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Why do my thoughts move out to him, again and again? The West hath denied him: and the nations that have not yet renounced the way of violence and war are crucifying him! The soul of the East responds to him, but the big organisations of Asia know him not. Yet he brought with him a message which is the urgent need alike of Asia and the West. He brought with himself the message of life, a larger and a fuller life, in the Spirit. He said: “I am come that ye might have life and that ye might have it more abundantly.” This life is the life Divine. You will find it if you get right at the Centre. Nations have moved on the Circumference and so wandered in quest of power, possessions, gold and greatness. The nations continue to wander from darkness to * December 25 is the sacred Christmas.
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darkness: and the pages of history are stained with dark deeds — deeds of violence, committed in the name of country or creed. Get right at the Centre, taught Jesus. For deep in the Centre of your being is a Divine Self, a Ray of the Eternal Light of God. The Divine Self at the Centre of your being, Jesus called the Inner Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven within you. Listen, again to the words of the Master: The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, that which when a man hath found, he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. On another occasion Jesus referred to the “Kingdom of God” as the “pearl of great price” to buy which the
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merchant goes and sells all that he has. And history shows how, again and again, the blessed ones have renounced their all, have “sold’’ all they had, to live the new life in the Kingdom of Heaven, to grow in the Divine self at the Centre. The churches of the West with their rigid constitutionalism, their ecclesiastical outlook, their dogmatic theologies, their speculative statements have veiled the Face of him who came, as did the Rishis of ancient India, to reveal to man the Divine Self at his Centre. Tat Twamasi! Jesus was not a theologian: he was a simple peasant of Galilee: in his simple Armaic speech, in his simple, direct way he declared, he revealed, re-revealed the ancient Aryan truth: ye are Divine! “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be added unto you,” he said. It is a re-affirmation of the teaching of the Upanishads: Realise the Divine Life, the Divine Centre within you! Jesus said: “The Father in me and I in the Father.” And to realise this we must live in love. Love must be the Law and Leader of life. Jesus said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with thy
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entire mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Yes, Love is the great cosmic Law of all aspiring, progressive life! Yes we must love our neighbour as ourselves: for in us all flows the One Divine life. In the teaching of Jesus is the vision of a new life and a new world-order. It is the vision of a mystic. Jesus was the Prince of Mystics. He saw the One life in spirit and matter, the One Substance in energy and matter. Jesus realised that man is divine, that he is a partaker of God’s Eternity and, therefore, of God’s Destiny and Powers. “Ye are the Sons of the Father!” he said. So too, he declared — “Ask! and ye shall receive! Knock! and it shall be opened unto you!” Herein doth Jesus reveal the secret of true progress and advance. Your way, O nations of the West — the way of violence and war, is the way of destruction, and your military marches are no better than a dance of Death. If ye will truly advance and achieve, get right at the Divine Centre of life. Ask and ye shall receive ! Knock! and it shall be opened unto you !
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Make ‘The Gita’ Your Guide!* SADHU VASWANI’S MESSAGE ON THE GITA JAYANTI DAY
The Gita is not a “philosophy” nor a “metaphysic” of life. The Gita is a Word radiant with the light of Spiritual Illumination. Therefore has the Gita profoundly influenced the course of India’s thought and life. Some of the richest minds and purest hearts in India have been illumined and inspired by the Gita. Krishna came not as India’s “Leader”. Krishna came as a “servant” of India. His life, peerless, pure, radiant with Wisdom and Love, uttered on India’s Great Battlefield, in the tapoban vibrant with the ‘Rishis’ meditations, the Kurukshetra, the Teaching of the Gita. In the Gita Sri Krishna brings new meaning and life to Dharma. Dharma is not a creed, not a philosophy, not a theology. Dharma is the Illumination and Inspiration of daily life: “Whatever thou eatest, whatever thou thinkest, whatever thou worshippest, whatever thou doest, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me!” How pure, how sweet, how fragrant would our life be if it were a daily offering unto the Eternal! Civilisation today, is running rapidly into chaos. The world is threatened with a new * December 10 is the sacred Gita Jayanti Day.
barbarism. Neither Fascism, nor Communism, nor Hitler’s National Socialism, or any other creed, Totalitarian or democratic, for democratic nations themselves are infected with Capitalism and Imperialism, can answer the riddle of human experience: man’s craving is for the Non-material, the Eternal. The present age alas! stands midway between destruction and New Birth. The nations need a Guide to show them the Way. To the broken bewildered nations I say, this Gita Jayanti Day: “Make the Gita your Guide!” “So act, so think, so aspire, that every act, every thought, every aspiration of your life rises as an incense of love and devotion (bhakti) to the Lord of Light and Love!”
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Who Is A True Sufi* J. P. VASWANI
Salam Walekum! My friends, in asking me to address this distinguished gathering you do me an honour, which I have done nothing to deserve. I am not a learned man. Learning and scholarship have I none. But I am a child of silence — the silence of nature and the deeper and the inner silence of the soul. And in the depths of silence have I heard the words: Not rites, not ceremonies, not dogmas, not creeds, but a new outpouring love is what the world solely needs. What humanity needs today is not mere philosophy or theology, not merely rites and rituals, not mere dogmas and creeds, the people need to know that they are not alone, that they have not been abandoned that there is one who loves them, for what they are, and who still cares about them. Philosophy and theology have so much to tell us concerning God. But people want an
experience of God. They want to experience God. There is difference between eating dinner and merely reading the menu. There is a difference between reading a travel book and actually visiting the lands described therein. There is a difference between watching an advertisement on the T.V. screen and actually possessing the product advertised. Philosophy can be very enlightening. But it cannot change you. It can only change the superficies of life, hence the value of the message such as the one that has been given to us by the teachers of the Sufi faith. They taught the people how to live the life, the true
* Being notes of a video speech given at Smithsonian Institute, Washington in Oct, 2016.
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life, the new life, the life of simplicity and sympathy and service, the life of new awakening of self-effacement and self-realisation. They taught the people how to keep their minds fresh and to dare — to dare and to achieve. The ultimate fact for them is not matter or force but the spirit of love and truth, which for want of a better word we call God. Today the world lives in forgetfulness of God. A true Sufi is even he who has seen the face of God unveiled. A true Sufi is even he who has talked with God, a true Sufi is even he who has a direct knowledge of God. A true Sufi is one who lives and moves and does his daily work in the ever living, the ever loving, the radiant presence of God. A true Sufi dedicates all he is and all he has to God. It was a Sufi master who said, “A Sufi possesses nothing but is himself God possessed.” The love of God is the only treasure of life. He lives from day to day in the intoxication of God’s love. In our Indian language, in the Hindi language we have a saying, Ganja, Bhang, Aafeem, madh utter jaat parbhat, Naam khumari Nanaka charhi rahe din raat! What mean those words? The intoxication that we get out of wine, opium and other
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things lasts through the night. It is gone with the break of dawn. But the intoxication of God’s love endureth forever and forever more. My friends, the Sufi’s are men and women of communion and compassion, for them to live is to love God and to love the suffering children of God. And love, as a great Sufi master said, love is a fire in the heart which consumes everything except the Will of the Beloved. It was a Christian mystic who said, ‘Our wills are ours that we may make them Thine.’ And the Sufi mystics as they move on the path of love they renounce their self-will, they renounce their selfwill completely. And they surrender themselves to the Will of the Beloved. They grow in a spirit of humility they become nothing. It was a Sufi saint, who sang, ‘If thou would tread the path of love thou must first become as ashes and dust. Be as dust on this path.’ The pilgrim who treads the path of love, the pilgrim who moves on the path of love renounces self love, renounces self will and he becomes nothing. He becomes no-thing. To be nothing is to become new, is to be reborn. And the way to God is the way of re-birth. We are born of the flesh, we need to be born of
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the spirit, therefore, we need must pass through a process of purgation, through a process of purification. It was Imam Hussein who said, “God takes away all that is not God from the heart of his lovers.” From the heart of his lovers, those that love him God takes away all that is not God, so that in their heart only the love of God remains. In worldly love, the lover longs for the beloved for his own sake. In divine love the lover longs for the beloved not for himself but for the sake of the beloved. What is love? A Sufi seeker asked his master, “Master tell me what is love?” And the master said, “Love is reckoning yourself as nothing.” Love is reckoning yourself as nothing and the beloved as the all. You become nothing; the beloved becomes the all — that is true love. And this love is a gift of God to man. By himself man cannot have this type of love. It is a gift of God to man. God gives this gift of love to whomsoever He chooses. The lover of God does not become a lover of God by Himself, it is God who comes and pulls him to Himself. It is only then that he becomes a lover of God. By his own efforts no man can reach this pinnacle of life. All that a seeker has to do is to long, to yearn, to be pulled by God.
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It was a Sufi master who said, “Love is very much like a raging flood and the Sufi looks forward to its coming and being carried by it.” It was Jalal‘u’ddin Rumi who said, those are the words in the Masnavi. Jalal‘u’ddin Rumi says, “The lovers have fallen into a torrent.” This love we cannot get by our efforts, it is a gift of God, it’s a gift of God to the person whom he chooses. We can only yearn for this love. This love that they call Ishq, it cannot be manufactured by us. It is a gift of God to us. What is love? I believe love defined is love denied. No words can adequately express what love is. No words can adequately tell us what Ishq is. It was a Sufi master who said, “I spoke on love, I wrote on love, I delivered discourses on love but when I came face to face with Love I felt ashamed of all that I had spoken and written.” And Jalal‘u’ddin Rumi tells us in the Masnavi, “The pen was busily writing until it came to love, then it split apart, it could not write more.” The Sufi is essentially a lover of God. He looks around him and he finds that the world is sad, the world is broken, the world is torn with tragedy, the world is smitten with suffering. And
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living in such a world the Sufi says, I shall be a servant of the suffering one. The Sufi realises that he cannot love God whom he has not seen and not love the suffering children of God whom he has seen. The Sufi understands that the best worship that he can offer to God is to go and serve the people. And he regards this serving the people as an opportunity, as a blessing he has received from God. Therefore, he grows in a spirit of humility. With humility in his heart he goes out and he serves the people. He helps as many as he can to lift the load on the rough road of life without expecting any reward—material or spiritual. This service is his offering to God. A Sufi is essentially a man of love. And love is not love until it becomes love in action. And love in action is service. It was the great Sufi poet Said who sang, “Worshipping of God is not done by turning the beads of the rosary, worshipping of God is serving the people.” And I believe that the greatest need of the world today is love in action. Love in action is what we need, not mushy love, not wimpy love, not fickle love, not conditional love — but unconditional love, creative love, out going love,
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a caring love, a daring love, a sharing love, this is the great need of the world today. I will not detain you longer my friends. You have given me a patient hearing so long. I feel so grateful to you. Today we are passing through a crisis. Today the nations are moving in a jungle of darkness. Today wherever you turn there is this passion for power, there is this lust for fame, there is this greed of gold. Today humanity stands amidst unseen ruins. Today humanity seems to have suffered a nervous break down. Today Mother Humanity is shedding tears while her children are busy manufacturing weapons of death and destruction. Today Humanity is as an orphan in the night crying for the light. There is only one light; it is the light of love. And the true Sufi is the man of love. He is the lover of God; he is the lover of the suffering children of God. He translates his love into action, love in action — this is what the world greatly needs. Today we have arrived at a stage where individuals and the nations alike must either love each other, love one another or perish. There is no other choice. I thank you!
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The Spirit Of Silence* SADHU VASWANI This morning, I desire to pass on to you a little thought, which may be expressed thus: Drink the spirit of silence. That wonderful hymn which you sing— the “Shantipath,” is it not fragrant with the message of silence? And, as you read one section after another of the ancient scriptures of India, don’t you find that the one note repeated, again and again, is Shanti? And haven’t you noticed that every Hindu prayer closes on this note of Shanti, Shanti, Shanti? Shanti was the dominant aspiration of the Rishis, of those great ones whose shadows still rest upon this beautiful place, Rajpur: for here we sit in the lap of the Himalayas. The Rishis were lovers of silence. And every great soul is a lover
of silence. Of Buddha we read that, from time to time, he would sit under a tree in silent meditation. And of Jesus we read that, when he was in the city to teach and preach and heal, he would spend the day in the midst of men, but when the night came, he sought the hillsides for silent communion. Today, more even than in the ancient days, we need the healing, holy influence of silence. Am I wrong in saying that one feature of modern life is “noise”? We live in a world of noises more, perhaps, in India than in many other countries. I have sometimes wished that I lived in a soundproof house! Modern India moves in a world of deafening noises. Our railway stations are so noisy: not so the stations of
* Being notes of an address to the inmates of the Shakti Ashram, Rajpur, (Himalayas).
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Japan. There, the porters will lift your luggage noiselessly. European houses and schools and colleges and libraries are more quiet than ours. We need to move in an atmosphere of silence: Rishis were sons of silence. Work, work hard; but don’t ignore the value of silence. Let me ask you to set apart every day at least one hour for silence. Two blessings, specially, does silence bring. First, silence purifies. Carlyle wrote many volumes in praise of “the kingdom of silence”. He appeared at
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purifies: silence vitalises. Sometimes you think silence makes a man weak. No: it makes him strong. After the silence period is over, a man may feel hungry, but hunger is a sign of returning strength: in silence flow into you nature’s healing forces, and you become strong. The shakti of silent work is what India needs today. In our “public” life, alas! there is so oft lovelessness: there is the desire to shine, and be “great”. I long for the day when there will be bands of young men who
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shed tears when I think of the shadows we run after, greatness, name and fame, publicity, popularity. All these are perishable things. The secret of nationservice is not there, but in the life of those who drink of the spirit of silence. a time when industrialism was disturbing the aesthetic and spiritual outlook of England. He protested against commercialism and mammonworship. Yes, there is a kingdom of silence: to be linked with it, is to be purified. Here, in Rajpur, you have splendid opportunities for communion with silence. You can go out for silent walks and, as you see these wonderful hills, these tall trees, these mystic skies, something of Nature’s beauty will pass into you and you will be purified. Silence purifies us. Silence also vitalises us, gives us strength which you may spend in the service of others. Here, then, are two of the blessings of silence. Silence
will renounce low ambitions and who will have but this one “ambition” — to be silent servers of India. I shed tears when I think of the shadows we run after, greatness, name and fame, publicity, popularity. All these are perishable things. The secret of nation-service is not there, but in the life of those who drink of the spirit of silence. On this note let my talk close this morning. Silent service: may that be your aspiration, your mantra every day! May you work in the spirit of silence! Then may you get from the All-Giver the shakti you need to build a mighty nation in the coming day.
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Discover Yourself* J. P. VASWANI
Friends and Fellow devotees of the Lord! Namaskars to every one of you. Thales is regarded as one of the seven wise men of ancient Greece. A number of questions were asked of him to all of which he gave very short answers. Thus he was asked: “What is the quickest thing in the world?” He answered: “Thought!” “What is the easiest thing to do?” He said: “To give advice to another.” He was asked: “What is the most difficult thing to do?” His answer was: “To know oneself.” Yes—it is so difficult to know one self. We know so many things about the universe that is around us. Man has set foot on the moon. Man’s rockets go flying past the distant planets. Man has been able to station satellites in space. But what does he know about himself? Perhaps man’s greatest blunder * Notes of a talk.
is, he has identified himself with his body. Some go a step further and feel they are the body-mind complex. Man is neither the body nor the mind. The body is a garment which he has worn and mind is an instrument which he has brought to be able to do his work on the earth plane. The 20th century, I believe, will go down in history as a century of tremendous discoveries. Man has made many discoveries, tremendous discoveries. But in the bargain he has lost himself. He knows so much of the universe in which he lives, the environment, etc. All that is outside of himself. But what does he know of himself? If I were to ask you, who are you? You would immediately point to your bodies. As I said, you are not the body. The body is a garment: you are the wearer of the garment.
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In this endless adventure of existence, you have put on and put off a million garments. The body is but a house: you are a dweller within the house. When the house drops down, when the house perishes, you do not perish you continue to live. For you, the real you, is imperishable, you are immortal, immutable, you are deathless, you are eternal. God has given to you the gift of life. And what God gives, He gives unto Eternity. What God gives, He does not take back. If I asked you where you lived, you would give me your address but the body is the house in which you live. Near the end of his life, a friend met Oliver Wendell Holmes and greeted him, “Good morning, sir, how are you today?” The poet answered, “Oliver Wendell Homes is quite well, thank you, but the house in which he lives is quite shaky.” The body, in the Gita and the Upanishads, has been referred to as the Navadvare Nagara — the city with nine gates. The nine gates are the nine openings in the body – two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth, one organ for generation and one for evacuation. The body has been called a cage. You are a bird within the cage. The cage breaks, the bird flies away. The body has by some been called a horse. You are not the horse:
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you are the horse driver. You must not identity yourself with the horse: you are the driver of the horse. The body has been called a boat. It is a boat which can carry you to the Other Shore. Think of a child. From the beginning of his days, the child has been taught to identify himself with the body. You pinch his body, he will begin to cry. If you pamper his body, the child will smile. A girl told me that if she had to go out anywhere, it usually took her three hours to get ready. So much of pampering is being given to the body. The modern man says that he does not believe in idol worship but he regards his body as his idol. He becomes a worshipper of the body and it is out of the worship of the body that you have all the evils of the present day. When we are born, we are immediately put in charge of people who have been taught to believe that man is a creature with one self – the lower self of passion and pride, of lust and hatred, of envy and jealousy. They do not know that there is also another self – the higher self – the self of simplicity, sympathy and service, the self that rejoices in giving, in sacrificing all it is and has at the Lotus Feet of the Lord. They think of themselves as separate individuals who
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have to fight the battle of life and, through their efforts and endeavours, rise to the top. They feel they are separate from each other – and separate from God. They become slaves of the ego. The word ego is an acronym. The letter ‘e’ stands for eliminating, ‘g’ for God, and ‘o’ for over and over again. The ego is that which eliminates God over and over again. The intellectual confusion, the moral chaos, the spiritual bankruptcy that is all around us today, are the result of this one disease — identification with the body. If I were to ask you: Who are you? You would tell me your name. You would say: I am Mahesh. And I would say: you are not Mahesh. Mahesh is your name. What are you? You cannot be only a name. Mahesh is your name. Then who are you? What are you? You will say to me: I am a doctor. You are not a doctor. You became a doctor. When you were born, you were not a doctor. You studied and became a doctor. And now the people call you a doctor. And you believe that you are a doctor. You are not a doctor. You have become a doctor. Who are you? What are you? In answer someone will say: “I am a Hindu.” Some other person will say: “I am a Christian.” These are all superimpositions. What are
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you? In essence, in reality, you are an immortal spirit. You are an immortal spirit who has worn a physical body and brought an instrument called the mind to be able to do your work on the physical plane. You are not the body: you are not the mind. You say, you are Mahesh, you are not Mahesh. The sooner you realise that you are not Mahesh, the better for you. There is the great Cosmic Drama which is being unfolded day after day; in this Drama each one of us has to play a part. At this time you have been given to play the part of Mahesh. You are not Mahesh. You are only playing the part of Mahesh. In my early years I was a scout. And our troop used to have an Annual Variety Entertainment Show. In one of the scenes I was given to play the part of the Emperor Napoleon. There I stood in my imperial majesty: and though I played the part of Napoleon, in the heart within I knew I was not the Emperor Napoleon. Likewise, though you have to play the part of Mahesh, in the heart within, you must know that you are not Mahesh. You are only playing the part of Mahesh. The question arises: If I am not Mahesh: What am I? To know what you are, you must separate yourself from all you regard as yours. What
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you regard as yours, what you regard as belonging to you, binds you, makes you a prisoner. This body is mine: this microphone is mine: this house is mine: this chair and this table are mine. Whatever I regard or declare as mine are chains in which I am binding myself. This is what makes us prisoners. Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani and this little one were walking on the terrace of a house one day when Gurudev happened to look down at the road below and he exclaimed: “Prisoners.” I looked down and found the people walking on the road or going in their cars and I asked: “Gurudev, where are the prisoners?” What makes us prisoners is this notion that things and objects belong to us. What we feel belongs to us binds us. I am an immortal spirit. My and mine is illusion, maya. Nothing is mine. If it were mine, it would accompany me when the call comes to me to enter the Great Beyond. When the call comes, I have to leave everything behind – family members, friends, relatives, all things and objects. I can carry nothing with me. Mazarin was advisor to the King of France. He had built a museum of antique curios in the palatial house in which he lived. He became ill. The doctors gave up all hope. He
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said: Let me for the last time go and have darshan of all the curios that I have gathered in my entire life. He looks at all the curios, then sheds a tear and says: I can take with myself nothing. When man is born, his hands are empty. When he dies, he cannot take with himself his own hands. Therefore, be sure that nothing belongs to you absolutely. Everything is given you for use. Use everything wisely and well. Outwardly, you can say: This is mine: This belongs to me. But inwardly, be sure that nothing is yours, nothing can belong to you. Outwardly, you can say, this house is mine, this house belongs to me. These children are mine, these children belong to me. But inwardly be sure that nothing, no one belongs to you. A man came to me and said: I am a seeker after God. Is there any short cut to God? And I said to him: God is already with you. You have just to understand it. You have already realised God. You just don’t have the awareness that God is within you. You live in the thought that you are far from God. Bayazid was a great Sufi Master. When he was young, he had a desire to visit Mecca. On his way to Mecca, a dervish, a holy one met him and asked him, where are you going? Bayazid answered: “To
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Mecca.” The dervish asked: “Why?” And Bayazid said: “To see Allah – to see God.” The dervish asked him, how much money do you have? Bayazid answered: Four hundred gold dinars. The dervish said to him: “Give the money to me.” The dervish took the money and put it in his pocket. He said to Bayazid: “What will you do in Mecca?” You will circumambulate around the sacred stone seven times. Instead walk around me seven times. Bayazid did as he was told. And the dervish said: “Now you can leave. You have achieved your purpose. But before you leave, let me tell you something. Since the day Mecca was built, God has left it. Go and meditate on this.” My friends, whoever has attained God has attained Him within the human heart. The heart is the greatest temple of God. Therefore, keep the heart pure. Keep the heart clean. It was Jesus who said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. A man said: You describe God as being Omnipresent. Why are we not able to see Him? And I said to him: “He can be seen in the mirror of the heart. If the mirror is stained, soiled, we cannot see the image. Therefore, cleanse the heart. Let the heart be pure and clean. On the mystic path, there are three steps
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to be taken. The very first is purification. The second is illumination. The third is unification. Our hearts need to be purified. May I, in the little time that yet remains to me, offer a few practical suggestions. Practical suggestion Number One: Always do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do. There are always a hundred ways of doing the same thing. Some of them are right and some of them are wrong. Only one is the best. Do everything in the best way you can. Practical suggestion Number Two: Let your love be universal and unconditional—a love without attachment. Let your heart be filled with an abundance of love. But be not attached to anyone. Be not attached to any object or person. No one, nothing belongs to you. You belong to God. Practical suggestion Number Three: Walk the path of truth. We often speak lies and that is the root of all sin and suffering. Always speak the truth, always be true to your Higher Self. Practical suggestion Number Four: Keep yourself away from all gossip and controversies. Do not criticise anyone nor hear any complaints and criticism from others. Keep yourself away from all unpleasant, unproductive talk. And always speak sweetly and gently.
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Practical suggestion Number Five: Every day spend some time in silence. It is your daily appointment with God. You keep a number of appointments every day. You miss out the one important appointment, your appointment with God. Begin with half an hour or 15 minutes. Gradually increase the period. Talk to God, He will talk to you. In the beginning you will not be able to hear His voice. But He hears every whisper of the human heart. Practical suggestion Number Six: Realise the Oneness of all creation. Once a saint gave his disciples the teaching: “Do not become a pair of scissors, but be like a needle. The disciples were puzzled; they asked the saint to explain this. The saint said, “The needle sews clothes, stitches up the tears and cuts in the fabric. But the scissor cuts the cloth asunder. Hence, wherever you go, be like the needle and patch up differences; sew up tears and cuts; bring people together. Bind them in the silken thread of your love, because in reality we all are one!” Practical suggestion Number Seven: Be an epitome of compassion. Our compassion should move out not only to men but birds and animals. The day on which we have not helped someone – a man, a bird, an
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animal — in need, is a lost day, indeed! Continue to do as much good as you can, in as many ways as you can, on as many occasions as you can and as long as you can. But I promised to speak only a few words today. So let me close my little talk with an incident in the life of Mullah Nassuruddin. Once he woke up early in the morning. It was the dark of the dawn. He called his disciple, Mahmud, and said to him: “Go outside and see if the sun has risen. Mahmud went out and came and reported: It is pitch dark outside, the sun has not yet arisen. Nassuruddin became very angry and shouted: You fool. Why did you not take a torch with you and looked at the sun? This is exactly what we do. In our search for God, we practise one sadhana or the other. Our sadhanas are like tiny torches. They cannot reveal God: they cannot discover the self. Do what you can. But never forget that the Self is revealed not through the practise of sadhanas, but through the grace of Guru and God. Therefore, keep on doing your sadhanas. And keep on praying for the grace of the Guru and God to be poured on you. As they say in our sweet, lyrical Sindhi language: Ik kano kripa jo kaafi. The words mean, one grain of Grace sufficeth. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!
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Children’s Corner RHYMING RIDDLE Read the clues and find words that solve the riddles. All of the riddles must rhyme with the word in bold below: 1. The antonym of early. ................ 2. A wooden box. ................ 3. Another word for excellent. ................ 4. A number. ................ 5. What you use a scale to find out ................ 6. The opposite of like. ................ 7. A shoe for ice. ................ 8. Not crooked. ................ 9. Something used to catch fish. ................ 10. Something to put food on. ................
CROSSWORD
Answers: Rhyming Riddle: 1) late 2) crate 3) great 4) eight 5) weight 6) hate 7)skate 8) bait 9) plate 10) state Crossword: ACROSS: 1) Apple 2) Lemon 3) Orange 9) Apricot 10) Kiwi 11) Pomegranate 12) Coconut. Down: 1) Avocado 2) Grapes 4) Persimmon 6) Papaya 7) Pineapple 8) Lychee
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LAUGH YOUR WAY TO HEALTH A wealthy manager was driving in his car when he saw two men along the roadside eating grass. Disturbed by the sight, he ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate. He asked one man, “Why are you eating grass?” “We don’t have any money for food,” the poor man replied. “We have to eat grass.” “Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I’ll feed you,” the manager said. “But sir, I have a wife and five children with me. They are over there, under that tree.” “Bring them along,” the manager replied. Turning to the other poor man he stated, “You come with us also.” The second man, in a pitiful voice then said, “But sir, I also have a wife and seven children with me!” “Bring them all, as well,” the manager answered. They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as it was. One of the poor fellows turned to the wealthy fellow and said, “Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you.”
The manager replied, “Glad to do it. You’ll really love my place, the grass is almost one foot high!” Lesson: Never trust managers... They will go to any extreme to finish their job. *** Wife’s are of two types: The first type listens to her husband, understands his thoughts, always behaving lovingly, and even if the husband is angry, keeps smiling. The second type... is the one that everyone has. *** A young woman wasn’t feeling well and asked one of her co-workers to recommend a physician. “I know a great one in the city, but he is very expensive. Five hundred dollars for the first visit, and one hundred dollars for each one after that.” The woman went to the doctor’s office and, trying to save a little money, cheerily announced. “I’m back!” Not fooled for a second, the doctor quickly examined her and said, “Very good, just continue the treatment I prescribed on your last visit.”
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Recipes for the Month DABROTEE JAA PAKORAA
Ingredients: Green chutney............................................4 tsp Finely chopped onion.................................2 tsp Slices of bread................................................. 3 Tomato sauce (ketchup]............................2 tbsp Gramflour (besan)................................125 gms Salt to taste Red chilli powder to taste A pinch of baking soda Water Method: 1. Mix the green chutney and chopped onions 2. Spread the green chutney and onion mixture on one slice of bread. Cover with a second slice of bread. Now, spread ketchup on the top side of the second slice and cover with a third slice [like a club sandwich] 3. Remove the side crusts of the chutney and ketchup sandwich. Cut into four squares or four triangles. 4. Make a basic gram flour batter by mixing gram flour, salt, red chilli powder, soda and water. The consistency of the batter should be thick enough to coat the bread pieces. 5. Dip each piece in flour batter, one at a time and deep fry in hot oil till golden brown. 6. Serve immediately.
GOBHEEJAA PAKORAA
Ingredients: Medium sized cauliflower cut into florets........ 1 Ginger..................................................... 1 piece Garlic.....................................................6 flakes Green chillies................................................... 2 Gram chickpea flour-(besan flour).......225 gms Pomegranate seeds [anardana] - crushed.....1 tsp Red chilli powder........................................1 tsp Salt to taste Method: 1. Soak the florets in salt water and then parboil. Make sure the florets do not get overcooked. 2. Grind the ginger, garlic and green chillies into a paste. Coat the parboiled florets in this mixture. 3. Mix the gram flour, pomegranate seeds, red chilli powder and salt. Make a thick batter by adding a little bit of water. 4. Dip the cauliflower florets in the batter, one at a time. Fry till they turn golden brown in colour. 5. Serve hot.
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Keeping your teeth and gums healthy requires time, commitment and the right tools. Brushing your teeth twice daily, flossing and limiting your sugar intake are all important aspects of oral hygiene. But some oral hygiene products like toothpaste contain many harmful ingredients, such as titanium dioxide, sodium lauryl sulfate and artificial sweeteners, which can be bad for your oral health. This is why many people are looking for natural alternatives to toothpaste. In fact, there are some simple and inexpensive natural products that you can use in place of toothpaste to brush your teeth and keep them white and shiny for years. Here are the top natural alternatives to toothpaste. 1. Baking Soda Baking soda is one of the best toothpaste alternatives that you can use on a regular basis to clean your teeth.
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Baking soda acts as an abrasive agent and helps whiten and brighten your pearly whites. It even neutralises acids in the mouth, which in turn reduces the chance of bad breath. Mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda with a little water to get a pasty consistency. If you wish, you can add a few drops of peppermint extract to the water to give your mouth a minty fresh feel. Note: Make sure not to eat or drink anything for at least 30 minutes after brushing your teeth with baking soda. Also, don’t use baking soda on a regular basis as it may gradually erode the tooth enamel. 2. Indian Lilac Indian lilac, also known as neem or margosa, is one of the best toothpaste alternatives that you can use. Its antibacterial and antiseptic properties help kill the bacteria that cause
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cavities, plaque, gingivitis and other gum diseases. You can also use soft neem sticks to brush your teeth. Simply chew on a broken end until it becomes soft enough to brush your teeth with. 3. Turmeric Turmeric promotes overall oral health. Its antiplaque, antiinflammatory and antibacterial properties help keep dental problems, such as toothaches and gingivitis, at bay. Mix Âź teaspoon of turmeric powder with a little mustard oil. Put this paste on your toothbrush and use it to brush your teeth. Make sure to rinse your mouth thoroughly afterwards. 4. Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil Extra-virgin coconut oil is another great natural toothpaste alternative, due to its antifungal and antibacterial properties that come in handy for mouth cleaning. 5. Activated Charcoal Activated charcoal can reduce stains and plaque on your teeth. The microporous charcoal aids in adsorbing plaque and other substances that cause stains on your teeth. a. Wet your toothbrush and dip it into powdered activated charcoal. b. Brush your teeth as you normally do.
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c. Finally, rinse your mouth with water until all the blackness in your mouth is gone. 6. Bentonite Clay Being rich in minerals, it supports tooth mineralisation. Plus, it has detoxifying properties that fight gum disease and help freshen your breath. You can also use white clay on your teeth to make them stronger and more resistant to decay. Put 1 tablespoon of bentonite clay into a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of baking powder to it. Mix in 2 tablespoons or more of extra-virgin coconut oil until you get a smooth consistency. Add a few drops of peppermint extract. 7. Salt Salt particles help get rid of plaque from your teeth, which in turn reduces the risk of many oral problems. It also helps replenish lost mineral content in the teeth to keep them healthy. Moisten your toothbrush and dip in table salt or sea salt, then brush your teeth with it at least once daily. You can also mix common salt with an equal amount of activated charcoal or baking soda and then brush your teeth with the mixture regularly. Note: When using salt, be gentle as it can damage your gums and tooth enamel if used roughly.
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