Namaskar. Ask yourself how much time do you devote to exploring your inner nature and your connection to the infinite, and how much of your time is devoted to tasks projects, and engagements in worldly activities. You may find that the time you spend is not so great unless you transmute your relationship with this world into a relationship with the divine.
If you transmute your relationship to this world, seeing that you are composed of the one eternal Self and all beings are part of that Self, and you begin to see there is only the one, then though you walk in the world, you are not of this world. You have a greater understanding. Though you interact in daily life, you remain in the constant, unchanging nature of the deeper Self, the one Self of all living beings.
So, a second lesson was given to encourage this understanding, this practice. But it is not just a lesson as you go deep in your spiritual growth and development to continually remember the infinite one, the infinite Self, not the small egoic self, is embodying in you and all living beings. And even in the inanimate objects—all is composed of the one.
And though there is the appearance of change in form and activity, there is an essential unchanging existence. Even in the world of form and change, the unchanging infinite Brahma, the one eternal Self of all beings, the Self of yourself, is dancing the dance of creation but is eternally the same, unchanging, unchanged, regardless of what happens in this external world. The infinite Brahma is unchanged. Your deep Self, the Self of all beings remains the same. Forms come and go. Feelings and experience come and go, for you and all living beings.
In the dance of creation, birth, preservation, and dissolution occur again and again and again. There is gain and there is loss. There is attachment to form; there is loss. This is the nature of this changing manifestation.
But within this change, there is ever the eternal Self, the one eternal being. The eternal Self remains ever-present in change and yet unchanging as if the changes are an ephemeral overlay on the solidity of the nature of the Self. So that when you truly engage in this understanding, and you bring it into your life in continual remembrance—not just when you do an action but continual remembrance—then you live in the world but not of it. For you are in the timeless, eternal nature of the one Self relating to the world of form as an ephemeral overlay within the nature of Self.
Forms come and they go. They rise, are for a time, and dissolve. This is life in this world. But if you lose your connection, your understanding of the infinite Self that is you and is everyone you relate to and is every action that is done, every result of an action, then you come back into the identity with the ephemeral changing and you think, “I am this small person in a body, in a mind, and that is someone separate from me and I am alone and others and the world is outside of me and this is inside, I am me, and that is outside.”
There isn't an inside or an outside; there is only the eternal one, the Self of all. When you lose this understanding, you begin to think, “I am a small person.” And life becomes so challenging. You must survive and you feel separate, alone, on your own. And you must control the situation and make it go the way you want, get this thing that will benefit you, and avoid the things that will not.
And when that is all, you know that condition is suffering; that condition is suffering. Because inherently, you lose. Inherently, things rise, are for a time in the world of form, and dissolve. And so, in that identity with your individuality, you suffer.
When the knowledge—even if it is only an intellectual idea you hold, still it is valuable. To be in continual remembrance, doing actions relating to living beings, relating even to inanimate objects, that it is the infinite one doing the actions, eternal Self of all beings; your divine Baba is the one eternal Self of yourself. And that one abides in you, in others, in all beings, the Self of yourself. Your Baba, your Ma, the one who is there, the divine mother, the divine father is the Self of yourself, is your nature and the nature of all that is, both that which is terrible and that which is wonderful, that which is destructive and agonizing and horrible and that which is beautiful, and astounding, and wonderful.
All abide like the Self. The Self is one, eternal, unchanging, unbound by all of this up and down and gain and loss. The Self remains one.
If you transmute your relationship to this world, seeing that you are composed of the one eternal Self and all beings are part of that Self, and you begin to see there is only the one, then though you walk in the world, you are not of this world. You have a greater understanding. Though you interact in daily life, you remain in the constant, unchanging nature of the deeper Self, the one Self of all living beings.
So, a second lesson was given to encourage this understanding, this practice. But it is not just a lesson as you go deep in your spiritual growth and development to continually remember the infinite one, the infinite Self, not the small egoic self, is embodying in you and all living beings. And even in the inanimate objects—all is composed of the one.
And though there is the appearance of change in form and activity, there is an essential unchanging existence. Even in the world of form and change, the unchanging infinite Brahma, the one eternal Self of all beings, the Self of yourself, is dancing the dance of creation but is eternally the same, unchanging, unchanged, regardless of what happens in this external world. The infinite Brahma is unchanged. Your deep Self, the Self of all beings remains the same. Forms come and go. Feelings and experience come and go, for you and all living beings.
