Newsletter #66, by Heike Bachmann (7 October 2013)

Samarpan Online Group Meditation Newsletter

TOPIC FOR THE WEEK –Purification of our mind

“A great Saint by the name of Ramdas Swami lived in Maharashtra (state in India).He used to travel to different places giving discourses and awakening people and the society. He used to inspire people for uplifting of their souls. Thousands of people achieved uplifting of their soul thanks to him. At the end of one such discourse a lady asked Swamiji ”Swamiji, can you help me experience the existence of God?” Swamiji replied with complete self-confidence, “Definitely. However, I like Khir (Indian sweet similar to rice pudding) a lot and I have been travelling to several places since many days. It is my desire to have khir but I haven´t had the opportunity to do so. If you fulfill my wish I will make you experience the existence of God”. She thought, “The deal is so cheap. If the experience of God can be felt just by preparing rice pudding there can be no other deal in life as cheap as this“. She agreed to it. She said, “Alright. I am going home. I will make good rice pudding and get it for you. Then, you make me experience the existence of God”. She went to her house with great happiness and joy. Working very hard she prepared the rice pudding from milk. She put cashews, almonds, pistachio nuts and several dry fruits in it. She worked hard for four hours, prepared it with great love and warmth and returned to the temple to offer it to Swamiji. He saw her approaching with the rice pudding from a distance. There was a sewer flowing nearby. He put his pot in it and filled half of it with mud. And after filling up half of his pot with mud he continued to sit there while waiting for the lady to turn up. When she arrived, he kept his pot before her. She observed that it is actually filled with mud. So, she asked for the pot “Sawmiji, give it to me. I will clean it”. He said, “No put it in here”. She told, “I have prepared the rice pudding only for you. I want to give it only to you but your pot is dirty. It has mud inside. If I put my rice pudding in a pot filled with dirt the rice pudding will get spoiled. Hence I will first clean the pot and then pour it”. Swamiji said, “You have prepared the rice pudding for me you even want to give it to me than just put it where I am asking to! I am telling you to pour it in the pot”. She said, “I have indeed made it for you and want to give it to you only. But unless your pot is clean I will not pour the rice pudding. I have prepared it with lots of hard-work effort. It took me four hours to make it. All endeavors will go in vain if I pour it in the dirty pot”. Thus, the lady was not ready to pour the rice pudding and Swamiji was not ready to clean the pot. And at last, she got irritated. ”How can I put the rice pudding made with so much hard work in a dirty pot. Until you clean it I cannot give it to you!” Swamiji remained calm. He said, “Sister (common way to address fellow woman), you don´t wish to put the khir prepared after working hard for four hours in a dirty pot even though you have brought it for me. How do you expect me to put the khir (knowledge) that took forty years to assimilate in your impure pot (mind-Chitta)? If you desire to experience God then purify your Chitta (mind). Purify your psyche and clean your pot. Until the pot of attention is cleaned, even I can never make you feel the experience of God. I want to and can make you feel it. But even I have a limitation that I cannot give it to you till your mind (chitta) is impure. Purification of mind comes first. Nothing can be gained without cleansing of mind. It is of no use. It is necessary for purification of mind to take place before anything else. If cleansing of mind does not happen there is no progress and development. And neither can one purify his attention on his own nor can it happen automatically. Blessing from an evolved mind is necessary to purify it. Unless such blessings are showered on you, the mind can never be purified on its own………..”

My (Heikie´s) experience in this field:

I recognized after 4 years of regularly meditation, that at the very beginning, Swamiji did put my focus on my mind so that I was able to recognize, what are my thoughts about, which kind of thoughts I became. He made me clear the mind and the thoughts over the years. Today I found that purification of our mind (Chitta) is such a great divine gift. It gives us so much: enjoying, satisfaction and pure love. It is -how he told in that story- like a dirty pot which will become clean and then we can enjoy the divine nectar which will be given into our pot. I felt that after that basic cleaning in the beginning of joining Samarpan Meditation, it is a continual process that takes place together with meditation.

What are your experiences about that topic?

Have a great week 🙂