NEWS LETTER

SRI SARVESHWARI TIMES

Vol.VII: No 12. DECEMBER 1997

Aghoreshwar Baba Bhagwan Ramji

MAHASAMADHI ISSUE

thus spoke aghoreshwar on:
AASHKTI (Attachment)

1. The more attachment people have, the more infatuated they become with their attachments; whether towards gold and silver, house and home, position and prestige, or respect and praise, the fire of sorrow burns twice as strong in them.

2.Desire is like a two-faced person. Desire for even a blade of grass is the mother of great pain and sorrow. One free from desire is known as a Sadhu, and only he can live a simple and unpretentious life.

3. Prayer and worship do not change a person's natural instincts. Desire, anger, attachment, greed, sorrow, hate, jealousy, and envy: all still remain present. Given the chance, they arise to reign supreme and make that person do whatever they want him to do.

4. In the same way that after relieving yourself you do not even look towards it, so must you give up thoughts that have produced so many sorrows. The pollutants of wrong thinking have contaminated your thought and must be given up like excrement. In the same way that after relieving yourself, the heaviness of your head goes away and you feel better, just so, after giving up dirty thoughts and feelings you will achieve great happiness and peace.

5. It is because of this baggage of ours that we find ourselves in this situation. The load of our many attachments is heavy, and beneath the weight we have become dull-headed. When we have to say something we do not say anything, and when we should not say anything we keep on speaking. When we should listen, we do not, and when we should not, we listen very carefully. In the same way because of our impaired and polluted perceptions, everything that we do has an opposite effect.

6. Chains of desire bind us. We are the embodied divinity, but have become chained, and this chain never breaks. We have lit many fires and meditated to break it, we have taken refuge in the water to break it. Even the water of the Ganges can not break it! We have tried to break it with the force of our words and intentions, but to no avail.

7. O seeker! He whose mind is unstable, who does not know the path to the truth, whose faith and devotion keep getting shaken, can never achieve absolute wholeness and knowledge.

8. An enemy can hurt another enemy. One who harbors hatred can harm another. But, Seeker, a person's own mind turned in the wrong direction causes greater harm than anything else does.

9. Any kind of victory produces hatred. And hatred gives rise to every kind of blackness. Clouds of ignorance may appear very beautiful, but may produce fear. Every wise person knows this.

10. Whether the amount of excrement is less or more, it is bound to smell.

11. When you forget the unbreakable faith that resides within you, you search for something that is just not there.

12. Despite your experience with the ups and downs of living, you still hope that some day, some entity will catch you by the arm and pull you out (of this ocean of illusions). It will pull you out, but only when you are drowning. However, You are not drowning; you are floating. And regarding this body that is afloat everyone knows, it is a dead body. One dies; one is liberated.

13. Everyone is free to choose, although this freedom can act as a poison as well. You may well choose a wrong path that will kill you.

14. Excessive cleverness produces great sorrow. It is excessive cleverness that brings home poverty, mental stress, hatred, jealousy, and envy. We people have become so clever that we act cleverly even with our divinity, people whom we revere, and our elders. We think that nobody else is watching, or understanding, or knows what we are doing. The result of this is that we live in darkness, and fall into even deeper despair. Excessive cleverness indicates stupidity. Cleverness does not provide the desired stable results to anyone in the world. Like lightening it may provide light or success for a little while, but it does not remain stable. If we are able to leave cleverness behind, then we can become a good human being. It is because of our excessive cleverness that we achieve failure. Failure produces anger, and our heart begins to move towards destruction. Destruction then generates attachment, and that produces sorrow. In this way we create many kinds of enemies who then begin to attack us.

15. It is because of this unstable mind that we have met this bad fate. It is mind that shows us good and bad dreams, continues to make and break, join or destroy all relations. It is mind that has created madness in this world. Mind is the cause of all adverse effects. It is this unstable mind that is kept under control by saints and yogis.

16. We people are lost in ourselves. The treatment for our sickness is something other than the medicine given us by pundits.

17. If what we receive in the company of saintly people seems unpalatable to us, it indicates that we are suffering from a sickness, or are so destroyed by our own mental state that we are unable to receive what is offered.

18. Try to explain again and again to your mind, O mind, whatever you think, it is nothing. And what is not, is actually what is. This you should understand. This is the truth. For the rest, all that you understand is futile and untrue. Nobody has derived happiness from it. Nobody has derived peace from it.

