Meditation - Soham

                   

 

Listen more, Listen to your Path

God is an incredible thing.  For you are God.  Listen more, you know, to your Path. Listen more to your Way. The quotes from the great Masters, they are not meant to be followed. They are meant to inspire you and remind you of your freedom to your Path. 

You are a Christed One. You are Ordained. For your birth, just as the butterfly is once a crawling, and then it is a flying, so you are ordained naturally. The Path of a butterfly, it is not taught. The Path of a Christed One cannot be taught. Meditate, and Pray, and Chant to fall in Love, with You. Dance, and laugh, and sing to your crazy music, to fall in Love with that feeling of You.  And give that to your world. Give it freely. Give it, and give it, and give it, and give it, and you will never find the enemy. For you have the access forever to Love, and you will forever be Loved. "

Mafu

This daily quote tells us a lot about listening. It is more than just listening to words, it is listening to our path. It is not only listening to one, but it is listening to all the great masters. How do we listen to our own way and by that get aware of it? We listen to your own way and we should listen to the quotes of the great masters. 

They are meant to inspire you and remind you of your freedom to your Path.

Baba was in my inner view during that time in the ashram and it was an inside personal interview, he mentioned those interviews, but as we were not used to listen, it was not possible to realize it. He had opened the door to the interview room, there was a golden light and he was all in white. He asked, why I was so old and not yet married and he said, don't worry I will take care of it. For Indian standards I was very old, in the West we see it a bit different, but it felt good to know that he cared, even though I must have understood it all wrong.

Baba tells, without enthusiasm, courage, devotion, energy, readiness and sincerity can nothing be achieved. 

Joy is in Doing, not in the Result

Your duty (Karma) has to be done righteously (in dharma). Those dominated by ignorance (Thamas) do their duty solely for the sake of the fruits thereof and they resort to all sorts of subterfuges in order to gain the results they desire. For this category of people, the end justifies the means. 

Those dominated by passion (Rajas) are proud and pompous, and boast that they are the doers, the benefactors and the experiencers. Those dominated by qualities of calm serenity (Sathwa) do their duties regardless of the fruits thereof and leave the result to the Lord. They will not worry whether it leads to success or failure, ever conscious of their duties and never of their rights. As a matter of fact, there is more joy in the actual doing, than in the result that accrues. This attitude must be the experience of every true seeker.

Baba (thought for the day)
 

If we listen carefully to Baba's words, what is needed to understand it, he tells us, if we are fruit directed or work for a result, we are dominated by ignorance (Tamas). We do the duty only for the sake to gain the result we desire. 

It means to understand it we have to think about the difference between Tamas, darkness, ignorance and Rajas, movement, activity and passion and Sathva, light, purity and knowledge. 

Your duty (Karma) has to be done righteously (in dharma). Those dominated by ignorance (Thamas) do their duty solely for the sake of the fruits thereof and they resort to all sorts of subterfuges in order to gain the results they desire. For this category of people, the end justifies the means.

Remove the Thorn with another Thorn

Treading the Spiritual Path (Sadhana) is very essential because the effects of karma have to be removed by karma alone, as a thorn can be removed only by another thorn. You cannot remove a thorn by a knife, or a hammer or even a sword.

The knowledge that the world is unreal was spread by great saints and noble souls, who realised the Divine. But great saints like Shankaracharya persisted in activity in the unreal world, through the establishments of mutts, writing of books and participating in difficult debates. This is to illustrate that you cannot desist from doing karma. However, you must take care that it is saturated with love and promotes the welfare of the world. Soak yourself in Love and purify your thoughts and deeds with Love, then the Lord Himself will awaken your higher consciousness!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

I had translated that story of Shankara and it was amazing and uplifting and he went into all those difficult debates and always out of it as the best.

To see it as an example how we have to go on doing activity in the unreal world, I hear today also for the first time. That is why we are writing, trying to understand it and we have to do Karma, it means action, but it should be right action, saturated with love. 

Distribute Love from One to All

Intellectual scholarship is not very essential for a spiritual aspirant. Develop bliss not by merely mastering difficult scriptures but by cultivating love which begins in your very own home and family, and spreads to all creatures in the Universe.

Put down the sharp edged weapon that seeks to analyse and chop the arguments of the opponent, cutting the other's point of view to pieces. Take the delicacy of love and distribute it to one and all; win over recalcitrant hearts and give joy to all.
That is the path of love, along which I shall lead you and guide you. God knows your name, your degrees, profession, status and past, and reveals Himself to you many times, only to satisfy you and give you a glimpse of His love, so that you can mix it with a little of your own and make your life joyful.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Develop bliss by cultivating love in our own home and family. It sounds easy if it would not be difficult. 

Maybe it is only in the beginning difficult, we remember that the Devas and the Assuras (demons) were churning the milk ocean of the universe and first was not nectar, but poison emerging from it and Lord Shiva was drinking that poison. Therefore, I guess in the beginning we just have to go through that stage of poison, whatever, we don't lose hope at least we did our best, we hope, even if that beginning stage never seems to end.

Love and the cultivation of it. 

Love-Incarnate, will Reveal Himself

The Dual or Non-dual approach to Divinity (Dwaitha or Adwaitha) are not distinct; they are stages of mental transformation. The fruit is the same; the sun and soil make it ripen through the intermediate stages of raw, tender and mature fruit. The day you realise that the Lord's address is as specified in the Gita: "Ishwarah sarva bhutanam, hriddese, Arjuna Thishthati (O Arjuna, the Lord is in the heart of every being)", that day you would have truly attained Him! 

To realize the Lord in every being, you must cultivate love and drive out the bats of hate, envy and malice that infest the dark caverns of your heart. Let the light of Love illumine your thoughts, your words, your activities, your movements and your judgements. When you are transmuted into love in this manner, the Lord, who is Love-Incarnate, will reveal Himself to you.

Baba (thought for the day)

In fact in my experience total non-dualism is not understood at all, at least not here. 

Dwaita or duality is the first step to get to the experience of oneness. In our every day life we live in multiplicity and we first have to get to the concept of duality to be able to merge and therefore, he calls it here the same.

If we do not have had an experience of unity experience, we don't know what it is.

The mind cannot grasp it, because it is the experience of the heart. 

I wonder what I imagined when I met in the ashram a so called devotee who said I belonged to him. 

