0:00 Introduction
0:11 How can we avoid stress while fulfilling worldly responsibilities?
7:45 How can we be aware of the supreme consciousness where nothing can trouble us?
13:51 Is the real challenge for a human being in the mind rather than in the world?
19:14 How to differentiate whether losing memory of past events is due to cleansing of the mind in meditation or simply forgetfulness?
28:24 How can one gain self-confidence in decision making?
34:27 How was Babaji able to accept any situation at the Ashram while serving Swamiji?
40:55 How to deal with someone who doesn’t like you and you can’t avoid them?

Discourse: Thus Spake Babaji – online Q and A No. 150
How to Overcome Stress and Worry with Meditation
Recorded: 07 September 2023 with Malaysian participants

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   Our topic today, Babaji is based on one of the talks Babaji had given previously – how to overcome stress and worry through meditation.  Babaji shared about stress and how it starts with our thoughts that can convert into worries and they can get converted into anxiousness which in turn gives out unnecessary stress.  So, with that imagination itself, we are getting into stress.  Sometimes, it feels stressful when the body and mind are constantly being engaged in worldly activities, fulfilling our responsibilities to the best of our ability which demands attention and energy.  Babaji, how should we operate in that state and avoid becoming stressed?

Babaji Maharaj:   One thing is trying to remain totally focused on the work, hundred percent.  We keep ourselves so busy mentally and physically that we cannot afford to feel sorry for ourselves; that much of busy.  Means that is what the technique first is, either one should be able to keep the mind quiet, or keep it totally positively engaged; that is important.  So, then you won’t have time to worry at all, because usually when the worries come, it confuses a person, and your focus on the work that you are trying to do gets affected.  It can be fifty percent or even less than fifty percent of focus is there.  More than fifty percent worries are there.  “What if it doesn’t happen, will it happen or not,” and worrying something else.  “O, that thing had to happen.  Why did this happen?”  Another point, inability to let go of the past things mentally.  Mentally, it is important that we let go so that peace comes to the mind.  Simply by worrying we cannot change anything and past is over, it’s not going to come back.  We can take steps so that we don’t repeat or such things are not repeated.  Either we need to defend ourselves… We can defend ourselves; we can work out whatever needed, and see that such mistakes are not done by us.  All these things are okay, but mind jumps into worries.  So, this reminds me of a childhood saying we always heard from our teacher.  Chita and Chinta are the two words, Sanskrit words in fact.  Chita is the funeral pyre; chinta is the worry.  They used to say, “Worries are much more dangerous than even funeral pyre”.  Means when our body is put on the funeral pyre, we are not aware of anything, any pain or any heat, nothing.  We are gone, we are not there in the body.  But worries, we are still alive in the body, it will eat us up unnecessarily.  So, we need to be careful and practice.  If we practice meditation regularly, then that enables us to keep quiet by not worrying.  We will be able to reason out in a matured way;  “Just now I have to do this”.  Like for example, I have to indulge in answering your questions.  So, I can always reason out there is no fun in worrying unnecessary of something else that happened ten years ago.  And it’s no point; just now my focus on your question, listening to your question and ability to answer can get affected thoroughly.  I will become stressful and confused.  So that is important.  If we are focusing, we should focus.  That’s why we don’t notice even if somebody comes and stands, it takes a couple of minutes for me.  I will have to stop about this work.  And then only I have to see, otherwise if I am doing this one, I am totally focused.  So, I have to carefully listen to your question also.  Because otherwise my mind goes introverted totally.  If I want to keep it upwards so I can understand your question and then I am able to answer, like this.  Others also, even if it’s not introvert, they can avoid going too much of extrovert and just remain there. 

So, these things can be very helpful to overcome stress, worries and unnecessarily brooding about the past all this time.  It means, when I teach all these things, I don’t mean that you have to forget and forgive, you cannot take any steps to defend yourself, even if anybody slaps you take another slap.  That is not the philosophy.  You have a right to defend yourself, but the idea of Sri Krishna’s teaching is, even if in the midst of war field, keep your mind intact, so that there is always a hope; and your focus is important.  You cannot afford to see here and there.  You cannot afford to worry.  That was what He was trying to teach Arjuna every moment, every day.  So, He was watching because Arjuna often used to lose his focus, get worried or wondering and stressed out, all these things were happening to such mighty souls; can happen.  “But see the opponent,” He advised.  Even Sri Krishna advised when Duryodhana and Bhima were fighting.  “See the enthusiasm of Duryodhana. His focus, see that one.  That is needed to be done by you also Bhima”  He teaches, Sri Krishna signals. “Be enthusiastic, fight it out. If you have to fight, fight.” 

   So, like that, if you want to meditate, meditate thoroughly.  Be enthusiastic to meditate.  So, don’t sit down sadly in a corner, “O God, thousands of thoughts will come.  I cannot meditate.  This is very difficult.”  And then you keep going to sleep; not that one.  You maintain an enthusiastic mood when you sit for meditation.  It’s like a sports event, it’s like a beautiful event, beautiful festival that “Every week, every fortnight we get a chance to sit with Babaji.  Let us see him and just sit down in meditation and just follow the instructions, concentrate in between eyebrows.”  That is all you have to do, your job, be inspired by my words, by my deeds and by my own life.  And you all do that one.  That is all needed.  Then meditation will be so fruitful; you will achieve peace; you don’t have time.  I am happy at peace because I don’t have time to worry.  I keep myself totally busy and I practice to remain quiet.  So, that’s what it is about me. 

Question:   Thank You so much Babaji.  We will go to the second question.  Babaji mentioned that we are Supreme Consciousness, as void consciousness and nothing can touch us, nothing can trouble us.  Yet we imagine and get into a stressful state which is not necessary and we can get rid of it through the practice of meditation daily.  Babaji kindly share more about being Supreme Consciousness when we are still in progress towards self-liberation, and how that would relate to what Babaji shared that nothing could trouble us. 

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, just now everybody’s consciousness is shifted onto the body.  So that’s when this worry keeps coming.  Body can be troubled, anybody can slap, anybody can hit, they can pierce, anything can be done.  This will be troubled.  But our consciousness needs to be shifted to ourselves.  We need to feel.  Remember, I have always told a hundred thousand times that amongst millions of thoughts that you have in your mind, one is the consciousness of your existence.  Means, a feeling that you exist.  But that consciousness is on the body just now.  That’s what needs to be shifted back to itself.  You quietly sit down like this, relax. No thoughts in the mind.  Then try to feel that yourself, that you are there.  Slowly as you focus, your attention all shifts to the Self and you will see that that Self is concentrating into itself.  And the body is there, naked eyes you might be able to see it.  But you don’t feel it in your feeling.  You are able to feel your real Self.  That is the practice that meditation can give you.  That is how you have to practice.  Then you will know that thing as the space, void place or the atman.  Atman means, probably in very, very ancient times they try to use a terminology which has a substantial existence value.  Means, we exist eternally, that’s why we are atma.  That’s how they told in Upanishads also.  So, that is what it means.  That thing cannot be troubled by anybody.  When they see my personality, they try to make fun of me, they try to criticize me, some people praise me, some people criticize, all those things happen.  But I know very well that they are doing for this body thinking me to be the body.  Just like Ashtavakra told King Janaka, when He entered the court all the ministers started laughing at Him because He had to roll down, He couldn’t walk properly because of eight deformations.  Then He tells King Janaka, “O King, I thought you have wise people in your court, but all I can see are fools and idiots.”  Then everybody is bewildered.  “How dare this young boy can talk like this?  Now the King will kill him.”   But King also was matured by then.  He had patience, he exercises patience and asks “Why do you say so?  How do you see them as foolish people?”  Then He tells, “I am the atman.  I am that Supreme Consciousness of existence.  I am settled into that one peacefully.  And this body is not me.  My consciousness is not on this body at all.  But they are thinking this body to be me.  And they are laughing, thinking they are laughing at me when they criticize me, when they make fun of me, whereas they cannot see me at all because they don’t know who I am.  Because they have never practiced about themselves to know who they are.”  The same way in this world, these things happen.  We keep smiling and we keep quiet and people criticize and make fun of us, this thing, that thing.  So many are there.  “O, how can he become a guru?  He is not a guru.  He is only a devotee of Swamiji.”  Like that also people make fun and criticize.  That’s no problem whatever they can think, because they don’t know who I am. 

So, that is how the consciousness can shift only by practice.  Without practice this thing will not come.  Just by theory you cannot experience and you will be bewildered, you can be confused, you can be threatened.  When you think that this body is me, pain will happen.  But we are well aware that this body is not me.  This pain is happening because my consciousness is in touch with the brain’s reflections.  A little bit is there.  That’s why even a yogi will also feel pain.  But I will not be disturbed mentally so much like all others.  So that is the achievement one can do if you regularly practice meditation.  You just go on watching at one point.  Slowly watch, watch, watch, thoughts come, thoughts come.  Then thoughts all collapse.  It will evaporate, merge with the consciousness of existence.  Slowly, peace descends.  Thought two, thought one, thought nothing, like that.  Thoughts all disappear.  This can be thought afterward.  There is no need now.  “Just now Master has asked us to watch.  Our job is to watch.  That’s all. I am watching.  My Master told me to watch and I am watching.  Tell me if I am wrong.”  But if you are not watching, you are wrong baby.  So that’s what you all have to understand and think.  This is important.  If you are just watching, then your consciousness comes back to the Self.  That consciousness of existence, it will come. 

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  The next question.  Babaji has said, whatever happens in the world is different and whatever happens in the mind is different.  Babaji, may we clarify – is the real challenge ultimately for us as a human being the mind and not the world we are in?

Babaji Maharaj:   Definitely, if we can overcome that challenge, that troubles our mind.  When we are troubled in the mind, we become confused and we lose our focus, we lose our patience also.  See, through the world there is some problem to our life or to our physical body.  But in the mind, we must remain not confused, not stressful, not worried, at peace.  When we have peace, then we can think properly.  We can overcome the confusion, we can work out a strategy; we can try to understand what are we supposed to do now.  “This problem has come to me.  This is how I have to tackle.  This is how I have to see.  So, in this time, let me not lose my enthusiasm.  Let me not lose my inspiration.  My Master will be with me.  Let me take some proper guidance and we think properly to sort out this problem.  Unnecessarily, I was getting involved into ego clashes, which is not necessary.”  Like that you have to attend that problem that is within the mind.  Once you are able to attend and achieve peace and quietness, then your confusion goes.  Your stress also gets released and then with a smile you will be able to attend to the problem that is outside in the world.  Something has to be done.  Either you are there or you are not there.  You see, if I am here in this Ashram, if it is going to be troublesome to some people or they pressurize that I must not stay, then I do not have to lose my peace.  Simply peacefully I have to think, “Okay, they have the authority, they don’t want me to stay here.  Let me go away somewhere else.  I can find a place.”  For that I need not lose my peace.  That is all.  I am happy, always. Whether I am here, I am not here, I am happy.  Whether I am in this world, I am not in this world, I am happy.  Like that, always be happy.  This is possible when we practice meditation, like in this technique, regularly.  

If you are not happy after several years, that means somewhere you are wrong in applying the technique for the meditation.  You are not just watching; you are doing something else also.  Master asked you to just watch, but you are doing something else.  Master tried to teach, asked you to pay attention, but you are unable to pay attention.  So, you are unable to get properly educated.  Teachings go on like that.  Since ages, twenty-three years we are teaching.  Twenty years we heard Swamiji teaching.  All the twenty years we focused, we waited, because He never used to announce that “I am going to teach you,” like that one.  It was not like these things.  Today we have Zoom.  We send announcement to everyone, information.  “Today Babaji is going to be on the Zoom.  You can meditate with Him for one hour and then question and answers will happen.  You can be there.”  But in those days, there were no such announcement.  When any beautiful teaching would come out of His month, you never knew.  You had to be waiting all the time.  When you were closer to Him, you had to be serving Him also.  You had to be cleaning His room.  You had to massage Him, give Him food, get his scoldings, everything, stressful things would happen.  A lot of pressure will be there.  In spite of that, you needed to be focused.  Suddenly, something could come out from His mind, from His mouth, one sentence, one word, a great philosophical, valuable teaching would come out.  That we would catch, would pay attention.  That helped us all.  “O, this is what I am supposed to do.  This is how I have to be.  Like this, like this I have to be.  Whatever comes.”  Like He used to scold forty-five minutes, then He used to tell Hanuman and Rama’s story.  “O”, we understood.  “All I need to have faith in my Guru.  Let Him cut me into pieces, no problem.  It is His problem if He wants to cut me into pieces.  My problem is I remain with my Master.  I just pay attention to my Master’s teaching.  He wants me to just watch in the meditation.  This is what He wanted.  That’s all.”

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  We’ll go to the next question.  Babaji shared that the practice of meditation will neutralize the mind to come to the present time instead of brooding on the past or having the habit of remembering the past.  Before I started practicing meditation, I used to remember the happy and sad moments in my life.  After meditating and as I get older, I cannot remember a lot of my past events, including the people.  If Babaji can advise from Your experience how to differentiate the result of meditation that is cleansing the mind versus forgetfulness.

Babaji Maharaj:   Well, one thing, what Ashtavakra’s opinion is, forgetfulness is the Divine’s grace.  You have forgotten somebody, that’s it, finished.  No need to remember.  Just be to yourself.  That is what is needed.  If you can keep quiet.  However, in reasoning, in practice of meditation, meditation also can be very helpful to forget the past.  No brooding will be there.  No time to brood all those things.  I cannot remember the past for long time, but in the brain it is there.  If any incident, I need to narrate to somebody, I can tap my brain and start doing that.  But that narration, that remembrance of the past will not affect my mental equilibrium, my mental stability or mental peace.  I’m at peace because it’s over ten years ago; it’s not going to cut my head just now.  I am safe here, sitting peacefully.  Now I am sitting here doing the Zoom classes.  This is where I need to focus.  So, like that, it will always be in the present.  This is what the meditation helps you to neutralize the mind to come into the present.  Otherwise, for common people, if you all observe, mind is always brooding about the past, is anxious about the future.  It imagines both.  Both things it imagines.  It is unable to forget.  Sometimes happy moments – remembering them is no problem, but you must not miss them and go into a brooding and in spite of the remembering happy moment, you are unable to be happy because you are missing them.  Don’t miss them.  Cherish those fond memories, beautiful.  When I come to Malaysia, all of you love, so much of love.  You all show me so much of love and devotion.  I cherish them.  That’s wonderful.  But I don’t miss that, become unhappy that I am unable to come to Malaysia anymore.  No, nothing like that.  I will always fondly remember.  So that should be the habit.  That neutralization can come through practice of meditation.  Don’t miss anything.  That is what is important.  One time our parents were there, today they are not around me, but I don’t have to miss and go into unhappiness.  I remember their good qualities.  When they were there, how they brought me up, those fond memories I can always remember, who will prevent me. But I remain unaffected.  They cannot make me unhappy or go into missing things, nothing happens.  I remember fondly my Guru when He was physically with us.  I don’t miss Him.  He is always with me.  And I don’t have to become unhappy that He is not around physically.  He trained.  He taught me. How beautiful the things He told me.  How wonderful the things he taught me.  Every moment He was teaching, anytime He opened his mouth, He was teaching.  He kept quiet, He was teaching.  Just become quiet.  Just become quiet.  “Look, there was a cow with me,” Swamiji used to tell.  “It used to keep quiet.  If we fed anything, it used to keep quiet.  Sometimes if it was delayed, even if it was hungry, it never felt anything bad and it never reacted, I could see that one.  It was composed and at peace”, like that He used to say. I understood, this is what Swamiji wants us also to achieve. Mentally, just keep quiet.  If something is delayed, no problem.  We will wait peacefully.  Have patience.  Don’t have to lose our peace and start jumping;  “O, I am hungry.  Why is that food not being brought?” No need, it’s okay, it is going to come.  If it doesn’t come, it’s okay.  If God gives food, He gives.  He doesn’t want to give, it’s okay.  No problem.  Like that the attitude will come to you when you practice meditation.  You will have peace.  Like that Swamiji used to teach suddenly by taking an example of a cow that was with Him.  Tapaswiji Maharaj had given a cow.  He used to say that was a Self-realized cow, Swamiji used to tell because it kept quiet always.  That means we have to achieve quietness in the mind.  We understood.  That was the teachings like that one. 

So, like that, we remember those beautiful moments that Swamiji used to teach us.  There is nothing to miss.  We don’t feel about anything bad that He is not around physically.  He also needed to drop the body and He needed to be in the Divinity in His own Self.  He is with us now also.  Like that, meditation will help you not to brood about the past or not to be anxious is another point, important.  You plan for your future; tomorrow what we are supposed to do,  two days later we have to do Sundarkand.  And today evening we have to do Janmashtami Puja also.  So, all these things we have to plan but no need to be anxious “O, what happens if electricity goes.  O God, I cannot sit.”  No need to be like that one, no problem.  We will find some way to find some hand fan or something will be there.  Somebody will be helpful; like that.  For future you always plan but need not be anxious whether it happens or not.  It happens, okay, if it doesn’t happen, it’s okay, no problem.  If that person gives me some money it’s okay, if he doesn’t give me money it’s okay, no problem.  If it is there, I will work out something for the Ashram.  If it is not there, I will keep quiet; that’s like that.  Everywhere in every point your life will be pleasurable, at peace, it happens or it doesn’t happen but you are doing.  You watch me, I will be normally moving around and trying to do everything that I have to do, will be planning, will be trying to do things, will be advising somebody to do these things are necessary.  Whenever it has to happen it happens.  If it has not happened it has not happened.  I don’t stop praying if I need certain things but if it has not happened even after ten years, no problem.  “We will not stop praying to You, my Lord.”  We will always be praying.  So never lose enthusiasm, never lose inspiration, always draw it from those people who struggled in this world.  Swamiji did twelve years of tapas, not one or two years.  Draw inspiration from that.  How much difficulties He faced.  There was nobody to look after Him properly, yet He continued.  How could He continue?  Not because He was incarnation of God, simply because He had the determination, He had the discipline, He had the patience.  He knew to hang on.  “If it is twelve years, I will sit for twelve years.  That was it.”  No power could stop it; even Brahmaji, Gods could not stop it.  They tested Him, they put Him to test, they cut Him into pieces, they ground Him into chutney like Swamiji used to tell, but He never gave up.  He remained inspired and enthusiastic all the time.  So, that is what is needed in life.  That will keep the mind neutralized into present.  There won’t be any brooding, no anxiousness.  We are at peace.  This is what you need to take care of – the mind first, the world will happen afterwards.  You can always take care of the world if you are a matured person and if you are not stressed out yourself.  If I myself go into stress, how can I conduct the Zoom class and enthusiastically answer your question?  You ask a question and I am stressed out, I am watching somewhere else – “O God what happened to Babaji.  He is not listening to my question, He is not answering”, that is how you will comment.  You see? I cannot afford to be stressed out.  I will have to be enthusiastic, inspired.  Every one of you can be like that.  You practice meditation. 

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  We will go to the next question.  Babaji, self-confidence and determination came naturally which could be an inborn quality or it could have just come from inside.  Babaji shared that younger people these days come and ask Babaji and they are not able to decide for themselves if they want to join the Ashram and serve Swamiji.  So, Babaji responds that it is their choice and decision and don’t blame anyone else for that decision.  If you love Swamiji really from the depth of your heart the determination comes naturally.  Babaji some of these habits may come naturally or through practice and eventually it results in self-confidence with our decision making.  So, what is Babaji’s advice for someone who is not able to decide for themselves because they have been guided all their life and they seek for affirmation from Babaji instead?

Babaji Maharaj:   You know it can come naturally also to some people.  Otherwise also, if you practice meditation self-confidence comes and determination also comes, reasoning out.  Swamiji used to talk, “It is like self-respect.  Never give up doing tapas” He used to say to another disciple.  “This is a matter of self-respect.  How can you get up and go away from doing tapas?  You have to be here.”  So, like that He taught us.  We learnt from Him; we learnt from His stories and self-respect and remaining, never looking back.  So, these things can come through the practice of meditation and by drawing inspiration by elders, by our Gurus, by our parents.  Our mother taught me “Never look back.  You promised me that you will not come back.”  That is all she asked me when she blessed me, when she sent me forty-nine years ago in 1974.  All she asked that “You promise that you will not leave your Guru and come back.”  And I told “If on His own Swamiji kicks me out, I cannot help mother, otherwise on my own I will not go.  Even if I come out for a short while, I will go back to Him.  I know that one very well.  I will never look back.  I will practice this.”  I promised like that and came to Ashram.  So that was there with me naturally; this determination was there.  Once I take up a certain thing, I would not look back, that is the thing.  I remain soft and silent.  Even now also, you all might have watched me twenty years, more than that one, I remain soft and silent, quietly, but I go on doing my things.  Whatever I am supposed to do I keep on doing.  I do not make noises, I do not have to boast and take credit, nothing, quietly I do; whenever opportunity comes, I do.  Some message comes “Babaji are you available for a Thursday meditation?”  “I am available, yes. If I am not travelling, not busy in any other important Mission work.”  Other than that I do not have any private things for me to become busy or to go somewhere else. “Somebody passed away, I need to go to visit my aunt” – there is no such thing for me.  I do not have any such worldly responsibilities, but if I am busy due to Mission work, then occasionally I may tell “I am not [available]”, otherwise I am readily available to do this Zoom thing.  You are ready, you come and sit down.  I am ready here; I am sitting here to teach you all to make you meditate and answer your questions.  Like that quietly I keep going.  This came naturally for me but for others also, if they meditate regularly, if they quietly watch then the mind gathers.  When the mind gathers it becomes strong. When such a mind thinks, it can think positively, feel more confident.  You can feel more confident if you are ready to face the failure; that is another important thing Swamiji told.  “Why are you worried if you are going to fail?  Just do it.  Write the examination”  He used to tell students. “Don’t worry.  You just hold the pen and start writing.  Rest I will take care.  Don’t bother.”  Just like Krishna told, “You just take the bow and arrows, fight Arjuna.  I have killed all of them.  It is all done already.”  Like that Swamiji, He used to fill with enthusiasm, inspiration, always.  That is what He also did. We felt always inspired.  That is what we tell others also, we must feel inspired.   So, if you practice meditation, when the mind becomes more purified, neutralized, concentrated, then such a mind feels more confident, “After all we are going to fail, let me initiate people into meditation.  If they are unable to achieve Self-realization, it is not my failure.  I did my duty to initiate.”  Like that we have to feel always.   If some people came and then they went away, it is not my failure.  I was doing my duty.  I gave my love, I gave my teaching, I gave everything.  I tried to train them to make them tough and determined on this path again.  I did my duty, that’s it.  I don’t feel embarrassed, I don’t feel a failure, so I don’t lose my confidence.  Even if nobody is there, I keep doing.  I come and sit here.  If anybody comes, I meet them.  If nobody comes, I remember my God.  So, like that I never lose confidence.  So, that is what is important.  But if you practice regular meditation, definitely this confidence can come to any one of you. 

Question:   Thank You Babaji. I have one last question under this topic.  Babaji shared that there was only excitement and stress-freeness when Babaji was serving Swamiji no matter what the demand was.  There is no time for feeling anxious.  Babaji shared that there were many things that Babaji would have liked to do for Swamiji, but was not meant to be and Babaji accepted “As this is all you have,” hence there was no stress.  Does that mean that Babaji served your best with what You had and not what You would have liked to have when You were serving Swamiji?  Could Babaji share more about this statement?

Babaji Maharaj:   Whatever I could do I felt always satisfied.  See, more than this it is not possible; in a human body it is always limited.  Body is limited.  Only that much I can do, so I served that one. And I was happy, satisfied always, and never had a brooding; “O, I should have been doing this, I should have been doing this.  Maybe then Swamiji would have praised me more.”  There was no such thing because I did not expect anything, and always I felt being in the Ashram, this is what I wanted.  I just wanted to be in the Ashram.  I did not have any other expectations; “O, in the Ashram I should have been the VIP.  I should have been the number one disciple of Swamiji.”  There were no such imaginations.  Just wanted to be in the Ashram, that’s all.  In any corner that He wanted to keep me, that was alright; any job that He had given me, that was alright, because there was no imagination “What am I going to do in the Ashram?”  So, anything I am asked to do, I just went on doing because I am in the Ashram; that’s what I wanted.  Whether I was dusting – this is in the Ashram only.  That’s what I wanted.  I wanted to be in the Ashram; that point I never forgot.  That gave me lot of satisfaction always, enthusiasm always to do service even whether it was mopping or cleaning toilets, anything.  Means, these things people cannot accept to do; they want to do higher level things; “O we are supposed to meditate. We should not be doing this one, we should not be doing that one.”  There was no such reservation for me.  That’s why I simply went on doing whatever I was asked to do.  Anybody else also connected to Swamiji, if they asked me to do, I had to do and I went on doing.  While doing, I never had a brooding, so I never lost that inspiration or enthusiasm, that happiness because one thought: “All I wanted is that I wanted to be in the Ashram.  When I am in the Ashram, why should I brood?”  That’s it.  

So, like that always I was peaceful, happy, and enjoyed every work, never looked back.  Even if I wanted to go away also, I couldn’t have. But sometimes, one time in my life I went for one month to relax a little bit.  That was a very serious situation.  I thought Swamiji will make me mad.  “Let me not go mad, let me recover then come back.”  Like that I went, recovered, then came back to Swamiji, because I didn’t have any other place to go.  I didn’t have any other life to go. I didn’t have any other idea in the mind to go.  I came back to Swamiji again.  So, like that and it went on, it went on peacefully.  “Aah”, I was relieved. “I’m happy I have come back to Ashram.  Without this I cannot live.”  Even today after becoming a yogi also, Ashram in my mind, it is the idea that this is my Guru’s Ashram.  That gives me lot of satisfaction, peace, happiness, not the building, not the stones, not the luxuries, only idea “This is my Guru’s Ashram.”  Even in my native village Devarayasamudram I always feel that “This is my Guru’s Ashram.”  The meditation hall – He is the presiding deity. My Guru Shivabalayogi is the presiding deity.  That’s why I am able to stay there.  Other than that, anywhere else, with any other imagination I cannot stay long time.  One or two days if any necessity is there I have to stay with the host in a country for program’s sake.  That is all I go; we enjoy.  That too if they are Swamiji’s devotees, if they are spiritual, they are able to accept me and my Guru together, then only I can stay for a short while, but not for long time, I cannot stay anywhere.  Once my program is done then I leave and I come back to my Ashram.  That’s what it is.  I go if there is a program.  I go and do the program.  Once the program is done, then I come back.  So that Shivabalayogi’s Ashram gives me enthusiasm.  That needs to be the idea. If that is the purpose that you want to come, then you will be able to sustain yourself.  You must not have hundreds of ideas, “Ashram should be like this; Ashram should be like this.”  Whatever the Ashram is, it is my Guru’s Ashram.  Like a mother says, “Whatever he is, he may be good or bad, after all he is my son.”  Like that whatever is this Ashram, this is my Guru’s Ashram.

Babaji Maharaj continues until another questions comes up.

   Wonderful questions, lovely topic and gave me an opportunity to express my opinions.  Hope all of you heard with proper attention.  Adopt in your life.  Practice meditation, then only you will be able to see the change.  

Question:   Babaji, sometimes someone may not like you for no reason.  Even if you are good, they may not like you; you cannot avoid also.  Maybe in the office.  Sometimes I encounter such situations – you cannot even avoid that person.    In that case what do you do?

Babaji Maharaj:   Mentally, first thing try to ignore.  As much as possible you try to do your duty wherever necessary.  If that person is higher than you like a boss sometimes you may have to put up with that one.  Exercise patience, “It’s okay, no problem.”  He has tried to humiliate you also, because if you need that job you may have to take.  Today’s world we do hear about these things much, every field, everywhere there is, what we generally call it as politics.  People are selfish, narrow-minded, want to trouble the other, don’t want to consider.  These things do happen.  We all have seen in life, even in ashram life we have seen, but this is what it is.  First thing, never lose your confidence.  Feel confident always, confident with God.  “My God is with me.  My Lord, my Guru is with me always.  Whatever He is doing is for my benefit only.  Maybe He is trying to train me to become more tough and strong.  Let me try to ignore and don’t recognize don’t bother too much in the mind.”  It happens, somebody humiliates.  If he was more strong and powerful than you in the office that you couldn’t do anything, put up with it, no problem.  It’s not going to cut your head after all.  Simply, a little bit humiliation.  Like this at many places, ninety-nine percent you can put up with it and just carry on with the life when you need the job, when you need the work.  That is how we were taught to remain at the Guru’s lotus feet so that we do the karma yoga.  That’s how the Master trains.  So, consider this, if anything happens in the office, your Master is training you to be stronger. Life will be much better after some time. 

End of Questions and Answers

Babaji Maharaj now concludes the session.

  Doesn’t seem to be any more questions. I will just see a gallery video, and say bye-bye to everyone.  So wonderful to have spent some valuable time with all of you, helping you to meditate and I’m so happy that all of you are so serious in meditating very well, strongly.  All my blessings and love.  May Swamiji bless you.  May Janmashtami Sri Krishna bless you all.  We bless you all.  It’s time to disappear.  Bye-bye, we will see you next time. 

End of Session