Universal not Changing

Have faith that Truth will save you in the long run; stick to it, regardless of what might befall. For if you are true, the sense of guilt will not gnaw your insides and cause pain. It is cowardice that makes you hide the truth; it is hatred that sharpens the edge of falsehood. Be bold and there is no need for a lie. Be full of love and there is no need for subterfuge. The easiest habit is speaking the truth, honesty; for if you start telling lies, you will have to keep count of them and remember how many you have told to whom, and be always alert not to contradict one lie with another! Love a person and you need no longer deceive the person with a lie; you will feel that the loved one deserves the truth and nothing less than the truth. Love saves a good deal of bother.

Baba (thought for the day)

If he tells us that truth will save us in the long run and that we should stick to it, regardless of what might befall, he more or less tells exactly what happened between us.

For if you are true, the sense of guilt will not gnaw your insides and cause pain. It is cowardice that makes you hide the truth; it is hatred that sharpens the edge of falsehood. Be bold and there is no need for a lie.

Since I had been about seventeen I went in direction of self-realization. I was in Neuchatel and in a love story with someone and with him I went to Geneva and I was waiting for the higher self to make the decision for me. I was just watching and not taking any decision until the higher self from the inside would show me were to go.  One night in Geneva it was in my dream, a beautiful white light and it was love only and all I wanted. I changed the job because I didn’t need to wait any longer and I got a new job in a bank and there I met the Hare Krishnas, they were selling books. On the way to work I saw the light passing by in a couple and it was like a sign to look at everything what was passing my way. I got the Bhagavad-Gita and afterwards I went for a visit, because in reading the Bhagavad-Gita and the Bhagavatam lots of questions came up. And I spent fourteen days with the Hare Krishnas and stopped smoking and I hoped I would be able to know more about the light of the self I had met in the dream.

On the Edge of Falsehood

Have faith that Truth will save you in the long run; stick to it, regardless of what might befall. For if you are true, the sense of guilt will not gnaw your insides and cause pain. It is cowardice that makes you hide the truth; it is hatred that sharpens the edge of falsehood. Be bold and there is no need for a lie. Be full of love and there is no need for subterfuge. The easiest habit is speaking the truth, honesty; for if you start telling lies, you will have to keep count of them and remember how many you have told to whom, and be always alert not to contradict one lie with another! Love a person and you need no longer deceive the person with a lie; you will feel that the loved one deserves the truth and nothing less than the truth. Love saves a good deal of bother.

Baba (thought for the day) 

First reading Baba's words is one thing. If we listen again a second time, usually we go deeper into it. And if we think it over it begins to take form or to get interesting, at least in those words of Baba, like yesterday and today it is again very interesting to look at his words.

We all should think it over to get to the truth in it. In Baba's words is truth and therefore, we can accept the path of truth in listening to him and in thinking it over and by that we also get closer to accept the path of right action and after all that is how we understand 'peace', do you agree?

And if we get there, truth, right action, peace – we are able to experience that 'pure love'.

As Baba said, 'I am hungry and you?'

Baba asked me that before he left the body some years ago in the insight, he said 'I am hungry and you'?

At that time I didn't understand it yet.

It is kind of challenging to think it over and  to see it in our own life to be able to absorb the meaning.

I wonder why not more people are doing it, because it is much more rewarding to accept the path of truth than to go on dreaming about miracles and gifts.

The experience we want to get is 'pure love'. That is all our duty as Baba said yesterday.

We can get it only if we understand the path of peace. But it is not only about 'silence', but about right action. The question is what is right action? It is certainly not deception and falsehood. Therefore, we also have to accept the path of truth.

 

Magnificent Treasure-House

The one who is filled with love has great peace of mind, is pure at heart and is unruffled by any adverse circumstances, failures or losses. This fortitude is derived from love of the Lord, and it endows one with self-confidence. Self-confidence generates an immense internal power. Everyone has to develop this power to experience the bliss of the Self (Atma-Ananda). Love should be free from feelings of expectation of any return or reward. Love which arises out of a desire for something in return is not true love. Utterly selfless and motiveless love should be developed. This is the bounden duty of all. You should not pray to God seeking this favor or that, for your vision is limited. None of you can fathom what immensely precious, Divine and magnificent treasures lie when you secure the treasure-house of Divine Grace.

The time we went to Baba we experienced that love and the peace of mind because Baba is the connection between the tank of God's grace and the water taps. Due to his presence, we experienced the water taps as flowing and some even projected it in undesirable objects and the beautiful love got contaminated by that.

We didn't have to get aware of the difference between the water taps and the tank full of the divine grace of God, the treasure-house of Divine Grace, because he did it for us.

But now he has left the body and we cannot just go and get the same experience of divine love as we did before and now we have to face it, if we are able to experience that divine love or not.

It seems everybody had another explanation why he experienced that 'love', only not the right one. But we have met self-confidence in Baba's presence and the internal power and therefore, we know what he is talking about, the question is just, where is it gone now?

Most of us didn't know what they were doing and we went ahead anyhow assuming that someday we will know.

This fortitude is derived from love of the Lord, and it endows one with self-confidence. Self-confidence generates an immense internal power.

