0:00 Introduction from Babaji
1:19 Is acting selflessly the only indicator that one is truly surrendering?
5:51 How do we balance our jobs and responsibilities with our spiritual growth?
17:01 What is the indicator to know if the decision was the right decision?
29:46 “You stop bothering, your imagination stops or you stop imagining your botheration stops”
31:53 For the Self-Realized how easy it is to continue to be in the body?
33:30 Can a disciple be independent of the Guru?
35:15 How does one overcome ego?
37:50 How can one use a ‘little bit of ego’ as Babaji says?
40:11 Once you are Self-Realized is there a need to meditate?

Discourse: Thus Spake Babaji – online Q and A No. 154
The Power of Surrender
Recorded: 19 October 2023 with Malaysian participants

Start of short discourse

Babaji Commences:

   Offering my unconditional surrender at the Lotus Feet of beloved Master, my greetings, my love and blessings to all of you.  May you all be blessed by the Divine Guru Shivabalayogi to be the most fortunate.  Always understand, you will be going to practice meditation so that you can silence your mind.  That point is the first important thing.  Then follow the commands.  When I ask you to watch, your job is just to watch, not to think, not to bother about anything.  Just watch the front portion, even if it is difficult for you to locate the in-between eyebrows, do not worry about it.  Just watch the front portion, keep the eyes closed.  Then the silencing of the mind will happen, then amazing experiences can come to you.     

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Babaji, we will start with today’s topic.  It is on the Power of Surrender.  By surrendering devotionally, the mind would be more purified, then we would become aware of Divine’s presence, and automatically decisions and actions would not be egoistic in nature.  Babaji, if all actions and results out of surrendering are selfless in nature, is that the only indicator to know if one is truly surrendering?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, that is the true meaning of surrender, when the mind becomes quiet.  First thing, as I have told, mind has no third way.  Either it is into its own imaginations; when it becomes quiet, means when it surrenders, it goes back to its origin, the Divinity, to the real Self.  So, that is what happens.  Apart from that, other things, we surrender means, like when the Master gives an instruction, “This is how you have to meditate,” without bothering, taking it in good faith, just you follow the instructions, then your mind becomes quiet and recedes.  Otherwise, hundreds of thoughts keep coming.  “O, how to surrender? How to keep quiet? How to just watch?  Should I do this one?  Is watching better, or is thinking better?  What should I do if thoughts come?”  All these things unnecessarily we get involved.  And then we end up allowing the mind to run away like a monkey.  So, that’s what the surrender means.  If the Master orders “Just watch,” means we just watch.  Like that Swamiji used to tell, “When the Jangama Sage initiated and asked me just to watch in-between eyebrows, I went on watching and samadhi came.”  Means the mind became still.  And when it became still it merged with the Self eventually.  So, that is the effect of surrender. 

