To uphold righteousness, so supreme an act did he perform; he gave his head, but did not utter a word of sorrow. For the sake of righteousness, he did this great heroic deed; he laid down his life but not the principles… Guru Tegh Bahadur broke his earthly vase on the head of the Emperor of Delhi – and went to the abode of God.
Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; this whole world is your own.
Fasting in the monastic community is considered an ascetic practice, a “dhutanga” practice. Dhutanga means “to shake up” or “invigoration”. The Buddha, as is well known, emphasized moderation, the Middle Way that avoids extremes, in all things. Fasting is an additional method that one can take up, with supervision, for a time.
Knowing that I am different from the body, I need not neglect the body. It is a vehicle that I use to transact with the world. It is the temple which houses the Pure Self within.
You love your family, but not your neighbor. You love your parents, but not others’ parents. You love your religion, but not all religions. You love your country, but not all countries. This is not true love, it is limited love. Transformation of limited love into divine love is the goal of spirituality.
When we see everything in life as a game, we will be equally joyous when falling as we are when rising. If we can fully understand this – if we can see life as swinging on a swing – we will never fall apart when failure comes our way.
Cosmic consciousness is consciousness of the Divine in the entire universe, in all things, in all the world, in all nature.
If we celebrate the festival with the objective of divine wealth then we will get an experience of supreme Bliss or anand and the desire for worldly inferior pleasures will automatically start reducing, leading to our true Liberation.
