Teachings of Sri Kalki Bhagavan to aid with the process of Enlightenment

LIFE IS TO BE EXPERIENCED

An old man had lived most of his life on what was considered to be one of the loveliest islands in the world. Now that he had returned to spend his retirement years in the big city, someone said to him, “It must have been wonderful to live for so many years on an island that is considered one of the wonders of the world”

The old man gave that some thought, then said, “Well, to tell you the truth, if I had known it was so famous I would have looked at it.”

Life is meant to be experienced. Man over the last few thousand years, has lost the art of experiencing. The human body is the most complex and the most wonderful in creation. The complex nervous system is designed for a rich experience in life.

There was once a young boy who asked a question to Sri Kalki in one of His darshans, “Bhagavan, What is life?”

Bhagavan said, “A living person would not ask this question. Life is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery to be experienced.”

Living life is possible only when we experience our life. In a constant endeavor to avoid suffering and make pleasure last forever; we are dead to life. In daydreaming we are dead to reality.

LEARNING IS UNLEARNING

A scholar came to meet a wise master in quest for knowledge. “Master I have traveled a great distance to meet you with the desire to drink from your ocean of knowledge. Please enlighten me.”

The master bade him to sit. He took a kettle from the table and poured the tea into an already full cup. Startled at the master’s behavior, the seeker hurriedly reminded, “but the cup is already full…”

“So are you”, said the master unruffled.

Most often we listen to others full of our own ideas and concepts. We listen to ourselves. This inhibits our learning. To learn one must first empty oneself of old concepts and ideas.

Sri Kalki says, “All learning is unlearning.” When we are stuck to our views what happens is mere ‘hearing’. Once you have labeled your colleague as injudicious, any suggestions coming from him thereafter will sound irrational. You see his idea through the spectacle of your assumption about him. So is it with all relationships. A husband turns a deaf ear to the agony of the wife, as she is labeled ‘silly’. The suggestion of a child is most often ignored as being immature.

Lack of listening stems from ones ego which incessantly plays the game “I know better…” Taking security on your knowledge or view, you refuse to accept anything that lies outside your domain of knowledge, lest your ego might break. Not wanting to lose the battle you.prolong the argument even if the truth were to stare at your face.

Without an open mind, progress in the material and spiritual planes is but a fantasy. A quick glance at the lives of great men would reveal their tremendous humility. With humility comes listening and learning.

Sri Kalki says, “The first step towards listening is to become conscious that one is not listening.”

To be enlightened is to be liberated form the ego. Listening is natural for an enlightened man as all struggle to prove himself ceases. He does not pollute facts with his assumptions

BECOMING

Once a king was approached by his friend and asked, “Sir! If you conquer Rome, what will you do next?”

The king replied, “Sicily is next door and will be easy to take?”

“And what shall we do after Sicily is taken?”

“Then we will move over to Africa and conquer it.”

“After Africa!” Sir

“The turn of Greece will come.”

“And what will the fruit of all these conquests be?”

“Then”, said the king, “We can sit down and enjoy ourselves.”

“Can’t we enjoy ourselves now?” said the friend.

This story is self-explanatory. The joy and peace one expects to find after the accumulation of wealth or what one considers an ideal future can be attained now and here. Possession of wealth can help us to enjoy a comfortable life. Possession of material wealth alone is not a criterion for relaxation and enjoyment of life. By applying a little thought when one explores the inner world and the complex human emotions one finds that most of human suffering is because a human ‘being’ is only constantly ‘becoming’.

Sri Bhagavan says, “Suffering is the movement from the ‘what is’ to the ‘what should be’ ”

This constant ‘becoming’, marks when one tries to move from jealousy to non-jealousy, from bad to good, from foolish to intelligent, from imperfect to perfect, from profane to sacred is the struggle that has gone on the human mind for thousands of years.

Sri Bhagavan says, “Embracing yourself as you are is the first step and the last step. You must be who you are. What you should be is not important. Who ever you are, you are unique. The universe has made you like that. God has made you like that. Why do you disturb His work? To surrender to God is to be yourself.”