Today knowing that it was the wrong answer and it had nothing to do with him at all, I wonder how he could just stand there and tell me, he knew, because that it the way he could take advantage of it. 

But I know what I hoped for and that feels kind of funny. I hoped for a friend or a man, whatever. 

I hoped for someone who would try to get the answers with me, I had to get, because I had to get answers. 

Disperse the Clouds in Training the Mind

The Sun is up in the sky during the day. It is the passing clouds that hide it from your vision sometimes, is it not?

Similarly, the sensory world is the cloud that hides the Divine (Atma), ever shining in the firmament of your heart. The same mind that gathers the clouds also has the capability to disperse them in an instant! The wind gathers the clouds from all quarters and renders the sky dark. Sometimes, in a few moments, the same wind can change the direction and send the clouds in a scurry to wherever they came from! Then, the Sun becomes visible. So your mind is all powerful. Train it to disperse the clouds, not to gather them. Every aspirant must accomplish this training of their minds by following rigorous and systematic discipline.

Baba (thought for the day)
 

The metaphor of the sun is the light of the higher self and the clouds are related to everything passing by. Mind is all what is relative, what has not lasting value and it is about desires, because they have no lasting value and that includes thoughts of money and riches and rich friends. It is hiding the sun from our vision, if we focus on that, we cannot see the sun.

The sun is the higher self and everything else is passing by. It is the screen. Without that light we are not be able to see anything. 

Everything around us is the sensory world and we cannot see the Divine, it is what we don't see. We can see it shine in the heart, but only if we live focused on the heart qualities and not the mind.

Doubt leads to Perdition, Spiritual Ruin

There are two very important statements in the Bhagavad Gita, which you must take to heart and profit from: Shraddhavan Labhate Jnanam (The one steady in faith gains wisdom and liberation) and Samshayaathma Vinashyathi (Doubt leads to perdition, spiritual ruin). Dwell on these axioms and practice the spiritual disciplines of repetition of the Lord's name and meditation on His form. Gopis of Brindavan yearned for the Lord with purity in their hearts and attained union with Him. 

You too must fill your mind with His beautiful form and contemplate on the glory of the Lord. Then you can attain Divinity.This is the pursuit that is worthy, not the pursuit of fame, nor the friendship of the famous.

Baba (thought for the day)

Steady faith gains wisdom and liberation. Doubt leads to perdition, spiritual ruin. 

To practice that and to inside aware of it, that was quite some work. 

Yesterday we had a relaxed study circle and finally I enjoyed it very much. 

As had as it seems to get aware that my worldly family is not on the right level, and it was kind of painful to get aware of it, I looked at our circle in the light of, 'here are my real brothers and sisters'. 

It means spiritual level. 

It was great and it is always different, but this morning waking up was like new born. I woke up this morning in joy. It felt great, like something very great had happened and it reminded me when we woke up and went to Baba's Darshan and how simple and beautiful my life felt at that time and how we were waiting for Baba and sitting in the rows and finally when he was standing there looking at us before he came to see people, taking here or there a letter or he gave some vibuthi to someone and all were streching out their hands and wanted als some. 

And after Darshan I sat usually there and waited until Bhajans began, during that time I was mostly in meditation and only after Bhajans I went for breakfast. Or we went to have a coke or an ice cream and usually we met others at that place, we sat and talked and enjoyed being in the ashram. It was such a beautiful time. 

It Lies in the Vision you Command

In the present times, it is impossible to find virtuous people or virtues holding sway over people's minds. People have lost the fear of a fall and become worse than animals. 

During previous centuries, Rajput women immolated themselves rather than fall into the hands of wicked foes. When Hanuman offered to take Sita back to Rama, the virtue of Sita would not allow her to accept the offer. She said that it would best suit her husband's fame if he himself avenges the wrong and rescues her. Hanuman's taking her, would be a repetition of what Ravana did, for he too stole her secretly while Rama was away. She did not consider her immediate relief as more important than the implications of that step to her virtue and her husband's fair name. It all lies in the vision that you command, that you have equipped yourselves with.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Now virtue issue was a real challenge in my life. I was writing a diary and it felt like self realization and what was required was self-control. At that time I was sixteen. 

I was very sure that I wanted that. And I hoped to find a way to keep that direction and I was hoping I would be able to write. 

That was during the time I waited for the neighbor and we went for long walks together, is was mixed between adventure and attraction, but we had ideals. For me it was a question if that relationship could be seen as serious or not. That fact that there was a feeling of self-realization made it holy and sacred. 

And while I was still hoping that it would go on, something changed. He told me that he wanted to marry a school teacher, probably he knew her already or had understood that she was a and I don't know if he knew her already, but she lived in the same village, only three years older. Until then my life seemed quite normal and okay, but he left from one day to the next and was never seen again, but he still was in the neighborhood. What seemed to be just a nice relationship and friendship until then, was gone. 

That is when nightmares began and I didn't know why, but I stopped writing my diary. 

Be warned! Do not run after Devious Desires

Be careful to not engage yourself in Iccha Krishi (the cultivation of wants and desires).
This is a never ending process of sowing and reaping, you will never reach contentment. For, one desire, when satisfied will fan the thirst for ten more. Be warned! Do not run after devious desires or crooked satisfactions. All roads leading to the realm of the senses are tortuous and blind.
Only the road that leads to God is straight. Cultivate straightforwardness (Neethi) in your every act. That will reveal the Divine in due course. It will also enable you to overcome your three Gunas (Rajas, Sathwa and Tamo). Just as you grind chilly, salt and tamarind to get a tasty dish, you must grind all the three Gunas so that the taste of Ananda (bliss) emerges.
Baba

If we cultivate wants and desires, it feels all familiar to read it, that was the level I had met with my ex and unaware of it.

I talked about truth and thought that the ideal mattered a lot and he would help me to find that or we would do it together, but I guess that was all not possible, because I was not aware of the background and that is abuse and violence in my family.
We had met in the ashram and he agreed to everything, because it had to look ideal as he only took advantage of it, what Baba said in the inner view.

How to get Unaffected and to Bliss

It is the internal bliss that should matter to any person, not the external, sensory, objective and the worldly temporary joys.

