Daily Readings from the Works of Swami Venkatesananda


Insights and Inspirations (Venkatesa Daily Readings Vol 2) — Feel It

May 16, 2023

Feel It!

  Swami Venkatesananda with friend.    God-realization is not the monopoly of swamis and sadhus, nor of easterners or westerners. If God is everywhere, He is accessible everywhere, He is accessible everywhere to everybody at all times. What is it that stops us from realizing that God is ever real? What is that stops us from making God real? Our whole life is mechanical; we have lost the capacity to understand. All the teachings of saints and sages flow above our heads so that we are completely and totally untouched, unaffected.

      We use a lot of words, but some of these are a menace, a danger to our life. One phrase is ‘thank you’. ‘Thank you’ often means ‘our account is settled’. Though the ‘thank you’ may be a danger, gratitude is supreme. That feeling is something which arises from the very heart. So, if you want to say: “Thank you,” please do, but with feeling.

       Another word which is equally dangerous is ‘sorry’. We continue to be callous, negligent, indifferent, lazy, because of the availability of this formality: we can always say: “Sorry.” However, by merely saying ‘sorry’, one is not apologizing or feeling it at all. If I do something which really makes me feel sorry, I’ll do it only once, never again. The whole inside is churned and there is ‘sorry’ in the tone of speech, in the very look.

      Words like ‘thank you' and ‘sorry’ are superficial words which mean nothing if mechanically repeated. What is needed is honesty, feeling. So, into your sadhana, whatever you are doing, whether it is japa, service or worship, put in your heart, put in your feeling. Let it not come from the heart that, is the emotion; let it not come from brain, that is the calculating mentality; let it come from deep down, from life itself. Then there is no selfish motivation for anything, there is no calculation, no emotionalism, or sentimentalism in anything, and actions spring from life.

      The actions are pure and because they are totally integrated, they are whole. That is what makes someone holy. Holiness is to become whole! When the personality is not integrated, we are fragmented, divided beings. So, whatever we are doing, whether it is secular activity or spiritual activity, can the whole being feel it and do it? Whatever we do, is that exactly what is happening - nothing more, nothing less? Gurudev’s main and most vitally important teaching was : Life is already divine; the divine pervades the universe, fills every atom of existence. So, put this feeling, this spirit back into life.

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