Become Divine - that is Your Destiny

In the past, Divine incarnations rid the world of evil by destroying the few fanatics and ogres who wrought it. But in the present times, fanaticism and felony reigns in every heart. The evil people are legion, no one is free from that taint, and all are wicked to some extent or the other. Therefore, everyone needs correction. Everyone must be educated and guided in the right path. Every being is a pilgrim destined to return to God and merge in Him. But most people have forgotten the path, they wander like lost children, wasting precious time in the by-lanes of the world. Human beings are the best amongst creation who can feel, think and experience their own journey across time! Armed with the sword of discrimination (Viveka) and the shield of renunciation (Vairagya), you must use this precious opportunity to transform yourself to become Divine - that is your destiny, the plan and purpose of your being.

Here we are in the past incarnations, we don't know much about the past, it is history and our life is too short to just get a feeling for it. We live in the present time and what he is telling us is that in the past fanatics and ogres had been destroyed in a different way than today, as it seems they were not living in the same body as today. We have it today in every heart. We have the choice between wicked tendencies in the mind. With meditation we take care of it and we purify the mind that is a reason I always went on with meditation to just make sure that the mind gets rid of some tendencies we don't want. 

Realize the Sweetness within

To reform one's tendencies and character is indeed an uphill task. One may have studied all the text-books of spiritual practice, also read all the scriptures, and may even have lectured for hours on them; but one slips into error when confronted by temptation. Like the land that is parched, the heart may appear to be free from any crop of evil, but when the first showers fall, the seeds and roots underneath the soil change the parched land into a carpet of green. You may have the best of vegetables, you may have the most capable chef in the world, but if the copper vessel in which you prepare the soup is not tinned, the dish you cook will be highly poisonous. Similarly, you must 'tin' your heart with truth, right conduct, peace and divine love. Only then will it become a vessel fit to repeat holy names, practice meditation, observe religious vows, do ritualistic worship, and so on.

Baba is the principle of the divine parents and it is based on oneness, the Atma reflects, reacts and resounds, if we observe and go on observing, after a certain time we will have the reflection in the dream stage, as he explains the dream stage has pictures, but there is no mind and therefore, it is possible that we experience the reflection of the Atma on the dream stage without the mind. It is a different reality from the waking stage where the mind is part of the experience and he said, he is the man coming in our dreams to awaken. 

Practice first, and then Preach!

An old year is gone by and a new year has come, and people joyfully celebrate the arrival of the new year. Do you know how many centuries have elapsed since the history of mankind? There is no use turning back and watching the road traversed – your duty is to watch the road ahead and march steadily towards your goal. It is lack of faith that causes you to lose temper and fly into fits of anger; it is lack of faith in yourself and in others. If you see yourself as truly the undefeatable Divine Self and everyone around you as your reflections, just as the scriptures declare them to be, you will never be provoked to get angry. What you must resolve today in the auspicious New Year is to march steadily on the spiritual path to manifest your Divinity. Resolve to do this one thing – Practice first, and then preach!

We can say that also after we just celebrated our birthday, the new year has come and we have joyfully started the arrival of the new year, only the year doesn't get older like we do in the body, celebrating the begin of a new year. 

Baba talks here about history, centuries have elapsed since the history of mankind. When we contemplate his words it is always a question how to see it in our own life, in thinking about our own birthday we somehow compare inside his words with our own life and that is how we can start to think it over seeing it in our own life, what is the main issue really to get a feeling for his words and what about our history?

If we see the centuries elapsed, the history of mankind and he mentions here that there is no turning back and watching the road in traverse, it is our duty to watch the road ahead of us marching steadily towards the goal.

We can ask ourselves, do we know the goal?

An old year is gone by and a new year has come, and people joyfully celebrate the arrival of the new year. Do you know how many centuries have elapsed since the history of mankind? There is no use turning back and watching the road traversed – your duty is to watch the road ahead and march steadily towards your goal.

The 'See-er' must not Attach Oneself to the 'Seen'

The contact of the senses with object arouses desire and attachment; this leads to effort and consequently, either elation or despair! Then, there is the fear of loss or grief at failure and the train of reactions elongates. The 'see-er' must not attach oneself to the 'seen'; that is the secret to living happily. With many doors and windows kept open to all the winds that blow, how can the flame of the lamp within survive? The lamp is your mind, which must burn steadily unaffected by the demands of the world outside. Complete surrender to the Lord (Saranagathi) is one way of closing the windows and doors. For, when you surrender completely to the Lord, you are bereft of 'ego' and so, you are not buffeted by joy or grief. Saranagathi, will enable you to draw upon the Lord's Grace for meeting all the crises that arise in your life and renders you heroic, steadfast and better prepared to face life's challenges. 

Here Swami is telling us that the 'see-er' must not attach oneself to the 'seen'; that is the secret to living happily. 

We can ask ourselves how we detach the 'see-er' from the 'seen' what is outside of us on the sense-level. If we keep the doors and windows of the senses open the wind can blowout the flame of the lamp. He compares the lamp with the mind, it should be unaffected by the world outside. 

