Q: Your face appears to be changing every time to me. Is it my imagination or is it true?🔗

An enlightened being is like liquid – slowing without any ego. That is the reason why they appear to be changing all the time! You will understand how an egoless state expresses, when we discuss about ego.

Make the most of the masters' messages

Drop possessiveness

Q: How do we get over possessiveness and jealousy?

Yes, how do we get over it? The fact that you have asked this question shows that you are ready for better understanding.

Human beings can never be possessed. When you try to possess a person, you actually reduce him or her to an object. You make the person a dead thing. Only dead things can be possessed. If you understand this, you will be free from possessiveness and the jealousy that arises out of it.

Can you try to possess a river? If you try to grasp the water in your hand, you will be doing a foolish thing, will you not? In the same way, don't try to possess people; just enjoy them for what they are and you will be free from the grips of jealousy.

When you try to possess a person, it becomes difficult for that person also. You will start projecting all your ideas on him. He will have to act so as to gel with your projected ideas. He will feel caged. He cannot be his natural self with you. Then it cannot be called a relationship anymore!

Also if you really love a person, liberate him! Don't try to possess him. Just love him with no strings attached.

I am reminded of a story:

In a remote village in South Bharat, where people did not know that civilization existed, there was an old couple. One day, for the first time ever, there was a fair in the village.

The man went to the fair and saw all the items on show.

He picked up a mirror and was awestruck by what he saw! He had never seen a mirror in all his life before.

He took it home with him.

Now and then he would take out the mirror, glance at it and put it back before his wife could see it.

The wife however noticed it and when he was out one day, she picked it up and looked into it.

She exclaimed, 'Another woman! Just as I had thought!'

There is no end to our imagination because of our possessiveness and jealousy!

Of course, you might say, 'Swamiji, how can I keep quiet if my husband or wife is eyeing someone else.' If your husband or wife is really eyeing another person, just look into the matter consciously, with awareness, and sort out the matter with your husband. This is different from possessiveness.

How to overcome jealousy?

By telling yourself not to feel jealous, you can never come out of jealousy. Only if you bring awareness into the whole thing and understand deeply, it will help.

To overcome jealousy, just see how the jealousy came into your system. Just analyze the sequence of thoughts and emotions that led to jealousy.

Soon you will understand that jealousy is there like a shadow without an object, tormenting you. Getting liberation from jealousy is a great liberation in one's life.

Second thing, don't condemn the object of your jealousy. Just by condemning the object of jealousy, you will not be liberated from jealousy itself.

By condemning the object of jealousy, you might be liberated from that particular object of jealousy, but you will get fixed onto another object of jealousy, that's all! It is like saying 'sour grapes' and moving on to another vineyard! So, trying to overcome the object of jealousy is not the solution. You need to work on the subject that is you.

If you feel that you are holding an emotion that you wish to get rid of, something that you feel is not conducive to your growth, don't resist that emotion. When you resist it, you will only be empowering it more. When you say, 'I should not get jealous,' you will be giving the same power to the word 'jealous' as you give to the words 'I should not'.

Instead, say to yourself, 'Let me be always compassionate towards everyone.' Don't use the word 'jealous' at all. Say something totally positive in the same context, that's all.

Also, instead of avoiding or running away from jealousy, live it through with total awareness. When you try to avoid it, it will confront you at some other time with more intensity than before. Just remember that jealousy is not your true nature. Society taught you to be jealous.

Jealousy is not the real you. When this clicks in you, you will laugh at it instead of being involved in it. When you are able to laugh at it, it means you have started witnessing it instead of being a part of it. The moment you become a witness, it becomes easy to go beyond anything.

Also, if you see that the whole of Existence is nothing but a divine play, you will be able to see the jealous feeling also as a divine play.

If you understand that you are unique and there is no one in this world like you, the comparing nature in you will become meaningless and you will automatically stop feeling jealous. Always remember: Existence loves everyone and everything equally.

Q: Masters time and again try to inspire in us traits like love free from jealousy, better understanding and non-judgmental attitudes. Why is the understanding not happening in us?

You see, there are two things in this: When we catch the masters' messages and make a sincere effort in transforming ourselves, we have caught the right thread and we enter into bliss! But when we start giving importance to the master's personality instead, there starts the problem.

If you follow the master's teachings, you will become a spiritual fruit. If you cling on to his personality, you will remain a religious nut. Religious nuts are the ones who create confusion and conflict in society.

Whether it is Krishna's message in the Bhagavad Gita or Mohammed's message in the Holy Koran or Christ's message in the Holy Bible, the message remains the same, just the expressions vary. Whichever master you have the fortune of following, follow. But when you follow Krishna, if Krishna becomes more significant to you than the Bhagavad Gita, you are creating trouble for yourself and for others.

When Krishna and Christ meet, they will surely embrace each other. But when Krishna's cows and Christ's sheep meet, there is bound to be a fight!

Each one tries to spread peace claiming that his master's philosophy is the best. What happens? Instead of spreading peace, we become pieces ourselves!

Masters keep happening on planet Earth out of sheer compassion towards humanity. But man somehow manages to survive them!

The other way to transform quickly is, instead of pointing fingers at others or instead of waiting for a good time to start practicing, if each of us starts practicing from the very moment of hearing the messasge, things will automatically start happening around us.

For example, I tell you to start loving plants, animals, trees and humans alike. Instead of waiting for an auspicious time to start practicing it and eventually forgetting all about it, you can start start practicing it right now.

The simplest way to start might be to avoid abusing nature while you are walking on the road or inside your own home. When walking, some of us have the habit of breaking twigs off trees and plucking flowers. You could consciously stop doing these things and look at these things with more awareness and love.

These are the ways not to miss the masters' teachings.

But what do you do? You listen to the masters' talks or read some of their books, and say, 'What a great orator he is,' and forget all about it. Or, you advise some of your friends to listen to the speeches, and you simply go back to your old ways of doing things. What can be done then?

Please understand: I don't want you to just preach my teachings; I want you to practice them also.

Listen to this small story:

A man went to Africa for a holiday.

He was walking in his backyard one day when he was confronted by a lion that leapt on him.

He quickly ducked and the lion landed in the bush nearby.

The next day, the man went walking again and the lion appeared and attacked him once more, but again he ducked and it landed further away in the bush nearby.

The next day, the man stood inside his house and looked outside to see if the lion could be seen anywhere.

He spotted the lion behind a bush.

To his amazement, he saw the lion practicing low jumps!

See, when you apply the knowledge that you gain, you can grow in life. When you simply want to collect knowledge, it is of no use. If you are going to only collect knowledge, only your memory will grow, not your being.

Masters talk the ultimate truth that no one else can express.

It is like this: There is a vast and dense forest and you are trying to explore it with a small lamp, that is your mind.

With the light of the small lamp, you see a few feet ahead and put down what you see as the truth.

This is what scientists do. They see a few feet ahead and come out with one theory today.

After some time, they go a few feet further ahead with that light and see a few feet further and see something more.

They then discard the truth they declared today and bring in a new truth.

Be very clear that what was truth today but untruth tomorrow could not have been truth even today.

Anyhow, this is how they are trying to explore a dense forest with their mind.

But imagine now that there is a flash of lightning and the whole forest becomes visible in that one flash!

Then you know the whole forest and you can go about explaining things as and when needed.

This is what enlightenment is all about! It is seeing the whole forest in a single flash of lightning. So enlightened masters know the ultimate truth.

In most of the teashops in remote villages in Bharat, you can see a familiar scene. There will be some standard visitors for the shop everyday who discuss all the great philosophies of the world. The heads of all the great Gods, masters and politicians will be properly chewed and digested by these people.

All the atrocities being committed in town will be discussed without exception. The whole world will be brought under scrutiny for lack of order and discipline. Finally, the man who spoke all this will finish his tea and leave saying that he will pay for his tea the following day!

The man who could not even pay for his tea will sit on the teashop bench and read the newspaper from the first page to the last and pass judgment on everything that he has read. Even the editor would not have read the paper so thoroughly!

So, start practicing. Sage Patanjali from ancient Bharat says, 'If you can bend 5 inches today, try to bend a half-inch more tomorrow.' Like this, you should work steadily towards experiencing the truth that I am giving you. Otherwise, you will be no more than the people in the teashops. They cause depressions in the benches there while you cause holes in the mats here, that's all!

The problem is, most often, when we hear words of wisdom spoken, we always feel that it is exactly applicable to our friend or relative who is also listening to the lecture! We secretly hope that they got the message. But we miss the message ourselves! Remember: Even if there are a thousand people in the hall, I am talking to you.

Every word of mine is pregnant with the energy that is meant for you. So please don't listen with such ideas in your mind. Especially when husbands and wives come to listen to the lectures, when I say a few things pertaining to their practical lives, the husband will think, she should hear this and the wife will think to herself that the husband should hear it! At the end, both will miss it.

Man's inherent nature is to accumulate money and material things. At some point in time, he realizes that there are things that money can't get him. His pace in gathering wealth automatically decreases. He then starts gathering words or intellectual knowledge. This process somehow never stops. He becomes greedy for more and more words.

One who has stopped gathering wealth and words will find true knowledge. Often, we ask questions not because we really want to know the answer but simply because we are greedy for more words or because we want to show that we know something.

If you look deep inside, only one question will arise and that is the only original question for yourself. If that question is answered, you will become enlightened!

One man asked me, 'Swamiji, What is God?'

I slowly changed the subject and enquired about his family and his business.

We spoke for nearly two hours. In those two hours, never once did he get back to his initial question.

At the end of it I told him, 'Ayyah, you asked me a question as soon as you came in. I did not answer it because it was not a question from deep inside you.'

If the question arises from deep inside us, we will never forget it or rest until we are satisfied with the answer. Some people ask questions, give the answer themselves and then ask me for an answer!

Q: If we should stop comparing, does it mean we should renounce everything and become a spiritualist?

Most people think that the moment I say you should stop comparing, stop running etc., I am asking them to escape from the worldly matters and become a spiritualist.

Spirituality, or for that matter sannyas, is not about renouncing at all. It is about having deep awareness, which will automatically shrink your mad desires to basic needs and give you the energy to fulfill them.

Whatever needs to be done in the outer world needs to be done, no doubt. You have to earn a living; you have to keep the body alive etc. All I am saying is, bring awareness into all this so that all unnecessary occupations in the outer world automatically disappear and you live with a clear understanding of the purpose of your very birth and life.

All forms of illusion, all borrowed desires, all instilled fears, all forms of jealousy and comparison, passion and lust will then undergo a complete transformation and become blissful energy to you.

A small story:

A master was walking with his disciple when they came to a river.

The disciple was surprised and asked, 'Master, are we going to cross this river now?'

The master calmly replied, 'Yes, we are. You have to be careful not to get your feet wet!'

The disciple could not understand what the master was saying! The master was trying to tell him that spirituality is all about crossing the ocean of life without getting your feet wet. It is all about being like a lotus in a pond – untouched by the water although deep inside it.