live in the present and points system

The bhajans (songs in glory of self) took me away from me. I was serenading into depth of meditations. Today there were tonnes of questions flaoting in the space of mind like clouds vigorously drifting aloud.

And then the clearing of throat was heard.
And then the eyes were made to open. There was resistance but it did open to catch a glimpse of the master as he had settled in his seat.

There was a talk on some stick which was carried to Guru when their disciple met them for the first time in ancient times.
The property of the stick was, once its put to fire then it totally burns, not even leaving any residue behind.
Its a symbol of

1. exchange, the Guru gives knowledge and disciple offers the stick.
2. readiness, now i am ready to be burned in pursuit of knowledge
3. no turning back, i have left all to come to know, now till i am saturated in knowledge i will not return

There was a talk on beliefs like if your chappal/shoes are stolen then your karmas get depleted. Guruji said, yes if its expensive shoes then its somebody else's gain but if its old then its somebody's gain. And then the knowledge poured in 

1. Rishis were smart and they created belief to blame somebody else instead of the person responsible for the offence. 
2. That way your focus shifted from the thief to the karmas.
3. You would not be abusing the thief and getting lost in the loss. 
4. You will move on.
5. You will come back to present moment. 
6. Its important to live in the present moment.

Same way if you were going on the road and missed the correct turn or took the wrong route or were stuck in traffic jam then even after coming back home would you remain in the past saying 

If I took that road then I would have reached home earlier.

If ....then...

That moment is gone. It is past. You are in present. You are home.

Then the topics shifted to changing times. Times do not remain the same always. Sometimes its good and sometimes its bad. At the same time for some people its good and for some its bad. Like for example 

1. When you lose your mobile phone. Its bad for you but good for the thief.
2. When the thief gets caught by police. Its bad for thief but good for police. 

To quote Bob Dylan Times, they are a changin...

Points system.

Gods too works on the principles of points system. When you do seva/service then you gain points. Once your account is heavily loaded then you can demand God and then God has no choice. 

If a person does so much seva and God is not able to handle him then he sends many devotees to him and his time is spent with them. Thus giving some bandwidth to the God. 

Lord Krishna made a promise in Bhagvad Geeta that when you come to me and me alone then I will take care of you, totally and completely. 

Therefore, in life whenever you are overwhelmed by situations and tasks at hand make a priority list. In the middle of that list put meditation and when you meditate then you give the ownership of the tasks to the divine. And the divine will see you through. 

Same goes for attachment.

Same goes for fear of planets. If the fear lifts your spirits and takes you away from the world and explores spirituality then its good that साडे साथी (or saturn and its planetary effects) are affecting in. Even then if you chant
ॐ नमः शिवाये
then it creates a shield of protection around you. That protects you from the harmful effects of पांच तत्त्व (five elements), it contains all five elements.

You know all your ailments can only come from these five elements, earth/fire/water/air and space. There are no others. Chanting of mantras works. Rituals don't work but have a specific purpose. If you know the purpose then its fine otherwise just know that chanting mantras can help you overcome bad times.

Its like meditators/devotees hat being knocked off by the bullet whereas the non-meditator's head being rolled over by arrow.

Indra
is the collective consciousness, the mob mentality. They can even get into power. In most puranic stories Indra has known to cause nuisance when Rishi's meditate and do their tapas.

Why?
Because mob is scared of Guru/Siddha/enlightened being walking this planet. The Guru puts back the sense in the being and make them aware. Therefore, Indra tries to destroy public property. kill innocent lives, causes disturbances and loss to public and private properties.

Attachment
is good if it uplifts your life, it takes you to a higher plane. If you love the Guru and are attached to him then its a good sign if you are growing but if you are stagnant or going down or feeling heavy in longingness towards the Guru then its time for you to go back and meditate and review your knowledge, your devotion. Its not the right attachment, its direction has to change.

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The above words are listened and interpreted from art of living satsang that happens every evening at 6:30PM at Bangalore international art of living ashram. This excerpts is on 10th oct 2012 in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri RaviShankar ji.
A more precise draft is available at www.artofliving.org under satsang section.