Omkarananda Ashram English Publications: Omkarananda Ashram Diary 2008

One can have an objection to the independence of man – on the basis of its disastrous consequences for man himself, and the human society as a whole, – if that ‘independence’ is severance from the Divine, an ‘independence’ obtained by self-alienation of man from God.

Such independence is inconceivable in itself, for God is the very essence of the existence of man. Rather man can seek independence of himself, than independence of God.

Even as independence of himself is impossible, so man’s independence of God is impossible. The life and its richness for man rest on his conscious dependence upon the Divine which he himself is in essence.

A tree which depends upon other trees for its life cannot survive, but one that depends upon itself does survive. Even so with man.

Men are extremely proud of their intellectual achievements: and indeed these are considerable. But lying latent in man’s brain is a capacity one million times greater than he is now using.

Great scientists now assert that the average man of today uses only about one millionth part of his brain cells. This is an amazing thing. What were those cells put there for? What then would happen, what could man not do, if he should once awaken to his possibilities and begin to use his brain at full capacity? The real man has not yet arrived.

If we but make note of only a few of the achievements of modern intelligence, during the last half century, we may begin to catch glimpses of human possibilities.

Man is built in the Image of God, and no ‘image of man’ can ever solve any fundamental problem.

You can be stripped of everything, except one thing. And that is God within you.

Everything will perish. There is one thing which will not perish, and that is God within you.

Everybody will run away from you. There is one who cannot run away from you. And that is God within you. Where can He run away? He is Infinite. He is everywhere, and how can He be everywhere unless He is one who cannot run away?

Everyone will fail you. There is one who will not fail you. That is God within you.

This God is thyself, thy essential nature, – your real personality, your real Self, your real Life, your All, your Truth, your very Existence, your Joy, your Everything. Realise this, dearest Friend.

The Churches, the Temples, the Mosques and the Synagogues cannot and should not become barriers to knowledge and truth. They have a fear that as man advances on the path of knowledge, science, experiment, he will dethrone and demolish them. This is untrue. It is inadequate growth in knowledge, and inadequate grasp of truth, that is the cause of the destruction of religion. As the mankind advances in sciences, it will strengthen the Churches, Temples, Mosques and Synagogues. Because grown-up knowledge will throw more light on the fundamental needs of man, on the demand in the human heart for divine perfection, for divine truths.

Every phase of life has in it some poetry. Every facet of life is aglow with the eternal Energy and Light of the infinite Truth. Every circumstance of life is rich with the splendour of spiritual glory.

The spiritual heart says, “It does not matter if nobody is meditating. Let me meditate intensively, let me meditate also for ten thousand persons. Let the highest good flow through me. Let me be always a productive, constructive personality. Let the divine energies work through me! Let the Divine multiply my energies and my hands. Let enormous good be done to the world in the shortest time!” Thus a spiritual heart makes immense progress day by day, day after day.

We will come closer to God, with increase in scientific literacy. The more we know of the outer space, the more we know of the universe, the more we know of the biochemistry, of chemistry, geo- and astro-physics, the more we will tumble upon the Great Reality called God.

Grace and the spirit never work where there is no purity. Wherever there is purity, such a wonderful state occurs. Where there is impurity that state is at an end, but when one is in grace one is never at an end. One is ever-energetic, full of inexhaustible energies, ever fresh, ever joyous, ever luminous, ever powerful, ever blessed. This is the blessed state which has to be attained by constant mantra-repetition. Constant mantra-repetition is not possible without purity, and no purity is possible without hard service.

The spiritual heart finds complete absorption in the Divine Consciousness. In this state there is no time, no space, no you and me, there is only the Divine. One is everywhere, all hands are one’s hands, all mouths one’s mouth, one is present everywhere. One is infinite happiness, infinite peace, infinite blessedness. This is the divine state.

One has not only to repeat the mantras and adore the Divine as He who makes the impossible possible, but one also has to express this in daily life. It is not usually possible to retain calmness and control under highest provocation. To do that is to make the impossible possible. It is not usually possible to work very hard and strain all energies and nerves. To do that is to make the impossible possible. To remain always faithful and devoted to the Divine is ‘not possible’, but to do that is to make the impossible possible. To go on doing selfless services for which you get nothing endlessly is ‘impossible’, but to do that is to make the impossible possible.

