The biggest obstacle to true intimacy - your mind

 

Take it for granted that everybody in creation, everything in creation loves you, because everything has come out of love and goes back to love and remains in love.

Then you are with the flow of current. You are with the flow of river. If you don’t see that, then you are against the current. The you will not be loving. When somebody is swimming against the current, what does it mean? The whole creation is moving towards love. It is in love. But the one who is swimming against the current is not in love.

You are already intimate. How intimate can you be? You cannot be any more intimate. Your wanting to be intimate, wanting to have more intimacy, is the block. In looking out there for intimacy, you are swimming against the current. That brings you strain, frustration, anger. In creation everything is intimate, everything feels experiences intimacy.

Everything other than human beings, that is. The human mind which is stressed and tense only judges, discriminates, love this, doesn’t love that. The mind makes a hundred boundaries, ifs and buts, doubts, and then removes itself from existence. This removal from the flow of existence is called separation. Oneness with existences is intimacy.

What is true intimacy?

 

True intimacy is one-sided and non-judgmental. It starts from inside. The test for truth is to kick it. What is true will come back to you. If it comes back to you, it is yours. What goes away with a kick was never yours. 

The nature of everything in creation is to come back home. Everything goes back to its origin. A plant comes from the soil and it goes back to the soil. Water comes up from the ocean and it goes back to the ocean. Coming back to the source is the nature of everything in creation. We are innocent when we are born. When we become very old, we become like that again, innocent.

A child has little capacity to comprehend and communicate. When it goes through life and becomes an old man, it completes the circle, whether by choice or not by choice. Those who live long enough become like a child again. If you have ever spoken to people who are 95 or 100 years old, you will feel that they are like children now. They can’t understand or communicate. Like children they get stuck on one thing.

They say something and they stick to it. Children say, “Pa, pa, pa, pa”. In same way old people also repeat. When children do it, it is more joyful, although sometimes the mother gets angry at the children. But when old people do it you feel frustrated because your way of looking at a child and an old man is totally different. Your expectation from both of them is totally different.

So your own expectations cause irritations in you. Your own judgements cause irritations in you. True intimacy is non-judgmental. It is not looking at whether the old person loves you or not, whether the other person loves you or not, whether the other person treats you well or not. That is none of your business. If I want to be intimate with somebody, I take it for granted that they feel they love me. When you doubt whether the other person loves you or not, then your love for the other person goes down.

There is no way you can know the love of another person. If you base your perception only on the expression of love, you are mis-lead. Someone may say, “Oh, you are so wonderful, I love you so much”. And if you think that they mean that, or if you think someone who doesn’t say, “Oh I love you so much”, doesn’t love you, then you are mistaken. Action does not always represent the truth of the state of being.

In true intimacy you stop looking at the act and you Start being in love. So if you have determined to love somebody, do not even think whether they love you are not. You love them. That is enough. If they kick you to see whether the love in you is true or not, then you should have more happiness. Then, also you give love back. True love is coming back to the self. That is true intimacy.

Understanding aversions and cravings

 

I wouldn't say you are always connected to the earth, I would say you are part of this earth. Have you ever thought, as you sat at your dining table and took a loaf of bread in your hand, "This is my body? This bread that is going inside me will become the cells in my body. This bread is my future body. It is just a matter of some time?" 

You have a cup of milk in front of you. Have you ever thought, "This is part of my body? This milk is going to be my blood? Is it not true? When Jesus started the mass, he told people This is my flesh. This is my blood".

He meant, "This entire creation is my body". Feel one with everything. The food you eat, you are part of already! Before eating it, you are part of it. That is your flesh already. Jesus told them, "Don't lament. Don't think I am just in this body. This bread is my body. All the food in the world is my body because this food becomes my body".

What is the big thing about the body? When this body goes, another body will come because the food is there always. The food creates the body. If you eat food with all awareness, I am you. This consciousness, awareness that is me, that you feel is so beautiful is in you too. You don't lack a thing that I have.

This body is not my flesh. This bread is my flesh. This flesh is this bread. Know the difference between physical body and the flesh, and this entire world becomes your body.

That is cosmic consciousness. All are mine. It is all like my own finger. Everybody is part of me. When you know everyone is part of you, then all your cravings disappear, all your aversions disappear. Your cravings come because you think you don't have. Your aversions come because you don't want to have what you think you have. 

Do you see the irony of it? When you know everything already belongs to you, your cravings subside. When you know whatever you are averse to is part of you, then aversion disappears. And total synthesis happens and unity dawns. Even the word unity is not the right word. That also indicates a duality. If you can say one, there have to be two. 

So I say, language is inadequate to express any truth about existence. It is better to keep silent. This understanding of cravings and aversions applied to the situation of daily life becomes a valuable spiritual practice.

Exploring the nature of our connection to God

 

The existence of God is beyond time. To indicate that, you can use the word always. God is always. But when you say you are always God, you make yourself separate from God.

That is why I say language is inadequate to express God. If you subtract one portion of a circle, the circle is not complete. If you subtract one thing from God, God no longer remains. The completeness comes because it is total, it is full. But the nature of your mind is to dissect, bisect, cut things, and divide. The moment you divide, duality happens.

A word appears. Two appear. And the two becomes many. In many, you are lost. In Sanskrit fear means two. How does fear come? Because of some division. Because of some recognition and separateness. Division means taking one thing in and separating something out. Accepting and rejecting.

Your rejecting, your separateness causes fear, and fear is unbearable to life. Separation does not exist. You cannot separate. It is an illusion in the mind. In recognizing the oneness, fear vanishes.

Either you are part of God or you are God - these are your two options. You may feel you are part of God, part of the master, part of existence, but if you feel you are existence, you are God, you are the master, then laughter, dance, smiles, and joy dawns in life. But for a long, long time you have taken the first option feeling that you are separate, you are somebody.

This is a hypnotism that you have undergone, thinking that you are separate from the whole existence. So you have to de-hypnotize yourself and know that you are part of the truth. You are part of this whole. Have you sat on a rock and thought, “I’m a part of this earth?” 

This body has come out of the substance of this earth. What is this body? Proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, minerals, salt. It is all part of this earth. And this body is going to go back into this earth one day. And this earth is as lively as you think you are.

You know you are alive because you are lively. You act, you react to situations and people. The trees are also alive. You do not see that they react, but they are as much alive as you are. Plants are alive. For some time people haven’t known that there is life in plants, that they also feel emotions. Many people don’t know that trees can have emotions.

But recently botanists have discovered that trees express fear and are sensitive, although the degree of their expression is less than yours. The earth also has its life. This earth holds millions of bacteria. Billions of different species' “me, me” transforms into a big I or no.

There's always, God

 

The color of wall depends on the wall. In the same manner, the existence of creatures depends on the love of God. Separate the color from the wall and the color would cease to be. So all creation would cease to exist if separated from the love that God is. 

Words are inadequate to express truth. Language is always found to be limited. Whenever one has to talk about God. This limitation of words and language becomes very evident. Truth cannot be captured by words. The words you use to indicate a connection to God also indicate a separation from God.

If you say you are always connected to God, it indicates in some way that you have been separate, independent, outside God. This is not so. The moment a fish comes out of the water, life also comes out of the water. Simultaneously life leaves the ocean as well as the fish. A corpse of a fish comes out of the water. A shell of a life you call fish comes out of the water, not the fish itself. The life of the fish is synonymous with the ocean. The life of a fish cannot exist outside of the ocean. In other words, the ocean is the fish.

The ocean itself, manifesting in a particular shell in a particular moment, you call fish. It is strange, but very true. For a fish life is inseparable from the ocean. Life is the ocean. The ocean is life. The fish cannot exist outside the ocean, away from the ocean, as waves cannot exist apart from the ocean. Waves are part of the ocean. You can think of a fish as a solidified wave of the ocean, an expression of the ocean.

Water is not a dead thing. Water is alive. Water is life, in fact. 90% of your body is water. If the water from your body is drained out, you will collapse that very moment. Life is synonymous with water. If some is undergoing dehydration, nothing in them functions. The pulse goes and they die. 

The water in you is the same as that in the ocean. It has the same % of saline. It has the same contents. You are an encapsulated ocean living outside the ocean. You could be a sweeter ocean and the sweetness in you blossoms when you realise that you are part of the whole, a part of existence.

You may say “always connected to God”, but the two words always and connected do not go together. Connected implies that two things were once not connected. This was separate.

Now they are connected. If you say “always” and then “connected”, the word connected loses its meaning. You are always God. Wherever you are, whatever you are, you are in God. A fish may sometimes go up in the water, go down in the water, turn upside down, wag its tail, eat or Sleep. Still it remains within the ocean.

