" Man must continue divine spiritual practice (sadhana) in spite of facing hurdles. One must climb so many steps in Tirupati shrine before you can reach Lord Venkateswara! That is the secret. We need to climb the first few steps on our own. This is the great sadhana. We will face many hurdles while climbing these steps. In olden days, the kings got a deep pit dug all around their palace and filled it with water. This prevented the horses from coming to the palace with their enemies. "

" In the same way, there are many pits on the way to God. Unless you cross them, he will not allow you to reach him. Even the Vedas said that this is a very difficult task. Many scriptures say that it is impossible to reach God. 'Nayamathma pravachanena labhya!' - You can never reach God through spiritual talks. What is sadhana? It is not reading books; not hearing the talks of Mahatmas; not even talks of one who has seen God! That is of no use to us. Then what is sadhana? You must conquer your enemy and suppress him. That is sadhana! "

" We have eleven enemies before us and it is very difficult to conquer even one of them. Lord Brahma got uprooted by one enemy like Lord Shiva. We pray to him as MahaDev but he also could not win over the enemy. The Bhagawata narrates the incident wherein everybody was aghast to see Shiva running behind a woman. She went everywhere and he followed her! You must understand that such hurdles disturbed Brahma, Shiva, Vishwamitra and Saubhari. It is very difficult to cross the hurdle. "

" I shall now discuss about these hurdles and how to overcome them. The first hurdle - 'Who are you?' when God questions 'Who are you?' he answers' I am man/woman or I am Ram/Shyam.' He is lying to God because he is not what he thinks he is. You are also like that. You are attached to something (body) that does not belong to you and identify yourself with it. You believe you are that which you actually are not. You forgot your original identity. That is your mistake. You are lying and deceiving yourself and God. He is laughing at your folly. "

" All names on earth are linked with maya. This body is born from maya; your name, job and life-all are maya. Your marriage is false; your son is not true. I can prove that who you think is your son is not your son. That is why Adi Sankaracharya said 'Matansti pitansti nasti bandhu sahodarah. Artham nasti gruham nasti tasmat jagratta jagratta' my son, neither your mother nor father, friend or relative, wealth nor house - nothing belongs to you. Realise this truth and beware! "

" Arjuna was weeping for his dead son. 'My only son was killed by Kauravas after trapping him. I take the vow that I will end my life if I do not kill those who killed by son before sun set'. He arranged logs of wood to burn and end his life. Krishna has no emotions. He will not waver under any situation. He remains passive. He silently watched Arjuna. We also must be passive. Mother granted me that passive state. While I was in that state, my six year old son was nearing death in his grandparent's house. Everyone was worried. 'The little boy is weeping for his father, who is out of town. The boy is holding his last breath for his father. What can we do?' I entered the house after visiting a nearby village on an urgent call. "

" I had to visit the village (Amalapuram) that day to see the training school headmaster's son. They were happy to see me. 'Where is your son?' 'He is having fits.' The boy's back was bent like a bow. He was suffering a lot. As soon as he saw me, he began to weep. He always addressed me as uncle. That day he called me by name 'Hey Veerabhadra Rao. Do you remember that you owe me Rs.12? He was telling me that I owe him money in a previous birth. I called his parents and said 'I owe him something. That's why the karma demigods brought me here. If I give him the money, the debt is cleared and he will die the next minute. If I don't give the money, he will live but he will suffer as long as he is alive. Can you see him suffering? Do you want him alive and suffering or do you want to redeem him from this life. You must decide' 'It is better if he dies rather than be alive with such pain' 'Promise on God and state your decision.' 'We agree' I held his hand and placed 12 coins. He put the money under his pillow and died. One minute! All the relationships on earth are linked with owing and repaying. Though you may look after them with care and affection, remember that nobody is yours; they all are debtors. If you think that they are your people, it is your foolishness. "

" This is how I faced my son who was weeping for me - 'Father, father.' This bond is based on some debt. If I take him in my lap, he will die otherwise he will be alive and suffer. What to do? He fell in my lap and died. I told everybody that my debt will be cleared only when I bury him with my own hands. Nobody must share this debt. "

" I carried my dear son on my shoulders and walked 3 km to the cremation ground. I put him in the pit dug there, put rice grains in his mouth and buried him with mud. I brought him up affectionately, bought him clothes and took care of him. Now the time has come to bury the boy with whom I am linked only due to some debt in the previous life. I covered him with mud and went directly to the city library where my talk was scheduled. I spoke for 2 hours. After my talk, people approached me to bow to me and pay their respects. 'Don't touch me' they wondered why I kept them at a distance. The persons who accompanied me said 'his son died. He is coming directly from the cremation ground. That is why, he is telling you not to touch him' 'Is he coming from cremation ground? Then how could he speak so well for 2 hours?' We cannot believe that he came directly after burying his son.' "

" So harsh to listen, yet so true! Many Mahatmas achieved many things but how many could attain passiveness? Arjuna also became upset when his son died because he did not have passiveness. While Nanna spoke about his son, his voice was very grave. In fact, it was as if a third person was speaking but not a father about his son. Nanna, who showed such a difficult passiveness put Mother before him by saying ' Mother gave me the state of passive consciousness' Each word comes from his practice, no wonder it goes straight into our heart. "

" That is passiveness! Do not leave this bhava despite all odds. In spite of all your penance, you will fall without passive bhava. You must take a new birth yet again, so passive bhava is compulsory. That is an eternal bhava. Till you reach your ultimate goal, passive bhava is a must. Arjuna is a great yogi and Krishna's devotee. He was a powerful warrior who could get bow after bow continuously. Even Krishna could not do this. Such a great yogi stayed with Krishna all the time, day and night. ' Ananyaschinthayantho ....vahamyaham' Krishna remained with Arjuna at all time and looked after his welfare. 'You look after me. My only son was fighting a war according to dharma. But they cornered him and 30-40 people together mercilessly pierced him with swords. For every piercing of the sword, he cried out 'Krishna, Krishna! (Nanna was weeping) Then why didn't you save him? Am I not your devotee? Didn't you like to save him? He died calling out to you. Tell me whether I should worship or leave you? 'I will reply to you in the evening. I will not say anything now.' "

" That evening Krishna took Arjuna to the battlefield. 'Why did you bring me here again?' His son became a ghost and was searching in the battlefield for Krishna and Arjuna. When Krishna raised his hand, Arjuna could see his son. 'Who is he?' 'He is my son. He is dead' 'This is his ghost form. He will tell you a few words. Will you listen to him' 'Yes' Then ghost said 'I have hundreds and thousands of fathers like you. You also have several sons like me. You are behaving so ignorantly. How can you remain so ignorant and foolish even after being with Krishna so long?' The son was chiding the father! "

" Very true. Even though you are with Krishna, you must be wise yourself. Do not give up your knowledge. It has tremendous power. ' Bahunam Janmanamanthe . prapadyathe There is a connection between knowledge and surrender. Without the knowledge that he is everywhere, surrender to him is not powerful. So, even the highest devotee must gain wisdom. What is this knowledge? The understanding that this body is not I; these relatives are not mine. When the body itself is not yours, then how can the relatives be yours? Your body is temporary and perishable, so is your mother. This is what Sankaracharya preached as his last message. 'You have no relatives, brothers or sisters, father or mother' this body is not you. Be careful, awake and aware of this truth. Live wisely, do dhyana wisely, pray wisely and never leave your wisdom. "

" So this lack of knowledge that you are not the body is the first of eleven hurdles faced by man. You must cross this hurdle. This body comprises of the three base modes (gunas). When you unify with the body, you will attain rajoguna of the body and gripped by kama and krodha (lust and anger). The day you move away from the body you will not face the agony of lust and anger. This is true even for a paramahamsa. Ramakrishna got a thought in his inner most heart whether he is the body. To get over this bhava, he cleaned the toilets of scavengers who clean others toilets. 'When I become the scavenger of a scavenger, I will give up my ego. I am not a great person. I am not paramahamsa. I am an ordinary person '(Nanna was weeping). Why did he become the scavenger of a scavenger? To kill the ego that 'I am great' this is a hurdle faced by the jeevas. Even a millionaire cannot take his money with him when he dies. You can accumulate money for short period only. You leave this world without any money. Nobody can accompany you - neither parents nor spouse. "

" In a particular state of dhyana yoga, I became separated from the body. I opened the door and walked out in the night. When I regained consciousness, I saw that I was in cremation ground where dead bodies were burning around me and heaps of ashes were lying here and there. If you look with deha bhava, it is a cremation ground. When you lose deha bhava, it is something else. The root cause of ignorance is deha bhava. It is also the cause for cowardice and miseries. I will tell you about the great dhyana yoga combined with Mother's highest tattwa. You must enter the temple after bath. Now you are bathing with dhyana. Then you will become pure and ready to go near Mother. Mother is the highest state of yoga. Once only Mother .Her confidential sakhis came from the upper worlds and gave one significant sentence in hindi language. "

