Sri.K.C.Srihari

Dear Brothers and sisters

On this auspicious occasion of Basant panchami in the 142^nd year of Lalaji Era, I wish you all a happy new year. I have been asked to speak on this occasion and today I would like to share some thoughts with you on the topic of orientation. Most of the times when I meet abhyasis or people who follow the system by following routine practices, they ask me how to develop orientation or how to increase orientation? We also heard this term orientation quite a few times in the celebrations ‘please be oriented, please keep silent’. So, the hint is the second part of the sentence. ‘Please be silent’ that is part of the orientation process. Orientation does not come from looking outside, orientation comes from looking within. Let me give a broad idea what is orientation? What exactly is it? You are oriented to what? You need to have some sort of a goal before you to orient towards it. If you don't have a goal where is the question of orienting towards something? So have a goal and in our system the goal is Commandment 3 – “Fix up your goal which should be complete oneness with God. Rest not till the ideal is achieved” When we use this term complete oneness, people forget this term ness they keep the one in their head and they think somebody is there, and he has to become one with Him. If you are going to be one with Him then what happens to Him? So, we need to have oneness with Him. In what sense? Are we going to get some siddhis or are we going to get some powers, what are we going to get? We are going to get balance, that is our goal. We want to become balanced, and what is causing us from being balanced is our unbalanced mental tendencies. So nobody is at fault for this, we are the ones who are at fault for not keeping divinity in our heart or not being aware of it I should say. Divinity is there in us, in all of us, people who are sitting today here as well as those outside at any place. Divinity is there everywhere. He is in our heart also but we need to be aware of it. We need to be oriented towards that divinity. So when I look up the dictionary one of the definitions of orientation is given as ‘the function of mind involving awareness of three dimensions time, space and person’. If you adapt it to our system, Rev. Babuji puts it as “an abhyasi should be one who is blind to the charms of the world, is inspired with one object and one purpose and thinking all the while of that alone which may be helpful to him in the attainment of the ideal. His own inner light helps him a great deal in the path”. This is what I want to stress, our own inner light that we have, which is working in us, which is trying to transform us, kindly be in tune with it or kindly try to be aware of it all times at all places under all circumstances. It is not that you go in the morning, meditate then get up and go to office, forget about what you did in the meditation, come back in the evening, do some cleaning and forget about that. Don't make it as a, what we call verticals in terms of computer language, but have it so that it percolates throughout the day.  Once you are aware of divinity in you throughout the day then you become oriented naturally. Most of us understand what I say. My Revered guide puts it we all have the information that we are all oriented. But do we have the knowledge that we are oriented? Information and knowledge are two different things. When information becomes processed it becomes knowledge, and knowledge when it is associated with feeling it becomes understanding.  So we have to understand the divine light working in us, try to be, not try to know. As one of my brothers was saying just now during lunch time that mind grasps divine thoughts but ejects all other things. So what are divine thoughts it is grasping. Don’t try to figure out what it is. That is the itch of the mind that is what I am trying to explain and my brother Murari was giving very nice example of sage Narada who was asked to take a pot of oil from one place to another and keeping his mind on the divine. But he was more concerned about whether oil will spill, whether roads are slippery, what will Krishna think of me, all these things. Similarly we should be doing our job but there is inner awareness that we all have and that is the idea of orientation. When we are not in tune with the divine light or we don't feel it at other times other than the meditation, we are away from the thought of our Master, thereby our orientation suffers. Rev. Dr.K.C. Varadachari garu says "All bondage is due to uncognized and unconscious and un thought out activity and to lift all actions to the level of consciousness means to inhibit consciously all actions connected with such actions having their play in an autonomous fashion." What he is telling us is we let all our senses go in different directions. My eyes want to see some nice picture, it wants to enjoy.  I want to spend my time in some party, these are all the things and we give various reasons.  The social reasons, whatever be the reasons we are not going to discuss now, but reason is these sense objects are trying to get their happiness from outside, where as it is something that is internal. As it was explained in the morning, happiness is something that gives us health by not looking outside, try to look inside. It is incumbent upon us to be conscious of our senses going in different directions. We need to be careful and this Pratikulya varjanam has to be done very diligently. This includes abhyasis whom we think are our friends, sometimes they themselves might drag us. See whether they are talking the system or not and try to become associated with them.  Just because they are in our system does not mean they are following the system very seriously.  Use intelligence, use the brain and see how much of the Master they are talking about. If they are talking anything else they are not conducive. If they are talking about the system, about the Master, they are conducive. Few people I know here have the habit of speaking only about the Master. Other people also vouch for that whenever we are speaking to him only about Master. Nothing else. That is orientation. 24/7 అదే ధ్యాస ఉండాలిమనకి. ఫ్రీగా ఉన్నప్పుడల్లా ఆయన గురించే అనుకోవాలి. When we start for driving from home to work what do we do? We just go, so many posters come, so many traffic vehicles come and we get diverted from the thought of the Master. But, if you give a suggestion before starting that Master is with me and start, most likely you will be in that thought till you reach the place. Then you will have some work that you have to do, but I am very sure every body will go get their own cup of coffee or they go and get cup of tea before starting their work.  Instead of that or after that, my suggestion would be, is to take a page out of any book like Showers of Divine Grace, Silence Speaks. What ever Babuji's work you like, pick one page spend two minutes, be aware of the divine light then start your work. That means your current of being aware of divine light is always continuing, you are not breaking it in between. He is there always with us is what I am trying to stress. All I am exhorting is to be aware of it more and more. But this does not seem to be possible for us; we don't seem to be able to do by ourselves. This control of senses, this control of mind that is going all over the place that doesn’t seem to be something that helps us.

The saying of the Master from day before yesterday on 2nd February guides us in this aspect which says “The right sort of training is when the abhyasi mental tendencies are diverted towards god. This is our philosophy of our training and also the foundation” as was told in the Basic writings of SriRamchandra. So what happens is since we are not able to do, this gift of Lalaji Maharaj presented to us as Pranahuti is what is helping us.  So try to make as much use of it as possible so that our tendencies of mind start turning inward rather than outward.  So in our system this is done by the influx of Pranahuti. We have to be oriented first to the Pranahuti that is being poured in to us. This is possible only with the attitude of alertness and yielding towards the master in his form and person who is offering it to us. Pranahuti is not something that comes to us from the sky, it has been cleared in Pranahuti booklet, ISRC also has been doing a very diligent job saying that it is not some mystical force, but it is an act of will of a capable person who has got certain amount of control over his senses.  So there are two words of alertness and yielding towards the person who is transmitting that needs to be carefully understood. Lot of times when we sit for meditation, before the person says start meditation, we are already in our own world. Whomever we tried to explain this, we explained but this is another opportunity for us to tell. Please wait till the person says start meditation before you start. Don't be in your own happy place and forget the transmission that is coming to us. The need for orientation increases all the more at higher stages. The higher you go the steeper you fall. The longest of snakes are present at the higher of stages in the game of life, if you have played it.  Most likely the longest snake is somewhere at the 100 and above level and you fall somewhere at 20 or 13. The only thing that can keep us from slipping is to have our attention on the Master. This is what orientation is. Under all circumstances we need to have our orientation only on that one Master who is helping us. Not to deviate our attention from him under any circumstance. He is the only God and power to bring us up to that stage, we say it in our prayer, but feel it in your heart with certain conviction, then we can face whatever our troubles tribulations are - changes in life, family issues, financial issues, whatever it is, this rudder keeps you steady. If you lose this then there will be signs where you will be away from sadhana, you will not go to satsangh, you will not go to sitting, because you have chosen to forget him citing some problems. He has never left you, we are choosing to forget Him. He is always in us. All that we can do is we can become deserving of His grace. So your regularity in sadhana, your meditations, your taking sittings all this is for one purpose only and that is that you become deserving of his grace. ఆయన కృపకి అర్హులము కావాలంటే ఇవన్నీచేయాల. మెడిటేషన్ కాని పాయింట్ ‘బి’ కాని.  ఏ అపవిత్రమైన ప్లేస్ లోకాని భగవంతుడు రాడు. పాయింట్ ‘బి’ ఎందుకు చేయాలా అంటే ఆయన కూర్చోవాల నామనస్సులో అంటే నా మనస్సు క్లీన్ గా వుండాలకదా! If I have to clean my heart to offer a place for divinity to enter, I have to do point B meditation, Yesterday Prabhakar was speaking about meditational charts so I don’t want to enter into that explanation. So, how do we know that our orientation is improving? I thought I could share a few of points with respect to how one can say his orientation is improving.  When we improve our regularity in sadhana, regularity in sadhana means attending satsanghs, taking sittings regularly, doing your meditations properly. Why we take sittings or why we attend satsanghs is for our meditations to become better. Our system is the commandments. Our commandments are to be implemented in day to day life, for us to become embodiment of commandments, for us to display those commandments in work, we have to do the meditations. Since we are not able to do meditations ourselves and our meditational thoughts go all over the place, we take the assistance of the master only. It is the master only who helps us; he is the only god and power to bring us up to his stage. When we sit in satsangh before time, I mean before the satsangh starts we are already in our own creation. Most of these things are simple etiquettes I am telling, but they also increase our orientation, with a yielding attitude towards the master who is going to offer pranahuti. When we go for satsangh whoever is the trainer offering it, he is the Master in His form and person and is offering pranahuti at that point of time. So we need to have a yielding attitude. No water flows from low to high.  If you go sit on some roof top and say pour pranahuti on me, it will not come. You have to yield to the pranahuti offered by the trainer. Another thing that develops as a result of orientation is your discipline.  A disciple is the one who obeys the commandments of the master without questioning them. If you love the master you will obey Him, that is what love means otherwise there is no question of love. ‘I love my master, but this problem is there’ does not fit into the vocabulary of love. Another thing where we can say we can evaluate our orientation is in mundane life. If someone important is coming we go to the station may be half an hour before, 45 minutes before and then waiting to receive them much in advance. Here it is God himself who is coming, should we not show 1000 times more regard and respect for the God who is coming? Similarly what I appeal to people when they come for satsanghs is have a yielding attitude towards the divinity that is entering in to your hearts.  So that the orientation towards the divinity is present before the start of meditation. Yielding is fundamental. Satsangh or individual sitting is not an on/off switch, that you come at 6.30 and it ends at 7 and you get up and go or at 8 to 9, when they say start meditation you start and that is it. There is before preparation and after preparation. There is preparation before of yielding and contemplation after that is needed. What has been poured into you, if you do some contemplation.

There are three things necessary to progress in sadhana. One is sravana, second is manana, third is nidhidyasa.  Sravana we are hearing the sound of silence in our hearts for one hour. Manana - be in that thought as long as possible without trying to get disturbed or trying to indulge in idle gossip. Nidhidyasa, contemplate or orient yourself more and more by reading the books. In this respect I would like to share as how to have orientation during bhandaras, during individual sittings and orientation to Master’s of the order. All these three things I would stress a little bit more as I progress. Orientations in Bhandaras - one of the things that we stress is try to be more and more in the thought of the Master. This can happen when you are in silent and you don’t gossip. We had given handouts a few years ago during celebrations, there used be about 6 to 7 points as what could help you to better orienting yourself.  Less gossip, turning off cell phones, these things we used to tell. But our mental itch is such that the moment we say we adjourn for breakfast we will just go and talk something. That seems to be our inclination. So, try to feel more and more divine in your heart rather than becoming vocal. Don’t break the silence unless and until it is absolutely necessary. If you don’t see the news papers for 3 days, I don’t think heavens will fall. If you don’t need to know about your office, I don’t think your office is going to stop working. These things will continue to go on. Try to feel the Master’s love towards us during bhandaras. Why bhandaras are special is that the consciousness of the Master is percolating throughout the arena, throughout this place we have to be aware of it. Then we can be oriented towards them. If you are getting other thoughts other than the Master that means our orientation is not up to the mark.  Sri S.S.Reddy was talking yesterday about his experience in bhandaras in 1981. Our emotional plane itself is lifted up, why we don’t feel thoughts of our family, of our children, is because of the environment here, not because of anything else and that environment is because masters are here, be aware of that, then you will be better oriented. The next thing is when you go for individual sittings try to feel why you are going. Your orientation should be such that you are going to a person who is helping you, in your spiritual life which you have chosen saying this person is going to help me. So have that attitude before starting from home, not when you open the gate of the person’s house that you are there for the sitting. After the sitting also, try to be absorbed in that condition whatever you felt while going back. This will help you in better orienting to the masters. The third thing is orientation to the Master’s of the order. Most of us know ISRC works under the Dr. KCV order and I would like to quote a sentence of Lalaji Maharaj with respect to order in the autobiography that we got recently. He says ‘to my limited intellect knowledge it appears that “living ones” are those who have been succeeding sequentially in a chain. This humble faqir has studied and analyzed various religions and philosophies according to his capability and has come to conclusion that it is only by sticking to the faith in master and the spiritual knowledge revealed by them, that one can be confident of being protected up to the last. Therefore we have to acquaint ourselves with the character of the Masters of the order’. That is what he says. This is a casualty for most people.  They don’t read, the works of the system, they say ‘it is too complicated sir, Dr KCV’s english is very tough to understand’. Various reasons are given but I don’t see the same difficulty with them when they read nuclear physics or some C programming or Java programming or whatever programming they have in their lives, they don’t have any difficulty with that. So what is missing here, the intention is missing. Intention to own up your orientation is missing. Unless you are in tune with their philosophies and their consciousness, progress is difficult.

Another one of the qualities that we have of divinity is purity. When we become more aware of the presence of divine, we tend to become more and more pure or rather divine is purifying us more and more when we become aware of it, in other words our orientation improves. The more we become aware of the divine we can say orientation improves more, our sensitivity improves and we feel the need to keep ourselves pure.  Most of us who are serious about sadhana don’t go out or indulge in outside activities which are sensory or leading to sensory pleasures. If you are serious about sadhana, we start reducing our activities which are not conducive to our progress. The very presence of divinity in us reminds us that we should not be doing that. There is already moral preparation that is happening when we are aware of divinity in our hearts. When our orientation is perfect there is no scope for mistakes. When I am perfectly oriented to master, my gaze is not anywhere else it is only on the master. Many times that we have given publication material to Rev.Sir he invariably picks out a page which will have mistakes. Perfect orientation means any blemish will not be tolerated. The other side of looking at it is one time Dr. Madhava was telling me, Rev. Sir and he went to some doctor’s office where there were many books, but Rev. Sir was able to pick up one book which was of the system. What I am trying to stress is nothing else comes in to their vision other than that of the Master. That is perfect orientation according to me. Our Master Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj’s consciousness as we all know is one of pure and unalloyed love towards all. If your orientation is increasing, which means if you are becoming more and more closer to his consciousness, it would mean your love towards fellow brethren would also be similar. My love towards fellow brethren also flowing equally. It can’t have partiality towards anybody. My tolerance also would be more towards the other’s faults. Such persons would more aptly be called to be in tune with Sri Ramchandra’s consciousness. If we look towards the others with our prejudices and our superiority we are far away from the area of orientation. Orientation would mean to love Him who loves all and there by everybody is loved through Him. Ours is path towards that, a path towards perfection.

Pranams.