Self is the ruler.

Mantra 17

sarvendriyaguṇābhāsaṃ sarvendriyavivarjitaṃ /
sarvasya prabhum īśānaṃ sarvasya śaraṇaṃ suhṛt // 3.17 //

Himself devoid of senses, He shines through the functions of the senses. He is the capable ruler of all; He is the refuge of all. He is great.

~ Svetasvatara Upanishad – Chapter 3
The Highest Reality

✓ Sri T.N.Sethumadhavan has kindly explained thus:

The 1st line of this Mantra occurs in the Bhagavad Gita (13.15) which is quoted below.

sarvendriyagunaabhaasam sarvendriyavivarjitam
asaktam sarvabhricchaiva nirgunam gunabhoktru cha // 13.15 //

Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses, unattached, yet
supporting all, devoid of qualities, yet their experiencer.

The Self in us functioning through the sense organs looks as though It possesses all sense organs. But the sense organs decay and perish while the Consciousness which functions through them and which provides each of them with its own individual faculty is Eternal and Changeless just as electricity is not the light in the bulb and yet when it functions through the bulb it looks as if it were light.

The relationship of refuge or support of all can be explained as follows.

Waves are not the ocean but the ocean supports all the waves in as much as there can be no waves without the ocean.

Cotton is in the cloth but cloth is not the cotton. But it is the cotton in the cloth that supports the cloth. Similarly the world of plurality is not the Consciousness but it is the Consciousness that supports the world of multiplicities.

The influences which govern the human minds are called Gunas or Qualities.
They are
Sattwa (Unactivity), Rajas (Activity) and Tamas (Inactivity).

A live mind alone can experience these influences. But Life is the illuminator of these influences. Thus Consciousness conditioned by the mind is Jiva, the Ego and that is the experiencer of the Gunas.

Unconditioned by the mind, Consciousness in itself is
`Its own nature’, `It is the Absolute’.

Thus the Self, the Absolute, is beyond sense organs, mind and intellect, detached from everything and without any relation to the various Gunas.

But the same Self conditioned by the sense organs looks as though It possess all these sense organs, It is the sustainer of  them all and It is the experiencer of all the Gunas.

Hence this Mantra describes the Self as a capable Ruler of all and that He is great.

The Silent Revolution.

– Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri & the Lawyer Devotee💫

Swami Nityananda (not to be confused with modern controversial figures) was a parama avadhuta from Kerala who later settled in Ganeshpuri, Maharashtra. He barely spoke, often sat naked, and radiated enormous spiritual power. People from all walks of life came to his asana (seat) just to sit silently.

🔯🍁🔯🍁🔯🍁🔯🍁🔯🍁🔯🍁🔯

A successful Mumbai-based lawyer, sharp and logical, began visiting Swami Nityananda’s place at his wife’s insistence. Initially, he mocked the silent Swami, saying:

💫 “What wisdom can a naked man sitting silent give me?”

He’d sit far at the back and observe.

But something strange started happening:

✨️His anxiety attacks reduced

✨️He slept better

✨️His desire to dominate others started dissolving

✨️He felt tears rolling down his eyes while sitting in silence

Without any teaching, just by coming daily and sitting quietly, this lawyer began experiencing a shift in his inner being.

One day, Swami looked at him directly and smiled. No words. That day, the lawyer had a vision of his entire life as a karmic pattern—and realized how much harm he had done to others in the name of justice.

He wept for hours and left law practice a few years later. He took up teaching Sanskrit to underprivileged kids and lived a peaceful, content life.

💫 “One glance from a true Avadhuta holds more wisdom than years of study.”

Source Rudrani

Don’t be a shallow thinker.

Those who are capable of thinking very deeply about different subjects, yet do not consciously connect with God, may fail in divine perception because they became hidebound in their thought. No one can find God without consciously seeking Him. But deep thinkers are at least nearest to God than those who live superficially in ignorance. That is why I say, do not pass your time in idleness. Do something useful in life, something worthwhile, constructive, that will deepen and broaden your consciousness; and you will be nearer to God.

– Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
Book – Journey to Self-Realization
Chapter – “The art of getting along in this world”, page 142

Four stages.

“The first stage is that of the beginner. He studies and hears. Second is the stage of the struggling aspirant. He prays to God, meditates on Him, and sings His name and glories. The third stage is that of the perfect soul. He has seen God, realized Him directly and immediately in his inner Consciousness. Last is the stage of the supremely perfect, like Chaitanya. Such a devotee establishes a definite relationship with God, looking on Him as his Son or Beloved.”

~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna/Vol 1 /Sunday, December 9, 1883/WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR (II))

Awakening.

ROBERT ADAMS
Excerpt from: Satsang
‘The end only comes when you awaken.’

Another factor to remember is whatever is happening to you in your life disappears when you go to sleep, doesn’t it?

When you’re in deep sleep none of these things matter any longer.

When you’re in deep sleep nothing is happening.

