3. Sri. Ravi Prasad

Respected Brothers and Sisters,

Pranams.

I feel honored to present the paper on the subject of the seminar “Some are deluded by their own thinking and some are illumined by Divine Grace (Silence Speaks 2004 edition, Page-218)” in your august presence.

The examples given by Pujya Babuji Maharaj on delusions in this article, reminded me of the discussions/arguments I had with an abhyasi who was trying to explain me about the system of Natural Path.

Before joining the system, I used to think, I was traditional. I used to do daily (almost) puja, used to go to temples regularly and used to recite Vishnu Sahasranamam daily. When an Abhyasi told me about this system, I was not prepared to listen and came up with couple of logics and was prepared to argue. I was very strong in thinking what I was doing was right as it is even backed up by the facts that it is ancient and so-many people in the world are also following it. I was deluded by the strong attachment to my own notion about the greatness of what I was following.

When I heard the talks published by the Institute, which mention that

• Intellect only satisfies the itch of the brain and feelings only satisfy the heart (which is similar to the sentence in this message: "logical speculations are no substitutes for craving of the heart")

• We need to know what we want and whether the system we follow provides that or not and how many people following the system have achieved what is promised in the system

• Practice the system and see for yourself

In the beginning (before joining the system) I used to feel the aim/end result promised seems to be more or less the same, in most of the systems and just the training method might slightly vary and there is no need for me to change the current practice. When I started thinking on the point (2) above, I came to know that

• I never seriously thought of what I wanted from my earlier practice, though I had some Qs on the purpose of life

• I never thought of or looked at how many people reached or confident of reaching the promised goal.

This is the problem similar to that of mine, I thought, Pujya Babuji Maharaj was referring to, in the article of the present topic, when he says "... nor the 'disciple care to use his discrimination' ". The amount of reasoning I have put to justify my earlier practice, if I could have used the same in a reasonable way i.e. in analyzing what I wanted and how much I got, it would have been useful. So analyzing and logical thinking, as such, are not the problems. We should also be reasonable enough to see how and where to apply it.

When the Institute mentioned that the self-evaluation will be done against the 10 commandments given to us by Pujya Babuji Maharaj and that the progress is to be measured not just in terms of how peaceful we feel during meditations, but how relevant our life is to ours and to others, I felt happy. Unless the system itself is correct and confident of achieving the results, I felt it never wants any one to evaluate (on practical parameters) and might just ask the people to have blind faith.

Initially when that abhyasi told he is “more” balanced and peaceful after practicing the system, I said “I am also peaceful and balanced, why should I join”. After the practicing the system, I came to know that:

• For the terms/feelings where quantification is tough or can only be measured relatively, unless we practice and feel for ourselves we can not understand how much “more” or “less” and that too w.r.t. us. I think we can easily get deluded that we too are in a condition, promised in the system or explained by the practicants, by just having an idea about it.

• For the same word peace the depth of my understanding/feeling has been changing with sadhana.

In our system, especially, we get the Divine Grace very often. When we get the Divine Grace and feel for ourselves, we get illumined and come out of the delusions of the notions on the spiritual conditions. I am very much thankful to the Master for showing me the path, and to my trainers for helping me in my spiritual progress.

When we are convinced of a system’s correctness and Greatness, I think, the only remaining thing is to follow it in it's purity of content and practice. The Institute is putting lot of efforts in making the abhyasis to get out of the delusions

• By emphasizing the importance of sadhana

• On Pranahuti

• The abhyasis may have regarding the method and practice by publishing the book “Three Truths and trillion doubts”

• Of the progress of the abhyasi:

a. By providing tools for self evaluations

b. By providing very good literature on the various milestones on the path with parameters to measure them

c. By categorizing the topics in the literature, so that we can refer them based on our requirement as we feel from (b) above or as suggested by our trainer.

d. By providing Game of Life

I think, when we are taken out of delusions, we get illumined. I am very much thankful to the Institute for their efforts, mentioned above, in illumining the Abhyasis.

I am thankful to Imperience for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts and I request all of you to pardon me for any mistakes above.

Pranams