Prabhuji Podcast

Interest in the beyond

Prabhuji - a writer and avadhūta mystic

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0:00 | 17:54
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Prabhuji Interest in the Beyond recorded on April twelfth, two thousand twenty.

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There is a question that arises in many different seekers that have some mystical experience. That means a temporal experience. Because the difference between mystical experience and enlightenment is of time. Mystical experience happens for a moment and go. And there are people who experience. People experience how the ego they realize it's not something substantial. It is not something. For a moment, many people experience in meditation that this I is not something. It is an imaginary center, a mental conception. And then for a moment experience this infinite space, this awareness, nothingness, and then arise the problem. How to keep it? How to make this uh momentary temporal experience something continuous to maintain it all the time. How it is possible to perpetuate the same experience and not only to keep it as a memory in your mind of one day, you know I experienced something amazing. Do you understand what I mean? And this is a doubt that arises in many, many people that they have this problem. They say, I experienced it. Was amazing, but feelings, emotions, problems, situations, and I am not there anymore. Even there are people who keep it for a certain time, days and even weeks, etc. But in some moment goes. How to keep it how to keep it Better to say how to stay there. Holy books. The Torah say the half the Shemilokeha, the Holy Baf, the Hol N Shehov, the Holycha. That is uh you love your Lord, your God with all your heart. You know all that. I don't know exactly the translation to English. Because maybe the most clear expression of interest is love. And this is the point, you need a strong interest, strong love, devotion for awakening. For God, consciousness, for for the phenomenon of awakening. There are people who say, yeah, I I cannot love God because I don't know God. But but awakening, the state of awareness, of to be in the presence, to be only a presence, that moment that you experience for for a moment. If you develop interest, that interest will allow you to stay always in the presence. There are many interests in life. Everyone has many interests. You don't need to eliminate other interests, no. You can have interests for music, you can have interest for sport, yeah, interest for health, chocolate, clothes, food, work, travels, romantica, many things. You don't need to eliminate the others if you become sandyas, okay, or something like that. But but it's not necessary. The important thing is that your interest for awakening, for enlightenment, for the recognition of consciousness is the first, the most important. You can keep the others but secondary. You can enjoy the world but without attachment. As Jesus says, be in the world, but don't be of the world, don't belong to the world. There is a difference. Be in the world, but don't belong to the world. It's something like be in the ocean but sit in a boat. You are in the ocean, but in a boat. Same thing. Enjoy this world. You can enjoy TV, whatever you want, music, but your main interest is the awakening. This we see very much, you know, in the Sri Mat Bhagavatam chapter 10, in the lilas of Krishna, and his relationship with the Gopis. Because the Gopis was married. The Gopis was married. Even Radha was married. And about Radha we know from the Goswamis, not from the Srimad Bhagavatam. But anyway, and all of them was married, and they married, they keep all the obligations at home, domestical work at home, their husband, cheat, everything. But their heart was always with Krishna. They was always Krishna conscious. All the time thinking about Krishna, what Krishna does in these moments. I will see Krishna today, I will meet him today. Krishna was in there. What that means, their most important interest was Krishna. Love is the best example because love is the best example of interest. When you the you cannot be more interested in somebody than when you love him. That is the reason in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, Manmana, Bhava Mad Bhakto Mad Yajimamna Maskuru, Mami Vaishasi Yuktuavam, Atmanamat Parayanaha, Manmana. Manmana, think about me. Think about me. Bhava mad bhakto, become my devotee. Devotion to me, offer reverences to me, etc. etc. Make of me, me the self, your first priority interest. You can experience, you can, you can, the recognition of consciousness can happen in you many times. For a moment you can perceive the perception itself. Ramana Maharishi, this question was made to him. How I can stay there. What is needed devotion, you see? Why is needed bhakti devotion? And Ramana Maharishi said, because you have to love that state to stay there. If you don't love it, and that is the reason. If you really, really want it, it's your interest, you know, like that person that is busy with money. All the time when you see something, you see the value of this, the value of that. You go to a walk somewhere, travel, but you see all the time, what is the price of this, what is the price of that. Or like a person who is addicted to whatever, to drugs, to sex, to alcohol. He's all the time think about his the object of his addiction. You should be addicted to the divine. The interest in the divine is so essential, so important, that even Lord Chaitanya in his Shikshastaka, his shlokas, the eight shlokas, he wrote, he more than praying to the divine, I want to see you, I want to touch you, he say, when will be the day I wish the day that my eyes will be full of tears for you for this separation. It's a very high level. In Bhakti Yoga of Vaishnavism, the the separation feelings. And he he asked for this, in other words, when my interest for you, Krishna, will be so so strong that my eyes will be full of tears. That is what's what Lord Chaitanya wanted. Because at the moment that you are interested in the beyond is so strong that you cry for it, because we cry for sex, we cry for romantic, we cry for things, we cry for, but who cry for awakening? So Chaitanya said, I want that moment. Because at the moment your eyes can have one tear for awakening, you did it. You did it. And then one moment will be enough. One moment will be will perpetuate itself forever. You will never want to go out of it. There is a way that is possible to cultivate this interest. It is possible to cultivate this interest. First of all, all the sadhana spiritual practices of every spiritual path, any religion can be japa, mantra yoga, mantras like Mahamantra, Omni Meshivaya or whatever, Omna Monarayanaya, practice, the practice of Manipatmi Buddhaum or other mantras, prayers, like in Judaism or Christianity, prayers, or your own prayers. The study is of spiritual scriptures, you can cultivate this interest. And the best is the sadhu sangha, the association with saints. But what is saints? What is a saint? A saint, many people think a saint is a good person. A saint is a good guy. No. A saint is simple that. A person that is is not his most important interest, the first interest is awaken. It's his only interest in life. So sadhu sangha is to associate, because association is important, you know, when when you are associated with drunkards, after a while you begin to think that to drink is not something so bad and it's not so ugly to be drunk. Or when you associate with people who take drugs, in a certain point you begin to think that marijuana cannabis is medical good, you can take if you want to forget about some pain is good. And if you go more deep in drugs, you think that cannabis is not drug at all. It happens. So friends is important with who you're a friend. So association, friendship with those who their real interest is the divine, is a big help, tremendous help in the process of cultivation of the interest in the beyond. Other things like interest in sport, clothes, parties, TV, health, sex, romantic, etc., is interest in this world of names and forms. Not this world as part of the divine, but as separate from the divine as. And this is a big obstacle to maintain the state. But as I tell you, with this cultivation, you develop the interest. And when you have the divine as the main interest of your life, you did almost everything.