Bulletin No: 2018.51 - Saturday, 20 October 2018

International Youth Seminar – part 4

18 August, Kanha Shanti Vanam

This report can also be viewed at https://kanha.sahajmarg.org/iys-2018-part-4

The morning of the 18th dawned with the fragrance of culmination. This special seminar, a journey in itself, concluded with a satsangh, after which Daaji gave a short heartfelt message:

Let’s Play Our Part

Good morning dear friends,

Pranams.

Most of you will be leaving very soon. This place will be lonely without you; we’ll miss you. I hope you will come back soon, bringing your friends and families, even if they are not meditating. Whenever you have free time or a vacation, visit Kanha.

What message do we carry? All throughout the sitting, my prayer has been “May all of us intensify our practice and truly become sincere about what we want,” not only as a superficial wish, or a superficial desire to become a good human being, but with the inner cry that, “I must become a vehicle of God.” It should be a heartfelt sincere prayer and to fulfil this prayer we must intensify our efforts. That is the only role we can play. The rest is Their Grace, Their compassion, Their mercy upon us. It is Their business. Let us play our part with a lot of love. Thank you all.

Awareness-based Human Flourishing

The last session of Vasco’s workshops culminated in open hearts, open minds and fearless will. While everyone shared their most heart-touching experiences and moments of joy, love and light they had celebrated in Kanha, the air was ripe with the promise of returning and the resolution of deepening and spreading the essence of the seminar.

This session flowered on the ideas of ‘paying it forward’ and ‘paying it back’. Everyone hoped to pay back with gratitude and bring more smiles to people. While each one of the participants embraced togetherness, collectively we shifted from ‘me’ to ‘we’, from scarcity to abundance, from fear to courage and from darkness to light.

Bidding Farewell

At noon, we visited Daaji to bid him farewell. As always he greeted us with a smile and his warmth immediately lightened our hearts. We all wanted to stay here in Kanha with Daaji, so he expressed his heartfelt wishes for us to return again soon, and continued to grace us with informal conversation and love. His answer to each question brought relief and clarity. The afternoon was full of surprises as Daaji laughed along with us, all the while seeding our hearts and preparing us for a profound meditation that concluded the seminar. Some excerpts from the conversation follow:

Q: Daaji, I have just started the Heartfulness practice, but I don’t feel like doing it.

Daaji: Then leave it.

Q: You are sure?

Daaji: Yes sure. You don’t have to think much over this. Later, when you feel like coming, join again. The gates are open.

After a few moments he saw the young boy sobbing.

Presently you don’t feel like doing it, right? Don’t worry, one day you will feel like doing it again, and I will also help you. You are actually the most interested, otherwise why would you cry, right? Here nobody else has cried, so you are a more deserving candidate. Continue if you can.

Attachment

Q: Daaji, two days ago you said that Sahaj Marg is not about detachment, but then we end up getting attached, and it affects us really badly. How can we bring about the balance?

Daaji: Think of attachment in the sense of loving your family, and then expanding that true love for others, where you include everyone, including a dog, a tree, an ant and even the clouds. Also, when you are all alone in your home, nobody is there but that love still manifests.

With detachment, when you want to run away from so many things, you become an escapist. So in that sense we don’t want to become escapists by detaching ourselves. Jakay bhi kaha jaoge, kitne kitne logo ko nahi pyaar karoge? [Meaning, ‘Even if you escape, to where will you escape? How many people will you not love?]

So that concept will restrain your heart and with a restrained heart you cannot have expansion of consciousness. Attachment can also mean to love someone without any expectations. You don’t have to be selfish or possessive in attachment.

Q: Daaji, when we say that our journey is all about love, and love is the fuel for evolution, how does love help us in evolution? What is there in this love, and what is this evolution, which uses this love?

Daaji: To understand how love helps us evolve, how love is the fuel, substitute it with hatred. What happens when you fuel your life with hatred? Now do you get the point?

Q: So is evolution about being love and being pure?

Daaji: Thats all! There is no limit to it.

Be Open

Q: How appropriate is it to time a satsangh or a sitting before it starts?

Daaji: When you give sittings, have an open mind, without the idea that the sitting will end in 30 minutes or 25 minutes. Whatever it takes it takes. Generally it will end in 30 to 40 minutes, but if you put a limit to it there is a problem.

There are certain times, however, when we are working and we make a time bound sankalpa, “May this work be completed in 30 days or 30 minutes.” That is a different type of work.

Q: Daaji, I have been hearing a voice calling my name, and have also seen someone in my peripheral vision. What does it mean? Am I supposed to look for something?

Daaji: If someone is trying to reach you, until that person comes with total clarity why should we bother? It is their problem. If they want to be crystal clear, let them come openly. When you get a message or a communication that’s invisible, discard it. Tell them, “You want to say something to me, or you want to appear before me, come!”

Q: I write the experiences in my diary.

Daaji: There is no need – the whole world knows now!

There was much laughter.

Many-a-time we do encounter such experiences, but we can ignore it or very nicely say, “If you want to come, come in peace. Ase adhaa purdah karke nai, haina, kuch bolna hai sidhe bolo [meaning, ‘Don’t play around. If you want to convey something, do it’], don't whisper.

Subtle Bodies

Q: How are new subtle bodies created and do they play a crucial role in evolution? Trees don’t have manas, so will they not evolve? Or do they need another layer of subtle body to evolve further?

Daaji: Anything below humans will evolve in a natural order.

Q: In their own time?

Daaji: In their own time. Above humans, they also evolve in a natural form and order. Only human beings can use will and change things. Angels cannot fall from where they are, and they also cannot rise higher. We can fall below the human or below the animal level at times, but we also have the liberty and freedom to rise above the angels.

Q: Is it because of manas?

Daaji: It is only because of manas.

Q: So do beings at the higher levels of evolution have manas?

Daaji: They have very refined manas.

Q: So do they have the possibility of falling?

Daaji: After some level you won’t fall. It’s like launching a satellite; when it has gone beyond the escape velocity there is no falling back. It’s on autopilot so it keeps on moving. There is no force that can change its direction.

The Divisibility of the Soul

Q: Daaji, I heard in one of your talks about the potentization of the soul, which happens through Pranahuti, but how is that possible if the soul is already complete?

Daaji: The soul being pure and immutable is as per our Shastras, but in reality it is divisible. In Truth Eternal Lalaji tells us, whether anybody believes it or not, the soul is divisible. This is a totally new concept. No Brahmin would believe it and no Indian philosopher would believe it.

We say it is immutable, right? It doesn’t change quality-wise, but it can increase its potency. For example, purity is there, but it can increase its purity. Otherwise what is the purpose of God sending us out with X potency and us returning back with X potency? The purpose isn’t served.

If you look at it, at the highest level, beings can multiply themselves, and at the lowest level beings can multiply themselves. For example, at the lowest level an amoeba can divide. Now lets look at the plant kingdom. If you cut an acacia and plant a cutting somewhere else, it will not grow, but if you take a cutting of a peepal tree and plant it, it will grow. What does this say? This tree can multiply as many times as you want and every little thing it has can express life; it can become another independent tree. So this is at the lower level. When you see this, what do you think? Is the acacia more evolved than the peepal? Here, the lower the level of evolution in the plant kingdom, the faster and easier it will multiply. As plant life evolves, like the acacia and mango, it requires seeds.

Now look at the human level: if an ordinary human being who isn’t liberated decides, “Let me multiply,” he cannot do it, because the soul is working as an indivisible entity; whereas the soul is easily divisible for those beings who are evolved to a high level. For example if Lalaji Maharaj decides to manifest at multiple places at the same time, he can do that.

Q: So what helps us evolve, the subtle bodies?

Daaji: It’s a combination of everything.

Q: So if Lalaji divides himself into many parts, the subtle bodies will also be divided. Does that mean he has a much greater opportunity for evolution?

Daaji: That is what happens if you can multiply yourself. Just like the guy who has multiple restaurants increases his income.

Q: That’s the idea?

Daaji: That’s the idea! The soul can multiply and manifest and learn a lot through multiple channels, and unite itself at the time of mahasamadhi. We are creating new theories around this.

Q: Daaji, when a baby is born, she possesses all the subtle bodies. What is it that restricts her from thinking for herself or expressing herself during the initial years? What is removed or changes as she ages?

Daaji: You see, we have subtle bodies, but we need a trained mind to express itself. The mind is not well-developed as yet.

Q: And in the previous birth?

Daaji: It was there. The body was well trained, the mind was mature, but now you have recycled yourself again. So the mind has to become all right first. It’s like a computer – you have one program running, then another is running and a third is running, so you have to go on adding more and more memory, and more capacity is given. As we age, for the first few years we acquire more and more capacity and this helps us express ourselves. But even when you are an adult you are not able to express everything that is in your heart, though you have all the subtle bodies. When will that total expression come? It is very difficult.

Babuji Maharaj used to say that words are not sufficient enough to express certain states. So there is also a limitation at the human level for us to express things. But he would say, “I can recreate the same condition in you.” That is possible, and you can experience it, but when it comes to expression it will not happen.

Certain concepts you can share, but if you say to somebody who is not an experienced abhyasi, “Please read Reality at Dawn and decipher the contents,” what will he do?

Q: So is it by experience that it opens up?

Daaji: It opens up. We can understand a few things from Reality at Dawn, but this understanding is also not enough. Once you have experienced it, you can throw away the book. And when we talk of expression, it’s not what we do in our day-to-day life, not that sort of expression.

Q: You mean the perspective?

Daaji: The true perspective, the real thing, what Babuji is talking about in the book. Similarly, children cannot always express their inner state because their heart is not ready yet.

Now, many children that we see these days – they call them Indigo children – suffer a lot in a human body. In earlier days, in the 70s and 80s, we used to bring kitchen gadgets from the US to India, as those appliances were not available in India. They were 110 volt appliances, and when we tried to use them in India they would smoke and burn, as here it is 220 volts. So when a soul with a higher capacity or potency descends into a family with a limited capacity, it is like a 110-volt appliance in a 220-volt power source. They suffer a lot.

Constant Remembrance

Q: Daaji, how to practise constant remembrance? I know about it but still I struggle with it.

Daaji: It’s all right, you will come to it. At least you are struggling with it. That itself is a good thing. Have a constant struggle! It means you are constantly trying to remember him, right? That will become constant remembrance; so keep struggling.

The best way is, when you are starting some work or going somewhere, think that Master is going with you. Connect yourself with Master, that’s all. Meditate thinking that Master is there with you; connect yourself. When you are having breakfast, connect yourself. When you are fighting with someone, connect! So connect yourself all the time. When you go to sleep, that is the best time. There you can have complete connection, and slowly it will change.

I asked the same question to Babuji, because our preceptor told us to keep him busy otherwise he would go into oblivion. So we tried to keep him busy, but I regret the question I asked.
Anyway, the fabricated question I asked was, “How to progress?”
Then I felt like slapping myself.
So Babuji, who was a very nice guy, said, “Constant remembrance.”
Just these two words.
Then I asked, “How to?”
He said, “Connect yourself again and again,” and then he elaborated that each time you change your activity, connect yourself.

Meditation followed by Daaji retiring for the day

And so the journey of this beautiful seminar ended, but its essence has continued to take shape in all of our hearts. For a week Kanha embraced us and nurtured us while Daaji showered us with love. Each one of our hearts changed invisibly, each and every day, giving birth to a visible transition by the end of the seven days. The light in our hearts glows brighter as it continues to strengthen the essence. The messages of this seminar and our spirits are enthused to carry them forward.

International Youth Seminar – part 4

18 August, Kanha Shanti Vanam

This report can also be viewed at https://kanha.sahajmarg.org/iys-2018-part-4

The morning of the 18th dawned with the fragrance of culmination. This special seminar, a journey in itself, concluded with a satsangh, after which Daaji gave a short heartfelt message:

Let’s Play Our Part

Good morning dear friends,

Pranams.

Most of you will be leaving very soon. This place will be lonely without you; we’ll miss you. I hope you will come back soon, bringing your friends and families, even if they are not meditating. Whenever you have free time or a vacation, visit Kanha.

What message do we carry? All throughout the sitting, my prayer has been “May all of us intensify our practice and truly become sincere about what we want,” not only as a superficial wish, or a superficial desire to become a good human being, but with the inner cry that, “I must become a vehicle of God.” It should be a heartfelt sincere prayer and to fulfil this prayer we must intensify our efforts. That is the only role we can play. The rest is Their Grace, Their compassion, Their mercy upon us. It is Their business. Let us play our part with a lot of love. Thank you all.

Awareness-based Human Flourishing

The last session of Vasco’s workshops culminated in open hearts, open minds and fearless will. While everyone shared their most heart-touching experiences and moments of joy, love and light they had celebrated in Kanha, the air was ripe with the promise of returning and the resolution of deepening and spreading the essence of the seminar.

This session flowered on the ideas of ‘paying it forward’ and ‘paying it back’. Everyone hoped to pay back with gratitude and bring more smiles to people. While each one of the participants embraced togetherness, collectively we shifted from ‘me’ to ‘we’, from scarcity to abundance, from fear to courage and from darkness to light.

Bidding Farewell

At noon, we visited Daaji to bid him farewell. As always he greeted us with a smile and his warmth immediately lightened our hearts. We all wanted to stay here in Kanha with Daaji, so he expressed his heartfelt wishes for us to return again soon, and continued to grace us with informal conversation and love. His answer to each question brought relief and clarity. The afternoon was full of surprises as Daaji laughed along with us, all the while seeding our hearts and preparing us for a profound meditation that concluded the seminar. Some excerpts from the conversation follow:

Q: Daaji, I have just started the Heartfulness practice, but I don’t feel like doing it.

Daaji: Then leave it.

Q: You are sure?

Daaji: Yes sure. You don’t have to think much over this. Later, when you feel like coming, join again. The gates are open.

After a few moments he saw the young boy sobbing.

Presently you don’t feel like doing it, right? Don’t worry, one day you will feel like doing it again, and I will also help you. You are actually the most interested, otherwise why would you cry, right? Here nobody else has cried, so you are a more deserving candidate. Continue if you can.

Attachment

Q: Daaji, two days ago you said that Sahaj Marg is not about detachment, but then we end up getting attached, and it affects us really badly. How can we bring about the balance?

Daaji: Think of attachment in the sense of loving your family, and then expanding that true love for others, where you include everyone, including a dog, a tree, an ant and even the clouds. Also, when you are all alone in your home, nobody is there but that love still manifests.

With detachment, when you want to run away from so many things, you become an escapist. So in that sense we don’t want to become escapists by detaching ourselves. Jakay bhi kaha jaoge, kitne kitne logo ko nahi pyaar karoge? [Meaning, ‘Even if you escape, to where will you escape? How many people will you not love?]

So that concept will restrain your heart and with a restrained heart you cannot have expansion of consciousness. Attachment can also mean to love someone without any expectations. You don’t have to be selfish or possessive in attachment.

Q: Daaji, when we say that our journey is all about love, and love is the fuel for evolution, how does love help us in evolution? What is there in this love, and what is this evolution, which uses this love?

Daaji: To understand how love helps us evolve, how love is the fuel, substitute it with hatred. What happens when you fuel your life with hatred? Now do you get the point?

Q: So is evolution about being love and being pure?

Daaji: Thats all! There is no limit to it.

Be Open

Q: How appropriate is it to time a satsangh or a sitting before it starts?

Daaji: When you give sittings, have an open mind, without the idea that the sitting will end in 30 minutes or 25 minutes. Whatever it takes it takes. Generally it will end in 30 to 40 minutes, but if you put a limit to it there is a problem.

There are certain times, however, when we are working and we make a time bound sankalpa, “May this work be completed in 30 days or 30 minutes.” That is a different type of work.

Q: Daaji, I have been hearing a voice calling my name, and have also seen someone in my peripheral vision. What does it mean? Am I supposed to look for something?

Daaji: If someone is trying to reach you, until that person comes with total clarity why should we bother? It is their problem. If they want to be crystal clear, let them come openly. When you get a message or a communication that’s invisible, discard it. Tell them, “You want to say something to me, or you want to appear before me, come!”

Q: I write the experiences in my diary.

Daaji: There is no need – the whole world knows now!

There was much laughter.

Many-a-time we do encounter such experiences, but we can ignore it or very nicely say, “If you want to come, come in peace. Ase adhaa purdah karke nai, haina, kuch bolna hai sidhe bolo [meaning, ‘Don’t play around. If you want to convey something, do it’], don't whisper.

Subtle Bodies

Q: How are new subtle bodies created and do they play a crucial role in evolution? Trees don’t have manas, so will they not evolve? Or do they need another layer of subtle body to evolve further?

Daaji: Anything below humans will evolve in a natural order.

Q: In their own time?

Daaji: In their own time. Above humans, they also evolve in a natural form and order. Only human beings can use will and change things. Angels cannot fall from where they are, and they also cannot rise higher. We can fall below the human or below the animal level at times, but we also have the liberty and freedom to rise above the angels.

Q: Is it because of manas?

Daaji: It is only because of manas.

Q: So do beings at the higher levels of evolution have manas?

Daaji: They have very refined manas.

Q: So do they have the possibility of falling?

Daaji: After some level you won’t fall. It’s like launching a satellite; when it has gone beyond the escape velocity there is no falling back. It’s on autopilot so it keeps on moving. There is no force that can change its direction.

The Divisibility of the Soul

Q: Daaji, I heard in one of your talks about the potentization of the soul, which happens through Pranahuti, but how is that possible if the soul is already complete?

Daaji: The soul being pure and immutable is as per our Shastras, but in reality it is divisible. In Truth Eternal Lalaji tells us, whether anybody believes it or not, the soul is divisible. This is a totally new concept. No Brahmin would believe it and no Indian philosopher would believe it.

We say it is immutable, right? It doesn’t change quality-wise, but it can increase its potency. For example, purity is there, but it can increase its purity. Otherwise what is the purpose of God sending us out with X potency and us returning back with X potency? The purpose isn’t served.

If you look at it, at the highest level, beings can multiply themselves, and at the lowest level beings can multiply themselves. For example, at the lowest level an amoeba can divide. Now lets look at the plant kingdom. If you cut an acacia and plant a cutting somewhere else, it will not grow, but if you take a cutting of a peepal tree and plant it, it will grow. What does this say? This tree can multiply as many times as you want and every little thing it has can express life; it can become another independent tree. So this is at the lower level. When you see this, what do you think? Is the acacia more evolved than the peepal? Here, the lower the level of evolution in the plant kingdom, the faster and easier it will multiply. As plant life evolves, like the acacia and mango, it requires seeds.

Now look at the human level: if an ordinary human being who isn’t liberated decides, “Let me multiply,” he cannot do it, because the soul is working as an indivisible entity; whereas the soul is easily divisible for those beings who are evolved to a high level. For example if Lalaji Maharaj decides to manifest at multiple places at the same time, he can do that.

Q: So what helps us evolve, the subtle bodies?

Daaji: It’s a combination of everything.

Q: So if Lalaji divides himself into many parts, the subtle bodies will also be divided. Does that mean he has a much greater opportunity for evolution?

Daaji: That is what happens if you can multiply yourself. Just like the guy who has multiple restaurants increases his income.

Q: That’s the idea?

Daaji: That’s the idea! The soul can multiply and manifest and learn a lot through multiple channels, and unite itself at the time of mahasamadhi. We are creating new theories around this.

Q: Daaji, when a baby is born, she possesses all the subtle bodies. What is it that restricts her from thinking for herself or expressing herself during the initial years? What is removed or changes as she ages?

Daaji: You see, we have subtle bodies, but we need a trained mind to express itself. The mind is not well-developed as yet.

Q: And in the previous birth?

Daaji: It was there. The body was well trained, the mind was mature, but now you have recycled yourself again. So the mind has to become all right first. It’s like a computer – you have one program running, then another is running and a third is running, so you have to go on adding more and more memory, and more capacity is given. As we age, for the first few years we acquire more and more capacity and this helps us express ourselves. But even when you are an adult you are not able to express everything that is in your heart, though you have all the subtle bodies. When will that total expression come? It is very difficult.

Babuji Maharaj used to say that words are not sufficient enough to express certain states. So there is also a limitation at the human level for us to express things. But he would say, “I can recreate the same condition in you.” That is possible, and you can experience it, but when it comes to expression it will not happen.

Certain concepts you can share, but if you say to somebody who is not an experienced abhyasi, “Please read Reality at Dawn and decipher the contents,” what will he do?

Q: So is it by experience that it opens up?

Daaji: It opens up. We can understand a few things from Reality at Dawn, but this understanding is also not enough. Once you have experienced it, you can throw away the book. And when we talk of expression, it’s not what we do in our day-to-day life, not that sort of expression.

Q: You mean the perspective?

Daaji: The true perspective, the real thing, what Babuji is talking about in the book. Similarly, children cannot always express their inner state because their heart is not ready yet.

Now, many children that we see these days – they call them Indigo children – suffer a lot in a human body. In earlier days, in the 70s and 80s, we used to bring kitchen gadgets from the US to India, as those appliances were not available in India. They were 110 volt appliances, and when we tried to use them in India they would smoke and burn, as here it is 220 volts. So when a soul with a higher capacity or potency descends into a family with a limited capacity, it is like a 110-volt appliance in a 220-volt power source. They suffer a lot.

Constant Remembrance

Q: Daaji, how to practise constant remembrance? I know about it but still I struggle with it.

Daaji: It’s all right, you will come to it. At least you are struggling with it. That itself is a good thing. Have a constant struggle! It means you are constantly trying to remember him, right? That will become constant remembrance; so keep struggling.

The best way is, when you are starting some work or going somewhere, think that Master is going with you. Connect yourself with Master, that’s all. Meditate thinking that Master is there with you; connect yourself. When you are having breakfast, connect yourself. When you are fighting with someone, connect! So connect yourself all the time. When you go to sleep, that is the best time. There you can have complete connection, and slowly it will change.

I asked the same question to Babuji, because our preceptor told us to keep him busy otherwise he would go into oblivion. So we tried to keep him busy, but I regret the question I asked.
Anyway, the fabricated question I asked was, “How to progress?”
Then I felt like slapping myself.
So Babuji, who was a very nice guy, said, “Constant remembrance.”
Just these two words.
Then I asked, “How to?”
He said, “Connect yourself again and again,” and then he elaborated that each time you change your activity, connect yourself.

Meditation followed by Daaji retiring for the day

And so the journey of this beautiful seminar ended, but its essence has continued to take shape in all of our hearts. For a week Kanha embraced us and nurtured us while Daaji showered us with love. Each one of our hearts changed invisibly, each and every day, giving birth to a visible transition by the end of the seven days. The light in our hearts glows brighter as it continues to strengthen the essence. The messages of this seminar and our spirits are enthused to carry them forward.