Sadhguru's Punchlines

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My Dear Sadhguru

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Deities and Enlightened Masters - Your paths to exhausting karmas

There is a way to again and again remind ourselves not to collect karma and to live without the influence of the earlier incurred karma. The first step is to have a clear understanding that karma is powerless in the presence of an elevated conciousness.

There is an important difference between normal human beings and enlightened masters. A normal person does not have the ability to make his body alive out of his will. His body is either alive or it is dead, that's all. It is not under his control.

But for an enlightened person, it is under his control. He can either make his body alive, or relax. Because of this ability, he can also make another body alive! When an enlightened being chooses to make a stone or metal alive, that stone or metal becomes a representation of his very self.

All the deities in our major traditional temples are energised by enlightened masters. Masters like Arunagiri Yogeeshwara from Tiruvannamalai, Patanjali from Chidambaram, Karurar from Thanjavur, Konganavar from Tirupati and Meenakshi from Madurai have energised the deities in these temples.

Deities are therefore considered to be the very bodies of the enlightened masters. Disciples continue serving the deities even after the masters leave their physical body. The body of the Deities is considered to be the body of the Master himself. That is the reason why the Deities receive the same respect offered to an enlightened master.

For example, all the disciples initiated by Arunagiri Yogeeshwara will worship the Arunachala temple for generations together. You will see that whatever is offered to the Master will be offered to the Deity also.

Masters, even after they decide to leave the body, are continously available to the disciples through the deities that they energised. For example, even during my lifetime, my physical presence is not possible everwhere at the same time. So these Deities are programmed to do my work where I am physically not present! They are my represetatives!

The deities posses independent intelligence. Energising the deities is a big process. It is giving birth to a child. These energised Deities will directly respond to your prayers. They will directly relate with you if you are open in relating with them.

If you see our Puja (offering) and our ashram routine, you will see that in the morning, they play the wakeup song to wake up the presiding Deity. Then they give a small cup of oil for His hair and a small cup of tooth powder for Him to brush His teeth! Then, they give Him a bath and offer fresh, ironed clothes, just like how they offer to the master. They offer food and perform the evening arati. In the night, they put the deity to bed again in a ceremonius way.

Understand, all this does not add anything to the deity or to the master. It adds only to us! This is what is living with god. This is what is practicing the presence of god. Practcing the presence of the master is Puja. Puja is done everyday because it is a technique to remember the presence of god everyday.

Breaking the Cycle - Sadhguru

Questioner : I'm always doing practices but still, something within me is not breaking down. I'm making the same mistakes again and again. How to break that ?

Sadhguru : So you want to break down certain limitations and go beyond them. You need to understand, the karmic structure in every human being is essentially cyclical. When we say it is a cycle, it is not from lifetime to lifetime alone. If you are observant enough you will see, outside events generally repeat themselves in cycles of 12 to 15 years. If you observe much more closely, you will see, within a years time, these same patterns are happening many times over. If you observe, very very closely, even within a day, the same cycles are happening many times over. These 40 minutes cycles are called galige in Kannada. So, the karmic cycle actually takes force every 40 minutes. Every 40 minutes you have the oppurtunity to break it. If you are not observant, it may take a cycle of 12 years for you to notice that there is a certain pattern to your life. If you make yourself, more and more concious, you will see, every 40 minutes the same cycle is happening. It is very important to see this. If you see that your life is simply a repetitive foolish cycle, that every 40 minutes you are doing the same cycle over and over again, it just takes two days to realize this is no good. If you see the cycles once in a lifetime, it will take a few lifetimes to see this is no good.

It all depends on how concious you are. The more concious you become, the more you see living in an unconcious cycle is no good. So, every 40 minutes, you have an opportunity to become concious of it and to break the cycle. You want to break the present walls and go away. Do you have your wife's permission? You need to take permission because you took vows together (Laughs). But unfortunately, certain things in life do not happen with permission. Unless people are concious enough to see arrangements only as temporary and unless they are willing to look at life beyond that and take the arrangements to different levels as necessary, then the only choice becomes either to give up the process of growth or to break the arrangements. Both will be cruel. One will be cruel to you; another will be cruel to people around you. If you want to grow taking people along with you, it takes much more effort, much more conciousness, much more dedication, much more balance, much more sadhana than walking alone. I would say that a Brahmachari needs much less sadhana than people who want to live in family situation and still want to go; because they have taken on a bigger challenge in their life; a much bigger challenge. You will find walking alone to Kailash difficult. If you have to take four people on your shoulders and walk, it will take tremendous strenght.

