Greetings and love
to all of you. Our class this evening
is on humility, but I'd like to talk about it
in a rather specific way. And that way could, I guess,
be best summed up by saying we’ll be talking about being
humble light-bearers as opposed to being egotistical
doom and gloomers. I know it sounds
kind of funny, but something recently
came up and I thought this is something
worth talking about. There's some spiritual principles
here that are important, and especially during this time. What it was that
came up was a devotee came to me
and she had hard copy of an email that
had been sent to her husband. And it was a three-page litany
of these dire predictions. And her husband was
quite upset by it, really concerned for what
may happen to his family. So I’d like to just share
with you just a very, very few of the points from that email. “Dire adversities are coming.
There will be a pole shift. A comet will come close to
the earth and leave debris, hitting the earth, leaving
poisonous gases in the atmosphere. America will be attacked
and caught off guard. World War III will break out
and be very destructive.” At the end of the three
pages the person said, “I hope this helps.” “I hope this helps.” Well, it does help. It helps to bring these kind of
things closer to manifestation. And I’d like to talk just a couple
of minutes about why this is so. Think about how
God creates. In the beginning there were
the thoughts of God, pure, perfect light of God with the divine qualities
inherent in that. And then comes the beautiful,
luminous astral energy and that energy becomes compacted
into this gross material plane. And we’re God’s children and we
create in exactly the same way. That beautiful
perfect light of God, with all those divine qualities,
are present there in the light of the
thousand-petalled lotus. We have our thoughts. We flow energy
into those thoughts. Depending on the power
of those thoughts and the amount of energy
we put into them, they manifest
on this physical plane. It’s like we own
a broadcasting station and we want to increase the power
of that broadcasting station. So we practice the Guru-given
techniques of meditation, and this does increase
the broadcasting power, the power of our mind. But we have to realize our minds
aren’t only influencing us, but they’re influencing
others as well. So what kind of programs
are we broadcasting? Are they about love,
beauty, truth, light, joy, or are they about disease,
death and destruction? Brother Bhaktananda used
to be very big on this, and he used to say
you have to be careful of the kinds of thoughts
that you think — especially after you
begin to meditate — because the mind
becomes more powerful and has a greater
materializing power. Now, I’m not talking about
this email this evening to make anybody feel bad
if they wrote the email or if they forwarded it,
you know. I’m not.
I really am not. But it provides such
a great illustration of why we should watch
the quality of our thoughts, and we should make those
conscious decisions what we share
with others. Let me read
something from Master. “The fruits of one’s spiritual
awakening are a blessing, not only on one’s own life,
but the world at large. Every person sows good or bad
actions in the soil of his life; and not only does he reap the
karmic harvest of those actions, but he makes others
reap them as well. If a person writes
a degrading novel, all who read it reap the evil
effects of the author’s thoughts. The law of cause and effect operates in even
subtler ways as well. The actions of each individual leave electromagnetic
etchings in his brain, influencing his future actions; and they also leave vibrational
traces in the ether which register in and influence
the minds of others.” So do you see
how important the quality of our
thoughts really is? It’s not that it’s only
influencing our lives, our thoughts are not
just self-contained. They’re being left
in the ether to register in the minds
of other people. We said that sharing thoughts
about the dire predictions helps to bring them
closer to manifestation. So do you see
how that is so? — that when we’re thinking
these thoughts, putting energy into them,
putting them on the internet, leaving the traces in the ether,
other people think about it, their emotions are involved,
more energy is involved in it — thought plus energy
brings manifestation. When we talk about
the light and the dark, it’s not just poetic.
It’s not just poetic. We’re talking about that actual
spiritual light of God. Many of you have
seen that light in the spiritual eye
or in the brain. It's the actual spiritual light. And there is that actual
darkening power of maya, or Satan, that obscures
that light of God and hence those divine qualities
that are inherent in that light. But where do these
dark thoughts come from? In the Bible it says, “The devil was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie,
he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and
the father of it.” He’s from the beginning because he’s inherent in creation
from the beginning of time. And he’s a murderer. He kills
our spiritual aspirations. And he’s a liar. He doesn't tell us the truth
about the nature, the illusory nature,
of this creation. Master said, “The sole
function of Satan or maya is to attempt to divert man
from spirit to matter, from Reality to unreality.” That pure, perfect light of God
is right here, but as we mentioned,
there’s the thoughts, then there’s the layer
of the astral energy, and then there’s this gross
vibration of the physical plane. But when we think those
positive, uplifting thoughts, when we create
beauty and harmony, when we express love,
kindness, compassion, at those times that veil of maya
is becoming more sheer. It’s letting a little more
of the light, a little more
of those qualities, through our life and out
into the world. But when we concentrate
on the opposite, it’s making that veil
more and more opaque. Why is there such a fascination
with the doom and gloom which obscures that light? Well, I know from
counseling that some people think that there’s
something very spiritual about being involved
with predictions and anything of a supernatural
sort of nature. The ego is pleased that it can be involved with all
this supernatural phenomena. But there’s nothing
spiritual about it. Nothing spiritual
at all about it. Because if you think about
what's really spiritual, always leads toward
that light of Spirit, the other, the darkening, is leading us away
from that Light. But there’s a more
fundamental reason why people get involved
with these things. Recently, a devotee
emailed me about the doom and
the gloomers, and he said, “There must be
a vicarious thrill some people feel
pondering disasters.” And he’s right. The human mind
loves excitement. It does, you know. It gets the emotions stirred up
and we feel alive. It’s exciting. It reminds me of children who get together and tell ghost
stories and watch horror movies. You know, they do this
and it’s fun, it’s exciting and oh,
it’s so scary. Well, it was fun until
they’re alone in their bed, and they begin to hear
the floor creak and the shadows
on the wall are moving. It’s not fun anymore. It’s become real fear. Same thing. I know some people enjoy
getting together and talking about all the
predictions and when it may happen and... But... eventually those thoughts
cause very real fears in themselves
and in others. Strong emotions have
a lot of energy. Have you ever been really afraid
and you feel that energy in the heart,
in the chest there? Remember, we said that
thoughts plus energy equals the manifestation. This is why Master said, “Fear attracts
the object of fear.” Fear attracts
the object of fear because that fear is
energizing those thoughts and therefore bringing them
closer to manifestation. It’s interesting in the
Bhagavad Gita that Krishna, in listing the
twenty-six ennobling qualities, what’s the one
that he puts first? Fearlessness. Right. And Master said that this
was not just coincidental. He said the reason it was put
first is because fearlessness is the foundation
of the spiritual life. So when Satan, or maya, can erode that foundation
by creating fear in us, he’s fulfilling his job. So, do you see how sinister
this spreading doom and gloom, which creates fear, really is? It's undermining the foundation
of people's spiritual life. What happens
when we’re afraid? When we’re afraid,
the will is paralyzed. When we’re afraid,
the will is paralyzed. Have you ever heard that
expression “frozen with fear”? Can’t do anything —
you just froze with fear. It paralyzes the willpower. Our beloved Ma,
just last fall said, “I never let my consciousness
or that of the devotees here be dragged down
by worries or fear about what may or
may not happen. Fear destroys self motivating
will power and well-being. Cultivate courage,
positive thinking, and faith in
God’s protection.” We can concentrate
on the object of fear or, as Ma said, we can concentrate
in the opposite direction and cultivate courage,
positive thinking, and faith in
God’s protection. There’s a quote about fear which
I’ve always liked very much, and that is: “Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there.” It’s good, isn’t it? Fear knocked at the door.
Faith answered. No one was there. What does Master equate
fearlessness with? Faith. He equates it with faith. He said, “Fearlessness
means faith in God, faith in His protection, His justice, His wisdom,
His mercy, His love, His omnipresence. But, realizing we’ve got
a very varied audience here, for those of you who like
predictions about destruction, I’ll share with you one that
Master did give back in 1948. He said, “I make
one prediction now. The world is not going
down to destruction. So don’t be frightened.
Believe in your Father. He will protect you if you
remember His ideals, if you keep faith in Him.” “Don’t be frightened.
