Spiritual Upliftment
I am happy that you have chosen to be here this evening and I always know that it is a choice you have made because we all are free to choose, even sometimes when we do not even think so. The choice to lift yourself spirituality, the choice to be in the company of people who are noble and spiritual and the choice to pray for community is the choice you have made. You know what kind of weekend it is in Trinidad and Tobago, of course, with no discredit to the wonderful celebration of Carnival if we were to keep it in the way it was meant to be, without the degradation or immorality. It is nice when we can create a balance and spread spiritual vibrations throughout the country.
If we are hoping for a better country then we need some kind of spiritual energy, spiritual uplift and spiritual strength. The spirit is the most potent part of our being; it is not the physical or mental because the mental and emotional can fluctuate. The spiritual part of us which is always good, which is what connects us to the Divine, that is always the most powerful part of us. I am especially happy to see the young teenagers who are here this evening, to see you have made a choice not to be in the carnival activities, because you are the future of Blue Star and our society.
Satsang is a time to go within; it is a time to tap into the greatest strength we have. The really strong people in our society are the ones who will tap into that spiritual energy, the ones who can manage the long haul, the ones who can overcome and deal with the difficulties that face them every day. It is an evening of chanting, an evening of meditation, an evening where I speak to you; it is an evening of reflection, an evening of prayer. It is an evening where we can really become strong and be nourished by the spirit.
I wish I could sing songs for you in every tradition that is on this earth. I wish I could tell you all the stories of all the wonderful traditions we have in our society. I wish I could do that, but, I am still learning of different traditions. I am still learning more stories. It is wonderful when we can share and embrace every tradition, all noble teachers and all great teachings, when we can embrace them and see them as our own.
As I travel to different countries, I always say that I am a citizen of the world. I may have been born in Trinidad but I am a citizen of the world. Every country belongs to me as a citizen of the earth and every tradition belongs to me. When I travel to different countries and they want to hear my songs, I say, ‘but I want to hear your songs,’ and I try to bring the songs together. I wish that one day in our country and in our world that we will have different traditions bonding not just tolerating each other or religious tolerance but the ability to embrace the different teachings, the different ceremonies and to be a part of it without feeling that we have lost our own. We don’t have to lose our traditions to really embrace another. We don’t have to lose ourselves when we embrace another. We continue to maintain our identity but we share the richness of different traditions. When you come to satsang that is what we try to do.
I invite you to a wonderful evening of restoration, an evening of spiritual uplift, an evening of learning, an evening of togetherness. To best enjoy this evening, it is important that you be in the moment with what is happening. We call that ‘Living in the Now,’ being here and now, being completely focused and into what you are doing.
The human mind becomes involved in so many activities during the day and these thoughts stay with us; when you sit here you bring the thoughts of the day with you. Can we let go of those so we can embrace something different? – Nourishing thoughts, uplifting thoughts.
When you listen, for example, to the drum, let that rhythm take you deep inside into your spiritual being. It is the power of sound. Music is able to take you into your spiritual being. The words that you repeat and the sounds that you hear, let them take you deep inside. When you begin to touch your spiritual being, there is a sense of freedom; you feel no longer weighed down by body and mind; you feel a sense of lightness and freedom, the mind becomes more positive, your emotional being is uplifted and your energy rises.
Sadgurus - Spiritual Teachers
I am going to invite you to pay homage to the spiritual tradition of teachers; in all traditions we need teachers. We need those who walk the talk. Not those who talk the talk but those who walk the talk. Those teachers who live in spiritual consciousness and who manifest this in a very selfless way, we call those teachers ‘Sadgurus,’ not the normal gurus but ‘Sadgurus.’ They are the ones who live in the light and in truth, ‘sat.’ They can be in different traditions; they are the real holy ones, and they are the salt of the earth. They are the ones who can really pioneer transformation. They ask for nothing but to give and that is how you know them. They serve in the way of leading. They sit at your level even though their spirit is high. Even though they are soaring the spiritual skies, they sit at your level and you feel so comfortable with them. They are the true teachers. In spiritual science it is said when such a being just looks at you, that look is transforming; when such a being touches you in blessing, that touch is transforming; when such a being speaks to you, those words when you receive them are transforming; when such a being makes a wish for you, ‘May you be healthy, may you be happy,’ that wish comes to pass, it is a blessing. Those are the beings whom we are going to pay homage to.
The Goal of Human Life
The goal of life, whether you know it or believe it or not, does not change. The goal of human life is what we call ‘spiritual liberation.’ Whatever your role may be in your lifetime, and you may play many roles, the goal of all these roles is to take you deeper into your spiritual consciousness because that is where you are free. In the human world you are trapped but in the spiritual world you are free.
The goal of human life is to be able to touch that spiritual space inside and to feel your freedom, to feel your true power. Your power is God’s Power. The soul is like a drop of water in an ocean. If you understand the analogy, a drop has the same quality as the ocean only it is smaller. The drop can say, ‘I am water, I am precious water’ and the ocean can only say the same thing. The ocean is bigger, the drop is tiny but it carries the same potency of water. The collective water may have a different kind of power but the water consciousness is the same in the drop as in the collective.
The power you have inside of you is God’s Power manifesting in a limited human form but it is God’s Power. Those people who have touched spiritual power know no end to their energy and to their will. When you touch that spiritual space, you know that you do not die. You do not judge yourself in terms of a lifetime that ‘my mission is going to finish in this life.’ You live with an eternal vision.
It is said that when we live in ignorance we are sleeping, so we can sleep even with our eyes open. This is a different kind of sleep; it is the sleep of ignorance. The real waking up in spiritual life is when you wake up to your soul consciousness, when you begin to be aware that ‘I am a soul, not a physical body.’ You are a soul living in a physical body and your soul is where your real power is.
Before you can get into this soul consciousness, in this spiritual awareness, you have to make the mind quiet. You begin with mental training, ‘How do I make my mind quiet?’ Even to listen to me, you have to have a certain degree of inner quietness because you can be listening and not picking up all that I am saying. The quieter you are, the more receptive you become, and the more you pick up. Sometimes you may be reading something and after the first read you don’t pick up everything. You read it again and again and again and you pick it up differently. It is the same with listening.
Your thoughts should not control you; you should control your thoughts. If you are a real master, you should be able to control your mind, so when you want to be quiet, you can be quiet, when you want to think then you can think. You need to be able to command the thought process. The first thing you learn in Yoga is the management of the mind, that is Raj Yoga, the mental part of Yoga.
This evening I want you to journey into that space, I want you to go into that space where the mind becomes more and more quiet. And begin to reflect, ‘What am I seeing in this space? How am I feeling in this space?’ I am going to ask you to do a little exercise with me to bring the mind into a better space.
Chanting has repetition and what repetition does, it quiets the mind. We human beings can multi-task, so we can be chanting and also thinking about several things at the same time; we can be chanting with a wayward mind. When you are chanting, you actually have to listen to yourself chant; you have to keep your attention in the chanting. We can keep the beat, we can listen to the musical instruments and we can listen to the melodious voices and we are drawn into the music, so it is easier to quiet the mind.
Sounds Comes from the Deepest Space Inside
It is amazing what sound can do. In Yoga there is a science of sounds. I told you about the seven chakras from the base of the spine to the top of the head. When you chant and sing and you really begin to understand what is happening, you will actually feel that the sound you are creating begins from way down at the base of the spine. This energy that flows in the human being is called ‘Kundalini.’ There are seven centres connected with this energy: the base of the spine, the sacral area, the navel area, the heart, the throat, the brow and the crown of the head.
When I sing, it is not some words coming out of my mouth; it is like my whole being is involved in the creation of the sound. The sound begins from the base centre and when you are singing, the voice is involved, there is a vocal sound. The vocal part is coming from your lungs and through the throat, through the vocal organs, then coming through your voice and then creating sound waves.
Before the voice even began, a subtle aspect of sound began, the intention of singing and the spiritual source of sounds. When you begin to look at where sound originates, you will actually feel the sound is coming from deep below. That is how I feel when I sing. The sounds comes from the base of the spine then it goes to the sacred centre, then it comes to the navel centre and here the intentionality, the desire and power to sing comes, then the heart, then the throat and then comes the vocal expression.
There is so much more in singing than you think. When you begin to sing in a deeper way and you can feel the spiritual power of sound, you will actually feel the sound is coming from deep below. Even when I speak, I feel it. The sound of my voice is coming from the inner power deep down and it is coming up and finally through the throat. It is marvellous when you can observe this. As you chant begin to observe where sound is coming from. It is coming from the deepest space inside of you.
The Soul’s Consciousness
Is the soul’s consciousness apart from the body? The body is an organism that was born in the womb of the mother, just like an organ within her body. When it came out of her body, it was infused by a spirit. I read a book called ‘Life before Life’ and people were taken back in time, in many cases through hypnotic regression. For most of the cases they said they entered the body when was coming down the birth canal. The child lives in the body of the mother as an organ with organic life. For example, when someone is in a coma, you see organic life, you don’t see soul expression. The body continues to live and all the organs are functioning but the soul expression is not there.
The body has an organic life. It has a brain that is completely capable of functioning without the soul and the body can do everything without the soul’s consciousness. It is designed to operate in its own way. As you become more spirituality aware, this is not just an idea, it becomes a reality. This is how I experience my body. My body is the material part of me but the ‘I’ inside of me is different, it is spiritual.
How do you know your soul’s consciousness? It is that part of you that manifests infinite qualities or qualities of an infinite nature. We can feel peace inside of ourselves that has no end. As you go deeper in your meditation and as you journey beyond the mind, you will feel that your peace just extends and extends and there is no end to your peace. It is like a wave, an ever flowing ripple. The love has no end, the wisdom has no end and the joy and bliss have no end. It is infinite. Only your soul can possess that quality not your body.
When you begin to experience these qualities inside of you of infinite love, infinite peace, infinite wisdom, infinite joy, you are feeling your soul’s consciousness even whilst you are in the body. In the Hindu teaching when you are fully in this state, they call it ‘Jivanmukti.’ It is being free whilst living.
When you come to satsang that is where you go; you go deeper and deeper into your soul’s consciousness. You begin to feel a peace that you don’t normally feel outside. You begin to feel a love pouring out of you that is different. You begin to feel ideas flowing out of you intuitively and your wisdom is different. You begin to feel happiness inside that is different to material happiness, different to the happiness of possession, power and pleasure. That is your soul’s consciousness and where you are connected to a source of infinite power that we call ‘God.’
In your soul’s consciousness, you make this connection with God and that is a wonderful, wonderful place to be. This is the journey to satsang, a journey into the soul’s consciousness, a journey beyond the mind, and a journey to where qualities are of infinite nature, not limited like the human body. The human body is limited to pleasure and pain, limited to birth, aging, disease, death, and disability. That is what your human body is, but a part of you is beyond that. A part of you knows no disease, no decay, and no death. That part of you is your soul.
