The Ball and the Impure Heart

If we take a ball and pitch it on a hard ground, it will rebound to the extent determined by how hard we hit the ball on the ground. If we pitch this ball on a soft muddy ground instead of a hard surface, it will not rebound, but will get trapped and stuck in the mud. Similarly, if the pure aspect of Divinity hits a sacred heart, it rebounds. On the other hand, if we have a muddy and impure heart, even when Divinity impinges on this heart it gets stuck and entangled. Therefore, purity of one's mind and an exemplary life are essential. Truth and honesty are to be regarded as our two eyes. Instead, if these eyes are inflicted with the disease of selfishness, then we cannot have a pure and clean heart. Young people should have purity of mind. They should take great care to protect truth and honesty.

This is a good example if we use it for meditation the field of the heart and what happens when it is not pure. The field of the heart is not just pure, we live in the world and it is a mixture between sathva, rajas and tamas and also Swami never tells us that the heart is pure, he tells us to develop pure love. We have to purify the heart to have a sathvic field. He always tells us to purify the heart. 
But some think it is enough and done if we replace bad qualities with good qualities, so they talk about what is bad to find what is good and stay at the surface of a code of conduct and they have even extended the human values to over a hundred in reminding all what they could and should do.

Last time in the study circle we talked about good and we had guests and the lady was sitting at my side and when one person went elaborate into doing good, she said, 'what is good' and I said to her that was the same question in my mind. 

Who is telling us what is good and what is bad? The same thing we see as bad can in a different situation just be necessary and good and if we would think we have to behave good, we would avoid the challenge and not do it right and that is not good, but in that situation it would be bad. 

It is relative what is good and bad and it depends on the situation and it is just common sense really.

Happiness is Union with God

The Vedas teach us that our heart is like a sky and in the sky of our heart, mind is the Moon, eyes and intelligence are like the Sun. In the sky of your heart, treat your thoughts as passing clouds. If in the sky of our heart, there are millions of names of the Lord shining like the stars, and your mind shining like the moon, then you are well-positioned to achieve happiness. Happiness is union with God. Train your minds to be like the full moon and cleanse your hearts. Lord Krishna desires that you keep your mind pure and accept truth and honesty as your foundational life principles. Our own conduct is responsible for the decay or the ageing of our body. Our desires drive our behavior. Do not live in the world to merely fulfill your desires. Pain and pleasure are like passing clouds which move about in our heart. So treat them as such and nothing more.

Today the thought for the day begins with Veda and what Veda is teaching. It is about Veda, even if we have had someone in the study circle when Veda was mentioned he answered, 'who is interested in that'? We should better keep silent and don't answer than to say something stupid it like that as we talk constantly about Veda, it is someone who doesn't listen and has not relationship to the words of Swami and the wisdom in those words.  

Here Swami is telling us what the Vedas teach and it is a beautiful picture. 

The heart is the sky and in the sky of the heart we have a mind and it is the moon, our eyes and the intelligence is the sun in the heart.

We have our own universe in the heart with a moon, with a sun and a sky and lots of stars and we find the reflection of it in the dream stage and we could think that the world of the heart reflects the language the man coming in our heart to awaken uses in the purpose to awake us from the inside. 

In that sense Swami is teaching us here the language of the man coming in our dreams to awaken, it is not just a picture if it is like that in the Veda. 

If we watch our heart and are alert and see the mind only as the moon in the sky of the heart, when in reality we think we are the mind outside in our everyday life in the world, it seems to be the same in the heart, but it is not really the same as in the world. 

How do we watch the heart that close if we don't meditate, that is kind of impossible. We need to have silence in the mind to be able to see that sky in the heart that clear and beautiful and with love and if we don't meditate, we don't see anything, the heart is dark and black and nothing to see really when we are living in the mind only, mind is world. 

The Vedas teach us that our heart is like a sky and in the sky of our heart, mind is the Moon, eyes and intelligence are like the Sun. In the sky of your heart, treat your thoughts as passing clouds. If in the sky of our heart, there are millions of names of the Lord shining like the stars, and your mind shining like the moon, then you are well-positioned to achieve happiness.

Constant Integrated Awareness

 

To experience divine love there is no need to practice any kind of meditation, worship or rituals. Selfless love (Prema) can be obtained only by complete absorption in spirituality. It was for this reason that Sri Krishna declared in the Gita: "Surrender unto Me, transcending all rules (Sarva Dharman Parityajya)". Likewise, Jesus also declared: "I am the Path." Buddha, conveying the same meaning, declared, "Surrender everything" (Sarvam Sharanam Gachchami). These statements clearly convey that the essence of all religions, the root of all scriptures, the goal of all virtues, is the experience of spiritual oneness and unity (Sarvatmika Bhavam). The Gopikas exemplified such a spirit of surrender and oneness. Gopikas symbolise thoughts. Radha symbolises the combination of all thoughts in the mind. So all our thoughts, desires and aspirations and our mind should merge in Krishna, represented by Prajna in a human being. Constant Integrated Awareness (Prajna) of the Divine is the significance of the Vedantic declaration, 'Prajnanam Brahma.' 

This thought for the day is not easy if we think it over. 

What does it mean to be absorbed in spirituality or as Swami said, just think about God. For me it meant I began to watch and by watching I was sure that God was there or the higher self and it would be there if we just watched.

And we know it goes to the far end, as it cannot go further it will turn around and he tells us as well what it means in our experience, it goes that far that we cannot take it anymore and then only it turns around, with other words, we experience our limitations and what we are able to take.

Just thinking about God meant for me that he was all what is good and of course, God is love.  

To experience divine love there is no need to practice any kind of meditation, worship or rituals. Selfless love (Prema) can be obtained only by complete absorption in spirituality. It was for this reason that Sri Krishna declared in the Gita: "Surrender unto Me, transcending all rules (Sarva Dharman Parityajya)". Likewise, Jesus also declared: "I am the Path." Buddha, conveying the same meaning, declared, "Surrender everything" (Sarvam Sharanam Gachchami).

Being Recognized as a Devotee

It is not enough if you claim to be a devotee of the Lord. The Lord must recognise you as a devotee. Only then does one's devotion acquire value. Bhagavatam and other scriptures demonstrate how this kind of dedicated life can be led by any person who wishes to be devoted to the Lord. No one should feel that it is beyond his or her capacity to surrender themselves completely to the Lord. If there is firm determination, this can be accomplished. It is only through earnest endeavour that Divine wisdom can be got (Shraddhavan Labhate Jnanam). Today the world is afflicted with the epidemic of egoism (Ahamkara). There is really no basis for this kind of self-conceit. It is born of ignorance. It has to be totally eradicated. If everyone realises that the body has been given for the pursuit of righteousness and acts on that basis, they will most certainly realise the Divine.

What to do if it is not enough to be a devotee of the Lord? It can bring up some other questions and we ask ourselves, what is a devotee really and how do we know if we are one or not? It can feel heavy to face those questions and maybe we just don't feel like it.

Why should we always think about it? 

We don't even understand his words and what about asking always questions? Knowing myself I would just like to think sometimes, not again, I don't feel like it just now. We don't even know why we went to him what about being that?

In our countries people are not convinced that there is something like a Lord and what about being a devotee of that Lord, nobody asks that question really, but we have to because we try to listen to his words. 

All that is present in the first sentence only and we have not yet even started the second one.

It is not enough if you claim to be a devotee of the Lord. The Lord must recognise you as a devotee.

In the second sentence we get to the point.

He has to recognize us as devotees, who - the Lord. After I went beyond the first obstacle in my mind that I don't want to think about it or that we live on a place where people question the reality of the Lord and now how to be a devotee or even how to be recongized by him as one and we don't want to be bothered about it, now we have to face another reality, he has to recognize us as devotees. 

If we don't want to think of the first sentence, how do we take care of the second one? We either just read it anyhow maybe we will get it somehow or later or we don't think about it at all and forget it on the spot again or the mind gets in a blackout and we find a lot of excuses why we don't listen. 

Only then does one's devotion acquire value.

The Process of Self-Discovery

Today we are celebrating Guru Poornima. The day is usually observed as an occasion for offering worship to the Guru (the religious or other preceptor). There are eight different types of gurus, who impart spiritual instructions of different kinds. Among these, the really important guru is "Vihitha Guru", the preceptor who removes the doubts in the minds of the disciples and reveals to them the process of Self-discovery and Self-realisation. The guru should destroy the darkness of ignorance (about one's Reality) and illumine the mind of the disciple. The illumination must result in the perception of the One Reality that is beyond name, form and attributes. No purpose is served by going in search of gurus. There is a guru in each of us. It is the Atmic principle. It is the Eternal Witness functioning as Conscience in everyone. With this Conscience as guide, let all actions be done.

Swami explains that there are different masters in that thought for the day, with different kinds of instructions.

We find it in his words in the study circle or the explanation of Darshan, it is removing the doubts in the minds of the disciples and he shows us the path to self-discovery and self-realization. 
In an interview he asked, 'why are you here?' We all didn't know the answer and finally he answered it and he said, 'self-realization'.

In the study circle it is about removing the doubts on the mind of people and that is when all the faces lighten up when those doubts are removed.

As the man coming in our dreams to awaken, he leads into the process of self-discovery. Even if it would only be about staying in touch as he made that inside connection, it results in self-discovery. We have to talk about something and what else would there be is in focus when it is about Swami but self-discovery by thinking over his words and that is what we find in listening to his words, self-discovery.

