Don’t Hold on to the False. Embrace the Fragrance of Love Pointing You to God - 9th August 2024
Saar (Essence)
Ananta urges a shift from the 'burning house' of worldly attachments and egoic pride toward the indwelling Lord. He emphasizes that time is running out, calling for total surrender to the silent presence within.
Why do we push to tomorrow that which is most important today?
Don't waste time on anything except finding out who lives in your heart.
Demolish everything you built; go to Him naked in your heart.
fiery
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
These are poisonous fruits coated with sugar. Some die planting them, and some are ruined harvesting and enjoying them. The hours of the day are lost wandering around, and the hours of the night are lost in sleep. God will call for your account and ask you why you came into this world. You have gone to the Lord's door; have you seen the gong there? This blameless object is being beaten. Imagine what is in store for us sinners. Each and every hour it is beaten; it is punished every day. This beautiful body is like the gong; it passes the night in pain.
Sheikh Farid has grown old and his body has begun to tremble. Even if he could live for hundreds of years, his body would eventually turn to dust. Farid begs, 'Oh Lord, do not make me sit at another's door. If this is the way you're going to keep me, then go ahead and take the life out of my body.' With the axe on his shoulder and a bucket on his head, the blacksmith is ready to cut down the tree. Farid, I long for my Lord; you long only for the charcoal. For some have lots of flour, while others do not even have salt. When they go beyond this world, it shall be seen who will be punished.
Drums were beaten in their honor, there were canopies above their heads, and bugles announced their coming. Yet they have gone to sleep in the cemetery, buried like poor orphans. Farid, those who built houses, mansions, and lofty buildings are also gone. They made false deals and were dropped into their caves. There are many seams on the patched coat, but there are no seams on the Atma. The Sheikhs and their disciples have all departed, each in his own turn. The two lamps are lit, but death is coming anyway. It has captured the fortress of the body and plundered the home of the heart. It extinguishes the lamps and departs.
Look at what has happened to the cotton and sesame seed, the sugar cane and paper, the clay pots and the charcoal. This is the punishment for those who do evil deeds. You wear your prayer shawl on your shoulders and the robes of a Sufi; your words are sweet, but there is a dagger in your heart. Outwardly you look bright, but your heart is dark as night. Not even a drop of blood would issue forth if someone cut my body. Those bodies which are imbued with the Lord contain no blood of greed. This body is all blood; without blood, this body could not exist. But those who are imbued with their Lord do not have the blood of greed in their bodies.
When the fear of God fills the body, it becomes thin. The blood of greed departs from within. Just as metal is purified by fire, the fear of God removes the filthy residues of evil-mindedness. Oh Nanak, those humble beings are beautiful who are imbued with the Lord's love. Seek that sacred pool in which the genuine article is found. Why do you bother to search in the pond? Your hand will only sink into the mud. When she is young, she does not enjoy her husband; when she grows up, she dies lying in the grave. The soul-bride cries, 'I did not meet you, my Lord.'
Read more (11 more paragraphs) ↓Show less ↑
All of us have so many projects in our life. How many of these will survive the visit of Yamaraj, the king of death? Sages have told us over and over that time is running out. When will our project really become the discovery of the Lord of this universe who has blessed us with His presence in our hearts? Why do we push it to tomorrow, that which is most important today? Obsessed with the outer—what people think of us, what material gains we are making, what sense pleasures we are acquiring—we allow ourselves to get into Maya because we forget about the love in our heart.
This forgetting about love is what creates the distance—the seeming, apparent distance between ourselves and God. This distance is what is called the ego. This distance is what is called the error, the mistake, the sin: this absence of love. The one who has blessed us with this life is waiting for us in our hearts, waiting for us to be empty of pride, empty of knowledge, empty of conceptual understanding. He wants to love us like innocent children, and He is waiting for us to love Him like He is the most important in our lives.
