Awakening Divine Love

Jai Gurudev everybody. As you are all aware, human life has a purpose. As you know, that purpose is to realize the greatest goal, which is the true self, which is love. This love seems far away to the mind, and sometimes even inaccessible, but actually it is close. As you all know, you are an incarnation of love, you are part of the divine. To attain this divine love, to attain this blissfulness again, to become satchitananda—this is what we are all trying to become. In reality, you are that already. It’s just that you don’t let it out. You like the love on the outside, you think it’s easy, but after some time you say, “headache.” As you know, this love is eternal. This love is waiting to be awakened deep within you. This love you have been carrying for many lifetimes. Firstly, to have the opportunity, to have the grace of being spiritual, of being on the spiritual path, is itself an attribute of this divine love. Everybody is searching, but it’s only when this love comes to the point of sprouting out and growing and maturing that one realizes oneself—realizes this love. The question comes to the mind, “Why every time we come back do we have to do the same thing all the time? If we have already realized this love, if we have already attained this love, why don’t we have it now?” To understand this, look at a child. A child just goes along with the daily routine. It doesn’t bother to think how things have to be. We older ones, we like questioning things; We like to doubt things; We like to put some spice into it. Then, when we have put too much spice into something, the path, the flavor, has changed—then it’s too hot. This pure love, this divine love is present at all times.

Whatever He does is right

The power of chanting the name of God, it's not only purifying the mind, it’s purifying the body and it's purifying the soul. When your mind is purified, you have a healthy mind. Your mind is positive. Eventually, your body will also be in a positive way. Your body will be healthy. How many times people who are ill surrender completely and say, “I’m fed up now. God, I’m praying to you and I surrender to you. Do whatever you want to do with me.” What happens then? The miracle happens. The miracle of faith. The miracle of love. The miracle of surrender.
But nowadays people are so scared of surrender. They say, “I will surrender, but... what will happen? I will surrender, but how will I live?” This insecurity is already present. How can they trust when there’s insecurity? Only when there is complete trust in God, complete trust in your self, when you ask God for Himself, will He give Himself to you. And trust what? Whatever He does is right, even if the mind doesn’t understand it, it is right.

Complete surrender

While singing, people were dancing. In dancing for God, you’re dancing yoga. You’re forgetting about your body, you’re forgetting about your mind, you’re just singing the glory of God, singing the name of God. In this way, you’re decreasing the power of the mind. You will notice that after moving, when you sit down and relax, your concentration is much better than if you just sat down. When you just sit, your mind is jumping left and right.

So, when you dance in the right way, you’re energizing yourself. You’re calling upon this inner Self to reveal itself. And when you lift your hand up, you’re calling to the Lord, to God, saying: “I’m in this illusion. I’m drowning myself in this illusion. Here, I’m lifting my hand up to you. Pull me out of this illusion. I’m surrendering.” You will notice in all the holy scriptures there is this phrase which says: “Lord, I’m lifting my hand up to you. Come to my rescue.” In Psalm 54 you will find it, in the Koran you will find it, you will also find it in the Gita.
So, singing the glory of God transcends all religion. Transcends all culture. Transcends all race. Transcends all that the mind can create. You will find God inside of you. Man lives in ignorance. Of course, you need a little knowledge of God, a little knowledge of the Divine to get out of it. But in the end, you have to surrender completely. It’s neither your intelligence nor your ignorance that will make you realize your true self. It's your surrender.
It’s like when you’re walking barefoot, and you get a thorn in your foot. You need another thorn to remove it. The thorn of ignorance entered your feet, and you need another thorn to remove it. But what you do afterwards? Do you keep both thorns in your pocket and say, “Okay, I will treasure them.” You don’t keep both of them, you throw them both away. So, even knowledge will bring you only to a certain level. The rest you have to surrender yourself completely to this love of God. You have to surrender your mind completely. You have to surrender your body completely. And you have to surrender your soul.

Be sincere towards yourself

There was once a Saint in India, who was living as a hermit in a small hut made from grass. A couple came to him and said, “Guruji, we love you so much. We’ll make you a nicer hut, much stronger. Please, come with us.” The Saint said, “No, no, no, no. I'm happy where I am, I don’t want to come.”
After a while, the Saint thought about it, called the couple and said, “Yes, I will come with you, but only if you do me one favor.” The couple was very happy and said, “If you are asking, we'll do anything for you.” To that the Saint answered, “Let me come and live in your toilet.”
The couple was wondering, “Why do you want to come live in our toilet when we want to build a nice hut for you?” The Saint said, “I’d rather stay in your toilet than among devotees or people who are only looking for fame and glory. These people come to me looking only to end their misery, but they are not really looking for God. If I stayed in the toilet, I’d rather bear the smell of the toilet than bear the insincerity of those people... and also the smell of the toilet would keep them away.”
This made the couple realize how people are. People are searching, yes, but they are not sincere toward themselves. Only when you are sincere towards yourself, you will you find your path. When accept yourself, when you accept the will of God, you will accept whatever He gives you as right. When you surrender to His will, when you surrender to His love, then you say, “Yes, God, I believe in you and I trust in whatever you’re doing for me. I trust in your love. I don’t doubt you.”
But when we doubt Him, we question Him, and we are not truthful. Then we say, “God, you have made a mistake.” But how can God make a mistake when He’s so perfect? How can love, which is the purity of your true self, make a mistake? It can’t. It can only be a mistake when there is doubt, when there is fear. But when all of these things are cleared, when all of these things are put away by the holy names of God, which are thousands of names.. then you will see His glory. You will feel His love.

The ultimate goal of your life

We think before acting. We always think. We think if we give love we will feel hurt. However, you see, in the mind you already create the hurt; you create the feeling of destruction, so you don’t put love first.
Make the ultimate goal of your life Divine love, and surrender to it. You know what God wants from you? Surrender your mind to Him, continuously. Surrender your mind to the lotus feet of God, to the feet of your guru, to the feet of any Divine master. And free yourself. Free yourself from the mind, free yourself from all the misery that you created. So when you free your mind, you realise the Divine everywhere in every aspect, every small thing. Even the clothes you are wearing are divine. Each atom is divine.
If you have divine eyes to look at the world with, you will see that it is just the radiated light of God shining through everything. But as long as you don’t come to that realisation, keep trying. Never lose hope. The moment you lose hope, you lose everything. The moment you say, “No, I can’t do it, I can’t do this”, you will not be able to do it. Challenge your fear! Keep reminding yourself that you are part of God. You are in His Divine hands and He will never let go of you. Never! He will be always near to you, even nearer than the breath, the air you are breathing in.
You try to imagine a little bit with the mind, how close God is. It’s difficult, isn’t it? The mind will never let you imagine that, the mind will never let it. Only when you start thinking with the mind of the heart – then you can realise the Divinity completely.
So to think with the heart, how to do it? This is why meditation is important, when you can sit with yourself in silence. When Jesus said, “If you want to pray, run to the darkest corner of your house, close yourself and talk with your Father,” he meant, go in the inner chamber of your heart and talk with God. Talk with your true Self, and you will receive the answer. So in this inner chamber – what is there? Just love, nothing else.

Looking for the Truth

When you’re centered, when you concentrate, when you pray, when you chant the name of God, that moment is between you and God. Christ said, “If you want to pray, don’t make it a show. Run to the darkest corner where you and God, your Father, are alone… then converse with the Divine.” And this corner is your heart, where you can be quiet. The mind is not quiet, the mind is always thinking. You will quiet it by chanting. When, through chanting, you train the mind to go inside your heart, in that deep quietness, you will realize that God is sitting there. You will realize it, not because you know it in the mind, not because you have read it, but because you will feel it.
We are all searching for the Truth. Of course, people will go left and right looking for the Truth. Until one finds their spiritual path, one is never satisfied with where they are. It’s like a train which is traveling but does not know its destination. People go left and right, it’s the same with this train. But when one knows the destination, one goes directly to thisdestination. When one knows one’s path, one goes directly. Take this path and just go and realize yourself.

