Reflections

The only revolution possible

2011-09-23T11:53:00.000+05:30

I do not know if you have ever thought about it: if there is no tomorrow actually, psychologically, inwardly, then your whole attention is in the present; your whole attitude toward life is so completely integrated, so completely whole, not fragmentary. And that is one of the greatest mutations that can take place. When you see the implication of this whole approach that there is tomorrow and that through tomorrow we will become or we will find out, and when you see the truth that there is no tomorrow psychologically, then the whole mental, emotional, psychological brain structure undergoes a tremendous change. We feel that is the only revolution that is possible now-a-days, or perhaps always.

Jiddu Krishnamurti in Collected works 15 - The Dignity of Living

Kanchi Paramacharya's unique mantram for all to chant

2011-09-18T08:56:00.000+05:30

ஐம்பது ஆண்டுகளுக்கு மேலாக எனக்குள் ஒரு கேள்வி: ஒன்றேயான கடவுளின் பல வடிவங்களான பல தேவதைகளுக்குத்தான் மூல மந்திரங்கள் உள்ளனவே தவிர, மூலமான ஒரே கடவுளுக்கென அந்த மந்திரமும் இல்லாதிருப்பது ஏன் என்பதே கேள்வி.
ப்ரணவம் எனும் ‘ஓம்’ மூலக்கடவுளுக்கே உரித்தான மந்திரந்தான் ஆயினும் வேறு பல மகான்களின் கருத்துக்கு மாறாக, சாஸ்திரக் கருத்தையே மட்டுமே ப்ரணவ ஜபம் செய்யலாம், ஏனையோர் முதலில் ‘ஓம்’ என்று கூறி அதோடு குறிப்பிட்டதொரு தேவதைக்கான மந்திரத்தைச் சொல்லலாமே தவிர, தனியாக ப்ரணவ ஜபம் செய்யலாகாது என்று கூறி வந்துள்ளார்.
ப்ரணவம் எனும் ஓம்காரம் நமக்குள் தன்னியல்பாகவே இதயத்தை ஒட்டிய அநாஹத சக்கரத்திலிருந்து எழும் ஒலி; எனவே சிலருக்குத் தன்னியல்பாகவே ‘ஓம்’ என்பது ஒலிக்கும். அவர்கள் மட்டுமே துறவியாய் இல்லாவிடினும் ப்ரணவ ஜபம் செய்யலாம் என்பது ஸ்ரீ பெரியவாளின் கருத்து. இவ்விஷயமாக ஸ்ரீ பெரியவாளையே கேட்டுத் தெளிவு பெறவேண்டும் என்ற எண்ணத்துடன் முப்பத்தேழு ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு, அப்பொழுது அவர்கள் முகாமிட்டிருந்த தேனம்பாக்கத்துக்குச் சென்றேன். நேரம்: மாலை ஐந்து மணி. முகாமில் இருந்த கிணற்றின் ஒரு புறத்தில் இருந்த குடிலை ஒட்டிய பகுதியிலிருந்துஸ்ரீபெரியவாள் தரிசனம் தருவார்கள்; கிணற்றின் மறுபுறத்திலிருந்து மக்கள் தரிசனம் பெறுவார்கள்.அன்றும் அப்படியே நடந்தது. நாங்கள் 40-50 பேர் இருந்தோம். வழக்கம் போல் அதில் பல்வேறு வயதினரும், பல்வேறு சமூகத்தினரும் இருந்தோம். ஓரிரு வெளிநாட்டவரும் இருந்தனர். தரிசனத்தின்போது ஓர் ஐயங்கார் மாது, நேற்றிரவுபெரியவாள் சொப்பனத்தில் வந்து ஏதோ ஒரு மந்திரம் உபதேசித்தீர்கள்; ஆனால் என் துரதிர்ஷ்டம். இன்று காலை அந்த மந்திரம் மறந்து போய்விட்டது! பெரியவாள் அவசியம் அந்த மந்திரத்தை மறுபடி உபதேசிக்க வேணும். எப்பொழுது மடியாக வந்து அந்தரங்கமாக உபதேசம் பெறலாம்?” என மிகவும் ஆதுரத்துடன் வினவினார். அப்பொழுது சாஸ்திரக் காவலரான ஸ்ரீ பெரியவாளா பேசுகிறார் என்று பேராச்சர்யம் அடையுமாறு அவர்கள் கூறிய மறுமொழி: மடியும் வேண்டாம்; அந்தரங்கமும் வேண்டாம்; பகிரங்கமாக எல்லோருக்குமாகச் (அம்மந்திரத்தை) சொல்கிறேன்.” – இப்படிச் சொல்லி கணீரென்ற தெய்வத்தின் குரலில்,அம்பகவ”: அம் பகவ”: அம் பகவ”: என மும்முறை உபதேசித்தார்கள். இப்படியும் மந்திரமூர்த்தியே ஆகியஸ்ரீமஹாபெரியவாளிடமிருந்து கேளாமலே உபதேசமா என்ற பேருவகையுடன் அங்கு கூடியிருந்த எல்லோரும் ‘அம் பகவ’:மந்திரோபதேசம் பெற்றோம். ஆச்சர்ய உணர்வைத் தொடரும் விதத்தில் அவர்கள் ‘இதை ஜபிக்க எந்த நியமமும் (விதிமுறையும்) இல்லை. எவரும், எந்த நேரமும் ஜபிக்கலாம்’ என்றும் கூறினார்கள். மந்திரத்தின் உச்சரிப்பு: UMBHAGAVAHA (UMBRELLA என்பதிலுள்ள UM ஒலி) ‘பகவ’ என்பதன் முடிவான ‘வ’: என்பதை ‘வஹ’ என்று கூறவேண்டும். ஒலியியலின்படி ‘வ’ என்பதற்கும் ‘வஹ’ என்பதற்குமிடையே சிறு மாறுபாடு உண்டு. ஆனால் நாம் அதைக் கருத்தில் கொள்ள வேண்டியதில்லை. அன்று ஸ்ரீ பெரியவாளும் ‘வஹு’ என்றே ஸ்பஷ்டமாக மொழிந்தார்கள். ஆகக்கூடி எந்த மந்திர சாஸ்திர நூலிலும் காணப்படாத ‘அம் பகவ’: என்ற மகா மந்திரம் ஸ்ரீ பெரியவாளின்வாய்மொழியில் நமக்கெல்லாம் ஓர் அமுதச்சுனையாகக் கிடைத்துவிட்டது!‘பகவ’: என்பதற்கு ‘பகவானே!’ என்று பொருள். ‘அம்’ என்பது ஒரு மங்கல அக்ஷரம். நெடுங்காலமாக எனக்குள் இருந்த கேள்விக்கான பதிலும் கிடைத்துவிட்டது! அனைத்து தெய்வங்களுமான மூலக் கடவுளுக்குரிய மந்திரம் ‘அம் பகவ!’எந்த தெய்வத்தை இஷ்டமூர்த்தியாகக் கொண்டவரும் இம் மந்திரத்தை அம்மூர்த்திக்குரியதாகக் கருதி ஜபிக்கலாம் என்றும், ‘பகவ;’என்பது ஆண்பாலில் இருந்தாலும் பெண் தெய்வங்களை ஸ்மரித்தும் இதனை ஜபிக்கலாம் என்றுபெரியவரிடமிருந்துவிளக்கம் பெற்றோம்.ஸ்ரீபெரியவாள் தமது நீண்ட நெடிய நூறாண்டு வாழ்வில் அன்று ஒரே ஒருநாள்தான் இப்படியொரு மந்திரத்தை – அதுவும் பஹிரங்கமாக மொழிந்திருக்கிறார்கள் என்பது இன்னொரு பேராச்சர்யம்!
எல்லோருக்குமான இத் தங்கப் புதையலை 36 ஆண்டுகள் நான் எனக்குள் மட்டுமே வைத்திருக்கிறேன்! சென்ற ஆண்டிலிருந்துதான் எனக்குத் தெரிந்த மற்ற பலருக்கும் இதனைக் கூறி வருகிறேன். அவர்களில் ஸ்ரீ மகா பெரியவர்களையே இஷ்டதேவதையாகக் கொண்ட சிலர் இம்மந்திர ஜபத்தால் தங்களுக்கு விசேஷ மான பலன் கிடைப்பதாக உவகையுடன் கூறுகிறார்கள்.

நன்றி – கல்கி

Daniel Goleman on Compassion

2011-07-14T13:50:00.000+05:30

Choice or Destiny

2011-03-02T13:36:00.002+05:30

A Mighty Prayer

2011-03-02T13:30:00.002+05:30

The Best Mantra

2011-03-02T13:29:00.001+05:30

A great video of Mooji.

Thank You. This simple expression of gratitude arising from the Heart, - from Existence to Existence - which has the profound effect of washing the soul of judgements, preferences, fears, the sense of separation, conflict and even longing, returns the mind to its original place of Unborn Awareness. We are not to analyse or to rationalize it, but to simply let it arise and express from the Heart in Presence. Initially, it may seem like one entity saying THANK YOU to another - and that's OK too - but gradually, by simply allowing deep Gratitude to flow spontaneously, we come to complete unicity where there exists no separation between I and you - just Self expressing gratitude to Itself. It is such a powerful way to return mind and attention to peace, space, clarity and joy.

Our Creative Universe

2011-02-21T11:07:00.002+05:30

Q: What kind of guidance would you offer to people to remember, or be aware that we are a creative force in a creative Universe?

ET: The awakening process has two aspects, or two dimensions, to it. One is the finding the Source within, as yourself. Then, [there is] bringing that into your life more and more – so that your daily life becomes interspersed with that Stillness. As your life becomes interspersed with that Stillness, the ego then begins to fade. You embody a different energy field – as if something from another dimension were coming through you into this world.

The most essential thing is the foundation for all subsequent “awakened doing”, as I sometimes call it. The world is full of people who are doing, but it’s mostly unawakened doing. This comes out of unhappy states, and creates more unhappy states. Our first task is to bring that dimension, the other dimension, into this world. With your normal everyday life, see if Presence can flow into the smallest things – listening to another person, walking from here to there, and so on. Presence implies acceptance of whatever is, in the Now, in alignment with the form of the Now, as a spiritual practice. The more you are aligned with the form of the Now, the more this energy comes through.

It’s vital for us to be grounded in the Presence of everyday life. The foundation is continuous acceptance of the is-ness of Now. Through that, Presence arises more and more. You work with the present moment, as your teacher so-to-speak. Bring a “yes” to it. With that, the Presence comes. You have to first come to an acceptance of the is-ness of things – not the world situation – just your limited reality. After a little while you will notice that there is another aspect to Presence. It’s not just still - there’s also a dynamic aspect to Presence. That’s where “awakened doing” comes in.

First it changes the way in which you deal with others. One day, something else wants to be done that needs doing. You might perceive it as something that you need to do. Suddenly you know what it is that you need to do. It comes from within, or it comes from without – some situation in your life. Then, “awakened doing” begins to happen. That doing is not the egoic doing, where whatever you do is a means to an end. There is deep enjoyment in the doing. There is not an excessive desire to achieve, but you achieve actually more - because there’s so much enjoyment in the doing that the end result looks after itself. A very different kind of doing arises, that is not motivated by desire. The normal way is thinking “I need to achieve this”.

As Presence moves through you, it’s not based on desire anymore, it’s based on enjoyment. It’s not based on wanting or needing anything, because you’re coming from fullness. The action is not designed to fulfill you. It’s not designed to add something to you. The action is coming out of the fullness in which you already dwell – so there’s no neediness in it.

Obstacles arise, as they will, especially if you do things that go against the conditioning of the world – you may find obstacles. You also may find enormous power helping you.

Obstacles may come in the form of uncooperative people, or situations, but enormous power will also flow into what you do and help you in many ways. Just the right thing, just at the right moment, just the right person. When obstacles do arise, they are not regarded as enemies. The ego regards any obstacle to its course of action as an enemy.

An obstacle is accepted for what it is, and you work with it – not against it. Or you work around it, or you take its energy and turn it around. It becomes incorporated into what you have to do. You don’t see any more enemies in the form of unhelpful situations, uncooperative people. Everything is embraced for what it is, accepted for what it is, and transformed. It’s not so much that you are doing it, you become a vehicle for the doing. It happens through you. The power comes when it wants to come.

For several years after the shift that happened to me, there was not much happening externally – and after that, gradually, people came to ask questions. There was some doing, some speaking happening. Answers were suddenly coming, and that lasted for several years. I knew somewhere that there was a power here, but it’s not reaching many people for some reason. It wasn’t happening yet. It was fine, people would come once or twice a week and ask questions. A workshop here, a workshop there, and then big spaces.

I was once in a country church in England, in a small village in Somerset, and the church was completely empty – and suddenly the words came out of me that said “Use me”, and “I’d like acceleration please”. I don’t know who I was talking to. The words, where they came from, I don’t know. The Consciousness was listening, it seems. At first nothing happened and I went back home. A few weeks later, I woke up knowing that I had to leave England and move to the west coast of North America. I did not know why. That was the beginning, and eventually the writing started there. That was the acceleration happening. I did not know [at the time] that it was part of the acceleration that I had asked for. And then things accelerated more and more. Be careful with what you ask for.

I don’t have the sense that I am “doing” any of this. I just go with it. Am I speaking as a person? No, its Consciousness speaking, using this mind, to express what is most helpful for this moment. So be in the service of that. You are in the service of that. Get rid of the idea that you have to “do” anything as a separate entity. Be open to what it is that wants to be done in this world, then conscious doing happens through you. Every so-called “individual” has a different function in this world. The more you get out of the way, you do it by bringing Presence into everyday life, then the answer of what it is that wants to be done comes through you.

It’s a wonderful adventure to be aligned with that. There is a lot that wants to come through at this time. It doesn’t choose between people, it doesn’t say “You are special, I’m going to choose you”. Whenever a person becomes transparent to it, it comes through. It doesn’t ask “Who are you, what are your credentials?” It doesn’t ask, “What is your personal history? Are you worthy?” It’s timeless Presence. It’s not interested in your past history, whether you were the most virtuous person. Wherever the opening is, the light comes through.

Eckhart Tolle

Agitated by belief

2011-02-11T12:03:00.002+05:30

So, your religion, your belief in God, is an escape from actuality, and therefore it is no religion at all. The rich man who accumulates money through cruelty, through dishonesty, through cunning exploitation believes in God; and you also believe in God, you also are cunning, cruel, suspicious, envious. Is God to be found through dishonesty, through deceit, through cunning tricks of the mind? Because you collect all the sacred books and the various symbols of God, does that indicate that you are a religious person?

So, religion is not escape from the fact; religion is the understanding of the fact of what you are in your everyday relationships; religion is the manner of your speech, the way you talk, the way you address your servants, the way you treat your wife, your children, and neighbors. As long as you do not understand your relationship with your neighbor, with society, with your wife and children, there must be confusion; and whatever it does, the mind that is confused will only create more confusion, more problems and conflict. A mind that escapes from the actual, from the facts of relationship, shall never find God; a mind that is agitated by belief shall not know truth. But the mind that understands its relationship with property, with people, with ideas, the mind which no longer struggles with the problems which relationship creates, and for which the solution is not withdrawal but the understanding of love—such a mind alone can understand reality.

J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

To Be Human

2011-02-02T11:56:00.000+05:30

You heard all the announcements. May I also announce that I am going to talk? And also that you are going to share in the talk. It is not a solo, but together, and the speaker means together, not that he is leading you or helping you or trying to persuade you, but rather together, and that word is important, together we take a very, very long journey. It is rather a difficult path - rather, I won't use that word, that is a dangerous word - a santier, lane, a way that will be rather complex because we are going to talk about self-interest, austerity, conduct and if it is possible in our daily life to end all sorrow. This is a very important question: why humanity after so many thousands and thousands of years has never been free from sorrow, not only each one's sorrow, the pain, the anxiety, the loneliness involved in that sorrow but also the sorrow of mankind. We are going to talk about that. And also, if we have time, we are going to talk about pleasure, and also death.

It is such a lovely morning, beautiful, clear blue sky, the quiet hills and the deep shadows, and the running waters, the meadow, the grove and the green grass. We ought also - we should talk over together what is beauty, on such a lovely morning. Could we talk about what is beauty? Because that is a very important question. Not the beauty of nature or the extraordinary vitality, dynamic energy of a tiger. You have only seen tigers in a zoo but the poor things are kept there for your amusement. If you go to some parts of the world that the speaker has gone, he was close to a wild tiger, as close as two feet away. Don't get excited!

And we should also go into this question because without beauty and love there is no truth. And we ought to examine very closely the word beauty. What is beauty? You are asking that question and so is the speaker asking that question. So we are both together looking, not only at the word, the implications of that word, and the immensity, the incalculable depth of beauty. Should we talk about it? We can talk about it, but the talk, the words, the explanations and the descriptions are not beauty. The word 'beauty' is not beauty. It is something totally different. So one must be, if one may point it out, one must be very alert to words. Because our brain works, is active in a movement of words. Words convey what one feels, what one thinks, and one accepts the explanations, descriptions because our whole brain structure, most of it, is verbal. So one must go into it very, very carefully not only with regard to beauty but also with regard to austerity, with regard to self-interest. We are going to go into all these questions this morning, if we will.

So we are asking ourselves: what is beauty? Is the beauty in a person, in a face? Is beauty in the museums, paintings, classical paintings, modern paintings? Is beauty in all the music - Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and all the rest of them? Is beauty in a poem? In literature? Dancing? And all the noise that is going on in the world called music? Is all that beauty? Or is beauty something entirely different? Right? We are going into it together. Please don't be, if one may respectfully point out, don't accept the words, merely be satisfied with the description and explanation, not agreeing and disagreeing, all that business, let's put out all that, if we can, from our brain and look at it very carefully, stay with it, penetrate into the word.

Because as we said without that quality of beauty, which is sensitivity, which implies not only the beauty of nature - the deserts, the forests, the rivers and the vast mountains with their immense dignity, majesty, but also the feeling, not the romantic imaginations and sentimental states - those are merely sensations. Is beauty, then we are asking, a sensation? Because we live by sensations. Sexual sensation, with which goes pleasure, and also the pain that is involved in the feeling that it is not being fulfilled, and so on. If we could this morning put out all those words from our brain and look at, go into this enormous question, very complicated, subtle: what is the nature of beauty? We are not writing a poem.

When you look at those mountains, those immense rocks jetting into the sky, if you look at it quietly, you feel the immensity of it, the enormous majesty of it. And for the moment, for the second, that tremendous dignity of it, the solidity of it, puts away all your thoughts, your problems, for a second - right? And you say, 'How marvellous that is'. So what has taken place there? The majesty of those mountains for a second, the very immensity of the sky and the blue, and the snow-clad mountains, drives away all your problems. It makes you totally forget yourself for a second. You are enthralled by it, you are struck by it. Like a child, who has been naughty all day long, or naughty for a while, which he has a right to be, and you give him a complicated toy. And he is absorbed by the toy till he breaks it up. And the toy has absorbed him. You understand? The toy has taken him over and he is quiet, he is enjoying - right? He has forgotten all his family, mother, you know, 'Do this, don't do that', and the toy becomes the most exciting thing for him. You understand? The mountain, the river, the meadows and the groves absorb you, you forget yourself - right? So is that beauty? You understand my question? To be absorbed by the mountain, by the river, or the green fields, that means you are like a child being absorbed by something else - right? And for the moment you are quiet, being absorbed, taken over, surrendering yourself to something. Is that beauty? Being taken over? You understand? Surrendering yourself to something great? And that thing forcing you for a second to forget yourself. So then you depend. Depend as the child does on a toy, or depend on a cinema, television, and for the moment you have identified yourself with the actor, or the actress. Surely all that is a form of being taken away from yourself - right? Would you consider that state, being taken over, surrendering, being absorbed, that quiet second, is that beauty? When you go to a church, or a temple, or a mosque, there the chanting, the rituals, the intonation of the voice, everything is so organised, so carefully put together to create a certain sensation, which you call worship, which you call a sense of religiosity. Is that beauty? Or beauty is something entirely different. You understand? Are we understanding this question together?

Is there beauty where there is self-conscious endeavour? Or there is beauty only when the self is not, when the me, the observer, is not? So is it possible without being absorbed, taken over, surrendering, to be in that state, without the self, without the ego, the me always thinking about itself? You understand my question? Is that possible at all, living in this modern world with all its specialisation's, with its vulgarity, its immense noise that is going on - not the noise of running waters, of the song of a bird. But is it possible to live in this world without the self, the me, the ego, the persona, the assertion of the individual? In that state when there is really freedom from all this, only then there is beauty. You may say, 'Well, that is too difficult, that is not possible. I prefer looking at a painting, or being in a lovely spot where there is a great sense of silence and quietude, and is it possible to have no self-interest at all?' Right? We are going to go into that.

Is it possible to live in this world without self-interest? What does self-interest mean? What are the implications of that word? How far can we be without self-interest and live here, in the bustle, the noise, the vulgarity, the competition, the personal ambitions and so on and so on? We are going together to find out - right?

Self-interest, you know what that word means so I don't have to explain. Self-interest hides in many ways, hides under every stone and every act. Hides in prayer, in worship, in having a good profession, in having great knowledge, in having a special reputation, like the speaker. When there is a guru who says, 'I know all about it. I will tell you all about it' - is there not also self interest there? One may be an expert, a specialist, skilful and there is this seed of self-interest. It has been with us for a million years. Our brain is conditioned to self-interest. And if one is aware of that, which means just to be aware of it, not to say, 'I am not self-interested, it is wrong, it is right - how can one live without self-interest? ' You know all the arguments and pros and cons. Just to be aware how far one can go, how far one can investigate into oneself and find out for ourselves, for each one of us, how far in action, daily activity, how far in our behaviour, how deeply can one live without a sense of self-interest.

So if we will, we will examine all that. Because - not because, sorry. Self-interest divides, self-interest is the greatest corruption - sorry! The word 'corruption' means to break things apart - rompere, to break. And where there is self-interestthere is fragmentation - your interest as opposed to my interest, my desire opposed to your desire, my urgency to climb the ladder of success opposed to yours. So where there is self-interest, just observe it, you can't do anything about it - you understand? Just to observe, to stay with it and see what is taking place. If you have ever dismantled a car, as the speaker has done - and the car ran afterwards! - (laughter) if you ever have dismantled a car then you know all the parts, you know how it works and you learn all about it, not merely get into the car and drive off. I am talking of the cars, at that period they were very simple, very direct, very honest, strong, beautiful cars. And when you know something mechanically, then you can feel at ease. You can know how fast to go, how slow, etc. etc. So if one knows, understands, is aware of our own self-interest then you begin to learn about it - right? You don't say, 'I must be against it, or for it. How can I live? Who are you to tell me myself?' etc., etc. When you begin to be aware choicelessly, not say, 'Well, this is my self-interest, this is my...', but to be aware choicelessly of your self-interest, to stay with it, to study it, to learn about it, to observe all the intricacies of it, then you can find out - one can find out for oneself where it is necessary, where it is completely not necessary - right? It is necessary to live daily - right? To have food, clothes and shelter and all the physical things. But psychologically, inwardly, is it necessary - is there a necessity to have any kind of self-interest? You understand my question? That is, to investigate relationship - right? You understand? Because in our relationship with each other there is mutual self-interest. You satisfy me and I satisfy you. You use me and I use you. I sell you, you sell me down the river! - right? You understand all this? We - in our relationship, is there self-interest? This is important to understand because - sorry I don't use that word, it is silly.

