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Spiritual Progress
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| "Spirituality is a path of evolution |
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| If we go through the history of ancient sages we find that they
had sacrificed all the comforts of life for the sake of attaining
Reality. They led a life of austerity and penance, undergoing every
kind of hardship and trouble for the sake of the object so dear
to their heart. Intense longing for the goal made them blind to
everything else and they remained firm on the path not minding the
difficulties and reverses that came across their way. Such an intense
longing for the object and an iron will to achieve the goal is absolutely
necessary to ensure complete success. I may assure you that you
can win laurels in the spiritual fields if only you turn your attention
towards God and proceed with will, faith and confidence, no matter
how adversely you may be placed in, surrounded by all the worries
and miseries of a household life. Your busy life will then offer
no hindrance in your way. Generally people go hesitatingly towards God, thinking themselves to be too incapable and weak to achieve the real thing. A powerful will made at the very first step and maintained all through, shall never fail to achieve complete success. Half the distance is crossed if a man enters the field with a firm mind. Difficulties and dejections will melt away at a mere glance and the path of success will be made smooth. Indecisive attitude leads to halfhearted efforts and generally results in mere partial success or more often in failure. Our firm will enables, automatically to draw in power from unknown sources, for the accomplishment of the task. A firm will supplemented by an ever-increasing impatience or yearning to achieve the object will enhance the force of our effort and we shall thereby remain in constant touch with the same real thing, catching every hint conducive to our spiritual well-being and progress. Impatience or constant restlessness to reach the goal in the shortest possible time is, thus, by far the most important factor which contributes to our speedy success. What is progress? Sahaj Marg is a train. It is going to one destination and that destination is spiritual growth to the highest limits of evolution that is possible to humanity. But all the passengers have different destinations. Some want to grow physically; some want to make a lot of money; many want to find love; others come for health reasons, marriage of children and what not. How many people really come to Sahaj Marg for what Sahaj Marg promises, for what my Master promises, that is, spiritual growth and evolution? I think it may be one in a hundred thousand perhaps. So, when we talk of progress we should first know what we really want; otherwise it is like planting a cherry tree and expecting a mango to grow out of it or buying a dog and expecting to get cow's milk from it. So the first thing we should know is, what are we here for? We are always talking of "Lakshya" you know, the goal. But how many of us really know what we want? Or knowing it, how many want it? Because, I know people who say, "Well Sir, I have come to the Master. Let Him look after us for the first ten/ fifteen years in our worldly lives. After all should I not have some measure of physical well-being, material well-being and prosperity, before I think of God?" They seem to feel that 'Unless I am well fed, well housed, well looked after, I cannot be expected to think of God, or of God Realization or of self-development." It seems to be some sort of leisure time activity, 'to look after me in all other ways, look after me in such a way that I shall have bank accounts and good houses and all these things, then I shall think of God.' What is progress? Progress is upgrading ourselves, giving ourselves the capacity, progressively increased capacity, by which we can receive divine energy in its purer and purer ultimate form until we can be in touch with divinity. So this is true progress and nobody who is thinking in terms of getting and giving and all these funny things, has any idea of progress. So in Sahaj Marg, it is very necessary and most important to understand what we are here for. What do we mean when we talk of progress? Is progress something like a child growing into an adult, a physical growth, measurable, visible to the human eyes? You can measure that growth with a scale, in terms of length, breadth and height; you can put him on a weighing machine and weigh him and you can have his volume by immersing him in a bath tub and measure the displaced water and say, 'He is so many cubic centimetres or whatever it is.' That is not the growth we are talking of. Is it his growth from foolishness to wisdom? It is not even that. A man may be a Ph.D. and yet a fool in that which is vital to his existence. We are all very funnily oriented in that we think what is vital to our existence is money, power, position, prestige - things like that. But what happens when a man dies? You know in the Hindu tradition, when we put a corpse on the final funeral pyre even the clothes are removed. You must go out of this world as you came into it; no clothes. 'I came naked - I go naked.' It also applies to the wisdom that you have garnered in this world by education. The soul does not carry wisdom with it. It also applies to your nationalities. You cannot carry your passport and say, 'I am an American Citizen. I have free entry into Heaven.' There are no visas, there are no passports. So what are we carrying? Our samskaras; the impressions that our thoughts and our actions have made upon us which we have to carry life after life and which come to fruition in the next existence. Progress is not something which we can just talk of. It is not just a mere 8 letter word, to say, "Well. I have made progress." How have you made progress? "Well, Babuji says, Your condition is good." It is not enough. Progress means so many things, you see. Progress means essentially that I must fit myself for the divine purpose for which divinity has created me. And what is that? To be that which I have to be. So you cannot even specify progress. You cannot say, "Well, when I have moved from the first point of the heart to second point of the heart, I make progress." Yes, it is for the moment. If I have to go from Ahmedabad to Bombay and my train goes to one station and it stops, what is the use? Either I have to find another train or I have to take another vehicle or to come back to Ahmedabad and go by another train. Very often we have such tragic consequences of a partially fulfilled life, where we make progress up to a small finite limit and then we slip back. There is a mythological story about the man who climbs up three steps and slips back by three - he is doing it eternally, which means he is always at the same point. It can go on infinitely and if you are slipping back four every time you are climbing three, you are going backwards. If you are slipping back just one or two, at least you are going forward though in smaller stages. So progress means, not only moving forward but preventing slipping backwards. It is two actions simultaneously done - how can I keep moving forward without going backwards. This is perhaps a small variation from Newton's Law that a body in motion keeps moving, until it is stopped. It is true for physical bodies. But as far as we are concerned, we are a combination of the physical and the spiritual and here it is possible to go forward and go backward at the same time. You are going forward in material growth and going backward in spiritual values. You are going forward in happiness and going backward in moral values. One is illusory; the going forward is an illusory phenomenon. I am getting richer and richer by all the wrong means, therefore I am going backwards in spirituality. I am having more and more pleasure out of life but I am forgetting moral values which should be dictating those pleasure excursions; therefore I am slipping in spirituality. Here, you see, we are dealing with a bundle of situations, not one situation. When a train moves, it is only a train which is moving and until it is obstructed it will continue to move - Newton's laws become operable and it is a very nice and simple universe. But when we come to living beings, especially to human beings, there are so many currents pulling us in different directions, emotion pulling you in one way, the dictates of life pulling you another way, duty pulling you a third way, responsibility pulling you a fourth way and these foolish desires for spiritual values we have, pushing you in another way. We are literally torn between opposing forces from various sides. It is not as if you are being pulled and pushed only in two directions. You are pulled and pushed by an infinite number of pulls and pushes from all around. It is like a ball suspended in space with about 2,70,000 wires strung on to it in different directions. And if it breaks apart, it is no surprise. So we break apart, you see. And what is this breaking apart - we tend to live multiple lives; we are something to our families, something to our workers, something to our friends, something to our lovers, something to ourselves and something which we cannot even face within ourselves. And that is the ultimate tragedy that when a man becomes 17 men or 27 men or 47 men, he does not know who is ruling at that moment, because he has no control. Obviously if he had control, it should be one. When do we retain control over ourselves? When can we regulate ourselves into what we think we should be and what we really are? When all these multiple personalities become integrated into one, he is what he seems to be; and what he seems to be, is what he is. Therefore, progress also means chipping away all these unwanted personalities within us. They fall off by cleaning. Sometimes it happens like my experience which I have recounted - fear leaving me in the form of a black face exactly like my normal face and it just moved away and it left me forever. Well, it was such a bad thing in me - fear at its worst in those days. I mean it was such a traumatic condition which I could hardly live with. And when it went, it was palpable, I could almost touch it and feel it. And that was Master's blessing. But what about the lesser things which we are not too much conscious of or cognizant of - our small hates, our small dislikes, our small jealousies. For instance pain has a threshold and up to that threshold, we can easily bear pain; beyond that threshold, Nature sees to it that we don't bear it by making us unconscious. But here