Jangama Dhyana - The Technique | Thus Spake Babaji - online Q&A, No.156

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Jangama Dhyana - The Technique | Thus Spake Babaji - online Q&A, No.156
Recorded on 12th August 2023 with worldwide participants

0:00 Introduction from Babaji
2:37 How was the meditation technique first revealed to Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj?
8:55 How did the name Jangama Dhyana come about?
10:22 What are Babaji's meditation instructions?
14:48 What is the importance of keeping head and neck straight?
16:20 The instruction to 'gently close your eyes'
20:48 The position of the 'third eye' where we concentrate the mind and sight
22:33 The instruction 'do not repeat and mantra or name, do not imagine anything'
28:32 Is there a technical reason to meditate for 1 hour?
30:05 Are there signs of progress in meditation, like visions or experiences?
35:05 What are we doing wrong if we are finding meditation difficult?
40:45 When I meditate why can I only stop the mind for a few minutes only, but then thoughts come up?
46:00 How does this technique enable the mind to disconnect from the body?
47:36 What is the practice of kayakalpa?
49:12 Is god a personality that can think?
51:22 Concentrating on the breath in meditation
53:00 How can we repay Babaji for everything Babaji does for us?
53:50 If the body sways during meditation, should we stop that?
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Transcript

Discourse: Thus Spake Babaji - online Q and A No.156
 Jangama Dhyana – The Technique
You tube Link: https://youtu.be/s5jqQ4mzcQY
Recorded: 17 August 2023

Start of Session

   Babaji Commences:

OM

Omkaara Naada Brahma, Ardhanaarishwarah

Sri Jagadguru Naatha Shivabalayogeswaro Parabrahmarishihi

Jnana bhakti vairagya siddhyartum

Bhikshaandehi cha Satgurudeva

Bandhava Guru bhatkascha

Swadesho Guru Charana Kamalam

   Good evening to you all.   Good morning to some people.   Let me have a quick gallery look; so wonderful.  I'm happy I could come back on time and be with you all.  

Just one more time, when you keep your eyes closed, do not forget that you have to simply watch if possible in between eyebrows, or even front if it is not possible just on that point also, no problem.  For a while just do not bother.  Do not become stressed out that you are unable to focus on one single point.  Keep the eyeballs front and whatever comes, no darkness, no light, no good, no bad, no right, no wrong, no positive, no negative - one Divine.  That Divine is above every duality.  That's what you have to achieve to know yourself.   So, your mind has to get connected to that Divinity, then it has to give up all dualities, identity, identifying all dualities.  In this world it might be good, it might be bad, but during meditation it's not for you to bother about that.  For you to bother is just keep quiet and just watch.   Remember this point.  Good divine children, all our love and blessings; may you be blessed by the Divine Master.   

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   Thank You Baba.   Baba, this week the question was about Jangama Dhyana, the technique itself.   It's a central pillar of Babaji’s teachings.   So, we wanted to readdress that.   First Baba, I was hoping Baba could talk about how the technique was first revealed to Swamiji please?

Babaji Maharaj:   At the age of fourteen, it was on 7th day of August in 1949, roughly about seventy-four years ago, I think. He was just fourteen years old and no inclination of any spirituality and no indication also for Him.   Simply, a couple of things He used to say, that somehow He was feeling that withdrawal - symptoms were coming for Him.   He felt very detached.   Like in their families they used to eat meat also, but roughly about fifteen days before He suddenly lost interest to eat any non-vegetarian food on His own and refused to eat. Used to eat only daal, rice, all these things.   So, on that day also He didn't have any other indication except He was feeling some uneasiness was happening to Him.   He was supposed to go to the nearest town, Kakinada, and pay the hospital charges where His mother had taken His maternal grandfather for a cataract operation.   So, He had promised he will reach the hospital very quickly and pay all the hospital charges, and after discharging them, bring them back home.   But He came home and He was hungry and He told His sister, "I am hungry.  Can you give me some food?"  Sister was cooking the food still.   She said “It might take another hour still, I have timed.”   So, He came and sat outside; He was hungry.  So, one of His friends invited Him to go to the canal bund.   So, they went on the way they played the small glass balls what you call marbles.   So, He played with His friends and He won some of them.   He felt it to be a good luck and they even had a cup of coffee in the canteen and then reached the canal bund.  All His friends immediately got into the canal bund and they were having a bath when Swamiji noticed some three fruits falling down from the Palmyra tree there.   Palmyra trees are in abundance in that area and He brought them and cut them into twelve pieces.  He always used to carry a small knife and a stick also; that was the practice for Him.   He was a big leader always.   Any trouble comes for anybody He used to be there in the front as an infantry to ward off the trouble, to help and protect His people in the village also, assured them not to worry anything happening.   So, after giving one-one piece to all His friends; they were about eleven more, including him were twelve people.   

