Two Times A Day

Satsang (Discourse) given by Maitreya on, "The Reminder, Why Repeat the Verses in The Reminder Three Times and Twice Each Day?"

07/03/1988 Satsang (Discourse) with

Maitreya

Maitreya: Good evening. There were some questions that we discussed the other day. Would you repeat the question again and see what will be the answer?

Question: Maitreya, would you please expound on why we say the Reminder three times and do that twice each day?

Maitreya: Some questions have to be spontaneously asked and answered right away. Some other questions come to us, someone brings them up in the community and everyone meditates on them for awhile, and then they are answered. This is one of those that came up a few days ago. So, we had an opportunity to meditate on that more and go to a deeper level to know, why we do the Reminder many times, and twice a day is the least recommended. We can do more times.

So the very basis for doing the Reminder is to bring the mind from the worldly energy toward Godly or spiritual energy. The very reason for giving this practice is to bring the attention or energy from worldliness to a spiritual focus.

Mind has a tendency to chatter, to keep us busy and make us think about mundane matters. If we're not directing our energy toward God or toward higher energy, mind becomes dirty, very fast. Like it says in THOTH, if we don't take a shower every couple of days, we will be very dirty and uncomfortable. If the body becomes dirty in a few days, mind is even more sensitive than body, so it becomes dirty even faster than the body. So if we try to take a shower at least once a day, we have to clear the mind more than once a day.

So that's why we recommend to do the Reminder twice a day or more. Doing the Reminder, kirtan, chanting, dancing and meditating -- all these are for purifying the spirit, the mind, and bringing the attention from the world to the Spirit.

Worldly activities make us very confused and we become very attached to the world, to its temptations, to it's offerings. If we do not keep our attention refocused back to the Spirit all the time, after awhile we completely lose touch, and the appearance of the world becomes reality to us. We will think that, that is all there is for us. Because that is all there is, our successes makes us ecstatic and our disappointments make us unhappy, confused and resentful.

We just heard about the lady who committed suicide in Colorado. The reason was, she lost her baby and she lost her husband. She didn't realize that all that was given to her was from God. God giveth and God taketh. It's a lesson to us to see how attached we can become to the world.

Just like God gave Isaac to Abraham and then told him to go and sacrifice him, for Me. He gave Isaac to him and now He wanted him back. Abraham is supposed to be a very high Soul, in the realm compared with others. He was the friend of God. With all his highness, still he had a hard time to accomplish the Will of God. Eventually, because his focus was always on God, he realized, "Isaac's not mine." God gives and God takes.

So being in a spiritual realm changes our view of the world. It makes us look at the world, not as absolute reality, something that is ultimate, as there is no answer besides worldly answers. If things are not happening the way I thought they are going to happen, then that is the end of life. So there is nothing left for me. If this lady had the knowledge, had the focus on God, she would have realized, God is going to open another door for her. "No, this is not the end of it." She would not have committed that act.

That's why these exercises are given. We realize that it is important to take time off, to direct our energy from the world, and focus our attention on God. As we do that more often, we realize more and more that really the most important part of us is our Spirit, which is one with God, which is one with the universe. And if we want to know the answers, the answers are already there.

Who is the best counsel in the universe? God. And where is He? He's within us. If I want a consultation, I can go within myself and consult with my spirit which is one with the Universal Spirit. Then I won't be confused, because my mind will be expanded and I can see things according to the Universal Mind. I will be free of all these ups and downs in life and unhappiness that comes to humanity.

That's why all these exercises are recommended. Recommended, of course, means, I recommend, yet these exercises have come from God.

What I recommend He commands! They have a spiritual effect when you perform them. They bring a different energy to the person who performs them. It is not the regular energy of the person. They are given with the Spirit so they affect the Spirit, they invoke the Spirit. That's what they call in the East, mantra. Mantra means spiritual energy which has been meditated on and crystallized into the words to invoke people to a higher Spirit.

If you look at the Reminder you see that it has seven verses. Each verse affects one level of the consciousness of humanity. When we begin doing the Reminder we have been in the world, we have been in mundanity. We have been in the process of doing things or going somewhere.

We really have to take that energy out of ourselves, to pull ourselves back out of the world and take some time out to do the Reminder. That's the first step. After we accomplish that and we have enough willpower, or enough Love of God, or enough desire to do that, the first thing we do is, "We pay our salutations to the Divine Father."

We were in mundanity and we're coming back to God. So in order to come out of mundanity, the first thing to really take us completely out of mundanity and bring us to God is, "We pay our salutations to the Divine Father." This just completely brings our focus to God, the Father.

Divine Logic (Father) is the logic which created the logical universe. Logic is consciousness. Because God is in Pure Consciousness, He is Pure Logic. Father is Pure Logic. So that is why we refer to Him as He who is helping all to reach Pure Consciousness.

"Ignorance is the state of unawareness of the reality behind this universe and enlightenment is the state of Pure Consciousness." So the very beginning of the Reminder reminds us of, Who is the Father? He is the Pure Logic, the Divine Logic of the universe. He's the male energy of the universe, that's why we call Him Father. He also is the Being that helped the whole universe come from the unconscious mind, or ignorance, to the path of Pure Consciousness.

Then, "We open our hearts to Your Grace", Mother in Her highest form is the Grace, the Divine Mother. The Mother is the creative force in the universe, the creator of the universe. Without the Mother nothing could have been created. She is the three gunas. She is the three creative forces. Also, if the first verse awakens us from our mundanity, which is the first chakra, the second invokes the second, the energy of fertility, motherhood. So the second chakra is related to fertility, motherhood, procreation, etc. So that is why the second verse relates to motherhood, the Mother.

And we open ourselves to The Grace, which is The Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the only way to salvation. We need the understanding of the Mother with the true realization of how She works in the universe. If we had mostly logic, we wouldn't reach far with the logic alone. We need that Grace to take us from mundanity -- the Mother Love which protects the child and makes him grow up and become a man -- to adulthood, to become a productive and very wonderful member of society or the universe.

It is His guidance in the universe that makes us reach Pure Consciousness. So "We open our hearts to Your Grace," for our salvation and pray for Her Guidance, which guides us to Pure Consciousness. Some people say, If you have a good diet, meditate a lot, are in the solitude and not in the world, go to the mountains, you will realize and reach Pure Consciousness. Yet how many people in those cultures who do those things, reach Pure Consciousness? Very few of them.

If the Grace is with you, with that Grace you can reach Pure Consciousness in the middle of the most mundane environment. That's why it's so important to know what Grace is. To realize Grace is to realize the path to salvation. That's why eventually they came to this conclusion that the Grace of the guru is really the most important thing for reaching Pure Consciousness, because only with His Grace is it possible to know God. Without His Grace you will be completely confused.

That is exactly what the Reminder says, "We open our hearts to Your Grace and pray for Your Guidance in overcoming the power of the tama guna over our Souls." That is the only way, not by diet, not by growing a beard, or shaving your head, or wearing special clothes -- not by appearances. Appearances are OK, like everything else, they have their own place but eventually it's the Grace that brings humanity to Pure Consciousness.

Eventually we come to the third energy center, which is the center of power and control. That is when we have to humble ourselves and bring our heads down and say, "We adore and promise to endeavor to help the whole universe to reach higher consciousness." Now, we've reached the point where we can help or hinder others. That is the power of this center. If you fall in that level, you misuse your power and affect other people's progress, or try to control them.

This is the point where you also can help. I know the Divine Logic, I know the Grace of the Mother which is the way of salvation. Now I can help. I can become a channel for God, you see. All of us are like antennas. We can reach the higher energies and transmit them to other people, in the universe, to earth, etc. Or we can pick up mundanity and broadcast that. The more we are intoned to God, the more we can broadcast Him.

Now "We adore and promise to endeavor to help the WHOLE universe to reach higher consciousness." We expand our minds and go beyond attachments to gain powers, or glory, or material things for ourselves but our goal is to "help the whole universe to reach higher consciousness." We know the Father (Pure Consciousness) and the Mother (the way to salvation). These two are what the universe is made of. So we are no longer attached to a small part of God (universe) but the whole.

That is when we reach the fourth realization center: the Love center where we realize how incredible God is. That will make us humble, and how great are those Souls who have realized Him. That's when we go down to our knees, bow our heads and say, "In reverence we bow our heads in front of all those Great Souls, in the past and those to come..." See, it's kind of humbling ourselves. We realize those Great Souls have to be revered. These Souls who have not only been in the past, are here, and they're going to be here again and again to guide humanity to higher consciousness.

However, being attached to any of them will hinder you, will stop your progress. The moment you say, "I found it, you lost it." God is the universe. God is the whole universe and beyond, and you can realize Him again, and again, and again in so many different ways and still there is more to realize about Him. So the moment you say, This is the only way, what you are saying is: I'm going to put God in this bottle and that is what I'm going to realize about Him -- this is what God is. The moment you did that, you lost the joy of knowing Him more, progressing with Him, and realizing Him more.

So that's why, "In reverence we bow our heads" not only to the Great Souls in the past, but the Great Souls who are here and the ones to come. You know them, as these Great Souls always glorify Father. They don't glorify themselves. They are Glorified not because of themselves but because of the energy they represent on earth, the Spirit that they bring to the earth.

These Great Souls always talk about the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit within themselves, the Spirit which guided them. They don't talk about any physical god, which has shape or name. That's why it's called Father or Mother. Really, they don't have any name. It's said as a symbol because it's impossible to say, This thing which is called God, we call Him Father or God. In Essence He's a Spirit. That's why whatever has a shape or a name, is not God, it's not It. They are still a part of God, yet they are not the Essence. The Essence doesn't have any shape -- It's Formless, Invisible, Nameless and Eternal -- It's FINE.

So after we have humbled ourselves and we have reached this point of complete love and humility for the Great Souls, which are one with God, then we reach the fifth level which is submission and surrendering. That's why, "We surrender ourselves to You, the words revealed to us through Your Prophets and Your Greatest Sign which clarifies the confusion between all."

Now it's the realization that, all these Great Souls, and the words revealed through them, are really from God Himself, especially the seven great truths which are presented in The Greatest Sign and were released over the last 12,000 years. These words have created a lot of confusion on earth, because we keep each of them separate and say, This is my Prophet, this is my Savior, this is my teacher. That creates confusion and separation and that is where The Greatest Sign shines. It says, There's no confusion. All of them have come from God and each of them has a special message for humanity. When you put them together you see the greater picture, the whole truth, and the whole is greater than the parts.

Now Unity has come to humanity and all the religions of the world. That's why, not only do "We surrender only to You, the words revealed to us through Your Prophets," which brings the truth and the message, but also, "Your Greatest Sign." We do not surrender to The Greatest Sign as a picture or visual aid, but what it represents, the Spirit behind it, "which clarifies the confusion between all."

Even after surrendering we realize that there's a greater part which is the sixth level. In that level we are One with the Spirit. We and God are One. That is when complete submission comes. "We submit only to you which is Formless, Nameless and Invisible..."

Eventually a realization has come. There's no form left -- Formless, Nameless and Invisible. Also, if everyone realized God is Formless, Nameless and Invisible and became one with It, we could completely overcome all these concepts about my Gurus, my teachers, my Savior, my Prophet, my hierarchy, my anything that separates us from one another, and become One right away.

The moment we realize that, the unity is complete between us. We're not going to argue whose teacher is better, or whose hierarchy is higher, or who in the hierarchy is higher and who in the hierarchy is lower, or was Esa (Jesus) the minor disciple or the higher disciple? Who cares? What he said was important, which was the Spirit of the Father through him.

He wasn't overshadowed by anyone. He was overshadowed with the Father Himself. If we realize that, then these arguments no longer exist. Let's just forget about these and get on with the work and create the Communities of Light instead of sitting, wasting our time and energy in being confused about all of these trivialities.

That is the only state that unifies humanity. "In any other state, humanity will be divided." And we are, because many are in other states. They have gods in heaven, on earth and under earth. God said, you should not have any god beside Me, the Formless, Invisible, Nameless and Eternal (FINE). That's one of His Ten Commandments.

Now that we are in that state, there's nothing left. We are One with God. It is the highest state we have reached in the body. And "Also, this will prevent us from surrendering to false prophets and teachers." We have a measurement a yardstick now. Is this person talking about the Spirit, Formless, Nameless, Invisible and Eternal? Or is he talking about other things that create more confusion between us, create more separation between us? If he talks about anything else but FINE, then he is a false teacher. That is not from the Spirit. That's from ego. That's from something that, Oh, if my teacher is better than your teacher, then I am better than you. There is no such thing as better. We are all from One Spirit, from One God. We're in different levels of consciousness, but that's the only thing that distinguishes us as higher or lower.

When we reach there, "In reverence we bow our heads in front of all those Great Souls who will teach us how to know You and show us the way to become Pure Consciousness." Again, this is invoking the Grace of the teacher, that brings salvation to humanity. And that is the goal to reach, to reach a state of Oneness with the Spirit and realize that, that's the only thing that unifies and brings unity to humanity.

The question is Why do we say it three times? Isn't one time enough? No it's not. As I said, we're coming from mundanity and trying to do the Reminder. The first time we do it, we come to it with excitement -- Oh, let's do the Reminder. The spirit of worldliness is still with us. When first we do it, it's just the words, we are still in mundanity. We're not really hearing what we're saying. We're just saying it, and the mind starts wandering here and there. The second time we say it, it goes deeper. And the third time it completely surrounds the person, and the person starts hearing himself or herself, and if he's sincere, he will see the real meaning of the Reminder and its effect.

Actually it's very good to say the Reminder as slowly as possible, especially if you're doing it alone. Meditate and contemplate every word that you're saying. What do they mean? What do they represent? As you continue saying them more and more, and meditate, the more you say it, the more you understand the meaning of it and the Spirit behind it.

As I said, it carries an energy different than your regular energy. The more you say it, the more this energy becomes anchored into you, and the more of this energy that is anchored into you, the more you like to say it, because you like that energy. That energy is freeing. That energy brings higher consciousness. That energy brings greater realization to you.

So actually, the more you say it, the better. Yet because we have to be in mundanity also, we can't say it 24 hours a day and every minute, unless we say it in the Silence of our hearts. So that's why it's recommended to do it at least twice a day, saying the verses three times. If you can do it three times a day, at least three times, that's much better. If you cannot do it three times, at least do it two times.

I guess, we can explain it over and over, and there is usually much more than is said in any Satsang. I'm sure the topic is going to come up again, and we're going to explain it differently and/or in more detail. In general It is an energy, It's a mantra, It's a Reminder that explains the purpose of the Mission. It explains The Greatest Sign. It explains the goal of life.

It's a reminder, it reminds you again and again of what we stand for and what we have brought to humanity. And because it has come from Spirit, it will eventually affect your spirit. The more you say it, the better.