Words from the Master

Swamiji, your face appears to be changing every time to me. Is it my imagination or is it true?
(Swamiji laughs!)

See understand: My Being is liquid without any ego. I just flow with Existence and whatever I express flows like liquid and you perceive it in my face. That is the reason why my face appears to be changing all the time! You will understand how an egoless state expresses, when we talk about the next chakra, the Ajna chakra.
Yes…

Swamiji, how do we get over possessiveness and jealousy?

Yes, how do we get over it. The fact that you have asked this question shows that you are ready for better understanding.

Understand one thing: Human beings can never be possessed. When you try to possess a person, you actually reduce him or her to an object. You make the person as a dead thing. Only dead things can be possessed. Understand this very clearly, then you will be free from possessiveness and the jealousy that arises out of it.

Just see every human being as a river that is flowing, and simply enjoy what he or she brings along. Can you try to possess a river? If you try to grasp the water in your hand, you will be doing a foolish thing, is it not? In the same way, don’t try to possess people; just enjoy them for what they are and you will be free from the grips of jealousy.

You will then understand that possessiveness is something that is created out of your own deep, complicated mind to which you have given so much power.

When you try to possess a person, it becomes difficult for that person also. You will start projecting all your ideas on him. He will have to act so as to gel with your projected ideas. He will feel caged. He becomes divided in his personality. He cannot be his natural self with you. And this cannot be called a relationship!

If you really love a person, liberate him! Don’t try to possess him; only then a real relationship can blossom; only then, a relationship not dependent on anything except deep love and trust can blossom. The moment you try to hang on to something, you have missed it. Just love him with no strings attached.

I am reminded of a story:

In a remote village in South India, where people did not know that civilization existed, there was an old couple.
One day, for the first time ever, there was a fair in the village.
The man went to the fair and saw all the items on show.
He picked up a mirror and was awestruck by what he saw!
He had never seen a mirror in all his life before.
He took it home with him.
Now and then he would take out the mirror, glance at it and put it back before his wife could see it.
The wife however noticed it and when he was out one day, she picked it up and looked into it.
She exclaimed, “Another woman! Just as I had thought!”

(Laughter!)

There is no end to our imagination because of our possessiveness and jealousy! Almost always, our imagination is not in tune with reality. If we just stop and look deeply into our jealousy, we will understand that it is baseless and needless.

Of course, you might say, “Swamiji, how can I keep quiet if my husband or wife is eyeing someone else.” If your husband or wife is really eyeing another person, just look into the matter consciously and with full awareness, instead of getting into an unconscious mode of action.

When you look into possessiveness and jealousy with awareness, you will not be gripped by undue imagination or emotions. You will be able to see things in the right light and behave appropriately and take the right decisions.

By telling yourself not to feel jealous, you can never come out of it. Only if you bring awareness into the whole thing and understand deeply, it will help.

To overcome jealousy, just see how the jealousy came into your system, just analyze the sequence of thoughts and emotions in your system and then undo it by reasoning out the whole process with your intelligence.

Once you understand that jealousy is like a shadow without an object, you will realize how absurd it is and how much it has tormented you. Getting liberation from jealousy is a great liberation in one’s life.

Also, don’t condemn the object of your jealousy. Just by condemning the object of jealousy, you will not be liberated from jealousy itself, because the moment you start condemning, it means that there is a wound inside, which you are trying to cover up.

By condemning the object of jealousy, you might be liberated from that particular object of jealousy, but you will simply get fixed onto another object of jealousy, that’s all! It is like saying ‘sour grapes’ and moving on to another vineyard! So, trying to overcome the object of jealousy is not the solution. You need to work on the subject that is you.

Always remember: If you feel that you are holding an emotion that you wish to get rid of, something that you feel is not conducive to your growth, don’t resist that emotion. When you resist it, you will only be empowering it more. When you say, “I should not get jealous,” you will be giving the same power to the word ‘jealous’ as you give to the words ‘I should not’.

Therefore don’t say things like this. Instead, say to yourself, “Let me be always compassionate towards everyone.” Don’t use the word ‘jealous’ at all. By negating the emotion, you will not achieve what you want. Say something totally positive in the same context, that’s all.

Also, instead of avoiding or running away from jealousy, live it through with total awareness. When you try to avoid it, it will confront you at some other time with more intensity than before. Remember one thing with deep awareness: Jealousy is not your true nature. Society taught you to be jealous.

