By Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur (Babuji)
Lalaji taught: "Never offer advice unless invited, otherwise it is likely to yield bad results. If you find any fault with anybody, pray for his freedom from it." He himself never directly asked anyone to give up any bad habit. All such bad habits and afflictions left that person in no time after he had been with him. Commenting on this method he used to say, "If you sit by a fire, you feel warm; if you sit by ice, you feel cold. Why then will you not get transformed if you sit with a person who is perfect in discipline and etiquette?"
He always advised reduction of wants. He would say, "Do not purchase a new thing if you can manage to carry on with your old belongings." He was not against earning money by honest means, but insisted upon spending it on others. Use of intoxicants and being given to adultery were strictly prohibited by him.
To him, show was disqualification. Stating a bare truth was always good in his opinion. He was very firm in his conviction that the real discipline and etiquette were simply that the tongue should utter only that which was in one's heart. The inner and outer condition of an abhyasi had to be the same. He never talked about anyone's faults. In case it became necessary to discuss such a subject, he went mum.
Display of miracles was extremely disgustful to him. If someone attained siddhis [powers] in his sadhana, he at once removed that state. Ego was likewise never allowed to grow. He advocated that the aspirants should always remain away from siddhis until they reached their goal and the discipline was perfected. When the sadhak [practicant] reaches his goal, all his actions automatically become miracles. He held the opinion that the greatest miracle of a saint was to transform an animal into a perfect man. There is no denying his full command over siddhis, but he never used those powers.
Lalaji considered spiritual perfection to be based on three things: (1) Love for the Master, (2) Satsangh with the Master, and (3) Obedience to the Master.
Disciples were not given any theoretical education but were asked only to attend the satsangh. People of any caste or creed, followers of any religion whatsoever, who had a thirst for Reality could get training from him.
He was against idol worship. Though he allowed his photo to be kept by his followers, he never allowed them to worship it. Self-praise was so much disliked by him that he did not allow people to touch his feet in order to pay respects to him, but this condition was relaxed in the case of Hindus who practiced it as a custom.
Excess of Japa [repetition of a mantra] and Tapa [asceticism] was not liked by him. He preferred the middle way and regarded the meditation on the heart as the real sadhana. He attached great importance to prayer, but it was not to be for material gain. He himself constantly prayed for the soul of this world.
For removing various complexities of the heart, Lalaji Saheb asked the satsanghis to make friends of their enemies and the persons whom they dreaded, and directed them not to do to others that they themselves did not wish to be done by. He considered love to be the greatest tapas [asceticism].
He often directed his audience to thank God for the various amenities given to them by Him, and advised them to put them to right use and resort to good actions so that they may be made permanent. It is easy to agree with Isaac Walton when he says, "God has two dwellings; one in heaven and the other in a meek and thankful heart."
Lalaji was very particular regarding conduct. He announced in unambiguous terms that realisation of self was not possible without adhering to the standard moral code of conduct. In unequivocal terms he directed that company should be kept only with those persons whose hearts are brimming with love for God, and with those who could influence others with it.
He considered three things necessary for a saint: (1) permanent bodily ailment, (2) financial stringency, and (3) Nindak-being found fault with.
The real sadhana is to balance the mind.
Eat less and earn an honest living. Without taking honestly earned food, spiritual experiences often go wrong.
Once he wrote: "It is good to be put to worries. The home is the training centre for submission and endurance. It is the greatest form of penance and sacrifice." At another place he writes, "As for afflictions and worries, I too had mine which might perhaps be shocking to another. Often I had nothing for my meals. I had a number of children and dependents to support. Besides, at times I had to help others too, which I could not avoid. The entire responsibility was upon me alone and I had to manage all that and provide for all requirements. I may also tell you that sometimes there was only one quilt, and that too, with badly mutilated padding, to cover the whole family. But I took it as a display of misfortune only, which passed away with time. I felt that all this was absolutely of no importance to me as compared to Reality, which was predominant in all my being. So I ever smiled on them thinking them to be the very way of liberation."
Some Principles:
Whatever searches God is atma [soul] and whichever is searched is Paramatma [Supreme Self, God].
The soul of a human being will be clean in proportion to the power of discrimination he possesses.
We, the lovers, are knowledge and God is perfect knowledge-rather the form of knowledge.
God realisation is impossible without becoming a perfect man.
Cleanse your manas [mind] with practice of sadhana and then go through literature; otherwise Reality will be lost upon you.
Avoid becoming a master and serve as a servant should.
Never promise anybody that he would realise God within a given time.
You have only to remove the doubt whether God and atma exist or not. If you have freed yourself of this, you need not have a Guru.
Atheist is not a person who does not believe in God. Those who harm the physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual existence are atheists.
God has hidden himself inside your hearts and exposed you. Hide yourselves and expose God! This is the real sadhana. As observed by a great thinker:
Performance of customs and adherence to rituals is no religion at all. Open-mindedness, good temperament, sympathy, courtesy, one-pointedness of thought, to know oneself, and love and equality with human beings constitute religion. Truly speaking, religion should not possess anyone, but he should be possessed by it, because no man's religion survives his morals. In fact doing God's will is religion.
Real craving for God will be found only in one person out of thousands. What is real love for God? It is a state when the trinity of the lover, the beloved and love itself disappear.
Afflictions are the boons from God. There are many secrets in them and many inner experiences can be had by undergoing sufferings. Jeremy Taylor is also of the view that many secrets of religion are not perceived till they be felt, and are not felt but on the day of a great calamity. Mallet regards affliction as the wholesome soil of virtue, when patience, honour, sweet humility and calm fortitude take root and strongly flourish.
Special Personality:
Giving the qualities of great men, W.E. Channing observes: "The great man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution, who resists the sorest temptations from within and without, who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully, who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menace and frowns, and whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God, is most unfaltering." While Bismark says: "A really great man is known by three things-a generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, and moderation in success."
Lalaji had all the qualities of a truly great and perfect man. According to Swami Vivekananda:
"Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and the nature is both internal and external. It is good and very grand to conquer external nature, but grander still it is to conquer internal nature. It is good and grand to know the laws that govern stars and planets, but it is infinitely grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, the will of mankind."
"Man is higher than all animals, than angels, none is greater than man. Even the Devas will have to come down again and attain salvation through a human body. Man alone attains the perfection, not even the Devas."
Is it not amazing that Lalaji attained perfection within a brief span of seven months? While only a student, his entire system was transformed into a celestial inner light, and his consciousness ascended and transcended all the known stages and reaches, to reach the state of statelessness.
This special personality who was a prodigy of Nature, the Ultimate Reality, brought back to humanity the long forgotten art of transmission of the Upanishadic Pranasya Pranah and worked out a novel method of spiritual training. Both his philosophy and the method, though based on Vedic foundation, are entirely new and are rightly termed by Dr. K. C. Varadachari as a New Darshana or The Seventh Darshana.
The location of Centre or God, the discovery of a region beyond the supra-cosmic sphere called Central Region, and the Ultimate State termed by him as Tam, were like a closed book to knowledge. These discoveries have provided food for thought both to the intellectuals and the spiritualists alike.
Lalaji was an embodiment of moderation, toleration and devotion, devoid of egoism altogether. With him dawned the new era of Yogic Training through Transmission of which he was the Master. He could bring a man to perfection simply at a glance. It was he who made it possible that a man could attain perfection in one life-rather a part of it-leading just a normal family life. He simplified the method of spiritual training to a great extent and adjusted it to suit the requirements of time.
(Excerpts from Truth Eternal)
