My Goals

Most important message from Sai baba – These MUST be followed even if none of the others are followed

• Pray for others, Be kind and caring for parents. Don’t be money minded
• Chant gayatri, Aditya hrudayam regularly.
• Give importance to things that matter most to you, work on those goals.
• To attain Brahman, one has to do great sacrifice, control the 5 senses, the mind and the intelligence. One who isn’t willing to donate 5 Rs to the poor, how will he ever attain control over the 5 indriyas?
• Meditate on the region in between the eyes, where you will get My vision.
• Develop divine thinking and look at the world through My eyes. See Me in everyone you interact.

* Live like on the top of a tree, when the tree leans to the front – u r thinking of future, when the tree leans to your back – u r falling to the past. Always stay balancing on the top.

* Goal is to make mind 1 pointed so that we live in present

* On an avg. we get 60,000 thoughts per day, Reduce the thoughts by setting Goals.

* While living in the present, don’t let the mind carried away by distractions, Focus on the goals instead.

* Don’t worry about future, just see the goal and execute and focus fully on the present, future will b taken care of.

* Look for the source of I and find I-I that is continuous and unbroken, with a mild light and a high pitch sound, attain and maintain this state.

Investigating the mind

Ramana Maharshi is my guru; I feel He is telling me directly when I read his sayings. This is my favorite article, which I love reading again and again. Puts me back in observation mode when I read it. I love you Ramana Maharshi.

If we unceasingly investigate the form of the mind, we find there is no such thing as the mind. This is the direct path open to all.

There is no use removing doubts. If we clear one doubt another arises and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is really nonexistent. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease. Reality being yourself, there is nothing for you to realize.  All regard the unreal as real. What is required is that you give up regarding the unreal as real. The object of all meditation (dhyana) or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts regarding the non-self, to give up many thoughts and to hold on to one thought. The object of all sadhana is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts. If we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in its source.

When we enquire within ‘Who am I?’ the ‘I’ investigated is the ego. It is that which makes vichara (enquiry) also. The Self has no vichara. That which makes the enquiry is the ego.  The ‘I’ about which the enquiry is made is also the ego. As the result of the enquiry the ego ceases to exist and only the Self is found to exist.

Breath control may serve as an aid but can never by itself lead to the goal. While doing it mechanically, take care to be alert in mind and to remember the ‘I- thought’ and the quest for its source. Then you will find that where the breath sinks, there the ‘I-thought’ arises. They sink and arise together. The ‘I-thought’ will also sink along with the breath. Simultaneously another luminous and infinite ‘I-I’ will emerge, and it will be continuous and unbroken. That is the goal. It goes by different names — God, Self, Kundalini, Shakti, Consciousness, etc.

Who am I?’ is not a mantra. It means that you must find out where in you the ‘I-thought’ arises, which is the source of all other thoughts. But if you find that vichara marga (path of enquiry) is too hard for you, you go on repeating ‘I-I’ and that will lead you to the same goal. There is no harm in using ‘I’ as a mantra. It is the first name of God. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything.  If one has realized, he is That which alone is, and which alone has always been. He cannot describe that state. He can only be That. Of course we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term. Effortless and choice less awareness is our Real State. If we can attain It or be in It, it is all right. But one cannot reach It without effort, the effort of deliberate meditation. All the age long vasanas (latent tendencies) carry the mind outwards and turn it to external objects. All such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward. For most people effort is necessary. Of course, everybody, every book says summa iru - be quiet or still). But it is not easy. That is why all this effort is necessary. Even if you find one who has effortlessly achieved the mouna (silence) or Supreme State indicated by, you may take it that the effort necessary has already been completed in a previous life. Such effortless and choice-less awareness is reached only after deliberate meditation.

People are afraid that when the ego or the mind is killed, the result may be a mere blank and not happiness. What really happens is that the thinker, the object of thought and thinking all merge into the one Source, which is Consciousness and Bliss itself, and thus that state is neither inert nor blank. I do not understand why people should be afraid of that state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is killed. Every day they experience that state in sleep. There is no mind or thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleep one says, ‘I slept happily.’ Sleep is so dear to everyone that no one, prince or beggar, can do without it.

