Teachings

On God

“Be conscious always that the God that you pray to is within you and everywhere around you. His protection and grace are there ever for you. Be always aware that He is guiding you from within.”

“The personal is He. The impersonal is He. As personal He is with name and form. The entire, universe is He in the personal aspect. In the impersonal, He is without name and form, without attributes, beyond the range of intellect to understand, beyond words to describe.

In the personal aspect, He is love, light, knowledge, power, peace, bliss, purity. The Nirguna (impersonal) stands for peace, while the Saguna (personal) for Anand.”

“In the entire universe, He pervades as Shakti – the universe itself being His form. He is most manifest in man. Mahatmas and Bhaktas are He in full manifestation. Service of them results in the realization of Sri Ram in His personal aspect, i.e., as Love. Sri Ram is ever seated in the hearts of us all and we are all His forms. Saguna, Nirguna — everything is He. No sacrifice is too great to attain this supreme realization — this Darshan of oneness in many — this height of inexpressible peace and bliss.”

On Guru

“There is no higher deity than Guru. Guru is the Lord of the universe – the supreme ultimate Reality – the sole master of your being and all existence. Guru is Sri Ram.”You must look upon everybody as your Guru. When you lay aside your ego and see, you find everywhere your Guru.

As a matter of fact, Guru is Nirguna. As the mind cannot grasp the Nirguna, He manifests Himself in form. Your goal is to realize the Self or Atman. Atman is the NirgunaSwarup of the Guru. ‘Guru’ means dispeller of darkness of ignorance; that is, he is the bringer of light of knowledge into your heart so that you may realize that you are the Atman or Brahman.

On Sannyas

Mere external renunciation is of no avail… To assume Sannyas in the hope that by taking merely that step you would realise God, is perfectly wrong…… Sannyas is not a thing to be received from, or given to, anybody. It is a dedication of our entire being to the Lord and His service.

It is a spontaneous wave of aspiration rising from within our own heart. So receiving initiation from any external Guru can make the disciple only an apparent Sannyasi, struggling through tedious and painful courses of Sadhana undertaken because of the established rules and regulations, observed all through with the growing ego-sense at the base of it.

On Satsang

Satsang or association with a saint is indeed valuable. But it must be of the right kind. Internal contact must be established. Otherwise there is danger of the aspirant’s mind getting externalized and remaining attached to the physical person of the saint, missing the impersonal Truth which the saint embodies.

Without reaching the depths of the inner Reality represented by the saint, one cannot reap the full benefits of Satsang. One must take care not to fall into the error of thinking that a saint’s grace can be won by adoring merely his body and serving him without looking upon all beings as his expressions and serving them with an equal vision.

There is nothing more dangerous to an aspirant than a narrow, personal attitude. His progress depends on the extent to which he is able to expand his heart and universalize his outlook.

On Inward Journey

When we recede into the depths of silence within us we arrive at the true basis of our life. The disciples can look within and get guidance only if they stop looking upon somebody outside for guidance. What is needed is that you should turn your mind within, and the best thing for that is remain where you are and practice the disciplines prompted from within and finally get divine illumination.

In this hall there are four walls. It is not the walls we are making use of, but the empty space within them. In a vessel, which is the most useful portion? The empty space within it. So, if you empty yourself completely, you create something like a vacuum within yourself. Then you are really full; you are most useful.

On Human-kind

Break down every kind of barrier that stands between you and your brethren. Realise that humanity as a whole is one world family. Let your vision be universal. Let your life flow along the channel of universal beneficence. Let your love embrace all beings as members of one universal brotherhood.

On Religion

We want a religion that would give us the sight to behold all the members of the human race as belonging to one world family.Let us scrape away and rub off all the accretions of superstitions, worn-out dogmas and customs, and unessential and ostentatious rituals and observances belonging to all religions, and stand together in the one essential light of God whose beneficent rays are pouring on us all alike.

