31 December 2014

To Know Truth is the sole purpose of a Man

It is the duty of a disciple to follow the teachings of the Spiritual Master in his life. If we do not do so, then there is no use coming here. We should not get engrossed with domestic entanglements; rather we should tread the path as instructed by the Spiritual Master throughout our life with our daily duties. The disciple who follows the path of Knowledge as instructed by the Spiritual Master is successful in achieving the goal of life. What is the purpose of our life? This is what we have come here to know. Saints tell us time and again that all worldly relationships are momentary and they are not concerned in the least with that Supreme Truth, neither will they accompany us after death. All these relationships exist as long as we have life within us. The moment our life force departs from the body, all worldly relationships finish.
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30 December 2014

Satsang

Every king or emperor who ever came on this earth departed empty-handed. It is the law of Nature that life and death are the same for everyone. Our saints and sages glorified this human body because a person is independent in this body and he can do whatever he likes. He can do pious works; he can acquire the Spiritual Knowledge from the Master and free himself from the cycle of birth and death if he does meditation continuously.

29 December 2014

Story

There was a villager whose wife had died, leaving him with an infant son. He used to clean a temple in the village to earn his food. After some years, that man also died. Now the child had no means of earning a living. The villagers gave him a nanny goat. He started taking care of her and his affection grew so much that he could not live even a moment without her. One day the goat went outside. When the child returned home and did not see his goat there he became very distressed. He wandered through the village asking people whether they had seen his friend. While he was roaming around village, he met a saint. The saint asked the reason for his grief, so he told him what had happened. The saint asked,"Was it your friend or your brother who ran away?" The child replied, "It is a goat whom I called my friend. I am searching for it". The saint said, " How did you come to think of that goat as your friend? this is why you are so upset. The truth is that only God is your true friend. If you have to search, search for Him". Seeing his true urge the saint imparted the Spiritual Knowledge to him. Then the child understood that the real purpose of life is to know the Supreme Power which is present within everyone's heart.
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28 December 2014

Satsang

We do a lot of things from morning till night to keep our bodies healthy and robust. But have we ever thought what we are doing to make our spirit strong and robust? Everyone knows that our existence is based on duality. In other words, this existence has two aspects, body and soul. Then why do we bother so much only about the body and not about the soul? Now, the question arises as to how the soul can be developed. For this our saints and great Masters said,"Spirit or Soul is developed by receiving Spiritual Knowledge from the true Master and meditating constantly on the Holy Name.
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27 December 2014

Satsang

If we want to illuminate our house, if we want to eradicate the darkness of night, we have to install electric bulbs and connect them to power supply line. Simply installing light bulbs will not light up your house. Likewise, by the utmost grace of God, we have got this 'electric bulb' of the human body, but unless it is connected with the powerhouse of the true Spiritual Master, we cannot have Divine Light within.
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26 December 2014

Bhilni

Bhilni waited many years for the Lord. A sage had predicted, "One day Lord Rama will visit you, don't give up hope." So she waited. Every day she swept her pathway and strewed flowers in case he arrived. During his exile, Lord Rama did indeed visit her hut and her dream came true. When a devotee has unshakeable faith, he automatically attracts the Lord. That is why unwavering faith and devotion are so important. We shouldn't just remember Guru Maharaj Ji in good times when everything is going well, but forget him as soon as a crisis comes. A true devotee remembers the Master in all situations and at all times.
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25 December 2014

Remember

When morning comes the sun shines, but sometimes it is covered by clouds and its rays do not reach the ground. But this is only temporary. After a while the clouds go away and the sun shines brightly again. Life is also like that. Everyone experiences happiness and sadness. The saints and divine masters had to suffer more than ordinary people. So no matter how dire the circumstances we must always remember Guru Maharaj Ji, we must always remember the Holy Name, and then we are real devotees. You cannot cross a river standing in two boats. Become like Mira Bai, or Sahjo Bai, or Swami Vivekananda, and like them, enhance the fame of the Master.
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24 December 2014

Lehna

Guru Nanakdev had thousands of disciples, so why did he choose Lehna as his successor? But whenever he tested his disciples, Lehna always stood out. One cold winter's night, Guru Nanak tossed a bowl into a swamp and asked the disciples who were with him to go and retrieve it. One of them said, "Master, it's just a bowl. Tomorrow we'll buy another in the market. It's too cold to jump in now and get it out." Lehna was also there. As soon as he heard this he dived into the cold water, found the bowl and brought it to the Master.
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23 December 2014

