Let’s analyse how the human body is.....

The Shastras say that the human body is made of the five elements, the  Pancha Tattva. If you look at these five elements, they are constantly at war with each other.

They can’t be in peace with each other. Can water be in peace with fire? No, it can’t be! That’s why in the human body there is so much imbalance. Even if you see somebody appearing perfect on the outside, there’s no such thing as perfection like that. There is always something going wrong in

the body. Imagine if all the five elements would start fighting with each other, what would happen? It would be terrible, catastrophic. This is within you, not outside! That is what is happening in people.Actually, the human being, in the ladder of creation, is at the top. It’s true, because only by attaining a human body, a human life, you can really attain the Creator

and become One with the Creator. Nowadays when you analyse the people, when you look at people walking

around, you see them walking, yet they are not present in their body. The elements are so much at war inside of them that they are somewhere else. What keeps these elements in balance in us is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God within one’s Self. How would you energise this Spirit? If the Spirit leaves you, you fall dead. You lose everything. Here, when you are alive, you say “This is mine, that is mine; it’s my possession.” Imagine if the Spirit leaves you; what will happen? What is yours? What is mine? Nothing stays. The Gita says  “ You come with nothing and you will leave with nothing.” All that you take, you will leave here. We have incarnated for a reason. We have a human body for a reason, but we will not find this reason until we turn this body into pure Love and devotion. This is where your sadhana comes in. When you develop this pure Love and devotion, then you will really know the meaning of this human body; then you will really enjoy being in this body; then you will know the purpose of being here. Otherwise, you will go left-right, left-right, left-right, left-right  and when the boat sinks, having no boatman, you will sink. Then you have to wait for another life. So don’t waste time, because the time you waste is gone and once it’s gone, don’t think you will have it again. You are living in the right time, the best time of all.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a Story today....

In the life of Krishna, when the Pandavas were in the forest in exile,

there was a sage, a rishi. He came to the house of Draupadi and the

five Pandavas and said to them “I want to eat something, but first

we will go and take our bath. Then, when we come, we would like

to have lunch at your place.” The Pandavas didn’t have anything in

their house. The only solution for Draupadi was to turn to Krishna.

So she closed her eyes and called Krishna.

At that moment Krishna came and said “My dear sister, what do

you have to offer me to eat? I am so hungry.” Draupadi looked at

Krishna and said “I don’t have anything, my Lord. I don’t have

anything to give you.” Then Krishna said “Are you sure you don’t

have anything? Show me the pot.” Draupadi showed the pot to

Krishna. There was just one grain of rice at the bottom of the

pot and Krishna took it and ate it. As He ate it He said “Oh my

stomach is full.” What happened? When the rishi fnished bathing

in the Ganges, his stomach was completely full. So he didn’t go to

Draupadi. For Masters, to give Realisation is easy for them, but you

have to be ready.

The body, the mind and the soul, each one has to be an instrument of God....

The mind, which is a big weapon, pride and so on, many other things keep people in delusion.

All Scriptures have said that Man is made according to the image of God. So, if Man is the image of God, Man is part of God. We have just to realise this Divinity within ourselves.  Jesus said “I and my Father are one.” First He claimed Himself to be the son of Man,

purely human. Then he said “Who has seen the Son has seen the Father.” One who has seen and realised that one is the child of God will come to the stage of realising that one is part of God. During these different stages, one firstly has to be really, really sure that

one wants God, wants Realisation. So  Satchitananda – Existence, Consciousness and Bliss – this is

your true Self. The body can`t exist without consciousness. If God didn’t give consciousness to mankind, mankind would not feel joy, without experiencing Bliss. Even if you have forgotten it, these three can’t exist separately. In direct language, the body, the mind and the soul, each one has to be an instrument of God and to reach that stage there are different ways.

“If you want to attain me, surrender yourself to your Guru and you will attain me.”

