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1.1.1 FNS

You know, in this world, there are many different experiences that the human being may have. Some of those experiences are very joyous and some are very sad. Some are very pleasurable and some are very painful. This is the nature of temporal experience. It is both pleasurable and painful. In it the very source of your pleasure becomes also the source of your suffering. This is life in the worldly sphere where pleasure and pain are brought into existence through your environment with the physical Universe which time bound. It is time bound, that means it is temporal. It is here today and it is gone tomorrow. What you enjoy, what you favor, what you cherish is here today and gone tomorrow. So today it is the source of your pleasure and tomorrow is the source of your pain. Your good health, your well-being , all of these things are the gift of God, you have them for a time and then they are gone. So all of those things in this world to which you cling for your well-being are temporary. They will be here for a short time and then they will be gone forever. So you see if you look at life from a temporal view, the very things which you desire and which you seek after as to fulfill your happiness may become the source of your sorrow. And this is the cycle of samskara, the wheel of human life in which pleasure and pain, pleasure and pain come and go, come and go. And ultimately all the attachments, all the desires that you have lead to suffering. This is the nature of temporal existence. But this is not the nature of the Divine.

The nature of the Divine is ever blissful, ever self-resplendent. So you see if the consciousness, if the mind becomes established in Divine Consciousness instead of the worldly desires, then one will ultimately get blessedness, rather than ultimately gain pain and suffering. So if you want to come out of the cycle of pleasure and pain and achieve the lasting happiness, lasting joy, then you will have to pursue that which is not time bound, that which is not time bound, that which is not temporal, that which is lasting, beyond all temporal phenomena. And what is lasting, beyond all temporal phenomena, what is beyond the scope of time, what shelter may you have for your being which will keep you safe, which will not let you down, which will be there even at the time of your physical death? What shelter can you have through thick and thin, through pain and joy in this physical world, what shelter can be unending, can hold you and never let you down, never bring you to suffering. The only shelter that will keep you being free from the natural cycle of pleasure and pain, which will not ultimately lead to suffering is something which is eternal, which is not . . . (73), which will not change, which will not become source of suffering, because it is never going to go away. And what is this? It is only one thing which so eternal and that is Divinity itself. The Divine is unending, eternal, always with you. He will not go away, and when you are in your darkest hour, He will be with you. So you are never alone, nor are you helpless if you turn your heart and your mind towards the Divine. Take your shelter, your safety, your security in the Divine Entity and in no lesser expression.

That Divine Entity is expressing within you, in the core of your heart and is manifesting all around you in the play of creation. He merely appears to be so many different people, so many different experiences. If you are taken in His play, then that play itself will be ultimately the cause of your suffering. But if you see through the play to who is the dreamer, who is dreaming the dream, to what is the essential nature of that which you love, of that which you feel you need, then you will see that it is Him in all the lovely colors and forms of this creation that you are searching for, that you are holding near and dear. Recognize Him in all that you love and then you will see, that though the forms may change, the outer shells fall away. That which you love is eternal, that which you love in those that are near and dear is eternal. It does not change, it does not die, it does not go away. If you cling to that which is truth within that which is temporal, you will find that you have found a true shelter. But if you cling to outer forms , you will find that they shift and they change, because they are bound by time. And they will fade away and you will be left weeping. So if you wish to find true shelter for yourself, find your shelter in that which is not time bound, in that which is eternal, in Parama Purusha, in the Supreme. Take your shelter in that One who resides in the very core of your heart , take your welfare and your shelter in that One. And in those that you love, in that which you search for, see that is Him that you love, it is Him you search for, in those that are near and dear to you, it is Him that you love, for it is His loveliness, His beauty, His sweetness shining through in so many different forms. And when you have grown fond of someone and you are attached to that person, to whom are you attached? You are attached to that Great Entity, for that Entity has found expression in a human being, in all the myriad of expressions of this manifest Universe. But if you find your attachment to this expression , you will be hurt, in the end you will be hurt. But if you find your attachment to Him alone, who is manifest in all the colors and forms, then you will not be hurt. You will be sheltered for eternity. So that which you love in those who are near and dear is Him alone, that which you seek to achieve in your life, is for Him alone, that which you are fond of is for that Divinity alone. And that which you are within is Divinity, deep in the core of your being. It is your essence. So He is within you and He is in all those who you love and all of those experiences which you grasp for and you desire, He is there.