Beneath the physical disease and physical death, beneath the mental problems and mental pleasures, beneath colour, sound, form of life, there is the infinite harmony of the timeless divine Consciousness. Discover it. Know it. Experience it.

Spiritual development lies in straining all your powers to their optimum capacities. Take your little faith and use it to its maximum capacity. Take your hands and use them to their full powers, move from one service to another, more dynamically than before, with greater faith, enthusiasm and greater desire for progress than before, with greater surrender to the Divine than before. That is the way of rapid development and growth. Such hearts will be purified quickly.

Results follow only by the prayer of a purified heart, and the heart is purified by constant selfgiving, self-surrender, sacrifices and service. So purify the heart, strain all your capacities to their optimum power, be full of the fire of the desire for progress. Beg the Divine to be in your whole being. Let all your services be a grand adoration, meditation and spiritual communion with the Divine.

Develop a meditating mind. When you continuously meditate with closed eyes for over half an hour, see how calm the mind becomes, how the nerves are energised, how the heart is filled with inner strength and happiness. This is the result of the meditation. The meditative mind is permanently conditioned to these wondrous results. A meditative person is full of inner peace, luminosity, strength and the grace of the Divine, full of divine qualities and divine nature. Therefore develop the meditative mind, let all works flow from the meditative mind. Let all speech, thoughts and feelings arise out of the meditative mind. The more you develop the meditative mind, the more of a sage you become, and the closer you come to the divine Truth.

We live because God exists, and our life is to be perfect, peaceful, creative, joyous, even as God is perfect, peaceful, creative, joyous.

Never underestimate the value of meditation, and during meditation again and again raise the pictures of the Divine. Let the picture of the Divine be always before the eyes. Know the picture to be omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Tell the Divine: you are everything, you know everything, you are all-seeing, all-loving, all-blessing. Liberate me from human ignorance. Let me behold you as I behold others, let me hear you as I hear others, let me converse with you as I converse with others. Let me abide with you for ever and ever.

Everything is formed of the divine Consciousness. Everything has emerged from the divine Consciousness and is being sustained by the divine Consciousness. This Consciousness is the wonder of wonders. It is infinite in dimensions, it works endless wonders, it has infinite capacities, all arts and all sciences emerge from It.

Physical sciences and modern sciences concern themselves with phenomena. They inquire into the ‘why‘ and ‘how‘ of external operations of the physical nature. Science does not know and has no answer for the intrinsic ‘why‘ and ‘wherefore‘ and ‘how‘ of nature. Its field is restricted to creation, whereas the spiritual aspirant or religious seeker is pursuing the Creator. He is inquiring into the fundamental cause of the universe. He is looking into a world which is timeless and spaceless. He penetrates into the mind of man and discovers behind it the fundamental principle of Consciousness.

When the face of the Divine is seen, life is really fulfilled. Life becomes eternal and immortal, all the worlds are experienced in one’s own heart. One’s heart expands, one becomes one with the divine Reality, inwardly enjoys – constantly – the endless peace, joy, light and presence of the Divine.

During the mantra-repetition and meditation the highest mental state is created – a state of inner happiness, inner light and the experience of inner heaven.

Meditation brings about a wondrous inner mental state. As you meditate the consciousness is concentrated upon the wondrous light that the Divine is, and every meditator according to his need and devotional or meditative state can enter into inner spiritual activities: not only face the wondrous boundless divine light, but also mentally lay all the beautiful and fragrant flowers from all over the world at the feet of the Divine.

We experience the Eternal truly when we become its Heart, and that is possible by transcendence of time-space experience.

There is nothing wrong in having beautiful houses, two millions as bank-balance, good health and a wonderful family. But we are totally cut off from God the moment these take complete possession of our mind and heart. So we must be very vigilant, alive in intelligence, slowly detach ourselves in our inner being from all these, and deeply attach ourselves to God, the Infinite. Living in our houses yet we would be living out of the house, possessing millions of francs, yet we would not be possessing them.

Possessing good health, a strong body, yet we would not be slave of them, we would not be possessed by them. And yet we would be possessing the Infinite. So, we have to learn this art of inner detachment from things. We have to surrender our lives, heart and possessions to God and re-accept them for His sake as His trustees. Then we would not be bound any more, we would be full of inner renunciation.

There is knowledge in your mind, a great knowledge, but that is not sufficient, therefore your life is full of problems. By continuous communion and contact with the Divine you ought to make this knowledge unlimited and infinite. All of us have life, but this life has to be lifted up into immortality and that is possible only by continuous and constant communion and experience of God. When there is a continuous and constant experience of God, our individual, limited, finite life is fusing to the immortal, unlimited, infinite life.

With whatever talents that you have, develop the inner spiritual being, bring in more services and sacrifice, live a hard life of great sacrifice. That is the way to rapid development, purity and divine experience. Easy life is not for the heroic heart. The hero’s heart is the true spiritual heart; it gives up everything for the sake of one thing – the Divine.

The spiritual heart finds boundless strength in the Divine. It always has the feeling it is filled with the intelligence, the energies and the grace of God. It is always in a state of inner inspiration. It is convinced of the divine Reality more than anything else. It has the joys of larger thoughts and higher knowledge, the pleasures of a disciplined life, the joy of a cultivated life devoted to the pursuit of spiritual knowledge, the joy of living amidst people who are devoted to the highest ideals of life and whose aim is the ultimate Truth. No heart in the whole world is so peaceful and so joyous as the spiritual heart devoted to the all-blessing, all-protecting, all-loving Divinity.

We are full of contradictions – this is our weakness and yet our glory. It is at once a challenge and an urge to acomplishment. In it lie the circumstance of our manhood and the possibility of our Godhood.

The animal never asks, “What is the origin of the universe, what is time and space? What is the origin of life? What is truth, beauty and goodness? Why should man die? What is death? What is beyond death? Is there something or nothing? Is everything over with the death of the physical body?” The animal does not raise such questions. The animal’s reason, like the reason of man in general, is rational only to the extent of obtaining its bread. The dog comes to the door for its food at the right hour. It understands which dog is its enemy and which dog is its friend. The reason in the dog and in other animals serves the purposes of the body. Every animal can sense danger and protect itself from danger. Every animal can instinctively go to its prey, and so the reason in the animals serves only the most rudimentary functions which are all centered round the body and its maintenance.

Reason finds its dignity, its worth and its true function only in the spiritual individual.

Charge every nerve of your body and the whole physiological system with the devotion to the Divine. Fill yourself with the light of devotion, the light of divine Consciousness. Dissolve every other feeling and thought. Let the whole being always vibrate with the devotion to the Divine. That is the greatest treasure, the greatest protection.

If you are conscious of people, you are cut off from God; and if the people disappear into the forms of God, and if you are seeing only the divine form by seeing the people, then you are in communion with the Divine. So, constantly displace these people by the forms of the Divine. Displace everything by the presence of the Divine. Let the Divine dominate you.

The eternal Being above time, above space, is the eternal Now. It is the eternal Everywhere. It is here, and everything is here for It. It is the Now and the Here.

May God come into your lives as infinite light, love, peace, strength and grace. May God come into your life and stay with you for ever and ever as unlimited love, sweetness, and goodness. May your purified heart enable you to see God in all things and in all beings, and at all times. May God’s grace descend upon you so abundantly that you become child-like and innocent. Forget and transcend all physical limitations, sex-differences and sense-experiences. May the hands of God protect you from all sides, may you find yourself progressing on the path of spiritual unfoldment every minute, every moment. May the earth be kind to you, and let there be no debt for you on earth. May all the elements, air, space and everything be kind to you and disclose the kingdom of heaven to you.

Even if by some magic you are pushed to the heart of God, you have no experience of God there, you have only the experience of your own ineradicable thoughts and feelings. God cannot be visible in the restless disturbed surface of your being. Though you think you are still, within yourself, the truth is that you are restless. Stillness is totally different from making the body still and making a few thoughts still.

The more you say, “I take up the work of ten people, and I’ll do it all by myself, let no one help, God is helping me” – the more you will progress, develop. The whole cosmos and God Himself will cooperate with you. Dozens of people will come to your department to help you, and you will have more freedom for development of yet higher capacities.

The greatest men in human history are those who are endowed with spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge brings into manifestation the real greatness of the human individual. The more a person is evolved, the higher and deeper his culture, the greater his faith in the ultimate Reality. Our civilization survives the assaults of time, our culture receives a new vitality, vigour and direction, only by the vision of the divine Truth. Without higher knowledge man cannot be redeemed from his disfiguring weaknesses and short-comings.

“God is now asleep in you” – it means that you are not conscious of the God in you. God is asleep in you means, you are sleeping to God! That means you are awake to the world, and asleep to God. The day you recognise God, God is awake in you. The day you experience and feel God, that day God is awake in you.

Try to gain more and more divine grace, with your love for the Truth, with your capacity to take endless pains in order to arrive at a knowledge of the Truth. Try to uplift yourself constantly, hour by hour, day by day, from the limitations of life. The spirit within you is entirely divine, it is there that the divine Truth dwells in you, and this divine Truth is all-witnessing, all-responding. It is seeing you all the time though you may not be in a position now to perceive It. It is constantly protecting you from all sides. It is unfolding whatever is great within you.

Therefore aim at acquiring knowledge, expand your heart in love. Love unfolds the various wonders of the soul within you. It unfolds and makes manifest the brilliance of the divine Truth within you. Develop the powers of reason which lead you towards the knowledge of the divine Truth.

Music is the universal language which is understood by everyone and by animals and birds. All mankind, all creatures great and small understand the musical language and become one in the understanding of the language of music. No language can compare itself with music, it influences the whole of nature, it has an impact upon the forest, the flowers. Animate and inanimate nature reacts to music. Music has intrinsic relations with the supreme divine Reality. Since the Divine is everywhere, the presence of music is everywhere.

All miracles are wrought for those who are ready for some kind of surrender of themselves to the Divine, who are less assertive of their own personal self, more intensively longing for divine Grace and assistance and help.

Our heart is the heart of the Truth, our soul is constituted of the infinite harmonies of the Divine. All music that enables us to feel, experience, and grow sensitive to this Truth, is the most valuable music. Music is at once an education, a culture, a transformation, a mode of experiencing the Truth. The greatest cultures of the world have produced musicians who are in tune with the Divine. The final result of musical excellence is attunement with the infinite harmony, with infinite life.

The operations of intelligence, the finest workings of love, beauty in form and harmony in structure, are all manifestations of music. The inaudible music, being finer than our physical senses can grasp, is closer to the heart of the divine Reality. It is our soul. We are blessed, there are infinite harmony and endless melodies in us.

Life is meant for achievement of the perfection of the Infinite. We are expected to use this field of life as an arena for our growth and development. All development and growth involve discipline. It is the indiscipline of the lower nature in us which constantly demands pleasures, and therefore seeks to escape from this need of imposing the disciplines upon ourselves. Suicide is generally committed by those who wish to escape from the immediate problems, riddles or sufferings in which they find themselves. But it is impossible to escape from the problems that way because the problems catch us elsewhere in another form. The person who commits suicide does not resolve the difficulty by such an action. He only postpones the circumstances of resolving the difficulty. After the death of the physical body he still encounters the same problem, and will have to continue from where he has left off. Therefore, to the difficulties and heart-breaking experiences in life, to unbearable pains in human existence, suicide is not the way out. A brave conquest of them is the way out. This brave conquest of life’s difficulties, pains and sorrows is possible when we draw upon the resources of our inner being and our relations to God.

Nothing is ever lost. All that perished a billion years ago can be recreated now and witnessed, and all that is going to be born a billion years hence can be pre-seen now.

With the mantra the almighty power of allknowingness, infinite beauty and creative light have been surrendered to the devotee. It is the key by which he can open any treasure of the heaven. It is the key by which he can open and unlock any secret hidden anywhere, either in nature, matter, mind or God. Another secret: where do I dwell in God? Not in His hands, not in His lap, not in His heart, because if God goes to visit his devotees, he leaves you sitting by His throne without His presence. – Therefore, you love, treasure, worship, adore the observing principle in the Divinity, and there you dwell. In this case it does not matter where God goes, He has to take you with Him, He cannot go anywhere without you!

Prayer: “Though the whole world is illuminated by the sun, though all nature is filled with beauty, though artists, poets and musicians make a paradise here on earth, yet nobody is in a position to perceive your Presence. Of what use is this light? Lead me into the real light where I behold you. To behold you is to live eternally, to enjoy absolute happiness, and to possess and express ever-creative, ever-abiding beauty.”

To the worldly person, beauty is a temptation, to the spiritual aspirant beauty is a means of God-experience. To the worldly man woman is a danger, for the spiritual aspirant woman is a means for divine experience. To the worldly person money is the means of evil and a bondage, for the spiritual aspirant it is the means for the spread of the light of the Divine. All that binds, troubles, tempts and enslaves the worldly person, inspires the spiritual aspirant, liberates him, and becomes an instrument in his hands for the expression of divine knowledge, light, peace and joy.

