LIFE, LOVE AND LAUGHTER

 

MAN IS SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS

The primary qualification for any person that wants to embark on a spiritual practice or path is a yearning. He must yearn to find something within himself, which he does not know. Some people are yearning to find the answer to things he does not know about, and some do nothing.

We start by doing spiritual practices to find specific answers. Many persons would like to ask the main questions: “Who am I? Why am I born into this world? What is the purpose of my environment? How do I relate with my environment, and in the relationship of the environment, am I evolving to greater and greater happiness?”

The main purpose of life, consciously or unconsciously, is to find happiness. It is because the nature of man is blissful. Ananda resides within him. Man is essentially Divine, and because of the essential Divinity within him, that is what spurs him on to find himself; to find the Divinity that is within him and that constitutes the mechanics of the path of finding happiness.

So, to recap, man consciously or unconsciously searches for happiness. A man makes a million pounds, and he thinks he will find happiness in doing that. But when he makes the million pounds, he is still unhappy, so he tries for the second million, and when he has the second million, he will try to find the third. But is that the path to find happiness, to find that peace that is there within us? We are trying to find externality internally, using the wrong direction.

INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED PRACTICES

In our Foundation, the given practices are individually designed and are aimed at the sum totality of that particular person. Based upon the person’s vibration, which a guru can hear in his meditative state, an assessment and evaluation is made, whereby the sum totality of the person is assessed, and thereupon, a practice is prescribed. So, it becomes an individual practice.

We have avoided mass practices because there cannot be one medicine to cure everything. You might need a different medicine for a headache than what you need for a toe-ache.

So, with our Foundation, all practices are individually designed. These individually designed practices are aimed at un-fathoming that which is within us, and that is the purpose of the Foundation, in order so that man could reach his primal state of bliss. Man is essentially divine.

YOU ARE DIVINE

When man repeats to himself, “I am a sinner. I am weak”, he will become weak. The message I bring to you is this that you are Divine. That Divinity is just covered up, clouded up, and we have to unfold it. We do not call the Foundation – spiritual development. The spirit does not require developing. It is fully developed within you and me but covered up. We have to unfold it, and we give our practices for the unfoldment. Our meditators find that in doing these individually designed practices, a greater harmony comes within them; they do feel a greater self-integration.

Man has three aspects to himself. He has the physical body, he has the mental body, and the Spiritual body. And all troubles begin when the three aspects of man do not function harmoniously. With spiritual practices, we function harmoniously, with more and more and more harmony, and as we become more and more harmonious to ourselves, we create greater harmony in the environment.

THE PURPOSE OF MEDITATION

The nature of the flower is to grow beautiful. It grows beautiful, but it does something else as well; the flower that grows beautiful in itself also enhances the garden’s beauty. When an individual becomes more harmonious with himself and more self-integrated, his environment improves, which is the purpose of meditation.

The purpose of meditation is to live as a self-integrated being, and being self-integrated, one can perform daily actions with greater dynamism and greater vitality. And having become harmonious, we automatically become loving, and when we become loving, we become loveable.

When we, through meditation, create this beautiful harmony within ourselves, when the mental awareness expands, and simultaneously the heart expands, then this combination of the mind and heart, with that beautiful expansion and as we gradually achieve that beautiful wholeness, our attitude towards life changes, where we can start loving. Then we will know the meaning of the Commandment, “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself.” Then we will know the true import.

If we use that message “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself” mentally, we might appreciate some of its meaning. But to appreciate the significance intellectually supported by the experiential value, how powerful that will become. Then we will know what loving your neighbour as thyself could mean. There is a significant difference between knowing something only by the intellect and experiencing something.

PHILOSOPHIES MUST BE BROUGHT DOWN TO PRACTICAL DAILY LIVING

These qualities of love which are gained through meditation, can be experienced and not only experienced but translated and interpreted in daily living. All philosophies in this world are of no use; if it remains only on the mind level, it is mental gymnastics. They must be brought down to practical day to day living, and our meditations are individually designed and tailored, made for each and every individual person so that he could do his practices twice a day, half an hour morning and evening. And he is shown methods how he can interpret them in day to day living and thereby making his life richer in every aspect of his being. Greater harmony is found in the home, greater harmony is found in work, greater harmony is found in his social circles, greater harmony is found in society. Society and various units of social bodies form a country, and then England can shine to its primal glory again. The empire builder can also start off to be the spiritual empire builder.

This movement is in many countries, but England has become one of the leading centres because I know the potentiality, the bulldog tenacity of the English people. If they make up their minds, they can perform wonders. If they could have been the greatest sea power, if they could have built the greatest empire in the history of mankind, they could also create the greatest spiritual empire. And there are specific points in England that are very highly empowered spiritual points. There is a great vibration here in this country. As soon as I put my foot here in England, I could feel it. I could feel the vibration, and this vibration will overcome all the permissiveness and all the wrongdoings that were happening.

WE START OFF WITH OURSELVES

But we have to start somewhere. We begin with ourselves. And how do we begin with ourselves? We have to find methods that can improve ourselves, the easiest and the finest and the best and the sublimest and the loveliest, the most beautiful method is meditation. Through meditational practices, our attitudes towards life change. I always like this one stanza, “Two men behind prison bars, one saw mud, the other saw stars.” They are both in the same circumstances; one could see the gloom, the other could see the Lord’s glory. This is because our meditational practices change aspects of thought, attitude, and perspective. They have to change, and they do change because we operate as a total being.

Human beings usually do not operate in totality. Every day, you see this where a person thinks one thing, does another thing and speaks a third. They pull in different directions. So, where can the progress be? But if they operate in totality, how beautiful it would be. People cannot even make love in totalness, which is our society’s present state. They cannot communicate with their wives or the husbands in complete totality, where the minds, bodies and spirit flow as one unity. Even in that form of lovemaking, where they could flow together in one unity, that too can become a meditation because there is a smooth flow, there is a Divinity that shines. It is self-luminosity; it is not borrowed light. Therefore, it becomes eternal, immortal, beautiful, sublime, divine, any amount of labels you can put on, it becomes goodly, and it becomes Godly.

LIFE, LOVE AND LAUGHTER

Because what is life? Remember the three L’s – Life, Love and Laughter. If we have these things in our lives, to live life with love and laughter, then where are troubles? There are no such things as troubles. There are no problems because every problem has a solution inherent within itself. Once we can function as a totality, as an integrated person, the answer is automatically found when a problem comes up. It is inherent in the problem.

In doing the meditations, there are milestones that will show you, “Am I progressing in my meditation.” And if you are unable to recognise the progress in your meditation, then our counsellors could advise and tell you. If you want to reach Birmingham, in between, you will find various towns, and you will find the milestones, one hundred miles, fifty miles, twenty-five miles. And as you come across this milestone, it encourages you, “Oh, I am reaching Birmingham. It is nearer now. Self-integration is nearer.” These things are milestones and very encouraging, and if you do not understand them, they can be interpreted for you by very, very qualified counsellors that are highly trained in aspects of life.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1976 – 01