October 2017, Kanha Shanti Vanam Tuesday, 24 October: vacuums and mergence
After 9:30 a.m. group meditation on the Tuesday morning, Daaji gave his discourse on Maxim 4, but before this, he shared some scattered thoughts on the previous day’s topic by way of introduction to Maxim 4. He started by saying, “We have to demystify the idea of mergence. … Sage Kabir’s image of the drop merging in the ocean gives us the false notion that we are annihilated, destroyed, and the other prevails. Actually, there is no destruction here; there is only intensification. When two become one, one is not destroyed.
“In mathematics, one plus one equals two, two plus two equals four. But when two masters meet, it is like zero meeting zero, because there is a total vacuum inside. Thinking of this vacuum, one sister has written to me, ‘My dearest Daaji, my beloved Master, my heart is with you. My heart belongs to you. I am longing to reach the state of the ultimate prayer, which Babuji describes as such a state of vacuity that cannot permit any thoughts or human spheres to interfere with the divine plans.’
“Now, when we yearn for this vacuum inside the heart, is it possible to have a permanent vacuum all the time? Impossible. When we think of how air moves on this planet, when there is a pressure differential, air flows from a high-pressure zone, creating turbulence, and wind moves at a higher speed than normal, e.g. 100 or 200 kilometres per hour. The intensity increases as a low-pressure system builds up. Something will be drawn into this vacuum all the time.
“So when we pray for such a vacuum, and create that vacuum within our hearts through prayer, by surrendering ourselves, it is nothing very complex to understand if you look at it in one way. Automatically, such an empty heart is filled up without our knowledge, with purity, with Grace. Such graceful hearts, such pure hearts, are able to radiate His Grace and purity wherever they go.
“We can understand the beauty of the goal-oriented Maxim 3 when we look at Maxim 4, which asks us to be simple. If we remain complicated, how will we maintain a vacuum? We have to drop everything we have, including ourselves, our whims and desires, and multifarious goals. The journey that we were previously on was going outwards all the time, from the centre outwards, crossing all the layers of subtle bodies – consciousness, ego, intellect and the mind. While trying to fulfil the bodily requirements, the more focused we remain on the periphery the more unstable we become to some extent.
The concepts of centredness and simplicity
“If something is rotating, like a top, the moment the centre is lost it starts wobbling and eventually falls over. It is an unstable system. Moving away from the centre makes us lose balance. Whereas going inwards, going beyond the demands of the body, beyond the demands of emotional fulfilment at a mental level, transcending all that … It is not that we will not look after the hunger of the body – when we have to eat we will eat; when a conjugal love relationship has to be fulfilled it will be fulfilled. We are not against external life; in fact we integrate our spiritual life with material life. Enough due attention is given to the outer requirement, but not at the cost of inner fulfilment.
“Our system provides for it. When Babuji says, ‘Be simple,’ these words carry a treasure. And he gives us the method also to become simple. In the evening, when we make a prayerful subtle suggestion, a sankalpa, during the practice of cleaning, that all complexities and impurities are going away, the natural outcome of removal of complexities is going to be simplicity. You become simpler from inside.
More and more of less and less
“How can we look at this simplicity a bit differently? Let’s analyse another one of Babuji’s statements: ‘more and more of less and less.’
Sometimes this very simple statement confuses us: less and less of what? The first is less and less of myself. The second is less and less of my desires. Then, when people think that sat-chit-ananda is the ultimate thing, Babuji shatters this concept into a million pieces by saying that we go beyond bliss, where there is no hint of ananda. And he says that we can achieve such a goal by simplifying our lives, becoming mentally mature, analyzing, being discriminative, and asking ‘Do I need this? Is it essential, or will it increase the weight on my system?
“When Babuji talks of nothingness, it is only representing this vacuity inside. It is not that there is nothing, but there is total absence of egotism, there is total absence of impressions from the past (samskaras), there is total absence of veils or coverings (koshas), and even the chakras we are forming all the time are dissolved to a large extent. As long as this body is there, these energetic whirlpools will be there, but their influence will be zeroed out.
“Babuji also depicts 23 circles as describing our journey. As we go inwards towards the centre, do you think those circles remain? Some beautiful imagery is coming right now that as we move from the outer periphery inwards, each circle is dissolved one-by-one, until there are no more circles left. So at times it is a struggle to find the condition of an evolved individual. Where is his chakra 2? It is dissolved. The chakras are felt, the circles are felt and the koshas are felt in a person who still continues to exist on a peripheral level. So the whole thing in Sahaj Marg is to move towards this vacuity – towards this perfect centre.
Become the Essence
“What does it mean? It means always moving towards the centre. Let me give you a small example: there are some beautiful flowers here. If you are running you won’t see them. If you are in a car, it will be even more difficult to appreciate them. If you are in a flight, you won’t even see the whole place, let alone a little flower. To admire the little flower you will have to go close to it. You may see it from a distance, but to have the essence, the fragrance, you will have to hold it in your hand and smell it.
“Babuji does not stop at that, he says that we must become the essence. If we remain busy, running all the time, we miss out on things. Imagine the mind, which can move faster than the speed of light. If you were to fly at the speed of light from London to New York City, you would be there in a few seconds, maybe less than a second. There is no time even for announcements.
“Imagine if your mother was to move at the speed of light within your home – she would be in every room simultaneously. That is at the level of the physical body, but imagine the mind, which is faster than the speed of light! How to manage the speed of our mind and yet remain focused on the beautiful flower that is blooming in our heart?
“The moment we move away from it to the outermost periphery, who knows where our mind is. Then we miss out on this. That is the importance of ‘now’. Babuji said: don’t worry about the past, and don’t worry about the future. The past will only remind you of memories, and the future will have you indulging in imagination. ‘Now’ is the only reality we have. If the mind keeps working back and forth, back and forth, past and future, past and future, we miss out on the now. Even a simple diversion from that very moment of Realisation can destroy it. Even our effort towards Realisation will destroy the moment of Realisation. The moment you think of the physical Master may also destroy the moment of Realisation, because the physical Master and the true Masters are different entities.
“We have to focus only on the Essence. If we have to learn the Essence of the Master, the Godly Essence, the best thing to do is look at our own Essence: we are part and parcel of Divinity. Recognise that Divinity in ourselves, so we see it in the Master, because we see and feel things according to what we are.
To be continued … 
