Recorded on 27 April 2024 with worldwide participants.

0:00 Intro
0:07 What is Karma Yoga?
1:00 Is Karma Yoga the same as Dhyana Yoga, but in activity?
13:40 Do we need to lose the idea in our imagination that an outcome of our action is either good or bad?
17:02 Babaji’s natural love and surrender to Swamiji that allowed Karma Yoga to happen.
24:21 Wouldn’t it be better to retreat from the world after Tapas to avoid getting dragged into politics between human beings?
27:10 How to achieve having our work and duties converted into Tapas, like Babaji’s selfless service was converted into 7 years of Tapas?
31:37 “It is not enough just to be good, you have to be wise also.”
36:29 Do not let the mind go into agitations when active in the world.
40:09 Dedicating our actions in life to the Guru.
41:11 A quote from the Bhagavad Gita on giving up doership.
44:50 Is there a possible state where there are no thoughts in the mind, but there still exists an imagination or an ego?
45:41 From desires we take action, so if we don’t have desires then we won’t take any action?
47:35 During Tapas, is it continuous 14-16 hours in day at a stretch?
47:57 Do we slowly increase our meditation from 1 to 2 to 3 etc like that, to eventually reach Tapas?
49:11 Did Swamiji need to do His Tapas in the graveyard? Could they not have found a more sheltered place for Him?
51:27 Was the Karma Yoga that Babaji did a preparation to strengthen him to develop the necessary quality to do Tapas, or could Realization have happened through continuous Karma Yoga?
54:03 What should be a mother or wife’s Karma Yoga while still supporting the other family members’ Karma Yoga?
56:28 Through meditation and prayer can you impact on your family’s Karma Yoga?

Discourse: In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.255
Karma Yoga
You tube Link: https://youtu.be/8ZiUwFFeK68   
Recorded:  27 April 2024

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   To start with on Karma Yoga, could Baba please explain and maybe elaborate a bit on what karma yoga actually is?  What is the practice of karma yoga?

Babaji Maharaj:   Karma yoga. ‘Karma’ means actions.  We can take it literally; while you are active in this world, in any way of life, you practice yoga of your mind.  Means, you practice the quietening of your mind in such a way that it can go and merge with its Ultimate Truth.  This is what has to happen.  This is what is the basic meaning of karma yoga. 

Question:   Okay, thank You, Babaji.  So, it sounds like it’s quite similar.  Dhyana, meditation, is ‘your attention to’.  So, is karma yoga really the same, but in activity?

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly.  For the same purpose, we sit for meditation.  Like for meditation also, we try to teach, mentally you have to be quiet.  That is what you have to practice.  In dhyana yoga, we make you to sit in a stillness of the physical body and make you to practice quietening the mind.  When you just watch in between eyebrows, that means you are not trying to think anything, you are not trying to analyze, or you are not trying to make any judgments –anything that happens within the mind; that much you have to bother.  Thus, by just watching you practice becoming quiet.  As you go on becoming quiet, the thoughts and visions that are in the mind also will dissolve.  They will disappear.  So, this is one thing. 

So, in the same way, here in karma yoga, this has to happen when the body is active; body will be in action.  You may have some responsibilities, adopted a way of life, active, driving, going here and there.  So, in all this way of life, you would have some desire, ambition or something to achieve.  Having such a thing itself is not wrong, I have told.  Having a desire itself is not wrong or a problem.  Then you put an effort to achieve that one.  When you put an effort, you practice that you will not allow your mind to go into an anxiousness.  Because mind either broods about the past or jumps into an anxiousness about the future.  “Whether it happens, what will happen and what will not happen”, these types of things it jumps into an anxiousness.  Here, you plan for the future, what you want to achieve and focus in the present to work out.  In this process, mind need not go into an anxiousness.  Before that, you don’t have to become anxious.  Anxiousness happens [in relation to] whether it happens or not.  Maintain the attitude, “If it has to happen, it will happen.  If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.  I have put an effort.”  You need to have satisfaction once you have put an effort.  .  If anything happens, we don’t know whether it is destiny, nature, luck favouring, the Divine, anything.  We have to simply accept when it is beyond our capacity. 

So, when we accept it – means in the mind, acceptance is required – then the mind recedes and becomes quiet.  It remains composed.  We put an effort.  The thing might have happened according to our expectations.  Sometimes it might not have happened.  Even if it has not happened according to our expectations, we remain unperturbed.  We remain at peace.  “It is okay.  It has not happened.”  So, if there is a chance, we will put an effort again.  Like that, holding this formula everywhere in your life, if you go like [that],  a thinking will come only when it is necessary to plan a work and what you need to achieve.  And afterwards, it will become quiet.  That you put an effort, you remain focused.  And when the result comes also, the mind is quiet.  Mind is not perturbed.  So, nothing of this world; means a result,  anything that is happening or not happening shall not bother our mind, will not have any effect on our mind.  Our mind is quiet. 

