How does one develop unwavering faith towards God?
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Question
How does one develop this faith in God – unwavering faith that can take one to loving Him and achieving the purpose of life?
Satsang at Anant Rao Residence, Lagos, Nigeria – 18th July 2015
Swami: When a child is born, it knows nobody, it doesn’t know whether the lady, in whose arm it is, is it its mother, the nurse, the aunt or the grandmother. It knows nothing – but, when it is fed, taken care of and cherished with tremendous love, the child develops faith that this must be its mother, for its happiness is her happiness; its sorrow is her sorrow; whatever it needs, she is ready to provide, regardless of her own comfort or convenience. When it experiences so much love, it develops faith that this must be its mother and she will always protect it. Once it develops this faith, wherever it goes, it keeps looking around for its mother. However beautiful the toy may be, however attractive the playground, the child will still look for its mother. It believes that only its mother will protect it, no one else. Nobody can love a child like its mother.
Where there is love, there is faith. God is constantly looking after you, taking care of you, protecting you, guiding you and nourishing you. You must open your eyes to this reality. For a moment, think to yourself, are you the one who is breathing? Are you the one who is making the heart beat? Are you the one who is making the food digest? You are all sitting here, but none of you has to make any effort for this all to take place. Then how is it all happening? If the heart stops beating, even for a moment, can you be what you are? You may be an important banker, a lawyer, an engineer or a businessman; whatever you happen to be, you can only be that whilst your lungs continue to breathe, your heart continues to beat and your stomach goes on digesting food. It is God who is doing it all, and He is the one who is looking after you every moment. If you understand this truth, if you realise that it is the love of God that helps you to become what you are, then you will develop faith.
A child which is born totally without knowledge, develops faith in its mother, only when it experiences the love of the mother. Similarly, when a devotee is aware of the care and protection of the Divine mother and father, then he or she will develop faith. You link your faith to things that happen or don’t happen. The same child who had no knowledge when it was born and simply believed in the mother, starts questioning the mother after a while. When the mother takes the child to a shop, the child will ask for ice-cream. The mother knows that the child has a high temperature and should not be fed ice-cream, so she will give it to the child. What does the child think? ‘Mother does not love me anymore; mother does not care for me.’ Thus, the child starts finding fault with the same mother whom it trusted when it was younger.
As you grow in the world, your mind also starts getting influenced by the surroundings. Any time God denies you something, because He knows it is not good for you, your faith starts wavering. Every moment God gives you something, your faith increases. Faith is not something that increases or decreases based on time, space or circumstances. Faith is not the result of what you get, what you don’t get or what you ask of God. Every moment you live, it is because of God’s grace. The breath, the beating of the heart, the systems of the body – all of them function because of God’s grace. Understand that more deeply and then your faith will never waver.
Know that whatever happens to you is known to God and He is doing the best for you. Then you will stop asking, questioning or doubting God; your faith will not waver. Don’t make faith the corollary of giving and receiving; let giving and receiving be the corollary of faith. You are alive because God is loving and looking after you. If you just know this one truth, your faith will never waver. It is good that there are not too many Doubting Thomases here. For a teacher, it is easier when there are no questioning students in the class – but, whether you question or not, you should have no doubts in spirituality. If you have not learned addition and subtraction in this class, you will not be able to divide or multiply in the next. If you have doubts about addition and subtraction today, know for sure that you will not progress tomorrow and will be unable to do more complicated mathematics. For that reason, whenever there is a doubt, one should immediately clear the doubt.
Suppose you were due to go to your office in the morning. If you had any doubt whether your car was working or not, would you not go and check it at once? Only when the car was fully functional would you have proceeded. If you had any doubt whether or not the brakes or the horn were working, you should not venture out in the car; it is dangerous for you as well as for other road users. It is the same in spirituality – one should not harbour any doubts, and it is only when you actually practise something that you get doubts. It is only when a child returns home and tries to memorise or practise what has been taught in class, that it will get doubts. Only when you practise what I am teaching you, will you get doubts.
Are our prayers heard?
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Question
In spite of our faith and devotion, suffering is not ending. Does that mean that our prayer is not heard?
Public Satsang at Dubai- 27th August 2015
Swami: Suffering is not a state of the body, but a state of the mind.
Draupadi was humiliated in the court of the Kauravas because her own husbands, forefathers and elders had abandoned her and allowed her to be humiliated at the hands of the wicked Kauravas. She was perturbed, sad, and wondered why she must undergo such suffering when she had such powerful husbands to protect her and so many elders in the court who could have saved her. Eventually, she cried out to Lord Krishna. Initially, she cried out for help to her husbands and the elders, but finally she surrendered herself to Krishna. Though Krishna did not appear, her sari became inexhaustible and that was the proof of Krishna’s grace. When Draupadi was later pondering in her chambers about the incident, as to why this suffering was sent her way, she thought very deeply and decided that when she depended on herself, she had to suffer, when she depended on her husbands, relations and relatives, she had to suffer, but only when she depended on God and surrendered completely, there was no suffering, for He came and rescued her.
