THOUGHT-THE BARRIER TO EXPERIENCING REALITY

Thought is blockage - it is a barrier. It creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and Nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate “other.” You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is. By “forget”, I mean that you can no longer feel this oneness as self-evident reality. You may believe it to be true, but you no longer know it to be true. A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become liberating.
Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we do not realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. It also creates a false mind-made self that casts a shadow of fear and suffering.
The philosopher Descartes believed that he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: “I think, therefore, I am.” He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking. The compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in a state apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict, a world that reflects the ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind. Enlightenment is a state of wholeness, of being “at one” and, therefore, at peace. At one with life in its manifested aspect, the world, as well as with your deepest self and life unmanifested - at one with Being. Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continuous conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant continuing. What an incredible liberation this is!
Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance. For example, there is nothing wrong with cells dividing and multiplying in the body, but when this process continues in disregard of the total organism, we have disease.
The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly - you usually do not use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.
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ESSENCE OF RELIGION

The teachings of all realised souls state clearly that religion does not mean mere rituals and dogmas. It has eternal values which are evergreen. Religion in essence is the realisation of ‘ Svabhava ' i.e. one's innate nature. The real nature of every soul is equanimity. In this state, consciousness is completely free from constant flickering, excitement, disharmony and disorders. In reality, the soul is different from the body and should remain away from the impure state of mind. The object of religion is to achieve equanimity of mind and get real peace and bliss.
Some religious philosophies emphasize knowledge while some emphasize action, but in a real sense religion takes an integral view of life. We need a combination of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct to attain salvation. Without right faith, there is no right knowledge and without right knowledge, there is no right conduct. According to Lord Mahavira, he who knows the Self to be wholly different from the body and mind is said to be the master of all scriptures. Right knowledge is that which helps one to understand the truth, control the mind and purify the soul. Equanimity of mind and soul is the guiding principle of religious life. Equanimity of mind is non-attachment. Equanimity of body is non-violence, and equanimity of thought is non-absolutism. Non-violence is the cardinal principle of religion. It means giving reverence to all forms of life. Human beings, animals, plants, trees and insects all have some source of life-energy. This energy is present even in invisible creatures living in air, water and space. Respect and love for all types of life is the essence of religion.
Respect for all forms of life implies essential equality. Only action, not birth, is the determining factor of human status. Lord Mahavira proclaimed, “A person does not become a monk by merely torturing the body nor a Brahmana by reciting the Onkar Mantra , he does not become a Muni by living in the forest or a hermit by wearing clothes woven from grass. One becomes a monk through equanimity, a Brahmana through celibacy, a Muni by his knowledge and a hermit by his austerities”.
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RELIGION IS REALISATION

We read in one of the Buddhist scriptures, ‘The Tathagata has no theories.' If anyone came to Buddha with the intent of merely satisfying an idle curiosity with respect to metaphysical problems, he was certain to be disappointed.
One day one such inquirer came to discuss theories of the soul and the world and the problem of knowledge. Buddha observed that if one has been wounded by a poisoned arrow and refuses to accept help from the physician until he has learned the exact nature of the man who wounded him - to what caste he belonged, his stature and his complexion - such a one would indeed be foolish. Some questions Buddha dismissed as useless and unnecessary, while others, he said, could not be answered in logical terms.
In the same way, the Upanishads admonish us to give up vain talk, for it brings “weariness to the tongue”. Moreover, they speak of the truth “which words cannot express”. “The mind,” they say, “comes away baffled, unable to reach it.”
Buddha, like the sages of the Upanishads, insisted that one should experience the truth for oneself. In the Upanishads we read, “I have known, beyond all darkness, that great Being of golden effulgence. Only by knowing Him does one conquer death.” There is no other way of escaping the wheel of birth, death and rebirth. Truth is to be known by one's own inner exertions.
Buddha also exhorted Ananda, “Be lamps unto yourselves. Be a refuge to yourselves. Take yourselves no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold fast to the truth as a refuge. And whosoever, Ananda, either now or after I am dead, shall be a lamp unto themselves and a refuge unto themselves, who takes no external refuge, but - holding fast to the truth as their lamp, and holding fast as their refuge to the truth - shall not look for refuge to any one besides themselves, it is they, Ananda, among my bhikshus, who shall reach the very topmost heights! But they must be anxious to learn.”
“But they must be anxious to learn”; and to learn one must experiment - an action demanded by all the great religious teachers of India . For them essential religion does not lie in dogma or creed, in doctrines or theories, but in experience alone. From the Vedic age to our own, every spiritual leader has declared this primary truth - that one must realize God in one's own soul.
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SAINTS LIVE ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS

All the saints who came into the world to awaken mankind were anchored in Truth (the highest goal). The sufferings encountered by human beings are eased by the satsang such saints gave, like clouds quenching the scorched earth with their rain. So it is said, “Sant vitap sarita giri dharni. Par hit het, saban ki karni .” Saints, trees, rivers, mountains and earth exist only and always for the benefit of others. Trees put up with cold, heat and rain and offer shade and fruit to whoever approach them.

The Ganges flows continuously, day and night without a break, simply for the benefit of others. Mountains bear the weight of so many trees and shrubs and the wood of all these trees is used by us either for burning or for making furniture. Earth produces so many varieties of fruit, flowers, crops, nuts, pulses and such things for our daily use. Earth never differentiates between high and low and absorbs all creatures, after death, in itself. Saints also come into this world simply for the sake of others. They put up with all kinds of hurdles, obstacles and troubles to help others. Their whole life is dedicated to doing good to others and uplifting and awakening mankind. “Bhu raj taru sam sant kripala. Par hit sahen nit vipat vishala. Sant uday santat sukhkari. Vishwa sukhad jimi indu tamari” : The appearance of a saint is always pleasurable for all, like the calm and soothing moon which wipes out the darkness of night. Likewise, saints wipe away the troubles and miseries of mankind.
Lord Rama taught Bhilni the nine steps of devotion and described the 7 th step as“Saptam sab mohi may jag dekhe. Mo te adhik sant kar lekhe.” “ See Me in everything and revere saints even more than Me.” You may wonder why you should give more importance to saints when you know that the entire creation is the body of God. “Ram sindhu ghan sajjan dheera. Chandan taru hari sant sameera.” The Lord, being omnipresent, is present within the heart of everyone. He does not tell anyone that He is dwelling there or that one should meditate, and neither He prevents anyone from doing good or bad. But when saints, like clouds, come into this world, then they shower us with the rain of satsang and glory of God. They impart the Spiritual Knowledge through which a true seeker experiences Divine Light within and this is how the darkness of ignorance is eradicated.
Lord Rama is like a sandalwod tree and saints are like a breeze. The whole tree is full of perfume, but only when the wind blows is this perfume diffused throughout the entire forest and thus the whole forest becomes like a sandal tree. The essence of the Lord permeates the entire body but is not able to remove miseries of anyone. However, when saints come, like the breeze, they impart through satsang the Spiritual Knowledge to sincere seekers and thus a disciple experiences bliss. Even though the entire forest is permeated with the sandalwood perfume due to the breeze, a bamboo tree is unaffected, it remains as it is. A person who listens patiently and receives Spiritual Knowledge, becomes wise and blissful by doing regular meditation, but foolish and unwise people, for whom satsang goes in one ear and out the other, never improve even by having the company of saints.

