Recorded on 30 May 2026 with worldwide participants

0:00 Intro
4:43 Why is devotion considered an essential part for spiritual growth when knowledge and meditation also exist as the path to liberation?
11:16 Before surrendering to God or Guru, why not first start devotion at our home, to our wife, son, father, or surroundings etc?
13:49 So to accept, “Nar mein hi Narayan hai” (God resides within every human being”)?
14:12 How can we differentiate from genuine devotion from emotional attachment or blind following?
16:30 Difficult to surrender but easy to meditate, or to read books. What is holding us back, the ego?
19:07 We use ‘I’ as the body, not the true Self.
19:39 When we consider ‘I’ as the body there is a lot of gratification, but when that is dropped, there is no gratification. How to start in dropping the ego?
22:30 What the world cannot give us, only devotion and surrender can give us?
25:04 Does surrender mean giving up desires, ambitions and plans?
25:41 The concept of dharma, arth, kama, moksha.
27:09 People who go to temples for worship but don’t have faith.
28:25 Does devotion create surrender or surrender create devotion?
29:02 Like a baby in the womb who is connected to the mother via the placenta, are we surrendered to the guru in the same way?
33:23 Unless and until the Self is experienced, you don’t get it.
35:39 When we are not meditating how can we keep our consciousness at a very high level? Can mantra japa be done?
36:38 How do we remove imprints and tendencies from our previous life? Are they in the brain or in the mind?
37:49 Is Babaji a man or a deity?
39:46 How to pray to all the deities in the same breath?
40:50 If an appearance comes in meditation
41:36 How can I make devotion as a practice everyday?
43:08 Can I adopt a reminder to continuously be devoted throughout the day?
43:40 When we act with devotion can you talk about Svadharma and Paradharma activities?
44:49 Difference between nirvikalpa and sarvikalpa samadhi.
46:27 People take advantage of my tolerance with them. Is it ok not to talk to those people? Is that wrong?
49:26 What is the difference between Hanumanji and Parabrahma?
50:11 How has Hanumanji become such an important part of people’s lives?
50:50 Would there be any impact from new moon or full moon days on the ability to concentrate in meditation?
53:32 How do I convince my mind to have faith in the divinity and accept whatever is to happen in life.
59:47 The moment I put in efforts, the results are conceived by my mind also. What is the trick to avoid this?

Discourse: In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.278
Devotion and Surrender
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJ6Rqxc7R0   
Recorded: 30 May 2026

Start of Questions and Answers

Babaji Maharaj:   Good to see you, Amitji.  It’s wonderful.  Appreciate your help to conduct this session.  Look forward for your beautiful questions.

Question:   Babaji, I’ll start with Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo Maheshwara, Gurur Sakshat Parabrahma, Tasme Sri Guruve Namah.  Babaji, Pranam, touching Your lotus feet.  So I’ll start now.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.

Question:   Babaji, again a blessing, an opportunity to be in Your holy presence and interact with You again.  It’s always a pleasure and I stand before You as a humble seeker, striving to understand the deeper mysteries of life so that Your eternal wisdom may uplift our spirits and lead us to the eternal bliss.  Because ultimately the goal of life is to realize that bliss. 

   The topic of today’s session is Devotion, Bhakti, and Surrender, Samarpan.  And these are not merely words, but the timeless wisdom bestowed upon humanity by enlightened yogis such as Yourself, Gurudev. 

While these teachings are simple to understand, yet I have felt that they are often very difficult to practice because every human being, regardless of wealth, status, education, achievement, success, faces pertinent questions about life which cannot be avoided.  These questions cannot be avoided, and we need answers and Guru is always there to address these questions.  And we are blessed to have You to answer our queries.  So many questions like, why is there suffering?  Why do we experience fear, anxiety, attachment, restlessness?  Why even after attaining worldly success, does the heart continue to search for something more?  Who am I beyond this body, mind, and personality?  What is the purpose of the precious human birth? 

It is because I feel we do not have faith, shraddha, devotion, bhakti, and surrender, samarpan.  Because human mind always believes in ‘my will,’ whereas actually he must believe in ‘thy will.’  And it is said that devotion to the Guru and surrender to the Divine will are the most powerful means of removing these obstacles.  But what do devotion and surrender truly mean?  Are they signs of weakness or highest expression of wisdom?  How can surrender help us overcome the challenges of daily life?  Why do so many people resist surrender even when they are burdened by suffering?  And with these questions, in my heart, I seek guidance from my revered Guru. 

My humble prayer is that through this dialogue, we move from confusion to clarity, fear to faith, ego to humility, restlessness to peace and ultimately from the illusion of separateness to the realization of our true nature.  And with Your grace and guidance today, discussion will help us better understand the true meaning of surrender and devotion, the obstacles that prevent us from embracing them and how these divine virtues, ageless, timeless wisdom can transform our lives, reduce our suffering, and bring us closer to the realization of our eternal nature. 

   So, I’ll start with, though these two things, devotion and surrender go hand in hand, but for more clarity, I’m taking them separately first, starting with devotion and then coming to surrender. 

   So, Babaji, my first question is, why is devotion considered an essential path for spiritual growth when knowledge and meditation also exist as path to liberation?

Babaji Maharaj:   You know, due to imagination and when we have lost control on that imagination, which is happening since time immemorial, in illusion we have come very much away, long, long distance from our real Self, holding on to this egoistic individual imagined Self.  Now, devotion means how you can connect back to your real Self.  I have always told, many people think that devotion means simply we take up some incense sticks, take a camphor and do aarati and claim “I am a devotee.”  It doesn’t happen like that.  Even when I have addressed people in places of worship, I have told “It is wonderful you come to a temple, but know that when any exercise like aarati is happening or some bhajans are being sung, mantras are chanted, abhishek is done, at all times your mind needs to be there, because God understands only your mind’s language and nothing else matters.  No Sanskrit, no Tamil, no Punjabi, no Hindi, nothing.  In whichever language you want to chant or sing or do, you do it, no problem.  But until unless that mind is not there, your worship doesn’t become successful, it won’t reach God.”  So that is how by applying the mind you get connected to your real Self, that is Divinity. 

   So, dhyana brings both bhakti and surrender.  So now the bhakti becomes successful only when you are able to surrender.  Surrender means the mind must stop.  As long as the mind is active, it has its own expectations.  Then it is likely to become disappointed, experience fear, stress, all these things.  When simply an acceptance comes, like for example, “May it happen according to Your wish, my Lord, but please inspire my wisdom.  I’m not asking You to change this world according to my wish.  Let it be whatever way that You want.  Today I have, tomorrow I may not have, but please inspire my wisdom that I do not lose that eternal peace and connection to You.  At all times I must be surrendered to You only.”  So, that is the essence of real bhakti, application of mind. 

So, this is not easy.  Yet again here the dhyana comes.  Meditation means ‘your attention to.’  When you are meditating, when you are able to pay attention, then you are the real devotee.  You are connecting yourself, and other than that, in your consciousness nothing else is there.  That is the highest form of devotion.  Surrender also, simply if we do a saastang, danda pranaam, not enough of surrender; mentally, we have to surrender in every way.  Anything that happens we shall not have any reservations, “Why this did not happen, why did it happen?”  “Lord, if You can give me this, then I will consider You as the Lord;” that is not the surrender.  We are working out a deal, we are putting a condition to the Divinity in what way we imagine.  Instead, we simply surrender whatever is happening. 

Actually, it is all happening through a higher consciousness.  If we go head-on collision with this universal movement, then we are likely to experience suffering in the mind.  It is actually the mind which suffers, which becomes fearful.  It becomes fearful because nobody wants any problem, any suffering, death or any such thing.  So that’s why one is scared.  Otherwise, fear has no place at all.  If these things are acceptable as the nature, naturally it has to happen.  We all know this body has to go, this universe is impermanent.  Today it is there, tomorrow it may not be there.  “Mari hai dharti akaasha.  Suraj mari chanda mari.”  Kabir Das talks “sadhoi murdon ka ganv.”  People may become bewildered by these sentences.  Such a great Upanishad vakya that Kabir Das Ji has done, through this it always created an impact.  “Suraj mari chanda mari, mari ha saare tare, mari ha dharti akaasha,” all these are going to disappear one day.  Only that Parabrahman will be there. 

So, when we know this, we need to remain devoted to that Truth, and surrender to that Truth.  If we surrender, we can remain devoted.  If we are devoted, automatically we are surrendered.  When our consciousness is connected to the Divine all the time and there is no other expectation at all, so it is automatically surrendered.  That’s how these two go simultaneously together.

Question:   So, Babaji, this brings to mind one very pertinent thing, what I feel is an important aspect of life.  We always, of course, we say that “We would like to surrender to the God Almighty.  We want to surrender to the Guru.”  And Guru leads us to the final, to the Ultimate eternal Truth, the Parabrahman.  We are all ready to do that.  But why not first devotion starts from our home, from our life?  Why not devote to our wife, to our son?  Why not surrender to the wife, to son, to father, to our surroundings?  And then ultimately it becomes the surrender, because idea is to drop ourselves.  Because the problem what I feel that everywhere is that we don’t want to surrender.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, then we can have Supreme Peace.  In our day-to-day worldly life, we have our kith and kin, family, or friends and children, whoever, or disciples, a Guru has disciples – all these, accept them as they are.  We sometimes go into too much of expectations from them and we are likely to become disappointed.  That is when this suffering happens.  If we simply surrender; “What they are is fine, at least.  I’m grateful to the Divine that you have given this thing.  If something worse had come as a wife, as a child, as a family, as something friend, what would have happened?  So, I am grateful to you.” 

It is the same thing like when I went to ashram fifty-two years ago, imagination was not there hardly, a small thing.  It was a big palatial bungalow.  If I had imagined, expected for a Rashtrapati Bhavan, that bungalow would have been disappointing; expectations, too much.  Accept it as it is, whether it is our human relation or any such thing that we have, or ten dollars that we have, acceptance.  That is the surrender in life, then we have peace, karma yoga.  Yoga happens, then our mind gets connected to Divinity when we surrender like this; there is no more suffering that happens.

Question:   So, to accept that, ‘Nar me hi narayana hai’? [‘God resides in man’]

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  Try to see that as if you are looking after God when you are looking after your child.  So, always in your mind it is the Divinity.  Outside for people, it might appear that you are looking after your child.

Question:   So, Babaji, how can a seeker distinguish genuine devotion from emotional attachment or blind following?

Babaji Maharaj:   A genuine attachment is when you see Divinity in everything, as everything, everywhere.  You behave in any way you want in this world; means this is not possible for everyone to behave in that way also.  Sometimes you may have to scold somebody, you may have to get annoyed, you may have to be careful that somebody doesn’t cheat you.  All these things have to be applied, but while applying, mentally there is no disappointment, no frustration.  From outside you need to scream, you scream, you defend yourself.  Because you need to do some hissing noise, you don’t have to bite anybody.  In the mind it is the Divine. 

So, gradually your mind starts getting purified, means surrendered, becoming quiet and gets connected to Divinity.  Everywhere you are seeing that thing.  Outside you appear to be a normal human being only.  You are also eating, you are also talking, sometimes you look annoyed a little bit, you look irritated a little bit, but mentally you are really not, you are not judging anybody at all.  No judgment, that’s what is seeing God in everything.  So, then there is no question of any suffering at all. 

Many times I have told parents, maybe you owed something to this child, this aatma, it has come as your child, now it’s your duty, you have to look after, show your affection, show your love, everything and take care and parvarish kare, like that you do it as if you are looking after the Divine.  Then you have so much of satisfaction and peace inside; you are seeing Divine within you.  And you don’t see it as a daughter, but you see it as a Divine.

Question:   But Babaji, having said that, surrender becomes more difficult; so many people were here, we were all sitting in meditation and I really lost track of time and I didn’t know that I lost connection.  But at the same time, it becomes very difficult to surrender.  It’s easy to meditate.  It is easy to read books.  You take your books, sit, read and enjoy, enjoying, “I’m having fun, I’m gaining knowledge, all kinds of information.”  But when it comes to surrender, it becomes difficult.  What is holding us back?  Ego?

Babaji Maharaj:   Ego.  Definitely.  That’s why I have told, don’t think bhakti is very easy.  It’s not easy.  That can be much more difficult than dhyana, definitely.  In dhyana you are just trying to keep quiet.  In active life, acceptance becomes so much more difficult with the ego presence.  To sacrifice that ego is the biggest hurdle.  My Guru always said, “Ego is the biggest hurdle.  The day you are able to sacrifice your ego, know that you are getting connected to God.  That ego is what prevents.” 

Many times we tell, when I scold a disciple, then that disciple decides whether that disciple’s ego is bigger, dearer to that person or the Guru is dearer.  If the Guru is dearer, that person sacrifices the ego.  The more our Guru scolded us, so we became more attached to the Guru.  We took it as a challenge.  I used to think in my mind, “Now You have scolded me, I am going to love You more now.  You cannot make me not to love You.  You cannot do that one.  It is a challenge.  I shall not have any ego at all.  No problem You humiliate me in front of everyone, that’s no problem.”  That is all.  It becomes as simple as the moment you learn to surrender, you are able to sacrifice ego.  The ego you can sacrifice when you do not become attached to the individual imagined self.  Understand that it doesn’t exist at all.  Why should we worry so much for a thing that doesn’t exist at all?  So, then the ego disappears.  The ‘I’ is not there.  The ego is not there.  “Na rehaga bhans na bhajegi bhansuri.”

Question:   Swamiji, two things came out.  One is ego, one is expectation, and third is ‘I’.  When we relate with ‘I’, we use ‘I’ as a body, as “I am Amit Sachdeva,” but not ‘I’ as a true Self.

Babaji Maharaj:   True Self.  That’s what bothers.  That’s what the ego gives for every creature, every human being.  Until this is not sacrificed, a yoga doesn’t happen.  Surrender doesn’t happen.

Question:   Because Babaji, there is no gratification.  I, as Amit, as a body, there is a lot of gratification.  I have position, I have wealth, I have power.  But then when I drop all that…

Babaji Maharaj:   No stand at all.  Don’t exist.

Question:   …Usually I don’t get anything.  Yeah, I don’t exist.  There’s no gratification.  There’s no high that I get because still what I feel is the higher pleasure is the lowest form of pleasure which I’m getting.  So where to start, how to start from A to Z?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, as an youngster, one day I was just contemplating about ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ of Adi Shankara.  What is this?  ‘Aham’ means me; ‘brahma asmi’ – ‘main hi Parabrahma hoon’.  That means not that I am Parabrahman.  The ‘I’ that I had been imagining is not the ‘I’ that I am thinking.  That ‘I’ is that Parabrahma, so I do not exist in between at all.  This realization occurred.  Peace descended, “Thank God that I do not exist at all.  If I exist, only all this problem of humiliation, somebody attacking, some frustration, some disappointment, this is not happening, this man is not listening to me, this disciple is not listening to me…”  Just to tell is my dharma.  You listen or you don’t listen.  My primary school teacher used to tell, “I don’t know whether you will learn or not, you will listen to me or not.  When I talk to you, it is my dharma and my practice.  So, I’m not going to give up.”  Like that.  I want to practice that I do not exist at all, all the time, twenty-four hours.  Now it’s up to you.  You also want to practice, then you will get this.  That is the devotion.

