Dear SRV Sangha and friends,
The summer of 2011 is upon us, and with it the Yoga retreat at Wood Valley in Hawaii, and the American River retreat near Forest Hill, California. Along with this already full schedule, the late August journey to Nepal and its incomparably beautiful outlying Himalayan areas such as Nagarkot, Dhulikhel, Patan, and Bhaktapur is also forthcoming. The SRV staff dearly hopes that every interested devotee participating in an active spiritual life will take full advantage of these rare events. And this broaches the subject for this current message. . .
There is one very important thing. Most beings of the world today have long since forgotten it in their rush to embrace the sense objects and the pleasures of life in a contemporary and affluent world. Even the devotees often fail to keep it in mind. And that is, that a well balanced spiritual life requires daily nurturing; otherwise the “despoilers” of apathy, distraction, and disinterest will surely take over the mind, and what is certainly Brahman, in all Its healthy and natural abundance, will then appear as the perplexing maya. And an indeterminate lifestyle springs from spending time under the influence of maya, which can lead to worse conditions.
Many know the teachings of Lord Buddha around “drops in the dharma bucket,” that if we continue on with our daily sadhana – both when things are balanced and when they get uneven – an inner strength will develop in us. Every urge for worship fulfilled and satisfied, every effort at service of God in mankind selflessly and successfully completed, every minute spent in uninterrupted concentration on the revealed scriptures of the sacred traditions of the world, and every move to meditate that one merges oneself into represent a flow of drops into the dharma bucket, and these have an accumulated positive effect on the mind. Maya has no defense against this collection of
spiritual merits.
Therefore, my simple message in this issue of Munda Mala is one of ardent appeal to the devotees to maintain a constant sadhana under all conditions of life. This will be beneficial not only for oneself, but will also help the world of living beings in ways that are seldom seen or appreciated, but which form the underlying basis of peace, contentment, and well-being nonetheless.
So here is my short symphony of words in honor of a collective sadhana rightly understaken and well-performed, for the highest good of all sentient souls temporarily occupying space and time.
Peace, Peace, Peace,
Babaji