There is only one royal road on the spiritual journey - the path of love,
love for all beings as manifestations of the same Divinity that is the
very core of oneself. This faith alone can ensure the constant presence of
God with you, and endow you with all the joy and courage you need to
fulfill the pilgrimage to God. Fill the reservoir with water; then, when
you turn the taps on, the vessels will be full. Cultivate love and
devotion; then all your activities will be saturated with compassion and
charity; they will yield the golden harvest of joy and peace. The water
must be pure; the love must be unselfish and universal.
August 2, 2005
Know that seva (service) is a better form of sadhana (spiritual exercise)
than even dhyana (meditation); how can God appreciate the dhyana you do,
when you do not make any efforts to alleviate the suffering of your
neighbour? Do not keep yourself aloof, intent on your own salvation. Move
among your brothers and sisters, looking for opportunities to help them,
while at the same time, having the Name of God on the tongue and the Form
of God before your mind's eye. That is the highest sadhana. 'Dil me Raam,
Hath me Kaam!' (Install God in your heart and go about attending to your
tasks at hand). Proceed in that spirit, God's Grace will be showered on
you in full measure.
August 3, 2005
God is not involved in handing out either rewards or punishments. He only
reflects, resounds and reacts. He is the Eternal Unaffected Witness! It is
you who make your destiny. Do good, be good, and you will get good in
return; perform bad deeds, and you reap only bad consequences. Do not
praise or blame God for your fate! God does not even will that creation,
protection and destruction take place. They follow in their own natural
course, according to the innate laws of the universe.
August 4, 2005
Conserve sound, since it is the treasure of the element Akasha (space), an
emanation from God Himself. Reason can prevail only when arguments are
advanced without the raising of voices. Silence is the speech of the
spiritual seeker. Soft, sweet speech is the expression of genuine love.
Hate screeches, fear squeals, conceit trumpets. But, love sings lullabies,
it soothes and calms. Practise the vocabulary of love and unlearn the
language of hate and contempt.
August 5, 2005
From the standpoint of wisdom, maya (the illusion of the world) is unreal;
in the vision of the enlightened saint, maya is absent. This is indeed an
intriguing phenomenon. To the jnani (realized soul), who has crossed the
shores of ephemeral existence, it is non-existent; to those relying on
reason, it is inexplicable; to the ordinary man, it is a fact. The shadow
you cast is reduced bit by bit with every step that you take towards the
sun, until the sun shines right on the top of you and the shadow crawls
under your feet and disappears. Similarly, maya becomes less and less
effective as you march towards jnana (realization). When you are firmly
established in wisdom, maya falls at your feet and becomes powerless to
deceive you further and disappears.
August 6, 2005
Man has not come into this world merely to strut about for a while,
consuming food and gaily gallivanting. He has come so that he may bask in
the Presence of God, by cultivating love in the heart and spreading that
love. The earth is a great enterprise, a busy factory, where the product
is love. By means of Sadhana (spiritual practice), it is possible to
produce love and export it to millions and millions of people who are in
need of it. The more it is shared, the deeper it becomes, the sweeter its
taste, and the greater the joy. By means of love, one can approach God and
stay in His presence, for God is love, and when one lives in love, one
lives in God.
August 7, 2005
We have in the atmosphere around us, the music emanating from all the
broadcasting stations of the world, but they do not assail your ears at
all times. Only if you have a receiver and you tune it to the correct
wavelength do you hear the broadcast from a particular station; if you
fail to tune it correctly, you will get, instead of news, only nuisance!
So too, the Divine is everywhere - above, around, below, beside, near as
well as far. For cognising it, you require not a yanthra (machine) but a
manthra (mystical formula). Dhyana (meditation) is the fixing of the exact
location of the station in the band, love is the correct tuning in,
realizing the reality and the bliss it confers is the happy clear
listening!
August 8, 2005
Work in the spirit of love; it leads you on to Worship. Work without any
thought of the benefit you derive from it; work, since it is your duty;
work, since that is the way you can offer God your gratitude for the
skills He has endowed you with. This kind of attitude towards work leads
to wisdom, the recognition of the immanence of the Divine in every being.
August 9, 2005
When one proceeds to attain the Atmic vision (vision of the Self), one has
to negate everything one perceives as being Non-Self, until at the end of
the journey, the Atma alone is cognised. The Atma admits of no definition,
no description, no designation. It is the end of enquiry, the culmination
of all endeavour, the silence that swallows all speech. The primary seed
of knowledge is "I am not the body". It contains three entities: I, Body
and Not. I is the Atma, the only truth. The idea 'I' applies only to the
eternal 'I', over which, the transient 'I' is superimposed by ignorance
born out of false identification with the body.
August 10, 2005
This birth has been undertaken by you for the mission of crucifying the
ego on the cross of compassion. An opportunity to be of some service to
fellowmen comes to you as a gift from God. Serve with a sense of
gratitude, for it is God who accepts it from you. Prepare yourselves for
serving others, not only by learning the necessary skills but also through
japa (repeating God's Name)and dhyana (Meditation) filling yourselves with
God, lest your heart becomes dry and cruel.
August 11, 2005
The mind of man is not an organ that can be identified physiologically; it
cannot be touched or operated on by doctors or surgeons. It is an
intangible bundle of resolutions and hesitations, wishes and wants, pros
and cons. It easily rushes out after external pleasures and assumes the
shapes of the things it seeks. It can also be turned back into searching
for inner contentment and inner joy. That is why the mind is said to be
the instrument for both bondage and liberation. Allow the senses to lead
it outward, it binds. Allow the intelligence to prevail upon it to look
inward for bliss, it liberates.
August 12, 2005
When love is directed towards objects that cater to the senses, it will
dry up when they fail to give the happiness you seek. When profit is
loved, loss will undermine it. Discontent will sap its springs, when you
love with the motive of worldly contentment. Even when ten million
disappointments combine to distress you, never give up love; fix it on the
source of love, the spring of love, the Supreme Goal of love, namely, God.
Whatever the obstacles, however much you are tempted to loosen the grip,
hold on to God; there is always a calm after the storm. A bout of hot
weather invariably brings welcome showers. Love saturates all activities
with joy and peace. Love ennobles the least and the lowest. Love your self
for the God that it embodies; love others for the God that is enshrined in
them, that speaks and acts through them.
August 13, 2005
Grief is caused, as joy is caused, by the attachment of the senses to
objects; once you know that you are not the senses or the mind, but He who
operates the senses and wields the mind, you cross the bounds of pleasure
and pain. Separate yourself from the grief and you will find yourself the
Emperor of your Realm. The senses and the mind, with all the attendant
impulses, desires and attitudes become your servants, instruments that
carry out your bidding.
August 14, 2005
Love is the word which indicates the striving to realize the falsehood of
diversity and the reality of the One. Love identifies; hate separates.
Love transposes the Self on to another and the two think, speak and act as
one. When love takes in more and more within its fold, more and more
entities are rendered as One. When you love Me, you love all, for, you
begin to feel and know and experience that I am in all. By means of dhyana
(meditation), you can realize that I am the resident in all hearts, the
urge, the motive, the guide, the goal. Yearn for that vision, that
awareness and make it your priceless possession. Then, you have what you
often ask Me for - sakshathkara (Direct Vision of Reality). Your love has
to be as pure and as free from the taint of ego as mine so that it can
merge in Me.
August 15, 2005
The sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) must have as his objective the state of
mental preparation for the realization of Godhead. That is to say, his
heart must be cleansed of despair, free from hesitation and doubt, and
open to the waves of bliss that surge in from all sides, in God's
Universe. Love brings the waves in, ever expansive as they are! Follow the
scriptural directives with faith and sincerity. That will help you to
realize the purpose of life. Since every action has its appropriate
reaction, beware of evil intentions, wicked words, and acts that harm
others and therefore harm you. Lead your life revering everyone around you
as moving temples of the Divine.
August 16, 2005
Today, we have so many fields of knowledge in the world. However, all
these categories of knowledge do not constitute what is regarded as Jnana
(spiritual wisdom) in Vedantic parlance. Atma Jnana alone is true
knowledge. Ordinary knowledge constitutes knowledge of material objects
acquired through sensory inputs and by investigation. But none of these
can be Atma Jnana (knowledge of the Self). In the highest sense, Atma (the
Spirit) and Jnana (Knowledge) are not different; they are one and the
same. That is why the Upanishads declare: "Sathyam, Jnanam, Anantham
Brahma" (Brahman is Truth, Wisdom and Infinitude); they are all different
names for the same Paramatma (God).
