October 2017, Kanha Shanti Vanam
Monday, 23 October, evening session with seekers from the Latin countries of Europe, cont.
Research into the effects of meditation
Later on the Monday evening, after dinner, Daaji continued his discussion with seekers from the Latin countries of Europe – Italy, Romania, Spain and Portugal,
October 2017, Kanha Shanti Vanam
Monday, 23 October, evening: more on the Goal and what is our purpose?
After the evening satsangh, Daaji shared some thoughts on the theme of the European seminar, ‘If not now, when?’ saying that he had been joking around in the afternoon with one brother, asking him, “What? What are we trying to accomplish, if not now, when? What are we trying to do here? What is our purpose?
“This brother brought a newspaper cutting from his country, which said ‘Now, more than ever’ on it. So ‘If not now, when?’ means it’s only now. But my fundamental question still remains – what?
“We have been taught to meditate, to do cleaning, etc. without understanding the why and what, the purpose of the whole thing. We understand these things mentally – God Realisation, mergence, being one, being with the cosmic consciousness, but when it boils down to the fundamentals of our personal existence we utterly fail, despite knowing meditation so well, and so many other techniques that we are taught.”
Daaji then shared a story of watching a movie with Master Chariji about Emotional Intelligence, in which Daniel Goleman explained the importance of EQ as the success factor for CEOs, and in turn how EQ is developed by meditation. He said, “So I asked Master, ‘How is it that our people who have been meditating for so many years are still competing with each other? There is not much visible empathy.’
“Does it mean that we don’t meditate? Or perhaps we are meditating with the wrong attitude. To meditate without grasping the goal is as bad as not meditating.” He reiterated from the morning talk that if we are unable to grasp the higher goals of merger and realisation, it is better to focus on “What is my immediate need?”
Daaji showed everyone a cartoon about the changing nature of goals, which evoked much laughter, and then he quoted Kabir’s analogy of raindrops falling in the ocean becoming the ocean for individual consciousness merging with the universal consciousness, the cosmic consciousness. He went on to ask, “When we talk of the drop becoming the ocean, we think that there is total merger, but Babuji says that he is swimming in the ocean (the drop is swimming in the ocean), and Lalaji is still swimming ahead of him. If they are merged, why is one ahead and one behind? Did you think about this?”
The perfect moment for Realisation
“I think we have to revisit this concept of union, of resonance, of mergence a bit differently. If you want to visit the planet Venus, learn to walk on Earth first. Let’s walk very well with the present condition. To reach somewhere else, we have to know where we are now.”
Daaji shared more anecdotes about Master Chariji, and then posed the question, “If someone asks you where you are on this journey, you may not be able to answer, but can you at least say, ‘I’m stuck with this nonsense, I’m stuck with these defects, I’m stuck with the problems that are bothering me now’?
“Let’s identify our shortcomings, identify our weaknesses, or do we prefer to cover them up and say, ‘I’m perfectly fine’? If such is the case, not even God can change us, because we have adopted hypocrisy.
“We have to be authentic. As I mentioned in the morning, God has to be reassured again and again; He has to rely on our authenticity so that He can help us. When we are in the mud but we say we are on cloud nine, or we say, ‘I am in Kanha enjoying the bliss,’ is it really true? Be honest and say, ‘I have to work upon myself.’ Then we can at least find inner peace, inner balance, inner equanimity, poise, and some sort of confidence in ourselves.
“If we don’t have that in the ‘now’, forget about the future. The goal doesn’t exist anywhere in the future. The future means we are only going to postpone things. And if it is in the ‘now’, if it is going to happen in this very moment, all my attention and energy should be focused towards that goal in this moment. We then meditate with the thought that maybe this is the perfect moment for Realisation.
“Have confidence and invest all that you have in that moment. Even a spark of thought will become a deterrent. So remain completely relaxed at every moment in your practice. Extreme receptivity needs to be cultivated in our hearts.”
With this ending, the heavens opened and such a downpour ensued at Kanha that rivers of water were filling the canals throughout the campus.
