Recorded on 2 August 2025 with worldwide participants
0:00 Intro
0:06 What is the transformation that happened to Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj from when He sat for Tapas as a 14 year old boy?
12:20 What transformation should we see in ourselves as we progress on the path?
25:31 If someone meditates once a day for 1 hour, can a transformation still happen?
29:25 Does meditation help us be more watchful over our emotions?
34:15 How can I be watchful that I am spiritually progressing in my daily life?
40:30 How to be sure that one if on the path of spiritual transformation?
42:37 Is it selfish to want to be rid of difficult times in life?
43:50 Should we influence family members to follow spiritual transformation?
44:52 If one has family responsibilities and does spiritual practices, what changes indicate spiritual transformation and how do our interactions with our family change?
48:22 What is your message to mortals like us who are married with children and engrossed in worldly matters to continue on the spiritual journey?
50:13 I have been meditating for some months, my appetite has reduced considerably however I still have cravings for certain foods.
52:30 I took initiation from my Guru as a child, and he has now left his body – am I being disloyal to my Guruji if I learn from other Masters such as Babaji?
54:21 Meditation will make you single pointed, watchful over your thought and stronger emotionally, this is the transformation you will see on the spiritual path.
56:48 Do people who do wrong get their due punishment?
57:57 Can Babaji describe the word bhava teetham?
59:18 Does it mean we will still get emotions, but that we will know how to manage them?
1:00:22 A Hindu friend in a group doesn’t believe that Lord Rama was ever born on earth – how to respond to this?
1:01:56 I keep trying to practice meditation but after a few days I give it up.
Discourse: In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.236
Transformation on the Path of Spiritual Life
You tube Link: https://youtu.be/vjEaj7nkSi0
Recorded: 02 August 2025
Start of Questions and Answers
Mata Ambaji: Today’s topic is the transformation during the time of your spiritual journey, or transformation on the path of spiritual life. So, Baba, my first question I want to start with Swamiji. The world saw the transformation in our Guru Maharaj. Swamiji was just a fourteen-year-old boy playing with his friends. And when He had that experience, that experience was only experienced by our Guru Maharaj Sri Shivabalayogi. That profound experience, He only experienced. He only saw the Jangama sage, nobody else saw it, nobody else experienced it. In fact, for ages, we believe the story. We believe the story because world saw the transformation in our Guru Maharaj. So, I want to ask You one thing. What is the transformation? Why is it very important on the path of spiritual life?
Babaji Maharaj: Many people might claim they had a vision of God or any such divine experiences. Like, what happened to Swamiji; He was hardly into any spiritual training or spiritual temperament, attitude. But there were some very amazing, inborn qualities. Looking for justice, and also He had that courage to hang on to it. He believed to do or die; while doing we must never abandon, a question of self-respect. So, that type of determination was there. Some might even call it as a stubbornness. Many times, media people also, and Western countries when we have traveled, people have asked me this question.
Swamiji had about eleven more friends with Him playing in the canal bund on the outskirts of His small hamlet, Adivarapupeta, on that afternoon of 7th August in 1949, when Swamiji was known as Satyaraju in His previous ashrama life, a young boy of fourteen-year-old. Suddenly, this experience did happen to Him. When He was trying to squeeze out the juice from a fruit that had fallen from nearby palmyra trees, He had given one-one piece to His friends also, cutting them. I have heard this from Swamiji’s mouth. Then, He heard an Omkara, “Om”, monotonous sound emerging from the fruit, and a dazzling light around the fruit. Then, He saw the fruit taking shape of a Shivalingam, which broke into two pieces as He was watching and it fell on the ground. Then, what He saw was a matted-hair sage, whom He thought to be Jangama deva. In that area, people who adorn the Shivalingam on their neck and also follow the Shavism philosophies, they are known as Jangama devas. That’s what the young boy thought.
When this happened, none of His friends or anybody else hardly would have had been there, had this experience or saw the Jangama deva appearing. They just saw after a while later, young Satyaraju sitting in a lotus posture and locking His hands; He was deeply absorbed into deep meditation. They could not understand; they even thought He might be possessed by a ghost or some spirit something. They tried to wake Him up. They tried to throw mud and beat up with some stones, but He wouldn’t. Only the villagers were brought, they were informed. And then, one of them, who was a bit jealous of Satyaraju developing as a business boy, tried to beat Him up with a stick. When one blow came on His forehead, almost in-between eyebrows, then He opened his eyes. But He was in a dazed, meditative trance. Swamiji used to tell, He saw His relatives, His uncle, etc. were all standing, but in His mind nothing registered; He did not feel interested at all.
Well, the rest is the history and He moved to the graveyard and He continued it for twelve amazing years, meditating for nearly 20 to 22 hours in a stretch. Anybody would wonder whether the mind can stop, can be stopped; many people have asked me this question. When you close the eyes, if you try to keep the mind quiet, silent in between eyebrows even for a moment, you would understand how difficult it is; it appears to be impossible. But the boy did it for 22 hours silently holding on to that one. That was when the Tapas started, twelve long years, gruelling tests came and everything He withstood.
So, now, we come to the point. When people ask, “When nobody else saw, how are you sure that really Satyaraju underwent that experience, the appearance of a Jangama Sage appearing and making Him to sit for Tapas?” I said, “Okay, scientifically we take that nobody else had this experience, nobody else saw a Jangama Deva appearing. But the world got to see a twelve-year Tapas that was performed by an young boy of fourteen-year-old, who was born to a weaver’s family; His skin was black. He was moving around, trying to do business to overcome the poverty, serve His mother and siblings. But this thing happened. The world saw the transformation – that is the important word here.
From a weaver boy He became a great yogi. How? Amazing knowledge and wisdom came out of Him. The technique of meditation He taught people. That was one of the highest methods practiced in ancient Rigvedic era, a silent meditation. In today’s time, very few Masters might know or understand or try to teach this silent meditation. Many people don’t understand, they keep asking, “By silently looking, what are we trying to do, which God we are trying to call? We should be chanting something.” Because mind is used to sound and sight. So, they don’t know beyond that anything, that the mind has to become silent. That’s what precisely Swamiji taught us, everybody, “Silence your mind.” Then the mind goes introvert, automatically becoming aware of the Self. That’s what the message also He gave after twelve years, that “People have forgotten themselves. That is why they are miserable in this world. They need to meditate and know themselves.”
So, this is what the message, first message He gave, and people saw beautiful, glowing beautiful skin, wheatish complexion that came, and His eyes were such intoxicating, His smile was so intoxicating for people. People used to go into bhaava samadhi like anything naturally, genuinely they used to start dancing in ecstasy, spiritual ecstasy; wherever He went, people followed Him. In hundreds and thousands they followed Him. In His presence, simply His presence was enough. So, this transformation people saw.
This is what is very important. After my Tapas, I told one thing, “If you claim anything, you should have achieved something for yourself and you should be able to inspire others in the world. That is the real transformation.” Otherwise, simply you claim “Three days I sat on the mountain top. I sat on the boulder. I got enlightened.” I would say such people, they themselves do not know what enlightenment is. And others who believe also never try to understand what is enlightenment. Well, here I would like to correct one thing, Swamiji emphasized on using Aatma Saakshatkaara, Self-Realization. That is the specific word for Aatma Saakshatkaara. You become aware of yourself as that Aatman. Enlightenment is a common word. You can become enlightened about this world. You are enlightened about a business. Anything you can be enlightened. Though, synonymously, it is used; like for Buddha, “Buddha was an enlightened soul;” for many Self-Realized Masters, this word is used.
Like that a transformation was seen by the world. Millions of people came to see Him. His fingers had joined and it had become like this, locked and joined. It could never become straightened. Because as a fourteen-year-old, He sat locking [His hands]; for hours and hours together He sat like that one. Whoever would have seen Him standing or walking, running like a boy, they would have seen that his legs also did not grow like a big person. Though His body had put up weight, but His hands and legs if anybody had observed, it was like a small young boy’s legs; they did not grow at all. This was the amazing Tapas that He sat; in one posture He sat. Not only in that posture, He held His mind quiet in-between eyebrows. That is how He achieved Self-Realization. And He could teach meditation for mind control. He tried to bring it to every doorstep. He traveled in India, Sri Lanka, America, Europe, everywhere He traveled without any discrimination; means, this is another thing He had achieved. He had become such a great, matured human personality. He had very highly held human values. “All are equal. All religions are equal,” He used to say. “They are all equally honorable. You don’t have to commit to any particular faith to do meditation.” Anybody who came, He initiated.
So, this type of amazing transformation – you can go on and on talking about Him. It’s such a wonderful thing. This transformation is necessary. Then only you can understand, “Yes, indeed some experience had happened to young Satyaraju.” And He performed; due to that experience He felt inspired and He was drawn to the Tapas. He did and He achieved. When He spoke to us, such wonderful knowledge and wisdom came about mind, consciousness; He used to talk to me, He used to answer our questions. He guided us into eventual Tapas.
Mata Ambaji: I was so fortunate to get the darshan of Sri Shivabalayogi, Guru Maharaj. Baba, like you said, that Swamiji, He was only fourteen-year-old, He had a very basic academic education; on a basic level He went to school and got Himself academically educated. But at the same time, it doesn’t matter how educated He was. Because when He appeared to the world as Satyaraju, the knowledge and the wisdom He acquired from within during His Tapas time was not equal to this, any of this worldly wisdom, any of this worldly knowledge.
So, yes, we can see that a small village boy had appeared and got the caliber to become a God Himself. He became God to so many. So, Baba, I saw the transformation in You also. I was so fortunate to witness that You as a young Seenu Baba; I saw you first when You were just in your late twenties. And then I have seen You in your thirties and I saw You going through your Tapas. And it’s just amazing to watch You over the time. You were always very gentle, very caring, very loving, very affectionate and very genuinely devoted to Your Master. You were just very extraordinary from the beginning. But I saw the transformation after Your Tapas, the knowledge and wisdom You share today to the world is also very amazing. This awareness which You share, which You achieved and You are sharing all over the world is just one of the unique, one of the very, very unique methods.
So, Baba, my question is that when we follow, means even on to the very basic – You two are great Tapaswins – but my question is when somebody like me who is a sadhak, what should be the transformation I should watch in myself and how I can see that the spiritual life is progressing, I am progressing as a soul on this path?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, you are very right. Just a sight of Swamiji attracted us, inspired us to give up a beautiful home. We were comfortable at home. Family, siblings, parents, everybody was wonderful. But when we saw Swamiji, the divine experience that happened, that definitely changed us. We decided, “This is the Guru we have been waiting for.” Because since young age, I always used to pray after reading Adi Shankara’s Bhaja Govindam, that “When death happens to the body, none of your worldly, knowledge, wealth, power can come to your rescue.” When death comes, it won’t ask, “Are you the president of a big country? Are you the emperor of an empire? Are you what?” It won’t ask. “It is time. Let’s go, Shaolin, let’s go home,” type of things. When death comes, it happens to anybody. It has no discrimination.
So, this I became obsessed and I used to pray, “O Lord, please bless me to have a Guru, the one who would have achieved Self-Realization, who would have liberated Himself and who can lead me to liberation, who has the ability to lead me to liberation.” So, that’s what I saw in Swamiji. When we saw Him, then I told my mother, “I have found Him. You have looked after me, mother, you bless me now. It’s time, I have to go to Him.” We never looked back. We never thought anything. I never bothered. We came out of home penniless. I never bothered whether I will be able to get one time meal or not, whether I will be able to travel again. “If I don’t have the money, what will I do? If I don’t get a place, what will I do? Who will look after me when I grow up?” These thoughts never came. Why I am telling this; recently, I happened to meet few youths. They are so much worried about their future. They are unable to take a strong step. They don’t want to marry. They want to go on the spiritual path, but they are scared. Swamiji used to tell, “Bhakti Marga is not for those who are scared. It requires enormous courage. Do not look back. Like that type of thing, you have to jump into it.”
When we came to Ashram, we never thought, we never bothered about our food, our comfort, anything we never bothered. Simply, we loved Swamiji. That’s why I came. For sake of love. That’s what I told my mother. “What I know is I have fallen in love with Him. I don’t know what Swamiji is. I don’t know. I haven’t seen His Tapas.” Only afterwards we came to know actually when we spoke to Him, when He gave the knowledge and wisdom, the transformation – such a transformation happened in us. To give up such a home. It’s like the attraction, attachment to the family or the society, world is like that. You might have heard when the rocket has to go out of earth’s atmosphere, it needs the thrust power. It has to go in a particular angle to go out. Otherwise, it is not possible for anything to go out of earth’s atmosphere. The gravitational pull is so strong. So, in the same way, attraction to the world, attraction to family life, attraction to comforts that we would have seen are so strong, unless you have a strong power in the opposite… that was Swamiji Shivabalayogi.
He just used to have only a loin cloth, a kaupin, but that glow when He used to sit. I used to wonder, “What is it that this yogi has achieved that He appears so contented? So, smiling and so composed and comfortable, He doesn’t seem to be agitated at all.” So that attracted us, and we gave up and we came; we have never looked back. It is now more than fifty years that we came to the Ashram. But that was His attraction at His lotus feet. He trained us. He helped us. He gave us the knowledge and wisdom. We saw that one. He trained how to look after the body, He said. It is essential. “Because if the body is there, you can serve people. You can serve your Master,” Swamiji used to tell. “When I was very young, I very adamantly went into Tapas. Nobody knew, had the knowledge of this thing. That’s why my body became like this, but you don’t have to. You have to take care.”
That’s when finally, when He appeared – after He dropped His physical body, in Dehradun, when I was doing the aarathi singing, He emerged out of the photo. That’s what the experience I saw. It was as physical as you all see me sitting. Holding my hand, He took me to the room behind. And only a cot was there, made me to sit there. And touching in-between eyebrows, He asked me to keep watching in-between eyebrows. “You must do this one. And you must come out as a yogi or your dead body must come out.” That was the thing He taught – determination. “It must be a question of self-respect. Never abandon and run away. They are cowards,” He used to say.
Even any one time during our ashram life at His lotus feet, life used to be very tough and people used to be very jealous, politics, this, that happened. One day I went out for some time and then Swamiji’s name and His form attracted me. I came back. I couldn’t stay for long. I came back. Swamiji said, “I know that you have not done anything wrong, but why did you give up your place and went away? This is the wrong thing. Somebody else will come and hold your place, then you won’t be able to come to me again. Come what may be, you must not look back, must not go back.” That was the way He taught us, “Do or die.” “Come out as a yogi or let your dead body come, you will have respect.” It’s like that. “It’s like dying in the battlefield,” He used to say. So, that was how the transformation came.
