0:00 Introduction from Babaji
1:55 How do we achieve a purified state of mind while living in the world?
9:24 We shouldn’t indulge in unnecessary negative thoughts.
11:11 Why is a daily practice of meditation recommended?
16:40 Is it the ego that makes us believe we don’t need to make efforts to change?
25:18 When Babaji says ‘be sincere’ does that mean to put in all efforts into the practice?
29:32 Is a Jeevanmukta the highest, most purified state of a human being?
34:12 How important is it to have a Jeevanmukta as a Guru?
39:00 Why is it more difficult to overcome thoughts when in the world compared to in meditation?
40:00 When there is a mental disorder, is the mind or the brain damaged?
40:45 Is it possible for a Guru and a disciple to have telepathy?
41:27 The mind as energy and consciousness
42:51 Are we silencing the energy part of consciousness in meditation?
43:26 What is Babaji’s experience of Self Realization and how to switch between Self Realization and living in the world
46:31 Is it difficult to hold onto the body after Self Realization?
47:25 When the body is in intense pain, what is the best practice?
48:25 How important is it to make a certain time for your meditation practice?
49:42 How is the mind’s experience different from the mind’s thoughts and imaginations?
50:31 How is the imagination so real that creation could happen?
54:16 The ego of not wanting to have thoughts in meditation
56:11 How long does it take to erase the negative thoughts in the mind?
57:42 What can we do when anxiety or panicky thoughts come up in meditation?
58:55 If someone cannot do silent meditation, is japa ok as an alternative?
59:49 Is it important that a mantra is given by a Guru?
1:00:55 How can one strengthen faith?
1:02:21 How to be more disciplined with meditation practice when stuck in a rut?

Discourse: In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.187
A Purified Mind Whilst Living in This World
You tube Link: https://youtu.be/b207AuKeoOI   
Recorded: 22 June 2024

Start of Session
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Opening Comments from Babaji Maharaj:

   Good.  See, a hundred people plus are disciplined enough to be present on the right time.  That is the first discipline, sign of first discipline.  Then you learn to sit quietly for one hour, and then you learn to keep your mind quiet for one hour, then you are a great valiant soldier as Swamiji said.   So, the first and second are almost done with you all; all of you are used to sit comfortably for one hour, I can see that.  But what is inside your mind going on is yours, whether you are able to keep it quiet and disciplined for one hour, not to get attracted to any thought or any vision, not to bother for anything else.  Remember you are in an examination hall, a highly competitive examination hall.  Just need to bother, look into the questions that come into your mind, don’t be nervous, just be calm, at peace and don’t get attracted to the thoughts or visions.  See, this is an examination where questions will be provided to you, but you are supposed not to get attracted to the questions.  That is the hypnotizing effect in the mind. 

Start of Questions and Answers
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Question:   So, Baba, I think many of us can get sucked into this world very easily, things can frustrate us and we can get tempted into things, we can go into cravings and we can worry about things all the time unnecessarily.  But Babaji, how do we achieve a purified state of mind so that we can live in this world, but we don’t have to be influenced negatively by this world?

Babaji Maharaj:   One thing we need to understand, constant cravings of the mind is the basic reason for all unhappiness, tension and fear.  And well, the basic remedy again is the meditation.  When you achieve – for one hour that you are able to remain totally quiet, one hour no thoughts coming, no visions appearing and your mind is also not trying to think anything in that one hour, when you are able to achieve, then that can take care of the next twenty-three hours.  Like in your life in the world, you can think, means you will not lose the mind when you meditate; the mind will be there, simply you take the mind under your control, means when you want to think you will be able to think, when you don’t need to think you will be able to keep quiet.  When you are quiet it is at peace but when you need to think you can think.  

But in this process, usually what happens when you think in the world the mind goes into craving, often running into worries, simply the thoughts will not be thoughts it will go into worries. And in that process, it analyzes and makes a judgment also.  Once it makes a judgment, like “This is a good thing, this is bad thing, this is not mine, I don’t need this thing, why is this happening to me, something else should have happened, who made this, did I make, what is the destiny”, and so on and on, millions of thoughts creating a problem in the mind.  They all get absorbed as imprints into the mind, which become the tendencies that are picked up by the mind.  Mind acquires such habits, then the tendencies are all picked up.  So, on and off that keeps playing, troubling every human being by giving a lot of stress, tension, fearful panicking moments, unknown fear; all these happen.  

So, a strong meditation with this technique of just watching, you need to understand the technique. Just watching; watching means at that time, mentally you are not doing anything.  Mind has these capabilities I have told before also; it can think and it can just watch – both are its aspects.  Like using your eyeballs, you can watch me what I am talking.  That means then these eyeballs can strongly hold the mind also, concentrated, and apply the mind also, and then you will understand what I am trying to convey.  Otherwise, the mind can run away.  So, thus in the meditation technique also, eyeballs are being used in the beginning, but no target is given.  Place is told; place means location is given – the point in between eyebrows you concentrate your mind and sight.  But what the target is not told, what you are supposed to watch is not told at all.  You simply watch.  That means eventually you will understand the mind is trying to watch itself.  

So, once you understand this technique, then the meditation becomes very smooth and successful; it picks up.  Then this process automatically happens.  Afterwards, when you are in the world, when you think and when you work, then your mind will not absorb thoughts or imprints; it will not absorb any habits.  The mind just thinks only for the sake of executing anything in this world that you need to.  More than that you do not have to hold it in the mind as a worry, as an imprint, as a habit.  Simply you perform your duties in the world.  

This is what the benefit is if you regularly practice meditation; plus all other spiritual sadhanas you can continue, things like listening to devotional music, or you learn to sing yourself so that you can be humming while you are active in the world also, or any small mantra type, name of your Guru or God, whichever appeals to you, you can continue.  I have always told everybody to chant ‘Om Shivaya Shiva Bala Yogendraya Parabrahmanaya.’  Even when you are active in the world also on and off keep practicing within the mind; in between thoughts may need to come, in between whenever possible you just keep practicing like that.  By practice the mind starts repeating the same mantra also, then the mind can remain single-pointed. Instead of getting scattered into millions of pieces the mind remains as single-pointed, so then also it will not absorb any imprints.  

So, like this you follow these techniques.  These few techniques are good enough.  This is what is known as sadhana.  So, your sadhana can go on when you are in the world also, when you are active also. Just like, in between, if you are working in the office, you would like to think of your home also. In the same way in between your work in your office or business establishment, anywhere, in between try to keep thinking of your Guru also.  Make it a habit.  So, slowly that picks up, that balance picks up of at least fifty-fifty.  Fifty percent you need to think and work, fifty percent it is busy thinking about the Guru or chanting the mantra or the name, then the mind will not absorb unwanted unnecessary habits and tendencies.  Just it will work and leave it.  You have a boss in the office who has told you to work something; you work on that project, leave it in the office and come back home peacefully.  You don’t have to carry it on.  Otherwise, if you carry it home you will have the stress at home also and you will be shouting at your family people; you won’t have any peace.  So, follow these things and it will be nice.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  We shouldn’t indulge our mind into unnecessary negative thoughts, negative thinking; we should bring our mind back and as Baba says with chants and…

Babaji Maharaj:   More than is necessary you don’t have to think; only think when you have to work and do that, plan.  When you need to plan you need to think but you don’t have to be anxious. For that several points we tell – you see, mind is either brooding about the past or is anxious about the future.  Both are not necessary; a past is meant to learn some lessons so that we don’t repeat any mistakes, and we look for the future; future you don’t have to be anxious unnecessarily.  You plan and work in the present.  When you remain focused in the present, that can shape your future into a much better positive thing.  So, keep positive thinking when you need to shape a future, this is important.  Like the past is meant so that you just learn a lesson and don’t keep worrying.  It will not come back, it’s over, it’s gone.  Let go, let it go, that’s finished.  Look for the future.  Looking for the future – all the time you don’t have to be anxious and fearful of what will happen, be negative, “O, I will not pass the exam”, all these nonsense things are not necessary.  Just be there and with yourself and be in the present and remain focused.  So, this will be helpful; this is how you have to be.  

Question:   So Babaji recommends a daily practice of meditation.  Why is this so necessary Babaji, to practice on a daily basis?

Babaji Maharaj:   Definitely, just like you need to clean up your utensils after eating food, your plates and utensils, so you need to keep the mind cleaned up, purified; that’s the purification that is required.  So, if you keep it positively engaged then it will remain purified, otherwise it will pick up all unwanted corrupted thoughts and fearful thoughts; stressful thoughts it imagines and it becomes negative.  It wants sympathy from others unnecessarily, and tries to become negative, “O, I will not do this.  I won’t be successful.”  Such people want sympathy from others.  No, that is all the bad things!  Don’t bother; whether you are going to be a failure or a success is not important; let it be.  When it comes it will come; you will know that one.  You don’t have to be worrying all the time.  You just write your exam and let the result come on its own, then be happy with that.  Be engaged with other things.  All the time you don’t have to be worrying, “I am not going to pass, I am not going to do this, I’m not going to get through all these things.”  Such negative thoughts all will go away if you practice the spiritual sadhana, meditation or repetition of the name of Guru or God, any such thing, devotional music.  

All these things were very helpful for us since childhood.  We were fond of devotional music, listening to that or chanting anything in the mind.  Anywhere we were – mentally if you chant nobody will notice, nobody will make fun of you.  You can be just chanting within your mind when you are free instead of giving attention to here and there on the road.   Say on the market road you are walking, only whatever is very important you give attention.  You need to go to a particular shop and buy a thing, more than that if you keep watching the market, it’s like a fish market.  Your mind will get attracted and it will become stressful – you want this, you want that; you don’t know what to do, you want to do this one, and so on and on and on, and your mind will become corrupted with millions of thoughts.  And you have a thousand dollars, you would need ten thousand dollars, you would need a hundred thousand dollars, and like that there is no end.  

