Compassion, the Shield of Protection

Why complain that the ground cannot be seen when all the while your gaze is fixed on the sky? Watch the ground and look at the sheet of water that reflects the sky —then you can see, at the same time, the sky above and the earth below. So too, to adhere to the law of truth (sathya-dharma), in your every act, you must see the reflection of the glory of the Divine (Atma); then this attachment to the Lord will transmute your attachment to the world into a pure offering. Adherence to the law of truth is in fact the practice of the immanent Atmic principle. The goal of purity should not be altered or lowered; the essentials should be kept intact. Righteousness (Dharma) does not depend on the various names and forms that its application entails; they are not so basic. Dharma depends more on the motives and the feelings that direct and channelize your every act.

 It was also a reflection in the sheet of water, not a good one, not what we would desire, it was all there again what had happened years ago and it can be it is reflecting just that event or it shows no transformation, one is the glass half empty the other is the glass half full. It feels like no readiness and nobody wants really to know, it is just about singing and believing they know. In reality it is that foolish because it is fixed on the gaze of the sky, to think we go to school and know it already, the avatar is a teacher and if we don't listen to his words, there is no way we can get the lesson. If we look in the sky and we believe we will know one day maybe, instead of watching the sheet of water as he explains it here, we are not having our attention in the class room, but we are actually sleeping and dreaming, we dream that he will appear again in some years from now and what if not, what if it is only a metaphor to make our mind go beyond the mind what is the past and the future?

Everything is possible and we are on the level of all possibilities and at the same time it never will be wrong, as the teaching of Veda is always the same. It is about truth and no matter how that truth is told, if it is truth, it can only be that as there is only one. 

The example of the sky is outward directed and reality is inside directed. If we look at the ground and the sheet of water it is the mirror of the heart and the reflection we find in his words and in our heart, we see both the sky and the ground.If we are outward directed, we are based on the mind and fixed on the sky, as he is telling us here, we have our gaze fixed on the sky, fixed ... and it is based on believe only, there is no prove for it and it never will be. 

With time it will be forgotten and in twenty-five year will be another generation as they had no direct experience of it and it will be all new again and a mystery and if not, there will be always someone teaching that highest wisdom of Veda.

 It is also an experience getting aware the study help which was sent to the centers in the hope to get them away from, they didn't even get the meaning of it, it is still the same; they are all focused at the outside. 

I got some beautiful flowers from my sister and a book and I like it. The title is 'The Art of Communication', by HarperCollins Publishers, New York and the Unified Buddhist Church, Inc.

That is a way we can understand it in the West, a way it does make sense and it is not in the clouds and the gaze fixed at the sky ... fixed ..., normally we get aware that we live in the clouds, but if they are fixed on the sky, they don't get aware of it. We should listen to the divine words, it is alarming what he is telling us here if we listen and don't go on seeping and snoring.   

The mirror, the reflection is in the sheet of water on the ground and that is inside only and in the mirror of the heart, if we look at that mirror we get aware of the reflection of  it in his words and it was exactly the same before we began, it either means that there has been no change, no transformation, or not a big one and only an unseen change, hopefully it is a change anyhow. 

Truth and Transformation

Speaking truth is the foremost quality of a human being. In fact, truth must dance on your tongue. To speak untruth and talk irresponsibly does not behove a human being. If you indulge in useless and indiscriminate talk, how can it be called truth? Before you speak something, you must enquire whether it is truth or not. Speak only truth which emerges from the heart. The entire world has emerged from truth and everything merges into truth. The clouds moving in the sky sometimes obscure the Sun; once the clouds move away, the resplendent Sun is fully visible. Similarly it is only when the dark clouds of resolutions and confusions in our heart are cleared, truth manifests. The five human values are not independent of each other. They closely follow one another. These qualities are God's gift to humanity. All human beings must manifest these five human values by practicing them.

How do we speak the truth. Last night during our meeting two women were aggravated and began to argue, all people were sitting already and the center leader had already his welcome address. The energy coming up between them was not good. 

One lady I know as aggravated easily and even if she is not, she is constantly talking, it is rather a problem and we have to live with it, but I cannot live with that.

Speaking truth is the foremost quality of a human being. In fact, truth must dance on your tongue. To speak untruth and talk irresponsibly does not behove a human being. If you indulge in useless and indiscriminate talk, how can it be called truth?