At the beginning I didn't know what to tell and he said, 'not at all ready' and then I began to write and wrote down what came in my mind without too much judging it but trying to make sense and he said, 'now ready'.

He is telling us here what we are doing and what it aims at if he comes as the man in our dreams to awaken, it results in self-discovery.

The study circle is about listening to Swami's words with others together and we share our thoughts and that also results in self-discovery, only the intensity is not as big as it is when we do it every day. People are not regularly and therefore, that growth they were talking about is relative, only if we keep doing it we get familiar with his teaching. That it is removing doubts and clarification of the ideal helps to understand it a lot.

The guru should destroy the darkness of ignorance (about one's Reality) and illumine the mind of the disciple.

The Soul's Journey to Realization

The relationship with the Lord is described as developing from Salokya (in the vicinity) to Samipya (nearness), to Sarupya (Form of the master) and then on to Sayujya (absorption into the Form). You can understand this clearly, if you take Salokya to mean, being in the kingdom ruled by the Lord, or as a servant in the palace where He dwells. You are under His fostering care. In the Samipya stage, you feel you are a personal attendant on the Lord, privileged to be near Him and to be called upon by Him for some personal service. You have neared the principle of Godhead, intellectually; you feel His presence ever, emotionally. Next, the stage of Sarupya is like being the brother of the King. He can wear the same robes. One has the splendour, the glory that bespeaks the full blossoming of the Divine latent within. Lastly, when you are the son, the heir apparent, you approximate as much as possible to the Royal Power and so, you can say, 'I and My Father are One.' These are the stages of the soul's journey to Realisation of the Oversoul.

This thought for the day is for me important as it talks about the brother of the king and it corresponds to dreams and insights I had about it, and he was the king when he left the body, of course it was the man coming in our dreams to awaken present in that way as the king.

Some of it as it feels like the core of it is in that thought for the day and it feels like bringing it together.  

Every insight has its own meaning and its own right and has to get to a right conclusion, he was also in the dream and said that he is the insight and the following step. 

The brother of the king we mentioned already and in many ways as it had been in the dream stage as brother. In these words is the right answer, it is about that brother, it is a stage in the progression of the soul to oneness or the oversoul. 

That oneness is in the Atmic principle and we talk always about that Atmic principle, because it is the basis and the answer to the spiritual question, 'who am I' and everybody has to answer it on his own level and in his own awareness.

It is all about oneness, he is the one, he is 'that' and as he always was telling us, 'I am God', with other words, the 'I' is universal and not identified with the body and 'that' is divine love and God. 

How to Listen and Think it Over

All the five elements have been created by the will of the Supreme. They must be used with reverential care and vigilant discrimination. Reckless use of any of them will only rebound on you with tremendous harm. Nature outside must be handled with discretion, caution and awe. It is the same with our inner 'nature' and internal instruments too! Of these, two are capable of vast harm - the tongue and one's lust. Since lust is aroused and inflamed by the food consumed and the drink taken in, the tongue needs greater attention. While your eye, ear and nose have single uses, the tongue makes itself available for two purposes: to judge taste and to utter word - symbols of communication. You must control the tongue with double care, since it can harm you in two ways. Patanjali, (The author of Yoga Sutras) has declared that when tongue is conquered, victory is yours! 

Thinking about five elements created by the will of the supreme feels for me the divine like a 'person' or it is rather a feeling of how to get it right and as I don't know, it makes me not like listening. It makes the thought come up, the will of the supreme, what is that? 

And we think maybe it is the way it is translated and it should be said in a different way that we can somehow relate to it. What is it that we don't know, about everything if we don't have the experience of it. There are texts I just cannot read it or listen to it, I get just tired and lose all taste for it when I just read a few sentences. 

But he is talking about care and discrimination. It makes us ware that we don't want to listen really, that has nothing to do with the words, but with listening in general. It is good to know that we don't feel like doing it. And it seems rather nobody wants to do it really and in that sense we can tell, okay that is why we feel like that, it is normal and it has nothing to do with the words, but with inner resistance. 

  

All the five elements have been created by the will of the Supreme. They must be used with reverential care and vigilant discrimination.

Selfless Love is just One

Selfless Love is just one, in the same way Divinity (Brahman) is also not manifold. That is why scriptures state, "Ekam Eva Advitiyam Brahma"! That means, God is One and is the only One without a second. If we choose to understand the oneness in everything, we must seek to understand that oneness by recognizing the latent Divinity (Brahman) in different living beings that come into contact with us. Simply because you acquired a human form, you should not think that you are only human in nature. Your external form indicates that you are human. Never forget your inner self, the real aspect of Divine, who is firmly present in the depths of your heart. When God is firmly present within you, is it right for you to put up pretenses and false and inappropriate appearances? If under these circumstances, you begin to exhibit desires and show distortions, it will be doing injustice to this permanent aspect resident in your heart.

Selfless love is one only and we can ask why it is one. If there is selflessness it is beyond the body and the mind and that is for all the same selfless love. We experience that selfless love when we are sharing his divine words and we think it over or when we are singing as all sing for the same divinity, it is the same love and that is how we are able to melt in that feeling of love and it is a means for us to realize that there is only one love. As soon as there is no difference, as we know it from consciousness, when it is manifest we have lots of forms and names, when it is none-manifest or pure consciousness it is for all the same, there is no difference in our inner experience and that is why we merge in a state of oneness, only with meditation we don't get aware of it, it is just on the being level inside in silence, but it doesn't manifest as love and being one in love as it does when singing Bhajans.

It is none-conceptual, but not just on the being level, as we experienced it with meditation, but on the feeling level in the heart. It is easier to realize the non-conceptual reality on the being level, we just sit and meditate and go beyond the thoughts and in silence, that is easy, we don't need to realize that when we sit together and sing for the divine that there is one love for all, selfless and pure and therefore, there is only and without a second.

In silence we experience it as good, positive energy, but it is not the same as getting aware of the oneness when we are singing, when we merge all in a feeling of love we get aware of Swami's presence and divine love. During Bhajans we sing for the divine and we feel that love and when that love is there, there is also a feeling of oneness, but we need to be inside awake to get aware that all merge in that same love or oneness and that is the man coming in our dreams to awake us who takes care of that part, he makes us aware that we are one and how it is happening. If we see it because the man coming in our dream to awake us in our dream as, 'I am the One', we know that there is only one God and that there is no difference between the I and the One, but we have to listen again and again and again and we have to see it in our own life to get a feeling for it and to be able to understand it.  

There is only one and always the same one and the only one without a second.

Selfless Love is just one, in the same way Divinity (Brahman) is also not manifold. That is why scriptures state, "Ekam Eva Advitiyam Brahma"! That means, God is One and is the only One without a second.

Learn to Give, not to Take

When we look at the Avatar of Narasimha, we get a feeling of terror. When Lord Narasimha appeared, it looked as if Prahlada was standing in a corner full of fear. At that time, Lord Narasimha looked at Prahlada and asked him if he was afraid of the fearsome figure which had come to punish his father; but Prahlada explained that he was not afraid of the Lord as it was the sweetest form one can comprehend. He said that he was indeed happy to be able to see the Lord. The Lord then asked why Prahlada was afraid. To this Prahlada replied that he was afraid because the divine vision which he was then having was likely to disappear in a few moments and he would soon be left alone. The fear which was troubling Prahlada was that God will leave him in this world and disappear. Prahlada wanted to ask God not to leave him. God's divine vision and divine beauty are such that only his devotees can appreciate.

Swami talks about divine vision, the lion known as avatar. He is also an avatar and somehow explaining to us how it felt for his devotee to meet such a terrible looking and fearful figure. 

He said that he is the man coming in our dreams to awake us. He was quite often present as that man coming in the dreams to awake us, but once he had two Baba faces, one with very long sharp teeth like a vampire or like the lion and the other with a very long nose, it didn't feel like terror. In that aspect of Narasimha the teeth are very much like that, very long and sharp and when thinking it over we get a feeling for it and also that it makes actually much more sense for an avatar to be like Narasimha. We know that the vampire is a negative symbol and more the sign of demons, but Narasimha is exactly that avatar who came just because of that reason to kill the father of Prahlada, who had tried already in many ways to kill his son, that is the story of Prahlada. 

It was a so called Baba dream and not used to see him like that with such big teeth, it was not very scary when I had seen it in the dream, but it was not able to forget it.  

It was not about understanding yet. It was far away from listening and thinking it over yet, it was just part of the reality we had to face and what was reflected in the dream was not that nice actually, it was more than a warning, looking back at it it was very scary actually.  

Four Categories of Intelligence and Right Conclusion

There are four categories of intelligence — selfish, the selfish-selfless, the purely

selfless and Soul (Atma) based. The first category is always thinking of what is good for one's own self and makes decisions. It is like the intelligence of a crow. This is very common today in the world. The second category will think of one's own good along with the good of others. This appears as the ordinary way of life. The third, always thinks that others must get the same kind of happiness one wishes for oneself. In that context, realising that the human body is given for the sake of causing benefit to others; this third category of persons will always try to do good to others. The fourth category — the Atma Buddhi is always concerned with the aspect of dharma and the necessity for safeguarding it. They consider themselves as messengers of God; and forgetting their own selfish interests, always think of sacrifice and do good to the rest of the world.

In thinking about the categories of intelligence it made me first just remember experiences, but they had mostly to do with selfishness and it made all that come up because it looked that ridiculous in that light of intelligence and after a while it didn't feel anymore like intelligence, but the opposite, the absence of intelligence or what we also call 'stupidity'.

