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Practice, Attitudes and Change

by Daaji, June 15, 2012, Manapakkam, Chennai, India.

I have a lot of things to share with you, and it is such a pleasure to be with you all. I will try to be very precise in my talk, but please forgive me if I wander here and there, because I am going to talk on the practice, on attitudes, on mutation, on genetics and on epigenetics. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with genetics, but we will proceed that way. We will talk also of God and atheists.

Genetic mutation

Let’s begin with one message from Babuji Maharaj. You can write down the date, so you can refer to it when you go back home. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with these messages; I think pretty much all of you are, so I take it for granted. It was given on Saturday, May 19 2001 at 8.00 a.m. This is very relevant to the student body here. When you read it, when you listen to this, you will understand why I am talking about this, especially to you.

Babuji Maharaj says, “Yes, a new race is being born. It is strong and it will not let itself be corrupted. It will need a lot of time to impose itself before the genetic mutation is completed. This will take place by degrees, at its own pace, before a new mankind really appears all over the surface of the Earth. It is enormous work, but it will be achieved as foreseen. We already have some of these beings in the Mission; they are tomorrow's officers-in-charge. These indigo or blue children, as you call them, not only will have a higher intellect which they will use for the good of man, but they will also be characterised by a very broad spiritual openness. They will mark future times in a way that you cannot imagine. This poor planet is the prey of completely mad beings satisfying their need for power and domination. The lure of gain makes them sacrifice the most elementary laws of respect for the created world. They take irrational risks, knowing what they are exposing the world to. Do they believe they are immortal? They are ransacking, poisoning, destroying the ecosystems, and the common run of people does not know all of it – fortunately, for their peace of mind. While undergoing the disastrous effects of errors mainly accumulated over the last century, [people in] this transitional period can find consolation in imagining these future times when this poor Earth will be able to lick its wounds caused by men and cataclysms generated by their errors."

I will read this again, please pay attention where you missed out.

Saturday, May 19, 2001 – 8.00 a.m.

“Yes, a new race is being born. It is strong and it will not let itself be corrupted. It will need a lot of time to impose itself before the genetic mutation is completed. This will take place by degrees, at its own pace, before a new mankind really appears all over the surface of the Earth. It is enormous work, but it will be achieved as foreseen. We already have some of these beings in the Mission; they are tomorrow's officers-in-charge. These indigo or blue children, as you call them, not only will have a higher intellect which they will use for the good of man, but they will also be characterised by a very broad spiritual openness. They will mark future times in a way that you cannot imagine. This poor planet is the prey of completely mad beings satisfying their need for power and domination. The lure of gain makes them sacrifice the most elementary laws of respect for the created world. They take irrational risks, knowing what they are exposing the world to. Do they believe they are immortal? They are ransacking, poisoning, destroying the ecosystems, and the common run of people does not know all of it – fortunately, for their peace of mind. While undergoing the disastrous effects of errors mainly accumulated over the last century, [people in] this transitional period can find consolation in imagining these future times when this poor Earth will be able to lick its wounds caused by men and cataclysms generated by their errors."

Babuji

So we have some hope, as they say. There are almost fifteen or twenty messages on genetic mutations given by Babuji Maharaj. I think it applies significantly to all the youth members – not just the youth members. It applies more to youth members, though it applies to all abhyasis in general, even if they are eighty or ninety years old.

The first time I was exposed to genetic mutation, the discussion took place in 1981 with Babuji Maharaj. He was telling me, “Look, I am trying to change the genetic pattern of the human race.” At that time I was almost your age, maybe two years older to you then, about twenty, twenty-one. I didn’t understand what he was trying to imply. I thought Babuji, being a Special Personality, was just trying to impress me with his abilities to do things.

I was also a science student then and it impressed me to a great extent. But the question remained: how in the world is he going to bring about this genetic change, the mutation? And here also, after going to the Brighter World, he conveys messages one by one on genetic mutation. It takes me back to the few seconds that I spent with Babuji when he was trying to explain to me that, “I am trying to do this.” So I could put one and one together and reconfirm that, “Yes, this is Babuji. This is not a joke.”

How is he planning to do it? If you look at it, we are in a physical body, and we are a complex organism which has already imbibed, already inherited, the genetic code that we have. How to bring this change in already existing genetic material? It is already fixed. We are of the belief that genetic changes can occur rapidly at the time when there is cellular division, where the chromosomes divide. Of course, that is a great moment, but having lost that moment, how do the great Masters achieve what they have to achieve in the form of this mutation? It is not through pranahuti, it is not through transmission, and it is not through their powers – they fail. No Master can succeed in his dream projects unless and until the abhyasis cooperate.

The abhyasi’s power is no less than godly power, because at the very root of our mind that original stir still continues to work. For example, when Lord Krishna approached Duryodhana just before the beginning of the war, he tried to convince him: “Please, don’t do this.” And Duryodhana told him, “Look Krishna, I know who you are. I know your abilities. I know I may lose also in the process. I know what is good.” He uttered a sloka – perhaps in those days they could talk only in Sanskrit. He said, “Janami dharmam nacha me pravritti (I know what is my duty, I know what I have to do, but I cannot activate myself in that direction). Janami adharmam nacha me nivritti (I also know what I must not do, what is adharma, yet I cannot stay away from it).”

Almost all of us are like Duryodhana. We know what is right, but many times we say, “Oh, I cannot do this. I know it is right. But I cannot, I am helpless. Many times I know what I must not do, yet I end up doing it.” So who is better? Having a Master of a great capacity with transmission, even if I pray to him, it is not working. Why? Because I myself am preventing it. My thought force is so powerful that even the great Master fails in his efforts to change me. Nobody can be changed unwillingly. I must participate in this great process of change willingly and joyfully otherwise it is like rape. Unwilling participation is nothing but rape, and no Master wants to indulge in the spiritual rape of changing a person without that person’s willingness or permission to change. Somebody might say, “Okay Master, you may please change me completely,” but it is a superficial plea or a superficial prayer. Deep down, do I really want it? I must desire to have it.

Experience God

Many of us do believe in God, and some of you may not believe in God; it is not necessary. If you don’t believe in God, I think you are better off than someone who is believing in God. At least a person who does not believe in God says, “Okay, I don’t believe because I know I have not experienced. I have a right not to believe because I lack that experience.” But some of you who believe in God, on what grounds do you claim that, “I believe in God”? Do you have the experience? Or do you just say it because your parents say it is so, or your Master says it so, that God exists?

We must rise above such things if we want to experience God. Let us begin with His non-existence. Prove it in our life through experiences and by becoming, and say, “Yes, now God exists.” Then there is some substance to it. I often give the example of currencies. You have dollar currencies, you have pounds, you have rupees, and you have dinars – so many currencies worldwide. Each currency is backed by gold, and the more gold the country has, the stronger the currency. The claim that God exists – on what gold backing are we saying that God exists? I must have the backing of that experience, otherwise it is as bad as saying God does not exist. Both are right, to their hearts of heart, both are right.

Through Sahaj Marg, what happens? Through meditation we get a feeling, a temporary experience of peace, calmness and stillness. For a moment we seem to have lost ourselves in something unknown. We don’t know what it is; it is pleasant, but it is not permanent, it is temporary. And we can say, “Yes, okay maybe this is the godly experience.” But we are not so sure about it. So what to do with such exercises? How am I going to have the final proof of God? I must make that experience a permanent experience. No point in becoming a rich man – for example, for a day or for one month I become a crorepati [millionaire]. Let us say somebody says, “Okay, I will lend you ten crores today. After one month I will take it back.” It is as bad or as good as saying, “While I was in Manapakkam I had a great experience, a superb experience,” but afterwards I am as bad as that crorepati who lost his crores after a month. After I go away from this atmosphere, I am again ‘high and dry’ as they say, spiritually speaking.

Now and then, when we are at home, we meditate. When we meditate, we have some experience, maybe intense, may not be intense. If it is not intense, we end up going to a preceptor and saying, “Please give me a sitting. My condition seems to fizzle away. I would like to regain my experience or my touch with God or my touch with my inner Self.” We take a sitting, and again we are re-established with the sense of some sort of conviction that, “Yes, He exists.” But then again it fizzles out. So we are constantly making ourselves and constantly unbecoming ourselves. Ideally, it should become permanent; that experience must become permanent.

I often wonder and I asked Master this question, “Why do we have such beautiful experiences? What is the purpose? Where does it take us? When you are in such a depth of meditation, for hours you don’t know what has been happening, you are so lost. It is like intoxication, it is as if you are drugged. You are lost for a moment. At the same time it is such a pleasant condition. Why? Is it necessary?” He said, “At each stage, experiences are bound to arise. It is not that Master gives it to you or God gives it to you.” When a train is moving, when a spiritual journey is taking place within us, the scenery around will change. When a train is moving, let us say from Chennai going towards Hyderabad or going towards Delhi, if you have the same scenery or surroundings all the time that means you are not moving. The change in scene reminds us that we are on the go, we are on the move, and we are progressing. That is one purpose of giving us the confidence, otherwise if we go on continuously experiencing the same thing we will be lost, and we will lose interest. So that is one of the purposes of having different experiences when we sit for meditation.

The biggest thing that I find is that it motivates us, but this is possible only while we are in the Heart Region. I don’t know how many of you have read Towards Infinity or Efficacy of Raja Yoga. There are millions and billions of experiences we can have, infinitely, while we are in the Heart Region. Can anybody say what is the Heart Region? Can anyone tell me what is the Cosmic Region? Well, now I will have to change my subject then. I thought you would be well versed in this, but I am very sorry that none of you are able to say what is the Heart Region and what is the Cosmic Region, so I will have to come back to the basics then.

I highly recommend you to read the fundamental book of Sahaj Marg, Complete Works of Ram Chandra, Volume I. You must read it; you must. I am even tempted to stop this talk at the moment and request you to go to the library, or buy a copy of Complete Works of Ram Chandra, and read it through before you go home. I am really, really, really surprised that you are not familiar with the fundamentals of Sahaj Marg. So let us go back to the practice then.

Meditation

How do we meditate? I will start with this. Without asking each one of you and making you feel ashamed of yourself, I will myself start it. Compare it with how you all meditate so you can conclude whether you have been doing it correctly or not.

As soon as you wake up in the morning, finish your regular stuff, bathroom, toilet etc., and take up one place which is fixed for your meditation. Try to relax. Gently close your eyes. Offer your prayer to Master, to God. The prayer is always addressed to God, not the Master we know physically, Chariji – no. It is to God. The day when it arises, fortunately, when you see God in Master, then it is a different story; but claiming something without experience, as I said, is as bad as a guy who is saying, “I don’t experience God.” He is more honest. But without seeing God in somebody, to make a God out of him is an insult to God himself. So always pray to God, the unknown God.

You can always pray, however, “God, I don’t know you,” be frank with Him, “but this is my prayer to you. I hope it reaches you. I am going to meditate; whoever you are, whatever you are. I would like to experience your essence.” Plead with him and use this prayer. I don’t say use these words, but you must have this sentiment in your heart. I presume that you all know the prayer and when you relax and imagine that there is the presence of Divine Light in the heart, that is all there is to it. Whatever has to happen, Master takes care of it afterwards, the Master Chariji, not God now. You have invoked God’s essence, God’s presence, but the work is done by Master, Chariji. So try to understand the difference.

When transmission starts flowing towards the heart, you feel the presence or the flow of the transmission, and you slowly, slowly get absorbed with it. While we are meditating, some thoughts do arise – something that may have happened early in the morning or the night before, or something that you are supposed to do during the daytime. But ignore all these thoughts gently, and do not fight with them, by reminding yourself that you are meditating. It should all be gentle; no force should be used during meditation. Meditate like this to begin with for half an hour and then slowly increase this period up to one hour.

After having completed meditation, sit for five to ten minutes, try to observe, and try to savour the condition that you feel after the meditation. That is a unique condition. The state of mind before meditation and the state of mind after meditation are two different things. Try to see; try to observe the change. It is very subtle. Having observed this change and identifying this difference, try to hold on to it, like a miser holds onto his money. Like that, you hold on to that condition. Try not to let it go away, and gently get up from your position, trying to carry that condition.

The next stage is perhaps you are going to have breakfast. You sit down when your mother serves you food or when you have to make your own breakfast – carry this condition with you from inside. It doesn’t take extra time. Hold on to that condition. When you have to go to college, either you are going in a car or on public transport or on your scooter, and think that this condition is glued to you. It is going to expand during the daytime. I am going to make it grow. I should be constantly in touch with that inner condition. So when I meditate the next day my inner state is no longer a stranger to me. I begin from where I left off, or perhaps better than where I left it, because during the daytime I let it grow.

I would say ninety-nine percent of abhyasis don’t make extra efforts in retaining their condition after meditation. When you start work, perhaps after five or six years, you will be working for somebody or you might be doing business on your own. Good luck to you all! But at the end of the week, at the end of the month, at the end of the year, when do you see money coming in your bank account, every week, every month if you keep blowing it away? Suppose you are making one lakh a month; eighty thousand you spend in partying, twenty thousand you bring home, and fifteen thousand goes in rent. Your wife or your husband will keep complaining, “What happened to the rest? How am I going to run this family? How am I going to build a new house or a new apartment?” It is not possible. Instant loss of income will drive you crazy, and your family will be in ruins.

Spiritually speaking, when we earn spiritual wealth, with every sitting there is something unique that Master bestows upon us. Consider it like a cheque; consider it like an incoming salary. Do I preserve it? Do I even know that I am getting a salary? If I don’t even know what has been given to me, how am I even going to make efforts in trying to retain it or preserve it or make it grow? No one receives money from their father or mother for safekeeping. It is always given in order for it to grow exponentially through business ventures.

When Master gives us a condition, it is not just given for the heck of it; it is not given for you to keep it. It must grow. Otherwise Master will also be disappointed like the parents. “I gave him so much but he doesn’t even know what I have given.”

See the state of mind of a father or mother if you give your mother a flower and immediately she says, “Oh, put it away on the table. I will take it later on.” She doesn’t even look at it. What will happen to your heart? Perhaps I didn’t give you the right example. Imagine if you had given that flower to your girlfriend (or boyfriend) and she trashes it right in front of your eyes. It hurts. The same thing with Master. He is so generous; he puts up with all these insults. He gives us spiritual conditions which are so unique after each meditation. We don’t even tend to comprehend it, we don’t even think of it, and we don’t even know what we are receiving. So, my request, my urge is – rather I am begging you all – to spend some time after meditation. You have worked for it. Some of you may have been meditating for one hour or half an hour. Observe after meditation. It needs only five minutes of your time. You have laboured for it. Why not spend an extra five minutes in trying to recognise and be one with it, savour it, preserve it, and continue with it?

So, the first step of preserving spiritual wealth is to know what you have received through meditation. Try to make it grow, and make sure it grows. When we sharpen a knife it is to cut vegetables. When we sharpen our consciousness it is for it to be used during the daytime. So we must know how sharp our consciousness is. I will give you another example. When concrete is being laid, they barricade that concrete for some time till it settles down, otherwise you will have the footprints of dogs and human beings. Some of the adventurous beings will write, “I love you Dolly” or “I love you Polly” or whatever, and those impressions will be there forever. You have destroyed that fine-looking concrete with your footprints.

The same thing happens after meditation. The condition that we imbibe, that we receive from Master, is, I would say, finer. It is subtler than the concrete. Just a mere thought or mere carelessness makes it disappear. So please be extra careful. You have worked hard for it, so you might as well spend five minutes and try to savour it, absorb it, and get up with a resolution that “Master, please help me. I need to grow this. I need your help. I want to make sure at least that it remains intact. I will try my best to make it grow.” The guidance will come from inside. Once you have this intention that, “I would like to preserve it,” he will help. Once you make this intention that, “I would like to grow,” that help will also come. But you must have the slight willingness, slight intention, that, “I want to preserve it.” So that is about meditation.

Cleaning

The next thing is about cleaning. How do we do cleaning? I will not ask you, but run through this process of how you have been doing it in the evening. Now let me tell you how I do it.

I sit with my eyes closed, relaxed. I suggest to myself that all complexities and impurities are going away from the back, from the shoulders down to the tailbone, in the form of smoke or vapour.

When I feel that enough lightness is there, a vacuum is created, I feel lighter, that is when I think of Master’s presence, imagining that the divine current is flowing from him towards me, and he is helping me do my cleaning. If you tell this to a newcomer, all these five or six steps that I mentioned, they will be lost. When you were told by your preceptor the first time that, “All complexities and impurities are going away from the back side in the form of smoke or vapour, and later on there will be vacuum created. Think of Master who is seated in front and his grace or his transmission is coming and removing all these and helping you,” you are lost in the words. By the time you are on the final step, you have forgotten what is there in the first place. So the effect of such a sankalpa, or suggestion, often fails and cleaning is not done properly. Even though your intention was good, the process was wrong.

So for proper understanding, break down this process into five or six easily understandable steps – as much as you can hold in your mind at a time. Begin like this:

  • Sit down and relax, as they say, “Chill”.
  • All complexities and impurities are going away. Settle down with this idea, with this thought.
  • Then gently bring in this idea: How it is going away? From where? You bring in each step then you don’t have to struggle. And once the smoke or the vapour starts ejecting from the back, you accelerate this process. The way you accelerate the pedal on your scooty or in your car, you accelerate this ejection of smoke or vapour from the back.
  • Having accelerated that process you will find that cleaning has really speeded up and in no time you will feel lighter, and that is when you bring in the Master’s presence. And you imagine that the divine current is coming from him and is helping you complete this process of cleaning.

After some practice of this cleaning, you will understand that no longer do you need to suggest to yourself all these five or six steps. The moment you close your eyes it starts happening on its own. Now you don’t have to use words.

Prayer

The same thing on the prayer: ‘O Master! Thou art the real goal of human life. We are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement…’ These are all words. These words must be able to invoke some sort of feelings in your heart. Once those feelings are there, you don’t need words. A time will come, and I pray for you all that the time comes soon, that you don’t need to use words. You close your eyes and prayer is offered, creating a state of prayerfulness. And hopefully a state will soon arrive that the half-second or one second that it took me to offer my prayer expands into twentyfour hours, where you can always remain in a prayerful state, where your Master is always in focus. You are always in tune with yourself, praying to maintain that condition that you have.

On one side you are in a prayerful state, on another side you are maintaining the condition and allowing it to grow. During your daytime, when these two things are going on at the same time – you may have been studying, you may be learning something, you may be watching television or you may be in the toilet, maybe taking a shower, eating breakfast, being with your friends, partying – the inner connection is always there. So that is the beauty of Sahaj Marg. It doesn’t take away any of our time. When we have mastered the practice, we will notice that it requires less and less time from us, but it will remain a twenty-four hour business.

During the night-time prayer, as I said, each word of this prayer should be able to tinker some sort of feeling in our hearts. Follow that feeling, contemplate on those feelings, and sleep in that mood. I advise you, I recommend, rather, for you to have some sentimental relationship with Master Chariji now. What sort of sentimental relationship you would like to develop depends on each one of you. Some of you may consider him as a grandfather, a father, a friend, or a guru or a guide. Take him as you please, but when you go to sleep, if you treat him as your father, hold him in your heart, hold him in your lap or rather imagine that you are sleeping in his lap. If he is your guru, keep him in front of you. Prayerfully request him to guide you even during your sleep and pray to him that as soon as you get up in the morning, you will meditate better than you did yesterday.

Our prayers should always be for improvement in everything that we do – whether it is prayer, whether it is meditation or whether it is study, anything. I must excel in everything that I do. His help is always there. I am not trying to psyche you and I don’t want you even to believe me. I want you only to try it, and make an effort. Invoking his presence is good enough. Thoughtfully you invoke him and say, “Master, I need your help. Please.” His help will be there.

Become like the Master

I have seen many times, where there have been irreversible situations in my life, I would say, “No, this is a dead end, there is no rescue any more.” And automatically your attention goes towards Master, heart starts beating faster, and surprisingly things simply disappear as if some sort of miracle has taken place. And when you have experiences like this four or five times in your life, then you say, “Oh, okay, enough of these miracles in life.” You get tired of experiences in Sahaj Marg. You get fed up with miracles in Sahaj Marg. The only thing that will remain is this: “I want to become like him.” Become like him means what – the physical Master? We can relate with him, so we can say, “Okay, I would like to become like him,” but not as the Master that he is. Try to see him as a disciple of his Master. If you think that you want to become like Master, then the idea of becoming our Master will start bothering your head. Try to become the good disciple that he was or rather that he is.

When we read Babuji’s autobiography, we get mesmerised. “Oh, wow! He could do this, he could do that.” But when we read his autobiography as a disciple of Lalaji Maharaj, it humbles us and it motivates us. In his diary he has written that he used to do four or five things at one time. As I mentioned to you,

  • He was always connected somehow through his heart with his guru Lalaji Maharaj. He was never apart from him.
  • He would always adjust himself with the present condition that he had and with the condition that was to come. Do you understand what I am trying to say? Or is it too foreign perhaps? Do you get it? We have a present condition right? When you observe yourself after meditation you have a very unique condition and you are trying to hold onto it during the daytime. In an advanced stage what happens, like in Babuji’s case, he was not only observing his inside but he was also waiting for what was to come next, so he was prepared. It is like when you throw a ball, the other person is waiting to catch it. Like that, Babuji was always ever ready to catch that ball.
  • The third thing: being vigilant to his surroundings, “What must I be doing?”

When he became Master, all these things were going on. Then his eyes had 360-degree global vision: “What is happening with this abhyasi, that abhyasi, this continent, that continent.” You don’t have to worry about that part, but your mind has so many channels, it can do so many things at one time.

Constant remembrance

Many people complain, “Oh, constant remembrance – such a difficult thing.” No, not in Sahaj Marg. Sahaj Marg is an absolutely fantastic path. We go wrong because we don’t practise properly. Babuji again used to say, “Constant remembrance is advised because what is required is love.” If you have to define what Sahaj Marg is, it is all about love. It is a love story between yourself and God. In the beginning we don’t know what God is, so it is difficult to fall in love with the unknown. So Babuji said, “When you don’t know God, you bring Master in the picture.” To love Master is also difficult. So he reversed the equation that when you remember your beloved so easily, changing this focus from loving to remembering, your love will automatically follow. But the difficulty is how to remember.

Most of us have this big problem – how to remember this thing called Master all the time? It becomes a burden. It is like a donkey carrying the load. Who wants to carry Master in your mind, Master, Master all the time? It is a problem, and it becomes a torturous job. So what is the solution? Does anybody have the solution for this? The solution is very simple. Again, the old man, Babuji Maharaj, used to say, “It is meditation that is the mother of constant remembrance.” Without the mother there is no child. Without this mother-meditation there is no constant remembrance. When you are so impressed with the experiences that you have during meditation, when you are so impressed with the condition that you have after meditation, you try to retain it. And when you are so impressed by the gifts, spiritual gifts that you receive in the form of conditions, you start appreciating the giver and slowly you start remembering, from the gifts to the giver. And when you fall in love, you don’t know – it just happens afterwards.

I will give another example. I don’t think you can go back to being two or three years of age, but when you first teach your child how to bicycle, you bring a tricycle and help the child by holding that cycle to pedal it properly. From a tricycle, then you bring a two-wheeler bicycle with two trainer wheels at the back, smaller ones. After some practice, what happens? You remove those trainer wheels and he is already on two wheels. Then what happens? He goes to kindergarten or to the school on a bigger cycle. He is able to ride it without falling, without injuring himself. He is able to ride with his friends, and he is chatting away, singing away, watching the traffic at the same time, while not forgetting where he is going. He is at the same time seeing things around, but he is still pedalling his cycle. It is very simple for a child, and it doesn’t take long.

If a mere child can master this simple cycling, we can also do this. What? Pedalling this spiritual condition! Of course we will forget now and then. We will go astray here and there. But if we have really good interest, if we have the intention, if we have the desire that, “I want to maintain this condition,” then, when we get up after meditation we start pedalling with this condition and try to hold on to it, and try to do things around while holding on to this. I start pedalling with this condition during the daytime. I try to hold on to it. I can be doing so many things at the same time but I am still pedalling with this spiritual condition. I don’t let it go so easily. So that is constant remembrance – it becomes so simple.

Attitudes

I have taken up your time with these aspects of meditation, cleaning, prayer and constant remembrance. I also indirectly mentioned to you about what sort of attitudes we have, because practice in itself is a labour process. Bringing in the attitudes of love, humility and prayerfulness helps. When you wait for your girlfriend by the theatre and she doesn’t show up, and she comes just five minutes before the movie begins, what happens? It looks like eternity that, “You didn’t come on time!” You become so restless. Do you have this sort of impatience, and passion for meditation, for inviting Master, during meditation? You must go crazy with this. That is why I said that before you go to sleep you must anticipate your next move of meditation in the morning. Try to suggest to yourself that, “I have to do my meditation. I have to receive something,” not in a very disgusting way, “Oh, I have to do this. Oh God, what am I doing now? I have to get up early!” That is no good.

I will take you to some other anecdotes, some stories, and explain to you why we must create fascination, passion and restlessness towards the practice itself, otherwise there is no point practising. It is a labour; it is a dry practice and you don’t earn anything. Have you seen a labourer on the farm? He is earning his daily wages. But a man who goes to the gym, for example, may be spending just over half an hour a day and he builds up muscles. The man on the farm works the whole day, but he is cursing himself, “I have to work, I have to work,” and he loses his muscles. It is a matter of attitude again.

If you think your practice is a dry thing, and you really curse yourself, “Oh, I have to do it again, papa, mama”; if you are doing it just to satisfy some of your family members, it is better you don’t do it. It is not for you, so drop it. Otherwise you are wasting so much time with your eyes closed, not getting anything, not earning anything. What is the point?

When you do something, you must do it joyfully and cheerfully. When this aspect of joy and cheerfulness comes… I am reminded of the questions Babuji Maharaj asked the medium, who is receiving messages from the Brighter World. She is almost Master’s age, and she is in a wheelchair and she has not gone out of her apartment for the last twenty years or so. She is in her small cubicle. Out of frustration after many years of practice, she asked Babuji, “Where am I?” When she asked this question, it was only to find out how far she had progressed in Sahaj Marg. So Babuji Maharaj answered, “You are on the thirteenth.” Perhaps most of you don’t know how many points we cross in Sahaj Marg. We cross thirteen points, the heart being the first point [chest left side], the second point is here [chest right side], which we call the atma chakra, then the third point, fourth, fifth, sixth; and the thirteenth is on the backside here. So she was very happy, “I made it to the Centre.” It is the Goal. After a month or so Babuji tells her, “You have a weak point. You don’t practise enough.” Now you compare that statement as if it is made to you – you are nowhere, not even on the first perhaps. How much more practice is needed?

After a few months he asked another question: “Do you really enjoy this meditation? If you do, why not do more of it?” If it is so good, if you are really enjoying it so much that you had it once in the morning, wouldn’t you like to have it again at nine o’clock, again at twelve o’clock, again at two o’clock? Of course, we are not saying that you must stop doing other things. You are studying; study is the primary duty.

On another occasion he said, “You must bring about automatism in your practice.” By automatism I understand that Babuji was trying to convey two things with one statement. He meant to say perhaps that you should be in a state of meditation on call at any given moment. The kind of depth that you achieve during meditation, you should be able to invoke that state with your open eyes. That is one aspect of automatism. The second one is that you must fix your timing. And this he re-emphasises in another message, that you must establish a biological clock in your practice.

What does this mean – automatism, biological clock? You must have learnt in school the experiment carried out by a scientist called Dr Pavlov, a Russian scientist. He performed an experiment on the specific conditioning of a dog. In this experiment he used to serve this dog after ringing a bell. He would ring a bell and serve food, the next day ring a bell at the same time and serve food, and the third day ring the bell at the same time and serve food. He conditioned this dog for some time. One day he rang the bell and gave no food. The dog went crazy; he went mad. He was salivating profusely. That is the biological clock. The day you don’t meditate at that specific hour that is conditioned to you, if you are not able to, do you salivate like that dog? Do you miss it? That is the key. So we have a long, long way to go. Start with a resolution that while you are here you resolve to fix your timing for meditation.

Of course, as a parent, I can say that I would be happy if my son or daughter is meditating once a week instead of meditating once a month. And then if they are meditating very regularly every day, I am very happy. But our Masters are not. The Masters will be very happy when you fix your timing. Let us say that you fix your timing at six o’clock, and you stick to your guns and say, “I am going to meditate, no matter what, at six o’clock every day.” You must fix this timing. If you fix your timing at seven o’clock, fine, so be it. It is very important. It is more important than if you meditate one day at eight o’clock, one day at nine o’clock, one day at six o’clock, one day at three o’clock in the morning for two hours or one hour.

It is better to meditate for half an hour regularly at a specific hour. Fix it for yourself and see the change. Try to notice the change that occurs in your heart, in yourself, within a ten-day period. And that is what we are looking for – some sort of discipline in our practice.

If you notice these messages coming from the Brighter World, from Babuji Maharaj, from Lalaji Maharaj, from Vivekananda, and from so many other great personalities who are giving messages to this medium, they are at fixed hours: ten o’clock, eleven o’clock; ten o’clock, eleven o’clock; ten o’clock, eleven o’clock. Very rarely does she receive messages at other times, because of an emergency or some sort of thing. If you see Master’s lifestyle also you will notice that. He has his breakfast at 7.30 in the morning, lunch at 12.30, and dinner at 7.30. If you see his diary as an abhyasi, you will see this tuning in to the clock all the time. When our meditations are predictable, that we meditate at such-and-such an hour – thankfully you are students, but as a businessman or as an employee, you don’t want your boss to call you randomly. Once you tell him that “I meditate at six o’clock”, he dare not call you at six o’clock; he will not disturb you. But if you keep meditating randomly, no one knows when you meditate, no one knows when not to disturb you. So it helps. Fixing timing is very, very important, and even the great Masters will appreciate it. You will also make their life easier so that they know when to come to you and give you some gifts. Fix it.

So I have discussed automatism, the biological clock, and bringing joy into your practice. Another beautiful thing that I learnt from these messages is this, and I appreciated it so much. Babuji tells her that some people have a hard heart, a harsh face, and they repel grace. Then he goes on to say that love attracts; a joyful heart attracts grace easily and naturally, whereas harsh faces repel.

As a businessman, when you have fifty or a hundred employees, you know the difference between each person. There is a spectrum of their facial expressions and their attitudes in work. When someone is always working joyfully, coming at the right time, you tend to like to work with such people, and to have them in your organisation. If a person is always complaining, “Oh, I don’t like this,” “I will not do this,” “I will come whenever I want to,” how long will the boss tolerate it? Not very long. Even if you go away, nobody is going to miss you. But if you are a really, really, really good worker, a really good employee, and you master your work so well, when you leave or remain absent for a day your absence speaks louder than your presence, and then your boss is helpless.

So I must at any cost bring about some sort of regularity, some sort of cheerfulness, and some sort of restlessness in my practice to achieve the highest. You worked so hard only to pass twelfth standard. You must be laughing: “What have I done? That is just twelfth. I still have a long way to go. See how hard I worked.” Then you will graduate. Do you think you have achieved the big thing? No, something bigger is waiting. You need a good job. Life doesn’t end there. You will start a business and it is still not ending. You want to make money, and then you have children. It is neverending. And you worked so hard, eight hours, twelve hours or fourteen hours a day, to lead this material life. I don’t say that you should not do it. You must do it. If you have the capacity to make one million, make that one million. If you have the capacity to make five million, go ahead and make it, but don’t forget this – you must do this spiritual endeavour.

Staying in tune with that pedalling all the time, with that spiritual condition that you achieve in the morning, is not going to disturb your daily business activity or your student activity. In fact, when you are in such a state of different consciousness, a higher level of consciousness, then the time that you spend in working also reduces. It requires less and less time. When you are studying, for example, there is a difference between a person who just reads all the time and a person who reads with a calm, peaceful, composed mind. He is able to absorb in one go, one reading. Others have to read it again and again, again and again.

So through yoga, through such meditation, our actions become, I would not say perfect but nearly perfect. We are striving to become perfect though. Master is also striving his best to achieve that perfection, not only in himself but in his work as well: “How much can I change my work style so that my work becomes more effective?” Everyone is trying their best to make it perfect, better and better all the time.

So this is about Sahaj Marg. I hope when you go back you look at Sahaj Marg with a different eye, with a different perspective, and become more serious about it. I am really hurt when you say you have not read Complete Works of Ram Chandra, Volume I. I beg you please; it is a must. Before you go home finish it.

Now if you have any questions related to the practice, we will restrict ourselves to practice-related questions please.

Changes through meditation

Q: During the meditation, when we say the Divine Light is coming into our heart, how do we feel it? I know we are not supposed to have any image and all that. So I just want to know how to believe that it is coming in?

KDP: First of all, we do not think that Divine Light is coming in. We suggest to ourselves that it is already there in my heart. That is all. It is an assumption. In mathematics some of you may have tackled such problems. Suppose this and this is not this or this plus this is this, and at the end you prove it or disprove it. So when I suppose, assume, that there is Divine Light in my heart, I start with this little suggestion and then at the end of it I prove, “Yes, there is something.” So we go on like this every day, a little something, and then we will see a larger picture one day, little by little.

When children, especially boys, want to build muscles, they go to the gym for one day, two days, and then they get flat, they get tired. Then you say, “Hey, how are your muscles doing?” They are not going to the gym anymore. But there are people who are hardcore. They really go through this vigorous training for three months, six months, two years, three years, and you see the results. It is physically obvious as you can see their muscles. Meditation is also like that. The changes that you go through because of meditation are invisible changes, but you yourself will feel it. When you write your diary you will be able to see what has been happening.

I myself was so surprised by one entry I made in December 2010. At that time that experience seemed very trivial to me. I made an entry that I saw this person during my meditation and we became one. Yesterday by accident I opened it up. My God, it hit me like a rocket. I started crying afterwards. It made such an impact after two years, but when I wrote it, it meant nothing.

I will give another example from my diary. Once I saw a dream. In the dream I had narrated the description of a place. It has a water stream, giant trees around one hundred and fifty feet tall, a big canopy, a large lawn and a small house. And in that diary of 1979 I had written, “I am seated beside Chari,” that is our Master. In those days he used to be known as Chari. So I had written, “I am sitting beside brother Chari and there were four or five other abhyasis.” At that time I was wondering, “This is a foreign land and I am in India.” I was in Ahmedabad at that time. Never mind, I wrote it down. In 1986 or 1987 we were in Atlanta and Master said, “Let’s go to Albany.” So five or six of us went to Albany in New York State, and the place we visited, surprisingly, was the same as the description that I had written down in my diary. At that time, Chari was not the Master. I had not dreamed that I was in such a place, but it was the exact description. So I recommend you, even if it is mundane, if you see a squirrel, put it down in your diary, “I saw a squirrel.” Maybe you will interact with her later on. Write down whatever you feel in your meditation, or the dreams that you see, the thoughts that you have, the feelings that you go through towards people, towards yourself, towards family members, towards Master, towards God, the books that you read, the movies that you see, so many things.

Thoughts and regulation of mind

Q: When we meditate, sometimes we get loads of thoughts and even if we try to ignore them, it builds up like a story. So by the end of meditation we don’t even remember part of it. So why exactly does this happen?

KDP: This is a constant problem we all face, the rush or tornado of thoughts arising in our minds all the time. Babuji Maharaj has written in Reality At Dawn, in the chapter ‘Ways and Means’, how to tackle this problem of the rush of thoughts. He says that we want to bring our mind to a standstill or thoughtless during the period of meditation, but unfortunately we let it wander like a dog during the non-meditative hours. We think that, having done meditation, the other time we have, the twenty-three-and-ahalf hour remainder period, we can think whatever we want and let our minds wander wherever they go. No, bring them back.

When you have nothing else to do, think that everything around you is absorbed in God. In order for that to happen, I must myself first be absorbed in God, as only then its echo will be felt outside. But having this practice of feeling this absorbency even in outer objects will keep my mind focused. That is the biggest benefit. The second benefit is that you will be able to change and impact the atmosphere, no matter where you go. Whether you go to a theatre or whether you go to some marriage hall or you go to college, you will be able to create a different vibratory state around you only by allowing yourself to think that everything around you is absorbed in God.

It is a very simple prescription, but you will have to try it yourself and then you will see that you will get fewer and fewer thoughts. A time will come and you will say, “Oh, what is wrong with me? I don’t get any more thoughts.” You will complain that, “My mind is blank now. Master, please do something.” So slowly, little by little, it is fine-tuning.

When we are not meditating regularly, when we are an irregular meditator, then we increase our commitment and say, “Okay, I will meditate daily.” Then we fix our timing; then we fix our timing plus our attitudes. So it is always an ever-growing or ever-demanding system. If you are a doing a little today, you go to a next stage with more discipline, more love and more focus. And then the time will come when you will be able to have that echo in others; you will be able to create and impact in others. Whether you are a preceptor or not, you will be able to do it.

So to regulate our minds only during meditation time is a futile exercise. We must be able to regulate them all the time, but we get disturbed during meditation because we become aware of these thoughts. They are rising all the time, but we are not noticing it, we are not cognizant of it. During meditation, we become fully aware of what is happening inside, that is why they speak louder. Sometimes when you go to a preceptor, and thoughts arise even more than the regular meditation, when they are good thoughts of good acts, good deeds, there is a chain reaction. You go after them and they seem to expand further and further, but when there are not so good thoughts, ugly thoughts that you don’t like to surface, “Oh, my preceptor will come to know it. My Master will come to know it,” and then you constrict. “My God, why are these thoughts coming now?” You are struggling, but remember all these thoughts, whether good or bad, are arising from your subconscious to be cleaned out.

During many sittings that we receive from a preceptor, or during the meditation, thoughts do arise. We are not able to identify or recollect actual thoughts. They come from the unknown and they go as unknown. Very rarely you will be able to catch those thoughts and remember and recollect and write them in your diaries. So let them go. But gently remind yourself that you are meditating.

Relax

Relaxing is the best thing actually. You know many people say, “I concentrate.” No, concentration is a bad step. Babuji used to say, “Concentration is a by-product. It is a result of doing meditation.” I will give you one example. When you are on the riverside and you see one wave after another wave of water going, and you are trying to focus and concentrate on only one wave going like this, you will get a headache because you are concentrating. But if you go there as an observer appreciating nature and the water flow and everything around it, you will relax and you will enjoy. But if you want to focus, no, it won’t happen. Concentration is bad. Just relax.

Tendencies

Q: How to remove tendencies? Yesterday, while having a session on cleaning, we understood that while we are doing our cleaning a lot of our samskaras do get cleaned, but tendencies still tend to remain.

KDP: What do you understand by tendencies?

Q: It is a certain habit or a way of doing things that I have been following over a period of time.

KP: Sahaj Marg is very unique in two aspects: one is transmission, pranahuti, that comes from Master, and the second is this aspect of cleaning – cleaning of samskaras, things that we did, we thought about, and many times things that we did not do on our own but the surrounding impacts us. Suppose if you had gone to some undesirable place, you would come back with some impressions on your mind.

Babuji gives an example of water flowing through a river. Samskaras are like removing the water from the river, but when it rains again, the water will start flowing again. So water is like samskaras. The riverbed is the field or the tendency field. It is still there. The only solution for this is to destroy this riverbed altogether. How many can do that? This is possible only if you create a state of the ‘living dead’ condition in your heart. That means you are dead to this world, end of story, but you are still continuing to live. It really does not matter. I go to college because I have to go to college, and I study because I have to study, but whatever I do, I do the best. I meditate because my Master tells me to do it.

Babuji says to become like a dead man in the hands of a dresser. Now what happens when you are to be cremated or to be buried? They dress you up. They give you a bath, and they dress you up properly, but as the dead man you have no choices to be made. The dresser dresses you as per his whim or wish. Likewise, when you become so in this actual world, you can hope then that you won’t have tendencies left. The solution is cultivating this living dead state of mind or condition in the heart. It is a very high state. It is possible. It is easily achievable. It is a simple thing – meditate, retain and and grow. That’s all; that is all there is to it.

One step will take you to the next step. If you have to climb, if there is a ladder from here to there, maybe there are twelve steps, but you don’t want to take all twelve steps in one jump. Take one step at a time. Practice first. Everything will come. When you are driving in a foggy atmosphere in the mountains, you say, “I am not going to drive because I can’t see anything,” but start driving. You will see something in ten feet. Drive slowly and again the way will become clearer for you as you drive or as you walk. But if you say, “I am not going to walk,” you won’t see the clearer path and you won’t reach anywhere. Sahaj Marg is also like that. We are always walking with faith in our own abilities, not in God’s or in Master’s – in our own abilities, our own belief, own trust and confidence. Invoke that. Whatever Master or God has to do, it is their business, but I must do my part well. When I do my part well, they will; I am sure they will.

Reading our condition

Q: How do we read our own conditions?

KDP: First have a condition, and then we read. First, create the condition, and it will speak to you. Now it is so unfortunate, because I had a lot of things to share based on the Heart and Cosmic Regions, the Para-cosmic and Centre, and all that, but I can’t talk on those and this question goes in that line, actually. I only urge you one thing: after morning meditation, cultivate this habit of reading your condition. Retaining the condition is done that way only. Unless you read your condition, you are not going to retain it, and when you read you may not be able to give names to it, but you will be able to recall it during the daytime. “Oh, yes, I felt like this in the morning,” And if it is so impressive, then even after one week you will say, “Oh, last Friday’s meditation was like that.” We need not give names to it, but we should be able to recall what we felt.

Master and God

Q: When we meditate we are told to ignore our thoughts, but if these thoughts are about Master then should we ignore them too?

KDP: This is called a spin ball in cricket. She has spun a ball towards me. Okay, let’s see how we play now. I would say when the thought of Master comes, at that time you should be able to distinguish whether it is your imagination or the thought is emerging on its own.

When you go back to your home and you start imagining Master in the library, Master in the cottage, Master at ‘Gayathri’, this is called indulgence. You are straying away from meditation. But when the thought arises ‘O Master’, and his spiritual state appears to you, then go for it. Hold him at that time; hold that state.

I always urge that we must never make God out of Master. Never. Otherwise we are bringing religion again into the spiritual world. No doubt he is godly, but not God. We are also trying to become godly, isn’t it? We will never become God, but we can always try to become godly. He is divine; he is not Divinity. We can also become divine; that is the endeavour that we have in Sahaj Marg. We don’t want to become the Master, but we would like to become like Master in his attributes, not in personality.

I have often seen that when many abhyasis talk so highly of Master to their relatives or friends, they go away. Why? Instead of serving them and bringing them to Sahaj Marg, they are actually repelling them. So talk about how you feel about the practice, and about yourself. Let’s not talk about Master to a stranger. Talk about the process, the practice, and its efficacy. Let them experience Master in their practice when they become abhyasis – we don’t have to tell them. Even if we tell them that my Master is like this, what difference does it make to them?

Once someone asked Babuji Maharaj a question: “Can you show me God?” Babuji said, “Suppose if I show you God, how will you recognise it is God?” So when we talk so highly of your Master, what difference does it make to that person unless and until that person actually experiences it? So we have to facilitate by talking about the practice. Tell them, “Please try it. It might help you.”

The first samskara

I will ask you one question. I will give you six months to think over and answer. You will find the answer somewhere in the Sahaj Marg literature I hope. Before I put this question, I will give you the situation. When the universe was created for the first time from the Source – let’s call it the Source or God or the Centre, as it doesn’t matter what you call it – it was created, and humans came into existence. We don’t want to go into how they were created, but they came into existence. Samskaras started forming and we all formed the first samskara. Naturally, when you form something, it has to start with something. You had a first samskara, she had a first samskara, he had a first samskara, I had a first samskara, and Masters created the first samskara. And this first samskara was common to all of us. What was the nature of it?

So with this we end. If you feel like it, you can write to me at kamlesh@srcm.org with your answer or even if you don’t get the answer after six months say, “Brother, I could not find the answer. Please tell me what it is.” So we will discuss it then. But I wish you all the best in your careers, in your family life, and I urge you to surprise your friends and your parents. Practice in such a way that you put your parents to shame. Do something better than them.

Thank you all.