What is an Ashram for?
An ashram is a place where we sit and meditate and try to find him here within ourselves, where He is. It is a place where we must sit in a calm atmosphere, where because you are meditating again and again, the atmosphere becomes suitable for us, and then seek Him within. The moment we think that only in the Ashram we can meditate, or only in the ashram we can find peace, or only in the ashram we can achieve our goal, and that it is not possible in our house or in a cottage or for that matter even in toilet, we are again making the same mistake. We have converted the ashram into our old systems you see. So we have to be careful that we don't make an ashram into a temple all over again.
So this is a big danger you see, that we begin to think an ashram is a temple and we must go there everyday and without sitting in the ashram we cannot get the proper estimate or the proper experience of meditation. You know the addiction to an ashram can be as bad as self-defeating as an addiction to alcoholic liquor. So can we not do sadhana very effectively, absolutely effectively without an ashram? Yes, we can. We don't need an ashram! But it is, shall we say, the smallest luxury we can afford, to create a brotherhood by giving a place where everybody can sit together, hear speeches, share experience. People sit and meditate, each one finds the other meditating. We get into some sort of harmonious relationship with ourselves, our belief is strengthened by what we see - other people talking or experiencing or believing and that is the only purpose that an ashram serves. If an abhyasi says that where there is no ashram there is no possibility of meditation and spiritual growth, it is a total lie. It is wrong. Babuji did not meditate in an ashram for instance. There was no ashram in Lalaji's time. They sat where they could; perhaps under a Banyan tree, I don't know. They didn't have even preceptors in the earlier days. So what is the need you see? The need is brotherhood.
An ashram is a place where we go for 'Shreyas' [spiritual well-being
and spiritual growth]. An ashram is essentially a place where one goes
to be with his Master and to grow spiritually. Anything else is a waste
of time, and if an ashram is used for anything else, it is money badly applied,
money mis-spent at the poor donor's cost. So when we go to our ashram, let
us go in the Constant Remembrance of the Master, to be with Him whether
He is there physically or not. Because without being physical, He can give
anything. But know for sure, that in this life, in this human life, if you
don't get it, you are not going to get it. This is guaranteed. I mean this
is negative sort of guarantee.
It is for us to be surrounded by the consciousness of the Master, by His spirit. It is as if you are enveloped! I would suggest, that very much as a mother's womb protects the baby before it is born, ashrams protect us from outside pollution - whether of the body, or the mind, or the spirit.
It is meant for those, who long for spiritual benefit, who are willing to come, who are willing to sit in peace, calmly with eyes closed, meditate and draw whatever is available from the infinite source. It is not a place where we come for relaxation; it is not a place where we come for gossip; nor is it a place where we come to make mischievous plots about how to do this or that or that. I am saying this because today you see what a tragic thing it is, that places of worship are being used for seditious activities, for inhuman activities, for plotting murders, for violence. They are places of worship! So it is my submission, that a place of worship is a place of worship not because it was made a place of worship, but because people worship there. If you stop worshipping, it is no longer a temple! Similarly, an ashram is an ashram only so long as you meditate in it and keep the atmosphere pure, so that it can help the man who comes next and meditate there! The moment you stop meditating and start playing cards and things like that in an ashram, it becomes a club - though outside you may write "Shri Ram Chandra Mission Ashram!"
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Mission builds ashrams for itself. It is like saying this building built itself for itself. It cannot build itself for itself. Somebody builds it for someone else to use. Even a businessman builds blocks and blocks of apartments to rent out for somebody's use - he doesn't stay in all of them. The Master is not in his ashrams. Don't make the mistake of thinking that, "This ashram was charged for so many years - X,Y,Z, and therefore I don't need the Master any more - if I sit in that ashram I will get everything." It is like expecting your wife's photograph to make love to you!
So the mission is the easiest to understand precisely because it has the least part to play in our spiritual journey. It is a creation which He considered necessary to help us. We should allow it to help us in the way that He designed - meditate. Don't imagine that you can just sit in an ashram and become a saint. No ashram produced a saint, though saints lived in ashrams. Kings live in palaces, but if I went into a palace and lived there I wouldn't become a king!
An Ashram has a purpose other than individual meditation. The purpose is to make us congregate in one place, develop brotherhood between ourselves, develop love for each other, develop an attitude of friendship, of cooperation, of mutual service. An ashram is an arena where without fighting, without quarrelling, without jousting, as in the old tradition, we interact in such a way that hearts become stronger, faith becomes evolved, courage evolves out of our inner sheeps' hearts into lions' hearts.
An ashram is a symbol of unity of all the people living here, people of all races, all colours, all religions, united under the spiritual umbrella of Sahaj Marg and growing together harmoniously, marching towards the goal harmoniously, hand in hand, and making this land, which has been, in a sense, tortured by various problems over the past few centuries, shine in the glory of united land, a united people, a united culture, united in spirituality.
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