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The Trinity of Intention, Attention, and Attitude Through the Three Paths - Daaji's Message from Lucknow

Below are messages to download, read, and contemplate.&nbsp; When the Heart Hears, the Mind Sees: The Art of Right Understanding &nbsp;

When the Heart Hears, the Mind Sees: The Art of Right Understanding

Below are messages to download, read, and contemplate.&nbsp; Embracing the Unknown: The Journey of Gratitude

Embracing the Unknown: The Journey of Gratitude

Below are messages to download, read, and contemplate.&nbsp; About the importance of the Seer

The Seer

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Surrender

<h2>Article by Pujya Babuji Maharaj included in Complete Works of Ram Chandra Volume - 4</h2>Whatever I have is the safekeeping of my Master, which is preserved for all of you. I wish to hand it over to you during my lifetime and go back light after being relieved of the burden. Truly speaking, whatever I have at present, except the safekeeping, is neither spirituality nor Reality nor Bliss. Now, if you ask me what is my destination, my heart will reply, “Brothers! I have lost it too.” Now I cannot see anything. So what I can say?When I see how much I have to teach, I begin to lose my senses and I want to pour it down into you. But such persons will be found only in ones and twos, and this is my lot. I feel that if I impart to anybody what my Master has made me learn (and the process of learning still continues), that which I am learning now is left out. Now, what can be the method of not leaving it out? It is that people should attain a high state of merger. If they integrate themselves completely, how wonderful it would be!1 Compiled from two similar letters to abhyasis in the 1960s. One was previously printed in Constant Remembrance journal, April 1999.The way for anyone to learn what I am being taught is to compel me to merge with him. The method to do this is what the intellectual class brands as ‘sin’ – meditation on the form of the Guru. Really, I want wood, to make from it anything I like, but mostly I get furniture for the purpose.Mergence is the first problem of spirituality. Having attained this state, an abhyasi can be called a beginner. The state of merger conveys the sense of a relation with the Supreme in which self is lost. As close as the relation is made, so the higher is the state of merger. It is that time and state when, if God so wills, the Divine Light is bestowed in the same proportion. The pause that follows the permanency of the state is called the life Divine, but it does not end here. Ordinarily, the Divine life follows mergence at each stage, but here it is something else. Man must always be in quest of mergence. Divine life comes itself simultaneously. The way to the Divine life cannot be achieved without mergence. Its end is the state of the Master, and the emergence of the Divine life in this last and final state is the state of bhumaThe feeling of lightness is evidence to prove that the real state has begun to manifest itself. The feeling of love is also its proof. It is necessary to control the speech and the thought so that you may become deserving to attain higher states of mergence. Attainment of pleasure, tranquillity and peace are the sources of happiness to others, but to us dissolution and feeling the pangs of love are the way to liberation. What I want is that all of you will rise as the sun of spirituality!How is it possible? Only when you do not let the shadow of the earth eclipse the sun.And when is that possible? When you orbit in such a way that your movement is direct.How can you find this orbit? How can you move direct? By keeping the destination in full view.How can you remember the destination? By becoming one with it. When can the goal remain in sight? When you become entirely His.When can you be His? When you lose yourself completely.How can you lose yourself? When there is no thought in the heart other than that of His.How is that possible? By practice. How is practice possible? Through love and interest.How can love and interest be engendered? By remembering constantly.How can constant remembrance be cultivated? Through determination. How is determination possible? When we gird up our loins to sacrifice our pleasures and shake off idleness.Our Master should always be a living being. He is well aware of all the points and problems of spirituality, and he is the one who has travelled the path. He knows how to make the traveller go on. Besides, his bones are immersed in Ram Nam (Divine consciousness). The matter too is pure and sanctified. He has no earthly vibrations. The force that runs in him is naturally unalloyed, unmediated and original. There is no trace of unwanted things. The movement of his mind (manas) becomes light, and it begins to work as ordered by him. The mind when it becomes ‘central’ can do everything and is the real force, which, if turned towards anything, can perform all the miracles. How can this thing be born? In short, one should never lose His remembrance. Even a minute lost without His remembrance should be repented.I have explained everything in detail, yet, my brother, people think that the spiritual condition of any individual is a miracle done by me. Just imagine, had I the power to produce miracles, all the abhyasis would have attained high spiritual conditions. As a matter of fact, miracles are wrought by attachment, deep interest and love in an abhyasi.Similarly, water rains everywhere but weeds grow somewhere, somewhere flowers and somewhere mere lime and sand is found. As is the soil, so are the results.The sensitivity to feel generally does not develop in people, as they do not apply themselves to it. They are very sensitive to worldly matters and their minds are very alert in moneymaking activities. The reason is that they have a deep interest in it and, therefore, they understand it minutely. But where is their attachment to the spiritual side? They only join group meditation and then keep aloof. Neither do they care to adopt those qualities in life that may be conducive to spirituality, nor do they want to give up those that may be putting hindrances in the way.Systems like Buddhism and Jainism insist that we try to be as we should be. They stress upon principles and rules and regulations, and their observance is taken as a mark of spiritual advancement. If we look to ourselves, we will see that we do not want to give up our shortcomings. The reason is that people do not crave for the goal. Otherwise they would leave everything to pursue it. When our tendencies lean towards something, we start sensing many things about it, and concentration grows. Then our energies become balanced and a kind of equipoise is achieved. As soon as this develops, the sensitivity to feel dawns. But who is bothered with all this, my brother? Such persons are rare who are ready to do or die, and truly speaking unto them Reality reveals itself. Deep interest, craving and love take us to wonders. All the abhyasis pass through various spiritual conditions without fail, but due to lack of interest they do not feel them, and then they complain of it to me.When I ask someone to feel and observe, he replies that he tries all right, but does not feel it. I fail to understand what type of effort is that which does not lead to the desired result. When we think of our domestic problems, all aspects come to our view. What is the reason? It is because we are totally engrossed in them. So much so that we feel no rest till we arrive at a solution, because it pricks the heart. If conditions are watched, there is no reason that a seeker of normal understanding may not become aware of them. If a person is wholeheartedly attentive and follows the practice, it is sure that through observation he will feel the Real. But, my brother, all this depends upon interest, and interest itself is a clever fish.&nbsp;

The Way Up

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Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Well-being

<h1 style="margin-left:0px;">Here and Now</h1>Lalaji Maharaj's Birthday Celebrations, 2 February 2014, Chennai, India&nbsp;Dear brothers and sisters here in Manapakkam and all of you in Tiruppur, On this auspicious day of our Grand-Master's birth anniversary, we have just heard the message received from Babuji Maharaj, reemphasising the need to celebrate the birth anniversaries of our Masters, in homage, with love, and in remembrance. These are the three components that are always to be carried in our hearts as instruments of spirituality for our ascent up to the goal, should we be so blessed, remembering that the efforts of the abhyasis count, not a little.We have been listening to these messages, we have been having these bhandaras over so many years, but do abhyasis really take to their hearts the messages that we receive on these sacred and holy occasions? I hope so, because everything depends on how we hear these messages, how we understand them, and how we act on them.It is not enough to make resolutions, resolutions must be carried out. Is the spirit of brotherhood growing amongst us? Is there love between all of us? Have we been able to cast away all prejudice and judgemental attitudes, at least between the brotherhood? These are important questions to be asked, and for each one of you to ask of yourself, because I find there are still unfortunately instances of hatred, mudslinging. So much effort has been done to speak to abhyasis personally, individually. Are they responding? If they are not responding, it only means that they are not acting on the principles of Sahaj Marg. Perhaps they are not even doing their cleaning daily, properly. Maybe they are not even meditating properly.Such abhyasis should examine their hearts and see whether they are true to themselves. Remember the old saying: ‘This above all to thine own self be true.' You can deceive your prefects, you can deceive your Master. I mean you can deceive anybody you want, but if you deceive yourself, that is the greatest and most tragic deception that exists in your life.Self-deception is the greatest deception. To live one way and to think that you are living in another way, honourable way, good way, Sahaj Marg way, is the greatest deception, and if you deceive yourself, I am afraid it will be difficult to help such abhyasis. It will be truly difficult. Therefore we find abhyasis who take sittings after sittings, individual, group, and while they think they are progressing, we see that they are where they were or perhaps even a little lower, which is very tragic.Babuji Maharaj has been emphasising repeatedly in his Whispers messages that human life is short; even if you live two hundred years it is still short. When are we going to realise that life will not go along as we expect it to do? Every day we hear of loved ones departing – even at birth and from then on at any age that you want to specify for yourself: six years, twelve years, fourteen years, eighteen years, twenty-five years, thirty years, forty years, people suddenly coming to an end, and people suffering for months or years and then passing away.There is no point in the last part of your life when you have nothing, you have no teeth, you have no eyes, as Shakespeare says, and you try to mumble some prayer, unable to understand its meaning and try to meditate without much success.Don't put off till tomorrow what must be done today. Now! ‘Here and now' must be your slogan for yourself. Nobody can predict when anybody's end will come. We must always be prepared to meet that – a definite possibility in every individual's life. Everybody born has to die. We can know perhaps when the child is going to be born – within a few hours or days – but nobody can know when somebody is going to die.I am not trying to be morbid. I am not trying to put the fear of God into you or anything like that. I am only telling you the reality of human life, what it holds for us in terms of longevity, and what we have to do within the time available to us in this life. This is a very serious matter.Life can be enjoyed without hurting our spirituality and that enjoyment is permitted, but it must not interfere with our spiritual life. We have a duty to our families – Sahaj Marg insists on that; therefore we have to go around, do our jobs, earn money to satisfy the needs of our families. But not give more time, become addicted to our work and, with the modern computer age, go on browsing all night pretending you have all the time in the world, spending twelve hours, fourteen hours, eighteen hours on your computers but not one hour on your meditation.In a sense those who live like that are digging their own spiritual graves. I am sorry to use such language but just in case you don't read Whispers – I am sure many of you are there who are very casual about it. "While it is there on the computer I can read it day after tomorrow, on Friday, Saturday, the weekend." Just in case you don't read Whispers, I am trying to condense for you the contents of several volumes of Whispers which just says these things, where Babuji Maharaj keeps on reiterating these truths, these essential values of life.To be a human is an enormous gift of Nature which perhaps we have earned through the merits of past existences. To have come to the feet of a guru in that life is an even greater gift of our past and of our destiny, and now to waste both these great