Divya Jyothi - Jun 2012 by Atmajyothi Subbu

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Prabhuji Speaks

Bhakti Yoga

Ananda Marga - Part 4

Sanatana Dharma - Part 11 5 Bapuji Childrens’s

Question and quest

Basement Gita

Guru Paduka Stotram

Upadesha Arhata

Spiritual Insights

Peace Pilgrim

Emptiness of our “I”

Meher Baba and his teachings

Love and Devotion

So How to Love God

Divya Jyothi Sharing the Enlightened Wisdom I S S U E

M A Y

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From the editor’s desk All Sounds manifest in Silence and merge in Silence. So also this gross body and the subtle mind which is nothing but one of the forms of 'Omkara', manifests in the 'Silent Sacred Nothing’ and merges back into the same nothingness. ‘No-thingness’ does not mean ‘Emptiness’ (Shunyata) actually it is ‘EveryThing’ (Parabrahman).‘Nothingness to Nothingness is our whole existential journey’. The ‘No-thingness’ to become aware of its ‘No-thingness’ is the whole cycle of Existence, and Divine Love (Bhakti) is the door to the unmanifest blissful state. All enlightened beings out of compassion return to the manifest world to shower there Grace on all beloved seekers to return to the Source which there are already One with. Let us empty ourselves from all identiﬁcations and open up (Surrender) to that GRACE showering on us!

A Prayer to the beloved 27 God The Sanctification of married life

The Seven Realities of Meher Baba’s teaching

Eckhart Tolle and his teachings.

Nadabrahman - Omkara 37 Yogasana

Its all Him

This edition is a humble eﬀort to kindle the ‘Light of Love’ and ‘Light of Awareness’ in our readers thereby getting closer and closer to our true nature of ‘No-thingness’ (Satchitananda)! Hari Om, Editorial Team.

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Prabhuji Speaks - Zero The numeral Zero was discovered by Indians. It is amazing that how a discovery of Zero lead to the development of mathematics (Ganitha) which in turn lead to great discovery of human kind in science and technology. Zero has no dimensions yet it has inﬁnite dimensions. In this article we explore the various dimensions of dimensionless! Zero the Sacred -Pujya One of the names for “zero” in India was “Pujya” which means ‘Sacred’. Zero was considered as sacred. Zero represented ‘divinity’.

"As you observe the body , you become the breath,

Zero State - Samadhi We go through diﬀerent states of consciousness, ‘Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep states. But there is one state which is beyond all these states – which is called ‘Turiya or Samadhi’. That is the background State of all the states. In all the other states there are thoughts while Samadhi is a ‘thoughtless state of Awareness’. One who has entered Samadhi has entered the Kingdom of God – Divinity in human being. Hence Samadhi is called Zero state. No wonder Indians associated zero with Samadhi.

as you observe the breath, you become the mind, as you observe the mind, you become the 'Self'(Shakshi)"

-Prabhuji

Zero – State of Silence Human mind is noisy. It is chattering always. Through meditation one attains the state of silent mind. There are a rare few people who go beyond meditation, beyond mind to attain a state of no mind. Such rare souls are called – enlightened ones – jnanis – Buddhas. It is said that idle mind is devils work shop. That is the state of normal human mind. Thought after thought rise in idling mind. On the other hand empty mind is God’s workshop. Meditation is the process of emptying mind. Such a person becomes very peaceful and gets filled with divine qualities of peace and love. Once someone goes beyond empty mind and attains a state of no mind – when the ego sense drops he/she becomes one with existence. In that there is no more individual – there is only Divinity. No mind is a state of Pure Silence – Divinity. He/she becomes divine. The divine speaks through their tongue. Such a speech is called, ‘Revelation’ – Veda. Vedas are called apourusheya – ‘the revelation of the highest spiritual truths’. The highest spiritual truths can reach humanity only through Enlightened Sages who have attained state of no mind. There is no more the filter of mind-intellect to distort the highest Cosmic Truths. Such a person is called Rishi – Seer. Shunyata - Nothingness Zero is also called Shunyata – ‘a state of Nothingness’. ‘Nothing’ means = ‘No + thing’. Thing is an Object. The world is made of Objects. Even our body, mind and intellect are Objects in Consciousness. The Consciousness is the eternal Subject. While every object in the universe has birth, growth, death and decay, the eternal Subject is free from all these. The way to immortality and eternal life is to identify ourselves with the Subject rather than the Object. Bhagavan Buddha called this Shunyata, ‘State of Nothingness’. It is also called Nirvana – ‘state of total freedom from the Existential suffering’.

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Add a Zero to create Value Zero in itself has no value. But add a zero to any number the number gains a value. 1 becomes 100, 1000, 100000, 10000000 it gains infinite value as you add Zeroes behind it. The human body mind and intellect – BMI has no life, no value – dead matter until consciousness animates it. The consciousness is represented by zero – by itself it has no manifestation – no value. Moment consciousness enters, human body becomes alive. Once the consciousness leaves the body, the body becomes dead matter again – valueless. So is this whole world of Prakriti – Matter. The matter gets animate by consciousness. Infinite variety of life forms are created and destroyed in the presence of consciousness – “zero”. Without zero there is no value. With Zero there is value – infinite value. Similarly human life is dull and boring without the touch of Divine consciousness. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to say for speaking about God one’s tongue should be touched by the seal of divine consciousness. There are many people who are scholarly - learned in scriptures. They can quote scriptures and speak for hours about God- Divinity. Their speech can give information. But one word from the mouth of a realized Soul like Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa or Shri Vivekananda can inspire people and bring about transformation in the people. This is the power of the Divine consciousness.

"Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind"

Be a Zero and Be a Hero There was a mighty tree in the forest. It was hundred years old and pretty strong. It was very fond of boasting about its own strength to the grass which growing in and around. It used to mock at the weakness of the grass. One day there was a heavy rain – high speed winds. Before the tree realized it was uprooted and dead while the humble grass bowed and flowed with the wind – surviving, smiling and unhurt all the time. It is the ego like a big tree which gets hurt. Drop the ego become humble like grass. Become zero and you will be a hero. When the ego is dropped it is not the individual but the Universal consciousness which operates through the body mind complex. Such a person is called Hero. In India such a person is called Mahavir – ‘The Great Warrior’. One who can drop his/her ego is the real Hero. Sadguru - Shunyata to Purnata ( from Nothingness to Fullness) One who drops the identification with the body-mind-intellect and identifies himself/herself with the Supreme Consciousness has attained the fullness of life. Such a noble one is called “Purina- fullness”. He/She has become embodiment of ‘Supreme Peace-BlissWisdom’ and attained the peak of human life. One who goes to the presence of such a master gets transformed. Such a rare soul is called “Sadguru” enlightened master. Sadguru teaches through silence some times. He/She teaches through words to bring silence in the mind of disciple other times. All his actions are not actions since he is not identified with the body-mind-intellect. Such actions are called Naishkarma – Non-Actions.

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Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti Yoga is not a particular sadhana, not a particular distinct sadhana, but a name of an entire range of spiritual sadhana culminating in moksha. So Bhakti Yoga is not a sadhana, but a group of three spiritual sadhanas which are discussed in Vedas and Bhagavad Gita which is the essence of Veda. These three spiritual sadhanas of Veda alone are given in this twelfth chapter of Bhagavad Gita. Those three spiritual sadhanas are: Karma Yoga, Upasana Yoga and Jnana Yoga. In the Vedas and Upanishads, the word 'Bhakti' is practically not used at all. So all these three spiritual sadhanas, Karma Yoga+Upasana Yoga+Jnana Yoga, put together is renamed as Bhakti Yoga. Why this naming? Because Krishna sees all these levels of sadhana to be practised only in the atmosphere of Ishwara Bhakti. Without Ishwara Bhakti, these three sadhanas cannot be called as sadhanas. It is in the atmosphere of Ishwara bhakti, that theses exercises become yoga and therefore each one is called Bhakti Yoga and therefore if you have to differentiate Bhakti yoga, it would be, Bhakti Yoga level 1, Bhakti yoga level 2, Bhakti yoga level 3. Level 1 is Karma Yoga lakshana (in the form of) Bhakthi Yoga, level 2 is Upasana Yoga lakshana Bhakthi Yoga and level 3 is Jnana Yoga lakshana Bhakthi Yoga. Now, for the sake of the benefit of all seekers, these 3 levels of sadhanas itself are sub-divided by Krishna into 5 levels, because sometimes you find that the second staircases are too steep, then what do you do? you make into two, so that everybody can climb easily.

You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God.

Similarly Krishna divides the sadhanas into five-levels. How does he divide? Karma Yoga itself is sub-divided into 1st level of Karma Yoga and 2nd level of Karma Yoga. similarly Upasana Yoga is subdivided into Upasana Yoga level 1 and Upasana Yoga level 2. But Jnana Yoga is not divided into two levels, it is only one level, so 2+2+1 = 5. Next question is what is the difference between Karma Yoga level 1 and Karma Yoga level 2? In Karma Yoga level 1, Krishna wants to accomodate all materialistic people who are really not interested in moksha and in serving in society, also Krishna wants to accomodate the utterly selfish and materialistic people. And Krishna says, let the materialistic people follow or pursue their worldly desires, they need not give up their worldly desires because suppression of desires is a dangerous thing. Because for a person who suppresses desires, the mind continues to fantasize those desires n then gradually they mount up like a volcano and later that person can completely go astray. That's why in Vedas, Krishna says, "even if you are not interested in Bhagavan it does not matter, even if you r not interested in moksha, doesn't matter, you might be interested in Artha and Kama, means money and entertainment", Krishna says - "continue and still you can be a Karma Yogi and a spiritual sadhaka, provided you follow one or two conditions. First condition is, make sure that you fulfill your worldly desires and selfish desire only by legitimate methods, second condition which is more important is that when you pursue your worldly pleasures and desires, when you succeed in getting them, before you enjoy their phalam (result), do not claim them as your own accomplishment, look up onto them as gift from the God,' Ishwara Prasada'. Whenever you buy a house or car , or new dress, even the food you eat , do not claim it as your own accomplishment, take it as Ishwara Prasad. And when you buy a new house also, if it is your desire to buy the house and enjoy the benefits of the house , here, Karma makes only one request, look upon the house as temple of the God and imagine that you are living in the temple which is gift from the Lord, Krishna prasada, Rama prasada. Even children are named as RamaPrasad, means what, look upon even your children, not as your children, but as gift from the lord. Thus this level of Karma Yoga can be defined as - "you may follow kaamyakarma, you may not do nishkaama karma, you may not do paropakaara karma, it doesn't matter, enjoy as ishwara prasada. So what is the first level of Karma Yoga "prasada buddhya, sakaama karma anushtaanam". Sakaama Karma means what, selfish activity for my own benefit. Then what will happen if I continue to accept everything as iswara prasad? Because of the very attitude, the mind becomes purer and purer, and as the mind

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becomes purer and purer, I begin to question, can I spend my entire life for my own benefit, should not I contribute something to the world, so this kind of questions gradually come, which is an indication of purity. Desire for para-upakara starts. In Kamya Karma, I have desire only for taking, in nishkama karma, I have a desire for giving also, not mere taking. Life is giving also. Previously I measured my success in terms of how much I have taken. Now my mind changes, I ask the question, how much I have given. Success is not proportional to taking, success is directly proportional to giving. This is the difference between the materialistic approach and spiritualistic approach. In materialistic approach, success is directly proportional to acquisition whereas in spiritual approach, success is directly proportional to sharing or thyaga (sacrifice). And therefore in the second level of Karma Yoga the Sakaama Karmas will become lesser and lesser, selfish attitude will become lesser n lesser. Awareness and consideration of other people will become more and more. Therefore naturally, I will find more time for paropakara karmani, nishkama karmani or panchamaha yaghnakama karmani. Previously selfish activity was taking all the time, I never had time for any contribution. Now I do fulfill my selfish desire, but I should also find time for some contribution or other. Also, even when I have time for giving it always need not be money alone, giving nice consoling words, knowledge, etc all these are giving and when I give to others not with arrogance, the giving is done as ishwara aprana rupena. Therefore the second level of Karma Yoga says: "Ishwara arpana bhavayaha, anushatana, paropakara anushtana"

The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated

So in the first level of Karma Yoga, I am very selfish, narrow minded. In the second level, selfishness has come down and I am aware of the needs of the others and these two levels together are called Karma Yoga. So, first level of Karma Yoga says, 'prasada bhavayaha sakaaama anushtaanam', then second level of Karma Yoga says, 'ishwaraarpana bhavayaha, nishkaama karma anushtaanam'. The first level of Karma Yoga will give purity. The second level of Karma Yoga will give purity an foster level, the sakaama purity is little, in nishkaama karma purity is more. That's why it is said paropakara punyaaya, paaapaya paraveedanam. Once a person is gone through these two levels of Karma Yoga, he gets graduated to the third level. Third level is Upasana Yoga, which means 'Ishwara dhyanam', meditation upon Ishwara, and that too Saguna Ishwara dhyana. Why do we prescribe this sadhana as the next stage? Karma Yoga is very important for the purity of mind, for spiritual elevation Karma Yoga is a must and therefore Karma Yoga is extremely useful but it has got certain disadvantages which have to be neutralized. When a person is Karma Yogi, he is busy either involved in sakaama karma or if he is in second level he is busy in nishkaama karma. One is busy serving himself, other is busy serving the society. Both are busy and in both levels of dharma whether it is sakaama or nishkaama, a person is extrovert in nature, he is more and more world oriented, he is more and more bahirmukhah. And this bahirmukhatvam is an obstacle for Jnana Yoga. Because Jnana Yoga involves enquiring into the inner self, that means self-enquiry, which requires not an extrovert mind, but an introvert mind , which is turned towards oneself. Extrovert people will miss self knowledge and therefore Upasana Yoga is Ishwara dhyanam. So in Upasana Yoga, I turn my attention inwards and I invoke the Lord in my heart which means I train my mind towards my own inner nature. A very very important training is required and without that training one can never come to Brahma Jnana. Hence comes the third level of Upasana Yoga, and Krishna divides this mediation itself into two types. One is Ekarupa Ishwara dhaynam and the next is Anekarupa Ishwara dhyaanam. I visualize with a particular form as Rama or Krishna or any Ishta devatha rupam and this Ishta rupa devatha rupa dhyanam or Ekarupa devatha dhyanam is called abhyasa yoga. This is the third level of sadhana and once a person has practiced this sufficiently, Krishna ask us to replace this Ekarupa with Anekarupa as we have seen in the 11th chapter. Krishna is not a person located in one place. If Bhagavan is looked upon as a person located in one place that Bhagavan is also limited subject to birth, subject to death etc. So for initial meditation purposes, we can Ekarupa, but we have to expand our mind. First level of Upsana Yoga helps in focusing , the next level of Upasana Yoga is in expanding the mind. Therefore the first level of focusing the mind is Ekarupa Ishwara dhyanam and the next level is Anekarupa or Vishwarupa Ishwara dhyanam and both of them come under saguna Ishwara Dhyanam only.

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What does Saguna mean? It is with tributes or properties. Ekarupa Ishwara also has attributes. Vishwarupa Ishwara has also got innumerable attributes. So we have got two levels of Karma Yoga, two levels of Upasana Yoga. Once a person has gone through all these four levels, the person has got jnana yogyata (eligibility), he is eligible to enter the fifth and final level which is Jnana Yoga, which is enquiry into Nirguna Ishwara, otherwise known as, Brahman. Brahman is none other than Ishwara in his higher nature as said in the 7th chapter, called as Paraprakruthi Rupa. Para-prakruti Rupa is enquiry of Arupa Ishwara which consists of Vedanta Shravanam, Vedanta Mananam and Nidhi Dhyasana. Shravanam means consistent and systematic study of the upanishadic scriptures which deal with Nirguna Ishwara. Not just studying that, the culmination of that study should be that Nirguna Ishwara should be non-different from one's own higher nature, 'Aham Brahamsmi'. So when I come to Saguna level, the difference between Ishwara and Jiva is appeared at Saguna level, the difference is maintained there. When I come to Nirguna level, it is 'Aham Brahmasmi'. Having gained this knowledge, I go to Manana to remove the all the doubts in accepting this knowledge that all the intellectual concepts are removed which is called Mananam, which is a part of Jnana Yoga only. And finally comes Nidhi Dhyasanam, which is the removal of all the emotional obstacles, all the psychological traumas that I have gone through, various problems we have gone through in our life. They all remain in our inner heart, they do not allow us to enjoy the benefit of knowledge. All the psychological hang-ups should be removed which is called Nidhi Dhyasanam. Shravanam joined with Mananam and Nidhi dhyasanam put together is called Jnana Yoga. Not in Saguna form, but in his Nirguna form. because in Nirguna there is no male or female, no form, no color, no taste, no touch. This yoga is the fifth and final level of sadhana and all the 5 levels put together is called Bhakti Yoga.

True communication is communion―the realization of oneness, which is love.

Therefore never ask the question, do you follow Bhakti Yoga or the Jnana Yoga. Jnana Yoga is also level of Bhakti Yoga, Upasana Yoga is also a level of Bhakti Yoga. Karma Yoga is also level of Bhakti Yoga. Also everyone has to go through all the 5 levels because nobody is born for the desire of God from birth. We all are born with so many worldly desires. So we have to start with Sakaam karma. That is why Veda is itself full of Sakaam karma. Veda never says that you should work for Moksha in the beginning itself. It says you work for punya, money. It asks you to do 'putra kaameshti' yaga for children, yaga for health, yaga for money, etc all these are worldly desires. Start with Sakaama karma, go through all these stages and gain the knowledge 'Aham Brahmasmi' which is the culmination of Bhakti Yoga. This is the topic of the ﬁrst 12 verses in this 12th chapter of Bhagavad Gita and then in the last 8 verses Krishna talks about the nature of the person, the character of the person. And who has gone through all these 5 stages successfully, we call such a person 'Parabhaktha', who is in advaitam, who is a Jnani, who has discovered 'Aham Brahmasmi'. Such a jnani is called 'Para Bhakta'. And Krishna clearly said, " This Parabhakta alone is my dearest devotee and other people are dear people or dearer people. But the dearest person is this Nirguna Bhaktha, because there is no distance between the Bhaktha and me. He has become one with me, and I have become one with him", says Krishna in 7th chapter of Bhagavad Gita. Krishna said, "Jnani does not stand even separate from me". So this Parabhaktha lakshanani, the characteristics of parabhatkha is the ﬁnal topic. Bhagavad-Gita - Introduction Chapter-12, Commentary By Paramarathananada Transcribed by Atmajyothi Gayatri Source : You can listen to the entire talk at http://archive.org/details/BhagavadGita-CommentaryByParamarathananada-Chapter12

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Ananda Marga - Part 4

My humble Pranams to all Atmajyothis Let us continue the discussion on Atmajnan, all Vedas, Upanishads, all speak about this only. So why go round about turn let us dive straight into the topic …Atmajnan(Self Knowledge). Once in America there was Guajarati boy in class, the teacher asked a question to the Class, ‘Who is the most greatest person in the history of the world, many students mentioned many names, Osama-bin-Laden, Obama, Bill Clinton… the Gujarati boy raised his hand to answer, ‘Madam the most greatest person the history of the world is Jesus Christ’. The Madam was happy, she declared 3 dollars price for the boy, then she asked from where did you come, the student, said ‘I am from Gujarat, India’, so the teacher said, ‘why in India if you are asked the greatest person in India , they usually say, Krishna no..!’. so the boy replied, ‘Madam , I know that the greatest person is Krishna, but what you want the answer is Jesus Christ, and what I want is, your price 3 dollars. That boy is Pakka Gujju, he says, 'Madam business is business’. So let us see what is the most important for us … ‘oh I am a Spiritual person, oh is it taking Spirit, or going to spiritual classes or doing Prananyama, for everything we say Spirituality, oh.. no I am a great devotee, I went to this holy place, I went to that holy place, oh no... I do lot of social service, oh my dear..... for what you do all these..? Why you do all these, is the question. We will see..!

Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence,

Oh I am a very good person, oh my a great devotee of god, oh I am a great social service worker, all kinds of labels we apply and roam about, why do we do all these things actually? This is my question, till you give the answer the class won’t proceed.. So tell me the answer.. Prabhuji: Why do you do anything in the life…? why do we lead a life ? Audience: For our happiness. The only purpose of life is to gain happiness, and freedom from suffering, both are same, whatever you do 'business is business'. It is for Ananda…happiness! All your possessions, car, house, all your power politics, all your materials, marketing is for happiness. Oh ‘Lux soap’, why do you buy? That ‘I will look good and I will feel happy, by looking’. So all your actions, business of life is for Happiness, Ananda. When I was going to high school, we had a tailoring class, the teacher was a man with big fat belly, he walked with heavy footstep’s sound, his sight was fearful, he walked with a long stick, all children feared him. He entered the class one day and asked us, ‘Children, why do we live..? Ah, most fundamental question, people of 80 years also don’t bother to answer it, or question it, that teacher was asking for eight standard students, we all feared..! Ok think and tell me in the next class...we were all puzzled, what to answer..? Then he came to the next class, and again questioned, us. Why do we live? You don’t know, silly fellow.. We live to eat! Tomorrow every one bring, 25 paisa each we will prepare Mandakki(a light south Indian snack made). So the fundamental question is why do we live? We give several reasons based on our…views! To eat, to achieve, to have success…etc, so many other things, but we forget the basic purpose of life for which we are doing all these things and living..! And that is Search for Happiness! Taking birth, living and dying is all for searching happiness…different people give different names and forms for this purpose. Swamiji’s changes their names to clarify this, like Krishnanada, Brahmananda, Atmananda, others are still more intelligent, after birth only they keep their names as Ananda, others marry persons having a name Ananda and keep on searching Ananda, you have forgotten that you have taken birth for Ananda, you live for Ananda, you live with Ananda. But you are not aware, that’s it!

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Our sole purpose of life is to search for happiness, search for Bliss, search for Ananda. Oh I go to Spirituality class, I go to Bhavadgita pravachana, the youngsters say oh this is not for us, those places are for retired places to spend their time. Old people think these youngsters are so foolish, they don’t still think about the God. Both old and bliss only, the only difference is the young go behind Girls and the Old go behind the name of God..! In Ananda you have two kinds, Bhoganada (Material pleasure), and Atmananda (Bliss of Self). Bhoganada is eating, and enjoying in all possible ways. Why is life there. To ENJOY! That is today’s principle. Atmananda means, experience the inner bliss, which is already there, not knowing this we all go on doing many things in many ways to find that which is already in us. Some people go to Himalayas, some people take Sanyasa, because they are suffering in the family life, no happiness in the married life..! There you get only frozen ice nothing else..! Why did they go to Himalayas? Did they go in search of ice or cold or to suffer without food? They went in search of happiness. The whole game of life is behind searching the happiness, Ananda. To know and realize that that happiness which we are searching from lifetimes outside is already inside us is Atmananda! Not only the bliss is in us, the whole universe is full the bliss, is running in bliss, is always floating in bliss always, to realize this is Brahmananda! This whole world is the form of God, form of bliss; the whole universe is full of bliss..!

Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose.

But people get stuck in Bhogananda, like eating….too munch they get Roga (Diseases, diabetics), enjoying all kinds of material and money powers. For others shopping, just to touch and see the things, shopping Ananda or mall Ananda..!Some put a peg at night that is also a kind of Ananda or whole day watching cricket, films. All these Ananda come from outside objects…senses..! No for me it is by singing bhajans, Bhogananda, no no I will do yoga, and get yogananda or by pranyama, breathing..! Many kinds of Ananda we go on searching..! So going for sensual pleasures is Bhogananda, going inwards through yoga, dhyana, prananyama..is yogananda, realizing that my nature is Bliss is Atmananda, reallising that whole universe is the manifestation of Bliss, Ananda is Brahmananda. So our life should go from Bhogananda to Atmananda, to Brahmananda. But for Bhogananda you have to struggle, more, spend more, for example ‘I want to be happy, want to marry a nice beautiful girl..! Is it easy to marry a nice beautiful girl? First you should be beautiful, your pocket should be full, you should a house, own vehicle, nice job, for that you have to struggle. No I should get a nice name in the office, so is it easy, I should work hard..! No why want to have children and nature them, then I will be happy, is it easy to nurture them, you have to spend, 30 years till they grow up. Nowadays children won’t up till 50 also; they keep on hankering on parents, dependent on them…mom, Papa. For all Bhogananda you have to give something, sacrifice something. You want to look good you want Lux soap, so you have to pay money, will they give it free, so you have to work hard for it! For all these you have to pay…how will you pay. What is the currency of life? It is only one that is TIME..! If you want something in life you have to give time, invest time..! Oh, I want to study MBBS, then I will be happy, how many years you have to study.. SSLC, PUC, then 5 years MBBS, total 25 years of your life, even more now a days. No I will be happy if I marry. If you want to marry, you should be ready to take decision of marriage for that you need to have job, money, property, after marriage 35 years of maintenance. So how much time you have to give for marriage minimum 30 years. So what is the currency of life, it is your precious TIME! So what is the purpose of life? the sole purpose of life is to gain Happiness, Ananda, BLISS..! And what is the investment, or currency? It is your precious TIME..! Why is this happiness which we get from external world, not permanent? Why the craving won’t stop..?

(To be continued….)

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Zen Koans

Koan 1: Goso said, "When you meet a man of the Way on the path, do not meet him with words or in silence. Tell me, how will you meet him?" Koan 2 (From the Gateless Gate) Joshu asked Nansen, "What is the Way?" "Ordinary mind is the Way," Nansen replied. "Shall I try to seek after it?" Joshu asked. "If you try for it, you will become separated from it," responded Nansen. "How can I know the Way unless I try for it?" persisted Joshu. Nansen said, "The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will ďŹ nd it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?" With these words, Joshu came to a sudden realization.

The spring flowers, the autumn

Nansen dissolved and melted away before Joshu's question, and could not oďŹ&#x20AC;er a plausible explanation. Even though Joshu comes to a realization, he must delve into it for another thirty years before he can fully understand it.

moon; Summer breezes, winter snow. If useless things do not clutter your mind, You have the best days of your life.

Quiz - 6: Anahata Chakra 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Anahata means __________________________. Anahata Chakra is located at the ____________. __________ Gland is governed by Anahata Chakra. Anahata Chakra has ____________petals. The Sound associated with Anahata Chakra is _______________. The Element associated with Anahata Chakra is ________________. The Color of Anahata Chakra is __________________. The Sense organ and the work organ associated with Anahata Chakra are ______& ______respectively. The attributes associated with Anahata Chakra are __________&_____________. The desires associated with Anahata Chakra are ________________. The behavior associated with Anahata Chakra is ________________ &___________. The presiding deity for the Anahata Chakra is Shri Ganesha Anahata Chakra is associated with -----------------______________________ Kosha. The symbol of Anahata chakra is ----------------_______________.

Answers on Page: 14

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Sanatana Dharma - Part 5 Parama Sadgurugalige Namanagalu... Salutations to Pujaneya Prabhuji '' O Sadgurudeva ! God speaks to us in many voices... that of the water and the wind, the ﬂowers and the insects, the animals and the birds. God speaks to us directly in Sadguru's voice. Out of ignorance , We neither try to hear nor understand ! O Gurudeva ! O Pujaneya ! Please give me your Lotus feet which are Jnana and Prema along with Viveka and Vyragya to cling to.'' Aham Devam Asmi - I Am the Gods . '' They speak of Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni . And there is the Divine winged suparna. The wise call the One Being by many names as Agni, Yama .. - Rig Veda 1.164.46

Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.

Various deities are worshipped through various hymns : Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, Vayu, Yama and so on. Each one is described as the Highest Deity in its respective hymns. At the same time there are hymns which declare all deities are one and the same. To reach God, we have to bring our mind to single-pointed concentration , which is nothing but the other form of Meditation. This is the first step for spiritual progress as the different aspect of the Ultimate Reality is praised in different names. Worshipping several deities has nothing to do with the saying '' I believe in One God'' . It is like a Diamond having different facets and different facets look Dazzling from different angles. We see from our own angle and the facet facing us appears as the brightest but deep in our mind we know the reality is All the facets are equally bright and it is the whole diamond which possesses the dazzling quality. '' Those deprived of wisdom by various desires approach other Gods, resorting to various rises according to their own natures - Bhagavad Gita . 7.20 Sanatana Dharma has long been questioned , why do we need hundreds of Gods? when we are acknowledged as the World's most spiritual society. All religions have some form of Meditation. We the Hindus try to focus our mind with the help of Rosary, but, as long as the mind is saturated with desires, the mind is always around the world. It is of no use to chant with the help of rosary when the mind is running around the world, it does not polish the mind, instead it polishes rosary ! Explaining Meditation takes ten minutes but it takes ten years or more of constant effort to shed the desires that prohibit it. You cannot force your mind which is desire saturated, you will only destroy it. Vigraha puja in sanskrit means Vi - eyes, Graha upadena - perceiving , seizing or accepting which means - The one which the eyes accepts and controls the mind by concentrating on that particular deity is Vigraha and Puja means Pu - parayana, Ja - Japa. Parayana means reading with devotion from cover to cover a particular scripture. Japa means the constant uttering of the mantra initiated by the Guru is Japa. Mantra means - manan - mind, trayanti makes the mind peace by attracting.

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Vigraha Puja is interlinked with eyes, mind which leads to meditation. The great Rishis understood this. The desire cannot be controlled at once and the mind cannot focus on single point of God. The rishis planted God wherever there was an object of desire. People have a tremendous desire for Wealth so they planted the Goddess Lakshmi as the Goddess of wealth. For those after knowledge there is Goddess Saraswathi. For success there is God Ganesha. For strength there is God Hanuman and so on. Every material aspect of the world is divinized, so as the mind chases the objects of the world, it is also after the God. Wherever there is a desire there is also a worship to be performed according to one's nature. Desire for material pleasures like wealth, fame, knowledge are all, in truth, desire for God. Sanatana Dharma acknowledged this displaced desire by planting a God at the Goal of every desire. So even in our delusion we are reminded of our true nature.. This constant reminder of Divinity has the capacity to turn that desire back to its true Goal. The goal for Liberation, the goal for eternal release, eternal peace and merging with God. '' Finite indeed are the fruits accruing to those of little intellect. The ignorant pursue limited goals, and achieve limited fruits. Those worshippers of Gods go to the Gods. But the devotees reach Me.'' - Bhagavad Gita 7.23.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

All material desires are limited goals. They are less than what we are capable of. If we worship God in the form of Lakshmi for wealth, in the form of Ganesha for success, in the form of Saraswathi for knowledge, and we devote ourselves to that goal with purpose, we will achieve it. With this achievement our desires are not satiated , there is never a time when we say - I 've got enough money, knowledge, success- No Thank you ! All these are needed for Karma yoga which is the ďŹ rst step for spiritual progress, from karma yoga you move to Bhakti yoga where you will not have any material desires but only the desire for God, here you are still in the concept of God with Form, where you constantly think of God with the imagination of your Ista devata. This leads to Jnana yoga , where you start to discriminate . This leads to Jnana yoga. knowledge is tuition, wisdom is intuition. Knowledge is something which we know but are not ready to accept it. We know what is wrong and what is right, still we are not ready to do the right thing. We are not ready for wisdom even though we have the knowledge of it , this is due to ego followed by ignorance. This ignorance can be cleared by Dhyana yoga which leads to the Eternal Goal - The Sadguru . Once you are at the feet of Sadguru , you don't have to do anything, everything happens, it is just happening, it is just being - There is No Mind, No Doer, No seer, everything is Pure Consciousness. This is the Eternal Goal - The Sadguru.. Once you are accepted by Sadguru, the Knowledge becomes Wisdom. Whatever is done by you in the material world may be vigraha puja, seva, teachings and so on, is done with awareness that You are not the Doer - there is No Doer. Shirasa Namisuva, Gurudeva Pada sevaki

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Bapuji Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home Parama Sadgurugalige Namanagalu... Salutations to Pujaneya Prabhuji '' O Sadgurudeva ! God, Our Pujaneya, has a treasure trove of Joys for all . What anyone ask for, he gives. Some ask for Salvation, some ask for knowledge of glorious Truth, some ask for eternal happiness. May be Bhapuji Children's Home Children had asked for Parental Love , and Lo ! Pujaneya Showered them his Grace. O Gurudeva ! O Pujaneya ! Please give me your Lotus Feet to cling to .'' May 20th 2012 was a Great day , Celebrating Children's day in Bapuji Children's Home by Pujaneya Prabhuji and Dr Alok Gupthaji was the Great Yagna performed - Manushya Yagna, seeing Narayana in Nara seeing God in all human beings . Dr Alok Gupthaji who is the Main person of the BCH joined the function late noon as he didn't wanted to get

recognized as the Chief of BCH.

Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become "I."

Pujaneya Prabhuji with his disciples came to Mysore on 20th of may 2012 to Celebrate Children's day. The main concept of this celebration was to celebrate BCH Children's Birthday. Many people used to come to BCH and celebrate Birthday of their children by making their child cut the cake in front of these Children. Naturally the hurt in the eyes of BCH children could be seen. Any one could understand the feeling of the innocents that there was no one to Celebrate their Birthdays. They used to sit in the dining hall and eat the cake distributed by the Birthday boy or girl. Celebrating Birthday , distributing cakes and giving gifts are of course wonderful service done . But, if all of them could have understood the feelings of the children of BCH the service would have been much more wonderful when they did the portion of Birthday celebration i.e., cutting the cake in their own home and distribute the cake and gifts here. What is important for the children is not the gifts they give or the cakes or whatever eatables given, what is important is the state of mind. How they feel when a child of their own age is enjoying the Birthday celebration with their parents and they have none to do the same to them ! If the same Birthday celebration had happened in an old age home, I am sure none of the elders would have been hurt or would think of it deeply. It would be great if such celebrations are done in old age home, as the elders are not much worried about the celebration and the young ones who celebrate birthdays can view the state of elders who are abandoned from home and in future they don't commit such mistakes or it is perfect if it is said as SIN Committed by the youngsters. Whatsoever, the Celebration of children's day was the Birthday celebration of BCH children. What the children need is the Love and aďŹ&#x20AC;ection, friendliness, closeness which they got in abundance on 20th may 2012 by the Grace of Pujaneya Prabhuji . They enjoyed every bit and every moment of the day. They were 40 children and 10 cakes were brought. The cakes were kept in such a way where 4 children could cut each cake simultaneously. All the children from age group of 2 yrs to 16 yrs including boys and girls enjoyed cutting the cake. Pujaneya Prabhuji blessed all the children by singing the Birthday song and feeding all the children with cake in person. The children were very happy - No words can explain or express the happiness of children. The children of 2 yrs to 5 yrs were enjoying cutting the cake so much that they didn't want to stop the cake cutting and were meddling with the knife and cake on and on ! After the Birthday celebration , there were games like musical chair, running race, dance etc for children and pass-

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ing the pillow for elders. Every child wanted to show his/her own talent by dancing and participating in games. Pujaneya Prabhuji distributed the Bhagavad Gita to all the children and elders, trustees, guests etc., Later it was Lunch session and the children's day celebration of the present year was closed with the blessing of Pujaneya Prabhuji. It is nothing but the Grace of Pujaneya Prabhuji which enabled the BCH children to enjoy the Parental Love, to enjoy the Birthday celebration, to enjoy the friendliness not only for this year but year after year !

Shirasa Namisuva, Gurudeva Pada sevaki

Answers to Quiz Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Un-struck and unbeaten sound (Spiritual heart), also known as Heart Chakra Between the two breasts, chest, (Cordial Plexus) Thymus Gland Twelve Yam Air (Vayu) Green Skin (Touch) and Circulatory System (Heart) Compassion (positive) and Selﬁshness (negative) Love and Emotional Balance Altruistic behavior, Empathy, Sensitivity to others, devotion, unconditional love Isha ((Shiva) Manomaya Kosha Two overlapping Triangles, forming a shatkona.

How is your Anahata chakra? Imbalanced Psychological states associated with the Anahata center are transition, disorientation, crisis, euphoria, extreme mood swings between ecstasy, and despair, feelings of loss, separation, numbness, extreme emotional sensitivity, and panic. The Six Asuric(Demonic) Qualities that block Anahata chakra: Kama(Desire), Krodha(Anger), Loba(Greed). Moha(attachment), Mada(Haughtiness), Matsarya(Jelousy)

The Six Dyvi (Divine) Qualities (Shat Sampatti) that open the knot of the spiritual heart: Shama – tranquility of mind, Dama – Control of senses, Titiksha – Endurance Ability to withstand heat/cold, Uparati – Mind turned towards Self, Sharadha– Faith in Guru and Scriptures, Samadhana– Patience. Selﬂess Service (Nyshkarmya) is the key to activate and balance the Anahata chakra..! Finally GURUKRIPA….!!

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Question and Quest

Extracts from the discourse delivered by Prabhuji on Kena Upanishad at Atmajyothi Anand’s Place

Since there is no escape from the Now, why not welcome it, become friendly with it?

Mind is always full of questions. Should I get married or not? If I get married, which girl, rich or beautiful girl or poor girl. Should I have children or not? Should I do this business or not. These questions are required for your survival or living. Most of the people ask questions that has no relevance to their life. Why is that fellow like that? Why is this government functioning like this? Will the world end in 2012 or not? So people have questions, mind is full of questions. There are only questions in the mind. If there are no questions, then there is no mind. Mind survives only on questions. But do you have right questions? Do you have any questions that are right? Right question is not a question. It is a QUEST. It is a hunger. So you have to understand the difference between the question and the quest. Is there God or not? Why did God create? Why is someone rich? These questions come from the surface of the mind. These are not quests, these are questions. If there are no questions, mind cannot survive. Mind disappears if there are no questions. If mind disappears you will become peaceful. If you don't become peaceful, your husband or someone else will become peaceful. What is the difference between quest and question? Is there a difference? Somebody is traveling in a desert. He has no water, he is very thirsty. That man will be searching for water, where is water. That is called quest, he will be searching for water, without which he will die. It is the deepest quest. Then he finds water, after that he asks which place is this? That is a question. Question comes from the mind, and quest comes from deep within your heart! When that quest comes to you, God is very close to you. If that quest is not there God is very far away from you. But do you have the quest to see God? So you may have attended satsang after satsang, done sadhana after sadhana, but has the quest - who am I, possessed you? You have to understand the difference between the question and the quest. You possess the question, but quest possesses you. Do you have a question or quest? You have a question and the quest possesses you, unless the quest possesses you for Self Realization, you will not realize yourself. The moment the quest possesses you, you will realize yourself. You have to be like Gopikas. Gopikas were playing with Krishna when he was in Brindavan, they were having good company with Krishna. When they missed Krishna, their mind got focused on Krishna. They forgot to how to eat, sleep everything. Always Krishna, meditating on Krishna. They were always in quest of Krishna. Most of the philosophers will miss the truth because they have questions not the quest. Krishna sends Akrura to console the Gopikas. He tries to console them and says Krishna is Paramatma, He is not the body, he is not the mind, he is not the intellect. He is the Omkara in your heart. Then Gopikas tell him, you are a very learned man but you have not understood about God. Sri Krishna is Parabrahma Paramatma in Saguna Rupa Sakshata Paramatma Rupa he was there with us and he is here with us, if we call Krishna he will come. So they call Krishna and he comes. So devotion or Bhakti pulls God/Krishna. So that devotion is what is required, that intensity and fervor is required for self realization or God realization. Until that you get that intensity, fervor and quest, God is very far off, He will be very peaceful in Vaikuntha or Kailasa. The moment you get that fervor you realize God is in your heart, he is very close to you. Otherwise he is very very far off. The mind has questions, all stupid and nonsense questions there are no right question. Only question which is worth asking is, ‘Who am I?’ The only thing you need to learn in life and that is… “I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect, I am the Pure Self, Shivoham, Sat chit Ananda (Existence Consciousness, Bliss)!” There is nothing else to be learnt. You may have to learn some skills to live your life. So, all this spirituality and philosophy is to make your mind silent and free of questions. When the mind becomes silent you are God. Agitated mind is monkey and devil. When mind is silent and peaceful, then what are you? That quiet and still mind is state of Self Realization. There are no questions in the state of self realization. An Atma Jnani has no questions, all questions will disappear, no fundamental questions are there, the questioner only disappears which is the mind.

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Mind always has questions. For every question there is an answer. But no answer is true answer at all; answers are at a surface level. But you have to go to the existential question, ‘Who am I?’ The existential question can only be answered by your heart. Heart knows the truth. Mind can never understand or know the truth. The heart always knows the truth; mind can never understand the truth. You can realize God, or Self, through your heart the deepest level of your heart. Heart has no questions, mind has questions. Usually, the mind suppresses the heart, heart becomes the servant. When heart becomes the master and mind becomes the servant, then you are very close to God. That is the state of Gopikas. Whereas all philosophers are dominated by mind and all philosophical systems are the play of mind and all philosophical systems are to make your mind silent. But people keep on arguing, arguing and arguing for ages but they will never get answers. Mind has to become silent only then your heart will bloom, then you can experience God. Mind has desires, heart has love. When heart is full of love, you can ﬁnd divine, God and atma through the heart when the mind becomes silent. Heart full of love is Bhakti, Mind is silent, and Heart is full of love that is the way to realize God The right way to obtain the truth or answer is... ‘tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya upadeksyanti te jnananm jnaninas tattva-darsinah’ ‘Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The Self-Realized One (Sadguru) can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.’ - Transcribed by Atmajyothi Prema

Basement Gita Basement Gita is a comic series. Atmajyothi Murali will be creating some comic strips based on events or characters in the Atmajyothi family. Enjoy. :).

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Guru Paduka Stotram - Shloka 5 Papandhakara arka paramparabhyam, thapathrayaheendra khageswarabhyam Jadyadhi samsohana vadaveebhyam namo nama sri guru padukabyam Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my guru which is like a series of Suns, driving away the dark sins which is like the king of eagles, driving away the cobra of miseries, and which is like a terriﬁc ﬁre drying away the ocean of ignorance.

All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind.

Presence of Sadguru There was once a Guru, he was fully immersed in enlightening all humanity with his intuitive knowledge and experience, through all possible means, through delivering sermons, writing books, giving counsels, etc. he employed one of his disciples to take down notes, and compile a book. In course of time, the disciple became a gramophone record, always repeating the words and expressions of the Guru. He became very proud. He started boosting about how much he knows and declared himself a Jnani At one time, one of the Guru’s devotees was bereaved of a family member. The Guru pitched upon the proud disciple and asked him to condole for the bereaved family. The disciple duly went to the bereaved family and began in right earnest to deliver Vedantic sermon. It all looked like a deaf man referring to cross purposes. The inmates of the house were still putting on a sad face. All on a sudden, the Guru appeared in person before them. His very presence made them cheerful and happy and forget the loss of the member of their family. The Guru spoke but a word or two and all of them were instantaneously transformed. The purpose of the master lies in his presence. His presence is the beginning and his presence is the end. The journey begins by being in his presence and the journey ends when he alone is present. In the presence of the master one becomes deeply silent, something inexplicable happens, something eﬀortless. There is something about his presence, many master have spoken and taught, there are many book and works which have recorded what the master have said, yet by listening to them or reading them one does not get liberated, of course one can ﬁnd some peace and some understanding, but for the real thing to happen a real thing is required. True freedom comes not by you knowing God but when God knows you. Guru is God himself and by the most sacred bond of Guru-Shishya you come under his radar. In his presence you become peaceful not because you are aware of him, but because he is aware of you. His presence is purifying, being in the same room with him is purifying, a thought that brings him into your mind is purifying, presence of his name is purifying, presence of his picture or something of his is purifying, because everything is soaked in him. Of Course the master is not just a body, but it is through that body that the divinity shines, it is through that body that the highest is granted. When the master speaks he enlightens, when he touches he enlightens, when he sees he enlightens. In the above lines Adi Shankara is glorifying the Sadguru, who was acts as a Sun to drive away dark sins. We go to the Sadguru carrying our pasts, in our mind, with all memory of what we did and what we should not have done, some we know and many that we do not know. The presence of sunlight drives away darkness, similarly the light of the ‘self’ drives away the sins. Just as the sun cannot be seen with the naked eyes, the self too cannot be seen with the physical eyes, but the eyes can see the embodied master through which the self operates. The master is a killer, he kills that which truly needs to be killed, he kills that which no one else can kill, he kills our ignorance. Out of ignorance we kill ourselves and others but the master kills not us

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but the ignorance that clouds us, and when he is done we are left with our true self, we are left with him, he remains. You can kill a bird, an animal, a man, you can destroy a house a family or something else but you cannot remove your ignorance, that which makes you suﬀer. The suﬀering ends because of the masters grace, the ignorance is destroyed because of his grace, his grace is his presence, his grace is his teaching, his grace is his way of life, don’t expect a light to come out of his hand or a sound to vibrate in the background, his magic lies in his simplicity and all the secret lies in his feet. One who surrenders to the master is completely freed.

As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.

Upadesha Arhata Some time ago, a Brahman was the minister of a King. Since both of them did their education together, they used to be very close with each other. One day, after the day’s work, the King went to the minister’s house. When the King reached there, he saw that the minister was doing Sandhyavandanam. After that the minister started to do some mantra-anushtanam. The King felt very happy and after the minister came out, asked him “Mitrama! What Mantra-japam were you doing? Please do upadesham of it to me too. I will also do anushtanam of it with great care”. Minister replied “Raja! I did not yet get siddhi (achievement) of this Mantram. I too am in an early stage. Hence I do not have Upadesha-arhata.” . Then the King replied “Don’t you like telling the Mantram to me or what? Why are you lying? I see that you know the Mantram that is enough. Tell me the same letters, I will repeat them in the same way as you told”. Minister smiled internally seeing the foolishness of the King and said “Mantram not only means the letters and the corresponding Veda-svaram. It will have anganyaasa-karnyaas am. There will be a particular anushthaanavidhi. Most importantly an uttama Guru, who already had Mantra-siddhi must do the Upadesham. Hence there is no use of me doing Upadesham to you”. But the King didn’t leave — he kept on asking and the Minister gave the same answer. Finally King got angry and said “come to the court. I will show you then”. As usual the next day Minister, after his nitya-anushtaanam, reached the court. The Minister shouted, pointing at the King, “Arrest this person”. None of the soldiers moved. Seeing this, the King said “arrest this person”. Immediately all soldiers attacked and tried to arrest the Minister. Minister then stopped the soldiers and said to the King “Now did you see this Raja? It is the same words that we both said. Also we both said it in the same mood, volume. However only your command was followed, not mine.. This was because you have the power and not me. Similarly one must do Guruseva and learn any Vidya, with all its Niyamam and vidhi, from a Guru who already has Vidyaa-siddhi and Upadesha-arhata” . The King realized his mistake and ruled the kingdom well from then onwards.

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Spiritual Insights Knot of the Heart

In search of....

O my bliss, o my lord Where all did I search you my bliss? In my wife in my children In my parents, in my friends O my bliss, o my lord I knew not that you were in my heart I knew not, 'my ignorance' is the knot.

My Lord In search of money I lost the honey In search of pieces I lost the peace

Oh my bliss, o my lord Where all did I search you my lord? In my job, in my wealth, In my power, in my health O my bliss, o my lord I knew not, the knot of my heart…! I knew not, you were tied in that knot…! O my bliss, o my lord Where all did I search you my lord? Chasing from dawn to dusk Racing from birth to death O my bliss, o my lord I knew not, to remove my cap…! I knew not, to relax in your lap…! O my bliss, o my lord Where all did I search you my lord? Loo, in this quest, feeling apart In an illusion of your depart O my bliss, o my lord I knew not the loving art I knew not to expand the heart

In search of solutions I lost the solace In search of joy I lost the bliss In search of lust I lost the love In search of fame I lost the name In search of name I lost the form In search of form I lost the truth In search of truth I lost my-self..! Vain is this search…! Pain is this seeking…! Fake is this ‘I’ ness..! Just silence, just stillness Just seeing, just being Oh my beloved There is nothing but ‘IS’ ness - Atmajyothi Komal

O my bliss, o my lord Where all did I search you my lord Passing lifetimes in the quest Carrying loads of pain in the chest O my bliss, o my lord I knew not, just to be not…! I knew not, that ‘I’ cannot…! Without you, opening the knot….! O my bliss, o my lord….! - Atmajyothi Komal

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Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time.

Peace Pilgrim (contd) FOUR PREPARATIONS 1. Assume right attitude toward life Stop being an escapist or a surface-liver as these attitudes can only cause in harmony in your life. Face life squarely and get down below the froth on its surface to discover its verities and realities. Solve the problems that life sets before you, and you will find that solving them contributes to your inner growth. Helping to solve collective problems contributes also to your growth, and these problems should never be avoided. 2. Live good beliefs. The laws governing human conduct apply as rigidly as the law of gravity. Obedience to these laws pushes us toward harmony; disobedience pushes us toward in harmony. Since many of these laws are already common belief, you can begin by putting into practice all the good things you believe. No life can be in harmony unless belief and practice are in harmony. 3. Find your place in the Life Pattern. You have a part in the scheme of things. What that part is you can know only from within yourself. You can seek it in receptive silence. You can begin to live in accordance with it by doing all the good things you are motivated toward and giving these things priority in your life over all the superficial things that customarily occupy human lives. 4. Simplify life to bring inner and outer well-being into harmony. Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. Many lives are cluttered not only with unnecessary possessions but also with meaningless activities. Cluttered lives are out-of-harmony lives and require simplification. Wants and needs can become the same in a human life and, when this is accomplished, there will be a sense of harmony between inner and outer well-being. Such harmony is needful not only in the individual life but in the collective life too. FOUR PURIFICATIONS 1. Purification of the bodily temple. Are you free from all bad habits? In your diet do you stress the vital foods - the fruits, whole grains, vegetables and nuts? Do you get to bed early and get enough sleep? Do you get plenty of fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and contact with nature? If you can answer "Yes" to all of these questions, you have gone a long way toward purification of the bodily temple. 2. Purification of the thoughts. It is not enough to do right things and say right things. You must also think right things. Positive thoughts can be powerful influences for good. Negative thoughts can make you physically ill. Be sure there is no unpleasanat situation between yourself and any other human being, for only when you have ceased to harbor unkind thoughts can you attain inner harmony. 3. Purification of the desires. Since you are here to get yourself into harmony with the laws that govern human conduct and with your part in the scheme of things, your desires should be focused in this direction. 4. Purification of motives. Obviously your motive should never be greed or self-seeking, or the wish for self-glorification, you shouldn't even have the selfish motive of attaining inner peace for yourself. To be of service to your fellow humans must be your motive before your life can come into harmony. FOUR RELINQUISHMENTS 1. Relinquishment of self-will. You have, or it's as though you have, two selves: the lower self that usually governs you selfishly, and the higher self which stands ready to use you gloriously. You must subordinate the lower self by refraining from doing the

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not-good things you are motivated toward, not suppressing them but transforming them so that the higher self can take over your life. 2. Relinquishment of the feeling of separateness. All of us, all over the world, are cells in the body of humanity. You are not separate from your fellow humans, and you cannot ﬁnd harmony for yourself alone. You can only ﬁnd harmony when you realize the oneness of all and work for the good of all. 3. Relinquishment of attachments. Only when you have relinquished all attachments can you be really free. Material things are here for use, and anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you. You can only live in harmony with your fellow humans if you have no feeling that you possess them, and therefore do not try to run their lives. 4. Relinquishment of all negative feelings. Work on relinquishing negative feelings. If you live in the present moment, which is really the only moment you have to live, you will be less apt to worry. If you realize that those who do mean things are psychologically ill, your feelings of anger will turn to feelings of pity. If you recognize that all of your inner hurts are caused by your own wrong actions or your own wrong reactions or your own wrong inaction, then you will stop hurting yourself.

Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" — and find that there is no death.

THOUGHTS * We can all spend our lives going about doing good. Every time you meet a person, think of some encouraging thing to say - a kind word, a helpful suggestion, an expression of admiration. Every time you come into a situation, think of some good thing to bring - a thoughtful gift, a considerate attitude, a helping hand. * There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you. That criterion is, Have they brought you inner peace? If they have not, there is something wrong with them - so keep trying. *If you love people enough, they will respond lovingly. If I offend people, I blame myself, for I know that if my conduct had been correct, they would not have been offended, even though they did not agree with me. "Before the tongue can speak, it must have lost the power to wound." *To those who feel depressed, I would say: Try keeping your surroundings full of beautiful music and lovely flowers. Try reading and memorizing thoughts that inspire. Try making a list of all the things you have to be thankful for. If there is some good thing that you have always wanted to do, start doing it. Make a meaningful schedule for yourself and keep to that schedule. *Although others may feel sorry for you, never feel sorry for yourself - it has a deadly effect on spiritual wellbeing. Recognize all problems, no matter how difficult, as opportunities for spiritual growth, and make the most of these opportunities. *From all the things you read and from all the people you meet, take what is good - what you own 'Inner Teacher' tells you is for you - and leave the rest. For guidance and for truth, it is much better to look to the Source through your own 'Inner Teacher' than to look to people or books. Books and people can merely inspire you. Unless they awaken something within you, nothing worthwhile has been accomplished. *No one is truly free who is still attached to material things, or to places, or to people. We must be able to use things when we need them and then relinquish them without regret when they have outlived their usefulness. We must be able to appreciate and enjoy the places where we tarry, and yet pass on without anguish when we are called elsewhere. We must be able to live in loving association with people without feeling that we possess them and must run their lives. Anything that you strive to hold captive will hold you captive, and if you desire freedom you must give freedom. *The spiritual life is the real life - all else is illusion and deception. Only those who are attached to God alone are truly free. Only those who live up to the highest light they have find their lives in harmony. Those who act on

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Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.

their highest motivations become a power for good. It is not important that others be noticeably affected. Results should never be sought or desired. Know that every right thing you do - every good thing you say - every positive thought you think- has good effect. *All people can be peace workers. Whenever you bring harmony into any unpleasanat situation, you contribute to the total peace picture. Insofar as you have peace in your own life, you reflect it into your surroundings and into the world. *That which is received from without can be compared with knowledge. It leads to a believing, which is seldom strong enough to motivate to action. That which is confirmed from within after it is contacted from without, or that which is directly perceived from within (which is my way), can be compared with wisdom. It leads to a knowing, and action goes right along with it. *In our spiritual development we are often required to pull up roots many times and to close many chapters in our lives until we are no longer attached to any material thing and can love all people without any attachment to them. *You cannot leave a situation without spiritual injury unless you leave it lovingly. *If you want to teach people, young or old, you must start where they are - at their level of understanding. If you see that they are already beyond your level of understanding, let them teach you. Since steps toward spiritual advancement are taken in such varied order, most of us can teach one another. *Physical violence can end even before we have learned the way of love, but psychological violence will continue until we do. Only outer peace can be had through law. The way to inner peace is through love. *Concentrate on giving so that you may open yourself to receiving. Concentrate on living according to the light you have, so that you may open yourself to more light. *Sometimes difficulties of the body come to show that the body is just a transient garment - that the reality is the indestructible essence which activates the body. *After you have found inner peace, spiritual growth takes place harmoniously because you - now governed by the higher self - will to do God's will and do not need to be pushed into it. *Nothing threatens those who do God's will, and God's will is love and faith. Those who feel hate and fear are out of harmony with God's will and are likely to have difficulties. *All difficulties in your life have a purpose. They are pushing you toward harmony with God's will. *There is always a way to do right! *What we suffer from is immaturity. If we were mature people, war would be no problem - it would be impossible. *Of course I trust the Law of Love! Since the universe operates in accordance with the Law of Love, how could I trust anything else? *For Light I go directly to the Source of Light, not to any of the reflections. Also I make it possible for more Light to come to me by living up to the highest Light I have. You cannot mistake Light coming from the Source, for it comes with complete understanding so that you can explain and discuss it. *Judging others will avail you nothing and injure you spiritually. Only if you can inspire others to judge themselves will anything worthwhile have been accomplished. *Never think of any right effort as being fruitless - all right effort bears good fruit, whether we see results or not. Just concentrate on thinking and living and acting for peace, and inspiring others to do likewise, leaving results in God's hands. *You cannot change anyone except yourself. After you have become an example, you can inspire others to change themselves. *In a conflict situation you must be thinking of a solution which is fair to all concerned, instead of a solution which is of advantage to you. Only a solution which is fair to all concerned can be workable in the long run. *Your motives must be good if your work is to have a good effect. — To be continued.

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EMPTINESS OF OUR ‘I’ All phenomena exist by way of convention; nothing is inherently existent. This applies to body and mind, to ‘I’, and even to emptiness itself. Everything is merely imputed by mind. All phenomena have parts – physical phenomena (body) have physical parts, and non-physical phenomena(mind) have various parts, or attributes, that can be distinguished by thought. A book, for example, seems to exist from its own side, somewhere within its parts; but when we examine the book more precisely we discover that none of the individual pages nor the collection of the pages is the book, yet without them there is no book. Instead of ﬁnding a truly existent book we are left beholding an emptiness that is the non-existence of the book we previously held to exist. Because of our ignorance the book appears to exist separately from our mind, as if our mind were inside and the book outside, but through analyzing the book we discover that this appearance is completely false. There is no book outside the mind. There is no book ‘out there’, within the pages.

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation.

Similarly the ‘body’ cannot be found within its parts, either as an individual part or as the collection, or separately from its parts. The only way the body (like book) exists is as a mere appearance to mind, a mere projection of the mind. Similarly the ‘mind’ cannot be found within its ‘mental factors’ (feeling, discrimination, intention, contact and attention), either as an individual part or as the collection, or separately from its parts, so we cannot find the mind..! If the ‘I’ exists as ‘body and mind’…as it appears, it must exist in one of four ways: as the body, as the mind, as the collection of the body and mind, or as something separate from the body and mind; there is no other possibility. ‘Normally one sees the ‘I’ within the body and mind, but neither the body, nor the mind, nor the collection of the body and mind are the ‘I’, because these are the possessions and the ‘I’ is the possessor; and possessor and possessions cannot be the same. However, there is no ‘I’ other than the body and mind. As body and mind are again unfindable..! Through searching with wisdom for the ‘I’ in this way, one realizes that the ‘I’ is unfindable. This is a valid reason to prove that the ‘I’ that one normally sees does not exist at all. As with the body and the ‘I’, all other phenomena are unfindable when one searches for them with wisdom. So, all phenomena that appear are the nature of emptiness. Like a rainbow in the sky..!’ This unfindability of our ‘I’ is the emptiness of our ‘I’, the Ultimate Nature of our ‘I’. Our ‘I’ that exists as mere imputation(appearance), is the Conventional Nature of our ‘I’. ‘Thinking that all phenomena are like dreams’. Some of the things we see in our dreams are beautiful and some are ugly, but they are all mere appearances to our dreaming mind. They do not exist from their own side, and are empty of inherent existence. Knowing that whatever appears to our mind is mere appearance, when attractive objects appear we shall not grasp at them and develop attachment, and when unattractive objects appear we shall not grasp at them and develop aversion or anger. One should constantly meditate upon the emptiness of the 'I'. And between meditation sessions we should be like an actor. When an actor plays the part of a king, he dresses, speaks and acts like a king, but he knows all the time that he is not a real king. In the same way we should live and function in the conventional world yet always remember that we ourself, our environment and the people around us that we normally see do not exist at all. Most people veer towards the extreme of existence, thinking that if something exists it must exist inherently, thus exaggerating the way in which things exist without being satisfied with them as mere name. Others may veer towards the extreme of nonexistence, thinking that if phenomena do not exist inherently they do not exist at all, thus exaggerating their lack of inherent existence. We need to realize that although phenomena lack any trace of existence from their own side, they do exist conventionally as mere appearances to a valid mind.

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We shall recognize all conventional appearances as the magical play of the mind, and we shall not grasp strongly at their apparent diﬀerences. Just as both the gentlest and most violent waves in an ocean are equally water. There is no heat, no cold, no lower, no higher, no here, no there, no Self, no other, no samsara – everything is equal in the peace of emptiness. This realization is called the ‘yoga of equalizing samsara and nirvana’.

Power over others is weakness disguised as

This direct realization of emptiness is the actual ultimate bodhichitta. The moment we attain the wisdom of ultimate bodhichitta we become a Superior Bodhisattva An uncommon quality of a Buddha is that a single moment of a Buddha’s mind realizes both conventional truth and ultimate truth directly and simultaneously. Until our understanding of emptiness is perfect, and to prevent our self from falling into one of the two extremes – the extreme of existence and the extreme of non-existence – we should listen to, read and contemplate the instructions of our Spiritual Guide(Sadguru). - Based on ‘Modern Buddhism’ (Vol-1 Sutra) by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

strength. True power if within,

'Rainbow and the Sky'

and it is availa-

Oh my lord,

ble to you now. As the rainbow appears? Which cannot be bound So is this ‘I” appears And cannot be found As this rainbow disappears? When the causes vanish So is this ‘I’ disappears When our karmas ﬁnish As this rainbow appears In this vast empty Sky So is this ‘I’ appears In the empty ‘Eye’ Oh my lord, What is this Sky? Nothing but a screen What is this ‘I’? Nothing but a dream

- Contributed by Atmajyothi Komal

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But, my lord Where comes the Sky? Where comes the Eye? Oh my beloved, Exists not the spacious ‘Sky’ Exists not the seeing ‘Eye’ All is just an appearance Till your ‘I’s clearance, Until the divine wills Untill your mind stills..! yes my lord, yes my lord Where is the rainbow? and where is the sky? Only in my little mind...!

