Conscious Awareness
To the question, "What is the path to a happy and peaceful life?"
To the question, "What is the path to a happy and peaceful life?"
Baba spontaneously replied, "Do whatever you like, but do it consciously, with a sense of awareness."
The questioner, however, continued, "If You give Me permission to do as I please, then what would You say if I hit somebody's head with a stick?"
Baba smiled and replied, "Do it and see. I asked you to perform all actions consciously. Once you become conscious and aware, you will find that your conscience will prevent you form hurting anyone."
The evils in society are perpetrated because awareness is absent.
All evil actions are the result of unconsciousness.
Baba gave another fruitful instruction. "If you intend to become spiritual, you must analyze your actions and thoughts each day before you go to bed at night. You must assess the good actions and evil actions and come to a firm resolution not to repeat evil actions anymore."
A seeker should try to practice all activities in a state of awareness.
Most recurring actions that flow from lust, anger, greed, jealousy and the like manifest only in a state of unawareness.
The seeds of these tendencies lie dormant in the subconscious layers of the mind.
Each Creation is Great in Itself
One day, Baba was visited by a pundit from a local school who proceeded to lecture Him on the scriptures.
As the pundit was talking, a crow began making an unpleasant sound which the pundit found intolerable.
He threw a stone to make the crow fly away only to have the bird return immediately to the same branch and resume making noise.
To Baba, the bird was freely expressing the beauty of its existence through its own sound. When the pundit tried to drive it away a second time,
Baba interfered. "You have driven away the crow because the sound seemed very unpleasant to your ears, but your sound, too, seems to Me equally unpleasant and disturbing."
The pundit was shocked because a crow is a crow and man is the master, superior to all creatures.
To Baba, each and every creature is itself a manifestation of Divinity.
He felt the same about the smallest ant as the highest being.
As a result, hate had no place in His heart.
Baba wants us to know that nothing should be looked down upon.
Be Angry but Do Not Become Blind with Anger
Baba also says, "Be angry but do not become blind with anger."
Never allow anger to possess you.
Then it blinds you.
When anger is given free rein, it bursts out and causes damage -- not only to the person at whom the anger is directed, but also, more seriously, at all levels of being to the one who is angry.
Let anger become conscious.
Step back, be a witness to anger and its mechanisms, to what is appropriate and inappropriate in the situation.
The show of appropriate anger in daily life may be inevitable.
The parent chastising a child, the teacher reprimanding the student, may call out a display of anger in protective guidance.
No one should be consumed by anger.
Remain a vehicle of appropriate and conscious expressions of anger, always working for the highest possible good.
Then anger cannot possess or damage the mind or body, or thwart the purposes of the soul.
Each Creation is Great in Itself
One day, Baba was visited by a pundit from a local school who proceeded to lecture Him on the scriptures.
As the pundit was talking, a crow began making an unpleasant sound which the pundit found intolerable.
He threw a stone to make the crow fly away only to have the bird return immediately to the same branch and resume making noise.
To Baba, the bird was freely expressing the beauty of its existence through its own sound. When the pundit tried to drive it away a second time,
Baba interfered. "You have driven away the crow because the sound seemed very unpleasant to your ears, but your sound, too, seems to Me equally unpleasant and disturbing."
The pundit was shocked because a crow is a crow and man is the master, superior to all creatures.
To Baba, each and every creature is itself a manifestation of Divinity.
He felt the same about the smallest ant as the highest being.
As a result, hate had no place in His heart.
Baba wants us to know that nothing should be looked down upon.
Be Angry but Do Not Become Blind with Anger
Baba also says, "Be angry but do not become blind with anger."
Never allow anger to possess you.
Then it blinds you.
When anger is given free rein, it bursts out and causes damage -- not only to the person at whom the anger is directed, but also, more seriously, at all levels of being to the one who is angry.
Let anger become conscious.
Step back, be a witness to anger and its mechanisms, to what is appropriate and inappropriate in the situation.
The show of appropriate anger in daily life may be inevitable.
The parent chastising a child, the teacher reprimanding the student, may call out a display of anger in protective guidance.
No one should be consumed by anger.
Remain a vehicle of appropriate and conscious expressions of anger, always working for the highest possible good.
Then anger cannot possess or damage the mind or body, or thwart the purposes of the soul.
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