Even-mindedness

 

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Even-mindedness

When we believe that someone else has been 'non-virtuous', rather than being so quick to judge, which will lead to great inner disturbance, Patanjali suggests a different tact. Stop and be present. See what is, without judging.  Sit in Upeksha - the place of even-mindedness.

Even-mindedness is defined as ‘not easily ruffled, disturbed, prejudiced; calm; equable.’ Equanimity is a state of even-mindedness during times of duress: ‘calm emotions when dealing with problems or pressure.’

If we jump to conclusions and judgments, we are bound to become agitated, angry, and react. We may lash out with hurtful words and accusations, and even become aggressive in our actions. This only further escalates the situation. And it can lead to prejudice against particular people, organisations, or cultures that we perceive in this manner.

It doesn’t matter if we are ‘right’ about our perceptions. When we hold on to being right, we close down our ability to perceive and think clearly. We get tunnel vision, seeing a more and more limited view of what is unfolding. This can cause us to respond in the very way we are judging – in a harmful, ‘unvirtuous’ way. Not at all what we intend to do!

By remaining in Upeksha, even-mindedness, we stay in inner balance.  We stand in the center point, not swinging into reaction, not allowing our emotions to carry us off, but in a place of clarity and calm, able to better respond – or recognising that our perception may have been off, and better not to act at all.

The equanimity of Upeksha allows us to see both the situation and ourselves in a balanced way. We often react with judgment because of our own similar past mistakes, or an event that happened to us in the past. When we stay in balance, we are able to sift through what is our ‘stuff’ that is being triggered, and what is truly a problematic situation that requires a healthy response.

Occasionally, when we feel guilty about our own ‘unvirtuous’ actions, we judge ourselves harshly. We may project this guilt outward onto others who have done similar things, as a way of trying to absolve ourselves of the guilt. Instead, we can practice compassion and forgiveness towards ourselves for the past, and try to see the one we judge with a bit of understanding and compassion for the error of their ways.

The next time you feel the tendency to judge ‘them’ as bad or wrong – because of that righteous streak in you – step back into Upeksha. Find a place of even-mindedness, where you are undisturbed within and can perceive clearly the appropriate response. Seek your inner balance of equanimity, viewing life from a higher point of view – that we are all on a path of learning, have all made mistakes, and we all need guidance and understanding.

Ways To Get Rid Of The Ego

 

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Ways To Get Rid Of Ego

With the passage of time, we manage to rid ourselves of almost all our faults while treading the spiritual path, but getting rid of the ever-changing ego is the most difficult task. It is the biggest stumbling block in our spiritual journey. This is because, in spiritual terms it is the ego which always keeps us from merging with God, experiencing the Divine within us. Swamiji says, “The ego keeps changing, and we keep thinking that we have become egoless without realising that the ego has taken on another form.”

The ego restricts us to the myopic vision of life – a life that is predominated by the five senses, mind and intellect. When we observe our practical life, we will notice that we have thoughts such as - my name, my body, my son, my mother, my wife, my looks, my car, my education, my achievements etc. It appears that these ‘my thoughts’ are the be-all and end-all of our existence. One does not even begin to think beyond this limited view of life. This thought process keeps us entrenched in our lower selves and for spiritual growth we have to transcend this lower view of our selves so that we can experience the Soul or the God principle that is within us all.

Ego stops us from experiencing the God Principle within us. While all personality defects arise out of one’s ego, the ego is more subtle in nature. Ego manifests in a myriad of ways. Commonly and not so commonly known manifestations of ego include – pride, superiority, inferiority, teaching attitude, I am right, speaking authoritatively, speaking loudly often, having expectations, seeking praise, doer-ship, thinking about one’s looks, selfishness, constantly talking about oneself and one’s family, my wish should be given priority, etc. This gives us an idea about the many facets of the ego of a person. Regardless of the path one follows, if one has a high ego, spiritual progress cannot take place.

There are ways to get of the ego, namely – selfless prayers rendered with humility and faith, thinking selflessly about others, doing physical chores which one may feel are demeaning to one’s stature in society (good example is kar seva at the Golden Temple), thinking about the vastness of the Universe and how small and insignificant one is in comparison, maintaining the perspective of spiritual emotion that whatever is happening is because of God’s will, offering gratitude to God and Guru.

All the above help one in getting rid of the ego. Once we feel we are rid of the ego, it becomes really critical to live our lives with complete awareness and sensitivity to all forms of life around us. We should then become the beacons of light that propagate our Guru’s mission.

Spiritual Love

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 Spiritual Love

The harsh reality of life today is that most people are self-centred and selfish. People who genuinely put the needs of others above theirs without some underlying motive, are very rare. So, if we were to take the two ends of the continuum of love and thinking about others – one end would be the selfishness, self-centredness and the other unconditional love for others. Spiritual love or Godly love or Priti is the epitome of unconditional love for others. Satgurus display this kind of love for others and for creation in general.

It is this very unique quality which makes the enlightened Master so endearing to all of humankind and all subtle entities in the spiritual dimension. If any seeker wishes to walk on the path of liberation, then wherever such person is on this continuum, he/she has to make concerted efforts to develop a feeling of unconditional love for others. This is simply because just as oil and water cannot merge because of their different properties, similarly, a self-centred person cannot merge with God, the union cannot take place.

This is extremely difficult to achieve – developing unselfish love while living in a world filled with selfish and self-centred people. In today’s age we are conditioned to put ourselves before others; we may be fearful that others may take advantage of us assuming that this quality of ours is a sign of weakness.

In such a world how does one transform oneself into being an expansive loving person. This can only be done if we learn to practice universal love towards all beings. Love has to show in all our actions, speech and behaviour towards every living being and even inanimate objects and it has to come from within. It cannot be faked. God thinks that the whole world is His, so we have to also finally come to that stage where we think that the whole world is ours. Then only, can we merge into God.

We can learn to develop this sense of spiritual love by taking small steps at a time. We can help by doing things for others without any expectations. Ensuring that we prioritise the wish of others over our own. Speaking softly and humbly and at the same time lowering one’s expectation of others. Stop being critical and judgemental of others and being more understanding and tolerant of others. Keeping God in mind while doing all our daily tasks selflessly. Learning empathy and practicing the same towards people and their situations. Appreciating others and having a sense of gratitude. Learning how to forgive and seeking forgiveness, thus learning to forget such bad incidents.

As we make such efforts a part of our daily routine, we become more endearing towards others. We experience a blissful feeling from selflessly serving others without expectations. This spurs us on to continue doing this more and more.

Does Sacrifice Help?

 

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Does Sacrifice Help?

Many seekers do not know how to progress in their spiritual practice, specially if they have not yet found their living, enlightened spiritual Guru. The main contributing factor is their resistance to move away from their own comfort zone and their set routine. They do not want to go outside it. Hence, taking the next step towards spirituality becomes difficult.

Also, people have various attachments – they could be both physical and emotional. They actually believe that the things that they are attached to will bring them happiness. But nothing can be further from the truth. We are all aware that we live in world of flux, constant change, and the very things that we are attached to can make us sad when they change. Giving up one’s attachments and moving outside one’s comfort zone is easier said than done.

The spiritual practice of sacrifice involves making concerted efforts to make sacrifices of one’s mind, body and wealth to follow the spiritual path – we particularly see this in the Jain community. However, when we mention ‘sacrifice’, abstaining’, or ‘giving up things’, we feel that it ultimately involves giving up our worldly lives and going into the jungles or mountains. Also, a thought comes to mind – ‘What if I give up all this and do not get anything in return?’ This makes the whole spiritual venture transactional at the outset, thus making us fearful and hesitant about embarking on the spiritual path.

We need to understand the spirit of sacrifice – it needs to be made out of love, wherein one never feels that one has made a sacrifice. An example that can help us understand such a kind of sacrifice is the sacrifice parents makes for their children. Parents go through many difficulties and sacrifices to ensure that their children have the best opportunities. They never feel it because it is done with love. Sacrifice as a spiritual practice is similar. The only difference is that here we are giving back a bit of what we have received from the Creator Himself, to serve Him. But this takes effort, and one may still be filled with hesitancy to go outside of one’s comfort zone and sacrifice one’s mind, body or wealth.

In this time and age, we can start with small sacrifices – say restricting the number of times we check our social media accounts, checking our likes and so on, instead of being more or less continuously on social media. Then, a small sacrifice of the mind can be to spend time in the spiritual practice of chanting mantras. You will gradually observe that whenever you do this you are benefitted – it could be physically or mentally and always spiritually.

When we sacrifice, we make space within ourselves to receive. When we make efforts to go out of our comfort zones and take one step towards the Divine, we will experience that He is doing much more for us.

Some ways by which we can sacrifice are – giving time to serve God, offering our skills and talents to serve his mission, donating to help spread spirituality, offering our physical help if the above are not possible – and if none of the above is possible, we can at least pray with a clean heart for the benefit of all.

Sacrifices can be made as per one’s capacity. As the quality and quantity of our spiritual practice increases, our desire to sacrifice increases automatically. Ultimately though, we have to sacrifice everything and our attachments related to body, mind and wealth. Only when we give up our worldly way of life and all the attachments that come with it completely, can we experience God completely.

Purpose of Life

 

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Purpose of Life

We have heard several discourses from various realised Masters, that the purpose of life is self-realisation and liberation or moksha. This as we know now, is the fundamental purpose of our life.

