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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Connection between Shiva and Ganesha

 

The lord of the diverse universe is called Ganesha. 

The whole universe is nothing but clusters of atoms – groups of qualities, of energy. Gana means group and a group cannot exist without a “lord.” Like the queen bee whose mere existence brings forth the honeycomb, this diverse universe in itself is enough evidence for Ganesha’s presence. 

Ganesha, or lord, was born from the unmanifest transcendental consciousness, the Self, called Shiva. Just as when atoms bond and matter comes into existence, so when all the fragmented aspects of human consciousness bond, divinity happens effortlessly and that is the birth of Ganesha from Shiva.

Why tech needs spirituality

 

The purpose of technology is to harness nature to bring information and comfort to human beings. 

When spiritual values – human values – are ignored and neglected, technology brings fear and destruction instead of comfort. Technology without human values considers nature a dead object. 

Science gives insight into the life of nature and spirituality makes nature come alive. In the eyes of children there is nothing dead in the world – animals, trees, the sun and the moon – they all have life, they all have emotions, they all have feelings. But in the eyes of a stressed and ignorant person, even human beings are like robots – objects. 

Technology without spirituality is destructive. Spirituality is the technology of consciousness and the whole world is the play and display of consciousness.

One more step to knowing yourself

 

To be able to know yourself or to judge your actions, you need to understand tarka, vitarka and kutarka. 

Kutarka is wrong logic. Most people use this logic and get caught up in ignorance. For example, the door is half open means the door is half closed. Therefore, when the door is fully open means the door is fully closed. Another example – God is love. Love is blind. Therefore God is blind. 

Tarka is sequential logical understanding which increases scientific knowledge. When sequential logical understanding changes, then scientific conclusions change. For example, pesticides and antibiotics were considered to be very useful and harmless, but they are now proven to be harmful. In tarka, paradigms change. 

Vitarka is asking questions to which there are no evident answers such as “Who am I?” “Where am I?” “What do I really want?” These philosophical questions bring forth spiritual knowledge, increase your awareness and bring about the blossoming of consciousness. Atma gyan (self-knowledge) increases. The wise know how to distinguish between these three. They will not apply kutarka or tarka for vitarka, or use vitarka for tarka.

The right vision needed for knowledge

 

Knowledge will be different at different levels of consciousness. At a particular level of consciousness, you will achieve anasuya, which is a state of mind that is devoid of fault-finding eyes. If a mirror is dusty, you need to clean it. But if your eyes have cataracts, any amount of dusting the mirror will not help. First you have to remove the cataracts, then you can see that the mirror is clean. 

There is a type of mindset that always finds fault, even in the best of conditions. Even when people with this mindset have the best, they still find faults. With the best possible companion, or the most beautiful painting, they will still find something wrong. That kind of mindset cannot know sacred knowledge. 

Krishna tells Arjuna that he is giving him a royal secret because he achieved the state of anasuya. “You find no fault in me even though you are so close.” From a distance, even craters cannot be seen, and up close, even on a smooth surface there will be holes. If you are only interested in the holes, you will not see the magnanimity of things. If you are not in anasuya, knowledge cannot blossom and there is no point in giving knowledge to you. 

What about discrimination – wisdom? If it is in your vision, your perception, then you will find discrimination. The moment you are off the path, everything will be wrong. That is not anasuya. For example, after ten years of friendship you no longer see the good in that relationship; you only find faults. However, once you discover you have the wrong vision – you have discovered your cataracts – then half of the problem disappears. 

There is a fine line here. Instead of saying, “My vision is blurred,” you say, “The whole world is not sharp.” Suppose someone is coming through a door but it is windy, so you shut the door. If the person thinks the door has been slammed in his face, then this is asuya, not anasuya. 

Most people are like this. Asuya is finding fault. It is seeing malicious intent everywhere. It is like a child who says, “Mother, you do not love me!” The child’s vision is wrong. If a mother does not love her child, who will? It is the same when someone comes and says, “Guruji, you do not love me!” If I do not love him, then nobody else in the world will. Where else will they find love? Nowhere. A mother may get frustrated but not a master. 

Can a person achieve anasuya without being enlightened? Not always. Such questions are only excuses. To find enlightenment, you must have this vision.

How to get true freedom

 

Life moves by dual factors – inner tendencies and outer influences. 

Inner tendencies form your attitudes and behavior, while external influences make strong impressions in your mind. Your tendencies often generate external situations, and situations around you can form tendencies within you. This is called karma. 

Both these factors – the tendencies from within and influences from outside can be either beneficial or harmful. It is awareness that filters the outer negative influences and it is awareness that corrects and annihilates the unhealthy inner tendencies. This awareness is called gyana. 

The purpose of education is to develop this awareness so that you can be selective about your tendencies and influences. It is practically impossible to resist the external influences and the inner tendencies without raising one’s consciousness. This can be gradual or sudden.

This is how a human being has both free will and destiny. Freedom is when you have a say about your tendencies and your influences, but only awareness and impeccable devotion can bring this freedom.

Complementary nature of faith and alertness

 

Faith and alertness appear to be completely opposite in nature. When you are alert, there is usually no faith and you feel restless and insecure. When you have faith, your mind is in a restful state and you feel secure, so you are not alert. 

There are three types of faith. Tamasic faith is caused by dullness. For example, when you do not want to take responsibility or action and you say, “Oh, it doesn’t matter, God will take care of all these things!” 

Rajasic faith is brought on by an intense compulsion of desires and ambition. The ambition keeps your faith alive. 

Satvic faith is innocent and is born out of fullness of consciousness.

Faith and alertness, though apparently opposite in nature, are actually complementary to each other. In the absence of faith there can be no growth and without alertness there can be no correct understanding. Faith can make you complacent while alertness makes you tense. If there is no faith, there is fear. And when there is no alertness, you cannot perceive or express properly, so a combination of both is essential. 

In jnana – state of wisdom – there is alertness without tension and faith without complacency. The purpose of education should be to remove the element of dullness from faith and the element of fear from alertness. This is a unique and rare combination. If you have faith and alertness at the same time, then you will become a true jnani – a wise one.

Connection between love and authority - I

 

Love and authority are totally opposite values, yet they coexist. 

The grosser the consciousness, the more pronounced must be authority. The more refined and subtle the consciousness, the less need to exercise authority. When you are unrefined, you demand authority and when you demand authority, love recedes. 

Asserting authority indicates a lack of confidence and love. The more evident one’s authority, the less sensitive and effective it will be. A sensible person will not demand authority at all but will assume it. The most effective business leaders will not impose their authority, will not make you feel it, for authority can never bring inspiration. 

Your sincere servant has more authority over you than your boss. A baby has full authority over his mother. Similarly, a devotee has complete authority over the Divine, though he never exercises it. Remember that:

• The less love you have, the more pronounced will be your authority. 
• The greater your love, the subtler will be your authority. 
• The subtler you become, the more authority you gain.