State of bliss

A deeper dive into the liberating qualities which lead us to a state of bliss.

1. Contentment - First point in our spiritual journey. Content person manifests stability. A stable person is reliable person. A reliable person is selfless who puts others needs ahead of themselves.

2. Calmness (Peace) - Second point in our spiritual journey. In acceptance, peace. The tool to practice acceptance is gratitude. Accepting the 'what is'.

Babuji says " Acceptance is a wise counselor. Acceptance saves time. Acceptance saves us from blows. Wise people accept, the least wise balk. Make love and acceptance the two fulcrums of your life."

3. Compassion (Love) - Third point in our spiritual journey. In cheerful acceptance, love. The tool to practice love is appreciation. An appreciating heart is a loving heart. Appreciating the 'what is'. Appreciation is the ability to see the good side of things.

4. Courage - Fourth point in our spiritual journey. Courage is absence of fear. Fear is such a thing that makes a human do what they really do not want to do. It takes courage to follow the heart more than the crowd. It takes courage to live in the NOW. It takes courage to stop worrying about something that has not yet happened or that may never happen. 

Overcoming the fear of known and the fear of unknown, understanding that strength lies within and not outside. Detachment is the tool to overcome fear. When we don't have attachment there is nothing to lose. 

Why we form attachment? There could be many reasons but one main reason for attachment is gratitude. Somewhere someone knowingly or unknowingly met our need, we are grateful. Instead of stopping there we go ahead and get attached without our knowledge. 

Since human beings are inter dependent somewhere someone helping us to meet our need is okay but that should not become a habit or addiction, we should always try to be self-adequate.

In gratitude we should have the awareness that what is, is not eternal. The person can move away from our life journey, the person may change while still being there or the person might have unknowingly met some need but may not always be there for us. Detachment in gratitude is essential. Detachment removes fear. Courage is absence of fear. Courage gives rise to Freedom!

Acceptance without the idea of acceptance is detachment. In courage, Freedom. The tool to practice courage is detachment.

5. Clarity - The fifth point in our spiritual journey. At this point of time, I think that the appropriate mastery on contentment, calmness, compassion and courage automatically paves way to clarity.

Of course, our mastery on these points need not be sequential. There can be a detached person who is not content and hence not stable and reliable. There can be a detached person who may not be loving. 

Clarity gives way to SAT CHIT and ANANDAM. A liberated soul will remain in a state of bliss. It's not easy to attain this state while still living in the body. We live in a world of illusion. But we need to make use of the illusions to refine ourselves (understand, adjust our thoughts, learn, unlearn, relearn) and move on to a permanent state of bliss (A perfect blend of contentment, calmness, compassion, courage, clarity).  It's not easy, but not impossible either.

Sometimes we have dirty situations in the flow of life. People breaking our trust, people who have been just using our kindness. Somethings can be ignored while some others hurt us deeply and put us in a state of fear. In fear we loose clarity and remain confused. How to overcome fear ? Only through faith. Faith is what ? Faith in the flow of life. Trust there is ove , peace and goodness within and around us irrespective of how many people might have individually broken our trust. 

Courage is the ability to trust all over again. Close your eyestrustwith all your heart trust there is peace and love, then it is already there. 

Reflections February 2023

 Practice gratitude in the smallest things of day-to-day life. Be grateful for "what is" instead of complaining about " What is not" and yet be aware to stay detached because " what is " is not eternal. Gratitude is the application towards acceptance and outcome is peace. 

Practice the art of enjoying the flow of life, appreciating people and things as it is (instead of expecting things to be as per our idea, good need not always match with our idea of good) is a step towards "cheerful acceptance", the outcome is Joy.

 At times unknowingly we dress gratitude with attachment, and it starts getting heavy. Be grateful yet 'detached'. Gratitude is a beautiful subtle feeling. "Attachment" is an emotion. Feel the feeling without the emotion. Then gratitude becomes liberating else it will become binding.

A transition from independent to the understanding that human beings are Inter dependent was a old learning but practice the give and receive of love with open heart, give and receive of wisdom with open mind and give and receive of help with open hands. Give and receive is moderation, only one is extremism. 

Wisdom is awareness, wisdom is sensitivity, wisdom is reciprocation. Being sensitive to other people's needs and reciprocating even if the need is not ours is selflessness. Respect is a good quality. There is a difference between respect and love. Respect only reciprocates. Love Initiates, love does not wait for the other person to initiate. Only the love between two lovers is eternal. 

In any situation we have the choice to go with the flow of life (enjoy, appreciate, accept or tolerate) or go against the flow but be convinced from within why you want to resist the flow of life. At times we might have to change ourselves and our attitude and not the flow of life. At times we won't be able to do that (push ourselves to purity which our conscience demands), then accept our own limitation at this point of time and make peace with it. May be sometime later we would be able to change and become better and purer.

"Needs being met" leaves a greater impact on us than better things which happen when the need is not ours. There are times when we are not aware of our own needs! or do not know how to fulfill our needs. Self-awareness and self-help are very important aspects of our journey. 

Always be aware that humans are dynamic, and they change their perceptions in the journey. So, learn to be a compassionate listener without being impacted by others' perceptions.