To fulfill the purpose of taking birth we have to first completely settle our give-and-take account – basically we have to endure and enjoy our karma; apart from this we have to ensure that we do not add to our karmic account.

There is a purpose to our human lives. We are here to know ourselves, to know God, to love God, and to have love for all. We were sent here to realise our true nature as a soul and to find our way back to God, the Source from whence we emanated. Living at the level of our physical senses, we consider ourselves to be the physical body and mind. When we see ourselves in this manner, we say that we are a mind and body that ‘have a soul’.

Going towards the ultimate in Spirituality gives us the gift of experiencing Bliss, a superlative form of happiness that is not dependent on anything. In this state, one is Blissful irrespective of one’s situation. The influence of people at advanced spiritual levels is such that it extends to positively influencing everything around them. Those of us who have been meditating for an extended period of time have actually observed this. For instance, we get into a shop which is devoid of customers and we are welcomed by the shopkeeper with open arms as we are the first to enter their shop on that day. Casual conversation indicates that business is not so good. While going through our shopping exercise we note that other customers have started entering the shop, and by the time we leave business is booming. That is the effect of a positive aura – and this has happened umpteen times and cannot be considered to be mere coincidences!

According to the UN the average life expectancy is 73 years. This gives us a little over 50 adult years to achieve our purpose in life. Hence, we can understand why Swamiji keeps telling the youth that you have got the bank of time with you, invest that fruitfully through meditation. Depending on how old you are while reading this article, as a seeker, you will realise that there is now a finite amount of time left to reach this spiritual goal.

Now, if there is one thing that we can never get back – it is time, and if there is one thing that can go by in a flash – it is time. One day, we wake up and we realise that we are in the winter of our lives, and we wonder where the time went. So, for a seeker who wants to grow spiritually, he needs to make every day count, because to grow spiritually to higher spiritual levels can take a lifetime. Our prayer is that seekers make use of this knowledge and embrace the living Guru’s guidance and with his grace reap the benefits of faster spiritual progress.

Awakening Bhav (Spiritual Emotion)

 

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Awakening Bhav (Spiritual Emotion)

Just imagine doing any kind of activity without having any passion for it! The whole activity would appear dry and lack enthusiasm. When it comes to spirituality, the same principle follows. Most often, when seekers embark on their spiritual journey, they all go through the motions of spiritual practice, but they may not get the feeling of the divine. Quite a few people take to this path because they are facing problems in life rather than it being an inner calling. For such people the mind keeps telling them that what they are doing is right and when such people hear spiritual experiences of others, their mind convinces them that they too are getting similar experiences.

One needs to be very careful about falling into this kind of mental trap. It is very difficult to extricate oneself when this happens. This happens because they are not aware of bhav or spiritual emotion and how to go about awakening this bhav! However, when they do experience this emotion, it brings divine sweetness into their lives and spiritual practice.

It is said that where there is spiritual emotion, God is present. This statement emphasises the need for making efforts for awakening emotion – this has immense importance. First, one needs to understand what bhav means. It is very difficult to explain this superlative spiritual feeling. Bhav is the feeling of oneness with God – but how does this feel?

All of us are acutely aware of our own existence. However, when we make efforts to awaken our spiritual emotion, we get a chance to experience the presence of God. It is a superlative feeling where we feel we are in communion with the Divine. In this state, there are no needs, no wants, just feelings of bliss, love and gratitude and a feeling of being in union with the Divine. This feeling is often accompanied by some physical manifestations like uncontrollable tears (of joy) or trembling, and so on.

It gives meaning to everything we do as part of spiritual practice and brings the essence of the Divine into our lives. We feel that God or the Guru is by our side walking with us. At that moment, stress fades away. The greater the spiritual emotion, the greater is the feeling of closeness to God or Guru.

Sometimes our spiritual emotion gets awakened spontaneously when we feel gratitude for God or remember how much God has done for us. However, it is important to make efforts at the level of the mind and intellect continuously to increase our spiritual emotion and for it to become constant in our lives.

We can perform all day-to-day activities with the feeling that we are serving God through that. We can also remember all the spiritual experiences He has bestowed upon us during our spiritual journeys to nurture our faith. Having a feeling of gratitude is an important ingredient in inculcating spiritual emotion.

One important point to remember is that we may not be able to remain in a state of bhav continually. However, remember this is the goal that we are trying to achieve. Being in a continuous state of bhav is possible at an advanced spiritual level. So, do not get disheartened if you are not able to experience bhav initially. It is more important to continuously make efforts to awaken bhav.

Challenges Faced by a Seeker

 

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Challenges Faced by a Seeker

There are many obstacles and challenges that one faces once one embarks on the path of spirituality. The journey to inner peace is strewn with thorns and sharp stones – one just needs to traverse them carefully, with complete awareness, without getting hurt – and then the journey continues in a smoother fashion.

The common spiritual seeker has to be diligent in this day and age, because there are all kinds of distractions out there that can halt our progress if we let them. Now’s a better time than ever to increase our dedication and find out how far we can go, but we have to watch out for the things that can stand in our way.

Fatigue, laziness and complacency can halt our progress by encouraging us to stop, relax and think more about the ego-driven self than our path or the people we want to help. If we give in to fatigue, it can take away our inspiration and encourage us to do little more than sit on the couch, binge watch our favourite TV shows and generally fail to get anything done. Laziness compliments fatigue, because it encourages us to be unproductive for long periods of time. Complacency is the icing on top of the cake that encourages us not to care that we’re no longer getting anything done. Complacency can encourage long periods of careless laziness, and if we can recognise and try to combat fatigue as soon as it starts to affect us, we can get away from all three of these qualities and continue with our inner work.

When the seeker finds it difficult to wake up early and do his spiritual practice, it is because the mind tells such a person that this is not his cup of tea – just give up. One must persevere and keep going and before we know it, we will be in a higher place, and our radiance will begin to show.

If one forgets about love, then the journey becomes really tough, because selfless love gives us the inspiration to keep going when our tensions pile up and we don’t feel enlightened or inspired. The journey is a lot easier and more worthwhile when we have love – love offers a unique kind of emptiness where the mind is empty but the heart is filled with inspiration, creativity and the willingness to take on the most difficult challenges.

The toughest challenge is overcoming the ever-changing forms of one’s ego. This is because, in spiritual terms, our ego is that which separates us from experiencing the Divine or God within us. Having ego equates to leading our life with the myopic thinking that our existence is limited to our 5 senses, mind and intellect. In practical terms, this means having thoughts such as – my name, my body, my looks, my education, my position, my family, my achievements, etc. It seems that these my thoughts are the be-all and end-all of one’s existence. One does not think beyond this limited view of life.

Regardless of the path one follows, if one has a high ego, spiritual progress cannot take place. Spiritual growth means transcending our lower selves, which is our 5 senses, mind and intellect and experiencing the Soul or the God principle that resides in each one of us.

Inculcation of Values

 

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Inculcation of Values

Swamiji keeps telling us that after he subtly plants the seed of spirituality within us, automatically we begin to inculcate Swamiji’s values. The extent to which we inculcate his values depends entirely on us. The greater our submission and surrender the greater is our ability to imbibe these values.

As we grow up, we are born with certain values which we carry forward from our previous birth, we inculcate some new values through our parents and teachers, sometimes friends too, which add lustre to our existence. The contrary also holds true, if we fall into bad company, we start inculcating bad values and that proves to be a setback in our lives. In such instances, we move away from the core objective of taking this birth, which is to endure our karmas and embark on to the path of liberation.

When we work on our values, become disciples of an enlightened Master, we essentially start removing the negative qualities within us. This process takes place automatically as we meditate and start cleansing our chakras and nadis. We begin to look at ourselves within and start identifying our flaws and then imbibing values which remove these flaws.

It is necessary to start inculcating values in children if we desire a value-based society going forward. The values which are absolutely necessary are right conduct, peace, truth, love and non-violence. These values are very specific and are absolutely essential if we have to awaken the humanity within our children. The dharma of every individual on earth is humanity – without human values we are destined to suffer.

When we inculcate and build on these five values, this raises the human being above the level of the animal kingdom. Human beings receive information through the five senses, which is then referred to the conscience, resulting in a beneficial action. Every action is preceded by thought, and if the thought is consciously seen and noted, aims to help and is unselfish, then the action will be good for oneself and others. Right conduct also means taking care of our physical body through exercise, yoga and a healthy diet.

We inculcate peace as a value once we learn to sit in silence, turn introversive and develop a strong enough will power to enable us to discern the difference between real needs and superficial desires. Our inner agitation stops and we turn peaceful. Once the individual finds peace, then there will be peace in the family, peace in the family results in peace in the community.

Becoming truthful is a first and vital step in the formation of a strong character. The desire to learn about the ultimate truth, has led the Masters to ask certain questions – Who am I? What is the purpose of my birth? Where am I going? With these questions, the desire to know the Self is awakened, ultimately leading one to find the truth about one’s own existence.

Love is not an emotion, affected by the sub-conscious mind, but is a spontaneous, pure reaction from the heart. It is love which causes one person to wish for the happiness for another and take joy in their well-being.

For the non-violent person, the whole world is his family. When the former four values are practiced (i.e. the conscious mind is keenly aware, love is flowing, there is peace and actions are right) life is lived without harming or violating anything else. It is the highest achievement of human living encompassing respect for all life - living in harmony with nature, not hurting by thought, word or deed.

Mistakes – Life Lessons?

 

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Mistakes – Life Lessons?

It is said that failures are the stepping stones to success – when we say this, what we really mean is that it is okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are nothing but life lessons that we need to learn from, in fact one learns even faster! A great scientist, Buckminister Fuller had once said at a conference, “Forget about all the ‘Do this. Don’t do that’ business. Commit as many mistakes as possible, as soon as possible. You will become great.”

If one sits and analyses that statement, one finds that it is true! Every failure is a stepping stone. We just have to ensure that it is not the same stepping stone, don’t repeat mistakes, learn form them and move on. Every step should be on a new stone.

The problem with many people is that they make the same mistake over and over again, they do not learn. The impact of such mistakes keeps worsening, till the lesson is finally learnt. By that time such people pay a heavy price – and in the spiritual sphere this is a very high price to pay. This is because one takes a long time to near the peak, and one small mistake means you fall down and start all over again. Experience is the best teacher.

If one has to grow spiritually then it is important to primarily identify one’s own defects. It is very easy to point out other people’s shortcomings, but far more difficult to see oneself just as one is. To do this one has to become introversive – and identify one’s negative traits which could be anger, greed, laziness, insecurity, lust, jealousy and so on. Such personality defects need to be identified and removed as they make us less efficient, they are a constant source of stress and misery in ours and others’ lives. They consume a lot of our energy, leaving us tired and miserable.

Such personality defects erupt as a reaction to situations, thus robbing us of experiencing any happiness (let alone, bliss) that our spiritual practice has the potential to give us. Negative energies from the subtle dimension find it easy to gain entry into a person with many personality defects. They accentuate the reactions which a person may be having, thus negatively impacting the person and others. For example, if we have the personality defect of anger and we hurt others by the way we speak, we incur sin. 

At a spiritual level, the energy generated through the spiritual practice is used in nullifying the sin. Consequently, they diminish one’s ability to persevere on the spiritual path. Regardless of the spiritual path one follows, if one has many personality defects, spiritual progress is difficult if not impossible.

It is best to learn from one’s mistakes, turn introversive and identify and set right one’s personality defects if one desires to progress spiritually. Turn inwards, bloom within and find the universal peace that all are seeking – knowingly, unknowingly.

Essence of Spirituality/Yoga

 

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Essence of Spirituality/Yoga

The general understanding of yoga is the westernised concept which means nothing but physical exercise to keep the body fit. In the west pure yoga has been corrupted to such an extent that different people have started their own variation – musical, dance, hot, hatha yoga and so on. Actual meaning of yoga is the union of mind and body. According to the Yoga Sutras, “Yoga is settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded consciousness.”

Yoga actually began as a philosophy rather than a physical discipline. Yoga is mentioned in the sacred ancient Indian text, the Rig Veda, which defines yoga as a union, or ‘yoking’ of the material and spiritual worlds, and it doesn’t describe any physical postures other than the traditional cross-legged meditation pose.

Actually, yoga as a physical exercise can by fully justified, but it is far more than that. It helps us cultivate an inner state of body-centred consciousness that allows us to walk calmly amongst the chaos. Yoga teaches us to let go and to have exquisite awareness in every moment.

The essence of yoga is the union or integration of all layers of life – physical, emotional and spiritual. It is a practice for going beyond the ego’s habitual identification of the mind and body directly experiencing our true spiritual self. Rooted in this connection to the spirit, we are able to solve the challenges that arise in life.

The final part of ashtang yoga is samadhi – and that is the ultimate aim. The general understanding when one talks of samadhi is that the person has died. In a way the state of samadhi is like that, you are dead, yet you are alive – all your bodily activities get muted to such an extent that you appear to be medically dead. Lots of yogis reach that stage.

One can reach that state through serious meditation practice and in so doing one completely loses the sense of “I” or one’s ego. When the “I” dies, one can truly live. With the death of the ego, one reaches that state of purity which takes one to ‘heaven’, to experience the highest knowledge or the ultimate truth. That is called samadhi. This is the essence of all spiritual teachings, no matter what you call it.

It does not matter which religion you belong to, all that matters is losing the selfishness, losing the ego. The ego is, in a way, the very source of the mind.

All the expressions of the ego, thinking, feeling, willing, could be put together under one term, “mind.” If the mind gets completely purified, then it’s no longer an obstruction to your experience of the Truth. When it is clean and clear, the mind doesn’t colour the appearance of the pure Self. It becomes a pure reflector of the Self to see its own true nature. That is the essence of spirituality.

