Recorded on 11 January 2026 with worldwide participants
0:00 Intro
0:06 What does Babaji mean when He speaks of thoughts?
1:22 Is there a seed that starts the thoughts?
2:00 Are thoughts the act of creation itself?
2:48 Do thoughts spring up in relation to the imprints from previous experiences
6:08 Why can’t we control our thoughts if they are in ‘my mind’?
12:52 A study done by the national science foundation suggests that 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. Can Babaji speak about this?
20:09 Western neuroscience suggests that thoughts are caused by electrical activity in the brain. Could Babaji discuss this?
24:08 Are thoughts always about the world?
24:50 What is the space in-between the thoughts? Is that the Divinity?
28:29 Does the purification process that happens in meditation also happen in other sadhanas like karma yoga or bhakti marga?
35:30 Some people experience their mind’s becoming quiet when in the presence of Babaji – is this a long term effect or a temporary tranquilliser?
38:05 Is the mind being quiet the same as the mind being concentrated?
40:13 A feeling of emptiness when meditating.
43:01 What is the difference between Akasha and Brahman?
43:53 When we sit for meditation, external sounds trigger more thoughts.
45:15 Where should focus when chanting mantras?
45:54 The feeling of merging with god before sleeping.
46:58 My practice is progressing but the feeling of doership is still there and fear arises?
50:44 ASMR and meditation
52:30 Consciousness and the brain
53:20 There is an awareness of ‘I am meditating’ during meditation – where should we put our main focus when meditating?
57:27 Why is meditation only taught in a positive way, not the negative aspects?
59:30 Not knowing if one if meditating or not.
1:00:23 If due to busy life, one skips a day of meditation, does it affect progress?
1:01:30 The closer you are to the Self, the quicker desires are manifested if those desires are beneficial – so why are my prayers not being answered?
1:03:49 Does there need to be a problem in life first for it be solved and only then one can achieve happiness?
In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.257
Thoughts
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/kgF44gqHb2Q
Recorded: 11 January 2026
Start of Questions and Answers
Question: I thought we might start with asking Babaji to describe what He means when He speaks of thoughts, so we’re talking about the same thing.
Babaji Maharaj: A thought is an imagination of the mind decodified by the brain. That’s what we would like to call it a thought process about a certain thing, a certain existence or any imagination it can be, creativity, creative. So thus, comes as a thought. So that reverberates in the mind again, just like “I have to go there, I am sitting here. That person is very bad. He has troubled me. I need to have better things.” These types of thoughts keep coming, coming, coming. So, that’s what we call a thought. It’s simply born out of imagination which may not have any existence value at all.
Question: And Baba, is there a seed that they spring up from, that starts them?
Babaji Maharaj: The seed is simply the consciousness and energy combination from which this arises. And if you look into the consciousness and energy, it doesn’t seem to be fit to be called as a raw material for anything, because it is such an infinite, amazing existence. It is there and it is not there. Majority might simply reject it as just nothing, “How can this thought come out of nothing?” That type of thing. But that’s the amazing quality of this consciousness, which is capable of being creative.
Question: So, this is the act of creation itself, Baba?
Babaji Maharaj: Exactly, that’s how the creation starts, the act of creation. And these thoughts give rise to visual effects also, means making a character appear, a personality appear within the mind when the mind creates.
Question: Baba, the imprints in the mind, those imprints from previous experiences; do they have an effect or do thoughts spring up in relation to them?
Babaji Maharaj: Definitely they have an influence on the new thoughts that are coming up. Because mind has capacity to remember or brood over the past things and visualize a future. If it is in the present, no thoughts appear at all. Anything of the past only with the help of the brain that it recollects. So, based on this, further thoughts can arise. Say a certain thing happened and your mind holds on to that, “O, that person did wrong to me.” So, based on that further thoughts can arise. “I was very hungry three days ago. I didn’t get food.” Based on that, a thought can arise. A new thought can come, “I should have got better food. In future I must be getting food. I hope I will not lose my food.” Anything it can be. Like that, based on that. So, one helps the other thought to come into existence after the initial thought.
That initial thought is the most inconclusive answer. When, how, why, in which way; difficult to say exactly. Because the source, if you look into the source, the source is a totally contented, supremely peaceful existence. A certain thing which is totally contented, supremely peaceful, it will be a puzzle why it would like to imagine anything, why it would like to create anything when it doesn’t need anything at all. And until this day no conclusive answer except for a Divine play. Then the Divine play also is not necessary for a satisfied, for a contented existence, for a supremely peaceful existence. Means it is peaceful on its own without any need of a second entity in any way. So, this is a puzzle definitely, inconclusive. Maybe simply because of the presence of energy, it simply starts spinning and starts imagining about what it is enjoying that peace. Without that it may think there is no enjoyment. So, like that it may get involved. It’s very funny though. It’s likely; more than that it is difficult to say conclusively about these thoughts.
