Offer Our Will to God - 18th July 2025
Saar (Essence)
Ananta teaches that the true purpose of life is to shift from worldly gathering to divine immersion. By anchoring the mind in God's name, one transforms mundane existence into a saintly life of inner peace and devotion.
Our life is not meant for gathering because gathering is attaching. It is grasping.
God's name is the only safety mechanism for the mind.
Try to be anchored in God's presence, then your actions will also be purified.
devotional
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
Life can often feel like a cycle of gathering and dying. We are in the cycle of gathering the best relationships, gathering the most material possessions, gathering a body which is beautiful, and gathering conceptual knowledge. These are the four main things we spend our whole life gathering. But our life is not meant for gathering because gathering is attaching; it is grasping. There is a holier purpose, a bigger purpose for our existence, which is to be with God.
Now, if you're not in Satsang, it can sound like another just conceptual statement: 'Oh, I have to be with God.' Now, where can I find God? I don't know. God can't be seen. So how can I be with God? It sounds like something very nice to say but not really livable. But if you've been in Satsang, then you know that it's an actual possibility for us. We can live our life either caught up in the play of Maya—in the grasping, gathering, and suffering with its momentary sparks of seeming joy—or we can live a life which is different, which is devoted to the divinity. It is possible for us to immerse ourselves in that, and to immerse ourselves in the divinity is the source of true knowledge. Capital 'K' Knowledge only comes from there. True love, true peace, and true joy are only possible over there.
So what can happen is that we can look at even situations where we are just talking about food. We can get into the conversation at a surface level, whereas inwardly we can remain anchored in God's love. The outer activity doesn't have to get in the way or impede our spirituality in any way, because these things can be very compelling. A very simple topic can be thrown up, but topics like money, relationships, romantic things, lust, or greed—all of these can be very compelling. Even the greatest sages, there are stories of them getting caught up in all these temptations, you see. Take a Vishvamitra or Narada; there are enough stories of all of them. Take a King David; enough stories of all of them getting caught up in worldly temptation.
Our life may not seem as dramatic or important as theirs, but it is, because our life has the exact same potential that all of them had. You see, because being fully in love with God is being fully in love with God. It doesn't matter what the world takes you to be—a great sage or just a stupid, foolish beggar. It doesn't matter. That foolish beggar is better for our ego, you see. So our life has the potential to be the life of a saint. It doesn't matter if we didn't go to a guru or a convent, or if we are not in a lineage of priests or spiritual lineages of any sort. It doesn't matter. I promise you that your life can be that of a saint. It's only a question of a few small decisions every day. With those, we offer our will to God and the rest is the power that He gives us.
He moves our life in a way. Otherwise, there was no chance that this boy, who was an atheist only interested in computers and computer games, could come to a place where he's sharing Satsang all by His grace. I didn't do any great sadhana; I didn't read any great books. I did a little of everything. When I look at the lives of sages, I see how much effort and devotion it took for them to come to Atma Darshan. For what reason has it been bestowed on this foolish boy? It must be so that I can share it with all of you. I can't fathom any other reason. God is using this foolish beggar as His instrument in this small way to turn your life towards God.
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All of you are following me quite well. I just have to keep reinvigorating the fire because it needs a lot of fire to keep burning, as worldly topics can become all-consuming very fast. When we engage in worldly topics, we should keep ourselves light. We don't have to become really invested in the heart about it, you see, because all of this will sort itself out by God's grace. If you remain inward-facing—Antarmukhi, Sada Sukhi—inward-facing, always happy, always content, then these worldly things will also flow. Bodies need to be taken care of, all that needs to happen, but try it out. You can continue to be inward-facing and these things can flow, except if you put all of yourself into the outer. Be anchored in the inner at work, in any situation. Try to be anchored in God's presence; then your actions will also be purified, filtered through the love of God's presence.
So what is the way to stay like that? God's name. It is the simplest anchor you can have. If you can't do anything else, can we take God's name once? Everybody can. Can we take it once more? Everybody can. From just being able to take it once to it becoming the breath is a possibility for all of us. But we must recognize the holiness of that. Even if we are new to spirituality, we must recognize the value. If my mind is anchored in God's name, it cannot create the trouble that it creates without an anchor. If you anchor it in other things, it creates more vasanas, more conditioning. So God's name is the only safety mechanism for the mind.
In my earlier days in Satsang, I used to share about just dropping the mind, and in the moment it does happen. If you're open enough, it can happen like that. But then I realized it's not so approachable, although it sounds exciting—an instant path to enlightenment and all of that. This process of love, which is to be in remembrance of God's name constantly, is something that should be required for everybody. You will find that for the initial few days, it is an effort to take God's name continuously. If you are restarting now, it's fine. Just keep taking the favorite name of God. Stay with God in the way that resonates with you in the most beautiful way. Start with the one that resonates most beautifully because soon it will be very irritating anyway, right? Because the mind will rebel. It doesn't want to come under control, so it will resist anyway.
If you follow through, then you will find that automatically it will keep happening; you are not chanting anymore, the chanting is going on. The japa becomes ajapa. It's very beautiful. I don't even have to chant; it just happens on its own. But it doesn't happen on its own unless you are valuing it. Like a diya, you have to shelter it from the breeze. In the same way, the ajapa has to be sheltered from the temptations of the world. If you indulge in Maya, in the constructs of Maya, then you will find that the ajapa stops. I am speaking from experience. When the ajapa doesn't happen, you have to start putting the effort again because it has become a selfish, one-sided relationship. Now I need you to give it some attention.
When Jesus said 'watch and pray,' this is what it means: don't allow yourself to get distracted too much. One hundred percent is impossible, of course, but don't get distracted too much into worldly problems. I've seen when it happens with me; I get a nudge from within to create, but I think, 'Let me watch this movie instead.' There is nothing against movies, but I know I'm spreading myself thin going outwards. I am being nudged and I still don't listen. God doesn't slap first; He nudges thousands of times. If I don't follow the nudge, then I have to put in a lot more effort later.
Right now, we've been sitting in a Satsang field for some time, so it's effortless. But if you're sitting on the stock market, getting calls about deals, or your child is unwell—which is day-to-day life for all of us—then you have to guard the temple a bit, guard the light a bit. Then what happens is that you will start to notice that the name falls into your heart. You feel like you are chanting from here. It becomes like a prayer from the heart, so pristine and beautiful and full of love. Our prayer has gone to a deeper place. It is so merciful of God to give us these physical representations of a spiritual process. Actually, it has nothing to do with the body, but He makes us feel as if it's happening in these layers so that we can grasp it better. Then that becomes mixed in love; the bhavana, the bhav, comes in the japa.