Yogic Wisdom Blog

​Human life is an ideological flow, a movement from crudity to subtlety. In this movement, there is one consistent thing, and that is change. Change is a part and parcel of human life. And to have changed, you must have contrast, dark and light, painful and joyous.
 
Human life is a combination of these experiences. You have a high experience; you feel delighted and blissful; you’re on top of the world. Then you have a difficult experience. You feel that the world is against you, that God is not with you, that you wonder what you have done wrong. And then again it turns, and it turns and turns.
 
You are a young man, a young woman, then you are an elder, and then you leave the body behind. You continue your journey and again you are a young man, a young woman. And so it goes, changing, changing, changing.
 
Nations, people, collective of society, and human beings also go through change. And there are dark times and there are times of prosperity. There are times when people starve because the weather has gone bad. The crops are ruined—early frosts, late rains. The crops are destroyed. The people go hungry in the following winter.
 
Wars, pestilence, difficulties abound. Yet times of prosperity and abundance, times of cultural accomplishment, arts flourish, and people’s creativity develops. Those times come and they too pass.
 
Change requires contrast. And there will always be difficulty and delight. But the extent to which it governs your life depends on where you put your heart and your identity of self.
 
This changing world is a world of dualities, a level of being where the ego self-abides, where you want to be accomplished, you want to be liked, you want to be successful, you want to be prosperous, you want to be happy, you want to fulfill your life mission. All of this is normal, but all of this is the speaking of the ego. And it abides in this world of dark and light, of contrast and change.
 
When you move a little deeper to another level of being—some call them dimensions, some call them Koshas, Lokas, cosmic levels of being—when you move from this plane to a subtler plane, like moving from the surface of the ocean where the waves are crashing and moving deep into the still waters where there are no waves, no highs, and lows, it is just quiet. When you move in the still waters of the mind, where the heart lives, not in muddy, murky waters, but in the pure pristine love of infinite being, where that love and that presence permeates, there is stillness; there is love; there is peace that does not change, that does not move from high to low, but is always even, always the same.
 
You may move in and out of that awareness, and as you do, you experience the high and the low, but that is the movement of your consciousness, your aware attention from one stratum of being to another. The pure deep stratum never changes, but you enter it and then you exit. Enter and exit. And this goes on until the need to exit fades away.
 
The still waters, where the mind does not chatter and the heart is connected in love, in peace, this stratum of consciousness, this dimension, there is no life and death. All abides in an evenness. Dualities cease to be. There is no high and low, no good or bad mood, no young and old. You are as you have always been, melted into an infinite being, a part of an integrated whole where there is no seeking and no seeker, no grasping and no fearing. There is only the calm quietude of being. There is only love that does not wax or wane but is.
 
This is the true potential of human life, to move from this idea of duality, of ego self and other, of body-mind identity and other outside of the body-mind. When conscious awareness, when your intelligent awareness moves out of this changing duality of this plane of existence and sinks deep into the eternal core of your being, then the foundations of time, space, and person change. For time becomes endless; the time is now; the place is everywhere; the person is an infinite being. The individual body-identified self that lives in the world of contrasts ceases to be in this calm ocean.
 
There is nothing to engage with, no one to impress, no battles to win, nothing to acquire. And there is nothing to fear. Fear has no place in this ocean of eternity, in the depths of being. There is no fear; there is no grasping, no pulling away. There is an eternal being, love beyond measure, truth, and peace, deep peace.
 
It is the haven of your soul, where you can rest and abide. When you are there, you have always been there. You will always be there. It is in the moment of now. But it appears that your awareness drifts away from that moment of now, from that timeless presence into the world of opposites and change and you explore uniqueness, you explore success, you explore failure, you explore being human.

Awareness abiding in this. Then in the depths of meditation, in the silence of a moment in nature, in the moment of love with another being, you transcend this level of your being, this level of old and young, dark and light. The level of contrast and change disappears as if it has never existed, and you find yourself on the timeless shores of eternal being.
 
You remember; you have always been on these timeless shores. There has been a dream in your mind, a dream of duality and contrast that you have created and played in the field of illusion. But then you remember who you are. You are not the ego self that has suffering and has accomplishment, that has pain and happiness. You remember—then that feels like a dream, and that you awaken from the dream into reality. And in that reality, the separate self lets go and melts into the Satguru, the eternal being, the one.
 
Where you have been, no one abides. There is only being, knowing, infinite love, and great peace. For there is no striving, there is no fear to run from, no wonderful acquisition to acquire, no happiness to grab hold of. There is an evenness and a quietude, a deep eternal piece of eternal being, one without a second. Within this eternal peace, this consciousness lies the dreams of worlds upon worlds, different dimensions, and so many different beings and creations.
 
But when you awaken in the truth, all of those dreams dissolve. All of those acquisitions, all of the fears. The root cause of suffering, the separation of self and others, is no more. There you are home.
 
In your daily life, your mind goes here and there, forms this attachment and that has a preference for certain ideologies and beliefs, wants to follow a certain diet, but in the larger scheme of things, in the depths of your being, all of that is irrelevant. For when you truly accept the Satguru, when you truly love the Satguru, you don’t harbor any of this. Let it go. Humble yourself to let go of love divine.
 

Today is a new beginning, a new day. Every day of your life is a new beginning, a new day, a new opportunity to be all that you can be. Never think, “My life is useless. My life is downcast. I’m doing nothing.” 

On each day you awake you have the opportunity to bring your life in connection to all life, in connection to all living beings, and to live in service to all living beings. This is the opportunity that presents itself every day.