The Treasure-house

The one who is filled with love has great peace of mind, is pure at heart and is unruffled by any adverse circumstances, failures or losses. This fortitude is derived from love of the Lord, and it endows one with self-confidence. Self-confidence generates an immense internal power. Everyone has to develop this power to experience the bliss of the Self (Atma-Ananda). Love should be free from feelings of expectation of any return or reward. Love which arises out of a desire for something in return is not true love. Utterly selfless and motiveless love should be developed. This is the bounden duty of all. You should not pray to God seeking this favour or that, for your vision is limited. None of you can fathom what immensely precious, Divine and magnificent treasures lie when you secure the treasure-house of Divine Grace.

(Baba - thought for the day)

We have to understand that everything Baba does is Baba's Lila. We go to Baba for that love and it results in great peace of mind. As he said before, if we go the path of 'peace', we have to understand peace to get to the experience of that love.

We are in the kitchen and the first thing we need is understanding peace.

How do we do that? We take some peace from the shelf and add some right action in the pot and some truth?

Not exactly, to understand peace, we have to accept right action first or it means, if there is no right action, there is no peace.

We have no choice about 'right action', either it is 'right' or it is 'not right' and when it is not right action, there cannot be peace. Therefore, if we want to understand or accept the path of 'peace', we have also to accept the path of right action. And if we accept the path of right action, we also have to accept the path of truth.

Beastly Mind and Atmic Beauty

All of you have a whole set of animals within: the dog, the fox, the ass, and the wolf. You must choose to suppress the tendencies of all these beasts and encourage the human qualities of love and friendship to shine. Above all, begin the cultivation of virtues; that is more important and beneficial than mere book-learning. This will give real Ananda (bliss); that is the essence of all knowledge, the culmination of all learning. Treat everyone as your own and even if you cannot do them any good, desist from causing them any injury. Light the lamp of love inside the niche of your heart and the nocturnal birds of greed and envy will fly away, unable to bear the light. An unbending person is infected with egoism of the worst type; Love (Prema) makes you humble, it makes you bend and bow when you see greatness and glory. Use that capacity and derive the best advantage out of it.

(Baba thought for the day)

Baba talks about a set of animals and we feel like in a zoo. To understand Baba's words better, we can see that Baba Lila in the light of the dog, the fox, the ass and the wolf.

If we see those animals in Baba's Lila, I went to him and we had interview and for some reason I had to translate for a devotee from Geneva, I had to translate from English into French and Baba talked about me with her and it felt rather strange. He asked her, 'who that girl was, to whom she belonged and what our relationship was?' 

There were no answers only questions, but I began to talk about it, because I had to get an answer. It was Baba's Lila not mine and if I questioned it I had to get an answer because Baba had asked the questions, not I asked the questions. 

And he answered, that I belonged to him and I said how he could know that it was about truth and right action and he said that he knew because he had asked Baba for a wife and he knew that I was the wife Baba gave him and I told him there was no way I could possibly know and I told him about the dream with Baba.

Love needs three Things

When you enquire earnestly in order to experience Prema (Love), the human being goes about searching for several methods. If we really want to experience Prema, we have got to understand what Peace or Shanti means. If we want to follow the path of Peace, we will have to accept the path of Dharma. If we want to follow the path of Dharma, we will have to ac­cept the path of Truth. Here is a small example. Let us take Prema as the shining light. If we want to experience this shining light, we should have a bulb. If we want the bulb to glow and experience the shining light, we should have a connection to the bulb. By just a connection of wire to the bulb, the bulb is not going to glow. In that wire, we should have an electric current. Here we see that the electric current can be compared to the Truth, the wire can be compared to Dharma while the bulb can be compared to Shanti or Peace. If we have all these three things, then only we will get Prema, the light. We may have a good new bulb. We may have a wire. Are we going to get light out of that? Unless there is current inside the wire, we cannot get the bulb to glow.

SSB

Here Baba explains that we have to understand peace first if we want to experience love, Prema and we go to Baba to experience that love, why should anyone go for some other reason like wealth and money?

But in the dream of my ex it was different. He had a dream and in his dream was a water tap and there was flowing water from it and he thought that is was worldly wealth confused by the former boss who was also a Baba devotee and with him he went to Baba, but he kept his dream going, even if it was only a dream.

If we do not listen to Baba, we will not understand the insights and Baba dreams right. It is Baba who gives us the right answers or the right insights. So he was that foolish to project the insight, Baba dream into the level of the mind, the level of the objects and not insights and he didn’t listen to Baba so he never got aware of the mistake. So there was a water tap and the water was not flowing anymore, because the connection between the tank of Grace and the water taps is missing.

We have the big tank of God which is filled with His grace. We also have devotees in the form of taps but the connection between this tap and the tank which is God’s grace is missing. If there is no prema (love), how can the grace of the Lord flow? The pipe which connects the devotion of the devotee and the grace of God is the prema. God is always an embodiment of prema and if the devotee is filled with prema then prema can es­tablish the connection. Unless you have all these three—namely the devotion of the devotees, God who is the embodiment of love (prema) and the link of prema between the two—a connection cannot be established. God, who is the embodiment of love (pre­ma), can be attained only by prema and not by any other method.

