0:00 Intro
0:07 What is Tapas?
1:54 Why does Babaji call Tapas the highest pitch of meditation?
3:45 What defines how long one needs to do Tapas?
5:44 Do we have to meditate until every imprint in the mind has been purified?
11:01 In Tapas, does everything disappear? Is this what samadhi is?
12:22 What is the meaning of the many visions that appeared during Tapas?
18:29 As we go deeper into meditation, do the tests increase?
21:11 Do we need to have a desire to do Tapas?
21:27 How did Babaji go into Tapas? Was there a desire to do Tapas?
26:11 Can we say that Babaji’s selfless service also a form of Tapas?
30:18 Did Babaji have awareness of any discomfort in the body or the passing of time during Tapas?
36:01 Would all Masters have practiced this meditation to achieve Self Realization?
37:52 Can the practice of 1 hour meditation take one to samadhi?
39:01 What does karma by thought and action do to our conscience?
41:23 How do traumas play a role in the visions in meditation?
43:33 Babaji received different mantras during Tapas, but in the meditation instructions we are told not to repeat mantras.
45:41 What do the various samadhis mean, i.e. sarvikalpa, nirvikaklpa?
47:26 How can a normal householder cultivate patience for sadhana?

Tapas – the highest pitch of meditation | In Quest of Truth – Q&A with Babaji, No.199

Recorded on 16 November 2024 with worldwide participants

Question:

So, the first question is, can Babaji please explain what Tapas is?

Shri Babaji:

‘Tapas’ word is, you burn out all the impressions that are in the mind and make it ripe. ‘Ripe’ word symbolically is used. Because ‘it is ripe’ means when it is totally cleansed, it is silent, means it would have regained its form of pure consciousness. The pure consciousness goes and merges with the Self when you achieve this purity of the mind. The same mind comes to be known as pure consciousness. In fact, mind is the combination of consciousness and energy. So, with that it starts going towards its origin, the real Self. That’s what is known as Self-Realization or merging with the Self.

So now, to do a Tapas means, one should be able to keep the mind quiet for 8 to 10 hours in a stretch, at least. Like that, several years he does. So, then the mind totally becomes quiet and achieves samadhi. It undergoes a process of several stages of cleansing: imaginations, manifestations, and mental projections, everything it gets over, and then it goes to its highest consciousness, the ultimate truth. That’s what is also recognized as divinity. That is what the Tapas means.

Question:

Why does Babaji call Tapas the highest pitch of meditation?

Shri Babaji:

 Yeah, now, meditation means paying attention, your ‘attention to’. Now, your mind is totally attentive of whatever it’s imagining. It’s preoccupied with its own imaginations. Thus, it has forgotten its origin of existence, what it is. So, instead of its real Self, it has misidentified itself with the physical body and is aware of the physical body as itself and the surroundings it’s aware, but it’s not aware of itself, because of its preoccupation. Now, the practice of meditation is so that you are able to become aware of itself by paying attention. So, you are taught to just watch, pay attention, but do not think anything. Do not repeat anything. Just watch in between eyebrows. That’s how we talk.

Now, what Swamiji used to say, if for one hour you can keep the mind totally quiet and single pointedly – if possible in between eyebrows or to itself from where the ‘I’ is coming, it’s all the same thing – then that is known as meditation. I have told, till then you are trying to meditate. The day you are able to keep mind for one hour totally silent, then you can tell you are meditating. Till then, you are trying to meditate. The mind is running and the imaginations are bringing back. So, like that.

Question:

Babaji, what defines how long one needs to do Tapas? A divine guidance shall definitely come, one needs to have faith – in both ways, through a form or formlessness, technically whatever it is. Because, as I told, technically, the individual imagined self is connected to the ultimate Self. Just like if the individual imagined self is a small droplet, its ultimate truth, ocean is its divinity. The same way here, if it’s a micro spec, what we call it as mind, or which has given an imagination about yourself to you, that is connected to the ultimate truth. From that is where the source of ‘I’ is coming, actually.

