Contemplating the Writings of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity: Heaven in Faith – First Day – Prayer 1.1

So whether we call this Atma Samaran, we call this—how Lord Jesus told us to do that—we must love God with all our might, with our mind, heart, and soul, you see? So everything must be offered back fully to God. To remember that the branch by itself, no matter as beautiful as it may seem on the surface, without the tree itself doesn't have any value, doesn't have any life. So the process of satsang is the return back of this, return to innocence of this egotistical pride, so that we regain our true connection with true life, with true love. And our entirety of our being has to be offered to God. The entirety of everything that we consider ourselves to be has to be offered back to God.

So as it is said by Tulsidas Ji in the Hanuman Chalisa, which means that everything that we take to be our mind, everything that we take to be our actions, everything that we take to be our words, and everything that we can deeply contemplate—God and truth and love—all of that must be full of God. And then He makes a home in our heart, that God's temple, which is actually the connection point between the tree and the branch. Of course, the difference being notional and seemingly in part of this Maya and part of this Leela, but that disconnection is the very source of all human suffering, all human trouble. So to connect back to that source is the process of satsang.

So over the past few days, I came across St. Elizabeth of the Trinity and I explored some of her writing, and one piece of her writing really touched my heart. It's so, so powerful. It's a full spiritual guide, a full spiritual instruction manual which she wrote for her sister, but she made it in the form of a retreat, a spiritual retreat, which means that there are passages for contemplation. So if you look at the process of Advaita sadhana or Lectio Divina, you notice that they're pretty much the same. How does Advaita sadhana start? Shravana. Yes, what is that? To hear. To hear. And in this case, Lectio means to read. It starts in that way. So that involves an aspect of ourselves. So it's all part of a beautiful spiritual design, which is to offer every aspect of ourselves.

So the branch has to offer every aspect of itself. In the same way, sadhana starts with hearing or reading in this case. Then we dwell on it. We look at what that does within ourselves, whether it does something in our mind, intellect, or it takes us deeper. What are the questions that show up for us when reading these holy scriptures, holy passages? What are the things that stand out for us that are remarkable to us, that touch our heart in some way? And what are the questions that show up for us? What guidance can we get from this particular piece of reading? So that process is the process of Manana. And also in the Lectio, it is called meditation. So don't get confused; in India we may refer to the contemplation part as meditation, but basically they call that meditation to just—you can look at it almost as a rumination, but guided by the heart.

Then from that we go into prayer. So that is not so much mentioned in Advaita sadhana. So we may say Shravana, Manana, and if we can add, maybe we can call it Sharana, you see? To go to, to offer ourselves, to go take refuge in God's light. So that process is prayer, or Oratio is the process of just praying based on the inspiration of the passage that we just heard or read. We pray to God the prayer that comes from our hearts. And then Nididhyasana, which is contemplation, which is to sit in quiet—no intellect, no mind—and allow our heart to speak to us, allow the Atma within, the Holy Spirit, to speak with us so that we deepen our communication leading to a communion and a union with God.

The branch starts to return back to the tree by offering itself fully in this particular way. So I've been doing this a little bit and I find that it's a very beautiful process, and we can spend a lot of time just in this quiet contemplation. So this prayer of quiet, which is the contemplation part itself, leads to the prayer of union, which itself leads to the divine espousal, the spiritual oneness between—Advaita calls it Manonasha, or the complete dissolution of separation of the mind, so that we are fully one with God. Shall we do this? The book is called 'Heaven in Faith'. So we'll start reading it a bit and see how it evolves. Yes? Okay. So you have your notebooks already, and some of you may have also got the book, but I'll repeat the reading a few times for the first day. But it may be better to get the book as well. And maybe the first passage I can give you a sense of how I am—should I do that or will that bias you? Okay, you can let me know after hearing the passage.

So this is 'Heaven in Faith' by St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. First day, first prayer: 'Father, I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me.' I will that where I am... first the heaven text, not the explanation. Scroll down to the text. First the... there's a commentary. After the commentary, there's the actual text. And once you find the page, you can tell everyone. This one says 122, but this may be the... 'Heaven in Faith', first day, first prayer. Did we get the... yes, 'I will where I am', page 115. Go please, go to the PDF.

