Sincere Souls

 

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Sincere Souls

Swamiji has given us a very simple mantra – I am a holy soul, I am a pure soul. The question is – how many of us actually feel that we are at the soul-level? Have we done our spiritual practise and reached to the level of the soul? Or are we still filled with body consciousness studded with desires, wants, expectations and so on? In the West the spiritual guidance that is received is not like what we receive in India. In the West, it is more about going to church and listening to sermons. These serve as a mode to awaken the desire to seek God – but most of such people have listened to such sermons so many times that a kind of fatigue has set in.

They know what has been said and what has been sermonised – but they are not living it. What needs to be done by such people is to live the truth in their lives – absorb the sermons and meditate and practise His presence every day. Try and connect within.

For example, when we go to a restaurant, we are not satisfied by reading the menu, we would like to see how the food tastes. Similarly, how many of us remain satisfied by just mouthing words about God or the Supreme Being? How many really make the effort to find God within themselves? How many of us can honestly say, “I have realised God, God speaks with me and guides me?” If this is not happening, then we should continue our search with greater intensity and honesty till we can honestly stand up and say that God is within us and we feel His presence in every atom and particle in our body.

Realising God is very easy and yet very difficult. It is said that the way to find God or Paramatma is through a Guru or Master – simply because through the ages the Guru has been the manifestation of God on Earth. If we can realise God in our Guru, then realising God within ourself becomes that much easier. Our meditation, spiritual practice and expression of the feeling of love towards all beings will ultimately help us move from body consciousness to soul consciousness.

So, to become sincere souls, living our lives in the image of God by losing our body consciousness and living in soul consciousness with a spirit of love and compassion is important rather than just eating, drinking, sleeping like animals do – it is best for us to realise that we are sincere souls who are made in the image of God. For that meditating and merging with one’s own consciousness is necessary!

Right Attitude & Detachment

 

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Right Attitude & Detachment

Most people start praying to God or seeking God in times of stress and tension in their lives. And for some the question is what is the use of this life if we are not seeking God? The life of an average person is such that for every ten bitter experiences you will probably have one great experience. Life gives more slaps than caresses – it is like a rule of life. That is why we find more people who are unhappy as compared to those who are happy. A very select few can say that they are truly happy. Unless and until one learns self-control, control over the mind, something always comes along to make them unhappy!

We face many tests in life, in fact, since the time I have embarked on the spiritual path I have felt that everything is a test – the Master keeps testing us at every moment, it is a test of patience, test of compassion, test of kindness, test of resilience – believe me everything is a test. We have to be aware that we are being tested and face the test with detachment and move on. We face misfortunes and we are disturbed and get imbalanced – if we focus on the misfortune, it is far more difficult to surmount the problem. But if we focus on the good fortunes in our lives, we will realise that the good always far outweighs the bad.

Our bad experiences weigh so much on our minds that we find that our minds are getting poisoned. It will be best if we meditate, learn to be aware and with conscious expression of the right attitude, learn to master our mind. By right attitude we mean our first reaction to any given situation – that reaction should always be nuanced and appropriate to the situation – usually we overreact and make a bad situation worse! When we realise that the situation which we are facing is nothing compared to what others are facing then there is no reason for us to overreact and become angry or frustrated.

Our peace of mind depends completely on us – the mind itself is nothing but turbulence, hence keeping the mind quiet means not getting mentally involved with situations – face them with complete detachment and awareness. The moment we become emotionally involved the problems begin. We must always remember that everything is God’s play of lila – creation, preservation and destruction. Our job is to play our role in this cosmic drama, but be apart from it. The moment we get involved and give it credence we are done!

All our faults and failures are temporary – we are eternal. It is the attitude of victory or failure what we have in our minds that determines whether or not we have been truly victorious in life. Just remember and affirm, “As a wave from the ocean I have come, and back to the bosom of the ocean I will go. I came from joy, I live in joy, and in that joy I shall one day melt again.”

Focus on Divine Consciousness

 

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Focus on Divine Consciousness

All great saints have told us that we are divine, we are all made in the image of God. We must not desecrate that image with negative emotions like fear, anger, jealousy, hatred, impatience and so on. When this happens are mind gets disturbed and we involuntarily dislodge ourselves from our innate divine state. Learning to live in this world without disturbing or giving up the divine image of calmness and joy in which God has created us – that is the art we need to learn and thus solve the mystery of life. Ashtanga yoga teaches us exactly that. Samarpan meditation is a step forward – it takes us directly to the final two steps – dhyan and samadhi.

