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Stand Firm — Obey the Heart

Ashram Auditorium Inauguration/Address to Omega Alumni, 1 June 2012, Chennai, India
Good morning to all of you. I am very happy to welcome the alumni of Omega International – the first two batches to have passed out from the school. And I consider it a very happy augury that this beautiful hall is being inaugurated with the students present here, because the youth of today is the adult of tomorrow, the citizen of tomorrow, and what we have produced in Omega will be reflected in what you all become, how you behave – whether you people remain what you are or progress to become world citizens. No Andhras, no Kayasths, no Brahmins – world citizens. I beg all of you to remember that, because if you are failures, it is Omega’s failure. I hope there will be no failures. I am not referring to the academic failure or otherwise. I am referring to your success as a human being who will play his and her part in the integration of humanity, in what Babuji goes on repeating as ‘the world to come in the future’.

He has been saying in almost two-thirds of his messages that the present-day human beings will more or less disappear, giving place to a new humanity where they will be united by love, not by considerations of caste and colour and creed, which is a curse on today’s humanity.

It is a blessing that this hall is being inaugurated with youth here which I hope portends the growth of the Mission, the growth of the foundation from its youthful stage now to its adult stage, which may last thousands of years according to what Babuji Maharaj has said. Babuji Maharaj keeps repeating that Sahaj Marg will go far into the future and will play its role in the lives of human beings and in their progress towards the brighter world. Even this morning I received a message where he says: “Love and faith alone can achieve this.” Love and faith.

I hope you have understood from some of his messages and his teachings that love as understood in this world is not love. It is lust, it is attachment, it is dependence – but not love. I am sorry to say this but that is the truth as told to me by my Master. He told me that love is only for God. He is the parampitaa, as we say in Hindi – our Ultimate Father – He who has produced this world and all of us with it. So we must understand that what holds us together as families is affection, mutual dependence, some trust in each other, some belief in a family, things like that. Love? Well, only There, only for Him. If this is understood, I think there will be no confusion, and no complaints from girls saying, “My husband doesn’t love me,” and from boys saying, “My wife doesn’t love me.” Does she have affection for you? Does she fulfil the vows taken during matrimony, the holy bonds of matrimony? Does she look after the children as a mother should?

It is not for nothing that mamtaa or mother love is praised above all. Because it is one act of the human being where a woman is a creator. She creates the baby out of herself, the life out of herself. Men play a very flippant part in it. Perhaps the bees in the gardens are better. So men should be ashamed of the flippant part that they play in creating a family and bringing up of it, for which they take a lot of egoistic pride, egoistic credit, and so on and so forth. Girls must stick to this aspect of motherly love, that you are not a mere mother: in being a mother you are a creator of life. You are a creator in the sense that whatever God may give, it is through you. The future of humanity is in its women, and we require a lot of women because everybody knows that if there is one man and a hundred women, it is enough to populate the world, whereas a hundred men and one woman is no use at all. You see how disposable the poor man is?

So stick to your guns, to your pride, to your virginity – these are things girls should value above all. Don’t fall prey to mere lusty fellows who come and look into your eyes deeply and say, “I love you.” Beware! Beware of the male. The male is a predator. I hate to say this, but it is so. And women fall too easily to the predator. You see it in the animal world, you see it everywhere – the predator, the male.

I hope they have taught you something in the school about your moral values, about ethical values, about how to govern and conduct yourselves through life, how not to seek happiness but to seek truth and love – to which you must now add faith, because without faith there is no truth; without faith there can be no love.

So when we talk of God, I must have faith in God, and that faith demands that I believe that He gives me everything that happens to me during my life, from birth to death (both of them included). He gives me life. He also ends this terrestrial life to take me into the higher life, and whatever happens to me in the interregnum is good – is good for my growth, for my development, for the ultimate goal that I am seeking.

We should not judge God by what we are here. “Today I had a headache. What the hell is God doing?” Forbidden! No foul words, no vulgarities in respect of God. Of course, He is beyond all this; nothing touches Him. But you are not beyond. If you use four-letter words in relation to God, like they do in the United States of America, you are a condemned person. ‘I love God’ means I have faith in God. I know that everything that comes to me comes from God. Therefore, it must be for my good. You understand? It is very [important] that your faculty members, members of the society, must all understand this because they have to teach you, they have to understand it themselves and if they don’t believe in it, they cannot teach you properly.

So this is the only way of progress from this world to the other world (the brighter world). I hope you are all reading Whispers (it is available – two messages every day on your computer) and take those lessons deeply to heart. They may be one sentence, they may be one paragraph – it doesn’t matter. Read them again and again. Meditate on the meaning. You know, very often, the superficial meaning is all that we understand: “Tell the truth.” Our national emblem – the Ashoka pillar – says, “Satyam Vada,” or whatever it is, “Tell the truth.” Here, what does it mean, ‘tell the truth’? Do you know what is the truth? First of all, you must understand what is the truth.

Once I was travelling with a very rich abhyasi, and I was talking to an abhyasi who wanted to know what is honesty, how to be honest. I had spoken to him for almost an hour, telling him that honesty comes from here [the heart]. It is not something from outside. My honesty must not be governed by circumstances external to me. ‘I am honest’ means I am honest under all circumstances, under all situations. But my friend intervened and said, “You have heard him, but I am telling you in this world it is only an ideal. It cannot be followed by everybody and everywhere at all times.” This is the sort of belief that we have been told and this we parade as our belief and truth. “I am truthful.” “Yes, but yesterday…” “Oh well, you know, I had to do it. Don’t you do it under similar circumstances?” Lie!

So, girls and boys, it is not a difficult life if you understand the principle and follow it. Like two plus two is four under all circumstances. Five plus five is ten under all circumstances. Geometry may be different from trigonometry, which may be different from solid geometry and solid trigonometry on a sphere where the three angles don’t add up to two right angles – but then they are different subjects. That is science dealing with facts. Truth depends on your moral values, your moral stand, your behaviour through life, how you conduct yourself – not waiting for God to tell you the truth and saying, “No, no. I was punished. I had to go to jail.” “Why did you go?” “Because I stole a cycle.” “How did you do it?” “Sir, I had no bicycle.” “Is that a justification?” “Well, my friend told me, ‘You are not going to get a bicycle any other way. Your father is a kanjoos [miser]. He will not give it to you. Society does not give free bicycles. Le lo ek. (Take one.) Everybody does it’.” You end up in jail. This happened to one of my classmates in my school long ago, seventy years ago. It still happens every day.

So the principle is important, not the meaning. “Tell the truth – what does it mean? Yaar [friend], I don’t know what is the truth.” Well, find out. Consult your teachers, consult your conscience, sit and meditate, pray and it will come. You are all abhyasis. I hope you don’t give up the principles of Sahaj Marg as you enter life. Because I expect, my Master expects, that you are the tip of the probe into the future which will produce a new humanity. You must also believe that if you fail, there is going to be a setback even in God’s plans for the future because God works through human beings – deivam maanusha roopena. God does not work directly on the universe. If that were so, it would be a different world. We would not be needed, saints would not be needed, sinners would not be there – everything would be perfect.

We, every one of us, have a moral responsibility to not only our own good, our own future welfare but to the welfare of the future world. Remember this. So it is a responsibility that is cast upon us when we become abhyasis. Other people don’t understand. They think they have no responsibility for the future. Something goes wrong – “Government of India.” Something else goes wrong – “Government of Tamil Nadu.” Something else goes wrong – “Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.” “He preached truth. Look what became of him,” says a cynic. “You also want to be assassinated? Go ahead, tell the truth.”

You have heard all this; you will hear all this. But I hope all of you will stand firm to the principles that you have been taught here in Sahaj Marg, which you will continue to learn day after day, not only through its literature, not only through Whispers, but by meditating as prescribed. While I pray for you all, I bless you all.

Thank you.

[break in tape]

… and continue to hold that thought till I say, “That’s all.” If the mind wanders, gently bring it back. Don’t fight other thoughts because they will fight back. In your mind, as it is today, there are only rebellious forces which … at most turns of life. You will find that you are compelled to do things – at least that’s what you think, that’s what you tell others. “I was compelled. I had no choice.” These are both lies to yourself and to others. There is no force in the world that can compel you to do anything unless you wish it. This is a very big truth because your mind partakes of the essence of the mind of God, first mind of God, and it is full of power such as no power has ever been given to human beings, anywhere, ever. Animals don’t have it. Machines don’t have it. Politicians don’t have it. Warmongers don’t have it. We all have it, if you will but use your heart in guiding your mind…

This [the heart] is what is right. This [the head] thinks. This [the heart] tells us what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, when you are in a dilemma, consult the heart and don’t say, “No, no. My heart said…” I hear this so often. Somebody goes astray, “My heart told me it is right.” Your heart can never tell you what is wrong is right. It is impossible. So if you have the propensity to copy or cheat or sleep with a boy, and you say your heart said so, you are a damn liar. Your other things may have said so: your senses, your body – not your heart. So always consult the heart before you do anything. Obey the heart so that it becomes stronger and stronger. Eventually, it is your heart that guides your life and it can never go wrong.