As the man who is coming in our dreams to awake us was present in the daughter's dream and told her that her father is 'stupid' and that he doesn't know what he is doing it was just about that. It is called selfishness.   

We also kind of enjoy repeating it as it was the man coming in our dreams to awake us who said it, it feels stronger when we repeat it and make him not forget what the man coming in our dreams to awake us said. 

It was the only thing that got to him and after all seemed to somehow work, even if it was still not easy going but incredible complicated. It felt like impossible to tell, impossible to share, no reaction no matter what was said really. 

Of all the possible words we could use to tell that one word it is totally stupid we found no words for it and it didn't work out, only when we said if he would not be that stupid, he would keep the promise as Swami always tells us to keep promises and that is the only way he could get aware of it. 

It was a rather long and unpleasant story made short, it was the word stupid that did it and finally I got the copy of what I needed to get, instead of just sending it and getting over with, it was a long, long, very, very long story to finally get it and it all has to do with nothing else but stupidity that is how we get it to the point. 

Everybody else we think would just have sent it and got over with the problem, but he created only more and more problems instead of doing it and not even when it was promised he did it. 

If he would have kept the promise it would have relaxed the matter, but as he is stupid he also didn't know that we always should keep promises and he didn't do it. So we had to remind him again and again until we didn't know how to tell it anymore as no words seemed to do it, but stupidity that did it after all. It was the first part of it. Swami tells us always to keep promises, if we don't do it we have a reason for it and if it is selfishness it will not end well.  

But the word 'stupid' did the job after all and we got it, we can still not believe it after all the time that has passed since the beginning of it and it is not pleasant and not nice and rather upsetting, it is always the hard way and not at all what Swami is teaching actually and we think we are in the wrong movie really, but it nevertheless happened and if we would like it to be different, it is not and we just can learn from it, but it is the example of the first category of intelligence what is called selfish only.  

Some things are just not that easy if it seems we talk a totally different spiritual language.  

If we listen to Swami and think it over we find the one facet that is from all side seen the same and that is what we have to find in his words and what we share in the study circle. 

There are four categories of intelligence — selfish, the selfish-selfless, the purely selfless and Soul (Atma) based. The first category is always thinking of what is good for one's own self and makes decisions. It is like the intelligence of a crow. This is very common today in the world. 

Spiritual Listening and Divine Presence in the Heart

Many venture to describe the attributes of God and proclaim Him to be such and such; but these are but their own guesses and the reflections of their own predilections and preferences. Who can affirm that God is this or that? Who can affirm that God is not of this form or with this attribute? God is inscrutable. He cannot be realised in the outer objective world; He is in the very heart of every being. Gemstones have to be sought deep underground; they do not float mid-air. Seek God in the depths of yourself, not in tantalising, kaleidoscopic Nature. The body is granted to you for this high purpose; but you are now misusing it, like the person who cooked his daily food in the gem studded gold vase that came into his hands as an heirloom. Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, but ignores His Presence in oneself!

We had a nice sat sang last night. For the study circle we were only a few people, but it was still the best. The text was so beautiful and we remembered even some text we had before about patience it was also that incredible just to listen. We were listening and in the study circle we do an effort to think it over and to see it in our own life. It is not a sharing of our problems, it is thinking over his words. 

Someone talked about a strange interview she had and they didn't understand it really and one guy he planned to go to Kerala and he called them in the interview and it felt also like that, real strange he mentioned that daughter she didn't have, but behind was the lady who had a daughter and she said, 'I have no daughter', so the lady behind said, it is my daughter. And so the interview went on and it felt total strange, but nevertheless totally like him, it took some heaviness away, so serious people, not in the sense of serene what is good, but heavy in the mind really, how it felt listening to it and it was just lightening up. If we listen to divine words we lighten up, the energy gets transformed into a different type of energy and that is just a wonderful experience. 

We had a weekend and talked about study circle and the problem is if we are in a circle we listen to everybody one after the other and we don't interrupt, we listen to everything, but sometimes also not to the right thing and by the time it was my turn I was already fighting my impatience and I said, study circle without listening to Swami's words is no study circle. But it went on they were talking about the weekends topics and that was about conflict management and we went on talking around not getting to the point really.  

And that was actually our subject, in the text was Swami and the right answer. So I focused on that text and the issue to get to the point in question and if we don't, we will not get a right conclusion, only nobody listened. When it is limited to the point in question, it doesn't expand and we can still enjoy the good experiences, only that conflict is limited. That is a great thing if we are able to do it, if we are even able to recognize that it is a conflict and we don't just think it has to be like that and it is part of it, what seems to be mostly the case and a wrong conclusion.  