In the next sentence he is telling us how, with complete surrender to the Lord, that way we close the windows and the doors. The question is still how that complete surrendering is possible. He talks in that sense of the ideal, but for me it was always a question how to reach that ideal. 

Let him Blossom in the Heart

Practice—that is the real thing that matters in spirituality! Scholarship is a burden, it is very often a handicap. So long as God is believed to be far away in temples and holy places, you will feel religion to be a burden and a hurdle. But plant him in your heart and you will feel light, burdenless and in fact, stronger! It is like the food basket – when you carry it on the shoulder, it feels heavy and you feel you are too weak to even carry it during a walk. But sit near a stream and eat it. Though the total weight has not decreased, the consequence of eating the food makes you feel lighter and in fact stronger! Similarly, apply this to the idea of God. Do not carry it on your shoulder, take 'Him' in! Let Him blossom within you! Keep the memory of the Lord and His Glory always with you!

When we do something regularly, we forget in time nearly that it is practice and in that sense it is not only writing and thinking it over, it is most of all regular meditation. It has turned into something we don't think about it, we just do it, it is part of the waking up ritual in the morning. 

There were experiences with self-realization and the question was how I would stay in touch with it and I tried all kinds of things first and it seemed just to get further away and then we began with watching, what was a kind of an adventure as it included getting aware of the own limitations. It began to  load after a certain time as it was not possible to just stop it and get back to where it had been before, it was not really possible to change the mind and not doing it anymore and I didn't think about that before. Watching is not just an attitude of the mind, it becomes part of our life. It felt not possible to get back to the inner distance and just tell, I don't want that, it was a commitment and we had to go to the end and we didn't know the end. 
It was not really possible to explain what I did as we need the words of a self-realized authority. When reading about it all seemed clear in my own experience in a sense it was clear as well, but still it was not possible to talk about it in such a way that it made sense. 

Love is Divine

Love is Divine. Love all, impart your love even to those who lack love. Love is like a mariner's compass. Wherever you may keep it, it points the way to God. In every action in daily life manifest your love. Divinity will emerge from that love. This is the easiest path to God-realisation. But why aren't people taking to it? This is because they are obsessed with misconception relating to the means of experiencing God. They regard God as some remote entity attainable only by arduous spiritual practices. God is everywhere. There is no need to search for God. All that you see is a manifestation of the Divine. All the human beings you see are forms of the Divine. Correct your defective vision and you will experience God in all things. Speak lovingly, act lovingly, think with love and do every action with a love-filled heart. 

Love is the means to experience oneness, if we get to experience that pure love, he is telling us that the love of the divine for the devotee and the love of the devotee for the divine is the same quality of love and therefore, at that place we melt and there is only one. 

But we have to get the experience of pure love and he also said, if we want to make the experience of pure love, we need three things, we need truth, right action and peace. We have to accept truth and we have to accept right action and we have to understand peace and when we have those three things, we can make the experience of pure love. 

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.

Whatever Troubles You have, I give you Bliss!

God is not attracted by learning or scholarship, which does not lead anywhere except towards egoism and pride. God is drawn only by pure devotion. Bring to Me, whatever troubles you have, I shall take them on and give you bliss! You rush to the temple or Prasanthi Nilayam and crave to get a darshan! What greater sign of devotion is needed than this yearning? But, this love is not enough! In fact, it does not mean much at all! What is needed is the regulation of that Love, in the form of virtue and service. If you succeed in that, you truly achieve something. Renunciation and divine love should reverberate the atmosphere, and silence as the discipline should fill the place. Have the Name of the Lord on your tongue and the form of your chosen Lord before your eye. If you shape yourself this way, the place where you stand will become Kashi and your home will become Badri.

Swami is talking about God, but he is talking to man, people attracted by learning and scholarship, even thought we need to learn and if it is only for making a living, he is telling us that it leads not anywhere but to egoism and pride. 

We probably think we achieved something when we get a degree and we certainly do in the worldly sense, without it we don't go anywhere. 

God is a different reality and Swami is here the God knower, he knows what he is talking about and when we try to talk about it with our own words, it feels more like guessing or trying to understand it and when we use his words, it gets better, because at least we get aware that we think it over. 

God is drawn only by pure devotion and what is pure devotion? 

He it telling us here from the standpoint of God, what is always a challenge for the mind as long as we don't have the experience of it. 

When coming back here Swami was holding up a book and we began to write, all types of writing and trying to get it, no matter what reason and why and here in those words he is telling us why. After going through steps of thinking it over and getting aware of it, as he said, 'use my words', this thought for the day is a good example, and it is just enough text, not too much so that we are able to absorb it, but it is still enough that we have to think it over. 

Listen, think it over, absorb. 

Therefore, bring to me, whatever troubles you have, I shall take them and give you bliss. 

The Terminus Is Realization

Man is saved by Vedanta, which is like the roar of the lion; it gives courage and enterprise; it makes one a hero. It does not whine or howl or cry. It instils the highest types of self-confidence. It is the strongest armour against the arrows of fate, a waterproof against the hailstorms of sensual pleasure. It is a curtain keeping out the mosquitoes of worry, which would otherwise rob you of sleep. With a Vedanta-saturated heart, you are a rock on the shore, unaffected by the waves of temptation. Vedanta challenges your spirit of adventure, your own reality. Board the train of spiritual discipline now and you will reach the terminus which is jnana (absolute knowledge of you and of all this). In a train journey you do not get down in the middle when some station attracts you. So too, in the spiritual journey the stations are karma (action), upasana (contemplation), and so on. You have to pass through them, but remember they are not the terminus. The terminus is Realisation.

Vedanta the meaning is the end of Veda. 

If we are not sure about what scripture it is, here Swami is very clear about it. It is Vedanta that makes us the rock on the shore, unaffected by the waves. 

He calls it even a Vedanta-saturated heart. 

And he mentions our spirit of adventure and our own reality. 

We should board the train of spiritual discipline now and reach the terminus which is Jnana and often we hear some people telling us that they are not into Jnana and it is misunderstood as intellectual and Bhakti is the heart, but there is no heart without the head, truth has to come from the heart.
If we think heart is feeling and love only and truth has to do with intellect, it is a misunderstanding. 
Truth is based on insights and therefore it has to be the heart and right action is the reflection of truth that comes up in the heart. 
If we have truth and right action blended, we have peace and that needs to be understood. And when we understand that we have to blend truth and right action to find peace, we don't imagine peace as a mind state, we know it has to do with realization and only when we have those three things, right action, truth and peace, we are able to get the experience of pure love. 
It is not what we imagine love is on the feeling level only, it is truth that comes from the heart the insight. 
If people separate in their mind Bhakti, devotion and Jnana, wisdom it is probably because they don't listen to Swami's words. 
And probably it is just as an excuse, but here Swami is clear beyond doubt, without knowledge it is impossible, without wisdom even if there is love, it will not be pure love. It is the wisdom that makes it pure. 

Courage and Spiritual Practice

Many discourage you from taking up spiritual practices and say that these can be taken up at a ripe old age, as if they are the prerogatives of, or special punishments for the aged! Enjoy the world while you can and then figure out the next - that seems to be the attitude of many! The child takes its first few steps in the safety of its home; it toddles about inside, until its steps become firm, until its balance is perfected, and then as it grows up steadily, it slowly ventures into the streets and the whole wide world. So too, every being must master the inner world first and become impervious to temptations. You should learn not to fall when the senses trip your steps; you should learn the balance of mind, which will not make you lean more to one side than to the other. After mastering this discriminatory wisdom, you can confidently move out into the outer world, without fear of accidents to your personality.

We can not really tell that we find the same situation in the West, we get always again aware that there is no knowledge about spiritual practice and no feeling about it. 
And that counts as well for those who went to India. 
If we are not really focused on it, it can be that it never really get clear as our way of life is very different. 
In our society is hat never been an issue about spiritual practice, in the opposite I remember that the common believe was that those who are spiritual are not taken really serious, because science tells us something else. 
Therefore, it has never been about spiritual practice and we don't have any wisdom about yoga or meditation in our culture integrated in our society and the church has become more and more empty and not full.  
Growing up in the West it was never about spiritual practices, when I mentioned years ago as a young adult the word self-realization I was surprised to get the answer, that doesn't exists. I had mentioned it to two class mates that I wanted self-realization and I had mentioned it once at the lunch table in my parent's house and got the response of my father that I was a communist. 
It was more a question if we believed in it or not and self-realization was out of question, the answer was it belonged in the times of the old Greek culture and not in our modern society and I still went in direction of self-realization, but I stopped talking about it. 

Even if that is true for everybody what Swami mentions here, we will not find it in our Western societies and even less in the young people, the wisdom about spiritual practices is nearly completely lost. And that is probably also a reason that even after years of singing Bhajans we still have people who seem to have no wisdom about meditation and self-control. 

Joy and Grief and getting to a Right Conclusion

Your child will give you great joy through its play and prattle, but when it interferes with your work or demands your attention when you are working on something important, you get very angry with it. Your child now becomes your source of joy as well as grief! Remember, there is nothing in the world which can give you unmixed joy. Even if there is one such thing, when it is lost, you will become very sad! This is in the very nature of this world. So try to correct the very source of joy and sorrow, the mind. Control your mind and train it to accept and see the real nature of this objective world, which attracts and repels you in turns. This is the real fruit of education!

Before reading this words I was in my morning meditation and it went through my head how many different situations I already had been in an out and meditation was always the same. If we meditate we just go on through joy and grief. 
There was a time I had been at the USA I went there to learn English and at that time I didn't meditate yet. It was a difficult time and not long ago I had a big old Buick in the insight and it was too big, it didn't have room in the small tunnel I had to pass and I was scared to get stuck. After I came back from the US at that time my life felt upside down. 

