Our Mind is like Quicksilver(Mercury)...........

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Deva means divine, mouni means the silent one -- divine silence, and that has to be the key for you. Become more and more silent, speak less and less... only the necessary. Drop all that is unnecessary and you will be surprised at simply how much energy is saved. Read only very little; there is no need to read unnecessarily, and there is much that is unnecessary which we go on reading. Once you read it then it vibrates in your mind. When you say something again and again, you repeat it, it becomes a groove. When you say something, somebody says something in return; that is a continuous nourishment for the mind.

Speak less, listen less, read less: bring them to the minimum. And you will be surprised that all that you have always wanted to happen will start happening. Meditate more, sit silently more, just with closed eyes, with yourself.

Enjoy your aloneness, and that is your way to MY BABA SAI....

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Sushma1]

Things are going on well bhai.... This message is so useful in our daily life ......... just need to implement it......

Sushma.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Sushma dear....things are meant for going well always....only we make them worst by our conditioning......It is just began....It is not yet began properly......Sushma dear and all those who are following these topic.....I will only say show is not yet began....just wait.....wait with BABA SAI's SHRDHA AND SABURI....then you will find one day BABA SAI bless you all together.....Enjoy the topic......

Meditation is a state exactly opposite to concentration. Meditation means that you are sitting under a tree, with your consciousness open to all directions. It is not running in any direction -- it is open to all. It is not running; it is steady and available to all.

The bird's song will be heard, with no thought as to whether it is a cuckoo or some other bird. The moment thought enters, meditation disappears; with thoughts, concentration begins. The bird will sing, its song will echo in your inner emptiness because you are open and available, but there will be no ripple of thought; the sound will echo and disappear. A plane flies by overhead, and its roar too will echo and vanish. A train whistle blows; its sound echoes within you and fades away. The leaves will be falling from the trees, their sound echoing in your inner emptiness, but you won't be thinking, you will just be.

Meditation is the name of this being, of being without thought. And meditation is no narrow state of mind, it is no narrow-flowing river, it is an ocean. Concentration is like a river, actively flowing fast into a certain direction. Meditation is like the ocean, a vast expanse open to all directions, but not flowing anywhere. The river can be flooded; to the ocean, flooding is unknown. Rivers are running and narrow, a small amount of water fills them up -- just a little less water and they run dry. Concentration can be flooded and stormed with great power, and concentration can also run dry and become lifeless. Meditation is never flooded and never runs dry. It is steady within itself.

Wakefulness is attained through meditation and meditation is surrender. Concentration is attained through willpower, meditation through surrender. Surrender means abandoning oneself to the whole, becoming one with it.

Nahin BABA SAI Bin Thaon -- become one with BABA who is everywhere present, become one with existence. Let your drop disappear into this! Let your separate identity go, because as long as you remain separate you cannot be open, the doors and the windows will have to be closed, a wall will have to be put up. Leave them all open. Let the breeze pass through you, without meeting any obstacle. Let the sounds pass through you, let there be no walls to hold them back.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Sushma1]

You are right bhai, "It is not yet began properly......" I will wait with Sai's Shradda and Saburi.

Sai Ram

Sushma

[Shammi]

Dear Ramesh bhai ................Absolutely ...........Right !!!

Speak less, listen less, read less: bring them to the minimum. And you will be surprised that all that you have always wanted to happen will start happening. Meditate more, sit silently more, just with closed eyes, with yourself.

Enjoy your aloneness, and that is your way to MY BABA SAI....

SAIRAM

Bow to Sri Sai - Raksha Karo Deva !!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Sushma dear and all those who are following this topic.....On Meditation......without much background....I am giving topic on Mind's Concentration which means constriction....its proper understanding will help you all in doing meditation......

IF MY SINGLE TONGUE BECOMES A HUNDRED THOUSAND,
AND THIS HUNDRED THOUSAND BECOMES TWENTY TIMES MORE,
WITH EACH TONGUE WOULD I SING A HUNDRED THOUSAND TIMES
THE ONLY NAME OF THE MASTER OF THE WORLD.
THESE ARE THE STEPS OF THE NAME OF THE LORD.
BY FOLLOWING THEM DOES ONE BECOME TWENTY-ONE.
HEARING THEM SPEAK OF HEAVEN'S GLORY,
EVEN THOSE WHO ARE LIKE LOWLY WORMS BECOME AMBITIOUS TO EMULATE THEM.
NANAK SAYS, HE IS ATTAINED ONLY BY HIS GRACE.
BUT THE FALSE CLAIMANTS SPREAD THEIR BOASTFUL TALES.
THE POWER LIES NEITHER IN SPEAKING NOR IN SILENCE;
THE POWER LIES NEITHER IN ASKING NOR IN GIVING;
THE POWER LIES NEITHER IN LIVING NOR IN DYING;
THE POWER LIES NEITHER IN THE WEALTH OF KINGDOMS NOR THE RESOLVES OF THE MIND;
THE POWER LIES NEITHER IN REMEMBRANCE NOR IN KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE;
THE POWER LIES NEITHER IN THE WORLD NOR IN THE DEVICES TO BE RID OF SANSARA.
THE REAL POWER LIES IN HIS HANDS -- WHO CREATES AND KEEPS ON WATCHING.
NANAK SAYS, NO ONE IS HIGH AND NO ONE IS LOW BEFORE HIM.

Before proceeding with the sutras, there are a few things we should understand.

Thousands upon thousands of ways have been devised to search for God. But whenever a person has attained, he has found that He could not be attained through any means.
   
Attainment comes always by His grace, as His gift; only through His compassion does a seeker arrive.

But alas, things become very complex, because without effort on the part of the seeker grace does not descend. Understand this a little, for without prior understanding of this complicated puzzle you cannot progress on the path of realization.

For example, you forget someone's name. You try very hard to remember. You feel it is on the tip of your tongue and will come to you at any moment, yet it does not come. You try a thousand ways to remember; you get all worked up inside, for you are so sure the name is so close. Then you give up in exasperation. What can you do if it doesn't come to mind? You go to do something else -- read the newspaper, go for a walk or visit a friend's house. You have forgotten all about the name when suddenly, over a cup of tea, the name comes to you like a flash when you least expect it. You are completely relaxed and making no effort.

When we put out a great deal of effort, it becomes a hindrance in itself. Great effort produces great tension in the mind. When we pursue something doggedly and obstinately, the insistence becomes an obstruction. When the mind is concentrated it becomes constricted and we become closed. The mind can become so constricted that not even a single word can find its way out.

Concentration means constriction.

The concentrated mind must be closed to all except the object of your concentration. Only a small hole is left open for you to see; all else is closed. For instance, when a person's house is on fire his mind is concentrated on the fire. At that moment if his shoe pinches him, he would be unaware of it. He is oblivious to everything around him. Rushing madly to extinguish it, if his hands burn or his clothes, he is totally unaware. All his energy is directed towards putting out the fire; all else is forgotten. In the same way, when you struggle to remember a certain name, the name doesn't occur to you, because your mind has become so concentrated and constricted.

The complication is that God is so vast that a narrow mind cannot grasp Him. If a small word cannot be recalled how can God be remembered? And His name is not on the tongue, it is in the heart. It does not come to mind until suddenly, when you are doing nothing and the mind is relaxed, its gates all open. When the constriction of concentration is gone, you open and God enters.

But the irony is thay the second happening can take place only after you have truly tried. Without that initial effort nothing happens, for the happening is the ultimate outcome of the initial effort and struggle. The intense effort ends in apparent failure; but when you give up, this effort slips into the subconscious mind and continues with the same intensity.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Where mind ends, meditation begins, because whatever we do or achieve, is through the mind. When we turn inwards, we start thinking in terms of techniques, methods, doings, because experience shows us that everything can be done by the mind. Except meditation. Because meditation is your nature. It is not something to be achieved; it has only to be recognised and remembered. It is there waiting for you; it is your being.

Meditation is a state of clarity, not a state of mind. Mind is confusion. It is never clear. Thoughts create clouds around you and clarity is lost. When thoughts disappear, when there are no more clouds around you, when you are in your simple beingness, clarity happens. Then you can see to the very end of existence; your gaze becomes penetrating, to the very core of being.

Meditation is absolute clarity, of vision. You cannot think about it. You have to drop thinking. ‘Drop thinking’ simply means don’t do anything. Sit, let thoughts settle themselves. Let the mind drop of its own accord. You just sit gazing at the wall, in a silent corner, not doing anything. Relaxed. Loose. With no effort. Not going anywhere. As if you are falling asleep — you are awake, relaxing, but the body is falling asleep. You remain alert inside but the body is in deep relaxation.
 
