What I want to share from my experiences is that love conquers everything.It is my hope that it will inspire the readers to open their hearts to the Divine. If we can try to understand that we all are equally part of the Divine and are here to achieve this greater Truth and to realise our Self - if we make this our goal and do everything with Love…then everything will be lovely and you will always be happy.

Love



Sri Swami Vishwananda











Tuesday, August 28, 2012

When you pursue God-Realisation or Self-Realisation – no matter what comes, you have to be strong....



Let light shine from deep within your heart to everybody. Often people say “But Swamiji, we would always love to have this Divine Light shining through, but it’s so difficult. Am I right? No? You see if you want it to be easy, you will do everything and anything possible to make it easy. It doesn’t matter how hard it is, you will do it. But if you make yourself weak by saying “difficult”, this word, which is so very easily used – it is a barrier and we create this barrier – we make it difficult and then we say “Oops, it’s difficult.” It’s the same when you say something is easy. What happens inside of you? You build up this confidence. You put this self- confidence on yourself when you generate this energy inside of you “Yes, I can do it” and you receive the blessing of the Divine to do it also. On the other hand if you already make yourself weak, then God will say “What’s the use of me giving the grace to this person if he can’t handle it? He’s already weak. It’s of no use giving the blessing or the grace to that person.” Actually, we ourselves stop the grace then. How do you think the light will shine? I was telling you the story of Rama. You see, his life was not that easy. He was sent into the forest and of course He encountered many challenges, but his challenges, He faced them. He didn’t make Himself weak. He didn’t run away or go crying. He didn’t say “I renounce my mission. I’m finished with it.” It’s the same thing when you pursue God-Realisation or Self-Realisation – no matter what comes, you have to be strong. Through this determination of being strong, the Divine will give you the energy, but this part its not God who has to do it, but you who have to do it.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Yearning for the Grace of the Divine......


 You have to develop faith, because if you don’t have faith, it’s difficult and faith is this yearning. You have to develop not only faith; you have to transcend faith to yearning. You have to yearn for God. As long as there is no yearning for the Divine, there is always emptiness. Into this emptiness, anything from the outside can fill it. That’s why you have to guard yourself always, otherwise the old one, the old you, will be back. In somebody who lives in the world, you see it very clearly. You see that somebody who lives in the material world, when they don’t have much they complain. They have a little bit, yet they are not happy. They always long for more. This is how the world, the material world functions. It never gives you real happiness, because the more you have, the more you will want to have. So having more, you will still not be happy. This reminds me of a story. There was a man who was passing under a tree and he heard a voice. The voice said “Do you want seven pots of gold?” He looked around, could not find anybody. He said, “OK, let’s try it.” He heard the voice again and the voice said “Go home. Your seven pots of gold are waiting for you.” He reached home very happy and he saw seven pots.  He approached and he looked inside. They were full with gold. Six of them were completely full with gold and the seventh one was only half full. He said “What is that? Why is this one only half full? I have to fill this up.”  What did he do? He took all his savings, changed it into gold and put it in the seventh pot. In spite of doing that, the pot was not full, so he sold all his utensils. He sold all his  furniture. Still the pot was half full. He started working, slaving himself, working very hard night and day to fill the seventh pot. He worked, starving his family. His wife and children were starving, because he tried to fill up the seventh pot with gold. He was getting depressed. He was working at the king’s palace, and one day the king said “What’s your problem?” He said to the king “I would like that you increase my salary. I’m not so happy.” The king said, “Alright, we’ll increase your salary, because you are a good person.” In spite of increasing the salary for a few months, the king saw that he was still unhappy. One day the king called him and said “Tell me, when your salary was low, you were happy, you were content, you were joyful. Now your salary is double, but you look more depressed. You look unhappy. What’s your problem? Have you met the yaksha, the demon of the seven gold pots?” He was shocked that the King could know about that, because he had kept it secret. Then he said “Well, yes.” and the king said, “Well, that’s a big mistake you have made to accept the seven gold pots, because this will never bring happiness, but only sadness and unhappiness. It will bring only misery to your life. Go quickly and return them.” Well he went and returned them. When he returned it, the seventh pot was still only half full. This pot can never be full. You can’t fill it up and it brings misery. When he returned the seventh pot, he lost everything. All his savings, all the money that he had put inside the pot, all was lost, but that’s what humans often do. Life after life, they want to fill the pot of misery. In spite of knowing that this pot will bring their own ruin, they like to play this game, but when you realise that this is bringing misery to you, do you like to play this game, or do you want to change something? You change your life, because you realise that the world we see outside will never bring happiness. Only your spiritual path will bring you this real happiness. On the spiritual path one has to yearn for the Divine. You have not to be superficial, because if you are superficial, you will get only superficial things. When you are sincere from within yourself, you know, with yourself you are sincere and call the Divine, He can’t refuse you. He will run to you.That’s why it is said “Have faith; have faith like a child,” because when the mother says to the child “That’s your sister,” the child, without asking a second question, will believe that. You should believe and have no doubt. That’s what faith makes happen. That’s what this yearning for the Divine makes happen. That’s why it has to grow more and more. It’s not that you ask for something and you don’t get it, so you say “OK, I will change.” Until you are pure at heart, keep trying. Then one will ask the question “How will I know if I am pure at heart?” Well, when you are pure at heart, you will notice the change inside of you. Your attitude, the way you look at things, will be more lovin and calmer, because the old you will have disappeared completely. Keep asking the Divine to give you this Grace and He will.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Let the Divine Love that is inside your heart take control of you......


Yesterday, we were talking about humility and also about the Love of God. Like I said yesterday, many people tell me “Swamiji, it’s very difficult; it’s very difficult to be humble.”    It’s true. Some people told me again today it’s difficult. Actually, all of you want to Realise God and to Realise God one also has to develop the qualities of the Divine. So for God nothing is difficult and everything is possible, but for the human mind, with human limitations, everything is impossible. If you transcend this mind and yourself, everything will be easy. It all depends on how you think of things. If you think it is difficult, it will become difficult. Like I have always said, God is the Creator, but part of this Creator is present inside of us. When we create the barrier and think that it’s difficult, when we become the creator of this big barrier, then it will become difficult. But when we say “Yes, I can transcend everything” we become positive towards ourselves. We develop the qualities and we make it happen. Look, when you want something – let’s say you want to eat something nice – what would you do?  You would do anything to have it. No matter what people think, would you bother about what people think?  No, you just want to have it; you don’t think about what people would think of what you want to eat! Or would you bother about what people think? No, you wouldn’t. If you want to eat something, you will eat it – no matter what! Whatever your neighbour thinks about you, you will not bother about it. So why do you bother about other people, what they think or what they do or how they act? Bother about you! If you develop the qualities, people will learn from you; you will become an example. You are spiritual people, yes? So you have to act in a certain way you have to have the quality of the Divine within you. This quality has to reflect on the outside as well. The quality of the Divine is not to gossip around; the quality of the Divine is not to criticize; the quality of the Divine is not to curse others. No! The quality of God is to Love everybody. No matter what way a child is behaving, a mother always loves the child, no? So if God says “OK my children, you are all very bad, you have acted very badly today. I shall punish all of you” what will happen? Yet, we who call ourselves spiritual, we let these qualities govern us. We forget about our real qualities, the Divine qualities within us. If little by little you get rid of your negativity – firstly, the negativity of the mind – and if the mind is transcended and the mind becomes pure, everything that you do will be pure. There will be no negativity present inside of you. The power of the mind is so great that you will create what you want. That’s why when you read something, instantly you go into the image of that which you are reading. You become identified with that. So what you are reading is very important. If you are reading positive things, you are becoming positive too; you’re creating this positive energy. If we train our mind to be positive at all times, we will create positive things. If we just say “Yes, I want peace in the world. I want to change the world. If little by little you get rid of your negativity – firstly, the negativity of the mind – and if the mind is transcended and the mind becomes pure, everything that you do will be pure. I want to make a big impact on the world,” and when it comes to ourselves, our self is negative, then what in the world do we want to change, when we can’t even change ourselves? If you want to change the world, if you want to have peace in the world, change your mind. When the mind is changed, everything becomes pure. Let me tell you about the power of the mind. You know, a few years ago, some scientists made an experiment about the power of the mind. There was one man who was under a death sentence, so the scientists went to him and said “My dear man, you know very well you will die, so only if you accept, we would like to make a certain experiment with you.” So the man thought for a while and said “Yes, look, I will die anyway, so it doesn’t matter what I do. I will die.” So he agreed. Then the doctors said to him “Listen, before you agree, we will show you how we will kill you.” So they took the man to show him a horse and a snake. The horse was bitten by the snake and the horse started to tremble, to shiver and foam started coming out from his mouth and he died. The man saw that and said “Yeah, well, I will die, whether here like this or in the electric chair, still I will die.”  Maybe it was in Texas, somewhere – probably. So, what happened was, on the day of the sentence, they brought the man to the laboratory. Inside, the man was thinking “Yes, I will be bitten by a snake.” The doctors said to him “We will cover your head.” So they covered the head of the man. The man could not see anything. They took, in place of a snake, a rat. They made the rat bite the man. So what happened?  He died; he died in the same way he saw the horse die. He started to tremble and then the foam started to come out, then he fell down dead. The most amazing thing is, when the doctors analysed his blood, inside of him was no rat venom, but there was the venom of a snake.Such is the power of the mind, that it can change the venom of a rat into the venom of a snake and that it can make the person die in the same way he had seen. So we programme everything the way our mind functions. We can create, also. Like it is said, human beings use only 5% of their brain and the rest is dormant. So imagine if everybody transcended the mind and transformed everything which is negative into Divine wisdom. This can be done only if you become positive.Such is the power of the mind and such is the power that you have to control the mind. But no, we like to listen. Like I always say, I don’t understand one thing about humans, you know, well I am human, also. We like to listen to the mind, we like to suffer and we like to complain. Three good qualities: listening to the mind, enjoying the mind and suffering and complaining – four! You see, God has given the mind to Man for a reason. Of course, each part of the body, each aspect that is inside this body, God has given. He is the master engineer of everything, you know. He is so perfect that He created human beings perfectly. The mind has been given for the right reason and if we use it for the right thing, it will always be constructive. If we use it in a negative way, it will be destructive to ourselves, firstly, and also to others. Each one wants to change, so let’s see. Be positive in your mind and change. Let the Divine Love that is inside your heart take control of you. The more you want this Divine Love, the more the Divine qualities will be present inside of you and the more you will feel the Love of God. You will feel how much He loves you. Look, when a child makes a mistake, of course, the mother will slap the child – a small slap – but the mother’s heart stays the mother’s heart, no matter how many mistakes you make. His heart also stays the same, even if sometimes He has to slap you a little bit. When you sit down with God and talk to Him, you will see. He will say “I slapped you, but my Love inside is stronger for you.” Look, when a mother beats a child, what happens? The mother showers more love afterwards. So no matter what comes along the way, even a small slap, you know, later on His Love will be much more and in more abundance. It’s for your own good!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

When the Spirit of God came upon the Apostles, they were gifted with seven gifts......


When you advance on your spiritual path, you discover that the more you advance towards God-Realisation, the more you develop certain qualities, certain gifts. That’s what it says in the Bible: When the Spirit of God came upon the Apostles, they were gifted with seven gifts. These seven gifts are the seven stages when
you rise up in yourself, when you move from the lower chakra to the crown  chakra. These are the stages through which one rises and receives the Spirit of God. You can see in the lives of saints that some saints are gifted and they are born with the whole of the qualities from their past lives, but some other saints advance stage by stage. This is receiving the Spirit of God. When one starts to advance, the Grace of knowing one´s spiritual path is this gift. Very often we forget what we are here for. We get attached so much in the material world that our true Self gets covered. The light that we have inside of us stops shining. You see it very often on peoples faces that they are so closed up. Everybody is here to look for real happiness. Why are they doing it? It is because they are running towards happiness, towards something that they don’t yet know about. They do things out of  ignorance. They are running away from some things that they don’t want to face, but this is not the way. You have to run, but you have to run from the mind to the heart, not to the outside. Often we run to the outside, trying to find real happiness, we will find happiness, yes, but temporarily, not permanently. You will have happiness just for some time. It’s the same thing when you want something badly and you pray to God all day and night, saying “God, give me this, give me this, give me this!” When you get this thing, you will enjoy it for some time, but what happens then? It will fade. The same level of happiness you had, you don’t get it back. The real happiness is when you can enjoy the Love of God completely, because His Love never fades. The more you love Him, the more you will want to love Him. Such Love one really has to cultivate, you have to love Him and want Him. Bug Him, call Him and as long as He doesn’t give Himself to you, keep harassing Him. Then He will get fed up and just say “Let me give it to him.” If we look at the world as it is nowadays, we can see that even if God came on Earth in front of somebody and said “Hey, I am here”, the person would say “Go away!” A story of Jesus just popped into my mind right now. After thousands of years, Jesus was sitting in Heaven and thinking “Maybe the world has changed. Let me go on Earth and see. Two thousand years ago I was there, but because I said ‘I am the Son of God’, they put me on the Cross and crucified me but, there were no churches at that time. So let me go and see, maybe they will recognise me and welcome me. They will know that I am here for their own good.” Jesus came to Bethlehem where He was born, He saw a church and He was walking towards the church when, at the same time, the mass was finished. People started to come out from the church and they saw a man coming, who was dressed like Jesus. They all started to make fun of Him “Oh, look at this mad man who is dressed like Jesus. What do you think he is?” Jesus was shocked and said “Oh my goodness, I thought that after thousands of years that they have been praying and calling to me they would recognise me, but here I am and they don´t even recognise me.” Jesus went to them and said “Listen, don’t you recognise me?” The people said “Oh, you are just a mad man who is dressed like Jesus.” Jesus answered “Oh, no, no, no, I am Jesus; you were just praying to me in the church!” but they said “No, he is mad.” Jesus said “My goodness, how come they don’t even know me now?” The people finally told Him “You better go away before the clergyman comes.” At the same time the clergyman, the priest was coming and Jesus went to him and said “Hey, I am Jesus!” The clergyman said “You mad man, keep quiet!” He took Jesus by force, brought Him inside and locked him in the Sacristy. Poor Jesus was locked in the Sacristy and He could not understand what was happening. He thought that after two thousand years with many churches around, people praying and Christianity fourishing, they would know Him. But no, poor Him, He was locked inside, so He sat there and waited. At night He saw a light; the clergyman was coming with a lantern and opened the door. When he opened the door, he fell at the feet of Christ and said to Him “Please, Master, forgive me.” Jesus asked “Why?” and he said “You know, I did recognise You when I saw You for the first time in the morning, but You see, the people are not ready to accept You. I locked You in here because You would start talking the Truth and it would be inconvenient for You to speak the Truth. People will never believe You, because they believe in the clergymen now.” So you see, even if God came, but you hadn’t prepared yourself to recognise Him, you would not recognise Him. Know that God will never come in His real aspect, like I just said, He came as Jesus. He will always come in disguise. Like that, I can tell you thousands of stories in the lives of some saints where Christ or the Divine Mother came in different forms to the people. Like that story, there are many stories in each of the saint’s lives. If each one of you became a saint, you would also have nice stories to tell. This is your aim to be, pray to God, tell Him “Yes, I want to become a saint” and ask for help. Ask the Divine Mother, ask God, ask Christ for help. They will help you. They are here all the time to help people to advance, to help all their children, all the brothers and sisters to reawaken the Divine qualities. That’s what they want that you all become, again, saintly. Say “Yes, I want to become a saint” and you will become! As long as you see sainthood far away, if you see that God is far away, you keep God away, but if you feel Him near to you and say to your mind “Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me,” and clear this mind by chanting the name of God. Clear it by thinking positively, firstly about yourself and also about others around you. Like that, you will see that your heart will open up and this unconditional Love will also grow more and more. It’s like a river when it comes out from the source: it’s always small, but the more it advances towards the sea, what happens to it? It becomes larger and larger because on the way many rivers have joined together. On your spiritual path more and more streams of grace will join coming towards you and you will grow and grow. This is what you have to do – advance. Stop limiting yourself. Start saying “No” to your mind and make it positive.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Let your life itself reflect who you really are......




It gives me great pleasure to be among all of you, and especially to share this Divine Love with all of you. As you all may know, the ultimate goal of life is to realise the Self. The soul, the Divine, whatever name you want to call it, is your own Self. In this daily life, with our daily occupations, the mind becomes very busy. We read lots of books, and talk about spiritual things.
There are many ways of attaining Divine love. There are many ways of attaining this unity, this realisation of who we really are. Each person has their own way, but all paths are the same. At the end you will experience the same love, the same happiness. For sure, some ways are longer and some are shorter. Some people like taking a short way, and some people like taking a long way. Do you like the long way or the short way? Of course the shorter way is better (laughs)… The quickest way is just to love.
This word ‘love’ hides a lot of mystery, hides a lot of secrets given to mankind. This expression of Divine love, pure consciousness, is who you really are. So many times we forget about it. We try to be separate from it. We have to continuously remind ourselves that we are this love. No matter what comes on the way, remember that we are this love. We are here to give and to share this love… to realise it. So how do we realise this love? We meet someone and say to the person, “I love you”. Don’t we? How many times in your life have you said to somebody else, “I love you”? Many times. But have you ever said it to your own self? “I love myself!” When it comes to loving one’s own self, people say, “It is difficult.” It’s difficult because you see all the negative qualities of your outer self, forgetting that this true Self, who you really are, is just pure love. So to give love, 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!
When you say, “I don’t love this person…” I don’t love means… you love this person, but in a different way. The mind of man can’t think ‘no’. In words we can say ‘no’, but our mind thinks in pictures, and in pictures, ‘no’ doesn’t exist. It is only how we talk about it on the outside.
So let go of the power of the mind that makes yourself feel separate from the Divine, and be one with it. There are different practices to help with this. You can sing the name of God. Recite any mantra. Sing the name of Jesus, sing the name of Rama, Krishna, or Allah, it is all equal. All are His names. Become one with this Divine name. That’s what the word mantra really means: to merge and become one. Let your life itself reflect who you really are. So, sing with me:
(Everyone starts singing “Om Namo Narayanaya”)
Isn’t it beautiful to sing the name of God? It’s very easy. It’s so easy to merge with God. It’s so easy to realise His Divine love. Just take one name and recite it continuously. Make the power of the mind combine with the power of the mantra. Let the mantra take over the mind. Let yourself become the mantra. What is in this name, Narayana, or Jesus, has the capacity to give peace to the mind. It’s very simple. Wherever you are, keep singing, keep reciting. It’s not limited. Wherever you are, even if you are travelling, you are on the toilet, you are taking a shower… recite the name of God. If you are cooking, you will have better food. Become this mantra. And let your heart open. And let this love which is inside of you being reflected on the outside. You will become this Divine instrument. Let everybody who is next to you feel this love so that they will also want it.
They will ask, “Where does this love come from?” Some of them will say to you, “You look different. You reflect something different.” You will answer, “It’s just the love of God.” It’s simple. But you see, sometimes when God gives simple things to man, man is not really happy with it. Man likes to complicate things. The more you complicate it, the more man enjoys it. And the more man complains about it. So, try to be as simple as possible. You will grow closer to yourself, closer to God and closer to the Divinity. Jai Gurudev!


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

“Guruji, I offer to you as Dakshina my pride and ego.”




Once there was a man, who went to a Rishi, to a  Sadhu, and wanted to get knowledge. He wanted to study under the Guru and he did. After some years, he succeeded in his study, and as you know, in the Hindu culture when you study under the Guru, at the end of your study you have to give a Dakshina. Dakshina is normally whatever you feel close to. So when he went in front of his Guru, he said “Guruji, I don’t know what to give you as Dakshina. You tell me.” The Guru said “My dear child, I want that you give me the most worthless thing.” As the Guru said that, he bent down to pick up some earth, some soil and as he was doing that he heard a voice. Mother Earth said to him “You fool, you consider me worthless? Look around you. You walk on me, all this greenery, all these beautiful flowers, everything comes from me. How can you consider me worthless?” Then he started thinking “Yes, it’s not worthless.” He put it down and as he was walking he saw a stone. He said “A stone – who cares about a stone?” He was going to pick up the stone, when the stone started talking to him and said “You consider me worthless? I tell you, all these big, big buildings that you see around, they are all built from me. The statues, the Deities, are made from me and then you pray to those Deities, so how can I be worthless?” He thought for a while and said “Yes it’s true.” Then he started thinking “If the soil that we don’t think too much about is not worthless, and if the stone itself is not worthless, what could be more worthless than my ego? That’s the most worthless thing.” He went to his Guru and bowed down to his Guru and said “Guruji, I offer to you as Dakshina my pride and ego.” You always learn new things. Even from the smallest detail, you always learn.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Thought is very easy to control......


.....You don’t need to sit down to control it. When the thought is passing through your mind, you know about the thought. You know whether it is positive or negative. So if it is positive, it will be constructive – feed it, then let it grow! But when it is negative, try not to feed it. Then you say to yourself, “This is not me.” And let go of it. When you let go of the thought, you will see how beautiful your own life is, and how great this life is that God has given us. Also in your meditation will be easier. For the powerful thoughts are the positivism in human beings. Through thoughts, whatever you wish for yourself, whatever you think about, you will receive it. Thought is the willpower of man. It’s the way that you use to realise the Divine. All spirituality starts here – in the mind. Then it reaches the heart. You use thought to open the heart. And to this thought of the heart – you may want to call it the voice of God – you will learn to listen to it without any doubts. When-ever you will sit in meditation, you will feel that deep bliss, and the consciousness that you are Divine will always be with you. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, you will have the consciousness that the Divine is with you. So there are different ways of controlling thought. I told you to stop it the moment you know it is negative. The next is to sing the name of God, to keep reciting it. God has taken a lot of forms, and in each form there is the energy for man to transcend from mere human to Divine. So as long you have not mastered the mind, you use namasmarana. Sing the name of God wherever you are. And when you sing, don’t close your eyes, leave them open. You see, when you close your eyes, you start thinking and you say, “Oh, I’m singing the name of God.” Yes, but the thinking is still here. Still the mind is jumping like a monkey. Leave them open. If you don’t want to focus on a form, concentrate on a white wall. Focus on it! There are also different asanas to control the thought. One which is well used is the tree asana, where you stand on one leg. The other one lifts up completely to the maximum, with your hand upright and focusing also on a picture or on the white wall. This helps a lot to control the mind. You will see by doing this, you will experience how imbalanced the human being is sometimes. When the thought is pure, one will reflect also this purity. Wherever you are, this love will always flow. And people will see – I think I said it last time – you reflect Divinity. Not with the egoistic way, but with the love. So there will be no misery if you reflect the light of God. See, our own mind is responsible for all the misery that you see outside. If the mind, the thoughts you have are pure, there will not be such misery. In this world humans think that they are just human and they enjoy being human. Very often they forget that behind this human form there is also Divinity. And to reach this, they should not have fear. It is your true nature... what you really are. You just need to want it sincerely. Want it sincerely for your own self! Then from inside to outside it’ll reflect.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

It is nice when you join together and sing the name of God......


If we remove the body, who are you? The soul, isn’t it? We are the soul with a stain on it. The stain is in the mind. However, by singing the name of God – any aspect, Krishna, Jesus, Allah – one begins to remove this stains. But it has to be sung with devotion and love. It is nice when you join together and sing the name of God. It creates a vibration, an urge to merge with God. That’s why it is very important, wherever you are, find a few people and sing. If you don’t know how to sing, just recite His names. While you are reciting, picture the form in your mind. Keep concentrating on the form and let yourself go. Let yourself merge into the Divine energy. And enjoy it! Remove all the darkness and barriers from the mind – just jump in. This is bhakti!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

At every moment wherever you are, just be the light.....



Remove all the pressure from your shoulders and travel inwardly. Use your mind to imagine, see your heart, your physical heart. It’s a beautiful organ which is pumping the blood in all the parts of your body. Look at it how beautiful it is! You know this. Deep in this organ, there is the greatest thing that has been given to humans! With each beat of the heart it is saying, “Let me out!” The Divine is calling from deep within you, “Let me out!” But you are the one with the key. Open up this heart, make this heart of flesh become the Heart of light, a light that the mind can’t comprehend, a light without any form, a light without any colour, the complete beautiful and most majestic light, even brighter than the sun. Then see the light...who you really are. Once you see it, once you have it – don’t let go of it. Keep it always and radiate this light. At every moment wherever you are, just be the light. Through this light healing will happen; through this light pain will be healed; through this light realisation will be achieved.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Swami Vishwananda about Love

Swami Vishwananda says: "When you meditate, what do you want to attain? Self-realisation or God-realisation. But what is this God-realisation? What, or who, is God? Doesn’t it say in the Bible “God is Love?” Christ said it. If God is Love, He is always present here in the heart. There is not a single moment when He is not present. Yet, we want to comprehend the Divine with our mind."

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Look at the flowers........


“Look at the flowers. Look how beautiful they are. Look at them. They are living and acting now, without any hope for the future or any regret for the past. They are living and acting in the present moment, and finally they are giving their fragrance, without any motive, without any expectation – freely. They are living their lives fully. You understand what is behind it? Nature is doing its work, and humans can learn so much from nature – even from a rose. The rose is not expecting anything, but what do humans do? Instead of putting their lives into right action, they are wasting time, expecting always and bringing misery on themselves. And then what do they say? “Oh God! Why do you send misery to me? I have always done well to you. I remember you always.” But on the other hand they are always expecting. In this game that they are playing, they forget about their true nature. They forget about why they are here. And they like it, you know. They like to say, “Oh, I’m the poor one!” They don’t say, “I am the Divine, I am the creator of everything.” They like hanging around for the future, for what is to come in the future or what has been done in the past, they keep bringing it up all the time. Do you think this will bring happiness to humankind? No! Only misery. Even when they sit for meditation people expect to see some light, to see God in front of them. But I tell you, even this is an expectation and with this expectation in the mind, you will never see the light. You will never see the Divine. Only when you let yourself say, “God, I have tried everything. Now I abandon myself with all my expectations, completely, to you.” Then you’ll see the light. The light will reveal itself to you, because the light is yourself. However, the mind always covers it with perishable things, thinking this is the reality. So, abandon yourself completely – body, mind and soul. Just let go of it! Let go of this small egoism that says “I am this, I am that.” What is this ‘I’? Have you known this ‘I’? Have you realised this ‘I’? – No! As long as you have not realised this ‘I’, you can’t move forward. Why give much importance to something that you don’t know? What is so great about this egoistic ‘I’? Thinking this is the whole? It’s not. That’s what the cross stands for. Cut the ‘I’, and let only the Divine act. So when this egoistic ‘I’ disappears, what remains? The ‘I’ still stays, but this ‘I’ is a universal ‘I’, the ‘I’ without any identity of oneself. The ‘I’ which is equal in each one of you. And this is the ‘I’ that Jesus spoke of: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the light.” It is the ‘I’ of the consciousness, the ‘I’ of the Christ consciousness that leads mankind. Yes, each one of you. This consciousness is in each one of you. It’s waiting to become active. It’s very good that you come for darshan, very good that you sit for meditation. But you should not only do it now, you have to do it always! By receiving the blessing – prana hooti, it’s called – you are receiving and activating the light within you. That’s what I can do for you; the rest is up to you. I can take the food, crush it to puree and put it in your mouth, but I can’t swallow it for you. I will be happy to do it for you, you know? But this part is up to each one of you. Your question will be, “We keep trying, yet nothing happens?” But what I said before, remember that – I said if you try with an expectation, it can never happen. You have to empty your mind completely. The thought will pass by, let it pass – don’t feed it. You are not the mind, you are not the thought; you are more than that. You are the child of God. You are part of the Divine creation. So make this your achievement. Make this your goal in life. Wherever you are, remind yourself of this goal.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Krishna´s birth is just a manifesting of Himself.....


Krishna´s birth is just a manifesting of Himself. He was ever present and He is ever present. When we say that somebody is born, it means that there is also death, an end, but He who, is without beginning and without end, He can’t be born. He is just a manifestation of Himself – the Appearance that the Lord chose for Himself to manifest. You all know the story of Krishna, how He was born, so I will not tell the whole story again. He says in the Gita about His plan to manifest Himself: “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham” which means that whenever there is a decline, whenever there will be anything terrible happening in the world, He will manifest Himself. Of course, the Lord always manifests Himself, but in the minds of the people, they want a big manifestation, a bang, but He is everywhere. So Mahavishnu, Narayana, took this form to help Mother Earth, because Mother Earth appealed to Narayana, saying to Him: Help me. I am suffering so much. The demon Kansa is terrorising and hurting me. (Actually, it’s not hurting directly Her, but the people.) The Lord answered to Her: Yes, I will manifest Myself. I will come. Then He chose the right time and manifested Himself into the womb of Devaki. He was born in a prison. The mother and father were locked there, because an Akashvani, a celestial announcement, had said to Kansa that the eighth child of Devaki would kill him. Of course, everybody is scared of death. Even Kansa, who was a great and knowledgeable devotee of Shiva, was scared of death, because death was unknown to him. This is because whenever we look at death, we look at our limited self. Kansa was so scared that he wanted to protect himself. He didn’t want to be killed. He didn’t want to face his own death. So it so happened that there were Devaki and Vasudeva. They were in love and they got married. And on their marriage day, Kansa, who was the brother of Devaki, was happily bringing his newly married sister and brother back to his place. He said: You are my favourite sister, you know, I have to bring you to my place. But, as they were going, they heard a voice from the sky that said: Kansa, you fool, what are you doing? Don’t you know that the eighth son of your sister will kill you? Again, here you see the number 8. People who do numerology know very well how important is the number eight: it’s the number without beginning or end. So now the Akashvani had said to him that the eighth child of his sister would kill him, and, of course, that enraged him. At that moment he wanted to kill his sister, because he thought “no sister, no death”. But Vasudeva stopped him and said: How can you kill a woman? All the people will say that you are just a coward. Of course Kansa, who was very proud of himself, didn’t want that, so he said: Okay, I will imprison them. Then Vasudeva answered to him: Yes, OK, imprison us and every time, when she gets a child, I myself will bring that child to you, then you can do whatever you want with that child. So Kansa imprisoned them. He imprisoned, also, his father, because the father was, also, against him. Then he invited all his demons friends to come and rejoice with him that he had become a king. Every year a new child was born and every time Vasudeva brought the child to Kansa who, without any mercy, would kill the child, but the seventh child of Devaki disappeared. When Devaki was pregnant with the seventh child, the child miraculously disappeared from her womb and appeared in Rohini’s womb. So, in the night Rohini was sleeping, and the next day she found herself pregnant. It’s scary, isn´t it? Matajis, what would happen if you would wake up tomorrow pregnant? So, the same way, Rohini was shocked, but she accepted it. She was old, but she got pregnant, so it should be considered as something miraculous. So she accepted the will of God. Then they told to the King that Devaki and Vasudeva had lost their child. And the King, Kansa, was so happy, saying “Look, the child was not even born yet, but he was so frightened of me that she lost it.” He didn´t know, of course, that the Shakti was transferred to Rohini. Then a few months passed and Devaki got pregnant again. Here you have to see that it’s not in the same way that you all are thinking, when I say that Devaki got pregnant. It was not in the way how normal people got pregnant. You see, after she lost her seventh child, Kansa tied Devaki to one part of the room and Vasudeva to the other side of the room and thought that, in that way, the eighth child would not be born and so could not kill him. Kansa was thinking, in the same way, that Devaki, his sister, would get pregnant in the normal way, not knowing that it was the Lord Himself that would manifest Himself. But even when Devaki and Vasudeva were tied to the different corners of their jail room, Devaki became again pregnant with the eighth child. And the night when the child was born, at the very moment the child was born, the prison room was filled with so much light. And when the child was born, Devaki and Vasudeva saw the true form of Sri Krishna, which is Mahavishnu, with Shanka, Chakra, and Gadha, standing in front of them. Then Mahavishnu said to Vasudeva: Take the child and bring him to the other side of the river, where there is Yashoda who is expecting and, when you get there, exchange the babies. There is another baby, a girl, there. You should take her and bring that baby here. And you should leave this baby, your child, there. The chains were unlocked and all the guards, who were guarding them, had fallen miraculously asleep. When Mahavishnu was in front of them, they could remember all of their past lives; they could remember everything. Why Mahavishnu and they were there and why the Lord would have to manifest Himself through them, now, was because, in one of their past incarnations, Devaki and Vasudeva had been a king and a queen, who had wanted so much to have God as their child. They had done penance for thousands of years, Mahavishnu was really pleased with them and had promised to them: Whenever I will incarnate myself next time, it will be through you. Because of the Maya Shakti, they had forgotten about everything, but now, in this moment when they were in front of Mahavishnu, they could remember everything and who they had been. So Vasudeva did according to what Mahavishnu said: he took the baby, put Him in a basket and carried Him from the prison. All the guards of the jail had miraculously fallen asleep and there was nobody stopping them. Vasudeva entered the water of the Yamuna carrying the baby and, as he was going deeper and deeper into the Yamuna River, Yamuna wanted so much just to touch the feet of the Lord. And the moment the feet of the baby Krishna touched the water of Yamuna, she became very calm. It was raining so much that Sheshnag, the serpent god, even came behind to cover baby Krishna. Vasudeva crossed over to the other side of the river with Him. Then he saw Yashoda and Nanda, her husband, sleeping and that they had just got the baby girl. Yashoda had just given birth to a baby girl, but she didn´t even know that – such is the manifestation of His Maya. So Vasudeva quickly exchanged the babies. He took the baby girl with him and left baby Krishna there, as Mahavishnu had asked him to do. Then he crossed over the river to the other side and everything became normal again. The next day, when they all woke up in the prison, the guards heard the cry of the baby and they rushed to the King and told him “Kansa, your sister has got again a baby.” Kansa rushed quickly down to the prison and opened the door and said “Give me the baby.” At that moment Devaki answered to him “No, my brother. It was said that my eighth son would kill you, but I didn’t get a son, I got a daughter.” Hearing this, Kansa calmed down. Then he started to think “Why did the voice say that it would be the eighth child? But this is a girl, how could a girl kill me?” Then his mind started to reason a bit and he said to himself “What if this is Vishnu Maya? What if it is Vishnu Himself in that form?” With that resolution in mind, he took the baby and said “Yes, I will kill this baby. He took her and he was going to throw her on the wall, the same way like he had done with the other babies, but at that moment, the baby flew up and changed Her form to the form of Durga, Maha Shakti. Then She laughed at Kansa saying “You fool you want to kill me? You can’t. The One who will kill you is born already. Count your days!” So Kansa was really, really scared at that moment. Then he rushed back to his sister and said to her “What have you done? Tell me.” But, of course, Devaki and Vasudeva could not remember anything, because Mahavishnu had covered them again in Maya, so that they wouldn´t remember anything what had happened during that night. Vasudeva had even forgotten that he had taken the baby Krishna to the other side of Yamuna and exchanged Him with Yashoda´s and Nanda´s daughter. And now they heard that when Kansa had wanted to kill that baby girl, she had flown up and taken the form of Maha Shakti and warned Kansa. Of course, Kansa was not that stupid: He knew that if Maha Devi had said that the Lord had already manifested Himself and that he has to count his days, he would have to try everything possible to find and kill the baby. From that day on Kansa started his great killing. He killed all the children who were born around that time. He sent demons all around to terrorize the people who were praying, so that they would stop praying. And his demons were very successful everywhere where he would send them. There was only one place, Gokul, that only when he sent a demon to Gokul, the demon would not come back. He got killed there. Then Kansa started to think “Why in all other places where I have sent the demons, they were very successful, but only in this one place the demon got killed and didn´t come back?” Like that he understood that the Lord had to be in that place – in Gokul. When Nanda and Yashoda woke up and saw the baby Krishna, it was a great surprise for them, because they were both very fair skinned, but when they looked at their child they saw that He was so dark. But they were so happy that they had a son. And this child was so special that whoever would look at Him would automatically fall in love with Him, because He was the personification of Love. So, of course, they wanted to make a big party for the occasion. They were so joyful and everybody came to Yashoda and praised her, saying “How blessed you are, Yashoda, that even in your age,” because she was well-advanced in age, “you could bear a child! This is surely the will of God. And, look at the child: He is just so charming, so loving that nobody can go away from that child”. So Kansa had sent many demons, one by one, to kill the baby. The first demon that he sent was Putana. I will say how blessed is Putana, because even if she was a demon, she took the appearance of a mother. So she took the appearance of a girl who would roam around singing. Wherever she would go, she would feed every baby that she found with her breast filled with poison. Of course all the children then died. So finally she arrived to the place where the baby Krishna was. She could enter the house because Yashoda didn’t stop anybody of coming to her house. So everybody could come in and go out as they wanted. So Putana, also, came in. She was looking for the right moment to feed the child and then she took the baby and went to one corner with Him and started the breastfeeding. But this child was different: all the other children had died, but this one kept drinking and drinking all the poison out of her. He was even taking all the life from her. Blessed was she, you know. We can say that Putana was very lucky to feed the Lord. This was because in one of her lives she had been a yogini. She had done so much tapas, so much penance. She had, also, done penance to become the mother of God, of Narayana, but because of her karma she could not. But He is so merciful that He said “It doesn’t matter. Your wish will be fulfilled, also.” So this time she took birth as a demon and, of course, when Krishna was there, He drank from her. But He drank everything, the whole surrender, the whole life itself. This is how He is, you know. And this is how Putana was: she was fully surrendered. Like that many other demons came, one after the other, trying to kill Krishna, but they were all very unsuccessful. At the age of sixteen, Krishna went to Mathura and, there, Kansa got killed and you know the rest of the story of Krishna. Seeing the beauty of the Lord, we ask ourselves how did all the people in His lifetime feel when they saw Him? What did they feel? What did the Gopis feel? How was it for the people of Vrindavan to be near Him? We have read several stories about that. We read how beautiful He was, how great He was, but yet we ask ourselves ”But why not now? Why, when we pray so much, nothing happens?” You, also, would like to feel and experience this Love. You, also, would like to be so much in love with Him, but yet you find it very difficult, don´t you? Why? If we look at ourselves and we look at the people in Vrindavan, there, whatever they would do throughout the day, Krishna was the main important thing in their lives. Their minds were so much into Him. Whatever they would do, wherever they were, it was just for Krishna. They would cook for their own family, but it was for Krishna. They would wash their clothes and, in their minds, it was for Krishna. Everything was for Him. They were so much surrendered, that every breath of them was Krishna. If every breath of them was the Lord Himself, of course, the Lord was present inside of them at all times.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Old habits catch up from time to time.....


 When you chant the Divine Name, you have to fully have the vision inside of you. You have to have the Divine Image inside of your mind. Then you are chanting the Divine Name. Then He will manifest Himself.   If you are chanting doing something else, you know, “I’m doing this whatever, yet I am chanting the Divine
Name”, it doesn’t help. So even if you can’t do it, just try. It doesn’t mean much to try, no? It’s easy to try something, no?  It’s true that old habits catch up from time to time  but old habits do change with time. There are always new habits. So you see, even with the old habits, whenever there is something to change, one
will always change. It’s like when you drive, you always go to work on the same road, no? But when there is a diversion, what do you do? Do you carry on going through the same road? You go for the diversion, no? So in the same way, old habits change. So to try something, it is easy actually, but you have to say to yourself “I want to change certain things.” This is the first step. If you don’t take the first step, well, it will not come to you. And this first step, you must take and when you take it, take it with a strong determination that no matter what, you will achieve it through God’s Grace, knowing that He is with you. If you are doing something to please Him, He will help you. And I’m telling you, the Divine Mother is such a good help for that. Don’t miss a chance and even if you can’t, just ask Him for help or ask Her. She will come to help you because this is Her joy to see Her children awake, you know. Even in the simple things you do, She will come and help you. So just try.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

What do you think we can ask from God?




What do you think we can ask from God? If He said what He wants from you, would you be able to give it?
Actually, let’s ask Him one thing – to purify our thoughts, help us to go beyond the thoughts and help us to go beyond the mind. That’s it. When you have gone beyond it, it will be very easy. To go beyond it is the most difficult part where everybody gets stuck, because the mind is very active. We see it every day in whatever we do, our thoughts are always in front of us. At the beginning, when you were always with the Divine, how was your thought? It was always focused on God. There was not a second when it was diverted to limited things, like a Mercedes, but nowadays, how many people’s thoughts and minds are on God – only a few. If you consider the amount of people living on Earth, how many people do you suppose are thinking of God – very few, a handful. The rest are thinking how they will get a Mercedes, how they will get this and how they will get that. They will even pray “God, get me this.” As the Mataji said, God also says “Yes? What can I do for you?” We must be prepared to make only the appropriate request. It is through prayer, through japam, through meditation, that we learn to control our thoughts, but the best of all is through silence. Pray, chant your  mantra and silence yourself. Feel the mantra inside of you. When you chant the name of God, don’t just say, Narayana or Durga or Babaji. It’s not just the name. They are not simple names, you know? These names create a vibration and even when you are not aware, it’s still vibrating. The main thing is you have to be aware of that vibration inside of you. You have to feel that each part of your body is vibrating these Divine Names. You can really feel it and really know it only when you are in silence. Silence doesn’t mean that you have to stop your work and say “I sit in silence and that’s it – finished!” No, silence means that whatever you are doing, you stay calm and you control the tongue. The body is made of 206 bones and they say that wherever there are bones, we can control them, but the tongue is not made of bones, so we have to learn to control it. If this tongue can chant the Divine Names all the time, you will be able to control it. When you have controlled the tongue, you will be able to control your mind. When you express your thought, if it is Divine you will see the positivity, you will see the result of it. If it is negative, you will also see the result. Then you will ask yourself “Why am I not advancing? Why am I not seeing and feeling the Divine?” - though He is here with you. Ask yourself “Am I calm? Am I quiet? Am I in silence?” or “Am I in pride and wanting to express it?” Watch your thoughts, always, and be in silence. This is the first basis of spirituality. You can go anywhere and all the religions will tell you the same thing. All will give you a mantra, whether it is the name of Allah, the name of Jesus Christ or the name of Rama, and they will say “Go, chant and make yourself calm.” If you want a better meditation, if you want to advance, control your thoughts and be in silence as much as possible.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Say “God, it’s You”, and continuously talk to Him....


Transcend this pride and say “God, it’s You”, and continuously talk to Him. Whether you have an answer, whether you hear from Him or not, it doesn’t matter. Deep inside know that He’s listening. From time to time He will give you a hint. From time to time, He will give you a sign in the outside that he’s listening. Rejoice in this sign; look at this sign and say “Yes, He’s with me.” But, don’t let pride rise inside of you. If you are spiritual, on the spiritual path, and you want to realise God, let go of pride. Pride will attack everybody: whether a saint or not. Pride will be there, but the saint knows how to have pride under control, you know. I always give an example of the huge elephant roaming in the market place. If the mahout doesn’t control the elephant with his feet and the stick, what will happen? The elephant will take everything from left to right; he will break everything on his path. And such is this huge pride that if we let this pride control us, it will take left and right, left and right. Then, there’s no control. So when you have control over it and say “God is the Master”, Love will generate. Love will grow. And you will see that there is love that you always say with pride and then Love which will be a different kind of love that you will experience: Unconditional Love. This is the same way the Divine loves, you know? This Love you will experience, because you are part of the Divine. The Divine is seated in each one of you. So, if He can love like that, you also can love the same way.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda.....






