 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.
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 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.  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?  For hundreds of thousands of years humans have lived upon this planet. They have, each one, struggled to exist, to survive, to have a good life - to live. And in this time throughout history people have encountered various obstacles, difficulties, struggles of the life. These struggles are a natural part of human existence; a natural part of living in this world. There is no time in human history when there hasn't been some sort of difficulty, large or small, personal or collective. Difficulties always arise. But in addition to difficulties there are always periods of personal joy, personal fulfilment, personal expansion. Times when life seems very good. Times when you feel very connected to friends, family, loved ones. Times when you feel there is abundance in your life. These are also natural human experiences. And throughout history people have had both the difficult experiences and the joyous experiences - times of struggle and strife, times of peace and integration. Some people may ask why are there are periods of struggle and strife? Why do obstacles and difficulties arise? Without them, how could you grow without both the personal and collective, obstacles, struggles, and strife? For each human being loves their life, wants to survive, wants to do the maximum to fulfil their destiny and to find true happiness. But in that search and effort to find happiness, many times the happiness of others can be stepped upon. The happiness of one can be at the expense of the happiness of others. And, for the happiness of one, another may suffer - living beings of all species may suffer. And so, as society goes on and the disparity between those who are well off and see profit from the way the society is operating and those who suffer, be they in human form or in other forms, becomes highly divided. There is bound to be some sort of circumstance which begins to level this off, begins to change the situation. In today's world many animals are highly exploited. There has been a degree of human exploitation of the planet that there are many species dying today, completely disappearing from this world. The world is out of balance and to bring that balance back there are forces in nature which adjust, which naturally bring harmony back to the natural world, back to all the living beings. And so, this is a time of adjustment.  It is one adjustment. Until human beings awaken to the harmony they have with all other living beings, rather than trying to put themselves above other beings and exploit others, when they begin to live in harmony and mutual love and respect with all beings, then the world will change.
So, in collective life as well as personal life, there are lessons to be learned from the trials and tribulations and difficulties that arise. Those are nature's way of teaching us, of showing us when we have gone too far down the wrong path, and allowing us to make adjustments, corrections. When people become very extroverted, trying always to find their happiness outside of themselves, then they may be very successful for a time and then hit a period where that success fails them. And you think why is this happening to this person? But, if you saw the entire scope of that person's life and many lives before, you might see that that person has come to a point in their own evolution where what they've been doing, the way they have been approaching their life, is not working. Is not for their higher good, not promoting their true spirit to awaken and arise, not promoting their path home to their source. And so, certain circumstances might arise to make a correction in that path. When that happens then there is an opportunity in life to adjust, to make changes. And the same is true in collective life. It provides an opportunity. So never be daunted by the difficulties that life presents individually or collectively. But, take them in stride as an opportunity to change, to grow, to expand, to go inward to know your inner most self, to become connected to the entirety of your being. Such are the ways that nature adjusts, and the laws of the universe are sustained. This is the path of dharma. |
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