If your prarabdha does not give you satsang with a jnani, go directly to the source and have satsang of the unmanifest Self. - Annamalai Swami

 CONVERSATIONS WITH ANNAMALAI SWAMI

Q: We are able to have satsang here. It is very nice, very sweet.
men we leave here, how can we get such satsang?

Annamalai Swami: If it is not your destiny to stay with a jnani you can always try to establish contact with the formless Self. This is the real satsang.

You say that it is your prarabdha to live in a big city. Prarabdha only pertains to the activities of the body. No prarabdha can
prevent you from turning inwards and putting your attention on
the Self. This is a freedom which every human being has irrespective of his prarabdha. If your prarabdha does not give you satsang with a jnani, go directly to the source and have satsang of the unmanifest Self. This satsang is much harder to achieve and maintain, but if you have no other alternatives you must try it. Small babies live in towns without being affected by the atmosphere or the people there. If you live a pure life and make the right effort you can also reach the state in which the world cannot effect you.

Q: It will be very difficult. I shall be calling for help very frequently.

AS: If you have a desire to have satsang, or a desire to be always engaged in meditation on the Self, these things will happen. If your desire is strong enough the power of the Self will make all the arrangements for you. It will send you a Guru, or satsang, or whatever else you might need. If you are earnestly doing meditation on the Self, everything you need will automatically come to you.

Living by the Words of Bhagavan

Shared via Ramana Hridayam

Sadhus subsist only upon alms offered to them with love. - Papa Ramdas

Why don't you earn your own bread?
A story by papa ramdas

There was a Sadhu in Malabar, a tall and stout person. He was in the police service before he became a Sadhu. He used to wear only a small towel round his waist. Once when he was going for his Bhiksha, a householder, seeing his good physique, asked him why he should not work and earn his bread, instead of begging for it. The Sadhu was told that he would be given a meal if he was prepared to cut a few logs of firewood that were lying in the householder's courtyard. The Sadhu, without uttering a word, started splitting the firewood with an axe given to him and, within a short time, cut the whole lot and stacked the pieces in the proper place.

Then, leaving the axe near the stack, the Sadhu simply walked away.

The householder saw the Sadhu going without taking food. He called him back and asked him why he was going before taking his meal.

The Sadhu then replied, "I do not take my food where I work, and I do not work where I take my food!". This means Sadhus subsist only upon alms offered to them with love.

Being empty and Being in a state of offering

Sadhguru : It has been almost sixteen years since we consecrated Dhyanalinga. Sixteen is an important number in the yogic system. When Adiyogi transmitted his knowing, he explored and expounded one hundred and twelve ways in which a human being can attain to his ultimate nature. But when he saw the time it would take for his seven disciples to grasp these 112 ways, he divided them into seven parts of sixteen each.

When the seven disciples had grasped these sixteen ways, Adiyogi said, “Now it is time to go and share this with the rest of the world.” They were completely overwhelmed because they could not think of a life without him. When they were just about to leave, he said, “But what about Guru Dakshina?” In the tradition, the disciple must make an offering before he leaves. It is not that the guru needs the dakshina – he wants his disciples to leave with a sense of offering something precious, because in a state of offering, a human being is at his best. These seven people were bewildered – what to offer him? Except for the loincloth they wore, they had nothing.

Then Agastya Muni said, “I carry sixteen gems within me, the most precious kind. These sixteen gems that I received from you, I offer to you,” and he placed these sixteen ways at his feet and became empty-handed. The other six took the cue and offered back the sixteen ways they had gathered from Adiyogi and also stood empty-handed. You must understand this – their life’s aspiration was to gather this knowledge, they spent eighty-four years of heart-breaking sadhana to earn this – and in one moment, they put it back at his feet and stood empty. They left with nothing in their hands.

This was the greatest aspect of Adiyogi’s teaching. Because they went empty, they became like him. Shi-va means “that which is not.” And they became “that which is not.” Otherwise, they would have carried these sixteen ways like a crown, marketing it to the rest of the world. Because they became empty, all one hundred and twelve ways found expression through all seven of them. Things they could have never grasped and did not have the capacity for became a part of them simply because they offered back the most precious aspect of their life.