Yoga helps us stabilise and calm the body whereas dhyan helps us stabilise and quieten the mind, samadhi unites us with the divine and duality disappears into the union of perpetual bliss.

Even though God has surrounded us with all kinds of limitations everywhere, still the mind can be free. Lots of freedom fighters have smilingly faced death for their nation. That is the state of mind that is absolutely free – where no sorrow, no pleasure, no ups and downs of life, can disturb you.

The Masters have advised us to try and remedy the cause of suffering, and yet be undaunted by it. Don’t be disturbed by life’s sufferings. When there is any external disturbance, we try to remedy it, find a solution for it and yet remain undisturbed within. Once we manage to attain this state of remaining calm and stable within regardless of external disturbances, then we have mastered the yogic virtue of titiksha or divine patience.

By remaining unceasingly even-minded we neutralise and ultimately defeat the effects of cosmic delusion or maya. We should strengthen our mind through meditation so that we don’t get hurt. We don’t know what beauty and freedom lies veiled behind the surface of life. Meditate! Make the mind so strong that we can rise above everything – so that no physical or mental pain arising out of living our life can really affect us. To become the ruler of our own consciousness that is true kingship. Like Swamiji says in his story, “I have become a king, I have become a king”.

It is the greatest ignorance to think that we are the body, because we are not! That is nothing but just our delusive attachment to the body that has been cultivated by us since birth. Through regular meditation our body consciousness reduces and soul consciousness increases, and a point is reached where we perceive ourselves as separate from the body, that is we realise that we are a soul – that is when we will see that the mystery of life has been solved!

Good-Evil – Mystery?

 

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Good-Evil – Mystery?

In human beings we see that some people enjoy marvellous health, and some people have been ailing and sick from the very beginning of their lives. We always rationalise saying that this is the Law of Karma. And still karma alone doesn’t seem enough to explain everything. It is definitely true that people reap the result of their evil actions. But who is it that creates those impulses in us which induce us into such evil actions in the first place? We say that we are made in the image of God, then logically our innate nature has to be good, isn’t it! We have not created negative emotions such as hate, jealousy, anger, greed and so on – but they are there.

The question also arises why is there mass destruction and death from floods, other natural disasters which do not make a distinction between good or evil. In such cases people from both sides of the spectrum fall a victim to such disasters. It is human beings that created the vicious bacteria and virus which have resulted in a global pandemic resulting in the death of countless people – again death has not made a distinction between good and bad. Our karma may have made us susceptible to these misfortunes, but we didn’t create them!

Why are these evils created? Who created them? Well, God is responsible for everything, including the Cosmic Delusion or Maya, which is the source of evil in our cosmos and in our lives. If that is so, then who is responsible for redeeming us – God or Universal Consciousness, isn’t it! There is always a purpose for what is happening in our lives – we do not have that 360-degree overview to find out the reason for everything. Because of this we are affected and become stressed.

Remember, no matter what we have to go through in life, one day we will have a complete understanding of the cosmic play, hopefully it could be on the last day of this life. But till then it is fruitless to try and figure this out.

There seems to be no interpretation of the law of karma that would affect the loss of tens of thousands of lives in such natural or man-made disasters. And yet there is a law that is secretly moving through everything – through all the seemingly contrary dualities of maya. There is no way we can understand this law, but we can definitely acknowledge the division between ignorance and wisdom and accept that God has hidden Himself behind the veil of maya.

Supreme Consciousness is the ultimate truth – God in this form is present in all of us as the atma – pain-proof, blissful and immortal. God has given us the free will and intelligence that we may seek to unveil this truth and thereby solve this mystery of life!

Face The Reality

 

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Face The Reality

A spiritual Master does not distribute lollipops, he is not there to mollycoddle you! He is there to make us face our reality, to look at life and see where we stand, how we have improved; are we progressing or are we stagnating?

The Guru provides the mirror for us to see our own reality. The Master is like a polished mirror, such that when we look at him, we see ourselves just as we are, no image distortions, no false images – just who and what we are! Because if we can’t actually see ourselves for what we are, how will we ever change?

Once in a while look in the mirror and ask yourself – “Have I changed?” Be honest with yourself, then only will there be room for improvement, for progress. In order to facilitate our spiritual progress, the Master keeps testing us by giving rise to such situations which literally test us in the aspect of ourselves that we think has changed for the better. Don’t run away from such situations, face them, face your reality. It is only when we face our reality that we understand where we actually stand.

The most important aspect of spiritual practice is to look at oneself in such a way that we know actually where we stand, where we actually are, or what we actually are. But how do we do that? This can happen only by facing situations, only by being in particular situations, and only through contact with other people.

We have to change for the better, there is no other way. If we remain the same, the years of meditation, the years of chanting mantras or singing bhajans are useless, unless the heart changes. The heart changes means that the heart has begun to look outside oneself, look at others and feel compassion, then we are progressing. We are always looking at our own selfish interests not bothered about others, when we start looking after the interest of others, we are progressing.

By sharing we receive – by sharing we are not talking money or wealth or material stuff, sharing spiritual insights, our spiritual experiences help others on the same path who may be stuck. We are not talking about giving everything we have, it is just that we should sacrifice some part of our lower self – sacrifice selfishness – look outside, help others.

We have to do our spiritual practice daily without fail, only then can we say that we are making some progress. We have to ‘sit down’ for meditation, there is no way out, let our mind wander it is alright, but physically sitting down is a must. After some time the mind becomes habituated and quietens down.

Difficult situations are wonderful opportunities to look at oneself – can one handle it. No armchair experience will do, real life situations are the real testing ground. How did you react, how did people perceive your reaction? Analyse and see for yourself. 

So, if we have to get out of this finally, once and for all, the only way is to find our own self. To find our own self, means to examine ourself, to look at life, try and become as less self-centred as possible. There is no human being who is totally non-self-centred’. Some self will be there. Otherwise, we cannot function on this earth. 

Always Choose Peace

 

Photo Credit: Bhagwad Gita

Always Choose Peace

In these days of human conflict, maintaining one’s own peace has become a huge challenge. When a person feels danger there is only one way that our body responds to the perceived danger, whether it is a threat to our life from a wild animal or a hostile, angry exchange with a colleague. The response usually comes in the form of a ‘fight or flight’ response based on our instant analysis made by our brain as the response releases adrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream.

Such instantaneous response is actually harmful for us when we are not responding to actual physical attacks where we need to fight or flee, it is also harmful in another way: Instead of being able to act in alignment with our values, we fall to the level of habitual responses. This is purely reactional!

Choosing peace is something we can train ourselves to do by practicing yoga and meditation. There are martial arts forms which also train us to maintain our peace – but his kind of peace comes with the practitioner knows that his peace comes from a place of power and strength and confidence in one’s own skill.

The choice is usually in the mind – and the mind is always the place for conflict. You will always be deciding – yes-no, should I-shouldn’t I and so on. If the mind is at peace the body automatically follows. Through meditation learn to communicate with the self and the guidance from within will always be available. The choice becomes easy.

Choosing peace becomes a choice – whenever you meet anyone, interact with anyone, go somewhere, acquire something – always ask yourself – whether the end result of whatever you are doing is going to maintain your peace or grab it from you!

Ask that for everything. People you would like to be with, possessions you would like to acquire. It doesn’t matter what you want to do; strike that against the touchstone of peace. “Will this rob me of my peace?” If the answer is, “Yes, you must choose peace or the other thing,” - then you should always choose peace. If the answer is, “My peace will not be disturbed by it,” okay, you can have that and still have your peace. That should be our aim.

The Real Achievement

 

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The Real Achievement

Lots of people talk about self-realisation, God-realisation and spirituality but they have no clue as to the amount of effort, grace and blessings that are required for attaining that goal. One practices hard – day and night – and becomes an Olympic champion winning all kinds of medals. One can also become a statesman, diplomat, wealthy businessman, professional through one’s own efforts and hard work. That’s easy, anybody who has the will power and commitment can do that – and you can see that a lot of people are doing it all over the world.

The real achievement is in doing something that everyone else is not doing. There are lots of pinnacles in the world and all of them have more or less been conquered by people – these are all achievements in the physical, mental or academic spheres.

It takes an extraordinary person, an extraordinary mind, a super-human to achieve the highest goal. There is no point in thinking of the highest goal if one is not willing to commit to make the greatest of efforts. One can think of small goals and keep an achieving them and feeling happy! “I want a medal”. Or, “I want to become rich”. Or I want to make a name for myself.”

The grandest goal – the goal for which we all take birth – is the spiritual goal, the goal of self or God-realisation. But those who choose to become seekers think this is as easy and simple as getting a sports medal or an educational qualification. Nope! Not all! It is not at all easy. If one tries on one’s own, it will take one a life-time or two to achieve that goal. One needs a Guru’s Grace and blessing to cut through the hard work.

There are people who have been working birth after birth after birth but are still far from the goal. The first step is to make up your mind and say this is my goal and I will do whatever it takes to achieve it. If one does not find a Guru, it is best to go to the Samadhi place of a Guru like, Shirdi Sai Baba, Akkalkot Maharaj, Gajanan Maharaj etc and plead for a Master to come into your life. In due course, a Master will appear in your life and you will be guided on to the path of meditation and thence to self-realisation.

To reach that goal under the Master’s guidance, one has to meditate regularly without fail, watch layer after layer of much being cleansed from the soul, the past truly becomes history as you learn to forgive and forget. Life comes alive in the present moment, nothing else exists. One learns to live in complete awareness with joy and bliss as companions. Let us all attain the real goal – that will be the real achievement!

Awareness is Never Lost

 

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Awareness is Never Lost

Since birth we are aware, we are always in the moment as children, but as we grow up our awareness is diluted. It appears to have disappeared as it gets entangled in other objects. Awareness is our nature, it is never lost, one can focus it on anything one chooses to. Once you are tired of focusing it on material objects like money, power, prestige, then a moment comes in life when one wants to focus one’s awareness within by closing the eyes. One begins to look for the source of this awareness, where is it coming from, on the roots – once this happens, in that split second life is transformed.

There are no steps to be followed – just one step – turn within. There is a story in Judaism which explains this concept. There was a man, Bal Shem, every day in the middle of the night he would go and sit on the banks of a river. That was his routine, night after night without fail, he would sit in that absolute calm and quiet just watching himself, watching the watcher. One day as he was passing by a rich man’s house on his way back, the watchman out of curiosity asked him, “What do you do every night, I am curious to know. I have followed you and seen that you just sit there till the middle of the night and then return. What is your business? What do you do?”

Bal Shem replied, “I know you have been following me. I can hear your footsteps in the absolute silence. I know you hide behind that gate and watch me! I too am curious about you. What do you do? He said, “I am a watchman, I guard the rich man’s house.” Bal Shem was overjoyed, “By God, you have given me the key word! This is my business too!” The watchman was confused so Bal Shem explained, “There is a difference between what I watch and what you watch. You are watching for somebody outside who may enter the house; I simply watch this watcher. Who is this watcher? This is my whole life’s effort; I watch myself.”

The watchman was puzzled and wanted to know what Bal Shem got out of it. Bal Shem replied, “Nobody pays me anything, it is such bliss, such a joy that it pays for itself profoundly. Just a single moment of bliss and the world’s treasures amount to nothing in comparison.”

One needs to take only one step, and that is of direction, of dimension. Either we can focus on the outside or we can let our whole consciousness be centred within by shutting our eyes to the outside world. Once we do this, we will know that, because we are the ‘knower’, we are ‘awareness’, we have never lost it. It has simply got entangled in thousands of things. Just withdraw your awareness from everywhere and just let it rest within the self, and we have arrived home!

Nothing Will Bother You

 

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Nothing Will Bother You

We get so easily disturbed by occurrences which happen in our life – we question, “why should it happen with me all the time?” Our being is so in tune with our ego that we always feel hurt by even the littlest of things. We take offence, we are offended and keep question everyone and everything! We are unable to see that the problem is “me” – because we are not looking within, we are looking for external scapegoats!

Let’s suppose you are involved in an accident; you may have been trying to wrongly overtake and in the process lost control and caused the accident. But your ego will never let you accept that fact and you will end up blaming the other driver, and if no other driver is involved, you will blame the vehicle manufacturer, the road, or anything else – but not your ‘self’. Why is that? Acceptance of any situation is the core solution to all problems. Why me? is never a solution. Everything happens for a purpose – we are paying off our karmic debts; if we don’t accept the consequences and fight, we are just creating more karma. There we go into the vicious circle of action-consequence-action consequence. We have been doing this over several births – are we ever going to learn?

Nothing will bother you if your relationship with it is correct. Pain becomes evil because you don’t like it! Nothing will bother you; no one will bother you; nothing will harass you if your attitude is right. What is the right attitude?

It is important to realise and understand that no pain will come to you and affect you unless of course, you do something to deserve it. Before I ventured onto the spiritual path (I did have a strong inner voice), I used to do stuff knowing full well that I should not do it, but the thrill of doing it would always tempt me into doing it; I would completely enjoy those moments too but then the time to face the consequences would also come. Knowing in advance that my action had consequences, the fact that I enjoyed doing what I should not have done, easily made me accept the consequences too. In fact, now that I look back, I feel those were all karmic bonds that I had to endure. No harm in doing that, as long as you do whatever you are doing with complete awareness, knowing full well that you will have to bear the consequences too.

Pain does not come to us unless we have done something to deserve it. Whether it is pain or something good, it comes our way only if we deserve it – that is the way the karmic law functions. To transcend this law one needs to meditate and move out of duality and merge with universal consciousness – that is man’s ultimate goal. When we live in the moment, in the now – no karma accrues!

Me, Me Me - You, You, You

 

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Me, Me, Me - You, You, You

Most people's thinking revolves around their own selves – it’s always about ‘me, me, me!’ The more one’s thinking centres around your own self, the more karma you attract. “What can I get? What should I wear? How do I look? What should I do?” I, I, I – all the way I! It is not possible to avoid karma which has already accrued, but we can avoid fresh karma by not doing anything for our own sake. We can do this by always feeling, “Everything is happening through God’s energy, I am only the medium. Whatever I am doing is not with selfish motive. Whatever I do is for the sake of others, for the overall benefit of humanity in the name of Paramatma.” If we think and act like this, all our actions become selfless service, Karma Yoga. We do not create any new karma in this manner.

It is not possible to exhaust all the accrued karma in one life-time – this is simply because we live life in ignorance and as we endure our old karma, we keep on adding fresh karma – both good and bad. This becomes a never-ending wheel of life, till the time we meet a realised Master in our life who shows us the path to liberation. When the Master introduces us to the path of meditation and leads us to self-realisation, the whole outlook changes – it all becomes about Paramatma – “You, You, You”! Whatever is happening is happening with His grace and we just learn to go with the flow.

Once this realisation dawns on us, we find out that there is nothing ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – these are all tricks of the mind. Whatever is, just is – and that is existence! We realise that we are not the ‘doer’, whatever is happening is all because of You, You, You. We realise that our past karma too is not ‘ours’ – we made mistakes and attracted that karma – give us the strength to face this karma, because we are a part of You and this karma happened too, because of You.

Let us subsume our ego, let go of the self and merge with the One, the Effervescent One – then there is no duality – there is no I, there is no You – It is just One, the Divine Light – Universal Consciousness!

Holy and Pure Spirit

 

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Holy and Pure Spirit

We have been given a soul mantra by our revered Master, His Holiness Shivkrupanand Swami – ‘I am a holy soul, I am a pure soul’. Anyone can chant this mantra and internalise it to actually then get the feeling of being a holy and pure spirit!

Everybody has a clean and pure Self, the image of God – the soul! Each soul is an expression of the same God. In Sanatan dharma – we say ‘Atma se Paramatma tak’ – meaning, ‘the journey from soul to Supreme Soul’ or ‘Nar se Narayan tak’, meaning ‘the journey from man to God’. You can choose to perceive that divine element in each and every living being in nature, functioning through every mind and body. When you learn to do that, you will see the divine element in each and every being and you will realise that the Self is common to everything and everybody.

Once you learn to recognise the Self in everybody – like Swamiji says, 'I see my Guru in every person', similarly we learn to see Swamiji in every soul. By doing this we are actually internalising the concept that we see the God within in each and every being. When this happens, we always feel love and compassion, there is no room for any negative emotion. That means we transcend the concept of so-called sinner and saint. We see each and every being as part of Supreme Consciousness.

We can explain this by a small example – take for instance a clear bulb or a coloured bulb. The coloured bulb gives coloured light, but you cannot say that the electricity that lights the bulb is coloured, can you? The energy that lights up the bulbs is the same; external variations are caused by the bodies through which the energy passes. Same is the case with all of us. The energy, the vibes that emanate from within us, define what kind of person we are.

The same Self functioning through a clean and pure mind shows saintly characteristics in a person. If the mind tends to have all the lower tendencies, you end up calling the person a sinner or person without any values. 

The one who stands supreme is the one who looks beyond the mind-body element and sees the genuine or real spirit beyond it all – even if the person is a so-called sinner. A person who has reached the state of a holy and pure spirit will still love such a person by recognising the true spirit within him.

Utilising Love

 

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Utilising Love

Human beings’ existence is based on love – humanity means love and compassion. When we feel an extra surge of love gushing from our heart, our capacity to love increases manifold – the question is where do we direct this love? Or do we have the capacity to direct it? Is it a natural process that happens unknowingly?

When we meditate regularly our energy centres keep getting purified on a continuous basis. We go into society, gather muck, and when we meditate, we cleanse ourselves – this is an ongoing process which continues till we reach the stage where our aura has become so strong that the muck stops entering our being. From here on in, our heart chakra starts flowering and love starts flowing from within us. This is a natural process – the love energy envelops all those beings – sentient and non-sentient – who enter our energy field.

You will hear comments from people who meet you – I was feeling low, after speaking with you I am alright, or I had a headache which has magically disappeared after having this cup of tea with you and so on.

This expression of love can take many forms – basically when you act normally without any self-interest in the larger interest of the public, you are expressing your love unknowingly. For instance, you are walking along a road and you find glass shards on the road, or a big rock both of which could potentially cause accidents. You go and pick up the glass shards and remove the rock so that potential accidents are avoided. Here, you are expressing your love to unknown people and protecting them from harm. You can show love to plants, animals – to nature in general.

Keeping water for birds daily, watering, weeding plants and nurturing them – all these are expressions of love, which we express unconsciously. Meditation helps us in doing all these activities consciously in full awareness. The ego does not play a role, only pure love does, your heart is in action – love is flowing, and that is what gives you a glow, simply because it is selfless!

Let your love be a universal love. That is true love. Always do something good for all others, not just for people. Concern about the feelings of others and the happiness of others is real love. It’s unfortunate that love is often limited to something physical. That’s not love at all. Love is concern for others, doing good to everyone and everything. Utilise your love for the benefit of Creation.

Anything Can Roll Down

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Anything Can Roll Down

Once one starts consciously walking on the spiritual path, one has to be very careful about one’s thoughts, words and deeds. The first person who climbs an unconquered mountain always struggles to find the path to the top. He keeps failing again and again before he finally succeeds. After coming down he maps the route for others to follow. He becomes the path-breaker the path setter – ‘I went this way, now you too can follow!’

Swamiji went to the Himalayas repeatedlly spending a cumulative period of 16 years in gaining spiritual knowledge from various Gurus, being passed on like a football (his own words) from one Guru to the other. After gaining knowledge he came down to society and since 1994 he has been showing the easy way to self-realisation by teaching Samarpan Meditation free of cost to all and sundry. Currently this is practiced in 62 countries and spreading very fast! He went to the Himalayas and is now showing us the way to the top, without actually doing the hard work which he did!

The point I am trying to make is that climbing up is difficult, staying on the peak is far more difficult but missing one’s step and rolling down is easy!! Remember, if one cannot control one’s ordinary, earthly, human nature, one is not likely to realise one’s spirit, attain self-realisation. One should have control over the eyes, the tongue, the flesh, the food – why? If we have to rise above nature then we have to have complete control over our senses. We cannot be controlled by the senses! Every discipline in life ultimately gives you the strength to transcend the limitations of the senses.

A stone easily rolls downhill, in fact anything can roll down – gravity does it’s thing. Throw any object upwards, it always comes down – because gravity plays its role. What goes up, comes down. Similarly, our minds and bodies are constantly being pulled down towards the earth and we are trying to change that. We need the help of a rocket to get past the gravitational pull.

That’s why we need discipline. Without discipline, this ascent would be impossible. Even a minor fault, a loose wire and the launch does not happen. The mind is a rocket, the body the launching pad. The mind should be well-tuned and well-fuelled for it’s launch. Then one just needs to have the countdown…. ten, nine, eight….zero…take off! Once one takes off and attains mach speed to go past the gravitational pull, then one transcends the mind.

At this point, the analogy ends, because one is not really launching oneself from here to somewhere else. Everything happens right where one is. Right here one can master the forces that pull one down. One doesn’t have to shoot off somewhere, but one needs to discipline the mind and body. Only then can one command nature. 

Advising Others!

 

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Advising Others!

With the passage of time, as we go through life, we feel we have become wise and are prone to giving advice. Taking someone else’s advice can prove to be dangerous. Many will give advice even though they aren’t truly in a position to be giving it. Others will give advice that is very one-sided and that cannot be catered to by every person in every situation - in fact, it’s rare to find any sort of advice that holds true for any given situation.

Every situation that a person finds him or herself in is entirely unique. The outside factors and our own state of internal affairs can’t be replicated or fully understood by ourselves, far be it for anyone standing on the side-lines to give conclusive advice to anyone in the midst of action or turmoil.

For every problem there is always a solution. When we are unable to arrive at an answer by ourselves, we seek the help of others. We either ask our family or friends, read books on the subject or surf the net looking for answers. If you - the person who is living the problem - can’t fully grasp the issue, then what makes you think anyone else could? Sure, there are many of those who lived through very similar situations, but there is no one that has ever been in the same exact situation as you - nor will there ever be.

Life questions are the most difficult to answer because they revolve around the way we feel at the moment, the experiences that we had in the past and the way that we react to certain things — the way that we are likely to react to events in the future. Because we have each lived different lives and experienced different experiences, no person other than yourself will be able to find the perfect answer to any crisis you may come up against.

