When there is struggle and conflict in the world, it is easy to forget that the infinite one abides in all that is, that you and everything around you are composed of one intelligent awareness, one infinite love, one being, and one consciousness. Within the play of that consciousness comes the variety of experiences in this relative world where there is happiness and sorrow, there is ignorance and suffering, and there is the gamut between them. There is fear, hatred, anger, joy, compassion, love, happiness, and pain. This is the nature of this relative world. It is a mixture of these, and at some points, there is much pain and at other points, there is much happiness and joy. It changes from time to time, from person to person. But the underlying reality remains the same. The horrors inflicted in this world by ambitious men and women, who want to have power, territory, and prestige, have been going on throughout human history. They remain active today in today’s societies. The influence of such people is on the rise in society today, in general. Dictators and men wanting power are on the rise. Why? Because the world is less stable than it was. The climate itself, the planet itself is reacting to the population of humanity, and the people do not feel as secure as they did 50, or 75 years ago so they want to secure themselves. Fear is a very motivating factor in human behavior. And out of fear, people become aggressive. They develop anger. Because fear and anger are two sides of the same experience: defense, defense, to secure one’s safety and the safety of one’s group. And out of this comes any information that will make people compliant with the order that is. The problem is not simply propaganda that happens when people follow what they are told, but the leaders whose intention is not for the welfare of humanity, but for their power and prestige, who have fallen into the trap of needing, desiring power, desiring prestige, desiring to be in leadership and very attached to that power. So, for those, many techniques of disinformation are very helpful. When you are in fear of such people and the forces that they put in motion, do not fear. And do not become downtrodden. Even in the most difficult situations, there is always hope, and there is the lightness and love of the human spirit. Keep your mind ever in the unitary whole of being, remember the infinite, and take the play of circumstances not as something you should be passive about. You must fight for the truth. But also let your mind rest in equanimity, not taking upon yourself fear and distress because of variations in worldly situations. Remain solid in your knowledge of the love that binds all beings and is the truth and essence of all that is. Remain ever connected to the infinite one. Then the play within the cosmos, the rise and fall of this or that movement, person, or problem, has a relative place. You fight for Dharma but don’t welcome fear into your heart or anger. Live out of the intention of love and kindness for all beings, even if that is not what you see around you. Work for that; work for the instilling of leaders whose intention is not personal power, but the welfare of humanity. People have wars because they see welfare differently. Humanity is in change. From one level of existence, from one level of functioning to another. In this change, there will be upheaval. In this change, there will be polarization. Not only in the United States but throughout the world. You cannot understand the thinking of another person; their ideas are so foreign. That is what happens in polarization. The very nature of reality seems to be divided. This has happened throughout history, it is true. But in these critical times, when a shift is occurring, it is more pronounced. It is darkest before dawn. When the sun rises it casts a dark shadow, until the shadow is burnt away by the brightness of the sun in the noon. This is the tide and the flow of nature, the paradigms within the operative principles of this universe. Ignorance, hatred, anger, and fear are the culprits, not individuals. If those individuals are dominated by these forces, they do not serve themselves to allow these forces to gain authority within them. Keep your love, keep your equanimity of mind, and do all actions out of compassion for the promotion of Dharma and love for all beings. Let fear and anger fall away from you. Do not let them into your heart. At times it is stressful, yes. When you fight for Dharma, there are times it is stressful, but let love and compassion and lovingkindness dominate you, not fear, not anger, not hatred. This relative world is relative. There is a very dynamic change going on. You worry over who will be president, and what regime will abide. But there are deeper problems that are even more worrisome, that are being ignored. They will not be ignored for long. Even in the darkest times, remember love, and kindness. There is only one infinite being in all the forms, and all the shapes, and the dance of this creation. Namaskar.
