The Pursuit of Bliss

Radhae Radhae My humble pranams to my brothers and sisters of the Divine Truth Christmas is just around the corner, for me it’s always been a day for celebration. It’s a day when I think that Christ was born but also a day where I celebrate the love of my life Radha Krishna together under the Kalpabriksha tree. When I was younger Swamini Shushree Gopeshwari Devi will come to Malaysia after the annual Sadhana program had finished in India. At times she would stay with us till the New Year to conduct satsang. During that period we would celebrate Christmas in unique fashion. A day before the 24th of December we would go out to the small forest and look for a Pine tree and we made sure it was at least 5 feet tall in minimum height. It was an arduous task getting the tree chopping it down and putting it into the back of the car with its fern like twigs jutting out of the car window we would drive through town bringing it back home. Once we were home we would get a pot and plant the tree in...

The world today is full of Godmen. While a few are genuine and truly guide their followers through the minefield of SamsAra without any expectation of quid pro quo, there are many others, who are but pseudo-gurus, adopting Spirituality as an occupation, like any other commercial activity. They profess to teach you anything from mere deep breathing exercises to how to realise God. While the Upanishads prescribe a mere 32 path for God-realisation, it would appear from the statements of these Godmen, that the paths to Liberation could be tailored to suit individual tastes, predilections and fancies. While rigorous discipline is prescribed by the Scripture for climbing even the very first step on the lofty mountain of Moksha (liberation), these mystics tell us that it is just a lap ahead, reassuring us that we need give up none of our creature comforts for achieving this exalted goal. They have too new-fangled notions of Liberation, Vis a Vis those prescribed by the Scripture. Now remember...

Everybody loves a good tale. There is nothing like a credible yarn, spun out with skill, to entertain, enlighten and educate us. The erstwhile popularity of our Indian weeklies and monthlies was due in no small measure to the serial stories that appeared in them, regaling the reading public for long years. We hear of readers waiting for the next issue with bated breath, getting through the week somehow and rushing to the newsstands to grab their current copy of the magazine, to learn what befell of the heros or the villan. And even today, there are those who would miss even a meal, rather than forego watching the current episode of their favourite mega serial or soap opera in our national TV or Cable. We see pitched battles being fought at home between otherwise harmonious members of the family, over which serial should be viewed at a particular time, when two or more of them are on the air simulataneously in different channels. All this goes to show the incredible power the story wiel...

The pathway to God is not necessarily a lonely one. When we think of religious or spiritual men, our immediate impression is of ascetics and hermits living alone in forest or caves, doing practically nothing all day but sit meditating upon their navels. Worship can be, and is indeed an essentially democratic or communal endeavour. The pilgrim need not fear that his progress might only come through ploughing a lonely furrow in life. He must know that the pursuit of God is quite easily accomplished in the pleasant and plentiful company of like-minded souls. Spiritual activity is intense and rigorous, no doubt, but it can be sporting and companionable effort too. Hence take heart, says Shri Maharaji to the spiritual aspirant, take heart for there is not only safety innumbers but Salvation too! Collective worship is also called "Satsang" (Good association). Members of a Hindu household, even in this day and times, can be observed to assemble daily at a pre-determined hour in the ...

TRUE LOVE STANDS THE TEST OF TIME DEFINITION OF LOVE We all hear, speak, and read about love a lot. However, no material mind can ever understand what love is. Love is that which can’t be put into words, neither can it be described, nor can it be understood by reading. The great sage Narad Muni was asked to define love. However, even He replied, “Anirvachaniyam Premas-swaroopa cha” (Narad Bhakti Sutra) (“I cannot describe or define love; no one can” ) Love is Divine, eternal, and unlimited. Why can’t love be defined or made to understand? Because, when the person to whom you are explaining about love has never experienced it, then how on earth will he ever understand? Moreover, the heart that experiences love can never speak and the tongue that speaks never experiences it. You can only give someone an idea about love. This is what I am going to do here. LOVE MEANS TO GIVE AND GIVE The first sign of true love is when not even i...

A Story To share with all of you A temple-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to temple every Saturday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 discourses. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the Swamijis are wasting theirs by giving discourses at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column. Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. "Likewis...

Sadhana Bakthi Part 5 Radhae Radhae My humble pranams to my brothers and sisters of the Divine Truth. We last talked about Roop Dhyan in devotional practice, allow me remind you a fact of reality, walking in the path of devotion one may stumble and fall in the initial part. Yes, one of the many stumbling blocks is bad association (kusang) the opposite of good association (satsang. When a person falls into bad association, the decision of the mind also changes accordingly, and thus the spiritual aspirant is unable to judge with his own intellect that he is fallen into wrong company. So long as there is an awareness of the self i.e. The Ego, till then a person can never easily admit to himself that he has fallen. It’s the nature of every man to think well of himself. Even the greatest fool does not like to hear that he is a fool. The seed of bad association is constantly present in the mind of every egoistic soul. This seed speedily grows when it comes into favorable contact with the ext...

