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Peace and contentment

A morning satsang on spiritual development and the purification of inner impurities known as mala.

"Spirituality is not something that comes from outside and begins to grow in you. Spirituality is within you."

"Peace is within you; that which you have to realize. There is no way to peace; peace itself is the way."

The teacher explains that the inner divine Self is obscured by layers of impurity (mala), which accumulate through the senses and mental activity. He discusses the nature of the mind, the search for peace through contentment, and prescribes constant spiritual practice—particularly mantra repetition—as the means for daily purification and cleaning the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument).

Filming location: Jadan, India.

DVD 244

Good morning. Let us speak about our spiritual development. First, we must understand what spirituality means and what development means. Spirituality is not something that comes from outside and begins to grow in you. Spirituality is within you. The divine power or divine Self is also within you. You only have to realize that it is within you. Though we know theoretically that all is within us, we do not see it. This is true; we do not see it because it is like a diamond covered by ordinary stone and dust. As long as the diamond is covered with normal stones, sand, and sandstone, we will not see that there is a diamond. But an expert will say, "Definitely, within this stone there is a diamond." There are different layers, and we have to remove those layers of impure qualities. These layers are known as mala, vikṣepa, and āvaraṇa. As long as māyāvikṣepa and āvaraṇa are covering our inner divine, we will not be able to know, realize, or see our divine Self. Now, mala means impurity. Spirituality is purity. Impurity means many different things—physical as well as mental. Material impurity is easy to remove, but mental impurity is not easy to remove. Day by day, dust collects. Similarly, day by day, impurity in our mind is also collecting or increasing. Mental impurity also depends on our jñānendriyas and karmendriyas. The jñānendriyas are the senses of knowledge. Our eyes, our vision—jaisī dṛṣṭi, vaisī sṛṣṭi—as you see, so will the world be for you. What you see, that kind of world will be within. So, with our eyes, whatever we see, good or bad, it has an impression on our mind. Good things have a good impression, and bad things have a bad impression. When we see something bad, are you sure it is bad? For me it is bad, but for you it is not bad. So then, who am I to give the judgment that it is bad? Who am I to discriminate such things as bad? And who are you to discriminate and say, "No, it is good"? There is a difference between good and bad. Without real knowledge, it becomes an impure vibration in our mind, and that is what we call mental pollution. When we see something, we have to use our knowledge and common sense. We should know why it is like this. What is the cause? Why did it happen like this? How long will it be? And what will be the result or the fruits of it? Are you able to see this also? Then you can give some opinion. Otherwise, protect yourself from it. Those thoughts and opinions which you create will become a burden for your mental state. Therefore, the mind has many definitions. Generally, we know there are ten indriyas in the body: jñānendriyas and karmendriyas—five jñānendriyas and five karmendriyas. The mind is the ruler, the dominating power, like a mahout who is riding an elephant. That mahout has an aṅkuśa in his hand. These ten indriyas are like ten elephants, and buddhi, or common sense, is that. On the other hand, the mind is also an indriya. So in Vedānta, they say there are eleven indriyas: five karmendriyas, five jñānendriyas, and the eleventh one is the mind. Now, we would like to meditate; then we want to have a peaceful mind. We are searching for peace. Is peace existing? What you are really searching, do you think that as long as you exist in this physical body, you will have no peace? Even if you renounce everything and go somewhere in the mountains and stay there, still you will have no peace, because you will say, "Where to bring from? Where to bring the wood to make a fire? It's cold. Where to get vikṣā? How far is it? The mosquito is there, this is there, that is there." There is no peace. Peace is within you; that which you have to realize. There is no way to peace; peace itself is the way, as Mahātmā Gandhi said. That peace is within you, and that means peace and satisfaction—contentment—are