Speak the Truth, Don’t Get Angry, Part One….

RohiniReflections, Stories and Occasions, Uncategorized

Baba used to tell the story of Dronacharya and Yudhisthira. Dronacharya was the teacher to the Pandavas. One day, Dronacharya told his students, “Speak the truth, don’t get angry. I want you to go home, learn this, and come back.” The next day, everyone came back, and each one could recite the statement except for Yudhisthira, who said, “I understand …

From hate to Love….

RohiniLove, Reflections, Uncategorized

I have spent the last three years encouraging people to own, master and transcend their hate. This has been an uphill battle. At the beginning of this period, one person left. In one class, I gave everyone permission to hate; he was the most resistant and therefore the one most filled with hate. I called him out and said it …

Stand Firm by Surrendering….

RohiniPracticing, Reflections, Uncategorized

Practice requires us to actually practice. And because this practice is internal, there is no place where practice is not appropriate. And yet, we decide when and where and how to practice. More insidious than this willfulness is our tendency to misunderstand what practice is. From the standpoint of the three gunas, our understanding of sādhana is determined by which …

Love: the True and the False….

RohiniLove, Reflections, Uncategorized

Baba used to say “Thank God for false gurus.” Why? Because they serve as foils by which we can recognize the true. I never questioned this. Baba had me take care of the false gurus that came to see him. He taught me to discern the difference between these false guides and Baba. These people had trappings, disciples, protocols, rituals, …

Victimhood: the Way of the World….

RohiniPower and Hate, Reflections, Uncategorized

This is going to be the final blog in this series. I want to address something that is going to be uncomfortable for many readers: attachment to victimhood. This subject can be raw, and it can trip a wire that may bother people who have not faced that attachment in themselves. It is crucial to recognize that I am using …

Drawing Out the Poison….

RohiniPower and Hate, Reflections, Uncategorized

Hate is so mundane. Last week, I wrote that in order to hate we have to maintain the small self, and in order to maintain the small self we have to hate. Everyone has hate; everyone uses it and everyone is motivated by it. This hate is the first and most important distortion of Love. Everything we do comes from …