"We must never be disappointed of the Divine Grace."

This statement is one of the profound spiritual truths revealed by the Master. Master while discussing the problem of disappointment in the progress we make in sadhana makes this statement. Master makes a simple and pithy summary of his system when he said "God is quite plain and simple, devoid of everything, not to speak of any solidity. So, it is absolutely necessary for us to free ourselves from grossness and solidity in order to achieve Him. The solidity comes in by the effect of our own thoughts, actions and surroundings. Our thoughts must therefore be regulated, and the individual mind must be thoroughly disciplined so as to clear off the weight settled in. We should become as light as possible so that a single breath of the master may put us to the highest possible flight."(s.s.pg.312)

He states further, "In our sanstha, the reality is infused in to the abhyasi at the first stroke. It serves as a seed for further growth which, under the watchful eye of the master, goes on developing, unaffected by the scorching heat of adverse circumstances. But it remains for you to keep on watering it by your constant remembrance which is the only instrument to ensure speedy progress in spirituality. We must go on with speedy steps, not resting even for a moment till we have attained the Goal. When we have got the right path we must stick to it firmly and not be away from it at any cost." (s.s.pg.312)

As we find some difficulty in facing the problems of life we tend to swerve from the chosen path and choose all sorts of alternatives which are admittedly grosser, explaining such deviations with all the rationalizations we can muster. Master firmly states that "All sorts of grosser means and mechanical practices should be given up. When we find ourselves growing lighter and lighter day by day we must conclude that we are proceeding right towards that which is the lightest and the subtlest." (s.s.pg.313)Thus while giving clue to understand our condition of following the correct and right path he affirms further that "We must never be disappointed of the Divine Grace. God is the supreme Master and His will must be carried out in every respect. We should think ourselves to be bankrupt and remain ever busy with worship and devotion, not minding the interruptions and disturbances that happen to come in our way." (s.s.pg.313)

Because of not following the simple commandments of the Master in our life we find the disturbances to be such as to either temporarily stop or totally give up sadhana as saying that this system is beyond our capacity. This is nothing but the result of not having the required determination. Master states that "We should never be disheartened thinking that our Pooja cannot be carried on regularly on account of inner disturbances which I put down as the 'barking of dogs'. The dogs will never stop barking even though you give them a good thrashing. Let the dogs bark but the elephant goes on, paying no heed to them. If possible you may better train the dogs so that they may not bark to disturb you in your pooja. But for that you have to adopt proper means to mend their irregular habits. (This is possible by following the simple and plain system of the Master-K.C.N) If you apply physical force to stop their barking, there is danger of their becoming violent and offensive. Therefore it is better to show them that their barking shall not be a disturbance to you. When it comes up to this, their barking will eventually subside. Further, if we had taken care of it earlier, their barking might never have come to effect at all. In short, we have only to train them so that they might, by themselves, come up to proper regulation and discipline. The only way for that would be to raise ourselves up to the level where they may also begin to take the effect of our inner state of mind. That means spiritual elevation up to the level at which even animals may begin to take in the effect. This is the actual purpose served in the long run by the practice of meditation."(s.s.pg.314)

Master adds that "Barking of dogs refers to the unregulated activities of the mind and the indriyas which can easily be set right by meditation and remembrance."(s.s.pg.314) Thoughts during meditation and also at other times can be barking at us and disturbing. The point to note is that thoughts can take and most of the times do take a form. Not only our thoughts take form, they also upset our form most of the time if unregulated. If unregulated we think of the same thought over and over again and it becomes strong and tends to become a trend. The greater the number of times we think about the same thought, the greater the matter forms. The more we hold to these thoughts and do not allow the flow of thought (as it moves in a cyclical manner) the matter gets frozen to create scope for stagnation. It is a simple law of Physics that recurring thoughts are strong patterns of energy. So they naturally create some sort of matter. And any matter is a form. Thus the thoughts which were once felt as a mist becomes deep and heavy like fog. I once saw the condition of an aspirant given to the grosser forms of worship, so meshed with dark and heavy thought forms that his head appeared to be a swarm and the thoughts were stingy enough that I had to wait for quite few months to clean his heart using many methods given by the Master. It must be stated to the credit of the aspirant that he was terribly depressed with the type of worships he was doing and being unable to get out of them was also angry with himself and the various deities he was worshipping. The solution to this type of problem is hard work of cleaning by the aspirant aided by the cleaning done by the trainer through Pranahuti and absolute faith in the grace of God. It should be noted that all this work happens in the prana sarira or the vital body.

The thoughts that disturb us during meditation and also at other times mostly relate to fear and anger. I shall dwell briefly on these two forms of pain in the prana sarira or vital body. There is fear all round now a days. All that is due to lack of security real as well as imaginary. After the serious setbacks in the world economy recently the main feeling of the majority is that the end is near or the end has already come. The main thought wave that is circumambulating the atmosphere now a days is fear. Pretty sure it is not the end of life but the end of life as we know it. From the enlightened point of view this will appear as something that has to happen in the cyclical nature of events. From the Gandhian point of view this situation is what we have bargained for; it is the result of our collective neglect and procrastination in dealing with our economic over-indulgence, nelsons' eye to corporate corruption, 'not my problem' attitude towards drugs and violence. It is necessary to know that the pattern of the world's condition begins in the patterns of our own behavior and beliefs. As long as we continue to hang on to the attitudes and actions that created our current predicament, we will continue to experience turmoil. Turmoil, chaos, uncertainty, changes etcetera are all signals of an old way that is passing away and a new way being birthed. First the pain and then the joy.

The degree of pain we experience is completely proportional to our level of resistance to the necessary and irresistible shift that is happening. Pain is always caused by resistance to what is. It is essentially in the realm of Prana sarira that we feel pain. It is time we wake up and recognize the unconscious path we have blindly trodden. We would do well to return to our human and spiritual roots and be truly grateful for the soul-breathing basics of life. Now a day's everyone feels something is missing. Most of us are likely to think it is our awareness of our life's purpose. I think it is something even more fundamental than that. I think we have forgotten our interdependent connection to Life itself. Our true nature gets revealed to us in the Natural Path as not the users and consumers we have been but that we are divine care takers and benefactors of the world we live and move in. The prayer given to all humanity by the Master to be offered at 9 P.M. is essentially directed to make us live in that plane of consciousness of benefactors of the world, which may even termed as Sri Ramchandra Consciousness. Indeed a great goal to live. I may even call this real sanity.

Gratitude comes from being of service to a worthy cause, not from grabbing everything in our way. If we release what is necessarily passing away, the pain will stop and we will awaken to an opportunity to reconnect to our souls and each other. To the awakened pain is a phenomenon not of the physical body but the vital body. My associates who are doctors inform me that many a case is recorded where the pain is felt in the limb that is not there due to amputation or otherwise lost. This should be enough reason to accept that it is the prana sarira that feels pain. We are not in destructive times, as the news would have us believe, we are half way down the birth canal to real life, the one we are meant to live, is about to begin; as Dr. K.C.V. used to say 'the world is in the throes of a new birth'. Many of us had it quite good in the passing world of consumerism. We bought what we wanted, when we wanted. When our infatuation with a new possession wore off, we simply got a newer, bigger, better one: bigger houses; more powerful cars; more expensive wardrobes. We did not pay much attention to our gluttonous use of the world's resources and ignored all heed of the wise. As far as we are concerned oil and trees and water and air are abundant and eternal. Today, that arrogant and wasteful way of life is coming to an end and we are feeling the pain. But on the heels of that pain, if we choose to see it, is a renewed sense of abundance for what is truly meaningful: a life of love and sharing and sacrifice. We are creating new relationships with our environment; that which honours our resources and considers our legacy to future generations with each decision we make. We are creating new relationships to each other; which honours differences and embraces common good. The sense of insecurity and fear is passing away and we shall live in confidence and courage we naturally have in a life of interdependency and cooperation. In the Natural Path we are treading under the ever vigilant eyes of our beloved Master Babuji Maharaj we are excited about the spiritual relationship of dependency and interdependency we have with him and all that exists. We in the Natural Path feel 'appointed' for this cause and are never disappointed with the grace of God and shall always endeavour to carry out His will in every respect. There is no fear to live according to His will more so because of the presence of the Master deep within our heart. I crave your indulgence to mention some personal matter. In the early 1970's and even afterwards I used to feel disappointed with the way in which work was being done by many persons in the cause of the Master and his mission. Master wrote to me and I quote "I feel, I do not know how far I am right, that sometimes you feel disappointed. When I am there for your service, disappointment should be set aside."( letter of the Master Dt/- 14th Aug.1972) I think this advice given to me may be treated as advice to all aspirants and we should never feel disappointed of his grace.

After fear, anger is the next most debilitating emotion that disturbs us in sadhana. Unlike fear, anger is a complex emotion. And unlike fear, which usually puts us in a state of stupor, anger can spur us to take action, though not necessarily in a beneficial way. Reacting to events that provoke anger will usually make things worse. If we analyze why we ever get angry, it is almost always because our expectations did not match facts or reality. It is not getting the things that we want that makes us angry, but only when our expectations of getting a thing, in the way in which we want is not met, that makes us angry. Expectation is a quality of the Prana sarira and to some extent Manomaya kosa. We have built up our expectations based upon our past experiences and how we have interpreted them. We then projected these expectations into the future. It may thus be seen that anger is a quality essentially of the vital- mind. As such, quack remedies such as jumping, running or punching a bag or pillow will be mostly futile. Following these suggestions will make us tired, but we will still be angry. And yelling at people whenever we feel angry is likely to be counterproductive. The advise in the journalist columns of psychology- "let it out" anger reactions are also mostly unproductive. This is because as a mental quality, we cannot use lower vibrational, physical energy to diffuse our anger. As Einstein said, "No problem can be solved at the same level of consciousness that created it." This means we cannot use physical means, or even vital or mental means, to solve a mental problem.

Thus it is obvious that we need to invoke a higher level of consciousness. We need a spiritual approach to solve the problem of anger. First and foremost we should accept the reality of the situation and live fully in the present. Only when we live in the present can we consciously decide if it is best to take action now or continue to accept the facts of life. We should learn not to resist facts or the reality of a given situation. Our only two healthy choices are to act or to accept. It is obvious that complaining is non acceptance, which will perpetuate our anger. It turns us into a victim, which the Law of Attraction tells us will bring us even more of the stuff we are complaining about. It may be noted that suppressing our anger is also non acceptance. It will still attract more anger, and it will resurface when we least expect it. Therefore we must act or accept reality. Anger has no benefit, other than to tell us that we are acting unconsciously, that we are, reacting, based on habit or past experience. Getting angry is a habit that we all have felt. If we know this and control ourselves we have taken a step towards higher consciousness. Then we can take an enlightened course of action to solve the problem.

While all this is possible the best method would be to try to solve the problems of fear and anger and many other debilitating emotions by moving to a higher plane of consciousness and feeling our interdependent nature with the Master and his creation. It is obvious that our sense of separation creates the problems. Our ego is responsible for misleading us into identifying ourselves with our body, emotions and thoughts. We do have a body, we do feel emotions and we do think thoughts but none of these are us. We are essentially spiritual beings. Identifying with anything other than our true spiritual self leads to suffering. By following consciously and rigorously the commandments of the Master and practicing the cleaning procedures assiduously we can enable ourselves to move into the higher level of consciousness.

Movement to the upper portion of the heart and living consciously in that plane is the characteristic of one established in divine realms. This however we know through our practice is not all that easy and we falter and in fact fall many times. The additional practices of meditation on points A and B does in fact help us to live in this plane. But the basic urges and emotions are so strong even a saintly person has the danger of falling down often. We do require a capacity to attend to the problem in the present and we understand our effort can be dramatically facilitated by an external source of high-vibrational energy from a highly evolved person amongst us who can help us sustain our living in the higher plane through the process of Pranahuti. Dr. K.C.V. states that "You must use your mind. You must use it yourself. The mind that has come to the lowest end and is in suffering must turn back to get at the source or purity itself. Now Master says at this point, it cannot be done with your own efforts, but only a Divine personality, can help you to connect your lower end with your own higher end, because you have created so many barriers to your own flexibility to connect yourself with the original condition. Therefore, the Supreme personality or the Divine personality alone can connect you back and also create that flexibility in you by moulding your whole being by removing the knots and other interferences and putting back to the Ultimate. And that is to be done by that Mind."(Complete works of Dr. K.C.V. Vol.1- page 206.)

Modern science informs us that higher frequency energy is more powerful than lower-frequency energy. When we infuse higher dimensional energy into a lower dimensional form, the lower energies must leave or be transformed. This is what our beloved Master has stated as we have seen in paragraph 4 above."That means spiritual elevation up to the level at which even animals may begin to take in the effect. This is the actual purpose served in the long run by the practice of meditation." By eliminating the lower density negative energies our tolerance will grow exponentially, as we will no longer unconsciously resonate with emotional pains of others in our prana sarira. We then will remain compassionate, but detached. Of course, without changing our thoughts or, at least, becoming aware of the thoughts that precipitated the painful emotions, cleaning our system will be only a temporary solution. That is why though every day we feel calm and relaxed and feel light after the cleaning session we feel the need to go through the process the next day. But when our prana sarira is thoroughly cleaned and is pure, we will be less likely to identify with it. This is obviously beyond our capacity and the help of the master is absolutely necessary. Aspirants would do well to understand this and avail the opportunities for individual sessions with trainer when much of the cleaning work will be attended to. When the prana sarira is cleaned unhealthy feelings will become the exception, rather than the rule. We will come to identify with our true self, and not our emotions. When our Prana sarira is clear, the Law of Attraction will work in our favor. People who were previously attracted to the emotional pains in our prana sarira will no longer be attracted. I have personally felt so many people leaving me over the period of these years of sadhana and know that is what happens in other aspirants' lives also. Purification eliminates the toxins that attract "toxic people." When by following the commandments we turn the pain, which we feel were caused in us by others by love and other higher vibrational energies, we tend to attract higher minded, spiritual people and will actually repel angry or people suffering from fear.

Disappointment thus it may be seen is the outcome of the turmoil in which Prana sarira finds itself. But when we become aware of the continuing and abiding presence of the Master facilitated by assiduous cleaning of the same we feel ourselves appointed for a noble cause of life and the question of disappointment does not arise. Grace of Master is everywhere and every time but it is the pining souls that we need to be to have it. When such a craving for Him is established in us all other desires and consequent problems and pains are automatically dissolved. While He is everywhere and every time it is only when we do not see Him somewhere and sometime the problem arises. The problem is an outcome of our illusion that He is not there when and where we want. All that we need to realise is that all that exists is He, even as the Masters affirmed and live happily with the awareness of His presence.

Pranam.