   Also, in karma yoga you can live a normal life.  No need to misunderstand about that.  But, say you have a wish, you put an effort, totally focused.  Then when the result comes, you surrender, means you accept the result.  You won’t have any brooding, then your mind becomes quiet.  Then it becomes purified.  As the mind becomes more and more purified, you will notice transformation in your personality.  Selfishness and narrow-mindedness, they all decrease and disappear slowly.  You will always be able to think of a larger cause, benefit of all, a mission work.  If the Guru is working, it is a larger cause.  So, you would like to help in the Mission work.  You won’t have any selfish ideas.  “O, I should be given this VIP treatment.  Nobody should tell me a lie.”  Instead of finding faults, I will just surrender so that my own faults are rectified.  My own mind becomes purified and I surrender.  Like this, surrender is such a beautiful karma yoga effect – it can give.  When your mind is quiet, it goes into reunion with its real Self, the Divine or Divinity, what we call it when acceptance is there in life.  But you live a normal life.  You don’t have to give up anything.  You can be a householder.  You just put an effort.  You have wishes.  You need a certain work to be done, pray for that, put efforts for that.  And when the result comes, if that is beyond your capacity, you just accept it.  Result is always beyond your capacity.  You cannot influence the result just by a wish.  It comes; when it comes, that is there.  You have to accept.  That’s what Sri Krishna also told.  And that is what is real surrendering. 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  The next question.  Babaji said, be in this world by being intelligent and aware.  And don’t allow others to sit on your head.  Be polite, but firm.  Exercise the principle and ensure justice is being done.  Ensure it is beneficial for the world, for the people, for a larger cause.  That is how we can fulfill the norm of this world.  Babaji, often we are still being stereotyped from the titles, rankings, statuses of our job, and people define us in that manner.  In the spiritual world, what is the real context behind the jobs that are assigned to us?  And how do we balance these responsibilities while wanting to grow spiritually?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yet again, here the mind needs to be purified.  If it needs to be purified, it has to give up its ego.  Like you come to a monastery.  You come to the Lotus Feet of the Master in the ashram.  “You come as a devotee,” Swamiji used to tell.  “Forget whether you are an army officer, you are a businessman, or you are a royal person, or what you are, you are rich person, whatever it is.  Forget about it.  Come as a devotee.  Then you will surrender.”  Whatever work is given, you will just do it.  And you will always see the Master, whether Master is physically there or not.  You will consider that He is watching you all the time.  So, some people tend to see, when I come they will come and they will try to work in front of me.  But if I am not there, they will also disappear.  They won’t like to work when I am not there.  So that is not the surrender or that is not the sincerity.  That is not the devotion.  If you are devoted, you must see your Guru, everything as everything, everywhere.  Like Swamiji, He came only for a couple of months or three months maximum, once a year.  After He went away, He wouldn’t be there physically.  But we saw Him there all the time sitting in our heart with us, watching us.  So same seriousness we continued working in the Ashram.  And we never discriminated that we will work only on the table sitting as an officer only, or keeping mobile phone in the hand.  There was no such thing.  Any work that demanded our intervention, we worked there. Whether it was in the kitchen, whether the cleaning of Ashram, whether looking after the office, whether doing bhajans, whether doing meditation, anything. Whether looking after the children of devotees as a local guardian, bring them from the school, feed them, play with them and drop them to school; every odd job, whether looking after mentally-challenged boy, the mind never questioned “Why I should be doing this.  Is this the purpose that I have come?”  Like that it never thought.  And I never thought I am deprived of any such status, “O, I am deprived of my sleep.  I am deprived of my freedom to talk to people that I want.”  Never thought like that one, just surrendered.  In everything we saw the Master, whether I am dusting, I am serving the Master.  His place needs to be kept clean.  His institution needs to be kept clean. 

   So also, always in this world, even if we have to say no, we can be a bit polite.  We don’t have to be rude to anybody.  That’s what we always thought – “Even knowingly or unknowingly, my Lord, please bless me that I would not hurt anybody.  Let me talk peacefully.”  Even if I cannot give a certain thing, if somebody comes and asks that “I need a piece of land from the Ashram,” I would refuse.  “No, this is for public utility.  I cannot give it to you like that one.  I am sorry.”  But politely we can answer.  “We won’t be able to give it.  It is the Trust’s property.  Somebody demands “I need this property to me.  It belongs to me.”  We cannot give that one.  That is not possible.  But we try to talk politely, as politely as possible.  “Please, you also live peacefully, let us also live peacefully.  And just accept that this belongs to the Ashram; that is all.  This doesn’t belong to you.  Don’t behave as if it belongs to you.”   Things that were dearer to Swamiji, we have to protect that one.  We have to cultivate.  We have to sustain.  So, like that, we always try to behave politely.  “Sorry, we cannot give this one.”  Certain things are there.  Some people might come to live in the Ashram, and if they want to behave as they want, that may not be according to the principles or the culture of the Ashram.  So, we cannot allow such thing to happen in the Ashram.  “No, sorry.  It’s not possible.” 

   So, often I always also explain, “This is only for educational purpose I am talking, not to accuse you, not to belittle you, not to find any faults with anyone.”  Like in these answers also, a question comes up.  So, many times such answers I might have to give which others might think, “Is it directed against me?”  We try to clarify and issue a disclaimer, “Our answers are not directed against an individual.  If any individual had behaved, it’s up to them to understand and rectify their mistakes.  But we are polite but firm.  We cannot allow such a thing to happen.  So, it has to be.  If a protocol has to be followed, it has to be followed.  If somebody wants to smoke in the Ashram, I cannot allow that smoking.  It is not possible.  At least whenever we saw we will object.  If I don’t see if they do wrong things, sometimes it may not be noticed.  But once I notice that one, we would like to say “No, this is not proper.”  Some people try to teach us what is happening downstairs, but they also behave in the same way.  So first, they refuse to learn, but they want others to learn.  Like that, they come and give a lecture to me and then go away.  We keep smiling. 

So, like this, all things happen.  We try to remain surrendered to the Master, keeping our minds purified.  We don’t have anything against anyone, but because I have to do my job.  A soldier will have to protect and defend the country; he is doing his job.  He might be fighting with his own friend.  That doesn’t matter.  But because he has to defend his country, he will do that one first.  So, this is how in life, things might happen which might create a dilemma for you very often, but you have to behave like this.  So then also, you’d have really surrendered to the Master, when you consider “Let this service reach the Master.”  I’m not against anybody, but I have to answer when you ask a question.  Answering is my duty, dharma.  But that is not directed against anybody, like that we tell.  So that’s how we have to do the job.  That is how you remain surrendered.  Because even today also, I don’t have “Why I should be sitting like this.  Why I should still work in the office of the Ashram.  Why I should do the accounting work.  Why I should not be sitting simply and giving darshan.”  No such thing.  The moment I go to the Dehradun Ashram, I’m a servant of my Master.  I sit, the office work I keep doing.  Some people might laugh also, “O, still you have to do all this work.  Now you’re a Guru.  You don’t have to.”  I’m a Guru when I’m teaching.  When somebody accepts me as a Guru, I’m a Guru.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t have to dust the premises of my Guru’s Ashram.  If necessary, I will do that one.  If necessary, I will clean my own toilet.  That’s no problem.  If necessary, I will sit on the table and do office work.  So, like that, we remain surrendered at all times.  Because we do not exercise any choice in the Ashram of our Guru.  And we simply accept – acceptance. 

So, these are the basic points through which one can surrender in life also – things happen.  You are living a householder life.  Sometimes good happens, sometimes bad happens.  We should not exercise ego.  Like if a Master goes to a certain place, Swamiji taught us – He was sitting in a place, those people never liked us.  But we never bothered about such things.  Because my Guru is sitting, I will go and serve my Guru.  I needed to take a cup of tea to my Guru at four ‘o’ clock.  Those people didn’t like me to go there.  But we simply went because my Guru is sitting there.  That’s why we will go.  We are not coming for anybody else.  Like that.  I told Swamiji also once, “I have come for Your sake, I needed to give and bring tea.”  Swamiji then laughed, “Okay, you keep the tea and now you go.”  “Okay, now I will go, I have done my job.”  So, that type of thing happened.  

   As a householder, when you live in this world also, all these things keep happening.  Exercise, acceptance, but put an effort.  Never give up without putting an effort always.  So, having a desire itself is not the wrong thing.  Having to fulfill some responsibility is not a wrong thing.  You do everything.  But when the result comes finally, accept it.  When it goes beyond our capacity, we are unable to stop it, then we have to accept it.  That’s it.  Somebody comes to Ashram.  They stay with me for thirty years.  If somebody wants to go away, we cannot stop it.  We will accept.  We have to accept that situation.  Like this, the life goes on.  So, if you all learn this thing, then you would have surrendered to the Master.  Then your mind will become quiet, gets purified.  Then you will see the Self is revealed, secret of the mind and the existence of yourself as that eternal Entity, that secret is revealed automatically.  For that purpose only you have to meditate.  But if you exercise like this, you can become a karma yogi. 

