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Guru Purnima Satsang July 8, 2006
Swamiji honoured Guru Purnima, a celebration of the spiritual teacher, with homage to his Guru, Baba Muktananda. 'Baba was the greatest mystic I ever met, he radiated Shakti (spiritual power) around him and yet when he spoke, he spoke with so much humanity, about normal life, about normal things, not about the extraordinary, not about the rare. He talked about simple acts of kindness and love, living a human life - this is what he stood for.' Swamiji added, 'If you live a human life with love and wisdom everything is transformed'.
Baba had advised: 'Make this very world heaven. If you constantly get irritated by others, what’s the use of living? Therefore a person should learn to welcome others with respect, only then does joy well up from within.'
Baba added: 'If you want to learn something, learn to welcome every person with respect.'
Swamiji observed: 'If I had to say what Baba's essential teaching is, it is that everything is awareness, the play of Consciousness.' Swamiji continued: 'Everyone is to be respected because we are all sparks of that one Consciousness.' He noted that 'you should respect yourself and learn how to move your mind from the negative to the positive. That's a way of honouring your heart. We hurt our heart by having tearing thoughts, we deny our own humanity and divinity'.
Baba spoke of matrika or the power of language. Swamiji explained that 'everything depends on language. If we know how to use language properly, it becomes a vehicle of expansion', whereas 'negative words contract the spirit'. Baba continued: 'God's name also affects us' by giving us joy. Swamiji noted that Baba is telling us to 'start where you are, with minute actions, with your own room, your own house. Begin now, clean up - as soon as you do that, you go from strength to strength and a wave of Shakti will enter your life'.
Baba instructed on making God part of your life. Swamiji explained that he doesn't say to exlude all other things such as family and work, but just to add meditation, inquiry and contemplation to your life. Baba instructed: 'Only when a person thinks of God as somewhere out there does he get irritated with others. If the person experiences God as within himself, then he wouldn't do that. He would experience the same love in everybody.' Baba added: 'Certainly God exists but God doesn't exist without us, nor do we exist without God. If you live your life with this awareness then your very life will turn into heaven and your nightmare pain won't last.'
'God has given us divine freedom, we can make ourselves the way we want,' Baba stated. Swamiji said: 'That's worth emphasising. We have the karma, the tendencies of our mind built up over many years, perhaps even many lifetimes. Some of us are a little peppery, others are kind of wet and clammy and depressive - we all have our karma. Our own seems the most disagreeable, of course, but it's the same for everybody. We can make progress, however, because the ocean of spirituality is greater in us.'
Baba reminded to 'have a good heart. You should have the feeling of honour for each person. Consider every person as you - that is the true dharma, the true religion. Meditate on your own Self, worship your Self, respect your Self, God dwells within you as you. He lives inside you. In the same way, he lives inside everybody'.
Swamiji described Baba as 'a man of perfect spirituality and perfect humanity, and we can't do better than that. Whatever we have here today is a result of his blessing and grace. On Guru Purnima, I want to remember him. In his memory, I welcome you all with love.
Prior to entertainment and presentations from the satsang to honour Swamiji on Guru Purnima, Swamiji conducted a meditation, which he introduced as follows: 'What Baba stressed was to turn within - at the core of your being there's peace and love and wisdom. Look for a vibration within yourself. Don't look for a concept or an idea. It can be a feeling of energy, a spark of love, a feeling of peace, a feeling of expansion - that's the footprint of the Self. Follow that feeling, trace it to the core of your being, trace it to your Self.'
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