The human mind cannot tolerate misery. Statistics shows that 60% of phone bills relate to people talking about their problems to people who cannot help. One needs to be in the Company of teh Wise. A good company is one when you talk your problems out and leave with a light heart. Bad company is when you walk with a heavy heart. Such a company cannot allow Love to Express.
Narada says, by all means, shun bad company; not that you must not interact with them, you can, but do not shake hands with their mind. Bad company brings with it lust, anger, desires, loss of memory, losing the power of reason - "Sarvanasha". Very nicely HE says, Compassion brings co-operation while company brings competition! Example of wanting to 'catch up with the neighbours'. HE says bad company results in greed gripping the mind; intellect losing its reasoning power; losing awareness and feeling useless. Mind feels agitated - such is bad company. in the beginning, it begins as a small ripple, later it becomes a storm in the ocean. You drown in this ocean of misery / doubt/ anger / greed. Shun such company.
How and who will overcome this illusion of misery??
- By keeping his own company for awhile - called the Heart Sutra. Everything is Emptiness
- By serving the Enlightened - he becomes free from egotism
- by going beyond the immeasurable, go beyond Maya. That reality is the central point of life. Divine Love
- You become free from the egotistic feeling "I"
The language we speak is an imitation - like parrots, children often imitate their parents. HE gives the example of Adi Shankara travelling in search of Mandanamishra with whom he was to engage in an intellectual debate. A person described his house as the one where the parrots outside his home discuss knowledge, that was the identification of the scholar! Similarly, we imitate people in whose company we stay. HE says freedom is when we stop worrying about ourselves, this leads to bondage and depression.
Love dissolves Ego. Naturalness / simplicity / craziness dissolves Ego. When you go beyond the senses, you are free, and when you drop freedom, divine love dawns.
"When you are free, love dawns. When you don't care about even freedon, divine love dawns."
HE says some couples in the US dont want to marry as they are scared to lose their freedom - fear of sharing. HE says craving indicates poverty. HE says calling a stingy person generaous and a short tempered person calm, can bring a change in them. HE then describes 3 ways of being free, in case we can't find an elightened person to serve. These are
1. Going into seclusion. Dropping all the strings, props we have - people, worldly matters, etc. Take a Sabbatical. Often unanswered questions leads to violence. Violent people often have a question in their heart. HE explains that imprisoning people was essentially done to give them seclusion - to settle them down and allow them to drop all bondages.. HE says, often our worries are about either maintaining what we have or wanting what we don't:). HE says 1 hour of worrying is equivalent to 8 hours of hard work. And one who has trust, all his needs will be provided for.
2. Renouncing everything. HE says, we can transcend the qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas and even transcend knowledge and then silence. Then there is no worry as he has total trust and such people overcome the Ocean of Misery. HE gives the example of a man renouncing everything and tells his family and leaves for the forest. After walking for ~10 kms, he remembers that he had left a silver cup in his garden, outside! He hurries back to tell his wife about it:). Such remouncement is of no use as there is no silence at all.
3. Drop the fruit of action. There is no need to rejoice or regret. Just continue with action. We transcend regret and worry. HE gives the example of a poor man who wins a jackpot and gets one million dollars. He decides to buy a home a home in Beverly Hills and the only home available was 1.25 million. So, he became depressed after winning a lottery!
Man needs to accept and move ahead and be centered in any action.. Such a person goes beyond the dulaity. One who drops all concepts, knowledge, he is in ecstacy, gets intoxicated and celebration happens! Absolute divine love is Celebration is Merger. Laughter makes transcend the intellect. The blissful soul is one who transcends the intellect. But you need intellect in the first place in order to transcend:-). Vedanta means the pinnacle of knowledge. The love that arises makes the head hollow and empty. Such a person who crosses the ocean of misery also allows others to cross over.
HE gives the example of how the mind wavers and cannot be trusted through a story of a old woman who wanted to contribute in the middle of the night as she was not not sure if her mind may change the next day!
HE then says a Guru has 5 qualities and in HIS company
- Sorrow diminishes
- Joy arises in you for no apparent reason
- Awareness and wisdom is protected
- Feel the Abundance
- Hidden talents manifest
HE says, all these things blossom around the Master and they also happen around a child.
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