Believe in your Father. He will protect you,
if you remember His ideals, if you keep faith in Him.” This doesn’t mean that
nothing unpleasant outwardly is going to happen. No, Master did say that there would be
financial crises, there would be wars, there would
be natural catastrophes. These are the
karmic results, the mass karma of mankind’s
wrong thoughts and wrong actions. So I’m not saying
that these things are not going to happen. Very likely things may get worse
before they get worse. That’s about the extent of my
indulgence in the doom and gloom. But seriously, fear of
these types of things — it really does, it shows a lack
of faith in God and Guru. But if there is fear, use it to your advantage. In some of the martial arts
like aikido, a person uses the
attacking opponent’s force to throw the opponent. And this can be a very, very
helpful attitude toward life for the devotee. Whatever circumstances
in life are thrown at us, we can use those to our
advantage if we’re asking, “What is the lesson
I’m to learn here?” “What’s the spiritual quality that
I can acquire from this?” “What is the correct behavior
in this situation?” “What is the right attitude
to have in a situation like this?” If we’re doing this, no matter
what that circumstance is, we're using it to our advantage
and we're growing spiritually. Master said, “When we’re trying to
change something in our nature, concentrate in
the opposite direction.” So if there’s that fear, cultivate more faith
in God and Guru. Let it be an impetus to meditate
longer and deeper so that you can feel
that blessed assurance; so you can feel that deep peace, that knowing that
everything is all right, everything is exactly
as it should be. That deep peace and
blessed assurance are qualities of our soul. And Master said, “All men are meant to realize
that soul consciousness can triumph over
every external disaster.” “Soul consciousness can triumph
over every external disaster.” And of course, it’s true because
in that soul consciousness we realize what we are not
and what we really are. One of my favorite
affirmations is “I am not this body which
changes and passes away. I’m not this mind which
beholds nothing but change. I am the immortal, blissful soul,
ever one with Thee.” If we could just, for once, get a glimpse of that soul
consciousness, there would be no fear. We would realize we’re that immortal,
blissful consciousness of God. But what is it
that we fear? Death. Someone was telling me
recently that research had been
done about fear, and that there was
only one thing that people actually feared
more than death. You know what it is?
Public speaking. I mean, this was supposed to be
the results of an actual research. So you see this evening I’m
cultivating fearlessness. Actually, it’s much easier talking with brother
and sister disciples, but — Master did say, “Death is perhaps
the ultimate challenge of faith in man. Fear of this inevitability
is foolish. It comes only once in a lifetime; and after it has come,
the experience is over without having affected
our true identity or diminished in any way,
our real being.” Lord Krishna said
there is no death. There is no death. Consciousness,
light — it doesn’t die. There is no death. But when we focus on the
negative aspects, like these dire predictions, it creates a seeming reality
for this physical form in this physical creation.
It creates the concern about that. So the consciousness is no more
on that soul consciousness, on that pure love
and light and joy; it’s on this body and on
this physical creation. Remember Master said, “The sole
function of Satan or maya is to attempt to divert man
from spirit to matter, from Reality to unreality.” So we should avoid those
things and people that drag the
consciousness down. We should constantly affirm that
we are that immortal light of God. Remember the story from
the “Autobiography,” where Master was meditating
at his Garpar Road home during World War One. And in his meditation his
consciousness was transferred to the captain of
a battleship. And there was this
exchange of fire between the ship
and the shore batteries. And the ship was hit
and there was a big explosion. The captain and the few surviving
sailors jumped in the water. The captain made it to the shore,
only to be shot in the chest. And as he
lay there dying, the consciousness was
transferred back to Master meditating at Garpar Road. And then Master said,
“Hysterical tears poured forth as I joyfully stroked and pinched
my regained possession: a body free from a
bullet hole in the breast. I rocked to and fro,
inhaling and exhaling, to assure myself
that I was alive. Amidst these self-gratulations, again I found
my consciousness transferred to the
captain’s dead body by the gory shore. Utter confusion of mind
came upon me. ‘Lord,’ I prayed,
‘am I dead or alive?’ A dazzling play of light
filled the whole horizon. A soft rumbling vibration
formed itself into words. ‘What has life or death
to do with light? In the image of My light,
I have made you. The relativities of life and death
belong to the cosmic dream. Behold your dreamless being!
Awake, My child awake!′ ” We are literally children
of that divine Light. Master said, “You are your
own savior as soon as you realize I am Light itself.” “I am Light itself.” But if we are
children of that Light, what can we do to allow
more of that Light to express through our lives,
to come into the world? Recently, I received a satsanga
question which said, “As the financial crisis
has been unfolding, I have been receiving email
from devotees which state pretty dire predictions, such as
widespread destruction by a comet. I found them useless in my life
because there’s no practical message such as, ‘Leave your home
at two o’clock on Tuesday and you’ll be fine.′ ” Some of these messages —
the practical aspect is always left off. But this person
went on to ask, “Is there really any practical
advice for the dark period beyond just doing your best
in the present moment?” Well, we need to be spiritual realists.
We need to be practical. We need to do our part and
not just think, “Oh well, God will just take
care of everything for me.” It’s like those of us that
live in earthquake country. You know, we have our
earthquake bag with some of the
necessities in it, and keep it in a
convenient place, and then we
forget about it. We can do the practical things
and then forget it. We don’t have to get up
every morning, go online, check the seismic reports, and try to figure out when
the big one is coming. No. You do the practical
things and forget it, dismiss it from
the consciousness. But in a little booklet,
“World Crisis,” Master does talk about some of the
practical things that you can do. There are a number
of them, really. And I don’t want to go over
all of them here, but one of the things he really
stresses is when he said, “How can you meet the world
crisis that is coming? The best way is to adopt plain
living and high thinking.” “Adopt plain living
and high thinking.” And we can all find ways
of simplifying our lives. We can all try to keep
the consciousness uplifted into those spiritual thoughts. When we live simply and keep the
consciousness uplifted, we feel joy. That presence
of the Divine is there. As we said,
it’s always there. We are children of that light and it has all those
divine qualities. We feel that joy. We don’t have to constantly have
something new to make us happy. We experience that joy
directly from its source. And if we keep the consciousness
uplifted, it continues; but if that consciousness drops
and we get engrossed in these more negative aspects,
it shuts out the joy. We have a very practical
reason to simplify our lives and to keep the
consciousness uplifted: so we can live in
that state of joy. One thing we can do to help
the situation at this time, is to have the spiritual
strength to be light-bearers; to have the spiritual strength
to let people know you don’t want to hear their
doom and gloom recitations. Not in a self-righteous way —
because then, that’s just ego — but in a very simple, humble way
based on spiritual principles. This is not good for you.
It’s not good for me. It’s not good
for the world family. So, again — it’s
like one devotee told another one when
the one started in with all the doom and gloom.
This devotee said, “I don’t have to worry about that.
I have a Guru.” I thought that
was so good. I don’t have to worry about it.
I have a Guru. So let others know
in a nice but firm way that you don’t want to join
their doom and gloomers club. But you may ask, “Well, what
do you do in a social setting or at work when the
conversation goes negative?” Well, again, you have
the responsibility as disciples of Master to be light-bearers
in those situations. You put it in
your own words, but bring light
to that situation. You can say
something like, “Do you know that thoughts,
positive thoughts, can really materialize
positive things in our lives? And the same —
negative things can too. I’m a real firm believer in
the power of positive thinking, and that thought has
materializing power, and I just
don’t go there. I need positive things
to manifest in my life.” Put it in your own words,
but speak your truth. Speak your truth. And even if a
person doesn’t acknowledge it, they will respect it because
the soul always recognizes truth. You may ask, “Well, why did the saints even mention
these predictions?” One of the main reasons is that they’re saying, “If you don’t
start behaving, Divine Mother is going
to give you a spanking.” That’s why they’re doing it. The saints see the
karmic potential. They see that if things
don’t change, these are the inevitable results
of what is building here. And so they’re trying to
give us a warning so that we can change our ways
of thinking, our ways of acting, so that we can help to mitigate
or nullify those karmic potentials so that we don’t have to go
through so much of the suffering. So one of the things
that we can do to bring more light
into the world is simply living
a spiritual life, simply living
a spiritual life. Praying for others
and for world peace — tremendous way of bringing
that light into the world. When we’re praying
for others, it’s really putting the ego aside, and we’re becoming
that humble channel for radiating God's light
to reach out to others. This is something that
started with Master; and then Ma and a few of those
close disciples around him would join in
praying for others. And then it became
all the monks and nuns, and then it became
the Worldwide Prayer Circle which now there's members
all over the world. So, again, it’s a wonderful way to get out of ourself and give
to the world, praying for others. Talking about getting
out of ourselves — someone recently sent me
a definition of an egotist which I very much liked. It said, “Egotist:
a person of poor taste, more interested in
himself than in me.” Actually, it's pretty close
to a good definition. It could be a person more
interested in himself than in others. So when we pray for others
and world peace, we are getting
out of ourself and being more interested
in the welfare of others. Our beloved Ma said, “When you are affirming healing
for yourself or others, visualize the
tremendous force of God’s healing power
as a white light, surrounding you or the person
for whom you are praying. Feel that it is melting away
all illness and imperfection. Every uplifting thought we think,
every prayer we utter, every good action we perform
is impregnated with God's power. We can manifest this power
in greater and greater ways as our faith becomes stronger and
our love for God becomes deeper.” So praying for others and world peace
is a tremendous way of bringing light
to the world. But the greatest way
of bringing in more light is to have that actual
communion with God ourself. And I know from talking to
devotees from time to time, there’s this attitude that “Yes, I meditate and
I live a spiritual life, but it’s really those — the
saints, those exalted beings — that have the
communion with God.” This is not true. This is not true. Each and every one of us
is a child of God. Each and every one of us
can have our own unique communion
with the Divine. I’d just like to share
one story with you, and this was a devotee — simple, humble devotee,
one of your brothers, and he got involved in SRF
back in the 1970s. And about four or five years ago,
his situation changed so that he could spend more
time in his meditation. He could really — he felt he could
make more effort and he was really trying to take
his meditations to a different level. And one of the things he did
during this time was to practice the
Energization Exercises and meditate in a storeroom
at work on his lunch hour. And he had been doing this
for about three months. And then one day during
his noon meditation he heard a beautiful
feminine voice, and it said, “Something
wonderful is in store for you.” And he thought,
“No, this is my imagination.” But almost every noon
meditation for weeks, he heard that same
feminine voice, “Something wonderful
is in store for you.” The SRF group that this devotee
and his wife attended were having a
weekend retreat. And on the last day of the
retreat, on Sunday morning, at breakfast the wife noticed
her husband sitting there at breakfast with his
eyes closed, very still, a slight smile on his lips. And she thought,
“This is unusual. He doesn’t usually meditate
in public like this.” Well, the devotees were supposed
to go and pack their cars right after breakfast before
having the Sunday service. So this this lady got up,
she went back, she started packing. She expected her husband
to follow, but he didn’t. So after half an hour, she went
back to the dining room. Her husband’s still sitting there,
in the exact same position. So she leaned over and whispered
in his ear, “I need your help.” She went back. After some time,
he still didn’t show up. So she went back and there he is
again, still in the same position. So she asked him, she said,
“Can you walk?” And with great effort, he said,
“No; neither can I open my eyes.” She went and got another devotee
to help her to get him up and take him
to the room. What had happened
to this devotee? It was something he didn’t
want to talk about, but over a period of time
it came out — to his wife and
to a minister. He was sitting at breakfast and he started looking
at all the devotees. And as he did, he felt this tremendous
feeling of love in his heart, and he said it was like
he could see the beauty and uniqueness
of each soul. And then his consciousness went down
the tunnel of the spiritual eye into a place he said was the
most intense bliss imaginable. He was completely
forgetful of the body and just in that place
of pure bliss and love. He said he didn't know why
this happened to him, but he said
what he did know is that none of us know
when it will happen to us. And he’s absolutely right. Each one of us can have
our own unique experience of that communion
with God. And this is one of the the greatest
joys of being a minister for me — is being able to hear
from devotees that communion with God
that they are experiencing — whether it’s with the Aum
or in the light, or whether it is
that intense feeling of divine love
in the heart just radiating such heat
from the heart — whatever it is. And I think this is so beautiful.
Master would be so pleased. Master is so pleased
because this was why he came — to give us the means
so that each one of us can have that
divine communion, so that we can know that
we are those children of God. Sir John Templeton said,
“The true meaning of humility is knowing that the personal self
is a vehicle of a higher power.” It’s beautiful, isn’t it? “The true meaning of humility is knowing that the personal self
is a vehicle of a higher power.” It’s through communion, through the actual communion
with God, that we realize this, that we realize that
this body is a temple of God and the spirit of God
dwells within us. It’s in that communion
that we know that we are children
of that higher power. Once we experience this,
then we become those humble light-bearers because we realize that it’s God’s light
reflecting through us, we’re really doing nothing.
God is the doer. All we’re doing is allowing
that light to shine through. Master used the phrase, “Kriya yogis scattered like
shining jewels over the earth.” And to become, through deep
meditation, those shining jewels reflecting that light
of a higher power, this is the greatest thing
that we can do to prepare
for difficult times. It’s the greatest thing
that we can do to strike at the very
cause of difficult times. It’s what we can do to neutralize
the cause of those difficult times. During this week we feel such
tremendous love, such joy, such sense of well-being. We’re all those jewels. We’re those Kriya Yogi jewels
that Master talked about. But what happens
at the end of the week? Those jewels are scattered
all over the earth again to become light-bearers, to become spiritual radiums
radiating that spiritual light, those spiritual qualities
to help push back that darkness of maya
during these times. Master said, “Only a mighty
flood of the light of truth through actual communion
with God can dispel the gathered darkness
of the ages.” “Only a mighty flood
of the light of truth through actual
communion with God can dispel the gathered
darkness of the ages.” The two greatest things
that we can do to have that actual
communion with God forms the very basis
of our Guru’s teachings. And the first one
is deep meditation. And I mention here the word
deep — deep meditation — because if there
is no depth to it, there will be little
or no communion. But what do we mean
by deep meditation? As strange as it may sound,
the answer lies in a saying that a devotee saw
on the front of a T-shirt. Honest. This is the saying: “Meditation is not
what you think.” “Meditation is not
what you think.” I saw it took some of you
a little while to get that. But it’s absolutely true. It’s absolutely true. That’s when deep
meditation starts — when we get
beyond thought. So, meditation is not
what we think. We can’t think our way
into God-communion; we have to experience our
way into God-communion. And we have that experience
by getting beyond thought because God is
beyond thought. God is what everything
is coming out of. We need to get
beyond the thoughts. Many, if not all,
devotees reach a middle ground in
their meditations. What is this middle ground? and what is the next step
for moving on? And there definitely
is a next step. But I think the reason that
many of us don’t take that step is because it’s something
very nebulous to us. We’re not sure
what that is. But there is a missing
link, so to speak, between the outer and the
inner aspects of Yoga. And there is a pivotal
point, so to speak, where we move from the outer
aspects into the inner aspects. Just think about it in terms
of Patanjali’s “Yoga Sutras.” It starts out with yama, niyama,
the right behaviors; asana, the right posture; pranayam, life force control. All four of these, all four of these have to do
with the outer aspects of Yoga. Even pranayama. As great as pranayama is, it’s usually working with
the physical breath as a means
to get hold of or to become aware of and
begin to work with the prana, the life force. So those are
the outer aspects. But let’s look at the inner
aspects. What is there? Dharana, concentration;
dhyana, meditation, where that concentration deepens
and there begins to be the expansion; and then the last,
samadhi, absorption, superconscious experience. So you have the outer, you have the inner. And what is that pivotal point
that connects the two? Pratyahara. Pratyahara. Master defines pratyahara
very simply, this way: “Pratyahara signifies the
state of the mind when it is disconnected
from the sense telephones.” That is, the consciousness
is so withdrawn that we no longer
get the sensory input. And we think, “Well,
this is not easy to do.” And we’re right, it’s not. But also, we have to
think it’s very possible because we do it every night
when we go to sleep. What happens when we go to sleep?
