Return to the Source

The real you is a Spark. You descend into the Divine level, then into the Monadic level. You feel that you are something else than the whole. This is why we call it the Monad. You go to the Atmic level. The Atmic level is a level of bliss, total nirvana. You then descend to the Buddhic level. In that level, you know all that is going on everywhere. Next, you descend to the mental level. And when you enter into this level everything is confused. When you go to the astral level, everything is berserk. And when you enter the physical level, you forget everything that you were.

From the physical level, you are going to return toward the Source and consciously conquer, with your own merit, every step of the way. At the lowest level of the physical plane, you are Mr. Potatoes, or Mrs. Eggplant. You are not yourself. This is the state of "lost paradise." We are living as bugs here with our physical food, sex, sleep, and clothing; that is all. We have lost everything that was granted to us. Now our duty is to win by our own merit the higher states of consciousness.

We are going to awaken and discover ourselves. Socrates said, "Know thyself." Buddha said, "Be yourself." And Christ said, "Be perfect." All of these statements mean the same thing. We are going to be REAL. We say:

Lead us, O Lord, from darkness to light,

From the unreal to the Real,

From death to Immortality,

From chaos to Beauty...

From the individual to the Universal,

From the many cycles to the One Life,

From manifestation to Space.

You become Real when you become your Self. In some Eastern Teachings it says that as the Spark started on Its journey into matter, someone gave him "wine and whiskey." When he reached the physical plane, he was totally drunk. He does not know where he is or what he is. This is humanity today. The Sufis go on to say that in order to recover from that unconscious state, man must get rid of the intoxication. He must awaken. We are running and crying and collecting money. We are fooling ourselves. Le us hurry and go back.

When you come back to the Buddhic Plane, you are an Arhat. And on the Atmic Plane or level you are a Master, a liberated Soul, an Avatar.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Avatars, p.282

Vision of the Future

In our education the only thing lacking is vision. There is the spirit of competition, separatism, and self-interest but not vision. Our children are not taught the science of service for humanity. There needs to be a curriculum which inspires the students to work for humanity, to create one humanity, to eliminate all discrimination, and to develop sacrificial will to dedicate themselves for the upliftment of one humanity. This is the failure of education. This means that contemporary education has no foundation. It can give knowledge and information and let it be used against the survival of nations and humanity.

If you do not have a vision you are becoming a failure. Failure means not to have a vision or not to follow your vision.

Vision is a dynamic power that leads you forward.

A vision always evokes from your Real Self an aspiration to sacrifice, to give, to serve, to radiate, and to uplift people. There is no vision if it is not associated with the idea of service.

Vision is an image of yourself projected into the future. It is an active, dynamic image which inspires you and pulls you up and forward on the path for your evolution.

Vision is what you want to be and what you want to do for the service of humanity.

The goal is not to be a doctor but to be a doctor to serve humanity with utmost selflessness and without exploitation. The goal is not to be a lawyer but to be a lawyer who is dedicated to the service of those who are mistreated and exploited. The goal should not be personal interest but the interest of others. If your vision is not beyond your own interests, you do not have a vision.

Is it necessary to have a vision?

I would say that without vision man will slowly descend into apathy, inertia, depression and become suicidal or criminal. If you want to cure such people, give them vision. Give them hope and future. Show them what they can do for others.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Leadership vol1, p.27-33

Sexual energy and the aura

Abstinence also has an effect on the aura. When the sexual force is sublimated, it increases the strength and beauty of the aura. Sexual energy is creative. When sublimated, it first becomes part of the etheric body, then becomes part of the astral and mental bodies.

Sexual energy makes the aura highly charged and magnetic. Healing energy increases in the aura if one abstains for a long time. Actually, our thoughts and emotions are the children of our sublimated sexual energy. Mental fire is a higher correspondence of sexual energy. This creative energy travels all the way to the Chalice and accumulates in certain petals.

A beautiful poem, painting, or other work of art is sublimated sexual energy, molded by a vision. Sexual energy increases in the aura when two people love each other greatly, but abstain from sex for a while. The two auras begin to interchange energy, and thus the love energy between them deepens and sublimation takes place. In addition to this, one feels balance, stability, and equilibrium in his nature, and he conducts his life with wisdom and grace.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Aura, Shield of Protection & Glory, p.19

Music and the aura

Singing is considered a healthy sign. When birds or people are sick, they do not sing. Singing is proof that the aura is balanced and that the person is not caught in a groove but can go from one color (note) to another, stimulating or revitalizing many of them. When a person stops singing, you see that his aura is not healthy; it has an imbalance of colors and many other complications.

Music is very closely connected to our health. Certain nations have national sicknesses which are caused by the music that the people of that nation constantly hear. Some groups develop heart, liver, and kidney problems because of the kind of music they hear. It is impossible to indicate which music is good or bad for an individual, but in general, any loud music, rock-and-roll, acid-rock, disco, or similar music stimulates the kidneys, solar plexus, and sacral center. The diseases contracted by people who listen to these kinds of music originate from these sources.

Music can retard or assist the development of the aura. Certain notes affect the etheric and physical bodies. Certain notes affect the astral and mental bodies. Music that makes an advanced person greatly disturbed may suit the emotions of an average person and give him great pleasure. Some people, not having an organized mental aura, do not respond to those notes, so they are safe. Those who have a mental aura, however, become highly disturbed.

Beautiful and creative music harmonizes and balances the aura of the listener, purifies, and energizes it. Such music is usually composed by an artist who has the same purity, energy, and balance.

One creates out of his true being. Disturbing music creates imbalance in the aura, increasing dramatically certain colors, and greatly reducing the colors of the higher vehicles.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Aura, Shield of Protection and Glory, p.20

Crowns and higher bodies

The legends say that the first kings of humanity were Divine Beings Who came from a very advanced civilization from Space and guided and ruled humanity. At that time people used to see etheric crowns on the heads of the kings or queens.

As these Great Beings left this planet after fulfilling their duties, human kings succeeded them, and because they were not advanced spiritually, they did not have their natural crowns. People built crowns for the kings with precious stones and colorful materials.

Again the legends say that the first priests who came from other civilizations in Space to lead humanity on earth used to shine with their etheric, mental, Intuitional, and higher bodies during the ceremonies. Ages passed, and they departed. To imitate them, human priests prepared colorful vestments as correspondences or symbols of their finer bodies.

All these higher bodies exist within us, and they are visible to a true clairvoyant. Everyone of us must do his utmost to unfold his higher bodies and strive toward perfection.

-Torkom Saraydarian

New dimensions in healing, p.37

Meditation is dangerous when...

Meditation is dangerous and unprofitable to the man who enters upon it without the basis of a good character and of clean living. Meditation then becomes only a medium for the bringing in of energies which but serve to stimulate the undesirable aspects of his life, just as the fertilizing of a garden full of weeds will produce a stupendous crop of them, and so crush out the weak and tiny flowers.

Meditation is dangerous where there is wrong motive, such a desire for personal growth and for spiritual powers, for it produces, under these conditions only a strengthening of the shadows in the vale of illusion and brings to full growth the serpent of pride, lurking in the valley of selfish desire. Meditation is dangerous when the desire to serve is lacking.

-Djwhal Khul

(Alice Bailey, a Treatise on White Magic)

Every limb of the body must be put to proper use and sanctified

The human body is a sacred instrument given by God and it has to be sanctified by contemplating on God at least one or two times a day.

What kind of activities are to be undertaken so that man may derive happiness and joy? The most appropriate answer to this question would be that He should be engaged in constant contemplation of God. The eyes must always see good things. The ears must be engaged in hearing good things. The tongue must be made to speak always sweet and noble words. It should chant the divine name. Thus, every limb of the body must be put to proper use and sanctified.

- Sai Baba

Do not attack the object of worship of others

Those who dishonor an image of worship, an image of joy and adoration, or an object of devotion and high respect are criminals, no matter in what field that object is found: political, educational, philosophical, artistic, scientific, religious, or financial.

Let people worship anything they want, but try to draw their attention to the innermost meanings of their object or religion and you will have an opportunity to make the object of their worship an object of transformation.

Thus, do not attack the object of worship of others, but try to find something beneficial in it and draw their attention to that point of beauty. Every object of worship can be turned into a source of energy that can transform the nature of its worshippers.

......

The ancients used to say:

"Do not belittle a father in front of his son, or a husband in front of his wife."

"Do not attack images of worship."

Such attacks destroy the people's vision and faith, and those from whom a great image is taken become criminals.

Of course in any field one can find failures. Instead of telling the story of their failures, instead of broadcasting into the public consciousness the failure images of our leaders, let the authorities deal with them.

People think that all truth must be the public's property. Many people use this argument to make their lies, fabrications, and falsehoods public property.

People especially must not tolerate attacks on the images of their religious worship because such images are commingled with their heart and life, and without such images they cannot create energy or sustain their integrity.

A great political example of this was Russia. During the 1917 revolution, there was widespread destruction of churches, mosques, and temples. Widespread murder was committed against religious leaders. They were publicly disgraced. And now we have seen how the people have slowly disintegrated and fallen into corruption, bribery, hatred, cleavages, and so on.

Seventy years of Communism was not able to create friendship, brotherhood, respect, or cooperation between various races and nations, and at the first opportunity for freedom the dirt came out.

Respect the images of worship of people, and you will be able to create the harmony of cooperation among those whose images of worship are highly respected and recognized.

Every hero, every public image, can be used as an opportunity to create public festivities and to produce energy. The purpose is to create a unified field of energy.

It is important that people feel excitement, love, devotion, and gratitude because these feelings create energy. If a group is full of such feelings, that group is in a field of energy which purifies, heals, and changes every member in the group.

Many people in the group feel that something changes in them when they are in special meetings. They feel physically rested and harmonious. Many of their physical complaints even disappear; they feel healed. Eventually they feel harmony and joy. They feel mutually inspired and uplifted, their horizon expands spiritually, and their whole being is charged with a new ecstasy. These are the results of the energy created by the unification and harmony of group feelings. That is why in certain phases of our life - such as birthdays, baptism, marriage, graduation, and various happy events - we feel totally uplifted. The accumulated feelings of joy, gratitude, appreciation, love, and respect are doing their work.

Group festivals or festivities of inaugurations and other public celebrations create massive energy which may transform a nation and clear many ugly accumulations from the aura of that nation.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Mystery of Self-Image

Each mistake is an open door...

How do dark entities set about harming humans? They urge them to make mistakes, for each mistake is an open door giving the entities the right to go in and torment them. If people resist, if they don't make mistakes, the entities are powerless. This is why the devil - we'll say 'the devil' for simplicity's sake - only has the powers you give him. If you don't want to deal with him, don't let him in. He will not force you, he just makes suggestions - this is why he's called the 'tempter' - and you are the one who says 'yes'.

Most people imagine their disquiet, their distress and their anxieties have come suddenly, just like that, all at once. No, they prepared for them, they opened the door to them, they invited them in. How? By means of their desires, thoughts and lower feelings, by means of certain weaknesses and certain transgressions. At that very moment, the devil found the door open, came in and began his campaign of destruction.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

As you increase your response to the greater light, you become more of a "troublemaker"

Q: What do we have to do to help bring changes in the planet and nations? Is there a formula for what changes will be possible in response to the light?

A: Of course. As you increase your response to the greater light, you become more of a "troublemaker." That is why most of the great leaders were revolutionaries. The emancipation of slaves that Lincoln introduced was revolutionary, for instance. Why? Because that man responded to the light of freedom in a greater degree than you and I. He brought upheaval and conflicts when the light, peace, and understanding - strong things - changed him. Now we are saying, "Peace, peace." If we stand on it, we will have it. But if we say, "Peace," and take LSD, we will not have it. So when you stand in the light you pay the price for standing in the light. That is difficult. ...

Can you pay this price for standing in the light? It is not easy. When you have a greater response to the light, you are a greater troublemaker. And when you are a greater troublemaker, you have more resistance and must be ready for greater suffering. If you are ready, you are one of the followers of Christ or followers of a great Master or of a Plan that you can follow.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Avatars, Revelations of God, p.177,178

Cleansing during sleep

From the moment we slip into sleep, our soul moves away from our physical body and goes to join the universal soul. During the body's rest, an entire work of cleansing and purification takes place. On its return, the soul finds the house cleaned and washed, and it can take up its work again. If the soul did not leave the body in this way, we would die from poisoning and asphyxiation, because the work of cleansing could not be done.

You will say, 'But why do we have these toxins and poisons?' Because life is a combustion. All the physical, emotional and mental activities we know as 'life' produce a release of forces, but they also leave behind rubbish which takes a while to be eliminated. So it is necessary for the soul to withdraw from the body so the cleansing can take place. This is how nature has resolved the problem of life.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Taking the responsibility of our mistakes

Those who lack the sense of responsibility argue with you if you point out their mistakes. They feel angry and hurt and eventually deny their failure and mistakes. No one can help such people.

A responsible person will beg you to show him his mistakes because he knows that it is only through correcting his mistakes that he will be able to exercise his sense of responsibility more efficiently.

Irresponsible people insist that their mistakes originate from you or from others, if they can even see the mistakes at all. They cannot correct themselves and therefore always remain mediocre and resentful.

If you do not accept your failures or mistakes with humility and joy, and if you reject those who point out your mistakes to you, something very serious happens to your mind. Every time you make a mistake, your mind will accept it as if it was not an important mistake. Eventually your mind will develop a system of rationalization and the making of excuses and tell you, "It is okay; there is no problem." When your mind programs itself in this way, it eventually leads you to disaster. Because your mistakes are not corrected, they increase and cause you failure.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The sense of responsibility in society, p.17

If you feel abandoned, it means you, yourself, no longer love

When you love someone, it is God that loves them through you. So, by loving them, you experience the love of God. That is why the act of loving can be just as fulfilling as that of being loved, in fact, even more so.

You have certainly already felt this love. It visited you, but then it went away. and that is how it will always be until love finds a permanent dwelling place and nourishment within you. For it eats a great deal! So, next time it comes to visit, try to reflect on the circumstances of its coming, so you are able to summon it again, for it is you, consciously or not, who provide the favourable conditions it needs.

Love enters where there is purity, the purity symbolized by the transparency of a crystal, and if it finds impurity it leaves again. So you see, this is a very serious question; think about it instead of complaining of being alone and abandoned. You can never lose the love that lives within you. If you feel abandoned, it means you, yourself, no longer love.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Sincerity

People think that talking openly about their bad intentions, feelings, or actions is an act of sincerity. But sincerity is a virtue. How can you be a thief and in the meantime be an honest person? Sincerity is related to the expression of your inner beauty, not to hiding your responses or reactions to other people's thoughts, feelings, and actions. A sincere person is one who shines his light without hindering it or hiding it.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Aura, Shield of Protection & Glory

Identifying with an illness

Someone says: 'As you can see, I'm sick; there are no two ways about it.' But what he doesn't know is that by affirming his illness in this way he reinforces it. Although the illness affects only one part of his body, he identifies with it and in his mind allows it to take over the entire terrain.

So what should you do instead? When you are sick, even if you are dying, you must say: 'It is true that my body is sick, but I myself - a child of God, a divine spark - cannot be sick.' And this conviction puts you above your illness: you do not identify with your body but with your spirit, which lives in light and eternity.

When you decide to put this law of the supremacy of the spirit to work in your life, you first effect changes in the realm of thought. These changes then influence the realm of feelings and sensations, finally crystallizing on the physical plane where things become organized and clear.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Effects of thought

Thought energy not only affects the minds and thoughts of other people, but it also affects the atmosphere, the elements found in the atmosphere, and the energy currents active there. This means that the composition of the elements of the air changes due to human thoughts.

Thought affects the cloud formation and the ionization of the air. It affects magnetic polarization, lightning, thunder, and rain. It causes earthquakes or creates stabilization. It causes epidemics and natural calamities if it is massive and negative.

...

Our thoughts can carry great currents of beauty, lofty images of heroism and nobility, and strong waves of healing energy into space. These thoughts are drawn in by creative people, by people of pure heart and goodwill, and used by them to change themselves and their environment and bring in a better life on this planet. Every human being can add his share to this accumulation of good thoughts and serve the Common Good.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Thought and the Glory of Thinking, p.61

God is always ready to give you all that you want

God gives you whatever you pray for, so take care. Ask for the right things. Not knowing what we should ask, we are asking Him for something when we really want something else. In this process, we are getting ourselves into difficulties.

God is always ready to give you all that you want, but you do not seem to know what is good for you and what you really want. Since you do not know what you should want and under what circumstances, it is better and easier to surrender yourself completely to God and simply ask for His grace.

-Sai Baba

The walking dead

Brotherhood, 561. It will be asked, Can so-called living corpses wander about on Earth for a long time? For long periods, depending upon their animal attraction to the physical world. Psychic energy will leave them, their radiations will become negligible, and a small apparatus will reveal the signs of death.

These walking corpses easily fall under the influence of strangers. They repeat empty words of their bygone days, convincing no one. Physicians may vainly examine their aorta, pointing to a valvular disease of the heart.

These corpses are sometimes sensed by certain animals. Often these corpses remain as heads of big enterprises, nevertheless their dead husks permeate everything therein. The walking dead are strongly attached to life, for they do not understand the change of condition. They fear death.

-Agni Yoga

No energy from Space can put us into the right direction

People think that cycles, new configurations of zodiacal signs and stars bring benevolent changes to humanity. This is a great mistake. No energy from Space can put us into the right direction. On the contrary, it stimulates our beingness at whatever level we may be. And because we are focused mostly in our subconscious mind, we live the same tragic life over and over again as centuries come and go.

New cycles, new configurations of stars, new education, and new Teachings can change us only when we respond to them with our conscious mind. Unless we are focused in our conscious mind, we will not benefit from new energies. On the contrary, even with all our sophisticated civilization, we will sink more and more into savagery.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Subconscious Mind and the Chalice, p.30

Astral magnetism

The force of kundalini flows as a river through men and women. Sexual intercourse gives that river an outlet, creates a channel, a psychic-astral tube between their muladhara chakras. After the first intercourse, awareness is turned outward into the external world and the man or woman is more vulnerable to the forces of desire. The ramification of the intellect can now be experienced more than ever before. If the force is contained within the marriage covenant, with blessings from the Devaloka and Sivaloka, rays similar to the astral tube established between the couple are established between each of them through the higher chakras with the Mahadevas and their devas. A holy state of matrimony has been entered into.

Dancing with Siva, Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism states: "When a young virgin man and woman marry and share physical intimacy with each other, their union is very strong and their marriage stable. This is due to the subtle, psychic forces of the human nerve system. Their psychic forces, or nadis, grow together, and they form a one body and a one mind. This is the truest marriage and the strongest, seldom ending in separation or divorce. Conversely, if the man or woman has had intercourse before the marriage, the emotional/psychic closeness of the marriage will suffer, and this in proportion to the extent of promiscuity."

The higher rays and lower astral-psychic tubes that are created between husband and wife can contain the forces of desire within them. They also control the instinctive curiosities of the intellect, allowing its full power to manifest and create a productive and abundant life for the family which has continuity and consistency. A life of dharma can be lived.

The release of the sacred seed into the woman during sexual intercourse establishes, through the first chakra, a connecting psychic astral tube which can be clearly seen on the astral plane. It is through this psychic tube that desires, feelings and even telepathic messages can be passed from one to another. This connecting tube is generally about six inches in diameter.

Nowadays, because of promiscuity, masses of people are connected one to another in this way. A great bed of astral matter envelops them as they go from one partner to another. This causes the forces of intense fear to persist. From an inner perspective, their soul bodies are obscured by this astral matter, and it is most difficult for those living in the Devaloka to contact anyone on the Earth plane who is thus involved. Such individuals must fend for themselves, with little or no protection from the Devaloka or the Sivaloka, as do the animals, who do not have benefit of the intellect to guide their actions.

Any two people touching in other ways--kissing, embracing--also establishes a temporary connecting link of astral matter which penetrates their auras and completely covers their forms. This is sometimes called the great magnetism, for it appears in the Second World as a psychic mass connecting the two of them as wide as the length of their bodies. This astral matter is created from the diverse expulsion of emotional energies, blending their auras together. The psychic connection is magnetic enough to repeatedly pull them back together or cause emotional pain if they are separated. But unless the encounter is repeated, the astral matter will wear away in three or four days, a month at the most. In this way, touching or caressing someone causes an abundant release of magnetic force to occur.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_66.shtml

Before practising meditation, you should first put your psychic being in order

It is possible to enter the spiritual world by several routes. Meditation is one of them, but it requires preparation. Those who start meditating without having acquired a certain inner discipline, that is, control over their thoughts, feelings and desires, begin by wandering in the lower regions of the astral plane, and on their way they stir up all kinds of dark layers inhabited by entities often hostile to humans. What they experience then is known as delirium or phantasmagoria, but not meditation.

So before practising meditation, you should first put your psychic being in order; otherwise, even this most useful and profitable of exercises can become very dangerous.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The reason for the present beastly and demonic tendencies in our minds is the food we consume

Food is God - Do not waste food.

Firstly, consider the food we consume. Eat only what you need to eat. Do not be greedy. Do not take more than you can eat and waste the rest, because wasting food is a great sin. The surplus food can feed another stomach. Do not waste food, because food is God, life is God, and man is born from food.

Food is the main source of man's life, body, mind and character. The gross part of the food, which is the major portion of the food consumed by the body, is thrown out as waste matter. A minute amount of the food, which is the subtle part, is assimilated by the body and flows as blood. And a minuscule amount, which is the subtlest part of the food, makes up the mind. Therefore, the mind is the reflection of the food consumed. The reason for the present beastly and demonic tendencies in our minds is the food we consume.

A large part of the water we drink is expelled as urine. A minute part of the water consumed becomes the life force (prana). Therefore, the nature of the food and water that we take in decides our character. Only by controlling the quality of our food and water can we attain Divinity. This is why food is said to be God. Hence, to waste food is to waste God. Do not waste food. Eat only what you need, and be sure that what you eat is Sathwic. Give any surplus food to those in need.

-Sai Baba

The highest utility of human existence

In every mind, utility is conditioned by its own peculiar wants. To men, therefore, who never rise higher than eating, drinking, begetting progeny, and dying, the only gain is in sense-enjoyments; and they must wait and go through many more births and reincarnations to learn to feel even the faintest necessity for anything higher.

But those to whom the eternal interests of the soul are of much higher value than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, to whom the gratification of the senses is but like thoughtless play of the baby, to them, God and the love of God form the highest and the only utility of human existence.

-Swami Vivekananda

Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

The Teaching is not a supermarket

People approach the Teaching as if it were a supermarket from which they can buy all that they need for their stomachs and bodies. But the Teaching is given to cause radioactivity and decentralization of self-interest and to make people learn the science of sacrificial service.

As long as one approaches the Teaching as if it were a supermarket, he will not profit spiritually from it, although he can use whatever he collects from the supermarket to entertain himself and others and thus waste the treasury of the Teaching. Wasting the Teaching can produce sad consequences due to the following reasons:

a. You lose your magnetism.

b. You turn into a hypocrite.

c. You exploit people for your own pleasure.

d. You blind your inner eye and inner ear.

e. You accumulate heavy karma.

f. You fall into isolation.

g. You are born into unfortunate circumstances in your next incarnation.

Just as people like to collect items of interest for their home, they also tend to collect ideas and information from the Teaching to be added to their mental collections, whereas the Teaching is only to be used for the actualization of their higher potentials and to cause transformation in their life.

The Teaching must be approached also with the intent to learn the following:

• How to love
• How to lose self-interest
• How to serve
• How to increase joy and freedom
• How to liberate people

........

The Teaching is not a supermarket but a center for transfiguration and mastery. As yet, most of the places of worship are not centers where people can learn how to renounce their glamors, illusions, maya, ego, and vanity, or learn how to step on the not-self. They are not yet centers where people enter the path of discipleship. Places of worship are usually places of emotional entertainment and abodes of personal "security". Some of them are mainly occupied with easing the path of glamor for others or occupied with taking advantage of others through psychic glamors and manipulative techniques. Many still refuse those people who point out their wounds and mistakes; they are still absorbed in the material world for most of their life.

It seems very strange that most people use the Teaching like some sort of personal medication. They "take" the Teaching because, after they hear uplifting lectures and read a spiritual book or two or have a good meditation, they experience the following:

• They feel very good.
• They enjoy life more.
• Their house is in better shape.
• They can make more money.
• Their family loves them more.

These results are good, but the goals of the Teaching extend beyond a person's personal pleasures and comforts, beyond his business and his home. We seldom hear people telling us that they love the Teaching because of any of the following reasons:

1. Their field of service to others improves.

2. Their viewpoints change.

3. Larger fields of labor open to them, and they have become extremely busy serving in them.

4. They experience self-forgetfulness and have begun to understand the meaning of self sacrifice.

5. They see greater light in people and see the efforts that others are making to make this world a better place.

6. They are taking many risks to be of service to the Teaching.

7. They are realizing their weaknesses and glamors and see how these prevent them from becoming a better servant to humanity.

These seven points signal a sincere approach to the Teaching, indicating that a person is beginning to understand the Teaching. It is important to serve the Teaching instead of making the Teaching serve us.

...............

The Teaching is the Law - the Dharma. It embodies the living fire given to humanity for regeneration and transformation. Every act which distorts the Teaching and causes harm to the Teacher is an unforgivable slander against the Source of Light.

Christ once said, "...but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come." The Holy Spirit is the Source of the pure Teaching, the Source of Light given to humanity for regeneration and transformation.

