Recorded on 27 July 2024 with worldwide participants
0:00 Introduction from Babaji
3:05 Can Babaji elaborate on the idea of acceptance?
8:59 If the results don’t come from our efforts, do we just give up?
11:23 After facing repeated failures, when to know when to persist or to give up and accept the results?
12:32 When we accept the results, is there a danger that we weaken our efforts?
15:33 Can Babaji talk about the importance of focus when putting in efforts?
19:14 Does our focus when putting in efforts become sadhana?
22:02 Can this focus also generate a peace?
23:08 How can Grace be related to our efforts?
30:20 How Babaji applied efforts and acceptance in His years as a student monk with Swamiji.
41:19 If you lose a million dollars how is it possible to quietly accept this?
43:00 If we always choose good karma then do we always get good results?
48:26 If you are putting in efforts should it be put in with discrimination, or can Yogis follow their desires mindlessly?
51:28 For every action is there a reaction?
52:10 For grace is faith, dedication and determination required?
52:48 Are there alternative options to sitting for Tapas to achieve Self Realization?
54:18 How to make heartful effort with full focus without thinking about results at all?
1:00:23 Advice for someone suffering from depression
1:02:29 Can one reach Self Realization by practicing 1 hour meditation daily?
1:04:13 Mind slipping into thoughts continuously throughout meditation
1:08:43 Position of the eyeballs in meditation
1:10:04 Position of the head in meditation
1:10:54 For a failed marriage or critical illness for example how can one accept such things?
1:15:51 My mind is judgemental, how to be more accepting of what happens?
Efforts and Acceptance | In Quest of Truth – Q&A with Babaji, No.192
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/iVFCck5pdbI
Recorded on 27 July 2024 with worldwide participants
Shri Babaji: We grew up with these three words of Jnana, Bhakti, Vairagya. Jnana is knowledge. “Please bless me to achieve the knowledge of the ultimate truth, the final truth.” And Bhakti, “May I be devoted, means be attentive, be aware of that truth at all times.” And to achieve this, Vairagya, “May I remain detached from an unreal, illusory appearance of the universe.” The knowledge of Self was so dear to us, because we wanted to overcome the effects of birth and death. That appeared to be a big problem or a puzzle. “Why should we be born and why should we be dying?” The rest all purpose did not matter for us. So that appeared to be the basic purpose we need to understand. There is an opportunity that before death happens to our bodies, we have an opportunity. Today, before one hour ends, you have that one hour of opportunity to silence your mind. Opportunities are very precious. They come and they go, but if we do not notice, many times it may come and simply go away in our life.
Questioner: The questions this week, they are inspired by a short video that has appeared on the internet, both on YouTube and Facebook and a few other things. It’s about a forty seconds video and we are hoping we could just play that first, Baba, before we launch into the questions. Thank you.
Shri Babaji in the video: Through Karma also you can reach. How? Simple way I will explain, simply, for your understanding. Karma means, in your daily actions, you put an effort of whatever desire you have, whatever you want to achieve. Always it is not guaranteed universally that according to our efforts only, results will come. Results may not come. When it comes, you have to accept. If you do not accept, your mind will jump into unhappiness and depression. If you accept, it will cool down. If it cools down, it goes to yoga. It eventually merges with the Self. That is the karma yoga. Acceptance.
Questioner: In the video, Babaji speaks about acceptance. Is Babaji able to elaborate on that idea, please?
Shri Babaji: We need to understand the sloka, the stanza of Bhagavad Gita, which tells that you have a right to put in efforts, means you have a right for your karma. That you must do by exercising will-power and totally remaining focused. But when the results come, that result is not in your hand. The source is nature or the divinity or the ultimate truth. You have to accept it. If it is not acceptable to you, you will lose peace in the mind. You will become confused and you will try to blame somebody, make a scapegoat. “I wanted this thing to happen. Why this thing did not happen?”
It’s always in this world like that. Often we human beings go into a head-on collision with the world. Something is happening in the world. That may appear good for us, bad for us, conflicts, suffering of people, all these things. We must try; whatever we feel that this is wrong, a wrong thing is happening in the world, or to us, or to our friends, or relation, anything, we must try to work it out so that we overcome such conflicts and get peace. So, like we always dream for world peace, for peace for humanity. We start dreaming that “May humans understand each other, love and honor each other.” That’s what we try to advocate, we try to talk to people, whenever I address people, this is what we need to understand.
But finally, whatever result comes. Like I initiate people, whoever comes in front of me, who comes to me, I try to influence them to go for spiritual truths, practice spiritual exercises. And that is my mission. Like a mission, I keep working. Means without any expectations, without bothering to whom I am giving the teaching. There is no discrimination. Anybody who is willing to receive the teaching, they are welcome. Like on this Zoom also, we never ask a person where he is from, to which faith or to which caste or any such thing, we don’t ask. Anybody who is interested is welcome to join and meditate, like that. That is a mission work for me. I keep doing. But amongst these, if all do not observe my teachings properly, and do not put in efforts to achieve the truth, if they fail again, if they are unable to understand, then we do not lose heart, we accept it. And I simply go on doing as long as my body is alive, I keep on doing whatever I have to do; that is important.
I try to explain a hundred times, a thousand times repeatedly when the question may be repeated again and again, other people may ask the same question. But without losing any patience we answer them elaborately, try to explain to them “This is the thing.” So, that is what acceptance means. Finally, even if it is not according to our expectations, we must accept so that we have peace. Then our mind, if it becomes peaceful, that can go into yoga. Means it gets united or gets absorbed to the ultimate truth of the Self. If the mind becomes quiet, if it remains quiet at all times, it will remain in the awareness of the Self. If it is unable to be quiet, it is against yoga, it is not in yoga; in viyoga – that is the word used. That is what will happen. So, it is always brooding or anxious, or blaming, or finding a scapegoat, “Why this happening, why not this happening, God doesn’t listen to me, God doesn’t give me what I want.” All these things, human beings, we always keep doing.
So, that is what we advocate and address that acceptance needs to be there. So, that is the karma yoga. When you are active. Means many people, they may not be able to sit for eight hours, ten hours, even one hour or two hours like that. They keep asking, “Is it enough if I am a good person?” “Okay, you try to become a good person. Do you know what a good person means? Accept the results as they come. Whether you like it or not, is this possible for you? Then you can be a good person. If it is not acceptable, then your mind will get corrupted.” So, that is what we try to advise and advocate.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. So, Babaji, if the results don’t come from the efforts, does that mean we just give up?
Shri Babaji: No, we don’t have to give up. Till the last breath we don’t have to give up. Like, remember, I had told about Swamiji, our Guru. After two, three months, He sat for the tapas. It was very painful. He was bitten by snake and scorpions, rodents. He was sitting in the muddy grounds, so His skin had become decayed. One night, He came out of samadhi, and He felt like crying. “Why should I be sitting like a dead person in the graveyard? Who is the Jangama sage? I never prayed to Him. He came and made me to sit like this. I should go back home and do some business and look after my siblings, mother, everything,” He thought. So, then He started coming towards the gate.
Then He saw that Jangama sage standing at the gates of the graveyard. He commanded Him, “You have a destiny to fulfill by sitting twelve years into tapas. Till then, I will not allow you to go anywhere. You must go back, sit down and do it. Afterwards, you can do anything.” Then, Swamiji became determined. See, then He told Jangama sage, “I will sit for twelve years as long as this body is available. Only the death of this body will stop my efforts. Until then, I will not give up my efforts. Come what may, whether I will become a Yogi or not, I will sit for twelve years. And I will do whatever you want me to do. You want me to just watch, I will just watch.” Like that, determined He came, accepting whatever results will come, but that effort, He said, will be there till the last breath of His life. So, like that, everybody, you don’t have to give up your efforts, or trying again. Try again. If this time it did not happen, remember; the old saying, we all learned from childhood, “The first failure is the beginning of success”.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. Following on that theme, we have had some questions sent in before the session started, and they follow a similar theme. One of the questions is, “I have faced repeated failures after an effort. How do I determine whether to persist or just give up and accept the result?”
Shri Babaji: This type of question a couple of times on emails also has come. I have told them, in one of the quotes also I had written, “You are alive. If you are alive, remember that your efforts have not come to an end. You try again, don’t give up.” Only if death happens to the body, then you cannot do anything, you are no more there. So, if you are alive, know that your mission is not yet complete.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. When we accept the results this way, is there a danger it can weaken our efforts?
Shri Babaji: No, that depends on your intention. How much you want to achieve that thing for which you are putting an effort. See, if a terminally ill person is taken to a doctor, the doctor will put all his efforts and try his best. He will not give up. If the patient or the kin of the patient wants the doctor to keep trying, even to put him on a ventilator, anything, the doctor will oblige the doing. Like that you must not give up. You must have that inclination and be much more determined. “I failed this time. No problem. I will try again.” So, see where you were wrong. Whether your focus was not enough, whether your enthusiasm was not enough. Whether you were putting efforts halfheartedly. So, all these things need to be corrected. You must put your heart into it, that you want to do it and do it. Not just for sake of gameplay that you are trying to appear to an examination to which you are not interested at all. You need to be interested is important.
Like the old saying, we can take the horse to the river, but it is for the horse to drink the water. Even a guru can guide, can be a torch bearer, can try to hold the fingers, but it is for you who will have to walk, who will have to put an effort, who will have to have the complete heart. Otherwise, you tell “I am not interested.” That is it. Then it finishes. So, you need to be interested. Don’t give up. That is important. As if you ask my opinion, I will always advise, “You try again. As long as it is permissible, you try.” Say if you are appearing for an exam, there will be three or four chances. If that chance is over, then you cannot do anything. Till then you can try. Anything in the life. No one person should consider that I am directing my answer to any one person, please. This is generally for educational purpose of all, whoever is listening; not directed against an individual or a group of individual. So, that is the disclaimer. Sometimes people feel whether I was addressing them only. It is not like that. The question came and I am answering, that is all.
Questioner: Thank you, Babaji. When Babaji was explaining the quote from the Gita, and also just now too, He mentioned the word ‘focus’. So, there should be this complete attention when we put in the effort.
Shri Babaji: Yeah, when you are putting an effort, your mind and heart must be there; heart means your total interest. And your mind is you remain focused on the effort. Be on that one. So, say if you have to read a book, you just be reading, when you are reading, you are not doing anything else. You should not keep the book in your hand, and you should not work on something else in the mind, and your mind is running away to a shopping complex. Such a thing must not happen. That is what is important. Like when you sit for meditation, you should be meditating. Means paying attention, just watching. When we tell you, “You just watch,” means your job is just watching. Other than that watching, you must not think, “Why this happening? Why not this happening? Anything else should have happened” – that is not your job. That will be taken care if you just watch.
People start doubting themselves, start doubting the guru also, whether “If I keep watching like this, will the realization occur or it will not happen?” Don’t doubt like that. When you doubt, you cannot remain focused. Your attention will get disturbed. Your mind will run away and its attention will be drawn by the thoughts and visions, the imaginations that are there in the mind. So, focus is such an important thing when you are putting an effort. Remain focused. Focus your attention of the mind and sight in between eyebrows and just keep watching there. English is so simple; again and again I repeat, and it is so simple to understand, “This is what Baba wants. The guru wants that I just simply keep watching.” That’s how Swamiji used to tell. “The Jangama Deva, He told me just to watch in between eyebrows and touched in between, eyebrows. And “Do not repeat anything,” He said. And “Do not imagine anything,” He said. That’s what I did. I just went on watching. So, I did not repeat anything, I did not imagine about anything and Samadhi came. Realization occurred. That’s why I initiate everybody just to watch in between eyebrows and no need of any mantra for this. To realize the ultimate truth, to realize yourself, to become one with the divinity you don’t need any mantra,” He used to say. That’s His words, actually.
Like that, focus is such an important thing to achieve anything in any field. Sports, business, work, job, any work, if you are teaching or if you are learning, whether you are a guru or whether you are a student, everywhere focus is needed. I need to focus to teach you all to answer your question. If I don’t focus, my mind will simply go introvert and blank will happen. I won’t be able to listen what the question is, what the answer is. That’s why I try to be sharp and remain focused and try to understand the question. Then the answer is very easy.
Questioner: Then Babaji, does that focus when we are putting in our efforts, does that itself become a Sadhana?
Shri Babaji: Exactly. Because when you are focused, your mind is there. So, your mind is single pointed; it won’t look here and there. Small kids we see holding a cell phone and they are into some game. They don’t want to look here and there and they are so glued. That is the word you see, you all understand. They are so glued to the screen. Oh, God, that’s what when Tulsi Das, before he became such a devotional and Realised soul, he was very fond of his wife. That what the story says. So once his wife went to her parents’ place and he could not stay without his wife. In the middle of the night it was raining heavily and he crossed the river, he went to his parents’ place. And it was all bolted from inside, everybody was fast asleep and he didn’t even want to disturb anybody, He started climbing. So, he saw a rope coming down and holding that, he climbed onto the first floor and went to the place. Later he realised it was a snake. He didn’t even realize in his focus for his wife. He was so much focused that he wanted to see his wife.
So, then he went inside and he goes inside and wakes up his wife. He says “I cannot remain without you, even for a moment”. Then she is so shocked and bewildered. She rebuts and ridicules him. “What nonsense you are talking. In a few days I would have come back to you. You see, just like you focused to meet me, for my sake you came here, and you climbed holding a snake instead of a rope also, if only you could focus on the divine, God will be in front of you just like this,” she said. And this struck him. He felt a pinch. He became detached. “Ah, such a reality it is. If only I can focus on God, God should be coming. I focused on my wife and my wife is in front of me,” and he leaves home and he goes. That’s how he got to see the divine, became Self-Realised. That is the effect of focus.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. Then this can also generate peace?
Shri Babaji: Yeah, because mind becomes peaceful. It is totally concentrated on one thing; that is what meditation means. So, it is becoming single pointed. Otherwise, it will keep worrying, brooding about the past, anxious about the future. All in imaginations; “What if it happens? What if it doesn’t happen? What if the judgment is given against me? What if this happens to me? If the ailment doesn’t get cured, will I die, will I live?” All these things keep happening. So, if you remain focused and just watch, then your mind becomes silent quietly. Silent means it becomes peaceful. When your mind becomes peaceful, you have peace. That means, in other words, when you become peaceful, you have peace.
Questioner: Thank you, Babaji. Babaji, this can be a very broad subject, but I was wondering if Babaji could speak about how grace can be related to our efforts?
Shri Babaji: Your effort and grace, they go together; the receiver and the broadcast. That is the reason, all great Gurus like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and our own Swamiji always used to tell, “The grace of a yogi, the Guru’s vibrations and the Divine’s vibrations, it is flowing in all directions. You have to raise the sail of faith. Then your mind becomes receptive and catches.” Swamiji used to tell, “You have to build the dam of faith. Like the Ganga River, the grace is flowing like anything.” That means one must realise the grace is already there. The very nature of the ultimate truth is to be gracious. You have to have faith so that you become receptive. If your mind is not receptive enough, the faith gets disturbed; you keep wondering. Faith is like that. Either you do or you die, like a soldier going to the battlefield. He goes with total faith. He knows either he will do it or he will die.
So, we know that we will be teaching meditation throughout my life. By teaching, either I will die one day or I might see many people becoming Self-RealisFed also. Either way, it’s okay. If I get to see a lot of students getting Self-Realised, and they come to work with me, and they try to spread this message in all directions, they look after the ashrams that have been established, that is well and good. If people are unable to dedicate, come and don’t do it, then if we have to pass away, it’s okay, no problem. Like that we will do it or we will die. Like a soldier, this life is like a war zone, Swamiji used to say, battlefield. You should be like a soldier. Never get confused. Either you will do it or you will die. That’s it. We are doing, or if we don’t do it, we will die one day. That’s it. There is nothing else there for me in life.
So, that determination you need to have. Then the grace automatically flows; you will see. The grace of the Divine will bring such students to you who are sincere, who are really interested. They will start coming, they will inquire. Because there are also many sincere students looking for the right type of teaching. See, if only you have faith and you give the right teaching, insist upon that, then such right students will come. The wrong people will automatically wither away. They might abuse me and go away. They go away, that’s it. They were not interested in this. They were not for this truth of the divinity. If anybody is for the truth of divinity, for the ultimate truth, they will come. That is the grace flowing already.
So, that is what we have to realise. The grace is there. Very often, many people try to be very clever. They try to blame God. “Oh, if you show some grace, only I can pass this exam.” They don’t put effort. They don’t have faith in themselves. They don’t have confidence in themselves. And they don’t listen. If I tell, “You how to appear for the exam,” they don’t appear for the exam. Then they come to me with an explanation, “You knew I would not pass again, why did you ask me?” I asked just to test whether you have faith in yourself, whether you are really interested. If you are not interested, you could have told me that you are not interested. Frankly, you tell. Then I would have given up. That’s all. That’s what Swamiji used to tell. “The Guru will tell; if you are not interested to do meditation and tapas, you leave it and go. If you are interested, then you do it. The Guru is there. The grace is flowing. But you need to have that faith. It is your responsibility.”
Always, Swamiji used to tell when somebody came with this question, “See, God is doing His job. You try to do your job of remaining devoted, having faith. That is your job. You must do that. If you don’t do it, you won’t get to see God. Because God is always there always. The grace is there.” So that’s what many people try to expect. They don’t put an effort and they don’t have to do anything. They just sit in a corner and they can be doing anything they want. But then the grace must flow for them to become Self-Realised. How can such a thing happen? They need to be focused. They need to have faith. They need to want Self-Realisation, and then they need to meditate. If they say, “I cannot meditate, I will simply remain gossiping for one hour. Can you bless me so that meditation comes successfully for me?” Things don’t work like that. Never happens in this world.
So, faith and the grace goes together. It is your faith. All great gurus have spoken, whether Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharishi or Swamiji. Swamiji used to tell, “You need to have faith in the name of Guru, then the Guru will have to bless you. So, you have to have faith. That is important. But that faith has its own rule. You cannot simply boast or claim, “I have faith, but still you did not bless me.” Things don’t happen. Many people claim, “Swamiji asked me to go and do acting, but he did not bless me.” Swamiji never asked anybody what they have to do. When they said, “I want to do acting, I want to go into this business, I want to do this job,” He said, “Okay, I will bless you. Remain focused and put in efforts.” Those blessings will work when you have faith. So, that’s what it is. Vibhuti always Swamiji gave as a blessing; that worked for people who had faith.
Questioner: Thank you Babaji. Could Babaji just speak briefly about how this idea of efforts and acceptance He applied it throughout His years as a student monk with Swamiji, please?
Shri Babaji: In my case, you see, naturally I fell in love with my Guru, Swamiji. That means after that there was no looking back. Whatever He told or He made me do or He gave me or He did not give me, everything was simply acceptable. I never questioned; this question never arose that there was no grace of Him. Always my mind thought, “This is His grace. He has slapped, He has scolded me. This is his grace. He has found fault in me deliberately, and He is humiliating me. This is really His grace. He will not humiliate each and every one, though He is destroying my ego like this. So, how lucky I am,” I used to feel. I always thought positively. I never know what is negative thinking at all. I never blamed my Guru for anything. I never told Him what to do, what not to do.
Like, when I wanted to come to Ashram, I requested that “I want to come to Ashram and serve You and I want to realise the Self, that is all.” I didn’t ask Him “I want to have Self-Realisation. I am just thinking whether I should come to Ashram or not to come to Ashram. Swamiji, what do You say about this?” I did not ask about these things. He used to say, “It is your interest.” I just told Him, “I want to come” and He said, “Yes.” So, I went. Never looked back. It is going to be fifty years now. So, I never looked back, I never regretted. So, like this also, it always has to be like that. Never looking back. So, the faith, automatically it was there. I did not think or develop. I didn’t ask anybody “Please, what is faith, how to cultivate faith?” Also I didn’t have to ask at all.
In a way, it became like a matter of self-respect; having faith in my Guru. It became self-respect. I thought “If I lose faith in my Guru, it is below my dignity. I will lose my self-respect.” That type of thing came to me naturally. So, I became more determined. Whenever He even tested, my Guru tested also, then I took it like a challenge always. “Now You have scolded me. You have humiliated me. I am going to love You more. You cannot make me not to love You at all.” I used to speak to Swamiji in my mind. “Swamiji, You cannot make me not to love You. You do whatever You want to do. You cut me into pieces, or You humiliate or You scold.” That was my nature. It came naturally for me.
So, the faith was always there. Everything that happened in my life, I saw it as a grace. Not that whatever I expected only such a thing happened. But what I used to assure myself, “Though I wanted this thing to happen, if it has not happened, there is some larger cause. The Guru has better things in His life for me. He wanted to test me. Now He has said I had to undergo this as a prarabdha, as a destiny. So this thing has happened. No problem. He has done it for my benefit only. Though it has not happened according to my liking, but He has done it for my benefit only.” Liking and benefit are two different things; you have to understand. You like a certain thing to happen in your life, but it may not be beneficial for you. That’s what is the Divine’s grace that works. It may appear as if the thing has not happened according to your liking, but it might be beneficial for you.
Like the mother doesn’t want the child to eat an ice cream when it is having cold and fever. It will stop. But the child will likely misunderstand, show its anger and stubbornness, fight everything, shouting everything with the mother. “Why my mother is not allowing me to eat the ice-cream?” Mother knows that it is not beneficial for the child. In the same way the divine is the mother, the Guru is like a mother. Mother knows; the Guru knows that it was not beneficial for me. I gave a piece of vibhuti into Swamiji’s hands early morning, and requested Him to bless that I want to sit for the tapas. He made fun. “Do you think, idiot, this vibhuti will make you to sit for tapas? I said, “I have faith. You give me, I will do it.” But then He said again, “Look, if you sit for tapas now you will become egoistic. You will go away from me. You might become famous, but you won’t have your Guru with you.” Then immediately my mind dropped that idea; “I don’t want to do tapas. I want my Guru first. I want to be at Your Lotus Feet and serve You. Tapas can happen afterwards.” Then Swamiji said, “Okay, in due course of time when the time is ripe, it will be possible. Even if you don’t want to, you will be made to sit for tapas.”
So, such is the grace and its wonders that works. Sometimes we might want it to happen, but it may not be happening. Sometimes we may not be ready or don’t want that to happen, but it will happen. Simply we have to surrender. You don’t know the divine play, how it works. We cannot understand. Swamiji said, “Do not try to understand the divine play. Simply accept it.” So, that’s what can happen if you simply love the master, if you simply love the divinity. That is all; no other word. The single one word of love. From the purity of your heart, it can take care of everything of the karma, dharma, result, anything. It can take care, that’s what happened in my life. I can see in these fifty years.
Even after Swamiji dropped His body also, everything did not happen sweetly for us. Like smoothly or a sweet tablet, it didn’t happen. So much of trouble we had to see, so much of resistance and enmity, people trying to trouble us, everything. Everything my mind took it as the Divine’s grace, the Guru’s grace; “He’s teaching something, He is doing it for my benefit. Maybe this is what has to happen. This is for a larger cause He’s doing like this. It’s okay” –accepted. But we went on putting efforts for whatever that needs to be done. Like, some of the boys who were working with us, they abused me and went away. I said, “It’s the grace of the Guru. It’s okay they have gone. This line is not for them. My teachings are not for them. They came with their personal agenda and they went away. It’s okay. No problem. I don’t have to worry. Maybe for my benefit only, my Guru has done this.” I thought, “Maybe my Guru has done this. Whenever He needs to bring somebody, He will bring.”
After I did tapas, many people did fun with me and criticized me, they didn’t like, “Do you think you are not destined to go to America? You are not destined to teach people,” this type of thing. I said, “No problem. I am not worried at all. I don’t have to become anxious. Anybody, whoever is destined to receive my blessing, my Guru will bring them to me. It’s His job. I don’t have to worry. If He doesn’t bring, it’s no problem. I don’t have to bless. That’s all.” Means a blessing is a tool that I have got. If He sends somebody to me, I have to bless. If He doesn’t send somebody to me, I don’t have to do anything. I have to keep quiet. So, with that attitude, you will have peace. That’s what is the acceptance. And then you will be able to get to see the grace.
Grace is already there. So, you have to recognise that grace. Every moment there is a grace that is playing on our heads. Without His grace this thing wouldn’t have been possible for me, to sit with you all and answer your questions, or teach the meditation, conduct the meditation class. Is not this His grace? We have to see the grace is there. But often we fail to see that grace, because of our own mind’s preoccupation with other imaginations, with stupid, ignorant things. Then we fail to see that grace. We get to see; we got hurt. But we are lucky we are still alive. Is not that the grace? Like Swamiji used to tell, “Maybe you were supposed to lose a thousand dollars; you have lost only ten dollars, be grateful to the Divinity. Be grateful to the Guru.” So, that thing happens.
So, that is how the grace is. Grace is working. We have to understand, we have to recognize. This is possible if we can keep our minds purified, total faith, determined. With self-dignity, keep that faith. Faith should become your dignity. If you don’t have faith, it is below your dignity. You are not a dignified devotee at all. You are a dignified devotee if you have faith. So, then how can the faith go? Then you will get to see the Divine’s grace.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. Babaji, before we invite people to ask questions as we do at the end of most sessions, I have got some questions that people have put on the internet. I was hoping I could ask those first, please?
Shri Babaji: Yeah, definitely.
Questioner: The first question almost follows directly from what Baba was just saying. Somebody was asking, “If you were to lose a million dollars, are you supposed to quietly accept that? How is that possible?”
Shri Babaji: Yeah, you think that you are supposed to lose a billion dollars, and you have been blessed to lose only a million dollars. Means, always you have to think like that. I’ll tell the example. If your imagination is less, you will understand the grace. Like fifty years ago, when I went to the ashram when my Guru sent me to Dehradun, my imagination was small, a small hut type of ashram and a peaceful, serene atmosphere. Peace was more important than any other comforts. Peace and a little bit of a small lake, something like that. But when I went, it was a huge palatial building. My God. My Guru has given me so much; I did not expect Him to give so much. He has given me such a palatial building. So that appears. So, if I had imagined a presidential palace that the ashram should be, then that building also would have been less. “Oh, this is a small bungalow building, that is all. I expected my Guru to give me a presidential palace.” So, it depends on your imagination, whether it is one dollar, a million dollars, or a billion dollars, whatever it is.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. Babaji, one other question. If we always choose good karma, then do we always get good results?
Shri Babaji: When the results come, you have to understand that as a good result. It is your mind which has to accept it as good. You will get to see the result depending on the attitude or imagination of your mind. That’s what we have been talking of the grace. The child may see getting an ice cream a good thing. “I have done a good karma of being this mother’s child. I should get an ice cream.” But the mother knows the child is having a cold and fever; that ice cream is not good for the child. She refuses to give the ice cream. Then the child has to have that wisdom, “It’s my benefit, for my benefit that mother has refused to give the ice cream because I am having a cold.” At that moment, it may be difficult for the child to understand, it’s a small baby – it may be annoyed, it may cry, it may shout, it may get annoyed with the mother, “You are not a mother at all.” That’s how often in this world we humans also, “You are not at all a God if you cannot give me, you are only a stone idol, you are nothing, you are just nothing.” We keep shouting if we don’t get what we want. But the divine knows what we should be getting for our benefit.
So, that’s what you need to understand, what good and bad means. If you are doing good karma, everything that is happening is good; that you must understand. At that moment you may have expectations of a particular result. If that doesn’t happen, you may feel bad. But that doesn’t mean that your good karma has brought a bad result. So, many people tend to think that there is no use in doing a good karma. They have asked me and discussed with me like that. Okay. If you want to have such a million dollars, you want to become a dacoit or a robber, it’s up to you. You might get that. But with that, you will always have the stress that sometimes the police might come and pick you up and you may have to go to jail. And you will always live with a risk of getting caught, so you’ll be hiding and running away, hiding and running away. You might be a billionaire, you might be a trillionaire, but you are hiding and running away.
So, you have to think about what you want. You do good karma. That good karma, how do you know what is good? Whatever you think is good, you will do it. But then you will expect this result to happen, and you want God must do what you think. See, if everybody… like one person wanted me to bless that when we had gone to a forest safari, he wanted me to bless that we can see a tiger. I told, “Tiger already has taken blessing that it doesn’t want to come in front of a human being. So, I have that dilemma. What should I do?” Like that, the things work. You want God to bless you what you want to have, but God has so many creations, so many children, so many kids, and one goes with “I want this result, Swamiji. I want my case to be won.” Another comes to Swamiji, “The same case, I want to win.” “Okay, you are blessed. Whoever has the faith, they will get it. Whatever they have to get.”
So these types of very tricky situations do arise, but if you are a mother, you will understand if your two children are fighting. Sometimes two of my devotees who want to be separated and to have their own centres in a particular town and they will be fighting all the time. So, what should I do? I love both of them. Both of them are like my kids. I have to bless both of them, “Okay, you sit here and run your centre. You sit here and you run your centre. No problem. But at least stop fighting. You concentrate on meditation now. You sit there. You concentrate on meditation. Don’t keep watching what the other is doing. It’s all over. If I come, let me bless both of you. Don’t try to stop me not to go there. Don’t feel bad if I go there. Because I don’t have anything in this world. It is Swamiji, my Guru who wants to bless. Let Him bless.” So, that type of situation comes. So, good and bad are not easy to determine.