The story of Kanha Shantivanam
Later that evening, after dinner, Daaji met with seekers from the Latin countries of Europe – Italy, Romania, Spain and Portugal. They asked him about Kanha, so he shared some of the history with them: “It is a very special project to our Master’s heart. It started many years back, in 2010 or 2011. One of our local abhyasis who works in real estate spotted this land and offered it to Master. Then it grew to 300 acres, then 400 acres, and now we have almost 1,200 acres or 400 hectares. Our Mission will have 350 acres or 100 hectares of that for the ashram property itself, and surrounding that are apartments on one side and housing projects on the other side. It is a big community in the making. It’s quite an adventurous project for us.
“In the past, every year we would celebrate our Masters’ birthdays at different places, and for that purpose we would spend money on building new structures each time. So now we will make a permanent structure here in Kanha, and with that idea of celebrating the birthdays of the Masters four times a year, our investments in the buildings will pay off instead of perpetually paying money each time we have a new celebration.
“Now we have tents ready, we have dormitories ready, more housing will come, and it will become self-sufficient over time. We will also have various green initiatives – solar, sewer water treatment, organic farming etc. We already grow vegetables here. A lot can be done here, and this is just the beginning.”
The atmosphere in Kanha – transformation through purification
“On a serious spiritual note, I was travelling a couple of years back in the North of India. I happened to visit Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, where he spent his childhood and maybe also his teenage years. During one of the sittings there, the atmosphere that came down was quite significant, with a golden glow. After that North India tour, when I came back here to Kanha and gave a sitting, that same atmosphere was present. The same intensity was there. So we have a lot to expect from Kanha. It is not static, and it will affect us in a positive way. So make the most of it.
“How? Remain silent, watching inside what is happening. Be perceptive and receptive. That’s all. What it does is purify us in a big way. Transformation is only through purification. The effect lasts beyond our stay here. It will continue when we go back home. In fact, Babuji used to say to those abhyasis who would complain that they didn’t feel anything while with him, ‘Ghar jaake dekhana!’ meaning ‘That’s okay. Watch it when you go back home.’ You would feel something remarkable happening – insight, subtle changes, and also powerful changes, and we can’t explain how these things are happening.”
The importance of trees
Daaji also shared the story of Lalaji Maharaj visiting a village in the tribal area of Rawati in Malwa district in present day Madhya Pradesh, which reminded him of the ashram of the saint Kakabhushundi from ten thousand years back. Whosoever entered that ashram was liberated, as the atmosphere was so charged. Daaji shared his own experience of the place: “I went to look for this village, which is now called Raoti, in 2007 and the moment I reached the nearby railway station I realised that nothing was there, it was deserted. And while going towards the village Lalaji had visited, there was nothing around – the trees had been cut down. It must have been much greener in Lalaji’s time. Then, as I reached the village, there was a stream running, on the banks of which were beautiful trees, including a huge banyan tree with a giant canopy. I thought Lalaji Maharaj must have visited this very spot, so I sat there and felt immensely benefited.
“So now we have the possibility of creating such an ashram here, where each one of us can contribute towards its charge. The way we move, the way we behave, the way we meditate; our vibrations will definitely affect the atmosphere. “And why the trees? Lalaji said that trees retain spiritual charge for a longer period than humans can. This is because we have subtle bodies; we have consciousness of a different style. We can improve and we can also destroy. Trees retain the transmission the way it is given, without any disturbance. They are like a vibrations bank. Future generations will benefit from it, as it is not going to deplete! With spiritual charge, the more you use it the more it intensifies, and the same is true in a meditation space. WE ALL HAVE A PART TO PLAY!”
To be continued … turning the conversation to research:
“In 1965, Babuji established the Sahaj Marg Research Institute in Tirupathi. They were doing experiments back then on frogs, transmitting to the frogs’ hearts and seeing the effects, including the way the hearts moved when they transmitted, when they cleaned etc. Then they would dissect the hearts and measure the various hormones. These were very primitive experiments.
“Babuji explained even then that with transmission you can do anything. He gave the example that with transmission you can either increase BP or decrease BP. It is not that transmission will always cause an increase. Let’s say a person has very low blood pressure, and it is going down fast, so you would pray and transmit with the thought, ‘May his blood pressure come back up.’ In another case, when a person’s blood pressure is very high, you would pray differently: ‘May his blood pressure come down to normal.’