" Mother can be attained only through dhyana. Whether you like it or not, you must learn dhyana otherwise you can leave. There is no compromise here. Mother is near us, in our heart. (weeping) She places Her hand on our head and says 'My son, have come near Me?' If you want this experience, you must do dhyana. Don't argue or adopt any other path. "

" 'Tarko Pratishtah sruthayo vibhinnah'. This is what Dharma Raja Yudhistir told the Yaksha kind when all his brothers fainted before him. 'Dharmasya tattwam nihitham guhayam'. Dharma and virtues are changing in every age so do not follow them blindly. At one time, Dharma stated that a man should marry his elder brother's wife after his death. Otherwise he would be questioned by society. 'His brother is dead but he kept his wife away. How wrong! He must marry her' The Ramayana also mentions about this. When Rama chased the golden deer, it ran further and further. Finally he could kill it with his arrow. The deer was full of maya. It shouted out 'Ha Sita, Ha Lakshmana' in Rama's voice and died. Sita became anxious and told Lakshmana to go to his brother's rescue. 'Mother, as long as the sun and moon are present, no harm can come to my brother. Don't think of him as ordinary human being. He is God in the form of man. How can he die? (Nanna was weeping) 'You have the wicked thought of marrying me when your brother dies. That is why; you are not going to save him'. How cruel! Such harsh words! 'I listened to such harsh and sinful words today. I will not stay here anymore. Let anything happen to Sita but I cannot remain here'. Aggrieved thus, Lakshmana left. "

" Therefore the tattwa of Virtuousness changes from time to time. The girls were not entitled to receive ancestral property in those days. Today things have changed. Women have equal right as Men over the property legally. If they are denied this right, they can fight in court and win. "

" The Vedas also speak differently. The Vedas that said 'Pradhana kshetragya patirgunesah' (The master of this whole prakrithi is the virtuous God) also said 'Aham Brahmasmi' (You are the personification of Brahma). So while you are said to be the manifestation of Brahma, the Vedas also said elsewhere that God is your master. What should we believe? No wonder 'Sruthayo Vibhinnah' the sruthis (scriptures) speak differently. So do not trust them blindly. Then whom should you believe? You are cautioning against discussions, sruthis and dharmic scriptures. 'Mahajano yena gatah sa pantha'. You must blindly follow the path in which Mahatmas move; that is your way. How does Gita define a Mahatma? He is not one who grows a beard or wears a sign on his forehead or reads out verses or gives commentary on Vedas. Krishna precisely defined a Mahatma as one who attains knowledge after several lives and prays to the Lord; he sees the Lord everywhere. This is known as superimposition. The world is something else. He sees the superimposition of the Lord on the world. The sight of superimposition is very great. When you attain this sight, you don't see any enemy, snake or lion. All of them become only one. One who attains this sight is a Mahatma. One who sees only Vasudeva everywhere is a Mahatma. The whole world is nothing else except the Lord. Prahlada was young lad. His father Hiranyakasapa threatened to kill Sri Hari. He said 'Show me your God. I will kill him or end myself. Where is he?' Prahlada replied ' Indugaladandu ... andande kaladu'. 'Father, Don't doubt the presence of my Hari. He is everywhere; he is in your heart' so don't despise a pig or dog because God is present within it. 'I don't hate anybody. I see everybody equally - Samatwam yogamuchyathe' You cannot treat everyone equally unless you are in the bhava that God is everywhere so that should come first. "

" Prahlada said 'Father, whom do you want to kill? Can you stand before my Hari and look into his eyes?' His father was enraged 'I must see him. Is he present in this iron pillar?''Yes, he is present'. His father demolished the pillar and the Lord came out. He is a Mahatma because he could see the Lord everywhere. We also must attain that bhava and sight of equality. In the initial stages, you may see your Lord in small idols. As you ascend to higher stages, you don't need to limit him. You will see mountain, dog, pig, everything equally. You will lose the sight of distinguishing. Everything is only one; your Lord! You must attain this sight. "

