Thursday, October 25, 2007

Gems of Gospel of Holy Mother

When worldly thoughts crop up in your mind, and they possess it, then
you should go away from the company of others and pray to Him with
tears in your eyes. He will remove all the dross of your mind, and
will also give you understanding. P. 214 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

The Gospel of The Holy Mother

If the mind is kept engaged in some work, it doesn't indulge in silly
thoughts. But if you sit idle, the mind is likely to indulge in
various kinds of thoughts. P. 214

Karma Yoga. New York, 1896. Complete Works, 1: 77

If we were really unattached, we should escape all the pain of vain
expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. Never
will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment.
The world will go on with its happiness and misery through eternity.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Edgar Cayce Reading 1620-1

For how does one cleanse the mind? By the pouring out, the
forgetting, the laying aside of those things that easily beset and
filling same with pure, fresh water that is of the eternal life, that
is of the eternal goodness as may be found in Him who is the light,
the way, the truth, the vine, the bread of life and the water of life.
These things are those influences that purify.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Be Free - By Swami Vivekananda

Learn to feel yourself in other bodies, to know that we are all one.
Throw all other nonsense to the winds. Spit out your actions, good or
bad, never think of them again. What is done is done. Throw off
superstition. Have no weakness even in the face of death. Do not
repent, do not brood over past deed, and do not remember your good
deeds; be azad (free). The weak, the fearful, the ignorant will never
reach Atman. You cannot undo, the effect must come, face it, but be
careful never to do the same thing again. Give up the burden of all
deeds to the Lord; give all, both good and bad. Do not keep the good
and give only the bad. God helps those who do not help themselves.

When you have acquired the feeling of non-attachement, there will
then be neither good nor evil for you. It is only selfishness that
causes the difference between good and evil. It is a very hard thing
to understand but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the
universe has power over you until you allow it to exercise such a
power. Nothing has power over the Self of man, until the Self becomes
a fool and loses independence. So, by non-attachement you overcome and
deny the power of anything to act upon you. It is very easy to say
that nothing has the right to act upon you until you allow it to do
so; but what is the true sign of the man who...is neither happy nor
unhappy when acted upon by the external world? The sign is that good
or ill fortune causes no change in his mind: in all conditions he
continues to remain the same.

All these things which we call causes of misery and evil, we shall
laugh at when we arrive at that wonderful state of equality, that
sameness. This is what is called in Vedanta attaining to freedom. The
sign of approaching that freedom is more and more of this sameness and
equality. In misery and happiness the same, in success and defeat the
same--such a mind is nearing that state of freedom.

He who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or from
the centres at will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which
means,"gathering towards," checking the outgoing powers of the mind,
freeing it from the thraldom of the senses. When we can do this, we
shall have taken a long step towards freedom; before that we are mere
machines.

The sage wants liberty; he finds that sense-objects are all vain and
that there is no end of pleasures and pains. How many rich people in
the world want to find fresh pleasures? All pleasures are old, and
they want new ones. Do you not see how many foolish things they are
inventing every day, just to titillate the nerves for a moment, and
that done, how there comes a reaction? The majority of people are just
like a flock of sheep. If the leading sheep falls into a ditch, all
the rest follow and break their necks. In the same way, what one
leading member of a society does, all the others do, without thinking
what they are doing. When a man begins to see the vanity of worldly
things, he will feel he ought not to be thus played upon or borne
along by nature. That is slavery. If a man has a few kind words said
to him, he begins to smile, and when he hears a few harsh words, he
begins to weep. He is a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to
country, to name, and to fame. He is thus in the midst of slavery and
the real man has become buried within, through his bondage. What you
call man is a slave. When one realises all this slavery, then comes
the desire to be free; an intense desire comes. If a piece of burning
charcoal be placed on a man's head, see how he struggles to throw it
off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of a man who really
understands that he is a slave of nature.

