 Each and every person has a unique existence, a unique reason for being here, for being in your life, for doing what you do. Everyone has a purpose. If you are on this earth, there is something that you can do for living beings, be it great or be it small. Everyone can give of themselves, and each person is unique in what they have to express, and what they have to offer to the world. Each has your unique gift. You each have something special about you to give to the world.
And there is a natural desire to express yourself, to make a difference, to give something to the world be it large or small. If you brighten a person's day with a smile or a nice comment, then surely you have given something to the world. If you help to support living beings—animals, plants, the natural environment—surely you have given something to the world. If, in the work you do, you teach or you support others in their learning, you give them something. Surely you are giving something to the world. Whatever is your occupation, whatever your daily activities, they can be done in such a way that you are doing service to all living beings, or they can be done with self-centered attitudes and approaches. If, whatever your work, whatever your daily activities, you begin with the thought, how can I serve others? What can I do today to do an act of kindness for other living beings? It can be very small or very great, it doesn't matter. But to have this approach to life makes a difference. And if you think every living being in the form of the infinite, that the divine infinite one exists in all beings, in the animals, in the plants, even in the rocks, all life is a part of an interwoven, integral whole. If you take this approach and you think all is being done by the divine one, all that is given is given from the infinite to the infinite one and that which is given is the divine also, then the feeling comes, not that you are great for doing some good acts, but that the infinite is acting through you. The divine is in you and through you expressing in the world, giving something to the world. And the one you are giving to, that you are serving, that is also that divine one. That is also the infinite being, the infinite conscious awareness. So that one is moving through you into the world. That one is receiving the gifts. If you keep your mind ever in remembrance the infinite Brahma does all actions and receives all actions, and the people before me that I serve—the students, the customers, the friends, and family—they are all the divine Brahma. They are the divine one in form and my heart is with them and I do service to all beings. With this approach you feel that there is something great, something that you are having in your life, and, you become, not the doer of actions, not the builder of karmic reactions, but immersed in divine love, immersed in the divine being. You feel that that one is pouring through you as the actions take place, as the service takes place, and the one being served Is the infinite Beloved. The service itself that is given is of the divine. In this way, the mundane world turns into the sublime. There is no mundanity to the world then. The world is a place of love, a place of vibrant life and presence, and you are surrounded by the Beloved within you and around you. That one eternal essence abides in all things. Is the very substance of all that is. So, take this sweet memory, this sweet approach of remembrance, then the sense of doer-ship and pride falls away. The sense of self-condemnation falls away. Who is there to condemn? Who is there to be so proud of and to have puffed ego about? There is only one. There is only the infinite. When you realize this when you realize that all that you have defined yourself as is only confinement of eternal being. A container of belief holding eternal being, believing itself to be something other than its true nature. And believing yourself to be something other than your true nature, all the acts you do you feel responsible. You feel as if you have either done something great or you have not performed well and you diminish the feeling about yourself. But when you stay with remembrance, rather than the confinements of the ego-self, the confinement of definition of belief, then all belongs to the one. The one who does all actions receives all actions. To that infinite one surrender all your beliefs, all your sense of self, and your constructs. Let that one be in you and around you. That is true humility. It takes great humbleness to accept the greatness within you. Namaskar.
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 Human life is an ideological flow—a movement from crudity to subtlety, from animal existence to awareness of sublime being. It’s a process of refining the mind so that the mind can absorb subtle energies, can attenuate those energies. You come into a body, a physical body and senses, and there is identity with the physical body, with the sensory experience, with the motor organs. And if you remain absorbed constantly in this sensory experience, the movement of the body, you become completely identified with the body. Consciousness, awareness, becomes identified with physical existence. The problem is these bodies are transitory; they don’t last. So if you believe that you are the body and that is your identity, your consciousness is absorbed in the physical sphere. When you leave this body your consciousness has no awareness of something other than the physical, mental processes that accompany the physical in the brain. When the mind grows in magnitude, when through spiritual practice you expand your vision, you expand your capacity to attenuate to subtle energies, to experience subtle vibrations. Then the mind begins to grow and awareness, consciousness begins to be able to perceive and focus subtlety. You become aware of the movements of energy, the movements of nature, the flows of this world, and how it all moves together in perfect harmony. Not only the flow of this physical world, but the subtle psychic energies that are behind this physical world become available to you. And as you deepen and deepen further in your spiritual practice, you become aware of the infinite nature of the eternal Self of all, the one existence that underlies everything. That in Sanskrit is Parama Purusha. You become aware of this divine or infinite consciousness that underlies and permeates all of creation. It is the substance of all that is and that pure expansive consciousness, awareness, love, truth is always whole, is always undifferentiated, is one love, one Self, one pure vibratory subtle frequency. When the mind grows in magnitude through exposure to this divine nature, the light, the purity of being, becomes more and more refined. You become refined in your psychic flow. Sattva Guna dominates the mind; subtle, sentient energy begins to dominate. And you become able in the stillness of your meditation, in the quietness, to perceive the frequency of the eternal nature of being.  And as your mind attenuates to this you may experience love unconditional, pure light, divine being. Your awareness grows and you perceive that all is one eternal essence, without separation.
