Bristol, UK – 6th July 2010
Offering My unconditional surrender at the Lotus Feet of Beloved Master Shivabalayogi, I greet you all this evening with My love and blessings.
You all would have come here with the idea of learning the meditation or practicing meditation, trying to know what it means and why it is recommended. When a person tries to convey a message or tries to create an awareness amongst the people, if they are ready to learn, such a teacher becomes known as a Guru. Guru means, He should be able to dispel the ignorance totally, compared to the darkness symbolically, and such a Guru creates such an awareness of knowledge of the Truth. This knowledge is compared to the light, symbolically. However in a unique way, my Guru’s legacy does not try to impose ourselves as the only Gurus. He gave the technique of meditation to the people and tried to create an awareness of its need to practice, just like a friend. It was a unique method. Because when a person becomes Self–Realized, He would have experienced that Oneness of the Supreme Consciousness and the One Undivided Energy together, as the Self, and would see the same Self everywhere.
It’s something like, you see, if in my consciousness we are this space, All–Pervaded, and we see the same space everywhere, at that moment it appears there is nobody teaching or learning. So that’s what precisely is the status of a Yogi’s Consciousness, it doesn’t have such imaginations that, “I am a Guru and somebody is going to listen – students.” However for the sake of worldly manners, when a person wants to learn and accepts a person as a teacher, that teacher becomes a Guru and the learner becomes a student, a disciple. My Guru said, “It is up to the student if he wants to adopt us as a Teacher or guide, as a friend, and wants to know about meditation.”
When you are trying to practice meditation, you are trying to keep the mind quiet, because this mind is constantly into its imaginations of judgments and analyzations. And it is the responsibility of a Teacher to create the right awareness and to tell the right path so that the student can achieve that Truth. What is this Truth? – The Truth of Existence and the Truth of Peace and Harmony. This is what everybody is looking for either knowingly or unknowingly. A peace and happiness is possible only when a right path is taken and right type of methods are adopted. It is the mind which experiences the life’s unhappiness, fear and tension, confusion, all such things. When we are trying to overcome this and looking for peace and happiness, we try to do everything with the idea that we might get happiness somewhere. “We must have that peace and happiness. Is there somewhere we can find this? Is there somebody who can give this to us?”
A Guru teaches that the Peace is within you only. You are the abode of Supreme Peace. You need to become aware of your Self. If you have forgotten your Self, if you are unaware of your Self, then the mind is only aware of such things which it is imagining. Then the mind is going into such imaginations of fear, confusion, unhappiness, all these things. That is why My Guru said, “Do not be in a rush to become a Guru, try to become a worthy disciple first.” Meaning, before learning, before experiencing the Truth, if one tries to teach the Truth, he might be diluting the Truth itself. He might be trying to give some other thing and end up making people more superstitious, with more blind beliefs and without the Real experience. So that is why before trying to convey an awareness, My Guru said, “It is more important that one should practice and experience that Truth, then only one will be able to show the right path.”
Why is this meditation recommended? As I told, is it not peace and happiness that you are trying to look for? Is it not your mind that experiences unhappiness, confusion and fear? And often you would even have wondered what happens after death. A common man knows that he has been born and is going to die, but really he doesn’t know what he is. This we never try to think at all. Generation after generation people think that we are born because of our parents and that is all, more than that we do not think. Suppose suddenly you had been made to appear in the space in this form of a human, without being born to parents or any such thing, then perhaps you would have been wondering, “How did I come into this existence? Who am I? What is the purpose?” Many times people start thinking, “What is the purpose of life?” Many thinkers have thought, “We are born and we are trying to live, we are trying to earn a livelihood and one day we die. Is this all, is there anything else?” So that’s what we need to ponder over: “Who are we really, what is the purpose of our life?” As my Master said, “Having been born as human beings you have triple responsibilities – physical health, mental health and moral health.” To take care of your physical health, using this physical body you need to take care of your mental health also. Controlling your mind – when you’re trying to meditate, you are trying to control the mind. Means, you’re trying to make it quiet, whenever you are awake, your mind would be constantly thinking, very often jumping into worries. The thinking doesn’t stop into simply thinking, it jumps into a worry, into anxiousness, a fear or any such thing keeps happening.