To be yourself is to be enlightened.

CARRY OVER

A Sadhak once asked his teacher, “Master, Why can’t I remain peaceful, in spite of doing so many spiritual sadhanas. Why can’t I be devoid of suffering in spite of reading so many spiritual books and listening to

religious discourses? Is enlightenment possible for such as I?”

‘To be liberated from suffering you must first understand what suffering is’. Sri Bhagavan says, “Suffering is nothing but the continuous thought processing that happens in the mind over an event or incident of the past. Suffering is nothing but the ‘carry over’ of the past events of our life.

There are two kinds of people who have walked on these sands, enlightened and unenlightened. Enlightened ones are those who are ‘ordinary’ and unenlightened are those who are ‘extraordinary’ (extra suffering). An enlightened one, does not suffer because he is constantly living in the present, experiencing every bit of what life is offering him. But for those who are unenlightened, life itself is reduced to nothing but suffering.

To be aware is to be enlightened. The whole purpose of life itself is to live life moment to moment. If one observes the thought process in oneself, then it can easily be discovered that the ‘CARRY OVER’ is the suffering. For instance, there were two friends who were very close right from their childhood. Out of sheer misunderstanding, they landed in a bitter quarrel and they broke up. The fight by itself is nothing but mere ‘calling names’. But it doesn’t end there, the event continues to plague the mind, be it at kitchen, office, watching TV or even at a party! It follows… It continues. The suffering springs only when our mind indulges in unnecessary thoughts about living in past or future, without living in the present. This constant commentary or dialogue in the mind is the cause for all suffering, where even after an event has ended, it is continued within where we still talk to the other person, who has hurt us.

An enlightened person experiences everything, which makes his life rich, eternal and ever fresh, but for an unenlightened, life is mechanical and repetitive, hence boring. One who is enlightened enjoys the ice cream whereas one who is unenlightened does not enjoy the ice cream because he would be busy with the question – who made the ice cream? Which factory? Which cow’s milk? Which grass did the cow ate? One who is living will never question the purpose of life. Why would he! He is only experiencing.

Now the question is how to end this unnecessary thought process. Any effort in this direction is a futile endeavor, because any effort to silence the mind would only create more noise - “THOUGHT CANNOT END THOUGHT”.

Buddha was Buddha not because he read books. Venkataramana didn’t become Ramana Maharishi because he attended religious discourses. Enlightenment is something that is beyond the purview of the mind. It is not transformation within the mind; Enlightenment is a state where you transcend the mind and its limitations. Such a happening is a benediction.

SELF CREATED SUFFERING

It was lunch time at the factory and a workman opened his lunch box dolefully. “Oh! No”, he said aloud,

“Brinjals and Dal again!”

This happened a second, third and fourth day. Then a co-worker who had heard the mutterings of the man said, “If you hate Brinjals and Dal so much, why don’t you get your wife to make some othert ypes?”

“Because I am not married. I make the Dal and Brinjals my self.”

Does the word “Self-created-miseries” ring a bell? Sri Bhagavan says, “Most of human suffering is only self-created miseries. Life is naturally occurring but you make even a simple incident complex. Once an image forms in your mind that my wife doesn’t love me, even an eye movement is enough to drive you into frenzy. Consider the case of a young man who was sacked from his job. He thought of living with his friend whom he had helped out once before. He was happy with these thoughts until he was assailed by another thought that said, “What makes you so sure that he will have you with him?”

“Why wouldn’t he”, said he heatedly to the thought, “after all it was I who advanced him the money to pay his rent for the first six months, surely the least he could do is put me up for a week.” That settled

the matter until after dinner, the thought again peeped, “If suppose he refuses...”

“Refuse?” said the young man. “Why in God’s name would he refuse? The man owes me everything he has. It is I who got him his job; who introduced him to that lovely wife of his, who has borne him three sons he glories in. Will he grudge me a room for a week? Impossible!”

That settled the matter until he got to bed and found he couldn’t sleep. The thought continued to stay, “How the hell could he refuse? If he is alive today it is because of me. I have saved him from drowning when he was a kid. He wouldn’t be ungrateful.”

