Become Love

 “Only when Self, the truth of love, is known, will the knot of all the  problems in life be severed. Only when the pinnacle of love (the supreme love or para-bhakti) is attained can even liberation be said to be attained. Love is verily the heart of all religions” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi.

How much love is in your heart?

Let it be as vast and pure as the sky and as deep and full as the sea.

Love with every fibre of your being in total surrender to the Beloved.

Like a drop  falling into the ocean, lose yourself in that joy!

Love is the greatest of all treasures – nothing else can compare.

Love is the real, the true, the absolute value that is the ground of all things.

Love is the eternal, deathless, divine perfection at the heart of all that exists.

Love is your source and your very being, the secret in you that makes you precious.

In the cave of the heart, a lotus bud awaits the spring of your awakening.

Love totally, unconditionally, hold nothing back!

Crack yourself open like a walnut: let that feeling explode

And fill the boundless expanse of  bliss that you truly are!

How can words describe what it is to drink deep of this love?

Only the true lover understands its infinite power and grace.

Once you taste such celestial nectar, nothing else will ever satisfy you.

Become this love and you will discover its radiance everywhere.

Mother Anandamayi Ma

For Whomsoever The Bell Tolls

 “Is it not because one forgets one’s truth, the light of consciousness, that one gets caught in the net of  Maya, from which one does not know how to escape? The power of Maya is that it causes the jiva to do over and over again that which it already has done.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi.

It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed  to repeat it.

On your TV screen, missiles fly and buildings fall, war is smoke and fire, suffering and death.

It’s happening somewhere far away, it’s not really affecting you.

You read about unjust imprisonment, torture and rape and genocide…death again in a hundred different ways.

It’s happening to someone else, someone far away, nothing like that is happening to you.

Human greed multiplies like cancer, icebergs melt and forests burn, 200 living species disappear every day:

Your daily life seems mostly normal, it seems a long way from affecting you.

Until, one day, Armageddon explodes, the earth, air and water are poisoned, all the sparrows are gone;

Finally, you are forced to wake up and see-

Everyone is a part of you, everything touches you.

The whole universe is your own body: 

for whomsoever the bell tolls, it tolls for thee!

Despite all our vaunted scientific advances, our powerful technology, our superior intelligence, the same story happens over and over again.

Can human nature ever change? What is to be done?

The only magic wand is the evolution of human consciousness.

This evolution begins with you.

If you would save yourself, save your race and save this planet, do not waste another day in unconscious living.

Wake up! Break out of the matrix!

Discover your true nature and rest in that pure awareness: this is the best thing you can do.

All else will follow naturally, in just the right way, at just the right time.

“Everything is connected to everything else.
Everything must go somewhere.
Nature knows best. 
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Barry Commoner, the Four Laws of Ecology.

The Power Within

 “Heart, the Source, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all. Heart, the supreme space, is never a  form, It is the light of truth.The death of the mind drowned in the ocean of Self-consciousness is the eternal silence. The real ‘I’ is the supreme Heart-space which is the great ocean of bliss.” Sri Ramana Maharishi, Guru Vachaka Kovai

It seems to get harder and harder to feel hopeful about the future.

Disease, climate change, disasters, war …..where will it all end?

In a world going mad with uncertainty and fear, what anchor can give you strength?

Is there, somewhere, a haven of peace and joy where  you can take refuge? 

Take heart! be of good cheer : succour is close at hand.

In the center of your chest, a mysterious power blooms like a lotus flower.

It is the greatest gift you have ever received, your birthright as a human being, your very self.

It is the seat of awareness at the very core of your being, a divine fire, a perennial spring of existence-consciousness-bliss.

It is the source of infinite strength and hope and courage, a reservoir of blissful peace.

It is the fount of miracles, the giver of all blessings.

It is where you arise from and subside into, your origin and your place of rest.

Every night, in deep, dreamless sleep, your soul recharges its batteries here.

Learn how to locate it, how to connect to it consciously at all times.

Stillness and silence are the gateways to its miraculous grace.

The sages have called it the Self, the Tao, the Center, the Atman, the Heart, the Source.

They have marvelled at its power and beauty, at its infinite mystery and indescribable bliss.

It is smaller than the smallest, yet greater than the greatest, effortlessly containing and sustaining all the universes.

This wondrous divine perfection is your very being, your own true nature.

Some may call it God or Brahman.

Only know it in yourself and you will see it everywhere.

“Ah! how desirous I was to see the divine Beloved! It is not the fault of the Beloved that you do not see;He is right before you! It is the fault of you who recognize Him not. Everything, whatever you see, is nothing else but the Presence of God!” Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Just Plug Into God

 “ God has been seeing through my eyes, has been hearing through my ears. It was His breath that came through my breathing, His impulse which I felt, and therefore I know that this body which I had thought to be my own is really the true temple of God. Not knowing that God experiences this life through man, I have been seeking for Him somewhere else, in some person aloof and apart from the world, whereas all the time He is in me. 

When a person turns for guidance to the inner Being, then all light and all knowledge are his for his guidance. "But," people say, "how can we attach ourselves with the inner Being, so as to have that guidance?" When the mind is fixed upon anything, then the person becomes linked to that, a current is established between him and it. It may be called the guidance of God or the guidance of the Self. If we look within, God is nearer to us than our mind and our body, because, as is said in the Bible, He is that life in which we live and move and have our being.” Hazrat Inayat Khan   

Listen: this is the great shortcut, the direct connection to the divine.