Another thing. If you meditate genuinely, understanding the technology, your mind will become purified. Now, mind, everybody knows they have a mind. They understand, but they know the mind based on thoughts and visions only. They tell “My mind wants to do this. My mind wants to go there. I want to do.” But nobody has seen the mind as it is in the naked eyes, what the mind is. It is made up of consciousness and energy. This consciousness gets corrupted when selfish narrow-minded thoughts keep coming to the mind. So, usually people of this world operate based on their selfish needs with a narrow-mindedness, with a double standard what you call. This must be wiped out. If you are genuinely meditating this will become purified. You will be able to see a larger cause. You will not be selfish and narrow-minded anymore. You will always try to do if it is beneficial for a larger cause.
You see, if we try to defend our ashram… See, Dehradun, we are living, anybody else comes and wants to occupy, take away, we will fight it out, we will defend because that is established by our Guru for a larger cause. Anybody can come enter and sit into meditation. Nobody will stop or ask you, “Are you rich or poor? You cannot come.” There is no such thing. Swamiji used to say “Ashram is for everyone.” Larger cause. Like that you will see. If it was my personal property, I can give it to anybody who wants, nobody bothers. I can get another one. But if it is a larger cause, that is like a soldier fights for his country. Because it is a larger cause, he needs to see that the culture, character prevails; people of that place should be able to live in peace. People should be able to sit into meditation peacefully. If every day there are fights and shouts and this happens, everybody will be scared and run away.
That is what we have to look after. That is what is the transformation needed to come in a human being. If genuinely one has meditated, he would think of a larger cause. He would be purified. He will not be selfish and narrow-minded. He will talk transparently the truth. His agitations would decrease. He will experience more peace. If these are happening, then only that person is genuinely meditating. If there is no transformation, he is still into selfishness only, bothers only about his selfish interest, don’t bother anything else. We never asked Swamiji to give us any specialty. Just like any other person serving Him, we are also serving Him. That is all. Whatever work was given, we used to do. Whether it was to look after a mentally challenged boy, to look after children of His devotees, look after the ashram, not that always we could travel with Him physically. We just did it as if we were looking after Swamiji only. That type of maturity must happen. Then only really you were meditating. Otherwise, you might be sitting for one hour or eight hours, forty years. If no transformation happens, you behave in a selfish way, in an arrogant way. You don’t even consider your Guru‘s property. Then what is the use of such a meditation? What did you do all these years? You are not meditating, you are doing something else. This is my opinion.
Mata Ambaji: So, Baba, what You said is very correct. Like in Bhagavad Gita, it says that onto the path of the spiritual life, if a person is still behaving according to their tendencies, there is no progress, there is no transformation. So, it is amazing that if someone is meditating and the meditation is a process which purifies our mind, and automatically we will start thinking about the larger cause, and our narrow-minded, selfish motives will automatically get aside. We will not go into that. Life will become example for others. So, does this only happen when someone is meditating for longer hours, or if someone only meditates once a day for one hour, transformation can still happen?
Babaji Maharaj: Even once a day for one hour if a person sits, and in that one hour, understanding the technique, if he can keep the mind quiet and just watching, then such an amazing purification can happen. And they start thinking of a larger cause, they will realize. You remember, in the early days of my Tapas, and after Tapas finishing also, I gave this example of the consciousness expanding. In the town, if you are asked “Where are you from”, you will mention your house number and street name. When you go out of the town, you tell your town’s name. If you go out of the state, you will tell “I am from Uttarakhand, I am from Karnataka, I am from UP.” Now, if you go out of the country to some other country, you won’t be mentioning your state or your street or house number, you will tell “I am from India.”
See, the consciousness expanded from a small place of your house, now you belong to a large area of the country. Say you get a chance to go out of this planet to some other place. You meet somebody in the space, like our own astronaut went to space, or you go to some other planet. You meet somebody from planet Earth, then that oneness, “O, we are all from planet Earth; are you also from planet Earth?” You feel that oneness. From a small place, now your consciousness has expanded, you belong to a whole world. The day that you realize that you belong to the whole space. Like Adi Shankara, He was going for a bath in the Ganga with His disciples. It is said that the Divine came as an untouchable person with a country-made alcohol. His disciple said, “Hey, give way!” Then He said, “In this Brahmanda only, me and you all live.” Means space is absolute, you see? Space is simply all-pervaded. “In that space only” – everybody knows that space is everywhere. Galaxies, space, galaxies, space, space is never ending. Can anybody measure the space? Only the space can measure the space. He said “In this space, in this Brahmanda, you also live and I also live. If there is any place beyond Brahmanda, show me. I will go away.” Adi Shankara is astonished. He said, “This is not an ordinary person who has this knowledge awareness of the all-pervadedness of the Brahman.” He prostrates to that person; “You are equivalent to my Guru.” Then that person disappears, the story says. It was Lord Vishwanatha who had come. So like that the consciousness expands if you really meditate. That is my experience.
Mata Ambaji: Baba, does meditation help to keep watch over our emotions? Because according to our emotions, most of the time, our thoughts are based on our emotional personality, means whatever the emotions we carry in our mind or in our heart. So sometimes, unknown to us, we just get carried away by our emotions. So, how we can be more watchful that we should not get carried away by our love, anger, hatred and be more watchful, and how this can be transformative in my life?
Babaji Maharaj: It’s very true and important. Though I have told emotions can be your weakness, if emotions are turned, channelized into a positive single-pointed towards God, that can become your strength. But however, I have seen in the youth very often they are emotional, they are unable to remain focused into single-pointedly one thing. One thing means like our main focus is Swamiji and His mission. When we came fifty years ago, that was it. Even today, our emotion towards Swamiji, our focus towards Swamiji is the same. I saw some people, they needed some other anchor; some other anchor I am mentioning, repeating. When Swamiji dropped His physical body, they tried to look for here and there. They were bewildered, they were missing something. Well, though when Swamiji was physically was with us, it was like God who lived with us. When He dropped His body, for a while it was like that, but we realized, we knew, He had taught us that He is all-pervaded, He is in every heart, in everything, as everything. We could not forget Him, we could pray to him. Only Swamiji was our one and only Guru. There was no need for any other Guru or any other God, anything.
It continued. It simply continued. Fifty years ago, we came to Swamiji. In the middle, after nearly twenty years, Swamiji dropped His body. That was only a simple incident when the body disappeared, but Swamiji did not disappear. He was always with us; that continued. Even today, it is continuing – our love to Swamiji, our understanding of Swamiji, our anchor is Swamiji. If we work, we will work only for Swamiji. Swamiji’s mission is our work. Nothing else is there. Wherever we are, whether we are in America, we are in India, in His ashram, or in the forest, we take only Shivabalayogi, “Om Shivaya Shivabalayogendraya Parabrahmanaya.” Like that, single-pointedness is necessary. So, that was how emotions should not be allowed to become our weakness. It should not. It’s not a marketing product, “Today we are with this, tomorrow we will go there. We come to stay with one Guru for a few years. And then we feel the spiritual fatigue and we run away to something else.” So, they were never dedicated at all that means. They just came with a personal agenda. When that personal agenda did not get fulfilled, they went away. If they have come with one agenda, “This is my Guru. And I need only Self-Realization, nothing else,” one wouldn’t have looked back at all.
That is very necessary. Emotions should be your strong point; you must not get carried away by emotions. You must apply intelligence, have better understanding. Even if the Guru is going to cut us into pieces, we will not give up our Guru, we will love Him more. Every time Swamiji scolded, I used to think in our mind, “Now You have scolded me, I will love You more. I challenge that You cannot make me, my Guru, that I will not love You. I will always love You.” Like that, we took it as a challenge and we loved it. So, like that it should be single-pointed into one direction. Do not look back. Like you go to academic study, until you don’t achieve the goal… That’s what Swami Vivekananda said, “Arise and awake and stop not till the goal is reached.”
Mata Ambaji: So, Baba, like You said you have to be single pointedly devoted to your Guru. And you should not let your emotions become your weakness and your emotions should be your strength. And the transformation is that you see yourself in everything and you embrace everything as you. So, there should not be any selfishness or narrow mindedness. So, Baba, with this how I can be watchful that I am spiritually also progressing, there is an inner transformation but my transformation is visible in my everyday day-to-day life, means how I should be more watchful?
Babaji Maharaj: If your mind is clear, it is not too preoccupied with its own imaginations, then you will be able to be aware of your behavior and your thinking, what type of thoughts are coming. Immediately you will be able to notice, “This is not right. I need to have this larger cause. This is the Mission work that we have to do.” So, then you will decide “Till the last breath of life” you will not give up. Not to flatter you in front of so many others who are sitting here in this session. Recently, they were asking me, some people in Mysore asked me about you, “When did Ambaji come to You?” I said “Nearly thirty-five years. She left her home and she has been with me traveling with me all the time and she has taken to sannyas. She has never looked back. She has seen a tough life.” They were surprised and they appreciated, “It is really wonderful that thirty-five years she has not looked back. She has not got attracted to the world and she came for You Babaji. She has accepted you as a Guru and she has accepted Swamiji as a Guru. She has stayed in the Mission.” They appreciated. I am not saying anything. We have seen the life.
Now that is what it is. Thirty-five years is not an ordinary thing. People are unable to stay even for five years, and they get attracted to the world. Because they come with their own imagination, “This is how I will behave, and everybody should listen to me.” Like that, whoever came, they went away. So, what I am trying to tell is for educational purpose. I am not talking against any particular person or group of people. Not commenting. Only for educational purpose, giving an example that is in front of us – for such long years. Ashram is a tough life to give up the world and remain in the Mission, in the ashram. Just trying to do Swamiji’s work and propagating meditation and looking after the ashram work. It takes a lot of time and energy and mental stamina. It requires mental stamina, not only physical stamina. We talk of stamina for a marathon runner; this is like a marathon runner. In the ashram life one needs to have the mental stamina. Either you have fallen in love with the Guru genuinely that you don’t look back. So, that’s what.
Many others might be there, definitely. There are. In our mission also there are. We have seen in here, in this Trust, in this Bangalore ashram also, in Swamiji’s mission also. In our own Mission we are seeing for the last twenty-five years who have stood by us, who have travelled with us, helping us in our Mission work, without ever looking back. They are all becoming old, but they don’t show any ageing process at all. They behave like they are very young and they are ready waiting for me in the morning 4:30, waiting with my tea, Fenugreek tea, they will be waiting for me. Babaji comes and they are ready to make it. Means, that is the dedication, never to look back.