very close to each other. It is that contentment which is peace, and it is a peace which turns to contentment. It is like butter converting into ghee, and the ghee again goes to the form of solid butter. Therefore, who is content, satisfied, is ever happy. So peace is there when you are inwardly accepting; take it as it is. And what you cannot take, what you cannot resist, just leave it out from your feelings and from your thoughts. There is no peace if you think you will be peaceful when you make a nice, beautiful house. There will be no peace. If you think you will be peaceful to do that and this, there will be no peace. So peace is within. Therefore, the mind is a kind of politician which is leading political parties, connecting from one indriya to another, from one person to another, to create politics, to negotiate, to make protocols, to make a new constitution, to make new ideas. This is the dharma of the mind. Now you have seen what you wanted to see through your visions, eye indriyas. And now you sit. "I am very happy I saw it." But now your indriyas tell you, "Now you would like to go to eat something." So now the indriyas are active. Now, you would like to hear someone tell you good things. You made a nice cooking or something, and you want to have a compliment. So all the times vṛttis are there, all the times. And this kind of thoughts and vṛttis will accompany you till the last minute of your life. Final peace for this body will be when you will say, Har-yoga, tatsat, bakishabh, gavshabh. Rāma-nāma satya hai, a-thet-gyāna-gata hai. Finally, when this body will die, then there will be one kind of peace, you think. But again, you will see that your jīvātmā has to work a lot, has to do all the protocols which are according to the astral life. If you believe there is astral life, then there is astral life. After death, there is a life, and what? What will happen to the jīvā? Where will this jīvā go? Through darkness, through light, through suffering—what will be? Without dying, you cannot realize this. What will be? If you want to know this, then you have to die. And when you die, and you don't see... Then be sure you can't come back anymore. Therefore, better not to die and wait. Let it be a surprise after death what will happen. So, through the five jñānas and kriyās, all kinds of impurities which are produced in our body, in our mind, in our intellect, in our emotion, in our behaviors, in our karmas—everything—this is called mala. This mala is so thick and so much that we don't see what is the reality, what is within us. We clean this glass here on the table, very nice and clean, and after one hour you will come again and see on the glass there will be again dust somewhere. So, it means that you cannot purify forever once and then say, "Now I don't need to do anything." Therefore, abhyāsa, abhyāsa, abhyāsa—every day practicing, practicing; every day clean, clean, clean. If you say, "I am tired of this cleaning," okay, don't clean. No one forces you to clean, but then you will sit in the dust. So either you want to have clean, or you want to have dusty. So either you clean your antaḥkaraṇa. These are antaḥkaraṇa, four antaḥkaraṇa: manas, buddhi, citta, and ahaṅkāra. Unless the antaḥkaraṇa is purified, not cleaned, you cannot proceed further to know what spirituality is and what is within me, what is the divine. So, through these impurities, through these karmas, we are putting and creating different kinds of life situations, which are in this world and in other worlds. In this world means in present life, and other world means the future life. And this is called Tri-Tāpa. Tri-Tāpa is three kinds of fire, three kinds of suffering. Suffering is a fire; pain is a fire—Agni. Agni means not only that which you see and touch, and it is very hot. All your problems are a fire; you are going through fire. It doesn't matter which problem; an emotional problem is a fire. A sadness, an emotional problem, is a fire. So there are many different kinds. Pain is a fire, disease is a fire, hunger is a fire, thirst is a fire. There are many, many different problems in life, which are called fire, hot. That is hot. So it is said, tṛtāpa. Here, tṛtāpa means suffering which is coming from some reason, some cause of uncontrolled body, mind and senses, intellect and emotion. So therefore Gurujī said in one bhajan: Prabhu Deepa Niranjana Sabha Dukha Bhang. Prabhu Deepa Niranjana Sabha Dukha Isi Mantrasi Hove Mana Manjan. Isi Mantrasi Hove Mana Manjan. Shri Deepa Niran Sabha Dukha Banjan. Prabhu Deepa Niran Tinoy Tap Paap Mit Jave. Pāpa means the sin. Sin means suffering. Tapa