On This Journey Towards Meeting God, First Is the Letting Go of the False - 16th August 2024

So in our lives, we are concurrently building two temples: a temple to Maya and a temple for God. Which one is in the worst condition in our life? Where have you given more focus and attention? What have we nurtured more? That is the temple that we are constructing, and that is the darshan we are going to have. So if you create a temple to Maya, you will have more and more of Maya's darshan. That's fair, isn't it? If you create a temple for God in your heart, you will come to the holy meeting with God more and more.

So this sincerity is really important. Where are you laying the brick every moment? In loving God or in loving the world? Loving the world means attachment, not true love, which is the love for God reflects itself in love and kindness and compassion for our brothers and sisters in the world as well. But when we say love for Maya, we are talking about attachment because the 'me' wants to grasp, it wants to own. So we'll grab and grab and grab in this world.

And that image stays with me, that image I saw on the internet, which was this man is just running, running, running and gathering. Then they showed these notes, this money that he is gathering. And then he gathers, gathers; the frame of the comic moves on and he's gathering more and more till he comes to the end of the road and he has a lot of money and he has no way to spend it. There's nothing that he can do with it because he's coming to the end of the road. So is that where our life is going? Is the temple that we are building—it better be the right one, because one of them will be demolished by death and one of them is eternal life.

So letting go of the false every moment is to let go of the false temple and to build the true one. As we let go, only when we let go of the false 'me' can we truly love God, can we truly serve God, can we truly live in His presence. And the gifts of that work are sublime, but we need to be patient. In Hindi they say 'sabar'. What is the meaning of that? The fruits of patience are very sweet. But in the realm of Maya, we want instant gratification. Here we have to be patient because what you will get then is the holy guide.

So on the journey towards meeting God, first is the letting go of the false. Then we reach realms where worldly knowledge doesn't help. There is only the holy guide, which is the Atma itself, the inner Satguru presence. Only He can guide us. Then we start our true satsang, which is the discipleship of the Atma within. So let's ask ourselves through a few minutes: what prevents us from being a true disciple of the Satguru presence, the Atma within?

So this was Prahlad Tipanya Ji singing the beautiful words of Kabir Ji, and he explains to us that without the Guru, nothing will work. Nothing will work. And who is this Guru? He says the Guru is the word, Shabda. What is the word? The word is that holy presence which was there, remember, right in the beginning. So that very holy presence is the Satguru within, who is timeless, beyond the birth and death of universes, the highest intelligence.

So he has told us that we can chase all kinds of material things, we can chase all kinds of relationships, we can build these castles in the sand with great effort. So he takes a beautiful example. He says that we collect every small piece of money, we collect every dollar, every rupee carefully, and we build a house and we feel like that house will keep us safe. But just when we need it the most, it deserts us. We can't hold on to it when we really need it. What is that a metaphor for? That as secure as we may make this world of Maya around us, it is all going to crumble and only the Guru will help us then. And the Guru is the holy presence within, the Atma within.

So he talks about all the worldly attachments in very beautiful poetic language, but the essence is that we must come to the Guru's presence. We must find the Satguru within. Where will you find this holy presence? You'll find it only by remaining inward-facing all the time. Antarmukhi. That inwards which is beyond time and space within yourselves, that's where the true Guru is. How will you come to that insight, to that recognition, to that Holiness? All the tools have been given to you in satsang. You can use your prayer, you can use your inquiry, but with sincerity, nirantar—unceasing.

And I tell you that the whole thing seems very difficult only till the point that we come to Him—with a slight disclaimer, I'll come to that—but only till that point. Because even the prayer He does for us, you see? And I'm not speaking metaphorically. There will come a point in your prayer, in your inquiry, where you will see that your heart itself loves to pray. So it is like your heart temple is reverberating with the sound of prayer and you just have to listen. When your japa becomes ajapa, and that ajapa falls into your heart, then this spiritual journey, which seemed so difficult, is actually full of joy, full of sahaj, deep love that no worldly accomplishment, no worldly pleasure-seeking, nothing in the world compares.

So this ajapa is called the prayer of the heart, or the noetic prayer, and that itself leads you to the union, to the holy marriage in your heart. And that is why I keep reminding everyone: don't pray the minimum, pray the maximum. And the maximum doesn't only mean the quantity, doesn't only mean how many malas we did today. It also means that, did I in that one moment of remembering God, did I give everything that I had? Everything was gathered up in my heart and offered to Him in the heart altar. Like Swami Ram Sukhdas Ji said, that 'I belong to You, everything is Yours, everything I give to You, everything I give to You. My heart belongs to You alone.'

