Hari omFriday service is your appointment with God, where you will experience God. And if you don’t experience God during service then there is something wrong with you - because I sit here and experience God and see many others experience God too.
Other places have service on other days but here your appointment with God is on a Friday. My brother's son is getting married this weekend and this appointment with God was made before the wedding date was set. My appointment is here and this appointment will remain. This is a very important aspect of spirituality. This appointment with God is your spiritual sadhana. Your appointment upstairs in the yoga hall on a Saturday and Sunday morning and Monday evening is also your spiritual sadhana. You don’t do any other sadhana. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, 'Whatever you do, do it in my name'. Even when you are cooking, sing His name.
Spiritual sadhana in so important in our lives! But we find the simplest excuses: my child in not well – that is even more reason that you should be here! This is taking a toll on me in the sense that it worries me. I don’t have to sit here, I can sit in the kripa and enjoy myself instead. I know some of you are thinking, ‘But we are here today...’ Yes, today you are here but you won’t be here on another day. I have an appointment with God every night. I die into God every night. Only those who live in my house know I am up until two in the morning, and then up at five again to walk on the beach. To experience God, you have to see God in everything, living or not living.
And then we want to be somebody. If there is another function we want to be that 'somebody'. Become a nobody and you will become a godbody. As long as you want to become a somebody, you cannot be a godbody. We have too much attachment. This attachment is such a problem it is as though we are still stuck to the umbilical cord. As long as you are attached like that, you will go nowhere! The Bhagavad Gita says two things: 'surrender' and 'expect no fruits for your actions'. All eighteen chapters contain the word 'surrender'. Why? After you have finished reading the Bhagavad Gita, you must be hypnotised by the word 'surrender'!
We must make this Friday appointment with God a very important thing in our lives - because it is very important. Know this to be true! One day a miracle will happen and you will say, ‘The one time I didn’t come!’ There are many times when wonderful things have happened here and people come the next day and find out. Then they are disappointed. Why did they miss? What were their excuses? We had an experience in the top temple when Swami from Sri Lanka came and sat in the middle of the prayer - we have witnesses - but Swami was in Sri Lanka. How is that possible? Tammy wanted to give Him food and He said, ‘I don’t need this food where I am going.’ He walked out the gate and disappeared!
Ramona, myself and Dean went to Tiruvanamalai. We walked up Arunachala mountain. Ramona was walking fast up the hill and there she saw a sadhu sitting. She was so moved by him that she wanted to give Him her watch and he said, ‘Where I am going I don’t need a watch'. On the way back down another sadhu says to me me, ‘Hari Om Shankarananda’. I didn’t even know him. It was my first trip to Tiruvanamalai. Then we realised, this is God! Then Saras, Roy and Deepak had the opportunity of meeting Babaji in Badrinath. I will never forget the watch story or the ‘Hari Om Shankarananda’ story as these were the first experiences in India. The people who experienced these miracles are here today.
The most important thing to remember is become a nobody then you will be a godbody. If you are a somebody you have ego. As long as you float on the beautiful horse of ego you are holding the reins. One day those reins will snap and you will land on the ground.
Hari Om
EXCERPT FROM DISCOURSE ON 2 SEPTEMBER 2011.
Spiritual sadhana in so important in our lives! But we find the simplest excuses: my child in not well – that is even more reason that you should be here! This is taking a toll on me in the sense that it worries me. I don’t have to sit here, I can sit in the kripa and enjoy myself instead. I know some of you are thinking, ‘But we are here today...’ Yes, today you are here but you won’t be here on another day. I have an appointment with God every night. I die into God every night. Only those who live in my house know I am up until two in the morning, and then up at five again to walk on the beach. To experience God, you have to see God in everything, living or not living.
And then we want to be somebody. If there is another function we want to be that 'somebody'. Become a nobody and you will become a godbody. As long as you want to become a somebody, you cannot be a godbody. We have too much attachment. This attachment is such a problem it is as though we are still stuck to the umbilical cord. As long as you are attached like that, you will go nowhere! The Bhagavad Gita says two things: 'surrender' and 'expect no fruits for your actions'. All eighteen chapters contain the word 'surrender'. Why? After you have finished reading the Bhagavad Gita, you must be hypnotised by the word 'surrender'!
We must make this Friday appointment with God a very important thing in our lives - because it is very important. Know this to be true! One day a miracle will happen and you will say, ‘The one time I didn’t come!’ There are many times when wonderful things have happened here and people come the next day and find out. Then they are disappointed. Why did they miss? What were their excuses? We had an experience in the top temple when Swami from Sri Lanka came and sat in the middle of the prayer - we have witnesses - but Swami was in Sri Lanka. How is that possible? Tammy wanted to give Him food and He said, ‘I don’t need this food where I am going.’ He walked out the gate and disappeared!
Ramona, myself and Dean went to Tiruvanamalai. We walked up Arunachala mountain. Ramona was walking fast up the hill and there she saw a sadhu sitting. She was so moved by him that she wanted to give Him her watch and he said, ‘Where I am going I don’t need a watch'. On the way back down another sadhu says to me me, ‘Hari Om Shankarananda’. I didn’t even know him. It was my first trip to Tiruvanamalai. Then we realised, this is God! Then Saras, Roy and Deepak had the opportunity of meeting Babaji in Badrinath. I will never forget the watch story or the ‘Hari Om Shankarananda’ story as these were the first experiences in India. The people who experienced these miracles are here today.
The most important thing to remember is become a nobody then you will be a godbody. If you are a somebody you have ego. As long as you float on the beautiful horse of ego you are holding the reins. One day those reins will snap and you will land on the ground.
Hari Om
EXCERPT FROM DISCOURSE ON 2 SEPTEMBER 2011.