So long as you depend on your own skills, though you may pray, sing bhajans, do seva and do all activities that you consider spiritual, you have truly not surrendered your mind completely to God. Just by singing bhajans, you cannot get rid of suffering.
Anaesthesia completely deactivates you from the pains of the body, so even if you undergo an operation, you do not feel the pain the body has to undergo. Similarly, the mind that is completely absorbed in God, completely surrendered to God, will know no suffering. Until then, one will undergo suffering. Only a mind completely absorbed in God will know no suffering.
How to prevent acting impulsively in adverse reactions?
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Question
Sometimes, we face adverse situations and we react to them without thinking and act impulsively. Does this bring us down spiritually? What should we do to prevent such reactions?
Public Satsang at Dubai- 27th August 2015
Swami: There are two ways one can live by: poorvatapa and pashchattapa.
Poorvatapa is thinking of the consequences before you act and then deciding whether the act is meritorious or not. Pashchattapa is acting before you think and then suffering for what you’ve done.
A man can truly live correctly if he thinks before he acts; i.e. poorvatapa. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna had to fight his own kith and kin. Before the battle itself, he saw the consequences of the war and told Krishna that he did not want to fight because the war would lead to destruction of his own people on both sides. That is poorvatapa. Most of the time you act instinctively and then you suffer. Thinking before acting is a good quality, which is the power of viveka or discrimination, which is given only to human beings. Discriminating right actions from wrong actions and vairagya, detachment from actions that are not meritorious, is important. So, man has been bestowed with viveka and vairagya, and it is up to the man whether to use them or not. Animals do not have this power. So, they act without thinking and suffer or enjoy based on what they’ve done.
Man is different. He has been given this discrimination and detachment. Discrimination of right from wrong, of good and bad, of meritorious and sinful acts, and then detaching himself from all that is sinful, wrong and bad. You must practise using this. Only by practise will you attain perfection. Therefore, the next time a situation arises like this, you will be able to choose well.
The mind is always in a hurry. It wants its ego, which is its identity, to be protected. It always acts in favour of its own ego. The heart always worries and thinks about others before acting, because the heart is selfless. Therefore, the heart will take the right decisions every moment. Anytime you have to say or do something, take a moment, close your eyes, take a deep breath and think what it would lead to. Do not be in a hurry to act. Hurry, Worry, Curry. Haste makes waste, waste makes worry. Do not be in a hurry.
What happens to a person after death?
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Question
Swami, what happens to a person after death?
Public Satsang at Dubai – 25th August 2017
Swami: Death is like the body that changes clothes. Jeevatma changes bodies. Till it gets another body, it has to wait. The wait is in order to check what one has done till date, how one has led their life. One will attain another body, be born in another family and be taken care of by some other parents, depending on how bad or good one has been in the previous birth. So, death is like changing from old clothes to new clothes, so also from old body to new body. You then continue your journey.
You go from class to home today, and then to the next class. So also, you are born, you die and are again reborn. This journey of birth and death keeps happening. The world is like a classroom; the universe is like a university. Everybody who is born here is born with a purpose – to learn this lesson to know that his true nature is divine. Until he or she learns this lesson, he will come back to the class again and again. Once you learn and pass, you will get your degree; you need not come to class again. You will become one with the Divine and there is no more class for you. If you haven’t learned your ABCDs correctly in primary, how can you pass the entrance exam for the high school? Therefore, what you do today, where you are is extremely important for determining your tomorrow.
Is there free will or is everything decided by Bhagawan Baba?
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Question
Is there free will or is everything decided by Bhagawan Baba?
Public Satsang at Dubai – 27th August 2015
Swami: If you come to the classroom, it is your destiny to get admission to the class, to have a particular teacher come to teach you, and to study certain subjects in a certain way, as taught by the teacher you get. However, whether you pay attention in the class, do homework well and then understand the lesson better is your free will. A student who comes to class and sleeps without paying attention, or if his mind is in the football field and not in the class, obviously will not progress and will not attain much. So, for a man who has strict identification with the body, the rules are, there is a certain destiny that brings you to a certain place. But what you make of it is your free will; You must make the best of what your destiny provides you.
Coming to Baba is destiny, becoming like Baba is free will. You must put in the effort. As long as body consciousness is there, duality is there; both free will and destiny exist. Only for one who has gone beyond body consciousness does nothing exist. Everything becomes divine, for he himself is divine. Until then, you have to go through the rules.
How can prayer help in a situation of mass need?