Be free, and then have any number of personalities you like. Then we
will play like the actor who comes upon the stage and plays the part
of a beggar. Contrast him with the actual beggar walking in the
streets. The scene is, perhaps, the same in both cases, the words are,
perhaps, the same, but yet what difference! The one enjoys his beggary
while the other is suffering misery from it. And what makes this
difference, the one is free and the other is bound. The actor knows
his beggary is not true, but that he has assumed it for play, while
the real beggar thinks that it is his too familiar state and that he
has to bear it whether he wills it or not. This is the law. So long as
we have no knowledge of our real nature, we are beggars, jostled about
by every force in nature; and made slaves of by everything in nature;
we cry all over the world for help, but help never comes to us; we cry
to imaginary beings, and yet it never comes. But still we hope help
will come, and thus in weeping, wailing, and hoping, one life is
passed, and the same play goes on and on.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Heroism - Swami Vivekananda

Be a man first, my friend, and you will see how all those things and
the rest will follow of themselves after you. Give up that hateful
malice, that dog-like bickering and barking at one another, and take
your stand on good purpose, right means, righteous courage, and be
brave. When you are born a man, leave some indelible mark behind you.
"When you first came to this world, O Tulsi, the world rejoiced and
you cried; now live your life in doing such acts that when you will
leave this world, the world will cry for you and you will leave it
laughing." If you can do that, then you are a man; otherwise what good
are you?

Let the world say what it chooses, I shall tread the path of duty--
know this to be the line of action for a hero. Otherwise, if one has
to attend day and night to what this man says or that man writes, no
great work is achieved in this world. Do you know this Sanskrit
Shloka:"Let those who are versed in the ethical codes praise or blame,
let Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, come or go wherever she wisheth,
let death overtake him today or after a century, the wise man never
swerves from the path of rectitude." Let people praise you or blame
you, let fortune smile or frown upon you, let your body fall today or
after a Yuga, see that you do not deviate from the path of Truth. How
much of tempest and waves one has to weather, before one reaches the
haven of Peace! The greater a man has become, the fiercer ordeal he
has had to pass through.Their lives have been tested true by the
touchstone of practical life, and only then have they been
acknowledged great by the world.Those who are faint-hearted and
cowardly sink their barks near the shore, frightened by the raging of
waves on the sea. He who is a hero never casts a glance at these. Come
what may, I must attain my ideal first--this is Purushakara, manly
endeavour; without such manly endeavour no amount of Divine help will
be of any avail to banish your inertia.

Those who are always down-hearted and dispirited in this life can do
no work; from life to life they come and go wailing and moaning. "The
earth is enjoyed by heroes"--this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero.
Always say,"I have no fear". Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell,
fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts
and ideas that are in this world have proceeded from this evil spirit
of fear. This fear alone has kept the sun, air and death in their
respective places and functions, allowing none to escape from their
bounds...

In this embodied existence, you will be tossed again and again on the
waves of happiness and misery, prosperity and adversity--but know them
all to be of momentary duration. Never care for them.

Be Brave - Swami Vivekananda

I once read a story about some ships that were caught in a cyclone in
the South Sea Islands, and there was a picture of it in the
Illustrated London News. All of them were wrecked except one English
vessel, which weathered the storm. The picture showed the men who were
going to be drowned, standing on the decks and cheering the people who
were sailing through the storm. Be brave and generous like that.

Whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse
must vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain-high though
the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem,
they are but delusions. Fear not--it is banished. Crush it, and it
vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies. Be not afraid. Think not how
many times you fail. Never mind. Time is infinite. Go forward;assert
yourself again and again, and light must come. You may pray to
everyone that was ever born, but who will come to help you? And what
of the way of death from which none knows escape? Help thyself out by
thyself. None else can help thee, friend. For thou alone art thy
greatest enemy, thou alone art thy greatest friend. Get hold of the
Self, then. Stand up. Don't be afraid.

Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold
on to the highest. Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be
obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and
your country, and you will move the world. Remember it is the person,
the life, which is the secret of power--nothing else..Jealousy is the
bane of all slaves. It is the bane of our nation. Avoid that always.
All blessings attend you and all success.

Hold On to the Ideal - Swami Vivekananda

That is the one great first step--the real desire for the ideal.
Everything comes easy after that... The struggle is the great lesson.
Mind you, the greater benefit in this life is struggle. It is through
that we pass. If there is any road to Heaven, it is through Hell.
Through Hell to Heaven is always the way. When the soul has wrestled
with circumstances and has met death, a thousand times death on the
way, but nothing daunted has struggled forward again and again and yet
again, then the soul comes out as a giant and laughs at the ideal he
has been struggling for, because he finds how much greater is he than
the ideal. I am the end, my own self, and nothing else, for what is
there to compare to my own Self? Can a bag of gold be the ideal of my
Soul? Certainly not! My Soul is the highest ideal that I can have.
Realising my own real nature is the one goal of my life.

