Coming and leaving with nothing

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Once there was a guru who said to one of his disciples, “My dear, you have lived in the world now, you have lived very happily but now it is time for you to dedicate yourself and realize your Self.” Then the disciple said, “But Master, I have a beautiful wife who loves me sooo much and I also love her very much.”
The Master didn’t argue much with the disciple, he just told him, “Listen, I will give you a secret technique of yoga practice, practice it and you will see the result.”
A few weeks later, the man was practising his new yoga technique, where he was locked in a certain asana, so that his heart stopped beating. Then the wife came and saw him in the middle of the living room, she said, “My dear husband, what has happened to you?” She tried to wake him up, but she saw that he was cold, like dead. She started yelling, and crying, very loudly, “Oh my husband, you have left me!”
Hearing that, all the neighbours ran to the house to see what was happening. And they saw that the man was dead. They tried to comfort the lady, and said, “You know, this is God’s will.” But the lady was crying very dramatically, “Why have you left me? Why? We still have a lot of dreams, and you promised to make this and that!”
Then one of the neighbour came with an axe and started to break the door frame - because the man was in a such yoga position, that it was difficult to take him out of the door. Seeing that, the wife stopped crying, went directly to the neighbour and said, “What are you doing? Why are you cutting my door?” The neighbour said, “Well, you see in which position your husband is, so it will be difficult to take him out of the house.” Then the lady said, “My goodness! Why are you breaking this door? Look, this ill fate has happened on us and he has left us early, now I am a widow, I have nobody to sustain or help me. So, because he is already dead, you should chop off his hands and feet instead of cutting the door.”
Hearing that, the man came back to himself and said, “Wife! Is it what you meant, when you said that you loved me? After I died or: my death, you would cut me into pieces?” He realized that his Master was or: had been right and he left everything; it was time for him to go.
We always say this is ‘our’, this is ‘mine’, we always say that we posses things. But I am asking you, “What have you come here with?” In the Gita, Krishna said, “You have come with nothing, you came empty-handed. Everything that you took, you took it from here and when you will go, you will leave everything here.”

When you have God, you have everything

Sri Swami Vishwananda: The less you desire God, the more you will be attached to this world.
It's upon to you!
It's your choice!
Each and individual choice.
Whereas, when you have God, you will have everything, you will have the world, you will have everything material- but you will be detached from it.
Somebody will take it, and you will say:”Okay, take. Go. It doesn't matter to me.”


Listen here to Kees Kraayenoord's Song - "God be in everything"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnTilxNH334

This song was born out of a moring prayer from 1527.
God be in my head and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes and in my looking.
God be in my mouth and in my speaking.
God be in my heart and in my thinking.
God be at mine end and in my departing.

Surrender your mind and your heart

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Surrender your mind.
Surrdender your heart- your heart, which is full of Love.
The heart stays pure always.
Surrender it to Him.
And in case there is doubt- in case, there is anything negative that you feel- you know about it- don't feed this negativity.
But instead of feeding it: offer it to the Lord.
Turn to God and say:”God, look! I want to be spiritual, I want to realize Yourself, Myself- but, you know, there is this small thing that is stopping me- can you get rid of it?”
When you say to Him:”Help me get rid of it!”, He will come and rescue and say:”Yes, I will help you. I will get rid of it.”
But if you want to play with it, He will stand by your side, saying:”My dear child. Look, I have come! But you're playing with it. Well, I'm happy to look at you, playing with it.”

Here a wonderful Love Letter of God.... Read it and imagine Him looking over your shoulder and smiling to you- you, who are His child. A child of God. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggGwDrxrC2k

The more you desire God, the more you have to let go

Today Sri Swami Vishwananda is explaining to us, that prayer to the outside in the form of Puja or other rituals is of course good, but that it is of more value to do your prayer inside and also to concentrate permanently on the Divine, like the Saints did. For example Mirabai on Krishna or St.Therese on Jesus.