So, that’s what you can avoid.  Just do whatever is necessary.  Just like when a doctor needs to attend to a patient, he just attends the patient, that’s it.  Afterwards, he will go to the next patient; he cannot afford to be dancing there all the time with the one patient.  He has to look into the next patient after attending one patient.  So, this is how you have to live in this world also.  So, everyday practice of meditation is necessary, then the mind remains cleansed and purified.  Without bothering any other cleansing of chakras, pokras, just bother to purify the mind.  You know the mind, you don’t know anything else, where it is located, what happened.  So, you don’t have to bother all such things.  Bother to cleanse your mind.  You know your mind very well, whether corrupted thoughts are coming, good thoughts are coming, bad thoughts are coming, jealousy thoughts are coming, greedy thoughts are coming, annoying thoughts are coming; these things you can make out easily, what is in your mind. If you are annoyed, or if you are becoming greedy, if you are becoming jealous with other and the false pride is coming, all these things are happening, you will know that one.  So, you can avoid such things.  You can purify your mind like that, but every day practice is necessary.  

Practice is the real mantra which can make you perfect.  Until you don’t perform a big tapas and achieve Self-realization, becoming a yogi, you need to practice.  Even great sages, even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to tell “The Naga Baba used to tell that you have to wash the utensils every day.”  Like that He used to tell His devotees, disciples, ”You have to wash”.  Swamiji also used to tell “If you don’t practice every day, how will the mind become quiet and how will you know what you are?  Otherwise simply fifty years will pass by, and you will not know anything.”  Like that He used to tell.  So, every day practice is necessary, not that “Just once in a week Baba comes on the Zoom, then if we sit in front of Him that’s it.  Next one week we are free.”  Never think like that one.  You will spoil your mind; the mind will go back to the same, like the ghost and King Vikramaditya.  So, that’s what will happen – the same ghost, again it will again go back.  In the same way the mind will again go back to the world; it will be roaming, aimlessly wandering.  Practice every day.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  So, is it a danger for human beings that we have an ego; we know we have all of these unpleasant thoughts in the mind, but we think “O no, I don’t need to do anything.”  Is that an ego that we need to overcome?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, Swamiji often spoke about ego because one of the basic things He said, “If you have ego, your mind will refuse to learn.  It will become egoistic.  Even when the Guru is talking your mind will become clever and tries to fool the Guru also.”  You will tell something to the Guru but won’t do that thing when it comes practically.  You need to read but you will not read.  You will say “Yes I will read” with the Guru.  Like you will say you will meditate every day with the Guru but when it comes to meditate you will not meditate.  Like that when you try to cheat the Guru that means you are egoistic, you are stupid, you are fooling yourself.  Nothing will happen to Guru.  The Guru has achieved; the Master has achieved.  In the college when he teaches, gives a lecture, it is for the students to learn, be serious and be practicing at home also.  Otherwise, nothing will happen to the Master.  He will come and give a lecture for one hour and then go away.  So, that’s what happens.  

So, when the Master tells, “Adopting such methods…” as Krishna said to Arjuna, “…go to the knowers of truth.  Before death shall claim thee, there is one opportunity when your body is still alive and healthy.  Sitting at Their lotus feet, seeking Their permission…”  Means in all these, humility is so important, that is recommended. That means you will remove your ego when you are humble with the Guru, then you will not allow any ego to crop up, you will be sincere.  Once the Master says, you will sincerely do it.  Sincerely if you do it, the results will come.  Doctor prescribes some medicine and then he recommends certain things; “You don’t eat this, you don’t eat this, like this you have to do this exercise, take this medicine”, like this.  So, if you do all those things better results will come for healing.  You go to the doctor again, “Doctor I am having the medicine, I am doing everything you told but still it is not healing.”  Then doctor will smile “Somewhere you are not doing what I wanted you to do.”  In the same way the Guru catches.  The Guru knows. “Somewhere you did not follow my instructions, somewhere you were not sincere.”  That ‘not sincere’ is the ego problem. 

So, it is very difficult to recognize ego also for a person within one’s own self.  You won’t know when and where the ego crops up.  You will think that you are perfectly alright, but the Guru knows that is the ego problem; you did not do according to Guru’s instruction.  That’s why you did not meditate properly, and you did not achieve anything and now you are complaining “For the last fifty years I have been meditating, my master, nothing came to me.”  You did not achieve, otherwise long ago you would have achieved Self-realization.  So, this is an important thing of overcoming the ego.  Here, with the Guru always that is recommended.  “Arjuna sitting at Their lotus feet, seeking Their permission…”  Don’t try to fall on the Guru, don’t try to sit on the head of the Guru.  At the lotus feet, means this is a symbol of humility.  Always lotus feet, lotus feet; in Indian culture repeatedly, this has been spoken.  In our talks, in answers also we speak; this is a symbol of humility that you sit at the lotus feet, not on the head or shoulders of the Guru.  You know where to maintain the middle distance and then listen to the Guru’s teachings, what he tells, “You sit like this, you do like this, you meditate like this.”  “…then adopting such methods Arjuna, practicing, achieve that truth to yourself.”  

Everywhere, remember even the Shuka Maharishi’s story also, when He needed to know how King Janaka being a worldly person, an emperor who needed to attend to court duties, political favors, these, that, so many things, how could He keep the mind on to the Divinity, on to the Ultimate Truth all the time merged with the Self?  Shuka Maharishi was wondering, “I was born as a brahmachari” – means into celibacy – “I never had any such experience.  I could do tapas, and I could keep my mind.  I don’t have any worldly exposure at all. I don’t know what the world is but how could He keep?”  So, Veda Vyaasa, His father tells “In your mind, about me you have only as a father so you will not take me seriously.”  We tend to overrule our parents and fool our parents and go into the room and not study anything and do our own nonsense thing; time-pass we keep doing.  Parents would be thinking, “O, our children are studying well in the room.  They are sitting, we should not disturb.”  But the children are trying to fool the parents and when they are keeping the book, their mind is thinking somewhere else.  So, often this is what happens to people, right, when they do with the Guru also.  

That’s when you are not serious, when it is important.  Veda Vyaasa tells, “You consider Janaka as your Guru.  You need to know, you have a doubt, so you approach King Janaka.  You go there and seek His permission.  When He gives permission then ask the question.  Adopt all such methods advised by Him.  Practice and practice that one.”  So, that’s how Shuka Maharishi could understand when He came.  So, here also important things we learned were humility, surrender to the Guru.  Surrender means not that you become a slave, not that.  Surrender means mentally. A Guru teaches, and you pick up; a Guru advocates a method to practice, and you practice.  You mean business – get into the job, every day you practice, without fail you practice.  That’s what is the way of life – you have to make it.  A religion has to be a way of life, means for the welfare of your physical body, for the mind and for your moral values that you need to uphold in the world, all these things so seriously you can maintain.  It is so important in the matter of sadhana, these subjects.  We never discussed, we never tried to understand but we learned.  From every point we read or whenever Swamiji spoke to me, any one such sentence, my mind absorbed this.  See, Baba, Swamiji is recommending humility, surrender to the Guru.  Be serious when the Guru teaches.  Adopt such methods.  Even Krishna tells Arjuna, Veda Vyaasa tells His son Shuka Maharishi.  Nachiketa was so honest.  On His own He was so honest, that’s why His Guru Yama Dharmaraja was very much pleased at His humility, at His honesty.  Sincerity and honesty we need to understand – you need to be sincere.  When you sit for meditation, you need to be sincere.  Every student needs to be sincere, so everyday practice is very necessary.

Question:   So Babaji when we meditate, when Baba says “Be sincere”, does that mean putting all of our efforts in the watching; don’t be casual?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, every time I make you all sit for meditation, you are given one hour and in that one hour what you are supposed to do is also told, then your job starts.  All that one hour your effort should be to try and keep quiet mentally.  You will notice that your mind is not quiet; hundreds and millions of thoughts coming, it’s a chatterbox, it’s running, it’s the monkey, it is doing its monkey business, but along with that if you are also casual, you will not put in effort properly, understanding the technique.  “The Master has asked me just to watch.  Let me use the eyeballs.  Master is telling “Fix your eyeballs, fixing the sight and your mind both, keep watching there”, He tells.”  So, both are important.  When you fix the eyeballs then your mind will come.  It will run away, and then you fix the eyeballs, it will come there; it will run away, you fix it, it comes.  Like that you practice.  Once you slowly gain the upper hand then this mind starts coming back again; that practice is necessary.  That’s how you have to practice listening to the Master.  That one hour is there.  All that one hour, simply your job is to keep practicing.  Then one day in that whole one hour you will see the mind simply stopping.  

Many people refuse to believe that the mind can be controlled, that the mind can be made to stop like that.  Hundred percent guarantee, I assure you all it is possible – it is difficult, but not impossible. If only if you follow.  We followed our Master’s instruction, we allowed our Master to perform surgery, we allowed Him to do anything He wanted to do.  We simply listened, surrendered, loved Him again and again.  So, like that we were there as disciples.  Even today when I remember Him, every moment I remember, every now and then I keep remembering Him to remind me that I am only dust of His lotus feet, I am only a servant, a disciple, a devotee.  He is my father.  So, that we have to remember so that we don’t become egoistic ever, and our practice is perfect.  That practice is what is necessary, one hour.  One hour is plenty.  So much is there.  Instead of losing heart, instead of becoming frustrated, instead of having a headache and all such things, utilize the time to practice.  When you practice that becomes like a sport, means a sportive temperament you need to have.  You sweat it out, sweat it out, like that you play. Just like children keep playing games and they don’t mind sitting the whole night; that becomes sportive.  In the spirit of the mind, they keep playing.  In the same way you make it a sportive effort.  One hour will pass by, “O God, if Babaji can make us sit for another hour”; you will start thinking like that when you become playful and play it like a sport.  Bring it here, it runs, you bring it here, it run, you bring it here. And don’t do anything else.

