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.

Patience, dynamism, and presence

Life teaches us - patience pays off. If you have both wisdom and patience, nothing can shake you. Be patient. Watch your children change, your in-laws change, your spouse change. Everything begins to align when you hold steady.

Haven’t you experienced this already? Yes – it works. Wisdom gives rise to patience. But when you want to do something meaningful and it doesn’t happen right away, time becomes the challenge.

Remember, patience isn’t laziness or inaction. You must remain dynamic. That’s the paradox. Dynamic people are often seen as impatient, and patient people are mistaken for being passive. But being on this path, you begin to embody the rare combination of both – patience and dynamism. This is the key you must hold.

There are many layers to being with a Guru, but it begins with closeness – and that starts with you. No one else can create that connection for you. You must feel, “I am close to the Guru.”

From there arises presence – the experience of the Guru’s presence in your life. That presence brings miracles – not just for you, but for those around you. When you truly feel it, you begin to radiate it. You yourself become a blesser.

You’re close to me

This Guru Purnima, take one message with you: the Guru is close to you, and you are close to the Guru.

Never doubt that I love you. Don’t think I’m distant, or closer to someone else. From your side, you must feel – I am very close to the Guru. Period. No questions, no comparisons. 

The moment you start doubting that you invite misery. Do you want to be miserable? No. Then just know – I am close to the Guru.

That’s it. It’s done. Sealed. No more debate.

Don’t say, “Oh, Gurudev looked at someone else. He held their hand. He didn’t even look at me.” Let go of that thought.

You may think, “That person is struggling more, so Gurudev is guiding them closely to bring them back on track. I’m already on track!”

It’s like an engineer scanning a machine. The scanner focuses only on the screws that are loose. If a screw says, “The scanner didn’t come to me,” it simply means that screw is already perfectly fine.

"Who am I becoming?"

 

What follows is a summary of message delivered at the Journey Within event in Mississauga Canada on July 11, 2026. 

Key thoughts:

1. Focus on who you’re becoming, not just what you’re achieving.

• Don’t measure life only by your possessions, job title, or success.
• Ask yourself: “Who am I becoming?”
• Character is more important than accomplishments.

2. Your energy shapes your experience.

• High energy → optimism, creativity, and opportunities.
• Low energy → doubt, fear, and negativity.
• The circumstances may be the same, but your inner state changes how you experience them.

3. Prayer and meditation complement each other.

• Prayer is when we speak to the Divine.
• Meditation is when we become quiet enough to listen.
• Both are important for spiritual growth.

4. Technology cannot replace humanity.

• AI and technology can increase productivity.
• But they cannot replace, love, kindness, presence, genuine human connection. These remain our greatest strengths.

5. Happiness comes from contribution, not accumulation.

• A turning point in life is moving from “What can I get?” to “What can I give?”
• Service (seva) naturally brings fulfillment.

6. Don’t only build your career—build yourself.

• Many people spend years building businesses, wealth, and careers.
• We often neglect building:

                * Wisdom

                * Compassion

                * Peace

                * Inner strength

7. The greatest success is becoming a better human being.

Some lessons won’t make you richer. They make you kinder, calmer, and wiser. Those lessons often have the greatest value.

These thoughts fit into one simple philosophy:

Live with high energy, meditate regularly, serve others, cultivate human values, and measure your life by the person you are becoming rather than by what you own or achieve.

“Who am I becoming?”

It’s a question that goes beyond career success or financial independence. You're asking whether each year you’re becoming more peaceful, more compassionate, and more joyful.

Desire vs intention

 

There is a difference between a desire and an intention. All work happens through intention. Your intend is - I want to go somewhere and you go. All life moves with intentions.

If I don’t have an intention to raise my hand, it will not raise. If I don’t have an intention to take the rose, I will not take it. All work happens through intention. Desire is that intention turning into a feverish thought in you. A desire is a thought with feverishness coming in you again and again, again and again, again and again.

That shakes the whole nervous system. Desire brings a dis-ease in the mind, an obsession in the mind. It clouds the clarity of mind. It brings feverishness and it burns you. It leaves you with scars and wounds. Every frustration, every desire has caused scars in the nervous system, and you are not even aware of it. 

The first time you become aware of it, you say "Oh, there are a lot of thing here I have done to myself" then you clear it up. When Buddha said, “Desire is the cause of sorrow”, He meant have nothing but good intention.

Your innocence is your own experience

 

There is a value of innocence in life. Remember those moments as a child when you were very happy? Then you were innocent.

In those moments when you were in deep love, you were innocent. In those moments when you felt very good, relaxed, you were innocent. It is a quality in you.

Love, beauty, truth are all beyond proof. Nobody can prove them. Nobody can prove God is. If someone tries to prove that God is, they are doing something disastrous.

Whatever you can prove, you can disprove also. God is beyond our proof and disproof. God is an experience. Your God only you can know. Your beauty only you can see.

Can anyone else have your experience of beauty? Impossible. It is the same with innocence. Your innocence is your innate experience.

Walking the path from intimacy to dispassion

 

When true intimacy, the feeling of wanting to love more, give more, gets turned around, then it says, “I have loved enough. What did I get in return? I have loved so much what did I get? I have not been cared for”. These demands will start. 

When you switch your direction, the struggle begins. True intimacy is recognising the flow of the current and joyfully floating with it. The current is there. You don’t have to stroke. You don’t have to move your hand and feet. It carries you and you float. Effortlessly. Taking everything for granted is true intimacy.

Observe your mind. What is happening in there? Constantly likes and dislikes. Wanting and not wanting, I want this, I don’t want this. Constant debate, fluctuation, cynicism, criticism, apathy, dejection. Do you see all these fluctuations? Are you aware of these things happening in the mind? For a while, throw off everything. Just sit. What is happening?

That is dispassion, centering. In true intimacy there is dispassion. Have you observed after laughing a lot and being very excited that excitement cannot be held in your mind? It feels awful. You want to throw off the excitement and just be quiet for a while. Have you had this experience? Wisdom dawns the day you recognise that joy is painful.

 

Your dispassion begins on that day when you notice joy is disturbing, exciting. You want to be a little quiet and calm. We have lost that sensitivity. That is why there is so much craving for joy, for something bigger”. Something must be better for me, something must give me more happiness”.

This is feverishness. We move from one feverishness to another. The pain of sorrow is feverishness. The pain of joy is feverishness. So you move from this feverishness to that feverishness and from that feverishness to this feverishness. It is a constant struggle.

Dispassion is that delicate balance that is beyond both joy and sorrow. In dispassion any great joy can come up and it will not shake you. That is enlightenment. Even if you are offered the heavens, you won’t move an inch from your seat. That is attainment. Dispassion is the secret. You can lean techniques and you can learn to meditate.

You can learn many things, but dispassion you cannot learn. It can only blossom in your life in time or with the presence of your teacher, your master. There is no other way dispassion can blossom. You cannot get in books. Only experience will teach you. The highest wisdom that can ever be achieved on this planet is dispassion. Anything can be shaken, but not dispassion.

Anything can be bought, but not dispassion. If you are dispassionate, if you are centered, nothing whatsoever can shake you. The only rich one is the one who is dispassionate. Otherwise you can be tempted, you can be shaken.

If someone offers you two million dollars and tells you, “Do this, do that” you will move from your position. But that person can’t move one who is dispassionate. Suppose someone comes and says to you, “You tell this lie and I’ll give you 2 million dollars”. Just imagine what you would do. Think of it. Your mind will put forward hundred and one justifications for whatever you will do.

 

You’ll say, “Okay, So what. I’ll say this and it may be for good and if I get two million dollars, I’ll use it for the benefit of the whole humankind. I don’t want it for myself, but I can do some good work for the whole world”. 

A prostitute was once asked by a priest to tell some lies about Kabir, the saint in India. She was a very conscientious woman and she wouldn’t speak a lie. They told her, “You do nothing. When Kabir gives satsang, you go to him and hug him. Say, “Oh, my dear, it have not met you in all these days’. You just say this”. So people tempted her and made her say this for 2 gold coins. When she did that, Kabir said, “Oh, I have been waiting for you. I have been here all the time. Where have you been?” Now this threw many people off their balance.

Kabir was a man who gave sermons, satsangs every night, so beautiful, so wonderful. The Brahma jnana knowledge was dawning on earth in a weaver, someone who was not literate, an innocent man. Many people left Kabir after this incident because their intimacy was just with the words, it was not true intimacy and had arisen because of passion.

Your passion is the cause of your rebellious mood and disinterestedness. The moment you become dispassionate, there is nothing but love. There is nothing but intimacy.

Many flavours of love, intimacy

 

In true intimacy all modes and all moods are involved, are included. What I mean by love is not always goody-goody and saying nice things. It is sometimes saying unpleasant things too. That is also love.

Getting angry sometimes is also love. Love is fighting, too. It is all modes. Many years back, when I was travelling abroad, I got a phone call from India. They said, “Come back quickly. When you return, we will lock you up and not let you go”. They were literally fighting with me on the phone. They wanted me home in the months of April, May, all the months. That is also out of love. Demand, with awareness, is also out of love.

You are trying to swim against the current. Still, the current is so huge, so big, you float in the same direction. You are struggling in the opposite direction, but you are moving in the same direction.

Do you see that? Everything in you is arising out of love only, because love is there. Intimacy is recognising this direction and being with the direction, feeling that you are totally loved.

If you doubt whether you are being loved or not, your capacity to love goes down. You will stop loving. You demand love, but how much have you been giving, contributing?