There is nothing that is absolutely evil. The devil has a place here
as well as God, else he would not be here. Just as I told you, it is
through Hell that we pass to Heaven. Our mistakes have places here. Go
on! No not look back if you think you have done something that is not
right. Now, do you believe you could be what you are today, had you
not made those mistakes before? Bless your mistakes, then. They have
been angels unawares. Blessed be torture! Blessed be happiness! Do not
care what be your lot. Hold on to the ideal. March on! Do not look
back upon little mistakes and things. In this battle field of ours,
the dust of mistakes must be raised. Those who are so thin-skinned
that they cannot bear the dust, let them get out of the ranks.

If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the
man without an ideal makes fifty thousand. Therefore, it is better to
have an ideal. And this ideal we must hear about as much as we can,
till it enters into our hearts, into our brains, into our very veins,
until it tingles in every drop of our blood and permeates every pore
in our body. We must meditate upon it. "Out of the fullness of the
heart the mouth speaketh," and out of the fullness of the heart the
hand works too.

It is thought which is the propelling force in us. Fill the mind with
the highest thoughts, hear them day after day, think them month after
month. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the
beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It
would not be worth having if it were not for struggles. Where would
be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. I never
heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow--never a man. So never
mind these failures, these little backslidings;hold the ideal a
thousand times, and if you fail thousand times, make the attempt once
more. The ideal of man is to see God in everything. But if you cannot
see that thing which you like best, and then see infinite life before
the soul. Take your time and you will achieve your end.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life--think of it, dream of
it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of
your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea
alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual
giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines.

The life of the practical is in the ideal. It is the ideal that has
penetrated the whole of our lives, whether we philosophise, or perform
the hard, everyday duties of life. The rays of the ideal, reflected
and refracted in various straight or tortuous lines, are pouring in
through every aperture and windhole, and consciously or unconsciously,
every function has to be performed in its light, every object has to
be seen transformed, heightened, or deformed by it. It is the ideal
that has made us what we are, and will make us what we are going to
be. It is the power of the ideal that has enshrouded us, and is felt
in our joys or sorrows, in our great acts or mean doings, in our
virtues and vices.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Edgar Cayce Reading 5322-1

... Keep it [your soul] then in patience, in love, in gentleness, in
kindness . . . For these are indeed the fruits of the spirit . . . And
remember, a kindness sometimes consists in denying as well as granting
those activities in associations with thy fellow man.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5081-1

Then what are you grumbling about because you dislike your mother?
She dislikes you as much, but change this into love. Be kind, be
gentle, be patient, be longsuffering, for if thy God was not
longsuffering with thee, what chance would you have?

Edgar Cayce Reading 5749-3

In materiality we find some advance faster, some grow stronger, some
become weaklings. Until there is redemption through the acceptance of
the law (or love of God, as manifested through the Channel or the
Way), there can be little or no development in a material or spiritual
plane. But all must pass under the rod, even as He--who entered into
materiality.

Edgar Cayce Reading 930-2

Any choice made by an individual is to be worked at.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2828-4

[Karmic conditions] can be met most in Him who, taking away the law of
cause and effect by fulfilling the law, establishes the law of grace.
Thus the needs for the entity to lean upon the arm of Him who is the
law, and the truth and the light.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3395-2

. . "Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter
in." Unless you can be just as forgiving, unless you can find it just
as easy to forget slights and slurs and things that would make afraid
those who would judge others. For with what measure ye mete, it is
measured to thee again. Even as He, the Master gave, the faults ye
find in others are reflected in thine own mirror of life. And as He
gave, "Cast the beam out of thine eye that ye may see to take the mote
from thy brother's eye."