Just believe that jealousy is not you, that is enough. Then automatically, you will laugh at it instead of being involved in it. When you are able to laugh at it, it means you have started witnessing it instead of being a part of it. The moment you become a witness, it becomes easy to go beyond anything.

Also, if you see that the whole of Existence is nothing but a Divine play, you will be able to see that this so-called jealous feeling is also a divine play and has no reality in itself. Just see jealousy objectively instead of being caught in it. It will automatically lose its power over you.

If you understand that you are unique and there is no one in this world like you, the comparing nature in you will become meaningless and you will automatically stop feeling jealous. Just try to understand that Existence loves everyone and everything equally.

Yes…

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

It is very important that you learn to live with your own body. The moment you think that another’s body or another’s dimensions are more attractive, you create a gap between yourself and your body.

I have seen people who have photographs of male or female models in the walls of their rooms and do physical exercises to attain the body structure of the model. Be very clear: When you think that another’s body is more beautiful, you create a distance between you and you.

All these unconscious ways of looking at another’s body creates undesirable side effects in your Being. None of us deeply love our body. We carry it like a load that’s all. It is like a boarding and lodging concept to us. We are never inside our body because we hate it. We are everywhere else except in our bodies. We therefore have a continuous uneasiness in us and are ready to burst at any time.

For example: If your driver does something minor, you explode effortlessly. At work, you are continuously in an irritable mood. Don’t think the reasons for these lie with the people around you. People tell me, “Swamiji, all my workers are so inefficient and that is why I get irritated.” Please understand: This is not the reason for your irritability. You are not at ease with your body and that is what causes the uneasiness and irritation in your system. It is a very subtle reason and that is why it is difficult to perceive it.

You continuously want to change your measurement or your dimensions. Understand that your body is a gift from God. Thinking that you are not enough unto yourself is the first damage you do to yourself.

Yes…any questions?

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Guru Poornima -- Offer Gratitude to the Master!

OFFER YOUR GRATITUDE TO THE MASTER!

What is Bhiksha? Why do we offer Bhiksha to the Master?

Bhiksha is a disciples offering to the Guru. It may be anything - flowers, fruits, money, rice, sponsoring for ashram activities, offering puja, precious items, or anything else. The material gifts one gives are symbolic of the 'ahamkara' (ego) of the disciple; which is the only thing the guru asks for - the limited identity of the disciple, so he may leave it behind and grow into the limitlessness of the Supreme.

But how many know the way?

In the external act of placing what one considers important to oneself at the guru's feet, one gives a bit of oneself to a Higher Source. In giving one feels lighter within, less limited. Those whose identities center around their wealth, keep money before him. Those who identify with their emotional selves give him their tears, those who identify themselves as being ritualistic perform the rites as in the shastras. Everyone gives a bit of themselves in the external act of Guru Bhiksha.

This is the only day the Master accepts anything that's given to him!

This simple act of giving is said to burn many lives of accumulated karma. Just like sunlight can burn a piece of paper if we place a magnifying glass in front of it, ones karmas can get burnt away in the presence of an enlightened master who is the bridge between you and the universal consciousness that we all call God!

Online facility for offering bhiksha will be made available from today onwards, so we have the time to acquire the items to be offered to Swamiji on Guru Purnima
CLICK HERE TO OFFER.

Words from the Master

Alright, now…let us talk some more on jealousy! Jealousy as you all know, arises out of comparison. When we are unable to bear the excellence of others in any aspect, we start feeling jealous. There are ever so many reasons why we get jealous.

For example, the moment you see that another person is more beautiful than you, you are unable to bear it. You start feeling terrible inside yourself. And you feel that it is natural that you must feel jealous because that person is more beautiful than you.

First of all understand: God is an artist, not an engineer. If he was an engineer, he would have made every woman or every man with the same mould. He would have probably made every woman with the mould of Aishwarya Rai, former Miss World! She is considered to be a very beautiful woman, is it not? And he would have made every man in the mould of Hrithik Roshan or Shah Rukh Khan!

But God is not an engineer. He is an artist. He has made everyone in a unique way.
You are beautiful enough unto yourself. Every Being is beautiful. With what scale are you measuring beauty? There is no scale. It is all your own ideas and concepts. And just think: Even if your so-called cinema idol is beautiful, can you enjoy a single cup of tea through his or her form?

Please understand that you are beautiful enough. When you start longing for other people’s bodies, you create a wedge inside yourself. You create a split personality inside yourself. You start hating yourself.

Do you know, the eyes that don’t linger on another’s body have a certain beauty and innocence in them? Have faith in what God has done to you. It is only when you don’t have that faith, you try to update yourself by indulging in all sorts of nonsensical methods. When you accept yourself completely, a certain grace comes to you. This grace is far more superior to your so-called beauty.

See, physical beauty is one thing while grace is another. Physical beauty can be achieved by any means. These days, you have ever so many methods of achieving physical beauty - beauty packs, plastic surgeries, and various other surgical methods. But grace is something that comes when there is tremendous confidence and calmness in you; when there is no craving in you; when you are completely at ease with your body.

When you enjoy yourself totally, a certain grace happens in you and you will appear more beautiful than some of the most so-called beautiful people around you. You will then become a trendsetter.

When I went to America for the first time, the officers at the airport asked me how people would listen to me if I spoke wearing this saffron robe! I told them, “Give me one week and I will make this a fashion in America!” A leader is one who has totally accepted himself. When you accept yourself, you become a unique flower, and tremendous freedom and confidence will happen in you. All your guilt and hate about your body will be replaced by pure confidence and grace.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

How many successful businessmen today are facing what is known as Depression of Success? They have achieved everything they wanted; they have realized their own dreams, borrowed dreams, everything. But they don’t feel fulfilled; there is a void in them.

They start wondering what for they ran so much. The desires and strong feelings that goaded them on in their rat race are no longer there. They are confused about themselves. The grip they had on themselves in their days of business suddenly seems to weaken.

This is because they ran without awareness, without stopping to give an appointment to themselves, without any self-inquiry. As a result, when they stop running or when suddenly they can’t run anymore, they fall back into themselves and suddenly find that they are out of synch or dis-eased with their own Being, and this is what becomes ‘depression’ or ‘disease’.

When you fall into depression of success, you can resort to three ways. One is, resorting to drugs – addiction that will lead to further depression. The second way out is suicide – which is escapism. The third way out is meditation – looking inward for the solution. The intelligent ones take the third way out.

A self-enquiry can be the way to bail you out of this depression. The problem is inside, while you search for a solution outside. You have neglected your Being for such a long time and the depression that you feel is actually the call of your Being. That is why again and again, Masters have given ever so many techniques to center yourself in your inner core and merely function in your periphery.

When this same thing is told to you when you are at the peak of your career, you will not be willing to pay attention, because you have enough energy, all the energy that you have come with, to face the downsides of off-centric behaviors. Once your energy starts waning, you will feel that something is wrong somewhere. That something is what Masters try to tell you again and again.

Albert Einstein, the great Physicist was on his deathbed.
There were some close people sitting around him.
One of them asked him what he would like to be reborn as if ever he was reborn.
Everyone expected him to say that he would like to be reborn as an even greater scientist or something like that.
Einstein replied, “If ever I would be reborn, I would like to be reborn as a plumber.”

He felt that he had achieved all that was to be achieved, but what for he achieved, he had not achieved. He gave the world great truths but felt that his whole life had become a great lie. During his last days, he felt that all through his life, he was caught up in the outer world incidents and he had missed the deep connection with Existence.

This is why he says that he wishes to be reborn as a plumber and not as a scientist once again. Even when you are caught in the peak of activity in the outer world, don’t allow yourself to slip into becoming a machine. This is an easy task for a spiritual person and a difficult task for a materialistic person.

You see, in this whole process of comparing and running, you actually become a machine. Much of your daily activities becomes unconscious. You are able to drive a car without even being aware that you are driving it. You become a machine just like the car.

Right from brushing your teeth early in the morning to going to bed, you work like a programmed robot, with absolutely no awareness of your Self. You become efficient in all that you do no doubt, but you have lost the humanness in you! You have gone so far away from the purpose of taking birth on planet Earth. You are so disconnected from your Being!

When you are in continuous awareness, you will not only be able to do things efficiently but you will also do things with totality, with a sense of fulfillment because you – the microcosm, will be in tune with the macrocosm or Existence; you will fly with roots on planet Earth. When you fly without this, you are forever in the fear of falling down any moment. So understand, working with awareness not only increases your efficiency but also ensures that you don’t stray from the purpose of your Being.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Understand how important it is to get ‘undisturbed’ peace. When you run with others, you will get short-term peace, say at the end of every achieved desire, and this peace will disappear the moment you are on the next trip of comparison. On the other hand, when you are running only with yourself and progress drastically, you will have undisturbed peace.

It is such liberation to have peace that cannot be disturbed by others. Be very clear: The moment you feel disturbed by another person, it means that there is some block, some lack of understanding inside you. It means that you still depend on others for your peace.

Society is the name that you give to your own weakness; to your own lack of clarity. There is no such thing as society. The sky is the limit and there is no such thing as the sky! Expansion is life; Contraction is death. You are unclear within yourself and so you blame people for it.

The moment you are caught in the cycle of making others’ dreams a reality for yourself, you are in the rat race. Comparison and jealousy are nothing but borrowing others’ dreams and trying to make it a reality for yourself. It takes Shakthi or Power to be in the rat race. Shakthi or Power will make your dreams into a reality. But the real achievement is in understanding that reality is actually your dream! To understand this, you don’t need power; you need Buddhi or Intelligence.

Power will make your dreams a reality while Intelligence will make you understand that Reality is your dream! Intelligence will make you understand that you are already what you need to be, you just need to wake up to it, and that everything else that you are trying to make as a reality, is only borrowed and illusory!

We are always looking to achieve in the outer world. This is the root cause of comparison and jealousy. People respect you only if you have achieved something tangible in the outer world. Educational degrees, beauty titles, company designations, published papers, bank balances, are all scales that society uses to grade you.

See, first of all, you don’t need to be graded by anyone. Place trust in your own intelligence and grade yourself. Of course, there is a lot you can achieve and serve humanity in the outer world. After all, only because of the achievements of science, you are able to hear what I am talking through this microphone today.

But understand that there is a lot to be achieved in the inner world. The outer world achievements are all incidental. They will get you instant name and fame and money. The real achievement is in the inner world.

Center yourself well with acute awareness and simply take part in the outer world activities like a lotus untouched in a pond. Let the work in the periphery go on undisturbed, but center yourself in your Being. You will then be able to perform much better in the outer world, because your inner intelligence will be growing and guiding you in performing and watching the results as a mere observer.

Then automatically, you will stop swaying in accordance with the outer world achievements and feel stability and joy in the center of your own Being. Finding your center is the only way out of this whole cycle of comparison and jealousy.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

A small story:

A king once went to a Master to attain some magical powers, so that he could become more powerful than his neighboring kings.
He sat in front of the Master and started telling him the purpose of his visit.
The Master listened patiently to the King.
He then told him to go into his garden, where a rose bush and a cyprus plant were growing side by side. He told him, “They are your teachers. They can teach you what you need to learn.”
The king went into the garden, saw the two plants and could not understand what he was meant to learn from them.
He came back to the Master and asked, “What do you mean, Master? I am not able to understand how they will teach me.”
The Master took him to the plants and explained, “This cyprus plant has been next to the rose plant for many years. Never once has it even aspired to become a rose plant. Similarly, the rose plant has never ever aspired to become a cyprus plant. They just attended to their own duties of growing and blossoming everyday. If Man had been the cyprus plant, he would have compared himself with the rose and felt jealous at the attention that the rose plant was getting from people. Or if he were the rose, he would have looked at the cyprus enviously thinking how peaceful the latter was without the torture of getting plucked by people all day!”
The Master said, “This is the most powerful magical power you can attain!”
You see: The two plants prospered because they used all their energy in their own growth. Not even an iota of energy was wasted on analyzing the other’s growth. 100% of the energy that they had was used for their own growth.

In the same way, if you spend all your energy in running the race with yourself, in competing with yourself, you progress in leaps and bounds. When you look back at how much you’ve progressed, you will not be able to believe it. This is also the only way to acquire undisturbed and permanent peace.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Another small story:

A man was running in a 1000-meter race.
After running 200 metres, he looked back and saw that the rest of the runners were after him. Happily he ran on.
After 500 meters, he looked back again and was happy that he was still leading and ran on.
Every few meters, he did the same thing and finally won the race.

If the man had not looked back and concentrated only on running faster, he would have won the race in a much shorter span of time. He would have probably set a new record! In the same way, in our lives also, if our concentration is always fully on our own progress instead of on others, we can actualize our entire potential. But we keep looking at others and miss out on realizing our full potential.

Just lock yourself in a room and analyze how much of time and energy you waste in comparison with others; more than 60% I am sure. Especially comparison and jealousy can sap your energy like nothing else can. Your mind can get so busy, working out and calculating how the other person has managed whatever he possesses. Your mind can get so heated up. Your whole system can get sapped because of these unwanted calculations. You can simply drain your energy in no time because of comparison and jealousy.

We are all the time talking of conserving petrol, water and electricity. What about conserving our own energy? What about using our own energy in a proper way? Why are we not conscious of our own energy? We don’t see ourselves as blessed with energy; that is the reason. We are able to see outside sources of energy being wasted because we see the energy in tangible form. Whereas our own energy, we simply dissipate it in deep unconscious ways and then complain that we have not been given enough.

If you used all your energy for your own expansion, just imagine how much you can achieve. You can simply expand and enjoy with a feeling of liberation.

See, the thing about comparison is, you always measure yourself with the weakest link in yourself or your performance. This is the trouble. Why do you want to do that? Never measure yourself with the weakest link. You don’t have to be egoistic and claim yourself to something great. But you can have some self-respect and see that you are unique unto yourself. Then you won’t measure yourself in this way.

When you have self-respect, you appreciate that each one is unique and understand that there is no scope for comparison. This is also the first step towards feeling grateful for just being!

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Each individual is unique. Can you compare a lion and a horse? Do we ever compare ourselves to flowers or birds or mountains? We simply enjoy their beauty, is it not? In the same way, why can’t you see and enjoy other human beings also?

Although human beings appear to be the same, each one is unique and traveling on a different path. As long as you travel on your path with full concentration, you will experience fulfillment every minute. You won’t even know what it means to look at another person’s track.

A small story:

One man was driving along a dark village road where there were no streetlights.
He decided to follow the car in front of him to play it safe.
They went on for some distance and suddenly the lead car stopped.
The man went and crashed into it.
“Why didn’t you signal that you were going to stop?” he screamed out.
The driver put his head out and asked, “Inside my own garage?”

(Loud laughter!)

If you concentrate on your own track, you will be continuously progressing and expanding your own capacity. You need to compare yourself with only yourself, never with others. You need to win yourself only by yourself, not by others. Every minute of comparison with others is a waste of time in your own progress.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

People ask me, “Swamiji, unless we compare, how will we know where we stand?”

You see: There are two kinds of comparison: constructive comparison and destructive comparison.

In constructive comparison, you see what others have and get an idea or some information about the things that you are not aware of. You increase your practical knowledge by seeing the things around you. You get an idea of how better things can be done.

In fact, this cannot even be called as comparison; it can be called as gaining knowledge or improving your practical awareness. Also, you don’t feel any jealousy or undesirable feelings when you see others having it. This is the most important thing about this.

The real comparison we are talking about is destructive comparison wherein, you see what others have and are unable to accept the fact that they have it. You are not able to bear to see them enjoying it, be it beauty, money, knowledge or status. It is then that you start wanting to possess that yourself and get into the cycle of borrowed desires. This is what leads to jealousy.

In the whole world, someone is sure to be better than you at whatever you do. 99.99% chances are that you’re not the world’s best engineer, the fastest runner or the most talented painter. Does that mean that you enjoy these things any less? Only when you think that you might be enjoying lesser than someone else, you start enjoying less! The moment the thought that ‘someone else might be enjoying more than you’ comes in, your whole flavor changes. You become uneasy and jealous.

You see, poverty itself doesn’t trouble us. The thought that we are poor troubles us. We might be leading a peaceful life as we are, but when the thought that we are poor enters us, we suffer. And how does this thought come? By seeing others and comparing. We feel this way because this thought directly hits our ego and we shrink - like a mango.

A small story:

There were two shops across the street to each other, selling the same kinds of things.
There was always a stiff competition between them.
The shopkeeper of one of the shops came out one day and put up a signboard outside his shop: Established in the year 1929.
The shopkeeper of the shop across the street was watching this from inside his shop.
The next day, he came out and put up a signboard in front of his shop: All fresh stock. No old goods.

(Laughter!)

If you are comparing yourself to others and reacting to it, it simply means that you don’t appreciate yourself enough. You are reacting simply out of the cerebral mind, not out of intelligence. Your cerebral mind stores all that it sees and becomes a ready reckoner for you to react in an illogical way. Whereas your inner intelligence sees things as they are and moves on.

When you don’t understand the potential you have been blessed with, when you have not discovered that you are enough unto yourself, you automatically don’t feel confident about the stuff inside you, and you start following others.

Buddha says: Nothing exists except in relationship. Suppose you were the only person on a new planet, will you call yourself tall or short? Ugly or beautiful? Rich or poor? Tell me! You can’t call yourself anything, am I right? You will simply be you! That’s all! Understand: This is the Truth even when you are on this planet.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Do you ever compare yourself with people who don’t have eyesight and thank God that you have been given eyesight? Have you ever spontaneously felt thankful for your eyesight? No! Why not? Because whatever has been given to you is always taken for granted. That is the reason. You think: It is anywhere there, let us go to what next.

We all function around these three axes: doing, having and being. Doing for having, without enjoying being, is the sole cause of all our misery. Doing never catches up with having! Every time we work hard and fulfill one desire, there are more desires to make us run.

Never think, Let me work now, I can enjoy later. Don’t think you can come back later and enjoy! I tell you, it will never happen. Every tomorrow comes in the form of today only. Doing should lead to being every moment, only then you are on the right track.

Don’t postpone living! Celebrate! Enjoy life – it is now or never. We all run throughout our lives thinking that we can enjoy later, but we land up finally running into the graveyard. When you get onto the running track, you lose your real capacity to enjoy. You forget how to enjoy.

As they say, There is more pleasure in the pursuit than in the attainment! Always, as long as you are chasing something, it seems that it is worth the whole world – but after you get it, somehow it is not important any longer! If you become aware of yourself and understand what exactly you want, and try to do that alone, you will never find yourself in this kind of a self-contradictory and fragmented situation.

Raman Maharshi beautifully says:
Adaivadar mun kadugey aanaalum malayaay kaatti
Adainda pin malayey aanaalum kadugai kaattum maya manam

It means: Mind is that Illusion which shows a tiny mustard seed to be a huge mountain until it is attained, and a mountain to be as insignificant as a mustard seed once it has been attained!

Comparison is the root cause for this kind of attitude. The mind simply sees everything around it and plays up. I am not asking you to renounce all your desires. I am not asking you not to compare. I am only saying: Bring clarity into your comparison. Bring clarity into jealousy. Be clear as to why you are running. Don’t run because someone else is running, that’s all.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Another small story:

Chanda Basu was found crying at the doorstep of his house.
His friend asked him what the matter was.
He said, “My grand aunt has died leaving all her wealth to me.”
The friend was puzzled and said, “But she was really old and besides she has left all her wealth to you. Why are you crying?”
Chanda replied, “You don’t know – the week before that, my uncle died and left all his wealth to me.”
The friend was puzzled and asked, “Why are you then crying?”
Chanda continued, “And the week before that, my aunt passed away and left all her wealth to me.”
The friend could not understand why all this was causing Chanda to cry.
He asked, “Chanda, please tell me why you are crying for all this?”
Chanda said, “You don’t know, there are no more relatives who will die and leave me wealth!”

(Uproarious laughter!)

Of course, this is an exaggerated story, but we are like this, be very clear. We are all looking for what we can grab from life every minute. All our so-called love is nothing but a bargain. In some cases, it is gross and can be seen by all, and in other cases, it is subtle and cannot be easily perceived. In fact, it is played so unconsciously by you that you think it is genuine love.

The basic reason for comparison is, we don’t feel fulfilled within ourselves; we don’t feel happy with all the things that we have. For just 24 hours, from morning till night, just imagine that you have lost your eyesight. Try going about your work keeping your eyes closed. In just a few minutes, you will realize that your seamless routine has become unimaginable. Why 24 hours, in just a few minutes, you will understand the difficulty. It will be such a relief to open your eyes and see the world again. You will probably then thank God for your eyesight!

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

A small story:

One man was doing rigorous penance in a jungle for God to appear.
God condescended and appeared before him. He told him to ask what he wanted.
The man was overjoyed and said that he was a landlord and had lost all his wealth and that he wished to become wealthy again.
God took pity on him and said that the following day, if the man ran from dawn to dusk, all the area covered by him would be his.
The Man was extremely happy.
The next day he started running even before dawn.
He ran as fast as he could.
Close to noon, hunger beckoned but he didn’t pay heed and kept running.
Early in the evening, thirst and fatigue gripped him but he was goaded on by the thought of the neighboring landlord who owned many acres of land. Pictures of all his wealthy contemporaries came to him and he ran on.
A little before sunset, he felt giddy and weak but managed a few more steps.
At twilight, he faltered…and fell dead.

This is how we all live our lives. We run the race without even stopping to think why we are running! We run because everyone else is running! Shankaracharya beautifully describes this as ‘thatha kim, thatha kim…’ meaning ‘what next, what next…’ We are all the time thinking ‘what next’. This is what causes us to run.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

In some places in India, you can see: There will be monkey trainers who make a living out of training monkeys.

They will carry a stick with them and use it to prod the monkey to do whatever they want it to do.

They will wave the stick and shout, “Dance Rama! Dance!” and the monkey will dance!
Then they will say, “Turn cart wheels Rama! Turn cartwheels!” and the monkey would turn cartwheels.

The monkey will simply dance to the tunes of the stick.

Like this, we allow a stick called comparison to run our lives. We dance to its tunes, doing things that are not our own things but things that are dictated by the stick.

There is no end to comparison, no end to our expectations. We are all the time asking for more, more and more. You are constantly in the rat race. How will you then relax and enjoy and feel fulfilled? And the thing about being in the rat race is, even if you win, you are only a rat!

But somehow, late in life, at some point in time, you understand that even success in the rat race doesn’t give you a sense of fulfillment; even success leads to a deep sense of discontentment. This is because, while you may have fulfilled all the material desires in the outer world, you have ignored your Being all the time.

The call of discontentment is from your Being. When you understand that, you turn towards spirituality even if it is too late. But when you don’t understand that, you turn towards depression, because you don’t know where you are missing; you don’t know where the thread is; you don’t know where you lost it; you don’t know where you went wrong.

I can tell you from my experience – Existence is always showering upon us. There is such abundance! But we are so well trained in the discipline of discontent! We have become so insensitive to what we receive. We always want more because someone or the other has more, because comparison has become an unconscious process within ourselves; because we don’t know how to live a fulfilling life with a center within ourselves.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

If you are able to live out only your desires, you will die a peaceful death, full of satisfaction even if it is on the platform. If you live your whole life with borrowed desires, you would never have seen real fulfillment and even if you are living in a marble house, you will have a prolonged death, pulling and pushing, unable to get liberated from your unfulfilled borrowed desires.

In Jainism, there is a belief that when you are born, the entire quantity of food and energy that you will need during your lifetime is sent along with you. This is a way of saying that whatever your true requirements in this birth are, Existence equips you with the energy to fulfill them before sending you to planet Earth.

But when you start using this energy to realize borrowed desires, you start feeling that nothing has been given to you; that nothing is enough. You feel tired, exhausted and frustrated that nothing is happening. This is how the problem starts.

You see: There is a difference between needs and wants. Your needs are already taken care of in some way. It is possible to satisfy your needs, but it becomes impossible to satisfy your wants because they are changing and unclear all the time. Every time one want or desire is fulfilled, a hundred more come up.

It is our nature to desire endlessly, because continuously we are seeing what others are having and wanting all that for ourselves. You may not own up to this fact at the outset, but if you deeply analyze yourself, you will see that this is true. Your mind plays so cunningly and passively that you will not own up to this at the first instance.

For example: You go to the shop to buy a fan for your house. But on the way you meet some friends on the road, who tell you that they are going to buy some other things in other shops. Immediately, you are tempted to buy them and so you change your track and go and buy along with them. Then you find that you don’t have enough money to buy your fan!

If you start comparing and living out others’ desires, you will land yourself in deep trouble because you will not know where you stand. Always measure yourself with your own meter, never with others’ meters. It is the most foolish and dangerous thing to do.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

When you are on your own at home, you will think that it is enough if you have a home and car for yourself. You will feel relaxed at this thought. You will feel moments of gratitude and fulfillment. After some time, when you step out of your house in your car, and stop by at a traffic light, what happens? A Mercedes Benz pulls up beside your car…and your mind simply switches its thinking. You start thinking that your car is just no good. You start thinking that it is high time that you bought a new car - if not a Mercedes Benz.

Just a few minutes earlier you were happy with your own things, but now what has happened? You are starting to work out a new desire, a borrowed desire. Be very clear: This is not your own desire. It is a borrowed desire belonging to someone else. It is the desire of the owner of the Benz car. This is how you start working out others’ desires in your mind as a result of comparison and jealousy.

You may never have felt the need for a refrigerator in your house, but if your neighbor buys a refrigerator, immediately you will feel that you cannot do without it! Immediately you will find all the reasons in the world why you need a refrigerator. All these days you were managing without a refrigerator! Nothing has changed, but what has happened? Your mind has stepped in with comparison.

Of course, you will never own up to borrowed desires. It happens so subtly in your mind, that the exact source of the borrowed desire goes unsaid. It is a cunning and subtle game of the mind. And we will always say that we are not bothered about others.

A small story:

One man returned to his neighborhood after almost 10 years.
He went around the neighborhood with his friend.
He was surprised to see the many changes in the place.
He commented to this friend, “Prosperity has changed the face of this whole neighborhood!”
The friend replied, “No, not prosperity, just plain jealousy.”

We are all the time trying to beat the other. When you are after borrowed desires, you will never stop, because when you are on the verge of realizing any one of them, another borrowed desire will come up from somewhere and you will be on the track once more!

