BLINDED BY THE LIGHT When you are very close to a bright light, you get blinded, but those far away from where the light is not so close can still see. Therefore, a true prophet is never recognised in his own time or country. All of these sages, these great men, these great masters, go through this. It is only after, when the brightness of the light is not there, face to face. Then the blindness goes, and then the disciples could see. They could genuinely see with the inner eye that my God, I have been with God, and I did not know it. We go through this experience every day in ordinary things. In everyday things, we go through this experience. Every day, we fail to recognise. Even our teachers, when we were at school, none of us liked our teachers. We would say, “Oh, he is a so and so. He drives me too hard, or he spanked me or this or that.” Only later, when you grow up, you say, “Ah, you know what that man taught me was so great.” I remember when I was a schoolboy. The school ended at half-past two; I think it was at that time. A quarter past two, all books and pens were put away. He used to sit at his desk, put his legs on one of the benches before him, and then talk. He used to speak of various things that had nothing to do with schoolwork. He used to talk about astronomy. He used to talk about science. He used to talk about physics and the scriptures. He just kept talking about this, that, and the other, and most of us thought, why does he not let us go home instead of listening to all this nonsense? But afterwards, how much it helped me. It stimulated my curiosity to know more of those things that seemed so trivial, unimportant, and irrelevant then. TRUE TEACHING At the moment, we might not know the worth of the master, and that could be pretty natural. To know the value of the master, for the disciples to know Christ, they should be very closely developed. They should be very near the stage of Christhood. Then only would they recognise? But then what is the sense of Christ having people near him that are Christ themselves? It would serve no purpose. He has to have those who lack the understanding, and as they keep on understanding, as their awareness grows, they will be able to share the awareness that has grown in them. That is how teachings are propagated from age to age. Otherwise, it is just an ordinary job. Otherwise, it is just cleaning streets, making chairs and tables or doing the plumbing. It is just a job. Actual teaching always comes with sharing, sharing the awakening in us. That is true teaching. The disciples of Jesus never had that awakening. Only afterwards, when the awakening took place, they started sharing it. A lot of it is twisted, and a lot of it is lost, but that is how we know today, in some form or the other, what Christianity is and what consciousness is. But we make a mistake in paying more attention to Jesus than to Christ. That mistake we make today because of our lack of awareness. We, too, are the disciples of that Christhood, but we fail to recognise that consciousness, and we only see the man, the Jesus, the form. To become a true teacher, you share the awareness that develops in you, which takes time. When Jesus shed his body, then only was he recognised. He was the most despised man on earth. Everyone hated him: the rulers, his people, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sanhedrins. – because everyone saw him from a different angle. The rulers thought that he was a rebel and that he was going to overthrow the Romans. The priests felt that he would destroy the church, and they would be out of their jobs, and they would lose all control over the people. People saw him according to their understanding. ONLY MARY MAGDALENE KNEW WHO JESUS WAS One person knew Jesus and was not talked about in a good light, and that was Mary Magdalene. She knew who Jesus was. She was the only person at that time who knew what Jesus was. He helped multitudes of people with all kinds of their problems. Yet they all deserted him. They all deserted him. People who had the most incredible experiences with him, the finest experiences, where were they when he was beset with all these problems of the temple and the emperor? Where were they then? Nowhere to be found, and when the rulers, because they were so uncertain of themselves, used the trick of whether he should be crucified or not, they voted for him to be crucified. The man who benefitted them so much. They said, “Yes, down with him.” And that “down with him,” that voice, that sound roared in the courtyards. People that he benefitted. TO UNFOLD AWARENESS That is how it works. For the good deeds are always forgotten. A man might do so much for you; your friend might do so much for you for many years. He sets you up in business, gets you settled down, or whatever the case. But one day, you quarrel with him or exchange hard words, and all the good things done so far are forgotten. The only thing that is remembered and breaks up the friendship is that little quarrel. That is a lack of awareness. For not being able to take the totality in at one glance, these things happen. And that is what we teach: to unfold. To unfold our inherent awareness so that there remains no foe and no friend. Because a friend can become a foe tomorrow, and a foe can become a friend. But there remains only this communication
When the Dust Blows Away: The Master-Chela Connection