0 Comments
It is natural in human life to love your children, to love your family, to love your friends, and to feel attachment. It is natural to want the welfare of those that you’re close to. This is instinctual to human existence. It is the natural tendency of people. To deny these tendencies to love, to care for, and to become attached to others is to deny your humanity. But to remain in the sphere of attachment and repulsion is to be immersed in your humanity to the degree that the divinity that is within all becomes evasive. To have that divinity near to you, it requires both opening your heart in love with those around you, but having discrimination, discriminating the real from the unreal. This material world and forms in it seem to be the most solid. Yet their existence is the most qualified, the most ephemeral. Beneath this exterior of body-mind identity and the separation of you and others is a deeper self. And in that deeper self-there is no difference between you and those you love. Even those you may dislike, there is no difference. For you are all part of one integral, interwoven whole. The plants, the animals, the earth, the cosmos, you and those you love are all part of a unitary whole, an essence of being that gives you a wholeness that does not originate in the body-mind, but is a part of something vast, something great. Your body-mind identity, your ego identity, is a part of this integrated, interwoven whole of being, is a part of this endless love which is the nature of that cosmic essence. It is the milieu in which you have been born, live, and die. But when your consciousness becomes simply immersed in the identity of individuality, identity with the body and the mind and the ego, the personal self, you open yourself to great pain because there is not only love in this world, but there is also loss. But the pain that you experience is based in Maya; it’s based in illusion, the assumption that there is something to gain and something to lose; the assumption that you are separate and that you must acquire to be safe, to be happy; and that you must fend off all those things that might interrupt this happiness. But if you gain that mystical connection to the divinity within you, to the love that always is, you realize that the human love that flows through you, that makes you desire connection with others and feeds you in that connection, is that same love which abides everywhere and simply is. It can never be taken from you. It can’t be acquired, and it can’t be lost. It is your very nature. It is the truth of who you are. For within your personal individual self lies the vast ocean of divinity, the incredible substance in which all this dream of creation abides. That is your home. When you search for the love you have with family, with children, with friends, you search for that moment, that incident where you feel true deep connectedness. That is that moment where the superficial falls away and that divine connection is felt in your connections with others. But it is also within you in meditation, in deep communion. That connection is there because it is the connectedness you have to the one eternal being. And that being often manifests in a congenial form as your Guru, as the one to whom you feel unbounded love, and from which you feel unconditional love. That one never dies. Eternal Self, the deep Self, never dies. It is that which always is. So, the Guru always is. The Guru never passes from this world. Forms come and go but the Guru remains always. The Guru can be found within you and around you. Difficulties in this life come and go. Love and good fortune come and go. That is the nature of human life. But the eternal remains always, the eternal Self never changes. The beloved Satguru is always with you, never leaves you, may take different forms at different times. And for one whose eyes are truly open, the Guru comes in the form of a bird, a butterfly. The Guru comes in a babbling brook to speak to you, for the Guru’s voice is always there because the Guru is in all that is. The true Guru is the infinite one, and that Guru is always with you. So, you may find an outer form that Guru has manifest to guide you, to direct you. And there may be an inner form within you that the Guru manifests to be your guide, to take you to truth. And when you abide near truth, the forest speaks to you; the trees speak to you; the snow speaks to you; the rain speaks to you. Love speaks with many voices. This world of form is always changing. There will always be struggles, some of them very difficult, some of them only partly difficult. That struggle will remain with you. But the true Self is there always, guiding you, loving you, caring for you. The Guru is always there for you. So, when the difficulties come, turn and take that shelter. And when joy and happiness come in life, turn and realize it is the blessing, it is the grace of that infinite one. That one always is there with you. Only you turn away and you become lost in forms, your awareness lost in forms. You forget the Guru. But when you come back and you remember, “Ah, that blessed one. The infinite one is there with me, taking a congenial form that I might know that beloved, and my heart might be opened, and my mind, and I live with that presence.” So, I ask that you do a small exercise, and that is to throughout the day, remember, think, “My beloved is just there with me, just next to me, just touching me. That one is walking my life with me, guiding my every step. I am in the care of my Gurudev.” Just become aware of that presence as you go through your day, as you meet the various challenges of the day. Feel that one just with you, guiding you, loving you, just there, touching you, being with you, flowing through you into the world in your words, in all that you think, in the visions that you see, in your eyes, in your hearing. That one abides everywhere. Let yourself be in the presence of that one. And then offer, surrender, your every footstep, your every action, your every word, surrender it to the Guru within. Any fears that arise, surrender them. Let them be held by the infinite one. In that one’s care you are always safe; you are always cared for. You are one with that infinite one. There is no separation. Let yourself feel that one enfolding you and an infinite awareness and presence that you might be so close to that infinite being that you might never know separation. Let that one be the polestar of your existence. There are many changes ahead on this earth. But you need never fear; you need never worry. For you are held in the arms of the infinite. You are held by the Guru. And it is my firm conviction that humanity will go forward, and the future of humanity is very bright. So do not worry about these predictions. Do not let them cloud your mind. Do your duty. Remember always your Guru is there with you every moment. And look on the bright side always. And so they may appear or not to the human senses. Depending upon the dimensional shifting many phenomena are beyond the intellectual understanding of humans of this planet. Yet, that does not mean they do not exist.Parama Purusha is omnipresent. There is no place, no time when that one has not, does not exist. Even in the multiple dimensions of reality, that one exists. And in the far-flung heavens, billions of light years away, that one exists. For all that is abides within the mind of the infinite. All that is abides within divinity. There is no other truth. It is very simple. The spiritual message is very simple. There is only one—one truth, one Guru, one love, one infinite being manifesting in all the forms and colors of creation, in every idea that can be conceived and that cannot be conceived. Reality is more fluid than most people would like to think of it because it is not solid. It appears to be solid from the point of view of an individual, but within the mind of the cosmos, within the mind of the infinite, this is like a dream. Its solidity is mental, not physical. And that is why one who has realized their union with the sublime and melted their self into that divine Self, to such a one it is all fluid. It is not immovable. But even for such a one, there are the laws of nature, the operative principles of Prakriti, which create the three Gunas: Sattva, sentience; Rajas, the movement principles; and Tamas, the static force. And from them comes the five elemental flows and the world, the spectrum in which the human senses and human body awareness exist. It is a limited spectrum of perception. For there is the cosmic perception of an infinite being that lies beyond the realm of the human mind. There is the microcosmic flow to the subatomic particles, to the waves that compose them. This spectrum of perceptual field is not perceivable by the human senses. Yet it exists. So there are also dimensions to reality, subtle shifts, and perceptual field alterations. Some beings live with you but they are not perceivable to your senses, because they live in a slightly different frequency. So you have the little elves, the dwarves, the fairies that people see in a certain state of mind but are not normally perceivable by the human senses because they live in a slightly altered frequency of existence that might be called a dimension or an altered state of being from the human sensory experience. There are so many psychic phenomena. There are the unidentified objects and the people of space that are so often talked about, but yet may or may not exist in this dimension or may phase to a different dimension if they attain that ability to not only travel by light years but to travel by dimensional portals. All is a part of the self-aware consciousness of being, as you are a part of this. But to experience your union with divinity, three things must be overcome. All is a part of the self-aware consciousness of being, as you are a part of this. But to experience your union with divinity, three things must be overcome.
Namaskar. The evolution of the mind and the spiritual development of an individual is a complex matter. It is a matter of training the mind to quiet and be able to feel into the stillness, but it also is a matter of changing the understanding that individuals have of their own self, a matter of changing even the fundamental definition of self. So, this spiritual life is not so simple, and many flee from it because they are afraid to face themselves, to look at their own behavior, their beliefs, their ideas, their assumptions, and to surrender those to the infinite one. The beliefs in right and wrong, good and bad, the assumption that one’s actions or beliefs are superior to others and that one has the right to judge, has been a part of human society since the very beginning. Human people form their social groupings and networks, and they create a wall around them. There are those that are inside and there are those that are outside. This is groupism. But it is the nature of people to want to feel identity with a group and to trust their welfare to the group. If the group says this, then they will think this. If the group says that, then they will think that. They lose their personal integrity to the group. And therefore, they become unable to make personal decisions; personal values become secondary to the group. And with most groups there are those that are inside of the group and those that are considered outside of the group. This has led to wars, feuds that have harmed many people both physically and mentally. So, what to do when confronted with this reality of human behavior? You must ask yourself what is your attitude; where do you stand? Do you think for yourself or are you simply driven by this group psychology? Do you place your trust in the collective of a group, or do you place it in the divine one? Do you listen to the God within, or do you listen to the group and the scriptures of the group? These have been the issues that have plagued humanity and in the name of group psychology, they have done great harm to others who are outside of their group. The wars of the world have been fought for the group, the clan, the tribe, the nation. People die fighting for the group. But humanity and not only humanity but all the living beings are part of one family, one infinite source of being has created all of this and all of these living beings. The welfare of one is interdependent with the welfare of another, whether your group is your tribe, your clan, your town, your community, your region, your nation, your religion. There will always be the “other.” If you are Christian, you may take a stance against Muslim or Hindu and vice versa. And thus, the pain and suffering of the world has gone on. People fighting for religion, for nationalism. One group against another. For what? For what? To be right. To make others wrong. To gain access to territory. To have dominance, power, prestige, to be the winner. This is the side of human nature which lives in Maya, which tries to find happiness at the expense of others, which tries to divide the world into those who are good and those who are bad, those who are like me, those who are different, of a different race, of a different gender, of a different belief system, of a different religion, come from a different region, speak a different language. There is always then your own group and other. And from this many animosities arise and much difficulty. There is no end to the suffering this psychology has created in the human race. And until people think that the universe is their home and all beings their brothers and sisters, this will continue. And for the Sadhaka who takes this form of groupism to heart, they will justify themselves and their ill behavior towards others, and thus feuds and wars, power struggles among people dominate human society. But a shift is occurring. There is turmoil now because there is change afoot, a shift occurring. Many people are tired of this psychology. They are tired of being part of a system that promotes oppression of some at the expense of some for the glory of others. It is one world family, not only human beings but all beings. This is the very essence of neo humanism, the new humanism, that all beings are part of the family of living beings, abiding within the mind of the cosmos, within the grace of the infinite. All are within the mind of the cosmic one. None are outside, none are apart. Good and bad, right and wrong are very much a view of perspective. What is good for one group may not be good for another group and vice versa. The solution does not lie in winning. The solution does not lie in conquering. The solution does not lie in convincing all that you are right. The solution lies in love, love that is deep, pure, and universal, love for all living beings, even those who you think do wrong, love, compassion, care. Despite the difficult actions and weaknesses that plague humanity, despite the aggressive nature of some species, including human beings, can you find compassion, can you find love for all beings, can you make your heart pure, immune to this type of groupism that can swallow you? The spiritual path, the way to divinity, is not so simple. It challenges not only to quiet the mind for meditation, but to challenge the fundamental way you operate in this world, the way you assume and defend yourself. Let love abide. Let love divine and universal, and compassion for the weaknesses, sorrows, and deficiencies in human nature, not to endorse them to be enacted, but to have understanding and compassion for all beings, and support the expansion of love in the heart, for you and for all beings. For when the spirit is uplifted by the waves of love and kindness and understanding, then in that upliftment of the heart, that is the path to spirituality, not in the beliefs and judgments of the mind but in the compassion, love, and kindness of the heart. The rational judgments, depending upon your particular view, they will change. You will think one person is good, another person is bad. Let love and compassion, kindness rule you. Have compassion for the shortcomings of living beings, of human beings. It does not mean you indulge those things which harm humanity, but that you understand the weakness in human nature, which catches people and enacts through them. Hold yourself apart from these things. Cling to the love of Parama Purusha, cling to the divine. Make that one the polestar of your life, no group, no collective psychology. Let Parama Purusha alone be the polestar of your life. Avoid groupism, avoid judgment. See with compassion the pains and woes of this world. One group has felt oppressed. They oppress another group. That group feels oppressed. They develop hatred, they want to destroy this group. So it is in the dealings of human beings. It is something to weep for. The solution lies not in force but in love. The solution is going deep in yourself and finding the love that abides there, love for yourself, love for all living beings, even when they have shortcomings. It is in understanding their shortcomings and in guiding them to the path of love that the solution lay individually and collectively. Not in judgment, not in finding the true way and the right way, judging others to be wrong. But even those who do harm to humanity, with an understanding heart guide them in the right direction. It is the love of the infinite that will heal the woes of human society. When people identify one world. that they are part of one world they’re all on the same team with all the living beings on the planet. Then things will change. When neo-humanism becomes the mode of human society, and it will become the mod, people will learn from their errors. It will change. But sometimes it is darkest before the dawn. There is a shift going on, a shift that cannot be altered, a change in the world. You are part of that change. Live in this cosmic, compassionate love. Let it be the guiding force of your life. Then you become part of the healing that will take place on this planet. For healing will come, is there, but will be there. Healing for the planet, for the living beings upon the planet, and for humanity. This path of spirituality is one to learn, to uplift the human spirit in yourself and in others. RETURN All of life is one integrated, interwoven whole. One part cannot be separated from another, for you and all those around you, all that is in this manifest world, is an expression within the awareness of the cosmic entity. Like the dream in the mind, that cosmic entity is dreaming your existence, is dreaming the existence of every living being and the struggles and joys of duality. Within that dream, certain laws operate, that make this manifest expression possible. The Lady Prakriti, Mother Nature, manifests, and dances the dance of creation within the mind of the infinite, within the aware consciousness of being. She dances the dance of manifestation, and her paintbrush has three points: Sattva, sentient; Rajas, mutative; and Tamas, static. And these three principles unfold all that is. So, when you think, “I am,” who is that I? Who abides where you are? Is it, not the one eternal infinite Self, the divine cosmic entity that is there, manifesting as you, manifesting as all those you love, manifesting in all the world, both that which is supportive of life and that which is dark and diminishes life? This world has no sense of morality in the sense that both shadow and light play together to form the dance of creation, the formation of opposites, and out of those opposites manifests the trifold universe and all that appears to dance in the dance of creation. It is said you are not alone, but what does that mean, you are not alone? For that which you call you is composed of the one, is it not? You are the dream in the mind of the dreamer. You are imagined in the mind of the cosmic one. So that which you call you can never be separated from that cosmic entity. That one is always with you. And will show Himself/Herself, will manifest for you in various ways. And if you keep your vision subtle and your mind aware, you will notice those ways. You will see the one behind the curtain, you will notice His movements, you will notice His presence. Deep meditation is very beneficial for this process. The frequency of your mind makes a difference. If your mind is resonating with material objects and the physical world, what you will see, what you will notice is the physical world. But if your mind becomes more subtle, you notice your feelings, you notice psychological movements, you notice your sadness, your happiness, your fear. These become prominent in your mind. And as your frequency becomes even more subtle, when your awareness attunes to an even more subtle frequency, then you begin to notice that which is called intuition. You begin to notice the many movements that happen around you, the subtle spiritual forms, the movement of the cosmic being in this world, the touch of the infinite. And as mind grows in magnitude, as the frequency becomes even more aligned with that sublime entity, with that cosmic progenitor, you begin to experience the deep love, the sense of grace, and the presence of that one in your life. You begin to feel that one is just near you, touching you. You feel the touch of that infinite one on your mind, on your being. You feel you live in the grace of that divine being. And as you surrender, as you let go, you feel that you are melted in that one and you are blended. And the deeper you let go, the more you let go, the more that blending becomes one. You dissolve into that one. This is the natural state of mind, the natural state of being. This is not some great achievement of some high holy individuals. This is for you. This is your relationship to the Self of your self, to your Gurudev, to your Ishta-Deva. You each have a personal relationship with your Ishta-Deva. But who is your Ishta-Deva? A person, a personality, an individual? No, no, no, no. Though the Ishta-Deva may have manifested in the form and ambiance of a particular individual, the Ishta-Deva is none other than the infinite one. The Ishta-Deva is your divine Self, the cosmic progenitor, the Self of your self, the Self of all beings. And that cosmic one is beyond the comprehension of the human mind. You can only notice the traces of that one’s grace, for that one is omnipotent and omniscient. There is no place, even in the darkest shadows, that that one does not abide. When your heart and mind abide with that one, you feel the love and grace and the light of the true spirit. That is there, even in the hardest times, in the darkest times, in birth, and death. That one is there. So cultivate your relationship with your Ishta-Deva. Cultivate knowledge of your Ishta-Deva, for that one is not an ordinary person or personality that lives or has lived in this world. That one is far more. That one is your own cosmic Self; that one is the very source of all that is. Eternal, immortal, pure being. A love beyond human comprehension. A peace that surpasses understanding. There are no words for that one, for words have limits and that one is limitless. The poets, and the minstrels, capture the essence, the feeling. The words come and go; the feeling is real. The feeling of love. The feeling of being loved unconditionally. There is a presence near you, the presence of you; the presence of your Ishta-Deva is with every one of you. When you attune your mind and attention away from the material objects, and the psychological movements of the mind, and you attune to the love of spirit, you learn to live in a subtle frequency. And there are subtle emanations, subtle worlds, subtle manifestations. Many things may happen, unexplained by science, though in subtle science they have explanations. In the world of today that you live in, they are unexplainable. For there is some limited understanding in the human mind of the nature of this reality. And so things cannot be explained and so you call them miracles. They are impressions, all within the cosmic mind of the infinite one. Let that one open your heart. Let that one draw you close. And as you feel that presence around you, let the duality fade, and let yourself be in that love. Let yourself surrender to that love. That is your home. Let all that be in that. And let yourself be all that is. There is no separation. For all is composed of the one eternal Self, the essential being, the beloved, your Ishta-Deva. Your Ishta-Deva is with you always and is your deepest Self. Human life is an ideological flow, a movement from crudity to subtlety, a movement from animal existence to sublime being. In this movement, there is both joy and sorrow. There are times when it feels as if the world is all coming your way, when you feel very good about yourself, about your circumstances. And there are times when you feel there is great difficulty in your life, things that cause you great pain. Many times, in life there, is a mixture of those circumstances that cause pain, and those that bring joy. This human world, this material world is one of transient forms, as you all know. Because it is transient there is that which comes to life, which grows and develops, that which sustains, and that which degrades, dissolves, and is no more. It is natural in human life that there is grief, there is loss. Not only loss of loved ones, loss of abilities, loss of health, loss of social status, and loss of money, but many losses occur in human life. And there is also, in addition to those losses, the ability to gain, to become that which you want to be. Loss and accomplishment are both part of the human experience. It is not the experience itself that determines your happiness, that determines the quality of your life, but your relationship to that experience. If you feel that with the losses you are completely adrift, or with the accomplishments and achievements and gains that you are on top of the world, you swing back and forth, back and forth, but all of that swinging is occurring on the outside of your being. Your mind is engaged with the external world, the senses of the body, and the perceptual field of duality. It is possible to have the same set of circumstances that are at times grievous, and at times joyous, and move within yourself to a different relationship to this human experience. The human experience does not change - the times can be difficult, very difficult. But what does change is your relationship to it, and as you continue to do Brahma sadhana, to ideate on the infinite, the divine Brahma, your relationship with this transitory existence changes because you are now a part of something greater. You see yourself as a part of something more, a part of something profound. When that divine presence comes into your life, when through your efforts in meditation to bring your mind into a relationship, your heart into a relationship with the infinite, and then through the grace of that divine one, that presence comes to you, becomes a part of your existence. Then you know, you become a presence, a consciousness that is partially engaged in these highs and lows of life but is also engaged in the equanimous flow of infinite being, that your divine guide, your divine Beloved, the divine manifesting in your life is a pervading presence—a love that sustains through the good times and the hard times. A love that carries you through it all. When your heart and mind flow in relationship to the infinite, you become in the world but not of it, able to live this life but see that both the pain and the pleasure, the loss and the acquisition are both parts of a whole that in each there is a dance of creation. There is light and shadow that forms a whole of being in this creative world. But in the light and shadow, there is something that sustains, something that maintains through a thread through it all. When your mind and your heart connect with that thread, that wave that flows through pleasure and pain, that flows through all the variety of experiences that can occur, you become connected to the soul, to the atman, and thus to the Paramatman. You become part of this divine presence, knowing that this presence is in all and everything, and though there is in the world of form, the continual appearance of change, that truly there is no change. There is a love that sustains, a being that always is the same. There are two great impediments to spiritual life. The first is attachment to the body and the sensory experience, because when there is attachment to the physical form and the sensory experience there is engagement with the body-mind structure and the belief that you are this small person who abides in the body. That belief becomes dominant in the mind, and so attachment to the enjoyment of sensory experience and embodiment becomes a hindrance when they overtake the mind and leave consciousness attached to embodiment. The second greatest impediment to spiritual life is the assumption that you are small, that you are limited, that you are not divine, and that all the life around you is not an expression of divinity, but other. It is an outgrowth of the first impediment, the assumption of self and others and the definition of self as limited, confined, restricted, and small. You can be in this world but not of it, not immersed in the belief in your individuality, but rather sailing through the experience of embodiment in human form, human life, and human senses while maintaining an expansive understanding of the nature of yourself. When you dissolve the illusion created by sensory experience of self and other, then you can walk in the world in this physical form but maintain the larger perspective that only the infinite Self, the one infinite divinity exists in all the beings in the world, and in your I-feeling, in your consciousness, in your awareness. Then there is nothing of you that is separate or apart from that integrated whole; that you are one with that divinity. This knowledge of your unity with the divine is your saving grace. It allows you to be embodied in this world but in a state of conscious awareness. Your consciousness is like a beam that focuses attention, and it can focus on sensory experience, it can focus on bodily experience, it can focus on the sense of self apart from others. But it can also focus on the unitary sense of the whole. The beam of your awareness can focus on that unitary sense of the whole. You can draw your attention to it, realizing that all is the manifestation of the one infinite Brahma and that you are in fact, part and parcel of that manifestation of the whole. The idea of your aloneness is an illusion of duality when your very nature is the unbound love, the infinite consciousness of the one eternal essence of being. That is who you are. That is what you are. When you begin to constrict into small definitions of yourself and identify that vast love, that vast consciousness that is you, with this limitation or that limitation, I am...and what follows that? Some form of limitation is it not? I am ugly. I am beautiful. I am talented. I am without talent. All of these are definitions of limitation. When you are all things, when you are the infinite Self of yourself, you are not bound by the ego, or others. These are creations of the mind and of the sensory experience of the two impediments: the body-mind structure and the definition of self and other. Namaskar. Every day is a new opportunity, a new beginning, an opportunity to live the life you truly want to live. Spirituality uplifts the human spirit. It is governed by love, lovingkindness, compassion, and awareness. When the mind and body and spirit are aligned, there is a flow from that infinite one into the mind and the body, and out through the voice, through the eyes into the world. When that is there, there is a diminishment of separation. There is a love that flows from the heart into the mind and out into the world. It permeates the body. That love is unconditional. It does not require that you like this, like that, do this, do that. No; it is unconditional, and it is for everyone. When you align yourself with that divine love, you align yourself with a love that knows no boundaries, that does not see race, that does not see sex, that does not see species, that does not see good and evil. A love that is so unconditional—an unconditional shower of grace… Can you love everyone? Can you give that unconditional love not only to those you admire or are close to but to every living being, even those whose behavior you find abhorrent? Unconditional love does not mean that you approve of all actions or that you even stand by a person in their actions. But it does mean that you care for them, you love them, you understand them, and if they will listen to you, you give kind advice, and if not or if you are in no position to talk to them or have any influence—such as bad leaders—you understand with compassion what has caused them to be as they are. It does not mean you support their behaviors that harm others, but you understand, and you love them; you love the person that they are beneath the difficult behaviors, the wounded child who has grown to a man or a woman and then due to their own wounding and mental, difficulties they enact them in the world and do harm. For when you are aligned with that shower of grace from the divine, there is nothing else but that, for that is the nature of the infinite aware loving consciousness. There is unconditional love in a shower of grace, and when you align with your divine progenitor, when you make that one the center and the core of your life and you mean it; you align with his qualities, his characteristics; you become one with him, with her; you become one with their qualities and characteristics. And what is the characteristic of that most precious divine one that you know in the core of your heart? The main characteristic is unconditional loving consciousness, is it not? You feel that shower of grace. It does not mean that it changes the world so that everything goes your way. No, that is not what grace is. Grace is not imposing your ego on the world. Grace is receiving this unconditional love, attuning and aligning yourself with the nature of divine being. When you attune and align yourself with that nature of divine being and you go to the Guru within, the Guru of your heart, the love of your life, and you surrender, you say, “Lord, Lord, there is nothing for me in this life but you. I want to walk in your footsteps,” then, bowing down and giving all of your assumptions and beliefs and vanity to the infinite one, that one takes you. You surrender yourself. What remains but that flow of unconditional grace and love? For that is the very nature of that divine one. That one loves everyone; be they good or bad, still they are all his children. They’re all the children of Parama Purusha. And that love is for everyone. It does not discriminate. When you truly align with that divinity within, with that Guru of your heart, then you align with this love, with this shower of grace. And it becomes who you are. The love you seek comes from within. And when you seek it within and to everyone without, you just allow the shower of grace and love to flow through you with kindness and support for all living beings, be they human, animal, plant, or even inanimate objects like a rock or a mountain. Can you not love it all, love this creation? For it is the form of the beloved of your heart. That one has complete love for all beings, complete love in the shadow and in the light, in the dark, in the sun; all is of the one. Aligning yourself with that beloved of your heart, you become a vehicle of love unconditional. That becomes your nature. And the more you align with that one, the more that nature rises to the surface, and you become that infinite love. You become one with the beloved of your heart. That divinity flows through you in this grace and love. This is your natural home, and it is from that one within that you find your deep love. Some people may return your love; others may not. But can you love them either way? Not seeking the return from them, but knowing it is within you, in the heart of your beloved. There lies the love. There is the one who gives you love, who always loves you, who always cares for you. Others may show kindness and care and love, or they may not. It doesn’t matter. You give love to everyone. Then you begin to truly know your Baba, then you begin to truly know who you are and who Guru is. And you align yourself with Guru, with that infinite grace. Take this message to heart. Today is a new day, a new beginning. Each day of your life brings you closer to your destiny. Whether you are young or old is irrelevant. What is relevant is what you do each day. Each day is a new beginning, a new opportunity to be what you truly want to be. The individual self, the ego self has many desires, and wants many things. But the eternal being wants only one thing, that all beings, all creation, return to their source, return to an infinite being. There is no separation between you and Parama Purusha, between you and that infinite consciousness. The only separation is an idea held in the mind. For that infinite being is manifest in all creation as well as in the silence and stillness of the unmanifest. That infinite being resides in you and all other beings. Not inside of you as if you have the infinite being inside of you, but is everything of you—that which you think of as you, resides inside that infinite being. Every molecule of your body, every thought in the mind—be it a thought towards unity or a thought that brings you into ego orientation—all of it resides within this cosmic entity. There is no separation, no duality between you and the eternal essence of being. You do not reside apart from that divinity. It is not only the core of your being; it is all of you. You are within eternal essence. There is no thought you can have, no action that you can do, that is outside of that divinity. For all is that. It is the assumption in the mind due to the experience of embodiment in human form that brings you to believe you are an individual, a separate entity. That is called—that assumption is the essence of ego. That is the core belief that you have, that you are apart, separate, an individual. It’s because awareness, consciousness, is embodied in form, the sensory experience, making the perception within consciousness of “I” and “thou,” that you are separate from all else, that all forms are individual, apart from each other. And this very notion of separateness which allows the ego to function, which allows you to function in the human body, also causes you your deepest pain. It is the root of your pain: The pain of separation, the pain of duality, is the root of all other pains. The Yogis of ancient times realized that in deep introspection, the root cause of their suffering, of human suffering, is this idea, this understanding that you are separate, that there is a separate person apart from everything else. And naturally, feeling this body identity, you fear death. And you struggle to achieve to bring to you that which will allow your survival and allow your individuality to survive, your body-mind to survive. And you fear that which will threaten that survival. But old age and death come to all who are in form. And this struggle, to win, to achieve, and to survive, is ultimately doomed. So, if your entire consciousness is immersed in that struggle, there is pain. Failure. Times when life does not work out. It doesn’t go your way. Because the cosmos truly does not revolve around you. You are part of an integrated, interwoven whole of being. So naturally sometimes your being is supported; sometimes it is not. Things that seem not to your welfare but to the welfare of another occur. So what to do in such a difficult world? The Yogis of ancient times realized there was only one solution: to go very deep. To unwind, and deconstruct, the assumptions and beliefs that have led to the bondage and suffering in human life. How to deconstruct those beliefs? How to find lasting happiness? It can only be found when your mental capacities, your thoughts, and feelings are suspended from everyday thinking, from all of the engagements with the senses, quieted so that you begin to feel yourself; you become aware of your existence. You begin to realize the self-deprecating, self-defeating thoughts that you have, perhaps the bad feelings that you have about yourself, as well as the pride and the ego, and you begin to go even deeper than those thoughts, those beliefs. They are more than just thoughts; they become assumptions about who you are and what you are. You go deeper underneath those. Putting the thoughts aside, putting the assumptions and beliefs you have held about who you are aside. Having the innocence of a newborn baby, the innocence within you, letting go of all of these burdens you have carried. Find the depth of your being. And when your attention and awareness focus on your innermost self, you begin to realize there is something more, that the assumptions you have made about who you are, what you are, they’re not true. They’re based on actions and reactions to actions, Samskaras, from the past, held within the mind, in the subconscious. When you move the conscious awareness through this subconscious mind to the superconscious mind, to the collective unconscious, you begin to realize you are not separate, that that which is assumed is not your true identity, that you are held within an identity that is far more vast. You are held within a consciousness that lives in all things. You begin to feel in the depths of awareness when your attention is shifted from the senses and the assumptions to your innermost consciousness. In the stillness of being, in the depths of yourself, you find that that which you have thought of as you are but a passing dream in a vast stillness, in an eternal love that does not move with time. It always is as it is. There is no time, no place, for there is no dream. It is only in the dream that time and place exist, that there is movement. But beneath it, all is the stillness, the love, the eternal home in which you abide. You have not only come from there, you abide within it, always, knowingly or unknowingly. The dream is in the mind of the dreamer. Whether the dream character realizes they are in the mind of the dreamer or not, they remain within the mind of the dreamer. Likewise, you remain an eternal being as the dream of creation plays out, interwoven, interconnected, a whole. You are part of that network, that whole. That which you have called you is an essential element in a whole of creation within the mind, within the awareness of infinite being. You do not have an infinite being within you; you are composed of infinite beings. There is nothing in you outside of the infinite being. There is nothing that you can see, hear, or touch, that is outside of an infinite being. So when, through deep contemplation and meditation, you make this deep association with the divine one, with the heart of your heart, the soul of your soul, the infinite love which binds all things, the peace that never changes, when you realize this is you, you are the drop of water in the ocean of eternal being, then what happens? Through continual association, the dreams, the beliefs, the assumptions, begin to fall away. You know you are not this and that idea that you have had about yourself, a belief based on experience. You are instead the eternal one, the knower, the consciousness that is aware. You are instead the love that is so deep it cannot be put into words. This is your true nature and as you abide by this, it becomes more consistently your experience. There is no difference between waking, deep meditation, and sleeping—we think that there is a difference, but as you grow deeply into the nature of the Self, as you grow deeply into the beloved of your heart, into your Baba, into your source, you realize that is all around you. You live in all that is. All that lives within you. You reside in an eternal being. Eyes open, eyes closed. It remains the same. There, what you have known of as you dissolve in surrender into the whole of being. There, lover and beloved are one. There is no duality. Take that with you. Stay in association with your eternal nature and you will find that it becomes your constant experience. You live in a body; you have senses. It does not mean you need to be separate. See divinity all around you. Feel the divine beloved of your heart in every form and your form. Let your love flow. Release the gates of your heart. Let go. Let go. Dissolve into one. Remember. Namaskar. Namaste. The world today is a changing place. Finding your dharma, your place and your right action in a world that is shifting and changing in a process of transformation from one age to another can be difficult. To know your place, to your know dharma at this time can be challenging because there are so many distractions, so many electronic engagements to be made, so many ideas available by so many people, and so many beliefs. The world of information is vast, encompassing knowledge from all parts of the globe, encompassing the ideas of all manner of people. And so, people follow different leaders, some opposed diametrically to others. It is confusing and easy to become polarized for in times of great change polarization is natural, it occurs. But for those to aspire to think of sadvipra, one who encompasses all of the different points of view and connects with the divine flow, then it is not taking one side or another but going within and finding the light within, the guidance within. And from that guidance find your true path for you amid all of the ideas, confusion, beliefs, doomsday predictions, and so on between the emergencies, the fears, the literal storms of weather, the droughts, the hurricanes. Amid all of this, do not look with fear to the outside for answers, but calm your mind, go within, and there, with your divine guide, find your dharma. Find what it is that will be in harmony with all life and with the divine flow. I have said this year that divinity will come closer to the earth plane, and be more accessible to living beings, but this means that there will also be more turbulence because that subtle frequency disrupts the status quo, but it is a push to the times to come, to the age to be. Sattva guna will be increasing on the earth plane, but this increase in sattva requires that there be change. Change that is so fundamental is not only a change of attitudes, a change of beliefs, a change of habit, but a change of frequency. For those attuned that will be a great relief. For those not attuned it will cause disruption. There is a wavelength to the time that has been for some years prominent in the world. A time of materialism, a time where philosophy and the thinking of people made the material world the sum of their ideas. But that time has changed. That is breaking down and the spiritual realm, the subtlety of sattva guna is coming into play. That does not mean all will be smooth, for a sattva increases as the subtle energies of Parama Purusha become more available and the frequency in the earth begins to shift. The minds of people will be changing and in confusion many times not knowing where the ground is, where they belong, and confused as to whether what they believed in the past is truly the way. But out of that confusion, out of that disruption, humanity will rise like the phoenix to meet the day, to be aligned with the infinite. That is the new dawn rising. That is the new beginning. The question to ask yourself is, will you align yourself with that infinite one? Will you increase sattva guna in yourself? Will you surrender what you have been to the divinity which lies within you and all around you? Will you take this opportunity to walk with the divine, to let the divine permeate you and guide you to move in harmony with the great? Doing this, put aside looking outward. Find your ground, your center with the divine Beloved and let go—let go. That divinity is coming closer; through this year that will come closer still. There will be more access. That means you will have what you need for spiritual alignment. Lord will be there. Surrender. Let go. Let go of what you have held onto. Hold to the infinite one. Let that one fill you, guide you, and align you with dharma. Do not look to organizations, do not look to leaders, do not look to social norms to be your guideposts. Let the infinite one, let Parma Purusha be your guidepost, your polestar, your bright light in the night. Then you have nothing to fear. And being aligned with that one, being aligned with the harmony of the universe you will find your way to live in truth, in love divine, in care and compassion for all beings. And right action will ensure; dharma will prevail, and you will be part of the forces of light that are shifting and changing this world Surrender and act in harmony with this flow from the infinite. You will be more accessible to you as the year goes forward. Remember this, alright? Are there any questions? |
Author
|
All
Dharma
Ego
Forgiveness
Intro To Yama & Niyama
Living In Harmony
Niyamas
Spiritual Activism
Spiritual Awakening
The Nature Of Love
What Are The Niyamas
What Are The Yamas & Niyamas
What Is Gratitude?
Yamas