But the thought was persistent “Just suppose…” Poor man struggled within as long as he could. Finally he got out of the bed around two in the morning went over to where his friend lived and kept his finger pressed against the door bell button till the friend, half asleep, opened the door and said in astonishment, “What is it! What brings you here in the middle of the night?” The young man was so angry by now he couldn’t stop himself from yelling, “I’ll tell you what brings me here at this hour of the night! If you think I am going to ask you to put me up even for a single day, you are mistaken. I don’t want to have anything to do with you. To hell with you.” With that he turned to his heel and turned away.

See this event in your relationships? Maybe in varying degrees? As long as the mind is alive you cannot but relate to your own mind and its images and hence create suffering for your self.

Sri Bhagavan says, “To be Enlightened is to relate to reality and not to your interpretation of reality.”

Unless you are free of your mind, your life would be repetition of the above-mentioned incident.

CHANGING THE PROBLEMS

An incident soon after World War II:

A London bus conductor noticed a passenger with a heavy parcel on his lap.

“What’s that you have there?” he asked.

“An unexpected bomb fell near my house. I am taking it to the police station.”

“Good God! You don’t want to carry a thing like that on your lap man! Put it under your seat!”

Man is involved in a similar task, don’t you think? In solving the problem he is only changing the problems. Problem here doesn’t pertain to the physical world where food, clothes and shelter are concerned. It refers to the frameworks of the mind.

Sri Bhagavan says, “The human mind cannot live in guilt. Therefore it creates a lie and then goes on repeating the lie to itself until it believes in it.”

We have a few values in life, which, due to a variety of reason we are not able to follow. Once it goes against our existing frameworks, we cannot accept, since acceptance has never been our nature. We can accept only that which is good, hence justify our actions in myriad ways; creating new frameworks.

We successfully manage to explain things to ourselves. We create lies, which are conveniently forgotten and believe them to be the truth, whenever the truth is disturbing. This is the game man is playing.

Transformation within the mind is impossible. You can rearrange the furniture but cannot empty the room of furniture. Any new framework only postpones your freedom from the mind.

To be free of the mind is to be enlightened.

FREEDOM FROM NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

Every one of us is basically in searching for

1. A God who can fulfill our desires.
2. A State of mind where there is no suffering.

We are frustrated with our unfulfilled desires and our mind prevents us from enjoying what we already have. In spite of having many comforts we are not comfortable today. Basically we are not comfortable with ourselves. We are tormented by various emotions like anger, hatred, jealousy, fear, comparison etc., which does not allow us to live peacefully.

Every one of us has tasted moments of pleasure and pain. Pain is unpleasant experience to every living creature.

How about pleasure?

Let us observe the most intense pleasurable moments of our life. Moments when our son hugged you and whispered in our ears, “Mom, I shall never leave you. I will look after you all my life.” Or, those moments when we were recognized as the best performer in our company and given an award in the presence of a few hundred people. Even a little awareness will reveal to us the accompanying fear with the pleasure. Even in our son’s loving embrace our mind starts speaking, “Will this love really last forever? Is it true? What if it changes?” They day after we receive your award, if you find somebody else in your organization proving their efficiency, there arises an immediate fear of him excelling us and taking over our hard earned position.

With fear, comes the accompanying sisters – jealousy, hatred, frustration, lack of love … so next time we see our colleague the fear inside us, will make us compare at every step leading to jealousy and gradually to hatred.

One can be liberated from these negative emotions only through the liberation of the mind itself, because the mind is the storehouse of all these negative emotions. Liberation from the mind is Enlightenment or ‘Jeevan Mukthi’. It is the cessation of all conflict, of all suffering and the beginning of ecstasy, tranquility and auspiciousness.

This altered state of consciousness which as a prerogative of a few saints and sages of the past is now being given to men and women from ordinary walks of life by the Divine Avathars, Sri Bhagavan and Sri Bhagavathi Padmavati Devi.

