Constant Divine Communion

23 July 1971, Prasanthi Nilayam

Professor Kasturi's English.

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THERE is no illness worse than desire; no foe fiercer than attachment; no fire so ravenous as anger; no ally so reliable as wisdom. In the ancient (monasteries) of India, the Master took the pupil by the hand and, by precept and example, he removed the wild weeds and planted the seeds of virtue and equanimity, which grew into love and wisdom. There man became aware of his fundamental Divinity and drew unfailing (bliss) from that awareness. But now, taking delight in dubious designs and tortuous trials, man is fast shaping himself into a demon! The mind is the conspirator, who has brought about this calamity. If man yields to the mind and its vagaries, and the mind is enslaved to the senses and their fancies man cannot escape, calamity.

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The mind prompts man to seek (happiness), and avoid (misery); it creates the distinction and deludes the activity; it pushes forward and pulls back, tossing man back and forth, throughout his life. The idea of happiness, which is often only another form of comfort, arises in the mind and gets concretised as objects shaped by the hands and brains of man, like the aeroplane, the radio, and even the bomb that devastates and delights the mind saturated with hate.

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: "I am one, let me become many!"

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The Universe arose in the Mind of God, it sprouted and spread there, and since then, the mind has become potent and permeating. For each of you, it is the mind that colours the world. If it is pure, the (world) is congenial; if it is unclean, the world is replete with jeopardy. The sages of laid down a series of exercises and disciplines, in order to de-contaminate the mind, so that it may turn away from the senses towards the (intellect). These are included in the comprehensive path, (meditation).

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Meditation should be a continuous process, not a fad is, according to many exponents, the performance for a few minutes when man tries to assume a certain posture, and controlling the ingress and egress of breath, endeavours to fix attention on an image or ideal, to the exclusion of everything else. During meditation, people feel elated, have exaltation of a kind, experience joy and peace; but when the period is over they lapse into the normal routine of scandal, envy, faction and fear. So, has become a fad, a routine, a pastime or habit, a drug or tonic, instead of the very sustenance of the spirit. It should not be taken up and left off, at stated hours of the day; it must be a continuous process, filling the personality with sweetness Divine.

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The mind must be rid of bitterness, and be charged with the nectar of Universal love. That love must reveal to you that the (individual) is only (God), clothed in that garment. You too are not this temporary vesture that you have worn, but, the ancient bodiless Divine!

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The limits of time and space which make you declare that you were born in one particular year and that your native place is some dot on the map of the world are also artificial and temporary and incidental; they are not fundamental. The wants that the mind spins out endlessly can never be over; they are like the digits, which can be added ad infinitum, and with each addition, the total load increases! When you are in the coils of (desire), you cannot come to (God). The study of sacred books, the counsel of sages, the company of the wise - these are barren when you do not transmute then into awareness and ! Pour the mind into the mould of God, His Glory, His Majesty, His Beauty. The mind-stuff is rendered an instrument of liberation, from being a shackle that binds.

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Invest yourself fully in meditation Why spend all that time trying to achieve control of the mind? Practise another - the of seeing the Divine all around you! Believe that the in you is the same that activates everyone else, and makes him live and love, wail and hail. is not a limited liability concern! There are no bounds for your share in it. It is a full time endeavour; invest yourself fully in it. Then you get a plentiful harvest of returns. You become aware that you are a (a temple of God), that your limbs are the holy vessels that are consecrated for service therein, that your deeds are the fruits, your thoughts the flowers, your words the music, with which the worship is consummated every moment. Offer yourself as the heart of faith. Then, whomsoever you contact, will shine before you as God Himself. The words - social, cultural, spiritual, moral - all indicate only facets of this vision. Social service or consciousness is but the expression of this ever-present Divine in all members of the human community. What is culture, except the culture of the mind to reap this harvest? The spirit, when it blossoms, finds kindred spirits everywhere. And, as for morality, its highest expression is truth, and the truth is unity!

