The Story of the Guru and the Campfire

I have learned the importance of having a guru, a spiritual guide. Having a guru is better than a whole library of spiritual books. Some people read hundreds of books for years and never get the peace and happiness they seek.

There is something about the human spark, the relationship with a guru that can help a person go further on their path (or even find a path in the first place).

Once a guru has passed all your tests, it's important to put your faith in them, knowing they will instruct you in ways that are only in your best interests.

But faith can be difficult.

Following this theme, my good friend Bhavna told me this story:

Once there was a man walking through the forest at night when he came upon his guru, who was sitting alone by a fire.

The guru had no coat or blanket and was barely keeping warm with the small fire.

The man saw this and immediately walked over and gave him the blanket off his own back.

The guru thanked him. 

Then as the man turned to leave, the guru threw the blanket on the fire!

The man was awestruck, and raced over to the guru's side.

"Why would you do that? You threw my only blanket into the fire, which could have warmed either of us, and now it's destroyed! Why?"

The guru calmly looked at him and gave a simple answer.

"To test your faith." 

When I first heard this story, the pragmatic (American) Westerner in me thought, 'That's a ridiculous waste.'

But my was second thought as a person of faith on a spiritual path: 'His faith was tested and failed.'

The guru wanted to show his devotee the measure of his faith. In this case, there was very little of it.

Now that man has a choice: he can let his ego run rampant and stomp away muttering about a crazy guru burning his blanket...

...or he learn from the experience and elevate his spirituality.

And now we can check our own.

Blind to the Mortal and Transient Nature of Life - Satsang

After devotees listened to several bhajans presented so beautifully by Rajbhai, Baiji said:

“We all have been absorbed for some time listening to bhajans. Rajbhai sang bhajans with such deep devotion, feelings, and with a soothing voice that we forgot our daily lives and duties for the time being. This is a God-given opportunity to experience such closeness to our inner beings that in spite of the tensions of daily life and worldly things that are still out there, we freed ourselves from all of it by listening to captivating bhajans.

When the listener and the bhajan singer are in harmony, like when the tabla (drum) and harmonium (piano) are in rhythm, there is true joy. If the harmonium and tabla are not in sync, then it doesn’t sound pleasant. When the bhajan singer sings from the heart with devotion and when the listeners attach their minds to the singer’s devotion, then the listeners are connected to God (Parmatma). As long as we stay joined to Parmatma, even though we may have tension and stress with us, we are not affected by it. This is why our saints have said that the more we stay connected to satsang, the more we will be free from tension and stress. “Satsang” is the thing that connects you to God.

When we meet people in society, they ask us things such as, “How you are, how is your work, and how your children are?” but they don’t ask you how much you love God. 

In our worldly lives, we don’t have many opportunities to hear about Parmatma. It’s missing from our daily lives. If you bring up a conversation about spirituality and “bhakti” (prayers, devotion), people ask, “Why should we bother about all that before we are elderly?” They say when we get old, we will be sitting on the couch, and that’s the time we will be doing prayers and bhajans. People say what’s the need for doing it now in our youth because this is the time for us to have fun. The reason people say that is because they don’t know the true meaning and nature of life (that it is transient and temporary).

Every person is alive. Every person is self-involved, especially in this country. There is no time. We don’t even have time to sit and have a meal in peace. We all know that. Sometimes we are late for work, sometimes there are so many phone calls that you have to attend to them while you’re eating, and you’re often working from dusk to dawn. We don’t even take the time to form deep relationships. By fulfilling our worldly affairs and worldly relationships, we forget the one true relationship that is with us through eternity – that is our relationship with Parmatma. You all know how long worldly relationships last.

As long as your arms and legs are working, you’re able to function, earn money, and take care of your family, your family loves you for it. But once your body gets weak with age and you’re not able to provide for the family anymore, observe what happens. While your kids are getting ready for work, they’ll tell you that you’re getting in their way, why don’t you go sit down quietly. In our own home, we start to feel that we have become an inconvenience. Your kids ask you to wait until they leave, reminding you that you have the whole day free from duties. Those people for whom you have done everything, they are now telling you to sit quietly somewhere. We still do not get it that there is no one truly here for us. (We must note that we are not talking about disregarding the value and joy of worldly relationships, but that it should be done with full awareness of the temporary nature of it, and realizing the eternity of our relationship is with Parmatam.)