So, sixteen is an important number for us, and there are certain things we will be doing with Dhyanalinga to make him more available during the next sixteen-year phase. Very few people have really consumed it, but it is a tremendous storehouse of knowledge; nowhere else has it been done like this. The form of it is very, very unique. It is time people become more sensitive to him. I am not saying this with any disregard, but people come like tourists and sit for fifteen minutes, and at the end they ask, “No Prasadam?!” Or, “When is fifteen minutes going to be over?” Other people go through fifteen minutes like a moment. If you come like a tourist, so what? But if you leave the world like a tourist, that is a pathetic state. Before you leave this world, that which made this world happen should be yours – at least a little bit. If it is not yours, all you are left with is a lump of earth (body) – which they will anyway take back.

If something is ignited within you, if something more than the warmth of your body is on, then in the coming year we will offer possibilities to tweak up the way Dhyanalinga functions for you – whether you are living in the ashram, or just here for a short period of time. It is my only endeavor that you should experience something more than your physicality. This will not happen by you seeking experiences, but by preparing yourself to become receptive. Your Sadhana is your lifeline. I am with you.

Love & Blessings,
Sadhguru

Source Link : http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/spot/sixteen-years-dhyanalinga/

Do not identify with what you see. Identify with reality. - Robert Adams

You can't bring peace into the world while you're still in illusion.

Become peaceful and you'll see peace.
Become loving and you'll see love.

In this kind of world in which we live, since time immemorial there has been man's inhumanity to man, there have been riots, wars, destruction, chaos, confusion. And there have been people saying we're going to make peace and turn this into a peaceful world. This is the way of the world. And the world is a mirage.

So if you identify will all the things you see you will always be confused, you have to because the nature of this world is confusion.

Do not identify with what you see. Identify with reality.

We're going back to the space again, what I was talking about. All these riots are taking place in the space.
Is the space affected?
So are you the rioter or are you the space?
With what do you identify?

If you see the rioters reality then that is the world in which you live and you suffer accordingly. But when you go beyond that and you realize the space or consciousness or pure awareness is the only reality then you leave this world.

And the Lord said "I will wait"

In one of His aspects, a very touching aspect, the Lord may be said to be a beggar. He yearns for our attention. The Master of the Universe, at whose glance all stars, suns, moons, and planets quiver, is running after man and saying: "Won't you give Me your affection? Don't you love Me, the Giver, more than the things I have made for you? Won't you seek Me?" 

But man says: "I am too busy now; I have work to do. I can't take time to look for You." And the Lord says: "I will wait."

- Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

The Presence of Jnani mirrors back your state

Papaji : The enlightened man, the jnani, does not do anything.
He just sits quietly, like a mountain. 

He does not respond to your requests by doing anything, but if you go near him with a desire in your mind, there will be an automatic response. If you throw a rubber ball at a wall, it will bounce back. The angle and speed of the ball off the wall will depend on the angle and speed at which you throw it. The wall does not have to decide how to respond to the incoming ball. When you go into the presence of a jnani with desires in your mind, the appropriate response comes back automatically. You don’t even have to talk about them. If your mind is in the presence of a jnani, it will be flinging its desires at the wall of his enlightenment, and that wall will give you back what you desire or need. But if you go into the presence of a jnani without any thoughts or desires, what will be reflected back will be the state of thoughtlessness and desirelessness. In his presence you will be established in that state. This is the sannidhi, the presence of the jnani, at work. You don’t need to ask for anything. Just go near him. 

PAPAJI
(Nothing Ever Happened, volume three, pp. 335-6)

Is my Guru greater than other Gurus ?

Does Swami understand Jesus Christ to be a jnani like so many other jnanis, or was he something more than that? 

Annamalai Swami : If the ego is destroyed, only non-dual consciousness remains.
There is no higher or lower in that state.

You cannot say that one jnani is in a different state from another. You cannot say that Jesus Christ is better than Bhagavan or vice versa. There is no higher state than that of the jnani and there is no jnani who is superior to any other jnani. 

Although the inner state and experience of all jnanis is the same, their outer activities differ because each of them has a
different destiny to fulfill. Some will become teachers and some will not. 

