Spirituality Means Being Willing to Change Moment by Moment By Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda Third Early Morning Meditation Talk given during the Annual Christmas Retreat–Spirituality Means Change–in Gurudev’s sacred Samadhi Hall, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh. Whether they are asked to speak for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour or even two hours, the ambition of most experienced speakers is to leave the audience with two or three useful ideas that they can take with them. In some ways we could say that the purpose of the 2002 Christmas Retreat is less ambitious: If the speakers and the audience can take with them into the coming years only one idea then the retreat will be considered to have been a tremendous success. And that one idea is, of course, the theme of the retreat: Spirituality Means Change. Of course, from another point of view, the ambition of the retreat is much greater than that of an ordinary speaker. The ambition of the retreat is that each speaker as they prepared their talk, would think very deeply about the significance of the theme and how it applied to their life. In addition, the purpose is to begin to bring about a change in our attitude to change itself. Two points seem to have been made very clear so far. The first is that spirituality is no different than life itself, and life is change. The other point, which we all know, is that there is something within us that doesn’t want to change. This means that we are out of harmony with life itself, we are separated from life itself. The word hell comes from an old English word meaning to be walled off from or separated from. If life is change and we stubbornly don’t want to change, that means hell. But if life is change and we are willing to change, that puts us in harmony with life. Harmony comes from the same root word as heaven. So the difference between heaven and hell is whether we are in harmony with nature. And nature means change. Spirituality means putting us in harmony with the world. The final purpose of the theme is twofold. First it is to convince us that spirituality does mean change. And, secondly, it is to place in our hearts a willingness to change. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that this is necessarily some monumental change. In some ways monumental changes are easy; we just have to screw up our courage and do it. What is difficult is day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute having an openness, a willingness to bring about the little changes that ultimately add up to a big change. Spirituality means change. It means moment by moment being willing to change what needs to be changed at this moment.

True Success By Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda Fourth Early Morning Meditation Talk given during the Annual Christmas Retreat–Spirituality Means Change–in Gurudev’s sacred Samadhi Hall, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh. No matter the difficulties in the meantime, the promise of the spiritual life is a peace that passeth understanding, joy, total satisfaction. We think of these characteristics in terms of our own understanding, but our own understanding may not be the scriptural definition. For example, one description of that exalted condition is that success and failure are the same. And yet we are urged to be determined to succeed and to do everything we can to achieve the goal; because if we sit back with the attitude that success and failure are the same, it is not likely we will make much progress in the spiritual life. Therefore, we must be determined to succeed and refuse to fail. But then, it is the experience of most of us that our own efforts don’t seem to get us too far. And so ultimately we begin to understand that because we’re going from the known to the Unknown we need a guide. In the earlier stages normally that guide will be external, a guru, the scriptures. But finally they turn us to an inner guide. There is something within–beyond our mind–that we must rely upon for guidance. And the more we practise this, the more valid we find it to be. But still we want to succeed. We haven’t really surrendered to that inner Guide, because we have our own ideas of what success is. But perhaps the true measurement of success is simply the degree to which we surrender to that inner guidance. If we come to recognise this, then we begin to get a glimpse of what is meant by success and failure being the same. Our only criteria of success is to depend upon that inner guidance. What the outward result of that guidance is no longer matters to us; we are living on a different basis. This is one way of understanding the theme of the retreat: Spirituality Means Change. It means a gradual change from being determined to succeed in achieving a goal of our imagination to a recognition that true success is in letting go of all our goals, and being an instrument of that inner guidance. There is, of course, a factor in us that does not want this surrender. That factor is what we call ego. But there is also within us a wisdom that knows that that is the goal and that that is a peace that passes understanding. This is the change we want to bring about, a change from our own wisdom to the wisdom of our inner Self, our inner Guide. And this is possible for any of us no matter what our outer circumstances may be.