When this sincerity comes, then we will come to the true prayer, which is the recognition of the prayer happening in the heart. So in your holy heart temple, the Satguru presence prays for you and prays for all, actually. So in India we call this the ajapa japa, the deeper level of ajapa japa which is from the heart. Remember who sits in the innermost chamber? The unperceivable holy light is His presence, but in a way, He is also His priest who loves to pray to its source, its Creator.

How will you cross these unchartered waters? Only His name, your unflinching quest for the truth, your sincerity and focus on Him will get you there. Because nobody who—well, I shouldn't say nobody, at least this foolish one who has been graced with so many of His gifts—I cannot tell you how to do it, how to bring the prayer to your heart. I cannot tell you how that happens because it is a movement of Grace. But I can tell you that we must do our part and then He will light the way.

The great Indian sage, Mirabai, gave us a clue. She was the highest Krishna bhakta, devotee of Krishna, but she said that 'I found the holy jewel of Ram's name.' To take the name of God, to remember Him unceasingly, to search for the truth unceasingly, that will be remaining in His presence. So what is the disclaimer I was talking about? I said that once you come to the Satguru presence within yourself, it's all going to be easy. The only disclaimer is that we must stay with Him. Then it remains easy. Because it can seem like in an instant of turning away—and it happens here as well—that His presence is not found. The prayer of the heart, the noetic prayer, the praying from the heart then doesn't happen. It seems we are back to the effortful state. So we cannot take any of this for granted. That is the disclaimer.

You can enjoy the holy reverberation in the heart, the holy priest is chanting the name of its own source, but the instant you become proud about it... ah, that was the important line. So Kabir Ji said that was the main line that was repeating again and again. So what does that mean? That without the Guru, the Satguru, nothing else will work. And what He does mainly is to destroy our pride. Completely, total pride He destroys. So if we become proud about our spiritual accomplishments, then we have lost them in that instant, even though we may be so blinded that we don't see it.

So to remain in the Satguru's presence, we must be empty of all pride. That's why I love that small comic frame that Narin posted in the group yesterday. They said that there's this one who is a spiritual seeker, a spiritual seeker who jumps off from the ego, you see, is letting go of the ego, and then without realizing is landing in the deeper pit which is the spiritual ego. So this pride you must be very careful about. Always remember that everything good comes from God alone, and the foolishness we—whatever we are—insert into the picture. And that is why no teacher also can tell you the exact way in which the spirit will reveal itself to you, because all teachers, all masters, all sages are just instruments of that spirit, of that Atma within. Only God can give the guarantee and say that this will happen, this will come to you. So are the enlightened ones, are the sages completely in union with God? Well, 'completely' is a tricky word, but for the sake of right now...

Alone and the foolishness we, whatever we are, insert into the picture, and that is why no teacher also can tell you the exact way in which the spirit will reveal itself to you, because all teachers, all Masters, all sages are just instruments of that Spirit, of that Atma within. Only God can give the guarantee and say that this will happen, this will come to you. So, are the enlightened ones, are the sages completely in Union with God? Well, completely is a tricky word, but for the sake of right now, let's say yes. And in spite of that, the non-duality, do they achieve any godliness or Godlike stature? They don't, because the gift of Life, the gift of spirit, always only belongs to God himself. And that is why in spite of whatever spiritual accomplishments, our head has to always be bowed down to God. See, that is into the mind, it's a huge paradox. It's a very Zen-like thing that we discover a complete unity with God and yet we have to remain in humility anyway. But that is all, that is for later. For now, our job is to remain inward-facing in faith, love, humility, gratitude, sincerity, commitment, patience, courage. All of these things will come as you make the endeavor, you make the attempt and don't give up. Then all these things will also be strengthened for you. God will gift you with more and more of these.

So because of the grace of the holy guide, the Guru, we find true insight, true vision, and then Kabir Ji says that he found Ram everywhere—inside, outside, dream state, waking state, sleep state. Everything became Ram, Ram, Ram because he had the grace of the Guru. And he has already told us earlier that the Guru is the word, is the holy presence, the Holy Name.

So we must not give up. There will be times which will seem very frustrating, very difficult, because as you attempt to move towards the Atma within, the holy presence, the Holy Spirit within, Maya is not going to sit quietly. It is going to bring you all kinds of temptations, all kinds of obstacles, all kinds of difficulties. There will be things where you will think that you were far beyond these things and they will show up and they will seem so big. But remember that if you keep turning to God, God will make grace out of all of these obstacles as well. You will turn every obstacle into love; every problem will become new insight, more maturity, more grace. So don't be scared of problems, don't be scared of obstacles, and stay put. Don't run unless you feel guided in your heart to run away from that situation. Mostly it is better to face it. Face it with the help of the Satguru within. Allow him to do his work, do the healing that is needed. Yeah.

Okay, let's sing the Hanuman Chalisa. So today we have some time to read the... come.