Sept 15 2025

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Detailed Notes

RAW from Last Week: Find a quiet moment sometime this week and reflect on who you were before you started attending satsanga. Write a word describing who you were then, and one word describing who you are now. 

It’s only with clarity that we know how to move in the appropriate direction. If we don’t know the first step, we don’t know there’s stairs to take us to the goal. After attending satsanga, Sumanji was able to connect with his guides and maps to guide him to peace. Sometimes change isn’t loud or dramatic – it is quiet!  Just the fact that you can look back and notice a difference indicates that you are truly growing!  Even if your “now” word is messy, it is ok — It is important that you are turning towards peace! Your “then” and “now” are not different people, they are the same with you just unfolding!

Review of Chaupai 10 – 22 — overarching theme is how to think = how to act 

C10: Exert/Transform

• The higher the purpose of your work, the greater your transformation 
• Invest in yourself, exert for peace and transform/evolve!
  • Exert for more than pleasure, possession, and position 
• Rising to meet our responsibilities is the way that we can evolve 
• In our own lives, when we’ve done our best and worked hard, we feel so light
  • Act well – with the right intention and attitude

C11: Effort 

• Live and act with intention = all that you do will lead to independent joy 
• Shri Rama embraced Hanumanji once he brought the herb to treat Lakshmana 
• Offer your effort (like Hanumanji did with getting the Sanjivani) – the truest form of prayer is through effort 
• We know that we are offering effort if we feel lighter
  • Lightness is measured by how much we laugh each day

C12: 

• Your efforts and sacrifice on the spiritual journey are never lost 
• In whatever way we sacrifice for the sake of peace, it never goes unnoticed 
• All that matters is sincere sacrifice; divinity does not care for who you were, divinity only cares for who you are striving to be 
• Take one step towards divinity, and divinity will come running 

C13: Identify 

• Seek the lowest common denominator (pursuit of happiness) of all beings
• When others are being praised, we feel jealous/inadequate
  • Reconcile jealousy with AAA
    • Acknowledge → acknowledge the presence of jealousy  
    • Analyze → ask oneself if this feeling is worth holding on to 
    • Appreciate → appreciate the greatness is another; strive to invoke our own greatness 
• It is our ego that separates
• From this feeling of separation is fear and sorrow 

C14 & 15: 

• Know who loves you the most and then love who loves you the most 
• If such great personalities cannot describe Shri Hanumana, why worship them? Why worship anything/anyone less than the best? 
• We often worship for pleasure, possession, and position – the finite 
• We should worship the infinite, which can give us the infinite!
• Know that you are being looked at, and looked after 
• Know that you are loved, and love the one that loves you the most – the infinite

C16: Follow & Sincerity 

• Follow through on the advice that you are given and the advice that you give
• All of us are inevitably headed in the same direction, our choice is to actively follow this 
• Once we follow what our guides and shastras share, we will get to know the highest 
• Karma Yoga – focus on the work, NOT the outcome
  • The work itself should be our joy! 

C17: Guide & Encourage

• Encourage yourself to follow through on choosing peace 
• Vibhishana followed your advice Shri Hanumana, and he became the king 
• “Mantra” – advice
  • That which when followed/reflected upon helps one cross over fear 
  • A mantra is a word or series of words that when reflected upon helps us navigate the challenges of life 
• Hanumanji reassured Vibhishana that Shri Rama does not care who you were; he cares about who you want to be! 
• When we choose peace (Shri Rama) over prosperity, both peace and prosperity happen (but not vice versa)

C18: 

• Your entire life, you have proven yourself wrong. All the things that you thought you couldn’t do, you have! 
• Shri Hanumana is our intellect reaching for the sun (representing knowledge)
• Indra represents the mind, which is always cutting down the intellect as it strives for knowledge
• “Yata drishti, tata shrishti” – So your vision, so your world
  • Embrace the higher vision of your intellect, and see how your life transforms! 

C19: Faith & Fearless 

• Have more faith! 
• It’s only with faith that we can leap (like Hanumanji did too Lanka) into divinity’s arms
• The vanaras symbolize our thoughts 
• The few vanaras that went south were vichara (self-inquiry)
• Hanumanji represents the focused seeker – the one who finds what he is truly seeking 
• Bhagvan Shri Rama knew Hanumanji’s potential
• Jambhavan also believed in Hanumanji’s strength and purpose 
• We too grow when we believe in our guru, often before we believe in ourself

C20: Trust & Realize

• How to have more faith = to trust
  • To see how grace flows through every moment of our lives 
  • Our life has been custom-designed to lead us to divinity 
• 4 types of grace:
  • Grace of god 
  • Grace of scriptures
  • Grace of our teachers/guides
  • Our own grace (the most important, since it motivates us to develop)
• Trust the trajectory 

C21:

• With trust and faith as your wings, surrender! 
• Reflect on why what you are doing is important, this will allow you to feel that all that you are doing is important 
• Do your best!

C22: Lead/Develop

• Take ownership of your growth, be serious about happiness! 
• By surrendering to Hanumanji and Shri Rama through our best effort, the best in ourselves is brought out 

RAW for this week: At least once this week, when your mind says “I can’t” and “I’m not ready”, pause and write it down. Then, intentionally, do one small action that disproves that doubt.