Perseverance and Aspiration Leads to Success By Sri Swami Chidananda Early Morning Meditation Talk given in the sacred Samadhi Hall of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh. When spiritual aspirants, seekers and sadhaks are looking for guidance, when they are seeking clarification and some advice about their difficulties and doubts, the ultimate advice that is usually given is, “Whatever you are engaged in doing, continue to do it, but make it gradually progressive. Do more and more of it. Increase your sadhana, and persevere in your sadhana. This is the way.” Impatience does not help in any way. In any journey you have to cover the distance between where you are and your destination. If you are eager to reach the destination early, then increase your pace and speed a little more. In addition, cover a comparatively greater distance each day than you have been doing hitherto. That may mean walk more hours than you have been doing. If you have been walking six hours a day, walk seven, maybe eight hours. It is thus that a traveller will be able to fulfil his desire to reach the destination earlier. Even so, a sadhaka in the spiritual life, on the path of sadhana, should gradually increase and persevere in his sadhana, be it japa, be it meditation, be it study, be it praying to the Lord, be it remembering Him in the midst of your duties and work. Do not let any doubt become an obstacle in your path. Let the doubt be there, you carry on your sadhana with greater vigour. This very act itself sometimes helps in clearing up doubts. What we could not understand a little while before, we begin to understand as we continue our sadhana and make it more progressive. All want to succeed in the spiritual life. This is but natural, and success is achieved by adhering to our spiritual sadhana and enhancing it. Continue to do what you are doing and do more and more of it. This is the one sure way of ultimately succeeding in attaining the goal of life–continuous, unceasing movement towards the great goal. Persevere and augment your sadhana day by day, and you have the key to sure attainment of the great goal. By analogy, it is this continuity and onward progress that makes each river ultimately attain the ocean. No matter what the obstacles that come in its way, it circumvents them and goes onward. Our ancients also compared this continuity to the flow of oil from one vessel to another. Just as the oil flows in an unbroken, continuous stream, so should one’s inner spiritual life and sadhana be. In addition, keep your aspiration alive and blazing. Mystics and saints have spoken about this great longing by giving human analogies from everyday society and life. If your longing for God, if your desire for meeting the Lord is as keen, as intense, as that of an unfaithful wife longing to secretly meet her lover, if your longing for God is like that of a miser constantly thinking of ways and means to accumulate more wealth, if your longing for God is like the longing of a sensuous person hankering day and night after sense enjoyments of various kinds, then surely you will attain God-experience, you will attain God, you will come face to face with the Supreme Being. One mystic came forward with this assurance: “If you have the intensity of longing for God of these three–the secret longing of the unfaithful wife, the longing of the miser and the longing of the sensual person thirsting after sensual pleasure–and do not attain the Lord, I stand responsible. I give my guarantee.” Many of the mystics of both East and West embodied in themselves such longing. It all adds up to saying that we should not be lukewarm. We should become the very personification of that longing. We should become in our total nature that longing personified. This is the inner truth of all spiritual life and sadhana. This should be the inner content of the sadhaka‘s heart. We should ponder deeply and become benefited by dwelling upon these truths about the life mystical–a life of devotion, perseverance and aspiration. May the grace of the Divine and the blessings of Holy Master enable us to become such an aspirant and seeker and enable us to keep this before us as a touchstone and ideal.