Question: Thank You Baba. Baba, the thoughts spring up in what we call ‘my mind.’ If that is the case why can’t we control them? Why can’t we stop them?
Babaji Maharaj: By a habit and initially neglecting the need to keep the things under control, we may allow the things to go out of control. That is what has happened in fact; since time immemorial the mind has become habitual. Like, I would like to say, if at all you would have experienced a refreshing total peace and silence, sometimes, suddenly unknown to you the mind may start imagining. In the beginning it may imagine the pleasant things but as the day passes by, it slips into both good and bad, happiness and unhappiness, pleasant and unpleasant; like it goes into dualities. It tries to imagine a difficult situation, then it tries to imagine overcoming that difficult situation, then tries to feel happy, relieved, “Aaah.” Then it becomes habitual to that. Then it starts thinking it doesn’t enjoy without suffering first and then overcoming the suffering and becoming peaceful; that enjoyment doesn’t come to the mind. It is something like as long as you don’t lose the peace you may not understand the value of peace. And you understand the value of money when you lose the money, when you need it. So, like this, everything in this world. We understand the value of independence when somebody tries to control us in every way, “You should not be sitting, you should not be eating, you should not be chanting this, you should not remember God in this way” – anything. “This should not be your culture. I will tell you whatever culture.” Then they understand the value of independence that we might be enjoying today.
Some parts of the world this independence may not be there. Some parts of the world this may be there. Somebody exercises, “I will go and attend the Zoom class of Babaji.” To some it may not be possible if somebody else dictates, “No, no need to go to that Zoom, you have other work to do. I want you to be here.” If somebody else commands, imagine losing that independence and the disappointment that may happen. So, like this, based on this only, the mind goes on imagining, creating and becomes habitual thus. When it becomes habitual, then it becomes difficult for itself to restrain itself. All of you can observe yourself. When you are habitual to a certain thing, you may not want to do it to your Guru or to your God or to your parents or anybody. But you might end up doing – telling a lie, doing something else other than what you would have promised… Like these types of things, habits; by habits it happens. So, that’s how mind has become habitual and thus, the thoughts are arising, arising, arising. Now mind has even forgotten how to handle to stop these thoughts; to that extent. Generally, for humans, these thoughts have gone out of control, and it has become habitual.
For that you see, we have to take a gathering – this is a highly skilled teaching that has been coming to us from very, very ancient times, from time immemorial, from the great sages of India; it is coming. They are teaching us. So, this is considered very highly skilled, because to silence your mind, you need a highly skilled practice, determined, disciplined approach is needed. First, you need to understand the technique; that is a highly skilled education. You need to know that one – What to do for this, how to stop this thought, how to achieve supreme peace in the mind. What peace means also many people may not understand. They would understand, “Peace means I must get in this world what I wish at that moment.” Today the mind might wish, “Let the world be like this.” Tomorrow again the mind might change its contents and may tell, “No, I want world to be not like this, to be like this.” So, it can go on changing every day. The mind need not be in the same way. Today the mind might think, “Let me help this person by giving ten thousand dollars.” Tomorrow the same mind might tell you, “Why should I give this ten thousand dollars?” Means I am just talking of creativity, thoughts arising out of habits for humans. So, that’s how it has become habitual and it has forgotten how to control and what can give the peace. It doesn’t even know that if the mind is quiet and peaceful only then that we get peace. So, if it gets a momentary peace by obtaining a matter, it goes after the matter, it starts imagining one after another, one after another. The moment a phone company announces a new version has come, people would rush to buy that one because that becomes a prestige question, “Did you get the latest version of phone?” Like this, they try to find happiness in that. So imagine, millions and millions of varieties are there like this. The mind going into such imaginations.
Question: Thank You, Baba. There was a study done by the National Science Foundation in which they suggest that eighty percent of our thoughts are negative and ninety-five percent of our thoughts are simply repetitive. Could Babaji speak about that, please?
Babaji Maharaj: This also can happen, repetitive things. Like we were talking, the mind being habitual. A person may not want to speak in a particular way, harsh to others, rude to others, or showing an outburst, then they may do it. Then after they may spend a lot of time repenting on that, “O, I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have uttered. Maybe I should have been a little softer. I shouldn’t have been so harsh or rude. This is very bad. Why did I do like that one?” So, this type of thing, definitely. They have studied and they have considered it ninety-five percent – maybe, majority of the time. For a short time only, this anger comes actually, one losing control over oneself. Definitely, this is definite, to our observation also. And a long time is spent feeling bad about it. That’s what is repetitive, feeling bad about it, “O, I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have. Maybe I could have done better in life, maybe I should have. O, all these twenty years we wasted, forty years we wasted. Maybe I should have done a better meditation.” Anything. It happens to the mind by habits.