God is Spirit

 

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God is Spirit

We often wonder about God – what is God? Where can God be found? And so on…..it is said that God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent – all this is fine, but God cannot be seen. One can feel God’s presence in nature, one can also experience God’s presence in nature.

God can be ‘He’, ‘She’ and ‘It’ and much more than that. We usually say ‘He’ as ‘He’ is considered to be the so-called neutral pronoun. God need not be just a father, God can be a mother, brother, sister too, even a friend, a tree – God is everything.

God is Spirit, and Spirit is above all these distinctions. Spiritual practice is nothing but realising God as spirit! Unfortunately, we see that even in the spiritual sphere we make distinctions between male and female, we have problems with male and female!

When we argue and fight about men and women, this shows that we are not truly following the spiritual path – we are still on the physical plane – arguments about men and women have no place in an ashram. There should be no discrimination against one or the other. When we talk about the physical body, we are actually talking about flesh, blood and bone – spirit is above all these things. If we keep fighting and arguing about male and female, we have no right to call ourselves as followers of the spiritual path. Spirit has no gender – that’s why we have to rise above the bodily sense of male – female.

Hence, with regular meditation, gradually over a period of time, our body consciousness reduces and our soul consciousness increases, when this happens, we begin to lose the male-female distinction and we start seeing ‘people’ as just souls. In fact, we see all beings as souls – whether they are flora or fauna or humans – being aware of this unity means we have realised and known that God is Spirit and nothing else – and we too are made in the image of God. The duality disappears.

Our love for God has no limits as we realise that God is in everything, God is everything – God is in the mother, father, brother, sister, friend, pet, wild life, forests, oceans, rivers – literally in everything. God can literally manifest as anything – that is why the Sanatan Dharma accepts God in multiple forms and objects – thus God is in all these things and more. It is our acceptance which is required for realising God as Spirit.

Real Spiritual Experience

 

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Real Spiritual Experience

There are a variety of spiritual experiences which people encounter after walking on this path. With the practice of meditation under the guidance of a realised Master, one begins to get various spiritual experiences. I have personally had so many – some of them are feeling cool vibrations, sensing the presence of spirits, being caressed lovingly by cold energy, getting divine fragrances, hearing the cosmic sound, sensing and seeing my soul within my body. All these and many more – all through the blessings and grace of our Satguru – His Holiness Shivkrupanand Swamiji.

Things just start happening in auto mode – you think of a person, and that person calls, or someone thinks about you, and you call that person. These are routine occurrences. One unique observation is that if I pray for the rain to give a break as I have to go out, it actually stops raining till I reach my destination and then the skies open up. This has happened innumerable times for it to be a coincidence. One begins to become aware of synchronicity as patterns and so-called coincidences keep occurring in one’s life!

One begins to get insights about certain future happenings which invariably pan out with the passage of time. One begins to sense divine presence in and around one’s body, this presence invariably appears in times of stress giving a kind of unexplainable comfort and sense of calm to face the situation.

One begins to become aware of and in tune with nature – hot and cold climates don’t seem to matter anymore as body consciousness reduces and soul consciousness increases. One feels at peace at all times – nature is beautiful, it is full of life, colours, energy and sounds. Being aware of the holy origin of nature is another frequent experience people all over the world get.

These are all experiences which one feels or gets – thus the body and mind senses these experiences. In meditation one needs to go beyond all these into that void space, into that nothingness. But, if one needs to know what real spiritual experience, then living and working together as one beautiful family with complete love, is truly God-like.

Real spiritual experience means moving around with a smiling, loving face. That is spiritual. To see the spirit in others and to love everyone; to rise above these little differences of the lower nature and bring harmony wherever you are.

If you can’t live harmoniously with others, what is the use of other spiritual experiences? Ultimately, everyone should love you. Keep that in mind: “I will live the kind of life that will make everybody love me, and I will love them.” If that happens in your life, you will know that you are growing spiritually.

The Greatest Freedom

 

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The Greatest Freedom

Buddha was the greatest anarchist – he did not believe in any external rule. To help one become free from the outer, he taught the way to achieve inner freedom, develop an inner discipline. There are millions of ways one can find to awaken the inner guide, every path leads to the same destination.

One has choices for pursuing the path for seeking inner joy. The best part of the Buddha is that when one has learned the inner discipline, he appears to destroy that too – because either one is ruled from the outside or from the inside. Either way, one becomes a slave; freedom is only when there is no rule.

The inner discipline is just to step out of the outer domination of the society we live in, of the state, civilization, culture, language, etc. Once we free ourselves from the outer domination, we embark on freeing ourselves from the inner discipline. This is extremely difficult, as our subconscious has been trained over several births to follow a certain inner discipline. This is all part of the process to total freedom – knowing with awareness that we are on the right path is extremely important.

According to the Buddha, no-discipline is the discipline to follow, because when a person is without any discipline, then there is beauty – because then there is freedom. In such a state, one acts spontaneously; not according to any rule imposed by others or by oneself. One simply acts out of nothingness – the response is total; nothing is held back! There is tremendous grace and benediction – because now the actor has completely disappeared, the doer is no more there. When one is trying to discipline oneself, the doer remains, in a subtle way.

Duality remains in disciplining oneself – one remains divided, as one part of you is trying to discipline another part of you. There is bound to be conflict in duality, because in reality you are one, and this is the fiction. Who is trying to rule, to dominate whom? There is only one existence within, just one being. To try and bring any sort of discipline means dividing that unity, and that division leads to misery, to hell.

What Buddha had said was – God is not and there is freedom. Freedom means: you are not created by anybody and you are not dominated by anybody and nor are you manipulated by anybody. This absolute freedom, is God.

 

Absolute Faith

 

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Absolute Faith

Absolute faith means there is no concept of self at all. If I say, “I believe absolutely”, it means there should be no opposition to that within myself. When we say we are united with God, there should be no ego. “Absolute faith” is the belief in something regardless of lack of evidence or evidence to the contrary.

We look to God or to the Supreme Power usually when we are in trouble or face some kind of personal crisis, till such time God is considered to be a given and we don’t bother remembering God, and gratitude is out of the question! We rush to God because we expect quick-fix solutions – we want to do a trade with God, we tell God that if you do this thing for me, I will do so and so for you! There is no faith in this – this is purely transactional! Faith cannot be transactional, nor does God act in this manner.

For the God within us to become active we need to have the qualities that bring forth the divinity which exists within each and every one of us. When we follow the path of truth, love and karma we become worthy of God’s Grace. Our absolute faith in the divine enables us to delve deep within ourselves and bring forth the courage and the wisdom to face our problems and overcome them.

Even after maintaining faith, some people have complaints and objections regarding the divine will.  Questions like ‘why did this happen’ start raising their head. This is because having left everything to faith and their belief in God; they start living according to their self-chosen path. The ‘doer-ship’ of their conviction, that God has to keep everything ‘in order’ (for their good) because of their faith in him, takes prominence.

Human beings do not have the wisdom to realise the fact that we have to be open and deserving of God’s grace when it descends. Because of ignorance caused by falsehood, pride, hypocrisy, selfishness, attachment, egos etc the doors of our heart are closed towards divine grace. Open these, and see that not only divine grace but divinity itself will flow towards us.

Absolute faith has three variations – firstly, the energy created by pure, complete unconditional love helps in either thwarting the threat or diminishing it to such an extent, that it does not matter. Second, if with full awareness, dhyan, wisdom and spontaneity, the situation is analysed, initiating the right conduct at the right time, the dynamics of the situation can be changed to save oneself. Lastly – the force and power of truth! To face the truth with absolute fearlessness – knowing the fact that the truth of the moment demands that one should make the sacrifice, that it has divine sanction, and yet remain unaffected by it.

Faith is the pride and beauty of humanity, the source of energy and only through truth, love and karma, can the human body become a medium for one’s spiritual evolution. Always keep the locks to the door of your heart open with the keys of faith, truth, love and karma – this is the essence of life!

The Good and the Bad

 

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The Good and the Bad

Swamiji, in many of his discourses has told us that at birth we have 50% good and 50% bad within us – it is our upbringing and then as we grow up, the company we keep which decides which direction we take, good or bad.

There is an old native American story which perfectly explains the concept of good and bad within us. An old native American was talking to his grandson about good and bad. He told his grandson he had two wolves fighting inside of him – a good wolf and a bad wolf. His grandson asked, “Which wolf is winning?” The old man answered, “The one I feed”. Which wolf do you feed? It is all a choice for each one of us and we need our spiritual view to balance the good and bad within us.

Spiritually this can be seen from the positive and negative energy perspective – as it is everything in this universe is energy, hence let us look at this from the energy point of view. Energy is always present, it is always around, always flowing, at all times. Energy has two forms – good and bad, just like alkaline and acidic properties in nature and in our body – these can either have negative influence or a positive influence in our lives.

All this depends on how strong our aura is built. The aura is created through spiritual practice and meditation which creates our energy field. This energy field is protecting us all the time. We can recognise a good energy force when we feel its presence, in that energy field we feel good, safe, joyous, calm, loving. We produce this energy through everything that we do – our movement, thought, passion, actions. Good energy flow is found when one has a clear state of being which allows the aura space to be filled with positive energy.

