Your Secret Room

 “Become like melting snow; wash yourself of yourself. With love, your inner voice will find a tongue growing like a silent white lotus in the heart.” Jalal-ud-din Rumi

Do you know,
in this house that you have lived in all the days of your life,
there is a secret room, one that you visit only in your deepest dreams?
When you trace your self to its source, you will find it here.

This is the heart-cave the sages speak of, the home of the Indweller.
This is the lotus that holds the jewel, the oyster bearing that pearl beyond all price.
This is the sanctum sanctorum that holds your true identity, your very life-force, your immortal spirit.
This is the dwelling of the eye of eyes that sees no other, the cave of the eternal fire in which no ignorance or illusion can survive.

The key to this inner chamber is your focus and attention.
Learn to turn inwards and visit this room as often as you can.

With practice, you can stay anchored there always.

Once Grace reveals that fire of Brahman in the Heart, perform the greatest of all yajnas: gladly offer yourself as an oblation to that sacred flame.

Remember! sadhana is not complete until the sadhaka disappears.

“You squeeze me with your hand and then you step on me with your foot. This is how the grape becomes wine. You cast us like sunlight on this earth and our light, passing through the body as it were an open window to our Source, returns, purified, to You.“ Jalal-ud-din Rumi

YourTrue Birthday

O bright spirit, ageless, timeless, infinite!

The day you awaken to the Self is your true birthday.

You are a child of immortal bliss, celebrate your inherent, divine perfection.
You have no need to settle for second-best – you are already beauteous, omnipotent and wondrous beyond compare.
Shiva is your father, Parvati is your mother, all living beings are your family, the whole universe is your playground.

Drunk with the wine of the Divine, you cannot be satisfied with earthly joys anymore.
There is nothing for you to do, with body or mind; just rest in the sublime bliss of your true nature, like a cat sleeping in a patch of winter sun.

You are that Love that shines with the splendour of heart-bursting, infinite compassion.
You are Brahman that is forever whole, the true, the real, the One.

You are the void that is the womb of all that exists, the silence that is the source of all song.
Like a bird returning to its nest, come home to the Self where you truly belong.

So be:

Seek the blissful source of Being, like a river running home to the sea

Inner Tandava

“Do not limit God to your virtue. He is beyond your virtues, O pious ones!” Hazrat Inayat Khan

Ecstatic in the bliss of Brahman, the Lord dances his tandava and destroys the whole universe. This is his blessing.

If you would be immortal, bow humbly before him and gladly offer him your head.

The greatest gift of this life is to awaken before this body dies, to burn in the fire of jnana before this body burns in the cremation fire.

Replace the thousand desires of samsara with the single, concentrated desire for the Divine. When your yearning for the Divine is total, then Grace will enter…and even this desire will drop away.

Stay alert and aware -remember! heedlessness is death.

Trust the words of the sages: discover who it is who desires, find out who you really are.

Deep in your being, the Self throbs like an undersea current of pure existence.

This too is the Lord dancing his tandava: this is the fountain of inner grace.

Cling to the current in the Heart; hold onto it unceasingly, flow into that inner ocean as long as this body lives.

Stay rooted in that changeless, blissful experience of unshakable peace.

Simply Be

Listen!

There is no traveller, no road nor destination;

there is no doer and nothing to be done.

There is no knower or knowledge or method of knowing; 

there is no many, there is no one.

The tsunami of Grace washes all the worlds away in one sweep!

Everything disappears.

What remains is what always existed.

What is, is.

Simply be.

The Wound is the Way

“The wound is the place where the light enters you.
What hurts you blesses you: darkness is your candle.
Your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.

You have to keep breaking your heart until it blossoms open.

The truth is we are all ONE.

Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world.
Today I am wise , so I am changing myself.

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
Do what you love and do it with love. Think less, feel more.
Do not let the clouds of your thoughts cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.

Silence really is the language of God – all else is poor translation.”

Rumi

Lord, in your infinite compassion, you gave me the gift of sorrow, let me know the black depths of depression and pain.
When I cried out for relief, you bathed my eyes with your jnana and removed the blindness of ignorance.
You gave me the gifts of viveka and vairagya, discrimination and detachment.

You showed me the secret way.

Gently but firmly, you turned my attention inwards to the source of Being.
With such tender grace, you led me to the living light in the cave of the Heart, where the mind dissolves.

In that fountain of love and forgiveness, all sorrows vanish; in that flame of wholeness, all is healed.

In that sacred fire, I disappeared like camphor, returning to the formless, to the beginning of all beginnings.

In the perfection of that silence, only peace remains.

In honour of my friend Mira Prabhu who merged today forever with her beloved Arunachala Ramana.

The Tao of Tapas

“Sravana, manana, niddhidhyasana continue like ever-spinning wheels even for the jivan mukta …..tapas becomes his very nature.”
Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi.

A still lake rests below the mountain, white lotus flowers scattered in profusion on its waters. On the banks, the trees are green with abundant life. Suddenly white wings flash as a heron flies up. 

Nature practices her tapasya effortlessly and constantly: her artistry is pure harmony. Nature is born of Tao.

Beauty, peace, perfection are found in the essence of all that exists: in that underlying Being that is the source and the substance of all things. 

When the mind is still and tranquil, it sinks into its source.
Merging with Being, it becomes Tao, the Self, sat-chit-ananda, existence-consciousness-bliss.

Resting in bliss in the depths of the Heart, staying forever rooted in the Self…..this is tapas.

Jnana vichara never ceases. Tapas is incessant.
With every breath you take, walking, eating, doing, sleeping -let your life be tapas. Stay unshakably rooted in the Self.

Then you will truly be one with Nature, one with Being.

Then you will be Tao.