Saturday, April 30, 2011

Praising is Divine....

Adulation shows the magnanimity of the one who adores, rather than the one who is adored! Adulation indicates that the ego has become transparent; the best antidote for ego is adulation. Adulation works in three ways: If it is for someone else, it is ...not palatable to an egoistic person. If it is for you, it boosts your ego. If you adore somebody, it dissolves your ego and makes you magnanimous.

Unanimous chorus : When Guruji is adulated, E V E R Y O N E adores it! (laughter) Adulation indicates the magnanimity of the person who is adoring. And the one who is great, does not get swayed by adulation. So the test of the greatness of a person is that he is not shaken by any amount of adulation.

A desire for adulation is a sign of immaturity. Aversion to adulation is small-mindedness. Lack of adulation in life is dryness and boredom. A healthy mind would always like to adulate, to elevate others. An unhealthy mind would like to pull down everything. Adulation indicates the trust, enthusiasm and richness in a culture. Lack of adulation is a self-centred, small-minded, fearful and culturally-impoverished society. Being indifferent to adulation when it comes to you and being magnanimous when it is to be given, is the way of the wise!

Sri Sri..

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

11 Expressions of Love :)


"Love is incomplete. And it will have to remain incomplete. If something is complete, it means that you have marked the boundaries; found its limitations. For love to be infinite, it has to be incomplete. Love is infinite and it finds expression in infinite ways. They can be categorised as eleven ways of expressing love, or eleven ways in which love finds its expression.


1. The first one is Gunamahatmyasakti, imbibing the qualities of the Divine,

appreciating the qualities of the Divine. When you love somebody, what is that in him or her that you love? You'll find some qualities. So‐and‐so is kind, so‐and‐so is caring... Qualities do not have form. Loving God in this sense means imbibing all the qualities that God represents. Normally one picks all the negative qualities in a person. Even in God, you will pick some negativity! The moment your mind is not in love, it behaves thus. When you are living Divine love, you will enhance and rejoice in Divine qualities wherever you find them.


2. The second is Rupasakti. Some may not be able to appreciate the qualities, because they don't see the qualities as qualities. And qualities cannot be seen without a form. When you're unable to appreciate the subtle qualities, you can definitely appreciate the form that is in the form of you. And forms are everywhere! When you appreciate a flower, you appreciate the form. When you see truth in the form as a quality and glorify it, it takes you beyond the qualities. In the same way, if you love a flower, and deeply appreciate it, you will see that it dissolves into the formless. You will see the space which is hiding deep inside that flower.


3. The third is Pujasakti, the interest in worshipping, honouring. Love can find its expression in the form of puja, form of honouring. And one who has done this will know the taste of it. As the state of your wholeness, your mind says, ''I want nothing. I just want to be worshipping like this all my life.'' Pujasakti is a sign of love. If you love someone, something, and whenever there is love you'll see that you start worshipping that which you love.


4. The fourth is Smaranasakti, which means remembering. That something which stays constantly on your mind. Have you noticed that when you love something, and have a desire, that desire lingers on in your mind? Sometimes, as soon as you get up, the same thing rolls on in your mind. When there is strong desire for something, that thought pours in all the time. In the same way, when you hate something, it runs through your mind all the time. This is called smarana. How wonderful it will be if the Divine just rolls in your mind like that?


5. Dasyasakti is the fifth. It means being a servant of God. It means saying, ''I am just the servant of the Divine; He's taking care of me. I do whatever I have been asked to do. My life is here not to get something out of here — I have come to this world to serve Him. Service is expecting nothing in return. Whatever service He wants from me, I'll do it. Whomsoever He will send in front of me, I will be useful to them, I'll help them.'' This is dasyasakti.


6. The sixth is Sakhyasakti, companion of God. A feeling of companionship with the Divine. Many may not like being a servant. Sakhyasakti is a feeling that I am the beloved of my Lord. He is my beloved. I'll do whatever I can to please Him. It is wherein you are able to share fearlessly with the Divine. And this will have to come from you. It's not that one is superior to the other. Gita was taught to Arjuna, and Arjuna made Krishna his friend, sakha, companion. That's why Krishna was called Jagad‐guru, the teacher of the whole universe. He was both a master and a companion.


7. The seventh is Vatsalyasakti. Vastsalya means affection, being affectionate. Can we treat the Divine as a child, as a naughty person? In vatsalyasakti, devotion can take the form of the care you have for a child, or mothering the Divine. The devotee then orders God. There's such a sweet feeling behind it. The devotee tells God, ''See, if You do like that, I'll be angry with you. If You don't make Your presence felt today, I'm not going to talk to You tomorrow.'' So just like a mother deals with a child, a devotee deals with God. Feeling that closeness is vatsalyasakti.


8. Kantasakti is the eighth form. It is the beloved husband‐wife, relationship. Feeling that the Divine is part of you, and, ''He cares for me so much that He cannot exist without me! How can He exist without me?''


9. The ninth form is Atmanivedanasakti, offering one's very self. That is a great form of love that, ''my very breath, my very existence is Yours. Every particle of my existence is offered to You. Every breath I breathe in is Yours. I am Yours.''. That total surrender, letting go. ''You do whatever You want with this life! It is Yours!''. This flavour, of not even keeping any bit of ''me, I'' inside, is atmanivedanasakti.


10. Tanmayatasakti is the tenth form. This is seeing everything as You. That everything belongs to You. The totality of prana, the flow of prana, finding itself everywhere is tanmayatasakti. Being soaked in the Divine love is called tanmaya, tanmayatasakti. Anyway, everything is already soaked in Him! It only has to be recognised!


11. Paramavirahasakti is the eleventh form. Viraha means extreme agony and the pain of longing, of separation. This also a sign of Divine love. Love can never be complete because there is longing. It's the longing that makes love incomplete and infinite! So the pain of longing itself is Divine love. In that painful longing, prayer dawns. Blessed are those who go through that pain.


Usually, when people love something and there is a longing for it, they try to get rid of it because it's painful. The more you try to run away from it, you are destroying not only the longing but also the love. But if you can accept the pain of longing, that brings you the recognition of infinity."


Sri Sri

Monday, April 18, 2011

Slow down...... ;)


"If you run very fast, the very speed gives you an intoxication. That’s why there is so much addiction to speed. If you drive a car, the mind wants to go faster and faster. It makes you intoxicated. Speed releases certain chemicals in the body and in the blood; that’s why you would like to go on pressing the accelerator. Just run fast one day and watch what happens. A moment comes when the speed takes over: that is the acceleration of speed.


Just the opposite happens if you slow down. What is a Buddha doing under the tree? — slowing down the speed, nothing else. What am I continuously teaching you? — slow down the speed. Come to a point where there is no speed within you, nobody running. In that moment awareness happens — you become enlightened.


There are two poles: one is speed; then you are intoxicated, you become unconscious. The other is no speed — slowed down completely, totally, an absolute stop. Suddenly you become enlightened."


The method :

Slow down your speed. Eat slowly, walk slowly, talk slowly, move very, very slowly, and by and by you will come to know the beauty of inactivity, the beauty of passivity. Then you are not intoxicated — you are completely aware and conscious.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Keep the Faith.... :)


"Even your spiritual practices are based on faith. If you didn't have faith you wouldn't even be practicing. Everything requires faith. That is why the scriptures say that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

Strong conviction is faith. If you have conviction, it is easy to accomplish what you set out to do. But before you even begin, you must be convinced. Otherwise you will just think, "Oh, okay, I'll try to do it. " Don't think that way. Your thought should be, "This is what I want, no matter what happens. All the rest is nothing. I won't stop until I get it! This is the most important thing in my life."

Tests will come to see if you are really strong in your faith. Do you know how to install a flag post or a telephone post in the ground? You dig a hole and put the post in; but you don't just leave it at that. You put stones all around and hammer it to make it strong. You hammer the ground all around, and then you try to shake the post. If it shakes, you hammer again. As long as it keeps shaking, you keep on hammering. When do you stop hammering? When it stops shaking.

Life is like that. As long as you are shaking, you'll be hammered. It's true. God is trying to make you steady, and unless that hammering occurs you cannot be strong and steady. So don't be afraid to face the hammering."

Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi

Sri Swami Satchidananda