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS Why was Gurushakti, or the power of Grace, not felt by the closest disciples of Christ when he was alive? That is a real anomaly because those closest to him saw all the great things done by Jesus. Things were told to his closest disciples, which he would not speak about in public, and they knew the power and the force. Yet when it came to an end, his closest ones denied him and ran away like cowards. So, how did this Gurushakti work? How did this power of Grace work? One would generally expect that those closest would know the master the best. Yet, having witnessed with their own physical eyes all the happenings of the time, they denied him when trouble came. You know the story of “before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” This man was so close to him; he watched all the miracles happening, yet such a god on earth was denied. THE LESSON OF DEPENDENCY Why would this be so? What was the plan behind it? This happened not only in the life of Jesus but also in Buddha’s life, where his closest disciple, Ananda, was denied illumination until after Buddha had left his body. When they started writing his biography, people asked Ananda, “You should be the one that should know Buddha the best and most intimately, and yet you are unrealised.” So, he had to explain that “I was unenlightened because I was most attached to Buddha.” This is a great lesson for everyone to learn: the lesson of dependency. Because of the total attachment of Ananda to Buddha, he never became enlightened. When Ananda became his chela, Ananda made specific requests, and one of the requests was this: “Anyone I make an appointment with to see you, you will have to see. One of my conditions is to be close to and look after you.” If a relationship is based on conditions, then how can enlightenment come? As a matter of fact, in any marriage relationship between husband and wife, if conditions are set, the flow in the relationship is automatically stopped. After all, what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is a total flow with one’s total being. The so-called other becomes a part of your totality from one’s totality to another. That is flow. But as soon as any conditions are set, this flow immediately stops. THEY SAW JESUS AND FAILED TO SEE THE CHRIST Jesus’s disciples were so close to him; they saw how he made the blind see, the deaf hear, the cripple walk and raise a man from the dead, things like that. Yet such a master was denied. Because with them, he was just an ordinary man. They just saw his ordinariness and failed; they just saw Jesus and failed to see Christ. Therefore, none of the disciples who were very close to him ever reached enlightenment. There is only one person in the lifetime of Jesus who was enlightened, and that was Lazarus. Lazarus was not physically raised from the dead. That he was awakened means that he was led from darkness to Light. That was enlightenment, and that was to “bring to life.” Most people in this world as of that time are the living dead, so-called living and yet dead, for if one does not function in one’s totality, then you are but dead. You are dead to the Spirit. The mind would function, and the body would work, but that is not life. When Jesus said, “I am the life,” he meant the awakening, the quickening of that consciousness, which is life. He had to say over and over again, “I am the Life,” not meaning the physical Jesus, but meaning that Consciousness and that life is the way. For that, life is the truth. Nothing else is worthy of possessing or having but the truth, and once one has the truth, one knows what life is. HE WAS THAT CONSCIOUSNESS Although the disciples were devoted to the man, they lacked devotion to the Spirit. They lacked devotion to the Consciousness. Therefore, at a later stage, after deep reflection, they found that that man that we were so close to was that Consciousness. They only recognised that after they went through greater crucifixions than Jesus did. Jesus did not suffer in being crucified. He accepted it. Being that Consciousness, he cared not for his body or his mind. Let it fall away. Let it pass away, for I and my Father are one, which dawned on him when his mind and body were put through that agony and that turmoil. Then, even in desperation, he said, “Why hast thou forsaken me.” Then through that heat, through that tapas, then all that “why has thou and me,” when that concept was burnt away in that heat of agony, only the truth was realised that “I and my Father are one.” So, there was no suffering in the crucifixion. HIS DISCIPLES SUFFERED THE MOST Those who suffered most were his disciples, for they all went through some form of crucifixion. That was great suffering. Theirs was more extraordinary because they were not enlightened; their suffering was more of mind and body, and in that suffering, it was revealed to themselves. They discovered that what we dealt with was not the man who used to frequent the houses of prostitution, the wine halls, the sinners’ inns, the Pharisees, or the money collectors. No, that was not the man that we should attach ourselves to. When it dawned upon them that we were so close to that Consciousness, that all-encompassing Consciousness, they only realised what Christ meant and what Consciousness really meant, and then they started working. You take the example of Saul, later known as Paul. He was anti-Christ until he had that vision on the road to Damascus. Through his extreme hate, he received enlightenment. This we find in other scriptures as well. Ravana hated Rama so much
Gurushakti: The Indefinable Force That Transforms From Within
DEFINING GURUSHAKTI Many times, I have been asked this question. Guruji, define Gurushakti. You have to experience it to know it. What is the reason for defining sugar or salt when you have not yet found the power to taste the sugar’s sweetness or saltiness? What sense is there? But I see what is on your mind. You are looking for instant miracles, instant coffee, instant pudding – that is what you are looking for. If you want the definition of Gurushakti in verbal, analytical terms, you will not find it because it is an indefinable form. It is a form of Grace imparted to you by the powers that represent itself through your beloved one, in our case, your Guru. It is a force and a power that has no mechanics at all. The beauty of it lies in the very factor of it being non-mechanically, without mechanics. It is an inner force imparted in the form of Grace. Grace has no definition; in all definitions, there is a beginning point and an ending, so you are defining. In defining, you are defining your mental processes to be able to understand them. If you cannot understand God, how can you know Grace, which is Gurushakti? But through the power that is, you can experience the depth, the Force, the power of Gurushakti. To find the actual value of Gurushakti comes slowly, gradually but surely, and you start experiencing it yourself. I want it to become permanent in your life, my beloved. Permanently, it must be there. … Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1987 – 20