All that energy withdraws, shuts off all the
stimulus to the senses. That’s the reason for Kriya. Reversing — that energy is always
going out through the senses but in sleep it withdraws. And we need to get so proficient
in our practice of Kriya, so intent, and
doing enough Kriyas that we can feel
that energy withdraw. And when it withdraws enough
into the spine and brain, then we have that actual
communion with God. Pranayama is practiced for
interiorizing the consciousness. In fact Master said that you do not achieve pratyahara
unless you keep in mind the reason for why you’re
practicing pranayama. We have to keep in mind
we’re practicing pranayama to achieve that
state of pratyahara so that we can
then have those higher or deeper levels of
the practice of Kriya, or the deeper practice
of meditation, where there is the concentration,
there is the meditation, there is that sense of absorption
in that samadhi state. One of the devotees at Hollywood
Temple will often do some of the Energization Exercises with
his little five year old son, and then they’ll meditate
together for a few minutes. So one day recently the
father told his little boy, “Go take your bath and then
we’ll meditate together.” And the little boy said, “Can we exercise and
meditate before my bath?” You would think, well, that’s
a pretty normal response from a five year old,
you know, can’t we do something other
than me have to go take a bath? But this little boy,
he’s a unique little soul. He said, “Can we exercise and
meditate before my bath? I want to feel God, and I feel him more when I
meditate than in my bath.” So this young man
has already realized where we find God — in meditation,
not in the bathtub. But this is the goal — is to be able to have deep
meditation so we can feel that presence of God, so we
can have that actual communion. I said the two greatest things
that lead to Divine communion form the basis
of Master’s teachings, and that the first is
this deep meditation. The second one
is summed up in a phrase from the
“Autobiography of a Yogi,” where Master is quoting
from a song of Mirabai. And she’s saying, “If by bathing
daily God could be realized, sooner would I be
a whale in the deep. If by eating roots and fruits
he could be known, gladly would I choose
the form of a goat.” And she goes on like this for
some time and then she concludes: “Mirabai knows that
to find the Divine One, the only indispensable is love.” This is one of those keys
on the spiritual path. “The only indispensable is love.” Expressing our love
and gratitude to the Divine is certainly a way
of practicing devotion. I know devotees that are constantly talking
to the Divine, usually to Master, just throughout the day. “Thank you for the
parking spot, Master.” “That was a great movie, Master.
Thanks for the tickets.” “That was an inspiring service.” Just almost incessantly
talking to Master, relating everything to Master. And this is great. We should all get in
the habit of sharing even these little mundane
things with the Divine. But real devotion is
deeper than this. We should also
get in the habit of expressing that love to the
Divine in our meditation — just feeling that it’s just you
and God or Guru right there. And there’s this communication,
you’re just talking directly. This can be done any time
during your meditation, but it’s a wonderful way
to end your meditation, pouring the heart out to
the Divine at that time. But as sweet as it is, real devotion is deeper
even than this. Master would at times use the
phrase, “No more with words.” In one place he said,
“No more with words do I pray, but with my love,
my heart, my soul.” And in another place he said, “I pray no more with words, but
only with wistful yearning. I rebuke my boisterous
love for Thee. On the cushion of peace
I silently adore Thee.” Beautiful, isn’t it? Beyond thought — just that pure feeling
welling up to the Divine. Last week I was talking
with a devotee, and we’ve been friends
for a number of years, and I was asking him
about his meditation routine. And he said,
“Well, I usually wake up around
two in the morning and I sit on my
bed for meditation, and then I
start the invocation which takes me about
thirty minutes. All of you know
the invocation: Heavenly Father, Mother,
Friend, Beloved God, naming the six Gurus,
and saints of all religions. Well, without me asking,
he realized I was curious as to
why it took him thirty minutes to do
the invocation; and he was kind enough
in his humble way to explain. And he said that as soon as he
assumed the meditation posture he was very aware
of the breath. And then he would start
“Heavenly Father,” and usually the breath
would go away and he would just be swept up
in that feeling of love for the Divine. He said after some time,
the breath will come and I — “Divine Mother,” and again the consciousness
is swept up. He said, “By the time I get
to Jesus and Krishna, it takes a really
long time.” This is the depth of devotion
that we want to aspire for — starting out with words,
but let it become that wordless expression of our love
for the Divine. Master said,
“Humility and love alone can attract
the divine response — nothing else.” “Humility and love alone
can attract the divine response — nothing else.” So we need the techniques
to purify the consciousness, to interiorize the consciousness, so that then we can have this devotion
for the Divine. The path Master gave us
is techniques plus devotion. These two lead us to that
divine communion, that actual experience
of the presence of God. Master has given us so much. But, you know, we also have
a responsibility to Master. I think oftentimes the disciple,
especially in the beginning, thinks in terms of what
the guru can do for them. But in the Guru Gita,
Lord Shiva said, “It’s the disciple’s duty
to spread the guru’s teachings.” “It’s the disciple’s duty
to spread the guru’s teachings.” And the disciple does this by becoming an example of the guru’s teachings. I know oftentimes devotees — actually new people coming
to Hollywood Temple — I will ask them, you know, “How did you find out about
Self-Realization Fellowship?” And oftentimes
they’ll say, “Well, I met this person and there was something
special about them. They were so kind.