" Vivekananda specifically said that this state cannot be reached through reading books or going to pilgrimages. He reached this final stage. 'My body will not see the 40th year', he publicly declared. He died before he was 40 years old. Mahatmas automatically gain this divine sight. They can foresee the future. They do not weep for the temporary physical body. "

" This is your first hurdle. You are witness consciousness. You are the master who can see God everywhere, who can pray to God anywhere. You are an intellectual, a yogi yet you consider this perishable body made of base elements as yourself. The Vedas say that you are not this body, you are pure witness consciousness. "

" Mother ordered me not to give you this great dhyana until you cross eleven hurdles. 'Let them bathe first. After that I will grant My darshan. Then they can see Me. 'you are still bathing. You have poured the first mug of water. The rest are still remaining. "

" The second hurdle is outward vision - bahirmukhatwam. Our sins and virtues come only due to outwardness. A widow can have a relationship with a man only because she saw him and became attracted to him. Radha Baba is a Mahatma in Brindavan. He saw an incident where a widow killed her 18 year old son because she wanted to enter into an immoral relationship with another man. He became disgusted with the world and took sanyas. He mentioned this incident in his autobiography. 'I saw this incident and developed aversion towards the world. How can I live in such a world? I must leave this world and go to my Lord'. Within one hour, he fetched saffron clothes and accepted sanyas. Such is this world of maya. Maya does not realise sin and virtue, good and bad. Many heinous crimes are being committed in the world. People move around with wicked and criminal thoughts. You will develop aversion towards the world even by thinking about them. "

" The second hurdle is outward vision - bahirmukhatwam. Our sins and virtues come only due to outwardness. A widow can have a relationship with a man only because she saw him and became attracted to him. Radha Baba is a Mahatma in Brindavan. He saw an incident where a widow killed her 18 year old son because she wanted to enter into an immoral relationship with another man. He became disgusted with the world and took sanyas. He mentioned this incident in his autobiography. 'I saw this incident and developed aversion towards the world. How can I live in such a world? I must leave this world and go to my Lord'. Within one hour, he fetched saffron clothes and accepted sanyas. Such is this world of maya. Maya does not realise sin and virtue, good and bad. Many heinous crimes are being committed in the world. People move around with wicked and criminal thoughts. You will develop aversion towards the world even by thinking about them. "

" All such thoughts came to my notice. This world, this prakrithi is dangerous. You desired to come to the world but what did you gain? The Mahatmas consider it as worthless. Recently one lady came to me weeping that she did not want to live. When I asked her the reason she told about a ghastly incident which she witnessed. 'I am seeing such inhuman scenes in this world. I feel frustrated and loathsome. I want to die. Recently we were going to Vijayawada by bus. One man carrying his child approached a lady passenger and told her to get down the bus as their destination was reached. The lady refused to get down saying that she did not know the man. He pleaded with the passengers to convince his wife to go with him. He added that she was behaving like that because they had a big fight and he beat her in anger. She was repeatedly saying that he was lying. Everybody believed him and also forced her to get down. On our way back from Vijayawada, we saw her dead body lying on the road side.' "

" You have eleven hurdles of ignorance in your path. Unless you cross all of them, you cannot attain Her darshan. "

" Outward vision is very dangerous. The scriptures said 'Antarmukha. sudurlabha' As long as you have outwardness, you cannot attain God. You cannot worship him. You must go inwards. Only then you can move towards him. The external vision has only disgusting scenes and fights. When you see them, maya enters and you will fall. So do not have outwardness. When Brahma searched the whole earth with outward vision for his father, he heard 'tapa tapa' from the sky. He understood that he must do penance to reach his goal. Whenever you start a business or an important work, you must always do penance along with human efforts. This is the lesson and message given to the world by Bhagawad Gita. Don't think you are great just because you passed an exam with highest marks. You will not become the highest. You must do penance also. Only when penance and your job; penance and your business; penance and your qualities join together, you will be truly successful. This is the message. This is the second hurdle. You are depending on human efforts alone without doing penance. It is of no use. Even the highest man needs penance. "

" I will tell you in detail about tapasya later. That tapasya will take you to highest studies. I will prove this point scientifically with references from books. You must follow the highest. Don't confine yourself to the worldly problems and family matters. We must reach that higher state. Each hurdle is a part of your spiritual bath. You have bathed with two pitchers of water so far out of eleven. I will explain them one by one each day. You cannot assimilate all of them together. You can memorise the first two hurdles today and understand them completely. "