WHO IS ANGRY When we are angry, there could be many factors involved, a combination of factors, in producing the anger within us. We could ask the question, “who is angry”? Is the real I in me angry, or is the superficial I in me angry? When we can discriminate which part of us is angry, anger will disappear, because invariably you will find that it is your little self, the little conditioned mind, that becomes angry. The inner I, the big I, is forever still, tranquil, unmoved by anger or anything else. When we realise that it is the small I that is angry, and we affirm that to us, that “it is not me that is angry that it is some of the twitches happening in the mind that is angry”, then we ask a further question, and these things have to be probed. We ask a further question “what is the cause of the anger”? Or what has caused this reaction in us? A Chinese proverb says, rolls your tongue nine times in the mouth before you say an angry word. Invariably you will not say what you wanted to say. It means that give it some time and reflect upon it, and the anger would disappear with reflection. So, there is no question left of suppressing it or expressing it. Many human beings act very impulsively. Why are human beings impulsive? It is because they lack the essential tranquillity within themselves, and therefore they become impulsive. Consequently, they do not give the mind a chance to think. They act with a kind of built-in reflex action. They have been used to becoming angry over a long period. So, when circumstances happen, immediately the outside circumstances associate themselves with the conditioned mind, which is full of impressions, knows all the tricks of anger, and immediately the external circumstances associate itself with that which is inside the mind impulsively triggers off anger. ANALYSE ANGER FROM THE OUTSIDE TO THE INSIDE But if we can create the analytical process from the outside to the inside, that would require time, and that is where rolling the tongue nine times comes into play. The idea is not to turn the other cheek; the idea is not to suppress the anger. Turning the other cheek can come about in two ways: cowardice and absolute kindness and understanding. When we turn the other cheek, then we are not angry – anger has disappeared, because when anger has disappeared, the mind is given a chance to think, and when the mind thinks, then you will say, “what has called this about? Let us give the boy the other cheek. Let him have the pleasure of slapping me again; after all, who was hurt? This little body? Is that all that is hurt? And how important is this body? But I, my inner self, am I hurt?” The mind would probe these questions, and it becomes effortless to give the other cheek because the mind is now tranquil, and it is only the tranquil mind that can act sensibly. So, you can do it with absolute kindness and understanding because at that moment, the mind will start thinking, or the Heart will begin feeling the condition of the slapper, of the one that lifts his hand, and immediately we would feel that person’s Heart. Why has he raised his hand? What is impulsive in him lifting his hand? What is going through his mind? And when one can understand that, as the man who raises his hand, his hand will freeze in mid-air. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE This I tell you from a very personal experience. This does not apply only to a human being or their relations between one human to another. I was going once to Almorra, which is a station very high up in the Himalayan mountains. I was about eighteen nearly nineteen, and I had to go nearly sixty miles through a forest all alone in broad daylight, and while walking through this forest, I was confronted by a tiger. Someone would say that it is a ferocious tiger, but I found it a kind tiger when I looked at it. I had no fear of it because instinctively, intuitively, knowingly perhaps if you want to use that word, I felt that this poor little cat could not hurt me, why should it hurt me in the first place? If it requires this body of mine to feed itself, by all means, let it feed itself. Do I not feed myself upon other things? All the fruits, vegetables, and nuts I eat also have a specific form of life. I feed myself every day on life itself, so if this tiger wants to feed upon me, then why should I resist? And, in the flash of the moment when all this was clear to me, I looked at the tiger, straight in the face, and I could just see kindness in the eyes of the tiger. For me to see the kind nurse in the eyes of the tiger, I would have to have a certain measure of kindness myself. When that appeared, there was no fear. When an animal attacks, you always remember it is because it picks up instinctively the fear you have in you and the animal attacks you because of the fear in you: it also feels fear. When the animal starts fearing you, that is the time it will attack you. Here the animal instinctively found kindness, love. So, it looked at me for a little while and turned around, and off it went, just like that. FEAR AND ANGER Fear and anger are blood brothers. Anger comes about, and the basis of anger, the inner core of anger, usually is fear. We become angry because we fear something. A man becomes angry with his wife because he fears that the wife has done something wrong. What does that show? The cause of that fear is
From Periphery to Center: Embracing the Wholeness of Existence
Acceptance, Attitude, Buddha, Christ, Consciousness, Divine, Divinity, Ego, Enlightenment, Eternal, Eternity, God, Guru, Gurushakti, I and my Father are one, Krishna, Love, Manifestation, Manifestor, Mind, Philosophy, Relative World, Samskaras, Self, Spiritual, Spiritual Path, Spiritual Practices, Surrender, Universal
UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS “I am the way. I am the life. I am the truth.” Which “I” did Jesus speak about? Jesus never said that as Jesus the body, but he said that as Christ, for there is a difference between Jesus the embodied little being and Christ, the Universal Consciousness. To become one with the Father, one has to reach that level of consciousness, and that level assumes or becomes just as vast as God. Then truly can you say, “I and my Father are one.” For, there is no other way, there is no other way at all without achieving this consciousness. You could call it Christ Consciousness, Buddha Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness, it means the same; the emphasis is not on the name of the man. The emphasis is on consciousness, the totality of consciousness, pure consciousness, which embraces the entire universe. Those sayings are very true, and that is the only way, and the only way can only be the truth, and is everything not alive? There is no such thing as death. Nothing can die. It is only because of your conception that you say when I leave this body, “I am dead.” Which part of you says you are dead? You will not even know it. Someone else will say, “Oh, Guruji died.” No, they will never say that.” The day when I go say, “He passed over. There is only life, and life is that love and love are that God. LIVING IN THE CENTRE You see how the way, the truth and life are but different aspects of the same thing. He who can live life lives God. But we do not live life; we only exist, like anything else, like even a piece of stone that exists. But we think we live because we walk around, talk, think, do this, and do that. Is that life? If it was real life, then how come all the contradictions in our lives? Because life itself has no contradiction. How come all the conflicts come about if we live life. We have forgotten what life is. We only have the peripheral view of things and not of the centre. We live off-centred. If you have a cart, and the hub is not in the centre, the wheels will go – guff, guff, guff. They will not turn smoothly, would they? That is why our lives are not turning smoothly. Therefore, you go through this guff, guff, guff. Our spiritual practices are aimed at bringing us to our centre; the centre is life. Like a wheel, the periphery, with its spokes and the rim, should be controlled by the centre so that the wheel can run smoothly. Most people live in the peripheral world that we are so conversant with; only the true spiritual seeker will try to find the centre. You will find, and I made a very large study of this, that in the beginning, when ninety-eight percent of people join a spiritual organisation, they do not enter it because they want to find the centre or find Divinity; they join it because of all kinds of troubles they go through. That could be emotional problems, physical problems, domestic problems, job problems. That is why they start on the spiritual path, but they have started; that is important. By going nearer and nearer to the centre, these things would smooth themselves out. GURUSHAKTI BRINGS TRANSFORMATION I have been hearing of many of the experiences of our meditators in these past few days, and they just find this mercy, which we call Gurushakti, so miraculous that such transformations come. What are you transforming? Not the centre, the centre is perfect. You are transforming the spokes and the periphery and fitting it into the centre. That is the transformation of man, for the inner Self, the centre requires no transformation. Transformation means change, while the centre in man is changeless. As soon as Divinity starts changing, it would lose its Divineness, and yet the periphery we see, the unbalanced wheel, is an expression. EVEN THE PERIPHERY BECOMES PERFECT Let us look at this from a different angle, that if everything emanates from the centre, why is the rim buckled and does not run smooth. Goodness can only come from goodness. Manifestation comes from the Manifestor, and every Manifestor is Divine, then its manifestation must be Divine. From a rose, you will have a rose fragrance. From a Jasmine, you will have a jasmine fragrance. True or not, but then why this? Is there any reality at all in this? There is no reality in the world you see around you. We live primarily in an illusory world like Shankara would say in his Vedantic philosophy, that you go through a street in semi-darkness perhaps and see a piece of rope lying there, and you mistake it to be a snake. But on close examination, you find that it is not a snake; it is a piece of rope. When one approaches the centre of ourselves, what happens to the periphery that seems imperfect? That too becomes perfect. When you observe the perfection even in the manifestation, you would only say, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” for then you see everything to be Divine; even the buckled wheel is Divine. So why that, ”guff, guff, guff.” Because we bumped the cart through our samskaras and past lives, that is why we are experiencing that, and it is only the ego-self that is experiencing that, not the authentic Self in you. When we have eyes to see and ears to hear then, we will be looking at everything from the hub, the centre, and every imperfection which the ego-self conceives of; by not looking at it from the mind and ego centre, you will find that that too will seem perfect. Therefore, we say, “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” But which part of you is the beholder? Your centre or the
Be Still and Know: Experiencing Eternity in Every Moment
Ancient Sages, Awareness, Bible, Bliss, Christ, Compassion, Conscious Mind, Consciousness, Devotion, Divine, Divinity, Effort, Ego, Eternal, Eternity, Evolution, Force, Freedom, God, Gurushakti, Harmony, Heart, I and my Father are one, Joy, Karma, Kindness, Law of opposites, Love, Love thy neighbour as thyself, Manifestation, Manifestor, Meditation, Mental Patternings, Mind, Peace, Philosophy, Purity, Relative World, Samskaras, Self, Self-Realization, Spiritual Master, Spiritual Practices, Strength, Subconscious, Unity, Universal, Universe, Yoga
EXPERIENCE INFINITY The finite mind could never understand the infinite because the finite mind, being a manifestation of the infinitude or of eternity, being a manifestation or a reflection, could never maintain its eternal value. The finite mind has no permanency at all because it is forever changing. That which is forever changing, how could it grasp that which is never changing? But without trying to understand, one can experience infinity through our meditations and spiritual practices. The experience is not through the mind, but the experience is of your Heart, and by Heart, we mean the core of your personality. When one reaches the core and experiences through our spiritual practices, we experience infinity. When I say we, it is not the mind experiencing it, it is not the ego-self experiencing it because they are all limitations, manifestations of reality. So, from where does the experience come? Infinity experiences itself, and therefore it is beyond verbalisation or thought processes. As you start your practices and are regular with the practices, you will discover a certain truth. After a while, you will say, “not this, not this”, which is a very good thing because by saying “not this”, you will progress further into that enquiry which we call Jnana Yoga. As we progress into the enquiry, we reach a point where we cannot go further beyond. AWAKENING AND UNDERSTANDING THROUGH SPIRITUAL PRACTICES Through spiritual practices, we awaken the brain cells more and more, and by awakening the cells more and more, the greater the mind filters through because the brain is not the mind. The mind is universal. There is only one mind, and the only reason the mind is individualised is that we have not given full scope to its potentiality. This is possible where the mind can appreciate the entire universe by getting it out of sleep