Each of us have our cup of strength and weakness, when another person's weakness manifests itself, leave it for the other person to handle it. Learn from the good in others. Go with the flow if their weakness does not create an impact on us. In some cases, some weakness can create an impact on us, there keep appropriate space for self-protection without disliking the person.

Going beyond the expansion of consciousness and clarity of thoughts with a child's wonder is amazing but the condition of thoughtless and perfect stillness which is miraculous results from mediation and grace of Guru.

Together and space

There is so much to learn from the two railway tracks,

 The idea of togetherness and space. 

They go together parallelly,

and keep appropriate space,

Not Too much space, 

Not too little space, 

Just the appropriate space. 

This appropriate space,

While still being together, 

Is what fulfills their common purpose.

When one turns right, the other follows, 

When one turns left, the other follows, 

They are together in the turns,

Together in the routine,

Together in the changes,

While still keeping appropriate space.

Not too much space,

Not too little space,

Together keeping appropriate space,

Hence able to fulfill their purpose. 

Ignorance, awareness, Total ignorance

Like in everything in this universe,  there is a trinity in ignorance, knowledge, and total ignorance.

Ignorance is a state of non-awareness as well as inaction. This is an animal tendency in which a human is unaware that he is not good. They live in a state of nonacceptance, even if they act, they do it because they are forced to do it or don't have an option.

Knowledge is a state of action or living with conscious awareness. This is wisdom and human tendency, consciously being a good person.

Total ignorance is a state of action in non-awareness. This is a divine state in which a human is unaware that he is good.

Recently I have been looking at wise people with a feeling of wonder as they seem very aware of what they are doing. They seem to know what to do, how to do it, and how much to do. Also, what not to do and how not to do it. For them being good is a conscious choice. They know how much they should be good. What is the boundary, and what is the space. Wise people know when to say yes and when to say no. They are wonderful human beings with a certain level of self-mastery. It's rare to find good humans with so much wisdom. This is a perfect human state.

Some people give or be without the awareness of doing, giving, or being. They are human beings manifesting divine qualities.  They are the spiritual workers of society. They are elevated souls who serve anonymously.  Here anonymous is not that others don't recognize their goodness or service.  They are beings who live in a state of Total ignorance. They are not aware of their own goodness. They are instruments in the hands of nature, spiritual work happens through them without their own awareness. They only think good and do good because that is their natural condition.  They don't know limits, they don't know how much good to be. They may seem foolish and gullible, but they will be protected and carried by grace. This state is the spiritual climax, the transformation of tendency from animal to human and from human to divine.

Gratitude

" A grateful heart creates space for unlimited peace and tranquility" - Daaji

Gratitude is a miraculous quality, and there are different aspects to it. Gratitude is a positive emotion.

It's a feeling of thankfulness when someone does something good for us. This is a condition of thankfulness. 

The second step is expressing our gratitude to the concerned person. This is a state of gratitude,  which has more permanency.

Express gratitude even to those who did what they were "supposed to do" or "expected to do." Because they did it, it could have also been otherwise.

The third step is reciprocation( the same person who helped us may not need our help), so imbibe the good qualities of the person you feel grateful to and be prepared to give( help, support, affection) unconditionally. The universe will send you the one who needs to receive from you.

As in everything, moderation is the means. Do not overburden another person with gratitude. They did something good because that is their nature. We feel grateful that's our nature. But that gratitude should not burden the giver and receiver. 

Gratitude will magically transform our attitude toward life.

Connections

In our journey, we connect with so many people in different ways and with varying intensities and durations. Why do we not connect to all the people in the same way and with the same intensity? Am not referring to the shallow talk or the surface superfluous connections, but the deeper, heartfelt connections , healthy and pure relationships. 

Some of the reasons for deep connections:

1.Feeling of gratitude for something we  received( help, support or affection) unconditionally. 

2. Common interest

3. Admiration ( Our admiration can be of different nature. Physical admiration, admiration of skills, admiration of habits, admiration of qualities ). Admiring someone for their personality is important for a healthy connection.

I feel the above three reasons help us to form strong connections. 

Investing quality time is essential, and it intensifies the connections. Time has the potential to turn a regular connection into a strong connection, and not spending enough time can make an intense connection weak unless and until the connection has reached that stage of eternal bonding.

We also connect based on a common background such as age group, gender, nationality, city, profession, language, culture, social status, and family status) I feel such connections are not that strong. Common background and common interests are not the same. But again, it depends on how much identity we associate with that background.

At times connections happen without our knowledge. We should also learn to disconnect from bad connections we made unknowingly. A disconnect is also required to protect our energy until we are unaffected by anything.

1. We should consider disconnecting from those whose value system no longer matches ours.

2. Every connection has to be mutual. Only then can it be sustainable, or else it will become draining. We should consider disconnecting from insensitive people who do not value us.

3. When we connect through some common interest that is not of elevating nature, we need to disconnect from them when we decide to eliminate those bad habits. 

" We can meet the other person only at the depths we have already met ourselves." 

The most important connection is the connection to our inner self/higher self. Let's make a conscious effort to connect to ourselves every day when we connect to higher self(God within); from there, we can develop the ability to connect with all of God's creation unconditionally.

Connecting to ones oneself is the first step towards unconditional universal love.