That's what Swamiji used to recollect, I have heard from Swamiji.   He kept one piece for himself and tried to squeeze out the juice from that.   That was the first time He heard an ‘Om’ sound coming out of the fruit.   He felt all over His body trembling, couldn't control, and as He was watching, a dazzling light appeared around the fruit, and to His wonder the fruit took shape of a Shiva lingam.   That shivling broke into two pieces and fell down on its own and a Jangama sage appeared before Him.  He was eight-foot tall and was well built and glowing aura was around His face with matted hair, like a sage.  In that area Swamiji used to call such people as Jangama deva, who used to be adorned with the Shiva lingam on their neck and go around begging for alms and they used to do a lot of sadhana.   So Swamiji thought that one to be some Jangama deva that had come.   So that Jangama sage made Him to sit in lotus posture.   He commanded Him to sit down.   So, though usually Swamiji never listened instantly unless He was convinced.   So, He asked, “Why should I sit down?”  But without resisting He sat down, unknown to Him.   So, Jangama sage helped Him to sit in lotus posture.   That was when He gave this technique by touching in between eyebrows, asked Him to “Just watch in between these eyebrows by focusing the attention of your mind and sight.   And keep the eyes closed.  Do not repeat anything,” He said.   “And do not imagine anything.”  So, these were the words and “Do not open your eyes.”   These were the words that Swamiji heard, and He felt that sage Jangama had patted Him on His head also.   And Swamiji had lost outside consciousness of surroundings and He had gone into a deep meditation.  So that was how this technique was obtained by Swamiji first time, without any other training, He had not read any other book.   So, this was what He gave.  And as the Master commanded, He just went on watching.   

Question:   Thank You Baba.   And then Babaji, how did the name Jangama Dhyana come about, please?   

Babaji Maharaj:   Well, to me Swamiji a couple of times had mentioned in Dehradun when He used to be talking, answering my questions, or on His own sometimes philosophically He used to tell amazing points about consciousness, mind, about Self, how to silence the mind, all these points.   Then suddenly one day He called, “Shall we call our meditation as Jangama Dhyana?”  Then He said, "Do you know what is the meaning of jangama?  Jangama means eternal existence, permanent," He said, “And opposite of this is known as sthavara, which is impermanent.  This world is impermanent.  Only the Self, the Ultimate Truth is permanent.  That is what is jangama.  So that's why I thought we can even call it Jangama Dhyana.”  So, that is how He explained and He gave me this idea.  So, long after that I remember Swamiji talking about Jangama Dhyana.   That's when many times in my teaching I would have mentioned as Jangama Dhyana, means ‘meditating on the eternal existence’.  

Question:   Thank You, Baba.  When Babaji initiates people into the technique, He gives us very specific instructions.  Babaji's instructions are always very technical.  Could Baba please give those instructions again please, just as a group?  

Babaji Maharaj:   Just trying to make them more relaxed and comfortable.  Nowadays, I started telling “Relaxed, remain relaxed, sitting in any comfortable posture.”  These instructions Swamiji used to give after the meditation was over.  A long list we used to read to them.  You can sit in any posture, is no problem; on a chair, on the ground.  So, that in the beginning itself I tell.  “Sitting in any comfortable posture, keeping your back and neck straight, gently, close your eyes”.  So, gently means remain relaxed, no need to be in a rush or agitated or abrupt.  Any such thing is not needed.  So, you need to be gentle to yourself.  That's when the mind is very infinite, you see? So, it has to become quiet on its own.   You cannot just take a rope or tie it; like that it doesn't happen.   That's why I use these words; ‘gently close your eyes.’   “Keeping the eyes closed, concentrate your mind and sight in between eyebrows and just keep watching there by focusing the attention of mind and sight”.  Second point, “Do not repeat anything”.  So, that means do not repeat any mantra or name, nothing.  Then, “Do not imagine about anything”.  Sometimes I have elaborated also, “If thoughts and visions appear, just watch them”.  Don't try to analyze because mind has a tendency to analyze, “This is good, this is bad.”  That is how it gets involved.  One thought goes, another thought is absorbed.  So, while making judgments like this, the mind absorbs imprints.  That is what needs to be avoided. 

