WE CLING TO THE TRANSITORY VALUE OF LIFE In the relative life, the only thing that is sure is change, and we cling to the changes, the transitory value of life because we find security. I have given you an example before, in the Himalayas, a person has an accident and is lying in the snow. Such a warmth envelops him that he does not want to get up. If he would only exert his will to get up and walk around a bit to circulate his blood, he would be saved; he would live. But he loses his life in that warmth he has found lying in the snow. That is the daily experience of all of us; because we are afraid of the unknown, we stick to that which is familiar. We adhere to what is expected, even though it is so unpleasant to us and brings so much suffering to us. Common sense would tell us that we should evaluate relative existence with all its changes and try to see how beneficial these changes are to us. We can still live in the changes and change the differences; that is the secret of life. What do we change? We change that which is forever evolving into changelessness, wherein stability can be found. The fear of facing the future or turning away from that with which we are so familiar is a sure sign of instability, a sure sign of a lack of faith and a sure sign of the disbelief of Divinity. What prevents us from wanting to change, although inwardly we wish to get away from the suffering? Yet we are so tied down, bogged down, because of how we have been conditioned. As we have always discussed, our minds are nothing but a product of conditioning. I have known people, for example, in a restaurant who do not want to try a different kind of food; they are afraid. TAKE A CALCULATED RISK How much joy is missed in life because we do not want to change? We are afraid because of insecurities, instabilities, and a lack of trust. The most incredible thing in life, which could ever be achieved, is not always to mind your step but to take a leap. All the greatest things created in this world, from the most fantastic bridges to the tallest skyscrapers, everything, you name it, is because a person was prepared to leap. Even in leaping, it should not be blind leaping. As a business person would say, take a calculated risk. But are we prepared to risk our little ego, that little ego that wants us to cling, and cling and cling, to life? There is nothing wrong with clinging to life because everything is life, but what is our understanding of life? That is the question. Does life only mean the conditionings of which our minds are a product? Does life only mean the mundane things we attach so much importance to? Is that real life, and is that living? Most of us do not live; we just exist. BE PREPARED FOR CHANGE In this just existing, we drift like a rudderless boat. So, there must come a time when a person must accept a higher value than life’s ordinary, mundane, changing values. There are a few kinds of people that would be prepared for change. The one type of person that would change is he that reaches rock bottom when his life has become too much for him. He has gained the ground, and when one falls to rock bottom, there is only one way he can go, which is up. So, remember, when people go through the direst misery, there is always an upward surge coming; it is an infallible law. When we go through the worst suffering, do know that there is something better in store, the storm before the calm, that will inevitably happen. The other kind of person that wants to change his whole lifestyle would be the person that has gained some understanding. It would be the person that has seen the futility of his current lifestyle and very consciously wants to alter that lifestyle. The former person is forced to change his lifestyle. The latter person to which many of us belong intends to intentionally alter that lifestyle, and we gain some understanding in wanting to change that lifestyle consciously. At first, it is a mental understanding. Later, cognitive understanding, with the help of conscious effort and effortless meditation, becomes a realisation where every hatred can be turned into love, and adversity can be turned into an opportunity. One must not expect dramatic changes because that which starts very dramatically can also end very dramatically, and you are back to square one. Proper changes in life and changing one’s lifestyle must come gradually, and as it comes slowly, the greater force it would have, and the more significant impact it would have upon us. Have you ever seen a flower growing immediately after you plant a seed? When a housewife cooks, have you ever noticed she was putting the pot on the stove and removing it in two seconds? No, it takes time; it takes time. Therefore, one must cultivate patience, and the very patience produced is a joy if we understand why we are growing tolerance. As days go by, and we develop newer and newer understandings, deeper and deeper insights, our attitude towards life changes radically, sometimes unperceptively to us, but so noticeable by others. “But, this is not the same person I knew six months ago.” INFUSING THE CHANGELESSNESS INTO THE CHANGE As one progresses, it becomes encouraging, and the more encouragement one receives, observes, observes, and feels, the quicker the path goes. So, we essentially have to wake up from this deep sleep that we are in that is causing us suffering. And in that awaken-ness, that wakefulness, in that awareness, we would find that we have stopped existing, but now we have
The Heart’s Expansion: Living the Ideals of Love and Divinity
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WE ARE THINKING BEINGS There is only one way to express our actions in daily activity, and the component of that way is to live a better life in our waking state consciously. We can do it. We are thinking beings. We can discriminate, and if we cannot determine, we can always go to the guides that have gone deep into the subject and that are living here amongst us, and ask brother or father or guru, whatever, “What path shall I take, where am I wrong?” And guidance is there for the asking. That is the practical side, and meditation enhances the practical side of living by attaining that beautiful tranquillity of mind. By achieving that deep relaxation of the body, we can attune ourselves to the Universal Spirit within us. Because if we were just on the surface, on the ocean’s turbulence, we would not know the calmness within us, deep down in the sea. So, we dive within ourselves, and through systematic meditation, this is possible and experienceable; it is there just for the doing and the asking. When one dives deep within oneself and regenerates oneself, it rejuvenates oneself. One can genuinely bring the mind to the level of outer expression, and the outward expression or action of body and mind could become very beautiful. Only by the refinement that is taking place within ourselves can our perspectives of life change, where we would see things from a different angle from what we have been seeing up to now. WHEN THE HEART EXPANDS, WE SEE DIVINITY IN EVERYTHING The flower seems beautiful to you now, but after a few months of meditation, you will look at the same flower and assume a greater beauty because through meditation, one’s awareness expands and not only the attention, but the heart expands. The mind appreciates the beauty of the flower, and the heart, in its expansion, becomes one with the flower. It identifies itself with the flower, and then the actual value of the flower is known. Right now, our perception of the flower is limited to the senses, but when this refinement occurs within us, this flower becomes limitless, and Divinity is seen in the bud. Life is seen in the flower. Then we can look at any object and see it as Divine, which is how one can love everything. Then we fail to see the surface value of things and we see the inner significance of everything and everyone. If someone slaps one cheek, we could turn the other because that slap came from Divinity itself. The separation ceases. If the Lord slapped me on one cheek, I would turn the other one saying, “Oh Lord, slap me again.” Because I would fail to see the man slapping me, but I would see God slapping me and having a mind, I would think, “What is the lesson for me to learn here?” And that is how men evolve, and man progresses. THE TRUEST EXPRESSION OF DIVINITY IS LOVE For two thousand years and even before that, people have said, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” People have been saying that, and it is easy to say, “Love thy Neighbour.” But what are the mechanics in loving thy neighbour? The mechanics are within yourself. If you cannot become a channel of love, if you cannot become the channel for the Divinity to manifest in you fully, then your love for the neighbour cannot be complete. Then you are fooling around. So, we start with ourselves, and meditation is a process of purification; it is a process of refinement where we allow the truest expression of Divinity to be in us, and the finest, the truest expression of Divinity, is love. That is why love is so indefinable. WHEN THE HEART EXPANDS, DIVINITY IS FELT The day when a man can define love, then he has defined God. Yet the human mind is limited; it is finite. How can the finite ever define the infinite? But the infinite can be experienced; the infinite can be experienced in the expansion of the heart. When the heart expands, Divinity is felt, and that Divinity cannot help itself in love. And when we experience greater and greater depths of love, then we can honestly say, then we can genuinely practise “Love thy neighbour as thyself,” because thy neighbour as thyself. Separation ceases. SARVIKALPA SAMADHI, SAMADHI WITH FORM There are certain practices and processes whereby you start with separation. There are Sanskrit terms like Sarvikalpa Samadhi which means you use an object of Jesus, his beautiful statue, that is an object, or Krishna or Buddha or Mother Mary, whichever is most conducive to your temperament. You use that as an object, and the more and more you use that as your ideal, the more and more your heart and mind surrender to it because an ideal requires submission. A model in theological or philosophical terms is something to which you surrender. What is the sense of having an idea and not communicating with the ideal? When you have an ideal, the ideal of Krishna or Buddha or Christ – things happen within you. You have to love your ideal; otherwise, you cannot have an ideal. One of the aspects of love is surrender because you cannot love without surrendering. You surrender your small ego self, that little self which we think is so important, and it is that bit ego-self that says, “I do”. But when that little ego-self is surrendered to the ideal, we say, “Thou does, not me. I am but an instrument, Thy will be done.” That we find in Sarvikalpa Samadhi, where there is a separation, and most religions are based on this duality. It is a valid path because one can find upliftment through surrender and ideal. One purifies oneself. It is very, very valid, depending upon man’s temperament. There are many ways to approach Divinity, many, many ways, like rivers coming from different directions and becoming
The Essence of Yoga: Pathways to Selfless Service and Inner Harmony
HOW VALID IS HATHA YOGA? Hatha Yoga is a part of Raj Yoga, and for those inclined towards the postures, starting from the external self to the internal Self, Hatha Yoga is very, very valid. Some might have the temperament whereby they would say, “Let me start with the refinement of the body.” By refining the body through practising the various Asanas and postures of Hatha Yoga, you will achieve great results, even more so than in gymnastics. In ordinary gymnastics, as we know it, we are only exercising the body’s muscular system. In the practice of Yoga Asanas, we not only exercise the muscular system of the body, but we also exercise the inner organs of the body and the glandular systems of the body. In yoga asanas, the body is treated as a whole. The outer structure of the body and the inner structure of the body is treated, and for those whose temperament is of the nature to start with the body, then, by all means, it is very, very valid. WHEN THE BODY AND MIND BECOME TRANQUIL, THE LIGHT SHINES THROUGH That is what Hatha Yoga does; it goes from the outside to the inside. Compared to ordinary gymnastics, in Hatha Yoga, the added benefit is that the body can be tuned in great harmony with the mind. That is one of the main aspects of Hatha Yoga, where, as the body becomes tranquil through these postures, tranquillity is transmitted to the mind, and the mind also becomes tranquil. And when the body and mind become tranquil, the Spirit shines through. So, Yoga Asanas, for those that like them, do them. If our meditators do asanas, they will be very, very much more successful in it because their minds are already tuned to a certain extent, whereby the combination of the physical asanas with the state of mind that a meditator is in could produce far, far more beneficial results than just ordinary exercises. So, if you are doing asanas, combine them, but the rhythm should be there, whereas in the asanas, whichever posture you are doing, the mind is connected. Beautiful harmony and relaxation take place, and you can just float away. OTHER FORMS OF YOGA That is one form of yoga – there are other forms, and many people do not want to do these physical exercises. A person that is physically incapacitated, physically unable to do these postures, for example, can we say all hope is lost for him? No, there is hope for him too. For him, there are other forms of yoga, and mantra meditation is also yoga, but a different process takes place there. Here we surpass the mind and the body, dive deep within, draw the energy from inside, and bring it to the mind and body. It is a matter of direction. Through Hatha Yoga, we start with the body, mind, and Spirit, and in other systems of meditation such as Mantra Yoga, we begin from this direction – mantra, mind, and body. It is the other way around, but the same result is achieved. It is perfect and incredibly beneficial; nothing wrong with it. And those who do not want to do these things just live a life of service, do good, be good, forget all asanas and forget meditation. If you are already born in this life with the temperament of absolute service for humanity, then you do not need meditation, and you do not need yoga. You have been born already equipped. As you know, yoga means union. Through all these various yoga, those of us that cannot act spontaneously in service to humanity, and serving humanity is serving God; there is no other way you can do it. By praying, praying, praying, God, God, God, that is not service, and that is a different kind of service. That is a surrender, but surrender must convert itself, transform itself to service to humanity. IN SERVING THE, MOTIVATION IS THE IMPORTANT PART Those born already equipped to serve humanity, by all means, do it, but in serving humanity, a lot of factors have to be considered. There might be some person who belongs to twelve different welfare societies – she is with the Paraplegic Association, the Mentally Retarded Association, the Blind Society, and the Old Age Meals on Wheels, things like that – but what is the motivation? What is the important motivation? Is it service, or is it self-aggrandisement? Is it service, or is it ego expression? For example, in Cape Town, a certain section of the Community Centre was to be built, and one person said, “I will donate fifty thousand Rand.” Beautiful, everybody cheered. Mr So and so are going to donate fifty thousand Rand. But to the Executive Committee, he wrote a letter saying, “I want this centre to be named after me, and that is the condition of my donation.” What is that man trying to do? He is trying to perpetuate his name and feed his ego. Unfortunately, charitable organisations even have to succumb to these pressures. That is so, so unfortunate because a greater good can be done through perhaps a lesser interest. But the whole principle is wrong as far as that man is concerned. That man is giving fifty thousand Rand; we will call it pounds, you will understand it better, fifty thousand pounds, for his name, so that this generation, the next generation and the generation after that will remember that Mr XYZ donated the money for this project. I was surprised that this man did not ask for his bust to be put on the ground. So, motivation is essential. I know this man is a millionaire, a multi-millionaire and that fifty thousand pounds were nothing for him to give. We know the story of Christ – the widow’s mite, which is of more value than the millionaire’s fifty thousand pounds. It is the motivation, the sincerity. THE VARIOUS PRACTICES ARE NOTHING BUT A
Breaking the Cycle: Transcending Samskaras Through Inner Strength
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WHAT ARE SAMSKARAS? Samskaras are not things that are impressed upon something. According to ancient philosophers, there is something called the mind-stuff of which the mind is composed. But the mind-stuff is composed of nothing else but thoughts, and thoughts become self-existent once thought is thought. It has its motion, and that motion, as in everything else, is perpetual. Although they have been shed from your mind, these various forms of thoughts that are perpetuating and are an eternal motion will go on and on and on. So, the present ideas you would have now will naturally attract thoughts from the whole universe, from the atmosphere of the universe, and that would strengthen the self-existing tendencies. Thought also has gradations, a grosser level and a more refined level; the finer level is what we would term impressions. Impressions are thoughts in a more refined form. It is like taking rough material and sifting it like you would sift coarse flour to get the fine flour. Those are impressions, and those impressions which form one’s tendencies are called samskaras. There is no such factor on which thoughts must lean or be based. If samskaras had a basis, they could never be thrown out of our systems. But because they have no solid foundation, something on which they are implanted, they can be got rid of.But samskaras cannot get rid of themselves by themselves. Another factor is needed, and that factor is the strength that is within us. It is the activation of the strength that is within us that will remove those samskaras from us. SAMSKARAS STICK TO NOTHING The samskaras will not be destroyed, but those samskaras will float around in the universe and land up where there is another likeness to be found. If a person has the samskara of hatred and through the spiritual power, which we activate, the hate is thrown out, it will be picked up by another person who has similar hatred in him. Samskaras are not necessarily bad. You have good samskaras as well, and good samskaras are also thrown off. They are not kept excellent and bad; they are both thrown off. When good samskaras are thrown off, they will go to people with similar goodness. Like the old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Nothing is ever destroyed in this universe, not even a single thought. Even if your thought is weak and if it carries on in the mind, that thought will become strengthened by itself and by what it would attract. That is the basis of samskaras which are self-existing, and it is a baseless basis. Samskaras sticks to nothing. What is there to which air would adhere? It attaches to nothing. It is a free-flowing self-existing agent and what we usually do with our practices is by activating the inner Force, we throw out the grosser things, which are bad samskaras, and we hold on to a certain amount of the subtler thoughts or the good thoughts so that our lives in this world, our relative lives could be better regulated and made happier. But you have to go beyond relative happiness, where you discard the good and the bad and reach that stage of neutrality, which is pure consciousness. Because without reaching the location of neutrality, you will always be affected. Because in every good, there is some little bad, and