Whenever Buddha was asked to speak about God, he kept silent. It was not that he didn’t know. Many people thought that Buddha was an atheist because he never spoke of God. He was not an atheist. He Knew the profundity of truth and the inadequacy of words. 

The existence of God is beyond time. To indicate that, you can use the word always. God is always. But when you say you are always God, you make yourself separate from God. That is why I say language is inadequate to express God.

Confused? You're blessed

 

Blessed are those who are confused. Confusion means your previous knowledge has broken down. Your belief has broken down. That is a step in Knowledge. You are fused to yourself. Space is created. The mind goes blank. This is what is important. Whatever I say, whether you agree or disagree, it doesn't matter.

If you agree, it doesn't matter. If you disagree, then also it doesn't matter. But are you aware of what is happening in your own mind? That is sufficient. This moment some judgment is happening. A certain thing is stirring in the mind. You are agreeing, disagreeing. You like this. You don't like this. Awareness of what is happening within you that is self-study.

If you observe more and more, with a little practice you will see that every emotion, every thought creates a particular sensation in your system, in a particular place in your body.

And the mind becomes like a mirror. The mind becomes so hollow, so empty. Through that empty space truth dawns. That is why "I don't know" is beautiful. The moment you think "I know", then the mind is not yet hollow and empty. Knowledge, labeling things, comes into play. In India you don't find signboards everywhere. If you ask for directions, people will tell you which way to go whether they know or not.

They will tell you to go left or right. It may be completely the opposite direction, but they don't feel comfortable saying "I don't know". So you may travel for hours and discover that you have gone in just the opposite direction from where you wanted to be. The beautiful "I don't know". That is what is needed today. Innocence. And that is love.

Two ways of listening

 

Today what our world needs is not intelligence. There is enough intelligence in this country, in every country. What the world is missing is innocence. The value of innocence is being destroyed. And that innocence is egolessness, naturalness. 

Now what is happening? What is happening in your mind? Are you aware of yourself listening to me, following me? No. You simply went with me. Whatever concept I drew, you went with me. Or there was a tape going on simultaneously, "Yes, no, yes, no".

There was a debate happening within you. Are you aware of that? Do you see that? With this tape in your head, you know what you already know. You will agree with me on what you already know. You will say, "Yes, yes, yes, I agree". And to what you don't know you will say, "No, no, no how it could be?" So you are not listening to me then. Do you see that?

There are two categories - one is you are listening to me with a debate - "Yes, no, yes, no" - in which case you are listening to your own self. In the other case you are simply listening to everything I am saying. It is like listening to music. You just listen to music and forget about it. Do you see that?

Maintaining one's innocence on the path to enlightenment

 

Being in that state of consciousness, which allows knowledge to flow through, without actually knowing, that ability is within every one of us. All intuitions that arise in you arise from an area which you don't know. You cannot call it an intuition if you have already known it. As our intelligence grows, we tend to become crooked. Maintaining innocence in spite of intelligence, is wisdom, is enlightenment.

If our innocence is maintained in spite of intelligence, it has great value, naturalness. You have heard from many books and many people that ego is bad, ego is an obstruction to spiritual growth, ego is an obstruction to knowledge. Ego is nothing but being unnatural. Naturalness is being at home, feeling one, and feeling close to everyone. Distance is ego. Ego means I don't consider you as a part of me sol keep distance.

When I have to show off to you or have to behave a certain way, there is no cordiality there, no love, no connection. Then the ego comes into play. Being like a child, feeling at home, making everybody one's own, dropping all defenses and boundaries, destroying all the walls in between, that is being natural. You can call it being crazy, a little bit crazy. People may think you are a little crazy. It doesn't matter. You feel light, wonderful within you. Your mind is saved.

At any cost you need to save your mind. Just meditating, doing some practices, all these will not help unless you really want to save your mind. Guard the mind from the dust which flies in from the world.

If a person who has a lot of responsibility says, "I do nothing" that has great value. Someone who is very lazy says, "I do nothing", and it has no value. If someone who IS doing all the time and has great responsibility can say, "I do nothing", then that person’s consciousness has taken a shift. An important person being a celebrity has no value.

So an ignorant person being innocent has no value. When intelligence and innocence go together, a beauty dawns - very profound, very essential.

Benefit of feeling helpless

 

Every parent is a door for a new soul to enter into the world. Nothing more than a door. Every artist is a door for some work of art to flow through them. All your virtues, all beauty, all that is truth spring from the same source - one source.

Love is something that is very fresh. It can’t be stale. You can't practice love. No practice can bring love in you. Love is spontaneous. It is the same with beauty. Beauty can't be practiced. You can't practice appreciation.

That is why I say "I don't know what I speak". Knowing, knowledgeability, limits. The highest knowledge is called the end of knowledge. Vedanta means the end of knowledge, truth. 

It is the same with truth as with beauty, truth cannot be practiced. It can be cognized, recognized, felt, experienced and lived moment to moment, moment to moment. Observing the unpredictability of life, the unpredictability of the world creates an awe in you, a sense of wonder in you.

Every person on this earth feels helpless, completely handicapped, at some time or other whether he is John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi or someone on the street. Everyone feels helplessness, feels that things are ruled by something other than what one can logically conceive. Whatever possible conclusions we make, we still feel things happen beyond that. 

When we feel helpless, we tend to become frustrated, cynical. This is the junction point. The feeling of helplessness can turn into prayer, or it can turn into frustration. Divinity can be perceived in the prayerfulness. In frustration we become more and more disheartened, dejected. Do you see that?

Prayer is not a practice, it is a happening. When from the very core of your heart, your mind, you feel helplessness that is prayer. When you are successful, you Know it. A sense of doership comes.

But when the feeling of helplessness arises, prayer can be very authentic. This authentic prayer can transform life, can bring such a force or power within us. I don't mean that we should all be miserable in order to pray. Gratefulness is very essential. 

When we recognise our helplessness, we need to put a distance between ourselves and what is happening, a distance from every action. I'm talking and yet I am watching myself talk. I'm sitting here, yet I'm not just sitting here. I have entered all the things here-the cushions, the carpet, the walls, the photograph. All over it is me, an expanded awareness living life from that area beyond calculations.

We measure and talk. We calculate, we prepare and we talk. But when we talk of something which we don't know, it is very adventurous. I have never read the Bible, but I can speak on the Bible. Nor have I ever read Buddha, but I can speak about Buddha.

Letting words flow through you when you speak

 

What is the difference between a question and wonder? For a question we seek an answer, in wonder we don’t seek an answer. A question is related to sorrow; wonder is related to joy.

No one ever asks, ‘Why am I happy?’ When we become miserable, we ask ‘Why has this misery come to me?’ No one ever questions why there is so much beauty in the world, in creation. But why there is dishonesty?’

This ‘Why’ comes from that area of our mind that seeks to know, that seeks knowledgeability. Knowledgeability is labeling things. I don’t know what I am speaking. What you know you speak from your intellect, you speak from your knowledge. But the purpose of knowledge is to make you aware of how ignorant you are. The more you know, the more unknown remains. So, in fact, the unknown grows. What we don’t know grows.

We are born in ignorance. When we mature and we go through the process of acquiring knowledge, we again become ignorant. But there is this difference – this second “I don’t know” becomes a beautiful “I don’t know”. It is wonder. “Why this creation?” “I don’t know” “What is happening?” “I don’t know”.

An ignorant person talks and he doesn't know what he says. So also an enlightened person talks and he doesn’t know what he says. If he knows and talks, it is coming from limitation. If he doesn’t know and talks, he allows the words to flow through. He's open. He remains available to that are of the self, the consciousness, from which the words will come. An enlightened person can speak on any subject which he doesn’t know. He can sit and talk, but only if he doesn’t start thinking about it.

If you ask an enlightened person to prepare a thesis, he would fail to do it. Kabir or St. Francis would be unable to write a thesis or to write a poem, but they could sit and let the poetry flow through.

What you have known and you speak is stale. It is not fresh. But when you speak something that you don’t know, it is something fresh, it is something new. It is the most creative thing.

Talking about what you know may be creative, but definitely less creative than when you talk about something that you don’t know. In that very moment that is being created, you allow yourself to be a doorway for the creative process to spring through you. We are all just doors.

Transforming gratitude into grace

 

A drop of water on a hot plate takes little time to disappear. It makes some noise and it evaporates. Gratitude in our life seems to disappear even faster.

We seem to forget how much we have grown, how much we have received. The mind seeks more and more. And in every wanting of more and more, it forgets the past very easily.

So gratitude rises in everybody but disappears very soon. Today we cannot say that no one is grateful. Everyone is grateful, but for the moment and then it is finished. Grace is that gratitude which can remain all the time.

If gratitude remains around the year like the evergreen, you call it grace. It is grace. It is like the snow in the Himalayas that stays throughout the year. It doesn’t just fall and disappear. Whatever falls on the highest peak stays. When there is gratitude, complaints disappear. When complaints arise, gratitude disappears, gratefulness disappears.

When there is a complaint in the mind, there is discontent, frustration, dejection, depression. All that follows. If you are not grateful, if there is no gratefulness, no gratitude, then you will start complaining.

You will find fault. Even if there is none, you will try to see it. You will find it. Your mind will do it for you. You won’t even need to try hard. Your mind can easily pick it up. So and so did not show all his teeth. It was less than a full smile.

This is the lower journey. Gratitude is the plateau, the middle. And as you rise above that, there is grace. When gratitude in you stays, that very gratitude flows out from you as grace. Wherever you see divine grace flowing, there you will find gratitude.

Opening yourself to love

 

There was a beggar who sat all his life on a particular spot. When he died, people said that he had spoiled the piece of land, that he made it dirty. “He has lived all his life here”, they said to each other. “Let us dig the mud from here and throw it out”.

When they started taking down his small hut and digging the mud out of the place where he lived, they found an enormous hole filled with wealth. The people laughed. They said, “This man lived in poverty all his life and he was sitting on this hole filled with wealth”.

“If he had dug down one foot right where he was, he could have been a millionaire”. Everybody pitied him. 

Bang on the door. Where you are, you are on the door step. Do not delay a moment. Bang on the door. All the wealth is within you.

Each one of us is the total sun, the full sun. We have come into this world, everyone of us, to contribute, to give light and love. But all of our life we remain unaware of our wealth, unaware of what we are. So don’t delay. Bang on the door with full force.

Just knocking will not help. Humanity has swung to the extreme today, so it is high time we get back to our selves with all speed. We have been shivering outside the door long enough. How are you to get back to your self, to get home without any delay? The intensity of your wanting to get back is the first thing. If you have been shivering in the cold, you won’t simply sit there and knock.

When you have recognized this truth, that you need to get through the door, the very first step, is passion to get to the center. When you close one door, another door opens. When you close your outside door, then your inner door opens.

When you keep thinking about outside people, situations, circumstances, you are lost completely in that. For a moment shut the outside door. Think only one thing, everybody is one - one person, one life. Then your outer door is closed. Don’t think of people in terms of personalities.

Don’t think this person is good, this person is bad and that person said this, the other one said that. Then you are lost. Your opinions about people are temporary, momentary. When we form opinions about people, we keep worrying our head about it. So we shut the door towards these things and our inner door opens and one day there is just love. More innocence, good and love.

Opening your inner door

 

Our doors need to be banged on for us to be able to recognise life. 5000 years ago people were living in a state of consciousness which enabled them to see life everywhere. It was then they named their trees. There was no word it. Even trees were addressed as 'he' or 'she'. Stones were addressed as 'he' or 'she'. Many of the ancient languages have only two genders, masculine and feminine. The sun, moon and stars were taken to be alive.

Life was more predominant. Mind was more predominant. Consciousness was more predominant. Matter was just a wick for its expression. The glow of a candle surrounds the wick. What is prominent, the wick or the glow?

Shut those doors through which dust comes in and open those doors through which fragments of light and love comes in. When you shut one door, another door opens all by itself.

You are filled with light, filled with fragments, filled with love. We know only two things. With our eyes open we are lost in the world, with our doors open we are lost in the dust. With our doors closed we fall asleep. Bang on your inner door. See that there is no dearth of love in you, there is no lack of anything whatsoever inside you.

Feeling real beauty

 

Our feelings have simply become words. Many times our feelings are not authentic, are not real. They are not coming from the source. When you look at a flower, you don't really feel that it is beautiful. But the mind says, "Oh, this is beautiful". The beauty becomes just a concept rather than a sensation happening within you, an explosion of wonder, and an explosion of beauty within you.

That innocent person of long ago simply had to observe creation to feel and experience beauty. The inner chamber could open very easily. Gratefulness and gratitude could flow rapidly, trust and faith could flower and bloom with not much effort.

Today our door in our innermost chamber is so tightly closed, we have to bang it down. Even when we trust, we trust with a doubt in it. We doubt ourselves. We do not know our own minds. We do not know how we are feeling, what is happening to us. And we have no trust or faith that the whole universe is governed by an unseen consciousness, an unseen power.

An unseen power is maintaining the orderliness in this flower, is maintaining the orderliness in the clouds, the trees, the sun, the moon and the stars. This universe is filled with life, every inch and bit of it. We are living and we see life all around us, but our trust in life is not there. It is simply not there. We don't see the Universe as a living thing.

We see only matter everywhere, objects everywhere. We want to possess more and more objects, we want every object that we don't have. In our eyes only objects appear. We don't see life, the living entity, everywhere.

It's time to enter

 

Several thousand years ago someone said, “Knock and it shall be opened unto you”. The human mind two thousand years was simple, natural, closer to the source. One needed only to knock on the door and it would open. Today the mind has become more complex, more confused. Knocking will not help. One has to bang on the door.

5000 years ago a person would not have needed to knock. He would have found an automatic door. The moment he went near the door, it would have opened. You see that in the airport. If you go near the door, it opens and makes way for you. You need not even touch the door. The state of humankind five thousand years ago was much simpler than it is now.

You have never seen the door. You are struck outside the door. You are locked out of your own home. You need to bang on your door to get into your own home.

You seem to be closing your eyes, but you have never really shut your eyes all that you are made of is from outside. Even in sleep, even in dreams, the world moves in your head because you are so deeply steeped in phenomena. Complexities have kept you away from your self, from your home. Your communication with the world is through several doors. This very body is a mansion that has many doors.

Through each door you receive and you send out. The world comes into your mind through this door and goes out through that one. Through this very pair of eyes, you see the whole world. You take the world inside you. Look at a flower. What is happening? The flower is out there, but you are capturing that inside.

When you look at people, you bring all the impressions of those people inside. You are not just sitting there in front of me. As you are, you are present in my consciousness, in my mind. It becomes imprinted.

All that you see you take in, Eyes are those doors through which the world enters into you. Ears are those doors through which the whole world enters by means of speech. The sound of a word, mango, banana, food, donkey, madness, brings all those forms through your ears into your mind. The five senses are the five doors through which the world enters into you.

Doors are beautiful. Doors are filters that we want and need. Sometimes we welcome in and sometimes we close out. In one sense our doors never close. They have no utility, serve no purpose. It is like living in open space, living beyond protection. In another sense our doors have never opened. They have never opened to our innermost self.

Our rationality has kept us out. People, when they were simple and uncomplicated, could feel things. They could feel a flower.

Know yourself

 

This is just a moment, a fleeting moment, a passing moment. A mood comes and goes, thoughts come and go. And opinions change, jobs change, relationships change, friends change, things all around us are changing.

Whether we want it or we don’t want it, whether we like it or we don't like it, things go on changing. Yet you can hold on to that one thing which does not change in you. Be with that. That is you. The body has changed, you have not changed.

Some centered point in you has not changed. It is the same principle that is beneath the whole existence that is beneath the orderliness of this flower. That same principle is responsible for the colors in this flower, the shape of these leaves. The same intelligence is in the entire creation.

When we realize this, a grand unification happens in the consciousness. Our perception changes. Anything we look at, we look at sharply. When we hear, we hear sharply. We merge with what we see and hear.

There is a very big difference in the way a child watches television and the way we watch television. Have you observed that? If there is a story and somebody is crying, the child will also cry. We can see this in third world countries where villagers are not very well educated. If they get angry at the hero or heroine when they watch television, they go and smash the television set. They are so involved, they identify themselves with the television. 

There was a cricket match happening between Pakistan and another country. The newspapers reported that the television company did a very good business after that show, because when their country lost, people banged their television sets.

There's a definite difference in the quality perception that brings unification with the object of perception. That is why saints through all of time have spoken of uniting with the ultimate, uniting with the source, uniting with the rhythm.

There are two successes, being successful in life and being successful in the world. One can be successful in the world without necessarily being successful in life. Success in life is attending to this source, inquiry of the source and living in that joy and unconditional love.

Why we should review our lives in the time gone past

 

As we flip the calendar, we need to keep flipping our mind as well. Often, our diaries are filled with memories. See that you don't fill your future dates with past events. Allow the space for creativity to unlearn from the past and move on.

In the past year (and many of us rang in a new year just a few weeks back), how many days were you in sanyas? How many days were you struggling, being caught in maya? Turn back and remember the whole year.

Do not run away from anything. Do not reject anything. Do not go away from anything. At the same time, let your attention be on the self. This is a delicate balance. That balance is yoga.  

A poor man celebrates New Year once a year. A rich man celebrates each day. But the richest man celebrates every moment. How rich are you? If you celebrate every moment, you are the Lord of Creation.

