.

When will you decide to proceed a little faster? Your sadhana is like the answers you write at the examination. If you get only five or six marks, the examiner will strike out even that, saying, "What is the use of these few marks: it will take this student neither here nor there."

If you get somewhere near the passing marks, then Grace will give you just a little more so that you may pass, provided you have been a diligent and well-behaved student. Engage yourselves in good deeds, good company and good thoughts. Fix your attention on the goal.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

The root chakra is the tortoise and it is about pace and it seems saftety and home. I guess Baba asks us here to go a bit faster or to progress to the next chakra level.

I had a picture of my mother who died in my dream not long ago, today is her birthday. She was very, very old in that dream and it was only body level, kind of funny, it lead to laughing in the dream.

On that spiritual path our life becomes a reflection of reality, life is the best teacher. Therefore, if something goes wrong, it seems to reflect even years later bringing up that reality that life is the best teacher.

That is why I tried to get out of it, but there is no way I guess we get out, there is only a way to live in it and to make the best out of it.

When it is about sadhana Baba said every mantra is okay, if Sadhana is with a mantra. If we think Soham (I am that), we get aware that there is only one 'I' and that is an universal principle, but also every 'body' has an 'I', and we are identified with it.

On this path we get aware that we are not the body, but that universal 'I'. It is pure intelligence.

Blurred through Exhaustion

Pay attention to your physical health. Satisfy the demands of Nature. Otherwise your head would reel and your eyes might get blurred through exhaustion. The car must be given the fuel it needs, is it not?

Maintain your body well as an instrument for a higher purpose. How can the thoughts of the Lord be stabilized in a weak frame? A road roller is fed with oil, coal and other types of fuel. But why is it fed and well-maintained? In order to lay and mend the road, is it not?

So too be careful not to forget the purpose of this body, even as you tend to it. Never forget that you have been gifted this body, so you might realize the Lord and end the cycle of birth and death.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Actually, my eyes feel quite often blurred, but sometimes it just needs some more time to get there.

I went always in direction of the higher self and there was a time it was projected, because I thought they had the same purpose and they looked like 'that'.

The Skill of Balancing vs. Perpetuum Mobile

When you learn to ride a bicycle, you do not get the skill of balancing immediately. You push the cycle along to a safe and open ground, hop and skip, leaning now and then on one side and another, and make many an attempt to get the balance. Once you get the skill, you never even think or worry about balancing. You automatically make the necessary adjustments. You can now ride through narrow streets and lanes, and even through crowded alleys – you no longer need the large, safe, open ground!

So too, practice alone will equip you with deep concentration, that will sustain you even in your most difficult situation. Hence, do not get discouraged that you are not able to concentrate on prayer or meditation for long. It is just the start!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

If we need answers, for whatever reason, we don't question if we like it.

The question is how to look at it and the joy in it is to know it. It is that kind of skill and inside balancing the mind into a state of no question.

TM is a perpetuum mobile based on illusion. The source gets lost by just mechanical repetition of the mantra and by meditating they think it solves all problems but it is just making the source get lost and because they give up searching and they cannot find it, everything secret, they go on meditating and cutting of the source.

It is based on deception, a perpetuum mobile, either no problems or all problems, whatever.

A never ending Story

Repetition of God's Name (japam) and meditation (dhyana) are the means by which you can accelerate the concretisation of Divine Grace, in the Name and Form you yearn for. The Lord has to and will assume the Form you chose, the Name you fancy and the way you want Him to be. Therefore do not change the Name and Form you adore mid-way; but select and stick to the One that pleases you most, whatever the difficulty you encounter or however long it takes! All agitations must cease one day, is it not? The dhyana of the Form and the japam of the Name - that is the only means for this task.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we are focused on the higher self, it can have any name and any form. I began with TM to get into regular meditation and had no idea in what I went into.  

After I began with TM to get inside, we meditated a lot and liked it.
And in the mean time I even like to remember again that time again and it is not anymore connected with people involved, but only with the self-experience. It had been really something...

