The mind gets blessed with happiness and joy. If one fails to find happiness in one’s mind, he runs from pillar to post to find it. Why is it that happiness is missing? We want to have permanent relationships, things, circumstances and persons, which are by nature impermanent and persons, which are by nature impermanent and this urge keeps us unattained of Atman, the Eternal and imperishable Bliss, and subjects us to the unending cycle of birth and death. There is no deity sitting in the heavens or the netherworlds, who is putting you into wombs. There is no chitragupta writing accounts of your good and bad deeds with a peacock feathers. The notion of Chitragupta is created for small minded people so that they should eschew sin and take the spiritual path. If a Chitragupta is entrusted the job of keeping accounts of people’s deeds, he will be exhausted very soon for the Jivas are countless in number. What is the real meaning of Chitragupta? Whatever relations you conceive of, gets imprinted on your heart as an image (chitra) in a gupta (secret) way. For example, you didn’t have a name before birth. After birth, a name was given to you for convenience of reference. According to the family tradition, a caste was affixed to you. These are all for the sake of convenience. Before birth, you had no name or caste nor did you have any relationship with anybody. You will have no name, caste or relationship after death. And if you examine, even at present all these are going towards naught.
There are two kinds of thins – eternal and fleeting. The Atman, the Pure Consciousness is eternal and the Maya, the phenomenal world is fleeting. These relationships are relations, mayic and therefore are fleeting. Make use of the fleeting things and repose in the Eternal and you will get freedom from rebirth. The Eternal thing is your atman. It is immutable and omnipresent. Even when you had no relationship with the world, you had relationship with the world is strained, you will have relationship with it for that relationship is eternal. Your relationship with God, you cannot severe even if you want to. And whatever you do, you cannot keep forever your relationship with the world. If you realise this fact, you will become free from all worries you will become calm and attain self-repose; you will get endowed with the boon of inner calm which will fill you with joy.
Some people coming to me say, “When we behold you, it appears to us that you are an owner of a kingdom. You seem to possess a vast treasure.”
I said, ‘Well, I am not the king of material possessions, but I am certainly the king of myself. I have absolute relationship with the One Real Being. I do have a vast treasure but I don't want to use it exclusively for myself. I want to share it with everybody; but the people coming here ask for transient trifles. Therefore, my eternal treasure remains unshared. What will you do after you do after you get the trifles you are asking for? You will take rest…? Why not take rest in the Atman straightway?
I related the story of that Delhi Seth. He was Seth, a Master of his mind. He had a shop of earthenware Chandani Chowk, Delhi. He felt like having a siesta in the hot afternoon and verily had one. An American tourist came to the shop. He was surprised to find the Seth sleeping. He said, ‘O Indian! Why are you sleeping? Is it the time to take rest? You have such beautiful earthentoys. Why don't you invite customers?”
“What will happen if I do that?” the Seth asked.
“More customers would mean more earning. You can start another shop, maybe three or four or more. Earn a lot of money and then come to America.”
“Then?”
“You can earn dollars there. Then you can buy a house in Switzerland and a houseboat in Kashmir. Then you can take rest therein.”
“You fool! I am taking rest right now. Why should I do all this laborious work if the objective is rest? If it is only rest that I need, then let me repose in my Lord, the timeless Supreme Being, straightaway. Why should I rest only after doing this or that? To hell with taking rest in the future. Reposing now is reposing in God!”
You do a lot many things for the sake of peace and happiness but if peace could be had with the help of accepted relationships, accepted circumstances, Ravana, Hitler and Alexander etc. would have got it.
The more we try to derive happiness form relationship, the more restless, agitated and miserable we become and the farther we move from our won selves. This is so because our beliefs changes so do our abilities; because our sense organs get progressively impaired and the worldly objects continue to change.
We want not severe the relationships, accepted though they are; therefore we take good care to maintain them. We remind our relatives of the relationships on every Diwali. We renew these relationships at the time of marriage of our dear ones. In spite of all this, the course of these relationships is marked by volcanic eruptions every now and then. Attempting to manage these relationships, one gets completely drained and debilitated. Yet do you find a single individual who has attained lasting peace from these relationships? These relationships make every body miserable. Some are miserable for want of them while others are miserable because of them.
Therefore, O mind! Until and unless you relinquish attachment to these relationships from within, you will be bitten by them. These relationships torment you in the lifetime; they trouble you even after death, when either you or your relatives may become ghosts.
‘Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, purity of nature, self-control-this is called mental austerity.’
The main reason for mental agitation is taking the accepted relationships to be true and the failure to experience the real relationship. This is the root cause of mental agitation and of being subjected to the cycle of birth and death. The second reason is that we want to perpetuate the relationships we have established and we treat the gained things as our own. Your body, wife, husband, son etc. are given to you for the time being. They are not yours; they belong to the Giver, the Lord.
Saints enlighten you with the knowledge that you should repose in the Supreme Lord dwelling in our heart and make use of transitory relationships to attain Self Bliss. It is realizing Bliss and not enjoying pleasures.
Once one knows the thing as it is, one gets freed from anxiety. Take an example. All the tube lights and bulbs in the world put to gather cannot add up to a fraction of the Sun’s li8ght and that Sun sets in the evening everyday. Are you worried about darkness that is to follow? No, it doesn’t worry you the least. But if the electricity goes off in your house, you get worried. You are not worried by the Sun dipping below the horizon but the candle light dipping vexes you. It is so because the relationship is accepted and there is the insistence that it should not be extinguished. The relationship with a friend may or may not last till the end. Wherever there is a desire to cling to a thing or a relationship, there is misery. If there is desire to cling to wealth, one is bound to be miserable if poverty comes. The desire to cling to happiness is followed by the fear of sorrow, the desire to cling life to life is followed by the fear of death, the desire to cling to union is folowed by the fear of separation. If you get rid of desire for happiness, the fear of sorrow will be gone and you will verily become happy. You are eternal and will live even after the final Deluge. Realize you own Self! The relationships that are there in the world keep on changing; the desire to cling to them disturbs the peace of mind.
Disconnect yourself from disquietude by being a witness to it. Take a deep breath through the nostrils, do japa of the Guru mantra and then blow the breath out. do japa of ‘OM’ in an elongated tone for 10 minutes while gazing one-pointedly at the picture of God or the Guru. Know that you are above fickleness and disquietude and that you are the beloved of God. Remember that Bliss and love is your nature. Your relationship with God is unbreakable and eternal. You are as close to God as are Lord Krishna, Buddha and other great men. The only difference is that Lord Krishna knows this fact and so he is Poorna, perfected Being and you don't know and are engaged in needless you don't know and are engaged in needles toil. There isn’t much to do; you have only to change the stance. Sacrifices, āsanas, japa and austerities don't’ work as much profits as accrues from merely accepting the eternal relationship with God.
There are two kinds of thins – eternal and fleeting. The Atman, the Pure Consciousness is eternal and the Maya, the phenomenal world is fleeting. These relationships are relations, mayic and therefore are fleeting. Make use of the fleeting things and repose in the Eternal and you will get freedom from rebirth. The Eternal thing is your atman. It is immutable and omnipresent. Even when you had no relationship with the world, you had relationship with the world is strained, you will have relationship with it for that relationship is eternal. Your relationship with God, you cannot severe even if you want to. And whatever you do, you cannot keep forever your relationship with the world. If you realise this fact, you will become free from all worries you will become calm and attain self-repose; you will get endowed with the boon of inner calm which will fill you with joy.
Some people coming to me say, “When we behold you, it appears to us that you are an owner of a kingdom. You seem to possess a vast treasure.”
I said, ‘Well, I am not the king of material possessions, but I am certainly the king of myself. I have absolute relationship with the One Real Being. I do have a vast treasure but I don't want to use it exclusively for myself. I want to share it with everybody; but the people coming here ask for transient trifles. Therefore, my eternal treasure remains unshared. What will you do after you do after you get the trifles you are asking for? You will take rest…? Why not take rest in the Atman straightway?
I related the story of that Delhi Seth. He was Seth, a Master of his mind. He had a shop of earthenware Chandani Chowk, Delhi. He felt like having a siesta in the hot afternoon and verily had one. An American tourist came to the shop. He was surprised to find the Seth sleeping. He said, ‘O Indian! Why are you sleeping? Is it the time to take rest? You have such beautiful earthentoys. Why don't you invite customers?”
“What will happen if I do that?” the Seth asked.
“More customers would mean more earning. You can start another shop, maybe three or four or more. Earn a lot of money and then come to America.”
“Then?”
“You can earn dollars there. Then you can buy a house in Switzerland and a houseboat in Kashmir. Then you can take rest therein.”
“You fool! I am taking rest right now. Why should I do all this laborious work if the objective is rest? If it is only rest that I need, then let me repose in my Lord, the timeless Supreme Being, straightaway. Why should I rest only after doing this or that? To hell with taking rest in the future. Reposing now is reposing in God!”
You do a lot many things for the sake of peace and happiness but if peace could be had with the help of accepted relationships, accepted circumstances, Ravana, Hitler and Alexander etc. would have got it.
The more we try to derive happiness form relationship, the more restless, agitated and miserable we become and the farther we move from our won selves. This is so because our beliefs changes so do our abilities; because our sense organs get progressively impaired and the worldly objects continue to change.
We want not severe the relationships, accepted though they are; therefore we take good care to maintain them. We remind our relatives of the relationships on every Diwali. We renew these relationships at the time of marriage of our dear ones. In spite of all this, the course of these relationships is marked by volcanic eruptions every now and then. Attempting to manage these relationships, one gets completely drained and debilitated. Yet do you find a single individual who has attained lasting peace from these relationships? These relationships make every body miserable. Some are miserable for want of them while others are miserable because of them.
Therefore, O mind! Until and unless you relinquish attachment to these relationships from within, you will be bitten by them. These relationships torment you in the lifetime; they trouble you even after death, when either you or your relatives may become ghosts.
‘Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, purity of nature, self-control-this is called mental austerity.’
The main reason for mental agitation is taking the accepted relationships to be true and the failure to experience the real relationship. This is the root cause of mental agitation and of being subjected to the cycle of birth and death. The second reason is that we want to perpetuate the relationships we have established and we treat the gained things as our own. Your body, wife, husband, son etc. are given to you for the time being. They are not yours; they belong to the Giver, the Lord.
Saints enlighten you with the knowledge that you should repose in the Supreme Lord dwelling in our heart and make use of transitory relationships to attain Self Bliss. It is realizing Bliss and not enjoying pleasures.
Once one knows the thing as it is, one gets freed from anxiety. Take an example. All the tube lights and bulbs in the world put to gather cannot add up to a fraction of the Sun’s li8ght and that Sun sets in the evening everyday. Are you worried about darkness that is to follow? No, it doesn’t worry you the least. But if the electricity goes off in your house, you get worried. You are not worried by the Sun dipping below the horizon but the candle light dipping vexes you. It is so because the relationship is accepted and there is the insistence that it should not be extinguished. The relationship with a friend may or may not last till the end. Wherever there is a desire to cling to a thing or a relationship, there is misery. If there is desire to cling to wealth, one is bound to be miserable if poverty comes. The desire to cling to happiness is followed by the fear of sorrow, the desire to cling life to life is followed by the fear of death, the desire to cling to union is folowed by the fear of separation. If you get rid of desire for happiness, the fear of sorrow will be gone and you will verily become happy. You are eternal and will live even after the final Deluge. Realize you own Self! The relationships that are there in the world keep on changing; the desire to cling to them disturbs the peace of mind.
Disconnect yourself from disquietude by being a witness to it. Take a deep breath through the nostrils, do japa of the Guru mantra and then blow the breath out. do japa of ‘OM’ in an elongated tone for 10 minutes while gazing one-pointedly at the picture of God or the Guru. Know that you are above fickleness and disquietude and that you are the beloved of God. Remember that Bliss and love is your nature. Your relationship with God is unbreakable and eternal. You are as close to God as are Lord Krishna, Buddha and other great men. The only difference is that Lord Krishna knows this fact and so he is Poorna, perfected Being and you don't know and are engaged in needless you don't know and are engaged in needles toil. There isn’t much to do; you have only to change the stance. Sacrifices, āsanas, japa and austerities don't’ work as much profits as accrues from merely accepting the eternal relationship with God.
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