We go to doctors. A doctor prescribes medicines and also prescribes some dietary restrictions in order to cure the disease. The doctor says, “Look, the problem lies in your stomach. Do not eat rich food, give up rice. Do not eat fried things and sweets.” If a person is diabetic but eats sweets, what will happen? His pathology tests will indicate a high sugar content. If the patient complains that the doctor did not treat him well then whose mistake is this? Definitely the doctor is not at fault in this case. Likewise when we are initiated, we are instructed to curb our worldly indulgence. The first instruction is to do meditation regularly every morning.
www.manavdharam.org
31 December 2009
30 December 2009
Satsang
Only the true Master reveals the path leading to the ultimate goal, because only one who is himself free can make us free. Only he whose heart is illuminated by Divine Light can ignite the light within our hearts. During the Deewali festival, you light candles in your houses using a candle which you have already lit. Only a lit candle has the potential to light another candle and thus eradicate darkness. The darkness of our mind is due to anger, attachment, temptation and vanity and can be eradicated by the one who is himself enlightened with the Divine Light.
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29 December 2009
Satsang
Once a king organised an exhibition with the condition that each visitor could take away only one thing. Many people came to see the exhibition. One poor farmer also came there. He saw a pair of oxen and a plough which he liked very much, but, according to the rules of the exhibition, he could take either the pair of oxen or the plough but not both. So, without taking anything, he went to the king who was sitting on a throne and bowed humbly to him. The king asked him if he did not like anything on display because he was empty handed. The farmer replied, “Your Majesty, I like both the oxen and the plough, but the condition is that I can take only one of these. Then it occurred to me that the whole exhibition is owned by you and if I touch you then the whole exhibition would become mine. So, once again I touch you.” The King was pleased by the farmer's simple words and said that he could take both items.
This is only a small story but it is there to teach us something. God, like the king, has created an exhibition of this world. There are all kinds of things here. Each person desires something and prays to God to give it to him. But a spiritual person understands that if he acquires the Almighty Himself, then all things in this world will automatically belong to him. So, now take shelter in the true Spiritual Master and know the Holy Name, remembering which one can reach God.
www.manavdharam.org
28 December 2009
Satsang
Similarly Lord Rama, during his period of exile, shot Bali with an arrow from behind a tree. He then approached Bali and offered to give him his life back if he so wished. Bali said, “Lord! I am dying by your hand. Can there be any higher death than this?” But still Lord Rama said, “I killed you while hiding behind a tree. You will be avenged for this act of mine when I incarnate on this earth as Krishna in Dwapar Yuga and you will come in the form of a tribal man. Then I will abandon my life due to your arrow.” And so it happened. One day Lord Krishna was resting under a tree and his leg twitched. A forest hunter saw this movement and thought it was a bird. He shot an arrow which hit Lord Krishna's leg and he died. In other words, when even Lord Rama and Lord Krishna had to suffer the fruits of their actions, then what to say of us ordinary beings! So the master souls say that a person understands the value of the human body when he acquires Spiritual Knowledge.
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27 December 2009
EMOTIONALISM IS NOT SPIRITUALITY
While describing the art and science of meditation the Upnishadas say that the body is the bow, the mind is the arrow and the target is Braham i.e. the Cosmic Consciousness. The purpose of the human life is to know and realize God i.e. Supreme Consciousness.
It is possible only when through constant and deep meditation the mind stuff is focused and dissolved into Cosmic Consciousness. People are following different ways of meditation but in fact the art and the science of meditation is universal and one for all. Simply talking on meditation or Braham cannot give us any experience or realization of that All-permeating Consciousness just as by simply reciting water-water the thirst of a man is not quenched. Similarly, without constant practice of meditation realization is far cry.
The Vedic Gayatri Mantra is most popular among the Hindus. Why this Mantra is given so much importance out of all other mantras in the Vedas? It is because this Mantra denotes about the technique of meditation in very beautiful words. The literal meaning of the Mantra is “ O God! Ruler of the Three Worlds, You are the Light of the Lights worth knowing, take my mind from all other objects and focus it with full attention on your self-effulgent Light.” This is type of a prayer but unless and until some enlightened person reveals you within yourself the technique of focusing of your mind on the Divine Light within in practice simply reciting the Mantra will be of not much use. Though even Mantra is a type of vibration which does raise the level of Consciousness but unless and until you know the technique the realization is not possible. Therefore, to have the basic experience within and it is possible for every human being if he is sincere, dedicated and approaches a Living Master with genuine thirst for experience, Jesus said, “Seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” But we forget to seek.
