Everything is auspicious

THE whole of Existence is an auspicious happening. We are part of Existence, so everything happening around us is also auspicious! This is the truth of Existence. Nothing that happens in Existence is inauspicious. Everything is only a blessing. If we understood this clearly, we can see everything as extraordinary. Everything will appear as a miracle.

One day a duck hunter went to the market to buy a bird retriever dog. To his amazement he found a dog that could walk on water! He immediately took it home.

He invited one of his friends to hunt the next day and took the dog with them. When a flock of ducks came near, he took aim, fired and silently watched. The dog walked on the water and retrieved the bird. He looked at his friend for a reaction but the friend remained silent. He asked him, ‘Do you see anything unusual about my dog?’ The friend replied, ‘Yes, your dog is unable to swim.’

Miracles are continuously happening in front of our eyes, but we continuously miss them! Only because we miss them, life itself appears to be dull. When we start perceiving them, our entire life becomes a miracle.

In the whole world there are only two kinds of people. The first kind will try to judge, criticise and develop the things happening in the world according to their ideas. There is the other group which feels that whatever is happening is auspicious.

Whoever feels that whatever happens is auspicious, lives in eternal bliss, in celebration. The other group continuously suffers because it tries to change things all the time. Just accept and celebrate Existence with all its different dimensions and paradoxes. Everything has a message for us including death and disease.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the enlightened master, says this beautiful story:

Two men entered a mango grove. One of them sat and counted the number of trees. He studied the variations in their size, the number of branches, density of leaves and number of mangoes across the trees. He thought about where they would sell, what would be the cost, etc. The other man simply ate a few mangoes, enjoyed himself and left!

If we continuously use our logic to analyse and judge and try to bring things under our control, we will miss the whole beauty of the existential miracles.

So don’t judge anything. Everything has something to teach us. Accept and celebrate the very existence of the world with the innocence of a child! Nithyanandam.

Words from the Master

To be spiritual is neither easy nor difficult. It’s just the idea that you have. If you think it’s easy, it’s easy. If you think it’s difficult, it’s difficult. To be as you are, what is needed? Is it difficult or easy?

Easy Swamiji…

You cannot even use the word easy! It is as we are! You are already that, then how can you say it is easy to become that?

Just look in. Turn inward. A little trust in spirituality and a little meditation - that is enough! When you drop the fear that to be spiritual is very difficult, you will get the confidence that Yes, I can be spiritual. I can be Conscious. Then the question of ‘is it right to drop my values’, will not arise at all.

Right now you are afraid to drop your values because you have nothing else to hold on to! We know, once we drop our values, all the suppressed desires will jump out, the Pandora’s Box will open! And we know, if the Pandora’s Box opens, there will be only chaos! We are afraid of our subconscious. The fear of the subconscious is what prompts this question.

If you continuously practice meditation, your subconscious will be cleared. Then you will see, even if you open the Pandora’s Box, there’s nothing in there to jump out. You will see your face reflected in it; you will see a clear mirror! Do you follow what I am saying?

Yes…Now let us enter into a meditation technique called the Dukkhaharana meditation* that will act upon the Muladhara chakra and awaken the energy in it.

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

* To learn and experience Dukkhaharana meditation under a qualified instructor, kindly enroll for Ananda Spurana Program (ASP) at a center close to you.

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.

Words from the Master

Swamiji, you were talking about how there is no such thing as a perfect partner. Then what is the purpose of matching horoscopes before marriage?

Now if I start speaking on this subject, I will have to pull down the whole structure of astrology!

Not astrology itself, but the way we follow it today is foolish and nonsensical.
Understand: It is your life, you are living it, you should know the pros and cons – but you don’t know anything about your life, and you are going and asking others! Where is your intelligence?

To surrender your life to a stranger, to let him make your life’s decisions, just shows that you no longer even know how to run your own life. Be very clear: You have to take responsibility for your own life.

When people come to me with questions about their future, I tell them - don’t approach me to predict what your future is going to be. Approach me if you want my help to design a good future for yourself. All these predictions are only for the weak-minded, be very clear on that.

Ancient astrology was a pure science. There was truth in it.

Let me tell you how astrology evolved.

In the past, when a child was sent to the Master to study, to the gurukul, astrology was used to diagnose what kind of personality, what kind of attitudes and natural aptitudes he possessed. Accordingly, he would be trained.

Like this, earlier, the caste distinctions were not based on birth, they were based on character, on a person’s natural abilities.

When a boy was admitted into the gurukul, the Master would see what his natural tendencies were. If he had Brahmin tendencies where intelligence was the prime factor, he would be initiated into Veda Vidya - studying of the Vedic scriptures. If his personality was that of a Kshatriya, where bravery and strength were the most dominant, he would be trained in martial arts. If he showed Vaishya tendencies, wherein he exhibited many skills, he would be taught business. If he seemed to possess Shudra qualities, where he was happy giving his time to routine work, then he would be initiated into service. All four roles had equal value and earned equal respect.

This was the purpose for which astrology was used. It was a science used for diagnosis. Look around you today. Almost everyone is in the wrong place! A Doctor by nature has become an Engineer and an Engineer has become a Serviceman and what not! That is why there is a sense of total chaos in society. When a man who is a businessman by character enters into spirituality, what happens? Spirituality becomes a business!

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