When the Force awakens in you it organizes your Being, it organizes your Consciousness. It integrates your consciousness from the lowest to the highest range and level.

And of course before the integration or before you start to feel the integration, there is much turmoil – it is like a volcano. Everything rises from the bottom. You find yourself bottoms-up! All kinds of emotions, all kinds of thoughts, passions – the whole of creation – chaos…

Then everything starts to settle down, gets integrated. There is a tremendous sense of well-being, a sense of fulfillment, a profound sense and feeling of beatitude, a profound sense of beauty – a profound silence.

Every part of your being is touched – your physicality, your sexuality, your emotionality, your mentality, your spirituality – your animality, your humanity, your divinity – the whole of creation, the cosmos.

You are the cosmos; you are the universe – you are the Master of the universe.

Are you willing for this Awakening? Are you convinced about it? And this is what is meant by looking into yourself; this is what is meant by being committed.

And of course, even being committed is a process. Yet for some it is instant, aye, is final from the first moment. There is no vacillation.

Have you faith in yourself? Or this moment you have faith, next moment you have lost it? That is the turmoil.

When you have continuous faith you have arrived at integrity. You have found the strength of all strengths – you are unbreakable; nothing can break you. All can rely on you. You are the Warrior then – the whole world can place its weight on your shoulders and you would not break.

So seek for this strength in yourself, this faith. Value that which is valuable. Your journey to this is the most valuable. Your faith is most valuable. All virtues begin from this faith and all vices are a lack of this.

Believe it to be true, and it will be true.

This is what is meant by being authentic – it means you have faith to do the impossible, to break through the surface and arrive at the heart of things!

Of course there are those moments, those moments when the faith is lacking. Then you have to remember, then you have to remind yourself – and then you gain in power.

Is not this how life grows? Or do you allow yourself to succumb? Then you are lost.

Contemplate on this. I am not talking about imitation; I am talking about contemplation. Seek in your heart, you will find the faith. It is there, it is always there. That strength is in you.

All answers are there in your heart; the Guru, the Master lives in your own heart. You already know what is to be known, it is just to become visible. It is only invisible now – covered over, as it were.

It is like the flower and the seed. The flower is there – all it needs is to be uncovered.

So have faith. The gardener has faith. He believes that the seed will one day flower. He believes – that is his faith. If he did not believe he would never sow that seed, and it will never flower.

So believe! Believe in yourself; believe you can do anything. Believe you can awaken yourself and you will awaken! So observe yourself – how much do you believe in yourself? You will see – not very much. You do not even give it a thought.

The times when you believe in yourself you do wonders. And when you do not believe in yourself you are asunder. And there are those moments – because it is a transition, it is a birthing, it is an emergence until the whole of the flower unfolds and stands facing the sun; aye, until the whole of the flower stands facing the sun in full bloom!

So you are emerging in faith. The more faith you have in yourself, the more you have arrived.

Do you know what faith is like? Go and sit by a lake, a deep lake or a deep well or a deep pond. Just sit by the banks and feel the depth – faith is like that.

Try it sometimes. Find a body of water that is very deep and go and sit by it and feel its depth – you will feel a certain strength in that water. And yet it is silent.

Yes, you will feel a strength in that water. You do not see any rush in it, no agitation and yet you will feel a sense of power. It is because of its depth.

That is faith; that is what faith is like.

You are surrounded by all these things and they can all teach you – but we must be learners! We must be ready to learn. We must know how to learn – then everything will teach you.

In this water you will find a solid strength. Water is liquid, but you will feel the solidity.

Do you know what faith is like? Go and stand by a mountain and stand looking at it. Feel its strength, its patience, its dignity – its majesty… It is silent and just sitting there.

This is how the Buddha is. Do you know the faith of the Buddha? Really, before becoming the Buddha – Siddhartha’s faith – for actually, the faith belongs to Siddhartha, not to the Buddha – because of the faith he became the Buddha. In reality that faith belongs to Siddhartha.

Siddha-artha. Siddha means ‘perfect, successful’; artha is ‘meaning’: all that which is meaningful, all that which is successful, all that which is perfect. And faith leads you to that.

You lose faith and you are lost.

Siddhartha did not give up. He sat under the ashwattha – I will not call it the bodhi tree yet, because he is still Siddhartha and the tree is still ashwattha, the peepal – and decided he would not move from there. That was his faith, deep faith.

He was like that deep body of water; he was like that mountain that sits, stands tall in front of you – immobile and yet deep and majestic. You feel the power.

We climb mountains; we descend mountains – we trek up and down. But do you feel the mountain? We swim in the waters; we play and frolic. But do you feel the water? Do you feel its soul – everything has a soul – its heart, its being?

This too is water, here in this mug; it has a being. But if you go to a deep lake you will feel the difference. This is water; that is water. But in that large body of water there is depth, tremendous depth.

So when you relate with each other, feel each other’s soul, speak to each other’s soul, act upon each other’s soul.

Do not just act on the surface; then all you have is the surface. Feel the depth of your soul.

And when you feel the depth of your own being you will start to feel the depth of the other.

It is not just human depth that you would sound – but the depth of all things and beings! Then your relationship will stand transformed; it will be complete in the way it should be.

This is faith.

Be deep – then you will sound the depths of things around you. Whatever place, wherever you are, you will feel its depth.

Do you feel the breeze? Feel it; it has a soul. And when you feel its soul you will feel your own. Then all things become sacred.

Meditation means to sound the depths of your being, the heights of your being – even the lows of your being… You leave out no corner if you want to understand yourself completely, so that nothing remains hidden from you and everything stands revealed.

Have you the faith to do this? Have you the faith to know the whole truth?

Faith is strength; faith is courage; faith is a brave heart.

Faith is freedom. One who has faith is free, even though one may be tied with chains – for no chains can bind the strength of the soul. No burden is too heavy for one who has faith. The heavier the burden the stronger the faith!

How does one grow in faith? By doing everything with all of your skills, with all of your faith, even small things, little things – giving them their due and importance.

For all that you do is you – it is your signature.

Do everything well, whatever that you do, whatever that needs to be done, even the smallest of things. This is what is meant by being responsive. You gain in power, you gain in strength – you gain in sacredness.

Nothing is below you – nothing is above you. What is below you is yourself; what is above you is also yourself. What is within you is yourself; what is outside you is also yourself. There is only one Reality.

The journey of self-discovery is a journey of faith. To live life is to live faith! As is your faith so is your life. So grow in faith. That is the measure of your life: when you grow in faith your life is growing.

To find such a faith is to awaken your Heart, is to awaken your Self.

So in your surfing of the inter-net, do not forget the inner heart…!

And I tell you you grow in faith when you do all that which you do with the whole of yourself – not just what you like to do, but all that that needs to be done.

And you know – your conscience tells you.

The Guru is in your heart. You yourself know! And if you make excuses, you make excuses to faith and faith will excuse you – and go elsewhere!

F., do you have any song on faith?

Use that song, ‘As the prophet said it would be…’ And where there is ‘spirit’ use ‘faith’ – interchange ‘spirit’ and faith. Sometimes use the word ‘spirit’; sometimes use the word ‘faith’ – because faith and spirit are one. The two signify the same thing.

 

(F. sings followed by G. and the whole group)

 

All over the world

   the Spirit is moving,

all over the world

              as the Prophet said it would be,

all over the world

          there is a mighty Revelation

      of the glory of the Lord

          as the waters cover the sea.

 

   Deep down in my heart

  the faith is moving,

   deep down in my heart

              as the Prophet said it would be,

   deep down in my heart

          there is a mighty Revelation

      of the Glory of the Lord

          as the waters cover the sea.

 

‘As the waters cover the sea…’ This is the truth; if there is no water there is no sea. So water is the sea, sea is the water. Waters cover the sea…

So also faith and the Spirit, faith and your soul.  You grow in faith, you grow in your soul; you grow in depth.

Deep sea, deep waters – deep faith, deep soul…

‘As the waters cover the sea’ – this is a fact, it is the truth. If there is no water there is no sea! This is the revealed truth… It is the revelation; it is the truth.

Just as you move about, you speak, you see, you look, you cry, you laugh – it is the truth that you are alive – so also your faith is your soul. Where there is faith there is the soul. You feel it – there is strength.

Deep faith, deep soul… as the waters cover the sea.

So have faith, have strength in yourself. Have faith in yourself.

In all that which you do – in all that which you speak is the expression of your faith. It is all faith – know this; remember it; feel it.

Your faith is your life and your faith is your immortality. When you have faith you are immortal. Faith and immortality are one. Where there is faith there is no death. So faith is life – eternal life. To have faith is to believe – know you are immortal.

So through all that which you do grow in faith. Do it well; do it with the heart. Feel the heart. Be patient with yourself; be patient with what you do. And remember, this too is meditation.

Through the smallest act you will grow in faith, you will become an ocean. Just as the ocean is a drop at its origin… Do you not see the waters of the rivers and the streams – where do they begin? They begin with and as a drop – but they have faith that one day they will be the ocean.

And they go through the mountains, they go through the turns, the gorges, the crevices, and wind around boulders – they go over boulders, they are knocked against boulders, mountains, and they go over waterfalls – but then one day they are the ocean!

So also is the journey of life. It begins as a drop – then one day it is the ocean. And it is not the end; it is the beginning of life as an ocean…

 

Panchmadhi

24 January 2000