Say, if you achieve one day in your mind that you can get rid of all millions of thoughts and visions, then this consciousness of existence is always there, which you cannot get rid of because that is you yourself and that you is a reality. It is not an imagined thought or imagined anything. So, that is the reality.

So, that is how your attention turns to itself. As its attention turns to itself, then it starts going towards its ultimate source, that is divinity. Automatically on its own it goes. So, that is what the idea of doing meditation or recommending meditation. In this process, one would obtain supreme peace and total contentment. So, these two things are the most elusive for any creature, for any human being, any consciousness, anything, right?

Question:

So, Babaji has talked about how we acquire so many habits in the mind, absorb them as imprints. Do we thus have to meditate until every imprint in the mind is purified?

Shri Babaji:

You don’t have to go on selecting every thought and meditate on that. It doesn’t happen like that. Simply a technique is taught – just like as we instructed in the beginning of meditation with the technique, how you have to meditate, having faith in yourself: you just have to close your eyes and do that. When you do that, all thoughts and visions that are in the subconscious state, which we call it as acquired habits of the mind… It has been acquired as a habit, then that forms the attitude of the person. Like, when you recognize an apple as an apple, that is your mental habit. When you utter a good word or a bad word and you are unable to restrain yourself either way, then that is your habit. Because of long time practice and absorbing it as imprints in the mind, that is what we call as acquired habits of the mind through which you would have become habitual to think like that one.

This universe is there, whatever you have learned or you have been told or absorbed in the mind, you are habitual to recognize the world in that way. Either a good or a bad universe, a world or anything, like that all the names that have been given. Though this is very useful in this world for communication and understanding, in spirituality, nobody knows what it is. The truth is beyond all these things. It may appear very funny for a while for any newcomer, for anybody who is listening to this. But, as you progress in meditation, one day when you achieve the awareness of Self, you would have undergone all this process and be able to know the secrets of mind, how it works, what all happens.

So, that is how these things, you don’t have to attend to each thought. In one go if you just keep quiet, you practice like that. For all the one hour, your practice should be you just remain quiet. If you are quiet, all the thoughts will evaporate or dissolve in itself. It has come out of the mind only, it will dissolve in the mind only. It cannot go out of the mind, there is no such thing. So, thus it can all become. But, as long as you keep holding on to those thoughts… How do you hold? You recognize the thought and then you analyze the thought as a good, a bad, “This is what, this is this, this is apple and this is not gold, this is gold, this is not silver…” Like that, whatever you would have learned, you would like to tell. If I tell you, “This is God”, then whatever you have learned about this, you will tell, “No, Babaji, that is not God, that is only a recorder, Sony recorder, what you are holding.”

Because you know this by that name only and you would like to call it that. But I know what it is. It has come out of the Self only, it will go back to Self. Like, if anybody has studied the mind, whatever is in the mind, it has come out of mind. Mind was the raw material. But that raw material, nothing solid appears to be there. Infinite. Simply, consciousness of existence. More than that you don’t get any clue at all; nobody has seen the mind in naked eyes. Yet, from that nothing appears and so much has appeared within your mind. A whole world, millions of thoughts and visions, everything is there. Your considerations, your assumptions, your definitions, your judgments, everything is there. So, all these things you need to get rid to know the truth of your real Self. For that only you are taught just to watch in between eyebrows. Your mind will not be disturbed. It will not collapse. Nothing will happen. When you get up of one of our meditation, you can be a normal person in the world, you can think.

So, as you progress, you achieve more peace and you become aware of the truth, and you will not get carried away by this world. Even if you behave in this world, you will go on behaving like a normal person, you won’t be carried away. You know what the truth is. That’s what a yogi is. That’s what Ramana Maharishi also said, “Even if a yogi is gossiping a lot, he is the ever silent one.” In his consciousness, it’s totally silent. Nothing reverberates. Nothing, he doesn’t takes anything serious with the identification and doesn’t get carried away. He knows this is the ultimate truth, this is the divinity.

Question:

So, Babaji, in the Tapas does everything finally disappear then? And is that what samadhi is?

Shri Babaji:

Yes. Finally, samadhi, means total stillness of the mind. Otherwise, you know, mind is wavering. It is spinning with imaginations. It all has to stop. When it stops, the mind stabilizes. That is what is samadhi – samaanru; in one stabilized form. In one go, samadhi. So, it becomes still. It won’t be wavering, it won’t be moving like this, it will just keep quiet, no more imagination is there. That means it remains in itself. Just like the space has been thinking all the things. Now, it has stopped thinking. The space exists in itself – that type. The mind also had been thinking all the time, now it has become quiet and just exists in itself. There is neither space nor consciousness, no definition, no identification. The ‘I’ also disappears for a yogi. Simply, one single Self exists in itself.

Question:

Babaji has talked about how He saw many visions during the Tapas, even traveling to other worlds also. But what was the meaning of these visions, Babaji?

Shri Babaji:

 These visions also, whatever habits that we would have had acquired since time immemorial, so many lives we would have come across, we would have listened to, we would have read in books, we would have listened to lectures from gurus, all Upadeshas, all these things they would have been absorbed with its own imagination. There is one thing. A master like me teaches. When teaching, like answering a question, I will answer. But not necessarily everybody will take it as it is the way that I want them to understand. But many people may have their own way of understanding and they will take my answer according to their capacity and they will absorb. All these things are sitting in the subconscious state as a habit.

So, three stages I have told in my tapas: one is the creative quality, imagination. I have told, imagination is not an ordinary thing. That is what is creativity. Entire universe is run. People have discovered, invented stories, this, that, so many things are there. So, that is all the creativity. That is what is the imagination state. So, when you become obsessed with your own imagination, whatever you imagine, all the time that will be visible within your mind. Because your mind has become obsessed with that thought, with that imagination, with that picture.

Then the next stage… So, that is projected in the mind. That all you have to get rid of, then the mind becomes more concentrated. When it becomes more concentrated, it is able to go deeper into itself and dig out further garbage which is there; what we call it as mental projection. When it comes out, it would appear as a layer much more solid than the imagining created thing. So thus such a real thing it might appear to be; coming and eating with us, talking with us, all these things. That is sometimes generally recognized as a mental projection. These are not ordinary things. That can have a great message that it can take you towards divinity if you are a devoted person to the divine. That also is there; that’s Bhakti Marga. So, when we talk, it is not a final conclusive answer “This is all, we know everything”; cannot claim. Whatever we know, for educational purpose we talk and we talk our opinion – whatever little bit we observed in our Tapas, whatever our Guru taught we try to talk for sake of understanding, to give a clue.

Thus in Tapas, when the mind becomes more concentrated, these mentally projected things happen. Then the master teaches from within, that inner divine Guru to just keep quiet, not to react, not to get involved. This becomes a great challenge. When your own mind projects and the projected thing is in front of you, and you are considering that to be a reality, then you have to get rid of that. If you get involved, you will be stuck there with that projected thing. You won’t be able to go further to the actual truth of ultimate Self.

Now, third stage is what is known as manifestation. Manifested world is this world that you see in front of you. Manifested thing will be as real, as physical as this universe that is in front of you. That is why this word; in Sanskrit, actually, the world used is ‘Avirbhava’. ‘Avir’ is spirit, spirit in its own imagination. ‘Bhava’, the feelings of the self or consciousness, it has become so solid and just in front of you, appeared. But these things are not an ordinary thing. To happen to a person also, it’s a great amount of sadhana that must have happened in previous life. Then such a manifestation can happen, can make a person to go into Tapas, to achieve the final Nirvikalpa samadhi, to achieve Self-Realization; these things can be blessed. So, one must not draw any final conclusion. These are just for sake of a little bit of understanding, a clue for educational purpose that we are giving here, what it is, the different stages that you undergo in Tapas.

And then, mind totally becomes pure consciousness, stabilizes. That’s when it goes into samadhi. Then the final NIrvikalpa samadhi. When Nirvikalpa samadhi happens, there is no return. The consciousness will not return to this world anymore. Even if a person comes out of samadhi, he lives as a jeevanmukta. His consciousness will not get carried away by the universe. It is totally silent. Nothing is serious. It would not reverberate. Even when I am talking, or you talk, still my inner consciousness is totally silent. No vision is built up, nothing is picturized, no reverberation happens. But mechanically, spontaneously an answer comes out of this body. So, that is how things happen. That source is divinity again.

Question:

So, Babaji has said that as the mind becomes more and more concentrated, these manifestations, mental projections can come. So, does that mean the tests in fact increase the more deeper we go into the meditation?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, you see, in academical studies and education when you go to college, every month or year end, all these examinations are kept. That is to know how much you have studied the subject and how much you have understood it, how much you are able to stick to that truth. Here also, in Tapas also, how much you have been able to understand the effect of mind, that consciousness which is simply considered finally as an illusion, because except for one single Self, nothing really exists. How much that you can restrain yourself that you don’t get mentally involved?

Remember, I have told, in the beginning of creation, an enormous amount of consciousness came up and created that which is known as the Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva concepts. But those concepts did not get involved with their creation. They remained in the Self. That is why they are considered as the divine trinities, that type of thing. The next generations all slowly, slowly slipped to its own insecurity or power, all such things. They came to be known as angels or demons. So, generation after generation, now ordinary human beings and creatures in this world; imagine where the consciousness would be standing now, it has gone down. So, to return, to bring it to that quality, that level, that’s what you have to meditate for. That is what is sadhana.

Slowly you have to meditate; practice, practice. Your ability to sit quietly mentally is important. That’s why we try to teach, first achieve perfection in one hour. Some people are in a rush to do Tapas tomorrow itself. Things don’t work out. Then they will have to come back. Means their mind will repulse back if it is not ready. So, that’s what is important. So, you practice slowly, slowly, like that. Then your mind will become quiet. One day you will be eligible to do Tapas. You will automatically go into that one.

Question:

Do we need to have a desire to do Tapas? Or does it come automatically when the time is ripe?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, when you understand the need of it, a desire also comes for that.

Question:

Could Babaji talk about how Baba Himself got into Tapas? Did Baba have a desire to do Tapas?

Shri Babaji:

A little bit I can talk. In different stages, different times, in different ways the consciousness had a yearning for this, as we got introduced to such things. Like in the childhood, we first became obsessed with the death. “Who dies? Why should we die? What happens after death?” After listening to Bhaja Govindam song – that is one thing. Then slowly, we had the opportunity to study a little bit of Adi Shankara’s teachings; Jnana, Bhakti, Vairagya and Atma-jnana, Self-Realization, all these things slowly. So, all things came. And we saw them doing Tapas, Ramana Maharishi, Ramakrishna, they all did great Tapas. Slowly that thing came, that we need to become a jeevanmukta while we are alive. And we should achieve the videhamukti when the body goes, not to be reborn.

The younger days, very early younger days itself it started coming. So, that’s how we used to pray; “Please bless me to have such a guru who would have liberated himself and who can lead me to liberation.” So, that’s how. Then when we saw Swamiji’s Tapas, that was so wonderful. Well, after I came to Ashram, at that time a couple of Swamiji’s disciples had sat for Tapas. Then this thing idea came to mind, “We can also do Tapas, and still we can serve Swamiji.” Because the basic idea was to submit to Swamiji as a disciple, as a servant, as a child, all these things. And serve Him, whatever He wants me, whichever way He wants me to serve. Then, along with that, we thought “We can do tapas and then afterwards also we can continue serving.” It won’t become that we won’t serve anymore. It doesn’t happen like that.

Like Swamiji told, a son to the father will always be a son. He can become a father to his son. But to his father, he cannot become a father, he will always be a son. So like that, a new disciple who might consider me as a guru might become a guru. But to my guru I am always a disciple, a servant at His Lotus Feet. So, these things came. That’s how it used to come. Then, we used to pray in the mind. Then, circumstances, times and our own intentions were not yet ripe. We went on serving and keeping quiet without much bothering, and not worried, not going into any craving. Any work that we needed to do in the ashram we went on doing – nothing was below dignity for us. For me, there was no comfort zone that I would select, “Only a particular type of work and not this work.” Any work that was needed for my attention, we used to go and just work it.

So, that’s what – we didn’t have any such idea. We did not have any such idea of comfort zone, discomfort zone, what is comfort, what is discomfort. Once we selected Shiva Balayogi as my guru, that’s it. After that, there was no other selections of “This is my comfort zone, I will serve here only. This is not my comfort zone, I will not serve here.” All this vanished, there was nothing such. Only comfort zone was Swamiji. Once I saw Swamiji, then whatever Swamiji needs, we were ready to do. In that way, slowly preparation for the actual Tapas all went. Tapas happened. Because mind receded, it kept quiet, it did not go into any agony, no low feeling, nothing. Nothing was there. Just at peace; go on doing the work and meditated whenever we got time also.

So finally, after Swamiji’s physical disappearance, He manifested and He made me to sit for Tapas. And the rest is history. After five years Srinivas Dikshitar became Shiva Rudra Balayogi. And I’m here in front of you all trying to teach, trying to answer your questions. That’s how we went into Tapas.

Question:

And Babaji has mentioned, Swamiji in a vision said, “Twenty years of your selfless service has given you seven years of fruits of Tapas”. So in fact, could we say that Babaji’s selfless service itself was, in a way, a Tapas as well? Does it have to be meditation?

Shri Babaji:

You see, when you sit and meditate, when that is taught, the idea is mentally you stop. The mind should recede and become quiet. That is when it can be meditation, nothing else. Anything else is before meditation actually; any visions, you get involved with the visions, you get messages, in a rush you try to become a guru, you want to convey that message, you want to tell this – all this experience is all before that. It is the play school. Afterwards you reach kindergarden and primary school, the standard one, two, three goes on like that one. So that’s what is very important.

So, whenever I got a chance, I did sit for several hours, like five to six hours of meditation. Other than that, whenever needed to work, went on working. Any day, whatever it was, whether it was dusting the ashram, mopping the ashram, cooking in the ashram, accounts work in the ashram, serving Swamiji when He came physically, if any other devotee’s children we needed to look after, we looked after that – all for sake of Swamiji simply, that’s it. “Let this service reach Swamiji.” And the mind never brooded why I should be doing. It never felt anything below dignity at all. As long as we had an opportunity to serve in the name of Swamiji, that itself was our dignity, a dignified life that we led. We never bothered anything else.

Like, mind did not go into any brooding, any selections. As I told of this comfort zone, discomfort zone; these things unknown to us in our times, at least for me, I never imagined about these sentences or words that happens in today’s youth. They are selective like this. We never selected anything. I just went on doing. Thus, mind receded. That was the achievement. Mind became quiet. As it became quiet, it receded. Watching that only perhaps in that manifestation of Swamiji, He told, “Twenty years of your selfless service, seven years of Tapas fruits have happened, have come. That much of mind has receded, it has achieved that. Just five more years if you do, a little more stronger, more strictly, then a Nirvikalpa samadhi can come.

That’s how the guru guided. That’s how Swamiji guided me. After Swamiji attained Maha Samadhi, after his Maha Samadhi was performed, then I went to Mysore. I went and sat in a cave, which is the Markandeya cave that Swamiji used to tell. Sometimes He used to take us there for a small picnic type, and we used to go sit and eat with Him – it was a small cave type. In that cave I sat. That was where Markandeya sage also had done Tapas, Swamiji used to say. And Markandeya sage had worshipped the presiding deity of that hill, Chamundi, Chamundeshwari. So, that’s how I went there. That was where I had the vision of Swamiji asking me that you will do this Tapas. This thing came, experience came to me.

Question:

Thank you, Babaji. Baba, sitting for such a long time in Tapas, it seems for most of us, I think, any normal person, quite unfeasible physically and also being able to meditate for so long. Did Babaji during that time have any awareness of discomfort or pain in the body, and also the passing of time? How did Babaji manage those five years?

Shri Babaji:

Passing of time was not noticed. So, whoever used to bring me some food I used to ask what is the day or time, like this that was not in the imagination of the mind. So, I didn’t notice that one. But whenever I came out of samadhi, a tremendous amount of pain in the body would be there, particularly legs. I used to do some yoga, some exercises. And the people who were looking after me, they used to give me some massage a little bit after having a shower, then I used to go and sit again. This requires a long practice and a long passion. So, slowly, step by step.

That’s why, in my opinion, I would advise anybody not to rush to be on top of Mount Everest. Step by step. Slowly, slowly, if you practice and go, the body might become suitable one day. Even if it doesn’t happen in this life, the next life it will continue from an early childhood. The inclination will be there. Wherever you have to be born, you are there. So, that will be taken care – automatically the consciousness will have the inclination. Your job is that in this life, you have that inclination. Do not give up. You have the prayer. You have that desire. Keep going. Little, little, whatever is possible. Don’t harm your physical body. Physical body is very essential to live in this world. Even to do sadhana also, its health is very important. Must look after the body.

That’s what Swamiji taught us – when He did Tapas, He used to say, “I did not know, I just went and I didn’t bother about the body. So, you all don’t have to suffer so much physically, not necessary. You can look after your body. A little bit of food that you can digest and exercise properly, learning, all these things has to happen. So, without that one must not try to venture into a Tapas suddenly, then it will be repulsive. It will throw you back.” Like I told, Swamiji, a couple of disciples were doing Tapas when they got up and went back and became householders, they couldn’t continue. So, this thing I myself have seen in my eyes.

So, that requires a tremendous amount of determination and the vairagya. This vairagya; repeatedly when I read Adi Shankara’s teaching, He repeatedly talks of ‘Jnana, Bhakti and Vairagya’, knowledge, devotion and detachment. So, I think that came very naturally to me, it got embedded in my consciousness. So, since childhood, that is how it happened. Slowly, slowly for anybody – just by listening to these answers, please don’t rush to do Tapas like that one. The body can get affected. Somebody needs to look after who is loyal, you need to have a practice, physical practice, then internal determination. That’s what Swamiji taught, “Do or die.” That needs to be there.

Slowly, slowly, practice, one day it can happen. Without bothering when will it happen, you’re just doing the one-hour meditation. Achieve total silence in this one-hour meditation that we are doing. Just be silent, don’t rush or don’t be in such a way that “I want to do it now, I want to do it. If I do like this, can it happen?” Many such questions keep coming. “If I do like this, it will it happen like that one?” Swamiji always said that Jangama rishi definitely came and made Him to sit for Tapas. That is all. Afterwards, Jangama sage did not work any miracle that overnight Swamiji became Self-Realized. Like some gurus claim that we just sat on the boulder and we got Self-Realized, Enlightened – things don’t happen. Mind will not stop like that one.

Many people who claim like that, they don’t know what is Enlightenment at all, what Self-realization means. Swamiji wanted to call it as Atma-Satshatkara, Self-Realization. He used to say, ‘enlightenment’ is a common word. It can be enlightenment of anything; many people misunderstand. But this is specifically Atma-Satshatkara, that you as the Self, that realization is totally different. So that should not be. It cannot happen just in two days sitting on a boulder, on a mountaintop and you become enlightened.

So, it’s a process: mind has to stop. Since time immemorial, so many lives have passed by, the mind has gone out of control. For it to come back it will take some time. One needs to have patience.

Question:

Thank You Baba. So, for any Self-Realized Master, they would have practiced this meditation to achieve Self-Realization?

Shri Babaji:

Just for example, a couple we know – there might be more also, definitely. Some other people may be knowing other gurus also who did Tapas. What I came across was Ramakrishna’s life and Ramana Maharishi’s life – they all did Tapas and strongly for several years. So many years they did Tapas. Easily nothing came out. And after that, they did not claim or boast anything, they became quiet. Simply they told about the philosophy, they gave the clue of what it is. That’s how they gave the beautiful teachings. So, that’s what has to happen. Slowly, it’s a process. They all did the sadhana. They didn’t tell “Overnight I got up and I became enlightened.” They never claimed like that. Swamiji Himself said, “Jangama sage came and made me to sit. Afterwards, twelve years He grinded me into chutney. Tests came like that. He cut me into pieces. That was a test.”

Swamiji had that determination, He withstood and He continued. He had the inborn attitude quality of “Do or Die. It’s a matter of self-respect. Only death can stop my effort.” He had that one, inborn quality.

Question:

Thank you, Baba. Baba, would it be okay to ask some questions that have come into the chat regarding this Tapas topic? Can one hour meditation take one to samadhi? If one has to meditate, eight to ten hours, would it be possible without entering into a samadhi state?

Shri Babaji:

One hour if you can keep the mind quiet, in due course of time a samadhi can come. But there is no time limit. Don’t keep asking if it will come in one week or fifteen days. You keep doing; one day samadhi can definitely come when you keep your mind quiet. So that must come like that. Like you ask for a big competitive exam, “If I just read for half an hour, will I be able to get through?” The amount of concentration that you can put and read. So, if it doesn’t happen in one year, it may happen in ten years. You continue, keep doing it, then one day it will happen. So, something like that, we need to understand this.

Question:

Another question is, “Guruji, what does karma by thought and action do to our conscience?”

Shri Babaji:

When you act upon, the mind unknown to you observes the doer-ship, “I am. I did it. I do this.” So that imprint is absorbed either as a good or a bad. That stays in the subconscious state, and that becomes karma. Karma means that can decide your destiny, future destiny. So, like I have told, when death happens, brain dies, the consciousness which is the mind which is holding in the subconscious state all habits, it spins, visualizes and based on that it assumes next birth. So, that is what karma means. Being born to such parents, they might be pious and they may not be pious, they might be good, educated and they may not be educated. They might be able to impart some good habits, samskaras, they may not be able to pass on some samskaras if they themselves are not. These all depends on your karmas, the child’s karma. Then as a child grows, it goes outside, to the school, to friends, society and gets exposed. When it is getting exposed it will be on its own, a person will be on his own. His ability not to observe wrong imprints, not to get into wrong habits.

Anyone can get carried into wrong habits and do a waste of time. Even if it is not a strong bad habit, still they can be wasting their time. So, to all this, it requires the previous lives’ practices – slowly practice. This is what is known as karma. It has no one conclusive answer “This is what is karma”, it can continue, continue like that. So much is there. If we go on discussing… whole night we can keep discussing how the karma comes. One never knows. So, one has to be carefully practice to keep the mind into divinity.

Question:

Another question is, “How do traumas play a role?” I think the question is in the visions in the meditation.

Shri Babaji:

See, if any wrong vision comes, watching that, the mind can get affected; it might go into a traumatic condition. Like, for example, dreams that happen. Sometimes you would have seen dreams are a vague picture; by the time you get up in the morning you would have forgotten. Sometimes the dream will have a solid picturizing effect which you won’t be able to forget. And if that dream is of bad or a good, more bad, it shows that you are suffering more; that can affect your consciousness and by imagination itself, it can go into traumatic condition. So that’s why satsanga, spiritual practices of remembering the divine’s name, devotional music, meditation and repetition of mantras, all these things are recommended so that you can keep your mind strong and purified and you don’t become a victim of such traumatic shows in the dreams or any such, even in your imagination. So, one day you will be able to face in this world also any traumatic condition more strongly. You won’t become such a weak victim. This will be possible if you practice more spiritual exercises. This is my opinion.

[A power cut occurred which stopped the transmission briefly]

Shri Babaji:

Yes. At least we can try to take a few questions and we can release everybody from the class today because it’s very dark here. We’ll quietly do the Aarthi. But I’ll try to take a few questions that are left on the chat.

Question:

Thank You. A question is, “Dear Guruji, I read that during Tapas You received different mantras. But in Your instruction we should not repeat any mantras. Could Babaji please explain?

Shri Babaji:

Yes. Even our Guru also silently meditated for twelve years and He initiated everybody into silent meditation. One basic reason is finally the mind needs to become total silent. Then only it will go to samadhi or merge with the Self, Self-Realization. Other sadhanas like mantra chants or any type of thing are there – basic aim will be to make the mind single-pointed. Instead of having millions of thoughts it shall stick to one thought, like one mantra. It focuses there. Then finally with the Guru’s guidance or grace you have to abandon that mantra also so that the mind can merge with the Self. That is when the Nirvikalpa samadhi comes. If you have read the Ramakrishna Paramahamsa story also, He did a great sadhana, a great Tapas. He was like a beautiful incarnation of the divine. Then finally Totapuri wanted to help Him to achieve Nirvikalpa samadhi. So He had to give up the mother Kali’s name, everything and become totally silent, then only He went into Nirvikalpa samadhi.

So that is why in Tapas we were initiated into a silent one, no mantras are to be chanted. Only for one direction a one-time mantra needed to be chanted so that I could change the direction; that was for other purposes. For Self-Realization, going into samadhi it was a silent watching only.

Question:

Thank you, Babaji. Babaji, there is another question: “Please can Babaji talk about the various samadhis, Nirvikalpa Sarvikalpa, etc.?”

Shri Babaji:

You see, Sarvikalpa is when your mind becomes concentrated to one thing. One form or one name, one mantra and gives up attachment – all other imaginations, thoughts go, but still it is stuck with one form. It is not totally silent. So that can be called the Sarvikalpa samadhi. Some vikalpa is still there, but it is in the sarvi because it has become still, but it is still on something. It has to become totally into itself. That is when it is the Nirvikalpa samadhi. So that is what it is. Several gurus have used other terminologies like Sahaja samadhi simply for sake of understanding only. When a Yogi, after Nirvikalpa samadhi also, he comes out of samadhi, lives in the world, he will always be in a natural samadhi. Sahaja means just like effortlessly he is in samadhi. No thoughts will come to his mind. That is what’s we told, as Ramana Maharishi said, “Even if Yogi is gossiping or talking any topic, consciousness will be totally silent”, into a Sahaja samadhi, effortless; as it is, where it is basis.

Question:

Thank you, Baba. Is there time for one more question, Babaji?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, we will take one more question and then say bye-bye.

Question:

Yes, Baba. The question is, “How can a normal householder cultivate patience for sadhana?

Shri Babaji:

Patience, anybody can practice. Even Swamiji said, sitting in a cave or forest, that patience is not a real patience, where there is nothing. You practice patience where there are obstacles, disturbances in the society. You live at home, then if you practice. This comes naturally when you practice one hour of meditation daily and your mind stops for that one hour. Then that ability to keep yourself restrained and understand the situation, what is necessary. Is an anger very much necessary that you might use it only a little bit and then restrain yourself, withdraw yourself –  all these things will be possible first when you practice sadhana. That is how it comes.

Closing comments from Shri Babaji:

Wonderful to have had a chance to be with you all. Unfortunately, due to electricity problem, we are unable to be with you for the Aarthi. And it is total darkness here. So, we take leave of you all. Next Saturday we will come back, and I hope you all enjoyed. May you all be blessed by our Sadhguru Shiva Balayogi Maharaj, and all my love and blessings. Bye-bye to all of you.

End of Session