Its weird and yet it has become normal. Whatever moves faster is better. Communication is at the speed of light. The world is a global village. Electronic mails have to be responded to within the hour. We all are always in a tearing hurry. Doing what?

We are all driven by greed and fear. Greed tells us that there is no time to lose. Fear tells us that we are going to lose. So we hurry not knowing what we are going to lose, not knowing what its value is.

We run because we are afraid to stop; afraid to stop and reflect on what we are doing and why. We are afraid to be with ourselves. To be silent can be terrifying as it makes one vulnerable to oneself.

A young man came to see me.

He said: Swamiji, I have everything sorted out. I am building a house with a 25-year loan. By that time my daughter (a two-year-old holding his hand) will be ready for marriage. My son (an infant that his wife is carrying) will be in a good job. The house would be very valuable and we can get a lot of money by selling it. We will invest most of it and settle down with you at the Ashram.

He had finished off 25 years of his life in just ten minutes. He still feels that his calling is spiritual. Is mortgaging the present for the future spiritual?

This constant running is a reflection of our inner restlessness. We certainly feel we have missed out on life. Has the running been worth it? This is the fastest route to suffering, the expressway.

There is good reason to plan for tomorrow, it’s important. However, let’s not forget to live today!

We take ourselves too seriously. What we do in our lifetime hardly matters in the bigger picture. It is lost in the vast expanse of the universe.

Things go on silently in the universe; so peacefully without any contradictions; millions of solar systems function with such beauty! Things happen in nature in spite of us not because of us.

When we realize this we relax into ourselves. We feel centered in our being. There is a deep sense of trust and peace that envelops our being. When this happens, we will not find the need to hurry through our lives.

Meditation helps to experience this space of relaxation and live enlightenment.

• PARAMAHAMSA  NITHYANANDA

A monastery is not an ashram.

In a monastery there is hierarchy; there is order; there are rules, regulations, and how much work each person has to do.

In an ashram, there are no man made rules and regulations. No one measures how much one does and how much another does. There is chaos, outwardly. There is no equality on terms of responsibility or duties in an ashram; but there is uniqueness. Each person in an ashram does what he or she is best suited for.

In an ashram, an inmate does not work out of fear, greed, motivation or necessity. An ashramite, a resident of an ashram, works out of gratitude. Once people start measuring what they are doing and what others are doing in comparison, you create a political organization, not a spiritual organization.

People mostly work out of fear and greed; all organizations control people out of fear and greed. A few graduate out of fear and greed and then get caught in the need for attention, or jealousy and comparison to prove that they are some way superior to others. Even those who shed all these negativities retain their ego, need for an identity. When all these are shed, one moves up in surrender, working out of sheer gratitude.

A cook in a monastery cooked in the monastery for thirty years. He never bothered to be around the master, rarely attended the master’s discourses. When it was time for the master to leave the planet earth, he called every one to announce who would be the next heir to his seat in that monastery. All of them were expecting one of the disciples very close to the master would succeed him as the master. The master, however, appointed the cook as his successor. He said to his disciples, you have been listening to my discourses all these years, but this cook just lived my teachings. Just with these words, the master made the cook enlightened and capable of being his true successor.

People are not equal. Each one comes with one’s karma and with different attitude.  As long as the Master is around, He will take care of every thing. When Master is not there, the whole thing will become dharma, set procedures. When the Master is there every thing will become moksha, liberation. That is the difference between dharma and moksha. Work for moksha. That is the difference between an ashram and a monastery.

Nithyananda

Living Enlightenment – Gospel Of Paramahamsa Nithyananda