STORY OF THE DAY

[Ramesh Ramnani]

'APPO DEEPO BHAVA.'


Buddha was dying. He walked for forty years with a lamp and thousands followed him. Now he was going to die.

One day in the morning he said: 'This is my last day. If you have something to ask, you can ask.' The moment had come, the crossroad had come; now he would go on his own way.

Suddenly, infinite darkness surrounded everybody. Ananda, Buddha's chief disciple, started crying like a child -- beating his heart, tears coming down -- almost mad.

Buddha said: 'What are you doing, Anand?'

Anand said: 'What will we do now? You were here, we followed in your light.

Everything was safe and secure. We have completely forgotten that darkness exists. Following you, everything was light. Forty years, and now you are leaving -- and you are leaving us in total darkness. We were better before we met you because at least we were attuned to darkness; now that timing is also lost. Don't leave us in darkness! We could not attain to enlightenment while you were here; now what will happen when you are gone? We are lost forever.' He started crying and weeping again.

Buddha said: 'Listen. Forty years you walked in my light and you could not attain to your own light. Do you think if I am alive forty years more, you will attain to your own light? Even four thousand or four million years? The more you walk in a borrowed light, the more you imitate, the more you will lose. It is better I should go.'

The last words on Buddha's lips were: 'Be a light unto yourself.' He died with this uttering: 'Be a light unto yourself' -- 'APPO DEEPO BHAVA.'

The story is beautiful. The next day Ananda became enlightened. He could not become enlightened for forty Years and he loved Buddha tremendously; he had almost become a shadow of him and he could not attain. The borrowed light: he relied too much on it.

And it was so beautiful, and so effortlessly available -- who bothers about anything else? And within twenty-four hours he became enlightened.

What happened?

Twenty-four hours of deep crying and facing the darkness, and the reality, and one's own helplessness. Those twenty-four hours must have been so long for him. It was the darkest period -- painful, deep anguish and agony. He passed that hell. It is said that for twenty-four hours he was Lying down under a tree as if dead, the whole body shaking, tears continuously flowing. People thought that he had gone mad or that he wouldn't be able to survive without Buddha.

But after twenty-four hours he was a totally different man. He opened his eyes and people could not believe it -- those eyes had the same glimmer as Buddha's eyes. His body had the same beauty, the same fragrance. He walked like Buddha. He had attained to his own light.

[Devki]

The Master’s Method
 
One day, King Barkat decided to imprison the Master because of his preaching and because of the rebellious ideas he was spreading.

After some months the king fell ill and was confined to bed by a strange paralysis. All the doctors in the land tried to help him with the best medicines, but to no avail. The king wasn’t getting any better; indeed, he was getting worse. One day someone suggested that maybe the Master could help the king, since he was renowned among the people as a great healer.

The king decided to receive him and to ask his advice. The dervish was called and brought before his Majesty and the problem was explained to him. He answered: “Your Majesty, I can help you, but only on one condition: you must give me a sharp knife and then we two must be left alone”. The king was terrified; what would happen if the Master tried to kill him? But he had no choice: he could either remain paralysed, or try this cure.

He thought it over, then, with fear in his heart, he said: “Very well, we will do as you say, but remember that if anything were to happen to me, my courtiers would kill you” . A long, sharp knife was brought, and the king and the Master were left alone in the royal bedroom. Sanai, the Master, grabbed the knife, and, with an evil look in his eye, he leapt upon the king saying: “ At last we are alone, and I can have my revenge!” The terrified king leapt from his bed, screaming that the Master wanted to kill him.

His courtiers rushed in and saw the king running around the room, followed by the Master, who was brandishing the knife in the air.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST.....

One day, a king went to visit a Master, and attended, as an observer, the meeting chaired by the wise man.

Later, during lunch, the king said to the Master, “Master of our age! When you preside over your assembly, your disciples sit in a semicircle, in an order that reminds me of that used in my court: does it by chance have any particular meaning?”

He replied: “King of the world! How are your courtesans arranged? Tell me, and then I will describe how the rows of searchers are arranged”.

