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to love and protect us, to take all our pain and sorrow, and in return he gives peace and love.
Then Beth asked, “Swami, are you always with us?” “Always, always, always,” he answered. “I walk beside you as a friend. I am in front of you leading, I am behind you guarding and protecting, I am above you guiding, and I am underneath supporting you.” Then, paing himself over his heart, he said, “I am always with you here. I live in your heart as love. I am always, always, always with you.”
Judy asked, “Is there anything more we can do?” Swami, looking as if he were in ecstasy, soly repeated, “Love, love, love.”
What a beautiful personal discourse, what a blessing. Swami’s every word and every loving gesture was like listening to the Vedas, conveying pure truth and love, and convincing us that he is really with us no maer how much the monkey mind doubts. He assures us that if we talk to him all the time, he will take our pain and give us love in return.
The key to liberation is turning the mind to God, learning to stay close to Him, surrendering, and offering everything to Him. In this way, our relationship with Him deepens and we see more clearly how He is always with us protecting, guiding, leading, and saving us.
Endnotes
1 Expanding on the topic of devotion, Swami has said, “Man cannot express in human language that state of unbounded devotion. By outward signs, which can be cognized by the senses, one can feel that the devotee is in a high state of bliss, but who can gauge the depth of the joy? That has no relation with the senses at all. Devotion has to be realized in your own experience, though great souls can illumine the path a lile for you by their examples. Always remember that words fail when they approach the beyond. Consider these illustrations.
“Maitreyi, one of the foremost devotees among women, compared the mind of a devotee to a still lake. That is to say when all agitation is stopped, the mind becomes inactive, ineffective, worn out into nothing. Kapilamaharshi, speaking of the same devotion, compares it to a flowing stream. Streams and rivers like the Ganga and
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