A series of Q&As filmed at the Shivabalayogi Devarayasamudram Ashram in South India during a meditation retreat with Shri Babaji over the course of 10 days. Recorded in February 2025.

0:00 Intro
0:12 How can one recognise the tests in daily life?
1:28 What did Vasistha mean in the Yoga Vasistha, when he said, “Don’t seek non-action as a goal.”
3:52 Vasistha also said, “Even the gods have to take human form to attain Nirvana.” Is this true?
4:23 So have the gods still not reached the highest state?
5:55 Could Babaji explain the concept of Shiva?
7:21 What did Vasistha mean by, “Nothing is real and nothing is unreal”?
8:58 A devotee shares a dilemma they had about whether to stay at home to care for a beloved dog that is ill or to come to the Ashram for retreat.
11:44 Once one starts on the spiritual path, even if one doesn’t achieve Nirvikalpa samadhi in this birth, will it continue in the next birth?
13:25 How is karma stored and how is it carried forward?
16:43 What is the concept of the name Ram?
19:46 Is it natural for the mind to be habitual?
20:41 When one person troubles another person, whose karma is it?
22:50 How do we practice detachment without being indifferent?
24:05 Is there any knowledge that you got during Tapas that you didn’t have before?
26:28 What is the nature of the ego in the Self Realized state?
27:05 Is it possible to reach Nirvikalpa Samadhi through daily one hour meditation, or is Tapas necessary?
29:22 How does a Yogi act in the world without any habit in the mind?
38:06 Is it ok to just pray to reach our highest spiritual potential in this lifetime, is that wrong?
39:02 How do we perform our responsibilities in life while not getting too entangled in the work?
40:26 What is the meaning of satsang?
43:13 I have heard that the literal meaning of Upanishad is ‘sitting at the Master’s feet.’ Are we generating an Upanishad here in this session?
44:05 It is lost in the West that we can follow the path of the Master. Like Jesus also said, “All that I have done, you can do and more.”
45:30 At the end of the Yoga Vasistha, what was the purpose of Vasistha telling Rama that everything he has told him in the last seven days is false, to forget about it?
47:09 Can you talk about Shri Krishna? Some say you should listen to Krishna, but don’t follow him, follow Rama.
52:40 Why did Shri Krishna choose to drive the chariot in the war but not take up a weapon?
56:26 When Arjuna was hesitating, Krishna told him, “Take up the bow and shoot the arrow, I have already defeated the enemy.”

Discourse: In Quest of Truth
DSM Retreat, Day 1 Evening
Silence, Karma and Self-Realization
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/He0GK-_WKQE  
Recorded: February 2025

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   How can one recognize the tests in daily life?

Babaji Maharaj:   Usually, you are likely to expect certain things to happen in life.  If an unexpected thing also happens, that’s when you instantly recognize, “Maybe the Divine has better things in His store for me and this is a lesson, teaching.  Though at this moment I may not feel it as pleasant, there is definitely something for me to learn.”  So, that’s how we went with our Master.  At that moment, it could have been painful, He’s shouting, or…  At least, a couple of times, I remember He told, “Take my scoldings.  Then the world will not put its pointing finger to you,” means, will not be able to find any faults with you.  “It will make you perfect.”  So, that type of thinking will be helpful to recognize the test.  You will feel the presence of the Master also in some form or other. 

Question:   What did Vasistha mean in the Yoga Vasistha, when he said, “Don’t seek non-action as a goal.”

Babaji Maharaj:   He meant just be normal in this world, outside, with your body.  Simply inside; your consciousness, mentally you need to be silent.  Just like Ramana also said, “Even if a yogi is gossiping a lot, He is the ever silent one.”  You would see a yogi as a normal person, eating two vadas, having a cup of tea.  So, that’s what happens.  But what He is doing inside is important – when you watch your own consciousness.  You might be sitting and closing the eyes, but inside, what your consciousness is doing is more important.  For people “O, Clifford is into deep meditation,” but it may not be actually inside.  It might be pricking somewhere, something; chatter box. 

So, that’s what Vasistha meant, “Do not seek non-action.”  Simply just by not doing anything itself doesn’t mean that that person is Self-realized.  And simply if He is doing a normal thing, doesn’t mean that He is not Self-realized.  Precisely this is what He meant.  That’s why after all the days of discourse, in the end He tells Sri Rama, “All these days, whatever I was discussing is also totally false.”  Readers would be bewildered for a while.  He was telling such great truth and explaining everything.  So, that was for this reason, that just by reading or listening or understanding, he should not become non-active in any way; should be normal. Because it’s the mind which needs to be quiet all the time.  So, Ambaji might be preparing twenty cups of tea; her mind might be quiet, you never know.  Like that.  Example, something like that.

Question:   Vasistha also said, “Even the gods have to take human form to attain Nirvana.”  Is this true?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, that is to encourage what already human form you have got; from here, directly you can merge with the Parabrahman.  You don’t have to become an angel or any other god forms that you all worship.  They are all simply manifested things.  Just to tell that in this form, you can achieve the Self-realization. 

Question:   So, have the gods still not reached the highest state?

Babaji Maharaj:   In fact, this doesn’t seem to have any proper meaning at all.  For a person who is in bhakti marga, whichever form that person would have chosen, that is God for him, whether Krishna, Rama, Shiva, anything.  And they need not be in human form also.  They are already merged.  So, that is the truth actually.  They are one with the Divinity.  The Parabrahman is the word used for the Ultimate Truth, to remove any such confusion that there are no differences, they are all one.  So, this thing could have been told to Rama, that if you practice quietness, means the same thing will be in all those Gods, whether it is Shiva or Krishna or any, Devi – this same silence that Rama achieved.  So, that was how, Yoga Vasistha also tells, when a person is Self-realized, He becomes ‘puja yogya’, ‘worthy to be worshiped’ because His consciousness is merged with the Self and totally quiet.  So, that all could be the meaning. 

Question:   Could Babaji explain the concept of Shiva?

Babaji Maharaj:   Shiva means your existence in total thoughtlessness state.  Because the Sanskrit word used is nischestit.  Chesta is the mind wavering and spinning.  Roughly that is what the meaning is.  So, when it is into imagination, it is wavering and doing its chesta, it is not quiet.  So, when it is quiet, that is Shiva.  So, that is all pervaded simply.  So, when your mind becomes quiet, you become one with Shiva.  That is why, of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Shiva is recognized as the withdrawal back into the Self. Brahma is the one who creates, the creating concept.  Vishnu sustains that created one.  Like your mind imagines, that is Brahma, but your mind gets involved with the thing that you have created.  And then you would like to sustain that story, you prolong that story, you build up, frame and knit and everything.  When you are totally tired, you simply become quiet, withdrawn; that is Shiva concept.  So, that is how these things have been explained.

Question:   What did Vasistha mean by “Nothing is real and nothing is unreal”?

Babaji Maharaj:   To rise above dualities is the meaning.  In this world, always, one is important because of the other.  If one thing is shown, a person may imagine the other.  For example, like Buddha, one of the students asked, “Does God exist?”  He kept quiet.  He didn’t answer anything.  Then that student asked, “Does it mean that He doesn’t exist?”  And Buddha said, “When did I say so?  I didn’t say anything.  I am just quiet.”  “You are quiet, that is why”, that means he imagined to be the opposite.  So, you ask me, “Do you want to eat?”  I keep quiet.  “Does it mean that you don’t want to eat?”  Maybe I don’t mean either.  I just want to be keeping quiet.  That quietness.  That silence.  That is the nature of the Parabrahman, the Ultimate Truth.  The Ultimate Truth exists in itself.  This is what Vasistha also talks in Yoga Vasistha.  So, imagine, that it is the space, the only thing which has this quality of existing in itself.  It doesn’t need anything else for existence.  That’s how it goes.  Finally, advice is you drop all ideas and just become quiet. 

Question:   A devotee shares a dilemma they had about whether to stay at home to care for a beloved dog that is ill or to come to the Ashram for retreat.

Babaji Maharaj:   The concept here is importance of your attitude.  If you care for that dog, you try to organize somebody to care for that dog.  At least you will have satisfaction, “That dog is in safe hands as long as it is alive.”  And then you come here.  That is one thing.  Another thing “I am not going to bother about this dog, let it die or let anything happen.”  That attitude is wrong.  That amounts to selfishness and carelessness and not recognizing the faithfulness of the thing.  With Yudhisthira also, the concept is of the dog going along with him is one’s own karma; that becomes the dharma actually.  They have tried to tell that is the only thing which will go with everybody, any soul.  When you drop the body, nothing else will go.  No relationship, no amount of power, health, wealth, nothing will go.  Only whatever karma you have acquired in the mind, that will go.  That was the dharma that Yudhisthira was maintaining.  So, he didn’t want to give it up.  “This has been with me all along which protected me.”  So, that was a test for him.  So, if that is asked, “Would you sacrifice that also, if you want to come or not,” then he stood by that one.  That is the concept they have explained.  For your dog I have already told what you have to do.  Your attitude is important.  Sometimes this happens in life. 

If there was nobody to take care of the dog, you should have stayed back.  You couldn’t have abandoned that unattended like an orphan,  that was not proper.  But you managed to find somebody to take care of that.  So, that is why now you don’t have to worry in the mind.  Don’t feel guilty.  You have organized.  So, thanks to technological things today, you are able to get the picture of the dog and sitting here you can even have a video call.  You can call your dog.  Something is possible.  Finally, your mind is much more important.  Don’t feel guilty for anything.  You have done your best.  You have to take care of the things. 

Question:   Once one starts on the spiritual path, even if one doesn’t achieve Nirvikalpa samadhi in this birth, will it continue in the next birth?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, definitely.  You see, technically, scientifically what happens, when death happens, the brain dies.  But the mind gets detached from the brain.  The mind has acquired attitude of habits.  Suppose you were doing sadhana and for some reason death happens, so then the mind would have acquired all such habits of satsanga, like listening to a Master teaching and your own practices.  So, that attitude is there.  That forms the intensity of thoughts.  So, based on that it attains the next incarnation.  So, from childhood itself, you will have more inclination and you will be blessed to have, first thing, the parents who can give you such samskaaras and the surroundings also.  Plus, your own habits of observation, understanding, all these capacities will be there.  So thus, it will continue.  If we have had that inclination in childhood itself – when I felt after listening to Bhaja Govindam song, at the age of eight, and then I was always puzzled with the happiness that must be there all 24 hours, twelve months – that means in our previous lives, we must have been trying, definitely.  So, that continues.  It’s like putting into a fixed deposit, never goes wasted. 

Question:   How is karma stored and how is it carried forward?

Babaji Maharaj:   The consciousness, which is now mind in you, in quick succession these reactions happen.  It recognizes an existence, then analyzes, good or bad, “mine” or “not mine”, “I did” or “I did not do”.  And in that process, it makes a judgment, “This is it.  I did it.”  Then that’s what is absorbed as an imprint, usually what we call as subconscious state.  So, that will sit in your mind as acquired habits of the mind.  So, all these things you might forget and you will not even know.  That’s why when you sit for meditation, thousands of torturing thoughts might come up.  You would even wonder, “When did I imagine all these things?  How, why is it all coming?”  That is coming from time immemorial.  So many lives would have passed by.  So, the mind has acquired such habits.  That’s what I usually call as ‘acquired habits of the mind’.  This is what you need to get rid of in this life, that you have been given an opportunity to discriminate, to think and understand, come to a Master, understand the teaching.  And then you have got the technique to do sadhana. 

So, just by watching, so you can erase all such things slowly.  Thus, what happens when one becomes a yogi, you would have stopped the future.  Whatever the past is there, that will happen.  But the time will pass by without you noticing much of it, anything.  Because your consciousness is merged with the Divinity.  It will be attentive to the Divine or your own sadhana.  So, this is how the karma also comes, karma is acquired.  And this is how one needs to get rid of the karma also through practice.  That’s why spiritual satsangas have been told – bhakti marga, jnana marga, dhyana marga, everything has been told, that you can either make the mind single pointed, so that it can give up millions of thoughts and hold on to one single thought of God’s imagination.  Or if it can become totally silent, it goes introvert and merges.  That’s why I always tell, this meditation technique taught to my Guru by Lord Shiva who gave us is one of the highest methods of sadhana practiced since ancient times of Rig Veda, silent watching; it’s like getting recruited as an officer.  Your mind becomes quiet without any external anchor and goes introvert and merges with the Self.  Other than that, bhakti margas, when you choose a form, when you try to worship, so your mind becomes single pointed, slowly, slowly; sincerely if you really become devoted to that form, forgetting everything else, slowly it will make you forget.  So, then one time the same Divine will help you to drink that, means get rid of that form also and it merges with the Self.  This is the process. 

Question:   What is the concept of the name Ram?

Babaji Maharaj:   [Babaji first explains in Hindi].
[Explaining the question to the English speakers] She wanted to know that usually in the form worship, like particularly Rama in Indian culture, whether it is the form or the formlessness, what it is. It is chanted even when the body is given up also, so the people all chant. That is the ultimate truth?  What is the truth?

So I told, in the beginning of bhakti marga, it is always with a form.  An idol is kept.  We tell “This is Swamiji’s idol, this is God”, like that, then you start worshipping.  If you try to find and you find in your consciousness the same Divinity everywhere, then you win. Otherwise you can simply keep God into one box and keep claiming, “My God is only in this box and nowhere else.”  So, that is simply a mean mentality.  You wouldn’t reach anywhere.  Otherwise, the same sakar, form and the formlessness and you cross, you go beyond both form and formlessness, and become one with the Ultimate Truth, giving up all names and all forms and all ideas, everything drop.  That is what I tried to make her understand. 

Question:   Is it natural for the mind to become habitual?

Babaji Maharaj:   When mind has picked up something and it behaves in that way, we should not claim that as natural.  It is the habitual thing.  The natural is when it becomes quiet [Gurudeva also repeats this in Hindi].

Question:   When one person troubles another person, whose karma is it?

Babaji Maharaj:   [Babaji explains in Hindi].

[Translation of Babaji’s answer] Every person has their own prarabdha.  If the mind is hurt it means that there is a weakness in us.  That is why I am feeling sad because of you.  But it is not because of you, but because of a limitation in me, I am sad.  If that limitation is not there then nobody can give us happiness or give us unhappiness.  This is “Soul is soul’s friend and soul is soul’s enemy.”  This is said in the Bhagavad Gita.

Mata Ambaji:

Baba has just said a beautiful mantra to her. She asked that when one person troubles another person, is this because of the karmic thing, you know, one is giving a trouble and one is  receiving a trouble.  So, whose karma it is?  So, Baba said that the person who is getting disturbed is weak.  Otherwise, no one can give you trouble.  No one can give you happiness and no one can give you unhappiness.  So, the person who thinks “I am unhappy” has to bring strength in themselves.  Have to strengthen themselves going on to the path of the spirituality by the spiritual practice, and make themselves strong that no one on earth can trouble you.  Nothing can trouble you.  Your mind be peaceful all the time in all the situations.  And that’s where Baba has quoted a shloka from the Bhagavad Gita, that “Atman…” Atman means the self, “…is the enemy.  You are the friend of yourself and you can be the worst enemy for yourself.”  So, make yourself strong by the spiritual practice  so no one can trouble you and you become the best friend for yourself.  Otherwise, your own thoughts can become your biggest enemy. 

Question:   How do we practice detachment without being indifferent?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, there is a thin edge of difference.  You are quiet actually, first.  But if somebody is troubled, you have the capacity to attend to that person if necessary.  That’s what in Yoga Vasistha only Vasistha talks, “A yogi appears to be indifferent to the world, but He is equally compassionate.”  If somebody is troubled, they come and pray to a yogi, He will pray for them, He will bless them.  So, like that any person can be.  The indifference is, “I am quiet.  That person is trouble.  I don’t have to bother.”  That is indifference.  Simply by being quiet, you have to practice; that under all circumstances, even when so many are bothered, you don’t get affected – but you can try to help the other.  This is what we teach.  Just by worrying, you cannot help anybody.  So, you have to practice to stop worrying.  Then whatever is possible, you can always help.

Question:   Is there any knowledge that You got during tapas that You did not have before?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, actually it was not new.  As I told, same subject I was gaining by Grace of Swamiji before tapas.  The same thing made me to attend a stronger, a bigger and higher workshop.  It was like a mental projection was happening, then I got a chance to see the manifested universe and the manifested universe disappearing.  So, that type of experience happened.  Same thing, enhanced in a higher class.  As I told in the morning also, I might have been in a beginning of the university or a high school, then I got to see the university’s height, the final. 

Mata Ambaji:

It is like somebody putting an experiment in a laboratory.  You are putting an experiment and you are spending your years in the lab to achieve a result, like a formula or something.  And twenty years, you are experiencing doing the efforts and gaining the knowledge.  And then one day suddenly you realize, “This is what it is.  This is what I was trying to create.”  But here, it is not the creation.  It is not something which Baba had to create mentally.  It was something which He was practicing, practicing, practicing, and became one with it.  He became That, understand?  It is not something He achieved or he got it from somewhere outside.  He was practicing something and that one day became One.  The duality that day ends.  When He went into the tapas, the duality of ‘I and that’ came to oneness.  And it became one of the ever witness one. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Final chapter of teaching. 

Mata Ambaji:   And closed.  And chapter closed for this life. 

Question:   What is the nature of the ego in the Self-Realized state?

Babaji Maharaj:   A little bit of consciousness is in touch with the brain.  So, that ego is attachment to my Guru and carry on His mission.  So, that enables us to keep the body.  Otherwise, the body gets dropped if there is no other attachment.  That makes anybody who can come to this path to teach them, to answer them very easy. 

Question:   Is it possible to reach Nirvikalpa samadhi through daily one hour meditation, or is Tapas necessary?

Babaji Maharaj:   It happens, because that much amount of silence needs to be practiced, depending on the mind.  How much silent that it can remain, how much it absorbs from the world, how much active that you are going to be in the world; depending on that only.  Say, if you practice one hour meditation, also your active participation in the world is less, just for example.  So, then the mind’s absorption of imprints also will be less.  Like for example, I tell, when we were small kids, our parents had very less challenge.  Because we simply listened to them.  We never argued with them.  Never tried to seek any explanations.  There was no need because we had such reverence for them.  That was important for us.  Not like today.  And also in our time, even a telephone was a luxury, television we never got to see.  So thus, our minds got very less exposed to the outside world until high school days also.  Hardly we knew anything of the world.  At the age of twenty when I came to Ashram, I did not know anything of the world.  That never had embedded within me.  So, the meditation became very easy.  Keeping the mind quiet became very easy. 

Based on that you will be able to achieve Self-realization, quietness.  Before death happens to this body, how much you are able to keep your mind quiet?  Both has to go together.  Either more meditation, or if less meditation, while you are active also, your activity should be minimum to the need to sustain your life.  You may need to earn some livelihood, something like that.  Without going for a very greedy thing, you just work for your need.  If you can keep like that, you will still win. 

Question:   How does a Yogi act in the world without any habit in the mind?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, most of the time, it is mechanically.  But this is a highly skilled thing.  I keep practicing.  Like, you all might struggle to bring in the mind, make it quiet.  For me, if I have to act upon, I had to bring it upwards to the level of brain, to deal with the situation, to talk about certain things.  So, that is why most of the time, I would depend on somebody loyal to me who would advise me in the right sense what is happening actually.  Sometimes I might be somewhere.  I might simply tell “Yes” and that may not be proper actually.  Somebody needs to alert me, “Why are you telling ‘yes’, that is not the thing.” Then I might realize this happened.  But this thing I don’t allow people to know, otherwise they might take me granted.  They try to write to me to write a “Yes.”  They first try to approach Ambaji, “Can we come and participate for one day in this retreat?” If they don’t get response, they know that I am weak in this.  They will simply write to me, “Can we come, Babaji?”  I will say “Yes,” then they will tell, “Babaji has told ‘yes’ that I am going to come.”  They will overrule everybody else.  So, that is what we have learned now.  Then I have tell them, “Wait, I need to consult my people who are dealing with this situation, what is the situation, is there any more place to admit anybody, is there any room available, all these things.” 

So, this is a different skill, means finally, going to samadhi is a different skill.  Bringing it back to the brain’s level is altogether a different skill.  That is why I would say, all Self-realized people need not become very highly skilled teachers.  If you observe in the history a few, like Adi Shankara or Buddha, Sri Krishna, they have become very highly skilled teachers also apart from becoming Self-realized.  So, that is what I always thought that we would learn.  So, we will learn to answer the questions.  The question answering becomes spontaneous for me.  If a question is asked, I don’t know, spontaneously the answer comes.  Means I don’t need any moment of time to think about the question, what it is that has been asked and what should be the answer.  I don’t plan like that.  I cannot.  That’s why if somebody gives a public program and asks me to give a lecture for one hour, I will be a bit miserable; it is difficult for me to imagine and give a talk of what I have to.  But this question answer is simply easy.  I don’t know how it happens, it’s a flow.  Any question anybody asks, immediately, spontaneously it comes. 

So, something like that, I keep practicing, I have practiced.  But the initial years was much more difficult.  I used to be dazed.  Anybody invited or asked me, “We want to do a mission, we want to register your mission.”  And then Ambaji tried to talk to me, “What is happening outside Your room, You don’t realize Babaji.  You are just here and they are trying to exploit You.  And they are trying to send away who are really attached to You, who are really devoted to You and who are really spiritual.”  These things she would observe and tell.  So, for that reason they started disliking her, “If we can get rid of Ambaji…” [To Ambaji] That is the truth.  That is the answer for the question, what they are talking.

Mata Ambaji:

Another thing is – sorry, I am overtaking Babaji – but here watching Babaji for so many years, His mental state is very peculiar.  A common person cannot understand.  Like an ordinary person, we talk and the thing gets registered immediately in our head.  And according to that, Babaji always says we make decisions and then we go into the actions.  Here, it is totally opposite.  Things don’t stay here.  It comes,  information comes; He reacts and that’s it.  He may not remember next day or a following day what He said to Zen and what He would have said to Bruce or…  So, it just gets wiped out. 

So, every time when I am with Him, for every single thing I have to be watchful over every single thing; like a hawk, I am always watchful, “This is not right for You.  This is good for You.  This person is not good for the Mission.  This person is good for…  This person is taking advantage.”  In the world, we are also in the world, even dealing with the small things.  So, with Babaji, there is no decision actually.  He doesn’t make any decision.  Like a common person, we judge things right and wrong.  It’s amazing that He doesn’t think like that, “This is right, this is wrong.”  He just accepts everything, whatever comes to Him.  And sometimes those things, according to the larger cause or for the larger purpose, those things can not be right also.  It can affect Him or it can affect our society or things.  So, we have to make a decision.  That’s where I’ll say people do take Him granted. 

I have seen people…  When people get to know this secret that…  Okay.  And it’s amazing, if Babaji is doing something, He’s a hundred percent focused there.  And at that time, if you come and ask Him, there is no decision because His focus is hundred percent there.  So, I’ll say, He just takes things, accept, accept.  That’s all.  He doesn’t repel or doesn’t throw things back.  He just always accepts things and leave it to the Divinity to get it settled.  Understand?  It’s a huge thing.  It’s like you don’t exist.  Understand?  Come to that point where you don’t exist.  And everything else around you is just working naturally and with the nature, with the Divinity.  And that’s amazing to watch.  Means sometimes it amazes me how could it be possible that somebody’s mind is so calm and so pure.  So, I have to sometimes wake Him up, “No, no, no, no, we can’t do this.  No, no, this is not correct.  No, no, we can’t go there.”  Or, “We can’t accept this program.  That program is not right.  That person has some other intentions.” 

So, everything comes to Him, it’s just… in His status, there is no duality left.  So, when there is no duality left, there is a no point in making any decisions also.  Isn’t it?  It’s so amazing.  It’s just a play.  It’s just happening.  Everything is happening.  And He’s just there without making right, wrong judgments.  And it’s just so amazing.  Even in the worst of worst situation I have seen Baba just accepting and leaving onto the Divinity, “Okay, whatever is best will happen.  Let it let it go.  Let it happen.”  So, He doesn’t bother about the results like a common person.  Like, “Okay, I have to put this effort and wait for these results.”  It’s not like that.  And it’s so amazing. 

Participant:   Baba can accept any result; it doesn’t matter.

Mata Ambaji:

It doesn’t matter.  Because ultimately, He’s not getting affected by the results.  Isn’t it? That’s where duality in this world is.  We get affected by the world when we live in the duality.  When you don’t exist, nothing exists also.  No decision exists also. 

Question:   Is it okay to just pray to reach our highest spiritual potential in this lifetime, is that wrong?

Babaji Maharaj:   As long as you need to have a thought, so that is the best thought to have that you want to have Self-realization.  So, that’s important.  So, once you are on the terrace, you would have got rid of all thoughts.  But, till then, you need to keep holding to that thought of ladder to go on to the terrace.  So, it is considered as a very good thing.  Instead of having so many other thoughts, to having properties and money, this and that, you are having a desire for a wealth of Self-awareness.  So, that is the best that you can afford to have in this world. 

Question:   How do we perform our responsibilities in life while not getting too entangled in the work?

Babaji Maharaj:   Do it as a duty.  Means some boss has asked you to do and that’s why you are doing.  It can be as simple as that.  Instead of worrying for the results and “Should I be doing, not doing?”  Already a certain thing has happened, means like already you are married that you need to give something to your family.  So, give it and then forget about it.  Mentally you don’t have to keep holding on to that all that time.  Just do that, finish.  So, just like this ashram has been built and I don’t have to carry this in my mind, because this is a trust and doesn’t belong to me.  I cannot own, I cannot write this property to anybody.  But whoever wants to serve in the Mission, they will be able to live, they will be able to have food also.  Both ways it is possible.  But they cannot own this as a property.  But they can stay.  So, like that, remaining unattached.  So, you give a home also, no problem.  Whatever the need is there that you think, you can give.  Then remain detached.  It’s okay.  “I have done my duty.  My Lord, You asking me to do this; I have done this.” 

Question:   What is the meaning of satsang?

Babaji Maharaj:   Where you can learn the noblest thing.  Having come to this world, having come to this human body, the highest truth, sitting with a Self-realized master.  That is in the company of the ‘Sat’ – in the company of the Ultimate Truth actually, you get a chance to sit like that one.  That is what is satsanga.  You always get to hear about that only.  I will never teach you to have alcohol or any other drugs or any such thing.  So, you get to learn from me only about the Ultimate Truth.  No matter you go for a myth hundred times, hundred times, I’ll bring you back, “That is not.  That’s only a myth.  This is the truth.  You go like this, then you can achieve.”  So, that is the satsanga.  It’s like a tapas of your own, as Adi Shankara talks; equivalent to tapas when you learn – satsanga.  So, if you sit with a bad master, he will teach all sorts of things and then wrong habits, everything, all things.  So, that is what is dusanga vs satsanga. Company of the noble, company of the learned, company of the Self-realized, highest.  That’s why you’ll remember that we gave an interview to the ‘Buddha at Gas pump’.  That person’s concept was, your neighbor might be a Self-realized soul and you may not know. 

Mata Ambaji:

Yes, because you can’t measure somebody’s mind.  You can’t measure what status your Guru is.  Ultimately, a jnani or a Self-realized person; that Self-realized person’s realization or non realization is for that person.  Ultimately, that person has achieved.  What that person can do is to inspire, inspire to take the same path, follow the same path and you also become what He has become.  So, it’s taking along, so it becomes like a shepherd for so many people.  He knows the way – you all follow.  That’s what Baba is doing sitting here.  He knows the way.  If you all follow, we’ll reach somewhere. 

Question:   I have heard that the literal meaning of Upanishad is ‘Sitting at the Master’s Feet.’  Are we generating an Upanishad herein this session?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, in the same way, ancient times, sages would talk about their experience.  Whatever that has been recorded, today is available as an Upanishad.  One day, the future generations will get to read this, what they are recording and transcribing.  And that’s how things on YouTube is coming slowly.  Many people after seeing the YouTube videos only are coming to our Zoom classes and they’re able to meet me.  Other than that, we don’t do any big advertisements or any such things.  No claim, no boasting, nothing.  Simply on listening to my simple answers, they get attracted and they come. 

Question:   It is lost in the West that we can follow the path of the Master.  Like Jesus also said, “All that I have done, you can do and more.”

Babaji Maharaj:   My Guru used to tell, “Jesus also taught the same things, but unfortunately after His crucifixion many of His teachings were burned.”  Probably that may not be available.  But luckily, today are better days – like in a country like India, they don’t bother much.  Anybody can become Self-realized and teach the things.  See, that can be recorded and it’s available.  So many materials are available.  People have to show interest and work out and make it coming out as books.  So many work in the team, from America to Australia to England to India, with Ambaji and the big team, they edit, they transcribe, they bring it as a book form also.  Like the commentaries I have written on Ashtavakra Samhita is what I learnt or what I experienced.  I have tried to use the present-day terminologies so that people can easily understand.  Otherwise, scriptural terminologies always; ‘Atman’, ‘Brahman’, this, that.  Instead, I have tried to use the ‘mind’, ‘consciousness’ – what they mean actually, I am able to tell.  So, it’s available. 

Question:   At the end of Yoga Vasistha, what was the purpose of Sage Vasistha telling Sri Rama that everything He has told Him in the last seven days is false, to forget about it?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, Sri Rama was born as a prince.  He had certain responsibilities; that needed to be taken care.  Otherwise, by the time that discourse was over, Sri Rama had achieved Nirvikalpa samadhi.  His mind had become so quiet in those seven, eight days of listening to discourse itself, that truth was so beautiful, amazing.  And Sri Rama was so ripe, ripe soul that was; just by listening to Vasistha, He had achieved Nirvikalpa samadhi and became a Self-realized soul in those seven days.  Perhaps He wouldn’t have got up and started working anywhere.  Already by the vairagya prakarana, in the beginning itself he had stopped working.  That’s why Dasaratha tells, “I am so much worried.  He needs to be crowned as the crown prince.  He doesn’t talk to people.  He doesn’t smile.  He doesn’t do this.”  So, then Vasistha is talking to him.  For that reason only Vasistha told, “All these stories were also false, don’t bother.  Just get up and work.  Just be quiet in the mind.”  That was the purpose, actually.  Just you all have to achieve being quiet in the mind.  You can adopt any way of life, no problem.  You can continue selling printers.  And you can be continuing any business, anything, but simply you have to keep your mind quiet.

Question:   Can You talk about Sri Krishna?  Some say you should listen to Krishna but don’t follow Him, follow Rama.

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, this is a wrong notion some inexperienced people have tried to create, actually.  If you want to learn, you can learn from both.  Timings were different.  The situations they needed to deal with was totally different.  In Sri Rama’s time, there was much more nobility amongst humanity there.  Except for one person or one king or any such things, there was nobility; He had to deal with that situation only.  So, His wife was taken away and then He had to kill and He just came; it was just performing duty.  How you are going to define what is your duty?  

You see, in dharma, it is of threefold.  One is you take care of the health of your physical body; this anybody can understand easily.  Then using the physical body, you take care of your mental health, means control the mind, achieve Self-realization.  This also somewhat people can understand if we talk.  But the third one is upholding moral values.  This is the most difficult thing while you live in this world.  What is right and what is wrong? What is your dharma?  That’s what Sri Krishna tried to teach in the highest possible way.  One of the greatest Gurus that this creation has given us.  That is what I have always believed.  Sri Krishna, His teachings, people can be bewildered, but that is the right teaching.  Means, example, all of you are educated; listen and don’t get carried away.  I am not talking wrong.  Sri Krishna taught, “Telling a lie itself is not important.  The purpose is much more important.”  You know, the purpose makes it totally different.  You are telling a lie for your selfishness.  That is wrong thing – adharma.  But you are telling a lie and you are able to save ten lives.  That is dharma.  Just because of your personal glory, you are telling a truth and you are harming ten lives.  That is adharma.  That’s what Sri Krishna tried to teach. 

He tried to dream –  if the ruler is both righteous and powerful, then only the country can have peace and the subjects can have peace.  If the ruler is powerful but not dharmatma, he himself will trouble the subjects.  If he is dharmatma but not powerful, others will take over, hawks.  They won’t allow him to do the right things.  So that’s how Sri Krishna tried to teach.  You see, they tried to find all avenues to stop the war.  But one person was adamant; “I will not give even the edge of the needle of that much of land.”  He said, “Give at least five villages” – they were ready to accept.  “I will assure you that Pandavas will accept and they will live peacefully; you live peacefully with yours.”  But Duryodhana was not accepting. 

That’s when the war had to happen.  If you observe in this world also, every other day you get to see the same story, justice, injustice, people selfish.  Why a clash happens?  Why two countries fight?  There was an article; “No country has gone into a war without its personal interests”.  This was one statement that person had written in an article.  And the war doesn’t come to an end.  So, we all read the history during our high school days.  After first world war there was League of Nations.  Then the second world war happened.  The League of Nations broke down, finished.  It lost its value.  Then people thought once, “The world will come to an end now.  Hitler is gaining like this.  This is happening, that is happening.”  Then finally, that also came to an end.  United Nations organization came.  We used to hear from my mother and parents, everybody heaved a sigh of relief; “No more wars.  United Nations has come.  They will not allow anybody to fight a war.”  That was also illusion.  The very people who formed United Nations, they wanted wars to continue.  That’s why wars continue.  Conflicts continue.  This is the human nature, you see? 

This is the most difficult thing to decide, what is right, what is wrong.  If two people start fighting, they both insist, “I am right, I am right.”  It becomes difficult to establish who was right actually.  This thing happens.  So, this is what Krishna tried to teach – “See always a larger cause.”  Try to see a larger cause and try to decide, then there is always a solution to end the war; but if only people are ready to accept. If they don’t accept it…

Question:   Why did Sri Krishna choose to drive the chariot in the war but not take up a weapon?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, the situation was like that.  They were cousins who were fighting the war actually.  They both were related to Krishna.  But Krishna knew what was right, who were righteous.  But still He didn’t want to take up weapons and fight a war.  But He guided Pandavas quietly.  He was acting diplomatically.  Because if He had taken up weapons and fought, the Kauravas parents and so many others would have accused, “Krishna, You didn’t come to my children’s side.  You went on to the Pandavas side.”  So many accusations would have been; in spite of all these, it was none of Sri Krishna’s fault why the war happened.  Simply one person, Duryodhana, and Duryodhana’s father being a king allowed it to happen.  And several others defined dharma for their personal glory.  These were the reasons the war happened.  But Gandhari blamed Sri Krishna, “If You wanted, You could have stopped the war.”  He told, “Throughout I had been telling, take care of your children when they were small, their nature is not right.  You take care of them, pull them up.  This is wrong.  They were doing injustice to Pandavas.  But now, when everybody is ready to wrench each other’s neck and kill each other, nobody is going to listen philosophy there on the war field.  How did you expect?  Okay, Mother Gandhari, in spite of that, if you want to curse, if this is the niyathi, let it happen.” 

Sri Krishna accepted.  As Ambaji was telling, “A yogi accepts it, finally.” Even though it is not our fault, if you tell it is our fault, it is okay.  Krishna accepted that curse also because that was to happen – this is another lesson; the Buddha at the gas pump.  Sri Krishna was such a great teacher, a Self-realized soul, yogi was available, but all the Yadavas were not aware.  In the end, they were fighting with each other, killing each other.  They had become alcoholics, womanizers because enormous wealth had come.  When Balarama, Sri Krishna’s brother tells, “Krishna, You helped the Indian subcontinent so much, You helped Pandavas.  Why don’t You help our own Yadavas?”  He tells, “This is their prarabdha.”  Prarabdha means, “They never considered me like a Guru, never listened to me what I had to teach.  They wanted wealth.  Now wealth has come.  This is what is happening.  Balarama, let us go to meditation before our own bodies will be claimed by the death.”  These are the words of Sri Krishna in the end of His story, and He takes His brother and He goes to meditation. 

So, such a beautiful life of Sri Krishna, if only people can understand.  Many, many Indians even today misunderstand Krishna.  They tell me that “No, Sri Krishna was only a politician playing.”  He was not simply a politician.  He was dealing with such pure ignorance of those people, Sri Krishna had to deal with such wicked kings who were ruling around.  They were setting a justice for themselves, justice for others, all these things were happening. 

Question:   When Arjuna was hesitating, Krishna told him, “Take up the bow and shoot the arrow.  I have already defeated the enemy.”

Babaji Maharaj:   See, in a simple way, this is a psychological push that Sri Krishna needed to give.  Arjuna, such a great warrior and a mighty soul, had become so depressed.  On seeing his own Guru Dronacharya, his grandsire Bhisma, cousins, everybody, he was thinking dharma in a different way, “After killing all these people, what is it that we are going to achieve?  This war is not noble.  This is not proper.  I cannot fight with my grandsire, I cannot.”  But Sri Krishna had to teach him. “They all have sided with adharma.  Though they themselves may not be wicked, but they have sided; that is good enough to kill them.  You have to kill them whether it is Bhisma.”  He respected Sri Bhisma also; Sri Krishna knew what a great personality was Bhisma, but yet he did the mistake.  At the time of disrobing of Draupadi, he also kept quiet.  He should have stopped it, told, at least protested, “This is wrong.  Protecting this lady is my first dharma, my first priority of duty; not towards the king, that is afterwards.”  That he failed.  That is one thing that Sri Krishna taught –  where you have to set a priority, where you have to take a sword, where you don’t have to take a sword.  For a soldier guarding our country’s borders, taking the weapon becomes his dharma.  If he doesn’t take, he is doing a wrong thing.  That is what Sri Krishna tried to teach.  It is a very tricky situation always.  Many people have misunderstood.  They talk “This is not proper, this is not.” 

   So, when we were trying to defend our ashram in Dehradun, many people criticized, “Babaji, You are a yogi, why should You get involved into this?” Because I am the one in-charge.  If we take care of this ashram, if this is peaceful, all of you are able to come, stay here peacefully, do sadhana peacefully, listen to me peacefully.  If some wicked people come and claim, “This is my portion, I am going to build my rooms here.  And whatever is built, this is mine,” what should we do?  We had to take action.  That became our dharma.  So, this world is very tricky always.  People are always double standard, human beings.  Human beings are the most unreliable people. 

   When Ambaji met me thirty five years ago as young man, for me this was my attitude.  I told Ambaji, “Human beings, perhaps the most wretched creatures.  Next time I would request God not to create human beings.”

End of Session