That's when today also one more time I clarified, “Forget about all dualities of this world during meditation.  Neither good nor bad, neither real nor unreal, neither this nor that, neither positive nor negative”, like that I went on a list whatever came to the mind, instructed, “And do not open the eyes”.  When we instruct, we tell, “Until we ask you to do so, do not open your eyes”.   Generally, I chant a mantra of the Guru Gita about the Guru's achievements and then I ask people to open the eyes.  So, this is how I deal with the technique, giving the technique.  Like Swamiji always used to tell, “When I was made to sit in lotus posture by Jangama Deva, this is what He said. Touching in between the eyebrows He told, ‘Keeping the eyes closed, concentrate your mind and sight and by focusing the attention of mind and sight, just keep watching here.  Do not repeat anything, just keep quiet and do not imagine anything and do not open your eyes’ - that was all He said”. And Swamiji used to say, "I just went on watching and did not analyze, did not bother about anything else, what appeared, what did not appear.  So just the samadhi came like that.  As simple like that,” He used to tell.   But that is what is needed.   In fact, further Swamiji used to tell, “Every day when I initiate people, I give it like a command.  Just like a soldier just listens to the command of the commander, in that way also, if people can understand that I am a commander, and if they want to consider me a guru and just listen to my command, they can also achieve samadhi.  But the mind has become exposed and it innocently does not accept, it needs to have faith and just needs to watch, understanding.”  This is what Swamiji used to tell.   

Question:   Thank You Baba.  Baba, could we please take each one of those commands and just address each one of them separately first again please?  So, Baba says initially, “In a relaxed way, sit comfortably with head and neck straight”.  Could Babaji just explain why that is important please? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Because if you are in a rush, you are likely to get mentally agitated.  When you are agitated, mind gets a jerk and disturbed and gets into a spinning mode, which generates thousands and millions of thoughts and visions and disturbs the mental stability.  Mind needs to be stabilized.  If it is relaxed, cooled down - is the basic point for the mind to become single pointed or just relaxed.  That is how it can remain stabilized also.  That is why I repeatedly tell, “Remain relaxed.  Don't bother about the outside world, forget the outside world.  You are here just to quieten your mind, silence your mind.  Remember that one; you don't need anything else just now.  Anything you need to attend, you cannot attend afterwards.”  Like that, I try to assure people to prepare them to go into meditation.   

Question:   Thank You Baba.  Baba, then there is the physical activity where we gently close our eyes.   

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, now, after gently keeping the eyes closed - I try to watch everybody that everybody follows the command.  Otherwise, now all the people who sit here have definitely improved a lot.  They have started closing the eyes.  Otherwise, then they used to do something, watch here and then steady their bodies.   Before that they should have prepared themselves, coolly, to relax at sitting.   The moment I ask, “Gently close your eyes”, that's it, close your eyes.   No more watching here and there by opening the eyes is needed.   Then I instruct, “Keeping the eyes closed, concentrating your mind and sight, using your eyeballs, fix it to one place in between eyebrows and just keep watching there by focusing the attention”, in bracket “of the mind and sight again”.  Second time, it comes.  So that's what I try to tell.  This is the first technical instruction after closing the eyes is what is needed.  

One can understand, “Just watch in between eyebrows”.  For that, use the eyeballs.  Eyes are one of the strongest sensory organs.  If you can fix the eyeballs - even Patanjali talks, “Movement of eyeballs is one of the major reasons for inability of the mind to go into samadhi”, means becoming totally quiet and settled into itself is very difficult.  Because that always gives a jerk to the mind and mind goes into spinning and it goes into imaginations.  So, that is why fixing the eyeballs is important.  Because first instruction we tell, “Fix it in between eyebrows”.  Many people feel agitated and they try to locate when they close the eyes, “Where is the in between eyebrows?”   They keep struggling, then the eyeballs lose control and they move.   Because they don't come into one direction easily; they move parallelly like this, if you all have observed.  So, that is why you have to be gently, peacefully, slowly just watch the front portion - that further elaborating I have tried to teach.   Even if you are unable to locate the central in-between eyebrows, no problem.  For anything, important first, do not worry.  Do not bother.  It is okay, no problem.  Watch the front portion at least.  At that time, just do not bother if anything appears.  Whether it is darkness or light, just do not bother, keep watching.  Whether any thought comes or doesn't come, just keep watching.  Anything appears to be good or bad, just keep watching.  Means here, another important point is, need to understand - Mind has two aspects I have told.  One is it has the thinking capacity.  One is watching capacity.  If you achieve the watching hundred percent, you stop thinking automatically unknown to you, because you become preoccupied watching.  Just now, you are mentally preoccupied thinking, and thus, you are watching your own thinking, you are unable to watch yourself.  So, that needs to be stopped.  That is what we try to tell.  Just keep watching in between eyebrows, front portion, use the eyeballs.   Stop the eyeballs.  Then it can withhold the mind also there; and the mind will be there.  Just like when I am talking, if all of you, if my picture is there on the screen, if all of you are watching me totally focused, applying your mind, then you will understand what I am trying to tell, then you try in that direction when you sit for meditation.  So, this is the first point.   

