Make God –call Him by any name you like– the goal and purpose of your existence.

Tags

Bhakti, Free e-books, Sacred and esoteric texts, Satsangs/retreats, Swami Ramdas, Yoga

(10)
P. S. R. – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

Indeed Sri Ram is the sole doer. His Divine Shakti is alone responsible for all activity, movement and change in this universe of name and form. So the ego sense is utterly false. Complete surrender to the Divine Will or Shakti brings about our identification in spirit with the changeless and immortal Truth. Bhakti is the beginning; Bhakti is the end. In the middle, there is Jnana which gives us the knowledge of immortality, of our oneness with God. Bhakti leads to Jnana; but even afterwards, Bhakti continues, elevated, enlarged and enlightened. It gives us the universal vision of God. God is the friend of all creatures. He is all-loving and all-merciful. He is our master and mother. We are His servants and children. We can be His true servants and children, ever fearless and always blissful, only when we have realised, through love, our oneness with Him, Him who is within and without, and everywhere.

Ramdas4-7-1928 [p. 13*]

(12)
M. B. S. R. – Bangalore

Beloved Ram,

Bhakti is the beginning; Bhakti is the end. Bhakti is the way; Bhakti is the goal. Jnana and Karma are only necessary props on which is hoisted the majestic dome of Bhakti. God says, “I am the same to all beings but My devotees are dear to Me”. So, true devotion is based on the equality of vision. Samadarshan gives knowledge and peace. Bhakti gives pure love and Premanand. Knowledge enlightens and upholds; devotion yields thrills of joy and ecstasy. The two combined make Purna Yoga. Behold God as all, and still be His child and servant. You are at once He and His child. God is His own devotee. He is a mystery, but a revealed mystery – revealed in love and joy.

To be ever singing His name and glories is to be in tune with Him. Beloved Ram is captured within our heart. “Where can You go, O Beloved? Thou art always in Thy child.”

Surrender to Him, and He looks after you, plans and arranges everything for the best for you. He is the all-loving Divine Mother.

The Ashram is always ringing with Bhajan. Hundreds of Rams come here every day. O Ram, all glory to Thy name!

Don’t give up evening Bhajan. All of you join in it. More and more of Nam Sankirtan or Smaran together! Let the Name ring, and ring on, to awaken in the hearts of you all, the inexpressible bliss of Prem.

Love to you all!

Ramdas 7-7-1928 [p. 15*]

(13)
P. S. R – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

The only prayer of a Bhakta to God is made in this strain: “O God, keep Thy sweet name always on my lips; may my heart be ever filled with Thy Prem!” To love Him with all our heart is the supreme joy of this life. Let us exclaim with rapture, “O Sri Ram, Thou art mine, and I am Thine, for ever and for ever.”

Nowadays, Ramdas can scarcely stand on his legs without his starting on a dance. Sri Ram’s Prem is tingling in every vein of his body; and Ramdas dances, lost in ecstasy. The mere sound of His name sends thrills of joy through Ramdas. Sri Ram is “Prem’.

[…] Your kind and loving letter to hand. You are He. You are He. Ramdas and Ram are one, not two. So, Ramdas is in the hearts of all. All hearts are His. Ramdas dwells in Him. O, the mystery of mysteries! Thou art all and Thou art One.

Ramdas 14-7-1928 [p. 16*]

(14)
P. S. R. – Nasik

Beloved Ram,

Truly, unquenchable faith in and love for God is the only object of our life. Let us pray to Him to grant us His unbroken remembrance. To fulfil this prayer, He brings about such changes in our life as to enable us to be in touch with Him always. Here He proves to us that He is infinitely kind. Verily, He is kindness and love itself.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 17*]

(18)
P. S. R. – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

It is He who gives us every situation and every change. He knows what is good for us. His main object is to draw us towards Him. He brings about all the incidents in our life to fulfil this purpose of His. Our attachment to the ever-changing and perishable forms about us is the cause of our misery. We ignore the fact that whatever is born must die. Let us ask ourselves, “Is it then worthwhile to be attached to the inconstant and transient things?” The Eternal has no death, and the perishable cannot escape dissolution. Then why grieve over the dead! Let us not forget that we came alone into the world and that we shall depart also alone from it. We never bring with us our vaunted wealth and our relations, and when we give up this earthly life, we take them not with us either. God is the beginning; God is the end. Let us realise God also in the middle state in which we are. The question naturally arises, “Why this life at all?” It is intended solely for striving to reach Him, and for transforming, in that striving, all our trials and sufferings into joy by the touch of our single-hearted devotion to Him. When we are on this path of devotion, it is truly a joy to live in whatever position God places us. Hence it is that Bhaktas did not desire for a complete absorption in God, i.e., Moksha, but prayed to Him to grant them as many lives or births as He willed, provided He made them live for His love alone. Then again the question, “Why should He have left so many beings in utter ignorance of His love and the resulting bliss?” His Maya is mysterious. To probe deeper into the question brings to light the subtlest truth that He alone is the sole actor behind this variegated and multiple veil of Maya. He, the Supreme One, pretends to be all, in their varied masks, nature and activity. Whatever it is, ours is not to puzzle our puny intellect with the questions. We know that He is pure love, and that our salvation lies in our complete submission to Him. Let us be His ignorant children, ever basking in the rays of His unbounded love and grace. He is dwelling in our hearts always.

Ramdas 27-7-1928 [p. 22*]

(20)
B.M. – Mohol

Beloved Ram,

When the Name begins to work in the mind, automatically peace settles upon it. All actions proceeding from this calm state of mind become naturally pure and therefore beneficent. A constant watch upon our actions is still necessary, lest we might do such acts as would throw us into forgetfulness of God. Let us not fret over situations that God has given us….. It is a mistake to think that by mere change of situation or activity we can attain to peace. Ramdas, by His will, now stays in a newly built Ashram, called “Anandashram”. As usual, Ramdas is swimming in a veritable ocean of love and joy. His kindness and love are boundless.

Ramdas 29-7-1928 [p. 24*]

(22)
K. G. P. – Puttur

Beloved Ram,

The Lord is Infinite Love. Our body is the temple. Our heart is the throne. And He, the supreme Paramatman, is seated on this throne in all His magnificence and glory. His Divine Power or Shakti is responsible for all activity, movement and change in the universe.

Sages point out surrender to God’s will, i.e., to His Power or Shakti, as the path of Self-realisation. This surrender is effected only by the total eradication of the ego. Let us know once for all that we are merely instruments in His hands. He is the Sutradhari and we are every second being made to dance like puppets to His will. Consciousness of this truth must be with us always. Hence we are asked to keep up His remembrance unceasingly. Earthly honour and dishonour, praise and blame, loss and gain, should have no importance for us. Ours is to do the work entrusted to us by Him in the field of action in which He has chosen to place us.

Bhakta is He; Bhagawan is He. As Bhakta, He pretends to be different from Himself; though Bhagawan, He pretends to be seeking Himself. Wonderful is His Lila!

Let us give up all doubts, fears and anxieties, and merge our mind in the sweet sound of His glorious name. Let us sing, with all love and devotion, His great attributes. He is our Mother. We are His children. He is our all in all. Life is sweet and blessed when it is lived for His sake. There is nothing so blissful as devotion to His lotus feet. All glory to Him and His name.

Ramdas 1-8-1928 [p. 26*]

(32)
P. S. R. – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

Whatever you do is done by Prakriti, with ego-sense or without it. So, external renunciation of work, in which God has engaged us, is not necessary. No action by itself is sinful. No field of work is undesirable. Our ignorance, the cause of misery, consists in our thinking “I”, the individual, as the doer of work. No change of situation can bring us peace and rest unless, simultaneously with the change, the ego-sense of actorship also vanishes away.