We used that mantra for already lots of time and it was not possible to  change it. The mantra is in connection with the higher self, therefore, we should not change mantras, but sometimes I just tried Soham and meditated with it.
Do you know what?
What I write down here is the reflection of no problem of TM. I try here to explain what happened and it works, today I am able to explain it... , but it still sounds as it does, like a never ending problem, a never ending story.
It is the reflection of no-problem, just meditate. Even today I get tired in reading and even more so writing about it ..., because it never ends.
Instead of no problem it is a never ending problem.

The right Compass and the Track

The mariner uses his compass to guide him aright amidst the dark storm clouds and raging waves.

When a person is overwhelmed by the dark clouds of despair and the raging confusion of irrepressible desires, he too, has a compass which will point to him the direction he has to take.

That compass is a society that is dedicated to the propagation of spiritual discipline.

So long as man is attracted by outer nature, he cannot escape the blows of joy and grief, of profit and loss, of happiness and misery. But, if he is attracted by the Glory of God within him as well as within Nature, he can be above and beyond these dualities and in perfect peace.

Baba (thought for the day)
 

After an experience of self-realization during writing a diary it felt like it would be going always in that direction. That was the compass, but one day it was gone. No way it seemed to be possible to be recalled or remembered. 
It kind of resembled the dark clouds and raging waves, no answer and no indication where to go, just that compass, a feeling of self-realization, but the source of it unknown. When we began to look for it it felt like following a track. 

About everything we tried and with always the same response, 'not that'. It was kind of a selection, afterwards we knew, no use, it will not work. There was no use to search for it and I decided to wait and watch.

Love transcends the ego

If there is a boil on the body, we put some ointment on it and cover it with a bandage until the whole wound heals. If you do not apply the ointment and tie a bandage around this boil, it is likely to become septic and can cause greater harm later on. Now and then we will have to clean it with water, apply the ointment again and put on a new bandage.

In the same way, in our life, there is this boil which has come up in our body in the form of 'I, I, I..'. If you want to really cure this boil, you will have to wash it every day with the waters of love, apply the ointment of faith on it and tie the bandage of humility around it.

The bandage of humility, the ointment of faith, and the waters of love will cure the disease that has erupted with this boil of 'I.'

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How to get rid of body consciousness?

During the time as meditation teacher when people came into the door we asked them to sit down and meditate and we didn't allow them to talk or socialize. If we wouldn't have done that, there were some they just wanted to talk and empty their mind and that would have destroyed the energy. 

All those problems in our mind come up in the body with the I, it is based on body identification and if we want to cure it, we wash it with the waters of love, because pure love transcends the ego.

Faith gives us the strength to trust into a higher level of energy which will solve all problems.   

And humility is the trust that he will take care of it.

It is the same, there is only one difference and it was in the source. 

If we know the source, we can understand it and if we don't know the source, we think we do understand it, but we cannot understand it.

The boil Baba talks here about it is body consciousness and on the level of the 'I am that', the universal 'I' it is a principle.

If we just meditate and are not aware of divinity and the universal 'I' we can get lost in it and the source gets lost. If the source is kept secret it is quite the same, it cannot be understood.

I liked the example of churning the milk in the process of identifying the butter. 

To identify the butter is getting aware of the source and realizing the 'I am that'.

The Screen, the Watcher and the Lesson

Consider the example of a cinema; on the screen we see rivers in flood, engulfing all the surrounding land.

Even though the scene is filled with flood waters the screen does not get wet by even a drop of water.

At another time, on the same screen we see volcanoes erupting with flame, but the screen is not burnt. The screen which provides the basis for all these pictures is not affected by any of them.

Likewise in the life of man, good or bad, joy or sorrow, birth or death, will be coming and going, but they do not affect the Soul (Atma). In the cinema of life, the screen is the Soul (Atma). It is Shiva, it is Shankara, it is Divinity.

When one understands this principle, one will be able to understand, enjoy and find fulfilment in life.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Look at the pictures, the movie of our life and get aware that it is just a passing by scene. But how do we get able to do that if we are involved in the passing scenes?  

When I went to TM and began to meditate regularly it was a great feeling because we meditated a lot. By that meditation the insight became more clear. It was already there before, but not that clear.

There was a beautiful melody out of the heart of all hearts and it was just love and it was projected into another TM teacher, who was the course leader. By that projection I thought it was the answer to my problems and that TM was the right path. But it was projection and later I realized, I didn't learn anything about projection.

Stuck with wrong Beliefs

The world is building itself upon the sandy foundation of the sensory world.

Like the monkey which could not pull its hand out of the narrow necked pot, because it first held in its grasp a handful of groundnuts which the pot contained, people are suffering today.

They are unwilling to release their hold on the handful of pleasurable things they have grasped from the world. When people do not place faith in the Self, but pursue their senses alone, the danger signal is up!

People are stuck with the wrong belief that the accumulation of material possessions will endow them with joy and peace. Divine Love alone can give you everlasting joy. Divine Love alone will remove anger, envy and hatred.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

That is why I follow his inner Lila, hoping that the hand will not get stuck in the narrow necked pot, we have to be able of letting go the groundnuts the pot is containing.

We have to get detached to be able to let go. To whatever we are holding on it will be a reason that the hand cannot get out of the pot.

The inner Voice

You need not even read the Gita or the Upanishads.

You will hear a Gita specially designed for you if you call upon the Lord in your own heart. He is there, installed as your own Charioteer. Ask Him and He will answer.

Have the Form of the Lord before you when you sit quietly in a place for meditation and have His Name - that is, any Name when you do japam (repetition of the divine Name).

If you do japam, without a Form before you, who is to give the answer? You cannot be talking all the time to yourself. The Form of the Lord you are calling will hear and respond to you. All agitations must cease one day, is it not? Meditation of the Form of the Lord and repetition of His Name are the only means for your mental agitations to cease.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

We should just be aware of what kind that inner Gita will be, we don't read it in letters, but in inner pictures and we have to understand it.

Therefore, it is best to write it down to be able to get a glimps of it. Afterwards we can see the reflection coming back. That is actually what happens here in my blog, when I write down stories and dreams and insights it looks all differently than it had been before and that is my inner Gita. 

The inner Gita is our own story and our own Charioteer is the inner master and not what we would like it to be, but what it really is. Yes, he definitly will answer inside, he really does.

And it is a great inspiration.

How my Divine Life began ...

It is the Divine that inspires, activates, leads and fulfils the life of every being, however simple or complex it may be! From the atom to the Universe, every single being is flowing fast to merge in the sea of bliss.

Never forget that every one of you is Sath-Chith-Ananda Swarupa (Embodiments of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) – only you are unaware of it and imagine yourself to be bound to this form and its limitations!

This is the myth that should be exploded, so that your Divine Life may begin. Leading a Divine Life consists of practising Truth, Love and Non-injury (Sathya, Prema and Ahimsa).

Since all are parts of the same Divine Self, all should be loved as oneself, without fear and falsehood. When all are one, why should we injure another one, who is part of the same Divine Being?

Baba (thought for the day)

 

I had been with TM. I came back from Paris and our national leader who was in the same age had lost his lady on a mother divine course. He was not really the type of man I liked, but after the teacher's training he was on the phone and said that the Maharishi asked me to look for a hotel for him.

I thought he wanted to keep me occupied, as I didn't know the background of his private life. I thought it was a good way to learn more about TM, to deepen the experience. As it seems that guy noticed I came from Paris, didn't know the movement. He was one of those rare persons who had a direct relationship with the Maharishi. In that sense it was attractive and interesting.

Idiocracy vs. Mission

Forgetting the primary goal of life, man wastes his time. Time is precious.

Death is dangling its sword over every head. Our life span is fast diminishing, like water leaking through a broken pot or a melting block of ice.

Death overtakes man even before he realizes his mission in life. 

When we want to go to a cinema, or for an evening walk, we get ready by putting on our shoes. When we want to visit a nearby town, we pack our clothes in a bag. But what preparations do you make for the ultimate journey, the voyage of death?

All are beggars at the gate of God. The hero is he who does not beg or cringe or flatter or fawn. He knows that the Lord knows best.

Baba

 

Death overtakes man even before he realizes his mission in life.

Follow the master. Fight to the end. Finish the game. (Baba)

 

I lived in Paris, had a difficult exam in front of me and went for a  week on a TM-course. It was a siddhi-prep course and a good experience, it calmed down thought activity, afterwards it was possible in little time to get prepared, it was more efficiant than it would have been without, but I also decided to go for the TM-siddhis program and the teacher's training. After that course, I went back to my country and the focus was on making money to be able to go on course.

Sleep and Death

Death involves certain developments that weaken and extinguish life.

It does not affect the Atma; the Atma has no death. It cannot be destroyed.

Therefore, one should not fear death. Death is but another stage of life. However long one suffers from illness or however severe the injury, death can happen only when Time signals the right moment. When the yearning for living ends, there can be no more birth.

 

Sai Baba quotes of death

 

Death is certainly not easy to conquer, but to have no more yearning for life is for me already a kind of death. If I am with others and the right people it is okay, otherwise, I can do nothing about it.

 

Feel that you are born with the dawn of every day; that you nestle in the lap of death when your eyes close in sleep. For, what happens in deep sleep? The body, the senses, the mind, the intelligence – all is negated and there is no trace of awareness of the world.

Know that waking from sleep is but birth and going into sleep is death.

Baba Dream and American Dream

Dreams are nothing but reflections of the subconscious mind.

Swami appearing in dreams is very auspicious. Now I will explain the different types of dreams.

Sometimes you experience nightmares and at times you experience dreams which fill you with happiness. All these dreams occur since they are accumulated in your subconscious mind.

It is good that they find expression in dreams. Dreams are the reflection, reaction and resound of that which is within you. The same does not apply to the dreams in which Swami appears. Swami appears in dreams only when He wills it and not when you want.
 

Sai Baba Dreams

 

Baba teaches we should not think of the result and give it to him.
In the dreams we can even compare the situation. If I would be still with TM, I would have an academic title, just to please me, because everything is just to please the mind, does it matter if it is an illusion, it is anyhow an illusion, isn't it? Not because we have studied and worked for it, but we are with TM and get the title after a certain time...

Immortality and how we get there

Wavering and indecisiveness will affect you, if you want to practice Righteousness. If you are not stabilized in the Knowledge of the Self, you will not have a good sense of direction for your actions, nor will you achieve true victory.

That is why the Geetha lays so much emphasis on the necessity to know both the kshethra (field or the body) and the kshethrajna (the Knower in the body). 

Know both, and then, you are entitled to the title, Amrithasya Puthraah: "Children of Immortality." 

Through devotion to God alone, this knowledge can be attained.

Devotion also purifies your heart and elevates your inner feelings and gives you a broad, universal vision and brings to you the Grace of God. 

Plants cannot rise up to drink the life giving fluid from clouds, hence the clouds come down and pour as rain.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Focus was my aim.

Focus on the higher self to not be wavering. Not to know it makes us weak and unable to discriminate between what is right and if it is about righteousness, we have to know the right direction to make right decisions. 

My first focus was on the observer, I observed until the higher self was present as light inside.

How long it took? I don't know, it feels like eternity, time didn't matter anymore. It had to do with righteousness, duty and not wasting time, but all that was not as conscious present as it is now writing about it. But it was the first touch of the experience of 'immortality', because that 'light self' cannot die.

Hunger and the right Food

A child told its mother as it went to bed at night, "Mother, wake me up when I am hungry." The mother answered, "There is no need, your hunger will itself wake you up." So too, when the hunger for God arises, it will itself activate you to seek the fulfillment. 

God has endowed you with hunger and illness, and He provides the food and medicine. Your duty is to see that you get the right hunger and the right illness and use the appropriate food or drug! 

Man must be yoked to the world and broken; that is the training which will teach that the world is unreal. When you touch fire and get the sensation of burning, you withdraw your hand instantly. 

Unless you touch it, you will be aware only of its light. It is light and heat both; just as this world is both true and false, that is to say, unreal.

Baba (thought for the day)

I guess that is why he was in my head and said, I am hungry and you? 

Probably I was not aware of it enough or no more aware of it after all what had happened, or I was not aware of it the right way, whatever. That was the kind of wake-up call we usually only hear about it, but to experience it myself, it was amazing.
It was Baba, who else could wake up on that level? For sure it was the inner master, who said it.