Swamiji…Masters time and again try to inspire in us traits like love free from jealousy, better understanding and non-judgmental attitudes. Why is the understanding not happening in us?
You see, there are two things in this.
When we catch the principles of the Masters and make a sincere effort in transforming ourselves, we have caught the right thread and we will enter into bliss! But what happens is, we start giving importance to the Master’s personality instead. You have to give importance to the Master’s principles and philosophy. If you give importance to his personality, you completely miss him; you completely miss his message.
See understand: If you follow his teachings, you will become a spiritual fruit; if you cling on to his personality, you will remain a religious nut. Religious nuts are the ones who create confusion and conflict and remain where they are.
Whether it is Krishna’s message in the Bhagwad Gita or Mohammed’s message in the Holy Koran or Christ’s message in the Holy Bible, the message remains the same; just the expressions vary. Whichever Master you have the fortune of following, follow. But when you start following the personalities instead of their teachings, when Krishna becomes more significant to you than the Bhagwad Gita, you start creating trouble for yourself and for others.
When Krishna and Christ meet, they will surely embrace each other. But when Krishna’s cows and Christ’s sheep meet, there is bound to be a fight!
Each one from a different following tries to spread peace claiming that his Master’s philosophy is the best. What happens then? Instead of spreading peace, we become pieces ourselves! When you try to force your so-called peace on others, the problem starts. This is how we complicate matters and miss the message not only in one birth, but in several births.
Masters keep happening on planet Earth out of sheer compassion towards humanity. Man somehow manages to survive them!
The second thing: Instead of pointing fingers at others or instead of waiting for a good time to start practicing, if each of us starts practicing what we hear from the very moment of hearing, things will automatically start happening around us.
For example, I tell you to start loving plants, animals, trees and humans alike. Instead of waiting for an auspicious time to start practicing it and eventually forgetting all about it, you can start immediately internalizing what I said and start practicing it.
The simplest way to start might be to avoid abusing nature while you are walking on the road or inside your own home. When walking, some of us have the habit of breaking twigs off trees and plucking flowers. You could consciously stop doing these things and look at these things with more awareness and love. You could embrace nature to start with. This is a sure way of starting to enjoy and appreciate, instead of feeling jealous.
These are the ways not to miss the Masters’ teachings.
But what do you do? You come here and listen to me talking, or buy and read some of my books, and praise me as a great orator and forget about it. Or, you advise some friends to listen to my speeches, and you simply go back to your old ways of doing things. What can be done then? Please understand: I don’t want you to preach my teachings to others, I want you to practice them.
Listen to this small story:
One man went to Africa for a holiday.
He was walking in his backyard one day when he was confronted by a lion that leapt at him.
He quickly ducked and the lion landed in the bush nearby.
The next day, the man went walking again and the lion appeared and attacked him once more, but again he ducked and it landed further away in the bush nearby.
The next day, the man stood inside his house and looked outside to see if the lion could be seen anywhere.
He spotted the lion behind a bush.
To his amazement, he saw the lion practicing low jumps!
See, when you apply the knowledge that you gain, you can grow in life. When you simply want to collect knowledge, it is of no use. If you are going to simply collect knowledge, only your memory will grow, not your Being.
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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.
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