To find out if there is self-interest in our relationship. Where there is self-interest there must be fragmentation, breaking up - right? I am different from you - self-interest. What is relationship? Relationship to the earth, to all the beauty of the world, to nature and to other human beings and to one's wife, husband, girl, boy and so on, what is that bondage, what is that thing that we say, 'Yes, I am related'? You understand my question? Please investigate this thing together. Don't, please, rely on the description that the speaker is indulging in. Let's look at it closely.

What is relationship? And when there is no relationship we feel so lonely, depressed, anxious, you know the whole series of movements hidden in the structure of self-interest. What is relationship? When you say, 'My wife', 'My husband', what do you mean by that? When you are related to God - if there is God - what does it mean? So that word is very important to understand. I am related to my wife, to my children, to my family. Let's begin there. That is the core of all society - family. In the Asiatic world family means a great deal, to them it is tremendously important, a family. The son, the nephew, the grandmother, grandfather - you understand? It is the centre on which all society is based. So when one says, 'My wife', my girl, my friend, what does that mean? Most of you probably are married, or a girl friend, or a boy friend - right? What does it mean to be related? What are you related to? When you follow a guru and say, 'I am following him', what are you following? You understand? Let's move away for a second from the wife and husband (laughs) and we will come back to it a little later. You might rather not like to investigate that question, husband and wife, girl and boy, but we can approach it more quietly. When you follow somebody, guru, a prophet, when you follow the speaker, or some other person, politician, and so on what is it you are following, what is it that you are surrendering, giving up? You understand? Is it the image that you have created about the speaker, or the guru? Or the image that you have in your brain that it is the right thing to do and therefore I will follow it - you understand? Is it the image, the picture, the symbol, that you have built and that - you are following that, not the person? You understand? Not what he is saying? The speaker has been talking for the last seventy years - right? I am sorry for him! And he has established a certain... unfortunately, some reputation, and the books and all that business, so you have created, naturally, an image, a reputation and you are following that. Not what the teaching says. The teaching says, 'Don't follow anybody.' But you have the image built, and you are following that which you desire, which satisfies you, which is of tremendous self-interest - right?

Now let's come back to the wife and husband and all the rest of it. When you say, 'My wife', what do you mean by that word, what is the content of that word, what is behind the word - you understand? Look at it. Is it all the memories, the sensations, pleasure, pain, anxiety, jealousy, all that is embodied in the wife - right? - or in the husband? The husband is ambitious, wants to achieve a better position, more money, and the wife not only remains at home but she has her own ambitions, her own desires. So there they are. They may get into bed together, but the two are separate all the time - right? Let's be simple with these facts and honest. And so there is always conflict. One may not be aware of it and say, 'Oh, no, we have no conflict between us', but scrape that a little bit with a heavy shovel, or with a scalpel and you will find there the root of all this is self-interest - right? And the self-interest may be in the professionals. Of course there is - doctors, scientists, the philosophers, the priests, the whole thing is - you understand? Which is sensation, desire, fulfilment - right? We are not exaggerating we are simply stating 'what is', not trying to cover it up, not trying to get beyond it or anything - there it is. That is the seed in which we are born, and that seed goes on flowering, growing till we die. Or there is a control of all that. You understand? Controlling the self-interest. That very control is another form of self-interest. Bien? How cleverly self-interest operates. And also it hides behind austerity.

So we have to examine that word, what do we mean by austerity? Right conduct - right? What is austerity? Because the whole world, specially the religious world, has used that word, has laid down certain laws about austerity, specially for the monks and various monasteries of the West, and also as there are no monasteries in India and Asia, except in certain Buddhists and so on, in India they are single. You understand? There are no organised monasteries, fortunately. So what do we mean by that word 'austere'? With which goes great dignity - you understand? What do we mean by that word austere? We looked up in the dictionary what that word means. May I explain what the dictionary - which is the common usage of a language - says it comes from Greek, to have a dry mouth. Which means dry, harsh, not just the mouth, harsh. Is that austere? That is, to deny oneself the luxury of a hot bath, you say, 'No, I'll have a cold bath', or to have few clothes, or a particular form of robe, taking a vow to be a celibate, to be poor - you understand? To control oneself tremendously, all one's desires, you know, all the rest of it. Is that austerity? Or austerity is something entirely different? One has those who have fasted, who have sat up straight endlessly, controlling themselves, having a few clothes. Surely all that is not austerity. It is all outward show. Right?

So is there an austerity that is not a sensation? You understand? That is not contrived at, that is not cajoled, that is not saying, 'I will be austere in order to...' Is there an austerity that is not visible at all to another? You are understanding all this? Is there an austerity that is - an austerity that has no discipline. The word discipline means to learn. The sense of a wholeness inwardly in which there is no cleaving, there is no breaking, there is no fragmentation. And with that austerity goes dignity, quietness.

One has to also, if we have time we must, we have to understand the nature of desire. That may be the root of the whole structure of self-interest. Desire. Right? Are we together in this? Desire is, a great sensation - right? Desire is the senses coming into activity. As we said earlier, sensation is of great importance to us. Sensation of sex, sensation of new experience, sensation of meeting somebody who is well-known. I must tell you this lovely story. A friend of ours met the queen of England, shook hands with her and went on with all that kind of stuff. After it was all over a person came up to her and said, 'May I shake hands with you because you have shaken hands with the queen?'! It is all this... we live by sensation, sensation is tremendously important to us. Sensation of being secure - please watch it - sensation of having fulfilled, sensation of great pleasure, gratification and so on. What relationship has sensation to desire? You understand? Is desire something separate from sensation? Go into this please. It is important to understand this thing. I am not explaining it. We are together looking at it. What is the relationship of desire to sensation? When does sensation become desire? Or are they inseparable? You follow? Or do they always go together? Right? Are you working as hard as the speaker is working? Or you are just saying, 'Yes, go on with it.'? Or you have heard this before and say, 'Oh God, he has gone back to that again'! (laughter)

You know the more you understand the activity of thought, the more you get at really the depth, the root of thought, then you begin to understand so many things. Then you see the whole phenomenon of the world, nature, the truth of nature, and then you ask: what is truth? I won't go into all that for the moment.

So we live, our life is based on sensation and desire. And we are asking: what is the actual relationship between the two? When does sensation become desire? Right? You are following this? At what second does desire become dominant? I see a beautiful camera, with all the latest improvements. All that you have to do is to lift the camera and look, it is already taken. There is sensation of observation - right? The seeing the beautiful camera, beautifully made, very complex, and it has great value as a pleasure of possession, pleasure of taking photos, and all the rest of it. So there is sensation, seeing that camera there. Then what is that sensation to do with desire? You understand? When does that desire begin to flower into action, and you say, 'I must have it'? You understand? Right sirs? Have you observed the movement of sensation, whether it is sexual, whether it is climbing the hills, and the valleys, looking at all the world from a great height, or when you see a lovely garden, see the beautiful garden and you have a little lawn around your place. And you see this take place and then what takes place that turns the sensation into desire? You are following all this? Please don't go to sleep - too lovely a morning. If you stay with this question: what is the relationship of sensation to desire, stay with it, not try to find an answer. But look at it, observe it, see the implications of it. That is to stay with it. Then you will discover that sensation, which is natural and so on, that sensation is transformed into desire when thought creates the image out of that sensation. You understand? That is, I have a sensation, there is a sensation of seeing that camera, very expensive, beautiful and so on. There is sensation. Then thought comes along and says I wish I had that camera. You holding it, you taking the pictures and so on. Then thought creates the image out of that sensation - right? At that moment desire is born. I don't know, is it clear? Right sir? Look at it yourself, go into it. You don't need any book, any philosopher, anybody - just to look at it. To look at it patiently, tentatively, go slowly, then you come upon it very quickly. That is, when sensation becomes, or sensation is a slave to thought and thought with its image creates something - you understand? - at that moment desire is born. Right? And we live by desire: I must have this. I don't want it. I must become... you follow? This whole movement of desire.

Now what relationship has desire to self-interest? We are pursuing the same thread. Or, as long as there is desire, which is creating the image out of sensation by thought, as long as there is that desire there must be self-interest. Right? Whether I want to reach heaven, or become a bank manager, or rich person, it is the same. Whether you want to achieve heaven (noise of train) - whether one wants to achieve heaven or become a rich man, they are exactly the same. Right? If one desires to be a saint, a noble, and all that business, and the other fellow says, 'I have got a great skill,' it is exactly the same thing - right? One is called religious, the other is called worldly. How the words cripple us - right? You don't look at things!

So we must come to the question - it is now half past eleven - we must come to the question: what is sorrow? Is it sorrow exists as long as there is self-interest? Please go into it. If you understand all this you don't have to read a single book. If you really live with this thing, the gates of heaven are open - not heaven, you understand, that is just a form of speech. So we are asking a very serious question which has haunted man from the beginning of his existence, a million years or more. What is sorrow, the tears, the laughter, the pain, the anxiety, the loneliness, the despair? And can it ever end? Or man is doomed for ever to live with sorrow? Go on sirs. Everyone on the earth - everyone, whether highly placed or nobody at all, everyone goes through this turmoil of sorrow, the shock of it, the pain of it, the uncertainty of it, the utter loneliness of it. And the sorrow of a poor man who doesn't know how to read or write, when you look at him, when you talk with him, he is like you, he has his own sorrow, and you have your own sorrow. You understand all this? So the sorrow of millions and millions of people who have been slaughtered by the powerful, by the bigoted, tortured by churches, the infidel and the believer - you understand all this? Religions, specially Christianity, have murdered more people than anybody else - sorry! Great wars: hundred years war, thirty years war, of the religious people, church. All this, there is sorrow in the world - right? Sorrow of the man who has nothing, except one meal a day and sleeping on the pavement. You don't know anything about all that. So there is sorrow. What does that word mean? Is it a mere remembrance of something that you have lost and therefore you feel sorrowful - you understand? You had a brother, son or wife, dead, and you have the picture, the photo of it on the piano, mantelpiece, or next to your bed. The remembrance of that incident, the memories of all those days and that - those memories are suddenly cut off - right? - is that sorrow? Is sorrow engendered, cultivated by memory? You understand all my questions? Do you understand our questioning to each other? Does memory of the things remembered, and when that is cut by death, by accident, old age, or whatever it is - you understand? - when the memory is not, actually not, but the memory continues, is that sorrow? Is sorrow related to memory? Come on, sirs.

I had a son, or a brother, or an aunt. I like - I will use the word 'like' for the moment. I call that like love. I liked those people very much. I lived with them. I have chatted with them. We played together. All that memory is stored. And my son, my brother, my mother, or somebody, dies, is taken away, gone for ever. And I feel a shock, shed tears, and I feel terribly lonely. And I run off to church, temple, pick up a book, do this or that, to escape. Or say, 'Well I will pray and get over it. Jesus will save me.' You know all that business. Sorry, I am not belittling the word. Or use the other word - Buddha, or Krishna - you follow? It is the same. It is the same thing with different names. Or the same symbol, the same content of the symbol - symbols vary but it is the same content.

So is it - is sorrow merely the ending of certain memories, actually, though I have memories but the actuality that created those - that brought together those memories has ended, therefore I feel I am lost. I have lost my son. Is that sorrow? Or - we are not being harsh, just examining it - self-pity? Concerned more with my own memories, pain, anxiety, than the ending of somebody - you understand? Is that - is sorrow self-interest? Please go into it all. And I cultivate that memory. I am loyal to my son. I am loyal to my former wife, though I marry a new wife, I am very loyal to my..., which is the remembrance of those things that have happened in the past. Is that sorrow? Or there is the sorrow of failure, success, you know the whole momentum of self-interest identifying itself with that word and shedding tears. And these tears have been shed by man and woman for a million years - right? And we are still crying. The war in Lebanon, in Afghanese, the brutality of all that. And the Afghanistans and the Lebanese are crying, shot to pieces because of an idea that we must dominate, we must be different. Right? The idea. Thought is destroying each other. And think of all the people who have cried before you.

So is there an end to sorrow? The word sorrow also implies passion. There is - as long as there is self-interestidentifying itself with those memories which have gone, which are still there but the actuality is gone, that self-interest is part and parcel - is the movement of sorrow - right? Can all that end? Where there is sorrow there cannot be love. So what is love? You understand? Can we go on tomorrow, not tomorrow, sorry, Sunday? Or shall we go on with it now? You know we have entered into very, very serious subjects, all this. It is not just something you play with for a Sunday or Wednesday morning. It is something deeply serious, all this. It is not galloping down the road. It is walking in the path very slowly, watching things, you know watching, watching, watching, staying with things that disturb you, staying with things that please you, staying with things that are abstract - all the imaginations, all the things that the brain has put together, including God. It is the activity of thought. God didn't create us. We created God in our image, which is - well, I won't go into this, it is so clear and simple.

So to talk about love, which also implies death. Love, death and creation. You understand? We can spend an hour on this because it is very, very serious. We are asking: what is creation? Not invention. Please differentiate between creation, invention, new set of ideas - you understand? That is, new set of ideas. And those new set of ideas are inventions, technologically, psychologically, scientifically and so on. We are not talking about ideas. We are talking about very serious things, that is love, death and creation. This cannot be answered in five minutes. Forgive me. We will deal with it tomorrow, next Sunday - not that I am inviting you. We will go into this. And also what is religion, what is meditation, if there is something that is beyond all words, and measure and thought. You understand? Not put together by thought. Something that is inexpressible, infinite, timeless. We will go into all that. But you cannot - one cannot come to it - or for it to exist if there is fear, lack of relation - right relation, you follow? Without all that in your brain, free from all that you cannot understand the other. Right? Now may we stop?

J. Krishnamurti Fourth Public Talk in Saanen 17 July 1985

Why is there this everlasting craving to be loved?

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Why is there this everlasting craving to be loved? Listen carefully. You want to be loved because you do not love; but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you. As long as you demand to be loved, there is no love in you; and if you feel no love, you are ugly, brutish, so why should you be loved? Without love you are a dead thing; and when the dead thing asks for love, it is still dead. Whereas, if your heart is full of love, then you never ask to be loved, you never put out your begging bowl for someone to fill it. It is only the empty who ask to be filled, and an empty heart can never be filled by running after gurus or seeking love in a hundred other ways.

J. Krishnamurti Think On These Things

Awareness

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Awareness is from moment to moment, it is not the cumulative effect of selfprotective memories. Awareness is not determination nor is it the action of will. Awareness is the complete and unconditional surrender to what is, without rationalization, without the division of the observer and the observed. As awareness is non-accumulative, non-residual, it does not build up the self, positively or negatively. Awareness is ever in the present and so, non-identifying and nonrepetitive; nor does it create habit. Take, for instance, the habit of smoking and experiment with it in awareness. Be aware of smoking, do not condemn, rationalize or accept, simply be aware. If you are so aware there is the cessation of the habit; if you are so aware there will be no recurrence of it but if you are not aware the habit will persist. This awareness is not the determination to cease or to indulge. Be aware; there is a fundamental difference between being and becoming. To become aware you make effort and effort implies resistance and time, and leads to conflict. If you are aware in the moment there is no effort, no continuance of the self-protective intelligence. You are aware or you are not; the desire to be aware is only the activity of the sleeper, the dreamer. Awareness reveals the problem completely, fully, without denial or acceptance, justification or identification, and it is freedom which quickens understanding. Awareness is a unitary process of the observer and the observed.

J. Krishnamurti The Collected Works Volume IV Ojai 4th Public Talk 1946

Indifference and understanding

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One has to be indifferent – to health, to loneliness, to what people say or do not say, indifferent to whether one succeeds or does not succeed, indifferent to authority. If you hear somebody shooting, making a lot of noise with a gun, you can very easily get used to it, and you turn a deaf ear; that is not indifference. Indifference comes into being when you listen to that noise with no resistance, go with that noise, ride on that noise infinitely. Then that noise does not affect you, does not pervert you, does not make you indifferent. Then you listen to every noise in the world – the noise of your children, of your wife, of the birds, the noise of the chatter the politicians make. You listen to it completely with indifference and therefore with understanding.

-from On Living and Dying, pg. 99 J.Krishnamurti

Robert Adams on Worship of God with Form.

2010-10-14T17:21:00.001+05:30

Question : Robert, do you think worshipping God impedes Realization?

Robert: On the contrary! Worshipping God makes you Pure. It makes you pure enough so that you can follow the I back to the Source. Whereas if you did not worship God, you would just 'know' everything intellectually, and you would have a hard heart. Worshipping God softens you up, makes ou mellow, kind causes you to become One Pointed, and lifts you higher.

So by all means worshipping God is good. But what kind of God will you worship? Worshipping God in the form of a satguru, Buddha or Christ whichever, is even better. For if you worship God without form, the energy is not as strong. For what kind of God are you worshipping? An invisible God that has no form, no shape. Therefore you have doubts. You are not too sure. (laughter) And the energy you send out is not that strong. But, when you worship God as form, you can give that God all of your energy Totally surrender to that particular deity. That is the purpose of worship. To finally totally Surrender you ego, your pride, your body, your affairs, your life, to that Deity. Dialogue Continued in Silence of the Heart p 172

Virtue is its own reward

2010-10-13T14:05:00.000+05:30

There is only one Self. What you feel toward somebody else, you are feeling toward yourself. What you do to anybody else you are doing to yourself. If you help somebody else, you are helping yourself, and if you hurt somebody else, you are hurting yourself.

What your body does is karmic. It has nothing to do with you. When you realize, "I am not the body, I am not the mind, and I am not the doer," then you are safe. But as long as you think you are doing something kind for somebody, then you want a reward, you want recognition. But when you know there is only one Self, you are automatically kind to everybody. Virtue is its own reward.

-Robert Adams-

Self-interest decays the mind

2010-10-09T12:26:00.002+05:30

WINDING FROM ONE side of the valley to the other, the path crossed over a small bridge where the swiftly-running water was brown from the recent rains. Turning north, it led on over gentle slopes to a secluded village. That village and its people were very poor. The dogs were mangy, and they would bark from a distance never venturing near, their tails down, their heads held high, ready to run. Many goats were scattered about on the hillside, bleating, and eating the wild bushes. It was beautiful country, green, with blue hills. The bare granite projecting from the tops of the hills had been washed by the rains of countless centuries. These hills were not high, but they were very old, and against the blue sky they had a fantastic beauty, that strange loveliness of measureless time. They were like the temples that man builds to resemble them, in his longing to reach the heavens. But that evening, with the setting sun on them, these hills seemed very close. Far to the south a storm was gathering, and the lightning among the clouds gave a strange feeling to the land. The storm would break during the night; but the hills had stood through the storms of untold ages, and they would always be there, beyond all the toil and sorrow of man.

The villagers were returning to their homes, weary after a day's work in the fields. Soon you would see smoke rising from their huts as they prepared the evening meal. It wouldn't be much; and the children, waiting for their meal, would smile as you went by. They were large-eyed and shy of strangers, but they were friendly. Two little girls held small babies on their hips while their mothers were cooking; the babies would slip down, and get jerked up onto the hips again. Though only ten or twelve years old, these little girls were already used to holding babies; and they both smiled. The evening breeze was among the trees, and the cattle were being brought in for the night.

On that path there was now no other person, not even a lonely villagers The earth seemed suddenly empty, strangely quiet. The new, young moon was just over the dark hills. The breeze had stopped, not a leaf was stirring; everything was still, and the mind was completely alone. It wasn't lonely, isolated, enclosed within its own thought, but alone, untouched, uncontaminated. It wasn't aloof and distant, apart from the things of the earth. It was alone, and yet with everything; because it was alone, everything was of it. That which is separate knows itself as being separated; but this aloneness knew no separation, no division. The trees, the stream, the villager calling in the distance, were all within this aloneness. It was not an identification with man, with the earth, for all identification had utterly vanished. In this aloneness, the sense of the passing of time had ceased.

There were three of them, a father, his son and a friends The father must have been in his late fifties, the son in his thirties, and the friend was of uncertain age. The two older men were bald, but the son still had plenty of hair. He had a well-shaped head, a rather short nose and wide-set eyes. His lips were restless, though he sat quietly enough. The father had seated himself behind his son and the friend, saying that he would take part in the talk if necessary, but otherwise would just watch and listen. A sparrow came to the open window and flew away again, frightened by so many people in the room. It knew that room, and would often perch on the window-sill, chirping softly, without fear.

"Though my father may not take part in the conversation," the son began, "he wants to be in on it, for the problem is one that concerns us all. My mother would have come had she not been feeling so unwell, and she is looking forward to the report we shall make to her. We have read some of the things you have said and my father particularly has followed your talks from afar; but it is only within the last year or so that I have myself taken a real interest in what you are saying. Until recently, politics have absorbed the greater part of my interest and enthusiasm; but I have begun to see the immaturity of politics. The religious life is only for the maturing mind, and not for politicians and lawyers. I have been a fairly successful lawyer, but am a lawyer no longer, as I want to spend the remaining years of my life in something vastly more significant and worth whiles I am speaking also for my friend, who wanted to accompany us when he heard we were coming here. You see, sir, our problem is the fact that we are all growing old. Even I, though still comparatively young, am coming to that period of life when time seems to fly, when one's days seem so short and death so near. Death, for the moment at least, is not a problem; but old age is."

What do you mean by old age? Are you referring to the aging of the physical organism, or of the mind?

"The aging of the body is of course inevitable, it wears out through use and disease. But need the mind age and deteriorate?"

To think speculatively is futile and a waste of time. Is the deterioration of the mind a supposition, or an actual fact?

"It is a fact, sir. I am aware that my mind is growing old, tired; slow deterioration is taking place."

Is this not also a problem with the young, though they may still be unaware of it? Their minds are even now set in a mould; their thought is already enclosed within a narrow pattern. But what do you mean when you say that your mind is growing old?

"It is not as pliable, as alert as sensitive as it used to be. Its awareness is shrinking; its responses to the many challenges of life are increasingly from the storage of the past. It's deteriorating, functioning more and more within the limits of its own setting."

Then what makes the mind deteriorate? It is self-protectiveness and resistance to change, is it not? Each one has a vested interest which he is consciously or unconsciously protecting, watching over, and not allowing anything to disturb.

"Do you mean a vested interest in property?"

Not only in property, but in relationships of every kind. Nothing can exist in isolation. Life is relationship; and the mind has a vested interest in its relationship to people, to ideas, and to things. This self-interest, and the refusal to bring about a fundamental revolution within itself, is the beginning of the mind's deterioration. Most minds are conservative, they resist changes Even the so-called revolutionary mind is conservative, for once it has gained its revolutionary success, it also resists change; the revolution itself becomes its vested interest. Even though the mind, whether it be conservative or so-called revolutionary, may permit certain modifications on the fringes of its activities, it resists all change at the centre. Circumstances may compel it to yield, to adapt itself, with pain or with ease, to a different pattern; but the centre remains hard, and it's this centre that causes the deterioration of the minds.

"What do you mean by the centre?"

Don't you know? Are you seeking a description of it?

"No, sir, but through the description I may touch it, get the feeling of it."

"Sir," put in the father, "we may intellectually be aware of that centre, but actually most of us have never come face to face with its I have myself seen it cunningly and subtly described in various books, but I have never really confronted it; and when you ask if we know it, I for one can only say that I don't. I only know the descriptions of it."

"It is again our vested interest," added the friend, "our deep-rooted desire for security, that prevents us from knowing that centres I don't know my own son, though I have lived with him from infancy, and I know even less that which is much closer than my son. To know it one must look at it, observe it, listen to it, but I never do. I am always in a hurry; and when occasionally I do look at it, I am at odds with it."

We are talking of the aging, the deteriorating mind. The mind is ever building the pattern of its own certainty, the security of its own interests; the words, the form, the expression may vary from time to time, from culture to culture, but the centre of self-interest remains. It is this centre that causes the mind to deteriorate, however outwardly alert and active it may be. This centre is not a fixed point, but various points within the mind, and so it's the mind itself. Improvement of the mind, or moving from one centre to another, does not banish these centres; discipline, suppression or sublimation of one centre only establishes another in its place.

Now, what do we mean when we say we are alive?

"Ordinarily," replied the son, "we consider ourselves alive when we talk, when we laugh, when there's sensation, when there's thought, activity, conflict, joy."

So what we call living is acceptance or `revolt' within the social pattern; it's a movement within the cage of the mind. Our life is an endless series of pains and pleasures, fears and frustrations, wanting and graspings; and when we do consider the mind's deterioration, and ask whether it's possible to put an end to it, our inquiry is also within the cage of the mind. Is this living?

"I'm afraid we know no other life," said the father. "As we grow older, pleasures shrink while sorrows seem to increase; and if one is at all thoughtful, one is aware that one's mind is gradually deteriorating. The body inevitably grows old and knows decay; but how is one to prevent this aging of the mind?"

We lead a thoughtless life, and towards the end of it we begin to wonder why the mind decays, and how to arrest the process. Surely, what matters is how we live our days, not only when we are young, but also in middle life, and during the declining years. The right kind of life demands of us far more intelligence than any vocation for earning a livelihood. Right thinking is essential for right living.

"What do you mean by right thinking?" asked the friend.

There's a vast difference, surely, between right thinking and right thought. Right thinking is constant awareness; right thought, on the other hand, is either conformity to a pattern set by society, or a reaction against society. Right thought is static, it is a process of grouping together certain concepts, called ideals, and following them. Right thought inevitably builds up the authoritarian, hierarchical outlook and engenders respectability; whereas right thinking is awareness of the whole process of conformity, imitation acceptance, revolt. Right thinking, unlike right thought, is not a thing to be achieved; it arises spontaneously with self-knowledge, which is the perception of the ways of the self. Right thinking cannot be learnt from books, or from another; it comes through the mind's awareness of itself in the action of relationship. But there can be no understanding of this action as long as the mind justifies or condemns it. So, right thinking eliminates conflict and self-contradiction, which are the fundamental causes of the mind's deterioration.

"Is not conflict an essential part of life?" asked the son. "If we did not struggle, we would merely vegetate."

We think we are alive when we are caught up in the conflict of ambition, when we are driven by the compulsion of envy, when desire pushes us into action; but all this only leads to greater misery and confusion. Conflict increases self-centred activity, but the understanding of conflict comes about through right thinking.

"Unfortunately this process of struggle and misery, with some joy, is the only life we know," said the father. "There are intimations of another kind of life, but they are few and far between. To go beyond this mess and find that other life is ever the object of our search."

To search for what is beyond the actual is to be caught in illusion. Everyday existence, with its ambitions, envies, and so on, must be understood; but to understand it demands awareness right thinking. There's no right thinking when thought starts with an assumption, a bias. Setting out with a conclusion, or looking for a preconceived answer, puts an end to right thinking; in fact, there is then no thinking at all. So, right thinking is the foundation of righteousness.

"It seems to me," put in the son, "that at least one of the factors in this whole problem of the mind's deterioration is the question of right occupation."

What do you mean by right occupation?

"I have noticed, sir, that those who become wholly absorbed in some activity or profession soon forget themselves; they are too busy to think about themselves, which is a good thing."

But isn't such absorption an escape from oneself? And to escape from oneself is wrong occupation; it is corrupting, it breeds enmity, division, and so on. Right occupation comes through the right kind of education, and with the understanding of oneself. Haven't you noticed that whatever the activity or profession, the self consciously or unconsciously uses it as a means for its own gratification, for the fulfilment of its ambition, or for the achievement of success in terms of power?

"That is so, unfortunately. We seem to use everything we touch for our own advancement."

It is this self-interest, this constant self-advancement, that makes the mind petty; and though its activity be extensive, though it be occupied with politics science, art, research, or what you will, there is a narrowing down of thinking, a shallowness that brings about deterioration, decay. Only when there's understanding of the totality of the mind, the unconscious as well as the conscious, is there a possibility of the mind's regeneration.

"Worldliness is the curse of the modern generation," said the father. "It is carried away by the things of the world, and does not give thought to serious things."

This generation is like other generations. Worldly things are not merely refrigerators, silk shirts, airplanes, television sets, and so on; they include ideals, the seeking of power, whether personal or collective, and the desire to be secure, either in this world or the next. All this corrupts the mind and brings about its decay. The problem of deterioration is to be understood at the beginning, in one's youth, not at the period of physical decline.

"Does that mean there's no hope for us?"

Not at all. It's more arduous to stop the mind's deterioration at our age, that's all. To bring about a radical change in the ways of our life, there must be expanding awareness, and a great depth of feeling which is love. With love everything is possible.

Commentaries on Living Series III Chapter 30 'Self-interest Decays the Mind'

Self-interest

2010-10-09T12:23:00.000+05:30

In this relationship called society, every human being is cutting himself off from another by his position, by his ambition, by his desire for fame, power, and so on; but he has to live in this brutal relationship with other men like himself, so the whole thing is glossed over and made respectable by pleasant-sounding words. In everyday life, each one is devoted to his own interests, though it may be in the name of the country, in the name of peace, or God, and so the isolating process goes on. One becomes aware of this whole process in the form of intense loneliness, a feeling of complete isolation. Thought, which has been giving all importance to itself, isolating itself as the `me', the ego, has finally come to the point of realizing that it's held in the prison of its own making.

Commentaries On Living Series III Aloneness Beyond Loneliness by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Paramacharya Stuns a Landowner!

2010-02-04T13:17:00.001+05:30

Author: Sri Ramani Anna (in Tamil)
Source: Sakthi Vikatan issue dated Nov 05, 2006

A Citra full moon day, many years back. An abhiSekam was performed in a grand manner with mahAnyAsa rudra japam at Sri Mahalingaswami Temple, Tiruvidaimarudur. The person who conducted it with 11 Vedic pundits was the landowner Narayanaswami Iyer of Tiruvarur. The rudrAbhiSekam that started at eight in the morning came to a completion around one in the afternoon.

The landowner Narayanaswami Iyer was extremely devoted to Kanchi Maha SwamigaL. He decided 'thisrudrAbhiSeka prasAdam should be submitted to Periyavaa somehow.' He reverentially kept the prasAdam on a banana leaf and folded it inside a new silk cloth. That same evening, he boarded the Madurai Madras passenger train at Tiruvidaimarudur railway station. He got down at Chingleput station in the early morning, took a bus and arrived at Kanchipuram.

There was a large crowd at the maTham on that day. Finishing his bath and other chores, the landowner waited for Periyavaa's darshan. At about 12 o'clock in the noon, Maha SwamigaL came and sat down, after finishing his Chandramouleesvara puja. The crowd of devotees rushed forward. The landowner couldn't approach SwamigaL. He showed the prasAda bag and begged everyone, "All of you please make way! I have brought Tiruvidaimarudur Mahalingaswamy rudrAbhiSeka prasAdam for Periyavaa. I have to submit it to him."

No one seemed to make way. An employee of the maTham who saw the anxiety and haste of the landowner, created a trail for him among the people and brought Narayanaswami Iyer near PeriyavaL. When he saw PeriyavaL, the landowner became insensate, dropped down heavily for a prostration and got up. Maha SwamigaL looked at him raising his head. He raised his brows as if he inquired what the matter was.

With his hands shaking, the landowner babbled, unpacking the prasAdam bag, "prasAdam, prasAdu Periyavaa". "What prasAdam?" asked PeriyavaL and looked at him. In the meantime, the landowner managed to extract theprasAdam. He kept it on the cane plate found there and submitted it to PeriyavaL. On that plate were found in a small banana leaf, vibuti, kuN^kumam, sandal paste together with some bilva dalam, two parts of a broken coconut, and some poovan banana fruits.

Maha SwamigaL asked, "All these are prasAdam of which kSetra?" and looked at the landowner once again. The landowner calmed himself and said with humility, "Periyavaa! I performed the rudrAbhiSekam for Mahalingaswami at Tiruvidaimarudur yesterday. It was a large abhiSekam with mahAnyAsa rudra japam. This is that prasAdam. Since Periyavaa would be happy, I have rushed here to bring it, boarding a train; you must receive it and bless me."

Looking at that prasAda plate sharply for sometime, Periyavaa asked: "Narayanaswami! You are a big landowner yourself. Even then you performed this rudrAbhiSekam for Swami, teaming up with some other people to meet the expenses?"

The landowner replied, "No, Periyavaa! I performed it myself, out of my own expenses," stressing the 'myself' part a little.

PeriyavaL smiled to himself. He did not leave it at that. "So you did for for loka kSema at Madhyaarjuna kSetra", he added.

The landowner replied with some uncertainty, "No, Periyavaa! For the last two or three years there was no yield in my fields. Some fields were even barren. I checked up with Tiruvidaimarudur Muthu Josyar. He advised me, 'On aCitra full moon day perform rudrAbhiSekam for Mahalingaswami. That will give you an abundant yield!' Only on that belief I performed it, Periyavaa".

The prasAda that was kept before the sage remained untouched. AcharyaL did not accept it. Saying, "So it seems that you did not perform this act either for AtmArtam or for loka kSemArtam", he closed his eyes and dropped into meditation.

AcharyaL opened his eyes after fifteen minutes. There was such a clarity in his face! And a knowing look of having understood many things within those fifteen minutes. Everyone around was very quiet. SwamigaL continued, "Alright... How many vedic brahmins attended the rudrAbhiSekam?"

"I had arranged for eleven vedic pandits, Periyavaa!"

SwamigaL persisted, "Did you know who were the vaidikaLs and which place they belonged to? Was it only you who made all arrangements?"

The devotees who were witnessing the scene were surprised at the detailed inquiry Periyavaa was making. They also understood that he wouldn't do anything without a reason. The landowner took a piece of paper that he had tucked in his waist.

"I am reading out, Periyavaa. Tiruvidaimarudur Venkatrama SastrigaL, Seenuvasa Ganapadigal, Rajagopala ShrautigaL, Marutthuvakkudi Santhana Vaadyhar, Sundaa SastrigaL, Subramanya SastrigaL, Tirumangalakkudi Venkittu Vaadhyar, and then--"

AchargaL interruped him and asked easily, "All experts only, who you have arranged. Alright, check if your list has the name Thepperumaanallur Venkatesa GanapadigaL."

Seething with happiness, the landowner replied, "It is there, Periyavaa! He also attended the japam", showing surprise in his voice.

Though the devotees were taken by surprise at such detailed inquiry about an abhiSekam that was over, no one said anything. Everyone was silent and attentive.

SwamigaL said, "Besh, besh! So you had engaged Venkatesa GanapadigaL also for the japam! A very good thing. Maha Veda vid! GanagadigaL is now very aged. Even difficult for him to raise his voice. He would feel it hard to control his breathing and intone the japam."

As if he waited for this remark, the landowner replied, his tone raising, "Yes, Periyavaa! What you have said is very correct. He did not chant the rudram well. Sometimes he was siting silent with closed eyes. Often he yawned. All these resulted in the shrinkage of the counting of the japam numbers. He gave much trouble yesterday. I regretted having engaged him for the japam."

SwamigaL swelled with indignation. "What you said... What did you say? So you have the temerity to talk anything because you have the money? What do you know about the yogyatAMsam of Thepperumaanallur Venkatesa GanapadigaL? Would you match the dust of the feet of that veda vid? How can you talk such words about him? I have now understood what happened yesterday at the Mahalingaswami Sannidhi! You answer my question now! When the GanapadigaL was sitting quiet with closed eyes at the time of the japam yesterday, did you not shout harshly at him, 'EngaaNum, are you not getting the money, you are sitting still with a shut mouth without doing thejapam?' Tell me, did you shout these words to him or not?" The landowner was appalled. The crowd was amazed.

Narayanaswami Iyer fell at SwamigaL's feet, his eight limbs touching the ground. SwamigaL did not say anything. The landowner got up himself. He closed his mouth and replied shivering, "My mistake, Periyavaa! It is true that I used the very same words you spoke know to the GanapadigaL in the Swami Sannidhi yesterday. Periyavaa should kindly pardon me."

Periyavaa did not stop. "Wait, wait. Did you do that mistake only? You did honour the vaidikaLs with money, right? How much did you give each vaidikaL?"

The landowner gulped and said weakly, "I paid ten rupees for each head, Periyavaa."

SwamigaL did not leave him with that. "Tell me correctly! I know everything! Did you pay all the vaidikaLs equally with ten-ten rupees each?"

The landowner stood silently. But the AcharyaL did not relent. "Listen, I shall tell you what you did yesterday. Perhaps you feel shy to talk it out. You seated the vaidikaLs in a row at the Sannidhi and was giving thesambhAvanA of ten rupees to each of them. When the turn of Thepperumaanallur Venkatesa GanapadigaL came, you decided, 'This man did not chant the rudram properly. Why should I give him ten rupees as I did for the others?' and gave him just seven rupees. You had the thought that somehow you had taken revenge on him. Did he care anything about it all? He just accepted what you gave him and tied it to the edge of his vastram." AcharyaL asked him hotly, "Tell me, is not what I am saying correct?"

The devotees were stunned. No one did say anything. They wondered how PeriyavaL came to know what took place in Tiruvidaimarudur temple yesterday.

The landowner prostrated to the sage and said, "A gross mistake, Periyavaa! It was out of ignorance that I behaved like that! I won't behave in such a fashion henceforth! Kindly parden me!"

Before he finished, PeriyavaaL continued, "Wait, wait! It would have been less worse had it ended there." He asked, "For the japa brahmins, you arranged for the meals at the house of Ramachandra Iyer of Mahadhana street, right?"

"Yes, Periyavaa!"

"You served sumptuous meals, of course, with a feeling of immense happiness. You had arranged for cooking very tasty sweet pongal, with lots of cashew nuts and raisins added to it, and you served it with your own hands, with ghee dripping from it in the meals session, right?"

Narayanaswami Iyer was more and more appalled. He closed his mouth and spoke with uncertainty, "Yes, Periyavaa! In the session I served only the sweet pongal with my own hands."

"Alright, does your conscience admit that you did it with the dharma for serving a meal?" SwamigaL asked him sternly.

The landowner did not open his mouth. AcharyaL said himself, "You need not tell me, I shall tell you! When you served the sweet pongal, since it was very tasty, the vaidikaLs asked for repeated helpings. And you obliged them. But when Thepperumaanallur Venkatesa GanapadigaL, giving up his reticence asked you many times, 'Serve me more of the sweet pongal, it is very tasty...' did you not carry on without serving him more, though you heard him? How many times did he ask you, giving up his normal reticence! And you did not serve him more! You committed the sin of partiality in a meals session! Was it dharma? You insulted a great sadhu!" SwamigaL fell into silence, overwhelmed with distress.

The landowner stood with bowed head. The devotees were amazed and speechless. Closing his eyes and folding both his legs behind him, AcharyaL sat upright. His divine frame looked like the Lord Parameswara Himself. He sat motionless.

Fifteen minutes passed by in complete silence. Then AcharyaL opened his eyes. Everyone was silent. AcharyaL continued his talk, looking at Narayanaswami Iyer: "MirasudarvaL! You should know one thing. GanapadigaL is eighty-one years of age now. He had done rudra japam in countless kSetras since his sixteenth year. Sri Rudram is always coursing his veins and nerves and breath. He is such a mahAn. The way you behaved to him is an act of great sin... an act of great sin!" PeriyavaL stopped, unable to continue further, and closed his eyes.

He resumed again after sometime: "Your act of partiality in the meals session affected him deeply. You know what he did? I shall tell you, listen. He did not go back to his native place Thepperumaanallur yesterday evening. Instead, he went to Mahalingaswami temple. He did pradakSiNa of the outer courtyard three times. Went straight to Mahalingaswami and stood before Him. You know what he prayed for, joinng his palms?" PeriyavaL couldn't continue. He steadied himself and then resumed his talk.

"With tears streaming down his eyes, he spoke to the God, 'Appa, Jyoti Mahalingam! I am your steadfast devotee. Since my early days I have recited mahAnyasa rudra japam countless times in your sannidhi. You have listened to it. I am now eighty-one years old. I have the mental strengh, but that strength is gone in my speech! It can't be that you wouldn't know what happened this afternoon when we were dining. I asked that landowner many times, leaving my shyness aside, for more of that pongal, since it was very very tasty. Though he heard me, the landowner moved away as if he did not hear my request. You know that I have an immense fondness for sweetpongal. Though I asked him out of temptation, I was grieved that he did not serve me more.

'But then only after I had finished my meals, washed my hands and sat on the thinnai it occurred to me whether I could have such a jihvA sabalam at this age. Which is the reason I am now standing before you, Appa Mahalingam! With you as the mediator, I take a vow from this moment. Everyone gives up some favourite edible when they go to Kasi. It is only You who is in Kasi, as well as here. Therefore I take a vow before you that I will not touch the sweet pongal or any other sweet dish from now on until my soul goes out of the body! This is a promise Mahalingam.' With that vairAgya pramANam he said, 'Appa Jyoti Mahalingam! I take leave of you now," and didshASTaaN^ga namaskaram twelve times. Tears were flowing down GanapadigaL's eyes, as he left for his place. Now, you tell me... What you did was dharma? Will Mahalingaswami agree to it?"

Periyavaa stopped. It was then three o' clock in the afternoon. "I don't want any bhikSA today", said SwamigaL. No one moved from there. Not even for their lunch. Total silence prevailed. Tears were seen in everyone's eyes. The landowner Narayanaswami Iyer stood transfixed. He could not raise his tongue to speak. Everyone's wonder was, 'How does Periyavaa narrate everything that happened yesterday at Tiruvidaimarudur as if he witnessed them personally?'

Falling down to Periyavaa's feet, the landowner started sobbing vehemently. His tongue slurred as he said, "Periyavaa! What I did was a great sin! I did it out of vanity. Kindly pardon me. Never again shall I behave this way in my life. You should say 'I have pardoned you'!" The landowner patted his cheeks loudly.

AcharyaL did not open his mouth. The landowner was persistent. "I pray to you, Periyavaa! You should accept this Mahalingaswami rudrAbhiSeka prasAdam. Kindly pardon me!" He pointed his hands towards the prasAdamplate.

AcharyaL said, "Let it be, let it be there. That Mahalingaswami Himself will give me the prasAda anugraham."

Before he finishd his words, a voice was heard outside the crowd: "Make way, make way!" Everyone moved to make way.

Only a tuft of hair knotted at the end on the head. A bright five-folded dhoti on the waist, with a silky green cloth covering it. A large rudraksha garland on the neck. A noble man who could be around sixty-five years old, arrived near PeriyavaL, carrying piously a brass plate on which was the prasAdam preserved in a silk cloth. He submitted the prasAdam plate reverentially to AcharyaL and said, "My name is Mahalingam. I am the arcakA of Tiruvidaimarudur Mahalingaswami temple. Yesterday a rudrAbhiSekam was performed for Swami. A landowner conducted it. My eleder sister is given in marriage to this place. I came to submit the prasAdam to AcharyaL and then look her up. Periyavaa should do me the anugraham." SwamigaL prevented him as he proceeded to prostrate.

Saying "You people have been given shiva dIkSA, you shouldn't do namaskaram to me", AcharyaL accepted theprasAdams brought and asked the Shivacharya to be given the MaTham's honours in return. Meantime, the SivacharyaL saw the landowner who was standing at some distance. "Periyavaa, it is this man who had conducted the rudrAbhiSekam there yesterday. He has come himself come here!" With these words, Mahalingam Shivacharya left the place, taking leave of the sage.

The landowner Narayanaswami Iyer again prostrated AcharyaL and patted his cheeks loudly. He pleaded, "Again and again I pray to you, Periyavaa. It is a great sinful act I have committed. Only you should tell me the remedy for this act."

SwamigaL got up briskly. "I cannot tell you the remedy for this. Only Thepperumaanallur Venkatesa GanapadigaL can tell you the remedy."

"Will the GanapadigaL tell me the remedy for the deed of this paavi, Periyavaa?", the landowner asked with grief.

SwamigaL said in a slightly raised voice, "If you have the prAptam, he will certainly tell you!" and hurried inside. He did not come out at all.

The landowner waited for a few hours. And then, having come to a decision, he left the place and arrived at Chingleput boarding a bus. He caught a train and arrived at Tiruvidaimarudur on the next morning. He finished his bath in the Kaveri river there and with firmness of heart started walking towards Thepperumaanallur. He walked briskly with the resolution that he would somehow meet Venkatesa GanapadigaL, fall shASTaaN^gam at his feet, ask for his pardon, perform the remedy he would suggest and obtain paapa vimocanam.

The landowner entered the Thepperumaanallur agrahAram. He inquired the first man he came across, the address of the GanapadigaL. The man pointed to a house on the street before which was a crowd of people and said, "You have come to offer your condolences? That is the home of Venkatesa GanapadigaL. Early this morning, he suddenly passed away. A painless, peaceful death. Go and have a look."

Narayanaswami Iyer was stunned. He felt as if someone had hit him on the head. The firm words of AcharyaL at the MaTham yesterday seemed to ring in his ears. If you have the prAptam, he will certainly tell you!" He now understood that PeriyavaaL known yesterday itself that the landowner would not have the prAptam.

The landowner went to GanapadigaL's house, offered his condolences, and prostrated to the gross body of the GanapadigaL, seeking his pardon mentally. Then he moved away from the place.

Later, the landowner met with different kinds of adversities and happened to lose all his wealth. He went North and did service at the temple kitchens, finally arrived at Kasi kSetra and attained his mukti there.

"Vasishta Guha - A Heaven on Earth" by Swami Shantananda Puri

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(Photograph of Lingam inside Vasistha Guha which has streaks of light emanating from the Lingam though the light patterns are not visible to the eye)

If there is a heaven on earth, it is certainly Vasishta Guha. Guha means a cave. This Vasishta Guha Ashram (referred to as the 'The Guha' in the subsequent paras) is situated at 22 kms. from Rishikesh on the famous Bus route to Badrinath/Kedarnath (6 kms. from Shiv Puri where there are a lot of rafting institutions, and 10kms before reaching Byasi). In the Himalayas, the names of many of the caves are linked with some renowned sage or other of yore e.g. Vyasa Guha, Uddalaka Guha.

