It is very much like an actor on the stage putting on the clothes, and acting the part of a particular part he has to play. There we know it, there we know we have to act a part for a certain number of hours and then we take off the dress and become our normal selves. Here it is something which is progressively being changed to suit our ego function.

You can see children, when they are born, by the time they are three, they develop a certain pattern of behaviour. Some are soft, some are aggressive, some are supple. At that stage, it is right to say that there is some samskaric background which leads to the aggressiveness of the child. But if it gets reinforced by interaction with its family, with its society, and this sort of personality which we call character, becomes hard, established because the ego finds satisfaction in behaving in such ways.

That is why, character formation, for two reasons, is our business. One because, except for the rudimentary base we bring with us from the past life as a samskara, all the rest is the creation of the ego, which means ourselves. So when we have created, we have to work upon ourselves to destroy it. The second is, not being part of the samskaric pattern, it is not really amenable to removal by the cleaning process.

That is why you find there is a peculiar confusion that people are being cleaned, they receive transmission, the inner change is going on, but outwardly there is no transformation. So our friends do not accept Sahaj Marg. Our relatives do not accept Sahaj Marg. Society does not accept. It is all right for Babuji to say that if you look inside you will find there is almost a saint, but they say, "what of outside? Why is there no change? Should there not be a change outside, patterned on the change within?" It is a legitimate question and a legitimate expectation also, that we should also change in external manifestation of ourselves. That is our responsibility as abhyasis.

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