If you can develop the inner poise or equilibrium that is undisturbed by the ups and downs every day presents to you, that is a sure sign of real success! Everyday is similar to the previous days, with the rising and setting of the Sun and the waxing and the waning of the Moon. However, when 365 days are over, we call it a New Year and give it a new name and number. The Sun and the Moon mark ascend and descend of the day. They are however, unaffected by the name or the number for the day or the year. Be like the Sun and the Moon.

Do not care about the new name or the number, but do care about your duties, your inner poise and bliss derived from within yourself!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

We can develop the inner poise or equilibrium only and get undisturbed by the ups and downs every day if we know what this is all about.

Once Baba asked me how I felt and I said, 'fine, Swami' and he answered, that is not true and because I looked at him surprised, he said 'up and down, up and down' and he told me that I had a naughty mind.

I tried in vain to get beyond the ups and downs, even though I meditated always more and more.

In the mean time I know that it is not possible to keep that level of equilibrium and undisturbed being, if we are not aware of what happens to us.

Property and Fame are but for a Fleeting Moment

An old grandfather of seventy was asked by his seven-year old grandchild, "Grandpa! How old are you?" and the old man replied, "Two!" The child was struck with wonder and looked a picture of doubt. The old man replied, "I have spent only the last two years in the company of the Lord, until then I was plunged in the marshland of pleasure seeking." 

Only the years that you have lived with the Lord have to be counted as life, the rest are not worth counting. Know that all this wealth, property and fame are but for a fleeting moment. Develop attachment for the Lord, who will be with you wherever you go.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How do we spend in company of the Lord? Are you constantly in meditation repeating a mantra in your thoughts, what is actually not possible? 

After my first interview with Sai Baba and after he said that TM was not the right path and that I should only think about God, I wondered how to think always about God and I tried to never forget the OM. My first reaction was, I repeated the mantra in my thoughts, but of course, that didn't work.

Even if we meditate with Soham, the sound of the mantra is OM and that is what remains during deep sleep if we wake up in consciousness. Always thinking of God means we have to wake up in our consciousness, it is not on thought level. 

If we are constantly with the Lord we live in the present.

We have to discriminate between passing by values and reality which is always the same. The present is always present, we are constantly living in the present every moment new. If we think about the past and go for future projects we are not in the present, but in the mind. 

Past and future go together and reflect the state of duality, unity or total non-duality is a state of presence.

If we live in that state, our past is just a reflection and our future we don't know, we just do the best now.

Perverted - Reason, if it comes in the Way of that Love

Scriptures are only road-maps; at best they are guide-books that give directions for the destination. It is the actual journey that will reveal the hardships, the delays, the land-slips, the potholes as well as the beauty of the scenic route on the way, and the magnificence of the destination. No secondhand account can equal the firsthand experience! The symbols on the map are interpreted differently by different scholars according to their preconceived notions, predilections and pet theories. 

If you acquire Love, then you can dispense with the Scriptures; for the purpose of all the Scriptures is just that: to create the feeling of Sarvajana samaana prema (equal love for all), and to negate egoism which stands in the way. Reason too, if it comes in the way of this love, is to be discarded as 'perverted'.
Baba (thought for the day)

Years ago I went with my old mother for a visit to the younger brother. He was in hospital, had always problems and he was kind of chaotic. He was talking about strange stuff. I wondered why mother wanted me to come with her, probably she didn't want to drive there alone. 

After that visit in my dream the inner master said, that he does the worst he can do. As usually situations reflect later on, every object has its own refection and if we don't get it, it takes some time, but somehow it will be there later on.

I got worried and spontaneously asked, what he did? 

But he didn't like it when I was asking. I don't remember what he answered, but for sure not what I had in mind. Anyhow, I wanted an answer or a feedback and usually it takes time to get there. 

I guess I mentioned Baba and he didn't like it, even though he had been married years ago to a lady who was spiritually inclined or maybe be cause of that he has totally changed and turned into the opposite. 

My concern was to understand it, to get some kind of feeling for it. 

Baba also said years ago in my dream, that I should take care of my brother. And as he had begun with TM many years ago, he didn't do it, I don't remember, I have probably even initiated him. That is how it went on and I tried to talk to him and noticed, there was no use, every word I said was turned upside down and it got only worse and not better. 

Illumined by Devotion and Intution, but no Peace

Intellect loves to revel in discussions and disputations. Once you yield to this temptation, it takes a long while for you to escape from its shackles and move on to enjoy the bliss, which you can attain only from its nullification.

Your feelings and emotions warp your thought process, and convert reason into an untamed bull. Always be aware of the limitations of reason and logic. They must give way and yield to devotion.

After a point in time, your spiritual path must be illumined by devotion and intuition. Hence, be aware – your intellect can help you only for some distance along the Godward path. Very often, egoism tends to encourage and justify one's actions, for a person is led along the wrong path by one's own reason, if that is the path the person likes! You often come to the conclusion you want to reach! So make a careful choice on the path you tread!

Baba

 

What is the difference between discrimination, which is the first step on the path and discussions and disputations?
He calls it the first step, discrimination. The second step is to see it in our own life and the third step we have to go on no matter what obstacles are there, that is called Tapas, spiritual work.

It has nothing to do with discussion and disputation. Baba calls the posititive side of the intellect devotion and the ill intended logic which puts everything in question is here meant with intellect.
For us in the West as we work mostly with the intellect and not the heart, that is difficult to understand. We think discrimination has only to do with the intellect, but it has to do with heart as well, it is the heart that leads to that discrimination between the eternal and the ephemeral, it means we accept that 'God' exists and develop love for God, pure love.

We think with the heart and discriminate between the real and the not real.
We cannot discuss about it, because discussion creates doubts.

The fact that I couldn't understand it right and use my intellect without feeling bad, resulted in trying to find answers on a place I finally couldn't find any. I went into a relationship and trusted someone who said, he knew, because I knew that I don't know.

Essence and Food

There is no point in distributing the essence of spirituality (adhyatma rasa) to underfed and weak people; give them food (anna rasa) first, make them strong enough to entertain strong beliefs and contain strong ideals. Physical hunger must first be appeased by simple and pure (sathvic) food.

Then the repetition of the Name of the Lord must be undertaken; it can be any name that appeals to you the most. Do not treat the Name lightly. Respect it even if you hear it from the lips of a beggar, who uses it to procure alms. Though the person who utters the Name is bad or though his motive in uttering it may not be noble, do not ill treat the Name for its purity can never be harmed. Thank them for reminding you of the Lord and go your way.
Baba (thought for the day)

 

We discriminate between food and sathvic food, that is vegetarian food and food for the mind and meditation in mental purification. If we meditate, the mind is purified. That happens when we repeat the name of the Lord or a mantra, as any divine name is okay, so is every mantra okay.

But there had been a doubt about it, therefore, Baba mentioned it that all mantras are okay after a group meditation in the ashram. We met and meditated before Darshan and he took the group in the interview room. He talked about 'Soham', we watch the breath and listen to its sound, inhaling it is So ... and exhaling it is Ham ... It is the sound of the universe, the OM and if realized it is always present, also during sleep, it is the inner awareness that is not lost.

Meditation should be like cleaning teeth, we just do it to purify the mind. As we take a shower to keep the body clean, we meditate to keep the mind clean. If we don't do that we get entangled in the mind game.

After I began with dynamic meditation for a while I didn't sit anymore silently and I guess I got the reaction later on as loss of strength and energy. With dynamic meditation the body became more important, I also was careless about food and I guess it was not replacing the quality of silent meditation and after it hit it said, stop dancing. There was a time I also didn't silently meditated, but I began with Qigong and that was also not great and finally it was Amma in my dream, she said that I was travelling over China back to India. That was clear enough, I began again to sit and meditate.

Who sets the Example of Discrimination and Detachment?

For the wisdom of discrimination to dawn on people, elders must first set an example in discrimination and detachment. If they run after sensory pleasures with feverish excitement, how can the youth be blamed for their selfishness and greed?

The elders must practise what they preach, show how a divine life confers mental poise, joy, contentment and harmony. They must spend at least some time everyday in the recital of the Lord's Name or on Meditation. Then, children too, will imbibe that atmosphere and acquire peace for sure. Today, many speak with full passion that there is nothing as sweet as the Name of the Lord, but they do not repeat it at all. Children will easily discover the hoax, if one neglects their own spiritual progress on the path, but preaches it. The accountability of those who profess the spiritual path is great and must not be undermined.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

It makes sense that elders should set an example in discrimination and detachment, but we have to look for those elders in the West.

I have not found one until now who fits in that picture. We think elders to have more experience and we need experience to develop discrimination.

They do run after pleasures with feverish excitement, not only the youth, but also the elders seem to go for selfishness and greed. It was like that in my own family and it is like that all around us. We don't have that knowledge and nobody is preaching it.

The elders should practice what they preach.

I was with TM and the national leader was just an actor, and he was personal staff of the yogi and all the others are puppets and the master is not present, therefore, the source got lost, the West took over and changed the knowledge in the end it is not okay anymore.

Baba talks about the elders, but not even the yogis do it.
The West seems that corrupt it changes the mind of people, but not for the better, but for the worse.

I have been with Osho and did an inner child course with probably the most successful sannyas in that movement. They seemed close to the master, also American, chaining people to his work, there have been chains in the inner view and she came and told me even in the dream that they earned millions with that work, with chains and the inner child work, choosing people to do that work.

He belongs to the elders and something like close to the master. 

And isn't it the same with devotees? Is having interviews a sign of devotion and being close to him? Yes great, until we meet death inside and notice that it is nothing but the ego and greed. In the inner view was a whirlpool, that is greed and there was death, an empty hooded black guy, the inner master said that he did that, not only once, but twofold, I guess mind and body, that is not divinity, that is not light, but it is the opposite. 

That are the elders of the West, the devotees, the sannyasins, the meditators, not one was until now real of all those people I have met.

He will reveal Himself to You

Many of you often come to Puttaparthi or visit other holy places. You hear scholars expounding the scriptures. You have observed great and noble souls. What is the benefit? How have you improved by all this? Have you succeeded in at least recognising your rajasic (passionate) and tamasic (dark) habits and tendencies? Recognizing them as deleterious is the first step in removing them. Have you become more and more serene and poised (Sathvic) as the years go by, or are you the same dull or perhaps fiery individual?
If you must know the Lord, you must love the Lord and lead your life with good conduct. Hatred or even indifference will result only in misunderstanding. Develop close association with the Lord and He will reveal Himself to you.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

In our last study circle there was the question about 'sathva' and it was kind of surprising to notice that it was not known or understood. There was the question, what is meant with 'sathva'. Is it a good question?
Certainly, because we cannot get aware of it if we don't inquire about it. But if we have no idea about 'Sathva', we also do not know the difference between 'Rajas' and 'Tamas'.

We observed great souls? The first step is discrimination and that means to get aware of the difference between Sathva, Rajas and Tamas, the great souls are established in sathva. 

If we are not aware of the tamasic and rajasic tendencies, we cannot remove them. 

But looking around here, it feels like they talk about God and love and after there is nothing anymore and not even the knowing where to begin with. They try to feel love, mind level. If we try to feel it - that is not permanent and not based on truth. And as we looked at discrimination first, one said, 'discrimination for sure not, it is about unity' and it sounded convinced, she said it loud in the circle and it was not her turn. We get to wrong conclusions, if we do not enough thinking it over. 

It feels like people try to understand it, but they stop when they hear God and love and afterwards they try to feel love and unity and that feels to them like the opposite, as they relate discrimination only to the head and intellect, that we can know the difference with the heart, that seems kind of far away, but it is seen with the heart. We are just not aware that the heart has the quality of discrimination.

That means there is also no feeling for the difference between mind and no mind or Atman, because they try to feel love. It has to be a permanent state and that has nothing to do with trying to feel love. And they are that uncertain that most of them do not go for meditation. But there is development in singing and Bhajans, some are playing instruments and we have great singers, that is developing the heart, but it seemes understanding it is far behind.

And as it is in the heart, we have to know the influence on the heart level. 

The Art of Enjoyment - Dance into Freedom

Parents and teachers must see that children learn good habits and attitudes in their formative years. What is read from books must be contemplated upon and reflected upon in silence and quietness. This is a very good exercise in intellectual development and in the acquisition of mental peace. The instinct to quarrel and fight over any and all misunderstandings must be regulated and sublimated. You should not cause children to suffer mental anguish or physical pain! Children also should not enjoy the infliction of pain on any being. They must be brought up with a sense of responsibility. They should be taught not to take delight in showing off their dress, ornaments, status or wealth before the less fortunate. They must be taught from early on, habits of personal cleanliness and most importantly, the habit of prayer at regular hours.

