Dispassion can get you everything, including sleep

 

The Divine can be attained only in deep rest, not by doing. All your spiritual activities are to help you become silent. You will go further when you do not stop to enjoy the bliss or the peace, otherwise cravings may arise.

If existence wants to give you peace and bliss, then fine, your true nature is bliss. But by trying to enjoy the bliss, you step down from “am-ness” to “I am something” - “I am peaceful”, “I am blissful” this is followed by, “I am miserable”. It takes courage to simply say “I am”, period. That “I am” is dispassion. Dispassion means welcoming everything. You can be anywhere and be dispassionate. Dispassionate centeredness brings energy, a spark.

Indulgence in bliss brings inertia. If you are dispassionate, the bliss is still there. When the freezer is full of ice cream, you need not bother about it. Dispassion takes away the sense of scarcity. Passion is a sense of lack of abundance. Whenever everything is in abundance, dispassion happens. And when dispassion is there, everything comes in abundance.

What should you do when you catch yourself indulging in bliss? Just this understanding creates a shift. There is no effort. Knowledge is better than action to make you free. 

Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other, activity in rest and rest in activity, is the ultimate freedom.

More tiring than the work itself is the memory of hard work. Thinking you have worked hard interferes with the quality of rest. Some people take pride in working hard without any results. And there are others who crave for a long rest without knowing the true rest is in non-doership. 

It is the quality of rest, even if it is short, that helps you to recuperate. When rest is needed, your body will automatically take it. Resting, without thinking about the need for it, is more restful. Desirelessness, dispassion and samadhi are the deepest rest.

Mind, memory, misery

 

Memory make you miserable or wise. Memory of experiences and events in the ever-changing world, however good or bad constrict the vastness of the Self. They bind you. Memory of your nature, the non-changing self, expands and elevates awareness. This liberates you. You are what you are because of your memory. If you are ignorant, it is because of your memory. If you are enlightened, it is because of your memory. Forgetfulness of the infinite is misery. Forgetfulness of the trivial is ecstasy.

Now, how do we get rid of unpleasant memories and limitations? Know the impermanent nature of the world and events. Realise that past events do not exist in the present. Accept the past and drop it. Be dispassionate and centred. Memory of the Self is gained in the company and service of the Enlightened. “So Hum” increases prana or “So What?”, if nothing works, go to God. When you are miserable, know that you have gone away from the self. This is called ashaucha, becoming unclean. 

In India when someone dies, the close relatives are said to be ashaucha for 10 days because they are very sad. They are impure because they have moved away from the self. After 10 days of just living through that experience and reading the Bhagavad Gita, being with the knowledge and pulling themselves back into the Self, they become shaucha. They have purged the impurities that arose during those events.

This happens again and again in life. You become ashaucha and then you must get back to shaucha. Go deeper into yourself; then real shaucha happens. Shaucha’s benefits are clarity in the intellect, a pleasing mind, focused awareness, control over the senses and thus eligibility to realize the Self. Shaucha is disinterest in the tendencies of your own senses. 

You have the understanding, “Oh yes, here is this old familiar tendency again. Come on, I have had this experience enough, and still my body craves for it again”. By being disinterested for a moment in one's own body and senses – just an idea, a sort of distaste, you will find that the situation changes. 

Why do people love each other so much, have such an intimate relationship, and then fight? Ashaucha has happened. If you do not have distaste for the tendency of the senses, then distaste for the object of the senses is bound to come and you will blame the person or object.

Your attraction or craving can exist only as long as you think someone is “other”. When you think they are a part of you or your self, then the attraction dies out. That is why a husband or a wife may not be attracted to their partner but to someone else, because their partner has already become a part of them. When you realize everyone is part of your Self, you enjoy the whole world without a sense of craving.

When ashaucha happens, quickly come back to shaucha. Suppose you feel drowned in any worldly event, just know this is ashaucha - know “that is why I am miserable”. Then come back to shaucha. Your spiritual practices, meditation, Sudarshan Kriya, seva (service), and Satsang will all help you. When you share your misery, it does not reduce. When you do not share your joy, it reduces. Share your problems only with the Divine, not with anyone else, as that will only increase the problems. Share your joy with everyone.

How do we help people who share their misery with us? I have a thousand and one ways. Often it happens that when they share their problem with me, it is immediately resolved. Other times it requires some patience. Just know that all will be taken care of. Listen to others, yet do not listen. If your mind gets stuck in their problems, not only are they miserable, but you also become miserable. Be caring and share with them the knowledge.

The mind lives on “more”. Misery starts with “more and more” and misery makes you dense and gross. The self is subtle. To go from gross to subtle, you must go through the finest level of the relative, the atom. To overcome aversion, hatred, jealousy, attraction or entanglements, you have to take yourself to the atom. Taking yourself to the atom means accepting a tiny bit of all of this. It may be difficult to accept something you do not like but you can definitely accept a tiny bit of an atom. 

The moment you accept that one atom, you will see change occur. But this must be done in a meditative state. Suppose you love someone. You want more and more of them, yet there is no fulfilment. In anuvrat, the vow of an atom, you take just one atom of that person and that is enough to bring fulfilment to you. Though the river is vast, a little sip quenches your thirst. Though the earth has so much food, just a small bite satisfies your hunger. All that you need are tiny bits. Accept a tiny bit of everything in life, that will bring you fulfilment.

Finding comfort in conflict

 

When you are in a harmonious environment your mind picks up any excuse to be in conflict. Often, small things are enough to create a big turmoil. When your survival is at stake, you do not complain that nobody loves you. But when you are safe and feel secure, you start demanding attention. Many people create conflict in order to get attention. 

Ask yourself this question. Do you seek harmony in every situation or do you seek to widen the differences and prove your righteousness? 

The seed of negativity and the tendency for conflict in you can only be annihilated by sadhana, i.e. spiritual practices. Only speak knowledge. Do not repeat anything bad that someone tells you about someone else. When someone comes to tell you negative things, discourage them. Do not believe it. If someone blames you directly, do not believe it. Just know that they are taking away your bad karma and let it go. 

If you are one of the master’s close ones, you will take all the blame of the world with a smile. When you blame someone, you take on their bad karma, when you praise someone, you take on their good karma. Surrender both good and bad karma to the Divine – and be free. Conflict is the nature of the world, comfort is the nature of the Self. 

Amidst conflict, find the comfort. When you are tired of conflicts and the games of the world, get into the comforts of the Self. When you are bored with comfort, get into the games of the world. If you are one of the Master’s close ones, you do both simultaneously. People who love peace do not want to fight, and those who fight do not have peace. What is needed is to be peaceful within and then fight. 

Just trying to end a conflict only prolongs it. Instead, face the conflict while seeking the comfort of the Self. This is the whole message of the Bhagvad Gita. Krishna tells Arjuna to be centered in peace and to fight at the same time. 

God is alive in the world and has been putting up with all conflicts throughout the ages. If God can put up with all these conflicts, you can too. And the moment you agree to be with a conflict, it no longer appears as a conflict to you. The nature of this world is that once you resolve one conflict, another arises. For example, Russia is solved and then Bosnia is in trouble. Or you get a cold, then you get better, then your back hurts, then it gets better. And when your body is fine, then the mind goes. Things in this world run this way, don’t they? 

Without any intention, misunderstandings simply happen and conflicts arise. It’s not up to you to resolve them. Just be with them and be alive.

Don't fight blame

 

When you follow fun, misery follows you. When you follow knowledge, fun follows you.

When a worldly man is miserable, he blames the people around him, the system and the world in general. When a seeker is miserable, he blames the world, but in addition he blames the path, the knowledge and himself. It is better not to be a seeker so that you blame less. But then a seeker, a sadhak, also enjoys everything much more. There is more love in life and more pain. 

When there is more joy, the contrast is greater. A certain level of maturity is needed to see things as they are and not blame the path, the self and the world. If one jumps across this chasm of blame and misery, then there is no fall. It is like a quantum leap. 

The Divine does not test you. Testing is part of ignorance. Who is it that will put something to a test? Only one who does not know something. God knows your capacity, so why should He have to test you? Then, why is there misery? It is for titiksha, forbearance in you. And forbearance can be increased by prayerful surrender and by things that vigorously challenge your patience.

When someone blames you, what do you usually do? You blame them back or you set up some resistance in yourself. How do you feel when someone blames you? Hurt, unhappy, sad, heavy? This is all because you are resisting. What you resist, persists. You get hurt because you resist the blame. Know that when someone blames you, they take away some negative karma from you. 

If you understand this, you will only feel happy about it. If you resist when someone blames you, you are not allowing them to take away the negative karma. Even if you don’t react outwardly, you may still be resisting inside. Actually, it’s fine to resist outside, but inside don’t resist. You will feel immediately lighter. You can feel happy - Oh, good, somebody is blaming me and taking some of my negative karma.

The ignorant person says, “Don’t blame me” because it hurts him. An enlightened person also says, “Don’t blame me”. Do you know why? Because it might hurt you. You can tell someone not to blame you out of anger or out of compassion.

Love vs lust

 

In love even an object is elevated to life. Stones and trees speak to you, the sun, the moon, the entire creation becomes alive and divine. In lust even a living being becomes a mere object. You want to even use people like objects.

- Lust brings tension, love brings relaxation.

- In lust there is cunningness and manipulation, in love there is playfulness.

- Lust focuses on a part, love focuses on the whole.

- In lust you want to grasp and possess, in love you want to give and surrender.

- In lust there is effort, love is effortless.

- Lust brings violence, love brings sacrifice.

- Lust demands, love commands.

- In lust you are mixed up and confused in love you are focused and spaced out.

- Lust is dark and monotonous, love has many modes and colours.

- Lust says, "All I want you to have is what I want". Love says, "I want you to have what you want".

- Lust causes feverishness and frustration, love causes longing and pain.

- Lust imprisons and destroys, love liberates and sets you free.

If someone's lust is interrupted, they become angry and start hating. Hatred in the world today is not out of love, it is out of lust. 

Shiva, the embodiment of innocence and love, was meditating. His meditation was disturbed by an arrow of flowers from the lord of lust. As soon as Shiva awoke, he opened his third eye and the lord of lust, Manmathava - one who churns the mind - was reduced to ashes. Lust grips the mind, tires the body and dulls the intellect. Lust when indulged brings inertia, and when suppressed brings anger. 

Lust is nothing but primordial unharnessed energy. The same energy when harnessed manifests as enthusiasm, sparkle, sharpness of intellect and love.

What can you do to sublimate lust and transform it into love?

    - Be playful. People who are in the grip of lust cannot be genuinely playful. When you are playful, then there is no lust.

    - Be generous. When you realize that you are here only to give, then lust is sublimated. Lust makes you possessive and greedy.

    - Take cold-water baths.

    - Moderate your intake of food.

    - Undertake creative challenges.

    - Remember death.

    - Be in love with the Divine.

Going beyond attachments

 

Krishna means the most attractive. He is the divinity, the energy that attracts everything to it. Krishna is the formless centre that is everywhere. All attractions from anywhere come only from Krishna. Often people fail to see the spirit behind the attraction, and merely hold onto the outer shell. And the moment you try to possess the shell, you will see Krishna has played a trick, you will be left with an empty shell in your hands and tears in your eyes.

Do not be tricked by Krishna - be clever like Radha. Krishna could not escape from Radha because her whole world was filled with Krishna. If you can see that wherever there is an attraction there is Krishna, then you are Radha, you are in your centre. The mind moves towards beauty, joy and truth. Krishna tells Arjuna, “I am the beauty in the Beautiful, the strength in the Strong, the wisdom in the Wise.” 

In this way he arrests the mind from moving away from him. Attachments cause feverish breath. Feverish breath takes away your peace of mind. Then you are in pieces and fall prey to misery. Unfortunately, most people do not notice this until it is too late. Before you get scattered too much, gather yourself together and rid your breath of feverishness through surrender and sadhana - spiritual practices. When you are drowning in the ocean of attachments, surrender is a life jacket you can put on and wait for the rescue team. 

Without fighting attachments, observe your feverish breath and go to the cool place of silence within. Your first step in this direction is directing your attachment to knowledge, to the Divine. Your non-attachment to the mundane is your charm. Your attachment to the Divine is your beauty. Craving comes from encouraging thoughts of pleasure. Yet the actual experience of pleasure may not be as pleasurable as the memory of it.

Whether you encourage a worldly thought or a Divine thought, they both bring you pleasure. Worldly thoughts lead to indulgence, which brings you down from pleasure to some disappointment and dejection. Divine thoughts take you up from pleasure to bliss, intelligence and progress in life. Worldly thoughts bring pleasure only as memory, while Divine thoughts materialize as reality.

What is a Divine thought?

 - That, I’m not the body, I am bliss, satchitananda, I’m unbounded space, I’m love, I’m peace and light.

What is a worldly thought?

 - Worldly thoughts are about money, sex, food, power, status and self-image. Truth is hidden by the golden veil of the mundane. Pierce through this thin glittering sheath and know you are the sun. 

In the world, everybody is after GOLD, some are after GOOD, only a few are after GOD. Transcend GOLD, transcend the GOOD and reach GOD.

Eliminating vices

 

If you cannot eliminate vices, magnify them. Worry, pride, anger, lust, grief - give them a bigger dimension and a different direction.

What is the point of getting angry about small events? Be angry about the infinite, about Brahma. 

If you cannot get rid of pride, take pride in owning the Divine. 

If you are bothered by greed, be greedy for satsang. 

If cravings gnaw at you, crave the truth. 

If jealously haunts you, be jealous about seva. 

Be averse to aversions. 

Attach yourself to the Guru. 

Get intoxicated with the Divine. 

Joy is love for what is. Sorrow is love for what is not. 

Satsang

 

Satsang means the company of reality, being in touch with the truth. It is not just singing some complicated songs which you don’t understand. Music is one part of it. The second part is understanding the logic. The third part is reposing in deep meditation and being with yourself. 

So, which is the right company? That which makes you feel light, which makes you feel the problem is very trivial as compared to what you thought. If company makes you perceive the problem as being bigger than it is, that is not satsang. Satsang is where you can drop what people think about you and be authentic.

Usually, people who are in celebration don’t go into the depth, while people who experience silence, don’t usually celebrate. However, satsang is when we value both silence and celebration. The purpose of music is to create silence deep within you and the purpose of silence is to create dynamism in life.

Music is laya yoga; laya is dissolving. This is the highest form of samadhi (unity with the divine). Sound is a form of energy. Your whole body is made up of atoms. When you sing bhajans, the sound vibrations get absorbed into every particle of your body. Just like a microphone absorbs sound and converts it into electricity, the body absorbs the vibrations and transforms it into consciousness.

