A Christmas Wish

Jesus sacrificed His life and poured out His blood to instill Love and Compassion in the heart of man, so that you are happy when others are happy and sad when others are sad. Let Me call upon you today, to give up, in honor of this holy occasion, two evils from your mind: self-praise and talking scandal! Give them up! Instead adopt one habit: the habit of loving service to the distressed. If you spend all your time and energy in worldly comfort and sensual delight, you are disgracing this human existence. Do not spend your life in just enjoying food; eat as much as is necessary for living. Maintain your body as temple where God resides. Keep it clean, fresh and fragrant by developing compassion and love; Let holy thoughts, words and deeds emerge from you. Do not demean it by using it for low, trivial and unholy tasks.

Wherever you are, make this resolution today!

Baba (thought for the day)

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a fulfilling Holiday Season.

Listen, think it over absorb, that is spiritual Tapas, spiritual work that is what Baba is telling us.

We have to listen to the 'insights', they are like stepping stones in our inner view to get to the inner vision, which is about his message and understanding his words.

We have to use discrimination and in seeing it in our own life in the inner vision, as Baba also said, if we see our life with insights in the inner vision, attachment slides away.

We all have to get detached. If we follow the stepping stones of the insights and see it in our own life we get to the 'inner vision' and whatever the stepping stones, in the end only the inner vision matters and his message.

In that way we can get to an experience of inner peace, as he is the insights and the following step.

It is about that experience of pure love.

Love - Listen and Think it Over

The quintessence of the scriptural texts is this: Realise that the awareness of Divine or Brahman cannot be won by the accumulation of wealth nor by giving away the riches. Nor can it be achieved by reading texts, rising to power, acquiring degrees and diplomas, or performing scriptural sacrifices and rituals. The body is an anthill, with the mind inside as a deep cavity. The mind has hidden in it the serpent named ignorance or nescience (a-jnana). The serpent cannot be killed by resorting to satisfaction-oriented works (kamya karma). Spiritual wisdom (jnana) is the only weapon that can kill it. To achieve spiritual wisdom, you must have 'Steady Faith'. Shraddhavan labhathe jnanam, states the scriptures. Meaning, that person alone, who has steady and unwavering faith, can certainly secure wisdom.

Did you think it over or just read it or not even that? Reading is not enough.

So what does he wants us to do if reading is not enough? If we look at this thought for the day and Baba's words and we just read it, how does it look? If we read it in our mind is pictured an anthill and inside a deep cavity and there is a serpent named ignorance, we take note of it and forget the picture on the spot again. We maybe even read that the serpent cannot be killed by resorting to satisfaction-oriented work and we wonder how to understand that? How can any work be done without going in direction of satisfaction? That is just reading and not listening and thinking it over.

We also read that spiritual wisdom is the only weapon that can kill the serpent and we wonder how we have to understand that wisdom.

And that we must have 'steady faith', and here we probably relax, everybody thinks he has study faith, so everything is fine, if we have study faith it will be there, even if we do not really understand what we just read.

That about study faith is stated in the scriptures and maybe we wonder what scriptures he talks about, it seems there are that many scriptures.

And now Baba makes it clear, meaning that person alone, who has steady and unwavering faith, can certainly secure wisdom. Everything understood after just reading it, we just hear steady and unwavering faith and that we will probably therefore one day secure wisdom. We think we know what to do, keep the faith unwavering and steady, the question is only how and that doesn't even come to our mind that our faith is probably not unwavering and steady and what we should or could do about it?

That was just reading it. It is all different if we listen and think it over to be able to absorb.

Attachment and False Knowledge

People have forgotten their real nature and believe that they are the body, the senses, etc. When these (instruments) crave for objective pleasures, people ignorantly convince themselves that this pleasure is wanted by them! Under this mistaken notion, they seek to fulfill the cravings. They delude themselves that they can secure bliss (ananda) by catering to the body and senses. However they are rewarded with disillusionment, defeat and disaster, and reap pleasure and pain. Though the objective world appears real, one must be aware that it is deluding us. As a result, one has to give up the yearning for deriving pleasure from the objects that appear and attract, both here and hereafter. The false knowledge (a-jnana) can be destroyed only when one knows the Atma (the Divine Self) principle. When the false knowledge disappears, the sorrow produced by one’s involvement in the ups and downs of the world of change (samsara) also gets destroyed. 

This truth we have to accept it is a must. Only when false knowledge disappears, the sorrow gets destroyed and how is that sorrow produced? It is by our involvement in the ups and downs of the world of change. 

And that is why we have to see it in our own life and accept truth, because without getting aware in our own life we don't get aware of the involvement in the ups and downs of the world of change, we are trapped in it and it is false knowledge. We have to find the reason for false knowledge and on that level we can only solve it with the divine principle of Atma, the 'I am that'. 

The false knowledge (a-jnana) can be destroyed only when one knows the Atma (the Divine Self) principle. When the false knowledge disappears, the sorrow produced by one’s involvement in the ups and downs of the world of change (samsara) also gets destroyed.

Joy and Sorrow

Sorrow affects you because you feel you deserved joy and did not acquire it; but there is one impartial distributor of joy and sorrow, who gives you what you need, rather than what you desire. You may need the tonic of tragedy to set you on the road to recovery. The Compassionate One, the eternal all-knowing God, He knows best. Welcome the tragedy and fight your way through, with the armor of the remembrance of the Divine. As all rivers hurry towards the sea, let all your imaginings wend their way to God. The play is His; the role is His gift; the lines are written by Him; He decides the dress and decoration, the gesture and the tone, the entrance and the exit. You have to act well your part and when the curtain falls receive His approbation. By your efficiency and enthusiasm earn the right to play higher and higher roles - that is the meaning and purpose of life.
(Thought for the day)

How do we see that or think it over in our life to be able to absorb the truth in Baba's words.

What questions to ask? What are moments to remember when we felt joy and thought we deserved more joy and we did not acquire it?  

So Baba explains that the distributor of joy and sorrow, gives us what we need, rather than what we desire.

Developping inner Vision

Mere reading of spiritual texts is not enough. You may master all the commentaries and you may be able to argue and discuss with great scholars about these texts; but without attempting to practise what they teach, it is a waste of time. I never approve of book-learning; practice is what I evaluate. When you come out of the examination hall you know whether you will pass or not, is it not? For you can yourself judge whether you have answered well or not. So too in sadhana (spiritual effort) or in conduct or in practice, each of you can judge and ascertain the success or failure that is in store. 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 (Prema). When you don't see the Lord reflected in your heart, do not say that there is no Lord; it only means that there is no Love within you.

SSB

During the Hare Krishna experience we were reading verses of the Bhagavad Gity by heart and we read from the scriptures or the master that three verses are enough to be able to preach. 
If we don't practice, it is a waste of time.

The routine of cooking and preparing food for Krishna, was all about purity and constantly changing and taking showers and eating a lot. But there was still something permanent in it and divinity is not changing, otherwise, it is the mind and not divine.

That felt good, based on such principles and it felt okay, but the identity was Hare Krishnas, as soon that was gone, it was not there anymore.

I still went in direction to truth, I hoped to find inside with TM-meditation in the silence of the heart. I was looking for a way inside and that is why I began with TM to be still in a spiritual identity.

When we left the Hare Krishnas that identity was lost and it was not attractive, whatever the attraction. It felt like too much problems left, whatever that was, money problems and other problems.  

The attraction was gone, but because of the Hare Krishnas, as long as we lived in that identity everything seemed okay, no differences, we were part of it. We were just part of the momevemt, whatever we did. But as soon as we left another side came up, the mind reality in society or the field, if there was no proper profession it was just lick attracting lots of problems, whatever that was. To not lose the spiritual identity I went on with TM.

It was not attractive also to just be part of that society, in a fact, we liked that Hare Krishna environment, only not the cooking and eating and the constantly taking showers.

Listen, Think it over, Absorb

The Kaivalya Upanishad declares: "Not by means of works, not by means of human power, not by means of wealth, but by renunciation alone can immortality be attained." The 'works' referred to are rituals like sacrifices, vows, charities, donations, pilgrimages, etc. Through such activities, one cannot achieve liberation; that is to say, one cannot get rid of the veil of ignorance. 'Human power' means acquisition of positions of authority, of skill and intelligence which can manipulate people and things, of fame and supremacy, of personal charm, of health and happiness, or of a large family with many children - these cannot confer liberation. The works mentioned above and the acquisition referred to can succeed only when one has 'wealth'. But the Upanishad announces that spiritual wisdom is not related to riches. So liberation cannot be earned by means of wealth. Renunciation alone can confer immortality.

(Thought for the day)

Do we understand that thought for the day? Understanding in the sense of getting Baba's insight and seeing it in our own life. 

Baba's words are about truth and insights and we have to read it a very different way. I guess we just read it and think we understand it or if we don't, we think we will understand it later. But listen, think it over and absorb - is a different meaning.

If we read it and think that we understand it, we are in the mind.

It is a mind conclusion, because we just think we know, it has nothing to do with right or wrong or good and bad or truth and untruth. 

But when we listen to Baba we see it all differently, because we know that it is the mind only getting to that conclusion that it does understand and as he told us in a thought for the day just some time ago, we have to resort to scriptures if we want to know the difference between good and bad, and if that is the case for good and bad, we also have to do the same with right and wrong. 
If we just read it and think that we understand it or maybe we will understand it later, we are in the mind and it is illusion. 

When This Truth Dawns ...

To discriminate between good and bad, one must resort to scriptures. The Vedas emerged from the Divine Himself and were ‘heard’ by sages attuned to the voice of the Divine, who in turn, taught them to their disciples. This process of imparting the Vedas and the wisdom enshrined in them has continued through many generations of Gurus and disciples until now. The Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita contain the very essence of the Vedas. Hence these are designated as ‘three fundamental texts (Prasthana traya)’ of the science of spirituality. Acquisition of higher knowledge alone can fulfill the main purpose of human life; it makes one aware that one is not the inert non-sentient body but an embodiment of being-awareness-bliss. When this truth dawns and is experienced, you are freed from the fog of ignorance and are liberated, in this very life.

Baba (thought for the day)

Baba is telling us we must resort to scriptures and where are the scriptures in the West? 

Maharishi was teaching the same thing.

If you google ‘Apaurusheya Bhashia’ there are lots of Maharishi pages. What is the consequence of that truth.

We know we have to accept truth. Now we have two levels, one is what he tells us and Baba’s words and what is in the scriptures and on the other hand we have our own wisdom and insights and finding truth in it is realization.

How do we get to insights?

If we take the scripture or Baba’s words and see in the light of our own life and in the light of our insights, the insight in the scriptures will come alive.

To discriminate between good and bad, one must resort to scriptures. The Vedas emerged from the Divine Himself and were ‘heard’ by sages attuned to the voice of the Divine, who in turn, taught them to their disciples. This process of imparting the Vedas and the wisdom enshrined in them has continued through many generations of Gurus and disciples until now.

Are we able without the scripture to discriminate between good and bad, if we read his words we get to the conclusion that we are not. Why are we not able to discriminate between good and bad? Because we are in the mind. We are always in the mind. It is the truth in the scriptures which gets us beyond the mind in accepting that truth (that is a must) and it doesn’t work without it, and if we have accepted that path of truth, we also have to accept the path of right action and only if we accept the path of right action we are able to understand peace and only if there is peace, there will be the experience of ‘pure love’.

Inner Vision and Attachment slides Away

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and they fail. 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 Nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the Inner Vision, then attachment will slide away, though effort will remain; you will also see everything much clearer and with a glow suffused with Divinity and splendor. Close your external eyes and open your inner eyes - What a grand picture of essential unity you get? Attachment to Nature has limits, but the attachment you develop to the Lord when your inner eye opens, has no limit. Enjoy that reality, not this false picture.

Baba

We had study circle last night. It was the highlight. We had great questions and listening to Baba's words we first went around the circle and afterwards we were just like sitting together talking about it and enjoying. 

Baba explains if we want to make the experience of pure love, we have to understand peace and if we want to understand peace, we have to accept the path of right action and if we accept the path of right action, we have to accept the path of truth. 

That kept us busy and in the circle. 

We always got back to it that we have to accept truth, whatever the truth and if it is not okay, to accept the path of right action means we have to act accordingly. 

In thinking it over we get to the right insight. 

Reading is not Enough, Spiritual Effort

Mere reading of spiritual texts is not enough. You may master all the commentaries and you may be able to argue and discuss with great scholars about these texts; but without attempting to practice what they teach, it is a waste of time. I never approve of book-learning; practice is what I evaluate. When you come out of the examination hall you know whether you will pass or not, is it not? For you can yourself judge whether you have answered well or not. So too in sadhana (spiritual effort) or in conduct or in practice, each of you can judge and ascertain the success or failure that is in store. 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 (Prema). When you don't see the Lord reflected in your heart, do not say that there is no Lord; it only means that there is no Love within you.

(thought for the day)

What is Baba telling us with these words?

Mere reading of spiritual texts is not enough. You may master all the commentaries and you may be able to argue and discuss with great scholars about these texts; but without attempting to practice what they teach, it is a waste of time.

We have to practice and he takes care of it that we practice? 
If we just read his words it is not enough and mastering or learning by heart or discussing it is a waste of time. So what exactly are we doing, as he said, we close the external eyes and open up the inner eye to the inner vision and if we see it in the inner view it is different and as he said attachment will slide away.

There had been a beautiful pirate in the inner view and the big hand reaching in the sand on the shore and the ship sailing into the sunshine of the ocean and love is the wind in the sails. Our heart has to go out for that beautiful picture in the inner view, like a great adventure journey instead of being just in the external idea of it.

What is the conclusion of the pirates of the Caribbean? 

After all the path of the pirate seems better and more right action than living in a sick society of stupid conventions, where the dress has to be that tight that she faints because she doesn’t get enough air.

Crossing the Ocean with Eyes Shut

Enter upon that task of Sadhana from now on; that is the lesson you must learn here. Otherwise yatra (pilgrimage) leads only to the accumulation of patra (objects and souvenirs). Devotion is something sweet, soothing, refreshing and restoring. It must confer patience and fortitude. The devotee will not be perturbed if another is blessed with more grace. The devotee is humble and bides one's time, knowing that there is a higher power that knows more and that it is just and impartial. In the light of that knowledge, the devotees will communicate their troubles and problems only to their Lord; they will not humiliate themselves by talking about them to all and sundry, for what can a man, who is as helpless as another, do to relieve them? It is only those who have that implicit faith in God, who will deign to communicate only with the Lord and none else, who deserve Amrita (nectar of immortality).

(Baba, thought for the day)

 . 

How do we listen to it, in ignoring it or in not understanding it?

If he asks us to enter upon the task of Sadhana from now on, meditation, from now on and that this is the lesson we have to learn here and now. Please tell me, why we are not on the spot beginning with that mediation and why not? Don't we know enough English or is it our mind obstructing it. I guess it is the mind and the mind is louder in our conscious being than our heart. 
And he is going on and he is telling us why.

Otherwise yatra (pilgrimage) leads only to the accumulation of patra (objects and souvenirs).

Inner Vision and Tapas

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfil them and they fail. 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 Nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the Inner Vision, then attachment will slide away, though effort will remain; you will also see everything much clearer and with a glow suffused with Divinity and splendor. Close your external eyes and open your inner eyes - What a grand picture of essential unity you get? Attachment to Nature has limits, but the attachment you develop to the Lord when your inner eye opens, has no limit. Enjoy that reality, not this false picture.
(thought for the day)

How do Baba devotees read Baba's words?

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfil them and they fail. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief.

When he tells us that people suffer of all kinds of unreasonable desires, what are for you unreasonable desires? We have to think it over. If we don't know, are you doing it like me before thinking, not now, one day I will know?

But that will not change if we do not enquire and that 'day' will just not come, because we do not the work required to get there. So what is not understood by devotees avoiding listening to Baba's words, they don't know that we have to see it in our own life first. Only if we see it in our own life we get the meaning of Baba's words.

The principle of Tapas (spiritual work) is first discrimination, second seeing it in our own life, third going on no matter what obstacles are there. That is spiritual work. How do we get into that spiritual work? We have to discriminate, see it in our own life and go on no matter what obstacles are there.  

Why people do not hear that?

It is not enough to read Baba's words and to read that we suffer because there are all kinds of unreasonable desires and that others pine to fulfill them and ail, it is not enough to think I will understand it 'tomorrow', whenever I will be understood. That doesn't work, because if we do not Tapas, spiritual work today, we will also not understand it tomorrow.

Most of devotees sing Bhajans and even after many years of Bhajan singing they still don't understand what Tapas means. If so far we have understood the first sentence, we see that there is the reason for failure, what is an important word in the US and also that they pine to fulfill unreasonable desires, it means not normal or reasonable desires and it is the reason that they are suffering.

There is a lot of information in that one sentence of Baba. Now we get to the second sentence.

They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief.

Pictures of Unity

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and they fail. 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 Nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the Inner Vision, then attachment will slide away, though effort will remain; you will also see everything much clearer and with a glow suffused with Divinity and splendor. Close your external eyes and open your inner eyes - What a grand picture of essential unity you get? Attachment to Nature has limits, but the attachment you develop to the Lord when your inner eye opens, has no limit. Enjoy that reality, not this false picture.

(Thought for the day)

First I read that thought for the day and it didn’t tell me anything, so I was thinking it over in writing it down. I would probably not have the patience to think it over if I would not write about it. The question is how do we open our inner eyes?

Or how do we see the different to our outer eyes? 

People suffer because they have all kinds of  desires and they pine to fulfill them and they fail. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief.

It is failure on all levels if we go for unreasonable desires and try to fulfill or impose them. He came with the expectation to Baba that his unreasonable desires, which were a dream only, would be fulfilled and he imposed it on us. 

And Baba tells us why; it is because he attaches too much value to the objective world. And suffering, pain increases if the attachment to the world increases.

The newest insight on that level is about ‘belonging’, it is the level of divinity and Krishna and therefore, the insight ‘we belong together’.

If you look upon Nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the Inner Vision, then attachment will slide away, though effort will remain; you will also see everything much clearer and with a glow suffused with Divinity and splendor.

Wake-Up Call in Baba Dreams

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 love, 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 right action, 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 call 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.

(Text about ‘love’, 5^th chapter – human values)

We have to go through that text about ‘love’ in the study circle and by preparing the text and in thinking it over, there is the meaning of the dreams you had, the three dreams before we went back to Baba what you understood as making peace with Baba.

In that dream Baba said that I had to come and make peace with him and here he tells us why, it is in his words. 

We all go to Baba because of ‘pure love’ and not because of career or wife, money etc. 

If we want to experience that ‘pure love’ without reason and without season …, we have to understand first peace and we have to listen to him.

It means we have to go the path of peace.

And that dream was followed by an other dream. In that dream of yours he said to me, ‘go back to your lovely husband’ and that he explains us here is about ‘right action'.

But it also tells us that you thought that he gave you a wife and that you said you had asked for a wife and therefore, you knew it was like that and it was not the right answer and no right action. We have to accept that is 'no right action' and we have to accept that he said instead, 'you didn't listen, you have to get a divorce' and that part is about truth.

If we have to accept right action, we also have to accept truth.

That is the meaning of the words in that Baba quote.

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. 

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.