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Read with Your Heart

(by revered P. Rajagopalachari, February 2, 2009, Satkhol, India)

 Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are all familiar with the messages that were published a couple of years ago, under the title Whispers from the Brighter World - mainly messages from Babuji Maharaj, but also containing messages from Lalaji Sahib and some other highly spiritualized entities. And we have been also putting them on the, what do you call it, the Web; one message every day. I hope you have all been reading them, because Babuji Maharaj himself says, "Good things must be repeated. Need to be repeated." And one wonder behind those messages is that as you read them again and again and again, the meaning goes deeper and deeper. And it has been my own experience that, I don't know, you cannot quantify it as seventh reading or eighth reading, but as you go on reading them, even the reading itself seems to open up spiritual conditions in us. So I would recommend that you read volume one continuously, and I am happy to announce that we will be releasing volume two on the 30th of April, the birth anniversary of my Master, Babuji Maharaj.

It will also contain a great deal of messages; I expect it to run to about six hundred pages, one message per page, and the details of how, where, when will be released in Sahaj Sandesh. It will all be available by email today to all who have access to the computers. This copy will be followed - much to my joy and surprise - by two more volumes, at least. One volume, that is the second volume now in 30th April 2009, third volume, 30th April 2010 and fourth volume, I hope 30th April 2011, closing with the last message of 31st December 2010.

There is a wealth, I mean it is like you are digging for gold and you go on digging and more and more gold comes. You know in the ordinary gold mine there are only seams of gold. This is a gold mine which is nothing but gold. And if, I mean we all live long enough and if the possibility of accessing those messages continues to exist, I don't see why these messages should not continue into the future, indefinitely. Volume one has been published quite well - brought out, well printed, on good paper. I should say even to a degree of opulence. In volume two this will be maintained and if possible, it will be our endeavour to better volume one in the, you know, physical values of publication.

One cannot say which message is more important, which is less important, because they are all very important. And I am myself quite amazed when I read the messages of volume two. I have been reading them as they come in to me and they are profound in their implications for our spiritual evolution. Again and again Babuji Maharaj emphasizes the fact that Sahaj Marg does not ask you for all your life earnings, to give up your family and go into the jungle. It is a very simple method: meditation in the morning, cleaning in the evening, prayer at night. No major sacrifices involved. Only to live a good life, in the right way, but with the only stipulation being obedience to the Master's wishes, and that again is only for our benefit.

We obey to benefit. Unlike in public life, in human life, in our day-to-day life, we obey for somebody else's benefit. In spirituality we obey for our own benefit. You obey; you benefit. You don't obey; you don't benefit. In obedience there can be no questions: "Why have I to obey?" If you ask such a question, it would probably mean several lives more to be taken before you understand why I have to obey. In obedience there is no ‘why'. There is no search for logic. There is no demand for your question to ask: "Why this question should be obeyed?" or "Why this order should be obeyed? Why does the Master have to tell me and not somebody else? Why does he ask me to obey and not somebody else?" No questions. Totally unquestioning obedience is the only requirement of this spiritual way that I know, Sahaj Marg. The moment you start asking questions, it is implicit that you are questioning the wisdom of your Master, the intentions of your Master and his existence itself - never done, except at the peril of your own evolution.

Babuji has emphasized again and again, that this journey from here to there, the infinite, can be in terms of time, in a second or it can take an eternity of time - coming again and again and again, you know. He used to tell us that if you put steel in boiling water expecting it to melt or cook, you can boil steel for an eternity of time, nothing will happen to the steel.

All our preparation as human beings is to prepare ourselves to face Him with the heart open and find ourselves not there - missing. We are not dead because there is no death in the spiritual life. As Babuji said, "There is no death." In fact, if you look at it spiritually, from the point of view of the soul, we are in a dead condition here on earth as human beings; we are mortal, alive in the flesh. But if we had the wisdom to look at ourselves from the spiritual point of view, we would be weeping eternally, "What have I got into?" And people would say, "But just look around you! How much happiness there is, how much there is to be enjoyed, how much pleasure there is, how much wealth there is to be acquired!" And then you would have to weep not only for yourself but for them too.

So you see, spirituality is perhaps - why perhaps - is certainly a curse for those who are here because they don't want to give up the joys of this existence. And they say, "What spirituality? What is the hurry? Let me live while life is there, while I am young, while I have the power to enjoy it. Let me do it. We will come to spirituality when we are old." Babuji said, "Don't put off till tomorrow, what can be done today," because if you have no strength, no will power, no ability to enjoy anything in life, and you want to enjoy spirituality, that too will not be possible for you.

Start young. Do it when you have the energy to do what has to be done. If a man cannot even sit up in bed, and is lying down twenty-four hours, and he has to be helped in every possible way to continue living physically, how does he expect to meditate, how does he expect to sit up and do the cleaning. What are the maxims that he will remember even to obey? So if we put off, we put off at our peril.

So these messages re-emphasize - in fact you know they try to drum into us in a very gentle Babuji-ish language, being his own language - they emphasize again and again: My dear, what I ask of you is nothing. Literally nothing. Sit with your eyes closed comfortably. Imagine divine light in your heart. Meditate for an hour or at least for half an hour. Do the cleaning in the evening. No effort. No barbells. No dumb bells. Nothing to walk on, tread mills. And at night a simple prayer, remembering what Babuji said, "Prayer must not be begging." All religious prayer is begging. In spirituality, a prayer, as our prayer is, is a statement of fact. This I am; that you are. Between me and you is a whole universe. Please make it possible for me to bridge this gap. And for this you help me. It is a statement; it is a request. And we pray also not only for ourselves, but for everybody else, all over the world. There are no differences, there are no races, there are no religions. There are only human beings. As human beings, we pray for everybody else.

So these important messages which we have reiterated time and again, in our assemblies, in our satsanghs, they are there, you know, in His beautiful, simple language. All requesting, not ordering. It is strange that we don't want to obey a Master who never orders, because we are too much in the tradition of being ordered around by gods, by gurus, by commanders, by captains, by governments. We are too much used to the twin instruments of religion - fear and temptation - so that we come to Sahaj Marg with suspicion based on centuries of bad experience given to us by our culture, by our tradition, by our religion. Do and get; don't and suffer.

So you see, our tradition of centuries, of ages, where most of it is all in the form of do, do, do without explaining why, has made us slaves; unfortunately letting us imagine that we are Masters. Why do we think we are Masters? "Oh, because I can disobey. If I obey, I am a slave. If I disobey, I must be not a slave. If I am not a slave, I must be a Master." Thus runs the stupid human logic, especially with the intellectuals, of the well educated, of the powerful, of the rich. I have heard people say, "I can employ people to do everything for me. Why should I do this? Why should I do that? I, who command, should I obey? I, who command, if I obey, what will others think of me? That I am not the supremo that they thought I was." You see in what all miserable ways our logic, our mind, our intellects, they lead us and then the superiority which every human being today manifests: claiming that his religion is the highest, claiming his family is the best, claiming their wealth is immense. So we are trained to be arrogant, proud, selfish.

I beg to say that a mere reading of these messages will remove most of our samskaras, provided you are sincere and are reading to benefit. You know you can read anything and criticize. It is easy to criticize especially if you are a fool, because then you have more to criticize, because you know nothing. So those who criticize without reading, without understanding, without any desire for self-improvement, without any intention of carrying out what is written, they are the greatest critics. "No, no this is all rubbish. No, no this has been said over and over again." Yes, you have been drinking milk everyday. You have been earning money everyday. You have been miserable everyday - even the best, most happy. What have you learnt from your own life? Why don't you learn something from a life which we claim to have been the highest?

So I would take this opportunity of imploring you all to read these messages again and again. Read it with, you know, an open heart so that the meaning goes into you direct into the heart without going through the brain. We have to bypass the brain if you are going to be a spiritual person seriously interested in your evolution. Anything that you subject to your brain for evaluation will only doom you to further slavery. I hope you will take this last warning of mine to heart - put away your head completely. Read with your heart. "No, no, how can I read with my heart?" Try it and you will be amazed at what the heart can find, which your brain never told you exists. I pray for you all.