So, If you go with your whole family to the base of the mountain, the only thing that will happen is, you will look at the mountain and you will shiver, because you look at your wife, you look at your child - "How to take all these people and go up?" Then you will become cautious. Caution and cowardice are not two different things. When someone else does it, it is cowardice. When you do it, it is caution. So, you will become cautious and do a more practical thing; you will have a picnic at the foothills. You will never attempt to climb the peak, because you are cautious, sensible and practical; all the nice things that make life sane. That is why we Built the Isha Yoga Centre at the foothills, so that you can come and have a picnic. Your little children, your wife, your grandmother and your mother-in-law, they are all there, you cannot just leave them and walk away. So, as a responsible, cautious, practical man, you will naturally choose to have a picnic at the foothills.

Once it happened. At a family dinner, Shankaran Pillai announced that he is going to get married. It was a large family dinner and all of them asked, "Who? Who are you going to marry?" Shankaran Pillai said "Our neighbour Lucy. I'm going to marry her." The father said "What? You'll marry Lucy? She has no inheritance. We don't know who her father is." The mother said, "What? You'll marry Lucy? She doesn't even have her own house." The aunt said, "What? You're going to marry Lucy? Look at her make up; she looks like a street women." The little nephew is not to be left out; he said, "What, you're going to marry Lucy? She knows nothing about football." Shankaran Pillai said, "Yes. But I'm going to marry Lucy because there is one big advantage." All of them asked, "What?" Shankaran Pillai replied, "Well, she has no family."

There are three ways to approach the spiritual process. One way is, slowly, by doing the right things through a few life times, you will get there. Another way is, you remain in your present circumstances, do the best you can do, keep yourself open, keep yourself focused and make yourself available to the process. In the last moment of your life, we will see that it happens. Another way is, that you want to know something now. You want to break your limitation now and go beyond; you want to know life beyond its limitation now. Then you should not be concerned about what is happening around you. You should not be concerned about it because many things will happen that nobody will approve. Society will not approve, people will not approve, your family will not approve since they related to you because you were one kind of person. If you become another kind, they will not be able to relate to you anymore.

Let us say you got married to somebody. They married you because you were certain kind of person. If you become another kind, maybe it is a beautiful kind but a different kind, you are suddenly an alien. They cannot live with you unless they have the wisdom and sense to see you as a great possibility, that "My partner has gone ahead. It is wonderful to have somebody ahead of me." If that much sense is there, fine, but if that much sense comes, then the relationship has to transform itself. It can be no more what it was; it has to become something else. Once you recognise that someone is way ahead of you, that relationship cannot be husband and wife, mother and son, , this and that, it will become something else. So, in some way, whatever you used to value will be broken, either physically broken and gone away, or you will be living in the same space, but still it will change. How many people are ready for that?

So, the other two options are better for a lot of people, that you do the right things, be available to your Guru, and when the last moment comes, he will take care of it. Or, you are not even willing to be available but you are willing to do a few little things; practice somekind of nourishement for yourself so that somewhere in the future, something will happen. I do not wish that for you. Either you must break your limitations now or atleast in the moment of death it must happen. I am not a patient person. I am not somebody who practices patience. I practiced impatience for lifetimes. Patience and I won't go together. People generally see me as an extremely patient person - but I am not. My acceptance is seen as patience, but I am not patient. I am a terribly a impatient person. I want everything on fast forward. I don't like anyhthing moving slowly. I would like the earth to spin a little faster so that your growth is hastened. Why should it take 24 hours ?

So, if you want to break your limitations and you have your wife's permission, there are ways to do it. You just come. Most people do not break without activity. Very few can sit here and simply dissolve themselves. The rest have to be broken. It takes physical, mental activity for them to break themselves. Or you leave yourself in my hands; I will break you very easily. Do you know what it means to leave yourself totally in my hands? If I say "sit", you sit. If I say "stand", you stand. Now, if I say "close your eyes", you want to check if everybody is closing them first and then you close your eyes - that won't work. You will follow instructions right now only if you feel the instructions are reasonable. When I give you an unreasonable instructions, only then you will know who you are. Till now, I have been very reasonable. Sometimes, I get very unreasonable. When I get unreasonable, I see most people fail. There is only a handful of people who are willing to take unreasonable instructions and simply go on without a single thought in their mind as to why it is so. This is not just for some sadistic pleasure to make you do something; it is because essentially, your limitations are created by your own mind; nothing else.

Between you and the ultimate, there is nothing else but yourself. You think some other mountain is standing between you and the Ultimate? - Just your own mental structure. If you have to break that, we have to do something in reverse. This is a simple thing you can do; team up with somebody you don't like. Spend time with that person; very lovingly, joyfully. A lot of things will break. But you always team up with somebody you like - that is not good for you. Get married to somebody that you hate - a lot of limitations will break.

If you choose something that you like, it strenghtens your personality. Learn to do things that you don't like, be with people that you don't like, and still live your life sensibily, lovingly, joyfully. Everything will break.

Linga Bhairavi - A Fierce Feminine Force

Questioner : Sadhguru, could you tell us something about Linga Bhairavi ?

Sadhguru : She is yet to be born. Giving birth to somebody or something which is far bigger than yourself is a tremendously beautiful experience. Because of a variety of disturbances from outside, her gestation period unfortunately has been stretched beyond what we thought it will take but hopefully we will deliver her sometime 2009.

Linga Bhairavi will be a very new form. A linga typically represents the masculine, but she is a Linga Bhairavi. Bhairav-I means it is feminine. She will be of different nature. She will respond to a particular kind of appeal. If someone knows how to do the necessary appeal, she will respond to them in a big way. So you will have a kind of super technology with which you can get anything you want done - that is the whole idea of Devi worship. There is a huge culture of Devi worship here in India. But not only in India - in Arabia, Europe, and large parts of Africa, everywhere goddess worship was the most prominent thing till the monotheistic religion came up. All the crusades and inquisitions were mainly against people who were goddess worshipper. They tried to completely banish the goddess from the planet, but in India she lived and she continues to live. Everywhere else, wherever the monostheistic religions dominated, they completely erased the worship of the feminine.

One crucial point they held against these Devi or goddess worship groups was, they said they were doing devil's work because they were doing things that other people could not grasp or understand. They could do things that others would not have means to do - that means they were into occult practices. Because they could perform occult practices, they were branded has devil worshippers and put to death, or their places of worship were burnt. Systematically, over centuries, goddess worship was completely erased.

Here in India, it is still a very strong culture, but today, even here it has become like this that people conduct Devi worship in a clandestine way. People have become educated - anything that does not appeal to their reason, they want to destroy. Because of this, most of the Devi temples conduct the core of their worship in a very clandestine way. , not known to the outside world. Not everybody, just a small group of people is involved in this, because unfortunately, society has become very male dominated.

When I say male dominated, I do not mean man is dominating. I mean the male mind is dominating. Woman also has become like a man today. That is the most unfortunate thing. Women think they are becoming free by becoming like men. This is the most horrible slavery, that a woman has to become like a man. Once the masculine mind dominates the world, anything that does not appeal to the reason will be destroyed; which is happening worldwide. Here in India also this is happening, but you cannot kill the Devi worship totally because it is too deep-rooted. There are still some hardcore people like me. People have still kept the feminine alive in them - there are many of them. But I think worship of the feminine being mainstream is over in the world. It will always be somewhere clandestine. That is one of the reasons Linga Bhairavi will take a corner. She is taking a corner, but she got a triangular temple because of that. The Linga Bhairavi temple is going to be in the southwestern corner of the Dhayanalinga complex. Linga Bhairavi will be a very fierce feminine force.

The Dhayanalinga is a very powerful energy form but he is made in such a way that he has no need to defend himself, so he does not defend himself. One form of Shiva is Bhole, that means he is simple minded; because he just gives to everybody irrespective of who they are; how they will use him, misuse him - he doesn't care. That's how he is. Because of this nature, people would want to use it. For anybody who is practicing the occult, the Dhyanalinga is like a goldmine because occult practitioners have a certain type of sadhana through which they know how to make use of energy but they do not know how to create it. This is why the occult has always involved sacrifice - they know how to use the energy but they do not know how to create it. So they destroy one life to use it the way they want it - that has always been their way. It would be boon for anybody who is into serious practice of occult to be in the presence of Dhayanalinga and do certain sadhana, and to use the energies for occult practices; but we would not like to encourage that.

