🌺IMPORTANCE OF ATTITUDE 🌺 

There was a man who made living selling balloons at a fair. He had all colors of balloons Including red, yellow, green. Whenever business was slow, he would release a helium filled balloons into the air and when the children saw it go up, they all wanted to buy one. They would come up to him, buy a balloon and his sales would go up again. He continues this process all day. 

One day, he felt something tugging his jacket. He turned around and saw a little boy who asked, "If you release a black balloon, would that also fly?” Moved by the boy’s concern, the man replied with empathy. "Son, it is not the Color of the balloon, it is what inside that makes it go up.” 

The same thing applies to our lives. It is what is inside that counts. The thing inside of us that makes is go up is our attitude.

A Jnani always looks forward to the time when he will be free from the bondage of the body and be able to throw it away. A person who carried a load for a wage always longs for the time when he could reach the destination. When the owner tells him on reaching the destination to put the load down, he feels greatly relieved and puts it down. In the same way, this body is a burden to a man of discrimination.

A Realized Soul who knows the truth is aware of the fact that he is not the body. But there is one thing more. Unless one looks upon death as a thing that is very near and might happen at any moment, one will not be aware of the Self. 

This means that the ego must die, must vanish, along with the inherent vasanas. If the ego vanishes thus, the Self will shine as the luminous Self. Such people will be on a high spiritual plane, free from births and deaths.

- Raman Maharshi

To the one who abides in himself, neither desires give him great joy nor the lack gives him great sorrow

Nature of the Mind 

🌸 It takes skill to remove a delicate piece of silk cloth from the thorny bush. Same is the case with our mind. Mind either likes something or dislikes something. It cannot exist without the swing.

🌸 A golden point that lifts the mind out of blame’s and dislikes is wonder (where there is no concepts) . Very easily, the mind slips from wonder to concepts.

🌸for a more conscious person, his own mind becomes a problem. Even the smallest faults in him start bothering him. 

🌸 *Points to wonder about * - *Sex, mindless, desires and fear *

🌸Sex is the oldest basic impression in the body. When sex is mature and down with emotions and at mental level, it is not focused on genital organs. That is the union of the soul. Unconscious mind results in lowest form of sex (focused on body only).

🌸 Ashtavakra says - how can an enlightened person have a feeling of mind? How can a personal feeling bother the feeling of universalness? 

🌸many sadhaks do it - when you love someone dearly, you fight it and try to destroy the feeling. When a conscious person realises he is attached to something or someone, it pains more. By questioning, you trouble the mind. Either you can ponder ‘why’ or you can wonder in amusement. 

🌸mind is not for used or clear when a desire is burning inside.

🌸 To the one who abides in himself, neither desires give him great joy nor the lack gives him great sorrow. Behind your anger are your desires. Either you hang on to the desires or to the anger. 

🌸The brave one remains un-agitated in the midst of everything.

Whether you want or not, God is all over. God is in the stone. God is in the flowers. God is in the garbage can. God is all over.

ONCE GOD DECIDED TO GO TO A TEMPLE - A STORY ABOUT DEVOTION 

There is a very nice story. Once God decided to go to a temple, which He rarely does. So He gave a dream to the priest. He said, “I’m coming into the temple tomorrow.” So the priest, for a change, started cleaning the temple. 

If it’s a Hindu temple, it is a little messier than other temples. They throw water everywhere, prashad everywhere, here, there, and flowers will be lying down here and there and some dried flowers will be found. So he said, “Okay.” He kept cleaning. And he told all the people, “Today God is going to come to the temple.” Even the people who come to the temple did not believe. Say, “Oh, what has happened to the priest?” They felt sorry for him. “He may need a psychiatrist. Today he’s saying something very weird, like ‘God is going to come to the temple.'” They also had no faith. 

Some people had compassion for him. Some people phoned a psychiatrist but somehow the priest made all the arrangements. He brought flowers. He arranged the temple. And then he waited, waited, waited, waited. After evening, five o’clock, six o’clock, seven o’clock…. There was another co-priest. He said, “Oh, you are crazy.” He started discouraging him. “What? What do you think? Has something gone wrong with you?” The first few moments people have some hope and then as time went by, everyone, even those one or two other crazy people who could accept his idea, also started discouraging him. And since everybody was so discouraging, he thought, “Maybe.” He started doubting himself. “Maybe I had a hallucination or an illusion. It’s not true.” 

So he waited up till eleven o’clock. Somehow tried hard to keep awake, drank some Indian tea. So he kept awake up ’til twelve o’clock, then he fell asleep. And then in the middle of the night, he heard somebody knock on the door. 

God is also afraid to come in the daytime. Somebody may arrest Him and punish Him, court-martial Him. “Why did You do this thing to me? Why did You do this thing to me?” A number of questions. So He preferred to come in the middle of the night. He heard a knock on the door. And then the priest wanted to get up and say,

“See, I hear a knock. Maybe God has come.” The co-priest who was with him there, sleeping in the same room, he just scolded him and made him go to bed again. Sleepy he said, “Just drop these funny ideas and go to sleep. If not, I’m going to call the mental hospital now. This is too much.” 

So hearing this, the man slept. And in the morning when he opens the door of the temple, he finds the footprint and finds the wheel of the chariot. He was so sorry. God had really come and had really knocked and here he had missed. 

He felt so sorry, so miserable. This is a nice story. That is what happens. 

God is calling you every moment. He’s singing through you. He’s waking you up through those sounds of the birds, through that little, little animal, creature, its voice, see how beautiful, “Coo, coo,” something it says. It fills the whole atmosphere. If you listen to it, your heart starts glowing. Something happens in you. You start becoming more alive.

 Love flows in your life. In the morning, have you heard the birds singing? He is singing in the voice of birds to you. He’s waking you up every morning. But we miss Him. We have missed in this crowd, in our mind, in our concepts, in our ideas. 

We want God to fit into our costumes. Say, “You should come with such-and-such a costume.” Fit into our concepts, our ideas, what God should be doing. We are not ready to accept what is. In the very presence of a devotee…. See, God is omnipresent, but a devotee is rare. 

Whether you want or not, God is all over. God is in the stone. God is in the flowers. God is in the garbage can. God is all over. But a devotee is not all over. So God runs behind His devotees. To God, devotees are very dear, so dear. 

The ancestors rejoice when a person blossoms fully on this planet in Divine love. All the people who are dead and gone, their souls, their Beings, they are filled with joy and grace and happiness. They enjoy. Every drop of gratitude in you brings great joy to your ancestors. 

Do you think about all those people who have gone? Your grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents. The whole family tree of yours rejoices when you experience, when you live this love, when you are a devotee. All of them are liberated. It says the seven generations in the past and the seven generations in the future get liberated, if you get liberated, if you become free.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankarji

That wealth is meditation. Now you have a lot of money, now you do not need any more money. Now dig into your inner mine, which is above all."

Yogi Nagarjun  who would sit under a tree and  meditate. Every day, he used to watch a woodcutter come there, cut some wood and take it with him. One day he said to him, "Brother, you cut and collect wood all day long, and still it's not enough to earn two meals a day. Why don't you go a little further... There is a sandalwood forest ahead. If you cut wood one day, it will earn you enough for seven days."

The poor woodcutter could not believe it because he thought no one else knew the forest as well as he did. He had spent his whole life chopping wood in the forest. Whereas this mystic kept sitting under the tree, what did he know? At first, he wasn't willing to accept, but then he came to the conclusion that what's the harm in checking? Who knows, he might be right! Then again, why would he even lie? He seemed like a calm and quiet man, happy in his own world. He had never even said anything before. So he decided to go and check for himself. 

So he went ahead. When he returned, he bowed down and fell at the feet of the Yogi Nagarjun saying, "Please forgive me! I had a huge doubt in my mind, as I thought who could know this forest better than me. But I did know how to recognize sandalwood. My father was also a woodcutter; his father was also a wood cutter. But we just kept cutting this firewood, we did not even know about sandalwood, what exactly sandalwood is? Even if we got sandalwood, we would have cut it and sold it in the market just like any other log of wood. You revealed its identity to me, its smell, how to recognise it. How unfortunate am I! I wish I had known earlier." The Yogi Nagarjun  said, "Don't worry, now you have found out."

The woodcutter then began to spend his days with great pleasure. He would come to the forest and cut wood one day, and then he did not need to come for seven-eight, or even ten days. One day, the mystic said to him, "My brother, I used to think you would get some sense. You kept chopping wood here all your life, you never went further ahead. And even now, you never wonder that there could be something more valuable beyond this sandalwood..?"

The woodcutter said, "I didn't even think about it. Is there anything beyond sandalwood?"

He said, "Go ahead from sandalwood, there is a silver mine there. Leave this wood cutting. If you bring this silver once, it will last for two to four months."

Now he trusted the fakir. So he ran at once. No doubts arose in his mind. And he got hold of silver! Life was luxurious now. Now he wouldn't be seen for four to six months. He would come for one day, and then would disappear again. But man's mind is so foolish that even then he didn't realise that there could be something else beyond this.

Again one day the Yogi Nagarjun said to him, "Will you ever wake up or not? Or will I have to awaken you again? There is a gold mine ahead, fool! Do you not have any questions, curiosity, anything from your side that I should look further? Now for six months, you are lying quiet, there is no work at home, you are at leisure. And you never thought let's look ahead in the forest..?"

The woodcutter said, "I am too slow, I did not even think about it! I believed silver was the last thing, what could be there beyond this! Being poor, I've never seen gold, only heard about it." The Yogi Nagarjun  replied, "There is a gold mine further on." And thus the story goes on. And then, there is a diamond mine further. This story went on for many years. And one day the mystic remarked, "you are so ignorant, now you have stopped on diamonds?" Now that woodcutter had also become wealthy, he had palaces of his own. He said arrogantly, "Leave it now, don't bother me. Now what can be there after diamonds?"

The Yogi Nagarjun said, "Beyond diamonds, _I am_ there. Did you never wonder, that this man is sitting here, he knows of the diamond mine, and is still not piling up diamonds.. he must have found something more precious.. he must have gone beyond diamonds.. this question never arose in your mind?"

The man started crying. He slammed his head at the mystic's feet and said, "How stupid am I! I never had this question! It's only when you say, that I think further. For in my lifetime, I could not imagine that you have more riches than diamonds. Please show me the way to get the real wealth that you have!"

The Yogi Nagarjun said, "That wealth is meditation. Now you have a lot of money, now you do not need any more money. Now dig into your inner mine, which is above all."

We must go forward and keep moving forward... until all the experiences have quietened. As long as even the experience of God continues, it implies duality still exists - the seer and the scene are present. When even that experience is gone, then the state of _samadhi_ is attained. Then there is no scene, no seer, nothing at all remains. There is a silence, and in that void, the lamp of understanding burns. That is the ultimate state, that is _samadhi

Who shall we call a wise person? which depends on the person's prudence, cleverness and practical understanding

Who shall we call a wise person

A big factory was being built in Kerala and a grave problem arose during the construction of that plant. The problem was that a really heavy machine had to be placed at the bottom of a deep pit built in the plant, but the weight of the machine posed a challenge.

The machine arrived at the site but how to get it down in the 30 feet deep pit, had become a big problem!!

If not installed properly, both the foundation and the machine would suffer a lot.

Now, this was a time when cranes that could lift very heavy weights were not available everywhere. The ones available could probably lift the machine, but to land it in the deep pit was beyond their capacity. 

Finally, the company constructing the plant gave up, and issued a tender to find a solution to this problem. As a result, a lot of people sent their offers to fit this machine in the pit. They thought that they would call for a crane and get the machine installed. 

Accordingly, they asked for 10 to 15 lakh rupees to complete the work. But there was a gentleman among those people, who asked the company, "if the machine gets drenched in water, will there be any problem?"

