Stand United as Abhyasis

by Chariji, December 3, 2010, Chennai, India.

Dear sisters and brothers,

So we come to the final session of this unique seminar, where we have abhyasi sisters and brothers from all over the Far East, the Near East, representing so many racial types, languages, religions, cultures — but with what I hope is one heart. I am expressing this as a hope because Sahaj Marg has been at least in Malaysia and Singapore, I think, from 1977 when my Master personally visited those two places, and visited them again in 1981.

It has taken thirty years to find out something we have known all our lives: that unless we stand united as abhyasis — forgetting personal egos, personal desires about how the Mission should be conducted, personal opinions about our own brothers and sisters — the Mission cannot grow. Which only means to me that we cannot serve more and more human beings of those places. The Mission is not existing for itself; the Mission exists to serve people. That is why we go to all these countries and offer our service (such as it is, such as Babuji Maharaj designed it to be) to serve people of those countries. But if the people want to form groups and politicise the situation to such an extent that we are divided against ourselves, it is a very sad repudiation of all the finer principles of Sahaj Marg, and that one single principle which Babuji said must prevail in our satsanghs, in our assemblies — brotherhood.

I once asked him, "Why don't you say friendship?" He said, "I say brotherhood because generally among brothers there is no friendliness. I want to see brothers and sisters living with love, friendship, harmony." I do not want to name places and people, but all of you here know what I mean, and perhaps you can see my invisible finger pointing here and there. It does not need much intelligence, because we know, each one of us, whether we are cooperating or not. When we have differences of opinion, it means we are not cooperating. When people say, "No, no, this is what Babuji said," "This is what . . ." it means dissension, differences of opinion. When we say, "No, no, I am this and I am that; you are this and you are that," again non-cooperation, division, dissension.

You see one great feature in the United States of America is that they come from so many racial stocks, different cultures, languages, and yet it is one country because they are all American. Our Mission cannot be like that unless we are all Sahaj Margis. We may have been born here, there, wherever it is, you know. We may have been born in different religions, and we are welcome to have our own opinions about how things are run, but that should not interfere with our commonness as one group who are all aspiring to go to the same destination, under the same guide, using the same method and principles. If that is not done, I don't know — quo vadis? Where are you headed?

So you see, it is very difficult to . . . I don't want to be complimentary at all, because one secret I learnt from Babuji Maharaj: whenever he praised somebody, that somebody was on this [downward] path, and the greater the praise, the sooner that man left. I asked Babuji, "What is the secret? Why do you praise, when you do not know whether they are praiseworthy? Or your heart tells you?" He said, "My heart never tells me anything wrong. I praise because I want them to come up to that level of praiseworthiness. And they leave because they know they do not deserve it and they feel guilty and they quit." I said, "Yes, but I am your secretary and when I talk straight and deliver, you know, they also leave." He said, "Yes, because they still feel guilty. They know in their hearts that they are doing what they should not be doing. They are creating groupism within the Mission. They are disobeying the principles of Sahaj Marg, its maxims."

So he said, "You know, it is necessary that there are annual storms, high winds, to clear the dead leaves from trees which may otherwise not fall." He said, "This sort of periodic renewal of the forces of life, of regeneration, must be given room." I said, "Well, you know, even as it is with the best treatment, if ten abhyasis join, six at a minimum level leave." He said, "Those who have to stay will stay. Those who leave will surely come back even after four lives. It is His wish that prevails."

But these are all sort of sops to our understanding, to console ourselves with what is happening. Regret remains in the heart, sorrow remains in the heart that so much time has been spent. And, as Babuji emphasised, he was not talking about the time that he spent, though he did spend a lot of time and all the time was his. He gave his life. Pranahuti means (the transmission is called pranahuti), it means offering of life into another life. That is what it is. It is not like some physical or psychic force that is being given; it is life itself that is being given.

And, like a mother when you feed your child, give your life to it, bear it for ten months — don't you give your life to that child? And that is why a mother always regrets; the father can say, "To hell with this boy! He is useless; throw him out." But the mother's heart will not permit it, though it is powerless to retain that son on the way of the straight life, truth, honour, respectability, goal-oriented. It doesn't happen very often. And in the modern world it happens less and less. That is, I suppose, what the yuga lakshana says, the qualities of this yuga, the kali yuga. But we are here to sort of go in spite of the forces of nature. The tendency of the individual human being is to take the easiest way out of every situation, wise or not, goal-oriented or not, evolution-oriented or not — the easiest way, which means less and less of discipline, more and more of indiscipline, less and less of respect, more and more of lack of respect, rudeness. We are familiar with this trend, you know. In my life (it is very long in human terms, but very short in cosmic terms), I have seen standards fall so low that if I give thought to it, it is appalling; even more, it is frightening. Where are we going? Where is the end to this fall?

And in this situation, world situation, global situation, human situation, is Sahaj Marg going to make any difference at all to human lives? Don't answer, because the answer depends on every one of you. You are the people who are going to control in some measure, guide in some measure, however weak, however puny, the forces of regeneration, evolution, and a fresh humanisation, to the extent that we can do. The rest is up to God. But do not forget that every individual human being can change the world; the President of America proves that every day when he walks, when he talks, when he gives messages. That is political power, military power. The soul power is much more, much stronger. It is divine when it is operative. When we use it, each one of us has godly strength in us. But if we just sit down and say, "No, no, what one man can do?" you will go with the rest.

So it is up to each one of you what is the answer to what Sahaj Marg can do in this world — this world full of corruption, of inhumanity, of destructiveness, of acquisitiveness, dictatorship starting from the family to the states. What can we do? Of course, we can do. What is the power of a democracy but the power vested in each individual human being to decide on who will govern us? And what is a government if it has got two parties — one ruling, one opposition as they call it, just to keep the balance. If there is only one party it could become something like what it was in the Soviet Union. No second opinion on anything — nyet. So we need . . . often I think in this world of duality the dualities are created by divine ordinance, by divine will, only to see that there is a balance, because only good alone in this world would also be probably terrible. That is why the two forces have to be balanced; not against each other but with each other. Even good and evil have to cooperate, not in the sense which we mean cooperation, but fight on equal terms, opinion polls, and then go by the general opinion.

Unfortunately, in the Mission wherever groupism has, shall we say, retarded progress very considerably, this idea that we should give in to the opinion of the good, opinion of the wise, their advices, has not prevailed, "No, no, let them say what they want. This is what I say." So you see, there is room for difference of opinion. But it is the good of all that we seek. You are free to express your opinions, but not free to disobey a decision when it is taken only and solely with the intention of doing good to all. I hope this wisdom will appeal to all of you, and you will accept as good human beings, as sensible human beings, educated human beings, that there are as many opinions as there are people, yet one has to prevail and our business is to find what that is.

In Sahaj Marg, it is meditation, evening prayer, night cleaning. This is common to all of us. Wherever we may be, whatever we may be, it does not matter. In this we are united. If we remember this, that we are all gathered here solely with the purpose of meditating together, cleaning together, evening prayer together, all together — which is called a satsangh — we will always be united. If at the same time, I want this, I want that, according to my culture, according to my language, according to my political system in my country; then we are no longer abhyasis. We should go to the political field and raise whatever flag we want to raise, and be content with a mundane human life. It has its own charms, you know. Genghis Khan, Alexander, Hitler, Mussolini — they all have their charm. They are people who are praised for their strength, for their valour, for their conquests. The rapes they carried out are not mentioned because they were too many to even count. If that is the way your mind is inclined, I can only say, take it, God help you, because you are going to repeat it life after life. So we come back until we finish.

But if you are on this side of the line, wanting to evolve out of this human condition full of its promises, and full of its broken promises, filled with envy, filled with glory, filled with power, filled with pettiness; that is what we are trying to escape out of. Isn't it? The dualities of life — a strong man dying of AIDS, a rich man dying with billions in his bank account, a wise man committing the most foolish mistakes, serving two gods or three gods, like famous scientists who developed the atom bomb, or who permitted the development of the atom bomb, by giving the technology out into the open, saying that science cannot be stopped. Is science to work for human good or for its own good?

So you see, even the greatest minds, Nobel Prize winners, when their aim is different, destruction comes, not only on them but on the world. Everybody remembers Hiroshima, Nagasaki. It comes out of men's wisdom, not out of foolishness — out of their intense loyalty to their specific science. It is powerful, and the more power we are, the more the possibility of destruction. "Yes, but it is science, it cannot be helped." So let us beware. That is why in Sahaj Marg there is no power, there is only . . . What is there? Love. Love is a tremendous force. Nobody knows what it can do. But there is no compulsion, there is no destruction.

So if you are willing (I assume you all are) to take the risk of loving your neighbour, loving your friend, loving your lover . . . I say loving your lover too because they are lovers but there is rarely love in between them. There is only sex. It is a common usage in the English language, that ‘they are lovers' means they are sleeping together. That is rampant. You do not have to look for it; you do not have to hunt for it. So that which is found so easily cannot be valuable, it cannot be good.

We are talking of love of the heart. A heart which is so big that it can love you without thinking of your nationality, your language, your sex, your culture, your religion. Lalaji, Babuji Maharaj are great examples of such persons, of such saints. Saints should be known only for the love that they can exercise and which they can use to transform people, to make them evolve — not by the powers they display, or by the tricks they can show, or by the people they can subjugate (remember that disastrous person in Japan who died some years ago, and another in Europe, whose followers could only commit suicide after that guru.)

We want people to grow spiritually, who will follow their guru, live after their guru, live like their guru, emulate. We cannot all become like the guru in our physical nature and form, but this [the heart] can become because this is the easily transformed thing: the heart, which God made the same in all human beings, and which assures all of us that you are one, you shall be one. But in between is: can I do it? So it means, your resolution, your resolve, your commitment to yourself, not to some guru living somewhere, not to ten maxims, but to yourself.

What is my fundamental purpose in having been born here? Was it to meet this and that and hold up this flag or that flag? No. Then what is it? To become more and more human until I am totally human, and then look for divinisation. If that is so, you will have it. Please make sure that is what you have in your heart, because when you have that overwhelming desire in your heart, something which will not stay there, which wants to explode your heart . . . Remember Babuji's life when he was walking five metres to his well to wash, and he had the thought that ‘I must be like Lalaji Maharaj.' And his guru's voice said, "You are already like that." Because when this wish is there, it is realised.

All our life, we are spending in wish realisation. "I want this girl," says this young man; he realises. "I want to eat pizza," says another; he realises. What we call happiness is nothing but wish fulfilment. It does not depend on if it is a good wish or a bad wish, that the result of the fulfilment will tell us. Eat pizza, have three days of diarrhoea; bad wish. Isn't it? Want this girl and suffer with her all your life; bad wish. I want that job and you suffer all your life; bad wish. The only good wishes come from the heart. This [mind] has no power to wish. It should not be allowed to wish. It should only be told to be wise and tell me what can be the consequences of my wish, so that I wish correctly and that this [heart] will confirm.

Please remember this. I hope all of you will think about this, make it part of your life, and grow and evolve. I hope we shall all meet again together here soon.

My blessings to all of you.