They were so calm. They were always happy,”
or whatever. And I asked them
what they were into, and they told me they were
meditating and members of SRF.” And so, it’s so inspiring
to see that devotees are living Master’s
teachings to such an extent that they become examples and thereby are spreading
the Guru’s teachings. Once we enter the guru-
disciple relationship, our primary role
is that of a disciple. Our primary role in life
is that of a disciple, and we are disciples 24/7. We should always
be humble enough to try to exemplify
Master’s teachings and not what the ego
is interested in. It’s in this way we’re
helping the Guru’s mission, and Master’s mission
is to bring those tools that can give anybody
that wants them the means for God-communion and how to live their life so,
as he put it, they can “stand unshaken amidst
the crash of breaking worlds.” It won’t matter what the
outer circumstances are. They’ll have that
inner security. But if Master was
in the body today, what would he
tell us to do? What would he tell us
to concentrate on? Well, Ma said
he would tell us, “The counsel I would offer for
getting through the world crisis is the very same I have already
given you as the comprehensive SRF teachings of God-communion
and balanced spiritual living — the pattern of life
that humanity-at-large must and will adopt as we evolve
into the higher age.” We, of all people, should be living the teachings to help this transition
into the higher age. It’s true, Master
did on occasion talk about the general pattern
of things to come. But if we compiled everything
that he said along these lines, it would not constitute probably one one-thousandth
of one percent of all he gave in his talks,
in his Lessons, in his writings. We, as his disciples, need to concentrate on the core
of his teachings, on the meditation, on devotion,
on how-to-live principles. These will bring more light
into our life and into the world. The word “guru” comes from
the two Sanskrit words — “gu” meaning darkness, and
“ru” meaning that which dispels. So the guru’s job description is to dispel the darkness
in the disciple. And are we concentrating,
are we cooperating, I should say, with that? Are we helping him
to dispel that darkness? Are we making conscious decisions
before we hit the send key or before we allow
a train of thought? Are we serving
as light-bearers or are we contributing
to the darkness? One of the people who sent
the doom and gloom emails said at the end, “If you want more information
on this subject, I have it. Just let me know.” So do you have your
pen and paper ready? No, I’m not going to give you
their email address, but if you’re interested, if you’re interested
I would suggest an article entitled “The End of the World.” “The End of the World” —
it's in “Divine Romance.” See what your Guru
has to say about it. See the deep metaphysical
significance there. The point is, we should know
Master’s teachings. Use them to make our
consciousness more transparent for that light of God,
those divine qualities of God. Then we have something of real
value to share with others, something that
will uplift them, something that will give them
a sense of well-being. Recently at Hollywood Temple, I spoke about some of the things
we’ve talked about tonight, and after the service a lady came
up to me and she said, “Brother, I was sitting
in the front row and I was singed by the fire
coming from the pulpit.” So, I hope none of you
have been singed tonight. But it’s definitely important
that we realize the effect
of our thoughts, the importance of the quality
of thoughts that we have, and that we make
conscious decisions of what we’re
sharing with others. And also that we be a light-
bearer for Master’s teachings, doing whatever we can to bring light to whatever
situation we may be in. And lastly, we need to be absolutely
convinced — beyond doubt — that through deep meditation
and devotion we can have that
divine communion and experience that pure love
and bliss consciousness that is right there within
each and every one of us. I’d like to close with
these words of Master. He said, “Just beneath the
shadows of this life is God’s wondrous Light. The universe is a vast
temple of His presence. When you meditate, you will find doors opening
to Him everywhere. When you have
communion with Him, not all the ravages of the world
can take away that Joy and Peace.” “When you have communion
with Him, not all the ravages
of the world can take away
that Joy and Peace.” So, I hope this helps.