"Conflicts happen, but they should be limited to the point in question, the subject of the conflict and not be extended to additional words and feelings. If the conflict is allowed to escalate, the anger will intensify, bitter feelings are coming up and a huge hatred it will evolve. On the other hand, the love begins at a single point, and when it is enabled it will spread until it has fulfilled the entire life of that. This is spiritual truth. If there is conflict and disharmony between two people, they leave it out and do not allow the conflict to continue to expand, then settle down in the long run both parties, and in their relationship can get harmony. The worst what can happen is when the conflict is indeed latent persist, but not continue to grow and no other people involve. "

Dedication to True Speech

Whoever one may be, in whatever condition, if one gives no room for dispiritedness, if one has no fear at all, and if one remembers the Lord with unshaken faith and without any ulterior motive, all suffering and sorrow will fall away. The Lord will never enquire at any time the caste to which you belong or the precepts or traditions that you follow. Devotion doesn't consist in wearing an ochre cloth, organising festivals, performing ritual sacrifices, shaving off the hair, carrying water pot or rod, matting the hair, etc. Instead, the characteristics of devotion are: a pure mind(anthah-karana), uninterrupted (whatever one may be doing) contemplation on God, the feeling that everything is the Lord's creation, and therefore a) non-attachment to sense objects; b) the embracement of all in equal love; and c) dedication to true speech.

How do we not give room for dispiritedness? 

Whoever one may be, in whatever condition, if one gives no room for dispiritedness, if one has no fear at all, and if one remembers the Lord with unshaken faith and without any ulterior motive, all suffering and sorrow will fall away.

If we think, relationship between the body and akasha (heart), we don't even get aware that it is about discrimination, but we do it and repeat it, because we want to fly, we have to get light and that is in the lightness of the cotton fiber (Patanjali sutra). 

On that level cannot be any dispiritedness, we go on doing the sutra, no question about it, we practice. It is not about fear and we don't have the problem with faith, we just do it, if we want to go beyond the mind there have to be all possibilities and without lightness we don't go beyond the mind.

That is why he is telling us that the Lord will never enquire at any time the caste to with we belong, of course not, we just have to get light and that happens also when we breathe in light and keep it in the heart and we breathe out darkness, that is Soham as he also explained Kundalini and as well the flying sutra with Prana, energy, we breathe in light and we keep it in the heart and we breathe out darkness. 

It is the same and therefore, we did it already and we know it. If there is no pure mind and uninterrupted it doesn't go beyond the mind, as he is telling here, no matter what if it is contemplation on God, the feeling that everything is God, it has to go beyond the mind and that is only possible if it is unlimited and that is why they think everything is God, but non-attachment to sense objects is the body level, we have to with a pure mind beyond the body.

The Lord will never enquire at any time the caste to which you belong or the precepts or traditions that you follow. Devotion doesn't consist in wearing an ochre cloth, organising festivals, performing ritual sacrifices, shaving off the hair, carrying water pot or rod, matting the hair, etc. Instead, the characteristics of devotion are: a pure mind (anthah-karana), uninterrupted (whatever one may be doing) contemplation on God, the feeling that everything is the Lord's creation, and therefore a) non-attachment to sense objects; b) the embracement of all in equal love; and c) dedication to true speech.

A new Beginning and the Beginner's Mind

Ugadi is the beginning of a New Year. You have celebrated many Ugadis, but have you given up your bad qualities? Do not limit the celebration of Ugadi to merely putting on new clothes and partaking of delicious food. Today you may wear a new shirt, but how long will it remain new? Our life is like a newspaper. Once you have finished reading a newspaper, do you like to read the same newspaper again and again? You have been given this birth, and you have gone through varied experiences of pleasure and pain. Pray to God to take you across this ocean of life and death, and grant you liberation. True Ugadi is the day when you give up bad qualities, fill your heart with love, and take to the path of sacrifice. Stop criticizing others. Respect even those who hate you. Hatred is a bad quality. It will ruin you. Hence get rid of this evil. Love everyone.

The beginning of New Year and he reminds us that we have celebrated many New Years and talks about giving up bad qualities. 

What are bad qualities? Sathva is new in the beginning and a good quality. We should feel it and understand the Gunas, the tendencies of nature, sathva, rajas and tamas. We could call it as he said yesterday dedication to true speech with natural law. 

It is the understanding of the tendencies of nature in every word. What is new is in that sense good, what is old is not good, but that is of course generalized. If we don't want to generalize it we have to look at it in ever situation again and see if it is true or not true, but that is basically the common understanding level in the vedic culture. 

How can we be dedicated to true speech, we have to consider the difference between sathva, rajas and tamas and we have to listen to the self-realized authorities, because they mastered it, it means it is always right and never not right.

In a new year everything starts new and have we given up the bad qualities? 

As it is new we begin celebration with new cloths, that is the same idea, it just has to be new and we enjoy good food, maybe we wear a new shirt, but tomorrow it is not new anymore.

The same is our life if we see it out of a view that knows sathva, rajas and tamas. It is like a news paper, what today is new is tomorrow no more. We read the newspaper only today and we put it away on the pile of old paper.

 Ugadi is the beginning of a New Year. You have celebrated many Ugadis, but have you given up your bad qualities? Do not limit the celebration of Ugadi to merely putting on new clothes and partaking of delicious food. Today you may wear a new shirt, but how long will it remain new? Our life is like a newspaper. Once you have finished reading a newspaper, do you like to read the same newspaper again and again?

The Origin of Pride, Ignorance and the Feeling of Duality

What is the origin of pride? Is it knowledge? No! It is ignorance. What is the cause of ignorance? It is the feeling of duality. Where did duality originate? From attachment and hatred (Raga and Dwesha). What is the origin of these two? They are the products of circumstances. How did circumstances come about? Through Karma (past deeds). What is the cause of Karma? Birth! Thus be clear that birth is the cause of all sorrow. Only by seeking freedom from birth that you can free oneself from sorrow. The opportunity of a human birth must be used for realizing this supreme goal. The duty of parents is to set children on the right path from their early years. They should not hesitate to correct them and even punish them when the children take to wrong ways. The best way parents can show their love for their children is to do everything necessary to lead them on the righteous path.

In these words is the origin of bad qualities explained and it can make us aware of our own life experience in a different way. 

What is the origin of pride? Is it knowledge? No! It is ignorance.

If we listen, really listen, we hear that it is a duality 'feeling', not a thought. The question is how that feeling of duality comes into being. It is a feeling and it is that feeling that gets us into not right conclusions. 

We don't know that we don't know, we don't question it, we go ahead thinking we know and the origin is the feeling of duality? 

How does it feel? We don't like to feel such feelings like hatred and attachment. Attachment we are probably not aware of and hatred is something else.  

It is a new explanation of Swami, as often a surprising was of getting aware of it when thinking it over. 

He often mentioned identification with the body. We don't know how it feels to be identified with the body, it is the 'I' level and we are it and if we think we know, we are wrong. How is identification with the body on the feeling level? 

We cannot know as long as we don't know the opposite, we don't know how it is to not be identified with the body. Swami is making us aware of it in Darshan, the sight of truth, or what we experience in Darshan as the reflection of it as he is beyond the mind and the body feeling.

What is the cause of ignorance? It is the feeling of duality. Where did duality originate? From attachment and hatred (Raga and Dwesha). What is the origin of these two? They are the products of circumstances.

Transformation and Freedom from Pain

It is the foremost duty of students to transform every activity of life into one of strength and beauty. But unfortunately, the education system of today fails to nourish the qualities of wholesomeness, unity and love, which are the hallmarks of true education. Students must realise that their lifespan is fast melting away like ice, whether they care to improve or not. Students of today are blind to the goal of life; many do not even feel the pain of not knowing the purpose of life. Only one in a million strives to realise the essence of life. This striving is the steppingstone for the realisation of the purpose of life. Many people feel that the acquisition of food, clothing, shelter, wealth, conveniences, and comforts constitute the very purpose of life. Life remains a tragedy as long as people toil under this kind of delusion. The day you realise the purpose of life, you undergo a total transformation, from agony (vedhana) to freedom from pain (nirvedhana).

He said in the dream quite some time ago, 'I am in Africa' and now we watched in the meeting which was about leadership at the weekend a video clip about someone who is in Africa. It made no sense before, but now it does as they don't think they have to listen to him, they listen to successful people really and that video clip instead of Swami. 

The quotes were mostly from books from good devotees, so called leaders probably and only once he said that Swami has all that planned that we meet here and people were laughing and I thought how childish and like Kindergarten.

It felt after a while sick being part of that bla, bla, bla only and him organizing and all is his really but no words or Swami or quotes or even a Swami video. We read everything else but Swami. 

Engaged Uninterruptedly in Contemplation of the Lord

Spiritual aspirants must carefully understand the distinction between the conduct of the ordinary (sahaja) person and spiritual aspirant. The ordinary person has no fortitude (sahana), is conceited (ahamkara), and is full of desires related to the world, through which the person is trying to have a contented existence. Aspirants engaged in contemplation of the Lord (Sarveswara-chinthana) as ceaselessly as the waves of the sea, accumulate the wealth of equality and equal love to all, and are content in the thought that all is the Lord's and nothing is theirs. Unlike the ordinary person, the spiritual seeker won't easily bend before grief, loss, anger or hatred or selfishness, hunger, thirst or fickleness. Aspirants should master all good things as much as possible and journey through life in fortitude, courage, joy, peace, charity, and humility. Realise that tending the body is not all-important, and bear even hunger and thirst patiently and engage uninterruptedly in contemplation of the Lord.

Do you know how to carefully understand? If we think it over, we do actually. There is a way we can get to the right answer. 

