Words from the Master

So ancient astrology is a proven science Swamiji?

This is what I was afraid of! The moment I say yes, you will all start running behind astrology! Tomorrow morning I will see a long queue before me carrying horoscopes, saying “Swamiji, please, just see this and predict my future!”

I tell you: Don’t worry so much about astrology!

Vivekananda gave a befitting answer to someone who questioned him about astrology. He told him, “Go, eat well, exercise well, sleep well. You will become strong, physically and mentally. Then you won’t worry about all these things!”

Only a person who is mentally weak depends so much on astrology.

Swamiji, does that mean that all the people who follow astrology are weak-minded?

No, you can’t say that. But the majority is weak-minded. Even people who are normally intelligent sometimes behave foolishly in these matters. They come and ask me, “Swamiji, if I wear such and such a stone or gem, will it be lucky for me?” How can you depend on a stone! You are Live Consciousness; you are nothing but God! I can’t imagine – I am teaching you the science by which you can harness this whole Cosmic Energy, and you ask me about stones!

You might have heard about Swami Yateeshwarananda. He was a great man, an enlightened person. When he traveled abroad for the first time, he started out during rahukala - an inauspicious hour of the day, calculated by using the positions of the planets.

Someone asked him, “Swamiji, how can you start during rahukala?”

He answered, “You fool! I am the energy that guides the planets! How can they control me?”

See the courage of the man! It is the courage that comes out of deep understanding.
I am teaching you the science by which you can control the planets! So why do you bother about where the planets are, how they will affect you, and all that? Pick up the science of meditation, that’s enough. Then nothing can touch you.

But this has become part of our value-system, Swamiji…

Be very clear: All our values are nothing but a substitute for Consciousness.
If you are conscious, aware of what you are doing, you don’t need values to tell you what to do. You don’t have to follow any rules; rules will be following you! All the virtues and the discipline and the spirituality will happen to you and you will naturally flower into a state of spiritual elevation.

Somehow, whenever we hear words like Consciousness or spiritual elevation, we always think, No, no - this is not for me! Without even trying any meditation technique, any practical way of elevating the Consciousness, we come to the conclusion that this is not for us. So we go in for a substitute, for pseudo-consciousness – which is called morality, conscience, values.

Values are fine when you are at the starting point – but not as the ending point!
Vivekananda says beautifully, “It is good to be born in the church, but not to die there!”

We should first drop the idea that to be spiritual is very difficult and different.

There is a song by Bhagwan Ramana:
Ayyai, ati sulabham, atmavidyai, ayyai, ati sulabham!
It means, ‘Oh, so easy, this spirituality, oh, so easy!’

In a later stanza he says,
If you want money, you need to work hard.
If you’re looking for name and fame, you need to work hard.
If you want self-realization, all you need to do is keep still!

If you can slip into deep laziness, you will fall into divinity. This laziness is not what we normally know as laziness. It is not physical laziness. It’s a kind of – mental laziness! If you can completely – I mean completely – calm yourself, you can verily be spiritual.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.