August 17, 2005
Education is not for mere living; it is for leading a life that is more
meaningful and worthwhile. There is no harm if it is also used for seeking
a gainful employment; but, the educated must be aware that it is not the
be all and end all of education. Again, education is not for developing
the faculty of argument, criticism, or exhibiting your mastery over
language or logic. That study is the best which teaches you to conquer
this cycle of birth and death, which gives you the mental equipoise that
is not affected by the prospect of death, or the blessings or blows of
fate.
August 18, 2005
The divine power has no specific form like that of an object or a being,
but it pervades the entire creation. Out of the divine power originated
all other powers with various names and forms. There is only one power and
that is the Atma. The same Atma exists in the accuser and the accused, the
worshipper and the worshipped. The person who realizes this principle of
oneness will never give room to anger or jealousy. There is diversity at
the level of the body and the mind, but the Atma is the same in all.
August 19, 2005
As soon as you rise from bed in the morning, examine for a few moments
your thoughts, plans, habits and attitudes to others, which are about to
pounce on you and decide the shape of things to come during the day.
Identify in the motley crowd of these thoughts, the vicious, the wicked,
the evil, the harmful, the ones that are born in anger, that breed on
greed, and assert that you are not willing to be led by them. Throw your
inclination on the side of the good, the constructive, to renounce, and
rise up a purer, stronger and happier man than you were when you went to
bed. That is the real sadhana (spiritual exercise).
August 20, 2005
Add two spoons of water to two glasses of milk; the water is also
appreciated as milk! So too, let your tiny drops of love for things
material merge with the stream of love for God and be elevated. At present
your sadhana can be described only as adding two glasses of water to two
spoons of milk! Have the love of God filling and thrilling your hearts;
then you cannot hate anyone, you cannot indulge in unhealthy rivalry, you
will not find fault with anyone. Life becomes sweet and smooth.
August 21, 2005
God is described as 'Sath-Chith-Ananda'. 'Sath' is being. 'Chith' is
awareness. When 'Sath' and 'Chith' come together, there is Ananda (divine
bliss). 'Sath' may be compared to sugar, 'Chith' may be compared to water.
When the two are brought together you have a syrup, an enjoyable sweet
drink. Likewise, only when 'Sath' and 'Chith' come together, Ananda is
experienced.
August 22, 2005
Often, people are carried away by what they imagine are their spiritual
experiences in their Sadhana (spiritual exercise). All these exercises are
designed purely to provide some sort of mental satisfaction and nothing
more. Ultimately, neither Sadhana (spiritual endeavour) nor Sadhyam (the
goal) exist independently and apart from each other. Sadhana and Sadhyam
are one and the same. It is a trick of the mind to make Sadhana as the
means to Sadhyam. True Sadhana consists in giving up the Anaatma Bhava
(the idea that one is not the Spirit but the physical body). To turn the
vision from the physical to the spiritual constitutes real Sadhana.
August 23, 2005
If we want Ananda (bliss), we must work along the spiritual path, so that
the illusion of diversity is removed. When the mind is yoked to the Self,
the Rajas (qualities associated with passion) and Thamas (qualities
associated with inertia) are rendered ineffective and purified. Contact
with the Self makes the ego merge into the Self. A harmonized mind sees
the Self everywhere.
August 24, 2005
Today, people mistakenly think that spirituality has no relation to
worldly life and vice versa. True divinity is a combination of
spirituality and social obligations. National unity and social harmony are
founded upon spirituality. It is the Divine that links spirituality and
social existence. The Creator and the Prakriti (Cosmos) are inextricably
associated with each other. Hence, God should not be regarded as separate
from creation. See God in the cosmos. For instance, here is a tumbler made
of silver. The one who notices the silver in the tumbler, thinks only of
the material base and not the form of the tumbler. The one who sees it as
a tumbler, does not note its silver base. Only the person who can
recognise both silver and tumbler can recognise that it is a silver
tumbler. Likewise, without God, there is no creation. However, most people
see only the creation; very few recognise that the creation is a
projection of the Creator. It is essential that every human being should
have the realization that without the Brahman (Supreme) there can be no
cosmos.
August 25, 2005
What is Jnana or wisdom? It is to know your own true self, that is, self
knowledge. Self knowledge is Self realization. Jnana calls for the control
of thoughts by appropriate efforts. Constant contemplation on the Self is
the means of experiencing the direct vision of God, and Bhakthi (devotion)
is the means to achieve it. Whether one takes to the Jnana-Marga (the path
of wisdom) or the Bhakti Marga (the path of Devotion), the goal is the
same, illumination.
August 26, 2005
Try to get into the company of devoted and God-fearing persons. When dust
joins the company of air, it rises up into the sky; when it joins the
company of water, it sinks into the depths of the earth. Your future is
shaped by the company you keep. So, choose your friends carefully and do
not develop too strong an attachment to anyone. Be friendly with all, but
do not allow that friendship to grow into bondage.
August 27, 2005
Dhyana does not connote merely the act of sitting erect, motionless and
maintaining silence. It means merging of all thoughts and feelings in God.
Unless the mind dissolves itself completely in God, one cannot attain the
fruit of Dhyana. Lord Krishna, in the Bhagavad Githa, declares the ideal
Dhyana and its fruit to be "Ananyaaschinthayanthomaam Ye janah
paryupaasathe. Theshaam nithyaabhiyukthanaam Yogakshemam vahaamyaham",
meaning, "For those persons who adore Me without any other thought or
feeling, I will myself carry their burden, remain by their side always
guiding and guarding them".
August 28, 2005
Prema (Pure love) is like a precious diamond. Love is unattainable to
persons who are egoistic, selfish, conceited or ostentatious. It can be
obtained only through a loving heart. One may ask, "Is not the whole world
permeated with Love? Why, then, is not Love patent?" The love which is
associated with the world cannot be considered to real love. Prema cannot
be associated with the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect.
Anything associated with these is only Anuraaga (attachment). The Atmic
(spiritual) life alone is a life filled with love. A life related to the
body, the senses the mind and the intellect can never be free from
selfishness, conceit and ostentation.
August 29, 2005
Without courage, firm conviction and strong determination, no purpose is
served by routine Sadhana (spiritual exercises) undertaken mechanically.
On the contrary, a person who never swerves from his determination even
under trying circumstances, is called a Dheera (hero) and such a person
wins the grace of the Lord. We should try to seek fulfillment in our daily
life by anchoring our mundane activities in spiritual values. One must
follow the dictum, "Hands in the society and head in the forest". That is
to say, whatever be the activities you are preoccupied with in society,
you must be steadfast in holding on to the spiritual ideals. This is the
true sadhana, which will bestow lasting peace on you. Remember that you
are the changeless Atma (spirit). All your sadhana should be directed
towards establishing yourself in this firm conviction and unwavering
faith, culminating in your life's fulfillment.
August 30, 2005
Vedanta (Vedic philosophy) has revealed many a profound truth. For
instance, it declares God to be "Acharam charameva cha" (the One who is
stationary and also moves). There is an apparent contradiction in this
statement, for how can anybody be moving and stationary at the same time?
The Vedanta has given a beautiful explanation for this. In the dream
state, we experience ourselves engaged in all kinds of physical
activities. But the body that is seen in the dream as moving, is in fact,
lying motionless on the bed. The physical body is motionless, while the
body in the dream is seen to be moving. Both the bodies are one and the
same; in one state of consciousness, it is still and in another it is
moving. Vedanta declares that in the physical state, there is movement,
but in the state of Brahman (spiritual realm of the Divine), there is only
steadiness. Indeed, the purpose of Dhyana (meditation) is to achieve this
supreme state of steadiness and equipoise.
August 31, 2005
What is spirituality? It is the resolute pursuit of cosmic consciousness.
Spirituality aims at enabling man to manifest, in all its fullness, the
cosmic consciousness that is present within and outside him. It means
getting rid of the animal nature in man and developing the divine
tendencies in him. It means breaking down the barriers between God and
Nature, and establishing their essential oneness. Goodness is a synonym
for God. To realize such a state of divine consciousness, devotion is
essential. Devotion aims at awakening consciousness of the Ishwara
(Divine) in man. All activity aimed at turning the mind towards God is a
form of devotion. To envisage and experience the Divine Sath-Chith-Ananda
(Being-awareness-bliss) within oneself is the true mark of devotion.