More quotes from Gurudeva

 

"Compassion is the outgrowth of love. Love is the outgrowth of understanding. Understanding is the outgrowth of reason. "

~Gurudeva

"Patience is having the power of acceptance, accepting people, accepting events as they are happening. One of the great spiritual powers that people can have is to accept things as they are. "

~Gurudeva

“We are all growing towards God, and experience is the path. Through experience we mature out of fear into fearlessness, out of anger into love, out of conflict into peace, out of darkness into light and union in God. Aum”

- Gurudeva

“It is easy to get what you think of
if you can get yourself to think of it.”

-Weavers Wisdom

"Yes, willpower is the key, the must, the most needed faculty for spiritual unfoldment on this path. Work hard, strive to accomplish, strengthen the will by using the will. "

~Gurudeva

"Giving a gift begrudgingly in return for another gift is, of course, mere barter. Many families barter their way through life in this way, thinking they are giving. But such gifts are cold, the fulfillment is empty, and the law of karma pays discounted returns. "

~Gurudeva

"There is no intrinsic evil. God Siva has created the principle of opposites, which are the means for the soul's maturation--beauty and deformity, light and darkness, love and hate, joy and sorrow. "

~Gurudeva

Desire

 

Its amazing to see the great power of desire and the changes it causes in the world of the mind, it is responsible for making a selfish guy who likes only himself to love another probably a new found crush at his college, it is responsible for a routine-work-stressed housewife to break free and go on a pilgrimage trip or vacation, it is responsible for making an employee switch to a different job in search of better financial and work prospects, it is responsible for another employee to quit the job and start his own business and be his own boss, it is responsible for "change" in the external world when things are routine.

When a person gets something he desires, it can trigger a reaction in others around him/her, some might end up getting a “desire” to be like him/her, thus giving a waterfall effect to the creation of desires in those individuals, some might get jealous by observing this person and comparing with their own unfulfilled life. This can in turn trigger other sorts of negative thoughts about oneself and others close to him by the person which in turn can lead to changes in his/her life. Meanwhile the person who has successfully met the object of his desire would have slowly lost the sense of achievement of the desire and would have moved on to pursue a new desire and the pursuit of happiness continues for him.

Thus desire keeps the individual in the conscious mind, every day, every year, every lifetime for many many lives. It is said by my guru that only when most of the desires have been achieved does the soul actually starts desiring for enlightenment. Thus the very power of desire (in the world of the mind) is the thrust which jolts the soul towards non-desire of the world, towards the ultimate goal of self realization.

Related Post: The donkey and the carrot.

How do you change the world?

 

Love these beautiful quotes from God to Evan in the Movie “Evan Almighty”

“God: Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”

The movie ends with Evan and his family on a weekend hiking trip when God reappears to Evan, telling him that the way to change the world is by doing one Act of Random Kindness ("ARK") at a time; the film's central message.

Love you Gurudeva

 

Once in a while on this Earth there arises a soul who, by living his tradition rightly and wholly, perfects his path and becomes a light to the world. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was such a being, a living example of awakening and wisdom, a leader recognized worldwide as one of Hinduism's foremost ministers.

 

 

An eye opener from gurudeva from “Living with Siva” :

 

Thus the wheel of karma continues, on and on and on, creating and recreating. The wheel of karma is simply the mechanism of the mind's action -- your mind, everyone's mind. Through the study of the wheel of karma, which is a meditative study, you realize that you have created everything that is happening or has already happened to you. Everything that is coming your way in the future you will have created. Everything you will acquire your own wants will have brought into being. You are right now a sum total of millions of thoughts, feelings, desires and actions -- all of them yours. Circumstance is not responsible for your condition, for you have made your circumstances consciously and unconsciously. There are no outside forces imposing themselves upon you. Whatever you attract to yourself of the world, though it seems to be external, is but a manifestation of your own inner nature. Yo u are the author of all of your creations; and yet in the inner recesses of your being you are already the finished product at the same time. To understand this fully, you need yoga.

Response

 

This post is in response to an anonymous friend’s comment for a previous post “Resounding words”

His comment “I havent been able to immerse myself totally in my work as I used to do during my school days.”

Here is the response which i found from gurudeva

When one is bound down by his past karmas, unhappy, confused and not performing with enthusiasm his dharma -- be it born or chosen -- making new karmas as a result, his lethargy results in despair. The camel walks slower with a heavy burden and stops if the burden is still heavier. The burdened have no sense of urgency, no expression of joy. They have stopped. They are standing on the path holding their troubles in their hands, unwilling and unable to let go.

Worship of Lord Ganesha sets the path of dharma. Go to His Feet. He alone can perform this miracle for you. He will release the mental and emotional obstructions to spiritual progress. He will remove the burdens of worldliness. To live the perfect life of the grihastha dharma, of family life, brings as its fulfillment the all-knowing bliss of Satchidananda, realizing ourself not as formless Parasiva but as the pure consciousness that sustains and pervades all forms in the universe. Yes, there is a sense of urgency on the path of enlightenment, but only when we are unburdened of karma, only when we are walking the path of dharma. Only then can true yoga be practiced and perfected.

All Hindus without exception believe in reincarnation. In each birth we must fulfill more goals leading to the one ultimate goal which after many births well lived will loom before us as the only goal worthy of striving for in this lifetime. All other desires, all other aims and ambitions pale under the brilliance of even the thought of realization of Satchidananda and Parasiva.

Courtesy: Merging with Siva – How to realize God

New Observations in Life

 

I meditate intensely and after half an hour – I see the mind for what it is – a “self created principle”  to put it in my gurudevas words. Thoughts come and go, then mind is still, yet the stillness is also a state of mind for a good observant ‘third’ eye. The thoughts are due to unresolved karmas and I observe them as they are being worked out by the soul. What is it that prevents me to realize Parasiva from this point?

Gurudeva answers

It is karma that keeps us from knowing of and reaching life's final goal, yet it is wrong to even call it a goal. It is what is known by the knower to have always existed. It is not a matter of becoming the Self, but of realizing that you never were not the Self.

Daily I observe behind every conversation with family and friends – the mind working out its karma. It is the cause for ‘pleasant’ or ‘heated’ conversations. Then I observe that a dominant karmic desire that has dominated the mind – the desire to be better / improve. It is this desire to improve which is present in every human being that takes the soul finally towards the self.

But Gurudeva says

Prior to that, it is a goal. After realization, one thing is lost, the desire for the Self.

After self realization the desire for the self is also lost because the ego which “houses” the desire is dead. This is the reason gurudeva asks people in general

Are we ready for the final journey life has to offer? Are we prepared to endure the hardships of sadhana, to suffer the death of the ego? Or would we prefer more pleasures in the world of "I" and "mine"?

My Immediate Goal : Maintain the meditation consistency in mornings. The thing to be practiced now is maintaining awareness over the object of concentration for a greater amount of time at will until effortless concentration is achieved.