Jivan Sarvasva
July 02, 1977 am
The title of this bhajan is “You are my life.”
What is life and how do you understand that he is all my life.
Our thoughts and our actions [are] our life.
Whatever mastery we have over our thoughts, our intellect, our body and all the process of our being is the mastery of life.
Normally, whatever we store in the form of our thoughts and our actions are very ordinary.
[Our] usual life is ordinary life.
Gurudev’s thoughts and actions are very true, and because they are in line, in conformity with the truth, they are of the highest value.
One who is completely enchanted by Guru’s thoughts and actions, and surrenders himself totally to it, is in tune with life.
To practice or to digest the thoughts and actions of the Guru is the surrender and this is what takes us to total liberation.
I was 19 years old.
At that time, I went at the lotus feet of my Guru.
By receiving his love, I had almost become intoxicated.
At that time, I had felt that the supreme most happiness that exists in this world, I have.
Just as a butterfly willingly gives his body to the flame, to the light, so also I was ready to give my life to his light.
He was a siddha and most powerful master.
So he knew my mind completely, everything that was going on within me.
So that merciful Gurudev, that Beloved Gurudev, in order to specially bless me, one day told me, “My Son, I like it very much that you love my body, and what you are doing is all right.
And yet, my son, I am not this body.
So what you call Guru is in my thoughts, in my actions.
Practice and digest my principles, that is your true love for me.”
Ordinarily everyone cannot surrender his life in this manner, because in this world individuals like to live under very specific conditions.
If we analyze this, we can say that within us is the storage of thoughts and actions of numerous people.
Under such circumstances, it is not possible to have total surrender.
But such a noble work, only someone who is desirous of the highest path of moksha can do; and such a disciple should be called “Maha Purusha great master”.
In this entire world, we call the great masters, and those who establish the religions, the ones who follow this path.
Only such masters have the capacity to completely give their life to the Guru.
Because in this highest type of sadhana there is only one desire and that is to find the Lord.
We can say that to whatever extent an individual remains established in Guru’s actions and thoughts, to that extent he is established in the higher path.
In this world we are receiving the impressions from many, many individuals.
So the actions that we perform are the [result] of the thoughts that have affected us the most.
The thoughts that are unable to produce the actions, we can say that those thoughts have not impressed us properly.
Normally, in order to fulfill their desire for spiritual growth, they go to the feet of the Guru, but if they try to receive from many different saints, then their mind becomes disturbed, and it creates conflicts.
One saint shows one path, another saint shows another, and a third shows a third one and life is showing altogether different one, and books show altogether different ones.
By [such] many different conflicting thoughts and actions, the mind becomes tired without doing anything.
All individuals cannot become free from this problem.
And this stage is all right for them.
After he recognizes this deception, then he gradually becomes free from it.
Suppose one individual has an incurable disease.
Just as everyone desires to stay alive, so this person had a desire to stay alive.
This man is [very] rich.
This money also puts man in the circles, the difficulties.
He goes to a doctor and says, “I have this, this, and this problem.
What should I do?
Doctor says, “You’ll have to pay a little more, but I’ll show you the way.”
And this way he takes advantage of your money.
Then he doesn’t care whether his advice has helped you or not.
In spite of this, you are not satisfied.
Then you go to another one, then a third one, the fourth one, and yet you just continue to collect the storehouse of advices.
The result is that you become confused both in your mind and in your intellect.
The solution of the spiritual growth is working in the same manner.
Those who are the true disciples are very calm and patient in their approach.
I will give you a technique to find out who belongs to which one.
One who has too many gurus is restless and one who has only one guru is more stable.
They just don’t give up what they’re holding on to.
The one who is intelligent must objectively observe all the different approaches and then select the one that is convincing and even if its not the one that belongs to himself, even then he should accept it.
There are many confusions even in the small matters.
If you are doing headstand and suppose you have done headstand in front of 10 experts, they’ll give you different advices in simple matter as that.
Under these circumstances, you would be confused as to what to follow.
After you practice the teachings of nine experts, then at the end, [at] the total sum of all of this will remain one answer.
The meaning of this is that you receive the knowledge at the end of experiment and practice.
That means that you belong to karma yogis.
You’re not on the branch of intellectuals.
Those who approach the jnana [tr ] to test everything through the logic, through the understanding , through mind.
So they select the action which appears to be true after a good mental analysis and logic.
My purpose in explaining this in such details is “Do not hurry in [naming] a Guru.’ One who truly wants to progress spiritually must learn thoroughly how to do self-analysis.
As long as you do not have this, you cannot continuously involve yourself in this painful action.
We, in our minds, have many different thoughts and, being impressed by them, we act.
If we are acting from the past thoughts in the present actions, it affects our present actions.
Now I’ll shorten and tell you “Do not hurry in making Guru.”
First necessity is that you must feel the love between you and Guru.
It is necessary that you just accept him as your own.
That is necessary in the beginning.
So you must have trust in his thoughts, trust in his actions, and you must be convinced that he is the well-wisher of [mine].
[Such] individuals are always selfless.
If I truly explain the Guru is the giver; he doesn’t ask anything from him.
He does not have anything to do with your prosperity, with your money, with your fame, or any other of your accomplishments.
It is enough for him that you want to grow spiritually.
When the river is flowing, there are many thirsty people who approach her.
The river does not ask him to which path you belong or [to] what country you belong.
Just come and receive the water.
Even though the river obliges everyone by offering the water, she does not want to know who comes to her and why.
This bhajan I have written for myself, but I’m singing it in front of you.
It is because you all love me, and I’m just presenting my ideas to you.
The first line says, “May the merciful Guru be victorious.”
The meaning of this is very deep and secret.
It is very difficult to understand and to teach or explain.
The secret feeling that is hidden behind these words, there are no words for it.
If we say to the sun, “May the entire earth be lit by your light, is this appropriate?
God is already victorious, who is he going to fight with?
He is alone.
There is no one to fight with him.
He has no enemy.
It is impossible for him to have enemy.
The man is trying to be victorious, so he may receive what the other has or to make other person be under his control.
But for him everybody is under his control! And isn’t it the foolishness to wish him victory?
But there is one good wish behind the wishing of victory to Guru! We can say that there are only two individuals whose kingdom is spreading in this world the kingdom of the divine and the kingdom of the demons.
In the individual’s life, the lust is the demon and the divine has been hailed so that it may win in the individual’s life.
In this victory, we are wishing the victory of ourselves, not God.
Even though we are the children of one father, we are fighting each other because we have the demon in our mind in the form of disturbance.
That is why the victory of the Guru is wished here.
Once when I was traveling in India, one child had asked me one most unusual question.
This child had asked about one important [shloka] from the Gita.
Whenever the religion, the purity, is diminishing on the earth, then I incarnate on this earth.
God incarnates to protect the saints and to destroy the lower elements, the demons.
Then the child said, if we all do a lot of bad things, wouldn’t he have to incarnate on this earth?
Then Bapuji said, “My son, what you say is true.
But if we become too cunning and bad, then when he incarnates we won’t be able to recognize him.
When he is born, if we are not on the sides of the saints, then we will never be able to recognize him.
When the radio was first invented, one illiterate man heard this radio.
The owner of this radio said that there is man talking 5000 miles away, and he is the one talking on the radio.
The illiterate man thought the owner of the radio had gone crazy.
Here we are sitting, and we can hear a man speaking 5000 miles away.
How is it possible?
Now can you explain anything to him?
Then we should just say that his intellect is not developed enough to explain the scientific facts.
If we find the roots of all the evil actions, it is our lack of knowledge, our ignorance.
If we understand this scientifically, to live a pure life would become natural.
One rich man had a young son.
He used to live in the family of his mother far away.
This child grew up, he studied, and yet he had never met his father.
Once it so happened that father and son both got together.
Where they were sitting together, the father was thinking, “If this man beside me is a crook, he will cut my pocket, he will cheat me.”
So he was fearing in his own mind.
Accidentally they started conversing.
He asked, “Where are you from?”
He gave the name of the city.
“What family do you belong to?
What is your name?
What is your father’s name?”
Receiving this information, he found out.
This is my son!” The fear left him.
This way when we try to find the truth through right actions, we remove the ignorance and as soon as the knowledge comes in the fear goes away.
We will be making such mistakes, and the end of such mistakes will be when we know the truth and practice it.
And one day we will be able to understand the victory that is wished to the guru.
And we will be able to understand it only through his grace.
He is merciful.
Here the disciple says, “You are my Brahma, the creator; you are my Shiva and you are the Shakti.
All the energies that exist on this earth in every form that is what you are to me.
I’m sure the Westerners are very much confused by listening to all the names of the Lord, like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Sarasvati, and all the names.
But my beloved children, I must say that this is the most powerful science.
The effort that Sanatana Dharma has made to explain God and his manifestations is very unique.
God is shown in many different forms or expressions of his energies then in the end it is all added into one.
So, this approach is very much like showing first the fruits, then the flowers, then the leaves, then the branches, then come to the trunk, then show you the seed.
Whenever I dwell on this I have the direct experience of seeing what I have explained then I am truly amazed in what an amazing manner I have explained these things.
The devotee says further, “You are my mother”.
Mother actually gives birth physically but you have given the true birth, and by having taken your milk which is in the form of knowledge, my life becomes totally free.”
“You are my father; you are my sister; you are my brother.”
The individual cannot survive without love, and in order to give the teachings [of] love God has made one family.
One must learn to love father, mother, brother and sister.
First, they love us, then we have to love them.
Then we get familiar with their love gradually; then as we grow old, the love that we have received we have to give.
Devotee says, “You are my beloved and the protector.
You are everything to me.”
For a swami this is the correct description, because for him entire family is one; it is in the Guru; it is in God and Guru are one.
First God was expressed through many different names.
In the end he said, “You are the only one.”
So receiving the love from Guru, which is of such a supreme nature, there is no desire for father’s love, for mother’s, or son or protector or any other love, because it surpassed all love! If you just get the milk, from that you can also get the yogurt, you can also get the buttermilk, you can also get the butter, you get everything.
Only when you become the traveler of the highest path then you’ll become established in one Guru.
One is attracted by the individuals, ideals, and things.
So here the devotee says, “You are my knowledge and you are my wealth.
You are my fame that can never be lost.
Then in the end he says, “Merciful Guru, you always give me everything without me ever asking for it.
I do not desire to say anything more about it; I just desire to bow at your feet.
If you cannot remember all the thoughts and actions of the Guru, just remember few of them because the entire flow of peace and happiness will come from that.