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 Aavadhoota 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 life-span?

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!

Continue ...