The Master Answers

A selection of questions and answers with Maharaj Charan Singh

Q: Does time count falling asleep in meditation?
A: We should not try to devote our time to meditation at the cost of our sleep. The body must have sufficient hours of rest, then we should try to attend to our meditation. We generally sit in meditation at the cost of our relaxation, at the cost of our sleep. We do not try to adjust our other engagements in life. We always try to sit in meditation at the cost of sleep and naturally we go to sleep. Only the time you devote to meditation is to your credit, and not when you are snoring and sleeping.
_{Thus Saith the Master}

Q: Does the atmosphere of satsang help us?
A: The atmosphere helps us a lot. There should be absolute harmony in satsang. If there are differences, then you will never be ableto build an atmosphere for meditation at all. There should be absolute harmony in satsang. If you are always maligning one another and bossing one another, then you can’t build that atmosphere, you can’t even think about the Master during that time. Even if you sit on the roadside and have that harmony and atmosphere of love and devotion, it’s much better than sitting in a very luxurious, very decorated hall where there is no harmony, where you are quarrelling and fighting with one another. And there should be no discussion of politics in satsang. Satsang should be just pure satsang.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: In many of the Sant Mat books, we hear of the pain of death. Is the pain of death a physical pain, or is it mental anguish?
A: You see, what is this meditation? It’s nothing but a rehearsal to die every day. When you have rehearsed yourself so much on that path, then you won’t bother about death at all. Whenpeople are putting on a play, they rehearse so much that on the actual day, it’s very easy for them to go through that whole play; but without rehearsal, we forget at every step. So meditation is nothing but a lifelong rehearsal to die, a rehearsal to learn to withdraw our consciousness to the eye centre and then leave the body. But it depends on so many other factors also.

Sometimes many types of karmas have to be gone through in the body. So that a little leftover karma may not bring you back to the creation again, sometimes it is better to go through those karmas and get rid of them while in the body. Master knows best – we can’t make any hard and fast rule about it. The Lord knows best about this.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II}

Q: How much capacity do we have to plan our future, Master? Is it set for us when we’re born?
A: We have only one future: to go back to the Father. There’s no other future.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}