Human Progression in Spirituality

This is the human progression in spirituality, in a nutshell. What we need today is that clarity that nobody owns any piece of land on earth. We are all walking here like tourists. We cannot own anybody. We cannot own anything here. If that understanding is clear, then the result is love, freedom. And when we are actually free from inside, there is no way you can stop reflecting it. You will be radiating that freedom, all the time.

Satsang in Maryland, The USA

26^th August 2018

The time that we are going through, the situations we are facing today, are built up over a period of time. I’m not talking about America, I’m talking about the whole world. Collective consciousness built up situations. That means, a generation or a group of people thinking in a certain way, creates events. That is what we are all experiencing; just as if it rains in a neighbourhood, anybody walking in that area will get wet.

The first time a being takes a human body, it would be a “raw human body” i.e. consciousness will be very raw. And they say it takes at least 5000 births before he becomes a “human human”. A human human is someone who is able to consistently express love, compassion, kindness and who has the ability to share what he has. To reach there it might take 5000 births i.e. before he actually becomes a human human. At this time, I think it is more important to consider being a human because we have to share this time and this place with compassion and kindness. And we should always remember what we are going to deliver to the next generation.

Imagine the Earth is in your hands today. You can keep it for some time, but you can’t own it and then you have to hand it over to the next generation. How will we do it? Or what sort of earth are we going to give to the next generation? This is a fundamental question. Once you reach a state where you are actually being a human being, i.e. 100% human human where you are able to share, express love, compassion and kindness, without any hindrance or without any expectation, then you are established in the state of being a human being.

It is said that it takes at least another 70 lifetimes to become a “saint human”. Everything is a state. We are all in a certain state of evolution. When we connect to certain masters, we do not connect to bodies or certain philosophies. We connect to states. When we talk about a master, we talk about a state the person was existing in.  So when I say “a saint human” it’s a state where the idea stabilises in you, where you really understand that you belong to nothing or nobody, and nothing or nobody belongs to you.

Neither anybody belongs to you, nor you belong to anybody. Understand that very clearly. That settles in. That clear understanding becomes you. Then you are a saint human. You have that full clarity and full experience that you belong to nothing and nothing belongs to you. Then freedom starts to be experienced. This is actual freedom.

It takes a few more lifetimes where you experience “being God”. When I say “being God” it is not an egoistic feeling of “I am superior to others”. It’s an experience where “everything is me” – Aham Brahmasmi (I am everything, I am the universe, I am the Supreme Consciousness).

This is the human progression in spirituality, in a nutshell. What we need today is that clarity that nobody owns any piece of land on earth. We are all walking here like tourists. We cannot own anybody. We cannot own anything here. If that understanding is clear, then the result is love, freedom. And when we are actually free from inside, there is no way you can stop reflecting it. You will be radiating that freedom, all the time. On the contrary, when we have a lot of expectations and needs and we believe that “this thing only belongs to me”, then it means we need to grow up that much more!

Therefore, first and foremost, we have to become a human human. Then we spontaneously become a saint human. Then again we spontaneously become a God human. There IS a state called God human. Many think it’s hypothetical, that we can’t be God. Of course, it’s an experience. God is an experience. God is not outside of you. You feel the state of being God inside you and it reflects, just like the sun. Sun gives you light. It never charges you. Furthermore it does not say, “I will give more light to Canada than America”. It will give the same amount of light to all places. Sometimes we feel like we are in darkness. We may not have opened the curtains and we feel that there is no sunshine. It is not the fault of the sun. The Sun is there, but we do not experience it because we did not open the curtains. These states exist because we have the mind. They are not permanent.

When clouds obscure the sun it does not mean that the sun doesn’t exist. When the clouds rain off, the sun is there, visible again. What we need in the world today is this FEELING OF UNIFICATION, based on a stable state and frequency. That is why I always talk about BEING HUMAN NOW. When we see acts of greed, anger, hatred or jealousy, realise they are lower frequencies, essentially coming out of ignorance, not knowing that you can carry nothing from here.

You can carry two things. The first one is residual memories – memories of experiences you had in this life, the second one is desires. These are the two things we carry when we leave the body. We have residual memories based on many things, which are converted into impressions. These are the seeds. Impressions are the seeds which sit in us. Then we also carry desires, for example a thought such as “Oh, I should have had something better, I want this, I want that…” etc. Bhagawan Krishna explains this in a beautiful way. There are millions of things around you, all these belong to you. There are many objects we see around us as we live life. To experience them you have only five senses – eyes, nose, ears, mouth and skin. Out of these millions, you are narrowing it down to five senses. One mind.

