today i discovered - experienced- what meditation is

meditation is making love with God

A few days ago, while browsing the shelves of a closing-down sale at a second-hand bookshop, I stumbled across a copy of Geraldine Brooks’ novel, Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (2001). On a whim I decided to buy it, not knowing quite what to expect.

Very quickly, the engaging narrative brought me under its spell. It weaves a fiction based on the real experiences of the Peak District ‘plague village’ of Eyam, which, in an act of self-sacrifice, voluntarily quarantined itself when it became infected with the Great Plague in 1666.

The story is told from the point of view of a seemingly common young woman, Anna Frith, who works as a housemaid to the visionary rector and his wife. However, as the tale unfolds, this young woman, amidst the great loss and suffering brought by the disease, undergoes a startling transformation. Read more…

“The Cosmic Entity alone is infinite and eternal. It alone is limitless. And the eternal longing of human beings for happiness can only be satiated by realisation of the Infinite.

The ephemeral nature of worldly possessions, power and position can only lead one to the conclusion that none of the things of the finite and limited world can set at rest the everlasting urge for happiness. Their acquisition merely gives rise to further longing. Only realisation of the Infinite can do it.

The Infinite can be only one, and that is the Cosmic Entity. Hence it is only the Cosmic Entity that can provide everlasting happiness — the quest for which is the characteristic of every human being.

In reality, behind this human urge is hidden the desire, the longing, for attainment of the Cosmic Entity. It is the very nature of every living being. This alone is the dharma [the fundamental nature] of every person.”

- Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, in ‘Ananda Marga: Elementary Philosophy‘

“So many scriptures say so many things, and they are sometimes contradictory to one another. Now what to do? What is an ordinary man to do? Whom to follow and whom not to follow?

There are so many social codes in the world. And amongst intellectuals there are so many diversities of opinion. One intellectual doesn’t express, doesn’t recommend, doesn’t support, the views of others. And it is the greatest weakness of intellectuals that they always encourage disunity. They always support heterogeneity.

Then where lies the secret of Dharma [the innate nature of humanity]? ‘Dharma’ means ’spirituality’ - not ’spiritualism’, but spirituality’.

Now the Supreme Entity [the One Infinite Consciousness], the Controlling Entity, the final stance of Dharma, lies covert within one’s own ‘I’ feeling. That is, you are to search internally and not externally.

Everything is within you, because the Supreme always remains with you, within the very core of your heart. So search within, O spiritual aspirant, not without, but within - within your very existence.

Your only object of ideation is the Supreme, and not any dogma, not any scripture.”

- Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, 13 May 1979, Fiesch, Switzerland

Thank You,
You have shown me
The way to the well.
Where I can drink
When my mouth is dry.
Where I can bathe
When my skin is sullied.
Where I can be refreshed
When my eyes are weary.

The way to the well
Is strewn with stones.

The way to the well
Is the way home.