Hari Om.
In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the Bhagavad
Gita, and Upanishads, a specific aspect of our life is discussed:
the effects and affects of the gunas. We are made up of three kinds of gunas:
tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. And I find that even when
we are in the ashram we suffer from the influence of these gunas.
Sometimes they become stronger than our own personality. And many of us get
caught up in the tamasic-rajasic guna of ego, desire, greed, hatred. And
we come to the ashram, to service, every Friday. If you are caught up in these gunas,
especially tamasic and rajasic, you are going to go nowhere, and
in that process pull down other people who might want to go somewhere on this
journey.
The difference between myself and you is
only this body and mind. And the similarity between myself and you is the self,
soul, or atma, and as you sit here you are the only you that is to be
found. Nobody is youer than you, and this is truer than true. Remember that.
And if you live in this you, and if this you is true, and if this truth is you,
then you are the self. You are an eternal being and you can live without any of
the gunas that we all suffer from in this life.
In the ashram, what I find to be the
greatest effect of the gunas is attitude. We seem to have a moody
attitude, and in that we suffer, and many suffer with you because of your
attitude. There's no point in doing extra special spiritual work here at the
ashram when your attitude on a scale of 0 to 10 remains at 0. You need to have
an attitude of 10, and that is clearly described in the Bhagavad Gita,
(2. 47-49) where we are told to have total evenness and equanimity of mind and
with that we can rise out of the physical body and enjoy the world around us
without being affected by the world around us. This is the state that we should
be in even if the gunas are affecting us. By being in this state we can
rise above the gunas and enjoy this kriya of life. This kriya of life is
the action that we put forward in life that can bring happiness, joy,
pleasantness, and pleasure to everyone around us. But often we lack that. We
just get out of a situation of total purity, beatitude and love, and get locked
in a situation of pain-creating. We do that.
Remember, yesterday finished last night and
today will finish just now. Tomorrow's just another day, a beautiful day.
Therefore you need to enjoy tomorrow, and not worry about yesterday or this
evening. In tomorrow you should not worry about today, for today will become
yesterday tomorrow. Always leave yesterday behind, but the gunas force
us to carry yesterday. We carry every situation in life. We just have to bring
up a topic then we have a situation. We just carry and carry. Only I am allowed
to carry situations for you so I can correct you every time they arise.
Expression of faces do not affect me at all
because I'm an individual living with and above my gunas. You are an
individual as well. Whether you are living with and above your gunas is
your decision, and your way of life. But the gunas will destroy you
including the sattvic guna. When you live a sattvic life, you
stand up on a pedestal and announce that you are sattvic. That is living
in a guna, and that is a state of ego as well. We should be living in
chapter 2 verses 47 and 48 of the Bhagavad Gita: equanimity of
mind.
We should live today and never worry about
what we are going to do tomorrow while standing here today. We need to do that.
There's nobody seated here who doesn't have a situation. But let your situation
be yesterday's and leave it there. Don't carry it to tomorrow. Some of us we
learn many aspects of the spiritual journey and as soon as we get into a
situation that seems better than this journey we drop this journey and take on
that situation. I've had many situations better than this journey on the
physical plane, but I have never had a situation better than this journey on
the spiritual plane. Nothing compares with this journey. You become eternal and
live in that union with God. And that union is all that is desired on this
journey. Life's journey begins at birth but it does not end at death. Just the
physical body ends at death. In the next birth this journey continues. As
Parmahansa Yogananda said, “If you are born in a painful situation it is
because you didn't finish your painful situation in your last life, and if you
did not finish it in this life it'll come back to you in the next life”. This
is because you are the creator of this painful journey - not God not nature,
not earth. You create this journey that is so painful.
You know that the journey is difficult yet
you don't take the necessary precautions. You go on the journey knowing full
well that it's difficult, and you get hurt and blame God for this difficult
time. God never asked you to buy a Mercedes Benz when a Taz is good enough.
When you can't pay for it you blame God, but you made the decision, not God.
You make your own decisions, but do not blame God, Nature or Mother Earth for
the outcome. We are fond of doing this - or the guru gets the blame. You say,
“If my car broke down guru didn't give the right time to take my car out,” or
“If I moved into a new house and I did not maintain the payments for the house,
when we moved in the priest gave the wrong time”. There's no such thing. You
create the situation when you make these purchases and don't remember all the
other payments you have in hand, then when you have to make all the payments at
the end of the month, they don't meet up. This is all attached to gunas, the
three gunas: sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. Live
not in your tamasic guna. Go through the rajasic guna and
just touch on the sattvic, then life will become a beautiful journey.
Hari om.
