My meditation-service at the United Nations for twenty-five years

Author's introduction¹

The United Nations is not just a building; the United Nations is humanity’s home. The lofty vision of the United Nations is that we all belong to a peace-loving oneness-world-family. This vision will eventually transform the face and fate of the world.

As the soulful questions in this book represent the seeker’s dedication to the soul of the United Nations, so also my answers are my own dedication to the soul of the United Nations. This soulful aspiration-book I am lovingly offering to the soul and the body of the United Nations and to all those who are aspiring to unite the world into one body and one soul. This book is also dedicated to all those who truly love not only God the Creator but also God the creation, for God the creation has the greatest opportunity here at the United Nations to flower into a most illumining Reality.

Chapter 1: The hope-sky of the United Nations

Dr Robert Muller: Do you think the United Nations exercises a real influence in the world? What in your view is its principal contribution? How does it appear to you in the great stream of history and human evolution?²

The principal contribution of the United Nations is the hope-sky that it offers to the world at large. This hope-sky is not a product of vital fantasies or weak mental vagaries. This hope-sky is the all-illumining revelation of the soul of the United Nations. The seeker-servers at the United Nations — no matter in which capacity they serve — and the supporter-lovers of the United Nations — no matter in which part of the world they live — are seeing a glimpse of this all-illumining revelation. And each glimpse embodies a growing and glowing fulness-satisfaction in their life of inner hunger and their life of outer feast.

In the stream of history and human evolution, the United Nations is to be not only the great and ultimate pathfinder of the ultimate Truth but also the good and supreme bliss-distributor of humanity’s Divinity.

Dr Robert Muller: The United Nations is a place where humans from all over the world come together to talk to each other, to learn from each other, to heal rifts and to devise a better common destiny. To my mind, it is no less than a miracle. Is it not the greatest place on earth?

According to our limited body, curious vital, searching mind and crying heart, the United Nations is no less than a miracle. But we have one more member in our family: the soul. The soul has quite a different story to narrate. It tells us that there is no such thing as a miracle. Anything that in the ordinary world seems uncommon, unusual and unfamiliar we call a miracle. But there are many higher planes of consciousness where these so-called miracles are common occurrences.

God the Creator and God the creation are one. We see God the creation here, there and everywhere. But we find it difficult to realise or accept God the Creator so easily, not to speak of so lovingly and devotedly. When God the Creator, out of His infinite Compassion, reveals just an iota of His Light and Power through a human life, or lets humanity have a glimpse of a realm of consciousness to which it does not have a free access, our human minds quite often call this a miracle. But, from this point of view, God the creation should also be regarded as a miracle. Only we do not appreciate it because it is always visible and available to us.

Again, from the highest point of view, there is no such thing as a miracle. Although today we are not aware of something or something has not yet manifested on earth, tomorrow we may become aware of it or it may become manifested. So there is no need to call it a miracle; its existence-reality has already been discovered by the highest and greatest member of our own family, the soul. Needless to say, miracle-power does not and cannot elevate our consciousness. It is our soulful aspiration that can and will elevate and illumine our consciousness and fulfil unreservedly the Real in us. And what is the Real in us? The universal oneness of the Transcendental Height. Truth to tell, the soul of our dear United Nations embodies this all-loving and all-fulfilling divine Reality.

Dr Robert Muller: U Thant often said that in his view the West was too materialistic and intellectual, and not spiritual enough, whereas the East was too spiritual and fatalistic, and not caring enough for the material and intellectual welfare of people. Do you see a synthesis developing between the two, and how would you envisage a harmonious, happy world-society?

The East is spiritual, the West is material. The East cries for the Transcendental Spirit, the West cries for the universal matter.

The East is in the heart and for the heart. The West is in the mind and for the mind. The East from within comes to the fore and flowers. The West from the outer existence goes deep within and flowers.

The East wants silence. The West wants sound. Silence embodies the teeming Vast eventually to proceed. Sound inspires the teeming Vast continuously to succeed.

The East sings the song of God the One. The West sings the song of God the many. The East loves unity. The West loves multiplicity.

This world of ours is beset with countless problems. The spiritual East thinks that the Beyond is the only answer. The material West thinks that the answer is to be found here on earth; it thinks that the answer is to live and enjoy, to enjoy and live.

The East believes in fate because it believes in reincarnation. The West does not believe in reincarnation; therefore, it does not believe in fate.

We can endlessly observe the differences between the East and the West. But the real question is whether or not these differences are being synthesised. At the very beginning, if we know what the heart can offer and what the mind can offer, then it will be an easy task to synthesise the two. The heart wants to see the oneness, feel the oneness and become the oneness itself. The mind wants diversity in the vital and multiplicity in the mind proper. The heart knows that there is a road that leads inward. The mind knows that there is a road that leads forward. The East wants to walk along the road that leads inward. The West wants to walk along the road that leads forward.

The synthesis between East and West starts because of their feelings of insufficiency. The East sees that if it does not accept the material life, then it will not be able to manifest what it inwardly has. The West feels that if it does not accept the spiritual life, then it will not have a solid foundation to build upon and everything it has achieved can be easily shattered.

We can clearly see that the East has already gained considerable knowledge and wisdom from the West, especially in the scientific world. Again, the West has gained considerable knowledge and wisdom from the East, especially in the spiritual world. Here we see that the heart and the mind cannot function separately and individually. If they feel the need for integral perfection in life, they have to function together. The mind without the heart will not know what the supreme Reality is. The heart without the mind will not know how the supreme Reality can be manifested here on earth. To our great joy, the East and the West are constantly complementing each other to make each other perfect, at times consciously but more often unconsciously.

The East is like the heart of a bird and the West is like the wings of a bird. The heart inspires it to fly to the highest height; the wings enable it to come down and manifest its discoveries here on earth. There are two goals: one goal is Heaven-reality and the other goal is earth-reality. When we use our aspiring heart to go upwards to the Heavenly goal, we bring the earth-reality up to the Heaven-reality. And when we use our wings to descend to the earthly goal, we bring the Heaven-reality down to the earth-reality. It is like climbing up and down a tree. We climb up a mango tree and pluck mangoes and then bring them down and distribute them. The East says, “Climb!” The West says, “Spread!” If we do not climb to where the mangoes are, then how can we distribute them? Again, unless we spread our inner wealth, the Source will not be pleased with us or fulfilled through us.

For the last quarter of a century, both the East and the West have felt the supreme necessity of receiving light from each other. To quote your own illumining ideals and fulfilling ideals: “Beyond the turmoil, the divisions and perplexities of our time, mankind is slowly but surely finding the ways, limits and new codes of behaviour which will encompass all races, nations and ideologies. It is the formulation of these new ethics which will be the great challenge for the new generation. It will concern not only men’s material fate, but also their mental and spiritual lives.”

There was a time when the renouncer of life felt that it was beneath his dignity to love the lover of life, and the lover of life felt that it was beneath his dignity to mix with the renouncer of life. Now the lover and the renouncer are modifying their views and becoming one. The renouncer feels that he has to love life because God the Love is inside life. At the same time, the lover of life sees that things need not be renounced; he sees that they can be transformed and perfected, for perfection can give humanity abiding satisfaction. So the East and the West, instead of rejecting one another, gladly accept each other’s possibilities, capacities and realities. East and West are combining their possibilities and transforming these possibilities into divine practicabilities with the hope of bringing about an all-embracing and all-illumining satisfaction.

We will have a harmonious, happy world-society only if this synthesis continues and we can take East and West as the two arms, two eyes, two feet and two legs of the Supreme Pilot within and without. Other human divisions and distinctions — racial, cultural, linguistic and so on — are destined to disappear when the human consciousness is flooded with a higher light. This is the inevitable consequence of the Hour of God that is dawning all over the world. Diversities will remain, but they will be enriched and enhanced in fullest measure. And they will not disturb the general consciousness; on the contrary, they will harmoniously complement the whole. Humanity will be a true human family in every sense of the term and also in a sense that the human mind has yet to discover. And here I wish to say that this discovery will exceed all human expectations.

Dr Robert Muller: The first three of U Thant's four categories of needs — namely, physical, intellectual and moral needs — do not create any insuperable problems for me. But the last and most important one in his view, spirituality, gives me considerable difficulties because there are indeed so many definitions of that term. U Thant described it as "faith in oneself, the purity of one's inner self." How would you define the spiritual goals?

According to my inner conviction, spirituality is at once self-giving and God-becoming. This self-giving is not an offering to somebody else, to a third party; it is an offering to one’s own higher self. Self-giving is nothing short of an act of self-uncovering, which is another name for self-discovering. And self-discovering blossoms into God-becoming.

Dr Robert Muller: I often think that U Thant's four categories of human qualities — physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual — could well form the basis for a world agenda of human goals. From your writings, I notice that these categories are also quite fundamental to you. But you add to it a fifth, which you call the vital. Could you elaborate on it?

When Julius Caesar said, “Veni, vidi, vici — I came, I saw, I conquered,” it was the human vital in him that was speaking. This is the vital that enjoys satisfaction through destruction. Needless to say, this kind of satisfaction is no satisfaction at all. The other kind of satisfaction is what the Saviour taught us when out of his oneness with humanity he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Here the Christ teaches us that true satisfaction comes only through oneness.

Oneness can exist on any plane of consciousness. On the physical plane, for example, the head is at a particular place, the arms are at another place and the legs are at a third place. But they have established their oneness because they are all part and parcel of the body-reality. This same kind of oneness has to be discovered on every other plane. When the Christ, out of his fathomless magnanimity, asks his Father for humanity’s redemption, we see him identifying himself with humanity’s unlit reality. This is the reality that needs his Father’s immediate Compassion and express Forgiveness.

Dr Robert Muller: When I speak to audiences about U Thant's four ways to happiness — physical, mental, moral and spiritual — I sometimes hear the following criticism: "Life cannot be artificially cut into four. Everything is interdependent and linked. We must concentrate on life as an entity and not on components that are the product of the intellect." I am not overly impressed with this argument, for I have indeed observed that life is richest when I cultivate simultaneously all four categories. Nevertheless, there is some truth in that criticism and I would be grateful to learn how you would respond to it.

Once we firmly step on the body-reality-rung, the physical consciousness casts off the ignorance-layers that it has had for millennia. When we ascend from that rung and step on the intellect-reality-rung, our illumined mind sees the vastness inside smallness and the smallness inside vastness, the infinite Beauty inside the finite duty and the finite duty inside the infinite Beauty. Then, when we ascend to the morality-reality-rung, we try always to do the right thing. We try to expand our little ‘I’, which consciously or unconsciously enjoys the song of division and the dance of separativity, and embrace all of humanity as our larger, expanded self. Finally, we ascend to the spirituality-reality-rung, where we discover and become one with our highest Height.

To quote your singularly momentous and apposite inner depth: “We progress physically, mentally, morally and spiritually towards a higher level of human consciousness, towards that smile of divinity which knows that someday the human race will be able to re-establish paradise on earth. There is no longer much difference between the political approach and this broader, richer concept of human fulfilment.”

Dr Robert Muller: If you were given the task of laying down the basic principles for the education of all the children of this world, what would be your recommendations?

Unfortunately, I can subscribe neither to the Indian method of bringing up a child nor to the American method. Parents should not keep a frightening tiger in front of their children so that at every moment fear will compel the children to do the right thing. Nor should they allow their children to grow up in the Elysian lap of exorbitant luxury. Parents should be neither autocratic disciplinarians nor unreserved distributors of material wealth; they should be loving, self-giving and discerning friends.

The education of children and the education of parents must go together. The parents must fulfil themselves through their children. As the creation cannot be separated from the creator, even so, the creator cannot be separated from the creation. The creation without the creator is helpless. The creator without the creation is meaningless. Therefore, both must contribute to each other in order to derive real fulness-satisfaction. The parents must go deep within to make the right decisions for their children, and the children must find their real freedom in their oneness with their parents’ will. Let us consider the children as finite realities and the parents as infinite realities. The children can become infinite and enjoy infinite freedom only by becoming consciously, unreservedly and inseparably one with their parents’ wisdom-light.

The parents must not think of their children as unnecessary projections of their own life; for if these projections are unnecessary, then they can go in their own way. On the contrary, they must feel that their children are absolutely necessary projections of their life, and that the improvement and perfection of their children is part and parcel of their own perfection. The beauty of the leaves, flowers and fruits of the tree only adds to the beauty of the trunk and its roots. It does not diminish the beauty, divinity and necessity of the tree.

Here I wish to quote from your most illumining insights about global education: “A child born today will be faced as an adult, almost daily, with problems of a global interdependent nature, be it peace, food, the quality of life, inflation, or scarcity of natural resources. He will be both an actor and a beneficiary or a victim in the total world fabric, and he may rightly ask: ‘Why was I not warned? Why was I not better educated? Why did my teachers not tell me about these problems and indicate my behaviour as a member of an inter-dependent human race?’...

“Global education must transcend material and intellectual achievements and reach also into the moral and spiritual spheres. Man has been able to extend the power of his hands with incredible machines, of his eyes with telescopes and microscopes, of his ears with telephones, radio waves and sonar, of his brain with computers and automation. He must now also extend his heart, his sentiments, his love and his soul to the dimension of the entire human family and to our total beautiful planet circling in the universe.”

The parents should bring the presence of God, love, truth and purity into the hearts and eyes of their children as soon as the children can see the light of day. They should say to their children, “We are true companions, and we have an all-loving Guide who will guide us, mould us and shape us into perfect Perfection. We know a little more about that Guide than you do, and He has told us to say certain things about Him to you. Right now the Guide has asked us to act as intermediaries between you and Him. But there shall come a time when you will not need intermediaries. You will be able to go directly to the Guide, the Source. Until then, you must listen to us for we are your earthly friends.”

Dr Robert Muller: Anthropologists have found a gradation of religious beliefs over the history of mankind: ritualism, animism, ancestor worship, polytheism, monotheism. All these forms were associated with changes in the social structure. Recently, the "age of reason" and the scientific and industrial revolution have rendered religion and spirituality obsolete, even harmful, in the eyes of many. What, in your view, is likely to be the religion or spirituality of humanity tomorrow as a satisfactory answer to man's queries about his relationships with the universe, his fellow men and the mysteries of life? And will this be reflected in the United Nations as a forum where humanity is seeking new ways for its destiny and fulfilment?

Here I am tempted to share with the rest of the world your most illumining ideas and most nourishing thoughts: “Indeed, how can we reach full consciousness and enlightenment if we do not let the entire world and humanity enter ourselves? Humility and the lowering of one’s ego lead in the end to righteousness, happiness and the full mastery over oneself, enriched by the thoughts, dreams and feelings of others. Together with meditation, it is perhaps the clue to serenity in our bewildered, complex world. U Thant was a living proof of it.”

The spirituality of tomorrow’s dawn will beckon the aspiration-world to show humanity that real satisfaction looms large only in the heart’s inner cry. The real spirituality of tomorrow’s dawn will beckon the realisation-world to show humanity that real satisfaction lies only in the seeker’s unconditionally surrendered oneness with his Source, his Beloved Supreme.

Dr Robert Muller: The United Nations is the incredible place where human oneness is seeking itself in the endless diversity of the prodigy of life. How is it possible, then, that so few people recognise this great blessing?

Dr Robert Muller: What can we do to open the eyes and hearts of people?

Dr Robert Muller: I often feel that all my speaking and writing is just a drop of water on an infertile field of blindness and disbelief. What more can one do?

Chapter 2: The United Nations in today's world

Question: How can the delegates at the United Nations best convey the ideal of the United Nations to the people in their country?³

Question: What is the best way to unite the ways of politics and the ways of the soul of a country?

Question: How do we best deal with people who are actively opposed to the United Nations?

Question: What is the main problem or quality in the countries of the world that keeps them from acting according to the ideals of the United Nations?

Question: What does the outer world need in order to accept the real significance of the United Nations?

Question: How can we help people in the undeveloped countries?

Question: In general, what is the order of importance, urgency or priority today of mankind's problems — economic, social, political and religious — and why?⁴

So first we have to think of God and acquire some light that we can offer to our nation. Then we have to become closely connected with others. When we feel our oneness with others, economic problems will be solved to a great extent. For then your need I will feel as my need, and vice versa. At that time, I shall be more than ready to help you and you will be more than happy to help me. So first religion, then politics, then social problems and then economics!

Question: Which is more important: East-West political relations or North-South economic relations?

Question: Nuclear arms and nuclear energy are very dangerous tools. What is your attitude towards them?

It is the operation of the mind that either maintains mankind or destroys mankind. If the Supreme Being wants to operate in humanity’s mind, then the dangerous creations of mankind need not and cannot remain dangerous. For there is something which is infinitely more powerful than these dangerous tools, and this supremely powerful thing is God’s Compassion for His children. When God uses His supreme weapon, Compassion, no human creation — no matter how dangerous — can stand up to it.

Question: What should be the attitude of a world-server in relation to dictatorships, imposed will and the restriction of individual rights and liberties? Should one refuse any contact with dictatorships or compromise in the hope of their evolution?

Question: What is the best way for a nation to contribute to the world at large?⁵

A tree has branches, flowers, leaves and fruits. If we do not take the tree as one unit or one reality, if we only appreciate one particular aspect, such as the fruits, then we are unable to pay full attention to all the things that the tree embodies.

So each nation should feel that there is only one world-tree, one reality, of which each nation is a part. Otherwise, one nation will start out praying and meditating for all the nations but immediately stop if the other nations make a mistake or do something that displeases it. But if that particular nation feels that all the nations have been combined or amalgamated into one reality, then it will all the time pray and meditate for the other nations.

The best way for the individual nation to make progress and also add to world-progress is to feel that there is only one reality. This reality is the Source, the traveller, the road and the goal.

Question: In what way does the United Nations please you?

Question: What is the supreme role of each individual nation vis-a-vis the United Nations?⁶

Question: When you speak of a nation, you speak of it as if it were one person. But a nation is composed of millions of people with different levels of consciousness. Also, how can you reconcile the idea of a nation's karma with the fact that you have within the nation millions of people with their own karmic pasts?⁷

If we, as a nation, try to transcend our limitations or achievements, consciously or unconsciously we are inspiring other nations. If they live in the vital, they will be jealous of us. But if they live in the heart, they will see that they, too, have the capacity to do as we are doing. If other nations are sincere, they will see and feel that another nation is rising or has risen to a high standard through its personal effort, through its aspiration to improve itself. Then these other nations will ask themselves what is preventing them from also coming up to the same standard. They will see that in many cases it is just lack of enthusiasm and lack of effort.

Some people say that opportunity is not given to some nations. I wish to say that this is not always true. What is opportunity? Opportunity is our conscious acceptance of the divinity within. A nation may say it has fallen or failed because it did not have equal capacity or equal opportunity. But often opportunity has come from Above; capacity does exist within. However, the nation did not seize the opportunity or exercise its capacity. In this world no nation can remain unsatisfied or unfulfilled if it sincerely aspires — that is, if its citizens sincerely aspire.

We have to know what God wants from each nation. God wants my hand to work, my eyes to see, my ears to hear, my nose to breathe. If a nation goes deep within, it will see what God wants it to be. The role and goal of each individual nation have to come directly from within, from God. If God wants me to be an ant, then He will be pleased with me only if I become an ant and not if I become an elephant. And only then shall I feel that I have fulfilled my own existence and fulfilled God’s Divinity and Reality.

If I, as a nation, really want to do something for the world, then let me go deep within and do what God wants me to do, instead of competing with other nations that have been given an entirely different task by God. If I, as a nation, want to compete, I should try to compete with my own ignorance, with my own limitations and bondage. I should try to surpass my own achievements instead of the achievements of other nations. If I have weaknesses as a nation, I should try to transform and perfect them. If I am sick, I should try to bring forward my inner capacity to cure myself and not depend on other nations to cure me.

A nation does have a karmic past, and when a person is born into a nation or lives in a nation, he participates or shares in that karmic past. He also helps to build the karmic future of that nation. So if a nation is undeveloped, it is often not because of lack of opportunity but because of lack of aspiration or lack of development in its inhabitants. Whatever good qualities or good fortune a nation has and whatever bad qualities and bad fortune a nation has, it is to some degree because of the consciousness of the people of that nation. Right now each nation is far from perfection. But each nation has the capacity to be absolutely perfect because the message of perfection, the seed of perfection, dwells within each nation. Only it takes time to germinate.

Question: Many countries are outwardly critical of the United Nations. What is their inner attitude?⁸

Question: How can the United Nations offer greater inspiration to the aspiring seekers in humanity?⁹

Question: Does any small, progressive act towards world-oneness anywhere on earth improve the United Nations?

The peace, harmony and oneness that all the countries in the world are working for have their source in the United Nations. So if there is any marked progress in the world, we have to feel that the inspiration and aspiration behind it, plus the original vision, originated here at the United Nations. In the past, some countries or some individuals may have had the lofty vision of world-oneness. But it existed in the world of theory, not in the world of practicality. Only the United Nations has the capacity to fully manifest this vision in the outer world. And it uses this capacity to unify all the countries towards a common goal, which is the unification of human hearts and the transformation of human nature, particularly the mind.

Question: Does the United Nations itself have special divine protection from bombs, violent riots and so forth?¹⁰

Question: What does the United Nations need most today?¹¹

The soul of the United Nations has everything that the world needs and everything that the world will ever need. So its lack of confidence must be replaced by the all-seeing, all-giving, all-becoming and all-transcending divine Confidence. By borrowing and borrowing from the outer world and seeking moral support from the outer world, the United Nations cannot proceed towards its supreme destination. The United Nations has to expand its own receptivity. Once it creates and possesses enormous receptivity, all the divine attributes will cheerfully and powerfully descend into this receptivity. At that time, the United Nations will be able to manifest throughout the length and breadth of the world its message of oneness and fullness. It is the inner confidence of the United Nations that can and shall eventually transform the face and fate of the world, for such is the Will of the Absolute Supreme.

Question: Is it spiritually correct for some countries not to join the United Nations?

Question: What is the United Nations achieving spiritually in the least developed countries of the world?¹²

Question: How do you view the problems of the world and how do you think these problems can be solved?¹³

Problems are everywhere. Each country has hundreds of problems. Each individual has hundreds of problems. But problems can be solved, should be solved and must be solved by individuals first, for it is the individual mind or individual capacity that rules each country. If each individual dives deep into his own countless problems, he comes to realise that there is only one problem, and that problem is lack of oneness.

Very often we notice this lack of oneness even in our own being. We identify ourselves with a particular part of our body rather than with other parts. If somebody says that our eyes are beautiful, then we focus all our attention on our eyes and forget that God has also made our nose, ears and limbs part of our physical existence.

The world is composed of many, many countries. If an individual can become inseparably one with the inner cry of his own nation, then he is bound to feel that his nation is nothing but a tree whose branches are the other countries. Then naturally he will claim the whole world as his own. A tree without branches is no tree at all. Only when we see quite a few branches on a tree, as well as flowers and fruits, do we deeply appreciate it. So if I can feel that your country is a branch of my nation-tree, and if you can feel that my country is a branch of your nation-tree, then our feeling of oneness can easily solve the countless world problems. This is the human way that we can solve world problems.

But the divine way is to feel our oneness with the Will of the Supreme. I come from India; you come from some other part of the world. But everything is part of God’s creation. God is both the Creator and the creation. He is Silence and He is also sound. Silence we see in His Vision-Reality and sound we see in His Manifestation-Reality on earth.

We can become consciously one with God’s Will through our prayer and meditation. Prayer and meditation are nothing short of our constant communion or conversation with God. When we pray, we talk to God; when we meditate, God talks to us. When it is our turn to talk, we offer our soulful cry for peace, light and bliss. And when God meditates on us, we just listen. He has a message for us. He wants to give us the Message and He wants to tell us how we can share His Message with the rest of the world.

When we do not consciously pray and meditate, the Will of the Supreme is executed through us only on rare occasions. But if we consciously pray and consciously meditate, then without fail God’s Will will be executed in and through us. And if we can become soulfully and constantly one with God’s Will, then we can make no mistakes. It is because of our mistakes that we create problems for ourselves. And what is the mistake that we always make and from which we are constantly suffering? Our only mistake is that we have made friends with ignorance. But we can change our friendship. God is there to help us and guide us. We can make wisdom-light our friend, our only friend. Then we will be able to swim in the sea of wisdom-light instead of swimming in the sea of ignorance-night.

Question: How has the consciousness of the United Nations affected America as a country?¹⁴

The United Nations needs a few things from America and it is getting them. Again, America needs a few things from the United Nations, and the United Nations is more than willing to offer them. The United Nations is getting ample opportunity to achieve its goals from America’s hope and promise. At the same time, the United Nations itself, through its inner capacities, is transforming America’s hope into reality and America’s promise into fulfilment. The soul of America is promise and the soul of the United Nations helps to fulfil that promise. Like a flower and its fragrance, they go together. The soul of the United States brings down Divinity’s Promise to the foot of the reality-tree. And the soul of the United Nations looks around and offers this reality to those who need it for their mind’s universal expansion and their heart’s transcendental reality.

Question: How does New York benefit from the presence of the United Nations?

Question: When did the Supreme create the United Nations?

Chapter 3: The body and soul of the United Nations

Mr David Rowe: A spiritual figure once referred to the United Nations as a "society for united animals" where people are not interested in religious things. Could you please comment on this?¹⁵

First of all, we all know that since the dawn of so-called civilisation, countless people have been killed in the name of religion. At one time or another almost all the religions have fought unreservedly against other religions and, what is worse, often without rhyme or reason. Just to show their supremacy over other religions, most religions have swerved at times from the fundamental principles of truth.

The wisest thing is for us to first solve our own personal problems — to illumine our own darkness and perfect our own nature. This is the only way that either the united or the divided human animals throughout the world can climb up to a higher rung of evolution, which we can unmistakably call proper human life.

Mr David Rowe: Is the highest goal that the United Nations can aspire for no more than the highest goals of the Member States which compose it?

Mr David Rowe: Can we hope that individual delegations of Member States will work towards higher goals than their home governments would normally support?

Mr David Rowe: When a Member State assumes an "anti-United Nations attitude", it is probably due to frustration or fear that the United Nations has taken or may take some action against it. Does such an attitude weaken the United Nations system?

There may be many reasons why a Member State wants to stand against United Nations policy. But just by standing against United Nations policy, a State will not be able to solve even an iota of the world’s problems. If one sees that the United Nations is doing something wrong, that is no reason to stand violently and shamelessly against the United Nations. One has to love the United Nations more in order to bring to the fore its sincere aspirations, for this alone is what can and will change the face of the entire world.

Mr David Rowe: Secretaries-General have conceived of their office in various ways. Is there a preferred definition of the institution of the Secretary-General?

Mr David Rowe: The style and personality of the Secretary-General influence numerous individuals and national governments and to a degree determine the performance of the entire United Nations. Don't you think, then, that it is essential to select a Secretary-General who will not allow possible wrong influences or powers to guide his actions?

Mr David Rowe: Is there a special need to promote co-operation between the newer and often poorer countries in the General Assembly and the older and, in most cases, more established, wealthier countries? Should the latter not take the lead in fostering good relations?

Mr David Rowe: Co-operation among all nations is an ancient dream. Assuming we are building on the past, how can we assess the outlook now?

The world is constantly evolving towards a higher standard of life. It is not moving in a straight line, but rather in a spiral. Therefore, at times this progress is not immediately noticeable. To our human mind it may seem confusing and baffling. But on the strength of our inner oneness with the world situation and world evolution, we can see unmistakably the world’s slow and steady progress.

True, man-made destructive forces are everywhere. Here they may be found in small measure; somewhere else, in large measure. But the creator of these destructive forces need not remain always a creator of wrong forces; he can easily become a creator of good forces. A negative force is not negative by nature; it is only a force that we use in a negative way. A knife can be used either as a means of destruction or as a means of expanding our own oneness-reality. With a knife one can stab others; with the same knife one can cut fruits and share them with others.

The first step in turning a negative force into a positive force is to remain silent long enough to catch a glimpse either consciously or unconsciously of the divine, illumining and fulfilling light. The second step is to bring this light forward and create positive realities that will accelerate humanity’s progress towards perfection.

Question: What stands between the outer goal of the United Nations and the inner goal of the United Nations?¹⁶

Question: What does the United Nations need most from the Member States?

Question: Some nations accept the United Nations as their own. Other nations would even deny the United Nations. What are the differences in the soul-growth of the nations that have not yet become one with the United Nations?

Unfortunately, there are some nations that find it difficult to accept the United Nations; they even go to the length of denying the United Nations. I wish to say, from my own experience and point of view, that either these nations are not awakened or they have consciously and deliberately taken the side of ignorance. At night it is very easy to deny the existence of the sun. But after dawn comes, the sun is there for everyone to see. Even while facing the sun, we can still deny its existence, just as we can deny our oneness with the supreme Reality. But we have to know that it is the ignorance in us that is operating, and eventually our inner sun will respond to the outer sun and illumine our ignorance.

Just like an individual human being, each nation has a physical personality, a vital personality and a mental personality. At times it is very difficult to say whether a nation is not accepting the United Nations because its soul is unawakened or because its physical, vital and mental reality are not sufficiently awakened. If those are not awakened, then the nation as such will not want to help and serve the United Nations or be illumined and guided by the United Nations. In most cases, it is the undisciplined vital, the uncontrolled mind and the unaspiring physical reality that do not allow a nation to see the divinity of the United Nations and its sincere willingness to be of service to mankind.

Again, there are some nations which neither deny nor accept the United Nations; they try to remain neutral. From the inner point of view, neutrality does not express the highest wisdom. Let us say two persons are at daggers drawn; they have different opinions, and one is right and one is wrong. If we know who is right and, in spite of knowing, still remain silent, it means that some weakness on our part is preventing us from taking the side of light. It is not that one side is all ignorance and the other side is all wisdom-light. What exists is lesser light and higher light, lesser truth and higher truth. One side may have an iota more light than the other side. If we remain silent, automatically we weaken the possibilities and potentialities of the side with more light. The one that embodies more light should be encouraged and inspired so that he reaches his destination-goal. There he will be flooded with the light of the goal, and then he can come back and offer light to the unillumined who are still struggling or wallowing in ignorance. So it is always good to take the side which has greater light, abundant light.

I am sure that most of you have read the Bhagavad Gita, India’s Bible. It describes a conflict between darkness and light, or we can say between lesser light and greater light, which eventually ended in the battle of Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna represented God and for God everybody is equal. So Lord Krishna said outwardly, “I am not taking any side.” But in the very depths of his heart he took the side of the righteous Pandavas. To the other side, the Kauravas, he gave his own army, and he acted only as a charioteer for the Pandava side. But there were two occasions when he came out of the chariot to fight against the unaspiring forces.

There were one or two individuals on the unaspiring side who were really aspiring. They knew who Sri Krishna was and wanted to surrender fully to his light, but they were morality-bound to fight on the Kaurava side because they were brought up and nourished by that side. Similarly, if some nations are in touch with undivine nations and get financial or other help from them, then they are caught. They will find themselves unable to voice forth their sincere opinions with regard to the United Nations. If they take the side of the unaspiring nation that helped them instead of encouraging the more promising, illumining and fulfilling nations, then they are only standing in the way of their own aspiration and hindering world-perfection in general.

As seekers, we should always try to take the side of those nations that are trying to unite other nations and that are crying for more illumination and perfection here on earth. And we should always try to convince our nation to take their side as well. All those who do not want to see the truth or who are denying the truth should be given a chance to see and realise the truth in their own time. But right now, only those who need and desperately are crying for the truth should be given the first and foremost chance to come to the fore and be inundated with light.

It is very difficult to determine the soul-growth of the nations that have not yet become one with the United Nations. Right now the physical, vital and mental parts of those nations are not allowing the soul to come to the fore. When the soul is covered by layer after layer of physical reality, vital reality or mental reality, then it is not possible to determine the growth because the soul remains in seed form. When the soul comes to the fore, when the seed germinates into a tiny plant, a sapling and, finally, into a huge banyan tree, only then does it radiate an iota of light all around. At that time we can determine the soul-growth. But we can safely say that the soul of every nation will one day come to the fore, for nothing in God’s creation will remain imperfect forever. Eventually, everything has to see the face of perfection. That is what God wants from us because perfection is what God eternally is.

Question: Can you describe the stage of evolution of the United Nations soul?

Then there is the divine way. This is the way of the heart, which identifies itself with the soul of the United Nations, with its loving capacity. On the strength of its identification with the soul of the United Nations, the heart is able clearly to see and feel the actual growth, evolution, progress and success of the soul of the United Nations. When the heart observes the soul of the United Nations, it sees a powerful tree — a soul-tree of peace, harmony, light and delight. And it sees that there are countless human beings consciously or unconsciously seated at the foot of this tree. These human beings have an iota of aspiration in the inmost recesses of their hearts. If they consciously try to become one with the soul of the United Nations on the strength of their most sincere prayer and meditation, then the soul of the United Nations cheerfully, unreservedly and unconditionally shares with them its wealth, which is universal love, universal light and universal delight.

From God’s point of view, from the absolutely highest point of view, the United Nations embodies the seed that the mind observes; it embodies the tree that the heart feels and also it embodies the fruit. From the highest point of view, this tree of peace, light, bliss and harmony has already started bearing fruit — the fruit of universal oneness. This fruit some God-lovers have already seen and felt. Instead of God-lovers, let us speak of Truth-lovers, since there are many people who do not consciously admit that God exists. But Truth does exist for them. God and Truth are inseparable, like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. But if someone likes to see Truth as the only Reality, as the ultimate Goal, then let him remain with his realisation. Our realisation that God is the only Reality is exactly the same.

Question: How can the strong and developed countries offer their guidance to the less developed countries without incurring resentment?

Question: What is involved in establishing an inner connection with the United Nations?

Question: Are the ideals of the United Nations applicable to every area of our lives without exception?

Question: Do you foresee the possibility of a fully committed spiritual person becoming Secretary-General of the United Nations in this century?¹⁷

Sometimes the word ‘spiritual’ is misunderstood badly. Spirituality does not mean self-abnegation. True spirituality means the acceptance of life as such — the acceptance of matter as well as spirit. The really spiritual person wants to make the inner reality operate in and through the material proper. In the case of Dag Hammarskjöld, his mind was inundated by his inner light. Then, from the illumined mind, he executed the inner promptings of the heart, utilising the illumining realities of the vital and the sacrificing realities of the physical. In the case of U Thant, who was a staunch and devout Buddhist, we saw how he brought to the fore the compassion aspect of life, which is the purest jewel-reality of human existence, and offered it to mankind unreservedly, almost unconditionally.

Sometimes non-believers or disbelievers in God look down upon those who are spiritual. A spiritual person is often an object of ridicule to cynical human beings. But those who inwardly see the inseparable oneness of God the Creator and God the creation will continue offering their realisation to the world at large. In spite of being misunderstood, in spite of being assailed by physical ailments, as in the case of U Thant, in silence they continue to act. And they leave the result of their actions at the Feet of God, the Author of all Good.

Question: Do you think it is possible to change the organisation of the United Nations without changing the Member States? If so, of what use would be the existence of such a closed circuit?

Question: If you want to draw an analogy between different organs of the body and different individuals or organisations in the United Nations, which of the following — the Secretary-General, the Security Council or the Economic and Social Council — would correspond with the heart centre?

Question: Do you envisage the creation of a second chamber at the United Nations? If so, should it be composed of some non-governmental organisations or of the wise men of nations?

Question: Do you think that the system of "one country — one vote" is democratic? If not, do you see any alternative before the time arrives when the accumulated wisdom of nations' souls becomes the yardstick in voting?

Question: Here at the United Nations many decision-makers have to take positions on controversial issues. What is the most effective way to make sure the position they take is the correct one?¹⁸

If there is oneness, we will never be able to hurt anybody. If I am really one with somebody, then I cannot hurt that person. The parts of our body are one with each other. Our hands are so powerful, but do we strike our eyes with our hands? No! We know that our eyes and our hands are working together to reach the same goal. The eyes see the goal first, but it is the legs that take us there and the hands that let us hold the goal. So each member plays its role.

When many individuals get together to come to a decision, if right from the beginning they feel that they are one, then once the truth is seen by one member, spontaneously the others will also see it and try to achieve it. If oneness is already felt and established on the inner plane, then on the outer plane all will try to aim at the same goal. When an individual who is simple, sincere and truth-loving offers a good suggestion, if others have any feeling of sympathy, concern and oneness with him, then automatically they will see the value of his suggestion. It makes no difference who sees the truth first; once the truth has been seen, the inner decision is already made. And while others are participating in or becoming one with the decision, they are also expediting it. So if each member can feel that the others are not going to deceive him, if each member can accept every other member as a real friend, it does not matter who is blessed with the message. From one it will spread to two, and eventually all will be travelling together to the same destined goal.

Question: On what principles should the United Nations be unyielding and uncompromising?¹⁹

Question: What are the major qualities of the soul of the United Nations?²⁰

Question: What is the relationship between the soul of the United Nations and the soul of the world?²¹

When the soul of the United Nations grows into perfection, then it will become the satisfaction-triumph of the soul of the world; in fact, it will become the world-soul itself. The soul of the United Nations must eventually grow into the world-soul because it has to embody and embrace the length and breadth of the entire world. The United Nations means united creation, and this means one world. When we use the word ‘nation’, at that time we imagine a plot of land, a country, a few million people put together. But when we think of creation, at that time we do not think of plots of land or citizens of countries; we just think of God in His manifestation. Right now that idea does not immediately come forward when we think of the United Nations. But a day will come when the United Nations will expand its vision and encompass the whole horizon. At that time, it will become another world-soul, another form of world-reality, where God the Creator and God the creation can easily be found in every action it performs.

Question: How does the Supreme see the United Nations?²²

Question: How much of the United Nations is a spiritual reality and how much is a secular reality, or are these meaningless distinctions?²³

Question: In what way does the Supreme work most effectively through the United Nations?²⁴

Question: Is the United Nations in seed form or is it a fruit?

Again, there are other countries and other individuals that have not been fortunate enough to avail themselves of this fruit. These countries and individuals still feel that the fruit will be most delicious. Such is our human nature. When we get something, after some time we do not appreciate or value it. But if we do not get it, we feel that it is the most valuable thing in the world. This is what happens when we see something with our earthbound mind.

Question: What is the most significant change that you have seen at the United Nations since you have been here?²⁵

Chapter 4: The future of the United Nations

Question: Is world peace possible without the United Nations?²⁶

Question: How far is the United Nations from accomplishing the ideals of its founders?

Question: Why is progress at the United Nations so slow?

Question: The Preamble of UNESCO's constitution states that wars begin in the minds of men and it is there that they have to be eradicated first. I believe that the minds of men are changing, yet a general war is still a possibility. Would you comment?²⁷

Question: How do you envision politics in the next century?²⁸

The mind only knows how to divide and divide. But by dividing the world and separating reality into pieces we can never get joy. Only by becoming one with the world can we get real joy. The mind is like a boxer. It is always trying to show its supremacy. All the time it is saying: “I am superior to you. I should be one step higher than you or one step ahead of you.”

The voice of the heart is the voice of oneness. It says “Wherever you are, I am also there. I am inside your heart and you are inside my heart.” This kind of oneness-philosophy brings us an abiding joy that we can never get from the world of separation and conquest. Today the boxer will defeat his opponent and tomorrow some other boxer will defeat him. So where is the satisfaction?

The mind not only separates itself from others; it also doubts and suspects others. It may even doubt and suspect itself. Those who live in the heart, on the other hand, are all the time expanding. Today they love God; tomorrow they will love all humanity. If spiritual people get the opportunity to help mental people who are now in the political world, then there will be a different kind of politics — the politics of the heart. At that time, guidance will come from the heart and there will be no division; there will be only joy and satisfaction.

Question: Will the United Nations grow into a world government?²⁹

Question: Will the dream that began with the League of Nations need yet another organisation to manifest itself?

Question: What role will the United Nations ultimately play in the spiritual transformation of humanity?³⁰

Our inner oneness we will discover not with the mind but with the heart. The inner world is the world of the heart and the outer world is the world of the mind. Ultimately, the outer or mental approach will have to surrender to and become one with the psychic or inner approach. So first we have to discover and establish our heart’s oneness through spirituality, and then this oneness-discovery and achievement must be brought to the fore to establish peace and harmony in the outer world.

Question: When and how will the leaders and representatives of the nations of the world, especially of the developing nations, begin to seek spiritual solutions to their problems?³¹

Question: Will the Supreme send more real leaders to help support the United Nations?

Question: As the United Nations evolves, will it become less of a political centre and more of a spiritual centre?

Question: Is it possible that the United Nations will one day be a nucleus of worldwide spirituality?³²

The League of Nations was Woodrow Wilson’s dream. It no longer exists. Instead, it has blossomed into another dream, a greater dream. The United Nations is also a dream. And this dream also will eventually take a better and more fulfilling form; at that time it will be a ‘Oneness-World’. A League of Nations is like a cluster of flowers. A United Nations arranges the flowers harmoniously. But in a Oneness-World, we will not see several individual flowers at all; we will see all as one whole.

This is God’s Dream, God’s Vision of Perfection. The Kingdom of Heaven that we talk about and hear about is nothing other than a Oneness-World. A Oneness-World must dawn. Even when a Oneness-World is established, it will not be the ultimate thing in God’s Vision. No, inside oneness there should be a continuous aspiration to go beyond, beyond, beyond. God’s Vision is always transcending, so after oneness we still have to keep on going; only then can we have real perfection. So, first there was the League of Nations. Now we see the United Nations. From the United Nations we shall see the Oneness-World, and inside the Oneness-World we shall sing the song of self-transcendence, world-transcendence and universal transcendence. Only then shall we find satisfaction-perfection.

Question: Do you see any role for the United Nations in the enlightenment of mankind? If so, will music be one of the components of such a role?³³

Question: Is the Supreme pleased with the progress of the United Nations?³⁴

Satisfaction is not a finished product. If we remain at a certain standard, then our progress becomes like a stagnant pool and satisfaction goes away. Only in continuous progress do we find satisfaction. First we come up to a certain standard, which we originally wanted. Then we look around and see that somebody else has achieved something higher or deeper, and we also try to do the same. It is not out of jealousy or a feeling of competition, no; only it is an inner urge that makes us want to try to surpass ourselves.

Question: When peace is finally established on earth, what then will be the function of the United Nations?³⁵

Chapter 5: Serving the United Nations

Question: What do the delegates and ambassadors who are participating in the General Assembly offer to the United Nations spiritually?³⁶

Each delegate is a human being and each human being has a soul. That means a solid portion of God’s Consciousness-Light is inside each individual. Each individual has the potential, the capacity and the needed power to serve mankind spiritually. It may take time; some individuals open up to the light sooner than others. But nobody can live without in some way offering to the Source the love, concern, sympathy, compassion, devotedness and other good qualities that have come from the Source.

Question: Do you think diplomats gain anything from these prayer and meditation meetings that is particularly useful to their own work?³⁷

Question: The United Nations is, of course, a very political place. Does politics ever enter into your spiritual work?

Question: When several individuals form a committee to do a project, you may have five different people discussing something with their own backgrounds and ideas. And in the United Nations, you may have five different countries, or even more, discussing one topic, each country with its own firm belief. What is the best course to follow in such cases?³⁸

If there are five members on a committee, each individual should try to dive deep within to see if he can agree, in any way, with the idea offered by somebody else. Right now, let us say, he is fighting for his own suggestion. But in a few days, it may happen that he himself will have the same view that he is now opposing. So if all the members have established their oneness with the other members, then they will at least try to understand the others’ viewpoints and see if there is any truth there.

Among the five different ideas, one may be more mature and practical than the others. Take the five ideas as five fruits. If there are five fruits, some will be unripe; nobody will want to eat those. Only the fruit that is most ripe and delicious will appeal to everyone. Just because one person has brought the ripe one, it does not mean that only he will eat it. The others will have an equal share. As long as everybody is allowed to eat it, as long as everybody is ready to share it, then it does not matter who brought it since the fruit becomes everybody’s property. Similarly, no matter who has offered an idea, all the members will have an equal opportunity to apply that idea to their own lives.

Question: How can the knowledge of spirituality help professional people in their efforts to serve mankind through their work?³⁹

Each individual has something to do here on earth, so he consciously or unconsciously throws himself into multifarious activities. He wants to get everything done sooner than at once so that he can go on to something better, something more illumining and fulfilling. There is a direct route or short cut that an individual can follow to reach his destination. This is the way of concentration, which is the first rung in the spiritual ladder. If we concentrate on the thing that we are supposed to do, we bring to the fore or bring down from Above extra capacity, confidence and assurance. If we can concentrate before each undertaking, we will not only simplify our task but also expedite a satisfactory result.

It is like this. All along the route to our destination are doubt-trees, insecurity-trees, hesitation-trees, anxiety-trees and worry-trees. They are lying across the road blocking our path. Concentration clears the road of these obstacles. It transforms doubt into faith, insecurity into security and so forth. Everything discouraging becomes encouraging and helpful as we move towards our destination. And that is only the first step. After concentration clears the road of confusion, meditation will purify and illumine our mind so that we see that the goal is not only right in front of us but also within us. This is the second rung of the ladder. Finally, when we reach the final rung of the ladder, contemplation, we realise that we are the goal itself. This moment we are the seeker running after the goal; the next moment we have become the goal itself.

So, if we want efficiency and perfection in our profession, then spirituality is the only answer. No matter what we want to achieve from life and in life, spirituality can help us. It simplifies, purifies, illumines, fulfils and immortalises our existence. It is the only way to make us feel that we need the goal, to show us how to reach the goal and to make us clearly see that we are nothing other than the goal itself. Spirituality is not something uncertain, vague, meaningless or fruitless. No! It is not only meaningful and fruitful but also illumining and fulfilling. And inside illumination and fulfilment is the satisfaction that we want.

Question: How can you maintain inner tranquillity at work when you are in an atmosphere with a great deal of pressure?⁴⁰

The wrong forces are coming from outside. But inside you is the strongest, mightiest force, which is in constant communication with the Almighty Absolute. This force is your inner light, which is immortal. It will never surrender to the wrong forces. In fact, when darkness consciously or unconsciously enters into light, it is bound to be transformed. Just by bringing this inner light to the fore, you will see to your great astonishment that the outer darkness immediately will give way. The more you can increase your inner light and bring it to the fore through your prayer and meditation, the sooner you will see the transformation of the outer forces that are attacking you.

Question: How can we help the pilots of the United Nations — the Secretary-General and the Directors?⁴¹

How can we serve the Secretary-General, who is the main pilot of the United Nations, and others who are high authorities at the United Nations? Let us call them the hero-warriors of the United Nations, since they are in the battlefield of life fighting for world peace, world-oneness, world-illumination and world-perfection. These members of the human family, our brothers and sisters, have gone out to fight against the undivine forces, which do not want world harmony and keep the nations of the world apart.

But we can serve the same supreme cause through our constant prayer and goodwill. Our prayers will undoubtedly be an additional strength to them while they are standing against disharmony and conflict. The pilots of the United Nations are serving mankind in the world arena, according to their capacity. We can also do the same type of service on a limited scale, according to the capacity we have. Our prayer has solid strength. This solid strength we can offer to them in silence, from our inner life of dedication to the world.

Question: What is patriotism?⁴²

Some countries are regarded as the fatherland. In these cases, the father’s wisdom, height, light, peace and bliss can meet with the dynamic qualities and boundless will-power of the son or daughter. At that time, both the father and child become supremely perfect instruments for God-manifestation on earth, and perfection dawns in that particular country.

Question: How can we be patriotic without separating ourselves from other countries?

If we really love something, it means that we also have the capacity to love something else. Love is a kind of expanding capacity. Today I love my mother and my father, the day after tomorrow I love my brothers and sisters. Then, when I go to school, I love my teachers. Gradually, I learn to love my town, then my province, then my country, then the whole world. But I start by loving one thing that is very close to me, and from there my vision expands until finally I love the whole world. So if I do not start off with patriotism, if I do not start out by loving my own country, how will I be able to love somebody else’s country? If I constantly and deliberately find fault with my country, then gradually I will find fault with my city and with the members of my family, with myself and with everything I have and am. I will find that my nose is not beautiful, my eyes are not beautiful, my hands are not beautiful and so on.

When I love my country first, my love-power never becomes stagnant; it is always running towards the Source like a river flowing towards the sea. And, if I really love my country, then I will be able to love other countries, because by loving my own country I will come to learn what a country means to its citizens.

Question: If we love our country but live elsewhere, how can we serve our country?

If you really love your country, geographically you may remain far away, but spiritually your mother-country can be inside you and you can be inside your mother-country. This feeling is not an illusion or a product of the imagination. Far from it! From the inner world everything comes to the outer world. The moment you think of your mother’s love and concern for you, immediately you create a divine world of your own. Inside that world you feel the existence of your dearest mother. And when your mother thinks of you with all her affection, love, concern and blessings, she immediately creates a world of her own where you exist inside her heart.

Question: Is not patriotism restrictive even at its highest level?

Some people have tremendous feeling for their country, but it is all on the physical, vital or mental levels, which are very limited. It is not on the psychic level. On the psychic level there is always oneness, constant oneness, and it is the nature of oneness to expand. If I love my country, it means I have become one with my country. Then, if I feel the inner urge to expand my oneness, to embrace other countries, I will find no inner restriction in my patriotism.

Limited oneness is not enough. From oneness we have to grow into vastness. I can have oneness with a particular finger, but I want to have oneness with all my fingers. The moment I establish oneness with everything within me and around me, I enter into universality. I discover that I am at once in all and for all. At that time I am in God, I am with God and I am for God. The real Reality in me is the omnipresence of God — inside me, inside you, inside everything.

Question: What is the most important thing to remember while working at the United Nations?⁴³

Question: How can we best fulfil our roles at the United Nations?

Question: What qualities can we offer to the United Nations to best fulfil it?

Question: What should our attitude be towards working at the United Nations?⁴⁴

At the United Nations we have to deal with many individuals. If we find it difficult to give ourselves to certain individuals or countries because of some unhappy experiences, at least we should cultivate an attitude of forgiveness. When we feel that we have enemies around us and harbour wrong thoughts towards them, we actually forget our own goal. We think only of how to conquer or annihilate our enemies. This becomes our goal. If this is our goal, what kind of progress are we going to make?

At every moment we can be assailed by negative or undivine thoughts. Again, at every moment with our inner will we can create good thoughts, loving thoughts, illumining thoughts, fulfilling thoughts. If these thoughts are fed by the heart, then only can they function properly and grow into self-giving actions. Right now we use the term ‘self-giving’ precisely because we have not sufficiently cultivated or developed the capacity that makes us feel that we are of the One and for the many. We have not yet discovered our universal oneness. But once we discover our oneness with the rest of the world, we come to realise that there is no such thing as self-giving. What we call self-giving is only the fulfilment of our own inner awakening. When my hand does something for my leg, it is not regarded as self-giving because my hand and my leg are part and parcel of one reality.

Unfortunately, at the present state of our evolution, we do not have the capacity to feel everyone as our own. So let us start with the idea of self-giving. We shall give what we have and what we are. If there are adversaries or others who do not see eye to eye with us, then we have to move forward on the strength of our capacity to forgive or forget. We shall not forget the divine purpose within us, but we will forget the unhappy or unhealthy experiences we get from others while we are trying to serve our ideals. And we shall forgive those who give us these bad experiences. Only in this way can we most effectively serve the United Nations.

Question: You have said that if we wish to serve the world we must have the proper attitude. Could you explain please what that attitude is?⁴⁵

When we serve mankind, we have to feel that we are not the doer but Somebody else is. We may not know Him, we may not see Him, but definitely we can feel Him. God is nearer to us than our nose and eyes, much nearer. When we meditate, we may not see the golden Face of God, but we do feel something guiding and inspiring us. Someone is inspiring you to do the right thing and to become the right person. And that Someone is God. If Somebody from within had not inspired you, then you would not have come here to pray and meditate.

The Supreme gives each individual countless golden opportunities to serve Him in humanity. When He asks us to do something and does not ask somebody else, it is because He feels that we have the inner surrender and the inner willingness to do it in a divine way. Two persons may do something and have the same outer success, but their attitudes may totally differ. In God’s Eye, the attitude is most important, not the so-called outer success. If we do something devotedly and unconditionally, then God feels that is a real success. But if we try to achieve something by hook or by crook, by deceiving the world, we may get success on the surface, but our conscience will torture us. One day we will be exposed; then we will become a victim not only to our own inner conscience but also to public ridicule.

Others may be much greater than we are. In the eyes of the world, greatness is determined by who has the authority, who has the autocratic power. It depends on how much physical power, vital power or mental power one can wield. But in God’s Eye, whoever has the heart’s magnanimity and whoever wants to expand his heart’s capacity is the one who is really great. In God’s Eye, greatness means goodness. Whoever is good becomes God’s chosen son or chosen daughter.

In order to serve God in man and man in God, the first thing we have to do is pray and meditate. Inside our meditation we will find the divine Message or Command, and we will also see how this Command can be executed. If we discard prayer and meditation and try to become philanthropists or world-lovers, we will be making a deplorable mistake. We will become like a human body without a backbone. First we have to become a God-lover, and then see humanity inside God. If through our meditation we see God and feel His Presence, then naturally we shall care for mankind. God is like the root of the cosmic Tree. If we want to water the leaves and fruits, it is impossible; we have to water the base of the tree, the root. That is to say, it is only by serving and fulfilling God first that we shall be able to serve and fulfil mankind.

Question: In practical terms, how can we give the world love and concern?⁴⁶

We have been meditating together for fifteen or twenty minutes. During that time our experience of inner peace and love was absolutely practical and tangible. What we get from our meditation you can easily give to others, but the process is an inner process. The best way to carry out this inner process is to approach the Source. We cannot approach each and every human being. But there is Someone who can do this on our behalf, and that is God. If we ask Him to offer peace, concern and love to the world at large, and if He is pleased with our request, then naturally He will do it. It is through daily communion with God that we can best offer the world our love and concern.

Physically we may remain in one place, but spiritually we can spread peace and love throughout the world. Like a bird in the vast sky, our wings are widespread with peace, joy and love.

Question: You often talk about serving God in others. How can I develop more of the feeling of being with God when I am with people?⁴⁷

Question: How can a lover of the United Nations contribute the utmost to the goals of the world body?⁴⁸

Question: Do you agree that the main task of the world-server today is to help bring the nations' souls to the fore?⁴⁹

Question: What should be the attitude of those who work at the United Nations?⁵⁰

Question: When you speak about serving the United Nations with gratitude, could you please elaborate on this?⁵¹

So far, in spite of our teeming ignorance, limitations and imperfections, we have done something for mankind by serving the United Nations. We have achieved something for ourselves, something for the United Nations and something for the world at large.

If we cannot take the world, the United Nations and the individual person who works at the United Nations as one single reality, let us take them as three intimate friends. These three intimate friends may at times find it difficult to see eye to eye with each other. At times the world or the individual worker sees something wrong with the United Nations or the United Nations sees something wrong with the world or with the individual. But although they find fault with each other, they are still friends.

The different countries will not always agree with one another, but they maintain their mutual respect because they care for peace. If they did not, they would not be involved in United Nations activities. They do believe in the United Nations, they have faith in the United Nations, but they also have individual problems that they are trying to work out.

The individual workers, countries of the world and the United Nations can become one on the strength of their gratitude to each other. Once they feel true gratitude towards one another, their hearts will expand. And in the heart’s gradual expansion they will become universal. At that time, we will not be able to separate an individual member of the United Nations from the United Nations proper because they will be integrally one. We will not be able to separate the United Nations from the world because it will be part and parcel of the world. By offering constant gratitude, the world, the United Nations and the United Nations workers will become one.

As long as they remain separate, they should try to offer their gratitude to each other. They cannot remain separate forever. The day will come when they will become totally one in the inner and outer life. Then they will feel boundless gratitude to the Supreme for it was He who, out of His infinite Bounty, gave them the opportunity to become His conscious and perfect instruments.

Question: How can I be more soulful and devoted in my work at the United Nations?⁵²

Question: What is the seeker's responsibility at the United Nations?⁵³

Question: How can we work with dynamism and confidence at the United Nations?

Question: What is the best way to serve the United Nations: through meditation or action?

Question: How can you dedicate each task you do to the soul of the United Nations?

Question: What is the best way to bring a divine consciousness to our everyday activities at the United Nations?

Question: How can I work with true spontaneity and sincerity at the United Nations?

Question: Should the body of the United Nations remain fluid so that the soul of the United Nations can more easily manifest itself?

Question: How can we meditate on the soul of the United Nations?

Question: How can I increase my oneness with the soul of the United Nations?

Question: How can we consecrate our lives to the soul of the United Nations?

Question: Are the people who work at the United Nations especially chosen to work here by some higher force?

Question: How can we feel and show our gratitude to the United Nations?

Question: How can we help to increase the speed of the United Nations?

Question: How can one best serve the ideal of the United Nations when not working at the United Nations?

Question: When I meditate on my own, I take it as my own personal meditation. But I was wondering whether I should come here with the idea of meditating on the United Nations and for the United Nations?⁵⁴

Question: At our United Nations meetings, should we meditate on specific themes related to United Nations conferences as well as on general qualities like peace and love?⁵⁵

So these are two different approaches. There is no contradiction between them. Both are aiming at the same goal: peace, love, light and bliss. The approaches are different but the ultimate achievement will be the same.

I personally feel that if we have peace, light and bliss within us, then we can more easily bring these qualities into the world at large. It is my inner conviction that politics is dying to be illumined by inner light. In the political world, quarrels and misunderstandings are the order of the day. Again, on a deeper level, politics knows that spirituality can transcend outer world-divisions. Spirituality is the flow of oneness. When there is oneness, there is no feeling of supremacy. Oneness never quarrels. So if we pray and meditate on peace, light and bliss, we will definitely be able to serve those in the political world.

Question: Is there any way that we can meditate specifically to help the United Nations?⁵⁶

All those who are working at the United Nations are unconsciously being illumined by the soul of the United Nations. And when they work for the United Nations most devotedly and selflessly, they are aspiring in their own way and doing their own form of meditation. The soul of the United Nations offers each worker its special blessings and gratitude.

The soul of the United Nations embodies the dream of the United Nations: peace, brotherhood and oneness founded upon self-giving and the recognition of the universality of man. If you can cultivate these sublime ideas or ideals during your meditation, you will most effectively and most fruitfully help the soul of the United Nations.

Question: How can the individual seeker offer his aspiration to the world community?⁵⁷

Question: Does the peace that we experience during the meditations in the United Nations conference rooms have any effect on the delegates who do not attend these meetings?⁵⁸

Question: How can both staff members and delegates of Member States understand that spirituality is a true base to build their goals upon?⁵⁹

Question: In general, what kind of people join your meditation meetings?⁶⁰

Question: How can we instil a spiritual feeling in the work that we do?⁶¹

Question: How can we have oneness with our fellow workers?⁶²

If somebody needs more kindness and affection, then you should be ready to give it to that person — not according to what he deserves but according to your own heart’s magnanimity. If somebody is nasty to you or is not helping you in your work, you have to take it as a challenge to become extra nice, extra kind and extra sweet so that you can bring forward the good qualities in that person. Some people are good, some are bad. If we treat bad ones the way they treat us, we will enter into the animal world. So we have to work in a divine way and try to conquer them through patience, concern and love.

Question: How can we accept everyone who works at the United Nations as our very own?⁶³

Question: How can we best inspire the people we work with?

Question: How will our meditation influence our colleagues at the United Nations?⁶⁴

Question: How can I feel that my small job at the United Nations is really important to the total spirit of the United Nations?⁶⁵

When a house is built, there are many bricks and many nails. If one or two bricks are missing, there will be a hole. The walls will not be strong and the foundation will not be secure. So each worker, no matter how insignificant his task, is necessary in order to keep the body and the soul of the United Nations together.

The whole United Nations — right from the Secretary-General to the lowest worker — is only one body, one soul and one reality, which is composed of glowing thoughts and glowing ideals. Some individuals have perhaps a little more light than others, but it is the combination of everybody’s light that transforms the whole into glowing reality.

Question: How can spiritual seekers who have ordinary positions at the United Nations most effectively inspire higher-ranking persons who may not be spiritual seekers?⁶⁶

Again, you can think about his good qualities. Every individual is bound to have some spiritual qualities — simplicity, sincerity or purity, for example — which we are apt to take for granted. These spiritual qualities are of supreme importance in the inner life. Again, people may have other good qualities in addition to spiritual qualities: punctuality, for instance, and conscious dynamism. Even if someone is not spiritual, he may be consciously dynamic and self-giving in his own way, although it may not be in a spiritual way. It is important to concentrate on someone’s good qualities and not on his unaspiring qualities. If you see in him something negative and destructive which is unwilling to change, please do not try to change it. When you point out somebody’s defects and shortcomings and try to improve them, you may mean well. But nobody wants to hear about his imperfections, and very often you will only make enemies.