When mind is with your eyes, you see. If mind is not with your eyes, you look but you see nothing. When mind is with your ears, you actually hear. Otherwise there will be sound, but you won’t be aware. Mind is not there. Absentmindedness is a state where you are not aware of what’s going on around you. Mind with any of the senses gives you experiences and experiences are what we are actually born for. The clear purpose of existence of a human or any other body is experience. If mind is not with the senses, there is no experience. Mind is very important. What is your experience at the end of the day? Two.

So, millions-five-one-two.

What does two stand for? One is happiness, the other is sorrow. Either of them, that’s all you experience. Some experiences give you happiness, other experiences give you sorrows. This is it. This is human life in which, WHERE IS OWNERSHIP? WHAT CAN YOU OWN? YOU CAN ONLY ENJOY! You can only experience for some time. There’s nothing permanent here. Sorrow is not permanent, happiness is not permanent. It is in this duality that we exist. This is what we are. This understanding is essential today because we are in an ownership spree, “I own things, I gain things.”

Now, there is this ownership of materials which we are very happy to do because that’s what we are educated for, “Compete and win.” Compete with whom!? And what do you win? You may win a few materials, but you may not win happiness. If happiness is what you are looking for, it’s an internal thing. Isn’t it? You can’t be happy with a thing outside because it’s not yours anyway. An outside thing can give you happiness provided you agree with it internally. There might be a lot of food on the table.

How many types of food will you actually be happy to consume? Something which suits your body, isn’t it? Likewise, in a store, there are many different clothes. What do you buy? Something that suits you. We have limitations. Not everything is for everybody and it need not be.

We must understand these basic principles of existence. That will help us to position ourselves better in this world. The height of a good life or successful living is the attitude of contentment. Number one, we have to be contented with what we have. To explain this better, it is not a sort of surrendered or a complacent attitude such as (in a disappointed tone), “Ok, this is my fate, I can’t do anything more.” Instead the attitude is “Ok, this is happening to me. That’s fine.

Whether it is happiness or sorrow, I always go to its limit or bottom so that it actualises itself.” Every situation of unhappiness gives you a potential for great happiness and every situation of great happiness gives you a potential for seeing the other side. It’s like two sides of a coin, happiness and sorrow, they keep changing.  

When we resist something, it stays longer. When we accept something, it becomes our transformation. A good benchmark for spiritual stability or maturity is TRANSFORMATION. If transformation is not happening from an activity for whatever reason, stop to think, “Is this activity important?” Every practice is there to take you to a state of no practice, not that you get addicted to a practice for life. What we are doing then is that we are adding another addiction. That’s not what we want. We would like to stabilise.

We should grow in the level of awareness, where you become a human first, stabilise in that being human state where you only express love, kindness, compassion, regardless of what the world gives you, then you evolve to a state where you stabilise in the idea that nothing belongs to you and you belong to nothing. Absolute freedom sets in there. Then you reach a state of being in a state of godliness, where you are everything.

This progression needs one step. Remember this word – ACCEPTANCE. Fundamental. The whole journey starts with acceptance. Acceptance of what? Oneself. Yourself. You have to look at yourself as an authentic, original creation. Everybody, all creations of this world are authentic and original. There is no way we can say any one creation is higher or lower. It has even been proved scientifically that if we take two leaves from one plant, each leaf is tailor-made i.e. it is authentic and original. If that is the case, then what about us, as a full and complete incarnation, with a capacity to experience higher levels of awareness?

We are really, really authentic. The moment you realise that and accept it 100%, then the whole world will accept you. If the world is not accepting you, ask yourself why. It always starts with self-acceptance. You have to understand this. There’s no compromise here. You are original. What can you do? Even if you feel, “I’m not like the other person,” you should not be. You should not be like another person. You have to accept your originality. Because this is the truth. If that’s not accepted, there won’t be a change in the vibrations in the world around you. When you accept your originality and authenticity, it does not matter whether other people accept you. If you accept yourself, you will start shining like the sun, bright. Brightness happens just because of acceptance.

Brightness happens because you have come to terms with yourself. You can like or dislike anything outside of you. Nobody will care. If you do not like me, it will not affect me. But if you do not like yourself, you lose a lifetime. You should remember this. If you judge yourself, you will lose a great personality. If you judge me, I have no problem, I go home. But if you judge yourself, you lose a lifetime. This is the point. Why I am giving this as a practical example is because if you want to make a change in the world, start with self-acceptance. If that’s not happening, this is the sadhana (spiritual practice) which must be done, for which you have to spend time with yourself.

You don’t have to spend time with me, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to spend time with anybody, that’s not important. But if you don’t spend time with yourself, you miss a lifetime. I’m giving you the fundamentals of philosophy. There’s no complication here, it is very natural, and when you think deeply about it you will know that it is true.    Rev. Genmanji talked about karma yoga. Karma yoga is a path of purification.

