Perth, 3 December 2013 – Part 2

To try to reach to that real Self is the recommended silent meditation which our Master did. This is one of the most ancient and highest techniques practiced since very, very ancient times, time immemorial in India by those great Sages. The manifestation of the Jangama Sage gave this technique to my Guru and He silently was watching. Like He used to tell, “When I was initiated by the Jangama, all I heard in telling was ‘just keep watching in-between eyebrows by focusing the attention and do not repeat anything, no mantra, nothing and do not imagine anything.” This third point also in this is very important. Like when you are trying to meditate, when you close the eyes immediately, instantly it is not going to become silent. It could be very awful, a very unpleasant situation because the cleansing of the mind starts happening. When the cleansing happens, due to the nature of the brain all the thoughts and the visions and whatever are sitting in the sub-conscious state as the habits of the mind. We call it as the ‘acquired habits of the mind.’

They all start getting evaporated but when it is getting evaporated you are forced to watch it as a thought process or a vision. Sometimes it could be very pleasant, sometimes it could be unpleasant because that is what the mind is habitual to. It never stays into one type of imagination. If you could have simply imagined all the pleasant things that you want you could have continued and remained happy all the time but it doesn’t happen for anybody. Sometimes like mornings when you get up the mind would be very fresh if you have had a sound sleep but suddenly, unknown to you, the mind starts imagining. In the beginning it always imagines pleasant things, nobody wants any unpleasantness. But as the day passes by you never know when the mind slips into unpleasantness also, it holds on, all sorts of imaginations – good, bad, right, wrong, evil or whatever it is it slips into unpleasantness. Though nobody wants unpleasantness but one is unable to control that unpleasant thoughts coming, that keeps coming, because mind has absorbed these things either from this world or from its own imagination habits that it has picked up. 

To cleanse this is the process of this sadhana, which is known as meditation in ancient terminologies. So many terminologies have been evolved to attract people and to tell them what it is. So when you are able to watch silently then one day the mind can become silent. Like I said, all the thoughts and visions of the sub-conscious state start getting evaporated. Imagine it’s like the garbage of the mind is being thrown out.  But this mind has picked up such habits of analysing and making judgments. It cannot keep quiet, anything it comes across it has to recognize. It needs a name for communication and that becomes its judgment also. Suppose if I tell this as God [pointing to a microphone] anybody might laugh because for the majority of people the imagination is ‘this is a microphone.’ That is sitting in the mind as a judgment. 

So that is the imagination effect that happens. So if the mind imagines when it makes a judgment it absorbs further thought processes, further imprints, one thought goes away and another thought is absorbed. So it is like getting involved with the hen coming out of the egg and egg coming out of the hen, a cycling. Skillfully one of them needs to be withdrawn. It is the peculiar relationship of the mind and brain. Mind gets applied on the brain, the brain is in touch with the universe through the sensory organs and nervous system. Though it receives message and it passes on and it reflects in this process. Like a cinema, like a thought process or a vision. The mind catches in good faith and believes that to be the fundamental truth, and makes a judgment and absorbs an imprint. 

So that is how in philosophy they say, ‘a friend might appear as a foe and a foe might appear as a friend.’ Good might appear as bad, bad might appear as good. Nobody knows what is good, what is bad. So thus the mind again gets involved. So in meditation it is taught ‘just keep watching by focusing the attention and do not imagine anything.’ So when a thought appears do not imagine what it is, then the mind becomes quiet. 

As I told, if I ask you to just watch this [pointing to a microphone], watch this and do not think what it is, whether it is God or microphone it’s not our job, when we have to watch, just let us watch. Then the mind can become quiet and silent. So that is the technical secret, how the mind can become silent. 

So like all other sadhanas – chants, watching the breath or listening to music or concentrating anywhere – is all trying to make the mind single-pointedness. Like when you come to the place of worship the great Sages, all the Elders have always tried to teach, ‘apply your mind when you are worshipping’, when you are offering a flower, when you are watching Aarati or trying to do Aarati, any type of worship, any type of ritual. A ritual is supposed to be an exercise which shall bind the mind to remain single-pointed. So that is what is supposed to have happened. If the mind can remain applied then a ritual or such a worship or such an exercise becomes fruitful. So for the same purpose only you try to meditate also. In ancient times every exercise has been evolved to make it easy because this is another weakness of us human beings, we have become so weak and casual we want everything very easy. 

Just three or four days ago I was in another station trying to teach this meditation. Some software engineers, when they were all talking to me, they asked, “Cannot this happen like fast food? You go to a restaurant, you order and you get fast food.” I told them, “You get a fast food only when you have some money in your account. You need to have a credit card or something, nobody is going to give you free of cost. To earn that credit you are ready to spend the whole day, eight hours, ten hours, companies could be squeezing you out. You work so hard, you put all your time in, you set priorities and then only you can earn. Otherwise people try to become robbers and dacoits to earn good money. They become cheats in business and all such things so that they can earn quick money, but such things doesn’t give real peace or happiness. That doesn’t give a good character, a good culture. If you have to earn right money, honest money we have to work very hard. So it doesn’t happen like fast-food type of things, in fast money. 

So that is how mind is also infinite. To find happiness, if we try to find short-cuts of paying a $100 and getting some happiness nobody can give you such happiness. You have to work for that one, a constant practice. My Guru simply recommended one hour of practice of sadhana. He told, “twenty-four hours are there.” Time is very precious for everyone.  Life is so precious. Nobody knows how many years we could live in this world, thirty years, sixty years or at the most ninety years but that is so precious it can simply pass by.  We were also small kids, like five years, ten years old now the body is sixty already. So tomorrow it will be eighty. It keeps on going, every moment is so precious. What should we be achieving in this shortest possible time? So we have to set a priority so we achieve the highest. That was how I used to think as a child also. If we have happiness it might appear very funny but that’s how the thoughts came to my mind. If there is happiness it must be there twenty-fours hours, twelve months. And the highest variety of happiness – Supreme Peace, there is no other peace, nobody else should claim, ‘I know better happiness than this.’ In this world you all might know one better than the other. If one eatable item is giving you happiness somebody else knows one better item also. If one type of clothing is giving you happiness somebody might come and tell there is another type of clothing that can give you better happiness, more prestigious. So that type of thing keeps happening in this world. 

So I always wanted the highest happiness. ‘How can it come? How can it happen? ‘I visualized, dreamt and thought of such things. So we must try to go for the highest. We have to set a priority. So you all understand the right technology. The real happiness or peace is when the mind is at peace. If the mind can become peaceful on its own without depending on any external anchor then only a permanent peace can be obtained and enjoyment in life, a life can really become beautiful. While trying to do this you don’t have to give up your way of life, like my Guru said, “You don’t have to run to caves and forests, you can be in any way of life just practice for one hour.” The rest of the twenty-three hours are there for you to earn a livelihood, to sleep and for some recreation, some other things, so many things you can utilize. If you cannot take out this one hour also every day you are losing. You are losing nobody else will lose. Like the Master did for twelve years Tapas He always advocated and one day His body got dropped and He had achieved because He had already achieved it. He had nothing to lose, He taught us. He helped us to set a priority and we also achieved.

So as long as this body is alive we try to undertake travels on the invitation of devotees to try to create an awareness to practice and understand the truth of spiritual practices and what religion means. This religion is another thing. Very often the younger generation might be averse and they might not like this thing at all. I always wondered about this terminology also. ‘Why was this religion given? What is its real meaning? Dharma is the word used in Indian languages and religion also I tried to do some research. It is taken from the Latin word of ‘obligations’. Obligation means, you all understand, duties, your obligation. Like my Guru said, ”You have three responsibilities.” One is the physical body, everybody understands we need to take care of the physical body and keep it is as healthy as possible. But the body is limited. No matter you try your best to keep it as health as possible but finally the aging process definitely happens. And the next is the mind. But mind has no limitations, whether you are eighty years old or eight years old it is all the same. Anybody can practice anybody can keep it, it is infinite. When you are able to keep the mind healthier and controlled, that means such a mind should be able to think in a healthier way in this world, means think of a larger cause, of happiness to all, everybody in the society, everybody in the country, everybody in the world.That also we dreamt. 

As a child these thoughts used to come. “Why is it that humanity is always against each other? Why can’t they live for each other? What is the meaning of religion? Why in the name of religion do we keep fighting unnecessarily, why do we keep killing each other? What is the need? Why can’t we help each other? Why can’t we simply respect each other and live? Happily everybody can live.” So that doesn’t happen you see, that is because mind is not under control for human beings. It is not healthy. Its thinking habits are not at all healthy. It becomes totally selfish and narrow-minded. 

First we try to think of our body. For this we are ready to cut somebody’s head and pick somebody’s pocket. We don’t mind to destroy somebody’s life. Humans become so jealous, greedy and all these things happen, it’s happening. That’s why there is conflict, everywhere people want. When will these conflicts come to an end? Is there a way that we all can live happily and peacefully? We all have to work, no one power can be simply giving peace like this. That miracle can come only when we work, when we do sadhana, when we practice the spiritual sadhanas recommended. Things like meditation. So these are the fundamental, basic truths that we realize.

Religious means when you undertake such exercises, such rituals or such sadhanas so that you can keep your physical health and, using the physical body, your mental health. If the mind is purified through meditation, that is my experience, and after that if the mind wants to think it always thinks of a larger cause. It will not be very selfish and narrow-minded. It tries to see the justice, better judgment capabilities come. As I told, you are not going to destroy the mind, it is you, yourself. It is always available. You will be able to think and be creative and live in this world. But the benefit is that it will be under your control. Once a certain job you need to plan, you have to think, you do it and after that is done you will keep quiet until the result comes, you will be able to accept it also. So all these things you see because we keep wondering, ‘What if it happens, what if it does not happen?’ So mind doesn’t stop into thinking it jumps into worrying all the time. So that is why these things – unhappiness, tension, fear, conflict – all happen. So that is one thing that we can achieve. We will be able to keep the mind silent in Supreme Peace and in the awareness of our own Selves as the immortal souls will be possible. 

So the third one is moral values, as I mentioned three responsibilities. If the mind is healthy it is very easy to uphold the moral values, otherwise not.  Like consideration to each other. If I am hungry everybody will be hungry. If I want to be happy everybody wants to be happy. So this is what I understood about religion, if we are able to practice these things then we are really religious. Otherwise it is simply rubbish. That’s what I understood, I try to tell people. 

Breathing exercises called pranayama also can be very helpful in enhancing the concentration in meditation. The restlessness of the mind can be brought down. Whenever you are restless mentally you take a couple of minutes, even one minute, half a minute, sit down somewhere, take a long inhale and exhale of the breath then the restlessness of the mind comes down. When the restlessness comes down then the confusion also can be overcome. When the mind is lost, when we lose control we become so confused and get into the greed, anger, jealousy, all these things. We won’t be able to think properly. So that is what we can achieve, by this practice.