You simply play the part that Prakriti has set for you. Play it out as Her work. When She chooses to change the game, you slip naturally into the change. You have no right to judge if the work She has put you to, is proper or improper, right or wrong. No discarding it! It is simply Her work and you do it. So with all your physical, vocal and mental functions. They are all Hers. No sin, no merit; it is all He and She. Narada, in his Bhakti Sutra, gives the true nature of Bhakti in practical life. He says, he is a Bhakta who always remembers God and surrenders all his actions to Him.

Ramdas 27-8-1928 [p. 41*]

(37)
P. S. S. R. – Ahmedabad

Beloved Ram,

May Sri Ram bless you all!

“Courage, brother, do not stumble,
Though thy path be dark as night.
There is a star to guide the humble.
Trust in God and do the right.”

Our goal here is to seek rest in activity. In the rush of movement and work, find the haven of peace and joy. Identifying yourself with the Immortal, do all work as His worship, as His service. This is Yoga. Shrink not. Faint not. Trust the Almighty Lord of the worlds. He is in you; you are in Him; He and you are one. Whatever work God provides you, do it dispassionately – yourself, a mere instrument, with God’s power or Shakti as the doer. God is love; He is in your heart. Surrender to Him. Let Him be your guide and master in all matters. Give up doubts, cares and fears.

Love to you and all.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 46*]

(39)
M. B. S. R. – Bangalore

Beloved Ram,

There is nothing to lose or gain in this life. We are ever dwelling in the consciousness of God. Our satisfactions or the reverse, relating to the perishable, are all ephemeral. The real is He, the immortal bliss and peace; and we are all He. Anandashram sees Ramdas dancing and playing in it like a child. No rules and no systems. Sri Ram has kept Ramdas under His law, which is a lawless law, which is joy – always joy. Love to you all.

Ramdas 23-9-1928 [p. 48*]

(42)
G. P. B. – Orai

Beloved Ram,

Your letter gives a brief but masterly survey of the situation in which God has placed you at present. It is well that our intellect clearly perceives the issues and determines the possible avenues of approach to the solution of the tangled problem. But there is a limit to the mere calculation of the intellect. We can truly say of it, “Thus far thou shalt go, and no further”. Often our scientific methods, our deep laid plans, and our nicely worked out theories – all go to the winds, swept off by a power beyond our ken, which acts in its own inscrutable ways. Let us not reckon without the host. God is our guide. God is the motive power that drives us to action. What the intellect rejects as impossible is indeed possible in the divine dispensation. When He chooses, He works miracles and wonders, at which the acute scientist and the exact theorist stand aghast. And then it is, they flounder into the inexorable truth. What insignificant and erring mortals we are!

Let us humble ourselves before the Almighty Lord of the worlds, and pray to Him to use us as He wills, for the service of humanity. Such an occasion He has created for you. Be a mere instrument. Give up anxiety, fear and doubt. Let His divine energy work in you in its full and irresistible course.

The ideal you are seeking is within you. The perfected harmony and the ineffable peace are within you. The infinite power of God is within you. The eternal purity, wisdom and joy are within you. Be fixed up in the sublime Yoga, union with the great Ideal, and bring a divine touch to bear upon all your activities. The supreme fiat of Sri Krishna has gone forth: “To action you have the right, but not to the fruit thereof. Therefore fight.” So be it with you! May Sri Ram bless you! Love to you all.

Ramdas 26-9-1928 [p. 51*]

(43)
P. S. R. – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

Reason and emotion are surely great aids; but we should remember that they are only means to an end. When they have served their purpose, if we still cling to them they prove as serious a hindrance as ignorance and callousness, to the attainment of the final liberation. Self-surrender means realising that our activity belongs to Shakti or Prakriti, and that we are the eternal, unaffected, immutable, blissful, peaceful Witness. Reason is not there to judge actions as right or wrong; and emotion that creates likes and dislikes has there no part to play. An action is only a movement of Prakriti, bereft of Gunas and Dwandwas. There is nothing to condemn, nothing to extol; all is the work of Shakti or Ishwara Lila.

So, beloved Ram, in Spirit you are immortal, in form you are changing. As former you are free, undefiled and changeless, a blissful witness of the passing phenomena of name and form. This phenomena is your own play. You dwell in all and you appear as all. You are both with form and without form. You are the watcher of your own Lila. The pleasure and pain belong to the passing appearance; but as the unchanging Atman you are the very essence of immortal bliss.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 52*]

(44)
J. E. K. – Aden

Beloved Ram,

The prompter of action is He; the doer also is He. It is He in movement, as also in rest. There is none but He. …..God’s name is most powerful. It dispels ignorance and gives knowledge. It breaks bondage and brings freedom. It destroys sorrow and yields bliss. The knowledge, freedom and bliss we realise are eternal. God is our father, mother, master, friend and all. …..When our longing to realise Him is intense, He comes to our rescue, without any doubt. He is the friend of the meek.

Take heart, beloved Ram. It is His will that you are what you are, and where you are. Submit to His will and be peaceful and cheerful.

Ramdas 2-10-1928 [p. 53*]

(45)
P. S. R. – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

Your letters are always brilliant. They offer a beautiful commentary upon the words of Arjuna in the discourse between him and Sri Krishna. Arjuna was confronted with a problem similar to the one you are facing. The same reply briefly explained will suit the present purpose.

Arjuna, disgusted with the action he was engaged in, proposes to renounce it. But the Lord says, “Not so. Exchange of activity or inactivity or, for that matter, even substitution of one kind of activity for another kind is not the remedy.” As regards inactivity, the Lord declares, “This is impossible, because Prakriti is always at work. Even for the support of the body, some sort of activity is absolutely necessary.” Now a change in the form of activity is no solution, so long as one’s mentality remains unchanged; for, action in itself, whatever it is, is neither good nor evil. When the mind is free from the dual throng born of ignorance or Maya, no activity can fetter it, in whatever light ignorance may view it. So change of activity is not at all necessary. What is required is the renunciation of attachment from the mind.

Prakriti will force you to fight. So, fight you must. But, be in tune with the stainless Purusha and let Shakti or Para-Prakriti handle you as Her tool to do Her work. Then you act as though you do not act. As Purusha, the witness, you are non-doer, and as Prakriti or Shakti, you are the doer. “Behold action in inaction, and inaction in action.”

It is entirely true that, even after his realisation of Truth, a man may continue in the same vocation or form of activity as the one in which he was engaged previous to it. Then why seek or wish for an external change? It may come spontaneously by His will, or it may not. He knows best. All action, in whatever field, is the outcome of His Shakti. Let us realise that we live from moment to moment in the blissful union with Him, His Shakti doing all things in us and through us. He is the peace of our soul, the joy of our being. Every movement of ours is a thrill of His love and joy.

Your prayer has a crystalline ring of truth about it. You have been always an instrument in His hands, whether you know it or not. Know, now, once for all, that you have been so, and that at all times you will be so. Love and Namaskars to yourself.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 54-55*]

(47)
U.S.R. – Bombay

Beloved Ram,

Your letters are bubbling with Prem. Indeed every movement of our mind in thought, of our tongue in words, of our limbs in activity, is the play of Shakti. Shakti is nothing but God’s love. When we realise that all movement is a play of that supreme Love, we live continuously in a state of divine ecstasy, which is simply inexpressible. Prem fills us through and through. We are saturated with it. The quality of Prem is Anand. There is also the witness of this play of love or Shakti, namely the immutable, changeless, all-pervading, static aspect of our being, whose quality is ineffable peace. On this unaffected screen of Eternal Peace, dances, in flitting forms, Infinite Love producing the sweet intoxicating music of Anand.

Every particle of our body –as the whole universe– is thrilling with Sri Ram’s love. So there is nothing but Anand in all movement, change and activity. There is nothing but peace in the depths of all forms, the result of movement and change. So eternal peace-and-bliss is the only Reality.

The parcel of postcards and envelopes is also received. How kind

of you!

P. Sanjiv Rao is with us now. Indeed Prem comes to the Ashram in so many forms. Anand is added to Anand. It is like adding infinity to infinity.

Love and Namaskars to yourself.

Ramdas 10-10-1928 [p. 58*]

(49)
M. B. S. R. – Bangalore

Beloved Ram,

When the Lord of the universe, Sri Ram, is dwelling ever in our hearts, how can we dare to call ourselves ”sinners”? It is all He, and His Shakti, which is the cause of all activity in the worlds and in us. We are merely instruments. We are what we are because He alone has made us so. We do as we do, because He wants us to act as we do, in all matters. He says, “I am seated in the hearts of all beings and things and by My power I make the entire wheel of the universal Lila revolve.” The ego is false. It is He everywhere, and in everybody.

Being enthroned as He is in our hearts, His grace is ever upon us. Sin and virtue, good and evil, are all mind-made. All activity in the universe belongs to His Divine Shakti, which is neither the one nor the other.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 60*]

(50)
P. N. R. – Puttur

Beloved Ram,

The ego or ignorance is utterly unreal. It is He, in separation, in union, in oneness. There is none but He. Co-existing with this immortal, immutable, unaffected and unattached witness, there is the universal, mutable aspect of God, manifested as the innumerable universes and all creatures and things in them. …..The calm, changeless Spirit witnesses the play of this Shakti or Power in manifestation. So, all movement, activity and work in the universe belong to this divine Shakti. The nature of Shakti is pure love and Anand. Her movements are only for the fulfilment of unity, harmony, love and Anand. The notion that I am the doer is a pure myth; the ego sense itself is a fabrication. Identification with the eternal witness, giving rise to knowledge, sublimates the unreal ego into the Divine Essence.

This is Moksha or liberation. It is not a state attained but realised, because we are always Mukta or free. There is nothing good, nothing bad. All, all is His doing. Let us rise above these harassing pairs of opposites. What does it matter whether the world blames or praises us? What is honour to us who are above them? These all pass away with the passing away of all things, and are cast into oblivion. Beloved Ram, give up anxiety and worry. The whole burden of the universe is on Him. Take it that yours also is on Him. All along, it has been nowhere else. It is He who guides, controls, protects us. Surrender completely to Him. Know, His will is done in all matters. He is all merciful and loving. He is the sole parent of the universe. We are His children. Since He is dwelling in our hearts, we are not sinners and have no cause to be unhappy and miserable. We are ever in blissful union with Him. All else is a passing show. May Sri Ram bless you with peace!

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 61*]

(51)
P. S. S. R. – Calcutta

Beloved Ram,

It is perfectly true that Sri Ram’s gigantic Lila is wonderfully humorous. To look upon the whole thing as Lila, we must stand apart from it, identifying ourselves with the immutable, Eternal Witness, who is unaffected by, and unattached to, what is going on. All movement in the universe, i.e. all activity, motion and work, belong to God’s Will or Shakti. The individualities, I, you, and he, are all myths. It is all God’s will or Shakti. Identifying ourselves with the calm, equal, ineffable, all-pervading Spirit, the Witness, we rise above pleasure and pain, success and failure, gain or loss, praise and blame, honour and dishonour, like and dislike, etc., and look upon the world as play. There is nothing to be miserable or anxious about here. It is all the play of God’s power. We are merely Her instruments; and She uses us as She wills. No activity is then distasteful to us. In the depths of our being, we are ever fixed in absolute peace. We only look and watch unperturbed over our and others’ actions and movements determined by God’s Will, which has become our will. Actions do not, then, leave a stain or impression behind; they are spontaneous; there is no seeking for the result. And there does not exist even the pride of actorship.

Little Gurudutta is a little Ram, as you all are Rams. It is the divine Shakti that causes all his activity, which you call his mischief. His mischief reminds Ramdas of Krishna’s mischief. Take it, the child is a genius, God’s instrument. May He bless him! Love to you all.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 62*]

(52)
P. S. R. – Ernakulam

Beloved Ram,

Indeed the world is the manifestation of God, His love-form, His bliss-form. Union with Shakti through love is Bhakti. Identification with Purusha or Shiva is Jnana. Surrender to Shakti in action is Karma. The first and the last make for Anand, and the intervening one for peace. Accomplishment of any one of these leads to the attainment of the other two. He who has realised in himself the balance of all the three, is a perfect Yogi.

Bhakti without Jnana is either an imitation or an unsteady wave of passing emotion. Jnana without Bhakti is a tasteless and conceited thing. Jnana or Bhakti, without Karma, is a spiritually magnified selfishness.

Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, combined together, like the sherbet made in the Ashram (of water, lemon and sugar mixed together), produce the perfect and sweetest nectar of immortality. Your short stay in the Anandashram has left upon it a permanent impression of your presence. Divine love indeed is wonderfully impressive! Love and Namaskars to yourself.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 63*]

(55)
M. G. B. – Bombay

Beloved Mother,

May Sri Ram bless you all. Your loving letter to hand. Immortal joy and peace, purity and love – is ever dwelling within your heart, Oh mother. That is the imperishable Swarup of your Gopal. So, he resides ever in you and with you. In spirit we are ever one with our Beloved. Forms and bodies that are seen only by the mortal eyes are all transient and perishable. Your body and all bodies, just as Gopal’s assumed body, are bound to disappear in due time.

Knowing this truth, let us give up attachment to the mere physical, changing forms of the one immortal Spirit.

Your Gopal is alive in God, is one with God. That you are separate from him is ignorance. Physical bodies are of no account. In their very nature, they are perishable. To feel separation due to the destruction of the body is utter folly. Let us realise we are the immortal Atman, ever one with our Beloved. Death cannot separate us. We are the heirs of immortal joy and peace. Why forget this and be miserable for no reason at all? Oh mother, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!

May Sri Ram grant peace to your soul. Take heart, mother. God-Gopal is always with you. Love and Namaskars to yourself.

Ever your child

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 66*]

(57)
Sri Shanti Vijayji, Mount Abu

Beloved Ram,

Dandawats at your holy feet.

Your love for your child, Ramdas, is indeed unlimited. You are Ramdas’ Divine Lord and Mother at once. For His wonderful Lila, the Absolute One has become Himself the Bhagawan and Bhakta, Guru and Chela, Lord and servant, and Mother and child. This assumption of duality, in eternal union and oneness of the two, is due to His will to enjoy Premanandam. In truth, all, all is He. The one chooses to be many. The one manifests as many. His infinite Prem and Anand are in His manifestation. In the form of Bhakta, He merges Himself in this boundless ocean of bliss and love. The multitudinous forms, beings, creatures and things in the universe are all He in His Self-expression, Self-revealment. Out of pure love, the mother brings forth the child, the expression of her love. The child is the flesh of her flesh, being of her being. Still there are two, the mother and the child, one and yet two. It is the one Atman, one Truth, that is both, at play, enjoying the bliss of immortal love. O, Lord of the worlds, wonderful is Thy Lila!

In the heart of child Ramdas, is seated the God of gods, the highest Truth, the transcendent Reality. The universe we behold is a mere speck in the infinite vastness of His Existence. He is purer than the purest, greater than the greatest, light of all lights, the inexpressible, grandest Truth. Child Ramdas is He, and everything that is, and is not, is He.

Your ever loving child and servant,

Ramdas 1-11-1928 [p. 68*]

(61)
B.G. – Konch

Beloved Ram,

Constant repetition of God’s sacred name gives us the inner sight. That is the path. Firm faith and continuous practice are what is wanted. Having these, the progress is easy and the goal is near.

Sing on His name, until the mind is filled with the sound of it, until the divine consciousness dawns upon you, until the latent springs of joy, love and peace have become manifest in you. The supreme truth awaits unfoldment in you; remove the barriers, the ego, ignorance and desires. Know, you are the imperishable Reality, the immortal Spirit, the deathless Existence. Sin, sorrow and fear cannot touch you. You are the ever-pure, the ever-shining, the ever-glorious Truth. You are Eternal Bliss, Love and Peace.