Start with Courage, Faith, Joy and Steadiness

Life is a pilgrimage to God; the holy spot is there, afar. The road lies right before you; but unless you take the first step forward and follow that step with others, how can you reach it? Start with courage, faith, joy and steadiness. You are bound to succeed. Your mind and intellect are two bullocks tied to the cart of your 'inner self'. The bullocks are not used to the path of Truth, Righteousness, Non-violence, Peace and Love, and so they drag the cart to the road that is very familiar to them, namely falsehood, injustice, worry and hatred. As its master, you must train them to take the better road, so that they may not bring disaster to themselves, the cart they are yoked to and to the passengers in the cart.

The road lies right before us. Just start and don't stop until reached. If we start and don't stop we are bound to succeed.

He explains that the mind and intellect are like two bullocks tied to the cart of our inner self. They are not used to the path. The path are the human values, it is truth, sathya, right action, dharma, peace, shanti, love, prema and non-violence, ahmisa. 

This two the mind and the intellect drag the cart as they are used to it, what they see on that road are not the human values, but falsehood, injustice, worry and hatred.

 

We have to train them to take the better road and how do we do it? With one-pointed focus, watch and train the mind and the intellect to see instead of negativity the human values, if we focus on the divine or inner self in us, we might not know it yet, but if we start and hold on to it, one day the experience of it will be there. And it is for all of us the same reflection of light, there is no difference, and that is how we can realize the oneness of all. We start and we go on with steadiness, with faith and joy and with courage we to go on to the end, we are bound to succeed. 

Baba said to a devotee who asked about illusion, why the world is seen as Maya, delusion, he said if there is intent, if we have a purpose and there is work done and there is time past, there will be a result and it will be real and not an illusion. 

Concentration and Insights

Each and every one of you has a great deal of concentration. You know the art, for every task requires it and everyone benefits from good concentration. The carpenter, the weaver, the clerk, the boatman - all have it in a greater or lesser degree. Use that power of concentration for the task of directing the mind, towards its own goodness. Examine its working and train it to restrict itself to good company, good thoughts and good deeds. Practice meditation on any form of the Lord and repeat any name of the Lord with the awareness of its sweetness. That will teach your mind to be sharp and produce good music out of the joys as well as the griefs that are incidental to life. If the arena of life is entered just for getting sensory joy, you are in for all kinds of trouble. It is like sailing in a tiny boat on a storm-tossed sea without a rudder. So enter upon the path of spiritual discipline now itself.

One-pointedness and concentration what is that important, we know as well as dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi, (even intellect), the three together are samyama and that we need as advanced type of meditation with the Patanjali sutras for them to be there or as we could tell to manifest. 
But in listening to his words and thinking it over it can also happened that we get aware, but that was the reason there was the feeling of self-realization when I was only sixteen and a teenager and writing a diary, it had to do with focus. 
It was a kind of amazing experience and with that writing there was the insight self-realization and after that experience had ended, it was always kind of intriguing how I got to that feeling of self-realization and I tried to find it again, but it was not there anymore. And in listening to his words we get aware, it was the concentration and that was not only present in the diary, but as well in the parents. 
As a teenager writing a diary there were all types of insights. But there was a similar focus in my parents working together. It was a kind of dedicated concentration. As Swami is pointing out here, it is the same for an artist, it is as well for a mountaineer. It was there in their work. 

The Destroyer of Ignorance

Who is Lord Shiva, and where is He to be found? Many answers are given, including Kailash as His place of residence. The true answer is, 'Isavasyam Idam Sarvam' (All this is pervaded by Isa). He is omnipresent. There is no place, object or being where God is not present. Correct your outlook and recognise this unity in the apparent diversity around you. When God is omnipresent, what need is there to go in search of Him? The search is meaningless. If one gets rid of attachment and hatred, one will experience the Divinity inherent within. This is the sadhana (spiritual exercise) one has to do today - to get rid of desire and hatred which conceal the God within. Many people ask: "Swami! Show us the way." All you have to do is to go back to the source from which you came. Where is the need for seeking the way? The Bhagavatha has declared that it is the natural destiny of every living being to go back to where each one came from.

In this quote of Swami he explains Lord Shiva and how we should understand it. In the West we are anyhow not used to that, we prefer to see God everywhere and in the impersonal aspect and not in the form. We like the omnipresent aspect of the divine.

He is telling us that we should correct our outlook. That is important, because it is telling us that we can see the unity in diversity if we correct our outlook, we don't have it already in just thinking the divine is everywhere. Everywhere is a big thing and a concept, it is a place we go in the search for him and he tells us there is no need to do that.

We have to go back where we came from. And we try to get a feeling for it as the deep feeling makes the difference. We look for it inside and we try to feel it how we can get rid of attachment and hatred. It helps to see it as a lesson, when we see it as a lesson we go ahead and don't bother to find faults with people around us and there is no hatred if it is a lesson, but we wait until the lesson will make sense and that is an insight and insight is the sight of truth. Truth is permanent and never changing, an insight can feel like a dream, but it is not a dream, it will be lasting and a dream we will forget.  

That is why he is telling us no need to search for him, he even tells us that it is meaningless, he is present, we just have to get rid of attachment and hatred. 

How do we go back to where we came from?

We had an interview and he told us, 'follow the master, fight to the end, finish the game'. It has to be experience, direct perception is experience and it means not a concept. Whatever we think is a concept.  

He is the man coming in our dreams to awaken. Dreams are insights and sometimes it can feel just like a dream, but when is an insight we will not forget it and in the inner view it will find its place and we will realize that it was not a dream, but an insight. 
To get to a right answer as he is the man coming in our dreams to awaken, we have to listen to his words, in his words is the same reality reflected we find in the dreams and when we think it over to be able to absorb, we get to the inner view. Insights and inner view is not the same, insights are more or less pictures, as Swami said in the dream, he was present as two Swamis, one was the insight and the other the following step, it can be an insight without that it makes sense and we have to go the following step and only then it will be inner view. When the insights make sense it becomes inner view. It is a mirror and we have to listen to his words. He is the man coming in our dreams to waken only in listening to his words the insights begin to make sense. 

I have come to Reform You

I have come to reform you. I will not leave you until I do that. Even if you get away before I do that, do not think you can escape Me, I will hold on to you. I am not worried if you leave Sai, for I am not anxious that there should be a huge gathering here and a big following around Me. Who invited all of you here? Without any printed invitation, thousands are coming to Sai. But, of one thing, be assured. Whether you come to Me or not, you are all Mine. This Sai Mata (Mother of all) has the love of a thousand mothers towards Her children; that is why I do so much lalana (fondling) and so much palana (protecting). If I appear to be angry, remember, it is only love in another form that I use to evince my disappointment when you do not shape up in line with my guidance.

He is talking about reformation and we know form listening to his words that Sathva is the path, Rajas needs to be transformed and Tamas has to be given up, if he tells that he came to refrom us we could conclude that our life is mostly in Rajas and not in Sathva. The transformation has to be there to get us into Sathva, purity, we are not on the spiritual path if our life is in Rajas mostly and not in Sathva, but who knows the difference? I wonder sometimes if everybody asked ever that question about the three Gunas, but we find it as well in the Gita, only sathva is the path. 

I have come to reform you. I will not leave you until I do that. 

It is the task of a spiritual master who is only in sathva guna, a sathva body to transform our life into sathva, if it is a spiritual master based on truth it is sathvic. 
As the path is sathic only, we have to be transformed, otherwise, we cannot be on the spiritual path. It has something to do with natural law and there is a basic difference between the three gunas, we have to understand. Activity is mostly based on Rajas, passion and we lack the calm silent insights of the sathva guna. As long as it is Rajas it can be transformed, when it is about Tamo Guna, we have to give it up and if we don't see it in our own life we don't know why we have to give it up as we cannot understand it so more or less we have to make the experience of it to be able to know that difference between Rajas, passion and Tamas, inertia.  

He is telling us that we cannot escape him, because we are with him and we are on the spiritual path if we want to escape, we have to stop being on the spiritual path. 

Even if you get away before I do that, do not think you can escape Me, I will hold on to you. I am not worried if you leave Sai, for I am not anxious that there should be a huge gathering here and a big following around Me. 

Giving up the little 'I' is Renunciation

Giving up the little 'I' is the true meaning of renunciation (Tyaga). Tyaga does not mean running away from the hearth and home into the jungle. It means sublimating every thought, word and deed as an offering to God and saturating all acts with Divine intent. This is the best spiritual practice to cultivate selfless love. Love gives for ever, it never asks another to give. Shower it, and you will be showered in return. Selfless love thrives on renunciation, they are inseparable. The essential reality of a human being rejects the ego as a blemish. When you sincerely investigate into the question, "Who am I", you will find that everyone is included in 'I', and your love will expand limitlessly. Ego should not be allowed to express itself freely, as it smothers the spring of love. God is love, so all things created by God are filled with love.

How do we give up the little I? Swami tells us here that giving up the little 'I' is the true meaning of renunciation. This is information, we know the little 'I' is the ego. It is as well body consciousness and in that sense natural, we get it without that we have to do something about it.

Swami corrects the meaning that we have to run away to the jungle to renounce. 

He gives the answer in the third sentence, it means sublimating every thought, word and deed as an offering to the divine and all acts with divine intent and it is about cultivating selfless love. 

Be Joyful, Smiling and Enthusiastic

Above all, it is best that the Sadhaka under all circumstances should be joyful, smiling and enthusiastic. Even more than Bhakthi and Jnana (Devotion and Wisdom), this pure attitude is desirable. Those who have acquired it deserve to reach the goal first. This quality of joy at all times is the fruit of the good done in past births. When a person is ever worried, depressed and doubting, he can never attain bliss, whatever spiritual practices or sadhana (spiritual exercise) one may undertake. The first task of a spiritual aspirant is the cultivation of enthusiasm. Through that enthusiasm, he can derive any variety of Ananda. Never get inflated when you are praised; never get deflated when you are blamed. Be a spiritual lion, regardless of both. One must analyse and correct one's faults on his own; this is most important.

A Sadhaka is a student, someone who is practicing Sadhana, meditation or some other spiritual discipline. 