That separation is only a concept, a belief of the mind born out of identity of your awareness with physical existence, which defines one body from another—”I” and “thou,” you and the world, as separate. That’s because you have embodied your awareness as merged into physical reality. There is only one eternal being, and that you are not separate, you are not alone, you are not isolated. You are a part of the integrated whole of existence, composed of that infinite being. Your separateness is only a dream in the mind of the great dreamer. As the whole creation is but a dream, a thought, in the mind of the dreamer. Some say it is Maya, an illusion, but it is not exactly an illusion. It is a reality that is relative. There is a relative reality to duality and creation. But all things that are dual have a unitary substantive reality beneath that duality. And when the mind grows in magnitude, it can attenuate to that subtle reality, to that subtle sense of being that is beyond separation, beyond duality.. In that, what you have considered yourself is but an expression of an infinite Self, infinite awareness, infinite being, infinite love, which permeates all that is and is the substance, never changed, though appearing to change. Appearing to be many, it remains always one, unchanged, unborn, immortal being. It appears to have duality, but its substantive nature of unitary, intelligent, aware consciousness never changes. Its substantive nature of infinite, boundless love never changes. When you, like the drop of water dropped into the sea, when you remove the container of ego, you become whole, you merge into that which is—you become one with the whole. Because you have always been one. Water is water. This life is an opportunity, an opportunity to move from crudity to subtlety, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. It is an opportunity to know the true Self of yourself, to know that eternal, undying, infinite essence of being, to break the boundaries of separateness and the pain of duality and find the wholeness of love fulfilled, of knowing your own Self, of returning to your true nature, to your home from which you have come. This is the great path of Sadhana, of a spiritual journey. And the true purpose of human life is to follow this path, this inner journey, to find your way home, out of suffering and the pains of duality.  Namaskar. Spirituality is that which uplifts the human spirit, which brings you closer to your eternal source, which deepens your love: love for yourself, love for others, love for all living beings. When you deepen in love, when you’re willing to receive love and to give love, to be loved, and to love, then the heart opens to the very nature of love. Because love is not an exchange between people. It is a state of being. It’s not something you can buy or you can earn. And it is something that if you go deep into your heart, you are never without. For the love of the infinite is always with you. Love is an eternal force, the nature of being, the glue which holds the entire creation together. Love is the natural attraction of life for life. There’s a natural draw between you and all living beings. You are naturally drawn to want to be close, to feel a connection. No one is an island; no one wants to be isolated, separated. There’s a natural desire to be close, to be connected, to be loved, and to love. Because there’s a natural desire to come together to feel wholeness. When love unites, when lover and beloved become one, wholeness ensues. When the love you have gets met by the infinite, the divine beloved, wholeness ensues. How to meet the beloved of your heart, how to find the fulfillment of love? By dropping down into your heart, by being willing to open your heart and share your love. Let yourself feel love for all beings, and you will find that that love resonates back to you. Unconditional love is the very nature of all that is. It is awareness, consciousness; but it is also love. Love is that glue drawing you into connection, drawing you into wholeness. It is from the heart, not from the ideas, the thoughts, the brain; it is the energy of the heart. You may pursue spiritual life with your mind, with your beliefs, with your constructs, but it will always have an emptiness in it if your spirituality does not drop down into your heart and you allow yourself to feel, you allow yourself to love, to accept love, to be in communion with life, to be in communion with God, to be in communion with infinite being. In that communion, real wholeness occurs, not the idea of wholeness, not the belief in wholeness, but the actuality of wholeness. From the heart, all things real are touched.  When you point to yourself, you don’t point, “This is me,” to your head. You point, “This is me,” to your heart. That is where you truly reside. You know if; you know it instinctually. That’s why you point to your heart when you want to address yourself.
It is in your feeling, your ability to know deeply, intuitively, that you are real—not in your ideas and beliefs. Ideas and beliefs come and go. Some are more relevant and more appropriate. Others get in your way. But until you let go of ideas and beliefs and come to feel your heart, it’s all just a theory. The reality comes in the experience. And the true reality is love, is truth, is awareness. But it’s not a dull, unknowing, semi-conscious awareness. It is a deep, passionate unification, a draw. All beings are drawn to the center of creation, to that cosmic nucleus, Purushottama, that cosmic core of being. All beings have a magnetic pull toward that magnetic core, toward that nondual effulgence, toward the love without a second. All beings dance around that deep love, dancing the dance of creation that Mother Nature portrays. But all beings have that longing in their hearts. They want to be close; they want to be connected. You want to be whole, to be close, to be loved, and to love, to be connected, to be whole. And you can search for that wholeness outside of yourself in relationships to people, and you can find it. But when you want it to be sustainable, something that you can always turn to, then you must find it inside of yourself, inside of your own sense of existence, inside of your own heart. Find the love that spills out for all beings; find the love that is an effulgent core of existence. That is your core. That is who you are. Let no one tell you, ever, that you are less. And let go of beliefs, identities, concepts, things you feel you’re good at, or the things you feel you’re missing. Let go of all those beliefs. And let yourself feel the love in the core of your heart, the great effulgence of the infinite one that is pulling you toward it, like a magnet that draws you, inexplicably. This is your wholeness, your nature, your core of being, the love which is you, which is more than you, which is the universe, which is the great effulgence at the core of all beings. That’s your home. And it is your nature to be drawn to it. You see it in people; you see it in animals; you see it in the sky, in the mountains, in the earth, in the trees. You see it everywhere. Because it is everywhere. And it is in your own heart. So love yourself and love all beings. And love the love that resides in your heart. Let it flow through you. That is true spirituality. Namaskar.  Namaskar. Every living being loves their life. Everyone wants to be happy. The deer in the field wants to be happy. The wolf, the coyote wants to be happy. The plants, the trees want to be happy. And human beings want to be happy, want to feel that life is sweet. And it is a burden that even the wise carry to have an attachment to life and fear of death. Because it is the physical form that fears death, for the form will pass, will die. Earth returns to earth. From dust to dust. Forms return to the physical world from which they came and become the elements of new forms. The form you carry is transitory. But you are not transitory. Impermanence is the nature of this physical world. There is nothing in this physical world bound by time and space which does not change, which does not become old and move and change. But in the world of spirit, in the world of essence, in the love-consciousness, the beingness of you, there is an unchanging essence. Because it is not bound by the laws of the physical universe. Your essence is not physical and is not bound by physical laws. It does not change. You were the same before you were born, who you are now, and in spirit, in essence, you will be the same when your form is no longer there. Form, mental activity, personality, they may come and go. If you are in a severe accident, your personality will change, your mental function will change. These things are transitory. But the spirit, the being, the essence that you are, that is forever. And the love you share with others, the deep love you share, the deep bonds you make, they are also eternal. Because the spirits of those to whom you are connected to you. Form comes and goes, but spiritual essence remains; being remains, you remain.  Many people theorize what happens after death and speculate. But there is a veil between that world and this. And when one comes into physical form, one forgets the other side. And likewise, when the conscious awareness detaches from physical form, the experience of physical life becomes a bit of a dream. The reality lies in a brighter, more vibrant existence of life, of love, of connectedness.
So you never lose those you love. They will always be there. Those you are dearly bonded to will always be with you. They go nowhere. Living beings cross the veil into the physical world and into the subtle world, into the physical world and into the subtle world, time and time again, taking on the shapes and forms most suitable to express the desired movements of mind, growth of being, until mind grows in magnitude to such a level that descension into form is no longer needed. Because when the mind truly grows in magnitude, it melts into the cosmic mind. And the unitary consciousness, the consciousness ceases to identify with form and recognizes its true nature in being. There comes a time in the life of every living being when all the boundaries of “I” and “thou,” of “you” and “me,” of separation, dissolve into knowledge that there is only one essence, there is only one being, there is only one, the infinite one, and that you are a part of that. Knowing that there is nothing else—you were the same; you are the same; you will be the same. There is the one eternal being, the one infinite Self, dreaming the dream of creation, dreaming the dreams of form, dreaming the dreams of the dramas of life. But who dreams these dreams? Who knows? Who is aware of all that is? That is the Atman, the Self of yourself, the soul of your being. And that Atman is no different than the Paramatma, the Self of every being. Like the drop of water when dropped into the sea, the Atman is no different than the cosmic Self, the Paramatma. You are no different than the whole. There is one being, one consciousness, one non-dual existence, appearing to be many in form. When the true recognition of this is there, then there is no loss and there is no gain. For all beings are a part of this same integral whole. There is only one Self, only one truth, only one existence, appearing through the Maya, through the dance of creation, to be many. And when you awaken you awaken to the understanding that it is one, not many. So you do not lose loved ones. You only lose the ability to interact in the realm of form and thought, but those you love remain, and you are deeply connected to all. That is the nature of this world. In the changing world of form, there is always acquisition and loss. They are real in the relative sense, but they are illusions in the deeper reality. They are an illusion created in the mind, in the dance of creation, by the great dreamer dreaming this dance, this reality. Love is the force that brings all together and which makes all whole and is your true nature.  There are many different situations and circumstances that may confront a person during their life, and of those, there will be trials and tribulations, challenges and difficulties, as well as joys, opportunities. You have an opportunity on how you view life and your circumstances. You can view it as a glass half empty or a glass half full. In the midst of circumstances of life, if you have learned to appreciate what is, you find joy and beauty even in the darkest of circumstances, and you find light and love even in a void situation. For the infinite divinity is always with you. Love is eternal, immortal. No one can say that you are without love, that you are alone because the force that guides the stars is also guiding you. That infinite creative one is guiding you every moment of the day and the night. You are never alone or helpless. That divinity is omnipresent, everywhere all the time. It is only forgetfulness that makes you blind to this reality. But, when you take a moment to become conscious, to move out of your conditioned thinking, then is the opportunity to see the divinity all around you, to know divine being as your home, as your shelter, and to realize that there is great beauty and great love in all circumstances. Even those difficult circumstances in life are an opportunity for teaching to enhance your compassion, to enhance your patience, to enhance your loving-kindness, and to enhance and refine your ability to see divinity in all things. When you only see the troubles and woes of life and you forget the Divine Light that is the essence of everything that is, your mind becomes dark, and you become sad because you see only those pains in life and you forget to notice the brightness around you. But if you take a moment to be with yourself, to be alone to meditate and to awaken in yourself knowledge of the Light, the divinity, and the presence of divine being of the beauty of life that surrounds you, then, even those sorrows and trials and tribulations, losses, and griefs of life become secondary to the experience of the bright light of infinite love. So, even when the heart is despondent, even when there is a difficulty, remember always your divine companion. Remember always that the divine is all around you in all forms in all beings.  So, even when the heart is despondent, even when there is a difficulty, remember always your divine companion. Remember always that the divine is all around you in all forms in all beings.
That there is love that is pure, essential, divine, that makes the sunshine in the sky, the flowers grow in the garden, the fruits and vegetables grow that feed you, the kindest, gentlest thought. Notice the people around you in the stores, in the streets. Notice the needs of others. Have kindness and compassion for living beings and you will find the divine being everywhere. So, even if the situation is grim, this optimism can be cultivated, and it is based in truth. The grimness is a habit of mind to find what is wrong and to focus on it. It's a survival pattern because on focusing on the trials and tribulations in life you hope that you can fix them. So naturally to survive you have to pay attention to what is wrong and try to fix it. It is a natural part of your survival pattern. It can make the mind sorrowful, and the heart heavy. In those situations, you must find the bright side and resist this tendency of the mind to look upon the dark side and to forget all the good things in your life, all the things that are lovely, that are given to you by the grace of God. So, take a moment to appreciate the beauty of life, the nearness of the divine, the grace that is given to you every day, and remembering this brightness, bring that light, the joy of what you have, into your life. You can be the poorest person in the world and be rich, and you can be the richest person living in a mansion and be poor and unhappy and sorrowful, counting all the ills of your life. You can be a simple person who appreciates the flower by the side of the road, the beauty of rain as it cools the earth, the loveliness of the sun and its brightness and warmth, the blessing of good health, and being able to walk and be in nature. Or the blessing of being able to talk to a friend, the blessing of being able to help one who is in need, the blessing of being able to sit and commune with the divine. These are the great things in life, and even the poorest and most downtrodden can feel they are the most blessed if they look upon the bright side of their life. Know the grace that is showered upon you and feel it. Feel that grace and the God-given beauty of life. So much you have. Appreciate what you have. Appreciate the light, the joy, the presence of the divine - the crickets singing, the bird's song, the leaves rustling in the wind. There is so much beauty in this world. Let it fill you and balance the fight you must make against adharma and against those things with which you struggle in life. They are not everything. They are but a dream; a struggle in the dream. The truth is always bright. The truth is love divine. That is your home. That is your safe haven. All else is temporal. But as things come and go in life, remember the brightness that surrounds you and the divinity that is all around you and within you showering grace every moment. Namaskar.  The world today faces a crisis. That crisis is spiritual. A crisis of the soul, of the heart, expressed in the physical world in the variety of collective circumstances that face the planet today.