We try to attribute so many reasons: the surroundings, the way of life that we would have adopted, or the family things, or the worldly things, or the friends, and this circle, that circle, so many people. We would be making judgments, “People are not behaving properly, they are not doing this thing or that thing.” There is conflict; so many hundreds of millions of things could be giving us a hurt feeling, a bad feeling, an unhappiness, a dissatisfaction, all these things we would try to attribute. But instead of that, if we try to look into our own self: “Why is this experience happening to us in our mind? Is it really that everybody is so bad as we might be thinking, or the truth might be something else, that we are simply thinking that’s why the things are appearing as bad?” Whatever we imagine, the same thing appears to us. So that is the trick of the mind always, and it is this mind which is making us to experience that unhappiness. If the mind can become quiet…
Occasionally you would have had a glimpse of that refreshing peace. Sometimes if you had got up in the morning, when you would have felt fresh after a good night’s sleep and rest thoroughly, then for a while the mind would be so rejuvenated and fresh. But suddenly, unknown to you, the mind starts thinking. When it starts thinking in the beginning it would like to think everything pleasant – nobody would like to have unpleasant things in their mind. However as the day passes, the mind would be jumping into the dualities again, it doesn’t stop into all the good thoughts and pleasant thoughts at all times. It starts thinking the bad things also, the dualities, other unhappiness thoughts, all such things the mind jumps, and the mind goes on experiencing good and bad, right and wrong, happiness and unhappiness.
When you are trying to take control of the mind means you would be able to keep it relaxed and at peace and think in the right direction when you want to think. Many things happen in this world, good or bad, a conflict, suffering, miserable conditions, but simply by worrying in our own mind we will not be able to set right anything. If our mind is not confused, if it is perfect, an uplifted consciousness, then we might be able to think of a better way of trying to create an awareness amongst people, that as human beings we would be able to live a better life, a life of uplifted consciousness, consideration to each other, upholding the moral values. Let all of us live happily and peacefully, that is the consideration to each other. If every human being can think like this, then there can be harmony, there can be peace. Simply one person thinking then the world does not have it. If one person tries to be good in the midst of ten bad people, so those ten people won’t take it kindly. They will force him also. That is the nature of this world. Whoever has got whatever it is, they try to force others to come onto their path. Just like whoever comes in front of me, I try to create an awareness in them and try to make them to come onto the path of peace and harmony within themselves, also to know the secrets of their own mind, keep their mind under their own control.
When you practice meditation, you shall become the master of your mind, otherwise, you see, your mind makes you to dance to its tunes. Whatever it wants it goes on, goes on and goes on, it doesn’t listen to you. You would like to be relaxed but the mind doesn’t listen. Constantly it picturizes and runs. That is why this mind is again and again referred to as a wandering monkey in this world. So this is what one would be able to achieve if one practices meditation constantly, and eventually you can becomes aware of your Real Self. When you become aware of your Real Self means that existence is an Eternal Existence, Immortal. Also there will be Supreme Peace and Happiness. This is what one can achieve through the practice of meditation.
When you close the eyes hundreds and thousands of thoughts and visions come. They could be troubling. You would wonder, “Why is there no peace in the mind?” You see the mind has picked up such habits since time immemorial, it absorbs all imprints, it makes judgments. When it makes judgments it believes in its own judgments and will never listen to somebody else or something else. But the mind is Pure Consciousness. When you are able to overcome all thought processes and visions, when it gets cleared and what remains is the Pure Consciousness of your Existence, then you’ll be able to enjoy that Peace and Happiness and you’ll be able to know the Truth of your own existence. Also, how you as the Immortal Soul is beyond the existence of this body, its birth and death, all these things would be possible. This is what a meditation can take you into. However if you don’t want to go for the Self Awareness, still if you meditate you can live a better life in this world, a peaceful, stress–free life, no confusion. Wherever you want to work, in whichever field that you want to adopt, any such things you want to achieve, then you’ll be able to apply your best brain’s abilities through the focus of your mind. Your mind’s one hundred percent concentration would be possible, then you can live like a champion, a genius in this world, whatever you want to achieve. You want to become a sports person, you want to do business, you want to have a job, you want to have a career, anything is possible. Or eventually, if you practice meditation, you can become aware of such amazing secrets of the mind and your own real Self.
‘Me’ and ‘mine’ is so important to everyone. ‘I’ – that ‘I’ is the thing which makes you struggle to keep that ‘I’ happy, to keep that ‘I’ secure all the time. These two are the important points which makes everyone restless and struggle in this world, survival, all such things. But we do not know who we are, we do not know what the secrets of the mind are. We have to watch and observe, then we will know it. But we are unable to watch and observe the Truth because mind is totally preoccupied, it’s so busy in its own imaginations and assumptions and judgments and imprints. When you close the eyes you will know that when you want to stop the mind here, make it just purely keep watching, you will understand how difficult it is, it would appear as if it is impossible.