 When we say we want to do God’s Will, we have really to do His Will, not our will. To know how the Will of God is, this will be the question, you know? When you pray there is always a feeling that awakens. If you are praying sincerely, and you are sincerely chanting the Name of God, there is this great longing and the great peace and calm that awakens. When this awakens inside of you, there is also the inner voice that

will start awakening. When you hear this inner voice, it is even greater than what you have in the mind, because even if you want to do what your mind wants you to do, this one will be greater. You will know that. Your heart will pull you towards that voice.When you chant the Name of God, it’s not just mere chanting

when you recite the sweet Name. It’s not just chanting it like that, but what it creates inside of you, what it awakens inside of you, because you see, it is said that the Name of God, and God, are one. There is no difference between the Name of God and God. So when you chant the Name, He is next to you.

It is said that when you chant, first your Guru has to be in your mind. From the Master, the Lord will show Himself. So always,when you chant, always place the Master first. In that way, it will be like what Sri Krishna said in the Gita, “If you want to attain me, surrender yourself to your Guru and you will attain me.”

It brings me great joy to see this surrender, you know...

Yesterday, during darshan, I was holding a little baby. It was so sweet to look at how the child was. She

came to me, she had the candy, and the moment she turned to the mother and looked at the mother,

she didn’t even want the candy, you know. She wanted to go to the mother. It brings me great joy to see this surrender, you know. Then I said to the people: Imagine if the whole world would be like that, if they saw the Reality. If they knew about God and they knew the illusion, you know, they would let go of the illusion and

run towards God-Realisation. It was really great. The child didn’t bother about the sweet, or the chocolate, nothing! No toys even mattered to the child, because the mother was the most important. That’s why whenever we do things, it comes to a point where we lose this satisfaction, because whatever we do on the outside, which is just material-centred, has a limit and it is finished after some time. When we do something with our heart, the simple things that we do will give us joy. So, be always simple and loving.

Realisation is not something outside that you can pick up from a tree....

When you chant God’s Name, you awaken this feeling of love. You awaken the Divine inside of you. Of course, it will not happen in one day because your mind has to be purified completely. Your trust has to build little by little. Your strength has to become more and more, then the Lord will shine through you.

Realisation is not something outside that you can pick up from a tree and say “OK, fine, I have it.” No, it is inside of you. When you have cleansed the outside, actually, your True Self reveals itself to the mind. When it reveals itself to the mind, this is when the dissolution happens – the dissolution of your identity, the dissolution of the mind itself. That’s why we talk of the merging of the mind and the heart and the spirit together. Then there is no you and me. There is only Him that dwells everywhere. He is the same Lord which dwells in everything around. The essence of the Lord is present everywhere. If one sees it, if one realises it, one’s life will change completely. For that you have to sincerely want it because that Love, it’s not just the kind of Love that says “I love you”. It’s a Love that consumes you. It’s a Love that burns your identity, that burns everything. Are you ready for that?

“Blessed is the one who believes without seeing”

Whenever you pray and you expect, saying, “Ok, I will pray to the Lord now. Probably He’s happy with me and He will come to me.” But He is happy with you, you know, whether you see Him or whether you don’t see Him. Whether you see Him or not, He is there! The moment you close your eyes and call for the Lord in any of His forms, He is there and He hears each prayer. Whether you see Him or not, He is there. This reminds me of what Christ said, “Blessed is the one who believes without seeing”.

He hears everything and, above all, He knows when to give you what you’re praying for and when you are ready. When you will be able to handle it, He will give it to you.

You become as you were before.....let you and God merge together, and become one.

There are different ways of attaining God, and one way is bhakti – devotion! You can have devotion to the Guru, or any form of the Divine. Devotion has no limits. When you open up your heart and let it flow, do you think this kind of love has limits? Love from the heart doesn’t have any limits, but the love here in the head has lots of limits.

