Dealing with one's own imperfections

 

The whole creation is made up of nature (prakriti) and the distortion of nature (vikriti). Anger and jealousy are not our nature – they are distortions of our nature. They are part of this creation, but we still call them distortions because they do not allow the Self to shine forth fully. 

So too with sin. Sin is not your nature, and you are not born out of sin. Sin is just the wrinkle on a cloth. It needs proper ironing! Lust is considered a sin because in lust, you treat the other person like an object. In love, you see the person as someone higher. Anger is a sin because when you are angry, you lose your centre; you lose sight of the Self. In guilt, you limit the small mind to an action that has already happened. 

Be thankful for the qualities you have been bestowed with because they are not of your own making. These qualities depend on the part that you have been given to play. When you understand this basic truth, then your inner perfection becomes stable. 

Some psychologists say, “Deep inside you, there is fear, guilt and anger.” These psychologists know nothing about the mind or consciousness! I tell you, deep inside, you are a fountain of bliss… a fountain of joy! Jesus got angry twice – He threw people out of a church, and shouted in anger. Krishna once broke His own promise – He vowed, He would not take up a weapon during the Mahabharata war, but when it became impossible to conquer Bhishma, He picked up His weapon, the Sudarshan Chakra. 

The peak of every emotion, every sensation, leads you to blossoming; leads you to innermost perfection. Don’t just look for perfection in actions. You name any action, and I’ll show you that there is a flaw in that action! Even when you give alms or charity, you are lowering the self-respect of the receiver. However, perfection in feeling is possible. Perfection in speech is possible to a great extent. Perfection in action is also possible to a greater extent.

Even if vikritis come your way, don’t give them too much importance for they are like wrinkles on a cloth. If you give importance to somebody’s anger, greed, or lust, then these are no longer only in them, for at some point of time, they take a permanent place in your mind. For e.g., an animal has sex, but after that, it doesn’t think about sex, until the next mating season. However, once man has sex, he keeps on thinking about it in his mind! This is what Krishna says in the Gita on several occasions: “What has happened to your mind?” If you nourish the vikara inside you, it changes from one impurity to another, and keeps multiplying inside you. Relax, and know that you are not the doer. See this whole thing as a drama –  that is the only way you can remain in your centre.

Consciousness of an enlightened being

 

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

Perfection is taking total responsibility, and total responsibility means – knowing you are the only responsible person in the whole world. When you are in total vairagya (dispassion), you can even take care of trivial and insignificant things with such perfection. Perfection is the very nature of one who is enlightened. 

Knowledge is different at different levels of consciousness. At a particular level, you become “anasuya”, meaning “devoid of fault-finding eyes”. There is a certain mindset that always finds fault, even in the best of conditions. Such people will still find something wrong, even with the best possible companion, or the most beautiful painting. Such a mindset cannot know the sacred knowledge. The weaker the devotee, the purer the Guru needs to be. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that He is giving Arjuna the royal secret because Arjuna is anasuya. Similarly, Hanuman never saw any fault in Rama. 

From a distance, even craters cannot be seen; from up close, even a smooth surface will have holes. If you are only interested in the holes, you will not see the magnanimity of things. If you are not anasuya, knowledge cannot blossom in you, and then, there is no point in giving you knowledge.

If you look for imperfection, you can see imperfection even in Rama and Krishna! If Krishna had been living today, there would probably have been many court cases filed against Him for telling lies, stealing, etc.! In Buddha’s life, you don’t see any imperfection. Buddha lived a pure life, not for His own sake, but for the sake of the world – for the sake of the devotees. 

If an enlightened person drinks or smokes, nothing happens to their consciousness, for in that state of enlightenment, all that one wants is the welfare of everyone, “good” for everyone and happiness on this planet.

Sex is not a hindrance on the path

Sex is where life originates in the Orient. It is honoured as divine sexuality. It is in the second chakra, and then you move up to the other chakras. Spirituality does not disown anything or dissociate from anything. Spirituality encompasses all aspects of life. In fact, spirituality uplifts one from sex to the higher consciousness.

Sex is being attracted to a part of the body and getting some stimulation from it. The goal of sex is to find joy and not sex itself. It is to get into that moment. Forget about everything and find joy. Spirituality provides that joy, a joy, which is not through some act but a joy that is beyond the senses.

Any enjoyment or pleasure is spending energy when you spend a lot of energy. Then you do not have enough energy left to take you to your centre. That is the only reason why sex, food, too much sleep or watching television continuously or doing too much of any activity will be a hindrance on this path, to be in the hollow and empty space inside you. It is because you are not used to going deep inside of yourself that you are not in the centre; you are not calm, serene or subtle.

To be something that you're not used to being, needs some energy. It needs some effort and it is an effort to become effortless. So during this period of time, it is better to abstain from talking and all other activities like too much sex, over-eating, too much sleep, etc. Otherwise, the relationship you are in is not a hindrance for your spiritual growth or meditation. 

Sex is not a hindrance, provided both partners are on the same path; both are in a balanced state of mind and have a common goal, purpose and are engaged in service. Sex is nothing but a little stimulation on the level of the body, it gives you a "high" for a few minutes, and that's it. There's no big deal about it.

The need for a physical high will automatically reduce once you feel the inner fountain of love flowing from. You are the source of that love. The stimulation of the self is so strong that the stimulation in the body is nothing in comparison to it. The tickle of the soul is so strong that the sensations in the body don't come anywhere close to it.

It is not that one is against the other, or one creates some problem for the other. When you realise consciousness is beyond the physical body, then you go beyond the gross pleasures. You have been trying to know the male and the female in so many lifetimes - animal and human. If you just want to know sexual pleasures, then keep knowing them. But for how long? At some point of time, you will say "Enough is enough." That is when the mind will turn inward.

That is why it is said a minute of samadhi is equivalent to 1000 units of sex. The amount of joy you get in one minute of samadhi is thousand times more than the joy you get in a minute of sex and that one minute of samadhi is equivalent to a billion years of rest.

So do you want that? Then you have to go beyond these mundane things you have to give up something to get something. If you want to really enjoy a nice good meal, you have to give up eating junk food all day. Since the morning if you're stuffing yourself with potato chips, you can't enjoy your lunch because you won't have the appetite for it. If you're hungry, then you can enjoy a good meal. You don't have to give up the potato chips though. Moderation is the key.

A tale of two forces

 

The lotus flower is only a symbol in the olden times. One of the names of the Lord used to be Kamal Nayana, meaning having eyes like a blossomed lotus. In the same way, the kundalini has been represented symbolically as a snake in the mythological stories. It is said that mother Earth rests upon the hoods of the serpent sesha naag.

What does this actually mean? What does the sesha naag mean? It symbolises the centripetal and the centrifugal forces. Our Earth is supported by two kinds of forces. These forces do not move in a linear direction. These forces act in a circular fashion. A snake also never travels in a straight line.

The movement of the serpent is propelled by centripetal and centrifugal forces. The sesha naag symbolizes the two forces that the Earth is supported by. It does not literally mean that the Earth is resting upon the hood of some giant serpent. No, it is not, so at all. The sesha naag here is not some actual living being. It is actually a giant, supportive force or power.

Similarly, when we say that there is a lotus flower within us, it means that when the mind blossoms and becomes soft, supple and refined, then we experience the subtle consciousness in us. When the mind is stuck in inertia, then we cannot experience any energy or power in us. That is why our scriptures advocate the practice of mitahara, meaning exercising balance and restraint while eating. They advocate proper rest for the body. Then the body becomes tuned and conducive to experience this subtle phenomenon.

Symbolism behind Ganesh Chaturthi

 

Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated on the day on which Lord Ganesha is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees. Though it is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the symbolism behind the festival is much deeper. Though Ganesha is worshipped as the elephant-headed God, the swaroop (form) is just to bring out its parabrahma roopa (eternal divine formlessness). 

Ganesh Chaturthi marks a unique art of reaching the formless paramatma called Lord Ganesh by the repeated worship of his manifest form. Even the Ganesh Stotram, the prayers recited in the praise of Ganeshji, conveys the same. We pray to Ganesha in our consciousness to come out and sit in the idol for us for a while so that we can play with Him. 