Baba

(thought for the day)

Bhajans is a wonderful way to make the experience to be in the present, to get out of the mind and to not allow the mind to take over during the singing. 

Knowing that Atman is only presence and if we notice during singing that our mind is still preoccupied in our projects or thoughts, we can let go and flow with the sound, it is also a way to get into the feeling. If the focus is not on the voice, but on the self, realizing we are all the same, we also don't get tired, we can start at any point new again, because it is all the same. It is a great experience of good energy to stay in the presence and as there are people singing together, we really can get energized by that. 

We usually feel the presence of Baba. If I close my eyes, it is like the beautiful times of Darshan, in my minds eye I see him walk around and giving Darshan to people, the sweet center of it or he is sitting in his chair and is listening to the Bhajans and it is a great feeling realizing that if two or three are in his name together, he is in the midst of us. 

Whatever disturbance in the mind which is always preoccupied with thinking about something, the future projects and the past, we can just let go and just be in the present. That is a very good exercise and being aware that Atman is in the present only and that the mind is constantly keeping us inside busy thinking about something, preventing that we can live fully in that present, if we know that and realize it, we of course can help the mind to calm down. I usually notice when I am not enough in the sound, when I begin to get bored. I am not enough into singing but in the mind. 

Women and Happiness

The women of a country should be happy, healthy and holy. Every woman has a very crucial role to play in their individual uplift and the uplift of their homes and societies around them. 

Young girls and women alike should learn the technique of mental calm, social harmony and contentment with their livelihood. They should also know that joy can be attained only through service to those in need and in distress without any expectation of the benefits that may follow from the kindness shared. They should learn to lay aside the egoism that poisons the service activities. Even those serving for years tend to extol and promote themselves as the founders of institutions and guardians of the poor and needy. The benefit and joy from any act of service is the act itself. The fruit of service is the removal of egoism, not its multiplication.

Baba (thought for the day)

Thinking of young girls first I remembered the school girls sitting nicely and for hours waiting during Baba Darshan. 

That is when Baba told her in the dream, that her father was not knowing what he was doing and destroying himself and if she would go back to him, he would destroy her too. Before he had asked her in the dream if she would like to go to his school, but we had not time and space to even reflect on it afterwards, it was just out of question. Without support and with a hostile father, who didn't know what he was doing, it was not possible to stay and we had no time and room to look at it. I had to go back and begin new, find work and I couldn't leave her alone with Baba, not if I had at least some time to spent with her until she got used to it.

That means she was growing up in the biggest city in our country and she is in competition with all the other pretty girls of this city, they all want to look as good as possible. The weekends she gets out at midnight and comes back in the morning, that is her type of service and that is what youngsters do here.

Grief is Illness and it has to be Cured

If only the culture which is based on the Vedas, and expounded in the Ramayana and the Bhagavatha, is practised with a true understanding of its value, people can ensure for themselves perpetual joy or bliss. The Vedas exhort: Sathyam Vada; Dharmam Chara (Speak the truth; practise righteousness). What is Sathyam and Dharmam? The Ramayana and the Bhagavatha reveal this knowledge through story and example so that anyone, however poor or illiterate they may be, can understand, practice it and benefit by it. 

Grief is the illness; it has to be cured. The medicine is prescribed in the Vedas; it is taught in the scriptures; it has to be discovered and taken in; then the experience of bliss will certainly follow. Of this, there is no doubt.

Baba (thought for the day)

That is the illness which has to be cured. The reason is carelessness and not living Baba's teaching. 

Westerners go to him, take advantage of it, feel good, because he is only love, go on cheating, abusing, lying in his name, to get their desires fulfilled, because they go to him with new age attitude that if we just wish, it will become true. 

It is practically based on a naive concept of wish fulfilling thinking which has no reality in it, based on level confusion and if it doesn't work as they tell it should, we will get the answer, 'can you blame me?' And if it doesn't work out for us and the family, they will tell, that is your karma, your mistake. 

They destroy your life and don't even get aware of it. That is my experience of American devotees going to Baba. 

I have met nothing more foolish than the new age ideas which think they just can wish and think about it and it will be there, not based on reality, the whole thing understood on the wrong level. 

This guy was swearing by everything what was holy to him that it was true and it was not so. 

That is Tamas, upside down, but it is still kind of a shock to realize how people live the opposite of what Baba is teaching and are not aware of it and still think they are Baba devotees. 

The Vedas and holy scriptures teach to rather die and sacrifice for someone else than to cheat, to hold up high other lives and low our own, to always be ready to give and to sacrifice. 

If we go and live Baba's ideal and meet others and find out later on that it was just taking advantage of it, makes everything turn into foolishness. He was thinking all desires will get fulfilled. But only until he had to do a self effort, afterwards he went to his sister's place and she should take care, as he was not able to do it ... 

He is about the worst example of devotee and perverted thinking. He was just taking advantage of it. 

The result is grief, and not healing grief, but it is causing grief.

So we went to Baba and instead of being healed of grief, we walked into it and the result - only grief.

The question is just how that had happened.

Reap the Harvest of Bliss

Even the best of doctors cannot save a person, when death calls.
Everyone has to necessarily respond to the call, whether they are a bride or bridegroom on a ceremonial seat or on a pilgrimage to a holy place. Death brooks no delay, death accepts no excuse. Tears do not move its heart, nor can threats keep it away. 

So plant the seed of any one of His thousand names that appeals to you, in the well-prepared soil of your heart. Let it sprout in the silence there. Water it with love and service to fellow beings; guard it against pests and cattle, which are the outward dragging emotions and passions. You can do this by erecting the fence of repetition of the divine name and meditation (japa and dhyana). Then, you can reap the harvest of bliss (Anandam).

Baba (thought for the day)

The main reason I joined the life music festival this weekend was to get rid of the negative energy which was in the air after talking to that person I had known long ago and who is working at one of those exit firms.
It was about death and it felt heavy and I had enough of it, because it always was in my thoughts again. I was sick of it and the best way to change the energy, if silent meditation doesn't help is to enjoy and dance together, at least in my experience. Of course, singing also could do it, but as I hardly slept the night before, I was just too tired to attend the meeting.