As long as we limit love, as long as we keep on saying love has to be like this, or like that, do you think we will attain Divine love? We can’t. I can keep on talking about love, because I know what love is; I have experienced it. All of you know a little about love, but to truly understand it, one must experience it. And to experience it, one must let go of egoism. Egoism is the ‘I’ that keeps you away from realising yourself. Remove the ‘I’. Let you and God merge together, and become one. Like sugar, it gets mixed with water and becomes one. In the same way, let yourself merge together and disappear in the love of God. There will be no egoism that separates man from being Divine; because only Divinity exists. Only the universal consciousness exists. But, when we experience separation, we see the duality of things. We experience love, hate, jealousy, and all these things.

By being the consciousness, being completely Divine, all these things disappear – you become as you were before. And that is for everybody, it is not only for me. It’s not only for a few people who are around me; it’s for all of you. It’s accessible to everybody. If people really take time, just drop inside – everything is there.

Chant the name of God and be in love with God....

On your spiritual way; there are lots of things that you have to get rid of before achieving complete oneness with the Divine. That doesn’t mean that God is far away from you. He is here all the time, and He is waiting, telling you, “wake up and make yourself realised”, because you were born with this realisation! It’s just that all this dirt from the mind is limiting the Self. Cross over this, chant the name of God and be in love with God, because He is the only one that can really love you unconditionally, He is the only one who really gives to you without expecting something in return. Try to achieve this Love and to become this Love. Try to realise how much love you have inside of you and then spread it. Love can’t be kept. Like that you become an instrument of the Divine and He reflects through you, He acts through you. And then you realise what your mission is.

“The value of a stone is known only to somebody who knows about gems”

Prayer: that’s what transforms somebody. Through prayer, people find solace; some to attain the lotus feet of the Lord, some to achieve whatever they desire in life. But the main thing is to pray: that’s what transform you, what gives you this inner glow, so that you can call yourself spiritual. People, humans are always on a search. They are always searching for something. Some people search for it in the outside world. Some people search for it in the inside world. But, only few really know the importance of prayer. In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas said “The value of a stone is known only to somebody who knows about gems”. Then they can value how precious the stone is. The same thing: if somebody knows the glory of prayer, the glory of chanting the Divine Names, they know the value of it.

Before I said: prayer distinguishes one from other people outside; it distinguishes why you call yourself spiritual and why the other person is not so spiritual, because there is spirituality everywhere in different ways. In spirituality you reflect the glow. And the more you chant the Divine Name, the more you start to reflect the quality of the Divine, the qualities of love, compassion, joy, happiness, calmness. You start to reflect all these qualities, which the Divine has, through prayer, through the chanting of this Divine Name. So you start to become alike the Divine. And you don’t need to say this joy to somebody, you don’t need to express to somebody that you are happy. This joy that you will be having inside of you, it will reflect itself.

The same when you take the life of Saints. Take the life of Mirabai, Bhakta Prahlad, any Saints who have attained the Divine, they glow this light of the Divine. They glow, they reflect the Love of the Divine through them. They don’t need to talk about God, but they just need to be around. Same with all of you: the more you chant the Divine Names, the more the Divine will start to reflect on you. Then you can call yourself spiritual, because when you become spiritual, all the negative quality is removed from you, all the negative karma that you have created through many lives before, it get removed. And what takes place is this joy – the joy of serving, the joy of really being here, the joy of trying to attain the Lord, you know. And this joy starts to appear with you the more you attune yourself to the Divine. But you have to do the first step, because the Divine is already there. He’s waiting for you.

Prayer, can turn all your life into gold. It can turn all your negativity into purity.

It’s so easy, isn’t it?

There is a saying – approach Him with love, reach Him in that love, meet Him in love, embrace Him with love and merge with Him and become Eternal Love! I find it so beautiful.

So we start our journey to approach the Divine. Our first step is searching for Him. This is when in our life we feel the need to pray. Prayer is this essence of realising that there is something greater – whether you call it God, Light, Spirit… The search starts with prayer, and prayer makes the link, prayer makes the first step to this union.

Then one will reach the next step by meeting and reaching that love. By prayer the heart opens up, firstly towards the outside, then towards the inside. We meet Him in love. Through the reciting and singing of God’s names, like you are doing, you reach the point where love is, where everybody is sharing one goal: the achievement of that love.

Then there comes the point of meeting Him in love. This is happening in meditation, when you sit down and have the connection with your true Self. You meet the love within yourself and start this discussion, start this communication with the Self, about knowing who you really are. In this meeting we embrace that love, we become one with it and realise it more and more.

You grow more and more each day. And with this Divine love you will realise that there is no difference between the love that you knew at the beginning and now. And with this love there is no difference between you, me – anybody. But this Eternal Love, this Eternal Light resides in everything.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today.....

Why do you think in all religions they say to chant the name of God, to recite the name of God? Even here, you just go outside reciting rosary everywhere. And for what? It is not just a beautiful thing to wear on you. No, you use it right now to chant the name of the Lord, so that you realise the unity between the Atma and the Paramatman. When you realise this unity between the Atma and the Paramatman, what will stay? Only the Paramatman will stay because the only reality of the Atma is the Paramatman. The only reality of the soul is God. Your soul wants to merge with and become One with God. It wants to attain His lotus feet. The one who has realised this, will join. Just in the simple name ‘Ram’, it can be granted.

Put yourself in the place of God. How would you see the world?

Let’s think a little bit. Put yourself in the place of God. How would you see the world?

The human mind likes to judge a lot of things. We say that God is punishing people. God is doing this and God is doing that. However, it is not like that. It’s our own self. It’s we who see and say these things. But the Divine doesn’t see it like we do. When you rise to such a level of consciousness you don’t see any good or bad. Everything becomes neutral for you because the Divine resides everywhere.

So try to practice it every day. Imagine yourself as God! Watch whether you really see the negativity or if you see everything as God, as your own Self. If you practice this every day, I tell you the time will come where there will be no difference. You will feel the peace of God everywhere. Wherever you go, with whoever you are talking to, there will be this peace, this love. That is what you all are looking for.

So look at the world with a perfect mind. Look at it in a mind that doesn’t judge anything and doesn’t see anything good or bad. See everything as God, see everything as the Divine. And let this love flow everywhere. It’s simple, isn’t it?

If we just drop ourselves deep in our heart, we can feel this peace and happiness and enjoy it...

First you should realise love with your own self. Start loving yourself. Not in an egoistic way – some people think loving oneself is very egoistic, but to love the Self is not to love the body. Loving oneself is transcending the physical aspect. Through love you will develop trust and patience. If you have these three: love, trust and patience, you have everything else.

There are many lifetimes that you keep on with the same game. And you repeat and repeat the same thing, forgetting that the Lord is here deep inside our heart. We are looking for Him on the outside. We are looking for Him in this world, but we can just drop deep inside ourselves and find Him. Let go of the mind which is always busy looking on the outside. If we just drop ourselves deep in our heart, we can feel this peace and happiness and enjoy it. You will see how great it is, how great it is to love. Not just to say to somebody, “I love you”. But really to feel it from deep within you – this is the true love of loving somebody. It is not only for one person but for everybody. Love unconditionally!

Why did I say disciple and I didn’t say devotee?

Krishna said in the Gita “I clothed Myself in this human form and then the ignorant think I am just human, because they just see the outside”. Who will understand, who can understand a Satguru? No one! So, when the disciple is ready, the Satguru manifests Himself and He comes. The Satguru comes to the disciple. And the Satguru comes not to take anything, because the Guru already realised the Oneness with the Divine, you know. So what does the Satguru need in this world? Nothing! He comes to give, always to give, even if it seems that He takes, actually: what you are taking is just that what He is giving. He gives in three forms. First, he gives as Sankalpa, which is through thought. Second, he gives as Drishti, which is through vision, sight. Third, he gives through Sparsha, which is touch. Through these three forms the Guru gives.Why did I say disciple and I didn’t say devotee? Because, after you have passed through all this purification you become a bhakta, you become a true disciple. You don’t stay only as a devotee, but you become a disciple. A disciple is the one who has received the grace of the Master. And the grace of the Master is the same as the Grace of God within. And this grace is like a teacher. Let’s say you grafted a small plant with another. You take two roses, two different kinds of roses, and you graft them together. But, when you water, you water only the main one, no? So the teacher is the main plant. Whatever passes through the teacher, which is grafted to the teacher, will receive everything. That is why I said yesterday you become the pot of Amrit, also. You don’t just stay as you are, but you attain the fulfilment of the goal of life. This is how the Grace of the Divine manifests Itself into the Guru.

