1 The Divine Design

Q. Master, you tell us that the purpose of meditation is to seek the Lord within, to follow the Path within back to the Father, but I can’t seem to fully comprehend the idea that meditation takes us within, that the Lord, the Creator, is within me.

A. When at night you sleep and you have a dream, where are you? Is the dream within yourself or is the dream outside your body?

The dreams are nothing but the impressions of your previous experiences. Do you go out of the body to see them, or do you see all that within your body?

No doubt it is the reproduction of outside associations, but what you see, how you behave, and how you act in a dream – is all that drama within yourself or somewhere outside? Do you leave the body and go outside to see all that?

It’s purely within. So if a dream can be within the body, why can’t the Radiant Form of the Master or spiritual experience be within the body? And yet when you dissect a body, you won’t find any drama of the dream within the body. It’s not physical at all.

We say the Lord is within in the sense that unless we reach a certain level of consciousness within ourselves, we will not see the Lord. We have to advance to that level of consciousness within ourselves and not somewhere outside. And when you advance within yourself to that particular state of consciousness, then you see God.

It is also said that when you see Him within, you see Him everywhere. He’s not confined only to the body – He’s everywhere – but you have to reach that particular level of consciousness to see Him within, and then you see Him everywhere outside in the world. Similarly, you have to reach a certain level of consciousness within yourself to have all these spiritual experiences. The experiences are within yourself and not somewhere outside, and by being outside, you cannot reach that level of consciousness within yourself.

The whole creation is within ourselves. You have read in the Bible in St. John that nothing existed before the creation; only the Lord existed.¹ All that we see is nothing but His own projection. The creation has come out of the Father. Everything has come out of the Father and everything is within the Father, and the Father is within us. So through meditation, we withdraw to the eye center, we contact the Master within, and we see for ourselves that everything is within us.

Through meditation we withdraw to the eye center and contact the Master within.

Q. This I intellectually understand when I read in all the books that you’re there and that you’re waiting for me to come to the eye center. I would just like to hear you talk about it, though.

A. The difficulty in understanding this arises from thinking that probably the body of the Master will come into our body. It’s not the body which is the Master; it is the Shabd, that Creative Power, which is the Master. Our real Master is the Shabd, the Word, which is within every one of us. So the inner Master projects himself from that Shabd, from that Light and Sound, and we see the Radiant Form of the Master.

You have read in the Bible where Christ says: I have taken abode in you. Now I am in you and ultimately you will be in me, and then both of us will be in the Father.² When the Master initiates, he takes abode in us in the sense that our soul is connected with the Sound within, and the Sound is our Master. That Creative Power which has created the whole creation is the real Master, and we get connected to that. The Master projects his own form from that Shabd within us, and appears to us in his Radiant Form.

Now we are not acquainted with that Power, that Shabd; we are acquainted only with the physical form of the Master. By meditation we get acquainted with that Power through the Radiant Form of our Master, whom we naturally can recognize. As Christ says: my sheep know me and I know my sheep, so they recognize my whistle.³ The Master knows us and we know the Master, hence we recognize our Master within. He has to be recognized, so he takes his form from that Shabd and manifests himself from that Power.

Christ says that ultimately you come in me and I come in you, which means we lose our identity and merge into that Being, we merge into that Shabd, into that Creative Power. Call it Master, call it God – in the end, it comes to the same thing. We have to merge into that Being and lose our own individuality, our own identity.

Our problem in trying to understand this point is when we think of only the physical form of the Master. Then naturally he can’t come within us. We have no other concept of the Master. The real concept is that of Shabd, the Radiant Form. Now for example, when you sleep, you see so many persons within you in a dream. Where are they? We are in the body when we sleep – we don’t leave our bed or go out of our room – yet when we are dreaming, we meet so many people within us. After all, where are they when we meet them, when we talk to them, when we laugh, we enjoy, we weep, we cry? Where are they? Where are we? It must be at some level of consciousness within. So if they all can be within us, why can’t the Master be within us?

Q. Master, would you speak to us about equanimity, tranquility, peace of mind?

A. Peace of mind? The purpose of meditation is nothing but to obtain that peace of mind. Actually, all this tension and depression that we feel is due to the scattering of our mind. When our attention is scattered we become very restless, unhappy, and we lose that peace. The more we concentrate at the eye center and the more our attention is upward, the more peaceful we become, and only then we enjoy that bliss and happiness within. The more the mind is scattered from the eye center through these nine apertures into the outside world – whatever the reason may be – the more we become depressed, unhappy and miserable.

