Embodiments of Divinity
I continue to say that you could not have made a better choice than to be here this evening. We would like you to feel at home. We would like you to feel a part of a spiritual family. I am always happy to be in the company of those who are spiritual. I cannot think of spending a better evening than being with you this evening. When I look at you I see the manifestation of divinity that God can look at me through you. I see you as embodiments of divinity that the source of your being is divine and I treat you as such.
In satsang my joy would be that you can value yourself; that you can feel that you are divine; that your true self is divine; that you exist in the divine, because when you do, you will experience the ultimate security and all your needs will be fulfilled in the perfect way. We call our Saturday evening program ‘Satsang’ which means fellowship with truth. It can also translate to mean fellowship in truth, fellowship in God, fellowship in divinity, fellowship in divine love.
My greatest joy is to see that you are nourished by our program this evening and that your minds will be renewed; bodies will be revitalised; good aspirations will be strengthened; confusion will disappear; and your ego or your consciousness of ‘I’ will be centred in the best space inside of you.
We can also call our evening program ‘a journey to God within, or to the Divine within or to the Self within.’ Wouldn’t it be fitting that we acknowledge that Power that is our goal or destination, that we acknowledge the Creator of Life, the Source of all Abundance, the Source of all Wisdom as we begin?
Sadgurus – Divinity in Humanity
I think that the greatest blessings we have on this earth are those who live in the light, those who carry the truth with them in their awareness and manifest it in action; that we can see the power of God manifest in and through the hearts of human beings. For me that is the greatest blessing; that we can experience divinity in humanity; that we can see human beings carry divine strength by making that inner connection.
The Hindus call such beings ‘Sadgurus.’ Whatever the tradition, whatever the roots may be, they come from all walks of life. The Sadguru can be a farmer, a shoemaker, a teacher, a doctor, the profession does not matter. They have been enlightened souls who live in the light from all walks of life. We can say that they are the salt of the earth. They are the strength of our earth. My greatest blessings have been meeting one of those and being touched by them and experiencing the relationship in embracing that person as my teacher.
I invite you to express gratitude and love to such beings. They do not ask for anything from us but they have everything to give. This is what makes them great. I ask you to join with us as we celebrate these people who are the salt of the earth; who allow us to experience the goodness of God in human form.
The Guru Principle
It is said in the beautiful book ‘Sri Guru Gita’ that the world ‘Guru’ is ‘Mantraraj,’ which means the King of Mantras. If you add ‘Om’ to it, it becomes ‘Om Guru, Om Guru, Om Guru.’ This is a mantra that is very dear to me.
When I think of Guru I do not just think of a human being, I think of that divine light that shines through the human being that we call ‘Guru.’ The light that is called ‘Guru Tattwa,’ the principle inside the person; it is not the human form.
There is Guru Tattwa not only in these enlightened beings; there is Guru Tattwa in you. There is a Guru inside of you, and the purpose of the outer Guru in human form is to guide you inside of you to your own Guru. Any true Guru will guide you to the inner Guru. Any person who claims to be a spiritual teacher or Guru and makes you dependent upon them wants only your praise or your money or your time - you need to be careful. A true teacher who carries this Guru Tattwa will want nothing from you. They would not want to make you a servant or be dependent on you. Such teachers live in freedom; they give but they do not ask of you. Those are the true ones.
This Guru Principle is not only the human being or inside of you but it is in the whole Universe. This Principle can guide you to another person; it can guide you to a book, and it can guide you through a dream. It seems to be everywhere in the Universe. We say there is a Universal Guru, that the Universe, the Cosmic Being or that which we call ‘God’ is the Supreme Guru. So there is a Guru within you. There is a Guru within human beings who are enlightened or live in the light and then there is a Cosmic Being, God who controls the events of life, who is the Supreme Guru. So, we can learn from the person outside. We can learn from inside of us and we can learn from the Universe around us, and that is Guru.
When you really understand Guru, it is not just a human being, it is that part of us inside that can teach us from within; it is that which teaches us through human beings who live in the light; and it is that Universal Power that can teach us from all kinds of events.
