Swamiji's Divali Speech- Shining the Divine Light

This Year on the 17th October Sri Swami Vishwananda celebrated with His Devotees and disciples Divali, the Hindu festival of Lights.
Here is an excerpt of the first part of His speech:
Sri Swami Vishwananda:

First of all: “Happy Divali to all of you.” Before, I explained already about Divali, the festival of lights, especially about finding the inner light and how to let it shine through. Let it shine from deep within your heart to everybody. Often people say „Swamiji, we would always love to have this Divine light shining through, but it’s so difficult. Am i right? (People: Yes)

You see: If you want it to be easy, you will make everything possible to make it easy. It doesn’t matter how hard it is: You will make it. But if you make yourself weak by saying it, it’s difficult. This word, which is so easily used is a barrier and we create this barrier, we make the difference and then we say „Ups, it’s difficult.“

It’s the same: when you say something is easy, what happens inside of you? You build up this self-confidence that you put on yourself, when you generate this energy inside of you ‚Yes, i can do it’. You will receive the blessing of the Divine also.

But if you already make yourself weak, then God will say „What’s the use of me, giving this grace to that person, if he can’t handle it? He is already weak.“ It’s of no use giving the blessing or giving the grace to that person. Actually we stop the grace then. How do you think the light will shine?

How Swamiji's cousin got Darshan of Kali Devi

Before the Darshan on the 3rd October 2009 Sri Swami Vishwananda shared with us the inspiring story of how his cousin Ravi received Darshan of the Divine Mother in the form of Kali:

Once the Divine Mother came to him and he got the Darshan of the Divine Mother as Kali. You know Kali. She looks very scary in the outside, but very soft in the inside. When he saw the Divine Mother in Her aspect, he was of course very scared. So the Mother said: “Why are you scared? I am the Mother, you don’t need to be scared of me.” She blessed him and said: “Tomorrow I shall come to you, but you have to recognize me.” My cousin asked me “How will I recognize Her?” Then I said to him: “She said it to you. It’s up to you to recognize. If I tell you, then you will pass the test.” Well, but I gave him a ti : “Bow down to all the ladies that you see.” He said to me: “That’s a great task. Imagine how many Matajis I will meet. “This is a simple test. From morning till late in the evening he will bow down to every Mataji that he met, even on the road. I tell you, I remember it was really funny to see the reactions of the persons. At the end of the day Maa came back and She was very happy with him and said: “Indeed you have passed the test. You have seen me in all the Mothers and you have received my blessing.” The Mother has come in a different form and gave the blessing.

So you don’t know when the Divine will come to you and which form the Divine takes to come to you. We think in our mind that the Divine has to come only in the form that we imagine. No, He will never come in that form. In your inner self, your heart shall recognize the Divine Mother. So many times I have seen the Divine coming in different forms. And when I was ready to act, He stopped me and said “Keep quiet.” And this connection that we all have to God should be there. It’s not a connection with your mind, who is trying to understand always, but the heart to heart connection to the Divine. You heart, your consciousness will know about the Divine. So everyday you do have Darshan of God.

Smile in the times of difficulties

Today another inspiring story by Sri Swami Vishwananda:
There was once a Rabbi. He was giving his discourse, his lecture and as he was talking to his students, there was a line which said “The one who is close to the Divine, the one who is close to God, to Jahwe, is the one who smiles in the midst of difficulties.” Then his students stopped him and said “Professor, Mr. Rabbi, reverent Sir, can you please explain us how it is possible that we can smile in times of difficulties? The Rabbi said “Well, it's very difficult to answer this question, because when there are difficulties, I, myself forget where the smile is gone. I forget how to smile." It’s true: our mind is so engrossed into negativity, that we forget the reality. Saying so, he said “It’s very difficult for me to tell you how to smile in times of difficulties or in times of great tests. But I know one person in the village, who has gone through so many trials in his life. When he was just one week old, he lost his parents. Then later on in life, in everything that he did, he didn’t succeed, but he was always very joyful and smiling.” So they went to that person, knocked at the door, and an answer came “Who is it?”. The students said, “Oh, we are the students of the Rabbi, we came to ask you certain questions.” He replied“Tell me what questions do you have?” Then they said “Oh we came across this line in the Bible that said ‘The one, who is closest to God, smiles in the midst of difficulties’”. The man answered “Well you have come to the wrong address, because I am 78 years old. Yet I don’t know what difficulties are, so I can’t tell you how to smile in it.”

So, know how close you are to the Divine, the difficulties transcend itself. How much your mind is focussed on the Divine or on your true Self. Everybody wants to attain this true Self, no? But everybody wants to attain the true Self only by being good. You don’t need to be good. You don’t need to pretend to be good. You just need to be yourself. Even if people think that you are bad, you have to know how you are.

Tests on the spiritual path

On this way there are lots of tests that God puts on to his children. If somebody has pleasure about something and sticks to the pleasure, the pleasure will bring lots of other pleasures, other desires, other wants - if mankind doesn’t really release himself from this game and sticks to its thinking. If you have put your mind to realize God, if you have put your mind that you want to know who you really are – focus on it, no matter what comes on the way, how strong the test can be! Keep praying, ask God, “Lord, it’s You who gave me this test, and I know I want only You!” And make your will strong, make your will strong that even God will run towards you. And ask God for strength, for whatever tests he’s putting on you, that you don’t lose hope and that you don’t go back into your old game.