Topics:
Living in Freedom
Managing the Mind
The Healing Power Within
Healing Meditation
Living in Freedom
I am always very happy when you choose to spend your evening in satsang. There is no better place that you can be. As you are aware that life is not an easy place, being in this world is not an easy place. It is constantly challenging and you never know what is going to happen the next day or sometimes the next moment.
This challenge, challenges you to go to a deeper place inside that you can deal with whatever is coming to you. That is the reason why you are here this evening; that you may go into your inner space and discover the power that lies within you.
We continue to think in terms of weakness, ‘I am not good enough, I cannot do this, I am a failure, I am worthless, I am helpless,’ when in truth you are none of these. We have forgotten the great power that lies within us. The mind and emotions control us and we have lost our true power. You battle every day with thoughts, emotions and desires forgetting how free you are. Happiness is already inside of you. Peace is already inside of you. It is not something that you have to acquire like a commodity; it is a place inside of you that continuously exists that you only need to become aware of it. It is only a matter of shifting awareness. Look at it a different way. The moment you catch it, you begin to experience the freedom, and joy comes naturally, love comes naturally and energy comes back to you.
Will you stop telling yourself the limited stories of how weak, helpless, ignorant and unworthy you are? You deserve a better story. You are born of the spirit, you are of the spirit. Remind yourself of that very powerful story that you are a spiritual being in a human experience. You are worthy of happiness. You are child of the Universe. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be free. Do not be trapped in the mind. Do not let thoughts lead you all over. You are master of the mind.
I have told you the story of the little lion thinking how it was a sheep. It was so caught up in sheep thinking unaware that it was a lion and it took another lion that was outside of the sheep consciousness to wake up the poor lion to its reality. Are you in sheep consciousness? Haven’t all the divine beings saints and sages said to us that we are divine, we are part of God, we were born of divinity?
Whatever you thought of during the day, let go of it. As you sit here, think differently. Dive deeply into yourself to feel the happiness of your soul. As you listen to me, as you meditate and as you sing with me, dive deep within your being to feel that happiness that is there and to feel the freedom that you have as a spiritual being in a human experience. You need to live in freedom in every moment; freedom to take charge of your own destiny. You don’t have to do what another person says; you can follow your own heart.
Life is not difficult; you don’t need very much in life. We have lots of wants but you don’t need very much. That is one thing I learned very early in my life and it gave me such a powerful sense of freedom that all I need is a few suits of clothes, a decent shelter and a couple meals every day and that doesn’t require much. I always thought I can do anything to get that. So, I don’t need to be caught up in any place. I don’t need to be trapped in anyone’s desire. I need to be free. And that is the freedom in which I live.
What was most important to me was finding myself and being in my state of power and being totally independent of people’s thinking. It doesn’t matter what anybody says, it is what I know inside my heart. God dwells within me. God dwells within us all; knowing that truth is the most important thing in life. That is where your true power lies.
Don’t give away your power to other people, don’t become slaves, go inside and discover your own power and live in the freedom of your spirit. That is what life is all about. We should be happy in every moment of every day. Don’t wait to be happy. It is already within you. Try to wake up with it. It is already within you.
My wish is that this evening as you listen to me and as you engage in this journey to spirit with me that you would enjoy every moment of our togetherness, because, it is all about manifesting the light that is inside of us.
We live in a community of different religious traditions and this evening let us honour them.
Managing the Mind
The challenge in spiritual life or I would say the challenge in ordinary life is learning how to manage the mind and to make the mind quiet. Notice how noisy our minds are, it is always on the go. How can you ever appreciate or understand what is behind the mind if the mind is constantly busy? How much time do you spend in quieting the mind that you may understand what is behind the mind?
One of the great masters of yoga, Patanjali, said that the gift of yoga comes to you when the mind becomes completely silent. You make that connection with your divine self when the fluctuations of the mind stop. This is what he said.
Are you able to make your mind really quiet so you can feel the peace that is behind the mind, that you may experience the joy that is behind the mind? A lot of seekers spend hours upon hours just trying to quiet the mind to even think of nothing as a way of jumping beyond the mind, transcending the mind. This evening, that is where I would like you to be.
Let us bring the mind into a state of quietness, into a state of silence that we may feel a tremendous peace that is at the back of the mind. I am going to invite you to bring the mind into a place of silence and that is a choice you have. That is a choice you need to exercise. The mind is so habituated to thinking that if you don’t exercise that choice, the mind will continue to think. I want you to use your power of choice to make the mind silent as an invitation to experience that which is behind the mind. I want you to joyfully do it. This, we will do by singing.