This comes if the mind, consciousness is pure. That’s what we talk of the mind becoming purified through practice of meditation. In meditation, when you are silencing the mind all the correct thoughts will get dissolved. It will vanish. Then the attention turns to itself. You become aware of yourself as that infinite form. And then when you think, apply the brain with that purified consciousness, then you will always think of a larger cause. Your selfishness will automatically disappear. You won’t be able; you won’t have time to think about you. You cannot even afford to feel sorry for yourself. You will become so busy working for the Guru‘s mission.
That is the purification that has to happen. It can happen through devotional path, through meditation, dhyana yoga, through karma yoga, all it can happen if techniques are adopted. If acceptance is there at the result. We just work for the Guru without expecting any certificate, any criticism, any praise – anything that comes, we will be working. You praise me, you will see me working. You criticize me, you will see me working. We won’t give up the working. That is the purification of the mind that happens when you are really devoted.
Question: How to be sure that one is on the path of spiritual transformation. How to be sure that we are on the correct path?
Babaji Maharaj: So, this is what we have been talking. If you are on the right path, if you are in the right, technically meditating, mental agitations all decrease. For every small thing you will not feel hurt. That means you are becoming mature. A small issue will not be an issue. In the society, you will get to see some people get affected; even for a small issue they become so seriously agitated and talk, “O not this, no, not this, don’t do” When you are mature, when you go on meditating on the spiritual path, you will brush aside, “It’s okay, it doesn’t make any difference that person has commented on me. That’s it. We don’t have time to attend to this thing. We have much more precious things to do, because life is short. This physical body is available.” That’s what Krishna tells, “Before death shall claim thee, Arjuna, go to the knowers of truth. Sitting at Their lotus feet, seeking Their permission, ask intelligent questions, and as advocated, given upadesha by such knowers of the truth, adopting such methods, you achieve the truth to yourself.”
Like that, you will mature. You will be more purified. You will be able to consider about others also. You will not feel offended quickly. You will say, “It’s okay, no problem. It’s only a childish nature; that person is childish. That is all. What to say? They are not spiritually grown up. They need to grow a little more. If you are not grown, if you are going to stay in 1994 only, what can we do? We have come to 2025.” Means mind has evolved. That’s what needs to be.
Question: Thank You, Baba. If one started spiritual transformation in order to be rid of difficult times in life, is that selfish?
Babaji Maharaj: It is not selfish. You know, you went to have academic education to the school and college, was its selfishness? So, when you practice these spiritual exercises, you are trying to become more mature. When you are mature, you will be able to help others in a much more mature way. You will be able to hold a high office type, what it means. See, everybody cannot become the leader, topmost position. Only those who are capable of taking everybody together, who are able to consider about everyone. So, that maturity will come in you. So, you are not selfish when you practice spiritual truths in the right sense. When you become more mature, you will be able to help others. You will be able to influence others. “This is how you need to be a mature person, come on. Learn to grow up. Don’t be so selfish. Small issues should not become an issue.”
Question: Thank You, Babaji. Should we influence family members to follow spiritual transformation?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah anybody who is ready to listen to you, they are blessed. It’s another thing if they are not ready to listen to you, then you keep going. You try to influence. Tell them. Whoever comes in front of you, whether it is family member or a stranger, you try to create an awareness, “This is what you have to be. This is not proper what you are behaving,” even if they are family members. Slowly, in a diplomatic way, you can tell them, “You are not behaving properly. You need to become more mature. You undertake these spiritual exercises.” In spite of that if they don’t listen, you cannot help. But you should try always.
Question: Thank You, Babaji. Babaji, if one has family responsibilities and does spiritual practices, what changes indicate spiritual transformation and how do our interactions with our family change?
Babaji Maharaj: Always you will see situation, surroundings in the society, world can be the same. But you will see you would have become better matured. Earlier, for which you would become stressed out, you would lose your temper and become angry, now you will have more patience. You will be able to consider about others. You will not lose your peace easily. Your agitations will be very less. Issues will not be an issue. At the most you will see and smile at them; “What a pity with these people.” That’s what Swamiji used to tell when somebody complained, “You see that person, that my this and that is not behaving properly.” “See, why do you worry so much?” Swamiji used to say. “Think that that is all they can behave. It is their level. You grow up. If you grow up, you will leave them behind.”
Like that, if we undertake spiritual exercises, you will grow mentally. You will see that within you the stress is not there anymore. You are able to forgive. Just like you would forgive your small child, “O, it’s only a child. It doesn’t know.” Like that, for many places. That is an ability, gradually you will have to grow. It’s not easy, I tell. That’s what, you know, since childhood when we read about Jesus Christ while being crucified, He said in the end, “For they know not what they are doing, forgive them my Lord.” What else one could one torture if they are finishing your physical body; you know very well this body is going to die. And those people are torturing, they are crucifying you. At that hour of pain, agony or stress or anything, instead of getting agitated, composed at peace, He prayed to God, “Forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” They know not that they are going to lose, such a great yogi. They won’t be able to listen to the teachings of such a great yogi. So, this had such an impact on us. How forgiving this personality is; wonderful, He is not an ordinary person. Anybody who can forgive like that is not an ordinary person.
Defending a larger cause is different. Many times people misunderstand, “Why did you defend Your Ashram?” That is my Guru’s Ashram. If it was mine, I can give. You take this thermos if you want. I can give up. But it is Guru’s Ashram. I am only a soldier. I don’t have a right to give it to somebody else. I have to defend because people need to come there, sit for meditation peacefully. That is a different thing. But in our consciousness, we have forgiven those people who try to torment us, who try to harass us, who try to trouble us, who try to trouble the property of my Guru. We don’t have anything against anyone. We are at peace. This is what we are trying to say for educational purpose.
Question: Thank You Babaji. Babaji, what is Your message to mortals like us who are married with children and engrossed in worldly matters to continue on the spiritual journey?
Babaji Maharaj: One thing, patience is the real virtue. Learn to exercise patience at every point of your life. And everyday you have twenty-four hours. You might have a lot of family responsibilities, children are there. Whoever it is, you have to work. But in twenty-four hours, if you can take out just one hour to practice this meditation, just watching in between eyebrows. Swamiji used to tell, my Guru, “You have twenty-three hours to earn a livelihood to look after your responsibilities, and to have a recreation, to rest and sleep, everything. Twenty-three hours is plenty. Just you take out one hour and practice meditation and see the transformation happening in you. It will make you so mature. You will not feel stressed out at all. You will feel below dignity to feel stressed out. “Why should I feel stressed out? This world is not that big that it can create headache to me.” If you meditate, you become aware of yourself as that immortal soul, that infinity. You are much more bigger than the world.” When you realize this, you will have that peace. You will behave in a much more matured way that we have been discussing in this question and answer session. So, that is my advice. Take up spiritual path, practice meditation.
Question: Thank You, Baba. I have been meditating for some months. My appetite has reduced considerably even when I do physical workout. However, I still experience cravings for certain foods. Could Baba please guide me on this.
Babaji Maharaj: Continue the meditation. We teach the mantras ‘dedication, discipline and patience’. You have to dedicate yourself without giving up. Regularly practice meditation, understanding the technique that you just watch in between eyebrows. Understand this point. Mind has two aspects. It can watch. It can think. While thinking, if it has lost its control, it has become preoccupied with its own imagination. Now you bring it back to the watching point. When it is watching, it doesn’t think. Any thoughts or visions appearing, it will not analyze. Don’t get involved with the thoughts. Let it happen. It will all disappear. It will dissolve. Like that, you practice, dedicatedly you practice. That is very necessary. So, that’s what can see you through. One day it will come.
Discipline is, without fail every day at the particular time, practice. Practice, practice is the mantra which can make you perfect.
Now finally, you need to have patience. Overnight, the mind will not come under control. It has gone out of control since time immemorial. So many lives would have passed by. It has absorbed imprints which has become attitude. We call it acquired habits of the mind. To get rid of all of them, to purify them, it will take time. So, have patience while dealing with this. Mind is the most infinite thing. You cannot tie it with a rope or a chain. Only the mind has to understand that it has to stop. That is what is watching in-between eyebrows. Then you will definitely achieve.
Question: Thank You, Baba. I took initiation from my Guru when I was a child. My Guruji has left His body. But His ashram is still there. And I am in touch with the Swamis there. But I sometimes feel guilty about learning from other Masters such as You. Am I being disloyal to my Guruji?
Babaji Maharaj: One advice I would like to give. With whomever you have come in contact, try to see your Master in them. When you come to me also, you don’t have to see Babaji as teaching you. Try to see your own Guru trying to teach you like this. Consider that your own Guru has brought you to me to have a better understanding. Because our lineage is very… a unique Master, our Guru was. He used to say “We initiate as a friend.” He never claimed Himself to be a Guru. We don’t claim we are the only Guru. We don’t bind students. You can consider me as a friend and take guidance and practice this. Practice whatever your Guru had initiated. Then you achieve. I will always help you as a friend. You don’t bother about considering me as a Guru. No need at all. Then you will feel better perhaps. You will have that one Guru as yours. No need to feel guilty. Go ahead and do sadhana. You will achieve. Your Guru will bless you. We pray for that.
Mata Ambaji: Baba, I just want to repeat what You said today for my own understanding. Baba, what I understood, the meditation, the transformation I understood by Your answers, that the meditation will make you single-pointed. It will take away your selfishness. If you meditate and you are following the right technique of the meditation given by your Guru, you will not be emotionally fragile or you will be more watchful over your thoughts, and your thoughts which becomes your action, you will be always watchful over those and you will be more single-pointedly determined in whatever task you take. So, am I understanding clearly, Baba, this is what you wanted to convey, that this is the transformation if I see in myself, I can say that I am progressing?
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, this is what I would advise, my opinion also. This is how you will be aware of you in a better way, always. You know the old saying – a word that comes out, it is like a bullet that comes out of a revolver or a pistol. Once it has come out, it won’t come back. So, we need to be careful before pressing the trigger. Means, before talking something, we need to be careful. We become more mature, then whatever we talk it will be in the interest of a larger cause and our tone also will be not to hurt anybody. We will be in such a friendly way talking. This will be possible, exercise more patience – for anybody. So, that will definitely come. So, how you can see a transformation in you, anybody who is practicing, you can be aware. You will be able to become more aware of your behavior structure when you meditate. You will be able to reason out and think. Thus, gradually you will grow and you will become more mature; changes will come in anybody. That must come. If that doesn’t come, they are not meditating properly.
Question: Pranaam Babaji. Thank You, Babaji for giving Your guidance. Like You said, I agree that we should forgive everybody who has wronged us. The most ideal example is Jesus Christ Himself that He forgave those people. But then I was thinking that, “Okay, as a soul, I am like on a mature level, I am forgiving,” let’s say. It is my journey. I don’t want to fall in the loop of karma. But then do the people who wronged us, do they get due punishment or whatever they should get for that?
Babaji Maharaj: They will get their punishment. They will get their punishment. Don’t worry. Everybody will have to undergo their karma. Nobody can escape; this is guaranteed. But if you keep thinking of that all the time, your mind also will become corrupted. Life is short. There is so much that you have to do; purify your mind. And their karma will be taken care. It will take care of itself. Don’t have to worry.
Question: Pranaams Babaji. Babaji, it’s very beautiful to see you in Bangalore Ashram. It’s such a good background. Babaji, I wanted to ask about the topic of emotions. Can Babaji describe this word, bhaava theetam?
Babaji Maharaj: Bhaava theetam means when you would have transcended all emotions, means you will not become a victim of any of your own emotions. You would have overcome that. You will be able to see the ground reality of the situation. Simply you will not become emotional. And you will accept that reality; that acceptance will come. Things may not happen always according to our expectations. But we don’t have to lose our emotions. We don’t have to become emotional. “It’s okay. It has not happened. No problem.” Like that you would become more mature. This will happen. That is what is known as bhaava theetam, transcending all emotions. So, when you practice meditation strongly and regularly, you will be able to overcome all emotions and transcend them.
Same Questioner: Babaji, does that also mean that as we will get emotions, it’s just that we will be able to manage them? The state is not to not feel anything at all?
Babaji Maharaj: Even if the emotions are there, you will be able to manage it in a better way. You see, sometimes, sometimes an annoyance might happen. It’s no problem. But very quickly, you will be able to control yourself. Because annoyance also is like a weapon. Sometimes, to deal with certain people, you may need to do some hissing noise. Not always you get subdued by others. Not necessary. That much only you will use and then you will withdraw. So that will be there – maturity. You will be under your control. You will just use it a little bit that is needed and then keep it back. Just have one scoop of ice cream and then enough. Make payment and move ahead.
Question: Babaji, three ladies, we do Ashtavakra paath. Babaji, last time, one of my friends who explains everything, what we did in Ashtavakra paath, she told us, she didn’t believe that Lord Rama was born, was ever born on earth. And I got very hurt and I got offended by this, her belief; she is a Hindu. And she explains Ashtavakra paath, and she says she doesn’t believe that Lord Rama was born on earth. So, I want to answer that in the next session, something like that.
Babaji Maharaj: Be firm what you believe, what you are is more important than what others think about you. When you are following a path, you need to have faith in your God, in your Guru. Don’t become a victim of anybody else’s comments. Let them talk anything, nobody should be able to brainwash you. That is your mental strength; it should be like that. Just brush aside, though if they talk too much nonsense, discard their company. Tell them “You please look after your way, I don’t need you. Leave me alone into my path. You are not a good friend if you keep this.” People try to brainwash and criticize you unnecessarily. Tell them to leave the place politely. Ask them to leave and you just follow your path.
Question: Pranaam Babaji. Babaji, I have heard somewhere, if a Guru blesses you, then you follow the right path. I seek your blessings so I can make a daily routine to do meditation. Since longer time I tried, but after three or four days it goes down. This thing is happening again and again, I tried.
Babaji Maharaj: You must follow what the Guru says, upadesha. Sincerely, whatever the Guru says, you have to do the sadhana like that, without giving up anything, like a disciplined person. You mean business. It’s like a commander issuing a command. The Guru says, “This is how you have to meditate.” So, that is how if you meditate, the fruits will definitely come. It will not go down and the Guru‘s grace will also work. Your effort also is very important, along with what the Guru says. Then the Guru‘s grace will descend; you will receive the blessings, you will be able to achieve. Don’t give up. Regularly practice, right? OK.
End of Questions and Answers
Conclusion:
Babaji Maharaj: Now, we will disappear. Thank you so much for asking some beautiful questions.
Mata Ambaji: Babaji, thank You so much for allowing me to ask these questions, and thank You for Your beautiful answers.
Babaji Maharaj: So, wonderful, we’ll just go to the gallery one time to say bye-bye to everyone.
End of Session
