The Right Effort Contains a Reward in Itself

You are known as householders (grihastha). You bear the weight of a family. If you are among the good householders, and if there is an entity such as God, who is influenced by your efforts, then all good householders will attain a high place. But if there is no such entity, and these efforts do not matter to it, still these efforts are sufficient in themselves. In a little corner of his heart a householder has a big space. He can accommodate hundreds of people in that space and still find space for himself. What could be greater than this?

The Most Austere Practice

We save our strength by taking the vow of remaining with one mate. This is a great austere practice in itself. What practice can be more austere? It is a greater vow than worshipping Divinities, then going to the doors of saints and fakirs. This vow also pays respect to your Guru. If you want to cultivate Creative Energy, you must rely on the creative strength within yourself. You must save the strength within, refine the strength within. Incubate it like an egg.

Acknowledge the Sacredness

The place where practices are followed, resolves made, devotion expressed, prayers performed, is a sacred place. Live in such a place humbly. All paths lead to the same goal. Paths are not very different. They all rise out of the same source and end in the same place.

Inner Nakedness

Our prayers and worship depend upon our mood. If in this ashram, in this Aghorachal you persist in your old ways of talking about this and that, thinking about this and that, you retain these habits. Unless you come alone, by yourself, you will not achieve anything.

It Can Be Found!

O silly human being! What you look for does exist, but it is not what you think it is. It is absolutely not where you are looking for it. It is difficult but not impossible to find. It can be found. You will find it, too. But you will not find it in doing the things that you are doing now. By doing what you are doing now, you find only what is found by all living beings -- who are born in excrement, who play in it, roll in it even before birth. They are sad. "Why, why, why", cries the baby, "why have I entered this place of excrement?" Your present condition is like that of a newborn baby, it is not different.

Knowledge of Life

There is no fire stronger than carnal desire. There is nothing worse than hatred. There is no pain greater than internecine acrimony. And there is no joy greater than pure nirvana (liberation). Health is the greatest wealth. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Self-confidence is the best friend, and pure nirvana is the pure joy.

The Disease of Speaking

We think about this and that all day, we speak about this and that all day. We speak so much more than we need to. We have a disease of speaking jibber-jabber, jibber-jabber all the time. Can this gibberish do anything for the upliftment of the soul? Never! Never, at all.

Confession

You say to somebody ® "Oh Sir, I made this mistake". At that moment you become absolutely clean and pure. By that admission you have unloaded the burden within you. Now it becomes the burden on the head of the person you told it to. If he is not wise, he will keep lugging it around and distributing it to others. He will leave some of it in one house, some of it in another house, some of it in someone elseês houseÄ

Superficiality: a curse!

A superficial person does not stay in one place. There really is no place for a superficial person. Superficial, loquacious, untrustworthy, ignominious people never achieve knowledge, never achieve capability. They do not have a history of their own. They are born like insects, and like insects they die.

The way of Samsara:

When a fire begins to burn among a group of learned people, in a group of scholars, in a city, in a village, and someone present begins to burn, he shouts "I am burning, I am burning!" and he runs away from the fire. When he is out of the fire, he experiences some coolness, respite, peace, solitude. Then he begins to say "Mine is burning, mine is burning." What of yours is burning? "My trunks, my boxes," he says, "my sons and grandsons, my cow, my home, my city, everything is burning". To save his things, he runs towards the fire. Reaching it, he feels the heat again and cries: "I am burning, I am burning!" Again he runs from the fire. Again he feels peace, coolness, respite, solitude, stability. Then again he remembers "Mine is burning, mine is burning." Thus at times he thinks, "I am burning", and at times he thinks, "Mine is burning." He is like one whose mind is contaminated. When he experiences the feeling "I am burning", he makes an effort and comes out of it. He becomes stable. But when he says: "Mine is burning", he again becomes embroiled in the same illusion. So he burns and burns until he turns to ash. In this way we have progressed toward failure through many lives.

No Expectations

I have been cheated by many people. I have not cheated anyone. I have been cheated by divinities, I have been cheated by demons, and I have been cheated by my own intellect. Every kind of circumstance has cheated me. We have not been helped by circumstances. Nor have we been helped by our intellect. Our knowledge has not been helpful either. And we will certainly not be helped by our religion. It does not help anyone.

Power of Judgement

All human beings perform janitorial work for themselves every morning. They clean their own dirt with their own hands. That same work, when done by a janitor, is looked down on by people. They address the janitor as if he was of a lower category. When the same work is done by a saint, he is known as a Paramahansa, an Avadhut, a carefree and joyous person.

Divine Passion

Divinity is nothing separate from you. Divinity is bhav (feeling in totality), and divinity hungers for bhav. Your parents and your guru do not expect anything from you except that bhav. They have only this desire: that you will be full of good bhav and be able to do something for others with those good feelings.

Self-Devotion

If we are devoted to ourselves, we can have devotion for everybody else. That is because devotion is a sentiment. Devotion does not denote your subservience. It also denotes the state where the master becomes the slave because day and night, in sleep and while awake, every moment of his life he is concerned about the one devoted to him.

Cave of Silence

Speaking during Satsung at the Ashram in Sonoma, Baba Hariji addressed the gathering with the following words:

The beholder of the Aghor Mantra (mantradhar) is like a lion. Lion doesn't live in a flock; he lives alone in the forest. Although hungry, he doesn't leave his cave very often, he sits there in his cave. When he sets out to hunt he lets out three roars to announce he is going out. All the little animals get out of his way. He hunts, eats what he wants, leaves the rest, and comes back to his cave.

A domestic cat, on the other hand, although its belly is full, roams from door to door, licking from left-over bowls; such is the situation of many who are not established in their practice. A sincere seeker knows the value of his/her practice. He has neither time nor need to roam around.

The more we sit with what we have, find time to be quiet, to be with ourselves, the more the shakti of our mantra is realized. If we run around exposing ourselves to the company of those who aren't on the same wavelength, our shakti dissipates very quickly.

Everyday, find your innermost cave. Cave doesn't literally mean a hole in a mountain somewhere. A cave of silence can be created anywhere. That space can be created anywhere by purifying ourselves with the pranayam (breathing), pranav, and purifying ourselves with the love of the guru. When I think of my guru there is so much joy, so much love that pours into me. All the darkness is washed away.

The house of the soul is cleansed with the action of devotion. When we resonate with our mantra nothing can stop us from realizing the higher meaning of it. Mantra is not only just syllables to repeat. It is much more. It is up to each individual to explore and let the mantra reveal the inner mysteries, but for such a spiritual adventure one has to be focused and dedicated. If we are not dedicated to our sadhana, we become like the cat that roams from door to door licking leftover bowls. The beholder of the Aghor Mantra lives like a lion.

Children's day held at the Ashram

On Sunday, August 12, a special day for children was held at the Ashram with the central theme of "discovering the inner wizard". Leta Davis and David Ross had taken on the responsibility of organizing this day and made all the necessary preparations. Dr. Gay Luce was a special guest who led the children into exploring their 'inner energy'. She also created for them a treasure hunt. Carol Bojarsky showed them how to make chapatis (Indian flat bread) on an open fire. In addition to Yoga, meditation, the treasure hunt, and energy work, the popular Indian game of Kabaddi was introduced to the children.

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Next childrens day at the ashram is scheduled for Saturday Oct. 7th starting at 11:00 am.

Meet the faces at the Ashram:

Through this column we salute the special individuals at the Ashram: