Believe in Yourself
I have been seeing your devotion and enthusiasm ever since I entered your town this morning; and during the procession through the streets, I could see the ardour of your Bhakthi (devotion). Even now, I feel that that I could give you joy by merely sitting here and giving Darshan (audience), for I can listen to your silent prayers and you can sense My Prema (love). That is enough. That gives Aanandham. You are born, you grow, you live and you merge, all in Aanandham (bliss); that is the truth, though very few know it. That is why I reminded you of it by addressing you as Aanandha-swaruupulaara (embodiments of bliss). Your Swaruupa (natural state) is Aanandham (bliss), however much you might have ignored it.
Bhaarath has proclaimed this for ages; the Vedhas declare it; the Shaasthras elaborate it; the Geetha and other sacred texts describe how to experience this truth. Develop faith in the Aathma and in the Shaasthras - they are the two eyes which will help you to gain the vision. Do not let this chance go to waste by clamouring for sitting space, causing confusion and disturbing those who are engaged in listening. This is tragic: when good things are spoken, you find it difficult to pay attention; but when demeaning, distracting things are spoken, the ears are on the alert. Well, listen quietly now and maintain this calm.
Plant the Seedling of Devotion in the Mind
Man should be the master of his behaviour; he should not be led away by the impulse of the moment; he must be conscious always of what is good for him. He should so carry on his daily tasks that he does not make others suffer or suffer himself. That is the sign of intelligent living. You should not give way to fits of anger or grief or elation or despair. The confusion you exhibited now was the result of Thaamasik (dark and dull) and Raajasik (emotional) qualities. Be Saathwik, calm and unruffled and collected. The more you develop charity for all beings, contrition at your own faults, fear of wrong and fear of God - the more firmly established you are in Shaanthi (peace).
The very name Bhaarath is derived from the two words, Bhagavaan and Rathi, the attachment to God; that is why India has the role of the "Teacher of the World." She is also known as the "Heart" of humanity and revered as such by seekers. But how can those who are starving feed others? It is your duty to sow and grow and store and feed the world this great spiritual sustenance laid down in the Vedhas and the Shaasthras.
In this spiritual sphere of mental peace and inner joy, the responsibility for success or failure is entirely one's own. You have no right to shift it on to others. The fire will go out if the fuel is over; so stop feeding it with fuel. Do not add fuel to the fire of the senses. Detach the mind from the temporary and attach it to the eternal. The negative Shakthi (power) and the positive Shakthi both together will give the light. Plant the seedling of Bhakthi (devotion), namely, the preliminary exercise of Naamasmarana (remembering the Lord's name), in the mind. That will grow into a tree with the branches of virtue, service, sacrifice, love, equanimity, fortitude and courage. You swallow food, but you are not aware how that food is transformed into energy, intelligence, emotion and health. In the same way, just swallow this food for the spirit, this Naamasmarana, and watch how it gets transmuted as virtue and the rest without your being aware of it.
The real Test of Theism
Raavana discovered that Raama and Kaama cannot coexist in the mind. Develop steadiness in the recitation of the name of God and in the worth of that name. Then, even if the whole world says, "Do evil," you will refuse to obey; your system itself will revolt against it. And even if the whole world asks you to desist, you will insist on doing the right. You have to cultivate four types of strength: Strength of body, intellect, wisdom and conduct. Then you become unshakeable; you are on the path of spiritual victory.
Once a person came to Me and argued that there was no God and he was not prepared to believe in one. Well. I asked him, "Have you faith at least in yourself? Which is your self? Your self is God. You have faith in your judgement, your intelligence, your ability, because God within you tells you not to falter or fear. That assurance wells from within, from your basic truth, which is otherwise called God. It does not matter if you do not call it God; it is enough if you believe in Yourself; that is the real test of theism," I told him.
I say the same thing to you also. The body is the temple of God; in every body, God is installed, whether the owner of the body recognises it or not. It is God that inspires you to good acts, that warns you against the bad. Listen to that voice. Obey that voice and you will not come to any harm. A lady wept that her necklace was lost or stolen; she searched everywhere and become inconsolably sad. Then, when she passed across a mirror, she found the lost necklace around her neck. It was there all the time. Similarly, God is there, as the inner dweller whether you know it or not.
Two Ways of remembering the Lord's Name
Love is of three kinds: Swaartha or self-centred, which like a bulb, illumines just a small room; Anyonya or mutual, which like the moonlight spreads wider but is not clearer; and Paraartha or other-centred, which like the sunlight is all pervasive and clear. Cultivate the third type of love; that will save you. For all the service that you do to others through that love is in fact service done to yourself. It is not the others that you help, it is yourself that is helped, remember.
You might have heard Me speak about Naamasmarana and its fruits; how it slowly changes character and modifies conduct and mellows you and takes you nearer the goal. Well, there are two ways of doing this: with a Japamaala (rosary), turning the beads automatically around, just as mechanically and as punctually and as carefully as any other routine act of daily life; or, as it ought to be done - repeating the name, irrespective of the target number, dwelling deep on the form it represents and on the divine attributes connoted by it, tasting It, revelling in It, enjoying the contexts and associations of the name, relishing its sweetness, lost in its music. Of course, you will be hankering after the taste of the name only when you are gnawed by the pangs of hunger. When you suffer from constipation as a consequence of overindulgence in worldly affairs, you cannot relish the name or the form.
The mind is the mischief-maker; it jumps from doubt to doubt; it puts obstacles in the way. It weaves a net and gets entangled in it. It is ever discontented; it runs after a hundred things and away from another hundred. It is like a driver who drives the car with the master in it, wherever his fancy takes him. So take up the task of training it into an obedient servant; it is educable, if only you know how to do it. Place before it things more tasty and it will hanker only for those. Once it realises the value of Naamasmarana, it will adhere to that method of getting peace and joy. So start it now. That is My Aajna (command) to you today.
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