Message on Babuji Maharaj's Birthday Anniversary

by Chariji, April 30, 2010, Tiruppur, India.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I have received three messages from my beloved Master, which I would like to read out to you. I have to be slow because of my eyesight. Please hear carefully and patiently.

The first message, dated April 19th, 2010 (that is the day of his ascent to the Brighter World which we call the mahasamadhi day), Babuji says:
Our Mission is at a crossroads in its history; many steps have already been taken but it has yet to conquer the world, the hearts, and the minds of many people waiting for this kind of energy, which is quite special. The time has not yet come when it — this vibration — may be perceived and valued at its true worth. Some of our abhyasis, more sensitive than others, have begun to perceive their own subtlety, with respect to our principles and the messages that are given to them with the aim to precisely develop in them this ability to perceive the essential. Everything works in our way towards this flowering of the soul in its aspiration for the divine, the ultimate goal of its journey.

They are given the basic elements from the outset; it remains for our candidates (our abhyasis) to grow through their efforts and perseverance. This valuable asset is available to them. There are no long, no big shows; our method goes to the main thing, to the point, through interiorization, through regular practice as well as the assimilation of the principles characterizing it. Its benefits will become apparent with time; they will become obvious by the grace of God. Therefore everyone is responsible according to their faith in Him and in us, for the good of all. —Babuji Maharaj.

It is fairly clear, I mean it is obvious, that the onus for our progress, the responsibility for our progress, is very definitely on us. The Masters provide what have to be provided: the Master, the Mission and the method (the three M’s of Sahaj Marg). It is up to us to utilize them with diligence, with perseverance, with faith, remembering what Babuji said — the three great requirements for a sadhak, for an aspirant, for a devotee: love for the Master, satsangh with the Master, and obedience to the Master. There is no fourth requirement.

I would like to emphasize here that in many of his talks and my private conversations with him, he said love is for God alone. Love is not something which human beings can share, or pretend to share, or even aspire to share. Love is for Him. What prevails among us human beings in our togetherness is familiarity, affection, dependence. Mutual dependence keeps us together, but when two hearts are pulsating with the same aspiration to reach Him… That is why we perform marriages in Sahaj Marg — bringing two hearts together where the goal is the same, where both love the Master, where both are dedicated to this practice. Then the possibility of their affection, their dependence, flowering into something more approaching love, divine love, comes into being.

So let us realize that what governs our existence on earth, our relationships with men, with women, with children, with elders, with abhyasis, is a mutuality of interests. And that is epitomized principally, solely and essentially in our gatherings such as this one, where thousands of hearts aspiring to the same goal, following the same method, loving hopefully the same guru, gather together. Babuji Maharaj once told me this is not additional series: two plus two plus two is six. But when three people sit and meditate together devotedly, with their sole concentration on their practice, it is two multiplied by two multiplied by two, which is eight. So you see, there is a sort of exponential growth of the power that we bring to our meditation, to our practice, which brings the divine grace upon us, and therefore we practice, we progress much faster, much speedier to the goal, which then becomes achievable in this lifetime.

Remember, Sahaj Marg says, the goal must be achieved in this lifetime, not in several lifetimes. Many religions talk of that, many other sansthas preach that, that this is not possible in one lifetime. Babuji Maharaj said, if it is not possible in this lifetime, where is the guarantee that there is another lifetime? We don’t know for sure that there is another lifetime ahead of us. Many religions don’t believe in more than this life. So, you see, belief in this sort of thing is nonsense. I am here, my guru is here, and the practice is available. Now in this lifetime if I don’t achieve it, it will be the highest stupidity, the greatest weakness in my endeavour, and the loss of my aspiration diverted to other goals of merely worldly endeavour, worldly achievements, which will petrify me into this existence, bringing me here again and again.

I now read the second message, which is dated yesterday, the 29th, and this message lays very great emphasis on these bhandaras.

This gathering of faithful souls here below is touching.

It is touching in the sense that our aspiration, our common love for Him, reaches them and touches their very heart. It is not touching in the sense that they pity us or they notice us. It touches them. It touches them vitally, in a way that makes them respond to us.

A true love song rises up to us. The birthday celebrations are valuable in this sense: to unite the hearts with a noble purpose. So many ugly things on this earth characterize it.

That means, characterize the earth and our lives.

This space reserved in our way, Sahaj Marg, is valued by us all here, up in the Brighter World and in the divine realms. May it never lose its place in the rituals of its own and be preserved in its full scope.

Babuji Maharaj, again and again in his messages, emphasizes the fact that Sahaj Marg has been given to us in a complete form, and we should not dabble with it, change it, modify it in any way.

…preserved in its full scope.

Beyond this birth anniversary celebration, it is the whole Mission that rises to the occasion; it attracts the divine flow, illuminating the hearts. Be thanked, my dear son, for granting the event this place of choice in the course of your days. We bless you as well as all our brothers and sisters mindful of the special anniversary. We praise you, dear Parthasarathi, for keeping the sacred fire going.

There are other messages in which he emphasizes that the fire has to be kept going, not by just one person but each one of us, using our heart as the homa, the homa kunda, you know, where the fire is burning and periodically where in the external ritual, the priests pour ghee (clarified butter) into it. Here we keep the flame alive by our daily practice, daily sadhana, cleaning it, meditating, prayer. This fire must be kept alive once it is lighted. On the day we begin Sahaj Marg practice, Babuji Maharaj said, this flame, this divine flame — what we call the soul, which we call the prana, you know, which is like a jyoti, tiny, atomic, bowed down without attention, unheard, because nobody talks to it, nobody listens to it, nobody (what shall we say?) consults it: how to lead my life? — that is awakened as if a coal. You blow on it, the ashes are removed and the fire comes up. Thereafter, it is our business to meditate, to clean, and do the night prayer, and keep that fire going.

Now I come to the third message. I am a bit shy of reading this because it is very personal in content. It is dated today, the 30th April, the birth anniversary of the great Master. It is addressed to me personally, and says:
You are a leader of men, my dear son, a born organizer. This dimension gives you a special place in our Mission, where you will keep an iconic stature for centuries to come. Your personality marks people’s minds. We have touched the hearts and you will lift them up to the zenith in the context of a broad liberation movement, long awaited in this world of men, more than ever plagued by uncertainty and greatest confusion since time commenced, time immemorial. A complete transformation must occur to maintain humanity in a status conducive to its elevation, far away from the current criteria. The world is drifting, without morality, without a laudable goal for a majority of human beings, except that of pleasure in all its forms. A poor record indeed!

He is making a... I don’t think it’s a sarcastic comment. It is emphasizing the fact that, if this is all that humanity has achieved, it’s a poor record indeed.

The divine power will overcome these excesses of all kinds. May tomorrow’s world be united for the better in recognition of the unique power without which it would have been reduced to nothing, a long time ago.

He is emphasizing, he is bringing to our attention, that what has held us all together here on earth, even as human beings, whatever we are, however we may be, whatever our spiritual status may be, we are held here by a benevolent divine power which keeps us here so that we may strive again and again to become that which we have to become.

May peace reign in this world and unite the hearts for the good of all. We support you at all levels as far as possible, my dear son. Be calm in spite of everything: we care for you with much love. —Babuji Maharaj.

So the important thing is these anniversary celebrations of my Masters, Babuji Maharaj, parampujya Lalaji Maharaj. I remember my days at Babuji’s feet during his lifetime, when we used to go without fail to attend the Basant Panchami celebrations, not minding the cold, the bitter cold of North India in Shahjahanpur. No air-conditioners, no fires, no heaters; just this ice-cold floor with a dhurrie on top, sitting with blankets to pad us, preserve us from the cold to the extent possible.

I remember the coldest was one 16th January in one year when we were all freezing, and the latest, or the last date I remember was the 12th February, when it was comparatively, but only comparatively, less cold. We bathed in cold water. There was no hot water. We pumped it out from a well, and you cannot imagine, we woke up at three thirty in the morning because there were only four toilets — native Indian dry toilets, no WCs. We had to line up, do our business, bathe in the cold water, and all take our seats before five thirty so that we would have a place quite close to Babuji Maharaj.

You cannot imagine the feeling of the hearts of those abhyasis of those days. They used to burst with love for him. There was no question of our thinking of spiritual growth and Brighter World and all that, you see. When we forget our love for the Master and think of what he can give us, I think we have already fallen from grace, and spirituality becomes a matter of a bazaar. Babuji used to say, “Yeh bazaar ki baat nahin hai [This is not a matter of the bazaar], that you bring something, I give you something. Yehaan lene ki, dene ki baat nahin hoti hai. (This is not a give and take situation.) It is, put everything you have on the maidaan [field] in an effort to get everything he can give you at his will and pleasure, in his own time, when he thinks we are fit for it.

In the last twenty years I have not found that fervour in the hearts of abhyasis. Perhaps it is because we provide too much comfort. Perhaps we should go back to the simplicity of those days: sleep on floors filled with little stones poking into your back, without proper covering for the cold — not catering to some sort of social elite. Sahaj Marg preaches simplicity of life, basic essentials which Lord Krishna has promised to Babuji Maharaj: food, shelter, clothing. Not five-star hotel food, not mansions to live in, and not Armani dresses and things like that.

The Mission cannot lower its standards because, Babuji said, try to make them as comfortable as possible so that they can sit comfortably without being bothered by physical features which will interfere with their meditation. But you, each one of you in your individual life, must strive to become simple, reduce your needs, simplify your wants, remembering that Babuji Maharaj has assured us that our needs will be fulfilled; our wants are not relevant to the picture at all.

I pray for you all. May He bless you on this auspicious occasion. Thank you.