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Leading a Spiritual Life. Self-Satisfaction. It’s a supplemental doc!. Please read the newsletter before conducting the study circle with this document. Purpose of Study Circle. Delve deeper into the meaning of self-satisfaction Learn how to experience self-satisfaction in everyday life
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Leading a Spiritual Life Self-Satisfaction
It’s a supplemental doc! Please read the newsletter before conducting the study circle with this document.
Purpose of Study Circle Delve deeper into the meaning of self-satisfaction Learn how to experience self-satisfaction in everyday life Understand the benefits and power of self-satisfaction and how it leads to the ultimate goal of self-realization
Opening meditation Start by chanting 3 Oms. The facilitator leads the below or Swami’s light meditation: Close your eyes. Visualize Swami sitting in the middle of the circle. Now visualize a connection between your heart and Swami’s heart in whatever form that comes naturally to you. It could be in the form of a golden thread, or a beam of light, etc. Ask Swami to send His unconditional love through that connection to you. Feel the strong powerful energy enter your heart from Him. Now visualize the same connection between Swami and everyone present in the room. Visualize everyone connected to Swami like spokes of a wheel connected to the center. Thank Swami for His love and guidance. Bonus- A special guided mediation exercise (check www.saiyausa.net) which will gives us a chance to further explore our heart to heart connection with Swami, giving us the opportunity to understand and feel Swami’s unlimited pure, divine and unconditional love.
Digging Deeper:What is Self Satisfaction? • When you hear the term self-satisfaction, what terms do you associate it with? • The moderator may choose to write the answers on a poster or a sheet of paper so others can see.
Digging Deeper:What is Self Satisfaction? • Self-satisfaction may be considered as a state of happiness but what type of happiness does it connote? • Does it refer to the happiness one acquires after eating a sumptuous meal after being tired and hungry? • Is it the relief a thirsty person attains after drinking a cup of cool water? • Are any of these relevant examples to what Bhagawan Baba refers to as Self-Satisfaction?
Digging Deeper:What is Self Satisfaction? • Is self-satisfaction attained when we achieve a goal? • Can we say that an athlete attaining a gold medal after years of toil or a young, devout college graduate landing a respectable job, home and car have attained self-satisfaction as Bhagawan Baba describes it? • Does gratification of any need, be it physical, emotional, philosophical or spiritual, lead to self-satisfaction?
Digging Deeper:What is Self Satisfaction? As we ponder along those lines let us consider another connotation of self-satisfaction, namely contentment. Does being content necessarily imply that we are self-satisfied as Bhagawan Baba wants us to be?
Case Study 1 • Mr. X and Mr. Y are good friends and work in the same office. Both of them are honest and efficient employees. While both of them put in the same effort, Mr. X gets all the recognition and the benefits for his work while Mr. Y is one among the crowd. Despite this, Mr. Y is happy and continues to do his job without focusing on the accolades he too, rightfully deserves. • Question 1: Can we then say that Mr. Y has attained Self-Satisfaction as Bhagawan Baba describes it? • Question 2: Could you act as humble as Mr. Y did? Has a situation like this ever happened to you?
Self-Confidence Leading to Self-Satisfaction Revisit the discussion on Self-Confidence. How does Self-Confidence lead to Self-Satisfaction? At times when our decisions that result may make us look illogical to the world, how can Self-Confidence that Swami is guiding us help? Can you name an experience when this has happened? How did your self confidence in your conscience lead to your self- satisfaction?
Activity Analyze each of the following scenarios using your understanding of self-satisfaction thus far and the 5 attributes that encompass it.
Independent Study: Prema Vahini • Refer to Newsletter Document: Read Chapters 8-16, answer the multiple choice questions, and perform the activity in the newsletter document • The answers to the multiple choice questions are as follows: 1. C 2. D 3. A 4. A 5. B 6. C 7. D 8. D 9. A 10. C
Independent Study: Prema Vahini • The answers to the True/False questions are as follows: 11. True ; To serve this supreme Lord, purity of food has to be observed. As regards food, the question is not how much, but of what quality. Of course, quantity too cannot be overlooked. 12. False ; In everything that you do, use all the strength and talent with which you are endowed, speaking and acting truthfully. At first, you might fail in this and you might encounter difficulties and sufferings. 13. True ;The effulgence of the Atma is obscured by Ahamkaara. Therefore when Ahamkaara is destroyed, all troubles end, all discontents vanish and Bliss is attained. As the sun is obscured by mist, feeling of Ahamkaara hides Eternal Bliss. 14. False ; The value of image worship is testified by man’s experience, it does not depend on man’s imaginative faculty. What is found in the Viraat Swaroopa (Cosmic Form) of the Lord is found, undiminished and unalloyed, in the image Swaroopa (Form) also. Images serve the same purpose as metaphors, similes, etc. in poetry. They illustrate, amplify and make clear. 15. False ; God has equal affection towards all his children, for to illumine is the nature of light. Utilizing that illumination, some can read good books and others can do their daily tasks, whatever they are. So too, uttering God’s name, one can progress in the realization of God, another can even do wicked deeds!