Why are we wandering from place to place when the Highest One is already with us? Why are we relying on sense perceptions when we should be relying on faith? Why are we relying on our intentions when we should be relying on His will? When will we awaken from this dream of selfishness, of Maya, of this 'me'? When will we come to reality: true love, true peace, true freedom? Listen, please, everyone. Don't be attached to things of the outside. Find that love for our true Beloved who is awaiting in our heart.
This body will go like millions that we've already had, and all these people will also pass. But we must not waste this opportunity to find the highest gift. Don't waste time on anything except finding out who lives in your heart. There is a holiness which you can only meet when you turn towards His presence within you, and then your life becomes holy. How much time will you waste? How many lives will go like this? When will you submit, surrender to the King of this universe?
In every life we have heard this, and every life we have wasted. The holy ones, the sages, God Himself has come and told us what to do. When will we learn our lesson? When will we leave our pride? What concerns us right now? When will we stop building these sandcastles in our heads? What is occupying our time when we could be with God instead? If you waste this moment, then when is the next one going to come? If you waste this life, then when is the next one going to come?
The trickster convinces us that there is time, and in this foolish idea, we are wasting our life. Where is the Divine love? Where is the Divine peace, the Divine ecstasy, the Divine knowledge, the Divine insight? How are we alive without knowing our Atma, without knowing our holy presence? Wake up, wake up! Snap out of it. This Maya has infected your life, but you can cut it off like a diseased organ. Why is this temple in ruins in your heart? When are you going to tend to it instead of building things in this realm of Maya?
This whole playground is going to dissolve soon, and we will be left without shelter. After this body turns to dust, where will we go? Who will give us refuge? Will pride build a house for us then? What use will all this material wealth be, and our worldly connections? Who will give us refuge? What makes us so entitled? What makes us believe that we have a right to His refuge when we have not turned towards Him for an instant in our hearts? Money, sex, worldly pleasure, food, entertainment—this is the house we built. Will it survive our deaths? Will it survive what is coming?
So much pride, so much resentment, so much regret, so much anxiety. How did we get here to this hellish existence? Who taught us to live like this? How did we lose our innocence? Can we not see? Can we not hear the voice of the false one? How long will we be fooled? How much time more will we waste? It's only the love of God which will heal us. Only in our heart will we find peace. Demolish everything you built. Go to Him naked in your heart. Don't be scared to jump; just let go. Don't hold on to the false. Embrace the fragrance of love pointing you to God. Not mine, Lord, but Yours. Let everything be not mine, Lord, but Yours.
Father, help me. My house is burning while I am concerned about insults and praise. Mother, help me, or my house is burning while I'm concerned about being right or wrong. Where will I go once this house is burned? Help me; I'm holding images in a kaleidoscope, taking this to be my real home while my house is burning. Bless me that I see my condition instead of getting fooled by the fireworks. Bless me so I don't take these dancing lights to be real as every minute this body dies, coming closer and closer to its final destination.
Help me stay in my only true home, which is at Your feet, in Your light. This house is burning, but I can't see it. Your temple is calling me; I know it is my only refuge, yet I don't hear Your call. I live in this burning house. Mother, take me. Take my pride; burn that instead. Let me remain at Your holy feet. Only there is my life of some use. I beg my brothers and sisters to join me here. By myself, I cannot do this work. Only You can burn my pride. Make me a true servant that I may live in Your will.
The 'I' which is aware of the deep silence—you see that when I look for myself, when I go within, when I follow the urging of my heart to find my true Self, I do not find anyone. I do not find anything. I only notice a deep silence. So this 'I' which notices even the deep silence, that is aware of the perception of silence—that 'I' you cannot see through perception and you cannot understand through knowledge. And yet, somewhere it is still known that it is you. Stay over there. To stay over there is to remain inward-facing. And whether you are a Bhakta or a Gani, it is in this inward-facing that true love reveals itself and our true reality of who we are reveals itself.