YAMUNOTRI🔗

Whatever we may say after our trek 'this is paining that is paining..!' - it is a wonderful experience and worth having. Yamuna is so happy today to see us! In three places I clearly saw Her Energy. She has blessed our whole group. In the temple, while returning, I saw that She has blessed our whole group. Don't think that the rivers are just a totality of water; they are something much more than that. Don't think that the Himalayas is just stones; it is a living Energy...

Joshimath, Himalayas, 2005

SANCTITY

Untouched

Hanuman Chatti, the place where we got onto the jeep is the place from where Hanuman the Monkey God lifted the Sanjeevani hill to save the lives of Rama and Lakshamana in the epic Ramayana! You will see a flat area amidst the hills; that is the portion he took away to treat Lakshmana during the time of war. Chatti means flat or shaven head. A complete patch in the shape of a ring at the foothills can be seen. The beauty is, everything here is related to spirituality! In some other countries they would have made these things a tourist spot.

You need to use every opportunity to grow spiritually in life. The culture of rishis - ancient mystics started here. They were a big group of people who did not have to work for food because the rivers here gave it to them abundantly. They went into the inner world and brought a high and rich culture. We are all indebted to them. That is why the Himalayas is such a wonderful place. Can't imagine that we are here! All of them were born here.

Paramahamsa May 2005, Himalayas

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, July 2007

How long?

(In response to a question: how long does it take for enlightenment?)

Let us accept ourselves as we are, let us love ourselves as we are. But we neither respect ourselves nor love ourselves. That is the reason why we think this silence or this enlightenment experience is not for us. We keep postponing. We have deep guilt about ourselves.

We have some idea about how life should be and we try to recreate or reproduce that imagination in reality. When we are not able to, we create guilt. It is a vicious circle. We continuously disrespect ourselves.

When you want to measure the strength of a chain, you always measure based on the weakest link, the strength of the weakest link. When we try to measure the strength of our life, of our being, again we try to use the same logic. We try to measure ourselves based on our weakest moments. That is what I say is wrong.

Whenever you think about yourself, you always measure yourself only based on your failures, low energy moments, low energy moods, your wrong decisions. Whenever you are going to take a new step, you only remember all your past mistakes. You don't even remember the good things you have done or the right decisions you made.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, July 2007

The more you remember the negative decisions or your mistakes, the more guilt you create. One thing you should understand: guilt will again and again attract the same bad instances in our life.

If you are joyful, you attract joyful people around you. You create a beautiful community around you. You create a blissful group around you. If you are in suffering, if you have some depression, naturally you attract only that type of people around you. When you measure yourself as a low person, when you create a deep guilt in yourself, naturally you attract only those types of incidents, those types of persons, those types of situations in your life.

If you tune your television to CNN channel, you will see the CNN news. If you tune your television to some other channel, you will see some other program. In the same way if you tune your mind to a positive attitude or positive things, you will start seeing only those kinds of things in your life, around you - blissful friends, blissful situations, and blissful life.

It is we who decide. So don't think that the silence of enlightenment is not possible for you in life. People always come and ask me, 'Swamiji, what you say is really beautiful, it makes sense, but tell me some practical method.'

The moment you say practical, you have already decided that what I am saying is impractical. The very understanding and courage that what I say is practical and that you will express it in your life is more than enough. Usually we neither respect ourselves nor trust that we can have the experience of that silence and enlightenment.

First thing: understand you can. You are eligible. Everyone is entitled to enter into the kingdom of God, to enter into the divine space. Every one of us is eligible.