If there is water in a glass it will quench the thirst of one man; if there is water in a big pot it may quench the thirst of thirty or forty people; if there is water in a well it can quench the thirst of all the people in a village or a town. 

Some spiritual aspirants have done tapas only for their own realization. After realization they may be able to help a few people. But some jnanis have done prolonged tapas not only for their own realization but also to help liberate others. The jnanis who have done this kind of tapas become world
famous masters and have many followers.

- Living by the Words of Bhagavan

Try to keep the mind unshakenly fixed on That which sees.

“The phenomena we see, are curious and surprising — 

but the most marvelous of all we do not realize, and that is that one, and only one illimitable force is responsible for:

(a) All the phenomena we see; and 
(b) The act of seeing them.

“Do not fix your attention on all these changing things of life, death and phenomena. Do not think of even the actual act of seeing or perceiving them, but only of that which sees all these things — that which is responsible for it all. 

This will seem nearly impossible at first, but by degrees the result will be felt. It takes years of steady, daily practice, and that is how a Master is made. Give a quarter of an hour a day for this practice.
Try to keep the mind unshakenly fixed on That which sees. It is inside yourself. Do not expect to find that ‘That’ is something definite on which the mind can be fixed easily; it will not be so.

- F.H. HUMPHREYS, the first Western disciple of Bhagavan

The temptation of seeing people has enemy

Goldsmith Joel : Once you begin to perceive that there is no such thing as an evil man or woman because evil is not a man or a woman but an impersonal temptation or tempter, then, when you witness evil men and women, instead of reacting with condemnation, a smile comes inside of you with a “Father, forgive them their ignorance” - not their evil, their ignorance. They could not be evil if they were not ignorant. Therefore, you do not feel horror at the evils or the evil persons of the world, but a compassion, a “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Such an attitude is a sign of spiritual progress. 

Another sign of spiritual progress is the extent to which you pray for your enemies. The longer you see them as human beings, the longer there will be something to be forgiven or to be prayed over. There is only one way to pray for your enemies, and that is to understand that God is individual being. The more you realize that, the fewer mistakes they can make, and the fewer sins they can commit. But the more you look upon them as human beings who are sinning and whom you in your generosity are going to forgive, the more egotistical you are, and the more you bind them. 

If you have surrendered yourself to God, so that you have no Self but that Self which is God, and know that whatever of good, emanating from you or through you, is of God and whatever of error is just your inability to let God fully function, then you must know that this is the truth about everybody, whether or not he is aware of it.

Goldsmith, Joel S.

Health - A Partnership with the Source of Creation

Can you stay without this temptation, when you meditate ?

If you observe yourself carefully in periods of prayer or meditation,
you will discover that for a great part,
you are allowing your thought to go to the outer and
are thinking in terms of changing the external.

It really is a tremendous discipline to arrive
at that state of consciousness where you...
never look for the crops [fruitage]...
Our entire attention must be on the fact that
unless there is an activity of the spirit within,
there never will be a crop.
 
If I can abide in the remembrance of this invisible substance
that is functioning within me, I will be able to wait for my crop,
whether it is a crop of money, or a crop of health,
or a crop of happiness, or a crop of peace.
It will come if I can keep my mind off the crop, off of the without.

~Joel Goldsmith

There is no meditation in concentration, but there is already concentration in meditation. - Swami Rama

Many teachers these days think meditation can be attained without concentration. That ignorant idea is misleading. The mind as it is in its ordinary nature remains in a dissipated state. Without gathering together and concentrating the energy of mind, the deeper state of meditation is not possible. The student who practices sitting in a quiet and calm place even for a short time can experience a bit of unusual joy, though he is not able to experience the deep joy of the meditative state. Why should one be afraid of concentration? Some say that concentration of mind can bring about strain and stress and thus should not be practiced. They even say that discipline is not needed, and they create simplified methods and call them meditation. Such teachings appear to make difficult sadhana easy, but these methods do not lead one to the higher dimensions of life.

Swami Rama
Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita commentary, Chapter 6

The whole cosmos is here. - Sadhguru.

 









Sadhguru : If you want to know for yourself, you must turn inward. Today, people are making serious efforts to know themselves by reading books. I am not against books. If you are reading a book to know about a nation or business or to learn engineering, it is fine. But reading a book to know about yourself is silly.

You are here, alive and kicking!

It is alright if you are reading a book to get inspired to take a step inward, but if you want to know something, you must look inward. You cannot read a book and know about yourself. After you are dead, if you have lived an interesting life, somebody may read about you, but when you are alive, you should not read about yourself. That is not the way to know yourself. Infact, the more learned you become, the more you realize that you actually know nothing. Only a fool who read half a book thinks he knows everything.

Even if you read all the libraries of the world, you will still not know anything.

But if you turn inward for just one moment, everything that is worth knowing in the existence can be known.

There are very beautiful stories in our tradition, in terms of perception and experiencing life. You have heard of the Rig Veda? This is the most ancient book on the planet. It was not written down; it was transmitted verbally from generation to generation. The Rig veda describes certain constellations and arrangement of galaxies in great detail, with proper diagrams and mathematical calculations. These constellations are not visible to the naked eye. Today, scientists are able to view them with very powerful telescopes, but how did they see them thousands of years ago?

They saw, but not with their eyes, because everything that can be perceived in the existence can be grasped in a single moment if you just turn inward. The whole cosmos is here.

`If I am warm with God's love, how can I feel the cold?'

I have seen in humble little huts and caves in India men with no food, nothing at all; nor are they beggars. They are richer than the world's millionaire's. Because they are the friends of all, people love them, and love to feed them. In bitingly cold weather, I saw one saint in the Himalayas who had nothing on. `Won't you catch cold?' I said. Sweetly he answered: `If I am warm with God's love, how can I feel the cold?' Saints like him are greater than any crowned king. If without food, without any visible means of security, such men can be like kings, peaceful and without worry, why can't you?

Paramahansa Yogananda, The Divine Romance

Guru's Grace and Self-Realization

Sri Totakacharya ~ "Guru - Disciple Relationship"

Sri Sankara, was the greatest expounder of Advaita Vedanta. Totakacharya was a disciple of Sri Sankara. 

When Śaṅkara was at Śṛṅgeri, he met a boy named Giri. Śaṅkara accepted the boy as his disciple. Giri was a hard-working and loyal servant of his Guru, Ādi Śaṅkara, though he did not appear bright to the other disciples. The reverence which he had for his Guru, the great Sankaracharya so completely dominated him that Giri had no other interest in his life except to serve the great Master. Tradition has it that the devotion of Giri to his Master was very profound; but he did not profit much by the teachings. He seems to have felt that a strong personal devotion to the Guru was of far greater importance than a mere intellectual grasp of the teachings. He had neither the learning of other disciples like Sureshwara and Padmapada nor the realisation of Hastamalaka. His co-disciples naturally entertained a lesser idea of his intellect. Even Padmapada was not free from this misconception. 

One day, Giri was washing his Guru's clothes, when Ādi Śaṅkara sat down to begin a lesson on Advaita Vedānta. He however did not start the lesson saying he was waiting for Giri to come back from his chores and singing lessons. At this, Padmapada pointed to a wall and said that it would be the same if Ādi Śaṅkara taught to this dumb wall as he taught to Giri. Sri Shankara naturally did not relish this remark. Ādi Śaṅkara wanted to reward Giri for his loyalty and devotion. Thus Sankara out of compassion mentally granted Giri the complete knowledge of all the śāstras (sciences).

When Giri returned from the river, he was literally in bliss. He addressed the Acharya in a few brilliant stanzas in Totaka metre each verse ending with the refrain, “bhava sankara desika me saranam.”. Since then, known before as Giri, he got the title of Totakacharya. The other disciples were dumb founded by the instant illumination that shone forth in the out pour of devotion coupled with knowledge with all trace of dullness dispelled.
Sri Totakacharya's life is an example that the Guru's Grace alone can carry one over the stormy ocean of worldliness to the safe shores of self realization. The grace of the master alone can illuminate one as even the essential effort needed for spiritual progress can only aid one to a certain extent. The rest that remains which cannot be accessed by the mind, is with the beyond or the Grace that throws opens the portals of enlightenment.

What is Devi Bhava? (Amma)