The amazing thing is that even though our eyes are open and see what is going on, we are not “awake”. We stay absorbed with our worldly affairs and do not understand the essence of life. When a king once asked the Swami, “What is the most incredible thing in life?” the Swami replied, “Your Majesty, it seems to me the most incredible thing in life is that we see people going by in this world with their eyes wide open. We see that upon the passing of one’s father, the children start thinking about what was left for them. They start looking for wealth and bank accounts, sometimes even before the final rituals of death are over, in fear that someone else will grab the wealth. There is still no awakening to the true nature of life. We still stay involved with worldly matters.”

Saint Kabirgee once asked, “Who is truly blind? Not the one who has lost his sight and cannot see, but the one who can see with his eyes but is still ‘blind’ to the mortal and transient nature of life and things in this world. In spite of knowing, they still have not understood it.

With all of our Karma – doing in life – where is that taking us? In which direction are we going? Why are we so busy doing things? What is the value of what we are doing? What are we trying to accomplish, and what have we achieved?”

A man rowed his boat the whole night to get to his destination by morning. He worked hard and rowed his boat diligently to get there in time; however, in the morning he found himself in the same exact place where he started. Why? He forgot to untie the rope that tied his boat to the shore.

Likewise, in life we may find ourselves in a similar situation. We work hard day and night. We try to achieve peace and happiness. But our ropes are tied to Maya like the man’s boat was tied to the shore. (Maya literally means "illusion,” or “that which exists but is constantly changing and is thus spiritually unreal,” or "the power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality"). We are searching for happiness and peace, but we are tied to things that are constantly changing and have the illusion that material things and worldly relationships will bring us peace and happiness. We may try to achieve it by practicing meditation, praying in a temple in front of statues, attending Satsang, but we find our minds are not there but somewhere else, wandering around and reminding us of our work, home, and worries.

Our saints and philosophers talk about experiences that are in three stages that we cycle through daily. In the first stage we are fully awake and see and feel everything around us. We are conscious of our bodies and see real physical objects, and our five senses are fully experiencing our awake stage. In the second stage, we are sleeping and have dreams that may include us, people we know, and places we know; and sometimes totally unknown things come in our dreams. But the next day when we wake up, we may remember most of our experiences of our dreams. On days when we are very tired, we experience the third stage where we get deep sleep. We wake up and feel well-rested and cannot recall what happened the whole night. We do not know our bodies, our friends, work, or the presence of our minds, and do not know if we are male or female. The only thing we know when we wake up is the feeling that we are well rested. In this stage we do not know that we are in deep sleep. This stage is like Samadhi. (A state of intense concentration achieved through meditation.) Samadhi is actually the fourth stage, where we achieve a state like deep sleep but while fully awake and during meditation. In this stage you are aware of your awareness, you have this feeling, and become conscious of your awareness. Basically, you are conscious of your own consciousness. When you reach the Samadhi stage it’s like having a master key that will open all doors. It's to know yourself. We think about a lot of things, but we do not think about ourselves. Who am I, what is my purpose? We worry about everything but do not spend time knowing ourselves.

If you have nice shoes you can easily walk on pebbles. But if there is weakness in the shoes and a small pebble enters your shoe, you will not be able to walk without pain. We can face challenges of life, but if we do not have inner strength we cannot face the challenges easily and will suffer. Our Saints have said that we need to be connected to our higher power to stay strong. We can face lot of things in life if we are fully charged. We can do that by connecting ourselves with the higher power. Cell phones may have many features, but they are useless if the phone is not charged.

We are advised to take flu shots to protect us from the flu virus, as our immune systems cannot fight it. But people with strong immune systems, like people from India who have developed good immunity from their lifestyles and rugged living, do not need the flu shot. We need to develop solid inner strength so that we can face outside challenges. We have to learn the right technique to use meditation as a path to develop strong inner strength. 

Lest We Forget, Here is What Love Is:

See God in All Your Guests

Gautum Baiji said:

"No matter what your beliefs or religion is, stay connected to God, Higher Power, Life Source, Energy, or whatever you want to call it. That force will guide you.

The simple truths that come from that does not require a long explanation for a receptive person. A person with this quality will get the message and adopt it just by a subtle signal.

We celebrate the birth anniversary of Saint Jalaram Bapa. His message to us is to commit ourselves to devotion and find a reason (or excuse) to do Bhakti (devotion and love of God) in spite of our busy family lives.

Jalaram Bapa, a Hindu saint, was born in the Gujarat province of India on 4 November 1799. He married at 16, and at 18 had an inspiration and went to do Yatra, a pilgrimage to holy places in India.

Usually people think to do Yatra at a much later age in life. We think we need to enjoy our lives during youth. Human life is a crown jewel of creation and it is made to enjoy fully. But what is real joy? Pleasure and worldly  enjoyment are temporary. You do not have to wait till you are old to devote to Satsang, Bhajan, and Bhakti, our path to obtain real joy. It should be part of you at any age, to live a life where humanity admires your deeds and you are remembered in admiration for generations to come.

Bapa was a family man, yet he was able to devote himself to others; he did not use an excuse like, "I do not have the time" in spite of his busy life with a family.

The life we choose is our own doing. Our duty is to face the life we have chosen. A human who crawls on his or her knees may not fall, as that may be a safe way to move; but a human who takes the risk of falling and faces life is brave. 

If you are feeling heat in the sun and want relief, you should look for shelter under a tree. In the same way, when we have difficulties, confusion, conflicts, pain, and suffering in life, there is way out: to deal with it in Bhajans, Satsang, and Bhakti.

Jalaram Bapa was married at a very young age and had to assume the responsibilities of a married man. His father made him join the family business, but there were many complaints about his son, so Bapa was sent to join his uncle’s business, but there also Bapa “failed.” The reason was his compassion for poor and saintly people. He had so much love for them that he would freely give out products to poor people or any saintly people he encountered. Obviously the owners did not like this.

Then there is the story of a man who was walking with a box of plates on his head. He was followed by a businessman. Suddenly the man with the box of plates lost his balance and dropped the box, breaking all the plates. 

Everyone who was watching gathered around. 

The businessman said, “Oh this poor man, his boss is going to get very angry that he broke all the plates, so let’s help him out,” and he gave the man ten dollars. 

The businessman encouraged the others to help him out, so they all started chipping in and giving the man money. Someone told him, “Now your boss will be happy,” and the man answered, “Yes, he will be very happy because I collected even more money than the worth of the plates.” The people said, “Oh in that case, he will be very, very happy!” 

So the man points to the businessman and says, “Look, he is very happy, because he is my boss!” 

The story illustrates that if one really wants something, one will find a way to get it. This man was able to use the goodwill of others to remedy his situation of the broken plates.

Jalaram Bapa failed in both his father’s and uncle’s businesses. This misfortune changed his life completely. God always provides an opportunity when one door closes. Bapa and his wife, Virbai, decided to go into farming. With a lot of difficulties and hard work, they made a living off the farm, but Bapa’s basic compassion for poor and needy people did not change. 

He became known as someone to go to for anyone who needed food. Jalaram Bapa saw God in all his guests, so he treated them as God. Nobody ever left hungry. Bapa and his wife’s needs were only for necessities. Anything extra they had, he donated to the community. Bapa gave food constantly to the needy. By giving, he was not losing anything, but actually gaining more in life. He was never lacking for anything.

Yet people always feel like they need more no matter how much they already have. Baiji tells a story of a typical husband and wife. They have a wedding to attend, and the wife tells her husband that she has nothing to wear. The husband points out that she has a whole closet full of clothes – occupying “his” and “her” sections -  and she says but there is nothing to wear for a wedding. The husband asks, “Then what are all these saris right here?” And the wife answers, “Everyone in society has already seen me in those.” So the husband says, “Ok how about this? Instead of buying another sari, let’s move to another community with the same rent but where no one has seen any of your saris.” There was a fight between the couple at this point!

There was once a man selling “manjan” (tooth powder to clean teeth) on the street. A customer had 25 cents – two dimes and one nickel. He was hesitant about whether or not to buy the manjan and kept rubbing the coins in his fingers trying to make up his mind. Finally he decides and says, “Here is the money. Give me manjan.” The seller says, “I can’t give you manjan anymore because the nickel in between the dimes has been defaced from all the rubbing.” The moral of the story is that if one keeps hesitating and not taking action, you will lose opportunities and energy. 

Whenever you think of a great idea, even if it’s in the middle of the night, act on the thought. Because if you don’t act on good ideas in the moment, other thoughts, especially bad thoughts, often take over and you will lose the good ideas from your head. The accumulation of acting on good ideas will only increase your assets and value in life. Nobody is born great; people become great after performing good deeds in life.

Even after nearly 200 years from the first meal served at the Jalaram Papa’s “home” to any one hungry is still functioning 24 hrs. a day and no one goes hungry who shows up to the house! That is a remarkable legacy of a great saint.

Train Your Mind For a Fulfilling Life

Karma – the sum of a person’s actions in his existence is viewed as his or her fate in the future

On Sunday November 15th, Gautum Baiji said:

"The Bhajan we sang about Lord Krishna reminds us that our ties to our spiritual source should never be broken. The love we bestow at the the feet of Lord Krishna is infinite.