The Guru gives Himself fully to his disciple. He gives Himself fully to the devotee. What the devotee has to do is to be like an empty receptable and receive everything.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda...

Sit with Him inside of your Self...this temple, which is inside of your heart, this temple which is inside of you, this is the real temple. And it will not move; it is there. Look for Him inside of you; you will find Him.

If you write the name of God inside your heart, what will happen?

What happens when you clap your hands? You know on your hands there are lots of meridians. All these meridians are connected to certain inner organs, such as the heart, the liver, the kidneys. So, while clapping you are sending certain energy there. So, if one of these organs has an energy block, it helps release it, so that this inner organ may function in a better way. That’s why when you’re happy you are always clapping the hands. Why when you are happy do you clap the hands? Because it generates, also, happiness and joy. Everybody wants to be happy and everybody wants to be joyful, but there are two kinds of happiness and two kinds of joy. There is a certain joy that lasts only for a short while, a short-term happiness. But, are you looking for that or you are looking for a longer happiness or a longer joyfulness? So, while chanting, when singing, you are expressing yourself, also, by certain movement, which creates this inner joy and this inner joy is connected with love. So, simple joy: you can find it everywhere. Even on the corner of the street you will find it, because simple joys are just the limitation of things you find in the world. So the easier you get it, the easier you lose it. Whereas, the eternal joy is within you and you have to dig deeper inside of you. You have to unite your mind with your heart to find this eternal joy, to receive the grace of this eternal joy. And, the easiest way to find it is to sing, sing the name of God, you know, because while singing the name of God you’re happy and this happiness will awaken this Love. We can talk about Love, but as long as you don’t experience it or you don’t feel it, it’s difficult to understand. And, if you really want to feel it, it’s easy to feel it. You have to quiet this mind and awaken your heart and, when your heart is awakened, Love will flow. And, in Love there is no difference, you know. It crosses all the barriers of difference. That’s how God loves and how human beings have to love, but very often it’s very difficult. We try our best to love like that, but it’s quite difficult, because there are so many things on the outside that disturb the mind, so many things that stop one loving. But, one has not to lose hope, one has to keep trying and trying. And while you chant the Divine Names, this awakens this Love and makes you, also, strong. That means that when you sing the name of God, you are calling, you’re asking Him to awaken within you, you are asking Him to come to you and to reveal Himself to you. The more you do that the more he will reveal Himself as this Love. The more you long for Him, the more you will love to do your sadhana, the more your mind will be controlled. And, when your mind is controlled, when you have peace of mind, you will be peaceful. You will be peace in your body and you will bring peace this peace to your surroundings. You will be an instrument of this Divine Love. But, as this first step, you have to not only be contemplating in the outside, but you must contemplate within yourself and find God.

If you write the name of God inside your heart, what will happen? You will also float, but you will float in Divine Love, you will float in Divine Ecstasy, Divine Joy.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about........

Whenever we sing Radhe Shyam, of course we have in our mind the image of Radha and Krishna, but who are these Radha and Krishna? Krishna is Pure Love and Radha is Bhakti and one cannot exist without the other. That’s why we always see them together and we always mention their names together: Radhe Shyam, which means prema bhakti - love and devotion. If this True Love, if this true devotion arises inside of you, it will lead you to Self-Realisation. We have to put in our mind what is our aim. Life is like entering into a boat, which will guide you on the Ocean of Samsara. The boatman is the Satguru, but into which boat do you want to enter? You have to know the destination where the boat will lead you, don’t just enter any boat, without knowing its destination! Let devotion arise: it will lead you on your spiritual path. Let Pure Love guide you. When you Realise the Purity of Love, there will be no difference in your mind. The mind will see the Lord everywhere.

In the depth of this love you’ll be one with the Divine.....

Look at Mirabai, one of the devotees of Krishna. Do you know her story? Some of you might know it, and some of you don’t. She was a queen, and her love for Krishna was so great, it was beyond everything. When she got married, she said to her husband, “My love for Krishna is beyond all your love, that you can understand. I see Him in you and in all of you who are around.” Whenever she used to sing Krishna’s name or sing a bhajan, he was present there. Such was her love that the Divine manifested Himself there.

Whenever you call from deep within your heart, whenever you call any aspect of the Divine, the Divine will take that aspect and come to you. Mirabai’s love was so great that at the end of her life they blamed her for so many things – but she was fixed and steady on her Krishna.

There was a lot of jealousy around her. But this is normal. You see, when you have a power point, all the souls around want the same thing. But to get it, they don’t want to do anything. They just want to sit and be given it on a silver plate. You will receive it on a silver plate, yes, but first you have to make the effort. Otherwise the Divine will give you the silver plate, but your hand will be like this… it will fall down!

That’s why I’m talking about opening the heart of man, opening your heart to love. Because you can love, you can love beyond what your mind is thinking about love. In the depth of this love you’ll be one with the Divine. Beyond all the duality that the mind creates is only the Self, and that’s what each one is here for. And no matter which path you are following, at the end, each path will reach that point.

All paths are right but you have to be disciplined in them. When I say disciplined I don’t mean forcing or pressing. This is spirituality. Something that has to emerge from the heart of man, is like a flower that opens without any force. Let it open, and let it shine with beauty.

If somebody comes and tells you, “Oh, you are not spiritual, or you are like that...” don’t ever believe them, because spirituality is not visible to any human eyes. You can be religious on the outside and this is visible to everybody. Many people are religious outside just to escape something, but spirituality is within you. And only you and God know it. You know how much you open your heart; you know how much you love. It’s not upon me or anybody else to tell you that. I can tell you, just open up your heart and love. It’s up to you to do it – without any fear and without any doubt that your heart is open.

A true friend is ready to sacrifice everything......

Christ said: A true friend is ready to sacrifice everything. And, actually, Love is that sacrifice. If you truly love, you will sacrifice everything. Until you have come to the point of really feeling this kind of Love inside of you – and you have to be ready – all the other kinds of love will have expectations. Very often what we call Love, it is just passion or desire. Today we love that person, tomorrow we love another person, but in one year you don’t even remember who these people were. Real Love is to be found deep inside of you, personally. It’s not in someone else, it’s inside of you. It’s your true nature. This is who you are in Reality. The Divine is not far away. He is inside of you. You just need to calm your mind and introvert yourself. So see how much you are truthful towards yourself and how much you really, sincerely want the Divine. True love is everlasting giving, not expectation. We do our sadhana, we do our spiritual practices, only to attain this Love, so that it may become unconditional. For the sake of Unconditional Love, we realise the Unity with the Divine. Then we can say that we are really in Love. As long as it’s here in the mind it is very difficult. Christ said: Love Thy God, with all Thy mind and Spirit. The mind has to be fully on the Divine. The mind has to transcend the limitations and transform itself. Our true Self is in constant Unity. He is each one of us. And that’s true Love. The ancient Greeks said to know Thyself, and you will know everything else. It’s true. Once you know yourself through your practices, you will know everything, because everything is linked together and Love is that which links everything. Life is very precious, you know. Life is actually the most precious thing that one has. So, don’t waste it. Don’t waste time. God has called you to the spiritual path and it’s for a reason. Take full advantage of this life and Realise your Self.

“Lord, do whatever you want with me, whenever you want with me, and however you want with me”.

“Lord, do whatever you want with me, whenever you want with me, and however you want with me”. And in your mind don´t ask any questions. This is a poison, because the mind always doubts. The mind always thinks it knows best. And when you surrender this mind to the Divine, bhakti will arise, devotion will arise. And when devotion arises, the purity of Love will also arise together with it. It´s not a love where we just say “I love you, I love you”. It´s a Love where when we say “I love you”, there is no condition in it. It is not “I love you because of something. I love you because of your body. I love you because of your wealth. I love you because you are beautiful outside and if I pull the skin from your body, I don´t love you anymore”. But it’s because when you say “I love you” you love Him the way He is. And that´s the purity of Love, the Unconditional Love, the way God loves, the way your heart knows how to love. That´s why you do feel Love, but the moment you start to put conditions to that Love, it fades. But when you stick to this purity of Love, and make this Love grow, it will grow. Because Love is like a seed, which is inside the heart of man: the seed has to grow, has to blossom, also. It has to germinate and grow big; the seed can´t just stay like that. That´s what Christ said, also. There are so many similarities between Hinduism and Christianity. Christ said: If you plant a seed on a stone, it will never grow. But if you plant it in the heart of man it shall grow.” And this is the Love in the heart of man, when real Love is felt, when real Love starts to grow. It grows in six different stages, which are called: Sneha Prem, Pranaya Prem, Mana Prem, Raga Prem, Anuraga Prem, and Maha Bhav. These stages of Love - of course, I will now not go to detail about it - grow when this purity is there, which leads you to complete surrender to the Divine. But first, what is in regard to normal life, is to calm the mind and let Love itself start to grow inside of the heart. Only through this Love will you know who you are. And this is not up to me to tell you, it’s up to you to make the first step.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a story .....

Once, in a town there was a shoemaker. He would make his shoes while chanting God’s name all the time. Whenever he would go to sell the shoes in the town, in the market, he was very sincere. He would tell the people, “Look, I bought the leather for 1€ by God’s Grace. I bought the nails for a few cents and I made a profit of 2 € on it and altogether it cost 5 €, by God’s Grace”. So, he was so sincere. In everything that he was doing, his mind was centred on God and he was accepting everything as God’s Grace. So the people saw this innocence and this love that he had for God and without any bargaining, they would buy the shoes. So it happened one day that, during the night, while he was sitting in his courtyard and he could not sleep, some robbers came and took him with them - they just kidnapped him. And after kidnapping him, they went to another house to rob it. When the owner of the house heard noises, the thieves left the man in the middle, with all the jewellery that they had stolen and they ran away. When the owner saw this innocent man with lots of things from his house, he said, “It’s impossible,” but as he saw that the man had all the jewellery with him, he doubted and he said, “Let me call the police”. He called the police, the police put the man - the shoemaker - in prison and the next day he was brought in front of the judge. And in front of the judge he said, “By the Grace of God, yesterday night I could not sleep. By the Grace of God I went outside of the house and, while I was sitting there, by the Grace of God some robbers came and kidnapped me. And, by the Grace of God, this man found me. And, by the Grace of God, he thought that I came to steal in his house. And, by the Grace of God, I am here”. But, seeing the innocence also, the judge said, “This man is not the one who has stolen. He has spoken the truth”. While coming out of the court, the shoemaker said to his friend, “It is by the Grace of God that I came out”. This shows that, very often, when we do things, we take everything for granted. We forget that behind all our actions, behind all that is happening, there is God’s Grace. And if we start seeing it in this way, we will be very happy. We will find peace in everything.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today.....

Spirituality is humility, is respect and is Love above all. We all Love. All Religions, all paths and all Masters say to Love and that’s spirituality. It is so simple.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda...

When you sing the Name of God, close your eyes and let yourself be drawn into it. When you sing the name of Krishna, just see Krishna in front of you. When you sing the name of Devi, see Shakti in front of you. When you sing the name of Jesus, see Him in front of you. By focusing your mind on the Divine, when placing the holy image in your mind, you conquer the mind. You conquer the agitation of the mind and, when it’s focused, the Satguru inside your heart will guide you. So, when you sing, close your eyes and visualise.