There is power in the mantra

There is immense effect in the word

AUGHAR VANI, Avadhuta's Wisdom

Aghoreshwar
Baba Bhagwan Ramji

The following thoughts are drawn from a selection of passages compiled by Edoardo Beato from Babaji's talks. You may want to use one or two of them each day as a focus of contemplation during your daily practice.

Ichha Shakti

Discipline is the most important aspect of yoga. Usually something inspires us and we make a long list of things that we are going to do. We are going to get up and meditate and do jap, start on this diet, be nice to this friend, and so on... such a long list. And we do follow it-for three or four days. But then, the fifth day, the mind comes in and says, "Oh, maybe one day won't matter..." and pretty soon we are off our program. When we do this, we harm ourselves much more than we think. We hamper our ichha shakti (willpower).

The practice of yoga doesn't prescribe making a long list that we cannot keep. Instead, it advises us to do one thing, just a little thing, but keep up with it. Do not give it up. It is better to make a very small resolution and keep it. After we have done that for a month, we really know what it does to our ichha shakti. It empowers us to do more.

Keeping Our Word

This is one of the very important parts of our practice: keeping the word that I give to myself. When I keep the word that I give to myself, it not only enriches me personally, it also instills faith and devotion in me. Others begin to trust me more if I keep the word that I give to myself. A part of me that is not usually tended to feels enriched. It works on many levels. So please, make a commitment that is not horrendous, that is manageable, and just do it every day. That five, ten, fifteen minutes of time for your practice becomes a foundation, and slowly, slowly, slowly, brick by brick, we create this palace of sadhana which becomes a very solid, stable shelter for ourselves and for others.

The mind can justify anything, but it's up to each individual to ask the question, "What is important to me? Do I want to go a little deeper in my sadhana? Do I want to make an effort to come a little closer to my higher Self?" Make your commitment, whatever it is. Then keep it. That's the first criterion for obtaining shakti. Keeping the word that I give to myself and to others. The one who does not keep his or her word remains very far from shakti.

Procrastination

Sometimes, we give our word to ourselves, but then we procrastinate. I asked someone, "Do you meditate?" He said, "No, I'm thinking about buying a new house that will have a room for meditation, and then I will start!" He already has a big house with six unused rooms. It's a perfect example of procrastination. We wait for something to happen before we begin. The best time to begin is now. We are here in this breath, we are here in this body. We are here in this time.

Bliss Is the Source

When we sit and reflect, "What is my true nature?" -when we contemplate the source-such a moment can be very revealing. It is said, sat chit anand. The whole world has come into existence out of bliss, anand. It is born out of bliss. It exists in bliss. It grows into bliss, and returns to bliss. Bliss is the source. It is our true nature, our true Self, our essence. And since it is our true essence, we search for it, and we experience longing. It is natural to have that longing.

We all want to return to our source. Think about water: you pour it out on the mountain peak, and no matter which direction you give it, its tendency is to run towards the ocean: it goes to the creek, the creek flows into the river, the river takes it to the ocean. That is the natural tendency, to run towards the source. We run towards bliss. No matter what we do, all activities of life are geared towards seeking that bliss.

Fleeting happiness is a mere shadow of bliss. In chasing this shadow, we become so busy identifying with what we are doing. We become somebody's mother, father, wife, husband, lover, friend, whatever. We put on these different hats, which is important and necessary. But then we become like the stage actor who, after the play is over, still walks into the marketplace with his costume on. Playing these roles is necessary, but we don't have to identify with them all the time. There is only one thing to identify with, and that is our true Self.

Given and Shared, Love Grows

Being in union with ourselves fills us with love. The more we distribute it and share it, the more it grows. In fact, any wealth that is diminished by giving is not true wealth. True wealth grows as it is given and shared. Love is called prem, and it is what I would like to offer you. And I see in your eyes a reflection of it. Your eyes are filled with it, in response.

Love awakens love. Hatred awakens hatred. Anger awakens anger. What we give always comes back to us. If we want to receive flowers, we have to give flowers. We receive what we give, that is the eternal law.

Love, Meditation, and Compassion

Love is wholeness. It is fullness. You can't practice love with someone else because when you are practicing love with someone else, it is a transaction. We begin to transform it into a transaction: I give, then you give back to me, and if you don't, I'll be upset. It's a transaction. Love is not a transaction. It is unconditional.

If you want a true glimpse of unconditional love, look at a mother with her baby... at least during the first six months. That is unconditional love. The mother's attention is totally focused on her baby and the needs of her baby. That is the perfect meditation, too! Being focused on one thing is meditation. When her baby is crying, the mother's attention is totally focused on the baby's needs. Her own needs do not exist. If you want to know what meditation is, what love is, you have to go to that source: a mother with her infant.

Compassion is the overflowing of this unconditional love. It comes from a place of fullness. You have to feel full first. You feel yourself full by being kind to yourself, gentle to yourself, acknowledging that you are the Divine. Then, compassion will naturally flow out of you. You don't have to practice compassionÄ it simply overflows.

Speaking and Listening

We have to listen from the heart, not from the mind. The mind has never been a great listener anyway. By nature, it is deaf. If you try to listen with your mind, it is already thinking about what it's going to say. It's not listening. True listening happens through the heart.

Talking also happens through the heart. When talk originates in the heart, it has the fragrance of fresh flowers, it has that freshness. Talk that comes from the mind is very different. It does not have that fragrance. It's almost like plastic flowers! It does not have heart in it. In order to be able to listen, we have to be very still inside. Calm as a silent witness.

What Is Meditation?

What is seen through the eyes is jagat, the world. When sight, detaching itself from the world, turns towards the seer, this is meditation. It's a very beautiful moment when sight turns towards the seer. It is said, "The body that we have is like a whole city. All the freeways and roads are like the arteries and veins, and the brain is full of chaos and noise. Yet there is a place, there is a neighborhood, in the region of heart, where there is a castle in the shape of a lotus. In the womb of that castle dwells a very silent being whom the world cannot reach." Trying to get in touch with that dweller is meditation.

The world enters the body through the senses, but the senses cannot go there. That part of us is not affected by the world. It was there before we took this body. It is here, and it will be here. It is the core of us all.

Rituals

Rituals and practices are just tools to make us walk in a straight line. Some people wake up in the morning without knowing what they're going to do nextãhow the day is going to be, whom they should call first, what they should eat. They are going around in a circle. Yet even the simplest tools for discipline can be very meaningful. All the practices of chanting, prayers, offering flowers, incense, a lamp, bowing down to the embodiment of perfection: all are meaningful. Rituals bring an order and grounding into our lives. As a matter of fact, any task done systematically falls under the category of a ritual.

Doubt

Doubt is like that little particle of dust in our eyes that makes us unable to see the beauty stretched out right there in front of us.

Meet the faces at the Ashram

Through this column we salute the special individuals at the Ashram

Roni Wilson

In 1993, Roni's mother was taking yoga classes in the water tower at Westerbeke Ranch. She told Roni of the very interesting Indian master who was her teacher. She said that, once a week, members of the class would have a small dinner at a private home with him. She asked Roni, -Would you like me to see if you could come?" About a week later, she called Roni and said, "I've made an appointment for you to meet Baba at three in the afternoon."

Roni took along a friend, and the three drove up to the little white house on Carriger Road where the Ashram was first located. There was Babaji in the front garden holding two flowers and his cell phone. He walked up to the group and offered them the flowers and welcomed them with words that acknowledged their inner divinity. That is what first struck Roni about this meeting, the idea the she was divine. The three went inside with Babaji, and over a cup of tea, her friend began asking a lot of questions. Roni remained quiet, fighting back tears that eventually overcame her. She cried for an hour without stopping. She remembers, It was not from sorrow. It was from a feeling of having my heart opened. I knew that I was in the company of someone who was speaking the truth. I am still struggling to live that truth.

Roni plays an active role at the ashram, cooking, photographing, helping out whenever help is needed. Laura Bonazzoli recalls her kindness just after her daughter, Veena, was born, My daughter was only a few days old, and my husband had to teach at a weekend workshop in Monterey, leaving me alone with this newborn baby for the first time. I had no relatives in this area no mother, sisters, cousins and as we had lived in Sonoma for only a few months, no close friends nearby. As soon as Roni heard that I would be alone, she offered to come and cook for me, and she made a lovely vegetarian dinner that we shared. I'll never forget the sweetness of her company that night.

Roni's mom passed on a few years ago, and her samadhi shrine is in the ashram grounds. At Guru Purnima this year, Roni talked about the gift of her mother's spiritual books, and noted that, as she reads them, she keeps encountering lessons that Babaji has been teaching us for many years. The truth does not change.