After the puja, we again pray, asking Him to go back to where He came from – our consciousness. While He is in the idol, we offer back whatever God has given us through the puja of the idol.

Ganesha is the lord of all the good qualities in us. So when we worship Him, all the good qualities blossom in us. He is also the Lord of knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge dawns only when we become aware of the Self. When there is inertia, there is no knowledge, no wisdom, nor is there any chaitanya (liveliness) or progress in life. So, the consciousness has to be awakened, and the presiding deity of consciousness is Ganesha. That’s why before every puja, the Lord Ganesha is worshipped to awaken the consciousness. 

Therefore, install the idol, worship it with infinite love, meditate and experience Lord Ganesha from within. This is the symbolic essence of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, to awaken the Ganesh tattva, which is masked inside us.

And in the end, say, ‘You have come from my heart, and you will get back into my heart.’ Like that, saying that, Ganapati, the idol, you leave it in the ocean or in the water, from where you took it. The Visarjan is for you to understand that Ganapati is not just in the idol. He has come from your heart into the idol. The prana has come there, and then the prana gets back into you after fulfilling your desires. 

Putting forth your desires in front of Ganapati, you then say, ‘Ganapati, you are back in my heart.’ Then you leave that idol in the water.

The ritual of immersing (visarjan) the idols after a few days of worship reinforces the understanding that God is not in the idol; He is inside us. So, experiencing the Omnipresent in the form and deriving joy out of the form is the essence of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. In this way, such organised festivity and worship leads to an upsurge in enthusiasm and devotion. 

Embrace the symbolism of Lord Ganesha and let wisdom guide your path as you navigate the journey of life with awareness and grace.

Chakras - your pathway to bliss

 

There are seven chakras or seven nerve/energy centers connected with different glands in the body — thyroid gland, the adrenalin glands, pituitary gland, pineal gland, etc. Science also agrees that these glands are responsible for our experiencing various emotions. Our ancient Rishis knew this fact thousands of years ago and mentioned it in the scriptures. 

The Rishis depicted each of the seven chakras in the forms of a lotus or different flowers. This is because when you go deeper in meditation, the consciousness becomes very subtle, and your mind becomes fresh like a flower. It becomes fresh, alive and soft. In such a delicate state of consciousness, you experience the rise of energy in the system. 

Lightness is connected with subtlety. Grossness is connected with inertia and negative sensations; negative feelings. When you are negative, when you are rude or rough in your behavior, there is a certain inertia, a certain heaviness in the system. 

When you feel all the positive sensations, you feel a sense of lightness. When the energy moves upwards, then the inertia transforms into enthusiasm and then next to creativity. From creativity wells up joy. When you are happy, you are naturally generous. Then the energy moves up further into the heart chakra where you only feel love for everybody around you. When you feel immense love, you feel an equal amount of gratitude and from this gratitude stems awareness. Awareness leads you to bliss.

Recognize duality to see unity

 

Some people misuse yoga for the fulfilment of their carnal instincts; this is wrong. It should be the other way around. Whenever there is a carnal instinct, it should be transformed into a divine inner experience. There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit called atma rati, union with one’s being, rejoicing in one's self. 

There are two things, prakriti (nature) and purusha (consciousness). There is an interplay of nature and consciousness all the time. The union of your body and soul — your body is female (prakriti), and your soul is male (purusha) — is happening all the time. And, seeing that union within oneself is samadhi. 

That is why samadhi is considered to be a thousand times more joyful than carnal desires. Whatever joy sex gives, samadhi offers a thousand times more because there is no effort and no action there. It is only being and just being. When just the being, the play and display of consciousness come to one’s awareness, it becomes one’s experience — exquisite and beautiful! 

Don’t keep any corner of your existence away from divinity. The divine should be interwoven into every aspect of your life, and this is called brahmacharya, which means moving with the infinity, uniting with the infinity. In India, you find both aspects — Shiva and Parvati who symbolize prakriti and purusha, consciousness and matter — everywhere. First recognize the duality and then see the unity. They are not two, they are not different but two sides of the same coin.

You are complete. You are both man and woman. Getting rid of this label, ‘I am man’, ‘I am woman’ — getting out of your limited identity, this is the highest philosophy of the universe. We keep identifying ourselves, ‘I am a man’, ‘I am a woman’, ‘I am old’, ‘I am young’, ‘I am educated’, and ‘I am illiterate’. Throw away all these labels. What remains is pure consciousness. Just know that you are the consciousness.

Don’t go around saying I am nothing. Adi Shankaracharya once said, ‘One who labels himself as something is a fool and one who labels himself as nothing is a bigger fool.’ One who is nothing does not talk, so just keep quiet. How can you say, ‘I am nothing’, when you are saying something! There cannot be somebody there saying, ‘I am nothing.’ 

When you consider the basic necessities of food and sex as sacred, then aggression in you disappears and surrender, gratefulness and love dawn in you. That is when the devotee and the divine have become one. They have blissfully merged into one. But there is a difference between bliss and sex. Sex is energy consuming and draining while bliss is energy conserving. All emotions that you experience are nothing but energy moving through you, through the chakras in the body.

Why should one be on the spiritual path?

 

Spirituality for me is very basic to life. We are made of both matter and spirit. While the building blocks of our body are proteins, carbohydrates, etc., our consciousness or spirit is made of compassion, joy, energy, enthusiasm, peace, happiness and all such beautiful qualities. Anything that uplifts the spirit, anything that brings more happiness, love, creativity, compassion, and enthusiasm in life is spirituality. 

For thousands of years, spirituality has been the guiding force behind humanity. Now is the time when we need to move from religion to spirituality. Religion is like the peel and spirituality the fruit inside. Wars have been fought and nations divided in the name of religion but spirituality has united humanity irrespective of religion, race, caste, creed, gender, colour and age. The rituals that you go through from birth to death are all religion. 

Spirituality is personal. Unfortunately, the world over, we have thrown out the essence and are holding on to the dry fruit peel. Spirituality gives you the much-needed self-esteem, confidence and fearlessness. Some religions don’t believe in God — like Buddhism and Jainism. 

Religion, mainly talks about rituals, symbols, a style of life, whereas spirituality attends to the core values of empowering oneself, and realizing that there are many faculties and dimensions lying dormant within us. For example, all of us have ten fingers, but not everyone knows how to play the sitar. With a little training, the fingers can play music. In the same way, with a little training of our minds, talent can be exhibited, confidence levels can rise, honesty, integrity – qualities that we expect from others will start showing up within us. 

Spirituality is getting in touch with yourself, the core of your being. The goal of the spiritual path is to understand the spiritual dimension of life and live all the values that the spirit represents — peace, love, joy, beauty, unlimited knowledge, and the capacity to understand both mind and matter. At any moment, in any place, you can just sit and let go, knowing that inside you there is a pure, clear space that’s vast and deep. 

That inner space is what you are. Feeling this inner space is knowing your spiritual dimension. Spiritual blossoming simply means blossoming in life in all dimensions — being happy, at ease with yourself and with everybody around you. Worrying doesn’t make any difference, but working does, and spirituality gives one the strength to work.

Go beyond yourself, to find God

 

Who is God? You and me and all that is. The totality. Love is God and everything is love. The whole creation is filled with love. Now the question that is rising in your mind is, "Are hatred, anger and negativity also love? I would say yes. 

If you are angry, go to the root of your anger. Why are you angry? Because you love someone in some way. That anger is a by-product of love. Do you see that? Hatred is a byproduct of love. Love is what you are made up of. The consciousness in you is love. 

Love is not just an emotion. It is the very state of your being. It is the pulse in you. You may call it God. You may call it pure consciousness. You may call it the supreme or unseen power which nobody knows. It is the basis of creation.

A scientist may call it the vacuum state of matter or existence. A person who practices yoga says it is that which is beyond the mind, beyond the self. The word God in India is Paramatman. Atman means the self, the I. Para means beyond. Whatever is beyond the I, is God. 

So how do you go beyond the I? When you become love. You dissolve. You go beyond.

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.