Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Keep reminding yourself that you are Divine. As you all remind yourself of being human, you will be just human. It’s so simple, if you can just always remind yourself of being love. Yes, we don’t really need to do big mantras, big japas, it’s just by reminding ourselves that we are love – we will be love. We will be in this world, but at the same time we will be Divine. When the awareness that you are Divine blossoms inside of you, there will be no fear, no doubt, nothing!
This complete trust within you of being Divine will project so much joy and so much peace. 

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Somebody asked me, “I’m always talking to God, but why can’t I see God?”

Many of you have this question. We sit down for meditation and prayer, but still we don’t see Him! You see, whenever you sit down for meditation and prayer, do not expect anything. As long as you expect something, you are limiting everything from happening. Because your mind is not really focusing on the Divine, your mind is not really focusing on God. It is focusing on the want. So you have to let go of this want for knowing God. 

This is the main desire of humans: to want God! But you have to let go of this want and the moment you let go of this want, you will see the light! We call it antahkarana, “the light within”.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today

Let go of your identity, let go of this ‘I’, this egoism that makes you focus only on the outer. When you let go of your identity, then the Divine will reveal itself to you. Then you will see the unlimited. You will feel the blissful happiness. So open up – if the mind is still troubling you, take any divine aspect, focus your mind on it and surrender to the divine aspect until you reach the formless. From the form to the formless. 

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

God is with you in every moment

Christ is there. Any time you can hold his hand. It reminds me of a nice story somebody told me once:
A small girl wanted to cross over a bridge together with the father, who was blind. The father said to the daughter, “My child, guide me on the bridge. Hold my hand. Make me cross over the bridge.” The daughter said, “No, father, you hold my hand, not me holding your hand.” In the mind it seems similar, doesn’t it? But there is a difference. You see the difference, the daughter said to the father, “If something happens on this bridge, I may let go of your hand, but I know, you, being the father, you will never let go of my hand…no matter what happens.”
So in the same way, hold the hand of Christ. Hold the hand of God within you any moment, during any time of trouble, any happiness – always think of the Divine, that God is with you in every moment – all the time!

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

There is no power of the mind to stop anybody because we are all equal; we are all the same light, the same energy. Like a lovely chandelier, it has many lights, doesn’t it? But it’s the same electricity that is lighting all of them. Keep reminding yourself of your purpose of this incarnation and reach it; make sure that you reach it in this life. Don’t think of other lives. Now will be the best time. It is possible if you surrender body, mind, and soul completely to God.
Let go of your identity, let go of this ‘I’, this egoism that makes you focus only on the outer. When you let go of your identity, then the Divine will reveal itself to you. Then you will see the unlimited. You will feel the blissful happiness. 

Yes, I want it!

We identify ourselves very much with the body and the mind. The rest of the power inside remains in silence, remains sleepy.
Do you want to wake it up? Do you really want it or not? You think you are not sure about it? It’s when you really want something that you must have the power to say, “Yes, I want it!” Not only, “Maybe I want it, maybe I don’t want it.” Because then you are not sure about what you really want. In one way human beings want realisation, they want God. In another way they say, “If I have the complete realisation of God, will I really stay the same? Will I really see the world in the same way?” But with this way of thinking it will never happen. Try as much as you want. Let it be said: you can’t serve two masters at a time!
You can’t have the complete realisation of God and at the same time say that you want the material world. I tell you something: in the completeness, in the Divine consciousness, everything is present. Where else than in the mere mind of man can one just see what these two eyes perceive? On one hand there is everything, everything means also the material part. On the other hand there is just the material part and illusion. You meet people, they try to see what is beautiful, and they get attached to it and keep it. It’s our own happiness that arises in our life, from deep within where we receive the goal. But something is missing; it is not complete.
You think, “Now I have got this beautiful thing that I desired so much. Now I got it, I don’t have the same love for it. I don’t have the same enthusiasm about it.” What does the mind do? The mind tries to find something else to hold onto, but as long as man tries to hold onto a material thing, he will always stay on the material level. If you turn inward and focus on the Divine within the Self you will feel great happiness and great joy. But for that you should deadlock your faith

Surrender

All that we do in our daily life, what we work, our spiritual path is only to attain one thing – to attain the purity of Love, to become self-realised. But to attain this purity, to attain and to realise the Self, one can’t without devotion. Only through Bhakti. Without Bhakti it’s difficult. Like Shree Krishna said in the Gita; “Cast away all dogma. Cast away all from the mind, and surrender to me.” Then only true love can be realised. Otherwise, if you see, with Jnani, it's only in the mind. I don’t say it’s not good, its good. But it will lead you only to a certain level. Karma Yoga is very good to help. But if you’re not helping with the right attitude, it still brings you only to one level. Whereas Bhakti; devotion, what Shree Krishna said to Uddhava; “ Above all the Yoga, I prefer Bhakti Yoga. I prefer the Yoga of devotion. Where the devotees and the Lord become one, when there is no difference that stays.

At the beginning

At the beginning, when God created the world, everything was so peaceful. There was no aggression. When the mind came into play, the aggression started. 
We have to reach the point again where all started in the beginning. This is where the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita teaches the same. They teach the truth that man can reach that state again. If that was not so, the holy books would not say it. There was a time when everybody – even you all here – were completely realised. 

I am Shiva

Look at the world with a perfect mind. Look at it in a mind that doesn’t judge anything and doesn’t see anything good or bad. See everything as God, see everything as the Divine. And let this love flow everywhere. It’s simple, isn’t it? 
Earlier someone was singing, “Shivananda rupam, shivo ham shivo ham…” meaning: I’m eternal bliss, I am Shiva. When you sing, feel that you are eternal bliss and you are Shiva, sing it inside of you! The lingam is here but it is also inside of you. Look inside. Let all the thoughts of doubt, of barriers between you and the Divine be removed. But want it! You will receive it. 

Swami Vishwananda tells us today:

Often when people use the intellect, the mind, to find the truth they become dogmatic. They close themselves in the tunnel where they don’t see anything else. They don’t see the beauty; they just see what the mind perceives to see. Whereas with the truth in your heart, when it opens up, one sees beyond what the physical eyes can see. There are so many beautiful flowers; it is so beautiful for the physical eyes, isn’t it? But it is much more beautiful to see with the inner eyes. The light that shines through all these flowers, all around you – this is the Truth.

Swami Vishwananda tells you this evening:

Don’t worry. I will always remind you that you are Divine! Even if my mouth gets tired, my heart will still say it, until you reach this level. 

Swami Vishwananda says today:

When you have the power of trust, this willpower, then you can create in the mind what you really want! Imagine it. Make it a thought, and project this thought on whatever you want, and say by the power of word, “I want that!” See what happens! See what Jesus did, when some people came and said, “This person is ill. Can you please heal him?” What did he answer? He didn’t say much. He just said, “Be healed!” The person did heal – because in his consciousness, Jesus was always with the Divine, always with the Father. He didn’t have any doubt in his own word, he didn’t doubt himself. He didn’t say, “OK, let me heal.” With strong conviction, he said, “Be healed!” But it’s also true that the person has to have faith in Jesus.

How many arms does God have?

It was during the time when I first started living at the Ashram, and Swami Vishwananda was speaking to several people around me. I was sitting a slight distance away from them and was not really paying attention to their conversation. Lost in my own thoughts I suddenly heard Swami’s voice call out, “Maja (which was my given name), can you see how many arms God has?” He was pointing to the Tibetan picture that was hanging on the wall. Before I even had time to comprehend His question, Swami Vishwananda had already resumed His conversation with the others. The question He had poised hounded me for hours and made me very restless. Hence the next day, when there was no one in the room, I tried to count the arms of Buddha. However I found that there were so many arms, heads and eyes, that it made the task impossible. The following day I woke up and again the same question popped into my head. Just at that moment, a sparrow appeared on the bush just outside my window. I could very easily and clearly see its eyes and how they stared intently at me. At that instant, a ray of realization connected to my inner being and from that tiny bird, I felt that God was watching over me and that He had always kept His Loving gaze on me. I realized from that moment that every arm is His arm and every eye is His eye. From then on, I searched more attentively for Swami’s hints and meanings that hid behind His loving words. 

His way of teaching

I often see that Swami Vishwananda converses and helps those people who are perhaps going through difficult times in their lives. He is usually the one who approaches them, and starts giving them loving advice and solutions’, all the while, knowing every single thought that crosses their minds. It took me some time to grow accustomed to the fact that my thoughts, feelings and negativity were like an open book before the eyes of my Master. His was of teaching is so subtle and gentle. Swami Vishwananda never tries to interfere with our free will, yet again and again, He gives us guidelines and advice through certain circumstances, experiences or even “accidentally” spoken words. If you really want to hear and know what you need in order to change, He will tell you in many different ways. I often feel that I am blind, and that Swami is constantly giving me so much Love and Knowledge, yet I am unable to neither recognize nor assimilate this, due to the blindness of my own ego. Nevertheless, the Guru continues to throw these diamonds around Himself, regardless of the criticism that may come His way, in the hope that one of these diamonds will fall on the fertile soil of human consciousness.  (from M. Germany)

related links:

http://www.108stories.com

http://swamivishwananda-info.blogspot.com

a guide on the bridge

A small girl wanted to cross over a bridge together with the father, who was blind. The father said to the daughter, “My child, guide me on the bridge. Hold my hand. Make me cross over the bridge.” The daughter said, “No, father, you hold my hand, not me holding your hand.” In the mind it seems similar, doesn’t it? But there is a difference. You see the difference, the daughter said to the father, “If something happens on this bridge, I may let go of your hand, but I know, you, being the father, you will never let go of my hand…no matter what happens.”
So in the same way, hold the hand of Christ. Hold the hand of God within you any moment, during any time of trouble, any happiness – always think of the Divine, that God is with you in every moment – all the time!
So it’s up to you to hold the hand and let yourself be guided.