Q&A in Muscat, July 2nd, 2010

Synopsis: What if I don’t feel anything during meditation? When to come out of the meditation? Everyone is unique -why? Deterioration in purity – Masters and Acharyas – true Masters always GIVE unconditionally. Can we measure the Grace?

Q. I do not feel anything during meditation!

A: If you do not feel anything; it is ok. We are used to the gross body, mind and intellect. Subtlety is not easy. In this world, we mainly operate with the gross. We do not think of the subtle throughout the day. Do we think of our soul during the day? We do not think about our soul till death! By that time, it is too late. So, it takes time to feel the subtle. But once you feel it, it makes you powerful. Nothing outside will affect you. Internally, you become so strong that nothing can shake you. This is not easy.

The same mind, which always goes out for a stroll with the senses should be tuned back – same vehicle, different purpose.

Q. How do you decide to come out of meditation?

A. It depends upon where are you meditating and how you tune the mind. Are you meditating in a group or alone?  The group energy works. It is like a herd – cows automatically follow each other. 🙂 When in group, it cannot be our ‘will’ to come out of the meditation. The collective consciousness of group works on you.

It is different when you are meditating alone. It depends on how you tune the mind. You may sit longer then. You will be restless if mind is not tuned well. The job of mind is to be restless. It also depends on the day and the surrounding. Sometimes, when you go far away from home, you meditate well.

Different environment makes the situation conducive to meditation. Sometimes it is also good at home. It all depends. It is difficult to generalize.

Deep meditation works well on your system. We do internal cleansing here. We carried garbage through life times and never bothered to clean it or leave it!

How do we know we never left the garbage?

Look at the child and its character. We may say that, ‘This child has so many traits of the grandfather!’ But it is not true. Every child is unique and comes with a distinct character. A child may be born to parents who are doctors or lawyers. But he wants to be a pilot! There is no one in the family who flies an aircraft! But child has a distinct character.

Where has it come from?

It comes from the pattern that one carried over lifetimes. It is in the subconscious and that collectively works on the destiny of the child. And parents have nothing to do with it. Child has its own karma.

Everyone is unique and has a distinct character. Conflicts are created when we do not understand it. We take ownership of our son or daughter. We also feel that they should listen to what we say. But we do not understand that they are operating their karma and not ours. We come together when karmas are together.

At night, everyone is operating at their karma level. We forget our name, gender, qualification, time and space at night. Everything comes back when we get up. But we attribute a lot to the waking state and identify ourselves…..this is me! We try to express the same to the world and the world may not accept it. The conflict starts then.

Internally we have expectations that my husband, son or daughter will behave this way. When they do not, the conflict begins. In society, we behave the same. We expect certain things here as well – like, people will be kind to me, they will love me.. When it does not happen, conflict starts with society, nature etc. Restlessness gets expressed in the society. We see calamities taking shape, growing and destroying the very fabric of existence.

Our rich tradition is our bank balance. The tradition where we welcome every one, we never harm anybody and we always provide to the whole world. Which Master was taking-oriented? All the past Masters always gave everything they had, without any expectation, unconditionally.

Q. We see a lot of deterioration in purity these days. Why is that so?

A. Deterioration has happened everywhere. Look at old Sages and Maharishis. None of the sages ever proclaimed that they are Enlightened. Now-a-days people say …. “I am Enlightened”. They create a website for that ….. “I am Enlightened and I will make you Enlightened”. Who can guarantee Enlightenment in this world? No one can guarantee Enlightenment. Enlightenment can only happen, based on the eligibility of the seeker. Nobody can sell it or buy it from any shop.

First of all, Why do you need Enlightenment? Is it another trophy on the wall? Is it a thing to be collected? Look at our tradition. No Master, whether Ramana Maharshi or Bhagawan Nityananda or Sai Baba, ever told that He is Enlightened.

Q. These Masters also never said ‘I will give you Enlightenment.’ Is it that disciples are glorifying the Masters?

A. Disciples do not want to call themselves fools. Otherwise, society will ask, why are you going after this Master? They hate to call themselves a fool! Even if one Master is not carrying any weight on him, you put a weight on him!

When you glorify, two things can happen

1) The person cannot take the weight and he falls

2) He can develop ‘hyper-ego’ and will fall any way. Ego makes you so heavy, that you fall!

Not only today’s Masters but also look at the modern doctors and engineers. They are not serving people, they are just trying to make money. Your competence is judged on how much money you make. There is no Satya or Dharma.

Let’s look at how things evolved. During Shri Rama’s time, great Sages were guiding kings sitting in their court. They never wanted anything from the Maharajas. They had simple existence.

Now, business men are controlling the empires. They count only profits. How much have we traveled– from sages guiding the empire to businessmen guiding the country! The makers of arms and ammunitions are controlling the empires. The result is war. We deteriorated so much. Humanity has no value. Human life is traded in the street.

The same deterioration also affected spirituality. There is competition in spirituality. How many disciples you have and how many I have! If I have one more, I am better off. So sad! Sathya Sai Baba never told anyone that he is enlightened or that he needs money – and nor did Bhagawan Nityananda and Shirdi Sai Baba. But look at various spiritual websites of our time. Spirituality is being so heavily marketed. People need to declare that their Guru is an Enlightened Master!

If a person is complete, self sufficient and Enlightened, he will not come back to tell you “I am Enlightened!” He will never criticize anybody. He will do his job and say bye bye! Bhagawan Nityananda, Shirdi Sai Baba or Ramana Maharshi never invited you to their camp and promised more ladoos (sweet) to eat! They said, “I am available. You can come here if you’d like, but you are free to go where ever you like!” Nobody can bind anybody. Because, the very path is that of liberation, not binding.

Many saffron-clad people that we see today are just Acharyas, pretending to be Gurus. They have theoretical book knowledge. But they pretend to be Enlightened Masters. There is nothing original in them. They have to create ideas to attract. They collect material from many terrestrial sources, make different modules, and present it all to the world. As I always say, keep in mind that We get the Guru according to our eligibility. A post graduate professor is of no use to a first standard student. He will not get him either.

Government will only be according to the type of people who created it and the type of people who voted them to power! Ministers are made out of people. They reflect the society. Corruption happens because the society’s consciousness is such.  Similar thing happens in spirituality. You will get a Guru according to your eligibility and calibre.

I met a person in Himalayas. She came from Brazil to learn Hata Yoga to go back teach in Brazil. She ended up in a camp on beautiful banks of Ganga. The camp taught all types of yoga. The first posture they taught her was to keep leg around the neck! She became like a question mark! Nobody told her that one should be doing this posture only after the body becomes very flexible.

Camps are advertising and damaging people. This is a reality in Himalayas nowadays! That posture was advertised because it looked very interesting. It is eye catching! (Picture of touching the feet appears too simple). But, at the end you may get injured. Who cares? You cannot measure teaching. When you do not do well, it is easy for a teacher to say, I taught you perfectly. But Oh! You did not learn properly!

Theoretical knowledge does not take you anywhere. Sometimes practice makes you perfect. There is no mission or vision about what a person needs. This happens only when a person with higher awareness looks at you. Only he comes to know what you require.

A disciple comes to a Guru and tells him “I heard about you and know you are somebody great.” The Guru said, “I do not think so! This kind of thinking is your problem and not mine.”  This is the way of their teaching. So strong!

Only then, if disciple clings, Guru accepts him.

The situation here is different. You expect disciples to come from other camps! If one Guru falls, the other Guru is happy. He rejoices as it is more meat for him! What kind of canvassing is this? When you look at the pockets of disciples, then the degeneration is guaranteed!

Grace of Guru cannot be bought from the Market! Grace has to happen.

Sadashiv Brahmendra or Bhagawan Nityanata -you cannot imitate these powerful masters. Can you just wear a langoti (loin cloth) and become Bhagawan Nityananda? But world is operating by imitating somebody. You may become physically similar to him but not by stature. As Shankaracharya said, most of these things are ‘gimmicks’ just to fill the stomach and make a living.

Shaktipat is a big task and a big responsibility. Those who give Shaktipat are aware of it. It is not easy to give and take Shaktipat. Some may say, Oh, I have been giving experiences, let me start my own Shaktipat camp! Be aware! God will pull the plug. It will be like a refrigerator without electricity.

Let me tell you a real story. My friend was fortunate enough to interact with Mahavatar Babaji. Babaji came in the physical form and was guiding him. Babaji made him grow from the level of individual interaction to the level of conducting seminars. So many people were benefited from him because he spoke truthfully and of high value. He also started TV programs. Lectures and seminars started in USA as well. His EGO got bloated up. He thought I am somebody great and I can do these things.

One day show was on, TV was on, live program was on and… Babaji disappeared! This fellow was standing on the stage with no knowledge. He knows nothing and went complete blank. He did not know why he was standing there. His ego got completely deflated. Then he prayed to Babaji. Babaji please help me. Babaji did not come! He realized the grace element. Then he finally surrendered to Babaji and said, “I have understood the point. I am no one without your grace.”

Grace can not be taken for granted.  If you take grace for granted, you will be deflated sooner or later. Once he understood that, he left everything and disappeared.

We think everything is easy. I can also give Shaktipat. Please go ahead and do it. It is not my discretion.  I will not pull anyone’s plug because I am not the one who is doing it. There is a higher grace. That grace is much higher than me. That grace must flow.

Criteria for grace are faith, surrender and purity.

