A Man of God

Continuing our study of the 2019 Blue Mountain Journal Gandhi & Nonviolence: Love in Action, Transforming Anger, this week we will read the second half of Easwaran’s article “Gandhi's Message,” on pages 17–30. In the article Easwaran says, “Translating the Gita into character, conduct, and consciousness was precisely what Gandhi was doing in South Africa. He knew it by heart, knew it in his heart, studied it over and over every day, used it in prayer until it became a living presence.”

• What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

• Continue your effort to imitate Easwaran’s evening routine by turning off other media, reading from Easwaran for a few minutes, and then going to bed repeating the mantram.

As a spiritual bonus this week, we are pleased to share an excerpt from an Easwaran video about Gandhi. Note that the full video is 31 minutes, but the excerpt ends at 8:30 and the player should stop automatically at that time. We’ll share the next segment of this video in an upcoming week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

Gandhi's Message

This week we will begin studying a 2019 special issue of the Blue Mountain Journal celebrating the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birthday. The editors introduce the issue by highlighting Easwaran’s unique message on the significance of Gandhi’s example: “that anger can be transformed into irresistible compassion, and that even ordinary people like us, through the practice of meditation, can make ourselves instruments of peace whose influence can spread to everyone around us.”

Here is the journal, Gandhi & Nonviolence: Love in Action, Transforming Anger. Let’s focus on the first half of Easwaran’s article, “Gandhi's Message,” on pages 5–7.

• What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!

• We have been reflecting together on Spiritual Reading the past few months, which has been very fruitful. Now let’s look for ways to extend our practice of Spiritual Reading as part of our evening routine.

  • In his book Passage Meditation, Easwaran writes, “I have found spiritual reading especially beneficial after evening meditation. When I have finished, I go to bed and repeat the mantram until I have fallen asleep in it. The reason for this sequence is simple: what we put into consciousness in the evening goes with us into sleep.”

  • This week, try imitating Easwaran’s evening routine by turning off other media, reading one of his books for a few minutes, and then going to bed repeating the mantram.

  • On the days you are able to follow this routine, what benefits do you find?

For an additional spiritual treat, we hope you enjoy this recording of Easwaran reading the passage “The Path” from Mahatma Gandhi.

Passage Audio

The Holy Name

For the final week of our study of The Constant Companion we will read the names Guru, and Mantram, pages 351–358. Systematically reading a whole volume from Easwaran is a great habit to practice together. As we complete our book study, let’s appreciate our accomplishment and reflect on how we’ve grown.

Commenting on the name Mantram, Easwaran tell us:

“These are not mere names. They are marvelous concepts which throw light on how to live: long, healthy, secure, joyful lives, not in seclusion but in a world full of problems. When you reflect on these thousand names of the Lord of Love, who is enshrined in the depths of our consciousness, try to apply them in all your activities. Then each Holy Name can help to improve the quality of your daily life.”

May we each make use of every opportunity to repeat the mantram!

• Which lines particularly strike you, and how can you apply them to your life this week?

• Throughout this book study, we have given special effort to our practice of Spiritual Reading. What is one positive effect you have noticed from this work?

Next week we’ll begin studying an issue of the Blue Mountain Journal on Gandhi's nonviolence. We’ll include a link to the journal, so you don’t need to prepare any materials.

Desire

“Our real desire in life, as the Bible puts it, is to love the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, all our spirit, and all our strength. The human being’s infinite capacity to desire can never be fulfilled by anything less.” – Eknath Easwaran

Kama, selfish desire, looms large in our reading this week, pages 342–350 in The Constant Companion.* But by now we are familiar with the paradox: the lord is both Kama, Desire, and Kamaghna, Destroyer of Selfish Craving.

In this reading Easwaran provides many practical tips for freeing ourselves from compulsive cravings. He also shares an extended quote from Saint Augustine that gives a taste of the joy beyond personal desire:

“…I breathe that fragrance which no wind scatters, and eat the food which is not lessened by eating, and lie in the embrace which satiety never comes to sunder. This it is that I love when I love my God.”

• What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!

• We have recently been reflecting on our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how your spiritual reading contributes to your role in the spiritual renaissance.

Next week we will finish our study of The Constant Companion, and afterwards the eSatsang will be reading an issue of the Blue Mountain Journal on Gandhi's nonviolence. Whereas recently we have been following the curriculum used in BMCM Satsang Live, going forward the curriculums won’t be paired – so you now have two pathways of enrichment and can use either or both as best fits your spiritual practice. We hope this will be a wonderful way for us to move forward together, and we look forward to continuing to study Easwaran with you!

Let’s close with a spiritual treat: here is an eight-minute video of Easwaran speaking on absorption in meditation. 

Video

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Knower of Reality through Destroyer of Selfish Craving. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Who Makes Reality Increase

The name Brahma-Vivardhana comes from the root vardh, which means to increase, to spread. “To live up to the ideal suggested by Brahmavivardhana, we have to spread love everywhere through our personal contact with people and creatures.” This is what it means to “make reality increase,” Easwaran explains. To spread reality – to spread Brahma – is to spread love.

This week’s reading, pages 331–341 in The Constant Companion,* is full of beautiful little examples of how to do that. Here is one we enjoyed:

“The other day, as we were driving over the creek on our way into town, I spotted a turtle having a snooze near the edge of the pavement. People may not see him there, I said to myself, and they might run over him by accident. So I asked the driver to stop while we picked him up and found a safer spot for his siesta.”

• Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to you about your relationship with animals.

Let’s turn again to The Thousand Names Talks** in the Easwaran Digital Library for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 9. The full talk is 41 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran comments on the Lord as that which cannot be grasped.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names The Supreme Godhead through Wisdom. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

** You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

The Highway of the Free

The Lord is “The Highway of the Free” – but what is freedom?

Commenting on that name of Vishnu in this week’s reading from The Constant Companion, pages 319–330,* Easwaran helps us understand our yearning for freedom:

“This is the freedom we are really looking for: not the freedom to do as we please whenever we please, but freedom from the limitations of self-centered conditioning that tie us down.”

Of course meditation is key to overcoming these limitations and travelling the Lord’s highway. “In meditation we work at loosening these knots and finally untying them altogether, and each one undone means a release of vital energy.”

• Read this article as if you and Easwaran are having a conversation. What advice does he give you, and how can you apply it this week?

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to a difficult situation in your life.

We’ll end with another spiritual treat: we hope you enjoy this recording of Christine Easwaran reading the passage “O Infinite Being!” from Swami Paramananda.

Passage Audio

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Destroyer of Evil through The Son of Man. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

The Tree of Life

Commenting on the name Vriksha, The Tree of Life, in our reading this week, pages 310–318 in The Constant Companion,* Easwaran suggests, “We might reconsider the practicality of an age-old view, held until a few centuries ago in cultures around the world: that the whole of nature is a life-supporting system worthy not just of respect but of worship.”

Interdependence is a biological fact of life, he notes. “Trees are an illustration that any child can understand. They give us oxygen, fuel, and the restorative solitude of great forests, which attract water and wildlife to replenish barren places; it seems natural to me to find them holy.”

We are inspired by this reverence for our mother earth, and look forward to hearing how it inspires you.

What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading via reflection. This week consider how these stories are speaking to a loving relationship in your life. 

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names The Tree of Life and All. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Kindness

Commenting on the name Kindness to start our reading this week, pages 300–309 in The Constant Companion, Easwaran gives us fascinating insights into his view of human nature:

“It is a very poor evaluation of human beings to think that impatience and violent reactions are part of human nature. We have to look to people like Mahatma Gandhi, kind under any provocation, to see what human nature is really like. Gandhi’s life showed over and over that even a violent person will respond if exposed to someone who, by being always kind, focuses consistently on the highest in our nature.”

We too are slowly gaining this ability to focus on the highest in those around us, he explains. As meditation deepens and the mantram begins to get established, you gradually build the strength “to take whatever life deals out without losing your humanity.”

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips does Easwaran offer in this reading that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.

• We’ve been giving special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week notice how reading Easwaran supports your relationships with difficult people in your life.

And to close, here is a spiritual entertainment treat from Easwaran. In this three-minute video he shows the importance of learning to train our attention.

Video

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Kindness through The Lawgiver. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Whom We Desire

“Ishta means your chosen spiritual ideal, the incarnation of God to whom you feel most deeply drawn,” Easwaran explains in this week’s reading, pages 292–299 in The Constant Companion.*

But he mentions, too, that “in my native language, Malayalam, ishta also means ‘friend,’” and a real friend not only supports us but will oppose us when we are causing trouble. In that context, it is not surprising that Easwaran takes the opportunity to share about Granny:

“My grandmother was a perfect friend. On the one hand she was very softhearted, but on the other hand, I have never seen anybody so tough in all my life. In fact, the two toughest people I have ever known are Granny and Gandhiji. She didn’t spare her toughness when she was dealing with me, either. She was usually very tender, but sometimes she was strict to the point of seeming harsh. It took many years to understand that this was an important part of her love for me.”

May we each draw inspiration from our reading this week to increase our devotion to the One whom we desire!

• Is there some tip from Easwaran in this reading that you tend to skim over because you have already heard it many times before? Try focusing on it this week.

• We are taking this book study as an opportunity to give special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. On the days you are able to do spiritual reading, what benefits do you find?

Let’s turn again to The Thousand Names Talks** in the Easwaran Digital Library for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 8. The full talk is 37 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran comments on the name The Sun. Describing the genius for dramatization in Hinduism, he explains why the personification of natural phenomena like the sun does not conflict with scientific advances – and shares a sweet little story about his grandmother’s devotion along the way.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Bearer of the Bow through Freedom. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

** You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

Joy

Easwaran continues with the theme of pleasure and pain as he comments on the names Sat and Asat, Reality and Unreality, in this week’s reading, pages 282–291 in The Constant Companion.* “Just as the experiences of the dreamer and daydreamer are not real,” he reminds us, “but only constructions imposed by the mind, so the pleasures and pain of this world have no reality apart from the mind.” The implications are revolutionary:

“When you reach a certain depth in meditation, you will look back upon some of the occasions when you felt a great deal of pain and see it as a kind of optical illusion. You will not see any reason for the pain, which means that there was no pain in the world outside. You did suffer then, just as in a bad dream, but now that you are awake at that level of consciousness, you can look on the same experience without any overlay of suffering.”

Pain and pleasure are not real, he explains; they come and go. Joy stays with you, increasing with the passage of time; it knows no end.

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?

• Spiritual Reading has been our focus for practice extension throughout this book study. How does reading Easwaran’s books helps you make your highest ideals a part of your daily life?

Finally, for bonus spiritual entertainment, here is Christine Easwaran reading Psalm 100, the passage “Worship the Lord in Gladness.”

Passage Audio

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Reality through Joy. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Who Brings Good from Suffering

Easwaran addresses pleasure and pain as he comments on the names of the Lord in our reading this week, pages 270–281 in The Constant Companion.* Speaking to the short-lived pleasure of dreams, he acknowledges the legitimate function dreams serve and then offers us a clear message:

“My advice, however, is to forget your dreams – don’t dwell on them – and never dwell on daydreams or fantasies of what might be. When you do, you are teaching your mind to live in a dream world, where it can cling to private pleasures and retreat from anything unpleasant.”

He explains that this tendency to separate what we like and what we don’t like into “two different departments” prevents us from growing. And as we practice bearing what we dislike cheerfully, we discover they are not separate departments after all. “If it benefits others, we can actually learn to enjoy it. Then a good deal that was bitter in life becomes sweet.”

• Identify something in your life that you find confusing at this time, and where you wish you could ask Easwaran for his tips. See what he has to say in our readings. How can you apply his words to your situation?

• Throughout this book study, we’ve been giving special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. What do you find most helpful or nourishing about the ways you practice Spiritual Reading?

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Child of the Infinite through Whose Thoughts Are True. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Full of Glory

Commenting on the name Bhagavan – which “is used much the way we use ‘Lord’ in English” – Easwaran describes “six bhagas or splendors” which are possessed by a divine incarnation. Each of these splendors is instructive, and Easwaran notes that among them “the fifth quality may be surprising: beauty.”

“The Lord is infinitely beautiful, with a beauty that is not diminished by time. Physical beauty cloys with familiarity, but the inner beauty which shows itself in the capacity to give and to cherish grows with the passage of time. It transcends the senses, transcends even mind and intellect.”

Easwaran notes that while we cannot achieve the perfection of one who is bhagavan, “these are qualities we should try to cultivate in our own lives if we want to remake ourselves in a higher image.” May our eSatsang grow in beauty this week, as we each strive to increase our capacity to give and to cherish! Our reading this week is pages 261–269 in The Constant Companion.*

• What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!

• Spiritual Reading has been our focus for practice extension throughout this book study. What have you found most helpful or nourishing about your spiritual reading throughout this time?

For our spiritual treat, here is the final excerpt from the Easwaran video “Love Alters Not.” Note that the full video is 34 minutes, but the excerpt begins at 26:45 and the player should start automatically at that time.

Video

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names The Shining One through Bringer of Joy. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

He Who Attracts

“One special instruction I would like to give to you is to make use of every spare moment to repeat your mantram. A million opportunities can be discovered during the course of a single day.”

This week’s reading in The Constant Companion is pages 251–260.* Commenting on the name Krishna, He Who Attracts, Easwaran describes how his granny, his spiritual teacher, must have planted in his consciousness early in his childhood the seeds that eventually blossomed into his devotion. And he tells us we too can see this devotion bloom via the mantram:

“When you go on repeating the mantram sincerely and systematically, this is the kind of devotion that the Lord helps to generate in your heart. Once it floods your mind completely, it will not leave you even in your sleep; it walks with you and works with you always.”

May we each move a bit closer this week to this holy flood of devotion.

• Which lines particularly strike you, and how can you apply them to your life this week?

• We have been strengthening our practice of Spiritual Reading and reflecting on its benefits. This week consider how these stories help you contribute to healing the Earth.

For our spiritual treat, here is the next excerpt from the Easwaran video “Love Alters Not.” Note that the full video is 34 minutes, but the excerpt goes from 9:35 – 26:45 and the player should start and stop automatically at those times. We’ll share the final segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names He Who Attracts through Approachable. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

The Supreme Magician

With the name Maha-Maya, The Supreme Magician, Easwaran again focuses our attention on life’s transience. Describing “the Lord’s magic,” he writes:

“Out of apparent nothingness the Lord brings you and me and all these innumerable other creatures out upon the stage. Then, all too soon, he sweeps us away. Those with whom we have grown up, gone to school, shared the joys and trials of our adult years, one by one they just go.”

And again Easwaran makes clear that this is not morbid reflection, but a precious gift of urgency: “Life is so short, and this discovery so urgent and so difficult, that none of us can afford to waste a day in not doing our best to move closer to the goal.” We are grateful to be striving together with you to keep focus on the supreme goal. Our reading this week is pages 241–250 in The Constant Companion.*

• Is there a tip in this reading that is particularly challenging for you? How will you wrestle with it this week?

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to you about your relationship with animals.

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the Easwaran video “Love Alters Not.” Easwaran recites from Shakespeare throughout the talk, commenting on the accordance with the Bhagavad Gita and the Dhammapada, and on how each of us can learn the skill of unchanging love.

Note that the full video is 34 minutes, but the excerpt ends at 9:35 and the player should stop automatically at that time. We’ll share the next segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Free from Craving through Whose Mind Is Full of Wealth. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

The Good Weaver

The weaving of spiders is a theme in our reading this week, pages 228–240 in The Constant Companion*: the Lord is “The Good Weaver,” and “Who Keeps Expanding His Web.” “The allusion is to a marvelous metaphor in the Upanishads,” Easwaran explains, “where the universe is compared to the web that a spider weaves out of itself.”

One implication he draws out is the preciousness of our brief opportunity: “How fleeting life is! Everything in this delicate web of a universe changes from moment to moment.” Reflecting on how quickly life passes is not a morbid activity, he explains, “for it throws our activities into the sharpest perspective. Every day’s first priority is to learn to move closer to the Lord of Love who lives in the depths of our consciousness.”

• If you have a particular issue you are struggling with right now, look into this reading for tips, and try them out this week.

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to you about your relationship with nature.

Let’s turn again to The Thousand Names Talks** in the Easwaran Digital Library for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 7. The full talk is 43 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran reminds us of the dignity and security we can each draw from knowing that we come from the Lord.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names The Place of Sacrifice through Immortal. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

** You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

The Auspicious

The name Yajna, Sacrifice, ended our reading last week, and Easwaran begins this week’s commentary on the name Shiva, The Auspicious, by discussing how Shiva powerfully illustrates “the sacrifice of self to a higher purpose.”

“Self” here means self-will, “the selfish, self-centered fragment of ourselves that has forgotten the unity of life.” Self-will is the only barrier between us and love, Easwaran explains, and so “the most effective of all sacrifices is the sacrifice of self-will.”

Our work together in the eSatsang is helping us make this sacrifice, diminishing our self-will day by day, using our disciplines to turn obstacles into spiritual growth. Our reading this week is pages 217­­­–227 in The Constant Companion.*

• Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.

• Through our spiritual reading, Easwaran is helping us to be aware of the Lord’s presence in all. Are there ways in which these stories can help you to share that awareness with others in your life?

For our spiritual treat, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “The Bridge to Immortality,” from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.

Passage Audio

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names The Auspicious through Good Works. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Sacrifice

The name Yajna, Sacrifice, “expresses a central principle of life,” Easwaran tells us. And he explains that its real meaning “is not just sacrifice but self-sacrifice”:

“Selfless, harmonious effort, the Gita says, contains within itself the seed and secret of success. However hard we work, however dedicated our attitude, it is not we who determine what we achieve; success is contained in the concept of yajna.”

Easwaran gives an extended illustration of this principle with the history of our own meditation center, growing so naturally from his desire to share spiritual wisdom with others. He tells us that this yajna has only begun, “for this is how spiritual work grows and bears fruit from generation to generation.” Each of us in this eSatsang is contributing to that work through our very practice of the spiritual disciplines Easwaran taught. This week let’s read pages 217­­­–227 in The Constant Companion.* We look forward to reading your reflections in the discussion below.

• Read this article as if you and Easwaran are having a conversation. What advice does he give you, and how can you apply it this week?

• Your spiritual reading – and all your interactions with Easwaran – are helping you draw out your ability to see the Lord in all. What do you notice about how that is affecting your experience in different types of situations in your life?

• Please plan to join us this Sunday, December 31 for BMCM Satsang Live at 9:40 am Pacific Time (convert to your time zone) and for a Mantram Day for Peace and Healing. When the first part of our satsang has ended, we will all turn to the Easwaran Digital Library to watch a never-before-seen video of Easwaran. It is his last recorded class given in 1998. We hope you join us for this extraordinary opportunity!

For our spiritual treat here in eSatsang this week, we hope you enjoy this video in which Easwaran comments on the name Shubhanga from the Thousand Names of the Lord, emphasizing its special importance in connection with the New Year, “because it has a direct bearing on how we come to look upon ourselves.” The full talk is 34 minutes; if time is short, consider viewing just the beginning.

Video

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Who Carries Us Across through Sacrifice. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Bringer of Tears

Karma is prominent in Easwaran’s commentary on the first two names of this week’s reading, pages 197–206 from The Constant Companion.*

With the name Rudra, Bringer of Tears, the Lord “personifies the unavoidable fact that most of us learn from our mistakes only because they bring us sorrow.” Easwaran shares a telling description of how Granny tried to teach him very early in life that a certain amount of suffering “is not only inescapable but even necessary for growth”:

“When I made a mistake and suffered for it, she would not be very sympathetic. She didn’t gloat over my suffering or withdraw her support of me either; but in wordless ways, she helped me to learn not to make that mistake again. At the time I didn’t understand what seemed a strange lack of sympathy. Today I know that if someone has been behaving selfishly, it is much better for that person to suffer the consequences and learn to change than it is to remain blind and fail to grow, which just means letting problems grow instead.”

• What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

• Spiritual Reading is our current focus for practice extension. Through our study of The Constant Companion, Easwaran is guiding us to see the Lord in all. What do you notice about how that is applying to your interactions with the people in your life?

• Save the date! Please plan to join us on Sunday, December 31 for BMCM Satsang Live at 9:40 am Pacific Time (convert to your time zone) and for a Mantram Day for Peace and Healing. When the first part of our satsang has ended, we will all turn to the Easwaran Digital Library to watch a never-before-seen video of Easwaran. It is his last recorded class given in 1998. We hope you join us for this extraordinary opportunity!

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names All-seeing through Full. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

The Witness

Save the Date: Sunday, December 31, 2023

A Day of Mantrams for Peace and Healing

Sunday, December 31 will be our traditional BMCM day of Mantrams for Peace and Healing in the World. Throughout the day of December 31, right up until ringing in the New Year, let’s keep our mantrams going as much as we can.

When the first part of our satsang has ended, we will all turn to the Easwaran Digital Library to watch a never-before-seen video of Easwaran. It is his last recorded class given in 1998.

Let’s all participate together in the BMCM Satsang Live on December 31st. We will start writing the mantram at 9:40 before the program begins at 10 am. We will make BMCM Satsang Live the centerpiece of our mantram day, and we invite you to join us.

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Our reading this week is pages 187–196 in The Constant Companion.* Commenting on the Sanskrit name Sakshi, The Witness, Easwaran tells the story of his granny’s response when she suspected he and his friends had stolen mangoes from the tree of a village neighbor:

“‘Even if none of you tells anybody else,’ she said, ‘there was somebody who saw. Someone inside you is watching everything, someone who never misses a thing.’”

Easwaran points out that messages from this inner witness are part of our familiar daily experience: “After we have done something selfish, when we hear a little voice inside saying, ‘Shabby, shabby, shabby,’ that is the voice of the Lord within. And when we feel warm inside because we have helped someone, it is the Lord who is making us feel warm.” Discovering the source of these messages, he explains, will transform our lives.

• Is there some tip from Easwaran in this reading that you tend to skim over because you have already heard it many times before? Try focusing on it this week.

• We are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. Can you find ways to share parts of these stories with the children in your life?

Let’s turn again to The Thousand Names Talks** in the Easwaran Digital Library for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 6. The full talk is 54 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran begins his commentary on the name Sarva, All, by explaining that everyone is sanctified by the presence of the Lord, whether they are aware of it or forget it.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Sustainer of Life through The Witness. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

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Beautiful

Beauty is again a theme of our names of Vishnu this week, as we read The Constant Companion, pages 176–186.*

“Even the calves, the poets say, stop nursing for a moment and turn their heads up to look at Krishna. You have to have seen a calf nursing to appreciate that; every ounce of its attention is fixed greedily on the udder. Even that passionate attachment dissolves in love for Krishna.”

Easwaran tells us there is no end to the power this beauty has to transform our lives. “This is the very practical purpose of an incarnation of God: that in loving his outward form, as Saint Bernard says, we may slowly be drawn into complete spiritual union.”

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?

• We are taking this book study as an opportunity to give special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. In what ways do you find these stories are helping you see the Lord in others around you?

For our spiritual treat, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Come, Beloved,” from Meera.

Passage Audio

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Beautiful through Charioteer. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)