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Take time to know thy Self

A spiritual discourse on finding inner peace and the nature of true happiness.

"Within you is the ocean of bliss, within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the immortal self."

"If you want to have a harmonious, beautiful relation to all, then hold on to your inner joy."

Swami Avatarpuri delivers a satsang on the well-being of the self, contrasting fleeting external joys with the permanent bliss found within through meditation and mantra practice. He advises using breath awareness along the spine when the mind is restless and emphasizes that lasting contentment comes from realizing the inner ātmā. The talk also explores deriving happiness from selfless service, managing relationships wisely, avoiding negative company, and maintaining pure devotion without doubt.

Recording location: Australia, Brisbane, Australian tour

When you have no work to do and the mind is filled with nonsense thoughts, then let your mind climb up and down, ascending and descending, with breath consciousness along the spinal column, awakening the chakras, iḍā, piṅgalā, and suṣumnā. When you have work, stop this process and go and work. When restlessness comes, again let your mind function to develop your spirituality. So when you meditate, don't try to go far away somewhere. Concentrate within thyself. Then you will feel that the well-being of your ātmā is so beautiful there. The well-being of your mind is so peaceful there, and the well-being of your entire body is something indescribable. Within you is the ocean of bliss, that paramānanda, supreme bliss. Paramānanda is not outside anywhere; it is within you. Within you is the ocean of bliss, and within you is the fountain of joy. The problem is that we are searching for joy outside. You are not searching for joy inside; outer joy is changeable. Outer joy is emotional waves; outer joy will bring unhappiness one day. So the joy of the joy which you want to enjoy, that joy is less than the suffering. All kinds of happiness may be with money, with property, with your car, with your partner, with anyone, with anything from the external world. What you see as happiness one day will be the biggest disappointment. If you want to have a harmonious, beautiful relation to all, then hold on to your inner joy. Love, joy, happiness, and contentment, these are the universal principles. No one has copyright on it, only God. If you are happy, no company will come to you and say, "Why are you happy? I have copyright on it." No. So, within you is the ocean of bliss, within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the immortal self. Indescribable, everlasting, unborn, will never die, that is called ātmā, and that you are. If you look within thyself, you will be ever and ever happy in your life. But if you look at this saṃsāra, the temptation of saṃsāra for some time is very nice, and other times it will not be very nice. So forget all these worldly things and be with thyself, and then work, then help others. It does not mean that you close your eyes and sit down and lock the door and say, "It doesn't matter, world, go somewhere else." No, no, that is not like that. Humans are here as protectors, as creative beings, as helpers, and to realize God. So the well-being of your self and your mind you can only get through mantra practice, ascending and descending breath awareness through the spinal column, awakening your kuṇḍalinī śakti, activating your chakras, and being one with the Śubh. This is the well-being of your mind. No object can make you forever happy. Within you is the ocean of bliss; within you is the fountain of joy. Within you is the immortal self, ātmā. And kill this little "I," this ego, and lead a divine life. A great saint, Swāmī Śivānanda, said these words: "As long as you have no relation to your inner self, you are lost, disappointed, and you are not content." So the well-being of your mind and self is to go with him. Second, serve, give. If you give something to someone and the receiver is happy, then you are a thousand times happier than the one who is receiving. This afternoon, or at noontime, I had an experience like this. It's not a big deal; it's not a big thing, you know. There was a small child; I gave one piece. Again, I gave a second piece. And you can't imagine how happy that child was. How easy it is to make children happy. And can you imagine how happy I was? I was so selfish; I felt more happiness than the other child. That's the well-being of your mind, to create harmony. Every morning, get up after your bathroom routine and so on, take one handful of some corn or seeds, and in your garden, on your balcony, or in the park, put it out for the birds. How happy they will be. Every morning early they will wake you up. Yes, they will sing for you a beautiful alarm, the most wonderful alarm, and they will dance for you. When you come home, they will be waiting for you. That is such a relaxing well-being, happiness. Yes, when you come home and you have a dog, how happy that dog is. I think that dog hugs you more than your partner. Your partner only once comes and says, "Hello, how are you, darling?" But your dog is up and down and running around. Yes, but the well-being of that creature, my God. You know, unfortunately, there are many people who don't know how to be happy. There is one person who phoned me and said, "Please, Swāmījī, can you pray for me that I find a partner?" I said, "Well, for this I must pray also." And if you are not happy with your partner, you will say to me, "Please pray for that partner to go away." This is my prayer: "Are you forever not for changing? Well, I am alone at home, I work all day, it's a very unpleasant situation. My colleagues, they don't like me, and I come home, open my door, there's no one there. I'm lonely, I would like to be with someone." Yes, many have this situation, but that one for whom you are expecting will not make you ever happy, and that is not happiness. Yes, we are worldly people, we are normal human beings, we are living in this flesh and body, and we have our expectations and feelings. But I can tell you, your birds, your rabbit, your dog, your cat, your husband, your wife, your children, your brothers and sisters, your neighbors, they are all so beautiful. They will make you happy, but manage the happiness and friendship with them. There are some people who, in the beginning, are friendly, and if someone says, "No, don't do this," they say, "Ah, you said to me 'I don't want you. You destroyed everything.'" That was your mind. Your mind destroyed all your happy work. Holy Gurujī said that yogīs tried for many years to develop a beautiful garden. And this monkey of the mind, the mind monkey, came to the garden and destroyed it within no time. So there are some monkeys who try to destroy your spiritual garden. Gossiping, blackmailing, criticizing, jealousy, hate—be away from such people. If someone talks to you about someone, say, "Please, this is not my problem and not my matter, don't talk about this." That's it. Ku-saṅga, remain away from ku-saṅga. Holy Gurujī said, "O Mahāprabhujī, Gurudev, listen to my prayer, please. Lord, be merciful to me and give me satsaṅg, good society, good friends, good companions. Lord, protect me from ku-saṅga," meaning bad companions, bad society, bad energy. "All these bad people should remain far away from me, O Lord." Therefore, our mind is searching for happiness to transfer this happiness to you. But unfortunately, we don't know if the one we have found will be happiness or not. And we cannot live without the outer world. We are living beings. We are depending on this, our body, on everything. But we have to maintain a positive, friendly relation. Great are they who can forgive. Great are they who can accept again. Great are they who see the light of God in everyone. And wise ones are they ever ready to learn something new. So meditate every day. Practice your mantra. And when you are meditating, don't imagine too much. The whole day you have so many visions and imaginations. I tell you, the best meditation is to close your eyes, relax, and do nothing. Repeat your mantra. That's all. Finally, all holy saints who are one with God or made imagination, their technique is only one: sit down, feel the presence of God, repeat the mantra, and be in His presence inside. That's all. No imagination, no expectations, no saṅkalpa, vikalpa, only Thy name, O Lord. Be with me. Not that I come to You, You should come to me. I am too slow to come to You, but You are the quicker one. So, not to Thee, O my Lord, but to me, O my Lord. That's it. God will come to you. God will stay with you. He needs love, and that love means devotion, pure devotion. In your devotion, when doubt comes, then it's like you have a ball of salad, very nice, with nice dressing on it, but inside is some sand. You can't enjoy your salad. So you have a nice relation to God or to the Master, and suddenly doubt came; that is the sand and stones inside. The doubt is a crack on the walls. And now when the crack is in this wall, the house has no more life. So, hey Prabhu, hey Lord, please, anything may happen in this world. I may lose everything, but Lord, not one thing: my confidence, my devotion to You. That's all. It is that love for God which keeps us alive and which liberates us. Recording location: Australia, Brisbane, Australian tour

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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