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All activity originates from a common source, God When you speak with the tongue or see with the eye, or plan with the brain, who is it that speaks, sees, judges and decides? It is the One intelligence, the One that, like a current, works in and through all men and materials, God. When you are immersed in , note how the One is activating you! Your tongue pronounces the words in the tune designed for them; your palms beat the time, slow or fast; your head sways in unison with the sentiments that the words express; your mind is gushing , at the magnificence of the pictures that the song evokes! So too, a dancer is articulating harmony and melody through every gesture and movement of muscle and limb.

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God is all. He is all forms, His is all names. There is no place where He is not; no moment when He is not! (Even the devil has the syllable to indicate his affinity). Thunder is God's message; the rain is his grace. Let no second pass without awareness of God; let no event lapse without reminding you that He is the artificer! You have an image or picture, in the room you have set apart for worshipping God. You light a lamp before it! You say, "I have lit the lamp;" but, is it you really? Who endowed the oil, the wick and the lamp, the property of producing a flame together? Who moved you to revere the picture in this form? Who was it that placed the lamp, lit it and bowed before the picture? It is all God, God, God. There is none else, nothing else, for the man who knows and feels.

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Live in the consciousness of & His message of Truth This morning, someone asked Me, when I called him in and gave him the chance to speak to Me, "! The world is fast forgetting the potency of the Name of God. People do not have it on their tongues; they do not sustain themselves by its sweetness and sanctity. Bless me and bless a plan that I have, to make them ever conscious of the precious treasure that they are missing. I propose to print posters, blazing in colour, with the Name '' and paste them on all available walls, pillars and vantage points, so that the eye may warn and waken the mind of man."

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I told him that his posters will be smothered by the loud lascivious announcements and ads of film makers and exhibitors, and they will soon give place to the scrawls and scribbles of hate. Nor is your plan worthwhile, I told him. Paste the poster on your heart, I advised him. "Reform yourselves, live in the consciousness of and the message of which He lived out in His earthly career. That is enough publicity, enough prompting. That is the best that you can do to promote loyalty to the name," I said. For, people will know how it has changed you into a more joyous, peaceful individual and wonder how it was possible. Realising the how, they will start revering the name, like you. Do not get tied up with symbols in stone or metal; raise yourselves to the higher stages of realisation. Do not get entangled in rituals and ceremonials.

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Fill your heart with God, not with 'you' Ego plays all kinds of tricks, in order to get unholy pleasure. During the construction of the bridge to to take the army across, heaved a boulder on the raging waves of the sea, as part of the bridge! It floated! heaved another; it sank! 's ego was tickled, naturally. He laughed in derision; at that very moment, his boulder sank! And, the boulder that had thrown, rose from the bottom of the sea and floated! 's ego was pricked into nothingness. That was the purpose for which had willed that his boulder should sink!

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Yearn to fill your heart with Him, not with 'you.' Your yearning must be warm, so warm that it can be called (heat). Become hot earnest! Now it is only lukewarm longing, a surface activity. Examine yourselves how far you have filled your heart with Him. Measure the heights you have reached with the yardstick of virtue, serenity, fortitude and equanimity. You now become easy victims of lust, anger, malice, envy and the rest of that evil brood, for, the atmosphere of the heart is polluted by ego fumes.

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The knowledge derived through the mind utilising the senses is always "incomplete, incoherent;" but, the knowledge that is earned through the (intellect) illumined by the (divine Self), is full free-ing, and revealing the Truth. The first is termed and the second, . informs that you are distinct from others, that God is at , or or , that the God at or or is different one from the other! But, names, forms and temples are only for the kindergarten stage. You print the picture of a head or a net or a wave, and have underneath the words, (head, in Telugu) or (net, in Telugu) or (wave, in Telugu), so that the child may learn the letters quicker, while pronouncing the name of the picture which the word represents. Once the letters are learnt, the picture can be dispensed with. The (temporary picture) can be given up when the (permanent letter) is learnt. The picture is only a crutch. The transient is only an illustration of the truth that it reflects.

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Accommodate all forms of God in your heart The can be rubbed off the blackboard, when the is fixed in the mind. The brick and mortar structure where God is taken to be, can be, rubbed off the mind board, once the presence of God is experienced. When you change your (worship) room in your house, it does not mean that God too shifted from one room to another, that he is no longer where He was and that He has been brought over to a new place! He is not a piece of furniture that you can transfer hither and thither! He is here, there, everywhere, inside and out, above, below, around. Accommodate all forms of God in your heart; do not exclude some and welcome others: Bear with those who adore Him in another form through another name and acclaim Him in another language.

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There was once a heavy downpour of rain in a small village. A lonely monk was caught unawares and he ran helter-skelter seeking some shelter from the hard-hitting drops and the chilly wind. He found a short length of dry floor, on the raised verandah of a house, the inmates of which were fast asleep behind closed doors. Being a with no weight on his mind, he fell asleep soon, and was lost within himself. Very soon, another forlorn man, who also had no shelter, espied the verandah and came on to it. The woke up and finding another claimant for the space sat up and said, there is sitting room for two; come, we shall sit the night through!" Within a few minutes, another desperate man arrived and he had to be accommodated. The two who were sitting agreed that there was standing room for three! They decided to stand until dawn; that is the spirit of tolerance that has to be cultivate, by the children of God, towards brothers in distress. God is love; so, you must become love, in order to merge in Him. He is beauty; so, be beauty, with no ugliness in you. Then, you can be one with Him, He is compassion, be compassionate. Water mixes easily with water, not with oil. Oil mixes with oil only.

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Once was seen by a monk, walking listlessly in the forest looking for something. The monk asked why, and replied, "I am searching for roots and tubers that are edible, for, my brother is certain to be invited to a game of dice as soon as this exile is over and since he is certain to wager us once again and lose, we are destined for another long spell in the forest; so, it is better to accustom oneself to sparse and saintly sathwik (wholesome) food now itself." Then the monk said, "No, you are a , born and bred for war on wickedness and evil; how can you throw off all that tendency for dedication. Besides, why (mendicancy) to discover that your real core is (God)? It is God that agitates you, admonishes you, administers you! A minute's introspection must convince you of this truth." Know that you are but an instrument; what can you prepare for? It is all His Will, His plan.

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Know that you are but an instrument of God's Will - always a !

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Be calm, unruffled, serene; unaffected by good fortune or bad, for you are a puppet making motions and contortions according to the pulls He gives to the strings! Be pleasant in speech and manner; do not inflict injury or insult on others nor be affected any adverse act or remark by others. Be happy that everyone and everything is so ordained by God. It is His play, His sport! Also be eager to confer consolation and courage; be anxious to be of help. Watch for the chance, snatch each opportunity to expand yourself by sympathy, to enlarge the horizon of love, by understanding and prayer. Don't keep another at arm's length, saying, "My God is different from yours" or "My God is opposed to yours." It can never be so. , the name for God does not mean, a stranger God, but, the Supreme God! Who can vouchsafe for the correctness of the picture which you now worship as the picture of or ? The poet described and the painter delineated; but, both relied on their imagination, rather than actual authentic vision.

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Who can set limits to the freedom of God? A shepherd boy heard a discourse on God and describe Him as a dark blue being of human form, riding a white eagle. He prayed for many days continuously giving up food and drink, that God must come down where he was tending the fold and partake of his gruel. At last on the tenth day, when he threatened to put himself to death (for he had become desperate) God came in the form of an old man. And, demanded the gruel. The old man declared that he was God, but, the shepherd would not accept the credential! He did not see the dark blue complexion or the white eagle! He refused to share the gruel with Him, unless the certified that the visitor was genuinely God. The was brought post haste, but, what could he say? He had only expounded from books, written by equally blind persons and from pictures drawn by equally audacious painters! Who can set limits to the freedom of God, to assume any Form He likes or, any Form that the devotee likes? For the shepherd, God was valid, vital and very near; for the who expounded the texts, He was a mystery; a distant possibility, an image lined by fancy.