              

Enjoying the now and here ...

The most important lessons i learnt from the book 'dancing with siva' :-

Remember one thing, we have to get our joy out of the doing, not the result. That is the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The Oriental receives his joy in the doing, not the result. The Occidental rushes through his doing, thinking he will get his joy from the result, so is in a state of tension all the time. Life is a constant state of joy in doing. We will have mixed results if we look for joy in results, and our subconscious mind will be frustrated. Receive joy in everything you do.

Man is in a perfect state of being right now. The great sages and rishis found this truth. They were not more perfect than their contemporaries, just more aware. You are perfect this very moment. You are all that you will ever be. If you don't see it that way, then you live in a difficult state of affairs, striving toward perfection and being imperfect along the way.

Remain quiet and do not allow your emotional mind to talk to you. You are lost if it does, from reactionary habit patterns of the past, if you listen. As you pray each day, learn to concentrate, meditate and demonstrate your will over your mind. Demonstrate to yourself, and everybody else will see the result. Subdue ancient habit patterns latent in the subconscious mind. Then you will react not from anticipated reaction but from an action born of your intuitive nature. That is how to accomplish understanding.

Return to the source. Merge with Siva. At the source there is always peace. The key to this entire practice is to become consciously aware of energy. In this constant remembering we have the feeling of being the center of the universe, with the whole world functioning around us. To be fully anchored in the knowledge of the source of our being, the eternal now can and must be a constant experience. It's easy to live in the now if you work with yourself a little every day and concentrate on what you are doing each moment. To begin to work toward establishing yourself in the eternal now, first limit time and space by not thinking about or discussing events that happened more than four days past or will happen more than four days in the future. This keeps awareness reined in, focused. Be aware. Ask yourself, "Am I fully aware of myself and what I'm doing right now?"
Once you have gained a little control of awareness in this way, try to sit quietly each day and just be. Don't think. Don't plan. Don't remember. Just sit and be in the now. That's not as simple as it sounds, for we are accustomed to novelty and constant activity in the mind and not to the simplicity of being. Just sit and be the energy in your spine and head. Feel the simplicity of this energy in every atom of yourself. Think energy. Don't think body. Don't think about yesterday or tomorrow. They don't exist, except in your ability to reconstruct the yesterdays and to create the tomorrows. Now is the only time. This simple exercise of sitting and being is a wonderful way to wash away the past, but it requires a little discipline. You have to discipline every fiber of your nerve system, work with yourself to keep the power of awareness expanded. Regular practice of meditation will bring you intensely into the eternity of the moment. Practice supersedes philosophy, advice, psychology and all pacifiers of the intellect. We have to practice to keep awareness here and now. If you find yourself disturbed, sit down and consciously quiet the forces in yourself. Don't get up until you have completely quieted your mind and emotions through regulating the breath, through looking out at a peaceful landscape, through seeking and finding understanding of the situation. This is the real work of meditation that is not written much about in books. If you can live in the eternity of now, your life will be one of peace and fulfillment.

What is true love?

True love is samatva - equality for all beings starting from an ant to a human being. The same life force or brahman flows in every being manifested in the material world. So when your friend or a relative is suffering, and if u notice it – its actually u who is in trouble. Similarly the favor or help that you do to others is - not to others in reality, its something which u are doing for yourself while u spend time living in a materially encaged body.

The feeling of love that starts getting strengthened between lovers, all the respect and adoration eventually resulting in many more things and eventually ending up in contempt, quarrel and hatred is not true love. Life teaches an experience, which has to be, understood the hard way at times if you are less careful. Similarly the feeling of love that appears to be true between parent and kid, friends, brother and sister, grandparents, grandchildren, boss and subordinate, employee and employer – all of them are anointed with some level of personal interest or gain. This is as told by chanakya the sad reality of the world. There is always some kind of self-interest in any kind of relationship – this is true because everyone loves himself or herself first.

Two lovers love each other madly in the beginning, Person A makes person B feel good, because of which Person B loves Person A and vice-versa. As long as this mutual give and take continues, people in the world say that they are in love with each other. Once the mutual give and take stops, there is no more love, but only pain which levels out the amount of happiness that appeared to be so true at one point of time.


An excerpt, which identifies between conditional and unconditional love:-

The person you married was at one time (we assume) your best friend, your lover and your confidant. How can such professed love change almost overnight? The answer may not be easy to accept. That "love" was to a large degree based the other person meeting personal needs and expectations.

You may ask, "What's wrong with that?"

Would you be willing to have the following put in your wedding vows: "I will stay married to you only as long as you continue to meet my needs and expectations, don't change, and as long as you don't disappoint or hurt me in any way."

Although this is far from what we see in wedding vows, to some degree these expectations may actually govern our marriages.

This is conditional love, although "love" is probably not a valid term.

Unconditional love is quite simply "love without conditions." The degree to which we don't achieve unconditional love is the degree to which we encounter problems in relationships, not to mention the problems that we will face if this relationship ends.

5 steps for unfoldment

Step by step, practice withdrawal of the mind and look inward. One by one, you will witness the myriad good things within. Now and here below, you may meet the Lord for whom the ancient Veda still searches everywhere. - Tirumantiram 578

Step One: Attention
Step Two: Concentration
Step Three: Meditation
Step Four: Contemplation
Step Five: Self Realization (Samadhi)

Contemplation is concentrating so deeply in the inner areas of the mind. We go deeper, deeper, deeper within, into the energy and the life within the cells of the flower, and we find that the energy and the life within the cells of the flower is the same as the energy within us, and we are in contemplation upon energy itself. We see the energy as light. We might see the light within our head, if we have a slight body consciousness. In a state of contemplation, we might not even be conscious of light itself, for you are only conscious of light if you have a slight consciousness of darkness. Otherwise, it is just your natural state, and you are in a deep reverie. In a state of contemplation, you are so intently alive, you can't move. That's why you sit so quietly.

Takeaways from the book "The monk who sold his ferrari"

Mind is like a garden, dont allow the weeds to spread, weeds can be analogous to negative or impure thoughts, Treasure every thought as if its a most prized possession. Opposition thinking, heart of the rose, The Lake method are some of the takeaways to be followed. (Garden)

Success on attaining goals makes one happy and makes one prepared to take on tougher goals. Follow your goal, have a written goal, think about the outcome, create a positive pressure, set a timeline/deadline to finish it, keep doing it for 21 days, enjoy it as u do. (Light house)

Kaizen is the japanese word for continuous self improvement, be it spiritual or material. Practice Kaizen. Self mastery is the DNA of life mastery. Do the things you fear. Success on outside begins from inside. Follow the 10 rituals for radiant living - 1. Solitude for mind, 2. Physical fitness, 3. Food intake - Live foods. 4. Knowledge enhancement 5. Self Reflection-identifying areas of improvement 6. Early Awakening 7. Music 8. Mantra - Spoken word- self talk 9. Congruent character - follow the ancestral character path. 10. Simplicity - cut down unnecessary things and do those that really matter. (Japanese Sumo wrestler)

Lack of willpower is a mental disease. Simply put willpower is finishing what u start. Dont race against others, race against yourself. Willpower gives u freedom, it gives u the control to live the life u have imagined rather than accepting the life u have. We have the power to control every single thought we get every second, +ve thoughts are as easy to think as negative thoughts, whn u start to focus on the good thoughts and refuse to think the bad ones through sheer will power the -ve ones will shrivel up very quickly. Unfoldment doesn't take a lot of time. It just takes a lot of willpower. Someone can go along and sit at attention, and concentrate and meditate for years and years and years and, with a minimal amount of willpower, constantly be distracted, constantly be complaining and constantly be unsuccessful. Another person can have the exact same approach and over a short period of time be extremely successful, because he has will.

• Use this mantra "I am more than i appear to be, all the world's strength and power rests inside me"
• Repeat the mantra along with the daily practice of seeing yourself as you hope to be will give u an enormouse amount of support as u create the disciplined principled life that will connect u to ur dreams.

(Pink wire)

Time is Non-renewable, be serious about time management. Apply - The deathbed mentality, Rule of 20, and manage time effectively.

(Gold Clock)

The quality of our life finally comes down to the quality of our contribution. Selflessly serve others with compassion. See the divine in everyone. By serving others u are actually not doing anything great, u are just serving yourself - The energy source or soul is common. Give up notion of 'I' and 'mine' while serving.

(yellow roses)

Success is a journey, enjoy every moment .... live in the moment ...Never sacrifice happiness for achievement. Embrace the present.

(The path of Diamond stones)

Whats the purpose ?

Whats the purpose of creation ? .... why would someone create so many birds, insects, trees, acquatic creatures, animals with so much of meticulous designing as to where the lungs must be positioned, what sort of body it should possess and leave them as is ?

I dont know the reason behind creation, the reason why u and I are here, the best guess i can make is - God got bored and wanted to have entertainment, like how we watch TV for entertainment - he created this universe with all the variegatedness together with the laws of karma to govern each creatures next body. But why would God get bored if he was always eternally sat-chit-ananda (full of goodness, knowledge and eternal bliss) as the shastras describe ?

I have no clue .... none of the scriptures seem to explain this properly .... they just say there is a God, but they dont say why He did what He did .....

The power of Affirmation

This is based on the concept that the thoughts of the mind are immensely powerful but they last only for a short while. Power of affirmation can be used in order to achieve anything that is desired. This involves programming the subconscious mind by the conscious mind.

For doing this follow these steps

1. Put your goal in words.
Ex: I can finish reading this book. And I will finish reading this book.
2. Close your eyes and imagine how you would "feel" when u have actually achieved the goal
Ex: For the above goal, think about how u would feel if uve finished reading what u had planned to read. Actually feel the situation (as if u have achieved it already)
3. Now repeat the goal statement which u made in 1 a few time.

believe me, this puts you into action immediately. It can be used on anything especially when you are feeling lazy and want to get into action.

Beware of Deja-Vu

We experience a deja-vu every moment, wherther we realize it or not .... we realize it only when we are in the position of the "observer".

One of the biggest obstacles in persisting in the path is what is called as "cycles of experience". We must watch and be careful of these recurring cycles in our life. They consist of both joyous and sorrowful occurences that our "awareness" experiences, sometimes each day, sometimes each week, sometimes each month - are totally dependent upon the +ve control we have of awareness. But then there are greater experiences that have even longer cycles. - perhaps a 3 year cycle, a 5 year cycle, a 10 year cycle and so on ....

The subconscious area of the mind is something like the sacred cow of India. It relives what it takes in. The cow will take in grass and chew it, and then she will chew her food all over again at a later time. The subconscious area of the mind does the same thing. You will find yourself aware of reliving your life, or getting back into the same cycle of the same pattern of life that you experienced many years ago. This you want to avoid, naturally. It is easy. Ponder over what you are doing now, how you are living, and then go back and find out within yourself how that compares to a previous time in your life when you were living more or less in the same way. In this way, you will come to know what area of the mind you will become aware in next.

If something good happened to you after a series of events in the past, you can expect something good to happen to you again. If something happened that was not as good or joyous as you would like it to have been, then you can know that you will become aware in this area of the mind in the future. This you can avoid. You have the power to control your cause and effect. By developing this awareness, one will soon realize that every moment is nothing but a reaction to what we have done maybe moments ago, years ago, decades ago or lives ago .... Knowing this one starts to know the process of escaping from the laws of karma or the cause and effect principle or what u say newtons 3rd law of motion .....

Reading this should suffice .... no more reading required

Lord Ramana Maharshi answers

D.: Can the mind be fixed to that point? How?
M.: If the mind is distracted, ask the question promptly, “To whom
do these distracting thoughts arise?” That takes you back to the ‘I’
point promptly.

D.: How long can the mind stay or be kept in the Heart?
M.: The period extends by practice.

D.: What happens at the end of the period?
M.: The mind returns to the present normal state. Unity in the Heart
is replaced by variety of phenomena perceived. This is called the
outgoing mind. The heart-going mind is called the resting mind.

D : What is the good of this process?
M:

(a) Conquest of the will - development of concentration.
(b) Conquest of passions - development of dispassion.
(c) Increased practice of virtue - (samatva) equality to all.


Excerpts that mattered me the most from the book "Merging with Siva"

Perhaps the biggest battle in the beginning stages of practicing attention and concentration is the control of breath. The beginner will not want to sit long enough, or not be able to become quiet enough to have a deep, controlled flow of breath. After five minutes, the physical elements of the subconscious mind will become restless. He will want to squirm about. He will sit down to concentrate on the flower and begin thinking of many other things that he should be doing instead: "I should have done my washing first." "I may be staying here for a half an hour. What if I get hungry? Perhaps I should have eaten first." The telephone may ring, and he will wonder who is calling. "Maybe I should get up and answer it," he thinks and then mentally says, "Let it ring. I'm here to concentrate on the flower." If he does not succeed immediately, he will rationalize, "How important can breathing rhythmically be, anyway? I'm breathing all right. This is far too simple to be very important." He will go through all of this within himself, for this is how he has been accustomed to living in the conscious mind, jumping from one thing to the next.

When you sit at attention, view all of the distractions that come as you endeavor to concentrate on one single object, such as a flower. This will show you exactly how the conscious and subconscious mind operate. All of the same distractions come in everyday life. Such concerns have been there life after life, year after year. The habit of becoming constantly distracted makes it impossible for you to truly concentrate the mind or to realize anything other than distractions and the desires of the conscious mind itself.

There comes a time in man's life when he has to put an end to it all. He sits down. He begins to breathe, to ponder and be aware of only one pleasant thing. As he does this, he becomes dynamic and his will becomes strong. His concentration continues on that flow. As his breath becomes more and more regulated, his body becomes quiet and the one great faculty of the soul becomes predominant -- observation, the first faculty of the unfoldment of the soul.

The 'now' principle ...

If i dont make a decision of doing something 'now' .... if i dont accumulate all the willpower and use it for achieving the goal now ..... i'd probably wont do it after an hour, or tomorrow or next year .... or forever in this life nor in a 100 billion lives ! .... The shastras say "Athatho brahma jignyasa" - meaning - Now that you have acquired the human form of life, start enquiring into the Absolute Truth. If you are now reading this blog .... stop reading it .... self cannot be found in the books or any literature ... it can be found only within you through vichara (enquiry). There is no use doubting or reading tons of literature, the right time to do it is NOW.

Focus, Concentrate, Ponder, Enquire !

The Route and where i am

By experimentation on oneself and by experience one can clearly without any doubt say that thought itself is bondage. Thoughts are countless and there is no possibility of controlling them when left without enquiry even in a billion lives, to get the great power of observation its important to bring the thoughts to a standstill, shastras say various ways of bringing it under control, some follow japa, some follow bhajans and singing gods praises in a devotional mood, some do enquiry (sankhya) and some do meditation (dhyana).

The purpose of every action mentioned above is one - to make the mind still.

Time factor is very important, only if one meditates for hours can he really start seeing its effects. I have a problem maitaining focus for long periods, and thats something i have to work on. Japa is a good way of keeping the mind for a fixed time, but how to overcome fatigue and sleep ? ... sometimes the spine starts aching and laziness comes in ..... how do i tackle this ? .... i will find the answers soon.

Om Ganeshaya Namah

All salutations to God ganesha, who being in form helps us in knowing the formless. I start this blog seeking your blessings.