31 July 2014

St. Tulsidas said

Suicide doesn’t just mean killing the body. Its real meaning is losing oneself in indulgence and preferring insignificant material possessions to spiritual treasures. St. Tulsidas said, “You may be the richest man in the world, and your dominion may stretch from sunrise to sunset, but what is it worth if you can’t take it with you anyway?”
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30 July 2014

Reality

Modern man lives such an artificial, unnatural life that he has forgotten what he really is. He has lost touch with his own consciousness, existing as nothing more than a lump of flesh and bones. He is content to limit himself to material things. People nowadays have become so materialistic and their consciousness is so degraded, that they are actually amazed when they hear about spiritual things. The idea that the soul exists confuses them. They pooh-pooh such ideas, calling them pie-in-the-sky and mere figments of the imagination. They believe the untrue to be true and consider untrue the living Truth, which is unchanging, eternal and existence itself. There is only one kind of enlightenment, but there are many kinds of ignorance. A totally materialistic person is virtually insentient. There is hardly any awareness left in him. Such a person regards only material things as being real.
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29 July 2014

When Spiritual Master appears?

Religion in the form of dogma and belief is never absent from society, nor are rituals and traditions. They become just another aspect of our social life. Pandits, priests and mullahas keep them going and even modify them. However, when spirituality disappears from religion, a spiritual master appears on earth to elevate us beyond the level of ritual and external forms of worship lead us towards true spiritual awareness. Such Teachers reveal the perfect and pure Reality behind religion, which is timeless and universal, and one and the same for all mankind. It is his original and natural religion. This ‘core religion’ is at the heart of all religions, it is the common factor in them all, and knowing it makes one truly religious. That is why all saints and masters opposed the external practices of the religions of their day and proved to their contemporaries how false the current superstitions were. They turned dogma into Knowledge, ceremonial worship into meditation, materialism into spiritual consciousness, and enmity into love. 
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28 July 2014

Satsang

There is a plant from which we get a very soft cotton. When the flower is closed, birds don't know that there is cotton inside. They think that there is something good to eat inside that flower, but when they put their beaks inside they get only cotton, nothing valuable. The cotton flies away and the birds don't get anything. They regret having stuck their beaks inside those flowers and wish they had done something else. In the same way, we think that there is something very beautiful and worthwhile in this world, that there is happiness in this world, but when we put our beaks into it we find that the world is as insubstantial as that cotton, and it flies away from us. There is no happiness, there is no peace, in this world. The world is just like the flower of that plant, just like the cotton that flies away; in it there is no reality. And just like that bird, we will regret it later.
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27 July 2014

Aspects of Religion

Every religion has two aspects. The first is its external forms i.e. its theology, ceremonies, rituals, traditions, mythology etc. This is the social or collective aspect, which is the source and sustenance of the culture and civilization of a nation, and from which springs its literature and arts. It endows the entire community or nation with a collective consciousness and provides a harmony and balance in social life. It also provides lifestyle, ideology and beliefs.


Even so, this is the secondary aspect of religion-its by-product. When someone is ignorant of the inner Knowledge, and has no practical spiritual realization, he doesn’t know how to control his mind and instincts, so some kind of code of ethical and righteous behaviour must be imposed to control external eruptions of the individual’s ego and desires, and to keep him within the bounds of morality. This aspect of religion is external, not internal; collective, not personal. Although not too inspirational, it does serve the purpose of keeping individuals in check and societies regulated.
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26 July 2014

Satguru

Satguru is like a boatman who ferries you from one bank of the river to the other. He takes us across the ocean of worldly existence. Only a seed, which dissolves itself in the soil, can grow into a plant. When a devotee dissolves himself at the Master's feet he is liberated.
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Original Capital

We run after Maya and we build up mountains of attachment for material things. But a saint called Kabir said, "Listen, my friends! Ultimately nothing stays in your grasp. You will lose everything, even what you have." If you construct a palace of attachment and desire for worldly things, then you will never get anything. Nothing will stay in your hands. You will even lose whatever capital you have, never mind about increasing the capital or getting interest on it. You will even lose your original capital, which is this human life. It is so valuable. It has been given to you by the grace of God.
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25 July 2014

Knowledge

People think that they can know the Truth, the Spiritual Knowledge, by traveling all over the world, or learning many languages and cultures. But the saints have said that the Knowledge of the Truth is beyond our mind and intellect. So how can one know this Knowledge through mind or intellect? This path is very subtle and it is the path of love. But what kind of love? Not the love of a mother for her child or a child for its father or a husband for his wife, for this worldly love one day dies or is destroyed. But love for God, love for that Power, is permanent and everlasting; it never dies, it is never destroyed.
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24 July 2014

How to receive Knowledge?

Knowledge of God cannot be obtained by cleverness or money. You cannot get it by earning a lot of money or by intellectual exercises. You can only get this Knowledge with the help of a saint and only when you ask with a pure and guileless heart, without any ego, with an open heart, just like the pure open heart of a child. When you come and ask for this Knowledge with purity, honesty and sincerity, without any arguments and with your questions or doubts removed, then alone can you receive it.