Ramdas – -1928 [p. 72*]

(62)
A. B. – Srinagar

Beloved Ram,

May Sri Ram bless you all. Your loving and pathetic letter to hand. Don’t be sorry, beloved Ram, that Ram could not make it convenient for you to visit Anandashram this time. Ram does everything for the best. It may be His will that you come here next time with family. May He grant you this opportunity and fulfil your ardent desire. Certainly, submission to His will at all times means patience, contentment and peace.

Let us not forget the truth that we are merely instruments in His hands, and that He alone determines all things for us. We have absolutely no reason to regret or feel disappointed over any happening. His will be done in all matters!

Ramdas looks upon your reference to “money” in your first letter as only belonging to the great play of Ram. He acts in various ways. There is nothing to be surprised at, or grieved at, in His doings. Truly, you are all He. All glory to Him. Om. Om. Om.

Love and Namaskars to yourself,

Ramdas 24-12-1928 [p. 73*]

(63)
R. G. N. – Bombay

Beloved Ram,

Your loving letter simply breathes the sweet perfume of divine love. When you extol Ramdas you are only becoming conscious of the ideal of love seated in your own heart. What a grand and exalted vision you ought to possess to behold in Ramdas such a pure and perfect ideal! Blessed are you! Verily, perfection is with you, and everywhere. Whatever you see, it is the image of that great and all-perfect Truth. You are not a whit less than P., A., J. and others. All of you are He.

Ramdas 11-1-1929 [p. 74*]

(64)
M. K. S. – Wadhwan

Beloved Ram,

Your letters are always sweetened with the nectar of divine love. When such pure love lightens your heart, where is the lack of strength and joy? The fount of immortal bliss is ever within you; you are that itself. Our real being is, indeed, an illuminated mass of eternal splendour and delight. Even as the waves are not different from the ocean, so the Lila or the manifestation, is only a series of vast movements of the Eternal Anandam which is at the base, heart and core of all things in the universe.

Behold in all movements of your mind and in all activities of your body nothing but the play of Anand.

Joy and grief, pain and loss, success and failure, virtue and sin are all mind-made. Supreme, everlasting joy is the only Reality. Realise that you are the blissful Atman – motion in external work, rest in the inner calmness of the Spirit. The Atman is the cosmic soul and your action belongs to the cosmic activity. Your physical body is but an instrument of the Divine. Let His power work through you, as He wills, unhampered by the ego-sense. Yours is to enjoy immortal joy, by complete surrender. Doubt not, fear not, worry not. Realise that He and His infinite power within you guide you, control you, and actuate you to do all things at all times. Rise above the conditioned conception of things, i.e., rise above the Gunas and Dwandwas.

First be the witness of your own and the world’s actions. Then identify yourself with Him who is both the witness and the world-actor.

Repetition of the holy Mantram purifies the mind. Satsang elevates you and grants you the right knowledge. Last comes Gurukripa; the awareness of it makes you realise that you are the embodiment of an eternal existence full of bliss and peace.

Ramdas has no command to leave Anandashram.

Ramdas 11-1-1929 [p. 75*]

(65)
M. M. G. – Puttur

Beloved Ram,

Ours is not to make other people rich and wise, but become wise ourselves, by serving humanity with all love and humility. Pray to God that you may be pure, noble and good.

Ramdas 11-1-1929 [p. 76*]

(66)
J. – Rawalpindi

Beloved Ram,

When the Lord of the universe is seated in our hearts, we have no reason to think that we are mean, sinful and despicable. It is His power, within and without us, that is the cause of all activity. Let us always recognise this truth and attain peace by perfect communion with Him, the Master of our existence, who is eternal bliss, peace, power and light.

Teach little Ramu that Ram is in his heart. He need not go in search of Him anywhere. May God bless him!

Ramdas 12-1-1929 [p. 77*]

(70)
A. B. – Jammu

Beloved Ram,

Your letters are always sweet, sweetened by your selfless love for this child of God – a God, who dwells in the hearts of us all, who is pure love and joy. He is within you – He is yourself – this is the truth! Ramdas’ stay with you in Kashmir was really a continued feast of love. Ram does not yet bid Ramdas to quit Anandashram. He seems to have fixed up Ramdas once for all. Never mind; he is ever with you. In bodies we are separate, but in Atman we are eternally united and one. How kind of Radhenath to remember Ramdas so much! How could Ramdas forget? The touch of Prem is indeed eternal.

Ramdas 30-1-1929 [p. 81*]

(71)
M. G. B. – Bombay

Beloved Mother,

May Sri Ram bless you all!

Your loving but sorrowful letter to hand. Ramdas has been all along speaking and writing to you on spiritual things, from his own experience of this life.

Ramdas is entirely in the hands of God. God alone is his great Teacher.

Based upon Ramdas’ experience, through which God made him pass, he is giving briefly in this letter, what should be our true outlook upon life.

The world with all beings and things in it is evanescent, and God alone is real, eternal and unchanging. All forms have a beginning and an end. Whatever is born is bound to perish and pass away. The sense of misery here is due to our attachment to the perishable forms. Our goal of life is to realise God, i.e., our immortality. In order to do that, we have to withdraw our mind from whatever is seen, which is transient, and direct it to Him –who is within us and pervades the entire universe– the one absolute Existence, the sole Reality. When the mind transcends name and form, it attains the vision of the Supreme. The joys and griefs relating to the external world are caused by the workings of the mind. Stop the restlessness of the mind, and the joys and griefs both cease to be, and are thereby proved to be entirely unreal. And a calmness settles upon the mind which is of the Eternal, of the Truth of our being. Hence, to lament over the loss of anything here is utter folly; only that which is by nature perishable has passed away. Behold, the whole universe is a huge passing show. In it, innumerable forms appear and disappear at every moment. This is the nature and order of all things. So instead of allowing ourselves to be upset by the change in the transient, let us strive to fix our mind upon the deathless, formless, eternal Truth. This is done only by stilling the mind – by the quieting of all waves of thought that trouble it. The path is the repetition of God’s name and meditation, and the surrender of all our actions to God.

We can realise fully the transitory and illusory nature of the world only when we have turned our mind to God. Then, taking our stand on the immortal, let us view the vast and changing play of the universe and remain unaffected by it. This is liberation.

There is no reason whatever to be miserable. We make ourselves miserable owing to our ignorance. Ignorance can go only when we approach God and surrender ourselves to Him. Then we discover we are unhappy for nothing at all, and that there is no more for us to be miserable for, hereafter. We are then ever peaceful and resigned.

This life is a splendid gift from God. It is not meant to be wasted away and torn to shreds by our dwelling upon unreal sorrows. God is indeed kind and all-loving. There is absolutely no doubt about this. Else, why should He give us blows and shocks in the shape of losses and calamities that wake us up from the dream of a fool’s paradise to the great Reality?

How can we know that He is all kindness and love, if He did not make us pass through trials and tribulations, so as to bring us face to face with Him – the only Truth? He teaches that He alone is real and that we must live for Him and Him alone, Him whom we can never really afford to lose at any time. Is it a wonder then that Kunti, mother of the Pandavas, prayed to Sri Krishna for difficulties? She knew she could attain Krishna only by remembering Him when beset with difficulties. Blessed are we, when God, in His mercy, sends us calamities unasked, with a view to lead us to Him. He is indeed kindness and love.

We may live for thousands of years, for the matter of that we may live thousands of lives, and obtain whatever we desire of the world; but never shall we be happy as long as our hunger for earthly things persists. Complete repose once for all, on the bosom of the infinite God, can alone grant us the true and everlasting peace, freedom and joy.

So Ramdas prays to you, beloved mother, give up your unreasonable sorrow by turning your mind to the Divine Master of our being and of the universe. Serve Him in all humility, in any sphere of activity in which He might place you. Don’t be crushed down by grief which is unreal and false; rise superior to it.

Make God –call Him by any name you like– the goal and purpose of your existence. Nothing short of this is worth any the least consideration and thought, O mother. Why throw away a precious life? Dedicate it to God and His service as Mirabai did. Love Him in all. Serve Him in all. And make yourself blessed, pure and peaceful. May God bless you!

Now a word about Bhakti obtaining in these days. Some of us cling only to the dead forms of it, simply because they are handed down to us by our forefathers, without understanding their right significance. When we perform worship according to these forms, we either do not know why we do it, or are actuated by the desire to obtain some worldly object. This kind of Bhakti can bring us no solace in our moments of grief. Real peace can be ours only when we have offered ourselves up entirely to God, and then do everything for His sake and pray to Him constantly for nothing but,
“To lead us from the unreal to the real;
From darkness to light,
And from death to immortality.”

God is kind. He teaches us through our experience that desires are our enemies and sense-objects are wombs of misery. Still we crave for them and suffer. Whose fault? Ours only. Why then blame God? We want lasting happiness by the enjoyment of things which are in their very nature incapable of yielding us such happiness!

God is patiently waiting for His children to turn to Him with a longing to be with Him only. When we do so, He at once takes us in His arms and blesses us with immortal happiness, a happiness not dependent upon perishable objects but upon Him – who ever dwells in our hearts – the eternal Reality. True Bhakti is, therefore, Nishkama Bhakti; any other form of it, however faithfully practised, cannot save us.

Truly, Pitaji is a pure saint. When you write to him next, kindly convey to him Ramdas’ love and Namaskars.

Love to you and all there,

Your child,

Ramdas 2-2-1929

P.S. Mother Rukmabai is in the Ashram and sends you her love and Namaskars.

[p. 82-85*]

*From Letters of Swami Ramdas,Volume 1
FREE E-BOOK

Every desire is kama

Tags

Sadhguru, Satsangs/retreats, Yoga

When we say Shiva…
The word Shiva has become
synonymous with the third eye.
The third eye… What it means…

These two eyes are to look outside.
These two eyes are capable of showing you
the physicality of the existence; these two eyes
can only perceive that which is physical.

The third eye is an inward-faced eye.
It’s not gonna open up upon your forehead.
The third eye is an inward-looking eye.
But you have heard stories,
“Shiva opened his eyes,
and he burned Kama”.

✨

In India there is a god of love and lust, called Kama (“kama” means lust, which you don’t like to face head-on, so you make it love [audience laugh]; because you need some aesthetic to it). So… He hides behind a tree, and shoots an arrow. And Shiva is hurt. Target is found and Shiva gets a little disturbed. Then he sees it’s Kama (that is, it’s his own lust coming up). Then he opens up his third eye, a fiery eye, and burns Kama, who is hiding behind a tree. Burned him into ashes. Then Shiva took the ashes of this burnt Kama; smeared himself. That put these things to rest for good.

That is the general story told to the people.
But you tell me: your lust arises within you, or behind the tree?

Now, you may go behind the tree; that’s another matter… [Roaring laughter]

But where does it arise? Within you! Desire is not hanging outside. It is not because a beautiful woman or a beautiful man is sitting there that your desire comes. Because the desire, the kama, is within you.

So he opened his third eye. And burned the kama within himself.
Not the one who is standing outside. Because he never, ever stood outside.

Please look at this and see. Your lustfulness, your desiring nature, never ever stood outside. It only stood inside.

So he opened his third eye; not this way [pointing outward]. Inward! Then he saw; this lustfulness. Which essentially means that some aspects are built into you, which make you feel incomplete. So you think you will find completion only by going towards something or somebody.

Lust is not just about the opposite sex. Shopping is lust! Because you have to go towards something. Only then life will be complete. Every desire is lust! Because,

“Without that, I cannot exist! I want that, because only when I have that,
this [lightly thumping his chest with both fists] will be complete!”

It may be a thing, it may be a position, it may be power, it may be sexuality… It doesn’t matter what it is. Essentially lust means, it creates a sense of incompleteness within you. And a longing for something, that it makes you feel, if you don’t have that, you are not complete.

So he decides to burn the kama within himself. He burned the kama, and then, instead of sweat, ash oozed out of the pores of his body. This is the yogic story. The common story told to the public is, he was hiding behind a tree, and burned him; opened his eyes and burned him; and then he took that ash and smeared himself. The yogic dimension of the story is, kama arose within him, he opened his third eye, burned him, and then ash slowly oozed out of his body, clearly showing him, everything is laid to rest.

🙏

[Video concludes with
introduction to next episode]

Everything that you know as yourself
should die. When I say death, it’s not
the physical death which is a problem.

The question is your losing
“Everything that I know as myself right now”.
Your personality. Your identity.

Once you learn to be an individual beyond
physiological and psychological formats,
that means you are for good.
This is what living death means.
So if you know how to be an individual, still,
without physiological and psychological format,
you are a living death.
If you are a living death,
you are eternal in your existence.

It is time
that you become living death,
so that you live
eternally.

Sadhguru transcribed by Leon Hieros

💜🙏

not the body – no longer affected

Tags

Richard Hooper, Sacred and esoteric texts, Yoga

💜🙏

All beings

Tags

Sacred and esoteric texts, Yoga

💛🙏

What is the union? What can unite with what?

Tags

Lao Tzu, Sadhguru, Satsangs/retreats, Yoga

Because what is human, is not an established state.
It is a possibility. It is not a fixed state.

If this possibility has to be made use of,
there is a whole system of understanding
that needs to happen; understanding
the mechanics of how this life functions,
and what we can do with it.

This mechanics,
this technology,
this science,
we are referring to
as yoga.

I don’t know 🙏 what types of stuff you’re doing, but my experience in United States, particularly in California… A lot of people believe, yoga started in California. [Audience laugh] Yes? I met someone who seriously believed it was Madonna who started yoga! [Laughter] Yes?

So this mechanics of life, is as simple as this:
I’m sure almost all of you are carrying an instrument, some kind of electronic instrument… A phone at least. The more you know about this phone, the better you can use it. Is that so?

Last year [2013], the cell phone companies in India made a survey.

India is the largest, you know, growing market for telecommunications right now. Every month we’re adding about five and a half million cell phones. Okay. In a year, about sixty million cell phones are being added to the service. Because everybody’s having three, four, five these days. [Laughter]
They made a survey…
[at this very moment, a ringtone goes off in the audience, making everybody burst into laughter]
That’s the second one; you haven’t heard the first one.

[Resuming] …They made a survey, and they found out that ninety-seven percent of the people are using only seven percent of the capabilities that are there in an ordinary phone. I’m not talking about the smart phone; I’m talking about the dumb phone. In the dumb phone, ninety-seven percent of the people are using only seven percent of its capabilities.
So they were contemplating:
If we remove ninety percent of the electronics, still most people will never know… And we can even give them a five-hundred-rupee discount! They will be happy, we will be happy…
You know? Maybe they’ve already taken it off; we don’t know… Only if you try to use all of them, all the functions, then you’ll realize, something is not working.

So, in a little gadget, you’re using only seven percent.

[Opens his arms]
This
is The gadget.
Every damn gadget
has come out of this.

How much percentage do you think are you employing this gadget? Just make a guess. [Looks around in the audience] Mm? How much percentage?
Two? Five?
You’re being very generous to yourself. [All laugh]
It’s well below one percent. Because, for your survival process, to conduct your life in the material world, you do not even need one percent of what this is.

This is capable of perceiving
the whole cosmos.

If you prepare it properly,
if you hold it,
just like an antenna
[slightly shifts his torso],
if you hold it in the right position,
it can just grasp everything in the existence.

It is just that we are doing all kinds of things with it,
because right now, our whole perception of life
is limited to the physical nature of the existence.

Physical, is like the peel of the fruit.
It has no purpose of its own.
In the sense… if you have a fruit, the moment you eat the fruit, the peel goes straight to the trash can. Isn’t it?
The peel is only a package.
Only because the fruit is valuable,
package is important.

Right now as you sit here, this body is very important. You have to feed this, you have to clothe this, you have to decorate this… You have to pamper this, in so many ways.
Tomorrow morning, that something inside, which you never experienced, if that goes away, nobody wants to have any business with this. Yes? Only because the fruit is inside, this peel has become very valuable.

Now, yoga means, not just about twisting your body, not about standing on your head, not about holding your breath… All these things, a circus artist can do better than most yogis. Really. Yes or no? Don’t you think so? A circus artist can do far better than most yogis in terms of twisting the body, doing this, doing that, holding different positions… That is not the purpose of yoga. Unfortunately, if you utter the word yoga, people think you have to be in some impossible posture. Yoga is not about postures. It is just a minuscule aspect of yoga.

Yoga means,
in your experience,
everything has become one 🙏

The word yog means “union”.

What is the union? What can unite with what?

As you sit here, your idea, and your sense, and your experience of who you are is very strong. You’re here, as an individual!

But what the trees are exhaling right now, you’re inhaling. What you’re exhaling, the trees are inhaling. Or in other words, one half of your lung is hanging out there. [Laughter] Yes or no?

This is not just in terms of breath. Today modern physics is proving to you that as you sit here, every subatomic particle in your body is in constant transaction with everything else in the existence. If this transaction stops, you will cease to exist.

So yoga means
to know it by experience.
Modern science is proving to you,
the whole existence is just one energy.

The religions of the world have been screaming for a long time that God is everywhere. Whether you say “God is everywhere”, or you say “Everything is one energy”, are we talking about the same reality? Or a different reality?

“God is everywhere”, “Everything is same energy”;
are we talking about the same reality or different reality?

Same reality!

It is just that a scientist has never experienced this;
he has arrived at it through mathematical deductions.
A religious person has not experienced it; he believes it,
because it’s written somewhere, or it’s said by somebody.

If you are a hard case,
that you’re not willing
to settle for deductions
or belief systems, then
you become a yogi.

[Laughter]

Yes, if you’re a very hard nut,
you want to know it yourself.
Then you become a yogi.
You want to know the union of the existence.
You want to know the oneness of what it is.
Not believing it.
Like you experience the five fingers of your hand,
if you can experience everything around you,
then we say
you are
in yoga.

Sadhguru transcribed by Leon Hieros

💜🙏

Ask yourself a question

Tags

Rupert Spira, Satsangs/retreats, Yoga

What is the nature of my mind,
prior to the arising of a thought, sensation, or perception?

…

Don’t work this out rationally.
We are experiencing the continual arising and disappearing of thoughts, sensations and perceptions.

What is the nature of the medium, or field,
in which your thoughts, sensations and perceptions
are arising, existing; and vanishing…

…

In order for an e-mail to appear –relatively speaking– there must be some medium present, prior to the e-mail, upon which it can appear.
In order for a cloud to appear, there must be some medium, or field present, in which the cloud can form.
In order for a thought, or an image, or a feeling, a sensation or a perception to appear, there must be some medium, or field present, in which that object of experience can arise; exist, and vanish.

What is that?

…

Don’t answer this question with a word.

…

Just become aware of the medium or the field,
within which, your experience arises.

…

What is its nature?

…

Notice that we cannot find this field or medium as an object of experience.
Any object of experience could be something that arises within this field.

…

Whatever the medium or field,
within which our thoughts, sensations and perceptions arise,
it must be inherently empty
of thoughts, sensations and perceptions.

Just like the screen of our laptop is inherently empty of e-mails, images and videos. If the screen were not empty, there would be no room on it, for an e-mail or an image.
If the sky were not empty, there would be no room within it for the clouds.

If the medium within which our experience arises, were not itself empty of all objective experience, there would be no room for experience within it.

…

It is on account of the emptiness of this field –emptiness of objective content, that is– that the fullness of experience can arise within it.

…

Notice that all possible thoughts, images, feelings, sensations and perceptions are able to arise in this field.
Not just particular types of thought, or feeling, but all possible thoughts, feelings, sensations etc.

In other words, this medium or field is wide open, without preference, or discrimination, or resistance.

It is, as such, like empty space that does not have the ability to resist whatever appears within it. However good or bad, or pleasant or unpleasant, that appearance may seem to be.

…

Notice that this open, empty field or medium within which all experience arises is not an inert field;
it is a knowing field, or an aware field.
Whatever arises within it,
is simultaneously known by it.

…

Understand and feel that
you are this open, empty, aware field,
within which
all experience
arises,
exists,
and into which,
it vanishes.

…

To refer to a medium, or a field, or a space, in which our experience arises, is not quite right. It is a concession to the mind that wants to explore its experience.

Imagine a character in a dream who wants to explore the nature of the knowing, with which she knows her experience. The knowing with which the dreamed character knows the dreamed world, is of course the dreamer’s mind. And the dreamer’s mind doesn’t appear anywhere in the dreamed character’s world. It cannot be found anywhere in the time and space that the dreamed character seems to experience.
In other words, the dream takes up no time or space in the dreamer’s mind.

Likewise, the presence, the space-like presence, in which our experience arises –that is, our experience of time and space, and all the events and objects that appear within it– does not itself appear in time or space; it has no dimensions.
But as a concession to the mind that wants to think about the reality of its experience, we permit ourselves to visualize the medium within which all experience arises, as a kind of field, or space.

So, allow yourself to understand,
but more importantly, feel yourself
as the open,
empty,
aware space,
or space-like presence,
within which all your experience arises.

…

See that your thoughts flow through this space,
like birds flying through the sky.

And just as the flight of a bird leaves no trace on the sky,
see that no thought leaves a trace in the space of awareness.

In other words, a thought doesn’t scar awareness; it doesn’t leave a trace of itself. However pleasant or unpleasant, however kind or unkind, however true or false the thought may be, makes no difference. It appears, it flows through the space of awareness, it vanishes. Leaving awareness in its original, pristine, open, empty, luminous, or knowing condition.

Remember, I’m not speaking of some abstract, metaphysical awareness.
I’m speaking of ourself. The very ordinary, familiar, intimate awareness that each of us, is.

…

If some thoughts stained or scarred awareness, we would have to get busy disciplining, or getting rid of, those particular types of thought. We would have to have an agenda with them. But no thought, irrespective of its content, stains or scars the open, empty, luminous field in which it appears, exists, and into which it vanishes. So there is no need to have any agenda whatsoever with the content of your thoughts.

The sky has no opinion about the quality of the birds that fly through it, or the number of the birds. One of the birds may take issue with the other birds. But the sky itself never takes issue with any of the birds.

Likewise, one of our thoughts may take issue with the quality or number of our thoughts. But awareness itself, never takes issue with anything. That is why it is always at peace. A peace that is not dependent upon the quality or the number of thoughts we have. But a peace that is prior to, and independent of, the existence and the quality and the quantity of thoughts.

…

Ask yourself the question:

Can I find an edge, or a limit, to the field of awareness,
within which my experience appears?

…

Remember: awareness is the only one that is aware.

So we are asking awareness:

Can you, awareness,
can I, awareness,
ever find a limit to myself?

Awareness is the only one that is aware, so awareness is the only one that knows anything about awareness. What is awareness, is experience of itself.
If we ask thought: “What do you think about awareness?”, we all know what thought will say. Thought has been trained by our culture to believe that awareness resides in, and is limited to, the body.
But what is awareness, is experience of itself.

Try, now,
to find an edge
to the field of awareness
in which your experience arises.

