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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.
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From gita:
“Abandoning all duties come to Me alone for shelter, sorrow not, I will liberate Thee from all sins.”
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Through complete self-surrender,
the mind becomes still,
the ego-sense disappears,
and the soul merges into the infinite silence of the Spirit.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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By surrender to Him, one ought to realize Him as one’s own Self and Being and behold Him everywhere in the universe.
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The more you tune your thought with the almighty Divine dwelling within you, the more of self-control, purity and peace you will attain.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Intense Vairagya is a necessary condition to realize the supremacy of Grace.
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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.
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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.
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When you surrender yourself to God, He will look after you in every way
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