Sri Swami Vishwananda: You rush to God, but at the same time, you don't want to let go of many things.
We like to hang on things.
We think that we really need it for Self- realisation.
Do you think, for Self-realisation we need this insence!?
We need these deities, this statues!?
We don't need all this!
This helps us only.
These things are here to help us to achieve... because our mind has to focus on something.
But in reality, we don't need all this.
If we have faith really, we don't need all this.
So when you have faith, God will show His formless form to you.
I said formless form, because the mind need something. Even the abstinence is a form.
But beyond that He will show it, He will grand you the vision of that.
But know one thing: the more you desire God, the more you have to let go off the world.
Here again a Bhajan from one of the greatest Saints: Mirabai, who was a Rajput Princess. But despite Her material wealth, She was only interested in spiritual wealth and thus let go of everything.
Even though She was called mad, She renounced everything (even Her husband), to merge with Her Beloved Krishnaji.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBKNpxH-z5w
In India about 500 years ago, there was a poet-saint called Meerabai. She was born into royalty and since childhood was a staunch devotee of Lord Krishna.
This is one of Her devotional poems in Hindi, or bhajans.
It is beautifully written and no matter what kind of lifestyle we come from or what religion we follow, we can use it to progress on our own paths to God and to experience the Love that Meerabai and God shared.

"Out of a million, only a few willl attain me."- Krishna

Sri Swami Vishwananda is talking about one of the greatest obstacles that keeps us away from attaining the Divine: The fear of letting go. So let's just change and become able to realize the Divine Light and Love of Sri Krishnaji.



Sri Swami Vishwananda:
Isn’t it said in the Gita?
Krishna said: “Out of a million, only a few will attain me.”
Because we hear things, but we are still deaf.
Why?
Because we don’t want to change.
We say “Yes, we want to change.” But in reality, very few, really, really, really sincerely want to change.

Okay, just here now, with a small group- then we will multiply it by a million afterwards.
How many sincerely will do anything to attain, to receive the grace of God?
Sincerely, eh?
Just lift your hand. Anything, I mean anything, any, any, any, anything! (laughter)
Any test that God gives you? You will bear it.
(Devotee 5:Bear it or go into this thing? (laughing))
Sri Swami Vishwananda: Not about going, well, this is up to… It’s just a question.
We don’t need to know what kind of tests God gives us… (laughter) (laughing)
Otherwise it would not be a test. So sincerely.
(Devotee 6: If He guarantees us that we will attain Him if we do it) (Some people are lifting their hands)
Even from those who have lifted their hands I can pick out…maybe one or two from that. (laughing)
(Devotee 5: So and what is then our obstacle?)
Each one has their own obstacle. The fear of letting go.

So why fear? Watch here one of the sweetest videos, i have ever seen. Sweet Krishnaji dancing with His eternal Queen Radharani. Please watch and feel the joy increasing in your heart :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPDTMJ-MWaI&feature=related

Free yourself from illusion and surrender to God

Today Sri Swami Vishwananda gives us an important advice for our spiritual path:

Everybody wants to get liberation quickly. But how many people really want to surrender? Only a few. Everybody wants liberation, but only a few people want to surrender... Only a few people want to let go of and say: “Lord, yes, I let go of everything, this is all just an illusion. I surrender to you!” But no- people like the illusion. They like to dance with the Maya and when Maya has Her effect on people, they like to complain also: “God, why I am having like this? I pray to you every day, but still I am suffering so much!” Whereas, somebody who is wise, surrenders to the Lord. Whatever God gives this person, this person will regard everything as a gift from the Lord. So, the difference is: both of them pray to God, but one has surrendered and the other one has not surrendered everything. He still hangs on his things. That's why the two are different. The one will percieve everything as God's giving. He will enjoy the Lord, whatever may come. But the other one will blame God always, no matter what comes he will say: “Why I am having this?” So, in that way we see that in this world nowadays, only a few people really achieve a spiritual life.

Letting go of your identity

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells you today: Let go of your identity, let go of this ‘I’, this egoism that makes you focus only on the outer. When you let go of your identity, the Divine will reveal itself to you. Then you will see the unlimited. You will feel the blissful happiness. So open up – if the mind is still troubling you, take any divine aspect, focus your mind on it and surrender to the Divine aspect until you reach the formless. From the form to the formless.

Are you ready to sacrifice everything?

Once there was a teacher. He said to his disciple: “My dear disciple, now it’s time for you to find God fully. To fully realize yourself. Actually that's what we are here for. In the Hindu tradition we have four questions in life that we ask ourselves: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? And why are we here? These four questions only. If you can answer these four questions you are fully realized. So the Guru said to the disciple: “Now it’s time for you to fully realize yourself. Come.” The disciple said “My dear teacher, I love you so much. But you know: My wife loves me so much and she will be really unhappy”. So the teacher thought for a while and said “Okay my dear. If you really think that she loves you that much... you are perfect in yoga. Take this pill." He gave him some pills and he said to him “Next Monday, before you go to bed, take this pill. When you take this pill, you will appear dead to the outside, but you will hear everything.” He said “Okay, let’s try it”. Monday arrived, he took the pill at night and he slept. The next morning, normally it was decided that he will wake up early. When the wife saw that he is not getting up, she was asking herself 'what’s wrong?' The wife started to push him "Hey, get up”- Nothing, no reaction. Then she started screaming so strong, that the neighbours and everybody came. So everybody was crying “Oh, why have you left us?” The wife threw herself on the body and said “Oh, why have you left me alone here? We are here for each other.” Big crying. The son came and said “Father, why have you left us?” The mother came and said “Oh my son, I should have died before you. You are so young. You still have your full life in front of you." At that moment the teacher, the Guru came and said “Why are you calling everybody?" And they said “Oh he has left us. Our father, husband and son left us.” Then the Guru said “Well, I have a solution. I see that all of you love him so much. The wife just said “Oh my dear husband, I should have died at your place.” The mother said the same thing. Then the Guru said “Well, I have a pill here. Whoever will drink this pill will die in the place of that person. And the person will be revived. So the Guru turned to the wife and said her “Mataji, respectful mother, you were just crying that you should have died in your husband’s place, no? This is what a good wife will do. You love him so much. Here take this pill.” That moment the wife stopped crying and said “Why are you saying that? I have little grand-children. It is his bad luck that he died. I can’t do that.” He turned to the Mother “Mother you were just saying you are old, you can take the pill.” The Mother said “Well, it’s his Karma. I can’t do that. I still have my grand-children to look after.” So everybody said the same thing. That moment the Guru took some water and threw it at the man’s face. The man woke up, looking at everybody, how great they were expressing the love, but in the time of sacrifice no one is there.

That’s what Christ said, no? A true friend is ready to sacrifice everything. And love is that sacrifice actually. If you truly love, you will sacrifice everything. So come to the point of really feel this love inside of you, because all the other kinds of love have expectations. And very often what we call love, is just passion or desire. Today we love that person, tomorrow we love that person and in one year you don’t even remember who is that person. Real love is just deep inside of you. It’s not in someone else, it’s inside of you. That’s your true nature. That’s who you are in reality. The Divine is not far away. It’s not in somebody else, it’s inside of you. It’s consuming you everyday little by little. You just need to calm your mind and introvert yourself. See how much you are attracted towards yourself and how much you really, sincerely want the Divine.

Letting go of the Pride

Actually what stops one in one's spiritual advancement is the pride of thinking, that one knows everything.
So the pride and ego always stop oneself, because it is a creation of the mind. The creation that always want for selfish reason and even, when we are aware of it, it’s always jumping to put himself in front, saying “Here, I am in front, You should look at me. Here, I am in front, You should consider me. Here, I am in front, You should feed me. But once you fall in the trapt of it, what happens? You are lost. That’s what Christ said :”The first will be last and the last will be first”, because for the one who is always in front, who always wants to be in front,there is always pride and when you feed the pride you are gone. But how can pride reach divinehood? It’s only through humility, that one can reach God. It’s only through humility, humbleness, that one will shine the light that you have inside of you.
In front of God everybody is equal, whether it is a Saint or not a Saint, whether it’s a rich person or a poor person, whether it’s a white person or a black person. God is Love and He just knows how to love. In your true aspect, deep inside Your heart, You are love. Why is it difficult that You just need to love?
Do You know why it becomes difficult to Love unconditionally? Because of this pride. Whether pride is big or small, as long as you have a little, it will always be an obstruction. Like it is said, that a small pebble can make a huge building fall. But a small pebble, which is fixed properly, can hold the whole building.
But the same stone can make the whole building fall, if it is not fixed properly.
It’s the same thing. If we have our ego under control, we will rise.
But if our pride is visible and extravagant in front of our eyes and we enjoy it , don’t think You will advance.
Especially in spiritual people I see that very often. Not in normal people, because normal people don’t bother about that. Who bothers more about their pride are very often spiritual people. They forget about the Love of God, but they think more about the ego and the pride. How much they are advancing, where they are, how much brilliant light they are seeing- Optic illusion. But if one is humble, one will keep it and introvert it. Whatever You experience, any experience has to help You to advance. When you treasure it inside of You, You will see that You will advance more faster. But when You like to publicize it, just to make you great, it becomes difficult.

The Past

The past is finished.
Leave it back. Don’t bother about the past.
As long as you hang on the past, the past will hang with you.
The more you let go off the past, more you will be free and the more you will be in the present.