Clarifying the Mind, Unfolding the Self: The Role of Meditation and Action
IMPROVING OUR MINDS Do not change your mind because you cannot change your mind despite how much you try. Because with what are you going to change your mind? What other tool have you got to change your mind besides your mind? Here, we will delve into the realm of self-analysis. If done constructively, self-analysis is very good, and rationalisation is excellent. Still, the only tragedy is that through rationalisation and self-analysis, people develop a more significant amount of guilt. Through self-analysis, they start diving deep within their minds, not their Spirit; they start diving deep within their minds and stir up all the contained dirt. Stirring up the dirt in the mind serves a helpful purpose, but all techniques are based on the mind only; I would not recommend them. Because, with the stirring up of the dirt in the clothing thrown in a washing machine, there has to be a solvent; there has to be the soap powder that will absorb the dirt. Anything stirred up in the mind must first have a background of the Spiritual Force that we can draw from. In the process, the spiritual force must be awakened through meditation and spiritual practices. At the same time, you could go into analysis so that whatever dirt the analytical mind draws up to the surface level would spontaneously and automatically be dissolved by the spiritual forces generated in you. These spiritual forces are activated through meditation, diving deep within, and analysis must also have an active base. When you analyse something and come to an inevitable conclusion, and if you do nothing about it, those thought processes become more deeply embedded in the mind, causing the samskaras, or the impressions, to become stronger. In that way, you are not helping the analysis. You must tackle all mental decisions, rationalisations and analysis in two ways: to draw forth the spiritual energies from within oneself, which could be equated with Gurushakti or Grace. Returning to your washing machine to dissolve the negativities in the mind also needs a release. The soap has removed all the dirt from the clothing, but the washing machine still needs a pipe to let out the water. In our case, we do our spiritual practices that dissolve the dirt, and the second step would be to release the energies built up in us. People who do certain forms of meditation for ten to twelve hours do not perform the necessary physical actions. By physical actions, I mean mental actions as well because that is also physical action. Thought processes are also physical but at a subtler level. So, one way to tackle the problem is through spiritual practices; the other is to put into action the analysis or results we have brought. Here, we are cleaning and dispensing; that is how the mind gets clarified. CLEANSING THE MIND You must have heard of the word ghee. Ghee is clarified butter. There is a straightforward way to make ghee. You take butter that you buy at the supermarket, put it in a pot and bring it to a boiling point; it has to boil, boil, boil, and, as it boils, all the substances in the butter that do not make it pure butter comes to the surface, and you skim it off. Then, you have pure clarified ghee and pure butter, which can last for months without refrigeration, while butter can never leave outside the fridge for longer than a few days. That is the process of cleansing the mind. The boiling process in the mind is critical. Sometimes, people go through many emotional turmoils and indecisions, thinking it is not good. They can make it bad if it is bad. They can make it worse if they want to, but in reality, it is something delicious; the emotional turmoil you go through is something delicious because if you shut up those emotions, repress them, and inhibit them, then you are soon on the way to the lunatic asylum. So, let the emotions come, let them tumble around, let them do what they want to, but having the strength of awakening the spirituality within, we can stand apart from the emotions, we can objectify those emotions so that it does not affect us as it is affecting a person today. When a person allows emotions to affect them, be they good or bad, they manifest themselves through the physical body. It could take various forms of organic diseases or psychosomatic diseases. For everything in life, from the minutest atom to man and even up to the stage of the godman, the living God, everything is forever trying to express. This expression means expansion, as the entire universe forever expands within itself. The universe is going through the same process you are going through, for you are a universe in miniature. As the saying goes, if you understand the workings of a grain of sand, you will understand the entire universe. The secret here is this: as the mind becomes more and more clarified by spiritual practices and right thinking and right action, then whatever emotions a person goes through, be it pain or pleasure, because man, being in an embodied state and having a mind, is ruled by the law of opposites. You are bound; that is the bondage that man goes through. Lately, scientists have discovered that in this polarity, this was said by ancient Vedic sages thousands and thousands of years ago. Still, scientists have also proven that if you touch one end or create any disturbance, good or bad, on one end of the stick, the other end will feel its effect and respond accordingly. Here is a process whereby positiveness on the one side will lead to positiveness on the other side, the other end of polarity. POSITIVE THINKING That is why you have teachers telling you about positive thinking. Positive thinking is not drowning or pressing down negative thoughts. You cannot do it; it is impossible. The
Mysticism vs. Science: Bridging or Dividing?
Awareness, Belief, Christ, Conscious Mind, Divine, Divinity, Ego, Eternal, Force, God, Happiness, Heart, Integration, Joy, Law of opposites, Love, Love thy neighbour as thyself, Meditation, Mind, Omnipresent, Peace, Philosophy, Religion, Self, Spirit, Spiritual, Spiritual Master, Spiritual Practices, Strength, Unfoldment, Universal, Universe
SCIENCE IS THE STUDY OF MOTION, WHILE MYSTICISM IS THE STUDY OF STILL Science and religion find a meeting point, but their approaches are wrong. The scientist tries to measure, while the mystic or the religionist tries to experience. Science has not been successful in measuring speed, for example. If a particle moves from one end to the other, it will not get its proper velocity because as soon as it goes through to that particular particle, it has moved somewhat away. In mysticism, you do not move away; you become still. We could say that science is motion and the study of motion, while mysticism is the study of still. Yet one could combine the two so well that you could experience motion and stillness. How can this be done? It can only be explained through an analogy. You take a top that the children play with, and if it is spun at a very high speed, it will seem to be standing still. Here, motion is found in that stillness, and stillness is found in the motion. SCIENTISTS LOOK AT THINGS PERIPHERALLY, WHILE THE MYSTIC LOOKS AT THE CENTRE We who live on this planet or in this universe are a product of motion, and there will always be motion. When there is motion, you become involved in emotion, where the problem begins. Through that motion of the various psychological factors that operate within you, emotions are created, and emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant, are always conflicting. Where you have pain, you will experience pleasure; where you experience joy, you will experience pain because of a conflict between the two. As scientists call it, the law of polarity is like two ends of one stick. They say this is the left end, and that is the right end. But the mystic operates differently altogether. Although he knows both ends of the stick, he goes to the centre, but his entire focus is on the centre. So, scientists look at polarities, and they miss the centre. In other words, scientists would look at things peripherally while the mystic looks at the centre. If you take the analogy of a cartwheel, the axle is standing still all the time; only the wheel is turning. If the axle, the centre, were not there, there would be no way for the wheel to turn. But you need the spokes and the rim so the centre can be combined with the periphery, where you know the periphery and the centre. That is the secret of life, where your unfoldment occurs. Is the centre aware of the periphery or the movement of the wheel? It is aware of it because the wheel revolves around the centre. So, the centre must have a specific force, an energy that would be there. The trouble with people and all the emotional problems is that the wheels are buckled while they go through all the motions in life. The trouble with human beings is that the wheel is warped, so the cart does not run smoothly. What warped it was that the spokes were not well-balanced. It might have had a knock, which bent, giving less pressure to those warped spokes than the straight ones. So, we human beings are warped people. Of course, analysis alone is not good enough. What to do about it: as you all know, I have done over three thousand talks around the world and, as you know, those of you who have attended previous Satsangs, that all theory must be brought down to its practical level. Otherwise, all these philosophies, metaphysics, psychologies, humanities, and what you have are useless. THE BRAIN IS AN ORGAN, A VEHICLE FOR THE MIND What do we do when our wheel is warped? Where does the wheel reside? The wheel resides in the head. That is why everyone’s head is constantly whirling around; even if they are total teetotallers, their heads spin. So, science is of the head, but the axle is of the heart. So, join that axle to the wheel of the mind, and you bring out a balance, and then the mind can work at a far greater speed and efficiency. This brain is not the mind but only a vehicle for the mind. It is an organ, like other organs, such as hands, feet, etc., and they are organs. Because that mind is universal and because of our lack of development of the brain, our lack of bringing the universal mind to the conscious level, the mind is warped, and the external signs of the mind being warped are our daily actions, our feelings, our emotions, how we act and how we react to people, relationships, circumstances. Can anyone here say that their mind has been filled with positive thoughts for twenty-four hours of the day? No one can. Because as soon as you think of a positive thought, a negative thought arises. I hope my business will take in a thousand dollars today because I need to take it to the bank tomorrow morning. But at the same time, you think you will take those thousand dollars to the bank, or else the Bank Manager knows what to do to you. He will use his foot on the back side of your anatomy. WE BECOME BETTER HUMAN BEINGS BY COMBINING AWARENESS WITH THE UNFOLDMENT OF THE HEART So, we lack the balance between the heart and the brain box, the mind, and through our spiritual practices, we open up more and more of these billions of brain cells, and the mind can penetrate through more and more. And when more and more of the mind penetrates our conscious level of life, we develop a greater awareness. This very activation of the brain cells is the job of the mystic. But it can be scientifically combined. I work with a lot of scientists. I get called in as a consultant to various physicians and psychiatrists, and I get called in, especially to
Opening the Doors of Love: A Path to Joyful Living
Acceptance, Divinity, Eternal, Evolution, Force, God, Grace, Happiness, Heart, Joy, Karma, Laws, Light, Love, Mind, One-pointedness, Oneness, Purity, Religion, Samskaras, Soul, Spiritual Path, Spiritual Practices, Surrender, Unfoldment