“The first circle,” explained the king, “is made up of those who, for various reasons, enjoy my favour, so that they are the closest. The second circle is reserved for the most important and powerful dignitaries in the kingdom, and for ambassadors. The outer circle is for less important people.”

“In that case,” said the wise man, “the order in which people are positioned here is far from corresponding with the criteria that you describe. The people sitting closest to me are the deaf ones, so that they can hear. The middle group contains all the ignorant ones, so that they can pay attention to my Teaching. Those furthest away are the illuminated ones, because this kind of closeness holds no importance for them.”

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Awareness means an intensity

Awareness is an intensity. Sometimes you can feel it. Sometimes in a great danger you become aware. Sometimes if you are driving a car and suddenly you feel an accident is going to happen, you become aware. Then you know intensity. In that moment all thinking stops. You are simply alert. You are no longer functioning as a mind; you function as a consciousness.

One Sufi mystic, Bayazid, used to talk to his disciples about awareness, and they would ask, "But what is awareness? You go on talking about it." One day he took them to the river. On this side there was a small hill, and on the other side there was a small hill. He said, "We are going to put up a long wooden bridge -- just one foot wide -- from this end to the other, and you will have to walk on it. And then you will know what awareness is." They said, "But we have been walking our whole life, and we have never come to know." He said, "Wait," and he did the experiment. Many of them started feeling very afraid, and they said, "We cannot walk. Just one foot wide?" "But how much do you need to walk on? When you are walking on the earth, you can walk on a one-foot-wide strip easily. Why, why can't you walk on a one-foot-wide strip hanging between two hills? Why can't you walk on it?"

A few people tried. Just two, three feet they went, and they came back, and they said, "It is dangerous." Then Bayazid walked and a few followed, and when they reached the other shore, those few who had followed, they fell at his feet and they said, "Master, now we know what awareness is.

The danger was so much that we could not afford to walk in slumber. We had to be alert. Any moment and we would have been gone forever, so we had to keep alert."

In some rare, dangerous moments you become aware; otherwise not. Awareness means an intensity, such an intensity of wakefulness that no thought interferes. You are simply conscious without any thought. Try it. You can try it anywhere. Walking on the road, walk as if each moment there is danger. And there is danger! because any moment you can die, any moment death is there. If you become a little more understanding you will understand. It is impossible not to be aware if you see that death is possible any moment. Then you cannot live like drunkards.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

These golden moments can be yours........

An ancient parable in China is that an emperor who was very interested in paintings, and had a great collection of paintings, announced a great prize for the best painting. All the great painters of the country arrived in the capital and started working.

One painter said, "It will take at least three years for me."
 
The emperor said, "But I'm too old."

The painter said, "You need not be worried. You can give me the award right now. If you are not certain of your life, I am certain about my painting. But I'm not asking either. I am just saying that I am going to do a job that has never been done. I want to show you what a painting should really be; so forget about your death and forget about the award. You allow me three years and a separate place in the palace. Nobody can come while I'm working; for three years I have to be left alone."

Each day was such an excitement for the emperor. The man was a well-known painter, and not only a painter -- he was a Zen master too. Finally those three years passed, and the painter invited the emperor... he took him into the room. On the whole wall he had painted a beautiful forest with mountains, with waterfalls, and a small footpath going round about and then getting lost into the trees behind the mountains.

The painting was so alive, so three-dimensional, that the emperor forgot completely that it was a painting and asked the painter, "Where does this footpath lead to?"

The painter said, "I have never gone on it, but we can go and have a look at where it goes."

The story is that the painter and the emperor both walked on the path, entered the forest, and have not returned since then. The painting is still preserved; it shows the footprints of two persons on the footpath. It seems to be absolutely unbelievable, but the meaning is of tremendous importance.

The painter is saying that unless you can be lost in a painting, it is not a painting. Unless you can become part of the scene, something is dividing you; you are not allowing yourself, totally, to be one with it, whether it is a sunrise or a sunset....
 
A meditator has to learn in different ways, from different sides of life, to be lost. Those are the moments when you are no more, but just a pure silence, an abyss, a sky, a silent lake without any ripples on it.