When you work selflessly, when you are selfless by nature, when you live for the world, it purifies you. When you want more and more from the world, it contaminates you, because it involves processes where you have to compromise quite a bit. When you are serving, there is no compromise. There are also paths of devotion, path of knowledge, path of liberation, path of breath, kriyas and so on, which are all there to help you become one unit. What is the purpose of all the activities, practices, meditations, yoga, kriya…? They are all there to make you a unit, a complete unit.

When I say “unit” it means body, mind, intellect, ego i.e. personality and spirit in one line, totally aligned, together, then, you are one unit. Body is here. Where is the mind now? Either in the past events, experiences you had, or in the future, by way of anxiety, “What will happen to me, my future, my children, my father, my mother…?” When mind gets scattered on numerous situations and materials, it is not you, as a unit. Ownership through “me” or “mine” is a big problem. We suffer due to ownership. What can you own? You can’t even own this body. This is like a rental car, taken for some time. You have to give it back, otherwise they will come and take it from you (laughter). You can’t help it.

We are on a tourist visa here, right? In the immigration they ask, “How many days do you want to stay here?”  Before you started this journey, i.e. before you took this body, someone asked the question, “How many days do you want this body?” If it is 80 years, it is 29200 days. “That’s it. You can live 80 years, that is 29200 days. After that, go home. You want to come back? No problem, but you need to take another time span.” This is determined before. We all have a decisive time plan or a boundary. Boundaries are set. This is something we should always remember.

If you live for 100 years, it is 36500 days! It is not too many days, right? But we believe we live forever. We judge, criticise, condemn people, we say this guy is good, that guy is bad… all these are illusions. We play with emotions, illusions. Then, what happens at the end of the day? Suffering! When we don’t accept ourselves, nobody accepts us. You say, “Nobody is accepting me, what’s wrong with all these people?” There’s nothing wrong with people, they are all mirrors of you. Fundamentally, if you accept yourself, everybody accepts you. If you love yourself, everybody loves you.

Because it is not selfish love, where you say, “All these things, come to me” – then, people love you to take them away from you. You probably know the story of an eagle which held a piece of meat and was flying. Suddenly a bunch of crows started attacking the eagle. The eagle wondered why they were attacking him. It forgot that it was carrying the piece of meat in its beak. Suddenly it realised, “They are all following me because I have this meat.” It dropped the meat and all the crows went away. Isn’t this our life? We all follow somebody or people follow us because there is something to take from us. If we are empty and fine with ourselves then people follow you because of your state. That is better.

Audience: (laughter)

When we are in a state of contentment and people tell you, “I like your state”, it is nice. It is also good. Instead, if you own many things, people could follow you. Consider the story of Nagarjuna, who was carrying a golden begging bowl. A thief was following him, not for his knowledge, but for the begging bowl. It was made out of gold and had diamonds studded on it. An amazing begging bowl!

Audience: (laughter)

When Nagarjuna was trying to sleep, the thief was behind a pillar, wondering, “When is this guy going to sleep?” Before Nagarjuna slept, he threw the begging bowl at the thief towards the pillar. It surprised the thief. He could not understand why Nagarjuna did not value the golden begging bowl with diamonds! The thief took the begging bowl. He was happy, he did not have to steal. He came to Nagarjuna and said, “I have never met anyone like you. You did not care for this golden begging bowl with diamonds!”

Nagarjuna said, “It is so for you. For me, it’s a utility vessel. I can eat from the bowl, whether it is made of gold, copper or aluminium I have no problem.” To this, the thief said, “I have never met someone like you. Why did you throw it to me?” Nagarjuna said,”That is because, if you keep looking at me when I’m trying to sleep, in order to steal it from me, I won’t be able to sleep. And because I am looking at you to see when you are going to steal it, you will not sleep. Thus I will not sleep either. Instead, let’s both sleep. Isn’t that better?”

Audience: (laughter)

This is the situation in life. If you look at our own life, you see these things happening. Somebody is looking at you and you are not able to sleep. Give it to them and say, “You take it, go. You sleep, I sleep.” We must all sleep peacefully. This is our birth right. Sleeping peacefully is our birth right, remember. Being contented is our birth right. Being peaceful is our birth right. Why do we choose other emotions at all? Why do we choose anxiety, fear, anger, hatred, jealousy or revenge? Do you understand? This is the thought of the time.

This is what we should think and this is what we should spread. How do you spread this in this world? Be that. There is no way we can preach. Nobody will take you seriously. Live it. Show it with your life. That becomes a message for the world. Whatever you cannot live is not good enough. If you cannot express it through you own life, it’s not powerful enough. People will look at you and say, “He is not following it himself, why should I follow it?” We have to LIVE peacefulness. We have to LIVE kindness and compassion. We have to LIVE contentment and tell the world “I choose peace and I am living it.” That makes a huge difference.

Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic

Proof-read by Vidya Rajagopalan