Cause for Sorrows and Difficulties

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

See Good, Mind-Control and Sutras

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

  

Uprooted and Getting Aware of it

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

Action Done under Compulsion and Freedom

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

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

Knowing we don't Know and still Drowning

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

Baba (thought for the day) 

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

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

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

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

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

Divine Dwellings

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

Baba

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

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

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

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

Alter the Harm Done

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

Baba

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

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

Creator and Power

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

Nature and Precious Gifts

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

Baba

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

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

You are You and God is God

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

Isn’t it great to share that?

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

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

Insights and Natural Law

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

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

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

He is the Doer and Karma

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

Drama and the Almighty

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

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

Baba

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

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

Knowledge and Silence

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

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

The Sun of Knowledge and Character is Power

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

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

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

Insights and following Steps

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

Illusion, Achieve the Unachievable

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

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

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

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

The Watchman

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God ... and the Higher Self

Know Who You Are and Be Free

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

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

Baba (thought for the day)

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

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

The Mind's Servant

In the Ramayana story, Queen Kaikeyi yields to the selfish wiles of her maid and as a consequence, her lord King Dasaratha lost his life. Rama who she regarded as her very life-breath was exiled into the forest, and Bharatha her son, disowned her for the very same act! She drew on herself the condemnation from all the people in the Kingdom of Ayodhya. The story is an allegory. Dasaratha is the human body with the five senses of perception and the five senses of action - the ten chariots or Dasha-ratha. He wedded the Queen, the Mind, and the mind yielded to the servant and caused the downfall. This clearly teaches us the legitimate role of the mind as the master of one’s senses. If the master serves the servants, then, he or she loses their self-respect and falls in the esteem of all.

Baba (thought for the day)

To listen, think it over and absorb works like an allegory. In seeing it in our own life we find characters in the light of ‘insights’ and that is Baba. It does symbolize ideas and concepts, they get repeated and by that and it is growing in us.

Only we don’t invent literary characters, but our own life and the people we met in our life and our ‘insights’ and that ‘insight’ as it is Baba, it is the main role and the other complex ideas and concepts turn around that key idea, it gets easily digestible and tangible to the reader or listener, therefore, we tell listen, think it over and absorb.

The listening is just the beginning to get finally to the inner understanding being able to absorb the meaning in Baba’s words.

It is also a form of conveying the meaning differently than just in reading and forgetting it again and thinking, we know it already. If we are able to absorb it means we get into it and begin to see it in different situations in our mind.

Self-Realization

Co-operation among individuals grouped as a society guarantees security and stability. It is called, Shri Rama Raksha (protection), the mark of Divine Grace. The surest sign of awareness of one’s Divine Nature is the recognition of the bond of kinship with other beings. This bond has now snapped, and as a result, life has been rendered meaningless. The evil spirits of greed and pride, of envy and hatred, are executing their demonic dance in the hearts of man.

People are not able to appreciate the value of the air they breathe, of the Sun's rays that illumine the world, the drops of rain that sustain life, and the subtle power that underlies every object in Nature. They have become low-minded people, dedicating their lives to meaningless pursuits. What needs to be done today is to foster people who are determined to stand and even suffer to realize the holy goals of peace and prosperity for the entire world.

Baba (thought for the day)

We get great news that Baba will come again if we pray for him that is what we get by email and we read it in the Internet. He will take soon a body again if we pray for him to come. 

Baba never left, he dropped the body and it fell into dust, he is always around us, it was always the question why we cannot experience it.

It was a surprise after six months of staying with him in the ashram and there was nothing but love and the universe seemed to be made out of love only and coming back, where did that love go? I was convinced that it was true, it was universal love, only here we didn’t feel it.

I wondered how that reality could be true in his presence of only love and as soon as I was back it was gone, but I went on with my meditation, because it should be possible with meditation to stay in that universal love, shouldn’t it?

But in my meditation I was alone and Baba is sharing it with others, only we have to know how to share and it is different from socializing and I guess there is the biggest problem if we cannot feel that love all around us.

