Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Dear All,

Mine, not thine - This expression originates in mind from the 1st subtlest ego - AVIDYA.

Avidya has been dealt in detail under the MBCA theme.

Avidya is ignorance, Ignorance of the truth that we are Divine and then, the next Ego creeps in, which is the sense of MINE-ness, which is dealt in the above gospel.

From this mine-ness, all the attachments and hatred, all the fear, all the impressions originate. That is why Swami has told that this sense of mine-ness is the root of all evil.

Swami goes a step forward and says "This distinction of mine and thine is applied even to God".

All the fights / all the misunderstandings / all the calamities/ all the unrest caused between human beings of any 2 different religions flow from the difference between the 2 religions believing in 2 different God!!

Main preaching of each religion is to practice the instruction of its God. No religion ever preaches to condemn  God of other religions.

A devotee belonging to any religion, believing in any God, MUST transcend all limitations of his ego and merge in the Ocean of Love, which is the real existence of God!

Then and only then, there can be no my-ness, no mine, no thine but just "IS" ness, This "IS" ness is the eternal truth that only God IS!

Love.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Dear All,

Consciousness - ego = Pure Mind = mind which is beyond the three gunas - tamas, rajas, satvic. 

Consciousness + ego  = Impure Mind

In the stage of pure devotion or intense contemplation / meditation, a human crosses tamas (inertia) and Rajas (action with ego) and exists as satvic. When this satvic nature ultimately fetches him glimpse of God realization, he crosses satvic mind and exists as pure soul which is termed as sattva. 

In other words, mind which is never influenced by Chitta and Ahankara (memory bank and ego with 5 kleshas), which works only with pure intellect, which has no trace of any impressions of past, which does not carry the impact of any actions back to its memory bank is verily Divine.

There was a specific session on mind = consciousness which was taken by the author for few.

The very divine nature of a human, when contaminated with ego, becomes a limited mind.

We learnt earlier - Mind is the single most factor which determines whether a man is free (devoid of ego) or bound (with ego) 

So, mind by itself need not be considered as the main obstacle in God realization because mind is required even for realized masters to carry out their mission.

Man has the infinite potential in him to transform his mind to such wonderful extent that the same mind can ultimately exist as Divine/ Pure Consciousness.

Love.

Bhagwan Mahavira

Dear Ones,

Swami says the same thing when He whispers "true happiness is within".

This was explained in one of the posts earlier also.

True Bliss, Ananda, experienced by the meditator, does not come from outside and hug him.

Man's essential nature is Ananda.

Like the sun is covered by the cloud, gold is covered by dust, man's essential nature is clouded by his ego and his associating himself with all worldly suffering.

Meditation is to draw oneself inward, disassociate with all objects, emotions and thoughts.

Once you have disassociated with your ego, the soul experiences  Bliss within, which has eternally been its essential nature. The Bliss is  like the sunshine when clouds pass away, like the gold when it is polished and the dust gathered on it is removed.

Does the sun get its heat or shine from some outside agency when clouds move away?? Does the goldsmith pour some thing from outside to the gold to make it shine like Gold?

Man is a reservoir of all the Ananda that the entire cosmos consist.

At the end of spiritual journey, shrutis say that the Ananda is discovered by man in the cave of his heart. It does not say that Ananda is derived from an external source. It says it is discovered within the heart.

Don't we know that any discovery can only be of something that exists already?

Ignorant of this essential truth, we search for the same Bliss from every possible source outside us.

As boy, we search for happiness in school friends/ games etc.

As youth, we search in relationships, in infatuation, in many other addictions.

As grown up, we search in job / career/ money/ etc.

As married beings, in spouse, in intimacy with our spouse.

As parents - in our children.

As grand parents - in our grand children.

In old age - in those few moments when our family can spare to talk to us, to let us know they are there for us.

Not to forget the search for happiness in movies / entertainments etc., which is there in entire life!!

The search for true bliss / happiness is thus endless.

Classic example is searching for chain everywhere in house, ignorant of the fact that it is right there on our neck.

Once all kleshas are transcended, vasanas are transcended, whatever is left in us, is BLISS!!

Love.