So never dwell in the past, in regret, in guilt, in fear, in worry. They do no good. Rather, wake up each day and think, “This is my opportunity. This is my new beginning. This is my connection, here and now.” What has been gone. What will be is not here. What is now, that is what you have.

And so, every day, arise, brush yourself off, forget the past. And live your day afresh.

Every moment is an opportunity to know the supreme, for that one lies within you, all around you. The Self of yourself, the nearest and dearest to you, infinite beyond description, beyond words. That one always is, always has been, and always will be. It is your innate nature. 

That infinite consciousness, that aware self-being that knows who you are, that knows everything that you think, feel, see, hear, experience. Everything is known to that divine one, to Parama Purusha, the supreme entity, the supreme aware being.
For that is the real Self within you. There is the ego self, the small self that says, “I am the person who lives in this body and perceives and does this and does that and suffers this and is accomplishing that.” That I-person, that small person, that’s not you. That is a function.

But the Self within, the real Self, is not that small person. It is the self-aware intelligent consciousness that knows you, knows your existence, sees out of your eyes, hears with your ears, and is in every other living being, even in the rock, though it is quiescent in the rock. But in the cat, in the dog, in the bird it is alive. It is seeing out of eyes, hearing out of ears, feeling the feelings. It is alive in the being.

But it isn’t limited to that being. It is everywhere, this intelligent, self-aware being alive. And its flavor, its nature, is love unconditional. It is the base of everything that is, the substance of all that exists.

That substance, that solid Self, is the one true reality that doesn’t change. It never changes. It appears to change in all the colors and forms of creation, in the appearance of past and present and future. It appears to change, but it doesn’t change. It’s unchanging. It is this quiescent, infinite love. It is the Self of yourself. You exist—you feel you exist in the body, the mind, and the senses that your awareness is attuned to. But the reality is you exist in all living beings and all living beings exist within you. 

You exist in all of creation, and all creation exists within you. For your true nature is this undying, quiescent beingness, awareness which abides, conscious, intelligent, infinite love, beyond description with words and language. It abides. You abide. For that is your nature. And you abide in all beings. All beings abide in you.

You are those suffering the horrors of war. You are those seeking power. You are those being born. You are those loving. You are the deer in the wood, the bear prowling, the coyote, the squirrel, the bird. You are in all that is. And all that is, is within you. 

The you that identifies as a little body and mind is only a speck, a grain of sand on the great sea of creation. But your true nature abides in all that is. You are vast beyond comprehension. You are in the smallest of the small, in the tiniest molecules, in the subatomic materials. You are in space itself. You are born in the stars. You are in multiple dimensions. There is no end to the vastness of the true Self.

The human mind cannot comprehend the nature of the Self. It is better understood with the heart. Its quality is more akin to love, though the love that is the nature of being is beyond words.

This is the reality of your existence. Lives come and go. Identities come and go. But the Self remains always, unblemished, unchanged. Forms a rise and fall within you, but you remain ever as you are, the infinite supreme unending bliss of being. Even the bliss is but a passing form. 

In the true nature of Self, there is all form and no form, quiescent; a deep peace beyond the comprehension of the mind abides. An infinite love draws all existence into itself. From the one abiding in the one drawn back into the one, creation unfolds, exists for a time, and returns to the quiescent peace, the eternal nature of being.

So, you identify as a person in a body. You identify with the senses, with experiences from the past, with reactions to those experiences, with Samskara, Karma. You identify and you dance the dance, believing that to be your reality, until one day, awareness, your awareness turns away from that and looks at your nature. 
And when that aware self-beingness becomes self-conscious, aware of your own nature, you become timeless. You become unbound, undefined. Time and space do not tether you. 

For you to realize that witnessing consciousness, that infinite aware intelligence—and intelligence is not simply the mind, it is the heart that is intelligent—that intelligence lives eternally. That intelligence of unbound love, of quiescent peace in which all of the features of creation, time, and space abide.

When you become self-reflective, your aware intelligent mind becomes immersed in this divine Self, in your Baba, in your Ma, in your divine father, in the divine mother, and you feel that you are forever immersed in this eternal, infinite Self. Where is there to go; what is there to do? That restlessness that searches always is, that wants to go, to do, to find, that restlessness comes from that feeling of separation. 

But when your light of aware intelligence moves to the divinity within, to the self-resplendent eternal being, you realize that is yourself, the Self of yourself. There is no separation. The drop of water is not separate from the sea.  You, your beingness, your aware self, is not separate from the eternal, immortal beingness, the great love, the quiescent peace, the eternal one.

Dissolve the small, separate sense of yourself into an immortal being. Then there is no death, for you have always been you will always be you are eternal quiescent peace beyond thought, beyond mind. And you are expressed in the whole of creation. 

The smallest of creatures, their pain is your pain. The ones who suffer—you are those. The ones who exploit—you are those. The ones who live simple lives enjoy being alive, are those. You are a small woodland creature. You are the whale in the sea. You are the stars being born. You abide in all things and all things abide in you. 

Quiescent in the rock and the inanimate objects, yet their forms abide within you. Quiescent, asleep to eternal nature. But even those sleeping objects, that consciousness, will return. All is drawn. There is a restlessness in creation, a small memory. Ah, there is something more. And that something more draws back to eternal being, where there is no separation, no “I” and “thou,” no differentiation. Eternal one life, one existence, one truth. And this truth is your Self.

Let go; let go of the constructs in your mind, the beliefs of your identity. Let go.

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 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.