I never meant to write a spiritual text. I was not writing a novel or a book, but now my devotees have converted my four years of simple advice into a book.
I came to know after they had signed the contract with the publisher. I was asked to write a preface for the book and I was wondering if they just wanted to compile it for the future referencing. But when I was shown the things they had done, I was deeply touched.
These are very simple teachings for the layman. Normally I conduct personal satsangs or spiritual congregations with my devotees. I would have personally funded the book had I been in a position to do so. But since I myself live in a frugal world and have no income whatsoever I couldn’t help them. I do not charge for anything at all. My teachings are absolutely free and I endeavor to teach the individual one on one. I stay atop an open balcony of a store. It’s covered by tin roof and has windows too. If anyone hands any funds to me, I hand them over to the most deserving person whose need is the greatest. The maximum I spend is on books which I buy for the library collection for all to read. I have one full meal a day in the afternoon. My clothes are only jeans and tshirts which are provided by my devotees. My phone and laptop on which I conduct my satsangs, belongs to someone else. I do not own anything at all. Just one bank account! That too is maintained to transfer funds to needy when I get some.
Strangely one day I was stopped at the emigration office and asked what did I do? I told them that I am a spiritualist and I don’t have any income. Half and hour of cross questioning and solid interrogation still couldn’t make these worldly officers understand what spiritual is. They all doubted my integrity and method of living.
We, the true spiritual people live by the day. There is no tomorrow and we never hoard. Just like the birds who search for their feed for that day and they never store it. How someone does that can never be known to any individual if he hasn’t gone through what I did.
Being frightfully sick, I was told that there is no tomorrow for me in 2001. So I started living only for that day. Can you pack all that you can only for that day, the hour or that second? Why procrastinate or wait for tomorrow to happen? You may not be alive then! So why put off for tomorrow what you can do today? Buddha taught the beautiful methods of meditation of the here and the now. To have complete abidance in the now. He taught it to his disciple when He was eating His food. He would chew every small grain and be there itself. This mindfulness type of living we all got to do.
Humans are either dwelling in the past or thinking about the future but never in the here and the now. They become anxious about tomorrow and rue about yesterday. So their focus isn’t there. No doubt you should plan for the future but doesn’t mean that you should get obsessed with it. Thinking about the future could bring home so many anxieties. What has to be will be so why stress out today and not pay attention to the now?
So coming back to the endeavor of my dearest devotees, I am ever so grateful to their method of devotion. I know that by whatever they offer, it will always be beyond measure.
Image Courtesy by pixabay