Edgar Cayce Reading 1175-1

For perfect love casteth out fear, and fear can only be from the
material things that soon must fade away.
And thus hold to the higher thought of eternity. For life is a
continual experience.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1567-2

Then all of these influences astrological (as known or called) from
without, bear witness--or are as innate influences upon our activity,
our sojourn through any given experience. Not because we were born
with the sun in this sign or that, nor because Jupiter or Mercury or
Saturn or Uranus or Mars was rising or setting, but rather:
Because we were made for the purpose of being companions with Him, a
little lower than the angels who behold His face ever yet as heirs, as
joint heirs with Him who is the Savior, the Way, then we have brought
these about because of our activities through our experiences in those
realms! Hence they bear witness by being in certain
positions--because of our activity, our sojourn in those environs, in
relationships to the universal forces of activity.
Hence they bear witness of certain urges in us, not beyond our will
but controlled by our will!

Edgar Cayce Reading 459-1

. . for he that seeks the Lord must believe that He is, would they
find Him; for one doubting has already builded that barrier that
prevents the proper understanding, whether as to physical, mental or
spiritual attributes, or spiritual aid, or mental aid, or physical
aid; for that in faith sought for shall be thine, even as was given,
"Be my people and I will be your God."

Edgar Cayce Reading 2803-2

. . justifying of self is blaming someone else.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5081-1

More individuals become so anxious about their own troubles, and yet
helping others is the best way to rid yourself of your own troubles.
For what is the pattern? He gave up Heaven and entered physical being
that ye might have access to the Father.

Edgar Cayce Reading 470-37

Think on This ... . . don't get mad and don't cuss a body out
mentally or in voice. This brings more poisons than may be created by
even taking foods that aren't good.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3292-1

You only fail if you quit trying. The trying is oft counted for
righteousness. Remember as He has given, "I do not condemn thee." Go
be patient, be kind, and the Lord be with thee!

Edgar Cayce Reading 906-3

For mind is the builder and that which we think upon may become crimes
or miracles. For thoughts are things and as their currents run
through the environs of an entity's experience these become barriers
or steppingstones, dependent upon the manner in which these are laid
as it were. For as the mental dwells upon these thoughts, so does it
give strength, power to things that do not appear. And thus does
indeed there become that as is so oft given, that faith is the
evidence of things not seen.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2448-3

Make haste slowly, for one can easily become discouraged. One can
become overenthusiastic. One can become in such a manner of policy as
to let the little ends slip without proper consideration, as to their
meaning with the whole undertaking.

Edgar Cayce Reading 308-8

Do not worry as to whether you are fat or thin. Worry rather as to
whether you use your body, mentally and physically, as an expression
of thy ideal.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1977-1

For, as has been given, it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of
death to die. For life and death are one, and only those who will
consider the experience as one may come to understand or comprehend
what peace indeed means.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3333-1

And when ye trust in Him, ye are sure--and need never be afraid of the
material things. For, does He not feed the birds of the air? Does He
not give the color to the lily, the incense to the violet? How much
more is that as may be in His very presence, if ye apply self to
become worthy of acceptance in His home.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3384-2

For all healing, mental or material, is attuning
each atom of the body, each reflex of the brain forces, to the
awareness of the divine that lies within each atom, each cell of the
body.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3183-1

And the abilities are here to accomplish whatever the entity would
choose to set its mind to, so long as the entity trusts not in the
might of self, but in His grace, His power, His might. Be mindful
ever of that, in thy understanding in thy own wisdom, much may be
accomplished; but be rather thou the channel through which He, God,
the Father, may manifest His power--in whatever may be the chosen
activity of the entity.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1183-3

Never so act, in any manner, in any inclination, that there may ever be an experience of regret within self. Let the moves and the discourteousness, the unkindness, all come from the other. Better to be abased . . . and have the peace within!
. . . act ever in the way ye would like to be acted toward. No matter what others say or even do, do as ye would be done by; and then the peace that has been promised is indeed thine own.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1957-1

. . do not be afraid of giving self in a service--if the ideal is correct. If it is for selfish motives, for aggrandizement, for obtaining a hold to be used in an underhand manner, beware. If it is that the glory of truth may be made manifest, spend it all--whether self, mind, body, or the worldly means--whether in labor or in the coin of the realm.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2540-1


When fear of the future occurs, or fear of the past, or fear of what others will say--put all such away with this prayer--not merely by mouth, not merely by thought, but in body, in mind and in soul say: "Here am I, Lord--Thine! Keep me in the way Thou would have me go, rather than in that I might choose."