Hold back your mind from pride, for pride only comes from ignorance. The man who does not know thinks that he is great, that he has done this or that great thing; the wise man knows that only God is great, that all good work is done by God alone.
Never allow yourself to feel sad or depressed. Depression is wrong, because it infects others and makes their life harder, which you have no right to do. Therefore if ever it comes to you, throw it off at once.
You must guard, too, against certain small desires which are common in daily life. Never wish to think, or to appear clever; have no desire to speak. It is well to speak little; better still to say nothing, unless you are quite sure that what you wish to say is quite true, kind, and helpful.
Another common desire which you must sternly repress is the wish to meddle in another man's business, directly or indirectly, privately or openly. If you see a case of cruelty to a child or an animal, it is your duty to interfere. If you are placed in charge of another in order to teach him, it may become your duty gently to tell him of his faults. Except for such cases, mind your own business and learn the value of silence.
Try to see what is worth doing; and remember that you must not judge by the size of one thing. A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call "good".
If you aspire for spiritual salvation, then do not lose a moment in seeking to reform yourselves. Man making is the most difficult part of spirituality and if you have perfected yourself in that field, then God realization is not difficult.
The body is your animal, the horse upon which you ride. Therefore, you must treat it well, and take good care of it; you must not overwork it, you must feed it properly on pure food and drink, and keep it strictly chaste always, even from the minutest speck of dirt. For without a perfectly clean and healthy body, you cannot do the arduous work of preparation, you cannot bear its ceaseless strain; but it must always be you who control that body, not it that controls you.
Please develop the habit of putting your heart and soul in the work before you; be it worldly affairs or meditation. The habit of doing one thing at a time will help you to progress inwardly from day to day.
Work is worship. Be patient and earnest in the discharge of the duties entrusted to you. Such a routine will bless you all around with His grace.
One learns swimming in water, not on dry land.
There are sermons in stones and books in rivulets. We should live in fellowship with all creatures and with all life.
Try to live like a fragrant flower which blooms in a forest and fills the atmosphere with its rich fragrance.
My advice is from this day on to make love and self-surrender the cornerstones of your life. If you do this, you will find your life becoming daily a blessing.
By renouncing everything, one penetrates into the all-pervading spirit. His attachment to the environments is done away with and his bondage to matter is ended.
So you see, the whole thing hinges on this: if you are convinced you have to leave the body, all outer attractions leave you.
All are born of the light of God and the same light shines forth in all; and, as such, none of His creatures can be dubbed "evil".
This period is the most critical in the life of a sadhak. Until actual self-realization he is in a state of perpetual restlessness, tossing back and forth. He belongs wholly neither to the world nor to God. While in the eyes of worldly people he is a man of piety, yet in the heart of his heart he knows he is full of iniquities.
Rome was not built in a day...perfection does not come in one day. You need perseverance. Perseverance and chastity is the underlying principle.
If only we could learn to live together!
Simplicity is the very high way of life.
A child is always absorbed wholly in what it is doing... we should learn from the child...
Much of it is written in scriptures... it's a pity people don't read their own scriptures.
Eating is not bad; eating is a blessing, a sacrament. What is digested will give you strength, if you eat with love that is good; what you just gulp down like anything, that will kill you.
He wants us to stand on our own legs. He shows us how to walk and guides us, but we must walk on our own legs.
And in case of sickness I tell you what to do. Just lie down, forget the world. Put in some time. That will be a blessing.
The journey will be easier if your horse (body) is healthy and strong. Body is the horse and we are the rider. A strong horse is a blessing.
You know what you know, just listen to what the other fellow has to say, you might learn something!
Do your best and leave the rest ... to God.
So simple living, simple diet and high thinking is what is wanted.
Wanted: Reformers ... not of others but of themselves.
Let you not be a reformer to whip others into goodness, but be a witness of the Great Love radiating all love in thought, word and deed. Be an example rather than give precepts to others. You are indulging in oceans of talks, but how many ounces of actions?
You know we are always seeing faults in others, wondering "Oh why did he do that?" etc. But we should watch ourselves like that.
Remember: GOD FIRST, WORLD NEXT.
If you knew you had to leave the world at the end of this day, how would you spend it? A certain Master advises, "spend each day thinking it is your last on earth." If this advice was rigidly followed, a person's life would be transformed.
Bhajan and simran are food for the soul--do not give food to the body without first giving food to the soul. Make it a point!
So whenever anybody hurts your feelings in word or deed, forgive. Forgiveness is the only sweet water that will wash away all dirt...Forgive and forget, this is the way to Spirituality.
Excessive eating and drinking, and frittering away the attention on worldly sights, sounds and sensations--all these are outer enjoyments which deny one the bliss of the inner enjoyments.
These three things will help you: to eat less, sleep less and have mercy, forgiveness and love.
Be good, do good, and be One.
To look at food and say that it is good will not satisfy a starving man. He must put forth his hand and eat So, to hear the Master's words is not enough; you must do what He says: attending to every word, taking in every hint. If a hint is not taken, if a word is missed, it is lost forever, for He does not speak again.
The path is strait and narrow and difficult, very difficult and exacting, but for one who is truly willing, every help is promised, and he can attain the goal in this very life; a goal that sets all other goals to shame; for beside it there are no goals at all, but empty baubles and toys, at best halfway houses.
Yet another point, you must give up all your feeling of possession; karma may take from you the things which you like best--even the people whom you love most. Even then, you must be cheerful--ready to part with anything and everything.
Take it as an exhortation, take it as a command, but from this day, this very moment, make love and self-surrender (and the two, as I have already said, are really one) the cornerstones of your life.
You may well ask why there is this insistent stress on complete self-surrender on the mystic path. The answer is simple: without this absolute surrender of the last vestiges of ego and selfhood and without such complete absorption in the object of one's love, one cannot attain that unwavering concentration of all one's faculties which is the prerequisite of all inner progress.
Discipleship truly consists in unswerving devotion and resignation to the Will and Pleasure of the Master. By complete resignation, all mental chattering is thrown overboard and then there are no more cravings or desires.
The seed that must grow into the life-giving tree must grow more slowly.
The road to perfection lies in walking rather than in talking.
The Divine grace is ever ready to pour itself into the vessel, but the vessel must first be ready.
I would rather have a handful of disciples, nay even one, who can sacrifice their ego on the spiritual altar and learn to live by love, than millions who understand not the value and meaning of these virtues.
I repeat that the path is not easy. You must crucify your ego and lay your selfhood at the altar of love for your Master.
Make your love for Him so complete that, beholding His Hand in everything, you rise above all feelings of enmity, rivalry and resentment. See Him present in all and remember that He is always with you, ready to assist whenever you turn your thoughts to Him.
What is it that prevents you from following the Master's instructions? It is your own mind, which you have not yet been able to coax away from the outer attachments of the world to the bliss that awaits it inside.
It is only with the wings of love and devotion that we can reach God and not by intellectual wrestling and flights of imagination.
It is not a matter of philosophy, you see, it's very simple ... common sense. Learned men make simple things so difficult.
So long as you are the doer you cannot help others. Perfect yourself first, then you can help others. Then He is doing it, not you.
God is not difficult to meet, but it is difficult to be a man. Man is in the make.
See, and then say.
You may do it today, or tomorrow, or next year, in ten years' time, or later on in life, or you can take millions of births to do it, but this very work will have to be done sooner or later. The learned and illiterate man alike must be able to control the attention.
It is no use crying and still continuing to take more poison.
GO JOLLY!
For the essential advantage in the field of spirituality is to be found not without but within. It lies not in the absence of outer opposition but in ones inner capacity for complete self-surrender and love; and outward obstacles may in fact act as tests and stimuli for the development of this capacity.
The Path to Salvation lies in the direct touch with the Inner Power rather than to get entangled with outward things.
The mind for ages is accustomed to staying outside and it takes some time for it to develop another habit, that of going within to stay there for long periods.
Life's Trials and tribulations
Remember that you are of but little use to the Master until your evil karma is worked out, and you are free. By offering yourself to Him, you have asked that your karmas may be hurried, and so now in one or two lives you work through what otherwise might have been spread over a hundred.
You must bear your karmas cheerfully. You should not complain of what suffering comes to you, because it shows that the Lords of Karma think you worth helping. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse.
The Master teaches that it does not matter in the least what happens to a man from the outside: sorrows, troubles, sickness, losses--all these must be borne by each and must not be allowed to affect the calmness of his mind. They are the result of past actions, so when they come you must bear them cheerfully, remembering that all evil is transitory, and that you are enjoined to remain always joyous and serene. They belong to your previous lives, not to this; you cannot alter them, so it is useless to trouble about them.
It is the essence of right understanding to be contented with whatever comes as it is invariably flavored with Divine mercy and is for our spiritual benefit.
Ups and downs do come. Even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. We must always look to the bright side of things. Many good and necessary lessons are derived from adversities. These are indeed helpful.
When the Lord wants to make a great poem of a man's life, he sends him or her to the school of privations, worries and difficulties, and all the time He keeps extending His protective Hand over him or her to pass through unscathed.
Jesus never promised the peace and comfort with which the world is familiar. It was the Cross He offered. We have to suffer to reshape ourselves, to destroy the old and forge the new.
Gratitude is a tonic for the heart.
Whenever you feel lonely or lost, remember sweetly the Master and invoke His help and if it is a time that you can sit in meditation, do so with love and devotion.
Prayer and gratitude grant inner peace and harmony to withstand the hazards of physical life, which is a passing phase of the soul in its long journey back to the True Home of the Father.
Prayer has in it a great dynamic force. It strengthens and prepares a person to face and fight the battle of life fearlessly and successfully. It is in fact the only panacea for all types of ills.
One who permits himself or herself to be disturbed by what others say and do, is without question one who is still controlled by the ego and has yet to conquer the self, and learn the rudiments of Spirituality.
Silence, seclusion and solitude are the best and most helpful factors. The basic principles of a highly serene life is to accept the Divine Dispensation with cheer as it is chiefly based on the reactions of our own actions and is invariably flavored with mercy for our eventual betterment.
Regular, faithful and accurate meditations coupled with self-introspection not only ensure steady progress but go a long way for meeting with the challenges of life which at times grow severe.
Of all of the qualifications love is the most important, for if it is strong enough in a man it forces him to acquire all the rest, and all the rest without it would not be sufficient.
Love begets love.
I have great love for all of you. Indeed, if you knew how much I loved you, you would dance for joy. You will become so intoxicated by His love that it will carry you straight into the arms of your Beloved within.
There is only one remedy for all such discord and that is Love. He who has not mastered its secret, can never hope to be received in the Court of the Lord. It is the beginning and the end of spirituality. He who understands Love in its true nature and who lives and moves by its light shall, surely as two added to two makes four, attain the Lord.
By putting in more time in meditation, you will be helping yourself. Master is only pleased to see his children growing up.
It is not your Karma that holds you back, nor is it responsible when you miss your meditation but rather the treacherous misleading of your mind, which can be subdued and controlled by careful planning and execution.
You can overcome sleep during meditations by developing the habit of looking intently into the middle of whatever you see within. Sleep or foreign stray thoughts interfere only when inner gaze is slackened.
If you do meditation inaccurately, you may sit for hundreds of years and it will do no good.
The astral mind wants you to be angry, to say sharp words, to feel jealous, to be greedy for money, to envy other people and their possessions, to yield yourself to depression. All these things it wants, and many more, not because it wishes to harm you, but because it likes violent vibrations and likes to change them constantly.
This is a vastly powerful optical illusion in the influence of which we are imprisoned. There is but one way of gaining release from this entangling situation, and that is what all the Masters have prescribed - to know oneself. We should not believe anything unless we see for ourselves.
Between God and spirit, there is no other obstacle but that of a veil of the mind. If this veil were to stop fluttering in the breeze of desires, as it does at present, the spirit can take in directly the Cosmic Energy from its very source.
Thoughts are more potent than deeds, you see. If you think evil of others that thought vibrates and the whole atmosphere is poisoned. Whatever you think of others that thought radiates... others will feel it.
Soul is of the same essence as that of God. Mind is of the same essence as that of the Negative power... Mind is controlling our bodies and all this world; just make friends with it, then it will leave you alone.
Birth after birth, the soul thrashes itself to pieces at the hands of the mind, and as long as the mind does not emancipate itself from the senses and the soul gain freedom from the mind and come to know itself in truth, it is impossible to know God.
Self Introspection/ Self Awareness
The diary helps to bring out many of the hidden underlying weaknesses to the surface so that one may begin to see them and try to remove them one by one, and with their removal, life becomes more pleasant and spiritual progress is accelerated.
Sometimes we think we are sufficient; we are not sufficient. Man learns and unlearns all through life.
Man is so constituted that he cannot for long remain at one level. He either progresses or slips back. You may judge for yourselves which way you are going by seeing how far your minds and senses are coming under your conscious control.
The more one aspires to weed out the imperfections by daily introspection, the more of serene bliss and grace come from above.
Keeping a daily record or diary is the best method to become conscious of one's shortcomings and errors. Eradicate and uproot them and plan future progress. Without such self-analysis and self-criticism, no real advancement is possible.
The diaries show how much time you put in and in how many places your heart is attached to outer things in one form or the other.
The truth of the matter is that we must become consciously aware of every thought that passes through the mind.
First thing in changing heart is the diary.