In one way or another, your boss is trying to increase his good qualities and make progress. Any progress that he makes has to come from the inner world. If you can appreciate even one good quality in your boss, you can help him bring this quality to the fore, where it will slowly, steadily and unerringly blossom. Then he will feel something deep within himself that he has not noticed before. This will inspire him to try to bring that quality forward consciously. It is sometimes helpful to appreciate someone’s good qualities outwardly, but if you appreciate someone openly, you may be misunderstood. Your boss, for example, my ascribe ulterior motives to your appreciation and think you are just flattering him in order to get a promotion. But if you inwardly appreciate the person’s good qualities, you will never get into trouble.

Your inner appreciation, along with your soulful prayers for the conscious awakening of your superior, will definitely help him to become a better human being and a better citizen of the world. Seeing goodness in someone and doing good things for him is the easiest and most effective way to inspire that person to be spiritual.

Question: How can we overcome feelings of resentment and anger that we feel when our superiors appear to be unfair?⁶⁷

From time to time we feel that our superiors do not understand or value us. By arguing with them and trying to convince them that they are wrong or unkind, we will not be able to change their views. If we consider our superiors to be totally different from us, perfect strangers to our ideas, ideals and goals, then we shall never be able to change them. But if we take them as part and parcel of our own existence and feel that we belong to them and they belong to us, then we can eventually change them. If we can regard their lack of faith in us and lack of appreciation for what we do as a defect in our own existence-reality, then we will feel that the problem is within us and is something that we can deal with.

Again, we have to know that the appreciation of our so-called superiors is not of real importance. In the long run, in the course of our spiritual evolution, it may be of no value at all. What matters is not what our superiors think of us but how sincerely we are trying to please and serve the body and the soul of the United Nations. For this is what will give us real joy, not the appreciation of our superiors. If we can please the Real in us, God, then we are also pleasing the same real Existence that is in our superiors. If we are only for the satisfaction of the Real in us and in all human beings, then a day will come when the Real in us will change the minds and attitudes of our superiors. As a matter of fact, there is only one superior and that superior is our inner cry for continuous and ever-increasing perfection in our own life and in others’ lives. Our cry for perfection is the only superior reality in us and for us.

Question: What should a spiritual seeker do when he observes dishonesty or corruption among his colleagues?⁶⁸

If that fails, then the spiritual seeker must be brave enough to tell his colleague that he is not doing the right thing and that it is absolutely necessary for him to become honest and give up his old style of life. But the seeker should continue praying after he has offered this advice to his colleague. After another week, if the seeker observes that his colleague has no intention of changing his nature, then as a last resort he must be bold enough to report the person to the authorities. He should still continue praying for about a week longer; then he can discontinue his prayer, for his role is over. Now it is up to the authorities.

In the present-day world, people are apt to say that what a colleague does is none of our business. The dishonest person, they say, will meet with the consequences without our intervention. But in the spiritual life, this “none of our business” theory is not the right attitude. Once we accept the spiritual life, we feel that it is our bounden duty to be of service to God the Creator and God the creation. God the Creator created our dishonest colleague, and this individual is part and parcel of God the creation. So we have to pray to both God the Creator and God the creation for the transformation of this particular person’s nature.

In the spiritual life it is a mistake to say, “It is none of my business; let him lead his own life.” On the other hand, it is also a deplorable mistake to think we have to transform the world singlehandedly. Instead of praying to God for our own perfection, sometimes we feel that it is our bounden duty to show others the light. God alone knows whether we ourselves are in total darkness or whether we have received abundant light from Above that we can offer to the world at large. But still we feel that we know everything and that other people know nothing. We want others to see the world the way we see it, and we want to shape the world according to our own mental ideas. But this is not spreading light; this is only exercising our power or displaying our authority.

If we see something wrong, we have to bring down light from Above or we have to bring to the fore our own inner light through our prayer and meditation. This inner light we can offer to those around us. We may not have enough light to offer the whole world, but we can at least try to deal with the people around us in our own day-to-day life. If it is not a clear-cut question of right and wrong, if it is only a matter of people seeing or doing things differently from the way we feel they should be seen or done, then we have to pray to God and meditate on God for illumination. God Himself will make us see who is right and wrong. If others are wrong, then if it is God’s Will, He will give us the needed light to illumine those who are doing the wrong thing around us.

But when it is a question of dishonesty or corruption that we are observing, which is a far more serious matter, the first step is to pray and meditate for the transformation of the culprit’s nature. If that fails to succeed, the second step is to advise the person to do the right thing and become the right person. If that, too, fails, then the last resort is to inform the authorities. To the end we should keep goodwill towards that particular person and continue to pray for his transformation. We should not look down upon him or in any way create more disharmony in our office.

Question: If we are feeling tired, is it still beneficial to attend the meditation sessions at the United Nations?⁶⁹

Question: How does the spiritual singing that we do here help our meditation and our offering to the United Nations soul?⁷⁰

Question: You have started offering songs to the Peace Meditation Group to sing at our United Nations meetings, and I was wondering if you could expound upon the purpose of this?⁷¹

If you are trying to aspire, soulful songs will definitely add to your aspiration. Each song is like an additional plant in your aspiration-garden. Naturally, the more plants you have, the more beautiful flowers you will be able to get.

When a soulful song is soulfully sung, it gives us tremendous inner joy, and this makes our heart expand. If we are wise, we shall use every means at our disposal to expand our heart to become one with the entire world. A song is like a seed. The seed will germinate and grow into a tree, which will offer many flowers and fruits. The fragrance and beauty of the flowers will increase our aspiration, and the fruit will give us immortal joy. So these soulful songs will give us the message of Immortality by helping us to become one with the universal light and the universal delight, which they embody.

Question: What can be done about the large gap between the high ideals of the United Nations and routine daily life in the Secretariat offices?⁷²

But the soul of the United Nations will never fail. Unconditionally it will carry the body, the vital and the heart of the United Nations to the destined Goal, transforming today’s vision into tomorrow’s reality. And that reality will be infinitely brighter than our present-day vision can even imagine. Right now we have only a vague idea of what the future will be like. This idea is a product of our mind. But we have to transcend the idea-world in order to enter into the ideal-world, that is to say, the world of illumining and fulfilling ideals. The ideal-world that beckons us is far above and far beyond our present-day vision.

Just because today there is often a yawning gulf between vision and reality, between our idea of the future and the ideal that actually awaits us, we cannot say that we shall always be doomed to failure. We cannot say that the present-day hope, which is nothing short of frustration, can never meet with the ultimate fulfilment, which is the promise from Above. No, we must continue to strive for perfection.

Each individual, either consciously or unconsciously, has sown the seeds of hope. This hope is inseparably one with each individual’s inner cry, which we call aspiration. Aspiration ultimately will be transformed into realisation, and realisation, in due course, will be manifested. At that time, vision and reality, idea and ideal, will become one.

The vision of the soul of the United Nations and of all those who are consciously aspiring for a new oneness-world, a world of unity, will never fail. Slowly, steadily and unerringly, the seeker-servers here will change the present fate and face of the United Nations. It is the seekers now serving the United Nations who will sooner or later bring to the fore the inner message of the United Nations and transform the idea of the United Nations into the ideal of a oneness-world.

Each time we pray and meditate at the United Nations, let us energise our hope. When we dive deep within, let us try to remind ourselves of the lofty promise that we are carrying. The physical in us, the vital in us, the mental in us are embodying hope. At the same time, the Divine in us is embodying promise. When hope and promise work together, fulfilment cannot remain a far cry. So with our inner hunger, our burning flames of aspiration, let us climb up what we call the realisation-tree. Then, when we climb down, we will call it the manifestation-tree. While we are climbing up, in one sense we are still in the world of ideas. But when we are climbing down, in a broad and vast sense we will be in the world of ideals.

By climbing up the realisation-tree and by climbing down the manifestation-tree, we shall solve the problem of the gap between vision and reality. Vision and reality need not and must not remain two separate entities. They are bound to be unified and remain inseparably one.

Question: What should one feel towards those senior United Nations officials who sometimes seem to have a lesser vision of the highest ideals of the Charter of the United Nations?

The individual whose heart encompasses the entire United Nations, the individual who carries deep inside his heart the desires, the aspirations, the joys, the sufferings — in other words, the hope-world, frustration-world and promise-world — of all the members of the United Nations is, according to me, the most important person at the United Nations. The most significant member of the United Nations is he who is all the time crying and smiling in and through each individual member. In this sense, everybody has the golden opportunity to become a most significant instrument of the United Nations. Every individual can easily bring his heart to the fore and, through his oneness-vision, bring down the loftiest messages from Above.

Question: In our work at the United Nations, how can we be discriminating without being critical?

In this world, some people are running fast, faster, fastest towards the destined goal, while others are sleeping or crawling or limping or walking very slowly. But God feels that those who are lagging behind can eventually run as fast as the other members of the family in the continuous journey towards the destined goal. He gives ample opportunity and inner assurance to the ones that are right now less progressive, so that they, too, can eventually run the fastest along the path of Eternity.

Question: Is there a special blessing of peace for those who work at the United Nations?

Question: Does working at the United Nations give us a special sense of responsibility?

Question: Is a portion of the soul of the United Nations inside all the people who work for the United Nations in some capacity?

Question: Is there an inner connection between the United Nations employees and the soul of the United Nations?

Question: What can we do to help humanity become more receptive to the United Nations efforts towards peace?

Question: What is the most important aspect of our work at the United Nations?

Question: How should a seeker at the United Nations deal with staff members who do not want to work and who even block the work of others?

Let us say a particular worker has a tremendous urge to make progress and to see others make progress. He is eager to see the vision of the United Nations flower among all the nations of the world. But some of his friends and colleagues do not see eye to eye with him or are not energetic enough to keep pace with him. Sometimes even his own body, vital and mind place obstacles in his way. But there shall come a time when he is bound to succeed. His inner eagerness and willingness to see and help bring about an infinitely better United Nations will not go in vain. Right now what he needs is patience. Let him do as much as he can, inwardly and outwardly. As he illumines his own nature, he will be in a position to offer light to those who are in ignorance. In the course of time his own illumining accomplishments will illumine others.

Question: How can staff at the United Nations with seemingly insignificant jobs contribute to world peace?

Chapter 6: A real member of the United Nations

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Chapter 7: Prayer and meditation

Question: For a long time people have been meditating for the good of humanity, but there does not seem to be any positive sign that humanity is advancing along the right path. Do you feel that meditation can expedite world-progress?⁷⁴

But this is a long process. We cannot get a Master’s degree overnight. We may study for years and years before we finally get the degree. In the spiritual life also, one has to practise meditation for many years in order to achieve liberation; sometimes it takes quite a few incarnations. We need utmost patience and perseverance. Just because we cannot have most delicious food every day, we do not give up eating.

Similarly, just because we cannot maintain our peace of mind every day, we must not give up meditation or spirituality. If in one day I cannot achieve abiding peace, then I will strive for it the next day as well. And I shall continue striving until I am blessed with peace in abundant measure.

Not in vain did God, our compassionate Father, create the universe. He and peace are one and the same. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. It is His Vision for the entire creation to be inundated with peace. Therefore, we should not give up hope. If we continue to pray and meditate, there shall come a day when instead of inner and outer conflict, peace and delight will reign supreme in this world of ours.

Question: When we meditate, to what extent do we represent humanity and to what extent are we responsible?

Question: When I pray and meditate, I feel a flood of love and joy. But then I find that all the suffering of the world seems to well up inside me and I feel guilty for feeling joyful when so many other people are unhappy.⁷⁵

Question: Can we give our happiness to others by writing about it, and does it help them?

Question: There is concern by some people that meditation rejects the world. What is your response to that?⁷⁶

Despite our own shortcomings and the world’s shortcomings, we have to accept both ourselves and the world. First we try to illumine our own shortcomings. Then, on the strength of our feeling of oneness with the rest of the world, we try to illumine and fulfil others.

Question: Do you believe that activity and meditation contradict one another or do you feel they go hand in hand?⁷⁷

We feel that the inner life and the outer life must be synthesised and harmonised. The outer life is like a beautiful flower and the inner life is its fragrance. If there is no fragrance, then we cannot appreciate the flower. Again, if there is no flower, how can there be any fragrance? So the inner life and the outer life must go together.

Question: What age were you when you commenced meditating?⁷⁸

Question: I would like to know the difference between prayer and meditation.⁷⁹

Whenever we pray there is a subtle desire or aspiration for something. We pray to become good, or to have something divine that we do not now have, or to be free from fear, danger, doubt and so on. There is the feeling of being, let us say, a divine beggar. We are praying because we need something. Even when we pray for peace, light and bliss, there is still a certain feeling of demand. Sometimes there is a personal feeling of give-and-take and the prayer takes this form: “I am giving You my prayer, Lord, so please do something for me in return. Please save me, help me and fulfil me.”

But in meditation we do not do that. We just throw ourselves into a vast expanse — into the sea of peace and delight, into Infinity — or we welcome the infinite Vast into us. We just allow ourselves consciously to enter into the effulgence of light or we invoke the universal light to transform our ignorance into wisdom. The aspirant who has been able to enter into the deeper regions of Infinity or Eternity in his meditation does not pray the way we pray in churches or synagogues or temples. In his meditation, he enters into the Divine Consciousness and leaves everything in God’s Hands.

Here we see the true surrendering attitude. During meditation the seeker feels it is not necessary to ask God for anything, since his divine Father knows exactly what he needs and when to give it to him. He lets God do what is best for him, what will allow him to manifest God in God’s own Way. In the deepest meditation, the seeker just enters into his own infinite aspect. He dives deep into what he already has: an inseparable oneness with his Eternal Father. Then it is his Father’s business to do what is best for him or to give him what he needs. Again, the Saviour Christ revealed to mankind the highest prayer when He said, “Let Thy Will be done.” In his prayer he revealed and manifested the highest surrender.

Question: What is the best way to pray for others?⁸⁰

But before asking the Supreme to help others, first ask Him whether you are supposed to pray for them. Otherwise, you may be praying for others out of sheer attachment. If you get a message or inner feeling from the Presence of the Supreme that you should pray for a particular person, then only should you do so. Otherwise, the Supreme might not be pleased with your prayer at all. If you do something in this world without His Approval, Sanction or Permission, then you are committing a serious mistake.

Suppose somebody is very sick. You may think that if you pray for him, it will be a good thing. But perhaps God wants him to have this experience at this particular time. You have to know that God is infinitely kinder than any human being could possibly be. If, because of your human attachment, you pray to God, “Cure him, cure him,” you may be standing in God’s Way and interfering with the person’s spiritual progress. So always try to discover God’s Will before praying for somebody.

Question: How can we make our prayer most intense?

At every moment during the day you are energised by good thoughts or assailed by bad thoughts. The good thoughts that you get are coming directly from the Supreme, and the will to challenge the bad thoughts and destroy or illumine them is also coming from the Supreme. He is inside you as a Warrior when wrong thoughts come to attack you, and He is inside you as the Heavenly Father, the Supreme Beloved, when good thoughts come to illumine you. So, naturally you will be filled with gratitude to Him.

Question: Since the Supreme is fully aware of all of our needs, why is it appropriate to pray?

In a race, if somebody tries very hard and runs the whole course, he will be so delighted when the race director gives him a trophy. He has run with such effort. Therefore, he feels that he has earned the trophy. God can give everything unconditionally, but we will not be happy. We get more satisfaction when we feel that we have made some effort. Here the fulfilment of our prayers is the trophy.

Again, the very fact that we feel we have to ask God for what we need means that we feel separated from Him. We feel that God is somewhere and we are somewhere else. We never think that He is around or beside us. If we felt that we and God were one, then the question of prayer would not arise, for our needs would be His Needs.

Question: For achieving inner peace, are there other techniques besides meditation that might be more suitable or more effective for certain types of people?⁸¹

When we pray, we often feel that God is somewhere above us — miles and miles above our head or in the blue sky. We do not know exactly where He is; we only feel that we are here on earth, whereas He is far away, so it may take some time for our prayer to reach Him. We also feel that He has to come from wherever He is in order to give us peace of mind or whatever it is we are asking for.

But when we meditate, we have a totally different concept of God. We feel that He is right beside us or within us — inside our body, vital, mind, heart and soul — observing us. So we do not have to fly into the sky or run after Him. If our meditation is soulful, we feel that He will grant us what we need. In most cases, we feel that meditation can do the needful sooner than prayer or any other method. Again, if our prayer is the manifestation of our heart’s intense cry, then it need not take time to reach God. Sooner than at once He will hear us and help us. So prayer and meditation complement each other.

Question: Is there a place for prayer and meditation in equal measure?⁸²

When we go up in our prayer, we ask God to grant us a specific thing that we need from Him. We pray, “Lord, give me peace, light, love, joy.” But when we go deep within during our meditation, God comes down and tells us what He needs from us. He says, “I want you to become My choice instrument, My devoted instrument. I want you to please Me in my own Way. I shall grant you what I feel is best for you, but you also have to please Me.” We pray because we need God; we meditate because God needs us. They go together, like the obverse and reverse of the same coin.

Question: Could you explain what contemplation is and how it differs from meditation?

Question: Does spirituality necessarily go hand in hand with prayer and meditation?⁸³

When we pray, we feel that there is Someone who is thinking of us, looking after us and taking care of us from Above, and that Someone is our Beloved Supreme. When we meditate, we feel that our Beloved Supreme is within us or all around us. We feel His Presence deep with us, inspiring us to lead a higher and more fulfilling life. Prayer makes us feel that we have to go to Him in order to please Him. We are at the foot of the tree and He is at the top of the tree, so we have to climb up in order to reach Him. But meditation makes us feel that no matter where we are, whether we are at the foot of the tree or on the topmost branch, He is all the time with us, helping us and guiding us.

Question: Could you please tell us the difference between concentration, meditation and contemplation?⁸⁴

Very often I hear aspirants say that they cannot concentrate for more than five minutes. After five minutes they get a headache or they feel that their head is on fire. Why? It is because the power of their concentration is coming from the intellectual mind or, you can say, the disciplined mind. The mind knows that it must not wander; that much knowledge the mind has. But if the mind is to be utilised properly, in an illumined way, then the light of the soul has to come into it. When the light of the soul has entered into the mind, it is extremely easy for us to concentrate on something for two or three hours, or for as long as we want. During this time there can be no thoughts or doubts or fears. No negative forces can enter into our mind if it is surcharged with the soul’s light.

So when we concentrate, we try to feel that the power of concentration is coming from the heart centre and then going up to the third eye. The physical heart is tiny, but the spiritual heart, which is our true home, is vaster than the universe. The heart centre is where the soul is located. When we think of our soul at this time, we should not form any specific idea of it or think what it looks like. We should just think of it as God’s representative, as boundless Light and Delight. So this Light comes from our heart and passes through our third eye, and then it takes us into the object of our concentration and we have our identification with it. The final stage of concentration is to discover the hidden ultimate truth in the object of concentration.

What concentration can do in our day-to-day life is unimaginable. Concentration is the surest way to reach our goal, whether the goal be God-realisation or merely the fulfilment of human desires. A real aspirant sooner or later acquires the power of concentration either through the Grace of God, through constant practice or through his aspiration. Each seeker can declare that he has a divine hero, a divine warrior, within himself. And what is that divine warrior? It is his concentration.

When we concentrate, we have to concentrate on one particular thing. But when we meditate, we feel that we have the capacity deep within us to see many, deal with many and welcome many all at the same time. When we meditate, we try to expand our consciousness to encompass the vast sea or the vast blue sky. We try to expand ourselves like a bird spreading its wings. We expand our finite consciousness and enter into the Universal Consciousness where there is no fear, no jealousy, no doubt, but only divine joy, peace and power.

During meditation what we actually do is enter into a vacant, calm, still, silent mind. We go deep within and approach our true existence, which is our soul. When we live in the soul, we feel that we are actually meditating spontaneously. At that time, we see that our inner existence is surcharged with peace and tranquillity.

Meditation is like going to the bottom of the sea, where everything is calm and tranquil. On the surface there may be a multitude of waves, but the sea is not affected below. In its deepest depths, the sea is all silence. When we start meditating, first we try to reach our own inner existence — that is to say, the bottom of the sea. Then, when the waves come from the outside world, we are not affected. Fear, doubt, worry and all the earthly turmoils will just wash away, because inside us is solid peace. Thoughts cannot touch us, because our mind is all peace, all silence, all oneness. Like fish in the sea, they jump and swim but leave no mark on the water. Like birds flying in the sky, they leave no trace behind them. So when we are in our highest meditation we feel that we are the sea, and the animals in the sea cannot affect us. We feel that we are the sky, and all the birds flying past cannot affect us. Our mind is the sky and our heart is the infinite sea. This is meditation.

When we are in meditation, we want only to commune with God. Now I am speaking English and you are able to understand me because you know English well. Similarly, when you know how to meditate well, you will be able to commune with God, for meditation is the language we use to speak with God.

Through concentration we become one-pointed and through meditation we expand our consciousness into the Vast. But in contemplation we grow into the Vast itself. We have seen the Truth. We have felt the Truth. But the most important thing is to grow into the Truth and become totally one with the Truth. If we are concentrating on God, we may feel God right in front of us or beside us. When we are meditating, we are bound to feel Infinity, Eternity and Immortality within us. But when we are contemplating, we will see that we ourselves are God, that we ourselves are Infinity, Eternity, Immortality. When we contemplate, Creator and creation become one. We become one with the Creator and see the whole universe inside us. At that time, when we look at our own existence, we do not see a human being. We see something like a dynamo of light, peace and bliss. Contemplation means our conscious oneness with the Infinite, Eternal Absolute. In contemplation we truly discover ourselves.

We should concentrate for a few minutes each day before entering into meditation. At that time we are acting like a runner who has to clear the track; we see if there are any obstacles and then remove them. Once concentration has removed the obstacles and we begin meditating, we can run very fast. Inwardly we become like an express train that only stops at the final destination. Then, when we reach the Goal, we have to become the Goal. This is the last stage, contemplation. Seekers who are just entering onto the spiritual path should start with concentration for a few months before entering into meditation. Then they must meditate for a few years and finally enter into contemplation.

Question: What is the purpose of meditation?⁸⁵

Question: Is meditation for everybody regardless of whether a person is consciously seeking God?

Question: What kind of knowledge can we achieve through meditation?⁸⁶

Question: Can this illumination be shared among people — for example, between a person who has meditated for a long time and a person who has not?

Question: When you speak of the outer silence, do you mean inaction?⁸⁷

Question: So outer silence or dynamic silence is really divine action — doing the Will of God by serving man?

Question: Is inner silence equated with prayer and meditation?

Question: Does each person have a different way of meditating?⁸⁸

Question: Because there are many schools of meditation, it becomes hard for a person to select one. How can we find the best one for us?⁸⁹

Question: Should we meditate on various subjects?

So today your subject can be peace, tomorrow it can be joy and the day after tomorrow it can be love. Every day you can change the subject of your meditation. Again, you can continue meditating for days, weeks, months and years on the same subject because at every moment you are increasing your capacity and receptivity. Today you may be satisfied with just an iota of peace, but tomorrow you will cry for abundant peace and the day after you will cry for infinite peace. And if you are praying and meditating for infinite peace, naturally it will take you more than one day to achieve it.

Question: What do you recommend for beginners?

Since it is very difficult for the beginner to observe which kind of thought is coming, it is best to stand right at the door of your mind-room and not allow any thought at all to come inside. Then, after some time you can open the door to see who is waiting there. If someone is a real friend, a true friend, he will wait for you indefinitely because he loves you. Good thoughts definitely love us, so they will wait on the other side of the mind-door indefinitely. But bad thoughts will leave after a while because they will feel it is beneath their dignity to be kept waiting outside.

Question: Can meditation help cure physical ailments such as high blood pressure?⁹⁰

In meditation we make our mind calm and quiet. In the outer life it is almost impossible for most human beings to have peace of mind. He who does not have peace of mind is a veritable beggar; he finds no satisfaction in anything. Again, if we get peace of mind even for a fleeting second, we feel we have accomplished something significant in our lives. When the mind is tranquil, there is a constant flow of harmony. This harmony first enters into the vital and, from the vital, it enters into the physical. When there is harmony in the system, there can be no ailment. It is only in the world of anxiety, worry, tension and confusion that ailments can be found. When there is real harmony, the sufferings of human life come to an end.

High blood pressure, heart failure and all the diseases that we notice in God’s creation are attacks from undivine forces. These undivine forces can be overcome only when we surrender to a positive force. When we meditate, we try to become a perfect channel for the positive forces. The positive forces are light, love, delight. At each moment in our life, the positive forces want to take us consciously to the Source, where there is only perfection.

If our mind is calm and quiet, if our vital is dynamic, if our body is conscious of what it is doing, then we are inside the palace of satisfaction, where there can be no disease, no suffering, no imperfection, no obstruction to our abiding peace, abiding light and abiding satisfaction. Meditation is a means; it is a way, a path. If we walk along this path, then we reach our destination, which is all-perfection.

Question: I have just started coming to your meetings and I would like to know exactly what is meant by meditation. Is it good to read books on the subject? Is meditation a form of thinking?⁹¹

In the world you are constantly being assailed by ideas and thoughts. But you should try not to allow these thoughts to enter into your mind in your day-to-day life. You may think that if you do not have any thoughts you will be like a fool. But fools are not without thoughts; they have thoughts, but their thoughts lead them to do silly things. If you can stop the flow of ordinary thoughts and bring to the fore your inner will and determination, then you will do the right thing and grow into a divine instrument of God, your Inner Pilot. That is a form of meditation too.

I advise seekers to forget the mind and try to feel the presence of the heart. Inside the heart they will feel a vessel. This vessel is full to the brim with ignorance, imperfection and undivine things. They must try to empty the vessel with their own inner cry and with God’s Help. This action of emptying oneself has to be done with devotion and a feeling of surrender to God’s Will. It also has to be done with love — love for God and for humanity. Once the vessel is emptied, then God will fill it with peace, light and bliss.

Question: How can we learn to meditate? I believe in God, but it is very hard for me to meditate.⁹²

If you want to be under the guidance of a spiritual Master, the Master’s silent gaze will teach you how to meditate. The Master does not have to explain outwardly how to meditate or give you a specific form of meditation or mantra. He will simply meditate on you and inwardly teach you how to meditate. Your soul will enter into the Master’s soul and bring the message or knowledge of how you should meditate from his soul.

All real spiritual Masters teach meditation in silence. When a genuine spiritual Master meditates, peace, light and bliss descend from Above and enter into the sincere seekers. Then automatically they learn how to meditate from within.

It is easier to learn how to meditate if you have a Master because you get additional help from the Master’s conscious concern. But if you do not want to follow a specific path or if you do not want to be under the guidance of a spiritual Master, if you just want to learn how to meditate a little and not go on to God-realisation, then the best thing is to associate with spiritual people in whom you have faith. Unconsciously they will help you. But this process will not take you to the highest Goal. You will learn to walk, but you will not be able to walk fast. You will not be able to run fast, faster, fastest towards the Goal. For that you will need higher lessons, inner and deeper lessons, from some spiritual Master.

Question: I would very much like to learn what the spiritual heart is like.⁹³

On the one hand, the spiritual heart houses Immortality, Eternity, Infinity, the Universal Consciousness and so on; on the other hand, it transcends everything. Also, although the spiritual heart is infinite, eternal and immortal, although it pervades the entire universe, it can easily reside inside the finite human heart.

At one moment the Infinite will separate itself from the finite; the next moment it will welcome the finite into itself and become totally one with the finite. In the spiritual life, not only can the drop of water enter the ocean but the ocean also has the capacity to enter into the tiny drop. God is omnipotent, not because He is larger than the largest, but because this moment He can be the tiniest, most insignificant ant and the next moment He can be infinitely vaster than the ocean. Him we call God precisely because He can be whatever He wants to be: vaster than the vastest or tinier than the tiniest.

When speaking of God, we also use the term ‘Transcendental Consciousness’. This consciousness is not static; it is constantly transcending itself. God is infinite, eternal and immortal, but He is also ever-progressing. God Himself is in the process of evolution. He is making constant progress in and through everyone on earth in order to establish perfect Perfection here.

Question: How can we keep our awareness?⁹⁴

Question: How can I go deep within?⁹⁵

Question: How can I have deeper meditations?⁹⁶

In order to have good meditations, you should also try to dedicate your life to the right cause. The right cause is to try to see the divine in others and the divine in yourself all the time. If you think of yourself as a sea of ignorance, you will never be inspired to meditate well. You will think it is an impossible task. So try to see the divine in yourself as often as you can; then automatically your meditation will become deeper, more illumining and more fulfilling.

Question: Once we reach a certain level in our meditation, how then can we go higher and deeper?⁹⁷

We have unlimited capacity, but we have only brought to the fore a certain amount. We have to bring forward more of our inner capacity so that we can transcend our present level of consciousness and go far, far beyond it. We have to feel all the time that we exist only for God, that we live only for God. It is not enough to feel that we live half the time for the fulfilment of God and half the time for something else. No, we have to feel that we live only for our aspiration, our dedication and our surrender to God. Everything that we have and everything that we are is for God-realisation, God-manifestation and God-satisfaction. If we feel this, then naturally the intensity of our inner cry will be high, higher, highest.

Question: How can we know whether we are meditating well or not?⁹⁸

The easiest way to know if we have had a good meditation is to feel whether peace, light, love and delight are coming to the fore from within. Each time light, love, peace or delight comes forward, the whole body becomes surcharged with that divine quality. Each time one of these qualities comes to the fore, we are bound to feel that we are remembering a forgotten story. This story was written by the seeker in us; it was not written by somebody else. It is our own creation, but we have forgotten it, and it is meditation that brings it back. When we remember this story we are overjoyed that we have created such a beautiful story, which is nothing but our own life-story.

Question: I read something about the control of breath in meditation. Could you elaborate on that?⁹⁹

When you feel that your whole being has been washed or purified by cosmic energy, then feel that you are breathing out all the rubbish inside you — all your undivine thoughts, impure actions, obscure ideas. Anything inside your system that you call undivine, anything that you do not want to claim as your own, feel that you are exhaling. It is most important that this breathing be done in a very conscious way, not in a mechanical way. Otherwise, it will not be effective.

The traditional yogic pranayama is more complicated and systematised. But what I have just told you is the most effective spiritual method of breathing. In the beginning, you will have to use your imagination, but after a while you will see and feel that it is not imagination at all, but reality. You are consciously breathing in the energy that is flowing all around you in the cosmos, purifying yourself, and then emptying yourself of everything undivine. If you can breathe this way for five minutes every day, you will be able to make very fast progress.

When you reach a more advanced stage, try not to feel that your breath is coming in and going out only through your nose. Feel that you are breathing in and breathing out through your heart, through your eyes, through your pores. Now you are limited to breathing in and out only through the nose or the mouth. But a time will come when you will realise that any part of the body can breathe. Spiritual Masters can breathe even with their nose and mouth closed. When you have perfected this kind of spiritual breathing, you will see that all your impurity and ignorance have been replaced by God’s Light, God’s Peace and God’s Power.

Question: Is it better to meditate in the lotus position than in other positions?¹⁰⁰

Usually when a beginner enters into a spiritual path, he becomes a victim to laziness. Meditation is something new to him and he may not get a satisfactory result all at once. So it is necessary for him to discipline himself as quickly as possible. But for one who has already tasted some inner food — inner light, peace or bliss — it is not necessary to go through this rigorous discipline because meditation has become spontaneous. While he is walking, while he is doing office work, he will be meditating on God. While he is talking to a person, his mouth will be functioning, but his mind will be on God. So you have to be the judge. When you start to meditate, what happens? If your mind roams, then you have to be very careful. If your mind does not roam, if you know that you can hold the reins, then it is not at all obligatory to sit in the lotus posture while you meditate.

Question: During a meditation, if something external to the meditation occurs — such as noise or something unforeseen — is it better to include it in the meditation or to try to shut it out and pursue the meditation?¹⁰¹

Question: Should meditation be done in silence or can we mentally chant some slokas or holy verses?¹⁰²

If you do not have much time to devote to meditation, then reading from scriptures can be skipped. But if you can find a special time for your own highest meditation and also find time to do other spiritual things such as chanting, then naturally that is better. Everything can be practised during the span of a day. In the morning you can do chanting and other things and in the evening you can meditate. Or if you spend half an hour or an hour meditating in the morning, then in the evening for half an hour or an hour you can do not only silent meditation but also the things that will help you grow into deeper meditation. It depends on how much time you can devote to your spiritual life. Chanting or reciting slokas will definitely, definitely help your meditation, but in themselves they are not the highest type of meditation.

Question: What exactly is a mantra?¹⁰³

What benefit does the seeker get from repeating a mantra? The first benefit he gets is purity. Without purity, there can be no certainty in one’s spiritual life. Today you may make progress and tomorrow you may drop back to where you started. But when you repeat a mantra that has been given by a spiritual Master — and not by anybody else — you are bound to get purity. From purity you will get pure energy, plus the feeling of universal oneness. And in your oneness with God’s universe, you attain oneness with God Himself.

The best way to use a mantra to attain purity quickly is to ascend by steps. Today repeat the mantra 500 times; tomorrow, 600; the day after tomorrow, 700; and so on, until you reach 1,200 in one week’s time. Then begin descending each day until you reach 500 again. In this way you can climb up the tree and climb down the tree. When you climb down, please feel that you are trying to distribute its purity-fruit through your heart to the aspiring people around you.

When a mantra is repeated many times, it is called japa. There are two ways to do japa. One is audible, the other is inaudible. If you repeat the mantra out loud, you will get physical purity. If you repeat the mantra in silence, you will get purity in your inner existence. Without inner purity, you will make no spiritual progress. If your mind is thinking of undivine, impure things, your inner progress will come to a halt. So it is better to practise japa in silence. When you do, try to feel that there is somebody inside you, your inner being, who is repeating the word on your behalf. Just by repeating your mantra devotedly and soulfully you can have purity in your heart and in your mind, and from purity you can get everything — the Highest, the Supreme.

Question: Is it essential to have a mantra?¹⁰⁴

Question: Sometimes when I meditate, I feel that I am about to go through some experience, but nothing happens. What is the cause of that?¹⁰⁵

It is the same with your meditation. If you had gone just a little bit higher or deeper, you would have had your experience. But your attention was diverted or something made you pull back. Something inside you failed to maintain the level of your aspiration and your consciousness fell. It is as if you were climbing up to the highest branch of a mango tree, but all of a sudden somebody called you from below; so you forgot about the delicious mango at the top of the tree and you climbed down. This is what it is like when your consciousness falls. But if you can maintain your height and not respond to any call from below, then you will reach the Highest and you will get the experience.

While you are praying and meditating, imagine that you have a bicycle inside you. When you ride a bicycle, you have to pedal all the time; otherwise, you will stop making progress and just fall down. While you are meditating you have to aspire all the time; otherwise, you will fall. You cannot pause at one point. In the spiritual life, movement has to be constant. Either you move forward or you move backward. If you try to remain motionless, the ignorance of the world will pull you right back to your starting point.

While you are aspiring, you have to make yourself conscious at every moment that what you need is not success but progress, progress, progress. Progress itself is an active form of success. When you start meditating early in the morning, if you think, “Today I have to get the highest experience or I will feel miserable,” then you are making a mistake. If you cry for success, then God may give you the experience that you call success. But He will not utilise you as His chosen instrument because you are trying to get something from Him. But if you cry only for the opportunity and privilege of becoming His instrument to serve Him in His own Way, then God will most assuredly give you the progress that you need to fulfil Him.

If experience is your aim, until you actually reach the height from which you can get the experience, please continue to aspire intensely. But if your aim is to become an instrument of the Supreme, if progress is your only concern, then you are bound to get all the experiences that God has in store for you even if you do not climb to the top of the tree. Right now it is you who are trying to climb up to a great height in order to get an experience. But it is very easy for God to bring the fruit down and give it to you if such is His Will. So if you can please God, even if you remain at the foot of the tree, God will climb up on your behalf and bring the experience down.

Question: What is the difference between going high and going deep in meditation?

When we want to go high in meditation, then our direction is upward. Our aspiration goes upward; we are climbing, climbing fearlessly towards the Highest. We must pass through the mind and through the thousand-petalled lotus at the top of the head. Again, the distance is infinite. There is no end to our upward journey because we are travelling in Infinity. We are climbing towards the ever-transcending Beyond. In terms of distance, upward and inward are both infinite journeys towards one Goal, the Supreme.

Question: Which is better: morning meditation or evening meditation?¹⁰⁶

By the following morning, everything will be out of your memory, at least for a while. During the time that you slept, the distractions and impurities of the outer world will have been washed away. During the eight hours that you are asleep your soul, like a divine thief, is observing. An ordinary thief will steal from you. But this divine thief only gives and gives. The soul is like a mother. A mother comes into the child’s room secretly at night to lay out the things that he needs for school. So as soon as the child gets up, he will have everything he needs. Similarly, while you are sleeping, the soul gets the opportunity to do what is necessary for you. If you need peace at one spot, your soul will put peace there. But during the day, when you are absorbed in the activities of the outer world, it is more difficult for the soul to give and for you to receive.

So morning meditation is usually the best. Early in the morning there is no hustle and bustle, no commotion. And since you have taken several hours of rest, you feel the strength of a lion. If you can take a shower, conquer your lethargy, and sit down fresh and alert for meditation, then your morning meditation becomes one hundred per cent good. But if you are ninety-nine per cent in the world of sleep, your meditation will be useless.

Next to early morning, evening is the best time for meditation because the atmosphere then is calm and peaceful. At that time you can feel a kind of soothing sensation. In the evening you are tired and you feel that the whole world is also tired. But there is a slight difference between the world’s approach to the truth and your approach. When the world is tired, it will not aspire; it wants only to rest. But you feel that your tiredness or lethargy can be overcome only by bringing more light and more energy into your system. If an ordinary person is tired, he will feel there is nothing else to do but go to sleep. But you will say, “No! I am tired, but there is a specific way for me to energise my life and that is to bring down peace, light and bliss.” When you pray and meditate, at that time new life-energy enters into you and refreshes you.

If you want to meditate in the evening, then meditate a half hour or forty minutes before you eat. If you are really pinched with hunger, you can drink a glass of water or juice or milk. But if you meditate after you have eaten a heavy meal, the thousands of subtle nerves in your body will be very heavy and you will not be able to meditate well. The body will be heavy, the consciousness will be heavy, the nerves will be heavy, and your meditation will be useless. In proper meditation, your consciousness flies like a bird. If you meditate well, you feel that your whole existence, like a bird, is flying high, higher, highest. But when you become heavy, immediately you sink and your consciousness cannot rise.

So if you are unable to meditate in the morning, evening meditation is the next best thing — not noon or 2 p.m. At these times, meditation is more difficult. Once you become very advanced in the spiritual life, you will be able to meditate any time. The best thing for now, however, is to meditate both morning and evening. If you meditate well in the morning, you may get one million spiritual dollars. And if you meditate well in the evening, you may get ten thousand spiritual dollars. But if you can get even one dollar more towards the spiritual sum that you need for your realisation, then if you are wise you will take it.

Question: How can we avoid falling asleep during meditation?¹⁰⁷

When we have enjoyed deep meditation in the sense of having drunk divine nectar, sometimes we feel drowsiness. We feel we are not fully conscious of what is happening around us. But this is not actual sleep. We are immersed in the silence, peace and poise that is deep within us. And from this silence deep within us we can get a special kind of energy. Our human mind cannot understand this energy because it never gets it or even sees it. Only our heart receives it from the soul. If we can feel this inner energy during our meditation, then for hours and hours we can meditate without any exhaustion or tiredness.

In our inner life we are well-established. We know that we are of God and for God. We know that we belong to God and God belongs to us, and that God-realisation is our birthright. But this inner realisation is static; it is the static way of holding the truth. In our outer life of manifestation we also have to prove that we are of and for God — through our manifestation of the Divine within us. This divine manifestation needs constant movement. We have to feel inside ourselves a flowing river of dynamic energy and dynamic light. Then we have to feel that we have become that river and we are continually moving towards the sea, which is our goal. We are in the process of continuous movement — running forward, climbing upward, diving inward towards our goal. When we feel this, then we cannot be attacked by lethargy or sleep.

Silence-life we embody, but sound-life unfortunately we do not always manifest in a divine way. When we fall asleep during our meditation, it is a kind of unconscious destruction of our own inner divinity. If we are going on a long journey, we have to know that when we come to the airport, that is only our first destination. The final destination is some distant city or country. Some seekers feel that just because they have entered into the meditation room, their role is over. They feel that they have already reached their destination and now they can relax. That is why they fall asleep. But our role will be over only when we have meditated well and, at the end of our meditation, when we have offered whatever we have achieved, as well as our gratitude, at the Feet of the Supreme.

Question: Since God is within us and we know that one day we will realise God, why is it necessary to meditate?¹⁰⁸

Question: How can we bring our dreams into our meditation?¹⁰⁹

Question: Could you speak on guidance?

If we want to make a comparison, we can say that the vital offers a little more guidance than the body, the mind offers more guidance than the vital and the body put together, and the heart’s guidance far exceeds the guidance of the body, vital and mind. Again, the light of the soul offers infinitely more guidance than all the others put together.

Question: When I was meditating I had a tense feeling. My head was hurting and I felt I was pulling my meditation.¹¹⁰

Also, before you start to meditate, breathe in seven long breaths. This will help you. If you breathe in very powerfully, you will energise yourself and, at the same time, conquer sleep for a few minutes.

Question: What concrete or practical things can I do, either during meditation or apart from it, in order to see light? I am not afraid of seeing light but I do not know how to do it.¹¹¹

You say you are not afraid of light. Wonderful! But there are many people who are afraid of light. They feel that if they can hide themselves in a dark room, then they will be able to see the whole world and pass judgement on it from the safety and security of the darkness. When light comes and is ready to enter into them, they feel that all their weaknesses and limitations, all their negative ideas and negative thoughts, will be exposed. But the very function of light is to illumine, not to expose — to transform our negative and destructive thoughts into positive and affirmative thoughts.

You want to know how you can receive light or how you can bring the light that you have within you to the fore. For that you need preparation, which is nothing other than your pure concentration and meditation. When you start your concentration or meditation, try to feel that you have come from light and that your whole existence exists inside light, that you not only embody light but are light itself. This is not imagination or mental hallucination. Far from it! It is a real, solid, concrete truth. If you can realise this, you will see a spontaneous flow of light from within. First you will feel it inside your heart. Then you will feel it in your forehead — in the third eye; and finally you will feel it throughout your entire being.

There are also other ways of seeing light. One way is through your breathing. Each time you draw in a breath, please feel that you are breathing in something that is feeding, purifying and energising everything inside you. And what is the thing that you are breathing in? It is nothing but light. After a while you will feel that this light you are breathing has totally filled your being. At that time you will see and feel that you are nothing but light itself.

Question: Some people believe that fasting will help to achieve inner peace. Do you recommend fasting before meditation?¹¹²

Fasting once in a blue moon is beneficial if you want to purify your system. If once a month you fast, it will not tell upon your health; it may even help in illumining your mind. But if you fast on a regular basis with the idea of having a calm, pure mind or good health, then you will be making a deplorable mistake; you will only be weakening yourself. It is through meditation, not fasting, that illumination comes. Only regular, soulful meditation can bring you peace of mind and inner harmony.

Question: When we meditate, how should we deal with thoughts that come from our imagination? Do these thoughts have any kind of reality to them?¹¹³

The thought may have come from the world of imagination, or it may have come from some other plane of existence. If it comes from your imagination, no harm! Imagination is a world of its own. Today we imagine something and tomorrow that very thing is transformed into reality by virtue of our aspiration. A thought may come from the reality-world that we happen to call imagination. But if we can bring that thought into our real existence by virtue of our aspiration, then it becomes a real reality.

Question: How do we know if a thought is progressive or not?

Question: Why does the mind resist so much when one tries to meditate and how can one overcome this?¹¹⁴

The human mind always tries to bind others. In binding others, it thinks that it is increasing its own freedom. But this is not the case. The more we bind others, the more we diminish our freedom. The human mind constantly enjoys thought. This moment it enjoys a good thought, the next moment it enjoys a bad thought. Although it knows perfectly well that a particular thought is bad, still the mind enjoys it because the mind has no sense of discrimination. The human mind is equally satisfied with the good and the bad. The heart, on the other hand, will care only for good things and good experiences.

The mind is like a naughty child. But how long can a child remain naughty? If the mother and father pray to God, “O God, grant my child some peace and light so that he will be freed from all his bad qualities!” then God is bound to listen to their hearts’ prayer and the child will become peaceful. Similarly, if we pray for peace and light, then the mind — which was once upon a time like a naughty child — will become calm, quiet and good. Instead of resisting, the mind will expand itself in meditation and become one with the Vast. It is by virtue of our prayer and meditation that one day we shall possess a simple, sincere, humble and aspiring mind, which will be inundated with the peace that it so badly needs.

Mrs Mohini Singh, wife of CPN Singh (Member of Parliament, India): When you sit down to meditate, there are times when you reach a very quiet sort of place and all the sounds seem distant. It has happened to me and it started frightening me, because it was a strange sort of calm. I felt, at times, that I needed some kind of guidance, which was not available immediately. Do you think that one can meditate by oneself without somebody there who can help you at every step?¹¹⁵

The spiritual teacher knows that all seekers belong to one spiritual family. Since he happens to be an older brother in the family, naturally he knows where his Father is. He tells his younger brothers and sisters that their Father is in such and such a room, and he offers to take them to that room. Once he takes them to the Father, his role is over. He never claims that he is God. That would be absurdity on the face of it. His role is just to take his younger brothers and sisters to God. Otherwise, the younger ones will search for their Father here, there and elsewhere, and it may take them a very long time to find Him. If they are unlucky, then they may waste their whole lives unsuccessfully searching for God.

A spiritual teacher says, “Here is the key. It will open the safe where your inner treasure is hidden.” It is not the teacher’s safe. It is your safe, all yours. Only you have misplaced the key and you are unable to open it. The teacher will come as a friend to help you search for it. When he finds the key, he gives it to you. This is the teacher’s role. He helps you discover your own wealth. He himself is not the treasure, the diamond; you are the diamond. The treasure is within you, but you have unfortunately misplaced the key that will unlock the safe where the diamond is kept.

Again, it is not that one must have a teacher. The real Teacher is within; God is within. The first person who realised God thousands of years ago did not have a human being as a spiritual Master. We have no idea who the first person to realise God was, but we definitely know that in his case, God Himself was the Teacher. Since that time, down the sweep of centuries, a few spiritual Masters of the highest order have taken human incarnations: Lord Krishna, the Buddha, the Christ and a few more. Their Consciousness has guided and shall forever guide the searching and aspiring human souls.

When we have a teacher, we cannot fool ourselves. A teacher will be able to tell us whether or not we are doing proper meditation. Otherwise, although we are doing extremely well, wrong forces may come and take away all our joy by telling us that our meditation is just mental hallucination. Again, sometimes we may not be meditating well, but we may fool ourselves and feel that we are meditating well. At that time a sincere teacher will show us that we are not meditating well. Without a teacher, doubt may enter into our mind, or we may fool ourselves.

Again, sometimes it happens that seekers have very high experiences but do not know their meaning. If they cannot understand the meaning of their experiences, then a teacher can help them. The teacher is not giving them these experiences; far from it. It is their own aspiration that is giving them these experiences, but they do not know how to interpret them. So this is where the teacher plays his role. Again, there are many who have realised God without a specific teacher. They were lucky.

Now, about your experiences: you need not be afraid of this calm and quiet state of mind. It is a state that indicates great progress. Think of the ocean. On the surface the ocean is very rough and restless, and it frightens us; but in its deepest depth, the ocean is all calm and silent. Similarly, when we dive deep within, we feel only calmness and quiet. If we can develop inner poise through our prayer and meditation, then we will not be afraid of anything. No matter how vast or how rough the ocean is on the surface, no matter how many other disturbances there are, we will be able to find peace and inner security deep within.

So when you have higher experiences of vastness and silence, you should be very happy and proud of those experiences instead of being afraid of them. Please do not be afraid of the vastness. Just enter into it.

Mr CPN Singh, Member of Parliament (India): With the kind of life we have and the kind of world we live in, it is not easy to sit and be with oneself. You said there are many things that we do in the mind. The first thing to do would be to shut out the other influences or other vibrations one gets. How does one do that?

If I am concentrating on my third eye, I will imagine that I have a room right behind my head where a friend of mine lives. This friend is my determination and adamantine will-power. It is like a being who is guarding me. Whenever a thought tries to enter my mind, my most powerful friend will not allow it to enter. Then, after a few months or a few years or when I have made some progress in my spiritual life, this friend will allow in only good thoughts, divine thoughts — thoughts that say, “I am of God and I am for God; I have the Light and I shall share the Light with suffering humanity.” But my friend will not allow in any divisive thoughts that come. If the idea tries to enter into my mind that I want to be superior to all, that I want to surpass everyone and be an autocrat, a monarch, a sovereign — that kind of idea will not be allowed in. The thought that wants to say, like Julius Caesar, “I came, I saw, I conquered!” will not be permitted to enter. Any vital thoughts, emotional thoughts, impure thoughts that want to enter, my friend will not allow. My friend will-power shall allow only good thoughts, divine thoughts, encouraging thoughts, illumining thoughts to enter.

There is also another way to concentrate that is very easy. When we concentrate on the third eye, we cannot see it with our naked eye. We have to imagine it. But if we concentrate on the tip of our thumb, there is nothing we have to imagine. Right at this moment, I am seeing my hand, my fingers and finally the tip of my thumb. Gradually, gradually, gradually I am narrowing my focus until nothing else exists for me but the tip of my thumb. This is the job at hand, the goal, and I shall concentrate only on this and not see anything else.

Or if you find this exercise difficult, just place a tiny circle on a wall at eye level and stand in front of it. Preferably, the circle should be black. At first you will see the whole wall; then you will see just two or three metres to either side of the mark. Finally, you will be able to focus your attention entirely on that particular mark and not see anything else. While you are concentrating on the spot, you will see that the divine thoughts that are entering into your mind are becoming extremely powerful, while the undivine thoughts are becoming weak, extremely weak — almost dead. In this way eventually only divine thoughts will be able to operate inside you.

So these are two practical ways to develop the power of concentration. It is only a matter of daily practice. The main thing when you concentrate is to have in front of you an object that is as small as possible and to focus your eyes only on that thing. But when you meditate, you will meditate on something that is very vast. When you meditate on the sky or the ocean, you will feel peace enter into you, and you will feel yourself expanding.

When you are concentrating, you have to think that you are a divine warrior, a hero. But when you are meditating, you will have a totally different view. You will feel that you are a seeker who wants to offer peace to the entire world. Here you are in the sea of peace, and this peace you want to offer to the world. This is meditation.

Another way to concentrate and meditate is to take each thought that comes — whether good or bad — as an enemy. You want to have peace of mind; you want to have joy inside you; you want to dive deep within. Right now you do not know which thoughts will be good and which will be bad. So you have to regard all of them as enemies.

Take each thought that comes as a fly sitting on your shoulder or your nose. You will just cast it aside because it is bothering you. In the beginning the flies will bother you. But you have to be persistent. Everything in life has pride in it. Ego is in everything right from the very beginning of creation. Even a thought will say, “If you do not give me shelter, I will not come any more.” If someone bothers you and you do not pay attention to that person, they will see that they are not wanted. Let us say I am dying of starvation and you are very rich, but you are not giving me any food. Ten times I will go to you, but then I will say, “No, it is beneath my dignity to go to him again. I would rather die here.” So the fly-consciousness also feels that. It will come and bother you a number of times, but if you do not pay any attention to it, then the fly-consciousness will say, “If you do not need me, am I going to go to your house any more? I have some other places to go.” Then it leaves you.

Take unwanted thoughts as unwanted guests. If a monkey comes and bothers us and if we pay no attention to it, then the monkey will feel, “I am not wanted! I am not needed!” and it will disappear. Unwanted thoughts will definitely go away; it is only a matter of a few days or a few months. Whenever any thought comes, if you do not give it shelter, then easily you will be able to reach the point where you are not disturbed by any thoughts.

The third rung on the spiritual ladder is called contemplation. Here we pray to God and meditate on God the Supreme Beloved. At first we feel that He is the Supreme Beloved and that we are His divine lover. Then we feel that we are the Supreme Beloved and He is our divine Lover. It is a game. Sometimes He is hiding and we are seeking Him; sometimes we are hiding and He is seeking us. This is the game that the Supreme plays with the seeker who has reached the highest stage which is contemplation.

Mrs Noemi Kovanda: I would like to ask you about meditation itself, especially concerning my son. Should I meditate on certain things for him?¹¹⁶

Along with your other prayers for your sweetest child, please pray for two more things: peace and bliss. Pray to God to inundate the child’s head with peace and to inundate his heart with love. Bliss may be difficult for the child to conceive, but love he can easily understand. He loves his mother and his father so much. As soon as he sees you or his father, he feels boundless love. And bliss comes from love; if there is love, there is bliss.

While praying for your child, there is another thing you can do. Please try to observe when he is drawing breath inward and when he is breathing out. As soon as he starts to inhale, you can start your prayer; and when he releases his breath, you should finish your prayer. So you have to pray very quickly. Sometimes when you are holding him in your lap or keeping him on your shoulder or very close to you, you will be able to feel or hear him breathe, and you can match your prayer to his breathing. But even if your imagination does not coincide exactly with the time that he is breathing in and breathing out, no harm. Your imagination has a reality of its own. In a few days you will be able to develop the capacity to synchronise your prayer with his breathing. This will be the most effective way for you to pray for whatever you want for him.

Mrs Noemi Kovanda: Is there any special meditation I can do to benefit my husband?

Mrs Noemi Kovanda: I find it very difficult to pray for anything other than health because health is so important. I feel selfish when I pray for anything else.

Mrs Noemi Kovanda: Should I pray in silence or out loud?

While praying, you are using words: “O God, give me this, give me that. Do this for me, do that for me.” At that time you can speak reasonably fast — the way we are talking now. Pray loudly enough to hear yourself and also at your normal talking speed. But when it comes to meditation, try not to have any words or any thoughts at all; try to keep the mind empty. Every thought or idea that enters into your mind you have to silence. If some current of thought is entering into you very rapidly and you cannot stop it altogether, then try at least to slow it down. Eventually you will try to silence it altogether. Also, to make the mind more silent, it is good if you can imagine something very peaceful, such as the vast sky early in the morning or the setting sun in the evening. You can also try to feel that you are at the bottom of the sea, or on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas.

While you are praying, you are talking to God and God is listening to you. While you are meditating, God is talking and you are listening. While you are praying, your prayer is going up high, higher, highest. Then while you are meditating, God’s Love, Light, Peace and Bliss are entering into you. That is the difference between prayer and meditation.

There is also another difference. When you pray, try to feel that you are utterly helpless. You have to pray like a beggar woman asking for alms: “God, give me this.” And you have to sincerely feel that you are in desperate need of what you are praying for. You have to feel that your whole world will collapse if you do not get it. Unless your prayer is fulfilled, you will be absolutely hopeless.

Chapter 8: Beyond the mind

Question: Could you speak about the importance of meditating on the heart instead of in the mind?¹¹⁷

Question: Can you tell if something comes from the mind or the heart, or do things always go from the heart to the mind?

Question: Some people are very absent-minded and they seem to be in another world. Are they meditating all the time?

There are some spiritual Masters and very advanced seekers who appear to be absent-minded and forgetful at times. But with them it is a different story, for their consciousness is not in the physical. They are on a very high plane. Again, a few, very few, Masters can remain on this high plane and still function normally in the world.

Question: In meditation sometimes the mind stops functioning and there seems to be little information coming.¹¹⁸

The mind may try to do something and immediately the body or the vital may prevent it. But if the heart wants to do something, no matter how difficult, it will be done. This is because if the mind encounters resistance and fails to get immediate satisfaction when it tries something, it just says that there is no reality there and gives up. But when the heart does not get satisfaction, it feels that it has not done the thing properly. So it tries again and continues trying until satisfaction dawns at last.

Question: You say we should meditate in the heart, but I find it easier to meditate in the mind.¹¹⁹

You have to be wise. There is a vast difference between what you can get from the mind and what you can get from the heart. The mind is limited; the heart is unlimited. Deep within us is infinite peace, light and bliss. To get a limited quantity is an easy task. Meditation in the mind can give it to you. But you can get infinitely more if you meditate in the heart. Suppose you have the opportunity to work at two places. At one place you will earn $200 and at the other place $500. If you are wise, you will not waste your time at the first place.

Some people find it difficult to meditate in the heart because they are not used to doing it. But let us not be satisfied with only the things that we get easily. Let us cry for something that is infinite and everlasting, even though it is more difficult to get. If we get something from the mind, tomorrow doubt may come and tell us that it was not real. But once we get something from the heart, we will never be able to doubt it or forget it. An experience on the psychic plane can never be erased from the heart.

Question: Yesterday when I was meditating, I got a message from the silence that said, "Love one another." When we get this kind of message in our meditation, should we meditate on it and take it into ourselves?¹²⁰

Suppose you are meditating and after a few minutes a thought or idea comes into your mind. Let us say it is about sacrifice — that you will sacrifice something for a friend or relative or someone you know. This is not just an idea but an ideal. When you accept a divine idea as your own, the idea does not remain an idea but becomes an ideal. In your case, the thought that came to you in your meditation was about divine love. This is the love that permits you to see all human beings as part and parcel of God Himself. Man and God are like the foot and the topmost branch of a single tree. If you go to the foot of the tree with your divine love, from there it is very easy to go up to God, the topmost branch. On this kind of divine thought you can build your life of love.

But you have to be careful when thoughts come to you during meditation. If you are a beginner in the spiritual life, you should not allow any thought to enter your mind. Somebody is knocking at your mind’s door. You would like to allow your friends, which are divine thoughts, to enter. But you do not know who your friends are. And even if you do know who your friends are, when you open the door for them you may find that your enemies are standing right in front of them. Once your enemies gain access to your mind, it is very difficult to chase them out without the strength of solid spiritual discipline.

So it would be wise to keep your mind’s door closed. Let it remain closed for a day or for a month or for a year until you have gained some spiritual strength, inner strength. Then you will be in a position to accept the challenge and deal with whoever is knocking at your mind’s door. If it is a divine thought, you will try to expand it. And even if it is an undivine thought, you will know that you have enough strength to compel it to behave properly once it enters.

Eventually these wrong thoughts have to be conquered; otherwise, they will come back to bother you again and again. You have to be a divine potter. If the potter is afraid to touch the clay, he will not be able to offer anything to the world. So the potter touches the clay and shapes it into something beautiful and useful. In the same way, it is your bounden duty to transform your undivine thoughts, but only when you are in a position to do so safely.

Question: I was wondering about the relationship between the heart and the mind. How can we integrate the two?¹²¹

When the mother comes to the child, the child has to feel that the mother has come with good intentions: to calm the mind, to free the mind, to fulfil the mind in a divine way. If the restless mind is doubtful and suspicious of the heart, then it is lost. If the child feels that the mother has come only to bother him, if he continues to cherish all his bad qualities and feel that they are good, then what can the poor mother do? The heart will come with good intentions, hoping to transform the mind’s doubt into faith and its other undivine qualities into divine qualities. But the mind has to be prepared; it has to feel that the heart has come with the idea of changing it for the better.

The other way comes when the mind has gone through everything negative and destructive — fear, doubt, suspicion, jealousy, impurity and so forth — and finally reaches the point where it feels it is high time to go to someone who can give it something better. Who is this someone? The heart! If the mind is aspiring, it will immediately feel that the heart is like a real mother, and the heart will always feel that the mind is a child who needs instruction.

Both ways are effective. If the mind is ready to learn from the heart, the heart is always eager to teach it. The mother is ready to help and serve the child twenty-four hours a day. It is the child who sometimes becomes irritated, disobedient or obstinate and feels that he knows everything and has nothing to learn from anybody else. But the mind must learn from someone else. Even the mother, the heart, gets knowledge from someone else — from the soul, which is all light. Let us call the soul the grandmother. From the grandmother the mother learns, and from the mother the child has to learn. If we can see the relationship between the heart and the mind as a relationship of mother to child, that is the best way to integrate the two.

Question: How can I illumine my mind?¹²²

Question: In one of your talks you said that if we do less thinking and more meditating, less planning and more acting, then we will be happier. Could you elaborate on this, please?¹²³

The difficulty is this: when we think of someone or something, we form a conception that we think is absolutely true. But the next moment doubt comes and changes our mind. And a few minutes later we wonder whether we are even in a position to judge the person or thing. This moment I will think that you are a nice man. The next moment I will think that you are a bad man. Then after that I will think something else. Eventually I will see that there is no end to my questions and no certainty at all.

Each time we think, we are lost. But each time we meditate, we are illumined. The mind is caught in the prison cell of thoughts, ideas and habits, whereas the soul is a free bird. Although it stays inside the body, when we pray and meditate it constantly brings us the message of the Infinite. Our problem is that we want to be liberated by thinking. But the mind itself is still in darkness, confusion and bondage, so how can we expect liberation from the mind? No matter how highly developed we are mentally, we are still extremely limited.