Vasishta is one of the Saptarshis (7 sages) and one of the first creations of Lord Brahma (the creator) out of his will power. He was the chief priest (Kula Guru) of the line of kings claiming their descendence from the Sun God (Surya Vansa), the most famous in that line being king Sri Ram (RAMA CHANDRA) - an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Vasishta's one hundred sons were. killed due to the machinations of his competitor Sage Viswamitra through the application of black magic rituals. Though a highly evolved soul well established in the supreme consciousness (Brahman), the tragedy of the death of all his hundred sons was too deep a blow to be borne with equanimity. Vasishta, in frustation decided to end his life by jumping into a river. The River goddess did not want to incur the heinous sin of being the cause of the death of such a holy sage and so just carried him safely unharmed and deposited him on the other bank where Arundhati, the wife of Vasishta, was already waiting for her husband. As Arundhati thought that if they continued to stay in that environment, the memories of their dead children would haunt them, suggested going on a pilgrimage to the southern part of India. En route, presumably, this Vasishta Guha was one of the places where he camped for performance of austerities (Tapas) for a few hundred years (Vasishta was a sage who remained as the chief priest for more than five generations of kings each of whom ruled for several thousands of years). The Guha is situated on the banks of the holy river Ganga about 120 feet below from the main road and it is barely a five minutes walk to Arundhati Guha, access to which is by walking over the Ganga's sand beach.

Similar Vasishta Ashrams exist in various places (i.e. B.R. HILLS in Karnataka, in SRI LANKA etc.) Who knows how many saints, sages and Siddhas have lived in this cave and added to its glory, holiness and spiritual vibrations! Behind the Siva linga at the far end of the cave can be seen a slightly vertically inclined opening into the cave. If you put your hand in it, you will find inside it is closed. It seems the cave used to extend inside for another 20 kms or so till a place called Ghanta Karna Mandir up in the Himalayas. A few years back this passage was closed. It is believed that a number of Himalayan adepts (SIDDHAS) have been doing austerities in their subtle body (not visible to naked eyes of common people) inside the back of the cave for thousands of years.

Besides, our Gurudev Swami Purushottamanandji Maharaj also had done his austerities here since 1928. He was a grand disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and disciple of Swami Brahmananda. Many visitors, not only Indians but foreigners too, who used to sit inside the cave in meditation in reCent times, claimed to have had varied psychic experiences.

In April 1996, a letter was received in this Ashram from H. H. Swami Dayananda Saraswatiji of international fame, enclosing two copies of a photograph of the cave taken at his behest during his recent visit thereto. It seems that when the photograph of the far end platform containing Siva Linga was taken and got developed it was found that there were two rays of light emanating from the top/side of the Siva Linga and going over the side walls and ceiling till it disappeared into the earth halfway from the cave entrance. It could have represented the ultimate merging of one or more of the unseen Siddhas into the Supreme being. When Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi left his mortal body at Tiruvannamalai, at that very moment many were able to see in different cities a bright star-like flame coursing through the sky and this was reported in some newspapers too. Many have expressed that when once they sit inside the Guha for

meditation, their level of consciousness immediately rises up to such a high level which they were able to reach only occasionally and that too after years of spiritual practice.

Two other incidents which have been included in a book "Fragrant Flowers" are reproduced below to illustrate the glory of the Guha :-

(i) Some time in 1994 or so, a young Dutch woman visited the Guha on a day when I (Swami Shantananda) happened to be there. It was her first visit. She was sitting in meditation inside the cave till lunch time. During lunch she suddenly addressed me and asked "I find that your

Gurudev had left his body in Feb. 1961. Since then, have you met him again at any time?". The question sounded strange and I answered in the negative. After finishing her lunch she followed me to my room and narrated the following unique experience of hers in the Guha :-

"After about two hours of meditation, when I suddenly opened my eyes, I saw a Swamiji with a laughing face standing before me. He was identical with the photograph kept outside the cave in the dais. The only difference was that unlike in the picture he had a long stick in his hand. A thought come to my mind that the vision was some sort of an illusion. The Swamiji smilingly told me 'you are wrong, my dear child. I am as real as you are. I am not an illusion." I was astonished that he could divine my thoughts accurately. He asked me "Aye, what do you want?" I replied 'Swamiji, I want Gyan (True Knowledge)!' He laughed in a wild manner and disappeared.

I believed her because in her narration she has mentioned certain typical characteristics of my Gurudev as follows :-

1. My Gurudev often sported a long stick even though in the picture on the dais it was not there.

2. His typical question to many visitors or disciples was :- "Aye, what do you want?"

3. He always used to be laughing like a child.

(ii) In 1980, when I (Swami Shantananda) had gone to Vasishta Guha to attend my Guru Dev's birthday as also to do Srimad Bhagavata Saptaham, one Mrs P. had also come to the Guha. On the first day of Bhagavata reading in the morning, Mrs P. did not attend the recitation partly perhaps she had no taste for it and could not also understand the sanskrit text. She went and sat inside the cave for meditation. After a while, when she opened her eyes, she saw our Gurudev standing before her with a smile. She would not believe her own eyes. He told her "yes, I am really standing before you but you will not believe. Today one old ex-armyman with a beard will be visiting Guha for the first time but he will refuse to have lunch here in the Ashram and will go back. When this happens, you will believe in this vision. Tomorrow I shall initiate you with a mantra." Mrs P. never disclosed this to anybody. In the evening when I saw her face full of misery, I asked her for the reason. Then she narrated the incident and told me 'Today I have not

seen any such old ex-army man visiting this Guha. Perhaps it was all my imagination." Then I exclaimed "No, it is true. Today one old ex- Army man came and the Swami-in-charge of the ashram took him to the library and was showing him the book "YOGA VASISHTA" in three

volumes. When Swamiji pressed him to stay for lunch, he excused himself and left." Mrs P. was elated at this news. Next morning when she went inside the Guha and sat for meditation, Gurudev again appeared. She was desperately praying in her heart. "I want only a mantra on 'Ram' and not on any other God" Gurudev smiled and said "yes, I shall give you only Ram Mantra. Do not worry. Do you know any hymn on Ram for meditation purposes (Dhyana Sloka); If so, recite it." She recited a hymn. Gurudev gave her a Mantra, bade her go and attend Bhagavatam reading which was going on outside and disappeared. I was the only one to whom Mrs. P confided the full details of her initiation.

Our Gurudev, Swami Purushottamanandji Maharaj left the Ramakrishana Mission and went wandering round the Himalayas in early 1920s, During his wanderings by foot he came across this Guha in 1928. The cave was surrounded by tall trees and it was all a jungle. He lived inside the Guha -doing his meditation/ austerities for more than 25 years till a room was built for him near the Guha. In my assessment, he was a realised soul. It is told that in his earliest years in the Guha, a lion used to come from the other side of the Ganga daily in the dusk and sleep near the nearest end of the Guha while our Gurudev used to sleep at the farthest end of the Guha, where a circular memorial has since been built. After about a year of keeping the nightly companionship with my Gurudev, the lion went away, never to return.

Swami Purushottamanandji went into Maha Samadhi (by leaving the body) on 13 February 1961 on the SHIVARATHRI day. His vibrations are still being felt in the entire area surrounding the Guha by his devotees. The Guha is now being run by Sri Chaitanyanandji, a simple but eminent disciple of Gurudev and the managing trustee. The Trust is also running

an outpatient department in an allopathic Hospital built by the Trust with 16 beds in the Goolar village about a kilometer off. Dry cooking rations are also provided to all the pilgrims going to/returning from Badrinath/Kedarnath etc. This Vasishta Guha is a very valuable spiritual

institution adding to the splendour of Uttaranchal state. Even today, some times at midnight, some people claim to have heard the loud chanting of scriptures like Rudri as also the sounds of Damru, Mridanga and other instuments, coming from the mountain top above the Guha.

One of the popular messages of Gurudev is as follows:-

What are we seeking! Bliss. What we are searching for is within us. Within is a huge roaring ocean of divine and infinite bliss, a single drop of which can completely destroy all our woes forever and transport us to a high state of ecstasy. But foolishly we look for this outside. To imagine that wife, children, wealth, name, fame etc. can bring us happiness is a mere illusion. Our state is like that of a deer which contains the musk in its own navel but in its ignorance seeks this divine scent in its surroundings in trees, creepers, grass etc. The teachings of our great sages alone can therefore give us pure unalloyed and eternal bliss.

Source:Introduction to Vasishta Guha by Swami Sri Shantananda Puri

Reward for a devotee's prayers

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Ma Anandamayi was an internationally famous saint of the highest order. Once she went to a city where some rich man had lent his big spacious bungalow in the outskirts of the city for the mother to stay as long as she liked. The mother was accompanied by a number of Sannyasis (her disciples) and Brahmacharinis (female celebates). On the fourth day of arrival, Ma called a Sannyasi disciple early in the morning and told him “For the last three days, in my morning meditation I have been seeing the vision of a young lady of fair complexion (aged about 32 years or so) with bobbed hair and of medium build. She lives somewhere within 20 kms radius from this place but it could be in any direction. I find her in my vision daily going to the third floor of her house at 3 a.m. in the morning, standing before a well-lit wick embedded in a circular plastic ring floating in a transparent jar of oil and mumbling some inaudible prayers for full three hours and then returning to her domestic chores. She has been doing this regularly for the last fifteen years. God has commanded me to take her in my hands and shape her. You have to go out just now, find her out and bring her to me. The only other clue I can give you is that

she drives a small car of blood-red colour. Go and may God be with you.”

The Sannyasi started on this unique errand even though it looked more like a wild goose chase. Till 12 in the noon he was walking looking at the occupants of every blood-red coloured car on the way. He became tired. He stood where he was and prayed to Ma – “Ma, I am sorry, I have not been successful in my errand. Please advise me what to do now.” Pat came a response in his heart – “Come back here by the same way by which you went. But at every step, repeat “Bhagawan”, “Bhagawan”. Lord will do the rest. The monk followed Ma’s advice and was returning. After walking back for half an hour, he was approaching a small nursery school from which a number of small children were coming out. Just at that moment he saw a blood-red car driven by a young lady coming out of the school gate and going ahead in the direction away from him. He ran into the school and asked some of the lady teachers who were standing as to who that lady was, who had just left the school in a red car. They told him that it was Mrs. C, a Parsi lady who was a teacher in that school. They even came out and pointed out her house which was a little ahead at the end of the same street. The monk walked up to that house. As the door opened on his touching it, he went straight inside without even knocking or ringing the bell (In the earlier days most of the monks were simple souls who did not know anything about the etiquettes of social life). The lady was sitting engrossed in the reading of a newspaper and did not notice the arrival of the newcomer.

Without any preliminaries, the monk addressed her – “Madam, my Guru Dev and a saint of great repute, Ma Anandamayi who is camping in this city desires to meet you. Will you please come along with me?” Mrs. C was righteously indignant and asked him “Who are you and how dare you come inside without knocking even. I know that you thieves just enter into big houses under some pretext with evil intentions at a time when the male members are likely to have gone out.” She began to ring up the police. The monk fell at her feet and began to tell her how Ma had seen her in a vision, going up to the third floor and praying before a light for three hours daily for the last fifteen years. Mrs. C abandoned the telephone as she was impressed by

the sincerity and accuracy behind the monk’s narration. Except for her husband nobody knew about her daily prayers on the third floor. She asked him for some more details about Ma

whose name she had never heard earlier. She kept a note for her husband who had gone to his office asking him to come to Ma’s place in the evening in case she was delayed and went along

with the monk in her car. When they entered she saw Ma and her companions sitting on a platform and singing Bhajans (musical compositions on God) while a huge audience was sitting in her front facing her. She found herself on the backside of the platform, facing the back of Ma, where a number of Brahmacharinis of the Ashram were sitting. The inmates of the Ashram forbade her from going to the front and informed her that Ma’s Bhajan programme would last for one or two hours more. Mrs. C was vexed at the thought of waiting for an hour or so longer and was thinking of leaving for home immediately. At that moment Ma stopped her own singing, ordered her companions to carry on the singing, got down from the platform, came straight to Mrs.

C who was still standing undecided and hugged her. She took Mrs. C to her own room and conversed with her with all love. In answer to her inquiry Mrs. C told Ma that she was very happy with her life and that she used to pray to the Fire God to keep her in the same state of happiness forever. In her childhood and youth she was brought up by the Parsi priests and so she used to worship only the Fire God. Mrs. C was completely won over by the explicit and boundless love and kindness of Ma, which transcended the barriers of religion and caste. That day, both Mrs. C and her husband were initiated into meditation and they remained to be fervent admirers and followers of Ma. If only one performs some worship or prayer or chanting

of a name or japa or other spiritual practices (anushthan) regularly without fail for a few years, the Lord Himself provides a good guide in order to speed him in his quest.

Source: Stories for Meditation by Swami Sri Shantananda Puri of Vasistha Guha

T.R.Kannakammal

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A blessed soul was absorbed in the Master in the same manner she had lived her eighty-eight years: totally surrendered and prostrate at His feet.

T.R.Kanakammal was perhaps the last living devotee who left all worldly attractions behind to reside in the holy presence of Sri Bhagavan before his mahasamadhi in 1950. She first remembered seeing His beatific smile on a visit to him when she was eight. From that time onwards she was completely captured in the net of His grace. At the age of 13 she declared to her parents that she would never have any interest in family life and pleaded with them not to get her married. Her pleading failed and she was married the same year, but before the event she extracted a promise from her father that if at the time she came of age and was expected to join her husband, he would not force her to do so if she wished otherwise. And she had the same vairagya a few years later when the time arrived.

Her parents were very pious people and eventually allowed her to go and live by the side of Sri Ramanasramam in the year 1946 when she was in her early 20s. Since then Tiruvannamalai has been her residence and Bhagavan Ramana her sole anchor and support.

On Jayanti morning, January 1, 2010, Kanakammal circumambulated the Matribhuteswara Shrine and then entered Bhagavan's Samadhi Hall. Walking around the Samadhi she stopped on the north side to gaze at the Lingam of the Maharshi, while it was washed in preparation for the grand puja that was about to take place, commemorating the 130th birth anniversary of Sri Ramana. Right at that place she collapsed and was absorbed into her Master and Lord. How fitting an end for one who knew no other in her long life than Bhagavan Sri Ramana.

Kanakammal was an inestimable source of inspiration to the legions of devotees who sought her presence. She left us her reminiscences (Cherished Memories, in English) and several other books which shed light on the teachings of Bhagavan.

What follows are some transcribed reminiscences from a videotaped interview taken in 1999.

Source - Maharishi Newsletter Jan / Feb 2010 Vol.20 No.1

Peace on Earth

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A teacher of fear can’t bring peace on Earth. We have been trying to do it that way for thousands of years. The person who turns inner violence around, the person who finds peace inside and lives it, is the one who teaches what true peace is. We are waiting for just one teacher.

Byron Katie

Hearing the Truth: Literal Listening

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Practice listening to others in the most literal sense, believing exactly what they say without attaching a future to it, and do your best to resist falling into your own interpretations about the information they share with you.

For example, someone might give you a compliment, and you interpret that to mean that the person has ulterior motives. Our interpretations of what we hear people say to us are often far more painful or frightening than what people actually say. We can hurt ourselves with our misconceptions and our thinking for others.

Try trusting that what they say is exactly what they mean: not more, not less. Hear people out.

Catch yourself when you want to finish a sentence for someone, either aloud or in your mind.

Listen. It can be amazing to hear what comes out when we allow others to complete their thoughts without interruption. And when we are busy thinking we know what they are about to say, we often miss what they are actually saying.

You might want to consider these questions:

- What can be threatened if I listen and hear literally?
- Do I interrupt because I don’t want to really know what people have to say?
- Do I interrupt to convince them that I know more than they do?
- Am I attempting to convey an image of self-confidence and control?
- Who would I be without the need to possess those qualities?
- Do I fear appearing unintelligent?
- Would people leave me if I heard them literally and no longer engaged in manipulative games?

-Byron Katie -

The three things we actually do in life

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There are only three things we actually do in life: sit, stand or lie horizontal. All the rest is a story.

"The Work always leaves you with less of a story. Who would you be without your story? You never know until you inquire. There is no story that is you or that leads to you. Every story leads away from you. Turn it around, undo it. You are what exists before all stories. You are what remains when the story is understood"

- Byron Katie-

Stress

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Stress is an alarm clock that let's you know that you have attached to something that's not true.

Byron Katie

Open Your Own Book

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All you have to do is to still the mind. There are two ways to quiet the mind: One is through inquiry, which is suitable to a very few qualified people; and the other is through yoga, which includes concentration, meditation and other practices.

First you need the capacity to discern the real from the unreal, to embrace what is real and to adhere to it. Reject what is unreal and false. Fascination with study, karma , pilgrimages, or dips in the holy waters will not help you. Learning all the Vedas, all the sutras, like a parrot is not going to help you. No gift, austerity or charity is going to help you.

More important than anything is the burning desire for freedom. This alone is enough. If you have this burning desire you will be led to satsang. Satsang means to stay quiet, to still the mind, to bring it back to the center wherever it goes. If you can't do it by yourself then search for a perfected teacher, but do not make any mistake, you see.

When you go shopping you have free choice about what to buy and you have this same freedom in selecting a teacher. In the supermarket you choose, "I don't want this, I don't want that, this is not good, that is not good." You have freedom of choice, no bargain can be struck. Your human life and enlightenment is on one hand, and wasting your life with someone incompetent to liberate you is on the other.

Someone came to see me saying, "I have gone to many teachers without finding enlightenment, and finally I found that my current master himself is not enlightened. He has initiated me and now he is filling me with all kinds of fear. He says that if you leave the teacher you will have to go to hell. I met someone who told me to come here. I am here to be enlightened. My guru is very loving, he is not withholding anything from me; he teaches me with great love. He has taught me all the scriptures so that I know them by heart, but I am missing freedom. I have found that my mind is not free, it is not quiet. But now I know that I am on the right track and in some way I am here to help my teacher. After enlightenment I will go and enlighten my teacher." I have never heard a student resolving to enlighten his teacher before!

If you are bent upon freedom - determined to win freedom in this span of life, this year, this month, today, now - you will have to make a choice. Anything will surface from the mind to sabotage you. Find the best ways to quiet the mind. The instant that the mind is stilled there is meditation. Meditation has to be perennial, permanent, not just sitting for an hour a day. It does not mean chanting the thought, "I have to be free." It means being centered in the Self, which is alone true; all else is false. There must be a very strong understanding in your mind. It is not difficult once you discover the ability to discern what is real from what is unreal. Pleasures of the senses may try to distract you, religions may promise you pleasures in heaven after life, but you will have to abandon all these things. Abandon studying any book; it does not help you. Now you open your own book for the first time. Open your own book and keep quiet.

Papaji - 22 February, 1992

Source: http://www.satsangbhavan.net/main.htm

Silence in spite of Thoughts - Swami Dayananda Saraswati

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Preparing the mind

To create a condition of mind that enables you to see the Truth of yourself, you must remove all of your false notions. With love, you have to criticize various opinions and prejudices. There is no other way to obtain clarity, which is the sweetest thing. Whatever denies you a clear vision of the Truth has to be eliminated, along with limiting notions and prejudices about yourself. You condemn yourself, “I am useless, I am worthless”, and it is this self condemnation that stands in the way of knowing what you are.

When a guru comes and tells you that you are sat, cit and ānandā, that you are full and you are the center of creation, that there is nothing beyond you, it is a beautiful thing that you see. Not just beautiful, more than that. “Such a profound Truth am I, I lack nothing. I am all that I seek.” That is a stunning discovery. Who would think that he/she could be all that? “How could I ever imagine that the thing I am seeking in life is myself? By the very fact that I am seeking it, I can’t imagine that it is myself.” The Truth is heard, but not assimilated. For those who seem to follow what the guru says, as long as the guru is talking, everything seems to be clear. You think, “That is true. That is true.” Then the guru goes, and that
ānandā you felt and all that he said, all that also goes. When he comes, ānandā comes; when he goes, ānandā goes. Therefore, you begin to doubt what you understood. “Did the Swami hypnotize me? I think he made me believe that I am wonderful. If I saw that I am wonderful why don’t I feel that I’m wonderful now?” It is that old confusion of knowledge and experience.

If hypnotism could do it, I need not teach like this. I need only tell you from the first day onwards, “You are all happiness, you are all joy, you are all joy, you are all joy…” That is called hypnotism. It doesn’t work. The whole teaching is an unfolding. Just as the artist makes you see beauty in something you generally take as commonplace, so the teacher makes you see yourself. He doesn’t bring his own experience and tell you.

He uses your experience as the basis for teaching and makes you see the truth of that experience. This brings about assimilation in terms of knowing the experience of yourself. So it is not hypnotism. Then if it is knowledge, why does it seem to not stay and serve me? It doesn’t serve me because the mind is still the old mind with all its likes and dislikes which it picked up over many years and which do not just drop away overnight. Previously we were agitated. After listening to the teaching, we again suffer through spells of sadness, of frustration, of sorrow, of anger ---- what we don’t want to happen keeps happening. So the mind keeps saying, “I want to see myself as a full being all the time!” Well, of course, I am always a full being, but I forget. On a day to day basis this knowledge doesn’t seem to serve me, and therefore it seems isolated from my life. What can I do about that?

The silent self

I must come to know that I am the Truth of every thought. Whether it be an agitating thought or a blissful thought, I am the Truth of the thought. A thought has no existence without me. It exists only as a reflection of my own self-effulgent being. It is something that shines after me, as the moon shines after the sun, and therefore a thought cannot disturb me. It depends upon me. If, on the other hand, I am the thought, then whatever is the condition of the mind is my own condition. If the mind is restless, I am restless.

The mind undergoes change. The mind is meant to undergo change. I should see myself in spite of changing thoughts as a person who is all silence, even as gold, in spite of being a chain, is all gold. It need not become a ring in order to take itself as gold. Whether it be a chain or a ring or a bangle, it is pure gold all the time. Once I see that the thought (or the chain) is mithya, apparent, then the apparent cannot cause a problem. Therefore, I can and must see myself, not in the absence of thoughts, but in spite of thoughts. This is called meditation.

What is that unchanging ‘I’ that is to be seen in spite of thoughts? That ‘I’ is silence. That ‘I’ is happiness. That ‘I’ is fullness. That ‘I’ is freedom. It lacks nothing. It is always free, the free, silent self. Now, the silence that is the self is not something that is different from myself. Can I ever gain silence? No. Can I ever regain silence? No,because I am silence, I need not do anything to gain silence. Nor can I regain silence because it is not something that comes and goes. Agitation comes and goes. All those thoughts which seem to destroy silence – they come and go. But silence is something that always remains, before agitation, under agitation, and after agitation. When agitation goes I am silent. Because I am generally agitation, it seems as if silence comes and goes. In England, where it is cloudy all the time, it seems as if the sun comes and goes. In truth, the sun does not come and go. It is the clouds that come and go. The sun always remains. Similarly, here the clouds in my mind fall away and I see myself as silence. They come again and I seem to lose myself. That is all that happens. Silence is never away from me.

