82. Even if God thinks...🔗

Zen statements are very simple! But very deep and meaningful! They explain the life principles as easily as inserting a needle in a ripe banana fruit.

❖ For happy times to dawn in life, a Zen statement: Whether you crave for it or not, when it has to rain, it will rain. This applies not only for rain... This will suit all kinds of expectations in life. Apply it and you will know the strength of this statement.

❖ There is no relationship between the sounds you make and God's will. So, don't grieve about it.

❖ It is only natural for a person acting in a drama, to forget himself and along with the drama, laugh and cry as the story requires him to act. In the drama of the world, it is also natural for a man, who forgets himself, to really weep or laugh.

❖ What is the truth?

❖ Who am I? Why did I come here? All these will begin to be known when the drama ends.

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Mukundan was having a runny nose. When he went to the doctor, after explaining his troubles, he looked here and there with his eyes filled with fear.

As Mukundan was afraid whether the doctor would give him an injection and was only looking at the hands of the doctor, the doctor interrupted and said, ‘Before I give you medicine, you have to finish a job.’

Mukundan asked, ‘What is it? Tell me.’

‘At least for ten minutes, open the tap and stand under the shower so that your head gets wet; then step out of the shower and stand exposing your body to the cold breeze at least for ten minutes. As soon as you finish doing this, you come and see me. I will give you your medicine.’

‘What are you asking me to do? If I do as you say, the runny nose may go away but I will start wheezing.’

The doctor replies, ‘What can I do? I only know to treat wheezing.’

❖ If the doctor is half-baked, the health of the patients who come to him will become a question mark. If your knowledge about God is half-baked, life itself will become a question mark.

Man who started saying, 'I pray to God; I bow down to God, ' gradually began to believe that 'God is an individual', and the pre-maturely ripened mind firmly caught hold of this idea.

Not stopping at that, he confused himself about God's love, grace and anger as:

What he thinks as affection as God's 'love';

What he thinks as regret as God's 'grace';

What he thinks as irritation as God's 'anger'.

It is only this confusion which remains as an obstruction for him to understand God fully.

There is no relationship at all between love, grace and anger of the divine-energy called God and man's love, grace and anger.

From the day man started understanding God from his own mental point of view, till today he has understood God wrongly only.

Here is a life incident of a religious preacher who used to do religious preaching about God.

'God is suffering for us. He shows love. He is waiting for us.' – In this manner, he would try to explain about God based on average feelings of love and affection.

It was rainy season. Due to some seasonal changes, it did not rain. Then that preacher, prayed piously to God for the sake of the people and told God, 'Make it rain now!' After a few minutes of the prayer, it started to rain.

Immediately the preacher said, 'Have you all seen? On hearing my request, God made it rain. He is waiting only for us.'

The people also nodded their heads saying, 'Yes, yes'. After some days when the people asked him, 'It will be good if it rains today. Why don't you pray to God for our sake?'

He prayed to God very piously for quite a long time, saying 'Make it rain'. Even after one hour of his prayer, it did not rain. Again he prayed; it was of no use. Even after his praying for five times continuously, there was no rain.

It did not rain at all. The preacher said, 'Have you all seen? This is a test of God. He is testing as to what amount of devotion we have towards Him'.

People also again nodded their heads saying, 'Yes, yes. That is right.'

When the people had all assembled there one day, even without his prayer, it started raining.

Immediately the religious preacher said, 'See, God is very good. He has a heart to help us. Even without our asking, he knows our needs.'

People also nodded their heads enthusiastically, saying 'Yes, yes'.

Unable to think, 'What is happening around us' and not being bold enough to understand, the people also nodded their heads. The religious preacher was going on talking.

Is it right? Fair?

To know the reply to these questions continue to read the article with great attention.

'It is good to keep the connection with God, the divine energy deep in our heart always. But it is not good to be going on imagining about God always.

Living in an imaginary world in this manner is not a symbol of progress in the path of reaching the divine energy, reaching God.

The reason being, that if the mind is caught in the imaginations about God, even if God thinks about it, He Himself cannot save us. Even if God himself comes in person and tells, 'the mind is entangled with these wrong ideas about God', it will be difficult for people to understand.

When the mind is getting mature, it says, 'All actions are done by God. All are his will and action.' It still cannot be true. This is because the mind, like a parrot, will catch hold of what others speak and will begin talking accordingly. Here the mind merely repeats the words of the matured enlightened Masters who say this from their experience of this truth. When a man who has no experience says this, these are merely words. It is word oriented.

After the mind has matured fully, in a beyond-mind state, experiencing it fully and saying deep from the heart, 'All are God's actions', then only it will be true. This is 'being' oriented.

When a person who has not attained mental maturity, begins to talk, understanding such experiential truths from his own mental point of view, till the end, there is a danger of life coming to an end without knowing the real truth.

For such type of people if you say, 'All are His actions; everything He will look after!' They will then ask what for are we there?

Is it for always asking for alms from God saying, 'Give me this; give me that'.

Or, is it for being afraid always, saying, 'Save me'.

You always search for God outside. It is only when you search within yourself that you can find God in this very body itself. You will experience and enjoy heaven within you in this world itself.

If you cannot understand this, even if God wills it, he cannot save you.'

All of the above statements are that of Jumalki's and are worth pointing out here.

Right from the very old times, man gets caught very easily in the net spread out by the dull mind.

He is struggling not even knowing that he is caught. Read this essay again. Try to understand the truth. Every thing is possible.

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A meaningful incident.

In a meditation camp at Salem one gentleman asked, 'It seems God created man like Him. What is your idea about it?'

'God has not created man in his form. It is only the man who has created God in his form and shape', I said.

'It is me who has created you, you created me. Of the two, who is great? Tell me man!' - If God asks you this, what reply will you give?

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Meditation chisels. Chisel No. 37.

If it is true that you are a believer then by reading this book your talking would have lessened, actions would have increased. In actions, hastiness would have lessened, and carefulness would have increased. Worries would have lessened and joy and independent feeling would have increased. All this would have happened if you had experimented with this book so far!

Without experimenting and examining, if you have read just like that, your talking would have increased a little. Within this time a few people would have commented, 'This man knows things'. But you will remain as you were.

If no change has occurred within you so far, please read once again and experiment with the truths said in this book.

Examine what all you are going to read further.

The secrets about the mind, people and life should be changed as experiences.

If people are not so prepared to change these truths into experience, taking the wisdom truths as 'fodder for the brain', this will result in great danger for themselves as well as others.

Their ideas which are not experienced and are only half-baked, will register in the minds of the listener, only as utter confusion. Such people can only create one more confused people like himself.

Don't fail to experiment with the wisdom truths you have read.

Do not say, 'I am a believer of spirituality.' And stop with that.

Spiritual principles are ultimate truths. But they are truths only for him who has made it as an experience.

For a new reader, spirituality is only a good philosophy. You should not try to believe in the principles. You cannot believe.

Even if you believe, they cannot become truths. Because they have not yet become experiences!

What is the use if you deeply believe that honey is sweet? For a person who believes so, he cannot know the taste of honey. What is the difference between him and a person who does not know even a single word about honey?

A man who says, 'I believe honey'; another says, 'I do not believe honey'. Both do not know about the taste of honey. Both will be in the same level only.

Instead of playing... I believe; I do not believe; leave it aside and just taste a drop of honey, by putting it on the tongue, the problem is solved. The idea that honey is sweet will become a true experience.

Just examine and see whether spirituality gives a joyful life...Problem will be solved.

If you do not experiment, then the believer in spirituality will remain in the same level of the person who does not believe in spirituality. Therefore experiment. Experiment fully.

83. Illusion! Illusion! Every thing is illusion! (Maya)

❖ Illusion (Maya) is only that amusing aspect which gives aplenty a desire to possess things and also the required energy and it is similar to keeping the butter in the hand and go on searching everywhere else for ghee.

❖ Before one gets enlightenment, there is no big difference between the sixty years of life the man lives and six hours of dreaming. There is however a difference in the measure of time. That is all.

A dream - Six hours!

A life - Sixty years!

❖ After the dream comes to an end, the dream world will disappear. When the ego comes to an end, the normal world will disappear. It is only when the 'Atman' soul awakens the 'real and true world itself' will be visible to the eye!