The person who is sick forgets about their sickness. The person who is angry forgets about their anger. The person who is depressed forgets about their depression.

The person who feels hurt forgets about the hurt.

That’s why when you wake up in the morning you say, “I had a good sleep, I feel refreshed.”

The reason you say you feel refreshed is because in the state of deep sleep all of your physical problems, all of your mental problems that you have when you’re so-called awake have gone into abeyance.

They’re not here any longer.

It is explained in Advaita Vedanta that the mind is now resting in the heart centre.

When the mind rests in the heart centre no thing ever exists again.

Nothing is there, but that which always is.

When you awaken to this world, the mind rushes to the heart centre back into the brain and you become cognizant of the body, of the world, of your problems, of everything.

Therefore when you think about this intelligently you’ll see how can these things be real if they disappear when I go to sleep.

The word real means something that is present all the time.

Therefore when you feel depressed and you fall asleep the depression is not there.

So it’s not present all the time.

Therefore it’s not real.

And this is true of all the aspects of your life, everything.

Everything that you can think about is not present when you are in deep sleep.

So it cannot be real.

Even the so-called good things of your life.

Your beautiful home, your beautiful boyfriend or girlfriend or wife or husband, your beautiful children, your car, your great bank account, all of your investments.

All of these things disappear when you’re in deep sleep.

As if they never existed.

When you wake up they exist once more.

It’s like having a recurring dream.

We’ll go back to the inquisition.

You’re being tortured a little more everyday.

Now they cut off your fingers and your nose and your toes.

You wake up during the day you go about your business.

You go to sleep at night and you start dreaming again.

The inquisition continues, your eyeballs are popped out.

All these things are happening to you.

Morning comes you wake up you go about your business.

You go to sleep again and the inquisition continues until there is nothing left of you.

All the parts are gone.

And you wake up again and you’re in this world.

This is exactly the same thing I’m talking about.

This is exactly what is happening to us.

We believe this world is so real.

It appears so real.

It’s like new people always tell me when I talk about these things, “Well Robert I can walk over to you and pinch you and you’ll feel the pinch.”

You can also do that in the dream can’t you? If you see me in the dream and if you tell me, “Robert this is not a dream because I can pinch you.”

So you pinch me in the dream but it’s a dream pinch.

It appears that I felt it in the dream, doesn’t it? So you see the same thing happens in this wake up world as in the dream world.

If you can only get what I’m talking about, you will become forever free.

This world is not real.

You’re wasting your time thinking about this world.

Getting involved in this world and doing all the things you’re doing.

What you should try to do is to awaken.

And the last thing I have to share with you.

If you believe that this world is real you will also believe that the other worlds are also real. You will believe that when you die you will be free.

That is like the born again Christians who can’t wait to go to heaven.

They say how rotten this world is but when they die they will be in glory, hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. (SH: Yeah, Amen.)

But I say to you if you have not found yourself in this life, you will not find yourself in the after life.

All you do in the after-life is take a break for a while, you take a rest, it’s like going to sleep.

But then you have to awaken once more whether you’re on an astral plane or causal plane or wherever your delusion takes you.

And you become aware of the same problems, the same stuff you had before. There is no end to it.

The end only comes when you awaken.

Therefore do not think of death as heaven sent.

It is only a continuum.

You have to awaken now.

When you awaken now you will realize there is absolutely no place to go, there is nothing to become.

You will just be as you’ve always been, effortless choiceless pure awareness, your true nature.

All is well.

Deliberate attempt essential.

In order to develop a taste for meditation you have to make a deliberate and sustained effort, just as children have to be made to sit and study, be it by persuasion or coercion.

By taking medicine or having injections a patient may get well; even if you do not feel inclined to meditate, conquer your reluctance and make an attempt.

The habit of countless lives is pulling you in the opposite direction and making it difficult for you – persevere in spite of it!

By your tenacity you will gain strength and be moulded; that is to say, you will develop the capability to perform spiritual disciplines.

Make up your mind that however arduous the task, it will have to be accomplished.

Recognition and fame last for a short time only, they do not accompany you when you leave this world.

If your thought does not naturally flow towards the Eternal, fix it there by an effort of will.

Anandamayi Maa
@everyone

ध्यान के प्रति रुचि विकसित करने के लिए आपको लगातार प्रयास करना होगा, जैसे बच्चों को बैठाकर पढ़ाई करवानी पड़ती है, चाहे वह समझा-बुझाकर हो या जबरदस्ती।

दवाई लेने या इंजेक्शन लगवाने से रोगी ठीक हो सकता है; यदि आपका ध्यान करने का मन न भी हो, तो भी अपनी अनिच्छा पर विजय पाएँ और प्रयास करें।

अनगिनत जन्मों की आदत आपको विपरीत दिशा में खींच रही है और आपके लिए मुश्किल बना रही है – इसके बावजूद दृढ़ रहें!

आपकी दृढ़ता से आपको शक्ति मिलेगी और आप ढल जाएँगे; यानी आपमें आध्यात्मिक साधना करने की क्षमता विकसित होगी।

मन में ठान लें कि कार्य कितना भी कठिन क्यों न हो, उसे पूरा करना ही होगा।

पहचान और प्रसिद्धि थोड़े समय के लिए ही होती है, जब आप इस दुनिया से चले जाते हैं, तो वे आपके साथ नहीं रहतीं।

यदि आपका विचार स्वाभाविक रूप से शाश्वत की ओर प्रवाहित नहीं होता है, तो उसे इच्छाशक्ति के प्रयास से वहीं स्थिर कर दें।

आनंदमयी माँ

God is looking for you.

In one of His aspects, a very touching aspect, the Lord may be said to be a beggar. He yearns for our attention.

The Master of the Universe, at whose glance all stars, suns, moons, and planets quiver, is running after man and saying: “Won’t you give Me your affection? Don’t you love Me, the Giver, more than the things I have made for you? Won’t you seek Me?”

But man says: “I am too busy now; I have work to do. I can’t take time to look for You.”And the Lord says: “I will wait.

Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

Guru changes the horoscope.

Sir, of course I shall take your advice and get a bangle.”

“For general purposes I counsel the use of an armlet made of gold, silver, and copper. But for a specific purpose I want you to get one of silver and lead.” Sri Yukteswar added careful directions.

“Guruji, what ‘specific purpose’ do you mean?”

“The stars are about to take an unfriendly interest in you, Mukunda.
Fear not; you shall be protected.
In about a month your liver will cause you much trouble.
The illness is scheduled to last for six months, but your use of an astrological armlet will shorten the period to twenty-four days.”

I sought out a jeweler the next day, and was soon wearing the bangle.

My health was excellent; Master’s prediction slipped from my mind.
He left Serampore to visit Benares.

Thirty days after our conversation, I felt a sudden pain in the region of my liver.

The following weeks were a nightmare of excruciating pain. Reluctant to disturb my guru, I thought I would bravely endure my trial alone.

But twenty-three days of torture weakened my resolution; I entrained for Benares.

There Sri Yukteswar greeted me with unusual warmth, but gave me no opportunity to tell him my woes in private.

Many devotees visited Master that day, just for a darshan.

Ill and neglected, I sat in a corner.

It was not until after the evening meal that all guests had departed. My guru summoned me to the octagonal balcony of the house.

“You must have come about your liver disorder.” Sri Yukteswar’s gaze was averted; he walked to and fro, occasionally intercepting the moonlight.

“Let me see; you have been ailing for twentyfour days, haven’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Please do the stomach exercise I have taught you.”

“If you knew the extent of my suffering, Master, you would not ask me to exercise.” Nevertheless I made a feeble attempt to obey him.

“You say you have pain; I say you have none. How can such contradictions exist?” My guru looked at me inquiringly.

I was dazed and then overcome with joyful relief.

No longer could I feel the continuous torment that had kept me nearly sleepless for weeks; at Sri Yukteswar’s words the agony vanished as though it had never been.

I started to kneel at his feet in gratitude, but he quickly prevented me.

“Don’t be childish. Get up and enjoy the beauty of the moon over the Ganges.”

But Master’s eyes were twinkling happily as I stood in silence beside him.

I understood by his attitude that he wanted me to feel that not he, but God, had been the Healer.

I wear even now the heavy silver and lead bangle, a memento of that day-long-past, evercherished-when I found anew that I was living with a personage indeed superhuman.

On later occasions, when I brought my friends to Sri Yukteswar for healing, he invariably recommended jewels or the bangle, extolling their use as an act of astrological wisdom.

I had been prejudiced against astrology from my childhood, partly because I observed that many people are sequaciously attached to it, and partly because of a prediction made by our family astrologer: “You will marry three times, being twice a widower.”

I brooded over the matter, feeling like a goat awaiting sacrifice before the temple of triple matrimony.

“You may as well be resigned to your fate,” my brother Ananta had remarked. “Your written horoscope has correctly stated that you would fly from home toward the Himalayas during your early years, but would be forcibly returned. The forecast of your marriages is also bound to be true.”

A clear intuition came to me one night that the prophecy was wholly false.

I set fire to the horoscope scroll, placing the ashes in a paper bag on which I wrote: “Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the divine fires of wisdom.”

I put the bag in a conspicuous spot; Ananta immediately read my defiant comment.

“You cannot destroy truth as easily as you have burnt this paper scroll.” My brother laughed scornfully.

It is a fact that on three occasions before I reached manhood, my family tried to arrange my betrothal.

Each time I refused to fall in with the plans, knowing that my love for God was more overwhelming than any astrological persuasion from the past.

“The deeper the self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.”

These words of Master’s often returned inspiringly to my mind.

Autobiography of a Yogi
Paramahamsa Yogananda