Perth  2nd May 2009 Questions and Answers. Final part

Question:
Baba, I was wondering, when You began Your Tapas and Swamiji invited You to sit down for Tapas, did You just sit like we did this morning in that normal state of meditation, or were You almost like put into a trance for some time?

Babaji:
Yes. That meditation was very deep and almost I had lost consciousness of the surroundings, I was not aware. Twice that experience happened. Once, after the Mahasamadhi of my Guru when I went to Mysore, slightly I was feeling void and a little bit dejected, missing the Guru and His physical presence. At that time also unknown to me for three days I was in continuously meditation. And when later also, when He put me into Tapas, when I experienced that He dragged me into the room and touched in-between eyebrows, I think I lost consciousness totally, that was, no surroundings, I was not aware of such things, it was probably as you were telling, it could be like a deep meditative trance.

 Question (same questioner):
How long was that for?

Babaji:
That was for a day, whole day. Next day when I was woken up I expressed, “This has happened. I’m not sure whether I should continue or come out and look after the Ashram, serve and try to spread Swamiji’s Mission.” They all encouraged, “Do not worry about the Ashram, somebody will take of it. This is priority, very important that you have obtained this Grace. You continue with this without bothering anything else.” So I continued.

Question (same questioner):
What do you mean that Swamiji dragged you into the Tapas room?

Babaji:
I had that experience. It’s an amazing manifestation. It happens. For your understanding I’ll talk of the technology of the mind that happens. See, the mind has the quality to imagine. It is an amazing quality of the mind, ability of the mind. We should not simply brush aside as an illusion. It is illusion, but still consciousness to be able to imagine, whenever it imagines, it produces a picture. If you are away physically from me you imagine about me and within your mind a picture gets produced of Baba, right? So when you have faith and your total concentration increases, the mind concentration increases means, the potency of the picture production also increases. The more and more the mind becomes concentrated on one particular picture – when you have faith, means twenty four hours a day you are unable to forget about Baba, suppose, let us assume – so then within your mind it visualizes that picture and the more that mind visualizes, the picture becomes more solid also.

Like dreams, you would have experienced sometimes the dreams are so solid you won’t be able to forget every scene and every moment of the dream for a long, long time to come. But sometimes the picture could be very blurred and when you have got up in the morning by then you would have forgotten: “I dreamt certain things, I don’t remember exactly.” These types of experiences you could have seen. So this is all the technology. In the same technology, the mind’s imagination when you have bhakti [devotion] and faith, that imagination also grows.

I have told earlier, due to imagination only the mind has come away from the Divinity and got expanded and into distractions. Bhakti marga [devotional path], using the same technology of imagination, you try to bring it back. So that was how it happened to me automatically from a long time. When I had met Swamiji physically I had fallen in love with Him, a total faith and concentration sat on Him. So probably in 1978 when I was in Bangalore – this is my reading and opinion – probably this is how it could have happened, this technological things. So I took a piece of vibhuti early morning and gave Him to bless and then He was asking, “What do you want?” I said, “I want to sit for Tapas.” He teased me, “Do you think that this vibhuti can make you to sit for Tapas?” I said, “You please bless. I have faith and I’m sure this will give it to me.” Then Swamiji said, “Look. If you sit for Tapas now you are likely to become egoistic. You might obtain certain powers and followers also, but you will go away from Me. What do you want to do?” Then I brushed aside, “I don’t want Tapas, I’m interested only in Swamiji. I want to be at the Lotus Feet of Swamiji. I can forego the Tapas also if necessary, if I can be at the Lotus Feet of Swamiji.” Then Swamiji had told at that time, “So don’t worry about it just now, just carry on with the service. In due course of time it will come and I will give you.” That is what He said. So probably that sat in my mind as a firm faith that, “One day it is going to happen, it will happen, it will happen.” Within the mind that would have churned and churned, churned and the ripe time came so this manifestation happened. I saw almost such physically.

That is how, manifestation means, after the first stage of the imagination quality, next stage is when the mind becomes more concentrated it is the mental projection. Many devotees would be having such experience as if the Guru or God was coming and sitting and eating and talking to them. But when the mind becomes one hundred percent concentration with that faith, when that moment comes, then automatically the manifestation happens. That was how the manifestation would have happened to Swamiji also at the age of fourteen. From the fruit, He just saw that fruit taking the shape of a Shivalingham and a Jangama Sage coming out. Whereas His friends, nobody saw it, all who were there, they did not see anything. They simply saw a cigar in Swamiji’s hand. Swamiji used to tell that in the village they used to have that cigar. He used to smoke since the village made a tobacco type, I don’t know what are the ingredients. So in His hand it was there, He was in the lotus posture. That is all the others saw. And the fruit also was there. But what Swamiji saw was the fruit taking shape of Shivalingham and a Jangama Sage coming out of that.

So when these things happen, for others it could be debatable or some inquisitiveness happens: “How can this happen? What really happened?” Like some intellectual people have asked Me the question, “What is the guarantee that Swamiji had seen also that personality?” So what I tell is when such an incident happens, what He saw, what we are seeing is not important – the transformation that happens, the strength of that projection, of the manifestation was so much that Swamiji went into Tapas. He got so totally transformed He became so much glowing face and for twelve years He went like that one, He went on doing. The same thing happened to me perhaps after long time, because of my faith in Swamiji, all the time I used to be reassuring myself, “It will come, one day Swamiji will definitely give. It will happen, it will happen.” When it came I was not thinking or contemplating about it also. Automatically the mind would have made it manifested and I saw Swamiji as physically as you are able to see me, coming out of that dais and taking, dragging me into the room where He made me to sit on the dais. There used to be a small cot type of dais there so there He made me to sit and just touched in-between eyebrows. This much I experienced, that’s when I went into Tapas. So afterwards the transformation happened. So based on this that experience is so solid and that’s what manifestation we talk. But spiritually everything is considered illusion. Means every appearance is unreal because it disappears. Only the Supreme Consciousness of Existence is the Truth of Existence ultimately. That’s when Realization occurs.