0:00 Intro
0:15 What lineage of yoga does Babaji belong to?
2:54 Is it because of the habit to think that we are away from the yoga?
5:28 The quality the consciousness has to imagine
12:33 Yoga through being silent while performing action
19:30 Do all the paths of yoga, bhakti, karma, gnana – ultimately become dhyana yoga, meditation?
25:00 Explanation of ‘knowledge personified’ from the Guru Gita
25:57 For a Yogi does this world seem like a movie?
29:19 How can a Yogi operate in the world through the body after merging with the Self?
32:18 How is a Yogi before Mahasamadhi different from a Yogi after Mahasamadhi?
35:32 What part of the individual achieves Self-Realisation?
37:05 What does the Bhagavad Gita mean when it says the Yogi is the best state to be in?
39:14 Is devotion required to achieve yoga?
41:19 Do all these different paths lead to silence?
42:10 What is the status of the rishis?

Discourse: Thus Spake Babaji – online Q and A No. 102
The True Meaning of Yoga
Recorded: 13 August 2022 with worldwide participants

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   Many people when they think of the word yoga, they think of the physical postures, the exercises of yoga, but Swamiji and Babaji belong to a different school of yoga.  So can Babaji start by just explaining and talking about what that yoga is in this lineage?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, since ancient times India had two types of yoga schools.  One is by performing exercises which are known as asanas – postures in fact of the body, and then slowly come to meditation eventually; that was one.  The other one is directly into meditation, and enabling the mind to merge with the Self, that school is.  So we belong to the second school, like my Master did a twelve-year tapas of making the mind to become totally quiet and merge with the Self, thus by gaining a Self-Realization.  And from Him we learnt and we got initiated into meditation and eventual tapas.  So this is the school that we belong. Both yoga schools are there.  So, yoga means ‘union with the origin’.  See, in body exercises when you perform, the body is supposed to be healthier.  If its health gets disturbed, it is viyoga, away from its origin.  And if you perform such asanas and can keep the body as healthy as possible, then that is the yoga for body.  But body has its own limitations, we all know, no matter however you try, finally one day it has to become old, or ill also and go, perish.  So this is one thing. So that is what the yoga means.  Like here, the mind, as long as it is the mind, it is in viyoga, away from its origin.  So, that’s what the mind is, away from the Self.  Now our efforts should be to make the mind to go back to the Self.  So that is the yoga.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Could we say that ultimately, it’s because we have this habit, the consciousness has a habit to think, that we are away from the yoga?

Babaji Maharaj:   When the consciousness imagines, it goes away from itself.  So that is how since time immemorial with the mind’s imaginations an individual imagined self has formed, which does not really exist, which we call it as the ego self.  Coming away in illusion only, means in its conscious imagination only it has come away, long distance.  So it has so deeply forgotten about itself.  Here the distance means not the physical distance; this happens in an illusion in the consciousness. It has come away so far, in illusion, in its imagination, that it has forgotten its real Self.  To go back, it has to overcome so many obstacles, as many as it has come away from itself, because of the imagination.  Like for example, every time you reincarnate, you are born, you acquire imaginations and further imprints throughout the life.  The mind has a tendency to recognize an object, incident or this world or anything, then it analyzes, “O what is this?  Why is this?   Is this mine, not mine?  I want.”  Like that it analyzes and makes a judgment.  “Yeah, this is good.  This is bad.”  Like that it judges.  Once it judges, that imprint is absorbed.  That I call it as the acquired habits of the mind.  Due to this when it acquires the next incarnation, it goes further away from its real Self, means forgetting itself further, it forgets further.  It forgets further, like that every incarnation it happened, like that it keeps forgetting.  And whatever it comes across in imagination, it starts considering and firmly believing and getting carried away with that imagination as the fundamental reality or the truth.  So that is what has happened.  That is the viyoga that has happened.

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  So the quality that the consciousness has to imagine is quite an extraordinary thing.  Could Babaji give an insight into the imagination? Because the droplet comes out of the ocean, but the ocean remains intact, it’s unaffected, but somehow the droplet has gotten involved in an imagination.  Could Babaji can talk about that?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, so general scriptures also talk about the beginning of creation something like this, but I will explain in a conceptual way so that everybody can understand.  The ultimate truth that is recognized as either Divinity or the Parabrahman, whatever it is, it is simply all pervaded and exists in itself. That is known as existing in mahasamadhi, supreme stillness, in supreme peace, without any imagination, nothing; it just exists.  From that an enormous consciousness arose. Compared to the ultimate truth, Parabrahman, that enormous consciousness also is just a droplet like a droplet in the ocean.  It imagined. When it imagined, it was known as the concepts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, means the imagination, that creativity got created.  But when the Brahma concept created, it did not get involved mentally, no mind arose there – it did not get converted into mind, further imaginations.  It simply created and left it there to spin on its own and remained in itself.  Like the Vishnu concept is sustenance of this imagination for long time, and Shiva is the concept of withdrawal back into the Self.  So all the three remained in the Self. When it remained in the Self it did not become corrupted, it remained as the Divinity.  That’s why these three concepts are worshipped as the three Trinity in the Hindu philosophy.  So this is what happened. 

   But after that – see, the next generation, angels are told about in the legendary stories, but when the angels come, they are shown as insecure, had to fight with the demonic forces all the time. That means the imagination did not go back to the Self, it remained into imagination.  So we can tell thus slowly the corruption started. Corruption means in the form of insecurity about the existence and wanting supremacy, wanting to overcome the other – all these things were there.  After that slowly, means next incarnation, next incarnation, by the time we have come into the human being, you can imagine how much that consciousness that was pure Divinity has become so corrupted. Corrupted because once the imagination started, that imagination refused to die down because of the consciousness losing control over itself and allowing that imagination to go on and on and on and on, never ending process like that one.  It did not do any exercise, did not undertake any exercise to control itself, to restrain itself.  Instead, it went on considering whatever the imagination came, that as the fundamental reality, so then it got carried away further.  So like that, the consciousness has come so long way which is known as the mind.  Now on this earth is just a droplet, another droplet of the illusion, this earth. So many species, so many varieties of…people tell ‘84 lakhs [8.4 million] and 55,000 life cycles’; so many counts have been given for these things.  So they are all there. 

   So the consciousness is getting hidden in so many other animals and creatures, then finally comes into human being. Because only the human body has the well developed brain which is another amazing biological organ which enables the mind to think. When it thinks it can think properly or improperly.  Now it is for the mind to use the brains. If it can use it can think properly, otherwise it can be thinking improperly. The discrimination power is there. It can use it; what is real, what is unreal, what is permanent, what is impermanent. Like this it has to discriminate.  So then it has to get into an exercise – it has to learn, “What exercise can make me become quiet and go back to my Self?  What distance have I come?”  So that depends on the amount of imaginations and habits that it has acquired since time immemorial.  You cannot measure, you cannot weigh or tell that it has acquired 75 kilograms of imagination.  It is not like that. It is inexplicable.  That is the power of illusion that has happened.  So now a Guru teaches once He has experienced the truth, then the magics of the mind one needs to overcome. Meditate, practice quietness.  The sooner that you can give up your ego, means the ‘I’ imagined self and try to shift your attention to that real Self.  So that’s what has to happen.  That’s what the yoga, yoga marga, means the path of yoga, that which can take you to reunite to your real Self. You who have come as the droplet a long distance in imagination need to go back, because you’re looking for peace and happiness.  That is available only when you go back to Self, not till then.  So these are some of the points on the yoga why the sadhana is taught, how the yoga can happen, why this is called yoga – yoga marga, means the path of yoga.