means the fire, the suffering complication—adhibhautik, ādidaivik, and adhyātmik. These three tapas: adhibhautik, ādidaivik, and adhyātmik. In these three tapas we are suffering. This can be purified through mantra practice. Therefore, Ādi Gurujī said, "Mañjan means cleaning, to clean, to purify." You clean it until it becomes shiny, reflective. Is singing, that's called manjan, manjana, bartanko manjana, to manjan, man manjan, because man ke andar jo vikṣepa hai, man ke—in the mind, which we have the vikṣepa rūpī, or mala rūpī, impurities. These impurities can only be removed through the mantra. Therefore Gurū Nānak Sāhib said, Śumaran is another part, name of the bhajan, mantra japa. You can say mantra japa, you can say smaraṇa, you can say bhajan, you can say dhyāna, bhakti, pūjā, pāṭha. This all comes to the sumaraṇa. Śumiran, śvāso śvāsa. Therefore, holy Gurujī said, "Śvāso śvāsa āp kā śumaran... Nit nit prem mera adhik badi jo svāsa o svāsa." Means svāsa o par svāsa. By each and every breath, in going and out coming breath, I repeat thy name, my lord, mā Prabhujī. This practice you should make it eternal, unmovable, unbreakable. I don't ask for anything but that my practice remains unbreakable. There should be no laziness, tiredness, or any disturbances that would cause me to make an interval in my practice; no interval. Therefore, it is advised to practice every day and lifelong in order to purify the mind. If in the mind comes a negative thought, then whatever you have purified, you make again dirty. You clean and clean, and then put the dirt on it. That's like this: the negative feelings, negative thinking, negative actions. So, mala—it is that mala, it is that impurity which has hidden our divine Self, that we cannot experience that spirituality and divine is within us. Though theoretically we know, but physically, in reality, we don't know. And this reality can only be realized through practice. Therefore, abhyāsa, abhyāsa, kunta, abhyāsa. God Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, "O Kunti-son, practice, practice, practice." Practice makes one perfect; practice makes the master. So, mālā-vikṣepa and āvaraṇa. So, still we are not on the vikṣepa, still we are not on āvaraṇa. We are only on the mala, and mala is which is a very soft part of it, the emotional part of it, a very gentle. So, mantra practice—keep on practicing your mantra. It doesn't matter who is who and what one says; they will not help you. Anyone's opinion will not help you. Anyone's opinion will not give you the practice or practical benefit. Any opinion which you get with additional vṛttis in your mind, additional vikṣepas in your mind, and therefore, who... Is there any other one who can judge your inner feelings and your path? Therefore, abhyāsa—practice, practice. To purify this consciousness, manjan. Manjan, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Iṣī mantra se hove manmañjan. Dīp nirañjan śabdhu kapañjan. In the next session, we will take over the vikṣepa. Now, it was only about the mala. That is how we can, how quickly we can get this pollution, and that pollutes all our feelings, our intellect, everything, everything... So spirituality means the purity. Pure and impurity is which is opposite to the spirituality, and this you cannot gain from outside. This is your own product. And mental pollution is the most dangerous pollution of all in the world. All this pollution happening in the world is created by mental pollution. So you have to ask your mana, you have to control your mana. You should make your mana free and strong. You are the only master that can control your mana—own mind. And the śānti, the peace, is nothing. No, there is peace which you are really searching, and peace is here. Therefore, whatever you have, take it, take it easy. That's it. But it's not easy to take it easy. So, as long as you are not content, you will never be happy. Santoshi narsada sukhi. Therefore, who is content, who is satisfied, is ever happy, and who is not satisfied is never happy. And this happiness, this contentment, can be with your house, building, color of the house, color of the dress, carpet, your bed, your dog, your cow, your wife, your husband, your children, education, money, your crops—many, many things in life. But with this, all is just one subject: all belongs to you, and you are the middle point. So therefore, let's go, let's go... Content, content, then the peace. Otherwise, we have no peace.

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.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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