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Awareness of the Reality Within

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Swami Rama | July 17, 2017

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The divine force within you is very active, but you are sleeping; you are not aware of that truth.
Meditation makes you aware of all the forces, and then you must understand the purpose of life
and make a choice. You know, when a newcomer arrives at our monastery, we give him six
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months to see whether or not he can stand the teachings. There are glaciers floating in the river, Resources
and the teacher tells the student to go for a swim. The student says, “Sir, it is very cold!” “Doesn’t
matter,” replies the teacher.

If the student is determined, he plunges into the icy water.

It is not harmful because the teacher says it isn’t. When he
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gets out, they immediately wrap him in a blanket. This is makes you
very healthy, but the student is frozen and thinks he doesn’t
want to go back to the monastery. At other times, the aware of the  Watch video tutorial
teacher will dip a sheet into the icy water and wrap it
around the student. This is a test. In 10 minutes the sheet
totality of your
must be dry. This is a simple thing, generating heat from
mind and
within. You can see this when you practice bhastrika
(bellows breathing) with breath retention. Some students being.
will ask to go out from the ashram for a little while, but the
teacher knows this means they are planning to leave forever.

You should do meditation systematically, without expecting to see dramatic results overnight.
Most students are too impatient. In meditation, the first qualification is not a university degree or
swamihood; the first requisite is simply patience. It’s like waiting on the bank of a river, gazing
toward the waves which are going toward the ocean. You are standing on the bank of the stream
of life, just standing there watching, not identifying yourself with the stream. Learn to watch the
process going on within you. If a thought, emotion, or desire comes, you should learn to simply
observe it. Patanjali says, “After having control over your mind and its modifications, you become
established in your essential nature” (Yoga Sutra 1:2–1:3). Your real nature is that of a seer, but you
constantly identify yourself with the objects of the world, which are subject to change, death, and
decay. That is why you suffer.

How can you know your true nature? By drawing your attention inward and slowly going to that
fountain from which awareness is flowing on different levels. Meditation does not make you
passive or cripple your daily life. Rather, it helps you in attaining emotional maturity. You are
complex, yet you know only a very small part of yourself. Meditation makes you aware of the
totality of your mind and being. Do you know that if you have a strong desire while you are
meditating, that desire becomes very powerful. This is why you are told not to desire anything
when you meditate, because it might conceivably be fulfilled.

My master always used to say to me, “Meditation never makes you alone, but makes you one in
all. You are never alone because you have a friend with you all the time, with whom you are
constantly conversing. This is your greatest friend, who is never selfish, who is always giving. You
have unfulfilled desires, many frustrations. All of these will be washed off when you meet that one
who fulfills everyone’s desires. What do I need if I have Thee?”

Source: Awareness of the Reality Within lectures (Honesdale, 1975)

July 17, 2017 | Amrit Blog, Yoga Wisdom & Worldview

About the Author

Swami Rama
One of the greatest adepts, teachers, writers, and humanitarians of the 20th
century, Swami Rama (1925–1996) is the founder of the Himalayan Institute.
Born in northern India, he was raised from early childhood by the Himalayan
sage, Bengali Baba. Under the guidance of his master, he traveled from
monastery to monastery and studied with a variety of Himalayan saints and sages, including his
grandmaster, who was living in a remote region of Tibet. In addition to this intense spiritual
training, Swami Rama received higher education in both India and Europe. From 1949 to 1952, he
held the prestigious position of Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham in South India. Thereafter, he
returned to his master to receive further training at his cave monastery, and finally, in 1969, came
to the United States, where he founded the Himalayan Institute. His best-known work, Living with
the Himalayan Masters, reveals the many facets of this singular adept and demonstrates his
embodiment of the living tradition of the East.

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