For a man who is asleep - dream is an illusion. For a man who is awake - the present world is an illusion. For an awakened man - All are illusion

❖ Illusion is that one – which, unless driven out, it won't go away by itself.

❖ Do you wish to live your life? Do you wish to enjoy and experience the real world? Do you wish to see God in people?

There is no other go at all. The curtain of illusion must be torn off. That too can be done by you only…

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Two friends, who were waiting for the route 12-B bus, were at the peak of their drunken state. As they did not know that the time was 2 in the night, they discussed between themselves, ‘Why 12-B bus has not yet come?’ and then they directly went to the bus depot itself.

They were telling, ‘We ourselves will take the 12-B bus from the depot and drive to our house.’ And they searched for 12-B bus.

There were more than 100 buses standing in the depot. While staggering due to the drunken state, they searched for 12-B bus, every time getting into each bus and getting down saying that this is not 12-B bus.

After two hours of searching, they said, 'We are disappointed. There is not even a single 12-B bus here.' Feeling this way they went home walking quite dejected.

❖ Because of their inebriated condition, it did not strike them that they can drive away any of the buses. They searched for 12-B bus only.

Illusion is also similar to this only. It will catch hold of any one particular aspect of life and make man be caught. Result - After having finished living, every man feels disappointed.

Aha! This is a mirage!

Lo! It appears for our eyes that there is a beautiful grove there; no, it is not at all a grove. It is also a part of the desert only.

One, who knows very clearly that there is certainly nothing there that will quench his thirst, will never go up to the mirage and get disappointed.

Infatuation, speed, fame, money - For a person running after these, if he comes to know that whatever is going to satisfy his infatuation is not present there, he will not run. If suddenly, all come to know of this truth the very movement of society will come to a stand-still.

The power or energy of illusion is such that, even if a person accidentally reads that what he searches for is not at the place of his search, it will see to it that he will not be allowed to understand it.

Once a devotee asked Ramana Maharishi (an enlightened Master from South India), 'Swami, What is Maya? How to come out of the delusion of maya?'

Ramana said, 'If you engage yourself in the spiritual meditation called, 'self-enquiry', you can come out easily. The delusion of Maya is similar to the saying, 'If you find the stone, there is no dog; if you find the dog, there is no stone.'

The devotee could not understand what Ramana said.

Laughingly Ramana asked, 'Don't you understand...? As long as YOU, the ego is present there, all will appear as greenery at a distance. This only is Maya. If you say, after finding the stone, there is no dog, does it mean, because you have found the stone, the dog has run away?'

To explain this, there is a nice story.

It seems a person went to see the palace. After going there, he was shocked. There were two big dogs at the entrance to the palace. Exquisitely sculpted, those statues appeared as real dogs from a distance.

As he was already afraid of dogs, saying, 'Two big dogs?' he started to run away nervously.

Having recognized from a distance itself that man's trembling body, facial perplexity, the ascetic took that man along with him and said, 'Don't be afraid. Come with me.'

His fear got cleared after he went closer and saw. He sighed and said, 'Oh, my God! Are they mere stones?' Then he saw the dog first, there was no stone. Now, when he saw the stones, there was no dog.

This is what is meant when we say, 'After seeing the dog, there is no stone; after seeing the stone, there is no dog.' When Ramana finished saying this speedily, having understood the explanation, the devotee also laughed heartily.

Until that ascetic came there, and took him closer to the statue of the dog, that man would not have known that the image of a dog is nothing but stones laid down in the shape of a dog.

This man fearing the stone as a dog, and other man thinking that he can be happy if he touches the peak of infatuation, fame and money – both are in the same boat.

That man believing the stone as a dog is illusion (Maya).

Right from lust up to God, the human mind thinks about some thing and believes it to be true and goes after it – this is maya. What happens at that moment is delusion due to maya.

Only an enlightened Master who has won over himself can get rid of the delusion of a man who has not understood rightly about lust or God, and who suffers and struggles due to this illusion.

One small story.

One disciple asked a Zen Master, 'If every thing is Maya, illusion... is searching for infatuation, position, fame and money like searching for what is impossible in reality?