You will keep running because you are not centered within yourself. Your center keeps changing. Your center is on other people, not inside yourself! And their center is elsewhere, not inside themselves! Imagine how much you have to run, how much you have to pull and push according to the mass sway of off-centric thoughts and emotions! You become a puppet.

I tell you: Every time you want something, sit by yourself and think if you really want it or you want it because someone else had it. Do an honest analysis of each of your desires when they surface. Drop all your prestige problems and do a self-analysis. If you can’t drop your prestige when you are alone, how will you drop it when you are with people?

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

In Sanskrit, the word illusion is translated as Maya.

We say, ya ma iti Maya, which means that which does not exist is Maya!

That which does not exist, but which continuously disturbs! That is the property of Maya! You simply give life to it, that’s all. Comparison is pure illusion. Yes…?

Swamiji, it is better that we don’t look at either side of the line!

Why do you say that? And anyway, why should you fear to look? The fact that you are afraid to look itself shows that you are running away from your own mind. If you can look, but not be affected by what you see – then you have found the right way.

When you are able to look at everything, what you have and what others have and feel fulfillment all the time, then this chakra will be in an energized condition. See, be very clear: I am not using the word ‘contentment’. People often say, “Learn to be contented.” You can never learn to be contented.

Contentment has to flower as a result of an experiential understanding of the negative existence of comparison and jealousy. It has to flower out of a deep feeling of gratitude for whatever has been given to you. This cannot be imposed from outside. It has to flower from within.

Just try to understand clearly whatever is being told to you. By repeatedly listening to the truth, you can open up a space within you where it can be experienced. Every problem has the solution in it if you are willing to look into it deeply and with a sincere mind. If you just look into comparison and jealousy deeply and consciously, you will be able to see that it is a mere play of your mind, and nothing more than that.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Let me explain to you what I mean by negative existence. Take this bell here that is beside me. If I want to remove this bell, I can simply take it and leave it outside the room and it will not be here any more, am I right? This bell has a positive existence and so it is possible for me to do this. Now, let us say there is darkness in this room. Is it possible for you to take the darkness and keep it out?

No…

But if I bring light into this room, the darkness will disappear on its own, right? This is because, darkness does not have a positive existence; it has a negative existence. Because it has a negative existence, we cannot simply remove it.

In the same way, comparison does not have a positive existence. It exists only in our minds; it happens only when we exercise a certain thought in our mind. Because comparison does not exist in reality, you cannot overcome it by simply asking it to go away. You can overcome it by bringing in an understanding about it in your mind, just like how when you bring in light, the darkness disappears.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

What is Comparison?

Can someone tell me, what are the major areas where you normally compare? I am sure you will be able to readily come out with it!

(Audience venture…)
Beauty Swamiji..

Ha! Beauty! Each one has his or her own comparison areas! Alright, next!

Wealth…
Name and fame…
Power, prestige…
Knowledge…
Health…

Alright, these are all areas of comparison where we normally compare ourselves with others, is it not? We can categorize these under 4 major categories: money, knowledge, beauty which includes health, and status. All your problems, all your complexes are nothing but these four things, am I right?

Now…let us say that you queue up all the people in the world in ascending order of money. You are also part of that queue. Where would you think you would be?

Somewhere in the middle Swamiji…

Exactly! You will be somewhere in the middle, is it not? You will not even be able to count the number of people on either side of you in the queue. The people in front of you will be so many in number and the people behind you will also be so many in number.

And the people might have to keep shifting their places also because the amount of money that they have keeps changing every minute! Now, with your thoughts, you have to decide, if you are going to look at the length of queue in front of you and feel jealous or look at the length of queue behind you and feel relaxed and grateful to God! It is in your hands.

You very well know that nothing can be told about where you are in the queue, but the thought disturbs you all the time! We are haunted by a phenomenon that does not really exist! It has got a negative existence!

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

A small story:

One man was part of a music group that gave live shows all over the world.
In one particular stage performance, he decided to wear a particular black wig for a few songs and a red wig for other songs.
He alternated the wigs and finished the first half of the program.
During the intermission, the show director came up to him in the dressing room and told him, “Sir, you would have to wear only the red wig for the remaining part of the show.”
The man was surprised and asked him why.
The director replied, “The people like the red haired one’s voice a lot better than the black haired one’s!”

(Laughter!)

We are so busy comparing all the time that we never see things as they are! Our mind is so caught up in comparison that it misses the actual quality of what it sees. We need to drop the comparing attitude to be able to see things as they are.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.