…

Imagine empty space, empty physical space,
and then imagine adding the quality of being aware to empty space,
so empty space, empty physical space, is no longer an inert space;
it is an aware space.
Just imagine adding the quality of knowing, or being aware, to empty space.

And now we ask this aware, empty space:
Can you ever find the edge of yourself?
What would empty space say?
Empty space would explore its experience of itself, and if it could speak, it would say:
I find no edge, or limit, or border to myself. In my own experience of myself, I am without limits.

This is what it means in the tradition when it says that awareness is vast; vaster than anything that appears in experience, because all experience appears within it.

Now.
Awareness is not really vast.
Something that is vast, is something that is extended indefinitely in all directions of space.
The only reason it is said that awareness is vast, is as an antidote to the belief that awareness is tiny, or small, that is housed in the body.

In relation to the belief that awareness is tiny, that is located in the body, it is legitimate as a first step to consider it to be vast. But in fact awareness is neither tiny nor vast. It has no dimensions.

So having added the quality of being aware, or knowing,
to empty physical space,
so that we now have this aware empty physical space,
now remove this physical space.

That’s what awareness is.

…

Don’t try to think about that.
It’s not possible to think about something with no dimensions.
It’s not possible to visualize something with no dimensions.

So keep this understanding in the back of your mind,
and permit yourself again to visualize and feel
your self-awareness as a vast, open, empty, luminous space.
Within which all experience arises.
But which itself has no edge or border, or limit.

Be, knowingly, this openness without limits.

…

If our thoughts could be likened to birds that fly through the sky of awareness,
then our feelings could be likened to clouds that float in the space of awareness.
They are larger than the birds, less clearly defined, and they tend to hang around longer than the birds; they move more slowly.

If we are in love, then these clouds will be light and white and wispy;
if we are depressed, they will be dark and grey and ominous.
But in both cases, in all cases,
our feelings are like clouds that arise within this open, empty, luminous field.
They are suspended in this field. They flow slowly through this field, and vanish into it.
And just as no cloud leaves a trace on the sky, no feeling, however dark or difficult it may be, stains the space of awareness, in which it appears.
If the sky of awareness were harmed in some way, or stained in some way, by certain feelings, then we would have to have an agenda with those feelings; we would have to prevent them, transform them, dissolve them, etc.
But just as no cloud leaves a trace on the sky, so no feeling leaves a trace in awareness. Awareness is always in the same open, empty; pristine; luminous condition.

Remember, I’m not speaking about some
abstract, philosophical, metaphysical awareness.
I’m speaking about ourself.
Not the self that we might become,
if we meditate long enough or practice hard enough,
but the self that we are now.
The self that we have always been.
The self that is intimately one with all experience,
but is never harmed or stained by it.

…

See clearly that no experience that arises
in this open, empty, luminous field
adds anything to it.
And when the experience vanishes,
it removes nothing from the field.
In other words,
the open, empty, luminous space of awareness,
is never aggrandized or diminished by experience.
And thus it has no vested interest in experience.
No need to reject what is present.
No need to seek what is not present.

…

Be sensitive to any feelings of irritation, restlessness or boredom.
If we are irritated or restless, we are resisting what is present.
And if we are bored, we are seeking what is not present.

Who is the one that is irritated, restless or bored?
It is not I-awareness.
I-awareness knows nothing of such feelings.
What other self is there, apart from I-awareness?
Can you find another self in yourself?

…

Keep your attention to whatever sounds are present.
Ask yourself the question:
Are these sounds appearing in the same medium or field, within which my thoughts and feelings are appearing, or do they appear in a different field?

Go back and forth with your attention from a thought to a sound.
Is your attention always travelling in the same field?
Or as it moves from the thought to the sound,
does it leave one field and enter another?

Does our attention have to leave the field
in which our thoughts and feelings arise,
in order to encounter a sound?

Or is our attention always
travelling through the same medium,
the same open, empty, aware medium?

…

See, in this way, that
our thoughts, feelings and sounds
all arise and exist in the same field.

…

Now, ask yourself the question:

How much distance, if any,
is there between the field
in which my experience arises,
and any particular experience?

How much distance is there
between any experience
and the knowing of it?

Is the faint sound of the aeroplane
further away from the knowing of it
than our current thoughts or feelings?

…

And when the sound vanishes,
does it leave the field of awareness,
or does it merge into it?

…

And when a sound arises again,
is it initiated outside the field of awareness,
and then enter the field, like an actor appearing on stage,
or does it emerge from within the field of awareness?

…

Allow your eyes to open.

A new perception arises.
Does this perception arise
within the field of awareness,
or outside the field of awareness?

Don’t think about this.
Just refer to your simple, direct experience.

Go back and forth with you attention
from the current thought
to the sight of this room.

Is your attention always travelling through the same field?
Or when it leaves the thought and travels towards the sight,
does it leave one field called “The mind”
and enter another field called “The world”?
Or is our attention always travelling in the same, seamless, indivisible field?

…

What we think about has limitations.
What we feel has limitations.
What we hear has limitations.
What we see has limitations.

But what about the field in which all these arise?
Does that have any limitations?
In other words, do you have any limitations?

Do you start out as a limited self,
and have to work hard on yourself,
expanding yourself and disciplining yourself,
in order to finally become unlimited, one day?
Or are you always, already, innately unlimited?

…

Allow your eyes to close again…

Allow the experience of the body to come to your attention…
Not the memory of the body, not the idea of the body, not an image of the body;
but your current raw experience of the body.

…

If our eyes are closed
(and I recommend we keep our eyes closed to begin with),
and we do not refer to memories, ideas or images,
our only experience of the body is the current sensation or flow of sensations.
In fact, without reference to memory,
we cannot even be sure that the current sensation or flow of sensations
is a sensation of a body.
It’s just a sensation.

…

So experience the current sensation
as if it were the first experience you had ever had.
Be like a newborn infant.
You have no memory to refer to,
and no means of conceptualizing your experience.
There is just your raw experience, raw sensation,
but this is not a sensation of something;
it’s just a sensation.

A continuously vibrating or pulsating sensation.

Ask yourself the question:
Does this pulsating sensation appear within the field of awareness, or outside of it?
Is it my experience, that the sensation appears in the field of awareness, or is it my experience that awareness appears in the sensation?

Travel around inside the sensation,
seeing if you can find a location for awareness,
a place at which the knowing of your experience takes place.

…

Are you located inside the sensation,
or is the sensation located inside you?

…

Are you a point of knowing, or awareness,
located inside this sensation?
Or is the sensation a pulsating vibration hovering
in the immensity of your openness; your emptiness.

What is your actual experience?

…

Ask yourself the question:
Does this sensation have a clearly defined border?

Don’t refer to an image of the body.
Just refer to your current, direct, intimate experience;
just the current sensation or flow of sensations.

Does this pulsating sensation have a clearly defined outline?

…

The purpose of these questions is not to come up with a rational answer for each question, but rather to take us with each question more and more deeply into the experience itself; tasting what is actually there. So don’t allow your mind to answer any of these questions with a word. Just ask the question, and allow the question to take you one step deeper into your experience. We are not trying to change our experience. We are trying to touch or taste the reality of our experience. Having touched or tasted the reality of our experience, we can decide for ourselves whether we think it needs changing or not.

…

Does the current sensation have an age?

Can you say, from your experience, the current sensation is old, or young, or …?

…

Without referring to thought or memory, is the current sensation either sick or healthy?

…

Unless you are in intense pain, is the current sensation either pleasant or unpleasant, if we don’t refer to thought or memory?

…

Ask yourself the question:
If I don’t refer to thought or memory, do I have any experience or suffering?

…

Notice that we are not trying to change or manipulate our experience in any way whatsoever. We are simply contemplating it. In a disinterested way. And in our disinterested contemplation, our experience is liberating itself from superimposed beliefs and feelings. Allowing its reality to shine as it is.