in everything bad, there is also some little good. Therefore, imbalances are created. TO LIVE IN THE MOMENT IS TOTAL BLISS If the bad, the Tamasic side of yourself rises, there are more problems. If the Sattvic side of yourself rises, there are lesser problems. But it is like a pendulum swinging. The pendulum has a moment of rest when it swings to the left, there is a momentary pause before it swings to the right, and again there is a brief pause before it turns to the left. But when it comes to the centre, that is death. There is no swinging. So, we have to capture the momentary pauses on either side of the pendulum, and there lies eternity. There lies the motionlessness. There lies the changelessness. Yet the motion carries on in the centre between those two poles of non-motion. That is how samskaras function. We know that every pleasure we have, which we call happiness, has the germ of pain. If you are high, then remember there is a low coming. You move to the right, knowing you will have to move to the left. To live in the moment, either left or right, where there is no motion, is neither happiness nor pain but total bliss, indescribable. The activation of the Spiritual Force gives one the realisation of moments when the pendulum is still, and that is eternity. Yet we allow the pendulum to work on pleasure today and pain tomorrow, but our minds are so immersed in those still moments on either side that we do not notice the swaying of the pendulum. So let the samskaras come and go; they have no foundation whatsoever. PEOPLE THAT HAVE RISEN ABOVE SAMSKARAS ARE TRULY GODS The purpose of the pendulum swinging is to give the clock time; wherever there is time, there has to be space. The pendulum requires space to move. So, time and space in the universe are associated. And who has made time? We make time. It takes me twenty-two hours to travel from South Africa, from Cape Town to London. That twenty-two hours at five hundred miles per hour in the plane. I am not only counting time but also measuring space, and all time and space are limited. But where the pendulum stops at either end, that is limitless. Do you understand this? So samskaras they will come and go and go and go and go until you become so merged into that split second that it permeates your entire Self, and you become the observer of the pendulum. Time does not touch you. Space
Awakening the Spirit Within: A Remedy for Senility
THE TRUTH ABOUT SENILITY Senility comes about with age, but you will find many older adults that are not senile at all. If you study their lives, you will find that some people become senile because those who have become senile have not been very active mentally. Among the greatest authors or musicians, George Bernard Shaw, for example, or even Churchill, or Gandhi, you will find that they did some of their best works at an old age. Why have they not become senile, and why do others become senile? It is because their minds have not been very active. They might have been physically active, but those who have become senile have not been intellectually active. Senility begins with the mind and not the body because the mind influences every part of the body. All diseases and senility are the decaying of the body’s various organs and more so of the brain, and doctors have proven that one hundred percent of all diseases come from the mind. It is a method of wrong thinking. When a person gets older, the constant thought in their mind would be, “I am getting old, I am getting old, I am getting old”. They stop reading, they stop studying, and they stop all these mental activities. So, it would be natural that their thoughts make them senile. No one needs to become senile at all. The basis of senility has to do with one’s way of life and thinking. If I reach the age of eighty, God forbid, I will not be senile because the mind is permanently active. And not only is the mind being intellectually active, but it is also empowered by the Spirit within. Senility can be avoided by more significant mental activity and by drawing that energy and that Force from within. Many things are inexplicable, and doctors have no answers for senility. They do not go back to the samskaric nature of the person. Some people are very active mentally speaking, and some do not return to their childhood and pre-childhood stages. There are certain hereditary factors. When they reach a ripe old age, you will find that children of senile parents also become senile. But that is just a tendency, and the child can avert that tendency by taking a greater interest in everything around him, which means again by developing greater and greater awareness. For example, I had the pleasure of being with Charles’s mother. She is eighty-three, and I had a little chat with her, and everything she spoke to me about was cohesive and reasonable. Unfortunately, she is reaching the end of the road as her face is bleak because of the illnesses she had gone through, there was such serenity on her face, and she has been meditating for about four or five years. That has produced in her that serenity, and with her terminal disease, just waiting for time, she accepts everything so well. She has no fear in her and is so, so serene. Serenity can never come to a person who is senile, and serenity is not compatible with senility. Here is an active mind at eighty-three that could reason with you, ask you intelligent questions and speak to you very cohesively. It goes to show that not everyone needs to become senile.In senility, there are certain samskaric factors. … Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1984- 13
Spontaneous Living: Unfolding the Essence of True Activity
HOW TO GUIDE ACTIVITY? Activity itself is expression. The finest thought in man’s mind is a form of mental activity. Life is composed of activity, activity, and activity; but how to guide this activity, how to control this activity into useful channels, until even control is not required anymore, until that activity becomes completely spontaneous, which is the best form of activity? When we talk of activity, it does not only mean physical activity. Physical activity is an expression of thought-activity, and thought-activity is the reflection of that which is un-active. There are three aspects of man. The outer aspect is the physical body, the inner element is the mental body, and of course, deeper down is the spiritual aspect, the changeless that governs all change. Man, as well as the entire universe, is governed by specific natural laws and natural factors. Through meditation, we are trying to give the inner Self the entire scope to reflect in its full glory to the mind and through the mind to the body. That is the end and aim of all religions. The end and