The Best New Year Resolution By Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda Fifth Early Morning Meditation Talk given during the Annual Christmas Retreat–Spirituality Means Change–in Gurudev’s sacred Samadhi Hall, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh. December 31st each year is an important day in Sivananda Ashram. First, it is the anniversary of the installation of Lord Viswanatha in the temple by Gurudev’s holy hands. The worship celebrating this occasion will go on in the temple this morning until noon as it did 59 years ago when the murthi was brought up on the back of an elephant. The second reason that December 31st is important is a reason in common with all the rest of the world. It is the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one–which signifies a change. And so our evening satsang will go till past midnight to allow time to think about change and the worldwide phenomena of making New Year resolutions about things we want to change. This puts into focus the significance of the theme of our Christmas Retreat, Spirituality Means Change. And the essence of what is required was brought out yesterday in one of the talks. The essence is the willingness to change. That is what New Year resolutions signify: “I want to change this particular thing. I am willing and anxious to change.” But here is where we must be very careful to distinguish between what we could call a secular willingness to change and a spiritual willingness to change. A secular willingness to change is the ego deciding that it doesn’t like something about itself which it wants to change, and, in some cases, is determined to change. Very often this is a worthy objective, but the fact is that at least 999 out of a 1000 News Year resolutions amount to nothing. Indeed by January 31st most people can’t even remember what their resolutions were. Therefore, there is an obvious flaw in the ego’s willingness to change because it doesn’t seem to be able to back it up with real change. On the other hand, there is a spiritual willingness to change that is in a totally different dimension. Perhaps we could even call it a vertical dimension. It is the willingness to change that is based on surrender to God, on not knowing what changes are in our highest interest, and, therefore, waiting for God’s guidance. It is a whole attitude to life rather than a determination to change something about life. In fact, properly interpreted, willingness to change is the key to successful daily living as well as the spiritual life. It is an attitude of the heart. It stems from humility. It is an openness. It is a childlike attitude towards life. If this can be nurtured in our heart, then our spiritual life has to be progressive, because this humble willingness to change leaves the ego aside; it is not ego-based. It has a spiritual base because it is in harmony with the universe. The universe means change. Being willing to change means that we want to be in harmony with the changing universe. It means lack of resistance. In that there is no place for the arrogant ego that wants what it wants and causes all our problems. Being humbly willing to change will lead to the solution to any problem and will also bless us in the years to come with a progressive spiritual life.

Be Like Babes By Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda Early Morning Meditation Talk given in the Sacred Samadhi Hall of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh On January 1st, when members of the Christmas Retreat visited Pujya Swami Chidanandaji, he presented each one with a book that he had personally published. It was a strange book in that it contained only the sayings of Jesus. Of course, the longer passages make a lot of sense because they are a continuous narration, but there are many fragments that don’t make too much sense. However, there is one verse in particular, that is even a fragment in the Bible, which is pregnant with meaning for us as seekers. Almost out of context, one day Jesus said, “I thank Thee Father that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them unto the babes.” He doesn’t, of course, say specifically what He is referring to, but we assume he is referring to the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God. And perhaps because so often we describe the path and the goal as being the same, He is also referring to the path. “I thank Thee Father that Thou hast hidden them–both the path and the goal–from the learned and the wise and revealed them–both the path and the goal–to the babes.” This is a verse that catches the ego right by the throat. We can understand why Jesus would say that it is hidden from the learned. Gurudev used to speak about lip- Vedantins. But why is the path and the goal hidden from the wise? Wisdom means both learning and experience. To call a person wise in this world is to pay them the highest compliment, and yet Jesus thanks God for hiding it from both the learned and the wise and revealing it unto the babes. And He then adds, for such was Your gracious will. What is the difference between the learned and the wise and the babes? The learned and wise think that they know the way to God. The babes don’t know; they have to depend upon God’s guidance. Their hearts are open to God. Indeed, the learned and the wise can be quite certain that they know the way and others don’t, especially the simple and the childlike. And yet ultimately our knowledge and our wisdom have to bring us to the point that we see that finding the path and the goal depend upon us not knowing. We have to be brought to our knees and recognise that that childlike humility that doesn’t know, that has to be guided moment by moment, is, in fact, both the path and the goal. What do we see in great ones like Sri Gurudev or Pujya Swamiji except simple human beings, not really knowing from moment to moment what they will do next, because they are continuously open to the guidance of the Spirit? That is the goal. And the way to the goal is exactly the same. Not knowing the way, but being continuously open to the guidance of the Spirit–to have given up our learning and wisdom in order to be like babes.