The company replied that "it will not make any difference to the machine."

After that, he also filled the tender.

When all the offers were seen, that person had asked for only 5 lakh rupees for completing the work. So obviously, the job of setting up the machine was given to him.

But the strange thing was that this person refused to share how he would do this work, and only said that he had the skills and the right team to do it.

He just asked the company to tell him the date and time on which to do this work.

The day finally came. Every employee, manager, even the boss of the company and everyone around was very curious to know how that man would do this work! He had not even done any preparation on the site.

Well, on the decided time, a lot of trucks started reaching that site. All those trucks were loaded with ice slabs, and they were all being filled into the pit.

When the pit was completely filled with ice, they moved the machine and placed it atop the ice slabs. After this, a portable water pump was switched on and a pipe was inserted in the pit so that the water could be taken out. The ice melted, the water kept pouring out, and the machine started going down.

The work was completed within 4-5 hours and the total cost came to less than Rs.1 lakh.

The machine fit perfectly and the man made a profit of more than Rs.4 lakhs.

Business is actually a very interesting subject. Finding a simple solution to the problem is an art, which depends on the person's prudence, cleverness and practical understanding.

Simple solutions to even the most difficult problems can be found with the power of discretion. And this person proved it.                 

"It is prudent to use all one's capabilities to the best of their ability so as to achieve maximum results with the least investment."

When we examine our life , there are 3 different powers 1. Desire 2. Knowledge/wisdom/information 3. Power to act/instinct to act

01.06.2022 - Session 1- Understanding Desire - Notes

when we examine our life , there are 3 different powers

1. Desire 

2. Knowledge/wisdom/information

3. Power to act/instinct to act

What is a Desire - Entire universe is made out of desire. Lord Buddha said, desire is the cause of misery, no doubt it is cause of misery only when we identify ourselves with desire.

When we see desire as power, it rises to another level, and there we see desire is nothing but joy.

The state of mind we are in before the desire arises is the same state whEn the desire is fulfilled which means desire takes you in full circle. when one desire is fulfilled, one more comes in, its a chain. the more u get fulfillment, more keep coming . What you do? you gallop on one after another desire . We seldom stay put and enjoy the moment because there is no time. 

When life moves like this , then we are on a constant run, we seldom look in what is the source of joy? 

When two people come together, the procreation in creation is because of desire . desire is the basis of this planet. Even Liberation is also out of desire. I want to get rid of my desire that is also a desire. 

Honor the desire . A desire arises, a certain energy move upwards, some sensations arises inside of you and that propels you into action.

For some there is no time gap between wish and its fulfillment, for some its a long standing desire, by the time they get it they are exhausted and don't enjoy it. There are others who don't get and this causes frustration/negative emotions.

The spirit/the consciousness is bliss but that bliss can be experienced by practise or by cultivating it.A fleeting thought is not a wish. Through pranayama, meditation u will see you will get more positive thoughts . All thoughts are not desire. Desire is something compelling.

Look at the desires in your life, think about those moments, what was the state of mind. irrespective of object/material ,desire itself has a pure energy. With that wish ,energy arises in u , invokes certain charm in you. If u pay attention to that energy you are getting into a secret. Desire is nothing but energy of supreme consciousness.

With wisdom our observation can bring this transformation of seeing our self as separate from desire.When you identify so much with desire that is when you become miserable. you did exist even before this desire arose in you and you were happy . Desire is a power ,is a sword ,is a knife that you can use to cut the food and cut the hand also. You need to have wisdom on how to use this.

Today you may find some of your desire obsolete . if god were to grant u all , your life would have been more miserable. many desires/wishes arise in us that depends on our state of mind.

Certain wishes for them to realize, it takes time.Patience to hold on to wish, is something you need to pay attention. Cultivate yourself, with this positivity you already have it. Your desire shouldn't be bigger than you, then we will be able to use this energy called desire in the most productive manner.