Realisation of God

We identify ourselves very much with the body and the mind. The rest of the power inside remains in silence, remains sleepy.
Do you want to wake it up? Do you really want it or not? You think you are not sure about it? It’s when you really want something that you must have the power to say, “Yes, I want it!” Not only, “Maybe I want it, maybe I don’t want it.” Because then you are not sure about what you really want. In one way human beings want realisation, they want God. In another way they say, “If I have the complete realisation of God, will I really stay the same? Will I really see the world in the same way?” But with this way of thinking it will never happen. Try as much as you want. Let it be said: you can’t serve two masters at a time!
You can’t have the complete realisation of God and at the same time say that you want the material world. I tell you something: in the completeness, in the Divine consciousness, everything is present. Where else than in the mere mind of man can one just see what these two eyes perceive? On one hand there is everything, everything means also the material part. On the other hand there is just the material part and illusion. You meet people, they try to see what is beautiful, and they get attached to it and keep it. It’s our own happiness that arises in our life, from deep within where we receive the goal. But something is missing; it is not complete.
You think, “Now I have got this beautiful thing that I desired so much. Now I got it, I don’t have the same love for it. I don’t have the same enthusiasm about it.” What does the mind do? The mind tries to find something else to hold onto, but as long as man tries to hold onto a material thing, he will always stay on the material level. If you turn inward and focus on the Divine within the Self you will feel great happiness and great joy. But for that you should deadlock your faith.
Faith. Like I always say, have faith in your own Self. Have faith that what you are hearing within your heart is true. So many times you hear your heart, but you doubt it. You ask yourself, “Oh, is this really true or not?” You always have doubt like that. As long as you don’t believe in what the Divine wants to show you, you will not advance.
The moment you really have faith in what you feel inside your heart, it will manifest on the outside. Like I said, God gave man the power to create, to have the power over everything, to have the willpower of construction – constructive willpower – inside the mind.
Very often we say the mind is something apart, something which is very negative. It’s true, very often the mind is negative, but we can transform it. Deep inside in the inner cosmic mind, there lies also the Divine. That is the point where we have to use the mind to achieve the higher state.

Just sing, “I am love!”

The mind is maya; the mind is illusion. But the illusion is also part of God. God created maya to blind his creation; for humans not to take it for granted and to make man to strive for enlightenment! But He Himself is doing it. It is His own play. You just need to be the spectator, nothing else. The moment you have learned how to be the spectator and just see the creation in front of you, you will see the same way God does, and how He thinks about us. Our mind is like the mirror.
The heart is like a mirror covered with grease. As long as there is grease over it, do you think you will see clearly? You will never see your reflection clearly. You will know there is a reflection, yes, but it will be very foggy. So, as long as you don’t clean it, it’s difficult to see the light, isn’t it? Since the thing closest to us is the body, first your body has to be clean. When your body is clean, the mind is clean; when the mind is clean, the heart is clean. And when the heart is clean, the Divine light will shine through you and everybody will see it so clearly.
So start every day by saying, “I’m God’s child and I have to be like the child of God!” Do this for yourself, for your own growth. You know what is good for you, so try your best to change. Take this strongly inside you; put it in your mind. Throughout the day keep remembering that you are love, you are trust, you are peace, you are unity, you are joy! There’s no greater mantra. Just sing, “I am love!” By singing, “I am love!” you will always remember that you are a part of God.

To really shine, you have to clean out all of the negativity.

We try to exteriorize the Divine, we try to make God something apart from us. But God can be realised only within yourself. When we talk about God, very often we say, “God? Where – outside from us – is this person?” We think, He is there, we are here. We are different.
Whenever we talk about God, we have also to know that it is our own Self! We are actually talking about us, about each individual person. Because we are a part of God. Even if we all look different, when we remove the veil of illusion we are one light. Like this beautiful chandelier, it has many different bulbs, but the electricity is one! If you put a small bulb in it, of course we’ll have a small light, but the electricity will still be the same. It’s the same for you: all of you can shine the same light, the same divine light, more and more. You just need to let go. To really shine, you have to clean out all of the negativity.

Desire the Ultimate

Do not waste your time in wanting things that you know have their limit. Desire the Ultimate, and you shall have it. Surrender your body, mind and soul. Focus on any Divine aspect firstly, and then you realise your Divinity. Remember that whoever you are, even if your advancement is slow or fast, God loves you. He loves you even more than you can think about love, more than the mind of man can think about.
So always trust in this love, always hang on this love, and never let go of Him. He is always with you. Even if you do not feel Him, even if you do not see Him, He is there.
There is this beautiful parable from the Bible where one man was walking on the beach... Do you know about it? A man was walking, and every time he looked behind himself, he saw two more footprints, so four prints in the sand. He was very happy, knowing God was always with him, and he did not have any fear. Once it happened in the life of this man, that he started having lots of problems. Then he noticed at that time, there were only two footprints, and that there were not four footprints in the sand. There were only two footprints. He started thinking, praying to God, saying, “Why, when in times of joy you are with me and I see your beautiful footprints behind me, but in times of pain, you are not with me?” God said, “Don’t misunderstand, my child. These footprints that you see behind you are not yours. They are mine, because in times of trouble, I was carrying you on my shoulders.”

Oneness with the Divine

On your spiritual path there are things in your way that you have to get rid of to achieve this complete oneness with the Divine. That doesn’t mean that God is far away from you. He is here all the time and He is waiting for you to wake up and make yourself realized, because you are born with this realization. It’s just all this dirt from the mind that limits the Self. Cross over this, chant the name of God and be in love with God, because He is the only one that can really love you unconditionally. He is the only one that gives to you without expecting something in return.
Try to achieve this love. Try to become this love. Try to realize how much love you have inside you and then spread it. Love can’t be kept. By doing this, you become an instrument of the Divine. It reflects through you. It acts through you. Then you realize what your mission is.

The more you love

We chant the holy names of God, Krishna, Narayana, Jesus, Allah and Babaji. All these names help us to open up more, open up our heart to love. Love cannot be only for oneself. You start it with yourself, you realise it, you know about it and let it expand and give it. This source is non-perishable. The more you give, the more you will feel that it is flowing, and the more you will want to give. The more you try to close it, the more you will make your own self unhappy. Then this unhappiness has to go somewhere – that is how many illnesses are created, because one does not want to open up.
The more your heart is open, the more you are happy. The more you see life in a different way, the more the illness will keep away from you and the more all of the worries around you will cease. God loves us, but we should also start loving. Whatever comes on your way, remind yourself of His love; remind yourself through His manifestation around you, through the manifestation of this body. God has created humankind and placed Himself in each person equally. It does not mean that I am superior to you all, because I’m sitting here in a big chair. In your mind, it may seem like that, but in the Divine all is one. We form part of one body.

Overcoming the mind

One major factor that stops mankind from becoming love is the mind. To overcome the mind, chant any Divine name. When you practice this regularly, the mind will focus on simplicity. While you were singing bhajans, your mind was not troubling you. When you chant, your mind is busy making it hard for negativity to take over. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, keeping your mind fixed on God. This will help you open your heart.
Chanting Divine names is one efficient way of controlling the mind. Look at any religion; Christianity does the heart prayer. Hinduism has the japa mala. Muslims have the rosary. The name of God is very important and it’s very simple. Why complicate it? Why complicate things when God has given you something so easy? By chanting His name you feel so close to Him. But it doesn’t stop here.
It’s like when you know there’s a treasure somewhere and you know the location. By calling the treasure, “Oh my treasure come out, come out, come out.” Will the treasure come out? The treasure will not come out. There are a a lot of stones and earth you have to dig out until you get this treasure.

Love is the only Path

You are all here for one truth. This truth is love, equal in all of you, and present in each one of your hearts. This love is waiting to come out and to express itself.
But so often there is a blockage. So often there is a wall that stops man from loving unconditionally. When you realize that the only path is to love and to be love, you realize how much God loves his creation. The same way God loves, the same way you can love. All other kinds of love are secondary, because all of you are here to become love.
To become this love there are many obstacles you have to overcome. People think to love God is to love something separate from them. Like whenever we pray, we pray to the outside. We should stop separating the Divine and us. Try your best always to pray. It doesn’t matter which kind. When you talk with God, talk with the True Self inside you. Do it from your heart.