So, that first thought of lack of restraint and habituality, doing a wrong thing – when we consider it wrong, then that gives rise to so much of repetitive thoughts. That’s one reason many times I have advised in meditation also, when people think, “We try to do it, we try to do it, when it’s not coming, then it’s so frustrating sometimes. We lose peace and we keep wondering what to do and we feel irritated, or any such thing happens.” What I try to tell them, say a certain amount of time has been wasted that you could not do it. You might be wasting more time by thinking about it why you could not do and feeling bad about it. Just at the most one thought is enough; “O it was wrong, I shouldn’t be doing.” Then get into the job of doing and trying to correct it in a corrective measure. Instead, if you go on brooding, brooding… That’s what I tell, simply by worrying you cannot help anybody. You cannot help yourself. You cannot help anybody. You cannot help the cause also. Sometimes if I had not done anything proper, if I kept thinking, I’ll be wasting time. That’s what I tell; we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. I cannot afford to feel sorry. We keep ourselves so busy, always going ahead, going forward. “Next, next, do it, do it. Okay, if it didn’t come, no problem. We’ll do it again.” And go on doing it. Don’t keep wondering. Don’t keep talking too much. Do it.
So that is what is needed. We need to practice that one. Instead of that, many people who come, hundreds of people come to us for counseling or conveying their sadness or disappointment in life and that they could not do all the things. So they go on brooding, they go on brooding. Sometimes they don’t even show such patience to listen to my counseling also. If I try to tell them “This is what you are supposed to do,” they don’t show attention to that, but they go on brooding only. “This is what happens. This should be happening. Is this not correct?” Like that sort of things. So, it takes some time to cool them down, then prepare them, then initiate them into what they are supposed to do. So, so many stages will be there now. So that’s what when we try to teach meditation, it happens; people are already habitual to a certain belief. It becomes more difficult to deal with such people. If people are new, they are not habitual to any method at all. So, easily we can teach them, “So you have to silence,” the method, “This is the Ultimate Truth, this is Divinity, and this is the mind; this is how it goes if it is silent” – it’s easy. But I have encountered many such people who already have their own assumptions, beliefs embedded so deeply. Like, for example in bhakti marga; about God, about the form. When I try to tell the truth, they are not ready to listen. If I tell one sentence, they come up with hundred sentences, “Is it not like this? Will it not happen? Will God make it happen?”
I try to give them logically everything, but they don’t have the patience to listen because their thoughts are troubling them so much. Hundreds and hundreds of thoughts are coming, “If I do like this, this may happen. That may happen.” So, they don’t want to do anything at all, finally. Their sadhana doesn’t move at all. And that also they complain, “My sadhana is not happening. I am trying to chant this mantra since so long. But nothing is coming out of that. I’m not getting anything.” Then they start doubting the mantra. I tell “There is nothing wrong in the mantra. The wrong [thing] is that you are unable to remain focused on the mantra. That you have to accept. Then you have to correct it. Then you will be alright.” So, for a person, if they are behaving, if they are not behaving properly, if they are losing reputation in the society, if we need to counsel them also, it’s so difficult. “This is an ego factor, you should do like this. You should not be doing like this. Then you will be successful in life.” Then they may feel more egoistic. And they may get irritated or annoyed. If anybody can surrender to me, they are ready to listen to me, “Yes, what Baba is telling is right. I am having this type of ego. I need to overcome,” then I can try to teach them. Otherwise, it becomes so difficult to teach anybody; imagine. So, they are engulfed with such thoughts. Ninety-five percent what it is talking seems to be true; with my observation also, in our research work also, I can tell.
Question: Thank You, Baba. Babaji, Western neuroscience suggests that thoughts are simply caused by electrical activity in the brain. Could Babaji please discuss that?
Babaji Maharaj: I would explain in a different way using different terminology, to my observation. Brain’s life is kept alive by oxygen and blood also. Apart from this, what makes the brain to become active, activate the brain – that’s what is electromagnetic, anybody might call it – but it’s the application of the mind, your consciousness. You get applied on to the brain and then it decodifies and it shows it as a thought process or a visual effect. These two things happen. So, this is done by the brain. But to use that the mind has to be there. Mind is your conscious energy. Brain is the biological organ in the body. Means, for now it is two separate entities I would like to explain, I would like to tell like this. Because mind is your conscious energy. It is you. You are not the body for now. You are totally an infinite thing. Just like if my hand is here and the space inside the hand, surrounding is totally unaffected by the hand or its movement. Like that you as the Soul, we as that Self, Soul, we are in this body and outside the body also. Though it’s not possible to experience; what people call ‘out of body’ is totally different, that is all myths and illusions, hallucinations, that is different. This scientific valued thing is that I exist both outside the body and inside the body, because I am that all-pervaded thing, just like the space is all pervaded.
So, like that it is there. That’s why it goes unnoticed. But its application on the brain – when it applies on the brain, that brain gives you the consciousness of this world. You are getting consciousness of this world. So, you are getting the help of the brain; the same brain decodifies whatever is in your mind because the mind itself cannot produce a thought and watch it. Because it is totally infinite. But how this brain has come into existence? How the mind has thought of it is another puzzle. When the mind has imagined, the mind itself wouldn’t have seen any world. But it would have created a world of itself in the next incarnation. That power is there in the mind. But the mind needs illusion to see that as a scenario. Like when the next life, the same mind after death of the body in the present life, when it is reborn, when it obtains a body and it has to wait until that brain gets developed and it comes out of the womb of a mother, then only it gets to see, starts seeing outside things. Then as the brain grows, develops only, it is able to start thinking. Till then it is unable to think; it simply picks up whatever is taught. So, like this it happens, the thoughts are all produced by the application of the mind to the brain.
Question: Thoughts only apply then, Babaji, to the world? Thoughts are always about the world?
Babaji Maharaj: Not necessarily. It can imagine anything, sky is the limit. It can imagine any other thing that which is not on this earth, that which is not in the Milky Way, galaxy, anything it can imagine, any world it can imagine.
Question: Thank You, Baba. Baba often speaks about the space in between thoughts where there isn’t a thought in the mind at that time. Is that the Divinity, Baba?
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, that is what is the Ultimate Truth. That’s where your attention needs to go. For your attention needing to go, you need to get rid of the thoughts. As long as the thoughts are there, with all its power it tries to attract your attention. That’s why people get engaged with them with a dialogue, “This is good, this is bad,” any such thing, “what is this,” and they get excited. Because they don’t know more than anything. The first for the mind to accept that it needs to become silent itself is a big thing. For the Guru to explain repeatedly to them why it needs to be silent. Because the Ultimate Truth is in total silence; mahasamadhi that is called. But it takes a lot of time for people to understand, “Why we have to silence this mind, what are we trying to do, which God are we trying to call?” Like this, so many hundreds of doubts might arise. So, it is in that silence, it is there.
But thoughts are there obstructing your attention to that gap. It is there. That’s how, like I tell, you enter a room, the space is there abundantly but your mind immediately gets attracted to all the matter that is in the room – walls, fans, people, tables, everything it attracts. And you go on identifying, quickly your mind identifies and names and starts thinking and makes a judgment. But it seldom thinks about the space also that exists there. It doesn’t even want to think what it is. We have neglected so much of this space usually. We just reject or neglect or ignore. We don’t even want to think what it is. But if we try to think about it, it is such a great wonder. It is holding all the matter. It is holding the world. It exists in itself… and so on, we can go on talking. Means, that is how, I’m trying to tell, that gap in between the thoughts is ignored always, neglected; the mind doesn’t get attracted to that one. It gets attracted easily to the thoughts. But we try to teach repeatedly, “Don’t get attracted to the thoughts. Just watch.” So that slowly automatically your attention goes to the gap in between two thoughts. Then these thoughts all start dissolving into the mind. Then you will see one day only that space. Then the thought of space also has to disappear. That’s when the ‘I’ thought disappearing. That’s how slowly going into the samadhi level and experiencing the Self and everything, every idea gets dropped and experience also gets dropped there, finally. Like this.
Question: Thank You, Baba. Babaji has described that when we meditate, the garbage of the mind gets churned up and shown to us as thoughts. And if we don’t pay them attention, then the mind becomes cleared of those imprints and thoughts. Does that same clearing process occur when we do other sadhanas like karma yoga or bhakti marga, or is meditation unique in that clearing effect?
Babaji Maharaj: Provided one understands correctly, technically, scientifically what is karma yoga. Many times I have encountered people who are so confused about karma yoga, about Shri Krishna and Arjuna’s conversations, about the war, about their own actions in this world. So, like this, anything, there can be so much of confusion there. They need to understand. They can put an effort always. And then when the result comes, they need to accept. By accepting, that doesn’t mean that they go into a disappointment. Accepting is not disappointment or frustration or losing faith or losing happiness, anything. Acceptance is that you simply withdraw to work out a strategy that you put an effort again. You will not lose hope. That type of attitude must be there. Then slowly your mind recedes. It doesn’t go into a brooding and spinning and spinning and spinning with unwanted millions and millions of thoughts that are stressful, disappointing, frustrating; these things must not come at all, all the negativities. Many people, they misunderstand; “If we simply accept it, that is laziness,” one person was arguing with me. “That is totally laziness. We don’t want to do anything.” I told, “When did I say that you don’t have to do anything? Accepting at that moment that result doesn’t mean that you are becoming lazy. You will be lazy if you don’t put an effort again. This point, do you understand?” “Ah yes,” she started thinking. You are lazy only if you don’t put effort again. Simply if you accept the result, you don’t become lazy. You are accepting means so that you become quiet. You don’t go into a brooding, stressful anger, which takes a lot of your mental energy unnecessarily, where you need to remain focused on your next effort. That is why these things are advocated. But you don’t have to give up. You don’t give up. You want to achieve it till the last breath of life. Then again, get into the job to try again.
