A Samarpit Sadhaks Narration of messages received from Gurudev

JAI BABA SWAMI

This is being posted with the permission of the author who wishes to remain anonymous, as the messages he has received from Gurudev are universal and are for sharing with everyone. The post is original, except for some minor editorial corrections.

Hi Girish ... Jai Baba Swami ... this is what we had spoken during our trip to Goa. Swamiji with his immense grace has got this done, I do not know why this is done, how this is done and for whom this is being done. Whatever "HE" has been wanting to communicate has been put down. Some of these are experiences which I had in his omnipresence.

Om Ganeshaya Namaha , On Saishwaraya Namaha ,Om Gurudevaya Namaha , Om Shree Shivkrupanand Swami Namo Namaha.

Please read the word "Guru" as "Paramatma" in the entire text.

1. Time discipline -- Get up, sleep, eat, exercise in time and with regularity. If there is medicine to be taken, please take the same in time. No spiritual master or GURU will advise against taking medicine or taking care of your body, however do not go overboard in caring for your body.

2. Manushyata -- not limited to fellow human beings, should be extended to plants and animals. We as human beings have got a greater responsibility of extending brotherhood and harmony amongst ourselves and amongst animals / insects / flora / fauna. It is the lack of this quality in ourselves which is causing problems ( both man-made - problems of war, terrorism and ecological problems causing imbalance in nature ) around the world

3. Give yourself time for meditation and be alone with your atma. Sit alone and try to connect with your atma, start a relationship with your self and you will find that you will seek guidance from your atma and your atma will guide you. Over a period of time, there will be no seeking or guiding, it will become a automatic process, atma will overtake the function of the body, brain and mind to move this bodily vehicle in the direction of salvation.

4. Guru Karya - what your body and mind does, is with Guru's wish hence it is Guru Karya. Do not compare this with others and feel belittled. During chaitanya mahotsav of Nov 2009, there were people who were narrating their experiences and I was thinking that the people who were getting the opportunity to do "Guru Karya " are very lucky.

On coming back to Mumbai from the Chaitanya Mohatsav in 2009, I went for a walk after meditation at the center, where I got this message :
-- if your "Samarpan" is complete, then whatever is being done by the body/mind is as a "Madhyam" and since the "Samarpan" is towards Guru, the body's actions are performed as per Guru's wish and is therefore "Guru Karya".
-- Hence, as a "Sadhak", what is required from us is complete surrender, with "Shuddha Bhav" towards Guru, rest whatever is happening will be with Guru's wish and grace and will always be his "Karya" which he gets done.
-- There is not a single moment in your life whereby the Guru is not with you , he is always there as the very "air" which you breathe, he is the "life prana" which keeps you "Chetana maya", the moment you connect to him you become "Chaitanya maya" -- this is because you become one with the Guru who is "Chaitanaya Swarup"

5. Accept the situation (Sthiti and Paristhiti) -- We often find ourselves in a "Sthiti" ( situation ) and the way we react or approach the situation decides the "Paristhiti" which we find ourselves in. If a person has "Samarpan" towards the Guru, he / she should learn to accept the situation in which he / she finds himself / herself. The Guru will never allow the devotee to be in a situation which the devotee is not supposed to be in. Further the situation will be controlled completely by the Guru and hence the "Paristhiti" of the devotee will always be good. Guru will always ensure that what his devotee gets is what is good for him, rather than what is wanted by the devotee.
Learn to accept the situation in which you are in as it is the wish of your Guru

6. Accept the people with you in such situations. Remember, Guru has accepted you with all your good and bad qualities. Since the situation in which you find yourself is due to Guru's wish, the people with you in the situation are also due to his wish. It may be seen that a person often tends to forgive his children, parents etc. ( near and dear ones ) and his tolerance towards others is less, this is due to the fact that he has accepted the child as his own , the relationship with his parents ( kith and kin ) as his own, whereas for others the tolerance is not that much hence the irritation, ego etc. takes precedence while dealing with "others".

Most of the times we are not able to accept the people with us in a particular situation or we take the people with us in a particular situation "for granted", which restricts us from accepting the situation itself. The attitude which should be developed is that, since Guru has accepted us with all our shortcomings, we should also accept the people around us whole heartedly with what we perceive as their shortcomings. By only thinking about their shortcomings we will be taking their negative traits. With lots of love, would thus suggest that we pray that our atma and chitta should be concentrated on the positivity around us and should not stick to any negativity. One should pray for Sadguru to bless and shower his blessings in such a manner that one looks within for ones "shortcomings", which have been accumulated over various births and with his "Karuna" give us strength to overcome all our "shortcomings". It is only the power of Guru which can help a person achieve this, provided he has surrendered completely to the GURUSHAKTI.

7. Ego display - counter with super ego reduction , become like a child -- As Gurudev has pointed out many times during his discourses that one of the most important pollution is "Thought pollution" , most of the problems we encounter in our daily lives is due to the EGO which is so subtle in all of us. As Sadgurudev has mentioned time and again "A poor person too has the ego that he is poor", which clearly indicates that EGO has got nothing to do with big, small, rich, poor, male, female etc, rather it is to do with the attitude of "Acceptance and Surrender". This is what has been lacking in all of us. As Gurudev has been consistently mentioning about innocent sadhaks who are given special attention by him, this is so since :

a. The innocence is genuine hence the actions of such a person is like a child, this compels the "Guru mauli" to take special care of the child. The genuineness cannot be faked but rather can be developed with "Atma Shuddi", "Chitta Shuddi", complete surrender to the Guru. When one completely surrenders to the Guru, the person actually has to develop complete "Shraddha" and ""Saburi" which ultimately results in the attitude of "Surrender". It is only due to this can one achieve "Atma and Chitta Shuddi"

b. When there is complete surrender, there is trust which brings out the innocent quality which all of us have, but over a period of time, we have covered the same with thick layers of thoughtful ideas which have become our attitude / ego. This does not allow us to go to the deep buried secret of our own innocence as we usually do not make an attempt to penetrate the thick layers and have got into the habit of adding to existing layers and creating new ones too with regularity. No matter how thick these layers are and how deep our innocence is buried, if we follow Sadguru's guidance ( some of them are indicatively mentioned in the above points ) we can still reach there and do not have to fake our innocence, but rather will attain "Atma and Chitta Shuddhi" which will ultimately bring out the ever glowing innocence within us.

8. Value add in the situation /position you hold in office, society , home -- This is a special gift from "Guruma" who has always been inspiring and explaining to all of us in such a manner that we understand and relate to our daily life. Though she is a perfect "Siddha" she acts like a common "Sadhak". She comes down to our level and connects with each one of us to explain in simple and lucid language with practical ( day to day ) examples, on "How to become an ideal Sadhak". Her "Swarup" is "Chaitanya Mayi" and "Ananda Swarup". I shall try and put some understanding to the statement which she made.

We all play various roles in our life ( son, daughter , brother , sister , hold various positions in professional life ). Whatever situation we are in, we should always strive to add value through our skills, knowledge and efforts. God has given us the position along with the responsibility to fulfil particular assignments, while one should not go overboard in doing so, but at the same time if one does not do justice towards the responsibility, it does not do justice to the role/assignment, which is not right.

During my visit to "Om Shanti Ashram" at Mount Abu last year, I had the good fortune to meet one of the "Dadiji’s". I had asked her my doubt as follows :

"We sadhaks strive to attain spiritual growth for which we are expected to behave in a particular manner, i.e. be soft spoken, be kind, be compassionate , not to hurt anyone etc. However such approach in our office life may be taken as a weakness. This can happen in our role at home too. Dadiji , What is the right approach ? Please guide."

Dadiji spoke in kind words which were very effective and assertive: "Beta, when we are in office, we have a certain responsibility towards the work and the position which we hold, if we do not do enough to reach the objective, it is unfair to the organization which is giving you the means of living. Some times in office you may come across instances where you have to be strict, take unpopular decisions to do your work or to get the work done. If you would be soft and compassionate always, there are chances that people may take you for granted, which if it happens consistently may lead to failures and thus hurt your self-confidence. Being strict or taking an unpopular decision, based on a situation, by itself is not wrong, as long as you do not get involved in it and make it a personal issue ( as Swamiji would say - it should not touch your chitta ). By practicing of detachment of yourself from the actions (in the words of Swamiji - think of me and leave everything to me, i.e. submit all your actions to me with complete surrender, samarpan,) will help in achieving both the objectives:
a. getting the work done as required and
b. not owning up the action and the karma phal
This can only be achieved by constant practice ( "abhyas" ).

While at work, we all will have pressures to deliver as per certain objectives. However, when one carries the pressure of work ( role in office ) to one’s home life ( role as a father, mother , son , daughter, brother, sister, husband , wife , friend etc ) there is a possibility that the person may create "stress". Similarly if he carries his home life to office, he will not be able to do full justice to his job. Hence Guruma has mentioned that a "Sadhak" has to understand and identify the difference between "pressure" and "stress" and then strike the right work-life balance.

All "Guruma" wanted to convey is that, we should practice ( do abhyas ) to strike balance for which "samarpan" and "dhyan" is necessary. We, as Sadhak's should hence do "Samarpan Dhyan" consistently so that our "stithi" and "paristhiti" remains balanced.

9. Look at other people as atma, understand the "Swarup", look beyond the body. Especially for males, when you look at females, understand the potential "Shakti" - This is a problem mostly with males and of late gaining popularity with females fast, whereby there is always an attraction towards the opposite "ling". Swamiji has mentioned in various discourses about this problem with males (some of them are sadhaks too). One day, again after meditation, I had been for a walk where Baba was kindly explaining to me that -- look at another person as an "Atma" and try to understand the "swarup" instead of looking at the "roop". This again will come with practice. He instructed me thus - as soon as you see a female and your mind / brain starts to go in a particular direction , you start chanting my mantra ( "Om Kriya Babaji Namaha Om" ) , this will not only divert your attention but also purify your thoughts. Over a period of time, with practice, whenever you look at a female, you will invariably think of me which will automatically cleanse any bad thought coming in your mind about the other person.

10. For spiritual progress there are 5 essential elements "Atma Shuddhi", "Chitta Shuddhi", "Atma Niyantran" , "Chitta Shuddi" ( first 4 ) and finally "Guru's Grace" (5th) without which spiritual progress is incomplete. None of the first four is possible without the 5th or we can also say that even if a person achieves the first four, without the fifth, progress will be extremely slow.

11. Understand the difference between good and pleasant. Good should be for the Atma and Pleasant for the body. The choice is left to every individual sadhak. Normally a person always looks at pleasant and often ignores the good. Swamiji has mentioned this in his discourses that when atma takes control of the body, the persons actions are always towards good. This is the good which is not only for oneself, but for the overall good of the surroundings. Lord Krishna too has instructed Arjuna as follows :

Krishna -- "Always strive to become a Rishi "
Arjuna -- "Prabhu , I do not understand"
Krishna -- "When a normal person sleeps, Rishi is awake, and Rishi sleeps only when the normal person and society as a whole is awakened. Do not equate this with the physical sleep and awakened state. While a normal person is bothered only about himself, his physical body and his surrounding, the actions of a Rishi is such that it benefits entire society as a whole."

Swamiji also has been urging us to be with our atma and perform actions which will not only help us but will be beneficial to the society as a whole. This can be done only when we start understanding the difference between good and pleasant.

JAI BABA SWAMI