Review the year while you celebrate. This is your homework. Compare your performance in the year before last and smile. This year is fortunate because you are living at this time. When you are living for the sake of the world, the world is fortunate.  

Let time celebrate your presence. You keep smiling as ever. When you let time celebrate you, you are witness amid celebration.  

The heart always longs for the old, the mind for the new. Life is a combination of both. Let the New Year bring into our life ancient wisdom and modernity, as life is incomplete without either of them.  

Don't feel shy to speak about human and spiritual values. The time has come now to call the whole world. Be ever new, happy you.

Who are you?

 

I’m the first and the last. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. How do you introduce yourself? Do you know who you are? When someone asks, “Who are you?” 

Do you often end up saying what you do and what you are in relation to someone else? “I’m so and so’s son”, or “I’m a doctor”, or “I work in such and such a place, I do this”. 

You could be doing anything, but who are you? Are you what you are doing? Is that all? You could be a tailor today. Tomorrow you could be a cook. The next day you could be a teacher. You are a parent. You have been a child. You are a student. You are a patient in bed. You have many roles to play in life. But the sum total of all the roles cannot equal you. You are more than all the roles that you play in your life. When a person identifies himself with a role he is playing, all parts of his personality are not united. 

He is in so many fragments, It is like living in compartments, not being aware of the total potential that he is. Essentially this question - Who are we? What is our nature? Is the beginning of the spiritual journey.

The human nervous system has the capacity to inquire about itself, about the nature of living and the nature of being. This very quest is the beginning of humanness. The process of identification, I’m somebody, I’m an American or I am Mexican, I’m Canadian, I’m English, I’m German serves some purpose. But it is not the final truth, it is not the absolute. The spiritual journey is the search for the source. From where have I come? What is the source of this life? 

All the major religions of the world move toward this, the search for the source. But in the process people have gotten stuck in their positions. Today the wars and the fights all over the world are in the name of religion. One takes his position, I’m a Muslim or I’m Christian, I’m Hindu or I’m Sikh, I am Buddhist stand those who are not that, they are not mine. They don’t belong to me. So in the process of identifying with this position, that I am a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu, I don’t even mind losing my life. Even if I die it doesn’t matter, but I’m a Muslim or I’m a Hindu or I’m a Christian. 

This must be me. That is what is happening, isn’t it? Is it not sheer madness?  We call it patriotism when it comes to the question of nationality, I’m a Canadian or I’m an American. There is no difference between Canada and the United States, just a line on the map. There is no border, nothing has been drawn on the earth. The land does not speak. It doesn’t say, ‘I’m Canada. I am America’.

Don't move an inch!

 

Don't move an inch. The journey has begun. If you move, you are light years away Neither east nor west, Nor north nor south. Between earth and the sky. 

Here the goal dawns on you. Don't move an inch. Worms move through books and birds sing His songs. Fill the lobbies of logic.

With the smoke of Her presence. Don't move an inch. The roof is on. With a billion stars, sun and moon. Moving around you. So that waves of love may rise in your heart and rock the life in total bliss. I'm the path, the goal and the seeker. Don't move an inch!

Starting our spiritual journey

 

In divine creation the whole world is united, the earth is united. It is oneness. In the whole human race there is unity. The search for this unity, the unifying factor, is the real spiritual journey. Unfortunately, the so-called spiritual journey has divided human beings and torn apart the whole society. The distinction between religion and spirituality should first become clear in our minds.

I normally give this example of a banana and banana skin, religion is like the banana skin and spirituality is the banana. People have thrown away the banana and are holding on to the skin.

Religion is outer ritual and habits, a way of life. Spirituality is the quest for the source of life, going back to the source, knowing deep within us we are part of the divinity.

When this distinction become clear in the mind, it is then that our journey towards the source begins. It is when we become human beings. It is then that we become united to that principle which is beneath all existence, which is beneath every happening and has enormous intelligence and orderliness.

In this path everybody has to walk alone. There is no proxy walking. You cannot share someone else’s walk and say, "Oh yes, I have walked". Someone else cannot eat for you or drink tea for you. "I have drunk tea for you, just relax". That doesn’t happen. The quest is the need of the soul, of every growing soul. When a thought comes to us, we don't know from where it comes. Thought comes from some unknown corner, some unknown area of ourselves. 

If our nervous system is stressed, distressed then the thought that comes we call negative. It is distorted. If the nervous system is clear, joyful, pure, smooth, healthy, then that comes we call positive, creative, life supporting. Thought is a spontaneous phenomenon springing from that area. Somebody gets the intuitive thought, "Do this, do this, do this". Every scientific discovery has come from that area.

Every work of art that sprung from that area. Every poem has come out of that area. And that particular area or avenue is in every one of us. That is what we are. That is the true introduction.

All that there, is change. Our body has undergone so many changes. If you look at your own childhood photographs, many times you will have to say, "This is me". Your friends will not recognise you as the same person. You looked very different when you were young. Your appearance has changed. The body has changed in size and shape. Your thoughts have undergone many, many changes. The way you feel has changed, hasn't it?

About a particular thing you felt good some days ago and then you didn’t feel so good and then again you felt good. Your opinions and your ideas, your feelings, your emotions all have changed. You identify yourself by things that change. Probing a little beyond that, when we say, "Oh, I am a very angry person", we usually justify our position of being angry. In doing that, we are hanging on to the past.

Dream the impossible to make it happen

 

Unless you have a dream, you cannot realise it. Every invention has come out of a dream. Dream the impossible. Obviously, dreaming employs something which is beyond your perceived capacity.  

Consider the faculty which is the perceptor of the dream. Some dreams have impacted your daily living and others have not. Some dreams you remember, and others you have forgotten.  

We are all born in this world to do something wonderful and unique; don't let this opportunity pass by. Give yourself the freedom to dream and think big.

Have the courage and determination to achieve those dreams that are dear to you. Many a time people who dreamt big were ridiculed, but they remained strong to achieve their goals.  

Do something creative. Not a year should pass without doing something creative.

Everyone is your teacher

 

Know that you are a student forever. Do not underestimate anybody. Knowledge may come to you from any corner. Remember the ancient saying – let knowledge flow to me from all the sides.  

Each occasion teaches you and each person teaches you. The world is your teacher. When you are always looking to learn, you will stop underestimating others. Humility will dawn in your life.  

There is a nice story. A man earned a lot of money and then gave all his property to his son. The son then built a small house behind his big house and told his parents, “Now you have to stay there.” So the old couple stayed there, while the son and his family lived in the bungalow.  

One day, while playing, the grandchild came to his grandfather's home, where everything was in a pathetic condition. The grandchild said, “Grandpa, be careful with your plate and chair. Don't break them.”  

When he asked why, the child said, “Because tomorrow, my father will need them.” One does not realise this fact. You are also going to be old one day.

Random acts of kindness

 

Abiding in the self you become the valentine for the whole world. Spirit is the valentine of matter, and matter is the valentine of spirit. They are made for each other. They uphold each other.  

If you do not respect the spirit, then matter is not pleased. If you honor the spirit, you care for the world, and when you care for the world it will take care of you.

You are the Christmas tree. At the time of year when no tree bears anything, it has many gifts to offer. A Christmas tree bears the gifts and the lights not for itself. Similarly, all the gifts you are carrying in your life are for others. Anyone who comes to you, you offer them your gifts.

When you show kindness, your true nature comes into play. Have you ever done acts of kindness without expecting anything out of it? Our service should not be mechanical.

Once some boy scouts were at a Sunday service, when the priest said, “You should serve.” They asked, “What is this service? Could you give us some example?” He said, “Suppose an old lady wants to cross a road, go and help her cross the road.”  

So the boys went and looked for a whole week, but there was no old woman trying to cross the road. Finally four of them found a woman walking on a footpath. One of the boys went and asked her, “Madam, would you like to cross the road?” She turned and said, “No.” He was disappointed.  

So another boy went and asked her again, thinking, perhaps, that the first boy hadn't asked properly. The woman was now a little bit confused. She wondered why she was being asked this. So, she said it was all right for him to take her across the road.  

Once they had reached the other side, a third boy came and asked her, “Would you like to cross the road?” Now it really bothered her. When the fourth one approached her, she almost screamed and ran away.  

You don't have to plan acts of kindness. Just do it spontaneously. When you do random acts of kindness, you come in touch with your true nature.

What "success" really means

 

There is so much talk about success. Have you ever thought what success is? Success is simply ignorance about one's capabilities. Success is ignorance about the power of the self, because you assume you can do only this much.  

If there are obstacles, you are clear about your objective. With a calm and serene mind, think of many possibilities. Know that failures are steppingstones for greater success. Actually, there are no failures in life. All the seeming failures are only steppingstones for greater success.  