More Comfort makes Travel a Pleasure

The Himalayas or '

Himachala' forms the Northern boundary of India. 'Hima' means ice. It is white in colour and melts easily. Whiteness symbolizes purity. 'Achala' means that which is steady. Your heart should also be like the Himachala - pure, steady and which melts with compassion. God resides in each and every heart that is pure, steady and full of compassion. But today, many hearts have lost these noble qualities due to limitless desires. Life is a long journey and your desire is the luggage. The journey of your life will become enjoyable only when you reduce the luggage of desires. Less luggage, more comfort makes travel a pleasure! The Gita teaches that you should offer everything to God (Sarva Karma, Bhagavadh Preethyartham). You must perform every single action with the only goal to please God. This is the easiest and most effective way to be free from all difficulties and hardships.

Baba (thought for the day)

Baba talks again about limitless desires which can still grow when we project him outside of our own self. Imagine we sit at the ocean the weather is beautiful and we see all that as Baba, he is the sun and the sunshine, he is the waves and the water, he is the vast ocean and it is deep, but also us and we sit at the shore and he is also the sand and the floor we are sitting on, he is our eyes watching it and all that is divine, because he told us that divinity is everywhere. He is the boat on the ocean and we think we would like a boat to experience the vast ocean, or we get a big house with ocean view to enjoy looking at his beauty and get e second one somewhere else, for example on an island or a holiday resort to enjoy him in holidays.

There is no end to desires. We can fly up high in the sun and down again and enjoy it from high up and we will have a big car to drive there to enjoy it from the shore.

It is all Baba or divinity and just for our pleasure. That is what Baba is talking about here. We have lost the noble qualities due to limitless desires. He told us that he is everywhere, but God realization we do not get in nature and thinking that nature is divine and that he is everywhere and why not?

You know why. Because you make that difference between non-conceptual being and conceptual and you said that God is non-conceptual. All that what we admire on the level of our senses with our eyes and taste and smell and touch and we listen to the sound of the waves, that is sense- knowledge and 'sense-knowledge' is conceptual. That is the world and objective world. We think it is God, because he said that he is everywhere, thus our mind projects it on the level of nature. But that is wrong understood.

God resides as he tells us here again and again, not where we think it is, but he resides in the heart only.

God resides in each and every heart that is pure, steady and full of compassion. But today, many hearts have lost these noble qualities due to limitless desires.

From the Limited Circle of Family to One World

Every being is suffused with love. It is only for our convenience, for our pleasure, and our own selfish purposes that we develop certain worldly relationships. Give up self­ishness and strive for self-realisation. You must enquire into yourself, "Who am I? Body, mind, intellect, chittha (memories) or ahamkara (ego)?" You are none of these. You are yourself - "I am I." Recognise this truth. One must render selfless service. The fruit of all actions must then be sacrificed. Only a person, who denounces the fruits of all actions, deserves to be called a Yogi (renunciant). A Yogi is not one who merely sits under a tree, closes one's eyes and meditates. Real sacrifice involves giving up your desires. Do not be narrow-minded. If you are inflicted with narrow-mindedness your whole life will become narrow. Develop broad-mindedness and cultivate selfless love.

Baba (thought for the day)

Years ago I met a guy at the Baba ashram and I had been in an interview with Baba and in that interview he had asked the lady I had to translate for, who I was, to whom I belonged and what our relationship was. Because I had to translate and I talked about myself, it was indirect and not direct and there was no answer, when she said my name, I knew it was not about that name, but that is all I knew, I also didn't know how to get aware of it.

I thought I had to get the answer with others, not only in meditating in my own self, but in processing and talking out my thoughts or writing about it with others, there was a mirror needed to get aware of it. Before I didn't talk much about Sai Baba interview questions because it seemed private and now that had changed and I began to talk about it. We were on the way to Kodai to the mountains with Baba, when he left the car and I saw that he had an uprooted tree in his hand. I had enough experience with Darshan to know that it had to do with me, but I had no idea how to related it to that 'uprooted' tree in the inner vision, why 'uprooted'? What means 'uprooted'?

Also in Baba's presence I didn't think of all those bad experiences I had with my parent's house before when I had been a teenager and that I didn't feel home anymore, but I knew that I avoided it and that I didn't want to go back because it felt not okay.

Cause for Sorrows and Difficulties

People today repose their faith in the ephemeral and unreal world, and forget God who is the embodiment of truth. This is the root cause for all sorrows and difficulties faced by humanity. You say you are encountering difficulties. From where did they come? Difficulties are the consequences of one's past deeds and thoughts. Everything in this world is suscep­tible to change. God is the only changeless principle. What is human life for, after all? Is it merely for eating, drinking, sleeping and ultimately dying? In doing so, can the human life be termed as sacred? At the time of birth everyone is pure and sacred. As they grow old, they gradually lose this purity. This is improper! One must always maintain one's purity. Install the changeless and eternal God in the altar of your sacred heart and offer your love to Him. Thereby, you can experience bliss. This is the foremost duty of every human being.

Baba (thought for the day)

Thinking about difficulties and the root cause of it, we have to first see the difficulties and be able to find the root cause in it. Now in my family they for sure they forgot God, because they do not know that he is the embodiment of truth.

In consequence they have faith in the ephemeral and unreal world, what is also called Maya.

To believe in God and seeing God as truth seems far away from each other. Most people seem to have doubts that God exists, because they cannot see him and it needs an effort to get there, but to realize that God is truth, that goes a step further. It seems to be already God-realization, because how can we know that God is truth if we don't have the realization of it?

