The purpose of imperfection

 

In a perfect world, why is man so imperfect? This is so that you can become more perfect! The recognition of imperfections leads you to more perfection. This is a very delicate point. If you recognize imperfection, you may just sulk and brood over it – “Oh! I am imperfect, imperfect and imperfect.” Recognize the imperfection in you and overcome it, by seeing more perfection.

 

You have heard before that all is God and all is love – then what is the purpose of life? If everything is God, then where is life headed? Life is heading towards perfection! Isn’t it? We want perfection, and there are three kinds of perfection:

Perfection in action or work (kriya)

Perfection in speech (vachan)

Perfection in feelings or intention (bhaav)

 

Some people may be very good in their actions, but inside, they feel very grumpy and angry. Some may lie; their speech is not perfect, but they do their job right, or they feel right. A doctor may tell a patient, “Don’t worry! Your disease will be cured,” though that may not be true. At times, the intention behind lying is perfect. For e.g., a child asks his mother, where his baby brother came from, and the mother replies that she bought the baby! The mother’s intention behind lying is perfect. If someone lies intentionally, the feeling is imperfect, the speech is imperfect and so the action will reflect the same.

 

Suppose someone makes a mistake and you get angry, looking at that mistake, then, you are no better than the person, who made the mistake because there the action was imperfect, but here your feelings have become imperfect! Any action will have some flaw, but when feelings become imperfect, they stay for a longer period. The innermost perfection is lost.

Many people, who fight for human rights, are fighting for a cause, but they get angry inside, and anger is as bad as lust; jealousy is no better than anger. Amongst the six imperfections – lust, anger, greed, entanglement, arrogance and jealousy – you think one is “better” than another, but they are not.

 

Spiritual practice (sadhana) helps you maintain your centeredness and not be shaken by small events. When someone screams at you, his or her speech is imperfect, but don’t assume that his or her feelings are also imperfect. Don’t see an intention behind other people’s mistakes as that brings more impurity to the mind; this is also “vikara” or distortion.

Understanding lust and dealing with it

 

Lust is one such distortion of love. Lust can be got rid of through the light of pragmatic knowledge, lust means wanting to grab or possess something and it enters your life because you have lost the tendency to give the tendency to love when love is at an all-time low, then lust climbs higher when love is at the top, then lust diminishes.  Love is to have the sincere feeling. I'm here for you. Lust is the feeling - "What can I get from you?"

Lust has created humongous problems in the world, and many crimes have happened or are happening today because of uncontrolled lust. It has spoiled relationships. One of the reasons for bitterness in the world is the lack of control over oneself. What happens due to a lack of spirituality? The intense joy or pleasure one experiences with your partner can turn bitter and cause heartbreak, if there is no wisdom. 

This is what is happening all over, isn't it? Someone has given you intense pleasure and if you have no wisdom, you will find them to be the cause of intense misery also. If you feel miserable, you do not look at the case, you rather point a finger towards the one who has given you physical pleasure. It is wisdom that takes you away from misery. Observing the sensations within you, whether of pain or pleasure, offers a different view altogether about the entire phenomenon.

How to deal with lust? Through higher fulfilment. For example, kids crave for cotton, candy and chocolates. But when they grow up, they automatically have no such cravings. Similarly, having a higher goal in life will help when you have a lot of work to do. Sex doesn't bother you at that time. 

Just ask any student if he or she is bombarded with thoughts of sex during exam time. They'll say no. For that whole month, when they have to achieve something, their mind is fully focused on it. Not once does the thought arise during exam time. They have a bundle of books to read and prepare. So engaging yourself in some creative activity is helpful.

Pleasure always makes you run towards it first and then later on makes you run away from it. That is its nature. First, you crave for it, you go towards it and then later on, you go away from it, because it becomes too much to handle. 

Yoga is that which makes you centered. It stabilizes you. When you are stable and centered, if there is pleasure you enjoy it, if it's not there, you don't mind it. It's not occupying your mind, 24*7. It's not a craving that bothers you. 

The more you indulge in lust, the more the stimuli. With excess stimulation, your head becomes hot and your vision blurred. This directly affects your perception, making it blurred too.  People should stop watching pornography, thinking about sex and watching it all the time really destroys the instrument called the brain at the same time. 

You shouldn't blame sex. It's a natural phenomenon and all living beings originate from it. Your origin is sex, but let it not be your death too. If one is promiscuous, their death will also be sex. It's just a part of life and should be treated so. Being very natural and moderate with sex is the key.

Life needs love to survive

 

We are love. 

We are made up of a substance called love. Like the body is made up of fat vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and proteins. The spirit is made up of love. Love, therefore, in all its forms, is an integral part of the process of life. If you ask yourself a straight question, what is it that you want in life? It will boil down to one thing, love. 

Behind every desire there is love. Life cannot move an inch without love. Life has sprung from love, moves in love and will culminate in love. Yet, we see that life is full of problems. 

Sometimes, if there is no love, then life seems to be better because then there are no problems. Life comes with a whole load of problems in its wake. If you love objects more, then that becomes greed. If you love people more, it is entanglement. If you love yourself too much, that is egocentric, arrogance. If you love someone else too much, then jealousy soon follows.

Behind jealousy, greed, lust or anger, there is love. Human life cannot be without love.

Your body is like a washing machine. Your mind is like the clothes you wear. Each lifetime is like one washing cycle; pure water is like love and knowledge is the detergent. The mind enters the body to get cleansed and purified but if instead of detergent, you use dirt, then you have dirty clothes - dirtier than before. You will have to continue putting clothes in the washing machine to get them cleaned. And the process repeats itself again and again. Similarly, you will have many more births until you stop repeating the mistakes that you have been making.

Behind all the ills of society there is love. However, this love is devoid of language and knowledge. This love is devoid of vision and wisdom. Love is miserable without wisdom, rather love without wisdom is the mother of misery. We all want love, not misery. To achieve this, we need to broaden our vision and awareness. We need to know about ourselves, and we need to know how to handle our emotions and instincts. Nobody wants to be mad, angry or hateful - but we have not learnt, or we have not been taught how to handle our negative feelings and tendencies when they take over our minds or our lives.

The knowledge that unites love and wisdom, the knowledge that uplifts the spirit is spirituality. 

Two limbs of yoga (II) - personal ethics

 

Niyama (personal ethics):

There are five rules for one’s inner development. 

The first is “shaucha” or everyday cleanliness. It includes showering and keeping yourself clean, wearing clean clothes, and seeing that you don’t have bad breath. If someone stinks, he (or she) doesn’t notice it, but others have problems sitting next to him (or her) in satsang or during Sudarshan Kriya! Someone has to do the Sudarshan Kriya, and he is thinking, “Oh! Why is this person next to me?!” As “So Hum (practice of Sudarshan Kriya)” goes on, instead of focusing on “So Hum”, he is saying, “Go away! Go away! My God! Oh God!”

The second is “santosha” or contentment, happiness. Be happy! If you don’t take a step towards being happy, nothing in this world can make you happy, and you go on complaining about this and that. Once, a farmer was complaining that the apples on his trees were not too good. Then, one year, he had very good apples! He had apples in plenty – three times more than the usual crop! Then he started complaining about having too much work to do, about having to pick all those apples, about how many were rotting, and about how the prices had gone down! There’s no end to complaining – but life goes on anyway! It flows like a river. How do you want to live the rest of your life – the remaining thirty, forty or fifty years? Smiling? Or grumbling, feeling horrible about yourself, and blaming the whole world? So the second rule is to be happy and content. 

Third is “tapas” – forbearance or penance – meaning, something is uncomfortable, but you still put up with it, happily. It’s like people, who go on marathon walks for 20 miles or 20 kilometres. If we had to simply walk 20 kilometres, we would grumble, but when it’s a marathon, then one says, “Oh! I am going to walk!” Whether you walk in a marathon, or you walk because your car broke down, your legs go through the same pain! But when you think you’re in a marathon, you come back the same, sweating and tired, but with a smile: “Oh! I did it!” This is tapas – willingly taking it. 

Suppose you have to travel in a plane for a long time – say eight or ten hours – what do you do? If you were asked to sit for ten hours, you would never do it, but in a plane, there is no way out! You have to sit… with a seat belt! You can watch TV to keep your mind occupied, but you have to sit! So, willingly accepting opposites is tapas. This makes your body and mind strong. Whatever you can change – change. What you cannot change, accept. If it is too cold, put on a sweater. If it is too hot, take off your coat. It’s as simple as that! When it is raining very heavily, and you get wet, in spite of an umbrella – get wet! Tapas. We have to take it. Forbearance. 

Fourth is self-study – “swadhyaya”. Observe your mind and see what your mind says, how you behave, how you act, how you feel. Do you feel good? Do you feel bad? If you are feeling bad, just observe, you will start feeling good again. When you are feeling good, observe. All feelings – good or bad – will change. Swadhyaya is self-study, self-observation.

Fifth is “ishwara pranidhaana”, meaning, love for the Divine – surrender to the Divine. When you feel you are totally helpless, you say, “Oh, God! You take whatever it is that I am feeling!” 

These are the ten rules (yama + niyama) that make you very strong – that make you whole and complete. If you are clean inside and you’re clean outside, then your mind is clean and free. Put anything that doesn’t feel right, anything that’s bothering you, into the “Botheration Basket (part of Art of Living's Silence Program)” and feel you are cleansed from inside. 

To feel clean inside, we have two things – “So Hum” and “So What?!” “So What?!” will certainly work, but if it doesn’t, “So Hum” most definitely will! With “So what?!” or “So Hum”, keep your smile!

Sex is not a hindrance on the path

Sex is where life originates in the Orient. It is honoured as divine sexuality. It is in the second chakra, and then you move up to the other chakras. Spirituality does not disown anything or dissociate from anything. Spirituality encompasses all aspects of life. In fact, spirituality uplifts one from sex to the higher consciousness.

Sex is being attracted to a part of the body and getting some stimulation from it. The goal of sex is to find joy and not sex itself. It is to get into that moment. Forget about everything and find joy. Spirituality provides that joy, a joy, which is not through some act but a joy that is beyond the senses.

Any enjoyment or pleasure is spending energy when you spend a lot of energy. Then you do not have enough energy left to take you to your centre. That is the only reason why sex, food, too much sleep or watching television continuously or doing too much of any activity will be a hindrance on this path, to be in the hollow and empty space inside you. It is because you are not used to going deep inside of yourself that you are not in the centre; you are not calm, serene or subtle.

To be something that you're not used to being, needs some energy. It needs some effort and it is an effort to become effortless. So during this period of time, it is better to abstain from talking and all other activities like too much sex, over-eating, too much sleep, etc. Otherwise, the relationship you are in is not a hindrance for your spiritual growth or meditation. 

Sex is not a hindrance, provided both partners are on the same path; both are in a balanced state of mind and have a common goal, purpose and are engaged in service. Sex is nothing but a little stimulation on the level of the body, it gives you a "high" for a few minutes, and that's it. There's no big deal about it.

The need for a physical high will automatically reduce once you feel the inner fountain of love flowing from. You are the source of that love. The stimulation of the self is so strong that the stimulation in the body is nothing in comparison to it. The tickle of the soul is so strong that the sensations in the body don't come anywhere close to it.

It is not that one is against the other, or one creates some problem for the other. When you realise consciousness is beyond the physical body, then you go beyond the gross pleasures. You have been trying to know the male and the female in so many lifetimes - animal and human. If you just want to know sexual pleasures, then keep knowing them. But for how long? At some point of time, you will say "Enough is enough." That is when the mind will turn inward.

That is why it is said a minute of samadhi is equivalent to 1000 units of sex. The amount of joy you get in one minute of samadhi is thousand times more than the joy you get in a minute of sex and that one minute of samadhi is equivalent to a billion years of rest.

So do you want that? Then you have to go beyond these mundane things you have to give up something to get something. If you want to really enjoy a nice good meal, you have to give up eating junk food all day. Since the morning if you're stuffing yourself with potato chips, you can't enjoy your lunch because you won't have the appetite for it. If you're hungry, then you can enjoy a good meal. You don't have to give up the potato chips though. Moderation is the key.

Chakras - your pathway to bliss

 

There are seven chakras or seven nerve/energy centers connected with different glands in the body — thyroid gland, the adrenalin glands, pituitary gland, pineal gland, etc. Science also agrees that these glands are responsible for our experiencing various emotions. Our ancient Rishis knew this fact thousands of years ago and mentioned it in the scriptures. 

The Rishis depicted each of the seven chakras in the forms of a lotus or different flowers. This is because when you go deeper in meditation, the consciousness becomes very subtle, and your mind becomes fresh like a flower. It becomes fresh, alive and soft. In such a delicate state of consciousness, you experience the rise of energy in the system. 

Lightness is connected with subtlety. Grossness is connected with inertia and negative sensations; negative feelings. When you are negative, when you are rude or rough in your behavior, there is a certain inertia, a certain heaviness in the system. 

