Giving prime time to the Divine

When you are talking, connecting with someone, when you look at your friend or somebody you love, something happens inside you. You feel as though some new energy is coursing through you, a joy that is hard to describe. Capture that great moment, for those moments are timeless. But don’t stop there. Okay, you might have experienced those timeless moments by the presence of that person, that person might have brought forth those emotions in you. So what? Instead of getting immersed in that person or in the situation, just be with the spring of bliss rising in you.

The Divine has given you all the small pleasures in the world but has kept the bliss to Him. To get the highest bliss, you have to go to Him and Him alone. Be sincere in your attempts. Once you get bliss, then everything else is joyful. Without bliss, joy in anything in the world will not stay.

Give satsang and meditation your highest priority. Give prime time to the Divine and know that God belongs to you. Either through awareness or through practice, you reach the same spot. When you know you are part of the divine plan, you stop demanding. Then you know everything is being done for you. You are taken care of. Usually we do it the other way: we hurry the mind and are slow in our action. Patience in the mind and dynamism in action are the right formula.

Usually, when the word ‘god’ is mentioned, everybody looks up immediately. What is there up above? It only rains from above. There is nothing above. Everything is inside, neither above nor below. Looking inside, being inside is meditation and this brings real joy, real happiness. Time and beauty are not elsewhere; they are here, right now, in this very moment. Every single moment is important. Live every moment of life. Make life a celebration.

The silent part of the Divine is known as mahakaal. Shiva is known as mahakaal. Mahakaal means great time. We often say, “I had a great time.” Great time means the moments present in the timeless moments. Shiva is also known as Kaal Samhaara Murti. It means the lord who slays time. How is it possible to slay time? It is possible by extreme bliss. When you are blissful, you do not feel the passage of time. When you are not aware of the passage of time, then it is said that time has been slayed.

There is a close relation between time and sadness. When we are very sad, we perceive time to be too long. When you are happy, you do not feel time. When there is peace in the mind, you will not sense the passage of time. When there is no peace in the mind, even two passing minutes make you feel as though two hours were spent. So what is happiness, or bliss? It is our very self. That self is the Shiva tattva.

Make your body God’s abode, and there will be peace and bliss. God is not an object of senses but the feeling of feelings, the presence of the presence, the sound of silence, the essence of the world and a taste of bliss.

Maintaining harmony in relationships with others as well as with oneself

 

It is important to know what keeps and what really disturbs interpersonal relationships. The relationship gets disturbed when disagreement begins.

Just look at yourself. You had some idea yesterday; today you may have a different idea. Five years ago, you had other ideas that do not necessarily agree with the ideas that you have today. So, when you have disagreement with yourself, why should it not happen with someone else? The ‘someone’ you have a disagreement with is just a photocopy of your old or the new self. So you need to take a look at your own thought patterns and emotional patterns; there is a rhythm in them and in the consciousness.

We need to find harmony between all these rhythms within us and that’s what is called spirituality. For maintaining interpersonal relationships, you have to first have a relationship with yourself. Your relationship with yourself is called integrity.

Secondly, being informal keeps your interpersonal relationship strong, for it gives space for mistakes to happen. You cannot expect perfection in any relationship or situation. Today one of the biggest problems with the world is emotional instability. When we create an informal outlook and cordial environment around us, we grease the friction and become the master of our environment and not feel helpless about what is happening around us.

Life is very complex. There is no set formula. When you think that you are very honest and righteous, you become a little stiff inside without even realizing it. When you recognise that there are flaws in you, you are then able to accommodate the flaws in other persons.

It is not only your vices or bad qualities that will harm you, even your good qualities can make you stiff, rude and angry. That is why you should surrender both bad and good qualities. Take life as it comes. Sometimes you are upset or angry; it is OK. Relax and let go. Life does not stop for anything; it moves. Just move with the flow.