Grace does not care about your money. No Masters ever equated any disciples with money. But these days, it is happening. Let me tell you clearly, those who are equating disciples based on money are Acharyas as they need the money for their living. They conduct seminars about the “secrets” of making money, while they themselves struggle for money. Their disciples struggle for money. True Gurus never cared about money. They cared only for purity of the heart. Irrespective of whether you are rich or poor, you were not allowed in if you were not pure at heart.

Some are also portraying their pictures with movie stars to attract the crowd. This is because they need glamour. They need to say that, ‘these big people are coming to me so you also come!’ Common man falls prey to this.

My intension is clear. Please differentiate between Acharyas and Gurus. Acharyas are always plenty and many times pretend to be enlightened. They operate at your level to please you. They tune things for you to make you feel comfortable. True Guru like Shirdi Baba may scold you or even hit you. But, they are real and you will be immensely benefited by their grace. You will be cleansed of life times of karmas.

Story: A king came to meet Akkalkot Maharaj. As soon as the king entered, Maharaj slapped him! Everybody was shocked. His crown flew to the far corner of the room. Maharaj said, “I am the king here. Nobody comes here with ego.” King immediately realized that he is a true Guru and prostrated. Maharaj blessed him and everything was fine once again.

People do not like this kind of treatment. They want to be respected. People do not want their ego to be bashed. Those who want their ego to be massaged and maintained will go to Acharyas. Acharyas will give you all sorts of comfort. When this comfort zone is created around you, disciples do not progress.

True Gurus do not let their disciples fall. Even is they fall, Gurus will bring them up. A true Guru does not need propaganda. They do not need a Public Relations Officer. What ever they talk is original.

Acharyas usually copy-paste from others teachings and pretend it to be their own.

Q. I have heard that Shankarachrya Chandrashekhar Saraswati would discuss nuclear physics? And Chandrashekhar Saraswati….

A: Oh, Chandrashekhar Saraswati was an amazing Master. He was an ocean of knowledge. A Great Master indeed. In those days, there were no means of communication like internet or computers; similar to Kabir Das, and Shirdi Baba. How would people recognize them? Now visibility and communication is more due to technology. But true masters have gone to Himalayas.

World is contaminated. They do not want to stay here. There are at least 20,000 people meditating at great heights in the ice! Those who want to reach them will reach them. These masters do not care about rat race. They do not care about their photos – whether they are taken with lights so that they show glow on the face, or not! They are glowing naturally.

There are 100s of different ways of attaining God. There are people staying in deep jungles or in burial grounds like Aghoris. I am not only talking about them. Of course, they are sincere sadhaks. They want to conquer fear and attain Shiva. They want to transcend fear of death and ghosts, which are major fears in our life. They have chosen their path. I do not want to talk about them. It will take hours to discuss that. Each one has their path. Please, identify your path.

We must differentiate between a Guru and an Acharya. I told so many times already that Mohan does not exist. Mohan was never born and will never die. But the principle called Guru will always flow. This body will die. But the principle called “Guru” will keep flowing through different bodies. We have to catch hold of the ‘Guru Principle’. The principle of Guru has gone over many, many mouths over a period of time.

I repeat again, do not equate a Guru with an Acharya. You may find others expressions in Acharyas. They collect materials from various sources and present to you. The expression of a true Guru is always original.

Acharyas also tend to ask their disciples not to go here and there to other Masters. They create fear and guilt in you to bind you. It is very easy to put trash in your inner space. But it is difficult to purify you. In the garden, it is difficult to cultivate a rose but weeds grow and spread very easily, without your nurturing it.

Your minds are the same. Contaminating someone’s mind is very easy. Acharyas may create fear saying that- if you leave me, you may fall out of the grace. Something wrong will happen to you. But if your pockets are empty, they do not need you.

A true Guru will never bind you. If you want to leave him, he will simply say, “Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God). I am always available. It is up to you”.

Q: I feel, the critical thing is we can not measure the effect of meditation. Many techniques and packages are projected to make mind feel that it is great. We cannot measure the grace.

A: Let me tell you a story that I heard today. I am equating that to spirituality.

In a village in India, a raging bull attacked a boy and tore one of his eyes out. He was taken to the hospital. After the usual first aid, he was immediately shifted to the neighbouring city. A good ophthalmologist gave a sincere and truthful opinion, ‘I am sorry. Nothing can be done to save the eye.’ But unconvinced and relying on hope, relatives went to another eye doctor. Doctor no. 2 said, “Oh, very critical. Let me try. I will do an immediate surgery.’

He quite knew that it is useless to do any surgery. He took the patient to operation theater, stitched the wound again,charged Rs.40,000 and then said “Sorry! I tried my level best, but his eye could not be saved.”

Both doctors said the same thing. One doctor was straight forward and told the truth upfront and other cheated the boy’s parents. People want those who would say –‘I will help you’ with undercurrent of cheating! When someone talks straight, people do not like it. I hope that answers your query.

God Guide You All.