So, like that, karma yoga has to happen. People have to understand. People want to know “If I am doing like this, if I am thinking like this, if I think good of others, will God bless me to be liberated, will God give me all benefits I need?” So, these types of questions they were asking recently. I told, you see, when your mind is pure, it is an automatic Divine activity. You will get it. This law works like that. No bribing to God. He wants your mind’s purification, then you get it. You be noble. Being noble doesn’t mean that you have to be weak and get beaten up by others all the time. You should learn to defend yourself. If you are going to do a business, you should know how to deal with the situation. You should be shrewd wherever necessary. Being noble doesn’t mean that you get beaten up, you allow others to exploit you. You need to be clever. Cunningness and clever are two different things in my opinion. Being clever is like you defend so that nobody exploits you, nobody troubles you. But cunning is always you want to pickpocket others. That is cunningness.
So, like that you have a right. Like that, people, so much is there to understand about karma yoga. Just by listening to lectures, people don’t understand karma yoga properly. They are unable to adopt, that’s why results may not be coming. Bhakti yoga also I have told, you want to imagine God, the moment you take a name of God, you are imagining the name of God. Because God is beyond all names. You want to imagine a particular figure of God. You are imagining God. That’s no problem. The moment you imagine, you have to focus on that imagination. Do not try to look or belittle other formations. Do not try to waste your time by trying to find fault with others. You just carry on with whatever you believe, that’s it. That type of bhakti yoga is needed. You don’t have to belittle any other. You believe God in one name. You don’t have to condemn other names. Everybody has a right to take in their way they want to take because God is beyond all these things. It is the space. So, like that you have to understand the essence of bhakti marga also. Bhakti marga means you imagine that God is a personality, that He will give you the fruit if you chant it mechanically, and you don’t bother concentrating on the chant and your mind is going elsewhere – then it will not be fruitful.
So, like that, any path, if it is understood properly and executed, means it is done as an exercise properly, then it will be fruitful. Then it will take you towards that truth. First it will make you the single pointedness of the mind. Then by the grace of the same Divinity that idea will also be removed. And you will be able to merge with the Divinity that is oneness. You will be able to realize your real Self, will be possible. But you have to understand the right technique and follow. Simply for sake of finding something that is easier, you might end up not doing it properly. That’s important.
Question: Thank You, Baba. Baba, people commonly experience that if they’re in Babaji’s physical presence, their thoughts reduce and their mind becomes quieter without any effort on their path. Is that real? And if it is, is it a long-term effect or is it just temporary like a tranquilizer?
Babaji Maharaj: It is not a long-term effect and it is not like a definition type of thing, “Yeah, this is how it will happen.” It depends on the faith and devotion. If you had developed a faith and devotion naturally, then you might feel the presence, such vibrations, because the vibrations are always there. Whether Baba is physically present or not, everywhere it is there. Simply in that name, you need to have faith and devotion. So, then you feel in the physical presence, meditation coming. Now you have to raise that level of faith and devotion. Slowly try to see everywhere, in everything, even in the absence of Baba’s physical presence also, then you rise to the next level of devotion. Then you will start feeling that vibration everywhere, anywhere; in the name of Baba itself it will come. For that you don’t need Baba’s physical body. What you need is your visualization effects. So, your imagination has to grow that it is there everywhere. So, then you will start feeling, that’s how things will happen. But it’s not limited that only when you sit physically with Baba, only those vibrations will be coming and nowhere else it will come; there is no such definition. It is simply your faith and devotion. You develop this more, further. You go to the next class, next class, then you will feel Baba’s presence everywhere. Look for me in your heart, look for me in your mind’s thoughts everywhere, all the time. So, then I am there for you everywhere.
Question: Thank You, Baba. Is the mind being quiet the same as it being concentrated?
Babaji Maharaj: Somewhat; it can be concentrated in doing something. So, not always if it is concentrated that it is quiet. Because it may be concentrated on the ball that is being thrown from the other end for a batsman in cricket. So, a concentration is there, but his attention is extrovert, outside for the ball that is being thrown to him. So, like that, example I am giving; simply a concentration itself is not the silence. So, you practice to remain concentrated. In the meditation technique that we teach, what Swamiji gave us, you practice the concentration, not on any particular thing, the mind itself. That is how it will automatically go to itself when you practice that concentration. After the concentration it becomes silent because it is not concentrating on any target, anything other than the mind. The mind itself is infinite. So, that is why no thoughts are generating there. So here, though we talk of concentration, here it is concentrating, concentrating, concentrating, concentrating, then because there is no thought there to concentrate, it becomes quiet. Then it goes to itself.
Question: So, I have a friend who has been on the spiritual path for some years, and he lives in the Middle East where all his friends and family are one religion. And he has taken to some of the tenets of Sanatana Dharma, and has had somewhat of a practice for many years, mostly first consisting of mantra, Gayatri Mantra, and some contemplation. But now he has moved on to wanting to meditate more, and search deeper. So, as we have been discussing, and he has been trying to meditate, he says that a feeling that he has had this past year now is that, the peace that he once felt from his simple practice of mantra, and reflection on the Devas, he is kind of losing that. And he says that now when he meditates… I have gone over with him about how we talk about it’s there and it’s not there, the room is full, and it’s void at the same time… but he’s saying that all he feels now is the void. He says he no longer feels the presence of fullness. He says it’s making him very sad. He feels he’s in a spiritual crisis. He feels only the emptiness. He says, how to feel that fullness again?
Babaji Maharaj: That’s because he had visualized the absolute other than the space. He had some imagination about the absolute, then now he thinks the space as void. So that’s why his mind is experiencing this duality of losing that presence and simply a void. He should understand what he is thinking of void itself is that absoluteness. So, if he once gives up this imagination in mind that the space is simply a void, it itself is the absolute, then his problem will be solved and he will feel the presence. It’s such an amazing existence and presence.
Same Questioner: So, it is there and you just have to work for it, right?
Babaji Maharaj: Work it out. He had misunderstood and he had worked out in a different way by defining it in his own mind. So that’s what is causing disappointment or a dry, any such thing.
Same Questioner: Yeah, melancholy. Thank You, Baba so much.
Question: Pranaam Babaji. The space between the thoughts, are we to understand this as being akasha? And if so, what is the difference between akasha and Brahman?
Babaji Maharaj: It is the same actually. Brahman is the same. For different times, different terminologies have been used. What we are thinking as akasha or space is what is Brahman, because that Brahman is all pervaded one single Self which exists in itself. If this is the truth, no second thing can exist. So akasha cannot exist as a different thing from Brahman.
Question: Pranaam Babaji. So why is it when we sit for meditation, whenever external sounds come they trigger new thoughts?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, initially for the practitioner, it is recommended that you choose such a place where the surroundings are quiet and serene at that time, so that you avoid. Although I understand, living in a city nowadays, it is not an easy thing, the olden lifestyles have gone. Still, you try to find that and try to ignore those sounds and try to make yourself soundproof in a room if possible. Any such methods you have to adopt so that they don’t disturb you; until you achieve total grip over full concentration in your meditation, you have to adopt any such place and such methods. Like some places, ashrams are meant for these things so that it is constructed in a secluded spot. But many places it may not be possible again. So, going to such monasteries or any such places would be helpful. That is the only way that I can think for now.
Question: Pranaam Babaji. Happy New Year Babaji.
Babaji Maharaj: Blessings.
Same Questioner: Babaji, my question is, while chanting; after thirty-three years from diksha from You I have started chanting on a daily basis. So, my question is where should I focus? On lips when I am chanting or here [pointing to space between eyebrows] in my mind? Where?
Babaji Maharaj: You can focus anywhere. But the sound of the chant is infinite. It is within the mind. So, the mind has to focus on that sound effect that is coming in the mind.
Same Questioner: Sound effect. Yes, Babaji. Before sleeping, a thought comes, “Thank You God.” Then I feel like merged, for microsecond or nanosecond, I feel merged with the whole akash or brahmanda; that is one with the God. Like, I don’t think exist, my body doesn’t exist for that minute. So, is it a good thought and can I do it for a longer time if I keep on thinking like this?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, you can try. That can convert as a meditation. That’s what. If you meditate, this is what keeps happening to you naturally. Longer time, you’ll be able to experience. And you can try to… Because you should try whether you can stick to that thought all the time. Because after some time, you might start thinking something else. So, I alert you, be careful.
Question: Namaste Babaji. Babaji, I was practicing your Jangama meditation technique along with self-inquiry. So, when I practice, I’m getting good progress, like peace of mind, stillness of mind and body relaxation, happiness, all those things. But however, the doership remains as it is. So, say someone… I had some recent experience – nearly an hour I have practiced it and I was able to progress, very good progress is there. But suddenly, due to some circumstance, some disturbance, slightly some fear arose. So, however we practice, we progress, the doership for whom this fear is arising, the doership remains. So, whatever practice we do, it is limiting the quietness of the mind. But how to proceed further and go beyond the doership?
