PROF ANIL KUMAR'S SATSUNG...PART-4 (COMPLETE)

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Prashanti Nilayam. DEATH IS AS AUSPICIOUS AS BIRTH What is the next point about which you should

be careful? Be careful not to consider death as inauspicious. We consider death a tragedy, as the end of life, as something that should not happen to anyone; but this is not true! Death is as auspicious as birth. Death is not inauspicious. It is not a tragedy. Death is as auspicious as birth. Death is a celebration. That’s why when saints and seers pass on, nobody cries. When saints die, nobody cries because the saint has simply withdrawn from their body. This is not something to lament. Death should be a celebration. Man starts dying from the moment of birth. If you think that being 65 years old means that 65 years are gone, then they you are dead already. You cannot repeat your 30th year now. It is not available on any cassette for you to rewind and replay. Yesterday is dead, and the day before yesterday is

forgotten. Moment after moment, the process of death continues on, while always ahead is another moment to be born. Tomorrow is to be born and yesterday is dead. Arriving moments bear birth and moments that have passed by speak of death. Now, which moment is more important? Is 10:45 the most inauspicious? Is 10:50 most auspicious? This is mad! It is not like that. Birth and death are inevitable. One leads to the other. One is the corollary of the other. So, do not fear death. It is not to be worried about. A spiritual man will never fear death. Swami Vivekananda gave a discourse in Chicago at which he was asked, “Swami, what has to be always borne in mind? What has to be

remembered throughout life?” And do you know what he said? Swami Vivekananda answered, “Death.” Startled, they responded, “Death is to be remembered? Whether you remember death or not, it will happen. So why should you remember it?” Vivekananda said, “When you remember death constantly, you will develop detachment. You will not be tempted to be bad or sinful. You will never be arrogant or egoistic. You will never be selfish, because the constant thought of mortality all the time will keep you vigilant and careful. Therefore

it is the most auspicious thing to remember.” DEATH IS A CELEBRATION In one of his talks, Sadhu Vaswani from Pune said something very interesting. A tragedy had taken place in a family. The head of that family had died. This left everyone crying for the departed soul, who meanwhile was wondering, “Why do they cry? After all, my body was sick, in terrific pain. My eyes could no longer see; my ears could no longer hear; my mind could no longer think or remember. When I died, this soul was made free from that diseased body! So when this soul is made happy, why are they crying?” What a beautiful thought this is! The soul will feel very sorry for the

relatives who are crying around the corpse left behind, because the soul has been made very happy. When my coat is full of black stains, I throw it away. If people then feel sorry for the cloth, what am I to do? So the body is given up, but remember that the soul is eternal. It is made ready to acquire a fresh body. It is going to possess a new, healthy body -- one more beautiful, more handsome, more functional, more dynamic, and more active. Why should people feel so badly about the body that ceases to be functional and has become a burden to the soul itself? Out of compassion, we can serve the body; but the loss of the body is not to be lamented. The loss of the body is to be celebrated. So, death is a celebration, a festival. When a saint (or anyone) loses their body, it is cause for a celebration. This is the thing that has to be borne in the mind. MEDITATION SHOULD TAKE YOU BEYOND SPACE AND TIME Some of you have got funny ideas about meditation. Some people say, “When I meditate, I feel red colours, or I see blue colours.” I recommend to these people that they consult an ophthalmologist. (Laughter) Some say that in meditation, “I feel a cool breeze coming toward me.”

Please check to see if you are very close to an air conditioner! (Laughter) Some say that in meditation, “I see angels moving about.” Please consult a psychiatrist. (Laughter) Some say that in meditation, “I am transported to the other world”. Sunita Williams has gone all by herself into space, but not by meditation. If she meditated to get there, she wouldn’t have returned. My friends, what is meditation? Is it travel to any other place? Is it about anything beyond the body? Some people say it’s the astral body. You

don’t know about this body, so how can you speak of the astral body? Please take care of this physical body, as it has to live here for some more time still! So what is meant by meditation? Is it trying to get to something new? To imagine pictures, figures, or personalities? What is it? Let me tell you what Bhagavan said, or what Ramana Maharshi said. Ramana Maharshi’s views and Baba’s views on this are exactly the same. So what is mediation? Meditation is a moment of being nowhere. You are not going anywhere. You are not being anywhere. Let me call it a moment of ‘nowhereness’. Nowhereness is the quality of meditation. Nowhereness means that you are not here, nor are you there.