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Beloved Bhagawan, in our country, where we see so much need and poverty, we sometimes feel powerless to help people as we should. What do we do at such times?
Public Satsang at Taj Samudra, Colombo, Sri Lanka – 4th July 2015
Question: Beloved Bhagawan, in our country, where we see so much need and poverty, we sometimes feel powerless to help people as we should. What do we do at such times? Collective prayer? Can Bhagawan tell us something about prayer and how it can help situations of mass need and want? What can we all do for others if the scope of what has to be done is so big and too much for us to handle?
Swami: The problems in the world are plenty, but what you can do as humans with limited abilities and strengths is only so much. However, you must never forget that man plus God can achieve anything. There is nothing impossible when both God and man join together. God alone will not do; man alone cannot do. When they both join together, anything is possible. However, first and foremost, you must do your part to the best of your abilities. That is why I say, do your best and then leave the rest to Me.
In the story of the Mahabharata, Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandavas, was put to a lot of humiliation in the court of the Kauravas. In that moment, she prayed for help from the elders in the court, but they were powerless. They were bound by their own rules. She prayed to her own husbands, who were strong and supposed to protect her, but that also did not happen. They all put their heads down in shame. She tried, herself, to protect her own honour, by holding on to her sari, and not letting the wicked Dushasana snatch it away, but soon, she was totally exhausted. When she had tried everything that she could do, and still could not achieve, for the need was far bigger than her abilities, Krishna manifested. Krishna took care that what was beyond human ability was achieved that day, and she was protected.
What is most important is, with all your might, with all your strength, and with all your abilities, you must do all that you can. If you have done that, and only then if you pray for succor, help will definitely pour in from all sides. Most of the time, when you do very little and think that is all you can do, and you give up too soon and start praying to God to help, it’s not going to work. If God’s help has not yet come, it means you have still not exhausted all that you can do. That is how everyone should think. Once you have totally exhausted all your strength, skills and abilities, then God will manifest to solve the problem.
How to remain equanimous?
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Question
Swami, how can we maintain equanimity through head, heart and hand? Also, how do we sustain that in the various ups and downs of life?
Public Satsang at Encinitas, USA- 20th June 2015
Swami: If you think you are doing things, you can never maintain it. You will always be worried. If, however, you think Swami is the one who is doing, there won’t be any worry. For a moment, think about it. You are all sitting here, and you all have been breathing, but you did not put in any effort to breathe. It is happening on its own. Your hearts are beating constantly without any rest since birth. Who is making your heart beat? Whatever you eat gets digested and becomes energy and sustains your body through which you are able to work. Who is allowing all this to happen? For a moment if you ponder this truth, you will give up the sense of doer-ship. The moment you lose the sense of doer-ship, everything will be at peace.
If something good happens, you will be grateful to God, that He is blessing you. If something that happens which is not so favorable, you will also thank God. As Sreenivas said, “It is only an opportunity to do something better.”
Therefore, a person who is totally surrendered to God will find everything as a blessing from God. Then there is no question of managing heart, head, and hand, as all this will be managed by God Himself. If you are driving the car, you have to worry about the traffic, the opposite traffic, the cars, the potholes, and everything else. If you hand over the steering to the Lord, and sit by His side as a passenger, the journey will become so pleasant. If something goes wrong, you know it is God who is doing it. If something goes right, even then you know that it is God who is doing it. Neither will you swell up with pride, or get into depression. You will always maintain this. Your head, heart, hand, everything belongs to God. Let Him use it the way He wants. You don’t interfere. Then everything will be fine.
It’s only that we do things, and we want to have a sense of achievement, we want to be praised by others, we want name and fame, that is when we are not able to completely surrender. The mind bereft of all kinds of desires alone can merge in God. Only water can mix with water. Oil cannot mix with water. Only a selfless mind can mix with a selfless mind. If you want to surrender to God, develop this equanimity. You must completely let go of all your desires.
Is it possible for humans to attain immortality in Kali Yuga?
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Question
Swami, in this Kali Yuga, is there any possibility for humans to attain immortality?
Public Satsang at Sunnyvale, USA- 16th June 2015
Swami: Yes. Why this Kali Yuga? You can attain immortality in any Yuga. That is your birth right. You already are immortal. You think that you are not, but the best way of attaining immortality is not by action, nor by becoming a big family man, nor by having a lot of wealth, but only through sacrifice. It is by sacrifice alone that you will become immortal.
How many of us remember the kings and queens of America? Yet, we still remember the leaders who have sacrificed everything for the sake of bringing joy and peace to this country. You still remember leaders who did not think about themselves but about others and led their lives in a way of sacrifice. That is how you become immortal. That is how people will remember you, long after you are gone. Through actions of sacrifice you will attain immortality.
I am there, and you also can connect to Me within. Just reduce your desires, become more selfless, and fill your hearts with love, and you will feel Swami everywhere wherever you go. You don’t have to go to a particular place or do a particular thing to attain Swami. He is always with you. Learn to be with Him. Along with that, Satsang, or good company is very important. That will help you stay connected to Swami. A pot of water kept in shade will retain the water, but kept outside will lose all the water due to evaporation. Likewise, with Satsang, you will be able to retain this feeling within and you must preserve it and convert all this love into action. That is the way it will continue forever. You can stay in constant awareness of Swami’s presence.
How to develop constant integrated awareness?
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How can we develop this constant integrated awareness?
Public Satsang at Sunnyvale,USA- 16th June 2015
Question: We try to stay in constant integrated awareness. We try to listen to our inner voice. Some days are good days, but many days are not so good, especially when we have problems at work, with family, relatives, friends or colleagues. Some days are not as good as the days when we think we are spiritually inclined. How can we develop this constant integrated awareness?
Swami: Practice is the only key. You were not born with the skills to write or read. When you started learning to read, you read alphabet by alphabet and then you formed words. Slowly, word by word, you read sentences, and slowly by reading the sentences, you could read an entire book. Today you are so fast because of constant practice. Constant practice to be in that state of peace is what is required. That will only happen if you turn inward all the time to see the purpose behind whatever is happening. Good is happening for a purpose. The bad that is happening, which you apparently feel is bad, for a purpose. See what God is trying to teach you, and then you will be at peace.
When you see something is happening which you do not like, and believe it is because of others and not because of God, you lose peace. If you think that it is God who is doing such things through others to teach you a lesson, then you will be at peace. You will constantly be aware that God is the one who is doing whatever is happening around you to teach you lessons. Practice is the only way of developing this.
What is the true nature of the Atma?
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Question
We know that the Atma is smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest. Now, the Atma that is within the heart, is it the whole heart or is it simply the size of a grain of sand? Or is it the infinitely small, without end?
Public Satsang at Sunnyvale, USA- 16th June 2015
Full question:
We know that the Atma is smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest. A single grain of sand has over a hundred billion atoms. An atom is composed of a nucleus and electrons that go around it. If you blow up the nucleus to the size of a ping pong ball, the closest electrons to it will be approximately between the cities of New York and Los Angeles. All that space that is in between is how I perceive You, Swami – to be unseen. All that empty space is unseen by me.
Now, the Atma that is within the heart, is it the whole heart or is it simply the size of a grain of sand? Or is it the infinitely small, without end? I believe that it is infinitely small, without end; and in this empty space that we can perceive with the eyes, yet hard to comprehend with our minds – that is where I see that we are all one and there is no difference. Also, I see attachment to the world is one of the greatest hindrances to recognizing this. We see all these things on TV, become so material and feel ‘I want this’ and ‘I want that’, instead of recognizing ‘I am That’. What puzzles me is the evil in the world. I don’t know how You will do it, but I know that with Your Grace working through us, we shall have eternal peace.
Swami: Atma is like air. Air pervades everything. It is there in the smallest area to the largest of fields. Air pervades all. Everything is in the air; the air is in everything. That is the nature of the Atma. If you break the pot, the air inside the pot and the air outside the pot become one. If you close the pot, you may define the air as ‘air in the pot’ and ‘air outside’. This attachment to oneself and believing that one is just the body brings about all these differences. If you give up this attachment, then everything appears as one. It is as simple as that. The body is just the container – a vessel in which the part of God that is bigger, Paramatma (God) is being encapsulated as Jivatma (the individualized soul). The moment body attachment goes, Jivatma and Paramatma become one and there is only one that exists. It is we who create this difference.
Suppose there were no walls here; this hall and the ground outside would be one. The walls define this as a hall and outside as the empty space or ground. Likewise, we have built these walls of body attachment which makes us feel different from each other. The moment we give up this, all are the same. Jesus said, “All are one, my dear son, be alike to everyone,” because He understood this truth.
World peace will come if you are at peace. If you are not at peace, there cannot be peace in the world. One may sit in an ashram and still be restless; one may sit in the market but still be at peace. Once you attain inner peace, you will see its reflection everywhere. Outer peace also will be attained. Inner peace will come only where there is unity of thought, word and action. When there is unity, there will be tremendous peace. There is no peace when you think something, say something and do something else. If you make it all one, you will have inner peace. That’s when you will also have outer peace. It is not nature which is making noise; it is not God who is making noise; it is men who are making noise. It is humans who have to be at peace, not Nature or God. If you are at peace with yourself, you will spread the peace to those around you. This peace will come only if you think, say and do the same thing. If you think you are Divine, say you’re Divine, and do things that are Divine, that is when you will attain peace within yourself and peace in the world outside.
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