See Good, Mind-Control and Sutras

People think that giving up hearth and home is renunciation. This is not what Vairagya (detachment) implies. Whatever we do should be done in a spirit of goodwill and service. It should be for the wellbeing of the nation. And the welfare of all must be looked upon as the motto of the nation. From very early times, Bharatiyas have lived up to the ideal: "May all the worlds be happy!" To uphold this ideal, rulers, scholars, sages and everyone made many sacrifices. Today the spirit of sacrifice is not to be seen anywhere. It is selfishness that is the root cause of all the cruelty and violence today. All that we have in this century are strife, disputes, riots and violence. Selfishness has reared its head. Embodiments of Love! Get rid of selfishness. Regard yourself as an integral member of society. Develop the faith that your welfare is bound with the wellbeing of all.

Baba (thought for the day)

Tonight a mosquito woke me up at 3 AM and I thought I will not be able to go asleep again, as it was too early to get up and too late for a sleeping pill. I put some mosquito repellent and as I noticed some time later I couldn't go asleep again, I began to meditate and for that I was too tired, that way I began to remember the sutras. Instead of my mind getting into worrying about the next day I was thinking, 'friendliness, compassion, strength of an elephant, etc.' that are the TM-sutras we had practiced for years in the eighties and that made me feel good. I noticed there is a relationship with those sutras and in the silence of night half a sleep I liked to remember it.

  

Uprooted and Getting Aware of it

All have faith in the power of love. But how is this love to be fostered and developed? This question may arise in the minds of many. When people ask, "How can we develop our love for the Lord?" The answer is: "There is only one way. When you put into practice the love in which you have faith, that love will grow." Because you do not practice what you profess, your faith gets weakened. A plant will grow only when it is watered regularly. When you have planted the seed of love, you can make it grow only by watering it with love every day. The tree of love will grow and yield the fruits of love. Often people today do not perform those acts which will promote love. When you wish to develop love for the Lord, you must continually practice loving devotion to the Lord.

Baba (thought for the day)

This thought for the day is about the power of love and I had faith in that power of love, but I thought it would be able to change something, but that it didn't. It didn't change anything in my environment, it just changed my life. With the insight it got better or I found the reason why I didn't feel home anymore and when I began looking for it I was that cut off and uprooted I had no idea what the problem was and why I felt like that.

That was a problem to not feel home, even though I had a parent's house and they had a business and they worked a lot and were always at the same place, they were present, but it was nevertheless no home, at least not for me.

Action Done under Compulsion and Freedom

In three situations, you do not have freedom: the discharge of duties (karthavyam), actions done under compulsion (nirbandham) and obligatory actions arising out of certain relationships (sambandham). If a poor man, unable to get food, resorts to stealing, he cannot claim that he is exercising his freedom to appease his hunger. Even if, for his own selfish reasons, he may try to justify the stealing, his conscience will tell him that he is committing wrong. Any action performed against one's conscience is not an act of freedom. True freedom happens only when one is free from the impulses of the mind. Freedom (Swechcha) is made up of the words: Swa + ichcha. 'Swa' means Atma. Only when the will of the Atma prevails can there be real freedom. God and you are not separate. This oneness should not be a mere intellectual concept. It should be a living reality. Then you will experience true freedom - the freedom of the Spirit.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we think love alone does it, what we have to look at here in those words? What can we get in the meaning if we do think it over? Baba mentions three different situations and actions in those situations. We have no freedom if we have to discharge duties. So how do I see that in my own life to get a feeling for it or to understand it?

I have a job and work contract and that is a commitment to be there and to do it, if I like it or not, that is not the question. I signed the contract and now it is my duty. That is the first type of duty.

If I am lucky I like my job and it will be much easier, but I have to do it anyhow.

The next action is done under compulsion. Let's try to see it in our own life.

Knowing we don't Know and still Drowning

The external is the creation of the internal. Brahmam manifested itself as the Universe. God created the world; the world conferred the glory of 'Creator' on God. Through his yearning, imagination and intensity man endowed God with a form and name, and a bunch of attributes from which he hopes to benefit. But, God is above and beyond human traits and characteristics known as Gunas. Krishna told Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, "I have no need to engage Myself in any activity. But yet, I am busy acting, in order to promote the well-being of the Universe." The Gita refers to its chapters as Yoga. Yoga means union of the Self with its source. How do the eighteen chapters, each Yoga, help man to fulfill his destiny? The Gita provides the answer: "Samathvam Yogam Uchyathe" (Yoga is being in a state of equal-mindedness or equanimity).

Baba (thought for the day) 

The problem is if we do not have the experience of it, we cannot really talk about it.

As it goes beyond the mind and it is 'bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest' and it is too big and too small to be imagined as it goes beyond the mind. Everything we perceive is in the mind and not beyond the mind. There is no way we can get the experience on the mind level, but we have to get it anyhow and how do we do it?

We get to the insight with Tapas, spiritual work. We take the insight and think it over in the light of his words, whatever is coming up in the mind in listening to his words and we see it in our own life and that is how we make a connection between the wisdom and our own experience and doing that we have to go on no matter what obstacles are there.

Listen, think it over and absorb and Baba's words, not our words.

He is the knower, we are in the mind and have to think his words over to get it and it takes some time to absorb, but if we do it regularly we will understand the insight 'I am that' and we get to the insight 'I am the one'.

Divine Dwellings

The Supreme Lord can assume countless forms including that of the entire cosmos. Hence scriptures declare, "The entire cosmos is God's dwelling. All are forms of the Divine." Seeing a Divine Incarnation people doubt whether God has such miraculous powers while He has the same body as themselves. People who find it difficult to perceive their oneness with the Self (Atma), fail to recognize the Avatar. Such people reviled Lord Krishna as a philanderer and a thief. Such accusations, born of delusion, will never undermine His greatness. Lord Krishna's leelas were intended to reveal His Divinity. People make the same mistake about themselves; forgetting their inherent Divinity, they identify themselves with their bodies. Lord Krishna's Avatar is to teach mankind to transcend their body consciousness.

Baba

How do we see the 'Supreme Lord' (that is an entity) assume the countless forms and also that of the entire cosmos? If you have the 'insight' of 'I am the One', you know that he is inside in you and in everything, because the 'one' has to be in everything, there is only 'one'. It is kind of easier to think that he takes all forms, we can imagine that with the 'intellect' and that the 'I' is taking form and is present everywhere, but to talk about it is much easier after you had that 'insight' of 'I am that One'. There is a way to get to that 'insight'.

It is called Tapas, spiritual work. The wisdom is only in Baba's words, because he is 'divinity', he has realized it, he knows it and we do not know it.  

We need words to express it, without words we are in the mind. Words are the instrument the intellect uses to tell that 'I am God', it is the upward direction, there is no other way than using words. Silence is only for a self-realized person.

He is 'that' or 'I am that' and by that he lifts everybody in his presence up to his level, it changes the direction of the mind in an upward direction by Baba's presence, it is like meditation.

Alter the Harm Done

Naxalites (terrorists) are not merely the people who hold guns and pistols. Anyone who hurts others in thoughts, words and deeds is a naxalite. Three important things that all of you must pay attention to are your thoughts, words and deeds. When there is a thought, the word follows and then the body acts. In the arena of thoughts, never think evil of others. Next is word. Never use harsh words, do not humiliate others and never try to deceive others with your words. If one is killed with a knife or a pistol, they die immediately. But if you hurt a person with words, he or she will be pained till their death. Medicines exist for all external injuries, however no medicine or doctor can heal the wound or injury inflicted through words. Therefore the harm done by words is more dangerous and takes a long time to heal. Spiritual ways alone can alter the harm done by thoughts, words and deeds.

Baba

Those Baba words were like a revelation to me. My father had been in prison because of some story with a young neighbor girl. It was always difficult to talk about it, but not only because of what had happened, but because of the family.  First they didn't tell us what he did as we were considered too young and I just began with school and soon I had to listen to the others in class telling me what he had done, they all knew better than I did. And when he came back it was difficult and it was again not allowed to talk about it, it was something like taboo. So everybody else could talk about it but us. Only when I was much older a teenager I was told what he had done and my mother told me and at the same time warned me if he would try something.

It was like a shock to listen to that and I was awfully scared around him and when he was present alone I always felt uncomfortable.

Creator and Power

Is there any object in the world without a creator? Consider a loud speaker. It has the power to broadcast sound, way beyond any individual’s voice and must take someone with required knowledge and skill to design and produce it. He or she may be in Germany, Switzerland or Japan, and perhaps invisible to you! Without that person, would this loudspeaker have come into existence? No! Similarly for everything that you enjoy in this world, there is a Creator. The stars that twinkle, the Sun and the Moon that illumine the world have been created by a Supreme Infinite Power. It is obvious to us that no ordinary person can create these super objects and ensure they are still working, after billions of years. Scriptures (Vedas) describe to us that this Super Power is Aprameya (One beyond description, beyond all proofs and limitations). The primary objective of every being in this Universe must be to seek and understand this Infinite Power. 

Baba (thought for the day)

After repeating like a loudspeaker his words, at night it was in the dream and looked like a competition and I used someone else’s words and out of that inner calamity like someone telling me, but you should use your own words, the discussion begins.

We are that loud speaker, like he mentions it in this thought for the day and it is in fact a create example to show how we should see it in our own life. Not the words matter, they are just a tool we use to see it in our own life and to get the experience. What matters is that we are able to see it in our own life.  And as he tells us here that the loudspeaker has the power to broadcast sound and it has to be someone who is able with the required knowledge and skilled to get ‘insights’ to produce it and that is what I am doing here, it is really all there is and nothing more. As Baba tells us that voice may be in Germany or Switzerland or even Japan, for now and with me it is Switzerland and it is invisible to everybody else, why we are doing it, isn’t it? But without Baba behind it that loudspeaker would not have come to existence?

Nature and Precious Gifts

Many of you do not consider the sacred values of Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, Prema and Ahimsa as inner current that are present within you. In fact, they form the basic foundation of human life. Without the basic fundamentals, the more knowledge you acquire, the greater and longer you continue to be a fool, if you do not invest effort to realize your true nature. Truth is present and latent within everyone. It is a precious gift from God. Whether you recognize these facts or not, and even if you consider them as irrelevant, these facts remain. Hence now onwards, you must install Truth deeply in your heart. Love is the natural fruit of developing Truth. If you grow in truthfulness, then as a result, Love blossoms from within. Along with Sathya and Prema, comes Ahimsa. Truth sustains Ahimsa or Non-Violence. You will find that the value of Non-violence is often absent, in every person, wherever and whenever Love is absent.

Baba

It is great to be in Prasanthi Nilayam. As usual we got a room with others together and actually it is good. The last time I had been here it was during the time Baba has left the body. It seemed first that we met only happy people, at least for now. As I know after a while also that will change. But there are definitely some happy people and Baba always said just be happy and I am glad to find some who live it. But you know if you come with mind problems and you are not able to let go, you will not even notice those who are happy. We see the world with our glasses, if we are not happy, we only see those who are also not happy.

Yesterday was a great Darshan and also that is individual. I guess if I would be in my mind and not able to listen and to go deep into it, it would not be that great. It depends always our personal experience. But the children were present from Baba’s schools, he has big schools and colleges and as much as I know free of charge.

You are You and God is God

To hate or injure other beings is as bad as hating and injuring oneself. The reason being that the injurer is as much a living being with God as the core, as the injured is. Until you become aware of your own Divinity (Deva-tatwa) so long as you are conscious of your distinct individuality (Jiva-tatwa) - till you feel you are you and God is God, you struggle, with some attitudes and objectives. This is called the Sadhaka stage. During that stage, you must endeavor to equip yourself with the qualities of love, sympathy and compassion. For, without these, Yoga and Jnana (wisdom) cannot be secured. Love is vital, it is divine. To render an act fit to be offered to God and pure enough to win His Grace, it must be a manifestation of Love. The brighter the manifestation, the nearer you are to God.

Baba (thought for the day)

It was a great experience to get aware of Baba’s presence during singing, but if we analyze it what happened really, it is natural law. After singing someone said, today it was just great and Baba was always present without interruption and it is also my experience.

Isn’t it great to share that?

It seems so easy to tell he is the ocean, we are the waves and we are one, but to live it, don’t you agree, it is not that easy. We should not hate another, because he is inside also part of the self as he tells us in that thought for the day.

To hate or injure other beings is as bad as hating and injuring oneself. The reason being that the injurer is as much a living being with God as the core, as the injured is.

Insights and Natural Law

Purnima means the effulgent fullmoon. Guru is One who removes darkness and delusion from the heart and illumines it with the higher wisdom. The moon and the mind are interrelated, as object and image. On this day, the moon is full, fair and cool, its light pleasant and peaceful; the light of the mind too has to be pleasing and pure. In the firmament of your heart, the moon is the mind.  Sensual desires and worldly activities are the clouds, thick and heavy which mar your joy at the light of the moon. Let the strong breeze of love scatter the clouds away and confer on you the cool glory of moonlight. When devotion shines full, the sky in the heart becomes a bowl of beauty and life is transformed into a charming avenue of Ananda (bliss). That beauty of heart, that bliss in life can be won through the mind, if the lesson of this day is remembered and realized.

Baba (thought for the day)

We had great Guru Purnima Bhajans. It felt like in Prasanthi. I usually like to close my eyes and to listen to Bhajans when it feels like Prasanthi, we could feel Baba's presence, someone else said that there was no interruption during that whole time, and he was continuously present.
During Bhajans we always sing about oneness, nothing else and the oneness of all religions.  That is the ocean and we have to know how to live that oneness.

And there has been another insight about TM as opposed to what we had thought it was.
There was 'one insight', but not a real insight. 
We were lead by scientific research to always the same conclusion. If we meditate all problems are solved, just meditate.

We looked at that same insight from all sides, universally and with science. We believed it to be scientific until later it got clear that not the research mattered, but only the same conclusion getting the intellect to the conclusion that all is done with meditation.
The intellect stops to work if we get always to the same conclusion.

If we look at the sheaths, there is the material body the first sheath and prana, air, the energy level is the second sheat belonging to fire, upward direction.
In the middle we have the mind. It belongs to the moon, downward direction in the senses. The mind is the master of the senses.
Afterwards we have the intellect sheat and it belongs to fire and again upward direction and finally we get to Ananda, the bliss sheath in the center, the heart.

What we need is the intellect and prana, meditation to get beyond the mind into upward direction, that is natural law. 

He is the Doer and Karma

Grief and joy, and pain and pleasure alternate like the dark and bright fortnight by God's decree, to foster equanimity and to lead man towards reality beyond both. If you do not attempt to transform yourself but resort to blaming God for your sorrows, it is incorrect!

You blame God because you announce yourself as a devotee too soon, and expect plentiful grace. Grace cannot be claimed as such; first God must accept you! Use your talent of discrimination to sift the trash and discard it in preference to the valuable. Engage in selfless service; flee from bad persons and win the friendship of the good and noble, who will cleanse you and heal you. Man is consumed by time; God is the master of time. So take refuge in God. Let God be your Guru, your path, your Lord.

Baba (thought for the day)

Baba is life, he is immortal being. Death is the body and related to matter and heavy and flowing downward and related to the mind and we get reborn if we are in the mind. It is natural law.