What is the conduct of an ordinary person and the difference to a sadhaka, a spiritual spirant? An ordinary person has no interest in spiritual issues, right? 

Spiritual aspirants must carefully understand the distinction between the conduct of the ordinary (sahaja) person and spiritual aspirant.

Swami is telling us about the difference. And how can make sure we understand it so that we get to correct understanding? We know the principle.

Truth is threefold, if we think about a circle, we know in the circle is a triangle, we need to be aware of it working with a circle or with truth, it is about the circle, the circle is the symbol for wholeness and truth. 

We get to the insight by doing it, by practicing. If someone is arguing, there are two and not three, if there are two only we get to half a circle only. Swami explained in the interview, 'you and I are We. We and He is I'.

You and I is 1 and 1 = 2 - it is geometry. It is one point, two points, 3 points, the triangle, 

I and you are we. 

It has to become a circle.  If there is only one point and another point we have a straight line segment between two points and that results in half a circle. 

Kundalini Yoga and Breath Control

While doing Kundalini Yoga, people practice breath control. In the breathing exercises, inhalation is described as Purakam, exhalation as Rechakam and holding the breath as Kumbhakam. These alone do not constitute the means to achieve yogic power. To breathe in all that is good is Purakam. To give up all that is bad is Rechakam. To retain in the heart what is good is Kumbhakam. Every human being must practice this divine type of yoga; in fact this must become your primary goal. Puttaparthi is a small hamlet. How has this village attained this eminent state? You can find the answer for yourself. It was not merely a great piece of good fortune or a lucky accident. It is due to the power of thought. Every sacred thought has the power to find fulfilment. Hence scriptures declared: "As you think, that you become (Yad bhavam tad bhavati)". Develop good thoughts and naturally you will be entitled to the right of its fruits.

The love we felt with was that big, it was an incredible love and it felt like it felt the whole universe and in our evening in the center with our study circle and followed by Bhajan singing, coming back there was just 'that' in the air, that much love and the memory of that energy in his presence, it came by surprise, but it is about advaita, we have that theme now for the second time in our circle and that energy flow has definitely to do with the positive energy level we keep and I was reading, but I didn't really get into it and I was watching TV and didn't focus, I didn't see any of it and I was writing about it and that still the best, at least we could express it in that way.  

It was actually quite difficulties to take it, it felt like too much and also it came by such surprise that I remembered again the amount of love which had been in the air in his Darshan and the amazing insight that this energy  was present again without that we had been seeing him. It means it got activated by the study circle and the Bhajan singing afterwards, it is the result of just good and positive energy. 

I was thinking only about that time yesterday in his presence and how we felt and how beautiful it was, but also that we can experience it in our own self if we get to the ground of advaita. All I knew is that I had never experienced that much love before.

  

While doing Kundalini Yoga, people practice breath control. In the breathing exercises, inhalation is described as Purakam, exhalation as Rechakam and holding the breath as Kumbhakam. These alone do not constitute the means to achieve yogic power. To breathe in all that is good is Purakam. To give up all that is bad is Rechakam. To retain in the heart what is good is Kumbhakam. Every human being must practice this divine type of yoga; in fact this must become your primary goal.

Love and our Full Potential

Develop the quality of love. Fill your entire life with love. This was the prayer which the Gopikas addressed to Krishna. A life without love is utterly barren. You are the embodiment of love. Love has to be directed towards what is true. Such love must be your life-breath. Embodiments of the Divine Atma! Esteeming love as the essence of Divinity, you must engage yourselves in loving service to society. Why is it that so many lakhs of people have gathered here today? There must be some compelling reason for it. You must be seeking something which you have not found in your native place. Here there is Divine Love. What has drawn all people here is the power of Divine Love - that is the bond uniting hearts. At the root of all this is purity. Where there is purity, there love grows. When purity and love come together, there is Ananda (bliss). Whatever work we do, whatever sacrifices we perform, they are not of much use in the absence of love.

Last night was study circle followed by Bhajans. We were eight people and one lady was the first time in the study circle. When we are more people we had to see that everybody has the opportunity to tell something. Usually we go around in the circle without interrupting and that is important that everybody get the chance to talk and it is shared by talking about it and working out that facet from which it is always the same. We don't worry about discussions, they are used to it by now and it works out and sometimes it even gets heated up and last time there was moment when some talked at the same time we had to say something and so I had to mix in as well just a bit louder that we get back on the divine words. In the meantime we got used to it and putting the attention back on the fact that truth is threefold, no use about arguing and our standpoint, it is just about truth and the text we are sharing and the principle is after all the same, it is the Atmic principle, the 'I am that'. It is the question why we were with Baba already years ago and it is all about, 'who am I', and the reason we went there is self-realization and the answer is in the 'I am that'. How do we make that experience of it?