WHY WANDER THROUGH LIFE?
Why wander through life? Why must your boat drift along without a rudder? You have your rudder but hook it on or screw it onto your boat, and then you steer the ship, and there is no more wandering through life but a planned journey through life. By planning, I do not mean any minute detail that has to be accurately worked out, but you have an overall picture like an artist doing a painting. He has an overall picture in his mind, but as he goes along with his brush, the picture changes, and he might come up with something different from his preconception. Or as a poet that writes a poem and has just one little thought floating in his mind and from that one thought, on he goes, and he reaches different dimensions because the composer or the poet goes beyond the conscious mind and by going beyond the conscious mind and to a higher level of his mind, he tunes in with that which we know as the universal mind. All thoughts and everything are floating around just for us to tune in and pick it up. As the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun, which is true. So, the poet, artist, or musician just draws from what already exists. Then, he brings it down to the conscious level of his mind, and because of his impressions, experiences, and the inhibitions that he might have, he interprets it in a certain way.
TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT INHIBITIONS ARE INHIBITING
People are always concerned very much about inhibitions. To be concerned about inhibitions is inhibiting. Why be concerned about inhibitions? Because the more you mull over it, the more you think about it, the deeper it becomes implanted in your subconscious mind.
Naturally, you and everyone else living in this world are, to a certain extent, governed by the environment, governed by conventions. Why allow yourself to be governed by conventions? Be unconventional. That does not mean running down naked through Oxford Street, but letting life be like a poem, free in expression yet bound by meter and total freedom in expression. If you observe the meter of life or the various bondages placed upon you, like the football field so many yards long and so many yards wide, and once you kick the ball over the line, it is outside, those are the boundaries you are born with. But do not let the conventions of life make a football of you. That is the idea. So, within that boundary of the field, you play your game in freedom and play the game for the sake of the game because there is no such thing as winning or losing. What is winning, and what is losing? You scored three goals, and the other team scored two. That must not bother us. Win or lose, just play the game of life. After all, what are you going to do with the winnings? You come naked into this world, you go away naked, and all that which is in between is a gift. Enjoy the gift.
TO GET RID OF INHIBITIONS, TRY TO LIVE FOR THE MOMENT
Start enjoying the gift of life. There will not be any place left for those inhibitions because inhibitions or repressions are boundary-creating, and those boundaries are in your tiny little conscious mind. You think it is that small, little conscious mind that thinks. But is your conscious mind thinking, or is it just swayed by past impressions and the circumstances around you?
How many thoughts does a person think that are original? If they were original, they would be creative, and creativity knows no inhibitions. So, we are using this gift of the mind as a stumbling block, but it can also be used as a tool if we, throughout the day, just half a dozen times perhaps, just watch our thoughts, and if you watch them, you will know hey, what have I been thinking about in this past five minutes. You know what? It is rubbish because it is of no importance. It has become the past, and analyzing all those thoughts just half a dozen times a day takes a few minutes, then you will find that you are either thinking of your dress or what you were doing last night. Fine. Okay. It was then. You think of this, or you think of that. This morning you got up, what did you think? Ah, we had such a lovely time last night. Show me the creativity of it. You had a lovely time, and it was then. So why use this mind in all the thoughts that are gone? Why project it into the future?
The best way to eliminate inhibitions is to try to live for the moment. How can you do that? It is to start with just half a dozen times a day. What did I think two minutes ago? You reflect on that. Do it for a little while, and it will become an ingrained habit with you of self-analysis. The inhibitions you suffer from will be lost, and you will live in the moment because inhibitions are of the past, and impressions are of the past. Right, and number two, as you all know, Meditation, Gurushakti, Pranayama. Things like that help because it takes your mind away.
WHEN YOU ARE JUST IN THE FLOW, THERE IS NO PLACE FOR INHIBITIONS
I do not know if I should discuss these things, but you are talking about inhibitions, and this is one of the most significant inhibitions. Through scientific research, we have discovered that forty percent of the world’s women are frigid, and thirty-eight point four five, if I remember correctly, let us say just thirty-eight points of men at a particular time become impotent. This is the greatest thing in people’s lives because it is the strongest urge, and they worry about it, and the worry makes them more impotent. I could tell you that no man in the world could ever be helpless, even if you are seventy. But your thinking and mulling over it makes you feel impotent. So why mull over it?
This man approached me and asked, “Guruji, what must I do?” I say, “Try this. While in the preliminary lovemaking with your wife, try to do a bit of Gurushakti. Draw upon the power of Grace. Do a little bit of Pranayama; she does not need to know. You can even do Pranayama while kissing her. Yes, you could.”
I am drifting aside now, but people do not know how to kiss. They only know one facet of it. Lips meeting lips is not necessarily kissing. Have you ever tried a prana kiss? A prana kiss is something where you are very close to your spouse and exchange your breathing. When she exhales, you inhale; when you exhale, she inhales. A beautiful rhythm develops between two lovers. Try it out. Two things happen in this. You create this beautiful rhythm, and by expanding it, both of you forget yourselves.
So, I told him these things. “Your inhibitions and inability to perform are because you bring that to your consciousness while embracing your wife or whatever. But while you are in this rhythm, those thoughts are gone. You are involved in the rhythm, not conscious, and just flow. Then where is the place for inhibitions? Of course, this requires a bit of practice. And you know I am an efficient person. You can take the highest philosophies and thoughts and bring them down to a daily practical level. I would never promise a person I will show you God. But I promise a person I know how to make you happier and put you on the path to God, but you have to walk yourself. I will be behind with a strap sometimes to prod you on.
OUR ATTITUDES TOWARD LIFE IS SO IMPORTANT
So, inhibitions cause some of life’s most incredible things and beauties. Inhibitions produce all kinds of phobias, for example, which should not be there which are unnecessary. They create unfounded fears, for, after all, what is there to fear? There is nothing to fear, and the fear people have is mostly in their minds; if you are getting a bit old, you fear death, and even while you are young, you fear losing your job, you fear losing your loved one. These are fears. Why not just have the attitude, so what, damn it. After all, I am going to die in any case. So, what is the difference if it is today, tomorrow, next year, or ten years later? I will lose my job, so what? I have enough confidence in myself to find another job. It must be a lazy bum that cannot find a job.
Although, of course, the country is going through a recession, we know that you can create opportunities. For example, two or three people apply for one job and are sitting waiting for an interview. Do you know who will get the job? The man who radiates confidence and, in his mind, he thinks, “This job is mine, and you bloody Managing Director are going to give me this job.” If that thought is powerful enough, you will get it because you are transferring a powerful idea. Even before he goes there, the man says, “Oh, I do not think I can get this job. I do not think I am capable enough.” He goes with these negative thoughts there. How can he get them? Yet he might be a more qualified man than the other.
When I was in business, and of course, it was in the film world, I did make contracts with the cinema owners, and if the following day I had to meet up with a demanding client to sign him up on an agreement, the previous evening I would sit, close my eyes and visualize him. I would visualize him signing that contract, which I would be taking with me, and the visualization became so powerful that I would even see what clothes he had on. And the following day, I would go without any argument, saying, “Johnny, I have got your contract; come on, I am in a hurry.” He would say, “Sure, sure, sure.” And mind you, he would have the same clothes on, that same suit that I saw in my visualization. He would have the same pen. He would be sitting the same way, and he would sign it. And he said, “Oh, I can only give you eighteen weeks.” And I would say, “Sorry, I want twenty-six.” We divide it into weeks, giving various companies so many weeks. The fifty-two is divided up. I said, “No, I want twenty-six.” And it just works.
WE RISE ABOVE INHIBITIONS AND REPRESSIONS BY OUR ACTIONS AND OUR THINKING
The same principle applies to the effects of the so-called inhibitions. Last night, I interviewed a young man in a challenging play, “Mother Courage and Her Children” by Bertholdt Brecht. It is a University production. And I told this young man, “That will be your best direction.” And it is going to be.
Approach life, forget the inhibitions, and forget the impressions that guide certain parts of our lives, but we can overcome it all by having that attitude. You can demand anything in life, and you can have it. Let your demands not be unreasonable. Forget about the inhibitions or the repressions. We rise above these things by our actions and our thinking.
ANYTHING IN LIFE CAN BE ACHIEVED IF WE HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
If something goes wrong or you cannot do something, you say, “Oh, it is a past samskara, and I cannot,” and you give up hope. No. No such thing. You know the story of the spider; it climbed up and up and up, and every time it failed, it still climbed up. Look at this bulb here – Edison failed nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times in making that filament of this bulb that burns, and at the tenth thousand times, he succeeded. Anything in life can be achieved if you have that positive attitude.
Amongst us here is a very young man; he is a millionaire just because he had that ambition and used a bit of his brain. He sits on his backside and thinks now and then, “Oh, let us see now, yah, yah, yah,” picks up his phone to Tokyo, Hawaii, and New York, and where have you and all over and done.
FORGET ABOUT THE INHIBITIONS, AND YOU CAN ONLY SUCCEED
It starts with a thought, forget the inhibitions, and whenever any negative thought comes, you say, “Stop.” You tell your mind to stop and start with something else, even a Chant or Pranayama, anything, and it will get the mind away. For example, you are a qualified television engineer and will start a television business. You just decide, “I will start it, never mind what happens.”
A young man in South Africa was going to open up a little store, but licenses were challenging to get. So, he came to me and said, “What shall I do? I could wait six months to get a license.” I said, “You know what you do. You start your store without a license, and if the worst worsens, you will pay ten Rand fine.
Meanwhile, you will have made quite a few thousand in those six months. Meanwhile, put in your application for the license.” So, by the time the permit came, his store was running, and he was also running to the bank happily. Do you see? Courage and guts, and to live in this world, some ambition has to be learned, determination, a burning desire to achieve, and perseverance. These are the qualities required, and hard work comes on its own.
Forget about the inhibitions, and you can only succeed. I am telling you the story of my life.
You know the meaning of the word “Goodbye.” It means God be with you. God be with you, God bless you. Take care. Not too much of it, though. Do not be too serious because when you are too severe, the snake of inhibitions shows its head.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang: UK 1983 – 21
