Author: Divya - Administrator

Living a spiritual life does not require escaping from the world. It is not useful to look at the flaws of the world and say it is ugly and sinful. Turning away from the world will not lead to spiritual happiness. Live in the world. By living fully in the world with all of its apparent imperfections one can attain spiritual perfection.

Along with the effort toward balance and nonattachment, practice selflessness. Selflessness is an art that requires much practice to perfect. Strength, nonattachment, love, and fearlessness grow from the practice of selflessness.

Make it a part of your daily life to do things for others without anyone knowing. To be selfless and attentive toward others is not so much an effort as it is a very natural way of being. At the same time, do not forget yourself. In the observances of yoga the first principle is ahimsa, nonharming. This principle is not meant to be applied only to others. Ahimsa should first be applied toward yourself. You should not harm yourself or allow yourself to be harmed by others. Be sensible in your nonattachment and love. While it is not helpful to be ego-or me-centered, it is also not beneficial to be exclusively you-centered. The Upanishads teach that all is One.

Approach your life wholeheartedly. Whatever you do, do with your whole heart and fullest attention. When you are with your children, be with your children, not your work. When you are at work, be with your work, not your children. Be in the moment at hand, not in the moment or day that has passed, or in the moment or day yet to come.

Editor’s note

This is an excerpt from Sacred Journey by Swami Rama, Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1996, pages 73-74

The goal of life is spiritual. Understand that as the guiding principle of your life. With an attitude of cheerfulness and with full attention, do your duties in life in your role as student, worker, child, parent, member of the community, and so on. Then let go and leave the rest up to the timeless process of spiritual unfoldment. It won’t seem like work or duty, and everything will be in harmony.

This approach simplifies life and expands it; it purifies the seeker from karmas and attachments. There is no longer any concern for collecting odds and ends from your actions, piling up belongings, or needing reinforcement from others for what you’ve done. Your needs become less. Your sense of owning and having grows less and less. At the same time you become increasingly selfless. You do your actions greased with love. Great joy comes when actions are done with love. Personal gain is not the motivation behind your actions. Slowly you learn to do your actions selflessly. To do this is a spiritual discipline, a spiritual practice.

Editor’s note

This is an excerpt from Sacred Journey by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1996, pages 70-71

You often close your eyes and sit down and you don’t know what to do next; then you start remembering your mantra. You can remember your mantra all the time, but that’s not very systematic. It will take a long time for you. You’re doing japa, but you’re doing it halfheartedly. If you do the same thing with full concentration, it will definitely give you results.

When you remember your mantra, you should remember it with all your feeling. You should know about your mantra—understand what your mantra is.

Remember your mantra as silently as possible, and it will help you tremendously. Let your mind be led by your mantra and let it become a part of your life.

Remember your mantra—slowly, gently—and follow it. The sound will take you to the soundless state that is beyond body, breath, and mind. That is what meditation is.

Editor’s note

This is an excerpt from The Essence of Spiritual Life, A Companion Guide for the Seeker by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, 1996, p 91.

The most ancient traveler in the universe is love. It is love that travels from the unknown to the known, from eternity to eternity.

Those who want to realize the greatest delight should realize themselves in others. This is the definition of true love.

The spirit of love is boundless and emancipates our being from illusory bonds and superimpositions. It is unity that will lead us to Truth. That which is the beginning and the end of the phenomenal world is divine.

Loving somebody does not mean hating others. Remember this. If you love somebody, that means loving all. Your love should travel toward expansion, not toward contraction.

Learn to love others and demonstrate your love through selfless action. This is very important. Try not to hurt others through speech. Dark words have no capacity to contain real feeling and love, for they are not containers. Love is immortal and needs an immortal container. People say that it is expressed through the heart; therefore, the heart is the center of love. I deny that. The soul, actually, is the real container of love, for the soul alone is the most ancient traveler, and so is love. They are one and the same.

There are two types of love: one can be expressed, and one can never be expressed or explained. Anything that can be explained is not deep love. Though we all try to express it in a million ways, it is in vain.

There is only one Reality without second, without any space, time, or causation. We call it Love.

You talk of love. You always aspire to have love. You always want to be loved. If you really want to know what love is, there are two phrases: as life is to live, love is to give.

Usually love is mingled with selfishness. I need something, so I say, “I love you.” You need something, so you say you love me. This is what we call love in the world. Real love is when you do actions selflessly and spontaneously, and you don’t expect any reward.

Reverence is the first rung on the ladder of love.

Love is not mere contemplation of the Truth, but suffering for it. Suffering is not punishment, but a reward and a gift of love. The reward is received when you are no more there.

May we light the fire of love that burns out the ego and enables us to pass from fearful fragmentation to fearless fullness in the changeless whole.

God bless you. God loves you, I love you, let you learn to love yourself.

Editor’s note

This is an excerpt from The Essence of Spiritual Life, A Companion Guide for the Seeker by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, 1996, p 104.

Prayer is not conducted in Sanskrit or Arabic or English or Latin or any other language. Prayer should be conducted in your own language. Which is your language? It’s the same language in which a newborn baby speaks to her mother. It’s the language of love. You see how a newborn baby communicates with the mother Speak in any language, the child will have nothing to do with it. But when the mother says na, na, na, na, na, chu chu, chu, chu, chu, she communicates well with the child. Which is that language? The language of love. When our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our whole being is integrated, when our mind and emotions go together, when we become one-pointed and with that feeling we pray, that prayer never goes in vain!

Prayer gives you strength. The highest of strength is received from that source which is already within you, through prayer. When you pray, whom are you going to pray to? The God Almighty who is everywhere? No. The Lord who is within you, seated deep down, beyond your body, breath and mind, in the innermost chamber of your being. Your prayers are always answered, when you pray in your own language, with mind and emotion joined together, with a one-pointed mind. You can pray at any time, but you should learn to discipline yourself. Morning and evening hours are considered best for prayer. But as I told you, pray directly to the Lord of life who’s seated within you. Gently close your eyes and with all your feelings and thoughts ask the Lord of life to give you wisdom and there you will find strength.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Conscious Living by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust in 2002, Pg 100

A human being cannot live without doing karma, actions. And when he does some karma he reaps the fruits of the actions. And those fruits lead him to do more actions and there is no end. He creates a whirlpool for himself and he cannot come out of that. Is there any way that you go on doing your actions and yet remain free from the bondage of karma? I say yes. If you grease your karma with love, then you will not have a problem. You have stress today, “My wife doesn’t listen to me.” She thinks, “My husband doesn’t listen to me.” They both are going through self-created stress. But if you simply change the concept, there will be no stress. Stress has become the big-gest killer today. Everybody says I have stress, I have stress. Why do you have stress? Wife wants to control the husband, husband wants to control the wife. Why do you want to control anyone? This tussle is going on all the time, in all families and you call it family life and love. When I come to your home, you all smile. When I go outside, then you start fighting. I know that and I understand. I think there can be harmony in the family if there is understanding, understanding on a higher level.

A man in bondage cannot think right. A man in bondage is a slave. A slave has no choice. How to be free from that? If I go on doing my duties, and I give the fruits of my actions to others, I will be free. Where are you committing a mistake? You are not giving up the fruits of your actions though you are doing your duties. Why do you do charity, tell me? You do charity because you think, “I will have a good name.” Then another level of charity, “If I do charity my ego will be cleansed. If I do charity I will get double that in my next lifetime.” Actually, why do you want to do charity? You want to do charity because you are holding on to something. Give away the fruits and be free.

Thus comes freedom from the bondage of karma.

There will be no bondage. We are all doing our actions but for others and renouncing the fruit. That’s why the family unit was created. The husband does actions for his wife, his wife for him and both do for their children and they in turn do for other children. So the family is meant to radiate love to all, not hatred. We have to start at home. We should create our family in such a way so that it radiates love.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Conscious Living by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust in 2002, Pg 135-136

There are two laws, the law of contraction and the law of expansion. Hate others, you are going through the law of contraction. Love all, you are going through the law of expansion. Learn to love, that is the law of expansion. What does love mean? It means to give, without any expectation, to your own people. This is a school where you learn to give unconditionally. Then you will learn that nothing is difficult for you, nothing is difficult. First thing you should learn is to just give. Instead of arguing with your wife, just give her what she wants. Just give your children what they want. Slowly, you will discover that they have started loving you so much and they have become so very consider-ate. They will never exploit your generosity. Learning to give is one of the greatest of arts. Give selflessly, to those at home, to those with whom you live. Start doing it there. Love will completely transform you, for love alone has that power, even death does not have the power to transform you. So if you love, then there is only love, there is no space for you. At present you have likes and dislikes; but with love, there is a sense of equality, you love all, you can never hate anyone. There is that underlying understanding that I will love all and exclude none. You are free. It is a joy that leads to bliss. There is so much expansion of your mind that anything that is hidden, that is unconscious, comes forward as a part of the conscious mind. Why should you be unhappy? You know who is unhappy? One who is selfish. Who is happy? One who is selfless. It’s that simple. I am not telling you to go crazy, giving away all your wealth to strangers, becoming uselessly charitable, no! I am telling you to do experiments at home, with those who live with you. Transforming your personality is the simple way to attainment. Let us not make it difficult.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Conscious Living by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust in 2002, Pg 87-88

Self-surrender is considered to be the highest of all yogas. In this path the yogic exercises and other techniques like concentration and meditation are not involved. The yoga of self-surrender has been explained by Lord Krishna in the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. According to this method of attainment, the aspirant surrenders all that he has-his body, mind, intellect, and ego-entirely to the Lord of life in order to establish truth and supreme bliss. Two qualities of action lead the aspirant to self-surrender: faithfulness and sincerity. Faithfulness is to admit and to manifest no movement other than that which is promoted by the innermost conscious-ness. Sincerity requires the lifting of all movements of mind, body, and action to the level of the highest consciousness where the thought of individuality or duality ceases. Sincerity is one of the qualities that aspirants should cultivate with all efforts. Those who surrender without reserve, to them Atman reveals itself. Desire for self-surrender and mere assumptions of mental attitude do not help much in this path. When total surrender is accomplished, the entire personality is transformed. Without complete self-surrender, it is not possible to attain the Divinity. In the process of self-surrender, the student opens himself to the divine force and allows it to work through his mind, action, and speech. Divine grace and bliss are ever-present, but the human ego creates a wall and resists this force because of the ignorance he develops with the association of the mind, which flows to the external world with the help of the senses. Mind has its own ideas and always clings to them. It has its habits and always flows to the grooves of its habits. The ego controls the life of the ignorant: he lives in the world that is ruled by ego. Unless there is a burning desire to go beyond, self-surrender is impossible. Self-surrender should be unconditional. Self-surrender is the way of accepting the divine with the whole heart and mind. It is the shortest of all paths, yet very difficult and very easy also. The Ishopanisad declares, “Tena tyaktena“; that is, the way of practicing self-surrender is to “offer all the fruits of thy actions and then enjoy.”

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Choosing a Path by Swami Rama, published in 1996, The Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy of USA, pp. 129-130