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Be convinced that God can and will appear in any form and so all forms are His. Don't refuse to recognise Divinity in the form you dislike or did not expect! He can appear as a fox, as a dog, as a beggar, any form. When you call on God, whatever form appears, treat it as God. taught that Mother was , the all-comprehensive form of the formless energy that pervades the Universe, and not the eight-armed occupant of the shrine at , the form that was appearing between his brows, whenever he tried to delve into himself and discover the unity behind all the multiple manifestations! She was One without a second. With no name or form or body or sex or age, beyond time, space, causation. She was all forms and so, of no form; she was all attributes and so, beyond the attributeful. She was as well as , the being the base on which the was conceived.

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- "All is !"

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As if there is an All, which is to be identified with another thing called . and are One, not two! That is why we say, (Not-two), in spite of the appearance as two. In deep sleep, you are one with yourself, though at the time you have no and no .

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The realisation that you are not two but One will endow you with the awareness and the bliss. To earn that consciousness of not-two, love alone is the path. , means , which means , which means expansion, self-enlargement, reaching out to the very horizon of being and becoming! - until all is I. (love) must grow with every moment of . It must sweeten every word, deed and thought of yours. Emerge from as a person more charged with love! Emerge from with a greater measure of love! Return from with a firmer conviction that everything is surcharged with the same Divinity that is behind all your activity. I find now that these have become mere routine procedures, a matter of schedules, time-tables and attendance registers and reports! The thrill, the exhilaration, the enthusiasm are absent; the singing starts like a wail, without strength and joy.

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must spread goodwill and love The "O song" is a very weak, meek song to begin with. You do not put any spirit into it and so it falls flat on the ear. Do not have it from this day; begin with a vigorous song on , instead. Also, have the song for (waving the lights), both morning and evening and during all occasions of , - and give up the , which is a much mutilated Kannada song, which has lost its meaning and appeal as a result of a number of emendations and interpolations from other linguistic regions! When you sing without the thrill of ecstasy I do not derive any joy, nor does the I (that resides in everyone of you) get it.

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must spread good-will, love, ecstasy; it must cleanse the polluted atmosphere; it must invite all to share in the joy and peace. The must be inspiring, radiating devotion and love. The , I derive from , I do not get from anything else. That is the reason why I am emphasising these points. Be sincere, feel in your hearts what you are singing by your voice. The motion will express itself through the and it chooses. You need not worry about the being appropriate or the being accurate. When is prompting you to sing, the and the can never be wrong. is the pen, is the thought, is the word, is the style, is the composition. How then can error creep in?

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is the first stage of spiritual progress Fill every moment with energy, enthusiasm and effort. The epics teach you how to succeed in this. The describes how, when every other of the hundred died, the eldest was challenged by to meet him in a duel; when at last, he fell on the ground, struck his head with his foot in order to add insult to injury. 's pride was hurt; a such as he could not pass that insult by. He retorted, even when he was dying, "Do not exult that you have done some big heroic act by trampling on my head! In a few seconds, dogs and vultures will be doing that act. It does not require a hero to plant his foot on a dying man! You dared not do this when I was capable of hitting back, you coward!" That kind of awareness of one's potentialities and quick response to all happenings must be present in you, too. Heroism gushed out his lips even when he was passing away!

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Today is the first day of month. is the month when the Vedic studies are considered most fruitful, for, are (the heard), coming to man through (hearing from the ). is the very first stage of spiritual progress. So, it is a good day for inaugurating spiritual study and practice. leads ultimately to , surrender of the individual to the Universal. I bless you that you may achieve that goal.