The Pursuit of Bliss

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...

The Procedure of Devotion (How to listen to chanting meditation) By Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj While remembering Radha Krishna and meditating on Their Divine form, you have to chant Their name, virtues and leelas with tears of love and longing, and with a deep desire to receive Their Divine vision and Divine love. During devotion, loving meditation on Their form is most important. You may form Their image in your own mind. According to your liking, you may take the help of a Deity or a picture of Radha Krishna. But, whatever form you create in your mind, you must imbue Divine feelings in that because the body of Radha Krishna is always Divine and Blissful. You can choose any form of Krishna (or Radha) from a newly born baby up to sixteen years of age and mentally decorate that form according to your desire and choice. Along with the meditation on His form you should also remember His loving leelas and His virtues, just like: He is the true friend of every humble soul (deenbandhu)...