If you feel you have been contributing enough, loving enough, then you are not loving enough, because in love you always feel inadequacy. Any amount you do, you feel that it is inadequate. True intimacy always feels “I have not loved enough. I have not done enough”.

The biggest obstacle to true intimacy - your mind

 

Take it for granted that everybody in creation, everything in creation loves you, because everything has come out of love and goes back to love and remains in love.

Then you are with the flow of current. You are with the flow of river. If you don’t see that, then you are against the current. The you will not be loving. When somebody is swimming against the current, what does it mean? The whole creation is moving towards love. It is in love. But the one who is swimming against the current is not in love.

You are already intimate. How intimate can you be? You cannot be any more intimate. Your wanting to be intimate, wanting to have more intimacy, is the block. In looking out there for intimacy, you are swimming against the current. That brings you strain, frustration, anger. In creation everything is intimate, everything feels experiences intimacy.

Everything other than human beings, that is. The human mind which is stressed and tense only judges, discriminates, love this, doesn’t love that. The mind makes a hundred boundaries, ifs and buts, doubts, and then removes itself from existence. This removal from the flow of existence is called separation. Oneness with existences is intimacy.

What is true intimacy?

 

True intimacy is one-sided and non-judgmental. It starts from inside. The test for truth is to kick it. What is true will come back to you. If it comes back to you, it is yours. What goes away with a kick was never yours. 

The nature of everything in creation is to come back home. Everything goes back to its origin. A plant comes from the soil and it goes back to the soil. Water comes up from the ocean and it goes back to the ocean. Coming back to the source is the nature of everything in creation. We are innocent when we are born. When we become very old, we become like that again, innocent.

A child has little capacity to comprehend and communicate. When it goes through life and becomes an old man, it completes the circle, whether by choice or not by choice. Those who live long enough become like a child again. If you have ever spoken to people who are 95 or 100 years old, you will feel that they are like children now. They can’t understand or communicate. Like children they get stuck on one thing.

They say something and they stick to it. Children say, “Pa, pa, pa, pa”. In same way old people also repeat. When children do it, it is more joyful, although sometimes the mother gets angry at the children. But when old people do it you feel frustrated because your way of looking at a child and an old man is totally different. Your expectation from both of them is totally different.

So your own expectations cause irritations in you. Your own judgements cause irritations in you. True intimacy is non-judgmental. It is not looking at whether the old person loves you or not, whether the other person loves you or not, whether the other person treats you well or not. That is none of your business. If I want to be intimate with somebody, I take it for granted that they feel they love me. When you doubt whether the other person loves you or not, then your love for the other person goes down.

There is no way you can know the love of another person. If you base your perception only on the expression of love, you are mis-lead. Someone may say, “Oh, you are so wonderful, I love you so much”. And if you think that they mean that, or if you think someone who doesn’t say, “Oh I love you so much”, doesn’t love you, then you are mistaken. Action does not always represent the truth of the state of being.

In true intimacy you stop looking at the act and you Start being in love. So if you have determined to love somebody, do not even think whether they love you are not. You love them. That is enough. If they kick you to see whether the love in you is true or not, then you should have more happiness. Then, also you give love back. True love is coming back to the self. That is true intimacy.

Understanding aversions and cravings

 

I wouldn't say you are always connected to the earth, I would say you are part of this earth. Have you ever thought, as you sat at your dining table and took a loaf of bread in your hand, "This is my body? This bread that is going inside me will become the cells in my body. This bread is my future body. It is just a matter of some time?" 

You have a cup of milk in front of you. Have you ever thought, "This is part of my body? This milk is going to be my blood? Is it not true? When Jesus started the mass, he told people This is my flesh. This is my blood".

He meant, "This entire creation is my body". Feel one with everything. The food you eat, you are part of already! Before eating it, you are part of it. That is your flesh already. Jesus told them, "Don't lament. Don't think I am just in this body. This bread is my body. All the food in the world is my body because this food becomes my body".

What is the big thing about the body? When this body goes, another body will come because the food is there always. The food creates the body. If you eat food with all awareness, I am you. This consciousness, awareness that is me, that you feel is so beautiful is in you too. You don't lack a thing that I have.

This body is not my flesh. This bread is my flesh. This flesh is this bread. Know the difference between physical body and the flesh, and this entire world becomes your body.

That is cosmic consciousness. All are mine. It is all like my own finger. Everybody is part of me. When you know everyone is part of you, then all your cravings disappear, all your aversions disappear. Your cravings come because you think you don't have. Your aversions come because you don't want to have what you think you have. 

Do you see the irony of it? When you know everything already belongs to you, your cravings subside. When you know whatever you are averse to is part of you, then aversion disappears. And total synthesis happens and unity dawns. Even the word unity is not the right word. That also indicates a duality. If you can say one, there have to be two. 

So I say, language is inadequate to express any truth about existence. It is better to keep silent. This understanding of cravings and aversions applied to the situation of daily life becomes a valuable spiritual practice.