Talk Delivered on the occasion of Basanth Pancami Celebrations 23rd Jan 2007

My dear associates in the path,

My salutations at the holy feet of the lovers of the Master.

It is as a part of spiritual duty that we assemble every year on the auspicious day of Basanth Panchami which is glorified by the descent of Pujya Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh to further consolidate our spiritual status as Murads totally dedicated to the service of Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur. Our beloved Master has stated that his master has taken the incarnation at a time when the world was in turmoil and when” Solid materialism had taken the place of fine spiritualism. Dark clouds of ignorance were hovering all over; yogic transmission had become quite foreign to us. At this state when spirituality was urgently needed to set things right for the upliftment of mind.’’

Every aspirant knows that searching for the inner and outer peace is a daunting task. We all adopt the procedures and methods given to us by the great Master to achieve this state of consciousness in which our entire being lives and moves in spirituality. One of the methods that we adopt to achieve this state, is meditation on the divine light without luminosity in the heart. It is the common complaint of all those who practice meditation that the invasion of thoughts never seems to get reduced and the goal of having peace seems to move away from them and they feel like being thrown in a storm of thoughts.

Just as a storm in the atmosphere of the earth is born of conflicting fronts of different temperatures colliding with one another, so too we realize that there are conflicting forces within us that form a mental or emotional storm. We have understood that our planes of living which varies from Annamaya to Anandamaya Kosas are the causes of these conflicting forces in us. Therefore our task is to become conscious of these unseen forces that dwell in the unenlightened parts of us. As we move in the path the Viveka dawns and the understanding that no disturbance can remain within us without our granting it the force it needs to sustain its fury, and we realize that we have at our disposal two great powers. Our faith and confidence to realise is one and the other is the force of Pranahuti. Thus we find that we are empowered to dismiss storms when they appear in our psychic system and, with time and practice, we learn to dismiss these disturbances before they begin.

Analysing these invisible conflicting forces at work within us we recognize that all the storms in our lives share a common cause. Each storm, large or small, centers around the feeling that something is happening to us which we do not want to happen. The conflicts rise in us because of our unconscious resistance to something that has already happened. Whenever we face an unwanted event and find ourselves feeling nothing but resistance, we can discover that this stress-mess is made from our insistence that this should not have happened. This is how we feel when we recall past mistakes, painfully reliving how we fell down and we are sure that whatever that error may have been, it should not have taken place. We feel it is natural for us to go along with the feeling of not wanting what we are powerless to change. This is a strange struggle put forward by our indisciplined mind and it is almost similar to wrestling with mental ghosts. An aspirant with faith in himself and the Master realises, of course after sufficient suffering that once something has happened in our life that moment is over and it is gone for ever out of our control. The mischief of the unclean mind is to make us believe that which no longer exists to be here and now. The natural question that arises now is ‘how can something from our own past feel as real and as alive as it does to us in the present moment?’

It is informed to us by the scientists that within our mind lingers an untold number of chemically and electrically stored images of the way things were. These mental pictures include complete scenes of every experience past, as well as pleasurable or frightening images of what is yet to come. And these same images are secret storehouses of all the sensations that accompanied them in the moment of their creation. Each one is laden with its original emotional content that pours into us each time we revisit them. The problem we know has been dealt very precisely in the article ‘Problem and its solution’ by Rev. Babuji Maharaj. The more we are drawn into these flooding considerations, the more we suffer. And the more unwanted this painful experience becomes, the more we unconsciously resist our mounting turmoil until we are caught in a full-blown storm. A seemingly harmless thought, which we turn over in our mind, thus becomes a tornado. This problem has been discussed by the Master in his Commentary on the Fourth Commandment graphically citing a story of a person who got infatuated with a woman called Jamila.

The only reason we ever find ourselves to be caught in a psychological storm is we have been drawn, without knowing it, into identifying and actually merging with the mental images from our past. These images are pre-loaded with punishing thoughts and feelings that flood into us the instant we identify with them. As the invisible, but psychically palpable blows from these painful memories pour through on us, we are unconsciously moved to try and resist them. All this makes us feel as though we are trapped in a storm about which we can do nothing other than try to escape its lashing.

