THE PURPOSE OF LIFE What is the purpose of life? To answer this question, it would imply another question within the question that life could be purposeless. Yet, we try to find purpose in purposelessness. The nothingness of life becomes something. Who makes life into something? We do, with mental meanderings that add importance to living, life, and existence. There lies the purpose of purposelessness. Without purpose, you cannot exist, yet existence by itself, on its being, does not have any pretence for any purpose.Purpose is added to everything we do by ourselves, and then we get messed up by trying to find too much purpose in it. Our little thoughts and thoughts make a purpose out of nothing. According to one’s imaginings or imagination, the most significant purpose is to reach the goal. But then also consider one thing: where is there that one has to go? Because you have reached there – you are there – you are the totality of all existence. If you would say, “I have to realise that I am all existence,” then purpose disappears. Then there is no purpose to life because you are it all. But when you find the shortcoming within yourself to say, “I have a goal to reach,” you indulge in the factor of purpose, which is factoring purposelessness into purpose. So, we are chasing rainbows, are we not? And yet the rainbow is so beautiful, with all its seven colours that begin nowhere and end nowhere. However, seemingly or within your thoughts, you think there is a golden pot there, where there is no golden pot at all, for the rainbow is only seen through the prism of your mind, for it does not exist. So, those who think that life is purposeful are chasing rainbows. Yet, behind it all, there is that white light, and through the prism of that light, we see all the varied colours of which life is constituted. Where do we go? From purposelessness to purposefulness and then back again to purposelessness. That is the cycle. Yet, I do not think I could exist if I could not hold Sujay in my arms, mother, or my beloveds here. To keep them so close to my bosom and make them feel the beat which is beating within me, and at the same time merge in the beating of their hearts so there is that beautiful unity in which I would flow and flow and flow and express that divine love. As some of you would express your entirety when cooking a dish to feed yourself and your guru, who are you feeding? You are feeding divinity. You are feeding no one else, no one else. So, you are the one that is the sustenance of the embodiment of divinity. Though Lord, the sustainer may Thou be, but remember this, that I sustain Thee. So, where is the problem of the sustainer and sustenance? And then you melt away in that beauty, float away, and do not care where you are. For the entirety of all the oceans and the vast blue sky, the swaying grass, the trees, and the flowers are all sustaining you. Look at those trees out there. They absorb all the carbon dioxide and all the poisons you breathe out. In that breathing, it is sacrificing themselves by taking in the carbons and exuding from themselves the oxygen that makes you live. Where is the difference? There is no difference in anything. There is always a dependency from one to the other. Everything that seemingly has no meaning becomes meaningful to us because we are mixed up in meaninglessness and, at the same time, meaningfulness. EVERYTHING IS CONSCIOUS Where is your attention? You have these do-gooders. What are they doing? Ego feeding. The true doer of good does not make himself apparent at all. He does what is to be done even without being conscious of what he is doing. From the vast Jungian collective unconsciousness, we find conscious existence. Yet, Jung, I wish I could have him here now; he talks a lot about bulls. When everything is conscious, where is the place for collective unconsciousness? For we could never exist, the entire universe could never exist, without consciousness, because the very existence of oneself, or all around you, is composed of nothing else but consciousness. Everything is conscious. When I tell you this, would you believe that even this arm that rests here on this chair is listening to me? It has consciousness. Perhaps it might not be able to imbibe the wine of my song as you would, for even with my words, I will make you drunk—drunk, intoxicated, in the glory of that which is existence itself. But you live only in the reflection of actual existence. You are only a reflection of that which Is. You are looking in the mirror, and do you know why you think things are wrong? Because of the mirror image, your right side seems to be the left side in the mirror, and your left side seems to be the right. Yet I have seen mirrors that make you seem topsy turvy. These are mirrors you must install in your hearts and realise that you are damn topsy-turvy. To stand up straight, that is all. To know the beauty of the little child’s voice there. How beautiful. What a symphony it is. To merge away in the gurgle of the mother’s breast or in the babe’s cry. The child does not cry because it is unhappy. The child cries because it is happy and recognises the happiness within. Yet it has to cry that I have been brought into so-called unhappiness. Look at the conflict within the boundaries of its particular form of consciousness, limited though it be. Yet, that baby is more conscious of divinity than what you are. Because there is that innocence, there is that purity, and forever I would pray, “Lord, regress me back to
From Devotion to Unity: The Path of Bhakti in Christianity
