Getting to see God

 

People were told in ancient days "God is your mother, God is your father, and thirdly, God is your teacher". See God as your mother, as your father and as your master. 

Don't divide and say, "This is different, that is different, God is somewhere else". Then you will experience disconnection. Though you are not disconnected, you will experience disconnection.

You can never be disconnected, but you can be in illusion, you can be in ignorance, believing that you are not connected. That is painful. Pain is the feeling of disconnectedness when it is not so.

I met a very beautiful Catholic nun who happened to come into one of the courses. She said, "If you don't see Christ in the first person you meet, you are never going to see Him". If you are able to see divinity in everyone, then all your relationships are relationships with God. You can't be related to anything else, because whatever you related to, you will see God in it.

If you have a brother, you will see God in the brother. If you have a sister, you will see God in the sister. If you have a husband, you will see God in the husband. You have parents, you see God in your parents. You have friends, you see God in your friends. In every relation you will see only God. God is coming to you in the form of an enemy.

God is making you stronger somewhere, pulling out all your weak points, contributing to your life. This is my understanding. With this understanding, the bliss, the joy remains eternal, unshakable.

To let love happen, know your Self

 

Can you love with your effort? Is it possible? No. A million times you have heard people telling you to love everything. Love the flower, love the sun, love the moon.

How Is possible? Can you love with your effort or does it just happen? Love is spontaneous inner happening. You have no control over love. It is the other way around Love controls you. When there is love, you are pulled. Even if you don't want to go , you are pulled. When there is love, you are drawn towards it. Love governs your life. You can't govern love.

You are very small. You are tinier than love. Love is a phenomenon. It happens to you. It is beyond your manipulation. You cannot manipulate your mind and bring love into it. It is impossible.

What can you do? You can drop the stresses, tension and all that is blocking the flow of love and being natural. If you are natural, you are allowing love to flow through you.

Anything you do that is unnatural blocks the flow of love. What is distress? Distress is something which blocks the flow of love. When there is love, there is no distress. Can there be distress in love? No. Can there be fear when there is love? No. Eliminate the root cause of tension, and love dawns and flowers in its natural way. The real cause of tension is unawareness of love. It goes in circles.

You think if you don't love yourself, if you can't accept yourself, you're limited in loving anybody else. But who said you don't love yourself? The trouble is you do love yourself. Not as your Self, but as your thoughts, your ideas and your ego. Ignorance of your Self is the lack today, not lack of love for oneself. Do you see that difference?

An obstacle to enlightenment

 

You are asking me, “Can a Christian or a Westerner be enlightened?”. If he thinks he is a Christian, he is a Hindu, he is a Muslim, he is somebody, and then he cannot be enlightened.

As long as anyone takes such a position, then enlightenment is far away. A human being can be enlightened, not a Christian, not a Hindu, not a Muslim. See the difference? 

If you know you are just a human being and if you know you are just being, you are already enlightened.

Understanding the "self"

 

Many people, when they get this spiritual knowledge, say, “Oh, Gurudev, while I’ve been waiting for this, so much time has gone by. I’ve wasted 20 years. How nice it would have been if you had come years ago”. 

I say don’t regret the past. Nothing is ever a waste. All the past, all you have gone through has built the foundation, has brought the walls up. Now we are here to put on the roof, to complete it. It is not a waste. What is it about the individual self that makes it different from another individual self?

My answer will not help you. You look into it. That is a question in your mouth like food in your mouth. Someone can bring food up to your mouth with a spoon, but you have to chew it. Someone else cannot chew it for you and put it in your stomach. This is such a question. You work it out. This much we can say, the self is not thoughts, it is not feeling, it is not emotions.

A scholar who has studied such things would answer this question. The answer to such a question is more harmful than good. It will only place more concepts in your mind. The other day a lady asked me a question. When I did not answer it, she became angry. She felt insulted. She said, “Why are you so unkind to me? You answer everybody else’s questions, but you don’t answer mine”.

I said, “I was kind to you, that’s why I did not answer your question. It’s the other way around. You have a bundle of knowledge. You think you know a lot already and you are chewing it like chewing gum.

It is not fulfilling your belly. All this knowledge is just like chewing gum in the mouth. Your jaws are aching and you are hungry. And you want more chewing gum in your mouth”.

Moving out of the cycle of karma

 

Grace and knowledge can cut the bondage of Karma. Otherwise there is no end to it. Good karmas will produce good karmas. Bad karmas will produce bad karmas, bad actions. 

Due to bad karma you are engaged in bad actions, and these bad actions will in turn create bad karma, and that bad karma will create bad action and its results, action and its results. It will continue forever.

From where does longing arise

 

Longing can come out of gratefulness and gratitude. Longing does not come out of complaint or frustration. Complaints and frustration will bring anger, hatred. Only gratefulness can bring longing.

Know that you've nothing, then you'll have everything

 

Give up everything and have everything. Even the sense of giving up something is thinking you have something. You don’t have anything. What do you have to give up? The struggle is that you think that you have, and then that you have to give it up. 

In the light of this knowledge you wake up and ask what is it that is yours. You don’t exist. ‘Yours’ doesn’t exist. What is yours? If something is there, it is there. If something is not there, it is not there. So what? If you trying to give something up, you are holding on to it more. Wake up and see nothing is yours or everything is yours. 

It becomes so easy. Yours needs will be met. Relax. When you have relaxed so completely, not possessing anything in the head or wanting to possess anything in the head, you will see the substance comes before the need for it arises. Fear arises with the thought, I may require something and then who will give it to me? This is a strain.

When the need is there, what is needed will come. This body belongs to the world. The world will take care of this body. You belong to God and God will take care of you.

The beginning of our spiritual journey

The spiritual journey begins with gratitude, which energizes and sweetens life. As it deepens, the journey leads to a state of oneness, where all distinctions fade. Gratitude also makes us more aware of the natural flow of life – its rhythm of giving and receiving.

In life, there’s always a give and take. But when we recognize that we’ve been taking more than we’ve been giving, and feel we have nothing left to offer, that’s when the spiritual journey truly begins.

Realise that we are here to give and not to take

At a deeper level, we come to realize that while we may feel we have nothing material to give, we are here to offer ourselves – our presence, our love, our service. There’s nothing we’re meant to take from this world. 

This shift marks the turning point from a material to a spiritual life. Realizing you are here to give, and not to take, uplifts the spirit.

Recognizing your own limitations makes you humble, while knowing your purpose (to give selflessly), lifts your spirit. This eventually leads to a stillness where duality dissolves, and only oneness remains. And this oneness transcends time. 

Much of our restlessness stems from being bound by time. We want everything immediately. But why must it happen on our timeline? Let life unfold at its own pace. Shifting your vision by seeing beyond the limits of time brings peace, stillness, and fulfillment. This is the wisdom passed down through generations. But in truth, it is all one. 

The rishis, the sages from ancient times, are not just figures of the past. Their presence is timeless and always accessible. The Guru is ever-present. All the rishis have affirmed this.

On the surface, you may see different personalities and qualities. But within, it’s the same light and spirit shining through the ages. Realizing you are a part of that eternal light is a celebration in itself.

Wisdom lies within each one of us

 

Here’s a truth to hold onto - you carry wisdom within you. The light of wisdom that’s been planted in you will never die or be blown away. It’s there, steady and alive.

You have a purpose; it is to spread that light. In this world, you are the hope, you are the light, you’re carrying the flame of wisdom. Never forget this.

Naturally, when you realize this, you want to start sharing it right away. But when others don’t listen, you may feel frustrated. You might think, “I have so much potential, but it’s not being used. Nobody understands me. Nobody is listening…”

That frustration arises because you’re in a hurry. Let go of the urgency. Just trust. Your potential will be used, if not in this life, then in another. And suddenly, that thought will dissolve your frustration and bring peace. The more peaceful you become, the more effortlessly things begin to happen. Isn’t that true?

When you’re centered and quiet, everything starts to flow. But when you’re agitated or rushing, things just don’t work.