Special Instruction Pt1 - Ashtavakra Samhita | In Quest of Truth - Babaji Q&A, No. 264

Register your free place for the live online meditation and Q&A with Babaji: https://www.shivarudrabalayogi.org/online-satsang 

Recorded on 9 November 2026 with US participants

1:16 "..one cannot become established in the Self unless everything is forgotten."
3:10 You don't have to erase all your memories, but stop all the thoughts?
3:44 "Reading and listening to the teachings of great Masters alone cannot give Self-realization."
6:50 "By habits only, consciousness goes out of control, and by habit only, it can be brought under control. That's the practice of sadhana."
9:13 What happens to those people who meditate for a long time, but they don't progress?
11:19 Bringing the attention back to focusing when the mind goes off onto thoughts.
13:12 You start meditating, you focus, and then shortly you're off on thoughts.
14:13 No matter what you acquire, the mind will never be satisfied.
17:16 How can you become quiet mentally all the time and be active in the world?
20:17 A Self Realized person can be engaged in activity, but at the same time they're always aware they are the absolute.
20:46 "While trying to do sadhana, often, seekers are likely to be in a rush and force it upon themselves"
24:45 You say there's nothing coming to the mind, but you're talking to us. Isn't there something in the mind?
26:00 All these answers are just coming out spontaneously? They're not coming from your mind?
26:29 Is there anything we can do during the day to help us quiet our mind or keep it quiet?
27:39 Though a yogi remains in the Self at all times, a yogi will show compassion.
31:11 The difference between detachment and indifference
32:13 Would it be true to say that true detachment requires true compassion?
34:00 If a Yogi is not involved in any way, then who's doing it?
36:36 What are karmas?
38:00 What does prārabdha mean?
39:10 "There will not be any imagination of doership, and there shall not be any desire to achieve anything."
40:53 It says that abiding in the Self, there's no need for anything?
41:44 So the body, the mind, just responds to what is necessary at the moment without any additional craving?
42:28 Would any Self-realized person want their body to live indefinitely? 
43:34 When doing your tapas, did time go by very fast?
44:41 "That one who neither likes nor dislikes is neither attached nor unattached."
46:35 The body moves during meditation, and the eyes will open. What can I do to dissolve this habit?
50:14 The mind keeps trying to go into imaginations and doesn't stay silent.  Why is this?
52:06 If there is an idea of peace or losing all desires, why does the mind go into a depression?
53:58 Body can go through prarabdha of pain, but Babaji is not involved in it?
55:30 Is there a technique that we can use to disconnect from our body, so pain and suffering doesn't come up?
57:15 Is there a technique where our mind is focused on Self Realisation and our body is mechanically doing the day to day activities?
1:00:02 I feel the past all the time so it is hard to meditate.
1:01:37 Does a Yogi not differentiate individuals, only the one Self is seen?
1:03:37 How much effort should you make to concentrate your mind and sight between the eyebrows? 
1:06:01 What is the connection between our breath and the mind? 
1:07:08 If the mind shifts to the breath during meditation, is this ok?
___
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Transcript

Special Instruction Pt1 - Ashtavakra Samhita | In Quest of Truth - Babaji Q&A, No. 264

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/jmzh7ugppAo

Recorded on 9 November 2025 with US participants

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, Agastya, good to see you and thank you for helping me to hold this session. And we look forward for your questions and readings. I'm ready to take it.

Question:

Okay, Baba, thank you for being with us today and thank everyone else for joining. We're going to continue with Baba's commentary on His commentary that He did on Ashtavakra Gita. We're at chapter 16 and Ashtavakra is talking to His disciple, King Janaka. So, I'll read the question, Baba, and whenever You have a response You'd like to make, just please give it. And then afterwards, we'll take some questions from people if they have spiritual related questions.

Shri Babaji:

Okay. Yeah.

Question:

Okay. All right, chapter 16 is titled ‘Special Instruction’ from Ashtavakra. Ashtavakra speaks. “My dear child, you can recite the various scriptures and listen to teachings again and again, but one cannot become established in the Self unless everything is forgotten.”

Shri Babaji:

‘Everything forgotten’ word here means the mind should be completely cleared of any idea, any thought, any imagination, any vision, anything; totally silenced. Then it turns to itself. That means what Ashtavakra is trying to tell, then the mind can establish in itself. That means you can establish yourself in yourself. So just till then you will be wandering with imaginations, away in illusion from your real Self. All the time you are preoccupied with imaginations. So, “You have to forget” here, that is the word used by Ashtavakra, means you have to cleanse everything. Nothing should remain in the mind. It should be totally purified. A ‘pure consciousness’ is the word we use to teach or for sake of understanding. “It should become pure consciousness” means it has no more thoughts, no more imagination, and no more visions, no color, nothing is there. Just the consciousness of existence will be there. That's what you get to see, you get to feel, you get to become aware and in that you become established, being there. That's what Ashtavakra talks here.
 
 

Question:

Yeah, Baba, some people could read that and think you have to erase all your memories. But what you're doing is stopping all the thoughts.
 
 

Shri Babaji:

Simply mind needs to be cleared. Let the brain hold all memories, but if you clear the mind, then the mind will not get applied to the brain unnecessarily, all the time poking into imaginations. It gives up its habits and it becomes silent. That is what is needed.
 
 

Question:

Okay, Baba, I'll read your comments. “Reading and listening to the teachings of great masters alone cannot give Self-Realization. One must do sadhana to stop the mind, clear it of all imaginations so that it regains pure consciousness. Only then it's possible to abide consciously in the Self. When you start meditating, try not to imagine anything about the Ultimate Truth, otherwise, you will visualize the truth in your own way. Just like trying to measure space, you simply limit it by imagining it.”

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, that's what we mean that mentally you have to remain quiet. The simple examples you can understand, reading the scriptures doesn't mean that you should not read at all. You can read. We have published so many books like this commentary on Ashtavakra Gita that we have published. You can read it. What I would recommend, read two to three pages only every day and then sit for meditation so that you can clear the mind. The mind should get cleansed. Otherwise, just by reading, you cannot establish yourself in yourself. Just by reading the book, you cannot cleanse the mind. Just by listening to my answer, you cannot cleanse the mind. You listen to the answers, you listen to this discussion of question and answers so that you feel inspired, you feel motivated, you understand what you are supposed to do. Simple, you have to give up your thoughts and visions. You have to become quiet mentally. For that understanding only you keep this reading, listening to talks or answers, any such thing, then you have to get into the job. We are talking how to bake the bread, how to prepare the flour, what all ingredients you can put into the bread. Simply that itself will not give you anything bread. You listen to that, you understand what you are supposed to do, then you yourself have to bake a bread, then you have the bread. As simple as that.

Question:

Thank You, Baba. Verse 2. “As one seeking wisdom, you can enjoy or work or meditate, but your mind will still yearn for that which is beyond all objects and goals, all desires ended.”

So, Baba, here you're talking about the goal of all thoughts and actions is beyond enjoyment or work or even meditation for that matter?

Shri Babaji:

What is in my comment, in one sentence?
 
 

Question:

“The master warns the disciple that acquired habits of the mind can be troublesome even after long meditation. One must adopt the right technique and continue sadhana until all acquired habits of the mind which have given rise to an attitude and a certain pattern of thinking get totally erased once for all. Until then sadhana must continue to establish oneself consciously in the Self. By habits only, consciousness goes out of control, and by habit only, it can be brought under control. That's the practice of sadhana.”

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, you have to understand the technique of the meditation is very important. Repeatedly, we keep telling “Just watch in between eyebrows. Just watch.” This you need to understand. When you are just watching, you are not thinking. If you are thinking, you are not watching a hundred percent. Your mind is preoccupied with spinning and thinking, so it is unable to watch. If you are watching a hundred percent, you achieve that one, then the mind stops thinking. That is the technique. This technique you have to understand is what all teachers will tell, we are also telling the same thing. Understand the technique, then you can do it very easily. 

Otherwise, we have seen, even during our Guru's time, many people, years of meditation, we have seen people who have sat for hours together, few hours, six hours, four hours, but they never could achieve the silence of the mind. Probably they did not adopt the right technique. They would have gone to sleep or they would have simply ended up getting involved with the thoughts or visions. Any such thing would have prevented them from silencing the mind. So that is important. Otherwise simply year after year, years may pass by and you won't achieve any silence. So then you won't achieve the awareness of the Self, then you won't be able to get established in the Self, and you won't get the Self-Realization, no enlightenment. So that is what is important to understand, the technique.

Question:

So Baba, what happens to those people that they sit for a long time and meditate a long time, but they don't obtain? Is it they get involved in their own mental world? Maybe the mental world becomes very charming and they are just watching that mental world and not coming back to watching between your eyebrows?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, you see, you prepare the flour for the bread and shape it, everything, put it in the oven. Then you forget to switch on the electricity and plug it into the electricity. Then you wait for one hour, you wait for ten hours, you wait for ten days or ten years, the bread will not get baked. In the same way, that's what happens. The technique is not adopted. Thoughts coming, thoughts going, visions coming. You get involved into the visions, you get a chatterbox, you become a chatterbox, and simply things go on. 

Many people misunderstand that getting visions is the real experience. That can only serve and help you to remain focused. If you are fond of one particular vision, and if that vision is appealing like a divine vision, something, then you use it for focusing your mind. The power is in the mind. Mind has to become quiet. Only then it will go to itself. That is the Ultimate Truth, the Parabrahman. Otherwise the mind will be moving, one thought and another thought, thought after thought, thought after thought, vision after vision; getting excited, “Oh, I had this experience. A lot of these experiences were given. But enlightenment did not happen.” I was given the experience how to prepare the flour, what are all the ingredients I can put. I could put the walnuts, I could put the cashew nuts, I could put almonds, everything. But I did not switch on the electricity.

Question:

So Baba, the plugging the oven into the power source is bringing the attention back to focusing when the mind, when it goes off on to thoughts?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, just remain focused. Watch, but don't do anything else. Don't think. Watch, but don't think. Focus, but don't think about it, so that the mind can become silent. It is essential. Only then it will go to Self. See, I have repeatedly told how infinite the mind itself is. Minus the thoughts and visions, everything, mind itself you are unable to see in naked eyes. You cannot catch hold and show it to somebody, “This is my mind, this is my color of the mind, nothing.” You cannot even explain also, you become dumbfound when you see that one. At least thoughts and visions you can explain, “My mind is undergoing, these thoughts are coming, this vision is happening to me,” you can explain something. But the mind itself, what can you explain? The mind is there, but everybody recognizes the mind by thoughts and visions. That is not the mind. These thoughts and visions are in the mind. It is not the mind itself. Mind itself cannot become one thought. It can hold hundred thousand thoughts, any amount of thoughts, that is no problem. It has all come out from the mind only. Mind is the raw material, but mind is not visible. That means mind has not been silenced and mind is not established in the Self. Self-Realization has not occurred at all.

Question:

So Baba, just back to the oven analogy, it seems like somebody's unplugging the oven constantly. You start meditating, you focus, and then shortly you're off on thoughts. Somebody's unplugged the oven, you got to plug it back in, go back to watching. Then you're off in thoughts, back to watching, off in thoughts, back to watching.

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, you try to do that one. You keep the plug put into the socket and then still you don't know that you have to switch on the electricity. You have not understood that point, the Master teaching; electricity is important, just watch is important. You are able to close the eyes, you are able to sit in any comfortable posture. You can keep your back and neck straight, you can close your eyes, but then just watch. That is important.

Question:

In this verse… I'll read it again. “As one seeking wisdom, you can enjoy, work or meditate, but your mind will still yearn for that which is beyond all objects and goals.” So basically, it seems to be saying that no matter what you learn or achieve or acquire, the mind will never be satisfied because what it's looking for is beyond all that.

Shri Babaji:

That's what I keep telling if you all remember, mind is looking for the same peace that it had enjoyed by remaining in the Self. That is why it doesn't stop with any object, matter. Anything you give; you make it the emperor of the world, you give the galaxies, you give the milky ways and you make the mind as emperor of all these things, it will never be satisfied. It will look for something else. It doesn't stop. But the moment mind can go to itself, then the search ends, because contentment happens. No more desire comes, no need of anything else. That's why no desire comes at all. So that's what is the important thing being told here. 

This is what; you can apply wisdom, you can become intelligent, you might be a genius, you might invent, you might discover. That might be useful in this world. One trying to become powerful more than the other, one country trying to become powerful, a genius scientist will work and they bring in. But can peace be manufactured? Once I was talking to a scientist and jokingly I told, “Hope you will invent some machine which can manufacture the peace and give peace to humanity.” You can give anything; you are doing one after another, one after another, amazing. Seventy years age we have seen so much. When we were twenty years, whatever was not [there], whatever was a miracle, whatever was a dream, today it is a reality. Sitting here, I am sitting in Dehradun, India, on the dais of my Dhyana Mandir, and all of you in different parts of the world, most of you are from America, all of you are able to see me live, talking to you all. You are all sitting in your drawing rooms comfortably. You don't have to travel all the way coming here, so you can sit. See, that is that miracle we have seen. But this cannot give peace. Peace comes only when you become quiet mentally. That's what Ashtavakra also is trying to tell, you see? Ashtavakra is endorsing what I have been telling you all.
 
 

Question:

So, Baba, how can you become quiet mentally all the time and be active in the world, accomplishing your responsibilities?
 
 

Shri Babaji:

One thing, even if you need to think a little bit, you don't have to become anxious and all the time end up thinking, thinking, thinking only. Just think to plan and then get into the job, focus onto the job. This will be possible when you practice meditation. Then the mind also will not absorb any imprints, it will not absorb any attitude, all the time it will not be thinking that it is a scientist. Like a Self-Realized soul like us, all the time my mind will not be thinking I am a Realized soul. I don't remember that at all, it doesn't come to the mind. When you address, “Oh Baba, you are Self-Realization,” something, then it comes, “Oh, oh, okay. You are thinking that I am Self-Realized, it's okay, okay I am Self-Realized.” More than that nothing is interesting for me, I am just quiet. 

So that's how it will be possible when you practice meditation. You can be active in the world. Minimum required you will be active, you won't gossip unnecessarily. You will talk whatever, whenever it is required, then you talk. Other than that you won't gossip. People are used to gossiping. The moment you stop the meditation and wake you up in retreats also, they start talking. They have to end up talking. It's such a priority, important thing. They have to talk. They go to dining hall, they have to talk. They come onto the lawns, they have to talk. They come to the meditation hall, they have to talk. So, like this, that habit, habitual things. So, to stop that, you have to practice this. If you practice this, when you are active in the world also, you don't have to be talking all the time of what you have to do. I have to conduct a retreat. Everybody is working. When people come, they sit in front of me, then I will start talking. Till then I don't have to be thinking all the time what I have to think. Since morning I sent the link for today's Zoom to all the people in my community's list. That's it. Afterwards, I didn't think anything at all. I didn't have had to be thinking, “Oh, today I have Zoom, don't know what question Agastya will ask. Should I be prepared? Should I read something? Will the question be from this?” Never needed anything. I kept quiet, at peace. Now he's asking and it's coming spontaneously. Like that, it will be possible for you also. You can live, you can think and work, and then you will become quiet. You won't be nervous, you won't be anxious, you won't be stressed out, you will be at peace.

Question:

So Baba, that's the nature of a Self-Realized person? They can be engaged in thinking and activity, but at the same time they're always aware that they're the absolute?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah. The awareness is always there. And they won't allow the mind to go further into thinking, thinking, thinking. Thought after thought, thought after thought will not happen at all. It becomes quiet. The job is done, “Psssssst”. Composed.

Question:

Verse 3. Everyone is unhappy because they're striving to fulfill desires. But no one understands this. Only through this teaching given here does the blessed one attain liberation. 

Shri Babaji’s comment: “While trying to do sadhana, often seekers are likely to be in a rush and force it upon themselves. So, after some time they're likely to become tired and give up sadhana. All that's required is to practice to remain quiet. The mind has lost its natural state of remaining quiet and consciously in the Self by getting into its own endless imaginations. All that's required is gently, politely, peacefully, in a relaxed way, just practice to remain quiet. More force and unnecessary rush gives unhappiness and frustration.”

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, very often people, you see, when they see a master, everybody prostrating or everybody becoming a student, that might appear a little bit glamorous for some people. Then they start thinking, “Oh, if I also can become Self-Realized by tomorrow, and tomorrow evening I can be sitting on the dais and everybody will be my student.” So, that type of thing makes one person to rush. “When can I have the enlightenment? How long do I have to do? Oh my God, tapas, if I have to do so long years,” and they get frustrated; they want tomorrow itself. It will come, it's not a big problem, but you just practice today. Take one step, tomorrow next step. One day you will be on top of the mountain. You don't have to be anxious for that. Keep doing. 

We were never anxious at a young age. We were serving, never had the imagination that in this body I have to become a guru, I will sit on a dais. These ideas never came. We just used to dust and serve the Master and look after everything. Sometimes jokingly I was thinking, “No problem, I will always consider my incarnation has happened to dust the flowers of my guru's ashram. That's it. For this purpose only I came. Once I am dusting, the purpose will be done. Then I will go away from the world one day.” It's a different thing, today I have become a guru and sitting with you. 

So, that is how you don't have to be in a rush or thinking. Just go on quietening the mind. Practice that. That enables you one day – you are ready. Ready to answer all the questions, ready to teach in the right way, ready to give the right technique. You become eligible and people will call you, “Oh, you are enlightened, you are talking the truth, more authentic, you are so transparent,” all these things automatically come. You don't have to claim anything at all. Even if somebody asks a question to me, luckily other questions are asked and it's easy to answer. Suppose suddenly Agastya asked, “Baba, are you really enlightened?” That will be a puzzle for me, difficult to answer. I won't be able to answer – what to answer for this? So, any other question can easily be answered, about mind, about quietening the thing, about everything can be answered. Because that thing doesn't come to me as an imagination that I am enlightened at all. I am a chairman, I am a guru – nothing comes to the mind. Just like anybody else, I keep moving, going around. Somebody has to remind, “At least today you wear a silk shawl, you are going to the function and everybody will be sitting.” So then, “Okay, okay, I will do that one.” And then I sit. So, it's something like that.

Question:

Baba, You say there's nothing coming to the mind, but You're talking to us and answering questions. Isn't there something in the mind?

Shri Babaji:

This is not from the mind and this is not from me. Not a planned one. And there is no such habit in the mind also that I have to talk like this. Suddenly it came. I can tell this much; a spontaneous word. And from where it came? I don't know. When the mind is silent, how can it come from the mind? Mind is not imagining anything at all.

Question:

So, yeah, I used to jokingly call You the oracle because you ask a question and the answer comes out.

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, it’s like the automatic activity. Like the ATM. You insert the debit card and the money comes. [Babaji laughs]

Question:

So Baba, everything today, all these answers are just coming out spontaneously, they're not coming from Your mind?

Shri Babaji:

Definitely, I did not prepare. After writing the commentary of Ashtavakra Gita, I have not read it a second time at all what I have written. So, when you read my comments also, then only I will remember, “Oh, these are the comments.” Then I can elaborately talk about it. Something else can be told.

Question:

So Baba, it's important to quiet our mind, and meditation is the primary tool for that. But is there anything we can do during the day, during our waking state, to help us quiet our mind or keep it quiet?

Shri Babaji:

See, mind remains quiet and recedes if you simply accept the results as it happens. The whole day you put an effort and whatever is happening, simply keep quiet, accept it. “This is the Divine wishes. Maybe the Divine has better things in His store,” then your mind becomes quiet. Just like the boss has asked me and I am doing just my job. That's it, your mind becomes quiet. So, like that if you think the Divine as the boss and he is asking you to take the slap or he's asking you to slap, either of the two, you are just at peace. I'm just doing my job, that's all.

Question:

Yeah, that's the same as kind of practicing to stay in the moment, because in the moment it's always peaceful.

Shri Babaji:

Exactly. Exactly, that's what it is.

Question:

Okay. Verse 4. Nobody but that one who rests unmoving to such a degree that even the effort of opening and closing their eyes is a burden, enjoys true happiness.

Shri Babaji’s comments: “The Master recommends to remain mentally detached in every way. For a Self-Realized soul, even the minimum required activity shall appear as a bondage. They will wait for the body to get dropped when consciously once and for all they can remain in the Self. Self-Realized souls indulge in the very minimum of activities while alive through the physical body, known as the jivanmukta state. Often seekers can misunderstand mental detachment as physical detachment. Though a yogi remains in the Self at all times, when it comes to helping others, a yogi will show compassion, yet they would not get involved mentally into the world.”

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, that's why carefully I have written this also. We become compassionate. Many people come with prayers, some difficulties want to convey, then we definitely do pray for them. Pray to the Divine, to the Ultimate Truth, to the Guru, Divine Guru, to assure them that we are compassionate, we are not inert or rude or ignoring or not caring, no such thing. Though I would appear as inert, I have nothing in the mind; unless you ask, I don't have anything to say. Everything is... this body also is a burden. So don't feel like going for a walk, don't feel like running here and there. Even sitting, long time I can sit, but now I've been I'm being pulled up that I should not be sitting; “The legs are troublesome. You should get up once.” The doctor gives a long lecture. Somebody gives a long lecture and they try. For this reason, one time I just get out and go for a few steps and come. Otherwise I can be sitting, sitting like this quietly, because there is nothing else there. Open the eyes, talking. They keep discussing any such thing. Sometimes I feel I show some irritation because that's a burden to think and talk and discuss and execute things and tell the things. So, “You do whatever you want to do, you do it.” That's it.

Question:

Baba, we need You here in Your body, so we need to take care of it.

Shri Babaji:

[Babaji laughs] That's why I didn't touch that point at all. Everybody will be bewildered. “Oh, no, no, no, Baba, you should not talk like that.” Sometimes when I tell jokingly, “See, I am going to be tough with you all. I will talk the right frank answer, pull you up, because last chapter of my life is going on. I'm not going to be soft anymore. No smiling anymore.” And they got frightened and bewildered. “No, no, this is very bad. You pull us up, you scold us. But don't tell this is the last chapter. This cannot be. We need you.” “Okay.” Funny things.

Question:

So, Baba, there's A big difference between detachment and indifference.

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, definitely. Often people can misunderstand; you are indifferent to this world. That's why we have to tell that if necessary we become compassionate. If anybody is suffering, they come and pray. Often they come, they are stressed out in life. Today also in the evening, somebody had come from Thailand and was discussing so much of stress in them, so much of pain, and they feel that they are lost. I was counseling, I promised I will pray for them, was affectionate. I tell them, “Consider me, I'm just like a father for you. I'm always here to listen. Any time you have any problem, no problem, you can convey everything to me. I will listen, I will give time. You will feel relieved at least somebody has listened to your problem, understanding that.” Like that we keep doing this.

Question:

Baba, would it be true to say that true detachment requires…

Shri Babaji:

Mentally we won't get involved. Mentally we won't get involved. Just like a doctor going around in the OPD, attending all patients. and checking everything and gives a prescription and then calls “Next.” Next patient will come, and then he checks up everything, whatever prescription, advises everything, “You be like this, you be like this,” and then sends, and next patient. He cannot afford to become a patient. If he becomes attached, doctor will become a patient. So, like that. So jokingly I tell Amba I have to go for my OPD, outpatient department. “I have to attend, some devotees are sitting there, so I need to go to my OPD,” like that I tell. She laughs.

Question:

Baba, true compassion requires being detached.

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, you have to be detached. That is the true compassion. If you become attached, you will also become a casualty.

Question:

Okay, thank You. Verse five. When the mind is freed from the pairs of opposites such as “This is to be done” or “This is not to be done,” it becomes indifferent to the worldly goals of righteous work, prosperity, pleasures, and even liberation.

Your comment: “One who has achieved Self-Realization does not get involved in analyzations and judgments whether to do or not do anything. Doing anything, such a one would not be getting involved in any way. A yogi is always free from all karmas, as there will be no imagination of doership and there shall not be any desire to achieve anything else because they are abiding in the Self, after which there is no need for anything else. Whether anybody praises or criticizes, a yogi remains unaffected.” 

Baba, I have a note here – “Doing anything, one would not get involved in any way” –  If you're not involved in any way, then who's doing it?
 
 

Shri Babaji:

You see, by a mechanical process, say if we are holding some responsible position, we have to do a little bit of hissing noise sometimes, to tell “Don't take me granted,” like that. But instantly we forget. It is like you write on a white paper, it gets erased immediately. Nothing stays in the mind. At that time I might pull up somebody, I might show a little irritation or an anger also, just to make them understand, “Don't take me granted.” That is all. And then we forget, actually. So, at that time if I don't do it. 

Even I have seen my Guru Swamiji also, He used to keep repeating ten times again and again so that He wouldn't forget. He needed to tell something to somebody when they come. So that I used to see, otherwise once He kept quiet, then it would drop out of His mind, He would have forgotten. Many times He would scold us terribly and ask us to “Get out and don't show your face to me.” I used to come out of His room and just for one or two minutes go down and come back, take a sip of water, go back and stand in front of Him –  He would have forgotten. And He would give some sweets also sometimes. If He's telling a joke and He would laugh at us, and everything He would be laughing as if nothing had happened two minutes before at all. Two minutes before He would have asked me not to show my face. The next two minutes later I'm in front of Him and He would have forgotten.

Question:

Baba, it says here a yogi is always free from all karmas. What does that mean? What are karmas?
 
 

Shri Babaji:

Mind does not suffer is the meaning actually. The body will go according to the prarabdha. The body has been born, come into existence in the world, itself is a prarabdha. Otherwise it wouldn't have come at all. If the total liberation, merged with the Self, then this body wouldn't have come at all. So that is the thing the body will undergo. It will undergo any illness also and anything connected to, if anything connected to this world has happened. Say, if you are sitting under a tree, the body would have been in trouble. And if you have an ashram, the ashram can be in trouble. Somebody trying to take away your ashram, they want to usurp the land; that can be in trouble again. So, these prarabdhas keep happening. It's always happening, but the mind doesn't take anything. It doesn't absorb. It is in the Self. It is totally aware, the Self, nothing is happening. It's just like a cinema is happening on the screen, it will be all right, they are all actors, they will go back safely to their homes. Don't worry, everything is all right.

Question:

So Baba, what does prarabdha mean?

Shri Babaji:

Prarabdha is the things that go on happening in your life connected to the physical body. That is generally recognized as the destiny. You are destined to undergo, that was in your prarabdha. ‘Prarabdha’ word has been used for destiny. So that's what it is. Suppose you develop some illness in the body, “Oh that was the destiny, it was in your prarabdha, that's why this body had to undergo all these things.” And somebody is troubling you, wants to prick you, and that is prarabdha. Somebody is trying to take away the ashram you are looking after, and that is the prarabdha. Like this the prarabdha, everything is prarabdha. It keeps happening according to the prarabdha. Nobody has come to be a sannyas in the ashram to look after the ashram after us – is a prarabdha.

Question:

Baba, it also says “There will not be any imagination of doership and there shall not be any desire to achieve anything.” Now this is something that used to frighten people because they thought if they did meditation, practiced spiritual life, that they would become indifferent to the world.

Shri Babaji:

That's why I have tried to reassure people not to worry like that. A little bit of consciousness will be in touch with the brain if at all one becomes Self-Realized, and they can be normal, they can love the beloved ones, they can be going around in the world, they can keep doing. Simply their mind will not absorb any imprints. A yogi by doing tapas would have stopped the future. There is no future prarabdha there. But whatever had been resolved for this body, as long as this body is alive, that prarabdha will go on according to that. So, that is how the things will happen. Nothing to worry, it will be all right. People don't have to worry. You can be a normal person. First try to bother about Self-Realization and then you will see you can be a normal person. But Swamiji would have scolded, “First try to meditate for one hour. Why are you so much bothered about Self-Realization? Who is going to become Self-Realized, idiot? You achieve one hour peace at least.” Like that He would scold simply. Then everything will be all right. Don't have to worry about that one.

Question:

Baba, it says that they're abiding in the Self. After you've achieved that, there's no need for anything.
 
 

Shri Babaji:

Mentally there is no craving, there is no desire. Only anything is needed by the body, to sustain the body, you give food mechanically. But mind doesn't crave for any particular food or any such things, it doesn't have any such desires. This craving; as Buddha said, “Constant craving of the mind is the basic reason for unhappiness,” He said. So, that's what it is. That craving has disappeared. It will not be there. You get and you eat it. You don't get, you don't eat it.

Question:

So, the mind just responds to what is necessary at the moment without any additional thinking?

Shri Babaji:

Yes. A cold might come and a hunger might happen. All Self-Realized souls have taken food. Even the ancient sages used to take food to sustain the body. Mechanically at that time that is done when the body things come. Minimum required. Not that we will go on fulfilling every urge of the body. That is nonsense, no need. Just minimum to sustain the body. A food, a water, some oxygen, these, like basic needs.

Question:

Baba, would any Self-Realized person want their body to live indefinitely? When you read about some of the yogis that lived...

Shri Babaji:

Such an idea doesn't come – adopting the body idea itself doesn't come to the mind. How long you have to keep? One day it has to go. Nachiketa’s after five thousand years you want to live and after that you have to go, that will simply pass by. Because for a yogi, time passes by very quickly, because mind is at peace, it is not into any craving. So there is no such trouble of time passing by; very quickly – the last year 2024, suddenly it is 2025. How it happened, this passing by, difficult to understand for a yogi. It simply has happened. Like that, every day, keep going, keep going. So, such an imagination doesn't occur that I need to keep this body. Any time this has to go, this will go, that's it.

Question:

Baba, when you were doing your tapas, was time like that, it just went by very fast?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah. We never noticed that time, it simply passed by like two minutes type, that five years.

Question:

Yeah, well sometimes when you're trying to meditate, two minutes seems like five years.

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, at times I used to think that, “Oh God, if only I can be sitting like this”. So, if the meditation doesn't happen, it sounds like five years. “Oh God, it's still five years to go. It appears such a long distance.” Afterwards, so many five years have passed by after the tapas, twenty five years. How it passed by; we simply going around, going around, talking to people, teaching and simply time is passing by like this. So quickly it's over.

Question:

Okay, one last question, Baba.

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, then we can give to others a little bit chance.

Question:

Number six. One who disdains the objects of the world becomes unattached, one who likes them becomes attached. But that one who neither likes nor dislikes is neither attached nor unattached. 

Would you explain that?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, that's a yogi. Means otherwise, for an ordinary person, he needs to be detached. He is always scared about the worldly object, “Oh, that should not attract me. I should not be thinking like that. That should not come in front of me. Oh God, if it happens, what will I do?” All these things. For a yogi there is no such thing. Naturally he is just quiet. He is neither attracted nor detached. He has risen about the dualities. Nothing is there. If a certain thing is here, it is there. An ashram came into existence, it has come. When it was not there also, there was no craving that we needed a separate ashram for me. So, like that, if somebody comes and the trustees ask me to get out of this ashram, we'll simply get out peacefully and there is no craving that we need to be sticking to this property. So, that type of thing, the mind is at peace always. So, for a yogi, he doesn't get involved in either of the dualities. If it comes, it comes, if it doesn't come, it doesn't come. If some disciples come, they serve me, it's okay. If they don't come and if they don't serve, it's fine.

Question:

Okay, Baba, thank You very much. So, would You like to take some questions from people?

Shri Babaji:

Okay. About fifteen, twenty minutes I can take.

New Questioner:

Baba, I have a question.

Shri Babaji:

Yes.

Same Questioner:

So, this question is about prarabdha and acquired habits, and trying to understand something that I keep facing in meditation and why it keeps happening. So, I understand the watching and silence and keep going back to watching. But I always find that the body will move during meditation and the eyes will open. And it's like I'll get into this place of silence and stillness. And then I come out of it. I'm saying this is outside; this is in addition to maybe thoughts, that the eyes will open. Like I'm deep in the ocean, and then there's this stirring, the eyes open. And I don't know if that's just a habit or if it's prarabdha, it's just my nature. And I want to know what I can do to dissolve this habit?

Shri Babaji:

Habits only knit a prarabdha. Due to the habits, a prarabdha gets knitted, it comes into shape. It shapes, that means precisely whatever thoughts come into your mind repeatedly, depending on the potency increase of that repetition, a future gets built up for you. That is what the prarabdha is. So, the less in your mind coming, the less of prarabdha will happen. So, that is what is important. So, acquired habits are so important. Mentally not visualizing as much as possible. Like if you visualize only Self-Realization, becoming Self-Realized will become your prarabdha. That's how you will shape. So, we try to teach, if at all there has to be thoughts, try to have positive thoughts so that you can shape a positive destiny for yourself. Think about the Atman, think about the Ultimate Truth, think that you need to have Self-Realization. Like this, if you keep thinking, that can shape, it will induce you into putting efforts also. And that is what is the prarabdha that gets shaped. So, that is how habits of the mind shapes the prarabdha.

Same Questioner:

So, then the movement that happens; just sitting in meditation, I have to move my leg because my hip is hurting, I'll just move. Or there's movement, I'll open my eyes. That's just a habit then? I have a lack of discipline?

Shri Babaji:

Yes. That habit needs to be changed and one can change it if they want. If you want, you can change it. You need to exercise some strong willpower. Always, to deal with a certain negative thing, you need an antidote that is more stronger than that negative thing. So now here, this habit is there as a strong thing. So, you need a stronger willpower to get rid of this habit. That is the antidote. That's how you have to overcome this habit. Then any prarabdha will not get shaped at all.

New Questioner:

Pranams Babaji. Babaji, in connection to the same question which Victoria asked, when observing the mind, the moment Babaji says just watch or focus on silence of the mind, it seems that mind is in habit, it identifies with imaginations. So, if there is no imagination, if silence, it doesn't stay in that mode, it tries to keep getting some imagination or find something as if that's its existence. Why is mind in this misconception or misunderstanding?

Shri Babaji:

That is the habit. So, for that reason only a student, a seeker is advised to take help of the eyeballs also by closing the eyes. We always tell, “Concentrate your mind and sight.” Mind you understand, sight means fix the eyeballs there. Then you just get into the job of watching. When you are watching, mind will not go on imagining what you have to do, what you don't have to. Simply you are doing what you had to do. You are watching. So, you won't be thinking, “Oh, I have to watch, I have to watch.” That itself will not make you to watch. Instead you get into the job of just watching. One thought you take the help if necessary, “Oh, I need to just watch, not bother about all these thoughts. These things have no significance, these are all illusion, my own imaginations.” That much you think and then get into the job of watching again. Thus, slowly, you become the upper hand, this will become an antidote with your willpower and you can get rid of those imaginations.

Same Questioner:

Babaji, there is also another observation; if I try to see how my mind is reacting, if there is an idea of peace or losing all the desires, the mind starts giving attitude, depression, that there is no life without desire. Why does it go into depression like this?

Shri Babaji:

Because not to have any desires is also born out of an imagination. When you imagine not to have any desires, all those desires will be belonging to this world. Then in addition you are likely to start missing those things about which you don't want to have desires. That gives a depression. So, actual peace has not yet descended. Once you just watch instead, instead of thinking “I don't have to have any desires”; that is not. On its own if desires is coming, let it come for a while. You just watch. Let it come, you just watch, then it will go away. It will go away, then when peace is there, then there will not be any depression because you are not going to miss anything. You are at peace already. For sake of having peace, because peace gives happiness and enjoyment, so for sake of peace only you are trying to own everything in the world. You are trying to achieve everything in the world. So, once that switch is stopped, then you don't feel like having anything at all.

Same Questioner:

Okay. Babaji, last thing in this connection; the body consciousness and mind. So just like Babaji said, body will have its prarabdha of going through pain or going through something. So, for Babaji, His mind is detached from this body's prarabdha all? Like it doesn't care about the body consciousness and prarabdha at all? And that's the state of being at peace? That body can go through everything but not be involved with it?

Shri Babaji:

You see what I can tell now, a pain is felt because little bit consciousness is in touch with the brain, otherwise the body gets dropped. So, when a pain happens in the body, that is felt, but mind doesn't suffer further, it doesn't go into such suffering. It can be joking, it can be trying to do something, it will try to overcome the pain by taking any medicine, anything can happen. But mind will not be suffering too much like that, like for an ordinary person.

New Questioner:

Namaskar Babaji. So, I got a lot of good nuggets today from your question and answer from Agatsya and You shared some of the things, like you need to forget your thoughts, disconnect your thoughts and the prarabdha, destiny, suffering body. And my question is, in order to achieve focusing on your mind and getting into the meditation state, you have to disconnect from your body. You have to disconnect from your thought. You have to focus on this. So, if there is a technique that we can disconnect our body, that way we don't feel hungry, we don't feel the pain, we don't feel anything going in our body. Even if we are suffering, we have a pain that does not come up. So how can we achieve that?

Shri Babaji:

Actually, such a thing is not advocated in spirituality also. Because if you totally withdraw the mind, the body dies. For the brain, along with the oxygen and blood that gets supplied, mind's application is also very important. So, that is also a fuel type. That's when the brain will be active. It is the mind which has to use the brain. Because of this the pain will be felt, even for a yogi also. That's what I was trying to tell. You cannot completely detach the mind so that the pain should not be felt at all; it cannot happen. Simply the mind will not suffer, but the pain will be felt. If a surgery has to happen, even for a yogi also, anesthesia will have to be given. So, that is necessary. So, that is what the truth is. Otherwise the body will die. So, that is not advised at all. You meditate so that you become quiet mentally so that you don't suffer. You are aware of your real Self.

Same Questioner:

And my second question, Babaji, is, I know right now we have day-to-day activities that we have to do with our body, and our mind, we have to keep it quiet. So, is there a way… in computer world, we have a process where we can create a process and that process goes in the background and runs and then other activities are done by other processes. So, if we can have a technique whereby our main mind is focusing on Self-Realization and spiritual things and while our body can be doing the physical activity like work or things like that, then we are also achieving two things while spending our time. You know, twenty-four hours we can keep running our mind focused and our body do the day-to-day activity. Is there a technique like that?

Shri Babaji:

Yeah, definitely. That's what we have been talking. This meditation is such a technique which helps you. The majority of the potency of the mind will remain in the awareness of the Self and you would require only a little bit of consciousness of the Self to get applied onto the brain to be active in this world. In whichever field you would have obtained an expertise; you can continue working on the computer or any other field also, will be possible. And still you will not absorb any imprints. Acquired habits will not come, the mind will not suffer. So, that is the achievement you can do. But for this you need to practice eight to ten hours of meditation in one stretch, several years of practice, which is known as tapas, then such a status will come. 

But at least when you achieve one hour of total silence… Like now you need to understand, when you are able to keep the mind quiet totally for one hour, that is the real meditation, my Guru used to say. Till then you are trying to meditate. Like that when you are able to keep the mind quiet for eight to ten hours in a stretch, then you are able to do the tapas. So, like that at least if you achieve one hour of total silence also, a lot can be controlled in your day-to-day life. You will not absorb imprints, still you will be able to attend to your necessary duties, whether you are a computer engineer or a police or anything, that will be possible still. Like King Janaka could attend the politics, look after an empire, was an emperor, still he was considered a Self-Realized Master.

Same Questioner:

Thank You Babaji.

New Questioner:

I find that I'm very positive for everybody else, but not myself, because I feel, because I am prarabdha, I am karma, and I feel all the past, not that I want to know them, but I just know they were probably hell, my past lives. So, I feel that all the time, and it's very hard to meditate. So, what do I do?

Shri Babaji:

You see, you have to meditate. You have to apply some willpower. It's like the old saying jokingly said, “You can get married only if your madness goes. Your madness goes only if you get married. Then nothing will happen.” So like that you have to sit for meditation, then this prarabdha, this karma, this suffering will all end. Mentally you can achieve peace. Somewhere you have to apply willpower and sit down in whichever way that is possible. That's why my Guru said, you can sit in any comfortable posture. You can sit on a chair and you can keep a pillow to your back comfortably, sit down and gently relaxed way, close the eyes and try to simply remain concentrated. If possible in between eyebrows or at least the front portion. Try to feel yourself, you will get that peace.

New Questioner:

Pranams Babaji, thank You so much. I would like to contemplate just the state of a Yogi and, I guess just ask – I know you've described it before just as a clue, I know it's inconceivable – but is the state sort of like you're not seeing individuals or differentiating at all. It's just all one, one thing, one Self, and it's all just sort of spontaneously happening as one, and it's just kind of going on?

Shri Babaji:

Definitely. Just like if you keep several earthen pots, six or seven, and you are very well aware the same space is in all the earthen pots and your attention is on that space. You keep wondering about that space which exists in itself, and which is simply all pervaded. And that earthen pot itself will not be that much wondrous for you than the space which is inside. That is how a yogi’s seeing will be, the Self, means the all-pervaded infinite Self. That is the greatest wonder. Though we get to see the body, we are very well aware because of the brain's reflections, the same soul, the same consciousness is behaving in a different way in one body, behaving in a different way in another body. The same has the peace here in another body. So that's when yogi becomes compassionate and tries to teach this awareness to each and everyone. “May everybody achieve this supreme peace, this happiness in themselves and be active in this world.” That's what we would like to pray for you all.

Question:

Baba, can I ask a question? It's going back to Kriti's question. It's a practical question. How much effort should you make to concentrate your mind and sight between the eyebrows? Sometimes the mind is very busy and the attention won't stay there for more than ten seconds, stay focused more than ten seconds. So, how much effort should you apply? If you don't apply any effort, you're swept away in a matter of seconds with thoughts. But if you apply too much effort, then it becomes a strain and you want to quit.

Shri Babaji:

So, you need to put in efforts in a gentle, polite way without giving strain. A strain happens when you feel irritated and frustrated and rush. When a certain thing is not happening, you should try to understand the technique. “Why is it not happening? Where am I wrong? Let me rectify this. Let me just watch. I am analyzing. Let me not analyze. I am engaging. I am becoming a chatterbox. Let me not do that one.” Like, gentle way you understand and just go on watching. But never lose hope or patience is very important. When you lose patience, you become irritated and you become stressful; you want it to happen. Because it is infinity. You cannot bang it to the wall. You can bang your physical head only to the wall. Unnecessarily you are harming your head. So, like that if you think and at peace, just in a gentle way, try to understand where you are wrong. If your mind understands, “I am the one who is not becoming quiet, I am talking unnecessarily. Let me not, this talking is not needed. Nobody has asked me to keep talking during meditation.” Nobody has ordered that “You keep talking during meditation, otherwise I will kill you.” No such thing has happened. Just at peace, it's yours.

New Questioner:

I want to ask, what is the connection between our breath and the mind?

Shri Babaji:

Breath is for the physical body. Breathing; you take oxygen to keep the body alive. That is the breath. Mind is actually beyond the breath also. It is infinite. It is not at all connected. However, if the mind is restless during meditation, if you take a long inhale and exhale, then the restlessness of the mind can be brought down. Because this breath is what is known as prana vayu. This keeps the body alive. You can remain without water for some time but you cannot remain without oxygen. That's how our teachers always told us in primary school to give an understanding how much necessary this breathing is. So, that is what the connection of the breath and the mind.

Same Questioner:

So, Babaji, when I meditate, my mind shifted to my breath. Like, instead of focusing on the ajna chakra, it goes to the very silent breath which makes me feel calm more than the meditation which I do and try to meditate on the ajna chakra.

Shri Babaji:

For some time it is all right if you take the help of the breath to achieve the composure things, but total concentration will come when you watch in between eyebrows. As I am telling, whenever the mind is restless, you take the help of long inhale and exhale of the breath and concentrate on that, then you will feel the restlessness coming down, composure. Once you feel that composure, then again try to concentrate in between eyebrows. Because here the mind will become silent on its own without any external anchor, that is very important.

End of Session