All I want to convert you to is who and what you really are. - Swami Kriyananda.

The spiritual relation of souls united in seeking God is stronger and more binding than any other relation. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

O' Lord, let Thy will be done, Thy work be accomplished. Fortify our devotion, increase our surrender, give us light upon the path. We erect Thee within us as our supreme Master that Thou mayst become supreme Master of all the earth. Our speech is still ignorant; enlighten it. Our aspiration is still imperfect, purify it. Our action is still powerless; make it effective. - The Mother.

It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple. - Guru Rabindranath Tagore.

This world was not built with random bricks of Chance, a blind God is not destiny's architect; a conscious power has drawn the plan of life. There is a meaning in each curve and line. - Sri Aurobindo.

Don't waste your time on trying to make out whether the advice you get flows from knowledge only, or from valid experience! Just follow it faithfully. Life will bring you another Guru if another one is needed. Or deprive you of all outer guidance and leave you to your own lights. - Nisargadatta.

Life cannot be against you, for you are life itself. Life can only seem to go against the ego's projections, which are rarely in harmony with the Truth. - Mooji.

Nothing should go back to normal. Normal wasn't working. If we go back to the way things were, we will have lost the lesson. May we rise up and do better. - Anonymous.

What is God and Why?

By Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya

God is a conscious Being, who is present everywhere, who is all-powerful, who is all-knowing and who is all-perfect.

He cannot be recognized by the mind, understood by the intellect, known by the reason; He has to be felt in the heart.

God expresses Himself through whatever is true, whatever is beautiful, and whatever is good.

He wants to express Himself through many. That is why He has created trees and plants, pests and insects, birds and beasts, animals and men, and this whole universe. Through the evolutionary process, He is taking everything towards His perfection, so that ultimately, everything becomes Himself. In this whole universe, good or bad, whatever is happening, whatever is becoming, all are His will, His play, and His plan.

His presence can be felt everywhere and in everything; everything is a part of Himself, everything is moving under His law, and in accordance with His wishes.

Through the evolutionary process, man has reached such a stage that he can be conscious of God within himself. That is why in the Divine's play, he has a special role, a special responsibility. When everything else in the universe, including nature, moves unconsciously through the evolutionary process, man alone, if he so desires, can realize God within himself, make his will one with His will, go through the evolutionary process consciously, realize within himself God's truth, God's beauty, and God's goodness, and establish them in the material world.

Then in this play of God, man's special role is to realize God and himself, make his will one with the Divine's will, express Him through all his efforts, and make his life and his surroundings God-pervaded.

In each one's life, a moment comes when he has to choose between the path and the muddle. You cannot put one foot here and one foot there. If you try to, you will be torn to pieces. A heart that does not choose is a heart that will die. - Divine Mother.

Don't stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done. - Anonymous.

There was a Master come unto the earth, born in the holy land of Indiana, raised in the mystical hills east of Fort Wayne. 

The Master learned of this world in the public schools of Indiana, and as he grew, in his trade as a mechanic of automobiles. 

But the Master had learnings from other lands and other schools, from other lives that he had lived. He remembered these, and remembering became wise and strong so that others saw his strength and came to him for counsel.

The Master believed that he had the power to help himself and all mankind, and as he believed so it was for him so that others saw his power and came to him to be healed of their troubles and their many diseases.

The Master believed that it is well for any man to think upon himself as a son of God, and as he believed, so it was, and the shops and garages where he worked became crowded and jammed with those who sought his learning and his touch, and the streets outside with those who longed only that the shadow of his passing might fall upon them and change their lives.

It came to pass, because of the crowds, that the several foremen and shop managers bid the Master leave his tools and go his way, for so tightly was he thronged that neither he nor other mechanics had room to work upon the automobiles.

So it was that he went into the countryside, and people following began to call him Messiah, and worker of miracles; and as they believed, it was so.

If a storm passed as he spoke, not a raindrop touched a listener’s head; the last of the multitude heard his words as clearly as the first, no matter lightning nor thunder in the sky about. And always he spoke to them in parables.

And he said unto them, “Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and to sickness, to riches and to poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these and not another.”

A mill-man spoke and said, “Easy words for you, Master, for you are guided as we are not, and need not toil as we toil. A man has to work for his living in this world.”

The Master answered and said, “Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.

“The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.

“Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.

“But one creature said at last, ‘I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, II trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.’

“The other creatures laughed and said, ‘Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!’

“But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.

“Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.

“And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, ‘See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!’

“And the one carried in the current said, ‘I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.’

“But they cried the more, ‘Saviour!’ all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Saviour.”

And it came to pass when he saw that the multitude thronged him the more day on day, tighter and closer and fiercer than ever they had when he saw that they pressed him to heal them without rest, and feed them always with his miracles, to learn for them and to live their lives, he went alone that day unto a hilltop apart, and there he prayed.

And he said in his heart, Infinite Radian Is, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me, let me lay aside this impossible task. I cannot live the life of one other soul, yet ten thousand cry to me for life. I’m sorry I allowed it all to happen. If it be thy will, let me go back to my engines and my tools and let me live as other men.

And a voice spoke to him on the hilltop, a voice neither male nor female, loud nor soft, a voice infinitely kind. And the voice said unto him, “Not my will, but Thine be done. For what is thy will is mine for thee. Go thy way as other men, and be thou happy on the earth.”

And hearing, the Master was glad, and gave thanks, and came down from the hilltop humming a little mechanic’s song. And when the throng pressed him with its woes, beseeching him to heal for it and learn for it and feed it nonstop from his understanding and to entertain it with his wonders, he smiled upon the multitude and said pleasantly unto them, “I quit.”

For a moment the multitude was stricken dumb with astonishment.

And he said unto them, “If a man told God that he wanted most of all to help the suffering world, no matter the price to himself, and God answered and told him what he must do, should the man do as he is told?”

“Of course, Master!” cried the many. “It should be (a) pleasure for him to suffer the tortures of hell itself, should God ask for it!”

“No matter what those tortures, nor how difficult the task?”

“Honor to be hanged, glory to be nailed to a tree and burned if so be that God has asked,” said they.

“And what would you do,” the Master said unto the multitude, “if God spoke directly to your face and said, ‘I COMMAND THAT YOU BE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE.’ What would you do then?”

And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys where they stood.

And the Master said unto the silence, “In the path of our happiness shall we find the learning for which we have chosen this lifetime. So it is that I have learned this day, and choose to leave you now to walk your own path, as you please.”

And he went his way through the crowds and left them, and he returned to the everyday world of men and machines.

(An extract from Illusions - The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach)

Quiet, quiet and more quiet, calm strength, calm gladness are what are needed in mind and nerves and body as a basis for siddhi - precisely because the Force, the Light, the Ananda that comes down are extremely intense and need a great stillness in the body to bear and support. - Sri Aurobindo.

Spirit is the image of the Lord of Yoga; mind and body are the means He has provided for reproducing that image in phenomenal existence. All Nature is an attempt at a progressive revelation of the concealed Truth, a more and more successful reproduction of the divine image. - Sri Aurobindo.

Courage is the force that makes our lives brilliant. - Anonymous.

Whether you continue in the household or renounce it, and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The obstacle is the mind; it must be got over whether in the home or in the forest. - Ramana Maharishi.

What is not permanent is not worth striving for. - Ramana Maharishi.

To walk on the path you must have dauntless intrepidity, you must never turn back upon yourself with this mean, petty, weak, ugly movement that fear is. Indomitable courage, perfect sincerity, total self-giving (attitude) to the extent that you do not calculate or bargain, you do not give with the idea of receiving, you do not offer yourself with the intention of being protected, you do not have a faith that needs proofs, — this is indispensable for advancing on the path, this alone can shelter you against all dangers. - The Mother.

Why are you so dejected? If you were really unfit to realize the Self in this life, you could not have come to this place at all. The power that drew you here will make you realize that Self. If not today, then at some other time it is bound to fulfill its commitment. There is no reason why you should be dejected. - Sri Ramana Maharishi.

It is certain that for someone who has desires, when his desires are not satisfied, it is a sign the Divine Grace is with him and wants, through experience, to make him progress rapidly, by teaching him that a willing and spontaneous surrender to the Divine Will is a much surer way to be happy in peace and light than the satisfaction of any desire. The Mother.

Our best help is faith, the Divine is all-merciful. - The Mother.

Our concept of education has to go beyond manufacturing cogs for the economic engine. - Sadhguru.

Indeed, if you truly leave everything to the Lord's care, your heart will be in peace, and all things will be the best possible. - The Mother.

If the wind blows, you can always adjust your sails, but, if you don't know where you are going any road will take you there. - Anonymous.

Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be? - Charles Bukowski.

Many teachers will tell you to believe; then they put out your eyes of reason and instruct you to follow only their logic. But I want you to keep your eyes of reason open; in addition, I will open in you another eye, the eye of wisdom. - Swami Sri Yukteshwar Giri.

The Bliss of Identity 

By Sri Aurobindo

All Nature is taught in radiant ways to move,
All beings are in myself embraced.
O fiery boundless Heart of joy and love,
How art thou beating in a mortal’s breast!
It is Thy rapture flaming through my nerves
And all my cells and atoms thrill with Thee;
My body thy vessel is and only serves
As a living wine-cup of Thy ecstasy.
I am the center of Thy golden light
And its vast and vague circumference,
Thou art my soul great, luminous and white
And Thine my mind and will and glowing sense.
Thy spirit’s infinite breath I feel in me;
My life is a throb of Thy eternity.

There Is A Candle In Your Heart

There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?
You feel the separation
from the Beloved.
Invite Him to fill you up,
embrace the fire.
Remind those who tell you otherwise that
Love comes to you of its own accord,
and the yearning for it cannot be learned in any school.

People like us who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. - Albert Einstein.

This beautifully designed volume contains poetry by Rumi, art by Michael Green, and a CD of the thirteenth-century mystic's verse put to American music. Here is an excerpt containing "One Song," a poem by Rumi translated by Coleman Barks on the theme of hospitality.

All religions, all this singing
One Song.
The differences are just
Illusion and vanity.
The Sun's light looks
A little different on this wall than
It does on that wall,
And a lot different on this other one,
But it's still one light.
We have borrowed these clothes,
These time and place personalities
From a light,
And when we praise,
We're pouring them back in.

(An Excerpt from One Song: A New Illuminated Rumi by Michael Green)

The Sun Never Says
By Hafiz

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me." Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the whole sky.

You imprison yourself in various moods, and this is the cause of all your sorrows. To escape, you have to dissolve the feelings and emotions connected with body consciousness. Meditation is the way. - Paramhansa Yogananda.

Your garment of thoughts absorbs the vibrations of those with whom you mix. If you leave your coat outside in the garden, later on, when you bring it indoors, it will carry with it the fragrance of fresh air and flowers. The environment is stronger than will power. - Paramhansa Yogananda.

If you have within you that faith which is truly divine, and if there is something you desire that is not in the universe, it shall be created for you. - Swami Sri Yukteshwar Giri.

Accept yourself as you are. And that is the most difficult thing in the world because it goes against your training, education, your culture. From the very beginning, you have been told how you should be. Nobody has ever told you that you are good as you are. - Osho.

Nothing happens by accident in the Divine scheme of things. - Ramana Maharishi.