Letting Go of Desire (Part 1)

Desire should be like a coat, if you don't want you can remove it. You should have ability to keep it aside. When the mind is burning in desire, it doesn't calm down, when it doesn't calm down it doesn't see the fulfillment of desire. its a catch 22 situation. unless your mind is calm, it doesn't get fructified, unless it doesn't get fructify your mind isn't calm.

Take few mins and reflect on the impact of desire in your life , how it has put you through a roller coaster. its your desire/wish which has compelled you to do things which u never wanted to do. it has muddled our feeling in so many ways. Has triggered anger in you. behind every angry there is desire, behind every greed, sadness, depression there is desire .At the same time the culmination of desire is happiness. 

... Understanding Desire - Notes

Scuffle between small mind and big mind

Sometimes small mind wins over the big mind and then later it becomes miserable and come back to big mind. e.g: sometimes we want our smallest wish to get fulfilled and we become very feverish about it and later when it gets fulfilled we say oh may be I could have not wished for this. Because we see just short term benefits of a thing and not the bigger picture which big mind has idea about.

We become more miserable and comes back to the divine. 

QUESTION TO PONDER UPON_ : How big is our world? Have we ever thought? 

Our world is bundle of our experiences. Our mind is caught up with those experiences and doesn’t go further. e.g: We crave for food that we have eaten so many times, we like music that we have heard many times.

Our experiences with all the 5 senses are limited and same with people. Even people those come into our thoughts are same whom we have interacted with.  Our world is so limited. We are stuck with 4 or  5 people. They come in our mind and bother us. *THIS IS CALLED VASANA* .

We had some experience with people and those experiences get stuck into our mind(be it good or bad). *Let us just drop those experiences of past with people* .

About Relationships : Even when we tell somebody we love them, make sure that is not out of vasana or craving. True love won’t bring sorrow, misery but VASANA will bring misery, pain, sorrow, discomfort.  As in when we water a plant we don’t expect anything from that in return we do that out of love but in case of people our cravings aversions come in between. We have to just become aware of them.

When we drop all past impressions from mind we become free right now. This very moment

 *Technique* : When we feel that we are stuck with some people. Observe the nature stones, trees, sea, mountains. How big this world or universe is but nothing is permanent here then how come our miseries be!!  We have come alone and will also go alone, then at that vey moment mind will be relaxed .

Expand our world and our vasanas will drop away. BE OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES. Let us not get stuck with anything. 

WONDER how small mind is shrunk into pocket of limited experiences.

*WITHOUT YOU WHERE WILL I BE* 

 A devotee can’t imagine their existence without divine. 

 We can have both depth of silence and dynamic action together. Enlightened people like Buddha just use to smile, chaitanya mahaprabhu and meera bai they use to dance, sing  - they were all complete.

What is purity and what is impurity_ ?

Life is purity and inertia is impure and impermanent. Whatever is inert is impure and whatever is dynamic and active is pure. When we DO KRIYA WHAT EVERYONE EXPERIENCE is sense of cleansing because every cell in the body has become alive.

All our hankerings and concerns are nothing as everything is changing. Entire world is changing like river water, we can not have same water at the same place in the flowing river *then what is that we are trying to catch on to* ????

 We must give it a thought like how many times we have come to this planet, how many spouse children we had, we have to wake up and see from lifetimes we have done this over and over again and again, same experiences we have gone through. *And still we are stuck in same* .

 How many lives we have had earlier, how many times we have fallen in love with XYZ and how they all have come and gone and several lifetimes have been like this. _Several years have been wasted on same thing_  - I, MINE . NOW WAKE UP

 *ACTIVITY* : Recollect our experience how it felt before eating an ice cream(having any desire) - *anxious* , while eating ice cream(when desire fulfils) - *joy* and after eating(after desire got fulfilled) - *inertia* . Just think about any one desire of ours for which we got feverish , that desire got fulfilled  and then above cycle got repeated.

 *BECOMING HOLLOW AND EMPTY*

When we do any religious service like make pond, hostels for people, do lot of charity, with none of these also we could rest. We are continuously occupied in our mind and it never becomes HOLLOW AND EMPTY. We cannot drop anything for a while. Even when we sit for meditation we crave to achieve higher state of mind and keep on thinking. 

AYURVEDA | YOGA | MEDITATION

Body dropping us is death and you dropping the body is meditation or samadhi.

We should learn to drop our body, before body drop us.  This We can do through meditation consciously unaware of our body. We r able to see the world through self . We r inside our body. Our consciousness , self is inside in every part of the body. So we should experience it that I'm nobody n I'm nothing. Like self  as water present I the mudpot  through its pores, outside n inside , everywhere of the universe. Janaka was astonished n amazed that I'm hollow n empty, so everyone around me also hollow n empty. So everyone is nothing inside. N everyone is same inside.  Only exerternally shapesn color n forms r different,  like all balloons r different in color n shape outside ,but they all made up of same thing.

1. We usually don't drop the body, the body tires of us as we don't treat it properly and drop us. Body dropping us is death and you dropping the body is meditation or samadhi. Before body drops you, you drop the body. It's fortunate to be unaware of the body consciously (in meditation). Everyone becomes unaware of the body at some time (like during sleep) but becoming unaware of body consciously is possible in meditation.

2. Not you, but divine exists deep inside you. Inside every baloon of different type & color, same air is present. Similarly we all are hollow & empty inside.

3. Everybody's mind is unpredictable (& predictable). Everybody's mind is unpredictable is so predictable.

4. Unconflicting rejoicement in devotion & joy. Rishi Shandilya says that rejoicing in joy/self without conflict is Bhakti.

5. Love cannot tolerate any distance. Even slighest distance in love brings irritation.

6. Take sight off your imperfections, and put it on the bright sunshine. Putting sight at imperfections is like seeing the dust particles at corner of the window when sunlight is coming through it.

7. God, Guru & Self are synonymous. The unseen - God, Partially seen - Self (as we are aware of it that exists but haven't seen it completely) and In Solid form (completely seen) is Guru. 

8. Don't see Guru as a personality. See beyond their personality. See beyong their words, being hollow & empty. Stop finding fault and judgements as if you tell Guru what to do, then you are becoming Guru's Guru. Everybody wants to be a Guru, nobody wants to be a disciple.

9. Janaka was full of devotion and fullness. Seeing God, Guru & Self as not theree but only one.

Surrender and Devotion is the main skill

 All our emotions,  anger or frustration  etc come out of love behind that.  Our life is originally made up of love   We should know the skill to experience it. We should see the life as Divine.  Then problems will be disappeared. Some conflicts,  confusions, situations or circumstances  arrive, but all are moving waves, which come n go. Nothing will happen to us . We should see the life as a play, a game.  Life is so charming n colorful.  We just need to know the skill of total surrender and innocence. King Janaka s heart n mind was so simple ,cleat n aligned to nature. So words touched his heart n he got recognition . Just hankering for knowledge  , Love and Divinity,  it gets us restless.  If we hold onto something,  nothing will happen.  In other way if someone drop it , that no need do anything   anyways,  then also nothing will happen . We all feel very fortunate to have knowledge n satsang  sometimes,  but struggle goes on for us then.  That's why we need the skill  for Divinity  .   Total Faith in Divine  heals everything.

1. Skill is not only needed in handling outside things, skill is also needed to handle your own self (दक्ष). That's why we need mantra to meditate. With some skill, you see all is love.

दक्ष is Son of Brahma

दक्षयिनी - daughters of दक्ष।

2. Behind every action, every emotion, there is love. That's why love is not an emotion, it's something your life is made up of.

3. Whole life is a game, a play so charming and so colorful.

4. In reality there is no need for compassion, as suffering makes a person's mind mature.

The more your press the sugarcane, the more juice comes. From whichever side you chew the sugarcane, you find it is sweet.

5. When a child gets hurt, you also feel hurt. In a group of laughter, you feel laughter. (Laughter automatically comes over).

6. Surrender and Devotion is the main skill.

7. Your faith has healed you. Nothing else, your faith.

8. The world is a bubble (बुदबुदा), how can you be unhappy about it.