If you are sitting and listening to gossip or loud jarring music, then that gets absorbed by your body and does not give a nice feeling. When you hear knowledge, or chant with all your heart, that elevates your consciousness. Being with this truth kindles the energy in you and awakens the consciousness because the sound energy very easily penetrates into the mind.

The body is made up of five elements – earth, water, air, fire and ether. The ether element is associated with sound. And sound unites. Sound reverberates in your body. Our mind and consciousness are ancient. When you dive into different layers of consciousness, there are different languages that are present there. The most ancient layer of our consciousness can understand the most ancient language of the world – sanskrit.

When we are sitting, thinking or talking then every mind thinks differently, no one thinks alike. But when we sing or chant sanskrit bhajans, then the mind which is so ancient identifies the impressions of all these old bhajans, our consciousness begins to unite and somewhere deep inside sharing happens. And the bhajans or mantras make deep impressions in the mind where they remain for a long period. It is like a brush. Each bristle joined together can clear all the knots in mind.

That is why even though we don’t know the meaning of some of the words, we simply chant them because just chanting them has a positive effect. It is not the meaning that is important. So when we sing, we don’t have to see how well we sing, and where we are singing. Just close your eyes and be one with the music, the sound. You dissolve into the space that is, through bhajan.

We usually think bhajan is just singing songs. Bhajan means sharing. Divine is love and when you blossom in that love, you share the love. Divine is compassion, and when you are compassionate, you are in bhajan. When the mind is split into one hundred parts, there is misery. And the same minds when they all get together, becomes one unit, then there is joy.

Sacred symbols of the divine

 

Throughout the ages, in all cultures, place, time, people and symbols were considered sacred because the moment you consider something sacred, your inertia disappears, and you become more alive and attentive.

When every action of yours becomes sacred, you become one with the Divine. Whatever our ancestors said, there are profound mysteries hidden behind them. Facts have been explained by them in symbolic form. Let us see a few:

— Lord Shiva, in sitting posture, has a snake around his neck. This implies the state of meditation.

— Earth on Shesh Naag implies centripetal force. There are two kinds of earthly forces, one is centripetal force and the other is centrifugal force. The movement of these forces is not straight but they have a snake-like movement. It represents centripetal force which means ‘not going straight’ and the Earth rotates on its axis and around the sun.

— The fact that Divinity is both male and female was represented as ‘Ardhnareeshwar’. God is not just man, or just woman. Everyone is made up of both male and female genes.

— Saraswati carries a rosary representing meditation; a book representing intellectual knowledge and a musical instrument – veena. This means wisdom dawns only when intellectual knowledge, music and meditation come together. Saraswati sits on a rock, meaning once you have acquired wisdom, it is deeply grounded in you. 

— Goddess Laxmi sits on lotus, meaning wealth is flowing and anything can happen anytime.

— Even the weapons in Gods’ hands have a deeper meaning. God-Goddesses are within us, are our very own. So they show human flaws of anger, jealousy etc. in them as well. Therefore, you don’t feel guilty when such emotions arise in you. The purpose was to bring you closer to God.

‘Rishis’ chose to express Divinity in terms of symbols rather than words. Words change over time, symbols don’t. But eventually you need to transcend and feel that the entire creation, with all its symbols, places, species, people and your whole life, are sacred at all times.

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.

Meditation, pranayama and prayer eliminates doubts

 

When a child starts becoming aware of its own body, it starts asking more and more questions. And when the body matures into adolescent stage, there are ever so many questions that reel in the mind. Doubt is that state of mind where it’s not fully alive. Answers cannot satisfy doubt. Hearing and seeing cannot eliminate doubt. 

Only prana can eliminate doubt. When a doubt arises in your mind, know that your prana has gone down. The life in you is dull. The wick in the lamp is going down. On the day you do pranayama or deep breathing, you feel so alive. Every cell in your body is alive, and then there is no doubt in the mind. You feel so wonderful because of this. There is no split in your consciousness. 

Doubt is the split. A portion is awake and another major portion is asleep – the unfulfilled. And when the prana is high, you are so fulfilled. So when you have doubts, do more sadhana or practice of deep breathing. This is called shraddha or faith, the opposite of doubt. It starts with self-doubt doubting the self, doubting everything in the world and doubting the Divine. 

Moments of doubt are like clouds. The clouds do come, but they come and disappear. If you do not cooperate or engage with them, they will simply come and go. If you shake hands with them and flow with them, then it will take a longer time to overcome them. Truth will always stand out and win in the end. Doubts may come, and this is quite possible because of the company that we keep.

There are three types of faith in the world (being Hindu, Muslim or Christian, is not types of faith). There are only three types of people who have faith, i.e. there are three types of faith – in the divine, in the universe and in the world.  

There are people who just believe or have faith in the material world. You have to believe in the world. You do not know everything about this world and you believe in what you do not know. There is no need to believe what you know. You have to believe what you do not know. You do not know about anybody. You do not know about yourself, your wife, children, husband, your parents, or anybody. Do you think you know anything about them? If you think you do, you are mistaken. You know something about them, partially. 

Faith in your Self, faith in the world and faith in something we do not know, the Divine. You can start from anywhere. Any one point will lead to all three; all three come together. When doubts arise in you, keep a fast, meditate, do pranayama and prayers, and see the shift that happens and the doubts vanish. There’s a shift in your consciousness.

Ego disappears in unconditional love

 

Ego is simply being unnatural, pretension, showing something that you are not. It always needs someone else to appreciate and recognise you. Ego is something like: “I am intelligent, I like this, I don’t like that, I am ugly, I am beautiful etc.”

The reason we have ego is because it is necessary for our growth in life. Ego should be there when there is challenge and creativity. In success, drop your ego but in failure, hold on to it. When you think you are failing, the ego says, come on what is this, nothing can touch me.

The “I” or ego is a tiny atom. It causes heaviness and discomfort. When this atom, the ego, identifies with the body, it becomes miserable. But when it is associated with the spirit, the Self, it becomes Divine. It becomes shakti (energy).

In a huge atomic reactor, it is just one atom that has exploded. In the same way, in our whole body, there is just one atom of “I.” And when this “I” explodes, it becomes the light of the Self. 

In ‘Giridhari’ (Krishna’s name), Giri means mountain, which is ego. Ego is like a stone. It is not hollow and empty; it is solid. And Giridhari lifted the whole mountain with his little finger. This means that even though the ego is like a mountain but with a little bit of love, you can lift it. 

Everyone is made up of love. Knowledge is an aid to develop this innermost state in you. A seed has a shell over it and when you soak it in water, it sprouts and the covering drops. In a similar manner, ego is a necessary unnaturalness that develops in you.

Knowledge uncovers the shell over you and makes you like a child again – natural, simple and innocent. If you find you have a big ego, don’t try to destroy it because that effort will only increase it. The antidote for ego is just being natural like a child. So, be in unconditional love and then ego automatically disappears.

Six levels of relationship with the Guru

 

The first and the highest level of relationship between Guru and shishya (disciple) is called para sambandh. It means that there is no difference between Guru and shishya. There is no two, there is only one, soham, meaning ‘you are that’. That unity of consciousness is no relationship at all. It is simply a realisation of the highest, wherein there is no difference between Guru and shishya, there is only one.

Then comes mahan sambandh – that is recognising the greatness and where the master doesn’t see any imperfection in the student nor does the student see shortcomings in the master. It is the greatness kind of relationship, when you do not see any shortcomings in the other. It is almost like the relationship between a mother and a child. There is total alignment.

The third level is called antaraal sambandh, where there is a gap. The master speaks from one level and the student understands from another. There is no perfect alignment, only some degree of understanding between the two. In this relationship, there is an effort from the side of the master and the student to make each other understand their points of view.

The fourth level of relationship is called divya sambandh. Here exists a divine connection that comes with a blend of different emotions.

The fifth is divyadivya sambandh. In this connection, the student is there to get something from the master, lives in his own world, and reels in faultfinding beyond a healthy measure. There are people who come to the spiritual path not for spirituality, but to get something else, or just to be seen as being spiritual. They use the knowledge for some trivial goals and purposes. This is divyadivya sambandh.

The last is called adivya sambandh. You cannot escape a guru in your life. You even learn from others’ mistakes. Someone made a mistake, you saw that and learnt that you don’t want to make a mistake like that. They have taught you something. There is a proverb in Sanskrit that says, ‘Durjanam Pratamam Vande, Surjanam Tadanantaram’, meaning I salute the wicked one first, then the good, because he taught me what I should not do.

As part of divya sambandh, you go through different emotions. Sometimes you are angry, happy, sad, and sometimes furious at the master. Because these emotions are part of your life, you just move within these emotions. You are yet to go beyond them. When you go beyond them, there is antaraal sambandh where you see the differences, but you begin to align. And then one step beyond that is mahan sambandh, great relationship, where no questions exist. There is no want. You are simply blossoming, as you radiate bliss, beauty, and positive energy, fully soaked in joy and wisdom of the Master.

In all this, what is important is connection, your connection to your Self. The Self, the Master, and divinity are not different. You are divine. That’s what is meant by ‘Tat Tvam Asi’.

Find your faith to face the world

 

Faith is at the core of human existence. It plays a big role in shaping one’s life. It sustains life and leads one through difficult times. At the same time, it brings out hidden courage and potential in more ways than one. 

Even those who say, “I don’t believe in anything,” have to believe in their words. The issue is where you place your faith. For an atheist, his faith in objects is obvious; his faith in people is fluid and his faith in the unseen power of creation is ambiguous. 

However, for a believer, his faith in the unseen power is supreme; his faith in people is inconsequential and objects do not matter in any way. The role is even more visible in the materialistic world. It saves one from suicidal tendencies and helps one see beyond the obvious. When life is based on belief, one follows philosophy rather than getting caught up in revenge and hatred. If there is faith that everything will be fine, then things do work out.

