MEDITATION REVEALS THE HARMONY WITHIN US, ALLOWING US TO EXPRESS OUR INHERENT DIVINITY IN DAILY LIFE My speciality is meditation, and the purpose of meditation is to bring about harmony between mind, body and spirit. That harmony already exists; all it requires is the conscious recognition and experience of that harmony. What do we mean by experiencing harmony? The answer is simple. It is when you feel peace within yourself, so much peace that all problems can come and yet you remain peaceful. It is like Kipling’s poem “If”, which you all know. Everything can go mad and haywire around you, and yet you preserve your peace, your tranquillity. And this is what meditation aims to do. Through a systematic process of taking your mind to the deeper layers within, you automatically draw on the stillness inside, bring it to the fore, to the outside, and find that peace. It only means quietening the mind, but that is not all that happens. You quieten the mind by drawing on that inner resource, so it also means you are activating it. By activating that inner resource in your daily life, you are living in accordance with the harmonious laws of nature. And the harmonious laws of nature are the truest reflection of that indescribable God. By bringing this inner resource, this inner energy, into our waking state of life and living, it becomes a spontaneous process. You become and you live God. You no longer think of Him. You no longer pray to Him, but you live Him. Then prayer becomes redundant. You have no need to pray because you are living the prayer. You become a living prayer, not just that hour in church or wherever. You become a living prayer. Every breath you take is a prayer. Every word you speak is a prayer. Every thought you think is a prayer. And that can only come about by creating harmony within us. By creating harmony within us, problems will disappear for us personally. Problems will always exist in this world; you can do nothing about them. All these conflicting forces will be there because that is what makes the world go round. But how you view them, by gaining that inner strength and bringing it into active daily life, is your job. If you study history, you will find that many great reformers have failed for one reason; they tried to take man up to God. We are trying to bring God down to man. Buddha made that vital mistake. Buddhism was born in India, and very little of it remains there today, because he wanted to lift man up towards God. It is not practical. You cannot, but you can bring God down into man and make man into a living God. Do you see the difference? And that is what harmony is all about. The spirit we talk about is within; it is nothing else but that Divine power, and we can draw on that Divine power. We do not throw water into a well; we draw water from the well, the well within, the well of love, of compassion, of kindness, of mercy, of joy, and we bring it to the surface, the surface of our day-to-day living, day-to-day life. That is what we are after, and that is what meditation does. MEDITATION AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE We call ourselves a Meditation Society, but that is not all that we do. We do not just teach meditation; we also help people understand what life is really about, and that, in turn, supports meditation, while meditation, in turn, deepens that understanding. It is such a pity that human beings of the world today have so many misconceptions; they should have rather been miscarriages. Before the misconception took place, it should have miscarried; it would have done humanity a greater service. So the aim is to have the proper attitude, the right way of looking at things, and that can only come about by expanding one’s awareness, and awareness expands through meditation. It all works hand in hand, actively modulating and controlling our daily lives, offering all our actions to Divinity, which means offering them to someone you do not yet know. That means sacrificing – sacrificing means surrendering. Do you see how all these things are related to each other? And this can only come about when you bring a certain measure of harmony into your life through meditation. THE ART OF LIVING IN THE WORLD When one surrenders, a sense of non-attachment develops automatically. That does not mean being aloof – there is a great difference between detachment and non-attachment. When you detach yourself, you are running away, escaping. Ninety-nine per cent of the Mendicants, Saddhus, Swamis, and Yogis sitting in some remote cave somewhere in the mountains are escapists. I addressed a large convention of Saddhus in India about two and a half years ago. There was a crowd of nearly thirty thousand people. India has such a vast population that you just need to stand up and shout, and a whole crowd would gather. Among those Saddhus and these so-called Swamis, there were some good ones, but the rest? So I said, “What the devil are you sponging on society for? Do some useful work, whatever work you want to do. You expect to go around from door to door and get your meals for nothing without doing anything? Do you call that non-attachment to life?” One man said, “Yes, but I only own a begging bowl and a staff. That is all I own.” And I said, “Is that all you own, really? Do you not have the desire to get things for nothing? Which is worse, my two-hundred-pound suit or your desire?” So, detachment is escaping. Because they could not face the world, they ran away where no one can touch them, none of the creditors can run after them, or no wife to chase them around – they ran
Facing Life: The Courage Born of Inner Stillness
FIGHT OR FLIGHT When a problem comes into life, there is a natural tendency to take flight; in the fight-or-flight response, people prefer flight. Where does this natural tendency come from, and what is the basic cause of wanting to flee? How has it come into you that you want to fly away, that you want to escape from the problem? The basis would be fear. The basis would be an inner feeling of insecurity and inadequacy. The basic fear is of not meeting up to the challenge, for there is no problem that cannot be solved. Yet the fear remains in man, and he wants to fly away from the problem. By escaping the problem, he does not solve it; he just goes to sleep, and when he wakes up again, or comes back from where he has escaped to, the problem still remains. That is man’s insanity; it is insanity to run away. Man fears losing his ego because what is most often hurt by a problem is his own ego, and his ego is controlled by the various samskaras that he has in his mind. It is nothing but his samskaras that form this ego. Ego does not only mean self-boosting. When we say that a person has a big ego, it does not necessarily mean that he thinks a lot of himself; he might have an ego that makes him think very little of himself. So, ego is normally the stumbling block that stands in a man’s path to face his problem. Because it is only the ego that recognises that a problem exists in the first place, and it is the very ego, by its own recognition, that tries not to solve it but to escape from it. It is like an ostrich digging its head into the ground, and he thinks all his problems are solved. THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF Where does the energy come from, or how could this sense of ego be manipulated so that it could face the problem? Can one say that by not recognising the problem, no problem exists? Man’s mind is not yet conditioned to that state; he has not evolved, he has not developed the awareness to say that this is really no problem. So, in recognising the problem which the ego has created, the ego has to fight it. But having gone through conditions in previous lifetimes, such as in the animal kingdom, the first response of an animal when it is threatened is to run, and if it cannot run, it will attack. If you come across a snake, and I know this by personal experience trudging the various forests and jungles of India, normally when the snake sees you approaching, it runs away until you inadvertently trample on it, then it will turn and bite you. The same thing with all wild animals; they only attack you if you show fear for them, and by you showing fear, they become aware of the fear or self-destruction that is within them, and then they attack. But if you show no fear, they run away. So, this instinct in man to take flight is not only conditioned by this lifetime, but it goes back to those lifetimes when man even existed as an animal and had gone through this whole evolutionary process. So, the fear is instinctive in man, but why it has to remain instinctive in a thinking, rational person becomes totally illogical. Should man operate by instinct, that is more in the department of the animal, and we have the animal in us, and that is why it comes to the fore. So, with man’s intellect and his reasoning ability, he could activate that intuitive side of himself, and by activating that intuitive self, he gets rid of fear. And when you get rid of fear, you do not take flight, because by running away, it only shows how fearful you are of the circumstances. So, the creditor knocks on the front door, and you run away through the back door. Is that going to help? It is not going to pay the bill. I could cite so many examples like that. Why must this happen? What can we do to sublimate this basic instinct into an intuitive quality? When man dives deeper into his mind and regenerates the active conscious mind with that which is within, then fear loses its sting, it loses its value, and it has no power to hurt. The only thing to fear in life is fear itself; there is nothing else to fear. For what is there really to lose if we realise that there is nothing to lose in life, because nothing is possessed by us? You have come with nothing, and you go with nothing. You have only come with your samskaras, and you will only go back with samskaras, nothing else. And samskaras are just certain vibrations. TRANSFORMING FEAR INTO STRENGTH These fears, too, are made up of vibrations, and as we know, vibrations can be altered. They can be shifted from a lower frequency to a higher one, and higher frequencies are normally more powerful and more subtle. So, by heightening the vibrations of lower frequencies into higher ones, we automatically get rid of the lower frequencies which constitute fear, depression and anxiety, and from there we take flight. Yet physically, we are built in such a way that, in case of fear, the glandular secretions increase to be able to cope with it. By increasing the frequency, the glandular secretions will still be secreted and can be used in a far more effective way to fight. There will be no physical or biological changes; they will function in the same way, but the changes will occur in the conscious mind. As I would say over and over again, the conscious mind can be brought to a quiet state by meditation and spiritual practices. This is not only half
Finding Peace Within: When Life Flows Naturally
THE NATURAL FLOW OF LIFE Everything within you is entirely natural. There is nothing within you that is against nature, for being a product of nature, you have to be natural. It is because of the thought processes that go on in your mind that you feel yourself to be unnatural, “un-natural”. Why must a person be unnatural, and why not be one-natural, combining yourself with nature itself? You will feel the beauty of everything around you. You will feel yourself to be one with nature, and when you feel that oneness, there is that joy, there is that happiness that will flow through you automatically and naturally. For the new people who are here, I would like to remind you that I never prepare any lecture. Everything is spontaneous, inspirational and flowing, and that is what I want you to achieve. To flow and not be imprisoned by the mechanisms of your minds. Flow freely, enjoy the flow. Does the river ever get involved in boundaries? No. It flows freely, and so does the sea and the ocean. That is how life has to be lived. If you allow that flow, you become free. Otherwise, you are entangled within the confines of your own personal thoughts. How important are your thoughts? None, at all. ALL THIS IS A CREATION OF DIVINITY The world is perfect, and if Divinity created this world, and if Divinity is regarded as perfect, then His creation, the creation of the Creator, has to be perfect too. So why does a person regard things as imperfect? That is the question. The imperfection lies in the thought processes that you allow to go through your mind, and when you allow improper, imperfect thought processes to go through your mind, then naturally you will find things to be non-perfect. I am forever looking for perfection in things, while the normal person in the world will try to pick out the nits and find imperfections. So, who is making the imperfections? It is you who bring about your vision of imperfection, and that vision is divided by division. “Di” means two, while vision has a oneness. If you stop dividing the vision into division, naturally you will find perfection, because in division you are cutting two things up together. You are cutting one thing into two, and when you cut one thing into two, you naturally form conflicts, and those conflicts work upon your mind and your brain, making you see with dual vision in division. And when you see dual vision, naturally you have to be involved in the conflicts which you regard as imperfection, and yet everything in life is perfect. Are the flowers not perfect? Are the trees perfect? The grass is so perfect, shining in its own glory! And why should you feel imperfect? It is a fixture of your mind; it is fictitious. When you, through the strength gained by your meditations and spiritual practices, realise that nothing will seem imperfect to you, for then you will regard all this as a creation of Divinity. And if Divinity is regarded as perfect, then how can His creation be imperfect? Divinity does not only contain sunshine; it also contains rain. Is sunshine not beautiful, and is the rain not beautiful too? For without the rain, where would there be the grain to feed you and keep you alive? And that very life, in spite of its contradictions, is perfect itself. If you paint a picture and you only have blue there, will that picture not look totally bland or stupid, with only the colour blue? But how about putting in and interspersing, say, yellows or reds, or whatever you might prefer? That would add to the variety of your painting, and could you say that painting is imperfect? No. The general conception is that a total canvas in blue would be perfect, but by adding variety to it, it creates a greater perfection, and that perfection, that variety, is to be expressed in life and in living. LIFE ITSELF IS GOD. LIFE ITSELF IS INCOMPARABLE So, do not despair; there is nothing wrong at all. What is there that is wrong? Today you wear a yellow sweater; I love it. Tomorrow you might wear a blue sweater; I will still love it. It might be cloudy today, and I love those clouds. What is wrong with them? It is because of those clouds that the sunshine is produced, and because of the sunshine, the clouds are produced. So where is the idea of imperfection? When man gets rid of this idea that “I am imperfect”, then only will he become happy. I am a child of God, as all must say, and because God is perfect, the child of God must be perfect. If you plant a seed of a flower and the flower grows, the child grows from the seed. Could you call the flower imperfect? No, do not do that. I have said before that if you say you are a sinner, you are a sinner, you are a sinner, you are a sinner, you will become a sinner, weaker and weaker and weaker. But if you have the idea in your mind that “I am Divine because I come from Divinity”, then you will become Divine. And that is the realisation one has to reach, to find the Divinity within oneself. If you do not find the Divinity, you are forever messing around in muddy waters created by your mind. But get out. Get out of the mud and swim in the clear waters of life, for Life itself is God. Life itself is Divine. Life itself is incomparable. WITH UNDERSTANDING YOU BECOME DEVOTED, BECOME DEVOTED TO YOURSELF Life itself is the totality of this universe in which you exist. That will be your first realisation, and then you will find that you become one with all existence. You become existence itself, and when you become existence itself, there is
The Magnetism of Love: Facing Ourselves, Finding the Divine
MEDITATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE When we meditate, we do not put pressure on samskaras or force them to the surface. Instead, we bring our minds to a state of quietude, allowing us to assess our faults objectively, for when the mind, as everyone knows, is in turmoil, you cannot look at a problem objectively because you are too involved in it. When we meditate, we do not put pressure on samskaras or force them to the surface. Instead, we bring our minds to a state of quietude, allowing us to assess our faults objectively, for when the mind, as everyone knows, is in turmoil, you cannot look at a problem objectively because you are too involved in it. Many times, a problem comes up, and as the old saying goes, “Oh, let me sleep over it.” This means, “Let me be. I will give you the answer tomorrow. Let me be quiet about it.” So, in the quietude of the mind, we see our faults. In other words, because of that inner force which has quietened the mind, we develop the courage to face ourselves squarely in the mirror and to look at ourselves without rose-coloured glasses. We look at ourselves squarely in the mirror and find our faults. In my work, I have been dishonest, pinching my boss’ time or his money. I have not been good to my wife or my children. I have not been doing my duty to my wife, husband, brother, sister, father, friend, teacher. I have not been doing my duty. This acknowledgement within oneself brings about a sense of duty. When a sense of duty is cultivated within ourselves, we can develop discipline, and discipline is what life is mostly composed of. That is where the conscious effort in the waking state of life comes to an end, where you discipline yourself against dishonesty. Where you discipline yourself against various things, and at the same time you meditate, gaining extra energy, so the very qualities of unfaithfulness, dishonesty, or guilt are smoothed over, because at the same time as we are becoming more aware of our faults and frailties, we are also drawing from this vast storehouse of energy to dissolve these faults. The effort that is required is called discipline, and that leads one to the betterment of life. That leads to such a betterment of life that you evolve. It is not the aspro for the headache, for that is temporary. You evolve and become a better person, and more and more so. That is what life is all about. The lost sheep, the prodigal son, is coming back home, back home to the father, from whom he originally came. GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES It is because of all these psychological methods and the various things happening, which I would never condemn, for those who might need them, they might serve a little purpose, but it is because of these beliefs implanted in man. Technological progress is good, but it has also done harm, and that is why you find all the temples and churches empty today. For man’s mind has been diverted to short cuts instead of the straight and narrow leading to Divinity. Shortcuts, “Come for a weekend seminar and all your problems are over.” I had someone in the office this week who discussed a course he had attended with me. This was in South Africa, and he said, “I had to pay a hundred Rand for attending the week, a few hours in the evening, and it was promised to me that all my problems would be gone.” This poor man came to see me because his problems had not gone away. So I spoke to him about his problem and said, “Well, you can help yourself with this problem, but you must make some effort. God only helps those who help themselves, and a guru is nothing compared to God, although he might be the symbol, the representation of Divinity itself. So, if God cannot help you and if you cannot help yourself, how can a guru help you?” So we worked out a beautiful plan to solve his problem, and I said, “Now you do this and at the same time see that you meditate regularly.” And we will hear from him soon. But the point is that he went to spend a hundred Rand on attending five or six lectures and processes for a week, and he still has all his problems. I have the habit of never mentioning names, but he is a very well-known personality, and if I were to mention his name, all of you would know him. But the point is that he went to spend a hundred Rand on attending five or six lectures and processes for a week, and he still has all his problems. I have the habit of never mentioning names, but he is a very well-known personality, and if I were to mention his name, all of you would know him. THE HELP WE SEEK, IS TO BE FOUND WITHIN Through meditation, we reach deep within ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven within. If that is found, if that connection is made, then all else is added unto thee. When that connection is made, when the forces of love are released from deep within ourselves, our hearts will be opened more and more and more. Meditation is so designed that, with the opening of the heart, a greater awareness of the mind takes place, and you become more perceptive. As I always say, then you will not only see the petals of the flower, but also the sap and the Divinity contained in the flower. That comes from awareness. Meditation encompasses so many things. It brings deep rest to us, quiets the mind, and helps us face ourselves in the mirror and see our faults. If the guru’s teachings are properly listened to and understood, we will try to improve
The Path to Wholeness: Quieting the Mind, Discovering the Self
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THE MIND IS A BUNDLE OF IMPRESSIONS I have said many times to you that samskaras are impressions formed in the mind through the process of evolution over millions of years. All the experiences gained over ages of time are left in our minds, and those are called samskaras. The mind is not an outside entity but a collection of samskaras. We are not talking about the brain; the brain is just an organ through which the mind can flow. So, if you ask what the mind is, you can very safely say that it is a bundle of impressions gained, not only in this lifetime but through many, many lifetimes, in many, many different forms of existence, right from the mineral to the plant to the animal and to man. These experiences that we have gained and carry with us in the form of impressions have to be refined. Whatever experience or impression man has gained could never be annihilated or destroyed, for every thought or impression is indestructible. We have said in many lectures before that it is not a question of annihilation or getting rid of, but the answer lies in refinement, so that these impressions are gradually refined to such a level that they become integrated with your inner self, and that is the purpose of meditation. SWITCH ON THE LIGHT, THE DARKNESS TAKE CARE OF ITSELF The first thing that happens when a person starts meditating is that harmony and integration begin to take place between the mind, the body and the spirit. It must be remembered very well that these are not three different entities but three aspects of oneself. So even God, the body and the mind are but one. In other words, the mind and the body are contained within Divinity and are divine in themselves, and it is only when our perception is refined to the point where this divinity is perceived that the entirety of the mind, with all its impressions, and the body, with all its defects or strengths, are also accepted as divine. This can only take place through specialised meditational or spiritual practices, where we gradually release certain energies from within ourselves, from the Kingdom of Heaven within, which make the impressions of the mind expand and become refined. This, of course, also has its biological and physiological effects. So, our method is based on the age-old principles of all theologies. Our methods are based upon what Buddha taught, what Krishna taught, and what Christ taught, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven within, then all else shall be added unto thee.” Do not worry or be concerned about your samskaras. I always say do not be worried and concerned about the darkness; switch on the light, and the darkness takes care of itself. Do not worry about the impressions that are you, which is your mind, for even at our level of perception there could be good and evil – but at that level of the Absolute, it has transcended all good and evil, for being a mutual force it knows of no good or evil. Only the mind assumes things that are supposedly good and supposedly evil. HARMONY BEGINS WITHIN Any spiritual process begins from within and then allows those energies to filter outwards, for the first thing to gain is harmony within ourselves, and only then can it be harmonious with the environment. This, of course, is different from psychological processes, from forms of psychoanalysis, which begin from without. Psychologists themselves admit that we have not touched the fringes of the mind; we know so little about it. All these various psychoanalytical processes that deal only at the mind level will do one thing; they will work on the surface of the mind, and it is possible, although not conclusively so, that a certain imbalance on the surface could be corrected. But it is also more likely that you are just transferring an imbalance from one end to the other, curing a headache and developing a toe ache, as I always say. As in the other analogy, when you put pressure on one part of the balloon, the air shifts to the other end. It may seem that a person undergoing certain psychoanalytical processes might think, “Ah, I have got one problem resolved.” But has it really been resolved? Because the problem was not truly resolved, only pushed onto a different level, it will, after a while, re-manifest. It is like a cancer germ or a syphilitic condition, where, for a while, the problem may disappear through certain treatments, only to re-manifest again. It is like catching a cold or the flu. You feel well today, so you get out of bed because your mind says you are feeling well. Yet the germ is still there, and a week or two later it will erupt, and your flu may return in a more severe form. GOD ONLY HELP THOSE THAT HELP THEMSELVES These various processes, which are very common the world over, have certain values in them. There is good in them. They have their methods, and we do not condemn anyone’s method, for our movement always advocates mental freedom, or freedom for the man. If a man wants to practise something else, we do not stop the person. Sheep can stray but will always come home. Any teaching should be based on teachings that have been tried and proven over millennia, thousands of years up to today. Christ’s teachings cannot be disproved, neither can Krishna’s, nor Buddha’s, nor Mahavir’s. They cannot be disproved through the test of time. Millions of people have benefited from these teachings, while psychoanalytical processes are something new that started yesterday and should offer only surface release, a little balm on a sore. Okay, nothing wrong with that relief, nothing wrong with that relief. It might aid you if you have a severe headache. Nothing wrong with taking a pain reliever, but also know one thing for sure,
The Art of Selfless Service: From Service to Freedom
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THE NATURAL ART OF SERVICE Service is performed by everything that is natural. Observe a flower, how well it serves us in its beauty and its fragrance. Observe the rain, how well it serves us by providing the water for things to grow. Observe the sun, how beautifully it serves us by providing heat and light. So, service is a way to express our real nature, and our real nature is nothing but an offering, and this very offering is the real basis of service People fail to serve because they are not true to themselves. They have lost the art of service because of karmic or samskaric values, wrong thinking, and wrong action. Service has no mechanics. If you apply mechanisms to service, it becomes drudgery, not service, because you have mechanised it. Service ceases to be service, for it is an art and all offering is an art. This very offering can only be properly performed if it is used as an offering. We know that when we offer or pay homage to anything, it is done without any selfish motive; in other words, there is no sense of return. When we work for a boss, there is a sense of return. That is a necessity. We have to make a living, pay rent, buy food, and clothe ourselves. That is business. I give you so much, you give me so much in return. But if service is allowed to flow, even while working for the boss, a person can be of service only when he goes the extra mile. Work stops at five o’clock, and most people watch the clock. In fact, many people go to work not to work but to watch the clock. As soon as it strikes five, off they go. We can also take into account the fifteen minutes they spend in the cloakroom, and that is supposed to be service, stealing the boss’s time. So, when a man works for the boss and does just that little extra, he is doing service. The other is doing business. I give you so much, you give me so much back, and many people do not deserve the wage they earn, and that becomes thievery. As in every aspect of life, if things are done as an offering from deep within ourselves, with all sincerity and all love, and for the sake of doing them, that is service. Service is far different from servitude. When we talk of servitude, it is a form of bondage, where we are bound down by certain rules and regulations. But service, as I said, is an art, and art is freedom. So, when we serve in the spirit of an offering, it is a freedom that is expressed from deep within ourselves. Service does not bind; it frees a person. That kind of freedom has its own rewards. It requires no payment; it has its own reward in the self-satisfaction that is gained, in the whole re-patterning, re-moulding, re-styling of our lives. There is the great benefit. And this re-patterning, re-moulding, re-styling can only lead to greater happiness. THE INNER JOY OF SERVING You find other kinds of service where a person joins an organisation, for example, the school feeding scheme – I do not know if you have it here, where poor children are fed – or the Cripple Care Association, the Deaf and Dumb Society, Blind Society, whatever. I have known many people because I have been associated with various organisations. These people come there and do work. They really work hard, but the motivation is nothing but ego expression, not self-expression. There again you find a difference. An ego expression is to pander to oneself, making oneself feel important, that I am in a position to command. That is very binding. What are you commanding? Everything you do, when ego-activated, never produces satisfaction. It never produces that inner sense of joy. So, when, because of the ego, you go and do some work in the charity bazaar, have a stall on the street corner and sell things for a certain charity, and you feel, “Ah, I have done something,” you feel elated. Is that elation genuine or not? There is a wonderful test for it. You come back and the organisers say, “You have done such a wonderful job,” a pat on the back, and you feel so elated. Then you will find someone who comes and finds fault and says, “Oh, you could have done this in a different way or you could have done this much better.” Instead of being elated, you become deflated. Why? Because the motivation was ego and boosting the ego. That kind of service might have a certain value, but it does not have a genuine, lasting value. If the very same service was done as an offering, then praise or blame will not affect you at all. Whether it is praise or blame, you are not affected, because once you find the inner joy of serving, you become like the lotus flower growing amidst all the mud, yet untouched, remaining forever pure, because your very offering is joy and joy is the essence of purity. THE FLOWERING OF SELFLESS SERVICE These are minor incidents we encounter in daily life. True service is always an offering without motive. The one who truly knows how to serve is a Karma Yogi. He works for the sake of work, not wondering or anticipating the result. That is the Karma Yogi. As he goes on this path, he will find that he can perform the maximum amount of work with the minimum effort. There will be mental and physical effort in the work, but because of the stillness that is created in him, the effort becomes effortless. That is the secret of work. That is why some people, very few in this world, can work twenty-two hours a day and never feel tired. Two hours of sleep are enough because the body
The Observer and the Observed: Observation is the Essence of All Experience
OBSERVATION IS THE ESSENCE OF ALL EXPERIENCE Self-integration brings about the equilibrium that, as the Gita says, “You do not become too elated with joy, and you do not become deflated with sorrow.” To preserve that equilibrium, it necessarily requires the quality in man to be able to stand apart, and the easiest way I have found, through experiences of so many kinds of practices, is our form of meditation and this self-help programme, through which we attract the Law of Grace unto us, giving us the strength to be the observer. This brings us equilibrium and tranquillity, but that is not where the story ends. After achieving this equilibrium and tranquillity, you will find that you yourself are part and parcel of this very friction. So the process is that you start being mixed up in the friction that composes nature, then you start standing apart from this very friction, and then you get drawn into the friction again. Ah! But this time, you get drawn into it with an understanding. With the peace that you passeth all understanding, because your mind could never comprehend it, but your heart can feel it, your heart can experience it. So, after acquiring the ability of non-attachment, of standing apart, you start experiencing that very friction that composes nature. But it is like sound; sound at a very low pitch cannot be heard, and sound at a very high pitch cannot be heard. You are on a different level of the spiral, and after achieving that state of non-attachment, which is the result of total self-integration, you become part and parcel of all existence. When you become part and parcel of all existence, you have the realisation, the knowingness, that the friction that used to hurt me before is none other than I. I am the friction, I am the creation, I am the observer, I am the observed, and then the distinction between observer and observed ceases. What remains is observation. Then you realise that I am the observation; the observed and the observer have no permanent value, forever, ever and ever changing, but observation itself has all the value, for observation is that which is achieved. Observation is the purpose of the observer and the observed. Otherwise, the observer and the observed have no existence whatsoever; their truth, their value, their existence lies in the observation itself. EVEN OBSERVATION IS ULTIMATELY TRANSCENDED, LEAVING ONLY THE ETERNAL NOW When we reach the stage of becoming the observation, duality ceases between the observer and the observed, between the Christ and the anti-Christ. Observation remains while you are still in the human body. The mind will start to understand what observation is. The object is gone, the subject is gone. Observation remains, and you will find that, to some degree, it is limited while we have this limited mind and body. We will find, appreciate, and know that it is an idea. Observation is an idea, and that idea is “I.” Then the mind starts analysing which “I”? The “I” that created all the friction, the “I” that observed all the friction, the “I” that got involved in all this friction, the “I” that became non-attached to the friction, the “I” that, knowing this, knows all. The idea, observation, is an idea. Then even the idea ceases. So the object of observation is gone, the subject-observer is gone. Observation itself is gone. What remains? That primal pure unity consciousness. So, when man reaches the stage of Christ consciousness, he will understand all this as a man. He will understand the futility of the friction, the futility of the fact of the friction that was first observed. You will understand the futility of the fact, and further on, even the non-attachment to the fact. That too becomes futile, and all that ceases in the concept of a dream. Ah, then we say, I have been dreaming, look at this terrible nightmare I have been going through. But while in the nightmare you have suffering, you have been sobbing your tears and everything was so real, but from that vantage point, it becomes all unreal, and yet you know you experienced what reality is. And knowing this, as I have said before, you have known all. That is the aim and goal of man. It is a long path, yet it is round the corner. For it is all here and now. Yesterday has ceased, tomorrow has ceased; it is only now, now, now, and this now is eternity. This eternal now can only be appreciated when you even transcend attachment. So, first being conscious of the object and the subject is part of the path. Becoming the non-attached person would bring about the equilibrium that could be maintained in all circumstances. And then you do not even need non-attachment. THE FREEDOM BEYOND NON-ATTACHMENT Many philosophers teach that once you have achieved non-attachment, you have achieved it all. No, you go beyond non-attachment to become attached to everything again, but from a different level of the spiral. Where everything, every atom, is enjoyed, because you are the master of nature. After that, not even that is needed anymore, because when you are the master of nature and understand the force of non-attachment, you are still involved in duality. What am I non-attached from? It is still I and you. This and that; that too has to cease. So Christ ceases, anti-Christ ceases, but only the spirit of Christ, the Divinity, remains, and you become one with the Divinity. This might sound like a new concept to you. Most theologies and philosophies reach the point of non-attachment. I say that you go beyond non-attachment to attachment until you realise that attachment is non-existent; it was a nightmare dream. Then you are totally free and merged away in Unity Consciousness. Then you have become the divine. You started worshipping the divine. Then you started knowing the divine, and later you become the divine. All this is
The Divine Reformer: The Divine Response to Human Imbalance
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WHERE THERE IS IMBALANCE, THE UNIVERSAL POWER COMES TO CREATE THE BALANCE The personification of a divine spirit comes from time to time to this planet and to every other form of existence to preserve and create a balance where an imbalance exists. If we study, we will find that throughout the history of the world, great men have come, such as Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Christ. Great men have come here to bring a teaching, and through this teaching, by creating in man an understanding or by implanting in man a spiritual force through grace, a balance is brought about. The cause of the imbalance is the three Gunas that exist in this universe. There is the power of inertia, the power of light, and the activating force, which empowers both inertia and the power of light. In the process of evolution, as the primal atom proceeds to acquire its fullness, it automatically comes into conjunction with various other atomic and subatomic substances in the universe, and when this combination takes place, an imbalance is created, apparently to us from the relative level. To right these imbalances, a force is required. The eternal teacher, or the Christ, as we would call it, or as I would call him, The Eternal Wanderer, never rests. From one planet to another, he goes on and on and on, and where there is imbalance, that force comes to create balance. This force has total free will, whereby it could merge away into unity consciousness, yet it would sit on the fence because it is the helper of mankind, and all universal forces would always help the progress and the evolution of mankind. To bring down a Christ or a Krishna to our planet, certain prerequisites must be in place. Man himself, and the imbalance that exists on the planet, create a magnetic force, a kind of force that attracts this balance. For example, in the human body, if you cut your finger, you will find the white corpuscles rushing to it to mend the wound. In a similar way, this force is drawn by the magnetism of the imbalance created, so that this healing power, this universal power, is drawn to us. THE AVATARA OR THE INCARNATION IS BORN FULLY REALISED This universal power is ever-present, but being abstract, how could it make contact with man? So, in order to appeal to man’s mind at a particular stage of evolution, and to his heart, that universal force concretises itself, because who can contact man better than another man? That is why this universal force comes again and again, after a period of every 2,000 years, or a few thousand years, rather. From time to time, you find a personage coming to give meaning to life. From His perspective, for example, in the modern age, where the world is progressing so much technologically and there is so much intellectual development at the expense of heart development, the teacher would come to open people’s hearts to this force, to the personification of this force, so that an equilibrium could be maintained between mind and heart. The world today is progressing at such a rate that if the mind keeps on developing more and more without the support of the heart, then this world will definitely end in a very major catastrophe. Who is this personification of Divinity? Can one man, in a small body and a small mind, capture the essence of Divinity? That is the question. This is possible for everyone; everyone is a potential Christ, and everyone has the Divinity within them. But the Avatara or the Incarnation is born already fully realised. He does not require evolution; all his actions in life are non-binding. They carry no karmic bondage, and yet the Incarnation, although he is in the bondage of mind and body, still enjoys the freedom within that bondage. As I always say, like poetry within the framework of a metre, yet so free in expression. The Incarnation can necessarily express Divinity through him as a channel. His mind and body can do anything they like because they are beyond the law of opposites. Beyond that law, he has the power to live in a small, confined body and yet, through that body acting as a channel, he can reflect the entirety of what Divinity is. When this teaching of such an incarnation begins to penetrate people’s minds, some change definitely takes place. These incarnations are very different from reformers. Reformers normally try to change circumstances or the condition of man from a collective viewpoint, while the incarnation always starts from the individual viewpoint, for if the individual is bettered, the world could automatically become a better world. So, this is the purpose of the Incarnation. Firstly, he is drawn by this force of imbalance that has been created; he is drawn to come to right the imbalance. Secondly, being totally realised before he was born, being in that Unity Consciousness and yet exercising the choice of becoming embodied, he is beyond the law of opposites and has the power of will to manifest himself. TO LOVE YOUR BROTHER MAN, YOU HAVE TO TRULY KNOW YOURSELF The teaching of all theologies reverts to one point, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” The teachings of all theologies converge on that point, and if you study the teachings of these great masters, you will find that it is the pivotal point of all their philosophical teachings. This pivotal point is so important that, because the incarnation comes as a man, he teaches you to love your brother men. To love your brother men, you have to know thyself. That is the second teaching of all religions, because when man knows himself and, through spiritual and meditative practices, gains self-integration, the integration achieved is knowing thyself. The integrated man functions in totality, and it is only when man can function in totality that he can recognise or appreciate the totality in his brother. So,
The Spiritual Master: Beyond Belief to Experience
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APPRECIATE THE SIMPLICITY OF LIFE AND THE GREATNESS OF IT WILL DESCEND UPON YOU Vivekananda had given a discourse in a hall not far from where he lived, and on the way back they were talking and walking. He said, “Hey, I have got it!” They were all so excited and wanted to know, “You know, he has made some great discovery.” He said, “You know, I was wondering about that soup that I had eaten tonight, and the secret of that soup was the bay leaf.” What a momentous discovery. It all means that if one can learn to appreciate the simplicity of life, the greatness of it all just descends upon you. He enjoyed that bowl of soup and wondered why it was so wonderful, and then he said, “I have made the most momentous discovery. It was the bay leaf, ah.” Why do we not find those bay leaves in our lives, the simple, lovely little things that would make us so, so happy, that would make us radiate an inner joy, inexplicable? TO THE GREAT SPIRITUAL MASTERS, THE BODY IS MERELY A VEHICLE One of my chelas wanted to know about the relationship between the Guru and the Chela after the Guru leaves the body. Many tapes have been made on that, but of course we could always approach it from a different angle. The Guru never leaves the body, for he has found the secret that the body, the mind and the spirit are one. He does not leave the body. He would transform the forms in which he exists, but he never leaves the body, because his body is not the material body that you would think of. The true Guru lives in a body, which you could call ethereal, which you could call by any name you like, but he is not this physical flesh and blood, for that means nothing. It is a conveyance. You want to ride from here to Vancouver. You get onto the ferry. How important is that ferry to you while you are on it? You will go to the restaurant and have a cup of tea, a snack, and a sandwich. But that is not the point; you want to reach the other side. You want to get from Victoria to Vancouver. Likewise, the Guru does not care whether he has a body, whether he has a beautiful big ferry to drive into, a big car, perhaps a Cadillac, so comfortable to ride in, or whether it is just a little Volkswagen, which is just as important as the Cadillac. What difference does it make to the Guru between a Volkswagen and a Cadillac – none at all. The difference or the purpose is to go from Victoria Island to the mainland called Vancouver. The Guru never bothers or worries about his body at all. If you study the lives of great Masters, such as Ramana Maharshi, he suffered very severely from cancer, a great Master, a self-realised soul. If you study the life of Vivekananda, in the last years of his life he was a severe asthmatic and could hardly breathe. If you study the life of Ramakrishna, he suffered greatly from throat cancer. If you study the life and the works of Christ, of Jesus, he suffered from thrombosis in the leg, so when those nails were driven through his leg, he did not feel any pain at all; it was totally numb. You see, these great Spiritual Masters do not care for their bodies because they themselves do not live in their bodies. It is not necessary for them, because the spirit is so eternal within them that they have found the eternity of that spirit. They have found that, and they use the body just as a vehicle, a conveyance, like your ferry boat going up and down from Victoria to Vancouver. That is all. But if the ferryboat can be kept stronger, well oiled, it could last a bit longer. Many of these people do not bother with that at all. They say, “My work is done. I have come to do what I had to do, and here I go.” Take the life of Ram Tirtha, who was appointed a Professor of Mathematics at the age of 22. What a brain he had, and he taught and taught – and when he felt he had finished his teaching at the age of 32, he walked into the river, sat down in a lotus position, and just stopped breathing. THE TRUE GURU SYMBOLISES AND SHOWS THE PATH OF ONENESS IN ALL LOVE AND IN ALL PURITY There is a difference here. The desperate commit suicide; the enlightened leave their bodies. It is not suicide; it is “Godiside,” if I might coin a new word. So, what relationship is there when a Guru leaves his body? Why do you talk of relationships? Whenever you think of a relationship, the thought behind it is separation. Let relationship be itself. It is self-existent in the relationship, but the motivating factor behind relationship is separationship. When a Guru and a Chela have come together in that Divine bond, not a physical bond, not a mental bond, but that Divine bond of the recognition of the spirit within each other, they would find that my spirit as the Chela and his spirit as the Guru are non-different. It is one. So, wherever there is that oneness, how can there be relationships? The word falls away. It has to fall away because when you talk of relationships, it means two people communicating in whatever way, mental, physical, spiritual, whatever, but there are two. But when the realisation dawns that we are but one, at the highest level, the spiritual level, where I, my Guru, my God, my universe, my everything is one, then you reach the stage where you do not give and you do not take, because who is giving to whom and who is taking
How to enhance life? Bringing the Infinite into Daily Life
EVERYTHING AND NOTHING Zen philosophy speaks of something they call the state of no mind. But there is no such thing as no mind. As long as you are in the body, there will always be a mind. Through our practices, the mind can be brought to a very high level, which we normally call the superconscious level, and from there, everything can be viewed. The state of total non-awareness can be achieved in two ways: with a baseball bat or by reaching that very high state of evolution. But that is not the end. The end would be when you even go beyond the superconscious state of mind, and that is possible while you are still in the body. According to Ramakrishna, your entire body will disintegrate if you stay in that state for 21 days. You have glimpses of it all the time, and you dive into the unknown, into that chasm where nothing is known, yet everything is known. It is an experience, but who experiences it? The experience experiences itself, for it exists within itself. Even in that state, there is extreme motion, like a spinning top at high speed. You think it is standing still, but it is moving so fast that it appears to be standing still. When you come back from that state of Nivrikalpa Samadhi, or the state of no mind, or beyond the mind, not off the mind, of course, cognition dawns on you. Then you ask the question, “Where was I?” And only then do you start asking another question, saying, “Who am I?” Am I the everythingness of life, or am I just nothingness? The answer to both questions is yes. You are there and yet not there. IN A DIVINE UNIVERSE, EVERYTHING IS DIVINE That is the highest level any person can reach, because at that level of nonconsciousness of the universe, you have merged into energy, that divine Nivrikalpa energy. And when you are in that energy, you pervade everything in existence because you have become one with that universal or beyond-universal energy. The energies in the universe are normally limited in their various gradations and levels, but one can reach beyond that level, and when you return, you are filled with bliss, ecstasy, absolute knowledge, absolute bliss, and absolute existence. Because after reaching beyond the universe and returning, you start cognising everything. Because you are bringing that indescribable energy with you and bringing it into your conscious level of living, you will find that level so, so enhanced. I have been there many times, hundreds and hundreds of times. Going beyond the universe and yet coming back to the superconscious state, you start cognising one thing: that everything is composed of that energy, that indefinable energy. Everything is composed of it. And when you feel one with that energy, you see it all around you, and that is how you see everything as divine. Everything is divine; there is nothing wrong in this world. How could there be anything wrong when everything is composed of that energy? We only find things wrong in this world because we do not have that cognition from that highest level. But once we bring that highest level down, we will find everything divine and nothing wrong. You will have the same love for a murderer, a rapist, or a holy man. You will have the same love; there is no differentiation. THE WELL THAT NEVER RUNS DRY Most probably, you will analyse with your conscious mind that “oh, he is a murderer” or a rapist or a thief. But then you will have that energy within you, which will enhance your analysis and lead you to say that this man is a murderer. You will ask, “Why is he a murderer?” and you will know that there is some imbalance in his mind that made him commit these vile acts. So, because of the love and compassion you have developed through that divine energy, you will try to help that person. It is so common, for example, that when you see someone slip on a banana peel, you start laughing. I do not laugh; I feel sorry. I would go up to the person, help him up, and comfort him, because I would feel his hurt, because he is made of me, of the same substance, the same divine energy that permeates me and him. So that is how kindness and compassion are developed, where you view everything with great love, compassion, and kindness. You are forever giving. All the time. Because love is a quality that cannot contain itself; it must express itself in some way or another. Love can also be expressed through hate, because hate is just the other side of the coin. There is a very thin dividing line. But then again, that depends on your emphasis. What are you emphasising? Are you emphasising hatred or love? That can come about through this deep, deep understanding, because once you have reached that high stage, that understanding automatically comes. And it is not only a mental understanding; it is an understanding from within you that just wells up. Like a well that remains full all the time, it never gets empty. Always water in the well. That is how the heart operates. There is always water there, the water of love. THE ETERNAL REALITY OF BEING So, to reach the area of nothingness is to reach everythingness. I might have told you this story before, or to another audience. I do not know. A chela went to a guru, and the chela asked the guru, “What is it that which creates everything?” So the guru said, “You see that tree over there. Bring one fruit.” So he brought the fruit, and the guru said, “Well, take out one of the seeds.” And he took out a seed, and the guru asked the chela, “Crack the seed and see what you find in it.” So the chela