Thoughts settle of their own accord, you need not jump amongst them to put them right. It is as if a stream has become muddy... If you jump in it to try and make it clear, you will make it more muddy. You simply sit on the bank. You wait. There is nothing to be done. Because whatever you do will make the stream more muddy. If somebody has passed through a stream and dead leaves have surfaced and mud has arisen, just patience is needed. You sit on the bank and watch, indifferently. As the stream flows, the dead leaves will be taken away and the mud will start settling.

Suddenly, you will become aware; the stream is crystalclear again. Whenever a desire passes through your mind, the stream becomes muddy. So just sit. In Japan, this ‘just sitting’ is called Zazen. And one day, meditation happens. And when it comes, you immediately recognise it; it was always there; you were just not looking in the right direction.

When energy turns in — what the Buddha calls Parabrutti, the coming back of your energy to the source — clarity is attained. Then you can see clouds a thousand miles away; you can hear ancient music in the pines. A meditative person is playful: life is fun for him, a leela, a play. He enjoys it tremendously. He is not serious. He is relaxed. Just allow your attention to flow towards the gaps. Slip from the edges of words into the intervals. Let intervals become more prominent and allow words to fade away.

Mind means words; self means silence. Mind is all the accumulated words. Silence is that which has always been with you. It is your intrinsic quality. On the background of silence you go on accumulating words, and the words in total are known as the mind. Silence is meditation. It is a question of shifting attention from words to silence — which is always there.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

There is a very famous sufi story about a great king who was dying. He had three sons and all were very wise and he was very worried about whom to choose to be his successor. They were all the same age so age could not be the deciding factor, and they were all beautiful, all healthy and all intelligent. It was almost impossible to decide so he asked a very old aged man, his old advisor, what to do. The old advisor said, 'I will do a sort of a test.'

He called all the three boys and gave to each a palace and a certain amount of money, a very small amount of money, and told them, 'With this amount of money you have to fill your palace completely; it should not be empty.' It was difficult. The palaces were very big and the money was only a very small amount.

The first young man thought and thought and brooded. It was impossible to fill that empty palace with such a small amount of money! He could not get any furniture; even curtains were not possible. Paintings, chandeliers, impossible; so what to do? He could only think of one thing -- that rubbish could be used with that amount of money.

So he filled the whole palace with rubbish, because the man had not said with what to fill it but just that it should be full. So he said, 'Perfectly logical.'

The second boy thought very much but could not find a way. Up to the last moment he thought and contemplated but it was impossible. He was not ready to fill it with rubbish and there was no other thing that could be purchased with that amount of money, so the palace remained empty.

The third boy purchased a few small earthen lamps, incense, a few flowers. He burned the incense and the whole palace was full of the perfume. And he burned those small earthen, very cheap lamps and the whole house was full of light. And when the king came to see all the three palaces, there was just a small garland for him and a few flowers, that was all.

They rejected the first house because the condition was fulfilled -- the man had filled his house -- but with rubbish. The second was a failure because the house was empty and full of darkness because the boy had not been able to decide what to do. The third was chosen as the successor because with such a small amount of money he managed to fill the house -- and not only to fill it; it was overfull, flowing. Light was going outside on the road and the perfume was going with the winds.
 
Your house right now is like the second boy's palace -- empty. It was like the first boy's palace before, but now the junk, the rubbish has been thrown out.

It is like the second man's house.
 
Wait! Just the fragrance of love and the light of meditation will do. Your palace will become full again, and full with something which is tremendously valuable -- and of course, it costs nothing.

So don't be worried. Things are going perfectly well. Just meditate more and love more. Emptiness is good!

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Dipika]

OMSAIRAM!Thankyou Ramesh ji for enlightening us with such a beautiful story....
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI
Why to worry in life for NANAK says NANAK DUKHIYA SAB SANSAR!

Nanak Dukhiya Sab Sansar
says, Nanak,  the whole world is unhappy in some way or the other
So Sukhiya Jis Naam Aadhaar
But he who chants Gods name is ever-happy


Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM


dipika duggal

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

The darkness is not something outside, it is something inside; hence the light is also not going to happen from the outside, it has to arise within. No outer light can dispel inner darkness. Only the inner can function on the inner. This is something very fundamental to be understood: the inner reality of man is of great poverty, but he goes on accumulating wealth on the outside. The idea is that if he has enough wealth on the outside his inner poverty will disappear. But it doesn't happen and it cannot happen. On the contrary the more wealth you have on the outside, the more you become aware of your inner poverty. And so is the case with love, so is the case with light. So is the case on many planes. The inner can only be transformed by the inner -- the outer cannot even touch it. They don't meet, they never cross each other. They run parallel, very close, but parallel, so they can't meet.

And man has tried everything from the outside to change his inner reality. It has been an utter failure. The whole history of man up to now has been nothing but a failure. Only a few people have escaped from this calamity. Those people can be counted on one's fingers, a Buddha here and there, a Jesus here and there, when it is everybody's capacity and potential to become a Buddha or a Christ.
But the kingdom has to be searched for within.

The inner darkness means the inner noise of the mind. The mind is a constant chattering box and it goes on and on of its own accord. And all that clamour and noise creates darkness because it creates confusion, because it creates clouds of doubt, of distrust, of anger and of hatred.

Light means clarity. Meditation is the technique to create inner light. Meditation does only a single and simple thing: it makes you capable of turning the mind off. And once the mind is turned off and the mind disappears there is immense light. That is the dawn I am talking about: the dawn beyond darkness.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Meditation is rest, absolute rest, a full stop to all activity - physical, mental, emotional. When you are in such a deep rest that nothing stirs in you, when all action as such ceases, as if you are fast asleep yet awake, you come to know who you are. Suddenly the window opens. It cannot be opened by effort, because effort creates tension, and tension is the cause of our whole misery. Hence this is something very fundamental to be understood that meditation is not effort.

One has to be very playful about meditation, one has to learn to enjoy it as fun. One has not to be serious about it - be serious and you miss. One has to go into it very joyously. And one has to keep aware that it is falling into deeper and deeper rest. It is not concentration, just the contrary, it is relaxation. When you are utterly relaxed, for the first time you start feeling your reality; you come face to face with your being. When you are engaged in activity you are so occupied that you cannot see yourself. Activity creates much smoke around you, it raises much dust around you; hence all activity has to be dropped, at least for a few hours per day.

That is only so in the beginning. When you have learnt the art of being at rest you can be both active and restful together, because then you know that rest is something so inner that it cannot be disturbed by anything outer. The activity goes on at the circumference and at the center you remain restful. So it is only for beginning that activity has to be dropped for a few hours. When one has learned the art then there is no question : for twenty-four hours a day one can be meditative and one can continue all the activities of ordinary life.

But remember, the key word is rest, relaxation. Never go against rest and relaxation. Arrange your life in such a way, drop all futile activity, because ninety per cent is futile; it is just for killing time and remaining occupied. Do only the essential and devote your energies more and more to the inner journey. Then that miracle happens when you can remain at rest and in action together, simultaneously. That is the meeting of the sacred and the mundane, the meeting of this world and that, the meeting of materialism and spiritualism.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

What is psychological time? Mind is psychological time. Mind is time. If you don't have any mind and you are simply silent with no thought moving within, there is no time for you, not psychological time. The clock will go on moving, but for you the inner clock stops -- time stops, the world stops. That is my dimension, the dimension of meditation.

As you go deeper into meditation time disappears. When meditation has really bloomed there is no time found. It happens simultaneously: when the mind disappears time disappears. Hence down the ages the mystics have said that time and mind are nothing but two aspects of the same coin. Mind cannot live without time and time cannot live without mind. Time is a way for the mind to exist.

Mind creates future through desire, through dreaming. The future does not exist, it is only in imagination, and mind creates the past. The past also does not exist, it is only in the memory. The past is no more, the future is not yet, but both exist in the mind. And because of the past and the future you have the feeling of time.

Time is not divided into three parts as it is usually divided. Mystics divide time into two parts: the past and the future. Time has only two tenses: past, future. And what about the present? Mystics say the present is timeless because the present is mindless. When you are utterly in the present, herenow, there is neither mind nor time. You transcend time and mind both, you enter into eternity. You are beyond time. You are in a totally different world -- transformed, transmuted, transported.

When I talk about time I mean this time that is created by the mind. Mind clings with the past and clings with the future. It is not ready to renounce the past, it is not ready to die to the past, because it is in the past that it can have its roots. And it is not ready to renounce desiring, dreaming, because it is in desiring and dreaming that it can live. It needs space; it creates a very false space for itself: tomorrow, which never comes. Mind knows of yesterdays and tomorrows, and nothing of today.

Hence all the Buddhas have insisted, "Live in this moment." To live in this moment is meditation, to be simply herenow is meditation. Those who are simply herenow this very moment with me are in meditation. This is meditation: the cuckoo calling from far away, and the airplane passing, and the crows and the birds. And all is silent, and there is no movement in the mind -- you are not thinking of the past and you are not thinking of the future. Time has stopped, the world has stopped.

Stopping the world is the whole art of meditation. And to live in the moment is to live in eternity. To taste the moment with no idea, with no mind, is to taste immortality.

Time is mind. Time is death. Going beyond time is going beyond mind and beyond death.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Intelligence, the narrowing of the mind, is a means toward survival, but not toward life. Survival is not life.

Survival is a necessity--to exist in the material world is a necessity--but the end is always to come to a flowering of the potential, of all that is meant by you. If you are fulfilled completely, if nothing remains inside in seed form, if everything becomes actual, if you are a flowering, then and only then can you feel the bliss, the ecstasy of life.
 
The denied part of you, the unconscious part, can become active and creative only if you add a new dimension to your life--the dimension of the festive, the dimension of play.
 
So meditation is not a work, it is a play. Praying is not a business, it is a play. Meditation is not something to be done to achieve some goal--peace, bliss--but something to be enjoyed as an end in itself.

The festive dimension is the most important thing to be understood--and we have lost it totally. By festive, I mean the capacity to enjoy, moment to moment, all that comes to you.
 
We have become so conditioned and habits have become so mechanical that even when there is no business to be done, our minds are businesslike. When no narrowing is needed, you are narrowed. Even when you are playing, you are not playing, you are not enjoying it. Even when you are playing cards, you are not enjoying it.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Meditation means surrender, total letting go.
 
As soon as someone surrenders himself he finds himself in the hands of divinity. If we cling to ourselves we cannot be one with the almighty. When the waves disappear, they become the ocean itself.
Let us try some experiments in order to understand what is meant by meditation.

Sit in such a way that no one touches you. Close your eyes slowly, and keep your body loose. Relax completely so that there is no strain, no tension in the body at all.

Now imagine that a river is flowing very fast, with tremendous force and sound, between two mountains. Observe it and dive in... but do not swim. Let your body float without any movement. Now you are moving with the river -- just floating. There is nowhere to reach, no destination, so there is no question of swimming. Feel as if a dry leaf is floating effortlessly in the river. Experience it clearly so that you can know what is meant by "surrender," by "total letting go."

If you have understood how to float, now discover how to die and how to be dissolved completely. Keep your eyes closed, let your body become loose and relax completely. Observe that a pyre is burning. There is a pile of woodsticks that have been set afire and the flames of the pyre seem to be reaching toward the sky. And remember one more thing: you are not just observing the burning pyre, you have been placed on it. All your friends and relatives are standing around.

It is better to experience this moment of death consciously, as one day or the other it is sure to come. With the flames growing higher and higher, feel that your body is burning. Within a short while the fire will be put out by itself. People will disperse and the cemetery will be empty and silent again. Feel it, and you will see that everything has become quiet and nothing but the ashes remains. You have dissolved completely. Remember this experience of being dissolved, because meditation is also a kind of death.

Keep your eyes closed now and relax completely. You do not have to do anything. There is no necessity to do anything: before you were, things were as they are, and they will be the same even after you die.

Now feel that whatever is happening is happening. Feel the "suchness" of it. It is so: it can only be this way; there is no other way possible, so why resist? By "suchness" is meant "no resistance." There is no expectation that anything be other than what is. The grass is green, the sky is blue, the waves of the ocean roar, birds sing, crows are crowing.... There is no resistance from you because life is such. Suddenly a transformation takes place. What was normally considered to be a disturbance now seems to be amiable. You are not against anything; you are happy with everything as it is.


OM SAI RAM!!!

Contd.....

[vaishali]

Dear Rameshbhai,

Thank you very much for guding us.

I have the same problem what Sushma ji has. I can never concentrate.

I am really active all day and at night when i sit for meditation, i always fall in sleep. If i sit for 15 minutes meditation, out of this 15 minutes.....14.5 minutes i am asleep or thinking something else.

i tried hard and hard but it just not happening.

I hope one day i could meditate the same way you are doing.

Omsai srisai jayjay sai

Vaishali