All pictures of saints, sages, hermits and Incarnation are products of the imagination of an artist, so they would not be real. These days there are temples of ‘Bharat Mata' and regular worshipping takes place there. But if you want to see ‘Bharat Mata', where will you look? ‘Bharat Mata' (‘Mother India') is the name of the entire land of India . Similarly, you would have seen pictures of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. In some they are depicted as a child, in others they are youthful. All these pictures were painted by artists according to their feelings and imagination. We know that God incarnated in other forms but we worship Him in the form of human beings. People see pictures of rishis and sages living in the jungle with long hair and beard and so they also start doing the same. Then others, seeing these unkempt persons, take them to be real saints and devotees and waste their invaluable human life serving and obeying these so-called saints. It appears that people have closed their eyes to what saints and divine personalities have said. St Kabir, for example said, “Man na rangaye, rangaye jogi kapara. Asan mari jogi mandir men baithe, Nam chharri poojan lage pathara. Mathwa muday jogi bhagwa rangole, Geeta banchi jogi ho gaile labra. Kanwa pharay jogi jatwa barhole, darhi barhay jogi ho gaile bakara. Man na rangaye, rangaye jogi kapra: “ The impostor dresses like a yogi but his mind is not dyed in devotion. This false yogi sits in a meditation posture in a temple. He does not have the Knowledge of Name and worships gods made of stone. He shaves his head and colours his clothing similar to that of a true renunciate. He reads the Bhagavad Gita without knowing its true real meaning. He gets his ears pierced; he has long hair and a beard and looks like a goat.”
When God is within our heart then His Name should also be within our heart. Where there is a thing, its name is also there. But we do not remember the Holy Name of God, which is ever-present within our heart and we think we are great devotees as we do our external rituals. Will such external things yield any benefit?
You believe in Lord Krishna. But you do not try to know his primordial name which is within and instead you worship idols made of metals or stone. Will you accrue any benefit from such things? St.Tulsidas says, “Ghat men hai soojhe nahin, lanat aisi jind. Tulsi ya sansar ko bhayo motia bind.” God is within our heart but we do not see! Shame on such a futile life! Tulsi says that the whole world is suffering from cataracts”.
If one could find God by living in the forest, growing long hair or living naked then why did Lord Krishna not say in the Bhagavadgita that one can reach him by doing such things? In fact he says the opposite. He says that he cannot be realised by such external means. He explained the importance of Spiritual Knowledge and told Arjuna to remember him constantly and also to fight.
Bullehshah also said the same thing: “Do your worldly duties with your hands and keep your mind ever hooked to God.” St. Mansoor says, “If you want to meet God, then keep your mind continuously in His Name.” Think about King Janak, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, St Kabir and all other saints and Divine Personalities. Did any of them live in the forest?
Sukhdev Muni ran into the forest soon after he was born but the great king Janak, while ruling the entire kingdom, was not conscious of his body and Sukhdev eventually accepted him as his Spiritual Master. You are redeemed when the mind ceases to fluctuate. Why was King Janak called ‘unconscious of his body'? Because his mind was ever joined to the Holy Name. Whatever a person does, he gets engrossed in that. He becomes like a worm of illusion! He appears to be human but his actions are like that of animals. If you remove a worm from the dung in which it lives, it will again and again go back to the filth from where it was taken. Similarly, a worldly person is happy in illusory things. You may put in any amount of effort to steer such people towards devotion, but they do not relish it. They prefer to circulate through the millions of species. They think that by listening to satsang, serving the master and acquiring Spiritual Knowledge they will get salvation and then they will not be able to enjoy worldly pleasures. Such people can't understand the ultimate bliss of devotion.
Saints say that you have wasted your precious human life in worldly illusory pleasures as you did not acquire Spiritual Knowledge and did not remember the Holy Name of the Almighty. You have lived no differently to a pig, an ass, cat, or dog. You may have a bed and mattress to sleep on, whereas a lion sleeps on the bare earth in a jungle. A lion eats raw flesh whereas you eat cooked meat. A parrot sees the fruit of the semal tree and thinks that it will eat the fruit after it is ripened and in this hope it sits on the branch of the tree and goes on waiting. But when the parrot pierces the fruit with its beak, cotton comes out. This should not happen to us. We should not go on waiting until ultimately our lifetime comes to an end. So well before that, we should understand the importance of this human body. We should get Spiritual Knowledge and do as much meditation as possible.
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THE FLASH OF UNDERSTANDING

Since time immemorial Spiritual Knowledge has been considered to be the Supreme Knowledge. "Know Thyself" was written on the gate of the Academy of Plato , the great Greek philosopher. Self Realization is the motto of Indian culture and thought. But what is Spiritual Knowledge is has been debated down through the ages. The literal meaning of Spiritual Knowledge is " to know the Spirit". Spiritual Knowledge deals with the study of the Spirit, just as physical science deals with the study of matter.
Spirituality is neither a concept nor a dogma but a flash of understanding; in other words, an awakening of the insight that lies dormant in man. This happens when the turbulent mind becomes still and silent. The light of spirit is clouded by the dust of the flickering mind. The chattering of the mind disturbs the subtle inner rythmic sound of the Spirit. Therefore, meditation within oneself is the laboratory of Spiritual Knowledge. When a person, with the grace and guidance of the Spiritual Master, gets initiation into the inner realm of the Spirit and, through attention and proper focusing on the light of the Spirit and the subtle rythmic vibration, the fluctuation of the mind stuff slowly and gradually becomes still and silent, then the light of the Spirit is experienced as flash of understanding or insight. That is when one starts experiencing the existence of the entity called the Spirit or Soul.
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LIVE TOTALLY IN THE HOLY NAME