Why do we repeat the same mantra again and again, again and again, night and day, day and night? What is the secret, what is the reason? There is the greatest secret behind, the greatest reason. What is that great secret behind this constant repetition of only one thing again and again, and again day and night? Intuition says this repetition of the one mantra day and night is the secret of highest, greatest and most complete evolution. It is the secret of all development, it is the mastertechnique for man to become divine.

The God-loving person is a truly selfless, pure individual – none of the sort of feelings and sentiments which we find the ordinary person harbouring, are present in him. Constantly his heart beats with God’s Presence, omnipotence. He reflects upon the omnipresence and omniscience and omnipotence of God.

What is the secret of the saints? Constant repeating of the mantra. There is no saint who has not repeated a mantra. If some saints did not know mantras, at least they have known one mantra: “God, God, God.” They have said it a million times, in their hearts, their minds. Or they might have said it as “Truth Infinite ...”. They have said something or the other, if not orally, in the heart, and they have done it again and again, millions of times, until they began to live with only one thing: the Divine.

When you are only with one thing, you are a genius, you will be happy, your consciousness will be illuminated, you will be master of mind, life and world. You will be full of peace and happiness, light and divine effulgence. How is it that you are full of peace and joy while repeating only one thing always? What is the cause of restlessness, unhappiness, distress, problems, difficulties and limitations? The cause lies in being with two things.

Illumination is the result of this constant thinking of only one thing. Concentration leads to purification, transformation and illumination. When you have illumination you will be rooted in the Divine. What are the results of being rooted in the Divine? You will be full of light and knowledge, peace and joy, wisdom and divine greatness. God dwells in you, works through you, speaks through you, sees through you. Such a state is to be attained and therefore one repeats the mantra again and again, again and again.

Spiritual things are always invisible. Can you see love, or intelligence, in another person? No. These are qualities of the spirit. They are invisible. Only when one brings them into expression, do these latent things become patent, manifest, perceptible for others and for oneself, for the sense organs.

Keep before you the vision of the picture of the face of the Divine. In that face find a hundred suns concentrated and shining, luminous. See the same face everywhere, in all the cosmos, on everybody’s face. See it right in front of you, find it in your heart, in your head, face-to-face with you. Keep the attention focused in this manner. Practise this again and again. Whatever you may be doing, wherever you may be, again and again fix the attention on it.

Beg the Divine to give you intense absorbing devotion, all the time, in all conditions. Charge the whole body with the mantra-power, let the Divine dwell in your hands, your heart, your soul, your blood and your eyes. Let the Divine dwell in your atmosphere, let the place where you stand be a place of pilgrimage. Let everything around you and within you be charged with the Divine.

How happy we are, depends on the relations we cultivate with the Divinity, all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent. And this Divinity is the Soul of your soul, something which no-one can separate you from. It is the Life-breath of your life-breath, the Intelligence of your intelligence. It is the basis of your existence. Birth and death come and go, without touching this Divinity in you, your true Self.

Mantra repetition, prayers, self-discipline, Yoga practices – all lead to purity of heart. When the heart is pure, with every look within one discovers something fantastic: the Divine, the Eternal, the Immortal in us, the Kingdom of God in us. This is the aim and the purpose of the divine spiritual life.

Who would deny that we have the greatest access to the space around us? We subsist in space, we are surrounded by space, we are interpenetrated by space, space is the closest reality to us. Subtler than space is the supreme Principle, the Divine, the spaceless Reality, the source of everything manifest. We have a greater access to the divine Principle: It is closer to us than space. It is with the aid of the presence of this divine Principle in us that we perceive the external space; and it is with the help of the same Principle that we perceive internal space in the dream-state, and so on.

We are born of the Eternal. We are compounded of the Substance of the Eternal. Let us not continue to hypnotize ourselves to the human conditions. Let us not be dominated and enslaved by the events of everyday and life experiences.

For the perception of anything there must be the perceiver – the supreme perceiver, the perceiver of our thoughts, of our feelings, the perceiver who enables us to perceive everything. This supreme Being is the source of everything. By its very nature it is infinite light, peace, happiness, harmony, power, beauty, knowledge and perfection. The way to the experience of this supreme principle lies through knowledge. Knowledge is the greatest way, though there are many other ways. These other ways are also characterized by knowledge to some degree.