On Individual

Everyone has some good points in him. We should see only those good points. If we are to see bad points, let us look for them only in ourselves. If we practise this, the evil in us will disappear.

If we see evil in others and good in us, what little of good we have will disappear and the evil in us will grow. By criticizing and thinking ill of others, we only make our minds more and more impure. The way to progress is to see good in everyone and love everyone. To see good in others is to see God in them; for, God alone is good.

By seeing God in others we can easily realize God in our own heart. So long as we criticize others we can never see God in them. Action in the world, without the least trace of Ahambhav, is possible because the instrument is He, the power that works the instrument is He. The witness of the work is He. Bhagawan is He. Bhakta is He. The Guru is He. The Shishya is He. He wears various masks and plays in various ways. It is He everywhere, everything and everybody.

On World

The world we live in is a school, in which observation and experience offer us immense possibilities for self-improvement, nay, the world itself is our Guru or God.Earth is the theatre on which we play the game of life. It is the scene where we live and struggle to attain the supreme beatitude of life.

It is the Karma Bhumi, the place where our physical body is shaped and born, on which it lives and acts, and into which it ultimately returns and dissolves. It is the Dharma Kshetra, the field in which we prepare ourselves for our ultimate destiny of liberation and realization.

It is on the earth that we put into practice the loftiest principles by which we recognise our relationship with all beings. It is here that we train and fit ourselves, through self-control and discipline, for the final plunge into the infinite ocean of spiritual light, power and joy. Humanity is the heart of this world in which we live and move. Identity with humanity is identity with the universe, and vice versa.

On Sadhana

Give up doubts and churning of the intellect. Feel you are a simple child of the Lord and thus enter into His being. This is the easy way to reach Him. Do not perplex the mind with questions. Be humble, pure and cheerful, taking refuge in Him. Follow the straight and simple path of devotion.

Open the flood-gates of your heart and allow Prem, pure love, that is in you to flow over unimpeded to the holy feet of the Lord seated within. Remember that God’s grace is ever with you. Benefit by its redeeming influence, by opening yourself to receive it and becoming aware of the Amrita Vrishti–shower of nectar.

Some churning of the mind or intellect may be there. But after some time, this process should stop so that the butter of Divine Bliss may be formed and collected. After the impurities are eliminated, pure and divine emotions rise up. Even this stage is passed when the infinite silence of the inner peace is experienced. Here the rippling and dancing river mingles with the calm waters of the ocean. That is the end of all Sadhana.

On Aspirants

There are many a struggling aspirant still in the clutches of certain Sadhanas, depending on externals and hugging them with dogged pertinacity, thus setting up a stumbling block in their progress towards the supreme goal of perfect liberation. The external vision, however glorious, is not the true vision, if it is not based upon the internal.

This they do not know – sometimes do not want to understand. The supreme Truth, by the realization of which alone the soul attains the real peace and bliss

– which is the sole object of its quest – can be reached only by throwing up all external crutches and aids of every kind – however useful and necessary they might have been at one time.Behold God within you and then behold Him everywhere, as all the manifested worlds. Don’t adhere to the lower planes and seek satisfaction there. Soar up into the regions of your transcendent Being. Aspire – aspire – aspire – until the highest goal is reached.

On Surrender

The only way to be always happy is to submit to God’s will, and leaving everything to Him, to be contented in the condition in which He places us. Surrender means inner contentment and peace. It means giving up of the ego-sense. Until the ego-sense is completely eliminated, we cannot realize God.

Self-surrender means that we throw the whole burden of life, our anxieties and sorrows on the Supreme Lord who is the Master of all and keep our mind filled with calmness and peace that comes from His constant remembrance.

On Spirituality

Spirituality that cannot be applied in actual life is no spirituality. God is in the world and is acting through every one of us. God-realisation does not mean disappearing into some unknown realm beyond the world. True spirituality consists in our living in this world, moving in it and serving all beings, all the time being conscious of the Divine within us and everywhere around us.