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Meher Baba and his teachings

Look at a

I have come not to teach but to awaken. I give you my blessing that the spark of my divine love may implant in your hearts the deep longing for the love of God. Born in a Parsi family, Meher Baba, as a child, had little or no interest in spirituality. His awakening came at 19 when Hazrat Babajan, a Muslim ascetic, kissed his forehead. After that incident, all his life was spent in showering love and compassion on humanity at large. Meher Baba was not hesitant to say what he took himself to be. He said he was the Avatar, the same soul that takes birth again and again throughout the ages every 700-1400 years. He said he was Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad and that he has now appeared on Earth as Meher Baba.

tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.

Twelve Ways of Realizing Me The MASTER points out twelve ways in which the spiritual Seeker may realize his own Divine Self, which is One within all and which is completely manifested in the Perfect Master. Longing: If you experience that same longing and thirst for Union with Me as one who has been lying for days in the hot sun of the Sahara experiences the longing for water, then you will realize Me. Peace of mind: If you have the peace of a frozen lake, then too, you will realize Me. Humility: If you have the humility of the earth which can be molded into any shape, then you will know Me. Desperation: If you experience the desperation that causes a man to commit suicide and you feel that you cannot live without seeing Me, then you will see Me. Faith: If you have the complete faith that Kalyan had for his Master, in believing it was night, although it was day, because his Master said so, then you will know Me. Fidelity: If you have the fidelity that the breath has in giving you company, even without your constantly feeling it, till the end of your life, that both in happiness and in suffering gives you company and never turns against you, then you will know Me. Control through love: When your love for Me drives away your lust for the things of the senses, then you realize Me. Selfless service: If you have the quality of selfless service unaffected by results, similar to that of the sun which serves the world by shinning on all creation, on the grass in the field, on the birds in the air, on the beasts in the forest, on all mankind with its sinner and its saint, its rich and its poor, unconscious of their attitude towards it, then you will win Me. Renunciation: If you renounce for Me everything physical, mental and spiritual, then you have Me. Obedience: If your obedience is spontaneous, complete and natural as the light is to the eye or smell is to the nose, then you come to Me. Surrender: If your surrender to Me is as wholehearted as that of one, who, suffering from insomnia, surrenders to sudden sleep without fear of being lost, then you have Me. Love: If you have that love for Me that St. Francis had for Jesus, then not only will you realize Me, but you will please Me. -The Path of Love ( Pg: 95-97), by Meher Baba http://www.ambppct.org/meherbaba/Book_Files/POL.pdf

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Love and Devotion Love burns the lover. Devotion burns the Beloved. Love seeks happiness for the Beloved. Devotion seeks for blessing from the Beloved. Love seeks to shoulder the burden of the Beloved. Devotion throws the burden on the Beloved. Love gives. Devotion asks.

"At the deepest level of Being, you

Love is silent and sublime, devoid of outward expressions. Devotion expresses itself outwardly. Love does not require the presence of the Beloved in order to love. Devotion demands the presence of the Beloved to express aﬀection for the Beloved.

are one with all that is"

So How to Love God? To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings. If we feel for others in the same way as we feel for our own dear ones, we love God. If, instead of seeing faults in others, we look within ourselves, we are loving God. If, instead of robbing others to help ourselves, we rob ourselves to help others, we are loving God. If we suffer in the sufferings of others and feel happy in the happiness of others, we are loving God. If, instead of worrying over our own misfortunes, we think ourselves more fortunate than many, many others, we are loving God. If we endure our lot with patience and contentment, accepting it as His Will, we are loving God. To love God as He ought to be loved, we must live for God and die for God, knowing that the goal of life is to Love God, and find Him as our own Self.

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Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time

A Prayer to The Beloved Lord O Parvardigar, the preserver and protector of all, You are without beginning, and without end; Non-dual, beyond comparison; and none can measure You. You are without color, without expression, without form, and without attributes. You are unlimited and unfathomable, beyond imagination and conception; eternal and imperishable. You are indivisible; and none can see You, but with eyes divine. You always were, You always are, and You always will be; You are everywhere, You are in everything; and You are also beyond everywhere and beyond everything. You are in the firmament and in the depths, You are manifest and unmanifest; on all planes, and beyond all planes. You are in the three worlds, and also beyond the three worlds; You are imperceptible and independent. You are the Creator, the Lord of Lords, the knower of all minds and hearts; You are omnipotent and omnipresent. You are Knowledge Infinite, Power Infinite, and Bliss Infinite. You are the Ocean of Knowledge, all-knowing, infinitely knowing; the knower of the past, the present and the future, and You are Knowledge itself. You are all-merciful and eternally benevolent; You are the Soul of souls, the One with infinite attributes; You are the trinity of Truth, Knowledge, and Bliss; You are the Source of Truth, the Ocean of Love; You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High; You are Prabhu and Parameshwar; You are the Beyond-God, and the Beyond-Beyond-God also; You are Parabrahma; Allah; Elahi; Yezdan; Ahuramazda; and God the Beloved. You are named Ezad: i.e., the only One worthy of worship. Source -The Path Of Love by Meher Baba http://www.ambppct.org/meherbaba/Book_Files/POL.pdf

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anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within you may not see it at the time

The Sanctification of Married Life Married life, a spiritual enterprise MOST persons enter into married life as a matter of course, but marriage will become a help or a hindrance according to the manner in which it is handled. There is no doubt that some of the immense spiritual possibilities are accessible through a married life, but all this depends upon having the right attitude. From the spiritual point of view, married life will be a success only if it is thoroughly determined by the vision of Truth. It cannot oﬀer much if it is based upon nothing more than the limited motives of mere sex, or if it is inspired by considerations which usually prevail in business partnership. It has to be undertaken as a real spiritual enterprise which is intended to discover what life can be at its best. When the two partners launch together upon the spiritual adventure of exploring the higher possibilities of spirit, they cannot at the outset limit their experiment by any nice calculations concerning the nature and amount of individual gain.

Whenever

it, although

Married life essentially different from promiscuous sex-partnership Married life almost always makes many demands upon both partners for mutual adjustment and understanding, and creates many problems which were not originally expected. Though this might in a sense be true of life in general it is particularly true of married life. In married life two souls get linked in many ways, with the result that they are called upon to tackle the whole complex problem of personality rather than any simple problem created by some isolated desire. This is precisely why married life is utterly different from promiscuous sex relations. Promiscuous sex attempts to separate the problem of sex from other needs of the developing personality and seeks to solve it in isolation from them. Although this kind of solution might seem to be easy, it turns out to be very superficial and has the further disadvantage of side-tracking the aspirant from attempting the real solution. Tension between the varied purposes of married life calls forth sublimation The relative values of the various sides of the limited personality can best be appreciated when they become intertwined and appear in varied settings and perspectives. It is difficult to discriminate between them if they appear fitfully in a disconnected series. In married life there is ample room for varied experience, with the result that the different tendencies latent in the mind begin to organize around the crystallized scheme of married life. This organization of varied purposes not only provides an unlimited field for discrimination between the higher and lower values but also creates between them a necessary tension which requires and calls forth effective and intelligent sublimation. Conditions of marriage precipitate changes in inner life In one sense married life may be looked upon as the intensification of most human problems. As such it becomes the rallying ground for the forces of bondage as well as for the forces of freedom, the factors of ignorance as well as the factors of light. As the married life of ordinary persons is determined by mixed motives and considerations, it inevitably invites an uncompromising opposition between the higher and the lower self. Such opposition is necessary for the wearing out of the lower self and the dawning of the true Divine Self. Married life develops so many points of contact between two souls that severance of all connection would mean the unsettlement and derangement of practically the whole tenor of life. Since this difficulty of breaking away from one another invites and precipitates inner readjustment, marriage is really a disguised opportunity for the souls to establish a real and lasting understanding which can cope with the most complex and delicate situations. Married life must be in tune with Divine Plan The spiritual value of married life is directly related to the nature of the preponderating factors which determine its daily course. If it is based upon shallow considerations, it can deteriorate into a partnership in selfishness aimed against the rest of the world. If it is inspired by lofty idealism, it can rise to a fellowship which not only

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requires and calls forth increasingly greater sacrifices for each other, but actually become a medium through which the two souls can offer their united love and service to the whole family of humanity. When married life is thus brought into direct line with the Divine Plan for the evolution of the individual, it becomes a pure blessing for the children who are the fruit of the marriage, for they have the advantage of absorbing a spiritual atmosphere from the very beginning of their earthly career. Married life sanctified and enriched by children Though the children are thus the beneficiaries of the married life of the parents, the married life of the parents is in its turn enriched by the presence of the children. Children give to parents an opportunity for expressing and developing a real and spontaneous love in which sacrifice becomes easy and delightful, and the part played by children in the life of parents is of tremendous importance for the spiritual advancement of parents themselves. It therefore follows that when children make their appearance in married life they ought to be whole-heartedly welcomed by the parents.

Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time

Birth control movement’s wrong means In view of the claims which children have on married lives the present birth control movement deserves careful attention and critical examination. The question must not be considered from the point of view of any one special or limited interest but from the point of view of the ultimate well-being of the individual and society. The right opinion in this respect, as in all respects, must above everything be based upon spiritual considerations. The attitude which most persons have towards birth control is oscillating and confused because it contains a queer admixture of good and bad elements. While birth control is right in its aim of securing the regulation of population, it is disastrously unfortunate in the choice of its means. There can be no doubt that the regulation of child-bearing is often desirable for personal and social reasons. Uncontrolled breeding intensifies the struggle for existence and may bring about a social order where ruthless competition becomes inevitable. Apart from creating a responsibility for parents which they may be unable to adequately discharge, it becomes an indirect and contributory cause of crime, war and poverty. Though humane and rational considerations demand and justify all serious attempts to regulate the birth of children, the use of physical means for securing this purpose remains fundamentally indefensible and unjustifiable. The purely physical means which are generally advocated by the supporters of birth control are most objectionable from the spiritual point of view. Physical means removes incentive to mental control although the physical means of birth control are advocated on humanitarian grounds; they are almost always used by the generality of people to serve their own selfish ends and to avoid the responsibility of bearing and bringing up children. Since the physical consequences of yielding to lust can be so successfully avoided through the use of these means, those who have not begun to awaken to the higher values have no incentive to moderation in the gratification of passion. They thus become victims of excessive indulgence and bring about their own physical, moral and spiritual ruin by neglecting mental control and becoming slaves to animal passion. Mental control indispensable for rising from passion to peace The easy use of the physical means obscures the spiritual side of the question and is far from being contributory to the awakening of man to his real dignity and freedom as a spiritual being. Thoughtless and uncontrolled indulgence must inevitably lead to reaction and spiritual bondage. For spiritual aspirants in particular, but also for all human beings (because they are all potentially spiritual aspirants), it is extremely inadvisable to rely upon physical means for the regulation of child-bearing. For such regulation the individual must rely upon nothing but mental control. Mental control secures the humanitarian purposes which inspire birth control and keeps clear of the spiritual disasters entailed by the use of physical means. Mental control is not only useful for regulating the number of children but is also indispensable for restoring to man his divine dignity and spiritual well-being. Only through the wise exercise of mental control is it possible for man to rise from passion to peace, from bondage to freedom and from animalist to purity. In the minds of thoughtful persons the much ignored spiritual side of this question must

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assume the importance which it deserves. Joint responsibility of parenthood Since woman has to undertake the troubles and the responsibility of bearing and rearing children she may seem to be aﬀected more seriously by any possible failure in mental control than man. In fact it does not mean any real unfairness to woman. While it is true that woman has to undertake the troubles and the responsibility of bearing and rearing children, she also has the compensating joy of feeding and fondling them. Thus motherhood is much greater than the joy of fatherhood. Further, the man must also face and shoulder the economic and educational responsibility towards the children. In a properly adjusted marriage there need not be any injustice in the distribution of parental responsibility to be shared between man and woman. If both are truly conscious of their mutual responsibility, inconsiderateness will give way to active and cooperative endeavor to attain full mental control. In the event there is any failure in mental control they will cheerfully and willingly discharge the joint responsibility of parenthood.

Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time

Children must be welcome If a person is not prepared to undertake the responsibility of children there is only one course left to him. He must remain celibate and practice strict mental control, for though such mental control is extremely difficult to attain, it is not impossible. From the purely spiritual point of view strict celibacy is best, but since it is so difficult, few can practice it. For those who cannot practice it, the next best course is to marry rather than fall a prey to promiscuity. Within married life one can learn to control animal passion. It is bound to be a gradual process, and in cases of failure in practicing control, the couple must allow nature to take its own course rather than interfere with it through artificial means. They must cheerfully welcome the consequences and be prepared to shoulder the responsibility of bringing up the children. . Mental power undermined by reliance on physical means From the spiritual point of view, birth control must essentially be affected through mental control and nothing else. Physical means are under no circumstances advisable even when a person seeks to use them merely as a provisional and secondary aid, without intending to ignore the ideal of developing mental control. While using physical means he can never arrive at real mental control, though he might want it in real earnest. On the contrary he becomes addicted to the use of physical means and even begins to justify them To explain still more clearly, what happens in the use of physical means is that while the individual thinks that he is using them merely as a preliminary step before mental control is fully developed, he actually gets addicted to their use and becomes a slave to the habit. Though he may remain for some time under the delusion that he is trying to develop mental control (side by side with the use of physical means), he is actually losing it gradually. In short, mental power is necessarily undermined by reliance on physical means. Thus the use of physical means is detrimental to the development of self-control and is positively disastrous for spiritual advancement. It is therefore entirely inadvisable even for the best of motives. Spiritual advancement through married life. In the beginning of married life the partners are drawn to each other by lust as well as love, but with conscious and deliberate co-operation they can gradually lessen the element of lust and increase the element of love. Through this process of sublimation lust ultimately gives place to deep love. By the mutual sharing of joys and sorrows the partners march on from one spiritual triumph to another, from deep love to ever deeper love, till the possessive and jealous love of the initial period is entirely replaced by a self-giving and expansive love. In fact, through the intelligent handling of marriage a person may traverse so much of the spiritual path that it needs only a touch by the Master to raise him into the sanctuary of eternal life. Source: 'DISCOURSES by Meher Baba'(Volume I Page 155 § The Sanctification of Married Life) http://discoursesbymeherbaba.org/v1-155.php

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The Seven Realities of Meher Baba’s Teaching Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.

EXISTENCE, LOVE, SACRIFICE, RENUNCIATION, KNOWLEDGE, CONTROL AND SURRENDER Meher Baba’s teaching gives no importance to creed, dogma, caste or the performance of religious ceremonies and rites, but does to the UNDERSTANDING of the following seven Realities: The only Real Existence is that of the One and only God Who is the Self in every (finite) self. The only Real Love is the Love for this Infinity (God), which arouses an intense longing to see, know and become one with its Truth (God). The only Real Sacrifice is that in which, in pursuance of this Love, all things—body, mind, position, welfare and even life itself—are sacrificed. The only Real Renunciation is that which abandons, even in the midst of worldly duties, all selfish thoughts and desires. The only Real Knowledge is the Knowledge that God is the inner dweller in good people and in so-called bad, in saint and in so-called sinner. This Knowledge requires you to help all equally as circumstances demand without expectation of reward, and when compelled to take part in a dispute, to act without the slightest trace of enmity or hatred; to try to make others happy with brotherly or sisterly feeling for each one; and to harm no one in thought, word or deed, not even those who harm you. The only Real Control is the discipline of the senses to abstain from indulgence in low desires, which alone ensures absolute purity of character. The only Real Surrender is that in which poise is undisturbed by any adverse circumstance, and the individual, amidst every kind of hardship, is resigned with perfect calm to the will of God. -Volume I Page 15 § The Seven Realities of Meher Baba's Teaching http://discoursesbymeherbaba.org/v1-15.php

Match the following - 1 Let us see how far you have listened to Prabhuji’s Talks on Mundaka Upanishad :) Clue: All words describe the ‘Nature of Consciousness’ (God) Sanskrit Words Meanings na medhayā no mind aprāno beyond intellect and logic ajaha indestructible nāyam ātmā pravacanena beyond scripture studies amanah no prana na bahunā śrutena beyond listening to lectures akshara never born Answers on Page 39

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Eckhart Tolle and his teachings Neither failure nor success has the power to change your inner state of Being.

Eckhart is a spiritual teacher and author who was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of 29, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada. Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time. Other books written by him are 'Stillness Speaks', 'Practising the Power of Now', 'Guardians of Being' and 'Milton's Secret'. Eckhart Tolle on LIGHT OF AWARENESS Tolle writes that "the most significant thing that can happen to a human being is the separation process of thinking and awareness" and that awareness is "the space in which thoughts exist". Tolle says that "the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it". So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to dis-identify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the ‘Light of AWARENESS’ grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it. “The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind...” “The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker(you are not the chattering mind).” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.” Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher. The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you. The mind exists in a state of "not enough" and so is always greedy for more. When you are identified with mind, you get bored and restless very easily. Boredom means the mind is hungry for more stimulus, more food for

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thought, and its hunger is not being satisfied. When you feel bored, you can satisfy the mind's hunger by picking up a magazine, making a phone call, switching on the TV, surfing the web, going shopping, or — and this is not uncommon — transferring the mental sense of lack and its need for more to the body and satisfy it briefly by ingesting more food. Or you can stay bored and restless and observe what it feels like to be bored and restless. As you bring awareness to the feeling, there is suddenly some space and stillness around it, as it were. A little at first, but as the sense of inner space grows, the feeling of boredom will begin to diminish in intensity and significance. So even boredom can teach you who you are and who you are not.

The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first.

You discover that a "bored person" is not who you are. Boredom is simply a conditioned energy movement within you. Neither are you an angry, sad, or fearful person. Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not "yours," not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you. "I am bored." Who knows this? "I am angry, sad, afraid." Who knows this? You are the knowing, not the condition that is known When each thought absorbs your attention completely, it means you identify with the voice in your head. Thought then becomes invested with a sense of self. This is the ego, a mind-made "me." That mentally constructed self feels incomplete and precarious. That’s why fearing and wanting are its predominant emotions and motivating forces. When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identiﬁcation with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice — the thinker — but the one who is aware of it. Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom. Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become "I." Eckhart Tolle on Desire and Fear As long as the ego runs your life, most of your thoughts, emotions, and actions arise from desire and fear. In relationships you then either DESIRE or FEAR something from the other. Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something and thereby becoming diminished and being less. What you want from them may be pleasure or material gain, recognition, praise or attention, or a strengthening of your sense of self through comparison and through establishing that you are, have, or know more than they. What you fear is that the opposite may be the case, and they may diminish your sense of self in some way. What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that every day takes up most of your attention? A dash, one or two inches long, between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone.” The ego isn't wrong; it's just unconscious. When you observe the ego in yourself, you are beginning to go beyond it. Don't take the ego too seriously. When you detect egoism behavior in yourself, smile. At times you may even laugh. How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long? Above all, know that the ego isn't

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personal. It isn't who you are. If you consider the ego to be your personal problem, that's just more ego.

The mind left to itself creates

When you make the present moment the focal point of your attention — instead of using it as a means to an end — you go beyond the ego and beyond the unconscious compulsion to use people as a means to an end, the end being self-enhancement at the cost of others. When you give your fullest attention to whoever you are interacting with, you take past and future out of the relationship, except for practical matters. When you are fully present with everyone you meet, you relinquish the conceptual identity you made for them — your interpretation of who they are and what they did in the past — and are able to interact without the egoic movements of desire and fear. Attention, which is alert stillness, is the key. Most people's lives and relationships thrive or run by desire and fear. How wonderful to go beyond wanting, desiring and fearing in your relationships. Love does not want or fear anything.

monstrosities, and not only in art galleries. Look at our urban landscapes and industrial wastelands. No civilization has ever produced so much ugliness.

Most human relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each other, not of human beings communicating, being in communion. No relationship can thrive in that way, and that is why there is so much conflict in relationships. When the mind is running your life, conflict, strife, and problems are inevitable. Being in touch with your inner body creates a clear space of no-mind within which the relationship can flower To know another human being in their essence, you don’t really need to know anything about them — their past, their history, their story. We confuse knowing about with a deeper knowing that is non-conceptual. Knowing about and knowing are totally different modalities. One is concerned with form, the other with the formless. One operates through thought, the other through stillness. Knowing about is helpful for practical purposes. On that level, we cannot do without it. When it is the predominant modality in relationships, however, it becomes very limiting, even destructive. Thoughts and concepts create an artificial barrier, a separation between human beings. Your interactions are then not rooted in Being, but become mind-based. Without the conceptual barriers, love is naturally present in all human interactions. Eckhart Tolle on Acceptance of ‘Now’, of ‘What IS’! Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative? Do you have the total picture? There have been many people for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and superficial ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility, and compassion. It made them more real. Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is — which is the only sane way to live — there is no "good" or "bad" in your life anymore. There is only a higher good — which includes the "bad." Seen from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good-bad, like-dislike, love-hate. Hence, in the Book of Genesis, it is said that Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to dwell in "paradise" when they "ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The "allowing to be as it is" takes you beyond the mind with its resistance patterns that create the positivenegative polarities. It is an essential aspect of forgiveness. Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every moment — allow it to be as it is — then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.

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The pain that you create now is always some form of non-acceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identiﬁed with your mind

All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or ful-

Since mind and resistance are synonymous, acceptance immediately frees you from mind dominance and thus reconnects you with ‘Being’. As a result, the usual ego motivations for "doing" — fear, greed, control, defending or feeding the false sense of self — will cease to operate. An ‘intelligence’, much greater than the mind is now in charge, and so a different quality of consciousness will flow into your doing. "Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?" This was written 2000 years ago by Marcus Aurelius, one of those exceedingly rare humans who possessed worldly power as well as wisdom.

fillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being.

It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept — before they will forgive. As soon as they do, one of the greatest miracles happens: the awakening of Being-consciousness through what appears as evil, the transmutation of suffering into inner peace. The ultimate effect of all the evil and suffering in the world is that it will force humans into realizing who they are beyond name and form. Thus, what we perceive as evil from our limited perspective is actually part of the higher good that has no opposite. This, however, does not become true for you except through forgiveness and acceptance. Until that happens, evil has not been redeemed and therefore remains evil. See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness. “To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.” “A woman in her thirties came to see me. As she greeted me, I could sense the pain behind her polite and superficial smile. She started telling me her story, and within one second her smile changed into a grimace of pain. Then, she began to sob uncontrollably. She said she felt lonely and unfulfilled. There was much anger and sadness. As a child she had been abused by a physically violent father. I saw quickly that her pain was not caused by her present life circumstances but by an extraordinarily heavy pain-body. Her pain-body had become the filter through which she viewed her life situation. She was not yet able to see the link between the emotional pain and her thoughts, being completely identified with both. She could not yet see that she was feeding the pain-body with her thoughts. In other words, she lived with the burden of a deeply unhappy self. At some level, however, she must have realized that her pain originated within herself, that she was a burden to herself. She was ready to awaken, and this is why she had come.

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I directed the focus of her attention to what she was feeling inside her body and asked her to sense the emotion directly, instead of through the ﬁlter of her unhappy thoughts, her unhappy story. She said she had come expecting me to show her the way out of her unhappiness, not into it. Reluctantly, however, she did what I asked her to do. Tears were rolling down her face, her whole body was shaking. “At this moment, this is what you feel.” I said. “There is nothing you can do about the fact that at this moment this is what you feel. Now, instead of wanting this moment to be diﬀerent from the way it is, which adds more pain to the pain that is already there, is it possible for you to completely accept that this is what you feel right now?”

Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.