Babaji Maharaj: You have to simply continue meditating because mind has gone out of control since time immemorial. It will take more time. It’s not easy; overnight it will not come. So, you must not entertain any such thought, “I am doing, however I am doing, still this duality is coming” –that means you have to do more, simply. One day this duality will go. This “who is experiencing, what is happening?”, both will get dropped. Until then, you have to continue this meditation without keeping on worrying why it is not happening. Because mind’s habits are like that. It should continue. Then one day you will be able to achieve. But do not bother about that. They simply go on doing. Till the last breath of life it is worth it. It can happen even before the body dies also. Have total faith and confidence in yourself and the Divinity. It will come.
Same Questioner: Babaji, I felt, say if I sit one hour or two hours, I am able to sit and progressing is there. I felt, “Like this we keep on sitting and finally the doership still exist. Then what is the point of sitting like this?” Such kind of thoughts, I got it.
Babaji Maharaj: Do not allow such thoughts to come. Because mind is in a rush to happen, “Overnight it has to happen” – it will take a lot of time. People have meditated years and years and then tapas. Now understand these two things: when you are able to keep the mind totally quiet without any thought for one hour, that is the real meditation. And when you are able to do it like eight to ten hours, that is when one is able to do tapas. So, like that several years of tapas has to be done. But without bothering any such thing, continue this meditation. One day you will be able to achieve it. Have this firm faith. Do not entertain any doubts. Because doubts will drag you backwards and don’t give you full throttle thrust to practice this meditation, right? Have faith. It will be all right. It will come again. One day it will definitely come.
Same Questioner: Thank you.
Babaji Maharaj: I bless you.
Question: Namaste Babaji. I have two questions. The first question is on the term ‘ASMR’. Have you heard of it before? It is like a form of meditation that you watch a video. You hear a sound, you just follow it through. You don’t really think of anything else. All you’re doing is focusing on that particular stimuli.
Babaji Maharaj: What is needed here – say, any such sound effect, you have to focus on that. Without thinking anything, your mind has to be on that sound effect that might be reverberating in your mind. Then the mind becomes single pointed. In the end, once you achieve a single-pointedness then you can abandon that sound also so that the mind becomes silent and goes introvert to merge with its real Self.
Same Questioner: The reason why I’ve asked about that particular term was because it made me realize how big meditation is in this world. And how loads of people secretly actually look at meditation as the single most effective way of looking for that ultimate happiness.
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, meditation is for that ultimate happiness because when you achieve silence in the mind, contentment and peace descends. That’s when you enjoy happiness, not until then. As long as craving is there, there is loss of happiness.
Same Questioner: You were speaking about consciousness and the brain earlier on. And my question is, how would you speak to somebody who doesn’t believe in that, who believes that consciousness and brain are unilateral, that the brain creates consciousness and not consciousness comes, and the brain working?
Babaji Maharaj: It is their opinion and not experience. It’s their belief or they want to think like that because they have not experienced the mind in its real form or as the consciousness, as the Self. That’s why they tend to think like that.
Question: Pranaam Babaji. I have a very specific question regarding the instruction that You have given for Jangama dhyana, that is bringing your sight and mind together between the eyebrows. So, I just want to understand; when I meditate, basically, initially the images or the sounds were being created in the mind. And later on, I see the sensations being created by the movement of breath between the eyebrows. And there is again the sensation of “I am meditating,” this awareness of “I’m meditating.” And also, there is this awareness that my entire focus is being concentrated between the eyebrows. So, there is this awareness of presence that I’m doing a certain action. And there is an awareness of “I’m focusing at a certain point.” And there is also an awareness of there are certain images that are created or there are certain sensations that are being created between the eyebrows. So, in either way, whenever we meditate, sometimes it slips into the images and again we pull back. So, exactly where among all these objects should we lay more emphasis on, so that right when we start meditating, our focus immediately goes there instead of running after images, sounds and then coming step by step and later on achieving a little bit of silence in the entire practice?
Babaji Maharaj: All this, instead of noticing so many things, your emphasis must be just to remain concentrated in between eyebrows with the help of eyeballs fixing it there. And thus, your mind also, let it remain there and just watch. You don’t think or analyze any of these things; “What is there, what is not there, what awareness is there, what not awareness is there?” Don’t keep thinking about any such thing. One day when more concentration picks up, slowly this awareness of the body and surroundings will decrease on its own. But for that, your emphasis must be in between eyebrows, watching there. That’s what repeatedly we tell, “Just watch, just watch. Do not think, do not analyze. Any experience that comes, anything that appears to be there you don’t keep thinking repeatedly, just keep watching”. And slowly the meditation will progress as the mind becomes silenced and silenced. It becomes concentrated. That is important.