You have become one with it. And all that is needed is -- don't be just a passer-by, don't be a tourist, don't be in a hurry. Sit down and relax. Gaze into the silence, into the depth, and allow that depth to enter into your eyes, so that it can reach to your very being.

A moment comes when the gazer and the gazed become one, the observer and the observed become one. That is the moment of meditation -- and there are no more golden experiences in existence. These golden moments can be yours... just a little art, or rather a little knack, of losing yourself into something vast, something so big that you cannot contain it. But it can contain you! And you can experience it only if you allow it to contain you.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Don't Desire except to Desire GOD - Less than that will not do.....

It is a well-known story from the life of Alexander the Great. It is said that he was in search of the elixir of life, which once taken keeps death away. His plan to conquer the whole world was mainly in order to find this nectar.

The story goes that he ultimately found the spring of the immortal waters in a cave. Alexander entered the cave filled with joy, that now his lifelong desire was about to be fulfilled. He rested his eyes for a moment on the bubbling brook in front of him. Just as he was about to take the water, a crow that was sitting in the cave called out, "Wait, don't make that mistake!" Alexander looked at the crow.

His condition was pitiful. It was difficult to make out that he was a crow. His wings had fallen off, his eyes could see no more, his whole body was in a state of disintegration. He was just a skeleton. Alexander asked him, "Who are you to stop me? What is your reason?"

"Listen to my story first, O king, then do as you see fit," said the crow. "I too was in search of this spring. I too discovered the cave and drank this water. Now I cannot die and I want so much to die. Look at my state: my eyes are blind, my body is old and withered, my wings have broken and I cannot fly, my feet have disintegrated, but alas, I cannot die! Look at me just once and then do what you please.

"Now I beg that someone should kill me, but alas I cannot be killed because I have drunk this nectar. Now I pray to God night and day to grant me death. I want to die somehow, anyhow!"

It is said that Alexander stopped and pondered, then he silently left the cave without touching the water.

If your desires are fulfilled you find yourself in as much difficulty as when they are unfulfilled. You do not wish to die. If you were to find this cave and you drink the water from the spring, then you will find yourself in a dilemma -- what will you do with your life now? When life was in your hands, when you could have really lived, you were busy looking for the nectar to escape death.

You cannot live with the elixir, you cannot live with death, you cannot live in poverty, you cannot live in riches; you cannot live in hell, you cannot live in heaven, and yet you consider yourselves wise!

Bayazid was a Sufi mystic. He told God in his prayers, "O Lord, do not listen to my prayers; do not fulfill my prayers, because where have I the wisdom to ask for what is good for me?"

Man is absolutely without intelligence. He gets himself caught in the web of his desires and then wanders about within them. If his desires are not satisfied he is in difficulty. If they are satisfied he finds himself again in difficulty. Ponder a bit, go back into your own past and take stock of your life. What have you desired that has even partially come to pass? Has it given you happiness? Some of your desires that have not been fulfilled -- have they given you happiness? In both cases you have had nothing but sorrow and suffering. You become involved with your desires, some that were fulfilled; and you are still involved with the unfulfilled desires.

What is understanding? What are the characteristics of wisdom but to ask for that which when attained, all sorrow and miseries end? On that basis nobody in the world except a religious person is wise. Only he who desires God never repents; whatever else you ask for ends in regret.
 
Keep in mind that all your desires end in regret and repentance, except to desire God.
 
Less than that will not do, because that is the goal of life.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Are you rich or poor?

The greatest of kings possessing wealth as vast as the ocean and whose splendor is untold, cannot equal a tiny, lowly ant who has acquired the alchemy of remembrance, who always thinks of You. The lowliest of the lowly became the greatest of the great on acquiring surati; whereas the greatest of kings remains miserably destitute without remembrance.

There is only one wretchedness -- to forget God. There is only one wealth -- to attain His remembrance. He whose surati awakens has acquired all that is worth acquiring, achieved all worth achieving. Then it doesn't matter if he has no cloth to cover him, or roof to shelter him. It doesn't matter how much wealth you possess, how many palaces, how many titles, if in the absence of surati you feel a miserable beggar within. The pain, the anguish of poverty will always gnaw at your heart.

Nanak says the only kind of wealth is His remembrance. The only kind of poverty is to forget Him. Ponder well over this. Are you rich or poor? Don't think of your bank balance, which is a deception, but open your internal account and see the entry labeled remembrance. You are rich to the extent of your remembrance. If There is none, then you have not yet begun to acquire wealth. What you amass in the outside world makes no difference.

When Alexander the Great was about to die he told his ministers that his hands should be left hanging outside the coffin. When they complained that this was not the custom and wanted to understand the reason, he said, "I want people to see that in spite of all my conquests I leave this world with empty hands."

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Divine order cannot be contained in the words......


There is an old Sufi story: A deaf shepherd was grazing his sheep near a mountain. It was afternoon, long past the usual hour his wife brought his lunch and he was very hungry. As she had never been late before he began to worry whether she was taken ill or had met with an accident. The shepherd looked around and saw a woodcutter perched high on a tree. He reached up to him and said, "Brother, would you keep an eye on my lambs? I would like to run home and get my food."

Now, as it happened, the woodcutter also was deaf. He said, "On your way! I have no time to waste in idle gossip." The shepherd understood from his gestures that he had agreed to his request. He ran home as fast as he could and returned with his food. He counted his sheep and all was in order. He thought it would be nice to offer a gift to the woodcutter as a gesture of his gratitude and good will. Having a lame sheep which he would have to kill some day, he took it with him to where the woodcutter was.

Now when the woodcutter saw the shepherd with the lame lamb, he cried out in anger, "What? Do you mean to say I made her lame?"

The more the shepherd offered the lamb to him, the louder shouted the woodcutter. Now it happened that a horseback rider who had lost his way came upon the two. He meant to ask them the way but immediately the two of them caught hold of him. As luck would have it, the rider, who also was stone-deaf, had just stolen the horse and was riding away with it.

When these two caught hold of him he thought they must be the owners of the horse. Meanwhile the shepherd asked him earnestly to explain to the woodcutter that he was presenting the lamb as a gift to him.

The woodcutter said, "Please tell this man I did not so much as look at his sheep, much less make this one lame!"

The horseman said, "You may take back the horse. I admit my guilt, please forgive me."

While all this confusion was going on a Sufi fakir happened to pass by. All three rushed at him, caught hold of his clothing and begged him to clear things up for them. The fakir had taken a lifelong vow of silence, and although he understood each of their problems, what was he to do? He looked deep and long into the eyes of the rider, who began to get restless. He thought this man was hypnotizing him. He became so frightened that he jumped on the horse and rode away.

Now the fakir turned and looked piercingly at the shepherd who also felt he was losing consciousness. He quickly gathered his sheep and went on his way. When the fakir turned to the third man, he was equally frightened.

The fakir's eyes were very powerful. Those who observe prolonged silence develop a unique luster in their eyes. All the energy accumulates and the eyes become the channel for expression. When the fakir looked at him deeply, he quickly tied his bundle of sticks and went off.

The Sufi laughed and continued on his way. He had solved their problem without saying a word.

This is the difficulty that holy men experience, and there are not only three who are deaf; there are three billion deaf in this world! And each one makes his point but nobody listens; nobody hears anybody else. There is no dialogue in life, only debates and disputes. What is the saint to do then? He has developed the art of silence so there is no way to speak.

Besides, however much he speaks, as in the case of the Sufi fakir, deaf men are never able to follow. He would only have added to the confusion. So he merely looked deep into their eyes.

The saint has always tried to solve your problems by looking deep into your eyes. He tries to pour into your eyes what is contained within himself. Therefore Nanak talks a great deal of the company of saints. He says, "Associate with holy men if you want to know what they have known. Keep the company of saints, because mere hearing and talking will not take you far." You will be told one thing, you will interpret it in another way people are deaf. You will be shown something and you will see something else people are blind. You will draw your own conclusions, give different meanings to the saint's words.

Nanak says the divine order cannot be expressed, yet hints can be given. These hints are not mere words, because the divine order cannot be contained in the words.
 
   

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Only Remedy......

Nothing will happen by your doing. Whatever you do, it will be your doing. Even when you tell a truth, because it arises out of your false personality, it will be a falsehood. From where can you utter truth when you are absolutely false?

Nanak was a guest of Lalu, a poor carpenter. The rich landlord of the village was performing a religious sacrifice to which he had invited the whole village. He sent a special invitation to Nanak. When Nanak did not appear the landlord himself came to bring him along.

He said, "How can you refuse to come to my mansion and partake in such a feast? Everything is of the best and purest ingredients, and it is specially prepared by brahmins who have first bathed and performed their rituals. Can you refuse this food cooked with the water of the Ganges and prefer the meager meal of this lowly carpenter who is not even a brahmin?"

Nanak said, "If you insist, I will go with you," but he asked Lalu to follow him and bring his food.

It is said -- and this is a symbolic story -- that Nanak took Lalu's dry bread and squeezed. A stream of milk poured forth. With the other hand he squeezed the landlord's bread and a stream of blood came out.

Nanak said to the landlord, "You cannot hide your impurity. Whether you have your food cooked by brahmins, whether you clean each grain with the Ganges water, it makes no difference. Your whole life is one long tale of exploitation, deceit, theft and lies. Blood is hidden in every bite of your bread."

Whether blood actually came out of the bread or not is inconsequential, but the story deals with truth. Only if you are true in your very being, can you be truth. Otherwise who can remedy it?

Nanak says nothing will happen by your doing. You are dishonest, so dishonesty will creep into your truth also. Your truths will somehow be made to serve your dishonesty, and in such a way that it harms others. You will look for such truths that will pierce another person's heart. Before you harmed the world with your lies, now you harm the world with your truths. Whatever you do will be wrong if you are wrong.

What is the cure? Nanak says the only remedy is to leave everything to God: His will be done. Await His pleasure. Live the way He wants you to. Be whatever He wants you to. Go wherever He takes you. Let His command be your one and only spiritual practice.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Remembrance.........

Nanak says: Stay where you wish, but let your remembrance be in God. Nothing is achieved by singing praises; everything is achieved by surati. All singing of praises is superficial, whereas remembrance is within. There is no need to shout aloud: "You are great, O Lord, I am a sinner. You are the redeemer, I am a beggar." Why shout like that? Whom are you telling? There is no need to ring bells and sing praise; what is needed is remembrance. Keep his remembrance; do not forget for a moment. Nurture His remembrance.

If you were to find a diamond, you would quickly put it safely away in your pocket. You might even tie it in a handkerchief lest it fall somewhere. Whether you go to the market, make your purchases or meet your friends, your remembrance will always be with the diamond. A faint low sound repeats again and again saying, "The diamond is in the pocket,.the diamond is in the pocket..." Every now and again you will feel it with your fingers to see whether it is still there.

Nurture the remembrance of God within in the same manner. Now and then touch it inside to be sure it is there. While walking on the road, stop and look inside. Is the thread of remembrance intact? Is the flow continuous? While eating stop for a second and check; close your eyes and watch if the remembrance is flowing.

Gradually the experience will go deeper and deeper. Then the flow of remembrance continues in your sleep too. When it flows all twenty-four hours of the day, you will have made the bridge between yourself and Him. Now you can close your eyes and merge into Him whenever you please. The road is now made; the instant you close your eyes you are lost in Him. And when you return to the world from your meeting with Him you will be refreshed, filled with absolute energy, as fresh and light as if you have just had a bath. Therefore Nanak says that bathing in thousands of holy places takes place in surati.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

The hunger for God is not an Ordinary Hunger.........

Nanak was a guest of a Mohammedan nabob. For Nanak there were no Hindus and no Mohammedans; the sage observes no sectarian boundaries. The nabob said to Nanak, "If you really mean what you say -- that there is no Hindu, no Mohammedan -- then come along with us to the mosque. Since today is Friday, let us pray together."

Nanak readily agreed, but he insisted, "I shall offer prayers only if you also pray." The nabob replied, "What a strange condition to set! That is exactly why I am going."

The news spread like wildfire through the village. Everyone gathered at the mosque. The Hindus were greatly upset, and the members of Nanak's family were particularly abusive; everyone thought Nanak was becoming a Mohammedan. In such a way do people burden others with their own fears.

Nanak reached the mosque and the prayers were begun. The nabob was very annoyed with Nanak because, whenever he turned around to look, he found Nanak still erect, neither bowing now offering prayers, but just standing like a statue.
 
The nabob raced through his prayers as quickly as possible, because how can a person pray when he is angry? Finally he turned to Nanak and said, "You are a fraud. You are neither saint nor seeker! You promised to pray but you never did."

Nanak said, "I did promise, but have you forgotten the conditions? I said I would pray provided you also prayed. But you didn't, so how could I pray?"

"What are you saying? Are you in your right senses? There are so many witnesses here; everyone saw me offering prayers!"

"I can't believe these other witnesses because I was looking within you all the time. You were buying horses in Kabul."

The nabob was taken aback because that was exactly what he was doing. His favorite horse had died just that morning and he was still strongly affected by the loss of such a fine animal. His mind was preoccupied with how to reach Kabul as early as possible to buy another thoroughbred. To him a horse was a symbol of status and honor.

"And the priest who led the prayers," continued Nanak, "was busy gathering the harvest in his fields." The priest admitted that he was worried about his harvest that was ready to be reaped. "Now please tell me, did you offer your prayers so that I could offer mine?"

You force yourself to pray, you force yourself to worship, to meditate -- it is all meaningless. By bending the body into certain postures you cannot force the mind to follow suit.

The cacophony of the mind continues, and in fact it becomes louder and more intense. When the body was engaged in some activity the energy was divided. Now when the body sits absolutely inactive, all the energy flows to the mind and the thoughts spin at even greater speed!

This is why when people sit to meditate, the mind becomes more and more active... a real avalanche of thoughts cascading one upon the other! You sit to worship, but the marketplace still grips your thoughts. You go to the temple and ring the bells, but the mind races in other directions. Normally the mind is not so restless. You go to see a film and the mind is quiet and you feel at peace, but no sooner do you enter the temple or mosque or church it becomes its most restive. What is the reason? The theater is linked to your desires. In the movies all the things that you are filled with are brought out, all the rubbish, all the trash. It strikes a chord within you. In the temple what you hear touches nothing within, and hence the confusion.

Nanak is saying that by enforcing silence you will gain nothing, because you cannot attain that silence. Even if you remain in constant meditation, nothing is going to happen. The hunger cannot be appeased even by a mountain of bread, because this is not a hunger that can be appeased by bread. The hunger for meditation, the hunger for God, is not an ordinary hunger.

Nothing will happen by your doing. Whatever you do, it will be your doing. Even when you tell a truth, because it arises out of your false personality, it will be a falsehood. From where can you utter truth when you are absolutely false?

WE CANNOT COMPREHEND HIM THOUGH WE THINK A MILLION TIMES;
NOR QUIET THE MIND BY SILENCE, HOWEVER LONG WE SIT;
NOR A MOUNTAIN OF BREAD APPEASE THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL;
NOR ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FEATS OF MIND ACHIEVE UNITY WITH HIM.
HOW CAN TRUTH BE ATTAINED AND THE VEIL OF FALSEHOOD TORN?
NANAK SAYS, BY SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE ORDER, WHICH IS PREORDAINED.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

GOD IS NOWHERE?.............

I have heard a small story about a man who was a great atheist. The whole day he was arguing against religion, against all kinds of superstitions. He had written in his sitting room in big letters: GOD IS NOWHERE.
 
Then a small child was born to him.

One day the small child was looking at the writing. He was just learning to write, learning the alphabet, so he could not manage to read GOD IS NOWHERE; on the contrary, he read: GOD IS NOW HERE -- nowhere can be divided into two.

The father heard it and was amazed. He had never thought about it, that `nowhere' consists of `now' and `here'.

The small child changed the man's whole approach; he started thinking about now and here.

And he was puzzled... because he has never been now; his mind has been wandering in the past or in the future, but never now, never in the present.

Mind has no relationship with the present.

This moment, if you are here, the mind is no more.

Mind needs the past as memory, and mind needs the future as projection. Without future and past, the mind cannot exist. And the present is so small, just a split second. In the present, there is no work for the mind to do -- either it can do some work for the future or some work for the past, but it is absolutely impotent as far as the present is concerned.

The father had defeated many philosophers, but this small child changed his whole life because he started to be here, and to be now, and he found a new area opening within himself.

That area is meditation.

Meditation means no mind -- no past, no future, no present... just eternity, a pure mirror which reflects the whole and is not scratched by anything. Just as the sky is not scratched by the clouds moving, or the sun rising, or the full-moon night, the sky remains unscratched.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

*Be a Divine Heart*

Hridaya means the heart and deva means divine -- the divine heart. And that is the direction for you to grow towards, the height you have to reach.

By a divine heart, I mean a heart which is unconditionally in love -- not with somebody in particular, but just in love with anything, any person, anybody whatsoever. Love becomes your climate; not a relationship. A relationship can grow in it, but you have to make it more a climate rather than a relationship.

Ordinarily love is a relationship, and when love is a relationship you breathe only towards a certain person. You breathe him or her, but the passage is very narrow. The universe is so vast and love gives so much; why make it so narrow? Let it expand and be unconditional, because whenever there is a condition, love becomes ruined. When it is unconditional. it becomes divine.

And love is never satisfied unless it becomes divine because that is the deepest urge in every human being: to be so full of love that whatsoever the condition, the love goes on showering.

So from this moment, remember it. You will forget many times, but again remember. And don't move indifferently. You are passing through the garden; don't move indifferently. Touch a leaf, talk to a tree, mm? just say hello; that will do. No need to utter it loudly.

Indifference kills love more than hatred. Hatred is love inverted, but indifference is absolute negation.

People move indifferently. They look at people but they don't look. They touch people but they don't touch.

So let this be your basic sadhana. One day you have to come to the point where you can say to the whole existence 'Beloved of my heart'.
 
The more you flow towards that, the more you will see that it becomes easier and easier and easier. A moment comes when you cannot believe how you lived otherwise. To live otherwise is simply foolish. It is unaccountably stupid.

The past does not simply disappear. It becomes part of the present.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Though a real tough job but a nice moral nonetheless.
 

Good story to share...
 
A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game. The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates, so the number of potatoes that a child will put inhis/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.
 
So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes.
 
The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet)for 1 week.
 
Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week , the children were relieved because the game had finally ended.
 
The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?" The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the
heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.
 
Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime???"
 
MORAL OF THE STORY:

Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry sins for a life time. Forgiving others is the best attitude to take!
 
 

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Mirrors of Illusion.......

There is a Sufi story. A dog lost his way in a palace. The walls and the ceiling of this palace were made of mirrors, so the dog was in a great difficulty. Wherever he looked there were dogs, dogs and only dogs. He became very puzzled: so many dogs all around! He was alone and yet surrounded by so many dogs. There was no way to get out, because the doors were also of mirrors so he saw dogs there too. Then he began to bark, but all the dogs in the mirrors began to bark with him. And when his bark filled the room he was sure his fears were not unfounded and that his life was in danger. He went on barking and all the dogs barked even louder. He ran here and there to fight them; the dogs in the mirror did likewise. All night he exhausted himself barking and fighting the dogs in the mirrors, although he was alone there! In the morning he was found dead inside the palace by the guards.

The dog died running, barking and fighting with the reflections, although he was alone there. When he died all noise subsided; the mirrors became silent.

There are many mirrors, and when we see the other it is our own reflection in different mirrors; therefore, the other is a fallacy. The notion that we are helping others is an illusion, and the notion that we are receiving help from the other is also an illusion. Actually, the other, as such, is an illusion.

Once this is realized life becomes simple. Then neither you do something for the other, taking him as the other nor do you let the other do something for you feeling him as the other. Then it is you yourself extended on both ends. Then if you give a helping hand to someone on the road you will have helped your own self. If someone else has given you a helping hand, then he too has only helped himself. But this comes within our understanding only after the ultimate experience. Before that, the other is definitely the other.