Question:   Thank You Baba.  Babaji, often when we see drawings of devas or people with their third eye, it is drawn in the middle of the forehead here.  When Babaji initiates, He touches in between the eyebrows, at this point here; it is quite a different point.  Could Babaji please elaborate on that?  It is something people sometimes ask.   

Babaji Maharaj:   It is in between eyebrows and the same level of eyeballs that Swamiji used to initiate, used to talk about.  So, you don't have to lift the eyeballs.  So many other teachers, quite possibly talking about the third eye, they have asked to open and uplift the eyeballs.   Many people have complained to me that that is very difficult for them.  I have told them no need to lift your eyeballs very strongly.  Just gently be on the same level.  What teachers have observed as the third eye, symbolically is nothing but the mind.  Opening of the third eye is, mind needs to be cleansed or become quiet, then that is blossomed, then that opens to itself.  Then it becomes aware of itself.  Otherwise, just now mind is preoccupied with its own thoughts and visions, with its own imaginations as I have been telling.  So, that is why this is said that on the same level you just watch in between eyebrows.  In between, because these eyebrows come here down like this, narrow.   So here you just watch it.   That is what is important.   

Question:   Thank You, Baba.  Then Babaji, next instruction is, "Do not repeat any mantra or name.  Do not imagine anything."   

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, these two things are also very important.   Here, you don't need a mantra, because this is one of the highest methods practiced since very, very ancient time in India; and the same technique was given to my Guru Shivabalayogi by the appearance of the Jangama sage.  So, He passed it on to us, so we initiate into this technique only.  That is one important thing.  Other points which I have told – see, when you need to go for a Self-realization, or a mind control totally, mind has to become totally silent.  Now, if this is the Divinity, Ultimate Truth, a small portion of consciousness has become, and has become mind.  When thoughts and visions are there, we call the same consciousness as mind.  If it becomes quiet, giving up thoughts and visions, it starts regaining pure consciousness form.  As it becomes quiet, it starts going towards its origin, the Ultimate Truth, the Divinity recognized as. If it is into imagination, it goes away from the truth of its origin, then it becomes extroverted.  So, that is why mantra is used to make the mind single-pointed.  Many times people have asked which mantra is more powerful.  

Anything that appeals to you can be powerful; the power is in the mind when it becomes concentrated.  People have taken the name of Rama, name of Krishna, name of Jesus, or name of Devi, Mother Goddess, anything, and they have achieved the truth sometimes.  Krishna also, Rama also like that, any name, any mantra.   Generally, if a person is chanting a mantra, it is likely that the particular guru tells you, “This is the most powerful mantra”, just to impress upon so that people feel inspired.  We tell, “Any mantra that appeals to you before meditation or after meditation, you want to chant is no problem.  But what is needed is that you have to apply your mind.”  Mind needs to be concentrated.  However, in meditation, it is not needed.  I have also told jokingly, "This silent meditation is like you are getting recruited as an officer directly.  You don't have to join as a clerical post and then get promoted eventually."  When the mind becomes quiet, it starts coming, and then easily it goes introverted.  It will not stop anywhere, because if it is silent, it goes towards the Self only.  When totally mind becomes quiet, its attention turns to itself.  That's when you become aware of yourself as that immortal soul, that eternal entity; one day that is possible.  Before that also, when the mind is becoming quiet and quiet, it comes under your control.  After that, if you want to think you can think, if you don't want to think you can keep it quiet also.  Just like having a car, you want to drive around, you drive around, when you don't need it, you apply the brake and bring it to a halt and keep it in the garage.  Like that, the folder is closed.  When you want to open the folder, you open the folder.  Everything is available.  Brain has stored all memories, so that is why.  So, there is really no need of chanting any mantra, because the Divinity is in silence. 