Angad Dev

Guru Nanak spent several days at a cremation ground. His disciples wondered why he would leave his ashram to go and stay in such a place. Some of them decided to go and see what he was doing. They found him sitting beside a corpse. Guru Maharaj Ji told them, "If you are truly my disciples you will eat this body." They all stood up and walked away, saying, "How could he expect us to do such a thing? He must have gone mad." Lehna, however, bowed and said, "Master, should I start with the hands or the feet?" But as he lifted the cloth he saw not a dead body but a banquet of many tasty dishes. Guru Nanak used to test his disciples like this and those who had true faith, who didn't try to analyze everything intellectually and who had no doubts, were the ones who progressed. Guru Maharaj Ji knew that Lehna had successfully passed every test. He embraced him and said, "From now on you will be known as Angad Dev and you will take over from me."
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22 December 2014

Devotee

Devotee pleases the Master through his devotion and service. It is not your money or your status which pleases him. Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't belong to the rich or the powerful or the famous. That is not how it works. The only thing that attracts him is the love and devotion a person has. His grace rests on the devotee who has a pure and open heart and whose devotion is sincere. Such a disciple is dearest to him.
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21 December 2014

Priceless

We have received this priceless spiritual Knowledge, so put it into practice in your life and don't waste your time on useless things. Most people are attracted by materialism and get so entrapped that they reject the spiritual path. The Master draws us to spirituality, releases us from the chains of wrong perspective that drag us down and shows us the way to the ultimate state. We have been given such a great Knowledge, so we should respect it. No matter how rich you become, or how prosperous in business, on the day your last breath departs all your money and fame will be left behind.
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20 December 2014

Wealth

Patiala has a large royal fort but it is vacant. The king who built it has left this world, and he couldn't take his fort, palace, army or servants with him. The same applies to us. The day that last breath departs, no husband can take his wife with him. No wife can take her husband along. No parent can take his child. No relative can go with you, no friend can go with you. Only the spiritual merit you have earned through meditation and devotion will go with you. So meditate on the Name and build up your spiritual capital. The wealth of the Holy Name is such that the more you utilize it the more it grows. Generally the more money you spend the poorer you become, but the wealth of the Name is so remarkable, it is so unique, that the more you use it, the more it increases. So practise the priceless Knowledge which Guru Maharaj Ji has given to you.
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19 December 2014

Suffering

People have plenty of time to gossip and criticize others but no time for satsang. They can find time for everything except listening to satsang. This is a pity and is the cause of human suffering. A person spends the majority of his time on himself. If he would devote even a small part to spirituality, his life would be heaven on earth.
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18 December 2014

Faults

There is a story that once Man visited God and said, "Lord, I am very unhappy. Please show me how to have peace of mind." God replied, "I'm giving you two packages. One contains your faults and the other contains your neighbor's. When you return to earth, hold your package in front of you so that you see only your own shortcomings and keep your neighbor's behind you." But when he returned to the mortal world, what did Man do? He put his own shortcomings behind him and opened his neighbor's package and held it up in front of him, so that day and night all he saw were his neighbor's faults. The result was that he started gossiping and slandering others. He wasted his time finding fault with others, forgetting about his own faults, his own vanity and his own arrogance. When you point your finger to accuse someone, three fingers automatically point back at you.. In other words, for every fault you find in others, three are found in you. We have to get rid of the vanity, delusion and attachment in ourselves and then our life will have meaning.
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17 December 2014

Seed of Knowledge

Guru Maharaj Ji has planted the seed of Knowledge in your heart, so now you have to make it bloom through service, satsang and meditation. You know that a farmer doesn't sow seed in barren ground. First of all he prepares the field by ploughing it and then he removes all the rocks, stones and tree roots before he sows the seed. After sowing he doesn't neglect the seed, either. He irrigates it and fertilizes it when necessary. In the same way, our heart is the field in which the Master sows the seed of Knowledge. But sowing the seed is not all there is to it. Service, satsang, meditation and darshan are also vital. Unless it receives the rain of satsang regularly and unless it is fertilized by doing service, your seed with wither. But if the disciple comes regularly to satsang, comes to see Guru Maharaj Ji and follows his guidance, in him the seed of Knowledge blossoms and bears fruit. We are so lucky in this day and age to have found the enlightened Master and we can be with him and listen to his teachings. This is our great good fortune.