There are three types of faith: in oneself, in the world and in the divine. And the three are connected. One must have all three to be strong. To have faith is to realise that God is protecting you. This is a necessary and a sufficient condition to move ahead in life. When the knowledge that “I am blessed” is established firmly in one’s life, it is called faith. This feeling can help one overcome any obstacle. Once you realise that you are blessed, complaints disappear, as do grumblings and insecurities. Not everything in this world is hunky-dory. However, if you are grounded in faith, then you will progress and maintain your equanimity in this world.

The essence of prayer

Faith leads to prayer and prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. Prayer nurtures values such as integrity and honesty. You don’t need any special qualifications or abilities to pray. It is something that comes from within. Prayer doesn’t mean just sitting and chanting. It’s about being in a serene, calm, meditative state. That is why, in the Vedic tradition, before prayer comes dhyana (meditation) and there is dhyana even after prayer. 

When the mind is focused, the prayer becomes far more powerful, it is the cry of a soul. To whom you pray is not important. Religion puts words to the prayer and adds symbols and rituals to it, the prayer itself transcends them. It happens at subtle levels and the feelings transcend words and religion. The act of praying itself has the power to bring about transformation.

Now, prayer happens in two situations or in a combination of situations - you pray when you feel grateful or when you feel utterly helpless. In either case, your prayers will be heard and answered. A true prayer can’t happen without devotion and faith. Having faith is to realise that God is there to protect you. Devotion is an inner flowering. Be sincere in your prayers. Do not try to outsmart the divine. Be honest with your prayer time and you will definitely be rewarded.

Root your love, faith and belief deeply. The world is a celebration. Stay happy at all times. Learn to take ups and downs in your stride. When faced with difficult times, invoke the valour in you and tackle the situation with confidence. You emerge stronger after hard times. Never forget the strengths in you — prayer and power of your sankalpa (positive intention). Don’t panic and keep your mind centred.

Expand the mind

When we panic, our immunity level goes down. Practices such as pranayam, yoga and meditation help. Remember there are others who may be going through harder times than the ones you are facing. When you realise this, your problems will appear small. Serve people who are in bigger trouble. Realise that you are not alone in these difficult times. There is always an unseen hand working for you. Don’t underestimate the power of prayer. Prayer is not a ritual as is usually perceived; it is the feeling of helplessness and asking for God’s help. It makes you very strong and powerful, because the divine belongs to the weak. This is why He is called deenabandhu — the friend, relative and redeemer of the weak, meek, powerless and helpless. Try to include this in your prayer “There is no way that I can get rid of this stress. I need help” and notice changes happen immediately.

Trust the Divine

During the harvest season, the farmer separates husk from grain with a broad sieve. He stands on an elevated platform, holds the sieve and puts all his grains into it. He then proceeds to shake the sieve. If the particle that falls through the sieve is mere husk, it flies away and is lost. Meanwhile, the grains fall to the ground and stay put. Similarly, if your faith is shaken very quickly and too often, or if you lack faith in difficult times, then you are akin to the flying husk. One whose faith shakes when faced by catastrophes cannot smile through them. If you lack faith and events frighten you, then you fly away like the husk. You become lost and anchorless. On the other hand, if you have faith that everything will be all right, you will find stability and everything will settle down.

Bad times will come and go. When you are faced with a problem, don’t generalise and internalise it by thinking about it all the time. Become a part of the solution, not the problem. The best thing is to surrender to the divine. There are two ways of looking at life. One is thinking “I’ll be happy after achieving a certain objective.” The second is saying that “I am happy come what may!” Which one do you want to live? Events come and go, they perish like flowers. Make the decision today that “whatever happens, I will remain grounded and peaceful, and have faith that God’s protection is here on me. I will never go down. God will always hold my hand.” Faith is realising that you always get what you need. Faith is giving the divine a chance to act.

The root cause of our return to this world

 

Most of us come into this world with the seed in us, "It's not OK". And all our life we try to correct events, people and situations. How much can you correct? It's like trying to rearrange the clouds in the sky. This seed does not allow you to be happy, to smile from your heart, to be loving and loveable. It's there all the time like a thorn - irritating, irritating.

This seed, "It's not OK," brings you back into this world again and again. How do you burn this seed?

First, recognize that it is there. This can happen in deep introspection and meditation.

Second, sometimes you feel your body, mind, intellect, memory and ego are also not OK. You justify them or find fault with them. They are also part of the world. Acknowledge what you see as an imperfection and offer it to the Divine.

Third, have faith in the infinite organizing power of the supreme intelligence and have the sincere feeling, "Let thy will be done." Then the seed, "It's not OK," gets burned. "Thy will be done" is a state of total contentment, a state of just love.

We need not even make it a statement about the future. "Thy will" alone, is happening now.

So, everything happening is God's will? Yes, including the thought, "This shouldn't be happening."