There is one point about all of these circumstances—the pandemic, the racial problems of discrimination and injustice in various forms around the world, the meaning of conservatism and reaction to the world situation wanting to return to the past and past glories—all of these struggles face humanity, not one country or one continent. We face the entirety of humanity, and what happens in one place affects what happens elsewhere. Humanity cannot currently be divided. The climate, the care of the planet, or the lack thereof, all of these problems affect all of humanity. Gone are the days when one nation, one race can make it on its own independent of others and can find superiority, for the fate of humanity is an interwoven interconnected whole. The transition from nationalism to globalism is unstoppable because those issues which face human beings are not national they are now global. The solutions are not national they are also global. This is a spiritual crisis because human beings' spirit has been bound by materialism in the age of the Vaeshan. It has manifested primarily as capitalism. But it has generated vast materialism that is unsustainable and has depressed the human heart and the human spirit. And so today human beings in their material seeking have moved towards their own demise. To rise above the demise of humanity, to rescue humanity will require humanity to rise in universal love for all beings and efforts to secure all beings'. This is a part of universal love taught at the heart of most religions. But in the secularism and materialism that has dominated the current age, this spiritual love has diminished. Greed, self-centeredness, individualism has dominated. But the world is in a transitional period. A transition from the Vaeshan era through the Shudra revolution into the Kshattriyan era. The Kshattriyan have a different psychology. A psychology that will rescue and heal the world of today. It need not look military or like an army, but an approach, a value system that values the welfare of all human beings and the duty to serve and care for the welfare of all. The true Kshattriyan is not just a soldier, but one who values a noble cause, one who values dharma, one who values moving from darkness to light, one who values uplifting the human spirit, and is willing to put duty to humanity, and love of humanity above personal welfare. We are moving into an age where this is essential. We can no longer pit one person against another, one society against another, one race against another to secure greater material gain, territory, and conquest. This tendency of the human mind to move in these directions and use violence to secure these ends is leading to the destruction of the very planet we live upon. This cannot change without a shift in consciousness, a shift in the value base of people, a shift to a more subtle frequency. No amount of resistance, no amount of reaction can change what is occurring. The planet itself is evolving. Human beings are evolving, and this evolution is spiritual. The spirit of human beings needs to expand to be inclusive, to work for the welfare of all living beings. Do not be daunted by the reactions to this process. As I have said, a corner is being turned, and those reactions will have less and less appeal to people. They will receive less energy. And people instead will be inspired to work for the welfare of living beings. You will see a change this very year and in the coming following years, it will only increase. The way forward is before you. It is not for one country, one society, one race. It is for humanity. And humanity will join together to face the global issues that have arisen and will soon arise so that human life and all life upon this planet may survive and flourish. I have created a meditation to visualize that survival and flourishment. I would encourage all of you to do that meditation periodically, to visualize the healing and perfection of the planet on which you live - the healing of all living beings. Now is the time to create that positive vision that it may become true in this physical world. And it will become true in this physical world. Namaskar  There are three primary yogas - jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, and karma yoga. Jnana yoga is the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of right understanding. It utilizes the mind to bring a clear understanding of the nature of reality and focuses on undoing erroneous beliefs about the nature of self and others and clarifying deep wisdom in the mind. Bhakti Yoga Bhakti yoga is different, in that Bhakti yoga focuses on the heart. There are twelve traditional avenues of Bhakti yoga. There are things like chanting kirtan, pad kirtan where you dance--pad means foot so you're using your feet moving around, telling stories about the gods and goddesses and the gurus, and similar types of activities that involve opening the heart. But the essence of Bhakti-yoga doesn't lie in ritual or any kind of performance. It lies in the heart. It lies in a devotional relationship to the Supreme, where you feel the Supreme is your divine father, divine mother, divine friend, or divine lover. The Supreme is the great one in your life and you develop an emotional devotional attachment. And the bhakti, the devotion, opens up the love in the heart so that you can feel the presence of the God-Self. You can feel the presence of Divine Being and you can have an intimate relationship with that Divine Being. Bhakti is a gift from the Divine - true bhakti. Not a practice but a gift. Karma & Jnana Yoga And then there is karma yoga. Karma yoga you focus the mind and the heart on doing service in the world. You focus on giving of yourself to others but doing so in a very particular way where you see the God, the Divine being, in all beings and you serve the Divine Being in the form of all beings. And you recognize that the one giving the service, as well as the one receiving the service, and the act of service itself, is all the infinite Brahma. That you are not doing the service but God is doing the service to God and the process of serving is God itself also. And in that way through doing good works in this ideation recognizing that God is moving through you in the world of form to serve other people, and that those other people are parts of God also. And you begin to feel the presence of God in your life. You begin to align yourself with the compassion and love that the Divine Being has for all living beings, and you feel that love and you feel you are an instrument of that love, and you are aligned with the divine and you feel the divine is in you flowing through you. You become a hollow reed, an empty vessel to let that love flow through you into the world. And the true path of karma yoga is a very powerful path because it aligns you with unity with divine being. Ego falls away as you recognize that Divine Being alone can act in the world, and Divine Being alone is acting in the world. And so you don't take on the karma of your actions, "Oh I'm so great because I did this service,” or, “I didn't do this right so look at me I'm a failure." Everything is done by God and the results of those actions go to God. So through the path of karma yoga you burn up the karma and by burning the karma the jnana is opened, the right understanding comes, and the heart is opened in love. So karma leads to bhakti and jnana.  Jnana, through right understanding, leads to right action, karma, and it also eventually leads to deep love and the path of bhakti through immersion in love of the divine. There is the natural karma yoga, and when you're filled with the divine and divine love, right understanding and right action comes naturally .
So those three paths cannot be separated out. They interweave with each other. Whether you are Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu they're in play in your spiritual life. They allow you to have a personal intimate relationship to Divine Being, and to feel the presence of divine love in your heart, in your life - to appreciate the synchronicities and the shower of grace that is always there, and the presence of the Divine, and to become an instrument of his work. Through these three yogas interwoven together mind grows in magnitude. Right understanding of your relationship to the infinite comes into view, and the bonds of samskara and karma begin to burn away. This is the greatness of yoga. Yoga means to yoke, to unite the little and the great. So, these three basic paths form the foundation of yoga. Ashtanga yoga brings them altogether in the eightfold path. Tantra utilizes the approach of integrating and understanding everything in this world is part of God. Hatha yoga focuses on the body yet brings these three in as well. They are the foundation of all yogas.  Namaskar. Each day is a new beginning, a new dawn, a new opportunity to become that which you truly want to be. When you rise each day it is a fresh start. Think, the night before, what you want in life, what you want to be, how you want to be in the world. You have every opportunity every day to create that manifestation of your being which you want in this world.
Forget the past, forget the limitations, the beliefs about yourself, the condemnations, the limitations. Let them go. Awaken each morning to the opportunity of your life. Seize the moment. Each day you can create the person you want to be, the life you want to lead. Life is short. The need is to see that now is the time, now is the opportunity for you to do that which you truly want to do in life, for you to assess and find your priorities, that which is truly important for you to be, to do, to become. What is it you really want to to do in your life? What is it you really want to be in your life? You have an opportunity each day to be a person who is immersed in Dharma, to be a person who lives in harmony with this universe, to be a person of ethics, to be a person of integrity. You have an opportunity in every action, every interaction that comes in your life to be the best self you can be. And that opens the opportunity to connect with the infinite Self, the divine essence of your being, and to bring that which you are into existence. This opportunity in your life brings you into connectedness with the whole of your being; with the infinite Self; the one, eternal, immortal essence of being. That one is always there, permeating all that is. Your life is an opportunity to get to know that infinite source of being, to establish a personal relationship with that divine existence, so that you yourself can melt into that infinite essence and become one with all life, become one with the essence of being. For that essential Self, that beloved of your heart, is always with you, day and night, through thick and thin. And you have an opportunity each and every day to awaken and meet that essential beloved of your heart, meet that divine essence, immerse yourself in that divinity. And to follow a life which reflects that in your inner actions, in your being in the world—creating loving-kindness, compassion, and care, in you and all around you; leading a life of nonviolence, loving-kindness, compassion, truthfulness, self-honesty, generosity, not desiring what others have but rather generously giving of yourself. A life where you see God in everyone and in everything, and a life where you find your safety in that divine presence that is in you and all around you, rather than in money or accumulation of things. Let that be the core of your substance, your shelter in the storm. Let it be your divine source, rather than material gain. Then you may find, without struggle, that your material needs are cared for. Because when you follow your bliss, when you live your heart’s dream, when you are aligned with your inner being in the outer world, then a flow happens, a movement, a movement toward the infinite, a movement toward love. Because when you follow your bliss, when you live your heart’s dream, when you are aligned with your inner being in the outer world, then a flow happens, a movement, a movement toward the infinite, a movement toward love. And out of that, you find that your needs are being cared for, that abundance comes in your life, without struggle, but in the joy of deep expression, deep love, and deep connection to essence. So never feel that this life divine, this life of deep fulfillment is far away from you, beyond you, somehow unreachable, unattainable—no. Every day you wake up to a new opportunity, a new beginning, a new moment in which you can connect with essence, in which you can open your heart in love, in which you can get up and be the person you want to be. So never feel that this life divine, this life of deep fulfillment is far away from you, beyond you, somehow unreachable, unattainable—no. Every day you wake up to a new opportunity, a new beginning, a new moment in which you can connect with essence, in which you can open your heart in love, in which you can get up and be the person you want to be. This is the great opportunity and joy of your life; and great happiness comes when the inner man, the inner woman, is the same person as the outer expression. When you are in alignment with your heart, your mind, your thoughts, and your actions, then a great fulfillment comes, for you are living your Dharma. And when your Dharma is aligned with Bhagavad Dharma, with divine flow and connection, with harmony, with all life, and with that great love of the infinite, then there is a great peace, a great harmony to your life, to your being. And out of that, great happiness comes into existence. So never be downhearted, never think that the joy of your life is unattainable. Never think that you don’t have the opportunity to be what you truly want to be. For it is there every new moment. It is there in the love of your heart. It is there in the joy of your being. It is there in your connection to the infinite. Namaskar.  Namaskar. There are three basic paths of yoga. One is bhakti, devotion. The other, karma, good work in the world with a sense of selfless service with doing things without attachment to the results of actions. And the third path is jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge. It works with the mind. Bhakti works with the heart, opening the heart, and the feelings of the divine experience. Jnana works with the mind, restructuring the mind so that conditioned thoughts, attitudes, and ways of responding are let go. And karma works with being in the world and relating to other people, relating to service in the world, Seva. So these three paths, each have significant advantages, and when they are combined together they form a powerful structure that can integrate both mental development, development in the feelings and relationship to the infinite, and development in your daily life in your service attitude and work with others. When combined the three form a reinforcing system that can make real change, transformative change. But many times it is too much for someone to begin with all three and so one may begin only working with the mind, the attitudes and beliefs, deconstructing erroneous beliefs and gaining new insights and understandings, dissolving the conditioned mind. Or one may begin working with the heart, establishing a relationship to God, establishing a fundamental experiential feeling related to the Infinite. Developing love for the divine and through that feeling of love and devotion there comes great humility, great passion. When that detached understanding comes in action and you realize that the cosmic one is everywhere, both receiving and doing actions, then the results of actions do not stay with the ego because they are not done by the ego self, and the ego self does not feel attachment to the results. Then, when that happens this karma yoga wipes away the delusions of the mind, wipes away the samskaras, all of the attachments to the reactions of one's actions, and begins to free psychic space where there is no action no reaction of mind.  When this overall science of yoga is applied, two phenomena develop in a person that brings them to the truth. One is that they develop vairagya and the other Viveka. Vairagya means detachment, true detachment, not the renunciation of an idea, not the renunciation of the belief that you will renounce the world, but true detachment.