Twelve years my Guru sat for the Tapas by remaining twenty-two hours in deep mediation at a stretch, what is known as Samadhi – a total standstillness of the mind and unwavering concentration. He practiced it when He was initiated into this technique by the appearance of the Divine manifestation of Lord Shiva as a Jangama Sage, who appeared from a fruit and made Him to sit for Tapas. Until then He did not have any spiritual inclination, He wanted to do business. He was trying to overcome the poverty of the family; He was trying to help the family. But He had certain inborn qualities which enables a person to achieve and to go for it. These are determination, dedication, honesty – honesty means sincerity. My Guru always used to tell, “You need to be sincere to yourself first then only you will go for the Truth. You will never accept until you come across the Truth yourself.”
You can have a faith, you can listen to somebody like us, no problem, but ultimately you have to practice and achieve this Truth, that’s what a real Guru would advise. He shall never promise spoon feeding. If you practice only you can achieve it. A Guru’s job is to be a torch bearer, to inspire, to motivate a person, to guide and help on the right path, to adopt the right methods. If the right technological things are adopted then things become easy and smooth. Otherwise one closes the eyes… Many people come and talk to us: “I have been trying to meditate for forty years and nothing seems to be moving” – because the mind is into a job, it has picked up the habit, it is unable to remain quiet. You see the mind’s technique – when it watches a certain thing, it makes an analyzation, after recognizing that, “What is this? This is good or bad, this is right or wrong” and then makes a judgment in that process. When it makes a judgment it absorbs an imprint also. An imprint means that sits firmly: “Yes, this is it.” Afterwards if somebody comes and tells, “This is not the thing, it is something else,” one gets confused: “No, no, it cannot be. This is what I know, this has to be like this only.” Suppose if I tell (pointing to the microphone), “This is God,” you might even laugh because you might be used to knowing this as the microphone, that’s what your mind has made a judgment. But my observation is different, I have seen the Truth in a different way, consciously, face to face type of thing. When the mind stops all imaginations, it becomes Pure Consciousness – it comes face to face with the Truth, experiences It. When it becomes Pure Consciousness, this goes introvert and merges with the Self, just like the droplet merging with the Ocean, the Sun’s ray going back to the Sun, and then you’ll be able to become aware of your Self.
Every spiritual exercise is taught for that thing, basically so that the mind can be brought into control and can be kept focused and concentrated. Often people ask this question of the chakras and the kundalini raising, all these things. Kundalini is not a serpent that is sitting in the body. Symbolically only people would have spoken, “A serpent rising like an electric current, the energy rises.” Actually it is energy; it is also the consciousness. As I have told, the mind is the combination of consciousness and energy. Consciousness means, wherever you apply that consciousness, you become aware of that existence. It is up to you afterwards whether you want to imagine something about it. If you just want to be there, that is the Truth. If you imagine you are likely to limit the Truth. That’s what the Truth is. Like, if you want to measure the space you will limit the space. How can you explain what the space is? – Impossible. One has to become the space itself to experience what the space is.
As I was talking of the kundalini, it is nothing but another portion of the Consciousness now which you call it as the mind, because of thoughts only you call it as mind. It is so infinite, you cannot show it to anybody: “This is the mind, this is round or rectangular,” any such thing. Simply based on the thought process you tell, “My mind wants to do this, my mind wants to go there.” What it means, from the worldly point of view, the mind is a bundle of thoughts simply. That’s what we recognize it as – mind. But once all the thoughts can be cleared and there is just nothing, just a Pure Consciousness exists, that’s what the real mind is. The same type of consciousness – another portion has gone into the body – this is what is known as the kundalini, ‘coiled energy’ they called it, this is what gives the body consciousness to us. Symbolically they tried to experience because when the mind comes back, this mind tries to lift the body consciousness also, they both have to become one mass and gets delinked from the brain’s clutches and go to Samadhi to experience the Self awareness, that’s what it is. So when it rises like this, a teacher would have explained it could rise like a serpent, rising so fast and like an electric current. And the chakras were all explained symbolically as different stages of that one, because whenever the mind tries to come back, it tries to lift the consciousness of the body also. So because of this consciousness, you have obtained so strong a potency of consciousness about yourself as the body. You have to overcome this gently and gradually through meditation.
That is why this practice is given since ancient times. My Guru tried to bring it to every doorstep in a simple way. He said, “Do you want to know your Self? Sit down and meditate, you will know this, this is the technique.” He gave it freely; He wanted everybody to learn and everybody to enjoy that Peace and Happiness. That’s what a Yogi, a Self–Realized Soul, when He would be able to have that Supreme Peace, likes to share so that others also can achieve and enjoy that Supreme Peace and Happiness for themselves. Your own Existence is the greatest wonder and the Peace is the highest miracle that can happen.