The only way to obtain peace is to withdraw our consciousness to the eye center and keep our attention upward rather than downward. We get peace only beyond the eye center, upward; as long as we are below the eye center, we are miserable. The Lord may give all gifts to us – everything – but we can never obtain peace.

Peace we can obtain only when all coverings are removed from the soul, when the soul shines and becomes whole, and it becomes worthy of merging into the Lord. Only then do we find peace. As long as the soul is separated from its Source, we can never have peace. And the soul can become worthy of merging into the Lord only when it leaves the association of the mind, when all the coverings of karma and of sensual pleasures are removed. Only then the soul shines; only then do we obtain that peace, and radiate that peace.

In order to get tranquility and peace, the only method is meditation, which takes our mind back to its source, thereby releasing us from the mind and removing all coverings from the soul. We can never find permanent peace in worldly objects and sensual pleasures. They are short lived, these so-called pleasures, and the reaction to them sometimes makes us more miserable, more unhappy. So the only way to obtain everlasting peace is to go back to the Father and become one with Him.

In fact, everything is at rest only when it goes back to its own source. As long as we are separated from our Source, we can never be at peace. For example, the physical body is made up of five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. When the five elements of the body merge into their origin, then our body is at peace, and we are rid of all disease. So long as the five elements in the body are separated from their original source, the body is not at peace. Similarly, when the mind is separated from its own source, Trikuti, the mind is not at peace; and as long as the soul is separated from its own Source, from the Lord, the soul is not at peace. Hence, we get bodily peace, mental peace, and peace of soul, bliss of soul, only when each merges into its own source.

Q. Master, what type of prayer does the Lord like to hear?

A. Meditation. Meditation will help you to live in the Will of the Lord, and that is the best prayer – to live in the Will of the Father, to adjust to the events of life, and to accept with grace and a smile everything which He gives to us. That attitude can come only by meditation, and the prayer which the Lord accepts is meditation. Just your complete unconditional surrender to the Father, submission to the Father – eliminating your individuality, merging into the Being – that is prayer, that is meditation. There’s no other prayer in the world which pleases the Father. Only one prayer pleases Him – that we want to become one with Him – and only meditation makes us one with Him. So this is the best prayer.

There is no set prayer which you can repeat four times a day or five times a day. No language is required, no words are required in prayer. Prayer is a language of love from the heart to the Father, and nobody exists then between you and the Father. You’re not conscious of the world when you pray to Him. He exists and you exist. That is real prayer, and that is only possible at the time of meditation when we try to forget all that we are and where we are.

Prayer is not when we ask the Father to fulfill our desires and satisfy all our worldly ambitions. That is no prayer at all, it is just asking Him to condemn us to this creation again. If we pray to the Father to fulfill our worldly desires, we actually expose ourselves to coming back to this creation again and again; and we can come back to this creation even without praying to the Father. So, ritualistic prayers, or requests concerning our worldly desires, do not lead us anywhere.

The only prayer is that we should become one with Him. Right from the very beginning of the creation we have been condemned, we have lived separated from Him. We have felt the separation all through, and now He should make us one with Him, merge us back into His Being. That should be our only prayer.

That is why Christ says: if you don’t hear me, if you don’t follow my teachings, don’t think that I’m going to condemn you to the Father, because you’re already condemned.⁴ “Condemned” means we are part of this creation. He says: what more can I complain to the Father about you, because you’re already condemned. Now we want to get out of this condemnation and rise to His level.

We do not know what is in our best interest. We pray to the Father to satisfy certain desires, and if by any chance He fulfills them, then we become so frustrated with those very things that again we have to go down on our bended knees to get rid of what we had prayed for before.

When we clearly don’t know what to pray for, then why not leave everything to Him? Why show our lack of faith in Him? We should have faith that whatever He gives us is in our best interest. The loving child always gives himself entirely when he is in his mother’s lap. He doesn’t have to ask for anything at all. The mother is most careful about that child. She’s always concerned with what time she has to feed him, what time she has to bathe him. She will take care of the child in every way. The child doesn’t have to ask the mother for anything – he knows that she loves him. If we unconditionally surrender ourselves to the Father, we will know that He also loves us and that He will give us what is in our best interest, and we should accept whatever He gives us with grace.

Our only prayer is that we should become one with Him, that we can’t bear this separation any more. Christ has given a very beautiful example. He says: you are asking the Father for bread and so many other things. Doesn’t He feed the birds, the insects and all living creatures? Doesn’t He feed the grass, which is just cut and burned in a minute? Won’t He then feed you and look after you – you being the top of the creation?⁵ Why should we show such a lack of faith in Him by praying to Him every day for worldly things?

If your servant works very diligently, lovingly and patiently in your house, you’re always anxious to reward him, to give him more and more. But if he’s constantly demanding something, you want to get rid of him. That is our attitude, and the same is the attitude of the Father. If we will just be loving to Him and do our duty, then He is even more eager to give to us. When we don’t want to do our duty and are always demanding and demanding, He wants to get rid of us and send us back to this creation again. That is why all Mystics say that we must live in the Will of the Father.

Somebody told Christ: your mother is standing behind you, perhaps desirous to speak to you. In one way or another, Mystics or Saints always find some excuse to give the teachings. Christ said: who is my father, who is my mother, who is my brother? I have no father, no mother, no brother. He said, those who live in the Will of my Father are all my brothers; they are my mother, they are my sisters, they are my real relations.⁶ Those who live in the Will of the Father, with them my relationship is eternal, because for them there will be only one shepherd and one flock. They will never separate from one another. So the real prayer is to live in the Will of the Father, and that comes only by meditation.

Q. Maharaj Ji, is it beneficial to pray to the Master for success in meditation before we start, just as a mood-setting type of thing? Or is that just a lack of faith?

A. No, you can do it. There’s no harm in praying to the Father for His grace. If a child won’t ask his father, whom will he ask? But instead of praying to the Father to give us grace in meditation, why not start with the meditation? Meditation itself is praying to the Lord. The actual prayer is meditation; praying with words is a means towards meditation.

When you go to a house, instead of first praying to the Lord, “I am going to knock at your door,” why not just start knocking at the door? Ultimately, you want to knock on the door, whether you start by knocking, or you first tell the Lord, “I’m going to knock on your door.” You can even knock first. The main thing is knocking, and that is meditation.

Q. At the time of meditation, what thoughts should we have?

A. I think we should have no thoughts at all. The purpose of meditation is to get rid of all the worldly thoughts which are bothering us day and night. We have to withdraw ourselves from all these daily thoughts. But the first question is, what is meditation? Unless we know what meditation is, we cannot know on what we have to concentrate.

Meditation means withdrawing our consciousness to the eye center and holding our attention there, then attaching ourselves to the Shabd or Nam, the Sound Current, which is within every one of us, and with the help of that, detaching ourselves permanently, forever, from the lower senses. That is meditation.

Q. You have said that the mind is a slave of the senses. Is that referring to the lack of concentration or is that referring to our desire for pleasure?

A. You mean in what way is the mind a slave of the senses? The senses pull the mind to their own level. Any sensual pleasure pulls our mind to its own level, which means the mind is a slave of the senses.

The seat of the soul and mind is here at the eye center, and from here the tendency of the mind is downwards towards the senses. The mind runs to the senses for pleasures, for happiness, and all these sense pleasures pull the mind to their own level, making it a slave of the senses.

Q. Including things like sight, feeling?

A. Sight, feeling, touch, taste; in fact, all the senses and sensual pleasures.

Q. Doesn’t it all start in the mind first? Don’t all the sensual pleasures start in the mind first?

A. That is right, because the mind starts responding to the senses, so it runs to the senses. The mind is tempted by the senses. It starts with the mind; but then, the senses are also a part of the mind.

Q. Through meditation, we’re cutting all of that off?

A. Meditation means trying to hold our attention here at the eye center and not let it come down to the senses. That is concentration, to keep the mind steady at the eye center and not let it come down. The purpose of keeping the mind here is to attach it to the Divine Melody within so that with the help of that Sound, the mind can go back to its own origin.

Since the mind is fond of pleasures, it refuses to go to the senses when it gets a better pleasure than the sensual pleasures. And by attaching itself to that better pleasure, that Sound and Light within, the mind comes to its own origin, which is Trikuti, the second stage. Then the soul automatically gets released from the mind. That is why Socrates hinted: Know thyself. For God-realization can come only after self-realization; the soul can realize itself only when it gets released from the mind.

Now the mind is dominating the soul, and the mind itself is dominated by the senses. But with the help of meditation we have to reverse the whole process, so that the soul dominates the mind, and the mind dominates the senses. That is the purpose of meditation.

Q. Maharaj Ji, nirat^*, I understand, is a quality of the spirit, of the soul; but is there a nirat, as well, of the mind? I want to link this to the basis of the realization of the self first, and then realization of the Creator. Is there a parallel in these?

A. The mind and soul are knotted together, so nirat and surat are both for the soul and mind together. Because the mind and soul are together, the faculty to see (nirat) and the faculty to hear (surat) affect both the soul and mind. The mind also sees the Light and hears the Sound. The mind is the first to catch the Light and the first to catch the Sound. Only then the soul can see its own Light and can catch its own Sound.

Meditation, to begin with, is for the mind; and the soul naturally gets its advantage as the mind becomes purer and purer, for then the soul gets released more and more from the mind. The inclination of the soul is always towards its own Origin, but the mind is a weight which is keeping the soul tied down to the creation. So meditation, this Light and Sound, is to purify the mind, because the soul is always anxious to go back to its own Origin.

Q. If someone is initiated and he fails to meditate, can he do something else to compensate for it?

A. What do you mean by something else?

Q. Some sort of seva^* or some sort of other thing to compensate for meditation.

A. All these other types of seva will lead you to meditate. They are means, but the means can’t substitute for the end.

Q. So there’s no substitute for meditation.

A. No. I’m sorry to say, no. The Creator has determined how we are to go back to Him, and we cannot take any short cut or any other route. He has ordained that we must seek a Perfect Master, and be initiated by him while both the Master and the disciple are living. Then through meditation we must please the Master, we must eliminate our ego, and merge with the Father, become one with the Creator. So meditation is the only way.

This is all His plan; it is the Divine Design. I’ll explain further. As Christ has said in the Bible: to sin against the Holy Ghost can never be forgiven.⁷ If you turn your back to meditation, you can never be forgiven – forgiven for what stands between you and the Father. That cannot be eliminated. Unless we are forgiven for those karmas which we have done in past lives, the soul can never go back to the Father. And Christ says that if you sin against the Holy Ghost, if you don’t attend to your meditation, then you will never be able to clear that layer of karma and your soul can never go back to the Father.

Christ says: to sin against me can be forgiven. It means that if you have no faith in me you can be forgiven, because when you attend to meditation you will automatically develop that faith in me. But if you don’t attend to your meditation at all, then how can you be forgiven? If you have medicine but don’t use it, how can your illness go? Friendship with the doctor won’t eliminate your illness; you have to use the medicine, howsoever bitter it is.

So, “to sin against the Holy Ghost can never be forgiven” means that you can’t bypass meditation. You may do other types of seva – they are strong means to meditation – but ultimately you have to meditate.

Q. Sardar Bahadur Ji has said that if you miss just one day of meditation, you’ll step back for one month.⁸ Exactly what did he mean?

A. He means the same thing that Christ said: to sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven.⁹ Christ made it very clear in the Bible – if we turn our back to meditation, then how can we be forgiven for the karmas which we have been collecting from life to life, from age to age? How can we be forgiven?

These are all ways and means to induce us to attend to our meditation. Take it literally, take it devotionally, take it in any way – the main thing is that we have to attend to our meditation.

Saints generally explain the teachings according to the background of particular people. Some people are very orthodox; they won’t accept things easily. Probably Saints may have to frighten them before they will accept the teachings.

Some people are very simple and accept the teachings just by simple statements, which make as good an impression upon them as any other statement. Some people will accept the teachings only if you very lovingly tell them to do these things.

Some people are very intellectual; unless you explain the teachings to them intellectually, they will never understand anything at all.

The approach of the Mystics has been different in different times according to the people to whom they were explaining the teachings. But the main theme of every Saint is that we should attend to our meditation.

They know best how they have to succeed in convincing us, but actually, they want to impress upon us the importance of meditation. They do this through parables, through stories, through intellectual discourses, through simple talks, through discussions. These are all means. The main thing is to impress upon us the importance of meditation, and we should look only to that, and not try to analyze these little things.

Q. You have said that simran^* should not be done mechanically but with love, faith and devotion. But also you said that Christ said that if you sin against me I can forgive you, but not if you sin against the Holy Ghost. If we do not have faith in the Master but attend to meditation –

A. My explanation has been a little misunderstood. Christ said: if you sin against me, it can be forgiven, but if you sin against the Holy Ghost, you can never be forgiven. He didn’t say that you should sin against me. He meant, even if you have no faith in me, you can be forgiven, in the sense that you will develop that faith if you keep on attending to your meditation. But it is one thing if you have no faith in me and another thing if you don’t even attend to the meditation; then you can never be forgiven.

Q. But meditation must be mechanical to begin with, because love and devotion develop very gradually.

A. If you go on attending to the meditation, if you don’t sin against the Holy Ghost, then love and devotion will develop, and will be strengthened.

As Christ said elsewhere: now you ask so many questions, but when you will see me, which means that when you will come to that level of consciousness where you will find me in my Radiant Form, then you will have no questions to ask.¹⁰ It means that now you have all sorts of doubts about me, but when you see me within, then you will have no doubts at all.

So, even when we love the Master, even when we have devotion and faith in the Master outside, still something within us doesn’t allow us to have complete faith, still some doubts are always creeping in.

All doubts can be dissolved, or resolved, only when you see the Radiant Form of the Master. Then there is real conviction. Before that also, you may have love for the Master or faith in the Master, because you have satisfied your intellect. Satisfaction of the intellect has given you a certain faith, but you can have real faith only when you see the Master within. Then even if the whole world turns against you, you don’t bother about any of it. The faith which we develop by satisfaction of our intellect or reasoning can be shaky at times, but that inner faith can never be shaky.

Q. When a satsangi does meditation it is seva of the Master. How is it seva of the Master?

A. Because you please the Master. Master wants you to become pure and clean so that you can merge back into the Father. What is seva? Seva is to get the pleasure of the Master; anything which pleases the Master is seva of the Master. It pleases him that you are burning your rubbish, you are burning your load of karma every day, you are becoming lighter and lighter, and that you will eventually be in a position to fly back to the Father. Meditation pleases the Master because ultimately he is responsible for taking the soul up, and it pleases him if we are decreasing our load every day. Naturally it pleases him.

When a tree is yielding fruit, the gardener is the happiest person, but what does he get? The gardener does his best to put a dry, withered tree in order by means of chemicals and other treatments. When that tree bears fruit it belongs to the landlord, no doubt, and not to the gardener; but the gardener is the happiest person, because even that tree has started yielding fruit. That tree has pleased the gardener, and naturally the owner of the garden is also pleased.

Similarly the Master is pleased when the soul works hard to go back to the Father, though ultimately the soul belongs to the Father. Of course, the Father will be happy to get the soul back; but the Master is also happy that the soul, which had gone astray, which was a slave of the senses, which never knew anything about the Father, which was blind to the Father, has started realizing the Father within. It has become lighter and lighter, and has started shining, and is now in a position to merge back into the Father. The Master gets the highest pleasure out of that also, and so meditation is the seva of the Master too.

Q. Master, can we live a life of service to the Master – of body, mind and wealth – before our mind has risen to a higher level?

A. Sister, the time we give to meditation is nothing but service to the Master. You cannot serve the Master in a better way than by following his instructions and living his way of life – attending to your meditation. That is the best service to the Master.

You have seen the gardener working harder on the trees that don’t yield any fruit, than on those trees which yield fruit. Those which yield fruit are actually helping the gardener by not demanding much of his time. They are serving the gardener. And those which don’t yield any fruit at all are making him work harder and harder, more and more.

So we can serve the Master by following the teachings, and by living the teachings, thus bearing the fruit for which this human birth has been given to us.

Q. Sir, how is meditation the seva of the Lord? Isn’t it our own seva?

A. Whatever we do for ourselves we do also for the Lord. Ultimately we are going to become the Lord. God is a higher consciousness, so service to our own self, or service to the soul, is service to God. The soul is a part of that Divine Ocean. Any service to the soul is service to the Lord. Anything which takes us back to the Father is service of the Father.

Unless we serve our soul, we cannot get released from the clutches of the mind, and meditation is service of the soul. To take pity on ourselves, to take pity on the soul and to do something to release it from the mind is a service to the soul. That is meditation. And when you serve the soul, you automatically serve its Source also; so meditation is service of the Lord.

Q. Master, a man who has desire is not free. I am leaving Dera, and by next week I will be back home. I know that from now on I am going to have a still bigger desire to see you in my meditation. Is this to be free?

A. Would you like to be free of this desire? The purpose of meditation is to be with the Master always. That is the purpose of the Master, and this desire grows and grows with meditation. As Christ said, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.¹¹ When do we mourn? When we feel separation from somebody, then we become restless to be with the one we love. Then we mourn. Only when we are filled with that type of love and devotion and desire to be with the Master will we get rest from birth and death. And this desire grows and grows. In spite of the pain it carries, there is something in it which you won’t like to get rid of.

Q. One thing that I didn’t understand from the books was that one of the attributes of true love and devotion is that the soul is getting restless. When we’re in this restless state all the time, how do we sit still for meditation?

A. It is restlessness for meditation, restlessness for being one with the Father, and meditation is a means to put an end to that restlessness. How can you avoid that means? When the pull is there for the beloved, your feet automatically walk towards the beloved. Walking is a means to reach the beloved, to reach that end. So, just as you automatically walk towards the beloved, similarly, you meditate in order to become one with the Father. When the pull is there, the restlessness is there.