Attain the State of No Mind

What manifests externally is called 'Manas' (Mind). That which is internal is 'Nama' (The Name of the Lord). Repeating the Name of the Lord, you can gain control over your mind and attain the state where there is no Mind (Amanaska).

As long as you are under the influence of your mind, you will tread the worldly path and get lost. You can clearly hear the voice of the Lord, only when you attain the 'No Mind' State. To attain that state, you must listen to the inner voice, the voice of the Lord within you. To hear Him, you must practice Devotion and Surrender. The easiest way to understand and experience God is to Love Him. You can easily grow in love for God, by worshipping Him in a specific form. A true devotee does all duties with total surrender only to please God, and dedicates every action to please Him.

Baba (thought for the day)

The world is 'Manas' (Mind), and everything is conceptual and relative, including what we think is God as form it is all the same.  And so it is with Baba in the body, body is body; there is no difference, only he has no mind. If there is no mind, but a body, we will not be reborn and not come back. As human beings we are born because there is a mind, if there is no more mind, there will be no birth and no death.

The mind is the source of our birth in the body, if there is no mind, there is no birth.

Repeating the name of the Lord we do with a mantra. Baba said all mantras as okay, also TM mantras, but they have no meaning, the aim is the same, and we go beyond the mind.  

He explains that what is internal is the 'name', if we repeat the mantra, we focus on the lord and we should by that meditation attain a state of no mind. It tells us that divinity is beyond the mind. If we use Soham, the mantra with the breath, we with every inhale the breath tells So and with every exhale it tells Ham.

And if we forget it, we are back in the mind and the body. Our normal state we are used to is body-consciousness, if we meditate and progress steadily dedicating every action to him and we surrender all duties to the Lord, we do every action to please him.

Like that with repeating the name of the Lord we develop a higher state of consciousness.

Self-Control and Duties

Health is the greatest blessing. Without it, you cannot do even the smallest work. Health is indispensable for your progress in material, moral, political, economic, artistic and spiritual fields. Food habits are of primary importance if health must be secured and maintained. 'No restraint, no success' is the axiom. Among the 8.4 million species of living beings, all except humans live on food as provided by Mother Nature.

Human beings alone strive to make such food more palatable, more attractive to the senses of sight, touch and smell by boiling, frying, freezing and mixing, grinding and soaking. Natural Food is really beneficial. Catering to the cravings of the tongue, if you intake heavy food thrice or more a day, you will fall ill and lose the sprightliness of youth. Restraints, controls and limits must be applied to the tongue. Regular and limited intake a lone will enable you to discharge your duties.

Baba (thought for the day)

My digesting was not all too well for some time and some time ago it said in the 'insight' that I should fast.

I did it the next day, for a day just drinking and as my daughter was in vacation it was a good time and it got better real fast.

An 'insight' is like a window in the dream state or in meditation, we know it is not a thought, it is coming from the higher self or the inner master.

Divinity or the inner master is like the sun and the 'insight' is the reflection of the sunshine.

We can see our body as a glass in that glass is water and if the water is clean enough it reflects the sunshine and if it is not, we can hardly see it. But if we are used to see it, we can see that reflection mostly in the dream state, but sometimes it is also just in the air or it is reflected in meditation.

That reflection is not the mind, it is in the watcher, it is different from the mind. It is not like sense-perception what means thinking or seeing with the eyes, it is different, it is a reflection and therefore, we see it, it is inner view.

The Nature of the Divine Soul

Understand the Nature of the Divine Soul (Atma), which gives sustenance to all the senses. The five senses originate from Ether, which emerges from the Atma. Hence, if you understand the Atma, it is highly likely that your senses will be under your control. Then you will always be happy. Know that happiness is beyond comfort and sorrow. Comfort and sorrow are just the manifestations of the human mind. The state which is beyond this pleasure and grief is truly happiness. You can realize this state when you listen to the voice within you. God is present within you and He truly speaks to you from within. To experience that inner voice, you must silence your mind. You must control the activity of the external senses. When the inner and outer organs are completely controlled, you will clearly hear the Lord, speaking to you, from within.