When you feel all the positive sensations, you feel a sense of lightness. When the energy moves upwards, then the inertia transforms into enthusiasm and then next to creativity. From creativity wells up joy. When you are happy, you are naturally generous. Then the energy moves up further into the heart chakra where you only feel love for everybody around you. When you feel immense love, you feel an equal amount of gratitude and from this gratitude stems awareness. Awareness leads you to bliss.

Recognize duality to see unity

 

Some people misuse yoga for the fulfilment of their carnal instincts; this is wrong. It should be the other way around. Whenever there is a carnal instinct, it should be transformed into a divine inner experience. There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit called atma rati, union with one’s being, rejoicing in one's self. 

There are two things, prakriti (nature) and purusha (consciousness). There is an interplay of nature and consciousness all the time. The union of your body and soul — your body is female (prakriti), and your soul is male (purusha) — is happening all the time. And, seeing that union within oneself is samadhi. 

That is why samadhi is considered to be a thousand times more joyful than carnal desires. Whatever joy sex gives, samadhi offers a thousand times more because there is no effort and no action there. It is only being and just being. When just the being, the play and display of consciousness come to one’s awareness, it becomes one’s experience — exquisite and beautiful! 

Don’t keep any corner of your existence away from divinity. The divine should be interwoven into every aspect of your life, and this is called brahmacharya, which means moving with the infinity, uniting with the infinity. In India, you find both aspects — Shiva and Parvati who symbolize prakriti and purusha, consciousness and matter — everywhere. First recognize the duality and then see the unity. They are not two, they are not different but two sides of the same coin.

You are complete. You are both man and woman. Getting rid of this label, ‘I am man’, ‘I am woman’ — getting out of your limited identity, this is the highest philosophy of the universe. We keep identifying ourselves, ‘I am a man’, ‘I am a woman’, ‘I am old’, ‘I am young’, ‘I am educated’, and ‘I am illiterate’. Throw away all these labels. What remains is pure consciousness. Just know that you are the consciousness.

Don’t go around saying I am nothing. Adi Shankaracharya once said, ‘One who labels himself as something is a fool and one who labels himself as nothing is a bigger fool.’ One who is nothing does not talk, so just keep quiet. How can you say, ‘I am nothing’, when you are saying something! There cannot be somebody there saying, ‘I am nothing.’ 

When you consider the basic necessities of food and sex as sacred, then aggression in you disappears and surrender, gratefulness and love dawn in you. That is when the devotee and the divine have become one. They have blissfully merged into one. But there is a difference between bliss and sex. Sex is energy consuming and draining while bliss is energy conserving. All emotions that you experience are nothing but energy moving through you, through the chakras in the body.

Why should one be on the spiritual path?

 

Spirituality for me is very basic to life. We are made of both matter and spirit. While the building blocks of our body are proteins, carbohydrates, etc., our consciousness or spirit is made of compassion, joy, energy, enthusiasm, peace, happiness and all such beautiful qualities. Anything that uplifts the spirit, anything that brings more happiness, love, creativity, compassion, and enthusiasm in life is spirituality. 

For thousands of years, spirituality has been the guiding force behind humanity. Now is the time when we need to move from religion to spirituality. Religion is like the peel and spirituality the fruit inside. Wars have been fought and nations divided in the name of religion but spirituality has united humanity irrespective of religion, race, caste, creed, gender, colour and age. The rituals that you go through from birth to death are all religion. 

Spirituality is personal. Unfortunately, the world over, we have thrown out the essence and are holding on to the dry fruit peel. Spirituality gives you the much-needed self-esteem, confidence and fearlessness. Some religions don’t believe in God — like Buddhism and Jainism. 

Religion, mainly talks about rituals, symbols, a style of life, whereas spirituality attends to the core values of empowering oneself, and realizing that there are many faculties and dimensions lying dormant within us. For example, all of us have ten fingers, but not everyone knows how to play the sitar. With a little training, the fingers can play music. In the same way, with a little training of our minds, talent can be exhibited, confidence levels can rise, honesty, integrity – qualities that we expect from others will start showing up within us. 

Spirituality is getting in touch with yourself, the core of your being. The goal of the spiritual path is to understand the spiritual dimension of life and live all the values that the spirit represents — peace, love, joy, beauty, unlimited knowledge, and the capacity to understand both mind and matter. At any moment, in any place, you can just sit and let go, knowing that inside you there is a pure, clear space that’s vast and deep. 