The Teaching is the Ageless Wisdom given throughout the ages by this Source through Great Ones in different words and experiences and according to the level of those to whom it is given. Those who are touched by this spark of light will see the pure Teaching passing like a beam of light through all wisdoms and religions given to humanity. It is this beam of light that must be discovered. It is found only through tolerance, inclusiveness, love, compassion, and through a life lived for the good of all.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Ageless Wisdom

Light is the matter of creation

It is light that informs us of fire's presence. Yes, for light is the vestment of fire. And, insofar as all forms of clothing are material, we can say that light is actually matter. Above, in the sublime regions, light represents matter and fire represents spirit. This is why it is said that God, who is the primordial fire, created light first and then used light to create the world. Before light there was fire, and light is therefore the matter of creation.

You may be wondering whether it's possible for fire to exist without light. Yes, the original fire, the non-manifest fire is not luminous. In order for fire to be accompanied by light, it has to manifest.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

In God’s creation, there is nothing like sorrow

In God’s creation, there is nothing like sorrow. Whatever God does is for the welfare of humanity. Some people feel depressed and wail as to why God gave them troubles and sorrows. But, sorrows and difficulties are our own making. God does not differentiate or cause trouble to anyone. Sorrows and difficulties are only your feelings. Everything in God’s creation is meant to provide happiness and convenience to the living beings.

That is what I have been repeatedly emphasizing. Whether you are in sorrow or enjoying happiness, always think that everything is for your own good. One has to develop a firm conviction that whatever God does is for one’s own good and not for putting one to trouble.

-Sai Baba Divine

Discourse on 17th October'2004

Psychic and physical pollution

Scientists are joining forces worldwide to alert public opinion to the risks run by humanity as a result of their pollution of the air, the water and the earth. But does anyone stop to consider that asphyxiating fumes, gas escapes and toxic products spread in the psychic world too?

Many present-day illnesses are due not only to the pollution of air, water and food but to psychic pollution. If the psychic atmosphere we are immersed in were not so polluted, it would be easy to neutralize all external poisons. The ill is first and foremost inside.

When you feel strong inside and in harmony with yourself and others, it's as if currents of energy were running through you, throwing off impurities - even on the physical plane - and your organism succeeds in defending itself better.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

If you insist on wages, you become a servant

People pray to God to relieve them from pain, grief and loss to confer on them wealth, health and strength; but, if you develop an intimate attachment to Him and make Him yours, He will manage to give you all that you need.

Do not demean the relationship into bargaining; give me this, then I shall give you this in exchange. If you insist on wages, you become a servant. Become His own. He is provider for the idler, the insane, the shirker; can he not provide for you?

-Sai Baba

Source: SAI VEDA, P-21.

Whatever you love, you are

If you want money more than anything,
you'll be bought and sold.

If you have a greed for food,
you'll be a loaf of bread.

This is a subtle truth:
whatever you love, you are.

- Rumi

Value of the intellect to the detriment of the heart

There are many highly educated people in the world with highly trained intellects, and that's good. But that is not what will save humanity; quite the opposite, for it is not the nature of the intellect to display kindness, patience or generosity. On the contrary, those who have a highly developed intellect often try to deceive others, to control them, exploit and enslave them.

Look at how all these highly gifted intellectuals behave, how often they become critical, scornful and wily. You will say, 'Oh, that's because they are ill-natured.' No, the fault lies with the education they received, which places value on the intellect to the detriment of the heart and so reinforces people's lower nature. They are given weapons without being given the ideal of improving themselves, and then, of course, they use these to satisfy their most basic appetites. When will these 'educators' decide to give people knowledge that will allow them to work on controlling their lower nature?

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

We think that the enemies of light are so powerful that they are running the whole show

We sometimes think that the enemies of light, the dark forces, and evil are so powerful that they are running the whole show. When this impression is given, it creates inertia, disappointment, and hopelessness in us.

Actually, the contrary is true. It is Divine consciousness, Cosmic consciousness which has ultimate power over everything.

There is a great angelic organization which fights against the dark forces. This organization consists of millions and millions of beings, both on earth and in the heavens. Specifically for our planet, it is very significant that the army of the Forces of Light are under the command of Christ.

As the dark forces try to attack a person, a family, or a nation, angelic forces are ever ready to give help. They come to your assistance once you shift yourself toward their direction and create some kind of contact with the Forces of Light. Knowing about this creates a kind of balance in our consciousness.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Battling Dark Forces, p.51

Man must know that, which if known, all else is known

Man has become artificial, crooked, twisted out of his normal shape. He has left behind the simple natured ways and made his mind a lumber - room for ideas, worries, anxieties and terrors. He can live on very much less, with much greater joy for himself and others. If only he remembers that he is a treasure chest with the Divine spark in it, he will be more loving and useful.

There must be a Divine purpose in life. Man must know the way to attain God, must be led and guided to attain him, must be educated to rid himself of distractions on the path, must know that, which if known, all else is known. The rest is all secondary, incidental and unnecessary.

-Sai Baba

Source: Sai Veda (SathyaSai Advises Inspires Vivifies Educates Dispels All doubts)

Creating a harmonic ambience

The atmosphere, the ambience in which people find themselves, is an important factor in bringing out either their good or their bad side. This is why you must immerse yourself as often as possible in an ambience of peace, harmony and light. Of course, its effects often last no longer than the time you're immersed in it, but at least for a few moments your lower nature is reduced to silence, while your higher nature expands. And by dint of repeating this experience, your higher nature will one day predominate.

Some people consider that toning down their lower nature is a sign of weakness; they feel much better giving vent to their aggressive instincts and their desire to dominate - in letting their wild animals out, in fact! But then these wild animals cause a lot of damage and devour their children, in other words their good thoughts and feelings that are not yet firm and strong. So these wild animals need to be restrained a little, and this is what the disciples of an initiatic school seek to do, thanks to the harmonious ambience they strive to create.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Does hell really exist? Is there a Satan?

There is no eternal hell, nor is there a Satan. However, there are hellish states of mind and woeful births for those who think and act wrongfully--temporary tormenting conditions that lift the fiery forces within. Aum.

Hell, termed Naraka, is the lower astral realm of the seven chakras below the muladhara. It is a place of fire and heat, anguish and dismay, of confusion, despair and depression. Here anger, jealousy, argument, mental conflict and tormenting moods plague the mind. Access to hell is brought about by our own thoughts, words, deeds and emotions--suppressed, antagonistic feelings that court demons and their aggressive forces. Hell is not eternal. Nor is there a Satan who tempts man and opposes God's power, though there are devilish beings called asuras, immature souls caught in the abyss of deception and hurtfulness. We do not have to die to suffer the Naraka regions, for hellish states of mind are also experienced in the physical world. If we do die in a hellish state of consciousness--burdened by unresolved hatred, remorse, resentment, fear and distorted patterns of thought--we arrive in Naraka fully equipped to join others in this temporary astral purgatory. The Vedas say, "Sunless and demonic, verily, are those worlds, and enveloped in blinding darkness, to which all those people who are enemies of their own souls go after death." Aum Namah Sivaya.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_363.shtml

Discrimination

Discrimination is an essential part of your approach to the Teaching. In choosing reading material for example, you may wonder how you can know whether or not a book contains a fantastic Teaching without reading it. The answer is that when you have a sense of discrimination, you "smell" it before you read it. A dog smells a piece of meat to find out whether or not it is rotten and will not eat it if it is. If he ate the meat without smelling it first, he would poison himself and it would be too late for him to find out that it was spoiled. Similarly, by reading a "rotten" book, you have already polluted your consciousness. A sense of discrimination saves you from reading the book.