Question:   There is a quote from the Yoga Vashista that says, ‘non-thinking is known as yoga, remaining in that state perform appropriate actions.’  So Babaji always talks about whatever way of life we’ve adopted, simply carry on, practice the meditation, but also think of what we’re doing as a duty, don’t have any expectation of a reward or ego that ‘I am doing this particular action’.  Can Babaji talk about how we achieve yoga through this path?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, when the mind is not thinking anything, definitely that is in yoga, whenever it is silent.  So now, the consciousness has come out of its origin.  If it becomes quiet, it starts going towards its real Self.  If it imagines, it comes out. If it imagines, it remains out, out only.  So now, in this world, one has to live.  As long as the body is alive, there are certain fundamental things that need to be done whether you like or not. Like food to sustain your physical body; whether you like or you don’t like, you have to earn a livelihood, you have to earn your food. For that that every creature struggles, including human beings – we have to have.  While doing so, we may need to use our imaginations, when we simply use our imagination to think, it really doesn’t matter much.  Because after the imagination, once we get into the action through the body, when the mind induces, if we allow the mind further, then it jumps into an anxiousness of the future or it remains brooding about the past, it doesn’t become quiet.  “What if it happens?  What if it doesn’t happen?  Oh God, what will happen to me if I don’t earn any livelihood?  I will die or what will happen?”  Just leave it to the Divine, it’s okay, no problem.  If at all we have to live that Divine will give; it if it doesn’t give, it finishes – let it happen, it’s over.  Like that, acceptance means – I’m trying to teach the acceptance.  You try whatever you want to achieve.  You want to achieve your livelihood in whichever way that is possible, you want to help somebody in this world or you want to do anything, you do that. But do not allow the mind to go further into anxiousness.  If it remains in that imagination, then you remain quiet, accept. That is what is told, acceptance. Even in Bhagavad Gita also, Sri Krishna talks, “You have a right to put in action.”  Now you all think, logically, scientifically, technically, in any way you want think – you have a right to put an effort.  You want to come and meditate – that you have a right and you must do that one.  After that, when the results come, it is not in your hands. You have put an effort and you have to wait for the results to happen.  When the Self-Realization comes, that is the result.  You have to wait for that; accept that one, then you won’t get disturbed.  So many people get agitated, “Oh, I’m not able to meditate properly, the meditation is not coming good.”  Don’t bother.  First thing important, don’t bother about it; it will come. assure yourself and just remain quiet. 

   In the same way in this world also, whatever work, whatever desire, whatever you need to do, you do everything.  Wait. When the result comes, accept.  If it doesn’t happen we try again, we try again, we try again.  That’s why it is; like I always try and keep trying without bothering, simply accepting whoever comes in front of us.  We try to teach meditation, what they achieve, what they don’t achieve, whether any transformation comes in them or doesn’t happen at all.  Whatever happens we don’t give up trying.  I keep trying and then I accept.  I accept this is what they have not yet achieved, no problem, they will achieve one day when it is their time.  My job is to teach them, guide them, motivate.  So that is what is the karma yoga. Then also your mind can remain in yoga in the quietness, it will simply accept. Whatever is happening in the world, it is acceptable.  You can try to change the world.  That is no problem.  If there is a war conflict, try to stop the conflict, try to achieve peace.  But don’t get disturbed you yourself.  That is the simple thinking.  You accept it.  Like a doctor, you attend to the patient.  Whatever happens, if the patient survives, that is good.  If he doesn’t survive, you cannot help; you have tried your best. You need to remain satisfied so that you can attend the next patient.  See, if a student fails, I cannot afford to become mad; I will have to accept it.  Some other student will be waiting for my guidance, for my attention, all these things.  So I have to attend to other students who are in need of me.  So if somebody has not achieved, I just still continue to tell them, whoever comes.  So that is the acceptance, that’s what Vashista also talks. Then the mind is quiet.  If the mind is quiet, it is automatically in yoga, that quietness.  That’s what even Adi Shankara also tells; “When your consciousness is face to face to the truth, and when your consciousness is not into any type of imagination (means when it is totally quiet), know that existence as the truth.”  That is that yoga, that means it is in yoga.  Otherwise it is in viyoga.

Question:   So Babaji, quietness in the mind is the most important thing rather than anything that’s happening in the world, whatever it might be.  If our mind is quiet.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, the more, the longer, forever that you can keep your mind quiet – that’s what a yogi would have achieved.  Even when he is talking, is doing anything, he might be eating, he might be dancing, he might be sitting in a corner, doing anything, his consciousness is ever silent one, that is in yoga.  So that’s when he simply waits for the body to get dropped one day.

Question:   Babaji, the other types of yoga, bhakti: devotion, karma yoga: service.  Ultimately, do they all become dhyana, your attention to the Self, in their highest form?

Babaji Maharaj:   So everywhere dhyana is necessary, along with the karma yoga, bhakti yoga, anything, because that is the thing which brings your mind to the attention of its real Self, eventually.  Several like bhakti yoga is there – I have told, due to imagination the mind has gone out of control.  Now using the same imagination, you try to make the mind as single-pointed as possible and bring it back towards the Self slowly, slowly.  To begin with, like you imagine a form of a god; ‘this is God’.  It might be an idol, it might be a photo or it might be a human figure, it might be anything. Or it might be the sky depending on what appeals to you.  So you fall in love with that one.  That means your attention is there.  So you pour all your emotions, bhava, that is the bhakti marga.  So you try to tap your emotion single-pointedly towards that deity by doing several exercises, like worshiping, undertaking any ritual that is possible for you.  That is my opinion.  There should not be any imposition that ‘the ritual has to be only this’. Means you can take a camphor and do aarathi.  If there is no camphor, you can take a flower and offer the flower. If there is nothing, you just fold your hands, pray through your mind, also is good enough for the worship – the mind’s application is important.  So you are paying your attention, thus you are making the mind single-pointed, means your attention is becoming single-pointed, thus your dhyana, your meditative, that mind, instead of going attentive to millions of thought, it is simply attentive to one though.  Finally by the help of the Guru, you abandon that thought also; you will be able to do that one by the guidance or the Grace of the Guru or God, then the mind simply becomes quiet. 

   Mind has to become quiet.  So here also your dhyana is important, means your attention, attention on the deity is important, not the exercise itself.  Along with the exercise, you are expected that your mind gets applied there. Like putting your eyesight on me is the exercise.  Along with that exercise, your mind is also expected to be on me.  That is your job, important.  If you are unable to bring the mind on to me, if you are simply putting your eyeballs to me, for others, it might appear you are paying attention, but you are not actually paying attention to what I’m trying to teach.  That is the yoga.  That’s what the yoga, bhakti yoga is one important thing.  Karma yoga I have already explained to you.  The mind’s acceptance; when the mind accepts, it becomes quiet, it recedes.  It doesn’t get agitated.  It doesn’t become mad.  It doesn’t go into an anger or frustration, dejection.  Nothing happens; it is quiet, ‘it’s okay. It has not happened.  It’s fine, no problem.’  Suddenly a wife packs up her suitcase and leaves the husband, ‘I am leaving you.  I’m going.’ ‘It’s okay.  No problem.’  Like that, everything in the world should be simply acceptable, if that is possible.  Then you can have the karma yoga.  You are into yoga, though you are in active world, you are a karmic person, means you are into action, but yet you remain unaffected.  That is the karma yoga like this. Dhyana yoga – Jnana yoga, you want to acquire knowledge through others experiences, through reading a book; Upanishads are there, scriptures are there, commentaries are there, all these books.  Like when you read Yoga Vashista, you try to acquire knowledge ‘O this is what Vashista tells.  This is the knowledge’. And if there is a Guru who can explain to you further, elaborate, ‘O this is the knowledge,’ then further you have to pay attention to what the knowledge says, that is important.  You have to acquire that wisdom also, awareness.  The knowledge says your mind has to become quiet.  Now, dhyana is important to make that mind quiet.  So these two things have to go together, jnana and dhyana, knowledge and meditation.  So meditation is everywhere, means attention, mental attention; you become quiet or you pay attention to single-pointed and then become quiet.  So that’s what it is.  When I talk, you have to become quiet; that is knowledge.  Then you meditate according to my instructions.  Then you become quiet, then you achieve yoga.

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  At the end of the meditation Babaji always gives the chant from the Guru Gita and part of that is ‘kevalam jnana murthim’, so ‘the knowledge personified’.  What does this mean the personification of knowledge? Become knowledge?