With faith in ourselves and the method and the help we receive from Pranahuti it would be possible to be on our own and not identify with the thoughts and thoughts patterns. The purification process prescribed by the Master, it is the considered opinion of all those who practice them, is the mind gets cleared off all its conflicts and warring tendencies. Then we need never again endure the pounding of such negative states and there will be no storm of mental torment or dark, emotional suffering. Any wave of resentment, anxiety, or fear that comes to wash us away is nothing more than a kind of psychic residue left over from what we were once. Not only do these negative states have nothing in common with our True Nature, but they cannot enter into the living Now where the Pranasya Pranah lives within as higher consciousness.

This same truth is realised that we cannot be punished by any painful storm when we are grounded in the present moment. The reason for this perfect protection is as pure as it is simple: the support of the Master to our faith in ourselves and the methods. Mental storms that are negative are powerless to push their divisive and destructive forces into the spiritual harbour where our ship is deeply anchored in the Ocean of Blessing Splendour of the Master.

Learning to dismiss the storms that sink our chances to be happy demands on our part dedicated practice and total submission to the will of the divine. When we realise our true nature of being Pure Consciousness and Pure Thought which is there always and through dedicated and single pointed orientation to be happy all the time we will be dwelling in the realms beyond the self wrecking storms. We are thus entering the area that is governed by the principle of Karma or in modern day parlance cause and effect.

One may wonder what has thought to do with this. The principle on which the whole of Raja Yoga is based is on this Pure Thought or Consciousness. Since thought has no apparent measurable physical structure, it is considered to be spiritual. We cannot see it, smell it, touch it, taste it, or even feel it, but we know it exists. It exists only as a vibration a fact that is endorsed by all the aspirants who receive Pranahuti as an aid to their sadhana. Everything in the Universe is governed by the principle of attraction or repulsion. We know that vibrations that are of a particular frequency and intensity attract to themselves alike vibrations, to bring into the physical world the result of the initial seed that was planted namely thought. A brilliant presentation of this fact is what we find our beloved Babuji’s commentary on Commandment One. This principle is the basic logic of Pranahuti- a thought in seed form sown into the Psyche of the aspirant with the main purpose of transforming him.

Thus we understand that our thought seed grows according to whatever we feed to it or nurture it with. The thought can only produce an outcome that is in relation to, and correlated with the seed that is planted. If our thought seed consists of fear, anxiety and doubt, it is obvious that we will receive fearful, anxious, and doubtful results. By nurturing the original thought seed with healthy, concise, focused, and positive elements, it produces healthy, positive and fulfilling relationships. Viewed from this background we find the Commandments of the Master are an imperative to spiritual living. The only thing that we have to do is to nurture those seeds with correct thought and allow the incredible, unfailing and unwavering power of the Pranahuti to embrace us to get the exact results that we desire. Thus we arrive at a clear understanding that whatever acts we perform are subject to a precise reaction or process of Cause and Effect. We can then make a conscious choice as to what thoughts we think and which actions we take or not take, and limit them to only those which will produce what we want into our life. It is but natural and simple to know that we can choose only such action as may lead us to our goal and not those that detract us from the goal.

Our mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work unless it is open. Closed minds do not realize the Truth and it is only the disciplined mind that can choose correct and proper action on any given situation. I with your permission would like to bring to your kind attention some passages from the scriptures and noble souls to stress the point.

i) When one lacks discrimination
And his mind is undisciplined, the senses
Run hither and thither like wild horses.
But they obey the rein like trained horses
When one has discrimination and has made
The mind one-pointed. Those who lack
Discrimination, with little control
Over their thoughts and far from pure,
Reach not the pure state of immortality
But wander from death to death; but those
Who have discrimination, with a balanced mind
And a pure heart, reach journey's end,
Never again to fall into the jaws of death.
With a discriminating intellect
As charioteer and a trained mind as reins,
They attain the supreme goal of life
To be united with the Lord of Love.

(Katha Upanishad)

ii) Those who act without thought of personal
Profit and lead a well-disciplined life
Discover in course of time the divine principle
That all forms of life are one.
Those who work in the service of the Lord
Are freed from the law of karma.