We must train our minds so that the actions we take create a fulfilling life. During our life's journey, we face many difficulties.

Even the simplest act of having a glass of water requires us to get a glass, pour water, and then drink it. We have to do Karma (Karma – the sum of a person’s actions in his existence is viewed as his or her fate in future) no matter how small or big the task.

Saints have said Bhakti (dedication) is like walking on a sharp blade of a sword. It will test you immensely. One who wins a war on a battlefield is called a hero, but one who wins one’s mind is called a superhero.

A Pandit is a scholarly person who has knowledge, but Gyani is one who has a deep understanding of the wisdom and knowledge and lives accordingly. Gyani does not identify with the self or with the “I”. He is in union with the Supreme Being. When we identify ourselves with our ego – “I” - we cannot be free and cannot realize God – the truth.

One wonders why people who have obtained knowledge and listened to wisdom during Satsang (discourse) still have not seen any changes in their lives. For example, a child knows there is a shower with warm water available to clean his/her body and that this would be a good action. But when the child does not take a shower for several days despite knowing this, he/she will start to smell bad. Nobody will enjoy being around this smelly child, but if the child decides to take a shower, he/she will be clean. 

Likewise, one must obtain wisdom from Satsang and put it into practice. Without your determination and willingness to act on your knowledge, you will not benefit from Satsang.

The mind is very fickle and active. Negative thoughts are spoiling your joy and peace. This is where suffering comes from. So how do we calm the mind? No one is making us happy or unhappy. We are doing it to ourselves with our Karma and thoughts. This way, your mind can be your friend or your enemy. 

No matter what the situation, we should always stay positive. God has given us free will. The trick is to not recycle the thoughts over and over in your mind and allow them to stay active. 

Think of this another way. If someone gives you smelly garbage, would you take it home with you and keep poking at it with a stick, keeping the bad smell alive? In the same way, we should not let negative thoughts reside in our minds and keep thinking about them again and again. Meditation helps our minds remain calm and purified. Meditation also makes you mentally strong and increases your will power to act on wisdom. 

Pursue Satsang and Bhajans for a Life of Peace and Joy

Bhajan - a devotional song

Bhakti - devotion 
Satsang - a spiritual discourse or spiritual gathering
Atma Gyan - the ability to find our inner self

At Satsang, Rammurti Baiji said:

"Listening to Bhajans and understanding them can be challenging for beginners. Spiritually enlightened saints expressed their life experiences and embedded many deep meanings in the Bhajans that can be hard to grasp. Repeated listening in the company of spiritually enlightened people will slowly have an illuminating effect on you. Bhajan bhakti is that by nature.

We may wear various forms of jewelry, like gold. As beautiful and pure as it is, even gold has to be cleaned. At other times gold is melted, and it has to take heat to get the shine back and more heat will further enhance its shine, Through all this, it stays strong and can even get stronger.

Human beings similarly go through many negative and harsh experiences in life, which can actually strengthen our inner being. Saints who have obtained strong inner strength are not effected by outside events and environment. All humans have same opportunity to cultivate that.

A small child needs help to learn walking by holding our hand. But eventually he learns to walk on this own. As he grows he will learn to walk and maneuver obstacles. He does not need to hold our hand anymore. He will learn and mange his own struggles. He has obtained knowledge of walking!

In the same way, if we participate in Satsang we obtain true knowledge and enhance our inner strength so negative outside forces cannot come near us. We function without fear and are not affected. Our inner peace and purity cannot be disturbed.

At night we may see many stars in sky but when the sun appears, they all disappear. It's the same when we have the true knowledge: all small matters disappear and we are left with essential true knowledge.

After all what is life? See, the temptation of young adulthood robs our childhood. Then we spend our life accumulating wealth. Work and worry robs our youth. Then we worry about retirement and that robs our life. We typically spend our first twenty years with a big appetite and we eat large amount of "food" during these years. Then next ten years we spend enjoying and indulging in various useless activities. The next ten years we're in search of what to do to take responsibility of earning money - you may have wife and children to support. Then we start worrying and thinking about how to save money and invest so our family is taken care of. Later in life we start to struggle and life can become bothersome. Regrets, sadness and tears may become part of old age.

But we can obtain a higher power and salvage the normally painful life cycle. This is illustrated by how flour is made out of grain. They use two grinding stone wheels held by a post in the center. Grain is put in the center in an opening near the post. The grinding action of the wheels pulls the grains away from the post and gets crushed and turned into powder.

