Why spiritual effort?

Thought for the Day 

Why should we persist in our spiritual efforts until we are successful?

It is indeed tragic to witness the downfall of the child of immortality, struggling in despair and distress. If only everyone examines these: “What are my qualifications? What is my position?” They can soon realise their downfall. Will a tiger, however hungry, eat popcorn or monkey nuts? Aim at the goal which your lineage entitles you; how can a parrot taste the sweetness of the mango if it pecks at the fruit of the cotton tree? Let your effort be in keeping with the dignity of the goal! Never slacken effort, whatever be the obstacle, however long the journey! Remember, the goal will be near you faster than the pace with which you are near the goal! God is as eager to save you as you are to be saved! God is prema. He is karuna (love and compassion) for all who flounder on the road! He is called Bhakta-abheesta-prada (He who grants the desires of His every devotee).

- Divine Discourse, Sep 07, 1966. 

What do we witness? 

We are children of immortality, and if we fall down, we don't know who we are and why we are struggling in despair and distress. 

He tells us to examine these: "What are our qualifications?"

Why should we do this? 

If we inquire in the nature of our real being, we will find that we are immortal beings. Therefore, we have to inquire and how do we do that? 

We listen to his words, we think it over and that is how we get to the conclusion that it is not okay what we think we are when we struggle in despair and distress. 

With other words, we have forgotten, who we really are. And how are we doing that to not forget it again?

It is indeed tragic to witness the downfall of the child of immortality, struggling in despair and distress. If only everyone examines these: “What are my qualifications? What is my position?” They can soon realise their downfall. Will a tiger, however hungry, eat popcorn or monkey nuts? 

Aim at the goal which your lineage entitles you; how can a parrot taste the sweetness of the mango if it pecks at the fruit of the cotton tree? Let your effort be in keeping with the dignity of the goal! Never slacken effort, whatever be the obstacle, however long the journey! 

There is no giving up. 

The motivation is the peace we get when we get there. 

And he often tells us that we can be much closer to the goal then we think if we are regular in our Sadhana and we follow his words, we listen to him and we think it over and we don't imagine that we know it already. 

Remember, the goal will be near you faster than the pace with which you are near the goal! God is as eager to save you as you are to be saved! God is prema. He is karuna (love and compassion) for all who flounder on the road! He is called Bhakta-abheesta-prada (He who grants the desires of His every devotee).

And he encourages every of our efforts in making us feel good about it and remind us that God is interested in helping us. 

We have to listen to him and to inquire until it is done. There is no other way to convince our own intellect than in the realization that our own higher self is infinite being and not the body and no the mind. 

😐  😃

Listen - Think it over - Practice

 

Thought for the Day  Thieves who rob man of valuable treasures, like peace and contentment, equipoise and courage, are being honoured as masters! Real masters who ensure peace and happiness are treated with irreverence and disgust! Thieves - lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hate - are honoured as welcome guests and the real well-wishers like tranquillity and humility are shown the door! You desire to drink a sweet drink, but instead of sugar, you drop salt into the cup, imagining salt to be sugar. Isn’t this the state of man, today? He craves for peace, but does not know how to attain it! The means he adopts, will not lead him to the anticipated end! A large percentage of people who come to Me ask for moksha (liberation) from the bondage of grief and joy, birth and death. But, when I offer to bless them with the consummation of their wish, they do not come forward; they would rather have it, ten years or five years later. So, all the thirst and craving are just a pose; it is a fashionable slogan, and nothing more. Man must be sincere; his word must be in conformity with his feelings, and his action must be in conformity with his word. Resolve on this practice, at least from today. - Divine Discourse, Feb 15, 1969.

I have not been in this blog for years. The purpose is to think over the divine words. What does it mean for us the divine words?  We get aware of it in doing it.  I do it because he was in my dream and I wrote a book and he said that I should use his words. We find his words in his discourses and therefore, I use the thought for the day, it is more than a quote and not an entire discourse, what is usually a lot of text to think over, and if we get too much text, we do not think it over, we just read it and forget it again, usually. Or we think we understand it, and it is not true. Why is it not true? We understand it with our mind and that doesn't work. The mind is related to the body. What we have here, what is called the divine words, that is the Atma. The Paramatma is the entire universe, therefore, how can the mind unterstand it?  Impossible.  That is why we think it over. The purpose is to get to a right conclusion. If the conclusion is not right and in the mind, it is a mind conclusion. If we think we understand it all without thinking it over in the aim to get to a right conclusion, we are in the mind and wrong. That is the meaning of ignorance, we think we known, but we don't know.  What we do here is looking at that difference between what we think we know and a right conclusion getting aware that we cannot know in our mind, we have to approach the divine words differently.  He talks about thieves and that they rob man of something. What are those treasures? They are listed up here. Peace of mind, contentment, equanimity and courage, that he calls the masters. Do we know those masters or do we try to achieve it?  Mostly we try to get there, right?  In fact, it would be nice to be wrong and to find some people who claim they know peace of mind, but that is usually rather not the case. If you don't agree with me, that is fine. You think you know and have peace of mind, we can only congratulate you, good for you,  If we don't know it and we have not the experience of it, how can we know that these are the masters. It is more likely that we don't know he masters, but we would like to know it.  Thus, if we know the thieves and we get aware of those thieves, we get able to know the masters.  Thieves who rob man of valuable treasures, like peace and contentment, equipoise and courage, are being honoured as masters!  In the next sentence it is about that, it means not only we don't know the masters, they are treated with irreverence and disgust. Now, we have a problem, right?  Are we ready to do what we do here if we treat it with irreverence and disgust? For sure not.  Therefore, it is already a big thing if we get that far to be able to listen to a real master.  Real masters who ensure peace and happiness are treated with irreverence and disgust! Thieves - lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hate - are honoured as welcome guests and the real well-wishers like tranquillity and humility are shown the door!  What we notice here is ignorance. It means we think we do something, we think we put sugar in the drink, but i reality we put salt. What is the outcome of it? It is not what we think it should be, it is a deception, and that is a problem. We are not aware what we are doing.  If we would know, wouldn't we try to do it differently, and what do we have to do to be aware of the difference?  You desire to drink a sweet drink, but instead of sugar, you drop salt into the cup, imagining salt to be sugar. Isn’t this the state of man, today? He craves for peace, but does not know how to attain it!  That is a deplorable state of mind, we crave for peace, we try to think that it is the master, but we don't know how to get there.  The means he adopts, will not lead him to the anticipated end! A large percentage of people who come to Me ask for moksha (liberation) from the bondage of grief and joy, birth and death. But, when I offer to bless them with the consummation of their wish, they do not come forward; they would rather have it, ten years or five years later.  Here is mentioned that a lot of people went to him and asked for Moksha, and then we are not ready for it.  Why are we not ready for it? We can even live in the delusion that we are ready and we are not. What is that thirst and craving behind it?  He calls it a fashionable slogan, we would like to be there, but we are not. What is the biggest obstacle that we think we do everything we can to get there, and we don't get there anyhow?  What is the obstacle? It is that we think we know. We read it and we think  understood, I know, and that is the ego feeling. We will get back to that. He tells us that the 'I know' had to go.  Thus, what does it means, what is the consequence if we know that 'we don't know'? We have to think over his words. Do we really know it?  It comes to the conclusion that we have to face it, no matter how much we try, we are not sincere enough to listen to his words, and therefore, we don't know. He is the knower, it means we cannot know it in the mind. We have to get to a right conclusion.  So, all the thirst and craving are just a pose; it is a fashionable slogan, and nothing more. Man must be sincere; his word must be in conformity with his feelings, and his action must be in conformity with his word. Resolve on this practice, at least from today. Here is mentioned that we have to watch and be aware of what we are thinking. How do we make sure that our words are in conformity with our feeling and that our feeling is good and not bad?  And our actions have to accordingly in harmony with the words. Harmony between thoughts, words and deeds. That is the step towards unity and we need to watch our thoughts and feelings to be able to get there, right! That is why we think it over in the purpose to get aware of it, and to not forget it.

😏

All are One in the Self

 Two directions - unbound by form or form-bound

One can subdue the mind through concentration. The process can be practised in either of two directions - A-rupa or Sa-rupa. A-rupa means 'unbound' by form. One feels that he is not the doer or enjoyer; he is only an agent of God, an instrument, and therefore one is unaffected, well or ill, when the act results in good or bad! One has no identity with the rupa (form or body). Sa-rupa meditation gets lost in dualities of pleasure and pain, profit and loss, for it considers the name and form, the body and its activities as valid. Similarly, man has the choice of two paths - the Pravritti Marga (the path of involvement) or the Nivritti Marga (the path of non-involvement). When involved, man is confronted with the six internal foes - lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hatred. When non-involved, man is helped by six internal friends - sense control, mind control, fortitude, contentment, faith and equanimity.

 

Here in this thought for the day Swami talks about concentration and how it can be practiced. A-rupa or Sa-rupa. And what is unbound?

If we focus on the self, we are all the same, there is no form, we are all the same, the self, and we merge in that focus,  it is like with a mantra, it keeps us focused and we surf on the sound waves, all focused on the same divine truth and light only, and there can only be pure love, how can it not be pure if there is only one?

As well during singing of devotional song, if all sing and even if we are not singing, we are still one and singing, because we are one, we are the self, instruments and in that sense singing as well for the self. 

We have to keep the oneness in focus and when we notice that we are in thoughts or somewhere else, we come back to the self. It is like meditation practice with a mantra, only the focus is the self and oneness. There is only one self. The self reflects in all of us the same way as pure white light. It is the reflection of the highest self, the Paramatma, the self we can experience as reflection of white light is the Atma and the self we project in the body is the ego, but it is always the self. The Paramatma is too big to be experienced. It is the entire universe.   

Focus on oneness has to be an effortless process, like with meditation, we do not worry about thoughts, but when we realize that we are not in our focus on the self being one with the other singers, we come back to the self and we remember that we are one only.

Chanting is not enough

Offer your love to Him 

Mere chanting of Lord’s name is not enough. Offer your love to God. Love is not your property. In fact, it is God’s property. Surrender to God what is His. What is the use of a long life without this offering? You have no right to offer your love to anyone other than God! When you offer all your love to God, He will look after all your needs. There is nothing that He cannot do in this world. In city or in hamlet, in forest or in sky, on the high peak or in the deep ocean, God is everywhere. He pervades space and time. All beings are His forms. Realise this truth, transform it into practice and enjoy bliss. This is true devotion. Embodiments of Love! These days, wherever we go there is unrest, ego, and conflicts. You should develop love and share it with all relatives, friends, and even enemies. Then, everything will be enveloped in love!

 (Thought for the day)

 

Swami is making us aware that chanting the name of God alone is not enough. We have to offer our love to God.

That is what we do in thinking over his words, we do it because it is a service to him. In the Sai center I had been before, often the fear was in people that by thinking over Swami's words, we could change the meaning. But that is not possible, we do not change the meaning in thinking it over, but by not thinking it over we do change the meaning. Swami's words we have to think over, it is the Atma and that is not just obvious and understood by the mind. Whatever is coming up in our mind when thinking over as we can only see it in our own life, we have no other instrument of experience but that, it is the means to realize it. We follow his words and someone told me it is like surfing on the waves of the ocean, that is great picture. 

We follow his words, we try to understand it right, not wrong and we try to make the best out of it. That is all we can do, there is nothing more we can do, but if we do it regularly we find a way and the wisdom grows on us. He is present in dreams and we follow the master. He said in an interview in words to us: "Follow the master. Fight to the end. Finish the game." 

And then I wondered, how am I going to do that, how can I follow the master? When do we know that it is the master and when it is not the master? And the answer was in doing it. He is and was in dreams and in following that and questioning it we got aware that we follow the master, it is that inner challenge of questioning and getting answers that we follow the master. 

We meditate in the morning with a mantra to purify the mind, we practice for over forty years already.

Mere chanting of Lord’s name is not enough. Offer your love to God. Love is not your property. In fact, it is God’s property.

What Swami is telling us here that love is not ours, but Gods. If we feel love, we offer it to him. It is his love. 

The basic principle - Soham

 The "I know" has to go

The body is bound to perish one day or another. The body may die, but
not the mind. Such a mind must be controlled. That is true sadhana. You will not have any trouble if you offer your mind to God. The mind is very fickle; not steady even for a minute. So it should be ever engaged in work. Only then it can be brought under control. What work should you assign to the mind? The mind is like a mad monkey. Unless kept busy, it will go according to whims and fancies. The only way to keep a monkey busy is to make it go up and down a pole repeatedly! Let the mind be a watchman at the gate of your nostrils. Let it observe what is going in and coming out. ‘So’ is inhaled and ‘Ham’ is exhaled. ‘So’ symbolises good (Divinity) and ‘Ham’ stands for that which is bad (ego). Then, the mind will understand that Divinity must be taken in and the ego must be given up! (Baba - thought for the day)

This I a thought for the day. We think it over to make sure we do understand it right. What do we have to do to be able to listen, think it over and absorb. 

It is a spiritual practice, known as 

Sravana – Manana – Nididhyasana

It means listen, then think it over to be able to absorb. 

We start with a thought for the day. We listen to his words. 

Thought for the day is a quote from a Baba speech, but it is not that much text that we feel overwhelmed by it. If we think it over it is better to take only a thought for the day. It is more text than just a quote and it is enough to think it over to get the message in it and not too much so that we are not able to think it over anymore as it would be too much to absorb. It is more important that we do it regularly.  

The body is bound to perish one day or another. The body may die, but not the mind.