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Articles
Discourse of Sadguru Sri Nannagaru at Muramalla
20th January 2002
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My dear Kiths & Kins in Self,
The Lord said, 'It is your own mind which elevates you or makes you fall'. Prana together with mind is called Jiva. The guards as well as the drivers are needs to run a train. For the maintenance of the body the prana (breathing) and mind are both necessary. You will all get liberated, no doubt, but you must have devotion and the contact of saints.
If we think a small thought negligible it will grow and become uncontrollable and it will be the cause of innumerable births. So, we must be careful about the smallest evil thought. You should not make an enemy of the mind but make it a good friend. We go to a doctor if our body is suffering, but we are neglecting the evil thought that raise in the mind. We are not trying to remove evil thoughts. If the mind is in our control it does not matter even if the whole village is against us, say saints.
How have they become saints? Purity and concentration of the mind are cause of their sainthood. When we build a house we would like to have good ventilation in all parts of the house likewise we must see that only good thoughts rise in the mind. Make good friendships. Go the end of the worlds for the contact of a saint, said Einstein.
Whenever the mind becomes extrovert bring it back and make it introvert and center it on the Self. Do not be afraid whatever the cause of this extroversion with practice and renunciation bring back the mind to the Self. Renunciation does not let the mind run after worldly matter and practice makes remembrance of the Self more and more steady. If renunciation is complete the mind does not waver at all.
Everybody hankers for peace and happiness. We usually think they are somewhere outside of us, but they are in
our own hearts. At first we must decide for ourselves that happiness is only in our hearts. All the pleasure that we
get through outer objects and external happenings will, in the course of time, bring us only pain and sorrow.
When we have understood that there is no real happiness in creation, we will try to search for it in ourselves,
our own hearts. We search for it where it is not and do not search for it where it really exists. This search will
never end even for umpteen lives. If you are searching in the proper place, you may find it atleast in the next birth.
You will realize the futility of your search for happiness in external phenomena, only when you find it a mirage. So
a wise person learns by the experience of others and trusts in the scriptural word and God and advances. That which
is eternal is called the Truth. If you get any pleasure out of something, which is not true, eternal and the absolute, you will have to reap the unhappy consequences in the end. It is the law.
God himself is in our hearts. We think this body is our Self and the Truth. After a few days it ceases to
exist. All these bodies are dream pictures. They are as usual as the dream bodies. Because you do not know the Truth
you think you are the body and it is all in all to you. You get elated when someone praises this body and sad when
you are deride. The ego gets its food from this corpse of a body. You are the deathless Self but in your misconception you feel that the perishable body is yourself. You think that the body is the Self, the Truth.
This is Maya please understand this point. To think the body is Self, is Maya you think the body is the Self because you do not know that you are in fact Self. So if you want to get out of the Maze of this Maya you have to surender to the Lord and keep the mind always at his feet. Maya is in the hands of God. We are in the hands of Maya. So if we surrender to God who is the Master of Maya, it will give way to us.
Here there a thousand people. All the minds of the people do not run to the same object. The thousand minds
run to thousand objects. According to the tendencies of each person that particular minds runs towards a
particular object. Wherever the mind runs to, we have to catch hold of it and drag it back towards God, Self and meditate. Never give up meditaion of the Self and God, when the God thought increases the attraction of mundane things decreases and finally dies. The mind can never be on two things simultaneously. So it has to run either to God or to mundane objects.
Nobody will point out to us that we are not thinking of God. The God-oriented mind gets liberated while the
object oriented minds binds itself. So taking a mantra of your ishta devata(Personal God) and repeating it stills the
mind. All this creation is nothing but conglomeration of thoughts. The absolute reality, Brahman, has no thoughts. Till we realize this some thought or other chases us. Bhagavan said that there would be nothing else to give up if you just give thoughts.
Sri Krishna says that both likes and dislikes draw the mind outwards. To control them is very difficult.
Hence he was continuously warming as against them all through the Gita. The mind, which is caught in the meshes of
these, is the impure mind. Instead of withdrawing the mind to where bliss is you are running after miracles.
They are as unreal as the mind. If you here and there attracted by miracles the mind wil not look inside. You wil not get liberated. If I make a corpse talk, you will be greatly surprised and extol my greatness. Well if a corpse speaks? What do we gain by hearing it, when you do not have peace & bliss in your heart? Do not let your mind run after such paltry things. Knowledge is the greatest and noblest acquirement. So keep that as your goal.
Never let your mind be attracted by something other than knowledge, said Bhagavan. If do not think that unless you desire for knowledge it will not reveal itself. It will come if it is in your prarabdha. If it is not there you will not get it even if you desire.
A devotee asked Bhagavan 'I have been hearing and practicing since 20 years. I am not getting any experiences. Neither do I get any powers but I now that I am in this body'.
Bhagavan said - 'Actually there is no inside or outside. Because of this identity with the body, this concept rises just because we think that the body itself the Self. For him who has realized the Self there is no dual feeling like inside, outside, left, right, above and below. The subtly, the clue is this. When the thought of 'I' rises up all other thought start pouring in. He(ego) is the leader. Kill him first and the others will die for themselves. The release from the first thought 'I' (ego) is liberation or Moksha or peace'.
We act differently when situations are suitable and unsuitable, in happiness and sorrow. If you have strong faith in the existence of Eswar, the Lord, you wil get 50% marks, in conducive or non-conducive situations your mind is steady.
Bhagavan used to say 'your mind does not stop moving and my mind does not move at all' so when the mind becomes pure, holy and one-pointed it will become the Self. Whatever exists is Brahman and everything else is only shadow. Only the Lord exists. These jivas, bodies and planes are all just shadows. When we look into a mirror the reflection is only our own face. All the external phenomena are reflection of us. But the cause of the endless diversity is the misconception that we are the bodies. That which comes in the way of realization has to be mercilessly thrown away. Sometime back the American President Bush said that he would look into a mirror only just after bath to comb his hair and no other time because it a sheer waste of time. Some people spend enormous time bathing and looking into mirror.
Sankaracharya said once - Thinking that the body all and all and taking care of the body all the time will
never liberate us. It is like trusting a crocodile to cross a river.
All bodies are shadows. So when you look at others do not look at their faces or their qualities and minds, but the consciousness in them, because only the Lord manifests himself as those forms. To look at the Lord in each and every one is conductive to liberation. We must understand this. Subtlety of intellect is needed for it.
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We trust evil and distrust goodness because our own minds are not pure. We do not give our ears to Godly talks but avidly hear gossip. All our thoughts are not divine and do not arise out of universal love. Krishna in variety of ways tried to remove these qualities of the jiva - 'Glorify me, meditate on me. Do not give me that which you do not like. Give me whatever you like and be contented. If you give me anything, which is useless, you will not be contended'. People search for useless things when they give to servants. So it is better to give only good things to me and become contented. How long are you going to do such useless things? Whom are you going to cheat? You may be able to cheat the world but not God, because he is all pervading in us and knows our thoughts even before they take a shape.
He knows our future lives also. Lord Krishna tels Arjuna that Arjuna does not know that may lives have passed before for both of them, but He knows all of them. But the life of the Lord is not like ours. Our lives are the results of our own actions in the previous birth but the lord takes up a body out of his own free wil. He is born to redeem mankind, but we are bord to work out our karma. Sri Krishna knew that he wes not the body all the time. Suppose one is born as a Pig in the next birth. He thinks he is the body of the Pig. We get identified with the body that we are born in. If it a body of woman or man we feel we are that body. This is avidya or ignorance. These are illusory bodies and we think these bodies are the Self. We are missing the goal here, because of this wrong thinking we are missing our true Self, which is always in us. We do not even start sadhana understanding this thoroughly. If you know that you are Self and not the body only then you will start sadhana. To think non-existing as Truth and the existing as untruth is Maya. We do not start sadhana as long and this wrong thinking persists.
Some people may have clairvoyance; some one else may see thinkgs at a distance. But wat does it avail you? There is the telephone and T.V. If you do not know what you are and what are you doing to do with there powers? You are missing the goal of the ultimate Truth. If you send your son to fetch something from the shop and the fellow goes on looking at something and delays on the road, you feel very sad at his inattentiveness. Just like you God also feels sad at our waywardness. We have come here to know ourselves but we are just wasting a lifetime with useless ass
Sri Krishna exhorts us to mediate on this form, sing his names glorify him or atleast offer him that which is dear to him. That means that we have to do the duty. He has assigned to us even if we have no inclination for it. Then we will be fit for his grace. If we get the grace of the Lord it is as easy to get Libreration as buying anything we want to if we have lots of money in our hands. So remember that miraculous power are as false as the body and mind. Do not waste your time by buying for these powers. Even if your mind is drawn to them do not let it go but control it.
This place Muramalla will not become Varanasi just by your thought. So differentiate between the 'I' and non 'I'. Separate them and know that the perishable 'non I' is not the 'I', the Self. You are not the body, the mind, or those things comprehensible by the mind. The Truth is not comprehensible to the mind says the Veda. So the Truth, the Self is effulgent in the place where the mind subsides. So concentrate on remembrance of God. You mind should run around God and actions should be God oriented. By and by you will receive God's grace and Maya will make way for you and you will get liberated.
A devotee asked Bhagavan - 'My mind runs after outer objects you are asking me to withhold it and draw it back. It does not come back what is the method of controlling it?'
Bhagavan said 'Mind is like a bull used to graze in other people's property. If you tie it to a tree and give it the some grace continuously it will stop going out like this when we taste the bliss of the Self the mind does not go after out objects. Those who posses the qualities of the Jiva, are all 'Pasus'(Cattle) and God is parupaty (Master of the Cattle). If we surrender to him al the qualities will be destroyed. Bliss is in the heart. If you understand this and have a little taste of it the mind will automaticaly be controlled'.
Mind means a (conglomeration) - bundle of various thoughts. The identification with the body is the primary thought and all other thoughts follow it. Suppose you get angry now you start analyzing it. Anger is not I. Who am this I who got angry? That 'I' is the ego when the ego is there all else are there when there is not ego nothing exist. This whole universe is standing on this one pillar called the ego or the 'I'. You just doubt its existsence, shake it and the who universe collapses.
Come out of this clutches of the ego. There is only you and nothing else. If the primary thought is destroyed, we will be wondering why we do not feel sad these days. Even if we desire to be sad, sorrow will not come near you. If 'I' thought gets diluted gradually bliss from the heart wells up. Some people cannot bear either pleasure or pain. But we have to learn to bear it, so that the primary 'I' will subside.
However big the sun is we put our small hand to cover the eye. Just like this the Brahman, which is the support of the creation and us, is in our own hearts. It pervades everything. But, primary 'I' will not let us cognize this Truth. If you just put this 'I' aside, there is only Brahman, nothing else. Then there will be neither inside not outside. Why then does Krishna tell us these false words? It is because he wants to make us go beyond the Maya only when two hands are joined we clap or do namaskara. To get Self-knowledge there must two things grace and effort. This is not a problem to be put before a court. It is your own problem you yourself must solve it. None else can do it for you.
Bhagavan's friend Rangan told him that Bhagavan himself has to make the effort to liberate him. Bhagavan said that he would, of course, make the effort but Rangan himself has to gulp the food that is put into his mouth.
You say you have quite many desires. Whose desires are they? Mine, you may say. But who is the 'I' that says that? Analyze the source o that 'I'. That is the leader of al thoughts. When the Chief of the army is killed automaticaly all the army will die. Recently in the parliament six people came to kill the Ministers of the parliament. In the skirmish between the terrorists and the Delhi Police, the leader of the terrorists died at the hands of the Police. All the other members of the group were confused and so surrendered to the Police and died. Just in this way when the most important primary thought 'I' dies all other thoughts will get scattered and die.
So if you destroy the primary thought there will be no more any desires. Bhagavan says that for the person who stand diagnosing that thought, the merit that accrues through, worship, japa, study and preaching, building temples and schools and digging wells for common use will automaticaly accrues. The merits of whatever good actions people do will accrue to the person who meditates on the Self. He need not worry that he could not do any of these meritorious acts. He is going beyond Maya.
Hence the most important thing to be done is meditat9ion of the Self. A man who has a body gets a disease. He who has body can never get a disease. If you are destroying the primary thought 'I' you have niether merit nor demerit. For such a one there is not dharma or adharma or Maya. This analysis is so great. You must keep Self-knowledge only as your goal;' sometimes you may slip from this ideal but always aim high for Liberation. Even if you slip get up again and do sadhana. It cannot be done without fire. So also without knowledge, Liberation cannot be attained. Sometimes we think we are able to do sadhana that is also a thought shove it off and start the search again go ahead with Jnana as your goal.
Suppose a couple quarrels on some point. To release from the tension they go to a movie. As soon as they come how the quarrel is still there to welcome them, because the main issue has not been sorted out. The main problem of the primary 'I' has to be solved first. The main problem will not be solved, till the identification with the body remains as it is.
Bhagavan asks you repeatedly to search out the place where this primary I starts because when this ego dies there is the ocean of bliss at the same place. When you reach this pint you yourself will become that bliss and peace. This becomes possible when the sahasrara(Head) becomes purified. That man enjoys the effulgence, the ocean of peace and bliss when you are in this bliss those that look at you, your own people will be jealous of you. When you are progressing on any field your own people are the first to be come your enemies. To achive your goal you have to bear all these things otherwise you will be in the same old position without any progress. When this bliss comes forth from your heart like Godavari river in spate and surmerges you. This is so great that you would not like to have anything else. Bhagavan used to say, 'If the trimurti's come to give me darshan I would ask them as a boon never to come again!
The glory of Self-experience is that great. The Trimurtis are not the pure Truth; they are only Gods to be worshipped. They also are Self. When we realize they also become part and parcel of us. When you are in the bliss even if the Trimurtis happen to appear you would not like to see them at all. Bhagavan's sole purpose is to drive your to that experience.