Question:   Babaji, because of life’s uncertainties, stress, fear, we know that peace is going to… what You are telling, what Guru tells, we understand that.  But still with life uncertainties, it becomes very difficult and human beings spend their life chasing success, status, possessions, yet many remain unhappy.  And when they know truly “I can get,” but you don’t get it.

Babaji Maharaj:   Putting it into practice is the difficult, the most difficult.

Question:   So, what world cannot give us, only devotion, surrender can give us?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, definitely.  If one understands what devotion means, what the surrender means.  When the mind stops, that is the real surrender.  You don’t have any expectation, any desire, any idea at all.  All ideas get dropped when the mind stops.  So, then ego disappears, the ‘I’ disappears, then the surrender happens.  Then that is the devotion, means you get connected to your real Self.  Devotion; now you are devoted to your real Self, not to the imagined self, not to the world.  You are no more devoted to this world or to an imagined self which does not exist.  Now you have realized, now you are connected to your real Self and you don’t have any expectation at all.  So thus, you are at peace and happy.  No more stress, no more fear, nothing.  So, then this is the most difficult. 

   So, as people think, bhakti, “I would like to be on the bhakti marga, dhyana is very difficult,” they tell.  No, really, dhyana is much more easier.  You just have to watch in between eyebrows.  When you are active in this world, to get connected to the Divinity is not easy.  To sacrifice the ego is the most difficult.  We have seen in our Guru‘s time also; we saw many people remained so devoted for years and years.  They were VIPs, they were close, everything.  One time the Guru scolded for something.  Don’t know why He used to scold, maybe that might be a test.  It failed; they abused the Guru and left and went away.  I used to wonder, “My God, hundred thousand times we have got this type of scolding.”  Simply, I used to come out of His room, go one round and go back to His room.  He would have forgotten by then, why He scolded, what He scolded at all; it wouldn’t be in His consciousness at all.  Simply, I had to go and stand in front of Him next.  He wouldn’t do any harm to me at all.  But if one had the ego, they wouldn’t come back to stand in front of the Guru, they will go away, “O, this Guru is not the proper one for me.  He scolds, He humiliates me, He doesn’t consider me as a VIP.  He doesn’t give me any status” – that is hurt.

Question:   So, most of the people, they understand that surrender means giving up one’s desires, ambitions, plans.

Babaji Maharaj:   Not at all.  You can have desires, ambitions and plans.  But when the result comes, that acceptance is the devotion.  We want to go to the Guru.  Today the Guru might meet you personally.  Tomorrow you may have to be standing in the queue.  So, you don’t have any disappointment.  Then that is the surrender.

Question:   Babaji, the concept of dharma, artha, kaama, moksha in our philosophy, where it’s a process where you follow your dharma, the righteousness, and then through dharma you earn the artha, the material, and that artha is spent on kaama, the desires.  And if you do everything by the book through dharma, even when you’re fulfilling your desire, you reach moksha, that is salvation, living blissfully.  But in today’s world, The first one, dharma we don’t follow, so moksha is out of question and we only concentrate on artha and kaama.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  So that’s why this peace doesn’t come, you are unable to connect to the real Self and surrender doesn’t happen.  You are not at all a devotee at all, definitely.  Though you might claim “I am a devotee of Lord Shankara, I am a devotee of Hanumanji.”  So, that is not devotion.  That’s simply an outward show.

Question:   Because we don’t have faith?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah.

Question:   We are just following, the people are going to the temples, we are going, people are lighting the lamp, we are lighting and…

Babaji Maharaj:   We don’t know why we are going to temple, what is it that we actually achieve.  Simply we are going because everybody is going.  Simply we are going that “God might give me a job, He might help me to transfer my job, He might help me to give a lottery ticket.”  So, that’s why I tell people that Divine wants to give you supermarket, but if you ask, you will end up asking a small chocolate.  Surrender, He will give you the supermarket.  And my Guru used to tell in His own words, “Even if God appears and offers you all the things that He can give, refuse.  Ask that you want God only.  Because happiness is in God and God cannot give happiness in whatever He gives.  It is all impermanent; that will disappear.”  As Ramana said, a thing that appears and disappears cannot be real ever.  Only the Divinity, that Ultimate Truth is the real.

Question:   So Babaji, does devotion create surrender or does surrender create devotion?  Can there be perfect love without perfect surrender?

Babaji Maharaj:   Vice versa, both.  Either way, if you can be devoted, that means you are surrendered.  If you can be surrendered, that means you are devoted, that’s why you could surrender.  Otherwise, without the other, one doesn’t happen, in my opinion.  If you don’t have devotion, you cannot surrender.  And you cannot have devotion without surrendering.

Question:   So Babaji, I was just thinking about one example.  When the baby is inside the womb, the baby is connected through placenta.  Eyes closed, darkness all the side, food is going through, energy is going through the placenta.  So can we say that the similar state we have to be in to be connected with Guru, with the placenta through either karma yoga or bhakti yoga or dhyana yoga where the child is surrendered, child is just there.  It’s a living being growing inside the womb.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, even after birth also, you see, first thing with the mother, it simply surrenders and feels so secure.  Once surrendered means you feel secure.  When we surrendered to our Guru, we felt so secure of whatever He did.  He scolded or did anything, we felt so secure.  That’s why we always remained surrendered.  We knew that He cannot really harm at all.  “He is scolding, He might be humiliating, but He cannot harm me.”  That secure feeling also automatically comes when you are surrendered in the life also. 

