Would You Allow a Mahatma to Wash Your Dirty Dish?

Satsang by Gautam Baiji

I want to share this with you - last week a bhajan singer came to the ashram. Dada (the tabla player) brought him along.

He was a very good classical singer. He sang so many nice bhajans here... and that guy was down to earth! He was so good.

He was here during lunch and I told him there was food ready, that he could join us if he wanted to. He said, "I already ate lunch, but I will have tea."

So I served him tea.

Afterwards, when he got up to leave, I also got up and started to pick up the plates and cups and everything...*

He said, "No no, please don't pick up my plate and cup."

I said, "No, it's okay, I can wash them."

He said, "I don't want to give them to you because my guru taught me not to give up a chance to do seva. Why should I give anyone, especially a Mahatma! - my dirty dishes? How can you think that?"

He's here, but still he remembers his guru! This is a small thing, not a big thing, but by that we can learn. There are a few things we cannot teach you directly,** but there are few things we can learn and accept.***

I feel so good about his guru. The guru may not have said, "Don't give up your dirty dishes." But he taught him well, and that even the small things matter.


* As a public place, they keep the kitchen very clean and wash any dishes immediately.

** The Mahatmas devote their lives to serving others, and yet they are so treasured as living saints that true devotees don't allow them to do very much work for them - they would do anything to help with their burden. Which is good, because they don't like to ask for help - they are the ones devoted to helping others, right - how can they ask? They are sooo busy - to run an ashram 24 hours a day, 7 days a week demands they receive and meet with visitors; take phone calls around the clock, frequently to counsel people; plan their satsangs; prepare meals; clean, clean, clean; lead yoga and meditation classes; plan future events; and much, much more, just to enrich our lives. Most devotees consider it an honor to be able to help in any way possible (seva).

*** No one has to do anything. This is simply for those who see the value in devotion and seva and its role in helping us conquer our ego and get closer to God. 

Should We Change?

Satsang by Gautam Baiji

"Like Vibhisina, who was the greatest devotee of Lord Rama, sometimes we think that when we keep good company, that's enough for us to get changed and do good things.

But sometimes our samskaras (our psychological imprint; our nature) don't let us change. A person could be listening to satsang for many, many years but if you look at him or her, the person is the same! There's no change.

Who's fault is that? The Mahatma's? The ashram's? Or the person's fault?

Sometimes the kids fight with the parents, or hear the parents fighting with each other, and then ask their parents, "What did you learn from the ashram? Why are you fighting so much?"

The secret? Only fight when you're alone - don't let the kids hear!

What if your son was going to school for a long time and still didn't know his abc's? What happens?

Questions arise in your mind. "I'm sending him every day to school, but still he is not learning his abc's. Something is wrong there!"

Maybe the kid cannot hear. Maybe he cannot see, or isn't giving attention to it...

Either you will come up with the solution to the learning problem, or you will let it go, saying, "Oh, that's fine. My duty is just to feed him, clothe him, give him supplies, that's it."

What would you do?

You will try to find out the problem.

You will try to make it better.

It's the same with us who attend satsang again and again.

(We must be diligent and willing to face the Truth of our weaknesses to get liberation. Who's going to do it for us if we won't?)

Wonderful Music and a Thousand Acts of Kindness

As the sun went down and the air cooled, the musicians at the Hindustani Classical Concert yesterday at Divine Art of Yoga Center performed music that transported you, even transformed you...

But behind the scenes, dozens of volunteers performed a thousand acts of kindness to help make the event happen.

With the inspiration of Mahatma Rammurti Baiji and Mahatma Gautam Baiji, a crew of devotees generously donated their time and resources to cook delicious homemade Indian food, set up chairs and tables, facilitate parking, and more, all for a good cause: proceeds would go to the ashram in Kathmandu for orphans and the elderly. We all worked together as one. 

Aside from meditation, I don't know any better way to experience oneness than working together with an exceptional group of people to create such an experience for 350 people. Seva is giving, but it's also a gift we give yourselves for our own spiritual path.

If God is love, then we surely experienced both for the duration of the event.

- Scott Ware

God Gives You 24 Hours a Day - What Will You Do With Them?

Krishna in the Gita said, “If someone puts poison in your mouth, there is a chance to cure that. But if someone puts poison in your ear, there is no medicine for that.” So save your ears!

Poison can come from anywhere – negativity comes so fast, you don’t have to chase it down. It comes without asking.

How can we deal with these things (that threaten to distract us from our path)? The laziest and easiest way is to get satsang. Nowadays there are hundreds of mahatmas on youtube, so you can listen on your phone. Here you cannot turn it off, but with your phone, it’s easy.

So because it’s so easy, you can’t say, “I wanted to listen to satsang, but I didn’t have time.” God gives you 24 hours a day. It’s up to you how much of that time you’ll spend on yourself. Then you might even start singing bhajans!

When you have a good thought, it’s good to share it. Because if you have one dollar, some people might say “Give it to others.” What is left? Nothing, right?

But if you have one good thought, and you are sharing it with other people, what happens? You still have it – nobody can take it away.

While we are sitting here (in satsang) it’s up to you, you can think whatever you want. If you want, you think, “Oh my God, why do we come here? The baiji, she takes too much time. We get bored, we’re yawning, she never keeps track of the time.”

You can think that, or you can think, “We are so lucky. By the grace of God we get the opportunity to hear a good satsang. Our mind is not wandering here and there; we are able to keep our mind steadily in place.”

It’s up to you what perspective to take.

(to be continued)

Don't Be a Slave to Your Mind and Maya

Satsang by Gautam Baiji

Once we get knowledge, why do we still need spiritual instruction (satsang)?

When you see a farmer sow the seeds, we know his work is not finished.

He goes over and over his crops. He keeps an eye on them.

When weeds come up, he uproots them. Why? To protect the plants.

Satsang means the company of truth. How can we get that?

First we have to know what is truth and what is not truth.

Our saints say, "Truth is permanent." We cannot change it. Truth in invincible; it cannot be destroyed.

So we look at the world and ask, "What is permanent and invincible?"

Our body is always changing. Our house is always changing. Our mind and thoughts change. Everything in the world changes.

Except soul. Spirit.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says you cannot destroy the soul. You cannot burn it, it cannot get wet, it's invincible.

How can we realize that?

That's why great souls came into this world, to tell us: "Know thyself."

We have to learn who we are and understand why we came here.

What is the goal of our life?

The human body is the crown of creation. Why?

Because we have great potential.

To earn lots of money? Retire when we get older? Then what?

To get peace. Salvation. Liberation from... what?

What is binding us? Who is holding us?

Our saints say we won't get moksha until we get liberation.

Then maya, the illusion, is binding us, we say.

Once a guru saw a man walking while holding a rope attached to a cow. He said to his disciple, "Look at this. Who is bound to whom?"


The disciple said, "Simple. The cow is in bondage to the man. That's why he's attached to the rope."

"No," the guru said, "The person is in bondage to the cow. Why? Because if the person drops the rope, the cow will run away. Then the man will run after the cow. The cow doesn't need the person, but the person needs the cow."

The same thing with maya. Sometimes we say, "Maya is the bondage, Maya is binding us." Maya is not binding our mind, it's binding us.

That's why Krishna told Arjuna, "I don't need anything from you. Just give me your mind. If your mind is here, everything is here. If it's not, not matter how much I scream my discourse, you will go home and not remember anything. "I was there, but my mind was not there."

Our mind binds us. The mind is our friend and our enemy. 

How?

The mind is like a ladder. It can help us go up, or it can help us go down.

If you go upstairs, you can see far. If you go down, you can only see the basement. The walls, nothing else.

When is the mind our enemy? When it goes with worldly things. "Oh, that person is like this, that thing is like that, etc." All negative thoughts come. Our mind's tendency is to go downward, like water.

When is the mind our friend? When we allow satsang to elevate us.

Our parents and society taught us how to behave, but not how to think. Satsang teaches us that.

What is Your Heart Saying?

Satsang by Gautam Baiji

How can we make the right choices in life?

When you see a small child or baby, maybe one or two years old, whatever comes into his hands makes it into his mouth. He doesn't care if it's a pen, or paper, whether it's edible or not.

Pen and paper are not edible, but he doesn't know that. Whether it's good for him or not, he doesn't know. 

The same baby, when he's four or five years old, he never tries to do that anymore.

Why?

He has knowledge of what he should eat and not eat. Even if you try to force him, or say, "This pencil is so good and colorful" but no, he knows this is a thing he should not eat.

The same applies when we ask ourselves if this or that karma is good for us or bad for us.

We know if we do the right thing, we'll get happiness, and if we do the wrong thing, we will not get happiness.

How can we get happiness? We need the knowledge of what is good and bad.

How? Check your heart. What is your heart saying?

Our intuition will tell us what words to use, what foods to eat. If we have a sugar problem, or high blood pressure, or a cholesterol problem, and you are eating fried food a lot, you are enjoying it but your inner voice is saying, "Careful, okay? Don't each too much of this." 

But your senses are saying, "No no, it's okay now. Tonight I will walk for two miles or three miles. Just enjoy the kachori, enjoy the pakora... and what happens? We are ignoring the inner voice who knows.

Why? Because we are so involved with the crowd, we don't hear the voice.

We have a small clock here. When it's quiet here, you can hear and even feel the TOCK TOCK TOCK like somebody is cutting wood! If you are sitting here peacefully, it is so loud. 

Now we can't hear anything because there is too much outside noise.

The same way: when we get too involved with the worldly things, with our senses, we can't hear what our soul is saying. We ignore it. And again and again, we get pain and sorrows. 

So how can we get rid of the obstacles? 

(to be continued)