-Shvetashvatara Up.

iii) Restraint with the eye is good,
good is restraint with the ear.
Restraint with the nose is good,
good is restraint with the tongue.
Restraint with the body is good,
good is restraint with speech.
Restraint with the heart is good,
good is restraint everywhere.
A monk everywhere restrained
is released from all suffering & stress

Dhammapada.

iv) The Buddha was joined by his own son, Rahula, a young boy. He advised him: "Cultivate Rahula, a meditation on loving-kindness, for by cultivating loving-kindness, ill will is banished forever. Cultivate, too, a meditation on compassion, for by cultivating compassion, you will find harm and cruelty disappear."

-Majjhima Nikaya

v) We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

-Martin Luther

vi) Intellect, leadership, courage, faith and compassion are the timeless secret to unlocking our individual and collective power, passion, purpose, potential and fortune. This is the only truth and the most powerful secret.”

vii) THE THREE TREASURES
The body is the temple of life.
Energy is the force of life.
Spirit is the governor of life.
If one of them goes off balance,
all three are damaged.

When the spirit takes command,
the body naturally follows it,
and this arrangement benefits all Three Treasures.

When the body leads the way, the spirit goes along,

And this harms all the three treasures.

viii) Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without many comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly, virtue is like precious odour when they are incensed or crushed. For prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue."

Lord Bacon

ix) Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional…

Anonymous

x) Practice right conduct, learning and teaching;
Be truthful always, learning and teaching;
Master the passions, learning and teaching;
Control the senses, learning and teaching;
Strive for peace always, learning and teaching;
Rouse Kundalini, learning and teaching;
Serve humanity, learning and teaching;
Beget progeny, learning and teaching.
Satyamvacha says: "Be truthful always."
Taponitya says: "Master the passions."
"Learning and teaching are
Necessary for spiritual progress."

-Taitiriya Upanishad

xi) The laws of life are five:
Non-violence,
Truthfulness,
Integrity,
Chastity,
and Nonattachment.
These laws are universal. Unaffected by time, place, birth, or circumstance, together they constitute the "Great Law of Life."

-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 2:30-31

xii) Where there is great hatred, are the fetters of hell.
Where there is great avarice, are the fetters of the tortured spirits.
Where there is great ignorance, are the fetters of the beasts.
Where there is great lust, are the fetters of man.
Where there is great envy, are the fetters of the demigods.
Where there is great pride, are the fetters of the gods.
These are the six fetters of non-liberation.

Anonymous

xiii) When you were born, you did not come with an owner's manual; these guidelines make life work better.

a) You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's the only thing you are sure to keep for the rest of your life.

b) You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "Life on Planet Earth". Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.

c) There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation. "Failures" are as much a part of the process as "success."

d) A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until you learn it: then you can go on to the next lesson.

e) If you do not learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state. When you clear inner obstructions, your outside world changes. Pain is how the universe gets your attention.

f) You will know you've learned a lesson when your actions change. Wisdom is practice. A little of something is better than a lot of nothing.

g) "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" becomes a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that again looks better than "here."

h) Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate in yourself.

i) Your life is up to you. Life provides the canvas; you do the painting. Take charge of your life, or someone else will.

j) You always get what you want. Your subconscious rightfully determines what energies, experiences, and people you attract; therefore, the only foolproof way to know what you want is to see what you have. There are no victims, only students.

k) There is no right or wrong, but there are consequences. Moralizing does not help. Judgments only hold the patterns in place. Just do your best.

l) Your answers lie inside you. Children need guidance from others; as we mature, we trust our hearts, where the Laws of Spirit are written. You know more than you have heard or read or been told. All you need to do is to look, listen, and trust.

m) You will forget all this.

n) You will remember all this at will

xiv) Lord Krishna declared in the Bhagavad Gita (16:3:1) that we should “Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve. Realize the truth of the scriptures; learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigour, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, Arjuna, you will achieve your divine destiny.

A word about enlightenment before I conclude. Few decades ago on the day previous to the Basanth Panchami I reached 1.Shahjahanpur along with other abhyasis by bus from New Delhi. I met the Master and he enquired about me and my work and also asked me to come by 4 a.m. the next day saying he finds me tired. Accordingly I reached his feet on 1st Feb. Not dealing with the peculiar attitudes of the volunteers in attendance there with the Master, I say that I was invited by the Master very affectionately and I sat by his cot. He asked to me to sit and I was in a very deep state of absorption almost immediately. I lost all awareness of the surroundings and found that a great stillness descending upon me. The world more appropriately the Universe with all its vastness appeared in a clear and transparent vision of unity and harmony. I found myself merged in a deep sense of peace in which I and all of creation are one in a mystical union with Master. A large space opened up. It would be as true to say that I expanded to encompass the whole of existence as it would be to say that I had totally disappeared. Eternity, which I had understood earlier as time without end, appeared as the absence of time. Everything was infused with life, including what until that moment, I had considered inanimate. The Universe was neither big nor small. It revealed itself as simply One beyond all relative attributes, such as size, location, and time. Suddenly I heard the Master saying ‘that is all’ and I found myself in a state of daze with tears flowing throwing my cheeks. After some time Master told me that ‘when the heart is not able to take the experience this happens’ and said I would be soon out of this state and will arrive at a state of Balance.

I have heard accounts of other persons in this system and read of similar experiences by those belonging to other systems. The content of such experiences seems to vary from person to person, depending on one's personality and socio-cultural background; but in essence, these spiritual experiences are similar in that they all recount a unity of man and God and they all transcend space and time. Many aspirants I think seek such a sort of experience confusing such a state with enlightenment. I would ask all such persons not to overlook the silent background in which both the experience and the "I" that remembers and interprets it occur. This awareness is what I have been pleading with all aspirants who explain their state of meditation as one of Nothingness and if this mirror-like awareness is there even such a profound experience would be seen as another cloud drifting by and the state of beyond and beyond is experienced. The experience that is had where the unity of all existence is felt deep in the core of our being requires to be contemplated and our actions and thoughts moulded accordingly to be in tune with such an experience. That is when we can say that we have realised our true nature and enlightened to that extent. Enlightenment I must add is not an end state; it is a continuous process where the individual separate existence is dissolved in the universal.

It is necessary to understand that spiritual experiences occur only in a pure mind. Granting that spiritual experiences can be either external or internal it is always the purity of self that is in the act of perceiving that matters. If the mind that is cleared of all dirt and dross perceives then the vision is clear and transparent as to its meaning and wisdom results. An impure mind obviously cannot have wisdom; such a mind will be in a state of self deception and ego distortion that have crept into such perception or experience. The extent and kind of distortion that creeps in depends on which self is experiencing. Some aspirants are relatively free from the ego and social distortions than others and it is the process of getting free from distortions that make up the preponderance of what is called spiritual work. There is no better way to be pure than to connect ourselves with the Master who is perfect and is beyond blemishes. For doing spiritual work or peace work which promotes universal peace it may be seen that living in a state of pure mind and universal consciousness is very important.

The only possible thing that can stand in the way of our receiving gifts from the divine is only we. It is up to us to make the conscious choice to change our thoughts, words, and actions which, with repetition, establishes the belief in our subconscious mind. The subconscious, super subconscious and super conscious mind in us then release into the atmosphere and emanate those vibrations of the desired goal which attracts to it, the events, people, circumstances, and situations that allow it to manifest or occur. We only need to be receptive to them. It is important to expect them and look for them as they occur.

The Institute of Sri Ramchandra Consciousness has been striving to present the system of the Master in its purity of content and thought. We are all tuned in to the consciousness of Sri Ramchandra. We all know that Sri Ramchandra of Fatehgarh is the one who granted us this system through our Master. We have had the fortune of knowing some articles written by Rev. Lalaji through the book Truth Eternal published by the Sri Ramchandra Mission in 1973. It is in 2006 we came to know through a patrika published by Dr. Premsagar that there are some more articles written by the Great Master. Dr. Premsagar was kind enough to give permission to use the material for our research and study purposes. We take this fact of getting the articles of Pujya Lalaji Maharaj as a blessing from him. Imperience is happy to release a book let containing few important articles of the Great Master. One last word before I take your permission to conclude my talk. The booklet of Rev. Lalaji is placed before you even as we have earlier placed some editions of Bhagavad Gita. It is again stressed that we follow our Master and his instructions as what he has given is a carefully distilled wisdom of all his earlier saints and sages, prophets and messiahs.

These materials help us to understand how much of stupendous work was done by our beloved Master to help us live the life that is real and deserve the name of being called Real Man.

Pranams.