The Master Answers

A selection of questions and answers with Maharaj Charan Singh

Q: Master, are our failures also his grace?
A: Yes, if we can learn from them. Our failures are actually a step towards our victory, if we can learn from them. If we don’t try to learn from them, then they’re just failures. If a child is always frightened of falling, he will never learn to walk. Those who take the risk of falling will ultimately learn how to walk and run, but those who are afraid of falling will never be able to learn to walk. So failures help us to learn to walk and run. Pitfalls will be there, failures will be there, but we should get up again and again and try to run.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Master, I’d like to know the best way to handle anger. Sometimes I suppress it and say simran. And other times I let it out and voice it, and then I say simran.
A: Which way makes you feel better?

Q: Letting it out and voicing it.
A: When you voice it, is the other person receptive to your voice or does he voice it back? If he voices it back to you, then you again want to voice it back at him. Where does it lead? If there is one fool under a roof, it is better not to have two. We should try to digest our anger within because anger does not solve any problem. You can be firm in explaining your viewpoint and do it diplomatically rather than angrily. When we get angry, we harm ourselves more than the other person because the other person is not affected by our anger. Rather, he would think ill of us, what type of men we are. Neither is he improved by it. So we damage our own self. But these are general instincts of the body, so it does express itself sometimes here and there. As far as possible, one should try to avoid losing one’s temper. Getting angry can become a habit. If we start expressing it because we think that by voicing it we can get rid of it, rather it builds more and more. It’s always better to rise above it.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Master, what is the role of humour in Sant Mat?
A: Sant Mat should make us better humans rather than pull us down to the level of animals. You see, except for humans, nobody laughs. I don’t think you have seen any bird laughing or any dog laughing or any animal laughing. They may smile, but the privilege of laughter is given only to humans. So if we want to remain human, humour has to be there, just to help us relax. But we have so much association with past species that we find it very hard to laugh. In spite of being humans, we are hardly human. You see, humour is something which another person also enjoys along with you. Humour is not taunting, humour is not hurting. Joking does not mean that you taunt another person or hurt another person or malign another person. That is not a joke at all; that is not humour. And also, you always give what you have. If you are happy within, you will radiate happiness wherever you go. If you are miserable within, you will share misery with others. If you go to a miserable person, he will make you miserable in a second. If you go to a happy person, he will make you happy in a second.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}

Q: Why does the Master sometimes take away those whom we love the most?
A: Well, brother, whether we love them or not, everybody has to go through his own destiny. When their end comes, they have to quit the stage. Everyone is always special to someone. Everyone is someone’s loved one, but when their time comes, they have to go.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}