The Bedrock of Understanding and Dharma

When the waves of egotist fear or greed drives one into the privacy of the home, the loneliness of the forest, or anywhere else, it is impossible to escape suffering. However in daily practice, when one’s acts are motivated by the basic principle of the reality of the Atma, every act becomes stamped with the seal of dharma (righteousness). On the other hand, when acts are motivated by convenience and selfish interest, the dharma becomes pseudo-dharma. Why, even the feeling ‘he is a friend’ or ‘she is an enemy’ is an error. This delusion has to be given up. The Lord, the embodiment of love, is the only constant friend, relative, companion, guide, and protector. Know this and live in that knowledge. This is dharma built on the bedrock of understanding, this is life built on the bedrock of dharma.

How do we think it over? Knowing that we are all the same, no difference between us and we experience it only together, not alone, the waves of egoist fear or greed driving one into the privacy of the home is nearly everybody not understanding that we are the same. Swami talks here also about the loneliness of the forest, what some tend to see as advanced.

When the waves of egotist fear or greed drives one into the privacy of the home, the loneliness of the forest, or anywhere else, it is impossible to escape suffering.

What has to Go Out of our Hands will Go, in spite of all our Struggles

You are unnecessarily struggling and planning several schemes, thinking about them day and night. In spite of all your struggles, what has to go out of your hands will go. The body is like a water bubble. The mind is like a mad monkey. If you follow this mad monkey, you will get into trouble. In the same manner, if you believe in the body, you do not know when this body, which is like a water bubble, will burst. Nothing is permanent. Only the Atma (Self) is eternal and immortal. 'I', 'Self', 'God' are all different names by which the Atmaswarupa is called. God incarnated as Rama, Krishna, and the like, and underwent several difficulties to demonstrate great ideals. Finally, they too left the mortal coil. The physical bodies of the Avatars undergo changes, but the Divine Atma in their bodies remains the same. It is omnipresent, eternal and changeless. Divinity in all the human beings is one and the same.

Baba

 

 

What is struggling? Do we know for sure, yes I think we do, but don't we have to plan our schemes? The way Swami is telling is we should probably not do it day and night, because we are too preoccupied by it to have time for the divine. What do you think, is someone who is constantly planning our schemes, no matter what it is, ever thinking of divinity? Do you really think it is possible and it is not possible, because there is no room for the divine and if we claim to know the divine there should be some time for it. 

Do you get it what Baba is telling us here or do we get it when thinking it over, what do you think? Did you notice that I didn't write you for some time, because my internet is not working at home or did you now even notice it? 

 

In spite of all your struggles, what has to go out of your hands will go. 

Freedom is our Birthright and being One

To be free is your birthright! When you guide your steps along the path illumined by the universal unbound dharma you will become really free; if you stray away from the light, you will get bound. What you call 'freedom' is a certain type of bondage. Genuine freedom is obtained only when delusion is absent, when there is no identification with the body and senses, and no servitude to the objective world. People who have escaped from this servitude and achieved freedom in the genuine sense are very few in number. Bondage lies in every act done with the consciousness of the body as the Self, for one is then the play thing of the senses. Only those who have escaped this fate are free; this 'Freedom' is the ideal stage to which dharma leads. With this stage constantly in mind, one who engages in the activity of living, can become a liberated person (muktha-purusha).

How beautiful, to see freedom as our birthright, isn't it. We are not free and that used to it that we don't know what it feels like being free actually and if we don't have the experience of it, we cannot imagine it. I went years ago into dynamic mediation, it was also about freedom, but I couldn't find it actually. It was after we came back from our visit in the ashram with Baba and during that time he was holding during 14 days every day a lecture and we were sitting outside and listening to his voice and the kids were playing with their dolls in the sand. It was a beautiful time.

During that time listening to his words it was like feeling it that he talked about the same 'I am that' I had seen before during a meditation in Ooty and at once things made sense and it was like I had never really listened to his words until then. 

It was amazing and how often he spoke about the principle of 'I am that' and it felt all different to listen to his voice when we had at once that feeling that everything made sense and it fell in place.

Oneness and Why the Same, Embodiments of the Divine

Every being is an embodiment of the Divine. True human relationship can grow only when this truth is recognised. The first stage is where you recognise, 'I am in the Light.' Next is when you know, 'The Light is in me,' and finally you realise, 'I am the Light.' 'I' represents love and light which connotes Supreme Wisdom (Jnana).When love and light unite, there is Realisation. The path of devotion is easier than the path of wisdom. Love should come from within, not forced from outside. Develop spontaneous love. The attitude of petitioning to God for favors should be given up. Love of God should not be based on quid pro quo, seeking favors in exchange for prayers and offerings to God. Place your faith in God and do your duty to the best of your ability. Saturate yourself with love and share it with all.

We had a Satsang at the weekend and some interesting speeches. There was a Baba student talking, he had been in his school and he said that Swami told them that no matter where they will be and are that we belong to him. If we belong to him, he is everywhere and we all have to learn after he left the body to see him in our heart and that seems to be the more difficult part to understand.

Every being is an embodiment of the Divine. True human relationship can grow only when this truth is recognised.

Courageous Attitude Developping Forbearance

For spiritual progress kshama (forbearance) is the real basis or foundation. Great people and countries have lost their glory, prestige, and reputation because of the disappearance of Kshama. Without patience and the capacity for forbearance, one becomes spiritually weak. Such weakness leads to bad feelings, undesirable thoughts, and unbecoming actions. This virtue is best cultivated under adverse circumstances, and one must therefore gladly welcome troubles instead of regarding them as unwelcome. Thus times of distress, and an environment of sorrow and misery offer the ideal opportunity for the development of Kshama. However, because of mental weakness and ignorance, we shun painful experiences and distress. You should not be weak; be brave and welcome troubles. Let them come, more the merrier. Only with such a courageous attitude, you would be able to bring out the kshama hidden within you.

Like yesterday it is again about Kshama, forbearance and as he mentioned it is not a gift. Instead of looking at everything as a gift we should rather think it over and ask ourselves why we see it as a gift and it is also not given by a teacher. I saw it more like a challenge to learn or a lesson, but there are limitations to it. When it is about Kshama it is not about gifts and it is also not about lessons we would like to learn.

We call it a lesson, but when it is about a lesson we understand usually that it is difficult and not a gift, but some see also that as positive, because we learn from it, but here we talk about a different reality and it has nothing more to do with a gift, it is more like doomed or like a curse than a gift, it feels rather like hell and not good and there is nobody who wants to make such experiences and when we have to go trough it anyhow, it feels like hell or like we have demons around us and that has nothing more to do with just looking at it in a good way and with golden glasses, as it turned out we would have preferred to not have to go through it and there is stuff I got aware of only by following the inner master, what seems to be in fact the same as the shadow.

Sacred Food

Study of books alone will not enhance your capability; they will merely provide you with superficial or bookish knowledge. This obviously is not enough. Real capability and strength come by tapping the Inner Power latent in you. All that is outside is artificial. Real truth and power are both inside, in your heart. It is the heart that must be strengthened, but, unaware of this fact; people become furiously active in the external world, only to get lost there. There are many types of food catering to the needs of the gross body but what about food for the heart? That food can be obtained only when you turn your head toward God. You must understand the subtle linkages here – food, head, and God. Thus, along with the acquisition of worldly knowledge, you must also give importance to culture and refinement.

In my meditation I was enjoying remembering some sutras, we did it years ago and it is a special food for the soul and it seems just today I got aware of it how nourishing it can be and an amazing feeling after such a long time, there was a time it was only present as cut off, and I didn’t know from what I had been cut off, but it was not possible to access to it. But it does feel good; it feels like accessible again and great, just great. And it has to do with the now and a present experience and knowing what we are doing now and what had been that disturbed in the past. Now it felt the same as it had been years ago, it felt just the same and it was something that had been not there for such a long time, it was like looking through a window in the past of the soul and seeing it in details and how it had been time ago, it had changed because of someone, that it can be present again that seems the biggest miracle sometimes, that energy in it, that power or that flow, it was all not present and gone and it never felt right again and we didn’t know how, but the real disturbance we didn’t know. Now we get aware that it is the same and that there is no difference, but that it had been disturbed and it didn’t go on because of that reason and something was not quite right.

Sutras are good qualities, the wisdom is based on Patanjali and we learnt it with mediation and practiced for years twice a day repeating them, but the whole experience was based on ‘pure love’ and that on a path that had only to do with the intellect, so I went on but it didn’t take a long time the whole thing broke in pieces and as it seems it has to do with that ‘love’ story we have with our own higher self. But I began with thinking the sutras because of health reasons; it felt good to watch from the inside as the body is different if we see it from the inside. Usually if we are thinking sutras, we were just repeating it but as it felt good, I saw them always in the light of the higher self, it was not just repetition, it is all based on the way we feel, if it gets a routine it is just mechanically repeated, if we see it in the light of the higher self there is love only. As I saw them in the light of the higher self or whatever I did I used as a means getting closer to the higher self, it was insight and it was the highest and Swami said in the dream that he is the insight and the following step.

It makes a difference if we see the body from the inside, at the outside is always changing, but not so at the inside, it was the same, it was not different, even if the body has changed, it feels like a different relationship to the body, a different feeling if we look at it out of that light of the sutras and we had practiced quite a while, it is not new, it is old. After all that time the inside relationship to the body was still the same, even if the body has changed.

Study of books alone will not enhance your capability; they will merely provide you with superficial or bookish knowledge. This obviously is not enough. Real capability and strength come by tapping the Inner Power latent in you.

Sight of Truth, Darshan and the Gift

  

For acquiring selfless love, the quality of kshama or forbearance is a vital necessity. (kshama is a word rich in meaning. Besides forbearance, it also implies extreme patience and an enormous capacity to forget as also forgive). Every individual must cultivate this noble quality. Kshama is not achieved by reading books or learnt from an instructor. Nor can it be received as a gift from someone else. This prime virtue of kshama can be acquired solely by self-effort, by facing squarely diverse problems and difficulties of various sorts, by going through anxieties and suffering as well as sorrow. In the absence of kshama, man becomes susceptible to all kinds of evil tendencies. Hatred and jealousy easily take root in a person lacking this virtue. Divinity is merely the combined manifestation of prema (love) and kshama.

We should always listen, think it over and absorb, we never should only read divine words. Someone said he is afraid to interpret Swami's words and there was just a thought for the day and Baba is telling us that we should actually interpret it as much as we can to see it in our time, our environment and our culture, in our tradition and our life, he always said we should hold on to our traditions, it means we should see it in our own life as our tradition and that is not done if we are scared of interpreting something we cannot interpret, he is a divine principle it cannot be changed. But Westerners think they know their tradition and they hold on to what is old fashioned and it is all wrong understood, it is nothing else but the mind and in the mind.

The Vedic tradition it is different, hopefully it will not be projected in the outside tradition as it was always part of their culture. 

That is why in the insight they seemed old-fashioned and traditional, they are scared to do something wrong, they think they have to be good and that is on the mind level and wrong understood.

Do good, be good, see good is not about interpreting his words, it is about the principle, it is uplifting always and therefore, it has to be good and it cannot be uplifting if it is not good and a principle is beyond change.

We should see his words in our life and our culture and integrate it in our traditions, but even if we mentioned it some time later we were again back to the same question and the same issue. He didn't listen, but when I mentioned that we should listen, think it over and absorb, he was the one asking what is there to listen about? He is the one who doesn't hear it and he sees everything on the gross, relative and material worldly level.

For acquiring selfless love, the quality of kshama or forbearance is a vital necessity. (kshama is a word rich in meaning. Besides forbearance, it also implies extreme patience and an enormous capacity to forget as also forgive). Every individual must cultivate this noble quality. 

How can we think it over and not forget it?

Forbearance in the Combined Manifestation with Love

For acquiring selfless love, the quality of kshama or forbearance is a vital necessity. (kshama is a word rich in meaning. Besides forbearance, it also implies extreme patience and an enormous capacity to forget as also forgive). Every individual must cultivate this noble quality. Kshama is not achieved by reading books or learnt from an instructor. Nor can it be received as a gift from someone else. This prime virtue of kshama can be acquired solely by self-effort, by facing squarely diverse problems and difficulties of various sorts, by going through anxieties and suffering as well as sorrow. In the absence of kshama, man becomes susceptible to all kinds of evil tendencies. Hatred and jealousy easily take root in a person lacking this virtue. Divinity is merely the combined manifestation of prema(love) and kshama.

      

It is kind of amazing to get aware of the presence of 'pure love' and if we look at the translation and meaning of forbearance we find list of synonyms and it makes it clear how much we need to think it over. 

We should never just read Swam's words, but always we should 'listen, think it over and absorb' to be able to reach the reality of oneness and to feel it, experience it in our own being and making it part of our life. If we want to taste it and make it part of the inner higher self, we have to get aware of it, we have to recognize and realize it and that is part of our inner being. It happens if we listen, think it over and absorb. 

If we only read we might think it is all understood, but that cannot be true, because we don't listen, it is a wrong mind conclusion that it is understood and delusion. We have to make it a self-experience and go deep into it and feel the meaning of his words, we have to see it and feel it and find it in our own life, in our experience and then we are able to taste the nectar and bliss in it. 

For acquiring selfless love, the quality of kshama or forbearance is a vital necessity. (kshama is a word rich in meaning. Besides forbearance, it also implies extreme patience and an enormous capacity to forget as also forgive). Every individual must cultivate this noble quality. 

Stranger to Happiness

Embodiments of divine Love! As long as a person is conceited and egotistical, no one will like that person. Even their wedded spouse and their own children, though they may appear to respect them externally, will not be happy with an arrogant person. As long as one is filled with ego, one can never be really happy. Therefore, at the very outset, you should get rid of your ego (ahamkara). If one is filled with anger, one cannot experience joy (Krodham hithva na sochathi). Only when anger is subdued, happiness can be experienced. As long as one is filled with insatiable desires, one cannot feel really wealthy. The moment the person gives up desires, all riches will come to them. Till the moment a person is greedy, they will be a stranger to happiness. When you give up greed, you will feel endowed with all riches.

Experience it and feel it and how do we experience it?

Embodiments of divine Love!

What comes in our mind? Do we feel uplifted in our life? Do we feel cleansed in our emotion and our ideal, because that is what we want?

Swami's Darshan and the insights are in his words if we listen to it. We have to feel it, experience it, and do we remember a speech when he was talking to all the devotees sitting at his feet? What is in our mind, what memory is there, what are the thoughts coming up when listening to it, do we remember?

As long as a person is conceited and egotistical, no one will like that person. Even their wedded spouse and their own children, though they may appear to respect them externally, will not be happy with an arrogant person. As long as one is filled with ego, one can never be really happy. Therefore, at the very outset, you should get rid of your ego (ahamkara). 

How do we feel it, we have to feel it. 

Listen, think it over and absorb, and we feel it, we are part of it and how? 

The One who has the Greatest Satisfaction in Life is the Richest Person. - Baba

Embodiments of divine Love! As long as a person is conceited and egotistical, no one will like that person. Even their wedded spouse and their own children, though they may appear to respect them externally, will not be happy with an arrogant person. As long as one is filled with ego, one can never be really happy. Therefore, at the very outset, you should get rid of your ego (ahamkara). If one is filled with anger, one cannot experience joy (Krodham hithva na sochathi). Only when anger is subdued, happiness can be experienced. As long as one is filled with insatiable desires, one cannot feel really wealthy. The moment the person gives up desires, all riches will come to them. Till the moment a person is greedy, they will be a stranger to happiness. When you give up greed, you will feel endowed with all riches.

Swami's words are like a window frame and in that frame we now it is a window and if we open it we feel and experience the Atma, but we have to listen, think it over and absorb. 

It has to become one with us, we have to feel it. We see it in our own life and we get fully into it in all levels possible to get the message.

Often when I read his thought for the day, I don't just read it, because I know it is not the same when reading and I don't want to build up some resistance in the mind as it can get scared probably, because we cannot just understand it like that and it feels all different actually if we begin to listen to it, we listen and think it over and absorb it and we don't just read. 

 Embodiments of divine Love! As long as a person is conceited and egotistical, no one will like that person.

Why does he tell us embodiment of divine Love? 

Because we are with him and he is divine Love and we want to be the same as he is. We know he is the Atmic principle, he told us many times and always again in other words the same, the principle, that is his message and we have to do an effort to understand it. 

A principle is about truth and it has to be understood. It is not sentimental, it is not mood making, it is not an illusion, it is not the mind and the body, it is a divine principle, the 'I am that' and we have to realize that all are the same 'I am that', he is it, we are it, all are it, right? That is how we find it in Veda, 'Though Art That', 'I am That', 'We are That', 'All are That'. That is the core of it, the heart, everything turns around 'that' only.

We are all one and the same and because we are one, the differences fall away. 

There are no differences if we are all one. We have two realities, one is inseparable only divine and one and there is no second and we have the world and nothing is ever the same, it is always changing and the oneness is underlying what is always changing and we have to learn to see unity in diversity.

Even their wedded spouse and their own children, though they may appear to respect them externally, will not be happy with an arrogant person. As long as one is filled with ego, one can never be really happy.

Experience the Truth in His Divine Words

 You have to seek love only through love. The Gopikas prayed: “Oh Krishna, play Your sweet flute and sow the seeds of love in the desert of loveless hearts. Let the rain of love fall on earth and make the rivers of love flow.” The rivers of love must flow continuously. It is enough, if you can understand this one principle of love. This love is everything. Treat this love as the be-all and end-all of your life. Do not direct your love towards material objects. If you continue to love for love’s sake, then such a love will be eternal. It is not the body that is to be loved, but the principle of love. All the names and forms are evanescent and impermanent. Love directed towards temporary objects or beings is physical, whereas love for love’s sake is eternal. Love is God. You must attain Divinity with such love.

What would you do to be able to listen to his words? Probably we don’t have enough patience to be in a waiting state and therefore, there is no feeling for it or no desire to think it over or we would like to think it over and are not able to do it, that is more likely for a normal state of mind. We are not in the waiting state Baba always said we should be and for sure not in the West and usually we are not in the mood of thinking over his words.

It is not that we don’t want to listen to it, but we are just not able to do it. We get too tired, too busy, too occupied, no time and no space in our mind. And even if we would like to listen to his words, and even if we know after doing it for some time that there are great insights and by doing it we get to even greater insights and we find enthusiasm and everything else what Swami is talking about and most of all love and his presence, we still don’t do it, because we are in the mind.

You have to seek love only through love.

Combine both Work and Worship

You should realise that for every action there is a consequence. The results of each action depend on the nature of the action, just as the nature of the tree depends on the seed which is sowed. The consequences of one's actions are inescapable and it is for this reason that the Emperor Manu laid down that all should observe Dharma. The consequences of actions may appear sooner or later but they are bound to occur. When you constantly think of God and perform all actions with Divine feelings, you will experience the full blossoming of the human qualities. Consider every action as dedicated to God. You cannot avoid actions. You must transform work into worship. You have to perform work in this spirit. You cannot substitute prayer for work. You have to combine both work and worship.

Isn’t it great how we can get aware of the divine Lila as it was the case yesterday and just in thinking it over, but he is telling us here what happens when we are thinking it over, divinity is our best friend and he is telling us like that . Sometimes it is just yesterday we get in a kind of miraculous way aware of it, we do it, but we don’t even know what it is actually until he is telling us we just follow the inner master and we do it, because we have to do it when he said in the inner view that it is a job, right, a job we do even if we don’t know exactly what kind of job it is and that is how we get that uplifting answer and afterwards looking back it seems like a miracle actually that in such a way we get established in an inner relationship with the divine best friend and can share our thoughts and feelings with him.

In this transient world, wading through joy and grief, people have a sore need of someone of their kind with whom they can communicate their feelings, share their discoveries and depressions, their moments of bliss and sorrow; someone to be by their side while trekking the hard road to truth and peace.

Our True Friend, Someone we can Communicate our Feelings

 In this transient world, wading through joy and grief, people have a sore need of someone of their kind with whom they can communicate their feelings, share their discoveries and depressions, their moments of bliss and sorrow; someone to be by their side while trekking the hard road to truth and peace. However, friendship and friends today are far from the ideal. Friends who can confer real counsel, comfort and consolation are rarely found. If friendship must last then heart must understand heart, heart must be drawn to heart. Friendship must bind two hearts and affect both of them beneficially, whatever be the circumstance - loss or gain, pain or pleasure, good fortune or bad. The bond must survive all the blows of fate and be unaffected by time, place and situation. The trust and honour of each is in the safekeeping of the other.

Here he is telling us why …, why we write and why we share and why we tell our story and talk with our true friend. It is the purpose, that we can share and that there is a friend after all and it is a divine friend.  

Among the nine forms of devotion, the foremost is the cultivation of
Sakhya (friendship) with God. – Baba

How did he do it to make sure that there is such a friendship that it can be shared and that we can go through the up and downs of life with a friend? He is the man who is in our dreams to awaken and that is how he did it, 'engaged' he said and if it was light blue we could go on and finally it was light blue and we could go on and that is how writing became not only writing a book but friendship. He is amazing and he has no limitations, it seems he can do eveything, even that what we think is actually impossible. 

In this transient world, wading through joy and grief, people have a sore need of someone of their kind with whom they can communicate their feelings, share their discoveries and depressions, their moments of bliss and sorrow; someone to be by their side while trekking the hard road to truth and peace.

Merged with the Divine Eternal

To every being born on earth, Truth is the visible manifestation of God. The entire cosmos composed of moving and immovable objects has emerged from Truth, is sustained by Truth and merges in Truth. Truth is Divine and eternal (Sathyam-Jnanam-Anantham Brahma). Hence everyone must revere Truth. Sathya and Dharma(truth and righteousness) will not submit to anyone. Every kind of strength, physical or otherwise, will have to come under their sway. Success follows Sathya and Dharma. Whatever be your scholarship or position, you have to cultivate respect for human values. Protect Sathya and Dharma always. What students and people must safeguard is not merely nations, but Sathya andDharma. In turn these values will protect the Universe. Educated persons, who in the name of countries are giving up truth and right conduct, are actually undermining the human civilization. It is more vital to cultivate virtues than go after scholarship or other worldly riches and possessions of transient nature.

What is truth?  

We have to think it over. Listen, think it over, absorb.

Baba is … and what is it what we can understand and not a Sanskrit word? 

If we call it 'sat-chit-ananda' it is Sanskrit and it needs to be thought over to be able to get a feeling for it. If we call him 'divine', we also have to think it over to be able to get that feeling and how do we understand it? Often it gets clearer in seeing the opposite, divine and not divine, Atma and mind, conceptual and not conceptual, absolut and relative, limited and unlimited and we are already a step closer to it, it is the difference between those two opposed levels. 

 

If we call it Sathyam-Jnanam-Anantham Brahma.   

How could we ever understand it without thinking it over? Sathyam is truth of existence in that sense and Jnanam is wisdom, knowledge and Anantam would be eternal non-changing and Brahma is the highest. The highest knowledge that transforms the whole person, it is not only hidden in the heart, but it is also in everybody or heaven. It is the principle of Brahman, the principle of 'I am that' and 'I am the One', It is all existent in oneness, it is pure knowledge, if that is known, there is nothing more to know and it is infinite and without end. 

If we realize Brahman, Braham we become in that sense all desires are God's desires and get automatically fulfilled. That is what I read somewhere else about it or something like that we know from our meditation time that if we would be on the right level it would get fulfilled that is what we did with the Siddhis and the sutras, think it and let go so that it manifests if we would be on that level that they are God's desires ... if they are our desires and not God's desires it doesn't happen. 

We have to listen to him to find his desire ..., we don't know it if we don't listen. 

Sathya and Dharma(truth and righteousness) will not submit to anyone. Every kind of strength, physical or otherwise, will have to come under their sway. Success follows Sathya and Dharma. Whatever be your scholarship or position, you have to cultivate respect for human values. Protect Sathya and Dharma always.

True Friends are Uplifting Life

True friends are those who help in uplifting your life by cleansing your ideals and emotions. Those who drag you into pomp, pedantry, paltry entertainment and petty pranks are enemies, not friends. True friends cannot be won by social status, external scintillation or verbal assertions. A friendship knit by monetary bonds is disrupted as soon as you ask the loan to be repaid. So, when you oblige your friend with a loan, the friendship too is broken at that very moment. How can friendship be cemented by words or by coins? The feeling of friendship must activate every nerve, permeate every blood-cell, and purify every emotional wave; it has no place for the slightest trace of egotism. The companionship which seeks to exploit or fleece for personal benefit cannot be elevated into the noble quality of friendship. Perhaps, the only friend who can pass this rigorous test, is God.

That is the answer to why the study circle is actually uplifting life and cleaning our ideals and emotions. We use his words and we share it together and we don't interrupt the other, we just listen and if we do it right and if we go deep into the meaning of his words, we even get the right answer. 

By getting the right answer and insights our ideals are cleansed and our emotions as well, it all happens unaware only in doing it and as long as we don't listen we will not get it, because he is telling it in such a way that we cannot understand it without thinking it over. 

If we meditate and we take a mantra and repeat it in our thoughts, we know we purify the mind and we hope that the emotions are purified as well and if we listen to his words and we think it over, what happens, our ideals get cleansed. 

True friends are those who help in uplifting your life by cleansing your ideals and emotions. 