Question:    Thank You, Babaji.  Baba uses the term jivanmukta.  Is that the highest most purified state of a human being?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes. In our ancient scriptures, particularly in Yoga Vashista also, these terms have been used.  Jivanmukta means when you are alive in the physical body you are totally liberated.  How? Mentally nothing bothers you; your mind is at peace all the time, it is ever silent one.  Some sages have given beautiful terminologies. Like Ramana Maharishi, He tells that “A yogi even if He is gossiping a lot, He is the ever silent one.”  Such a beautiful description in one sentence, how the mind of a yogi is quiet in pure consciousness.  It doesn’t reverberate, doesn’t dramatize, doesn’t picturize; it is quiet.  Existence is there.  You will always feel that you are existing; you are there.  Nothing else is there.  All the time you are not habitual to keep imagining things and you don’t need any imagination for your happiness.  You are already happy.  

That’s when you try to imagine new, new stories.  You want to be happy; you change the script again and you try to imagine a new story, and after some time you become frustrated, then you bring a new story.  Like that the mind goes on and on throughout life, but when you are quiet mentally you don’t need that one.  Swamiji also said these words: “When you are watching, if you simply watch, you will suddenly discover that you are quiet, you are not doing anything mentally.” Like that He used to tell.  Few times He has told me this sentence and it is ringing in my ears.  I cannot forget this.  So beautifully in one sentence these great sages have told a whole scripture like that, beautiful.  That’s all one needs to understand.  So, when Swamiji used to say “When you achieve this, know that that is all I have to teach you.”  

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  So, it’s really the highest technique then. We just watch, and the mind becomes quiet and it’s so simple.  So, Baba talks about the merger happening with the Self-realization.  Does that mind disappear Babaji, or what happens?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, let me finish the previous question on jivanmukta. So, I explained the quietness of the mind and how great sages have told of a yogi’s mind, that one is known as the liberated one, means nothing is there in the mind.  As long as there is something in the mind, that will bother, either good or bad; it will always bother.  That’s what in Bhagavad Gita also, in one sentence, one word Krishna says “Tyagarth Shantira nantharam” – means you have peace only after sacrificing.  Many people may be confused “What is it that we have to sacrifice?”  Simply, the mind and its worries that we have to sacrifice.  The mind is holding the world; that’s what we need to sacrifice, then we have peace.  The botheration we have to give up in the mind.  Simply by worrying you cannot help anybody, I have told.  But if you are not worrying if you have peace, you might be very helpful to somebody.  You can be inspiring, you can help somebody if somebody is troubled or bothered or in conflict, anything like that, but first it is important.  So that is what is known as the jivanmukta, the one who is liberated while alive in the body.  

   What was the next question you asked?  I went back to the previous one.  

Question:   Sorry Baba, I’ve also forgotten. But Baba, the jivanmukta – how important is it to have such a jivanmukta as a Guru, so that when our attention goes to the jivanmukta, our minds also can become purified?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, one important thing – what is the course that you want to take and pass?  You just want to join a nursery or kindergarten school and pass it, so you go to a teacher of kindergarten; you need a high school then you go to the teacher of a high school; if you need a university course to take you will have to go to a lecturer, a professor, like that, all these things.  See, that changes, the quality.  So, if you are interested in Self-realization you need to try to find a Self-realized Master, then He will insist.  See, all this one hour we talk.  Whatever question you ask I simply answer based on my Self-experience and what are the things that can take you towards Self-realization or quietening the mind.  That is what we discuss always.  Apart from this we don’t discuss “O, you have to take a small ball and keep playing in the swimming pool.”  Such things we don’t discuss.  I’m not that teacher.  

I remember once we were visiting an Indian saint in America when we were there.  That saint’s first disciple who was also a monk exclaimed, “Baba, You teach the students of research university and research, we teach only for primary and high school students.”  He made a comment laughingly when he listened to me talk to him or answering some of his questions.  So, that is how it is important you can make out how important for you is a Self-realized Master.  He will insist; even if you are simply playing, not knowing what to do, He will slowly pull you up to that level, “This is what you have to do, this is what in meditation you have to do.  In meditation you don’t have to levitate at thirty-five feet.  You be on the ground, but mentally you become quiet, then you feel as if you are levitating.”   Means you feel you are so liberated, so free as if you are in the air.  That is simply an experience, that’s all.  Not that your body will start flying.  So many people will misunderstand, you see? That’s what it is – we insist, “This is what you will experience in the mind”.  

So, that’s how it’s so important to find a Self-realized Master.  When we wanted that from the age of ten or so, I always used to pray to the Divine. “My Lord please bless me to have a Guru who would have liberated Himself and who can lead me to liberation.”  If you go to a storyteller, you will get to listen to a story; you will time-pass.  Fifty thousand people sit; they just want to listen to a story, and they listen to the story.  Everybody thinks “O, this master is so famous.  He attracts fifty thousand people.”  But a yogi like us attracts only four people, forty people, hundred and forty people for meditation.  Such a big number.  Because after filtering this is the highest championship, it has come to the final rounds.  That’s when you have to sit for just one hour meditation, so very few are there.  Fifty thousand people will not be able to sit for one hour meditation; they will all run away.  But if I talk to them colorfully with anecdotes and with jokes and with stories, they will sit.  They just want to listen, that’s all, they don’t want to meditate.   So that is the importance.  We prayed, “Please bless me to have a Self-realized Master.”  We were fortunate, our destiny was blessed to find Shivabalayogi as a Guru.  

Question:   Thank You so much Babaji.   Sometimes we are able to overcome or avoid strong thoughts in meditation, but when we engage in the world the same thought is difficult to overcome.  Why is that so?  Is the exercise of willpower not strong enough?  

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, it’s by habit that the thought, you are unable to get rid of it, and it gets converted into worries giving anxious moments, unnecessary tension.  At that time, you try to remember some mantra, some name of Guru, something that appeals to you that you love.  If you love that, that becomes easy and appealing to you.  You try to get rid of it.  You try to divert the attention of your mind to some other thing, then it will be all right eventually.

Question:   Pranaam Babaji.  My question is when somebody has a mental disorder, a mental illness, does his or her brain have a problem or does the mind have a problem?

Babaji Maharaj:   Brain.  If the brain is challenged, that’s what nowadays the terminology being used is brain-challenged people.  So that’s what it is.  Due to the brain’s challenge, the mind is unable to perform in the right sense in this world.  So, the brain’s health is very important.

Same Questioner:   Babaji, my second question is on telepathy.  Is it possible for a Guru and disciple to have telepathy while in meditation?  

Babaji Maharaj:   Why do you need telepathy?  I’m asking you to become quiet in the mind.  When you practice meditation, you don’t need telepathy.  These are all unnecessary imaginations that are given to create an excitement to deviate the attention.  You need God.  Why do you need telepathy?  Practice meditation to quieten.

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  It is said that the mind is consciousness and energy, and we are asked to be silent or silence the mind being conscious.

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, both are actually same.  That’s why sometimes when I’m talking or answering I would have mentioned both.  Means you silencing the mind and you becoming quiet is the same.  If you become quiet that means your mind is silent, or if you silence your mind that means you have become silent, actually.  Because ultimately you will realize that mind is nothing but you as the consciousness and energy combination.  That is the pure soul’s combination.  It is made up of pure consciousness and pure energy.  When it is into chatterbox, you start calling it, unknown to you, as “My mind., my mind.”  You try to think now.  When you are thinking, the same thing comes to be known as your mind.  When you are not thinking you are quiet.  You are thinking and you are quiet.  So, like that both are the same in fact.

Same Questioner:   While doing this ‘silencing the mind’, are we silencing the energy part or making it inactive?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, because the energies becoming silent means you are bringing it to a single point.  The mind has scattered with imagination, spinning all the time and expanding.  So you bring it down, so that eventually it will merge with the real Self, that is the Ultimate Truth, Parabrahman. 

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  What is Your experience of Self-realization? And second question is that how can one control switching between a Self-realized experience and working in the transactional world where your mind works?  So, a switch between a Self-realized being and coming to the transactional world and using your mind and activity. 

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, the actual truth is inexplicable.  There you go beyond all experiences.  An experience happens as as long as there is a duality, ‘I’ and the need of something, ‘I’ and the truth.  So, when you cross over, that ‘I’ also disappears.  That is what is Self-realization, means one single Self remaining. For a clue, just like one single space remains in itself. But that is Supreme Consciousness, not an inert thing; this is a small clue.  But a yogi’s mind as we have discussed is totally silent.  Like my mind doesn’t reverberate or doesn’t picturize or dramatize.   Just like on a white paper you write and instantly it gets erased also.  It is not absorbed as an imprint.  So, when you achieve Self-realization, then if you need to be in the world it’s a different skill you have to practice, slowly. 

In the beginning of our tapas completion, I used to be dazed and unable to make out what was happening in the surroundings; was simply listening to whatever people said, “Come here, sit here, go there”, somebody invited, we used to go.  Then slowly bringing the consciousness to the level of brain is a different skill. Making the mind to go to the samadhi is a different skill; bringing it back to the worldly level is a totally different skill.  Always you have to be alert.  It is not easy.  It’s a very difficult thing.  For you, bringing the mind introvert is the most difficult, practicing meditation; for me, bringing the mind consciousness to the level of brain is a very difficult thing.  But yet I keep practicing.  So, the minimum I attend to whatever I have to teach, like this also.  So, I need the brain and mind’s thinking if I have to answer the questions also.  So, I have to use the nearest imagination because every thought is only an imagination.  The truth cannot be given as it is, impossible.  A teacher like us guides you how to reach that truth, slowly gives the clue, inspiration, so one day when you achieve it to yourself only, you will know what it is.

Same Questioner:   Thank You Babaji for that insight but isn’t it very difficult to hold onto Your body once you are Self-realized?

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly, because we call it a sattvic ego, like an attachment to my Guru and His teachings as ordained by Him; we have a mission to spread this practice of meditation.  So, that helps us to keep the body.  If that is also withdrawn from the brain, the brain dies and the body falls actually.  We have to maintain that little bit of ego.  That’s a sattvic ego, but it won’t go into the world, it will not get sucked into the world; it will remain as a jivanmukta, the liberated one while alive.   

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  When the body is in intense pain, what is the best practice?

Babaji Maharaj:   Repeat the name of any Divinity that appeals to you, God or your Guru.  Try to remember at least.  It will be an uphill task when the body is into pain, so you take it as a challenge. And if it’s not possible to meditate, try to relax silently closing the eyes, try to feel yourself and for some time try to repeat some name or mantra.  Slowly, slowly practice.  Don’t give up. Though it can be difficult and very painful, have patience.  With all the patience try to feel yourself, you will feel better.

Same Questioner:   Thank You.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  I’m wondering for myself how important to make a certain time for that one hour?  Maybe I didn’t sleep so well or this or that.  How important to make a certain time?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, certain points I will tell.  Though our Guru said you can take out any convenient time, but if it is possible a particular time I would recommend because you will get that pull, you will become restless if you don’t sit.  That is the discipline.  In that one particular hour, every day you set it.  Other points, you should have taken sufficient rest so that you don’t feel sleepy, your stomach is also clear; it should not be heavy with food or undigested food.  That is important, so that the brain can be kept alert.  Then your meditation can be very smooth and beautiful.

Same Questioner:   Thank You, thank You, Babaji.

Question:   Pranaams Babaji.  Babaji how is mind’s experience different than the mind’s thoughts and imagination?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, mind, if it experiences in this world, then it absorbs an imprint.  Before that, it recognizes and then it analyzes.  So that’s how thoughts are always produced.  A thought can come in anytime; even before the mind experiences, a thought can get generated.  With the thought, it will try to experience.  That is also based on imagination.  So, that’s how the reactions happen in the mind.

Same Questioner:   Babaji, I had so many confusions when I was reading through Yoga Vashista, and even my questions are gone but there was one thing where Sage Vashistha was saying that this world is created from Brahma and the imagination.  So, it was all from the imagination.  So, how is that imagination so real that a creation happened and how is our thoughts as an imagination not so real?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, you see, how it happens – first get the clue of your own mind.  If your mind becomes obsessed with the particular thought then that scene appears within your mind; you are so obsessed and you don’t see anything else surrounding you, then that thought appears so realistic for you, solid and realistic.  And in the same way, next stage is your dream – sometimes when the dream is a very strong picture, megapixels are very strong, then that appears so solid for you.  When you are dreaming you cannot make out that you are dreaming; it appears so real.  Only when you get up from that dream, then you will realize that you will dreaming. But if the dream was very solid and strong, even after getting up also you could be getting influenced by that dream. You are unable to forget that dream; for a very long time you are unable to forget that dream.  

So, this means this is the experience of your mind, the potency of which is very less compared to the potency of the consciousness which has created this universe.  When this universe has been created by that consciousness, for that consciousness this universe is not real, but because your mind and your body both are the micro speck in this creation of the universe, it appears so solid.  If the dream itself could be so solid for you, imagine a creation that has happened by the imagination, creative technology. Imagination means we can take it as a creative technology. As Vashista talks, only by the imagination of the consciousness, the creation has happened; that is the real science actually.  So, because we are a part of this dream of universe, so this appears so solid and real.  Just like all the characters in your mind, everything that’s created by the mind is so real.  For you it may not appear so real until you don’t get so obsessed and sucked into that one.  So, this is psychological.   Just when you are watching a movie on the television screen, when your mind gets sucked, it appears so solid and real, for a while you forget that you are sitting and watching the movie also.  So, that is the psychological effect of the consciousness, it hypnotizes.  It hypnotizes itself; your mind hypnotizes itself.  It creates, it imagines, and it gets hypnotized. That I have always told – in other words your mind thinks; when it thinks, a thought appears in the mind. Watching that thought your mind forgets “This thought is there because of my imagination”; instead, considers that thought to be a reality.

Same Questioner:   Got it Babaji.  Babaji, so after hearing a lot of Your instructions which is to just watch, when we just try to watch, in the back of the mind it is also “I want to erase this thought”.  So, there is an ego which is saying that “I don’t want to have this thought”.  And I feel that’s a failure because there is an ego still staying and fearing losing my own identity which was because of my imagination.  So, how to remove this pull and push?  

Babaji Maharaj:   That is the trick mind is playing on itself and that is why watching is recommended.  When you just watch, don’t worry about the ‘I’ disappearing or anything happening to the Self.  Nothing will happen.  It will be there.  In fact, the real truth will be revealed of what you are; assure like that.  “I have to get rid of that thought” – you don’t think like that.  Getting rid of the thought is just watching, not by thinking.  So, whatever that is necessary.  Just like you have the medicine in your hand, “I need to take this medicine to get rid of the illness”, will not make you to get rid of the illness; you have to take that medicine, then that medicine might help you to get rid of the illness.  Like that here also. The mind has to get rid of the thought, which means it has to just watch. It should not think; you should not think that you need to get rid of the thought, but you should watch then you will get rid of the thought.  Like that if you understand, if your mind’s inner layers understand, then the trick works there.

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji, this was very helpful.

Question:   Thank You so much for all the questions so far.  I mean, we are recording with a lot of negative information in the subconscious mind over the years.  For long years we have been loading our subconscious with negativity, but often when we get into meditation at times, we are not able to counteract the negative emotions which we have stored in the subconscious mind.  So, generally how long does it take to erase or reprogram your entire subconscious mind?   

Babaji Maharaj:   It would mainly depend on how much your mind has understood the technique of meditation, how strongly you are able to apply ‘just watching’.  So quickly it can get erased because it’s simply an illusion.  Just like a movie is going on and on, how long it will take to stop the movie.  If you want to watch the entire movie it will take two and half hours or three hours, whatever it is, or you just stop the projection.  Like that here also, if you succeed in just watching, without worrying how long it will take – do not bother about it – just watch, very soon it can go away if your mind understands the technique.  That is important.  If you just watch and do not think that you need to get rid of anything; just watch.

Same Questioner:   I have one more question.  So, during some times when due to subconscious negative thoughts, at times with the meditation, we are definitely able to erase.  I mean we try to bring in a lot of positive thoughts, so we are happy.  At times negative thoughts hit your mind and put you into a panic or anxiety.  But during that time is there any technique that we can overcome that panic or anxiety?

Babaji Maharaj:   If the mind becomes very restless like with the negative thing, so for a while you take a long inhale and exhale of the breath, slowly for a couple of minutes, two to three minutes; that can be very helpful to bring down the restlessness of these negative thought, it will help.  Or if necessary you can remember any name of God or any name of your Guru that appeals to you, if you love that one.  Like that also you can repeat for two or three minutes so that the restlessness comes down, and then you can silently start watching again.  That will be helpful.

Same Questioner:   Thank You so much Babaji. Thank You.  

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  Babaji, I just wanted to know if somebody is not able to practice silent meditation is jaap (mantra) an equally good way to control the mind?

Babaji Maharaj:   It’s okay if you have the inclination, if you are unable, but ultimately it is recommended if you aim for Self-realization.  But the japa can be very helpful as a preliminary round exercise to make the mind single-pointed.  Instead of getting scattered into millions of thoughts, it will stick to one, so that way it can definitely be helpful.  So, until you are unable to do it silently you can continue doing the japa.  No harm in it.  

Same Questioner:   Babaji, is it important that the japa mantra should be given by a Guruji?  Like people say it should be given by a Guru, but I haven’t met anybody so far but I will get from someone. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Actually, your faith is what matters. You start remembering God’s name.  The Divine is within you, in your heart.  Have faith in that and have faith that the Divine has initiated you and just carry on.  That is all that is needed.  The Guru will have to take an initiative so that He can induce an inspiration, faith in you, and then you will start thinking “The Guru has given me the mantra; it is powerful.”  It becomes powerful when you have faith in yourself and when you have that faith that the Divine is within you then you don’t need anything.  You can simply carry on.

Same Questioner:   One last question, Babaji.  Since You were talking about faith, my faith keeps shaking because in life things keep going up and down.  So, the faith – how does one strengthen the faith that despite everything you still accept?

Babaji Maharaj:   Now we come to the point.  For this reason only a Guru is recommended generally, because for a human being, if the mind is still weak then the faith is likely to get shaken.  If there is a Guru, the Guru is there to inspire you, fill you with total faith, and keep assuring you that you can do it, “Keep going, don’t give up”, like that.  So, that’s one thing.  Until you find a proper Guru that appeals to you, you assure yourself.  Don’t lose the faith “My Divine is with me and everything will be all right.”  Like that positively you think.  You try to cut the negative thought with a positive thought like this and believe that God is with you always.  Slowly, slowly you will pick up the faith.  Anything happens, “Today it is a bit negative, it will be all right.  One day it will be all right.”  The happiness will come if there is unhappiness.  Like that, positively keep thinking.  That can be very helpful for you to keep going.

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.

Question:   So, Baba, I had a question in terms of discipline.  By nature, I am pretty disciplined.  I’m very disciplined in a lot of ways.  I’ve had years like sitting to that hour, but here’s what happened.  I’ve gotten older and I’m still working.  So, I’ve gotten older and have much more trouble sleeping.  So, then I maybe get three or four hours and then I wake up and I’ve always been able to like just wake up and get up and do it, but I’ve just gotten so stuck.  So, I tell myself “You have to get up to meditate.”  And then I have trouble doing it because I feel too sleepy.  I feel like “Maybe you should just even sit up in your bed.”  “O, I don’t know.”  So, I know in my mind the fear.  So, do You have any recommendations?  I’m so tired of being stuck in this because I clearly know the benefits.  I can see the gyrations of my mind but there’s just something that’s keeping me stuck.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, you see, if you notice, there is too much talking.  Mind has become a chatterbox, your habit.  So, these habits – when a person is habitual it becomes so difficult to give up.  But strongly, still try to understand how important it is to remain disciplined.  Discipline means when you are awake also, even if not meditating, try to sit quietly for fifteen minutes, half an hour without talking anything, means during retreats we try to teach; I tell people “Don’t allow anybody to talk to you and you do not talk to anybody else.”  Like that, that is the first step and then assure yourself “I must not be talking to myself also.  Let me be quiet.”  Like that you assure or try to repeat any one name of God so that you can get rid of so many undisciplined things and just remain disciplined into one thing, and it will be alright.  Practice till the last breath; whatever is possible, keep practicing.  It will be helpful in the next life also, if not this life.  Be assured. It will happen.

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.

End of Questions and Answers

End of Session