The truth is that hearing advice and listening to it are two different things. While it’s always good to hear advice, it’s not always good to listen to it and take it. You can ask others for their opinions and hear their stories of how they made it out of the dark tunnel, but understand that their situation is not exactly the same as your own.

You are the one that has the most access to the reality that you are living in and are the only person truly fit to direct your life. Hear others out and then listen to yourself. There’s no truer advice than the advice we give ourselves, but fail to follow.

This inner advice comes from our inner voice – we just have to make ourselves pure enough to listen to it. Meditation helps in clearing the muck around our soul – once that is cleared our soul becomes our guide, our inner voice, sending us always in the right direction. No further need for external advice!

The Best Victory

 

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The Best Victory

Right since taking birth we are struggling, fighting for survival. The child is so comfortable in the mother’s womb, it doesn’t want to come out – it gives the mother labour pain as it struggles to emerge from the womb. This struggle helps in making the child strong and capable to take on the world. An early lesson – nothing comes easy in life – life is a struggle.

As we start growing up, we realise that we have to share our parental love with our siblings – for some that is easy, in others it creates a sense of jealousy, competition even for seeking one’s parents’ attention! Then off to school – where again you are competing with children of your own age – and you begin to think, ‘When will all this end?’ We seem to be in a race which never seems to end. The race to the top with peers is fine – but there will always be those who are better placed than you – they have a huge advantage over you – how do you compete?

You cannot win unequal battles – the best way is acceptance of your situation in life. Accept that there will be those who will move ahead of you, be richer than you, get a better spouse and so on – because these are all thoughts which bedevil the mind!

When we win a war, it is a one-sided victory. A true victory should benefit everyone, isn’t it! If you win the war now, your enemy will be waiting for another to opportunity to take you on again and then be victorious. How can you call this victory a real victory if there is an enemy waiting for you somewhere, just waiting to put you down?

The best way is to make your enemy you friend. You may have beaten him/her in battle (it could be war, it could be office competition, it could friendly competition, it could be marital tiffs, anything at all), showing compassion and kindness and then offering a helping hand to pick him up and move on in life – that will make him/her your friend for life. That is the best victory! Don’t be condescending in victory, be compassionate and kind and instead of an enemy who keeps holding a grudge against you, you will have made a friend who will have your back, no matter what!

Victory by winning over hearts and minds through love, compassion and kindness is the best victory. It may not be possible all the time, but whenever this happens it gives you indescribable joy and happiness. In modern times, with the amount of conflict arising out of disparity, it is difficult. Through meditation, by balancing yourself, by opening your heart chakra all this is easily possible. Try it!

The Whole Is Yours

 

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The Whole Is Yours

Just like the legs do the ‘walking’ for you, the mind does ‘minding’. That is what the mind does for a living! As Osho explains, “It immediately divides things into two.” The moment the mind thinks, it divides into two. That is its job – it is part of the duality of human existence. To think and to divide into two constitute one and the same thing. The more a man is used to thinking, the more he will keep on dividing. Ultimately, he will end up with fragments and the whole will be completely lost. The answer to every question lies in the wholeness, in this totality.

The mind is unable to find the answers to any question. The mind is helpless. It cannot function without making divisions. Then what use is the mind? You can definitely use it for preparing tax returns or doing any other mundane job or activity for which it is very good.

No matter what you do, life only turns out the way it turns out. Struggling with life does not help at all. Struggling is simply destructive; there is no point in it. Effort is not needed. Effort is needed only in the accidental world, and even then, there too it eventually fails. It gives you hope, but eventually it fails.

In the inner world no effort is needed. Once you start slipping inwards, you suddenly see everything is happening as it should. Life is perfect. There is no way to improve upon it. Then celebration starts. When life is felt as perfect, when you suddenly see the tremendous beatitude, the tremendous glory surrounding you; when you suddenly see that you have always been at home -- there was nowhere else to go; when you suddenly feel in your innermost core of being that you are with God and God is with you, that you are floating with the Whole, you don't have a private destiny... the destiny of the Whole is your destiny also, so wherever this existence is moving, you are also moving.

Watch nature -- everything is running so smoothly! Why not become a part of it? Why create conflict? Conflict creates anxiety; anxiety brings anguish. If you have a private goal you are going to get mad. Relax! Drop out of the accidental world so you can drop into the essential world. Then one starts accepting things as they are. Then one starts loving things as they are. Then one starts cherishing things as they are. And they have always been beautiful. Once you are not fighting, not going anywhere, you can feel the music, the celestial music that is surrounding your very being.

To stop the mind from dividing, to stop it from doing what it has been trained to do right since your birth, start meditating under the guidance of a realised Master. Once you do that you will discover the ‘empty mind’ of meditation – then everything can be seen undivided, whole. The questions disappear as life happens by itself.