Same Questioner: But the eyeballs keep twitching here and there continuously as thoughts arise.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, it keeps moving. It moves parallelly. It doesn’t come into one direction easily. It takes some time. So, what you do is, even if you are unable to locate the central in-between eyebrows, no problem, gently close the eyes and start looking the front portion when you close the eyes. Without thinking whether it is black or anything or any thought is there, on its own, slowly it will come towards that central point if you steadily watch. For this you require enormous patience because the eyeballs move and it gives a jerk to the mind also. So, just for that, you keep watching, let it be anywhere. You don’t even think whether it is in the central point or not. Just keep watching. Automatically, it will start coming towards one direction. It will happen in a slow and slow way. Have patience, enormous patience. Then it will happen. Our blessings.
Same Questioner: Thank You. Thank You, Babaji.
Question: Babaji, Namaste. I have three questions, and my first question is that most Masters, they tell of the meditation and awareness and all. But what I think is that they never tell the negative one. What I notice is, they always tell the awareness is also there, when we do the meditation. But I think in meditation, there is also a negative. Because we believe there is no pain, no gain.
Babaji Maharaj: You see, why always positively it is mentioned, no negativity is recommended by all the great Masters, because mind has an imagination. If negativity is emphasized, the mind will pick up only such negativity in its imagination, then it affects the actual practice of the meditation. So, everything needs to be positive. In this world, both are there. Definitely one is important because of the other. If there is pain, the peace becomes more valuable, like that. But here also, the pain is there. You want happiness. That itself is the negativity. Now you have to take the help of a positivity to overcome that pain so that you realize what the truth is, what nirvana is. So that is why it is not told; negatively it is not told anything. Everything is emphasized in positivity. To get rid of the one, you take the better imagination. Both are imaginations, good and bad. But you take the good in this world. Then one day you will rise above these dualities totally.
Same Questioner: My second question is that there are stages of meditation, I mean experience. At one stage or experience, you don’t know you are meditating, you don’t know whether… Yeah, it is more much like awareness, but there is no thoughts at all. But it is like you don’t know whether you are meditating, and even you are meditating or not, you don’t know.
Babaji Maharaj: But awareness of existence is there, right? You remain focused on that. The rest you don’t have to know anything else. Simply that awareness is good enough; that itself is the meditation. That means when your attention is there, that meditation is happening.
Same Questioner: My third question is that the person who is doing a meditation, like one hour, two hours every day, never skip the meditation, due to busy life, suddenly his routine changes, and then jumps into two hour, one hour, jumps into half hour and then is busy again or skips one day meditation, like that. Then the stages before he reaches a certain level, does he have to… He or she just fell to the down level again?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, he would have gone back and he will have to come again all the way. If he loses the practice in the middle like that, he may have to start from square one. It is like snake and ladder. On the ladder you are going up, suddenly you come to the snake and you come down. Essential that every day without fail, a practice must happen. Right?
Question: A wise man said that the closer you are to the Self, the quicker desires get manifested. Those are desires which are beneficial. If I pray to God for a long time with a satvic desire to get fulfilled, why does He ignore me and doesn’t fulfill that desire? For instance, I pray, “I need to be freed from bad company and only connect with good company.” I prayed for a long time, but there is only partial fulfillment.
Babaji Maharaj: In imagination you might be thinking you are close to God, but in reality when the mind goes closer to God, no desires occur at all. It becomes like dumbfound. It gets merged with the Self eventually. That is one thing. Now as a human being, when you have desires, when you pray that such desires to be fulfilled, know that God is looking after you like a mother. His job is not simply to fulfill all the wishes or desires that you express or demand. If God thinks such a desire is not good for you, he may not be fulfilling that desire or the wishes. This is one thing. Like you don’t want the company of bad people; you have to work out. It is you who is going into the company of the bad people and let us not blame God for that one. God has no such doership or the dualities that one is bad, another is good, like that. If you think that you should not be in their companionship, leave it. You just give up such companionship. It must be your effort, purushaartha; that’s what is essential. Then the grace of God also will come to you, descend on you. You get attracted to bad companies and then you tell, “God is not fulfilling.” Like the person was holding the pillar, “This pillar is not leaving me alone, this pillar is not leaving me alone!” The Master said, “You are holding the pillar, man. You give it up and you are free.”
Question: Namaskar Babaji. You said earlier that when we have a problem in life and the problem is solved, we then become happy. Does that make sense?
Babaji Maharaj: Yes.
Same Questioner: Does that mean, is that the only way to achieve happiness is to have problems and solve them and then be happy or are we addicted to this process?
Babaji Maharaj: To be happy there is no need of any problem. Because you don’t have a problem, you don’t need a solution. You are happy. So, if the problem comes, then you have a solution. So, then you are happy. To experience that you don’t have to create a problem unnecessarily, you have to realize without that problem, you are already happy. So, it is simply an addiction as you are telling, that you create a problem and then try to solve the problem and go on playing with this one.
End of Session