EXPANSION OF THE HEART A human being’s heart is forever expanded. It does not require expansion. The core of the human personality, which we know as the heart, could be equated very well with the Spiritual Self of man, the pure entity that resides within man and can be called the heart. One aspect of that pure entity is the heart because its nature is to express, and what does it express? It expresses love. The heart is not the little physical organ but the core of the human personality, the individual soul if you wish to call it that; its very nature is to express love, and the heart is an indefinable quality or substance. Its expression, love, is also indescribable. Indefinable by the mind but experienceable by itself. When the heart is filled with love, it experiences its true nature.The heart does not experience its true nature because man’s actions and thoughts create so many blockages, which could be put into the package of samskaras. This package of samskaras, or these veils of our doings, the veils created by the seeds we have sewn, builds a wall around the heart, and it is this wall that prevents the heart from expressing itself. The only way the heart can express itself is through love. LOVE REQUIRES NO ANALYSIS We have spoken about love, combining it with other questions, and we have seen that love is a quality that requires no mental analysis. For as soon as one starts defining love, one is limiting love. The limitation occurs because we are defining with a limited instrument called the mind, and the mind, as far as we know it, or as far as we cognize it, or as far as we use it, is finite, while the quality of love is infinite. Because of the veils created around it, the heart cannot fully express love. Dante has said that the greater the man, the greater his love. So, stature, spiritual stature, or man’s evolutionary status can be judged by how much he loves. We are talking of real love, not that which is taken to be love, and what most people practice in the name of love is but a form of hypocrisy. Love knows no need. It exists by itself; it does not need support. Yet, to express itself, it has to find an object to which it could express itself, and in the expression of that love to an object, the heart expands more and more; and by “expansion”, we mean an unfoldment so that more and more love filters through. OPENING THE DOORS OF THE HEART That is the aim of our foundation, whereby the human being can reach the core of his personality, and by reaching the core of his personality, he starts opening the door. And in opening the door of the heart, more and more love filters through. It is like driving a car. The more you press the accelerator, the more the jets in the carburettor open and more and more petrol flows through, and the car goes faster. But if the carburettor is dirty, if the jets are not clean, no matter how much you press the accelerator, the petrol cannot flow through, and the car does not go smoothly. To make one’s life go smoothly like a car, we have to clean the carburettor. We clean the carburettor through our spiritual practices. Spiritual practices are effortless, but certain effects are created in their effortlessness, and the effects are sometimes a bit abrasive. It is only by rubbing, polishing, or scouring the pot or pan that it becomes clean. The finest iron or steel is always made in the hottest heat. In the beginning stages of our spiritual practices, we recognize the blockages and dirt in the carburettor and start cleaning it. If this cleaning is done without understanding, we could find it very challenging. Still, if proper knowledge is had or given, with the practices, then one’s attitude in the cleaning process changes, and then we start saying that this cleaning is a must. The car can never remain stationary. It is the vehicle’s nature or the car’s duty to be driven. It has to move, and without cleaning the carburettor, it is rusting away. When we do not accept these challenges, life starts stagnating, and whenever there is stagnation, it could rot and lead a person into greater and greater misery. When these challenges are brought to us, we could become so fortunate that all our faults and frailties are pictured before us when we look at ourselves squarely in the mirror through our spiritual practices. Then we ask, “Is this me?” And if this me is so incomplete and has so many faults and frailties, what will I do about me? And once we make that real decision, earnest, sincere decision, there has to be sincerity, because on the spiritual path, there is a lot of cleansing required, and it is only with sincerity that one can persevere. Sometimes, a person is seemingly happy. By seemingly, I mean that he bluffs himself, saying I am happy. He is in a state of euphoria. It happens many times, and it has been proven that if a person falls in the snow, say he breaks a leg, when the time of death approaches, he gets enveloped in such a lovely warmth that he does not want to get up. Like that, he passes away in this warmth. This false warmth. Many people who are unprepared to face their weaknesses live in this kind of false warmth. But if only this person who has fallen in the snow would get up and walk around a bit or crawl around and get the blood circulating, he would be alive. TO THE PERFECT, EVERYTHING IS PERFECT To recap, the nature of the inner core of man’s personality is love, and love is forever trying to find expression. No single man or woman in this
How to Improve Your life? Transforming Life Through Meditation
Acceptance, Awareness, Compassion, Divine, Divinity, God, Heart, Humility, I and my Father are one, Impressions, Joy, Karma, Kindness, Kingdom of Heaven within, Love, Love thy neighbour as thyself, Meditation, Mental Patternings, Mind, Non-Attachment, Omnipresent, Self, Spiritual Practices, Strength, Subconscious
QUIETNESS OF THE MIND OPENS THE HEART Because you are Divine, every cell in your body is Divine. If we say God is omnipresent, He should be present in every cell of you. The only failure man has is that he does not recognise or have the cognition to know that he is Divine. If you stand down on the street, you will only see part of the road. But climbing a hill will give you a panoramic view of the city. Another thing happens when the person meditates besides the physical and psychological benefits. The person becomes more aware of himself and his environment. Your awareness expands, and with expanded awareness, all your actions will be the right actions. Then, not only does the mind develop, but it also goes to its quieter self and quieter centre – and that quietness experienced by the mind opens up the heart. When the heart, which is the core of the human being, the core of the human personality, opens up, there is greater coordination between the mind and heart, so you become more loving. Someone tells me, for example, “No one loves me.” So, it is very easy: become loveable, and everyone will love you. You do not need to go to call the butterflies. They will not come. Make your garden beautiful, grow beautiful flowers, and automatically, the butterflies will come. IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH MEDITATION Through meditation, one adds that extra depth to one’s life. One discovers oneself, and thereby, life becomes better. When life becomes better, everything around you becomes much more enjoyable. There is joy. You are made of joy, but we have lost the art of enjoying joy, but this art can be regained. Through meditation, you will find that your entire environment improves. A greater understanding develops between husband and wife, employee and employer. You will also learn how to forgive and love. People talk of love and say, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” But how can you do that when you do not know yourself? Through these spiritual practices, you start knowing yourself, you start understanding your true worth, and you will begin saying one