Weekly Knowledge #23 - BOREDOM AND SADHANA

Weekly Knowledge #23	Bangalore Ashram
15 Nov 1995	India

BOREDOM AND SADHANA

What is boredom?

A repetition without interest or love causes a monotonous state of mind; that is boredom. It overshadows the Self.

A practice or abhyasa is again a repetition whose purpose is to destroy the boredom and reunite with the Self. In this process the practice itself creates boredom and as you continue, it penetrates the boredom and destroys it once and for all. Whether the practice gives you joy or boredom, it must be continued. Only the practice or abhyasa can annihilate the Mind.

Self is Love and Love is always repetitive. That is why love letters are simply repetitive and there is no boredom there. If you are bored with yourself then how much more boring you would be for others. Root out the boredom in you through deep and continued meditation.

Wake up and Walk up.

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #22 - SHAUCHA AND ASHAUCHA

Weekly Knowledge #22	New Delhi
09 Nov 1995	India

SHAUCHA AND ASHAUCHA

When you are miserable, what has happened is that you have gone away from the Self. This is called Ashaucha. It means you have become unclean.

In India when someone dies, the close relatives are said to be Ashaucha for 10 days because they are very sad. They are impure because they have moved away from the self. After 10 days of just being with that experience and reading the Gita, being with the Knowledge and pulling themselves back into the Self, then it is called Shaucha. They have purged out the impurities that have come during events.

This keeps happening again and again in dealings in life. You become Ashaucha and you have to get back to Shaucha. Go deeper in to yourself, then real Shaucha happens.

Shaucha's benefits are clarity in the intellect, a pleasing mind, focused awareness in the mind, a say over the senses, and therefore eligibility to realize the Self.

Shaucha is disinterestedness in the tendencies of one's own senses and non-association with other people. If a tendency in your body arises just have the understanding, "Oh yes, here is this old familiar tendency coming up again. Come on, you have had this experience enough, and still the body is craving for it again." Disinterestedness in one's own body -- just an idea, a sort of distaste, and in one moment it changes.

Why do people love each other so much, have such an intimate relationship, and then fight? Ashaucha has happened. If you don't get distaste for the tendency of the senses then distaste for the object of the senses will come and you will blame the object.

When Ashaucha happens then come back to Shaucha quickly. Suppose you get drowned in any worldly aspect, just know this is Ashaucha . . . "That is why I am suffering misery." Then come back to Shaucha.

Your attraction or craving is only as long as you think someone is "other." When you think they are part of you or your Self, then the attraction dies out. That is why a husband or wife is not attracted to the partner but to someone else because the partner has already become a part of them.

When you realize everyone is part of your Self, you enjoy the whole world without a sense of craving.

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #21 - SCEPTICISM

Weekly Knowledge #21
London
01 Nov 1995
United Kingdom

SCEPTICISM

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Ignorance is being a sceptic and not knowing you are a sceptic. If you think you are a sceptic, you are no longer a sceptic because you have a clue of something beyond. So, in reality, you can never know whether you are a sceptic or not!

A sceptic is stuck in a paradigm and closes all other possibilities. But this creation is of all possibilities. As one understands the paradigm shift, scepticism is removed.

A real scientist can never afford to be a sceptic because scepticism closes down possibilities and does not continue to probe into unknown areas of existence.

In short, scepticism is an "I know it all" attitude, and this attitude is unscientific. Scepticism is dispelled by Knowledge. Perception and inference are two means of knowing.

In every human being deep inside, there is faith and love. What you think is scepticism is only a thin layer. If you hold in your mind that they are sceptics you empower their scepticism.

Do not recognize someone's scepticism and try to argue with them. Argument strengthens their scepticism. Fear of interference in one's freedom brings more resistance and causes scepticism.

Your silence and the smile from your heart will dispel their scepticism. There is nothing better than silence to break scepticism. Silence means the quality of consciousness, not just keeping lips tight.

Scepticism doesn't come up in children. It comes only with people who walk with boundaries. Children have no scepticism. They live in their fantasy world, a world of many possibilities. Their world is one of innocence, joy, beauty, and so much love.

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #20 - SAKHA -- YOUR RELIABLE SENSE

Weekly Knowledge #20	Montreal Ashram
24 Oct 1995	Canada

SAKHA -- YOUR RELIABLE SENSE

There are three things: the Self, the senses, and the object, or the world. And there are three words: sukha, pleasure; dukha, sorrow; and sakha, companion. These have one thing in common: "kha," which means "senses."

The Self through the senses experiences the world. When the senses are with the Self, that is pleasure (sukha), because the Self is the source of all joy or pleasure. When the senses are away from the Self (dukha) -- in the mud, lost in the object -- that is misery. Mud, misery, mind -- they are very close.

Self --- Senses ("Kha") --- World

--- Joy (Sukha) Sorrow (Dukha) ---

Self is the nature of joy. In any pleasant experience, you close your eyes; you smell a nice flower, or you taste or touch something. So sukha is that which takes you to the Self. Dukha is that which takes you away from the Self. Sorrow simply means that you are caught up in the object, which goes on changing, instead of focussing on the Self.

All the sense objects are just a diving board to take you back to the Self.

Sa-kha, companion, means: "He is the senses." Sakha is one who has become your senses, who is your senses. If you are my senses, it means I get Knowledge through you; you are my sixth sense. As I trust my mind, so I trust you. A friend could be just an object of the senses, but a sakha has become the very senses.

The sakha is the companion who is there in both the experiences of the dukha and of sukha. It means one who leads you back to the Self. If you are stuck in an object, that wisdom which pulls you back to the Self is sakha.

Knowledge is your companion and your companion is Knowledge. And the Master is nothing but the embodiment of Knowledge. So sakha means, "He is my senses, I see the world through that wisdom, through Him."

If your sense is the Divine, then you see the whole world through the Divinity.

Your head will be in the mud in a few years;

Don't put mud in your head while you are still alive.

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #19 - DISCIPLESHIP ENDS ...

Weekly Knowledge #19	Nova Scotia
17 Oct 1995	Canada

DISCIPLESHIP ENDS --

A SHISHYA (DISCIPLE) OR

A SAKHA (COMPANION)?

Knowledge has an end. Knowledge completes. So also does discipleship. For the disciple is aimed at acquiring Knowledge.

Once you cross the water, however nice the boat is, you get off the boat. After twelve years, the disciple completes his studies. The master does a ceremony called Samavartha, where he tells the disciple that he is ending the discipleship and asking him to behave at par with him, and let the Brahman dynamically manifest.

Sakha is a companion in life and death; it never ends. In the path of love there is neither beginning nor end. Sakha only wants the beloved. He doesn't care about the Knowledge or liberation. Love is incomplete because of longing. And so it is infinite, for infinity can never be complete.

Arjuna was a sakha to Krishna and although Krishna was the perfect Master he was a sakha, too. What are you, a shishya (disciple) or a sakha (companion)?

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #18 - FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE

Weekly Knowledge #18	Bangalore Ashram
10 Oct 1995	India

FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE

Freedom and discipline are opposites and complementary. The purpose of defense is to protect freedom. But is there freedom in defense? Do soldiers have freedom? No, they are totally bound, not even allowed to put the right foot down when told the left foot. Their steps are measured and they are unable even to walk with a natural rhythm. There is total lack of freedom in defense. That which has absolutely no freedom is protecting the freedom of the country! So it is with the police; they protect the freedom of the individual. But are they free?

Discipline protects freedom. They both go hand in hand. Understand this and go ahead in life. You have some restrictions and it is this that allows you freedom. You can choose to focus either on freedom or discipline, and this makes you happy or unhappy. Freedom without discipline is like a country without a defense.

Fences should be fences; a fence cannot be built all over the property. If your fence is all over, how can you build on the property? That state of high absolute freedom is too difficult; we need to be very practical. Yes, there is a state of unlimited bliss, the freedom Advaita talks about. The Advaita Knowledge has been totally misused or used according to one's own fancies and conveniences.

There must be awareness in the mind, love in the heart, and righteousness in action.

Love and fear are two possibilities that put you on track. The Jewish religion put fear as the main thing so that life could improve. Nature induces fear at a certain age in a child. When a child is very young, it gets 100 percent time and love of the mother. The child has no fear. As the child grows more independent it becomes cautious. Nature brings in an iota of fear. With freedom, the child starts walking carefully. Fear of losing freedom also brings defense. The purpose of defense is to eliminate fear.

On this path Knowledge is your Freedom
and also your Defense.

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #17 - THE ONLY THING YOU MUST REMEMBER

Weekly Knowledge #17	Bangalore Ashram
05 Oct 1995	India

THE ONLY THING YOU MUST REMEMBER

The only thing you must remember is:
HOW FORTUNATE YOU ARE.

When you forget this you become sad. Sorrow indicates

(I) your negative qualities, and (ii) your attachment to your positive qualities. When you think you are too good, you blame the world; then you become sad. The purpose of sorrow is to bring you back to the self. And self is all Joy. But this is possible only through Knowledge -- awareness.

Knowledge or awareness leads sorrow towards the self. With lack of Knowledge, the same sorrow multiplies and does not get completed. Knowledge completes sorrow.

With the power of Knowledge you transcend sorrow. In this path you have everything. We have this beautiful Knowledge which has all the flavors in it -- wisdom, laughter, seva, silence, singing, dancing, humor, celebration, yagyas, caring, complaints, problems, complications, and chaos to add color.

Life is so colorful!

Jai Guru Dev

Weekly Knowledge #16 - BIG MIND

Weekly Knowledge #16	Bangalore Ashram
27 Sep 1995	India

BIG MIND

You know there is a Big Mind and a small mind. Sometimes the Big Mind wins over the small mind and sometimes it is the other way around.

When the small mind wins over, it is misery and when the Big Mind wins, it is joy.

Small mind promises joy and leaves your hand empty. Big Mind may bring resistance in the beginning but fills you with joy.

The word Guru means great. Jaya means victory. Deva means one who is fun-loving, playful, light. One who is playful is often not dignified and when one is dignified, he is often not playful.

Jai Guru Dev is victory to the Big Mind in you that is both dignified and playful. That is what Jai Guru Dev means: "Victory to the Greatness in you."

You do not say victory or hail to the Master as he has won over already. You say victory to your own Self, your own Mind, which is being veiled by the small mind.

Jai Guru Dev