Asatoma Sat Gamaya....

Sri Swami Vishwananda: So, if you want to Realise your Self, focus more on what you have here inside of you.
You have a great treasure.
Each one of you is special.
Each one of you has special duty, dharma.
And pray that you realise the purpose of your incarnation.
That’s why we pray: Asato ma sat gamaya, Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, Mrityor ma amritam gamaya.
The sages have always prayed this mantra, have always chanted this mantra, which means: From untruth to truth, from darkness to light, from mortality to immortality.
This is who we are. When we have limitation, we are always in the untruth of ourselves, because we don’t see the reality.
We are always in the shadow.
That’s why we ask that the shadow of ignorance be removed and that we are in the light, in the wisdom of the Divine; that our mere mortality is transformed into
our immortality, which is our atma.

This is an excerpt of Just Love

Listen here to the Mantra Om Asatoma Sat Gamaya

The Power of the name of Rama

Sri Swami Vishwananda: There is another story that shows again the power of the name of Rama: There was once a king who did lots of sin in his life. He knew that he would die soon.
So he went to see a guru in one ashram. But when he went there, the guru was in deep meditation. So he waited, and waited, and waited, but the guru didn't come out of his samadhi. The king saw that the son of the guru was there, so he called him, ”Please, your father is in deep samadhi, and I can't wake him up, I can't tell him to come out, so you tell me... Look, I have spent my whole life in hurting people and doing bad things, but now I realize that I have to change certain things in my life. Tell me how would I forgive myself for all this?”
The son thought for a while, and said, “Chant three times the name of Rama, and all your sins will be forgiven but of course you have to chant it with faith, you can’t just chant it with the mere mouth.” The king was very happy. When the guru came back to himself, the son was very excited and said, “Father, father, you know, the king came here!” And he explained everything about why the king had been there. Then the father asked him, “What did you tell him?” The son said, “I told him to chant three times the name of Rama, with faith, and that all his sins would be forgiven.” The father got very angry at that moment, and said: “My son, I curse you, because you don't even know how powerful the name of Rama is. You didn't need to tell him to chant it three times; even one time would have been enough!”

And here a Video with a Bhajan about Lord Rama. Jai Shree Ram!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBypB3DsMwA

The Guru Mantra

Some time ago Sri Swami Vishwananda was explaining the meaning of a Guru Mantra.
Sri Swami Vishwananda: The word itself says it- Guru-mantra: a mantra, which has been given by the Guru. And when a guru gives a mantra to a person, there's also the grace of the Master into it.
When one chants the grace of the Master- the Master has already risen in spirituality, one receives also this part.
So, when a Guru gives you a Mantra and you chant this Mantra, you're also participating in the Divinity of the Master.
But you have to practice it!
It's like: you go to a doctor. The doctor will give you a medicine, but it's upon to you to drink it, no?
So, when you drink it- you will get well!
The same thing.
If you don't have a personal Guru Mantra yet, you can always chant 'Om Namo Narayanaya'- the Mantra for Lord Vishnu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBy0nU2rPEY&feature=related

We were always longing for the Divine

Just like the Hindu Saint Mirabai from Rajasthan, who was yearning all Her life for Krishnaji, Sri Swami Vishwananda is explaining us today that all of us had the same longing century for century. The same is for Christian Saints (see picture with St.Faustina and Her vision of Jesus) or Saints from any other Religion.

Devotee: I feel, that this time is a very energetic time. So everything changes and a lot of people die and all the new things coming up and... yeah, I think it's a very energetic time and it's very important to come back to our roots and to rely on God.
So, is it right, that this time is very important for the future?

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Well... it's not only this time.
This time is more clear, more open to the outside, but- always people were longing for the Divine!
It's not now; now, we can see it because of technology- you have computer, you have all these things, who enable people to look for new things and to grow on their spiritual path.
But always, century for century, people were searching!
Human is born to go back to the source.
But as long as you don't have reached the source, you will still search, no?
So all the times were good!
Even now, it is very good.
So, you should profit from it!
And like I said: technology makes everything easy.
If you wouldn't have a car, you would not have reached here, you would reach here maybe tomorrow, whatever.
So, because of that...
Also it's much easier to realize onself.
It can be easy, if one wants it.
That was the whole thing yesterday, and even today I am talking about it!
But the longing has to be there!
As long, as you don't yearn for God, you can forget about it.

And here the music, that surely describes the desire of all of us to finally reach God-realisation, to merge with the Supreme Lord, who is the Creator of everything:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3KcdKDiRGI
Sainya main Girdhar ke - Bina Mehta - Mirabai

Self-inquiry, Detachment and Prayer

Devotee 2: Swami, what is the difference between self-inquiry, detachment and prayer?

Which has the most intensity?
Sri Swami Vishwananda: You see- all are different actually.
All three are in a certain
category. What was your question again? Prayer? (Devotee 2: Prayer, self-inquiry)
And? (Devotee 2: And detachment) Detachment.
Well, we all start with prayer. (Smiling) It’s a certain stage that builds a foundation.
What is prayer firstly? Prayer is not what we read, but how we converse with the Divine.
Firstly, we have to learn to listen, to do the real Prayer we have to know and learn to listen, to listen deep inside of ourselves.
But this comes to the point of self-inquiry.
We pray, yet it’s nice to feel the Divine, but there is a longing.
Actually Self-inquiry is about realizing why we are here.
These are the four questions that I always ask:
1. Where do we come from ?
2. Where we are going to?
3.Who are we?
4. And where are we?
These four questions.
This is about Self-inquiry.
When you start asking these questions towards yourself, trying to find out really who we are behind this physical body, behind this mind and even behind the heart; and automatically
when one realizes that, there will be certain detachment, certain things that you will have to let go, but this happens also by itself.
Listen and repeat here the OM NAMO NARAYANAYA Mantra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBy0nU2rPEY
(Vishnu, (from the Sanskrit root 'vish', to pervade) is the second god of the Hindu trinityd(see Trimurti) and as the preserver of the universe represents mercy and goodness. He is said to be the cosmic ocean 'nara,' meaning water, which was the only thing in existence before the creation of the universe. For this reason, He is also known as Narayana, or 'one who moves on the waters'. )
For your information:
It is a mantra said in times of trouble to re-establish harmony and balance. Many powers come from saying this mantra. It also aids in attaining enlightenment.

So just try it and see what happens ;-).

The grace of God is with you

Once Sri Swami Vishwananda told us a story about a disciple and his Master.
Sri Swami Vishwanada:

Once a student went to his Guru and said: “Master, I am troubled.”
The master stood right in front of him and came very near to his face and said: “Why do you hang on the illusion?
You know, whatever is in this mind is an illusion, why do you hang on that.
You know very well that deep inside of you only God resides. Why you don’t find joy inside of this?”
Then the master said: “My dear child, recite for 24 hours nonstop your Guru mantra* and meditate intensely for four hours and you will conquer the mind.”
Of course the grace of the Guru was there.
The same way the grace of God is also with you.

* A Guru Mantra is a special and powerful Mantra which is given by the Sadguru and which should not be talked about or given to other persons.

Listen here to the Mantra 'Om Kriya Babaji Namah Om' and meditate on the feet of your Sadguruji.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rabSOIP9i-c

Story about Hanuman / Chanting Mantras wherever you are

During a Speech that Sri Swami Vishwananda gave in Russia in July 2009, he told us following story: Once Hanuman was travelling around. He was flying through the world and He heard somebody chanting “Sri Ram, Sri Ram, Sri Ram” with so much devotion. Hanuman loved Rama so much that whenever there is true devotion for Lord Rama He is present. And as He was flying He heard the sweet words of Ram and said “I have to go and have the Darshan of that Devotee.” So He came on earth and was looking where this person was. Then He saw that man on the toilet, chanting the word of Rama. So the powerful Hanuman became so furious and out of rage He slapped Him. When He reached the palace of Rama, He saw Rama looking outside, turning the face and as Rama turned to look at Him, He saw a big mark. Five fingers on His face. He said “My Lord, what is this?” Rama said “Don’t mention.” (laughter) Hanuman responded “Now my Lord. Go, tell me. I will kill that person, who has done this to you.” He said “I can’t. He will not believe it.” After forcing Rama, He said “You did it.” Hanuman answered “Me? No, my Lord I didn’t do that. How can I? I just arrived. I did not touch you.” Rama saw that He was a bit confused. He said “Yes my dear, you did it. Not to me directly, but to one of my Devotees. This person was chanting with so much devotion and love, and you slapped him. If I didn’t intervene, can you imagine what you would have done to this poor man?”

God is not limited by places or to what you are doing. The main thing is that you do it. Chant the Divine name. Be always in the Divine name. No matter where you are. If you can chant the Mantra all the time, do it.

Ma Bhagavatis blessing or how to attract the Divine

On the third day of Navaratri, the 21th September 2009 Sri Swami Vishwananda told uns a story related to the Divine Mother: Once there was a Swami, a great Swami. He used to do always pray for Devi. So in the early morning, he would go to the river, take his bath and chant a big, big Mantra for Ma. And then he will go back to his ashram, but one day as he was coming out of the water a fisherman approached him. The fisherman said “I have seen you everyday from my boat and everyday I see how joyful and happy you are by praying to Ma, to God. Please give me the same Mantra. I want to chant this Mantra also to be free, the same way. I want to become like you.” Then this Swami said “Well, I can’t give you this Mantra. This Mantra is only for Brahmans, not for Shudras, not for you low-cast people.” Then he insisted. So the Swami said to him “Go and kill yourself. Probably the next life you can take birth as a Brahmin. Then you can receive the grace of the sacred Mantra.” He was so simple, he was so humble, that he quickly took his boat, went to the deepest point of the river and jumped in the river. As he jumped, he said “Ma, If I can’t have you, if can’t get the Mantra, I wait for the next life.” But Ma was so happy with his simple devotion, his simplicity that at that moment the river dried out completely. Then he was so happy, that he said “Ma, look I don’t have any Mantra for you.” Then Ma just said “Well, it’s not that what matters. If you have intense love, simple and intense love, that’s what calls me. But if you try always to understand with the mind, you are still far away.” So Bhagavati Devi said “Tonight I will come and eat at your place.” He was very happy, went home and told his wife. So they cooked some simple, simple food and waited for Devi to come. Waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting; Devi didn’t come.

All of a sudden they heard a knock on the door ‘Knock, knock’. An old lady came inside. She could not walk and asked “Could you please give me shelter?” The fisherman said “Yes, come in, come in”. He asked her “Where do you come from?” and she said “I come from very far away, from the mountain. I live on the mountain.” Then the wife said “Oh you must be very tired.” She said “Yes, I am very tired.” Then she said “ I am also very hungry. I would like to have some food. Do you have some food?” They answered “Well, we are waiting for Durga to come, but She did not turn up. We are still waiting for Her, but anyway we don’t think that She will come. We are so simple, you know? We have such a simple house and so simple food. For sure She is at the ashram there. She will have lot of food, lot of Prasad. Then the old Lady said “Now, give me food.” They said “Yes, it’s okay, if Ma is not coming, then you get.” They were so happy serving the old lady and she was so pleased to receive the simple food from then. That moment she transformed into Durga and said “I am so happy. You have not eaten, but yet you have fed somebody. I love this simplicity of your food.” Saying that, they asked her: “Ma, you know we don’t have much. This is just simple food. We are eating just so simple. But in the ashram they have nice food. Why you don’t go there? “ Maa Bhagavati said “Okay, I’ll bring you there. You will see why I am not there.” So She took them in the astral plane to the ashram, where everybody was sitting in the temple and eating like pigs, not wondering about the Mother. No one was thinking about Her. So Ma Bhagavati said to the fisherman “Look, this is why I am not here. I came to your house, which is simple, because even if they have all, their mind is not on me. Their mind is so much focussed on the material things, on what they are eating, but not on me. But whereas you, in your simplicity, you sincerely wanted me. You went everyday to the priest to receive a Mantra, but he refused you. I give you the Mantra.” Then She gave him one of the greatest Mantras of Maha Devi, blessed him and said “Whenever you chant this Mantra, I shall be with you.”

So in the absence of pride, you will see it is not only Bhagavati Devi, not only Durga, not only Krishna - it doesn’t matter which religion you go to- they will all tell you that only through this simplicity of your heart, only through humbleness of your heart, the Divine can be realised. It’s only through this, that you can really call Her, because humility, love, real love, are like a magnet that attracts. They attract Maha Devi, they attract the Divine, they attract the Deity that your concentration is on.

How to master the mind

If you want to master your mind, chant the name of Narayana.

Like yesterday, during the Satsang I was explaining the power of the name of Narayana. How powerful is this Maha Mantra. If you want to attain Him, chant it. The more you chant it, the more you will draw Him closer to you.
When you call somebody, you will not just say “Come here”, but you will call the person by his or her name. Likewise the Divine also has many names and many forms. When you call Him, He will come in that form. Often people ask me “But listen, if I pray to Shiva, should I really change?”Actually no, you should not, but your love has to grow more and more. If you call Him as Shiva, He will come to you in that form. If you call Him as the Divine Mother, He will come as the Divine Mother to you.

But in reality, you will find Him deep inside your heart as the form of love, pure love, unconditional love and there you will have to find Him. This is something that the mind can’t understand, because the mind always expects something. The mind always has a limit, so you have to cross over this limit.

It happens so often in the life of people, that when the grace of God comes upon them, they don’t understand anything. They try to understand, but yet they can’t understand. I have met So many people who have told me “Oh You know I love God, but I don’t understand Him, I don’t know why I love Him so much.”
So you have to become that state, where even if you want understand Him, you can’t understand.
You see Him in front of you and want to grasp Him, but you can’t. Imagine what would happen?
It would drive you crazy, crazy for Him. That's the best, because deep longing makes it even sweeter.
Our soul is always longing for Him, always. There is not a time, where the soul does not long for the Beloved. Even if we are conscious, we are aware of it or we are not aware of it. But in our true self, in our consciousness, the soul-consciousness is always aware of that.
So, try to see. Like Christ always said “If you have eyes to see, you see”
Try to see with the eyes of the heart and try to hear deep inside of you.
Whatever is inside of your heart, there will be no doubt about it. But whatever comes from your mind, will create a lots of question. Even if the mind says the same thing, but there will be many, many questions and the mind will not feel free.
That’s why in meditation, you try to go in the calmness of yourself and try to listen deep inside of you. You try to attain this calmness and you try to attain this love that you have inside of you.

You are Divine

Keep reminding yourself that you are Divine. As you all remind yourself of being human, you just be human. It’s so simple, if you can just always remind yourself of being love. We don’t really need to do big mantras, big japas. Just by reminding ourselves that we are love we will be love. We will be in this world, but at the same time we will be Divine. When the awareness that you are Divine blossoms inside of you, there will be no fear, no doubt, nothing!
This complete trust within you of being Divine will project so much joy and so much peace.

Purifying chanting

As long as man is stuck in the mind, as long as he doesn’t purify the mind, Love will never shine. You will never realize this love. You can read about it, somebody or Swami can tell you about it and you can say "Yes, i know this love is there." But as long as you don't purify your mind, as long as you don’t purify yourself, it will be difficult to realize this love.

And how do you purify the mind? The easiest way to purify the mind is to chant. Chant the name of God continuously. You were chanting the Maha Mantra, “Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.” It is said by just chanting this mantra, one can gain liberation. But one has to chant it with faith. Mere chanting alone will not help, but chanting with the heart, will help.

And how do you chant with the heart? How do you train the mind to calm itself? By focusing it. It happens when you discipline yourself and say, "Okay, today I will chant." Let’s say you start by taking your japa mala or rosary, and you chant your mantra. By focusing yourself on chanting, you’re disciplining the mind to focus on the mantra. The more you do it, the more it will be chanted automatically inside your heart and you will not even need your japa mala or rosary.

Training the mind

As long as man is stuck in the mind, as long as he doesn’t purify the mind, this love will never shine. You will never realize this love. Even if you think you know it because you have read about it, or somebody has told you about it, or because Swami has said it, and you say, “Yes, I know this love is there,” as long as you don’t purify your mind, as long as you don’t purify yourself… it will be difficult to realize this love. How do you purify the mind? The easiest way to purify the mind is to chant. Chant the name of God continuously. You were chanting the Maha Mantra, “Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.” It is said by just chanting this mantra, one can gain liberation. But one has to chant it with faith. Mere chanting alone will not help, but chanting with the heart, will help. How do you chant with the heart? How do you train the mind to calm itself? By focusing it. It happens when you discipline yourself and say, "Okay, today I will chant." Let’s say you start by taking your japa mala or rosary, and you chant your mantra. By focusing yourself on chanting, you’re discplining the mind to focus on the mantra. The more you do it you will see, and you will not even need your japa mala, you will not need a rosary because it will automatically be chanted inside your heart. When you become the mantra, you reach a point of realization. You reach a point of elevation, but it’s not the final one. There is still more to go. And how you get there is only through abandoning yourself in the hand of God. When you say, “Lord, I surrender to you. I surrender myself, my body, my mind, and my soul completely to you.” Not superficially, but sincerely. And how do you do it sincerely? When you're sincere with yourself and say, “Yes, God, I want you. I’m surrendering myself to you.” When this comes from your heart sincerely, it will happen.