From March 20th we should be every day in contemplation and focus on some quotes we got and this is one of them, we got 40 quotes. 

He is telling us that we should be at all time and under all circumstances joyful, smiling and enthusiastic, that is important. 

It is good what he said about enthusiasm, too often we listen only to talks about sickness and it is not that uplifting. 

If we don't develop enthusiasm and we are not aware of it, that it is even more important that Bhakti and Jnana.

If we correct the Defective Vision, we can experience Divine Oneness in all Things

Love is Divine. Love all, impart your love even to those who lack love. Love is like a mariner's compass. Wherever you may keep it, it points the way to God. In every action in daily life manifest your love. Divinity will emerge from that love. This is the easiest path to God-realisation. But why aren't people taking to it? This is because they are obsessed with misconception relating to the means of experiencing God. They regard God as some remote entity attainable only by arduous spiritual practices. God is everywhere. There is no need to search for God. All that you see is a manifestation of the Divine. All the human beings you see are forms of the Divine. Correct your defective vision and you will experience God in all things. Speak lovingly, act lovingly, think with love and do every action with a love-filled heart.

In thinking it over we try to get a feeling for it, it is not just finding it beautiful and then we forget about, but get in an inner relationship with the words of Swami. He is telling us, listen, think it over and absorb, But it not just listening, he also said that we have to see it in our own life to be able to understand it. How do we see it in our own life? We just think it over and remember our experiences in our own life. 

From 'I' to 'We' to 'He'

The whole world and the objects therein are interrelated by the bond of love. It is love that binds the human race together. The world cannot exist without love. God is love and resides in the heart of every one. Love is the natural possession of every human being. Love is the fruit of the tree of life. There are certain impediments to overcome before you enjoy the tasty fruit. First you must remove the skin and rind covering the pulp inside, and also cast off the seed. Similarly the fruit of love is also covered by the thick skin of ego. You must peel off this skin of 'mine and thine'. You can then taste the sweet fruit and its nutritious juice. With pure love, you must establish unity with the Divine. The path of love is the straightforward road to realise the Divine. Vedas describe God as, "Raso Vai Saha" – the Supreme Sweet Essence. Endeavour to progress in this journey of life from 'I' to 'We' to 'He'.

How can we make the experience of that bond of love? If the whole world is interrelated by the bond of love, how can we realize it? He is always telling the truth, but we don't have the experience of it. I was meditating regularly already for some time and I got a book, in that book about Sai Baba was some vibuthi and I put it on my tongue, my meditation was not great at that time and too many problems with the people around me. The experience was about God in the heart, there was a feeling in that vibuthi and it went directly towards the heart and it was love and it felt like it intensified and there was a tiny small form in the heart and it was God. From that moment on there was like a voice singing in the heart and it said, 'God exists' and it was such a joy and great to think one day I would be there.

The whole world and the objects therein are interrelated by the bond of love. It is love that binds the human race together. The world cannot exist without love. God is love and resides in the heart of every one. Love is the natural possession of every human being. Love is the fruit of the tree of life. There are certain impediments to overcome before you enjoy the tasty fruit.  

Difference between Inward and Outward Path

The scriptures have declared that it is difficult to acquire a human body. Human life is the highest among all living beings in creation. With all these endowments if people lack jnana (wisdom), they are no better than an animal. It is wisdom that distinguishes man from other animals. In spite of possessing a human body with its sacred capacities, people pursue wrong paths and indulge in misdeeds, thereby degrading their precious heritage. One who ought to dedicate oneself to the pursuit of the Divine - Nivritti marga (the inward path) and experience bliss, makes oneself a slave of the senses and wastes one's life in the pursuit of the external - Pravritti marga (the outward path). All efforts are directed towards the cultivation of sensual pleasures instead of aiming at realisation of the power of the Spirit within. It is this preoccupation with the mundane that is at the root of all the insecurity and unhappiness experienced by man.

The best spiritual discipline is to strengthen your inward vision. - Baba

In today's thought for the day Baba mentions the scriptures and how difficult it is to acquire a human body and we should make the best use of it. 
If people lack wisdom or knowledge, we are not better than an animal. It is the wisdom that distinguishes man from the animal.

Work Done for the Divine Aspect

The kind of work which the wise do may appear to be the same as that done by an ordinary person. Although in appearance they may be the same, yet the result will be different in both. The work done by an unwise person is always accompanied by a feeling on one's part that he or she is doing work for one's own benefit. This kind of work is mixed up with ego; the feeling of selfish benefit will also lead to trouble and sorrow. The kind of work which a wise man does always carries a feeling which makes him identical with the divine aspect; he is aware that he is doing in the name and on behalf of God. He thinks that God is really doing the work, and that he is only an instrument. This will always give a good result and grant satisfaction to all.

What is mentioned here is the difference between work done by an ordinary person or the work done by the wise and the appearance level it may seem the same, but the result will be different. 

The question is still if we know the difference?

When is it for our own benefit and when not? 

If we see it as expanding consciousness even if there is no benefit it is still beneficial only in a different sense. 

Actually, when we look at the type of answers and reflections coming back in a study circle, we think that people don't know that difference and have rather difficulties with that kind of discrimination. 

The work with the wise man does carry the feeling that makes him identical with the divine aspect, he is doing it for God. 

God is doing the work and he is the instrument. 

Sat or not Sat that is the Question

Company of the pious (Satsanga) leads you to gradually withdraw from entangling worldly activities. When a bit of cold coal is placed in the midst of glowing cinders and when the fire is fanned, the coal too glows with fire. Fire of Wisdom (Jnana agni) operates similarly. Individual effort and Divine Grace are both interdependent. Without effort, there will be no conferment of grace; without grace there can be no taste in the effort. To win that precious Grace from the Lord, all you need is only faith and virtues. You need not praise Him to win His favour. Praise feeds the fire of egoism and fogs genuine faith. God does not like mere external verbal praise and offerings of kind. He is yours and you are His. The entire mankind is God's family. Knock with faith: the doors of Grace will open. Open your door! The Sun's rays waiting outside will flow silently in and flood your room with light.

It is great getting aware of it that the company of the pious, the Satsanga, leads us gradually withdraw from entangling in worldly activities.
It was said that before, the main thing is the satsang. the good company and we know by the man coming in our dreams to awaken that it is Swami and not the mind, it is the only place the mind cannot manipulate it when it is in the dream stage, but we can misunderstand it. 

The 4 F’s: Follow the Master. Fight to the End. Finish the Game

You should make your own conscience secure, and you should have confidence in yourself. Your conscience is your guide and it should dictate your behavior. Either for the good or for the bad, it is your conscience that is responsible. The guilt in you causes the bad; the strength and confidence in you should, therefore, do such things which will promote your confidence in your own self. That is why I have repeatedly told you, that you should follow the four F’s. “Follow the Master” and that is your conscience. The second thing is to “Face the devil”. The third is “Fight to the end”. Then you should “Finish the game”. If you remember all these four injunctions such that they are resounding every moment in you, there can be nothing more sacred than this in your life.  

Today was the question about a Satsang. 

It all began when someone said I should not blame him, but he was just the person to be blamed as he made me go into distance, I didn't want to be part of it,  something terrible had happened in the past. As I got an email from him, I used the moment to answer and to bring the issue up.

I made him responsible for it and why, there was a dream afterwards and it was kind of terrible. We know it is the master coming in our dreams to awaken and we listen to it and we get used those types of dreams and the man coming in our dream to awaken said that he was because of that reason in the wheelchair.

Baba had been in the wheelchair, but probably nobody knows really why, but that is what it said in the dream stage.

The dream stage is a dream, it cannot be interpreted by the mind as it is a dream, if we use the mind it will always be wrong.

How did that happen? It was about a study circle and that person arrived and thought he had to find faults and I was not even sure about it. But it got difficult beyond words, it went on the whole evening as the program was not yet finished, it was just the beginning of it.

No matter what was the reason for his attitude, if he had a reason or not, it was not the right place and not the right time and the other people were already sitting there and had to listen to it. It was in the presence of the circle. 

It is difficult if we have the feeling we talk on one level and the other person is somewhere else really.

We try to make sense, but the other doesn't get it. We try to find words, but no matter what we tell it is wrong or he doesn't get it of he sees something else in it.

The Beneficial and the Pleasant

People today suffer intensely from the fever of the senses and try the quack remedies of recreations, pleasures, vacations, picnics, banquets, dances, etc. only to find that the fever abates but returns after an interval – it does not subside. All the varieties in taste, colour, smell of the various food delicacies, when you consider fairly and squarely, are a mere drug to cure the illness of hunger. All the drinks that people have invented are but drugs to alleviate the illness of thirst. What you term luxury (bhoga) today, is a thing that drags people into excitement and insane pursuits. A fever will go away only when the hidden virus is rendered ineffective. So too, the virus or illness of your mind will die only when the rays of wisdom (Jnana) falls upon it. Discern and always try to prefer the beneficial (hitha) to the pleasant (priya), for the pleasant might lead you down the sliding path into the bottomless pit.

We know it from meditation, we sit down, close the eyes and take a mantra and get refreshed with meditation. 

If we practice every day, it is no more about taking a break, it is part of the day like cleaning teeth, we sit up and meditate for about a half an hour.

What does Swami tell us exactly with those words? 
Suffering the fever of the senses we think it is normal. Whatever we do with the remedies of pleasures, we will just find that the fever returns after an interval and it does not subside, but it doesn't feel like a fever rather like something refreshing. 

So Swami doesn't talk about a time out, he talks about a mental conditioning that turned into sickness and we have to look at it like a fever, but we should not forget that this seems for us normal and not sick, after a certain time we just go for the same pleasure or urge for vacation or dance again to get that break and to feel refreshed and if we do it with mediation, it takes care of it every morning that we start new again, but I guess that is not the same, meditation is the remedy for that sickness. 

People today suffer intensely from the fever of the senses and try the quack remedies of recreations, pleasures, vacations, picnics, banquets, dances, etc. only to find that the fever abates but returns after an interval – it does not subside. All the varieties in taste, colour, smell of the various food delicacies, when you consider fairly and squarely, are a mere drug to cure the illness of hunger. All the drinks that people have invented are but drugs to alleviate the illness of thirst. 

Inner Concentration vs. Outer Distraction

Of the 24 hours in a day, use six for earning and spending, six for contemplation of God, six for sleep and six for service to others. Most of you don't even have five minutes to truly contemplate on the Lord, and you are not ashamed. What a tragedy! Ponder over your present condition (sthiti), the direction you are heading (gathi), your capabilities (shakthi) and your inclinations and tendencies (mathi). Then enter upon the path of spiritual practice, step by step, so you approach the goal steadily and swiftly, day by day. Indian culture advises the control of the senses, not catering to them. The car is driven by means of a wheel which is inside it, so that when the inner steering wheel is turned, the outer wheels move. Trying to move the outer-wheels alone is a sign of ignorance! Inner concentration must be developed in preference to outer distraction. Cultivate quietness, simplicity, and humility, instead of noise, complexity and conceit.

Meditation is part of the six hours contemplation. 
We are back from New York and I am still tired. Writing takes time as well, but six hours seems a lot for people with a job and a normal life style, we are not living in an ashram here and our focus is not uphold and controlled by a strict ashram routine. We live in the world and society and we have to work without the nice comforting upholding and sathvic ashram structure in India and that is an all different reality, but usually after being here for some months as I meditated always morning and evening regularly when returning to the ashram I had the feeling I never left, only at that time I didn't understand it, the feeling was not the same, even if the focus was the same as it seems.   

Of the 24 hours in a day, use six for earning and spending, six for contemplation of God, six for sleep and six for service to others. Most of you don't even have five minutes to truly contemplate on the Lord, and you are not ashamed. What a tragedy! 

Ocean of Love

If you attach yourself to the Lord through the path of love (prema), it will be possible to realise Him. God’s love is like an infinite and endless ocean. Simply because God’s love is infinite and endless, you cannot carry all of it with you. What you can carry with you will depend on the size of the pot you take. So the first thing to do is to enlarge the size of your pot, and this can be done through spiritual practice (sadhana). The first step in Sadhana, is respect for your mother. The devotion towards the mother should be such that you recognise the great love and affection with which your mother has brought you up. You must return gratitude to your mother in the form of love or bhakti. The mother will also showbhakti in the form of vatsalya (affection of mother for child), in return to the love of the child.

In listening to his words we get actually away from the form as that is for some people as it seems still a big issue. Here Swami talks about the path of love and if we attach ourselves to the Lord through the past of love we will be able to get God realization. But the next sentence he talks already about the infinite ocean and that is beyond the form and the question for us is how much of it we can put our own vessel. And he explains how it is done, be spiritual practise, Sadhana, that is not only meditation, but all spiritual practises.

But how are we getting away from the form. That is actually easy if we know how to listen. If we listen to his words, we get with his words aways from the form and on an universal and infinite level. If people tell they have a problem with the form, it is not right. They don’t have a problem with the form, the have a problem with listening. If they would listen to his words, there would not be any problem with the form.

If you attach yourself to the Lord through the path of love (prema), it will be possible to realize Him.

The Secret of being Happy in our Daily Life‏

The basic quality of devotion is the yearning for realizing oneness with the Divine. - Baba


Look at a piece of cloth. Truly it is a bundle of threads; and if you examine it more carefully, you will say that it is just cotton. The first stage is cotton, second stage is thread, and the final stage is the cloth. What would you do if you do not like that cloth? You remove the threads one by one and the cloth disappears! In the same manner, your mind does not have any specific form. It is simply a bundle of desires. These desires themselves come from the thoughts of your mind which can be compared to the cotton. Thus in this analogy the three stages are the cotton or the thoughts, the thread or the desires, and finally the desires constitute the mind which is the cloth. So you must try to diminish these desires as far as possible. Desires are like heavy luggage in the journey of your life. Less luggage, more comfort for you!

If we ask about the basic quality as oneness, what does it mean in our practical everyday life?
There is only one and we have to be at the side of that oneness and not on the side of all what is not real and doesn't exist, what is called illusion. We need to discriminate. Oneness actually knows no second, but we live in the world and there everything has two sides, therefore, to be able to be one we have to use discrimination.
In the West if we hold up the ideal of argumentation and the right of it, with other words we use our critical mind trained already in schools to be argumentative, we talk in the spiritual sense about an obstacles. And why an obstacle? It doesn't allow us to realize the underlying oneness. It is based on duality.
If we don't use right discrimination and we don't know how to get to a right conclusion, we look at oneness and call in a kind of confused and stupid way everything God as we had a meeting where we talked about everything and never got to the point, it seems he didn't know how. What was said was in other words that the satsang was also the divine behind and it made the question come up, what is he talking about as he didn't get to the point. If it is not a right conclusion, it is not right no matter how we look at it. It was just the confused notion of oneness and we all had to listen to it.