A Diamond In A Garbage Can

Boone, North Carolina

Life is a celebration. You must grab and use every opportunity, everyday, to celebrate and be grateful.

How can celebration happen? Celebration cannot happen by just putting flowers and balloons; it has to happen from within. What are the qualifications and conditions needed for celebration to happen? Have you thought about it?

(Audience: Feeling grateful, feeling happy.)
It’s a Catch 22; if you celebrate, you are happy; if you are happy, you celebrate.
(Audience: Contentment; good company, wanting to have somebody to celebrate with; feeling at home, a sense of security.)
Yes, if you are fearful, you cannot celebrate. Being in love; a sense of belongingness!
(Audience: Good food.)
Of course, food is part of celebration. If you are hungry, you can’t celebrate!
(Audience: Exchange food and drink? )
Listen, do you really see people who exchange food and drinks as happy? Or in a celebration? Look at their faces!

Then we need a sense of purity.
When you feel clean, you can celebrate. When you feel dirty, can you celebrate?
If you are working on the drainage system, and someone comes and tells you, ‘Come, let’s celebrate’, you will say, ‘No, I am dirty. Let me take a shower, then I will come and celebrate.’ Don’t you say that?
So what do you need to celebrate? A sense of purity; cleanliness. Celebration is when you feel clean, outside and inside. People who think they are the worst sinners cannot celebrate since that guilt and sin is eating them up. So a sense of purity, outside and inside.

This Guru Poornima, I want you to remember one thing, you are a diamond; maybe, in a garbage-can!
So, when you feel you are impure, know that you are a diamond. A diamond can never become impure, it can only be in the garbage can.
If a diamond is in the garbage can, will you throw it? No, you will just pick it up and wash it. All these practices that you do, is just washing the diamond, that’s all!
How long does it take for you to wash the diamond? Do you need to scrub it hard? No, just a little bit of water; maybe a pinch of soap. In the way, 'So Hum, So Hum', that’s it, then the diamond is pure again.

When you know this, Nitya Shudhoham, i.e., I am ever pure, celebration will never stop in your life.
Intrinsically we all are pure by nature; but the moment you feel this, that you are pure, your heart is pure, you don’t wish anything bad for anybody on this planet or any other planet, then you are love.
When you feel you are pure, you are love, and you are blossoming. Then there is alertness, wakefulness inside you.

You are ever pure, and silence is the scent of pureness. Silence, and this understanding that I am ever pure, makes life a celebration. The celebration that comes out of silence is very authentic because it is coming from the depth.
Since you have used all the soap and water and everything to clean the diamond (referring to The Art of Silence Course), now the diamond shines, and that is celebration. There is genuineness in everything in you; there is genuineness in your smile.

Have you seen the smile of some people? The smile doesn’t come from inside; it is a cosmetic smile. People say, ‘Welcome’, but it is a cosmetic welcome.
People say, ‘Thank you so much’, but that thank you so much is very cosmetic. It is from outside, because inside there is no silence, there is turbulence, a sense of impurity, a sense of sin; all that is boiling inside.

Human life is worth the celebration. It is worth getting rid of all these things that we put in ourselves.
What we do is put garbage in the jewel box. It is not the jewel box that is in the garbage can, but we are putting garbage in the jewel box. We simply have to remove it.
Just realize that you are pure love. It is because we are conditioned to think that we have sinned and are sinners, that we are so hard on ourselves. And since we are so hard on ourselves, we don’t recognise the beautiful qualities, and the gifts, that we already posses.

Each and every one of us have come to this beautiful planet with abundance of beautiful qualities; somehow we simply don’t recognize it.
Guru Poornima is the celebration where you recognize the beauty that you are. Only when you recognize this beauty, and all the gifts that you have received, only then you will feel grateful. Expressing that gratefulness to the tradition of Masters, is Guru Poornima.
That is a true celebration.

We have come out of silence (referring to The Art of Silence Course), but we are still carrying the silence with us. Now recognize that you are a diamond; maybe in a garbage can, but never mind.
This doesn’t mean that you should not get upset, you should not get angry, you should not do all that you are doing. Or you should be goody-goody all the time and you should not scorn at somebody; no, you can do all that! Whatever you need to do in your day-to-day life, you do all that. However, realize that you are much more than the actions that you do. You are much more than your situations, your surroundings, your thoughts, your emotional patterns. You are much more than what you think about yourself.
Again and again, recognize this, 'I am a diamond, but unfortunately, I have fallen into a garbage can. Now I am getting out of it, and washing myself!'
It could be an annual wash, or a bi-annual wash, then you realize that all the stuff you have been holding with yourself, is not you anyway. You are ever pure.

Is it hard to recognise or believe this? That is why we do Sudarshan Kriya and all the other processes, just to recognise that you are so pure, and something so wonderful.
How many of you find it hard to believe that you are a diamond, ever pure? (Some in the audience raise their hands).
Oh, you do? You need a couple of Advanced Courses; maybe even one more would do. How many of you found that you could relate to it, raise your hands? (Some in the audience raise their hands).
Oh, some relief to me! At least some of you recognise what I am saying. Good!

At the beginning of the Guru Pooja, we chant the mantra:
'Apavitrah pavitro vā, Sarvāvasthān gato pi vā. Ya smareth pundarīkākasham, Sa bahya abhyantara śuci hi'.

Whether pure or impure, however you are (maybe you have fallen down so much, gone really deep down the ditch), yet, remember the being as lotus (the lotus flower is born in mud, but it never smeared or attached to the mud). The being is blossomed like a lotus (pundarīka means blossomed like a lotus).
The being is a witness; when you know that you are a witness, that brings you inner and outer purity immediately (Sa bahya abhyantara).

Ya smareth pundarīkākasham; it is not just remembering someone with a lotus eye.
There are two things here; akasham (eye) also means witness. Pundarīka (lotus) also means blossomed, yet unblemished and untouched by the mud.
So, when the consciousness blossoms, it remains unblemished and untouched, at the same time, it is witnessing, and it is the awakened consciousness.
Just the remembrance of an awakened consciousness, makes you feel the purity.

When you feel connected to the tradition of awakened Masters, then also suddenly the purity dawns.
When you think of someone you love so much, the love gets kindled in you. When you think of your enemy or someone you don’t like, an unpleasant sensation arises in your body; every cell in your body is agitated. Whatever or whomsoever we think of, that happens in our body. So, when you think of awakened people, you feel that sense of purity dawns within you.

If you think of someone who is very greedy and ambitious, you will get that type of vibration in you. If you think of someone who is very peaceful or joyous, you will feel that same vibration. The same sense of joy catches onto your consciousness.
Why should you not hate anybody? It is because whomsoever you hate, that person occupies a big portion in your consciousness.
Whomsoever you think about, you imbibe their qualities in you. So, when you think about a blossomed, witness consciousness of a higher order, you suddenly feel the purity within you and around you. This is so scientific and true.

Do you know why Lord Buddha’s statues were kept for meditation?
After Buddha left the body, they started having Buddha’s statues. When you sit in front of Buddha’s statues, you also start sitting like Buddha. You close your eyes and you feel like imbibing all that stillness. This was the original idea of having Buddha’s statues. Today, it has just become fashionable to have large, expensive statues.

The significance is not the statue, it is you sitting like a statue, with a smile on your face. Relax, let go all that you are holding on to, unnecessarily. Realise, 'I am a diamond, ever pure'. Then you imbibe those qualities within you.

Everyone’s consciousness is so rich and filled with all the good qualities. You don’t need to borrow it from outside, it is already there. It just needs a little bit of nourishment. Like a lotus flower; all the petals are already there, it simply needs to blossom, open up, and show its glory. Similarly, every single individual has these qualities.

On Guru Poornima day, once a year, you recognize that you imbibe those beautiful values, and be thankful. The more grateful you are, the more grace flows in your life.
So, celebration happens with silence, with a sense of purity, and with a sense of sharing.

People on the seva team were sharing how good they feel doing seva. When you share, the joy is something different, and that is celebration.
If there is anything more, tell me, we’ll add to it.
(Audience: Yes, celebrating with God, also).