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Next question on the same topic.  Wherever possible, adjust and do accordingly.  But if not possible, then it is our choice what we want to do.  Often people want to oblige the relationship and give excuses instead of meditating.  Babaji asked which one we are ready to gain, and which to lose is our choice.  So, either it is a mistake or the right decision.  Babaji, what is the indicator to know if the decision was the right decision?  Sometimes we make a choice to oblige the relationship, especially our loved ones and to make them happy.  But we also understand that it may not have a lasting effect because there might be a next expectation.  If we choose the other option, sometimes our loved ones would talk about it as though we are being selfish.  So, what can Babaji advise when we are surrounded by people who are not exposed yet to the power of surrendering and serving the Divine and Divine Guru?

Babaji Maharaj:   You know, it’s easy to satisfy the Divine, but you can never satisfy human beings.  Everybody will be selfish in their own way.  So, if you behave like that, they are happy.  If you don’t behave like that, they are not happy.  Even sometimes devotees expect a Guru to behave like that.  Somebody’s son wants to marry another girl of belonging to other caste.  And that devotee is unhappy if the Guru doesn’t help that lady.  So, what to do?  So, these types of things keep happening in life also.  But we must try to see always there is no such thing called right decision.  The decision happens when we exercise what we want.  We must achieve the highest.  Once we know when the death happens to the body we lose control over ourselves.  But before that, there is a choice that if we can control our mind, if we can purify our mind, if we can make it quiet, then there is a salvation.  We don’t have to be reborn.  That is the foremost important, because when we were born, nobody came with us.  When we will die also, nobody will go with us.  Everybody has to go on their own way.  Nobody can accompany each other.  That doesn’t happen.  So that is what we have to realize and exercise such choices.  Fifty years ago, if I was waiting, “I will go to Swamiji’s Ashram if my friends also come, my relatives also come, this also comes,” then I wouldn’t have been able to go to the Ashram at all.  Then some people remarked, “Don’t you think your beautiful youth is getting wasted simply?  You are just doing only dusting here and doing office work.  This is all.  You should have reached very big heights.”  That person did not know which heights we had reached in the mind, inside me.  I used to wonder, “Do these people…”  I used to ask them also, “Do you mean that I should be growing a beard and some matted hair?  Then only you will think that I would have reached big heights, not otherwise?  If I keep my head clean-shaven then do you think that I won’t be Self-realized?”  They couldn’t understand such things and they used to go away simply.  So, like that, it is not easy to make the world happy.  You have to exercise your choice – what you want to do; What you want to achieve, highest thing.  You go to school, you go to university, you get educated academically.  You won’t keep asking everybody in the world, “Are you happy if I’m going to do this course, if I’m going to the college, if I’m getting educated; are you happy or are you not happy?”  You won’t do that one.  You just need to get educated, you get up and go and get educated; that is all.  When you’re hungry also, you won’t keep asking, “Should I eat or not eat?  What should I do?  I am so confused.  My Guru, can You tell me, should I go and eat or not to eat?”  You are hungry, you will simply go and eat it because you are hungry.  You exercise that choice that you need to eat.

  In the same way, if you need supreme happiness, if you need to know how you exist even after the death of the physical body, you will go for that, you don’t have to ask.  Many people keep asking, “Should I go home or should I come to you?  Should I serve?  Should I do this one?  I am feeling bored.”  One boy went to some other ashram.  I sent him, I knew.  He said, “Shall I go to that mother’s ashram?”  I said, “Go and stay there.”  After six months, now he is feeling bored and depressed and lonely.  He said, “I want to go home for some time.  I am feeling very lonely.”  Because I told him frankly, “You went to that place for time-pass.  You did not go for sake of that ashram.”  You know, fifty years ago I came to my Master for sake of my Master, for sake of being in the Ashram.  So, even fifty years after I am enthusiastic, I am happy, at peace.  There is no loneliness that I feel.  I am never bored, I never felt depressed.  Nothing happened because I came for sake of my Master, for sake of being in the Ashram only.  That’s when we say, you love for sake of love, then you will never be disappointed.  If you love for sake of something else, for a physical pleasure, for wanting wealth and for… I tell, “I conduct retreat by asking you to clean the toilets and dust the surface.  That is the real retreat you can learn.  You can give up your ego if that is acceptable, see?”  If you come for some other purpose, “No, I will only meditate and I will only at the most accompany Babaji wherever he goes.  Otherwise, I will not be in the Ashram.  It is no use for me.  If Babaji is not going to take me wherever he goes, it is useless for me.  I don’t want to be in the Ashram.  Then you are not fit to be in the Ashram.  You have to go.  “You go on, find your way.” 

So, that is how, when you go in quest of knowledge for sake of knowledge; you should not go in quest of knowledge for sake of something else.  Then you will never be bored.  “Guru loves me or not, that doesn’t matter for me.  What matters for me is that I have fallen in love with my Guru and I will love Him.  Even my Guru cannot make me not to love Him.”  I told my mother, “So, I will not regret.  Please send me, bless me and send me.”  Today when I look back, I am happy; fifty years smoothly, simply passed away.  We never felt that loneliness, we never felt like going back to home.  We could never live in the home.  So many things happened.  For some time we went, for other purposes, for some other work but we came back to the abode of my Master. So, that is the purpose.  Once you understand, then you will be able to make a right choice what you want.  And after that you must not regret.  If you regret, it was your mistake.  So, that is how the right decision.  When you make a decision, afterwards don’t regret.  That’s fine.  If you regret, it was your mistake.  If I regret even today, so it was my mistake fifty years ago, I shouldn’t have come.  I should have done something else.  No, I have no regrets.  That is how in life you exercise your choice.  You must understand.  I tell people, you all know that you have to earn a livelihood for your food to sustain your life; you will not wait for a Guru like me to come and give a lecture, a talk.  You will go out of way. You will never tell that you don’t have time to go to your office and work and earn some money, your livelihood; you will never tell that one.  You will set a priority, “I have to go to office, sorry, I will see you some other time.”  “Swamiji, I cannot come for meditation.  I am sorry, I need to go to office,” you will tell.  So, like that, priority.  So, when you understand that you need that one. You know that there is a time bomb under your chair and I am calling you, “Wait, wait, Aruna, keep sitting there, I have something to show for you.”  You won’t wait for that.  “Babaji, first, I have to save myself from this time bomb.  Afterwards, I can see what You want to show me.”  Setting a priority and exercising the choice in life.  What you want is the highest, if that is the thing.  “If the Master is priority…”  Once you set that priority, never look back.  It is the question of self-respect; that is what Swamiji used to tell.  He told one of His disciples, “You are sitting and doing for two years, tapas.  Now if you get up, it was your self-respect.  You shouldn’t have sat for tapas at all then.”  Like that, He told frankly to that man.  I was there.  So, like this, Swamiji used to teach.  That is how we learned from Swamiji.  He wouldn’t give an answer or a long lecture on a microphone.  One sentence He used to tell – exercising the choice. 

   There was another important incident, it is very important teaching, how to exercise.  If it happens, it happens, it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, like that.  There was one person who had fallen in love with the girl of another caste.  It was long ago when Swamiji was there in 1977.  He came to Swamiji, “The girl’s parents are not willing to give that girl to me in marriage, so that girl also is now confused.  What should I do Swamiji?” Swamiji instantly told, “What is the confusion, idiot?”  That’s how Swamiji used to talk.  “What is the confusion, idiot?  Go and ask the girl if she is ready to marry with you, you get married.  Go to some pilgrimage place, some temple and get married.  If the girl is confused, is not ready to marry you, then forget about that girl and get married to some other girl.  In any case, you don’t have to remain confused and waste your life and do like this.”  You see, what a beautiful teaching in this, in life, taking a decision, exercising choice is what we are discussing.  In a simple way Swamiji said, “This what you have to do.  If you can do it, do it.  If you cannot do it, don’t do it, forget about it.  At least don’t keep worrying in the mind.  At least let the mind be at peace.” 

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  There were very good, very detailed and good examples in explanation Babaji was sharing.  Babaji, do we have time to open it up for devotees if they have any questions?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, we can take about fifteen minutes, some more questions. 

Facilitator:   Thank You Babaji.  If anyone has any question, you can raise your hand to ask directly to Babaji, or you can put it in the chat and I will read out the question. 

Question:   Babaji, while waiting to see if anyone has any question, I wanted to ask if Babaji could elaborate a little bit about the quote that Babaji sent this morning – “You stop bothering, your imagination stops, or you stop imagining, your botheration stops.”  Could Babaji elaborate a little bit on that?

Babaji Maharaj:   Either way, means you have a botheration, always we keep worrying in the mind.  If you can stop worrying, then the mind becomes quiet.  Then it gains peace if it becomes quiet.  And that is the purpose that you do spiritual sadhana.  Means, you have to stop your imagination in spiritual sadhana.  Then the botheration stops.  It just occurred to me and just like that I wrote.  So, if you stop your bothering for anything, means stop worrying.  Just by worrying, you cannot help anybody or yourself I keep telling, remember?  So just by worrying.  Get up and put an effort is a different thing, like that.  So, if you are worrying, your imagination will never stop. Stop worrying.  That is what in meditation you have to just watch so that you stop worrying.  Or other way, if you can just stop imaginations, then also worries will stop.  If the mind imagines, then there is always a danger of it imagining worries also.  If it stops all imaginations, all the worries stop.  There is an old saying in Hindi, “If there is no bamboo and there is no flute that you have to play.”  Like that, it is the old saying, elders’ experiences, a beautiful like Veda, Upanishad type of teachings.  That’s what I meant to convey through this. 

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  I just want to ask, for the Self-realized how easy is it to continue to be in the limited self of the body?

Babaji Maharaj:   [laughs] You want me to give out all my secrets.  That’s why I was hesitating, “Should I tell or not.”  I just would like to stop there.  I keep a little bit of ego to remember my Guru’s name and keep a little bit of consciousness in touch with the brain.  But it’s definitely very difficult to keep up this body for a very long time.  But when the Guru has assigned Mission work, He has ordained us to do that one, for that purpose, then we balance.  It’s my duty.  I have to do it.  I don’t have to see whether this is becoming difficult or not difficult.  Means, many times I feel that we are not useful to this world.  I wonder whether I’m answering rightly or not also, but the flow comes.  I don’t imagine and answer anything.  It simply comes.  Finally, it’s He who is looking after and thus this body continues as long as He wants it to be useful to others.  Only we pray “The day this body is not useful to anybody, please take it away.”  As long as it is useful to anybody, it’s still okay for me to continue.  So that’s how we try to keep. 

Same Questioner:   Babaji, normally, if the disciple has to be subset of Guru with all the reverence, or the disciple can be independent also?

Babaji Maharaj:   Can be independent.  No real Guru ever binds a disciple, he can be independent, but knowledge and wisdom are different; in life it is different.  Say, suppose somebody wants to come to me as a disciple.  They want to learn meditation and become an expert.  And if they want, they can go and work, teaching meditation independently.  It’s up to them whatever way they want to live.  But if they want to dedicate to my Mission and assist me in my Mission work, it’s their choice.  We cannot bind anybody.  This is what it is.  But there is one protocol.  Like, after becoming Self-realized, it’s my duty to create the awareness in service to the Divinity that is all pervaded.  And in duty to my Master, we consider.  He gave me a place in His Ashram fifty years ago.  And it’s my duty to look after that place also, along with teaching His spiritual truths.  So, we feel.  So, if whoever feels it as their duty, they can, or if they want to be independent, they can go independently. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Any other question, Aruna?

Facilitator:   Yes, Babaji, there is one question in the chat. 

Question:   Babaji, how does one overcome ego?  And how can you know whether it is ego or not?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, again, if you can surrender to the Master – surrendering to the Master means, you just listen to the Master with good faith.  Well, when you practice it, adopting the methods taught by Master, then you will realize that truth as a truth.  You don’t have to blindly believe simply what I want to teach.  But when I am teaching it’s important for you to have faith.  If that faith is there, you will not be egoistic.  If you are egoistic, you will not pay attention and you will not learn what I want to teach you.  For that, I have always told an example.  When you first went to school, when the teacher taught you the language, wrote the alphabet, “This is A, this is B”, you took it in good faith.  You never showed any ego because your mind was innocent.  Well, after you grew up, probably you realized everybody is using that in English language.  A as letter A, B as letter B; like that you realize.  All vidya, all knowledge and wisdom is also like that.  At one time I cannot demonstrate because that is all pervaded and that is you, yourself.  You will have to realize yourself, but I can give you the clue.  I can show you the path.  I can try to inspire you.  I can scold and rectify your mistakes.  I can try to remove your ego, but in good faith you have to take it.  After that, you practice that sadhana.  Then you will know the actual truth.  Then you tell me.  That’s how Swamiji used to tell, “You meditate, and you know yourself, and then you tell me what the truth is.  If I tell, you will believe or you don’t believe, you cannot understand.”  Like that He used to say.  So that is how you need to have faith.  Faith is not blind belief.  Faith is self-confidence.  You have to learn means – at that time you don’t know; at that time, you don’t even have the capacity to know the truth.  You have to raise yourself, your capacity to know the truth also.  Till then you need to have faith.  Means, that’s when you will not have any ego. 

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  You had said earlier that You keep a little bit of ego to be able to function in the world.  How can one use just a little bit of ego?  Are we using our intellect to separate ourselves from the universal consciousness?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, it’s a technical matter.  A little bit of consciousness is enough to be in touch with the brain, to use the brain and live in this world.  We don’t have to put all of our load onto the brain.  Often, common people use their energies too much, more than that is necessary on the brain to apply the brains.  Very little bit, that’s what we call it as a satvik ego.  A little bit attachment to the name of my Master, to the institute of my Master.  Little bit, that is all.  It is not a wide range of attachments that we have.  Nothing more is there.  That is what I try to call a little bit of ego, which enables this body to remain.  Like my Guru ordained “You work like this.”  So, we just wanted to give up the body, but He didn’t permit after the tapas.  “No, you have to work.”  So, that we took it as an ego, “He has commanded and we will keep working.”  But we very well know, we are not the doer, “Thou art, it’s who” – tera, tera, tera [Yours, Yours, Yours].  It is the tera, tujhko arpan [Yours, offered to You].

Same Questioner:   So, it is like an understanding.  A discrimination. 

Babaji Maharaj:   Discriminate. You know that very well that you are not doing – you give the credit.  You study well and you achieve academically.  Then we would like to give credit to our parents.  Our parents gave us that samskara [culture], our parents encouraged us.  Though it was we who studied and we passed the academy, but we’d like to give credit, like that.  Even though we did the tapas, the credit goes to our Master always.  That is how you remain surrendered.  Don’t get into any ego. 

Same Questioner:   Once you have realized, is there a need to meditate or you don’t really meditate, but you’re on that state of consciousness?

Babaji Maharaj:   Really, there is no need to meditate.  If at all we sit to inspire others, like even if we do some worship work, some abhishekam [offering of milk, water, etc. to an idol of the Divine], something, it is just to inspire others.  We don’t need it.  Mind is all the time quiet.  Means it’s in worship to the Divinity.  You don’t have to sit down and meditate separately.  You have learned to bake the bread and you go on baking the bread.  There is no more need to learn. 

Same Questioner:   Okay.  Thank You, Babaji. 

End of Questions and Answers

Babaji Maharaj now concludes the session.

Okay then, it’s time.  We will take leave.  So, all lovely, wonderful questions came.  We’ll just go to view the gallery to say bye-bye to everyone.  To all of you – May the Guru, Divine Guru bless you all to be most fortunate in life in this world.  May you all be blessed.  Time to disappear.  We’ll see you next.

End of Session