And what it is you are grasping for, when you grasp the world, when you hold, what it is you are searching , what it is you are seeking to find? It is the Divinity you are seeking to find, it is the Divinity you are seeking in all the experiences of this temporal world. But having become a bit confused like that. You think you are searching for this experience, for that person, for this type of phenomena. But in all those things which you are trying to achieve, which you feel you want to have in your life, it is that Divinity alone you are truly searching for. And it is that Divinity alone which will satisfy you. Because if you achieve those roles for which the mind is desiring and you have what you desire, what will happen? It is the very nature of mind to be restless, to move. Movement is the natural

faculty of mind. And so when the desires are achieved, all the objects brought to you, that people whom you love brought to you, all of these material desires, worldly desires, family desires, are fulfilled. When you have achieved the work that you desire, when you have done all of these things, what will you have left? You will have only Him. For He is the One whom you truly desire. And when all of these desires are fulfilled, if you do not have Him, if you do not have that Divine One, you will still feel the emptiness. The mind will still wish to move and new desires will form. And you will again be searching for those same, 'I am not complete, I am not whole, until I have achieved this, until I have found that, until this person comes to my life'. But in fact, this is not the case. You are whole as you are here and now. Within you lies the Great, within you lies Divinity that is beyond the touch of the time. Within you lies Greatness beyond comprehension. It is the treasure of your own nature. In that you are fulfilled, you are complete, you are whole. And all those things which you search for to make yourself whole, recognize what you are searching for in truth. You are searching for that which is essential and you may see it in another person, you may see it in a sort of experiences. But you are seeing, you are seeing the Divinity, the light of the Divine shining through the various people and objects and material existence's. And that Divinity that is shining through is the essential Divinity, the essential nature of your own self. It is within you and it is all around you. Take your shelter, your home in that Divinity and then you will find true happiness.

Now, are there are any questions?

Q: I have a question. On the spiritual path, it is being said that . . .

I am wondering how you know when you surrender to the Divine or when you surrender to your Ego. It seems that it sometimes is hard to tell what the difference is?

This is a very good question. To know the difference between what is it you are surrendering to, are the desires of the Ego-mind, are this the little-self, are the desires and concepts of the little person or is it the Great within you. It is at times difficult subjectively to distinguish. But there are certain guidelines which you may apply.

First of all, there must be a difference between that which is eternally experienced and that which is externally experienced. But the difference is in the quality of the experience. That is to say, if there is a person who has an internal experience or intuition and they feel they should follow a particular course, then they may in fact, follow that course and the results will be beneficial. But if the same person should look to the external world and do the signs and significance of events to predicate which action to take, then that person is relying upon the rational skills that are developed through the mental faculty. It is a rational approach.

So intuitional approach and rational approach are not identical. Intuitional approach is superior to rational approach, but there must be keen discrimination between experiences, there must be keen discrimination which comes from the development of pinnacled intellect, that is to say refined perception. This refine perception is the key, it is like a door key. It is the key to intuitional acuity. Through it you may distinguish what is of the Ego and what is truly Divine inspiration. You develop this capacity through refined perception or discrimination, through honest self-reflection. It is an ability that comes through the development of truthfulness. If you are true in what you say, what you do and what you think, you will be honest with yourself. And from this honesty you may develop discrimination or refined perception. And this capacity allows you to distinguish what is of the Ego and what is Divine. The more you utilize the intuitional flow, the stronger it becomes, like a muscle that is flexed in exercises, it grows in capacity. If you never use due to fear, it will grow weak and remain undeveloped. When a child first

learns to walk, they are bound to fall from time to time, yet slowly step by step, this skill is developed. Like this you begin walking in the subtle sense. So there are those that fool themselves thinking, it is intuition when it is merely the desire of the mind, but there are others who suppress their intuition in fear that they will make mistake. This too is incorrect approach. So for a balanced approach intuition should be utilized, but discrimination honed and applied as well. So there is both rational approach and intuitional approach and both are there. There is a strong development in the psychic sphere and best results are had.

Now I have one other statement that I will like to make. There are many people who think that spirituality is something apart from day to day life, something not for everyone. But I would say that spirituality is not only a part and parcel of day to day life, it is essential in daily life. For spirituality means spirit. Spirituality is that which uplifts the human spirit. So make it part and parcel of each and every day, be a spiritualist twenty-four hours a day.