Perth, Australia, 6 May 2007

Sometimes as youngsters we used to watch in some movies and some books also we used to read, how the primitive people of this world, ages ago used to behave. It always appeared that they used to be quite violent, mistrusting each other, behaving like animals often. And then we thought of the present-day civilization – we have always read this terminology – but always I have tried to ponder, still the conflict continues in the human world. There is mistrust, lack of the feeling of oneness everywhere.

Often we see humans displaying their ego, unable to understand each other, unable to communicate in a proper way, that which we could call as a civilized thing. We always have pondered, “Why is it that this is continuing? How civilized can we call ourselves today? How responsible we need to feel and why this conflict is in the human world today, in different parts of this world? Why is this still there? Why is it that we are unable to live peacefully, more harmoniously, better than the people of yester-years, we are unable to live?” As more and more the time is passing by, it seems conflicts are increasing. After the Second World War we really thought, “Now all the wars must come to an end. Humans must learn to live peacefully, happily – coexistence in this world.” But that has been elusive for all of us in this world.

I have always pondered why this is, what is the basic reason that humans keep behaving like this? What has come to light to Me is – a feeling of insecurity. Sometimes we would have read or seen in movies about the behavior of some animals, particularly when they are with their cubs, anybody going in front of them, they wouldn’t be able to think whether such a person or such a thing is their friend or a foe. Unprovoked they simply attack. Why is this instinct? Unknown to them, an instinct of insecurity. The same way that I have felt that human behavior also, this ego crops up with a feeling of insecurity; everybody wants to be secure in this world. So I thought always, “Perhaps if we know ourselves better, then we can overcome this feeling of insecurity in ourselves.” That’s why if you practice this meditation, gradually you would be able to overcome this feeling of ego and insecurity, and we would be able to experience what we are actually. Then we can understand what we require, what we do not require; where we can be hurt, where we are not going to be hurt. A feeling that somebody might hurt us, so we would like to hurt them before they try to hurt us – a wild imagination crops up in the mind. But once a person knows about one’s own self totally, peacefully he is able to overcome all feelings of insecurity. A feeling of illness, a feeling of troubles in this world, eventually the feeling of death to the physical body also we can overcome. That is the basic idea of teaching this meditation.

First to feel secure in this world, harmonious in this world; I have always prayed to God, “If You want to give Me some power, I don’t want any other power but give Me some power that I can give some peace to this world – at least to some people of this world. Some happiness if I can give, give Me such a power of composure to Me, security of My own self, that I feel that I would be able to give some peace and happiness to others. That would be the only power I would pray to you, My Lord,” always I have prayed to God. And no other power is required.

Everything is available in this world. Every materialistic object is available. The whole world is available. Money is available. Status is available. Everything is available. Only thing that seems to be not available to the people of this world is happiness and peace. So make me more and more noble as much as possible. Give me the ability to forgive others. Give me the ability to understand others so that I can give more peace to them, more happiness to them. How this can happen? Every human being behaves based on the imaginations of their mind. It’s the mind which induces a person to behave – that’s what we call as culture, civilization or any such terminologies we have used – to be more cultured, a better cultured person; that we try to understand others always. If each other can be like this in this human world, we can solve this problem of conflict, disharmony amongst the human beings and we would be able to live peacefully and happily. There is nothing wrong in the Earth, nothing wrong in the creation – God has given enough. Earth has so much of resources that every creature can live peacefully, happily. It is possible. It is only we, very often, that make ourselves miserable in this world. This is because of a lack of control over our own minds for us. That is where we recommend meditation.

Since ancient times in India, those great sages who practice this used to ponder over like this, about the existence of the Self. That’s what My Guru always advised, “You feel insecure because you don’t know who you are, what you are. You feel egoistic because you don’t know who you are, what you are.” Suppose a person comes and criticizes Me – a person who would criticize Me, would be thinking about Me something else and I might be something else. A person might be criticizing Me thinking that I am only a servant but I might be an emperor – that person may not know. But if I know that I am the emperor and not the servant, there is nothing for Me to feel hurt. In the same way, a person might come and criticize Me thinking Me to be this physical body. If I know that I am that Immortal Soul – I’m conscious that I’m that Self – there would be nothing for Me to feel insecure or feel hurt. One would be able to readily forgive. So for this, it is essential that we all try and know ourselves first. And then that happiness and peace which we are looking for everywhere in this world would be ours at all times. The greatest power would be ours to have peace and happiness.

When I talk of control of the mind, it is not that somebody else is trying to control your mind. Some people have become apprehensive and have asked Me this question, “When we talk of meditation for mind control, what does ‘you practice mind control’ mean?” Before they come to these meditation sessions, they start thinking, “Whether Babaji is going to control our minds and what it is? Is He going to hypnotize?” This type of insecure feelings people have expressed. I am not here to control anybody’s mind. I’m not here to hypnotize anyone. Just trying to enlighten everyone of you that you need to control your mind for your happiness, for your cultural behavior, for you to lose your ego, for you to lose that unhappiness, for you to behave in a much, much better way. As My Guru always used to tell, “We need to behave like a good human being first, that is essential. If we are human beings we need to behave like human beings.” We should not be behaving like animals, feeling insecure at all times. We should be exercising restraint, composure.

If we have the peace we would be able to give to the other. It is simply like if you have ten dollars, you would be able to give to the other. If you don’t have any dollars in your pocket, what can you give? In the same way, if you don’t have peace how can you give it to the other? So we need to achieve for ourselves. It is you who has to achieve this mind control for yourself. Mind is your conscious energy, through which you live in this world, you operate in this world. You can live any way of life. If you practice this meditation regularly, that elusive happiness and peace, harmony within you and within this human world everywhere, we all can build a better world. For that we need to practice. That is the basic essence of the purpose of practicing meditation.

And now some tips – how to achieve this practice of meditation. Always it is essential, to have a scientific approach. Scientific approach in My sense, because, once I was talking to a scientist and I wanted to know, “What is science in your opinion, you being a scientist?” He told Me these things – always trying to have a systematic approach, a systematic adaptation of methods, so that you can achieve the right results, clarified things in the end, you can go to the reality. That’s what he said. So that’s what I mean, when I try to tell you to have a scientific approach. You need to have a systematic approach, systematic adaptation of methods. That is what is called meditation – practice of meditation. When you practice this you will be able to keep your mind under control and channelize its energies in a proper way, in its right sense. One would be able to behave in a better cultural way, in a better civilized way, better restrained way, would be able to lose that ego and feeling of insecurity, would be able to gain the ability to understand others. Eventually one day when you have that peace, you would be able to give that peace to others. That’s what the power I have always prayed to God, “Give Me that peace, so that I can give it to others”. No other power is necessary for Me. No other miracles I need to perform. Because this peace and happiness is the requirement today for this world for everyone. So that is why the meditation practice is recommended.

When you sit for meditation we would be telling you the method in a little while to practice. It will be a short meditation, not a long one to begin with. Though My Guru always insisted that one needs to begin with one hour of meditation. But we feel sometimes that might be longer for the present day generation . If people are not used to this meditation in the beginning, so we have tried to reduce the time to 45 minutes or 30 minutes. So we try to teach some breathing exercises which can enhance your concentration, because first you have to achieve the concentration of the mind. Otherwise the mind does not remain concentrated into one thought or into one thing. It is constantly jumping into thousands of thoughts. That is how it wanders like a monkey in the world. Always this is the common phrase we use. It keeps on imagining, imagining……

If you observe your mind, it cannot keep quiet even for a moment. It tries to imagine. Well, to live in this world, you need to imagine and live. But to imagine in a right sense, in a better way; we should be able to imagine that others need us. We should be able to imagine if a person is not behaving properly; so we should be able to imagine that we need to understand. If everybody can behave like this there would not be any misbehavior at all in this world. Trying to understand each other. So when you sit, thousands of thoughts would be arising. What really happens in meditation is that it is a cleansing process. The mind constantly gets cleansed automatically when you are trying to watch constantly on one point, say for example in-between eyebrows, you will be watching without trying to imagine anything. You have to be watching without trying to repeat any name or any mantra. Nothing is needed. That is why we basically always tell, to practice this meditation you need not commit to any particular faith. My Guru respected all religions as equal and honorable, all communities of the world – He did not discriminate. He said, “Mind belongs to every human being.

To control this mind, to practice this, any human being can practice this method. Such a unique method that He gave which He obtained by the Divine manifestation and He experienced it. Because He always used to wonder as a child, the differences in humanity – the discrimination based on communities, religions and so on. He also always pondered over, “Why this difference?” After all, just like the blood is the same color – “mind” – What is this “mind”? It is we who try to discriminate based on imaginations. But mind belongs to everyone. This mind needs to be brought under control. You are to practice meditation. So you can be anybody in this world, all you need to have is a yearning, an interest, a respect to know its purpose and achieve for yourself. If that is the need for you, that happiness, if that is the need that you need to overcome a stress, you need to live a stress-free life. If you want to overcome unhappiness once and for all, at all times, under all circumstances, under any situation. That’s how you need to.

So when you close your eyes, and try to concentrate on a point, for a while in the beginning, thousands of thoughts might be arising, to give you another awful thought, “Oh, what’s happening in the meditation? Oh nothing seems to be happening. The same thoughts are continuing.” You need not lose your heart like this. You need not lose your determination. When the machine starts washing the cloth, in the beginning, there’s likely to be so much of dirt in the cloth. But as it goes on washing, washing in the process, it’s a systematic process that happens, then eventually in due course of time it gets cleansed. The moment you sit for meditation, close your eyes and concentrate. That is what it means – you sit for meditation and the cleansing starts. Mind gets applied onto the brain unknown to you, all these things happen. That’s what we observed during our deep meditation, during our Tapas period, and this mind has recorded all the imprints in it.

Everything you have come across in this world, through your sensory organs and mind in this life, unknown to you the mind makes an analyzation and a judgment, for example, “This is good, this is bad. I want this. This is mine, this is not mine,” and makes a judgment – Yes. Once the mind imagines, “This person is my foe,” even if that person is a friend, that person would appear to you as a foe, because your mind has imagined. Not necessary that person should be your foe, he could be your friend but appears to be a foe because your mind has imagined. That is the effect of the imagination of the mind. A foe might appear as friend and a friend might appear as foe. Somebody might be trying to help us, but he might appear as if he is attacking us. Because if my mind imagines so, it appears so. So even if the things are right, it might appear as a wrong. This is one of the illusions of the mind that happens. Suppose for a son if a father is pulling him up, trying to be a friend to the son, trying to be a well-wisher of the son but if the son misunderstands, imagines wildly in a different way in his mind, the same father might appear as a foe to the son. He might start thinking, “This father is not my well-wisher. He doesn’t allow me to go as I want.” Such an imagination might come. So the same father, who is really a well-wisher, who is so loving and caring to the son, who wants the son to go on the right path to achieve the best things in life, might appear as a foe. That’s because of the imagination of the son. So that is the illusory effect of the imagination of the mind. How it makes you happy, unhappy in this world. Things appear which may not be real. That’s the illusion.

So when this mind is coming with thousands of thoughts it means it is applied on the brain and all the thought processes are getting evaporated, meaning cleansed. It is an automatic process which happens. But because of the nature of the brain, it decodifies – that’s when all thoughts and visual effects appear to you. Then you might start thinking, “Why are these thoughts coming?” They are like the garbage being thrown out. You need to keep quiet at that moment. Just watch them without trying to analyze because you must be aware – very careful, exercise some will-power – that your mind has a tendency to analyze and imagine in a particular way. This is what you have to stop with. If you do not analyze, that’s what we tell, do not imagine when you are trying to meditate. You just watch them. Even if it is a bad thought, good thought, anything that is coming, don’t imagine it in that way. It all appears to you so because you have imagined. Then only it gets cleansed and the mind becomes more peaceful. Then you would be able to enjoy the meditation. Until then in the beginning you may not be able to enjoy the meditation. If you do not enjoy, that doesn’t mean you have to give up; all you need to understand is that it is a medicine for your ill-health. When you understand, when you have that faith in the doctor, that he is giving you the medicine for your illness in the body, you would like to take it, irrespective of its taste, whether you like it or not, when you have that faith.

So that is why the faith, devotion and reverence to the Guru is recommended. That’s what we were trying to show by our reverence when we came in we did the aarati – show a light. It means showing the highest respect to the Guru, who gave Me this amazing knowledge and wisdom, this experience of the Self, who guided Me to this Liberation, who guided Me to this feeling of total security at all times, total peace and happiness. So we are considering Him equal to My God, My Lord to whom we show that reverence, because this reverence in turn is needed so that you take things seriously. That means you must make it a business to practice it seriously. You must take it seriously. Then you will practice it seriously, you will do it. If you practice, if you do it, then you will achieve it. Otherwise people tend to take things lightly. They don’t take things easily. So that’s what happens. If the Guru is trying to pull up the disciple, and if the disciple misunderstands the Guru, imagines in a wrong way this Guru is not my well-wisher, it’s gone. The disciple will misunderstand the Guru, who is a well-wisher, who is like a mother, as a foe and would not like to learn anything. So that is why respect to the Guru is necessary; that you always imagine in the right sense that the Guru is your well-wisher. Whatever He is trying to talk – means He is trying to talk to teach you, to help you, to enlighten you, to let you know what can be wrong in the mind, what can be wrong in the practices. So if you rectify these things, then you will see your life in this world will become so beautiful, egoless, totally secure, peaceful always. You will achieve such things you might feel like feeling pity at others who do not behave properly sometimes, when you are able to achieve this. So those are some of the basic secrets of the mind.

Copyright© 2009 SRBY. All rights reserved.