Like as youngsters, another example of devotional practice that we developed slowly, knowingly or unknowingly, because we loved Divine.  So, we used to pray to God, like Ganesha.  We had a wish, “So let this wish be fulfilled, my Lord Ganesha.  So, I might offer you a five paisa or ten paisa.”  That was the pocket money we used to get.  But not always it used to happen according to my wish or my prayers.  Something else would happen.  But I would definitely offer that ten paisa.  I wouldn’t keep it because the things did not happen according to my wish or my prayers.  Offer it with folded hands, “Though I wanted this thing to happen in this way, yet if it has not happened in this way, maybe You have better things.  You know better than me.  You are doing better to me only.  I do not know what is good for me.  You know what is good for me.  Like this only always look after me.”  That used to be my prayer.  Naturally it came, I don’t know how it came.  That came probably we really loved God.  In that love there was no expectation, no deal workout or such things.  When we went to temple, used to get that love and that peace.  That was how this type of prayer automatically came.

Question:   Babaji, I have no more questions, but after so many questions, I asked the questions, so many questions from different angles, different permutation in combination, but the crux of the matter is very simple and correct me if I’m wrong, there are two couplets, one by Kabir and one by Rahim.  They are similar.  Kabir says, “Goonge teri sarkara, thai hai muskai, rahisi rahisi pagal bhayo koina bhujhe baat.”  “The dumb person has tasted the sugar and I have not tasted the sugar.  I cannot explain the taste.”  It boils down to always this aspect where it’s explained, but still it has to be experienced.  Through devotion, as You rightly said, through devotion and through surrender, Guru will take you there.  Guru will always remind us that words can only point towards the truth.  They cannot become the truth.  The path can be shown, but each of us must walk that path ourselves.  Rahim says that, “Rahiman baak agamme ki kehnan sunan ki nahi.  Je janat te kehat nahi, je kehat janat nahi.”  How you summarize that we keep on, you know, telling, telling, telling, and unless and until it is experienced, you don’t get it.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, definitely.  It’s the old… some dialogues, “samajh jaoge par samjha na paoge.”  You will understand, but you cannot make others understand.  So, I keep telling, even a Guru like me needs to teach, we have to use the nearest imagination possible to give a clue to you what you have to become to experience that.  That’s what we keep talking of ego, surrender, bhakti; all these are going round and round, one is connected to the other.  If you give up ego, you have surrendered.  If you have surrendered, you have the devotion.  If you have devotion, you have surrendered.  If you have surrendered means you have given up the ego.  So, either way, you go from here or come from here, it is the same result.  All these three disappears, then the ‘I’ disappears, all ideas disappear.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Thank You so much.  I don’t have more questions.

Babaji Maharaj:   Wonderful discussions with you always.  I’m sure our participants would have enjoyed.  This is of a highest philosophy.  Though it was in the name of devotion and surrender, very often people on the path of dhyana or jnana can misunderstand, “O, devotion, no, that is not for me, we need to have a higher philosophy.”  But if one can understand the devotion, this is the thing that can take us to the highest philosophy, and not easy to be devoted, actually.  I hope you all will appreciate.  Then we have some time and thank you Amitji for bringing out these beautiful questions and some answers from me.  You have brought it out from me.

Question:   Pranaam Babaji, I have two questions.  The first one is, when we are not meditating, how can we keep our consciousness at a very high level?  Can the practice of bija mantra japa or pranaayama help to elevate our level of consciousness?

Babaji Maharaj:   Mantra japa also can be done.  And in your day-to-day activities of life, acceptance, practice acceptance.  You put an effort, whatever you desire, no problem; with the best focused mind you put.  But if the result is not according to your expectations, don’t feel disappointed.  Accept it.  You are not going to lose anything.  Ultimately, the real Self, what you are, is guaranteed.

Same Questioner:   So, which is basically surrendering.  That’s what You’re saying, Baba.

Babaji Maharaj:   Surrendering.  Assure yourself and you will have peace.

Same Questioner:   Okay.  One last question, Baba.  You have spoken of imprints and tendencies that are in the brain, but what about those tendencies and imprints that we carry from our previous lives?  Are these also in the brain or they stay in the soul?  And can You please bless me, Baba, so that these soul imprints and tendencies can be released quickly without any suffering.

Babaji Maharaj:   Now, important, if anything is in the brain, it is no problem.  But if the brain reflects and the mind registers in itself, then the problem occurs.  So, you go on doing this devotional practice, mantra japa, acceptance and whenever you have time do meditation dhyana also by watching, so then all that habit of the mind will change as it gets connected to its true Self slowly and slowly, slowly.  That will go away, it won’t bother much about whatever is in the brain, it won’t take it seriously.

Same Questioner:   Okay.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, that’s how you have to go.

Same Questioner:   Thank You.

Question:   Yes, thank You Baba, so great to see You.  When I look at You, as this previous guest was talking about the ‘I’ and the ego, and in the yogi, they have disappeared.  I look at You during this talk and I can see that Babaji does not have an ego and Babaji does not have identification with ‘I’ anymore.  So, my question is, if I am looking at Babaji, is Babaji a man or is Babaji a deity?

Babaji Maharaj:   It’s your perspective.  Babaji is neither of them actually in his consciousness imagination.  He doesn’t think neither a deity nor a man or nothing.  Whatever you have the perspective, you get to see that.  So, if you have the highest perspective.  Say there is a stone idol in front of you.  Let us not talk about Babaji just now.  In that stone idol, if you can see the deity, you will gain.  That is, whether it is stone or deity is not important.  If you have perspective, “Is it only a stone?”  Then you don’t gain anything because in your imagination only stone sits.  So, it is your faith which matters, right?  That’s why I try to keep teaching always.  It is not important what Babaji is.  You cannot know ever.  But whatever is in your perspective, if it is of the highest imagination, then you will be benefited.  That is what is faith and devotion we teach.

Same Questioner:   I see you as Deity.  Thank You.

Babaji Maharaj:   Okay.

Question:   Pranaam Babaji.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.

Question:   Babaji, it’s the second time I’m asking this question.  Like at this stage, as I’m progressing in age, I’m utterly confused between when God is one, when the Divine is one.  So, like how to think and pray to Lord Rama and Krishna, Shiva and Hanuman in the same breath? Because you say we don’t have to confuse between the Dasa and the Master.

Babaji Maharaj:   Now listen, listen.  You have a son, you have a husband, they both are fighting with each other.  Husband is telling, “Subha is a wife, she cannot be a mother.”  The son is fighting with the father, “Subha is a mother, she cannot be a wife.”  What is the truth? So, like that only unnecessarily you are confusing.  You can call it anything, you are calling the one God only, one space.

Same Questioner:   Okay, thank You, God.  Secondly, is like looking at the brikuti a few days back, fifteen days back, as usual, I would see many things.  This little Krishna, baby Krishna many, many times, so I just said, “Get out of my life.”  And my degradation, mental illness started.  Can it happen like that?

Babaji Maharaj:   Let it be.  If at all anything comes, just keep watching.  Don’t imagine or fight or do anything, ‘get out,’ nothing.  Just watch, it will go away on its own.  If you don’t get  involved with that, don’t try to talk to that, don’t try to recognize, don’t do anything.  You just watch, it will disappear.  Don’t worry.  Okay.

Question:   Pranams Babaji.  My question is simple, maybe out of my ignorance, but I want to learn.  Babaji mentioned there’s a practice for devotion and surrender, and I wanted to ask if someone who is not very familiar, maybe I’m making mistakes or something, what is a good way to practice surrender as a practice, like how we have meditation as a practice every day?  How can I make devotion as a practice every day?

Babaji Maharaj:   Devotion means you still have the imagination like you are a droplet.  You need an anchor.  That is what is Divinity.  If you are inclined to any form of the Divine, you can get attached to that form and then pray and get connected to that mentally, slowly.  Or if you don’t have any inclination to any form at all also, no problem.  You can worship the formless, all-pervadedness.  Simply imagine that whatever is all-pervaded is your God and you are that God’s devotee.  Like that become slowly get attached to that one and pray.  Slowly, when your mind becomes quiet, then you would have surrendered and become devoted to that God.  That is the Ultimate Truth which is your real Self.  So that is the process that how you will go.

Same Questioner:   Is there something like a reminder I can tell myself to continue and continuously be devoted throughout the day?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, you can assure yourself with a positive thought.  If at all there has to be a thought, by thinking also positively, you can assure yourself, “Let me continue like this, this is like this, be like this.  O my mind, listen to me like this.”  Like that you can continue.

Same Questioner:   Thank You very much.

Question:   Pranaams Babaji.  When we’re acting with devotion, can You talk about swadharma activities versus paradharma activities, and even swadharma can be imperfect.

Babaji Maharaj:   Swadharma is one’s own duties, ‘my duties’.  Paradharma, we expect the other to follow the dharma that we have in our mind.  So, we have to first make ourselves perfect with the swadharma, that we are on the right path, we are doing the right thing, we are doing the right sadhana.  When you achieve perfect, then you might be able to inspire others or teach others, recommend to others.  So, first you have to mind your swadharma, that is important, means through swadharma you can correct yourself.  Before trying to correct others, we need to correct ourselves.  So, that’s what is my opinion. 

Question:   Babaji, pranaam.  I have a confusion between two terminologies.  What is difference between nirvikalpa samadhi and savikalpa samadhi?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, vikalpa means there is an iota of imagination still there in the mind.  When the mind becomes silent, quiet and still with one thought, still is there, that is savikalpa samadhi.  Means it is not wavering too much, it is in the stillness, but still one thought is there.  It depends on that one thought, that is savikalpa.  In a simple way, my opinion.  Nirvikalpa is no iota of any idea at all in the mind, nothing.  It is totally silent, but it is quiet, it is not wavering.  That means it has become one with its Ultimate Truth, Divine.  That is nirvikalpa samadhi.  There is no vikalpa there. 

