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

0:00 Intro
0:09 Is it true that the present moment is the only real thing and that doership is an imagination in that present moment?
1:58 With the doership where you think “I am doing this”, are you not actually doing it – it’s the imagination that you are doing it?
3:02 A higher consciousness taking care of everything almost infers a Divine personality? Could you explain that?
5:09 How do we stay grounded at times when we are extremely happy?
8:17 So god only exists in silence?
10:16 Does the Divine have any wishes, or is it not involved in this universe?
12:59 When I meditate for more than 1 hour I start to feel anxious and uncomfortable mentally. How to overcome this?
13:59 What did Swamiji convey to you about the changes that came over him as a young boy in the period before he went into Tapas?
17:46 I remember hearing that Swamiji was attracted to a Shivalingam as a young boy?
19:10 After taking karma yoga seriously, I’ve noticed that my meditation is improving. Does the watching and the karma yoga work together to still the mind?
20:53 Is being still in daytime, not to think, a part of karma yoga?
21:03 After meditation when I intensely look at the space, I’m able not to recognise the objects in the space. Is this an enlightened state?
22:14 On the spiritual path, experiences are happening within, they are not seen. So how can a Guru help the person?
22:59 Where does the feeling of insecurity come from?
24:33 What is Babaji’s opinion about the claims of some spiritual teachers who talk about being able to read your mind or see the past or the future?
27:44 So would you advise pulling away, going in another direction if these myths are claimed?
32:56 What is the experience of feeling one with everything?

The Secret to Inner Peace | India Retreat Q&A, Feb 2025 – Day 2 Morning
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/EbpzYrVM_64

Question:  Is it true that the present moment is the only real thing and that doership is an imagination in that present moment?

Shri Babaji:  Very true. You see, past moment is a memory, only in the memory. And the future moment is in imagination. You have to imagine, visualise, and with your own imagination, you’re likely to become panicked and anxious or any such thing. The past memory which is there, stored in the brain, that can create again unpleasantness, stress, all these things. Whenever you are able to be in the present moment, there is nothing for you to be anxious also, or to worry also, because that’s not a memory, nothing else has happened yet. It is there simply, whatever happening is not in your hands; spontaneously it’s happening. It enables you to remain quiet. Whenever you are quiet, you enjoy the best happiness.

Always if you have noticed, when your mind notices the world, the universe, everything, its own imaginations, either the past or future, then only it becomes stressful. When it doesn’t notice anything, if it is in the present moment, then there is no stress. It enjoys the best happiness. That’s how the deep sleep helps you to enjoy the best happiness when there is nothing for you to visualise.

Question:  With the doership where you think “I am doing this”, are you not actually doing it – it’s the imagination that you are doing it?

Shri Babaji:  The present moment gives you, what to call, an idea, something that is enormous; a higher consciousness is taking care of this world, due to which this world is going on. So, whether we see from sun, moon to anything that’s happening surrounding us, we try our best, we try to influence people, but yet they do what they have to do. Like these things keep happening. You will see that a higher consciousness is handling the things, it is under its control. So, it will be taken care. So, thus you become quiet. Unnecessarily, you are trying to go into a head-on collision with the universe that is going on.

Question:  A higher consciousness taking care of everything almost infers a Divine personality? Could you explain that?

Shri Babaji:  No, it’s not like that, it’s not a Divine personality. That’s why I have always said, this world is happening not according to Divine’s wishes, but due to the Divine. These two sentences give different meaning. ‘Wishes’ means, Clifford is sitting here and he wants Arun to ask a question, but he doesn’t want Manju to ask a question. That is Clifford’s wishes. [Babaji laughs] That is the wishes. Babaji is here. Babaji has no such imagination whether Arun will ask a question, Manju will ask a question. Simply that has to go around, whoever wants to ask a question. But due to Babaji, this session is happening, but not according to my wishes. That’s a simple example I’m trying to give for the Divine personality when we talk of the higher consciousness. So, that is how the spontaneous thing also we spoke; Divine has not written everybody’s story, “Let this lady be very happy. Let this lady be unhappy all the time.” God has no such things. He doesn’t need any of these things for His happiness. He’s quiet and in Himself.

That’s what, the day any one of you or all of you really become aware of Divinity, you will be wonderstruck. “All these years I was really mad. I was trying to analyse this Supreme Absoluteness, being a micro-speck.” That’s what is the Kupamanduka, being in a small pond. “I was trying that I was thinking that I’m measuring the space, measuring the ocean.” That’s what you realize. And that’s how you’ll surrender.

Question:  How do we stay grounded at times when we are extremely happy?

Shri Babaji:  So, we try to connect ourselves. Jokingly I have given the example of a child getting connected to ice cream, but it has fever, cold, everything. The mum knows it shouldn’t be having the ice cream, but it is adamant, “I need to get the ice cream, only then I will be happy.” Because that has connected itself to the ice cream. The happiness is not in the ice cream. It will have nothing to do. So that is how people of this world get connected to themselves to something. One gets connected to the mountain, another to the ocean, another to wife, another to husband, another to a brother, another to another thing, another to the friend. We get connected and we get affected if anything happens. The same thing, if we are not connected, the same for some another thing, if it happens, we don’t get affected. Because we are not connected, we never imagined that to be ours. So, that’s what happens.

That is the reason you are happy or unhappy. God has not made you to be happy or unhappy. You connect yourself. Suddenly, if you imagine, “One of these cameras must belong to me,” you become unhappy because that is not the truth. Both the cameras belong to Zen [Babaji laughs]. That is the truth, scientific truth, that’s what it is. But then if you become unhappy, where is Zen at fault? Zen doesn’t even know that you are unhappy, probably. Means, this is how in the society, in the world, in the human world, particularly, things happen very often. You get connected and then you are unhappy. If you withdraw yourself from everything through the sadhana, or spirituality and meditation and remembering God – you were talking; if you remember God by name also. So, sincerely you remember, not simply by lip sympathy. “God understands if we tell a Sanskrit shloka.” God doesn’t understand Sanskrita or any language unless your mind is applied.

So, that’s why, you see, God has never demanded that “I need gold or silver,” or “You should pour only milk on me and not water.” He doesn’t mind. You need to have your mind. Then if you pour one glass of water also, is enough. Nothing also is enough. Just fold your hands, enough. But if your mind – that’s a demand. Then you get connected. Then your mind becomes quiet because God is also quiet. So, then you have the real happiness. That’s when you realize, “My happiness was not with this world. It needed to become quiet. That’s why it was not happy.” You realize that.

Question:  So, God only exists in silence?

Shri Babaji:  God actually is in silence, total silence, but He can talk also. Everybody talking is He talking, is a mono-actor. Through you also is talking, through me also is talking, through you is asking question, through me is answering question. This Advaita will come only when you achieve Nirvikalpa samadhi. Before that, you must not try. You will miserably fail and you are likely to misconnect yourself. So, when somebody slaps, then you will complain, “How come this person is slapping me?” When somebody gives you hundred dollars, then you are happy, “God has given me hundred dollars.” But the tapa also was given by God. So, it’s not easy to understand like that one. But in origin, as it is, the Divine is in silence. That’s why you need to achieve silence of your mind.

Then you get connected. The moment your mind becomes more silent, it starts going towards Divinity. If it is not silent, it is extrovert and into imaginations, it is away from the actual Divinity. In imagination it might be there, but that needs to narrow down into silence. Even if you worship a form also, that will take you to the silence one day. When you totally become dumbfound with your deity, and in your consciousness accept that deity, there is nothing else, there is nothing else and only that deity, then you will notice your consciousness would have become totally silent, because it has nothing to ask, nothing to give, nothing to pray, nothing to say anything. It is quiet there.

Question:  Does the Divine have any wishes, or is it not involved in this universe?

Shri Babaji:  Really not involved, actually. That involvement appears to you because you want somebody to love you. So, then the mother’s concept has come. That mother unconditionally forgives the child. You don’t even have to apologize to the mother. So, that was how, initially in the Purana stories also, when the creation happened, it was getting engulfed by the Rudra, fire. So, then the Sages, Sanaka Sanandaji, Brahma, Vishnu, they all prayed to that fire, to transform itself to Bhuvaneshwari, mother concept, so that the creation knowingly or unknowingly might be doing wrong things, mistakes, and the mother concept might forgive and take them on to the right path to merge with the Divinity again. So, that was how the story goes. But the Divine itself never involved, Parabrahman, that is. A portion of the Parabrahman becomes mother concept, Brahma concept, Vishnu concept, Shiva concept, anything. So, it cannot be the one thing, same at all time. When it becomes all-pervaded, it has no action or reaction at all. It becomes one with itself. The actual Divinity, just like the space, is existing in itself. It simply exists in itself. It has not created anything. So, it has nothing to get involved at all.

So, wherever you have an imagination, you have been created, or somebody has been created, you want somebody who can show you affection or love in your language, the way that your consciousness can recognize. The Divine is already in love with you and it is conveying in silence. But that silence, you cannot understand, so that’s why you want a mother concept. So, when you imagine a mother concept, so you feel very peaceful, and happy. There is somebody there, “Oh Mother, oh Maa meri,” like that. That’s what happens. But that is not the actual Divinity becoming a mother and trying to please one child. All of the mother’s childs are there. And like this, you don’t know how many creations might be there. It’s very mind-boggling. To give a conclusive answer is very difficult.

Question:  When I meditate for more than one hour, I start to feel anxious and uncomfortable mentally. How to overcome this?

Shri Babaji:  When you meditate, it gets stirred, the consciousness. All the things that are in the subconscious state, that is brought up. And then it has to get evaporated or filtered to purify the consciousness. When you would have deeply meditated for such long time, so then strongly it will take out all the garbage that is in the mind. So, you just need to have patience. Some more time if you continue, you will see that everything is getting dissolved in itself, and peace will descend. For a while it could be a very pressurizing type of anxiousness or pain or anything. So, you need to bear with it for some time, then it will be alright. Continue with the meditation if possible.

Question:  What did Swamiji convey to You about the changes that came over Him as a young boy in the period before He went into Tapas?

Shri Babaji:  See, He did not have any such spiritual experience or any such thing. He never had any spiritual trainings, but He had some inborn qualities which are recognized as spiritual qualities – honesty, and ‘hang on to it’, ‘do or die’, that type of determination was there. “If I have to do it, I will do it. Only death can stop me stop doing it.” That type of quality was there, and He would get on with it. Any injustice, He wouldn’t tolerate, and He did not know any fear at all. So, these inborn qualities were all there.

Like for example, He used to tell, once in His village, a magician type of person had come. He was threatening everyone, “If you don’t give me the money or whatever gifts I want, I can turn you into a tiger. You will eat up all your own people and you will run away to the forest. What will you do?” Somehow Swamiji was not convinced, young Satyaraju. He told his uncle, “Look, I will quickly get a rope and challenge him to convert me, transform me into a tiger. If at all he does, know I will definitely know that you are my uncle. I will not do anything. Immediately, tie me with the rope to the pillar so that I don’t run away to the forest.” That was all He told. “So, then I will be with you. And after some time, I’m sure, still I will come back to become a human being. How long he can hold on to his magic powers?” So, that type of convincing conviction was there with Swamiji, but He was not afraid, “If at all he can make me a tiger, let it be. Let me challenge.” But by time when Swamiji challenged, that person got scared and everybody were trying to hit him and that man ran away. Swamiji used to tell, “Eh, He was galloping.” Galloping on the horseback, type. He ran away, that was all. “And nothing happened; I did not become any tiger at all.”

So, like that, that nature was there. Always conviction. So, when we do not know what it is, suppose, for example, somebody comes and tells you, “Hey, I am Shivabalayogi” and [Babaji mimics adopting a persona] “Dah, dah, dah” and he will do certain things. And you will be shaken for a while, “What if Swamiji has come? I don’t know. Should I respect him? Not respect him? Should I reject him totally?” At least you will be confused for a while, if not accepting it totally. But Swamiji belonged to that class; “Even if it is Swamiji, let me talk to Him. So, he should come in front of me.” Means, He would have done, that type of thing He taught us. So, years later that was convincing for us also, “If at all it is you who is coming, come in front of me, come on an animal, come on a buffalo, not on these human beings.” In ‘94, I told Swamiji in the photo, “I am not going to take this nonsense.” Like that He trained us also. Means, after all death is going to happen, that is all. So, that type of conviction, qualities were there. That was really spiritual; strength that He had from previous lives.

Question:  I remember hearing that Swamiji was attracted to a Shivalingam as a young boy?

Shri Babaji:  That was in Draksharamam. He used to go to pray sometimes when He came back from his stepmother’s place, because stepmother was dealing with opium business that time. He didn’t like that one. “This is all intoxicating things;” He refused. Because his father had promised to give Satyaraju as an adopted son to her, to the first wife, so He had gone to live there. But He comes back. Then He went to pray to that Shivalingam in the compound of the Bhimeswara Kshetra. The main sanctum sanctorum is there. Also, Swamiji used to tell, He never liked to go to the sanctum sanctorum because the priests were quite discriminative to different castes and creed and all such things. He said, “All humans should be one and equal. Whoever wanted, they should be able to go in front of Him. Only some people can go front of Him, some should not go; what is this nonsense?” He refused, “I won’t come to that place, Lord Shiva’s place. My Lord Shiva is here. He will come here if He wants to bless me.” He had that type of conviction.