The Master said, 'Yes, what is the doubt in this?'

'If that is so, what man thinks and wants to achieve through those things are about things which are not there?' the disciple asked.

The Master answered, 'Yes.'

'How is it that man runs so enthusiastically searching for it when it is not there?'

'It is like this.... A village boy got into a steam engine drawn train for the first time, that too in the last carriage, where the signalman was there.

Having got inside, as the boy playfully leaned on the steel bars of the carriage and pushed it, the same instant the train also started.

The boy thought that the train has started only because he had pushed the steel bars. As he pushed again faster, the speed of the train also increased.

The boy's joy knew no bounds – as to how superbly he is pushing the train!

Did not the boy, who could not understand the truth, drive the train?' laughed the Master, winking at his disciple.

The disciple said, 'That is all right. But can't man be made to understand that he is only searching for comfort and joy, where it is not available?'

The Master explained, 'Two things need to happen. First, that boy should be told that the train is running by itself. Second, that boy should be mature enough and have the eagerness to understand the truth.'

Understand one truth.

The society in which you live, the happenings around you, the individual lives of the relations..... Why? Even your body functions are not done by you. All are happening beyond your limits.

When all things are happening beyond our limits, is our life alone 100% in our hands? Still we are in constant search. What is it?'

It is enough if this question is born.

It means that maya, the illusion has started to leave us.

Enlightened Masters take birth here only to show us further steps than this and lead us to bliss.

Feel deeply that you are only still searching.

Let the Maya leave you.

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A meaningful incident.

When a student asked the Buddha to explain the state of Nirvana,

Buddha asked, 'As a boy, you protect the sand castle you built only as long as your interest in playing with it is still there. Is it not true?'

'Yes Master', replied the student.

'As long as there is the desire to live, home, relations and all the things of the outer world will attract you. As the desire reduces, the attraction will dissipate. After that you will get detached from all things. You will become Nirvana energy.' said Buddha.

❖ Play. Play realizing it that it is play. This is the formula to proceed to the next step.

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Meditation chisels. Chisel No. 38.

Which is real? Which is dream? Which is imagination?

Neurologists are able to read the functioning of your brain.

From the information obtained from the brain, it can be said precisely right up to which particular type of feeling you were having at a particular minute.

In reality you see a child...

In the night, in your dream, you see the same child...

While in the waking state, you see the same child in imagination.

-- In all the above three cases, the signals given out by the brain are all similar.

From the signals of the brain, it cannot be distinguished as to which is real, which is dream, and which is imagination. For the brain, all the three appear to be the same.

That is, the brain functions as though 'all the three are real' or 'all the three are maya (illusion)'.

The brain is unable to distinguish. But you are able to distinguish.

How is it that you are able to distinguish as to which is real and which one is dream?

That is due to your awareness. Compared to the dream of the night the imagination during the day has more awareness. Compared to day time imagination, real life has still more awareness.

Having come up to real life, you are able to distinguish that the first two are maya or illusions. If the awareness increases still further, it will be understood by you that your present living life itself is maya. Even this is a dream only.

What you believe as real life and real world are only not-yet-disturbed dreams. Even this is maya only. This is only a long dream yet to be passed over.

What is the use if the dream at night is beautiful? After you wake up, it will disappear.

In the same way is the maya of real life too. Surpassing even this, there is a heavenly world, which is more illustrative. That is real. That is real as told by great Masters.

Supposing a person begins to cry loudly, being beaten in a dream by a wicked man, if you are near him what will you do?

Will you not wake him up, thinking, 'Poor man, he has become frightened in the dream. If the dream continues, he will suffer....'

The reason: Compared to the sleeping person, your awareness is more. That is why you wake him up.

The enlightened Masters have got thousand times more awareness than an ordinary man.

If they see the struggles and sufferings you undergo by believing this illusory life to be real, the Master's grace will simply overflow. They understand the pitiable state of man.

It is only because the enlightened Masters have understood the 'Falsehood of the reality'; they come for the service of humanity. They awaken the sleeping person.

The dream of real life is still deeper. Even though the Masters wake you up, should you not have the desire to wake up?

Meditate upon these wisdom truths.

You will wake up!