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4. 2 Creating the Atmosphere

2  Creating the Atmosphere

INTRODUCTION

This world is not our true home. It is merely a field where we come to work out our karmic obligations. Everything that we see here is transitory and impermanent. Nothing of this world has ever followed anyone beyond death, even though one’s entire life may have been wasted in its pursuit. Only meditation and the Master are eternal, and they alone are deserving of our attention.

We are told by the Saints to make the best use of our time: the human form is a blessed opportunity to enable us to realize the Lord within, and escape this prison house of birth and death. While working out the karmic credits and debits, our attention should always be focused on our love and devotion for our Master. We must constantly feel the separation from our Beloved, and continuously yearn for our Creator, the Lord of our soul.

The Master and the Path should always be kept in view, and meditation must become our primary concern in this life. Our every action should reflect the teachings and build that holy atmosphere in which we attend to meditation, and become receptive to His bounty and grace. To this end, we must adjust our entire life, for success requires a complete transformation of the disciple. We should keep a balance, and meet our worldly duties and responsibilities, but our spiritual duty to the Master is foremost. We learn to live on the edge of this world as spectators, and do not allow ourselves to be drowned in its sensual pleasures. We learn to be in this world, but not of it, by vigilantly keeping our attention directed towards our goal.

The seed of Nam is planted within every initiate, and it must sprout. We are advised to protect this crop and preserve the sanctity of this treasure. A crop in an open field will certainly grow without protection, but it remains vulnerable and is easily plundered. We must, therefore, surround our crop, which we grow through meditation, with the fence of satsang, the company of the Masters and Saints and their devotees. Satsang provides an impregnable shield against robbers and thieves who may wish to have us squander that spiritual wealth. Powers which develop in us through the practice of the Sound Current must never be arrogantly displayed, nor cause any show of vanity. If we preserve and protect this treasure, its flow from Him becomes more and more bountiful.

So we must daily continue to build that atmosphere in which we attend to meditation with ever-growing love and devotion. We must become strong on the Path and mold our lives according to the teachings. Thus, pleasing the Master, we become fit for the Court of the Lord, and fulfill the very purpose of our human existence.

ESSENTIAL PREREQUISITES

17. Q. Master, how do we effectively build an atmosphere for meditation?

A. How to build the atmosphere for meditation? We try to build an atmosphere for meditation by reading books, by attending the group meetings, by meeting satsangis and discussing the teachings and the philosophy and being a source of strength and help to one another. It is all building an atmosphere for meditation.

We are always influenced by the company we keep. If we start mixing with criminals, with bad people, we will start thinking along those lines. If we mix with good people, with noble people, with devotees, we will start thinking in their way, because we’re always influenced by the company we keep.

So this is how we build an atmosphere for meditation – by the group meetings, by satsang, by discussion, by meeting satsangis, dissolving our doubts, helping one another. That’s all building an atmosphere of meditation, filling one another with love and devotion.

18. Q. Then to create the right atmosphere for meditation, would it be more helpful to meditate in the country or small towns rather than in the big cities?

A. One has to build one’s own atmosphere around him in which he has to meditate, because everywhere you can’t get satsang, you can’t get group meetings – you can’t get the right type of group meetings, I would say, or the right type of atmosphere that is conducive to meditation. You don’t always get the right type of satsangis or the right type of devotees where you can build your meditation.

Actually, one has to build one’s own atmosphere for meditation. You have to create that atmosphere yourself by reading the books or by seeking the right type of people with whom to mix, who talk about the Lord and meditation and all those things. You yourself have to create that atmosphere.

19. Q. Master, I know a satsangi in the entertainment business, and he tells me that the kind of people involved seem to be of quite low morals and very much immersed in the world and the senses. Can this satsangi build that atmosphere for meditation, and still stay in that business?

A. Provided he doesn’t compromise with the principles of Sant Mat. If the foundation is there, only then you will be able to build. Without a foundation you will not be able to build at all. You can’t build on sand. As Christ said, you have to build on rock.¹ The principles of Sant Mat are the foundation on which you have to stand in order to build. But if you think there is a danger of your slipping when in such a business, naturally it won’t be conducive to your meditation. If your mind is always scattered, if your mind is always in such a place where there’s a chance of slipping here and there, then it is never conducive to meditation. The right type of atmosphere is very essential for meditation. If you find that right type of atmosphere in such a business, then it’s all right. You can know better.

20. Q. Master, we take a vow to lead a clean and chaste moral life in mind and body. Why is this vow so important?

A. Sister, all the vows are very important. If we don’t have good moral character outside, we can never make progress within at all. There are so many temptations within. If you’re weak outside, you’ll be more miserable and weak within; you’ll never be able to make much progress.

Then, if our attention is always dropping to lower centers, it is difficult to withdraw our consciousness up to the eye center. Unless we lead a good, clean life, and unless we are able to concentrate here at the eye center, we can never make progress at all.

And we are also sowing seeds. Christ made this very clear in the Bible when the people were about to stone some lady caught in adultery. Of course he saved her, but he advised her also: go, and sin no more.²

Then Christ also explains how to account for what you have done. He says, “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”³ Withdraw your consciousness to the eye center and see that Light within yourself. That Light and Sound will help you to purify your mind, by pulling it from the senses and taking it back to its own source.

21. Q. Would you give us directions for seekers when they ask us what they should do about the vow of meditation? Some newcomers to the Path are actually sitting in meditation before they’re initiated.

A. I personally think they should not try to do any meditation at all. They should try to understand the philosophy thoroughly and make a full investigation, and once they’re convinced about the Path, then they should try to follow the Path. Trying to do meditation just by reading books doesn’t make much sense.

22. Q. Master, I think this is in With the Three Masters, on page 111. Great Master^* says that twenty-four minutes with a Master is equal to a hundred years of meditation.⁴

A. That means something very different. The company of Mystics for one ghari, twenty-four minutes, is better than meditating for a hundred years without having a Master. The Great Master means to say that if you go on meditating by yourself without any guide, even for a hundred years, it’s useless. It’s much better to be in the company of the Mystics for twenty-four minutes than to meditate without a Master. I often quote in satsang that if the path is towards the east and you run to the west, you will only keep going farther away. So that is what is referred to, but we always try to find the meaning which suits us.

23. Q. Master, when I meditated before, I could manage to go in right away, but after the initiation today, I tried to use the new method, and I cannot go in.

A. And how were you meditating?

• Q. I focused between the eye brows.

A. And where did you go?

• Q. I felt I was going inside.

A. You just practice as has been told to you today, and slowly and slowly you have to withdraw, and then you will be able to go up. It’s not so quick that if you were initiated today then by tomorrow you will be able to control the mind and hold the attention at the eye center and go up.

• Q. Should I get rid of the old way of meditation?

A. Yes, absolutely. Just forget about it and make this a habit now.

24. Q. Maharaj Ji, a friend of mine once told me that if you really want it bad enough, to be in Trikuti or any other spiritual plane, you could just be there. By devotion, by bhakti, love, wanting. Is it true?

A. Simply by wishing you can’t go there. Only the Shabd, only the Light and Sound within can pull you to that level of consciousness – nothing else. Your wish won’t help. Your practice will help. Your faith will help.

25. Q. Master, when we were initiated, we were told that it has been said as strict instructions given at the time of initiation that after six months we would have enough conviction and faith in the Path to know that we definitely are on the right path.

A. That is right. If we are really honest about the initiation and about the teachings, and steadfast on our principles, and we attend to our meditation with love and devotion, we definitely get conviction about the Path within six months – even much earlier.

26. Q. Master, if a satsangi has been predestined to have many lives after initiation, is there a way to shorten it by meditation or by detachment?

A. Sister, the first thing is, how do you know that disciple is destined to have many lives after initiation? How do you know that? We cannot be aware of all that. We shouldn’t try to analyze these things. Once we are on the Path, we should be sincere within ourselves and attend to our meditation. That’s the only thing, and then we should not worry about anything at all. Don’t worry about any birth or any death or anything. Just attend to your duty, attend to your meditation.

27. Q. Master, I’ve heard it said that we must use the intellect to rise above the intellect. I was wondering if you would comment on that?

A. Intellect is a great barrier in our way, but we have to pierce the barrier of intellect with the help of intellect. An intellectual man will not accept a simple truth just by a simple statement. He wants to be convinced. But once conviction comes, nobody can shake him. So reasoning convinces us and then we become firm in our faith and we attend to meditation.

Intellect cannot lead us anywhere, but the satisfaction of the intellect will give you faith and practice: If you try to brush aside your intellect and try to attend to meditation, you will never succeed. Intellect will always jump in the way. But if you satisfy your intellect with reasoning, then faith will come and practice will come, which will then take you to your destination.

And once this conviction is there, once the satisfaction of the intellect is there, then you have no fear as to the correctness of your direction, as to the truth of the Path and the teachings.

Therefore, before coming to the Path we must satisfy our intellect. We must be satisfied that this is meant for us, that this will lead us back to our destination. Otherwise, all sorts of questions and doubts and so many things come in our way. We must satisfy our mind. And once this mind is satisfied, automatically the faith will come, automatically the practice will come.

If you want to follow the Path without satisfying your mind, then questions and doubts arise, and whenever you sit in meditation all those things will come before you. They won’t let you sit in meditation at all. “Why should I sit in my room; why should I close my eyes; I have so many friends; I don’t know what I am doing, whether it is right or wrong.” All those questions will come in your mind and you will not be able to make any progress at all. So intellect will not lead you anywhere at all. In fact, the unsatisfied intellect is a barrier in your way.

If you tell a simple person in a simple way, he will follow it. If you tell an intellectual person, in a simple way, he will never follow it. He’s so intellectual he cannot accept simple things in a simple way. It must be put to him in a very complicated way. First he creates a problem with his intellect; then he wants to solve that problem with his intellect; then he takes pride in solving it or feels frustrated in not solving it. That is the fate of an intellectual person.

But if an intellectual person is convinced, it is just like building on a rock. Nobody can shake him. For a simple person, however, even though it may be easy for him to understand, because he is so simple, yet he’s shaky also, and consequently he is easily led astray by any other person.

So that is the difference. There’s nothing wrong with the intellect. You can’t brush aside your intellect and follow the Path. You have to satisfy your intellect. That is why we have so many meetings, so many satsangs, so many books, so many questions, so many inquiries. They are just to satisfy the intellect. They are not leading us anywhere. If you say by reading the books you get something – you get, in fact, nothing. If by attending the meetings you feel you’ll get something – again you get nothing. It is only the satisfaction of the intellect that you get.

But once convinced, then you have that faith, then you can practice. And through that practice, through meditation, through living the teachings and molding your life after them, you get what you want – not by merely satisfying the intellect, but by faith and practice with love and devotion.

28. Q. Maharaj Ji, it is often said that we should do more meditation with punctuality, regularity, and love and devotion. But love and devotion seem to be out of our hands.

A. Sister, by love and devotion I mean that you must have faith in the Path which you are following, that this is the Path which goes back to our destination, and faith in the one who has put you on the Path, that he’s put you on the right path and he’s always with you to guide you to the right destination. Unless you have that faith, you will never practice meditation.

If I know that a road leads to New York from Washington, I’ll go on driving at full speed. If I have no faith that the road will go to New York and I feel that it may go in some other direction, it becomes very hard for me to drive. I have to ask people for directions at every step. Sometimes I look at the map; sometimes I look at the road-signs; sometimes I ask pedestrians; then I go astray.

Faith doesn’t take you to the destination. Practice will take you to the destination, but faith will make you practice. Without faith, you can’t practice. You will not be able to drive at full speed without faith. Full speed will take you to the destination, but faith is helping you to drive at full speed. Similarly, love and devotion is to have faith in the Path and the Master. Then we practice also, and then we get the results from that practice.

29. Q. I want myself to surrender absolutely and unconditionally to the Master, but I do not know how to develop this absolute love and devotion for the Master, because I find that sometimes I am not as much devoted to the Master as I ought to be, although I want to be exclusively devoted to the Master. What should I do for that?

A. Well, brother, the main question is: how to strengthen our love. The only way to strengthen love is by meditation. There’s no other way, because the love which we get by experience cannot be compared to any other type of love. Intellectual love is all right. Emotional love, which is influenced by other people, is all right. Any type of love is all right, but nothing can surpass the love of your own experience; and for that experience, meditation is necessary. You can build love and devotion only through meditation, not otherwise. Meditation builds everlasting love, and that is building on a rock, and not on sand.

• Q. But before that kind of love comes, don’t we first have to be absolutely convinced or have faith that this Path will lead us to that love?

A. Yes, first is the conviction in the philosophy, which creates a desire in you to follow the philosophy. Everything, of course, is with His grace; but first is the conviction that what you are going to follow is right. That conviction will lead you towards practice, and then naturally you will practice only when there is some elementary love and faith in you. But real love, strengthening of devotion, comes only by meditation. Everlasting love, the depth of love, can be had only by meditation.

30. Q. There are some people, Master, who have not seen the Master and who have not tried to delve deep into the philosophy of Sant Mat, and still, somehow or other, they have spontaneously an enormous amount of love for the Master.

A. What do you know about the depth of their love? How do you know? How do you compare their type of love with the depth of love?

• Q. Apparently it seems that –

A. It is good if they apparently feel so, but that love may be only on the surface. It may be shaky. You can’t say.

Once someone is convinced that an animal is a horse, then even if the whole world says it’s a buffalo, he doesn’t care at all. The whole world is against him, but he knows it’s a horse. As long as he’s shaky, if ten people say it’s a horse he’ll say it’s a horse; if twenty people say it’s a buffalo he’ll say it’s buffalo; so he’s always wavering. He needs support from twenty others that what he feels is right. But the love developed through experience doesn’t need the support of anybody else in this creation. Even if the whole world is against him, he’s not shaky; he knows that it’s a horse. That type of love and faith you can develop only by experience, not otherwise.

31. Q. Then if love for the physical form of the Master is necessary for progress on the Path, what about the people that are initiated but have not seen or may not ever see the physical form? How do they develop this love for the physical form of the Master?

A. Even if they have not seen the Master, with the help of meditation they will develop that love for the Master. If they keep on attending to their meditation, even with an intellec- tual faith or an intellectual belief, they will be able to build that faith. But if they don’t attend to meditation at all, then how can they develop that love?

Love for the Master leads us towards meditation, and meditation strengthens our love for the Master. It deepens our love. So, meditation is the main thing. If the Lord gives you that deeper type of love, you are fortunate. Otherwise, if you know the Path, you should attend to meditation, and automatically that faith will come. Automatically that devotion and love will come, with the help of meditation.

32. Q. If one has met you it is very easy to love you, but the ones who have not been here, is there a reason why they’re not here?

A. There’s no question of a reason why they’re not here. They will get the same advantage if they will carry on with the meditation. They may not be here, but their Master is with them.

33. Q. Master, we are told that this Path is one of love, of bhakti, of devotion. In regard to this love and devotion then, which seems to be an essential aspect of the Path, in Spiritual Letters it says, “Even after a hundred years of bhajan, one does not get so purified as by an intense longing for darshan,” and he continues to say, “Bhajan does not purify so soon as does true love for the Master and a true longing for his darshan. Rather, Satguru himself is Sat Purush.”

    It seems to me that maybe longing for darshan is more important than bhajan.

A. Brother, longing for darshan will come only out of meditation. Otherwise, this emotional upheaval doesn’t lead you far. Sometimes you feel, sometimes you don’t feel. Sometimes while being in the presence of the Master, you don’t even want to talk to him or look at him. Sometimes while being far away from him, you are very anxious to go back to him. But meditation will create real longing in you for darshan. Only meditation will create the desire for that real darshan within.

34. Q. But if the Satguru himself is Sat Purush, then our looking at him, physical darshan, is also very very helpful.

A. It is helpful, no doubt. Who says it is not helpful? The object of meditation is to create love, and the meaning of love is to eliminate your ego and to become another being. That is the purpose of love. And the purpose of meditation is also the same: to create that love which will eliminate your ego or your individuality and will ultimately make you merge into the other Being. That is love, and that love you can get only by meditation.

Emotions are all right, to some extent, in order to be in touch with the Sound within or to attend to your meditation, but emotion is not the end-all of love. It may be a means leading to love, but the ultimate darshan is within.

Christ has also given the importance of this darshan when he said: it is expedient for you that I leave now.⁵ It is expedient for you that I leave my physical body, because this physical body has a certain purpose to play: to create love and desire for the Master in the disciple. That is the purpose of the Master’s physical form, and when you don’t have the presence of that physical body of the Master, what will you do? You will turn within to the Radiant Form of the Master.

This longing for the physical form, this longing which you cannot fulfill, leads you within towards the Radiant Form of the Master, which will ultimately take you back to the Father. So this physical separation serves its own purpose. As Christ said: you know where I’m going, and you also know the Path leading to me.⁶ So, when we don’t find the Master outside and we want to be with him, we have no alternative but to attend to meditation and see him within – and that is real darshan.

And then there is also a difference between darshan, and darshan. If you really have darshan of the Master, which is thinking of him as God, then I don’t think you need any meditation at all. But I don’t think anybody can think of him that way. One moment we think of him as a human being, another moment we think of him as less than a human being, another moment we think of him as God. So it is just academic or intellectual to say that Master is God, for the mind doesn’t believe it. It doesn’t. If we really believe, are really convinced and really feel that he is God, then we don’t need any meditation at all – but it’s impossible. These are only things to say, but they’re not practical. Nobody can do that.

• Q. Perhaps it might be more possible if the Master would not conceal himself so much.

A. No, it’s not a question of concealing. It depends upon that real love which you can build only by meditation. As you know, Christ says in the Bible: now you ask me so many questions and you have so many doubts, but when you see me within, then you will have no questions and you will have no doubts.⁷ Naturally when we find someone like us in the flesh, how can we think of him as God? It’s impossible. Unless we reach to a certain level of consciousness, we cannot.

Academically we all say God is everywhere, but we don’t believe what we say. We do so many bad things in this world, which we would not dare do before a child. If we believed that God really is omnipresent, we would never do all these heinous things.

Intellectually, we say He is everywhere, but we don’t really feel convinced. We say God is watching us, He’s always with us, but then why are we like this if we believe He’s watching us and He’s always with us? Why are we imperfect then? Aren’t we frightened of Him, awed by Him, that He’s watching us? We do bad things only when we think that nobody’s watching us, and that we don’t have to account to anyone.

An academic belief in these things is all right, but only meditation will give you real conviction about these truths. These are simple truths, but you have to experience these simple truths. Only by meditation can one do it.

Guru Nanak also says the same thing. He says: if you see the Master, all your sins will be washed and you will be able to go back to the Father. But, he says, seeing the Master as what? Only when you think of him as God will your sins be washed. If you see him as a man or a guide or a lover or an intelligent man, then what? If you really believe God is here on earth, then all your sins will be washed. That is real love, and that real love can grow only by meditation. There is no other way of engendering that love. We would like to feel that the Master is God, no doubt, but wanting to feel that is something different from what we actually feel.

Without meditation we are not led anywhere. That is why Christ said that to sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven.⁸ Sinning against me can be forgiven, he says – which means that if you have doubt in me, if you doubt that I am the Son of the Father, if you doubt that I am also at the level of the Father while being at your level, then you will be forgiven – but to sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven. If you don’t attend to your meditation, then how can you be forgiven?

Forgiven for what? Forgiven for whatever you have done in past lives. Forgiveness is for those karmas which we have been collecting in every birth and which we have brought with us today. Forgiveness is removing the coverings on the soul. Unless we are forgiven for all those karmas, the soul can never go back to the Father. Christ says, this can be forgiven only by the Holy Ghost, which is why sinning against the Holy Ghost can never be forgiven. If you turn your back on meditation, then how can you expect to ever be forgiven or to ever go back to the Father? If you go on attending to meditation, even if you have some little doubts in the Master, those doubts will automatically be resolved and conviction will come within. For then you are truly building on a rock. You are absolutely unshakable on the Path.

WAY OF LIFE

35. Q. Master, regarding our worldly obligations, how much attention do we give to our jobs? How much do we exert ourselves for our work, our careers?

A. This is not the end-all and be-all of life, the purpose of our life. We work because we have to live in this world, but the purpose of living in this world is something different. We have to see proportionately how much time we have to give to these worldly things to maintain ourselves, but at the same time we also have to look to the main duty for which we have come here.

• Q. But we have an obligation to the job itself. We’re being paid, and therefore we owe a certain amount to that job.

A. Yes, there is no harm in working. I’m not against work. We should work, but we should also give regular time daily to meditation. If you won’t work, how will you live in the world? It is how you utilize your whole time that makes the difference. If one is free and spends his whole time in gossiping and sitting in clubs and all sorts of merry-making, how is he going to earn his living? But if you’re devoting your allotted time to meditation, to service for humanity, to love and devotion for the Lord, then you are making the best use of your time.

36. Q. Master, I’ve often heard that if something interferes with our meditation, we should eliminate it, and I was wondering that sometimes we seem to get caught in worldly duties which appear to be really interfering with our meditation. Let’s say a job for instance – the job requires so much of our time that it is difficult to do simran during the day and to put in our full time. Should we try to continue to do the worldly duties?

A. Well, brother, you have to adjust your timing, your engagements, your liabilities, your responsibilities. You have to adjust with all those things and then find time for your meditation too. Meditation is primary, but you have to do worldly things also, you have to do both duties. You have certain responsibilities as a wife, as a husband, as a daughter, as a mother, as a citizen, and yet also you have a duty towards the Lord. So you have to adjust everything.

• Q. Well, to put it specifically, say that the time for simran is twelve o’clock, and at that particular time a friend needs help. Which takes the priority?

A. It depends upon the situation. After all, the friend doesn’t need help during the whole day. But generally, we remember these obligations only at the time of meditation. We never remember these obligations when we are absolutely free. When we are going to a movie or gossiping or sitting in clubs, we don’t think about these obligations; these obligations bother us only when we sit in meditation. These are all justifications of the mind to run away from meditation – nothing else. But otherwise, if one wants to, one can adjust everything. One can discharge the worldly obligations, and one can attend to one’s own spiritual duty as well.

37. Q. In the books, it is often said that we should adjust our life to attend to our meditation regularly and punctually. Could you speak about the benefits of regularity and punctuality?

A. Well, brother, there is hardly anything to say. You know the advantage of regularity and punctuality. Now when lunch time comes, whether we are hungry or not we quietly go to the dining table, because we have formed the habit of eating at that particular time.

Similarly, we have to form a habit of meditation. If you say, “When I feel the urge I will meditate,” you would perhaps never meditate. If you think, “When I feel the right atmosphere, then I will meditate. I will sit in the morning, I will sit at noon, I will sit in the evening,” you will always go on giving excuses to yourself; you will never attend to meditation.

Just as you have made a habit of going to the office at a particular time, of going for a walk at a particular time, of going to the dining table at a particular time, similarly you should make a habit of going at a particular time for meditation. Then your mind slowly and slowly is disciplined to attend to meditation. That is why so much emphasis is laid on regularity and punctuality.

If you say, “All right, today I don’t feel like meditating; I’ll sit tomorrow,” then tomorrow again you’ll have some other excuse, and the day after tomorrow again you’ll have another excuse. Then there will be gaps and gaps and gaps of time, and you’ll think, “Oh, I have absolutely forgotten for months and months to sit in meditation.” But if you force your mind to meditate and say, “Even if I can’t give the proper time to meditation, let me give at least half the time, even if I’m busy,” then you’ll get regularity.

And punctuality is also important because we have associations with timing. If you have selected a particular time for meditation – for example, 3:30 or 4:30 – you know that you have to get up punctually in the morning, and you will also be punctual in going to sleep at night. You will adjust your time in such a way that you get six or seven hours of sleep so that you can get up in the morning. Otherwise you know that you will miss your morning meditation. To this extent punctuality is essential. It should become a habit with us.

Unless we discipline our mind this much, our mind will always find excuses not to sit in meditation. We are regular in our other daily activities – “I have a time to go to the office; I have a time to go to lunch; I have a time to have a cup of coffee; I have a time to walk in the evening; I have a time to sleep” – then why not also have a time for meditation? It should become a part of our life, a part of our daily routine.

If you discipline your mind every day by attending to meditation punctually, then you won’t miss meditation, and if you do miss it, then you’ll feel miserable that day. You’ll feel that something is lacking, and you will try to find some other time for meditation to make up for the lost morning time. Thus, regularity and punctuality are both essential, if we can manage it.

Even having a particular place to sit makes a lot of difference in our meditation. Now, a bed is associated with sleep. If you want to read in bed, the moment you are in bed you will fall asleep, because you have an association of the bed with sleep. If you sit at a writing table, you automatically feel like writing a letter to somebody, because you associate that table with writing letters. If you sit on a comfortable chair, you’ll feel like relaxing; you associate relaxation with that chair. So also, if you find a particular place for meditation, then you will have an association with that place for meditation, and that place will remind you to attend to meditation.

These things are just to induce us to attend to meditation – nothing else. Otherwise, even if you can keep to meditation without regularity, it is all right. If you can keep to meditation without having a particular place for meditation, it is all right. These are just inducements to the mind not to run away from meditation.

38. Q. Master, sometimes our mind just runs away from this duty of regularity and punctuality, and there is a sense of guilt in not having put our meditation first in our lives.

A. Naturally. We all try to be regular and punctual in our other daily activities. When you tell somebody you will meet him at a particular time, and you are late, you feel guilty. You say, “I’m sorry I’m late,” because you feel you have not been able to honor the appointment which you had made. We should also honor the commitment which we have made with the Father, that we have a certain time to attend to meditation. We have to sit, whether our mind is still or not. Whether we have to fight with the mind or not is a different problem, but we have made a certain commitment with the Father, and we should try to honor it by giving our time to the Father at that particular time.

If we are sorry for being late even five minutes in our worldly commitments and we feel guilty within ourselves, then similarly we should carry that feeling of guilt if we don’t attend to meditation. Then the next time you will not feel guilty because you won’t miss meditation. If you are late today and feel guilty, then the next time you won’t be late. If you don’t feel repentant, then you will always have a habit of being late. The mind always wants excuses to run away from meditation, and we have to fight it by not giving any excuse to the mind.

39. Q. In the Indian scriptures the hours between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., or generally the hours of the early morning, are called the “nectar hour.” Is there an inner mystic advantage to that hour?

A. No, no. I follow your point. There’s no particular time for meditation. Whatever time you can attend to meditation is to your credit, but the morning time has certain advantages over other times. When you get up in the morning, the first thing is you are absolutely fresh. Your tiredness is gone. Your mind is not scattered, and you are not distracted by outside disturbances. There’s no telephone ring, there’s no knock at the door and there’s no hustle and bustle of traffic outside. So it’s a quiet time. And then, when you are going to start a day, why not start it in the name of the Father? That atmosphere of bliss which you build by meditation should go with you the whole day to help you face the ups and downs of life without losing your balance.

But if you can’t find any time for meditation in the morning, you can easily sit at noon. There’s no harm. But then you have to attend to your office work. There may be a knock at the door, and somebody may come unannounced and may even spoil your meditation time. In the evening if you sit in meditation, naturally you have worked the whole day and you are tired. Your mind is scattered and you can’t concentrate so easily. That is why the morning time has advantages over other times. But if you don’t get the morning time, any time is good for meditation.

In India, at least in the olden days, people used to go to sleep at sunset and would get up before sunrise. So, three o’clock is a very good time for meditation because the day starts at six. Then, before the day starts, one can attend to meditation. And if one has his evening meal, then sleeps fairly early, one easily gets seven to eight hours of sleep.

• Q. I wondered, because in some of the Saints’ teachings it says that you get a much greater advantage as to concentration, and there’s less effort required to get in a spiritual mood.

A. That is what I have told you. Of course less effort is required. Your mind is not scattered. When you get up fresh in the morning, your body is absolutely fresh and your mind is not scattered. It’s concentrated. You have forgotten all the ups and downs and all that happened to you during the previous day.

Sleep is a great redeemer. When you’ve had a good sleep and you get up, you are absolutely fresh, howsoever agitated or perturbed you may have been during the previous day. You forget all that. But if you sit in the evening and your mind has been agitated the whole day, fighting and quarreling with people, doing this and that, then everything will appear before you. So it becomes difficult to concentrate. Hence, that advantage you get in the morning.

40. Q. Is there a stronger working of the Shabd when you are meditating between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.?

A. Shabd is always the same. There’s no question of the Shabd being particularly strong at that morning hour or the Shabd not working in the evening. At every second, at every moment, it is there. We have to be at the eye center to hear it. There’s nothing in a particular hour. But the morning hours are generally calm and quiet, and we are fresh, and nature is so peaceful in the morning, that naturally you feel like sitting for meditation.

41. Q. Maharaj Ji, my question concerns my practice of simran and bhajan. There seems to be a great discrepancy between my practice and the ideal, and these following quotes express to me about the same idea. The first one is from Guru Nanak. It says, “The house that you get after death, reach there by withdrawing your spirit from the body in your lifetime. Nanak, die, withdraw your spirit while you are alive.” The second quote comes from a tape recording. “One should sit with the body relaxed but very still, and if after some time, after the first small discomfort, we make a move, one slight move of the spine, the blood circulation returns and we have to start all over again in the process of withdrawing our current upwards.” The third one comes from a satsangi who said that as practitioners of Sant Mat meditation, we should strive to sit still for as much as two or three hours without moving. The fourth one is from Tulsi Sahib:^* “Physical death is like being stung by a thousand scorpions at once.” I understand that day by day we as satsangis should endure a little pain, die early day by day, and another source says there’s no gain without pain. My meditation doesn’t come close to this. In my busy daily life at home, getting up early, getting home occasionally, frequently by wedging my simran and bhajan at odd hours, at different times and different days, I wonder if I could be deceiving myself in hoping for progress this way.

A. At the time of initiation, we are instructed that we have to give two hours and thirty minutes for meditation at a stretch, and out of that I generally advise to give one and a half hours for simran and one hour for hearing of the Sound. I also advise that if you can’t sit for this long at a stretch because you’re not used to sitting for so long, you can divide your meditation, to begin with, into two sittings or three sittings. And along with that I also say, try to stretch your time in the morning so that you ultimately give two hours and thirty minutes at a stretch.

In the beginning it is very difficult even to sit still for so long. The mind rebels and wants to go out of the room; it doesn’t even want to sit in the room, what to say of doing meditation. I would say, you should not fight so much with the mind that there is a reaction and you leave the meditation altogether. Just give some time, and then at some other time you can give more of your time; but go on stretching your morning time, go on increasing your morning time. Then you will get into the habit of sitting and giving the proper time of two hours and thirty minutes.

Besides that, you can make use of simran at whatever odd time you get, but we should get into the practice of giving two and a half hours in the morning, not by fighting with ourselves but by slowly and slowly training our mind to sit.

And as far as changing the posture is concerned, we should first find a posture which suits us. Then we should try to sit in that posture as long as we can. When it becomes very uncomfortable, very uneasy and you just can’t sit still, then it is better to change than to fight with yourself. Because if you start fighting to retain that posture, then naturally your attention is fighting with the body to retain the posture, and your mind is scattered. Then it is much better to walk two or three minutes and to sit again in the same posture, but we should try to sit as much as we can in that particular posture without disturbing ourselves.

And there is no discrepancy at all in what you have read. Guru Nanak said the same thing: that you withdraw your soul current to the eye center, and this way you will go back to your House. And whatever Tulsi Sahib has said – that you have to die while living – means also the same thing: withdrawing your consciousness to the eye center. That is dying while living.

• Q. What about the scorpions?

A. He has given an example to show that you should practice dying while living, because it is easier than the death you have to face at the time of death. At the time of death, the pain that you face is just like the pain of scorpions’ stings so keep that in mind. In order to avoid that pain, now bear this pain of meditation. He has just given this as an example to show generally how much pain we have to go through at the time of death. He says in order to avoid that, a little discomfort now is much better. So we shouldn’t mind this discomfort or pain in the body while sitting at the time of meditation, because otherwise we may have to face that pain of the scorpions. It is just a way of explaining to us.

• Q. So I shouldn’t jump up when the first little discomfort comes, but at the same time I shouldn’t torture myself.

A. That’s what I say. You try to sit in that particular posture as long as you can and try to extend your sitting in that posture as much as you can. But when a stage comes where it becomes very, very uncomfortable for you and in order to keep that posture your attention is scattered, then it is better to change that posture rather than to let your mind scatter out.

42. Q. Ultimately our meditation really should be done at a good, solid stretch?

A. At least solid time should be given. We should try to give two and a half hours at a stretch, but since we are not in the habit of sitting so long, one hour is enough, rather than letting the mind find the excuse, “I can’t sit so long.” From that point of view, don’t give any excuse to the mind not to do meditation. If you can’t sit more than an hour at a stretch, then give some more time at some other time and try to extend your morning time until you get into the habit of giving the full time.

43. Q. Master, how important is a healthy body when you’re trying to make spiritual progress? Could you expect to go in if you didn’t have such a healthy body?

A. That’s not the point. Even if you have a very frail body or a weak body, going in depends upon your concentration. The concentration helps you to go in – not how much health you have. But in the beginning a healthy body naturally helps in meditation. A sick person can’t sit in meditation easily. He might find it difficult to attend to this daily practice.

• Q. Well, what I was thinking about was a degree of health finer than just the obvious kind like if you have a cold or if you’re sick to your stomach and can’t sit in meditation. I’ve done other kinds of reading that maybe have put some funny ideas in my mind, and sometimes they talk about finer degrees of health. Like, if you have weak kidneys or something, it would be difficult to become so balanced and concentrated that your energy could go up.

A. No. It has nothing to do with that. You don’t have to be very strong to sit in meditation, but a healthy body naturally is better. Otherwise you can hardly sit for half an hour before your body starts aching and you feel uneasy, you can’t sit, you want to lie down, you feel sleepy.

That is why these yoga asanas were all invented – to maintain health. Rishis and munis used to retire to caves in the mountains for meditation. They didn’t come out of their caves, and their needs, which they could meet there, were very few. While being in their caves, they could do all these exercises and keep healthy and attend to their meditation.

44. Q. Master, you said that it is okay for us not to sit in the bhajan position for meditation because we’re soft Americans, but isn’t this position better for keeping alert and withdrawing the currents?

A. Brother, posture is not important in meditation. It is recommended only from the health point of view, because there are certain postures where you become very lazy and you feel sleepy. But you people are not used to sitting in our Indian way; even most Indians are not now used to sitting in the Indian way. So you can sit in any way which suits you.

Sit in any comfortable position, but not in such a way that you are lured to sleep, that you easily fall asleep. If we can squat (sit cross-legged), then we don’t need a chair, and we can sit anywhere. We also sit in the bhajan posture very easily because we don’t need the help of anything at all. You can’t carry a chair everywhere you go. That is why these are convenient postures.

Even in our daily work, we are advised to keep the spine straight. At our desk and table where we work, the chairs are always straight. If they were very comfortable or you sat on a sofa to work, you would just go to sleep because you would become too lazy. Even dining chairs are straight. Similarly, in meditation we try to keep our backbone straight, and that is from the health point of view. There is no special spiritual advantage in that.

Spiritual advantage will be in the concentration. If your concentration is all right, you will get all the spiritual advantages, whether you are sitting in the Indian posture or in any other posture. Ultimately you forget in what posture you are sitting and whether or not you are even in the body. You have to forget your body. You have not even to be conscious of what position you are sitting in; and unless you come to that stage, you cannot become one with the Divine Melody within.

45. Q. Is it better, if it’s possible, to sit without leaning against something?

A. The main thing is, our spine should be straight, from the health point of view, from the alertness point of view. If your backbone is straight, you’re more alert and you are not easily lured to sleep. But if your back stoops when you sit, then there’s always a danger of getting sleepy, and if we lean against something, sometimes the backbone is not straight. Even if you work sitting in a chair and your backbone is straight, you can work much better. The main thing is, one should try to keep the spine straight.

46. Q. The problem of sleep seems to be the biggest one.

A. Yes, that is right. The problem of sleep is a big hurdle in our meditation, and that practically everybody has to face. Hardly anybody can escape it, because when we sleep, our whole attention is at the throat center, and when we try to concentrate in meditation, our whole attention is at the eye center, and there is very little difference between the eye center and the throat center. The moment we try to concentrate at the eye center, the consciousness slips down to the throat center and we fall asleep.

It is a big problem no doubt. That is rather the only big problem for a disciple, but so many factors help us. One thing – we should never try to sit in meditation at the cost of sleep. We don’t want to cut down our other activities for sleep, but we try to cut down our sleep and sit in meditation, and naturally the body needs a certain amount of rest. It varies with the individual’s type of work, but everybody needs not less than six hours in any way – sleeping hours, not lying hours.

And then we are not punctual about our time of sleep and getting up. Sometimes we sleep at eleven at night, sometimes at eight at night. The body, however, becomes used to getting up at a certain hour if we are punctual. When we don’t remain punctual, then we always find it difficult to get up.

Then, also our food goes a long way in affecting our alertness. If we eat very fatty things, fried things, heavy things, they weigh heavily at the time of meditation. Sometimes, according to what I was told by one doctor, a lack of protein also causes drowsiness and lures us to sleep. So we have to adjust our diet.

In addition, when we get up in the morning, we can move about a little. If we try to sit in meditation in our own bed, and are too lazy to get up and leave the bed and sit down, that also induces us to sleep, as we have an association with the bed for sleep. Associations work a long way. We have an association with the bed just to sleep, so we again are lured to sleep. If you leave the bed and move about, go to the bathroom and wash your face a little and be somewhat active, and then you sit, you will be able to overcome sleep. But one has to fight with persistence and perseverance.

Regularity is the main thing, but in this modern way of life it’s very difficult for us to maintain regularity and punctuality, so naturally we go to sleep. But I don’t think we sleep when we watch TV or go to a picture house. So our staying awake also depends upon the extent of the interest we take in sitting. There are so many reasons why we fall asleep, and we have to find out the cause, and deal with it accordingly.

47. Q. Master, I was told that if one is doing very heavy manual labor, that perhaps you’ll get tired because you’re doing this type of work, and that it’s actually a little harder for you to withdraw from your body because you’re more attached to it, having to work very hard with it.

A. I don’t think physical exercise, physical work, has anything to do with your withdrawal within. In fact, it has nothing to do with it. It is your attachment to the senses which makes it difficult to withdraw to the eye center. Hard exercise doesn’t make it difficult to withdraw from the body, because the body does the exercise, not the mind. It’s wrong. Do you mean to say that weaker people who don’t do any manual work withdraw more easily?

The only problem is that people who work very hard get too tired, and they should not try to sit in meditation at the cost of sleep. Physical work makes no difference at all in withdrawing.

48. Q. How many grams of protein does our body need daily?

A. It may vary from individual to individual, but still, doctors can advise you better. Most of the protein we can get from our daily food, taking milk and curd and cheese and so many other things. But still, if there’s any deficiency, you can consult some doctor or dietitian. They can tell you better.

49. Q. I’ve heard that meditation on a full stomach is harmful because in meditation the blood goes to the head and therefore does not allow the food to properly digest. Is this true?

A. We don’t say meditation is harmful, but if you meditate with a full stomach, you may feel sleepy. Otherwise, you can do meditation at any time – with a full stomach, with an empty stomach; it is all right. But naturally with a heavy stomach you’ll be yawning, you will go to sleep, you’ll be lazy, so you may not be able to concentrate.

50. Q. Would a cup of hot coffee or hot tea before we meditate be advisable to get rid of drowsiness?

A. If that helps you to keep awake, it is all right.

51. Q. Maharaj Ji, I think it was Jagat Singh Ji Maharaj who said, “Eat less, sleep less, speak less,” and I’ve had a question: I understand the eat less and I understand the speak less, but I don’t understand the sleep less, because when I sleep less, it seems to interfere with my meditation. Could you explain that?

A. You should control your sleep. We shouldn’t try to sit in meditation at the cost of sleep. We should cut down other engagements of our life, but the body must have six to seven hours sleep.

• Q. Do some people need more than that?

A. They should give more time then.

• Q. So what does “sleep less” mean?

A. “Sleep less” means that you shouldn’t unnecessarily go on sleeping. Some people sleep ten hours or twelve hours, so for them, six or seven hours is less. If you will eat less, you will automatically sleep less. If you will speak less, the mind will not be so scattered. Speaking tires you and scatters the mind, and eating too much makes you sluggish.

52. Q. If one wakes up, let’s say, at one or two o’clock and is very refreshed, and you know that if you’re going to get up and sit for meditation, you have to go back to bed again before six or seven o’clock, is it better to try to sleep and then get up again later, or still to get up and take advantage of the time, knowing you’re going to have to go back to sleep again?

A. Do take advantage of that time and attend to meditation. No opportunity for meditation should ever be lost under any circumstances. After that there is no harm in going to sleep.

53. Q. If we sit for meditation, but in the two and a half hours we fall asleep for part of the meditation, and if we don’t try to make up that part during the rest of the day, is that breaking the vow to do two and a half?

A. Brother, the vow means that it is our good intention to give that much time to meditation. That is the vow. But when we take a vow on ourselves and we don’t attend to meditation, we carry a sense of guilt, that we have not done our duty. That sense of guilt will help you to sit in meditation again, and then you will be able to give more time to meditation. But don’t be too rigid about these things. If you have not been able to give the full time in the morning, give more at noon or in the evening, whenever you feel like.

54. Q. If a person falls asleep after meditation, it seems that increased concentration makes the falling down into sleep harder, and people often have vivid dreams or visions, or they sleep so that when they wake up they’re much more tamasik than they would be ordinarily, and sometimes the lower chakras seem to get aroused. Is that possible?

A. Sister, with concentration you get better sleep, deep sleep. Generally one becomes sleepless when the mind is scattered, and then you take tranquilizers or sleeping pills just to relax and sleep. But concentration relaxes you, and you get better sleep with concentration. If you try to eliminate the worldly thinking, naturally you will relax and go to sleep. If you go on thinking about worldly matters, you will be tense or excited and you won’t get sleep at all.

Dreams are a part of sleep, and hardly anybody can avoid them. But you get better dreams if you sleep after meditating or reading some good literature, Sant Mat literature and all that.

Also, when you are sleeping, your body doesn’t hold much of your mind as it does when you’re awake. In the sleep state, the mind leaves the body, and sometimes you have dreams of flying or going very high, and sometimes you have visions. Even in sleep you sometimes get visions, because it is easier for the mind to leave the body in the sleep state.

But one thing I can tell you: if you don’t get sleep, instead of taking pills, start doing simran and you will fall asleep. Simran is a better “pill.”

55. Q. Master, you said that we’re supposed to meditate with a relaxed mind, but supposing at the time of meditation all that we have is a tense mind?

A. Then relax it. That is why it is generally recommended that before sitting in meditation we should read Sar Bachan or some other devotional Shabd or books, just to fill ourselves with that devotion, with that love, and to forget the misery of the world and our part in that misery, and just to relax the mind before we attend to meditation.

That is why Sardar Bahadur often used to advise us that when we get up from satsang, we should go and sit in meditation, because in satsang your thoughts are all towards the Father and your mind becomes relaxed, spiritually and mentally, so you should take advantage of it for meditation.

56. Q. May songs of devotion be used to put one in the right frame of mind for meditation?

A. There’s no harm. You can use those songs of devotion; you can read Sar Bachan; you can read any letters from Spiritual Gems; you can read anything which creates or generates that devotion in you for meditation. Then sit in meditation.

57. Q. Master, when satsang is given back in our home, is there a devotional time before satsang and after satsang too? A time of quiet and meditation or simran before the meeting and after the meeting?

A. Well, you can sit at any time. There’s no question of before or after. Whenever you find it convenient, you can sit in meditation.

• Q. Master, I mean for the whole group of people.

A. You mean as a group meditation? Group meditation leads us nowhere, practically. Group meditation is only to create a little atmosphere of holiness to hold the meeting, just to prevent gossiping, bickering and criticizing anybody and unnecessarily hurting anybody. That is the advantage you will have from it. You don’t get much spiritual advantage by group meditation because you are always conscious of one another, as to who’s to your right and who’s to your left and who’s snoring and who’s breathing deeply. Your mind is not there in meditation at all. Meditation should only be done when alone. That is why it is always advised to retire to some solitary corner for meditation, so that you are not conscious of anybody.

58. Q. What about a husband and wife meditating together in the same room? Is that a good idea?

A. It’s all right, sister, if you’re not conscious of each other. That is the main thing. If they can forget each other’s presence, then it is all right.

59. Q. We talked about meditation not being possible with other people or in a crowd and that we need a small room for silence, but it would seem that with meditation, surely it should be possible to get to the stage where you could meditate instantaneously and therefore do it permanently, anywhere, at any time.

A. We should try to find a lonely place, a quiet corner where we are not disturbed, where we’re not conscious of anybody’s presence. When you reach to that stage, where you’re in tune with the Father, then every place is good for you, but that’s a very high stage. You can’t begin with that. You can end with that.

60. Q. Maharaj Ji, does it make much difference in meditation if you completely cover your head with a blanket? Does it make any difference?

A. How can it make any difference? Whether you keep your head bare or covered, what difference does it make in meditation? Meditation has something to do with the concentration of the mind. You won’t get a better concentration when you cover your head or when you uncover it. There’s no ritual in Sant Mat.

• Q. I read that in a book, Maharaj Ji. I read that it would help to isolate you.

A. No, no, that covering is something different. People cover their head so that they can become unconscious of their neighbor. But if you can become unconscious of your surroundings without covering your head, then there is no need.

Why do we close ourselves in a room? So that we may become unconscious of our surroundings. We just go to a room for meditation because then we don’t see anybody, our attention is not drawn to anybody. Otherwise we can sit in the open, in public. Because the public distracts our attention, so we cover our head and face sometimes just to become unconscious of our surroundings. Otherwise there’s nothing in it. It’s not that you have to do it or that there is any advantage in doing it. That’s just to give you a feeling of seclusion, that you’re alone. That’s the only advantage.

61. Q. Maharaj Ji, why is it so very difficult to try and meditate at the Dera?

A. There’s no question of any difficulty here. There are no worldly activities to distract you, and all activities that keep you away from meditation are of your own creation. Don’t create them and you will get enough time for meditation.

62. Q. Master, the other day when I was by the banks of the river outside of the Dera, it seemed to me a good idea to have meditation nets so that one could be closer to nature while meditating. Now, is there not, in fact, some project like this that you have in mind?

A. Brother, actually, we have made this whole Colony, the whole Dera, a project for meditation, but it is for us to keep that atmosphere of meditation here. That is for us to determine how we use it. In fact, this whole Guest House and the whole Dera is made from the meditation point of view. There’s no other activity in the whole Colony, but it is up to us how we keep this Colony, how we make use of this Colony.

I’m glad you have asked me this question, because I wanted to tell this to the residents of the Guest House, since I’ll be leaving tomorrow, that those who are staying here should try to make best use of their stay in the Guest House. You should try to keep the sanctity and the spiritual atmosphere of this place in the Guest House also, and not create problems unnecessarily.

63. Q. Maharaj Ji, quite a few have asked me, is it necessary to attend satsang while you’re away, and I said, yes, because it occupies that hour.

A. The question is, what else have they to do here? Otherwise, they will just sit here and gossip. If they can utilize their spare time for meditation, then it is all right, but they can’t sit in meditation the whole day.

I’ll be having meetings held in my absence every day at whatever time suits you. It may not only be at evening time – even in the day time – because you’re free, so you can set up any time which suits you every day. You can ask questions and discuss Sant Mat literature.

And try to do additional meditation in whatever time is left rather than moving about aimlessly in the Colony. It’s better to make the best use of your time. In my absence you can read the books, you can read the literature. We have so many books, the library is full of books on comparative study of religions, and we have a lot of books in our own Guest House here for the visitors, so try to make the best use of your time.

64. Q. Master, if somebody withdraws the attention from the senses and keeps the mind constantly clean, would this be a great help in focusing the mind at the eye center? By clean I mean that the mind does not go out.

A. Naturally, where will the mind stay then? Here at the eye center. Unless the mind runs out, it is here at the eye center.

65. Q. Master, I often have the urge to use creative talents that are in me. I was wondering, is it better that I curb these tendencies and just try to re-channel this energy to the eye center and sit in meditation?

A. No, you can use this creative energy and also meditate. After all, the whole day you can’t sit in meditation. If you won’t put your talent into art, you will put it to something else. There’s no harm. Also attend to your meditation. We have to plan for twenty-one hours in a day, and meditation will only come to about two to three hours. The rest of the day what will you do? We have to do something practical.

66. Q. You have said that our whole life must be meditation. Is it a different type of meditation than actually sitting down and withdrawing?

A. That atmosphere which you’re building by leading a noble home life induces you to meditate. Otherwise you won’t feel like attending to meditation if you’re always gossiping and quarreling with one another. But if the atmosphere is good, naturally you’re induced towards meditation, and that meditation naturally helps us in every way.

67. Q. Maharaj Ji, I have no question, but I should like to thank you for Nam, which I received three years ago today.

A. The real thanks we can give for initiation is to practice it and to live it and to mold our pattern of life accordingly. That is the real, actual thanks we can give to the Master. Mere words are meaningless. They don’t carry us anywhere.

68. Q. Master, can you advise us how to mould our life and to carry the teachings with us throughout the day as a sense of seva, a sense of service to the Lord, in our daily life?

A. Sister, the question is, what is seva? Every satsangi should do some seva. Seva is of four types: with the body, with the mind, with wealth, and with the soul. They are all seva. The first three sevas are the means to the real seva, which is seva of the soul, or connecting your soul with the Sound within. That is the real seva. Seva means that service which is done to please the Master, and what pleases the Master most is when we attend to our meditation. Withdrawing our consciousness to the eye center and connecting it with the Sound is the real seva, which is impressed upon us by every Mystic or Saint.

We do seva with the body so that we may be able to eliminate ego from within ourselves. We feel more humble when we are working shoulder to shoulder with the masses. When we sit with them, at their side, naturally we are filled with humility, we feel we are at their level. So, we work with our body for the congregation or for our fellow human beings. We try to be helpful and useful to them just to create humility within us.

And then we do seva of the mind, which means withdrawing our consciousness to the eye center with the help of simran and dhyan, and leading a Sant Mat way of life – being steadfast on the principles of Sant Mat on which we have to build our foundation for meditation. That is seva of the mind.

We do seva of wealth because accumulating wealth usually leads us towards vices, and attachment to wealth creates an inflated ego in us, or a sense of superiority in us, or a sense of possession in us. If we use wealth for the well-being of the masses, for the congregation, it is to our advantage. If some people are filled with love and devotion for the Father directly or indirectly by means of our wealth, that is to our advantage.

Any seva that anybody can do is most welcome, but the real seva is to attend to meditation, to connect your soul with the Sound. These three sevas of wealth and mind and body are the means to that end. If you forget the end, the means will only clean the vessel but will not fill it. Real seva is to clean the vessel and also fill it. Some people give emphasis only to the means without worrying about the end, which is wrong. We clean a cup or a utensil not to see it clean, but because we want to use it – we want to put milk into it, we want to put coffee or tea into it. We want to use that clean vessel. That is the purpose of cleaning the vessel. If every day you go on cleaning a vessel but again it gets dusty, and again you clean it, then why clean it? What is the use if you don’t use it, you don’t fill it?

So these three sevas which I have explained to you are only the means to an end, and the real seva is Surat Shabd Yoga, connecting your soul to the Sound. That is the seva that is the most pleasing to the Lord and to the Master. The first three sevas should lead us to the fourth seva, which is the real seva.

69. Q. We’re told and we read the importance of doing simran not only during meditation but all the time, and this is not easy because we forget. How important is it to try and do simran all the time?

A. If simran had not been so important, Saints wouldn’t have impressed upon us the necessity for it. It is important. If you let your mind run out and think about worldly things the whole day and you want to pull it back to the eye center in just an hour or so, how can you succeed? After all, it takes time then to withdraw. If you don’t let the mind run the whole day, then it becomes easier to pull it up to the eye center. That is the main reason.

And then it also frees us from many worries and unnecessary miseries. Either we are miserable thinking about the past or we are worried about the future. We don’t want to spend this present moment happily. There is something wrong with us. We never want to be happy at the present moment. Either we are worried about what we have done or about what is going to happen to us. We don’t want to make the best use of the present moment.

If we make this moment happy, our past automatically becomes happy, and we have no time to worry about the future. So we must take life as it comes and spend it happily. Every moment should be spent happily. And simran helps.

70. Q. If we’re faced with temptations and we say simran, how does that help?

A. Well, sister, what is simran? Simran is a means to concentration at the eye center, and we are tempted by the senses only when our mind is scattered. When the mind comes from the eye center downward to the senses, only then are we tempted by these senses. When it is not scattered, when it is collected at the eye center, automatically you will save yourself from all those temptations. In that way simran helps. It keeps you concentrated at the eye center; it keeps your thoughts at the eye center.

71. Q. If we think that the Lord is present in this world and in all things; if we feel that this world, in a way, is a manifestation of God’s bounty and love, then can’t we also indulge in the contemplation of that beauty? If we do simran all the time, how can we do any creative work? How can we compose music or poetry or enjoy the beauty of nature?

A. No, no, brother. I said whenever your mind is free. If you’re doing any creative work, naturally you need your mind to work there. If you have a duty as a clerk in a bank and you’re working with the accounts, how can you say, “I refuse to do it; I must do my simran”? Do simran whenever you’re free. Saints don’t say that you have to leave your worldly work and all that. Do simran when you’re mentally free.

For example, you’re going for a walk; your mind is free. Instead of gossiping with a friend, you can easily do simran. You’re traveling by air; you’re going by train; you’re going by car; you’re sitting on a lawn and just enjoying the sunshine – why can’t you make use of that spare time? So that is what the Mystics mean – when we are mentally free we should try to make best use of that time by doing simran.

72. Q. Can’t we say, Master, that an atmosphere of beauty is conducive to meditation?

A. It depends upon the attitude of the person. Some people are so lost with so much beauty around that they just can’t concentrate. But on the other hand, this beauty helps some people to concentrate. It depends upon the individual, his approach and the concept of beauty is also one’s own.

73. Q. Would you say that an attitude of inner contemplation, reflecting on God, thinking of Him, of His kindness and love, also has value in some way?

A. That’s right. That will automatically induce you to do simran. That will help you to do simran, naturally.

74. Q. Often I feel like I could do simran more, but I’m afraid that somehow things are going to get out of hand unless I’m really concentrating on what I’m doing.

A. No, only at the time of meditation you should attend to simran with concentration. When you are doing mental work, then you can’t do simran, but if you are doing work with your hands or just walking, then of course your mind is free and you can attend to simran. When your mind is occupied, how can you do simran, unless you have reached the stage where it goes on automatically in your subconscious mind.

75. Q. There are some jobs where you either have to actively use your mind all the time or you have people coming at you all the time with questions and things, and you feel like you’re being nibbled to pieces sometimes. I absolutely cannot do simran under either of these circumstances.

A. Sister, one has to adjust one’s daily activities, daily life, daily engagements. One has to adjust. We have to do our worldly duties also. If I say, “I won’t like to come to the evening meetings,” how can I escape, howsoever comfortable I may be in my bed? I have to come here; I think it’s my duty. We have to fulfill certain responsibilities, certain obligations, but still we have so much spare time when we unnecessarily make ourselves miserable by thinking. At least that time should be spared for simran. We’re not constantly busy with work.

76. Q. Doesn’t the simran revolve twenty-four hours a day in one’s head once one gets advancement? Even when one goes through one’s pralabdh karmas, doesn’t the simran revolve?

A. It can if one is in the habit of doing simran. Then even unconsciously one is doing simran. You get into the habit of doing simran so much that even unconsciously you are attending to it.

• Q. Does the Master do it for us in those circumstances?

A. You mean the Master should do the simran and you should just feel free?

• Q. Only when we can’t do it.

A. Do we ever do it? We are only an instrument to do it. The Doer who’s forcing us to do it is always there.

77. Q. Master, last night someone asked a question about having conversations with the Master in their own mind, and you said it was just the mind. Is this a good or bad practice? Should we try to stop it when it happens or just ignore it or what, when we carry on these conversations with the Master?

A. Doing simran is better than the conversation. If you don’t want to do simran, then you can converse. But simran should have preference over conversation.

78. Q. Maharaj Ji, Baba Ji says, “Once again you’re enjoined to note that there should be no time when you’re not having bhajan and simran,” and at other places he says specifically, “While walking, sitting, sleeping, continue your simran.”⁹ And you have mentioned that you should continue to have meditation in your dreams. My question is, how do you do simran when you’re sound asleep?

A. No, no, I said one should not forget the Path even in a dream. It’s a way of explaining. Even in a dream means that generally in a dream you forget everything of the world. I said we should not forget meditation even in a dream, which means it should never be forgotten.

• Q. Well what did Baba Ji mean, “While walking, eating, sleeping, you should attend to your simran”?

A. In your daily life at all times, you should not forget the teachings.

79. Q. While on simran I have another question concerning it. It’s supposed to be constant, and if simran does have to do with the attention, then in the business world when you’re forced to concentrate your whole attention on a particularly difficult, intricate problem, how can you do simran at that time?

A. No, you are taking it too literally. What Baba Ji means to say is that whenever we are free, we should always be doing simran, whenever we can. The words are, even in a dream you should not forget the Lord which means that under no circumstances should you forget the Lord. In your daily activities you should not forget the Lord, you should not forget the teachings, you should not forget your bhajan and simran. In your daily activities with the world, under any circumstances, under any direction that you’re working, you should not forget the teachings.

80. Q. I was reading in Spiritual Letters that Baba Jaimal Singh said to Great Master, “I’m responsible for your simran and bhajan when you’re doing your official duties.” Could you tell us what that means?

A. Those letters are from one Master to another Master in the making, so you and I can’t generalize those letters. What he means to say is, you think that whatever work you are doing is your Guru’s work, and that your Guru is in everything. In whatever you are doing in life, in all your activities, your Master is there. He’s associated with everything you do during the whole day, and whatever you do then is bhajan and simran for you. Don’t forget your Master in any activity of life.

• Q. That means it was meant for Maharaj Ji?

A. It means don’t forget your Master and the Path and the Sant Mat way of life at any moment, in any activity of life. Then all that you do is bhajan and simran. That’s what Baba Ji has written to the Great Master.

81. Q. I find that bhajan makes the daily living very difficult for me, because when the bhajan is truly concentrated, I find that my mind, my spirit, or my soul, whatever it is, is reluctant to once again re-enter the swirl of daily living.

A. We have to do both things. We have to live in the world, but we have to meditate also. We have to keep a balance be- tween the two, because there is a certain load of karmas which can be cleared only by facing life and not just by attending to meditation. When we become absorbed too much in meditation, sometimes the Master also withdraws the grace so that we may work in the world, we may not leave our worldly work. Rather, we may even be pushed to the world to face the world.

It’s a very strange thing – I can tell you a little from my personal experience also. First, we have no love for the Path, we have no love for the Master. The Master forces us to love him, he creates love for the Lord in us. He holds satsangs, he makes us work, he makes us do seva. All these things he does just to fill us with love and devotion for the Father. And when that love arises in us, when we become a victim of that love, then he conceals himself. Then it’s a game of hide-and-seek. He does not want us to be so much absorbed in that love that we leave our worldly duties and worldly work.

As a child I got my education while living here in the Dera. Probably I was just five or six when I was brought here by the Master, and naturally as a child everybody is fond of play and of his friends. We used to play and run about on the river banks here and there, and a man would always be sent to bring us in from where we were, and we would be made to hear the satsang. We were made to sit in the front, and if we were noisy, we would have to sit at the back, but we could not leave the satsang. We had to sit in the satsang, and when, slowly and slowly, slowly and slowly, things started making their way in us and we realized what we were getting, we were pushed out of the Dera and told by the Master, “Go and practice law here and do jobs there and don’t come to Beas for six months, and then don’t come every month.”

This is a game of very strange hide-and-seek. As children we were all right; we used to play with friends. We never thought about the Path and the Master and love and God and all that. First the Master created all that in us. When he succeeded in that, then he pushed us into the world to face the world. So this happens; there’s nothing new to it. The Master would like us to keep a balance.

82. Q. Master, when one realizes that he is helpless, what should be his next move?

A. The next move is to sit in meditation. When one finds that he’s absolutely helpless, then he should really become helpless and submit himself to meditation and leave his intellect. That’s the only move one should make.

PROTECTING THE TREASURE

83. Q. Would you please explain how satsang is building a fence around the crop of meditation?

A. What it means is that by meditating we are building a treasure in heaven. We get all sorts of powers within ourselves – with the help of meditation we can perform miracles, we can do so many jugglery tricks – but if you go on losing it like that, then you remain a pauper. If you earn ten rupees in a day and in the evening you just spend it all, you are back to where you started at the beginning of the day.

Satsang will help you to preserve that treasure of meditation. Satsang will help you to remain humble and not to become the rival of the Lord. “He didn’t give you a son and I have given you a son. He deprived you of this boon in life and I am giving you this boon in life.” You are just trying to become a rival of the Father by performing miracles. But satsang will help you to remain in His Will, which is real humility and meekness. It will help you treasure all of the grace of the Father that is within you.

The more you treasure and digest within yourself your wealth of meditation, the more He showers His grace upon you. When a son grows and becomes an adult and starts his business, a responsible father will give him a small sum of money to invest in the business. If the son is rightly handling the accounts and not wasting the money, and is giving proper time to the shop and to the business, the father is happy to give him more and more. Ultimately, the father gives all that he has to his son, when he thinks that the son can handle it. If, however, in the very first instance the son starts squandering the money and does not give any attention to his business, then the father also withholds his hand.

We do achieve results in meditation when we start honestly on the Path, and if we are able to digest and treasure that bliss and peace within, we get more and more grace within; but if we waste it, if we squander it, then He also withholds His hand of grace from us.

84. Q. Then, Master, do we squander this treasure if we speak about our meditation?

A. You are doing meditation for your own good and not for impressing other people. To talk about it means you want other people to appreciate that you are a great devotee of the Father. You want them to praise you, and you want to inflate your ego.

• Q. Then is there any harm in telling a lie to keep one’s meditation a secret? I’ve read in Divine Light that one should never tell a lie.

A. You see, by concealing certain facts, we try to inflate our ego or we want to hurt somebody, knowing very well that it is wrong. But when that motive is not there, I don’t think you are telling a lie at all. Just by avoiding a question, doesn’t mean you tell a lie. When you don’t want to share certain things with some people, I don’t think you are telling a lie.

For example, if you don’t want to share your spiritual experiences with your wife or anyone else and you just smile or keep quiet, I don’t think that is telling a lie. There’s no motive to hurt anybody or to inflate your own ego or to show your own superiority by concealing certain facts. That motive is not there in your mind. But if by concealing certain things we gain for ourselves, and we try to hurt somebody else for our own gain, then of course it’s not right.

85. Q. Maharaj Ji, would you please explain to us the importance of never divulging any inner experience? Because there are so many stories going on that so-and-so said he went up and saw Light, or other such experiences.

A. Sister, it is not in one’s own interest to share one’s inner experience with anyone, because even if not consciously, then unconsciously there is always ego. When you discuss or share with another person your own spiritual experiences, you think, “You didn’t even see the Light? You couldn’t even cross that?” So you definitely become the victim of ego, and the moment you become a victim of the ego, your progress stops and you lose what you had. That is the main reason for not sharing your spiritual experiences with anybody.

This is an individual relationship of the soul with the Father. It’s nobody else’s business. Nobody else comes between the soul and the Father. No one has any right to share that experience. That is just the relationship of the soul with its own Origin, its own Path. Why should we like to share? A wife doesn’t share all the secrets of her husband with anybody else. How can you expect the soul to share all the spiritual experiences and secrets within with anybody else? It should be digested, and the more you digest it, the more grace you will find within, the more receptive you become to His grace.

And then if we start sharing our experience, there is always a danger of becoming a victim to performing miracles, because the ego inflates – “I can do this and I can do that” – and things do happen, because you have attained a certain level of consciousness within. You’re not even conscious of your spiritual powers, but you say things and then they come true – not that you want to perform “miracles,” but you have the power to perform them. Unconsciously you do those things, and you always do them at your own cost. So, it’s always better to remain obscure and just digest within yourself all that you have. One can say, “I’m happy with my meditation,” and that’s all.

Moreover, when other persons know that you are quite spiritually advanced and you see the Light or that you are very happy spiritually within, they start humoring you and praising you, and then there’s always a danger of your ego becoming inflated. They start showing you undue regard and respect. They take you as a great soul, a spiritual leader, and you also become over conscious of all that honor. Then the result is that you lose what you had.

That danger is always there, and people are selfish. They will be around you for their own selfish purposes. Not that they are happy about your spiritual progress, they simply want to take advantage of your spiritual progress. Some want a child; some want worldly fame; some want sickness to leave the house. That is why they are hovering around you – for their own selfish purposes. They think that they can use you because you have some spiritual experiences, spiritual powers within. Then you are likely to be tempted by all this, and ego creeps in when you start getting importance from people, and you lose everything.

The Great Master used to tell us that the sadhus leave everything in the world, but they cannot leave self-importance. They always want self-importance, and people, due to their own selfish purposes, are anxious to give it to them. The moment any importance is given to anybody, there is a danger of his falling. So it’s always better to remain obscure.

86. Q. Is running after the Master out of love for him the same as outwardly expressing our inner experiences and feelings of devotion and love?

A. Running after the physical form of the Master is something very different from having love for the Master. Running after the Master doesn’t mean that you have love. You may be empty within and still you may be running after the Master. Yet, you may be filled with love for him and you may not move even an inch. You would like to remain in discipline, but that doesn’t mean you have no love. Running after the Master doesn’t show any special love.

Love is always within. When you try to dramatize your love, you lose the depth of the love. You have to digest that love within. If you have that love within, the moment you try to dramatize it, you lose its depth.

87. Q. Maharaj Ji, there is a metaphor used to explain that emotions in Sant Mat are like a river that has to be controlled, that emotions have a force in Sant Mat.

A. I don’t know what you mean, but emotions are all right if they lead you to devotion, but they should be channeled. If you let loose your emotions, they become a nuisance. If the river flows within its banks, only then it is useful. But when the river floods, it overflows its banks and creates devastation everywhere. In the same way, emotion is very useful when it is channeled, when it is disciplined. But if your emotions get out of control, then they are just like the flood of a river which does more harm than good. So we should have disciplined emotions, disciplined love for the Master.

88. Q. If one begins to feel love for the Master, should one try to hide this, keep it inside and try to not let it show?

A. Would you like to publicize your love or go to the roof and shout about it? Love has to be within, sister. It will reflect in your actions. Your face will betray you, but you don’t have to shout.

• Q. Should you try to hide your face from showing it?

A. If you can, but there is no need for that exercise at all. Love will definitely reflect from your every action. Your whole daily living will reflect how much you really love the Master. But love is not to be advertised or to be shouted to the masses. Real love is never dramatized. It flourishes and grows only in silence. It is just between you and Him. Why should anybody come between us? We don’t love the Master to show it off to others. That approach should not be there.

1. Next:  Chapter 3: Meditation