“Transmission works based upon the will that is behind it, the intention that is behind it. So there is no point doing research at that level, because transmission can do whatever we will it to do, depending upon our thought. But we also can’t play with it. Such miracles are not encouraged in Sahaj Marg.
“Today we are interested in doing scientific studies on how transmission affects our human neurophysiology, our chromosomes and our psychological state. Good results are coming up all over the world and a lot of people are involved in these studies. But research in Sahaj Marg is not new – it has been there since 1965. The only thing is that we did not start doing these physiological studies on human beings until much later.
“But the main thing is not all this research, which is only to convince the logical mind. A person who has faith doesn't need proof from experiments, because even if you see positive results at the neurophysiological level, you have already seen better results in your own life.
“Take the thousands of studies done on Mindfulness meditators, especially on developing compassion, developing empathy, increasing serotonin and oxytocin levels, and decreasing cortisol with meditation. After meditation, if you check your serotonin level from a blood test, you will find it has gone up. But what is the big deal? It is nothing extraordinary. After meditation you will feel good, but do you really think that this good feeling is only the result of serotonin increase? Also, the development of compassion is not the goal.
“As we discussed in the morning, one goal leads to another goal, leads to yet another goal. What I experience now is only a temporary goal. The idea is to solve that ultimate goal, which being solved leaves nothing left to solve in life – to solve the ultimate riddle.
“You can develop compassion and peace of mind, or become de-stressed through meditation, but are they the reasons we meditate? No. Compassion is good, but it is not our purpose. Compassion, empathy, love, affection, sharing, peace and being in harmony are great qualities, but the purpose of developing all these qualities is to arrive at a state of purity inside. And when there is purity in the heart, Divinity will descend automatically. We don’t have to pray, ‘Lord, please come into my heart. Let me see you.’ That is not necessary. It will come when you least expect it, when you have become purity personified.
“In contrast, compassion that is manufactured or contrived, with a motive behind it, so as not to become guilty, or to do the right thing, is of no use. It is better to love for the sake of love, not for any other reason. It is better to feel compassion for the sake of compassion, not to avoid guilt.
“It is interesting to observe how most of the modern-day research is actually quite limited. Heartfulness, Sahaj Marg, is the only way that goes beyond all this. Babuji puts it in very simple terms: when we would like to have peace of mind, he obliges. When we are new to Sahaj Marg we may ask for so many things – peace of mind, a peaceful life, etc. So Babuji says, ‘Yes, it is possible, but when you ask for peace, God will not come. If you ask for God, peace will automatically follow.’ We should know what to ask for.”
The 13-point path
“Our journey in Sahaj Marg is from the 1st point to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th all the way up to the 13th point, and each point has a different level of consciousness, a different character, a different condition. We all have different experiences at each point. So we will depict that journey on 7 acres of land here in Kanha, starting with the heart. Babuji describes this first point by dividing it into two parts – upper and lower. He says that at the lower level you will feel God’s presence within you all the time, and when you move to the upper part of the heart, you will feel God everywhere. These are qualities of the 1st point.
“Then around the 1st point you have points A, B, C and D. A is about worldly problems, B is about sensual issues, C is about likes and dislikes and D is about guilt. How to depict these qualities on the physical plane? We will attempt that in this garden. Then, at the 2nd point Babuji describes so much peace and a feeling of compassion in the heart, so how to depict that? When an abhyasi reaches the 2nd point, it feels almost like Lord Jesus Christ. So I am thinking of putting a beautiful statue of Jesus welcoming everyone to the 2nd point. But that doesn't mean Lord Jesus belongs to the 2nd point; some people ask, ‘Why is he not on the 10th point?’ Such a comparison is futile. We are only trying to remind people that the quality of the 2nd point is the manifested quality of Lord Jesus. There should be no thought of hierarchy.
“The 3rd point has the element of fire dominant and is all about emotions. So how to depict emotions? Each point, especially in the heart, has various qualities. For example, the 1st point is predominantly associated with the qualities of the element Earth. The 2nd point has mainly the ether qualities. The 3rd is fire, the 4th water and the 5th air.
“They also have different colours. When someone transmits to your 1st point and you focus deeply and absorb the condition, you may see a yellow colour. Sometime you feel red, or green or black or white, depending on where the work is happening. So we will create all those colour patterns in the garden. For example, we see yellow at the 1st point, so we will have a lot of plants with yellow flowers.
Fear of the void and fear of death
Q: Sometimes in meditation I feel that space, but I fear to jump.
Daaji: It happens to most of us. What should we do at that time? The jump is not a real jump; it is virtual. Similarly, when I think myself to be jumping into the ocean, will I drown? No, thinking doesn’t do that. So when I have the thought that I am in space and I am so afraid, it is not going to kill me – the thought won’t kill. So go with it, and see what happens next. Face it. And when you pass it, you will have a better state again.
Q: How to go to the next step?
Daaji: Enjoy the present moment. Forget the future. He will pull you up. That is the Master’s business. Enjoy wherever you are. When you are on the 12th point, for example, you feel like a baby. You don’t feel like doing anything spiritual, because your ego is so sublimated and refined that the push is not there in your heart to progress further. You are content with everything that God has given. You feel so insignificant, and as if you are one with Nature. You feel that you already have everything there is to attain. There is no desire anymore to gain anything.
But when Master sees that you are like this, he will ensure that he picks you up with his will and takes you to the 13th point, because you do not have the desire to go there. He makes sure that you get there. But if you say that you must go there, you are in a rush, it will not happen.
We cannot progress with ego. When ego is not there, we don’t want to progress. So the great Master witnesses that we become totally refined, without desire, and our progress becomes his problem.
Q: How can we escape our fear of death and fear of losing someone?
Daaji: The whole thing is a lesson in life. Imagine if there was no death; it would be a dry life. Unless there is death, there is no new beginning. Either we come back better equipped for a new life here, or we enter a new dimension and progress from there to another level of consciousness. Life is never static. We were born because we were dead at one point. The soul that was there is now reborn. It was painful when we died, and our families must have cried like crazy, but when we were born again our new family was happy, and this is going to go on. Death is unavoidable, and when we know it is a fact of life, death is going to come anyway, we become more conscious and prepared.
When that moment comes and we accept, it will be a beautiful passing. We will be dying with full awareness. We say that when we die we go to meet God, so why would we be so afraid of meeting God?
So the best is to create that environment which gives us emotional and moral support. Time will solve the problem. Do I cry for my father who passed away in 1993? Yes, I do still cry for him. I miss him. That’s part of life. But should I say, ‘He should not die’? It’s in God’s hands.
Meditation teaches us how to die perfectly. Sometimes when we meditate, we totally lose awareness. To me it is like death – a small death, a glimpse of it. You can read one chapter by Lalaji in Truth Eternal about creation and destruction by sound. What happens at the moment of death? I tried to replicate that phenomenon. The energy draws from the mulhadar chakra upwards. That is the Earth element, which then dissolves into the water element, and then this further dissolves into the fire element as the body becomes hot. You can literally feel it – in a few seconds everything changes. When it reaches the air element of the throat chakra, the whole body trembles.
When the soul then withdraws from the rest of the body, the eyes roll upwards and the whole body below is gone. Some energy still remains which then too merges with the Ultimate. When the liberated soul escapes, it moves out from brahmarandra, superimposed on the 12th point.
When you are lost in meditation, where do you go? We don’t know. Who says that you are lost? Somebody inside you is telling you that you are lost. In some meditations you are so absorbed that thoughts come and thoughts go. Your mind is observing these things. But sometimes there are no thoughts – nothing is coming, nothing is going, and you are not feeling anything; transmission is coming, transmission is going, and you are not feeling anything – you are absolutely gone, and you have no idea that you are totally gone. Only when the sitting is over and the transmission stops do you come back again, and realise that it was a good experience.
Now, who is it that says it was a good thing? At other times you are lost, and there is something inside that says you are lost. It is our soul that keeps watching. When the soul is gone, totally absorbed, that is another state.
These states are all written in holy books in India, but nobody experiences them except in Sahaj Marg. It is possible only because of transmission. Without transmission, it is not possible for ordinary people like us to experience such lofty states.
The more we give in, the more surrender – “My God, I leave this up to you” – the more improvement in life. It is not that we only become a simple witness, as we have to do things, but the moment we mentally surrender and submit to the Lord, “Let thy will be done,” then life changes all together. There are fewer hassles. That’s what Babuji calls “Travel light.” He wants us to give all our baggage to him.
To be continued …