Sadhana Bakthi Part 4 Radhae Radhae My Humble pranams to my brothers and sisters of the Divine Truth. To many of us who receive the Bakthi_dham e-mail we are familiar with the term Roop Dhyan (active meditation on a creative basis). I remember once Shri Maharaji said “If you want Shri Krishna to play cricket with you, you can. Why you can even dress Him up in a cricket uniform”. Conventionally speaking this may sound unholy. Tell me have you known any of the Jagadguru’s follow a conventional style of teaching? Every one of them broke the rules of engagement. Why was that so? All the five Jagadguru are in the present age of kali Yuga. In an age of deception, chaos and uncertainty the Jagaduru’s and the Rasik saints cannot follow the conventional ways of teaching on a 100% basis. They have adapted a different approach to the delivery methods. Shri Maharaji’s way of doing Roop Dhyan is a very easy way. Every madhuri (sweetness) in His Prem Ras Madira is beautiful that we all use that for ...

Sadhana Bakthi Part 3 Radhae Radhae My humble pranams to my brothers and sisters on the Divine Truth In the last posting we talked about surrender (sharanagathi). Keeping in mind that surrender is with the involvement of the mind, and the body does not need to surrender. Surrendering the body will result in nothing except waste of time. The mind is a very intricate matter. I would say that the mind is a very complex creative creation by God Himself to show His creativity. In the modern world today Artificial Intelligence has not yet reached the state of the mind yet. Like the computer there is a primary drive and the slave drive, the same with us the conscious mind and the sub conscious mind. We have not yet learnt to control the conscious mind what more to talk of the sub conscious mind. Surrender of the mind is in the conscious part of application which ends in the subconscious level. Just because we know now that the subconscious mind will be awakened we cannot begin to develop the ...

Sadhana Bakthi Part 2 Brother and Sisters of the Divine Truth. When one pickups himself and decide to do Sadhana Bakthi Sri Maharaji reminds every devotee that keeping in mind the above theory (in Sadhana Bakthi Part 1) we must aspire to reach Sri Krishna in unified manner. Many of you know the 5 modes or levels of Divine Love in the bakthi world. That is Shanta Bhav (King - Subject relationship), Dasya Bhav (Master – Servant relationship), Shakya Bhav (friend – friend relationship), Vatsalya Bhav (Mother – Child relationship) and Madhurya Bhav (Lover – Beloved relationship). These relationships are all available to you all you have to do is practice Sadhana Bakthi and move in these modes of relationship. Before we begin on these remember what was said in the last e-mail posting about the real nature of the world and the nature of yourself. Keep in mind these things Maya comes in various temptations and we can succumb to it easily. Sri Krishna has said in the Gita: - Daivi hyesa gunama...

Sadhana Bakthi Part 1 Radhae Radhae My humble pranams to my brothers and sisters of the Divine Truth. Drulabam trymaivaikiam deva anugraha hetukam Manushutvam Mumukshutvam Maha Purusha sambavah Viveka Chudamani by Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharaya There are 3 things that are very rare to be obtained with the God’s grace, a human birth, a heart with the desire to attain Him and be in His service and a Guru. I must say not many of us in lives have all these three things aligned in live for us. Of course we have the human birth but the mumukshu and the maha purush is something that we have to be blessed with. In my years of association with Shri Maharaji, I have learnt that the grace of God is something that is waiting to be showered upon us. All we need is that mumukshu to be established. Shri Maharaji says the moment one is given the human birth, God’s grace is half way through the other half is your own effort in making sure that the other half comes through. How is this so? Amongst the 8....

What Our Soul Is Seeking For By Swami Prakashanad Saraswati The word God is very common. Everyone knows this particular word. Then what is meant by the word God? Seldom people know. In our Vedas, it says, “As you know Him, you find Him.” If you don’t have Him, it means you don’t know Him. It means the knowing and finding are simultaneous. The Gita says the same thing: “As soon as a person knows God, dedicates himself to God...then what happens? Whatever he wants.” Let us look at this idea more closely. Krishna, God Himself, tells us in the Gita, “Suppose a devotee has surrendered himself to Me, but his mode of surrendering, his motivation behind that dedication is unique. His conception about God is unique. His relationship with God is unique. According to all of these uniquenesses, he attains Me, but in that unique and variable form because I have uncountable forms, because I am almighty and loving.” Thus God is here, He is everywhere, He is in His Divine abode, He is Divine, but His...