…

Can you find a self in the body?

…

See that the experience of the body is pervaded by the empty, open, luminous field of awareness, within which it appears, and with which it is known.

But that field is not limited to or by the body. It pervades the entirety of our experience, including the world.

So if we feel “my body”, we should really feel “my world”. Our experience of the world is no less pervaded by ourself, than is our experience of the body.

…

The appearance of a sensation in the open, empty, luminous space of awareness, doesn’t divide or compartmentalize awareness any more than a cloud divides or compartmentalizes the sky.

The body is a ripple of pulsating vibration appearing in the immensity of our openness.

…

Ask yourself the question,
without reference to thought or memory:
Does the current sensation weigh anything?
How much does a sensation weigh?

…

Certain areas of the sensation may have a certain intensity to it.
But without reference to thought or memory, this intensity is not evidence of weight.

…

How much does a thought weigh, or a sound weigh?

Sensations are made out of the same stuff that our thoughts and perceptions are made out of. They are made out of mind-stuff.

…

See that there are thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, perceptions…
All floating weightlessly in the immensity of your openness.

But can you find a self anywhere?

…

And if there is no limited, located self present in our experience, on whose behalf does our suffering arise?

…

Let’s remain silent till we’re in the dining room.

Thank you. 🙏

Rupert Spira transcribed by Leon Hieros

💜🙏

Health from within

Tags

Sadhguru, Satsangs/retreats, Yoga

✨ Your body and your brain works at its best, only when your stomach is empty.

✨ Any correction and purification that needs to happen in the body, your stomach needs to be empty. It’s very very important. Otherwise, the purification at the cellular level will not happen.

✨ Health is not something you can do from outside. Health is something you have to do from within.

✨ Minimum eight hours gap is what is recommended in yoga; between one meal and the next meal, there must be an eight-hour space. If you do this, you will see half your problems of health –whatever you have, health problems– minimum fifty percent will go in six weeks time.

✨ If you do certain other things, which may right now seem a little extreme to you, if you have a little yogic practice, something meditative within you, then you will see, ninety percent of your problems will go away. Ten percent, if it still persists, can be treated.

💜🙏

Surya Namaskar – All-in-One Exercise

Tags

Krishnapriya22013, Satyananda Saraswati, The Art of Living, Yoga

You can treat surya namaskara as an expression of your regard for the sun, whether it is the material aspect or that underlying spiritual aspect that the material sun symbolizes. Or, if you are not inclined to worship, then do surya namaskara for the sake of maintaining and inducing good health. This is the stepping stone to spiritual awareness and peace.

Digestive system: The abdominal organs and stomach are alternately stretched and compressed. This imparts a healthy massage to the internal organs and ensures that they function correctly, or if they don’t currently work efficiently, encourages them to do so. Many diseases of the digestive system can be prevented and removed by the regular practice of surya namaskara.

Eliminative system: Rapid elimination of waste materials from the body is essential. Often undigested waste products remain in the intestines and bowels due to constipation, which can result in various other disorders. Surya namaskara stimulates the peristalsis of the intestines helping to remove any tendency toward constipation.

The kidneys are also important eliminative organs. They filter impurities from the blood and eliminate them from the body in the form of urine. Therefore any disorders of inefficiency in the workings of the kidneys will result in impure blood. Surya namaskara gently massages these two organs, increases their supply of blood, as well as speeds up the circulation throughout the body. The result is that the kidneys are encouraged to function properly while at the same time the blood is given an additional flush and filter through the kidneys. For best result one should supplement the daily practice of surya namaskara by drinking plenty of fresh, clean water.

A high proportion of the body’s waste products are eliminated through the skin. This process works particularly well when a person sweats profusely. Often toxins accumulate in the skin, manifesting as boils and pimples. If a good sweat was developed regularly there would be less tendency for this to happen as the toxins would reach the outer surface of the skin and be washed off. Surya namaskara results in increased perspiration and thereby encourages the elimination of toxins from the body, helping to prevent skin ailments. This is an excellent method of acquiring a fresh complexion, especially if one takes a bath after surya namaskara or the yoga practice program.

Circulatory system: Surya namaskara increases the heartbeat and the workings of the whole circulatory system, helping to eliminate waste materials from the body. Areas of sluggish blood are also removed and replaced by purified and oxygenated blood. All the cells of the body receive extra nutrition enabling them to function more efficiently. This leads to better health and increased vitality.

The lymphatic system is most important in protecting the body against infection. It is the body’s auto-therapeutic system and without it the body would quickly succumb to disease. Surya namaskara, by increasing the circulation and removal of poisonous bacteria, directly aids the lymphatic system to work more efficiently in its fight against illness.

Respiratory system: Most people tend to breathe superficially in short and shallow gasps. This starves the body of the oxygen it requires for perfect health. Carbon dioxide also tends to accumulate in the system. Further underutilization of the lung capacity allows a build-up of germs which can lead to various illnesses. Surya namaskara, when done correctly, accentuates the exchange of air to and from the lungs, opens and expands the intricate alveoli, or air sacs, of the lung tissue and exercises the muscles of the surrounding chest region. The lungs are emptied of impurities and stale air and the body and brain are revitalized by the extra supply of oxygen they receive. One can almost feel the extra super-charge of energy.

Endocrinal system: This system plays an important part in determining our well-being and attitude towards life. It consists of a large number of chemicals (hormones) which interact with each other, reinforcing or counteracting each other. Even the slightest imbalance can cause widespread repercussions in the form of disease. A well known example is diabetes. There are many other illnesses which are a direct result of hormonal imbalance. The hormones are the officers of the body, the brain is the commander and the pats of the body are soldiers. It is the hormones that mobilize and coordinate the different functions of the body. Rate of growth, sexual functions, excitability and so on are all controlled by hormones. Surya namaskara harmonizes this system helping to remove any irregularities by directly massaging the relevant glands and improving their blood flow. Imbalance of the endocrinal system is often caused by mental tension. Surya namaskara can help to reduce this deeper cause of hormonal malfunction, especially if it is supplemented by other yoga practices.

Nervous system: The multitudes of nerve connections throughout the body are gently stretched, massaged and stimulated while doing surya namaskara. It is these nerves that connect the different parts and organs of the body with the brain. The nerves are the intermediaries. Even if an organ is in perfect condition it can only function as well as the nerves will allow. If the nerves are unhealthy then the functioning of the associated organs must suffer. If the pipe connecting the water tank to the tap is blocked, then the tap cannot work properly, even though it might be perfectly new. It is the same with the body’s nervous system. The nerve fibres determine how well the organs and muscles of the body function.

Most modern, sedentary people don’t exercise their bodies sufficiently. As a consequence the nerve connections tend to become lazy and atrophy develops. Surya namaskara tones up these nerves and simultaneously awakens the associated brain centres. One feels more alive after a few rounds of this exercise.

Muscles and skeleton: Surya namaskara exercises all the main muscles and joints in the body. The muscles are contracted and extended and any impure, stagnant blood is redirected back to the lungs and kidneys for purification. It is an excellent method of loosening up the body for asana practice.

Subtle influences: Surya namaskara can give many additional and perhaps more important benefits beyond the physical. It depends on your attitude. If you are aware and totally involved with the intonations of the mantras, the breathing and the movements, it will induce peace of mind. It is therefore a very useful exercise in reducing emotional conflict, neurosis and stress, especially when supplemented with other yoga practices. If one is devotionally inclined then the exercise can be done with full knowledge of the significance of worshipping the sun. This will purify the heart and mind. Surya namaskara also helps to bring the flow of pranic or bioplasmic energy into balance and remove blockages in the nadis through which it flows. Surya namaskara is an excellent practice with which to start the day. It helps to prepare you in every way to face the oncoming day with physical and mental strength and confidence.

From A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya, by Swami Satyananda

Gratitude dearest Krishna

🌞🙏