gifts – to be born as a human being and to have been able to contact a guru and to follow the practice prescribed by him – and not follow it precisely as prescribed, with integrity, with devotion and love in your heart and with the conviction that this practice of meditating on the heart, doing our cleaning, doing our prayer is a sure way of spiritual evolution to the goal, if possible in this life, if not at least taking several jumps into the future…As Babuji Maharaj says, "Everything is possible." In this life we must achieve that goal of at least liberation which frees us from any future mortal existence, all the pains of physical existence. Forget the pleasures; even animals have them. This is the pain of physical existence that you will feel, everyone of you will feel, at some time or other. Rest assured it is not only for the sick, it is not only for the old; it seems to affect even the newborn babies today. Sickness begins at birth.There is a great truth we don't understand that while sickness may begin at birth, it is death that begins at birth. When we are born we begin to die; tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, we are going towards death. Every second that passes is ticking off a second in our lives.So, remember, the clock is not ticking off for holidays or for pleasurable events or for wasting time saying, "I have enough time." It is foolish to imagine, for anyone to imagine, that he or she has enough time. How do you know how much time you have? If you hear the clock ticking, you must say, "For heaven's sake, one more second gone, two more seconds gone. Let me be about my spiritual work." That must be the attitude of a true aspirant who expects to reach the final goal in this life itself.Babuji Maharaj has said that such a chance may not occur again. Who knows if we are unfortunately condemned to be reborn, whether we will find our guru; even if we are born as human beings whether we will find a guru. It is in that sense that he says that we may not find a guru, we may not find such a guru for a thousand years.So don't take Babuji's writings lightly. They are very simple to read. The language is very simple. Today, human beings are wanting to read complicated stuff, convoluted stuff, difficult to understand because they like to tease their brains. But Babuji's literature, Sahaj Marg literature, is all very simple and because of their simplicity they are deceptive.Babuji Maharaj said, "My simplicity deceives." His literature is deceptive. Too simple. You are inclined to think, "What is there in Reality at Dawn? What is there in the Ten Maxims? Arise at dawn – wonderful! What great truth has he revealed?" Isn't it? I am sure many of you have felt like that. Don't make that mistake. Read again, and again, and again, because every time you read, you find a new meaning in them. What you find in them reflects your growth.As you grow, you find the beauty, the splendour and the truths that are revealed in these writings. It is like somebody walking through a garden and saying, "Ah, roses! Ah, jasmine!" things like that. But a lover of the garden knows and stops at every flower, savours their perfume, looks at their beauty. It is like that. You must be a lover to understand what you are looking at, what you are feeling, and both of these things enter into our literature.We are looking at and reading; we are feeling with our hearts the great truths that are revealed to us which most of us cannot understand at the first reading. Repeat again and again. Don't waste your time on japa malas [prayer beads] which have no meaning. Many have been doing them through I don't know how many lives, how many years; thinking of something and just rotating the beads in the hand.So what more should I tell you all? I don't know. I often think what are our abhyasis doing because, as you know nowadays, I don't see much of you. Only on auspicious occasions I try to be with you all, and it is by Master's grace that he permits me to be here with you all today to give you a sitting and to address you.So remember, time is short, the way is long – towards infinity. That is where; that is the length of the voyage we have to undertake; and the time given to us varies according to each one's lifetime, of which we know nothing, of which we can never know anything.So when I once asked Babuji Maharaj what is wisdom, he said, "Live as if you are going to die the next moment." Not tomorrow or the day after – the next moment. Then will we be doing foolish things, useless things? Then we'd be meditating.I can only hope and pray that all those who are listening to this message will listen to it again with their hearts because, I repeat, there are still too many abhyasis who still carry hatred in their hearts, who still (I don't know how to put it) meet each other with hatred, suspicion, and they still claim to be brothers; they still want attention as abhyasis. It is like transmitting to stone when they come. And I am saying these words particularly to such abhyasis. As Babuji said, "To those who know, we don't need to say much. To those who know and who will not listen and act upon them, you have to say a lot. And to those who know but deliberately ignore what they hear, they are only to be pitied."I hope their numbers will get fewer every day and a day will come when every abhyasi present before us will be of the first category. He who knows, and knows what he has to do, and does what he has to do will be the wisest. I pray for you all on this auspicious occasion.Thank you.

Here and Now

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Be Joyful

To achieve the correction of gross tendencies, Point A of the Heart Region is used for meditation and Point B is used for cleaning. It is highly effective in correcting self-indulging tendencies.&nbsp;<h2>Locating Points A and B</h2>Points A and B can be located by actual measurement. The heart lies in the left part of the body, near the lower part of the left lung. If we measure two fingers width straight to the right of the left nipple, and then proceed straight down, up to three fingers width, this is the position of Point A. Now proceed two fingers width straight down from Point A to find Point B – the measurement to be taken with your own fingers.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Finger_3564363631.webp"></figure><h2>Meditation on Point A</h2>To achieve the correction of gross tendencies, Point A of the Heart Region is used for meditation. It is highly effective for correcting self-indulging tendencies as well as promoting a feeling of universal brotherhood and, in turn, creating unity amongst all. Fix your attention on Point A, with the thought that all the women and men of the world are your sisters and brothers. Hold your thought on this while you meditate on Point A, believing this to be the reality. This is a really short but extremely effective practice. If practised wholeheartedly you can see its effect immediately, and this effect will be permanent. This meditation is to be done before going to bed for not more than ten minutes.Sisters are advised to follow the process with a slight modification. Instead, think that all divine gifts are available to you, and that all men and women of the world think they are brothers and sisters and your thought is one with theirs.<h2>Cleaning on Point B</h2>Fix your attention on Point B and imagine that all impurities and grossness are going out from Point B from the front of the body. Imagine that as this process is going on, the glow of the atman, the soul, begins to appear from behind. This process is to be done before beginning your morning meditation, but never for more than ten minutes.<blockquote>BibliographyEfficacy of Raja Yoga in the Light of Sahaj Marg Complete Works of Ram Chandra, Volume IV A Preceptor’s Guide, Volume II</blockquote>&nbsp;<h2 style="text-align:center;">CHARACTER FORMATION SOME JEWELS FROM REVERED MASTER’S TALKS</h2>Spiritual practice must lead to character building and development but, as my Master has emphasised again and again, while he gives spiritual wealth to us, we have to use our willpower and our intelligence to mould our character to conform to our spiritual level. The conscience is only like a thermometer to judge how good or how bad one is. In spirituality we do not think of good and bad but of samskaras, and they are to be avoided. Sahaj Marg will surely work for social transformation too, but the effects will not be visible so soon.If people are coming to the spiritual life only to change the world (please listen to this carefully) – if people come to the spiritual life only to change the world, they will not achieve anything. I assure you. If you come to change yourself, there is a guarantee of success provided you apply yourself to changing yourself.…Therefore, brothers and sisters, here in this Mission, in our practice of spiritual life, the total responsibility for your welfare, for your happiness, for your growth is, bluntly, entirely on you – on nothing else, nobody else. It is not with the Mission, it is not with the prefects, it is not with what we teach – it is with each one of you, for yourself. You live by yourself; you work on yourself; you grow. You are the experiment; you are the object of the experiment; you are the experimenter. And when this combination is successful, you will be the result of that experiment.Meditation is the only way of building your character, which is only trying to make goodness in yourself, restore human values of friendship, brotherhood, companionship, love, compassion, forgivingness. And the first need is to forget everything that can make you different from others. Everything that points to you as something different in society must be dropped.But I tell you one of the most important things which Babuji Maharaj used to emphasise: the most important point of character is not to hurt anybody else’s feelings, and the most important is, never to hurt your mother’s feelings.The problem with human development is always the gap between aspirations and character building of the person concerned. Application of one’s will to character building is all that is necessary, remembering that the Master’s help is always present. I am happy to see your progress and pray for faster progress with time.Personal discipline goes a long way in spiritual progress. Personal discipline shows an inner discipline – that you are balanced, that you don’t put your needs before that of others. It shows itself in courtesy – you give way to others, let them sit first. You will let others eat first, don’t rush. If there is no sitting space, you allow older people to sit and you go and sit outside. All these must come from inside you. We cannot say, ‘Place reserved for old men’, ‘Place reserved for handicapped people’, and things like that. Inner discipline must show first of all: concern for others, willingness to help others before you help yourself and, in general, courtesy prevailing under all circumstances.

Messages

GIVEN BY DAAJI ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS