Happiness is easy. Its letting go of unhappiness thats hard.

A hundred times a day our love of happiness is cut short by our even greater fear of it. A happy thought is inevitably followed by a "realistic" one.. We are willing to give up everything but our misery.
If we find ourselves laughing with abandon, singing in the shower, or whistling loud enough to be overheard, for some nagging reason we feel we must resume a "serious" state of mind. And yet its happiness that is truly practical and serious.
It positively affects our mental and physical health, our relationships with friends and family, our job performance, not to mention our relationship with God.
Happiness connects us with Reality ; Unhappiness disconnects us.

Hugh Prather- One of my favourite writers.

" Now you may ask, How can we come to perceive this direct leading of God?
By a careful looking at home, and abiding within the gates of thy own soul.
Therefore, let a man be at home in his own heart, and cease from his restless chase of and search after outward things"

- Johannes Tauler

Reflections on Love

My Dearest Friends,
Here i am sharing with you a soul stirring piece of writing by Sri Paramhansa Yogananda (PBUH) whose books i am currently reading and am completely engulfed by every single word. He has experienced a multitude of the innumerable aspects of the Ultimate Reality. And he expresses such Intense Love and Devotion to God that it inspires us to tread towards Him and be drowned in His Love...May we all be drenched in His Divinity!
He says,

"Love is a golden mansion in which the King of Eternity homes the entire family of Creation. And at His command, Love is a mystic fire that can melt the grossness of the cosmos into the invisible substance of Eternal Love.
Like a river, Love flows continuously through humble, sincere souls ; but it bypasses the rocks of egotistic, selfish, sensebound souls, because it cannot pass through them.
Love is an omnipresent spring with countless founts. When one of its heart-openings is clogged with the debris of wrong behaviour, we find it surging from some other heart. But to think of love dead in any heart is Ignorance of the omnipresence of Love.

One should never block with wrong actions the channels of Love in his own soul. Then he will drink with countless mouths of soul-feeling from the Divine fountain of Love coursing endlessly through all open hearts.
Love may exist in the presence of passion, but when passion is mistaken for Love, Love files away. Passion and Love together are a bittersweet mixed drink that produces some joy, but mostly an after sorrow. When pure Love is quaffed , the taste for passion loses itself in the sweetness of true feeling.
Droplets of Love sparkle in true souls, but in Spirit alone is found the Sea of Love. To expect perfection in human Love is folly unless one seeks to perfect that Love by feeling within it God's Love. Find God's Love first ; then, with His Love, Love whatever or whomever you like.

Do not limit your Love to one being, however lovable, to the exclusion of all else. Rather, with the Love you feel for the one you love most, Love all beings and all things, including the one you love. When you try to inprison Omnipresent Love in the form of one soul, it will escape and play hide and seek with you until you find It in every soul. Increase the intensity ans Spiritual quality of the Love you feel for one or a few souls, and give It to all. Then you will know what Christ- Love is.

Love is wonderfully blind, for it dwells not in the flaws of the beloved, but loves unconditionally through eternity. When dear ones are parted by death, mortal memory may fail to recall the pledges of love they made ; but true Love never forgets, nor does it die. For incarnations, it escapes from the heart of one form and enters that of another, pursuing the beloved, fulfilling all its promises until the emanicipation of those souls in Eternal Love.

Grieve not for lost love, whether it is through death or the fickle fluctuations of human nature. Love itself is never lost, but just plays with you in many hearts ; that in pursuing it you might find its ever greater manifestation. It will keep hiding from you, and disappointing you, until you have quested long enough to find its abode in the One who resides in the deepest recesses of your own soul, and in the heart of everything. "

-Written in 1940s

I look into the mirror and see my own beauty; I see the Truth of the universe revealing itself as me. I rise in the sky as the morning Sun. Do not be surprised.... Every particle of creation is my own form. What are the holy spirits? - My essence revealed. And the human body? -The vessel of my own form. What is the ocean that encircles the world? A drop of my abundant Grace; And the purest light that fills every soul? A spark of my own illumination. What is the water that grants eternal life? A drop of my divine nectar. And the breath that brings the dead back to life? A puff of my breath, the breath of all life. I am Light itself, reflected in the heart of everyone. I am the treasure of the Divine Name, the shining Essence of all things. From the highest heavens to the bedrock of the earth All is but a shadow of my splendor. If I dropped the veil covering my true essence The world would be lost in a flash of brilliant light. -Ibn Al Arabi ( A Great Sufi Mystic)

Whether your destiny is glory or disgrace, Purify yourself of hatred and love of self. Polish your mirror; and that sublime Beauty From the regions of mystery Will flame out in your heart As it did for the saints and prophets. Then, with your heart on fire with that Splendor, The secret of the Beloved will no longer be hidden.

Jami- A saint, mystic and poet of Persia.

Thoughts from My Spiritual Diary -12

Everytime I meet someone new or come in contact with different beings, I seem to discover new facet of my own Self..
Discovering my own being has always been an emotional joyride..sometimes it has taken me by shock whenever I have behaved in a way which is in complete contrast to my usual behaviour, sometimes it has made me so pleasantly elated whenever I have handled a situation par excellence as compared to what it demanded…..a fine blend of Tolerance and understanding :) I am then transformed into this quintessential good girl swelled by her own deeds! Rare but true…at such times I have blushed all through the day ;)

And these occasional revelations about myself have made me what I am today..I am a sum total of all events, circumstances, experiences and the various people who have walked into my life and gracefully left..be it for a reason or for a season..and some of those who have stayed with me defying the gruelling years and difficult phases undoubtedly for a lifetime… these all are His ways of teaching me the vital lessons…after all I have and will always be a His favourite Kid!

It is to all those souls with whom I have shared this beautiful life with and who have contributed their own teachings and virtues and passed on those priceless blessings that has made me…ME : )
I never really understood why relationships came with their departure dates….. at times I was left wondering what made them go away..it is then I realised that they come searching for you ..to teach you, guide you, to bless you with precious moments and sweet memories giving you whatever they were supposed to and then take your leave and gracefully exit from your lives….making room for new entities…Sounds sad but its true. I am reading this chapter from my own life. I have always been a very emotional girl where relationships are concerned…have played all my roles with immense love and affection to an extent that they cause me deep hurt when I find them changed or in discord or at times broken…it took so much understanding and depth to come to terms with separation….i failed to realise that it was Him trying to tell me to let go and kiss them good bye on a good note and never on a bitter one…

It was difficult initially during my teenage years but gradually I came to terms with it…He sends certain people in your lives to play a particular part and when that’s over He shuffles their places…Never did I wanted such separations but it was as if I was trying to rewrite my life actually written in indelible ink by God Himself…He is the Master Writer of all our lives and to question His script is to break our own destinies.
It is with this maturity and understanding that I have grown up with and will always try and be a better, attentive and obedient student in this Eternal school of Life : )
May He grant us the innate strength to accept whatever He has ordained for us with a happy heart and without a second doubt.. May we include Him in all our relationships as our sole witness…

And to be happy and blessed with loving relationships…it actually takes....Three to Tango…U. Me And God : ))