In this generation, it will not happen, but in future it is possible that people who want to do occult practices and use these energies in so many different ways would want to take over the place; and they will be capable. They will be too diabolically calculative and they are very powerful manipulators; they could just take over the whole space to use for a completely different purpose. When you create such a big energy source, naturally they will be drawn towards it, and you cannot keep them out, because not all occult is necessarily negative. The occult can be a positive force. It all depends on who is using it and for what purpose.

So we want to create Linga Bhairavi as a space which will be open for the occult. We will open up that possibility. This may cause a certain amount of misunderstanding and disturbance in people around right now, but that does not matter. I have gotten used to live with misunderstanding, and misunderstanding will always be there. These are sciences; these are things that very few people in the world can do. So, we will establish this space when I am still around. These are things which will live for a very longtime, and these are things which people will cherish. This is not only for the occult. For people who are only seeking physical health and material wellbeing, Linga Bhairavi could be far more responsive. I only hope the Linga Bhairavi temple will not become more crowded than the Dhyanalinga. That should not happen.

Still, for majority of the people, their immediate wellbeing is the most important thing. If we make their immediate wellbeing effortless, if they can achieve their material needs so much more easily, I am hoping - you know I am a hopeless optimist - that if they have more time in their hands, they will dedicate it to their spiritual search and wellbeing. I fear Linga Bhairavi may become more popular with people than the Dhayanlinga, but she also has a spiritual dimension. She could be one more conduit. On the northern end of the outer parikrama, we created the Theerthakund as a conduit for people to experience the Dhyanalinga. Similarly, on the southwest end, the Linga Bhairavi also will become a conduit to enhance people's ability to experience the Dhayanalinga.

So in one way, Linga Bhairavi is like a side attraction for people. People may find her more impactful than the Dhyanalinga itself because she will be very raw energy. The Dhayanlinga is subtle - it takes some amount of focus to feel it. But she will be so raw, nobody can miss it; very strong, raw power. In a way, she will be a kind of insurance for the Dhayanlinga on a long-term basis. If people want to do certain work, they can use Linga Bhairavi.

Why are we facilitating such things ? - Because I am not against anything in life; I am okay with everything. It is just that we have to counterbalance everything with something else. If we try to eradicate it, it will only grow. Right now, because of ecological pollution and other things that are happening, tomorrow, shall we pass a law to stop all the industry, buses and automobiles ? You think it is going to work ? We are saying, "Let's plant more tress." Actually, planting more trees is not a 100% solution; we are just delaying the process. If you take medicine that your doctor gives, you are not becoming immortal, you are only delaying death. That is how the whole life works.

You cannot eliminate those things from the world. They have been there for a very longtime. So, we are setting up a small corner where people can make use of this energy. And also for the devotees and meditators who come there, their life is not all spiritual. There are other aspects to their life. They have a family, they still have to struggle for their money, they have to fight for their professional wellbeing - there are so many things. For people, who are seeking physical and material wellbeing, these aspects are also available in the Dhyanalinga, but the Linga Bhairavi will cater to them a little better.

We do not want the Dhyanalinga to be a space to be used for any kind of personal pursuits, whatever they are. The Dhayanlinga, should be constantly kept as a spiritual space, not to be used for anything else. But people have other aspirations. It is not in me to decide and judge what somebody should be doing - it is upto them what they do. It is just that if they show an inclination, we are willing to help. If they do not have an inclination, they just want to enjoy the physicality of the world. I have no issue with that. It is up to them. Till they realise the limitation of what it is, let them go....

So, if you want health, wellbeing, prosperity - these kinds of things are very strong in the Linga Bhairavi energy. People who imbibe it can benefit from it that way. And she has a spiritual possibility also. Especially for those who are emotionally bound, the devotee kind of people, Linga Bhairavi will become a stronger attachment. It will give them a stronger sense of emotional connection than the Dhyanalinga because the Dhyanalinga doesn't really respond to your emotions. He only respond to your energy. He is just on all the time. That is the most wonderful way to do things but people have their limitations and inclination. So Linga Bhairavi can become a powerful force.

She will be fierce and powerful. What level of consecration to go for depends on many factors, especially the kind of support that will be there. When we did the Dhyanalinga conscration, we were doing this with time, space and certain kind of compulsions. There was very minimal support and a huge amount of resistance and struggle in the social situation around us. Now we have a much larger support base, both socially and otherwise. There are lots of suitable people around. If the situation allows, we would include a large group of people and make it happen. Otherwise, it could be done in stages, involving a small group and then a little larger group for peripheral work.

There is no question of ritualistic consecration. It is bound to be energy work. It will again be mercury-based linga. But will it be like the Dhyanalinga ? No. The kind of consecration we will do for Linga Bhairavi will need maintenance to keep it vibrant. She will not be like Goddess Kali - she will not ask for blood on daily basis. She will be consecrated in a different way. Because there is rasa - mercury is refered to as rasa - she will not need any outside help, but still she will need some maintenance. The Dhyanalinga does not need any maintenace. If for thousand years nobody enters the temple, after thousand years, it will still be the same. It will not drop even a notch. But if we consecrate Linga Bhairavi, it will not be like that. It can sustain itself for a certain period but after that it will dissipate.

There are many levels of consecration that can be done. One thing is consecrating the idol and making it powerful; that we will anyway do. Another is creating a form like this and letting it loose, so that people can seek it wherever they are. There are many forms like this, which at different times in history, people created and let loose, and even today people are making use of them. In India, there are many many examples - people call for a certain goddess and she actually appears for them. Most of these goddess were created in terrible forms. She appears to them in that form and things happen.

One example that is fairly well-known is Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Ramakrishna used to call Kali and she would come. He would actually feed her and she would eat. The plate would become empty. It was the real form, because these forms were created long ago. These are not just dolls that are created for the psychological wellbeing of a person. These are energy forms, which have been created and let loose. If you know how to bring them down, you can bring them down right here, like a live thing.

If we want to go for that level of consecration, it will involve a lot more. A new goddess will become alive. Making her alive in one form, here in the idol is one level of consecration. Making her truly alive, not in just this form, so that simply she is there, is something else. We could also establish a method that can be imparted to people, through which they can bring down that particular form into their lives. That will take a lot more. That is the kind of work I must be doing. I am in my elements only in that kind of work. We will make up our mind how exactly to create her, whether to make her mild or to make her wild. What kind of goddess do you want, mild and nice, or wild and wonderful ?

To witness the Consecration of Linga Bhairavi, a 3 Set DVD is available for purchase online CLICK HERE

Heart always wins over Intellect

Osho on Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Keshav Chandra Sen

Osho - I have told you the story of Ramakrishna and Keshav Chandra Sen. Keshav Chandra was one of the most intelligent people of his time. He founded a religion just on his intellectual philosophy, brahmasamaj, the society for God. And he had hundreds and thousands of intelligent people, a very intelligent group, as his followers. And he was puzzled that this uneducated Ramakrishna, who had not even completed the primary school – in India the primary school, the lowest school, takes four years; he had done only half.... Why were thousands of people going to this idiot?

That was in Keshav Chandra Sen’s mind. Finally he decided he had to go and defeat this man, because he could not think that the man could not be defeated by argument. That was impossible for him to imagine. This idiot from a small village is collecting thousands of people every day! From far and wide people are coming to see him, and to touch his feet!
Keshav Chandra with his followers informed Ramakrishna: ”I am coming on such and such a day to challenge you on every point in which you believe. Be ready!” Ramakrishna’s followers were very much afraid.

They knew Keshav Chandra was a great logician; poor Ramakrishna would not be able to answer anything. But Ramakrishna was very joyful, he danced. He said, ”I have been waiting all this time. When Keshav Chandra comes that will be a great day of joy!”

His disciples said, ”What are you saying? That will be a day of great sadness, because you cannot argue with him.”

Ramakrishna said, ”Wait. Who is going to argue with him? I don’t need to argue. Let him come.” But his disciples were shaky, very shaky, very much afraid that their master was going to be defeated, completely crushed. They knew Keshav Chandra. In that century there was no parallel to Keshav Chandra’s intelligence in this country.

And Keshav Chandra came with one hundred of his topmost disciples to see the argument, the debate, the challenge. Ramakrishna was standing on the road to receive him, far away from the temple where he used to live. And he hugged Keshav Chandra. And Keshav Chandra felt a little embarrassed, and that embarrassment went on growing.

Ramakrishna took his hand in his hand and took him inside. He said, ”I have been waiting and waiting for years. Why did you not come before?”

Keshav Chandra said, ”He seems to be a strange man, seems not to be afraid at all. Do you understand? I have come here for a discussion!”

Ramakrishna said, ”Of course.”

So they sat near the temple by the side of the Ganges, a beautiful place, under a tree.

And Ramakrishna said, ”Start.”

So Keshav Chandra asked him, ”What do you say about God?”
Ramakrishna said, ”Have I to say anything about God? Can’t you see God in my eyes?”

