Talk Delivered at the Seminar on 17th June 2007

Master while discussing the role of the Guru or Master asserts the value of the Guru as a necessity and sarcastically remarks that some are deluded by their own thinking and some are illumined by Divine grace. The implication in this is that the Divine Grace is required to get a competent Master. We all know the methods of meditation are prescribed by the Master. It has been the habit of many to think that all meditational methods are about the same and thus they appear to ignore the method of Pranahuti assisted meditation. Some are deluded to think that the Master will knock at their door when they really deserve and till then there need not be any search for one such master. They are likely to quote Master Babuji Maharaj also along with others to substantiate this point. It requires divine grace to get at the real meaning of these words.

Some consider that diving deep into one’s own heart to know one’s nature is not a means to an end but rather an end unto itself. The goal being infinite the argument goes there is no goal to achieve. This is one of the fundamental fallacies in the thinking of persons who consider they are rational. Some may argue that sitting silently has no value and would liken it to any number of rituals and techniques that seem to occupy the time of many who lack divine grace. These people are like those who will not challenge theories of the past and who try to find explanations for failures based on what is known.

Deep meditation invariably leads to a state of silence and in Pranahuti Aided Meditation such experiences are common irrespective of the number of years of practice one puts in sadhana. Silence some consider does not reveal any event or object but rather it reveals that identification with events and objects is false. This is a superficial understanding. The truth is that silence is a state of pure and simple feeling and those who learn to live in that condition never seek to be apart from that.

The most difficult thing in spiritual life is the call to demonstrate the result of our meditations and our true nature which is realised. This is a valid point but it is only half true. It is clear that one cannot objectify oneself although it is oft attempted. If we look for a thing to call self we will not find anything. If we call our thought, mind or sense perception our self it is found they are always in a state of constant flux.

The flux of thought and sense data is not the self because the self abides in the midst of all flux; when the flux passes who we are remains. This scientific attitude is beneficial for even though we cannot isolate and define a source/cause, we cannot deny that the self abides in the midst of all this coming and going of thought and perception. It also becomes clear that identification with all the activity of mind and sense is an error for it cannot be who we are if we abide without that activity.

Identification with thought, form, and sense is the ego, and that is the source of unhappiness.  We do not need years of practice to come to this conclusion. We are never distant from our true nature and we do not need a microscope to inquire into silence. We need to simply do nothing and observe what remains in a moment of no thought.

The experiment of diving deep into meditation, into no-mind, removes the obstacles to the realisation of our true nature. This may be likened to the way of the scientists who get closer to understanding by ruling out possible causes. In a laboratory, this may be a long and fruitless process, but in a moment of no-mind, all that is false disappears for it is the mind only that creates what is false.  What is unreal can only be a construct of thought for it has no other existence.

This is neither religion nor philosophy but pure and simple Imperience or spirituality.  If we dive into silence, all thought including ideas of god, religions, and ideas of ego or self (the illusions) cannot abide. They dissolve, for they were thought only just like dreams in the night that fade in the morning and nothing can catch hold of them to make them stay.

One may ask why do we use the words meditation and silence while talking about spirituality. These words give rise to false and superstitious ideas particularly when we repeatedly say dissolve into a state of no mind or no boundary consciousness or have Laya. This question is excellent, and I make bold to state silence and superstition are not causally related.

Silence does not assume or imply superstition. Moreover, superstition cannot be the subject of silence, because only when we remove superstition silence remains. It is true that ideas do come and go in silence like materials floating on the ocean. It does not mean that the ocean will cease to be without those objects disturbing if not polluting it. This is the experience of many of our aspirants who participated in the Mansarovar programs.

The malady of the modern man is his habit of perennially polluting Silence with thoughts just as we pollute the world’s great rivers with the vile waste of humankind. Many aspirants somehow think they can enter silence taking their prejudices with them and they cling to these preconceived ideas of what Silence is. As a result, they do not truly dive deep into the Silence. The reason is that to let go of such ideas is to let go of the sense of oneself, to let go of identity, and that is death to the ego. Even the ideas of heaven and hell are a consolation to the ego, because in both heaven and hell the identity lives forever and is even important enough for eternal life or torment. It is divine grace only that can enable one get out of this illusory notion of self or ego or individuality or identity. Without such a divine grace one can only be deluded in his thoughts in silence or noise.

The ideas of Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed are the same substance: thought. That is the only plane in which they can exist. If we need to commune with them we should be adept in being in Silence. All images and forms of such personalities and I make bold to say even that of our great Masters Lalaji and Babuji sahibs are imaginations we have and it is essential to be in pure thought to commune with them. Silence or a state of no mind grants this first boon of getting rid of imagination. We cannot create dreams in such a state but only observe. Like the Ganges and other great rivers, the rivers of spirituality of the world are as polluted as are these great rivers: polluted with the filth of the past and present. As such, what goes by the name of spirituality many a time is only customary, traditional, ceremonial, and peddled to the credulous herd as security and consolation. But it is harmful to life because that which distorts the reality is harmful. Those who think that all the methods of the masters who come to the stage every alternate day are worth while will only be deluding themselves with their own resources of thinking.

It is true that the Great Masters lived in absolute freedom and gave a great tradition; and in our system we call that the Ganga Jamuni tradition. This river of spirituality should be maintained pure and simple. Once the stream is polluted and is contaminated the poison will ever remain even though we cannot deny that the polluted stream also has many uses. Polluted Gangetic water may not quench our thirst but surely can quench a fire or wash away sewerage. The ignorance about this kind of poison is more dreadful than the poison itself. People who are ignorant of this pollution are denying themselves the chance to know their true identity and in the process go subtly sometimes and not so subtly many a time- insane. Such waters of pseudo spirituality and religion do not lead to truth; they offer consolation and ego fulfilment, and those are mistaken for benefit. That is the fate of those who like to govern themselves by their own thinking and do not enjoy the divine grace.

Many aspirants hold that there is substantially no difference between what goes by the school Vedanta and spirituality. I was myself a student of a type of Vedanta and I have no prejudices against those schools. Spirituality aims at total freedom and every individual in the world wants it either consciously or unconsciously and that is why Master says everyone is moving towards his Homeland. Many seem to resort to Vedanta and some times to religion and their terminology because they cannot imagine (imagination is a product of mind) anything else. They are raised around such stinking rivers and see its uses, and that is the end of the consideration.

The system of Rev. Babuji is entirely different and this is where the waters of the Divine Ganges pours into our hearts even as it entered into the matted hairs of Lord Shiva. It came rushing towards him while we are fortunate in having a Master who smoothens out the flow and make us feel refreshed as we receive the flow. There are no beliefs, creeds, superstitions, or dogmas in the state of Silence that is imperienced. All beliefs disappear in a moment of total absorption and a state of no thought. Our following this system grants us the divine grace that enables us to believe in a Master and a state of consciousness not vitiated by the selfish terms and conditions. My call is that all should inquire into the effortless Silence that is obtained due to influx of divine grace as an experiment without any preconceived notions and Imperience the Silence and see what the reality is.

Pranams.