Daily Sutras

Criticism!
Whatever you do, someone will criticize you. You will be blamed if you act, and even if you don’t act. If you speak, or don’t speak. You can’t keep pleasing everyone. If your focus is on finding shortcomings, either in yourself or in others, you cannot raise higher. Recognize that if someone gives a comment, reflect on it. If there is some truth, accept it. If not, then thank them and move on.

Dakshina
Divinity permeates everything in this Earth. Puja is not complete without honoring the trees, mountains, rivers, Earth and the people living on the Earth. Honoring everyone is Dakshina. Da means to give and Dakshina means giving something that will cleanse us of all impurities. Offering with which all your sins vanish. No puja is complete without Dakshina. When we act in society with skill and free from the distortions of the mind, all negative tendencies like anger, worries, sorrow are destroyed. I will say give your tensions, worries and sorrows as Dakshina.

Freedom
First understand what freedom is. Drop whatever burden you feel in the mind. Quieten the mind. The mind will say: ‘I want this’, ‘I want that’ - drop everything. Have the sankalpa: I am happy, contented and don’t need anything. When you are free, bliss follows you.

Karma
Good and bad thoughts come and go in the mind. Do these form karma? No, when you are a witness (sakshi) to the thoughts coming and going, no karma is formed. When you feel sad thinking that your thought is bad, it is then when your mind gets affected.

Happiness
Happiness is when you want nothing and you want to give. Where the wanting and desires end and the sharing begins, happiness is exactly there. Memory is not happiness. When you are happy you forget everything. In the world people are either dreaming of happiness or remembering happiness. That is either being in the pas...t or the future. But happiness is that which is in the present.