If we hear that business of business is the same as business of life, it is a wrong conclusion and it seems rooted in TM. TM did that - adabting the technique to the American dream, invincibility and all possiblitites. We cannot tell that Baba is business, he is not business, he is the 'I am that', he is the divine principle, 'I am the One'. He is ocean and we are the waves. 

Swim Across the Sea, but don't call it Business

The Gita offers valuable advice to help one swim across the sea of sorrow. Bear no ill-will against any living being (Adweshta Sarva Bhoothaanaam), always be engaged in promoting the wellbeing of all (Sarva Bhootha Hithe Rathaah), and consider foe and friend alike (Samah Shathrou Cha Mithre Cha) - these are jewels contained in the Gita, highlighting the means to develop Universal Love. By declaring that none should have ill feeling towards the entire world of living beings, the Gita is teaching an invaluable lesson that the Divine is in all beings and objects, as an active illumining Principle, appropriately called Atma. The Vedic assertions also firmly establish this profound Truth. All are enveloped in God (Ishaavasyamidham Sarvam); the inner core of all beings is He (Sarva Bhootha antharaatma).

Baba (thought for the day)

We want to swim across the sea of sorrow. I felt that turned off and fed up of my mother's attitude which could see only faults and was constantly telling us, 'you could never do that' and she meant running around like she did, what nobody wanted to do like her. I was fed up. I didn't understand it; I didn't feel comfortable in it and no more at home. It was a strange feeling to go home and to feel always I do not feel home. It felt to me like, whatever I said, it was not approved, but wrong and criticized.

Drama and the Almighty

Silence is the first step in Sadhana, which makes the other steps easy. It promotes self-control, lessens chances of anger, hate, malice, greed and pride. Besides, you can hear His footsteps, only when silence reigns in the mind. Cleanliness opens the door to Godliness.

Inner and outer cleanliness are essential to install God within your heart. Service saves you from the agony you get when another suffers; it broadens your vision, widens your awareness, and deepens your compassion. All the waves on the sea originate from the same sea and also merge in it. Seva teaches you to be firm in this knowledge. Practice Love. Practice hatelessness. None must be looked down upon as secondary, inferior or unimportant. Everyone has their allotted role in the drama designed by the Almighty. Do not slight, insult or injure anyone; for, He is in every being and your slight thus becomes a sacrilege.

Baba

Sadhana is spiritual practice; like regular meditation on a daily bases and as Baba tells us here it makes other steps easy.

I had an experience of 'self-realization' writing a diary at the age of seventeen and afterwards I couldn't find it anymore. And I didn't know why it was gone, but I grew up in an environment where it was not really possible to talk, not from the side of my mother, not from the side of the father and it ended up with the same type of neighbors. The whole family had been in a friendship with someone who turned into the opposite after he got married. I was young and I had time and I didn't think there would be a problem. With the oldest brother of that family I went for walks sometimes. It was fun, we were young and it felt good, everything was at the beginning.

Knowledge and Silence

When Yajnavalkya resolved to go into the forest to live as an ascetic, he called his two wives before him and proposed to divide the riches he had earned between them. Before accepting her share, Maitreyi asked her husband whether the riches will help her to realise Truth and achieve immortality. When she understood that they will not, and in fact they are mere hindrances, she refused to be burdened. Nachiketa refused the gifts of empire, affluence, and years of healthy life. Prahladha taught the same lesson to his playmates. Buddha solved the mystery of suffering through renunciation of attachment as the first step in his Sadhana. All of them had implicit faith in the existence of God; their lives revolved on the axis of that faith.

Baba (thought for the day)

This thought for the day is about attachment and that riches can be hindrance. We prefer to see it as a gift given by God and that we are able to take good care of it usually than to renounce it. It seems easier, but what is about attachment?  

There are lots of stories in the Puranas about famous people who refused the gift of empire, affluence and even years of healthy life in the purpose to get liberation. It is definitely easier if we talk about it in the Puranas than it is in our life.

If it is about an empire we cannot just renounce it like Buddha and meditate for the rest of your days.

If we talk about, knowledge, courage, volition and silence, the four pillars of the temple, we get to 'insights' only with silence and not with mediation or what we call Sadhana, spiritual practice. It is just 'silence'; it helps the mind go quiet down and it definitely feels better, because we do not have to argue about it with anyone and we do not have to explain things, the commitment is silence.  

The Sun of Knowledge and Character is Power

The scriptures declare that body is the temple and God is installed therein. Hence consider your body as a vessel for cooking food, given on loan for hosting the festival of life. Can we return it to God, the Owner, in a worse condition? Should we not scrub it clean and return it bright and free from rust and dust? When the festival of life began, we received a pure, fresh and bright body from Him, innocent of evil. We have now inflicted dents, leaks and other signs of damage, through lust, greed, hatred, anger and envy. Do not return His property in poor condition. You must return it to Him, as pure as He gave it, to be most worthy of His Grace. Remember the purpose of your birth; and leverage your full potential and capability to achieve it. Wear the garland of devotion around your neck and saturate your thought, word and deed with Divine Love.

Baba (thought for the day)

Yesterday Baba made that difference between knowledge and character. Do you think it is difficult to understand?

I think it is, because knowledge is something we can get from someone or we can learn it, but character shows that it has to do with our attitude, right understanding and our being.

We could see meditation like taking a cloth and cleaning the mirror in the heart, the watchman is cleaning that mirror to be able to look in that mirror. What makes it difficult is our understanding of knowledge on one side and the missing notion that in the heart is a mirror.  

Nobody talked in our culture about the mirror in the heart before we met Baba and if he talks about divinity in the heart and that we should listen to the heart, we rather think of a voice and not a mirror.

Insights and following Steps

You must regard the prosperity and joy of others in the community as your own. Only then will India or any other country deserve prosperity and joy. Your happiness is bound up with the happiness of Society. Your physical, mental and intellectual strength and skills have to be dedicated, not merely to your own progress, but equally to the progress of Society. You must try to benefit yourself and the Society through such service. Use the strength, skills, and spirit of service for such work. A machine gets rested if it is not put to use; the human machine too gets rusted if it is not put to constant meaningful work. The pulse is not the correct indicator of your being alive; work and activity is the evidence and the value of real living. Your role is to translate your strength into activity along the path of duty.

Baba (thought for the day)

There is a difference of time between an insight and the following step. 
The insight was there, it was in the dream. 
At that time I thought first it was a dream and only in thinking about it and seeing it in Baba’s words we get absorbed. We have to realize what it is an ‚insight‘. It is the reflection of reality, Darshan, in our own heart. 
And Baba tells us he is the insight and he is he following step.

Illusion, Achieve the Unachievable

What or who is God? When the answer to this question is sought, one discovers that God is the glory immanent in Nature. The earth rotates on its axis at a speed of thousand miles an hour. As a consequence, we have alternations of day and night, which helps us to live on this globe. Besides, it moves around the sun at the rate of 66,000 miles an hour, causing the seasons which bring rains for crops and vegetation which sustain human life. The earth does not profit in the least by these rotations but human beings survive, enjoy life and prosper on account of them. Nature must indeed be laughing at the sterile frenzies, the endless pursuits, and the countless miseries to which human beings submit themselves to, in their search for achieving the unachievable! You must search in Nature the sacred lessons it holds for you; then, you will understand how deep and how everlasting is the Truth that it conveys to you!

If I ask myself that question and try to see it in my life, what or who is God and even when it is about the glory immanent in nature.

He doesn't talk just about nature, but about the glory in nature. The earth rotates and we do not feel it, even if it is high speed. We know we have day and night; it is just a new day.

Yesterday we had study circle and it was nice. First we talked in the circle and nobody interrupted and I had the feeling that it was a bit stiff and in the end we just talked together about it, our theme was Dharma. One participant said that nobody was thinking of that but we and we said yes, that this type of discrimination is not that commonly used and that most of people don't think at all.

The Watchman

All of you are pilgrims in the journey towards the city of liberation. Every life is but a stage in the journey, your body is a rest-house for a short stay during the pilgrimage. The mind is the caretaker in the place of our rest. Do not treat the Mind as a Master or Owner, but take care of it so that the house we are privileged to occupy is not damaged or polluted. We must treat the watchman politely and not destroy its interiors.

A restless mind is an important source of ill-health. Many are constantly afflicted with some source of worry or other, never free from anxiety. Why? Because they are identifying themselves with the body! One acquires their body, through their past activities and deeds, caused by the twin pulls of love and hate. You can escape from this cycle, if you realize the Oneness of the Divine being present in you and in everyone.

Baba (thought for the day)

  

All of us are pilgrims in the journey towards liberation; Baba calls it here the city of liberation.

On the way we are helped or handicapped by the antics of the mind.

Our life is a journey and we should see the mind as caretaker, but if our place of rest is not taken care properly, it will be a handicapped journey.

How do we know if we treat the Mind as the Master or Owner?

And how do we take care of it that the house we are privileged to occupy is not damaged or polluted?

We must treat the watchman politely and not destroy its interiors.

With these words Baba describes the insight and the meaning of it when my ex was standing in the ruin of that house, there were big holes in the floor and the walls had crumbles and there was no roof and he said that is all I could get in garage sales. That was his hobby to go to garage sales and when I tried to tell him that it was not okay, he began to argue. That is how that house looked after we left and we didn't go back.

God ... and the Higher Self

Know Who You Are and Be Free

Virtuous living, beneficial thoughts, elevating ideals and righteous conduct can confer not only good health, but what is even more precious, Aatmananda, the ecstatic Awareness of the Reality itself. When one yearns for the happiness and prosperity of all mankind, he or she is blessed with the wisdom and strength to mark out the way and lead them towards it.

The person sees one’s chosen God in everyone. Every act of theirs will be as pure, as sincere and as sacred as an offering to God. A very effective way to conquer all sources of physical and mental disease and debility is awareness of one's Divine (Atmic) Reality. That will bring about an upsurge of Love and Light, for, when one recognizes that he or she is the Atma, one would cognize the same Atma in all, and share in the joy and grief, strength and weakness of all.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we are not in sathva, we have no inclination to understand Baba’s thought for the day and we have to get into it and dive deeply into the meaning of it and only then we are able to find some interest first we are able to think it over and finally we get absorbed in it.

So if you think it is much too difficult and better we keep only silent and go on in silence, so we don’t have to think about it, it just should tell you that your mind is probably in the state of passion, Rajas and not in Sathva, purity or light or interested for truth in that very moment in a sathvic way.