If your sense of discrimination is not very active, read a sentence or a paragraph and then toss the material away if your intuition tells you not to read it at all. You must develop the sense of discrimination or intuition. Do you drink a cup of liquid to find out what it is? First you smell it. Then you may dip your finger in the cup and taste just a little. Or you may send it off for analysis, and so on. Before you read a book, you must know who the author is and what kind of life he has lived, what his philosophy is, what religion he practices, and what are his goals in life. All of this information can tell you whether or not to read his book.

A person once brought me a book with a fantastic cover. I knew the author was a man who used various drugs and encouraged others to do the same, so I said, "I don't like to read books written by this author." The person replied, "Well, you are a prejudiced and narrow-minded fanatic." I told him, "Even with such accusations, you cannot make read that book." Years later the person became a drug user. When he finally saw his own destruction, he searched for help from various organizations. Eventually, after losing his job and his wife, he came to me and said, "You know, it was that book which ruined my life." "You are a fanatic," I said to him, reminding him of what he had said to me in the past. "Well, he said, "I withdraw my accusations; you were right." But he realized this only after a great tragedy.

Discrimination saves your life. Try to develop the sense of discrimination by all possible means. Purify your nature, and your sense of discrimination will grow and unfold.

Beware of those who advise the use of drugs in conjunction with the Teaching and meditation.

Beware of those who think that life is a joke, a purposeless drama or comedy.

Beware of those who are "prophets," "sages," or the "incarnations of Great Ones."

Beware of those who use you for their own separative policies and who manipulate you and use your resources to climb to higher positions.

Beware of those who praise you, flatter you, or bribe you. They will lead you into an undisciplined life.

The Ageless Wisdom never encourages showing off. It encourages humility, simplicity, and inner work - inner transformation.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Ageless Wisdom, p.31,32

Sadness is not natural to man

What is attachment? It is the body, consciousness. So, misery occurs due to attachment to the body. But, one can be happy physically as well as spiritually if one's senses are under one's control. In fact, sadness is not natural to man. Therefore, methods have to be found out to remove sadness, which is artificial.

Misery can be removed only by prayer and by following the spiritual path. If idle horses are overfed, they will be still lazier. Similarly, if you act according to the whims and fancies of your senses, your senses will get strengthened day by day and ultimately you will cease to be a human being.

-Sai Baba

Greed and eating too much result in an out of balance world

Everyone knows that eating too much is bad for their health. But what they should also realize is that when people eat more than they need they habitually take what was meant for others; and if lots of people do this, with some eating too much and others not enough, the result will be a world out of balance.

The root cause of all misunderstanding and confrontation is greed and the lust for possession, the lack of moderation of those who accumulate wealth (food, land, objects) that others are then deprived of.

Yes, a great moral can be drawn from the simple act of eating. The need people have to take and absorb more than they should leads them to enslave others, even to suppress them at the least sign of resistance or opposition. So this need to hoard everything for oneself should be controlled, moderated and dealt with as soon as possible. If it is not watched, it can reach such gigantic proportions in all areas of existence, it will become the source of the greatest injustice and ensuing unhappiness.

Each day, several times a day, you must use meal times as opportunities to reflect on this problem.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Truth is one, not two - When you are dual-minded, you cannot experience this happiness

Today people have no regard for truth. Many people do not really mean what they speak. They have something in their mind but say just the opposite. They manipulate their words according to the person and situation. Truth is that which does not change with time. Truth is changeless in past, present and future. Truth is one, not two.

The Upanishads (ancient Indian scriptures) extol the principle of truth in many ways. Truth cannot be described in words. Bliss is its form. When you close your eyes and start contemplating on truth, you will experience inexpressible bliss. Unknowingly, you start smiling. Where has this smile come from? It has come from your feelings of bliss. And what is the source of bliss? The source of bliss is God.

The happiness you get by your union with God is eternal. Happiness is union with God. When you are dual-minded, you cannot experience this happiness.

-Sai Baba

Divine Discourse, October 14, 2002.

"Thy Will will be done"

It is the horrible body-idea that breeds all the selfishness in the world. Just this one delusion that we are wholly the body we own and that we must by all possible means try our very best to preserve and please it. If you know that you are positively other than your body, you have then none to fight with or struggle against; you are dead to all ideals of selfishness.

So the Bhakta declares that we have to hold ourselves as if we are altogether dead to all the things of the world; and that is indeed self-surrender. Let things come as they may. This is the meaning of "Thy Will will be done"; not going about fighting and struggling and thinking all the while that God wills all our own weaknesses and worldly ambitions.

-Swami Vivekananda

The danger of focusing on the negative side

As most events and situations have both a positive and negative aspect, there is a danger of focusing all our attention on the negative side. Obviously, we should not delude ourselves and see only what is good, but neither should we dwell on what is bad, for then we no longer even see the good.

You're thinking, 'Oh, we already know all that.' So, put it into practice then, if you know it! Watch yourself, and you will discover how often you forget what you know, giving way to unhappiness and pessimism. And then, not only do you fail to reason correctly, you also prevent your soul from opening out and taking flight.

This is how people destroy themselves spiritually, even physically. Yes, why do we say colloquially, when someone is anxious and dissatisfied, that worry is 'eating them up' or 'gnawing away at them'?

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Your business is to keep quiet

Do not run away from worldly activities, only always keep in the "I am SELF," stay as the screen on which all the projected activities take place.

In all activities simply keep quiet and know "I am Home."

Your business is to keep quiet.

- Papaji

All religions are but facets of the one Truth

Sanathana Dharma is the only religion that declares that there is no religion that can be labeled "one and only". It says that all religions are but facets of the one Truth, that all names are names of one God, that all forms are but His forms. No religion can claim to represent fully the universal eternal Truth. This is the teaching of Sanathana Dharma.

Therefore, if any one finds fault with another's faith, he is casting a slur on his own faith. If any one defames another's religion, he only reveals his ignorance of the nature of religion and the glory of God.

-Sai Baba

Building good images

The first image that you are always going to dwell upon and build within you is: There is no limit to my success. If this image increases, the subconscious trash that says, "I will always fail," comes out and burns away. Opposites draw each other and whichever opposite is stronger, that is the dominating force within you. That is one of the mental laws. Opposites draw each other. Whichever opposite is stronger, it controls the other and eventually eats it and annihilates it.

…There is no limit to my beauty, to my power, to my service. You are going to build this program. When you program yourself like that, it is impossible for you to fail because this mental programming has special powers.

A mental program is a magnetic disk, which draws from Space corresponding phrases, formulations, or programming. You become stronger and stronger and more successful because it is bringing more and more of those thoughtforms, of those thought energies that are related to your success, your beauty, and your victory.

Such a positive attitude has foundation because you are essentially a divine Spark in which all potentials are in existence. All that you need is to be aware of it and gradually release the giant sleeping within you. It must be gradual because your personality vehicles need time to grow, to transform, and to adjust themselves to the glory awakening within you….

…I will live a long, healthy, and happy life. In this category we have millions of self-defeating thoughts all the time. You become a little fat and you say, "I am dying." You lose twenty pounds and you say, "Ah ha, I am going to the other world."

What are you going to do? You are always going to think in optimistic ways. If you have a little pain on your nose, you think cancer is developing. Well, remember that you are putting that in the diskette. Always you are going to find a way not to admit that you are going to die, that you are going to be sick, that you are going to be in trouble because when your computer is programmed by the fear of dying prematurely, it is going to come. That is why they say, "Whatever you fear, it comes to your life." You have already programmed it. That is why it comes.

…I can find the keys of the treasury of wisdom. You are going to have faith in yourself and build an image that if the Teacher dies, if the books are taken away from you, if the lessons are taken away from you, you can still find the treasury of wisdom because the treasury of wisdom is God and that One is within you. You always have access to that treasury, but too often people become hopeless, discouraged, and they no longer search for the wisdom because the one who was feeding them disappeared or refused to continue.

All nature loves me, respects me, and needs me is the next one. Immediately you get a little down or depressed, you say, "Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me." Of course everybody is going to hate you because you are evoking that kind of reaction. On the contrary, you are going to develop the image that everyone is loving you.

…No slander, no treason will discourage me from my image, but I will learn great lessons from it and even be able to improve my nature. Any slander, any treason is an effort by other people to build within you a nasty program to destroy yourself.

What is gossip? What is slander? It is an image they are building to project into you and make you use it on yourself. Once you start believing what they are saying or thinking or imagining, you are already caught in their programming. Every morning you are going to say that these things are not going to affect you, and in the meantime you are going to be sensitive to what they are saying if there is a little truth in it. You can say, "Well, I know I made a few mistakes but that is nothing. I am going to correct myself." But you are not going to accept wholesale what they are saying because what they are saying is not the pure truth. There are malicious feelings, hatred, and destruction in the image that they send to you.

…I am formed by the image of the Almighty Creative Force so my possibilities are unlimited. You can notice that all these things you are programming are really true. They are not plaster. They are not artificial. They are true because, essentially, you are a Spark of the Almighty Spirit. Everything that that Great One created and all that creative power is within you, so you are not hypnotizing yourself. You are not even doing self-suggestion.

You are really opening your mind to the Reality that is within you. That is the difference you must see.

You can try to separate your daily image from the Eternal as follows. When you notice that you are caught in transient activities, forced by your glamors and illusions, stop a moment and remember your Eternal Image and try to act as if you were the Eternal Image.

…Really, I never have failed, but I have learned lessons. People sit and start crying, "I failed, it is finished, I failed." You have never failed; you have learned a big lesson. But can you stand in that programming? It is so serious. You are defeated, people really crushed you, and you are thrown into the prison. Your whole reputation and fame have gone and you say, "That is all. They defeated me." Can you stand there and say, "It was really a nice comedy. I learned so many things that I could not have learned in ten million years." Maybe that is true.

Everyday in building your new images you automatically, naturally destroy all negative, poor, miserable, and ugly images from your mind. By always dwelling in your positive images, you slowly destroy the images that you built in the past. If you do not like all your physical, emotional, and mental beingness, still you built them and it means that now you are going to build a different image.

Actually one of the great duties and responsibilities of the leader is to teach people how to build positive images for themselves. You can give them outlines but not details. If you give details to them, you may trap them in their own vanity and ego. They must build the image, but you will inspire them with the outlines.

Positive images are not built by hallucination, imagination, or by repeating words. How are they built? Your success image is built not because you imagine success, not because you hallucinate success, not because you read about success. Here is the secret: Success images are built by remembering over your whole life the smallest successes you have had and bringing them into focus. And remembering that God within is the source of success.

It is good to go back and find your successful experiences, but you are not going into the pit of the subconscious. You are going to go to your memory banks. Memory banks are not the storages of your subconsciousness. There is a huge difference between memory banks and the subconsciousness. Maybe we can say that the subconscious is like your hard disk, the memory is like your diskette.

The memory bank is in the etheric brain. Memories in this bank either slowly sink into the subconscious mind or are annihilated by various thought processes.

Often, people are taught to build a health image by imagining that they really are going to be healthy. This is positive and may help. But the best thing is to go to your childhood memory banks when you were running free and wild and climbing trees, jumping into the ocean, and doing every kind of fun thing to show that you were really healthy. Bring that image back into focus.

When you bring these things out of your memory banks and compile them, these compilations of success moments will be an image of success within you. This image has a basis, a foundation. It is real. But the memories were far apart from each other a million years, fifty years, ten years. They were not effective. Their effectiveness and influence increase in you when you collect them, put them closer together, and thus create greater and greater tension. Let them start controlling your life. Instead of closing your eyes and going on about how many people damaged you, hurt you, scolded you, cursed you, gossiped about you, slandered you, instead of falling into the trash, do just the opposite. Then you will find success.

Here is even a little deeper layer of what we were saying. Sometimes we mess the images that we made for ourselves by projecting bad or ugly images on others. When we gossip about and slander people or say bad things about them, we build an image in our mind, and this image contradicts the beautiful images that we were trying to build in ourselves. This must be understood.

For example, I am saying to this man, "You know, I am trying to be very successful, very beautiful, very healthy." Now I have built that image in me. Then later I turn to him and say, "You are a nasty, ugly man. You are really square. You are really going to fail in your whole life."