Babaji Maharaj:   Means He has merged with that Self for which the whole world is trying, whoever is on the spiritual path is trying.  That knowledge, He has become That. Means He has become quiet. In His consciousness He is totally quiet.  That is what is ‘knowledge personified’ – the nearest English translation we can go.  Kevalam jnana murthim, He is only in that Self, is always in that.  That knowledge that everybody is trying to acquire, that awareness.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  So, to ask a question about a yogi, someone who has acquired the yoga, the state of yoga.  So Babaji has said before that yoga is going from an unnatural state back to a natural state, like watching a movie we get sucked into the movie, thinking it’s happening to us but for a yogi does this world then seem like a movie, like a make-believe, a dream sort of state?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, the mind is now totally withdrawn and remains quiet.  That is what is known as when a yogi is moving in the body, He is only a witness to this world.  Because through the eyes is able to see this world, because He is seeing through one illusion, and to another illusion.  This body itself is within the illusion; through that illusion He is able to see this illusion.  Like in that dream also, what you are seeing is illusion, the scene that you are seeing is also illusion.  So though that dream is true, but the things that are in the dream are all nothing there.  In the same way He just, vaguely as a dream state He just gets to see this world.  But His mind is quiet.  He doesn’t judge.  He doesn’t analyze.  He doesn’t make what this world is, He doesn’t say anything, He doesn’t think anything about this.  This world is there.  This I have also told in the recent talks.  In reality, nobody in this world or anywhere knows what this universe is. Everybody has imagined about this universe.  We have imagined this globe as earth, we have told it is planet.

 Like that every terminology is an imagined terminology for sake of understanding and communication in this world.  A mango is useful to communicate in this world.  So that is simply an imagination; we have imagined it as a mango.  So that is why it is mango, but don’t know what it is.  I hope you all are getting what I’m trying to convey.  The entire world is there – you have called it a planet, that is why it is planet for you.  If from some other world somebody else is calling this earth something else that something is for them.  Like in one language, one person tells ‘this is water’; another person comes and tells in his language, ‘this is jal’ [water in Hindi]. if they both start fighting, ‘no, this is water, it cannot be jal.’  He says, ‘no it cannot be water; it is only to be jal.’  Isn’t it ridiculous?  For the one who has imagined it as water it is water; for the another who has imagined it as jal, it is jal for him.  That is how good and bad, one man’s food is another man’s poison.

Question:   So Babaji has overcome all of these imprints in the mind to identify things in different ways.  But Babaji is still able to operate in the world somehow.  Babaji’s droplet has merged with the Ocean.  However, somehow it’s now able still to operate through a brain and a body?

Babaji Maharaj:   In reality I have become quiet.  Whereas no other person can understand this effect.  No other person can make any judgment.  Only the one who has achieved only knows that awareness.  Well, now I’m playing a drama in this world.  The thing that I have appeared as a Guru is also only a drama in imagination only.  I’m really not a Guru.  I’m really not a student, I’m really not teaching, yet I’m doing that drama of teaching, telling, giving clues to people, what you have to do to achieve what I have achieved – this is what you have to do.  That every individual has to do.  Nobody else can do it for you. Your mind has to become quiet, only you have to do it, nobody else can stop your mind like this [waves hand].  For this also I have jokingly told when people have asked a question about miracles, if anybody can wave their hand like this and give peace to humanity – first humanity, we will think about other creatures afterwards, everything else afterwards – that they will consider that as a real wonder and miracle.  But every individual has to put an effort.  This what Vashista also tells, ‘You have to put in effort.’  That is purusharta, means your effort with all the determination, courage, hang on to it, remaining that one; that has to happen. 

So like that I am just playing a role.  Mentally I am not considering that I have become a Guru or somebody is doing my paada puja, somebody is doing me, or somebody suddenly says, criticizes, ‘You are not this, you are that and you tell this’.  So that’s what happens.  I’m just quiet.  Okay, no problem.  You want to call me a Guru, it’s alright.  You don’t want to call me, you want to call me a friend, it’s alright.  You don’t want to call me anything, just want to learn meditation, alright, no problem.  I have no objection.  That’s what my Guru also taught.  Just I initiate you.  You want to call me a friend or you want to call me a Guru it is up to you.  So in that form I will play that role and teach you and help you.  So like this, I play that role.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  Can Baba talk a bit about mahasamadhi.  How is a yogi before mahasamadhi different from a yogi in mahasamadhi?

Babaji Maharaj:   See, as long as the body is there, when the mind has totally become quiet that means gains the awareness of the Self, that is known as a jeevanmukta. Means while alive, He’s the totally liberated one, He is not attached to anything in the mind; the mind is not getting involved anyway.  But yet, because the body is there, as a witness He is witnessing this world.  That is why jeevanmukta.  Finally, when the body drops, becomes quiet, it is dead what you all call, then this consciousness has no more imagination.  It doesn’t have anything to achieve, no desire, nothing else is there, then it would merge with that ultimate truth which is even beyond the Self.  The Self is a word used for sake of understanding again as an imagination in this world.  So in that state you go beyond, simply become quiet.  ‘One single Self that exists’ as Ramana Maharshi told, this sentence. Nearest clue, nearest imagination, simply one single Self – what we call it as Self, what you get an awareness as yourself, that consciousness, all that is totally quiet, simple and quiet.  That is the supreme peace.  You will all understand when you totally are able to be quiet, that is the best peace or happiness you will get. Not with an imagination of the peace which will soon follow by an anxious thought, ‘What if it loses?’  You have a car, you have a big ashram, ‘O this is mine’; you want to become happy. Somebody comes to snatch that property, this ashram; ‘We will try to finish this Maharajis, Swamiji.  We will drive him away.’  And they want to take the property for them – it is not ashram, it is only property.  Then you are unhappy again.  So you must not depend for anything.  Just quiet.  That gives happiness because nobody can rob.  In our nursery school, first time I remember our teacher saying ‘When you acquire the right knowledge in life, remember nobody can rob that one.  Anything else you acquire of this world, anybody can rob you.  Never expect that nothing will happen.  Anytime anything can happen.’  That was such a great philosophical thing now we can understand.  So that is the thing. When you have the peace, when you are quiet, when you are peaceful, you have the peace. Who can rob that peace?

Question:   Hello Baba very nice to see You.  I’m just trying to understand a little bit better about what part of an individual it is that actually achieves the yoga and achieves Self-realization?  Is it the ego? Because if there’s only one Supreme Self, one real Self, is us perceiving that another individual has already achieved that Self-realization or achieved yoga, is that just our mind pointing us in that direction? What part of somebody…

Babaji Maharaj:   Actually, the mind. Because of its imaginations we recognize it as mind. And in this mind only that ego also is there about ‘I’ – ‘What am I?’  Like, I might have a name Shiva Rudra Balayogi. What is this Shiva Rudra Balayogi?  I have that in imagination.  If I have that in imagination, ‘I am Shiva Rudra Balayogi’, then that becomes the ego.  Because there is no Shiva Rudra Balayogi who exists.  It is only an imagination.  So that’s what achieves when that becomes quiet, goes beyond Shiva Rudra Balayogi; it becomes quiet.

Same questioner:   Okay, I got a little better understanding.  Thank You, I’m getting there.

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  So nice to see you again after so many days.  We were talking about the path of yoga.  In the Bhagavad Gita, in every chapter He talks about ‘be a yogi’, you know, be a yogi, yogi, practice yoga, practice yoga, practice dispassion, and things like that.  And He’s talking about in the Chapter six, the last shloka, He says that you can be a tapasvi, a jnani, a karmi, but better than all of these is the yogi, so be a yogi He is saying.  So basically, when you do any other path, you’re not completely merged and therefore a yogi is completely merged and He loses His identity and therefore, it is the best to be a yogi?  Is that correct?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, a tapasvi, jnani means after all this, the result of all these is the yoga.  So when you have achieved yogi, that is important.  Don’t simply remain as a tapasvi.  You had to finish that tapas and you have to do the tapas so that the mind becomes quiet totally and merges with the Self, becomes a yogi.  That’s what Krishna means.  You become a yogi.  That’s what He is.  Jnani; you are trying to acquire knowledge, you are reading, you are listening, you are doing – all is good at a stage.  After that you have to become a yogi.  You have to achieve, adopt those methods that you have come to know now what to do.  Now you’re trying to acquire knowledge by asking a question to me.  I will tell you mentally you have to become quiet.  So now next is you have to become quiet, and then only you will become a yogi.  Until then you are trying to acquire knowledge.  So that’s what Sri Krishna means “Become a yogi.”  Yogi is one who has merged with the Self.  He has done it, it’s done!

Same Questioner:   And the other thing that He keeps stressing in the Bhagavad Gita is devotion.  He says ‘Without devotion, nobody can achieve Me.’  Even in chapter 11 He says, ‘Because you’re so devoted, I am impressed with your devotion, you were able to enter into Me.”

Babaji Maharaj:   Sometimes it’s likely that we misunderstand the meaning of devotion.  Now, to meditate, you need to devote yourself to meditate.  That is the devotion Krishna talks there.  For whatever you want to achieve, you need to devote yourself – that’s what the ‘devotee’ means.  You see, you will love God in a particular form or want to chant the name of God, worship that God because you have become a devotee.  Now you are ready to devote yourself to do that thing.  So that is the devotion.

Same Questioner:   Basically, we are saying devotion is being completely immersed in that object?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, immersed…

Same Questioner:   And subject and object have become one?

Babaji Maharaj:   You are dedicated to that totally. Yes, they become one.  You have dedicated yourself.  Say you want to meditate, either you need to be devoted to that meditation or to the Guru or to God, any one thing, then you devote yourself to do that, then you will do it, otherwise you won’t like to do it.

Same questioner:   So basically it’s the same then? Yogi and devotion are the same?

Babaji Maharaj:   When you finish the devotion, then you become a yogi.  When you have become yogi, you would have transcended all these things.  To achieve yoga you need to be a devotee.  Once you have achieved, you have transcended that devotional part, it’s done.  You have become one with it.

Same questioner:   Okay, so that these are very subtle differences to understand, right?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, yes.

Same questioner:   And the other thing is that I was thinking that all these different paths lead to a silence, a quietness.

Babaji Maharaj:   Finally, finally.

Same questioner:   Whether you are doing meditation or whether you’re doing breathing pranayama for instance, and then you observe and then you reach a silence.  And then when you’re doing naadaupasana, which is sound..

Babaji Maharaj:   Anything…

Same questioner:   Omkaar, you end in a silence.  So that is the same thing?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, the meaning of all this is the same.  Two important points. Either you become silent directly or first, giving up millions of thoughts, try to become single pointed into one thought, then abandon that thought and become silent.  So finally it is the silence that you have to achieve.

Question:   Pranaam Babaji.  You had mentioned earlier tonight that that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are in the world but not attached to it, not bound by it.  Whereas the angels, or in Sanskrit the devas, they are attached to the world.  But there’s another group, the rishis that seem to also be in the world, but because they are rishis they are acting as if they’re also not attached.  What is the status of the rishis?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, those who are not attached to the world, they would have become quiet in the mind.  And they are like yogis, though different titles have been given – rishi, maharishi, etc., etc.  Actually, if they have achieved Self-realization they are the yogi, they have become one with the Self.  So that’s what it is.  Whoever has achieved that, they have become one with the Self.  They also simply a witness, they are not getting involved.  So, that is why in Yoga Vashista, Vashista tells, ‘Those who have achieved Self-realization are worthy of worshiping’. He tells – I am not asking anybody to worship me or worship anybody else.  In the Yoga Vashista Ramayana, at one place Vashista tells.  So that means they are like one with that Divine.  They are adored like a Divinity.

Same questioner:   So it seems that even at the beginning of creation or soon after, along with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva there are also other angels or devas we can say who act like rishis.  So even from the beginning we have the Sanat Kumaras and Vashista.  Is that correct?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, there are so many; they can be any number.  So I just tried to be as short as possible to give about the yoga exactly, that’s why I simply mentioned some clues and examples.  And all these things are there.  It is on and on,  whoever has achieved Self; like Sanaka, Sananda known as the Brahma Manasa Putra who achieved this – first yogis.  They are considered the first yoga through the teachings, silent teaching of Dakshinamurthy.  So always a Guru is considered equivalent to the Dakshinamurthy type.  So whoever teaches the silence.  So like that, it is there.  It is all there.

End of Session