Five arrows of love

Creation has an arch and five arrows. These five arrows are made up of five flowers; the five senses and he hits you with the five flowers. It is through these five senses you experience something that is beyond the five senses and deep inside you what gets created is a wave of beauty. It produces a sweet honey inside you.

When you experience such a wave, your eyes close, you’re not in form but you dissolve into the formless. You come back to your nature. When you experience something so great, so wonderful, and so beautiful be it music, a fragrance or touch automatically your eyes shut, and you sink into that ocean of beauty. 

The power, the energy inside you starts moving in a newer direction. Like in meditation, there is a feeling of elevation; it gives you more energy, long-lasting joy & long-lasting bliss. There is a feeling of elevation. Like in the spring, the entire creation just springs up. The birds sing, trees blossom. Like that, when energy is kindled in you, it creates a sense of awe. You spring out of dullness, out of inertia, out of the routine and a new life springs up. If this elevation in life is lacking, then you become so dull. More you use your senses, the duller you tend to become. 

The creation hits you with five arrows on the five senses to create a sense of beauty deep inside you. It’s very poetically explained. If a heart is one, then everything is one in the world and love means the heart. What type of love? That which is genuine, that which is true, that which is full of energy, full of strength, that love is total, complete. It’s divine love. 

The angel of love has won the whole world because the shakti is behind it. Behind every love, every small beauty, joy or enjoyment, there is the Divine. This is a revolutionary thought, revolutionary idea. We think that behind a temptation there is evil. In the Garden of Eden, it was the Fruit of Wisdom. 

God said, ‘don’t eat it’. And then the serpent came and tempted. The Serpent told Eve, ‘You eat this apple, which is called the Fruit of Wisdom, have wisdom.’ Serpent is a sign of alertness, awareness and God got angry! Why should God create such a fruit and tell Adam and Eve, ‘You don’t eat this particular one?’

He knew psychology so well that he purposely said don’t eat it so that they can eat it. When they had done what he wanted them to do, why should he get angry on them. That doesn’t make much sense. You look at it from a different angle. Maybe God wanted them to eat that fruit, only then his creation can go along, go ahead. 

His whole purpose was to create the whole world, right? Increase the population; make California, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, create all this. His intention is to do all this, so he told them don’t eat this fruit but then sent the serpent as well. So there is some energy in them, awakening in them, they took the fruit of knowledge and as soon as they ate, the knowledge brought shyness in them. That is good.

Knowledge should bring shyness. If there is no shyness, there will be arrogance and no beauty. That’s why beauty is always partially exposed, partially covered; that is what beauty is. Partial revealing of the truth.

That is what consciousness is doing, your mind is doing. Your mind is partially exposed. It reveals, partially what you know, through your actions, through your expression, through your feelings.

The power of true prayer

 

Often people say behind every successful man is a woman. But I say behind every success, there is the Divine saying “I am behind you”. And Divine dawns in you when you pray and cry for it. You don’t need any special qualifications or abilities to pray. Whether you are wise person or not, whether you are rich or poor, you can pray.

Prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. When you feel the obstacle is too much to handle, deep prayer can work miracles. What you can do, you do. What you cannot do, you pray for it! Whatever you do, know that the higher power has the final say and you can tap that power through your prayers.

Prayer doesn’t mean just sitting and chanting some words. It’s about being in that serene, calm and meditative state. That is why, in the Vedic tradition, before prayer comes dhyana (meditation) and there is dhyana after prayer. When the mind is focused, the prayer becomes far more powerful. 

To whom you pray is not important. Whereas religion puts words to the prayer, and adds symbols and rituals to it, the prayer itself transcends them. Prayer happens in subtle level of feelings and the feelings transcend words and religion. The act of praying itself has the power to bring transformation. 

Be sincere in your prayers. Do not try to outsmart the Divine. Usually, you give the time that is leftover; when you have nothing else to do, no guests to attend to, no parties to attend to, you go to the Divine. This is not quality time. Don’t be in a hurry to get what you seek from the Divine. When your intention is to get a boon from God, you are in a hurry. But when you know your own God, you are not in a hurry to get something out of God. You hurry to get something that throws you off balance and makes you small. 

True prayer, however, is just the opposite of wanting to possess. It’s about honouring and offering everything to the Divine. Honouring brings devotion and it leads to surrender. Devotion brings a healing touch to life. Devotion and faith together are the central core of prayer. A true prayer can’t happen without devotion and faith. Having faith is to realise that God’s protection is there for you. Devotion is an inner flowering. Unless you are lit in devotion to the Divine, your life will remain restless. In devotion, longing will arise in you. And when there is longing, true prayer happens by itself.

The power of true prayer

 

Often people say behind every successful man is a woman. But I say behind every success, there is the Divine saying “I am behind you”. And Divine dawns in you when you pray and cry for it. You don’t need any special qualifications or abilities to pray. Whether you are wise person or not, whether you are rich or poor, you can pray.

Prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. When you feel the obstacle is too much to handle, deep prayer can work miracles. What you can do, you do. What you cannot do, you pray for it! Whatever you do, know that the higher power has the final say and you can tap that power through your prayers.