Questioner: Thank you, Baba. Babaji, before we invite people to ask questions by putting up their hand I’ve got one last question that came from the internet, please. It asks, “If you’re putting in effort, shouldn’t the effort be put in with discrimination? Or can yogis follow their desires mindlessly?”
Shri Babaji: You see, in this world you have been blessed with a brain. Learn to apply the brain and try to discriminate, whatever is within your reach, your willpower. And then leave the result to the Divine. And put an effort, whatever. Like many people come with the question, what is the right decision? In my opinion, there is no such thing called a right decision. When the future you don’t know what is going to happen, you have to put in an effort. So, how can you take a right decision? Sometimes you might make a decision. Things may not work. Something else may work. You get married. And then your partner may turn out to be bad. One of the spouses turns out to be bad. So, what to do? Then you have to work out to sort out such problems when it arises.
In the same type, everywhere in this world, we take a decision. I took a decision to go to my Guru. I told my mother, “I don’t know whether he is a Yogi or a bad person. What I know is I love him. I will never regret.” I was lucky. I was blessed to have such a great Self-Realised master. But if it didn’t work sometimes, “It’s okay, we will withdraw.” That is all. So, there is no such thing called correct decision, right thing to know what it is. You have to take a decision. Discriminate, try to apply your wisdom. One thing I always told, if you regularly meditate, your ability to discriminate, apply your brains tremendously increases. You will become a mature person. You will be able to understand a longer vision. You can grasp what is likely to happen ten years later, what is likely to happen in a situation, that type of wisdom will come. If you practice meditation then you will have the discrimination power. Discriminate. And then when putting efforts, remain fully focused. Don’t doubt yourself before discriminating. If you keep doubting, that is like death; you will never be able to do anything if you doubt yourself. “I’m not ready to do it. I’m not ready,” then you are not ready to do anything. That type of doubt must not be there. Do it. Then you can get it.
Question: Pranams Babaji, thank You for this conversation. It’s so helpful. So, I’m hearing and I think understanding that karma yoga is effort with acceptance and without attachment. And then I’ve heard karma described as for every action, there is a reaction. Is that an accurate definition of karma, for every action there is a reaction?
Shri Babaji: Yes. Definitely, this I can say.
Same Questioner: One more question if that’s okay. So, grace and karma are intertwined. And for grace, we need to have faith. And also determination and dedication. All of that together, the faith, the dedication and determination?
Shri Babaji: Yeah. If you have faith, it will automatically give you dedication and disciplined approach, focused approach; everything will come when you have faith. So then grace also descends. That’s why they all go together.
Question: Thank you so much for uplifting us in these weekly classes. My question is, are there any alternative options to experiencing enlightenment other than sitting for tapas? For example, can we just keep putting in efforts into sadhana and performing selfless service? Like, I want to have a successful career in the future, so I don’t think I’ll have time to sit for tapas until I retire. So, what’s your advice?
Shri Babaji: You see, your ability to keep the mind quiet only can take you to Realization, in whichever way you want to do it. Like karma yoga, if you can exercise acceptance, nothing is easier, but you need to have faith, determined disciplined approach, and practice, all these things are needed. If you don’t have time to sit down and concentrate, while working you be active, but learn to accept graciously, accept the results graciously, then your mind will receive and become quiet. In the mind try to remain devoted to the cause, to your Guru, to the Divinity always. So, these things also can be helpful if this works for you.
Question: Babaji, I’m trying to again decipher the whole cycle of effort and acceptance. So, originally a thought occurs, a thought like a desire, “I want to do this.” And for that, “I should make this effort.” So, mind makes first thought, decides an action, makes an action. And then the result, which is not in control of the mind, happens, whatever the result, happens. Babaji, in the process when I go through this in my life is that, when I make a desire and when I make effort, automatically mind is in many thought processes, “What should I do to achieve this?” And that feels like I’m not at peace, because I’m constantly desiring towards something. And action happened, not happened also, because I was into so much thoughts to achieve something. And then it did not happen, so now my whole, like the whole castle is now broken. So, the idea of working, making effort with desiring something, and accepting the results and going quiet seems impossible in some ways. So, how does Babaji interpret this; how do we make heartful effort with full focus, and then mind does not think about results at all?
Shri Babaji: You see, important points; when you develop a desire, then your mind starts thinking, “What should I do, how to work?” Convert it into applying the wisdom. “What are the best methods that I have to adapt and approach?” So, see if there is any expert in that field, take the expert’s advice, then follow. Follow the methods. When you follow the method, remain focused. In spite of all this, if it does not happen, your castle collapses, never mind. That is all you need to think. “Never mind. I will build up again. I am not going to give up. I will build up a group again. I will do work again.” Keep working. Because you are alive. You are not dead. If you are alive, your mission is not complete. You have to put in effort again.
So, when you keep yourself so busy like this, where is the time to worry or feel sorry for yourself? That is what is needed in karma yoga. Convert your mental energies into positive, positive thinking, positive efforts, trying again, all these things keep doing. So, like this, you see, twenty-five years after I completed my tapas, and I am just doing my work. Not every time we are not successful, that great Self-Realised souls have been born and become my students, or they are helping in my mission. There are some who are helping me also. There are some who abuse me also. Both are there equally. But I just don’t mind, keep going. My castle gets built up. That gets broken again, collapses. Then again, I keep trying to construct another castle. Because constructing is my job. If somebody wants to break it, let them break it. I will construct again.
See, from a small bird when it builds its small nest. If small something happens, if a fire picks up or a wind comes or some human being removes it and cleans it up, it doesn’t give up effort. It goes again, collects all the materials that is needed. Comes back again, put it, goes and comes back again. Then again, builds the nest again. Because it needs. That when the understanding that it needs, then it will not give up. It will need to have the nest. Otherwise it cannot remain without the nest. So that is when it keeps putting effort.
This is one important thing. A human being also needs to understand that we need it. When we need it, we will not give up. If our body has some illness, then we understand we need a doctor, we need a medical expert’s advice. We will go to one medical expert, if we don’t get, we will try to take another opinion. We will go to another. We will not give up. Because we know that we need it, otherwise we cannot live peacefully. In the same way this also, when you understand that you need it, till the last breath, come what may, you will not give up. Never become frustrated at all. No frustration. That is not in our dictionary at all. Being a yogi also, I am also facing the same like you all in the life. Not that everything is smooth and successful in my mission work. Human beings after all; some are helpful to me, some are troubling, some want to destroy me. So many things, it keeps happening. This is a part of life we have to think. But attitude is important. Your mental attitude. “No problem. A problem is no problem.” That attitude will keep you going. Never mind hundred times the castle collapses. You are alive. You have to build one more time, a hundred and one times. You are alive, you build one more time. As long as you are alive, you take it as a mission work and keep doing. You will find the success one day.
Question: Hi, Babaji. I am driving. Okay, in the last two weeks I had COVID. I got better, but in those two weeks I had to cancel work. I lost money. And then my mind started playing up, and my mind started getting anxious and I began suffering depression, anxiety, became fearful of losing my mom. Even though my mom is still alive. Losing my family members and stuff like that. Do you have any advice for a person like myself who is suffering from depression?
Shri Babaji: Keep yourself mentally fit. You have to work and try; never give up for the best things. Whatever the results that come. Before the results come, don’t allow your mind to go into wild imaginations. “What if it happens? What if it doesn’t happen?”, all these things. Because mind has a tendency either to brood about the past or become anxious about the future. Even if it happens also, no problem. You try again, whatever. You need to earn your livelihood, you have to work. You keep trying. Try not to allow the mind to go into anxiety unnecessarily.
Same Questioner: How do I achieve that?
Shri Babaji: By practising meditation. How did you achieve the driving? You practiced, right? In the same way, by practising you can also achieve the meditation also. By practising, understanding the technology, the instructions that we give in these Zoom classes. In the beginning, I always tell, “This is the instruction. This is how you have to meditate.” And follow that and practice that. Then your mind will become strong. You will become the master of your mind. Then you will see that the mind will not trouble you anymore, and your efforts will be to the best of your ability.
Question: Pranam Babaji. Babaji, You have advised us to meditate one hour daily. So, is it enough to meditate that much for Self-Realisation? Because we are not in close proximity with You to serve You. We have our responsibilities going on. So, is it possible to get Self-Realised with just one hour meditation?
Shri Babaji: You see, it depends. Your mind has to become totally quiet. Either through sitting in meditation, or serving, serving without any expectations, then the mind becomes cool and quiet and recedes. Then a Self-Realisation can happen through the karma also. So, whichever suits, you can adopt, and you can also adopt both also. If you get time for more than a little one hour sometimes, you can sit down. Morning one hour, evening one hour, like that also. Other times you can try to serve and help the mission. Whatever it is, you may have to earn your livelihood also. You might be working. All this, it’s like working out a budget, type. So, timetable you work out. “Let me sit and meditate in this time. Let me serve the mission, my Guru. And let me work out so that I can earn something,” like that. So, everything can be working. In all the time, take care that your mind doesn’t go into any brooding or anxiousness. That is why the karma should be offered to the Guru. “Let my services reach the Lotus Feet of my Master.” Then your mind will cool down. Then it can happen one day.
Question: Namaste, Babaji. Thank you for your time. So, I just wanted to understand a bit more about the meditation. So, basically, when I’m meditating, if I sit for an hour, I doubt if I’m using that full hour for meditation, because most of the time my mind just slips into some thoughts. I don’t know when, how it does that, it just does it automatically, I’m not even aware. And then after some time, I suddenly realise, “Oh, I need to be focusing.” And even that happens suddenly, I just don’t know how. So, in the end of the hour, I’m like, “Okay, how much time did I actually focus?” Probably very less, to be honest. So, I don’t understand.
Shri Babaji: This happens to almost every human being. Because since time immemorial, mind has gone out of control. To bring it, overnight, dramatic results may not happen. But it will come in due course of time. You need to have that faith. And dedication, discipline and patience are the mantras you need to learn. Means if you are dedicated, set a priority every day to sit down. And have a disciplined approach; without fail practice that one hour. In all the one hour try to understand the technique that we told. Just watch the front portion or in between eyebrows. When thoughts and visions come, don’t try to analyze whether it is good or bad. Just try to understand, you just watch. Use that thought or vision to remain focused, but not to think. These two are two different aspects of the mind. Mind has a tendency to analyse. It cannot keep quiet. Either “It is good. This is bad. Why is this like this?” Then you get carried away. This is what happens to everybody. Bring it back again. You try again. Try again.
That’s why one hour is recommended. Thirty, forty minutes you might be struggling. Final five, ten minutes the mind might cool down a little bit after getting tired. So, if you can continue for another half an hour if it’s possible, then the meditation will become smooth. Every day sit down. Every day that you sit some amount of purification happens, definitely, even if you do not notice for a while. Then after six months, after a year, you will see changes in yourself. In your thinking, in your approach you become a matured person in the world. And you will not be hurt easily. You will be able to understand others better. All this maturity as a human being will come in you. And you keep practicing. Practice is another mantra which should never be given up. Have faith it will come down one day. It will be all right. We will pray for you.
Same Questioner: Can I just quickly ask? So, what I think is when my mind is relaxing, it just goes off thinking about stuff. But when I’m trying to focus, it is more effort in that, and then it becomes tired because of that effort, and then it goes off relaxing and thinking. Is that not what is happening? I don’t know.
Shri Babaji: Process happens because when you meditate it brings up all the chronic disease of the mind. It stirs, then everything comes. When that gets filtered and evaporated, that happens. It’s like the medicine brings out and the disease gets cured. But when you’re relaxing, you just have a tranquilizer; temporarily you experience the peace, but the disease of the mind doesn’t go away. That’s what the meditation can do. When it is doing, it can be painful for a while. It’s like the thief is running away and you’re forced to watch the thief. The thoughts are all going away. You just have the patience to keep quiet and watch them without getting involved whether it is good or bad. Don’t bother about any past. Just wait, then it will happen. It will be all right. This is natural for any human mind to experience.
Question: Namaste. When I try to meditate, when I try to focus in the middle of the eyebrows, sometimes I’m not quite sure if I’m actually looking at it or are the eyeballs getting dropped. I get confused a little bit, so I try to put a little bit more pressure, that’s one thing.
Shri Babaji: Let me answer this and then we’ll take the next one. So, this point is you don’t have to worry because eyeballs do not come into one direction easily. It moves parallelly. That’s why this confusion occurs. So, when you close the eyes, if some time you are unable to locate the centre also, don’t bother for a while. Watch the front portion whatever is there, without bothering the location. Slowly with all the patience, skillfully you watch. Then after a few months, that will become stabilized, eyeballs. Then it will start coming to one direction on its own. Then your concentration will improve. Then you will feel that peace descend also. So, that is how you practice. While practicing, need to have patience; don’t get confused, don’t be in a rush. It will come one day. Yeah, next point.
Same Questioner: I feel like I’m not able to keep my head properly straight up. It’s like it drops a bit I think, and then suddenly I realize and I try to move and put it back in straight.
Shri Babaji: You need to practice to keep yourself straight. Do some exercises. Keeping like this, move the neck to right and left for a few times and up and down and take a round. These exercises can stabilize the neck to remain straight. If necessary, you sit on to a wall also with a pillow or a cushion so that you try to remain straight. Practice like that, then you will be able to sit straight. That is very important. Bless you.
Question: Namaste Babaji. Thank You for the session. You had spoken about God’s grace and having the faith to see His grace and surrender. But supposing if sometimes in somebody’s life, like, for example, they might go through a failed marriage or they might have a critical illness for which there is no effort that you can put in, it’s not a curable illness. Sometimes there are some problems like that, for doctors. So then how does acceptance come that God wishes our best, like You spoke about?
Shri Babaji: One thing we need to realize, like a failed marriage; marriage has to be successful with two people accepting each other, loving each other and respecting each other. If one of them is unable to do it, then that will not be successful. So, always in life, you can change yourself, but you may not be able to change the other person. Everybody will be selfish. That is when finally, if it totally fails, no choice, you try your best. Even in spite of all that if it fails, you have to accept, there is no other choice. You accept so that you don’t lose your own peace, because your own life is very precious. Your own peace and happiness is very precious. Just for sake of somebody else who did not accept you, made it a failure, you don’t have to lose your peace and happiness. It is your existence-right to be happy at all.
If you just don’t depend on the other in this world. Consider that “This world is not worthy that I have to depend always. Let me be happy without anything. If it happens, happens, if it doesn’t happen, doesn’t happen. There is an old poem I have read. It’s in Urdu, but I will tell in English for understanding. “My sorrows increased so much, frightened, I drank them. The world rejected me, then I rejected the world and remained in peace.” So that is what, sometimes this is the truth, though it may be found very difficult and not acceptable easily. We want that God work out so that “Whatever I want it should happen.” But in life it doesn’t happen. We have to accept and then find peace within you.
You need to have your peace and happiness. That is much more important than anything else. If an illness is there, you try to work out with a medical expert whatever is possible. Keep praying. We call it in Hindi, ‘Dawa and Dua’. ‘Dawa’ is the medicine, ‘Dua’ is the prayer. Prayer is needed so that you can keep your mind intact and not lose hope. Don’t lose your peace. And ‘Dawa’, medicine is needed; you try curing. Still, if it doesn’t work, it’s okay. You keep trying, whatever is possible. At least mentally you don’t have to lose hope and peace. Mind is above all – body has its own limitations. One day it will die, but mind is such a thing which has no limitations. And you don’t need any other doctor. Once you understand your mind’s worth and your mind’s things, make yourself strong.
Try to read such people’s life who have valiantly fought with these status of their own physical ailments or mental ailments and have overcome and achieved great success in life. Valiant people, like that if you read. Like my Guru used to tell, if you are in difficulty, try to know the life of a person who might have undergone much more difficulty than you, you will feel better. This is one psychology. I fully understand if anybody is in difficulty, we have compassion. We’ll pray for all of them, but this is what is the reality and the truth of psychology, spirituality, one we need to understand and look for peace within. I pray for you, may you be blessed.
Question: The question is, my mind is resistant and non-accepting and judgmental of whatever is happening. Is it just the selfish aspect of the mind? How can I practice more acceptance of whatever comes?
Shri Babaji: It is a habit of the mind, a general weakness of human beings. Majority we have seen in society, easily it doesn’t accept. When it desires a certain thing to happen, it expects that a certain thing only happens. If anything opposing happens, it doesn’t accept, it goes into a brooding and disappointment, frustration and tries to blame somebody, hold a scapegoat, all these things. That is not reality. We try to tell, past will not come back. It’s over. Past is meant only if you had committed any mistake, you try to learn, so that you don’t repeat such mistake. Future you can always plan, but don’t have to be anxious. You have to plan so that you work out in the present, so that you shape your future in a better way. And you must realize it is you and your peace which is much more precious and important than what your mind thinks or judges. If your mind is judgmental, it will lose its peace. So now you have to choose whether you want peace or you are happy with the judgments. If you have judgments, you will not have peace. If you have peace, you have to stop judgments. That’s how the doctor will tell. If you want help, you have to adopt this medicine and take care of your food intake. If you are happy with illness, then you eat anything. You don’t take medicines. It’s up to you. That’s what finally it is for the patient to understand and adapt. Become determined. How come you are judgmental? How can you not stop the judgment and have peace? Peace is a need for you. You realize. If you understand this.
We will pray for you anyway. Whatever it is, we will bless all of you. May my Guru Shivabalayogi bless all of you. I appreciate that you all took out some time to listen to me, to meditate with me. Know that I love you all. We have compassion for any troubles in this world. We will pray for you all with the Divine Guru. May He protect you all, fulfill your wishes, and give you peace. May you be able to practice meditation and achieve the truth that we could achieve by the grace of our Guru, by His blessings and by His training us.
End of Session