In order to learn anything I must be silent, otherwise learning can’t take place. Because I am silent now and then, I have gained some knowledge. But if I try to pick up something when I have a lot of thoughts in my mind, nothing will happen. Even a newspaper column won’t make sense because my mind is occupied. When the mind is preoccupied I can learn nothing new.
Changing thoughts

I know that silence isn’t something unknown to me. It only appears to
come and go because thoughts appear to create agitation. I take thoughts as
myself and become agitated due to mechanical thinking. The deep accumulation of likes and dislikes, of undigested and unassimilated ideas, cause so many conflicts and frustrations that the mind becomes mechanical. It reacts rather than acts. Once a thought comes, and that thought takes me to another thought, and that thought again takes me to another thought, I experience a spell of agitation. In such mindlessly mechanical thinking I take the very thought as myself. I forget myself. Then when the thought goes away I suddenly come back to myself and pick up a moment of silence. Thus silence appears to appear to come and go. But if I analyze it, the problem is not one of discovering silence but one of destroying mechanical thinking.
A thought comes and goes. Before it came there was silence, and after it goes there is silence. Again, after another thought, there is silence.

Between thoughts there is silence. Silence is not something I have to strive
for. Thoughts come and go. Silence always is. And still I miss it. What does this mean? I miss it because I walk upon the thoughts. I am carried away with the thoughts.

I miss the silence when there is a buildup of thoughts, thereby creating a spell. I walk upon the thoughts. I don’t get to the ground. My mind, by some association, jumps from one thought to another. The association can be a simple sound, even a rhyme. The meaning of a word can also bring any number of other words to mind. Just as the monkey leaps and catches the next branch, I also catch the first thought and leave the last one. This is why the mind is called a monkey. I must learn to break the spell of this mechanical travel upon thoughts and discover the silence between two thoughts. This should become a practice for me. I should provide myself with a situation wherein I can develop the knack of being with myself in spite of thinking. This special situation is called meditation.

What is meditation? Am I meditating when I remove all thoughts? Suppose I try to remove all thoughts. Then what happens when a thought comes? Silence is gone. I am going to be in for trouble, because the arrival of a thought becomes a problem. Can I have a mind that will never think? Would I ever ask God, “Oh, God, give me a mind which will never think!” Why should He give me a mind at all, then? The mind is meant to think.

Thinking doesn’t create problems. It is a blessing to be given a mind. To make thought into a nightmare is the silliest thing a person can do. If you think the absence of thought is meditation or seeing funny visions is meditation, I would say that is maditation. Seeing funny visions is not meditation, removing thoughts is not meditation. If I seek to remove all thoughts I only become frustrated and condemn myself as worthless because I can’t do it. In trying to be “spiritual”, I become so frustrated with myself that I become an impossible person to be with. I can’t stand anything going on, because it all creates thoughts in me.

Developing the knack

Any process of thinking is a chain of many and varied thoughts. In
this chain there is always a probability of being carried away on the thoughts, a superficial, reacting, mechanical form of thinking. But now I am going to do something with my mind whereby I shall have many thoughts and, at the same time, I am going to discover the silence between the thoughts.

How do I do this? Instead of having many varied thoughts, I create thoughts that are many in number but are all identical. If the second thought is just like the first thought and the third is just like the second, no captivating thought chain is created. There is no association, no connection. Only thought-period. Thought – period. Thought-period. After the first thought, what is there? Silence. After the second thought? Silence. Third thought? Silence. Fourth thought? Silence. What am I doing now? Learning. Learning what? The knack. Of what? Of being silent. Between what? Thoughts. It’s a knack, just like learning to ride a bicycle or swim.
That single thought may be repeated as one word. What should that word be? Should it be meaningful or meaningless? If I take a meaningless word and start repeating it the mind tells me that I am doing a meaningless thing.

So I should choose a meaningful word, something representing the Whole, the core of creation. Something that is not one of the things in the creation. And because it is a word that is very meaningful to me, the entire teaching can be seen in that one simple word. Any word which you recognize as the name of the Lord, a word which, as you repeat it, makes you appreciate yourself is fine. It should be a very meaningful word in which you are included. The word can be one like Om, a word which includes everything, both in its meaning and in its sound. It has the sounds ‘a’, ‘u’, ‘m’; ‘a’ stands for the waking, physical world; ‘u’ stands for the thought world; ‘m’ stands for the unmanifest. Therefore, the whole creation and the basis thereof are all brought into this one syllable, Om.

The word you chose could be another word. It could be Jesus. Or you can say, “Om namaþ śivāya.” Namaþ means “I salute.” Śiva means “all-auspicious,” that which is all ānandā. Thus, “Unto the Lord I offer my salutations.” Such words form a prayer. If I require that, these words are very useful. So long as the word is meaningful, it can be anything. Om. Om. Om. Is there any connection between them? No, because each is complete. The thought is the same even though it is repeated a
number of times. And the repetition must be there. Why? Why not have only a single Om? Because in order to discover silence between thoughts I must necessarily have many thoughts, but not various thoughts. To have various thoughts means that the thoughts form a chain, and I will not discover silence in a thought-chain. Therefore, I feed myself a single thought many times. I don’t create a chain, but at the same time I see a number of thoughts. The first is not different from the second, and the second is not different from the third. Thus I provide myself with a situation wherein I discover the silence between thoughts. I can’t miss it. When I chant Om, what is next? Silence. Om. Silence. Om. Silence.

And I do this all in order to see that I am silence in spite of having two successive thoughts. This new occupation, called meditation, helps me discover with ease that I am always the same. In spite of all actions performed, perceptions gathered, and thoughts entertained, I remain the same free being that is silent and does no action whatsoever.

2009-05-22T14:54:00.000+05:30

Learning is learned ignorance. Unlearning is learning.

-Swami Ramanagiri-

Fasting for Health and Spiritual Development

2009-05-18T10:42:00.003+05:30

Everyone agrees that food is necessary for the physical body. However, it is not sufficient to merely ensure that food is nutritious. Even the most nutritious foods-become detrimental to the health if the body cannot assimilate them. Just because you are able to eat food does not mean you can digest it. The digestive process is very complex. Food has to be split up into so many components before it can be absorbed into the body.

To digest the food you eat, you need five digestive secretions in proper balance, as well as a specific group of enzymes, Besides this you need the correct inner body temperature, which varies in different areas of the body. From the mouth to the rectum there are different zones: In the small intestines one needs a constant temperature for a long period of time. In the stomach you need a higher temperature for a maximum of three hours. If there is a higher temperature for longer than three to four hours you will have hyperacidity and stomach ulcers. If you have a reduced temperature in the stomach and small intestines, then you will have indigestion, and if you have a higher temperature in the large intestines, you will have diarrhoea, dysentery and colitis.

Whenever there is indigestion or some other digestive disturbance, the inner temperature becomes very erratic and all the other systems of the body are disrupted sooner or later. Many degenerative processes and diseases develop in this way. This is why proper maintenance of the digestive process is necessary to preserve our physical health. This is achieved "in two ways: firstly by adopting proper dietary habits, and secondly by undertaking fasts from time to time.

It is a fact that most of our diseases, whether they are physical or mental, are caused by overeating. Nobody dies on account of fasting, but many people die on account of overeating. Fasting and feasting are two different things. By overeating you disturb your digestive system, invite diseases, and create imbalance in the body. By fasting, you can create a balance in your digestive system and also in your nervous, circulatory and coronary systems. We have to understand what is fasting in relation to our physical and mental health, and also for better spiritual experiences.

Somo-psychic or psychosomatic

Fasting is usually done to purify the physical body, but if the mind is very turbulent then you can also resort to fasting. When food is in the body, it affects the mind, and when the body is not pure, the tranquility is disturbed. This is because in human existence body and mind are not separate; they interact upon each other.

A body full of rubbish transfers the foul smell to the mind; a mind with evil thoughts transfers the evil influences into the body. You can never escape from this law; what affects the body, affects the mind and vice versa. Because the gross body is fed by food, the best way to purify it is by the system of fasting. It is a way of rousing ourselves from sleep to gain a higher level of health and to catch a glimpse of the higher possibilities of life.

When Mahatma Gandhi was experimenting on the three principles of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), and brahmacharya (celibacy), one of the things he practised was fasting. Once he fasted for a period of forty days. When he was asked why he exposed his body to such a rigor at his advanced age, he replied, 'For self-purification. When the Self is purified, light shines. Then you begin to see things more clearly. Just as you clean your bowels with laxatives, the Self also has to be purified. But how to purify the Self? Gandhi found that along with other practices, fasting was most powerful.

Fasting and meditation

Fasting is a yogic practice because it reduces the tamasic element in the body. Tamas is the greatest obstacle to meditation. While fasting, we shed extra weight from the body and gain strength and clarity of mind. This is important. We cannot progress in meditation with a fat body and a weak mind. Therefore, fasting should be regarded by all aspirants as an independent yoga.

Unless you practise fasting, it will not be possible to sit for long hours of meditation without incurring problems. During meditation many of the physical processes are minimized. For instance, the inner body temperature falls below normal, the blood pressure and the respiratory rate are decreased, and the secretion and circulation of many of the hormones approach the baseline level.

If your stomach is loaded at this time, the result is disastrous. Disturbed peristaltic waves and chaotic secretion patterns disrupt the whole digestive process. Due to the decreased temperature, partially digested food sits in the small intestines and ferments, causing bad winds to be passed. Toxins are formed which the body cannot eliminate. So, if you want to practise long hours of meditation, such as japa, remember that the stomach has to be empty. Fasting and long hours of meditation are two practices which always go together.

Balancing the hormones

Management of our passions is another important aspect of life which can be attained through regulated periods of fasting. Of course, passion is not bad, but we have to set some limits, otherwise there will be no end to it. We can never satisfy our passions. It is like pouring a tin of ghee on the flames in order to extinguish them. They will only roar up more furiously. On the other hand, if we suppress them, later on they will give us a kick. How to solve this dilemma? The best thing is to try fasting- then the monster sleeps.

There comes a stage in life when the passions must be transcended. Imagine a candle is burning in the centre of a room, but all the windows are wide open and the wind is very turbulent. So the candle is constantly being blown out. This continues all night until finally a wise man enters the room and suggests that you close the windows. What a brilliant idea! Now the candle can burn steadfastly without being extinguished.

Similarly, as long as the turbulence of passion is blowing through the mind, how can the consciousness become stable? The light of consciousness is lit all the time, the spirit is illumined by nature. You are not the dark night; you are the effulgent candle, which the tempest of passion keeps blowing out. Just as the windows must eventually be closed, so the passions will have to be contained at some point in life. They do not have to be killed or suppressed, but they will have to be given what we call a free exodus.

Fasting, I have found, contains the passions. How does it do so? By balancing all of the hormones that are secreted in the body. The various hormones circulating in the bloodstream produce different emotional reactions. For example, the thyroid secretions have their own influence on behaviour, while adrenalin has another. Similarly, there are certain basic hormones that are secreted by the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, which are responsible for different types of passion like violence, ambition, anger and cruelty. Even the ordinary behaviour in sexual life is a reaction of these same hormones.

These hormones keep flowing in the bloodstream because that is the law of nature, and in order to grow in body and mind, they must flow. But sometimes these hormones are in excess or there is an imbalance between them. When the hormone secretions flow into the body in excess, they create hysteria, epileptic fits, sudden violence and suicide. These matters will eventually be tackled scientifically, but at present science does not have much idea about them. They have definitions and explanations, but they do not have any practical system which shows how to remedy the situation.

What happens when we undertake fasting? During the period of fasting, a major process of harmonization between the different endocrine glands and their hormones occurs. The extraction and metabolism of the hormones from the bloodstream is accelerated. As a result, you will find your passions becoming more civilized and contained.

Important fasting days

Fasting is a discipline which has been enjoined by the various religious traditions since time immemorial. In Hinduism, however, this science has developed to a very high degree, and it is still very much alive today.

Everyone in India knows about the special days of fasting, not only the saints and swamis, but even the old people and the little children.

According to the Hindu calendar, every month is divided into two lunar cycles - the bright fortnight and the dark fortnight. Both of these fortnights have a powerful influence over the biological functions of the human body. Every day is not the same within these cycles. On certain days, for example, the digestive system is very active, and on others it is not. The 11th, 13th and 15th days of the dark and bright fortnights are said to have disturbing effects on the body, mind and emotions. Therefore, fasting is traditionally undertaken on these days in order to maintain balance within the whole system.

On the 11th day, fasting is especially important for ladies, because it has a stabilizing effect on the menstrual cycle which generally occurs around this time. This cycle is a very important indication of health in the female body. It has often been observed that the menstrual cycle is either preceded or followed by a period of intense emotional turbulence. Therefore, fasting on these two days helps the woman to balance her hormonal system as well as her emotions.

Fasting on the dark and full moon days is considered to be very important, especially for unmarried boys and girls. It has been noticed that in most mental cases disturbances become particularly acute around the dark or full moon periods. Thus, if a child exhibits peculiar behaviour, he is asked to fast on both these days.

There is another important series of fasting days which is observed during the rainy season, in the months of August and September. Wherever the rainy season occurs, whether in Europe, India or Africa, it always disrupts the cycles and systems of the body. Therefore, in India, special days of fasting have been set aside during this period in order to stabilize the body processes, particularly the digestive system.

How to fast

Fasting days are necessary throughout the year in order to maintain a balance in the entire mental and emotional structure. Therefore, every family should fix a regular day for fasting. On this day, do not take breakfast, lunch or any snacks. Just have a light, warm meal in the evening. This is the simplest and most effective way to fast. If you follow this course of fasting for a year or two, your health will improve and you will gradually prepare yourself for longer fasting.

For quick progress in spiritual life, you should fast once a week or a few times in a month. If this is not possible, you can practise fasting for nine or ten days at a time, every year, taking only the minimum requirement of milk or fruit and practising your mantra, prayers, or kriya yoga for at least six or seven hours a day consecutively. During this nine day period of fasting, you will find the brain becomes very clear, concentration keen, and problems of the body are eliminated. Then you can easily sit in one asana for several hours at a stretch.

For those who have emotional, nervous and sexual problems, there is no better way than fasting. The mind will at once become quiet. Fasting, whether for physical well-being, or a spiritual purpose, is a very scientific system, in yoga as well as in religion. Everybody should learn the system of fasting. It should be a must to fast one day a week. By fasting, you are not going to lose anything, you are only going to gain. As I told you, nobody dies from fasting, but people do die on account of overeating.

A little prasad

During the time I was living with my guru in Rishikesh, I used to read the accounts of different saints, many of whom had practised long periods of fasting in order to purify the body, mind and soul. When I read about Gandhi's experiments with fasting, I was so inspired that I decided to try it myself.

I did not have much experience with the science of fasting so I started off gradually with a three day fast, which was rather unpleasant due to intermittent hunger. But after I broke the fast I realized that these three days without food had been the most peaceful days of my life. During this period, whatever I undertook was successful and my decisions were always correct. So I decided to try a longer fast of forty days.

I began the fast with all sincerity. For the first few days I took only light fruits and some vegetable soup, then lemon water. After fifteen days I took only water, and finally nothing at all. In the beginning I was very hungry, but after a few days the hunger subsided, and I experienced deep peace within myself. My body became very light and the weakness passed off, so that I was able to participate in the ashram work. During those days, I had no difficulties. Everything was spontaneous. I was able to practise my sadhana without any efforts.

The fast was going very smoothly right up to the twenty eighth day, when there was a great celebration in the ashram to commemorate the sixtieth birthday of my guru. At that time, an enormous amount of sweets was prepared, enough to distribute to ten thousand people. As fate would have it, my guru, thinking me to be the most abstemious and well controlled disciple, decided to put me in charge of the entire store. Whenever the inmates came for sweets, I supplied whatever amount they asked for- one kilo, five kilos, ten kilos. My mind was made up not to eat any myself, but then I thought, 'After all, it is a very sacred day. What is the harm of taking a little prasad?' That was the mischief of my mind. At first, I took only one piece and it was extremely tasty. Then I took another, and you cannot imagine how much I finally took. So I broke my fast before completing forty days. But I had no regrets, it still helped me in every respect and brought me nearer to my aim in life.

The second time I fasted was for 120 days in Monghyr. During this period I observed complete silence and closed my door from inside. Occasionally a boy used to bring some fruits for me. During those four months I practised many things and my spiritual experiences were another matter.

- Swami Satyananda Saraswati Chamarande (France), September 3, 1980

A rare video of Swami Sivananda

2009-04-09T11:37:00.004+05:30

Found this rare video of Swami Sivananda, Divine Life society in Youtube.

Inner path to Pachiamman Koil, Tiruvannamalai

2009-03-31T11:59:00.001+05:30

An excellent map of the entire Inner Path, that shows the six sections as well as some other landmarks along the way.

http://luthar.com/inner-path-to-pachaiamman-koil

An Introduction to the Teachings of J Krishnamurti by David Bohm

2009-03-31T11:43:00.000+05:30

My first acquaintance with Krishnamurti's work was in 1959 when I read his book, 'First and Last Freedom'. What particularly aroused my interest was his deep insight into the question of the observer and the observed. This question has long been close to the centre of my own work, as a theoretical physicist, who was primarily interested in the meaning of the quantum theory. In this theory, for the first time in the development of physics, the notion that these two cannot be separated has been put forth as necessary for the understanding of the fundamental laws of matter in general. Because of this, as well as because the book contained many other deep insights, I felt that it was urgent for me to talk with Krishnamurti directly and personally as soon as possible. And when I first met him on one of his visits to London, I was struck by the great ease of communication with him, which was made possible by the intense energy with which he listened and by the freedom from self-protective reservations and barriers with which he responded to what I had to say. As a person who works in science I felt completely at home with this sort of response, because it was in essence of the same quality as that which I had met in these contacts with other scientists with whom there had been a very close meeting of minds. And here, I think especially of Einstein who showed a similar intensity and absence of barrier in a number of discussions that took place between him and me. After this, I began to meet Krishnamurti regularly and to discuss with him whenever he came to London.

We began an association which has since then become closer as I became interested in the schools, which were set up through his initiative. In these discussions, we went quite deeply into the many questions which concerned me in my scientific work. We probed into the nature of space and time, and of the universal, both with regard to external nature and with regard to the mind. But then, we went on to consider the general disorder and confusion that pervades the consciousness of mankind. It is here that I encountered what I feel to be Krishnamurti's major discovery. What he was seriously proposing is that all this disorder, which is the root cause of such widespread sorrow and misery, and which prevents human beings from properly working together, has its root in the fact that we are ignorant of the general nature of our own processes of thought. Or to put it differently it may be said that we do not see what is actually happening, when we are engaged in the activity of thinking. Through close attention to and observation of this activity of thought, Krishnamurti feels that he directly perceives that thought is a material process, which is going on inside of the human being in the brain and nervous system as a whole.

Ordinarily, we tend to be aware mainly of the content of this thought rather than how it actually takes place. One can illustrate this point by considering what happens when one is reading a book. Usually, one is attentive almost entirely to the meaning of what is being read. However, one can also be aware of the book itself, of its constitution as made up out of pages that can be turned, of the printed words and of the ink, of the fabric of the paper, etc. Similarly, we may be aware of the actual structure and function of the process of thought, and not merely its content.

How can such an awareness come about? Krishnamurti proposes that this requires what he calls meditation. Now the word meditation has been given a wide range of different and even contradictory meanings, many of them involving rather superficial kinds of mysticism. Krishnamurti has in mind a definite and clear notion when he uses this word. One can obtain a valuable indication of this meaning by considering the derivation of the word. (The roots of words, in conjunction with their present generally accepted meanings often yield surprising insight into their deeper meanings.) The English word meditation is base on the Latin root "med" which is, "to measure." The present meaning of the word is "to reflect," "to ponder" (i.e. to weigh or measure), and "to give close attention." Similarly the Sanskrit word for meditation, which is dhyana, is closely related to "dhyati," meaning "to reflect." So, at this rate, to meditate would be, "to ponder, to reflect, while giving close attention to what is actually going on as one does so."

This is perhaps what Krishnamurti means by the beginning of meditation. That is to say, one gives close attention to all that is happening in conjunction with the actual activity of thought, which is the underlying source of the general disorder. One does this without choice, without criticism, without acceptance or rejection of what is going on. And all of this takes place along with reflections on the meaning of what one is learning about the activity of thought. (It is perhaps rather like reading a book in which the pages have been scrambled up, and being intensely aware of this disorder, rather than just "trying to make sense" of the confused content that arises when on just accepts the pages as they happen to come.)

Krishnamurti has observed that the very act of meditation will, in itself, bring order to the activity of thought without the intervention of will, choice, decision, or any other action of the "thinker." As such order comes, the noise and chaos which are the usual background of our consciousness die out, and the mind becomes generally silent. (Thought arises only when needed for some genuinely valid purpose, and then stops, until needed again.)

In this silence, Krishnamurti says that something new and creative happens, something that cannot be conveyed in words, but that is of extraordinary significance for the whole of life. So he does not attempt to communicate this verbally, but rather, he asks those who are interested that they explore the question of meditation directly for themselves, through actual attention to the nature of thought.

Without attempting to probe into this deeper meaning of meditation, one can however say that meditation, in Krishnamurti's sense of the word, can bring order to our overall mental activity, and this may be a key factor in bringing about an end to the sorrow, the misery, the chaos and confusion, that have, over the ages, been the lot of mankind, and that are still generally continuing without visible prospect of fundamental change, for the foreseeable future.

Krishnamurti's work is permeated by what may be called the essence of this scientific approach, when this is considered in its very highest and purest form. Thus, he begins from a fact, this fact about the nature of our thought processes. This fact is established through close attention, involving careful listening to the process of consciousness, and observing it assiduously. In this, one is constantly learning, and out of this learning comes insight, into the overall or general nature of the process of thought. This insight is then tested. First, one sees whether it holds together in a rational order. And then one sees whether it leads to order and coherence, on what flows out of it in life as a whole.

Krishnamurti constantly emphasizes that he is in no sense an authority. He has made certain discoveries, and he is simply doing his best to make these discoveries accessible to all those who are able to listen. His work does not contain a body of doctrine, nor does he offer techniques or methods, for obtaining a silent mind. He is not aiming to set up any new system of religious belief. Rather, it is up to each human being to see if he can discover for himself that to which Krishnamurti is calling attention, and to go on from there to make new discoveries on his own.

It is clear then that an introduction, such as this, can at best show how Krishnamurti's work has been seen by a particular person, a scientist, such as myself. To see in full what Krishnamurti means, it is necessary, of course, to go on and to read what he actually says, with that quality of attention to the totality of one's responses, inward and outward, which we have been discussing here.

Jokes on the global financial recession

2009-03-31T11:29:00.000+05:30

A director decided to award a prize of Rs.1000 for the best idea forsaving the company money during the recession. It was won by a youngexecutive who suggested reducing the prize money to Rs. 100.

Q: With the current market turmoil, what's the easiest way to make asmall fortune?

A: Start off with a large one.

Q: What's the difference between an investment banker and a large pizza?

A: A large pizza can feed a family of four.

Q: Why have Dubai real estate agents stopped looking out of the windowin the morning?

A: Because otherwise they'd have nothing to do in the afternoon.

Q What’s the difference between a bond and a bond trader?

A. A bond matures.

Q. Did you hear Goldman Sachs has a new cafeteria?

A. It’s called the Warren buffet.

Q: What’s the Capital of Iceland?

A: About 70 cents.

A concerned customer asked his stock broker if the recent marketdecline and volatility worried him.The broker told him that he has been sleeping like a baby.“Really?!?” replied the customer.“Absolutely,” said the broker,“I sleep for about an hour, wake up, and then cry for about an hour.”

