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136 pdf pgs
Gita 9/22
To those who always remain absorbed in My
meditation, to those ever harmonious, I bring full
peace and security.
To strive to approach, and understand Ram is to recede from the
world of vanishing forms, because Ram is the only Truth - the only Reality.
Ram is a subtle and mysterious power that pervades and sustains the whole
universe. Birthless and deathless is He. He is present in all things and in all
creatures who only appear as separate entities, due to their ever-changing
forms.
To wake up from this illusion of forms is to realise at once the Unity
or Love of Ram.
Love of Ram means Love of all beings, all creatures, all
things in this world; because Ram is in all and all is in Ram, and Ram is all in
all.
To realise this great Truth we, who, through ignorance,
feel as separate
individuals,
should submit ourselves to the will
and working of that Infinite
Power - that Infinite Love - Ram - who is one and all-pervading.
By a
complete surrender to the 'will of Ram',
we lose consciousness of the body
which keeps us aloof from Him,
and find ourselves in a state of complete
identification and union with Ram,
who is in us and everywhere around us.
In this condition, hatred which means consciousness of diversity, ceases,
and
Love, consciousness of Unity, is realised.
This Divine Love can be
attained by humbling ourselves to such a degree as to totally subdue our
egoism,
our self-assertion as a separate individual existence.
Having
reached this stage, we, by the awakened consciousness of Unity or Love,
are
naturally prompted to sacrifice all the interests that concern the body,
for
the welfare of our fellow-men and fellow-creatures who are all
manifestations of the same Ram.
.............
14
From gita:
“Abandoning all duties come to Me alone for shelter, sorrow not, I
will liberate Thee from all sins.”
..........................end...............................
Hints to aspirants
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If you wish to be a true spiritual aspirant, put down
the ego whenever it raises its hood.
Do not be self-assertive
with regard to your relation with the world, but be self controlled over the lower impulses of the mind.
Be the
master of your mind and the servant of the people around you.
Ego is extremely elusive. It will disappear only when
the light of a deep and abiding contemplation of the Divine
within you floods your mind.
When God is installed in the
heart, ego has no place in it.
.......
A spiritual aspirant’s bid is for immortality. His one
aim is to realize God and discover his union with Him.
To
achieve this end he should transcend all relative human
standards and conceptions.
He should be perfectly fearless
in his adventure into God’s Kingdom.
Fear, vacillation and
doubt should have no place in his life.
It must be
understood that only fearless, dare-devil souls fired with a burning
zeal to know God and see Him can walk on the path and
reach the goal.
......
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God draws the soul towards Him and the aspirant
should respond to His call and let himself go,
so that by His power he may travel towards Him and get united with Him.
Resistance on the part of the aspirant is the cause of his
failure and retrogression.
A heart steeled to the purpose can
win the race. An unflinching steadiness, an unquenchable
hope and an unshakeable faith lead him to the summit of
the divine life, radiance and joy.
When his mind wanders
away from the central object of its quest, it takes directly a
downward course where it meets with darkness and defeat.
This is the occasion for him to raise his heart in a spirit of
resignation towards God and surrender up his entire being
into His hands.
Such crucial psychological moments
confront the life of all spiritual aspirants. At this stage
distraction of every kind should be avoided with great care
and watchfulness. Else, the aspirant will be lost to that
fraternity of human souls who become the spiritual guides
and lights of humanity.
.........
When he has come to know that Grace is the
one thing that envelops him and pervades his entire being
and that without it he is nowhere,
his individual sense will
disappear with the result that he will be like an arrow striking
the target and melting away into it
....
10/192
Renunciation signifies giving up what you had held
dear in the world through a burning aspiration for the
realization of your Self — God.
It is not a state which is
forcibly achieved, but it is the spontaneous result of yourself
turning utterly to the Divine.
When the one thought of
God saturates your mind, naturally all other desires will
disappear from it.
Then the world and its objects lose all
attraction for you. Your link or attachment to them gets
broken.
Now, you at once feel an inner freedom from the
bondage of the flesh and all its cravings.
In fact, for the
time being, you turn your back entirely from the world of
change by facing the Supreme Light of lights — God.
The external form which such a renunciation takes is a mere
symbol or expression, of the inner transformation and
illumination.
The perfection of spiritual experience consists
in rising above all forms and standards, by realizing the
Divine in all aspects of life.
This is really a state beyond
renunciation and enjoyment. It is an all-round divinization.
........
11/192
Man, usually, sees all beings, objects and things in
the world from his individual point of view.
As such, he has
cognizance only of diversity in the manifestation. This vision
is the outcome of ignorance.
When man is enlightened
with the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit that dwells in
him, he holds the same Truth pervading everywhere, with
the result that he realizes a continuous and unbroken unity
in this apparent diversity.
He further knows that this Spirit
or Atman is eternal, changeless and its nature is Light, Bliss
and Peace.
It is now that he, as the Supreme Spirit,
witnesses all the movements and activities going on in this
vast universe, remaining all the time unattached, unaffected
and ever established in absolute Peace and Joy. This vision
is simply sublime.
.......
The nature of selfless Love is unalloyed joy. It is Love
for Love’s sake. In other words, Love here fulfills itself in
loving. Such a Love has its root in eternity. It does not belong
to the material aspect of life. So it springs from the immortal
Source of your being. In fact, it is the light and perfume of
the Divine Spirit within you.
Such a Love universalizes your outlook, and brings about the fusion of the soul with God.
When your heart overflows with Love towards all beings
and creatures in the world, you experience a joy and ecstasy
which is incomparable. God is defined as pure Bliss and
Peace. So God is Love and Love is God.
........
Watchfulness should be the principal trait in the
nature of a Sadhaka, who is striving to purify and direct his
mind towards the indwelling Reality.
To let the mind
conceive whatever thoughts it likes, and wander about
without any check, and get itself entangled in a net of
desires causes the defeat of the Sadhaka in his attempt to
push forward on the divine path.
He should be alert, awake
and heedful.
He should closely watch the movements of
his mind and gradually wean it away from the path of
ignorance and guide it on the path of knowledge.
He should
develop a witness-consciousness through meditation and
self-surrender.
It is a state of awareness of the immortal
and radiant Truth within him.
In fact, this awareness itself
is God-realization.
.......
It is perfectly true that everything in the world
happens by God’s will alone.
His power is invincible.
To
submit to this power means to permit it to work in and
through you irresistibly,
not only for your own elevation
and liberation, but also for bringing light and joy to others.
Resistance to the divine will and power means frustration
and misery. Therefore, recognize the truth that to look
upon God as all in all can alone grant true freedom and
peace.
.......
Communion with God can be cultivated in silence and
solitude.
The eternal Beloved in our hearts is ever waiting
to raise us from the lower nature in which we are caught.
What is required is that we should lift our gaze to Him,
hand ourselves over to Him and permit Him to take us up
and transform us into His likeness by infusing into us His
radiance and joy.
The moment our hearts are turned
towards Him, we taste the sweetness of fellowship with
Him.
Thereafter our attachment to and longing for the perishable objects lose their hold on us.
And when our
communion with God becomes more and more intimate,
we become entirely free from the shackles of the world.
Our lives will then be divinely illumined and flow like a pure,
sparkling, blissful stream. We will then talk, live and play
with Him, and be active in all manner of ways in His closest
company.
Our vision now gets so thoroughly purified and
universalized, that we not only do feel His presence ever
with us, but also behold Him everywhere as everybody and everything.
In this exalted experience the ego-sense
completely vanishes and we float on the sea of Absolute
Bliss and Peace perennially. Life now becomes a concentrated
expression of the eternal Light and Joy. Love is now natural
and spontaneous, saturating our every thought, feeling and
act. Love now unifies, sanctifies and divinizes every part of
our being, converting us into a veritable embodiment of
Divinity.
The distinction of God and devotee disappears. It is now that the soul experiences a state in which, Universe
and God are one and the same.
....
The crown of spiritual experience is the attainment of
divine love — a love that goes beyond the bounds of all human
calculations and standards and inundates all the world.
This love is founded upon the highest realization of the
Truth in all its aspects.
It is imbued with wisdom eternal
and a Vision that envelopes everything that exists.
No
words can describe the sublime glory of this love.
.......
Through complete self-surrender,
the mind becomes
still,
the ego-sense disappears,
and the soul merges into
the infinite silence of the Spirit.
.......
When this stage is attained,
a human being becomes one with God,
and all his actions
flow out in pure spontaneity.
The background and base of
his life is at that point-
only this supreme Spirit which animates,
activates and illumines his entire life and its movements.
Just as a variety of pictures with different kinds of gestures
and movements appear on a white and spotless screen, leaving no impression upon it.
And as the pictures cannot be
exhibited without the screen as the background, so all the
phenomena of the universal manifestation and its playful
activity are seen on the screen of the silent and still spirit of
the Divine.
Therefore, it is rightly said that the universe is
not a creation, but a projection from the divine and
immortal Reality.
The aim is to realize our identity with this
immortal Spirit and its manifestations. It is now that we
think, speak and act as the divine power wills, in the perfect
freedom of the Soul.
We enjoy a peace and joy which is
simply ineffable. This is the goal.
......
Equal vision is born of the experience of our union
and oneness in Spirit with all beings and creatures and
things in the world. It is this vision that makes us love and
serve all alike.
It is now that we can declare that all
beings and things in the world are the very forms and
expressions of the Divine Spirit — God.
This love and this
sight are truly divine in nature.
A saint gifted with
these qualities showers his Grace upon all. By awakening
them, he leads them on the path of Truth.
The very look of
the saint is charged with a great spiritual force.
On a mind
prepared to receive it, it acts like a flash on a glazed surface,
or like a jet of fire on a drop of water.
All the dross of the
mind is burnt away in an instant and the soul is lost in the
splendour, joy and peace of the indwelling Spirit.
This is
what is called the instantaneous act of Grace.
.......
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Adherence to the external forms of worship ceases
when your mind is drawn inward.
The object of all such
worship is to achieve this aim.
In meditation, your mind
should only think of God who resides within you.
And not
wander about in the midst of passing scenes of the
objective life.
When you realize union with the Divine within
you, you will have attained the fruit of all your Sadhana.
The mind going inward through the practice of prayer and
meditation finds the presence of the Divine first within. Then outside of him. Then universally
You realize that you are
the Spirit, not of local individual value, but of a universal
nature and significance.
You rise above all forms, thoughts and movements in which you had been involved when the
mind was externalized.
The inner perception and realization
of God is the culmination of all spiritual effort.
Now you
know who you are in reality. You are veril He!
.................
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The world is indeed a stage on which we are playing
our parts as in a drama.
God is the one holder of the strings
by manipulating which He makes us dance to His will. He
controls us from within. If we are only conscious of this
truth, we would enjoy real happiness and freedom.
If we
are not conscious, then we invite self-inflicted pains and
misery.
After all, pleasure and pain are felt according to the
state of the mind. When the mind is swimming in the ocean
of infinite joy, that is, when it is attuned to the eternal God,
we experience peace which no words can describe. So let
us recognize the sovereignty of the Supreme Spirit over all
beings, and eliminate our ego-sense and live in harmony
with all people on the earth, and thereby be blessed.
........
33
When you have gone beyond the three-fold qualities
of nature and beyond the pairs of opposites through
complete surrender to the will of God, you can be perfectly
tranquil, ever unaffected and unruffled even though
moving and having your being in the midst of the world.
Here your inner attitude to the external life is one of a
witness — detached and dispassionate.
.........
What does one mean by living in the divine presence?
God is defined as omnipresent which means that He is present everywhere in all beings and creatures and things.
So He dwells within every one of us and permeates
everything and every being around us. In fact, our real life
is not different from His.
To be ever conscious of this and to
be ever basking in the sunshine of divine radiance and peace
is to live in the presence of God.
Indeed God is the soul of
our soul, breath of our breath, the life of our life.
To be
absorbed in this consciousness and to be filled with the
ecstasy born of our oneness with this Truth is to be an
illumined image of divine love and peace.
........
Some preach that action is the goal. Some others say
renunciation of action is the goal. A mysterious union of
action and inaction is the real goal.
Action by itself binds
and causes misery. Non-action again by itself makes life
dry and insipid.
In both the stages there is the
consciousness ‘I am the doer’ or ‘I am not the doer’.
This
means the ‘I’ persists, which is the cause of bondage and
verily the veil between the soul and God.
Therefore the
great teachers of the world, who have realized the perfect
spiritual state, declare,
“Surrender yourself to God and
dissolve your ego-sense in His all-pervading and radiant
existence and then live and act in the world, knowing
yourself to be His child and servant.”
In fact it is by His
power and will alone that we are able to do anything.
Our physical and mental activities have their inception
in the power of God.
When such glorious surrender is
attained, the exalted devotee at once acts and acts not.
He
lives in a state of perennial ecstasy — his spirit calm and
serene within and the divine power active in his physical
and mental being.
Verily such a devotee is an embodiment
of the divine Spirit and divine Power — a veritable child of
God revealing all His splendour and greatness.
..........
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When you are inwardly awakened to the knowledge
of your Self,
you become free from ego-sense
which is the
cause of your and the world’s misery.
46
Be humble and be great. In humility lies the greatest
virtue.
Let God be your Master. He is within you. Let all
parts of your being submit to the behest of the Master.
Your limbs move as He wills, your words flow as He wills
and your thoughts inspired by His will. His power pervades
you. Be conscious of this. Then you will be accepted by the
Master and you will be blessed.
..
55
All we have to do is to rightly view and accept the dispensation of God in all that happens to us in the invisible inner sheaths of our being
and the visible and outer manifestation around us.
Disharmony and discord with the world is due to our failing
to attune ourselves with the all-pervading Spirit inherent
in all living beings and creatures.
When our life is
universalized, when the one all-pervading Truth is realized,
when the plane of duality is dissolved and a state of absolute
unity and non-duality is achieved,
At that point, we will
have known the secret of this life.
......
56
Life’s fulfillment lies in the realization of the Divine.
God is the only Reality and He has become everything in
the world.
So long as you feel separate from Him, you are
living in ignorance which is the cause of misery and
bondage.
The supreme freedom and peace — the quest of
life — can be attained only when this sense of separation
from Him disappears.
It is by the redeeming power of His
grace that this ego-illusion that makes the individual think
that he is a unit, living and acting by himself, having only a
physical relationship with the world,
is dispelled.
God is,
indeed, the truth of his being. God is the soul of the universe.
The universe is His manifestation. Therefore, your life is to
be ever attuned to Him who is in and out and everywhere.
The chief condition for the attainment of this goal is
absolute elimination of the ego-sense by the invincible
power of His Grace.
...
57
It is when you are dead to the lower self and all its
desires,
that you rise to a consciousness which is One
and
all in all.
Let your life be controlled and directed to this
great purpose.
Let the sense-desires be completely
subdued.
In reality, the Divine life us built on the death of these desires.
Let your heart be completely turned to the Divine. God is the sum total of all existence.
....
65
By this Sadhana you will be able to curb the restless
nature of the mind.
Without this preparatory process,
meditation becomes impossible.
Meditation means making
the mind dwell upon the attributes of the Lord, as described
in the Gita, namely, that He is eternal, all-pervading
almighty, absolute freedom, peace, wisdom, love and bliss.
Then, a stage will be reached when all the waves of
the mind will cease, and it will be bathed in the stillness of
the transcendental Reality within yourself.
The object of
meditation is to merge your individual sense and existence
in the universal light and vision of God.
As a
result of your Sadhana, you will then be able to rise above the body-idea and
realize the omnipresence of God.
The above are a few hints on concentration and
meditation.
What is needed for a Sadhaka is earnestness,
perseverance and steadiness of purpose.
The path is
difficult for one who is lukewarm about it, but it is easy for
one who is really sincere and resolute.
.......
70 Part 2 begins:
Sadhana means discipline for the control of the mind.
Through a ceaseless process of concentration and
meditation, you have to fix your thought on the supreme
Reality dwelling within you. A wavering and restless mind
cannot achieve anything.
The mind, like a stream, should
continuously flow towards the Divine.
A keen and
unquenchable thirst to realize God must be present in the
heart of the Sadhaka.
........
84
Those who remember God always are bound to attain
Him. By spiritual Sadhana, the mind and the intellect are
purified and the ego-sense disappears.
Once the ego-sense
is dead,
you feel you are nothing
and God is everything.
You realize that whatever was done by you was done by
the power of God, and that even the Sadhana you did was
done by God’s grace.
Nay, by God Himself through you.
You feel you are a mere instrument in His hands.
Now your
surrender to Him is complete and He takes you up higher
and higher on the spiritual path.
.....
92
Real independence is spiritual. It is the inner freedom
from fear and sorrow.
This is attainable only by knowledge
of the eternal by realization of the universal Divine Spirit.
Ignorance is the cause of all bondage. Man’s forgetfulness
of his true divine nature is the cause of ignorance and
sorrow. Ignorance makes him identify himself wrongly with
his body and crave for ephemeral things of the world.
Knowledge alone can make him free and happy.
.......
94
Complete and unqualified resignation to the will of
God in all your work is the path that leads you to the
knowledge of the Atman or inner Self.
Realize that all your
actions are the spontaneous expressions of the Divine
within you.
Be bold and fearless. The infinite power of the
Lord to guide and lead you on is ever with you. By constant
remembrance of God and meditation, draw strength from
this unfailing supreme source
..
104
It is an established truth that we cannot please the
world and God at the same time.
The path of Truth
is as narrow as the razor’s edge.
Ramdas knows from
experience that when he gave up all considerations relating
to the world and struggled to walk on the path of Truth, he
was assailed on all sides by biting criticism and persistent
persecution.
But these gratuitous (done without good reason) attacks, instead of
putting a check on his progress, accelerated his pace
towards the goal.
The more we are reviled and disowned
by the world, when we stand for God and God alone, the
nearer we approach Him who is the only real Beloved of
our heart.
Tests come to us in various ways. Ours is to be
unshaken in our adamantine purpose, and march onwards
with a spirit of heroic adventure.
..
108
When
you have gained the bliss of Brahman, you have no earthly
aims and ambitions.
Name, fame and wealth or any other
desire will then be incapable of luring you away.
You are
established in a state of perfect inner contentment, peace
and joy.
Complete elimination of the ego is essential.
...
In all matters you should submit to the will of God.
It
is no good grumbling and feeling worried.
The object of all
spiritual practices is to remain calm by resigning to the will
of God in all circumstances.
Ours is to play our part well in
this life, with full faith in God.
Our real success lies in living
such a life. Therefore Ramdas advises you not to be
dispirited. You are entirely in the hands of God. Those who
trust in Him are never lost.
..
117
Mere intellectual understanding of things is entirely
different from spiritual experience.
What is required of us
is to live the life which we idealize — not to talk and write
beautifully about it, but to actually live it beautifully.
True
spiritual power and knowledge, far from working any evil
on you, will elevate and ennoble your existence. Strive to
attain the goal with all your strength and soul. There is no
mystery-mongering about it — nor are there any occult
subtleties.
The path of surrender to God is the easiest and
the safest path.
Put yourself into His hands, in humility,
laying aside all your vaunted pride of learning and other
things. Be the child of the eternal Parent.
........
121
The true devotee is he who, under all adverse
circumstances, remains unshaken like a rock because his
trust in the Almighty is so firm that it does not allow any
vacillation.
You are bravely facing all adverse circumstances
that have fallen to your lot. You may depend upon it that
Ram is always with you in your struggles against
hardships.
..
122
When you feel that you are nowhere, then it is that
you are in tune with that supreme Spirit who is everywhere.
Do not worry.
Feel that He is dwelling within you and
making you do all things according to His will.
Surrender,
unqualified and all-sided, alone permits the divine Grace
to enlighten you.
Give up the “I” consciousness and be
perfectly at peace.
You may be sure that whenever Ramdas
smiles, he means nothing but blessings. Be patient and
realize the supreme God of love and bliss within yourself
132
In the early stages, you must know, sufferings that
come to us are experienced as unpleasant. But when we
have realized the fullness of divine grace, troubles and
sufferings are felt by us quite in the opposite way; they not
only do not affect us but are also transmuted into joy. Your
mind will attain perfect peace by the power of the Mantra.
.....
The only way to have our mind ever filled with true
peace and bliss is to continuously keep our thoughts in
tune with the great Truth dwelling within us.
By a practice
of the repetition of the Ram Mantra the mind can be made
to dwell always in God-consciousness. The more we draw
our mind inward, towards the contemplation of the Lord,
the greater will be its freedom from the restlessness and
the turmoil of external desires and attachments.
This
process will gradually eliminate the ego-sense, and bring
about a state of complete self-surrender.
It is not really
easy to bring under control the obstinate fickleness of the
mind. A steady and sustained discipline is essential. Certain
hours in the early morning, and before retirement to bed,
must be devoted entirely to the remembrance and
meditation of the Lord.
........
142
A deep introspection and a persevering attempt to
enter into the higher and exalted consciousness of your
being will enable you to raise an invincible power within
yourself, so that you can wield the internal and external
forces to your best advantage.
Realize that you are the
immortal and all-blissful Spirit, and not merely a body which
is only an ephemeral mask assumed by the Spirit for its
play.
Dive deep within yourself to know the secret and
eternal source of your existence.
The way to success, peace
and power lies in this direction.
..
145
Freedom is of the Atman within. Freedom relating to
external conditions is no freedom. Realize that you are the
immortal, ever free and all blissful Truth. The best way to
utilize your spare time is to repeat constantly the divine
Name. Learn to surrender to the supreme Being, and be
ever contented.
.
By surrender to Him, one ought to realize Him as
one’s own Self and Being and behold Him everywhere in
the universe.
..
147
The more you tune your thought with the almighty
Divine dwelling within you, the more of self-control, purity
and peace you will attain.
......
154
When you have once taken complete refuge in God,
you ought to give up all doubts and worries.
You have to
think that whatever way He decides the course of events in
your life, it is always for good.
Worldly honour and disgrace
have no bearing on His decisions.
We should bravely face
the criticism of the people in the world and learn to remain
unaffected by their remarks.
You must freely and
unreservedly put yourself in His hands. When we take
whatever comes to us, either praise or blame, as the doings
of the Lord, and feel that He means always well, we can be
happy always.
He can never come to our rescue if we do
not give up worrying and restlessness.
Self-surrender
means a mind bathed in peace and calmness, attained
through a complete submission to the divine will.
.......
The mind should be entirely devoted to the
contemplation of the indwelling Divinity,
so that it may
gradually be drawn inward,
until at last it merges in the real
everlasting and all blissful Reality that is at the basis of all
manifestation.
163
Do not think that by resigning your post and going to
any place — be it Anandashram or any other — you will be
able to control the mind.
Everything depends on the
intensity of your hunger for the realization of God.
168
In all cases of failure and disappointment, keep your
mind ever at a high level of exultation, by adopting a spirit
of complete surrender to the will of God. By Satsang and
meditation, you can bravely withstand the attacks of
worries and cares.
It is no doubt a trying time. But it will
pass away. Such days of stress and overwork shall not last
long. God will grant you a life of peace and quietude. But
now is the time when you should stand the test, and cling
firmly to the feet of the Lord with all faith. Don’t give in.
Cultivate forbearance, strength and resignation — and you
will triumph over the apparently irksome and untoward
situations.
......
182
Intense Vairagya is a necessary
condition to realize the supremacy of Grace.
,,
186
Everything is really the manifestation of God. But you
have to realize this truth. Merely saying so does not enable
you to look upon everything as He. Experience is necessary.
For gaining experience Sadhana is necessary.
187
If you feel conscious that Divine grace or Guru’s grace
is with you, that instant your mind will become perfectly
pure and luminous. This requires faith and nothing but
faith. Grace is ever showering on you. You have only to be
conscious of it.
....
When you surrender yourself to God, He will look after
you in every way
......................end,,.....................................