Prayer doesn’t mean just sitting and chanting some words. It’s about being in that serene, calm and meditative state. That is why, in the Vedic tradition, before prayer comes dhyana (meditation) and there is dhyana after prayer. When the mind is focused, the prayer becomes far more powerful. 

To whom you pray is not important. Whereas religion puts words to the prayer, and adds symbols and rituals to it, the prayer itself transcends them. It happens in subtle level of feelings and the feelings transcend words and religion. The act of praying itself has the power to bring transformation. 

Be sincere in your prayers. Do not try to outsmart the Divine. Usually you give the time that is leftover; when you have nothing else to do, no guests to attend to, no parties to attend to, you go to the Divine. This is not quality time. Don’t be in a hurry to get what you seek from the Divine. When your intention is to get a boon from God, you are in a hurry. But when you know your own God, you are not in a hurry to get something out of God. You hurry to get something that throws you off balance and makes you small. 

True prayer, however, is just the opposite of wanting to possess. It’s about honouring and offering everything to the Divine. Honouring brings devotion and it leads to surrender. Devotion brings a healing touch to the life. Devotion and faith is the central core of prayer. A true prayer can’t happen without devotion and faith. Having faith is to realise that God’s protection is there for you. Devotion is an inner flowering. Unless you are lit in devotion to the Divine, your life will remain restless. In devotion, longing will arise in you. And when there is longing, true prayer happens by itself.

Ego dissolves in love

 

Ego is simply being unnatural, pretension, showing something that you are not. It always needs someone else to appreciate and recognise you. Ego is something like: “I am intelligent, I like this, I don’t like that, I am ugly, I am beautiful etc.”

The reason we have ego is because it is necessary for our growth in life. Ego should be there when there is challenge and creativity. In success, drop your ego but in failure, hold on to it. When you think you are failing, the ego says, come on what is this, nothing can touch me.

The “I” or ego is a tiny atom. It causes heaviness and discomfort. When this atom, the ego, identifies with the body, it becomes miserable. But when it is associated with the spirit, the self, it becomes divine. It becomes shakti (energy).

In a huge atomic reactor, it is just one atom that has exploded. In the same way, in our whole body, there is just one atom of “I.” And when this “I” explodes, it becomes the light of the Self. In Giridhari (Krishna’s name), Giri means mountain, which is ego. Ego is like a stone. It is not hollow and empty, it is solid.

And Giridhari lifted the whole mountain with his little finger. This means that even though the ego is like a mountain but with a little bit of love, you can lift it. Everyone is made up of love. Knowledge is an aid to develop this innermost state in you. A seed has a shell over it and when you soak it in water, it sprouts and the covering drops. In a similar manner, ego is a necessary unnaturalness that develops in you.

Knowledge uncovers the shell over you and makes you like a child again – natural, simple and innocent. If you find you have a big ego, don’t try to destroy it because that effort will only increase it. The antidote for ego is just being natural like a child. So, be in unconditional love and then ego automatically disappears.

Journey from form to formless

 

The word anatha in Sanskrit means one without a master. An acharya (teacher) gives shiksha, which means knowledge; a guru gives deeksha which means heightened awareness. The Guru makes the abstract more real and what you think to be solid appears to be more unreal. Sensitivity and subtlety dawn. Perception of love, not as an emotion, but as the substratum of existence becomes evident. The formless spirit shines through every form in creation and the mystery of life deepens. Then the real journey of life with the guru begins. This journey has four stages.

The first stage is swarupya - to see the formless in the form - that is seeing God in all the forms. Often, one feels more comfortable seeing God as formless rather than with a form, because with a form, one feels a distance, a duality, a fear of rejection and other limitations. In life, all our interactions are with the form, other than in deep sleep and in samadhi. And, if we do not see God in the form, then the waking part of life remains devoid of the Divine.

The second stage is samipya - closeness - that is feeling absolutely close to the form one has chosen and reaching out to the formless. This leads to a sense of intimacy with the whole of creation. In this stage, one overcomes the fear of rejection and other fears. But this is time and space bound.

The third stage is sanidhya, that is feeling the presence of the Divine by which you transcend the limitations of time and space. 

The final stage is sayujya, where one is firmly entrenched with the Divine. It is then that one realises that we are one with the Divine. There is a total merging with the beloved and all duality disappears.

In the Upanishads five signs of a satguru are mentioned. In the presence of a satguru, knowledge flourishes, sorrow diminishes, joy wells up without any reason, abundance dawns and all talents manifest.

A guru does not simply stuff the disciple with knowledge; he kindles the life force in the person. In the presence of the guru, one becomes more alive. The pinnacle of intellect is awakened intelligence. The guru invokes not only intelligence but also intellect. Knowledge may not invoke intelligence, but in intelligence, knowledge is inherent.

As no sanchita karma is left in an embodied guru, the self shines through. But all the qualities that we appreciate in a guru are also in our very nature. Respecting the guru simply means honouring our innermost nature.