The mantra ‘Om Guru’ is a very powerful mantra; it has so many blessings when you repeat it. When I guide people to repeat it, I say, ‘Guru means a call to the light to remove darkness.’ In the Guru Gita one of the verses said ‘Gu’ stands for darkness and ‘ru’ for light, so Guru means the remover of darkness; the light that removes the darkness. Guru is a call to the light when you say ‘Om Guru, Om Guru, Om Guru’; you are calling the light to take away the darkness from within you.
We Need to Embrace the Good Continuously
I want to say to you that darkness, evil and negativity are part of our world. As long as you live in the material existence darkness and light will exist. This material existence is said to be dual existence, which means if there is light there is darkness; if there is male there is female; if there is east there is west; if there is up there is down; if there is positive there is negative. That is the nature of human existence. There are certain things you would not be able to avoid: you cannot die nor can you avoid aging. We may look at them as negative but that is a part of life. Evil surrounds us every day and we need to see that it is a part of existence and there are going to be negative and evil people around.
What is important is what we choose to embrace. You can choose to embrace evil thoughts, evil intentions that may eventually express themselves in your actions; whenever you think of hurting someone, whether it is emotionally or physiologically or physically, that constitutes evil, hurt destruction and pain. Within our own being we may see the existence of evil, the intention to destroy. We can choose to embrace it or we can choose to detach ourselves from it and embrace something different, to embrace good.
Sometimes you may eat wrong food, think of hurting yourself, overworking, over stressing, be negative towards your own body, negative towards yourself and think, ‘I am not destroying or hurting anybody,’ but you have been self-destructive. You are hurting trillions of cells in your body. This body has intelligence. All these little cells inside of us carry identities; they are like little beings, and we can be self-destructive to them. It is a choice. We can choose to embrace that or we can choose to be different. We can choose to express good.
We can choose to be non-violent. We can choose to detach ourselves from intentions that are evil or we can choose to move away from people who are evil or, we can choose not to think continuously of people who are evil. There is a saying that we become what we think: ‘As we think so we are.’ There is a Biblical statement that says: ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ Imagine if you are thinking of evil people all the time what you are embracing in your heart.
Can we choose every day not to embrace evil thoughts and intentions and not to associate with those who are evil-minded or negative or destructive and to embrace that which is good, that which preserves life, that which respect lift? It is a choice.
Though there is the existence of evil in the world, there is also the existence of good, and we can choose. This evening you have chosen to come to satsang. You have not chosen to overwork, overeat, over drink. You have not chosen to put stress or pain upon another person. You have chosen to come into a different space where you want to think good. There is a saying: ‘Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.’ We should embrace that. We need to embrace the good continuously. Here you learn to do that joyfully. Here you feel clean and pure in your being; you feel cleansed of stressful and negative thoughts and the atmosphere seems different. I have been striving to guide your thoughts into a more positive space. Mantras and singing allow me to do that with you and meditation and speaking to you allow me to do that with you.
Adversity exists in the world. Sometimes when it comes to us uninvited and we cannot avoid it, we need to see what the lesson is. Is there a lesson, is there a teaching in it when we cannot avoid it and it enters our lives? You may live with someone who is negative or destructive and you cannot avoid it. You need to think, ‘What is the lesson?’ Because there is always a lesson.
Choose the good. Move away that which is negative.
We Need to Claim our Divinity
When you go to a satsang, the goal is to get into that divine space. That is the goal and the fruit of the satsang, to be transported into a different space where you feel different, where you feel you are in a heavenly realm and where you feel you are dancing with the gods, the goddesses, and the angels.
We need to claim our divinity, not just to think that we are physical human beings. We need to claim our divinity that ‘there is a light within me, there is a Divine Self within me, there is a part of me that is connected to God, to the purity, the peace, the love.’ We need to claim that and believe in that. That is the essence of spiritual life, that there is a part of us beyond the physical. It will live beyond the physical and it is connected to a Divine Source. We need to remember that not only when we sit to pray; we need to remember that in every moment, especially when faced with negative situations and negative people. We need to remember ‘there is a divine space in me; I am not going to react in a barbaric, inhumane or animalistic way. I am going to react from a divine space, from peace and love.’ We need to remember that.