A focus only on the body and its emotional view limits us in seeing what is truly beneficial. That is where meditation is needed to allow a spiritual perspective for our choices. The old saying that “a little good and a little bad make a happy life” indicates a balanced perspective. When we see life from a broader perspective than just the physical, we can more easily forgive ourselves and others and move on, instead of being mired in ideals of perfection about what is good and bad.

When we are unsure of our choice, we should pause to meditate on the issue which is bothering us, so that we can find a spirit/body balance and enjoy life. One should know which “wolf” is being fed through meditation.

Don’t Run Away

 

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Don’t Run Away

We always come across challenges in life, some of us face them bravely and move on, others feel afraid and try to run away from the challenges. In my personal experience, I have run away from a challenge only once, and I had to face a similar challenge with 100x the force twenty years later! This time I faced the raging storm and moved on – I had the subtle support of Paramatma – His Holiness Shivkrupanand Swami. Whenever we were called for the enquiry sessions, they would always begin on a Thursday – (Guruvar – meaning the Gurus’ Day) – this always gave me the comfort that things would work out positively – go without fear and face the authorities!

This gives us a lesson – one cannot run away from oneself – do not avoid problems which come in life, face them and move on, simply because one cannot escape one’s karma, and it comes to bite you later with an enhanced ‘x’ factor!

There is an oft-told fable – let me repeat it here. A lady who was tired of facing life’s struggles sought advise from her mother. Her mother took her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water. In the first she put carrots, in the second she put eggs and in the third she put coffee beans. She then let them boil for twenty minutes, after which she turned off the burners and asked her daughter, “What do you see?”

“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” the daughter replied. The mother asked her to come closer and feel the carrots, she did and found out that the carrots had become soft. She was then asked to take an egg and break it. On shelling, she found that the egg had become hard. Finally, she was asked to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. Perplexed, she asked her mom, “What’s your point? Her mother explained that each object faced the same adversity – boiling water, but reacted differently. The carrot went in hard and unrelenting and came out soft and weak. The egg when tested, had hardened. The coffee beans however were unique, they had changed the texture of the water and filled it with their aroma. She asked her daughter, “Which are you?” When problems knock on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

There is much to learn from this fable. Which one are you? Are you the carrot that seems strong, but wilts in the face of pain and adversity? Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but hardens when in adversity? Or, are you like the coffee bean, which actually changes the water, the very circumstance that brings the pain, by its fragrance and flavour? When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level? There lies the secret to solving problems and handling adversity.

Meditation builds that equanimity in us and helps us to face problems calmly without any stress build up. It teaches us to take each life’s lesson, learn and elevate ourselves to the next level. Ultimately, we reach that space where nothing bothers us – we just witness and maintain our blissful state.

It Is Okay To Stumble

 

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It Is Okay To Stumble

There is a thought in people’s mind that once they start out on the spiritual path, they have to tread the straight and narrow. If they don’t, then things could work out badly for them. This is the resistance that the mind throws up to protect its own turf on control over the physical body. Where body consciousness predominates the mind and the ego are in charge, they are in no way going to let go of their control so easily.

The good news is that it is absolutely alright to be flawed. As the saying goes, nobody is perfect, everyone has his/her own idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. That is what makes each individual on this planet so unique. Flaws and limitations are woven through our lives. We are all stumblers, and the beauty and meaning of life are in the stumbling – in recognising the stumbling and trying to maintain balance while we become more graceful as the years go by.

 The stumbler literally stumbles through life, a little off balance here and there, sometimes lurching, sometimes falling; but the stumbler is honest and faces one’s imperfect nature, mistakes and weaknesses with completely unvarnished honesty. Such a person feels ashamed of the perversities in his/her nature – the selfishness, the self-deceit, the occasional desire to put lower-level loves above the higher ones.

A panacea is that humility offers self-understanding. When we acknowledge that we have screwed up, and recognise and feel the gravity of our limitations, we find ourselves challenged and stretched with a serious enemy - our ego - to overcome and transcend.

When the stumbler faces each fall with courage and overcomes them, then he/she is made whole by the struggle. Each weakness becomes a battle to be won and overcome and this gives meaning to life, a greater understanding of life is the result, thus making one a better person. When we sit down to meditate as a group, we lean on each other as we struggle to establish ourselves in the spiritual sphere, the collective energy balances and stabilises us.

There’s a joy in a life filled with interdependence with others, in a life filled with gratitude, reverence and admiration. There’s joy in freely chosen obedience to people, ideas and commitments greater than oneself. There’s a kind of aesthetic joy that we feel in morally good action, which makes all other joys seem insignificant and easy to forsake.

People do get better at living, at least if we are willing to humble ourselves and learn. When we meditate and learn to live in awareness this process gets automated. Thus, it is best to meditate and turn inwards – the inner is far more beautiful than the outer.