Bhagwan is a that friend who never leaves you, nor can he leave you, as he is compelled not to leave. The one who is omnipresent, where can he go? He can't go anywhere He is always with you and is in all places Okay one thing- who told you about the one who was everywhere Guru did The one who is ever-present...who told you about him Guru did Who gave you the knowledge that he is the ever-conscious supreme Brahman Guru did And the one who is omnipresent is within you- who imparted this wisdom Master did But this morning, 'Amrit Bindu Upanishad' is saying... that till the time the mind is established in your heart, you can't experience it You can't understand this by banging your head against a tree, stone or a mountain So make your chest strong and listen to this This can't be understood by sitting in a cave of a mountain or by hanging upside down from a tree Farid Sahib kept doing his spiritual practices by hanging upside down in a well but the secret was revealed to him only after he met his Guru If Guru doesn't come in your life, try doing whatever keep doing... But when you find your Guru, follow His instructions for practices otherwise you will get stuck in emotional aspects...for e.g recently we went to Dwarika and the spiritual aspirants who accompanied us a procession took place there dancing and singing all reached the shed followed by four days discourse beautiful discussions, devotional singing and knowledge was shared Someone there said they would not go back and stay in Dwarika only Really? What will you do in Dwarika? Whatever you learnt, is that enough? to reach the ultimate destination, I found many small destinations But if you are stuck in those small destinations, you will never reach your ultimate destination. It's a journey- And it will culminate only at one point- not before that! Before that, there can be many good experiences look... All pilgrimages are good All pilgrimages are good. Rishikesh, Badrinath, Vrindavan are good- All pilgrimages are good But in the Bani, there's a beautiful verse that comes by It was asked, "Maharaj which is the best pilgrimage to take, where should we go?" So two replies are given One of the reply is very beautiful Hmmm Satguru- a true master, is a complete pilgrimage in himself taking a dip in which, a Crow transforms into a Swan Satguru- a true master, is a complete pilgrimage in himself taking a dip into which, a crow transforms into a swan Pilgrimage is 'Satguru' where once reached, the mind akin to the crow takes a dip in the river of Gyana, and transforms into a swan And Swami Charandas ji is also saying the same thing "neither I go for pilgrimage nor do I fast, I only meditate upon Your lotus feet" I wouldn't go for pilgrimage, why should I go? going and coming is also being engrossed outside It's a pain and is difficult for the body too No doubt, going for pilgrimage is akin to performing austerity as well but what is our motive behind this austerity If this austerity is with an aim in mind then its very good although the aim is only one, which is to connect the mind to the Lord A spiritual aspirant is not going through austerities for the sake of austerities but it is for purification of mind so that mind can be meditative Otherwise, if it is not being done for that then these austerities will be like inflicting pain to the body- then something is wrong in your mind then! Austerity and pilgrimage is for the purification of the mind But, if pilgrimage happens then its purpose should be for austerity And what should be done on a pilgrimage?Dhayana - aMeditation To commend and strengthen the path of Dhayana if all this is done in Guru's presence then good, else do you know what happens? you begin to meditate honestly for few days then in few days, you will begin getting divine vision of the Lord in closed eyes that you have been meditating upon If this happens, it will be so pleasurable that you will get attached to this divine vision Then it will be only this And this vision will remain for sometime, but it is going to fade off soon It will go away as state of mind never remains same- it keeps changing And once this divine vision drops off, it's very painful for the aspirant who yearns for what he lost He questions, what has happened to the mind, which used to be so concentrated This is called tasting a drop of nectar on the path of meditation Aspirant experiences seeing light- a Sadhak gets hooked to that Devotee experiences hearing a word and gets stuck in that Someone experiences the sound of 'Omkar' within him- playing innately- and gets stuck in that These distinct experiences come- they are good for you for sometime but if your mind gets stuck to them then who will help you come out of it? Who will pull you out? That's why, on the path of Yoga and Vedanta- practising spiritual practices on your own is disapproved Sometime back, a man came to our Ashram requesting for permission to stay here and do his spiritual practices, I said "Sure, do it" Later I came to know, he... worships Baglamukhi. He wasn't attending yoga sessions or discourses or Pranayama classes He would