What am I doing? The things that I am saying to this man, I am saying first to myself. The beautiful image that I was trying to build in me is already messed up. That is why the religions and higher philosophies forbid us to speak evil and slander other people. When we do this to others, we first build a dirty image within ourselves. If we are thinking ugly things about others, we mess up the image we are building in us. Why? Because when we are building an image for ourselves, we are almost neutral, happy, and relaxed. Hatred, force, and willpower are not involved in it. But when we say to another person, "You stupid, you rascal, you failure, you defeated man," our thoughtform is filled with a tremendous amount of force. That thoughtform is overpowering and destroying our relaxed image that we built within us because the image does not have the same tensity of force, anger, fear, furiousness, obnoxiousness. These words are names of forces.

The thoughts that you think about others, these are the thoughts that affect your programming. For example, if you think that people are really beautiful, you do not damage the beautiful programming for yourself. But from the beginning of the day until midnight, people think evil about others, in the meantime thinking they themselves are so beautiful. Eventually it happens that they become the most evil and ugly persons. Continuously thinking evil about others makes you evil because before that image goes to them it is really impressed in your mind and in your diskette.

If you think about this very carefully, you will not spend so much money on doctors or asylums.

-Torkom Saraydarian

(from The Mystery of Self Image, pp. 115-139.)

How can a benevolent God permit evil?

Ultimately, there is no good or bad. God did not create evil as a force distinct from good. He granted to souls the loving edicts of dharma and experiential choices from very subtle to most crude, thus to learn and evolve. Aum.

From the pinnacle of consciousness, one sees the harmony of life. Similarly, from a mountaintop, we see the natural role of a raging ocean and the steep cliffs below--they are beautiful. From the bottom of the mountain, the ocean can appear ominous and the cliffs treacherous. When through meditation, we view the universe from the inside out, we see that there is not one thing out of place or wrong. This releases the human concepts of right and wrong, good and bad. Our benevolent Lord created everything in perfect balance. Good or evil, kindness or hurtfulness return to us as the result, the fruit, of our own actions of the past. The four dharmas are God's wisdom lighting our path. That which is known as evil arises from the instinctive-intellectual nature, which the Lord created as dimensions of experience to strengthen our soul and further its spiritual evolution. Let us be compassionate, for truly there is no intrinsic evil. The Vedas admonish, "Being overcome by the fruits of his action, he enters a good or an evil womb, so that his course is downward or upward, and he wanders around, overcome by the pairs of opposites." Aum Namah Sivaya.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_359.shtml

Do not speak of your love

Why tell someone you love them? You love them, that's enough. Love is felt and seen; in fact, it's the most difficult thing to hide - it is shown through how you look at someone, your gestures and your attitude, and it's not necessary to speak of it. Humans rely too much on the verbal or written expression of their love. Once they've spoken of it, they think that's settled the matter. Not at all; they speak of it over and over again, but their behaviour increasingly shows their love is fading.

You should guard your love as a very precious thing, the most precious thing, and not express it in words. In this way it gradually creates the greatest freedom in your soul, the greatest delight and magic. If you speak of it, you will soon get reactions from all sides which will create misunderstandings, and this will be a shame. Do not speak of your love, and it will live in you forever.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

To win that joy and peace

By mere force of intention, one can imagine in an instant, a scene in America. However, can it also be experienced in actual, at that very instant? No, one cannot! There is no use imagining and framing in the fancy. It must be experienced in mind, word and body.

Similarly genuine peace cannot be obtained by merely knowing and learning about Divine Self. You may even firmly believe that joy is present in these, but that is of no avail. You must dedicate your life to win that joy and experience it and enter upon the discipline needed to acquire it. Only then do you deserve the Grace of the Lord and from that, you receive eternal love and peace.

-Sai Baba

The so-called 'sexual liberation'

The so-called 'sexual liberation', so applauded by the young, could actually have been a great step forward. However, what we see at present is not progress but a collapse of moral standards. The increasing tendency of boys and girls to sleep together, because they can't find any better way to pass their time or experience pleasure, is very detrimental to their psychic life. They've hardly met, they don't know each other, they don't love each other, and they make love, for want of anything better to do, as if it were no more important than playing cards! And then, just as they would after a game of cards, they separate and begin again the following day with others. Such behaviour is very serious, and not because they're disobeying rules invented by a few moralists; it's serious for them; it's not morality or moralizers they are harming, it's themselves.

There is nothing reprehensible in the sexual act itself, even when it doesn't have the aim of creating a child. But it's important to know all the entities and forces that come into play during this act, so you can give the act spiritual meaning and direction; otherwise, all you do is destroy yourself.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Do not indulge in long unnecessary talks and discussions

Use measured words in talking. Do not talk much. Try to finish a conversation within a few minutes. Understand the nature of the man rightly. When he enters your office or house for an interview, speak politely and with great respect for the man. Then send him away immediately and conserve your energy.

Do not indulge in long unnecessary talks and discussions. Man is a social animal. He is prone to much talking. He is very garrulous. This talkative habit is ingrained in him and he is much troubled when he cannot get any company. He does not want to go in for seclusion.

The observance of mauna (silence) is death and capital punishment for him. Ladies are still more garrulous. They always create some kind of unnecessary quarrels in the house.

I always prescribe the practice of mauna for one and all, as this helps in the preservation of energy, development of will and enjoyment of peace. All sorts of quarrels, misunderstandings, anger, etc., can be easily avoided by mauna for two hours daily and for six hours on Sundays, and for a full week on long holidays.

Even during other periods talk very few words. When you speak, speak gently and sweetly. During mauna you must live alone. Do not mix with other people. Do not even express your ideas with gestures.

The other channel by which energy is wasted, is the mind. This wastage is due to loose thinking, worrying, anger and fear. Just as energy is wasted in too much talk, so also energy is wasted in loose thinking.

If this mental energy is conserved, you will have at your disposal a tremendous store of energy. This you can utilise for various other purposes and sadhana (spiritual practice). If this energy is conserved you will feel that you are very powerful. You will feel no exhaustion even if you turn out tremendous work.

To do this you have to watch your thoughts very carefully, by introspection and meditation. You will have to divert the mental energy to useful thinking. There will be some struggle in the beginning. But after some time the mind will naturally think of auspicious and useful items.

-Swami Sivananda

Healing words

If you feel cold or alone and neglected, if you have the impression that no one loves you, say the word 'love', once, twice, ten times, each time in a different way, and you will trigger the cosmic forces of love and no longer feel abandoned and alone.

When you feel as though you were groping in the dark, as though you had fallen into a deep pit, say the words 'wisdom' and 'light' until you feel them vibrating and singing in every cell of your body. Everything will soon be clear and bright again.

-Aivanhov