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Ten Maxims

Now the moot question: What are the attitudes we have to develop? The Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg have stated this very clearly. We have to try and develop a humane attitude. Revered Babuji Maharaj (Masters of Sahaj Marg) has said, " We start life as animal human beings, then we have to develop to normal human beings, and then we have to go on to Divinization."

Undoubtedly the morning meditation trains us to regulate our minds. As Babuji Maharaj used to say, "Instead of our being the slaves of our mind, we have to become the Masters of our minds." So, when we focus on a single thought during meditation, we progressively attain the ability to regulate our mind. We use the mind to regulate the mind. Many people are confused as to how this is possible. But one example will make you realize that this is what we do all our lives.

If you wish to train your dog, you use the dog itself to train it. Similarly, to master a horse, you have to ride it again and again until you have mastered that horse. Says Revered Chariji, "In fact, the concept that training is external has somewhat polluted our thinking on the subject. So there can be no training program, in that sense. Any program has to be used to train ourselves, to regulate ourselves. This is incidentally the problem with the Ten Maxims. We appreciate their value, we recognize their merit, but we don't apply them to our lives."

For many, the first maxim itself is the stumbling block. But if you are not able to do the first one, it is not necessary to forget all ten. Go on to the second, then the third...and so on and so forth. Observe whichever maxims you are comfortable with first. Sequence in unimportant. We can start anywhere and end anywhere. It is not like a staircase that you have to climb the first step first, and then the second step after that, then the third step and so on. The important thing is to train your will by doing something positive.

The will is strengthened every time we do something diligently, and it is weakened every time we fail to do something that we have to do. So meditation helps us to regulate the mind, and by regulating it 95 per cent of our problems are solved. Meditation is therefore a process, not a goal in itself. But it is a process, which helps us immensely and therefore we do it.