But the grain that stays close to the post and takes refuge, is saved. We also need to stay close to our “post”- our inner knowledge and truth that gives us strength so we do not get swept away like the grain that turns into powder.

We are fortunate to have an opportunity for Atma Gyan. We can change our life to peace and joy. We do not need to roam the world looking for peace and true happiness. No matter how much we try, ocean water will always taste salty. The world is full of sea water of misery and pain. If we want pure water we can take it from a river: the river of true life knowledge. This knowledge is within us. Align with God and do not deviate from it. That is our true journey.

Satsang - The Key to Happiness

Today, Gautum Baiji said:

"People say, I Want Happiness. How can they get it?

Start by removing the I. What is I? Ego. If ego is there, no matter how close you are, you can't see God.

Because I is the curtain. I is the biggest enemy. As long as the I is there, you cannot achieve your spiritual goals.

After you remove the I (the ego), you need to remove the Want, which is desire (whose non-fulfillment causes suffering).

Remove the I and the Want, and what you have left is Happiness.

Everyone says they want Happiness. But Happiness does not dwell at any permanent address.

It dwells in those who help others. Because if you help others, you do not need to ask for Happiness, Happiness automatically comes to you. You don't need to run after it.

Baiji's Satsang: Diwali

This is a special post: it's the first one featuring a Satsang from Rammurti Baiji. It was graciously translated by Manu Patel.

"During the Bhajans (spiritual songs), I was watching everyone, to see how attentively everyone was listening. Some were clapping in rhythm, and some were calmly sitting with their eyes closed. It is important that Bhajans be absorbed completely so they will touch your soul and your awareness.

Next week (Nov. 8-12) we will be celebrating Diwali. In celebration of Diwali people will do puja (worship), they will decorate their homes, clean their homes, prepare food and celebrate with family and friends.

Just as we clean our homes, we can take the opportunity to also clean our minds and hearts. We have anger, ego, bad and harmful thoughts that need to be cleaned. The way to clean our mind and heart is to listen to Bhajans and Satsang with our full attention and feeling deep within us. Diwali celebration symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair.

Something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite and eternal is our Atman (soul). The celebration of Diwali as the "victory over good and evil" refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one's true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging infinite. Diwali is the celebration of this inner light over darkness.

Anything done sincerely and with devotion and love brings good results. God looks after and thinks highly of devoted people. 

Diwali is celebrated in honor of the return of Lord Rama, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana from exile of 14 years, signifying the victory of good and the defeat of ego, hate, anger, temptations, and evil thoughts.

Once Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were walking on a path in the jungle when Rama stepped on a thorn. It caused him great pain, and Lakshmana pulled it out. Then Rama immediately urged Mother Earth to remove every single thorn from this same path and replace them with flowers because his Bharat would surely be walking the same path soon, and he did not want his beloved brother to be hurt. 

Then Mother Earth asks Lord Rama why he is so worried about Bharat. "Does he have more delicate feet than yours?" 

Lord Rama replied the thorns will not only hurt his feet, but also his heart! Why? Bharat will be heartbroken with thought that Rama and Lakshmana had just walked the path before him and would have suffered from the thorns. 

See how Bharat was a true devotee of his brothers Rama and Lakshmana? This great devotion is reflected in prayers and Bhajans for the return of Rama. 

While we're singing Bhajans, notice how we sometimes close our eyes automatically. We do that as God is within and not outside. Going within is where we have the power, awareness, love and devotion. The joy of Bhajan is pure and unmatched. Even Raja (royalty) and wealthy people always went to a remote place to experience knowledge of the Self and get blessings that wealth and power could not fulfill for them. 

Diwali is therefore a pointer for us to find real joy and peace within us by being devoted to Bhajan.

Good Job vs God Job - Ego vs Soul

I read a quote recently about the importance of "imprinting" my intention on the Universe...

Instead of seeing everything as perfect and as God intended, it seemed to suggest I should work hard to impose my view on life and the order of things.

For me it's more true to join with the Universe... to uncover my soul's intention, which is already in alignment with the Universe/God, and live into that.

"Imprinting my intention on the Universe" has ego present in the way an artist seeks recognition through desiring "immortality" in their work.

There's also a warning in the quote about absorbing other's intentions so that you're not steered off your own course.

Of course we wouldn't want to lose ourselves to another's will (except God's!)...

But what if you give your life to serving others, and it's not about you at all? You'd probably engage with them energetically to offer whatever assistance they needed for the next step in their journey.

If I ever think it's about me, then it's just my ego talking. Good reminder.