We create the illusion of being free......

We forget that if the mind could fathom God, we would not be slaves of the mind. But yet, we let ourselves be ruled by this mind. We don’t have it under control. We are never free, but yet we create the illusion of being free. We think about ourselves being the best. But yet, how will we find God? How will we find the Lotus Feet of the Lord, if we are so filled with this pride inside? Only with humbleness will one find Him, but not in the mind. You say to yourself, “Yes, I’m humble, I’m humble,” but it has to be here, within yourself, inside of you. When you think to yourself, “Yes, everybody is greater than me” you can learn things. There are so many things that you can learn. But, how many like to learn? Not so many. It is said that in this world there are four kinds of people: the one who is attached to the world, the one who is looking for freedom, the one who is ever free and the one who is liberated–well, actually, liberated, then ever free. These four kinds of people make this world, and where is each one situated in it? Are we trying to be liberated? Are we liberated? We can’t be ever free, because the ever free is only the Lord Himself. And, of course, whenever He manifests Himself, He’s ever free. He’s not bound by any law of karma, like people are, but yet, you see how humble He is: for Prahlad he killed Hiranyakashipu. The Lord manifested Himself into a form here, in this level, to show the greatness of devotion, how important the devotion of His bhakta is. The Lord limits Himself for his devotee. So, the Lord is ever free to take whatever form, wherever He wills it, but yet we fight. We say, “Ours is the best; yours is not,” forgetting that He’s the Lord. He has created everything and He’s not bound in the way people are bound with the mind. There’s this beautiful story that shows these four categories of humans. When a fisherman throws his net in the sea, the ever free will never get caught in the net. The fisherman can try as much as possible, but they are too wise for that. When the net of Maya is cast, the rest of them, the other three, get caught in it - the one who is attached, the one who is liberated and the one who is on the way to liberation. The one who is searching for liberation is like a fish caught in the net. The ones who are trying their best to be liberated see the net and they try their best to jump out of the net, but yet, they don’t succeed. They try and try and try and they can’t. But the liberated ones, they will jump out of the net, and then they will go! And the fisherman says, “Look at this big fish, he’s going away.” And the ones who are caught in the net are like the fish that don’t even try their best to come out. They don’t do anything. They think that, “Yes, I will be saved; let me go down deep in the mud and hide myself” but yet, forgetting that the net is caught in the mud. They will go and hide, forgetting that when the fisherman pulls the net, they will be also caught. They will come out inside the net. So, such are they who are caught in the world outside, who don’t even try their best to realise why they are here. They don’t even try and do something. They don’t even want to think about it, because they think, “Life is beautiful; let’s enjoy it!” Enjoy for how long-ten years, twenty years? They’re getting old; time is running on! And we don’t realise that, you know. We don’t realise that one day there will come a time where we will look at life and say, “What have I done?” We have danced in the routine all the time, every day. We have danced in the routine, which has made us a slave to this world. The merciful Lord has given a chance to change, but yet, we have not taken it. Then when you look at life behind you, you realise what a waste of life, what a waste of time has been. Then you will say to yourself, probably among you -you have even said it already, “Oh, I should have changed that time.” You realise that there were times for you to change, but you didn’t take the opportunity. Then you fall into the category of the fish that has been caught in the net, and when the fisherman pulls it out, you say, “Oops! Too late!” But it’s never too late. When you have practiced to surrender to God, when you have the Grace, take the chance and change! It’s not up to me to tell you to change, but it’s up to you to tell yourself to change. When you try, of course, it’s not in one go you will get the Divine. Of course, for some it’s easy, because of the past karmas. They can try and very quickly they receive the result. But for some, it takes time, but one should not lose hope. When the Divine sees that you are trying, He will send help. If you accept the help, He will lead you to liberation, but it’s up to you. This is the freedom that He gives to mankind. We choose the way we want.

“Swamiji you always say to pray to God, always, but I’m working on the outside. How will I attain the Divine?” ....

A few days ago, somebody asked me “Swamiji you always say to pray to God, always, but I’m working  on the outside. How will I attain the Divine?” I think many of you ask this question. The answer is simple. There is one sentence in the Gita about doing one’s duty. One can’t neglect one’s duty. In the Gita it said that the dharma, one has to do. No matter what, dharma is very important, but how one has to do it, that is the most important thing. There is one form of doing one’s duty, which is nishkama karma, which means to do one’s duty without expecting anything, to do one’s duty in rendering service to others without even thinking of the result. That is what the Gita said “Whatever one does, if one is attached to the fruit of the action, one will suffer.” It’s true, because when we expect certain things, when we do certain things, there is always certain expectation and when the expectation is not met, what happens? You get sad, no? You feel upset. Where does this come from? You created it. You make yourself sad.So when one does one’s duty without even expecting something that means that the mind is already surrendering to the Divine. In another way, the mind, when it has the sattvic quality, the mind doesn’t have any power into it. This is where whatever one does is a complete surrender to the Divine, but whereas when one gets a little mixture of rajasic quality with   sattvic quality, then one, always, says “I will do good to the world.” In that state we’ll see that the I is very big. Whenever the mind pictures the I, it doesn’t mean the I of the Self; it means, always, the I of the ego “I can do this; I can do that.” As long as you have not Realised your Self, the I of the ego is always big. That’s why it is said in the Scripture: Remove this I. Put Him, you know, the Lord, because as long as one has not realised anything, one has to remind oneself continuously that All is Him.Even what you perceive that you are doing yourself, actually, it is Him which is acting through you. That’s why the great Sages, when they have realised themselves, they always praise the Lord by saying “Lord, I am the vehicle, but you are the one who  is driving it. I am the chariot, but you are the charioteer. I am the wick of the lamp, but you are the light. I am the house, but you are the dweller of that house.” So in that state one has fully transcended the human nature seeing only the Divine working in everything. In that state, one sees the world in a different angle, not the same as with the egoistic mind point of view. Often people come, they say “Oh, Swamiji, I have seen this vision and that vision.” No, no, because people always want to think that they are special in whatever they do. Very often, without judgment, you see them very proudly “Oh, I have seen that. I have seen this.”, but what is that if it is not just pride? Because when one comes face to face with the Divine and really experiences something from the Divine, one doesn’t talk about it. One treasures it as the most precious treasure inside one’s heart.   In that state, the mere mention of the Divine Name will make one cry out of joy knowing that this experience that one has received from the Divine,  is real. And this is all due to the nishkama karma. Wherever your dharma is, wherever God has put you, no matter what kind of work he has lead you to, there’s a reason for that. Whenever you do your duty, it doesn’t matter where you are, it doesn’t matter what you do if you do it with a mind surrendered to the Divine, if you do it with your heart completely full of Love, even there God will come to you.

Very often spiritual people think they are humble...actually, they have the humility of the spiritual pride....

In the bad times you have nobody, because even your good friends don’t want to partake in your suffering. But in the good times they will all sit with you and gather around you, singing and dancing joyfully. We all know that very well, don´t we? Well, this is life, life where each one is very egoistic, thinking only of oneself. Even if they are among a teacher, they don’t know the glory of it, they don’t know the blessing of it. And then afterwards they will say “Oh, how great it was!” When people will afterwards read in the books of those times, they will say “Oh, how great it was: they were among this teacher”. But it is like this, in everyday life. We see it everywhere: when people are near a Teacher, they always judge the Teacher. Actually they are not judging the Teacher: they are judging their own Self. Because what you see, the Teacher, is a mirror of yourself, so that you can learn something. But if you are stupid enough, you will never learn it because even if a Teacher can give you the lesson a hundred times, the stupidity in your mind can blind you completely. Such were the wonders that Christ did, so many, but yet the disciples were all blinded with pride and fear, to the point to deny Him, to the point to betray Him. But even when they came to collect Christ, He didn’t react. He knew that the Will of God is the most important thing. He surrendered to the Will of God. The Master surrendered to the Will of God and did what God told Him to do. Even if it was death, He accepted it happily, and he said “As I, the Shepherd, am being led for the sacrifice, the sheep will be scattered”. Already then He predicted it, but indirectly. He already said everything to them, but they were so blind to themselves, that they couldn’t hear it. Know one thing: a Master will not say directly “You are stupid. You, stupid man, do it like this, like this, like this.” Well, sometimes they will do it like that, but very often they give only hints. If you are clever enough, you will get it. If you are not clever enough, you will not get it. Like that, Christ had given many hints to the disciples. He had said to them so many times that the Son of men would be betrayed and would be lead to the crucifixion, but yet they didn’t understand anything. In the Gospel we see also the beauty of Christ, how He humbled Himself down. He humbled Himself by washing the feet of the disciples, and when Peter wanted to say “No, Lord, I don’t want that you wash my feet”, the Christ said “Well, if I don’t do that, you will not have your place with me in Heaven”. Then Peter said “Ok, wash my head and wash my hands, also”. Then Christ said “But there is no need for that, because when you wash your feet, you wash the whole body”. This is a very symbolic thing, because in the Hindu tradition the feet are considered the most blessed of all. That’s why, whenever you go to a temple, whenever you bow down to the Deity, to the Master, what do you do? You bow down and touch the feet, because the feet are the source of all the powers that the Master has. That’s why, just by touching the feet of the Master, one receives the blessing and also shows reverence and humility. Christ said “What I have done up to you, you all have to do it. You all have to humble yourself. You all have to be ready to lower yourself”. Coming back to the point, in the Gita Krishna said “If you want to realise Me, you have to be more humble than a dry grass”. A dry grass: when we look at a dry grass, it is always crooked down. So if you want to be humble, you have to be even more down than that. And Christ has shown it by washing the feet of the disciples, showing the humility. He is One with God, He has realised the Unity with the Father. The Father had sent Christ but yet He was showing this humility for all the people. To be able to understand, to be able to realise God, one has to be humble. Without being humble, you can forget about it. Very often spiritual people think they are humble. Actually, they have the humility of the spiritual pride, you know. They think they’re humble, but when they really have to act in a humble way, it is completely the opposite. It is not about judging anybody, but it is about realising each one, by selfanalysing - where we can change, what we can change, how we can serve our brothers and sisters. How, in which point, we can say “Ok, let’s forget a little bit about I, I, I, but let’s think about ‘us’, ‘we’”. 

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

Often people say “Swamiji I am on the spiritual path but I am working on this and that, I am so busy. I can’t be there!”

Well, God has put you there so you have to do your duty there and if He chooses to come to you in that way, He will come to you. He will awaken the cosmic Love inside of you wherever you are the moment you start to accept. Have acceptance of yourself and then control this pride because this pride will always stop somebody. I will tell you a story. You know Ganesha? No? Yes? How many of you know? Ganesha is the elephant God, the God of wisdom and remover of obstacles on one’s way. As He has an elephant head, of course you know there is always judgement around Him. So one day Kuber, the Lord of wealth; you know in Hinduism there are three hundred million deities, each deity is responsible for one thing. They are not outside though; each deity is present within oneself. Even science says there are around three hundred billion cells in the body, so the deities are present inside. One day Kuber, who is the accountant of Goddess Lakshmi, came to visit Shiva and pay his respects to Him. Despite having all the wealth with him, He only brought 2 bananas for Shiva. Seeing that, Ganesha said “Well you are the Lord of wealth but you are very stingy. You only brought two bananas!” Of course this offended Kuber very much. He said to Shiva “I came to invite you. Tomorrow I am making a great feast. Could you please come?” Of course Shiva knew what was in his mind. Because he felt offended inside, He wanted to prove Himself to be the best by making a big feast so that everybody would be talking about it. So the next day Shiva with the whole family came to Kuber. Kuber of course didn’t do it out of real Love, but instead he did it out of pride. What did Ganesha do? Ganesha stepped into the mud and walked with his feet on the beautiful carpet. Of course Kuber was not happy; he looked at Ganesha in a very weird way pushing him aside. What was the next thing Ganesha did? He went to the kitchen and saw all the beautiful dishes that had been cooked, a massive amount that had been prepared, and He said “I am a guest here and I am hungry right now. Please, before the great feast starts, let me eat something.” Everybody brought the food that they had cooked and He started eating one after the other. After some time, after all the cooked food was finished, He said “Well I am still hungry!” So they got Him all the fruits and uncooked vegetables, gave them to Him and He ate everything that was there to be eaten. Looking for more things to eat, Ganesha asked the cooks to bring all the dishes and utensils from the kitchen and He ate them all. After all that, the cook ran to Kuber and said “Your invited guest has eaten everything and there is nothing left to offer!” Then Ganesha said “Well you invite us but all what you had here fills only half of my stomach! What about the other half?” Kuber said “Bring more things!” but there was nothing to bring as everything what was there had been eaten. In that moment the pride of Kuber was shattered and He realised His mistake. He had invited Shiva not out of Love or joy, but out of pride. Whenever there is pride, the Great Teacher knows how to break it. Then he realised his mistake and asked for forgiveness, and he changed deep inside of himself. Seeing that, Ganesha said “Kuber, it’s not the greatest feast that will fill my stomach. Just one banana itself, given with Love, will fill me up.” But Love has to be from the heart. You see when we are first in love, when you meet somebody you are very much in love and this is a trace of the real Love. You forget about yourself and you are always thinking about that love in whatever you do, wherever you are. Constantly in the mind, that person is wondering what the other person is doing and where that person is. You will do everything to have that connection with the person. That is the trace of pure Love inside man. However when it becomes routine, you forget about that Love. That’s why it’s important to open the windows of the mind and let some fresh air in. In a house with all the windows closed, you get stuffy, no? The thing is, when there are too many old thoughts in the mind, particularly narrow minded ones, after some time, it starts to get stuffy. This is why sometimes you say you can’t breathe anymore and so what you must do is open up. Open your mind, let it have fresh air inside and you will see that the Love that you felt has never gone away. This Love is always there inside you, inside your heart. It’s just that the mind, with all the business of the world, forgets about it. It is very easy to love. 

We are so filled with this pride inside....

How will we find God? How will we find the Lotus Feet of the Lord, if we are so filled with this pride inside? Only with humbleness will one find Him, but not in the mind. You say to yourself, “Yes, I’m humble, I’m humble,” but it has to be here, within yourself, inside of you. When you think to yourself, “Yes, everybody is greater than me” you can learn things. There are so many things that you can learn. But, how many like to learn? Not so many.

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.