Baiji Satsang: Be Intentional, or the River Will Take You

At Sunday satsang, Gautum baiji also said:

"When in pain, do we remember to address the God within us?

Just as a candle flame always goes up no matter which way you tilt it, the same can be said for the spirit inside of us, no matter what is happening with us.

Always try to connect with the holy power.

And we must ask ourselves, 'What is our goal in life? Where am I going?'

Maybe the answer is 'I don't know. I don't think like that.'

If we don't know where we're going, we will certainly get to a place we didn't ask for.

The Princess and Her Necklace

During satsang today, Gautum Baiji said:

"You can purify your body with water. 

You can purify your mind with truth.

You can purify your intellect by knowledge.

You can purify your knowledge with understanding. And everything depends on our understanding.

Once there was a queen who enjoyed spending time in her garden. One day she returned to the palace to find that her necklace was missing from her neck. It must have broken and fallen in the garden.

The necklace was extremely valuable, and the queen knew the king would be angry if he knew it was missing, so she sent her maid to go find it.

But the maid came back empty-handed, so the queen knew she had to tell the king.

When the king heard the news, he wasted no time. He assembled all of his guards, his field workers, his kitchen staff and even some peasants to immediately go through the garden and search plant by plant, bush by bush for the necklace. 

But they searched all day and found nothing. So the king ordered everyone to look harder.

Finally a peasant saw something sparkly in a pond. He yelled to another peasant, 'I think that's the necklace!'

'Well go get it!' said the other peasant. So the first one waded into the water to retrieve it.

But for some reason, he's not able to grasp it, no matter what he does.

The king himself is summoned to the pond. He watches as more of his men go into the water and also fail to obtain the necklace they can all clearly see! They are perplexed and frustrated by this. 

An old wise man wandered by and learned of their dilemma. He thought for a moment and said:

'This reminds me of something that happened to me as a boy. I would go outside with my mother, look up at the moon and say "I want the moon! Can you give it to me?" She said yes, and brought me a bucket full of water. In it I could clearly see the moon reflected in the water.'

Then everyone looked down at the pond and realized they were looking at a reflection. They looked up and there, on a branch in a nearby tree, hung the beautiful necklace.

All scriptures are a reflection of truth, an indication. We tend to only chase the reflection.

If our body is a temple of God, and if we want to see the light, where else do we need to go than within? 

Someone who goes within, who meditates, might be asked by another, "Why go within? What's wrong with going to church or temple for wisdom and light? What's the difference between the inside vs. the outside?"

The answer is the difference between the reflection and the necklace, the map versus the treasure. An idea and the truth.

Taming the Ghost - A Baiji Story

The baiji (nun) said: "Once there was a man who was very angry because he had too much work to do at home, too many chores for just one person. He always fell behind and never got any help, and this made him very frustrated.

So one day, he prayed to the gods for help.

And his prayer was answered, but in a way he did not expect:

A ghost appeared, ready to do his bidding. He was a working ghost, because he asked, 'What should I do?'

'Clean my house," the man said, and the ghost cleaned the house. This pleased the man.

'What should I do now?' the ghost asked.

'Plow my field and plant my crops!'

So the ghost did that, and he was soon asking the man for his next duty.

'Milk the cows and feed all the animals.' On and on, the ghost asked and did as he was told.

Too well. Soon, there was nothing left to do, but the ghost kept coming.

'What should I do now?!'

'Um, clean the house again.' The ghost did that, and continued haunting the man night and day for more chores. He was unrelenting, and the man was being driven crazy.

So he ran to his guru for advice.

The guru nodded and gave his best counsel: 'In front of your house, tell him to build a larger pillar. When that is complete, tell the ghost to climb up and down the pillar.'

'For how long?'

'Until you give him new instructions.'

The man saw the genius in this and went right home to build the pillar, solving the problem of the nagging ghost.

The same is true with our minds. For us to get any true freedom, the mind and all of its energy and drive must be tamed and set to the side through simple meditation. It can be done with practice.

If we do not do this and allow our 'monkey mind' to rule - we will not know true peace. We will even think that we 'are' our minds when who we are is so much more vast.

The Greatest Gift God Has Given Us - Baiji's Satsang

Mahatma Gautum Baiji did her satsang this Sunday almost entirely in English. Here it is, paraphrased:

Yoga actually comes from yuj, to unite with our self.

So when we do that - when we practice yoga and unite with our selves - we tend to naturally experience questions like "Why are we living?"

Why are we living?

To achieve something.

Obtaining material things? No, we know there is more. So what do we really want to achieve?

Peace.

When we're missing peace, the mind is upset. Without peace, everything else - especially the material things - are useless.

And nobody is selling peace...

Cell phones can do many amazing things. They can make calls, give directions, bring you news, etc. But they won't do any of those things if you don't charge it.

But when you get home at night and are ready to charge it, do you merely set it on top of the charger without plugging it in? No - you must connect it.

In the same way, we cannot find peace outside of ourselves. We must connect to it.

If I say, "God is in my heart..." Is my heart in a temple? Is my heart in a church?

God is in my heart, which is inside of me. (The word yoga itself refers to linking with God.)

So we might then ask ourselves, what is God?

God is energy. Think of electricity. It's not a bulb, but it can light up a room. It's not the air conditioner, but it can cool the room, or heat the room through a heating unit.

Once we realize God is within our heart all the time, we will understand that we need nothing else. This is peace.

But we need the eye to see it.

If you have a mound of sugar and sand mixed together, an ant will always know where the sugar is - such is his ability to focus.

A magnifying glass can burn paper because of its ability to focus on it.

Once we realize that God is within our heart all the time, we will need nothing else.

Without it, we are wasting our life...

The ability to be still and go inside to experience this - to meditate - is the greatest gift God has given us.

In the Bagavad-Gita, it is the technique that Krishna gave to Arjuna.

And yet if someone says "Let's go to a movie," we're ready, but if someone says "Let's meditate for fifteen minutes," we're suddenly too tired. Or busy.

We can have a healthy body, but a sick mind from no meditation and too many worldly distractions helps no one.

If you have a boat in the water, you are fine. But if too much water gets in the boat, you will sink. The same with too much of the world...

With meditation, we can get whatever we want. And what do we want most?

Peace.

 

A Great To-Do List

Start With the Thoughts

Now here

We Need More Gardeners

What a different world it would be...

From crime to mental health issues, homelessness. From students to office and factory workers.

And especially the raising of our children.

"When a flower doesn't bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower" is a statement that empowers us. It doesn't just state a problem - the solution itself is embedded.

And because it's an empowering statement, it doesn't make us victims.

It shifts our perspective and puts us in the driver's seat. That's why I shared it.

Thanks to Alexander den Heijer.

Amen

Let the Light Out

To the Point

We Are Like the Rain - Baiji's Satsang

On Sunday, the baiji said:

What our life becomes... who we become... is largely due to the people we surround ourselves with.

In this way we are like water, which can find itself in many places, and become many different things.

The water that falls from the sky as rain and lands on dirt becomes mud.

The rain that falls into the ocean helps create the pearls found in clams.

Some rain will land on banana leaves and create camphor.*

And without water for the snake, there would be no venom.

Unlike the animals and insects, we are conscious creatures who can direct our lives and choose where we will land.

*A highly regarded waxy flammable solid with an aromatic odor used in cooking and spiritual services 

We Only Have the Capacity For So Much Flux

Why is Ganesh Represented as an Elephant?

Here's a relatively short answer to Ganesh's (or Lord Ganesha's) appearance:

"The ancient sages, in their infinite wisdom, have designed Hindu deities with specific Vedantic attributes in mind.

Lord Ganesha, also called Ganapati or Vinayaka, is presented in the form of a human body with the head of an elephant. This blend of human and animal parts is a symbolic representation of a perfect human being, as conceived by Hindu sages. His head symbolizes wisdom, understanding, and a discriminating intellect that one must possess to attain perfection in life. By worshipping Ganesha, a Hindu seeks God's blessings for achieving success in one's endeavors in the physical world and for attaining perfection thereafter."

And this:

"Lord Ganesha, popularly known and easily recognized as the Elephant-God, is one of the most important deities of the Hindu pantheon. Before every undertaking, be it laying of the foundation of a house, or opening of a store or beginning any other work, Lord Ganesha is first worshipped so at to invoke his blessings. Ganesha has many names. The main ones are Ganapati (lord of the ganas, or attendants), Vighneshwara (controller of all obstacles), Vinayaka (the prominent leader), Gajaanana (elephant-faced), Lambodara (pendant-bellied), and Ekdanta (having one tusk)."

Seeking Union

This Love is Rare

Yin and Yang

Do yoga and be okay with all of it.

Don't Disturb Your Mind With Seeking

to be simple

Rinse and Repeat