When you begin to see that the Infinite is everywhere, God is everywhere, and only by the grace of that great divinity does any action come. When you begin to see there is no separate self to do anything, that everything, every molecule of you is made of that divine Beloved, the separation of I and Thou dissolve. True detachment comes because you realize that who you are, who you have been, are the same. It’s the same. And the feeling of attachment to the results of your actions begins to diminish. And this is true renunciation. Renouncing the attachment to the results of your actions. And thus, gaining a clear mind, clear vision, clear understanding of the nature of the God Self, and when that clarity is there, that discrimination, you become able to know the unreal from the real. You understand the deep nature of reality and you can discriminate knowing what is truth, what is truly real. This is a great power that comes from dissolving the conditioned mind, awakening the heart, and doing actions in the world with a detachment to the results of your actions. Thus, vairagya, renunciation, trie renunciation, and Viveka, true deep discrimination, the ability to know truth, to know the real from the unreal, come as a result of these yogas. And the Yamas and the Niyamas become doable, really doable as you follow these yogas. The Yamas and the Niyamas form the base for your action in the world. Action-based in love and loving-kindness without violence to other beings. Actions based on truth and deep honesty with self. Without coveting what someone else has, and without trying to secure yourself by accumulating more and more, you are able to live in the world with truth and kindness, and love. And thus you gain the power of a pure mind, pure thoughts, a pure heart, the simple childlike nature, and you gain the ability to be truly content with who you are, what you are, and with what life is. You become content. Santosha is achieved. And tapas, the ability to love selflessly, to have true loving-kindness comes, and the ability to know the truth, to understand the deep nature of your own self. This development of knowledge comes when you practice all of this. And finally the realization, the dissolution into the divine God Self. This is the culminating realization of the Yamas and the Niyamas and of the three yogas, the three primary yogas – bhakti, karma, and jnana. Without coveting what someone else has, and without trying to secure yourself by accumulating more and more, you are able to live in the world with truth and kindness, and love. And thus you gain the power of a pure mind, pure thoughts, a pure heart, the simple childlike nature, and you gain the ability to be truly content with who you are, what you are, and with what life is. You become content. Santosha is achieved. And tapas, the ability to love selflessly, to have true loving-kindness comes, and the ability to know the truth, to understand the deep nature of your own self. This development of knowledge comes when you practice all of this. And finally the realization, the dissolution into the divine God Self. This is the culminating realization of the Yamas and the Niyamas and of the three yogas, the three primary yogas – bhakti, karma, and jnana.  When there are many difficulties in the world and the normal routine of life is disturbed by them, it creates certain stress in the mind. And, with the current situation with fires, plagues, and political strife of an unknown unexperienced previous nature, there is tension in the air and little things become big. Sometimes situations that you could easily handle become very stressful. And you find when you calm yourself to meditate, there is certainly stress within from the stress and strain of the time and the lack of social interaction and opportunities to express yourself in the world. Self Care This is the situation that all are facing right now, and depending upon your circumstances it may be better or worse. Surely, everyone around you is having problems or tensions to one degree or another due to this external upheaval and difficulty. In times like these, it is important to take regular breaks from your work, computers, and from your activities in life to simply calm your nervous system. Do your sadhana, let your nerves relax - this combined with physical exercise to the best of your capacity given the circumstance. Get out into nature if you can but even walking around your house or block is fine, just get some exercise every day. Also, two, three, four times a day take 5 to 20, 30 minutes to just calm your nervous system, to get away from technology, do a few stretches, and then sit, breathe, connect with your Divine Source and let yourself move into alignment and harmony with that universal source. Because, when you do this you will find the strength, the solidity, the healing that is not represented in your external circumstances at the moment. External circumstances come and go and patience is needed when you go through difficult times. There have been very difficult times in the world so you are not alone in this experience. There are those who survive. They make it through the most difficult times because they find inside of themselves a resilience, a place where they can nurture their own being and find their solid ground.  Sadhana
When you do sadhana, when you calm your breathing, when you bring divine grace and love into your psyche, into your energy field, then you bring in healing from the deeper source than these external circumstances. External circumstances are variable but that inner base of your being, that is a resource that is sustainable, that doesn't change with the passage of time or the circumstances outside. Get away from those things that you are doing and the worries of your life and just drop into that divinity within you. Let that love permeate you. Let that grace be around you. And that will make a difference. You will notice that you begin to be more solid, more able to weather the difficulties of life. And when you hear one more bad news it is less likely to distress you and you are more likely to find your peace and your harmony, and more likely to be able to deal with external circumstances with a more even hand and to maintain your own emotional well-being. Recommendations So, the exercise is, do a little socialization as you can do safely, and the meditation practice three, four times a day of deep attunement. This will help you to weather these times. Phone calls to friends, your zoom conferences, whatever it is that you feel more comfortable, but don't forget these times of silence and of physical activities. Those two are very important to your psycho-physical balance |
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