Baba (thought for the day)

Baba tells us that we should understand the nature of the divine Soul (Atma) and if we understand the Atma, it is much more likely that our senses are under control and that we will be happy.

He doesn't tell us to just listen to the heart. The higher self is in the heart and self-enquiry is about that higher self in the heart. We do not get there with the mind, so how can we understand the Atma? There is a way to understand it? When we listen to the voice within us.

But it seems there can be some confusion about it, some think they listen to him and it is only the mind. There is a difference between listening to the mind and the heart and what is that difference? The heart is always the mirror and therefore, listening to the heart is getting aware of the insights in the mirror. It is not direct perception, but indirect seeing.

Direct and Indirect

If you are established in peace, you will find that Love arises from it. Peace and love are intimately related. Many pretend as if they love all. Their actions represent how dramatic one can get in the field of love. This is not true love. True love finds fulfillment only when it is with peace. Once you develop true love, Non-violence will naturally manifest from within and you will not hurt or harm anyone. Love is present everywhere, in every being in this world. Love is beyond a specific name, form or action. Love is God, Live in Love. 

This is taught to you by Educare. The process of education inculcates desire, hatred, jealousy, lust, greed and avarice, which are worldly traits or behavioral tendencies. Educare on the other hand, consists of adherence to Truth, Non-Violence, Love, Peace and Righteousness - qualities that are present within you.

Baba (thought for the day)

Baba insights or Baba in our dream, it is about the man who comes in our dream to awake us.

He said in the dream, Baba in the dream that is ‘insight’ and he is the following step, also ‘insight’, that is an ‘indirect’ level. It can be we have Baba dreams which didn’t make sense, because it was too negative and in writing and thinking over Baba’s words, listening, if we are lucky, we get the meaning in his words and are able to absorb, also that is indirect, not direct.

We have to listen, think it over and absorb.

He is not talking in us, which would be too direct to be possible, because the higher self is separate from the body and the mind. If we had lots of Baba dreams, they have to make sense in an indirect manner. We are not standing here and telling Baba is talking in us or through us, what would be not the same indirect way of getting an insight, but it would be only mind level.

We can see it in the difference between direct and indirect. If it is the mind it is direct and if it is atman it is indirect and therefore, it results in a process in self-enquiry.

The Mind and the Five Sheaths

Mind is present inside the body amidst the five sheaths (Pancha Koshas). The five sheaths are gross body sheath (Annamaya Kosha), Pranamaya Kosha (pertaining to the life force), Manomaya Kosha (mind sheath), Vijnanamaya Kosha (intellect sheath), and Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss sheath).

Above the mind sheath is Prana(life force) and below it is discrimination power. Both of these are related to Fire. Mind is related to Water. The Moon is the presiding deity for the Mind. Hence coolness is its nature. Because of the presence of life force above and discrimination power below, the Mind melts and gets transformed into water. Water’s nature is to flow towards a lower level. It does not have the nature of flowing upwards. Hence the mind always wanders around the sensory and worldly pleasures. It cannot voyage towards the pure and higher stages. To divert the mind towards higher realms, spirituality is of utmost necessity.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we listen to Baba’s words and see it in our own life, we get aware of it differently than when we just read it. Today’s thought for the day is about the mind and it is great how he describes it, because we can see the difference between the mind and the breath and the intellect, the nature of the mind is cold and goes downwards, the nature of the intellect and the breath, the discrimination power and the energy level are related to fire and go into an upward direction.

In listening to his words and thinking it over, we see it in our own life and Baba talks here about the mind and it brings that mind reality up in our own life.

Thinking over Baba’s word we get to the right conclusion if we see it in our own life, otherwise, we are not able to understand it. He is atman and not the mind and not the body, therefore, he knows and we cannot know on the mind level, if we are too much inti the mind, but in listening to him our insights in the dream begin to make sense. If we listen to Baba’s words and think it over, we are able to absorb it.

Breaking into Pieces

Truth is not merely describing what you have seen, expressing as is what you have heard or sharing honestly what you have experienced. Truth is beyond all this. It is a deep inner feeling and it must come from within. Truth must originate from your heart. Truth is permanent; it does not change with the passage of time. When you rely on Truth (Sathya), Righteousness (Dharma) arises out of it. It is Truth that teaches how one should conduct oneself and perform one’s duties. Righteousness is a reflection of Truth. You will experience peace when Sathya and Dharma co-exist. This is indeed peace, Shanti. It is foolishness to think that Peace exists elsewhere and is separate from you. If you separate truth and righteousness, you will find only pieces; on the other hand if you blend them you will experience Peace always.

Baba (thought for the day)

It refers to today’s thought for the day and what Baba describes as honestly expressing what we have heard or seen and sharing sincerely what we have experienced. Baba tells us that truth is beyond all this.

As mentioned in yesterday’s thought for the day, if it is contaminated by the ‘evil’ qualities, evil qualities like lust, greed, anger, jealousy, hatred and avarice which do not befit a human being) if that level is present, it is not true or it is not honest. Getting aware of not that is how we become human beings.

If he mentions duty, we have to see three levels. Duty without love is deplorable and that is the case when evil qualities are not controlled. That is the level of the body and ‘not that’ and by getting aware that we are not that, we reach the level of being human. Duty with love is good, that makes us human, but not yet divine.

 (Duty without love is deplorable, duty with love is good, love without duty it divine. Baba)

Joyful Role of Parents

Never forsake your parents till your last breath. Even if they didn't provide for all you asked and wished, you must love them. Your mother has undergone many hardships for your sake. She nourished you in many ways. Forgetting or ignoring your mother is the worst of sins. Father has worked hard to take care of you and raise you. Never make your parents feel distant from you. Love and respect them at all times. You must satisfy the needs of your parents, using the education they gave you. Their satisfaction will give you infinite joy. Do not believe your friends to be your everything – as long as you have money in your pocket, they are your friends. When you are penniless, most of them will bid goodbye.

Baba (thought for the day)

I began to think that parents are God during the time in Geneva after reading books for Yogananda and after I had tried about everything to find the reason why it felt upside down in my family.

At that time I didn't know Baba yet and I got to the conclusion that whatever I did, it was not good enough and therefore, I decided to see in them God.

The Mantra in the Breath

Wherefrom does humanness come? It comes from your heart. Here, the heart referred to is not the physical heart but the spiritual heart which is free from all blemishes. Like fragrant air, your purity should spread everywhere. You should share with others the pure thoughts and the pure feelings that emanate from you. Whatever you do, it should be helpful to others. Help Ever, Hurt Never - If you imbibe these two qualities, everything will become good for you.

Today educated people are proud of their Ph. D. degrees. What does the true Ph.D. mean? The letter ‘P’ stands for Person, ‘h’ for Help and ‘D’ for Divinity. Hence, one with Ph.D. degree is the person who helps others and attains Divinity. On the contrary, if one does not help others, then the letter ‘p’ will denote that he is a papi (sinner). You will attain everything if you protect your humanness.

Baba (thought for the day)

In the last few days I was focusing on the Soham, not because it was new, not because I had not done it before, because it was not just as a mantra, but related to the states of consciousness and it was in those three steps, breathing in as So into a transition state of just being and breathing out as Ham. It felt like first it went into the mind, our waking state and it relaxes in Ha in the dream state and goes in the deep sleep state in the m in just being or Samadhi and there we meet the hamming of the universe.  

After a while it felt like nothing but God breathing in and out and today it ended like with the meditation with ‘not that’ in a feeling of love, just in that focus on the breath.

I was a great experience and there was a moment I was that surprised that it interrupted the focus and I fell out of my meditation and I was back in the mind.