 I have also told, when the mind becomes silent, that is the real worship of God, because when it becomes silent, it goes towards its origin, the Divinity, God only.  It has no third way I have told.  Mind has no third way.  Either it is into its own imaginations, in this world it remains, or it becomes quiet and goes to God.  Only two ways it has to be.  So, your job is to make the mind quiet and then see the wonder.  It will go to itself.  You will become aware of yourself.  Also, examples I have told, when you are watching a movie, your mind gets sucked into the movie.  Everything in the movie appears so truthful and realistic.  So, that movie can generate emotions in you, a fear, a panic, a stress, a happiness, excitement, all these things it can generate.  Because your mind is sucked into the movie and you watch yourself also as a role in the movie.  Everything appears so real.  If somebody comes and wakes you up, “Come on, you are just watching a movie, you are sitting.  Nothing is happening to you.  You are perfectly alright” - that is what we are trying to teach.  You are that soul, eternal, immortal existence.  Much more beyond the birth and death of the physical body.  You can become aware of that in your consciousness if you practice this meditation; that is what is known as Self-realization, or atma sakshatkar.  That’s what Swamiji also used to tell.  So these are some of the basic points.   

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  Babaji gives always such a clear technical explanation for everything.  Swamiji used to ask people to meditate.  His instruction was to meditate for one hour.  Is there a technical reason for that please, Baba? 

Babaji Maharaj:   See, Swamiji, when He was instructed by the Jangama sage, innocently He just went on watching.  He expected everybody to be innocent.  When He initiated, He thought everybody, if they just watch it it will come to them.  That is when He used to tell, “Instead of talking here and there, and going round and round and round, just sit and meditate.  You will know that one.”  Because the truth is actually such an inexplicable, amazing, awesome wonder.  Whatever you would have heard, read in books, and imagined about the Ultimate Truth called God, you will find it totally different.  For that only Swamiji used to emphasize, "Do sādhana, and you will know what the truth of yourself is.  Then you tell me, what do you need and what you don't need.  Do not succumb to the religious beliefs and prejudices that many teachers have given unnecessarily,” He used to say.  "Just be a free man, a matured personality.  You will be a much better human being when you do this,” He used to tell.   

Question:   Thank You, Baba.  Baba, are there signs of progress in meditation? People sometimes describe very elaborate visions or experiences.  Are there any signs of progress in meditation? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Coming good visions are welcome.   One should use it to focus the mind; keep the mind focused on that, but without bothering what it is is recommended.  Because once you get involved with that, that is a thought that has been generated into your vision.  It has taken shape.  So, then further you get involved with your own thought, considering that thought or the vision to be real.  And then you start analyzing, you get talking to that, your own imagined thing, so your mind gets distracted.  It is unable to keep quiet.  It starts talking.  When it starts talking, one thought disappears, another thought is absorbed again. Hen out of the egg, egg out of the hen.  You need to stop the process.   One needs to be withdrawn.  Do not allow the egg to go into the process of giving out hen from it.   Then that process stops.  So that is what is here.  Meditation is what is trying that to stop this process of giving rise to any further thoughts.  Do not analyze.  Do not bother whether it is good or bad.  Do not think about any thought at all.  Then that thought disappears.  That is what happens.  You just keep watching.  Then your mind becomes quiet and silent.  So that is the idea of asking you not to bother about the thought or a vision, no matter how beautiful the thought will be.   Because that is what my Guru, whenever He used to appear during my tapas, suddenly one day I noticed - He used to talk about many things and also as a statutory warning, “No matter whatever it is, whoever it is, do not react.”  This also He used to warn, and then disappear.  Then I thought this has definitely very meaningful instruction that Swamiji is giving.  “Whoever it is, whatever it is, do not react.  I just have to watch.”  And one time He said, “Whether they want to kill you or they want to tempt you, they want to threaten you, do not react.   Just be composed at peace.”  These things penetrated my consciousness and I picked up and did not react.  And that is how we overcame all experiences during tapas.  We just watched.  It appeared and disappeared in my consciousness.  The pure consciousness realized this was there because of my own resolutions, my own imagination. 

Many times, it appeared to be very beneficial; it was simply beneficial, good.  We kept quiet.   So that is how we did not want anything.   Just wanted that quietness to merge with the Self.  That was how we progressed.  This is important for everybody to understand if your aim is Self-realization, if your aim is Supreme Peace, if your aim is that you want to control your mind and you be the master, all these things are possible when mind becomes more silent.  And then one day you will gain that ability.  If at all when you need to live in the world you will have the mind.  You will be able to analyze and make judgments.  But you will not make it a habit.  You will not become habitual.  After making a judgment, after making a plan, you will become quiet.  That job is done and then you become quiet.  You take a pen, write it, write whatever you want to write. Once the writing is over, you close the pen and keep it aside.  You don’t have to be doing all the time like this, like this.  No need.  So that is all one needs to understand in meditation also.  Then the mind is quiet.  When you want to think you think, when you do not need to think, you are able to keep quiet.  When you practice this meditation regularly, that is the worldly benefit.  And as you go further progressively keeping quiet and quiet, one day you can achieve samadhi and that Self-realization will come, how you exist as the eternal soul what is known as the atman, beyond the birth and death of the physical body.   

Question:   Thank You, Baba.  Baba, people sometimes express that they are finding the meditation difficult.  But Baba assures us it’s easy.   What are we doing wrong if we are finding it difficult? 

Babaji Maharaj:   First thing, to think that it is difficult is wrong.  You just think, “I will do it.  How come it won't come? It will happen. I can make my mind quiet.  Simply it was my mistake I allowed it to go out of control and become habitual in thinking all the time.”  And draw inspiration from the Master.  Be connected to the Master.  Then the Master will always inspire.   Listen to the words of Master; that will always be magical.  That will be mesmerizing if you apply your mind and concentrate.  Then you will feel inspired and you will do that one.  For that only, I have told the mantras of dedication, discipline and patience.   

   Dedication means you have to dedicate yourself.  Set a priority; “I need it.”  When you realize you have a time bomb under your chair, what do you need?  You need to save yourself!  Nothing else comes as a priority.   That is the priority you need to save.  Everything else can happen afterwards once you are alive.  Then you can look into other matters.   So, like that here. First you need to realize yourself.  Then you will see a wonderful life of yours on this earth.  You can be supremely peaceful, stress-free at all times.  Everything is simply acceptable.  At all times you are happy.  Nothing can make you worry at all; like that.  So that is what is needed, dedication.   

   Discipline. Without fail, practice every day.  You must become restless if you are unable to practice.  I try my best to come on to the online when there are serious meditators waiting for me.  They are interested in me to come and teach them.  So, I take all the pain, whatever is possible.  Let us travel.  Let us reach the place.  We need to do the Zoom today.  Unless it's absolutely impossible, any other very important activity of the Trust or the institution of my Guru I have to be attending.  So, we try to do this every time.  I don't have any other engagement.  I don't have any other entertainment for me.  This is the best.  So, that is what is discipline.  We remain disciplined for twenty years at the lotus feet of my Master.  In those days I never went out during the evening times; to the market or any, whatever market-going was needed, we did it in the day time.  Every day one-hour meditation and one to one and a half hour bhajan singing.  Whether anybody was there in the hall or I was alone or just one more boy with me, used to play the dholak and then sing, sing for sake of my Guru.  Not for public, not for my show, not for anything else.  So, that became a beautiful sadhana for me to keep the mind under control and single-pointed always.  So, one hour playing, that became like a sadhana practice always and we became more and more disciplined.  That discipline gave me such an easy thing to meditate for six to seven hours, and eventually five years of another strict discipline, one place sitting and meditating - that became the tapas, that gave the Self-realization. Made me yogi - today the world honors.  All this because of the dedication and discipline.  I dedicated my life.  This is what I wanted.  So, I am ready to do it.  

   So then, patience.  Patience - never exercised any ego.  Anybody humiliated, the Guru tested, anybody criticized, anybody told me “You are very wrong.  You should have done like this.  You should have got married.  You should have looked after your mother.  You should have gone home.  You should have done this.   You could have also washed utensils and earned some money; you are doing the same thing in the Ashram.”  Anybody criticized anything, we just kept quiet.  Kept quiet means not only through the mouth, in the mind also.  Didn't worry, didn't bother.   I knew what I was doing.  “I am doing the right thing.  I need this.”  I knew, “I need this.  Let the whole world stand aside and criticize, no problem.  One day they will all see and they will salute.”  So, that patience, so that never gave me any arrogance or ego.  We just kept quiet.  “It is okay.  No problem.  We will learn it.”   So that patience is needed.  Those who can exercise patience to that extent [clicks fingers] - they will have the Self-realization.  But that is the most difficult for human beings.  One can practice wherever possible.   

Question:   Thank You Baba.  The question is from Bharati.  It says, “Babaji says by meditating, when you are able to stop your mind, all karmas end to liberate you.”  She says, “During meditation I am able to stop the mind from thinking for a few minutes only.  But then thoughts come up.  Could Babaji please give some guidance?”

Babaji Maharaj:    You need to… say if you are sitting for one hour, you need to achieve for all the one hour the mind is quiet.  That practice you have to do.  That happens when you do not analyze about the thought.   If thoughts are coming, don't keep thinking that thoughts are coming.  Let them come.  It will go away.  You just do not think.  You keep quiet.   Karmas go away.  Many people misunderstand.  In this world, “Every time it happens according to my wishes and I will become comfortable” - that is not the karma.  That itself is another karma which will bind you to the world.  It will not allow you to go towards God.  Everything will happen.   This world will go on. The body will… to whomever we are connected.  The troubles will be there.  But our mind will learn to accept and become quiet, at peace.  It will remain at peace.  Otherwise, you see? All of you think what is good and what is bad.  What do you want the God to do?  If that choice is given, every one person will be shouting at God and God will go mad.  One will tell “I want you to sit down God.”   Another will tell “God please keep standing.  Don't sit down.”  And one will tell “God make me poor.”  Another tells God “No, no, no, make me rich.”    So, like this, whom?  If at all God gives that one, again they will come back with another wanting.  “O God, this is enough of being rich.  Now I want to see by becoming poor.”  You only asked you want to be rich and now you want to be poor.  You only asked you wanted to be poor and you want to be rich.  Like this, this world has never-ending queries or the wantings and wishes. 

So, that is not the karma.  When we absorb in our mind something as a bad, something as a wrong; if we had done something for our selfishness, if we had become habitual, that will have a say on the consciousness and will trouble with a guilty feeling.  That will be wiped out when you practice meditation.  Nothing will be there.  You won't feel anything.  The world will be going.  It will be morning.  It will be evening.  It will be hot, it will be cold; you won't feel anything.  It's okay.  Mentally, it's acceptable.  That is how the karma will be wiped out, means.  But you have to practice to achieve all the one hour.  Your ability to remain quiet - that's what you are practicing when you have to simply watch at the thoughts and visions coming.  Understand again. When thoughts and visions are coming, your ability to keep quiet.  When the Master scolds you, your ability to keep quiet mentally.  Years ago, that helped me.  When the Master was scolding, mentally to keep quiet.  So, then we enjoyed every scolding of His.  When others humiliated also, then we learned to keep quiet.  “Let this service reach the lotus feet of my Master.   If this was to happen that this person was to humiliate me, it’s okay, no problem.  Today, he has the power and he is humiliating.  It's no problem.”  We kept quiet and then mind was at peace.  There was no agitation at all.   

   So, this is very difficult, I understand, for every human being - not as easy. But when I adopted it came easy at the lotus feet of the Master; that's how we survived.  We lived with God.  For twenty years when our Master was there, when we lived with Him, it was like we lived at the lotus feet of God.  Not that always He was kissing on my forehead - He was hissing also.  But all that gave such, ‘my own,’ “O my God thinks me that I am His own” - that type of humility.  Anybody who can adopt, they will win.  This is the law of the Divinity.   

Question:   Pranaams Baba.  So, I had kind of a two-part question about the meditation and tapas.  The first part is, how does our technique seemingly enable the brain to disconnect from the body, to disconnect its signals from the body.  Like, if we are deep in meditation, we may not hear what's going on outside or around us.  And at some point, even the light and darkness that we see just kind of goes away for a few minutes, for me at least.  Or someone may not be able to feel if somebody is tapping them on the shoulder or something.  How does the brain disconnect itself from the body that way? 

Babaji Maharaj:   That is the power of concentration.  All of you sitting here, just with a simple cell phone in your hand, and when you become absorbed talking to some of your friends on the cell phone, you don't notice who is sitting next to you, who is sitting in front of you, whether God has come, whether the Master is sitting there, whether somebody is talking to you - you can become so much absorbed.  That is the power of concentration.  So, that type of concentration, when it comes to you in your mind, that automatically gets detached from the brain.  It won’t notice anything.  Practice, it will come one day.  We will pray for you.   

Same Questioner:   Makes perfect sense. One other point was, I've read that great yogis like Tapasvi Maharaj and Swamiji undertook a kaayakalpa tapas or sadhana to regenerate the body.  Could You just touch very briefly on what that is? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Tapasviji Maharaj, known as Vishnu Dhama, who came to Swamiji during His early years of tapas, he had learned this from a saint in the jungles of Assam Forest, that with certain medicines that were to be extracted during seasonal times, at a particular place, within this time of period, one had to take a lot of strict silence and remaining in the darkness, no water, such things needed to be absorbed.   As we know, we have read Tapasviji Maharaj was one person who was totally successful.   It is said that He was born in 1780 and lived up to 1955, nearly 183 years or more.  Thrice, He did this kaayakalpa for about 45 days, remaining like that, and He got His organs and everything rejuvenated.  So, that's what is known as kaayakalpa.   Hardly anybody would know that perfect science today, though many people might claim of kaayakalpa, to certain extent only that might be helpful, not to that extent of living so long.   

Same Questioner:   Yes, it's been lost.  Okay, thank You Baba.

Question:   Pranaams Babaji.  Albert Einstein was supposed to have famously said, “All I want to do is be able to think like God and rest is details.”  What You have stated is God doesn't have any resolution or He does not think.  Like the sunlight, it does not discriminate, it gives light to all.  So, what we generally imagine as God is a personality who can think but in reality….   

Babaji Maharaj:   That's what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa told, “A salt doll wanted to know whether the ocean thinks or not.  It jumped into the ocean trying to know.  It became one with the ocean and it also stopped thinking.”  So, this is what happens.  When the individual consciousness wants to know what the space is, it has to become space; when it becomes space, it becomes silent.  Space means, I'm just giving an example for you all to easily understand.  Space appears to be nothing but that space is the Supreme Consciousness.  That's why the Divine is…   I avoid using ‘God’ so that I don't want to give you a picture of a human type of personality.  The Divinity is Supreme Consciousness.  Just like your own mind is infinite, it is not a person.  There is no picture.  You cannot locate.  You haven't seen in your naked eyes.  Yet you recognize because of thoughts and visions.  When it is thinking, it comes away from that Divinity and becomes an ordinary human being, an animal, any such thing.  When it is not thinking, it is the Divine.  The Divine is in mahasamadhi.   When you try to think like God, you will become totally quiet.  You will stop thinking.  Einstein was right to think like that.  “Let me think like God.”  So, he would have become quiet and he became quiet actually.  He had no answer.   

Same Questioner:   Beautiful, thanks.   

Question:   Pranaam Babaji.  Nick and another preceded my question, so, I anticipate the answer but I will say this.  Close to Your instructions in the technique today of meditation which I thank You, I have also experienced in breath work, sitting comfortably, not thinking, just concentrating on the breath, that an experience comes, that I don't experience in meditation.  Understanding that it’s illusion, is it also possible, it is another way to sustain our practice of meditation? I will say it that way.  Or if You could just touch on how important the breath is? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Definitely.  Even in my talks or instructing meditation I have told, before going to meditation you can practice some breathing exercises like pranayama; while doing so concentrate on the breath.  That helps to bring down the restlessness of the mind.  Whenever your mind is restless, take a long inhale and exhale of the breath.  So, that will be very, very helpful.  But you will depend on a breath, an external entity other than you yourself.  Whereas the meditation is the silent one we are teaching; you will simply be within yourself.  You don't depend on any external anchor.  However, for some time you can take the help of breathing.   It is no problem.   

Question:   Namaste Babaji.  I just want to say thank You for praying for us and hosting these sessions with Bruce, Zen and Simon.  I was just wondering how can we pay you all back other than by practicing meditation for an hour daily?  What's the best way to thank You? 

Babaji Maharaj:   This is one thing by practicing meditation seriously.  Never give up this path.  If you believe that I am a genuine yogi, be with me to feel inspired, come regularly for these classes, feel inspired and follow my instruction seriously, then one day you will be able to achieve that peace to yourself.  Never look back.   

Same Questioner:   Awesome.   Thank You so much, Babaji.   

Question:   Hello Babaji.   A question about the technique.  Sometimes when I am doing the focusing, my body wants to do some swaying.  It starts to automatically sway.  Should I stop that or just let my body sway? 

Babaji Maharaj:   You need to stop that.  Take care that your breath is going on smoothly, the inhale and exhale; if not very vigorously, at least slowly and smoothly.  If that tries to stop, this happens, this swinging of the body can happen.  So, you need to stop this one and take care that the breathing goes on continuously and try to concentrate between eyebrows; you will be able to achieve that.   

Same Questioner:   Thank You.  

End of Questions and Answers

Babaji Maharaj now concludes the session.  

   So, my blessings, so it looks all the questions are over for today.  It's been a wonderful time for all of us.  I appreciate deeply some very lovely questions came up.  It's inspiring for me to see all of you so seriously meditating one hour.  Have faith in yourself, have faith in the Master Shivabalayogi, you will all be blessed.   I will always pray for them.     

End of Session