19. In the search for peace and happiness we are beguiled by desires and end up spending all our lives making futile mistakes, ultimately gaining nothing but hopelessness. We think after getting married we will have our wife's cooperation and together we will successfully pull the chariot of life. But everything seems to happen the opposite way in the lives of 99% of the people. The dream of pulling together the chariot of life, because of pettiness and selfishness is left behind. So much bitterness arises between the two that all happiness and peace disappear, and life becomes full of acrimony. Then between the two a third arrives in the form of a baby. For its suitable upbringing, to provide it with all the comforts and conveniences and essentials for well being, the quality of our life is compromised and our social ties become strained. We are forced to live a life full of neglect, enduring all. Even our parents and relatives who have great expectations for us, neglect us.

20. We should seek the support of stability in our life. In the concentration we gain in meditative solitude, we should try to root out all our stresses, all our sorrows, and to limit our desires. The more your desires grow, the more you will have stresses and problems, the more you will have sorrows, and the more your life will be spent in disorder.

21. You will have to stay thousands of miles away from all kinds of hatred, jealousy, and envy. It is not that you have to walk away from it all, but rather that you stay in the midst of it as it happens around you. It is not that you will profit anything by taking this position. Hatred, jealousy, and envy will keep happening, but amidst this fire and storm you should remain unmoved like a mountain.

22. We are inspired every day with new ideas. Again and again they come and go. Good days as well come and go. So our lives remain dissatisfied. We are never satisfied because of these mental aggravations.

23. From ant to elephant, every being is running to fill his belly in the same way. Despite the difference in the amount of need, they both have the same trouble.

24. We think we are awake and that we are sitting here. Even this is a dream, friends. That we are moving and walking is also a dream. And this dream will end only when we understand that essence, that truth. This is why in the beginning of any worship, meditation, contemplation, thought and prayer we say "Om Tatsat" . By saying this or by remembering the guru, we expiate the misdeeds of partaking in unworthy things and going to unworthy places, actions that cause us to experience guilt because of which we consider ourselves cruel and base and deceive ourselves.

25. Who among us does not know that you cannot catch a shadow? The more you chase it, the farther it runs. But if you turn around, it begins to follow you. What must we do to "turn around"? End the contamination of the mind, its superficiality, and its desires. If we do nothing prompted by base mental desires, and if the base mind does not do anything for us, this is "turning around".

26. Because of the mind the pleasure of indulgence is not stable. It is momentary, and momentary pleasure is full of sorrow. Let us remain within bounds and look for our happiness in every kind of situation. It is difficult to be free from the bondage of mind. However, we can be free of every bondage, whereas he person enslaved by mind suffers in every situation.

27. The tendency to amass wealth by wrong means and to give it to our children due to attachments gives rise to inaction and laziness (in them) in the future. Because of such attachments our coming generation indulges in futile acts, becomes impotent, and is forced to suffer the sorrows of inaction.

28. It is a paradox that the very baggage that were we to throw away would enable us to be relieved of suffering and experience peace, that very same baggage is what we pray to our gurus, saints and Mahatmas to protect and keep! The things that cause all our suffering and troubles, the very same things we ask for from our guru, and our divinity, these things were we to be rid of, would bring us peace and contentment. Yet, with nothing but our welfare in mind, when our guru or divinity does not give to us what we desire, we begin to think and say inappropriate things.

29. Even a moment spent with saints and great souls or nice people destroys the darkness of illusion and attachments.

Mahasamadhi week observed:

Baba's Mahasamadhi week was observed at the Sonoma ashram from Nov 21 to Nov 28th with heartfelt love and devotion. A lamp was lit on the 21st and tended throughout the week. Every evening participants chanted 108 rounds of "Aghoranna paro mantro" chant. This week of reverence concluded with an evening of remembrances centered around the very sweet words of Baba Harihar Ramji as he reminded us that when Baba left his body, he immediately became accessible to all at any one time because he was no longer limited by the body. The Guru is not the body and we must always remember that Baba is always with us. We keep the company of the Guru by living according to the teachings of our Guru. Following Penny's reflections of the depth and purity of Baba's love, Babaji offered some very sweet personal remembrances. The evening concluded with arati and prasad.

It is not to be forgotten that Thanksgiving always intercedes this week of remembrance. Everyone could not help but to remark how grateful they are to have a saint of such magnitude as Baba to be part of their lives. We are very grateful for your participation near and far, in many forms, and wish you well during the upcoming season.

Events: Dr. Helen Thomas will be giving seminars and talks in the ashram on various topics related to health and Ayurveda in the coming year. Please contact the Ashram for schedules and details.

Gratitude: With your help this year, we were able to provide an ambulance for the leprosy hospital in Varanasi. The "clinic on wheels" has been reaching out regularly to those in great need. Several "clinical camps" were established this year in various parts of north India with your help. We express our gratitude to you for your generosity and caring.

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