In the dance of creation, birth, preservation, and dissolution occur again and again and again. There is gain and there is loss. There is attachment to form; there is loss. This is the nature of this changing manifestation.
But within this change, there is ever the eternal Self, the one eternal being. The eternal Self remains ever-present in change and yet unchanging as if the changes are an ephemeral overlay on the solidity of the nature of the Self. So that when you truly engage in this understanding, and you bring it into your life in continual remembrance—not just when you do an action but continual remembrance—then you live in the world but not of it. For you are in the timeless, eternal nature of the one Self relating to the world of form as an ephemeral overlay within the nature of Self.
Forms come and they go. They rise, are for a time, and dissolve. This is life in this world. But if you lose your connection, your understanding of the infinite Self that is you and is everyone you relate to and is every action that is done, every result of an action, then you come back into the identity with the ephemeral changing and you think, “I am this small person in a body, in a mind, and that is someone separate from me and I am alone and others and the world is outside of me and this is inside, I am me, and that is outside.”
There isn't an inside or an outside; there is only the eternal one, the Self of all. When you lose this understanding, you begin to think, “I am a small person.” And life becomes so challenging. You must survive and you feel separate, alone, on your own. And you must control the situation and make it go the way you want, get this thing that will benefit you, and avoid the things that will not.
And when that is all, you know that condition is suffering; that condition is suffering. Because inherently, you lose. Inherently, things rise, are for a time in the world of form, and dissolve. And so, in that identity with your individuality, you suffer.
When the knowledge—even if it is only an intellectual idea you hold, still it is valuable. To be in continual remembrance, doing actions relating to living beings, relating even to inanimate objects, that it is the infinite one doing the actions, eternal Self of all beings; your divine Baba is the one eternal Self of yourself. And that one abides in you, in others, in all beings, the Self of yourself. Your Baba, your Ma, the one who is there, the divine mother, the divine father is the Self of yourself, is your nature and the nature of all that is, both that which is terrible and that which is wonderful, that which is destructive and agonizing and horrible and that which is beautiful, and astounding, and wonderful.
All abide like the Self. The Self is one, eternal, unchanging, unbound by all of this up and down and gain and loss. The Self remains one.
In today’s world, there is suffering and because of modern technology, the suffering of wars going on in today’s world is brought into your living room. You read it in the news, you hear it on the news, and the suffering of other living beings weighs on your heart. The world, because of modern news, is impacted by the suffering of a few in distant lands. Because they are not distant; they are brought into your living room. And the sufferings of humanity cease to be something far-off.
It becomes something intimate to you and exceedingly painful. You begin to empathize and feel the pain of people suffering in the world because you hear of it and you see it on the news. You see the pictures; you hear the stories; you feel the distress, the wrongness.
War has become something that is not far and distant, but intimate to people in its results. Injustice is something that when it is perpetrated on one person by another, is felt by the world. How many people feel the pain of those in the world who are suffering? Is it worldwide?
So not only has the world become smaller in communication, in transportation—people are going here and there—but the emotional impact of the suffering of living beings goes to all. This is the first stage in the development of humanity to eliminate war and some of the atrocities that human beings do to one another. There will be reaction and action.
But as a Yogi, as one with wisdom and understanding that runs deep, though you feel the pain and your heart goes out in compassion, know that the infinite Brahma is manifest. The Self of yourself abides as the Self of those perpetrators and those suffering. And that though at the moment there is anguish, the eternal nature of the Self abides in all living beings, unchanged and untarnished by these atrocities in the world.
Though your heart goes out, your eternal nature remains unchanged. Birth, preservation, and death, this is the nature of this changing world. Act always to preserve life. Set intention to minimize suffering, to support life in all forms, and to nurture life, so that all might have the opportunity to move towards the infinite.
But maintain at the same time your equanimity that will carry you through the deepest woes and the greatest trouble, for those who are suffering the most in the world due to the ravages of war could be you. And yet, for those whose hearts are with God, they sustain through their love of the infinite, they sustain because they know there is a deeper nature because they know there is something that is deep beyond the losses of loved ones, beyond the decimation.