That inner space is what you are. Feeling this inner space is knowing your spiritual dimension. Spiritual blossoming simply means blossoming in life in all dimensions — being happy, at ease with yourself and with everybody around you. Worrying doesn’t make any difference, but working does, and spirituality gives one the strength to work.

Go beyond yourself, to find God

 

Who is God? You and me and all that is. The totality. Love is God and everything is love. The whole creation is filled with love. Now the question that is rising in your mind is, "Are hatred, anger and negativity also love? I would say yes. 

If you are angry, go to the root of your anger. Why are you angry? Because you love someone in some way. That anger is a by-product of love. Do you see that? Hatred is a byproduct of love. Love is what you are made up of. The consciousness in you is love. 

Love is not just an emotion. It is the very state of your being. It is the pulse in you. You may call it God. You may call it pure consciousness. You may call it the supreme or unseen power which nobody knows. It is the basis of creation.

A scientist may call it the vacuum state of matter or existence. A person who practices yoga says it is that which is beyond the mind, beyond the self. The word God in India is Paramatman. Atman means the self, the I. Para means beyond. Whatever is beyond the I, is God. 

So how do you go beyond the I? When you become love. You dissolve. You go beyond.

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?

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.

"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.

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.

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.

There's always, God

 

The color of wall depends on the wall. In the same manner, the existence of creatures depends on the love of God. Separate the color from the wall and the color would cease to be. So all creation would cease to exist if separated from the love that God is. 

Words are inadequate to express truth. Language is always found to be limited. Whenever one has to talk about God. This limitation of words and language becomes very evident. Truth cannot be captured by words. The words you use to indicate a connection to God also indicate a separation from God.

If you say you are always connected to God, it indicates in some way that you have been separate, independent, outside God. This is not so. The moment a fish comes out of the water, life also comes out of the water. Simultaneously life leaves the ocean as well as the fish. A corpse of a fish comes out of the water. A shell of a life you call fish comes out of the water, not the fish itself. The life of the fish is synonymous with the ocean. The life of a fish cannot exist outside of the ocean. In other words, the ocean is the fish.

The ocean itself, manifesting in a particular shell in a particular moment, you call fish. It is strange, but very true. For a fish life is inseparable from the ocean. Life is the ocean. The ocean is life. The fish cannot exist outside the ocean, away from the ocean, as waves cannot exist apart from the ocean. Waves are part of the ocean. You can think of a fish as a solidified wave of the ocean, an expression of the ocean.

Water is not a dead thing. Water is alive. Water is life, in fact. 90% of your body is water. If the water from your body is drained out, you will collapse that very moment. Life is synonymous with water. If some is undergoing dehydration, nothing in them functions. The pulse goes and they die. 

The water in you is the same as that in the ocean. It has the same % of saline. It has the same contents. You are an encapsulated ocean living outside the ocean. You could be a sweeter ocean and the sweetness in you blossoms when you realise that you are part of the whole, a part of existence.

You may say “always connected to God”, but the two words always and connected do not go together. Connected implies that two things were once not connected. This was separate.

Now they are connected. If you say “always” and then “connected”, the word connected loses its meaning. You are always God. Wherever you are, whatever you are, you are in God. A fish may sometimes go up in the water, go down in the water, turn upside down, wag its tail, eat or Sleep. Still it remains within the ocean.

Whenever Buddha was asked to speak about God, he kept silent. It was not that he didn’t know. Many people thought that Buddha was an atheist because he never spoke of God. He was not an atheist. He Knew the profundity of truth and the inadequacy of words. 

The existence of God is beyond time. To indicate that, you can use the word always. God is always. But when you say you are always God, you make yourself separate from God. That is why I say language is inadequate to express God.

Confused? You're blessed

 

Blessed are those who are confused. Confusion means your previous knowledge has broken down. Your belief has broken down. That is a step in Knowledge. You are fused to yourself. Space is created. The mind goes blank. This is what is important. Whatever I say, whether you agree or disagree, it doesn't matter.

If you agree, it doesn't matter. If you disagree, then also it doesn't matter. But are you aware of what is happening in your own mind? That is sufficient. This moment some judgment is happening. A certain thing is stirring in the mind. You are agreeing, disagreeing. You like this. You don't like this. Awareness of what is happening within you that is self-study.

If you observe more and more, with a little practice you will see that every emotion, every thought creates a particular sensation in your system, in a particular place in your body.