Just turn your mind inwards, dive deep and plug yourself into God.

It is that simple- like charging your phone.

Do it now and taste that blissful, loving peace that is beyond all understanding.

The very core of your being, the life-force inside you, the One that breathes in you, sees through your eyes, thinks through your mind, laughs through your joy, this is the One that you have been searching for everywhere.

The innermost sanctum, the holy of holies, the fountain of immortality is right here in the center of your own chest. Could anything be closer?

Yes, its true – let the penny finally drop:

God dwells within you as you .

This is the greatest miracle, the source of all wonder and wisdom, the pure magic that is shining in your soul in this very moment. Just plug right in!

The infinite current of grace is ever flowing, always available, for free!

Recharge your being with your true nature, come home to who you really are, who you always were and always will be.

Just connect with Him every day: all it takes is your attention and your faith.

Once you feel that connection, nothing else will ever satisfy you.

The more you find the divine in yourself, the more you will see it everywhere.

You will discover that the flow of life is naturally perfect, exactly the way it's meant to be.

With the  right eyes, all creation is seen as sacred and beautiful and good.

This is all it takes to experience the kingdom of heaven right here and now:

Just plug into God.

All will be well.

The Lesson

 

“Enlightenment is here and now: just rend the veil and you will be It. Do not wait for death -after death, no change happens; you merely end up in an apartment in the City of Death with the ghosts of your memories and the baggage of your unfulfilled desires.” From Lightsongs, the book.

This lesson of life, how long does it take to learn?

In blind obedience, I  followed the dictates of evolution.

For a thousand lifetimes, like a well-trained animal, I jumped through the hoops of destiny.

Again and again, I have fallen under the spell of separation, the great illusion.

Again and again, I have forgotten who I really am.

This time around, I hoped it would be different.

For over three score years, I  practiced my sadhana.

I read the sacred texts, chanted all the mantras, spent so much time on rituals and prayer.

I performed asanas and pranayamas, pujas and fasts, retreats and meditations and more.

Was it all for nothing?

In the last winter of my old age, will I still be searching for that eternal spring?

When death claims me, will I have to go through yet another lifetime to understand it all?

Enough is enough.

O merciful Gurudev, dispell my ignorance now, before this body dies!

Save me from this nightmare of endless death and rebirth.

Before the phantom mind drags me off again, absorb me forever in your peace.

Let the blazing sun of your presence in my Heart burn all the fog away.

At long last, O thou ocean of Grace, thou Rock of Ages, set me free!

“ Do not wander outside, eating the scorching sand of worldly pleasures, which are non-Self; come home to the Heart where peace is shining as a vast, everlasting, cool shade and enjoy the feast of the bliss of Self. Having annihilated the delusive mind which always dwells upon worldly things, having killed the restless ego, and having completely erased the vasanas, shine as Shiva, the pure Consciousness Itself.” Sri Ramana Maharishi.

Tao : the Way.

 “Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible.
These three are indefinable; therefore they are joined in one.

From above it is not bright; from below it is not dark:
An unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
The form of the formless,the image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,
Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.” Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

The invisible is the source and substance of the visible.
The formless is the origin of all form.
Nothing is the mother of everything.
The true void is the very essence of the Way.

A divine mystery unfolds as this vast universe.
How wondrous are the infinite creations of Nature!
Exquisite perfection flows forth from atomic emptiness.
Marvellous existence is the effortless expression of the Way.

Every soul is always longing for the truth.
Every circumstance that arises is a gift.
Life teaches you all that you will ever need to learn.
Destiny is the supreme compassion of the Way.

The wisest and greatest power of all is silence.
Dwelling in the here and now is  grace.
Acting without doing is elegance born of humility.
Living the teaching is the perfect practice of the Way.

When tranquil mind reflects reality faithfully,
The Heart blossoms in a fountain of  blissful peace.
With the right eye, all that you see is sacred;
Enlightenment is the natural flowering of the Way.

Abide as the Self

With infinite compassion, the sage rises like the life-giving sun,
Blessing all equally with the miracle of his grace.
In every heart, he shines as the flame of immortality.
In every soul, he flowers as the transcendent Self.

The Guru’s silence is the womb and the life-force of  the universe.
Dive into the Heart and surrender at his feet.
Let your mind dissolve in the ocean of his presence
Like the weary river gladly loses itself in the sea.

 My Guru told me — ‘Trust me. I tell you; you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done.” I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words.I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, ‘I am’, and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the ‘I am’ in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared — myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence.” Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, on the teaching he received from his guru.

Find that place where doing ceases and all suffering will end:
Stillness is the gateway to paradise.
Deep in the Heart-lotus, the mind bee is drunk with bliss.
In the absence of thought, only reality remains.

Abide firmly as the Self with perfect equanimity.
Divine awareness is your own true nature.
That which comes and goes can never be real:
Only Brahman exists in eternal, self-luminous joy.

“When the tricky senses are controlled, when mental conceptions are removed, and when one is unshakably established as Self in the Heart, then the knowledge which shines in that state of firm Self-abidance is the real God . Such a true seeing, which is devoid of illusion and deception, is the state in which one shines as the ocean of bliss. Only in the supreme silence which is thus achieved in Self-abidance, will the soul never again have a downfall.” Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi