8. Sri C.V.Koteswara Rao

Namasthe to Rev K.C.Narayana Garu and all Brothers & Sisters

Today we will share our experience and understanding of “Love is the inner awakening to Reality” which is one of the basic principles of Sahaj Marg. According to Rev Babuji Maharaj in His Message on the Eve of His 81st birth day celebrations at Delhi on 30-4-1980 he says as “Finally love makes every task easy and paves the way for the showers of Master's grace to smoothen the way to the Ultimate Goal.” “Love is the hunger of human soul for divine beauty”, according to Socrates; and “Love is the inner awakening to Reality” according to me. Love Him who loves all, and thus everybody is automatically loved through Him. Amen.”

We have all come from the same source and we were pure when we were born for the first time but subsequently due to our own samaskaras the reality got covered with grossness around the original purity. Every human has both love and hatred in himself. Master says with love we can awaken the Reality in us.

Master stresses the need for love and attraction towards reality for achieving the goal.

In his words in Dawn of Reality he says “It can only be one who has himself attained perfection or complete negation of self. Hence we must connect ourselves with such a great power by feelings of love and attraction. It does not matter much what conception of him we entertain in our mind. We may call him our friend, Master, servant or whatever we might be pleased to choose. But he remains after all our guide or Guru, as he is commonly called.”

Babuji Maharaj expresses in his message that “The Sahaj Marg system did not arise accidentally. It was given graciously to mankind waiting in eager expectation. The Sahaj Marg system adopts natural ways for God realisation. And to adopt them in the daily routine of life, it starts with meditation which is the chief source of inviting the Grace hidden in the bosom of God. This starting becomes the end as at the beginning of the world, the end became the beginning. During meditation in our march towards Reality, we come across different spheres having different airs. Experiences are there. Of course, in the initial stages some may be imaginative but afterwards they are all divine. The divine experiences are the perceptions of the conditions relating to Divinity. When the Divinity begins to yawn in good measure towards us, our march becomes smooth. We experience different conditions on the path when we set our heart with devotion to attain the Ultimate. Reality dawns upon him alone who goes back along with Nature making himself subtler and subtler. Unless the grossness is completely off, we cannot even peep into Reality. For the impediments if any, we alone are responsible. Until and unless these things are removed we cannot expect the advent of Reality. To realise the Subtlest Being, we should adopt only subtle ways. On the contrary, if our ways are gross, we, in addition to our own grossness, begin to form the curvature and every vein of our body creates a pole to bring about changes in the system with grosser effects. Unless they are destroyed by the power of the Master there is no way open to Reality.”(SDG-22)

“For those who want to have at least a peep into the Reality the proper method shall, in my opinion, be that which touches the inner core of the heart. The external means usually adopted for the purpose are really of no avail and do not lead one towards the goal.” - (SS-39)

“The Reality which one aspires for is really so simple and plain that it is, for that very reason, often beyond common conception. So, for realising it we must also become simple like it. For that, it is absolutely essential that the means, which we adopt for the purpose, must also be equally simple and natural.”-SS- 14

Master gives the means for reaching our goal and the method for it has been elaborated on various occasions in Masters Words as follows:

“My associates have often enquired from me the method for creating such type of restlessness within them. I may tell them that intense love for the object will automatically lead them to it. When we are in deep love, we shall naturally feel impatient to secure nearness with the loved object .When we are greatly in love with any of the worldly objects its idea comes to our mind again and again, and we think of it over and over again. Now in order to develop Divine love in our heart we have only to reverse the process. If we remember God frequently or for the most part of the day, we will automatically develop love for Him, which if continued with earnestness will create impatience in our heart to secure union at the earliest. Another way of developing love with God is to play the part of lovers as if you are enacting a drama. But it is only for those who are almost incapable of finer means. The Method though artificial will shortly bring you to reality and feelings of true love and impatience will begin to agitate your heart.DR-39

With love of self once extend link with Master it becomes easy and makes it permanent though the final destination is far off and Masters tell us the advantage of it for stopping formation of further samkaras:

“The only way to develop love is constant remembrance. While doing your daily work you must think that you are doing it in obedience to God’s orders, and hence as part of your duty. This simple process, if followed in the right spirit, will keep you in touch with the Ultimate. Another advantage would be that you will stop further formation of samskaras. The constant remembrance promotes attachment to God which develops in to Bhakti. This is because the heat contained in the thought stimulates emotion which assumes the form of Bhakti. If you turn it into a habit you will find how fast love develops in you. It is in fact an essential feature of spiritual life.”SS-54

“Reality is beyond force, excitement or heat. It is similar to the state which prevailed before heat came into existence. It is in fact beyond feeling or understanding. That is Reality in the true sense.” SS-426

In our system, the reality is infused in to the abhyasi at the first stroke. It serves as a seed for further growth which, under the watchful eye of the Master, and with constant remembrance which is the only instrument to ensure speedy progress in spirituality which can be achieved with love.

Master gave us Ten Commandments to follow, the same starts with love as inner awakening to reality by following the commandments which gets improved as we progress and is inter linked with following all the other Meditational Practices so that overall spiritual growth is possible with the help of Pranahuthi. Master in his commentary on Ten Commandments says

“The principle of purity was based on the thought that the Eternal and pure Existence which we have to enter into is entirely free from all contaminations. It is perfectly pure. This highest standard of absolute purity free from all impurities (mala), distortions (vikshepa) and coverings (avarana) was taken up for the ideal. Our being is contaminated with all these, hence far below the ideal. Thus our attention being directed towards the attainment of purity of that highest level, we began to imitate it in all outward ways, looking particularly to the cleaning of the body. The external ways adopted for the purpose began to cast their effect upon the mind and thus the internal purity too began to develop. This continued process supplemented by our firm attention upon the Ideal contributed greatly to the attainment of highest purity. The process thus being accelerated, real purity began to flow in all through, and the mind began to get purified, producing good thoughts which helped us further in our pursuit. Thus we were doubly benefited. We had already resorted to means for the internal purification and now the external ways too began to help us a good deal in the work, and both combined together helped us immensely in the attainment of the objective. When both these get harmonised with each other, it becomes in itself a power which makes our path all the more smooth and we go on soaring higher and higher. Thus our feeling of purity helped us so efficiently in the attainment of the ideal.”(TC-10)

The spiritual progress is in accordance with one’s love for and faith in the Master and further stages too are directly dependent on and is proportional to the intensity of such love, devotion and Shraddha. The best method is ” leave everything to the Master”. Faith and love, all may get lost in Him and seeker has no knowledge as to what he may be doing. This means his perfect dependence to be wholly under the Master’s care. This may be called Complete Surrender. In such a state, there is good will to all; absence of ill-will towards everybody; absolute faith that the Master will protect and above all totally resort to Him only as Saviour.In such a condition, neither there is awareness of oneself nor is there any bondage in our actions as they are reflections of Master’s will only. The mind becomes purified and shares Divinity in all its facets. A man is altogether free from egoistic feelings, desires and worldly entanglements and devoted wholly to his ‘Own Self’ which is a very high state of spirituality.

In our system at the time of introduction the reality in us is linked to the ultimate which is the sowing of seed of love which develops further by following the method sincerely and seriously.

By our regularity of practice of meditation we improve our love towards the ultimate which awakens our inner reality so that we are able to do our Meditation as in commandment 2 & 3 and develop oneness with the Master.

As we improve our spiritual condition by doing all meditational practices and get pranahuthi by taking individual sittings and participating in Satsang and bandaras we develop feeling of nearness of God in us. Love towards Master make us to constantly remember Master. We come to a stage of feeling every thing as Master and we are able to see Master in every thing and in every person.

At this point I want to share common experience of us as when we love some thing and do, we feel and able to see all are like that as it is due to love for that makes us to see in all.

It is my daily experience that morning at 4 o’ clock I feel that somebody wakes me up and I feel it is nothing but reality in us which is waking us.

As Master introduced 9 P.M. prayer it is a must for all to awaken the reality in every person through love as an expression of God which paves the way for world peace & harmony and happy life when everybody can understand that he is awakened to the reality in himself.

Once love awakens reality in us it makes us follow Ten Commandments naturally. As Master says it is easy to love all and become lovable by practicing “Love Him who loves all.”