Progress on the Christmas and New Year’s Retreat

Many, many disciples could have stayed longer on our Christmas and New Year’s retreat. They do not have serious financial problems. So many disciples who have money will not come at all because their mind is not permitting them. There are again some who do not have much money, but who are dying, dying to stay even one solitary day more. We use the term holiday, but I am not taking this as a holiday – never.

Here the progress that I make, that you people make, you have no idea – in two months how much progress we make! In my outer life I write so many poems, songs, this and that. In my inner life also, I get tremendous joy because I work much harder. You see that I am meditating and meditating. Apart from that, I do many, many things. Here tension is comparatively much less – for you people also, for everybody. As soon as you go back to America or your country, there are problems – tension in the streets, tension in the subways, tension in the mind.

God gives us the opportunity for practically three months to make tremendous progress. There are some disciples who make such progress in two or three months. It is like depositing money in the bank. Then you start withdrawing, withdrawing, with-drawing. The time comes when you say, “Again I have to work very hard. Otherwise, there will be nothing left in the bank.”

There are quite a few disciples who make such progress during these three months, and the rest of the year their progress is almost next to nothing. Little by little, here they become relaxed, and then so much progress they make. One main reason is my availability. How many hours I spend with you all! I doubt very much if other Masters spend that much time with their disciples.

You can learn by heart some of this year’s prayers, 50 or 60 prayers out of 500. If you repeat those prayers inwardly or outwardly, you are bound to make tremendous progress. You can select 50 prayers that you like, and others will have a different selection. I get tremendous joy, not pride, tremendous joy that my Supreme, Beloved Supreme, used me to offer those prayers.

Here again, the way you are spending time with me, I am reciting the prayers, and you recite them with me. In New York when do you get this kind of opportunity? In terms of opportunity, again it is mutual. You get the opportunity to receive something from me, and I get the opportunity to open up your hearts wider.

This year if you will be in serious trouble with your work, please do go home. From next year, please try to make your stay more flexible. If you ask your bosses, then you may be successful. Again, there are some who take a leave of absence, with no salary. Then their boss says, all right, go, go, since it is so important for you.

Where there is a will, there will always be a way. But some people, as soon as they get a little resistance from their bosses, they surrender. Next year please value this retreat. This is not recreation. This is the easiest way, most effective way to illumine us, to give us joy. Here innocent joy we get – the disciples get innocent joy by spending so much time with the Master, and the Master gets so much joy by being with the disciples. We have to value our close association.

Spiritually we make progress not through austerity, and again not through indulgence, but through inner happiness, when the body, vital, mind and heart – everything – feel light, light, light. This is not physical weight, but the inner weight – when you feel very light, then you make absolutely the fastest progress.

Otherwise, the mind puts tremendous pressure on our lives. We cannot lift 10 pounds on our head, but our mind will place 200 pounds on our head. When you go back to New York, to your respective countries, I can see that there is a very heavy load on your shoulders, on your head. But when I come here, I see that, even in my own case, the heavy pressure that I feel in America, I do not feel the same kind of heavy pressure here.

That is why here I can write 6,000 poems, and throughout the year, in the other nine months, I do not write even 1,000. Like you, I am depositing money in the bank. Here, in three months, I write and write and write, with the grace of all of you – all of you inspire me. When you are back in your respective countries, where do you get this kind of opportunity? How can you be together with your spiritual family every day for hours?

For three months I write. Once I accomplish this, my problem is over. Then the editors, typists and printers work so hard. It becomes their problem. Here also, those who help me are so kind, and I am so grateful to them. Alone I could have done nothing – in all sincerity, I say I am nothing, nothing alone. But with continuous help, I am able to create.