We are not goats and sheep. We are birthless and deathless. We are sons of immortality; we are born here to attain immortality.
The egoism is malefic. Doctors will not tell you to go to another doctor if they cannot diagnose your trouble. Only when your condition is extremely critical they will ask you to colsult some other doctor. But as you are being taken to that doctor you die on the way. This is the quality of Ahamkara. One in a hundred will be a conscientious doctor. M.L.A.'s are also of this type. They declare that they attribute to themselves the construction of a bridge, which someone else has done. We have to agree to that assertion because he will not co-operate otherwise. He will obstruct the solution of our problems. We have to salute some people not because they help us but to that they may not impede on interests. So this whole world is ego-ridden. This is the blatant Truth. Respect and disrespect are all the imagination of the ego. You have to cross this gate(ego) to attain liberation. When you got rid of this ego sense only your sahasrara will be purified. Then the ocean of bliss from your heart rises up and submerges you.
Devotee asks, "I am able to meditate when the conditions at my home are agreeable. When someone is shouting at me I cannot meditate".
When one is in satwaguna one can meditate peacefuly. When in Rajoguna one cannot meditate easily. So meditate for a longer time when you are in Satwaguna. If you try to meditate when Rajo and Tamo Gunas are in the ascending it will be like cycling against a strong wind. During the ascendancy of the satwaguna your meditation gets stronger and you will understand the Truth easily.
Some people prefer only physical pleasures. They are not attracted to mental hapiness. Some people can be very happy even when their bodies are suffering. We cannot go as deep as that. We prefer physical beauty to mental purity. What love can emanate from egotism? When one is steeped in egoism only bad smell will be coming out all through life. Egotism does not love Only a Jnani loves us.
Devotee asks-Is there any way out of the influence on me of the incidents at home? Bhagavan said "If you get out of the identification with the body household disturbances wil not have any effect on you?.
The influence of the incidents affects themind. But, when you have not mind at all were is any trouble for you? The three qualities Satwa, Rajas and Tamas rotate in sequence all through the day. The whole Maya lies in these qualities. Your mood change every time there is a change of quality.
We feel lazy when Tamoguna is in the ascendant. In that state it is enough if we have god food and sleep. The man in the influence of Rajoguna will have endless activities. He wants always to do something in loss or gain. He who has satwaguna predominantly does whatever he has to do, talks only what is necessary and spends his spare time in acquiring knowledge. He who posses satwa only becomes a seeker, becomes he never abuses anybody, is not disturbed by anybody's abuse, never praises anybody and is not elated by praise. Whatever he does, worship or work his whole attention is on acquiring knowledge. So try to put down Rajas and Tamas and improve Satwaguna.
Satwa is also a quality it takes you nearer to God and stands aside. When you have acquired this quality you mind, gets strength and steadiness so that it will not be buffeted by adverse winds you will be steady in your search and get what is to be got the good. Satwaguna is not at your back and cal. During the rotation of the gunas you must catch hold of the satwaguna and extend the time of its stay. That also is sadhana.
Never give up the search for Truth. Even though it is nearest to your heart it cannot be got without search. You have been searching for it ourside for innemerable lives and wasted enormous time. The ocean of knowledge is within search where it is and you are sure to get it. All your past lives have become a lot of zeroes without a number. The search and effort for the Supreme is the only profitable thing you can do. All other work is a waste of time and unnecessary bother. But vigilant whether the mind is progressing towards its source.
If you achieve something without rooting out the primary thought, you will be just cutting down the branches of the tree. The rot is still there and in conductive circumstances the ree with all its brnaches sprouts up and before. So you must beat the serpent on its head, not just beat about the bush. You myst constantly pt down, rout out the primary thought. Till it dies you cannot get knowledge. There is permanent peace. Without destroying this primary thought whatever sadhana you do is sheer waste like the progress of the bullock tied to an oil-press you will be going tound and round and come to the same point the primary thought 'I'. Do not waste your precious time in unnecessary avocations. It is like preparing coffee by boiling rupee notes in the stone. Constant remembrance of God is also yoga. Selfless work is also yoga.
Constant remembrance of God cuts the food supply to the ego whatever you do, do it with a Selfless, attritude. That which always 'Is' never says 'I'. This body does not say 'I' If so who is one from inside of you say 'I, I' all the time? This is the thing to be searched. When you search for it seriously, it vinishes. You may ask what is lost if we do not search. The ego then takes hold of the reins and orders you about. Search at the source and it will disappear.
Thank you all!
Love to all! Bliss to all!! Peace to all!!!
Ohm Shandhi! Shandhi!! Shandhi…hi!!!
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