Perth, May 8th 2005
The evening program on the fifth day of Baba’s Australian Tour was held in the home of local devotees, and occurred on Mother’s Day. The great Yogi entered the gathering, performed Swamiji’s aarathi, took pranams, and spoke to the group assembled there.
Reciting the Guru Pranam Sloka, He continued,
Sashtanga namaskaram to my beloved Guru again and again.
On the path of spirituality one must be clear about the exercises and the target to enable one to find the truth, or you might try to catch the wrong things. Over the whole world as I travel around, I see that spirituality flourishes; there is so much spiritual activity around the world. But still we don’t see the results of spiritual efforts – still we don’t see changes in the human beings. We don’t see the human beings being more loving, caring, considerate, peaceful. We don’t have a greater understanding of the spiritual truths. It is good to go into sadhana, but we must also know what and why and how to do it properly.
Swamiji spoke repeatedly about meditation for Self Realization. When He had completed His twelve years of Tapas and came out, so many hundreds of thousands of people gathered to see the great Yogi come out into the world, and he was requested to give a message to those gathered together. His message was , ” Humanity has forgotten who they really are. They must remember who they really are.” Ramana Maharishi spoke also that only one single truth exists – a state in which there is no seen and seer. Adi Shankaracharya spoke the same thing as Advaita. Before that we think of God as separate to ourselves – that when God appears, then the Satshatkaram happens. But really it is when the mind loses all imaginations and merges with the Self. This is inexpressible, nobody has been able to define it. When the mantra for Shivabalayogi came, it was mesmerizing for me. Right through my life it has given me everything, and so I saw God in the form of Shivabalayogi at the end of my sadhana, just before the ” I ” merged into the Divine. Just like a droplet merges with the ocean. Because the mind exists, it has given the imagination of ” I ” and the world. We want to enjoy the world by having it to ourselves, that is the problem. A Yogi realizes God is everywhere.
As an example, Guru Nanak as a child was helping His father in the shop, and was counting some items, and as He counted up in Hindi, He reached the number thirteen, which is pronounced ‘Thera’ in Hindi – a word which also means ‘Yours’. When He got to that number, He kept repeating ‘Thera, Thera’ and His mind became so concentrated on the thought that all was God’s – he became Realized. So this is how the mind gets involved, thinking everything in the world is ours, but even the body is not ours. One day He will take it back. Everything is God’s. But even these things are hard to overcome. Like an alcoholic who takes a vow that he will not drink alcohol again, but the mind keeps going back to that habit. This is how the mind works; it keeps going back, jumping to one shape. So it is necessary to do sadhana. Swamiji used to say,”Who are we to set right the world? You have to first rectify yourself, your own mind.” When the mind becomes right, then everything will appear alright. Look within yourself. Sometimes people talk of the ‘third eye’. This is actually your own mind. The mind has to be present and active to activate all the senses, so for instance if you don’t pay attention to music that is playing, then you won’t hear it. The mind’s attention when it becomes focussed, comes to that point between the two eyes, and its perception is like a third eye.
One needs to do sadhana and look within you. Meditation is the blanket remedy for all our ills. Dhyana itself leads to Jnana ( knowledge) and Bhakti ( devotion ). Finally when the Truth is revealed, then the Yogi will say,” Oh! So that is God.” As Adi Shankakracharya expressed,”Aham Brahmasmi.” Prahlada was ridiculed by his father, a demonic king, “Where is your God?” In Advaita philosophy one will say that the body is God, but the problem occurs when we think He is limited to only that body. The total surrender can occur only through Tapas. Through any sadhana the mind should recede. If the mind gets excited, it jumps back into the world, and any sadhana that does that is a waste of time. In meditation, if the mind recognizes thoughts and visions, these are not the real experiences. The mind has billions of habits, samskaras, and when we meditate, the mind replays them and they can show as visions. When the vision occurs, the mind tends to recognize, analyze and then judges. So when you see a vision the mind can get involved. In the same manner, the Yogi really doesn’t see people as bad or good. The mind has to understand that it should not get involved – it should be just a witness – ‘Sakshi Bhutam’. So when you are meditating, one should concentrate, focus and not get involved. One instruction given is,” Do not imagine anything.” Don’t imagine what it is. If there is no job for it, the mind will recede. Until that stage, when the mind recognizes something, it gets involved. Mind and Illusion – which came first? We can’t know, there is no conclusive answer to this. In meditation, to try to overcome these two, we control the one we can control. We are unable to control the illusion, so we control the mind. When we withdraw the mind, the illusion drops off. The mind has to remain quiet, and when that happens, only pure consciousness remains. The ancient sages have said that the soul is immortal – there is one immortal Self which is God. These are the same.
As long as there is ego, there are thoughts – “I am …this and that.” When that stops, only the real Self remains. Ramana Maharishi when He was a young boy, went through a death experience, felt His body was gone, and tried to see what remained. Similarly with the senses, the mind…what remained … only the Self which is ” I ” remains. And so when His family were all grieving and crying loudly at an uncle’s funeral, He asked what they were crying for. He suggested that if His uncle was the body, then that was still there; and if it is something else, then we really can’t know what has happened to it.
These sorts of things inspired me when I was young. If you really are interested, then God will send a Guru. Everyone these days wants to be the guru first. Swamiji used to say that we should try to be the perfect disciple first. If you are genuine, God will help, He will send the Guru to your doorstep. All that is needed is that you need to be sincere.
Remember when you commit a wrong act, even though nobody else may be able to see it, the mind stores the impression of that, deep in a corner of the heart. So Vasishta recommends meditation to clear this away. May you all be inspired to serve God and Guru.
Copyright © 2005 SRBY, All rights reserved.
