Temptation to ignore Dharma

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Desire for the Self is Freedom of Desires

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

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

 

: Upanishad - Swami Krishnananda

 

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

 

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

 

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

Psychic and Dreams

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

The Heart and Stability

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

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

This has to be contemplated as stability.

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

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

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

Amazing wisdom we find in the Upanishads. 

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

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

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

Now, the Reflection and topsy-turvy

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

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

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

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

The Lord knows Best

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

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

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

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

All are beggars at the gate of God.

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

Baba 

What is the primary goal of life? 

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

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

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

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

The Secret of Peace

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

Meditation and the Mirror of the Self

 

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

Know the Truth

There is no use arguing and quarrelling amongst you.

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Do you know what he is talking about?

 

Examine, experience and then you will know truth.

 

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

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

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

Creeping at Tortoise Pace

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blurred through Exhaustion

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

The Skill of Balancing vs. Perpetuum Mobile

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

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

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

A never ending Story

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

The right Compass and the Track

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)
 

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

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

Love transcends the ego

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How to get rid of body consciousness?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Screen, the Watcher and the Lesson

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

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

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

Stuck with wrong Beliefs

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

The inner Voice

You need not even read the Gita or the Upanishads.

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

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

And it is a great inspiration.

How my Divine Life began ...

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

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

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

Idiocracy vs. Mission

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

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

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

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

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

Baba

 

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

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

 

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

Sleep and Death

Death involves certain developments that weaken and extinguish life.

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

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

 

Sai Baba quotes of death

 

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

 

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

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

Baba Dream and American Dream

Dreams are nothing but reflections of the subconscious mind.

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

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

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

Sai Baba Dreams

 

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

Immortality and how we get there

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Focus was my aim.

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

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

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

Hunger and the right Food

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

Beyond Pleasure and Pain, Tapas

What is Kriya Yoga? It comprises three parts. Patanjali says tapaha.

 

1. Tapas is endurance, acceptance.

 

Say you are traveling in a plane; it is a long-distance flight. You are sitting and your legs are getting numb. You are tired but you keep sitting. You feel heavy but still you keep sitting. You cannot say, "Oh! I cannot sit now. I am going to get out of the plane". No way. If the plane is delayed, held up in the air, you have to be there. There is no choice. Now, if you had a choice, then you would not sit for eight hours like that in one place. No way. But in a plane, you sit, accepting it willingly, without grumbling. That is tapaha.  

 

2. Swadhyaya - is being alert, self-study, observing the thoughts, emotions and where the emotions come from. Where do the thoughts come from? What is happening inside you? Studying yourself is swadhyaya.

 

3. Eshwarapranidhana - means devotion to the Divine, love for the Divine. These three things make up Kriya Yoga. What does it do? What do they all do to you?

 

Kleshatanukaranarthascha- they reduce the suffering. They reduce the misery in life.  Samadhi bhavanarthaha- gives rise to samadhi, equanimity.

 

link:  Patanjali Yogasutras

 

That is what it is really called, Tapas, we have no choice anymore.

We said 'yes' to it and went on that flight and now we sit here and have to go by it, that means Tapas.

The non-conceptual Absolute and the conceptual Relative

You are the Formless (Niraakaaram) come in the form of Man (Naraakaaram), the Infinite, come in the role of the finite, the Formless Infinite appearing as the formful infinitesimal, the Absolute pretending to be the Relative, the Atma behaving as the body, the Metaphysical masquerading as the merely physical.

The Universal Self is the basis of all being.

The sky was there before houses were built under it; it penetrated and pervaded them for some time; then, the houses crumbled and became heaps and mounds; but, the sky was not affected at all. So too, the Atma pervades the body and subsists even when the body is reduced to dust.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How to understand with the heart and not the mind? We automatically understand with the mind and intellect. If Baba tells we are the formless, he talks about a non-conceptual reality, but we call it anyhow formless and it is defined by the difference to that what we can perceive with the senses and therefore, conceptualize, the form.

It is like thin air, we cannot see it but we know it is there. The same with consciousness, we know it is there, but we have no real concept about it like with air.

How do we experience consciousness?

It makes one Swell with Pride

One may know the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita by heart, but trust Me, the time that was spent in learning by rote and reciting it, is all a waste, if one does not resolutely act upon even a single verse. It is not the resolution that matters; it is resoluteness. Resolution is just a string of words.
In fact, that learning might even be a handicap as that skill can affect the head and make one swell with pride.
The price of sugarcane is fixed according to the sugar content in it. You evaluate oranges in proportion to the juice they contain, is it not? So too, one is worthy of honour in proportion to the knowledge of the Self acquired. 

This knowledge alone can confer steadiness, strength and real happiness.
Baba (thought for the day)

The time we utilize to memorize the text if it is that much, it is waste of time, because it is more important to put it into practice.
It is not just the intention of it, but doing it, doing it no matter what. Learning by heart takes time and effort, but if the text is not applied, what it the use of it? How can we take care to put it into practice?
There has to be perseverance and patience to observe. If we realize that we are the watcher, we are on the level of never changing truth. The observer is the mirror and therefore, not different from the watcher.

As Baba said, follow the master (inner master), fight to the end, finish the game.

Running behind the Dog's Tail

The silence you maintain in temples and devotional congregation must be carried over to wherever you go.

It must be taken as an exercise in the control of the senses.

Senses always are exterior oriented. The tongue should not talk evil. The eyes should not look out for evil. The ears should not seek evil.

The presence of God in every being makes everyone holy. Thinking low of others amounts to thinking low of God. You must always cultivate the feeling that God is the Father and everyone around you are brothers and sisters.

This brotherhood is more real and binding than the blood brotherhood, for here the paternal property for which you struggle can be shared without the share of the other being diminished in any way.

Poornasya Poornamaadaaya Poomamevaavasishyate - When the Full is subtracted from the Full, what is left is still Full!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

At work we had a few wrong alarms at the door and lots of excitement about it. It goes directly to the police and if they arrive for nothing, it costs a lot. Still we have to keep the alarm going during daytime for whatever reason.

It always happened in a certain moment and somehow the excitement took over and I got into it. I noticed it only after asking a question and there was no answer on that level, it felt strange.
In that moment I went back to silence.
We are not aware of it, but it is present and we get aware of it when it is no more there. It felt real strange to get involved on that level with that person and getting aware of it, it was like getting involved. That was passion.

All Mantras are Okay

To observe a very small particle, you need a microscope; to see a remote object clearly, you need a telescope. These areyantras or instruments. The instruments that help you visualise the Core that has such contradictory attributes of being minuter than the minutest and more magnificent than the most magnificent, are called Mantras - formulae that save you when you meditate on them.

They are also called Tantras (ceremonies and rites) when their practical application has to be emphasised.

Faith in the efficacy of these Mantras, in the utility of the procedure prescribed, and in the existence of the Core - all of these are essential for success in the great adventure of acquiring the ultimate knowledge; just as faith in the efficacy of the instrument, in the correctness of the procedure, and in the existence of the material one is seeking to know more about, are essential for the scientist.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

An instrument is a mantra. But it doesn't mean anything to us if we don't have the experience. It is like talking how nice strawberries taste, we have to make the experience to appreciate it.

But if we get that experience, we get aware of the thought process and how to observe. It is an inside world and we get to the level which is smaller than the smallest and what do we find - love.

Why mantras can save us?

Practice alone counts in Spiritual Matters

Each heart is a Dharmakshethra (a warfield of righteousness), where there is a constant battle between the forces of good and evil. Why, the whole world is a Dharmakshethra. Hence it is very essential that every single child and mother, each and every one of you be devoted to Dharma (righteousness).

The holy Bhagavad Gita begins with the word,'Dharmakshethrae' and in the final chapter appears the phrase "Sarva Dharman Parithyajya", meaning 'give up all Dharma'.

The significance of this is that through Dharma, you have to transcend Dharma.  

What is needed is the steadfast practice of righteousness. Scholarship and wealth are often burdens, they are indeed a handicap.

Practice alone counts in spiritual matters.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Now practice is understood as right direction.

And we have to transcend Dharma. Actually, we have to transcend everything. If we talk about the object which is searching for its reflection to merge, it is also transcending. It is transcending when it merges.

The Golden Rule, Patience and Dynamism

You cannot say, "I am going to have a quick meditation! I have no time!" Not possible.

So this path, the middle path, the golden path, wherein you are enthusiastic, you are in a hurry, at the same time, you are patient. You are patient, at the same time you are not lethargic. You are not postponing things. You know, often when people have to do something good, for their personal development, they say, "If God is willing, I will do it. If God is willing, it will come to me".

They leave it to God, when it comes to one's practices and development.

When we have to do something in the world, they do not say, "God willing I will build a house or if God is willing, I will make a relationship".

You do not do that! You look for a relationship, you look for a house, look for a job, look for money.

For all this you put your hundred percent, but, if you have to do something for others, you say, if God is willing it will happen.

Many people do that, at least in India. I think it is the same everywhere. If God wills, then it will happen. It should be the other way round. So, patience and dynamism. That is the golden rule.

 

link Artofliving Patanjali-Yogasutras

 

This is the clinch, isn't it? We get that inside reflection in dreams and it wakes us up. Okay, that is great.

We know it is not possible to go for a quick meditation, we meditate and if there is no time, we can shorten it, if we do it always the same length of time like twenty minutes.

We have to learn that golden path, we are both, in a hurry and patient.

I have met that feeling once during the time with my ex, he made me feel lethargic and it scared me. I couldn't get out, I could go nowhere, there was no solution, there was no way out and at the same time it didn't work.

The Baba Lila seemed for nothing, not one dream he understood or inquired about it, only that I had to go and make peace with Baba, that was clear because it was an action and he could blame me for it, that means it happened, it changed.

Practice is the real Thing

Practice is the real thing that matters in spirituality.

Scholarship is a burden, many times a handicap even.

So long as God is believed to be far away, in temples and holy places, one will feel religion a burden and a hurdle. But install Him in your heart and you feel light, burdenless and even strong. It is like the food basket – when carried on a shoulder, it feels heavy. You are too weak, even to carry it.

But sit near a stream and eat your food from the basket– though the food weight has not decreased, you feel stronger and joyful. That is the consequence of taking the food in.

Do likewise, with the idea of God. Do not carry it on the shoulder, take it 'in'! The scriptures teach, "God is verily the Life-breath, of every soul." So practise to live in His Glory, in His Memory, in His contemplation, every single moment of your life.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Practice is Abhyasa. It cannot be technique, because it has to be the way as described before.
Baba talks on the level of all religions and therefore, he doesn't comment the Patanjali Sutras, but it is still the same message.
If we are in touch with divinity inside we do it spontaneously right. If we know the observer, we have that dedication.

The main thing is to install him in our heart and for that is practice needed.

Day Dream or Night Dream

There are only two states of consciousness. One is deep sleep or dreaming: day dream or night dream. Throughout the day one dreams, "Oh, what will happen to me?

Or I will do this, I will do that." Building castles in the air.

However, once you know that you are day dreaming, that very moment a gush of energy overtakes you; you become alert and that alertness wakes you up to the reality. You are awakened.

That awakening is prajna, samadhi. That moment alone you are fully alive and awakened to the truth of what is. Rest of the time, it is all sleep. 

Patanjali Yogasutra

 

The discrimination is about day dream or night dream.

That is why in looking at our dreams we actually wake up.

All that inner seeing in the dream state has to do with reflection.

In the dream state the mind is not functioning and therefore, it is not telling, but that is not possible, therefore, the dream is a reflection and if there is a higher reality we learn from it. 

Baba called it super conscious state and samadhi.

But as I got used to it, he began also to be in the waking state and said, 'I am hungry and you'?

My Life is my Message

Three fishes lived in a pond. One told the other two that the water was drying up and they should leave before it was too late. 

The first fish decided to leave the pond immediately, the second said it could save itself when the contingency arose and the third fish ignored it. In due course, the second and third fish were caught by a fisherman. 

The second fish managed to break through the net and escape, the third one resigned its fate to destiny. 

God of Death, Yama is the fisherman; unless early notice is taken of the process of drying to which the tank of one's lifespan is subject, one gets caught. 

Migrate into the sea of Grace, which will not dry; or learn the art of breaking through the net of death. 

Discard sloth and slumber, denounce fanaticism and make yourself a dedicated servant of the Lord. 

Then all strength, joy and Grace will be showered on you.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

It was about turning it into light and God. It was like that in the reflection in the dream. 

Atman reacts, reflects and resounds.

Highest first - Wisdom first

Divinity expresses itself infinitely as the five elements – the sky, the wind, the fire, the water and the earth. All creation is but a combination of two or more of these in varying proportions.

The characteristic nature of these elements are sound, touch, form, taste and smell, cognized by the ear, the skin, the eye, the tongue and the nose.

All the elements are abundant in Nature and are precious and potent with Divinity. So use them in moderation, reverentially, with humility and gratefulness. 
Excessive or inappropriate usage will injure your well-being just as drinking more or less water than needed is a torture. Inhaling more air is suffocating. Fire in moderation can warm or serve to heat and melt, but beyond a certain limit, it is a holocaust. Even excessive use of sound will distract people and drive them crazy.

Hence, learn to use the natural resources intelligently, in moderation, with the idea of loving service to all in the community.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

This is exactly what happens to me when I read the thought for the day and it reflects the issue which was there a day before. Divinity expresses itself in the elements, sound, touch, form, taste and smell, cognized by our senses.

Helpless and Hopeless

When the seven colours of the spectrum come together, the effect is 'no colour'; when they stand apart, the seven colours can be separately identified. The betel nut is brown, betel leaf is green and the chunnam (slaked lime) is white, but when you chew these three together, your tongue becomes red.

When the three blades of a ceiling fan revolve fast enough and no blade is separately noticeable, they give cool comfort. So too only when the different qualities of Sathwa, Rajas and Tamas are unrecognisably integrated, one can be happy.

When the three gunas are equated in sadhana (spiritual practice), the result is peace. The lamp is the sathwa guna, the wick is the tamo guna and the oil is the rajo guna. When all the three are integrated, they give the light of wisdom, which illumines.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Seeing those colors is kind of a different awareness. Who wants to see the color if he feels as I do in the moment?

Expand and Care

Just as the body is the house you live in, the universe is the body of God. An ant biting the little finger of your foot draws your entire attention to the spot in a split second, and you react to the pain and make an effort to remove the tiny enemy immediately. So too, you must feel the pain, the misery of the people, in the society around you.

Pause for a moment to calculate what good you have done to the society that is helping you live your life comfortably. Do not fritter away your talents in profitless channels. You should not be a burden on others, or an enemy to your own self.

Expand your sympathies to serve others, who stand in need, to the extent of your skill and resources. Be kind to all your kith and kin.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

It is kind of comforting to think of that universe as body of God, sometimes I see it rather as a scary monster and I don't know how to calm down.