Perceiving the Essence of the Whispers
by Chariji, February 2, 2013, Tiruchirapalli, India.
Dear brothers and sisters,
We have been receiving many messages from my Master over the past five or six months. The emphasis… Of course, if you are reading them, you should have appreciated what these messages are about. We read the newspaper with great avidity and, depending on our own mental complexities, some expect disasters from the newspapers, some expect to see good news, some want sensationalism like robberies, murders. Some look only for political information, political news, and some look, of course, for the stock market prices. And each of these readers places great attention to the news in the paper which is printed, and also spends hours every day discussing them with those who are interested, and thrusting themselves on those who may not be interested. For such people it is almost, shall we say, a full day's occupation discussing the news in the newspaper.
The messages of my Master are very curt and quite brief. Those of you who have been reading the four volumes that we have already published, containing Whispers, know that some of them are as brief as two or three lines, and one wonders in what language he spoke to the person who received the message. Because, if we have the ability to receive the messages direct, it is an astonishing fact that each one of you will receive the message in your own language: the French in French, the Russian in Russian, and so on through all the languages of the world – known and unknown, ancient and modern – and perhaps languages of the future.
When you speak in a language which is no-language, in a voice that is not heard but perceived in the heart – if you are able to receive this, you are quite on the way to spiritual life leading to spiritual transformation, to the highest extents that are open to human beings. In other words, a message is a transmission. You here are of so many nationalities, so many languages, so many cultures – fortunately, only two sexes – and yet when we sit for meditation, you all receive the transmission in your hearts. You may not understand what it says, but your heart understands what it says. And your heart, if it is open more and more progressively like a lotus bud under the effects of the sun's rays, it is blessed more and more by what it receives, without the brain or your intelligence having to understand it. Nobody understands what our transmission does to us. As you become more and more sensitive, you experience the transmission. It does something to you.
In the physical world, most of our experiences are known to us only by their bad effects. Good food doesn't do anything to you except to have a feeling of contentment perhaps. But bad food affects you immediately. Good news – macht nichts [doesn't matter]; bad news – you are affected by it deeply. For instance, there was this business of the Mayan Calendar: the world is going to end on a particular day just because a calendar stopped somewhere in an ancient culture thousands of years old. I have been receiving letters from abhyasis – good abhyasis – asking how much water they should store, how much food they should buy and store, how they should prepare themselves for the calamity. And I was not surprised when I was told that in the US, they were actually selling packets full of vitamin pills and all sorts of things to sustain you for one month, of course at a substantial cost. And people bought everything. What they didn't do was to make sure that this was protected – the heart.
The modern human being has not protected his heart from, shall we say, the assaults from the outer world – assaults which often damage the heart physically: heart attacks and other terms which the medical profession employs; emotional attacks, so-called affaires le coeur in French – very beautiful term, ‘the affairs of the heart'. The heart has no affairs. It has only one union and that is with its Maker. The rest are all here [in the mind] – paltry, unsatisfactory, very often destructive – physically, mentally and emotionally.
We have to protect our heart from both the ravages of the physical world and from the world of the senses, much more. And today we have to insulate ourselves from what we now know to be lies given to us by religion. It doesn't matter what religion – any religion. Because, though they may have appeared profound when they were created, and though the creator of the religion was a pure man with pure intentions, a pure teaching, it passed through the soiled hands of a priesthood, and the result is corruption at the deepest level – the spiritual level. Therefore, our Babuji Maharaj has always said, in spirituality we don't destroy religion, we transcend religion. We don't cease to have an affair with the heart, but it is now turned towards a true lover. Who is your lover? My lover is the Divine.
He does not let me down; whether I am man or woman, we have this affair with the same person. It does not concern the sexes, it does not concern the senses, it does not concern your pocket – it is. And because the values of the heart, when they become apparent and are nurtured and are nourished to their full extent, they become eternal. Everything else dies, but the heart does not die. That is why there is this sometimes alluring fact that our relationships follow us life after life. Some philosophies interpret this as our having to work out our mutual relationship to a satisfactory level before it can be dissolved for all time. Some say it is our sins of the past which follow us. Sahaj Marg says it is samskara. It does not specifically say that our relationships follow us, because in the language of Sahaj Marg, there is no such thing as ‘relationships' in the plural. There is only one relationship and that is with him [Master] and through him with the Divine.
So it is a strange fact that these messages, the whispers from above, what I have called as whispers from the brighter world, can be understood by anybody who has the ability to receive it direct in his heart, because then no language is necessary. The person who receives the message cannot tell you how it was received. It was not audible. It was not sense-ible. Then what? Such a person can only say, "I perceived it and wrote it down in my own language because that is the only language I can receive it in." So there is a transformation from something unheard, unspoken, to something which is heard and can be spoken about, and then which passes through the hands of our translators as, like today, English and Russian. French was the language in which it was received by the person who received it. If somewhere in Timbuktu, for instance, if somebody receives it, it will be received in that ancient language and given to us through someone who knows the Timbuktu language and can translate it for the rest of humanity.
So, in a sense, the guru receives this transmission about which he knows nothing. What is it, where is it, why is it, we don't know. It is. And if you are fortunate enough to have a guru who can receive it and then transmit it to our hearts, in a physical world, in a physical capacity, sitting face to face – we are indeed very fortunate. So, I repeat, this transmission from heart to heart has no language, but it is the link connecting two hearts, one of which has made it to the ultimate level of spiritual emancipation, and the other of which is anticipating or working towards such a spiritual emancipation.
We must not forget the purpose for which we come together. The message which you all heard just now, says: "When we come together like this, it fosters the union of hearts, independent of our nationalities, of our prejudices, of our language differences." Outside this room, we are different. As long as we are together in this assembly, we have no differences. We start with the premise in Sahaj Marg that there is no difference of religion, nationality, sex, or anything else; and we end with the premise, or now the knowledge or the feeling, that indeed they do not exist. When we start, we assume they don't exist; when we end, we know they do not exist.
We are one, not because we say so but because we know that we are. We all inside have the same essence, which is pure existence and pure love. If this pure existence is characterised by any quality, [it is] qualities-less quality. Sahaj Marg is famous for these apparent contradictions: power-less power, force-less force, and quality-less quality. Love – it has no quality, it has no quantity. Therefore, it is limitless. Can you love more and more and yet continue to love? Can you start with loving one, then the many that becomes a family; then the many that is your own culture and your people; then the many that is this whole world with all its peoples, polyglot – multifarious languages, colours, tastes, prejudices? Yet, the loving heart does not distinguish between any of these things. In a very minuscule fashion we see these in our what we call spiritual gatherings – bhandaras as we say in Hindi. It is quite obvious to us that here nothing divides us, because we stay united with our hearts.
It is unfortunate that when we leave here, we will become Romanians, and Russians, and Indians, and Hindus and Christians and what else. Vive la France, liberté, egalité and fraternité [Long live France, liberty, equality, fraternity] – very good to speak about; lies in their practice. In their name a queen was killed. There was a revolution, supposedly to bring liberty, equality and brotherhood, and of course which first divided the French from the rest of the world. "We are French." So, say the British: "We are British. True blood, blue blood," etc. And the Germans of course – for them there is nothing except Germany and the Germans. And so it goes on, this sad tale of dismemberment of a human society which should be one, by those interested by religion, by politics, power-mongers after money (yours), who have cheated us and destroyed our unity and brought about the multiplicity which spirituality is now seeking to correct, to reunite us into a brotherhood of human beings.
Whether this will be achieved depends on all of you. It is very nice to speak about brotherhood. I mean, it's a nice subject. Like the modern world, it is wonderful to speak about love. We are always speaking about love. "I love you," says the husband to the wife, and she says, "I love you, too." Where does this ‘too' come? I never understood what does this mean. "I love you, too." Does she mean ‘two'? Perhaps!
So you see, language betrays: betrays our intentions, betrays our thinking and eventually betrays us. So we should not seek refuge for our greatness behind our language, or our culture, or our accidental birth in some continent somewhere, but seek confidence and courage in the fact that we are not alone in this world, that we are one of a numerous family which is peopling the world. And if we but allow our hearts to exercise what they should really exercise – bring us together – we are never alone, we are never unhappy, we are never miserable. And this is what our Masters teach us, and they repeat it again and again in these spiritual gatherings, which are essentially the birthday celebrations of these great ones.
They are to remind us of what great personalities descended on Earth – for our sakes. They didn't have to come here to enjoy the wonderful things of this world, which in any case they never enjoyed. They were too poor, they were too unhealthy to enjoy even good sleep or a morsel of food. Nature makes sure that its chosen ones, its messengers, are born in poverty, do not enjoy good health, are generally condemned by the rest of the world, and pass on leaving only their message behind them. This is enshrined in three words in Hindi: illat, killat, zillat, which means you must always have a little less than good health. Then you don't waste it in stupid things like playing tennis, going up the mountain for twenty-seven kilometres, or thirty kilometres on a bicycle, seeking health which you should not have because it leads you into byways of pleasure-seeking which are ruinous.
So little [less] health than necessary – remember; little [less] money than is necessary, and people who will always criticise you. Criticism is good for you. But we want people who will praise us, especially I think in France. I have had several experiences of this. When we were in Augerans, I remember some girls weeping. I said, "Why?" They said, "Chariji, you did not say good morning." If in India, they had said this to a guru, they would have had their tongues cut off or something like that! Gurus don't say good morning to disciples; disciples say good morning to gurus. Culture! Because in the European culture the woman is all; she commands. You have to say good morning to her first (to the female), just because you are going to prey upon her femininity, destroy her and throw her away like trash. Women don't understand this and they are happy with a good smile and a "Bonjour [good day]" and kisses on two cheeks, which go into other things. Women should wake up, and so should men. Men should know that here is a piece of temptation which you should under all circumstances avoid. There is a legitimate [way] and there are many illegitimate ways.
So you see, little less health than good health – something wrong with you, which makes you think of God. Babuji said we are blessed to be unhealthy, because in that state we are always thinking of God, of Nature; whereas when you are in exuberant health, you are thinking only of a bottle and a woman, for example. Little less money than you need – you don't waste things on foolish things. You will think twenty times before you spend anything. And permanent criticism – it keeps you thinking of yourself: "Am I doing something wrong? Am I saying something wrong?" Introspection.
We speak of introspection – philosophers. Half the world speaks of introspection, but do they know what is introspection? Is it just a mental exercise or a spiritual exercise? To us in Sahaj Marg, it is a spiritual exercise, and which is embodied in this act of meditation: Look into yourself. Close your eyes. Shut off your senses from the outer world. Do not hear your telephone ringing, because it should not ring at this time. Do not think of family, do not think of friends. Do not think even of foes because they don't exist. They are your foes because you have created them. Go deeper into that blissful area where nothing penetrates, and you suddenly wake up and say, "Where was I?" Precisely! Where were you? Good French men, good Germans, good Romanians, good Russians – where were you during meditation? In Russia? Not at all. In France? Unholy thought. Then where are you in meditation? Where you should be: in the divine place where you meet your Maker; where there is an exchange of love without exchanging of anything else; where there is feeling and no thinking, so that eventually your life is governed by feeling and not by emotion.
Most of us, we mistake emotion for love. Emotion is smoke, love is the fire which, if it burns properly, there should no smoke. So the more inefficient the fuel, the more smoke. The more emotion in your life, the less love. This is a formula which is as sacred, perfect as, say, a mathematical formula or the E=mc2 of Einstein – immutable, indestructible, eternal. Our lives must slowly become lives of feeling. You feel for the poor, you don't think of the poor. You don't contribute a few rupees to the poor. You feel for the poor. You feel for the whole of humanity. It does not matter where something is going on which is destruction and destructive. You feel for it, because, as Babuji said, if you have a pinprick in your finger and pus forms, it affects the whole body. Where does it pain? Isn't it?
So these are the things we must slowly develop into. It's not an intellectual process. You cannot come and say, "I have learnt." No, you have not learnt. "I have become." From cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) – I don't know in French what should it be – I feel, therefore I am. What should it be in French? That must replace this wonderful philosophical statement on which the French depend so much – cogito ergo sum. I feel. I feel for everybody. I feel for my family, for my society and for everything in the world. I cannot shut the newspaper and say, "Well, for heaven's sake, why are you worried? It has happened only in Timbuktu. What does it matter to us?" Well, if a thorn pricks me in my foot and I don't attend to it, I can die.
I say this from experience because in my grandfather's farm – he had a very big farm, about five hundred acres, and we had an estate manager. In those days nobody had shoes or slippers. They walked bare-feet – even us. And a thorn went in. And it was a remote village, no medical attention. Nor did they think that for a thorn you went to a doctor. It festered. On the third day he was dead. A mere thorn! So don't think that trouble somewhere will leave you unharmed, or good things somewhere will not affect you in a positive way.
This heart must be filled with the goodness of life, which is only love. Love is the only goodness in life which does not corrupt you or which does not corrupt the person to whom this love goes, without your thinking about it, without your directing it at him or her. It goes, because it has to go in all directions. When you become love, you become like the sun. The sun does not say, "I am the sun." There used to be a saying when I was in school that, ‘The sun never sets on the British Empire.' Wow! What a famous empire! It never sets on the British Empire. That was a piece of, shall we say, royal arrogance, because they dominated the world at that time. And because the sun was shining on some part of the British Empire all the time, they said the sun never sets on the British Empire. If the earth stopped moving (rotating), we will know where the sun shines! Isn't it? As long as it rotates, we are all safe that it shines on us for some time at least. Love is not like that. There is no turning, there is no rotating, there is no axis. It flows all the time. And like a sweet is a sweet to everybody, and salt is salt to everybody, this love pervades.
Babuji Maharaj, in one of his recent messages, says that the development of the people in the Mission is important because not only will it affect the people of this world, but it will have its effect on other worlds, too. Imagine! Silly fools like us – irreverent, sinful; we come here, and what do we find? That the simple act of sitting in obedience to him, meditating, affects not only this world, the whole world, but other worlds, too. Can you say this when you eat, or when you drink or when you do other things that are so pleasant and sought after? Not at all! When you eat, you only eat for yourself.
So this meditation has importance which you cannot imagine, because in one of his books Babuji says, "This world, among all the created worlds, is the most important because it has direct connection to the Centre" – nowhere else. In all the other worlds, whatever they may be, however intellectual, however powerful, however advanced (in the terms that we people understand advancement – may be more inventions, more manufacture, things like that) they are all not connected directly to the Centre but through something else. This world has the good fortune to be connected directly to the Centre. Do we appreciate it? Do we make use of this wonderful opportunity that is given to us to become part of that entourage? (I am not talking of the computer [software] Entourage.)
I would say, instead of he mails… 'He-mails' messages, coming from Him, to which we respond with our heart, and so one day we become linked to It. And then we don't need to go to any other world; not even come back here. We go to the Source – from which everything is visible, perceptible, accessible, and on which That acts.
So I commend Sahaj Marg to you all for very, very careful attention. Look to it for its real meaning in these messages. Read them twice, thrice, four times – as many times as you read, because many people have testified to the fact that when you read with an open heart, you feel transmission, too. Here is something which can transmit to you, because its meaning goes to your heart, not to your head.
I pray for you all. Thank you.