just hide and sit under a tree and doing Devi mantra and Devi worshipping In that too, there are a lot of restrictions and such practices demands caution If one doesn't practice those cautions then this is such a mind created web that one tends to get stuck in this mind's creation Because whosoever he will see or worship, though it's happening through the mind and because of the concentration of the mind, the Shri Krishna word no more remains a word but gets transformed into a divine vision But is this enough? Is sadhna(spiritual practice) only this much? If this was all then Raidas ji wouldn't have guided Meerabai ji to move on from worshipping and loving the idol of Krishna, to establishing in the Self and realizing her true nature as Brahman And if this wouldn't have happened then Meera ji would have been sitting in Vrindavan for her whole life In her later part of life... she left her body in Dwarika at the age of 84- she left her mortal frame in Dwarika She was in Vrindavan for a very short time She stayed with Guru Raidas ji in Banaras for sometime and did Satsang Then once she realized the self and experienced the oneness of Atman and Brahman- the indisputable certainty came post that, one may stay wherever they like Its not that Guru wants to keep you tied around His knee But in the initial stages, it's very important that you don't get entangled in some mind created state, taking it to be the ultimate That's why, in regards to the Guru, I'm saying that- staying in the vicinity of the Master and staying in touch with Him. Sometimes a state during meditation can too become a big hurdle And to dispel the ignorance, a Master is required who is established in self and is well versed with scriptures Ignorance will not go by either living in a place of pilgrimage nor by taking a dip in a holy river This will only happen by the Gyana- the divine knowledge bestowed by Satguru Now if he leaves the Gyana and goes into worshiping a form Worship is important but if worship remains as the sole resource of life (to reach the divine), then this too will become an obstruction This too will become an obstruction Now we will move ahead Now 6th shloka (verse) is coming up and it only talks about meditation...so listen Naive Chintayam Na Cha Achintayam Na Chintayam Chintyamave Cha Pakshapaat Vinirmuktam Brahman Sampadyate Tadaa Naive Chintayam Our mind is always thinking about some object If you say that your mind sometimes becomes thoughtless, then it's never so Even in sleep, our mind keeps dreaming In wakeful state, our mind keeps commenting on what we see with our eyes Just observe the functioning of the mind- whatever you, see, hear, touch, taste, smell- mind is going to give a commentary and bring some past memories or future planning about that sensory experiences Mind is never quiet! Every object which is seen, heard, smelt, spoken, tasted, touched- is analysed and thought about and the thought is not only one. It is followed by 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th... See, this is described in Devi Purana (scripture) as 'Raktbeej'! Who is that? It's your 'mind' It says that whenever Devi would cut one head (of Raktbeej demon) and wherever any droplet of his blood would fall, another demon was born in that place You must have heard the story of Raktbeej Raktbeej is none other than your own conscious mind When a Sadhak sits for meditation, he removes one thought then two pops up; he removes two then three pops up and it goes on then a time comes when only thoughts remain and what bird called 'concentration' is unknown! This goes on in continuity Many times I have noticed that aspirants come for Maun sadhna- to remain in total silence, for 21 days but by the 5th, 6th or 7th day, they come to me in panic and say, "Its too difficult, I cant sit" Because in that the rule is to stay in your room all the time and not come out Only time that one will come out is to have meals. Rest of the time you have to spend with yourself Stay alone in solitude and don't talk And when you go quiet with your tongue, you notice that mind makes so much noise So much that, you start to panic Someone wrote to me, "Although I am silent from last 5 days, but now I feel like screaming" Why did he reach that state? Because it was getting difficult to deal with the influx of his own thoughts, resulting in desperation Mind can't stay without thinking and when mind thinks the only topics of contemplation is, this is good for me and at times, it will like that this isn't good for me In the end its all about 'me'. Everything is done only for 'me' Hence the thoughts of 'me' continuously revolves around the objects and the things In the centre point is you and anything related and regarding you- your mind is always going to gorge into those thoughts. And this is much deeper gorge even than the Grand Canyon And higher than Mount Everest and deeper than Pacific Ocean- mind can go so deep The mind weaves the web of darkness So the biggest hurdle in meditation is the flickery state of mind Being unsteady
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