The One Self
All are deceived, do what the One Power dictates,
Yet each thinks his own will his nature moves;
The hater knows not ’tis himself he hates,
The lover knows not ’tis himself he loves.
In all is one being many bodies bear,
There Krishna flutes upon the forest mood,
There Shiva sits ash-smeared, with matted hair.
But Shiva and Krishna are the single God.
In us too Krishna seeks for love and joy,
In us too Shiva struggles with the world’s grief.
One Self in all of us endures annoy,
Cries in his pain and asks his fate’s relief.
My rival’s downfall is my own disgrace,
I look on my enemy and see Krishna’s face.
Sri Aurobindio (Collected Poems)
A renunciant couple were once proceeding through a thick jungle on a pilgrimage to an inaccessible shrine. The husband saw on the footpath a precious stone, shining brilliantly when the Sun’s rays fell upon it from between the leaves. He hastily threw some sand over it with the movement of his foot, so that his wife may not be tempted to pick it up and become a slave to the tinsel. The wife saw the gesture and chided the husband for still retaining in his mind, a distinction between sand and gold. For her, both were the same. This habit of judging and labelling others is a prevalent practice today. What can you know of the inner working of another’s mind?
– Sri Sathya Sai Baba
The greatest love you can experience is in communion with God in meditation. The love between the soul and Spirit is the perfect love, the love you are all seeking. When you meditate, love grows. Millions of thrills pass through your heart….If you meditate deeply, a love will come over you such as no human tongue can describe; you will know His divine love, and you will be able to give that pure love to others.
Paramahans Yogananda
Be thankful to the Lord, for He gave you Time, as well as action to fill it with. He gave you food, as well as hunger to relish it. But that does not entitle you to engage yourself in action indiscriminately. When you build a house, you install a door in it, don’t you?
What is the purpose of the door? It has dual objectives – to welcome all you would like to offer hospitality to, and to keep out all and sundry, so that they cannot walk in whenever they like.
So too, install a door in your mind. Select the impulses, the motives, and the incentives that appear in your mind and welcome them in. Keep out the demeaning, the debasing and the deleterious. Then, gradually you will be able to admit and experience the highest wisdom of the scriptures, the wisdom culled out of the crucible of experience.
Anubhava Jnanam
Many human beings say “I love you” one day and reject you the next. That is not love. One whose heart is filled with the love of God cannot willfully hurt anyone. When you love God without reservation, He fills your heart with His unconditional love for all.
That love no human tongue can describe….The ordinary man is incapable of loving others in this way. Self-centered in the consciousness of “I, me, and mine,” he has not yet discovered the omnipresent God who resides in him and in all other beings.
To me there is no difference between one person and another; I behold all as soul-reflections of the one God. I can’t think of anyone as a stranger, for I know that we are all part of the One Spirit. When you experience the true meaning of religion, which is to know God, you will realize that He is your Self, and that He exists equally and impartially in all beings. Then you will be able to love others as your own Self.
Paramhans Yogananda
Everything will improve in the future
if you are making a spiritual effort today.
~Swami Sri Yukteswar
I am not starved for want of food, but it is Janardana who deserves my reverence.
I have looked on God as one who sees everything, on bright and dark days, alike.
God is like a father with his child,
who both feels and gives pleasure at the same time.
Good acts and bad acts vanish.
Tuka says, ‘God’s glory alone is left.’
Sant Tukaram
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Sant Tukaram was a prominent Varkari Sant (Saint) and spiritual poet during a Bhakti movement in India.
Sant Tukaram was initiated without any intermediaries as the other saints usually were. He dreamt that he was initiated by the Lord Hari himself dressed as a Brahman.
Tukaram continuously sang the praises of the Lord, he sang it in the form of abhangs which he wrote. These were in his mother tongue Marathi. The abhangs express his feelings and philosophical outlook. During his 41 years, Tukaram composed over 5,000 abhangs. Many of them speak of events in his life, which make them somewhat autobiographical. Yet, they are focused on God, Pandurang, and not Tukaram. His abhangs became very popular with the masses of common people. It was this very popularity that caused the religious establishment (the high caste Brahmins) to hate and persecute Tukaram. as, he was causing them to lose their power over the people.
There are many miracles attributed to Tukaram.
Without a worshipper, how can God assume a form and accept service?
The one makes the other beautiful, as a gold setting shows off a jewel.
Who but God can make the worshipper free from desires?
Tuka says, ‘They are drawn to each other like mother and child.’
– Sant Tukaram
The greatest man is he who considers himself to be
the least, as Jesus taught. A real leader is one who first
learned obedience to others, who feels himself to be the
servant of all, and who never puts himself on a pedestal.
Those who want flattery don’t deserve our admiration,
but he who serves us has a right to our love. Isn’t God
the servant of His children, and does He ask for praise?
No, He is too great to be moved by it.
Paramahansa Yogananda, “Sayings of Paramahansa
Yogananda”