One should know whether a person is spiritual or not, from how much peace he radiates, how much joy he possesses – all-independent joy, nonsensuous and therefore everlasting joy, true joy. One can recognise the spiritual life from the purity of heart, a generous heart, a wonderful heart, a sacrificing heart, a divine heart.

The human individual is a complex phenomenon. There is the body, there is the psychological being; and within this body and psychological complex, there is the supreme Principle which is the basis of all our life, knowledge and activity. Its presence is the cause for our aspirations for perfection, everlasting peace, happiness, more knowledge, and so forth.

These aspirations will be always there in the human heart because the presence of the Divine or the supreme Principle in the human individual can never be separated from the human being. And the end of these aspirations? Their destiny is the complete experience of the infinite peace, happiness, knowledge, infinite freedom and life.

Now, let us take up the path of knowledge, the path of reason. When we begin to analyse the human individual from the highest levels of selfperception, we find that there are two things in man: one the divine Principle, the infinite Being, the never-changing ever-the-same Reality, the selfluminous and all-illuminating Consciousness, and two the outer personality, the physical body, the mental mechanism, the psychological being.

The Divine, or the highest and the supreme Principle in us, is an embodiment of all the moral qualities in their absoluteness. If man has a little purity, the Divine is infinite purity. If man is a little good, the Divine is infinite goodness. If man is a little peaceful, the Divine is infinite peace – a peace that passeth understanding.

Greatness cannot be bought, it comes unsought as you silently develop great qualities. If you wish to be loved, go on loving without expecting any love in return. Don’t look for respect. Let your works inspire respect in others. The people who look for respect create disorder and lose all respect for themselves. The people who are busy expressing great and good qualities are given the highest respect by the largest number of people, even if they don’t want it. Everything depends on you. Try every minute to be a little bigger in your spiritual nature than before.

When you say “Hari Narayana”, an all-saving, all-transforming, all-liberating Truth, Light, stands before the eyes. One experiences the Divine through consciousness, in consciousness. Every Mantra causes an image, a state, to form in our consciousness.

One other method of experiencing the Divine is the development of faith and devotion. This highest Principle in us which is nameless, formless, the timeless Reality, all-penetrating, all-pervading – more all-penetrating than space – is also Love. If the human individual has a little love, this divine Principle is absolute love. This divine Principle which is absolute love, is also absolute knowledge. It is conscious of everything at the same time everywhere, is conscious of everyone’s feelings, thoughts, aspirations, longings and desires.

The God-lover constantly brings his mind back to the central being in himself: a timeless, spaceless, all-perfect Light of Consciousness, Existence. Such a person commits no sins. Such a person has no restlessness in the mind, in the heart, no wrong interests, wrong desires, and so on.

All religions are true. Originally they have been wonderful ways for the contact and experience of the supreme Principle. With the passage of time the custodians of religion have introduced into the religion all kinds of human practices, and have thus watered down the purity of the original forces of the religious phenomenon. However all religions are valid ways for the experience of this one divine Truth. Now, you can choose for yourself the way that is most in harmony with your development, temperament and inward aspirations. However, your progress will be more rapid if you try to gain a deeper knowledge through the writings of those who have experienced the Divine. Constantly reflect upon the nature of the Divine described by those who have experienced the Divine.

All ways lead to the experience of the same Reality. Know this Divine to be the subtlest Principle, the supreme Principle in your inner constitution. It is weightless, it is not perceptible in your inner constitution. Has your intelligence weight? Certainly not in physical terms. Is your intelligence perceivable? It is not perceivable, yet it is the greatest reality in you, without which you cannot know the taste of the chocolate or the biscuit. It is the basis of all experience.

In deep-sleep state the intelligence is suspended in its activities; therefore in that state you do not eat anything, see anything, experience anything. The intelligence is completely suspended in its action, and from this we see that the intelligence is indispensable for any experience. Without it we are nothing.

Let the Image of the Divine go with you, work with you. Let it not be out of your vision and view whatever may be your work and your place. Be always haunted by the boundless peace, love, joy, beauty and wisdom of the Divine. Be haunted to such an extent that when you open or close your eyes, you see only the Divine; that whenever you speak anything it is all divine, and when you do anything it is all divine.

When you are really loving, even if among thousands that adore you there are two bad people who hate you, these people who hate you immensely have also love for you deep in their soul . Their love is expressed in an opposite way. They love you inwardly, but outwardly they are despairing. Their desires in relation to you cannot be fulfilled, and naturally they swing between calling you a saint and a bad man. Develop genuine love, and you will be loved by thousands.