A Higher Power and Ever Ready to Help

Virtues must be cultivated in each home; each member sharing in the joy with the rest, each one seeking for opportunities for helping others. This attitude must be stuck to, so that it may stay as character. How can a vessel kept with a closed lid be filled with water? It must be open to receive good impulses! In all your efforts, trust in a Higher Power which is ever ready to help you. Then your work is made easy. This comes out of devotion, and reliance on the Lord who is the source of all Power. When you travel by train, you only have to purchase the ticket, board the proper train and take a seat, you can leave the rest to the engine. Do you carry your luggage on your head? So too, trust in the Lord and march to the best of your ability. Have faith and earn the Lord's grace by using the intelligence and the conscience He has endowed you with.

This is a beautiful thought for the day to share. 

In our study circle we first we read the text and afterwards everybody tells what he thinks about it and by that our emotions and thoughts get purified, we don't even notice it, but it feels great and like Darshan afterwards and if we do it right, we realize that it is his divine presence in it and we even get aware of the divine omnipresence.  

What are the questions coming up in my mind? 

A question would be for example how we can keep the virtues in our home, if there are too many disturbances, it will not work. But if there are no virtues, there will be also no joy. So what to do about it? What virtues do we need to make it joy and how to help others?     

Virtues must be cultivated in each home; each member sharing in the joy with the rest, each one seeking for opportunities for helping others.  

Remember the Highest Goal

When you do not discriminate the process and purpose of every act, and go ahead doing them with no understanding, you reduce them to a funny fossilized routine. Once even Prahlada observed, "Since it is difficult to destroy egotism, people take the easier option to offer dumb animals at the altar. Animal sacrifice is the manifestation of the quality of inertia (tamo guna); it is the path of bondage. Sacrifice of the animal of egotism is the purest sacrifice (satwic yajna) on the Godward path of liberation." Thus the highest goal (paramaartha) of the past is turned into the fool's goal (paaramaartha) of these days! Similarly every one of the ancient practices, which were once full of meaning has grown wild beyond recognition. It is now impossible to pluck the tree by the roots and plant a new one. So the existing tree must be trimmed and trained to grow straight. Always remember the highest goal and never dilute it into the lowest.

If we read the words only, what happens in our mind? We think we witness, witnessing means getting aware of what happens in our mind.
He explains here what happens if we do not discriminate. What happens if we do not discriminate, we are not aware of the process and purpose of every act.
The process and purpose of every act … Do we understand the process and purpose of every act? Do we know someone who does understand the process and purpose of every act?
If we don't understand it, we go ahead not understanding it and we reduce them to a funny fossilized routine.  

When you do not discriminate the process and purpose of every act, and go ahead doing them with no understanding, you reduce them to a funny fossilized routine.

Live in Bliss, when His Plans are going Through

You are not a despicable creature, born in slime or sin, to eke out a drab existence and be extinguished forever. You are immortal and eternal. So when the call comes, respond with your whole heart. The Principle of Divinity must be experienced, for it is beyond expressions and explanation. The richness, fullness and depth of that experience can never be communicated in words. You must feel that it is your highest destiny to attain that experience. You are a mixture of Deha and Deva - the mortal and the immortal. Liberation means stoppage of grief and acquisition of joy. All that you have to do is to place all your burdens on God. It makes you care-free and grief-free. Then you will take everything as a divine play of the Lord you love and live in bliss just as He is, when His plans are going through!

How do we know when the call comes, probably we do know or we think we do know and there is a difference between the two, one is only thinking that we know and the other is knowing it.

You are not a despicable creature, born in slime or sin, to eke out a drab existence and be extinguished forever. You are immortal and eternal. So when the call comes, respond with your whole heart.

Why should we be despicable creatures, even if we are in the ego we don’t think that, we just look for happiness on the wrong level and we think we are the body, because we don’t know, we are in the mind and the mind leads into the senses and we think that there is our happiness and even if he is telling us that it is not so, we know that lots of people go on seeing their happiness anyhow on the level of the senses. Not everybody going once to Swami will be able to realize the concept of illusion and the difference to truth.

You are not a despicable creature, born in slime or sin, to eke out a drab existence and be extinguished forever.

We get to that conclusion if we think we are the body, but frankly first we have to realize that we think we are the body, we think we are I and that this I is the body, due to wrong identification with the body and we don’t exactly are aware that this body is just slime and skin.  To know that we have to use already higher discrimination.

You are immortal and eternal. So when the call comes, respond with your whole heart.