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16 December 2014

Four Devotees

It is said that there are four types of devotees. The first is the one who is motivated by fear. For example, one's business is not going well or a student is about to sit for an exam. That student will pray, "Lord, if you let me get a good mark I'll make an offering of money to you."
The second type is motivated by material gain. He tries to bargain with God. He says, "If I make such-and-such a profit, I will paint the temple roof golden." Such a devotee is motivated by greed.
The third type is the seeker, while the fourth, the superior type, is the enlightened devotee. Lord Krishna himself said in the Gita, "There is no difference between the realized devotee and Myself."
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15 December 2014

The Devine Master

The difference between a worldly person and the enlightened soul is that everything the ordinary man does is for himself _ he doesn't spare a thought for others. The divine Master, on the other hand, acts for the sake of others, he is always thinking for the rest of society. He wants to share the Knowledge he has with everybody, so that the ignorant may become wise. Only through spiritual realization can we improve both this life and the next. Take advantage of the chance to do some service, because when the Master is pleased with your service the Light of Knowledge will shine brightly within you and your life will be blessed.
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14 December 2014

Value of Human Life

Devotion can be practiced and understood by everyone, regardless of caste or education. Mira Bai says, “You may or may not get a human birth again.” But most people don’t understand the value of human life. They think that it is meant only for enjoying material pleasures. This is not entirely their fault, because when they go abroad and see huge skyscrapers, wide streets and large factories, etc., they measure a country’s progress by these things. But they do not think that all these things will have to be left behind once we die. As a fallen leaf cannot be joined to a tree again, so the human body is not available again once it dies.
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13 December 2014

Human Body

In a human body one can create karmas as well as enjoy them. Other species can eat puddings and pastries too, but only man can cook as well as eat. Even gods cannot make their own food.
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12 December 2014

Poor man & Rich man

In rural areas, a millstone is used for grinding grain, while large mills produce varieties of flour to cope with the demands of the cities. A poor man eats simple food and excretes. A rich man eats sumptuous meals and excretes. So regard the poor man as a millstone and a wealthy man as a flour mill!
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11 December 2014

Life is Decreasing

A large silkworm produces more silk than a small silkworm. So we can call the poor man a small excreta-worm and the rich man a large excreta-worm! “Life is decreasing with every second. It does not increase by even a single second. It comes to an end in no time.”
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10 December 2014

Merry-making

We celebrate birthdays. People think that they are growing in years whereas actually their lives are getting shorter! Childhood is followed by youth, which is passed in merry-making. But youth soon fades into old age.
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09 December 2014

Real Truth

              It is written in the Mahabharata that once Yudhisthira asked the elder statesman Bhishma, “How can one get peace?” Bhishma replied with this example: Once a king made his elephant drink a lot of wine, then went on it for a ride. On the way, the intoxicated elephant threw the king off. He was terrified and ran for his life. He fell into a well and was caught up in the roots of a fig tree. After a short while, the elephant reached there, trumpeting. Meanwhile, the king noticed that one black and one white mouse were eating away the root which was holding him up. He looked down and saw many snakes and scorpions waiting to bite him. On the other hand, the mad elephant was waiting outside the well to kill him. However, the king saw a beehive. He opened his mouth hoping to drink some honey. He forgot everything except how sweet the honey was.


              The king represents the individual, the mind is the elephant, attachment is the wine. With these a person comes to see the world. Here the mind has thrown the individual into the well of rebirth. He is being supported by a very thin root which is his life-span and which is being cut shorter by the mice of day and night. As soon as his allotted time comes to an end he will go back into the well of rebirth where he will have to suffer various kinds of miseries arising from lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. The poor creature hopes that he will get happiness some day, but he doesn’t get it. Thus, his life comes to an end. Beings can get rid of these vicious elements which make life a misery only during the human lifetime. You can only hurt yourself in the dark. Birds and animals cannot remove darkness. Only man lives in light. He uses electricity or a lamp to remove the darkness.
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08 December 2014

Pivot 2

You once were very young, then you grew bigger, then you became an adult. You'll grow old and then you'll die. The changes of life and death are happening around a reality which is itself unchangeable. And that is your pivot. If you stay close to your pivot, you will be free of the sufferings of the grinding stone, you will escape being crushed. The idea is to decrease the radius, to decrease the distance between God and man through meditation. 
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07 December 2014

Pivot

St. Kabir in his satsang spoke about a grinding stone. He said, "This stone revolves and nobody escapes. When the wheat goes into the grinding stone, it's crushed; there is no way out." Then his son Kamal stood up and said, "Father, there is one way to escape. When I see the grinding stone revolve, I laugh to myself. The grains of wheat closest to the center go uncrushed." Do you get the point or not? There's a pivot in the centre. If you stay close to the center you will not fall in between the two stones, so you will not be crushed. `Pivot' means the fulcrum, the centrepoint, What is the pivot of the universe? You know that all the planets in the solar system revolve around the sun. But the sun is stationary. When an action takes place around a pivot, the pivot itself is stationary. The wheel of a cart spins, but the pivot, the axle, remains stationary. The ceiling fan revolves, but the rod it hangs from remains stationary. In your life, all the changes, all the actions which are taking place are happening around that entity which is unchangeable in itself, because energy is unchangeable - it can neither be created nor destroyed.
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06 December 2014

Love

If you love someone, even though you are somewhere else, in your mind you are still with that person. The intensity of love should be like that between Majnun and Layla. They were like Romeo and Juliet. One day, a dog came from Layla's street. Majnun bent down and kissed its paw. People started laughing and saying, "This fellow's a fool!" Majnun replied, "You people are the fools, it seems to me. This dog is coming from Layla's street, and I love Layla so much that I worship even a dog coming from her street." A priest was there and he said, "Majnun, your love is very great, but unfortunately it is only for Layla, not God." Then Majnun replied, "I don't want to love God because I have given all my love to Layla. I have no love left for God. But if God wants my love then He will have to come in the form of Layla. Then he can have my love."


The idea is that the intensity of his love was so great that without Layla he could not live; he would only worship God in the form of Layla. Mirabai also achieved that intensity of love. She was so much in love with Lord Krishna. The gopis of Vrindavan were also very much in love with Krishna. Because when there is love, what happens? When there is love, unfulfilled love, then automatically the Divine Power has to manifest in order to satisfy that love.
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05 December 2014

Intensity of Love

Dhanna Jat, a simple farmer. A priest told him, "Take this stone and worship it as Krishna. First of all, you have to feed it. Without feeding Krishna, don't eat yourself." For three days Dhanna Jat offered food to the statue but it didn't eat. If it were us we would say, "It's nothing; a statue is just a statue. How can a statue eat?" But Dhanna Jat's love was so strong that it was beyond reason. He thought, `May be God is very busy and that's why He is not coming here. Maybe Krishna has other appointments." But after three days he got angry. He took a stick and said, "Okay, Krishna, if you won't come down here, I'll hit you!" And Krishna quietly came, manifested himself, and ate the food. As he was about to finish off entire meal, Dhanna stopped him and said, "Leave something for me! Don't eat everything!" Such is the intensity of love. That intensity even caused the energy in the stone to manifest. And these people are called mad. But everyone is mad - some are mad after women, some are mad for alcohol, some are mad for money. And spiritual people are mad for God. Everybody's mad! You can choose to be mad for God or mad for this world. You have a choice.
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04 December 2014

Religion

If you travel to another country but don't know the language, you won't understand what people are saying, nor will they know what you're saying to them. You won't be able to fully enjoy yourself there until you pick up the local language. In the same way, until we understand what satsang is trying to convey to us, we won't be able to experience the inner Light. You will find followers of every sect and religion in India. There are Sikhs, Muslims and Christians as well as Hindus. They all talk about Knowledge in their own ways, but only Guru Maharaj Ji actually reveals that Knowledge to you and that is actual religion.
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03 December 2014

Self Realization

Rivers have their source in the mountains, then they flow past towns into the sea. If you follow a river from where it enters the sea back along its course, then one day you will reach its source. Similarly, if we study the teachings of the various religions we find they basically talk about the same thing _ self-realization. But modern religions are stuck in externals and have forgotten how to reveal the inner Knowledge. Everybody has his own outlook. That is why it is said that if two people are looking out the same window one sees the sky while the other sees the ground.
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02 December 2014

Unchain yourself

Spiritual Knowledge is the fulcrum, the root from which all religions spring. That Knowledge, hat Divine Light, is already within us, but you won't find it no matter how hard you look. You won't find it in a market, or in the mountains. It is right within you. All you have to do is come to satsang and follow Guru Maharaj Ji's guidance. Follow the path he shows us. You can see for yourself how trapped people are, but Maharaj Ji shows us how to unchain ourselves; he shows us the way out.
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01 December 2014

Effort

If a student hasn't studied properly, if he hasn't prepared himself for an exam, he will not get a good result. Don't think you can meditate for a couple of days then go back to temples or your former rituals and that's all you have to do. It doesn't work like that. Until we put in the required effort we won't achieve success in whatever we do.
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