CHRISTIANITY IS PRIMARILY BASED ON BHAKTI-YOGA Christianity is primarily based on bhakti-yoga—bhakti yoga meaning devotion. When any theology is based on devotion, there must always be the “I” and “Thou” aspects. This “I and Thou” aspect is essential for the wayfarer. The person on the path has to have a goal, and what greater goal could there be than to discover the glory of the Lord? Bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, and all these are combined in Christianity, but because of specific times and for certain people, certain paths were more emphasised. Bhakti yoga is essential for a person to be in tune, for bhakti is nothing but devotion. One can never be devoted to something abstract. Therefore, we symbolise that abstraction or the abstract idea in the concrete form of Jesus, so there is someone that one could be devoted to or even worship. This is a critical path for most people, so what are the mechanics? That is what we have to discover. The mechanics would be simple: strictly observe certain precepts, injunctions, and laws laid down to help us on the path. These precepts cannot be determined generally, but they must be resolved individually, which is how they apply to every individual on the path. If you were driving to Los Angeles, you know that you have to reach Los Angeles, and having the goal in mind, you would know what road to take, and the road you take would be the one most convenient to you. If you live in downtown Los Angeles, perhaps another road would be good for you. If you live in Van Nuys, there may be a shorter road to it. RITUALS PREPARE YOUR MIND Bhakti, or bhakti-yoga, is essentially Christianity. It shows you all these paths of devotion and worship. There are also many ritualisms, and the person who has passed the necessity, who does not need ritual, can still be involved in that devotion. Ritual plays its part, and the role it plays is that it prepares your mind and brings you into a certain mood. You will also find it in Hinduism and Buddhism; as you get up in the morning, you have your bath, which is a preparation for worshipping. Bodily cleanliness is essential because you will sit down to worship and do your prayers. While you are having the bath, cleansing the body, your mind is also filled with the teachings of That, the “Thou” of God – so, it becomes a certain kind of conditioning. With the Hindus, for example, the lamp has to be put in a particular place, and it has to be cleaned and polished personally. While doing all that, your mind slowly leads to higher and better thoughts, and then you put your flowers down with that devotion. With this build-up that is taking place in you, you are tuning yourself; you are preparing your mind. Your mind is going into a devotional mood, whereby prayer becomes more effective when you pray. We find this in Hinduism, the Catholic faith, and practically all other branches of the Christian religion. With this, one always has God’s glory and majesty in mind. You go to one city, and you do not like the city. Why? If you are at a certain stage of evolution and go to a particular town which is, perhaps, incompatible with your vibrations, then you would not like it. It is not because of the buildings, gardens, scenery, or whatever. It is because of the emanations that are there. Because of all the people involved, there might be a lot of permissiveness. Then all of these vibrations are totalled up into a collective consciousness, which, being incompatible with you, you want to get away. That is why many people like to get away from the cities and go into the country, where there are natural vibrations that are not interfered with by too many people’s thoughts and too many people’s vibrations. That is why you want to get away from the country. That is the real reason, the underlying reason. It is not running away from the job or the home. But inwardly, subconsciously, you want to get away to something purer. AVATARAS – INCARNATIONS OF GOD Man creates the personal God, but the impersonal God manifests the personal God. It is essential to understand this concept. Man creates the personal God and gives him all the glory, majesty, and compassion. That is why he finds it very hard when the great personage descends to Earth. That is also what we know as the suffering of Christ. Here, in that freedom, enjoying the totality of the vibratory value of the entire universe, he has to condense all those energies into a little frame. Going from that vastness, like a vast funnel, like an ice cream cone, this vastness, to that little outlet down here, which is the body. Those in Sanskrit are called the Avataras or the incarnations of God. This is true and possible. Yet, having come down in this little frame, he is subjected to the laws of opposites that govern this particular world and is involved in all these various laws. He has to, otherwise, he cannot function as a normal human being, and they show their normality, their ordinariness in so many, many different ways. People do not understand what is meant: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. No. They do not believe in that. Jesus tells the prostitute, “I forgive you, my daughter – but sin no more. Be on your way.” He wines and dines with the Pharisees, the moneylenders because he knows this world will always have that. Only a certain percentage could be brought to a deeper understanding of the glorious life to preserve the balance. There has to be that balance, or the see-saw will rock up and down and up and down and up and down. A certain equilibrium has to be maintained, and there comes
The School of Life: Life as a Journey of Uncovering the Divine
Awareness, Buddha, Christ, Compassion, Conscious Mind, Consciousness, Divine, Divinity, Ego, Force, Heart, I and my Father are one, Impressions, Integration, Karma, Kindness, Krishna, Laws, Light, Love, Meditation, Mental Patternings, Mind, Purity, Relative World, Samskaras, Self, Self Discovery, Separation, Soul, Spirit, Spiritual, Spiritual Force, Spiritual Practices, Superconscious, Unity, Universe
People ask, “Who are we, where did we come from, and why are we here?” Instead, say, “Who am I, where did I come from, and why am I here”? You have come from nowhere, and you are going nowhere. You are the universe itself, and to where can this vast universe go? You are like a bubble in a pond, and the bubble bursts. You are still in the pond. Nothing has been detracted. Not a single ounce of energy can be detracted from this universe, and not a single ounce can be added to it.
The Glory of God: The Path to the Impersonal Glory of the Divine
The glory and majesty of God start with a mental concept. Because you do not have known God, you idealize Him to be something super, beyond man. You are then worshipping an ideal. This is good. At least you have something to clutch. You are climbing the stairs and have the rail to hold onto lest you slip. Having the various ideas of God, He is all-powerful, all-merciful, all-compassionate, and has all the greatest virtues and the most significant things a man could ever think about.
Having an Open Mind: Embracing the Wholeness of Truth Across All Paths
An intellectually inclined person, at first, would start by studying various systems and forms of meditation and multiple philosophies. If you study Ramakrishna’s life, you will find that there was a period when he went through life as a Mohammedan. There was a period when he went through life as a Christian and a period when he went through life as a Vedantist. He experienced and lived all these various forms of religious concepts and ideals. Then he concluded that all religions are like rivers coming from different directions, ultimately becoming one in the same ocean. That was the discovery of Ramakrishna, and that discovery holds – it had held accurate ages past, and it is still valid.
On the Other Side: The Immortal Soul’s Journey Beyond Life
Many people do grieve because of the loss of a companion. Many do grieve because of the loss of a child, which they regarded to be their possession. There are many causes of grief. There is one sect in India that has a party when someone passes away; from this misery, this person is going into another plane where there is less misery. That is what they believe. When a child is born, then they grieve that this soul has now come into the realms of worldly misery. That is, of course, their belief.
Beyond Attraction and Repulsion: The Essence of True Relationships
There would have to be relationships, but what do we mean by relationships and by what means are the relationships formed? Are they formed by an attraction or by repulsion? You can have a relationship with someone and be repulsed by that person. Yet the very thought of that person in repulsiveness is a relationship because that person is in your mind. You are related to the person in thought, and then, of course, attraction does apply a certain amount of respect, love, or admiration that would form attraction.
From Devotion to Divine Surrender: The Path of Spiritual Union
Devotion starts with the affection that two people develop with each other. From affection, there is an excellent conjugation of mind, and then that affection increases. From the mind, it goes to the body level, where specific compatibilities are pleasing to two people. When the mind and the body cooperate, we feel we are devoted to each other. But that is not true; it is a mental concept. Your thoughts agree with mine, and your bodies find physical compatibility with the minds, which we call devotion.
Awakening to Oneness: The Journey to Self-Realization and Divine Union
Awareness, Bliss, Buddha, Chela, Christ, Consciousness, Devotion, Divine, Divinity, Ego, Eternity, Faith, Force, God, Heart, Humility, I am That I am, Incarnation, Integration, Joy, Karma, Kindness, Krishna, Love, Mind, Omnipresent, Purity, Samskaras, Self, Self Discovery, Self-Realization, Spirit, Spiritual Practices, The Absolute, Tranquillity, Universe, Wisdom
What can I give you for all your love, devotion and kindness? I could only impart to you the part of the Universe that flows forever and impart it to you through touch. That is all. It is to make you realise that you and the Universe are not apart and that the whole force of the Universe is in you in some dormant state. In others, in an awakened state.
Which Path to Freedom? Choosing the Path of True Progress
Even in matter, a solid piece of stone, a subtle self is contained in a rock. Geologists have found various layers, and through the multiple layers, it has been seen how long that stone or that rock has existed. However, it has not yet been able to measure the subtle qualities of the rock, which could linger even after the rock is broken up into pieces. Even after it is powered up, there is some essence that composes the rock’s subtle self. The grosser form of the rock, the mineral, also disintegrates and returns to its various elements. But the subtleness of that rock carries forward.