The same thing, Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita, many people get to read, “karmanye vaadhi karasya, maa phaleshu kadachana.”  In those days, He just told, “You have a right to put in action, karma.  You have a right for karma, means you have a right to put in action, effort, but you don’t have any right over the fruits of the karma.  “Maa phaleshu kadachana” – we don’t have.  It’s not in your hands.  When it comes, whatever it comes, you have to accept.  Like this, in a simple way, they said.  And this is what we have to understand.  There is no universal guarantee that all our efforts will bring the same result that we expect.  But for this reason, there is no need that we should not be putting any effort.  We must put in an effort; that’s important, very, very important, that our Guru taught, “Never give up karma.  You work it out.  Whether the Self-realization happens or not, you have to meditate.  You try to follow the method that the Guru is teaching.  Try to just watch in between eyebrows.  Any thoughts or visions coming, do not bother.  Don’t try to think about that.”  Like that, we have to adopt this formula.  It’s very necessary. 

Like Swamiji also used to tell, “Just like a soldier going to the battlefield…”  means, he is never perturbed.  And he is not worried or afraid.  Because he knows, either he will do it or he will die.  Either of the two will happen.  And both are equally acceptable as a very honorable thing for him.  He will feel, “Even if I have to die defending my country, it’s glory for me.”  And there is another thing.  In a championship like Olympics also, the motto, saying, is that whether you win a medal or not is not that important, what is important is that you participate, you participate in the competition.  That is glory for you.  You will have the satisfaction that you tried, what you call your best.  So, in life also.  Like a doctor will try till the end of the breath of the patient who has been brought to the hospital.  He will try, he will put his best efforts.  He will give all medicines that’s available, what has been prescribed.  So, in spite of that, if the person dies, it has to be accepted as the Divine’s wish. 

So, for this reason only another thing, ‘destiny’ word has been used.  If a certain thing did not happen according to your expectation, so that you don’t get perturbed mentally, you don’t lose hope, think that you are destined to undergo that.  And for that reason, you simply accept it.  And there is always a hope.  You can try again.  You try again.  That is a hope.  So, as long as there is hope in the mind, it is the mind which is more important for anybody which must not lose hope till the last breath of life.  That ends when this body dies.  Last breath, that is what it is.  Then no more effort can be done. 

When Swamiji had started the tapas after two, three months, He felt His body very painful.  The body’s thigh skin had become decayed because HHHe was sitting in the mud.  It was very heavy rainy season in August, September, October, all.  Then one night He came out of samadhi and felt like crying.  He was an young boy, a fourteen-year-old.  He started thinking, “Why should I be sitting in this graveyard like a dead man?  I did not pray anything to anybody.  I don’t know who was that Jangama Deva who made me to sit like this for tapas.  I will go back home and do business and help my family.”  He started walking out of the graveyard.  But at the gate of the graveyard, He saw the Jangama Deva standing there.  He commanded, “Your destiny has made us to manifest.  And we are here to make you to sit for twelve years of tapas.  Till then, we will not allow you to go anywhere.  You have to put an effort to sit for twelve years.”  So once Swamiji heard this, He became totally determined.  “If that is the case, then I will sit for twelve years.  Only death of the body may make me stop putting an effort.  Until then, I will not run away giving up this tapas.  It will be a matter of self-respect for me,” He said.  

He promised the Jangama Sage whom He considered as a Guru and came back and sat by closing the eyes.  He went into meditation.  That was the combination of the dhyana yoga and karma yoga.  When He got up, wanted to go back home, when He felt like crying, He felt the pain, He felt “Why I should be sitting here like a dead man?”  It was all the karma, karma yoga.  With that, karma and the yoga was happening.  Means, when the Guru said, “You have to sit for twelve years,” immediately His mind accepted.  It became quiet.  “If that is the case, for twelve years, I will sit down.  Only death of the body will make me stop this effort.”  So, like that, till the last breath of life, if we all, everybody adopts this, a beautiful karma yoga in your day, every day, every moment you can achieve something, will be possible in meditation, quietening the mind.  Initially, it may be a bit confusing, “Without thinking, how can we do any actions?  Without expecting, how can we feel motivated?”  You need to feel motivated with a duty-bound thinking. 

Like a soldier is motivated, “I will [unclear audio] be defending my country, I will not give up.  More than that I will not think.  Let me focus on the battle.”   Because, if he keeps thinking or daydreaming anything else, then somebody else will kill him.  His enemy will kill him.  So, like that, here also, in the life also, we have to think, “I will do it or I will die.  I will put an effort.  If it happens, it happens, otherwise, fine.  Until the last breath of life, I will keep trying for this.”  With that attitude, you feel motivated.  Don’t bother about the result.  It is possible.  Without bothering for the result, separate it and feel motivated as a duty-bound.  “I will do it or I will die.”  Think that your Guru has commanded.  Think that the Divine has commanded.  Think that your mind has commanded that you need to put an effort to achieve this.  Just do it.  Then the karma yoga will happen. 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  So, Baba, it’s very hard to remove that idea in our imagination of what is the best outcome in a situation.  But do need to lose this idea in our imagination, “This is the good outcome.  This is the bad outcome”?

Babaji Maharaj:   Very important, because often from the youth, this type of question comes about indecision.  “How do we know that we will be able to take a right decision and we will be able to achieve?”  I tell them, in fact, there is no such thing called a right decision or a wrong decision.  Simply, you have to take a decision.  Things may happen according to your expectations.  Things may not happen according to your expectations.  But you don’t have to regret.  You have taken a decision and you do it fully.  If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t happen, you try something else.  So, this is what happens.  So, always in life, we will have to have this attitude.  Then it will be a decision.  I said, when you take a decision and after some time, if you regret, then it was your mistake that you took that decision.  If you do not regret, if there is a failure, there is no need to regret or feel ashamed.  There is no shame at all.  A failure is not a thing to feel ashamed.  A failure is a thing that will motivate you to try again and go for it till you don’t achieve or you don’t die. 

We keep praying a certain thing has to happen.  Today, it has not happened.  Tomorrow, we will pray again.  Tomorrow, it doesn’t happen.  Day after tomorrow, we will pray again.  We will not give up.  With God, we will be praying, “I want this to happen.  Bless me.  Please, shower Your grace upon me.”  Well, it is up to God to shower the grace.  We won’t blame God, but we will keep praying.  Like that, effort, effort in life; we will keep trying for peace, to achieve that one.  So, then only, you will achieve the Self-realization, quietness of the mind and your karma will be fruitful.  So, very often people think karma yoga is simple, simply go on doing – not like that.  It has to happen like this.  Then the yoga will happen.  This is equally difficult like the meditation.  Because very often people think that sitting and meditating is very difficult.  “Is there any other easy path?”  There is no other easy path.  Everywhere you have to adopt the technology.  Then only things will happen. 

So, this is very important that you take a decision and work on that one.  Don’t keep thinking whether you have taken a right decision or a wrong decision. 

Question:   Thank you, Baba.  And Baba, You said that if we have devotion and bhakti towards our karma, it can make a big difference.  And Babaji had a natural love and surrender to Swamiji, which allowed karma yoga to happen.  Can Baba please explain and elaborate about this?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah.  A little bit I will try to tell what happened with me and my temperament and my attitude.  In today’s world, when we see boys sometimes coming to ashram and then going away, I wonder for what purpose they came and what was their attitude, what was their love towards the Guru, what was their acceptance of a person as a Guru?  For us, once we fell in love, we fell in love for sake of love.  That love became natural because there was no other expectation.  We just wanted Swamiji.  There was nothing else that we had to ask Swamiji.  We didn’t bother whether Swamiji will give me facilities, of a good food, of a luxurious place and all such things.  “What will Swamiji make me to work?  He will just make me to do meditation and not make me to do dusting,” this type of imaginations were not there at all.  “I want Swamiji, that’s all.”  Afterwards, whatever He did, it was acceptable because “I want Swamiji.”  Simply because He wanted me to dust the ashram that doesn’t mean that I will give up my love to Swamiji.  There was no such thing.  Even if we have to dust throughout our life, dust the ashram and mopping the ashram, it’s no problem.  We never thought “This is all I have to be doing all the time,” because we kept quiet in the mind.  Our mind receded and there was that bliss and peace descended. 

When that peace was there, it did not have any other expectations at all, it did not have any complaints, it did not have any brooding.  Nothing was there.  Simply, the surrender had taken place.  Never bothered.  I never imagined that I will have to do tapas and become a yogi so that everybody will do pranaams to me.  There was no such imagination.  I will be happy to do service to Swamiji.  Simply, one time, I asked, “I want to do tapas.”  Then Swamiji said, “If you do tapas…” that was sixteen years before I sat for tapas, in 1978 “…you may become egoistic and you will go away from your Guru.  I said, “No, no, no, no, no.  No, tapas is needed.  I want to be at Your Lotus Feet and do serving.  That is more important than anything else.  My mind can become quiet.  I have to become quiet.  That’s it, simple.  I am happy.  I have the peace.  There is no brooding for me.  No anxiousness and no shame.” 

I used to bring groceries or vegetables from the town sitting in a city bus, in a crowded city bus holding all the vegetables in hand.  To get into the city bus used to be a big job.  It was like a big Olympic competition type.  But we never felt any shame.  A couple of times I remember, some people who knew me, they asked, “Don’t you think that you have come to the ashram, but you have to bring the same groceries and vegetables here also?”  I said, “I did not come out of my home to escape these responsibilities.  Just I wanted to lead this way of life and I am happy with whatever it is.  I am happy to come into the city bus like this in the crowded bus and just be standing holding with one hand, one with the bag of full of groceries and with one hand holding the handle.  Just crowded people are pushing you forward and backward.  I am happy to do this one.  There is no brooding.  “Why I have to be doing this?””  So, the mind was quiet and happiness.  The happiness was there.  Peace was there all the time. 

So like that, we just fell in love for sake of love.  We did not have, “I am going to love Swamiji if He is going to make me to do only meditation and not dust and He will give me a best attached bathroom room always.  And He will not ask me to get out of that place always.  If He is not going to give, I am going to give up Swamiji.”  There was no such imagination at all for me.  Nothing.  We used to be in the room, when Swamiji came, more devotees came, we used to sleep in the corridor or anywhere, in the corner of the hall.  Anywhere, anything.  Because there was no any imagination.  So, till this day, I am unable to understand this people of this world who came to the ashram, who ran away, who behaved their own way, who thought, “There is no role for me.  I will have to do something else.”  Suddenly after staying for several years that person thought, “I have to go and do some journalism, something else.  It is useless for me to stay in the ashram.”  He realized it is useless.  I was wondering, what did he think in the beginning to come here?  That means the purpose was totally different that this person came to ashram. 

So, it was a puzzle for me because we never had any such ideas, at least me when I came to ashram.  How these fifty years in the ashram have passed by; there was no struggle mentally.  There was struggle in other ways, but mentally it was always alright.  Simply just like that the years have passed by.  And even today I have the same love for my Guru Swamiji.  I am grateful to Him that He made me to do all those things which has taught me in life, the beauty of karma yoga, the beauty of bhakti yoga and the beauty of the dhyana yoga, tapas.  Like many times we have told, the world only saw me sitting for five years.  No, before that the twenty years I was doing the same tapas.  It was tapas.  Keeping the mind quiet, not to brood all times is the most difficult thing in the midst of humiliations, in the midst of backstabbing, in the midst of people making fun, people exploiting you – keeping the mind quiet is not easy.  So, karma yoga is not easy when you are living in this world.  All of you will have to undergo all these things.  But if you adopt the methods and if you remain determined, if you have the courage, then like a valiant soldier you can achieve the karma yoga through karma. 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Baba, Swamiji said that “It was very easy for me to do tapas.  Twelve years simply passed by because my mind remained quiet, absorbed in the Self at all times.  But afterwards when I wanted to do the mission work amongst the human beings, that was the real eating up.”  Babaji, it makes me wonder, wouldn’t it be better to retreat from the world to avoid getting dragged into politics and getting sucked into that?  

Babaji Maharaj:   You know, I think Swamiji told me to teach me something, to keep me motivated and inspired.  So, like He used to tell, “Simply if you run to the caves and forests, you’ll be taking your mind; mind will not become peaceful.  It will trouble you all the time, simply if you plan that you will retreat from the world and go away somewhere.”  Because in the early years, the mind used to be very much detached, the vairagya used to be there and a yearning for a solitude was there.  A couple of times I did ask Swamiji, “I just want to go to some solitude and just do meditation.  He just scolded, “Two, three days, and afterwards you will run away again, idiot,” He used to scold me like that.  “Instead, if you stay here, if you stay and face all the challenges of life, staying in the ashram will be as good as marrying ten times for you in the world.  You will see that one,” He said once, “It will be like a worldly life for you.  There will be everything, troubles when you try to manage this one.” 

That is when Swamiji told, “You see twelve years, it was very easy for me.  Time simply passed by and I did not notice.  Mind was in samadhi.  After I came out of samadhi and tried to establish the mission, tried to establish ashrams, wanted people to look after that, then everybody had eaten me up.  It was enough for me, my God.  Many times I used to feel, instead of these human beings, it is better to have four buffaloes.”  Like this, when He was talking, I felt that Swamiji was trying to motivate me, keep me inspired and understand the futility.  He also used to say, “If you try to run away from the world, the world will go after you to eat you up.  Be there in the world and face the challenges, and then you will achieve the yoga.  That will be a great beautiful thing.  That day you will have that greatest satisfaction.” 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Another question was that many of us are householders, active in the world with work and duties.  How can we achieve having our work and duties being converted to tapas for us, like Babaji’s service was converted to seven years of tapas.  How can householders achieve this?

Babaji Maharaj:   Like, you see, in the ashram, in any situation under any circumstances, there was no brooding for me, why I have to look after some devotees’ children?  Why should I bring them out of the school, bring them to ashram, feed them, drop them to school, then stand in the queue and buy a cinema ticket and make them sit in the cinema hall, come back to ashram, then again, go back to the cinema hall, pick them up and then drop them to school.  Like these things, odd jobs.  Sometimes a couple of people have told, “Don’t you think that your youth is being wasted simply with odd jobs in the ashram?”  I said, “I don’t know all those things.  I just love Swamiji.  That is all.  I’ll do that.  Anything He wants, He will take care of it.  That’s no problem for me,” like that I used to think and I just used to become quiet mentally and there was no brooding at all.  All the time there was acceptance.  There was peace.  So, I never imagined that I was doing all those things and why I should be doing all these things.  That imagination never came. 

See, the same thing I have seen with Ambaji also.  For more than thirty years now she has stayed with me.  She has loved me like an elder brother, equivalent to a Guru, and she also had to face all these thirty years, has not been a bed of roses.  All troubles and humiliations, people trying to stop, “How dare she do it, how dare she come.”   We remember, first time when we were supposed to go to America, the person who was supposed to organize, he told, “If Ambaji comes she should stick only to cooking and she should not intervene anywhere else.”  Means that was the attitude, if she is a woman, she is only fit to be cooking in the kitchen and nowhere else she should appear.  Why?  If she has the capacity, she has the ability, she is talented.  She can sit anywhere.  She can sit and do bhajans.  She can give a talk.  She can take some questions and answer for them, anywhere is possible.  That’s what I wanted.  So, I refused and I didn’t go.  I will have the say, my assistant, she has come for me and in respect for me with total faith in me and Swamiji she has stayed back with me more than thirty years.  She never looked back.  She never wanted to run away.  She could have gone back and comfortably lived.  Her father was giving her all money and good marriage.  Everything was there.  It was all available if she wanted.  But she chose to be here.  Means, I’m talking only for sake of education and karma yoga.  That has sustained her.  She has loved me as a brother and she has loved Swamiji.  That has sustained.  The same thing sustained me, that we loved Swamiji.  That’s what is important.  Never look back.  Just keep doing.  Don’t analyze.  This analyzing, trying to judge, making judgment, thinking oneself to be very shrewd, “I am the most clever.  I have the computer brain to deal with things.”  Such people are always failures.  They are useless people.  They will never learn in life.  They will not be determined.  They won’t be able to achieve any big results.  Final Self-realization is very far away from them, such people.  That’s what my opinion is. 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Baba, You’ve said before that it’s not enough just to be good, you have to be wise as well to avoid people taking advantage of you, etc.  Could Babaji talk about this?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, definitely.  In this world, simply being a good person is not enough.  You have to be wise also.  You should be able to take proper decisions, where I should be doing, where I should not be doing.  There is a limit always.  You can help somebody.  But you cannot become a slave, see? There is a self-respect; that also needs to be maintained.  Otherwise people always think they will never respect you.  So, for that only you see, today we have a respect.  That’s what Swamiji said, “If people invite you with love and respect, go to such places, teach them meditation and come back.  If they don’t have such love and respect, you don’t have to go, just remain in your ashram.  That’s it.”  That’s what Swamiji taught us.  Swamiji Himself used to do.  Ten times if anybody invited, one time He used to go and come back.  So, they should have proper respect, protocol, how to invite a Master.  There are many people, “Swamiji, please come to my home sometimes.”  Just like for a cup of tea in their drawing room.  Will we go for that?  There is a protocol.  I am in charge of a Mission.  I am a yogi, my Guru’s disciple.  So, whatever I do, it is a matter of respect for my Guru.  We won’t go like that one.  People have to invite and they should properly host.  They should properly organize things.

They should not be commanding, as I was telling initially; so those people, twenty-three years now, that was twenty-three years ago, we have come a long way.  Twenty years we have visited twenty times America.  We have so many loved friends there in America for us and they all organize beautiful retreats and beautiful programs, everywhere in the world we have seen.  That’s a different story.  But in the beginning, some people were trying to be over smart, what you call.  “We will have some conditions and you being a disciple, you will have to sit like this.  You will not be sitting on this.”  In England some people were discussing and making conditions for me, “You will not be sitting there.  You will have to be sitting in the midst of us only because you are only a disciple.  You will not be given any separate food.  You are only a disciple.  You are not the Guru.”  So, these types of things also we heard so much.  We didn’t bother.  We simply went where we were respected.  We saw, if there was no respect we came back, simply.  There was no humiliation, no shame for us.  It’s okay.  They failed to respect.  We gave an opportunity to somebody but they failed to respect properly, so we came back.  Whoever respected us properly, we went back to them.  Again and again we went back.  Allowed them to host us.  We did programs. 

So, like that we have to go in this world with self-respect, also is important.  We cannot be a slave to somebody.  We will help somebody.  We will definitely do.  But we will not allow somebody to exploit us.  There is a rule, a protocol.  So that’s what, every human being needs to have the self-respect, is important.  That much is good.  Only with the Guru – in our Indian culture that is recommended, only with the Guru who is a Self-realized one who can lead you to Self-realization.  Sages have told this, not me only.  Purandaradasa has said, “Until you don’t become a slave to the Guru, there is no liberation.”  There you give up everything, there is no humiliation.  You just love the Master, be devoted there.  That’s what we knew; “Swamiji has this beautiful knowledge and wisdom.  He is a Self-realized Master.  Come what may be Swamiji, give us the Self-realization, lead us to our Self-realization.  Bless me so that I’m not reborn again as any creature at all.”  That type of prayers used to be there.  So, we used to feel motivated, inspired, at peace, keep going, keep going, things kept us going. 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Baba, there is a quote that Babaji gave, which is, “Do not allow the mind to get into agitation.  Think that what you are doing is Guru’s service.  Keep the mind devoted and unattached, then it will be like doing tapas for you.” 

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly.  This is important.  Like, now we will take up the topic of being active in the world.  If you are staying with a Guru, it’s different.  But being active in the world, you may need to have some self-respect, all these things are there.  We understand.  But at the same time, simply do not allow the mind to go into such brooding, “Why this happened, why this person behaved like that.”  Let go of the things; if the past has happened, look for the future.  Do somewhere something else.  You can leave the place and take another job and do something else, is always possible.  There is no problem for that one.  Like that, you have to keep going so that you maintain your self-respect.  But at any cost, do not allow the mind to go into brooding.  Think that it was the Divine’s or the Guru‘s wishes that this thing had to happen, “That’s fine.  It’s a Divine Lila of the Guru.  No problem.  We will look somewhere else.  We will do this one.  If somebody did not respect us, it’s okay.  We will find it somewhere else.  One door closes and another door opens by the Divine’s grace.”  With that attitude, means in that circumstance also, don’t hold your head and sit in a corner by brooding in the mind, going into a worry.  No need.  Keep the mind active, means with enthusiasm, inspired with that attitude, be there.  Take it in a sportive spirit, anything that happens.  Then go ahead.  Look for the future.  If possible, forget about the past.  Means this is necessary so that your mind doesn’t go into brooding often and lose its peace.  For this reason, it is not going to come back.   Forget about that.  Look for the future.  Let’s go, future. 

So that is what is important.  We all have to do that one.  We all had to undergo these things.  Injustice from people.  But now, how far we keep worrying or brooding about that?  We had to do.  Now also, at the age of seventy, we are so busy in life teaching meditation, taking Zoom classes, meeting people, giving darshan, everything, I cannot afford to feel sorry for myself.  I cannot afford to feel brooding that somebody misbehaved like this.  It’s done.  It’s over.  Finish.  We are okay today.  Future, we will be more careful.  Now, we are independent.  We will not allow anybody to exploit.  We will not allow anybody to humiliate.  They have no right.  Only my Guru had the authority.  He was my Master and all in all and nobody else in this world has that power.  We didn’t allow anybody who tried to misbehave like that.  We stayed away.  That’s it.  So, with this attitude you have to go, so that you are able to keep your mind in enthusiasm and motivated, inspired.  This is a struggle, not easy.  But if you practice, every moment can turn like a meditation for you. 

Question:   Thank You, Baba.  So, with love for the Guru, any difficult chore or difficult thing one has to do in life, it can become easy if we are dedicating it to the Master. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  In your day-to-day life, try to see your Guru or God in everything as everything, everywhere surrounding you.  Then slowly your mind starts recognizing every moment there is a Guru.  The Guru is there for you.  Every moment the Guru is there for you.  It is your mind which needed to change and rise to that level, to that attitude, that’s what is important.  Guru is already there with you. 

Question:   Thank You so much, Babaji.  Pranaams Babaji.  I have a verse from the Bhagavad Gita.  I want to know if this is speaking to karma yoga.  It is translated as “Bewildered spirit souls under the influence of the three modes of material nature, think themselves to be the doer of activities which are in actuality carried out by nature.” 

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, the meaning is usually every individual tends to think that “I am the doer of this karma and this result is happening to me.”  Thus, they get involved into the three gunas, into the influence of such things, into the mind and they lose peace.  They become disappointed.  They go into agony, “Why this happening?  I did this one.”  Like this, they get involved.  Whereas, everything is happening according to the Ultimate Truth.  We are not the doer.  So, if we can give up that doership attitude, then our mind can remain at peace at all times.  Just like, in a simple way, you are acting in a movie.  You have to utter a dialogue.  You have to do a certain action.  That action may be good in nature or a bad in nature.  But you are not bothered.  The director says, “You have to now stab this fellow, you have to act as if you are stabbing.  And you have to scold somebody, that is the role in the movie.”  But while doing all this, you won’t be bothered or feeling sad that you are doing all this.  “Because the director wants me to do this one, I do this acting and that is done finished.  Then I take out my makeup and I become a normal person.”  Like this, in this world also in a way, if you practice meditation along with that at least for one hour, your mind will become purified, one thing.  It will become more matured.  You will not try to harm somebody with your selfishness or any such thing.  But you will defend yourself.  And at the same time, you will not be minding anything, what anybody has scolded you, what you had to do for that purpose, if you had to defend yourself, you won’t be worried.  Ten years ago, we had to fight some person whom we respected very much, whom we loved because he was going against the Institute of my Guru.  That’s done, that’s finished.  We don’t have such worries now.  We had to do that thing.  As a soldier of the Ashram of our Guru, we did our duty.  Like that, you do everything as a duty.  Don’t go into the mode of, “I did this one.  Why should this happen to me?” like that. The doership is the botheration, that’s what this sentence says. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.  And the formula that You gave would apply to this – take the action, and then the fruits happen, accept whatever the fruits are.  And then if there’s more effort to be made, make the effort, and then accept the fruits.  And like that, that’s the pattern?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You. 

Question:   Pranaams, Babaji.  Babaji, is there a possible state where there are no thoughts in the mind, but there still exists an imagination or an ego?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, you see, an imagination gives rise to a thought.  If there is no thought, there is no imagination.  [inaudible].  If there is a thought means that was an imagination.  If there is an imagination, it means there will always be a thought.  If one is not there, the other one will also be not there. 

Same Questioner:   Okay.  It’s always confusing when related to karma yoga, even in Bhagavad Gita, the description was that don’t keep desires.  But for all of us staying in this world, we take action out of desires.  So, I could understand that from desire we take action and don’t worry about results.  But should this whole process be stopped from the source that there is no desire and then you don’t take action?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, that’s why if you have observed me in my talks, repeatedly I have told, having a desire itself is not a problem.  It is not prohibited.  You have a desire and you work for that, put an effort.  But when the result comes, accept it, so that your mind remains quiet.  It is as simple.  If you remember this formula – I repeat, you have a desire and it is no problem.  You can have a desire, that you put an effort to achieve that desire.  When the result comes, don’t go into a brooding, anxiousness, disappointment, losing hope, any such thing.  Accept it.  That is what is required.  That’s what is the meaning of karma yoga.  That’s what all the scriptures have said in a simple way.  That might appear as complicated in the scriptures sometimes because of some explanation.  This is what we all need to understand in a simple way.  Am I clear?

Same Questioner:   Yes, Babaji. 

Question:   Pranaam Babaji.  When you say, Babaji, tapas for seven years, twelve years and fourteen to sixteen hours in a day, so that tapas is continuous or in between there are short breaks of two minutes, five minutes nature call or it is at a stretch?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, that was continuous.  For that many hours in a single stretch. 

Same Questioner:   So slowly, slowly we have to increase one hour to two hours, three hours, like that. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, that first you practice when you are active in the world, when you start learning the meditation, you are recommended to practice to sit for one hour.  So, sitting in the physical body for one hour, unmoved is important.  Then achieving in that one hour so that the mind remains quiet all the one hour.  So, that’s what like my Guru used to tell, meditation and tapas means, when for one hour you are able to keep the mind quiet, that is the real meditation, till then you are trying to meditate.  And now for eight to ten hours at least, when you are able to keep the mind quiet in a stretch, in a single stretch, then the tapas starts, then that person can do tapas, till then you are trying to do tapas, if the mind is not quiet.  So if you understand this and achieve this one, then the tapas goes on. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You very much Babaji for the clarity, now got the clarity.  Thank You very much. 

Question:   Pranaams Babaji.  Babaji, when I think of the physical suffering that Swamiji went through, I feel very sad.  So I was just wondering, did He need to do His tapas in the graveyard?  Could He not have found or could they not have found for Him a more sheltered place even in His mother’s house maybe?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, He was into deep samadhi, sitting for some time He tried to sit under a tree inside the village also, but the village urchins were troubling Him, there was disturbance.  Then He moved to graveyard, thinking that that will be a peaceful place where other people will be scared to come in there.  There He sat.  So that is how He sat.  So, always tests will come, other problems were there, because He was sitting on the ground, the muddy ground, then His skin became decayed, all such troubles happened.  But the Divine grace also descended, when He determinedly sat.  Finally some people came, the collector, district collector came with his assistant, the tehsildar.  So, they both saw Swamiji and Swamiji requested them for a tiger skin, when they asked “What can we do for you?”  Then he sent the tiger skin collector with the tehsildar.  The district tehsildar came, then he saw Swamiji sitting on the ground, muddy ground.  He thought the tiger skin will get decayed and spoiled.  So, he organized a small dais first and made a request to Swamiji to sit on that dais, on a wooden dais.  Then he spoke to other friends and known people, collected some funds and got the temple constructed, then requested Swamiji to sit inside the temple.  So finally, Swamiji sat in that temple and continued His tapas. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji. 

Question:   Pranaams Babaji.  I want to know what the karma yoga that You did, preparation for You to strengthen You, to develop the necessary quality for You to do tapas; or realization could have happened just by continuous karma yoga without tapas?

Babaji Maharaj:   Continuous karma yoga can make happen realization.  Outside world may not see that.  See for twenty years, we were doing the karma yoga and the realization was there.  But the world could not see that because the world saw me dusting, mopping, washing utensils, looking after the children, like this type of odd jobs.  And they imagined me to be that much.  They did not respect.  They thought me to be like a servant for them.  They behaved in such a way.  Five years when I sat, that was announced that Baba is sitting for tapas and beard came and a matted hair came, then the world saw and recognized, “O, He has done a tapas, now He has become a yogi.”  So that’s how it happened.  You see, if anybody see, Ambaji, you have met her.  Do you feel that she is a yogi, or what she is? You will see her simply dusting or cooking in the kitchen, or going to market, bringing vegetables, any such thing.  But quietly she does meditation, she is quiet, that nobody will notice that one.  Right?  The Tapas goes on, you understand?

Same Questioner:   Yes.  So, in a way, You said that it’s not necessary to close the eyes for many years to reach realization?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, if you can keep the mind quiet, that’s important.  In meditation, if you are sitting for meditation, you are recommended to keep the eyes closed.  But if you are active in the world, to do the karma yoga you don’t have to close the eyes, yet you can keep the mind quiet. 

Question:   Thank you so much.  Your topic is very useful today, especially for family people, karma yoga.  As a wife, family, we have husband, we have child, right?  We have our own karma yoga.  What should be the attitude?  And partially, I think when you were saying Ambaji does her chores and then does her meditation, I got a little bit of hint.  But what should be a mother’s or a wife’s karma yoga so that they both are supported in their own karma yoga.  And sometimes you limit them from doing certain things because you are trying to protect them.  And it could be our own limitations which we are projecting.  But what is the best attitude to have that my karma yoga is supported as well as my family member’s path is supported. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Try to maintain your cool, your patience.  Be friendly with them, like your child, be friendly.  Keep talking to the child like a friend of what is good and what is bad.  And give the child a choice to understand and select in life; like that you encourage.  And encourage the child to learn, to scrutinize what is good and what is bad, what is the larger cause, final consequences, these type of things keep talking so that that will be helpful in their karma yoga eventually. 

Same Questioner:   And for the partners, husband or wife, what would you suggest?

Babaji Maharaj:   Respect each other.  Talk to each other like friends.  When you are talking, talk like friends and express your things.  And whatever your opinion is, you try to tell your husband, “This is my opinion, this is the things.  If it’s acceptable, it’s okay.  Otherwise it’s okay if you don’t want to accept also, I will keep my opinion, you keep your opinion.”  It means, finally also, you remain friendly all the time and no need to lose temper or become disappointed.  Just you give your opinion.  Like, now also as a teacher, we give our opinion and recommend.  If some people don’t want to learn, so we cannot help.  We don’t mind and we don’t lose temper.  It’s okay.  It’s your choice finally.  Like that, if you maintain your cool in the family, there will be harmony, peace and it will be helpful for each other. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.  Very helpful.  Thank You. 

Question:   Pranaams Babaji.  Babaji just a follow-on from the question earlier.  You did mention about impact of parents’ karma yoga on the children and vice versa.  Is it in the path, in the journey for meditation that is personal but for actions you can impact on your family’s karma yoga, like by prayers and things like that?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, no, no.  Meditation also is not simply personal.  Meditation will enhance your capabilities.  It will make you more mature.  It is like you get educated.  When you get educated academically, it was not just for you personally.  Your personality got matured.  So then you will be able to help others in a much better way.  Like if you become Self-realized, you will be able to influence, inspire somebody in a better way.  You will be able to give an answer without any confusion.  This will be possible.  So that is why you have to meditate and then do karma yoga also.  Try to help others also.  While helping others, it’s important that you be mature and you need to have patience and you maintain your cool.  You don’t lose your cool also.  You should not lose your temper.  All these things are important.  Otherwise, you will become angry if somebody doesn’t listen to you.  That’s what will happen.

End of Session