Learning All The Time

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Learning All The Time

It is said that we are learning right since the time we are born. If learning stops then progress stops! The only thing that is constant is change – so as we pass through different stages of life our learning continues and helps in changing our perspective about life with the passage of time. The hidden message in this statement is – remain in the present moment!

In spirituality we should not deny anybody just because he or she follows or doesn’t follow a certain path. Ultimately, we are all learning.  If anyone is interested in knowing what practices you are doing, talk about it; explain how you have benefited, but don’t try to persuade another to do the same thing.

Today, meditation is needed more than ever before. Meditation is needed to such an extent that it has almost become a matter of life and death. In the olden days it was a luxury that only a few people enjoyed – a Buddha, a Mahavira, a Krishna – only such people were interested in it. In those days the population density was not as high as it is today and people led a simple life as life moved on silently. Today, due to the high population there is a lot of thought pollution, where one doesn’t even know whether the thought in one’s mind is one’s own!

Now the change is so tremendously fast that even the most intelligent of people are incapable of adapting to it. Everyday life is different, and one needs to learn again – one has to learn and learn again and again. One can never stop learning, as it has become a never-ending process with rapid change in technology where one has to continuously keep adapting – or stagnate and wither away! One keeps on learning till the time death comes calling else without learning, one would feel lost. There is so much pressure, that learning has no alternative. One will have to deliberately slow down from this fast pace, and the only way to do this is by being meditative in every moment, else neurosis could set in.

If one does not meditate for at least half an hour every day as Swamiji says, then neurosis will not be accidental; one will create it oneself. For half an hour every day, one should disappear into one’s inner world – if possible, half hour in the morning and half hour in the evening – that would be ideal. If you get a like-minded group of meditators at least once a week, then that is icing on the cake. During this meditation one should be totally with one’s self – no thoughts, no memory, no imagination – nothing but one hour of pure emptiness in one’s consciousness. This rejuvenates and fills one with fresh energy and one returns to the material world, younger, fresher and with more wonder in one’s eyes, with more awe in the heart – just like a child.

The modern mind is super-loaded and has no time to digest information and assimilate it into one’s own being. That is where meditation comes in and becomes more significant than ever – not giving time for meditation, we repress all information without absorbing it and that is the problem. Learn, meditate, assimilate and live in the moment!

Rest At the Top

 

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Rest At the Top

As we progress in life, we start from getting an education, then finding a job or starting a business, then making ends meet and then going on to make money and generate wealth in life. Most of us don’t stop to rest as we feel we have very little time to achieve our never-ending life goals. All this applies to us in our material life; some of us get fed up of the continuous stress of living up to not only our own expectations but to the expectations of our family and friends!

Some of us get fed up of this rat race and try to find a solution which is outside the rat race. A true seeker finds a spiritual guide, a realised Master, and then turns inwards to find inner peace. Here too, the task is tough and one has to follow all the rules of an ascetic before one reaches a stage where he can ultimately rest. The way to the goal is through yoga and meditation.

Meditation is rest, absolute rest, a full stop to all activity — physical, mental, emotional. When you are in such a deep rest that nothing stirs in you, when all action as such ceases, as if you are fast asleep yet awake, you come to know who you are. Suddenly the window opens. It cannot be opened by effort, because effort creates tension and tension is the cause of our whole misery. Hence this is something very fundamental to understand - that meditation is not effort.

One has to be very playful about meditation, one has to learn to enjoy it as fun. One has not to be serious about it — be serious and you miss. One has to go into it very joyously. And one has to keep aware that it is falling into deeper and deeper rest. It is not concentration, just the contrary, it is relaxation. When you are utterly relaxed, for the first time you start feeling your reality, you come face to face with your being. When you are engaged in activity you are so occupied that you cannot see yourself. Activity creates much smoke round you; it raises much dust around you; hence all activity has to be dropped, at least for a few hours every day.

That is only so in the beginning. When you have learnt the art of being at rest then you can be both active and restful together, because then you know that rest is something so inner that it cannot be disturbed by anything outer, the activity continues on the circumference and at the centre you remain restful. So, it is only for beginning that activity has to be dropped for a few hours. Then one has learned the art then there is no question: for twenty-four hours a day one can be meditative and continue all the activities of ordinary life.

In leading a spiritual life, however, once you get to the top, you have reached Ever-rest. You do rest there, and you won’t have to come down. You can even pull others up as well. But there are no shortcuts. A great price must be paid to reach that great goal. What is that price? Leading a selfless life.