Recession Bumper Sticker- The recession is worse than a divorce. You lose half your fortune andstill have your wife.

The Difference between Communism & CapitalismIn communism we nationalize the banks and then push them tobankruptcy. In capitalism we push the bank to bankruptcy and thennationalize them.

A priest, a rabbi, and a mortgage broker were all caught in ashipwreck. Sharks were soon circling around. The sharks eat thepriest. The rabbi starts praying fervently, but to no avail, as thesharks eat him as well. The mortgage broker is really getting worried,as a shark is coming for him. But instead the shark puts him on itsback, carries him to shore, and lets him off. The mortgage brokerasks, “How come you didn’t eat me too?” And the shark replied,“Professional Courtesy!”

The spiritual state of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

2009-03-25T10:36:00.006+05:30

While talking about his spiritual state, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa said, "The Divine Mother has put me in a state of a devotee. She has also put me in a state of a 'vijnani'. That's why I indulge in light-hearted fun with youngsters like Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda). Had She placed in the state of a 'Jnani' it would not be possible."

-Extract from Page 184-185 of Reminiscences of Swami Brahmananda - The Mind-Born son of Sri Ramakrishna.

Importance of the mind dwelling on the sense 'I am'

2009-02-12T15:20:00.001+05:30

The very fact of observation alters the observer and the observed. After all, what prevents the insight into one's true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus on the gross only. When you follow my advice and try to keep your mind on the notion of 'I am' only, you become fully aware of your mind and its vagaries. Awareness, being lucid harmony (sattva) in action, dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind and gently, but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular; it may be hardly noticeable; yet it is a deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence to awareness.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Essence of saintliness

2009-02-12T15:18:00.001+05:30

The essence of saintliness is total acceptance of the present moment, harmony with things as they happen. A saint does not want things to be different from what they are; he knows that, considering all factors, they are unavoidable. He is friendly with the inevitable and,. therefore, does not suffer. Pain he may know, but it does not shatter him.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

2009-01-27T10:58:00.000+05:30

“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

2008-12-26T13:16:00.003+05:30

It is true that no man can arrive at the truth about God through his own thinking, which is merely the ego thinking. But it is also true that through keen, close, and sustained reflection he can arrive at the truth which perceives the ego's limitations, the intellect's limitations, and thereby know the time has come to suspend such efforts to stop and to surrender in mystical meditation to the non-thought side of his being.

Idea is not the ultimate reality, it is only a manifestation of something which is its ultimate reality. The latter seems to be an abstraction. Intellectually it must be so because it is beyond the power of finite, human mentality to conceive it. But it may not be beyond the power of a higher faculty lying latent within us to have the experience of this reality--at least for a time. It is not known how to verify whether this is so or not unless the intellect humbly realizes its own limitations and voluntarily abnegates itself at a certain stage. In most cases this is done prematurely, hence the self-deceptions and hallucinations which are rife in mystical circles, but in the philosophical mystic's case it would come only after the fullest use of critical thought and analytic reasoning. This is the proper moment for such a suicidal act. For in the end he will be brought to such an abrupt turn. Perhaps Jesus' statement, "Except ye become as little children ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven," is appropriate here, if understood as an invitation not to foolishness but to surrender of all human pride.

Why me?

2008-11-22T14:33:00.004+05:30

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over -- 5 crore children startplaying tennis, 50 lakh learn to play tennis, 5 lakh learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the Grand Slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, *When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD "Why me?". And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?"

Happiness keeps u Sweet,

Trials keep u Strong,

Sorrow keeps u Human,

Failure Keeps u Humble,

Success keeps u Glowing,

But only God Keeps u Going.....

2008-11-11T16:56:00.003+05:30

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.

—Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Is Eckhart Tolle a re-incarnation of Meister Eckhart?

2008-11-10T12:35:00.005+05:30

I purchased an interesting book titled "Eckhart Tolle & Sri Aurobindo- Perspectives on Enlightenment by A.S.Dalal printed in 2008. This book is a comparitive study of the teachings of these two teachers. There is an interview of Eckhart Tolle by AS Dalal & Dr.Mistry in 2002 during Eckhart Tolle's visit to India.

The last question in the interview by Dr.Mistry was that the being in the present form of Eckhart Tolle must have been growing in previous incarnations until it flowered in the present incarnation and that it was unlikely that the totality suddenly put forth ET in this present life? In fact Dr. Mistry hinted that ET might be "Meister Eckhart" reborn. Meister Eckhart was a 13th century German mystic and philosopher. ET seemed to have laughed at this suggestion and did not agree or disagree with Dr.Mistry and answered the question of rebirth in a very impersonal way. However, there is a footnote to this interview which caught my attention:

However subsequent to this interview, in an article on "Living in the Now" (published in the July / August 2002 issue of Body & Soul magazine), Peter Occhiogrosso writes about Eckhart Tolle: In a dream several years after his transformation, he (ET) says, 'Somebody called me "Eckhart" I saw books written by [Meister] Eckhart and I knew I had written them. I realized it was a sign, and that it was my name.' " Soon after, he discarded his given names of Ullrich Leonard and adopted the name he now uses.

Reincarnation

2008-10-30T11:34:00.002+05:30

Found this interesting weblink on cases of re-incarnation from an article in the Indian express newspaper - http://www.johnadams.net/

Nishkama Karma

2008-09-02T13:42:00.002+05:30

The literal meaning of nishkama karma is "desireless action," i.e., selfless action. More generally, it means action performed without desiring or fearing the consequences; action performed with indifference to the outcome. It's used to describe the practice of doing actions without any expectation of the fruits (results or reactions or effects). Nishkama Karma Yoga is another name for Karma Yoga, which is one of the main themes of the Bhagavad Gita.

The following passage records how Sri Ramana Maharshi once demonstrated nishkama karma:
Mr. Rangachari, a Telugu pandit in Voorhees' College of Vellore, asked about nishkama karma. There was no reply. After a time Sri Bhagavan [Ramana] went up the hill and a few followed him, including the pandit. There was a thorny stick lying on the way which Sri Bhagavan picked up; he sat down and began leisurely to work at it [sic]. The thorns were cut off, the knots were made smooth, the whole stick was polished with a rough leaf. The whole operation took about six hours. Everyone was wondering at the fine appearance of the stick made of a spiky material. A shepherd boy put in his appearance on the way as the group moved off. He had lost his stick and was at a loss. Sri Bhagavan immediately gave the new one in his hand to the boy and passed on.
The pandit said that this was the matter-of-fact answer to his question.

Laughter

2008-09-02T13:42:00.001+05:30

This is worth considering. It is significant. The first thing to understand is that except for man, no animal is capable of laughter. So laughter shows a very high peak in the evolution of life. If you go out on the street and see a buffalo laughing, you will be scared to death. And if you report it, then nobody will believe that it can happen. It is impossible. Why don't animals laugh? Why can't trees laugh? There is a very deep cause for laughter. Only that animal can laugh which can get bored. Animals and trees are not bored. Boredom and laughter are the polar dualities, these are the polar opposites. They go together. And man is the only animal that is bored. Boredom is the symbol of humanity. Look at dogs and cats; they are never bored. Man seems to be deep in boredom. Why aren't other animals bored? Why does man alone suffer boredom? "The higher the intelligence, the greater is boredom. The lower intelligence is not bored so much. That's why primitives are happier. You will find people in the primi-tive societies are happier than those in civilized ones. Bertrand Russel became jealous when for the first time, he came into contact with some primitive tribes. He started feeling jealous. The aboriginals were so happy, they were not bored at all. Life was a blessing to them. They were poor starved, almost naked. In every way, they had noth-ing. But they were not bored with life.

OSHO

2008-09-02T13:42:00.000+05:30

"To decide to be at the level of choice is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life."-Arbie M. Dale

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action."-Meister Eckhart

All things must die

2008-07-23T10:26:00.010+05:30

Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing
Under my eye;
Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing
Over the sky.
One after another the white clouds are fleeting;
Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating
Full merrily;
Yet all things must die.
The stream will cease to flow;
The wind will cease to blow;
The clouds will cease to fleet;
The heart will cease to beat;
For all things must die.
All things must die.
Spring will come never more.
O, vanity!
Death waits at the door.
See! our friends are all forsaking
The wine and the merrymaking.
We are call’d–we must go.
Laid low, very low,
In the dark we must lie.
The merry glees are still;
The voice of the bird
Shall no more be heard,
Nor the wind on the hill.
O, misery!
Hark! death is calling
While I speak to ye,
The jaw is falling,
The red cheek paling,
The strong limbs failing;
Ice with the warm blood mixing;
The eyeballs fixing.
Nine times goes the passing bell:
Ye merry souls, farewell.
The old earth
Had a birth,
As all men know,
Long ago.
And the old earth must die.
So let the warm winds range,
And the blue wave beat the shore;
For even and morn
Ye will never see
Thro’ eternity.
All things were born.
Ye will come never more,
For all things must die.

2008-07-23T10:26:00.008+05:30

The future peace or liberation is “hidden” behind the “seemingly unsatisfactory form" that the present moment takes, whereas we keep searching for liberation as something to be attained in the future. Allowing the moment creates spaciousness in our consciousness. Out of this spaciousness, words, actions or simply spaciousness will arise, which will have much greater impact.

Lord Macaulay's famous statement on India in The House of Commons

2008-07-23T10:26:00.007+05:30

The following extract from the speech of Thomas Babington Macaulay in the House of Commons on February 2, 1835 - "I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they become what we want them, a truly dominated country."

Confusing activity with results

2008-07-13T07:37:00.002+05:30

"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Don't confuse activity with results. There is no reason to do a good job with something you shouldn't do in the first place.

-Henry David Thoreau

I have often said that the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to sit quietly in his room.

- Blaise Pascal

You are responsible

2008-06-29T20:13:00.004+05:30

Here is an excerpt from From Unconsciousness to Consciousness, OSHO. The ending is controversial but the spirit behind this is appreciable.

You are responsible for whatsoever you are.
If you are miserable, you are responsible.
Don't throw the responsibility on anybody else, otherwise you will never be free of it.
Because how can you be free if I am responsible for your misery?
Then unless I free you, you cannot be free;
if it is in my hands.
And if it is in my hands,
it can be in somebody else's hands.

Those who are with me have to understand,
howsoever hard and painful it is,
you and you alone are responsible,
for everything that is happening to you,
has happened to you, will happen to you.

Once you accept all responsibility in its totality,
you become mature.
You stop throwing tantrums and
you stop seeking messiahs.
There is no need for any Jesus to save you.
Nor can any Jesus save you - he was exploiting your situation.

2008-06-20T16:13:00.000+05:30

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Basho

There is neither disciple nor Master in the final understanding

2008-06-04T10:34:00.000+05:30

Final understanding is understanding that there is nothing to understand. The world is a spontaneous appearance. The one who perceives it is included in it as a character in the dream. In reality, there is no Master, no disciple, no teaching, and no realization. That all happened in the dream. Final understanding means freedom from the cycle of birth and rebirth: the current dream continues for its allotted time, and then is over. There is a famous quatrain from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

There was a door to which I found no key:

There was a veil past which I could not see:

Some little talk awhile of me and thee

There seemed-and then no more of thee and me.

The Way of the Bird, Ranjit Maharaj

Laughter

2008-03-30T08:34:00.012+05:30

"This is worth considering. It is significant. The first thing to understand is that except for man, no animal is capable of laughter. So laughter shows a very high peak in the evolution of life. If you go out on the street and see a buffalo laughing, you will be scared to death. And if you report it, then nobody will believe that it can happen. It is impossible. Why don't animals laugh? Why can't trees laugh? There is a very deep cause for laughter. Only that animal can laugh which can get bored. Animals and trees are not bored. Boredom and laughter are the polar dualities, these are the polar opposites. They go together. And man is the only animal that is bored. Boredom is the symbol of humanity. Look at dogs and cats; they are never bored. Man seems to be deep in boredom. Why aren't other animals bored? Why does man alone suffer boredom? "The higher the intelligence, the greater is boredom. The lower intelligence is not bored so much. That's why primitives are happier. You will find people in the primi-tive societies are happier than those in civilized ones. Bertrand Russel became jealous when for the first time, he came into contact with some primitive tribes. He started feeling jealous. The aboriginals were so happy, they were not bored at all. Life was a blessing to them. They were poor starved, almost naked. In every way, they had no-thing. But they were not bored with life.

Ambition

2008-03-30T08:34:00.010+05:30

Ambition needs future, it needs space to grow. It cannot grow here and now; there is no space. This moment is so small, so atomic. Ambition needs the future; and the greater the ambition, the greater the future that is needed.

Non-ambition means to accept yourself as you are. But that doesn't mean that there is no possibility of growth. On the contrary, when you accept yourself as you are the transformation sets in. You start growing, but the dimension differs. Then the dimension is not in the future but in the eternal.

“UNLESS AMBITION IS KILLED, you will remain in misery. Ambition is the source of all miseries. What is ambition? 'A' wants to be 'B', the poor wants to be rich, the ugly wants to be beautiful. Everyone longs to be someone else, something other than what he is. No one is content with himself. That's what ambition is.

Whatsoever you are, you are not content with it. This is ambition. Then you are bound to be in misery, because you cannot be anything else. You can only be yourself; nothing else is possible. All else is just futile, harmful, dangerous. You can waste your whole life, your whole existence.

Whatsoever you are, you are. Accept it; don't desire it to be otherwise. This is what non ambition means. Non ambitiousness is basic to all spiritual transformation, because once you accept yourself, many things start happening. But the first thing.... If you accept yourself totally, the first thing that happens to you is a non tense life. There is no tension. You don't want to be anything else; there is nowhere else to go. Then you can be here and now. There is no comparison. You yourself are unique. You no longer think in terms of others.

Then there is no future. Ambition needs future, it needs space to grow. It cannot grow here and now; there is no space. This moment is so small, so atomic. Ambition needs the future; and the greater the ambition, the greater the future that is needed.

If your ambition is so great that it cannot be fulfilled in this life, then you will create an afterlife. You will create heaven, you will create moksha, you will create the concept of rebirth. I am not saying that there is no rebirth. I am saying that you believe in rebirth not because it is there but because your ambitions are so great that they cannot be fulfilled in one lifetime. Your belief in rebirth, reincarnation, is not because it is a fact. It is because of ambition and desire. Reincarnation may be a fact, but for you it is just a fiction. For you it is just a matter of the future, of more space to move in.

Remember, you cannot be ambitious in the present moment. It is impossible. There is no space. The present moment is so atomic, so small, that you cannot move in it. You can be in it, but you cannot desire in it. It is long enough to be, but it is not long enough for desiring. To desire you need future, time. Really, time exists because of desire. For the trees here, there is no time. For the birds singing here, there is no time. For the stars and for the sun and for the earth, there is no time. Time exists because of human desire. If humanity was not on this earth, there would be no time; there would be no past and no future.

Your desire creates the future. Your memory creates the past. They are both parts of your mind. Don't desire, and the future disappears. And when there is no future, how can you be tense? How? There is no possibility of being tense if there is no future And if there is no past -- if you know that it is simply memory, the dust collected on the way -- how can there be any anxiety? With the past, anxiety enters. And with the future -- plans, imaginations, projections -- tension exists. When the past drops and the future is not open, you are here, now. No anxiety, no tension, no anguish.

Nonambition means to accept yourself as you are. But that doesn't mean that there is no possibility of growth. On the contrary, when you accept yourself as you are the transformation sets in. You start growing, but the dimension differs. Then the dimension is not in the future but in the eternal.

Know this distinction well. You can move in two ways. If you move in the future, you are moving in the mind: a fiction, a dream world. If you don't move in the future, then a different dimension becomes open for you from this very moment. You are moving in the eternal. The eternal is hidden in the moment. If you can be here right now, in the moment, you have entered the eternal. If you go on thinking of the future and the past, you are living in the temporal. The temporal is the world, and the eternal is nirvana.

Buddha is reported to have said again and again that if you can be in the now, there is no need of any technique to meditate. It is enough. It will do all that is needed. But how can you be in the now if you are ambitious?

The ambitious mind cannot be in the now. It can be anywhere else but it cannot be in the now. The ambitious mind always moves away from the present. It is thinking of that which is to come; it is thinking of tomorrow. It is thinking of an afterlife; it is not interested in the life that is here. It is interested in something that should be. It is not interested in the 'is'; it is always interested in the 'ought', in the 'should'. That interest is nonreligious. A religious mind, a religious consciousness, is interested in existence as it is.

OSHO
Discourse Series
The New Alchemy : To turn you on
Chapter – 1
Title: Surrendering to what is

2008-03-30T08:34:00.009+05:30

You may read all the books in all the libraries in the world; you may write thousands upon thousands of pages of your own thoughts. But if your mind is not thoroughly clear; if your knowledge does not come from the real source—you will never know who you are, you will remain forever a stranger to your true self.

Inner and outer purpose

2008-03-30T08:34:00.008+05:30

The most important thing to realize is this: Your Life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet - because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success.

Eckhart Tolle in "A New Earth"

Mind, Heart and Being

2008-03-25T06:59:00.003+05:30

The heart should be listened to first if there is any kind of conflict between mind and heart. In any conflict between love and logic, then logic cannot be decisive, love has to be decisive. Logic cannot give you any juice - it is dry. It is good for calculations; it is good for mathematics and good for scientific technology. But it is not good for human relationships, not good for the growth of your inner potential.

Above the heart is your being. Just as mind is logic and the heart is love, being is meditation. Being is to know yourself - and by knowing yourself, to know the very meaning of existence.

Being should be your ultimate..... there is nothing beyond it; it is part of God within you. It will give you that which neither the mind nor the heart can give; it will give you silence, it will give you peace, it will give you serenity, it will give you blissfulness - and finally, a sense of being immortal.

A visit to Guhai Namasivaya temple

2008-02-22T07:55:00.016+05:30

During my last visit to Tiruvannamalai, I decided to visit the Guhai Namasivaya temple on the Arunachala Hill. I had read about the life of Guhai Namasivaya, a great Yogi who who lived in Arunachala around the 16th century. The life story of Guhai Namasivaya is very interesting and given in great detail in the following websites:

David Godman's website, Arunachala Grace, and An article in the Mountain Path

This temple is not visible from the ground level and there is a pathway behind the South entrance of the Arunachaleswara temple. The pathway is adjacent to the Shakthi theatre. The approach to the temple is an environmental disaster. Mid-way, I nearly decided to return to the hotel and the picture below might explain why I was contemplating such a move. As you can see the photo below, the approach is full of garbage and filth and the stench is terrible. The Arunachala Hill also serves as a natural toilet for people to attend calls of nature. I am still clueless as to why the Government has permitted construction of residential houses on the Arunachala Hill, which is believed to Lord Shiva himself. The residents living below the temple have no public sense at all. It is high time, the locals wake up and realise the mess that they are creating. I don't know what the local civic body is doing about all this - I guess just turning a blind eye!

My disgust soon changed to happiness once I was inside the temple. The samadhi /sanctum sanctorum felt vibrant and my mind simple quitened and I forgot all about the climb.

The temple is maintained very well by a couple , Guhai Namasivaya Gurukkal and his wife and ably supported by some locals. The last Kumbabhishekam of this temple conducted on August 28, 1991 and a Kumbabhishekam is being planned subject to getting funds from devotees. The Samadhi of Guhai Namasivaya has a Shiva lingam over it and an idol of Parvati. The atmosphere inside the cave / temple is something that needs to be experienced.

(Samadhi of Guhai Namasivaya)

Overall, the temple is excellent, with very little crowd and the surroundings inside the temple are perfect for peace and quiet.

Interestingly, this temple is home to a cute dog, who seems to have taken upon itself the mission of protecting this temple and is the unofficial guardian. This dog never dirties the temple and has practically been living here since birth.

I hope to make more visits to this temple in the future. In Tiruvannamalai, the Guhai Namasivaya temple is a great place for contemplation and prayer.

2008-02-20T14:35:00.003+05:30

Don't be deluded by your thoughts and vasanas. They are always trying to trick you into believing that you are a real person, that the world is real, and that all your problems are real. Don't fight them, just ignore them. Don't accept delivery of all the wrong ideas that keep coming to you. Establish yourself in the conviction that you are the Self and that nothing can stick to you or affect you. Once you have that conviction you will find that you automatically ignore the habits of the mind. When the rejection of the mental habits becomes continuous and automatic, you will begin to have the experience of the Self.

Annamalai Swami's response to a question. Extract from the book "Living by the Words of Bhagavan" by David Godman

2008-02-15T14:32:00.003+05:30

To change your character is easy; the real work consists in changing your consciousness, in becoming conscious - more conscious, more intensely, and passionately conscious. When you are conscious it is impossible to be angry, it is impossible to be greedy, it is impossible to be jealous, it is impossible to be ambitious. And when all anger, greed, ambition, jealousy, possssiveness, lust, disappear, the energy involved in them is released. That energy becomes your bliss.

OSHO

Successful in the world

2008-02-15T14:23:00.002+05:30

A man who is successful in the world feels the pain of being a failure as nobody else can feel it. There is a proverb that says that nothing succeeds like success. I would like to tell you: nothing fails like success. But you cannot know it unless you have succeeded. When all the riches are there that you have dreamt about, planned about, worked hard for, then sitting amidst those riches is the beggar - deep inside empty, hollow; nothing inside, everything outside.

OSHO

Never forget that you are a watcher

2008-02-08T04:43:00.000+05:30

Whatsoever you are doing - walking, sitting, eating, or if you are not doing anything, just breathing, resting, relaxing in the grass - never forget that you are a watcher.

You will forget it again and again. You will get involved in some thought, some feeling, some emotion, some sentiment- anything will distract you from the watcher. Remember, and run back to your center of watching.

Make it an inner process, continuously.... You will be surprised at how life changes its whole quality. I can move my hands without any watchfulness, and I can also move my hand absolutely watching from inside the whole movement. The movements are totally different. The first movement is a robot movement, mechanical. The second movement is a conscious movement.

Awareness, The key to Living in Balance by OSHO

Action arising out of awareness

2008-02-04T06:38:00.000+05:30

The man of awareness, understanding, acts. The man who is unaware, unconscious, mechanical, robot like, reacts.

And it is not that the man of awareness simply watches - watching is one of the aspects of his being. He does not act without watching. When you act moment to moment out of your awareness and watchfulness, great intelligence arises. But it happens through two things: watching, and action out of that watching. If watching becomes inaction, you are committing suicide.

Awareness- The Key to Living in Balance by OSHO

Time is the world and Eternity is God

2008-02-03T10:03:00.001+05:30

Time is the world and Eternity is God; horizontal is the world, vertical is God. Both meet at a point - that is where Jesus is crucified. Both meet, the horizontal and the vertical, at a point - that point is Here and Now. From Here and Now you can go on two journeys: journey in the world, in the future; the other journey into God, into depth.

Become more and more aware, become more and more alert and sensitive to the present. So remember one thing: whenever you realize that you have gone to the past or into the future, don't create a problem out of it. Simply come back to the present, not creating any problem. It's okay! Simply bring back your awareness. You will miss millions of times; it is not going to happen right now, immediately. It can happen, but it cannot happen because of you. It is such a long, long, fixed mode of behaviour that you cannot change it right now. But no worry, existence is not in a hurry. Eternity can wait eternally. Don't create aa tension about it.

Awareness, The Key to Living in Balance by OSHO

Papaji's favourite form of the Divine Mother

2008-01-22T13:44:00.000+05:30

Question: What is your favorite form of the Divine Mother? Will you please tell us a story about her in this form?

Papaji: From the beginning my Mother has been Mother Ganga. She is not only a river, but she is the Mother. Because of her compassion she flows over this soil. I have tread her banks from the Bay of Bengal to Uttarkashi, from 1910 to the present. My family went on yearly visits to Haridwar. I will tell you a story of Ganga Ma which happened when I was at the Maha Kumbha Mela in Prayag, the Mela which comes only once in 144 years.

In the Mela there are so many traditions and centers each trying to promote their own propaganda 24 hours a day. One day it was too crowded for me so I went for a walk downstream to where the Yamuna, Saraswati, and the Ganga flow as one to the Bay of Bengal. After about five kilometers a girl ran up to me and fell at my feet. I looked around but her family was nowhere in sight, which was very strange because a young Indian woman never goes out alone.

'Where are your parents?' I asked. She replied, 'I have no parents, I am alone.' 'Why are you here?' I continued, 'Why don't you go back to the Prayag where the Kumbha is being performed? Why are you alone out here?

Then she said, 'In this Mela everybody comes to remove their sins by having a bath in the confluence of the three Holy rivers. Everybody leaves their sins, but what can I do with them? I have vowed to take the sins away from these people, and I do, but I must leave these sins at the feet of a true Saint and be free of them. I have been searching the Mela for seven days, but I have not found anybody who could take these sins. But now I have found you who are the only person to whom I can release my sins. I am the Ganga!'

Then I looked at her beautiful eyes and knew that they were not human, and I noticed that her body was transparent and that I could look right through it. She stood up and walked out onto the river and slowly became one with the water. I stood there for many hours wondering what had happened and how I could have been so blessed to have seen her in her real form. She had been living in the heavens, but has compassionately come down to earth in response to Sage Bhagirathas penance. Now she blesses all those who see her, or taste her, or touch her. This is the experience of my Mother.

(Excerpt from the book THE TRUTH IS, Bhakti Chapter)

Bring your self into focus

2008-01-21T12:51:00.000+05:30

You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself by inadvertence. By knowing what you are not, you come to know your self. The way back to your self is through refusal and rejection. One thing is certain: the real is not imaginary, it is not a product of the mind. Even the sense ‘I am’ is not continuous, though it is a useful pointer; it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about your self anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over -- you are no longer intent on verbalising what you are. All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define your self. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly.

The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused. Just like gold made into ornaments has no advantage over gold dust, except when the mind makes it so, so are we one in being -- we differ only in appearance. We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's life to this discovery.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Effort and penance

2008-01-20T01:55:00.000+05:30

The saints and Yogis, by immense efforts and sacrifices, acquire many miraculous powers and can do much good in the way of helping people and inspiring faith, yet it does not make them perfect. It is not a way to reality, but merely an enrichment of the false. All effort leads to more effort; whatever was built up must be maintained, whatever was acquired must be protected against decay or loss. Whatever can be lost is not really one's own; and what is not your own of what use can it be to you? In my world nothing is pushed about, all happens by itself. All existence is in space and time, limited and temporary. He who experiences existence is also limited and temporary. I am not concerned either with 'what exists' or with 'who exists'. I take my stand beyond, where I am both and neither.

The persons who, after much effort and penance, have fulfilled their ambitions and secured higher levels of experience and action, are usually acutely conscious of their standing; they grade people into hierarchies, ranging from the lowest non-achiever to the highest achiever. To me all are equal. Differences in appearance and expression are there, but they do not matter. Just as the shape of a gold ornament does not affect the gold, so does man's essence remain unaffected. Where this sense of equality is lacking it means that reality had not been touched.

Mere knowledge is not enough; the knower must be known. The Pandits and the Yogis may know many things, but of what use is mere knowledge when the self is not known? It will be certainly misused. Without the knowledge of the knower there can be no peace.

I AM THAT, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Self enquiry

2008-01-19T12:15:00.000+05:30

The sense of being, of 'I am' is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes, or just watch it quietly. When the mind stays in the 'I am' without moving, you enter a state which cannot be verbalised but can be experienced. All you need to do is try and try again. After all the sense ‘I am’ is always with you, only you have attached all kinds of things to it -- body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, possessions etc. All these self-identifications are misleading. Because of them you take yourself to be what you are not.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Awakening

2008-01-18T10:16:00.000+05:30

An essential part of the awakening is the recognition of the unawakened you, the ego as it thinks, speaks, and acts, as well as the recognition of the collectively conditioned mental processes that perpetuate the unawakened state.

Eckhart Tolle

2008-01-17T16:42:00.000+05:30

Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought 'I am'. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part.

Sincere longing for Reality

2008-01-14T14:32:00.000+05:30

You need not chase the 'I am' to kill it. You cannot. All you need is a sincere longing for reality. We call it atma-bhakti, the love of the Supreme: or moksha-sankalpa, the determination to be free from the false. Without love, and will inspired by love, nothing can be done. Merely talking about Reality without doing anything about it is self-defeating. There must be love in the relation between the person who says 'I am' and the observer of that 'I am'. As long as the observer, the inner self, the 'higher' self, considers himself apart from the observed, the 'lower' self, despises it and condemns it, the situation is hopeless. It is only when the observer (vyakta) accepts the person (vyakti) as a projection or manifestation of himself, and, so to say, takes the self into the Self, the duality of 'I' and 'this' goes and in the identity of the outer and the inner the Supreme Reality manifests itself.

This union of the seer and the seen happens when the seer becomes conscious of himself as the seer, he is not merely interested in the seen, which he is anyhow, but also interested in being interested, giving attention to attention, aware of being aware. Affectionate awareness is the crucial factor that brings Reality into focus.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Discard every self seeking motive

2008-01-12T18:13:00.000+05:30

Discard every self seeking motive as soon as it seen and you need not search for the Truth; Truth will find you.

If you seek Reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking. Even the idea of being a man or woman, or even human, should be discarded.

Some pearls of wisdom from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

True Communication!

2008-01-07T10:40:00.000+05:30

True communication is communion – the realization of oneness, which is love. Usually, this is quickly lost again, unless you are able to stay present enough to keep out the mind and its old patterns. Although brief glimpses are possible, love cannot flourish unless you are permanently free of mind identification and your presence is intense enough to have dissolved the pain-body or you can at least remain present as the watcher. The pain-body cannot then take you over and so become destructive of love.

Eckhart Tolle

Awakening

2008-01-04T18:05:00.000+05:30

Awakening is a shift in consciousness in which thinking and awareness separate. For most people it is not an event but a process they undergo.

Even those rare beings who experience a sudden, dramatic, and seemingly irreversible awakening will still go through a process in which the new state of consciousness gradually flows into and transforms everything they do and so becomes integrated into their lives.

Instead of being lost in your thinking, when you are awake you recognize yourself as the awareness behind it. Thinking then ceases to be a self-serving autonomous activity that takes possession of you and runs your life.Awareness takes over from thinking. Instead of being in charge of your life, thinking becomes the servant of awareness.

Awareness is conscious connection with universal intelligence. Another word for it is Presence: consciousness without thought.

The initiation of the awakening process is an act of grace. You cannot make it happen nor can you prepare yourself for it or accumulate credits toward it. There isn’t a tidy sequence of logical steps that leads toward it, although the mind would love that. You don’t have to become worthy first. It may come to the sinner before it comes to the saint, but not necessarily. That’s why Jesus associated with all kinds of people, not just the respectable ones….

Awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose — what you do — with your inner purpose — awakening and staying awake. Through awakened doing, you become one with the outgoing purpose of the universe. Consciousness flows through you into this world. It flows into your thoughts and inspires them. It flows into what you do and guides and empowers it. Not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny. And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness.

From the book, A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle

The secret of happiness

2008-01-04T18:01:00.000+05:30

To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. That means now. Ask yourself, “Is there negativity in me at this moment?”Then, become alert, attentive to your thoughts as well as your emotions. Watch out for the low-level unhappiness in whatever form it takes, such as discontent, nervousness, being “fed up”, and so on. Watch out for thoughts that appear to justify or explain this unhappiness but in reality cause it.

The moment you become aware of a negative state within yourself, it does not mean that you have failed. It means that you have succeeded. Until that awareness happens, there is identification with inner states, and such identification is ego.

With awareness comes disidentification from thoughts, emotions, and reactions. This is not to be confused with denial. The thoughts, emotions, or reactions are recognized, and in the moment of recognition, disidentification happens automatically.

Your sense of self, of who you are, then undergoes a shift: before you were the thoughts, emotions, and reactions; now you are awareness, the conscious Presence that witnesses those states.

Eckhart Tolle, Chapter 4 of A New Earth

The ultimate spiritual practice

2008-01-02T20:38:00.000+05:30

To welcome whatever arises in this moment is the ultimate spiritual practice. If you practice just this one thing, you won't need to read any more books or learn any other meditation techniques. Welcoming whatever arises in this moment, outside or inside of you, brings freedom. The conditioned mind will tell you not to do this, for it believes that by resisting, it will become free. The opposite is true. By resisting, you become even more stuck. When you no longer believe what the mind is saying, you realize that the quickest way for transformation to happen is to welcome what is. In that moment, life is free to move through you. The conditioned mind is no longer obstructing life.

Eckhart Tolle

Be present as the watcher of your mind

2007-12-29T10:57:00.000+05:30

Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.

Eckhart Tolle

Every ego is a master of selective perception and distorted interpretation

2007-12-27T09:50:00.000+05:30

Every ego confuses opinions and viewpoints with facts. Further more, it cannot tell the difference between an event and its reaction to its event. Every ego is a master of selective perception and distorted interpretation. Only through awareness-not through thinking-can you differentiate between fact and opinion. Only through awareness are you able to see: There is the situation and here is the anger I feel about it, and then realise there are other ways of approaching the situation, other ways of seeing it and dealing with it. Only through awareness can you see the totality of the situation or person instead of adopting one limited perspective.

Eckhart Tolle

You are the very Awareness prior to thought

2007-12-24T14:32:00.000+05:30

When people are engaged in being right, defending their mental position, an enormous amount of defensiveness and violence comes already. Why do two people become so agitated, in some cases even violent, when they're defending a mental position? Because that's what they derive their sense of self from. Thought has become invested self. That's the very essence of dysfunction---that humans derive their sense of self through thought. This is a delusion, because who they are is so much deeper than thought. They can only realize that when they detach from their thinking and observe their thinking.

Who or what is it that is able to observe that you are identified with a mental position? Who or what is it in you that is able to notice the emotional violence that comes as you start to defend your own position? You can then ask, "Wow, what's going on? What am I defending?" You are defending an illusory sense of self---your sense of self and your mind structure.

That very dysfunction, which looks relatively harmless on a small scale, is the very same dysfunction that drives the terrorist. So it's only in yourself that you can detect it. And if you see it, you see the root of human dysfunction and madness; identification with thinking. But the moment you see it, you are already one foot out of it. The seeing of it is not part of the dysfunction. So in other words, when you see that you are mad, you are no longer mad.

That's the arising of something new in humanity. I sometimes call it the unconditioned consciousness. But it is also a field of stillness, where you see the torn roots of the human mind. Once it emerges, it's a process that cannot be reversed. It emerges more and more fully, and you become less and less identified with the structure of thought. And then thought is no longer dysfunctional. It is actually beautiful. It can be used for helpful purposes. It's wonderful---you are no longer looking for an identity in the structure of thought because now you know that who you are is deeper. You are the very awareness prior to thought. You are the stillness that is deeper than thought, much vaster than thought. We call it "stillness" but it's just a word. We've reduced it to something. It's more than that. It's consciousness itself, unconditioned. Which is the essence of each human being. It's that when you meet anybody in a state of open, aware attention, without labeling them mentally or judging them, then that you are already operating as a current or conscious awareness between human beings.

That would dramatically change human relationships. When aware presence operates between human beings, they are no longer dominated by mind structures. On a deepest level, that is also love. That is the only dimension from where love can come into this world.

Eckhart Tolle

2007-12-22T16:35:00.000+05:30

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify with your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind the light of your consciousness grows stronger.

Eckhart Tolle

Ego

2007-12-21T15:36:00.000+05:30

(Eckhart Tolle)

Ego is no more than this: identification with form, which primarily means thought forms. If evil has any reality – and it has a relative, not an absolute, reality – this is also its definition: complete identification with form – physical forms, thought forms, emotional forms. This results in a total unawareness of my connectedness with the whole, my intrinsic oneness with every 'other' as well as with the Source. This forgetfulness is original sin, suffering, delusion. When this delusion of utter separateness underlies and governs whatever I think, say, and do, what kind of world do I create? To find the answer to this, observe how humans relate to each other, read a history book, or watch the news on television tonight.

If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating fundamentally the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.

Eckhart Tolle

Miracle of surrender

2007-12-15T20:20:00.000+05:30

When your pain is deep, all talk of surrender will probably feel futile and meaningless. You will have a strong urge to escape from it rather than surrender to it. You don't want to feel what you feel. What could be more normal? But there is no escape, no way out. There are many pseudo escapes — work, drink, drugs, anger, projection, suppression and so on — but they don't free you from pain. Suffering does not diminish in intensity when you make it unconscious.... When there is no way out, there is still always a way through. So don't turn away from the pain. Face it. Feel it. Feel it fully. Feel it — don't think about it. Give all your attention to the feeling, not to the person, event, or situation that seems to have caused it....Then see how the miracle of surrender transmutes deep suffering into deep peace."

Eckhart Tolle

Inner alignment with the Now is the end of suffering

2007-12-11T14:15:00.001+05:30

True freedom and the end of suffering is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this moment. This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering. Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no. If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion. You would not be reading this now. Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.

Eckhart Tolle

The egoless ‘I am’ is realisation

2007-12-10T17:34:00.000+05:30

The egoless ‘I am’ is realisation. The experience of ‘I am’ is peace. The meaning of ‘I’ is ‘God’. The outgoing mind is bondage, the in-going mind is freedom. The heartward mind brings bliss. The restless worldly mind brings bondage and misery. The triads of knower, known and knowledge are one. You go to a cinema. Observe the projector light. If the projector light fails the whole show stops. Be Self-centered and finish your work in silence and come out. The world is nothing but the objectified mind.

Bhagavan

Q & A with Nisargadatta Maharaj

2007-12-08T14:07:00.000+05:30

Below is an extract of a conversation with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Can you imagine how this discussion would seem to a person who hasn't read any spiritual literature at all or an atheist?

'Q' refers to questioner

'M' refers to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: The fact is that here and now I am asking you: when did the feeling 'I am the body' arise? At my birth? or this morning?
M: Now.
Q: But I remember having it yesterday too!
M: The memory of yesterday is now only.
Q: But surely I exist in time. I have a past and a future.
M: That is how you imagine -- now.
Q: There must have been a beginning.
M: Now.
Q: And what about ending?
M: What has no beginning cannot end.
Q: But I am conscious of my question.
M: A false question cannot be answered. It can only be seen as false.
Q: To me it is real.
M: When did it appear real to you? Now.
Q: Yes, it is quite real to me -- now.
M: What is real about your question? It is a state of mind. No state of mind can be more real than the mind itself. Is the mind real? It is but a collection of states, each of them transitory. How can a succession of transitory states be considered real?

Let go of excessive thinking

2007-12-06T12:05:00.000+05:30

You don't solve problems by thinking; you create problems by thinking. The solution always appears when you step out of thinking and become still and absolutely present, even if only for a moment. Then, a little later when thought comes back, you suddenly have a creative insight that wasn't there before.

Let go of excessive thinking and see how everything changes. Your relationships change because you don't demand that the other person should do something for you to enhance your sense of self. You don't compare yourself to others or try to be more than someone else to strengthen your sense of identity.

You allow everyone to be as they are. You don't need to change them; you don't need them to behave differently so that you can be happy.

Eckhart Tolle in the Findhorn Retreat 2004

Suffering and Spiritual Awakening

2007-12-06T00:51:00.000+05:30

What exactly is the connection between suffering and spiritual awakening? How does one lead to the other? When you look closely at the nature of human suffering you will find that an essential ingredient in most kinds of suffering is a diminishment of one’s sense of self. Take illness, for example. Illness makes you feel smaller, no longer in control, helpless. You seem to loose your autonomy, perhaps become dependent on others. You become reduced in size, figuratively speaking. Any major loss has a similar effect: some form that was an important part of your sense of who you are – a person, a possession, a social role – dissolves or leaves you and you suffer because you had become identified with it and it seems you are losing yourself or a part of yourself. In reality, of course, what feels like a diminishment or loss of your sense of self is the crumbling of an image of who you are held in the mind. What dissolves is identification with thought forms that had given you your sense of self. But that sense of self is ultimately false, is ultimately a mental fiction. It is the egoic mind or the "little me" as I sometimes call it. To be identified with a mental image of who you are is to be unconscious, to be unawakened spiritually. This unawakened state creates suffering, but suffering creates the possibility of awakening. When you no longer resist the diminishment of self that comes with suffering, all role-playing, which is normal in the unawakened state, comes to an end. You become humble, simple, real. And, paradoxically, when you say “yes” to that death, because that’s what it is, you realize that the mind-made sense of self had obscured the truth of who you are – not as defined by your past, but timelessly. And when who you think you are dissolves, you connect with a vast power which is the essence of your very being. Jesus called it: "eternal life." In Buddhism, it is sometimes called the "deathless realm."

Now, does this mean that if you haven’t experienced intense suffering in your life, there is no possibility of awakening? Firstly, the fact that you are drawn to a spiritual teaching or teacher means you must have had your share of suffering already, and the awakening process has probably already begun. A teacher or teaching is not even essential for spiritual awakening, but they save time. Secondly, humanity as a whole has already gone through unimaginable suffering, mostly self-inflicted, the culmination of which was the 20th century with its unspeakable horrors. This collective suffering has brought upon a readiness in many human beings for the evolutionary leap that is spiritual awakening. For many individuals alive now, this means: they have suffered enough. No further suffering is necessary. The end of suffering: that is also the essence of every true spiritual teaching. Be grateful that your suffering has taken you to this realization: I don’t need to suffer anymore.

Eckhart Tolle

Ten Secret forms of Selfishness

2007-12-04T17:02:00.000+05:30

To help get us started on this Higher Path to true selfless living, following is a short list of unconscious ways in which we are secretly selfish. Study this list and see where the conditions outlined apply to your own present behavior. For extra benefit, make a list of your own!

Ten Secret forms of Selfishness:

1.Being self-enclosed.
2.Dominating (or hiding out in) a conversation.
3.Inflexibility
4.Being impatient
5.Running chronically late
6.Self-loathing or self-pitying
7.Not listening
8.Complaining about anything
9.Gossiping
10.Daydreaming

Guy Finley

True Listening

2007-12-03T17:01:00.000+05:30

True listening is another way of bringing stillness into the relationship. When you truly listen to someone, the dimension of stillness arises and becomes an essential part of the relationship. But true listening is a rare skill. Usually, the greater part of a person’s attention is taken up by their thinking. At best, they may be evaluating your words or preparing the next thing to say. Or they may not be listening at all, lost in their own thoughts.

True listening goes far beyond auditory perception. It is the arising of alert attention, a space of presence in which the words are being received. The words now become secondary. They may be meaningful or they may not make sense. Far more important than what you are listening to is the act of listening itself, the space of conscious presence that arises as you listen. That space is a unifying field of awareness in which you meet the other person without the separative barriers created by conceptual thinking. And now the other person is no longer “other.” In that space, you are joined together as one awareness, one consciousness.

Just Now - An interview with Eckhart Tolle

2007-11-30T17:30:00.000+05:30

Joseph Roberts: Can you speak about the challenges of finding balance in our increasingly complex lives?

Eckhart Tolle: As I call it, inner and outer purpose has merged. There are many people very much into spiritual growth who are still working in the business world and trying to come to some arrangement in the ego-dominated world, while at the same time keeping alive the awakening process. That's very, very hard to balance – being involved in the ego world and keeping alive the inner process of awakening.

To some extent, ego is still a challenge for everybody. Of course we all have egos. But, at least, the overall structure of what, say, people like you do, is not to do with making money but to explore different aspects of the awakening consciousness.

JR: I haven't looked at it quite that way. I just kind of do what I do.

ET: As I said in The Power of Now, the word "work" is going to disappear. Of course, then the words "holiday" and "vacation" will disappear, or "leisure" – all this dividing your life into segments between what you enjoy and don't enjoy will disappear.

JR: I remember reading your chapter on the pain body, which really jumped out at me as such a fresh concept, in such an alive way, that I was taken somewhere. Thank you for opening that portal.

ET: Yes, that has been helpful to many people, the awareness of the pain body.

JR: How do you speak about that concept now? Has your perception changed at all?

ET: It's basically the same, but over the years through giving talks and teaching I've gained different perspectives on it. Some of that is in the new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, where I also expand on the concept. It's a continuous learning process, fascinating. One is always surprised at how many disguises the pain body and the ego have. You never stop learning about it. Although the main thing is to be aware of its existence within oneself. If you're not aware of that, you cannot be the witness when it arises, which means it takes you over. So the main thing about the whole pain body phenomenon is the state of awareness that is there when it comes so you can remain as a conscious observer.

The pain body is then no longer a huge problem because it no longer possesses you. It only possesses you when you're not aware of it and when it doesn't possess you any more, it cannot feed any more on the drama of life circumstances or relationships. It's unlikely that one is immediately free of it, but the main thing is that you don't get taken over by it, that you don't lose yourself in it completely. Then its energy gradually diminishes. That can take some years.

JR: Is there an emergence or is it more that the distractions evaporate? How would you describe it? In your new book, I feel like you're the modern equivalent of the explorers that came to the new world, but an explorer and documenter of consciousness, discovering a new world.

ET: Yes, discovering is the right word. It's not that you need to make a great effort to attain it or bring it about or acquire it. It's discovering it's already there in you – conscious awareness that's obscured, or partially obscured, in many people. It's a discovery of something already there.It's like waking up after a dream, because identification with the thinking mind and its stories and the old emotional conditioning is like being immersed in a kind of dream world, which very often turns into a nightmare – acting out old conditioned patterns again and again. The whole structure of the egoic mind is an old dysfunction.There's some evidence that the ego started about 6,000 years ago, but nobody can say for sure. Before that, humans were in a state of innocence. When we go beyond the dysfunction of the ego, we regain our original innocence, but on a much deeper level. This is why Jesus said unless we become as little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.So, returning to the original innocence, and at the same time going much deeper into that with full awareness – that's the process. We're coming out of thousands of years of dreadful suffering, almost the whole of recorded history of humanity. If you really look at it in an unbiased way, as if you'd never seen it before, one cannot but admit that, to a large extent, 80 to 90 percent of it is a history of pathological insanity, the suffering that humans have created for themselves and, of course, inflicting it upon others.

JR: And exporting it through colonization to the new world.

ET: Yes, so the important part of the awakening process is the realization of the insanity in human history, collectively, to this day playing itself out in world events. Also, to be aware of the insanity within oneself – old, dysfunctional patterns that come again and again that create suffering. So when you see that you're insane, then you're not completely insane. Sanity comes the moment you realize the fact of insanity. To see insanity is not a negative thing.

JR: At least you're out of denial.

ET: Yes, that's why in the film A Beautiful Mind, for example, which is about a mathematical genius who did have a mental dysfunction, his mind was developed in certain areas but he was also insane. The viewer of the film doesn't know that until a certain point when the character realizes that many of his experiences are delusions. At that moment, his healing begins. He's not cured yet, but his healing begins because he's recognized his own insanity. That recognition can only come out of sanity, which is the awareness of unconditioned consciousness.

JR: I remember you saying before you published your last book that the next one would be about why there isn't peace on this planet. Was finding a solution one of the major intentions of A New Earth?

ET: Yes, to see the nature of the major dysfunction. That's why I talk quite a bit about the ego in this book. We need to recognize the nature of the dysfunction. Sometimes, even very great Eastern teachers sometimes neglect that part because they're not really touched by the magnitude of, especially, the Western ego. So it's very important for us to see the dysfunction so that we can recognize it when it arises.

Part of the new book is about recognizing the ego, which I regard as a semi-autonomous energy. It's an energy field. Every thought you think is an energy field. It has a form and then it dissolves and then there is another form. The ego itself is an energy field and it has a collective and individual aspect. Every individual ego is part of the collective. They're connected. Every individual is a manifestation of the collective. To recognize that is essential because the ego, being a very clever entity, has many ways of reappearing. Even if you've seen it in one disguise, it can suddenly reappear in a new one. You might suddenly realize your whole sense of self, identity, is being derived from your possessions and social position. You see that your whole sense of identity is bound up with that and you recognize one aspect of ego. Well, usually it only comes to people when they suffer, when the identification with something no longer works. So, if someone loses their possessions, they suffer enormously because they are losing part of their identity.

Sometimes, they suddenly wake up to that false sense of self and decide they don't want any of those possessions anymore, or that job, or whatever, and they'll go to a monastery or somewhere where they can renounce.

Fine, they do that and then we see how clever the ego is. The ego has disappeared in that disguise. So let's say the person has become a Buddhist monk, but, without realizing it, they're now identified with a mental image of themselves as someone who's risen above their old identity, now defining themselves as a spiritually evolved being. He has exchanged one identity for another with a mental image of who he is now. The ego always works by comparing itself in a subtle way to others. Before, you had to be superior because of one thing; then you become superior because of something else. Suddenly a new set of identifications and it's so subtle; sometimes these spiritual egos can be much more subtle than the gross material-based egos. It's still there.

It's recognizing the ego in its many disguises. I've met Buddhist monks who had enormous egos without knowing it. I remember being in a monastery afraid to approach them because they seemed so aloof. Yet I've met other Buddhist monks who were like little children and it was a joy to talk to them because they'd laugh and not take themselves seriously at all. They didn't take the whole Buddhist thing seriously either, yet they practised it knowing it was only a form and they weren't identified with it.Of course, I'm not saying everybody who becomes a monk has ego, but the potential for ego is there in any situation. A cyclist might have a bigger ego than the man in the SUV, especially if he hates the man in the SUV for polluting the planet and thinks he's superior. If the ego cannot be superior in any field, it will happily identify with the image of the victim, which can give you a very strong ego too. An equally strong ego is someone who thinks of themselves as inferior or badly treated by life, because, again, you have a mental image and a story that you identify with.

It always comes down to identification with forms, one thought form or another. So you miss the one thing that really matters in life, which is that there is a dimension in you beyond form. Another way of putting it is the content in your life. Everything is content: your job, your nationality, your religion, your politics, your likes and dislikes. Your whole story – the story of "Me" – is content. All the thoughts in my head are content, because it is form. Some forms stay for years, others a few seconds. Content draws you in. For some people, it may be mostly material things; the whole attention might be focused on things. There's a dimension in us that has nothing to do with content. Self-realization is that I am not that. I'm not my story, not my grievances and hang-ups, not the story of me that I'm telling other people at parties or repeating in my head again and again. That is only form. It's temporary.

When you see what you're not, it's already liberating. Something inside you breathes a sigh of relief. Then, of course, the mind begins to ask, "What are you if you are not that?" It wants an answer. In other words, it wants some new form. It wants a new thought. There must be a thought that I am. But it doesn't work like that. That's why the great book the Tao Te Ching starts with the line that the Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao because Tao – in the ancient Chinese way of putting it – is the formless dimension. You could say pure consciousness, but with any term we use we have to be careful it's not mistaken for "It." Otherwise, the mind comes in and says, "Oh, consciousness, yes. I believe that I'm consciousness. " It's not another belief. It's finding that spaciousness inside yourself that's there when you let go of identification of form.

The dimension of pure consciousness is what I sometimes call "space consciousness, " as opposed to "object consciousness, " which consumes most people's attention 100 percent. One damn thing after another is what human history is. But that's also the human mind for many people; one problem after another, one thing after another to occupy the attention. Always something. Almost as if the world were conspiring to keep me away from what truly matters - finding myself beyond form, beyond content.

The Power of Now got written to say the quickest way to enter space consciousness is the present moment and living in alignment with the present moment rather than against it, and that's the end of the ego. The ego cannot tolerate the present moment. It cannot survive when you're conscious of, and accepting, being one with the present moment. If you're in a state of oneness with what is, rather than running away from it or trying to deny it or fighting it, that's already the end of the ego. Suddenly, inner spaciousness opens up in which no thought is required at this moment to judge, rather than accept, this moment.

The whole compulsion to think continuously has to do with denial of the present moment and this addiction to mostly useless, repetitive and distracting thinking that humans are suffering from. It is really intimately connected with the continuous denial of the present moment. You're always thinking about something else. Even if you're thinking about the present moment, you'd be interpreting it in terms of the past, which is still a denial of the present.The question is can you be in a state of openness towards what is right now, without imposing a mental interpretation on it, without denying or running away from it or making the present moment into a means to an end. The ego mind says, "I need to get to the next moment. This was just a stepping stone, but once I get there I'll be okay" because the mind is future oriented.The simple thing is becoming one with the present moment by no longer resisting it and by being open to what is. Any moment starts with this moment. There is no other. Not imposing an interpretation on what is, letting it be. Approaching it in a state of alert, open attention. Whatever it is that the present moment contains, you approach it in that state of alert openness.

Then the greater intelligence comes into your life immediately because you're no longer operating from the conditioned mind. When you open yourself up to the present moment, you also open yourself up to the unconditioned, the far deeper consciousness, the true intelligence. When that comes into your life, it deals with anything that needs to be done in this present moment. The response comes from that deeper level of intelligence, whatever you're doing.
That is where you bring in true intelligence. Krishnamurti called it the awakening of intelligence, which was also the title of one of his books. True intelligence has nothing to do with acquired knowledge or the ability to solve little puzzles, like IQ tests. That's a tiny ability, a small aspect of intelligence. I'm sorry if I'm offending anybody whose identity is from Mensa, but true intelligence is not that. It's not accumulating masses of facts and then calling yourself knowledgeable and deriving your identity from that because you're superior in your knowledge. True intelligence is not to be cunning and clever in your business dealings. Ultimately, that's self-defeating because you're not taking into account the whole. You're taking into account only self-interest. True intelligence is not to protect your country at the expense of other countries, because you're taking a fragment out of the whole and neglecting the rest. It might be clever, but it's not intelligence and cleverness always lets you down. It's not an enlightened way to deal with things.

So George W. Bush is clever but stupid at the same time. Another term I have for that is "stupid intelligence. " Now with him, you can actually see it's stupid, but for all those people making mistakes – let's say in the current American administration, and I'm only mentioning that because when people are in such positions of power their mistakes have huge repercussions, whereas a person with an ordinary job has relatively small repercussions with similar mistakes – you don't see this magnified version of what the ego is capable of, whereas if you take Hitler or Stalin, you see what the madness of the ego is capable of.

All these people have been to universities. They have degrees. They have high degrees from good universities. So, yes, they've developed mind – some more than others – but you can see how limited that is, completely lacking in wisdom. It is cleverness completely devoid of any wisdom, so cleverness is also of the ego. "What is my advantage?" is always the question. That is so limited, it always leads to suffering. First you create suffering for others and then it comes to you, always. That's the pattern.

Wisdom can only arise from the unconditioned dimension of consciousness and you don't have to make an enormous effort to bring that about. At some point in the future, in some remote state, as some Buddhists believe, "I need another 10 incarnations and then I'll be enlightened. " Some teachers might even tell you, "You'll be enlightened in only a few more incarnations, just wait."

There's no time to wait. There's no need to wait. Time cannot get you to the timeless state of consciousness, so if you're looking to the future that sometime you'll be in that state, no you won't. You can simply be in that state now simply by no longer living in antagonism with the present moment.

The only difference between you and the enlightened master is that the master lives in a state of oneness with the present moment, in complete inner "Yes." Nothing else. He might be much less knowledgeable than you; he probably is. Buddha and Jesus had much less information than a person has today because humans didn't know that much at the time, but it didn't matter. Information is not what it's about.

The realization is that the transformation of consciousness does not require time. Many people get angry when I say that because they've invested so much of themselves in a self-image as a spiritual seeker who is going to get there one day. They're so invested as seekers that, of course, they can't be finders. They're seekers and they're interested in the future more than the present, and that's the old pattern appearing in the new disguise – the old, egoic pattern.The new dimension of consciousness, new in the sense that it's relatively new on this planet, is already there. It simply requires you to be open towards the present moment. That is the new heaven: that the new state of consciousness is there. I explain in A New Earth a few things about object consciousness and space consciousness and how to enter. But, basically, it's so simple even a child could understand it.Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle in an interview with Joseph Roberts

A website on Mathru Sri Sarada

2007-11-29T14:23:00.000+05:30

There is a new website on Sri Mathru Sarada started by a her devotees on Navaratri 2007 . Interestingly there is an Ashtottara on Mathru Sri Sarada composed by none other than Sri Lakshmana Swamy after Saradamma's self-realisation. This Ashtottara is unique in that it is a composition on a living Jnani by a living Jnani and by a Guru on his disciple. You may check it out on page "Pooja Kalpamu"

The link is http://mathrusrisarada.org/

Bhagavan looking through a Binocular

2007-11-28T19:03:00.000+05:30

An interesting photograph of Bhagavan.

Source: Mountain Path Oct to December '07 issue Volume 44 no.4

Swami Sivananda's Sadhana

2007-11-27T10:31:00.000+05:30

I happened to read this lovely first person account by Swami Sivananda on his daily sadhana

"I get up daily between 3-30 and 4-00. a.m. As soon as I get up I offer prayers to the Lord. Then I press the calling bell and two of my attendants come to my room to help me to go to the bathroom. When I see them I think they are two parts of Virat Purusha who has come to help me. First I mentally prostrate before them and then with their help go to the bathroom. After the bath I come back and sit in my room. Then I start my Sadhana like this. First I think of the omnipotent, omniscient Paramatman and meditate on Him for some time. Thereafter I pray mentally to the Trimurtis and all gods in all their names and forms. Then I mentally visit all Holy pilgrim centres and bathe in all the Holy Rivers and Seas, in each and every place. I prostrate before the presiding Deity and worship mentally all the Devatas. Afterwards I do Japa of all Deities, one Maala each. Then I recite four Mahavakyas and some Vedic Hymns from the Vedas. Also I recite selected Mantras from the 10 Upanishads. I got by heart some slokas from the Epics of Mahabharata, Ramayana and Srimad Bhagavatam and I repeat them. I remember the saints and sages and mentally prostrate to them. Then I mentally think of the Acharyas—Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and all other great Acharyas. I prostrate to them mentally. Then I recite some of the Hymns and Stotras taught by them. After this I do Pranava Japa and meditate.

After meditation I do a few exercises on the bed itself, followed by Pranayama. The entire routine of my Sadhana takes about 2-2 1/2 hours. After this I ring the bell for my attendants to bring my breakfast. Breakfast over, I go to office work. For the convenience of some devotees who wish to have a private Darshan to talk about their personal matters. I sit on the Verandah. Before they enter the main door I repeat Mahamrityunjaya Mantra three times and pray for their happiness and health, these devotees usually come to me to speak about their problems, spiritual or otherwise. I listen to them patiently and I pray to God mentally to give them courage and strength to overcome their problems and difficulties. Afterwards the visitors sit with me in silence. Then repeating Tryambaka Mantra I distribute the Holy Prasad to them. This has been my Sadhana over the Years.” All four of us were thrilled to hear from Gurudev’s own words about his Sadhana and all of us felt elevated and prostrated to him in deep devotion. Some times Gurudev would say to the devotees at the end of their meeting. “Sab accha ho Jayaga. Bhagavan ko yad rakho.”

SOME REMINISCENCESOF GURUDEV SWAMI SIVANANDA By SRI SWAMI DEVANANDA

Source: http://www.dlshq.org/download/reminiscences.htm

Beside the Point

2007-11-27T01:41:00.000+05:30

The sky has never won a prize.
The clouds have no careers.
The rainbow doesn't say my work,
thank goodness.

The rock in the creek's not so productive.
The mud on the bank's not too pragmatic.
There's nothing useful in the noise
the wind makes in the leaves.

Buck up now, my fellow superfluity,
and let's both be of that worthless ilk,
self-indulgent as shooting stars,
self-absorbed as sunsets.

Who cares if we're inconsequential?
At least we can revel, two good-for-nothings,
in our irrelevance; at least come and make
no difference with me.

Stephen Cushman

Beauty of forgiveness

2007-11-24T23:50:00.000+05:30

Sandalwood perfumes even the axe that hurls it down! The more we rub sandalwood against a stone, the more its fragrance spreads. Burn it, and it wafts its glory through the entire neighbourhood. Such is the enchanting beauty of forgiveness in life.

Swami Chinmayananda

The Path of Sri Ramana - By Sadhu Om

2007-11-24T10:59:00.000+05:30

Part One of The Path of Sri Ramana is now also available here for free download as an e-book in Michael James's website: http://www.happinessofbeing.com/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_One.pdf

Complaining

2007-11-23T11:04:00.000+05:30

See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

Eckhart Tolle

Gratitude

2007-11-23T00:03:00.000+05:30

Gratitude is the antidote to desire. While desire sees lack, gratitude sees abundance. Desiring is a subtle way of complaining about what is, while gratitude is rejoicing in what is. These are very different states of consciousness. Which state would you prefer to live in? You always have a choice. Desiring is our default position, so it takes awareness and willingness to be grateful rather than to desire something different. It is so easy to desire—too easy. It is much more difficult to find the place of gratitude and stay there because, for one thing, it means we have much less to do!

If we didn’t have our desires to run after, what would we do? If we were satisfied with life as it is, what would we do? The ego considers contentment dangerous because it equates it with being lazy, and that is the message it will give you to try to move you out of the place of gratitude. The ego can’t exist in this place. It is defunct, useless, out of a job. It loses all significance.

For this reason, gratitude can change your life. It can change what you do and how you do things. Who would think that something so simple as gratitude could be so powerful? The ego’s existence is built around steering us away from this amazing force, which is at the core of our being. Gratitude is the ongoing experience of essence, and it is powerfully transformative. It can transform us from an unhappy person to a happy one, from a selfish person to a loving one, and from a restless person to a peaceful one. It turns out that gratitude feels much better than desiring. It is a much better choice, but not necessarily an easier one.

By Gina Lake

Acceptance - By Gina Lake

2007-11-22T00:10:00.000+05:30

One of the reasons people turn away from the moment and the peace and joy that reside there is that they are programmed to reject life as it is. They want life on their own terms, but it can never be that way. Even if the ego could have life on its own terms, which it does briefly and occasionally, it would soon want more or different or better than that. The ego doesn’t accept life, which is one reason it doesn’t want to give it attention.

The ego would rather give attention to its fantasies, dreams, memories, and even fears than to the actual reality of any moment, which in addition to being imperfect (from the ego’s point of view), is impossible to control or predict. This lack of control and unpredictability is deeply disturbing to the ego. Touching the Real makes the ego very uncomfortable because it is faced with the truth—that it is not the one making life happen.

As long as the ego remains in its made-up reality, it can play at being king. It pretends that it can make life go its way. It denies the obvious reality and chooses to believe what it wants to about reality.

Accepting whatever is happening—whatever it is—brings you into alignment with essence and into a state of real happiness, peace, and contentment. This is immediately uncomfortable for the ego, so this doesn’t usually last long. The egoic mind finds fault with even peace, declaring it boring, and drums up a problem to think about and solve. If you agree with its assessment of the moment, then you are back in identification with it instead of with essence. Fortunately, acceptance can bring you right back into the moment. Once you are aware of this, acceptance can be used as a pathway to essence.

Acceptance is synonymous with love. Love accepts. You could say that that is the definition of love. So when you accept what is happening, you land in Love’s territory. However, to stay there, you have to keep accepting what is happening, and that is challenging because the mind comes into nearly every moment with a reason to leave it. You must say no to the mind again and again before its hold is loosened. The more you say no to it, the weaker it gets; while the more you say yes to it, the stronger it gets. This takes diligence, commitment, and choice, and you are the only one who can make this commitment and this choice. For this reason, your spiritual evolution is in your hands to some extent. Other factors determine how and when you will unfold spiritually, but how fast you advance is largely up to you and your choices.

Accepting what is happening is not as difficult as you may think. You only have to accept what is happening in this moment, not in every moment throughout time. The ego has difficulty accepting what is happening in the moment because it spins a negative story about what this means for future moments. For instance, if you are feeling sick, it causes you to suffer over this by telling you how awful this will be and what a negative impact it will have on your life. The stories it spins are all lies. It never predicts the future accurately.

Accepting what is happening in the moment is also not as difficult as you may think because accepting it does not mean you have to like it. All you have to do is accept that you don’t like what is happening, if that is the case. Accepting this moment just means that you are willing to let it be the way it is. After all, what other choice do you have, since it is the way it is? The only other choice is to argue with it, complain about it, try to ignore it, or try to change it, which is what the ego does in nearly every moment. This is a recipe for suffering, and it doesn’t change what is happening; it only makes it unpleasant. By allowing whatever is happening to be happening, you align yourself with life rather than oppose it, and that makes every moment, regardless of what is happening, peaceful.

When the moment is okay just the way it is and your energy is not taken up in opposing it, you can really be present to it. What you discover is that every moment has much more to it than what you like or don’t like about it. It is rich with complexity, dimension, and beauty. The egoic mind paints the moment as black or white, good or bad. It has a simplistic view of what is happening according to its likes and dislikes, but the moment is not simple in the least. It is interestingly changeable, unpredictable, and intelligent. Who knows what will happen next? You never know. From the perspective of essence, life’s unpredictability is delicious, exciting, and fascinating. This is what you feel too when you are in acceptance. Essence accepts. So when you are accepting, you are expressing essence; and when you experience acceptance from others, you are experiencing essence. Think of all the times in one day you are either accepting or experiencing acceptance from others. Every time this happens, essence—the Divine—is showing up in your life.

Love is everywhere in the form of acceptance. You accept the sky, you accept gravity, you accept your breathing, you accept the color of the trees, you accept the silence between sounds, you accept the space between objects—you accept the majority of what is. This is you loving life and allowing it to be the way that it is. The mind interrupts this peace, this love, by telling you something is not right, not good, not desirable: That dog should not be barking, that sun should not be so hot, that air should not be so windy. If you agree with the mind, you suffer. If you don’t, you stay in essence, in allowing whatever is to be the way that it is. The egoic mind will tell you that accepting life means you won’t ever do anything. It tries to scare you out of acceptance by making it equal to passivity, laziness, and a lack of discrimination, which it deems dangerous to survival.

Acceptance is dangerous to the ego’s survival, but it is not dangerous to survival. It is a more effective strategy for survival than anything the ego can offer. Acceptance is love, and love connects you with everything because it connects you with who you really are, which is everything. What could be more beneficial to survival than being connected to everything and knowing that you are everything? Is there any reason that You, as the Divine, would not take care of yourself, as the creation? You are being taken care of and so is everyone else. The ego not only cannot take credit for your survival, it has interfered more than it has helped. Something else besides the ego is living your life, and the more you allow it to, the more it will take over.

Essence has been living through you and expressing itself through you as much as you have allowed it to. Every person is an expression of essence to a greater or lesser extent. The Divine is moving, speaking, doing, creating, laughing, playing, and working through each of you to the extent that you allow it to, but it is there in everyone. If you want to have an experience of the Divine, you are having it! And so is everyone else. You are not separate from the Divine. The ego is the sense that you are a separate person and the Divine is something apart from that, but that is just an idea. The ego is just the idea “I exist as a separate entity.” It is not true. You are the Divine in disguise as a human being. The more you come to see that you are not who you think you are, the more you will experience who you really are and who everyone else really is. The Divine is everywhere.

Website of Gina Lake: http://www.radicalhappiness.com/

Work Without Any Motive

2007-11-20T13:38:00.000+05:30

Man generally plans to get the fruits of his works before he starts any kind of work. The mind is so framed that it cannot think of any kind of work without remuneration or reward. This is due to Rajas. Human Swabhava is always like this. When discrimination dawns, when the mind is filled with some more Sattwa or purity, this nature changes slowly. The spirit of selflessness slowly creeps in. The quality of Rajas creates selfishness and attachment. A selfish man has no large heart. He has no ideal. He is petty-minded. His mind is full of greed. He always calculates. He cannot do any service in a magnanimous manner. He will say: "I will get so much money. I must put forth so much work only." He will weigh the work and money in a balance. He cannot do a little more work. He will be ever watching the time for stopping his work. He is mercenary. He is hired for money. He is actuated by the hope of reward. He is greedy of gain. Selfless service is unknown to him. He has no idea of God. He has no glimpse of Truth. He cannot imagine of an expanded, selfless life. He has got into a narrow, circumscribed circle or groove. He dwells within this small grove. His love extends to his own body, his wife and children. That is all. Generosity is unknown to him.

If you expect fruits for your actions, you will have to come back into this world to enjoy such fruits. You will have to take birth again. A Nishkamya Karma Yogi says: "Do all works without expectation of fruits. This will produce Chitta Suddhi. Then you will get knowledge of the Self. You will get Moksha or eternal bliss, peace and immortality." This is his doctrine. That is the reason why Lord Krishna says to Arjuna:

Karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachanaMa karmaphalahetur bhurma te sangostvakarmani.

"Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruits of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached." Gita: Chapter II-47.

God dispenses the fruits of actions according to the motive. If the motive is pure, you will get Divine Grace and purity. If the motive is impure, you will get rebirth in this Mrityuloka to reap the fruits of your actions. Again you will do virtuous and vicious actions through the force of Raga-dwesha (likes-dislikes). You will be entrapped in the never-ending wheel of birth and death.

But you should not remain in a state of inertia also (Akarmani) thinking that you will not get the fruits if you work selflessly. You must not say: "What is the use of my work now? I can’t get any fruits. I will keep quiet." This is also bad. You will become Tamasic and dull. There will be mental inactivity. You will get purity of mind if you work in the spirit of Nishkamya Karma Yoga. This is a very great reward for your actions. You cannot imagine the exalted condition of a man of pure mind. He has unbounded peace, strength and joy. He is very near to God. He is dear to God. He will soon receive the divine light. Work without any sort of motive and feel its effects, purity and inner strength. What an expanded heart you will have! Indescribable! Practise, feel and enjoy this state.

Swami Sivananda