The Wonderful News of Non-duality By Sri Swami Chidananda Early Morning Meditation Talk given in the sacred Samadhi Hall of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh. Worshipful homage to the one, non-dual, transcendental Universal Spirit! That Spirit is at once omnipresent as well as invisible, in that Its essential nature is far subtler than the subtlest faculty that we human beings possess in our human personality. It is beyond the reach of the senses, mind and intellect. Therefore, being ever-present, all around us and within us, yet we fail to perceive It directly or experience It within us as an indwelling presence or all about us as an all-pervading presence. But there is something we should not miss in the truth about the Supreme Reality. This truth about the Supreme Reality has been proclaimed by our ancient ancestors, who after directly experiencing the Absolute declared to us the truth that the Supreme Reality is one and non-dual. That alone exists. No other thing besides It exists. This wonderful truth that they proclaimed, as a result of their living experience of the Reality, has an extraordinary value for us. It makes it clear that That, being the sole thing existing, It must then not only be the subtlest of the subtle, but also the grossest of the gross. Therefore it is not only beyond the reach of the mind and the intellect and the rational processes, but it is also directly perceivable through our senses. Whatever you behold, you behold nothing but God. In the stone, in the tree, in the mineral, in the metal, in the grossest thing conceivable He is there as itself, as that itself. He has taken all names and forms. Nothing exists other than Him. Whatever you see, hear, taste, touch, smell, whatever you perceive, you are perceiving only God, including all gross outer things. The question therefore changes. The question is no longer, how can we see Him? The question is, how on earth can we fail to see Him when everything that exists is nothing but that one Being in multifarious shapes, names, forms? Even if you want to, you cannot miss Him. Even if you say, I will not perceive Him at all, and close all your senses, there He is within the inwardness of your being. Because, He is within and without. You cannot say that I will wear a cotton cloth, but I shall not have anything to do with the warp and woof, the horizontal and vertical threads, of the cloth. The cloth and the warp and woof are one and the same. They are inseparable. Our statement would be laughed at. Our statement would be absurd. When you behold the universe, you behold God. When you are dealing with the universe, you are dealing with God. Being one without a second, He is not only the subtlest of the subtle, He is the grossest of the gross. He is everything. His absolute non-duality means this. Therefore, no matter what we are encountering, we are encountering God. For days together it has been raining. It has been raining non-stop. Torrential rains slanting in this direction and then that direction, coming under the doors and through the windows. But did it ever occur to you that this rain which is swelling all the little mountain streams all over our northern Garhwal region, and which is coming from all different directions, eventually joins the Ganga and flows towards the ocean? In this manner, if all the various data of perception that comes as input into our interior is looked at from the unified angle of there being nothing but one Brahman manifesting in multifarious names, forms, colours, shapes, appearances, then no matter how much comes from what direction, it only takes us towards that one unified thought: “This is God. This is God. God is appearing before me in this form, this form, this form–all around me–through all my senses. I am surrounded by that one element alone. There is no diversity. This is only unity. It is God sporting in these innumerable names and forms. It is God alone coming into me through all the five senses–sights and sounds, everything. If you keep on firmly rooting yourself in this one truth proclaimed by our sages in ancient times, if you become completely established in this one idea, one truth, then diversity ceases to be diversity for you. There is only One, and all these things flow only in one direction because That alone exists. Our entire life becomes an unceasing Godward flow, a Reality-oriented onward flow. May thus the truth proclaimed by our ancients help us to see that, in fact, in truth, we are all the time experiencing God and God alone. May this truth make our entire life and all its movements a concerted and unified total flow towards that great Reality–always in God-thought, never in any other thought, always remembering, always in a state of awareness of God and God alone. This, therefore, is the living of the truth. This, therefore, is a Reality-oriented movement of our life-stream. This we must very clearly see and thus live in awareness of this inner meaning of our life. Then God is not a sometime-to-be-experienced Being, God becomes an ever-experienced reality without any barrier of time and distance between you and God. It is only a manner of speaking about it in human language. You and God are ever in a state of unity. May the awareness of this truth be a gift that we ask of the Supreme Being. May this awareness be the only thing that we seek from revered and beloved Holy Master. It is said that what you ask will be given to you, what you seek you will find without fail. Therefore, asking and seeking for this ever-present experience, may we be blessed by Its bestowal upon us by the Supreme Being and the Holy Master. May God bless us all!