As we go through this process, realize that there will be many times where the mind finds it very boring. And you know that I've been ranting against the whole notion of spirit-tainment, so it's not going to be spirit-tainment at all, at all. So we need to be able to transcend these ideas of boredom, these ideas of one needing to be entertained even in satsang. Ready? 'Father, I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me, in order that they may behold my glory which you have given me because you have loved me before the creation of the world. Father, I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me, in order that they may behold my glory which you have given me because you have loved me before the creation of the world.' Such is Christ's last wish, His supreme prayer before returning to His Father.

So for this first one, shall I just take you through how I did the exploration of this? Maybe I can do that. Okay. So this was the reading part or the hearing part. Next is the meditation part. So the questions that came here—and remember that it's not about being smart, it's not about being spiritually very advanced or anything like that. It's for you to just meet yourself where you are and allow this process to unfold. So don't worry about using big words and fancy language, and just simplicity. The simpler it is, the better it is.

So the questions that came for me are: Why does Lord Jesus need to make this prayer? Where is He and where am I? Because He said, 'I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me,' see? So He's praying to God His Father to say that all those God has sent to Him, they also come to the same place where I am, that we also should be. So where is He and where am I? Then the second question is: What is my role in this process? How can I help? Maybe just to get out of the way. Then, why does He want us to behold His glory? Why would He want us to behold His glory?

Then a related question was: How much is my faith in Him? Then one part that I found stunning is where He said, 'You have loved me before the creation of the world.' So any phrases, anything that you find really beautiful or you want to question, you want to dive into, you want to investigate, you can write those down. Then more phrases: He says, 'Father, I will.' And it's worth contemplating the will of the Son and the will of the Father, and because it was the will of His Son, then it must be the same will anyway. Then He says, 'Where I am.' That's worth contemplating.

Then on that part about 'those whom you have sent me,' it's worth contemplating, at least for me: How did we turn to God? What was the role of Grace in our return to turning back towards God? Then, to be with Him is to behold His glory? Question mark. Is to be with Him to behold His glory? And what about this love which is before the birth of feelings? Because He said, 'Before the world was created, you have loved me.' What is that love? What kind of love is that before phenomena exists, before anything in the world exists? Then there was like a meta-question that came for me, which is that: What is this which is the process of meditation doing within me, within myself? And at that moment, it felt like it was a washing machine of love and wisdom that was happening as I was contemplating.

His glory, and what about this love which is before the birth of feelings? Because He said, 'Before the world was created, You have loved Me.' What is that love? What kind of love is that, before phenomena exists, before anything in the world exists? Then there was like a meta-question that came for me, which is: What is this process of meditation doing within me, within myself? And at that moment, it felt like it was a washing machine of love and wisdom that was happening as I was contemplating this passage. So, that was the meditation part.

Then the prayer part, the sharan part, or the prayer part—the oratio part. So I prayed: Mirabai, pray for me. Maharshi, pray for me. Tulsidas Ji, pray for me. Then this prayer came about this passage, which was: 'Holy God, Beloved, bless me to be in Your holy presence where I can behold You, drowning in deep love, deep love for You. Be in Your holy company. Lord Jesus has made this prayer already. May it be so. Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram.' Mirabai, pray for me. Maharshi, pray for me. Shashi, pray for me.

And this prayer, you can use whatever format that you like. I feel that asking the holy sages to pray with us, pray for us, is a very holy process, but keep it free-flowing. Follow your heart. I was guided in this moment to call to these sages; you may be called to pray to whichever form of God, whichever sages you may want to. Then, in the beginning of the contemplation part—I learned this from James Finley, who is a disciple of Thomas Merton—he starts the contemplation part by focusing on these words: 'Be still and know that I am. Be still and know that I. Be still and know that. Be still and know. Be still. Be.'

So, this contemplation part can go on for two or three minutes, or twenty minutes, or half an hour. And if you feel that you're getting distracted, then return to your prayer, your Advaita prayer if you like, or just this statement which encompasses all of spirituality in a way: 'Be still and know that I am.' Or you could receive some answers to your meditation earlier; you could receive some communication in response to your prayer. So, use that to take you deeper into the quietude.

So know that I've been speaking about the cooking and the eating. The cooking is the first three, and the eating is the final contemplation. The final part is the eating, so don't rush through that. The mind will want to take you to the next passage because, you know, we have to finish the book; after all, that's important. No, it isn't. To finish the book is not important. To go deep into that holy place of your heart temple where you can truly be still and know your reality, meet that 'I am' who God is—that is the important thing. So don't rush through the eating part. And if the eating part becomes as long, if not longer than the cooking part, then that is good too. Got a sense of this?