there are smaller things which we think, "Oh it doesn't matter, you know, if I dislike a person in a small way, what does it matter? Or if I am a little dishonest, what does it matter? Or if I am a little foolish, what does it matter?" But there is no such thing as 'a little foolishness' and 'a little dishonesty' - there is only dishonesty, there is only foolishness, there is only loss of character. It is like saying, "this penicillin is 80% pure." The patient will be 20% dead which means fully dead. We cannot have a patient who is 1% dead or 2% dead. Either he is living or he is dead. Isn't it'? There is no gradation between life and death. There is gradation in health but not between life and death. So it is, with regard to spiritual life or spiritual death. You see, this sort of nationalization is the enemy of progress. When we start nationalizing our own defects, we are doomed; because there is no punishment from God, there is no reward from God; we punish ourselves or reward ourselves. And when we justify our own mistakes to ourselves, we are condemning ourselves deeper and deeper. It is like a man who has slipped into some form of a quicksand and he is doomed, until he is pulled out. So we are all in quicksand. Therefore we need a Guru, you know, because every time you struggle in a quicksand, you are going in deeper. You cannot possibly come out of the quicksand, pulled by yourself. Therefore they try to remain inactive; so that they are pushed up, you know by certain forces like gravity and things like that. It is wise to remain without activity. Therefore we say in spirituality, "Be passive and let the Guru do what He wants," because if you are going to struggle, you are going to make His work more difficult. Be passive, at least you don't sink deeper into that quicksand. He can have time to bring a rope, throw it to you, pull you out; whatever He wants to do is His business. So once you have handed yourself over to your Master, there should be no more struggling with life. Do what He says. If He says, "Keep quiet" - keep quiet; If He says, "Don't do it" - don't do it. Therefore, to struggle even against our own virtues or our vices in some ways, is also anti-progress. So we have to know that progress is not just a mere eight letter word! It is not just a mere growth from first point to second point to third; point 3 to point 4, point 4 to Brahmand mandal. These are too simplistic, too facile a way of putting progress. It is like saying how to go from here to Bombay and you trace your route on a road map and say, 'This is the way,' and you think you have gone to Bombay. Going to Bombay is not just tracing the route on a map. It means moving. It means facing the problems on the journey - no seats, no water, troublesome companions, insults by other wayfarers, cheating by porters, cheating by taxi fellows, I don't know what else. Every one of us knows what a journey in India is like. But can we stop at home because of that? Or can we have the equivalent of the French TJV - no dust, no noise, no movement, nothing and yet we get there. So progress means all the associated problems with progress, like copper has to be smelted from the ore, refined, then drawn into a wire through a die. You know it has to be constricted and pulled through a die and then it becomes a conductor of current. So this is the process to which we subject ourselves to ourselves. Please bear this in mind. There is no man with a hammer who is pounding away as we ourselves are trying to shape ourselves to what we should become ourselves. The Master is only a catalyst in the process. So it is a stupid thing to say, it is too simplistic to say, "Oh! Master will do everything for me. He will do everything for me provided I am prepared to do everything for myself, which is some sort of a conundrum which intellectuals can try to figure out. But there is also the same feeling "God helps those who help themselves." If I fall and I cannot rise, but I try to rise, somebody will pull me up. But if I am just lying on the street, nobody will pull me up. So the trial to rise is all that I have to put in. There should be effort to make that trial - if I fall into a well, at least I must shout. You know one night in my house, we all woke up thinking there was a burglar, because there was a lot of splashing - water splashing. And I thought somebody had fallen into our well. True enough, when we went to the well, there was a cat! Somehow it had jumped and fallen into the well, and it had made such a tremendous splash. we heard it in our bedroom, probably 40 yards away. And then of course, we put in a rope and a bucket. It took us half an hour to pull that poor thing out. Now what happened you see; the cat was suspicious of the very rope and bucket that was let in for it and it would not scramble into the bucket. So like that, we are suspicious of the Master. What is this fellow trying to do to us? Why is He talking of morals? Why is He disciplining us? Then with the bucket waiting for the cat, the cat is splashing away and trying to jump up 14 ft of wall, which it could not possibly do. So we had to push the bucket into the water, fill it and then maneuver it under the cat and pull it out. Even then it made frantic efforts to jump out of the bucket. See this is the situation we are also creating for ourselves - suspicious of the Master, suspicious of being pulled out. Where is he taking us? Why? Can I not do it by myself'? So we rebel against the very force that is going to pull us up, rescue us first from this mire, from this sand into which we have sunk and make us into something that we should be. So progress means, (1) willingness to become what I have to become, (2) subjecting myself to forces that are going to help me, (3) avoiding all that is going to pull me back. Progress is not as simple as we imagine it to be. In short we have to work upon ourselves through ourselves, to change ourselves. 'I am the artist, I am the material upon which I am working, and I have to become that on which my mind is fixed.' It is very much like a piece of marble shaping itself into one of those brilliant sculptures of Michelangelo, for instance. What is the help that we receive? It is the Divine help from within ourselves, which gives us the greater energy, greater confidence, greater trust, all from within ourselves. This happens when we can put the Master into ourselves, not treating Him as some sort of external source of all benevolence and beneficence. So, spirituality must give us discrimination - viveka. It must help us to leave, go off everything - vairagya. It must help us to surrender at the feet of the right person - samarpana. Viveka, vairagya, samarpana - without these three things, there is no spiritual progress. Progress through Sadhana Our sadhana is purposeful, goal-oriented, and at the same time amazingly simple and undemanding. If, in its practice, abhyasis don't progress, then one can only conclude that the will to progress to the destination is lacking. The motive force is lacking. The correct way of meditation is to get into the condition which our Divine Master grants us by the power of his transmission, and try to prolong this 'condition' and by thus slowly prolonging it, to ensure that the 'condition' is maintained throughout the 24 hours. This is the first stage in our sadhana. At this stage, constant remembrance may be said to begin. But even this does not constitute real sadhana. The next stage is, after we are able to achieve this established state of the condition, we begin to slowly perceive that we are making progress towards the goal established for us. We are able to appreciate what is being given to us by the Master and to sense that what we receive is infinite. We begin to understand that under no circumstances can there be any question of repayment to the Master for what we have received. At this stage gratitude begins to be awakened in our heart for the Divine gift of Grace that the Master is bestowing on us. In my humble opinion, even now our sadhana is incomplete because as we continue to progress, if we are true to ourselves, we now begin to understand all complexities and faults of behaviour etc., that exist in us and from this stage onwards the need for cooperation with the Master in working towards the removal of all complexities from our own system begins to assume greater importance. This cooperation must take the active form of analyzing ourselves to see what are the defects in us, mental, moral and spiritual, and try to overcome them with the Master's cooperation Master is always there to help us in every possible way in all the fields of our activity but unless we cooperate with Him, whatever the stage of spirituality may be, to which the Master may carry us, such spiritual attainment is unable to reflect itself in our outward behaviour and in our life generally. There has been quite some criticism in respect of highly evolved people, who by their behaviour and general living have attracted public criticism that they are living in a manner not consistent with their spiritual attainment. The abhyasis of our Mission must take the greatest care and ensure that by ardent cooperation with the Master they are totally transformed inside and out. If we are able to cooperate with the Master and try to eradicate from ourselves all our shortcomings, our progress definitely becomes faster and the Master's work easier. With full cooperation from our side, we become pliable, and Master can then mould us at His will to what he wants us to become. Master has told me several times that the heart region is the gutter of humanity, and it is when an abhyasi is in the heart region, or Pind Pradesh as it is called, that the Master has to descend into the gutter and do a Herculean job of cleaning our system and prepare us for higher spiritual approaches. If we have any regard for the Master it is incumbent on us that we try to reduce the burden of his task by cooperating to the fullest by crossing this region as quickly as we can. Our daily life must be conducted in such fashion that we are perpetually sunk in the condition granted to us by the Master and working while in that condition, so that further samskaras are not formed. In my humble opinion, even this does not really constitute what would be the real meaning of sadhana. As our gratitude to the Master continues to increase, and as we are able to perceive the ever-increasing grace that is flowing from the Master, love for the Master begins to dawn in our hearts. I sincerely believe that only when such personal love and devotion for the Master begins, our real spiritual journey also begins. Up to now it has all been the mere play of Master's power arising out of his transmission and in a sense, it can merely be called a tamasha. The real progress comes only when there is love because as Master has repeatedly said, He himself is a mirror and only reflects what he sees before him. Therefore when we love the Master, the Master begins to love us and thereafter our spiritual progress no longer depends on us but on him. It is like the child being carried by its mother and very literally, from then it becomes the Master's responsibility to take the lover as His own and to take him wherever He wishes to. There can be no question of real progress in spirituality unless we love our Master so much and so deeply that we evoke in Him a Divine love for us. This then is the culmination of sadhana where, having done all we can, by giving our total love to the Master, He is in a sense compelled to take us up from there to complete our journey to the goal. Progress through Transmission Growth has to be nourished. There can be no growth without proper nourishment. Master 'feeds' the abhyasis with his spiritual transmission and nourishes them, so that growth continues to be strong and healthy. What we call transmission, Master once defined as 'spiritual food.' The body lives and grows at the physical level, and so sustains itself on physical foods. The soul, being spiritual in nature, needs food of that plane. I once asked Master whether the transmission was the same in quality or whether it differed with the abhyasi's condition. Master answered that there could be no change in it as it is the subtlest force or power of Divinity, and hence unchanging. I was a bit puzzled as to how the same power could do everything Master claimed it could achieve, at all levels of development. I put this question to Master. Master laughed amusingly and said, "When we plant a seed we water it; when it comes up as a small seedling we water it; when it is a strong plant we water it; and we go on watering it all its life. The same water achieves the growth of the plant stage after stage." On a different occasion Master described transmission in terms other than what I have stated above. He said, "The body is alive only because the soul is in it. At death the soul flies away, and then we say the person is dead, and call the body a corpse. So the body lives by the soul. How does the soul live? I will tell you. The soul lives by transmission which we can think of as the essence of Divinity. I am telling you a wonderful thing. Even a single transmission can make a great difference in a person's future. One transmission from a Master of calibre can transform a person instantly. The power is the same. But the will must be there. There must be an unfailing will. Then the result is wonderful." The transmission is thus the only spiritually elevating power. This enables the abhyasi to grow from stage to stage, passing through region after region of spiritual existence, and so on to the Goal. Right through this divine journey the Master's active help and guidance are essential. This is unique in Sahaj Marg that the guru's role lasts until the abhyasi has been taken up to the highest level of spiritual existence open to mankind. In fact, the need for the guru is progressively more as we grow. Master once explained why this is so. Master said, "As the abhyasi grows, the transmission and cleaning make yet higher approaches open to him. But at the higher approaches a resistance develops from above. It is as if nature opposes his development. Here the Master has to use the power at his disposal to take the abhyasi to the higher level. The abhyasi by himself cannot undertake this. There are certain regions where the abhyasi cannot even enter by himself. I will tell you one more thing. There are regions which no person can cross by himself. Only a capable guide who is in laya with the Ultimate, and who has travelled the path himself, can do it. At such stages the Master takes the abhyasi inside himself and crosses the region, and then brings the abhyasi out again to continue the journey under Master's guidance and supervision. Dr. Varadachari used to joke about this and say, 'The Master is like a kangaroo!' You know, the kangaroo has a special pouch into which it puts the baby kangaroo when there is any danger. So this is what the Master has to do for his abhyasi whenever it becomes necessary." This exposes to our understanding yet another role of the Master, that of protector. One has to be alert to the transmission and its action on the system. Then the real joy of meditation begins. Now I tell you one thing, whether a person has experiences or not, the transmission will work and complete the job. But the real happiness comes when we know what we have got. So sensitivity is necessary. Another benefit is that as you become more sensitive, progress becomes faster, because when you know what is being done you can cooperate with the Master actively. Progress through Meditation In fact, I know abhyasis who have come up in Master's estimation and have made very fast progress beyond all expectations, who used to meditate in trains and planes and cars. I mean, if you are travelling from Santa Cruz to Bombay every day for your job and you have a driver and a company car, what prevents you from closing your eyes and meditating? It is wiser to close your eyes in cars. Sit at the back, relax. After all, when Master gives us so many facilities, deservingly or undeservingly, we must put them to the best possible use. Even if you are going to the beach for a walk, sit and meditate during that time. Twenty minutes is twenty minutes. "No, no, Babuji prescribes one hour." Yes, that is in the morning. The other meditations you can do even for ten minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes, but not more than one hour at a time. Meditation is a process of digesting the spiritual sustenance that our Master pours into us. Therefore the more we meditate, the faster we progress. Meditation becomes a habit, meditation becomes an activity which we not only cannot stop but which we start enjoying so much that we prefer it to everything else. Progress through Cleaning Master's work includes cleaning and purifying the abhyasi to make quick progress possible, and to consolidate that progress. What is it that is cleaned? Master's general answer is that the whole system has to be thoroughly cleaned. This includes the heart and the higher points one after the other. The main work is on the heart and the heart region where much of the samskaric residue lies buried in the form of grossness. Our past impressions create tendencies in us which we find difficult to change. When the impressions are cleared, the tendency can be changed easily and, in many cases, automatically. Then thought and action become correct and natural. Therefore to transmit is not enough. Cleaning is very important. Otherwise the abhyasi may progress but the danger of fall is always there because the impressions of the past can drag him back. If progress is to be made permanent, purification of the system is essential. I asked Master how long this need for cleaning would exist. Master laughed and said, "This depends on you. If there is complete cooperation then the work is easy. Suppose I go on cleaning and the abhyasi goes on adding more and more grossness, then what can I do?" So you see, the abhyasi must cooperate too. He must modify his life in such a way that it is helpful to his progress. Master has further clarified that by impressions he means both good and bad ones. Good impressions are no better than bad ones. Both are equally undesirable as they create impediments to progress. This is a pointer to an important aspect of Master's teaching. A good life, one that has been conducted on principles of good conduct, charity, adherence to religious codes etc., is not sufficient to make 'spiritual progress' possible. For this something more than a life of mere social and ethical goodness is necessary. Progress through Constant Remembrance By meditation we create a temporary lull in our mind and calmness prevails for the time during which we are in touch with the divine force. But meditation only at a certain fixed hour is not enough, for we are thus in touch with the sacred thought only for a while after which we have no idea of God whatsoever and are for most part of the day away from the path of service and devotion. This is the reason why often after years of practice we still find ourselves at the lowest level of spiritual attainment. What in fact we feel during meditation is only simplicity and calmness, if we are rightly guided by a capable master. But an aspirant is generally unable to understand it, for it is beyond his conception at the early stages. The effect thus being imperceptible, he often complains that he feels nothing during meditation. This is chiefly due to the fact that he remains in touch with the divine force only for a few minutes of practice. Thus the real thing gained during meditation remains with him only for a while. On the other hand, there is a man who tries to retain the effect gained by meditation for most part of the day, and abides in the same state for as long as he can. He is, in a way, in constant remembrance of God and his progress is easy and rapid. Physical ailment is really meant for the cure of spiritual diseases because thereby it consumes some of the samskaras and increases the power of endurance as well. One proceeding in the proper manner will find his spiritual condition much improved by the effect of illness. Besides, continued thinking of God during the period of illness will offer him a happy pastime as well. One who aspires to reach the Goal must be vigilant lest his feet stray off the path. How to be vigilant? Is it possible to be in the permanent state of alertness? It is possible. It is constant remembrance. One in remembrance of the Master keeps his mind on Him and Him alone, and this automatically and effectively prevents everything else from coming to the abhyasi's awareness. This is the only sure way of avoiding all distractions and diversions, and thus of keeping one's feet surely on the path of progress following in the Divine footsteps of the Great Master. Progress through Craving My Master, our Beloved Babuji Maharaj, has given a clarion call that no abhyasi should rest until the Goal is reached. The wisdom of this will be apparent when it is realized that each moment in time is pregnant with opportunity so generously provided by Nature, moment by moment, using them as steps on the ladder of spiritual progress. This is the way of progress towards the Goal. How are we to grasp such opportunity? By being alert. If we miss the opportunity, progress may be set back and there is also the ever-present danger of losing the way. Once the way is lost, it may not be possible to find it again, even after many lives. Therefore, the need for permanent alertness is paramount. The degree of restlessness and craving for Realization is very important. If the craving is there, progress is fast. You must feel a restlessness and a craving for God. And if this is so strong that nothing else matters, then God can be realized very easily and soon. Whenever somebody complains of lack of progress, it is due to lack of craving in him. When there is craving, indiscipline goes away; if indiscipline goes, craving will automatically come. It is discipline alone which brings craving. A disciple should necessarily be disciplined. Subject yourself to Change and make Progress As my Master said, "Change is the instrument of progress." On one occasion He spoke to me about the need for forcing change if the pace of progress is to be accelerated. He said, "If we are to leave it to Nature, it may take thousands of years, and perhaps the desired change may not even take place. There is no doubt, the Divine Will is at work but as they say, the mills of God grind slowly. That is why evolution takes such long periods of time. What does the wise person do? He tries to bring about the desired change in himself or his conditions by taking certain steps for it. This is what we are doing here - trying to bring about the necessary changes by following in a disciplined way, a system of practice. It is a blessing conferred upon humanity by my Master that such a wonderful system is available." I asked Him whether this could not be taken as going against the will of God. If the Divine Will is at work, why should we be active in bringing about a change which will in any case happen by His Will? Master smiled and said, "In one way that is how the lazy person thinks. Nature does not compel us to progress. But at the same time we have to remember that the whole trend in nature is to bring about higher and higher things. This is called evolution. When we try to make our progress speedy, we are only cooperating with Nature's purpose, and therefore we are acting in conformity with His Will." Do you understand this? There is no question of opposing the divine will! Can anyone ever do it? Really speaking, we are trying for the very thing that Nature wants to achieve. That is why every thing becomes so easy when we are earnest about progress and Nature herself cooperates with us. Nature always cooperates with us. It is we who have to determine the direction in which we want to proceed. It is foolishness to blame Nature for everything that we do wrong. I am telling you that in Nature there is cooperation and cooperation only. It always cooperates with us. Even if we go in the wrong direction it cooperates with us. Therefore it is very important to decide the direction in which we want to go." The message of the Beloved Master was very clear. We have to decide our direction and practice earnestly to achieve progress. He helps us. Create love, Progress fast When we don't obey, we delay our own progress and that is the punishment we confer upon ourselves. When we obey, our progress is enormously fast. It can be millions of times faster than what it is now. When we don't obey but only love or we think we love, our progress becomes retarded. So the need for loving obedience, obedient love. Both are again not play upon words but two different things. Loving obedience, I must not obey with an anger in my heart, who is this fellow to tell me? It must be a loving obedience. OK sir. And it must be an obedient love. When the beloved says, "Stay there, I am having a headache," you must go and stay there. We train our dogs to sit, to lie down, to stay and they obey. Perfect obedience. Therefore Babuji Maharaj said, "I like dogs because they obey." And when you change DOG dog into GOD God, it is perfect. The practice, the constant remembrance, all that is only meant to create love for the Master. And a personal, living Master is necessary mostly to provide for us one who is Divine in the essence, human in form, and who we can love. No one can love an abstract god, yet without love for God we cannot progress, we cannot even have an idea of what we have to become, where we are to progress. It is for this reason, that the Divine descends in human form again and again to present Himself as one who can be the Beloved for us. I once asked Master to reveal to me the secret of quick progress in spirituality. Master said, "Create love in yourself, and then see the progress. Really speaking, love can conquer all, and love alone can do this. Everything else, every other force or power, creates a reaction which is not favourable. If you are annoyed, you transmit anger and the other person becomes angry in turn. If you use physical force, that too creates resistance followed by a reaction on its own plane. It is the same with everything else. But if you create love in your heart, then the reaction is also of love and love alone and see, your job is done! So create love. It is with love that our ancient rishis were able to live in jungles with wild animals all around them. Love conquers even the wild animals. I am telling you one thing. If there is love in your heart for the Master, then the Master begins to love you. If you can bring this about, then your work is almost done." The important thing is to knock on the door of his heart so vigorously that he is compelled to open it to you. Then what to say of progress, everything is there for you. What is the abhyasi's real duty? In my opinion he must do everything to make the Master turn towards him - and once that is done, the abhyasi can sit back and let the Master work for him. Who can resist love? As the abhyasi's love grows, so also the Master's love grows. And the Master now begins to think what he can do for the abhyasi. It is no longer necessary for the abhyasi to ask. What is there to ask for when the giver is himself thinking about what to give and when? Really speaking, a true Master is nothing but a mirror. What the abhyasi places before it is reflected by it. You understand this? In the Master himself there is nothing. You only take from him what you yourself put into him. Now, I am telling you something. There are people who accuse the guru of being partial to one or another of the abhyasis. Do you see how wrong this idea is? And it is also dangerous, for the idea of distrust and hatred may grow, and these also will be reflected. So we must create love and then see its working. I say it is the most potent power of Divinity." Master, the pace maker We do our morning meditation and do the evening cleaning, night prayer-meditation - I mean, those who do these things very sincerely, very devotedly, as they consider and yet it was found by Babuji that many people had been meditating for twenty years like this without any progress. Sometimes, they used to meditate five to six times a day too, one hour at a time, "But even the yatra had not started," as Babuji used to say. Yatra means spiritual journey of the heart region, from the first point to the second and so on. Now this was always a confusing thing as to why those who were practicing with devotion, dedication, were not progressing, whereas there were many persons who were obviously irregular, they were not practicing so regularly or so systematically, yet they were going in leaps and bounds. So we used to discuss with Babuji - he was always a little reluctant to reveal many things. He would like us to find it out for ourselves, not to have everything open, you see. Then this idea came that instead of being dedicated and devoted to the Master, they were merely dedicated and devoted to the method. Now this is a very great problem you see: Should the Master have number one place in your heart or the method or the Mission? We are told, "Make all three yours;" that we have only three things which we call our own - the Master, the Mission and the Method. I suppose it is in that order you see, as, by practical experience, I have found that those who are devoted to the Master, irrespective of their practice, have grown very fast, have developed very fast, and when they are only devoted to the practice, their progress has not been there at all or at a snail's pace. So it is the Master who is the primary thing in our approach to spirituality you see. Obviously! Otherwise the books were enough; we could just read them, practice the method and progress. Apart from the need for transmission, if the practice alone was enough, all that we needed was for the Master to write some books! Then we could just read them like so many do-it-yourself-books you know - Do Cookery Yourself, Do Your Own Radio Repairs, Do Your Own TV, Do Your Own Spiritual Practice and Progress! It is terribly important, vitally important for our spiritual progress that we have only one each of these three things, one Master, one Mission, and one Method. And eventually, it is all one, because after we meditate for some years, we find that the Master is the method, the Master is the Mission, and He is the goal too, for us. So the three become one. Impediments to Progress Any person who says, "Yes, I do my meditation everyday, I sit regularly and yet there is no progress." He is cheating himself day after day; his practice is not correct; may be he sits with his eyes closed for one hour, but he is not meditating. He cleans himself rigorously but there is no cleaning. In one sense, the Guru's efforts are hampered (i) by our own lack of effort; (ii) by our unwillingness and inability to appreciate what we are here for, what we are probing for, what we are searching for; and (iii) our inability to receive, even when you know what it is because we have not been able to adjust our own selves, to receive that which He wants to give us. So, there are three aspects. Babuji once pointed out, very affectionately and compassionately, "Abhyasis don't realize that they have to improve every day. One day, the realization comes to them that it is the end." It is not the question of the life span itself! There is an inevitability in the reduction of time available to us, like when we have to go in a train to our destination, every mile that we go, reduces the distance we have to go by one mile! There, lapse of time, lapse of distance, is progress. I mean it is a very definite progress, so long as there is the next train. But, here that time is passing, and we are not growing! I mean, spiritual growth, not physical growth. Babuji said, "I do not know how to tell people, that with each passing day, your time available to you is one day less! And if on that day you have not progressed, you have to make it up the next day!" It is like children doing homework. If they have not done today, they have to do more tomorrow and if not tomorrow also, then the third day they have to do three times more! And then, if it goes on, a time comes when there is so much accumulation that we cannot possibly do it! So, we have on one side a very tragic, a very enormous, accumulation of samskaras, which are a burden, which are a drag on our progress, which we are responsible for, which we have created ourselves; that which, by His mercy, by His Grace, He is trying to remove. And He is removing it. The second factor impeding our growth is, we are continuing to add to it, we are accumulating more grossness, we are creating more grossness. The most tragic third factor is that, knowing He is removing it, yet we remain idle, and waste our time in flippant activities. not realizing that each moment of that time is one moment lost forever; and sadly it cannot be got again. Money can be lost and made again. Health can be lost and restored again. And, you know, if you believe in the doctrine of punarjanma (rebirth) even life can be lost and we live again! But that is a feeling. If somebody tells you, "Well, it does not matter. As you said, I will take a hundred lives more to achieve the Goal" - it is his right, it is his privilege, it is his prerogative. But it is a fool's life! So, if you are going to be wise about spirituality, if you are really serious about spirituality, you must remember always our great Master's very spiritual advice on how to conduct life wisely: "Live as if you are going to die the next moment." Master was always very careful not to say these words, because unfortunately many people who are superstitious would think: "Well, Babuji says that I do not have a long life!" Yes, there are people who imagine! If Babuji told them, "My dear friend, remember, one day left is one day left," they will say, "Well, perhaps He says I am not going to exist too long!" And then, that fear itself would stop them! So, it is His enormous concern for our welfare, for our growth, that prevented Him from giving us so much advice that He should normally have given! Because we would have taken it in the wrong sense, given it a wrong meaning, read wrong meanings into it. And so we have to be content with 'Jeetae Raho', that may be true for eternity! I hope, at least, all of you have remembered to meditate too! Because if you don't meditate every day, the accumulation is getting increased, the burden on the Master is getting increased, and instead of behaving wisely, we let ourselves be passive. So, instead of satisfaction and waste of time, there should be more eagerness to meditate and an urge to go ahead - progress has to be active. (a) Past samskaras: I was told the spiritual case history of an abhyasi under Master who had been practicing Sahaj Marg meditation for nearly 15 years. However the person had stagnated at one point, and all progress had stopped there. Master had made several attempts to initiate further progress but had not been successful. At this stage Master decided to examine the abhyasi's past life and see whether there was some cause there preventing progress in the present life. Master examined the past life during a special meditation sitting. He found that in the previous life this abhyasi had been a woman, married and with several children. She was a lady of deep devotion and sincerely desired to pursue the ancient goal of obtaining mukti, a limited form of liberation under which there is no physical rebirth. She had felt irked at having to lead the life of a housewife. Being desirous of adopting sanyasa, she one day stole away from her home with her children, took them into the jungle, and abandoned them on the bank of a river there. Then she ran away. The frightened children set up a wailing which followed her as she ran away. Unable to hear their lament, she closed her ears with the palms of her hands and ran on and on. Master found that the wailing of the abandoned children had created a very strong and profound impression on the mind, leading to the formation of deep samskaras. This had prevented spiritual progress of the abhyasi in the present life. Master said, "Look here! She thought she had done a virtuous thing which would earn her mukti, but really it was a cruel and heartless act. So Nature punished her in this life by denying spiritual progress, the very thing for which she renounced her family life!" Then he added, "Since the abhyasi is very sincere and has real craving for progress, I cut that impression. Do you know what happened? The person immediately moved up three points! I call this spirituality. It is Lalaji's Grace that this is possible. Where can one find a Master like Him! But for Lalaji's Grace I do not know how many more lives that poor woman would have had to take before she could move forward. We must not go against Nature. See how much evil has been spread by people who know nothing. I tell you, unless these wrong ways of approach are given up, spirituality is impossible." A great secret which Master teaches for our quick progress to our goal is that we should destroy our own small creation, which keeps us so tied down to it and to this world. "Destroy your own creation, and God comes! For everything there is a base. If you destroy this base, then the Divine comes." (b) Laziness: Many people enjoy meditation. They just sit in meditation, they get some sort of a relaxation, they are able to remove the mind from the mundane problems of existence and a little dipping into this ocean of bliss as we call it or something approximating to it, gives us the false ideas that we are now in Samadhi. Samadhi cannot be so easy you see. So this is a danger inherent in an easy approach to the system. Of course, it is a simple method, provided we do it! It cannot be so simple that we need not do anything at all. Otherwise, we don't need a Master, we don't need a Method and we don't need a Mission! So these are a few cautionary things you see, because people should not be misled into thinking that if he has done it, I can also do it. Why should I meditate? Why should I do cleaning? Some are the patras [deserving] of the Master's very special favour. But even they are to meditate. Babuji told me that in Lalaji's time, even He had to meditate, before He became the Master and the successor to Lalaji. Of course, He told me that He used to meditate only for a few minutes. But He used to meditate. He could not avoid meditating. And once I had told Him half in fun and half seriously, "Why don't you teach me that meditation which you did?" because He said three minutes, four minutes He used to sit. I said, "Babuji, why don't you teach me that too?" He said, "You will become lazy!" You know laziness is something we all enjoy you see, and many lazy people just lie around late in bed and they think they are in bliss! So there is a bliss and there is 'no?bliss?bliss' you see. So we have to learn to distinguish and how can we distinguish unless we sit in meditation and see what is going on? If enjoyment is the goal of meditation I think we are wasting our time, because there are so many other avenues of pleasure and enjoyment, more easily obtained. If Progress is our goal, yes. How are we to judge it? The Master says, "You shall sit for one hour in meditation." I asked Him, "Why have you now made it half an hour?" He said, "People are lazy, people are unwilling to give enough time. So I have reluctantly reduced it to half an hour." And that we further reduce to ten minutes or five minutes or three minutes. It is in some sense a betrayal of the system, you see. So let us not get into this possibility of a very serious error, that we are progressing. Who has confirmed it? Has the Master confirmed it? I would be interested to know that. Has some preceptor confirmed it? Because, progress is not so easy to evaluate ourselves. As Babuji once told me when some abhyasi asked Him, "Babuji! Where are you now in the spiritual ladder of progress?" He said, "Only my Master can tell me." She said, "What? You are a Master! Can't you know yourself?" He said, "It is something which we can never know ourselves. Of course, we feel the change in ourselves. But where I am, I cannot know", you see. It is like, I am moving in a plane. I know the changes are occurring. I can feel the engine vibrating, I can see the clouds cutting by, I can see the ground moving underneath me, but where am I? The pilot has to tell me, "You are now flying over Visakhapatnam, the lights twinkling on your right is the harbour and we are flying over it. We are on the course to Calcutta." Otherwise one set of twinkling lights is very much like another set of twinkling lights. We are not born navigators, we are not geography experts that, looking from the air at a set of twinkling lights we know where we are. We need to know the location on the map, its longitude, its latitude. (c) Satisfaction: People like to follow difficult paths and spend a lot of time and money. Why do they do this? I will tell you. They get satisfaction from such worship. Now look here, people worship for satisfactions! Or if they are a little more developed they may do it to get peace of mind. See how much we have fallen. We do not worship to get God. We worship to get satisfaction or peace of mind, or some such thing. There are unimaginable levels in Sahaj Marg. And I don't think anybody has yet understood that they are even there, forget the levels themselves. And we all talk glibly of seeing Babuji, hearing Babuji, receiving Babuji, you know. I am so, sometimes nauseated when I hear these stories. Of course, I am not denying the veracity of the statement, but it is of such a low order of experience. I mean in Hindi we say the difference is like between the sky and the earth. The real experience and these... I mean they are not pseudo-experiences, they too are real in their own way, but on the lowest order of reality. And if we are satisfied with this order of exposure to reality, the way is barred. Satisfaction itself is a bar to progress. So Babuji said, you know, we must always be restless, never satisfied that, "Yes, I have achieved." So, you see, this going beyond and beyond and beyond, it needs this restlessness, inner restlessness, which Babuji called craving. But it is not there. We want to rest. "Yes, today I have achieved. I have seen Babuji Maharaj. He is in my house." No rest. You understand? (d) Repeated experiences: My Master said, "There can be no progress without change. Without change there is only stagnation. Even in our abhyas we must remember this. The condition, that is the spiritual condition, must keep changing if there is progress. Often we find that an abhyasi has a good experience at a particular level, which he likes to be repeated at subsequent sittings. But I always tell them that if they have the same experience again and again, then they should run to the preceptor, because such repetition of experience shows stagnation, and requires correction. So change is necessary because without it no progress is possible." (e) Doubt: As Babuji said, "Doubt poisons the will." The moment we begin to doubt, the will is lost. After that we cannot sit in meditation. Whenever people come and say, "Sir, I don't feel inclined to do meditation. I am not able to meditate, it is a manifestation of their doubt in the Master, in the system, because otherwise the mind is an instrument, why should it not? As Babuji said, "Mind does not feel inclined, mind is made to feel inclined. Otherwise you don't have to sit in meditation. Meditation is a training to apply the mind for the purpose of regulating the mind by our efforts. (f) Criticism: To my personal knowledge Master has rarely criticized a person for anything. He also offers advice very very rarely. I asked Babuji once, why he did not offer criticism when he saw something wrong. Babuji answered, "Lalaji Saheb never offered advice in a direct manner. Yes, he would give hints; but how many are capable of understanding such hints? We should never offer advice unless asked. As a trainer it is the duty of the guide to bring about change by creating the proper conditions for it. That is the work of the trainer. This is the positive approach. If you criticize, then the abhyasi may begin to worry about it, and this will interfere with his progress." "There is another thing I am telling you. Suppose I advise an abhyasi to do something and he does not do it. Then I am adding to his difficulties by putting upon him the sin of disobedience of the Master. So instead of helping him, I have done him a disservice. Do you understand why I avoid direct advice? I do offer a lot of advice, but it is given out as general talk when all are with me. The intelligent person will take it up and apply it in his own life. Then progress is faster for that person because now he is cooperating with the Master." We see from this that Master's attitude is not merely one of tolerance, but extends far beyond this to taking up responsibility for the abhyasi's progress. As Master has emphasized again and again, this is the duty of a trainer in spirituality. Pitfalls of Spirituality: I think the first pitfall we have to avoid is a misunderstanding of what this 'Master' means, because there are many people who come expecting miracles. Expecting, you know, all sorts of wonderful things; magic, instant transformation - thinking that the Master is going to do everything for us. I think that is the first big danger - not understanding what a Master is, and what is his relationship going to be with the abhyasis. So you see, this first misunderstanding, the greatest misunderstanding, the most tragic misunderstanding, that I can go to a Master and find myself immediately, is the first and the greatest pitfall. "Oh, I have a Master. He will do everything for me." He will help you to do everything for yourself. He cannot do an iota for you by himself. There are cases where he tried to raise people up several points, and Lalaji from above rapped him on the head and said, "Stop this nonsense! You will destroy him." So, the secret of his inability to do things for us was not his inability, but our inability to help him to do things on us which we are unable to stand. The Master is not limited by himself, or his capacities or his powers. He is limited by us. Each one of us is a different sort of limitation, or a concatenation of limitations to him. One has affection, but will not practice. Another practices cleaning, but not meditation. Another meditates but says, "I don't need cleaning." The man who is very ardent in his practice has no affection for the guru. Those who practice according to the letter of the law do not obey his changed statements, on different occasions, under different circumstances. They say, "But Babuji, you have written in your own book." He says, "Aha. I have written." He could not say that, "I am the author of this, and I have a right to change what I have written!" He never said it, so this man went away thinking he has won a victory over Babuji, you see, a philosophical victory, maybe a victory of authorship. "You see, I have limited him to what he has written." Here comes the misunderstanding that this written law is superior to the spoken law. Not at all. Second great pitfall - Do not misuse your Master. We don't know how to use him because we don't know what he is. But all the time we are misusing him, misquoting him, claiming to be his devotees, his bhaktas - second great pitfall. Third great pitfall - "After all, he is a human being like us, sir. He is weak. You know, poor fellow, he cannot even bend and lift up his walking stick if it falls. At night somebody has to accompany him to the bathroom. He has false teeth. How can he help us?" I too, made that mistake but only once, when I saw him for the first time. But when I saw his eyes, everything faded. He removed my ignorance. Many of you are still thinking like that, which is the tragedy. Nodding heads is no use - one must touch one's heart to find out what is the truth of this third pitfall - that, "I am better than him. I can walk farther than him. I can eat more than him. I can read better than him. I can understand everything which he cannot understand. I can digest cheese and butter but that person can't. I can sleep more than him. I have more money than he ever had. He has to come humbling himself and ask for donations. I never put out my hand for anything." How many of you don't feel that you are obliging your Master when you give your ten rands, and fifty rands, and hundred rands to the Mission? Enormously big pitfall. Fourth pitfall - Putting your faith in everything and everybody except the one you call Master." You see, we are all thinking of pitfalls such as immorality, vice, drunkenness, women for men, men for women, all these funny things. They are nothing compared to these big pitfalls. So we are basing our claims, or our hopes of success, on chance, on friends, on assumptions, but not on love, faith, and hope. It's all pitfalls. The Big Pitfalls - the pitfall of misunderstanding, the pitfall of wrong expectations - these are the real pitfalls which block our path, which make progress impossible. Not because he is helpless, but because we are helpless. Biggest, most potent, most destructive pitfall on the way is the lack of right understanding of the Master, and adding to it, the wrong understanding of the Master which you think is right, which makes you think you can bribe him, you can fool him, you can cheat him into giving you what you want, very much like we do in our businesses. This is not a business place. Here, the boss cannot be cheated. He cannot be fooled. He may tolerate, you see, what you are doing. That is His greatness, His love, His mercy. Let us also remember that we have given too much attention, perhaps, to the material pitfalls - old age, sickness, vicious temperament, attachment to lusts - these are petty things. Two thousand years ago Christ said, "Let him in whom there is no sin, cast the first stone." It was quite clear that everybody was sinning. At least fifteen hundred years before him, Buddha said the same thing. Here in Sahaj Marg, there is no sin, there is no virtue. What we think of as sin becomes our sin, and the only way to avoid it is to make a resolution, which he calls a repentance, saying, "I shall sin no more." There is no need for forgiveness because I forgive myself. There is no need for retribution because I am always punishing myself. Who is the God who is punishing me? Who is the God who is saving me? I save myself. I punish myself. I destroy myself. I alone can recreate myself, but I need His help to show me how to do it - therefore the Master. There are persons who do devoted service at the various celebrations such as selling books, looking after the kitchen, serving the food, cleaning the premises and so on. But if they do not meditate regularly and do not develop devotion and eventually love for the Master, then their progress virtually stops. My Master has clarified that while service is no doubt good and necessary too, nevertheless without sadhana, a person cannot really progress in spirituality. There are cases of persons who do the sadhana with obvious seriousness and with visible regularity too. In most cases there has been lack of progress, and my Master has once again been gracious enough to clarify that sadhana without love for the Master has no meaning, and added in His typically gentle manner, "But I give them some crumbs of spirituality since no one can be permitted to go away with empty hands after coming to me." There are the cases of abhyasis who are totally devoted and attached to the Mission, but who are careless about their Meditation, and have no care for the Master. In such cases too they suffer from lack of such progress and the Master's words are there again one must be devoted to the Master, do his sadhana regularly without modifying the method to suit his own convenience and also be capable of service to humanity through the Mission that has been established for this very purpose. Otherwise the fruits of labour will not be fully available. Milestones in Progress External outlook: Do your sadhana without fail. The abhyasi is not supposed to judge his own progress. I know, because many people have asked Master, "What is your condition?" and Master said, "Only Lalaji knows." If the Master could not know His condition, I am sure we are not going to know our condition. Let us leave it to our betters, our preceptors, to decide what is our condition, whether we are progressing or not. The second biggest I should say, breach of faith, lack of faith is to question the idea of progress: "Am I progressing?" It is a question, "Is Master worthy of being called a Master or not?" How on earth can He be a Master and you not progress? Every time an abhyasi asks, "Sir, am I progressing?" he is exhibiting his lack of faith in the Master. You see, take a train. Trains may stop at stations, trains may stop for the engine to take water. We don't know about all these - why is the train stopping? Will I reach the destination? You have got into the train; leave it to the administration to take you to the destination. Secondly, if you are concerned only with your progress, it means you have no love for the Master: you are still wedded to your self - my progress, my evolution, my realization, my spiritualization. He who loves the Master does not think of progress. Instead of asking your preceptors for your progress, blaming them for the lack of it, you should look into yourself. "Am I practicing correctly?" Can I feel changes in myself ? If there is a diary by which I can refer to this to see that I am progressing; because the diary shows so many changes over the period of a year. As we develop, the ideas of parents, of society, of life itself change. Life was brilliant, life was enjoyable as children; we had so much fun, so much joy, so much happiness, showering kids with love, with something new every birthday. But as we grow, we tend to harden. Because we know there are responsibilities cast upon us - responsibilities to be faced; we cannot avoid these things. In one way or the other, we have to live, we have to exist with responsibilities, with duties to be fulfilled. This means, what we think of as restrictions are only rules for our guidance. So, our attitude to these things changes. Our understanding of these things changes. Our appreciation of these things changes. It is the teaching of my Master that even god is not something fixed. He may be whatever He is in His Absolute sense. But to the evolving human being, He is what we have achieved in our understanding at that moment. Evolution cannot come to a particular point and then say, "Yes, this is final." Therefore it means that as we evolve, our ideas of Divinity must continue to change. The Master is something which is of eternal verity. So the Master can never appear smaller as we grow bigger. But here is the miracle, you see: that as we grow bigger He must appear to us greater and greater. And if you see Him as the same Babuji that you saw Him twenty five years back when you commenced sadhana, then there is something very wrong with your sadhana, with your course of development. It is the only thing which can grow as you grow. Not because it grows in itself but because you see more and more of it, more and more of Him, more and more of His greatness, of His ultimacy, of His illimitableness, of His absoluteness, of His Divinity! So an abhyasi who sees the same Master every time he sees Him, is in some way fixed. He is not growing, you see. "No, no Sir, I have seen him twenty years back. Today also I see Him. He is the same person, same kindness." That means you are looking at the superficialities of His character - His kindness, His lovingness. What have you seen of the inner things of His Divinity? So, our growth must be reflected in our actually seeing the Master as something grander and grander. Every time we look, we must be awed, we must be stunned. "What is this? I thought Him only this! Now I see He is this!!" And this the Gita puts very beautifully, you see -'Ascharyavatpasyati.' There is no other word except to say 'Wonder!' Wonder pervades - "Is this the Babuji I saw yesterday?" Yes, He was that too, but He is this today. Three years hence you see Him again - "Is this the Master that I saw three years back?" As that, yes, He was that but He is this too. So this is like a reverse possibility of the Christmas present where you get a small carton to start with, you open it and there is a bigger carton inside and you are wondering how a big carton can come out of a small carton, you see! Then you open it, there is another carton inside you take it out, it is bigger than the second and you go on taking out, and it is never ending! It is like a seed producing a tree. This is the miracle. To me at least it has always appeared that the Babuji I saw in 1964 March when I first came to Him was the seed that was placed before me and in that seed progressively His mercy, His grace, His love made it possible for me to see the unfolding of the Master into ever greater and ever greater significance, ever greater and ever greater capacity, power, love. And that was because of two things - my growth, and His merciful attitude - "See me as I can be, as I am that which I have not revealed myself yet to you!" So this is the need you see, to assess our spiritual growth. It is very easy. People say, "How to know I am growing?" Very often people come to us, "Sir, how to know I am growing?" What do you think of the Master today, what did you think of Him yesterday? Is there a change? Is He appearing to you more Divine? More great? If yes, then you are growing. Is He appearing to you smaller, more foolish, more stupid, even less educated than you thought He was? God forbid, you are falling. He is what He is, He is Eternal, for Him there is no growth, no contraction, no expansion, no nothing, you see. But it is for us to expand progressively, stage by stage and as we expand, we see more and more. It is like when you go on the road, in a bus, your vision is always limited to what you can see. The horizon for you is about thirty feet. You sit on the sea shore, the horizon they say, is about thirty miles. But even there if a ship goes below the horizon, you don't see it anymore. But if you fly, every foot you fly reveals more and more to you, until the very world can become like a ball hanging before you! Internal growth: People often ask, "How to know whether we are developing?" This is one aspect: Has your mind stopped wandering? Has it stopped prodding you into unnecessary activities? Has it stopped sort of pestering you to undertake adventures outside yourself? Whenever we go out and wander and try to see things and admire them, we are only projecting an inner desire upon these objects, and venerating them or admiring them or criticizing them or hating them. Now that tendency has to be overcome. Sir, what are the signs of progress? Master: You will know it as you progress. The general signs are peace, shanti and a lessening of the intricacies of the mind. But Sir, to use an illustration, when we travel from here to Bombay by train, we get various stations. Is there something similar by which we can judge our spiritual progress? Master: As I have already told you, you will feel peace, shanti. Ishwar Sahai: Yes, but you need not travel by train, you can fly to Bombay! When a man goes from one condition to another, he develops a feeling of stagnation. It can be understood thus: A man is standing on the bank of a river. In order to reach the other bank, it is necessary for him to cross the river. First of all he will need a boat for this. When he sits in the boat he will not feel that speed with which he came running up to the bank. This is called a buffer which comes at every stage in our system of sadhana. Some are able to cross this river immediately, which they do not even feel. There are others who take time. However, if faith is firm, and love for the Master increases day by day, one is bound to reach the destination some day or the other. There are innumerable secrets along this path. To a true seeker, whatever comes along the way is encouraging. His progress will be to the extent of his love and faith in the Master. The same holds good about spiritual stages. Suppose a person reaches from A to B, he may not have the same experience which another person has while travelling between the same two points. So far as reaching the destination is concerned, both have reached it. The best method is to leave everything to Master. Secondly, one should take everything, whether good or bad, as coming from Master. Spiritual Yatra There are two types of experiences - One lateral, one vertical, you see. And at any point of the spiritual yatra starting from point 1, once the yatra is commenced, it is possible to go infinitely expanding into that region without ever going beyond it. Infinite expansion is possible at each point. And we should not mistake the infinite expansion at point 1 for progress. It is no more progress. It is stagnation, though an expansion within that stagnating point. I have got to very carefully know, whether I am experiencing the same thing over and over again but in a deeper and deeper way or I am having experiences of different levels of evolution, different levels of approach, which show that I am moving vertically now, you see. This has to be very carefully considered; otherwise, we can delude ourselves into thinking that we are making fast progress, swift progress, easy progress. And Master called that infinite expansion at one point, the Avadhoota Gati. They are stuck. It is like a balloon expanding. It doesn't go anywhere. It is expanding, expanding and expanding. So you see, the purpose of yoga, it is not even the conditioning of the mind or the regulation of the mind. Regulation of the mind for what? For achieving this, to have an idea of what my existence is for. People with money think, only money is all that matters. They keep on making more money. People in Universities, they go on adding degrees more and more and more. The doctor adds more and more patients to his roster, eventually comes to a level where he has to computerize his whole business and they think they are great. But please remember that horizontal expansion is not real growth. It is vertical expansion which is growth; it is a change in dimension which is growth. You may expand for eternity on the same two dimensions of a plane, you are only going round and round. You must all remember that when the first plane flew, it flew for a few feet, but it was extolled as a marvel of achievement because it did get off the ground and was in an alien situation, a different element, even if it was only for a few seconds! That is why when we are exhilarated, we jump. Why do we jump with joy? Why don't we 'plump' with joy! See, it is the need to escape from the gravitational pull of the earth that is holding us tight. That is why, we like to fly in planes. So you see, this euphoria of being released from the grips of the terrestrial gravity, is no more and no less than the euphoria you will feel, when your mind is released from that awesome grip of our samskaric burden, which we are carrying and brought into this life. So, that has to be removed. But first, the mind must be trained to think in the right way. What is it that I want? Is it pleasure? Is it material fulfillment? Is it more and more houses, which I can rent out, more and more factories or have I to grow into something in a different dimension so that my perspective changes? You have only to climb to the first floor of the building to see the city in a different sense. Climb to the roof and you find Ahmedabad in a different beauty you see, climb to the TV tower (if it exists) and then you see Ahmedabad totally different, something you should never have imagined! So you see, it is this climb-up that can change with you, that can cast different perspectives upon what you see. Whereas, if you go round and round the streets of Ahmedabad, yes, it is good for one who is aspiring to be a policeman or a postman or a taxi driver! The concept of yatra is important because it is possible for a preceptor to identify the soul in its location. Inevitably, at least in modern times, you cannot possibly find anybody other than at the first point. It is not possible. I say this with total conviction because Babuji told me he had only one case in his whole lifetime where he got one abhyasi who was already in the fourth point when he came to him. The only person who ever came to Babuji outside of the first point was this one single case in his entire lifetime. And Babuji said, "I gave him a sitting. I was astonished to see he was in the fourth point, and I was amazed at the amount of work he must have done to get there." I said, "Why? Four points, it is nothing much." This was in my days of what they call, you know, blissful ignorance [he laughs], when I thought everything is very easy, you see. Four points, what is the big joke, you see, what is the wonder about it? Then he told me the secret: that to move from the first point requires the power of the Master. You may never move from that point. Which is why this question of being born again and again and again and again, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, comes in. So yatra may never take place, you see, except by the grace of the Master. And for those who undertake spiritual practice themselves, thinking in their enormous wisdom, that they can do it without the help of a guru - yes, perhaps they can reach this avadhoota gati, lull themselves into some sort of false security thinking they have made it, show some ecstasy by which they can show to the world that they have achieved something, and die a death which has inevitably to bring them back here again. The yatra has to be begun by a Master, and then, once the yatra begins, you see, he permits a little expansion within that centre, which we can also call a yatra within that centre. You can see actually the motion going around. And sometimes, when you are in the darkness, you can see some sparks of light, which have a circular motion. It is as if there is a spark here, which is moving circularly in a clockwise manner. Even that motion around that point has to be stimulated by spiritual practice. That is possible by one's own effort, but it can take forty years, fifty years, a hundred years. With the grace of a Master, it can be in the very first sitting. It can be. Now once this motion is set into being, or has been created, you see, you can say that now, for the first time, the soul is active. It has come out of that passive rigidity, that cold death where it was totally immobile, totally inconscient, into some sort of active participation. And that is why, I think, Lalaji has distinguished between Brahman and atman. Brahman is the Ultimate, the atman is the individual, embodied person's soul. He says, "This moves and grows, that thinks and grows," At-man and Brahman. So this is the importance of yatra, you see. That which has become motionless, ignorant, inconscient, sunk into itself in a mire of oblivion, it becomes active. Through activity, it gains. What does it gain? Not a thing, not a state, but its position on the evolutionary path onto which it steps for the first time after who knows how many aeons of time of blissful ignorance. So this is the importance of the yatra. Now the Master permits expansion in that one point to a certain extent because he says, "I like that the soul gets a certain degree of command over that point. To the extent it is necessary, I allow it to grow within that point. Then I just give it a gentle push and put it on its way to the second point." Now the yatra between points, like it is intercity and intracity, you see; intermural, intramural; intercollegiate, intracollegiate. You have these terms, you know: within and in between two things of the same type. So there is a possibility of our expansion within a point, which, if it is restricted only there, can be infinite, taking infinite time, achieving no purpose whatsoever, taking you to the avadhoota gati. By the grace of the Master that can be stimulated by him, and you are allowed to achieve a certain degree of spiritual command over that point, then you are moved on to the next point. That is, now the real yatra of the soul is begun. When it comes to the second point, again he allows it to go around a bit to gain control, as he called it, command over that point, and then moves it on to the third. Here comes the work of the preceptor that when you clean the next point ahead, His work becomes easier to do. Just do like playing carom and it is pocketed. Now, Babuji told me that in the old days this movement of the soul from the first point to the second point, once it has begun, used to take forty-five years under the most rigorous spiritual discipline, almost twenty-four hours a day, for the rishis in their caves in the jungles of the Himalayas. Forty-five years after the movement or yatra began within the point, which could take who knows how many years. Now if you understand that this is possible even within one sitting, you can understand and appreciate the enormous efficacy of the Sahaj Marg system. You will appreciate it even more when you hear that from the second point to the third point it took five times 45 years or 225 years. From the third to the fourth, five times 225 years or 1,125 years. From the fourth to the fifth, it took 5,625 years. From here [he points to point one] to here [he points to point six], 25,000 years. I just made up a computation once, and found that you need about 30,000 years to reach the point of liberation! So it is not surprising that few people have ever been liberated in the past. Who has 30,000 years of lifespan? Now I had an experience once, maybe I have written somewhere, in a transmission Babuji gave me. It was like one of these astronauts, you know, in the space vehicle, moving leg first in a weightless atmosphere. I found myself weightless, moving with my feet and entering Babuji here [pointing at the forehead]. And about one third of me entered when he said, "That's all." I was very upset, you see. I thought he had cheated me and I told him so. I said, "Babuji, aapne hame dhoka dia (You have cheated me)." Babuji laughed. He said, "What happened?" I said, "Well, this is what happened. I went in one third and what about the rest?" He said, "You know, this is a very good sign. Lalaji's grace. Your merger in me to the extent of one third is complete. Congratulations." I said, "For what? You have denied the other two thirds." Now that is the pessimistic attitude all over again. He said, "My friend, at your stage of development, this one third is far, far too much." You see, here comes the important message of the Master. That development according to the points and the regions has nothing to do with the ultimate climax of spiritual existence, the merger. The merger can be today, even if you are the worst sinner in the universe. If in that instant you have this total love and the total longing to be one with him, he opens the door. So you see, these regions have nothing to do with the actuality of the spiritual adventure, its romance, its beauty... I do not know what word to use. It is a romance, you see. Spirituality is a romance, but a romance full of misery, where the soul of the aspirant is torn with longing, love, separation. And when you do achieve the union with the beloved, you find you are lost, you are no more there to, shall we say, enjoy that union. So long as I can feel something, see something, I am at the lowest level of the spiritual ladder. So abhyasis should be trained to recognize this. And to know that when they continue to know, they are really only at the level of knowing. They have to go to the level of feeling. When they transcend that, they are going to a level where nothing more exists, either to be known, or to be felt. That is the real state of progress. Then what is this for? Why should I meditate any more? Because you have to retain this state. It is like being born and continuing to eat all your life so that you will continue to live. So, at that level of growth, why you continue to meditate is for several reasons: One, because your Master asks you to do it, second, because you need to keep the fire burning, the state retained without fall. Now the principle of perfection also says that as we become more perfect, we become more perfect in morality, in utilization, in everything else. The higher we go, the less we have to use. And this we have seen in our experience with the Master that the longer the transmission, the lower the level of the work. At the highest level He had to transmit for hardly a fraction of a second. And at the highest level, I promised to tell you, there is a system in existence where the input was absolutely the minimum and the output is absolutely the maximum. That is at the level of Divine creation where with one 'Kshobh' what began is still continuing! So, spiritual progress to the Divine level means not only spiritualization of the self in respect of qualities, but spiritualization in respect of efficiency. I mean, in all spheres you see that at the highest level, we behave like the divine itself: absolutely moral, absolutely consumption less, absolutely efficient in creation. So at the top, we find everything meets: divinity is the same as morality, morality is the same as spirituality, it is all one. So progress must mean to go from outside, to find my Master in my innermost self, see Him seated there. Not only that, but to go into the heart of that Master who is inside me: "Is the Master in my heart? Am I in His heart inside my heart?" If I find myself there, that means we have gained what we call Janma saphalyam [fulfillment of the purpose of life]. We come to the conclusion that progress really means becoming what we have to become and then to become a conduit, a sort of a conductor, through which, what I have become shall pass through me and make others become that. I pray to my Master to bless all, so that they may develop themselves as he wanted them to do and thus contribute to the spiritual development of the future - the seeds of which lie very definitely in the present. Amen! Some Pearls to Pick |
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"Let us judge our progress by what
we have become."
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