I'll give you an example of what meditation means. There goes a story in the Mahabharta -a great epic of ancient India . Acharya Dronacharya was very proficient at teaching archery. One day he called Pandvas and Kauravas together and said, “Look here, I want to test your ability. I want to see what you have learnt from me. So come here with your bows and arrows.”
They all came and stood in line. Then he said, “Now there's a tree in front of you and on a particular branch a bird is sitting. Aim at the bird.” So everyone started doing that; they aimed at the bird. He asked the first disciple, “What do you see?” The disciple replied, “Sir, I see the tree, I see you, the clouds, the sun. I see everything.” Then the teacher asked the second pupil, “What do you see?” He also replied in the same way.
Then in the last Acharya asked Arjuna who was there, “What do you see?” Now, Arjuna was focusing his vision on the bird and nowhere else. He said, “Master, all I see the bird. I don't see the clouds, you, or anything else. I simply see that bird.” So then the Acharya said, “Very well, now aim at the eye of the bird then shoot.” So he focused his attention on the eye of the bird and when the Acharya said, “Shoot!” he shot an arrow and the arrow pierced the bird's eye.
Now what is happening to us is that we are seeing the world, we are seeing so many things, yet we are also trying to meditate. But pure attention is only possible when we have fixed gaze, when with total surrender, total dedication, we attach ourselves to the target, the object of meditation.
Saint Brahmanand wrote in one of his devotional songs, “ O Saints! I saw a wonder of the wonder. In the higher realm of Consciousness there is beautiful Music going on automatically. It is called Anhadnad - the unstruck Music. This Music can be heard by a deaf person. Anhad nad or unstruck Music is the one which is not created by striking anything but happening continously by itself within us.
When a radio is on, we cannot hear subtle sounds. The commotion caused by traffic outside on the road also stops us from hearing natural sounds. At night, when the cars and buses stop running and the road is deserted, you can hear even the sounds of crickets and other insects clearly and you realise that even insects produce amazing sounds. But you can hear those natural sounds only when the noise of artificial sounds ceases. Similarly, when we close our ears to external sounds, we can experience the subtle sounds of the inner world.
Then St Brahmanand says that a person who is alive, dies and after that he is resurrected, which means that when we meditate, we forget ourselves. We are totally cut off from the world. We merge ourselves into the Word of God, and then, when we come out of meditation, we are resurrected. We come back to life and relate the experience that we had in meditation.
We go to a temple, and what do we see there? A big bell. When they pull the rope up and down, the bell chimes. In the same way, when a person meditates on his life breath, the breath goes up and down, it's like pulling on a rope. This is a box of light, music and nectar and when you pull that rope up and down, the bell chimes. So you should know how to pull that rope. The saints have done that and they have experienced that all permeating the Puranic energy and Music.
People may say, “He's talking about Music, Light, Nectar and so many other things. Maybe it's complicated; may be it's tough.” No! I think it's the easiest thing, because you are breathing constantly. There is never a time when you don't breathe. When you are sleeping, you breathe and when you are dreaming, you breathe. If you concentrate your mind in this breath, you can actually take energy from it; you can have this divine experience forever because that celestial Music is existing right within you. Nobody can lock up his breath in his house and then come here. Nobody can do that. Wherever you go, the breath stays with you. And it is not imagination. Right from childhood we had this experience of Light, Music, Nectar and Vibration with us. It's right within you.
When you go home, you don't want a fine lecture about food – you want food! But for the experience of God, we don't feel the need for a practical experience. We say that we want a good lecture and then we become very emotional. I think that is fruitful only if we have practical experience of Light and Music..
Suppose I have a beaker and a flask and I want to boil something so I say, “Please, flask, help me boil this water” - it's useless. If it's right there it'll happen if you actually boil it otherwise it won't.
When you become emotional, you lose your intellect. If I make you angry, you'll want to kill me and then you take a gun or throw a bottle or do anything just to kill me. At that time you become so emotional that you lose your mental balance and you won't stop to think, ‘If I kill this man, I'll go to jail'. You won't stop to consider its consequences. You'll simply try to shoot me stirred by strong emotions.
In the same way, don't be emotional in spirituality. You have to keep your mind open. Spirituality is like studying science. You have to be very scientific and very, very rational. It's not praying or emotionalism. Praying is asking and meditation is receiving. When you meditate, you automatically receive.
So, if you want to experience that, it is something that you really can do. It's a practical thing. It's not just talk. I could talk about different philosophies and theories and people are doing this. They want to freeze the mind using words, but you cannot have the experience of the reality.
For example, someone asks, “Do you believe in God?” And if you say ‘Yes', he asks, “Do you believe that He is omnipotent?” You reply, “Yes, I believe that He is omnipotent.” Then he asks, “Okay, then tell me, can your omnipotent God create a mountain that He cannot lift?” And you say, “Wait, wait, there is something wrong here!” At that point you become confused. If He can create it but cannot lift it, then He's not omnipotent. And if He can't create such a mountain, He's not all-powerful either.
That becomes very complicated, and your mind is stuck there, but it can only freeze, it can only make the mind stationary for a while, and then, no matter what the answer is, the mind again flies about.
Zen masters have used the puzzles and questions which strike the mind immediately and stop it for a fraction of second, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” And you say, “What, what?” Suddenly, for a split-second, your mind is caught. It stops, but then again it moves. The point is that the mind stays there for a while and then it moves and that's what happens when people try to meditate on physical things.
Physical things come and go. It's like a movie. There is so much action in a movie, but we know for sure that all those events are not happening to us. People are shooting bullets, but we are not getting hurt. If there is a fire on screen, we are not being burned. In the same way, we should understand that the world is like a film, and nothing is real in that.
Everything is temporary, everything changes, and there is only one thing that is stable behind all the changes. We know that something which revolves, revolves around something which is stationary. For example, the planets are revolving. They revolve around something that is not revolving – the sun.
In the same way, everything is changing around the unchangeable, which is calledatman , spirit, or soul. So we should meditate on that unchanging entity with faith and devotion in our hearts. That alone can give us tranquility and peace.
www.manavdharam.org
Sadgurudev Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj
The Vedic Gayatri Mantra is most popular among the Hindus. Why this Mantra is given so much importance out of all other mantras in the Vedas? It is because this Mantra denotes about the technique of meditation in very beautiful words. The literal meaning of the Mantra is “ O God! Ruler of the Three Worlds, You are the Light of the Lights worth knowing, take my mind from all other objects and focus it with full attention on your self-effulgent Light.” This is type of a prayer but unless and until some enlightened person reveals you within yourself the technique of focusing of your mind on the Divine Light within in practice simply reciting the Mantra will be of not much use. Though even Mantra is a type of vibration which does raise the level of Consciousness but unless and until you know the technique the realization is not possible. Therefore, to have the basic experience within and it is possible for every human being if he is sincere, dedicated and approaches a Living Master with genuine thirst for experience, Jesus said, “Seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” But we forget to seek.
I'll give you an example of what meditation means. There goes a story in the Mahabharta -a great epic of ancient India . Acharya Dronacharya was very proficient at teaching archery. One day he called Pandvas and Kauravas together and said, “Look here, I want to test your ability. I want to see what you have learnt from me. So come here with your bows and arrows.”
They all came and stood in line. Then he said, “Now there's a tree in front of you and on a particular branch a bird is sitting. Aim at the bird.” So everyone started doing that; they aimed at the bird. He asked the first disciple, “What do you see?” The disciple replied, “Sir, I see the tree, I see you, the clouds, the sun. I see everything.” Then the teacher asked the second pupil, “What do you see?” He also replied in the same way.
Then in the last Acharya asked Arjuna who was there, “What do you see?” Now, Arjuna was focusing his vision on the bird and nowhere else. He said, “Master, all I see the bird. I don't see the clouds, you, or anything else. I simply see that bird.” So then the Acharya said, “Very well, now aim at the eye of the bird then shoot.” So he focused his attention on the eye of the bird and when the Acharya said, “Shoot!” he shot an arrow and the arrow pierced the bird's eye.
Now what is happening to us is that we are seeing the world, we are seeing so many things, yet we are also trying to meditate. But pure attention is only possible when we have fixed gaze, when with total surrender, total dedication, we attach ourselves to the target, the object of meditation.
Saint Brahmanand wrote in one of his devotional songs, “ O Saints! I saw a wonder of the wonder. In the higher realm of Consciousness there is beautiful Music going on automatically. It is called Anhadnad - the unstruck Music. This Music can be heard by a deaf person. Anhad nad or unstruck Music is the one which is not created by striking anything but happening continously by itself within us.
When a radio is on, we cannot hear subtle sounds. The commotion caused by traffic outside on the road also stops us from hearing natural sounds. At night, when the cars and buses stop running and the road is deserted, you can hear even the sounds of crickets and other insects clearly and you realise that even insects produce amazing sounds. But you can hear those natural sounds only when the noise of artificial sounds ceases. Similarly, when we close our ears to external sounds, we can experience the subtle sounds of the inner world.
Then St Brahmanand says that a person who is alive, dies and after that he is resurrected, which means that when we meditate, we forget ourselves. We are totally cut off from the world. We merge ourselves into the Word of God, and then, when we come out of meditation, we are resurrected. We come back to life and relate the experience that we had in meditation.
We go to a temple, and what do we see there? A big bell. When they pull the rope up and down, the bell chimes. In the same way, when a person meditates on his life breath, the breath goes up and down, it's like pulling on a rope. This is a box of light, music and nectar and when you pull that rope up and down, the bell chimes. So you should know how to pull that rope. The saints have done that and they have experienced that all permeating the Puranic energy and Music.
People may say, “He's talking about Music, Light, Nectar and so many other things. Maybe it's complicated; may be it's tough.” No! I think it's the easiest thing, because you are breathing constantly. There is never a time when you don't breathe. When you are sleeping, you breathe and when you are dreaming, you breathe. If you concentrate your mind in this breath, you can actually take energy from it; you can have this divine experience forever because that celestial Music is existing right within you. Nobody can lock up his breath in his house and then come here. Nobody can do that. Wherever you go, the breath stays with you. And it is not imagination. Right from childhood we had this experience of Light, Music, Nectar and Vibration with us. It's right within you.
When you go home, you don't want a fine lecture about food – you want food! But for the experience of God, we don't feel the need for a practical experience. We say that we want a good lecture and then we become very emotional. I think that is fruitful only if we have practical experience of Light and Music..
Suppose I have a beaker and a flask and I want to boil something so I say, “Please, flask, help me boil this water” - it's useless. If it's right there it'll happen if you actually boil it otherwise it won't.
When you become emotional, you lose your intellect. If I make you angry, you'll want to kill me and then you take a gun or throw a bottle or do anything just to kill me. At that time you become so emotional that you lose your mental balance and you won't stop to think, ‘If I kill this man, I'll go to jail'. You won't stop to consider its consequences. You'll simply try to shoot me stirred by strong emotions.
In the same way, don't be emotional in spirituality. You have to keep your mind open. Spirituality is like studying science. You have to be very scientific and very, very rational. It's not praying or emotionalism. Praying is asking and meditation is receiving. When you meditate, you automatically receive.
So, if you want to experience that, it is something that you really can do. It's a practical thing. It's not just talk. I could talk about different philosophies and theories and people are doing this. They want to freeze the mind using words, but you cannot have the experience of the reality.
For example, someone asks, “Do you believe in God?” And if you say ‘Yes', he asks, “Do you believe that He is omnipotent?” You reply, “Yes, I believe that He is omnipotent.” Then he asks, “Okay, then tell me, can your omnipotent God create a mountain that He cannot lift?” And you say, “Wait, wait, there is something wrong here!” At that point you become confused. If He can create it but cannot lift it, then He's not omnipotent. And if He can't create such a mountain, He's not all-powerful either.
That becomes very complicated, and your mind is stuck there, but it can only freeze, it can only make the mind stationary for a while, and then, no matter what the answer is, the mind again flies about.
Zen masters have used the puzzles and questions which strike the mind immediately and stop it for a fraction of second, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” And you say, “What, what?” Suddenly, for a split-second, your mind is caught. It stops, but then again it moves. The point is that the mind stays there for a while and then it moves and that's what happens when people try to meditate on physical things.
Physical things come and go. It's like a movie. There is so much action in a movie, but we know for sure that all those events are not happening to us. People are shooting bullets, but we are not getting hurt. If there is a fire on screen, we are not being burned. In the same way, we should understand that the world is like a film, and nothing is real in that.
Everything is temporary, everything changes, and there is only one thing that is stable behind all the changes. We know that something which revolves, revolves around something which is stationary. For example, the planets are revolving. They revolve around something that is not revolving – the sun.
In the same way, everything is changing around the unchangeable, which is calledatman , spirit, or soul. So we should meditate on that unchanging entity with faith and devotion in our hearts. That alone can give us tranquility and peace.
www.manavdharam.org
26 December 2009
Satsang
One day while King Dasarath was hunting near a river, he heard a sound. He shot an arrow in the direction of the sound. This arrow hit a boy named Shravan Kumar. King Dasarath ran to the river and saw the young boy lying there with an arrow in his chest. The King begged his forgiveness and asked how he came to be there. Shravan Kumar said that he was taking his blind elderly parents on pilgrimage.
Along the way they felt thirsty, so he had come to bring water from the river. He then requested the king, “Please take this water to my parents so that they do not die of thirst.” King Dasarath took the pitcher full of water to Shravan Kumar's parents and offered it to them. The blind couple understood from the king's voice that he was not their son and asked, “Who are you?” King Dasarath replied, “I shot your son by mistake and he died. But before dying he asked me to quench the thirst of his parents. So I have brought water for you.”
Shravan Kumar's parents said, “We cannot drink water from the hands of the person who killed our son. We would rather die.” And as they died, they cursed him saying, “You will also die due to separation from your son, just as we are dying now.” Years later, when Lord Shri Rama was exiled and left for the forest with Laxman and Sita, King Dasarath did indeed give up his life due to the grief of separation from his son.
www.manavdharam.org
Along the way they felt thirsty, so he had come to bring water from the river. He then requested the king, “Please take this water to my parents so that they do not die of thirst.” King Dasarath took the pitcher full of water to Shravan Kumar's parents and offered it to them. The blind couple understood from the king's voice that he was not their son and asked, “Who are you?” King Dasarath replied, “I shot your son by mistake and he died. But before dying he asked me to quench the thirst of his parents. So I have brought water for you.”
Shravan Kumar's parents said, “We cannot drink water from the hands of the person who killed our son. We would rather die.” And as they died, they cursed him saying, “You will also die due to separation from your son, just as we are dying now.” Years later, when Lord Shri Rama was exiled and left for the forest with Laxman and Sita, King Dasarath did indeed give up his life due to the grief of separation from his son.
www.manavdharam.org
25 December 2009
AT CHRISTMAS
December 25th is celebrated all over the world as Christmas Day. It is a day of celebrations and festivities primarily for Christians, but is also regarded as a day of peace by people of all religions. Christ's message was the message of sacrifice and love. Jesus came to the world for two reasons. The first was to show us the Way to God and His love and the second, so Christians believe, was to take upon himself the blame for our sins.
Christ was the highest expression of the Love-dominated Teacher, not only preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is within, but actually mapping out the route to God-realization and giving practical instructions through his own perfect life. Jesus emphasized the role of the Master, the one who holds the key to the kingdom of Heaven . He did not hesitate to declare:
No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Jesus Christ was known for his forgiveness. That was his innate nature because He was the son of God and one with God. Compassion and forgiveness poured from his heart for sinners and the afflicted. Jesus forgave many sinners and changed their lives completely. One of these was a certain woman who had probably heard him preach and wanted to show her appreciation. She went into the house of Simon who had invited Jesus and his disciples to dinner. At the feet of Jesus she cried in repentance for her sins. Simon was shocked that Jesus would let such a woman touch his feet. Jesus told him, “There were two men who owed money to a money lender. One owed him five hundred dollars and the other one fifty dollars. Neither one could pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Which one, then, will love him more?” “I suppose,” answered Simon, “that it would be the one who was forgiven more.” “Your answer is correct,” said Jesus. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon: “Do you see this woman? I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears...the great love she has shown proves that her many sins have been forgiven. Whoever has been forgiven little, however, shows only a little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman “Your sins are forgiven.” The others sitting at the table began to say to themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” But Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”www.manavdharam.org
24 December 2009
Satsang
He says that even a leper, if he remembers the Holy Name of God, is far better than a person of sound health but bereft of the Name.
So King Shivi went on cutting his own flesh and putting it in one pan of a weighing machine and on the other pan was the dove. But even though he cut a lot of flesh from all his limbs the scales did not balance. Then King Shivi himself sat on the pan. Then the god Indra who had been disguised as the eagle and the fire god Agni disguised as the dove manifested and said, ‘Shivi, you have proven yourself to be great in penance and sacrifice. We had, in fact, come to test you.”
King Shivi's name is indelible. It will live forever in our history and his sacrifice is an ideal for us. So we should also establish our own ideal by our service and remembrance of Holy Name.
www.manavdharam.org
23 December 2009
Satsang
One day a dove landed in the lap of King Shivi and prayed, “O king, please protect me. I have small offspring. If this eagle which is following me eats me, then my babies will be orphaned and this sin will be upon you, because anyone asking for shelter must be protected.” So the king told the eagle, “I will protect the dove because it has come to me for shelter and I will not give it to you. However in return, I will give you anything else you may ask of me.”
The eagle replied, “O King, give me some flesh from your right thigh equal in weight to the dove. I will feed this to my children and will not kill the dove.” The king was happy that his body would be used for the benefit of the dove. Only those who work for the sake of others are great. There are so many human beings and the majority of them are like beasts. St. Kabir said, “ Nam japat kushti bhala, chui chui pare jo cham. Kanchan deh kis kam ki, ja mukh nahin nam. ”
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