BURN THE SEEDS OF KARMA
Why do we find a situation painful or hurtful? We dive into the mind and go through the cubbyholes in the subconscious mind to find another experience. That, in turn, finds some other experience and another experience, which all combine there. And then, you compare this experience with those previous experiences, and then the subconscious mind translates itself into the conscious mind and says, “This is pain,” or “This is ugly.”
Ugliness does not come from the object. It comes from the impressions or samskaras already in the subconscious mind, and we need to rid ourselves of them.
The only way to get rid of this is through meditation, where we burn the seeds of karma so they do not grow. We use the Universal Force that gets rid of all the karma. Then you go beyond this minimal relative law that whatever you have sown shall reap. It is very true but in a minimal form.
Man has the ability, and this is the message for this century and the next six centuries to come: do not feel guilty about the things you have done or the things you have caused to have been done, for you can go beyond it all. It can all be discarded like a dirty garment. It can all be washed away under the shower of that Light deep down within us, and we have to interpret it in life’s daily actions.
We must never say, “Oh, my baby is crying, so I cannot sit down to meditate. I have to look after the baby.” True, you must look after the baby. But let the baby’s cry become a meditation to you instead of disturbing you. You comfort the child with love, and is it a meditation, not something that generates that love? You have been allowed there to generate love.
Vivekananda tells a nice story. He says you sit down to meditate, and the doorbell rings. You get up from your meditation, answer the door and do whatever is required, come back and sit down again to meditate. But remember one thing: regard yourself getting up, answering the door, and coming back to be a part of your meditation.
LIFE CAN NEVER BE SEPARATED FROM SPIRITUALITY
Life can never be separated from spirituality because, to repeat, again and again, it was never separate. The separation we find between life and God is just a creation of our mind, like a projection on a cinema screen, a movie screen, which is not real. Here on the screen, you will have thousands of people killed in a war. Yet there is no reality, but it seems so real.
Many times, people go to the cinema, see a sad scene, and start crying. Handkerchiefs come out, and yet they know that it is not real; it is just a picture being projected, but it is done because you get involved in it. It affects your emotions, your feelings, it triggers off something in your mind, something that has happened to you, although you are not conscious of it. Below the conscious level, in the subconscious mind, it triggers some happening, and then tears come rolling down from your eyes. But what would happen if you never had such an impression in your mind? Then you will not cry, for you still know this is just a picture there.
What do we have to do to alleviate and rub away these things, these impressions, is to draw out that potent Light, that beam that will banish the darkness? The little flame, the ego-self, has no force or power compared to the bright sun. You do not even notice the flame. You can only notice the little flame in a dark room. But if you put the candle outside in the sun, you do not even see the flame. Bathe in the sun. Even if you get sunburned, the guru is there. He will advise you of some sunburn lotion, and it is in that heat that one finds total purity, something already there, but the effort lies in cognizing, realizing that purity is inherent within you all the time.
ACCEPT THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE
Accept all the circumstances of life. Many people have a false notion that I will become better if I do not accept them. But it does not work that way—it is a false notion. You cannot ignore them. To ignore something is ignorance, but accept it, accept the circumstance, and do something about it.
We bring down all these complexities of philosophy and metaphysics into practical daily living. If your action is performed unselfishly, then you are a karma yogi. When you perform this action unselfishly, there will naturally be devotion to those actions, and you will automatically become a bhakti yogi. When you combine bhakti and karma, some understanding will naturally dawn within you, and you are a jnana yogi. You can see how all these different yogas combine. They interpenetrate with each other, which leads you on and spurs you on to do spiritual practices, such as raja yoga. All this is combined with the slightest thing.
We had a little girl at home, and I was passing her one day. Here in the West, it is tough to find servants and costly; very few people can afford it. But in African countries, you can hire a servant for about twenty to twenty-five dollars monthly. Here, you go out for dinner for two people and will spend twenty-five dollars. We have this little maid, Lena, and she has been with us for eighteen years. She is a little thing. She looks like a little monkey, but the love she has. I call her Hanuman because her service is so excellent. I am sure Hanuman never served Rama as well as she serves us. And Lata, my wife, cooks for five people, so what is it to fit in an extra person? It does not cost you extra, things like that.
See how simple life could be and how beautiful life could be. We do not need to go into deep philosophies, for life, love, and Divinity are all but one. But I know people’s sufferings, and we have so much compassion for them, yet I know they need it very much. Yet, I know they will not overcome the hurdles without going through them. The pot can only be cleaned by thoroughly scraping it with steel wool or whatever the housewife calls it. It is needed. But if the realization is there that although it is required, it will clean the grease off the pot so that the next meal I cook in this same pot will not have the smell or the taste of the previous meal. So, so simple.
Yet, I, that could see the suffering, can only feel compassion, and at the same time, I think, “It serves you damn well, right.” It is not because of any unkindness that I say. It is because of extreme kindness. When you have compassion and extend that love to the person, the inner force is so powerful that the suffering of that person lessens, or else you pay for it with an instalment plan and not cash on the spot. Those are the ways gurus work, which is one reason why it is good to be associated with a guru. Books can give you a lot of knowledge, but books can never impart a spiritual force to alleviate, help, guide, or make suffering easier.
GOD IS EXISTENCE
That is the way to know the here and the now, the meaning of existence, and the purpose of existence. For existence can only have one purpose. Here is something new I am going to tell you. The purpose of existence is to exist. That is the purpose. The purpose of existence is not to find God; He is already there. He has always been there in your life. When you see the purpose of existence is to exist and know the meaning of existence, you know God because God is existence.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1983 – 10
