Perth May 14th 2005

Some 40 people took the opportunity to be under Baba’s instruction for a retreat which lasted from early morning to late afternoon. Baba opened the day with a short address.

“Offering total surrender and prostrations to my Divine Guru Shivabalayogi, again and again I pray for Him to grant refuge at His Lotus Feet. The idea is to condition yourself physically, mentally and morally. We have to practice these methods with full devotion. If you do, then I guarantee it will enable you to live in the world happily, and overcome birth and death.”

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Question:

During meditation, when I observe a thought, it seems like there are two sides of me. One side is watching and the other side is like an ongoing monologue.

Babaji:

Every human mind is like this. The mind is distracted. It analyses and cannot keep quiet. So meditation helps the mind to keep quiet, and when it eventually becomes completely quiet, we experience the Immortal Self. So try to keep watching, and, perhaps with a little will-power, tell the mind to be quiet. The soul’s consciousness is involved in the world too much. You can quieten the mind, but for this you need one mantra – practice, practice, practice. Too often in spiritual endeavours, we can get distracted by practices that are spiritually irrelevant or even harmful.

Question:

Just now, when we were watching the video on Babaji’s life, You were here next to the screen, sitting on the dais. It seemed confusing, because the mind would more easily flip over to watch the video, even though Baba, Himself, is directly in front of us.

Babaji:

Yes, visual impact is very strong. It attracts the mind strongly. In the same way as you experienced this, God is in your heart, and yet your mind is attracted out to this cinema which we call ‘the world’. It is like the old expression, “We have milk at home, but go looking for yoghurt everywhere.”

Question:

Could You please discuss permanency and impermanency ?

Babaji:

The ancient sages tried to find real knowledge. “Do we last?” They found that when we watch, the consciousness gets sucked very strongly into the movie, which is called ‘the real world’. Then the consciousness cannot be attentive to the Self. Spiritually, we cannot depend on this world for happiness. Be alerted about this. To be truly happy, we need to go back to the real Self, permanent, unchanging and immortal. Consciousness always exists. The mind has come out of the real Self, just like the ray has come out of the sun, and the droplet comes out of the ocean. We need to go back.

Question:

Is it realistic for a householder to strive for Self Realization?

Babaji:

It depends on the individual’s determination and effort. It is like wanting to become Prime Minister of the country: do you just simply day-dream about it, or do you go full-out to try to attain that? You need to WANT it! So you need to set your priorities, like when you took the trouble and time out to come here today.

Question:

Could You please explain Your example of devotion to Swamiji and the ashram, and then that leading on to Tapas?

Babaji: 

For the first 20 years, I was working like a householder – cleaning the ashram, doing office work, looking after children and the mentally retarded boys and so on, BUT my mind was on Guru, and was not attached to anything as ‘mine’. Everything was done as a service. I loved the children, and looked after them, did the work with care – but my mind was always on Swamiji. I kept praying to the Divine that I would realize the Self eventually.
If one follows such methods, then definitely one can get it in this very life.

Question:

Are ego and mind the same?

Babaji: 

Mind’s imaginations are ego. Actually every thought of the mind is considered as an ego. As long as the mind has thoughts, it cannot go back to the Self.
You are that peace. Your mind is looking for peace and happiness, BUT it is not in this world – it is in the Self. But the mind simply doesn’t know the path.
So the Guru guides and tells you what you are really looking for, and inspires you by telling you, “You can do it.” and points the way. That is why there is so much importance put on the Guru in the tradition. The famous song of Kabir says that if God and Guru both come and stand in front of you, to whom should you prostrate first?  The song itself answers that one should bow to the Guru first, because it is the Guru who has shown you God.

Question:

If there is no mind, and the Self itself is Peace, how does ego come in to existence?

Babaji: 

Actually it never happened. So even in Yoga Vasishta, finally at the end it says, “All this that I have said, is an illusion itself – Just experience the Self.” This is how the great teachers teach. If they teach too much, then it can just give more imaginations to the mind. More explanations lead to more imaginations, and it creates a vicious cycle.
So – Do sadhana.

Question:

Of Swamiji’s disciple’s, how many have reached as far as You, through Tapas?

Babaji: 

Some did Tapas and attained. There were two who completed the Tapas, but they dropped their physical bodies after Swamiji’s mahasamadhi. None are known to me to be alive now. However, there may definitely be some doing a lot of advanced meditation unknown to the outside world.

Copyright © 2005 SRBY, All rights reserved.