The Master Answers

A selection of questions and answers with Maharaj Charan Singh

Q: What should be our approach to meditation?
A: Our approach to meditation should be that of gratitude. The Lord has given us the opportunity of this human form and then the environment in which to attend to meditation. So we should always approach meditation with gratitude.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Could you talk about the importance of satsang, where the Master is not present physically?
A: Well, brother, the purpose of satsang, of holding meetings is just to strengthen our faith and meditation, to create the atmosphere in which we have to build our meditation. If we have any doubt, any question, any obstacle, it gets answered, dissolved, resolved. And we are able to hold that atmosphere in which we have to build our meditation. That is the real purpose of satsang. It is no ritual, no ceremony. You will not get anything by merely attending satsang. The atmosphere that you carry home from the satsang and attending to your meditation will give you everything. The mind’s doubts that are resolved and dissolved in the satsang will give you everything. The faith and devotion which the satsang builds in you will give you everything. Otherwise it is all the same old questions, same old answers – nothing new. But we are a source of strength to one another, and that helps us a lot in meditation.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Since Masters or saints always give their grace, where does the value of effort come on the path?
A: The grace forces you to put in effort, unless you want to resist the grace. You see, you will feel the pull from within to sit in meditation, to achieve something within. That is the grace. Now grace is pushing you to make the effort, making you sit in meditation, making you awake early in the morning, and making you feel guilty the whole day if you don’t attend to your meditation. That is all grace. That is forcing you to put in effort. So saints have their own way of giving grace.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Maharaj Ji, my meditation is so poor that I feel that it doesn’t even count as meditation.
A: Well, you can count all twenty-four hours in your meditation. If you build around you an atmosphere of meditation, every breath you breathe is meditation for you. If you build that atmosphere of meditation and you live in that atmosphere of meditation, then meditation is always around you in one way or another. If the Lord is always in your heart in one way or another, then every breath is meditation. Meditation is not closing yourself in a room for a couple of hours – meditation is a way of life.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Is the time of our death already set?
A: Yes, it is definitely set. You cannot increase even a breath. You cannot change even the place where you have to die. It’s all set. If all little detailed things are set for us in this world, if we have no free will, death cannot be in our hand, cannot be our choice. Even that is destined.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}