Being the Spirit

What happens when you think that we are just this body.The more you focus on the body, the more you have pain, more you are miserable. Why? Because reality gets covered. And when this reality gets covered it brings pain. This body will go back to earth and will become the same five elements it used to be. But, if the body is the only reality. What is God? Where is the Divinity?
This great energy that makes the body work, that makes the body act, this is the Spirit. This is who you really are. Whereas being the Spirit, you continuously live to become one, completely, with the Divine. Work for this reality. Work and love God. Whatever you do, focus your mind on doing it for God, every action, every thought. Love God in everybody and everything around you. And when you love, love one hundred percent. Try not to doubt this love because when you doubt it, just a little bit of doubt stops your advancement.

Ways to realize divinity

There are many ways to realize divinity within oneself, like there are many rivers that flow to the same ocean. The main thing is to find the simplest form. The simplier it is, the more you feel free in whatever path, in whatever way you are. That is the best way. I can’t tell you the way you will realize God and that way you will not realize God. God is sitting deep inside the heart of man and you just need to focus your mind on your heart. Try your best at all times to feel Him.

The best way is to start loving, without thinking of loving, without asking the question, “How to love?” Train your mind to focus on God. Train your mind to focus on yourself. By focussing, take any divine name, take any divine aspect. Keep chanting the name. Then you realize that you have become one with this name. It’s not the name apart from you, but it’s the name of your own Self.
The more you think of yourself being human, which many people often think about, the more they become human. But the more you think of yourself being the Spirit, being part of Divinity, the more you will become the Spirit and Divinity.

Finding God in oneself

The grace of God has given many ways to mankind. Many times He has manifested Himself in different Masters to help all children. Even if it seems to the outside that the different Masters have different ways! But if you analyze all of them, you find that all of them bring the message of Love - a message that one has to discover the love deep inside oneself. Don’t try to find God outside. Often people want to find God…it’s nice to have all the pictures of the Masters, but God has to be found firstly within oneself. You see the picture outside, this is just an image that enables mankind to fix that attention on something – because the mind of man is very difficult to control, isn’t it?

Holding the hand of God

It’s very easy to lose hope. It’s very easy to jump into Maya and say, “Maya is too strong!” How many times have you started on your spiritual way? The enthusiasm that you had at the beginning fades, because you let yourself be drawn to it, you make yourself weak. So when you weaken yourself, you vibrate on a very low level. So the other energy which is stronger can dominate, so you let yourself be dominated and be put into a problem. Forgetting that you are the lovely child of God you let go of the hand of the Father, you let go of the hand of God trying to stand by yourself – very difficult! God is ever loving, ever waiting for His children, to realize themselves. It’s upon to each one of you to hold the hand of God deep inside your heart and hold it very tightly whatever comes. This is how you really get rid of all the other things that keep you away from your spiritual way, that keep you away from realizing yourself.

Tests on the spiritual way

On this way there are lots of tests that God puts on to his children. If somebody has pleasure about something and sticks to the pleasure, the pleasure will bring lots of other pleasures, other desires, other wants - if mankind doesn’t really release himself from this game and sticks to its thinking. If you have put your mind to realize God, if you have put your mind that you want to know who you really are – focus on it, no matter what comes on the way, how strong the test can be! Keep praying, ask God, “Lord, it’s You who gave me this test, and I know I want only You!” And make your will strong, make your will strong that even God will run towards you. And ask God for strength, for whatever tests he’s putting on you, that you don’t lose hope and that you don’t go back into your old game.

Finding inner happiness

For mankind it doesn’t mean just to express outer happiness, but to find inner happiness, which is deep within the Self. The pleasure towards the outside, or the desire in the outside never finishes – because if one has a desire about something there will also be the want. And the want of mankind never finishes. For example: if you want money, you will start a business, don’t you? You may start anything that will make you gain more money. The want of money will make you want more – so it will never finish - because you will want to pay your employees, you will want to have to expand your company. This is a result of running away from the Self. It doesn’t mean that you should stop working and sit around. It’s good to work, it’s important that you do your duty in life. But focus on what you have come here to do –what is the purpose of your incarnation here? To amass lots of wealth - or to rediscover yourself?

The Love of God

When the mother is holding her child, there is no condition. Such is also the love of God. Whatever you have done good or bad, when you turn to Him, who has the love of a million mothers inside of Him, He will happily forgive.
If a child makes a mistake, the mother forgives and wishes that the child will be good and change, but what about the father? He will forgive, but with time.
The discipline part and the loving part is both important. So, when we turn to the Divine with our good and with our not good qualities, He will accept us. Because He loves us and He is calling all of us to love the same way as Him. But yet our mind is a big barrier.

Story about Rama and Lakshmana

Once Rama and Laksamana were passing by a lake and as they passed by the lake, they noticed a crow.

This crow always flew to the lake, trying to drink water, but the moment it came nearer to the lake, it looked at the water and flew back again.

Lakshmana asked Rama “Tell me my Lord why does this bird always go to the lake to try to drink water, but it doesn’t drink any water?

So Rama said to Lakshmana “This crow is a great devotee- It doesn’t drink any water, because it is scared of not reciting the name of God.

So even it’s throat is very thirsty and drying, but yet it would not let go of the name of God. So if a bird can do that human can do also better, isn’t it?

The Past

The past is finished.
Leave it back. Don’t bother about the past.
As long as you hang on the past, the past will hang with you.
The more you let go off the past, more you will be free and the more you will be in the present.

Training the mind

As long as man is stuck in the mind, as long as he doesn’t purify the mind, this love will never shine. You will never realize this love. Even if you think you know it because you have read about it, or somebody has told you about it, or because Swami has said it, and you say, “Yes, I know this love is there,” as long as you don’t purify your mind, as long as you don’t purify yourself… it will be difficult to realize this love. How do you purify the mind? The easiest way to purify the mind is to chant. Chant the name of God continuously. You were chanting the Maha Mantra, “Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.” It is said by just chanting this mantra, one can gain liberation. But one has to chant it with faith. Mere chanting alone will not help, but chanting with the heart, will help. How do you chant with the heart? How do you train the mind to calm itself? By focusing it. It happens when you discipline yourself and say, "Okay, today I will chant." Let’s say you start by taking your japa mala or rosary, and you chant your mantra. By focusing yourself on chanting, you’re discplining the mind to focus on the mantra. The more you do it you will see, and you will not even need your japa mala, you will not need a rosary because it will automatically be chanted inside your heart. When you become the mantra, you reach a point of realization. You reach a point of elevation, but it’s not the final one. There is still more to go. And how you get there is only through abandoning yourself in the hand of God. When you say, “Lord, I surrender to you. I surrender myself, my body, my mind, and my soul completely to you.” Not superficially, but sincerely. And how do you do it sincerely? When you're sincere with yourself and say, “Yes, God, I want you. I’m surrendering myself to you.” When this comes from your heart sincerely, it will happen.

How to cultivate faith?

There are different methods to cultivate faith.
Firstly you have to strongly know and not only think about it that God is with you.
Know that every moment He is with you.
This is the most important thing. Knowing that He is there is beyond all techniques and also beyond all thinking.
If you know that God is with you all the time faith will arise.
Some people like to do yoga, some people like to do meditation, but for each person the cultivation of faith is different.
So you have to feel free into it and do what you feel is good.
When you feel something that you feel good in, let your self carry on with it.

The flow of Love

When love is given to somebody this love has also to flow always. But most of the time when people receive love, they feel it, but they close themselves. They want to keep this love. They think that they will always feel the same love. They want to have more, but yet they don’t want to give. But this love makes you sick, after some time, because if you try to keep this love always inside of you and you try to control it, the negative qualities like pride, arrogance, and negative feelings will awake.