Retreat with the Sindhi Community in Peace Village USA

for ex-Brahma Kumaris, to discuss matters related to their experiences in BKWSU & after leaving.
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enlightened
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Retreat with the Sindhi Community in Peace Village USA

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"The Joy of Inner Change* Retreat with Sindhi Community 19th April 2008 with sister Mohini

Om Shanti. Just had a Caribbean meeting – teachers from 11 islands were on the phone and I said, “Say Om Shanti loudly – so Dadi Janki can hear it in the Middle-East and so they can hear it on Mt. Abu.” So I appreciate your saying Om Shanti loudly. These words are very powerful. Say it gently to your own mind and through the mind say it to the other one who needs it. Say it softly and use it in relationships and interactions with others. Use it to set your mind and to keep it peaceful and quiet. It often happens that we get upset or irritated, that we lose patience. Sometimes it causes an injustice not just to the mind but to the breath. BKs are also known in India as the Om Shanti people. I was at the Delhi airport recently, and wherever I went, people said Om Shanti. I asked one how they knew and they replied that they were reading my badge! I thought that was very good – people look at the badge, not the face!

Sabhi khush, raazi ho? (Are you always happy and content?) The se words sound beautiful– do we feel this always or only when we are here? Khush raazi – contentment, well being – it means that you are OK spiritually and physically. As life is a journey in which there is lots of realizations. You have all shared some qualities-love, tolerance – the process is always there, the learning happens. You can live either by regrets or by realizations. In this organization, we live by realization.

There are always signals in life. When I was a young student in university I visited the BKs and one Senior Sister said she wanted to signal me this was the right way. You have to change what you say, how you speak, in your attitude. Every moment is different – time is still moving even when there is no battery in the clock – it is never the same. No two moments, no two people, even twins. There are 7 billion noses, just imagine!

All of us are different and it’s important to adapt to changes. Most adapt to external changes very quickly – to styles and trends. They are easy to adapt to. We tend to rebel against inner changes. It is ego and lack of self respect that makes us rebel and react. What is important internally is realization to make changes in time rather than after time, saying it should have been this, or I could have done better. This process of change can not be forced upon you – it must be within the self. The change should be towards ascending degrees not descending. If you take the right path you ascend, if you do wrong, it is descending. At any time, you can lose a principle or moral value.

There was someone in the UK who achieved what he wanted in life but the temptation caused him to do the wrong thing. Like the game of Snakes and Ladders, there is the possibility of decent till the end. To fall is like the big snake. It is always a matter of the right choice, to not make the wrong choice and start coming down. There is a beautiful dialogue in Mahabharat – ‘Life is sadhana (spiritual effort) and chetna (awareness) but it is not gambling. You can not gamble in life. Even with fruit, in time it gets very ripe, but if we take fruit and not allow it to ripen because we want to profit before it is time, it can get spoilt. This happens due to desires.

Chetna is awareness. We are uplifted by spirituality, knowledge, and God’s remembrance. We can elevate our chetna constantly. Life to begin with always has choices and with realizations and changes our life should not be let by desires (ichcha). It can become a burning desire (trushna) and it can burn us. We have to know how to deal with desires, find the right direction in life and have to follow it or we can lose the path very easily.
How do I know if I need something or is it my greed? There is always a need. A greedy person can never sleep properly from a life driven by desire. I want to fulfill this desire and then I fulfill it and then find out it’s not very good. My life and work should be driven by God, like Krishna drove the Chariot for Arjuna.

The Brahma Kumaris are now in 129 countries – we want to grow – our work is good and why not let everyone hear. There is a project in Africa to be in every country, and now in the Caribbean. It could be a desire if we lose our aim and just fulfill a desire that I should keep doing it. But it is a pure desire to achieve an aim. How to bring inner change for this? Desire is a big force. Many people who could not make it to work missed 9/11. I am task oriented and believe in deadlines and efficiency but now, if I don’t get on the flight for some reason, for example, I say remember God and the best will happen for me. I don’t know what is best for me – getting everything I want will not always be the best. Why not trust God and what comes to me? Do your best, and then leave it and trust your destiny. Why is there doubt? Move forward in life with trust.

One aspect is efforts, and the other is struggle. Efforts are human nature – at Peace Village all is different every time I come. There is the effort to beautify the place but there is no struggle. There are the requests that cannot be fulfilled, but Dadi Janki taught me to not ever say no. I used to say no. I told Dadi that they want something every day. They need this and that and I told Kala that she was calling the wrong number, to call God. Then Dadi said never say no. I then started to say, “You will get it, sure why not, but wait for a while” and then something happens in a natural way and you get it.

We have to grow naturally, but not be governed by desires. So be raazi – well and content. Even when we go to God we go with our list. God then has to remove the confusion and then give power. Never go with a list. Go to God with a blank paper and ask what He wants to give us. Peace Village is 10 years old next year. We will go with a blank paper. God will assign us. We are only trustees of our lives. No one owns anything. My fortune, karma, God’s grace – God what do you want me to do? I never say what I want, never go with a list. When you are the trustee of your life, there is no burden. Live your life without burden. What is the joy of inner change? Nothing is mine. In our organization the biggest mistake is that this is mine. No, it belongs to God and we are trustees and this will bring a lot of inner changes. I am God’s child and I should be secure.

We have created webs and cages in our minds webs can be removed by spiders but not cages - web of fear and impossibilities. Every thought is valid but, if it is out of fear and confusion, we have to clear it and that takes a lot of energy. We can live with peace if we think, ‘I am a trustee.’ Does it appeal to you? Experiment as to how it will work – trusteeship – what has been given to me is not just what I have acquired. We have a choice.

Always think and decide in trust. For example, when I came here, how would I have done my assignment as a representative at the UN if I did not study political science? So trust everything that has happened to be good even what we have carried with us a child. Trust that any decision is good, and not question how and why. Look at your life and see how clearly it was all connected. Say ‘Wah Bhagwan wah!’ Our generation talks about appreciation but what about the younger generation? What happened? If I am thinking in doubt, fear, and worry it will not prepare us for anything. I only decide something when in a good state of mind.

The second ability is the power to decide and before that it is the power to discern. The quality of trust is required to come out of the web. Use the right steps to change and many things will automatically come in the right place. Some things don’t look pleasant but turn out nice. Inner change can be as simple as changing negative to positive or to adopt to certain things in life so there is change and stability. When there is a crisis situations, who has control? If we look at the whole picture of the world, we are not progressing. Technologically, yes, but there is so much poverty and disease.

When there is inner stability, then external changes don’t shake us for any reason. Last year all our talks were on stability in changing times. From faith, good qualities emerge and then external situations change. When we have a heavy lunch, then we always think of a light dinner. We have to decide on our changes – we have to govern life. There are two things: ‘Stithi’ (your own stage) and ‘Paristithi’ ( situations outside of our control). Go beyond that situation or just go beyond. When we are in a situation we can not think clearly. When there is a hole in our boat, water enters the boat and makes it sink. In the same way, fear enters the mind and intellect. Then the boat starts shaking. Go beyond – inner power has to increase to such and extent that I can manage and handle. Become ‘adol’ (unshakable) – my stithi should be so stable.

Our last message of this season was that each one of us has to accumulate in three spiritual accounts. The first is good efforts, no laziness – ‘purusharth’ – the effort that we make for upliftment of the soul, ‘purush’. The second is charitable acts – a smile or word of encouragement, and third is blessings. The aim is to let everyone bless you from their heart. These 3 accounts will help you when there is a crisis in life – a time when we will need to draw from our account. These are imperishable accounts.

Every night, assess how I accumulated in my accounts. Any hurt from the past – don’t keep it. Before sleeping your mind and intellect are your dishes – what happened yesterday was yesterday – deposit the good, give to God and ask for forgiveness and forgive others. The mind and intellect are vessels and we have to empty them so there is no stain. Check your day. This is our practice to clear our account – every night I clear with Him. I go and clear my account every night. God is the Father, Teacher, and Sat Guru, and also the Final Judge. Ask for another chance if you did wrong. Today you will do good. Give yourself that courage, otherwise sometimes our thinking is so conditioned by the impressions of yesterday and so how can the quality improve in my actions? Change toward the positive side. Have more patience, less reactive. What is needed these days is is to be heard. Patience in everything – it sustains and nurtures something.

When we react, we do the wrong thing. People don’t realize that if we understood, we would have responded instead of reacted. Think sensibly, face it and do the right thing. Reaction complicates the situation. These are some of the patterns and we need to be careful. You might have other suggestions to see inner changes?

Change is eternal. True wisdom is spiritual wisdom when applied and experience is gained. Dadiji left her body last year. She knew the costs of everything – construction, toli, she was not an accountant but she was wise. Never reach a point that ‘we don’t have’. Energy of life is of 5 different kinds- breath, time, thoughts, relationships, money and a wise person will know how to use them all. A wise person knows how to use time. Wisdom is your spirituality. Wisdom and virtue – if virtue is not working then use common sense in doing things. Spend time for the self – we are doers – spend time to read, to enrich yourself every day – to meditate, contemplate, reflect. The balance is important, otherwise there is tension. Keep balance to recharge the self. 80 percent of our activity comes from habits and it causes stress. Inner treasures – we all have so much inner wealth but we do not explore and so they will not be used. God has given so much – we have to rediscover inside how much love, wisdom, all is within the soul. But only through contemplation does it emerge and then you use it and begin sharing at a different level.

Inner changes are very natural. When there are new things, then we will let go of so many things – when you get something new, then say I don’t need to hold on to those old things, and it’s beautiful to explore this in the self. Life is not very long. Life is going fast and this aspect should not be ignored. You will feel so rich and content and you will use these treasures for your life and for service and humanity.
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