The Master Answers

A selection of questions and answers with Maharaj Charan Singh

Q: Some often have difficulty to do simran right without being side- tracked by the mind, but when the mind is occupied with a beautiful thing, or what I think is a beautiful thing, like listening to concert music, it seems to be easy to do simran and rise to beautiful heights. Now, is this a good idea?
A: Brother, your mind is the same; when it is occupied with the music, how can you be attentive to simran? Because the mind enjoys that music, so you align yourself with the music, rather than with simran. No, simran is independent of music. The mind definitely enjoys music, and music gives us some sort of concentration, too, but it doesn’t lead us anywhere. It’s food for the mind but not for the soul.
_{Die to Live}

Q: Master, why is Sant Mat and the experiences of the initiate so esoteric, so secretive? Why cannot an initiate compare notes with another initiate? It is my understanding of Sant Mat that it is the science of the soul; and any scientist, to test the validity of his findings, would like to compare notes with somebody else.
A: Brother, there is always danger of ego coming in. When you share your internal experiences with anybody, you are inclined to give yourself airs, and lose what you have. Also, when people know that you are spiritually advanced, they may try to take advantage of you, of your powers. Then you may be tempted and thus lose what you had gained.
_{The Master Answers}

Q: I heard someone talking about sitting in meditation and looking at his watch. How can one sit in meditation and avoid looking to see how much time has passed?
A: Actually, what is meant is that when you are sitting in meditation, you should concentrate all your thoughts in meditation and not always be conscious of how much time you have been sitting, wondering when it is going to be one hour and when it is going to be two hours. You may not always be looking at your watch, but you are always wondering whether or not you have sat more than your allotted time. When your mind is thinking of how much time you have to sit and how much time has already passed, then you are not concentrating. You are always thinking about that. Therefore, you should eliminate all thoughts of the world and just put your mind in simran.
_{Die to Live}

Q: I’ve read that if we knew the effect of anger, we would never become angry. Could you explain that?
A: Try to look at your face in the mirror when you are angry. Then perhaps you wouldn’t want to become angry. The pity is that we don’t see our face, our expression when we are angry. So many changes take place, so many expressions come and go. Nobody wants to show themselves in a poor light. If we knew how we looked, we wouldn’t want to get angry. We lose our balance. After all, anger doesn’t solve any problem. It has not reformed anyone. We just hurt our own self and hurt another person, nothing else, with no gain for anybody.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}