You are not anywhere. You have gone beyond time and space. Nowhereness is a necessary quality of meditation. MEDITATION SHOULD MAKE YOU AWARE OF the TRUTH Awareness is the second quality of meditation. What I you mean by awareness? Awareness means that while I am in the meditative state, I am not the body, mind or intellect. I am the eternal Self, the unending witness beyond name and form. In meditation, I am the immortal Truth. That is awareness. Beyond the body, mind and intellect lays awareness, and this awareness is accessed in meditation. meditation IS THOUGHTLESSNESS The third quality of meditation is thoughtlessness (being free of thoughts). When there are thoughts, it is not meditation. I sit for meditation, yet my thoughts may be on this evening’s darshan. I may sit for meditation, but my thoughts may be on a TV serial or on the menu for tonight’s dinner. So long there are thoughts in my mind, I am still moving toward meditation and am not yet in meditation. Meditation is a state of thoughtlessness, a thought-free state, a no-mind state. This is an essential quality of true meditation. So my friends, nowhereness, awareness and thoughtlessness are the three qualities of true meditation. TRUE EXPERIENCE IS BEYOND THE MIND We are very happy to be in the company of worldly people. Let us accept that truth. If somebody speaks of flats in the village of Puttaparthi, we immediately wonder whether the price is two lakhs or three. If somebody mentions the latest arrivals at a store, or wants to debate the merits of the various flavours of ice cream that can be had, we are very much interested in discussing these worldly things. If we encounter a spiritual seeker, however, we are afraid of them. We are afraid of a spiritual seeker, but we want to be close to a materialist. Why? Spirituality takes

you to a place that you do not know, whereas a materialist will speak of things that you know and can see. We are more comfortable with that which is known and familiar. A known thing is often more welcome in meditation, as again it is comfortable, and we all want to be comfortable when we are in meditation. So we are not necessarily seeking Truth in our meditations. Even in our spiritual journey, we want to experience known things. I think you will agree with me. We want to experience that which is known to us even on our spiritual path. So, what is known? I want a promotion in my life, so I pray, “Oh Baba, please give me that. I have some property, but please double the size

of my property. Let all my children get married, get visas, and go abroad.” These are all known things. So even while on the spiritual path, we want known things. But spirituality, like the flowing river, takes you to an unknown destination. Yet we may be afraid to go to that mysterious realm. We are afraid to go into a field that is unknown to us. For example, you know this road will take you here, but if I take you to an unknown forest, you will say, “Please go now. I prefer to take the road I know now. Perhaps we will go to your mysterious forest another day.” We don’t want to go in a direction that we don’t know. We want to go in a direction that we do know. What

we know is our worldly pursuits, desires and thoughts, and therefore we even make these worldly things the stuff of our spiritual prayers and journey. So we are confused because we have made our worldly experience part of our spiritual path. Why have we done this? We have done so because things here in the world are known to us. I get a promotion and I know what that means. If I get more money, I know what that means. If I allow the river to flow around me, however, I don’t know what it will look like or where I will be taken. So we are afraid of the unknown. You may then ask, “Why is the spiritual path unknown and why are worldly pursuits known?” The world is known through the mind. It is the mind that knows. The mind takes what its eyes see, what the hands touch, what the nose smells and what the ears hear in the

world. It processes this information as knowledge. It is the mind that knows that the ears and eyes and can only perceive. The mind processes these senses and decides what something is and how we feel about it. All of our knowledge of the world is known through the mind. Spirituality, however, is beyond the mind, and so it is unknown, or perhaps I should say, it is therefore unknowable. You can try to know something if it is knowable, but this you cannot know because it is unknowable. Am I clear? So we are afraid of all that is unknowable. “How is it going to be? Is it going to horrify me or terrify me? No! Let me ask Baba to give me vibhuti, because that is

known.” Therefore my friends, we should understand that we are afraid of true spiritual searching, even though we say that we are seekers and act religious. We are not the true seekers because we are not prepared for that unknown experience. We are not prepared for that unknowable experience. Why? We don’t want to take the risk. We simply don’t want to take the risk. Who knows? I may find this or it may be that . . . but this ice cream I know, so I will get it. We are afraid of the unknown; the spiritual, being beyond the mind, is unknown and unknowable. TRUE

SPIRITUALITY IS DESIRELESSNESS What we are all searching for today is only the fulfilment of desires. Most of us are here in Puttaparthi because we want certain things done, or because we have our personal agenda. We are not here for the unknown, but for the known. It is for the known that we are here -- for the fulfilment of our desires. But let us be careful, because desires will ultimately make us neurotic. Life was not given to us so that we might be neurotic. Life was given so that we might enjoy it. Life is poetry! Life is a song; it has to be melodious. I shouldn’t want to make life a neurotic, psychotic journey, but my endless desires will ultimately create exactly that. On the

other hand, desirelessness will make me spiritual and free. The true spiritual state is a desireless one. LIFE IS BEAUTY, POETRY AND BLISS If I have not enjoyed this day, I have not lived this day. If I have not shared beauty today, I have not lived this day. Every day has to be lived joyfully, beautifully, blissfully, with all smiles. Let us enjoy every day beautifully. Let us celebrate every day as a festival. Life is not a marketplace. Life is a place of bliss. Life is to be enjoyed every day. If you say, “I

enjoy provided that…” then it is gone; or you say, “I enjoy if…”, then it is gone. No ifs or buts. No! Let us enjoy this moment totally. Let us be careful about our view of our life. Life is a carnival of joy. Life is full of bliss, but unfortunately we make it serious. We make life so complicated. To see life in this way is so simple. After all, let us not give too much importance to our mind because it will never keep quiet. I can ask a seva dal man to make another man be silent, but I cannot make my mind silent. I can make you silent, but my mind is always talking. So we are giving in too much to our mind. I think we have to analyse, contemplate and meditate so that we will not follow our mind too much. Too much mind is nothing but an excess, an exaggeration. As a simple example, if I have high blood pressure, my mind immediately thinks, “You have high blood pressure now, and it will continue to be high tomorrow. In six months, it will be full of sugar; then after one year, there will be abscesses. After two years, my hands will be removed, and after three, one leg will be removed. Finally, after four years, I will lose the other leg!” The bloody mind does it. The mind does it. Suppose you lose ten rupees today, then your mind will say, “You may lose a hundred rupees tomorrow. You may lose a thousand! You may lose the whole house! You may lose your life!” So, excess exaggeration is a quality of the mind. Some people say, “I’m not like that.” But that fellow

doesn’t know what the mind is. Never mind that person. The mind may also think positively. Swami looks at me, and Swami talks to me, so the mind will think, “I am very important. Swami spoke to me. Oho! I see. I am a very special devotee! A unique devotee! I am a VIP! I am very important! My birth is now reserved permanently in heaven!” So, the mind exaggerates, be it to this side or that. The mind goes on and on exaggerating. We find ourselves egoistic when it is positive and frustrated when it is negative, but both of these are due to nothing but our imagination, a creation of the mind. These are excessive exaggerations of the mind. Let us not be too aligned with the mind. LIVE IN THE MOMENT How do we avoiding aligning with the mind? By living in the moment! “Swami, I am happy now. Bhagavan, I am healthy now. Bhagavan, I am comfortable now. Thank You, my Lord.” Live in the moment! That’s all. That is the way to get out of the clutches of the mind. Just live in the moment, in the present. This is the way to escape the bondage of the mind, to avoid egotism and frustration. This is the secret. Let us be careful. don’t try, JUST be Let us also be careful of another

thing. Don’t try to be anything. Most of our lives are spent trying to become someone or something. When you try to be something, you want to be something more. But when you get that, you still feel empty. To become something is foolish. To be something is madness. Don’t try to be anything because you are everything. Baba once opened his palm and asked, “What is this?” Somebody said, “Nothing, Swami.” So Swami said, “Ah, this nothing is everything!” Therefore my friends, by trying to be someone or something, you have missed the beauty of life. By being something, you have missed the taste of this moment. Suppose right now I have some very interesting items to eat, but I also want to be someone -- a VIP or someone in charge of the veranda. When I spend my time thinking of being in charge of the veranda, I don’t think of the nice items on my plate. Somebody may then ask me, “Why don’t you eat?” But even if I eat, I will still be thinking of the veranda, since I am not in charge! So, by trying to be something, you miss now, this moment of joy, this moment of bliss or ecstasy. Therefore, let us not try to be anyone or anything. Let us be simple. Let us be humble. That is

everything. Nothing is everything. That is the correct attitude, the temperament that a true seeker should have. Some people may say, “I want to be near God. Why do you say that I am wrong? I want to realise God. Why do you think I am wrong?” The answer simply is this: You are God, so why do you want to become something, when your heaven is right here, right now? Your happiness is here, waiting for you in this heaven. Why do you want something else? Therefore, when you are God, you are liberation and Truth. When you are bliss, what is it that you want to become? There is nothing to become, so don’t try to become. With this intention, I close this morning’s satsang. Let us not try to become anything. There is nothing in becoming. There is everything in being. Being is more important than becoming. Just being what you are, not that which you were and not that which you will be. Let us be in our being. God bless you. Thank you. Jai Sai Ram. Anil Kumar concluded his talk by chanting the

bhajan, “Bhaja mana Narayana Narayana Narayana…” OM…OM…OM… Asato Maa Sad Gamaya Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya Mrtyormaa Amrtam Gamaya Om Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu Loka Samastha Sukhino

Bhavantu Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Ram ChuganiKobe, Japanrgcjp

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