Keshav Chandra looked a little puzzled – ”What kind of argument is this?”
And Ramakrishna said, ”Can’t you feel God in my hand? Come closer, boy.”

And Keshav Chandra said, ”What kind of argument...?” He had been in many debates, he had defeated many great scholars, and this villager... In Hindi the word for idiot is gamar, but it actually means the villager. gaon means village, and gamar means from the village. But gamar is used as stupid, retarded, idiot.

Ramakrishna said, ”If you can understand the language of my eyes, if you can understand the energy of my hand, you are proof enough that existence is intelligent. Where have you got your intelligence from?”

This was a grand argument. He was saying, ”If you have got this great intelligence – and I know you are a highly intelligent person; I have always loved you – tell me from where it comes? If existence is without intelligence you cannot get it. From where? You are the proof that existence is intelligent, and that is what I mean by God. To me God is not somebody sitting on a cloud. To me God simply means existence is not unintelligent. It is an intelligent universe; we belong and we are needed. It rejoices in our rejoicings, it celebrates in our celebrations, it dances with our dance. Have you seen my dance?” – and he started dancing.

Keshav Chandra said, ”What to do!” But he danced so beautifully. He was a good dancer, because he used to dance in the temple sometimes from morning till evening – no coffee break! He would dance and dance till he would fall on the ground.

So he started dancing with such joy and such grace that suddenly there was a transformation in Keshav Chandra. He forgot all his logic, he saw the beauty of this man, he saw the splendor of this man, he saw a joy which he had never felt.
All that intellect, all those arguments were just superficial, inside there was utter emptiness. This man was so overflowing.

He touched the feet of Ramakrishna and said, ”Forgive me. I was absolutely wrong about you. I know nothing, and I have been just philosophizing. You know everything, and you are not saying a single word.”



Ramakrishna said, ”I will forgive you only on one condition.”
Keshav Chandra said, ”Any condition from your side. I am ready.”

Ramakrishna said, ”The condition is that once in a while you have to come to discuss with me, to debate with me, to challenge me.”

This is the way of a mystic; and Keshav Chandra was completely finished. He became a totally different man; he started to come every day. Soon his disciples deserted him: ”He has gone mad. That madman infected him so much. There was only one madman, now there are two. He is even dancing with him.”

But Keshav Chandra, who had been a sad man, grudging, complaining about everything, because he was living in a negative space, suddenly blossomed, flowers came to his being, a new fragrance. He forgot all logic. This man helped him have a taste of something that is beyond mind. Zen is the method to go beyond mind. So we will be discussing God and Zen together. God has to be negated, and Zen has to be planted deep in your being. The lie has to be destroyed and the truth has to be revealed. That’s why I have chosen God and Zen together. God is a lie, Zen is a truth.


Source: "God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth" by Osho

Sri Ramakrishna on doing worldly duties

M. (humbly): "How ought we to live in the world?"

Sri Ramakrishna : "Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all — with wife and children, father and mother — and serve them. Treat them as if they were very dear to you, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you.

A maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in her native village. She brings up her master's children as if they were her own. She even speaks of them as 'my Rama' or 'my Hari'. But in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all.

The tortoise moves about in the water. But can you guess where her thoughts are? There on the bank, where her eggs are lying. Do all your duties in the world, but keep your mind on God.

If you enter the world without first cultivating love for God, you will be entangled more and more. You will be overwhelmed with its danger, its grief its sorrows. And the more you think of worldly things, the more you will be attached to them.

"First rub your hands with oil and then break open the jack-fruit; otherwise they will be smeared with its sticky milk. First secure the oil of divine love, and then set your hands to the duties of the world.

"But one must go into solitude to attain this divine love. To get butter from milk you must let it set into curd in a secluded spot: if it is too much disturbed, milk won't turn into curd. Next, you must put aside all other duties, sit in a quiet spot, and churn the curd. Only then do you get butter.

"Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world. In the world there is only one thought: 'woman and gold'.*

"The world is water and the mind milk. If you pour milk into water they become one; you cannot find the pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practise spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not mix. The butter will float.

"Together with this, you must practise discrimination. 'Woman and gold' is impermanent. God is the only Eternal Substance. What does a man get with money? Food, clothes, and a dwelling-place — nothing more. You cannot realize God with its help. Therefore money can never be the goal of life. That is the process of discrimination. Do you understand?"

South India Actress Shreya at Dhyanalinga