aim of all religions are to find out how to unfold that changeless quality which underlies all forms of activity. When we find the secret of that, when we can draw forth from the changeless storehouse of all energies into our minds and bodies, then we have discovered the secret of life and successful living, good living, truthful living. Then we will live life as it should be lived. BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ARE A CONTINUUM The prevention of this is the mind. I have always said that the mind is a very cunning animal. Why should it be a cunning animal? Why should it have the impurities in the mind that stop that beautiful light from filtering through? The body might have its importance for the purpose of expression, but the mind is even more critical because if we study natural laws, we will find that the process in everything is the same, from the subtle to the gross. The mind is subtler than the body, but there is no dividing line. You cannot find a dividing line between night and day. You could sit outside and watch the sun going down and try to perceive where the night starts, but you will not be able to perceive it. The transition from mind to body is subtle because it is a continuum. We are trying to bring that eternal, changeless quality within us to the changing qualities of the mind, and by bringing that force, by bringing that power of light into the mind, the mind becomes appreciative of that force. In other words, that which has remained so unconscious to us becomes conscious and more and more and more conscious, so the ninety percent of the dormant mind is enlivened. And enlivening the ninety percent of the dormant mind, it reflects on the ten percent conscious mind. THE EXTENT OF THE MIND IS AS VAST AS THE UNIVERSE When a person has higher values in life and develops virtues in his daily activity, truthfulness, honesty, and sincerity, then be sure to know that the light within is filtering through more. And the more light filters through, the more these virtues develop. The mind is such a cunning animal that you cannot destroy it. The mind is unbeatable, and the extent of the mind is not limited to our little physical bodies only, but the scope of the mind is as vast as the universe. Here we have a paradox that the eternalness, the everlastingness, the immortalness of the Spirit is there, yet with it, there is also the eternalness of the mind. The mind is a superimposition upon the eternal Spirit. Fire can never exist without its heat. The mind is the heat of that fire, but through various processes, intermixing, interchanging, and interpenetration of many factors, the mind becomes clouded. And it is because of the clouds of the mind that the pure light does not shine through. NOTHING IN THIS UNIVERSE IS EVER DESTROYED Through meditation, we are trying to blow away the clouds. Blowing away the clouds does not necessarily mean eradicating them, but we use the same clouds as an instrument whereby the clouds refine themselves. The cloud is not destroyed, but that cloud can be made to pour itself down as health-giving water. The cloud is not destroyed; it is only changed. The cloud that becomes very dense naturally would disperse itself in the form of rain. So, there is no destruction. Nothing in this universe is destroyed – it only changes form. But by conscious effort, conscious living, and wanting to live a better life, we change the form of what is already there. And we can change the form to greater usefulness because it is the same energy that is activated, the same energy. It is the same electric current that produces coldness in a fridge, that gives warmth or heat in a stove, but how to use it depends on us. MAN HAS THE POWER OF DISCRIMINATION Physiological and biological, an animal and a man are made of the same components; the only difference is that man has the power of discrimination. Man loses out because he does not use his God-given power of discrimination. Because of the power of discrimination, being there and not using it to its total value, discrimination becomes indiscriminate. And it is this indiscriminate-ness within us that gets us wound up, that brings the cloud denser and denser and denser until the sight of the sun is entirely lost. Through meditational and spiritual practices, we refine that cloud. We change that cloud into other forms where the light can penetrate. We cannot destroy the mind because the extent of the mind is the extent of the entire universe; there is no separation. Your mind cannot be separated from another mind. Your power of thinking can assume an individuality but, in the
The Unveiling of Love: Clearing the Mind to Discover Divinity
LOVING IS THE TRUE NATURE OF A PERSON Loving is the true nature of a person, but that nature, the truth of nature, is covered by the cloudiness of the mind. The clouds that are formed are because of your past impressions that have been created in your mind. The purpose of life, to find the true nature of Divinity, is to get rid of those old impressions that have clouded the mind. There is only one way to get rid of the old, stale, stinking impressions, and the way is to purify one’s mind through spiritual practices. When one is regular in their spiritual practices, then all those impressions will disappear, and the disappearance of those stale, stinking impressions brings about purity. And when purity comes, you will know the meaning of love, and when you know the meaning of love, it brings you close to God. To know the meaning of love is not a mental conception; it is a spiritual reality which is realised by the Heart. When this realisation dawns, then the heart becomes pure, and when the Heart becomes pure, you are close to God. It is so simple. TO BE SIMPLE IS TO BE TRUE TO ONESELF What do we do to find this purity which, in most cases, is a rarity? Everyone has the capacity to find the purity which will no longer remain a rarity. The secret of life, to find that purity, is not so difficult if you try. You have to get rid of the age-old impressions which you have gathered through so many lifetimes if you believe in that. To find that purity, one has to develop within oneself the simplicity that goes with life. There are many factors involved in being simple and not simplistic. To be simple is to be very true to oneself. To be simple is not to be simplistic, but a simpleness involves total truth within oneself. To be truthful to oneself is, to be honest with oneself. It is to be yourself. Then only can you be honest with yourself? If you are a thief, be a thief, but an honest thief. Thieves are regarded to be dishonest, but being an honest thief is not a contradiction of terms. Be a thief in honesty, go and steal, take from the rich to give to the poor – Robin Hood. So, you are not thieving for yourself, but you are doing this deed to help the poor, the needy, the lonely, and the lost. NO ONE IS PERFECT Honesty takes many forms, but it all depends on how you formulate the form of your deed. There is no one in this world that is perfect. Even a self-realised man has to have two per cent of imperfection in him. If he does not have that two per cent imperfection, he will not be able to eat; he will not even be able to go to the toilet. When we go to the toilet, we expel the dirt that has accumulated in the body. Food has only certain values as far as its energies are concerned; the rest you evacuate, throw off. Can anyone tell me that you do not go for a wee or a pee or the other things that go with it? What a stinking subject! That is life, and life must be lived in normality. Life must not become abnormal. For once life becomes abnormal, you lose the love of life. When you lose the love of life, you lose the love of God. So, the principle is this, love yourself. When you can really love yourself unselfishly, then only will you know the value of life and the Divinity that gives you this life. When life is given to you by Divinity, use it and do not abuse it. For when you abuse, you are creating more and more impressions in your subconscious mind. The more impressions you have, good or bad, in your subconscious mind, they must find some expression. And that expression is translated to your conscious mind, and that is where your problems begin because of the translation from the subconscious to the conscious level of your daily living. If you can clear your mind from those impressions of the subconscious, then your conscious mind becomes clear, and in its clarity, you will find your life very, very much happy. Life is no secret. If you want to call it a secret, please pre-fix it with the word ‘open’ – secret, for life is an open secret to be enjoyed. For your entire constitution is composed of nothing else but joy, but because you cannot enjoy the joy, you make life miserable. Not my fault, and it is neither the fault of Divinity. It is you, governed by the impressions, which formulates your karma. As you would know that every cause must have its effect, and every effect creates another cause. So, if you, in the first place, destroy the cause, there will be no effect. LOVING IS A NATURAL QUALITY For example, my beloved, I assume, loves me, but if I do not encourage or inspire the love in my beloved, then naturally, she will not love me as she should. She might do her duty. But doing one’s duty is not loving. Loving is a natural quality that just wells up within oneself. It is not something planned, it is not something contrived, it is something that just happens, and that is love. Anything you contrive has been constituted through your thought processes. Love is not a thought process. Love is a quality of the Heart that just wells up within you, and yet it still translates itself into the lower conscious mind; it translates it there, so you feel the emotion of love. For feeling and emotions are not of the Heart. Feeling and emotions are created by the mind. Because the mind cognises feelings and emotions, so therefore the mind is the
Shaping Tomorrow: The Art of Living with Purpose and Spontaneity
CAN WE PLAN THE FUTURE? The future is unpredictable, yet we are often forced to make plans. But you cannot plan with any definite form. We could have an idea of what the future can be, but no future can be planned to its finest detail because the future remains unpredictable. We can have a general idea of what the future could bring, and having that general idea in mind, we form a certain tendency to achieve that aim. If that tendency is deeply implanted in us by our thoughts and perseverance, then we are naturally led to the goal by the tendencies we have formed. WE HAVE FREE WILL TO CHANGE THE PLAN I am a person that believes in spontaneity, spontaneity within the framework of the general outline. To me, life is like a poem. It has its metric system; it has its framework, yet the expression is free. When expression is free in the already existing tendencies, then the tendencies are enlivened. There is a difference between spontaneity and impulsiveness; life could assume greater meaning and greater joy whenever a person lives spontaneously. Yet the outline of the plan we have in mind can be fulfilled. It is like not only writing a poem but painting a picture. We have in mind the outline of the picture we will paint; we have this landscape in view, but when you pick up the brushes, you have not planned every stroke or every shade of the paint to be used. A spontaneity occurs where you would just dab on what should be dabbed on according to your entire makeup, according to your being. If we find that initially, the plan we have in mind or the tendencies we have formed are not right, we have our free will to change that plan. You might start off painting a landscape of the mountains, and you could very easily convert that into a field of corn with the mountains just in the background. This can come about very easily and beautifully by how we approach things. TO LIVE LIFE FULLY IS AN ART When it comes to planning, a person has to plan, but that plan does not need to be meticulous like an architect’s plan of the house, where he has designed the position of every brick and every pipe. Life is not mechanical. So, living life is not mechanical living. To live a life entirely is an art, not a science. Science might work on precisions; two and two make four, but in art, two and two can make five. The beauty of living life artfully as art, the art of living, then spontaneity gradually increases because we move like the blade of grass in the direction the wind blows. Of course, we are thinking on the line of good things. We do not get blown by ill winds, and we can develop a specific resistance to that. But every person has to have some plan, and by method, we can also mean purpose. Both words are synonymous to a great extent. We have a general sense in mind, and as we live from day to day, we find ways and means to fulfilling that purpose. Life is not to be lived in a straight jacket. Living life in a straight jacket would mean the precision of science. Life becomes beautiful when the tendencies are followed in the form of art, consistently so. Because when the precision is too strict and straight-jacketed, life could become very, very dull. Why bore ourselves? We do not need to be bored with life, and we want to soar with life and forever soar upwards and not become a bore to ourselves and others. So, within the plan we have in mind for life, we make allowances, and the most excellent allowance that can be made is for spontaneity. INFUSING LOVE INTO WHATEVER WE ARE DOING It is like a woman cooking. A good cook will not follow the recipe in the book to the “T”. She will have those little extra touches that just come spontaneously to her. That is the way life is to be lived. That is how the cook will find joy in her cooking, and when there is joy in the cooking, the eater will find it joyous. When the cook follows the recipe implicitly, it might just not work out, and you all would know that you could give the same ingredients and the same recipe to half a dozen different cooks, and each meal would taste differently. Each meal would taste different, although all of them have been given the same recipe and ingredients; it would taste different because of that spontaneous, personal touch. The same analogy could be used in living, where the plan of life and purpose of life forever remain in the mind’s background. We do not lose sight of the goal, but all the actions that would take us to that goal must become spontaneous. And in spontaneity, there is a flow, there is a beautiful energy flow, and love is the best expression of that energy flow. That is how in every sphere of our activity, you can infuse love into it. The cook can infuse love into her cooking. The carpenter can infuse love into the chair he is making. The plumber can infuse love into his plumbing. When that energy becomes spontaneous, it becomes love, and as we know, “Love is God and God is Love.” Despite man’s plan, one also very consciously brings oneself that flow in every action, in every daily activity, and it can be consciously recognised. Once we are set on the path, the journey becomes more accessible because there is now a director. It is of no use just drifting along, and that drifting along is sometimes confused with spontaneity. It is worlds apart to be spontaneous and sail. To be spontaneous, purposefully and with a purpose is good. Howsoever spontaneously, drifting without
The Alchemy of Sleep: Dissolving Samskaras in the Dream State
WHY ARE WE DREAMING? The dream is the most critical mechanism; the greatest gift man has been given. Do you know that you are evolving even in your sleep? That motion set forth in the path of evolution is not stopped when your conscious mind goes to sleep, but it continues; it is continuous. The waking state of life is also a dream, but a conscious dream that can be manipulated. Because of the conscious mind, you can redirect a thought. You can direct it in whichever direction you want it. Like you are driving a motorcar. You can turn left, or you can turn right. It is within your power to do that, and that becomes evolutionary if you have found the art of which way to direct your thought. The dreaming state of consciousness is more evolutionary, and be happy that you can dream. Because here, without you willing a thing, it is automatically coming to the surface where the samskaras are being released and, with the release, they are being dissolved. It is easier to dissolve a samskara in the dream state than dissolve a samskara in the waking state. The reason is that one is effortless while the other is effortful. One is with effort. SLEEP IS A STATE VERY CLOSE TO SELF-REALISATION A sleep state is a state which is very close to the state of self-realisation. This will sound paradoxical to you. But during the sleep state, you are not consciously controlling your conscious mind, and you are allowing the deeper layers of your mind to function on their own. It could be described as a kind of meditation. But because the conscious mind is not functioning, you have that stillness in dreamless sleep and being so close to the source; you do not recognise the source. So, although you are in a state of realisation, you are not conscious of it. Therefore, it is not self-realisation. Realisation does involve the conscious mind, as well. The conscious mind has to appreciate everything happening within, and if there is no appreciation of it, then it is not self-realisation; it is sleep. That is the difference. Shakespeare has said something very beautiful about this: sleep is the best nourishment in life’s feast. Of course, he meant it in terms of the rest and the energy gained. IN SLEEP, THE LIGHT WITHIN CAN SHINE THROUGH But where does this energy come from? It comes from a far deeper source that is within. When the conscious mind is not in operation, and the subconscious mind is lulled to a certain extent of stillness where it is dreaming, it is not insignificant turbulence. Therefore, if you do not remember the dream, then that Light within has a chance to shine through, invigorate, and regenerate the mind and the body. You see how vital sleeping could be, how integral dreaming could be, for those are also states of consciousness. Those consciousnesses have to be taken into account to achieve self-realisation. Without being able to dream, without being able to experience the waking state of life, one could never appreciate what is realisation. In self-realisation or a deep state of meditation, in Nivrikalpa samadhi, which means meditation without form, consciousness of the body is lost because we allow the mind to cease functioning. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind, for that period, ceases functioning or rather cease their turbulence and assume a balanced, tranquil state. And when that is done, then naturally, the glass of the window becomes clearer and cleaner, and the Light shines through in its full glory, its full force, in its full power. So, you see how important it is. But, when that Light shines through, a certain kind of consciousness exists. Not the waking state of consciousness, not the little mind that we use, nor the subconscious mind that we use, but consciousness exists consciously. That is pure consciousness, unadulterated by the workings of the subconscious and the conscious, and dreams do not interfere; they have subsided. So, in meditation, we train the mind to achieve that tranquillity where the depth of our inner Self shines through in full force. IN DREAMING, THERE IS A SPONTANEOUS RELEASE Coming back to dreams, we have said it is a must; it is necessary. The forces released in dreams are even more powerful and more important than those released in the waking state of life because this becomes an automatic process, and that which is released automatically is released because of necessity. That dream you have dreamt was essential for you to evolve because the inner mind, the deeper layers of the mind, knows what it has to release, and the conscious mind puts on no brake. There is spontaneity about it, and it is a spontaneous release. So, we should be happy to be able to dream! The form of dream is not essential. The worse the dream, the better for you. This might not sound nice, but it is true. Have more nightmares, for God’s sake! Release those fears. Do you see how the forces of nature are helping us? Every force in nature is doing its best to help man evolve. The only thing he holds tight; he just does not let go of the force of nature. So, when you have a nightmare, the following day you wake up, and you feel fearful – who feels fearful? It is a small piece of the conscious mind that feels the fear, yet the conscious mind recognises that this was but just a dream. ONLY A SELF-REALISED PERSON COULD ANALYSE THE DREAM The little conscious mind tries to analyse what the dream could mean. But there is no necessity to analyse the dream. The only person who could analyse the dream for you would be a self-realised person who could go back into your past lives and pick up all the threads and pieces of this jigsaw puzzle called a dream. He would know where