That which relates to the spirit and the experience of the Spirit is spirituality. Because Spirit and matter are two different things. Our body is material and the spirit dwelling in this body is spiritual. So, whatever relates to this Spirit within us is spiritual.

On Divine - Personal / Impersonal

Until the aspirant of immortality goes beyond name and form to the height of the impersonal God that dwells within him, until he tunes his mind and life to the Divine symphony or movement thrilling through the cosmos, until he is freed from all limitations of thought, time and circumstance, until he beholds the entire universe as the veritable expression of his own infinite Self, he cannot realise and experience the comprehensive glory and the all-absorbing splendour of the greatest Truth – God.

In the relationship of the devotee with God as a personal ideal, the communion yields to him a rare sweetness and joy. But this sweetness is not unalloyed, for it is invariably accompanied by severe pangs of separation from his eternal Beloved. This is the inevitable result of the devotee’s looking upon God only as an adorable person. Some devotees of this type would willingly undergo excruciating pains of separation as a price for the occasional glimpses of sweet communion with Him.

If they are told to transcend the sense of duality and realize their oneness with Him in His impersonal aspect, they resolutely discard the advice. They say they find as much delight in the absence of their adored One as they do feel when they are in intimate contact with Him. But the agony through which they pass when, in spite of their insistent cries and appeals, they do not behold their Beloved, they confess, is simply unbearable.

On Temple Worship

Man cannot conceive of God, who is infinite and eternal. God is beyond name and form. The instrument, which we have to make use of, in trying to comprehend Him, is the mind. And the mind can think only in terms of name and form. So, if we want to concentrate our mind on God, we have to give Him a name and a form. The image in the temple serves this purpose. When we stand before the image, we take it as the very embodiment of the Divine.

We sing before it of His great attributes, His infinite glory and power, His eternal existence, knowledge and joy.

On Education

Education is an important factor in the evolution of human life. It helps us to regulate our lives and make ourselves useful to our fellow-beings. The purpose of schools and colleges should be to impart education not merely for the development of the intellect, but also for the enlargement of the heart. Life should unfold itself for revealing its inherent glory through the cultivation of the highest virtues that elevate it, through the right kind of education and culture.

Life and all its activities should bear witness to the great Truth which is at the basis of it. It should reflect divine light in all its expressions. While the intellect is filled with true wisdom, the heart must respond to the finest feelings of compassion, forgiveness and kindness towards all beings in the world. The heart should be our guide, and intellect should fulfil the ideals which the heart sets before us.

On Grihasthashrama

Grihasthashram is not an undesirable institution detrimental to the spiritual progress of the man. On the other hand when life is lived in its proper spirit, there is no institution nobler and more glorious than the married life. A man can make his home a centre of service radiating rays of universal love.

On Inner Liberation

When the false conventions and ostentatious observances are broken through, the soul is liberated. For realizing the Truth no external paraphernalia is necessary. No garb, no sigh, no cult and no creed can help you. The day will come when you have to leave all these behind, and go to meet the Eternal in the perfect nakedness of your Spirit, shedding all make-believe forms, customs and traditions.

Simplicity, spontaneity and humility become the guiding principles of your life. You move freely with all. You love all alike. You break all boundaries set by the calculating and selfish human mind. You soar like a free bird in the infinite expanse of the spiritual firmament. You look upon all beings and creatures as the embodiment of the one divine all-pervading Spirit. Temples, Ashrams, mosques, churches, synagogues, Viharas, etc., cannot imprison your soul. You find your soul’s delight and joy at all places—in the best as well as the worst.

On Ashram Management

The Ashram finances are as they should be. The creditor is He, the debtor is He. Ramdas is merely a channel through which money flows from one side to the other. Whatever is offered with love he accepts and uses for the service of the Giver Himself. For, in all cases the Giver and the Receiver are both one – the Supreme Lord, the Beloved of Ramdas.

Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram