Recorded on 14 March 2026 with worldwide participants

0:00 Intro
0:29 The story of Leela from the Yoga Vasistha
9:51 The story of the 10 sons from the Yoga Vasistha
21:46 “When the tree dies, the seed doesn’t die, but when the seed dies, the tree perishes with it.”
29:23 Why does this creation idea have to exist?
32:00 The story of the man with many hands beating himself in the dense forest.
39:27 Apprehension about facing the thousands of thoughts in meditation.
43:04 Does the resolution power to achieve Self Realisation have to be finally dropped before achieving it?
45:57 If I sit for 1 hour meditation and there are constantly thoughts in the mind, is that time wasted?
46:50 Is it possible to overcome negative choices, even after repeated failures?
48:35 If unable to sit upright due to a broken leg, how to avoid falling asleep?
50:17 I dream of previous lives, different characters – why does the monkey mind play these games?
52:24 How to overcome bodily discomfort in meditation.
53:52 Breathing suddenly stops during meditation.
56:19 How to ensure the mind stays calm for 1 hour and beyond that?

Yoga Vasistha – Creation Pt2 | In Quest of Truth – Babaji Q&A, No. 266

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/nAXvVt2y-T0

Recorded on 14 March 2026 with worldwide participants

Question:  This time we are going for the ‘Creation’, the chapter ‘Creation’. This time, I would like to go through the few stories that are in that chapter, where Vasistha tells to Shri Rama to try to teach about the mind, imagination power, and creativity and all of this. So, the first story is Lila’s story; her husband is a king and she is afraid of the impermanence of the body that sometime the husband would die and she will be separated from him. So, finally, she intensively prays to Saraswati, the goddess, to be able to be with him always. So, when he dies, Saraswati gives her an experience of going to so many realities and worlds and she is able to see her husband in another reality where he is already ruling the kingdom and having a wife. That wife is also called Lila, her own projection, but in another dimension, where he is already ruling for so many years, when just now he has died in this universe that she was in before.

So, how does this imagination power work? How can one be in different places at the same time? How does the time and space change depending on the dimension, all of that? Can Babaji comment?

Shri Babaji:  You see, the essence of this story to tell, time and space, like everything, you get to see according to your perception of imagination. Could be a previous resolution. Then you get to see such a universe, such things. When death happens, the brain dies. The consciousness which is in the form of mind, if it is holding imprints, if it is holding desires, resolutions, all these things, then it spins. I think, before taking birth, for one fraction of a moment, it gets into the touch of the highest consciousness and thus creates a new universe for itself, a new birth, new parents, and everything. Like, Lilavati was counting only eight days in this dimension that her husband died; eight days before, she was keeping the body and crying. But whereas in the next life, he is already more than forty years old.

So, when the mind shifts to one dimension to another dimension, it need not be following the same time or space limits. Once we have adopted the time and space limits in this universe, it will appear as a big law. It cannot be changed by a mind thinking, simply. It will go according to that, because the highest consciousness has created. In touch with that one, the next universe gets created. It is all very mind-boggling to say exactly. That is why, you see, the fact is that as long as this physical body is alive, every relationship, everything is there. Otherwise, it is simply an illusion. Once the body goes, so many myths are there, so many stories, so many things.

Nachiketa tells, “Nobody has come back to tell what really happens after the death. You tell me the truth, O Lord Yama.” Like that, he tells. Then Yama goes on talking about the soul, and the consciousness, imagination. The same thing has been explained by Vasistha also in His Upadesha to Lord Rama, in the Yoga Upadesha as the Yoga Vasistha Ramayana, just to tell, mind can create havoc, such puzzle. When it imagines, it can become such a giant thing, and can make you a micro speck of your own imagination. So, such powers are there, mind. But when it becomes more concentrated, when it is able to touch the highest consciousness, then such a thing happens. Now, imagine, a sadhana is recommended. When you touch the higher consciousness, you should be able to merge with it. Not simply playing with this illusion, because the illusion has no end. Just like the space has no beginning or no end, illusion also has no end. Any number of universes, galaxies, exoplanets, anything can go on appearing, appearing, appearing, appearing, a never ending process. One can never find out the root cause, why or how it started at all.

So, like that, everything to basically explain if you simply make your mind quiet, you can overcome all such illusory effects of being born again and again. That’s what Adi Shankara talking, “Punarapi jananam punarapi maranam. Punarapi janani jathare shayanam.” Again and again you are born. Again and again you die. Again and again you have to live in the womb of a mother. And you come to this world. At that time, whether you have any liking or not liking, you are brought to this world. Your previous prarabdha brings you. And then you are forced to live every moment. When things come to the mind, it induces you to work, or act upon. Very often you will see it is as helpless. Whatever comes to your mind, you try to do it, you become habitual to the thing. So, to overcome this is the sadhana, quietening the mind, silence the mind so that the actual Truth can be revealed. As long as the mind is into imagination, the Truth is never revealed because the mind is preoccupied.

Though Lilavati was bewildered, that “My husband died only eight days ago. Now, here he is more than forty years. He already has wives. He has forgotten me. He doesn’t remember anything of his previous life.” So, everything, Adi Shankara tells, “Remember the Divinity. Because when death happens to the physical body, nothing comes to your rescue.” That is the final essence; whatever you imagine, things will appear to you. Like I keep telling, in the beginning when your mind thinks, a thought appears. But the problem is, mind starts considering that thought to be a fundamental reality. It will forget, “This thought is there because of my imagination.”

People come with so many stories and experiences, “I had this experience. Such a person came in my dream. I saw myself here traveling. Somebody came. It was like some ghost or some divinity.” Anything, they keep talking, but they don’t want to accept it is their own mind’s illusion, their own creation. Means, whenever the mind was strong, whatever they would have created, would have become a destiny. Like I tell sometimes, your mind, when it was with its hundred thousand percent potency consciousness, whatever it would have resolved, imagined as a story, that would have become the destiny for you now. So, you are experiencing as if you are undergoing good and bad and happiness and unhappiness, everything is happening. But do you know from where it is coming? Nobody knows the Truth, the Truth of Divinity, the Divine as it is.

But to overcome all these effects and to achieve Supreme Peace, overcome the dualities, then you have to get rid of all imaginations. Stop the imagination of the mind. That’s what the effort in meditation is being done. No target is given. Nothing is given, no mantra is given. Nothing is told what you have to watch. We ask you just to watch, but what is it that you have to watch? You must understand, the mind is trying to watch itself. When it becomes, it becomes aware of itself. So, we are trying to help you to take back your consciousness from the movie so that you realize that you are just sitting and watching, nothing is happening to you. You are perfectly alright. That is how you will realize you as that Atman one day if you practice this consistently, pursue on this path; that is the idea of telling this story also.

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji. The next story I want to comment on is the one that a couple started doing penance to Lord Shiva because they wanted ten sons that were devoted to the scriptures and spiritual beings. So, the sons get born, then the parents die and then these ten sons, they strongly have the resolve of, they want to become the creators of the universe. Because that is for them, the highest. Being the creator will be the highest for them. So, they keep that resolve for all the age until the age finishes, even after the body perishes. And then they become the creators in the next appearance of the universe. So, can Babaji comment about this power of the resolving and how the mind can resolve anything depending on the potency that happens, even though it is an illusion?

Shri Babaji:  See, that is why I always try to tell one basic thing. If you are more positive in your mind, you can shape a better, positive destiny for yourself. If you are more negative in thinking in your mind, you can be shaping a negative destiny for yourself. After all efforts, then you are getting involved into again imagination. You want to become a creator and get involved into that imagination that you are a creator. What is the use? There is some other truth beyond that creator also, which is the Ultimate Truth, Parabrahman, the Tattva, which simply exists in itself.

If you have read in Yoga Vasistha, apart from these stories, again and again Shri Vasistha explains, “That Ultimate Truth exists in itself.” Just like that, it exists. It doesn’t think. It doesn’t create. It is in Mahasamadhi.

So, trying to become a creator also is limited. You will become mad. Suppose you want to create as a human being. You will have limited imaginations. This world should be like this for you. You need to have ten bungalows and ten palaces. You need to be the emperor. You want to be the most powerful. See the world’s conflict. Everybody trying to fight out with each other. Every leader, everybody, every country want to become the most powerful. They cannot live peacefully, whatever they have. They cannot tolerate if somebody else becomes powerful. So, they are insecure. They keep fighting, they keep fighting. This world always goes on and on and on. Never ending drama keeps happening. When two people fight, so many others also get affected. Innocent people also get affected. It is almost the same way that you are talking, that ten sons wanted to become creators. So, these people also want to be creators or want to be the most powerful on this earth. But how long? How far? One day death will engulf the body, that will take you. So, like that, that is why some saints are telling, “Even the Brahma, the Lord of fourteen worlds will also disappear. Every form and formations will disappear in the Parabrahman, the one Ultimate Truth.” So, that is your Real Self. You have to realize your Real Self.

So, in between, Vasistha keeps advising and goes into another story, just to explain how the mind’s imagination can create such havoc for you, such tsunami in your mind. Such unwanted stories, and it will make you also as if you are experiencing all those things, you undergo all the stories that you have created. Unknown to you, you become. So, that is why I told, the concept of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva has been explained. That is the enormous amount of consciousness which arose to create. When they created, they did not get involved. That’s why they had peace. They were not worried about anything, they did not think about themselves, “I am the creator also.” They never had this imagination. But due to them, the creation happened. But if you think that you want to become creator, you are allowing yourself to get involved into the creation, and you will undergo all such illusions. You will lose your peace. After so many lives and after so many years on this earth also, you might look back to see the peace, very peace that you have been searching since childhood, seems to be so elusive. That is simply in your Real Self, when you realize. For that, you have to quieten your mind, silence, so that you realize yourself. That is the real thing needed.

Many people ask question, “How to do a puja?” The ritual is not the important thing for puja. Your mind’s application is what God wants. God doesn’t mind even if you are unable to light incense sticks, and you have only camphor. You don’t have a camphor and you just fold your hand. You offer only some flowers. You just fold your hand, nothing is there, you just remember in your mind. That is the real worship. That is what is important, mind’s application.

So, you need to understand this. Never get carried away with imaginations. Otherwise, you see, you sit, you try to sit for meditation. When we give instructions, “You gently close your eyes. You try to concentrate in between eyebrows.” You determine that, “Let me just keep watching.” Then the mind suddenly slips into a story. It creates like the Vikram-Betal type, the ghost story. It tells a story to you. “Aha, it is so pleasant.” You start wondering how the mind can create such wonders. And it creates a world. Then it drags you. It spoils, all your meditation is gone. Your mind is wondering like a monkey, creating its own stories. Suddenly you realize, “Oh God, I wanted to meditate. I wanted to keep my concentration here. What has happened, this?”

This is how when the creation, when we get involved. ‘Me’ and the ‘mine’ becomes the problem. And in one life somewhere, some realization happens, “There is something wrong.” As a child, thats what I used to think, “Is there something wrong in me? Or what is it wrong in this world? Why is that I am restless? Why the happiness is not always there?” The mind could visualize this. Though I did not experience the world so much as a child, we did not get exposed so much to the world. But yet the mind could understand, “There is some problem.” Because mind imagines, even a child imagines. Four-year-old, eight-year-old child also, you talk. They have their own tension. They have some fear. Whenever such children talk to me, they express. One of the main things they express is the fear. Some unknown fear, “What will happen next? If this happens, what will happen? If this doesn’t happen, what will happen?” They would have knitted everything for their security, “If anything happens to any one of ours, what will happen to me?”

So, like that, this is all the illusion that keeps happening. So, then I used to wonder, “Is something wrong within me, or something wrong in the world?” Like that, the realization comes slowly, slowly, slowly, you move towards the Ultimate Truth. And then you don’t compromise for any myths, or any mystics, or any magics, or any such thing. You want the knowledge and wisdom, you want the Ultimate Truth. That’s what Yoga Vasistha slowly tries to lead you into, after telling so many stories. You must not get involved, stay in the stories. Just understand the story’s essence that it explains the mind and its illusion. Any creation is simply an illusion. That’s why I tell, any such creation has only appearance value. Universe has only appearance value. You as the Supreme Truth is the only one which has the existence value, the Ultimate Truth. Don’t imagine you as the body. Much beyond the birth and death of the body. To go there, you have to cross the barrier of your own mind’s imagination. That’s what is crossing the barrier of time and space. Because as long as your mind is imagining, it has already become a creator for everybody. Everybody’s mind is a creator. It keeps creating. It cannot keep quiet.

That is the essence of the story; ten sons wanting to become creators. Already, as soon as one is born, the mind starts creating. Every mind becomes a creator for its own, and it creates a world. And it cannot be the Brahma, because it gets involved with its own creation. Whatever you create in your mind, you start thinking that as the truth. And you try to undergo all effects of happiness, unhappiness, fear and all these things. You don’t have peace at all. You’re already a creator. Where is the peace? What else creator that you want to become? There is no end. Everything is an illusion, from a small micro speck to the huge, large galaxies, space, galaxy, space, milky ways, galaxies and space. There is never ending illusion. Because if you go on creating, the mind also, your mind is creating illusion. Illusion after illusion. Story after story. Story within a story. It keeps doing. It spoils your peace.

All that is needed, you simply become quiet, mentally quiet. Then you will realize yourself, the Atma, that is so much spoken in the scriptures. The soul, the Ultimate Truth is clearly visible. The consciousness of existence is there within itself. It is not the location that it is here or here. That is all myths and illusions. When you experience that, there is no location. Because based on a relative existence of the body, you calculate the location. Once that location disappears, imagine in the mind. You are there. But no location. You are there. Thus, you realize that Self is simply all-pervaded.

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji. Then the Sun is talking to Brahma because Brahma is a little bit surprised that his ten sons have that will to create. But for him, it happens automatically. It doesn’t need any resolve. It naturally creates all the universes and everything.

So, with that, another story comes up that some couple gets punished by the husband because something failed to happen. And then the Sun says to Brahma, the creator, “When the tree dies, the seed doesn’t die. But when the seed perishes, the tree dies with it.” So, if the body perishes, the mind can create other bodies for itself. So, after that, the Sun says, “Let the son, the ten sons be in their own mental creation, as you can’t interfere. And you go naturally with your own creation and your own working in creating the universe.

Shri Babaji:  You see, just now, whatever you are has been created by you only. You’re already like a creator. That’s what Vasistha tries to tell the essence. When every one of you try to become a creator, you are getting involved with your creation – that is the problem. Actually, Brahma never created anything. Just in itself is there. That’s how the Yogi also never creates anything. He has stopped the future totally. The mind has stopped. As long as your mind is active, every life you go on creating, you become a creator. As one body goes, the brain dies, the mind is there, it is active, it is into imaginations, then it spins fast and it creates another body for itself, another world for itself, another appearance, another relation, another kith and kin. Another friend, another power, another wealth, another this, another world, whatnot. It goes on, and on, and on, and on, never ending, it goes.

That’s what Vasistha is trying to tell; everybody becomes a creator. Until you stop your mind. If you are unable to stop your mind, you will continue to be a creator for yourself. And the problem is, if you had not got involved, if you had been out of that, then no problem would have happened to you. But you get involved. You are getting involved into the body and you also start thinking that you were born. That’s because you died before, and you are born. And after born, you learn that you will have to die one day and you can keep thinking, “Oh God, we will die one day,” before we die.

So, like this, the circle keeps going on, whirlpool, you get involved. You are already a creator. But you should overcome you being a creator first. Then the creation itself gets withdrawn and you are in your Real Self, the Parabrahman. There, no imagination. You don’t think that you are a creator. You don’t think that you are Divinity. You don’t think anything. All ideas, all concepts all gets dropped, disappear. Nothing is there. No devotee is there. No God is there. No seer is there. No seen is there. One single Self simply exists in itself.

So that is the recommended goal – if peace is what you are looking for. If peace and happiness; that you have to ask yourself, every one of you have to ask – if that is what you are looking for. If you are happy to be unhappy, you can continue in the world. You can go on becoming creator. Every life you are a creator. You create your own world. You create your own parents. You create next time. In the next world you create again. And the illusion goes on and on. Just by listening to these talks… [voice cuts out] …becoming the mind.

That’s what Vasistha tells through this story. You try to become a Brahma, but you get involved with your creation. So, then you are no more Brahman. You become an ordinary being. You can be an ordinary animal, you can be an ordinary human being, you can be any creature. It can be any world, anywhere, anything, nobody knows. You don’t know how this world came into existence for you. You get to hear a lot of history before you were born, so many things happened, that story is there. That will all be in your mind. After you go away also, you will be imagining what will all happen in this world. Whatever you think, that will be there. But you don’t know. You are not there to see anything. But when you are born, you will have your own world. Not necessary that it has to be this world only. It can be any world. Anywhere with anybody you could be born, because after all, the story is knitted by the mind and its imagination. Imagination is the technology, creativity. So, this is what Vasistha is trying to tell as the essence.

See, the mind can imagine itself being out of the body sitting somewhere and it is seeing here also. Many people tell, “I had this experience. I saw myself out of the body sitting there and I am seeing from here also.” It is the same mind. It creates to itself. It becomes a separate entity. Then it gets to see itself as a separate entity. And then it gets frightened. Or it goes into an unhappiness. Anything it can happen. It sees its own self. So, when you imagine, that imagination is in your own mind. With your own imagination, you can get frightened. When such a scenario comes, violent scenes come. When you dream violently, you can get frightened. Suddenly, you can get up. So, this is how the illusion works. It has no end. It has no particular definition to tell what is illusion.

So, this is what Vasistha is trying to tell. In the midst of all this, He tells Rama, “No. One Self exists in itself and it is simply all-pervaded. I can see that Atman that is everywhere.” So, when you become silent, then you can see yourself, that you exist in yourself. So, that’s what He advises finally after every story; essence is told.

Same Questioner:  Then Babaji, why does even this creation power have to exist if that is the main reason of us being here with this illusion?

Shri Babaji:  If you don’t want, you can get liberated. It’s your choice. You see, a Guru like me tries to teach or recommend. More than that, I cannot force anybody. Everybody has their choice. You just do one hour meditation we try to tell, “Okay, you will be peaceful in your life. You can live a stress-free life. Then the rest you live your life.” Nobody tells that you should not live, you cannot live. It’s everybody’s choice. You see, every mind has its own choices and it exercises. There might be a hundred and fifty people, or one thousand five hundred people sitting into meditation. The Master tries to teach what He has experienced, but every individual finally exercises their choice. If the teaching penetrates, if this is what you want…

That’s how, when we came to the Master, lived at his Lotus Feet, we wanted that Truth. So, never got attracted for anything else. Never bothered if anything else happened. If a humiliation happened, if a good thing happened or not happened, if somebody loved or criticized, if the Master was loving me or not loving me, nothing bothered. I loved the Master. That is my choice. Like that, everybody can exercise their choice, right? I exercise my choice and I love the Master. The Master Himself could not disturb because it was my choice. Because I wanted the Ultimate Truth. That was my choice. I wanted to realize the Self. That was my choice.

So, the day the choice is exercised in this way, one can go further. Otherwise, everybody can be, whatever choice they exercise, they will undergo. So, there is no imposition. We cannot impose on anybody. I cannot order. We can only recommend, appeal, and tell, “This is what I experience. If you would like, you also pursue and experience, and then you tell me what is your experience, what is your opinion.”

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji. In the next story Vasistha tells to Rama that there is a dense forest and there is a person there with more than a thousand arms. No one else is there and that person beats itself and then runs away afraid, and then it either goes to a blind well, or goes to a banana grove. So, that means that the dense forest is this world, and that person beating itself is the mind with its manifestations, thousands and thousands of manifestations. The blind well means the hell, and the banana grove means the heaven. So, the sage tries to go there and explain to that mind or that person the way out of that suffering. But sometimes that mind doesn’t even want to accept or listen or try to understand that there is a way out of that. They want to remain there. So could Babaji comment on that?

Shri Babaji:  You see, it is all about the story of one’s own mind, your own mind. Thousand hands is your own thoughts, your imagined thoughts, thousands of thoughts that are there. So, by his hand he keeps beating himself and gets frightened. All your thousands of thoughts that are in your mind is all your imagination. And by those thoughts only you get frightened. You run. You imagine a heaven. You imagine a hell. There is neither a heaven nor a hell there. When you imagine, you will get to see. You imagine only Divinity, you will get to see Divinity. You don’t imagine anything, you will be in the Ultimate Truth. So, all is there. It is all yours. That’s what Vasistha ties through beautiful stories like that, to explain, a person is there, he is in a dense forest. Means, your mind has become a dense forest now. You have created yourself. And in this world also you would have created everything of yours. And you have become so much attached with a wealth, or power, or status, or anything. And you cannot give it up. So, that is the dense forest that you are there. That’s what He explains. A person is dense forest. In a dense forest he has no path. He does not know where to go, what to do, he’s confused. He keeps hitting himself.

Everybody is fighting with each other in the world, you see? Wars are happening, conflicts are happening. People are dying, people are killing, people are dying, people are killing. Children are born and they get killed. They don’t have anything to do with these wars but they get killed. So, that is how the prarabdha works. You will be bewildered if you think. Everything happens in your mind. You imagine, and the story is there, thousands of thoughts are there. With those thoughts you torture yourself. And then you run aimlessly in the forest, dense forest. Thus, you come across the heaven or a hell with your own imaginations. You make yourself a hell, you make yourself a heaven. And the loss of peace, that is one important thing.

So, if you simply stop imagining, then your secret of your own existence will be revealed, if that is what you want eventually. At least you become the master of your mind in this world, then also you can live peacefully. You will understand how to handle your own problem. You will sort out. Even if you want to pray, you can pray to the Divine with full concentration of the mind. Then, the prayers will be answered. That is why faith and devotion is also taught. These things are the necessary things in a life, like that.

You achieve mastery for one hour. In the one hour means you should be able to sit comfortably, unmoved in one hour. Then, in that one hour you should be able to keep the mind totally quiet. Then see the beauty of your life. Your life becomes so matured and blossoms. You become such a matured human being. You become saintly-like, all corruptions end. You will have peace. People will come for counselling to you. You can create awareness to others also. “I achieved my peace like this. You also do and achieve peace.” Let the Self-Realization stay for a while otherwise. No need. No need of twelve hours or twenty hours of tapas. Just one hour. First achieve mastery over this. And then we can see other things.

So that’s what Vasistha tries to tell with these stories. You are in a dense forest that you have created for yourself. And you have created thousands of hands for you. That is the thoughts in the mind. With those thoughts, you are beating yourself. And you are scared, you are panicked, you don’t know what to do. You are confused. You run. You create hell for you. You create heaven for you. Simply if you get rid of these thoughts, you will have the beautiful Divinity within you. You will see God in you. You will see that Supreme Peace in you. One hour meditation of real meditation, means, as I told, keep the mind totally quiet. Don’t try to watch anything. Don’t recognize any thought. Don’t recognize any colour, any visions. Let it be either God or no God. Just watch. When you become quiet, and when you come across that Consciousness of Existence, that bliss, that beauty of peace! You cannot even explain when you experience that. It is something like, you will understand but you cannot make others understand-type.

This is what Vasistha is trying to tell through these stories. That’s what this book talks of continuously. Numerous stories he has told, so many stories. The Master tries to teach repeatedly so that that teaching can penetrate the student or disciple’s inner layers of the mind, so that the disciple also adopts such methods and does sadhana and achieve the peace for one’s own self. So that’s why Vasistha tells so many stories. The principle is the same, finally. Your own mind’s imagination is the one which creates problems to you. That is the basic essence of the teachings. To tell that, He uses so many stories. So, if you keenly observe the essence of the story, then you will understand, “My God, through my own thoughts, I am beating myself.” That’s what is the thousand hands.

Same Questioner:  So, Babaji, this ‘thousand hands’ beating, all the thoughts beating one during the life, I think that is one of the main reasons people are apprehensive practicing meditation because if they are not used to that, they sit and the war starts with their mind. So, they cannot hold that. So how can a human being overcome that feeling of, “I cannot do this?”

Shri Babaji:  For many people, silence could be awfulness. But if they continue, that is the real awesome. That is how the transformation happens. See, whenever anybody’s mind is quiet, only then they enjoy the peace. Suppose you obtain an object of this world that you desired a lot. By grace of Divine or by your own effort, you get that. And you become excited and happy for a while. That happiness; technological thing is that at that moment, for a while, for a fraction of a moment, your mind has become quiet. Means, it has accepted that. Whatever it wanted, that thing has happened, so the mind is quiet. Whatever the mind wants, if that thing doesn’t happen, the mind goes bewildered into a forest. It starts jumping. Then it loses peace. The same way; that’s what many people don’t understand. They think this meditation is awful. Many people use the words that the mind doesn’t want to die. When it starts becoming quiet also, they get frightened. It’s awful for them. But that is the awesome thing. They are used to see something always. Mind is used to sound and sight. So, if they cannot see anything in their mind when they close the eyes, they get bewildered.

That is what is required. That is the most beautiful existence. That is the Aatman. That is the Divinity, the most beautiful. It is not simply awful silence, or awful space or any such thing. These are all imaginations again. When you go beyond your own mind’s imagination, you have to cross the barrier of time and space. Means you have to stop your mind so that your mind stops getting involved into your own thoughts. Then it turns to itself. Then it becomes aware of itself. Then that is the beauty. You can live in this world. Again, I have to emphasize, because many people can misunderstand whether Babaji is teaching not to live in this world. There is no such thing. Babaji is also living in this world with this body. But I am at peace, whatever happens, whatever doesn’t happen.

So, like that, you also can achieve peace. You can live in this world. You can be anybody, a householder, business person. You continue with all your things. While doing, you will see your mind will become more focused in the present. When you are working, you can achieve maximum results, and nothing will disturb your peace. You are ready like a soldier always. So that’s what one can achieve. At least one hour meditation also if you do every day.

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji. The last question, I would like to ask about the resolution power. When a person wants to achieve something, that resolution power may be one of the most important things. So, for a Self-Realization, that resolution power of achieving that should also be there. But I see a difference when you want to achieve something in the world; you have to have that resolution intensively until you achieve that. But for Self-Realization, somewhere in the middle you have to drop that resolving to achieve that. So, can Babaji talk about this difference?

Shri Babaji:  You see, that idea automatically gets dropped when you go closer to the Truth. You don’t have to worry. You maintain that thought that you want to achieve Self-Realization. That is why here, the resolution power is important. That is why I talk of the mantras – Dedication, Discipline, and Patience. So, let it go. When you become quiet and quiet and quiet and actually quiet, you start enjoying the quietness, then you won’t need to think that you want the quietness. You already have the quietness. It is just like, you want a bungalow for you, you want a bungalow for you, you want a bungalow for you, and when you have a bungalow, you don’t have to think that “I need a bungalow” anymore. You are already in the bungalow. You are in the palace already, like that. It will get automatically dropped once you get it, once you are inside; you won’t keep thinking. Once you go closer to the Divinity, closer to the Ultimate Truth, all ideas will automatically get dropped. That is the real surrender that happens. The ‘I’ will drop in the end. Before that, the idea of wanting Self-Realization also drops. And then you are in that, merged with that one Truth.

So, that you don’t have to worry just now when you are doing sadhana. Just stick to the sadhana with the resolution that you want Self-Realization. That is required so that your mind doesn’t get diverted and goes running here and there. After ten minutes meditation, you should not feel tired, “Oh, this is very tiring. Thousands of torturing thoughts. I cannot sit.” And all the time your meditation might go with you thinking, “Oh, when will this Babaji tell some prayer and ask us to open the eyes? When will this old man tell something to open the eyes?” Like that. You don’t have to. It will automatically come. One hour will be over and you can get up.

Same Questioner:  Thank you Babaji. So, for today this is the session. We can I think open to the participants if they want to ask a question?

Question:  Thank you Babaji for the wonderful satsang. If I sit in one hour and there are thoughts in my mind, is that one hour wasted?

Shri Babaji:  No, not at all. Whenever you sit for one hour, some amount of quietening definitely happens. So, don’t lose heart. If the thoughts are coming, let them come. You just watch. Because it will take some time. Thoughts are there since time immemorial. Mind has been imagining and creating for itself imprints. So, let it happen. You just watch. Further you don’t try to think about those thoughts, then the thoughts will disappear very quickly. That’s what you have to understand. Use your will power and just watch. Let it come. No problem.

Same Questioner: Thank you.

Question:  Pranams, Babaji. I wanted to ask You, You talked about choices. We have the free will to make our own choices. And when I make negative choices that affect me and accumulate negative karma, is it possible to overcome those? And even after repeated failures?

Shri Babaji:  You see, one important thing, there’s a lot of debate on this free will and the destiny, free will and the destiny. Without bothering either of the two, if you slowly cultivate the habit of thinking positively, a choice that you want these positive things, then slowly your mind will start thinking positive. Simply mind has become habitual to negative things. That is why it is into [them]. So that is why great sages like Adi Shankara spoke of satsang. Be in the company of the right type of people, noble people, saintly people, who can motivate you, induce you into this thing. Then your mind will return, get transformed into positivity. It will come. Because mind has both capacities. Simply, if it is negative, don’t become a victim of your own negative habit; determine, “I need to become more positive. Let me.” Read some scriptures which can be helpful to motivate yourself to be positive. Participate in this type of meditation classes, all these things. Very soon you will see that you would have become more positive. And then positive things will start happening to you.

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji.

Question:  Hello, Babaji. It’s Bennie. I’m coming up against a problem. I’ve fallen and I’ve broken my leg and it is quite hard to walk. So, I’m spending a lot of time lying down. And when I start to meditate, I seem to either drift off or literally fall asleep. I’m wondering if you can suggest anything. And also, maybe are there any Ayurvedic herbs that I could take before meditation to keep my mind sharp and keep me awake?

Shri Babaji:  You see, I don’t know about the medicines. What I can suggest to you, if possible to sit down in some way with a back support, try to do that one. If the legs are hurt, you are unable to stand is no problem, but you don’t have to be lying down all the time. Is it possible for you to sit down with some back support?

Same Questioner:  I can, but it hurts. And I might even then fall asleep. I call it sleep but I’m not sure that it is actually sleep. I’m not aware.

Shri Babaji:  Slowly, you practice that you do not fall asleep. First try to remember the Divinity, pray to Divinity. And then keeping the eyes opened also, try to remember Divine with some name or mantra. And after some time, you will be able to close the eyes and concentrate by sitting without going into sleep, will be possible. You can practice like this.

Question:  Pranams, Babaji. I have a question in relation to what we were talking today, because over my life I have dreamt of previous lives. And recently, even in the dream, another part of me, since I started meditating, other part of me said, “No, it’s just a character. Do not believe this. It is just a character.” Like when you read in the books. And when I came out of the dream, I was like, “Oh, I miss them, the people in my last life.” And the second voice in my head says, “Who is this ‘I’? Who is this ‘they’?”. And I was wondering, when I’m trying to quiet my mind, how is it that now there’s, you know, the monkey mind, as you said, with all the thoughts and the slapping, with all this, and now there’s this logical part?

Shri Babaji:  You see, mind has become habitual since time immemorial. That’s why it keeps playing these games to fool you. Means you try to fool yourself. Mind is nothing but you, your own things. So, for that only, if you practice the meditation; first to silence the mind is important. Then the Truth will be revealed. Another important thing; try to know what you are now is more important than what you were in previous lives or any other life. That is not important. That will only be in your imagination, which will create further emotions unnecessarily. “You don’t want to miss them, you don’t want to…” They are all in your imagination only. Understanding this positively, try to use the method that we taught. Simply concentrate and keep watching, and ward off any such visions coming. You don’t give attention through the one that is watching; through that you don’t pay attention. Remind yourself that you need to be quietly watching and not thinking. Then in due course of time, you will be able to take control of your mind. It will come. Have faith in yourself. Bless you.

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji.

Question:  Babaji, I have a question. When we sit for meditation, how do you overcome bodily discomfort? So, if there is pain somewhere, the mind automatically goes to the pain and that discomfort becomes so sharp that you want to move your body. How do you overcome that?

Shri Babaji:  See, that is the one reason my Guru never prescribed any particular posture. If necessary, you can straighten your leg in a bed. Just keep the back and neck straight with some support to the wall. And, say, suppose you are able to meditate for twenty minutes and then the pain starts. At that time, if necessary, stretch out your hands and legs for one minute and then come back to the same position, try to concentrate again. Then you can continue for another half an hour. Like that, you practice twice or thrice, twice or thrice if necessary. When extreme pain happens unbearably, then you stretch out the legs or hands, is no big problem, that you can do. But quickly, come back to the concentration so that the mind’s effort to remain concentrated must not be given up. Like that you practice, then you can overcome the pain also eventually.

Same Questioner:  Thank you, Babaji, thank you.

Question:  Good evening, Baba, Pranams. Babaji, I have a question regarding a few things in meditation. I don’t know if it is the right way or the wrong way. So, I just wanted your guidance. So, this meditation technique that You have taught me where we concentrate here [in between eyebrows], when the concentration goes deeper and deeper, what I observe is the breath, sometimes it just misses and generally when we try to concentrate and it starts to reduce, we generally have the sensation of breathing moving in along with this point of concentration. But sometimes it just suddenly misses the breath and there is this thing that, “Hey, breathing has suddenly stopped.” And again, the point of concentration goes back to breathing. And again, this happens for five minutes and ten minutes and again, it messes up. So that is one thing I have observed where the body is trying to find the breath. Although it is trying to concentrate, suddenly it is missing and there is kind of a panic.

Shri Babaji:  Breathing is very important; oxygen is essential. You must not starve yourself of oxygen. It should mechanically go. Slowly as your concentration picks up, you don’t try to rush yourself to pick up by stopping the breath also. By practice, let the breath keep smoothly going on. Keeping it on and then try to concentrate, keeping it on and then try to concentrate. Slowly you can de-link. Like when you are driving a car, your attention will be on the road, but by practice your hands are on the wheel and your legs are taking care of the brake or clutch, whatever necessary. Like that, mechanically the breath has to happen. It may become a bit smoother, but it should go on. Like that you practice. But suddenly, totally don’t keep quiet until it stops. Even if you think that the attention goes to that breath also, you breathe. Breathing is important. Then bring back to concentrate. For some time if you practice, then you will see mechanically the breath going on and your concentration is here [in between eyebrows].

Same Questioner:  Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I have just one question. Another thing is you have given a rule for one hour we have to meditate. Although I do not keep any timer or anything as one hour, and some days I observe that that level of calmness comes before one hour and some days the entire duration of meditation goes more than one hour. So, I don’t measure this, but how do we ensure that the mind stays for one hour without moving? I mean, not depending on the state of thoughts that we have, but even then, even if it’s calm, how to sit beyond that?

Shri Babaji:  As a general discipline, we prescribe one hour, but a little bit plus or minus is no big problem. If any time happens you can continue; one thing. Another thing, if you want to stick to one hour, you have to keep some alarm, something. So that is how it is. Otherwise usually the brain has this capacity; after one hour you will get to know, some feeling will come, “It may be one hour now.” That by practice you will come out. Just like you get up in the morning by practice at a particular time, then you start getting up. That will happen here also. For until then, if five minutes, ten, fifteen minutes here and there happens, it’s no big problem. Nobody will mind it. Just as a disciplinary practice, we prescribe one hour. That will be helpful. Because the first thirty, forty minutes mind struggles, then the calmness comes usually. When the calmness comes, if you are able to continue for at least half an hour more, then the mind will pick up that habit to remain quiet. Then there is smoothness in meditation and it will be very progressive. So, try this. Our blessings.

Same Questioner: Thank you. Thank you, Baba.

End of session