day, “I and my Father are One.” For you are at-one-ment with Him all the time. The only thing lacking is the recognition or the realisation of that oneness. When you discover this oneness, how can you hate another, for there is no one else to hate except you, and do not hate yourself? Then you would say, “I am my brother’s keeper” in its truest sense. ACHIEVING THE TRUE GOAL OF LIFE From these straightforward meditational practices, you achieve the true goal of life, for man’s goal is to recognise his reality. We are living only on the surface level. Like the ocean’s surface waves, the turbulent waves, and those waves are tossing us around. But if you dive just a bit deeper within yourself, you will find the ocean calm, and once you experience the calmness, you will appreciate the beauty of the waves. Then you would not say, “Oh, look at these waves, how turbulent they are!” But you will become a surfer and enjoy surfing on the waves. What do you learn there? You learn acceptance of life. With the growth of awareness, you become more and more accepting, and when you learn to accept things or situations as they are, you will naturally start surrendering. You see how all these virtues, all these good qualities which religion talks about, which all theologies speak about, are so interrelated that when one quality is developed, you automatically start creating the other attributes. BECOMING FEARLESS AND GUILTLESS Fear is the greatest bugbear in the life of man today. He fears everything. Everything becomes fearful when there is nothing to fear. You go down a dark road, and because your mind is filled with fear, you would think that a shadow you would see there on this road is a mugger that is going to mug you. Meanwhile, it could be a tree stump, but you would be afraid to go through the road. If you have fearlessness, by recognising and experiencing that Divinity within you, every aspect and every facet of your life will improve if you do not fear. Another significant problem that human beings suffer from is the sense of guilt. Guilt they are riddled with guilt, and that causes untold psychological problems. But in a way, it is suitable for some people to be guilty, or else the psychologists and psychiatrists would starve. The idea that is implanted in us since childhood is the sense of guilt, and you grow up with the idea that “I am a sinner, I am a sinner, I am a sinner.” You do not need that. You are not a sinner. You are placed in certain circumstances by the various impressions that whirl in your subconscious mind, which you must work through. In Sanskrit, they call it karma. That is a different subject altogether. How about approaching life with the attitude, “I am strong, I am strong, I am strong.” Not with the attitude of “I am weak, I am weak; I am weak.” For if you say you are weak, you will become weaker. A Frenchman started a clinic in France, and many clinics opened afterwards, but there was only one principle he used. He used to tell his patients that when you wake up in the morning and before you go to sleep at night, you say that I feel better and better. I feel better and better. I feel stronger and stronger. The cures were remarkable. They started feeling better and better, and today, doctors agree that all illnesses come first from the mind. They used to say that about sixty per cent of diseases were of mental origin, but now they have started saying that a hundred per cent of illnesses come from the mind. BECOMING JOYFUL You think, and your thoughts make
Attitude and Divinity: Shaping Attitudes in the Light of Divinity
Acceptance, Attitude, Awareness, Devotion, Divine, Divinity, Ego, Eternal, Eternity, Evolution, Force, God, Gurushakti, Humility, Joy, Light, Love, Manifestation, Mental Patternings, Mind, Oneness, Path, Samskaras, Scriptures, Separation, Soul, Spirit, Spiritual, Spiritual Master, Spiritual Path, Spiritual Practices, Strength, Surrender, The Abstract, Unfoldment, Universe
ALL IS WORTHY An injunction from the scriptures says, “Lord, I am not worthy to gather the crumbs from under Thy table.” No man, woman or child is unworthy, and Divinity regards no one as unworthy. Divinity itself, the neutral force, knows of no unworthiness. He is like the rain falling on fertile fields, barren ground, rocks, rivers, and oceans where water is not required. So, who is unworthy? None is unworthy. But this injunction has some meaning, and the purpose is to make man realise that he lives with an inflated ego and that inflated ego must be clarified. This inflation has to be deflated. Nevertheless, there is meaning in that teaching there that I am so unworthy. It means total deflation of one’s ego. It means a form of surrender to something higher. That unworthiness, that feeling of insignificance in the presence of the Lord, is something good because one has to become insignificant and reach rock bottom. Then, the upward turn comes where you feel all significance. For then, you have understood and realised what life is: that “His” life is my life, my life is “His” life. We are one, and I am just as significant as my maker. That made is non-apart from the maker, and that oneness is formed. But this outstanding teaching has also brought about things that are not good for people. How this is interpreted today has produced so much guilt in people’s minds, and guilt, you know yourself, is the greatest disorder – the most significant illness, for you keep dwelling in that guilty feeling as if you are in a whirlpool. You cannot get out into the vastness of the ocean. Theologies, unfortunately, have been so, so misinterpreted. Most of these injunctions have profound meanings. Therefore, true masters are always meticulous in what knowledge they give to whom. Is the recipient ready enough to understand what is said? A passage in a Sanskrit work written about three or four thousand years ago says that if a person of low understanding hears a sacred word, then lead should be poured into his ears. As a child, I found this to be terrible. I did not understand. I said, “How can this be? If something is sacred, let everyone hear it, from the saint to the sinner.” But later, I started discovering what it truly meant. What it meant was this: that deep, mystical, esoteric knowledge given to undeveloped minds can be misused. Specific knowledge can release within oneself a profound force, an intense power, and if you are not sufficiently evolved, you can destructively use the power. Hitler is an example. He was a brilliant man. He must have been clever enough to command what he had commanded and take over practically all of Europe until he lost the war. That power was misused – destructive power. That happens in all theologies; teachers must clarify truths as they were initially meant. THE GIFT OF FORGETFULNESS Deflating the ego means one has to work with one’s samskaras. But how can you work with your samskaras when you do not know them? Man is in certain circumstances now, and the present circumstances are only the total of all previous existences. Man does not know his samskaras and does not need to know them. What man needs to know is where he is today. He does not need to analyse all these various samskaras, impressions, and experiences he has gained over many lifetimes. So, what does one do? One does spiritual practices. The greatest gift given to mankind is the gift of being able to forget. If you have to remember all that has happened in this life or previous existences, your life would be very sorry. You might have been a murderer. You might have been a thief. You might have been a rapist. You might have been all kinds of things. The lessons that have brought you to this stage now are to become spiritual seekers in the path of the Lord. If you had to remember all those things, you would dwell on them all the time, and you would feel guilty: Oh, I was a murderer. I am unworthy to even feed on the crumbs under the table. THE PAST IS THE PAST So why can we not use that with our knowledge of ourselves today? The primary precept is to accept that I am worthy, not unworthy. We start from strength. If you say, I am sick, and I am sick, I am sick, you will become ill. If you say to yourself, I am strong, and I am strong, I am strong, you will become strong. However, this functions entirely on the mind level. But the functioning is necessary. The mind is essential, for it is not apart from the Spirit or this body apart from the Spirit. For example, suppose one starts with the affirmation that one is worthy, for there is nothing in this entire manifestation of the universe that is unworthy. In that case, Everything emanates from that Divine Force and anything emanating from something worthy has to be worthy. Let us get rid of this sickness that makes you sick: guilt. I did not treat my mother too well; I did not treat my father well, or they have not treated me well; I have done this to my boss; I have done that. That is the past! Seeing that you have realised, it is the past; the cure has begun. That is the proper diagnosis. The correct diagnosis is half the cure. THERE SHOULD BE A PROPER UNDERSTANDING These injunctions have to be correctly understood. It is not so easy. It could be words playing around in the mind saying, I am worthy, I am worthy, I am worthy. It could inflate the ego more. There should be a proper understanding that my worthiness is there in this vast scheme of things, and I am humble in the path of worthiness.
Connecting to the Kingdom Within: The Practical Benefits of Meditation
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THE MECHANISM OF MEDITATION Meditation is an art whereby you dive deep within yourself in a very systematic and scientific way. You lead the little conscious mind through all the layers of the subconscious mind and then still deeper to the Superconscious level of yourself. As far as our mind is concerned, we have these three factors: the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and the Superconscious Mind. The conscious mind is a fractional part of our mind. Even Einstein used about 8% of the totality of the mind. But man can use a more significant portion of their mind, for, in reality, only one mind is as vast as the universe. We can reach this vastness. Man has 12 billion cells in this little brain, which weighs about two and a half to three pounds, and we only use one-millionth of the 12 billion cells. This shows that we are not using our full capacity. Through meditation, we can explore the more significant part of our mind by putting more dormant cells into action. This action would naturally bring forth a more important and substantial part of yourself. Meditation takes you deep within yourself to the Kingdom of Heaven, within which is a reservoir of a vast amount of energy—an infinite amount of energy, but you have got to tap that energy. Using the tiny conscious mind, we go through the various layers of the subconscious mind. You would know more or less what the conscious mind is. The conscious mind functions from the brain’s left hemisphere, which is rational and analytical. But we forget the brain’s right hemisphere, which is intuitional, and that the intuitional part of the brain is connected more to the Spirit within you. When you meditate, you have greater synaptic control over your brain. The neurons you have would function more orderly and at a higher rate of vibration so that the conscious mind picks up from the intuitional level and every action you perform becomes the right action. Of course, the right action is proceeded by proper thought. THE CONSCIOUS MIND IS FOREVER IN CONFLICT All this tension is because your conscious mind is forever in conflict. There are conflicting ideas, and you do not know what to do. These ideas come, again, from the subconsciousness level, which is a storehouse of memories. If you believe in other lives, perhaps the subconscious mind contains all the impressions of what you have done since childhood or even before that. From this vast storehouse of memory, which is in the subconscious mind, these impressions get stimulated by the environment that you are in. By combining the environment and the subconscious mind, your conscious mind is set into action. But what is forgotten and not properly used is the Superconscious level of the mind, which knows of stillness. Scriptures would say, “Be still and know that I am God.” Every religion says that. Judaism also says, “Yahweh, I am, that I am.” They talk of the stillness. Through meditational practices, you are individually taught how to reach that superconscious level of yourself and find that stillness. And I always say if you spend half an hour in a perfume factory, you will come out smelling like perfume. These are ancient teachings that people have forgotten. We are just reviving these ancient teachings to bring them to their practical level. All world philosophies are useless if they are not brought into practice. Then they remain mental gymnastics; as I said, ancient teachings have been lost or watered down. All the ancient teachings have been watered down. Man’s goal and aim is to find his true nature, his true Self, which is still. Suppose you can experience that stillness through a systematic process of meditation. In that case, naturally, the tension and stress will go away because that stillness, that calmness, that peace that passes all understanding, is brought to its practical level in daily living. MEDITATION IS SOMETHING NATURAL I am not against medical doctors, but tranquillisers; that is what they give. Valiums and Librium and all these tranquillisers to make you calm and quiet. But it is so temporary, and it has many side effects. Suppose you, through a systematic meditation process, can experience that stillness. In that case, naturally, the tension and stress will go away because that stillness, that calmness, that peace that passes all understanding, is brought to its practical level in daily living. It takes about an hour a day. Half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening, you will gradually find that your quality of life improves by 23 hours apart from the one hour of meditation. You will find it improving – your sleep will improve – insomnia will disappear, and tensions will be released. You do not feel stressed. It is like the poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling, where the whole world can go haywire around you, and you still maintain the stillness, the equilibrium. The significant thing meditation does for you is make you quiet and in harmony with yourself. If you are in harmony with yourself, naturally, you will not be tense or stressed. It strengthens your nerves. You will not have nervous breakdowns. Your inherent right is that harmony is produced within you; you are born with that harmony. Everything within you functions harmoniously. Measure your heartbeat, for example. It has a definite rhythm of beating harmoniously. Bills of cells in this body are working in harmony to keep this body going. Only the mind produces this disharmony. It is straightforward to meditate. Meditation is, to a certain degree, a mental process whereby you become relaxed by activating it and using it systematically. You will find your metabolic rate dropping, the tension disappearing, and you can be so busy in your work-a-day life. You can work sixteen hours a day and yet not feel tired. You function relaxed, and by functioning calmly, you become more efficient. You can perform more work
The Paradox of Purpose: Embracing the Purposeless Purpose
IS THERE A PURPOSE, AS SOMETIMES LIFE SEEMS PURPOSELESS? From the narrowness of one’s mental analysis, everything in life seems purposeless. The idea of purposelessness is the very idea that has put man forth into a search for life. What is seemingly purposeless to me now, could it contain a purpose? If we believe in manifestation or creation, as all Theologies and Scriptures would say, then the Divinity that one knows about, experiences or even believes that he exists or that exists must be purposeless too. Could we ever tell ourselves that all creation and universe are without purpose? If everything is without purpose, what is necessary for the higher value of life? What is required for great personages like Jesus, Krishna, and Buddha to take birth on this earth to teach higher principles? What purpose is there? Why should all this be happening? Why should you be suffering? Why are you not integrated? What purpose is there? Is there something missing in our lives that we are searching for? Why are we here at this Course, for example? Because we are searching for something, we are searching for a purpose. That search might not be a conscious search. The mind is a funny animal. The mind can delude you to say that all this is purposeless. The mind will say that, but if we ask ourselves deep within ourselves, then we feel there is something, and we are trying to find what that something is. There again, the question arises, “Who am I?” Suppose your mind thinks everything is purposeless and that everything is floating around without aim, object, hazardously, or in chaos. In that case, we are wrong because the very scientists who would say that, in the next breath, also tell us that everything exists in accurate precision. The usual analogy of the flower growing: the sun is there, the air is there, minerals in the ground are there, the fertiliser is there, yet there is some coordinating factor that brings all these various things to the seed in its proper proportion to make this flower grow. What is that force that coordinates? The purpose of life is to find the essence and the meaning of that force. To find the meaning and the nature of that force, we also need to know what the essence is in us, and when we see the essence in us, we also know the essence in others. IF WE REGARD IT ALL AS A MANIFESTATION, THERE IS A PURPOSE The theory about the black hole is beautiful, but do you know that many more holes existed before the present black hole of the cycle? The universe is an eternal thing because all matter is infinite, too, and it goes through this process of flux. People of Theology will say that all this creation is an expression of God. Who requires expression? God does not require expression. Anything involving expression is imperfect, and if Divinity is considered perfect, why should it express itself? An artist paints a picture to find perfection in his expression. A composer composes to see perfection as an expression in its composition. So, you require expression; you must be imperfect and lead yourself to perfection. That is where certain forms of theology do not convince scientists. But if we should regard it all as a manifestation and not a creation, it is a different angle from how we would look at things. The angle would be such that there is a purpose even in purposelessness. There is a purpose if we view things in the sense of manifestation. Then, we could use the analogy that the fire does not create heat, but it is the nature of the fire to give off heat. MAKING YOUR OWN LIFE SMOOTHER, IS THAT NOT A PURPOSE? My friend has said God is good, yet he finds evil in that goodness. What has seen evil, God or you? Is evil not a conception of your mind, or is evil the conception of God’s mind? Good or evil are two ends of the stick we have spoken about, the ends of polarity, for there is no evil in existence to the person who has transcended the pairs of opposites. So, when we speak from a very, very limited point of view, if we talk from the finite mind, which is incapable of appreciating the infinite, then that finite, limited view will see separations, will see divisions, will see good and will see evil. Evil and sound are a conditioning of the mind. Because of the collective conditioning of individual minds, a whole social thing is built up whereby society determines what is good and what is evil. That is the creation of man’s mind. Divinity is so above it that it is not concerned with your little goodness and evils. But when you are in the relative aspect of life, and you can weigh, you can discriminate what is harmful and not dangerous, and then you try to proceed to that which is harmless and not toxic, thereby making your own life smoother. To make your own life smoother and to make your own life integrated, is that not a purpose? I ask you, “Is that not a purpose”? How can we ever say that life is purposeless? THE RELATIVE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS TO FIND HAPPINESS The relative purpose of life is to find happiness. It is a straightforward word but the most difficult thing to attain if we keep thinking everything is purposeless. If the ultimate is purposeless, then the relative must be more purposeless. You have to admit that. If we are trying to find purpose in this life, the purpose constitutes a totality within ourselves where we can function as a total being and not as a fragmented person torn apart. If the purpose of this life is to bring together ourselves, our minds, our hearts, our souls, our spirits, or whatever you want to call it,