Humans are hanging onto the outside and not much onto the inside, because you don’t know about the inside. You know only what is in the outside, what you can see and what you can touch. From these two things, you think you will be happy, but you have one thing, which is not seen, and that is your Atma. You can talk about the Atma, you can say “Yes, we have the spirit inside of us, you know, we have the soul inside of us”, but how many really know about the Atma? Whenever you talk about death, people get scared. They don’t want to mention death. Well, you were born and you will die. This is not something that you will escape. You will have to go through that, but you, not your body, but your True Self is permanent. So, in realising the Atma, letting the Atma reveal itself to you, you will have the greatest joy, actually. You will always be happy. Even when problems come, you will be happy, because you will have attained the purpose of life, of lives! You will have attained the purpose not only of one life, but of lives. So, try your best to do your sadhana. Try your best to remember God in whatever you do, even if you don’t consider it as seva, but in whatever action you do in life, try to think of God. If you have five minutes during the day, try to sit down quietly. For these five minutes forget about husband, wife, children, everybody. When you sit in your prayer room, just sit - you and God. If you don’t have five minutes, then even two minutes are fine.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Whatever we do, wherever we are, our mind is always working, analyzing everything on the outside....but the mind has to be completely focused on the way to the heart....


Very often in our life, we have great confusion in our mind and in our heart. It is difficult to choose between the mind and the heart. Sometimes we feel something, then we try to listen to our mind, and we do not do what we feel. What happens? We suffer! Why do we suffer? Most of the suffering is because of our own critical thinking towards our own self. Aren’t all of us part of God, with the critical mind in it? God created the mind and the heart. So beautiful! He put everything perfectly into the human body. The mind is not here to make us a slave. It is here to enable us to analyze whatever we need to do in our daily life. Whatever we do, wherever we are, our mind is always working, analyzing everything on the outside. The mind has to be completely focused on the way to the heart. Then one will find the way to love. In our heart there are great sources full of love, waiting to be given to the outside, waiting to reveal itself. For this love to reveal itself – you should really want it. If you want something, you do everything for it, don’t you? If you love somebody, you may write hundreds of letters to this person to express your love. You don’t lose hope. Why then lose hope on this journey towards one’s own Self? It is like losing hope in the middle of the way. It doesn’t mean you have gone backwards, it just means you stopped. The love is still there, still waiting and knocking at the door and saying, “Let me out!” But you have got the key for this door, and it’s up to you to open it. If you want to love, love without expecting anything, pull the door open. The moment you start to expect something, you stop the door from opening. Then there is another factor that is coming in the way. The moment you start losing hope you will start suffering. You start to see everything as being negative. Then you forget your way. You forget the love that God has for you, the love that you have deep inside you. This is one thing that one should not forget: You are made in the image of God. In this way, you have to go back, back to this image, back to this complete love. First, start your spiritual way with this, to find this love. Then the rest will be revealed to you. The rest will come to you. We chant the holy names of God, Krishna, Narayana, Jesus, Allah and Babaji. All these names help us to open up more, open up our heart to love. Love cannot be only for oneself. You start it with yourself, you realise it, you know about it and let it expand and give it. This source is non-perishable. The more you give, the more you will feel that it is flowing, and the more you will want to give. The more you try to close it, the more you will make your own self unhappy. Then this unhappiness has to go somewhere – that is how many illnesses are created, because one does not want to open up. The more your heart is open, the more you are happy. The more you see life in a different way, the more the illness will keep away from you and the more all of the worries around you will cease. God loves us, but we should also start loving. Whatever comes on your way, remind yourself of His love; remind yourself through His manifestation around you, through the manifestation of this body. God has created humankind and placed Himself in each person equally. It does not mean that I am superior to you all, because I’m sitting here in a big chair. In your mind, it may seem like that, but in the Divine all is one. We form part of one body. Open up your heart and see the light that is inside you. This love you have, it’s everywhere, in all of you. This mind can’t stop it. Feel God’s love all the time – you may not succeed right now, but keep trying! You know, in India there are yogis who have been meditating for hundreds of years. That does not mean they don’t know this kind of love. They do know about it and they are enjoying it. This love of God that they are enjoying, you can enjoy it in the same way. Just want it! The main thing is that you have to lose yourself in this love. Lose the identity that you have attached to your body. Remind yourself that you are just the spirit, just part of God. Certainly you will realise it through practice and discipline. Not many people like this word, ‘discipline’. It seems so. Discipline is not something which should scare you, but you should be disciplined with yourself. Because when you start enjoying the love of God within you, it is you who will enjoy it – it’s nobody else first. So it is the same with the discipline, you have to be disciplined yourself. You have to really want it! All right?



Wednesday, August 1, 2012

There should not be any time wasted......




All your searching towards the outside is of no use, because at the end you realise that He’s always with you, deep in your heart. God is always with you. It’s like with the ocean where you have lots of precious gems. To get them, you have to dive into the ocean and go deep inside. So, God lies deep in the heart of man. With your mind you have to dive, dive deep within your heart, because everywhere are the waves of illusion. To achieve this Divine state you have to really love God. You have to start, firstly, to love yourself. You love everybody. Every day you say to somebody “I love you,” but how many times do you say to yourself “I love you?” It’s easy to love others, but some say that it is difficult to love one’s self. But I will say, “No, it’s not difficult.” See, when you love others, you see the goodness in others, but when the point comes to love yourself, you see all your negativity. Stop looking at the negative. It’s only through being positive that it can stop. It’s only when you start looking at this positivity and start thinking about yourself positively that you will dive deep inside this ocean. Then your heart will open up. Know one thing, when you become a lover, the Beloved is always with you - all the time. But you have to become the lover. You have to be madly in love with God the same way you are madly in love with your partner, for some time - for some time, because it usually doesn’t last long. You have to consider how Love is. Even in a normal relationship, you forget about everything when you are in love. All goes well. Then, after some time, it becomes such a routine. Then you get fed up. But the real Love, which you have inside your heart, you will never get fed up with, because that’s what you are made of; that is what your body, each cell of your body is made of. You just need to realise it and say to yourself, “I am part of God and I’m made in the image of God and I’m with Him, He’s with me.” When you realise this Oneness, you become this Oneness. I’m telling you, it’s not difficult. If you practice your meditation, sincerely, every day, you will achieve it. If you love sincerely, you will achieve it. If you serve sincerely, you will achieve it. But it’s upon to you to do it. The sincerity with yourself will be the sincerity that you will give to the outside. You have to become an instrument of God and you have to become an instrument of this Love. You have to become a jivan mukti, a Realised, Enlightened soul, right now. There should not be any time wasted. Spirituality is simplicity.