So this is the true sadhana part, even the Advaita sadhana, which is to where the question 'Who am I?' will take you. Pure intuitive insight, pure Atma. In this way, we gather up all aspects of ourselves and we surrender them to God. It's a beautiful, beautiful process. If our main practice is the inquiry, then in the quiet part, when your mind gets distracted, use the inquiry to return to the same holy place. The place where we love God, therefore we have bhakti for God—devotion for God—is the same place where you know God or you know yourself. It is not two different places.

So if you've been using the inquiry, use your inquiry to return to this empty, conceptually empty place. And don't rush through any wanting to experience love or peace or joy. They will come. It is not possible that you spend time with the Beloved and love doesn't come. But it will come on His timeline, on Her timeline, if you will. So don't rush through that. Do you have any questions? Why? But not with the process. The process is very beautiful.

And thank you for adding that, even from the context of shravana, manana, and nididhyasana, because the last sentence—how the sages will forgive me for adding that sharanam part—the last sentence that you just said, 'Be still and know that I am,' I was contemplating this some time ago and I felt that this is not an instruction to the mind. Every word is actually the description of what is. 'Be still, know that I am' exists in...

It's an invitation to be taken there where only God's grace can take us. Like, we can do all the cooking properly, but the eating part in this case only happens with the hand of God. Only God, like a mother, will feed us every morsel in this eating process. Because this part, the contemplation part, we cannot do for ourselves. We can only make ourselves available and use this. I feel like this is a very good entry point into the contemplation part of it. And all the previous steps, including the prayer step, which is very important, helps us to make ourselves fully available to God to take us deep within.

So it is not for us to get frustrated if the contemplation is not happening or there's a lot of distraction, we are not able to sit quietly even for a minute. 'Everybody else seems to be sitting so beautifully for twenty minutes, twenty-five minutes; I'm so distracted.' Just our job is to keep surrendering and returning to Him. Use your inquiry, use your Advaita prayer, keep returning. Or use these—these passages are full of spiritual light. The words of the sages, the words of God, are full of spiritual light. So return to any of that as an anchor.

Okay, this part I wanted to say maybe a little later after a few days, but it's coming to say now, which is that love for God is a beautiful anchor as well. For many years we've been getting these questions about, 'But how do I love God? How can I love God?' So some beautiful answers have been coming my way. To remember God, of course, is one way to love God. Beautiful remembrance of God leads to love for Him. Second simple way to love God is to be grateful to God. Just say thank you. There are a million things we have to be thankful for in this moment. Just say thank you for any of them, as many of them as you like. Then the love for God will... in gratitude, the love for God will start to become apparent.

And one of the most beautiful things I heard from St. Elizabeth herself was that to love God, all we have to do is let Him love you. Make yourself available to be loved by God. Offer yourself like an infant child to be loved by God. You have an infant child, or even like our pet children—like Aslan will just sit there and want to be loved. He'll just come sit in front of you without saying it; it's like, 'Love me.' So in the same way, just be a pet like that in front of God. Be a child like that in front of God. It's a very beautiful way of loving God.

So why don't we take the next half an hour, forty-five minutes, or we can use this passage itself? And don't get biased; it will happen to some extent, but try to look at it fresh and approach it. Use your notebooks. Do the meditation part, which is to highlight the questions you may have about it, or make a note of some of the passages, some of the phrases which hit you strongly or they are so beautiful you want to write them down to really simmer in them. Then make your own prayer from your heart. Take the help from the Atma, the sages, and write your own prayer to God. And it can be private; it can be your private communication with God.

And if you never want to—if I ask you to share and if you feel like it's too private and empty time—just say, 'I'm not comfortable doing that.' It's completely fine because this is truly our private time with God in our heart, you see? A secret time with God. So don't write it for any other audience but God. And if you never want to reveal anything, it's completely fine. Remind me if I said that, if I ever push you too much. Then for the final contemplation part—and I suggest at least ten minutes you sit in that contemplation—use the fragrance of the words that you read, use the fragrance of the prayer, use this invitation: 'Be still and know that I am.' And allow God to take you deep into the heart temple where no senses can ever go and no feelings can ever go, deep within yourself in that holy place. All of you can start. I'll just sit with my eyes closed.

It's a very beautiful verse to start with, very, very beautiful. And I only just... in my notes, I only scratched the surface. There is so much more beauty to be extracted from this, so much more insight, so much more love to be extracted from this. All of you have the book, all of you have the passage. Should I read it once more? You... everyone has it?

Good. Getting a sense of it? Was it difficult or easy? What? You want to say something?

I'm sorry, I was a bit confused what we do. I didn't quite realize.

No problem. Sorry.

I read some of the first section and sat with it as well.

Yeah, that's mainly it. So first, the process which is called manana. The reading of it is shravana, or the hearing of it; actually, literally it's called lectio, which is the reading of it or the hearing of it. Then the process is called meditation or manana, which is to really examine what happens when we read it. What are the questions that come to us? What are we confused about? What do we really love? What causes some trouble, like we can't accept it or, you know, something is not clear or it's not seen by us yet and we want to... what are the stunning phrases that we really love in that? So we can make a note of those things in the process and really just immerse ourselves, immerse ourselves in that process.

Then to pause for a bit and then, inspired by the passage, to create a prayer, to ask for a blessing based on the content of the passage. Because Jesus said that, 'May those who You have given Me, may they also be where I am. That is My will.' That is the crux of the passage. 'And may they behold My glory because You have loved Me before the creation of the world.' So that was the original passage which we were contemplating.

So the prayer that came here after taking help from the sages was: 'Holy God, Beloved, bless me to be in Your holy presence where I can behold You, drowning in deep love for You. Be in Your holy company. Lord Jesus has already made this prayer. May it be so. Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram.' So that is the oratio part of the praying part. So that we added to the Advaita sadhana. Advaita sadhana does not have this sharanam-type process or surrendering, praying-type process, but I feel like it's a beautiful... it's all in the spirit of prayer anyway. All sadhana is in the spirit of prayer, so I don't feel like it's a very far-fetched inclusion into Advaita sadhana.

And then we start our contemplation, which is to remain in God's loving presence quietly. So to sit quietly, immersed in God's loving presence, allowing ourselves to hear Him, to be with Him, to communicate with Him, and to pray for union with Him. So the invitation to that part of the process was: 'Be still and know that I am.' And we remove every word, one word every time. So it starts with 'Be still and know that I am,' then 'Be still and know that I,' 'Be still and know that,' 'Be still and know,' 'Be still,' 'Be.' So like that, we remain for anywhere from two or three minutes to half an hour. And this is how you can practice by yourselves at home as well.

So here collectively, of course, we will take some average time where everybody is being able to sit quietly. And then we just, in a spirit of gratitude, thankfulness, we pray to God to bless our sadhana, to bless our practice, and we thank Him for His gifts and we return to normal. What about the rest of you? You're getting a sense of this? And in the quietude, you can use your inquiry, you can use your Advaita prayer, any other japa that you're doing—you can use that. But remember to try and spend at least a few minutes in complete stillness.

No, so I didn't use the 'Be still.' Yeah, that's like... 'Let God love you' resonates here and that was enough. I...

So anything like this is like where you use love as the anchor to be anchored in the stillness. So to lead you into that samadhi through feeling, through bhava, which is deeper than feeling, but... I can't explain what happens.

You can use your prayers, any other japa that you're doing, you can use that. But remember to try and spend at least a few minutes in complete stillness. No?

So I didn't use the 'be still'—yeah, that's like 'allow God to love you' resonates here and that was enough. So anything like this is like where you use love as the anchor to be anchored in the stillness. So to lead you into that samadhi through feeling, through bhava, which is deeper than feeling. But I can't explain what happens. I actually can't explain. Nobody can, but it just resonates. It feels right. It feels right in... so that was enough. So I didn't really use anything that you asked us.

That's fine. That's um... in terms of the steps, see if we don't have an idea that this is a higher and I can just do that. Just make sure it's not getting into any of that. The cooking and the eating is important. We must not forget to cook or to eat.

So Father, sometimes I find like too much instruction and then I'm not able to like... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. So I just read the passage, yeah, and I came back to it a few times, but this just helped me go. If God is pulling you in and you're able to sit in stillness, that is fine. Like there were moments of... but just make sure it's not like a mental resistance.

No, but sometimes I'm not able to process like when you give so many instructions. I can't understand what... like it's my capability somewhere.

Now it's clear, the instruction. Let's look at it because if you pick up the skill, I feel like it will be a beautiful lifelong deepening in this. So the idea is what the instruction is: that we must do manana. And in the same way, Jesus is pointing that we must love God with our full might, with our heart, soul, and mind fully. So how to offer, how to collect ourselves fully and offer it to God? That is what this whole process is for: to completely come to Atma. So that is every time what the first step...

It could be different every time, no Father? Like how you come to God. Like sometimes I need to just keep coming back to some reading or some... so the process is different. Like here in satsang it's so easy for me to just be with God; at home it might not be so easy.

So yes, so as long as it's clear to you now what the instructions are, and if you're being able to be devoted to God during satsang, it's completely fine. But you know what to do by yourself; that is also important because my hope is that a large part of 2025 will be spent in this kind of sadhna. It's clear what... yeah. So it is not as if you're starting to pray, 'Beloved God,' and then God just pulls you in and you say, 'No, no, but I haven't done the oratio part.' That is not obviously not the point. But we just have to be careful that we are not getting into any sort of resistance or pride or any of that to say, 'Oh no, no, I don't need this.' And if the great sages, right from Yajnavalkya to all the beautiful sages across cultures and traditions with different names have been doing this, then there must be some great value in that. So I just want all of you to be careful not to feel that, you know, I can just do it like that.

So can you like do this a few times, Father? I feel like I'm slow, not grasping the whole like the steps somehow. You know, like the prayer part you said you wrote down, it didn't come for me. There was no prayer. No prayer that I can remember that came like this, like what you described.

No, just allow. Like how did you compose the bhajans? How did I... when you had to sing those?

But does it have to come as my question? Like is this the way it has to be? Or like there was no prayer... it doesn't have to be as long as the impediment is not a mental resistance, that's all. It was very clear that I was with like a wordless prayer. It dropped into it, not immediately. And that's the goal. Like the goal is to just be with God, right? Like what happens in between can vary is my question. Because I have, you know, have this student thing, no? Like I'm just trying to like make sure I'm not falling in that hardness, you know, like 'this is how something should be,' because I do fall into that.

Correct. So yes, the eating is the... like no point cooking if you're not going to eat the food. So the eating is the most important. Yeah. Okay. As long as our mind is not getting in the way of the cooking process and the eating is happening. Good, good question. Anything else? And nobody can come to you and say, if you're sitting lean in God's presence—'lean,' the Hindi word 'leen,' which is what is the English equivalent? Engrossed, immersed, you know, fully, deepen fully, deeply surrendered in God's presence. Nobody's going to say, 'But you didn't do the prayer properly' or 'You didn't do the meditation properly.' That's the whole thing. Is that in offering the fruits and the flowers and the leaves and everything, it sort of builds a spiritual momentum so that we dive into that quietude very beautifully. That is the only intention. We don't get the checker guy involved. Only check for whether it is sort of like the mind saying, 'Oh, you know, that this is too difficult' or something like that. Because even if it takes a month or two to get a sense of what is really happening, this is such a beautiful process because in the process we are deepening so much in scripture, we are deepening so much in the understanding of what the sages are telling us, the understanding of what the incarnations have told us. See, I would love to do the Bhagavad Gita, the Ashtavakra Gita in this process. Take Baba Farid again. Because the amount of immersion in Lord Jesus's words of this final prayer to God through this process that has happened has not happened with me before with this particular passage. So it's very beautiful. Even with the Ramacharitmanas, for example, we can take those passages that we highlighted and really deepen in them through this. Otherwise we don't remember. By next time we don't remember. Like I don't remember last time's reading at all.

I just want to see if there is like a... like somewhere an idea that like I didn't really pay so much attention to the passage. I did come back when I felt like a little distraction was happening, I went and read it again. But then the more the anchor more was 'allow God to love you.' So was this like a not wanting to like somewhere not wanting to be with that passage? It's not like that?

Don't worry, it's not. Don't worry. Just all this guidance used for the next... don't worry about what happened. Any other feedback, comments? Everyone has gone into hiding after this. Okay, let's try one more and then we see.

One question is, it didn't feel to call on any of the sages for help. Okay, so I made a prayer for help with this part of...

Yes, it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be. Just as long as we are surrendering to the Atma, the spirit, knowing that it is the true teacher, the true guide. It's completely fine. Again, as long as it's not some sort of pride that stops us. We'll talk about the sense in my heart about praying to the sages or asking for their help a little later, but it's a beautiful part of the process. But it's not... nothing is really a prerequisite except the attempt to be with Him truly in silence in the heart temple, immersed in love and gratitude. But remember that before bringing to satsang to all of you, I make sure that I tasted myself the process and what happened. So know that I've been immersing myself in this for some time. It's really beautiful. We can use it also for any of the scriptures, but also the truths, whatever we want to deepen in. Okay, let's take another passage so that you get more of a taste of it.

Such is Christ's last wish, His supreme prayer before returning to His Father. He wills that where He is, we should be also. Not only for eternity, but already in time, which is eternity begun and still in progress. It is important then to know where we must live with Him in order to realize His divine dream. Such is Christ's last wish, His supreme prayer before returning to His Father. He wills that where He is, we should be also. Not only for eternity, but already in time, which is eternity begun and still in progress. It is important then to know where we must live with Him in order to realize His divine dream.

So this is also a beautiful passage that you can contemplate. Let me give you the taste of one more. Maybe we can use this one, the next one. The place where the Son of God is hidden is the bosom of the Father, or the Divine Essence, invisible to every mortal eye, unattainable by every human intellect. I'll come back to this, but I want to make this point that we spent about a year in satsang talking about the right tools for self-inquiry, for self-discovery. And we talked about how perceptual knowledge will not get us there and how conceptual or intellectual knowledge will not get us there. So it is that very same point of relying on Atma Gyan, on intuitive insight, which is being made here.

So the passage is: the place... so Lord Jesus is inviting us to be with Him. Now our question is: where is that place? Where can I be with Him? So now we are being told where there is that place. The place where the Son of God is hidden is the bosom of the Father, or the Divine Essence, invisible to every mortal eye. So our worldly, fleshly eyes cannot bring us there. Invisible to every mortal eye. What are the other sets of eyes that we have? The heart eyes, intuitive eyes. The guidance of the Atma is the heart guidance, heart eyes. Every mortal eye, unattainable by every human intellect. The word 'every' is very important. No matter how smart you are, you could be the most accomplished spiritual encyclopedia in the world, but it is not possible for you to be with God using that instrument of human intellect.

As Isaiah said, 'Truly you are a hidden God.' Truly you are a hidden God. And yet His will is that we should be established in Him, that we should live where He lives in the unity of love, that we should be, so to speak, His own shadow. So the Lord is inviting us to go to that hidden, secret place where no intellect can reach, where no senses can reach. He lives there, which they are calling the bosom of the Father. Such a beautiful... the breast, the chest of the Father. The very center is where the Son lives. So the word, the Saguna arises from the Nirguna in this way, and a beautiful way of saying that is here. And that very Saguna appears in our very center because our oneness is the same as God's oneness. In our very center is the Atma as God's presence within. So there is where God is inviting us to be, beyond the world of Maya, beyond the world of understanding. That holy place, that hidden place.

So that process which I'm doing, which is opening up, unraveling, peeling the words to shine some understanding from the heart onto them, is the process that you will do with the words in the guidance of the Atma within. So our meditation process is guided by that, or at least we can pose the questions. So if you are new in satsang and you say, 'But how can there be such a place which is not visible to the senses, is not understood by the intellect? How can there be such a place?' If that question leads you to go with... so the idea is not to presume that we know. Okay, be careful of that in this process. The more you have a beginner's mindset, the more it will reveal things for you. The more you think that 'Oh, this I already know,' then you lose that opportunity to deepen in that insight.

Every day on the spiritual path we have to start as beginners. No day on the spiritual path can you start as somebody who is advanced. Every day has to be beginner because the fresh truth which will reveal itself to you will be worth a million times more than any learned knowledge or inferences from past experiences. So always value that much more. Nothing progress then progress... there's no... let your teacher tell you that you're progressing. You stay as a beginner. So like this process of just dwelling on it, seeing what emerges out of it by ourselves, is the first part of the process.

You start as somebody who is advanced, but every day has to be a beginner because the fresh truth which will reveal itself to you will be worth a million times more than any learned knowledge or inferences from past experiences. So always value that much more. Nothing progress, then progress. There's no... let your teacher tell you that you're progressing. You stay as a beginner. So, like this process of just dwelling on it, seeing what emerges out of it by ourselves, is the first part of the process, which is the meditation or the Manana part of the process.

