May - Ruhani Satsang USA

any form, anything, would that be theapproach that you mean?THE MASTER: I tell you. In the scriptureswe sometimes find the words "thesoul is dead." We find it in the Christianliterature and in others, too. What dothey mean? Guru Nanak said, "Only heis alive, 0 Nanak, who is conscious; whohas become conscious of the DivinePlan; who knows, who sees, God. Allothers are dead." Do you follow me?Those whose attention is identified withall of the outside things, their attention isconsidered to be as dead; but it is reallynot dead. Do you see? This is what ismeant by this in all scriptures. The soulis never dead; but when its whole attentionis absorbed in outer things, in materialthings, it is defined as dead. It isalready there; but it awakens if you withdrawit from the outside, that's all.Anything else? Yes, please?QUESTION: Are we to attempt to recordihe number of thought failures thatwe have in our diaries-the actual numbersfor each one?THE MASTER: Yes. Just as I explainedit to you. What can you put in the columns?You can only give the number offailures. Just the number of failures willguide you. If vou are falling down inthat respect, try to weed it out the followingday, that's all.QUESTION: We know that we can stillbuild karma if we're not very careful inthis life. And there are rnarry things thatwe still don't have clear in our minds.Among them is the question regardinganimals.We all love animals dearly, but thereare those among us, throughout thecountry or the world, for that matter,who sometimes feel such compassion andsympathy for animals that have beenneglected, that they take it upon themselvesto try to feed and house these lit-tle creatures. Consequently, there arethose who, in some cases, have manycreatures that they house and feed. Thenthere is a complaint, perhaps in theneighborhood, regarding the party thattakes on these little creatures. Now thequestion is, when a person takes theseanimals for love and care, or perhapsfinds another home for them-whenthey have these many creatures-arethey, by chance, taking on a karma thatis the animals' karma? Are they takingthat karma on themselves? 1THE MASTER: Look here. Scripturesare very clear about it. We simply ruminateover them. Soul is in everybody; itis in animals, too. Love them for theGod in them, for the soul in them, notas body. If you love man, why not lovecreatures-I mean, animals? If you loveeven serpents, they won't harm you.They have the soul in them. The pity itis that we love animals, but do not loveour fellow brothers. Do you see?There is no harm, you may join amovement to help animals; you mayhave pity on the animal kingdom. Afterall, they have no court to go to to complainabout the atrocities that are extendedto them by man. That's all right.But should you, for that reason, hateall other men? Love all, but for the life,for the soul and God in them. If you doit for that sake, then naturally, "As youthink, so you become." If you forgetGod, then wherever you are attached,you will go, is it not so? So love all,please: love God, love man, love animals,love birds. Experience shows thatif you love snakes, even they won't harmyou; they will come and sit by you. Thishappened so many times in the life historiesof many Masters. It happened inmy case, too. During a satsang in Delhi,a cobra came up and stood on his tail inthe presence of about two thousand people.They cried, "A cobra is here!"10 SAT SANDESH