If you feel the obstacle is too much, deep prayer can work miracles. The feeling that “I am blessed” can help you overcome any failure. Once you realise that you are blessed, then all the complaints disappear, all the grumbling disappears, all the insecurities disappear, a sense of not being loved disappears, wanting love disappears.  

Ego is always ambitious and wants to do tough jobs like climbing Mount Everest, whereas a simple act like watching a butterfly, watering one's garden, watching the birds or the sky can bring deep relaxation, and relaxation connects you with your source. Seemingly trivial actions open a new dimension and bring in immense peace and rest. Just come out of your little shell and feel free. 

There is a saying: “Behind every successful man is a woman.” I will modify this: Behind every success there is the Divine saying, “I am behind you.”

Overcoming prejudice

 

Your prejudice against gender, religion, caste and class does not allow you to mingle with everyone around you. Often, you don't sit with people who are not economically or socially at par with you. You have to learn to break that barrier.  

Also, there is age prejudice. Teenagers don't like to have fun with elderly people and vice versa. Gender prejudice is more prevalent in rural areas. Caste system is present even among the royalties of Europe, the UK and Japan. Religious prejudice is well known. 

There are good people and bad people in every community, religion and every section of society. Don't be prejudiced against them. At the same time don't be shy about your identity.  

When you overcome prejudice, you will be very natural, and your quality of life will improve.

Innocent mistakes

 

Whenever a boundary is broken, it creates some fear. The fear creates dislike. This dislike puts us back in the boundary; you put forth defenses.

When you try to defend your position, it is such a stress. Every time you try to defend your position, it makes you more and more weak. Drop all your defenses. When you are totally defenseless, that's when you'll be strong.

Your knowledge of a mistake comes to you when you are innocent. Whatever mistake has happened, do not consider yourself a sinner because in the present moment you are again new, pure and clear. Mistakes of the past are past. When this knowledge comes, you are again perfect.

Often, mothers scold their children and afterwards feel so guilty. Okay, you got angry at your kid once or twice. Why? Because of the lack of awareness. Awareness was missing so anger came up. Knowledge of the self, truth and skill can bring out the best in you.

So, don't be afraid to make mistakes, but not the same mistakes.

It's funny, how useful humour can be

 

You are endowed with certain naughtiness as a child. Keep it alive. Humour will grease all tough situations. One who has humour can sail through any conflict.  

Humour is the buffer that saves you from humiliation. If you refuse to be humiliated, you become invincible. Humour brings everyone together, while humiliation tears them apart. In a society torn with humiliation and insult, humour is like a breath of fresh air.  

Humour should be coupled with care and concern. Humour can keep the spirit high, yet if overdone it leaves a bad taste. Humour without wisdom is shallow. Humour without sensitivity is satire – it comes back to you with more problems.  

The wise use humour to bring wisdom and to lighten situations. The intelligent use humour as a shield against humiliation. The cruel use humour as a sword to insult others. The irresponsible use humour to escape from responsibility. And fools take humour too seriously.  

How does one cultivate a sense of humour? Humour is not just words, it is lightness of your being. You do not have to read and repeat jokes.  You can start by:

• Taking life not too seriously (because you will never come out of it alive)
• Having a sense of belongingness with everybody, including those who are not friendly
• Practicing yoga and meditation
• Having unshakable faith in the Divine and in the laws of karma
• Being in the company of those who live in knowledge and are humorous, and
• A willingness to be a clown.

Be unpredictable, be free

 

We often behave like machines. A compliment makes us smile and an insult makes us frown.  

We don't have to react in the same way always. You have the freedom to respond differently. You don't have to answer all questions posed to you. As others have a right to questions, you have the right whether to answer or not.  

So, be unpredictable.

While we chase perfection, the mind latches on to imperfection

 

Many a time, you become angry or miserable because of the feverishness for perfection. If you are too much of a perfectionist, you are bound to be an angry person.  

In a state of ignorance, imperfection is natural and perfection is an effort. In a state of wisdom or enlightenment, imperfection is an effort; perfection is a compulsion and is unavoidable.  

Perfection is taking total responsibility and total responsibility means knowing that you are the only responsible person in the whole world. When you think that others are responsible, then your degree of responsibility diminishes.  

When you are in total ‘vairagya’ (dispassion), you can take care of even insignificant things with such perfection. Perfection is the very nature of the Enlightened One.  

When we are joyful, we don't look for perfection. If you are looking for perfection then you are not at the source of joy. Joy is the realisation that there is no vacation from wisdom.  

The world appears imperfect on the surface but, underneath, all is perfect. Perfection hides, imperfection shows off. The wise will not stay on the surface but will probe into the depth.  

Things are not blurred, your vision is blurred. Infinite actions prevail in the wholeness of consciousness, and yet the consciousness remains perfect, untouched. Realise this now and be natural.  

In this world, everything cannot be perfect all the time. Even the best, the greatest of actions, performed with the noblest of intentions, will have some imperfections. It is but natural.  

Unfortunately, the tendency of our mind is to grab the imperfection and hold onto it. And, in the process, we end up making our moods, our minds imperfect and our souls reel with this nonsense. It is imperative to get out of these cycles, and to become strong and courageous from within.

Why correcting a mistake is also a mistake

 

Mistakes keep happening all the time. Often you want to correct them. How much can you correct? There are two situations when you correct others' mistakes.  

• You correct someone's mistake because it bothers you. But even if you correct it, this does not work.
• You correct someone's mistake not because it bothers you, but for their sake so that they can grow.  

To correct mistakes, you need authority and love. Authority and love seem to be contradictory, but in reality they are not. Authority without love is stifling. Love without authority is shallow.

A friend needs to have both authority and love, but they need to be in the right combination. This can happen if you are totally dispassionate and centered. When you allow room for mistakes, you can be both authoritative and sweet.  

That is how the Divine is, the right balance of both. Krishna and Jesus had both. Don't make mistakes by pointing out mistakes.

Once a lady came to me and said her husband had lied to her. She was very upset. I asked, “Why does your husband lie to you? Because he loves you and is afraid to lose or hurt you. If he did not love you, he wouldn't lie to you.”  

Do not tell a person a mistake he knows he has committed. By doing this, you will only make him feel more guilty. A magnanimous person will not pick on the mistakes of others and make them feel guilty; he will correct them with compassion and care.

Understanding your boundaries

 

Every time you are unhappy or miserable, you are just coming in touch with your own boundaries. And what can you do? You can just feel thankful: “Oh, I came in touch with my boundary, my limitation. This was my limitation.”

You just turn the whole situation into prayer: “Let there be peace, not just in me but in everybody.” Prayer is that moment when you come in touch with your limitations, your boundaries.

You are peaceful, you are joyful, you are happy as long as you have not come in contact with your boundaries. The moment that you do, what can you do? You can just say, “My Lord, My God, you have made me become aware of my boundaries. You bring peace. I am giving it all to You.”

That very moment you will start smiling. However hopeless the situation is, you will walk through it, sing through it, dance through it. This is love.

In Hindi, love is written with two-and-a-half letters. They say, “Who is a master, who is a pundit, who is a wise person? Not one who has studied a lot of scriptures, but one who has studied the two-and-a-half letters.”

It is a test of the moment, when you come in touch with your limitations, your boundaries. You are happy, peaceful. Are you in the boundaries? Or are you maintaining your boundless self and the innocent love in the heart? Is it remaining? If it is, then nothing can rob you of peace.

There is no point in resisting change

 

Sorrow simply means that ‘viveka’ (discrimination) is overshadowed. Viveka means knowing that everything is changing. Your body, your emotions, the people around you and the world – everything is changing.

Time and again you have to awaken to this reality. You are often fearful of change. Change is inevitable on many fronts, though security is hooked on to stability. You know there is a need for change to improve your life, but you feel secure in the old pattern.  

You need the courage to implement changes wherever it is necessary. You have to evaluate the pros and the cons. You have to see whether something gives you short-term joy and misery in the long run or short-time pain and joy in the long run. 

Life is a combination of both change and non-change. So, use your intelligence and courageously implement changes when you feel that there is a need for change.

Why pray at all?

 

Prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. It also nurtures values like integrity and honesty. Prayer happens in two situations, or in a combination of situations: when you feel grateful or when you feel utterly helpless.  

If you are not grateful and prayerful, you will be miserable. In either case your prayers will be answered. What you can do, you do. What you cannot do, you pray for.  

It is said the divine dawns in you when you pray for it, when you sing for it. The divine is only waiting for you to dig a little deeper into yourself, because it can then fill you with much more nectar.  

Divine wants you to create more space in you. Cry from your soul for help. This is for those seekers who are weak. Those seekers who are strong with the power of knowledge can sing with that joy of what they have achieved. 

The moment you sing in gratitude, in glory of the divine, it immediately dawns in you and fills you up again. One type of people are grateful for all their growth. The other type are helpless and weak. Both will be helped.  

Spirituality is not some ritual, or doing something. It is a very pleasant, uplifted state of being and seeing the whole world as all spirit or consciousness. Use prayer to bring integration to your personality. Whatever you do, know that the higher power has the final say and it will always be the best.

Making short term and long term plans

 

At any given point of time, our mind is oscillating between the past and the future. Either it is angry or sad about the past or anxious about the future. Whatever actions you do in this state of mind, you regret after sometime.  

Does it mean that you should not plan your future? No. You should plan your short and long term goals. Then, and only then, life gets a channel, a direction to flow. When the mind is totally in the present, the right planning happens.  

Not only should you plan your goals, but plan the means and methods to work towards them. Where would you like to see yourself after three years? After 20 years? After 40 years? Don't be feverish about the result. Give your 100%.  

If you are feverish about the results, it will lead you to disappointment. Do not make a list of all the things you want to achieve. Select few things that really matter.  

Once a teacher brought a glass jar to the class and a bag with some big stones, some small stones and some sand. He asked the students to put all the contents from the bag into the glass jar. Some students put the sand first, then small stones and there was no place for big stones.  

The teacher later explained that had they put the bigger stones first, then the smaller stones, there was always space around the stones for all the sand in the bag. This example teaches us an important lesson in prioritizing things.  

If we put the things that will give us maximum fulfillment in the long term, smaller things will automatically fall into place. Among all the planets in the solar system, the earth is privileged to host life in its many forms, and among all the species, humans are most privileged, for they can host knowledge.  

Again and again, remember that you are peace, you are love, you are joy.

The marriage of service and spirituality

 

A person without emotions is like wood without any juice. You need to make yourself interesting to make people be with you. This will happen when you nurture yourself with music, prayer and service.  

The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share others’ sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow. When you expand in knowledge with time then depression is not possible.

The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery. The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Instead of thinking, “What about me and what can I gain from this world?”, think, “What can I do for the world?”  

Silence heals and rejuvenates. Silence gives you depth and stability and brings creativity. Service (seva) leads to the dynamic experience of heart. It creates a sense of belongingness. Lack of service can land a person in depression.

Pain is physical. Suffering is mental. If you are not sensitive to others’ pain, then you are not a human being. That is why you need to serve. Service alone can bring contentment in life, but service without silence tires you.

Service without spirituality will be shallow and cannot be sustained for a long period. The deeper the silence, the more dynamic the outer activity. Both are essential in life. When you bring some relief or freedom to someone through seva, good vibrations and blessings come to you. Seva brings merit, merit allows you to go deep in meditation, meditation brings back your smile. When you sing and pray from your heart, your emotions are nourished and you become lively.

Only commitment will help you make this world better

 

A river needs two banks to flow. The difference between flood and normal river is that water flow is regulated in a river. During floods, water has no direction. Similarly, the energy in our life needs some direction to flow.  

If you don't give direction, it is all confusion. Today, most people are confused because there is no direction in life. When you are happy, there is so much of life-energy in you, but when this life-energy doesn't know where to go, how to go, it gets stuck. When it stagnates, it rots.  

For life-energy to move in a direction, commitment is essential. Life runs with commitment. If you observe every small thing or big thing in life, they go with certain commitment. A student takes admission in a school or college with a commitment.  

Needless to say, a family runs on commitment: mother is committed to the child, child is committed to the parents, husband is committed to wife and wife is committed to husband. Greater the commitment you take, greater the energy and power you gain to fulfill that commitment. Greater the commitment, easier things are.  

Smaller the commitment, suffocating it is for you. Smaller commitments suffocate you because you have more capacity, but you are stuck in a small hole. When you have ten things to do and if one thing goes wrong, you can keep doing the other nine things; the thing that has gone wrong will set itself right.

But if you have only one thing to do and that goes wrong, then you are stuck with it. Usually we think we should have resources and then we will commit. Greater the commitment you take, greater the resources will come to you automatically.

Whatever you are committed to brings you strength. If you are committed to your family then your family supports you, if you are committed to society, you enjoy the support of society. Commitment will always bring comfort in the long run.

Make a commitment to make this world a better place to live.

Taking time out for yourself

 

If for the whole day you are engaged in only gathering information, you do not take out time for yourself to think and reflect. A few quiet moments are resources for creativity.

Some time during the day, sit for a few minutes, get into the cave of your heart, eyes closed, and kick the world away like a ball. But, during the day, be 100 percent attached to the work. Eventually, you will be able to be both attached and detached. This is the skill of living, the art of living.  

Renunciation refills your energy. Creativity cannot happen only just through efforts. There is a beautiful story about Chhatrapati Shivaji. At one time Shivaji became so frustrated about ruling his kingdom that he went to his guru Samarth Ramdas and told him that he is fed up and that he just wants to renounce everything.  

Ramdas told him that he can renounce everything. Shivaji became so happy and relaxed at the very thought. Then Ramdas told him: “Now I am the king and you are my servant. Will you do whatever I ask you to do?” Shivaji replied: “For you I am ready to do anything.”  

Ramdas said: “Very good. Will you run this country for me?” Shivaji replied: “Yes, I will run the country for you.” Total renunciation has brought zeal and enthusiasm in him. Creativity springs up when you are relaxed.  

You have to renounce all work you have done the whole day, only then can you rest in the night. Though many times pain, struggle and frustration have brought out creativity in some people, these are not the only reasons for a person to be creative. Millions of people in the world are struggling or frustrated, but they are not creative.  

So, taking out some time for yourself improves the quality of your life.

Effective communication as a way to a better life

 

Learning to communicate effectively with everyone is a skill worth possessing. Most of the time you find that you are out of place. Communicating without prejudice is vital for success.  

If you are faced with someone who knows more than you, be like a child and keep your ears and eyes open for learning. If you are faced with someone who knows less than you, be humble and strive to make them as good as or better than you.  

Play with a small child as you played when you were a child. Talk with an elderly person remembering that one day you will be like that. Communicate with a person of your age group like you are his or her best friend.  

This world is varied beyond our imagination, and there's always something to share, learn and teach. When you are centered, you become a powerful communicator. And when your communication improves, your life improves.

Here's why it's necessary to make meditation a part of your life

 

The higher goals in life can only be realised through a few minutes of meditation and introspection.  

What is meditation? Mind without agitation is meditation. Mind in the present moment is meditation. Mind that has no hesitation, no anticipation is meditation. Mind that has come back home, to the source, is meditation. Mind that becomes no-mind is meditation.  

Deeper you are able to rest, more dynamic you will be in activity. Even though deep rest and dynamic activity are opposite values, they are complementary. Before the body leaves you, you learn to leave everything. That is freedom.  

What are you looking for? Are you looking for some great joy? You are joy. I will give you an example. Have you seen dogs biting bones? You know why they bite bones? Biting wounds their mouth. Its own blood comes out and the dog feels that the bone is very tasty. Poor dog spends the whole time chewing the bone but getting nothing out of it.  

Any joy you experience in life is from the depth of yourself, when you let go all that you hold onto and settle down being centered in that space. That is called meditation. Actually, meditation is not an act, it is the art of doing nothing.  

The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have because in meditation you transcend all desires. Meditation is letting go of anger from the past and all the planning for the future. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth.  

Just this understanding and a few days of continuous practice of meditation can change the quality of our life. The best comparison of the three states of consciousness – waking, sleeping and dreaming – is with nature.  

Nature sleeps, awakes and dreams. It happens on a magnificent scale in existence and it is happening in a different scale in the human body. Wakefulness and sleep are like sunrise and darkness. Dream is like the twilight in between.  

Meditation is like the flight to the outer space, where there is no sunset, no sunrise, nothing. I am sure that deep within, every one of you feel that you have not grown, meaning you have not changed, not grown old. This indicates the soul in you, the depth in you, the spirit in you doesn't change, doesn't grow old, it's not aging.

There is no life without enthusiasm

 

Enthusiasm is the nature of life. We often have a tendency to put cold water on others' enthusiasm. Reverse this tendency. Take every opportunity to praise others and support their enthusiasm.  

If you put down others' enthusiasm, the same may happen to you. As you sow, so shall you reap. Recollect how much enthusiasm and joy you had when you went to the primary school. Someone without enthusiasm is like a corpse.  

But as you mature, the enthusiasm curve declines. As enthusiasm declines, we stop communicating. How would you like to see yourself?  

Divine wants you to create more space in you. Cry from your soul for help. This is for those seekers who are weak. Those seekers who are strong with the power of knowledge can sing with that joy of what they have achieved.  

The moment you sing in gratitude, in glory of the divine, enthusiasm immediately dawns in you, and fills you up again. People of one type are grateful for all their growth. Those of the other type are helpless and weak. Both types will be helped.  

Spirituality is not some ritual, or doing something. It is a very pleasant, uplifted state of being and seeing the whole world as all spirit or consciousness. Whatever you do, know that the higher power has the final say and it will always be the best.

Don't lose your smile so easily

 

A research done in England found that a baby smiles 400 times a day, an adolescent 17 times and an adult doesn't smile at all. The more successful one keeps a very stiff face.  

Is roughness a sign of success? Is being stressed a sign of prosperity, growth or dignity? You should smile more. Everyday, every morning, look at the mirror and give a good smile to yourself.  

You know what happens when you smile? All the muscles in your face get relaxed. The nerves in your brain get relaxation, and you get the confidence, courage and energy to move on in life.  

You know, your smile is so fragile. Just one telephone call is enough to take it away. But what is the big deal about your feelings? Bundle them up and throw them into the ocean. Once you are rid of your feelings you can be happy.  

Just see why your spirits go down? Because somebody said something stupid to you. Why did they say a stupid thing? Because they had some garbage they needed to throw out and you were there, ready to catch it, and once you have caught it, you hold onto it so passionately.  

Come on. Wake up. Don't let your smile be snatched away by anybody. Usually, you give your anger freely and smile rarely as though a smile is costly. In ignorance, anger is cheaper and smile costly. In knowledge, a smile is free like sun, air and water and anger is extremely expensive, like a diamond.  

Make your smile cheaper and anger expensive. You are here for a greater cause. Just remember that. Take a challenge: Come what may, I am going to smile today and be happy. Smile more.

Life is impermanent

 

See the impermanence in this life. That is the truth. Turn back and see that all that you did is like a dream. All have passed, the whole thing is finished. Tomorrow will pass.

Now and then, a pinch of unpleasantness comes. It makes you aware of your pleasantness. Suppose you never had unpleasant moments in life, you would never have pleasant ones. Your life would stagnate in utter boredom and you would become like a stone.

So, in order to keep you alive, now and then, here and there, nature gives you a little pinch. It makes life more lively. Accept it. You don’t have to be afraid in life. There is always support. So, every pinch that you are having in life is for the best, to make your life more lively and enjoyable.

Day and night you work so hard. The whole week is spent working, coming home tired, eating, going to bed. The same routine the next day. Weekends have become another routine.

If you’re awake, then you see there is so much foolishness. Just watch when four or five people get together and have a gossip session. In a gossip session, you can immediately change the topic of conversation. This is the thing with a crowd.  

If ten people are talking about the weather and you change the topic to stock markets, everybody will immediately talk stock markets, whether they know about them or not. It is great fun.  

Being aware of this impermanent nature of our life, you find that there is something in you that has not changed. There is a reference point by which you can say things are changing. That reference point is the source of life. That is wisdom. With wisdom, your life improves.

If you take care of your mind, all else will be taken care of

 

Look at your own life in the light of time. Millions of years have passed and millions will come. What is your life? 60, 70 or 100 years? Span of life is insignificant. It is not even a drop in the ocean.  

In terms of space, you simply don't exist. This understanding dissolves the ego. Ego is ignorance of your reality, ignorance of your existence.

Now, just to know this, do we have to do something else? Just open your eyes: Who am I? How am I on this planet? What is my lifetime? Awareness dawns in the mind and you will stop worrying about little things like, this person said this thing to me and that person broke away with me and this happened with that person and I am going to say this.  

All smallness will simply drop away, and you will be able to live every moment of your life. Your life reels around your context. You should be happy in life. All other business involves ups and downs which is very natural.  

If there is a body, then it will get cold, cough, fever or something else and it will go away. But take care to see that happiness is always established in you. That is known as purashaarth. Our love, faith and belief should be deep-rooted, then everything else moves on its own.  

How many events take place in life? Are you able to maintain your equanimity always? Not everything in the world is sweet. If you are grounded with faith, like the husk with grain, you will progress.  

Take this decision: Whatever happens I will be there. I will be grounded. God’s protection is there on me. Whatever happens, I will never go down. I always have God’s hand with me.  

Keep your mind in peace in all situations. The rest will be taken care of. You have to take at least one step forward, which is to be in peace and equanimity. Nothing happened. Nothing of my work happened. If you are able to laugh in such a situation, then understand that you have protection with you.  

The world is filled with love. Everybody has love inside them. You have to see that in your mind. Your head will be in the mud in a few years, don't put mud in your head while you are still alive. If you review the context of your life, the quality of your life will improve.

Stop trying to understand your feelings, emotions

 

All our struggles in life are to know more. You are trying your level best to understand feelings and emotions, and you get into more and more confusion.  

This is what has happened with psychology today. It tries to explain to you why you feel like the way you are feeling. The “why” arises always when you are unhappy. You ask, “Why this problem to me of all the people?” Nobody ever asked, “Why am I so happy?”  

You wanted to understand, “Why am I not feeling good?”, or “Why am I angry?”, or “Why is this not happening?” The more you try to understand and try to dig in, you seem to understand less and less. The mystery deepens; an illusion comes as though “I know it”. But that is for a short while.  

We ourselves do not know and we try to explain others. Stop your explanations. You put yourself into a soup and also make other people more confused.  

We need to learn a little bit about our breath. We need to know a little bit about all the layers of our existence – body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego and the self. This is what I call Art of Living, learning a little bit about ourselves, the seven layers of our life. And that makes you be in the present moment, and it helps us to maintain the innocence that we are all born with and feel at home with everybody, anywhere.  

What I would suggest is, take one week off every year for yourself, like you take your car for servicing. During that time, align yourself with nature, wake up with the sunrise, do some exercise, eat proper food, just as much food as necessary, some exercises, a few minutes of singing, and then some silent moments, enjoying the creation. Book yourself on a trip to this most beautiful place in the universe. Then you find that every day is a vacation and a celebration.

Questions about life

 

Have you ever thought 

1. What is the purpose of your life?  

2. What is the meaning of life?  

3. What is life all about?  

These questions are very, very precious. When these questions dawn in your mind, only then your life begins.  

But, when these questions come into your mind, don't be in a hurry to get an answer. Those who know will not tell you and those who tell, don't know. You can plug your ears and walk off.  

These questions are the tools by which you can dig deeper and the answers come from within you. Once these questions come into your life then you start “living” life rather than just existing.  

To know for what you are on this planet, find out what you are not here for. 

• You are not here to be sad. 
• You are not here to blame. 
• You are not here to be miserable. 
• You are not here to worry. 
• You are not here to show off. 
• You are not here to get stressed out. 
• You are not here to get irritated and irritate others. 

The list goes on.

Need for introspection

In this era of science and technology, we can be creative and productive, and at the same time, not lose the humanness that we are all born with.  

Just material things or comfort alone do not make you comfortable. You may have a good bed to sleep on but, be unable to sleep because of insomnia or worry.  

You need to get a broad understanding about yourself and your priorities. Clarity in the mind makes things much easier. Understanding your basic emotions like love, your interaction with people around you, knowing about your ego or what your intellect or mind is saying to you, and introspection will give you a few minutes of relaxation which is very vital.

So, what is most important is introspection about one's own life and how to improve the quality of life. This intention itself will open many doors for you to feel better about yourself.  

First of all, find out for yourself whether you are healthy. Health is:

• A disease-free body.
• A quiver-free breath. 
• A stress-free mind.
• An inhibition-free intellect.
• An obsession-free memory.
• An ego that includes all.
• A soul that is free from sorrow.

Boredom is an opportunity!

 

In life both are essential, the heart and the head. If you are only in the heart, it is no good. And if you are only stuck in the head, that is also no good. Balancing both is Yoga. Spirituality is balancing the heart and head together. Anyone who feels that they are a failure, just wake up! So what?! Life is eternal.

Meditation acts like a bridge connecting your head and heart. Take a few moments to sit down, be open to boredom, and you’ll effortlessly move into a deep meditative state. Otherwise, that boredom might just lead you to sleep. It’s a choice — either you sleep, become more sluggish, or you seize the opportunity of boredom to delve into a deep meditation. There are 365 days in a year and there are so many years in your life. If for one or two days you feel you are wasted, life is a failure, it’s okay, never mind!

On a full moon, if it is cloudy and the light cannot shine on the Earth, the moon does not get upset. If on one full moon night, you cannot see the moon rising, so what? The moon is still there. Like that, inside you there is potential, there is divinity which is so complete. If it has not come to the surface in one day, never mind! You have all the great qualities. If some do not exhibit on a particular day, never mind.

Don’t blame yourself, don’t analyze yourself too much. We start analysing ourselves too much; to the extent that we feel upset and down. We are so hard on ourselves. I am saying this to those who feel bad about themselves. NEVER MIND, WAKE UP! Never mind if these many years are wasted. The future is bright and there is still so much for you to do. All regrets happen only when you are looking at the past. If you are walking and your head is turned backwards, then that is called regret. Turn your head and look forward, and you will see the future is always bright.

