Sraddha and Saburi

The two words that Shirdi Sai Baba chose for His devotees to follow at all times were Sraddha and Saburi. These two words translate as Faith and Tolerance.

Well, the way scores of people going to temples and Shirdi Sai Mandir believe; "I must have faith in God and that I have to tolerate God while He ignores me and until He looks at me and I must believe in God and believe that justice will be delivered in the end. And that suffering is a part of life which is undeniable and that, suffering will wipe out my karma and I will have no more life's after this one I am enduring."

The truth is somewhat different and quite the opposite!

God has faith in us and shows tolerance towards us. He allows us to be the roles we play. In this role play that we merge into, we forget God and believe in the tangible and temporary luxuries and pleasures. 

God tolerates us and believes in us that someday we will turn back towards Him. He sometimes waits an entire human lifespan and sometimes several lifespans until finally something He does, reminds us of Him and we turn towards Him.

So, how can we be as He guides?

I was at a satsang today and heard some very sound words. My mentor said; there is no free will. Free will is of God. We have only one choice at all times. We can either bed as God is or be as the mind wants.

So, if we decide to be as God is, we have to practice being in meditation every day. Practice will help separate us, the God Self, from the mind. It requires us to sit in one place, practicing being the witness.

During the day, we must practice observing our breath in-between every thought and every action. This way is simple but not easy.

It's not easy because it requires constant practice. The mind will slowly and surely rest as a useful and powerful tool that will be used when required while we stay connected and integrated with God.

Practice alone is the path to realise your true nature.

-- Mahesh Krishnamurthy

Why is Meditation Necessary?

The realisation "I am That" is born with me. And when I am That, I am everything. If I am indeed everything, where is a need to create? If there is nothing to create, why am I here? And what is the purpose of my existence?

 

The creator of All That Is, created to play, not to be lost in Creation. There is a difference between creating and losing oneself in ones creation. 

 

I create to know who I really am! I play with myself. I appreciate my creation. Yet, I don't lose myself in creation. This is the game.

 

But the mind is unstable. I keep connecting to the mind. And the mind is a plane of imperfections. The more imperfections I see, the more I want to create. Creation begins with thoughts. I get immersed in thoughts and thoughts will bring me to the false realisation that when I am finished with creating something, I will arrive at perfection. The short lived feeling of perfection causes me to create once more and several times more. It just goes around itself endlessly.

 

To get back into that state of being, I just need to be. The only times I seem to get there is when I am too tired to create, or when I am asleep. Either ways, I am unaware of my state of being. Awareness of my state of being is meditation.

 

The longer I take to begin, more are the challenges I will face.

 

My natural instinct is my divinity, the love that I Am. By being in the mind, creating and losing myself in creation, I take myself away from my reality.

 

It's like a tiger that is taken away from its mother and raised in a circus. The tiger has a natural instinct to hunt. But, because of the way it is raised, it forgets its instinct and believes in doing anything for food including begging. All that a tiger needs to know, is of its place in the food chain in the forest where it belongs, and that's when it will allow itself to be.

 

It's only with constant and consistent awareness that I will arrive at my true state of being and then allow existence to happen through Me. I am then playing with My creation and not indulging in it.

 

This is the principle of the creator, creation and created - There is only one, no separation. I have come to realign with this truth yet again. This is my purpose. I will have fun, be happy and love myself and everything around me just the way it is. I am That.

 

-- Mahesh Krishnamurthy 

Hearts of God

The muck that surrounds religious intolerance, conversion, reconversion and increasing religious populations has increased many fold and is revealing the worst side of the self-styled religious heads.

Conflicts within a religion such as the battle for and against the mangalsutra, the Shia-Sunni Muslim wars, and conflicts in other religions too, brings to fore the deep rooted frustrations within oneself and in their families which are projected as anti-religious feelings. All these happenings sprouts a question in my mind... Whom are we fighting?

Recently, I was invited to the Divine Mercy Church at Honchinetti Village, Belgaum to address the Christian parishioners on the occasion of tri-dum (the 3 days before Divine Mercy, the day when Jesus the Christ left his physical body).

For a Brahmin, it is one of the invitations to be rejected outright. For a Hindu, and a Brahmin, this invitation must fall short of grace because he is supposed to be on the top of the Hindu hierarchical triangle.

My accepting the invitation has rewarded me immensely. I wish to share the revelations and realisations so the air that we breathe which is poisoned with politics in religion is purified to some extent.

At the Church, I was accorded the most warm welcome and was accommodated within the Church premise with space given to practice my Brahminical rituals. Even on days when the sisters came offering tea, I opened my room door. They saw me smeared in sacred ash and in traditional Brahmin clothes and performing my puja. Their warm smile and good morning wishes did not fade or change. I was witness to the tolerance and forbearance of the sisters, something not new to them! Mother Teresa has exemplified it scores of times.

As the lecture and practice sessions happened, the Priest and the parishioners listened and practiced forgiveness, gratitude and receiving the Love of God. On several occasions, me and several others felt the energy in the Church rise only to fill our hearts with love and gratitude and left our eyes moist with His love.

The Almighty God, Parameswara or Paramatma is One within us, no matter which religion we belong to, and this, we felt in our hearts.

If there is a conflict, it exists in our heads and within our families and we want to win over public support to fuel our ego. 

There is more bitterness in the heads of people who call the Almighty One Parameswara Vs those who call Him Narayana, between the various factions of Muslims and likewise within Christians and other religions too.

We need scriptures to be a better Hindu and doctrines to be a better Christian. There is no conflict in the real practitioner who needs no scriptures to be a Hindu or doctrines to be Christ like.

Let our existence bring out the Divine Light within that we can share with all of humanity for we are truly made in His image. We are born from Love and Love is our form.

Om tat sat... Amen

-- Mahesh Krishnamurthy 

Can you really serve God?

To serve God, first we must be as God is. Do we understand what it is to be God? We have to free ourselves  from all entrapments of the ego before even thinking of serving God.

The ego manifests as hurt feelings, anger against oneself and others, unhappiness, fear, greed, hatred towards others and their behaviour, guilt, lust, sorrow, grief from loss of a loved one. 

The ego always wants. The ego has a never ending appetite. It can never get full. It can never be satisfied. The path is clear - Drop your ego and you're God. 

Sounds very simple but it's not easy at all. 

You think of dropping your ego and you encounter an experience where you're challenged and you feel hurt. Ego rules and tells you how you need to stand up for yourself and give it back. The battle never ends. 

If you really want to journey in God, you need to love. Love everyone and everything unconditionally. Unconditional love means to love without reason. 

Loving and respecting are two sides of the same coin. One brings the other. 

Ego stems from memory. If your memory fails, you'll become a saint or a mad person. Either way, you'll be in God. 

To be in God, first drop your memory. What would it be like, if God had a memory of all that you did?

Would you have a chance against the most powerful? He'd wipe you out right now. But, God does not have a memory because he's a lover. He loves you unconditionally. And that's all He is. He's love and love is what you'll get from Him. 

To love, you must forgive and to forgive, you must stop judging. When you forgive, you take yourself closer to God. And do you know what God does? He brings to you from your memory a hundred or thousand other memories for you to forgive so you can get so much closer to Him.

God is ready to do everything for you, only if you'll love. He's here, right now, waiting for you. Make that move right now. 

Reclaim God. He's in you, for you always.

-- Mahesh Krishnamurthy