Sri Bhagavan says, “Man deserves to be happy.” To end man’s suffering and to take man into this Divine state of existence has been the only desire of Sri Bhagavan and Sri Padmavati Amma from childhood. Sri Bhagavan says, “Enlightenment is the only solution to all problems faced by man today – economically, socially and spiritually.”

THE POWER OF THOUGHT

Many a times, in different phases of our lives when anything significant happens, the question that is uppermost in our minds is, “why me?” Why is it that I am faced with a particular set of situations in life? In particular when the situation is of negative nature the tendency of man is either to blame others or to blame

God for whatever is happening. But in actuality who is responsible for what is happening to us? Are the external factors in control or are we responsible for it ourselves?

One Sri Bhagavan says, “We are the architects of our life”. We are completely and totally responsible for whatever is happening in our lives. Mind and matter are connected. Mind influences matter and matter influences mind. The power of mind over matter is the power of creative thought. This universe runs on certain laws and principles, which are the basis of human existence. For the external universe it is the laws of science and for life it is the laws of karma that are operational. of the principles of Karma says, “Yad bhavam Tad bhavathi” – (you become what you think). The world is a manifestation of our inner state. The situations we come across, the people we meet, the problems we confront, and the varieties of life experiences we have a projection of what lies with in. In other words we create our Reality. We are the architects of our Destiny. Perceptions are filters, filtering the experiences we have reality. And the perceived Reality eventually becomes a manifested Reality. You become what you think. We find what we perceived. Thought is immensely powerful. It has the power to create. Every time we perceive; harbour a thought containing a charge or emotion, the process of creation has been set into motion. An arrow has been released into the ethereal planes, the thought sphere. Once released the “law of attraction of homogeneous species” takes over. This thought attracts all similar thoughts. All the similar arrows bundle up and when the threshold is reached, the “law of Reciprocal action” is in motion. The thought you unleashed has now materialized into deed. You reap what you sow many times over. If the arrow you released was judgment, you will come across judgmental people. If it was betrayal you shall be betrayed, if it was hatred, you will be hated, if you have feared that situation will manifest and so on.

“Why did this happen to me?” is no more a paradox. You created it for yourself. We are not perceptive enough to see the relationship between the thought and deed. Perhaps the time lapse between the two is too much for us to keep a track. From thought to deed, it may take a week, a month, a year, a decade or more. As a young girl Seema always used to think that people don’t realize her worth only if she falls sick or she is not around anymore. With the passage of time, as she got married those thoughts left her. But then just as the time came when she had a good life with her husband and children, she was struck down with cancer and no amount of treatment could cure her.

Constant review of our lives will help us see the connection. The speed of reciprocation depends upon the evolution of the individual. Sometimes reaching the threshold point could mean a lifetime or more. If we do not find answers to our questions even after examining our lives in the light of these cosmic principles, only the “theory of reincarnation” can explain the rest.

The whole process of the thought materializing into deed is a karmic cycle. Our life is a series of karmic cycles. An awareness of these eternal laws gives us the power to alter the course of karma but not while in the midst of a karmic cycle. We have the power of wisdom and choice of freewill to review and make changes to our life but not before the cycle comes to an end. A frog in mid air cannot alter the course of its flight. However, on landing it can choose the direction of its next leap.

When we ask the question “why is the world so bad?” the world we see is a manifestation of our negative thoughts and emotions. But then many a times we find that in spite of our best efforts to think positively, the mind tends to move towards the negative. What does one do then?

Ultimately as wise doctors always say, “Prevention is better than cure” – real prevention is possible only through true transformation or flowering of the heart. Sri Bhagavan says, “If you discover love you shall know exactly how to live”. But this love is not a matter of cultivation but a happening that occurs only through the intervention of the Divine Grace. To discover love is to be enlightened. And this man cannot make it on his own; it has to be given to him.

EMBRACING YOURSELF

A man who took great pride in his lawns found himself with a large crop of Dandelions. He tried every method he knew to ge t rid of them. Still they plagued him.

Finally he wrote to the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question, “What shall I do now?”

In due course the reply came, “We suggest you learn to love them.”

