"Sadhana is nothing but an index of how far we are going to be obedient to the Master."

Sages have classified the disciples under two main heads, the Manamat and the Gurumat. The former are those who approach the Guru with some particular worldly end in view such as relief from worldly misery, desire for wealth, etc. They submit to him only so long as they are hopeful in the achievement of their desires. When they meet disappointment in this respect, they are off. For such disciples the question of obedience or submission even does not arise, what to say of surrender. Gurumata disciples are those who obey the commands of the Master in all matters and try to submit to his will in all possible ways. Submission begins with obedience.

So the best disciple is the one who is most obedient. The highest disciple is the one who is absolutely obedient - highest not in spiritual evolution, which after all is always the gift of the Master. In Sahaj Marg, without obedience nothing can be gained, absolutely nothing. You may be the greatest tapasvi (one who does penance), twenty-four hours meditation, putting yourself like a piece of cloth at His door. I dare say you will not achieve anything. This is my conviction born out of personal experience with the Master for more than twenty years, after a great deal of analysis and thinking. So you see, the success is not because of education, is not because of application, is not because of the practice; it is only obedience which ultimately, today stands in my mind, as the prime and sole factor in our spiritual development.

WHAT IS OBEDIENCE?
In our old yogic literature it is said that we should do what the guru says, and that is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. So if anything will guarantee total success in spiritual life, it is obedience, because obedience means that we don't think of what he asks us to do, we do it. So, only one who has more or less given up the egoistic attitude can obey the Master. So I would advise all of you to practice this obedience very seriously. Anybody can obey that which is possible to obey. The test of obedience is: are we obedient when we cannot possibly obey?

So, obedience means doing when He says "Do"; stopping when He says "Stop." I know certain people to whom he said, "Now you have to do this." They said, "No, but last time you told me something else." Why not? The Guru has the right to change his instructions. If you accept him as the Goal, and if you accept him as a Master of your Self, doesn't He have the right to change his instructions for your benefit?

So obedience must be exact. Not just like the children in the school obeying. We are adults and we should have some sense in our head. Obedience means exact, specific obedience. "Meditate for one hour" and we must meditate for one hour. "Do the evening cleaning after the day's work is done" - we must do it. "Read the literature" - we must read it. Night prayer-meditation - how many people do it? I have a strong suspicion that most people don't do it. Do we know the process? You don't meditate for one hour; you don't do evening cleaning; you don't know what prayer-meditation at bedtime is about, and you don't read the articles in the Patrika. Then what are you doing in Sahaj Marg?

OBEDIENCE MUST BE TOTAL
Babuji always used to say, for satsangh there are three reasons. One is, to promote brotherhood. Two, combined effort is much more than the multiplication of the individual effort. The third reason is, as Babuji used to smile and say, "Because I say so!" - obedience to the Master. Now, I consider this last one to be much more important. If a man is obedient, his goal is already in sight.

So, spirituality becomes a way of life, in which the practice is undertaken out of obedience to the Master. We obey the Master because we wish to go somewhere, achieve some destination, achieve some goal. Therefore I have to obey him. He says, "Today you meditate one hour," I meditate one hour. He says, "Sit again after five minutes," I sit again after five minutes. Babuji has told me that, in one case, he had to give as many as twenty-two sittings! But today I know there are preceptors who take twenty people at a time for individual sittings! Or for new introductions to the Mission, they take three at a time, four at a time. In one centre, it was a hundred persons at one stroke! So, what is this practice? Just because we call it Sahaj Marg, is it Sahaj Marg?

As Babuji said, "Three things we must have: Satsangh with the Master, obedience to the Master, love for the Master. So, whenever we talk of progress, we must start with the practice, if for no other reason than obedience to the Master. He has said it, therefore I must do it. And it is not enough to just practiceI practice because of my obedience to the Master. When you meditate for one hour and really meditate, you are hitting two birds with one stone; satsangh with the Master and obedience to the Master - two things. Isn't it?

It is of course necessary that a disciple obeys the Master implicitly. The great Indian mystic Kabir is stated to have said that while a disciple should not take alcoholic drinks, nevertheless, if the Master orders a disciple to drink, the disciple should not merely drink but should drown himself in a vat of wine so that the liquor should pour into him through every pore of the body. This emphasises the degree of obedience that is called for. By obedience and by following the Master's guidance, not only in spiritual sadhana but in all aspects of one's life, one comes to realise that the Master is not just a Master of one's spiritual life but is an all-pervasive Master with franchise over the sum total of one's human functions. The development of this attitude strengthens one's attachment to the Master and begins to develop in the disciple a feeling of total dependence on the Master.

You know the story of Lalaji Maharaj, that when he was in acute pain - he had stomach ulcers or liver problems. One disciple asked him, "Can you not remove this pain, this suffering?" He said, "In a second." Then the disciple said, "Why don't you do it? Lalaji said, "Nothing can come to me, except from the Lord! Therefore it must be for my good. Can you refuse something which God sends you?" You see, that should be the order of obedience, that should be the level of faith and trust in the Almighty.

Total obedience is what is demanded of one who chooses to be or wishes to be perfect. Which means, perfection goes together with obedience. Perfection, in the perfect state, goes with perfect obedience, ultimate perfection with ultimate obedience.

DON'T THINK, JUST OBEY
When I went to my Master, the first thing I learned was that if you think about what the Master says, you are already on the road to destruction. You are not to think, because if you think, you are setting your thinking process against His. Babuji never thought for Himself, His thinking was suspended when He had been to His Master. He has written about it clearly. He said, "when I went to my Master for the first time, I never looked at anybody else." Not for me to think. Then what? Not for me to think, but only to obey.

I have been thinking over the importance of the second line of our Prayer: Our wishes are putting bar to our advancement. I have come to the conclusion that what we should really do when we go to the Master is to stop our wishes and make His wishes ours. So, I offer to you a new definition of obedience. Substitute for your wishes His wishes, and then this problem of putting bar to our advancement cannot happen, because His wishes are for us. Everything that He can give is Divine, Ultimate; our wishes for ourselves are petty things, you see -- momentary things, transitory things, now an ice cream, now a lollipop.

Where there is no obedience, there can never be any faith. And in accepting my Master's wishes as my wishes, or rather substituting for my wishes His wishes, everything becomes possible, obedience becomes possible. The very fact that I can obey anything that my Master says gives me every capacity in this universe that is possible for a human being to have. Capacities don't come out of strength. Capacities are not developed through knowledge. Capacities are developed solely by having the benefit of the Master confer upon you the capacity. When you obey, the Master says, "He can obey, he will have the strength to do it." I find increasingly abhyasis concerned with their own independence of thought, independence of belief. Beware of such freedoms, for, they are illusory. Beware of any freedom, because freedom is an illusory concept. It does not exist. There is only one freedom and that is freedom to obey the Master.

DOG - AN EPITOME OF OBEDIENCE
When we are with the Master, we should not have desires - not even for a sitting, not even for Upadesam (advice), not even for questions and answers, nothing! We should be like the dog, which is just happy enough to lie down at the feet of the Master and look at his face! Now Babuji himself used the example of the dog. So don't think I am insulting you! Because Babuji always praised the devotion of a dog for its Master. It was one of his standing jokes that if you reverse dog you get God. See, he wanted dog-like devotion in us, unquestioning obedience. Now I would say there are few abhyasis who are willing to obey without knowing why they should obey. We want to know why we should obey, before we become obedient.
We must have the attitude of the dog, love for the Master, faith in the Master, obedience of the Master. This is what an abhyasi is expected to have. We must become as if we are the perfect dog before Him. It eats when he gives it food. The perfect dog eats only when the master feeds it. If a stranger comes and gives something, it will not take. If the master says "sit" and he goes away, three days later it must still be sitting there. When he says "come", it goes with him. It does not ask, "Where are you going? Why are you going? When will we come back home?"

You must have read that story of Ayaz which Babuji has written in Voice Real, about a tree made of jewels and gold and silver, which was taken from India to some place in the middle East by the king Mohammed Ghazni. He had a slave called Ayaz. The king was always praising Ayaz's obedience and his devotion to himself. All the nobles and courtiers were jealous and they used to ask Mohammed Ghazni, "Why are you praising him so much?" One day he decided to teach them a lesson. So, he called his nobles and courtiers one by one and said, "Destroy this tree of gold and silver and jewels." No one was willing to destroy such a valuable tree made of jewels. Then he called Ayaz. He said, "Destroy this tree." Ayaz pulled out his sword and cut it into pieces. The king said, "You see! This is why I love him." Now, you have got a parallel in the story of Parasurama, and in the Jewish tradition you have the story of Abraham.

So the test is always there: "Are you willing to obey without knowing why you have to obey?" Babuji always used to say, "We do it with the doctor, we do it if we are in the military service, we do it with the police. But with the Master, we are not willing to do it." With the Master, we want to know why we should do this or why we should do that. So, that was Babuji's sorrow, which was ever present in His heart. A police constable can get obedience from the public; a doctor can get obedience from his patients; a boss can have obedience in his office; but He, as the Master, could not get your obedience - unquestioning obedience. It is so, because you are only his disciple and he is only a Master, you see!

Obedience means the service of the Master. The way of service means the way of obedience. I cannot choose in what way I shall serve my Master. I shall serve Him in the way He says.

HOW TO PUT OBEDIENCE INTO PRACTICE?
We are very happy to tell our friends the most important thing about Sahaj Marg - there are no do's and don'ts, very convenient system, you see! That is the most unfortunate and mistaken understanding of Sahaj Marg, that there are no rules in Sahaj Marg, is not true. We have the Ten Maxims. We are expected to live by them. That there are no do's and don'ts, well, it only says that Master does not force you to obey, but He expects you to obey and if you do not obey, your progress is going to suffer.

It is only in the field of spirituality that obedience gives total benefit. In ordinary rules and regulations, obedience prevents accidents, saves lives, you see, something like that. It's a preventive thing. "Don't smoke in a petrol station." Well! I only prevent a fire. I don't get anything positive out of it. "Don't cross the road when the red light is on." I only avoid an accident. "Don't swim in the river when the water is polluted." Again it is an avoidance of an accident. "Don't look out of the window from a train." Again you save your head from accident …all negative benefits. In the field of spirituality obedience gives positive results, positive benefits. So, I recommend obedience as a start. And try to begin with Ten Maxims, anyone of them, it doesn't matter. It is not necessary to begin with number one, and then go to number two. Start anywhere. In obedience the most important thing to remember is: don't think, start doing.

I would like you to try it in your own personal lives, by trying to obey implicitly, unquestioningly, immediately. There is no merit in delayed obedience. If the doctor says, "My dear friend, you are in serious condition! Take this medicine now," and you take it tomorrow morning - perhaps you may not be there tomorrow morning to take it at all! If a train must go at two o'clock and it leaves tomorrow evening two o'clock there is no merit in it. Obedience means immediate obedience. "Take this and put it there," must be now, not tomorrow. I have known Babuji Maharaj giving instructions, "Take this and put it there," and he goes to the kitchen. The abhyasi feels he will do it later when the Master comes. Ten minutes later the Master comes, and lifts up the thing and puts it there. This man is a failure. Why? In a small thing like, "Take this and put it there," his obedience was lacking; he did not know the importance of the Guru's instruction; he thought that it could be delayed. Now, when he thought it could be delayed, he was pitting his judgment against the Master's judgment. The conclusion is very clear. Is it an act of arrogance? Yes! Is it impertinent? Highly impertinent! How are we to judge what Master wants, why He wants it?

Abhyasis who claim to be devoted must realise that obedience is the first sign of devotion and where obedience is lacking, devotion cannot be there. And where there is no devotion, I do not think there is any large chance or great chance of rising to spiritual heights. It becomes the duty of preceptors to explain to abhyasis that, without obedience of the Master's instructions, spirituality becomes something which cannot be practice by such persons. Friendship should not interfere in a preceptor doing his duty to an abhyasi. Where friendship interferes with spiritual growth, then such friendship has to be sacrificed in the interest of one's own spiritual development.

ONE WHO OBEYS, LOVES
Obedience is a perfect discipline towards perfection of ourselves. He who obeys perfectly is the perfect person. Obedience, in the beginning, is a very difficult thing because it means subservience of our ego, subjugation of our ego, to a superior person. Therefore the ego rebels. Disobedience always comes by a rebellion of the ego. But people forget that when you are obedient you have no more responsibility for anything that you do, or don't do, under his order. It is the mukti for which we are all clamoring. It is the liberation from the world. When I can live and exist, and do and not do, according to his wishes and be totally free of every atom of responsibility, what more can you expect by way of liberation? This is liberation while I am alive - I assume. And I'm convinced in myself that this is jivan mukti.

We obey Him, our responsibility is to Him, and for the rest, well I don't want to say it, but the devil take the rest. How am I concerned? It is his problem you see. So it becomes so utterly easy and simple. Love Him, follow Him, obey Him. The three are interrelated. We won't follow somebody we cannot love. We can obey people who force us to obey, but there is always inner rebellion. Therefore even great army commanders are subject to coups, you know, and they are removed or thrown away or killed. But in a love-oriented obedience there is no rebellion, there is no anguish, there is no subjugation of the ego because we have transferred it to him and said, "This is yours. Keep it."

So you see at one stroke: loving Him, obeying Him, following Him, our responsibility doesn't exist anymore to anybody. He looks after us as he looks after everybody else. Therefore, in expressing our limited humanity, our limitations to love, to obey, to follow, to perform, our limitations of capacities, this is a supremely simple way. Love one, obey that one, follow that one and be acquit of everything else. We go on blithely swimming in the ocean that he calls the Ocean of Bliss.

We must learn to create inner obedience from the heart, and that can happen only when we love what we do, and we do what we love. So Sahaj Marg must become something which we must love to do, and which we do because we love it so much. That is, it must become mine. It is no longer a system, it is my way of living. That I get up in the morning, go to the place which I have reserved for this particular activity, naturally sit in meditation, without being even aware that I am meditating, and follow the ten maxims, not as if I have to remember. But we must use the ten maxims to change our life in such a way that we follow them naturally. Telling the truth becomes natural.

Then what is the problem with obedience? Because we know that if we don't obey, there is no punishment at all, whereas obedience gives us the highest goal of human life. So, is it not sensible to obey the Master? So, I think obedience of the Master really shows that we are very sensible and that we also love the Master. Now we are only sensible, but I am always inclined to equate obedience with love. And increasing love must be reflected in increasing obedience. And when that is absolute, obedience must be absolute.

So, I always judge an abhyasi's love for the Master by the degree of obedience that is visible to us. To me it is a direct relationship: obedience - love; more obedience - more love; highest obedience - highest love. And how is this possible? Because people can say, "But I have not the capacity to obey." It is a very great secret but a very small thing. Because, when you love a person totally, you are constantly remembering that person. And obedience in his remembrance, in the remembrance of the Master, gives us his powers therefore we work with his powers. Therefore, when we are loving the Master and we are remembering him all the time, we use his powers; whereas when we are not remembering him and loving him, we use our powers, and therefore we fail. And when we don't remember the Master, because we don't love him, we are dependent on our own capacities, and naturally we fail. So, this is the great secret of obedience.

So you see, obedience is the first law of spirituality. I place it above love because true obedience comes only with love. We are not talking of the ritualistic, militaristic obedience where they say, 'shoot' and you shoot. They say 'sleep' and you sleep. You know that is a sort of obedience that is different. That is 'survival-oriented obedience.' To live you have to shoot. And the commander tells you, hopefully at the right moment, 'Now you shoot.' Till then you have to withhold your fire. Here, we are not for survival. In Sahaj Marg, survival in this physical world is not our aim. We have to survive so long as we don't reach our goal, the least goal being liberation.

It is not easy to love, but it's easy to obey. And it is my experience that if you just obey and go on and on, it is easier than trying to love somebody. So my advice to all abhyasis is, please become obedient, don't think of what is possible or what is impossible for us, because even in any small work, if you start with a doubt, it is impossible. As Babuji said, "Doubt poisons the will." You know, if I have to lift this chair and I say, "Oh, can I lift it?", I cannot lift it. But if you take it up with confidence then automatically your power will work, and you will be able to lift it.

We know that in a family where a father tries to control his children merely through authority or punishment, the family disintegrates very fast because, when his sons grow up and are as big as the father or bigger, they say, "O.K. let us have it out, let us see who is stronger. In fact in Tamil we have a saying that when your son grows beyond your shoulder, he is your friend, he is no longer your son! So we find that we develop from a level of obedience, a level of automatic obedience, automatic love, to a conscious level where we have now to consciously obey, consciously love, and this conscious obedience of principles of ethics, of moral ways of living can only come out of love. It cannot come out of enforcement. If the son really loves the father then he is prepared to sacrifice many things for the sake of the father. He cannot do something which the father would not approve of or tolerate. So the self is no longer the important thing, it is the other to whom we have given our heart who becomes the most important person. Love makes this obedience possible. Love makes the achievement of our aim possible because the son wants to achieve what his father wants him to achieve. Therefore his cooperation is available. He knows that his father would not desire for him something that is bad, something which would not satisfy him.

So it is my growing conviction that the process is given to us as a matter of discipline, to make us obedient. And as we grow more and more obedient, it shows an increasing love for the Master. Because we don't love Him or obey Him because of authoritarian domination by Him, but because we love the man. And when we love Him absolutely, we obey Him absolutely. So one sure index of your love for the Master is the degree of your obedience, there must be absolute love behind it. With absolute love, there is absolute dependence. With absolute dependence, there is absolute surrender. Then it is His problem, you see, what to do with this guy. He won't leave him alone.

When we obey Him, we work for Him, He has to love us. It is not important whether I love the Master or not. The important thing is whether my Master loves me. You see, no child, when it is born, loves the mother. Its existence is ensured because the mother loves the child. Later on, the child learns to love its mother. The mother loves naturally; the children have to learn to love by association. Similarly the Master loves us naturally; we have to learn to love the Master. And when we obey Him without question, then we find the miraculous unfoldment of His powers. Because I, being nothing, can yet do everything He says, because it is His order! You see, how being nothing, He makes us everything, by the simple act of obedience?

It is love which is praised beyond even effort, beyond even everything else, because love for the Master alone can give you obedience to the Master. One who loves, obeys. That one who obeys need not love. There are servants, policemen, there are military officers who obey rules without having to love the people who give those rules. But when you love totally, your obedience is total, that means it is surrender.

OBEDIENCE LEADS TO SURRENDER
Obedience is the fundamental virtue in the disciple, because Babuji has said, "One who is disciplined is a disciple," and discipline means obedience. Now there will be many people who will equate obedience with loss of freedom. It doesn't mean anything like that. I cannot possibly obey unless I am free to obey. So only a free man obeys. One who is a slave doesn't obey. He only performs. Obedience means I am free to obey out of my own free will, out of my love for the Master, anything and everything that he tells me to do. So, obedience is a sign of freedom. Unfortunately, especially in the West, with all the philosophic mind and high education, they have not understood the simple truth, you see, that only he or she is free, who can obey.

A prisoner has no choice. Can a prisoner disobey? He will be shot. So there, obedience is not obedience. It is instant action to an order, like in the military. Here, we obey with our freedom, with our love for the Master. Therefore, it is not mere obedience, it is my handing over myself. How can there be surrender without obedience? Obedience means, for that moment, I am obeying one, whom I consider higher than myself; my Master, my Lord, my God, everything. When that attitude becomes a continuous, twenty-four hour attitude, pervading my life, it is surrender - "I am yours; whatever you do, I do; whatever you say, I say; whatever you think, I think."

When a person surrenders to a Master, it means he has surrendered completely in all ways. He has become merely an instrument in the Master's hands. How can such a person even try to decide what is right or wrong? Here obedience alone is correct. There are various levels of existence, and duty is different from level to level. The soldier obeys the captain's orders; but in ordering his troops the captain in turn is only obeying the orders of his immediate superior officer - and this goes on up the scale of authority. It is an axiom of the Army that "He alone can command who has learnt to obey." One who has never learnt to obey, one who has never obeyed, can never command, because he doesn't know what to do.

So by being obedient to the Master, we are able to work for Him. If you are totally obedient, you are totally like the Master. And that brings Him something which He never had in His life - happiness, like every father you see. When we accept Him and obey Him and work for Him and become like Him, He is happy.

So obedience, love, surrender, they are three faces of the same thing. You cannot have them individually. You have them all three or you don't have them at all. So one cannot be obedient without dedication. Otherwise we are like policemen and military people, that is obedience for pay. Here we obey because we love. So finally your work will reflect your love for the Master. Love for a person must reflect in the action that he desired you to do for him. Love of a principle must be revealed in your working and in your adherence to that principle. And love for Master must be revealed in your love for all.

So, all obedience is for the sake of the self. Here also, it is for your sake that you are obedient. Therefore, you practice for your own development; you have to develop obedience to make that practice effective, for your own development; that develops love for the Master to take you to the highest state of development. And one day that will take you to the Master and make you one with him, again for your sake.

I hope, I pray, that the Master may bless us with this ability to be totally obedient, totally self-forgetful of ourselves, totally unconscious of our own existence, because only then can such obedience be possible. May the Master bless all of us in that.

"The secret of spiritual success, spiritual growth, spiritual achievement is obedience."