Extract from Sri Swami Vishwananda's Satsang

Study Circle Mauritius

11^th January 2011

Extract from a letter to his nuns by St. Theophan the Recluse (STR) from chapter 8 of his book: …don’t allow the urge to miss this or that Divine Service tempt you because of a need to complete necessary work. Remember that any work cannot be successful if God’s blessing is not upon it…

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Here you see when people work outside they are not aware of God’s grace in it and the work becomes mechanical. Life becomes routine. One day passes and the next day is the same. We can come and the same routine happens and life goes on like that. And then there’s nothing really happening in one’s life, because in one’s life there is not the grace of God into it. So that is what that means.

STR: Do not incriminate yourselves. Secondly, don’t be tempted to yield to the artificially attractive idea of staying in your cell while the others are going to Church out of the wish to pray with a little more fervency in solitude. Aren’t there other times for solitary prayers than the hours set aside for common prayer?

SSV:…Some people go to prayer in the morning and in the evening, but some say “No we will do our meditation in the room by ourselves, solitude etc…”, but it’s all rubbish. You see, community prayer is very important, but for personal prayer everyone can do it anytime. When they can sit and do rubbish things and talk and waste their time in other things, how come they can’t take their time to do their personal prayer? When there is community prayer everyone has to go...

STR: If so, then pray alone at those times. You must always go to the common service established by the rule. Here, in assembly, prayer is warmer and more fervent, and always more fruitful.

SSV: Now you see what is said? Prayer is more fruitful, because what you get in community prayer is stronger than [in] personal prayer. Remember when I said last time what Jesus said: When two or three are gathered in my name I shall be around. There is a similar parable in the Gita that Krishna said: Within the community of Man, whomever is praising my name, I shall be among them. He didn’t say one person chanting, but the community prayer. The mutual love is stronger there, because the people forget about their own egoistical pride for themselves and they are concentrating on the Divine, even if it is just out of pride. The community [being] altogether creates another atmosphere, another energy. Very often the mind tries to find excuses not to do it, but who is at loss? [It is] the person himself [who loses].

STR: “Where two or three are gathered in my name”, says the Lord, “there am I in the midst of them.”(Matthew, 18:20), and where there is God there is every spiritual good. What a pity that some people deprive themselves of this treasure! Doesn’t it happen that some who stay in their cells not only miss the common prayer, but, also, don’t manage to pray at home, and in this way do two wrongs – break the rules and harm themselves, as well? Therefore, isn’t it better to set yourself a rule once and for all never to yield to such a thought?

SSV: What he is saying here is that excuses are many. Even if you think you are sitting in your room trying to pray by yourself, it is fruitless and you are breaking the first rule itself. The rule of obedience is gone.

Have you changed?

Sri Swami Vishwananda was asking us an important question during the Satsang on the 23rd December. The question if we have really changed since we came on the spiritual path.

Sri Swami Vishwananda:

Christmas is back- have we changed? Every year we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the nativity of the One, the Savior, who had been born to help humanity, the great Master, who had come to give an example to humanity. But let's ask ourselves: Have we changed? What has changed in our lives? One person will say “Yes I changed my life. I have become spiritual.” You know the word very much in the world outside. It’s good, but to be spiritual is not just a title. It’s not just a sticker that we put on ourselves “We are spiritual” or we show outside that we are very spiritual. But what has this done to you? To be spiritual?
What have you changed? Every year at this time, everybody tries to do good, no?
When Christmas is approaching, everybody wants to be good, preparing for the birth of Christ. But Christ is born every day in the heart of men. We have to see that. And we have to change ourselves. We should not expect others to change us, but we have to change ourselves. That’s what I always say: Self-discipline.

Discipline and Bhakti

During a Satsang Sri Swami Vishwananda was once asked : Swami, would you speak please about the balance of Bhakti and discipline? The aspect of discipline in exercises and Sadhana?
Here is his answer:
You see in Bhakti and discipline, devotion and discipline go together. Together with Bhakti you practice discipline. It is that discipline that you put towards yourself, so that you know how you have to do certain things, certain exercises that you do regularly.
This discipline is because you want something…
You know that there is something greater that you want to achieve and you do anything for that. Whether you have to run or whether you have to speed up- you will do anything. That’s where the discipline comes from, that’s where the Sadhana comes from.
And this is also a part of Bhakti. This is actually the beginning of Bhakti.
That devotion comes to a point, where you practice all this, but real devotion crosses over all this. There is a big different between- we start with discipline, we start with with certain Sadhana, where we throw ourselves into and which will lead us to surrender.
Until we don’t throw ourselves into something, it’s very difficult to surrender. To what to surrender? We don’t know, because the mind still plays a big role in everything, our mind still is in action with everything, but to calm this mind we need to do certain Sadhana.
This is where you take the step to throw yourself, saying “Yes”. You have the determination and you know you have the goal. You know where it is leading you. You know the goal that you want to achieve and you throw yourself into it. So how do you want to achieve it? Do you you want to put breaks and go slowly or do you want to go directly? There are different ways.

How Sadhana can help us to focus on our heart

Discipline helps us to calm our mind, because when the mind is very agitated on the spiritual path, we can’t concentrate. We can’t really focus ourselves on our heart. So even if you want to focus yourself on your heart, your mind is jumping, jumping, jumping. So we do our Sadhana. We chant, we practice Yoga or we do Om Healing or Atma Kriya to calm the mind. It helps that we can listen more clearly to ourselves and realize the Divine within ourselves. Not just tell somebody “Just do your Sadhana and meditate and you will attain God"... It’s true: If one is sincere towards oneself, one will attain God, because God will come to that person and will manifest Itself, the heart will manifest itself. But yet we look at the world and ask “How many people really are sincere towards themselves in that way?” We are so busy with what we see outside, what we think. We want to always analyze everything with our mind, that we give so much less importance to the heart, even when we know that “Yes, we have to be in the heart, but we see how dominant our mind is."So without saying “Yes, I want really strongly to follow, I want to change and I want really to attain my goal, it's difficult.”We can outside say “Yes, yes, yes I want this”, but inside we say “Wow, it’s far away”. As long as you see this distance and are discouraged, you will not enjoy your practice. It doesn’t matter how big the distance is. Keep trying. And never loose hope.

The single-minded Fisherman/ Concentrated Sadhana

What does it mean to be single-minded? I will tell you a small story: Once there was a fisherman sitting on his boat, on the river bench actually, throwing his bait inside the river and there he was waiting for the fish to eat the bait. The focussed that he was, he was just looking at the bay, well at the floating, when he was sink inside. He knew there were a lot of fishes around. A stranger was passing by and said to the man “Mr., can you tell me where Mr. X stay?” He was too concentrated, no answer. Second he repeated again this question one time, two times, three times -no answer. This stranger really got angry and walked his way. As he was walking away, the fisherman was very satisfied...he saw the floating go down, he pulled and caught the fish. Then he called the man and said “Hey, you were calling me. You were telling me something. Tell me. What were you telling me? What were you asking? “Then the man, the stranger said “I repeated my question several times to you, but it was as if you didn’t hear me or see me. Why should I repeat it again?”
That was one-single mindedness, focus. When you meditate you can achieve this state. When you do your sadhana, you can achieve a state, where nothing can disturb you. No left, no right. No hearing, no seeing, because in the deepness of meditation or deepness of your practice, you have to really focus. But if you are not disciplined with yourself, do you think you will have this focus? No, this is where everything get’s uncertain. You will do prayer and you will be very superficial, because you are not satisfied with yourself. With self-discipline you have to work for it. It’s a purification of the mind and senses.

Self-discipline

We often ask ourselves what is the most important on the spiritual path? The most important thing on the spiritual path is self-discipline. This is a word which many don’t like to hear, because it’s only through self-discipline that you will be able to do your sadhana. Without self-discipline it’s very difficult, because you will always find excuses not to do something. You will always try to find excuses not to go to the prayer in the morning, because it’s too early in the morning. But what is sadhana? What does the word sadhana mean? Some things by which we will attain or spiritual goal. That’s what sadhana is. In sadhana there is perseverance, there is eagerness, there is patience. Without these three you can try as much as possible- very difficult. That’s how your mind will always make you think “Oh, today I’m a bit tired. I will not go to prayer” or “I will not do this or I will not do that”. Then you start to build up this self-undiscipliness, because there is a lack of perseverance. You want to achieve your spiritual goal, you want to realize yourself. Do you think it happens just like that? No. Because if one just sits around and thinks " I will go to prayer whenever I want, I will do my sadhana whenever I want", then God will also say “I will come to you whenever I want”. Well, He will come to you whenever He wants, it’s true, but you can make Him come faster. You can make Him awake and consume you faster. And this is done only through your discipline.

The sculptor

Today Sri Swami Vishwananda shares the following story with us:

Once there was a boy. He was studying sculpture. His father was his teacher. He was a well-known sculptor. So he will study and after some time the father said “My son now it’s time for you to go and study further in this school”. So he went to school to study. He went to college to study and he became very, very, very good in the art of sculpturing and everybody flatted him- Everybody. Whenever he will make a beautiful statue, everybody flatted him, saying “Oh your statue is so perfect, so good.” But when he shows this statue to the father, the father will always find something negative into the sculpture. Even if this people would say it’s perfect, it’s very beautiful, but the father would say “No, it’s wrong”. So, after years and years, the son started to think "Why my father always said that I have some defects in the statue?" So, one day an idea crossed his mind. He said to one of his close friends “Here, I have sculptured this beautiful sculpture, I would like you to bring this statue to my father and say that you have sculptured this statue and I will hide and listen.” So, the friend brought the statue to the father of the boy. When the father saw the statue, such a beauty, such a finesse in the statue, he started praising the sculpture and also the sculptor. He said "For sure who ever has sculptured this statue, should be a very great artist." And as he was praising, the son came out from the hiding and said: “Father, I sculptured the statue. I am the sculptor of this statue. I sculptured it. This is my statue. You always find defects in the statue, but right now you are praising the statue. Tell me now what do you see as defects in the statue?” Then the father said “Okay my son, now its time for you to know the truth.” He said :“These statues you have carved were always perfect, but I have never told you. From the beginning they were perfect, they were very good, but I have never told you that, for your ego and pride not to stop you. Who you are today, is because every time that I have said there is a defect, you have tried to improve yourself. But if from the beginning I would have told you "Yes, you are right what would have happened? You would have stopped your progressing. The ego would have taken place and you would have stopped everything." Hearing that the son fell at his father’s feet and said “Really you are a great teacher” and from that moment he didn’t stop progressing.

The same thing is in spiritual life also .You see when little things happen in one's life, very often people put in on such a big platform, forgetting the greatness that such a little thing can show.

So, if one forgets about the tiny things, the ego, the pride and is humble one will attain discipline, one will attain His love and one will get greater things.

The Love of God

When the mother is holding her child, there is no condition. Such is also the love of God. Whatever you have done good or bad, when you turn to Him, who has the love of a million mothers inside of Him, He will happily forgive.
If a child makes a mistake, the mother forgives and wishes that the child will be good and change, but what about the father? He will forgive, but with time.
The discipline part and the loving part is both important. So, when we turn to the Divine with our good and with our not good qualities, He will accept us. Because He loves us and He is calling all of us to love the same way as Him. But yet our mind is a big barrier.