This intelligence that is all-important for us is not perceivable, it cannot be seen. God who is the Intelligence of intelligence is more invisible, and we cannot have any experience, do anything, think anything, experience anything or feel anything without the Divine – for it is the Intelligence of our intelligence in us, it is the Consciousness of the consciousness in us, the Life of the life in us, the Soul of the soul in us. So, we see now clearly that without this divine Principle – the highest Reality, the Intelligence of intelligence in us – we cannot live.

Subsist always in boundless Joy. Never abandon the feeling that you are directly in the very Heart of the supreme Reality, at all times, in all circumstances, in all manner of ways.

From the invisible intelligence, visible things are brought into existence. You don’t see your own intelligence, you don’t see your own consciousness, yet in your consciousness you see everything, in the dream-state you see the people, the forests. Who enables you to see these? The intelligence. In what do you see these? In your intelligence. Though you cannot see the intelligence itself, it enables you to see everything in itself. Though you are not able to see the Divine, the Divine is enabling you to see everything in Itself, everything that you perceive is brought into existence by the Divine. Though the Divine has no weight like your intelligence, all the heaviest celestial bodies, the stars, are brought into existence by It. This is a mystery, it is the greatest wonder.

You are Spirit, and Image of the Divine, and therefore in your heart there is constant longing for true happiness, true peace, true beauty, true wealth, true knowledge, true freedom, true perfection. This inner longing for all these values is the best proof of your inner divine nature.

If man were just an animal among many animals, he would have no notion of perfection, no longing for beauty, no desire to perfect himself in music, no striving in his life or search for more knowledge, no struggle in his life for more freedom.

So, the very fact that he searches for all these proves that there is a divine Principle in him which is constantly driving him towards the attainment of these marvellous goals. The more we understand this, and the more consciously we turn to these spiritual values, the more the Spirit uses our instrumentality for the spread of love and light in the world.

Let me say that the place where I stay is holy, the place where I stand upon is holy, here I shall light a thousand candles. I shall make of my life an epic of intelligence, peace, joy, beauty and spiritual illumination. I shall think like a genius, work like a giant, live like a saint and spread the knowledge of the Divine like a prophet. Every minute of my life I shall consecrate to the Divine, and contribute to the wealth of the world through my heart’s services and sacrifices. My life is not my own but of the Divine. Through my intelligence only His Intelligence functions. My will is devoted and dedicated to the highest ideals. My energies are transformed, purified and uplifted by constant divine service. My heart has not known defeat, failure or pain, it is rooted in the divine Consciousness. I breathe for God, I live in God; my joy, my strength and my power are in Him. My house is His house, and my work is His Work. Since He is the heaven, my work is the heaven-maker. So I live minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, year after year – forever.

In all the world Nature discloses the presence of the Divine most eloquently. One feels inspired in the lap of Nature, Nature has formed many saints. Nature has built up the inner life of the greatest sages of the world. Nature has inspired the poets to sense the presence of the Divine. Nature is closer to the Divine in itself.

Let your perception of Nature become the means of a powerful inner God-experience. And also know something else apart from this: like the film that we have seen, all life, all world, all nature, is a momentary affair. However beautiful it be, however wonderful it be, it is a temporary thing, it is a transitory situation, a dream, a momentary affair, an illusion, though good while you experience it. Through this illusion, penetrate into the heart of the divine Reality, always demand the heart of the divine Reality.

If you are trying to be a spiritual aspirant and a candidate for the experience of the Divine, ask your heart how much heroism characterizes your life. You are tired of a little hard work: look at the great heroes, they have passed through the gates of death in order to realize the ideal they have framed for themselves. The highest ideal is the divine experience. What are your sacrifices? What are the pains you are taking? Have you great humility, great dispassion, a spirit of renunciation, great devotion, an overwhelming love of the Divine, a constant clinging to the Divine from within the heart?

God is an immediate Reality – within the body, outside the body, above, below, left, right, in space, in the air, everywhere. No distant reality, no distant person, no person of yesterday or tomorrow, but a living eternal Presence here and now, a living Person.