She was quiet for a moment. Suddenly she looked impatient, as if she was about to get up, and said angrily, “No, I don't want to accept this.” “Who is speaking?” I asked her. “You or the unhappiness in you? Can you see that your unhappiness about being unhappy is just another layer of unhappiness?” She became quiet again. “I am not asking you to do anything. All I'm asking is that you find out whether it is possible for you to allow those feelings to be there. In other words, and this may sound strange, if you don't mind being unhappy, what happens to the unhappiness? Don't you want to find out?” She looked puzzled briefly, and after a minute or so of sitting silently, I suddenly noticed a significant shift in her energy field. She said, “This is weird. I 'm still unhappy, but now there is space around it. It seems to matter less.” This was the first time I heard somebody put it like that: There is space around my unhappiness. That space, of course, comes when there is inner acceptance of whatever you are experiencing in the present moment. I didn't say much else, allowing her to be with the experience. Later she came to understand that the moment she stopped identifying with the feeling, the old painful emotion that lived in her, the moment she put her attention on it directly without trying to resist it, it could no longer control her thinking and so become mixed up with a mentally constructed story called “The Unhappy Me.” Another dimension had come into her life that transcended her personal past – the dimension of Presence. Since you cannot be unhappy without an unhappy story, this was the end of her unhappiness. It was also the beginning of the end of her pain-body. Emotion in itself is not unhappiness. Only emotion plus an unhappy story is unhappiness. When our session came to an end, it was fulfilling to know that I had just witnessed the arising of Presence in another human being. The very reason for our existence in human form is to bring that dimension of consciousness into this world. I had also witnessed a diminishment of the pain-body, not through fighting it but through bringing the light of consciousness to it.” Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the is-ness of the NOW. You can't argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you will suffer. Surrender to what is. Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Say "yes" to life -- and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you. "...sometimes letting go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on."

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Nadabrahman - Omkara Love makes the world less worldly, less dense, more transparent to the divine dimension, the light of consciousness itself.

The Omkara is the primordial sound which brings the Awareness of Supreme Consciousness, which is the source of existence, and one which sustains the existence and one which is responsible for the dissolution of the world. Our nature is Omkara. So we have to contemplate on Omkara to go back to the Source. Omkara is called Nadabrahman, because everything in the universe manifests in Omkara and merges back to Omkara. So Omkara represents both form (manifest) and formless(unmanifest) aspects of reality (Existence). There is nothing else other than Omkara, all names are Omkara, all forms are nothing but names..! So we have three forms of the consciousness 1. Saguna Braham - the manifest creation(form) 2. Shakshi - the witnessing consciousness(witness) 3. Nirguna Brahma - the unmanifest, pure awareness beyond the Shakshi(formless) Now in reality Parabrahma is all of this and beyond this. A form of Cetana- Consciousness All these aspects of Divinity are told by single syllable called Omkara. Thus Omkara is a scared syllable for Jains, Buddhists, for, Christians it is called Amen, and for Muslims it is Ameen. There is nothing other than Omkara. In Omkara we have three sounds, or syllables, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, kara, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Uâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; kara, and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Maâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; kara. In this sloka it is said that these are the three aspects of the Self, three states of our consciousness, Waking (Jagrat), Dreaming (Swapna), Deep sleep state (Shushupti). Three manifest aspects of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Selfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. There is another unmanifest, beyond the creation aspect, which is the background state, or base for all these three state, where is the omkara states or represents that, when you chant all the three syllables the silence at the end is the fourth state, Turiya, or Samadhi, the unmanifest part of the Brahman or Self. In Omkara we have both sound and silence. The sound (creation) is the manifest form, and the silence is the unmanifest form of the Brahman, the pure awareness beyond the creation is the source or the base of the creation. (Sound comes from silence and goes back to silence.) Just understanding Omkara is itself suďŹ&#x192;cient to get Liberation according to Shankaracharya. So one should contemplate(not just chant) on Omkara, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Omkara (Nadabrahman) Upasanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is the highest form of meditation or Upasana.

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- Contributed by Atmajyothi Komal

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ŕ°¸ŕą&#x192;34 56' ŕ°˛ŕ°Ż ŕ°&#x2C6; ŕ°&#x201C;ŕ°&#x201A; ŕ°žŕ°° ŕ°&#x2020;ŕ°&#x2014;ŕą ŕ°Žŕ°¨ ŕą&#x2020; ŕ°&#x2020;ŕ°&#x2014;ŕą ŕ°Žŕ°¨ ŕą&#x2020; ŕ°śŕ°Ś ŕ°Ź9ŕ°š:; ŕ°&#x2C6; ŕ°&#x201C;ŕ°&#x201A; ŕ°žŕ°°

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Yogasana

STEP – 1 : Introduction of Asana Please ensure the Asanas are practiced only under the supervision of a qualiﬁed Yogacharya. You can contact Atmajyothi Prasad for more details.

Name : Pada-Hasta asana Meaning : Foot-Hand posture Justiﬁcation : In ﬁnal posture foot and hand together Type : Standing Category : Culturative Stithi : Tadasana Vishranti : Shithila tadasana Counts : 8 Complementary : Ardha-chakrasana

STEP – 2 : Demonstration Silent Demonstration : Final posture as shown in figure Demonstration with counts and explanation and breathing : Come to Stithi (Tadasana) Ekam : Inhale slowly and raise the arms sideways horizontal to ground Dve : Continue to inhale and move arms upwards until biceps touches the ears, turn palms forward Trini : Exhale and bend forward until trunk is parallel to ground. Stretch out shoulders and inhale Chatvari : Exhale while going down further until entire palm rests on ground and chin touches knees Hold the position for 2-3 minutes. Pancha : Inhale and come up until trunk parallel to ground and exhale Shatha : Inhale and bring the trunk back to vertical position, hands above head Saptha : Exhale and drop down arms to horizontal position Ashta : Exhale and drop down arms besides the body and come back to stithi (tadasana). STEP – 3 : Benefits and Limitations Standard Benefits : Strengthens legs, calf muscles, thighs, and shoulders Strengthens spine, spinal columns Activates the function of abdominal organs Improves memory, concentration, confidence, will power, and intelligence. Specific Benefits : Makes the spine flexible Strengthens thighs Helps preventing constipation and menstrual problems Improves digestion due to contraction of abdomen Enhances blood circulation to head region. Standard Limitations : People who are suffering hypertension or hypotension should avoid the posture People who have undergone any surgery recently should avoid the posture

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People with slip disk should avoid the posture Ladies, during mensus period should avoid the posture Pregnant women should avoid the posture. Speciﬁc Limitations: People with vertigo should avoid this posture People with cervical spondilytis should avoid this asana People who have disc prolapse should avoid this posture People with severe hypertension should avoid this posture STEP – 4 : SUBTLE points

Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing

• Try to touch head to knees • Don’t bend knees • Perform the Ardha chakrasana as complementary to this asana.

It’s all Him

will ever happen

Student: Master! They say nobody can give you self-realization. Then how is it that a Guru can give you selfrealization.

in the future; it

Master: Because Guru is no-body.

will happen in

Without a Sadguru you can never be truly complete. Everything that you see is created by God, the finite things and beings and the infinite universe itself. Enlightenment is no different, even that has to be created by God. But Enlightenment is a bit tricky, for God to create an enlightened being he needs to manifest in a human form, let’s put it this way, it needs his personal attention. It’s like a surgeon, he’ll have the nurses and others to do all the small jobs like giving anesthesia, cleaning etc. but when it comes to the surgery, it is he who does it. A Sadguru is that surgeon. Everything is within the mind, only the Sadguru is beyond it, and that is why only he can do the surgery. There has always been only one Surgeon! And he has never failed and never will.

the Now.

Sadguru is the creator of enlightened beings, he is sustainer of Dharma and he is the destroyer of ignorance. Complete surrender to the Sadguru fulﬁlls the purpose of life. Guru’s purpose in life is to make you realize who you are, your purpose in life is to realize who you are, so that means, Guru’s purpose in life is you, why isn’t your purpose the Guru?

Match the following - answers Sanskrit words Ajaha Amanah aprāno ‘Akshara’ ‘na medhayā’ na bahunā śrutena’ nāyam ātmā pravacanena’

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Meanings ‘never born’. no mind no prana indestructible beyond intellect and logic. beyond scripture studies beyond listening to lectures

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Participate There are various forums for you to participate and contribute. Readers Reviews: If you have valuable feedback for Divya Jyothi please share them with us. You can email them to xsubbu@gmail.com and komalmopu@gmail.com Spiritual Insights: You can contribute short articles on your spiritual experience, your love for Saduguru (prose/poems), poetry, etc.

Articles: These can include articles on various spiritual topics like Upanishads, Vedanta, Yoga, Trivia, Quiz, Puzzles, Yajna Activities, or your own original ones. Please encourage children to contribute. For contributing in Kannada, please visit google.co.in/transliterate to transliterate your article from English to Kannada font. Copy paste the Kannada font in the body of Gmail and mail the same. Page 3: Pictures and short reports of Satsang activities

Spiritual Masters: Articles of teachings on various spiritual masters. All contributions can be mailed to xsubbu@gmail.com and komalmopu@gmail.com

Next month (July ’12), we are celebrating Guru Purnima. You

Transcribe: We’ll be studying the 10 important Upanishads over the next year. Prabhuji’s teachings will be translated to various languages. Atmajyothis have volunteered. If interested, please get in touch with Prabhuji

can send contributions based on teachings of

Weekly satsangs: At Prabhuji’ s place over the weekends and at Atmajyothi Anand’s place on Thursdays. Satsangs for festivals are organized at a convenient date/time.

Prabhuji and Atmajyothis besides regular articles.

Come Online:

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Atmajyothi Satsang is online at www.atmajyothi-satsang.org.

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Atmajyothi Satsang is also on Facebook and Prabhuji can be reached at atmajyothi.satsang@gmail.com

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Listen to Prabhuji’s talks live (and recorded) on UStream at www.ustream.tv/channel/atmajyothi

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Listen to Prabhuji’s recorded talks on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/atmajyothisatsang

Prabhuji blogs at www.atmajyothi-prabhu.blogspot.com and http:// www.atmajyothi-satsang.org/wpadmin_prabhu/wordpress/

Breathe...

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Contribute to Guru Purnima Edition Divya Jyothi e-zine July Edition will be the Special Edition as it is a Guru Purnima Edition! We are planning some special things for this edition so that more and more Atmajyothis can participate, thereby helping one another in our inner journey to Self! Various ways how one can participate are listed below... Suit your ‘Self’ :)

Self-Introspection' (Have I Changed..?) Interested and daring Atmajyothis can write a brief report of changes in oneself (internal and external both) from last Guru Purnima (or from before) to this Guru Purnima. For example: ‘When I met Guruji…’ or ‘Last Year my life…,’ or ‘I was so and so… and…’ as simple as that…… Just Open up yourself ..! Know yourself…..Inspire yourself and others! ‘It is not what we get from our Guru; it is what we can oﬀer to Guru by bringing in a change in our self!’

Tribute to our Gurus (Creative Write Ups addressing our Guru’s…) Atmajyothis are invited to write Poems, Songs, any kind of Prostrations to GURU… just to ‘Thank and Pray’ our Gurus for their inﬁnite Wisdom, Love, Grace and Guidance! (For it is the love that we can oﬀer not the things.. as Tribute to our Gurus!) The more you use your heart, and be creative the more you open up and transcend the mind…!

Reports about ‘Service- Pancha Yagnas’ (various ways Atmajyothis are involved in Service activities) As Atmajyothis are involved in various Service Activities in five different ways, ‘Pancha Yagnas’, please take some time and do writes to us about how you are involved in Service activities and how you want it to expand further. So that other Atmajyothis know ‘who is doing what and how?, so that others interested can join you for their progress and in turn support you. Or just can be inspired by your Service! It is not the service but the intention or the attitude with which it is done is important… as it purifies our heart and takes closer to ‘Self’.

‘Review and Suggestions’ (How our Divya Jyothi can enter more and more peoples life and minds..?) This June edition is our 6th edition, successfully and beautifully coming out by the humble efforts of all our Atmajyothis under the Grace and guidance of our beloved Prabhuji. As Atmajyothis let us try to make it more and brighter by sending in our reviews and suggestions about all 6 editions to improve the e-zine and involve more and more people… in more and more better ways..! The more it flows out the more it flows in… Light… Love and Wisdom!

Anyone can write... in fact everyone can write any language, any age. :) All write-ups should be send to both xsubbu@gmail.com andkomalmopu@gmail.com before 3rd July (Guru Purnima Day), for easier editing and publishing. Thank you for your Patient Reading..! PEACE AND LOVE Editorial Team Listen to your Heart not Mind ... as our aim is to transcend the Mind!

DIVYA

JYOTHI