Chapter 3
The grace of the divine
🌻 Day 21 🌻
Body has the limitations, so does the mind. Good thoughts come, bad thoughts come, and emotions come, so what? You are happy sometimes, you are upset sometimes. Sometimes they are not your emotions, they are somebody else’s emotions, which get on to your body and mind. How many have experienced this? This is body-mind complex, these things happen. “I want to get rid of it, I want to be pure.” This is another problem. For a moment those vibrations come to you, so what? Be brave, this is where you need courage. Those emotions come and go, you watch them. Sometimes you react, “O! I reacted, I did this, and I did that.” Never mind that you reacted, it is finished. Don’t be hard on
yourself. Remember one thing – the present moment, come to the moment! Jealousy comes inside you and you think, “I am a seeker, I am doing sadhna, meditation, pranayama, but again jealousy is coming, My God!” Skilfully move through it. The skill is, - “Ok, it has come, never mind.” Come to the present. Have total faith in the innocence of the present moment. Can you remember this? Your spirit is innocence; deep inside, you are innocent. Don’t mind what is happening in the mind, never mind. Believe in the innocence of the spirit that is in the present moment. To show this, in the puranas, even gods are shown getting angry and jealous. This is happening even among the devas. Why? Just to show that there is divinity inside you. Do not undermine that for passing emotions. You think about an ideal state in your mind where no emotions should come. If it comes, it comes on its own. Don’t be hard on yourself. Either you are hard on somebody or hard on yourself. Balance is like walking on a razor’s edge. You lost your temper. So what? You got upset. So what? Now, this moment, your Being is pure. Latch on to this, then you realise that this whole thing is maya. What does maya mean? It is that which is temporary, that doesn’t stay, it is impermanent. Maya comes and tries to grab you. You need to swim above that. When you are in the ocean, waves come gushing – you can’t stop waves, but with the surfboard, you go over it.
Don’t blame yourself at any cost. Yama says, “Those who know, they are neither body nor mind but the immortal Self, the Divine principle of existence, find the source of all joy and live in joy. I see the gates of joy opening for you.” Now as a student, he didn’t say that gates of joy are opened for you. He said that they are opening for you. A word like that from the Master gives comfort to the student. This is a Master of a higher order. He does not blame. He doesn’t say, “You are stupid,
a fool, good for nothing.” Such approach is needed for a very tamasic type of people, someone who is totally dull. Take a stick and wake them up, and even then, there is no guarantee that they will wake up, because they are dead. If they are sleeping they will wake up. If they are dead they won’t wake up. This is one style of waking them up. Sattvik style is through praising them and giving them hope. “You are great, wonderful! Look at the beauty deep inside you!” It is an easier path to go on. I am not saying it is good, or it is bad. Everything has its purpose. A skilful teacher doesn’t need to take a stick and beat people, blame people, though it may work sometimes, though it is needed sometimes. But they go by saying, “The gates of joy are already opening for you. A little more patience is necessary and that’s it.”
