Do you need protection?

 

Only that which is temporary, small or perishable needs protection, while that which is permanent, big or vast does not. Protection simply means prolonging the time in a particular state, hence protection also prevents transformation.

Transformation cannot happen with total protection. At the same time, without protection the desired transformation cannot happen. A seed needs protection to transform into a plant, a plant needs protection to become a tree. Protection can aid or hamper transformation. The protector should have an idea to what extent he should protect. Both protection and transformation fall within the purview of time and space and these laws have to be honoured in order to transcend time. 

We are both protected and transformed. This is Hari and Hara; Hari, the protector and Hara, the transformer. Protection is limited to time, to perishable things. How long can a doctor heal or protect someone? Forever? No. Truth does not need any protection. Peace and happiness do not need protection because they are not temporary. Your body needs protection, your soul does not. Your mind needs protection, the self does not. The self is not the mind body complex. This is an erroneous notion. Neither the body nor the mind is the self. All the yoga asanas you do are for the body. All the meditation you do is for the mind. 

The purpose for this body to exist is to make you aware of how beautiful you are, and to make it possible to live all the values you cherish and create a world of divinity around you. Whether calm or disturbed, your mind remains mind. Whether sick or well, your body remains body. Self is all encompassing. When a part of the body is stimulated, pleasure arises. When your soul is stimulated, love arises. Love has no end, but pleasure ends. Often people think pleasure is love. The distinction between pleasure and love has to be understood. Only the luckiest will understand this. 

Just as you eat sugar and stimulate the tongue, music stimulates the ears and sight stimulates the eyes. And what stimulates the soul? Sadhana and satsang are what stimulate the soul. All that one wants is stimulation of the soul. Even a faint idea of it keeps life going. Every other stimulus is on the surface. The stimulus of the soul energizes and the stimulus of the body brings fatigue. 

Every stimulus should lead you to the Self so that when you listen to music, you transcend the music, and when you listen to knowledge it takes you to silence. 

Understanding the variety in divinity

 

Some schools of thought do not give God the freedom to appear in His many forms. They want Him in one uniform. You change your appearance to suit the occasion, so how can you think there is no variety in the Spirit? Ancient people knew this and that is why they cognized the Divinity as infinite qualities and forms. 

The Spirit is not dull and boring. The Spirit that is the basis of creation is dynamic and ever-changing. God is not only one, but many. When you accept the variety of Divinity, you cease to be a fanatic or a fundamentalist. 

Who wakes up first, you or God? You wake up first, while God is still asleep. When you wake up, you experience pleasure and pain. You become aware of the beauty and the shortcomings of the world. Then, when you seek the ultimate, your cry for help wakes up God, and when God is awakened in you, there is no “two”. 

The rishis made a mock practice of awakening God every morning. They called it the Suprabhatam service. Many people find this ridiculous because they do not understand the depth of it. But only awakened God can see that God is everywhere, asleep. God is asleep in every particle of this universe. God is in you in seed form and when he awakens, neither you nor the world remain. God does not wish you to have more faith because it will mean more work for Him. Then you will start to control Him and He will have to run behind you. God is the servant of faithful servants. He does not want too many servants telling Him what He should be doing. Love is the highest strength, yet it makes you absolutely weak. 

So God, the Enlightened One, Nature, does not want you to have more faith or love. With too much faith and love, you make God weak. So, it is better for God that you have less faith. Things can go on as they are. Why transform? Be happy. 

On the day of the full moon at the ancient temple of Kollur an elaborately decorated chariot of the Goddess is pulled around the temple. Each one of us is a chariot carrying the power of God within. We are the real chariots of the Divine. Our body is the chariot and our soul is the deity that is pulled around to purify the world.