That were the reason I went to thoughts and going on such an event was a good way to change the mind. Anyhow as I didn't attend for a while, it was even for me a surprise, I just had enough of sitting at home and waiting for I don't know what ... and it was such a beautiful day, it would have just been a crime to stay indoors.
I am anyhow fed up of that waiting for I don't know what..., but actually that is not true and also just passion. We know we wait for the conclusion of a certain time period on the worldly level and on the spiritual level it will be the transcendence of time.
That is what we are waiting for, even if it feels sometimes like waiting for ... we don't know what. In reality we know why we are waiting and also we know for what, it is just difficult to describe and not possible for the mind to get it, because it goes beyond the mind. It is about transcendence of time.
As soon as possible can be now in two or in ten years ...

Health, Joy and the Treasure of Happiness

Often people seek health, not for its own sake, but to cure or prevent an illness. For illness means lots of grief, so everyone is after health, and health means joy. Truly speaking, everyone's native element is joy. When you are calm, you are naturally happy and you experience peace and contentment (Anandam, Prema and Shanthi). 

Just like a fish which is thrown out on the bank of the lake wriggles and struggles to enter the water again, every being is struggling to win calmness, peace, contentment and joy, every single day in their lives. Each and every one of you can win joy, only through your own efforts. Happiness is an inner treasure; the best way to win it is by practising detachment and discipline.

If you want to build a plan to live joyfully, you must first plan for Peace and Contentment as the essential building blocks.

Baba

 

Joy is still our nature also when we are sick, but when sick it is more difficult to experience it.

If we are in the mind we are thinking of the past expecting something better in the future. And it is a dream or an illusion, because it doesn't get better, it is just the mind.  

Listening yesterday to it that felt exactly like the experience I had with my father after his death. It hit as insight like a flash. You know how..., it feels like, 'that's it', for one moment everything is answered.

My father after his death came in my dream and wanted to show me something. He was at a dark place and he couldn't get out of it and the light was far away like a small star. I noticed that it was dark, but I still didn't get it why he couldn't get out of it, was it because of sickness or depression?
I didn't get the whole picture until yesterday. What he made me aware of is the reality of the mind.

And that how we get answers and understand our inner view as insight and cognition and not just a view without meaning. 

It is the picture of the mind.

There was a bridge built by mountaineering and work, but he was in the river bed and couldn't get out of it, that was sad, in the moment of death all that effort during his life was in vain.
The strong bridge he had built all his life was of no help in the river bed. It was just pain to see it and I remembered painfully how illusion was standing above his head when he planned to build a beautiful house in Spain and I didn't find a way to tell him and to warn him. When I wrote it to him much later it was already done and too late.

Witness and Transcendence of Time

There have been many manifestations of the Lord in Bharath. For teachers have to be present where schools are and where children eager to learn are found.

You cannot have the teachers in one place, and the school in another; the blackboard in one place and the bell in another. There are mica mines near Gudur; you cannot ask why they are not found near Peddhapuram. It is so, that is all.

So too in India, there is a rich mine of spirituality and so engineers have to come here to operate it, extract it and prepare it for use. That is the reason why more manifestations of the Lord appear here. The atmosphere here is also conducive for the practical application of new modes and methods of extraction and use for the benefit of all humanity.

Baba

 

Beautiful India, India is a rich mine of spirituality and the West can try and try to get it and they still don't get it.
There are more manifestations of the Lord. And what does he mean with the practical application of new modes and methods of extraction and use for the benefit of all humanity?

Baba is traditional, it is very old knowledge the 'Thou art That.

Today was beautiful weather and I decided to follow an email and to go to a weekend life concert, dynamic meditation for a change.

I have changed. Because some years ago going into dynamic meditation I was that focused on 'not this and not that', 'neti, neti', I couldn't let go. I had learned it was Baba in darshan and was in that time period and it had to come to a conclusion I guess.

I was scared to forget it again, that means I remembered it non-stop and went into that inner freedom, it is the best experience ever. And today I met more people than I have met in the last years all together. People I know from seeing, but I never was open for socializing.

I went and danced and that was the end of it, it was all about going beyond the mind and meditation only.

The Divine Spark will Vitalize us

Have faith in the Lord or the Divine Spark within you, it will vitalize you.

Some people bargain with God, they promise to give Him costly articles or their own hair if a certain illness is cured or a certain calamity is averted. Lord Venkateshwara or any other form of the Lord does not need your hair. Shaving off your hair indicates that you have lost the delusion that physical beauty alone counts. You take the effort to make yourself wilfully ugly and demonstrate that it is inner charm and harmony that really matters.

The hero is he who does not beg or cringe or flatter or fawn. He knows that the Lord knows best. If it is His will, He will grant food and raiment; if not, let His will prevail. That is the path of absolute surrender.

Baba

 

Life is the best teacher. And it is about inner view. It is not what we think it is. It is an illusion to think that inner view reflects on the level of the eye and our senses and that it just will be clear and all will be answered. Inner view is in our awareness, like getting aware of the difference between light and darkness.

With the inner view we get aware of the difference between Sathva, Rajas and Tamas. If we see something we think it is good in the inner view as the total opposite of good, we face the reality how we can make things look at the outside different than they really are, but we see it out of the inner view.

It is quite a challenge, it is the level of realization. We can also think it is a reason to celebrate that we are actually able to see that difference inside like that and that we can get aware of it.  

It is not about differences, it is about truth and it has to do with seeing and that is connected to light and colors.

If there is an ocean of light, there is also the opposite, the question is just how we get the experience of the ocean of light and how we get aware of the opposite.

It is the challenge to put inner seeing into words, what is kind of difficult, because it can lead to wrong conclusions and it can be misunderstood.  

If we take it as it comes and make the best out of it, we just go on no matter what obstacles are there, and if we still have to understand it, we have to go on, because that is meant with no matter what obstacles are there, even if it sounds strange that we go on, even if it doesn't make sense first, but we hope that it will make sense in the end.

Be in the World, yet Away from its Tentacles

Illusion (maya) envelops the good with the blemish of the bad. It makes evil glitter with the shine of the good. 

Discriminate to the best of your capacity and develop your capacity to discriminate. Struggle to win, that is the best that you can do. Your conscience knows well the source of joy and happiness. It will prod you towards the right path. You must take it as your guide and not disobey it, every time it contradicts your whim or fancy. 

There is no need for you to retire into a forest or a cave to know your inner Truth and to conquer your lower nature. As a matter of fact, you have no choice to exercise your vices there, so the victory achieved there may not be genuine or lasting. Be in the world, yet away from its tentacles. This is the victory for which you deserve congratulations.