Same Questioner:   Savikalpa samadhi, I couldn’t get it, Babaji? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Savikalpa, right?  Savikalpa is when there is still some imagination in the mind, one thought, then it is still, it is not going into other thoughts, but still there is one thought, it depends on one thought to become still.  That is savikalpa samadhi.

Question:   Babaji, thank You for being there.  As You said, by surrendering, to accept the person like how they are; in my experience I did that and tolerated many things.  But what I see is then people take advantage of this tolerance and I don’t wish them bad, anything bad, but I don’t feel like talking to them.  I talk only if it’s necessary, not more than that.  So, is it an ego or is doing like that wrong? I don’t know whether I’m protecting myself or I have this ego.

Babaji Maharaj:   Now listen to me carefully.  You have a right to protect yourself in this world from outside.  Somebody is misbehaving with you, not right, then you don’t have to have any connection with such people.  You can resist, you can stop them, you can get annoyed with them; it’s all okay.  But what I was explaining is inside the mind.  Even you consider everything as Divine, somebody is misbehaving with you.  If it is God, in your mind tell God, “God through this form don’t misbehave with me, then I will not talk to You.”  Resist and keep that person away.  God is everywhere, God is in you also.  So, you don’t have to worry.  In this world you have to be careful, do hissing noise to keep bad people away so that they don’t harm you.  You need to protect yourself, is very important.  To protect this body is a totally different thing.  Surrender the mind is a totally different thing.  You have to delink from this. 

You surrender the mind so that in your mind you always don’t keep thinking about that person as bad.  If a bad person is there, example, you keep that bad person away, but you don’t have to think about that bad person in your mind always.  It is not worth it.  He is already a bad.  Tell God, “You are in this bad person’s form.  I don’t want to think You as this bad person.  I will think You as You are.”  Think that thing.  Then your mind will have peace.  You will be safe.

Same Questioner:   So, if I don’t talk to them, then it is okay?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, yes, your choice.  You don’t want to talk, don’t talk.  There is no compulsion that you have to talk, because God is everywhere.  There is no need that you have to talk to everybody.  Wherever you don’t like, this is not proper.  So, you don’t talk, no problem.

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.

Question:   Pranaams Babaji, I just heard You speak about Hanumanji and it was so reassuring and so beautiful to know.  I just want to know what is the difference between Hanumanji and the Parabrahman?

Babaji Maharaj:   It is the same, same.  Hanumanji and Parabrahma are not different.  Hanumanji was a great realized soul, a divine personality.  So, that’s what Yoga Vasistha also talks.  So, there is no difference between Parabrahma or Hanuman.  If you are worshipping Hanuman you are worshipping Parabrahma, if you are worshipping Parabrahma you are worshipping Hanuman.

Same Questioner:   How is Hanumanji playing such an important role in everybody’s life?

Babaji Maharaj:   Depending on everybody’s perspective, devotion, the role happens.  If it is Divine for you, the Divine will help.  If you think Hanumanji is ordinary monkey, it will be ordinary monkey for you.  It is your perspective which is important in devotional path.  Your faith is what matters actually.

Question:   Pranaam Babaji, I have just a couple of small questions.  So one thing is, would there be any influence or impact from some different days like new moon or full moon on the ability to concentrate?  I’m just asking, just from a sort of experience.  Today it was very difficult for me to meditate and only for the very last fifteen minutes or so, the mind really came together.  And the first forty-five minutes it was jumping around here and there.  But some days I see within the first five minutes, the mind quickly comes to concentration, and it stays at a point very easily.  So, is there any impact, or how to have this patience and what to do so that we don’t waste a lot of time?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, important is, this anything can have its effect when you have a weakness in your mind.  When you try to depend on one aspect and not on the other aspect, then when the other aspect comes you get affected, when this comes you don’t get affected.  So, always do not try to depend on any of these things.  Simply in your mind it has acquired habits since time immemorial. Practice meditation.  When practicing what is all required is patience, enormous patience, and understanding the technique that you simply have to watch.  Let a million thoughts come, no problem.  They all can simply wash away if you don’t bother.  If your mind keeps thinking, “O, today is amavasya, today is darkness, what will happen to me?” – then your mind gets affected.  Don’t bother about any of these things. 

So, Saint Purandara Dasa tells, “sakalagraha bala neene,” “all the Divine is You, in You only everything, one Divinity.”  You and your God, have faith in that one and these things really won’t affect.  Only if your mind is weak, you get affected.  Be strong, then practice using, understanding the technique.  It’s a duel, battle.  Mind has gone out of control, sometimes it is troublesome.  But don’t feel disappointed.  “No problem”, again try again, “No problem”, try again.  It will come.  Like that with positive thinking, positive attitude, keep going.  Don’t bother about any aspect of this world.

Ma Ambaji:   Yeah, Babaji, we were discussing about the devotion and the surrender.  So, devotion and surrender, You said that they are together, they go together.  If you surrender, the devotion automatically comes.  And if you are devoted, then you will accept the things as they are.  And you are surrendering also.  Oncesomebody asked Ramana Maharishi about the same question about the devotion and the surrender, and Bhagwan said, “The jnani, the yogi who is always in the Self, means who has attained nirvikalpa samadhi and remain always in the Self, is the perfectly surrendered, and the devoted who has put all His sankalpa at the feet of Divine is the most devoted.” 

So, Baba, for an ordinary person, as long as we have ego, as long as I have an ego, every time my mind goes into this confusion, that “I have prayed and my prayer has to be answered,” and always there is this duality in the mind that the way I have prayed, I want the results also.  So, there is neither surrender nor there is devotion.  Because if I have surrendered, I will accept whatever comes.  If I have devotion, I will not ask God what is best for me.  Because if my surrender is perfect, God knows what is best for me.  So, Baba, how do You tell me or how do I convince my mind that there is a Divinity and that Divinity is in a perfect union and all we have to do is just develop this faith in the Divinity and accept the things the way they come?  How to convince myself, how to train my mind for that?

Babaji Maharaj:   By having faith that all is well; finally you are not going to lose anything, because you are that Ultimate Truth, you are one with that Divinity; that nobody can take out, even the Divine cannot take it out because it is the Divine.  So, if you have this awareness, develop this positively and assure yourself, everything is all right, whatever is happening is for the good only.  Whether outside you want to pray, you want to do this, you want to try so that such a thing doesn’t happen, so that this thing happens, inside be aware; whatever is happening, thank God.  And then after some time you will realize, “O, really whatever has happened is for the best.  We have peace.” 

Like that you surrender, whatever is happening, it’s already planned by the Divine.  It is the Divine script of this universal picture of the world called creation.  The script, it will go according to the script.  So, you just don’t have to worry.  Like in the movie, that person tells you, “I killed the other person because the director told me;” that type of thing.  You don’t have to kill anyone, but simply it is there that this thing happened, because the Divine wanted it to happen this way, that is all.  If tomorrow disciples have to come, they will come, They will take sannyas and they will run the institution.  If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.  That’s it, fine, that is in the script.  Accept it like that. 

So, when you have faith, slowly you practice.  Like I told while answering Amitji, in childhood, I used to pray.  We used to pray a certain thing to happen, then tell Ganesha, “I will give you ten paise also,” work out a deal.  Then not always that it happened according to my prayers.  Sometimes, many times or sometimes it wouldn’t happen.  But somehow, I didn’t feel disappointed because unknown to me I had fallen in love with God, I think.  So, when we love somebody, we don’t want to find fault with them.  Because I loved God, I didn’t want to find any fault.  I told, I used to assure myself, “Though I wanted this thing to happen in this way, yet if it has not happened in this way, maybe You have better things for me.  Maybe this is what You wanted – You know better than me.  So, I may not have prayed properly.  Take this ten paise that I had promised.  I’m not going to keep this back.”  Ten paise I used to offer that.  I used to go to temple and offer the ten paise and surrender.  “So, this is okay, no problem.” 

Like that I practiced and that came to me naturally.  As I am telling, perhaps I had fallen in love.  When you fall in love also, this thing comes naturally, you will not mind for anything.  Like if you fall in love with the Guru, even if I scold you, you will not mind, you will come back again.  So, this thing is happening, you know?  For the last twenty-five, thirty-five years that you are with me, we keep fighting many times, but you don’t mind.  After two minutes, you come and I come, we both talk and we both have a cup of coffee or tea, like a brother and sister we sit, and everything disappears.  There is no likes and dislikes, there is no disappointment.  Like this if you maintain a relation with the Divinity, Ultimate Truth, assure also, surrender will come, you will become devoted.

Ma Ambaji:   Baba, I have one more question here.  So, You said that the acceptance, when I accept the things and I do not mind… means who am I, first to mind?  Because the God, the Divinity is not on my terms and conditions.  It doesn’t run according to my terms and condition that I like or I don’t like.  Ultimately, I have to accept there are things which are beyond our control.  And actually, things are beyond our control, but we think things are under control.  So where I’m trying to say, Baba, that in our culture, we have both things.  Like we get taught from the childhood that you have to put efforts; you cannot avoid efforts.  But as long as there are efforts, you are attached to the results also.  So how can it be possible, means if I have to do efforts, the moment I put efforts, my results are also conceived by the mind.  So, give me the trick.  Is the meditation the ultimate trick that I should have lesser expectation?

Babaji Maharaj:   One thing, meditation is definitely the ultimate trick.  Another trick is you consider somebody as your boss, either a Guru or the Divine, someone.  Consider it boss.  The boss has ordered you and you just work and you don’t bother about the result.  In the company, your team leader or a boss has given you a project, you just work on the project and give that project to the leader and you forget about it.  You are not worried whether it is going to be successful or not.  You are worried that you had to do the project because the boss told you.  Like that, that is all.  So, then that is the end.  If the boss tells you, “Do the aarati now,” then you do the aarati, you don’t bother anything else.  Whether doing the aarati will give you a hundred thousand rupees or not, you don’t bother any such thing.  Simply you start singing the aarati.  Like that also, if you have an anchor, you surrender.  That is how we surrendered to the Master always.  So that gave us peace, or, meditation is the ultimate trick when you will totally surrender.

Ma Ambaji:   Thank You, Baba.  Thank You so much.

End of Questions and Answers

Babaji Maharaj now concludes:

   Wonderful.  Very nice conclusion for today’s setting.  Please bear with us.  They will take this for the aarati.  Two minutes. 

End of Session