Need for Refuge in View of False Freedom of Man:

• There is one Being, who is the controller of the whole world; He regulates the sun, moon, stars, planets, all the atoms and molecules in this world to go about their respective tasks.


• Nobody is independent, everyone is a doll in God’s play, and one has to dance to His tune.


• We are not free – this is indeed true! Man is not independent; karmas performed over several births regulate him.


• People who wish to stand on their own feet and become great have to court disaster at every step. But those who take refuge with God become servants and work like instruments. God always protects them.


• All sadhana, yoga, worship and sacrifices are meant to firmly realize that we enjoy no free will/ independence. As soon as this knowledge is obtained, the bondage of karmas tears away and one becomes truly free. One enjoys everlasting bliss.


• Everyone is bound (by past karmas), there is nothing anybody can do, ‘I will do this–I won’t do this’, ‘it is better if I do this’ – all these are misappropriations of the mind. In reality whatever is to happen has already been determined.
  

Refuge / Sharanagati (Surrender):

• We are not without support, we have a Being, kin to protect us, and there is nothing to worry. We have come into this world with scores of karmas; we will have to reap their fruits. There is no alternative than repeating ‘Ram’, ‘Ram’ and experiencing it all.


• ‘Sharanaagatoham – I am taking refuge with you’. This is the mantra you must keep repeating.


• ‘I have taken refuge in Thee,’ always remember this mahamantra; with this you will reach the region of divine light, sound and joy. My dear! There is an ocean of delight right inside your heart. Dive deep into it with Nama in your lips. The kingdom of peace is near at hand.


• There seems to be no way other than the prapattimarg —the way of surrender, the way of taking refuge in God. My Lord is like a father, affectionate to His devotees. If any one takes refuge with Him once saying, ‘I am yours,’ no matter what kind of person he is, Lord makes him fearless.


• ‘God is the real doer in this world; we are His servants. Whatever we may do, may it be for His pleasure; let us not undertake any work that will displease God’– those who perform their actions with this sentiment succeed in gaining eternal bliss on earth.


• In the beginning there is this pride: ‘I will perform spiritual practices and attain God.’ Nobody in this world has the power to lay hold of Him through spiritual practice. It’s only when one leaves the entire burden on Him saying, ‘Now I am powerless, I can’t do it’ that He comes within one’s hold.


• Thakur (God) is the wealth of the destitute. As long as you call things your own, Thakur (God) keeps away from you. The moment sense of mine (ownership) completely ends, that very moment Thakur (God) holds you close to his heart.


• The only object of a devotees’ desire is God. A devotee should take exclusive refuge with God and undertake practices to realize Him. Make sure no other wish in any form finds a place in the heart. “I have taken shelter with you” –never swerve from this mantra.


• Those who are under my protection, why should they look at sense gratification? My devotees cannot be insects in the excrement of sense-gratification.


• Renounce worthless concerns and just repeat ‘Guru’- ‘Guru’ while standing and sitting, eating and lying down, keep repeating “Sharanaagatoham –I am taking refuge with you,” thereafter what transpires in your favour will be beyond your grasp.


• How can a human being given to the slavery of the stomach and generative organ achieve the welfare of the world of embodied beings? You have come to do well to serve this world and to contribute to its welfare. Unless you attain to the state of a jivanmukta , you won’t be able to good in this world.


• What appeals to my mind is sense of servitude. It is better to pray ‘grant me devotion’ than to pray to Him saying ‘liberate me from poverty.’ Once you get devotion, there cannot be dearth of anything.


• An axe chops a tree, but in reality, the One who chops it is responsible. The axe is merely an instrument.

Seek Refuge in God:

• What is the nature of force of attraction between the devotee and the Lord? Even as a servant loves a master, affectionate mother loves her son, a woman devoted to her husband loves her husband, the Lord is also attracted in the same manner; because, only in these states of emotional transcendence, the body and the senses are absent; what exists is unbounded and infinite love.


• He who has been arranging the food for the baby in the mother’s womb (even before it is born) for so long, why do you lose faith in that God and become anxious? Don’t you do any japa or other forms of devotion? If you did, such useless anxiety wouldn’t touch you.


• Submit your mind to Shastra Bhagawan with exclusive devotion; He who nourishes the whole world will look after you. You won’t need to worry about your food and clothing; you won’t have to worry at all.


• There is water in Ganges, the trees bear fruit, the earth offers a resting place, there is the cushion of the present; even today alms are offered to a beggar– why do you worry? Your worries are about desires; set them on fire– let them burn off! If you don’t set them on fire, you will have to keep on crying.

Worldly Emotions are the Beginning:

• If there were no earthly pleasure in this world (pleasure from the objects of the senses), human being wouldn’t have realized what the supremely divine happiness is– it would have been impossible for him to even imagine it. Sense pleasures therefore bring the delightful news of the divine joy.


• He gives you the vision in a material form first, thereafter brahma-jnana rises.

Play with God:

• Forget the rest! Just think of playing with God. In the same way as you are pleased while eating, dressing up and sleeping, with the same sentiment live and sport with God, making offerings.

Love:

• One understands immortal love through mortal love. It is only because there is worldly pleasure that the human being seeks supreme bliss and happiness.


• As long as love is tainted with desire, it is worldly love – that love is productive of sorrow; when love becomes desireless, from then on, the natural love actually springs. This is the love that brings immortality!


• Genuine love is desireless. It does not expect anything in return.


• It’s possible to stay close to the heart while staying away from the body. The Gopis did not gain Krishna in the union; they found Him in separation.

Ashru (Tears):

• Tears are one of the principal offerings in the worship of God.