to its fullest capacity. You just know, and in that knowingness, you start the experiential process. There are many ways of doing this – through extreme devotion, through analysis, through action and of course, as you would know, that action really strengthens the thought. Then those thoughts get planted deeper and deeper into the subconscious level of the mind and from there, it is transmitted back to the conscious level, and that is how you act. Those actions control the limitations of your mind. The actions of a certain person with a greater awareness would be far different from those who have a less aware mind. Spiritual practices bring us awareness. It brings us an understanding that is very true according to its limitations. But that is not what we want. We do not want to understand only, although it is necessary, but we want the peace that passeth all understanding, and that is infinity. That peace is infinite, beginless and because it is beginlessness, it will never end. It is a continual or a continuation of a process that goes on and on and on. INFINITY IS DIVINITY Universes are created, and at this very moment, there are so many galaxies and stars that are a million times, a billion times larger than our tiny planet Earth, exploding at this very moment. Exploding but to reform its atomic structures back again into another universe, and their growth begins and evolution begins because of the force of that explosion. How much does it help a man to find understanding when understanding has its particular limitations? For example, I have been told this by thousands of people that “Guruji, I have a tape that you did in a Satsang three years ago, and when I listen to it again today, I find different meanings in it.” Finding different meanings in it because their awareness has developed. You know there was this boy of fourteen, and he says, “My Father is so stupid, he knows nothing.” But when the boy turned twenty-five, he says, “Oh, my father knows a lot.” The father has the same knowledge, but the boy’s awareness developed a greater understanding and a greater awareness because of his growth from fourteen to twenty-five. To repeat, understanding has its value. Understanding can make us kinder, more loving, more compassionate, more sympathetic, but to know the value of infinity and what is infinity after all? Infinity is Divinity. Divinity and infinity are the same in their eternity. When this manifestation comes around, it is also infinite because as soon as infinity starts, it starts emanating. It is the nature of everything to emanate all the time, like flowers emanating fragrance. MAN’S CONSCIOUSNESS IS INFLUENCED BY VARIOUS FACTORS Everything is vibrations, and the manifestation is just a reflection of the Manifestor. If we should go deeper into these details, we will find that a reflection is an illusion. So, does your mind exist? That is the question. You are only relying on the sensory input into the lower level of the mind, and your whole life is guided by it. There are five senses, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. To find reality, to make the manifestation merge again into the Manifestor, the experience is there of the Manifestor himself. In other words, you become Divine, and it can be achieved in this lifetime, or else it can take millions of lifetimes. I do not know where they got the numbers from, but Hindu theology, especially the Puranas, those are some Hindus’ scriptures, maintains that it took eight million four hundred thousand lifetimes to reach the stage of man. Because in everything we see around us, man has the highest consciousness. But his consciousness is influenced by various factors, his environment, the impressions that he has in his mind, and the subconscious level of the mind, and these bring about limitations. People sitting here might look at these beautiful flowers, but everyone will see them differently from their personal experiences. The realised man will see the flower in its totality. The unrealised man will only see the surface of the flower, this
Grace is Always Simple: The Power of Grace and Spiritual Practice
DIVINE PLAN AND FREE WILL Most people in the world today, everything they do they have to do it with thought and deliberation. That is not necessary. That is living an unnatural life. Sometimes it is expedient by all means. But we have to bring our lives to such a stage where every action becomes spontaneously good, and that is how we alter the course of karma. Because of the happenings of our past lives, we get born into this life with certain tendencies. Those tendencies could be called “divine plan.” A divine plan is there that gives you certain tendencies. If you proceed through this road, you will reach San Francisco. That tendency is there. If you proceed through this road, you will reach Los Angeles. That tendency is there. But with that tendency, which is divine will, man also has free will. If we want to reach Los Angeles, for example, which is within the scope or framework of the pattern that we have set for ourselves, free will can tell us, “Shall I go there by motor car or by train or by bus or by donkey cart?” That is where free will comes into play. We can expedite this journey. We can reach home faster. We can reach the goal quicker by proper spiritual practices and right thought, and right action. Right thought and right action have to be cultivated. Most people are living in a rut. If you go to the backwoods of India, in those Indian villages, you have roads that are grooved. Those oxen carts going on the path over and over again form grooves. In those grooves, when a driver wants to go somewhere with his cart, he can fall asleep, and the cart will keep on going. The ox will keep taking it because of the grooves, and that is how our lives are. What we need is to put a little boulder or stone in the groove. So, when the cart comes along and the wheel bumps against the stone, the driver wakes up. That is what we need. Awakening. Awakening to these supreme factors of life and they are not impossible. GRACE IS ALWAYS SIMPLE To find happiness is the simplest thing in life. It is so simple to be happy but so difficult to be simple. When we bring upon ourselves this simplicity, and through spiritual practices, it just comes; the simplicity dawns and simplicity is another name for Grace. Grace is always simple. It is our cunning minds that make things complex. We make things complex. We add on complexities to a life that could be so beautiful, spontaneously simple. We make it complex. In everything we do, we always think of all the negative things that could happen to us next week or next month or next year. You might have a beautiful job today, but even while doing your job, you are thinking, “Oh, what shall I do if I get the sack next month?” Why? This little story which is quite amusing, tells of a woman that heard that the world was coming to an end in two million years, and she committed suicide. What has two million years hence to do with you now? People either live in the past, or they live in the future. But never in the moment, and if we live in the past, Grace closes her door to us. If we live in the future, Grace closes her door to us because the Law of Grace is not interested in the past or the future! The past is past, and the future is still to come. It might never come in this little lifetime. We do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. But if we think only of the present moment, then Grace just dawns upon us if we live in the present. Grace is supportive of the present. Tomorrow looks after itself – always. THE PRESENT IS SO BEAUTIFUL We linearly measure things from A to Z. In a linear fashion. A horizontal fashion. Never in the vertical fashion. At the crossroads of the horizontal and the vertical, at the cross where the two points meet, that is the present. When we are in the present, we can look up. When we are in the past, we can only look horizontally forward, and if we live in the future, we can only look horizontally backwards, and we miss the point of the present, and the present is so beautiful. It is all these little presents, all these little present moments that make up the entirety. Like for example, in a movie or film, it is made up of little frames. Because of the projector, the machine and the flywheel in this machine make it look like a continuous run on the screen, a continuous moment. But in reality, in the film, these are just all a series of squares, a series of frames. If we can live a frame at a time, continuity looks after itself, and that is what Grace demands of us. That beautiful girl, Grace, demands of us that we live in the present. THE TENDENCY CAN BE CHANGED As we have said before, the tendency we have brought with us can be changed, and man is not born to suffer. What brings suffering is our deeds, our actions, our thoughts. If we can consciously alter them, then there is always a silver lining behind every cloud. So, we try to see the glory and not the gloom, for Grace lies in the glory, and in the gloom lies the rat race. That is what happens. The Law of Grace is forever there like the air around us, and if we become receptive through the unfoldment of the Heart, expansion of the Heart, and greater expansion or awareness of the mind, then it is there. It is like going to a well. You go there with a thimble, you get a
Karma and Grace: How Right Living Attracts Divine Blessings
Acceptance, Attachment, Attitude, Bliss, Divine, Divinity, Effort, Enlightenment, Eternity, Force, Grace, Happiness, Joy, Karma, Laws, Love, Mind, Philosophy, Reincarnation, Relative World, Scriptures, Self, Self-integration, Self-Realization, Spirit, Spiritual, Spiritual Practices, Spiritual Teacher, Strength, Universe
GRACE CAN BE EXPERIENCED ONLY Grace is an indefinable quality or an indefinable quantity that can only be approximated or inferred by the intellect. If you observe a flower growing, there are so many things that would make the flower grow. Firstly, the minerals would have to be right in the ground. It requires the proper amount of water- proper amount of fertiliser, the proper amount of air, and the proper sunlight. All these factors combine to make the flower grow. In the combination of the factors, we know that if there is too much water, it could kill the flower. If there is too much sunshine, it could also kill the plant. The indefinable factor balances out the minerals, the sunlight, the water, and the fertiliser. And it is because of this factor that combines and puts things into the proper proportion that the flower grows. That proportion is Grace. So, Grace is a factor that is beyond the human conception of the mind. It is a factor that cannot be analysed, but it can be experienced. The way to draw Grace to ourselves, we have to use the law of karma. Grace is forever there; Grace is existent as the air around us is existent. But we have to do the breathing as if we do not breathe; we do not benefit from the air around us. KARMA IS COMBINED TO THE THEORY OF REINCARNATION When it comes to karma, it is a law that does not stand alone. It is a law that is combined with the theory of reincarnation. Reincarnation is something that one cannot conclusively prove or find conclusive proof about. You do not need to believe in reincarnation. Still, in this eternity of existence, we know that in this vast continuum, right from the beginning of creation or from the Big Bang where atomic particles were sent forth, it would require millions and millions and billions of years for that force to expire. In our view, the only thing we see is this very small fraction of a lifetime of three score years and ten. It is a tiny fraction situated between the start and the end in this continuum. If we say start and end, that too would be contradictory. But we can use start and end in a relative sense because the world itself, or the Universe, is governed by cycles. One cycle ends and another cycle begins, and therefore, there are so many cycles in this continuum one after the other. As there are so many cycles so there are just as many opportunities for that primal atom or that primal sub-atomic matter to develop. As it develops, it can replicate itself, and in the replication and with the ability to combine itself to other elements in the Universe, various forms of life are produced. The basis of the atomic structure would naturally be mineral, but it does not remain mineral only. With the combination of other factors, the mineral evolves to plant. From the plant it evolves further to the animal stage, and from the animal stage, it evolves to the stage of man. In the development of all these various stages, the Law of Grace works automatically. The law of Grace works automatically, leading that primal atom through these various stages, and that is the work of the Law of Grace. The law of Grace is a guiding factor right from the highest evolved human being to the minutest sub-atomic particle. KARMA AND GRACE We measure life only with the seventy years that we live. As far as reincarnation is concerned, why should one person be born in happy circumstances, another in unhappy circumstances, one person born unhealthy while another person is born very healthy, one person born rich, another born poor. If we regard Divinity or the Law of Grace to be just, then why all this injustice? So, it is assumed and put forth by ancient philosophers that we are the total of the sum totality of all our previous existences. Whatever action we perform or have performed in past lives, we are the results of it. So, to improve the quality of life, we do, as we have said before, very consciously make an effort to live a better life. Spiritual practices do give us the strength for right thought and right action. When right thought and right action are combined, the quality of life improves, and as the quality of life improves, we become more receptive to what we call the Law of Grace. If you want to go from here to New York, the only thing you would do is buy a ticket, go to the airport, and sit on the plane. That is all you do. The plane flies you over. It is said in most scriptures that you take one step towards me, and I take ten steps towards you. That is Grace. That is the power. But we have to create the field, the magnetic field, to draw upon that Grace. When we live in misery, for example, or in sorrow, the first thing that one has to accept is this: that I am what I am because of myself. Nothing in this Universe has been unjust to me. My present position is what I have created. That is why people say that man is a master of his destiny. We are what we are today because of the various lifetimes we have lived, and the actions we performed and the thoughts we had thought had been the factor to bring about the totality of what we are today. 99.999% of the world’s population is unhappy. When a person can find total happiness, the only time one reaches Self-enlightenment is when one reaches that supreme Self-integration. Self-integration is Self-realisation. Self-realisation is God-realisation. It is only in that area where a person would find absolute bliss and become one with the Law of Grace. If we want to become happier, and
Nourishing Divinity: The Sacred Connection of Body, Mind, and Spirit
Ancient Sages, Attachment, Christ, Enlightenment, Eternal, Evolution, Force, Free Will, God, Grace, Happiness, Heart, I and my Father are one, Love, Manifestation, Meditation, Mental Patternings, Mind, One-pointedness, Oneness, Path, Prana, Scriptures, Self, Soul, Spirit, Spiritual, Spiritual Practices, The Three Gunas, Unfoldment, Universe, Yoga
TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY When it comes to behaviour patterns, as far as the body is concerned, naturally, one must look after the body, for the body, as they say, is a temple of God. I say the body is also God, not only His temple, for the temple is God, and the essence of God in its finest form resides in this temple which is also God. You have the God in the grosser form and the subtler form, for they are one. For who could separate the body from the mind, or the mind from the Spirit, because it is one continuous whole. This body, too, is holy and godly. Here, to keep the body well, one has to use the mind. Unfortunately, we people attach too much importance to the body and its needs. This should be a happy balance. There should be a happy balance for people who live as householders. Yet you would find that people that have gone beyond the body, beyond the grosser manifestation of God, do not care for the body at all—like Ramana Maharshi had cancer and leukaemia. One of the greatest sages, Ramakrishna, had cancer of the throat. Jesus was a very sickly man, and very few of you know that. He had a very, very hard life. There were no motor cars at that time, and he had to walk from village to village, from town to town, going through deserts and forests and many times without food or water, to fulfil his mission. Thanks to God, about half a dozen women around that loved him so much could support him for his meagre wants and needs. At least he could have a cloak and something to wear, something to eat. That is how he lived. But he did not care so much for the body, or else he would not have offered it up to the cross. Because he knew that the Spirit within me is immortal; my Father and I are one, eternal, forever infinite. What is this body? All these great sages and I am more versed in the Eastern philosophies than the Western philosophies, although I have made a relatively comprehensive study of these things. And then, of course, I do not depend on what I have read in books; it is a long time already that I have burned up the books. Speaking figuratively, you do not need books. Because the books only prevail on the mind level, not on the Heart level, the level from which I function, from the Heart level. But books are necessary for people to learn. Let the mind be clarified, good reading is needed, and reading is also essential to see how others have presented the same truths that I present. Therefore, it is necessary for me too. When it comes to the body, only those enlightened souls could neglect their bodies and not worry about the body. But for us around here, the body has to be treated with care. What is the body? What composes the body? Food. You are nothing else as you are sitting there but food. You are food; that is all that you are. Because what makes your bones, what makes your blood, what makes your muscles? Nothing but food. The shell is nothing but food, and you are replenishing the life in you with food because that very food and water and the air you breathe contain the vital force called Prana. That keeps you alive. So, the quality of food that one consumes determines the body you have. DO NOT FORCE YOURSELF There is one question always asked of me, must I eat meat or give up meat? I say, look, do not let that bother you. Eat meat if you want to. Eat fish if you want to. It is okay. When your body reaches the state of perhaps greater refinement, that is not the right word, though; language is so limiting for me, I could never really express through language what I would like to say. Nevertheless, through spiritual practices, as the body becomes more and more refined through spiritual practices, the need for grosser foods becomes less and less because the body does not want to take them. But do not force yourself, and cut yourself off the everyday habits because it will have a bothersome effect upon your nervous system if you just cut it off. But one thing is sure if you would like to do something really practical about it if you eat meat foods three times a day, and I know people who do: bacon and eggs in the morning, hamburger for lunch, then in the evening stew or a roast, meat, meat, meat, meat. Some people eat meat seven times a week. So, I would suggest, and this is entirely up to you, to cut it down slowly if you wish. If you eat meat seven times a week, cut it down to six. Do meditational practices, then cut it down to five after a while, then to four, then to three. The time will come when you will not require grosser foods anymore, and there could come a time when you will not need food anymore. But that is if you live in the Himalayas. You cannot do it here, in this worldly life in this rat race and cat race that in which we are involved. The body needs that sustenance. Not many of them left today, but you would have some yogis that could live in the Himalayas and refuel themselves by just drawing in Prana, that life force, and keeping their bodies going – this is possible! THE MIND IS CLOSELY CONNECTED WITH THE BODY The other significant effect that food has upon a person is this, that the mind, as I said before, is closely connected with the body. You cannot separate the mind from the body, one exists in a grosser form, and one
The Good and Godly Life: The Householder’s Path to Enlightenment
THE GOOD AND GODLY LIFE The word brahmacharya is normally interpreted in English as celibacy. That is not the correct translation of brahmacharya. “Brahma” means good and godly, and “achar,” from which the word “achary” comes, means to live a goodly and godly life. In other words, to moderate our lives so that it is in accordance with nature or Brahma. That is what the word brahmacharya means, and not abstinence from sex. You would find that ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine percent of the world’s population are householders, homemakers, and they have wives and children, and they are living in a world that requires practical living. A very small percentage, a very small fraction, has a natural inclination towards total abstinence. Total abstinence is a form of asceticism. In other words, it is a very, very small percentage of the people in the world that could be true ascetics. Then you have another small percentage that has an outward facade of asceticism. Meanwhile, what they are doing is escaping the responsibilities of the world. They go and sit in the Himalayas, or somewhere in the Alps, perhaps, and they say they become recluses. They seclude themselves from the world and build a wall around them to avoid the responsibilities of the world. What we are interested in is not that fraction of a percent of people—referring, of course, to true ascetics. But we are dealing with the ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine percent of the world’s population that are householders. For a householder, the concept of celibacy must be interpreted in an entirely different way. The concept of celibacy is not necessarily total abstinence, but it could mean a form of control. THE WAY OF A HOUSEHOLDER I will give you an example which I have quoted before. A couple came to see me in our centre in Cape Town, South Africa, and they had met some visiting swami. This visiting swami said that if you want to reach enlightenment, you must become celibates. This couple had been married for about ten, twelve years, but they had that yearning to reach enlightenment and develop a higher state of consciousness. So, this swami explained to them that, “You must conserve, reserve, the energies, and by doing that you will reach enlightenment. You, husband and wife, must start practising total abstinence from this very moment.” They took his word, and they started practising celibacy. They did not necessarily understand it. A few weeks went by and things were not bad. A few months went by, and things became worse. Each was at loggerheads with each other. They were irritable to each other, and not a single day passed when there were no quarrels. They started exhibiting various kinds of ailments because here was something that never came to them naturally. Something that they enforced upon themselves. We know, and all the laws of psychology will tell you, that when you enforce something upon yourself, you can create many repressions and a lot if inhibitions which could translate itself into various forms of psychosomatic diseases, which can become organic diseases as well. Then, of course, with the inhibitions and repressions, a lot of mental imbalance could take place. So, I spoke to this couple, and I went through their history and the advice I gave them, “Go to bed tonight!” The secretary fixed an appointment with them to come and see me three weeks later. They came, and they were back to their original selves: happy, beautiful, and ever so much loving. That is the way of a householder. THE SEXUAL URGE IN MAN Energy causes every instinct that man has, and we all know that the sexual energy in man, the sex urge, is the most potent urge in man, and it must be given its rightful expression without excesses and within all normality, and within all the precepts of morality and ethics and there is nothing wrong with it. Husband and wife indulging in their natural instincts and venting to their biological urges do not stop them from spiritual progress. That is the point to be taken – it does not stop them from spiritual progress because man is forever evolving. Since the beginning of creation, or rather, since the beginning of this cycle of creation, since the Big Bang explosion where millions of subatomic particles were sent forth, we are caught up in this process which we usually term evolution. In this evolutionary process, properly living a householder’s life is necessary. ACHIEVING SELF-REALISATION There are many ways to achieve self-realisation. Self-realisation is synonymous with self-integration, self-integration is synonymous with God-realisation, and God-realisation is synonymous with enlightenment or achieved the highest consciousness state. The living of a householder’s life can also lead one to enlightenment. The purpose for which we want to reach enlightenment is that consciously or unconsciously, every person is seeking happiness. Happiness, as we understand it is only a grosser expression of the inherent joy or bliss that is within us. That joy and bliss that is within us, the “Kingdom of Heaven which is within,” is forever wanting to express itself. As with everything else, if you observe around you the workings of nature, everything is forever trying to express itself. The seed attempts to express itself in the form of a flower. The flower attempts to express itself in the form of the fragrance it sends forth. Like that, in every way, this essence is the Divine power that is forever wanting to express itself. UNFOLD THE LIGHT WITHIN What happens to man is that he has conditioned his mind through various experiences of this lifetime and perhaps previous lifetimes. He has conditioned or patterned his mind so that he has created blocks to the expression of his real inner Self. As he removes the blocks, as he removes the veils, more and more can the Divinity be expressed. You do not need to consciously express the Divinity and say, “Ah,
Divine Reflection: The Guru, the Chela, and the Light of Transformation
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A TRUE GURU A person does not realise he is a Guru. But all his actions are such that they become those of a teacher. It is not something that someone switches on or off, that “Oh, now I have passed my final medical exam and now I am doctor, or I have passed my final law exam, and now I am a lawyer.” It does not work that way. It is a build-up over ages and ages and ages, where the soul goes through various transformations on the path of evolution. I am not talking of myself; specifically, I am speaking of a guru; let that be remembered because there are gurus and gurus and Gurus. Some Gurus are born to do a certain kind of work, and there are Gurus that, through the progress of ages, through the evolutionary progress, eventually becomes teachers. In many countries, we have a false saying, and that saying is this, “I had a calling”. It is false. A person might have a glimpse of something, like many of you in your practices, you have glimpses of this or that or the other which are not necessary, but that they regard to be a calling and yet they are so unfit to teach the word of God. The person best qualified to teach the word of God is he who knows the word, and by knowing the word, he knows God. A true teacher does not rely on books. He might use them, in the beginning, to stimulate his intellect through reading various philosophies and things, but in the end, that is of very little help to him. His greatest help and source of inspiration is the practical experiences he has gained. For the true Guru has a direct link from his conscious mind to that Superconscious level, to that Universal level, the storehouse of all knowledge. He develops this by spiritual practices and by his very evolutionary status, where he at any time and at will can draw upon this vast computer, and he presses a button. Everything he needs to know is there. A true Guru, a Spiritual Teacher, will not tune his mind to ordinary, mundane things because he realises that these are all transitory. The present form of existence is but a dream-like existence, that is real within its dimension, but beyond the dimension of this present so-called existence, beyond that dimension and into another dimension, this is all but a dream. His mind is always filled, absorbed in Divinity. The mind and heart of a true Guru is always absorbed in that which we call Divine, and because of that absorption, everything he sees around him assumes the form of Divinity. Suppose he feels himself one with Divinity and everything he sees around him is Divine. In that case, a total identification occurs that you are totally identified with the object of your sight. In this identification, the subject and the object become one. That is why you feel so strongly about the power of Gurushakti. That is the secret behind it. The Guru can identify himself totally with his chela, and that is not a physical identification. That identification is on a different dimension, on a subtler level. DARSHAN – GURUSHAKTI Reading your progress forms, I see that practically all of you experience this, where you, as you say in your progress forms, you could see or feel the presence of that. This proves that in that other dimension, there is no space and no time. It is all there, all here and now. But it is always beneficial to be in the presence of one’s Guru, in the physical. There is a word in Sanskrit, called Darshan, which means “to see” but its symbolic meaning is “to be in the presence of,” because the man of God, the man that is absorbed in God, emanates a certain force, a spiritual force that would have some effect upon you. Therefore, all meditators normally, when they write to me or on the forms, say, that “I was on a Nottingham Course and I came to different realisations, and different understandings and so many things have changed.” That is why the officials in our organisation always insist or try their best to tell people to attend courses. Those four or five days could be very, very valuable and could even be the turning point in one’s life. Remember one thing very clearly; it is not I that does anything; it is the Divine force that does it all. MAN REQUIRES A MAN TO IMPART THE IMPULSE When does the Guru realise that he is a Guru? No realisation dawns all of a sudden. It is a gradual build-up from childhood; although he is unfolded, even the true Guru, even an Avatara, an Incarnation has to unfold. For an average person, an ordinary person, going through all the various stages of evolution, it would take millions of years to reach the stage of man, while the Avatara, the Incarnation coming through this vastness of the universe, from the formlessness into a formed being, would do it in a split of a second because there is no time in that dimension. Yet, he has to go through all that process. When this full force descends on earth, that Incarnation still has to go through the mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom and then to man. I have said before that in the stage of man, one requires a man to impart the impulse. This impulse is greatly imparted on courses, and that is Darshan. The Guru keeps on developing and unfolding himself until he comes to some form of realisation. This realisation is not something that happens overnight. He comes through the realisation that all this transitoriness of life, of what use is it, let us try and find the permanency of life for life is permanent. CHANGE MUST TAKE PLACE GRADUALLY The self-realised man or
Living Without Fear: Understanding Death and the Immortal Spirit
AFTER DEATH When it comes to birth, the soul enters the mother’s womb at the time of conception. When a soul finds the proper genetic combination, it is carried through the sperms. The totally of mind is as vast as the universe. I have said that out of these 12 billion cells, the conscious mind is only using one-millionth part of 12 billion cells. How big is it? The thoughts that pass through your mind, how much space does it require? None. It requires no space at all. After death, you go into the realm of spacelessness, timelessness. It is only when you are ready to be reborn, and it is only when conception takes place that you recognise space and time. As the child grows, you start recognising space and time. Until then, you are still in spacelessness and timelessness as far as your ego self or mental self is concerned. There is two kinds of people that take a very long time to be reborn: a very, very bad person, like Hitler, he takes a long time to be reborn because there are not so many wicked people on earth and it takes a saint a long time to be reborn because how many saints are there through whom he can take birth? Therefore, we say of a holy man that blessed be his mother “to have given birth” to such a saint, to such a holy man. WHATEVER WE FEAR, WE WILL FIND There are no other planes of existences. You enter a phase of spacelessness and timelessness, and whatever we fear, that is what you are sure to find, because fear has a stronger quality to it than any of the other emotions. Fear of the unknown is the basis of all other fears. Man fears death because he has died many times before in unconsciousness. Man fears death because of his total attachment to worldly things. One should be non-attached. That does not mean that you should not live well or possess something that you need – it does not mean that but you are not to be attached. After death, what direction do we take? There is no direction because in the other plane of existence, there are no directions. The only direction you could think of is coming back to the three-dimensional world that we know. It is not necessary to come back to this planet. There are thousands of worlds very similar to ours, and if you have to be reborn, you might be reborn on another planet which would be conducive to your evolution. This other story of going on the other side and your aunties and uncles come to meet you, what truth is in there. None! You create them through your thought that you will meet Auntie Mathilda there and Uncle John. You would see or meet them because of your deep desire and attachment to meet them. Even that Auntie Mathilda might be reborn again, and yet by your thought force you will create her there and meet her there. THE LAWS OF NATURE HAVE EXISTED ALL THE TIME The mind manufactures everything, and therefore we say the entirety of creation is a superimposition upon the creator. All this manifestation is a superimposition upon the Manifestor. There is no God that creates, as I have said before. Creation is an ongoing, ever-expanding process all the time. It functions by itself with the laws that creation has formulated by itself. Like water runs down a hill and not up a hill. Who created that? It is something that is. It is something that has to happen, that water runs downhill. You throw a stone, and the stone comes down. Instead of flying up, it is pulled or pushed down by the laws of gravity. These various laws that we talk of today have been existing all the time without man even knowing it. There has always been a law of gravity even before Newton discovered it because the apple had to fall, and the apple has been falling for millions and millions and millions of years, while Newton just existed a few hundred years ago. Similarly, other laws within nature are operating. There are subtler laws, and when the mind becomes more and more refined through our spiritual practices, we understand those subtler laws to the extent that we can die consciously. We can be aware of bliss. People always say that such and such had a terrible death or suffered so much. That is not true. Because before death sets in, you become unconscious, and then in the other plane of existence, you become conscious again. There the mind functions on its own without being embodied, and that is why in the dream state your mind is functioning. Your subconscious mind is forever turning, churning, and learning. Then why not more so in a subtler plane. DO NOT FEAR DEATH At the moment of death, your entire life right from the time you were born flashes before your eyes—every detail in a moment. You might be 70, 80 years old, but those 80 years pass in complete detail in a moment in front of your eyes, and that goes to prove that you are entering a plane where time does not exist. We need not fear death or have nervous breakdowns about that fear. Like as the story goes, there are two things you can do about a nervous breakdown. You can go to the country for a long holiday or rest or find a job on Wall Street where you will not be noticed. We have such a recession here in America but some companies are still doing well. Those companies are like tea bags. They only realise what is happening when they are put in hot water.The thing which people fear the most, that which we call death is something that is not to be feared at all. For in reality, there is no death
The Master’s Guidance: Infusing the Absolute into the Relative
THE ABSOLUTE IS NOT APART FROM THE RELATIVE The full extent of the mind is as vast as the entire universe. When man can reach the deepest, fullest level of his mind, he could have the cognition of the entire universe. But that is not enough. That is not enough because the whole extent of the universe is still relative. We still have to reach the Absolute, and there lies the changeless quality of life. Because of the techniques given, in meditation, we go from the grossest level of the conscious mind to the subtlest level of the mind, and from there, we transcend it. And this is a possibility for every one of us. When we reach that stage and become established in the unchanging reality, this whole universe becomes an illusion. But until we reach that stage, this universe is real. In other words, it means that within relative values, there is reality to this existence. But from the absolute point of view, relativity becomes non-existent. But even after reaching the absolute, we still have to live this life and live it as real. How do we do that? By continually diving within ourselves and drawing from that absolute force, we draw from that storehouse. We draw from that storehouse of divine energy and infuse that divine energy into daily living. So here we have seen that the Absolute is not apart from the relative. The infinite energy is not apart from the transitory energy. So here, a happy union takes place. What do we gain by that? First, we gain the joy of living and life, for no man is born on this earth to suffer. All the sufferings in the world are because of misunderstanding and misconception, and we have the instruments in our hands to dive deep within and find the Kingdom of Heaven which resides within us. THE GURU IS A GUIDE The Bible says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven within, and all else shall be added unto thee.” But the mistake we make is that we want all else first and then the kingdom. That is the mistake we make. We have to make a 180-degree turn to find the entire value of life, thereby making what is regarded as a living hell into a heaven. Nevertheless, it is possible, and it is the duty of the Spiritual Master to show the way. No one can evolve you to that stage. A spiritual master can only guide you to that stage. He is only a guide – a spiritual master or a guru is nothing but a channel. Like a hollow piece of wood, he is like a flute, and Divinity blows its infinite music through this hollow piece of wood so that you could enjoy the symphony. In all the travels I do throughout the world, they expect a guru, long hair, long beard, old man, but that is not so. The spiritual master is an ordinary human being like you, and it is only through the human impulse that I could touch your mind and heart. That which you regarded and thought was so permanent in life; you will find that it is not permanent for the inner within-ness that is the only permanency. But no hope must be lost because our message is of hope and love. Know this for sure, that you exist because God exists, and God exists because you exist. Fire cannot exist without heat, and heat cannot exist without fire. In that sense, we are the manifestation of the Manifestor. … Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang DK 1978 – 01