And the mind becomes like a mirror. The mind becomes so hollow, so empty. Through that empty space truth dawns. That is why "I don't know" is beautiful. The moment you think "I know", then the mind is not yet hollow and empty. Knowledge, labeling things, comes into play. In India you don't find signboards everywhere. If you ask for directions, people will tell you which way to go whether they know or not.

They will tell you to go left or right. It may be completely the opposite direction, but they don't feel comfortable saying "I don't know". So you may travel for hours and discover that you have gone in just the opposite direction from where you wanted to be. The beautiful "I don't know". That is what is needed today. Innocence. And that is love.

Benefit of feeling helpless

 

Every parent is a door for a new soul to enter into the world. Nothing more than a door. Every artist is a door for some work of art to flow through them. All your virtues, all beauty, all that is truth spring from the same source - one source.

Love is something that is very fresh. It can’t be stale. You can't practice love. No practice can bring love in you. Love is spontaneous. It is the same with beauty. Beauty can't be practiced. You can't practice appreciation.

That is why I say "I don't know what I speak". Knowing, knowledgeability, limits. The highest knowledge is called the end of knowledge. Vedanta means the end of knowledge, truth. 

It is the same with truth as with beauty, truth cannot be practiced. It can be cognized, recognized, felt, experienced and lived moment to moment, moment to moment. Observing the unpredictability of life, the unpredictability of the world creates an awe in you, a sense of wonder in you.

Every person on this earth feels helpless, completely handicapped, at some time or other whether he is John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi or someone on the street. Everyone feels helplessness, feels that things are ruled by something other than what one can logically conceive. Whatever possible conclusions we make, we still feel things happen beyond that. 

When we feel helpless, we tend to become frustrated, cynical. This is the junction point. The feeling of helplessness can turn into prayer, or it can turn into frustration. Divinity can be perceived in the prayerfulness. In frustration we become more and more disheartened, dejected. Do you see that?

Prayer is not a practice, it is a happening. When from the very core of your heart, your mind, you feel helplessness that is prayer. When you are successful, you Know it. A sense of doership comes.

But when the feeling of helplessness arises, prayer can be very authentic. This authentic prayer can transform life, can bring such a force or power within us. I don't mean that we should all be miserable in order to pray. Gratefulness is very essential. 

When we recognise our helplessness, we need to put a distance between ourselves and what is happening, a distance from every action. I'm talking and yet I am watching myself talk. I'm sitting here, yet I'm not just sitting here. I have entered all the things here-the cushions, the carpet, the walls, the photograph. All over it is me, an expanded awareness living life from that area beyond calculations.

We measure and talk. We calculate, we prepare and we talk. But when we talk of something which we don't know, it is very adventurous. I have never read the Bible, but I can speak on the Bible. Nor have I ever read Buddha, but I can speak about Buddha.

Opening yourself to love

 

There was a beggar who sat all his life on a particular spot. When he died, people said that he had spoiled the piece of land, that he made it dirty. “He has lived all his life here”, they said to each other. “Let us dig the mud from here and throw it out”.

When they started taking down his small hut and digging the mud out of the place where he lived, they found an enormous hole filled with wealth. The people laughed. They said, “This man lived in poverty all his life and he was sitting on this hole filled with wealth”.

“If he had dug down one foot right where he was, he could have been a millionaire”. Everybody pitied him. 

Bang on the door. Where you are, you are on the door step. Do not delay a moment. Bang on the door. All the wealth is within you.

Each one of us is the total sun, the full sun. We have come into this world, everyone of us, to contribute, to give light and love. But all of our life we remain unaware of our wealth, unaware of what we are. So don’t delay. Bang on the door with full force.

Just knocking will not help. Humanity has swung to the extreme today, so it is high time we get back to our selves with all speed. We have been shivering outside the door long enough. How are you to get back to your self, to get home without any delay? The intensity of your wanting to get back is the first thing. If you have been shivering in the cold, you won’t simply sit there and knock.

When you have recognized this truth, that you need to get through the door, the very first step, is passion to get to the center. When you close one door, another door opens. When you close your outside door, then your inner door opens.

When you keep thinking about outside people, situations, circumstances, you are lost completely in that. For a moment shut the outside door. Think only one thing, everybody is one - one person, one life. Then your outer door is closed. Don’t think of people in terms of personalities.

Don’t think this person is good, this person is bad and that person said this, the other one said that. Then you are lost. Your opinions about people are temporary, momentary. When we form opinions about people, we keep worrying our head about it. So we shut the door towards these things and our inner door opens and one day there is just love. More innocence, good and love.