Swami Vivekananda used to say that
advaita means always seeking the cause of the objective in the subjective. That
is, always seeking the cause of outer things within ourselves. Advaita says that
this whole universe exists within my consciousness. So, then, how can I find
fault with others? The whole universe exists within me. As the Ashtavakra
Samhita says, “You alone appear as whatever you perceive. Do armlets,
bracelets, wristlets appear different from the gold they are made of? It is
through your ignorance alone that you see a universe outside of yourself.”

Do you know why a mother has so much love for her children? Because she sees
her own existence in them.



Why are people so attracted to their children, and to
wealth? Because people identify themselves with them. In the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad Yajnavalkya said to his wife Maitreyi: “Verily, not for the sake of the
sons, my dear, are the sons loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.”
This makes us understand that one feels attraction to a person when one
experiences one’s own existence in him or her. The devotees were attracted to
Holy Mother because they saw their existence in her.

The Butterfly
I’d like to leave you with this story. Think of it when you find life’s
experiences difficult to deal with.
A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening
appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to
force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any
progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no
farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors
and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged
easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled
wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any
moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body,
which would contract in time.
Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling
around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the
restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through
the small opening of the cocoon are God's way of forcing fluid from the
body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it
achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles,
that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could
have been. Not only that, we could never fly.
—Origin Unknown

The night, in silence, under many a star,
The river shore, and the husky, whispering waves, whose voice I know,
And the soul turning to Thee, O vast and well-veiled Truth,
And the body gratefully nestling close to Thee.*

Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.”



that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,—
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with the eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.


“Lines Composed a Few Miles
above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth


I pervade the whole universe, I am the sustainer of gods.
I am the strength behind the activities of all beings.
| ancient hymn of the Goddess:

Swami Pavitrananda was a man of intense inner feeling. As the young
boy Bhupen Datta, he specially liked the prayer, “O Divine Mother, teach me
how to pray to you, so that by one prayer I shall be saved from praying to
you, life after life. Teach me how to pray once in the right way.”



It is not really so much a matter of belief. It is a matter of
following the appropriate methods and obtaining the result.”
| Swami Bhramanada