Why say "Jai Gurudev"?

 

There is a Big Mind and a small mind. Sometimes the Big Mind wins over the small mind and sometimes it is the other way around. 

When the small mind wins, it causes misery and when the Big Mind wins, it is joy. The small mind promises joy but leaves you empty-handed. You may initially be resistant to the Big Mind but it will fill you with joy. 

The word guru means great. Jaya means victory. Deva means one who is fun-loving, playful, light. Some who are playful are often not dignified, and those who are dignified are often not playful. Jai Guru Dev means victory to the Big Mind in you that is both dignified and playful. Jai Guru Dev means “Victory to the greatness in you.” You do not say victory to the master as he has already achieved the Big Mind. You say victory to your own Self, your own Big Mind, which is being protested by the small mind.

Was Buddha an atheist?

 

A pure atheist is impossible to find. An atheist is one who believes only in the concrete and tangible, but life is not all concrete and tangible, nor is this universe. 

Whether it is business, science or art, all involve a certain amount of guesswork, assumptions, imagination and intuition. All of them have some aspects that are abstract in nature and are not tangible. The moment an atheist accepts, even remotely, something that is unexplainable, he ceases to be an atheist. 

An intelligent person cannot rule out all the mysteries in life and the universe, and hence cannot honestly be an atheist. So-called atheists are perhaps only denouncing certain concepts of God. 

Was Buddha an atheist? No, in one sense, because he professed emptiness, which is very hard for an atheist to accept, and yes in another sense because he did not profess concepts of God. An atheist believes only what he can see, but Buddha said all that you see is not real. If only all present-day atheists could be Buddhas!