How is boredom related to memory

 

In an ocean, the waves keep coming non-stop, it doesn’t get boring! Birds sing the same song, every morning, all their life, they don’t get bored! It is only human beings who get bored! ‘Oh! Once again the same thing.’ And why do you get bored? It is because of memory. You remember whatever you have done before, so you get bored.

Memory is both a blessing and a curse. It is because you get bored that you feel the need to look for something different, something new, and that is how creativity comes up; you look for the ultimate. Otherwise, you could have remained like an animal doing the same thing every day. But, you can’t do it because you get bored! So, in that sense, boredom is a blessing. Because you get bored, you move on, you look forward, you become a seeker and you rise higher. 

At the same time, boredom is also a curse because it doesn’t allow you to be centered and steady in one place. So your mind aimlessly keeps jumping from one place to another. Because you get bored of everything, you can’t enjoy anything.

There are two different paths that boredom leads you to. Boredom is a blessing when it leads you to wisdom. Boredom is a curse when it leads you to frustration and depression. Because you are bored, you can’t enjoy it, and when you can’t enjoy it you get depressed and frustrated. Or, because you are bored you wake up and begin with a quest.

When life feels dull, there’s this magical moment where everything becomes lively. You can repeat the same thing over and over, and it won’t bother you. It’s like finding a spring of life. Just let go of the past, be like a carefree child, and every moment becomes priceless.

You move ahead and you look into the Self which is fresh all the time! The Self is ever new. Because you are bored with the ephemeral, the surface, you go deep into the Self. So boredom is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it takes you away from the routine monotonous life, makes you aware and brings life into you. And it is a curse because it doesn’t let you stabilise. People who are in love don’t get bored. The heart knows no boredom. The head knows boredom.

Sacredness of certain symbolism

 

In all cultures throughout the ages, certain places, times of the year, persons and symbols have been considered sacred. Native Americans and other tribal people consider the earth, sun, moon and all the directions to be sacred. In the ancient tradition of India, the rishis considered all the rivers, mountains and even animals, trees and herbs to be sacred. 

And what of people? They are definitely sacred. Various cultures honor certain people and consider them to be sacred. 

For Christians, the cross, Jerusalem, Christmas and the Pope are sacred. For Muslims, the crescent moon, Mecca and the month of Ramadan are sacred. The Hindus consider the river Ganges, the Himalayas and the Swamis to be sacred. 

When you consider a place, time, person, symbol, or act sacred, your attention is undivided and whole. When things are ordinary and the same, you tend to slip into unawareness and inertia. The moment you consider something sacred, your inertia disappears and you become more alive.

There is nothing as fulfilling as a sacred act. You put your heart and soul into a sacred act. When every action of yours becomes sacred, you have become one with the Divine. Then every minute of your life is sacred, every place you go to becomes sacred, every act of yours is sacred and every person you meet is only your reflection. 

An act when performed repeatedly loses its sacredness. This happens when your memory overpowers your consciousness and you lose your sensitivity. For example, people living in Benares do not feel that it is a sacred place. It is too familiar; that sensitivity is just not there. 

How can we preserve that feeling of sacredness in our acts? Through living in the present moment and through sadhana (spiritual practice). Your sadhana will not allow your memory to overpower consciousness. Then repetition is not a hindrance. 

It is good to feel that some places, times, people and symbols are sacred so that you can be awake and alive. But eventually you need to transcend and feel that the entire creation and your whole life are sacred. 

For the person of God, the whole world, with all its symbols, places and people are sacred at all times. Be a person of God!

Don't try to shorten "longing"

 

Longing itself is Divine. 

Longing for worldly things makes you inert. 

Longing for infinity fills you with life.

When longing dies, inertia sets in. But longing also brings a sense of pain. To avoid the pain, you try to push away the longing. The skill is to bear the pain of longing and move on. Do not try to find a shortcut to overcome longing. Do not make the longing short – that’s why it is called loooonging. 

True longing in itself brings up moments of bliss. That is why in ancient days longing was kept alive by singing and listening to kathas, or stories. 

When longing transcends relationships, then judgments, jealousy and all negative feelings drop. It is only with wisdom and self-knowledge that one can transcend relationships.

People often think wisdom is devoid of longing. No! Such wisdom is dry. The longing that comes with true wisdom makes life juicier. The Divine is certainly juicy! 

Longing gives you the power to bless. Bless the entire creation for the longing in you is God.

Denying God - a primer

It was thought that saying “I am God” is blasphemy. I tell you, to say “I am not God” is blasphemy. When you say “I am not God,” you deny God His omnipresence. 

You are made up of love. If you say “I am not God,” you are denying that God is love. If you are love and you say “I am not God,” you are saying God is not love, and that is blasphemy. 

“I am” is your consciousness. If you say “I am not God,” you deny that God is aware, alert and awake. You exist. When you say “I am not God,” you deny God a portion of existence and that is blasphemy. You are denying the scriptures that say “God made man in His own image.” If you say “I am not God,” you are denying God. 

Now if God is omnipresent, why is there hatred and suffering in this world? Just as in a movie, when light passes through the film, it does not matter to the light what the film portrays, in the Absolute there are no opposites. 

Tragedy or comedy, hero or villain, the light is always there. All opposites are part of relative existence. Relative existence is not the complete picture. Good and bad, right and wrong, everything is relative. Milk is good, but too much milk can kill you. A drop of poison can save a life, but most medicines are poisonous if taken in the wrong dose. These are neither absolutely good nor bad; they just are. 

Truth transcends duality, and God is the absolute and only truth. In the same way, no matter what is happening in your mind, you are God.

Are you God?

I up a pistachio nut and asked, “What is this?” Everybody said, “A pistachio.” 

I held up a pistachio nut without the shell and asked, “What is this?” Everybody said, “A pistachio.” 

I then held up the shell and asked, “What is this?” Everybody said, “A shell.” 

As the nut with or without the shell is pistachio, similarly, spirit with or without the body is God. But just as the shell without the nut is not a pistachio, the body without spirit is not God. 

Spirit is certainly God because it is present everywhere. The body is certainly not God because it is not present everywhere. God is within the body and God embodies the whole universe. 

Those who have eyes will see. When asked, “Are you God?” to whom is the question addressed? As it is only the spirit that answers, one has no choice but to say, “Yes!”

A lady one told me, “I want an honest and humble man in my life.” Now, I am neither honest nor humble! I cannot tell everyone that I am God, as not everyone will understand. So I am not honest. I am not humble – how can God be humble? If I am humble, I am not honest. If I am honest, I cannot be humble.

If you need to own something, own the universe

 

Man has a tendency to own things. When he owns something small, his mind stays small, his life gets stifled and his whole consciousness is immersed in his house, his car, his spouse, his children and so on. A recluse leaves his home and goes far away. But there he starts owning his asana, his rosary, his books, his concepts and his knowledge. Ownership has simply shifted from objects and people to ideas and practices. 

A wise one knows that he owns the sun, the moon, the stars, the air, all of space and the Divine in its entirety. When you own something big, then your consciousness also expands, and when you own something small, then small negative emotions, such as anger and greed, start to rise. 

I wonder why people do not feel connected to the sun. The very existence of life depends upon the sun. Perhaps it is lack of awareness that causes people to refuse to acknowledge and own their connectedness to the macrocosmic universe. 

The rishis in ancient India, the Native Americans and aboriginals from all over the globe have insisted that you can feel connected to the sun, the moon and the directions. When you own something magnanimous, your consciousness also becomes magnanimous.

Understanding maya

 

What is maya? Maya is that which can be measured. The whole world can be measured, that is why it is maya. 

All five elements – earth, water, fire, air and ether – can all be measured. Can space be measured? Only in space can things be measured. Space is the first dimension of measurement. 

Measurement is always relative and not absolute. For example, if something weighs six pounds on earth, it will weigh only one pound on the moon. The light of the star you see today is not really today’s light. It has taken at least four years for the light to reach you. Both size and weight change in air, water and earth. 

So “measure” is illusory and not dependable. Your bones, skin, body, environment and the five elements can be measured; you can put a value, a quantity, to them. So, the whole world is maya. All measurements only provide a relative understanding. Einstein’s theory of relativity correlates with the advaita (non-dual) philosophy. 

But what is not maya? Everything that cannot be measured is maya. You cannot say one ounce of love, two ounces of peace and five kilograms of happiness. Can you be measured? It is not possible. Your body has weight, but not you. 

Truth cannot be measured, ananda – or joy – cannot be measured, and beauty cannot be measured. All these are part of consciousness – the Divine – and are called mayi.