Singing has that wonderful ability to transform the mind and make it peaceful. Even though you are engaged in song, you can feel the depth of peace within you as the song flows through you. But you really have to observe what is happening when you are singing. Observe where the voice is coming from. Observe how you can sing and look at yourself at the same time. Observe how you can sing from a loving space. Observe how you can sing from a peaceful place. If you begin that observation as you sing, your singing will be different; your singing will be an expression of peace and love. When you are singing, you would not want to think of anything else. You would be so engaged in looking at yourself singing and enjoying what is flowing through you, that you would not want to think of anything else. That is how I sing. It is a wonderful expression of energy that brings quietness inside and allows you to observe what is happening inside of you.
The Healing Power Within
I have been saying to you that you are a spiritual being and you are really a being of light. Love and energy flow through you, through your eyes, voice, hands and through your presence. The deeper you are in your spiritual being, the more energy flows. Everything you touch is influenced by that energy. Everything you look at and everyone you speak to is influenced by that energy. That is the power that you have.
When you direct this energy to a person, like in prayer, you can bring healing to them. When you think of someone and you direct your thoughts to them, you direct your intentions to them, you direct your love to them, you are actually sending healing energy to lift that person.
When you direct it towards your own body cells and organs, you are bringing healing to you. How many times we are focused on other people and not ourselves. The simple intention of saying to your body ‘I love you’, the simple intention that you express ‘I love you my stomach, I love you my liver or I love you my heart’, goes a long way in keeping your organ healthy. It may seem childish but it is not. It has a very powerful healing principle and that is of intention.
If you hold an image of you saying, ‘I am healthy’ or if the body is sick and you say ‘I am healing’, you are actually influencing your body to heal. That is the power you have. The more centred you are in your spiritual being, the more you would believe this as a possibility. Those who are centred in their spirit believed that they can heal themselves. Their belief goes a long way in awakening the healer inside of us. Can you believe that you can lift yourself to another level of vitality? Can you believe that? Can you tell yourself that you are healthy until you believe it? No matter what is the condition of your vitality, if you tell yourself ‘I am healthy, I am healing, I am energised’ and you say it with every breath you take and you do it with the power of belief, you will be amazed at the transformation that can take place in minutes within you. That is the healing principle.
You need to learn how to use the power of your own spirit, your own spiritual power to bring healing within you. Our bodies consist of trillions of tiny little beings we call cells. These cells are influenced by whatever we think and whatever we have in our minds and by our intentions and attention.
Let us use this power we have to bring healing into our body. Let us spend a few minutes in healing meditation.
Healing Meditation
Let us close our eyes that we may give attention to the body. Let us come to a space of silence that we may enter the sacred space of our spirit. And let us remember that we are spiritual beings in a human experience. We are beings of the light. With every breath we take, we bring healing energies into our bodies. We bring vitality that is called prana or chi.
Breathe out slowly, emptying and cleansing and breathe in slowly and observe how you feel. As you breathe out, you cleanse the lungs and as you breathe in you bring vitality into the body. Breathe slowly out and slowly in being fully present. Think of your body as having trillions of tiny little beings called cells. The warmth that you feel is from those cells. Extend your loving body feeling to your body cells. Say to your body, ‘I love you my body, you are God’s gift to me, I love you my every cell, you are so precious to me’. Say this with feeling to your body - ‘I love you my body, you are God’s gift to me, I love you my every cell, and you are so precious to me’.
Take a moment to give personal attention to the vital organs within you – to the heart, liver, stomach, lungs, and brain. And feel the joy of loving your own physical being. Feel the joy within you. Each time you breathe out, feel you are breathing stress away, and feel you are breathing disease away. And each time you breathe in, feel you are breathing in vitality, you are breathing in energy into your being - pain is going away, stress is going away and disease is going away. If there is any part of your body that is challenged with illness, give it a lot of your attention and your love, saying to that part of your body how much you love it and affirm that it is healing. And hold your entire body into a loving space, a healing space. Feeling your body revitalised with every breath you take and feeling the power of positive thought - ‘I love you my body, I love you my every cell’, breathing away stress, breathing away disease and breathing in vitality, healing energy.
Let us open our minds and hearts to embrace everyone in our gathering today and to hold everyone in a loving space praying for their well-being. May everyone be happy, may everyone be healthy, may everyone be free of disease, and may those who are challenged return to perfect health. Express these intentions towards those around you and feel the joy of giving, the joy of loving and wishing others well. Feel you are an instrument of the divine, sharing the power of the divine within you with those around you.
Beloved God, we thank You for Your healing presence with us. May Your love bring emotional healing to us. May Your peace bring rest to our minds. May Your healing energy make us whole again. Thank You for Your healing grace. Thank You Beloved Creator of Life. Peace, peace, peace.