When we plan, very often we are frustrated because we do not see the truth right from the beginning. We plan to do something in order to achieve a certain goal. But between the planning and the execution of our plan, different ideas and ideals will enter into us and create confusion. Then our planning goes on and on endlessly and we never enter into the world of action because our plans are never complete or certain. There is a yawning gap between our mental plan and the action itself.

Entering into the obscure, unlit field of action with a mental plan is like carrying a candle into a totally dark room. But when we enter the room with our soul’s light, the room is flooded with illumination. If we have an inner will, the soul’s will, which has come to us from meditation, then the action is no sooner conceived of than it is done. At that time, there is no difference between our inner will and outer action.

In the soul’s world, realisation is spontaneously followed by action or manifestation. An action that comes from the soul’s will has much more force behind it than an action stemming from ordinary human will.

Question: Why should you concentrate on the heart instead of concentrating on the mind?

As long as you have tremendous faith in your mind — the mind that complicates and confuses everything — you will be doomed to disappointment in your meditation. Ordinary people think that complication is wisdom, but spiritual people know that complication is dangerous. God is very simple; light is very simple. It is in simplicity and sincerity, not in complexity, that the real truth abides. Complexity only destroys our divine qualities.

Question: Can I reach the Truth with my intellect?¹²⁴

Question: Does it help our spiritual progress to understand things intellectually?¹²⁵

If we follow the path of the heart, which immediately identifies with the Reality, then we can claim the Reality as our very own. If we want to learn something directly and understand it fully, then the heart is the answer. When the mind surrenders to the heart, only then does it get abiding joy and satisfaction and become as happy as the heart. Eventually it is bound to do this. To say that the mind will never cry for light or receive light would be a mistake. The mind will undoubtedly cry for light and receive light, and there will come a time when the mind will have the same joy as the heart. Otherwise, God’s creation can never be perfect, and God will never allow us to remain imperfect.

Question: Is the mind ever self-giving?

Question: How can we increase the mind's sincerity?

Question: What is the difference between the mind of a world-renowned statesman and the mind of a world-renowned scientist?¹²⁶

Only on very, very rare occasions in world history has a statesman had the capacity to enter into the intuitive world like that. Once or twice Churchill’s utterances during the Second World War came from the psychic or intuitive plane. When he spoke, it was on a very high level. Kennedy and Nehru also spoke sometimes from the intuitive and psychic planes. But these are all very rare exceptions. Usually statesmen try to dominate the physical world with their vital strength.

So a world statesman will have access to vital or dynamic worlds, whereas the scientist will have access to imaginative or intuitive worlds. The worlds that the scientist explores are much higher than those explored by eminent political figures. But even the scientist has to surrender to spirituality, since spirituality houses everything, including science. What the great spiritual giants have achieved in the march of evolution is far beyond the imagination of the scientist. Their spiritual discoveries are not yet possible for the scientist to accept, so he denies them. The scientist wants constant proof on the physical, vital and mental plane, and he does not give value to the spiritual life.

Spirituality will say to science: “I come from a very far-off land, which is totally pure and absolutely authentic. As the physical plane is real to you, even so, the spiritual plane is real to me. If you want to taste my achievement, then come to the place where I can supply nectar. Why do I have to prove my achievement by coming down to your level? If I try to prove my achievement to you on a mental level, then instead of giving you illumination, I will only add more confusion to your life. Your scientific discoveries will not and cannot give you abiding satisfaction, because they are mixed up with the mental and physical world.”

Politics and science are both trying to operate on a particular level, and both are correct according to their own standards. According to their own level of evolution, each is trying to tell the world how creation has to be accepted. Spirituality also tries to offer its truth. It says, “I do not want to explain. Become one and then enjoy.” In politics and science you have to prove your capacity, but in spirituality it is not necessary because you become what you achieve. The politician can give a most wonderful speech to the nation, but there may be a vast gulf between the consciousness of the speech and the reality of his life. In his life he does not remain in that kind of elevated consciousness. The scientist may go to a very high intuitive world to discover a great invention, but he does not remain on that plane or even have free access to it. In politics and science, you can claim whatever you have created as your own, but you do not become inseparably one with it. There is always a gap between you and your achievement. In spirituality, however, whatever you realise on the spiritual plane, you become.

Question: How does one stop the mind?¹²⁷

Another way is to see the mind as a material object. We can take a material object and put it anywhere we want, or throw it the farthest possible distance, according to our strength. So either we can grab the mind like a material object and throw it far away, or we can put the mind in a place where it will not bother us. If a mischievous child is bothering us, we can put him into a corner and warn him not to move. We can do that to the mind also.

A third way is to totally forget about the existence of the mind and feel that we are only the heart. It is not enough to say, “I have a heart.” We have to say, “I am the heart, I am the heart!” Then the qualities of the heart will permeate the entire being and automatically the mind will stop. There are many more ways to stop the mind, but these three ways are quite enough for any individual.

Question: Is the mind jealous of the heart?¹²⁸

Question: How can we stay in the heart when we are doing tasks which involve the mind?¹²⁹

If we repeat, “I am the heart, I am the heart,” then we will have only the heart’s consciousness no matter what we do. Then everything that we try to give or achieve automatically will be done in and through the heart, and the heart will take care of the so-called problems that we face in our day-to-day multifarious activities. Since we will not be using the mind as such, the problem of the mind’s involvement in these activities will not arise. After some time, when we learn to live in the heart and become the heart, we can go deeper within and feel that we are not the heart but actually the soul. But that is more difficult.

Question: How can we use our imagination to help raise our consciousness or improve our meditation?¹³⁰

This we can do only if we take imagination as a reality in its own right, as a reality in a higher world or inner world that is on another plane of consciousness. We have to see imagination as an inner reality that is waiting for revelation and manifestation here in this outer world. Then we can try to bring it into this world. If we take imagination as something unproductive and unreal, then it can never be of use to us. If we think imagination is the South Pole and reality is the North Pole, if we think imagination is only mental hallucination, then we will never take it seriously and we will never be able to use it to raise our consciousness or improve our meditation.

Imagination can play a most significant role in the spiritual life. Suppose we are not having good meditations, but six months ago we had a very powerful, very high meditation. What we can do is try to imagine that powerful meditation. After fifteen minutes or half an hour, our imagination will become reality and we will once again have a good meditation.

Question: How can you tell the difference between true intuition and imagination?¹³¹

Try to feel that there is a burning flame inside you that is mounting all the time. In the process of mounting high, higher, highest you will see that it is spreading its divine light all around and illumining the length and breadth of your inner world. In this light you are bound to develop a direct vision of truth. In darkness, you cannot see anything. Even if you place the most valuable treasure right in front of me, I will not see it if there is no light. But if the flame of aspiration within me is rising towards the highest and spreading its light, then I will get an immediate flash of intuition. For in light there is reality and divinity. So when the flame of aspiration is climbing within you, divinity and reality will be at your disposal and you will always get these flashes of intuition.

But again, if you just imagine something good and divine, that is in no way a wrong approach. If you imagine that God is all Compassion for you although you have not yet felt God’s compassionate aspect, or if you imagine that God is all Concern and Love for you although you have not felt God’s divine Love and Concern, no harm! Today it may be imagination but tomorrow you will feel it as the absolute truth.

Question: Is it a good idea to use our intuition in our daily tasks?¹³²

The power of intuition comes either from the inmost recesses of the heart or from a very high plane of consciousness. When you have intuitive knowledge, you can feel that you are already advanced and in a position to lead others. You should feel that this power has dawned in you not so that you can lord it over others but so that you can serve those who have less capacity and wisdom. Because this intuition has entered into you, you have to feel that you are the elder brother of the family. With love, concern and oneness you have to show your younger brothers and sisters the way to their destination.

Let us say that you have something to do and you get a flash of intuition. At that time, just enter into the task — not with the idea of showing the world what you have accomplished but in order to offer the world the new realisation that you have had. When you have intuition, you immediately must feel the necessity of dedication, for the wisdom you have gained is of immediate use to everyone in the world. So with your intuition-power you will enter into your subject or task and, when you come out triumphantly, you will dedicate your discovery to those who lack your capacity. Only then will intuition give you real satisfaction. Intuition will show you how to start, how to continue and how to end. Since we are speaking of the search for eternal happiness, there is no end. We are always transcending our previous goals. Today’s goal is only the starting point for tomorrow’s higher goal.

Question: Could you speak a little about the significance of dreams?¹³³

When we have a dream from the lower worlds, we do not want to identify ourselves with it for it is very frightening. The dream comes to us as a threat. But a dream that comes from the higher worlds comes as an invitation. It gives us inner joy and inner satisfaction, and immediately we feel our identity there. We enter into it and grow into it. A dream that comes from the subconscious world, where we are quarrelling and fighting and doing many undivine things, will not necessarily materialise. But a dream that comes from the higher worlds is bound to materialise because it is coming from a world that is living and palpable. When we meditate, we consciously enter into many higher worlds and their reality sometimes enters into us in our dreams.

If we want to have sweet and inspiring dreams, then we should meditate most soulfully early in the morning — say at 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock — and then go to sleep for half an hour or forty minutes. If our meditation was sound and genuine, if it came from the very depths of our heart, any dreams we have afterwards will be divine and significant. They will be about angels and gods, or about our dear ones; or we will see some encouraging, inspiring things. If we want to have good dreams before 3 o’clock, we should meditate on the navel centre for about ten minutes before we go to bed at night. The navel is where emotion starts. Emotion itself is not bad; it is a question of how we use it. With human emotion, we bind ourselves and others. But with divine emotion, we only extend our consciousness. So if we concentrate on our navel centre for ten minutes, we can bring the human emotion under control and allow the divine emotion to go up from the heart to the highest.

If we read books to learn how to interpret dreams, we will find that each book gives us a different answer. Perhaps each book is right in its own way, but it is best if we get our own interpretation from our dreams themselves. When we have a dream, we should try to feel our own existence in the dream, that we are inside the dream itself. Those who meditate daily will not find this difficult to do, but others may find it difficult.

An ordinary man sees a dream as something totally separate from the rest of his life. He feels that he is living in reality and that his dream has nothing to do with reality. It may be something sweet, precious, encouraging and inspiring, but he does not feel that it is more than that. But when a spiritual man has an uplifting dream, he immediately feels that this dream is the precursor of reality. Something more, he will see the dream as tomorrow’s reality. How does he do that? He does it on the strength of his meditation.

Right now our consciousness is separated into three parts. At this moment we are in the waking consciousness. When we are in deep sleep, we have another consciousness. Then we have a third consciousness in the dream state. Someone who meditates expands his consciousness into all three planes.

How can we derive benefit from our dreams? We can derive benefit from dreams if we feel that each dream is a step or steppingstone towards our divine Goal. There are some people who say they do not have any dreams at all, but they are mistaken. They do dream, but when they come out of the dreamland, they totally forget what has happened. Some people have the capacity to retain their dream consciousness when they awake early in the morning. If we feel that we had a dream at night but cannot remember it, then early in the morning we should try to concentrate on the point behind the head just at the top of the neck. When we have dreams, either they will manifest through our physical mind or, for some time — for a few hours or even for a day or two — they will be registered at that point behind the head. If we can concentrate there for ten or fifteen minutes, we will be able to feel that we are knocking at a particular door. And when the door opens, we will be able to remember our dreams completely. Everything will come back to us.

When we have a frightening dream, we should pay no attention to it. Suppose we have a dream that a friend or relative of ours is going to pass away. Tomorrow the individual is supposed to die, but if we are frightened now, then today he is already dead for us. If we surrender to the dream, we will suffer unnecessarily before the actual hour. Also, our fear will immediately enter into the victim and create an additional burden for him. Or suppose we dream that something bad is going to happen in our life. If we are frightened, we are already dead. But if we are not frightened, then during the few hours or the few days that lie between our dream and the actual occurrence, we can fight against the unfortunate occurrence with our prayer and meditation.

Perhaps we think that prayer is something feminine or delicate. No! Prayer is our greatest strength. God’s Strength is His Compassion and man’s strength is his prayer. Or if we can meditate, that will be an even mightier strength. Suppose we dream that a loved one is about to die. If we invoke God’s Help and God’s Grace descends, we can delay this person’s death. Many times it has happened that spiritual seekers have dreamt that their relatives were going to die and immediately they started meditating and praying to God. Then God’s Grace descended. God does not nullify the event, but He may delay it. Why? Because He is not bound by Cosmic Law! Cosmic Law is created by God, and at any time He can break His own Law. Our soulful prayer can make Him break His Law. God has said, “This is to be done.” He has recorded such and such, but when human prayer enters into His Heart, He may cancel His own Decree.

When we have hopeful dreams, illumining dreams, encouraging dreams, when we see that something significant is going to take place in our life, we should go deep within and try to prepare ourselves to be a fit instrument to receive what is about to take place. And if we see that a friend or a loved one is about to have a significant experience, we should consciously try to prepare that person inwardly. He will eventually get joy from the event because it belongs to him. But this joy, by God’s Grace, we have received before he has. So if we are wise, we will go deep within and assimilate this joy, and then try to offer it to him inwardly by identifying with his soul during our meditation. This will give him additional strength and prepare him to receive the very high, meaningful and fulfilling experience he is about to get. Then, before the event actually materialises in his life, he will start getting inner peace and joy that he cannot account for. And when the experience comes, he will be more ready for it. But if we tell him, “You know, I had a wonderful dream about you,” he will be happy for a second and then he will doubt us. He will say, “Oh, it is all mental hallucination.” Despite our best intention, his doubtful mind will throw cold water on our encouraging message.

It is not bad for a seeker to pray to God for dreams. Dreams are necessary, as experiences are necessary. But again, if we do not have dreams, if we do not have experiences, that does not mean that we are not fit for the spiritual life or that we are not fit for God-realisation. There are people who do not have any experiences. They curse themselves and think that God is displeased with them, but that is not the case.

There are two ways of reaching a goal. One way is to go there consciously one step at a time. My calculating mind says that I have to take four or five steps to get there: one, two, three, four, five. If my physical mind wants to be convinced at every moment while I am walking towards my goal, then I can say that step one is an experience, step two is an experience and so on. But again, if I know where my destination is, it may not be necessary for me to have constant experiences each step of the way. What is necessary, in my case, is only to reach my destination. So I can just go there and find that God is ready for me.

For some people, dreams or inner experiences serve as preparatory steps. For other people they are not necessary at all. The human mind always wants to be convinced. It wants to get joy at every step when it does something. But if we live in the heart and the soul, then we need not give that kind of importance to experiences and dreams. They are not necessary because God is preparing us in His own Way. If He does not want to give us convincing experiences, no harm. But again, if we pray to God for convincing experiences or sweet dreams, there is no harm in our prayer either. Eventually a day will come when we shall offer to God the highest prayer: “O God, if You want, give me experiences. If You do not want to give me dreams or experiences, it is all up to You. Only make me worthy of Your Compassion. And if You do not want to make me worthy of Your Compassion, it is also up to You. Only do with me as You will. Let Thy Will be done in and through me. I care for nothing except Your own Fulfilment in and through me.” When we have that kind of prayer within us, then God comes to us and says, “Do not be a beggar. Do not cry for dreams; do not cry for experiences. Take Me, the Reality itself.”

Question: What do you mean when you speak of unconditional surrender to God's Will, and how can we develop this quality?¹³⁴

But even when we feel we are fulfilling God in His own Way, it is according to our very limited capacity. It is only when we consciously feel that we are not doing anything, but that God is doing everything in and through us, that our capacity becomes unlimited. At that time, even if we just give a smile, in that smile there is infinite potentiality, infinite capacity.

Right now, we look upon God as somebody else. I am somebody, you are somebody and God is a third person. We are completely separate, each with an identity of our own. But a day will come when we make unconditional surrender to God’s Will. At that time when somebody speaks to us, we will feel it is actually God who is speaking to God. We will see not only ourselves but also everyone else as none other than God Himself. But this happens very gradually. When we do something unconditionally, we do something really great, and for that we need much preparation. It takes a few months of constant exercise to develop very powerful muscles. Unconditional surrender is much more difficult to develop. It takes continual daily exercise, and that exercise is our prayer and meditation.

Question: How can I know if an inspiration comes from God or my heart or soul rather than my mind?¹³⁵

But if the message comes from the soul, you will have tremendous conviction that you are doing the right thing. Also, both success and failure you will take with the same equanimity. While executing a message that you got from within, you will not expect anything in your own way. You will not expect any particular result. No, you will only follow the inner command. If you have this attitude, you will be able to know if a message has come from within.

If you get the message from the spiritual heart, which is identified with the soul, and if you carry out the message, you are bound to feel satisfaction whether the result comes in the form of success or failure. Satisfaction comes from following the inner command, not from any outer result. But if you get the message from the mind, then before you even act, hundreds of questions will enter into you. And if the result, according to your vision, is not satisfactory, then you will be disappointed.

Question: How can one tell the difference between the Will of God and wishful thinking?¹³⁶

Of course, it is easy to say that you have to meditate devotedly, but actually doing it may seem like climbing up Mount Everest. When you start meditating, you have to feel that your very existence, your very life-breath, is an offering to the Inner Pilot within you. Each time you breathe in, try to offer your life-breath consciously to your Inner Pilot. In this way you will be able to meditate devotedly and have a devoted feeling towards God.

When you meditate, please try to open your heart fully and close your mind fully. Which mind? The physical mind, which thinks of your near and dear ones, your friends, the rest of the world! When you bolt the door of your physical mind and open the door of your heart, at that time the mind becomes calm and quiet and the heart becomes all receptivity. When your concentration and meditation are focused on the heart and the heart is receptive, then naturally the heart’s treasures — the Messages from God — will come to the fore and you will be able to read them and utilise them in your day-to-day life.

During your meditation there comes a time when your mind is totally blank, absolutely calm, tranquil and vacant. Inside the mind there will be only purity, serenity and profundity. When tranquillity is added to them, they become perfect. At that time, inside your heart you will feel a twinge or something very tiny, like a soft bubble. And inside that tiny thing in gold letters will be written a message. It will be visible even if you keep your eyes closed. If you cannot see it there, sometimes the message is transferred from the heart to the physical mind in order to convince you. But if you have the capacity to go deep within, definitely you will see the message inscribed there.

Inside the heart’s inmost recesses, where everything is flooded with purity, a message cannot be written by anybody other than God. There no hostile force or undivine force can enter. This is not true about the mind. In the mind there can always be a mental hallucination, a fabrication, or some self-imposed truth that we have created. If you get a message from the mind, it does not necessarily mean that the message will be wrong. No! Sometimes you may get in the mind a genuine message that has come directly from the heart. You may also get a message that enters the mind not from the heart but from elsewhere; you may feel that it has come from God, but this is not the case. But in the very inmost recesses of your heart, no disturbing, strangling thought will ever dare to enter. That deepest part of your being is well protected and well shielded by God Himself because God’s own Wealth and Treasure are there. He Himself is there as a soldier or gatekeeper, guarding His Treasure.

It is one thing to hear the Message of God correctly and another thing to listen to it and fulfil it. There are quite a few who hear God’s Message, but in their outer life they cannot execute it. For that, you need faith in yourself — faith that you are not just a child of God but a chosen child of God.

If you are sincerely aspiring and can claim yourself as a chosen child of God, please feel that it is not due to your own capacity but due to God’s Capacity and God’s Grace. There are millions of people on earth who are not aspiring. Why are you aspiring? It is because God wants you to aspire. When we say that God is most pleased with those who consciously aspire, it is true. But, at the same time, you have to know that their aspiration itself comes from God. From the beginning to the end, each of us has to feel the necessity of expressing our deepest gratitude to God, for He is our aspiration and He is our realisation. He is the aspiration in us and He is the realisation for us.

Question: Is there any difference between Messages from God and messages from our own soul?¹³⁷

Question: Sometimes when I am meditating I fall asleep, not because I am tired, but because I feel that I am somehow trapped in my mind. I try to get into my heart, but I do not succeed; thoughts keep racing through my mind, and then I fall asleep.¹³⁸

How can you prevent yourself from falling asleep? There are various ways. The simplest way is to repeat ‘Supreme’ or any other word you like as fast as possible. Imagine that you are an express train with only one destination. The driver of that train is constantly repeating God’s Name in order to derive energy, strength, stamina, encouragement, concern and all divine qualities. An express train stops only at the end of its journey, the goal; on the way it does not stop at all. Your goal is to reach a profound meditation. Always try to feel inside you a dynamic and progressive movement, but not an aggressive one. This movement will undoubtedly take you to your destination. If there is a dynamic and progressive movement, then you cannot fall asleep. If inside you the train is running, running towards the destination, and if you yourself are this very train, then you cannot fall asleep. Sometimes people feel that they are enjoying peace when they are fast asleep, but this is a lethargic peace. When you meditate you should try to create inside yourself a dynamic peace.

Question: What is the subconscious?¹³⁹

In the inconscient plane there is no light at all, but the subconscious plane also does not care for light. In the subconscious plane, the undivine realities or qualities in us that do not want to progress come forward at every opportunity and fight against the qualities in us that are trying to invoke light from Above.

The subconscious plane is better than the inconscient plane, but eventually both these planes have to be conquered and perfected. Light has to enter into all planes of our being, for only then can we be totally perfect. It is easier to bring light into the subconscious plane than into the inconscient plane. But it is not advisable for the seeker to deliberately enter into either plane, for there he will encounter powerful forces of darkness. Only when one is on the verge of illumination or when one has actually received some illumination is it advisable for that person to enter into the subconscious plane to try to illumine it.

Question: There seems to be a movement in which countries are starting to work with parapsychology and the discipline of mind control. Is this a step towards the heart or away from the heart?¹⁴⁰

Mind control is one subject; the heart’s acceptance and the heart’s oneness are a different subject. By controlling the mind, one can make fast progress in almost every walk of life. But that is not enough to have supreme oneness with God the Creator and God the creation. Undoubtedly it helps the seeker to some extent, but that is not the direct way of establishing oneness with the supreme Reality. In order to establish supreme oneness with the highest Reality, one has to aspire, one has to meditate and one has to dedicate oneself totally.

Chapter 9: Our peace is within

Question: How can we attain lasting inner peace?¹⁴¹

The day I feel my existence and my illumining heart in everyone is the day I immediately become one in many and the many become one in me. Then, when I receive or bring down peace from Above and assimilate it in myself, I see and feel that this peace has been assimilated in all of humanity. For I have already established my conscious oneness with humanity.

We have to feel that God and humanity are like a great tree. God is the tree and we are the branches. There are many branches, and all of them are one with each other and with the tree. If we can feel that we have the same relationship with God and with humanity as a single branch has with the other branches and with the tree as a whole, then we are bound to get everlasting peace.

Question: Why does God love peace the most among all His children?¹⁴²

Question: Every time I act, I am not certain if I am doing the right thing. I was wondering if perhaps the best way to find real peace would be to withdraw from the world and not act at all.¹⁴³

But we have to know that if we expect something from our action, peace will never come in our lives. If we expect some particular result from our action, we will only be frustrated when the result comes. We will feel that we have failed. When this happens, naturally there can be no peace.

Instead, we have to feel that action itself is a great blessing. But the result of action we have to take as an experience. According to our own limited understanding, we see it as either failure or success. But in God’s Eye, failure and success are both just experiences that help to develop our consciousness. Whatever happens, we should regard it as the precise experience that God wanted to give us. Today He may give us the experience of failure. Tomorrow He may give us another experience, which will satisfy us outwardly. But if we live a spiritual life, no matter what result comes to us, we shall be satisfied, for we see it as God’s Will.

Let us look at a river. A river carries all kinds of rubbish — dirt, stones, leaves, sand — that it picks up as it moves towards its goal. But it always continues flowing towards the sea. We should also think of our lives as a river running towards the sea, the sea of fulfilment. If we are afraid to act because we do not want to get involved with the imperfections of the world, if we become still and inactive, then we will never reach the goal.

We may say that we do not know where the goal is right now. No harm! All that matters is that we move. If we go in the wrong direction, we soon will realise it and change direction. Then eventually we will reach our goal. But if we do not move at all, there is absolutely no chance that we will go in the right direction. If we cannot do disinterested work, selfless work, then let us work at first out of some ulterior motive. If ego and vanity come in while we are helping someone, let them come. A day will dawn when we will feel that the satisfaction this brings does not last; then we will try to work in a more divine way.

Activity is always far better than inertia. Even if we run around like a mad elephant at first, eventually we will start acting like a deer and run straight towards our goal. We may start our movement with the crude and destructive strength of an elephant, but we will complete it with the grace and speed of a deer.

Action is our peaceful realisation. Action is our peaceful fulfilment. Action is our peaceful manifestation. So we have to act. If we withdraw from life, then we are telling God that we do not want to be players in His Game. God will allow us to withdraw for a few days or a few months or a few years. But then He will compel us to participate again, so that He can fulfil Himself in and through us. Otherwise, if we do not accept the world, the world will remain imperfect and we will remain unsatisfied.

Question: What is the best way of obtaining peace in our inner life and in our outer life?¹⁴⁴

You may say, “I prayed for peace. How is it that my colleagues today are still quarrelling over minor things?” But you have to know that the peace you get from the inner world and offer to the world at large is not wanted; the outer world does not care for it. The world says it needs peace, but when you give the world the peace-fruit, it just throws the fruit aside. Again, if you had not prayed for peace, the situation in your office could have been infinitely worse. Your prayer has definitely made the situation better than it might have been.

Again, if your prayer had been more intense and more soulful, then the turmoil in your particular department might have been less. And if you had a most powerful meditation early in the morning, the power of your own prayer and meditation might have averted completely the wrong forces and the misunderstanding among your colleagues.

It is in the inner world that everything starts. The inner world is where we sow the seed. If we sow the seed of peace and love, naturally it will produce a tree of peace and love when it germinates. But if we do not sow the seed, then how are we going to have the plant or the tree? It is impossible! Unfortunately, we do not all pray for peace. We pray for joy, or for our personal satisfactions, or for the fulfilment of a particular desire. But there is one desire or aspiration that everybody has and that is the desire for peace.

The peace we try to bring forward from the outer world is not peace at all; it is only temporary compromise. Just look at the political situation! For a few months or years two parties remain at peace. They feel that while keeping to an outer compromise they will secretly strengthen their capacity. Then, when they get the opportunity or when the vital urge compels them, they fight. But the peace that we bring to the fore from the inner world through our prayer and meditation is a different matter. It is very strong, very powerful and lasting. When we have that peace in our inner life, our outer life is bound to be transformed no matter how much it resists. It is only a matter of time.

Question: Quite often I find that when I look at someone who is in a peaceful frame of mind, my own inner peace increases. Why is this?¹⁴⁵

Sometimes you do not even have to be near a person in order to be affected by his consciousness. Suppose you see a beautiful tree. Being an artist, you will appreciate and admire its beauty. Perhaps you will even decide to sit under it and paint. But the moment you sit down, all the world’s undivine thoughts may start entering into you. You will say, “Why is this happening to me? I came here with a pure mind only to paint, so how is it that so many impure thoughts are attacking me?” In this case, you have to know that somebody with a low character might have previously sat under the tree and invited the lowest thoughts to enter into him.

Again, it may happen that a saintly person has meditated at the foot of the tree for some time. Then if you come and sit there, you will get a good vibration. So it is not only the physical presence of a person but also his subtle presence that can affect you.

Sometimes, while you are walking along the street, you may get a beautiful, fragrant, flower-like feeling, which is very ethereal and divine. There are no flowers around, and you cannot account for the experience. What has caused this Heavenly feeling? There is every possibility that either a spiritual person has been there previously, or some angels or astral beings happen to be there.

So if you are standing near someone who has more inner capacity or more of a particular spiritual quality than you have, then his presence may help you to acquire more of that capacity or quality. Although outwardly you are not begging him to give you anything and perhaps he is not even conscious of giving you anything, from his very presence you may get something. Like a magnet, your inner existence can pull the quality from him and it will enter into you.

Question: How would you characterise real peace of mind?

Question: How do you reach that state?¹⁴⁶

We can also have peace of mind if we can surrender our individual will to God’s Will. Now we separate our will from God’s Will. We may want a particular thing, although we know perfectly well that God wants us to have something else. He wants us to be liberated from the meshes of ignorance, while we want to enjoy the worldly life or pleasure-life. But if we continue to pray and meditate, eventually we will care only for the aspiration-life — Him to serve, Him to fulfil here on earth and there in Heaven. At that time we will most assuredly have peace of mind.

Question: Why is it so hard to find peace of mind?¹⁴⁷

Another easy way to have peace of mind is to feel that nothing is unduly important in our lives. If we have lost something, we must not feel that our life will be ruined. We should just try to feel that the thing we lost was unimportant. Everything and everyone on earth can desert us, as long as we do not desert God and God does not desert us. God will never desert us because He is all Compassion, and even if we try our hardest, we will not be able to desert God because He is omnipresent. So we need not worry or become upset about anything on earth. Except for God and our inner cry for Truth, nothing on earth is indispensable. If we have the inner cry, then we get God. And once we consciously get God as our very own, we have everything.

Question: Unless the peoples of the world aspire collectively, will there ever be abiding peace in the world?¹⁴⁸

Certainly, it is the ideal for the world to aspire collectively. But the world is not ready. Collective aspiration has to come about slowly — one person at a time. When a number of individuals have established peace in themselves and are ready to bring down peace into the world atmosphere, then you can say that is collective aspiration.

Question: Will the consciousness of all the individuals in the world have to be transformed before we have world peace?¹⁴⁹

But the rest of the members of his family have to want and need peace; they have to be sincerely crying for it. Otherwise, they will not be receptive when it descends. It is not enough for peace to descend; our aspiration also has to ascend. Each human being can be perfect, to some extent, on the strength of his aspiration. At the same time, he has to know that peace is slowly descending. When Compassion from Above and aspiration from below one day come together, then only will we have world peace. It is not one-sided; from both sides there has to be a movement or response.

Suppose somebody is very poor; he definitely needs money. Then opportunity knocks at his door, but he will not open the door. Similarly, we as individuals need peace. But when peace descends, if we do not accept it immediately, cheerfully and wholeheartedly, then the opportunity disappears. So first we have to feel the need of world-peace, and then we have to go one step further and accept it when it comes. Only then will the whole world have peace. But if we have to wait for the perfection of each individual human being on earth before peace descends, then peace will not come for thousands of years.

Chapter 10: Life's problems

Question: Do you feel that a problem is not a problem if we know how to look at it?¹⁵⁰

If somebody else is creating the problem, then we have to stand like a solid wall and not allow the problem to enter into us. If it is my house, my wall, I will not allow anybody to break through. Again, if I am the problem itself and the problem is already inside me, then this kind of situation is infinitely more difficult to deal with. But by blaming myself and trying to hide, I do not solve the problem. Even if my own ignorance has caused the problem, I still have to face it. The best way to do this is to feel that I am not the problem-maker but the problem-solver. Then, by aspiring and practising the spiritual life, I have to develop inner strength and detachment. Slowly and gradually, I will become inwardly strong, and eventually I will be able to solve the problems caused by my own inner weaknesses.

Question: Could you please tell us the best way to conquer the ego?¹⁵¹

How do we conquer the desire-bound ego? Through aspiration. If we live in the world of aspiration, our ego is bound to be conquered. Aspiration is the glowing inner flame that is constantly spreading its flames around — within and without. The fire of aspiration does not kill the ego; it only purifies it. The more our nature is purified, the closer we are to God. The quicker our purification takes place, the faster is our realisation of the Ultimate Goal. At the end of the road of purification is realisation.

We came from Infinity, Eternity and Immortality and, when we aspire, we consciously enter into our own infinitude and divine plenitude. It is like returning to our Homeland, to the place from which we came. To make a journey back home on the physical plane, we need money. In the spiritual life, constant inner aspiration is what buys our return ticket to our eternal Home. When we are in the world of ego, in the world of desire, we all the time are pulling and pushing. But when we are in the world of aspiration, we are just letting ourselves be carried back to our eternal Home.

Here there is no ego, but only all-pervading, all-embracing, all-fulfilling and all-illumining oneness. In this oneness there is a constant sense of boundless fulfilment. Nothing limited, nothing imperfect, nothing obscure, nothing destructive, nothing binding can last here. It is all Infinity, all Reality. Reality grows in the soul of Infinity and Infinity grows in the soul of Reality.

Another most effective way of conquering the ego is to feel constantly not only that we are in God, with God and for God, but also that we are of God. In God and with God: this is very easy for us to feel. Also, we can easily say that we are for God. God is good, so we are for Him. But the moment we can say wholeheartedly that we are of God, that not only our soul but also our body, vital, mind and heart are made of God — as something is made of paper or wood — then immediately our consciousness is changed. To a seeker, God is not just a reality but the Reality. If we feel that we are a part of Him, if we can consciously live in the lap of that all-pervading, all-transcending and all-fulfilling Reality, then we can easily conquer our limited earth-bound ego.

At that time, we will feel that we are not helplessly or hopelessly bound by earthly human limitations. We will feel that we have peace, bliss, power and all divine qualities at our disposal. And when we feel that these divine qualities are within us and we are of them, then our immediate feeling is one of expansion. Light cannot remain without expanding; peace cannot last without expanding. The very nature of divine peace, light, bliss and power is to expand, expand, expand. So if we have the conscious feeling of our oneness with God, the feeling that we are of God, immediately we will feel the expansion of our limited selves into boundless peace, light and bliss. The world of aspiration, the world of peace, light and delight, makes us want to expand and transcend. When we expand, we transcend; and when we transcend, we expand. We go beyond our limited ego-bound selves, beyond the creation, beyond the earth-consciousness, beyond the manifestation of the earth plane itself to the highest Height.

Question: When we try to help others, sometimes a kind of barrier builds up in ourselves and also in those we try to help. Could you speak about this?¹⁵²

When we try to awaken the consciousness of people who are not ready, when we try to serve the Divine in them, their vital may immediately feel a great resentment. This resentment takes the form of a wall that comes between them and, let us say, our searching mind or striving vital. Our searching mind has found some truth inside the heart and it wants to offer this truth to others. Our vital is divinely striving to give them the light with which we have been entrusted. But just because many people are not ready to receive, we feel a strong, solid barrier between what we have realised and what we are able to give.

The human heart sometimes makes us feel that it is so big that it is ready to help everyone. But this is absurd. There is something called God’s Hour. God’s Hour need not and cannot be the same for each and every individual. Today is my hour, tomorrow is yours and the day after is somebody else’s. It is not that some people are bad or that God does not like them. No! He loves all equally, but for some the hour has not yet dawned. On the one hand, God is Transcendental, all Divine and absolutely Supreme. On the other hand, He is progressing in and through each individual life at every moment. In the finite, He is singing the song of His own Infinity in order to divinely and supremely enjoy Himself. In the process of evolution, He is going to perfect everybody. But He knows His own development; He knows how much He wants to achieve today in and through you and how much He wants to achieve today in and through me. We cannot expect each individual to receive the same kind of treatment or same amount of light because God Himself has not given everyone the same capacity and receptivity.

If we try to increase somebody’s capacity or receptivity by virtue of our own will, we are doing the wrong thing. That person will not welcome us and there will be confusion. In this confusion frustration will loom large. Earth will eventually receive our light, but right now earth is not ready. If the Supreme tells us that someone needs more sleep, that we should not awaken him, then we should not approach that particular person. But if the Supreme within us tells us that we have to serve Him in someone even though that person is sleeping, even though he is unwilling and reluctant to receive our light, then we shall do that too, because we are His instruments.

Every day we have to think of ourselves as a little child of five or six years old who only does what his Eternal Father asks him to do. We have to let God’s Will flow through us. Then He Himself will tell us who is the right person to help. In this way we shall go to the right person today, and tomorrow we shall go to someone else who will be the right person then. If we approach the right person at God’s choice Hour, then there can be no barrier or partition between us and the other person because the right person is always ready to receive us and welcome us. Not only will we be welcomed, but we will also see that God is fulfilled, we are fulfilled and the world of aspiration is fulfilled in and through us.

Sometimes we see a partition not between us and the person we are trying to help but in ourselves. We feel this partition in ourselves because we are not always one hundred per cent consciously one with our Source. We are of the divine and for the divine; we are of the Supreme and for the Supreme. But even though we are very sincere and devoted, it sometimes happens that when we give, we expect something in return: either recognition or progress in the lives of the persons we have served. Even if they do not recognise or acknowledge our self-giving, we immediately expect some success or, let us say, some kind of gradual growth in their life of inner aspiration. We are giving, giving, giving; but if we do not notice the world receiving, then at times we become frustrated. We feel that earth does not deserve us and we wonder if we are doing the right thing. We may even doubt our own sincerity.

This occurs when we are identified with our mind or our vital. When we are identified with the soul, we do not expect anything from those we are trying to serve. We are only doing what we have been inspired and commissioned to do from within. What happens is that one moment we identify with the soul and the heart and the next moment we identify with the mind and vital. The soul and the heart are on one side and the mind, vital and physical are on the other side. Between them there is a barrier. At this moment we call the mind the sole reality, the next moment we call the vital the only reality and the following moment we regard the heart as the only reality. They are all realities, but the only real Reality is God, whose direct representative is the soul. Just as the soul is the representative of God, the heart is the representative of the soul. The heart and the soul are trying to perfect the mind so that it can represent them. Then, when the mind becomes illumined, the mind will try to have the vital as its representative. Similarly, the vital will try to have the body as its representative, and when the body becomes pure and the physical consciousness is aspiring, then the body also will become a perfect instrument.

Reality is complicated and uncertain in ordinary earth-life, but on the higher planes it is extremely simple and most fulfilling. Let us say that we are looking at a flower and that this flower is reality for us. On the physical plane, the flower-reality is what we see with our eyes. But as soon as we go a little deeper within or come up to a higher level of consciousness, the reality is not the physical flower but its fragrance and beauty. Here on the physical plane, the flower is the reality and the fragrance, which is the inner reality, we cannot appreciate. And the beauty, which is still higher, we do not notice at all. So what we call reality on the physical plane need not and cannot be the same reality that we experience on the inner plane.

Again, there are many things that we see on the physical plane as real, which are absolutely unreal. When a thought comes from the mental world, it is absolutely real and concrete for us. But when we go deep within, immediately the thought vanishes; like a drop, it melts into the ocean of the Will. So what is a reality on the physical plane is not at all a reality on the inner plane. On the inner plane, the reality is Divinity, Immortality and Perfection. On the inner plane, only what is eternal and fulfilling is real. So there is a great difference between reality on the physical plane and reality on the inner plane.

When we feel a barrier between one reality and another reality — between what we have to offer and what we are able to give, or between our mind-reality and our heart-reality — at that time our spiritual life becomes a barren desert. Not only seekers but almost all spiritual Masters have gone through this barren desert at one time or another. Even spiritual Masters of a very high order went through periods like this when they could not meditate. Or, when they entered into the world arena to offer their peace, love and light, they felt a kind of frustration because their light was not accepted and the progress they expected from humanity was not achieved.

Here we are all seekers. If we find ourselves in a barren desert, we can do one thing. We can offer our gratitude to the Supreme, our Inner Pilot, for giving us the divine aspiration to be of service to Him in mankind. There is no power either in the outer world or in the inner world that can ever be as strong as our soulful gratitude. If even for a fleeting minute we can offer God our soulful gratitude, then immediately the barrier that exists between our mind and our heart will dissolve. For the power of our gratitude immediately makes us one with God’s Reality.

When we look for gratitude in the mind, it seems like something dry, silly and unnecessary. When we look for gratitude in the vital, we see that it does not even exist. And in the physical, gratitude is all the time dormant. But if we live in the aspiring heart, we not only discover gratitude but see it as the most powerful reality. If we can become one with the Supreme on the strength of our gratitude, there can be no dry periods; there can be no wall, no barrier, no undivine forces that delay our progress.

When we have gratitude, we are like a flower that is blossoming petal by petal in the Heart of the Supreme. This flower is full of fragrance, which constantly illumines, energises and fulfils the human in us, the Divine in us and the Supreme in us. And when our gratitude-flower blossoms, at that time the dormant, sleeping humanity also begins to blossom. Why? Because our gratitude will have entered into God’s choice Hour. When we enter into God’s Heart with our gratitude, He expedites His own Hour for His children. For He feels that some of His children are more than ready to serve and please Him than His other children who are still sleeping.

In your case, the Supreme has made you a chosen instrument to illumine and increase the aspiration of countless people. If you play your role as a conscious instrument, then you will become a river that is flowing with all its light, love and dynamic energy towards the sea of enlightenment. When you and the rest of humanity have become one, and when you enjoy this oneness divinely, there can be no partition, no barrier, no desert, but only ever-increasing bliss and ever-transcending freedom.

Question: How can a person detach himself emotionally from irritating people and situations?¹⁵³

Another way to avoid becoming involved in irritating situations is to invoke peace. For a spiritual person, it is always advisable to bring down peace from Above. While invoking peace you will feel enormous strength inside you and around you. The power of inner peace is infinitely greater, infinitely more solid and concrete, than any outer situation that anybody on earth can create. Your inner peace can easily devour the irritation that somebody else causes you.

If you are in the office, it may be difficult to invoke peace. If you pray in front of others, they will only misunderstand you and mock you. But if there is a quiet corner where you can meditate undisturbed by others and bring down peace, then you can do it even in your office. Otherwise, the best thing to do is to invoke peace during your morning and evening meditations, and to keep that peace locked inside your heart to be used whenever you need it most during the day.

Question: While I am in the office, how can I control my emotions? There is so much injustice and nothing I can do to help myself.¹⁵⁴

Injustice is a kind of negative or undivine power, whereas light is a divine power. If you seriously enter into the spiritual life and learn how to invoke God’s Light and Compassion, these divine forces will definitely save you from the situation that is now causing you suffering. But this may take a little time.

A quicker way of saving yourself is to acquire peace of mind. At our meditations here at the United Nations, we bring down peace. This peace is not something imaginary; it is very real. When you meditate with us, you can not only feel this peace but you can actually swim in the sea of peace. This peace is a solid power, which is infinitely more powerful than injustice. When you are swimming in the sea of peace, no human power can upset you.

Right now when these people attack you, you become angry and upset because you feel they are of the same standard as you. But when your whole being is flooded with peace, then no matter what other people do, you will feel that they are like children playing in front of you. You will say, “These are all children. What can I expect from them?”

When you have to defend yourself or protect yourself, always try to use a higher weapon. If people say something and you retaliate on their level, there will be no end to it. Again, if you simply swallow your anger, they will continue to take advantage of you. But if you are inundated with inner peace, they will see something in you that can never be conquered. They will see a change in you, and this change will not only puzzle them but also threaten and frighten them. It will make them realise that their weapons are useless.

Peace is the most effective weapon with which to conquer injustice. If you pray and meditate regularly, you will soon feel that your peace is infinitely stronger, more fulfilling and more energising than the unfortunate situations that others create.

Question: How can we remember to forgive the world for its defects and to forgive ourselves for our own defects?¹⁵⁵

If we do not forgive others when they do something wrong, if we harbour undivine thoughts against them or want to punish them, we will never find satisfaction. Forgiveness is illumination. We have to feel that by forgiving others we are illumining our own expanded self and satisfying our own highest reality. On the physical plane, I know that I am incomplete unless I have all my arms and legs. I need everything in my body in order to be complete, perfect and whole. Similarly, I need everyone in the world in order for my larger self to be complete. Whom am I forgiving if not my own enlarged reality?

In forgiveness, we have to know who is forgiving whom. I, as an individual, have no right to forgive others or even to forgive myself. It is the Divine in me that is inspiring me to raise my consciousness to the higher Light. An act of forgiveness means a movement to a higher reality. And when we reach the highest Reality, we become one with the omnipresent Reality.

Question: How do you eradicate negativities and imperfections in the soul?¹⁵⁶

These enemies we have to either throw out or transform through conscious and continuous effort. If we want to learn something, we have to practise or study for hours and hours. Similarly, if we want to perfect our nature, then we have to bring to the fore the soul and feel its presence at every moment. How can we do this? Through our prayer and meditation. When our prayer goes up, it reaches the highest Height. And when we meditate most soulfully, peace, light and bliss descend into us in abundant measure. When we can reach the highest Height or feel ourselves inundated with peace, light and bliss, the wrong forces within us are automatically illumined and perfected.

Question: When I feel that my spiritual progress is not fast enough and that my meditation is not deep enough, sometimes feelings of depression and frustration enter. How can I deal with this?¹⁵⁷

Why are you not running fast? This is the important question. Sometimes it happens that a runner slows down because he knows that the goal is very far. Since the goal is very far away, he says, “I can go slowly and, without fail, I will reach the destination. Why try to run the fastest and become totally exhausted?” But the runner has to know that there are not one but three goals. When he reaches his first goal and realises the highest Truth, he cannot stop and relax. He has gone only part of the way. There are two more goals: the revelation of the Truth and the manifestation of the Truth. If he loses his enthusiasm and relaxes before he reaches even the first goal, then God knows how long it will take him to reach the farthest goal.

If you have three things to study, you will not relax as you would if you had only one thing to study. If you know there are three things you have to learn, you will be more alert, more conscious, more devoted, more aspiring. So please feel that in order to make the Supreme happy with your spiritual progress, you have to study three subjects one after the other. Do not feel that you have Eternity at your disposal. No! You have to feel that every moment is either helping you to reach your goal or preventing you from reaching your goal. So utilise each moment to dive deeper, run farther and fly higher. Then you can easily make the Supreme happy.

Question: Can an individual have a feeling of insecurity because of a feeling of separation from God?¹⁵⁸

After all, what is the feeling of universal oneness? It is the realisation that there is only one Existence, but this One has become many — like a tree with many branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. If we can feel our oneness with our Source, with the root of the tree, then naturally we will feel our oneness with the other branches and leaves. We are bound to feel insecure as long as we do not feel the living Presence of God, as long as we feel that we are separated from our Source. But if we can feel that our Source is Light and Delight and that, at the end of our soul’s journey, we shall return to Light and Delight, then we shall never feel insecure.

We can feel that our Source is God only when we aspire. When we do not aspire, when we do not pray and meditate, we are bound to feel that our Source is something unknown and forever unknowable. But the seeker who has launched into the spiritual life will feel that what is unknown today will become known tomorrow. Today our God is unknown but knowable. Tomorrow our God will be known and the day after tomorrow our God will be at once the Knower and the Known. If we have this kind of feeling, we will never be insecure.

When we know who the Source is and who is piloting us at every moment, we cannot be insecure. When we feel that we are responsible, that we are doing and must continue doing everything, then we are full of insecurity. But if we feel that there is a higher Force guiding our destiny and that we are mere instruments, if we feel that we are cheerfully, soulfully and unconditionally executing God’s Will at every moment, then how can there be any sense of insecurity?

Question: I do not know what is going to happen to me in the future and I worry a lot about my destiny. Is this right?¹⁵⁹

Right now we feel that if we do not do something for ourselves, then there will be nobody to do it. But this is not true. There is Someone who will do everything for us and that is our Inner Pilot — provided we consciously surrender to His Will. The reason we suffer is because we do not surrender to His Will. When we consciously surrender to His Will, we feel that He is the Doer and that we are only His instrument. At that time we will not worry or be afraid of our destiny, for we will know and feel that it is in the all-loving Hands of God, who is doing everything in us, through us and for us.

So let us consciously offer our very existence, what we have and what we are, to God. What we have is the aspiration to grow into the very Image of God, into infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. And what we are right now is ignorance, the ignorance-sea. If we can offer our aspiration-cry and our ignorance-sea to God, then all our problems will be solved.

Question: Could you speak about the need for individuals to defend themselves?¹⁶⁰

Spirituality is not the same thing as stupidity. There is no wisdom in surrendering to circumstances and saying, “I am helpless. What can I do?” If you yourself have the power to take action, there is no wisdom in remaining silent and waiting for the person who is harming you or exploiting you to reap his karma. Somebody has deceived you or harmed you, and God has awakened you so that you are aware of it. Now God wants to use you as His instrument to prevent this person from ruining your divine possibilities and, at the same time, to prevent this person from ruining his own divine possibilities by continuing to commit wrong actions. So God wants you to defend yourself; it is your bounden duty to do so.

If you remain silent, the other person will go on exploiting you. You will be continually at his mercy and your own sense of justice will disappear. You have to see the truth as it is, on its own level, and to utilise the truth in its own way. When a new divine thought dawns, you have to use it to build a castle of truth. This is called the sincere approach to reality. Sometimes ignorance cleverly will enter your mind and tell you to wait, since Eternity is at your disposal. If you listen to ignorance, you are not defending truth. Truth needs immediate recognition and acceptance. You have to accept the truth and try to manifest the truth. You have to live the divine Truth for only in this way can you justify your own existence and acknowledge your own divine birthright.

Question: If we find that certain situations disturb us, should we avoid the situations or try to face them and cope with them?¹⁶¹

If you try to escape, you may escape temporarily, but eventually you will be caught. It is best to face a problem when it arises. But you should not face the situation in a military way; it is not that somebody is challenging you and you have to strike him. No, that is silly. Try instead to bring the divinity of the circumstances forward. If some undivine quality is inside an individual, it is not by striking or hitting him that you will overcome it but by becoming more friendly. You have to bring forward the divine qualities in the human being or in the incident that is causing the problem. Accept the situation with compassion and love, and eventually these unpleasant circumstances are bound to become pleasant, soulful and fruitful.

Question: How can we not bother about other people's opinions of us?¹⁶²

Suppose someone speaks highly of you. Is that person really lifting you up to the top of the Himalayas? Again, by deprecating you, by speaking ill of you, someone cannot bring you down. World opinion has no value. You are to God what you actually are: what you think of yourself and what you think of God in yourself. Your assessment is your own value. Again, our assessment may not always be right. Sometimes we think we are pure although we are not; but no harm. When we make a wrong assessment, God is there to show us Compassion and Kindness. But God does not want us to waste a single minute worrying about what others think of us. Your life is God’s Life. God’s Life and your life are inseparable and God does not need the world’s opinion to assess what you are doing. Your action is your certificate; your action is everything in God’s Eye. If you are praying and meditating, you are an excellent seeker.

Question: How can we feel safe from the dark forces in us?¹⁶³

Question: How can I lose my suspicion of the outer world?¹⁶⁴

Then you have to know where your suspicion comes from. There can be suspicion in the physical and in the vital, but the suspicion that exists in these places is negligible. But the suspicion that is in the mind is like a mountain. So you have to enter into the mind and tell your suspicion, “Look, I have got nothing from you except misery, so why do I need you? For a long time I considered you to be my friend, so I allowed you to remain inside my mind. But now I see that you are only my enemy, so you have to leave. This is my house, absolutely mine! Here you have no place.”

Again, you have to realise that nobody and nothing can remain an eternal enemy. Nothing can always remain undivine, for God’s Vision is eventually to make everything divine. But in the meantime, you have to cast aside those things that stand in your way inwardly and create problems for you. You have to tell them to remain far away so you can reach your destination. Then, from the destination, you can bring infinite light to them. Or you can say, “Once I reach my destination, if you want to come and visit me, I shall allow you because at that time I shall have the capacity to transform you.” Once your mind is illumined, either suspicion will come to you for its transformation and illumination, or your illumined mind shall enter into suspicion to illumine it.

Question: Is the best way to get rid of anxiety just to ignore it?

Question: If we are confused and nervous, how will meditation ever be able to help us?¹⁶⁵

Question: Is it really necessary to seek help when we are suffering from mental problems? Can't we just meditate by ourselves and find the answer?

Question: You speak of night and light. Do you believe that parts of life are dark and imperfect?

Question: How can we overcome our ego-motivated life and self-centredness?¹⁶⁶

Question: After we stop meditating, how can we maintain the level of consciousness we reached during our meditation? I know it is difficult at work, but I find it equally hard at home.

Again, you can write down your own experiences, not with the thought of publishing them but just to help your own consciousness. While you are writing them down, you are not only keeping them alive inside you, but you are perfecting your spiritual nature. As soon as you have written down your experiences, you have created something. The creator always wants to enjoy his creation. After the gardener plants a rose bush and tends to it, he gets enormous joy when he sees the beautiful roses. Similarly, you also may get joy from reading about your experiences.

Question: How can we avoid tension when doing a project under pressure?¹⁶⁷

Let us take the inner plane as a higher plane and feel that we have a free access to this higher plane. Let us envision a tree right in front of us. The topmost branches, where the fruits are, we can call the higher plane. Once we climb up and pluck some fruits, we have accomplished our project on the inner plane. But this particular plane is not the plane of manifestation which is at the foot of the tree. So it is obligatory for us to climb down to reach the outer plane.

If we feel that we have already climbed up the tree and plucked the fruits and that now we only have to climb down, we will have much more confidence. If we are sure that something has already been achieved on the inner plane, it is much easier to manifest it on the outer plane. From beginning to end, the one thing that is of paramount importance is confidence. We have to feel that we can do something, that we shall do it and that we have already done it. If we say we can do it, we are not fooling ourselves; if we say we will do it eventually, we are not fooling ourselves. And if we say we have already done it, we are not deceiving ourselves either. For on the inner plane we have already done it on the strength of our inner faith and determination.

Question: Sometimes I feel hopeless and helpless.¹⁶⁸

Question: Why has God made it so difficult for us to reach Him?¹⁶⁹

The road is long only for those who do not feel gratitude to God. If you feel that something is bad and deplorable, then immediately think, “Oh, it could have been infinitely worse. It is out of God’s infinite Compassion that He has not allowed a worse attack to come.” If you have that kind of attitude, then the road becomes very, very easy.

Who actually causes you suffering and pain? It is not God. It is the hostile forces. They come and attack you in the form of suffering. When hostile forces attack you, unconsciously you cherish them. Most human beings cherish suffering. Otherwise, it would not last for long. You have to tell these forces all the time, “I do not need you, I do not want you. I only want God.” Then your road to God will be shorter than the shortest.

Question: What does destruction mean in the spiritual life?¹⁷⁰

Question: How can we maintain a good spiritual standard consistently instead of going up and down?¹⁷¹

In the spiritual life the same thing happens. If today we do a wonderful meditation, then tomorrow we feel we can relax. We feel that easily we will maintain the same speed tomorrow because it is our due. But it does not happen that way. Tomorrow again we have to try most sincerely. Our difficulty is that when we do something well, we feel we deserve some relaxation. It is our due. But every day when we meditate we have to feel that it is our last day on earth, and that tomorrow we are going to die. We know that we are in the Heart of the Eternal Supreme, but each day we have to regard as our last day to aspire. Today if we fail, we will get zero; we will be out of the race. If today is the last day, our sincerity, our aspiration, all our divine qualities will come to the fore and we will run the fastest. Then, when tomorrow comes, again we have to feel, “Today if I do not realise God, then I am doomed. I shall have to wait another five thousand years.”

Whenever you sit down to meditate, you have to feel that the hour has struck. The teacher will give you only two hours to complete your examination. In two hours’ time, even if you cannot complete your papers, the examination is over. Either you pass or you fail. Forget about yesterday’s examination. Also, do not think that tomorrow the teacher will stand in front of you again and give you the same examination. If you feel that opportunity will come again and again and knock at your door, then you are lost. Neither the past nor the future exist; only the present exists for you. Here in the present you have to succeed.

If you feel that today is your absolutely last chance, then you are bound to have a good meditation. But if you feel, “Oh, now I am only twenty-eight. At the age of seventy-eight I will realise God,” then you will never realise God. Perhaps at the age of thirty or forty God will call you to the other side. When the time comes for you to go to the other world, you have to go. You do not know when it will be, so you should make yourself feel that today is the last day for you to achieve everything that you are supposed to achieve. If today is your last day, then your sincerity, your aspiration, all your divine qualities, will come to the fore.

Question: How can I get rid of expectation?

Question: How can you reinforce your spiritual aspiration when you feel it is wavering?¹⁷²

Another thing you can do is mix with seekers who are not having the same difficulties. You can go to a place where spiritual people are praying and meditating, or you can talk to spiritual people on the phone and mix with them. They will be able to help you immensely. You know the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” In the spiritual life, it is absolutely necessary to have spiritual friends. If today you are feeling disappointed or disheartened, a friend who is near you will be able to lift you up. Then tomorrow, when your friend is down, you will be able to lift him up. In the ordinary world you can create new friends overnight. But to have a true spiritual friend is a great Blessing from God.

Eventually you may feel the necessity of finding a spiritual Master who has the capacity to help you expedite your soul’s journey.

Question: What can we do if we feel that although we are inwardly struggling, spiritual qualities like joy and aspiration are abandoning us?¹⁷³

We have to know how hard we are trying to realise the Highest, how many minutes of our daily life we are consecrating to the Supreme in us, how sincerely we are struggling to see the light within ourselves and within others. If we are wholeheartedly trying, then our divine qualities are bound to increase. It is the divine qualities within us that are inspiring us to fight against teeming ignorance. So how can they desert us when it is they who have asked us to fight? If we are really making a sincere spiritual struggle, then we are not going to lose our divine qualities. On the contrary, our inner qualities will increase in boundless measure.

Question: Could you please speak about ego and pride?

Again, there is divine ego, which is actually not ego at all but divine authority. We identify not with our limited self but with our enlarged, expanded self, which is the whole of humanity. Divine ego feels its oneness not only with our physical body but with the entire universe. When we feel that we are everywhere, then who can bind us? Divine ego is our feeling of omnipresence, our feeling of oneness with the divine Reality, our Source. This feeling can only come when we pray and meditate. Without prayer and meditation, we can never claim that realisation as our own; we will only be fooling ourselves. The Christ said, “I and my Father are one” on the strength of his highest realisation. It is true, in essence, that we are all God’s children. But if we say the same thing that Christ said without having the inner realisation, then people will only laugh at us.

Just as there is human ego and divine ego, so also there is human pride and divine pride. My human pride makes me feel that I am one inch above you. With my human pride I can insult you or lord it over you. Human pride only breaks the cosmic rhythm of life. Like human ego, it comes from our feeling of separativity, from the feeling that we do not belong to others and that they do not belong to us. Because I feel separate from you, naturally I feel proud when I do something that you cannot do. But when I feel my oneness with you, there can never be any sense of superiority or pride.

I use my right hand to throw the shot-put because my right hand is stronger than the left. But my right hand will not lord it over my left; both hands feel their integral oneness with one another. My head never thinks that it is superior to my feet. That would be sheer stupidity. My head only says, “If I had no feet, then how would I walk?” My head has more light than my feet because it has the mind, but it does not feel proud. My mind lets me read and write, but I also need my feet to take me to school. Each has its own role to play.

Everything is necessary. This moment God is using my head to do something, the next moment God is using my feet to do something. How can my head feel superior when it knows perfectly well that God also uses my feet? Similarly, this moment God is giving me the opportunity to be His instrument and the next moment He will operate in and through someone else. The actual Doer is God. Today He needs my existence to do something for Him; tomorrow He will need your existence to do something. Pride comes only when I can do something that you cannot do, or if somebody is using me and not using you. Since God uses everyone, there can be no pride.

Again, divine pride is different. Divine pride makes us feel, “How can I mix with ignorance if my Source is God? If He is my all, and if I am with Him, in Him and for Him, then how can I not be good and divine?” This kind of pride, which makes us aware of what we truly are, is a great benefit.

Question: Could you speak a little about how a spiritual person should handle the pleasures and problems of daily life?

It is like this. When you lead an ordinary, unaspiring life, the hostile forces very often leave you alone because they know you are their slave. Since you are at their feet, they cleverly say, “All right, since he is fast asleep in ignorance, let us not bother him.” But the moment you get up and try to shake off your ignorance-sleep, they attack you. These forces know that ultimately they will be defeated, only they are trying to delay their defeat.

If you do not challenge them or if you try to avoid your problems, they will only attack you more vehemently. You cannot hide from your problems; you have to conquer them here and now. If you say, “I will have more strength tomorrow, so let me wait until then before I try to conquer my problems,” I tell you that tomorrow will not come. Each second is a golden opportunity. If you misuse this golden opportunity, then you are only strengthening the forces of ignorance.

Now let us speak about the life of pleasure. You have to know what you have received or achieved from the life of pleasure. If you are sincere, immediately you will say, “All that I have gained from this life of pleasure is frustration.” Not only that, but you have come to realise that you have no hope of coming out of this frustration unless and until you are destroyed totally. In the life of desire, you start your journey with temptation. Inside temptation you find pleasure and inside pleasure you find frustration, which always leads to destruction. What today you call pleasure, tomorrow invariably becomes destruction. Then after destruction, nothing remains.

So the life of desire, the life of pleasure, is the negative approach. The positive approach is what we call the life of aspiration. Aspiration is the inner cry that makes you feel that you have come from the Infinite, that you are in the Infinite and that you are for the Infinite. Aspiration makes you feel that you embody and shall always embody peace, light and bliss. These are your eternal treasures; only you have to bring them to the fore. Right now you have Someone called God inside you, but you are not conscious of Him. If you have aspiration, it means that you are trying consciously to be aware of God.

Each person has a friend and an enemy. If a person aspires, he feels that desire is his enemy and aspiration is his friend. If he does not aspire, he feels that desire is his friend and aspiration is his enemy. At the beginning of his journey he is familiar only with desire. Even if it is not fulfilling him, he is aware of its reality in his life, whereas aspiration is a stranger to him. So he feels that desire is his friend. But there comes a time when he realises that his true friend is aspiration. At first he may feel that the life of aspiration is not meant for him because from the very beginning he has not led a spiritual life. But I wish to say that he is making a big mistake. Aspiration is for him; realisation is for him. Only he has to accept them as his own, very own.

Question: I would like to stop finding fault with others, but sometimes the work that I have to do — for instance, proofreading — requires looking for others' mistakes.¹⁷⁴

Let us say that you are proofreading a speech. If the typist has made some mistake or if the speaker has made a mistake due to lack of concentrated attention, then naturally you will do the needful to make sure it is corrected. You are not deliberately looking for mistakes in other people’s work. But in doing your own job, which is proofreading, if you clearly notice that mistakes have been made, then it is your duty to fix them.

When you approach reality, which now takes the form of a mistake, what is of primary importance is your attitude. You have to know whether you are trying to show off your superior mental capacities or whether you are exercising the power of your oneness-heart to bring about perfection. If, with a oneness-heart, you feel that you are working with others in your group towards the same perfection-goal, then you are doing absolutely the right thing. You are not criticising or finding fault with the achievements of others; only you are working alongside them to achieve perfection. If you find a mistake, it does not matter whether it is someone else’s mistake or your mistake. It does not matter whether it is a glaring mistake or a minor one. A mistake is a mistake and it has to be corrected. We are all enemies of imperfection, and together we shall try to correct whatever needs correcting and bring it to perfection.

That is the right attitude, not only when we are working with others but also when we are dealing with our own lives. In our own lives we have to soulfully and devotedly try to perfect our nature on the strength of our heart’s aspiration and inner cry. Unfortunately, instead of trying to increase our aspiration, sometimes we give too much importance to our shortcomings. Let us take mistakes, which come from the unlit part of our nature, as darkness. If we are always thinking of darkness, then we shall never arrive at light or be able to invoke light. If we focus all our attention on our mistakes and weaknesses, then we will only become disheartened and angry with ourselves and we will never arrive at perfection.

So let us pray and meditate for the illumination of our mental darkness and for the transformation of our nature’s imperfections. Let us invoke light from Above to descend into our imperfect nature so that our shortcomings, weaknesses and mistakes will all be illumined and transformed. When they are finally transformed, at that time they can be utilised to manifest the divine realities within us.

Chapter 11: Inner qualities

Question: You often encourage us to dive deep within. Can you explain what this means?¹⁷⁵

But there is no end to our inner journey, and we can go still deeper within. When we go very, very deep, at that time we do not see any imperfection either in ourselves or in anybody else. What we actually see is that we are having an experience and that others are also having an experience. This experience is neither good nor bad. The distinctions of good and bad are all in the mind, which is very limited. If we go just a little within, we see good and bad as two different things. But if we can go to the deepest, we realise that there is nothing bad. All creation and all experiences are good.

If we are unable to dive deep within, we may feel that everything and everybody is bad — our friends, humanity, our spiritual path, even God. But when we go deep within, we will feel that even our so-called enemies are good because they are also God’s children and God is having a particular kind of experience in and through them. An ordinary human being may find it difficult to accept his enemy as his own. But a spiritual person will try to feel his oneness with the whole world. The moment we accept the spiritual life, the life of God, we cannot have an enemy. We only have friends whose views may be different from ours.

If I want to play an instrument and my right hand plays well, then my right hand becomes my friend. But if my left hand cannot play at all well, shall I call my left hand my enemy? No! The right hand has the capacity, so it plays, and I am very happy with it. My left hand does not give me the same result as my right hand, but that is no reason to hate it.

In the spiritual life, if I see that somebody cannot do something, I should immediately try to become one with that person’s incapacity. If somebody is helpless, hopeless and useless in some field, I can become one with that person in his weakness and imperfection. Just because I have established my oneness with that person, I can go deep within and bring from there peace, light and bliss in abundant measure to pour into him. And when I pour these into him, I see and feel that the person receiving my inner wealth is none other than myself.

Right now we feel that the outer world is one thing and the inner world is something else. In the inner world we feel safety, purpose and a sense of perfection. In the outer world we feel that everything is chaotic, meaningless, useless, hopeless. But the more we dive within and stay in the inner world, the easier it becomes for us to control our outer life. Then we see the outer world as an extension of our inner life.

To dive deep within means to cry for perfection without. I go deep within for the perfection, harmony, peace and bliss of my outer life. The outer life is mine and the inner life is also mine. But if I do not have the seed, how am I going to get the plant and the tree? They must go together. The seed is the inner life and the tree is the outer life. If I sow the seed today, in a few months I will get the plant, which will gradually grow into a giant banyan tree. Without the seed, the tree cannot come into existence. And again, when there is only the seed and no tree, how will the world appreciate the capacity of the seed or get any benefit in the form of fruit? The ultimate capacity of the seed is the fruit, and it is with the fruit that we fulfil our daily need and hunger. But the first thing is the seed. So let us go deep within, to the life of the seed, and let us then grow into the life of the tree and the fruit. When the seed of the inner life has grown into the strong and sturdy tree of the outer life, the outer world and the inner world will perfectly harmonise.

Question: Is there one divine quality which encompasses all the rest or does a seeker have to meditate on each one?¹⁷⁶

Question: What is gratitude?¹⁷⁷

Recently, somebody was having difficulty understanding one of my aphorisms about gratitude. The aphorism says, “One second of gratitude to God is worth three hours of intense meditation on God.” He thought it meant that just saying “thank you” for one second was worth several hours of meditation. But gratitude is not like shaking hands or saying, “Thank you!” It may take hours, days, months, years or many incarnations to achieve one second of true gratitude. The preparation it takes to come to that stage may take quite a long time.

So when I say that gratitude is something most difficult and important, I am referring to this kind of gratitude. When everything of yours has melted and you exist only as a flower ready for worship, when you have placed yourself totally at the Feet of your Beloved Supreme — this is gratitude.

Question: Does gratitude also help to increase our receptivity during meditation?¹⁷⁸

Question: Are human gratitude and divine Compassion all-encompassing because there is a feeling of oneness in them?¹⁷⁹

But again, if you find it extremely difficult all the time to think of God’s Compassion or your own gratitude, then try to bring to the fore individual aspects of God’s Capacity. If God’s Power is what you want, then concentrate on God’s Power. If you want God’s Love or God’s Peace, then try to bring these to the fore. Anything you need, you can bring forward individually.

But if gratitude is there, then inside gratitude you will find power, love, peace and all the divine qualities because gratitude means oneness. God plays His role by giving; you play your role by expressing your gratitude. By giving, God shows His oneness with you; and by offering your gratitude, you become one with Him.

Question: What is the best aspect of the Supreme to concentrate on for transformation?¹⁸⁰

But if we approach the Supreme through His Compassion aspect, we feel that we are in no way adding to what He has or offering Him anything that He needs. Instead, we feel that we need our own transformation and world transformation and, out of His infinite Bounty, unconditionally He is giving this to us. If we have that kind of feeling, then our heart’s gratitude will overflow and it will accelerate our progress. Gratitude is the fastest way to make individual and collective progress, and gratitude comes when we approach the Compassion aspect of the Supreme.

Question: What is most important in keeping the inner cry?¹⁸¹

Question: Could you speak on Grace?¹⁸²

If we approach God through His Grace, then we will find Him more accessible. When we think of God, if we immediately feel that God is Grace within and without, then we will find it easier to approach Him. The moment we think of God’s Grace, we feel that His infinite Peace, Light and Bliss are already entering into us and becoming part and parcel of our inner and outer life. But if we think of God as omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, then His divine qualities we do not necessarily see flowing through us. From now on, let us not feel that by going to God we can get His Grace. Instead, let us feel that it is through the Grace of God that we can go to God. Let us think of God’s constantly flowing Grace and let the flow carry us to the Source.

Question: What is the significance of the enormous amount of talent someone might have in sports, music or art? Is it necessarily a gift of Grace from the Supreme?¹⁸³

The ultimate Reality is Grace. Some people are receptive to light, so naturally light can function in and through them much more powerfully. Each talent is only an opening of either the heart or the mind or some other part of our existence to the Highest.

Question: Is there any relationship between the light that the seeker receives and the light that the earth receives?¹⁸⁴

Question: How can we be most receptive?¹⁸⁵

Question: Is there something that we can consciously do or practise to cultivate humility?¹⁸⁶

A mother may be tall, but when she wants to offer her food to the child, she bends down. The child sees that the mother is tall and could easily have remained at her own height. But out of love she does not do that. So the child’s love for the mother and gratitude to the mother increase considerably when she bends down. Similarly, when we have something and want to give it to the world, if we do so with humility, then we get appreciation and admiration from the world in boundless measure. When we realise this, then we can easily cultivate humility.

Question: How can one accept and love one's fellow man?¹⁸⁷

You must regard the persons around you as limbs of your own body. Without them you are incomplete. You may feel that you do not need them, but they also have their own role to play. Your thumb is much more powerful than your little finger, but the little finger also has its job. If you want to play the piano or type, you need all your fingers. God created the human hand with five fingers and, although some are shorter and weaker than others, all are necessary if the hand is to be perfect.

You can love the people around you only when you feel the necessity of real perfection, for their perfection is part and parcel of your own perfection. If you remain isolated as an individual, then your achievement will be limited. Your very sense of perfection will be limited. But if you want to have unlimited achievement and unlimited perfection, then you have to look to your wider self; you have to love humanity and accept humanity as your own, very own. For it is only by accepting humanity as part and parcel of your own life, and by perfecting humanity with your own illumination, that you can fulfil yourself.

Question: Goodwill is love in action and a first step towards true spiritual love. Should it not be the main quality to be fostered in mankind?¹⁸⁸

Question: Are love and awareness the same thing?¹⁸⁹

Question: What does power mean in the spiritual life?¹⁹⁰

When you go higher and deeper in your spiritual life, you go beyond identification to conscious oneness. When you have established oneness, no matter where the person is, in some way that person’s suffering or joy will become part and parcel of your life. When you have oneness, it lasts for twenty-four hours a day.

After achieving oneness, you have to reveal and manifest your oneness. It is one thing to embody oneness, another to reveal it, still another to manifest it. Each represents a different kind of power. Let us say that you have the capacity to write a poem. This is also a form of power, which right now you embody. When you actually write the poem, you reveal the power. Anybody can see it if he comes and asks to see it. Then, if the poem is published and people are getting benefit from it, that is called manifestation.

In the spiritual life, power will enable you to identify and establish your oneness with the rest of the world. Then it will help you to reveal your capacity, and finally it will help you to manifest your capacity — all without any sense of supremacy.

Question: How can I have more will-power and clarity?¹⁹¹

People feel that the heart is feminine and the mind is masculine. In the mind there is a tiger, a lion or a bull that will fight. This is our human conception. But this is a mistake. Inside the heart is the soul, and the soul has infinitely more capacity than the mind. So if you want adamantine will-power, then you have to look inside the heart, not the head.

You also want clarity. Now you are in darkness, but if you have a little light, then you can see what is around you. If you can get even an iota of your soul’s light, then you will be able to see everything even if you walk along the darkest path. So if you want clarity in your mind, concentrate on your heart and dig there. Think that you have a tool to dig with and every day dig deeper. If each day you dig a little further, eventually you will be able to feel and see the light. First you feel, then you see, then you become. First you will feel that there is something inside, like a very tiny insect: that is the light. Then you will see it with your inner vision or even with your human vision. Finally you will grow into it.

Question: How can I live in God's Beauty?¹⁹²

Question: How can I have more patience in my spiritual journey?

Question: Is patience always necessary?

Question: How can we develop patience?¹⁹³

Patience will never tell us that spirituality is a hopeless task. Patience will tell us either that we are not ready or that the time is not yet ripe. Although we may feel that we are ready, we have to know that our integral being, our whole being, may still be unprepared. Our soul may be ready, our heart may be ready, our mind may be ready, but our vital and physical may not be ready to reach the Goal, which is Light and Truth. Only when our whole being is ready will the Goal itself dawn inside our aspiring consciousness. When the hour strikes, the Goal will draw us towards itself like a magnet.

In the spiritual life we have to feel that patience is not something passive. On the contrary, it is something dynamic. In patience we develop our inner strength and will-power. It is true that if we have will-power, we can easily acquire patience. But it is equally true that when we have patience, our inner will-power develops itself in a special way.

Question: Is it important for a spiritual aspirant to have satisfaction?¹⁹⁴

But if you do not work at all just because you are afraid that you will fail, then you will get zero; you will not pass the inner examination. True, there are people who do not work, yet they appear to be satisfied. But they are not actually satisfied. A lazy person, an idle person, can never, never be satisfied even for one minute. On the physical plane, a lazy person’s satisfaction means not having to work or not having to even climb down the staircase. But although he is satisfied on the physical plane, on the mental plane evil thoughts are making a big hole in his mind. He has stayed in bed five hours after the sun has dawned. He is so satisfied because he did not have to budge an inch from his bed. But while he is wallowing in lethargy, all kinds of hostile, undivine forces, unlit emotional forces, have come and entered into him. So what kind of satisfaction can he have?

If wrong forces enter into you and you enjoy vital thoughts, then after an hour or two you will get up and cry. When the soul comes forward you will say, “What have I done? My first mistake was not to get up early in the morning, and my second mistake was to indulge in these vital thoughts.” This is what is happening in the spiritual life of many seekers. So I always say, do the right thing right from the beginning. Early in the morning, meditate. After meditation, if you are not very happy, if you feel that peace has not descended, just offer your experience up to God. This very act of offering will be your satisfaction.

Question: How can I get satisfaction right this moment?¹⁹⁵

Question: What is the spiritual significance of balance?¹⁹⁶

Question: How can we increase our purity?¹⁹⁷

Question: What are some of the worst impurities?¹⁹⁸

We always have to see the light in a positive way. If I say, “I do not have any light at all. All I have is darkness,” then I am not only fooling myself but also digging my own grave. If I feel that I am all darkness, I will not even try to go towards the light. If I constantly think, “I am impure, I am insincere,” then I really become impure and insincere. Even if I say that I have light or purity only in infinitesimal measure, at least there is some hope of increasing it. So it is always better to take the positive approach.

When somebody says, “I am impure,” very often in the back of his mind he feels that he is at least one iota better than his neighbour or friend or somebody else. He tries to make others think he is sincere by exercising his false modesty. But all that he is doing is demonstrating his insincerity. Again, if an ordinary human being says that he has abundant purity and boundless light, then he, too, is being insincere.

Whatever we see and feel inside ourselves we try to exhibit outwardly. If I have impure thoughts, I will also have impure acts. If I am inwardly insincere, then I will take refuge outwardly in the house of insincerity. But if I am sincere and pure inside, then outwardly I will take shelter in the house of purity and sincerity.

Question: How can we acquire practicality in a divine sense?¹⁹⁹

Question: How can we more fully surrender to the Supreme?²⁰⁰

The highest Authority within you is the Supreme. How do you surrender to Him? First, you must feel the necessity of oneness. When you feel the necessity of inseparable oneness with Him, immediately you offer your will to His Will. Next, you must ask yourself if you want this oneness to be constant. If it is not constant, at one moment you will be inseparable from Him and the next moment you will be totally separated from Him. This moment if the Supreme says, “Go and sit down,” you will do it. But the next moment you may refuse. Only if your necessity for oneness with the Supreme becomes unconditional and constant will you be with Him, in Him, of Him and for Him twenty-four hours a day.

When you are in your office, you have to think of office activities; otherwise, your work will not be satisfactory and your boss will fire you. But while you are working in the office or talking to your boss or your colleagues, if you can remember how devotedly you prayed to the Supreme early in the morning, that will give you tremendous inner strength and confidence. On the mental plane you will give all attention to your office work, but on the inner plane, on the psychic plane, you can think about God and try to feel God’s Presence.

If you have a large amount of money inside your pocket, nobody is going to see that it is there. Similarly, if you keep the light and peace that you felt during your meditation inside your heart, nobody will know what wealth you are hiding there. And although it is possible for someone to steal the money from your pocket, from your heart-pocket no thief can steal anything. So when you meditate, please feel that you have stored up a divine treasure trove inside your heart. If you can establish a permanent feeling of God’s Presence inside your heart, then it will not be difficult at all for you to listen to the Dictates of the Supreme and be one with His Will all the time. Even when you mix with people and enter into all kinds of activities, you will not lose your oneness with the Supreme. It is not only possible and practicable to do this, but in the course of time it will be inevitable.

Question: If our fulfilment lies in our utter consecration to the life divine, could you say something about consecration?²⁰¹

Consecration is self-giving to the Divine. It is through self-giving that we eventually become godlike. So let us consecrate all our good qualities, our very existence, to the Divine in others. Each human being houses a few good qualities and a few bad qualities. If we offer our own good qualities to the good qualities of others, it is like two persons joining in a tug-of-war against ignorance; naturally the divine forces shall win. This is the correct and safe way to transform ignorance and change the face of the world.

Question: How can self-offering be distinguished from other kinds of actions?²⁰²

It is the attitude inside the action that determines whether the action is selfless self-giving or whether it is something done in a subtle way for self-glory. If an action is motivated and inspired by a higher cause, then only can you call it self-offering. Otherwise, here on earth people do thousands and millions of things just because they have to meet with earthly responsibilities and earthly obligations. There is no divine inspiration; there is no inner awakening. If there is no inner awakening, if there is no inner awareness of what you are doing, why you are doing it and how it should be done, then you cannot call it self-offering.

Question: What is charity?²⁰³

When we give something with charity, we have a kind of inner feeling that the world will come to know of our kind action and appreciate and admire us. We tell others that we are giving and then we wait like a beggar to see who is appreciating us or who is acknowledging our charity. So always there is some expectation or condition associated with our gift.

There is a great difference between charity and self-offering. In the spiritual life, when we speak of self-offering, it means that we are trying to give what we have and what we are unconditionally to God or to mankind. Self-giving is a giving of the entire, integral being; it comes from the body, vital, mind, heart and soul. What we have and what we are, we are giving wholeheartedly to a divine cause. Charity is also a form of self-giving, but in only a very, very limited measure; it comes from an infinitesimal portion of our existence. It is by no means complete self-giving. Complete self-giving comes only when we have the capacity to identify ourselves with the infinite light and the infinite Vast. In real self-giving, we feel that we are giving to our own expanded self. In fact, we do not feel that we are the givers; we feel that it is the Divine in us who is giving to the Divine in others.

Question: How can I be more selfless?²⁰⁴

Question: How can I become self-giving with spontaneity and joy?²⁰⁵

You ask how you can become self-giving? You can become self-giving by constantly feeling joy in every part of your existence, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head. If you can feel that a river of spontaneous joy is flowing in and through you, then automatically you become self-giving in whatever you say, do or grow into.

Question: What is the best way to establish joy in every part of the being?²⁰⁶

We can offer gratitude to God, or to our spiritual teacher, or to our path; we can even offer gratitude to our own good qualities or to the inner cry that started us on our spiritual journey. Whatever we offer gratitude to, it ultimately goes to the Source, to the One who has inspired us to see a higher reality and run towards the Goal. We offer gratitude to the Source because it has created in us an inner urge to return to it and seek fulfilment there. And gratitude in its various forms gives us total joy in every part of our being.

Question: When we feel spontaneous inner joy, how can we preserve it?²⁰⁷

Question: How can I acquire lasting inner joy?²⁰⁸

Inside the particular person you gave the money to is Someone called God, and in some way God will immediately give you joy by expanding your heart, your consciousness, your aspiration. But if you expect to get something from the other person, you are the real loser. God simply says, “All right, since you want to settle your own account, I will not be involved. You gave him five dollars and he will give you something in return. The shopkeeper and the customer are there; it is a business deal. They do not need Me in their business.” If you behave in this way, you will never get real, abiding joy. Even if, after you do someone a favour, that person gives you something in return that is far beyond your imagination, still you will not get abiding joy. But if you just give what you feel from within, whether it is money or love or concern or anything else that is yours, then God immediately will give you His Love, His Pride and His boundless Peace, Light and Bliss.

Unfortunately, in today’s world we do not do anything unconditionally. We do not even meditate unconditionally. When we sit down to meditate, we expect a little light or a little joy. But are we beggars? The Supreme is our Father and Mother; He is everything to us. If He inwardly asks us to think of Him and meditate on Him, we should do it out of our boundless love for Him, and not expect anything in return. What happens after that is entirely up to Him. The inner cry that makes us want to pray and meditate has come directly from Him. If He has given us the capacity to pray and meditate, will He not also give us the capacity to receive His Light and Bliss? Giving is a kind of capacity and receiving is also a kind of capacity. He will automatically give us this capacity if we do not expect or demand anything from Him.

We make our lives miserable because of what we expect from relatives, from friends, from associates and from others. Even when we expect something from ourselves, which we think we can legitimately expect, we are disappointed. Not only are we disappointed but also our expectation ruins the divine nature of our selfless actions. The moment we expect something from someone, consciously or unconsciously we push or pull beyond our capacity. Then we enter into terrible confusion. But if we love the reality and divinity in ourselves and in others, then the Supreme in that reality and divinity will give us much more than we expect.

No human being on earth can give us lasting joy; it is only the Supreme within us who can inundate us with lasting peace and bliss. We simply have to play our role, and the Supreme will offer us abiding joy in His own Way. We do not know what His Way is, so let us leave it up to Him to do as He pleases with us and for us.

Question: Is there any difference between delight and bliss?²⁰⁹

Question: Can you give us some suggestions on how we might use in our jobs the light, joy, bliss and other qualities that we receive in our meditation?²¹⁰

Right now your spiritual life is a tiny, fragile plant that can easily be destroyed, so on the inner plane you have to be very careful. In your office you have to associate with many people who are not aspiring at all. They have their own world, their own life, which can easily devour your aspiration. But you have the power to protect yourself from the world-ignorance. You must be constantly aware that you have this inner power; otherwise, you will not remember to use it to solve your problems. This very often happens. Even now, we are all inseparably one with God, but we have forgotten. Only by practising meditation for years and years do we become consciously aware that God exists inside us and come to realise what it means to be inseparably one with Him. People who have realised God say that He was always there within them, but they had totally forgotten.

When you pray and meditate, try to keep the experience that you get constantly alive inside you. You have something, but it is up to you to utilise it. If you do not utilise it, then after some time it will lose its power. When you meditate you do get peace, light and bliss. Peace is power, light is power, bliss is power; all the divine qualities are power — power to stand against the ignorance of the outer world. Always try to remind yourself of the divine qualities that you have achieved during your meditation. Then it will be quite easy for you to stand against ignorance. If you just remember the qualities that you have achieved, these very qualities will fight against ignorance on your behalf.

Question: How can I develop and maintain a feeling of worthiness and self-respect?²¹¹

Divine confidence is of paramount importance. And what is divine confidence? It is confidence in God and in yourself. Unless you have confidence in God and in yourself, you will never feel yourself worthy of being God’s instrument. Your self-confidence tells you that you will do everything for God. Your God-confidence tells you that He is more than eager to do everything in and through you. When you have confidence in yourself and confidence in God, you will be able to see your inner progress; and inside that progress you will see that you are really worthy of God’s Compassion, Joy and Pride.

Question: Can you tell us the role of good character in the spiritual life?²¹²

If one is a seeker, then he has to be a person of character; otherwise, his life will be contradictory. God is all purity. If one wants to make real, solid, tangible progress and realise God as fast as possible, then purity must come first. Purity is the ladder we climb up in order to reach God’s Abode. If there is no ladder, then how can we climb up?

Without good character, there will be no purity. And if one does not have purity inside the heart and inside the physical, then how can he make progress? Purity and character go together. If someone has inner purity, then he also has good character. And if somebody has good character, it means he is maintaining in his inner life tremendous purity.

Question: How can we become childlike in spirit?²¹³

If a boy of nineteen does not have the capacity to draw something from the world or offer something to the world, if he remains aloof and feels that he does not need anything from the world, then he is ninety-nine years old in spirit. On the other hand, if somebody of ninety-nine wants to learn the inner language — the language of divine love, the language of divine peace, the language of inner wisdom, the language of inner light — then he is a child in spirit.

If someone wants to get only information from the world, this will not help him to be childlike. For this kind of information is given by the mind and received through the mind. And if a person lives in the mind, he will never be able to act like a child. Who cannot act like a child? He who cares more for the intellect than for the heart. He who cares more for outer achievement than for inner achievement. He who cares more for the society around him than for the God within him. If you really want to become a child, then you have to feel that there is Someone who is thinking of you constantly. You have to feel that there is Someone who is not only thinking of you and meditating on you, but who is also taking responsibility for you.

A child always feels that his mother or his father will take care of him. All the time he feels that there is protection, guidance and assistance. So naturally he has confidence in his life. Because he is always in the heart, a child feels he can rely totally upon his parents. He feels that there is no need which his parents will not fulfil. If he lived in the mind he would immediately think, “Oh, perhaps my father will not be able to do this. Perhaps my mother will not be there to help me.” Then he would become fearful, doubtful and anxious.

In the spiritual life, no matter how old you are, you have to feel that there is Someone with infinitely more wisdom-light who is constantly thinking of you, loving you, guiding you and protecting you, and that this Person is God. And you have to rely upon God with a child’s heart. Only then can you receive God’s Peace, Light, Love and Bliss in infinite measure.

No matter how old or sophisticated he may be, a student is always a child in the presence of his teacher. The moment we feel that we know everything and can do everything, we lose our childlike qualities.

In the spiritual life, we learn something every day, every hour, every minute, every second from our Father, God. If we constantly have the childlike feeling that we are learning in the inner world, there is no end to our ability to receive and achieve God’s Divinity. We can become childlike when we know that there is always something to learn and that God is there to teach us.

Question: It seems to me that it is easy to have this feeling if one is living in a spiritual community with all his needs provided for. But what about someone who is a separate individual living in the world?

Question: How can we become aware of truth?²¹⁴

How can we be eternally aware of what we have within us? We can be eternally aware of our inner existence, of our eternal life, only through constant prayer and meditation.

Question: How would you define ultimate Truth?²¹⁵

Ultimate Truth cannot be defined. Like the ultimate Goal, it is constantly going beyond its own height. As there is no end to our progress, no end to our achievement, so also there is no end to the ultimate Truth. What we achieve in our eternal Godward journey is the experience of the ever-transcending Truth.

In the spiritual life, the ultimate Truth or the ultimate Goal is only the farthest horizon of today’s vision. As far as we can see, from where we stand, is the ultimate Truth for us, so we try to go there. But the closer we get to that Goal, the farther we can see beyond it. At first we think the ultimate Truth is to become inseparably one with God. But when we become inseparably one with God, we see that we can go much farther if we want to. We can become conscious and surrendered instruments, divine instruments of God. God-realisation is just the starting point for God-revelation, which takes us to a higher level. Then comes God-manifestation, which again can be infinitely expanded.

Today’s ultimate Truth for a seeker can be the attainment of divine peace, light and bliss. But when he gets these qualities in abundant measure, he wants them in infinite measure. And in Infinity there is no boundary, only constant transcendence. In the spiritual life, the ultimate is never a finality, a fixed place, because the inner urge is always to surpass and go beyond, beyond, beyond. The ultimate Truth of today is the starting point for another, higher ultimate Truth to-morrow. And the day after tomorrow that new Truth becomes the starting point for the realisation of a Truth still higher. This process is happening to God even in His own Life. God created the world and He Himself is evolving ever higher in and through us. In the process of evolution we cannot say what the end will be.

Chapter 12: The spiritual dimension

Question: What is spirituality?²¹⁶

Spirituality is very complicated for those who do not practise it. But for those who practise it, spirituality is very simple. If we expect from spirituality peace, joy, love, closeness to God and oneness with God, then spirituality is bound to give us these realities. But if we expect from spirituality earthly name and fame, earthly prosperity and so forth, then spirituality will disappoint us. Only divine things — peace, light, bliss, joy, happiness and satisfaction in the purest sense of the term — will spirituality give us.

The source of spirituality, according to Indian tradition, is yoga. Yoga means union with God. From yoga, spirituality has come into existence and from spirituality, religion has come into existence. Then, from religion, philosophy has come. Philosophy reminds us that this is not the only world, that there are many higher and inner worlds, and it tells us to enter into those worlds.

Question: Can you define the soul?²¹⁷

The soul is the representative of God here on earth, a spark of the Divine. God the Omniscient, the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent is one; but here in this world of multiplicity each soul represents a different aspect of God’s multiplicity. When the soul takes human shape, it tries first to create possibilities and then inevitabilities by manifesting the Truth that it has already achieved. It tries to transform the world of ignorance into a world of light and delight.

There is an unmanifested Self, which we call Purusha, and again, there is a Self that is going to manifest on earth through the soul, which is called Prakriti. Purusha is not indifferent, but it will always remain on the highest, transcendental level of Consciousness. The other Self, Prakriti, will take part in the Cosmic Game through the individual soul.

When we become one with our soul, we enter into the highest Consciousness, which we call Sat-Chit-Ananda. This is the triple Consciousness, where Existence, Consciousness and Bliss come together. When we live in the soul, eventually we enter into this triple Consciousness.

Question: You say that when the body dies the soul goes back to its own world. What is the soul's world?

Question: Can the soul experience sorrow?

Question: If a soul is more evolved, will it take on a body that is more physically beautiful, or is there no correlation between physical beauty and spiritual development?

If somebody has plenty of money, even then he may not care for a big mansion. He may feel that a small room is adequate. Again, somebody who has very little money may spend everything he has to rent a big house to show off.

Question: I have read in the writings of a modern Western philosopher that the soul and the body are inseparable. Can you please tell us your own philosophy on this matter?²¹⁸

We have to know what the soul can offer us and what the body can offer us. When we enter into our soul through meditation, we realise peace, light and bliss. Then we offer this inner wealth to the world through the body. Each time we look at someone or say or do something, the physical is manifesting what the soul has experienced or realised. We have been meditating here for about twenty minutes. All of us have entered into the soul’s realm according to our capacity and received peace, light and bliss from the soul. Some have greater aspiration, so naturally they have entered deeper into their souls, and their physical consciousness has received more. Those with less aspiration have not gone very deep, and they have received less. But whatever we have felt in the inner region will now be manifested by our physical. If we stand in front of a mirror, we will see the difference between what we were an hour ago and what we are now. This obvious physical difference in us is due to the fact that our physical consciousness is manifesting the light that the soul has invoked from Above or brought forward from within.

If the soul does not try to inspire and illumine the body, the body will remain blind, ignorant, obscure and impure. The soul works inside the body, as well as with the body, through the body and for the body-consciousness. The body needs the soul for its realisation, but very often the body is not aspiring for the inner light and truth that the soul can offer it. Again, the soul needs the body for its manifestation. Without the body’s co-operation, the soul will remain unmanifested — almost useless. Often we see that the soul is crying for manifestation through the body, but the body is not responding to it. But when both body and soul are functioning properly, the body offers its capacity in service and the soul offers its capacity in meditation. In this way they go together perfectly. So this is my philosophy on the relationship between the body and the soul. Body and soul are not inseparable but complementary; they need each other for their total mutual fulfilment.

Question: Does the body have to be perfect in order to be a perfect instrument of the soul?²¹⁹

If our body is strong enough and healthy enough to perform its natural functions, and if it is capable of sitting quietly for two or three hours without any unusual difficulty or discomfort, that is more than enough. The body has to be a fit instrument, but that does not mean we have to become the strongest or the most powerful of human beings. It is sufficient to have the amount of strength our body requires to stay on earth and play our God-ordained role. The body needs adequate strength to be able to receive and manifest the message of the spirit. More than that is not required.

Suppose we want to meditate in the morning. If we are physically weak, if we have a headache or some other ailment, then how will we be able to meditate well? So we do have to give due importance to the body. But due importance does not mean extravagant concern. Early every morning, if we exercise for a few minutes or so, and if we have a proper diet, that is sufficient. Western exercises are definitely beneficial, but if we do Indian exercises, asanas, we get a special kind of relaxation that helps in meditation. Again, one can become expert in the Indian system of exercises without attaining any spiritual advantage. There are hundreds of Indian villagers who can do these exercises, but how many incarnations will it take before they even begin to accept the spiritual life?

I do not deny the role of the body. But we have to know how much we can expect from the body. If this body is five feet eight inches, then it will remain five feet eight no matter how hard I try to make it taller. A runner may reduce his time in the 100 metres if he practises, but eventually he will reach his maximum speed. The body’s capacity is always limited. Its height, its strength, its speed all have a point beyond which they cannot develop. And, in the course of time, these capacities will gradually decrease.

But as long as we continue to pray and meditate, our inner capacities will go on increasing until we grow into something infinite and boundless. Our inner power, inner light and inner wealth have no limit. There is no boundary for the soul within us. Peace, light and bliss can be increased in infinite measure. So eternal progress and infinite peace, light and bliss are what we can expect from the spiritual life, whereas temporary fitness is all we can expect from hatha yoga or any other form of physical culture, no matter how faithfully and devotedly it is pursued.

Question: How can man live forever?²²⁰

Question: What actually is illumination?²²¹

Illumination is humanity’s first realisation of God’s omnipotent Power, boundless Compassion, infinite Light and perfect Perfection. It is our illumination that makes us feel what God really is. Before illumination, God is theoretical; after illumination God becomes practical. So illumination is the divine magic power that makes us see the Reality that once upon a time was only imagination. When illumination dawns in a human being, God is no longer just a promise but an actual achievement.

Illumination can be in the mind and it can be in the heart. When the mind is illumined we become God’s Choice. When the heart is illumined we become God’s Voice. Here in the physical world the mind has evolved considerably. Because man has developed his intellectual mind, he has become superior to the animals, for the standard of the intellectual mind is higher than the standard of the physical or the vital.

Man has cultivated the capacity of the mind, but he has not cultivated the capacity of the heart, which is far greater than he can possibly imagine. When we cultivate the unique sense in our heart that we are of God’s highest Vision and for God’s perfect manifestation, then illumination will take place in our life.

Question: What do you mean by perfection?²²²

Question: How can we bring enough perfection into our own lives and into the world to be truly satisfied?²²³

I feel that perfection has to be total and integral. In our human nature we have imperfection and at the same time we have limited perfection. If imperfection right now looms large, we have to brave that imperfection and transform it into perfection. Through our conscious prayer, concentration, meditation and contemplation, our past imperfections can be perfected and our darkness can be transformed into light. Through our conscious awareness and acceptance of the ever-increasing, ever-transcending Reality, we can see, feel and manifest perfection in our everyday life.

Hunger for perfection is like any other hunger. If we have an immense hunger, a very little portion of food will not satisfy us. If we have a hunger for infinite peace, light and bliss, our outer being will not be satisfied when it receives only an iota of these things. It will be satisfied only when it has peace, light and bliss in infinite measure. And from the highest point of view, we will be totally satisfied only when the entire humanity has peace, light and bliss in infinite measure.

The more we achieve inwardly, the clearer will be our concept of perfection. If an individual’s inner attainment is small, he might feel satisfied with the perfection that he has achieved. But it can never satisfy the inner hunger of someone who cries for absolute perfection in his nature and in the earth-consciousness. The higher we go, the more we receive and achieve, and the more we become aware of the possibility of achieving integral perfection in our nature and elsewhere.

Each seeker has to discover within himself at what point he wants to stop his inner quest for truth and light. If he is ready to continue, to march on and dive deeper within, if he feels that there is no end to his achievement, only then will he be ready to receive the message of ever-fulfilling and ever-transcending perfection. This message tells us that what we call perfection today, we may call imperfection itself tomorrow.

A child’s perfection is his ability to scream and shout and strike others. But when the child grows up, his idea of perfection may be just the opposite. And if he enters into the spiritual life, then his sense of perfection will be something far more illumining and fulfilling. He will try to conquer his fear, doubt, jealousy and other negative forces. Then, after he has achieved what he wanted for himself, when he goes deep within he will feel that only his limited self has been satisfied. He will realise that his larger self, which is the entire humanity, is far, far from perfect, and that his own integral perfection will not come about until each and every human being on earth is also perfect. So he will try to remove fear, doubt, anxiety, worry and other undivine forces from humanity. If he calls himself a child of God, then others are also children of God. If he does not share with them what little he has, then how can he call himself their brother? They may be travelling a few miles behind him or they may be fast asleep, but they must also reach the Goal before perfect Perfection can dawn on earth.

Question: Will the process of striving for perfection ever come to an end?

Question: I always felt it was selfish to look for salvation. I thought that this would come of itself if one did the right thing.²²⁴

Getting salvation is like getting a salary. You work at the United Nations. On a specified day your salary is bound to come. But that is because you have played your part; you have come to work every day. Similarly, if you do something for God, for mankind, then salvation will come. If you live a life of aspiration instead of a life of desire, if you live a life of dedication and devotion, then salvation will definitely come. It is not by saying, “Give me salvation, give me salvation,” that you will get it. Salvation does not come that way. But if you lead a spiritual life, a life of dedication and devotion, then certainly you will get salvation at God’s choice Hour.

Question: What can we do to bring perfection to godless people in the world?²²⁵

When we concentrate on the mind, we see that it is constantly doubting; it is doubting the reality within us and also the reality around us. This moment our mind says that somebody is a good person, the next moment it says the same person is very bad and the following moment it is unable to decide whether that person is good or bad. The mind is always uncertain and confused.

We also have a heart. This heart, on the strength of its inseparable oneness with the Absolute, can become all Divinity. But right now this heart is all insecurity; it is singing the song of insecurity. But this same heart, on the strength of its oneness-capacity, can become one with the Universal Heart.

When we focus our attention on ourself, we see tremendous imperfection; we see a tremendous need for perfection-light. Even though the world may be much more imperfect than we are, as long as we have even an iota of imperfection, we will not be in a position to teach others. A schoolteacher who has more knowledge than his students can teach them history or geography or arithmetic, even though he does not have the highest degree. But in the spiritual life we are making a terrible mistake if we try to teach others God-realisation without being illumined ourselves. Here we are dealing with the life-principle of the individual. God-realisation is a different kind of subject from geography and history; it involves the student’s entire life.

So when we see a godless attitude in someone, we have to be aware of our own capacity or incapacity. If we can perfect ourselves on the strength of our inner cry, our love of truth and light, then we, as individuals, will no longer belong to the world of imperfection. Then, if somebody else can do the same, the world will be blessed with two divine souls, two divine instruments of God. Today you become perfect, tomorrow he becomes perfect and the next day I become perfect. In this way it progresses from one to many and the whole world becomes perfect.

When we, as individuals, become good, divine and perfect, the world around us sooner or later becomes perfect. For the light that we have will not remain inside us; it will have its own spontaneous means of self-expression. In this way the world around us is gradually transformed and illumined. The outer world is not only outside us; it is also inside us — it is in our mind, in our vital, in our body, in our heart. When we become perfect within, the world without also becomes perfect.

Question: How do we know if it is the proper time for us to enter into the spiritual life? Can the spiritual life help us to overcome frustration?²²⁶

Ordinary human life is full of frustration. How many days begin with a new disappointment, a new sense of despair and total failure! We can conquer these unaspiring forces only when we consciously feel that there is something far beyond them. First we have to feel that there is something divine in us that is far beyond these forces, and then we have to cry within to bring our soul’s divinity forward. If we have the conscious cry or conscious hunger for our soul’s light, which is able to transform our frustrations and failures into radiant achievements, then our soul will eventually manifest its light and transform our lives. Our human life cannot and will not end in failure precisely because the divine in us will never accept failure.

Sooner or later everyone will aspire; it is only a matter of time. God Himself will aspire in and through each and every individual when the hour strikes. But if we consciously fight on the side of the inner truth and inner reality, if we listen to the dictates of our inner voice, then we hasten our soul’s progress and the progress of all mankind.

Frustration exists just because we do not see anything beyond it or do not consciously want to go beyond it. Let us take frustration as a thing that can be captured and offered at the Feet of God or offered at the feet of any happiness or good experience that we have had — even if it was ten or twenty years ago. The power of our happy experience will destroy the power of our frustration or transform our frustration into glowing inspiration, which is the precursor of inner awakening and outer realisation.

Question: Why should spiritual people accept life around them?²²⁷

Question: What is the best code of life?²²⁸

Divinity is everywhere. Divinity in infinite measure is in the Source; again, Divinity is also inside a tiny ant. Similarly, on different planes we may say that different codes are absolutely correct. On different planes Truth is definitely there. But the capacity of Truth on these planes may be limited. The human mind will say that something is absolutely correct, but the capacity of the mind is very limited. But on the highest plane, the capacity of Truth is unlimited and the mind cannot fathom it. If we surrender to our own highest Divinity, at that time we become one with the highest capacity and the highest Truth. Only then can our code of life on the physical, vital, mental and all the other planes be transcended.

Question: How can an individual truly know what God's Will is for him?²²⁹

If, instead of all this planning, we can make our minds absolutely calm and silent, we can know God’s Will. This silence is not the silence of a dead body; it is the dynamic, progressive silence of receptivity. Through total silence and the ever-increasing receptivity of the mind, God’s Will can be known. When the human mind works powerfully, the divine Will cannot work. God’s Will works only when the human mind stops working. When the mind becomes a pure vessel, the Supreme can pour into it His infinite Peace, Light and Bliss.

When the mind is silent, we see that we are not the doer but only the instrument for carrying out God’s plans. When we realise this, God is able to act in and through us most powerfully. At that time, we see and feel that God is the Doer and He is also the action. He is everything; we only observe.

Question: How can I trust my discrimination and know what is the right thing to do in my life?²³⁰

In the spiritual life also your conscience will tell you what to do and what not to do. But in order to use your conscience as a guide, you have to be very careful. You have to remain calm and quiet; otherwise, your vital being will imitate the voice of your conscience and confuse you. It will make you feel that what you are doing is right even though it is wrong. You do not have to learn how to meditate in order to be calm and quiet for a few minutes. Many times when you are tired and exhausted, you just sit quietly. So while sitting quietly, try to hear the voice of your conscience. It will say either “Yes!” or “No!” Only two words it has: yes and no. You want to do something; if it says, “Yes!”, then you can do it. If it says, “No!”, then never do it. You should not argue with your conscience; you should listen to its voice.

Again, you have to know that there is a great difference between knowing what is right and wrong and achieving the right thing. Someone may know in a mental way that God-realisation is good, but he may not cry for realisation. His mind may know that God-realisation is good, but he may not work for it. In your case, you not only know that God-realisation is good but you also go one step further: you pray and meditate. So you are bound to have realisation one day.

You started with conscience. Your conscience or your inner being told you that it was good to meditate. It told you that if you meditated you would attain peace, light and bliss. You believed the inner message when you got it, and you launched into the spiritual life. When you enter into the spiritual life, you not only know what is right but you also get the inner strength to do what is right. Even a child knows the difference between right and wrong, but he may not have the capacity to do the right thing. But when one follows the spiritual life, one gets the inner strength to do what is right. So now that you have launched into the spiritual life, you can rest assured that you will be able not only to know what is right, but also to do what is right.

Question: How does spirituality help one decide between what is right and what is wrong?²³¹

The very purpose of spirituality is to have conscious oneness with the ultimate Truth. If somebody has this conscious oneness, naturally he will be able to distinguish right from wrong. Whoever practises the spiritual life has a special advantage as well. When he gets an inner message, he also gets the inner urge to obey the message. He gets additional inspiration or, let us say, aspiration, to do the right thing. But an ordinary person very often does the wrong thing in spite of knowing that he is doing something wrong. Why does he do it? Because his inner urge is not strong enough to compel him to do the right thing. In the case of a spiritual seeker, it is otherwise. When a seeker feels from within what is the right thing to do, he also gets abundant capacity from within to do it.

Question: Is the difference between materialism and spirituality that the one tries to possess the outer world and that the other tries to possess the inner world?²³²

Question: What is the best way to inspire others to follow the spiritual life?²³³

Question: Why are people afraid of spirituality?²³⁴

Question: Should we try to justify our spiritual practices to others?

Justification is not illumination. The mind is so tricky; it can never be convinced.

Question: What is your view on the equality of the sexes?²³⁵

Question: How can we fulfil the hearts and souls of the children of the world?²³⁶

Question: From the spiritual point of view, does the new year have any specific significance?²³⁷

Each new year is like a new rung on the ladder of consciousness which we have to climb up. When the new year dawns, we have to make ourselves conscious of the fact that we have to transcend our present capacity and present achievement. When we have that kind of firm determination, God showers His choicest Blessings upon our devoted heads. God says, “As the new year dawns, a new consciousness is dawning within you. Run towards the destined Goal.” The new year energises us, encourages us and inspires us to run towards that ultimate Reality.

Question: The degradation of the earth is so far advanced right now that the great mystics, shamans and spiritual people are saying that we have already crossed the line of no return regarding the oceans, the soil and the forests. What is your opinion?²³⁸

Question: But if the soil is dead, it is dead. If a forest is gone, it is gone. If the ozone is gone, it is gone.

Question: Do you see the day when your spiritual work will be done?²³⁹

We have sown the seed, and right now we have a tiny plant. If storms of doubt and hurricanes of jealousy come, then naturally the progress can be very slow. But if there is implicit faith and devoted oneness, the plant will very soon grow into a tree. Previously there was only a seedling, but now it has germinated into a tiny but healthy plant. So there is every hope that it will weather all the buffets and blows of human doubt and weakness and grow into a huge tree.

Chapter 13: World religions

Question: Why is there religion and what role should it play in our lives?²⁴⁰

It is not good to be afraid of God; God is all-loving. But it is better to think of God with fear than not to think of Him at all. Most of the time an unknown or unconscious fear looms large in those who practise religion. If they do something wrong, they feel that God will punish them. This fear is what compels them to think of God and pray to God. This is the situation most of the time, but not always, with those who practise religion. First they approach God with fear, and only afterwards do they approach God with love, innocence and oneness. But when we practise spirituality, it is never out of fear. Where there is oneness, there is no fear. It is out of sheer necessity that we practise spirituality. Necessity compels us to love God.

Question: What is the goal of religion?

Question: What is the original significance of religion?

Question: The family has always been seen as the centre of both religious and social activities in most religions. Can you explain the sacred and divine purpose that the family is supposed to have?

Question: Can religion help mankind achieve a world of true brotherhood and love?

Question: How can religion overcome its narrow outlook and accept all other religions as true and necessary?

Question: What does God like best in a religion?

Tolerance is the first step. But in tolerance there is always a sense of separativity. If I tolerate you, I feel that I am separate from you. So once a particular religion gives due value to other religions and sees their existence as an expression of truth, then that particular religion has to go high, higher, highest and deep, deeper, deepest in order to feel and establish its conscious oneness with the other religions. At that time it will realise that there are not several religions but only one religion.

Question: What is the difference between religion and spirituality?

Question: When the follower of one religion meditates on the ideals of his religion, will this produce the same results as when the follower of another religion meditates on the ideals of that religion?

Question: What are the major obstacles to praying meaningfully?

Question: Why don't religions love and respect each other more?

Question: If each religion claims to teach the truth, which religion is most true?

Question: If one has great faith in one's own religion, how should he view other religions and those who follow them?

Question: Is mutual understanding and respect possible between the different religions of the world?

Question: How can we as individuals encourage a worldwide recognition of the basic unity of all major religions?

Question: What is the difference between Hinduism and Zen?

At the highest point in Zen there is something called satori or illumination. Before illumination there is darkness on one side and light on the other side, and we are in between. But if we go and take shelter in illumination, then our own inner effulgence envelops and encompasses the whole world. For millennia we have lived in ignorance, but once illumination takes place, there is no ignorance in us at all. Everywhere is light and we become one with the Vision of the Absolute. So the greatest gift of Zen is illumination — the highest, all-illumining, all-fulfilling illumination.

Hinduism is based on yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means oneness. When we follow the teachings of Hinduism, we sing the song of oneness. If somebody is suffering, then we become totally, inseparably one with his suffering. If somebody is in the seventh Heaven of delight, then we become one with him in the seventh Heaven of delight.

Question: Does this mean that Zen and yoga have different goals?

Question: Is there no sense of strong discipline in yoga?

Question: What is the purpose of yoga?²⁴¹

In the outer life, if we see that the results of our actions are successful, then we feel that we have accomplished something. If we have not achieved success, then we feel that we did not accomplish something. But in the spiritual life, failure as well as success are both accomplishments since they are both a form of experience. Yoga is a continuous inner march, and each moment that we are marching towards our goal we are accomplishing something for God and for ourselves which will last permanently in our inner being.

The ultimate purpose of yoga is to receive the truth and light here on earth. Man and God are one, but right now man is not conscious of his inner divinity. We love and need God, but our love and need for God are not constant and conscious, despite the fact that we are studying and practising spirituality. We have read dozens of books dealing with God’s existence, but God is not a living reality for us yet. We are all instruments of God, but we are unconscious instruments.

When we practise yoga, we dive deep within and see and feel firsthand our relation with God. If we practise yoga, we come to feel that God is first and foremost in our lives. Inside God, we come to see humanity and, inside humanity, we come to see God. Inside Divinity, we see the aspiring humanity and, inside humanity, we see the manifesting Divinity. This is what yoga does for us. It elevates our consciousness to the highest plane and brings down infinite light, peace and bliss from Above so that our life of obscurity, impurity and imperfection can be elevated, illumined, perfected.

Yoga means conscious oneness with God or God-realisation. That is the goal of yoga. A God-realised soul is he who is consciously aware of God and God’s Reality at every moment in his life. He is consciously aware of his oneness with God even while carrying out his multifarious activities. In his case, God is a constant, practical Reality.

Question: The yogi believes in realisation on earth after a series of reincarnations; the Christian believes in salvation after death through Christ. How can one synthesise these two great beliefs?²⁴²

These are two ways to approach reality, but they are not contradictory. We only synthesise when there are contradictory ideas. Salvation through Christ is one way. Realisation is another way. Realisation has to be achieved here on earth through prayer and meditation. Salvation is achieved in Heaven.

God wants us to realise, reveal and manifest Him on earth. This is His Playground. In Heaven He wants to play with us in a different way. Here we are trying to know what we eternally truly are and bring to the fore our inner realities and inner divinity. Here, at every moment, we are fighting against ignorance and wrong forces in the battlefield of life. After fighting for a certain number of years, naturally we need rest. The soul’s world, Heaven, is for rest. So Heaven and earth have different objectives. Here we enter into the hustle and bustle of life in order to realise, reveal and manifest the Highest; there we go to rest.

You also spoke about reincarnation. The Indian belief is that this is not our first or our last life. We believe in reincarnation because we feel that God wants us to be happy and fulfilled both in the desire-world and in the aspiration-world. A desire we may have had since the age of four may take forty, fifty or even sixty years to fulfil. In the aspiration-world, it takes years to achieve even an iota of peace, light and bliss. If we want boundless peace, boundless light, boundless delight, it is impossible to get these things in the short span of one life. If God’s unconditional Grace descends, then naturally we will be blessed with peace, light and bliss. But usually, even to get peace of mind takes many, many years. So we feel that God-realisation, which is the ultimate achievement, cannot be achieved in a single life.

Question: Are you part of a particular organised religious body, and is the meditation you teach derived from the Hindu religion?²⁴³

Question: Do you feel that parents should give young children religious instruction, or should children be free to choose their own form of worship when they are old enough?²⁴⁴

When the child is thirteen or fourteen and his mind has developed, at that time he can make his own choice. When the child is old enough to make his own discoveries, let him discover his own path. If the child does not stay with his parents’ path, if he feels that he knows everything better, then that is his business. But at least the parents have given him some foundation upon which to build a good life.

America is the land of freedom, so right from the beginning parents give their children endless freedom to do anything they want. Then, when the children grow up to be ignorant and undisciplined, the parents say, “Oh, I never expected my children to be like that.” But it is the parents’ fault. When their children are growing up, the parents cannot simply lead their own lives and ignore their children. They must give them boundless love, affection and concern. If one day their children do not respond to their love, the next day they must be ready to give more. They have to give unreservedly today and, even if they do not get any response, tomorrow they have to give again. Parents’ business is to give, give, give and not to expect. They have to know the meaning of patience. When the time comes, the children will be grateful.

Question: How can the different religions best respect and value each other?²⁴⁵

Question: Can we transcend our religion for a more vast spirituality?²⁴⁶

Religion feels that there is Someone called God who is high above, in the sky or in Heaven or somewhere else, and that all peace, light and bliss are with Him. But spirituality will say that where I am is where light, peace and bliss can be found; where I move around is where truth is. Spirituality will say truth and I are inseparable. Religion does not claim that kind of oneness. Religion will say that truth is somewhere else, and only if we pray and meditate will we one day see the face of truth and light. But spirituality will say that I myself am the very thing that I am looking for and crying for; everything is already inside me, only I have forgotten it, I cannot recognise it or I have misplaced it. Spirituality tells us to discover our inner wealth and bring to the fore what we eternally have.

Question: Is it possible to reach the state of God-realisation by devotedly practising one's religion?

Question: Why does the reference to God or religion embarrass so many people?

Question: Please explain the difference between 'religious fervour' and 'delight'. Can the two complement each other?

Question: Is religion indispensable for our self-realisation?

Question: How does religious discipline differ from spiritual discipline?

Question: How can the various world religions respond more co-operatively and effectively to humanity's aspiration?²⁴⁷

Question: Are people growing away from organised religion and moving towards meditation?

Question: People are often afraid of practices like meditation, which are not prescribed by their own religion. Why is this?

Question: Can one find the fulfilment of his life in religion?

Question: Is what you teach a religion?

Question: How can religion be made more spiritual?

Question: Is there any real difference between one religion and another?

Chapter 14: God and the universe

Question: You have written an aphorism which says: "God is at once finite and infinite. He is space. He is beyond space. He is measured. He can be measured. He must needs be measured. He is measureless. He is boundless. He is infinite." Could you please explain this, particularly how God can be called finite?²⁴⁸

God is infinite, but He has entered into this finite body of ours which lasts for fifty, sixty or seventy years. God is infinite, but He houses Himself in each tiny child. Here in the finite, He wants to enjoy Himself and play the tune of the Infinite; it gives Him the greatest joy. It is in the finite that the Supreme in us is aspiring towards the Infinite. Finite and infinite: to our outer eyes they seem to be opposites, but in God’s Eyes they are one. The finite and the Infinite always want to go together; the one complements the other. The finite wants to reach the absolute Highest, which is the Infinite. The Infinite wants to manifest itself in and through the finite. Then only is the divine Game complete. Otherwise, it will be only a one-sided game. There will be no joy, no achievement, no fulfilment. In and through the Infinite, the finite is singing its song of realisation. In and through the finite, the Infinite is singing its song of manifestation.

Question: Can God and the universe be separated?

Question: All around us we hear of wars and conflicts. I want to know if these conflicts are all part of the divine order?²⁴⁹

With regard to the present-day political situation, it is not the intention of the Divine to let the forces fight it out so that out of evil good will come. At times we say that the divine Game is being played; that the Divine and undivine play and finally the Divine wins. But right now, it is not like that. The present-day wars are not God’s intention; they are the product of human weaknesses.

Question: What is God? Where is He?²⁵⁰

What is God? God is both formless and with form. He is pure energy without beginning or end; at the same time, He is the most luminous form. It depends on how the seeker wants to see God. One person may want to see God in a human form, but as absolutely divine, supreme, perfect. He feels that if God appears to him with form, then it will be easier for him to recognise God or realise God. So he likes to see the personal God. But again, if someone says that he wants to go beyond the personal God, beyond form, beyond duality, and remain always in the infinite peace, light and bliss, that also can be done. And the same seeker who cries in the morning to see God with form can, in the evening, cry for God as formless, boundless energy.

Question: Why should one give his time to God?²⁵¹

God is all-pervading; He is everywhere. Whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever we grow into is nothing short of an expansion of His own Reality-Existence. Right at the outset we have to know that He alone exists. Just because He alone exists, no matter what we do, we know that our action is motivated by Him and also finds its result in Him. Not only that, but He is the One acting in and through us. Our action fulfils itself, our capacity is increased and our realisation is strengthened only because He exists and He is. Therefore, either consciously or unconsciously, either cheerfully or dolefully, God has to come into the picture.

Question: What do you think of a person who is an atheist?²⁵²

Sometimes the sky is overcast with clouds and no moon or stars are visible. We know that when these clouds are dispersed, we will immediately be able to see the moon and the stars. But an atheist cannot see beyond the clouds.

Question: Why did God create evil?²⁵³

Question: What is the sound 'AUM'?

Question: When does God want His Name spoken?²⁵⁴

Question: What is your basic philosophy?²⁵⁵

Human devotion is attachment; divine devotion is dedication to a higher purpose or ideal, to a higher way of life. Divine devotion grows out of our soul’s promise to manifest our inner divinity here on earth.

Human surrender is the surrender of a slave to his master. It is done out of fear. But divine surrender is the surrender of our less illumined part to our higher part. Right now we are not fully aware of our highest Height. But once we become aware of who we are, we try to surrender our lower self to our higher Self. The tiny drop is not aware of the ocean. But when it merges with the ocean, it becomes the ocean itself. In divine surrender, the finite in us surrenders to the Infinite in us and becomes inseparably one with it.

Question: Why is darkness impermanent and light permanent?²⁵⁶

Right now we are enveloped by darkness because we have been sleeping for a few years or a few incarnations. But a day will come when the infinite Light will dawn inside us and make us feel what we truly are. At that time our inner sun, which is infinitely brighter than the physical sun, will dispel our ignorance-night of millennia.

The more we go deep within, the easier it becomes for us to realise that there is something within us that is everlasting. If we can live in our inner existence, even for one minute a day, we will see and feel Light in abundant measure and feel the possibility of growing into the effulgence of Light. So let us try to go deep within and enter into this inner cosmic sun. There we shall see the infinite, permanent Light waiting for us and crying for us. It needs only our conscious approval and co-operation to come to the fore.

What is Light? Light is Delight and Delight means Nectar, the immortal Nectar. In one of our Upanishads it is said that all human beings come into the world from Delight. Again, Delight is Light, God the Light. Although at every moment we are growing in Delight, we do not see or feel Delight right now because we are living the surface life in the meshes of ignorance. But we shall continue to grow and, at the end of our journey’s close, we shall again enter into the effulgence of Delight. “We came from Delight, we grow in Delight and, at the end of our journey’s close, we shall retire into Delight.”

This experience of Delight we get only when we meditate, for only then do we get inner peace or peace of mind. Delight is visible, palpable and tangible only when we have peace of mind. Unfortunately, the modern, intellectual, doubting and sophisticated mind does not care for Light and Delight. It cries for outer information or it cries to achieve the Truth in its own way. But even while achieving the Truth, it negates the Truth. The mind sees the Truth for five seconds and then, when it is about to achieve the Truth, it doubts the possibility and potentiality of Truth. Then who is the loser? It is the mind. But if we live in the heart or in the soul, which is within the heart, then we identify ourselves with the Truth and immediately become the Truth. At that time there is no doubt; there is only a flood of certainty.

Question: I was wondering if there is a spiritual reason why earth is suffering from so many disasters at this time.²⁵⁷

Again, we have to know that wrong forces can operate in and through the earth planet because earth is not perfect. Some things God initiates and inspires, some things He approves of and some things He just accepts or tolerates. When we see earthquakes, floods or famine, we have to know that these are things God is just tolerating. If some wrong forces destroy a group of people or destroy some places, God is just tolerating it. Again, there is a higher purpose to these things. Today God tolerates this suffering, but tomorrow, inside the persons who have suffered, God’s deep Compassion will flow, and in some way He will compensate. But that compensation we will not see with our human eyes; it has to be seen with our aspiring consciousness.

We have to know that the catastrophes and disasters which make us feel that the downfall of the human race is approaching are only what we are seeing in the outer world. Because we live on the physical plane, we notice whatever is happening there. But catastrophes can take place on the inner plane also. The undivine forces, the hostile forces, can also operate on the inner plane.

Look at the conflict between faith and doubt. If doubt destroys our faith, then on the inner plane it is like the explosion of an atom bomb.

Question: Where did God originate?²⁵⁸

Question: How did we ever lose God?²⁵⁹

He who lives in the soul, he who cares for God and cries for God, will never say that he has lost God. The moment a child cries for something, he gets it from his father. If we cry for peace, light and bliss from our Eternal Father, then He will give them to us. If we cry for God, then He will come before us. So nothing is denied us; only we do not care for it. If we do not feel a sincere need for God, then we say that there is no God. But if we cry for God and feel our need for God, then we will see that we have never lost God at all.

Question: How can we see through God's Eyes?²⁶⁰

Editor's preface to the first edition

The majority of the material in this book is drawn from the 1970s. After that time, Sri Chinmoy usually chose to observe silence during the meetings, having found silent meditation to be more useful and fruitful in establishing inner peace than answering questions. Delegates and staff members also found that silence offers a welcome balance to the daily pressures of working for international co-operation.

In addition to these tranquil interludes, Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations has sponsored a variety of other programmes, including ones honouring individual countries and world luminaries, as well as musical performances, an annual prayer breakfast, peace walks and a peace run.