The Symbolism of the Cross: Discovering Life’s Divine Balance
Acceptance, Attachment, Belief, Bible, Christ, Consciousness, Divinity, Eternity, Faith, Force, God, Guru, Heart, I and my Father are one, Joy, Krishna, Love, Love thy neighbour as thyself, Mental Patternings, Mind, Path, Peace, Relative World, Religion, Self-integration, Soul, Spirit, Spiritual Practices, The Absolute, Unfoldment, Universal
HOW TO LIVE LOVE Jesus stood for love. What is love, how can it be gained, how can it be acquired, how can it be lived? That is the entirety of any religion, and I am talking of true religions and not the interpretations of religions. Love can only be brought about by self-integration, and I have said this many, many times before. I will say it repeatedly that through spiritual practices, the body, the mind, and the Spirit act in oneness, in unison, integratedly, and when we can function integratedly, then we realise the meaning of love. For it is the integrated person that will know the meaning of the commandment that says, “Love thy neighbour as Thyself.” If you are not integrated within yourself, you are not loving yourself, and if you cannot love yourself, how can you love your neighbour? The purpose of life, the purpose of Jesus’s teachings, is this become integrated, become whole. Find the wholeness, and in the wholeness, you find Divinity, for Divinity is the wholeness. And everyone has the right to reach that stage of Christ Consciousness where “I and my Father are one.” RADIATING THE PEACE FROM WITHIN We that have faith, we that believe; not blind faith or blind belief, a reasonable belief, and more important than that, the experience that one gains within oneself. That peace that comes automatically will bring peace to others around you, and you emanate it from yourself. You have had this experience, all of you. You could go to someone’s home; the atmosphere is such that you do not want to stay there for a few minutes. The atmosphere is so beautiful at someone else’s home that you would not mind sitting there for an hour or two. It is the very emanation, the radiation of the atmosphere in that house, and it is the people who live in the home that radiates that. When we find that peace within ourselves, we radiate that peace to others, even unconsciously; please give me one person with a troubled mind and let him sit with me for five minutes, and that person will feel calm and peaceful. Not to say that the person’s troubles will disappear as if waving a magic wand. No. But the person will feel peaceful, and it is only by having that peace within ourselves that we can tackle the greatest problem that might face us in life. Peace comes with this unfoldment of consciousness. Peace means not to be asleep; that is dead peace. We want peace to be alive, awakened peace, where we are conscious of everything around us. To be in the world and yet not of the world. We live in today’s time and age, our ordinary lives. We do the work that we have to do. We earn the bread and beans and carry-on life. Yet, because of spiritual practices, there is a specific strength in the background, there is a certain peace that is there, and that pulls you through, for whatever might happen inside you are steadfast and still. “Be still and know that I am God.” The ocean exists peaceful, quiet underneath, and the waves on top are turbulent. What Jesus taught was the attention, where is your attention, on the turbulence of the waves or is your attention on the calmness of the ocean deeper down. It is just a few feet deep, that is all. Not even six feet that is something else. So, one of the great men that lived in this world brought this message to us in such few words. GOD IS LOVE; LOVE IS PEACE If you read the whole Bible, you will find only twenty-four words spoken by Jesus. The rest were books, interpretations; you know the four books, Matthew, Markus, Luke, John, you know that. But the power and force of those few words are still alive today, just as much as they were at that time because they came with the full force of that Universal Consciousness. “Love Thy neighbour as Thyself.” “Do Unto others as you would expect to be done unto you.” These injunctions are so beautiful. But without gaining that consciousness, that Christ Consciousness, you will never be able to appreciate those words. You would think about them, analyse them, and mull over them, but it is a different story when it comes to practising them. Only when one can love one’s neighbour as oneself can we know what religion stands for? It binds you back to your source, God, and God is Love; love is peace. THERE ARE SO MANY THEORIES ABOUT THE PHYSICAL LIFE OF JESUS We can go on and on and on. There are so many theories on the physical life of Jesus. About two years ago, in your Observer newspaper, there was a two-part article on the physical life of Jesus. I did not agree with everything, but they said another scroll was found in the desert by an Arab, and he found it in an earthen jar, and they deciphered it. According to the articles in the Observer, they say in the scroll that Jesus had a son with Mary Magdalene. They also say that Jesus did not die on the cross, but he went into a coma, and when he was buried in the tomb, he regained consciousness from the coma and escaped through the help of Nicodemus. The first person he went to see was Mary Magdalene, and she took him to his disciples, where he was nursed. Then he went to the East, and he lived to seventy-three. It is also said that a few of the significant Upanishads of the Hindus were written by Jesus; not written actually but spoken, and people had recorded them. These are various theories put forward by people. It is not for us to accept them or deny them. Let there be a million theories. But I am not interested in all that. I am not