Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.daionet.gr.jp!news.yamada.gr.jp!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.optus.net.au!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Congregation Gems" Newsgroups: fj.life.religion Distribution: Global Subject: Congregation Gems 1 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 220.240.202.21 Message-ID: <41317701@news.comindico.com.au> X-Original-Trace: 29 Aug 2004 16:26:09 +1000, 220.240.202.21 Lines: 273 Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 06:26:10 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.194.27.1 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comindico.com.au X-Trace: news.optus.net.au 1093760770 203.194.27.1 (Sun, 29 Aug 2004 16:26:10 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 16:26:10 EST Organization: Comindico Australia - reports relating to abuse should be sent to abuse@comindico.com.au Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.religion:459 Congregation Gems 1 Dear Brothers and Sisters Welcome to Congregation Gems. This is a new series for inspiration and upliftment. It is particularly suitable for those persons giving talks or sermons to their congregation and brings uplifting thoughts to the listener - so bringing them closer to God. Each edition will contain short pieces which you can slot or adjust into any of your talks and sermons. All discourses are from the works of the inspiring spiritual teacher Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. Dharma SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK - I * Through all works, big and small, humanity has to be awakened. Humanity in its fullest sense is Divinity, and its perfection is Godhood. The aspirant must not forget this even for a moment. (Carya'carya II, 8) * Whatever you speak or do, Forget Him never; Keeping His name in your heart, Work, remembering it is for Him And, endlessly active, drift in bliss. (Carya'carya II, 8) * The world is a panorama of endless movement, a vast assemblage of rainbow colours. If upon seeing it, people think that they have really attained something permanent, or become intoxicated with the colours, they will make a great mistake. People are attracted to minute portions of things on this earth, and embracing them, seek the path of self-gratification. But long before they attain satisfaction, those minute portions, those colours, vanish into nothingness, leaving them in endless frustration and lamentation, like blind, headless demons. This is not a decree of God, it is the consequential law of the universe. The Supreme Cognitive Principle, which is the only knowable entity for all other beings, is the sole permanent entity. To attain something permanent, one must not run after the petty pleasures of the world. Rather, knowing that eternal Entity, that permanent Entity, to be the only goal of life, one has to propel all one's mental propensities towards Him. One must not waste one's potentialities mistaking the temporal for the eternal. All created objects are sitting in the midst of the multitude of finite things, and with the help of a finite unit mind, it is impossible, either in theory or in practice, to think of the Infinite. When the mind becomes intoxicated with the thought of the Infinite, then the finite mind transcends its own limits and loses itself in a state of endless peace. This is the highest attainment. (Namah Shiva'ya Sha'nta'ya, 134) * The innumerable structures which arise as a result of the countless vibrational undulations of the Supreme Entity, have on the one hand enlivened every step of creation with restless vitality and blissful sweetness - and on the other, given scope for the mistaken understanding of Him as many, not One. From this mistake arises all life's delicious sweetness, its spicy flavours - and also its piercing bitter scorpion stings, its heart-rending moans of grief. Hence in One we see many, in all their perfections and imperfections in all their sweetness and bitterness, all due to the special role of the sense organs. In the first stage of human life, when people notice the colourful processions of various inferential waves such as form, taste, smell, colour, touch, etc they immediately become attracted towards them. The entire universe appears to be a grand caravan of many colours: it seizes their senses and their minds rush after it, taking it to be the goal of life. In the first stage this enchanting material panorama propels people from their inner world to external life. If at that stage, someone tells them to move towards the internal world, they become irritated and annoyed. They think "Oh, I'm quite fine here!" Blending their colours with the colours of all, strolling on soft carpets of green grass, they think, "All these things are meant for me!" This material-oriented existence is the first stage of human life. At this stage, one wants to express only one thing with the whole of one's being, and that is, "I exist, only I exist." Trials and tribulations compel people to ponder deeply; sorrows inspire them to analyse the law of cause and effect. Their wounded hearts want to be soothed with a healing balm from an Entity greater than themselves. They realize then that there is a greater Entity than their little selves. Whatever might be their relation with that Entity, and whether that Entity is within their reach or not, they cherish the hope of gaining something from Him: they cry out, "Save me, protect me!" Then they change their mental tune and say, "I exist, You also exist." When this relationship of hope and fulfilment fails to remove their internal dissatisfactions, when the greenness of the external world fails to moisten the desert of their minds, when the seeds of their desires do not sprout, then they realize that they will have to go still deeper inside and the key to the solution lies deeper within. They are still within locked doors and windows; in search of the key, they move inwards, but they are unable to find it. They do not feel that they are even near a guide - far less in close association. Concentrating all their mental anguish, they begin to shed tears in their minds and, beating their heads, say to the unknown Lord of their life: I have spent my life in vain; Such a great Lord I did not worship - I lost the greatest jewel. I am indeed an unfortunate creature; I never enjoyed Even a drop of nectar Of the love of God. The Supreme Consciousness is the Supreme Cognitive Faculty; nothing is outside Him. He too feels the inner agony of despairing people in the core of His heart, and shows them the soothing path of enlightenment. Then those despairing people cry out in the exuberance of their joy, "You exist, Oh Lord, I also exist!" They continue to move into the inner world. The charming allurements of the external world no longer keep their minds in thrall. The dazzling splendour of form and colour, their glittering attraction, no longer evokes any response in the inner most recesses of their minds. The radiance of the colourful world and the effulgence of their inner life become one. Just as - Prasad says, what you were in the beginning; You will become in the end - Just as bubbles rising from the water Into the water will merge again. And further-- The pot is in the water; The water is in the pot. Water inside and outside. If the pot is broken, the waters become one - Only the wise understand this great idea. The organs' externalisation and internalisation of inferential waves from the external world then appears to be a play of illusion. The external world merges into the internal world and ultimately there remains only one Entity -- " You exist, only You exist". So it has been said, " Of all knowledge, only this remains". (Namah Shiva'ya Sha'nta'ya, 138) * The microcosmic nucleus approaches the Macrocosmic nucleus not through knowledge and action but through devotion. Then why should the people cultivate knowledge or action? They do so in order that their devotion may become more intense, not for any other reason. People don't eat pickle to fill the stomach but to whet their appetite so that they can enjoy their food more. Similarly, devotees cultivate knowledge or action not for their physical growth but to gather the strength to move on the path of devotion with greater acceleration. This movement towards the Supreme Consciousness (God) is devotion. Knowledge and action are aids and therefore knowledge and action should both be cultivated. (Nama'mi Krs'n'asundaram, 152) * People are heading towards the Supreme Consciousness through their devotion. The microcosmic point is heading towards the nuclear point of the Supreme Consciousness. The closer it comes, the more it realizes the proximity of the Macrocosmic nucleus and the more the nature of the point changes. The closer a drop of water moves towards the sun, the more it is transformed into vapour. When it nears the sun, it no longer remains a drop of water but becomes transformed into a mass of fire. Let us use a better analogy. A block of iron advances towards the sun. When it nears the sun it loses its solidarity and is converted into molten iron. It melts due to its closeness to the sun. When it comes even closer, it changes from molten iron into gaseous iron. When it comes into closest proximity to the sun it becomes one with the sun as the iron turns into a purely luminous mass. Its existence can no longer be separated from the sun. In the beginning the microcosmic point possesses only microscopic qualities. The more the spiritual aspirant advances, the more his or her qualities change. In the process, when one comes into close proximity with the Macrocosmic nucleus, one loses one's former qualities and assumes the qualities of the object of ideation. When the microcosmic point comes into close proximity to the Macrocosmic nucleus, there can no longer remain two points. They merge into one, the Macrocosmic point. The unit entity will merge with the Supreme Consciousness (God). In the end there is no dualism. Dualism cannot survive. (Nama'mi Krs'n'asundaram, 150) * The unit entities are compelled to act under the impact of two personalities. One is the small 'I' which craves to accumulate so many things, big or small, and give so many things to society. The small 'I' creates a world of its own centering around that little world of illusion wherein the small "I" is entrapped and where it considers itself to be the supreme monarch. Simultaneously, there is a larger world, the much larger world of the Supreme Consciousness, a world where the small "I" is a mere bubble. All the hopes and aspirations, all the desires and urges of that insignificant bubble residing within the vast mind of Supreme Consciousness attain supreme fulfilment only at the time when it merges itself in the main stream of the Cosmic flow. Otherwise, individual hopes and desires remain forever unfulfilled and unrealized. Human beings cherish thousands of desires in their hearts, but those desires generally remain unfulfilled because the waves of individual human desires do not maintain parallelism with the waves of the Cosmic desire. (Nama'mi Krs'n'asundaram, 41) * The movement of each and every object of the universe is in a particular way, unless redirected in some other way by a stronger mental force. But the case of human beings is different-- they have certain specialties of their own. A river moves from the mountain towards the sea, and also from the sea towards the mountain. But in the case of human minds, of human microcosms, the movement may be from the mountain towards the sea, and also from the sea towards the mountain - this is the speciality of the human mind. The objectivity of the human mind, unlike other entities of this universe, may move from subtle towards crude, or from crude to subtle. That is why it has been said, "Mind is the cause of bondage, and this very mind is also the cause of liberation, of emancipation". If the movement towards crude is encouraged, the mind - and at the same time the entire existence of the human being - will be converted into crude matter. It will be a path of negative evolution. And if the movement towards subtle is encouraged, then the entire existence will be converted either into Cosmic Mind or into Cosmic Cognitive Faculty. If the very I-feeling is surrendered at the altar of Supreme Existence, then the entire existence will become one with the Supreme Cognitive Principle - one will become omniscient and all-knowing. ("Existential Flow and Its Culminating, Point", Calcutta, 1986) * The Cosmic Nucleus is associated with microcosms and the world through His pervasive association and individual association. It is enormously difficult to be the Consciousness of the Nucleus. What is the difficulty? He must always remain associated with everything and everyone. None of His created beings should be neglected or slighted: He must associate Himself with the minds of each and everyone, listen to their thoughts and alleviate their sufferings, whether they are literate or illiterate, rich or poor. He must shoulder the responsibility for the entire creation. Then and then alone does He deserve to be the Nucleus Consciousness. He is no Cosmic Nucleus who remains in His ivory tower, indifferent to the sorrows and sufferings of the created beings, but accepting their worship. To be the Cosmic Nucleus - the Nuclear Consciousness - one has to remain associated with the created beings, both collectively and individually through pervasive association and individual association. The personal relationship with each and every individual, with every particle of dust, every drop of water, is termed pervasive association. That is, the Nucleus Consciousness is aware of your individual thoughts and feelings, your joys and sorrows and He takes suitable steps to remove your distress and afflictions. Here I deliberately used the word "suitable". It implies that He has to take steps to remove one's personal wants, sufferings and miseries without jeopardising the collective interest. For example, if the sunset is delayed for one hour for the good of one individual, it would go against the collective interest. This He cannot do. Although He cannot go against the collective interest, He is bound to pay attention to the needs and feelings of every individual. This is what is called pervasive association. (Nama'mi Krs'n'asundaram, 61) k4VOmPOKXmb1q2boE