I too was greatly proud of my goodness, nobility and God fearing nature, until I found a great shadow lurking within me. It was a series of accidents that led me to the doorsteps of Sri Bhagavan.

For the first time ever I came face to face with myself. I thought I did not have jealousy, frustration, discontent and fear. To my great surprise I found I had jealousy, fear, discontent and frustration. I thought I was beyond selfishness while Sri Bhagavan showed me that behind every action of mine there was a self. Sri Bhagavan showed me that the ‘Rama’ that I thought I was, never existed. I was a Ravana. I’ll repeatedly say to my son, “Son, you have to study well and hold a good position in the society. I want you to be happy in life. I love you very much. I don’t want you to suffer.”

my eyes. The It was not fatherly love that made me say them, instead my own traumas and insecurity and the fear of ridicule from friends and relatives, acted behind the scene. Darshan was coming to a close.

Suddenly Sri Bhagavan spoke from within, “Embracing yourself is the first and the last step.” The Lord fell silent. That minute the gates of paradise opened up in me. A joy beyond everything that I have ever known coursed through my body. As Sri Bhagavan left I found myself dancing in ecstasy. I danced my jealousy, I danced my selfishness, I danced my anger, I danced my frustration. This joy stays with me till today.

In my office as I perform my duty I find jealousy, fear and anger racing through me and I dance them. People around me join me in my dance. I am four times as efficient as I was before and still I am left with a reservoir of energy when I go to bed.

GOD IS WHAT YOU WANT HIM TO BE

A thief entered a village in search of new people to burgle. As he entered the village he saw the village temple thronged by hundreds of eager ears listening to a lecture by the Pundit on the life of Sri Krishna. The thief also sat among the crowd with the motive of looting a few innocent people. The pundit was describing the beauty of Krishna and Balarama, their appearance, their dress and their jewels. Mistaking them for rich landlords of the village, the thief desired to thieve them. At the end of the session the thief stopped the pundit and threatened him to reveal Krishna and Balarama’s address. Though the pundit tried to convince that they were after all the celebrated Avathara Purushas of the past and did not exist now, the thief did not sway. The thief also promised him a share of the loot if successful.

Wanting to escape the lunatic and uneducated thief, the pundit gave him a far off address and walked home to safety. The thief earnestly set off in search of the place and reached there after a tiring two-day journey.

Seated under a banyan tree he anticipated their arrival. And they did come! Krishna and Balarama grazing their herd of cows and dressed exactly as described by the pundit appeared on the scene. The thief was jubilant on seeing their dress and their shimmering jewels. He went near them and said, “Hey you both. Give me all your valuables.” Krishna and Balarama smiled at each other and readily gave away all their jewels and continued their way.

The triumphant thief, as promised, hurried back to pundit and narrated the event that transpired after their conversation. The pundit was alarmed. The description that the thief gave was unmistakably that of Krishna and Balarama. The thief indeed had the Darshan of his beloved Krishna! With tears of anguish the pundit sent away the thief asking him to keep his share of loot too.

That night the pundit could not sleep. He was deeply pained. He being an erudite and a great devotee of Krishna was not blessed with His Darshan, whereas the thief who was uneducated and was unaware even of the existence of Krishna (leave alone being his devotee) had seen Him. “Hey Krishna, why this injustice to me? What is wrong with my devotion?” he wept within himself.

That night Krishna appeared in his dreams. With a benevolent smile adorning his lips Krishna caressed his pained devotee and said, “Though you have been worshipping me all your life, you never believed that I could appear to you, talk to you and play with you. You worshipped me as an idol, never as a God with life. Those who seek me with their whole heart shall attain me. I am what my devotee wants me to be.”

“God”, says Sri Bhagavan, “Is what you want Him/Her to be.” The Hindus most aptly describe him as “Bhaktha Paradheena” and “Yathokthakari”, the one who is dependent on the perception of his devotee and the one who does as bidden.

The amount of grace you receive depends upon your perception and discovery of God. “To each according to his measure” is the law that works here. There are some devotees in whose houses Sri Padmavati Amma and Sri Bhagavan manifest and eat the food offered to them. Such is their faith, while others wallow in doubt – Is this possible in my case? With bigger problems accompany more doubts. Remember, a problem is big or small only in your view. For the Lord curing the incurable AIDS and driving off a small headache is just the same!day, Sri Bhagavan and Sri Padmavati Amma shatter all our ancient and erroneous concepts about God. Sri Bhagavan says, “Create your own God.” If you feel ‘your’ God is all-powerful to do anything for you, He will be that to you. If you strongly believe that your God can make you a billionaire overnight, or that He can clear all your debts in one day, it will be so. Creating your own God does not mean actually producing a God. It is like a potter making use of the shapeless clay to create masterpieces. The clay is already there; he only shapes it.

The idea of a judgmental God - the God who rewards the good and the God, who reprimands the bad, makes us feel unworthy of the desire we pray for. Most often one feels undeserving. Namadev, the great devotee, when challenged by the king to bring back a dead cow to life, asked for three days time. After three days of desperate and incessant prayers, Krishna, his God, performed the miracle on the last minute of the third day. The furious Namadev asked Krishna, “Krishna! What would have happened if you hadn’t come? Why did you make me desperate when you could have done it immediately?” Smiling, Krishna said, “It is you who gave me three days time!”

The Lord’s grace is like a vast ocean. One can take whatever he likes. One can sit on the shore and collect shells. One can go further still and catch a fish. Or one could dive deep and bring back a pearl. The Lord has an ocean to give. Don’t come with teaspoons.

PURPOSE OF LIFE-BOND WITH GOD

Once, a Rishi of forbidding appearance arrived at the doors of the palace. No one dared to stop him as he made his way right up to the throne on which the saintly Kind Janaka sat.

“What is it you want?” asked the king.

“A place to sleep in this lodge, inn”

“There is no lodge. This is my palace.”

“May I ask who owned this palace before you?”

“My father. He is dead.”

“And who owned it before him?”

“My grand father. He is dead too.”

“And this place where people stay for a short while and move on – did I hear you say it was not a lodge?”

Have you taken birth to study, to get married, to beget children, to earn for them, get them married, play with your grand children and die? Does human existence only sum up to work and money or a good name in society?

“You have come here to discover love and a communion with God”, says Sri Bhagavan. Life is throwing at you problem after problem, so that you will learn these two lessons. However, you do not face them. Instead of confronting, you escape from the problem thus landing in a more severe crisis and going farther and father away from love and God.

Only when you discover a bond with God, a personal relationship with Him/Her, you will be liberated from your Karma. This relationship is necessary not only for those few who have chosen spirituality as their path.

You could be a student seeking a glorious future or a graduate searching for a job, a well-settled engineer or doctor, a housewife, businessman; it is you who need this relationship with God more than anybody else. Without this communion your heart cannot flower and you will remain forever the victim of Karma and suffering.

Are we, what we choose to be in any moment? Is intelligence the degree to which we can expand and connect to a vaster intelligence and consciousness in any moment?

Our culture has a serious misunderstanding of intelligence and the workings of the mind. In truth, our intelligence extends the depth and breadth of the universe and anyone, of any age, of any measurable IQ, can access this intelligence.

Do you truly understand the implications of this? Any child can know anything they want, from any time, on any subject. Any person can ascertain the true meaning of situations as they arise, seeing the depth and breadth of possibilities and potential in every moment. This is actually the truth of our human capacity for intelligence…it stretches way beyond the limits that we’ve lived under so long. It’s time to break the myth of IQ, to extend the mind into the ‘great unknown’ and make it the ‘very well known’ for us all.

In the past, we were locked away in an individualistic and mind oriented culture, so how could we know there was so much available to us? These abilities are a part of our natural birthright. All human beings can read the sensory input around them. Many people already have access to these abilities. In fact, some have had them all their lives.

Is intelligence a matter of cultivation through effort? One can accumulate knowledge through effort. Knowledge and intellect can give one a cutting edge over others in this competitive world but then intelligence is a totally different ball game. A person who functions from knowledge is functioning from the past memory, as knowledge is only what is already known. Intellect being the quality of the brain will function only within the frameworks of the brain.

Let us look at the instances of people who have had access to this intelligence. The best example one can find is of the rishis of the Vedic times. In a recent convention held at California about maintaining ecological balance and conserving natural resources, various deliberations were held on the best methods to protect our environment from further pollution and to save the planet. Finally some resolutions were formulated. Towards the end of the convention a paper was presented by a group of Indian scientists, which was on the basis Vedic suktas. Astonishingly all the resolutions passed coincided exactly with the contents of Indian scriptures- mainly the Bhu Sukta.

Intelligence is tapping into the unknown. It is that flash of insight that made Archimedes scream “Eureka” while lying in the bathtub. It is that dream which Kekule had of the snake swallowing its tail, which led to the discovery of the structure of the benzene ring. It is that experience of cosmic consciousness that led Einstein to the discovery of the theory of relativity.

One can clearly see that this intelligence did not happen through effort but it simply happened when the individual after all effort gave up and became empty. It was then that the cosmic intelligence or God worked through him and great things happened. Ramanujam, the mathematical genius had the Antaryamin (indwellers) of the goddess ‘Namagiri’ who gave him various mystical experiences and revelations that led to great discoveries. Einstein when asked, “Do you believe in God? is believed to have replied, “You Fool! I don’t believe in God, I know God exists!”

The Antaryamin or cosmic intelligence is immanent in every being in creation. It is this intelligence that protects and nurtures all creatures on the planet. The response to crisis for all species is guided by this intelligence. Japanese crabs when faced with the crisis of extinction due to excessive fishing for consumption acquired the design of a Japanese face on their crust (shell).

It is only for the human species that this intelligence is not activated, as he is not in communion with the Antaryamin.

When God awakens as the Antaryamin, He becomes the inner guide, teaching, nurturing and helping the individual to achieve his highest potentials. The devotees of Sri Bhagavan and Sri Padmavati Amma who are in intimate communion with their Antaryamin have had experiences where Sri Padmavati Amma and Sri Bhagavan have mystically guided them through varied situations in life and they have emerged victorious with solutions so unique, that one can know it has not been achieved through human effort.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

A philosopher who had only one pair of shoes asked the cobbler to repair them for him.

“Its closing time”, said the cobbler, “So it won’t be possible for me to repair them now. Why don’t you come for them tomorrow?”

“I have only one pair of shoes and it won’t be possible for me to walk without shoes.”

“What! Wear someone else’s shoes? What do you take me for?”

“Why should you object to having someone else’s shoes on your feet when you don’t mind carrying other people’s ideas on your head?”

“Truth when it is not yours”, says Sri Bhagavan, “still remains untruth.”

Several years ago, a sincere Buddhist practitioner came to meet Sri Bhagavan. He was a system’s analyst highly reputed for his keen intelligence. He had practiced meditation for years and was well-versed in many schools of philosophical thought. However, as he sat in front of Sri Bhagavan that day he was in great distress. He asked Sri Bhagavan, “Lord, I had done spiritual sadhana for the past twenty years. Before two days I saw my wife being excessively friendly with a friend of mine. Intense jealousy arose in me. Remembering that these things are transient I immediately came to terms with it. It is not causing me pain now. Nevertheless I am extremely sad that I haven’t made much progress.”

Sri Bhagavan said to him, “When you are not enlightened, don’t behave like an enlightened person. You will be miserable. When you are not a Buddha do not behave like a Buddha. The Buddha was free of craving because that was his natural state; he had a profound insight that altered his consciousness. To a Christ compassion was his most natural state of existence. None of these saints and sages practiced the insights and got into the state. They got there through grace. Well! The rest of humanity is seriously practicing compassion and love. Is it ever possible? Can a horse ever become an elephant? Sri Bhagavan had further guided him about his personal inner calling that would push him towards greater wealth, fame and harmony in his relationship.

Truth however profound will only remain untruth if it is not backed of a personal experience that comes through grace. Only a personal experience would lead to God realization or Enlightenment.

A DIVINE EXPERIENCE

It is known to everyone that ‘Mind is a monkey!’ The mind continuously plans or broods over something or the other or it has been thinking repeatedly about events that are going to happen in the future or those events that have taken place in the past. However, all experiences and feelings that occur to us might not happen as we planned or we determined. All feelings rise automatically. That is we do not plan and resolve - I am going to be happy

today, or I am going to show anger, or I am going to feel grief! These feelings arise in us naturally and automatically according to each situation.

Therefore, if we wish a change in our feelings, perception, intentions, motives, opinions, we must first realize that it is not possible through human effort. If there is to be a real transformation, we must have a divine experience. The main reason for our suffering is lack of divine experience.

On several occasions, it seems to us as if our life lacks enthusiasm or as if something is missing, or life is not fulfilled. A feeling of emptiness, alienation, loneliness occurs in our heart. We might work in the midst of many in an office or be in the company of many friends. When we are with our relatives in our family too, we are affected by the sense of loneliness. Something divides others and us.

Surrounded by mountains in a marvelous environment, listening to the chirping sound of birds, near a crystal clear stream, we forget ourselves and enthusiastically enjoy the nature. But even this will last only for a few minutes. There also, the same sense of loneliness shows its ugly face again. It looks as if we do not belong to this place. There arises a thought that we are only a visitor. Something obstructs us from mingling with others, nature and the world. We may share something with others. But, there are many things buried inside that cannot be shared with others. The reason why we have the feeling of being an ‘individual’ is – we do not have any divine experience.

Anger

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail in the back fence.

The first day, the boy had driven thirty-seven nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy did not loose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy was to pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took the son by the hand and led him to the fence. “You have done well, my son”, he said. “But look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.”

This is a traditional story that has been told and retold, heard and reheard, for thousands of years in India and also the world. Right from our childhood we have been aspiring to be rid of anger. Every guru, philosopher, or our own parents and grand parents have told us. But thinking a little deeper, is it as easy? Sri Bhagavan, the Divine Avathar says, “Anger is man’s natural response to fear. Mind is fear. As long as the mind exists fear exists and so anger exists. A complete liberation is possible only when you are free of the mind. To be free of the mind is to be enlightened.”

It is absolutely necessary to be rid of anger, not because it is wrong or bad.

The holes made on the fence are the result of the nail. Similarly karma is the result of your anger for it has caused pain. The more you acquire karma, the more you suffer. If you have to be free of suffering, you have to be enlightened.

Gone are the days when man waited several life times doing severe penances and austerities to reach to this state.

Antaryamin

A woman was leaning over the victim of a street accident and the crowd was looking on. Suddenly she was roughly pushed aside by a man who said, “Step back, please. I have had a course in first aid.”

The woman looked on for a few minutes while the man got busy with the victim. Then she said calmly, “When you come to the part where you have to send for the doctor, I am already here!”

The solution to any problem is always there with in you. Be it physical, psychological or spiritual, the doctor for all these problems is within you in the form of your indweller. The Antaryamin. Do not waste your time in looking for first aid.

Consider the case of this simple farmer, Srinivasa Reddy, from a remote village in Andra Pradesh. For three consecutive years a severe drought had prevailed over those parts. The fourth year, supremely happy at having received heavy and timely rains, the entire village had borrowed money from banks and invested heavily on their paddy. Then to their horror, an unidentified pestilence struck, immune to all pesticides, eating away the plants by the hour. The rich among them tried new pesticides for they had money to experiment while the poor contemplated suicide. This poor farmer an ardent devotee of Sri Bhagavan too was one among them. As a last resort, he went to the field, calling upon Sri Bhagavan within his heart he said, “you are my father, you are my mother, you are my family, my kinsman, my guru, my God. I beseech you protect me. Chanting his beloved Bhagavan’s Japa he went around the field a number of times. The next day the entire village witnessed a miracle beyond everything. Lakhs of strange birds descended upon his 10 acres of land, pecked away all the insects in 2 hours