Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.4.

Pleasure and Pain Depend on Awareness of God
Nowadays everyone seems anxious to achieve somebody else's interest, but what can be expected from one who never attends to his own? This situation is caused primarily by pride; everyone is bloated with the idea of doing something for the good of others. This pride can be eradicated only by doing the sadhana prescribed by the sadguru. It is therefore necessary implicitly to obey him.
Brahma, the Ultimate Reality, does not have to be looked for anywhere, because it is in the heart, everywhere; however, it is only realized through the medium of the sadguru. Lord Shrikrishna was an incarnation of Parabrahma, the Ultimate Reality, in human form, as the son of Vasudeva; but Vasudeva only loved Him as his son. He never realized His true form until the sage Narada made him aware of it. Rama was, similarly, an incarnation, but only became aware of His true identity when informed by the sage Vasishtha. Evidently, the 'ignorance' in either case was a feigned one, in order that the principle, that a sadguru is a necessity, may be impressed on human beings in general. The sadguru advises, in essence, that nama-smarana is the true, the simplest, sadhana.
Nama-smarana is apparently simple, but, in fact, difficult to practise wholeheartedly; however, we should persist in it. We should go in complete surrender to God, and, take my word for it, He crowns our effort with success at a suitable time.
Really speaking, nothing is good or bad in this world but thinking makes it so. The effect is temporary. They arise from our imperfection, incompleteness, of understanding. Real pleasure and pain arise from proximity to and forgetting of God respectively. We should have a conviction that we belong to God, and accept all happenings as coming at His will.
We celebrate as a festive occasion the birthdays of Shrirama or Shrikrishna, every year. That means, in effect, that we have in the meanwhile put back on the shelf of memory the awareness that God is here, everywhere, all the time, and the awareness needs to be renewed! God was here in the past, He will be here in the future too though we shall cease one day to exist in the human form.
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Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-Oct.4

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-Oct.4

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.3.

An Egoist will not Attain God
Can man attain to God with the exercise of his own intellect? Truly speaking, one who claims to have known God or the Cosmic Reality is really nowhere near his goal; for, one never knows when he has found the Ultimate Reality. To find It one has to become It; and the moment one so unites with It, he ceases to have a separate identity. Conversely, one who has a feeling of his individual identity can never attain to God. It is our ego that stands athwart our realization of God; it stands as a thin but opaque blind between us and God. Draw it away and you become one with Him.
If your business fails to thrive, you come and complain to me that the business started on my advice, does not prosper; but you conveniently avoid confessing that I had alongside exhorted you to do nama-smarana which you are not doing! Will nama-smarana affect or obstruct the business? You may allege that I am advising you to do something that may upset the pattern of your material and family life. On the contrary, it will make for a smoother working if you follow my advice and take to nama-smarana. Do go about your material and family life but without worrying. After all, Rama cannot be deterred from doing what He plans to; what can anxiety do to further your prospect? What cannot be cured must be endured. So why not bear it with cheer? If adversities come, leave them to the care of the Lord. If there is anything that we want to solicit, pray for cheer in the circumstances which it pleases Him to keep you in; and ask not for relief or change. Then alone can we truly live as His slave or puppet.
In this world there are only two causes that really disturb a man's peace of mind: the befalling of what one does not desire, and the failure to bring about what one desires for. Neither of these is in our hands; why, then, should we make ourselves miserable in either case? This is easy to achieve once you experience the sweetness of nama.
Nama destroys the pride of individuality, and precludes the desire to have or not to have. You should continuously chant this nama advocated by saints and thereby acquire durable contentment.


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Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-Oct.3

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-Oct.3

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.2.

Saguna Bhakti
Before you can recognize God in everything in the universe, you must first realize His existence within yourself. As a gold ornament will not search for gold elsewhere, one need not search for God beyond oneself. Association with the saintly, or godly persons is an easy means for realizing what one is in reality. It is unnecessary to resort to a forest to realize the Cosmic Spirit, for it inhabits and animates all living things. Give up proprietorship to realize the true 'self'.
Where we err is, we only say verbally that God pervades everything but deny it in practice. We conveniently forget that the same God that lives in me resides in everything else too. Just as a lamp fills a whole room with light, so too does God pervade all creation. Thus, to say that God is the doer, not I, is the fundamental concept, and it corrects all further thought and action. A man is basically the same person though he may wear different apparel on different occasions; so, too, one's action may be different according to occasion but always guided by the basic concept that God pervades everything. Sannyas does not consist only in wearing saffron-coloured clothes; but in maintaining an equable mind in pleasant and unpleasant happenings.
Entertain devotion for the concrete form of God. Chant nama with devotion and faith, and the conviction that God resides in nama; this is the easiest and surest way to realize God. The saints have painstakingly, and with personal experience established the efficacy of this approach. It is a common truth that we easily attune ourselves to one having similarity of form and nature. So we find it convenient to imagine God being like ourselves, only idealized. We love things which, like ourselves, are tangible; and so we find it easy to have devotion for God in a concrete form, rather than as an absolute entity. This devotion will positively culminate in realization of the Absolute, Ultimate Reality. We should be insistent in keeping God for the goal. There may be other ideals, but they should have only subordinate importance, without that degree of importunity. Such complete submergence in God is termed natural, permanent samadhi.

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