SSB

Illusion is easier to understand see out of the extreme example of the past two days. In our today's so called modern thinking and especially in my country we have 'exit firms', sick people go the way of legalized suicide to end their lives and it is called dying with dignity. 

That guy I knew from ten years ago, when he went into health care education and I was impressed at his age, he was already about fourty.
I asked him therefore, if he had finished it and he said yes, but for some reason he had lost the job and now he worked occasionally and in that moment he mentioned one of those 'exit' places, but he said it was dying care and to me that sounded like completly different. 

Illusion (maya) envelops the good with the blemish of the bad. It makes evil glitter with the shine of the good. 

ABC, Always be Careful - the Dark of Night

You may be sitting on a soft cushioned sofa in a safe, air-conditioned room, but your heart may be burning with unspeakable anxiety, distress and fear. 

The body is akin to the cart and the mind is the horse. Now people give first place to the cart. The body and its needs are given more importance. This is incorrect. 

The sages have known the mine of bliss in the human heart, and have discovered methods to develop and excavate it. They have clearly spelt out that if Mother Earth (Bhoo-Matha), one's physical mother (Nija-Matha), the sacred cow (Go-Matha) and Mother Scriptures (Veda Matha) are revered, nourished and fostered and used as best as they should, then happiness is certain and liberation is assured.

SSB

We can say that we are sitting on a soft cushioned sofa in a safe room, but the heart may be burning with anxiety, distress and fear.

The last night felt also not okay and the reason was not as aware as the day before, it felt like I hardly slept at all. 

To get aware of the inner view and to see that a person we know and we believed to be spiritual, has death above the head, that is kind of awkward. It needs some thinking over it to understand it right. It was yesterday all day on my mind and it is still present today. 

The mind could get to all kinds of wrong conclusions. 

He mentioned that he did take care of dying people, but for me it was understood on a spiritual level as caring of someone who is dying or as hospital care.

But the reality of what it really was hit somehow at night in the inner view and it was not only one person but many and it was not about caring and comforting someone dying, but cutting short their life span. 

There are courses we can do to assisting dying people and some devotees do it as seva, it is possible to do it on a job base. 

I didn't ask him what he did, because I thought it was that type of care of dying. 

As I know now it was a wrong conclusion and at night in the dream the reality of his work was reflected with the right conclusion.

A guru takes care that we get to the right conclusion.

The Smile of Victory and the Lions

Why are you put-off when you see wrong?

Why are you provoked to react or respond when you see evil? Remember, evil has in it the potential to become good and good has in it the liability to turn evil! There is no fire without a wisp of smoke; there is no smoke, without a spark of fire. No one is fully wicked, fully infallible or fully perfect. Take the world as it is, never expect it to conform to your needs or standards. The treasure that is undoubtedly the most precious in the universe is the quality of equanimity and unruffled-ness (shantham). Practise this and make it your natural reaction. The Goddess of Victory smiles only on the heroic, those who make lions of themselves; those resilient, brave and self-confident warriors. If you secure the Grace of the Lord, then you will be reinforced with so much strength, that you can carry out even the most difficult tasks.

SSB

 

I have met an old friend, who works in health care and he is assisting dying in one of those exit places.

I was glad that we met and talked, but at night in the inner view it didn't look good at all. It felt very scary, it was about violent death and above his head was death in person in black with a reaper.

That is not the kind of inner view which gives us peace of mind. And if he would not have said that he works for one of those places, where we can exit life because we don't find it anymore okay to be alive, if we have reason enough and they call that dying with dignity. 

At least in the inner view it had not much to do with dignity, but with violence and death was above his head, how awful, how awkward. 

That was not a very comforting feeling. If he would not have said that he worked for one of those places, it would have been even more scary, because I would probably think that death will come and get him soon. But it was not about him, what was in the air is the group, many people died like that. 
And at the same time it was violent death, that means killing, if consciously or not, that is how it felt.

Sublimate the Three Gunas

Human beings are a mixture of Divinity, Demon and Human (Daiva, danava and manava).

The wickedness of the ogre can be overcome by the quality of mercy and charity (daya), sympathy and empathy. Pride can be overcome through self-control (dama), detachment, and renunciation; Egoism can be overcome by following the code of conduct (dharma) prescribed by the impartial sages, and by channelizing your instincts and impulses into fruitful action.

When these three Gunas are thus sublimated, Manava (human) is transformed into Madhava (God).

Make the best use of your Guru. Acquire from Him the skills for winning peace of mind and bliss (shanti and santosha), the Grace of God, the lessons of spiritual practice (Sadhana), and the fruits of good and holy company (sathsang); do not fritter away your energy and time, seeking sensory satisfaction in ungodly company.

SSB

 

The time when Baba was leaving the body I was in Prasanthi Nilayam and felt during the whole time nothing but scared. It was not on the level of a happy and joyful time we had experienced in the ashram before. It was heavy and first I wanted to leave and go sightseeing to just get away, as others did, but there was a kind of energy and I knew I had to stay.

It was that sad that I felt constantly scared. 

Already when we arrived we made a detour and it took a long time to get there, it was in the midst of night. The ashram was closed and tired from the flight, I went into a hotel room, I just had to sleep and it was in front of the big hall.

I had not been there for about eight years and it felt that different to the ashram I had been used to, it never felt normal and okay.

It was like arriving on a place I didn't know and somehow it didn't feel okay. Everything felt scary, that whole situation. Baba was in my dream and said, he would get me out of that in about a week time and that if I would not go to Bhajans I would miss it.

Therefore, I had to get up and went. It felt that depressing I didn't want to get up and go out of the door. It felt even scary to walk to the ashram door. It felt like strange people around, I had never felt that strange before and I was scared to ask for the room, we were donors and I also felt scared of people. And when I asked for the room, they didn't give me the room, because I was a single lady. That had made sense until now, but in this moment it didn't make sense, because of being scared of everything and also the people I would have to share the room with. It was kind of upside down. Because there was constantly that feeling of being scared in the air, I couldn't possibly be in a dormitory with eight women. So I staid in the hotel and it was every day difficult to walk to the ashram just to get inside.

Lost Taste, too Bitter to be Enjoyable

For you to relish the dish (pappu) it must have enough salt (uppu). But if you add a little extra, it spoils the dish. So too, life becomes very difficult to bear, if you have too much of desire. Limit your desires to your capacity and even among them, have only those that will grant you lasting joy. 

Do not run after fashion and public approval and strain your resources beyond repair. Also stick to your own code of conduct (Dharma) that regulates your life or the stage you have reached. Do not place your needs and joy first. Consider the joy of others as more important than your own. Respect elders and cultivate cordiality between brothers and sisters, teachers and students, employers and employees. Respect the culture of your land and bring honour to the land you were born in and live in. Nourish your parents, revere them. If you do so, the Lord of the Universe will guard you against harm.

SSB (thought for the day)

My ex eats nearly saltless, whatever reason. 

The time I knew him he liked the opposite, as spicy as possible. That is how it feels, life has lost its taste, too much waiting, too many obstacles and nobody cares.

When we didn't feel good in the past I went to Baba and felt better again. 

I never asked for material stuff like others did, because I had to get answers or I had to understand the conclusion of a time period. I was waiting and waiting and it went on waiting, that was the feeling of it and desires had anyhow no place, because I focused on the higher self. 

I knew it was possible to get the experience. Yogananda Paramahansa confirmed it in his book 'Autobiography of a Yogi' that it was possible and that was discrimination first, being certain that it is possible. That is discrimination, if we know that the higher self is there and, therefore, I went on waiting.

The only focus was to get that experience and it had to be experienced in my life, therefore, I kept the focus, but it felt very uncertain, I even stopped to read books, to watch TV, to be sure I would be focused only on 'that'. And third it means we have to go on no matter what obstacles are there.

Clean the Mind every Day with Meditation

The attachment to sensual objects and to the pleasure they give is like the soot that sticks to the inside of the chimney and dims the light. Clean the chimney by namasmarana (repetition of the Lord's name) every day and the flame will shine for you and others. 

Also do good deeds and be in good company. Proper atmosphere is very essential for the development of a spiritual aspirant. 

That is why spiritual seekers in the past left their homes and lived in the hermitages maintained by the sages. This is akin to keeping a pot of water immersed in water. That way, the water in the pot will then not be lost through evaporation. Therefore be careful, that the success you have won in the promotion of virtue, in the conquest of baneful habits and in the assumption of regular disciplines, are not frittered away by trite company, loose talk, cynical criticism or lackadaisical effort.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we repeat a mantra every day, we get more relaxed, experience silence and that is cleaning the mind. 

And it gets easier to analyze, right, if we see it with more inner distance, whatever, it should be easier to understand and especially if it is about higher knowledge. 

The proper atmosphere is more kind of a problem, because we live in a normal social environment, no ashram and no spiritual community. That seems to me sometimes too heavy.
As it is very important for spiritual aspirants to be in the right company, I sometimes just don't get it. In the ashram we were together, but it was not the same coming back and my family was gone, they went to Spain. 

I had always the feeling that there were only empty houses left, coming back here and I didn't know what I should do in that environment. 

It had to do with the family, but it was not clear why and it had to do with TM and that was also not clear why and it had to do with all the rest and that is still not clear.

The Light in the Dark of Night

In the dark night, the Moon can be seen through its own light only. The Lord is all Love, so He can be seen only through Love.

He is Sathyam and Nithyam (Truth and Eternal), and is beyond all falsehood (Mithya).

When the dust settles upon the glass of the lantern, it dims its light. Attachment to sensual objects and to the pleasure they give (Vyamoha) is the soot that dims the light of love in your heart. Remove the delusion and the fact that you have become old or diseased, or that you are weak and debilitated. Do not count the years and grieve over advancing age and shudder like cowards afraid of death. Remember, despondency is hell, elation is heaven. Have always some work to do and do it so well that it grants you joy!

Baba (thought for the day)
 

Have always some work to do and do it so well that it grants you joy.
That is probably the work I do here, just to keep busy. In the beginning it didn't make sense at all. But in the mean time I got that many insights by doing it, that there is no question about the value, it is great to listen, think it over and absorb.
It has to be seen in our own experience, our own life and that is only possible if we think it over and as he said yesterday, analyze it. It took me some time to go through all that stuff coming up in the mind as soon as we have to face the fact that we should think it over, there is some resistance also, we don't want to do it, I guess because we don't know if we understand it. 
I began with the last sentence, with the conclusion. But how does it feel, if we look first at the beginning of that thought for the day?

In the dark night, the Moon can be seen through its own light only. The Lord is all Love, so He can be seen only through Love.

It was in the dark of night that the inner reflection was present as light in my dream, many years ago, but that doesn't matter on that level. And it was love and it felt very beautiful. The higher self was reflected as light, beauty and love. As soon as I remembered it, the feeling changed, because now I can see it in the light of my own life and experience.

Understanding Motives and Actions in a deep Manner

A thirsty passenger asked the water carrier at an up-country railway station in India whether the leather bag in which they were serving water was clean. The reply the passenger received was, "As regards cleanliness, all I can say is that the bag which contains the water is cleaner than the bag which takes it in!"

This statement conveys an important lesson. You must care more for the cleanliness of your mind and intellect than that of the external body. Instead of criticising others and finding fault with the actions of others, subject yourself to vigilant scrutiny.
Understand your motives and actions in a deep manner and invest time in correcting your own faults. Do not be like the dancer who blamed the drummer for the wrong steps.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

We have to see the motives and actions in a deeper manner and invest time in correction our own faults.

To get there we need to analyze it and find right answers. But first this words felt like a challenge, because I had to think it over. It is probably always like that, but this time I got aware of it. And after thinking it over, it looks different again, but I am also very tired.

But if we meditate regularly we take care of the mind. And if we don't, the mind takes care of us. It seemed to me without meditation it was not possible to get free of the past impressions in the mind. 

After I began with dynamic meditation for a while I didn't do anymore silent sitting meditation and as I am in a job and the HR-manager likes to boss people around, she was kind of intimidating, if I wanted or not. I tried to ignore or to accept it, but both ways didn't work. 

It is a job commitment, therefore, it is loading. It felt upsetting and therefore, one day I began to meditate again, at least in the morning. 
Since my mind is not anymore thinking about the HR-person. But coming back from work I often feel that tired that it feels like a rather sick mind state and it takes time to get normal again and to recover from it. I don't think I enjoy it very much.

But meditation helps to get distance and to clean the mind of past impressions.