We should have few needs, few wants, managing life in a very austere manner, not unnecessarily indulging in luxuries which would only kill our time and waste our energies, financial and other resources. Where we can be all right with one set of clothes, why for the sake of vanity multiply our dresses? We could use our money for better purpose, for seeking more knowledge, for developing our cultural abilities, for Godward progress, for helping others, for doing something immortal on earth. These are called ascetic practices: where you are living a highly disciplined life of stress, strain, but not to that extent where it would frustrate your spiritual progress and mental, moral and cultural advancement. Take food, but don’t eat too much. Don’t take too much of rich food; it is not necessary. Take sleep, but don’t take too much of sleep, cut short some sleep. Have a car, but not two cars, have a house, but not two houses.

Do not fear the many things and all the people that you see. All the objects that you see cease to give any problems to you, the moment you recognise them to be formulations and forms of the divine Consciousness in the boundless ocean of the divine Being. There is only one Being everywhere, the divine Being. The many things that you see in this divine Being are temporary formulations of the same divine Being within yourself. All the fears and anxieties of the people, the differences in their characters, the pleasures and pains, their good and bad, all these are temporary structures; they are constantly changing. They cease to be the moment one becomes aware of one infinite divine ocean of Consciousness.

In order to arrive at the experience of God one has to work very hard, make many sacrifices. The harder you work the less time you have for worldly things, worldly thoughts and worldly feelings, and therefore the more pure you are. Since you are working with the mantra-repetition at the background, since your attitude is characterised by surrender to the Divine, since you are working with God, for God, in God, your work itself is your meditation, and your meditation is your work. Life is work, work is meditation. Life is God-experience, God-experience is life. One continues to dwell and be rooted in God-experience. So, let your life be characterised at least by half the sacrifices the great heroes in human history have made. Live heroically, inwardly full of the spirit of sacrifice, with the fire of spiritual knowledge.

It is good to meditate early in the morning, that is the best time for meditation because the day has not yet taken possession of you. Before the day can seize possession of you, you are trying to put yourself in touch with the Divine. With that Godconsciousness that you acquire in the meditation during the morning time, you can conquer the day, charge the whole day with the God-consciousness that you received in the early morning meditation. Take the meditation mood through all the work of the day, instead of starting meditation at night where you are forced to take the impressions of the whole day into meditation. It is good to meditate at night also, but never forget to meditate in the morning, as soon as you get up. The moment you get up from the bed there must be thought of God in your head, your heart and in your life and awareness.

The highest divine Consciousness in us is constantly calling us, causing new aspirations in us, adding new dimensions to our inner intelligence and experiencing consciousness. It is rich in its content. The wonders that are manifested and visible to the physical senses in the world are not even an atom in the endless wonders and marvels that are resident in the Consciousness within you. Those who have attuned themselves to the higher Consciousness hear a music of which there is no earthly counterpart.

Mantras are identical with God Himself, and every sound is mystical in nature and has relations with the primeval sound, Om. Every word is a power, because there is energy in every word, and in this energy there is consciousness, and consciousness is light, and light has a relationship with God, the Light of all lights.

Wonders within wonders, wonders above wonders are right here in your Consciousness. Even as sleep and dream release you into a world of dream-experience here and now, a dream world which is perhaps most exciting and enchanting – so can you enter into the inner divine Consciousness here and now and experience worlds of wonders and indescribable beauty.

Our life here on earth has to be seen from the standpoint of this inner divine Reality within us, and the outer life has to be brought more and more in proximity with this inner divine Consciousness. And the outer life must be constantly filled, ensouled by some of the perceptions and the content of the divine Consciousness.

Printed and published by Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas and Switzerland Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas Swami Omkarananda Saraswati MargMuni-ki-reti, Distt. Tehri GarhwalUttarakhand 249192, IndiaPhone: 0091 135 243 0713 Fax: 0091 135 243 1531 Omkarananda Ashram Switzerland Anton Graff-Strasse 41 CH 8400 Winterthur Phone: Fax: Switzerland 0041 52 202 19 03 0041 52 202 32 71 Websites: India: www.omkarananda-ashram.org Switzerland: www.omkarananda.ch Austria: www.omkarananda-ashram.net e-mails: Himalayas, India: omkara@vsnl.com Switzerland: omkarananda@greenmail.ch Austria: omkar@aon.at

Omkarananda Ashram

Diary 2008

Sayings of

Swami Omkarananda

for Every Week of The Year

Inner experience discloses that there is no such thing as a stone substance or an article of wood or of iron. Everything is formed by the divine Consciousness, in the divine Consciousness, and as the divine Consciousness.