Do you believe in God? Don’t believe.

Buddha with his disciples

Once, Buddha was with his disciples. A stranger came and asked, “Is there God?” Buddha replied, ‘No.’ He went away.  After a while there was another man to ask, “Isn’t there God?”  He answered, “Yes, there is”.  Buddha’s reply surprised his disciples. So after the man took his way, they asked Buddha to clear their doubts. He smiled and said that both were holding their own beliefs. One held the belief that there was God and the next with the belief that there was no God. And with beliefs people will never enquiry. Now doubts have arisen in their mind so they will start enquiry and may do some progress.

Beliefs are those concepts that they are like a baseless pitcher which is of no use. Use of that culminates only in sufferings, misery and hardships. Beliefs escape proofs. So they are unproven facts. It’s not that beliefs are always wrong conceptions. But as they are not tested we cannot rely on them.

Main problem with the beliefs is that when there is belief, the one with belief, does not want to test it. He supposes that whatever he believes is ok. So no need to be examined or experimented. It’s the trick that mind plays which can be revealed when it is asked to give proofs.

The Lord

People who believe and those who don’t believe both are in the same category. Both don’t want to come to experiment. In a way not believing is also a belief. Suppose someone believes in God that there is God. So he does not enquiry if there is God or not in reality. In the same way those who don’t believe in God also have a belief that the God is not there. And they also don’t like to go to experiment.

In this case those minds with doubts may come into use. But only bearing doubts and not trying to come out of it leads nowhere else than to futility.

There is one more disadvantage of belief that even if you move forward to experiment, your belief may intercept the Sadhana. Since your mind will superimpose the beliefs onto the realization and you may get distracted.  Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj declares that everybody should come and experiment to know about the God. Only believing and not believing will not do any good.

Life Changing Quotes

Swami Mukundananda writing the life changing quotes....

• God comes not where reign timidity, hatred and fear.
• A young plant should always be protected against goats and cows and the mischief of little urchins, by means of a fence. But when it becomes a big tree, a flock of goats or a herd of cows can freely find shelter under its spreading boughs and fill their stomachs with their leaves. So when your faith is yet in its infancy, you should protect it from the evil influences of bad company. But when you grow strong in faith, no worldliness or evil inclination will dare approach your holy presence; and many who are wicked will become godly through their holy contact with you.
• In a potter's shop there are vessels of different shapes and forms — pots, jars, dishes, plates, etc., — but all are made of the same clay. So God is one, but He is worshiped in different ages and climes under different names and aspects.
• One can ascend the top of a house by means of a ladder or a bamboo or a staircase or a rope; so too, diverse are the ways of approaching God, and each religion in the world shows one of the ways.
• He who has faith has all, and he who lacks faith lacks all.
• As one thinks, so does one become.
• Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot find God Who is the soul of truth.
• It is very pleasant to scratch an itching ring-worm, but the sensation one gets afterwards is very painful and intolerable. In the same way the pleasures of this world are very attractive in the beginning, but their consequences are terrible to contemplate and hard to endure.
• To drink pure water from a shallow pond one should gently take the water from the surface without disturbing the pond in the least. If it is disturbed, the sediments rise up and make the whole water muddy. If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices, without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled.
• Sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls; but only a bright surface like that of water, or of a mirror reflects it fully. So is the light Divine. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts, but the pure and pious hearts of holy men receive and reflect that light well.

Atomic Sayings

Swami Mukundananda

• More are the names of God and infinite are the forms through which He may be approached. In whatever name and form you worship Him, through them you will realize Him.
• One should not think, 'My religion alone is the right path and other religions are false.' God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite are the opinions.
• You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.
• Little children play with dolls in the outer room just as they like, without any care of fear or restraint; but as soon as their mother comes in, they throw aside their dolls and run to her crying, "Mamma, mamma." You too, are now playing in this material world, infatuated with the dolls of wealth, honor, fame, etc., If however, you once see your Divine Mother, you will not afterwards find pleasure in all these. Throwing them all aside, you will run to her.
• As the cloud covers the sun, so Maya hides God. When the cloud moves away, the sun is seen again, when Maya is removed, God becomes manifest.



Swamiji in pleasant mood

• The sun can give heat and light to the whole world, but he cannot do so when the clouds shut out his rays. Similarly as long as egotism veils the heart, God cannot shine upon it.
• Rain-water never stands on high ground, but runs down to the lowest level. So also the mercy of God remains in the hearts of the lowly, but drains off from those of the vain and the proud.
• If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him.
• To explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining to a person the city of Benares after seeing it only in a map.
• Common men talk 'bagfuls' of religion but do not practice even a 'grain' of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.
• The nearer you come to God, the less you are disposed to questioning and reasoning. When you actually attain Him, when you behold Him as the reality, then all noise, all disputations, come to an end.
• Sugar and sand may be mixed together, but the ant rejects the sand and carries away the grains of sugar. So the holy and pious men successfully sift the good from the bad.
• The spiritually minded belong to a caste of their own, beyond all social conventions.
• A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within him.
• Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic.