The Path Of Pure Bliss

Bliss cannot be understood. It is extremely difficult to get into bliss. After many lifetimes you get into bliss. But it is even more difficult to get out of bliss. All that you seek in your life is bliss, that Divine Union with your source, and everything else in the world distracts you from that goal. There are a zillion things to distract you from that goal in so many varied ways. So many unexplainable, incomprehensible ways of not coming home, not going back to where you came from.

The mind is kept alive by carvings and aversions-shoulds or should nots, and wants. Only when the mind dies does the bliss dawn. Bliss is the abode of all divinity. It is possible only in this human body to comprehend, to uphold this understanding and having had a human life and having known this path, if you still do not realise this- you are suffering a great loss.

The cravings and aversions in life make your heart hard. There is no use in being polite in your behaviour externally. You can be rude in your behaviour on the outside but you cannot be rough in your heart. If you are rude in your behaviour it is acceptable but not if you are rough in your heart. What really matters then is the intention. The world does not care how you are inside because they cannot see it. The Divine does not care how you are outside- it only looks to your inside. Never let any tiny bit of dislike or craving make a house in your heart. Let it be fresh, soft and fragrant like a rose.

It is such an illusion- you dislike someone or something, and this only makes you hard and your hardness takes a longtime to soften, to disappear. It is such a trap for keeping you away from the treasures of Pure bliss. Nothing in this material world can give you contentment. A mind that only looks outward and seeks contentment gets discontented and this grows and complaints of negativity start hardening the brain, thus clouding the awareness, the aura and forms a huge cloud of negative energy.

When the negativity reaches its peak, like an overloaded balloon, it explodes and comes back to the Divinity. Where else can it go anyway?

You can never escape the Divine, for by nature you are positive. You may take this path only after transversing the long route of negativity or you may take it soon. But you must finally come this way. When the Divinity dawns, in no time the shift happens from the untruth to truth, from darkness to light, from the dull inert matter to the sparkling spirit.

When the heart is hard, there is no fun. You cannot experience fun. But when it melts, celebration begins.

-His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shanker

(one of my favourite spiritual teachers. His teachings are full of truth and simplicity and offers immense guidance to all seekers like us to come closer to Divinity)

Those you know Love

Know its facility in all matters;

Others find it useful ocaasionally

While the broken- hearted bitterly laugh

And deny Love altogether.

Can you hear in their laughter

The sound of Heaven?

God is not to blame for the separation.

He has never turned His back on you.

Blame is the disease

Which blinds you to unity’s truth.

Wake up; the nightmare is over.

The light is in them

As well as in you.

The thinnest of veils

Divides the two.

You are One Self.

You are not weak, but strong.

You are not limited, but unlimited.

You are not unloved, but much beloved.

You have suffered only for this;

That you may bless those who suffer still.

-From the Tao of Healing.

“I want to ply my boat, many times,
Across the gulf-after-death,
And return to earth’s shores from my home in Heaven.
I want to load my boat
With those waiting, thirsty ones who are left behind,
And carry them by the opal pool of iridescent joy,
Where my Father distributes
His all-desire quenching liquid peace.”

-Sri Sri Paramhansa Yogananda.

The Buddha's Fragrance

Lord Buddha tells us that it is possible for ordinary people like us to learn to love not just a few people close to us- our parents, our partner, our children, our friends, our family, or even our entire neighbourhood- but to become love itself; loving men, women, children, aged, animals, dogs ,cats everyone.
When you go near such people, says The Buddha, you will find that there is a fragrance surrounding them, which enters your heart almost without your awareness. When you spend time with such a person, you will be plunged into a fragrance that will follow you home and haunt you.
It takes a long, long time, but all of us can develop this all-embracing, all-consuming love. One great mystic describes it as a love that will not let you go. Even if you do not want to love, you cant help it.You couldn’t hate anyone if you wanted to. You could try to say, “ Love, leave me alone.. ” but it would simply reply, “ No- you’re Mine…!”

Thoughts from my Spiritual Diary - 6

The Blue Ocean

Being an ardent water lover, I would love to play around the beaches with my younger brother. The vast blue sky, the brown carpet of sand and the limitless expanse of the water always brought a twinkle of awe in my eyes.

They overwhelmed my Inner child and I felt so much in complete bliss. Finding words to describe my true feelings and joy was always a difficult task. Emotions, I felt could never be put into words. The heart knows no language of our deepest feelings and those which don’t find words to be expressed always are soulfelt, beyond our interpretations and confines of human consciousness.
My fond memories of childhood are associated with water. Just gazing at the waves smothering the sands, their relentless motion, their rising and falling illustrating the non-permanent nature of Life, the sunsets kissing the horizon: all left a lasting impression on my little heart.

I often got lost in the enigmatic beauty of this element of Mother Nature. While all the others were busy playing I was busy glaring and deciphering what the blue ocean in front of me was saying.
My eyes always radiated the immense peace and the ecstasy gifted by these talking waters..It lifted the veils of my hidden true self and I must admit that it brought out the real me..full of love.
I always wondered with delight about this one constant thought of my childhood and yes, that thought still holds a lot of significance. If I was asked that what would be God’s Heart like? I would promptly say- I know for I have seen it: it is like this Blue Ocean ;
Magnanimous, fathomless and brimming with Love..
I now think of my life as just a tiny stream of water in search of unity with the vast ocean.

“ From Him I come and to Him I finally return”

I don’t know where the flow of life would take me but I know the place where I would finally lay asleep peacefully: In His Heart.

The Blue Ocean.

“With My punishment I afflict those on whom I will, but My mercy embraces everything; so, I shall confer it on those who are God fearing, pay the Alms, and believe in Our messages: those who shall follow the (Last) Messenger, The Prophet, who they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel (that are) with them- I enjoin them what is right and forbid them what is wrong, make lawful to them the good things of life and forbid them the bad things and release them from their burdens and from the shackles that are upon them. So, those who shall believe in Me, honour Me and follow the light that has been sent down by Me, it is they who will find salvation and success.
Let there be no coercion in matters of religion. The right way has been distinct from the way of the error. So, whosoever rejects the power of evil, and believes in Me has taken Hold of a hand that never breaks. I am All-hearing and All-knowing.”

-The Holy Quran.

The following things have been declared and ascertained by all the Sacred Scriptures of the world to be the greatest good to mankind;

First – To delight in the Self which to is to love God and be one with Him

Second- To be without attachments to anything else in the universe.

Religion is not for the purpose of securing a place in Heaven. It is an inquiry into Truth, and its ideal is the knowledge and the realization of the Truth. This True Love and non-attachment can be developed gradually by these means:

-By inquiry into the Truth with complete faith and reverence.

-By devotion to spiritual practices.

-By rendering of services to the great souls who have realized The Truth.

-By taking delight in the company of the exalted ones

-By avoiding association of the worldly-minded.

-By learning to love solitude.

-By injuring no creature by truthfulness.

-By studying the Scriptures (Knowledge of The Self)

-By control of the senses through Pranayama.(Deep breathing )

-By overcoming passions through right knowledge and discrimination.

-By respecting all other religions and not speaking against them

-By singing the praises and the Glory of Divinity.

-By patiently bearing the opposites in life, such as pain and pleasure , success and failure.

Thus will arise Love for The divine and non-attachment to the world.

- The Srimad Bhagavatam
( The sacred scripture of Hinduism full of Vedic wisdom, considered to be The Hindu Bible)

“ He who is satisfied with wisdom and direct vision of Truth, who has conquered the senses and who is ever undisturbed, to whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are the same, that Yogi is said to be a Yukta , a saint of established wisdom .”

-The Bhagavad Gita 6;8

When you know everyone is a part of you,

Then all your cravings disappear,

All your aversions disappear.

Your cravings come

Because you think you don’t have.

Your aversions come because you don’t want to

Have what you think you have.

Do you see the irony of it?

When you know everything

Already belongs to you,

Your cravings subside.

When you know whatever you are averse to,

Is part of you,

Then aversion disappears

And total synthesis happens.

Unity dawns.

And Bliss manifested.

-His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shanker.

The flower of Love

Is seen in the garden of our Earth

As though in the eye of one’s face.

Love is within and without;

In the mindheart,

In the smile of a friend,

In the twinkle of a child’s eye.

To be we are;

Balanced

Whole

Focused

Happy

Limited only by our mind’s delusion.

Joy found within,

A glowing flame

Of golden fire

Ablaze, burning

Eternal.

Reach in and touch the infinite..

-An ancient Himalayan Poem.

My Divine experience of meeting His Holiness Sri Sai Gopal Krishna Baba

Yesterday evening while returning from work, we stopped at the Lakshmi- Narayan temple to offer our humble respects and seek blessings on the auspicious day of Dhanteras. And we saw banners of the visit of His Holiness Sri Gopal Krishna ji to the temple. He was here in mumbai as part of his yearly programme visit of darshan, bhajans(devotional songs) and spiritual discourse.

An ignorant me,I had never heard about him before or even seen his photos. (He happens to be the supreme disciple of Bhagawan Shri Satya Sai Baba and is specially revered in Bangalore) .He was scheduled to reach by 7 pm. All around the temple premises we saw a special seating arrangement made for him and the devotees, with the entire pathway strewn with flowers for his welcome. The atmosphere was so beautiful. We thought that we would just have a glimpse of this divine mystic and then later leave. After finishing with my prayers I was seated before the deities for some secret conversation and saw my troubles and qualms being melted away instantly; just looking at the alluring, smiling faces of the Gods.

The feeling of visiting our holy places of worship contains within itself so much of His Light, His Love and His comfort. Once you are in His kingdom there is only rejoicing and nothing else, because my father eases up all our pains and kisses our sorrows goodbye. You just have to trust Him fully.

As we get ready to leave the temple, I came across a bookstall which had books regarding Sri Gopal Krishnaji and began glancing through them. After paying up for the two books that I liked we finally were leaving. Just then a car stopped at the entrance, a saintly figure stepped down and the musicians began welcoming him by the sound of the traditional dhols. It was as if we were destined to have His blessed sight and what a blessed meeting it was!

The devotees started running towards him to bow down at his feet and seek blessings. I along with my family too went up to him and touched his lotus feet, what a soul-stirring feeling that was! I couldn’t get my eyes off his radiant smiling face and the aura he carried with him was so pure, divine and mystifying. His presence alone was enough to give me a heady feeling of spiritual bliss and the fragrance his Self emitted was heavenly. It dawned upon me that it was the magic of a Pure soul who had finally realized God and His Self. Infact, we all were so drawn towards him that we felt completely in perfect harmony with Divinity. His one glimpse made me feel complete and I felt so empowered with the power of a Saint”s blessing.

We couldn’t move our legs towards the exit. We decided to sit for a while and listen to his words. Amidst so many people he was so much at pure bliss that he emanated only peace and blessings to all gathered .

The mood was ecstatic with the starting of devotional songs and Swamiji being totally engrossed within. It was a true sight to behold! Such is the intoxication of Divine Love that we give up the drop and become the ocean!

As we sat for atleast 2 hours(it was a state of timelessness) we were waiting for him to speak to us but he was silent throughout and that said it all. Silence was the language through which he communicated with each one of us as though telling us to be calm and listen to our inner voices, it is there that you will hear God speaking.

The highlight of the evening was when he got up to specially bless a girl with brain tumour. She had come with her parents. Her physical state was extremely sympathetic but the smile on her face was intact and her faith in her Guru was unflinching. Such is the connection between a Guru and the Disciple, between the Peer and the Mureed.

As she touched his feet tears swelled up in my eyes and I found myself overwhelmed. Her mother was crying bitterly and telling Guruji to bless her daughter and free her from her physical sufferings. He blessed her smilingly tossing his hands in the air and miraculously deriving Vibhuti (Holy Ash) which took us all by awe and smeared it over her forehead. The happiness and faith in her eyes was so immensely heart melting.

With prayers for her recovery and light in my heart we left the temple with Sri Gopal Krishnaji’s blessings and a soul full of haunting memories of meeting such a blessed Divine Mystic.

As they say, sometimes there are no words and sometimes words are not enough…

Last night I lay my hands on an old paper cutting which I had preserved it when I was a student. It had the following writings by an anonymous poet. I wish to share it with all my seeking friends. I am sure it will definitely race up your heart beats the way it gave me a pounding feeling deep within everytime I read it.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried; quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate and the Master so gently said, “ Child, you must wait. ”

“ Wait ? You say, wait ”, my indignant reply.

“ Lord , I need answers, I need to know why! Is your hand shortened ? Or have You not heard? By Faith , I have asked and am claiming your Word. My future and all to which I can relate hangs in the balance, and You tell me to WAIT ?

I’m needing a “yes” , a go-ahead sign, or even a “no” to which I can resign. And Lord ,

You promised that if we believe, we need but to ask, and we shall receive. And Lord, I’ve

Been asking, and this is my cry, I ‘m weary of asking! I need a reply!

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate , as my Master replied once again, “ You must wait”. So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, and grumbled to God, “so I’m waiting for what?

He seemed then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine, and he tenderly said, “I could give you a sign, I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun, I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run. All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be. You would have what you want- but you wouldn’t know ME..! ”

“ You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint;

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint;

You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust by knowing I’m there;

You’d not know the joy of resting in me.

When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You’d never experience that fullness of love,

As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;

You’d know that I give and I save, for a start,

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My Heart.

The glow of my comfort late into the night

The faith that I give you when you walk without sight

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked,

Of an infinite God, who makes what you have Last.

And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late

My most precious advice of all to you is still, WAIT.

You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that, “ My grace is sufficient for Thee ”

So be silent, My Child ,and in time you will see,

That the Greatest of Gifts is to get to know ME. ”

There is no Divine punishment.

What seems like God’s punishment is a reflection of our own resistance.

Thoughts from my Spiritual Diary-5

An Infinite Moment:

Every spiritual master, saint and mystic has declared that the present moment is the home of Spirit ; nothing to be attained in the form of wisdom, love and truth has to be postponed. Yet we all postpone the day when we will be loving, wise and inspired by the real vision of the Truth. This implies that the present moment is a very difficult place to reach despite the obvious facts that are already there.
Every second is a door to eternity. The door is opened by our perception.
What makes each second infinite is its unlimited potential. Think of an inspired moment in your life, when you made the perfect move, said the perfect idea, reacted in an unusual manner, spoke the best words , or resisted being judgemental. What made you so different in those moments? The reason is-

You were receptive to something new

You weren’t relieving the past or anticipating the future

You felt optimistic and open: you were not defensive

You let it happen whatever it was

You let it flow without any resistance

Thus, you felt connected and One with the entire cosmos.
The whole of Reality is only contained in the present moment.
Think about it.