In the infinity of life, all is perfect, whole and complete.

Live therefore in harmony and balance with entire creation.

Deep at the centre of your being, there is an infinite well of love.

Allow this love to flow to the surface

So that it fills your very being and radiates out from you in all directions

and returns to you multiplied.

Sharing love makes you feel good;

it is an expression of your inner joy, love thyself;

While taking loving care of your body, mind and spirit.

Enjoy with love vibrant health and energy.

Let vibration of love fill your self and your surroundings,

so that all who enter your life, feel this love and be nourished by it.

Love thyself; and totally release the past.

Be free and forgiving by living totally in the Holy Name experiencing your

life breath in each and every moment.

Have faith in the Almighty, knowing that your future is bright and joyous

and secure, for you are a beloved child of the Universe,

and the Universe lovingly takes care of you

now and forever more. All is well in your world.

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THE NECTAR OF MEDITATION

Meditation is a mystical term for the process that awakens the dormant spirit in man. It does miracles. It opens up the higher realms of consciousness. The mystic saints have extra sensory powers because of deep meditation. Meditation is a wonderful tonic for the body and mind. It releases tension and balances the mind. It opens the centres of consciousness. It increases the intuitive power of a person and develops his insight. It annihilates the ego self and unites with the cosmic self. It is the wonder of wonders. One who does not meditate cannot have wisdom. Meditation opens the third eye by which your perception becomes keen and sharp. You can look into the distant and esoteric meaning of life. The divine play becomes visible through meditation. Meditation gives lot of mysterious powers and skills to man. The Hebrew Bible alludes to meditation as the method by which all prophets achieved visionary states of consciousness. Meditation reaches the ecstatic and blissful stage when the ‘meditator' is no longer there. So if you want to drink the nectar of life, meditation is the only way.

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SEEK TRUTH, LIGHT, PEACE AND BLISS

A seeker of Truth has to lead a very alert and vigilant life. Though he wants to live from moment to moment and meditate from breath to breath, his mind slips into brooding about past memories or future rosy imaginations. The momentum of bad habits is so strong that it drags the mind into reveries of sense pleasures and temptations. One therefore lives in a psychological dilemma between repentance and indulgence. One feels remorseful about his slavery to the senses and takes a solemn oath to overcome the inner weaknesses forever, but when the desire for some pleasures arise in the mind, this repentance and resolve fade away. The seeker of Truth, therefore, stands between the two extremes of repentance-born resolutions and desire-instigated forgetfulness.
Before we make our New Year's resolution, we should apply real understanding and determination. Anyone who wants a permanent safeguard against temptation must constantly strengthen his right resolve with positive thoughts, service and deep meditation. Watchfulness and introspection hold the key to banishing temptations whenever they threaten self-control.
In this new year definitely make a resolution to do meditation - not in a hurry but with a strong discrimination and determination. We wish you the happiest New Year and a renewed resolve to seek Truth. And may you enjoy the inner journey of the Self towards light, peace and bliss.
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Can you explain about the types of karmas?

Yes, there are basically three types. There are karmas, the seeds which you are creating, there are karmas which you are suffering now and there are karmas which you will suffer. It’s like past, present and future karmas. Now, the karmas which you have done in the past you are suffering or enjoying at present, but you will, through Knowledge, be eliminating the karmas which you will suffer in the future, or even at present. You can correct your present and completely change your future. What you are cannot be changed - that you have to suffer. You have not broken, you have not neutralized your karmas, you are still under the karmic law. You are not above that. Coming here is due to karma. but through satsang, through practising the path of Knowledge, one can actually break that cycle of karma. www.manavdharam.org