InnerRealisation

Remember, just because one does not have money and health does not mean that that person’s life is not worthwhile – perhaps it is even more so than that of the person who is well-endowed. The individual of scanty means who is sick and blind, who may be at death’s door, but still he fixes his mind on God alone, is a much better person, much nearer to freedom, than the one who lives to an old age in opulence and health, but in utter oblivion of God.

– Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
Book – Solving The Mystery of Life

“Only that mind which by practice of yoga, having lost all its latencies, has become pure and still like a lamp in a domewell protected from breeze, is said to be ‘dead’. This ‘death of mind’ is the highest fulfillment. The final conclusion of all the Vedas is that Liberation is nothing but mind stilled. For Liberation nothing can avail, not wealth, relatives, friends, karma consisting of movements of the limbs, pilgrimage to sacred places, baths in sacred waters, life in celestial regions, austerities however severe, or anything but a still mind. In similar strain many sacred books teach that Liberation consists in doing away with the mind. In several passages in the Yoga Vasishta, the same idea is repeated, that the Bliss of Liberation can be reached only by wiping out the mind, which is the root cause of samsara, and thus of all misery!”

Sri Ramana Maharshi

God created this dream universe for entertaining Himself and us.

The only objection I have to God’s lila is this: “Lord, why did You permit suffering to be a part of the play?”

Pain is so ugly and torturing. Existence then is no longer entertainment, but a tragedy.

That is where the intercession of the saints comes in.
They remind us that God is all-powerful, and if we unite ourselves with Him, we will no longer be hurt in this playhouse of His.

It is we who inflict pain on ourselves if we transgress the divine laws on which He rests the whole universe. Our salvation is to unite with Him.

Unless we attune ourselves to God and know thereby that this world is but a cosmic entertainment, we are bound to suffer. It seems that suffering is a necessary discipline to remind us to seek union with God.

Then, like Him, we will be entertained by this fantastic play.

Paramahansa Yogananda
Journey to Self-Realization
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At the time of death ordinary people remember their worldly attachments and pleasures. That magnifies the pain and leads the mind to sorrow. But the aspirant who has clarity of mind remembers the name of the Lord and thus does not have unpleasant experiences at the time of departure. When the mantra is remembered consciously, it is recorded by the unconscious. During the time of departure when the conscious mind fails, any thought or desire that is prominent in the unconscious leads the individual according to its nature. It is very important to repeatedly remember the name of the Lord so that the impression created by repeated remembrance is the strongest impression in the unconscious.

-SWAMI RAMA

So long as you have not found God, it is best not to be interested in amusements.  Seeking diversion means forgetting Him. First learn to love Him and know Him. Then it wont  matter what you do, for He will never leave your thoughts.

~ Sri Paramahansa Yogananda,

Every thought we think sets up a particular subtle vibration….When you mentally utter the word God, and keep on repeating that thought within, it sets up a vibration that invokes the presence of God.

Paramahansa Yogananda,
Sanctuary of the Soul

Do not be afraid of God because of what you have done in the past.  The past is gone; it is beyond your control. What is done, is done; you cannot go back and change it, so why continue to berate yourself? You can atone only by becoming better now. Live the life shown by the Great Ones. And remember: All those who are wandering in the valley of dark delusion, whoever among them has given even a little thought to God – even a momentary yearning for Him – that desire shall ultimately save them.

– Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
Book – Solving The Mystery of Life
Chapter – Live The Life Shown by The Great Ones, page 267-268

Everything in this universe is run by one Supreme Power, but if people will not keep to the destined path appointed for them, but stray beyond its limits, then God punishes them and through that they turn towards the Self.

But when the punishment finishes, they stop worshipping and sin again, thereby inviting an increased punishment.

Agitation or anxiety is a sign of having strayed from destiny, whereas on the appointed path they will remain peaceful and content.

They should abide in the Self and not seek to stray into desires and ambitions beyond what God gives, but be egoless.

Sri Bhagavan

People repeat God’s name in various ways, as they are taught. According to my experience if the mantra is recited with proper breathing, the mind becomes silent and samadhi ensues.
Even when Arjuna was fighting a war, his peace was not shaken. Without peace there is no samadhi. The peace that results from Self-realization is the real samadhi. The rest are mental constructs.

Know that you are not the body or the mind or prana, and be quiet. Then the actions performed by the body-mind will not affect you.

To whom has birth happened?
To whom does old age come?
Think about that.
All good and bad habits come with the body, and go with the body. But you are not the body. As long as you take yourself as the body, there will be a sense of being a man or a woman with the accompanying pains and pleasures. All attributes depend upon body-consciousness.
Our true nature has no attributes.

The ultimate Truth, Paramatman, has no caste or creed. The one who is the knower recognizes this and keeps silent. If I tell you to do some ritual you will do it, but it will not be of any use to you. Your miseries are because of your consciousness, not because of the world. Knowledge that can be spoken is of the nature of ignorance. Any action in the world is just entertainment. Unless you forget this entertainment, there will be no peace. The real jnani does not see the world as true at all. A jnani has no problem of whether to act or not to act. Hence, nothing can be said about his household.

Just saying, ‘I am not the body, I am not the
mind’, is not sufficient. It should be known whose attributes are the body and the mind. Only wordy knowledge will not do.

Consciousness in the body is the characteristic of the essence of food. It will last as long as the essence is there. All things are contained in consciousness. Prana and consciousness arise out of the food essence.
How long will they last?
Consciousness through which you experience the world is not everlasting.

!!! MEDITATIONS with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Nirupana 90. An excerpt.
Thursday, February 1, 1979.

Surrender is to surrender your concept of separateness, your ego.
Surrender is to submit your stupidness, your wickedness,
to the will of existence. That´s all.
You must surrender like a river discharging into the ocean.
Surrender is to discharge your river of separateness
into the ocean of Being, losing your limitations,
and allowing to happen what happens.

~ Papaji