It is only through that knowledge that living beings sustain, for if all is only the world and it turns wretched, then what have you? But if you have God, if you know the Self of yourself, that which never changes, and you hold to that, then through darkness and light, through pain and joy, you will abide in the love that never dies, in the joy that always is, the joy of eternal being, the peace beyond understanding, the eternal love.
This is your nature; this is your Baba, always with you, the Self of yourself, within you and all around you, in every form. In the food you eat, in the people you come in contact with, and in the inanimate objects, the infinite one abides, the infinite nature is always there.
This world is not separate from divinity. It is the ephemeral creation in the mind of the infinite. You are indeed as individuals, the children of the infinite. Most beloved, you are his/her form. Know that eternal nature; remember; don’t forget throughout your day.
Meditation is not something you do for this little time—one hour of 24 you try to remember God; the rest of the time you get absorbed in the dream. No, that is not the life of a Sadhaka. The life of a Sadhaka, of a true spiritual aspirant, is to remember 24 hours a day, to remember. Think of yourself, feel yourself, feel the eternal infinite one in you, in all that is. Your real nature is unbound, unchanging, and eternally the same, the nature of all beings.
So, when people say, “Go within and find God,” they don’t mean go away from everyone else and inside yourself. No. God is not inside you, it is inside everything, including you.God is everything, including you. The dream is the form, the ephemeral on top of the substantive. Know and remember the substantive, live in the substantive, though you are dancing in the forms.
It becomes something intimate to you and exceedingly painful. You begin to empathize and feel the pain of people suffering in the world because you hear of it and you see it on the news. You see the pictures; you hear the stories; you feel the distress, the wrongness.
War has become something that is not far and distant, but intimate to people in its results. Injustice is something that when it is perpetrated on one person by another, is felt by the world. How many people feel the pain of those in the world who are suffering? Is it worldwide?
So not only has the world become smaller in communication, in transportation—people are going here and there—but the emotional impact of the suffering of living beings goes to all. This is the first stage in the development of humanity to eliminate war and some of the atrocities that human beings do to one another. There will be reaction and action.
But as a Yogi, as one with wisdom and understanding that runs deep, though you feel the pain and your heart goes out in compassion, know that the infinite Brahma is manifest. The Self of yourself abides as the Self of those perpetrators and those suffering. And that though at the moment there is anguish, the eternal nature of the Self abides in all living beings, unchanged and untarnished by these atrocities in the world.
Though your heart goes out, your eternal nature remains unchanged. Birth, preservation, and death, this is the nature of this changing world. Act always to preserve life. Set intention to minimize suffering, to support life in all forms, and to nurture life, so that all might have the opportunity to move towards the infinite.
But maintain at the same time your equanimity that will carry you through the deepest woes and the greatest trouble, for those who are suffering the most in the world due to the ravages of war could be you. And yet, for those whose hearts are with God, they sustain through their love of the infinite, they sustain because they know there is a deeper nature because they know there is something that is deep beyond the losses of loved ones, beyond the decimation.
It is only through that knowledge that living beings sustain, for if all is only the world and it turns wretched, then what have you? But if you have God, if you know the Self of yourself, that which never changes, and you hold to that, then through darkness and light, through pain and joy, you will abide in the love that never dies, in the joy that always is, the joy of eternal being, the peace beyond understanding, the eternal love.
This is your nature; this is your Baba, always with you, the Self of yourself, within you and all around you, in every form. In the food you eat, in the people you come in contact with, and in the inanimate objects, the infinite one abides, the infinite nature is always there.
This world is not separate from divinity. It is the ephemeral creation in the mind of the infinite. You are indeed as individuals, the children of the infinite. Most beloved, you are his/her form. Know that eternal nature; remember; don’t forget throughout your day.
Meditation is not something you do for this little time—one hour of 24 you try to remember God; the rest of the time you get absorbed in the dream. No, that is not the life of a Sadhaka. The life of a Sadhaka, of a true spiritual aspirant, is to remember 24 hours a day, to remember. Think of yourself, feel yourself, feel the eternal infinite one in you, in all that is. Your real nature is unbound, unchanging, and eternally the same, the nature of all beings.
So, when people say, “Go within and find God,” they don’t mean go away from everyone else and inside yourself. No. God is not inside you, it is inside everything, including you.God is everything, including you. The dream is the form, the ephemeral on top of the substantive. Know and remember the substantive, live in the substantive, though you are dancing in the forms.