Question: After taking karma yoga seriously, I’ve noticed that my meditation is improving. Does the watching and the karma yoga work together to still the mind? 

Shri Babaji:  You know, what happens, karma yoga is when there is acceptance. If you understand this one word, ‘acceptance;’ [of the] results to be. You put in effort, whatever you want to achieve. If you have a desire, is no problem. But the result, when it comes, it is not in your hands. It may be according to your expectation, or it may not be. Then you have to accept. If you accept, you have peace. If you don’t accept, your mind will go into brooding and you will not have peace. This is the truth that Shri Krishna tried to teach. That is what the karma yoga means. So, if there is acceptance, through karma also, even if you are active in this world also, you can keep your mind into Yoga, in union with the Divinity, Ultimate Truth. Meditation also, you do the same thing. So, both, you meditate and be active in the world; together also can go. The both can be very helpful. Slowly, slowly, you will understand both. All the thing is that, “Simply I have to accept whatever results come. That’s all. But till then, I will put an effort.” Effort must not be stopped. This is what is the thing which can take you to Yoga, through both dhyana and karma. The dhyana will help you not to observe any acquired habits of the mind as karmas.

Question:  Is being still in daytime, not to think, a part of karma yoga?

Shri Babaji:  Acceptance will enable you to be still.

Question:  After meditation when I intensely look at the space, I’m able not to recognise the objects in the space. Is this an enlightened state?

Shri Babaji:  Ney, that is the glimpse of the enlightenment. A small micro-speck glimpse. For that you have to continue to remain in that state at all times. That’s what the enlightenment means; at all times effortlessly that state should be there, that you have only the feeling of existence, but nothing else. So, then both loses its effect, the space and the matter both loses its effect. There is neither this, nor that. So, such visualization will not happen. Till then, on and off that such type of glimpse will be coming. That means it is taking you closer to that one, to the atmosphere of the moon going. So, that type of things are happening. You continue in the same way for your sadhana. It will take you to a further enlightenment and will make you quiet.

Question:  On the spiritual path, experiences are happening within, they are not seen. So how can a Guru help the person?

Shri Babaji:  Guru will watch and He can understand and He will guide you the way that you need to go. So, for this precisely, I will tell. There is no need for me to use any of my siddhis, enter your mind, and understand. Simply by watching the outside, and talking to you, that’s how a Yogi would employ. Talking to you, understand, what is your temperament, your attitude. Thus, only He can guide you towards the highest. Also, that happens. Guru will definitely understand easily.

Question:  Where does the feeling of insecurity come from?

Shri Babaji:  That’s also coming out of imagination, when you would have forgotten about yourself, Real Self, and considered the physical body as yourself. The physical body has so many needs, urges, and missing this, missing that. If it is missing, so then this insecurity feeling happens to a person. So, to overcome that, the mind needs to be subdued. The mind creates with an imagination of insecurity, which actually does not exist. There is no such insecurity that one has to feel. Yet, giving such an imagination, when you connect yourself with a certain matter, certain thing of this world, then you feel the insecurity. Insecurity of losing that, or having lost that, unable to get it back, any such thing, such imaginations can make you feel insecure. And sometimes when such a thing happens, then everything surrounding you can give you insecurity, “What if this happens, what if that happens, what anything else happens, what if suddenly the body dies.” This type of an experience happening can create insecurity. Only thorough spiritual exercises, being with the Guru, can clear such insecurity.

Question:  What is Babaji’s opinion about the claims of some spiritual teachers who talk about being able to read your mind or see the past or the future?

Shri Babaji:  Without bothering to mention of any such gurus, because you ask the question, here, more than a Yogi, as a scientist I will tell – nobody can read actually. It’s all done through other means. The body languages, watching you, talking to you, and then talking to you, taking out from you only. Then again, I tell the same thing to you. Very often these things are employed by human beings and you are likely to get confused. If you go in front of a guru… I have allowed everybody to easily approach me and I don’t behave anything tough, or extraordinary, majestically, dramas, I don’t do it. But many gurus do such things and they create confusion in you. In the confusion, you take out everything. And after some time, that guru will tell you as if he read the mind.

Nobody knows what the mind is, nobody has seen it in naked eyes. So, that’s why I have told in my talks as a truth, all of you, individually, you all know your mind. Nobody else really can read. Why? Because the consciousness is stuck with the brain’s reflections. Consciousness is stuck, and the brain is active, it reflects. It reflects as a visual effect, or a thought process. That is caught by the mind again, and mind registers, it becomes mind. The consciousness becomes mind. So, thus a peculiar relationship of brain and mind happens. So, the mind becomes a victim of brain’s reflections. And it has made the brain to become active. So, then it talks based on that only. So, it cannot see any other consciousness, till it doesn’t become a Self-Realized. When it becomes Self-Realized, it doesn’t get to see mind. It is not the mind that I have to see. I see the Self, actual Self, which is the same as it is here. So, this is the truth.

To know the mind of another person, that is not really worthwhile actually. You know the Divinity, that which is the really worthwhile, after knowing which you don’t have to know anything else. So, we would like a devotee who would express what the problem is. And if he expresses sincerely, we can guide. That’s why it is told, don’t tell a lie to the doctor, lawyer and Guru. Then the Guru can guide you properly. So, these are all myths all over the world. It’s there that you penetrate and know what the mind is.

Question:  So would you advise pulling away, going in another direction if these myths are claimed?

Shri Babaji:  So, you just meditate and know yourself. That is the worthwhile thing. That is the highest and supreme. Amba has some comments to say, if you give the microphone.

Mata Ambaji:  Every human being has this weakness. Everybody wants to know their past and future. And people, any guru, any master, any teacher, any magician, if they tell you that they can read your past or they can read your future, run away from them, first thing. Because, what is the meaning if somebody can read your past? Past is over. What benefit you are going to get? It’s like you got a wound and somebody has come and scratched it. It will be more painful. So, what about the future? Future, no one can change your future. No one on the earth can change anybody’s future. So, what is the meaning if you get to know about your future also? The efforts you are putting in the present, that also will be curtailed because you are in the worry that “This is going to happen to me in the future.” So, what is the benefit any individual will get knowing the past or the future?

So, do efforts in the presence so your future will be better. That’s my understanding. It’s absolutely a waste of time. You know, there are gurus where thousands of people go every day to know their future. They say, they take out parchi, “I know Sethu your address, you have come from so and so a place. There are so many people in your family, and you have come by a particular car name.” What is the meaning? What benefit you are getting? If I tell you, is this worthwhile? Is this a knowledge? Knowledge which car you have come? Even if I predict anything, anything; “You met some person on the way”, it’s not intelligence. It’s just a guesswork. Maybe to two people, my guesswork will work. And maybe ten people, it doesn’t work. But those two people, my guesswork has worked, got highlighted and advertised. And people get attracted. So, it’s just fooling.

So, I’ll say it’s better to see a magic show than going to those fortune tellers. It’s an absolute waste. It has no meaning. It’s just you are weakening your own mind. And spiritually you’re not gaining anything. Nothing. It’s a waste of time and energy and money. People go and spend hundreds of dollars, hundreds of thousands of rupees going to those teachers. And the biggest thing is that you lose confidence in yourself. You lose confidence when you go to the fortune tellers. That means you have no confidence in yourself, and in the Divinity, that’s why you’re going to someone else to tell you what you should do.

Shri Babaji:  On the lighter side, this reminds me of a joke in a Tamil magazine, years ago that we read. There’s one astrologer sitting, the parrot reader. One man comes and tells, “Can you tell me whether I’m going to get this lottery or not?” He tells, “Idiot, had I known, would I be sitting on the footpath here?”

Mata Ambaji:  I connect with myself; a long time back, there was this one teacher, you know, he’s kind of a huge, huge thing in India. And people go and spend thousands of rupees, lakhs of rupees, just going and asking him to read through one book. Somebody told my father also. It’s the time when I was coming to the ashram. My father went to that person, and I knew that my father, why my father is going. My father wanted me to get married. He went there, paid ten thousand rupees for this puja, that puja, that puja, to get me married. I don’t want to get married. That book was not able to do anything, or those pujas were not able to do anything, were not able to change my mind. So, when my father came back, I said, “You should have given me that money, and I would have put that somewhere else.” What’s the meaning, you know, spending ten thousand, twenty thousand rupees just going and asking him to perform a certain puja? So, it can’t change my mind. No one on the earth can change another person’s mind. We have to do that effort.

Shri Babaji:  Indians would be familiar with these nadi readers, nadi books.

Question:  What is the experience of feeling one with everything?

Shri Babaji:  See, if you ever had experienced the quiet and serenity, that is the Divinity. Many people talked to us. For them, experience means something connected to this world must happen. That’s beyond that, that experience of Divinity is totally beyond, which cannot be comprehended, contemplated, understood. You have to experience to believe it. So that is the actual truth. The clue is, whenever you have peace. That peace, when your mind is in the quietness, serenity, silence.

End of Session