Now, based on this, be very natural in the prayer part. Very natural. What is being said? We need to be with God where no eyes can go, where no human fleshly eyes can go, where no understanding can ever go. So just simply, with the innocence of a child, pray for that: 'God, show me that Holy place where no human eyes can go, where no understanding will help me. Only you can take me there, Lord. Please take me there. I want to live there with you because already it is your will that it may be so.' Some simple words like that will come to you. If they don't come, it's fine. But whatever the main point of the passage, say that: 'Bless me with this, Father.' Enough itself is simple enough. Getting it?

So, whatever the main sense you're getting out of the passage, say: 'Bless me, God. Bless me, Father. Bless me, Beloved, with this blessing.' And then you go to your contemplation. It is the most sublime, your quiet time with God. Quiet time loving God is such a gift, that we can have this quiet time loving God twice a week at least, and hopefully we do this every day at home by ourselves. I mean, but what a gift that we know how to spend this holy time with God, loving him, loving her so deeply in our hearts.

So, how to do this at home? There's no shortage of spiritual texts. So initially, what you could do is you don't have to force yourself to do it with every paragraph. Read the book, whatever is appealing to you at that point of time, and then wait till something really grabs you. That passage really hits you somewhere or grabs you, or you feel a certain sweetness about it. Sometimes you just feel like closing your eyes after reading; something just grabs you. So start with that passage. Then, as long as it has its juice, stay with that. Then keep reading till you come across the next passage like that.

So the process of spending time like this is your focused prayer as well. So you could spend a few hours in your prayer, in your self-inquiry, in your japa, whatever your practice you're doing. And then you can use this process of sadhana for any of you who feel that... and it's all right if it feels that way, but any of you feel that only cooking is happening but no eating is happening? Or any of you feel like that? Nothing? You're not getting any sense of either what I'm saying, cooking or eating?

Only cooking, no eating. Good. Bored, very bored kind of.

You have to transcend this. Many of us, we are looking at videos of the desert fathers or the sadhus who are living in caves in India. There are many beautiful sadhus who leave everything and live in caves. Now, why do they do that? They have no entertainment there. They have to have satsang also by themselves only. Because that which is pleasing to the mind only is not usually helpful for our spiritual growth, and that which is helpful for our deepening, for our spiritual growth, is often not pleasing to the mind.

So this year, my resolution is to—and you know I've been working on this for many, many months—which is to share, just to serve God with no pretense or minimal pretense, with not any interest in what any of you feel or what the world feels about Ananta at all. And just to offer things which I feel will just bring you closer and closer to God. And if in that process some of you get really bored and want to leave, I can understand that as well. But I don't want to compromise on just serving God with the only importance being to the audience of one. So no, no show at all this year. If I get into it, you all remind me.

Imagine that at the end of this year, you lose interest in being entertained by Maya. It would be so beautiful. It takes some work. So the best thing shows up in Maya, it is just: 'God, God, God.' Even those things which you have the most aversions to show up in Maya, it is: 'God, God, God.' You find such a stable home in your heart temple. And in the process, if you have to transcend your boredom, then so be it. But I'm not going to make satsang fun to keep you engaged. If it happens organically that it's fun one day, that's all right. I'm going to swing to the beat of the Atma within, and in that process, if you're not entertained, then you're not entertained. That's all right with you?

Now for homework... just kidding, just kidding. What's the time? So I need to rest my body a bit. We can sing the Hanuman Chalisa. And Jyoti has been making some notes on what are the selections. Now we can select again if you want. I would love to just share those passages also with the whole, so we can use those also for our contemplation. They are very beautiful passages. Yeah, you can just screenshot. And some of you are very worried about my health. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere for a few years at least. So, just going through some things with the nerves. I don't know what's happening. It will be fine. Minor, minor, nothing to worry. This makes the body a little weak, tingly and weak.

Have a wonderful God-filled, Guru-filled year. May God bless you all so much, and may the light of your presence bring so many to God's light. Can we start satsang with a different Aarti? Yes, everyone doesn't like this one? Okay, good. There's that one version which I really love. Should we play that first and then do the Hanuman Chalisa? Most of you have heard it. You can sing it already, or no? If you can sing it already...

I was just marveling at what a genius Tulsidas Ji was. Sage, clearly God-filled and Atma-led, Spirit-led. And to have this kind of quality and quantity of devotional material produced in one lifetime is staggering. So the previous Aarti was written by him, this one is written by him, and of course Hanuman Chalisa also is written by him. So we start and end satsang with Tulsidas Ji's writings. Good.