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"In life, there are so many distractions, so many roads - hundreds and thousands of them. If you don't have a destination, they're all valid. But if you have a particular place you want to go, the only one that is valid is the one that will take you there.
So often we are not sure what we want in our life. We are not clear about the possibility. We open the window and see everything that is out there: 'That's intriguing. That's interesting; I wish I had that; I wish it was this way or that way.' From the time our head hits the pillow to the time it rises from the pillow, something is forgotten. Who am I? What is this life? What is this existence? What is it all about?
Many people start off on a good footing: 'This life is precious, this is wonderful, this is incredible.' Then off they go - and this includes me - off they go into explanations. We all have our issues and our problems.
How can we say what it means for breath to come into this body, bringing the gift of life? For something so simple to occur, for something so fantastic, so amazing to occur, that every single human being on the face of this earth gets touched by this magic? The magic of this breath coming in, the magic of life as it unfolds, as it dances every day.
Human beings try to hang onto everything they can, not realizing what they should hang onto. The perfect analogy would be that of a boat that has started to sink. When you realize the boat is sinking, you grab onto anything you can. But don't grab onto the boat because it will take you with it. If you hang onto something that isn't floating, you're going to go down, too.
That's what happens in our lives every day when we are not able to distinguish the nature of the things we are surrounded by. Then there is something that is totally different. Along comes a message that says: 'Be in peace.'
What does it mean to be in peace? That's what we need to understand. Yes, there are doubts. There are all those things. But none of those are the vessel the gift of breath comes into. Life is not about my problems. It is about my need to be fulfilled, my need to quench my thirst. This is what I want more than anything else. My most fundamental need is to fulfill what my heart wants fulfilled in my life - not just once, but again and again. I need it every day. I need it as much as possible.
The question always comes up: 'I don't have enough time. I have so many responsibilities.' You don't have to abdicate even one responsibility. Whatever you do and however you are and whatever you are, you can still feel peace.
We live in a world where we can do multiple things. We are in a multiprocessor society. We want to do as much as we can. But that doesn't mean we're clear about what it is that we really want to do. We need clarity about what we fundamentally want in life.
How much gratitude do I feel that I am alive? How clear am I that it means everything to me that this breath came into me and I was able to recognize it? Just even one. Feel the feeling - every breath as it manifests. It is the feeling of peace."
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life | Permalink
Maharaji started by reminding the audience that, as long as we do not experience a satisfaction that quenches our inner thirst for contentment, questions will keep coming to us. Hence the first priority is to quench our thirst. Each breath that comes and goes, he said, is a gift. He described the human body as a boat to get across an ocean of doubts and illusion. He described the role of a teacher as someone who helps guide this boat across to the other side - a difficult task which the right teacher can render easy.
Knowledge, he reminded the audience, is a subject that is beyond the comprehension of the mind. This can be a hard concept to grasp, since the mind is the only tool we have to make sense of things. No label can be put on Knowledge, he said. All a person can do is experience it for themselves through the techniques which Maharaji shows.
To a question from a person asking him how to get hold of the joy in every breath, Maharaji explained that Knowledge is needed. Knowledge is what allows us to catch this joy. This is not a joy that can be thought about, he said; it is a joy to be witnessed, to be felt.
The difficulty in doing so, he said, is that we have bad habits: We are used to looking on the outside for what we need. When it comes to looking for joy, we think it is on the outside, too, and that's where we look for it. We like to think that joy and peace are far from us. We like to point at them as if they were in the future or in some remote, distant place. All we need to do, he said, is remove the curtain. It is just like a person who wakes up in the morning, opens the curtain to let light come in, and then can see what is inside the room.
To a question from a person wanting to know the difference between real joy and salvation, he said that, with Knowledge, a person gets joy from a place within where there is everything. When that place is reached, a person experiences a deep joy that is a door to salvation.
To a question about whether Knowledge helps a person worry less, he replied that what matters is not so much whether one worries, but what one worries about. There are good worries, he said, like worrying about finding joy within or catching joy in each breath. Human beings worry, and we can link our worrying with pain or joy.
To another person who asked whether it would be advisable to relinquish all worldly possessions and responsibilities to dedicate himself to experiencing this Knowledge, Maharaji replied by emphasizing the importance of taking care of worldly responsibilities and of the even greater importance of remembering our most fundamental responsibility. Our fundamental responsibility, he said, is to fulfill the purpose for which we have been given this life. As to whether it was advisable to be a recluse, he said that he was not able to answer this question since he was neither a recluse nor a hermit. Maharaji explained that all he had done was recognize something beautiful within himself and surrender to that. To find joy, he said, it is not necessary to be a recluse.
A person who said he was a devout follower of his religion asked Maharaji about how to have an experience within, something he said he had not been able to get from his religion. Maharaji likened Knowledge to water. The experience that we are looking for is within, he said, and the teacher can help put our hand on the glass that holds the water we are looking for - the glass from which we can drink and experience the water. Until that time, we only know that there is water. With Knowledge, we can put our hand on the glass and drink.
The next question came from a person who said he was "neither educated nor intelligent." He said that he had realized that he had many flaws and wondered if someone like him could learn this Knowledge. Maharaji replied that no one could be more intelligent than a person who recognizes his flaws. He asked this person not to belittle himself. Often, Maharaji said, the more people are educated, the less educated they are. He told the person that he had everything he needed, and that if he wanted joy in his life, this was possible, too.
in Maharaji: Life | Permalink
Maharaji told the story of a queen who was taking a bath one day. She took off her necklace and put it on a table. A crow saw the necklace through the open window, flew into the room, grabbed it, and flew away. The crow brought it to a tree where he then tried to eat the necklace. When the crow did not find the necklace to his liking, he just left it there lying on a branch.
The queen was desperate: her favorite necklace was gone. When the king came back home that night, he found her in disarray. He offered to get her a better necklace, but she said that no other necklace would do. She wanted that necklace. The king announced that whoever would find the necklace would get a reward. Some people in his kingdom looked for the necklace but could not find it. The king increased the reward. More people looked, but still could not find it. In despair, he said that the person who would find the necklace would get half of his kingdom. Everyone in the kingdom started searching.
There was a canal filled with dirty water near the palace, and under a tree, someone saw a reflection of the necklace in the water. So the person took off his clothes and jumped into the dirty water. When some other people saw him jump in, they suspected that he had found the necklace and they jumped in, too. Soon, some police officers passing by saw what was happening and jumped in, too. The head of the police who was passing by jumped, too, hoping he would be the one to find the necklace. None of them could find it. They all saw that the image was still there, and so they concluded that it was an illusion.
A saint walked by. He asked all these people, "Why are you all jumping into this dirty water?" They told him. He replied, "What you are looking for is not in this dirty water; it is up there in the tree. It is simply a reflection."
Maharaji said we are the same. The real love is within, but we look outside for it. We try to look for it in this world's dirty water. Many people take off their clothes and jump into the world's dirty water in the hope of finding the love that they are looking for. When they do not find what they are looking for, they say that they will find it after they die.
But, he said, if what they are looking for can be found after they die, why do they have life now? What sense does this make? Why were they created? Why does this breath come and go into them now? Why is it that within us there is a thirst for love, if love is only to be found after death?
Maharaji observed that everyone wants their life to be successful. Not a single person does not want to succeed, in their own way. For some people, success is having a large family; for others it is amassing wealth or gaining a position in society.
Maharaji said the role of the teacher is to remind people that what they are looking for is inside of them. He challenged the people, asking them if they realized how much they have received already. So much has been given already, he said, what is needed is to accept it. Gifts started with the first breath that was given to us. Each breath that comes is the touch of the creator. Sadness, he said, is when the breath comes and we do not recognize it. The biggest heaven is here. Those who do not recognize that are in the biggest hell because, while they have the capability to recognize, they do not.
Maharaji reminded everyone how precious life is. While we came empty handed, he said, there is no reason to go empty handed. It is important that no day, no moment, goes wasted. He reminded everyone of how important it is to have peace in their life. To do that, he said, we need to stop cheating and hiding ourselves from ourselves.
Whenever there has been a call from our heart to find fulfillment, to find joy, we have said, "No. I am busy now. I have other things to do." If this is not cheating the self, what is?
One day, he said, all that came from this earth has to go back to this earth. What once was ash will be ash again. Each of us is sitting on a gold mine; there is a gold mine within each breath. If we dig into this mine, we will be richer than we can imagine.
He concluded by saying that we should make our life successful. We should be rich. Richness, he said, is love inside. Richness is peace in the heart. The day we are clear about this, all the questions will go away.
in Maharaji: Life | Permalink
