Oneness | In Quest of Truth - Babaji Q&A, No. 270

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Oneness | In Quest of Truth - Babaji Q&A, No. 270
Recorded on 25 April 2026 with worldwide participants

0:00 Can Babaji comment on Kabir’s couplet “‘I’ is there when God is not there, God is there when ‘I’ is not there”? and explain it further in context of ‘oneness’?
1:31 If you are aligned with and one with your true nature to realise and drop your ego, what is that true nature?
2:41 How can we stay in this state of oneness while being in this world?
7:06 If we keep observing our thoughts continuously, do they disappear, or are we taking control of ourselves?
8:19 So the truth of the mind is not the truth?
8:34 What happens when we come out of meditation into the world?
9:59 Which practice dissolves the senses of separation most effectively? Is meditation enough or is self-inquiry necessary on a regular basis?
10:57 Who is the one practising if ultimately there is no separate self?
11:36 When we are aware and very conscious that ‘I am That’, can we again fall into the trap of desires? 
13:35 When we say we are one is that because we are made up of all the same elements and consciousness?
17:44 How to solve the problem of your relations not being prepared to join you in your journey of becoming detached and achieving oneness?
19:47 Why is it we cannot reach the true love which is non-transactional?
28:02 Is it selfish to say our time has come to realise the truth, or do we say it is our destiny which got us here and other people who have not realised will get their time in due course? 
31:15 When Babaji met His Master Swamiji the sense of ‘I’ disappeared. Why then was it still necessary to do Tapas?
32:35 After merging in Nirvikalpa samadhi, what happens now when Babaji goes into samadhi, is it deepening all the time, not just a static sense of bliss?
33:11 Sometimes we encounter arrogant or rude people even in family situations.  I try to remain unaffected, but sometimes it’s hard – how to achieve oneness with such people?
34:40 I don’t show my anger outside, but sometimes I get affected internally. 
35:20 Is the space, consciousness of existence and silence the same?
37:20 I was advised not to practice this meditation, but I want to; should I?
39:41 Can we consider all Gurus to be the same being, in oneness?
40:55 Sometimes the mind creates a confusion when trying to see the same Guru in other forms.
42:04 How is undergoing hardships in life related to progress in meditation and spiritual life? 
43:51 What is the form of the soul?
46:11 After death does a person hear or see us?
47:50 Is God the divine, or a person who has attained the true nature of mind?
49:02 Do sages who have been in samadhi get angry?
50:36 So God doesn’t have an ego and doesn’t get angry?
51:31 In meditation is it the stabilising of the eyes that is the key point rather than where they are looking?
52:21 How is it possible to drop all ideas of the mind? As long as the ‘I’ exists, the mind exists and you are in separation.
55:16 So all my thoughts, imaginations are not me?
58:03 Ashtavakra says the Self cannot be experienced as long as the mind is clinging on.
59:23 How do You see God? What is God for You?
1:00:52 Do You ever objectify God as an entity or does it just exist to You eternally?
1:01:53 When I listen in satsangs, my mind listens very attentively and I feel at peace, but when I close the eyes in meditation it is more difficult.
1:03:34 When the samskaras of the mind are so strong, how can we win?
1:05:55 When you keep staring at the space, there is nothing there. 
1:06:51 What is the importance of the physical initiation and presence of the Guru?


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Transcript

Discourse: In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.270
 Oneness
You tube Link: https://youtu.be/fKiPYVranvg 
Recorded: 25 April 2026

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:     So, Babaji, there is a doha of Kabir, a couplet of Kabir, where it says “When ‘I’ is there, God is not there, when God is there, ‘I’ is not there.  Can You explain it further in context of oneness? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, you see, as long as the ‘I,’ that is an ego, individual imagined self, and one is likely to be preoccupied with that ‘I’ and seldom notices the existence of the Divinity.  So that's what Kabira says.  But the moment that our attention totally goes on to the Divinity, we realize the ‘I’ was only an imagined thing, and it never existed, and it disappears.  So thus only that one Divinity is there.  ‘Thera’, “You are the only one, when I do not exist at all.”  

Question:   Thank You, Babaji.  We can say that is aligning with your true nature, and if you are one with your true nature, to realize, and to drop your ego. Then what is the true nature?  

Babaji Maharaj:   It's something like, the clue is, we are the ocean, but we are imagining ourselves to be the droplets and unnecessarily dancing.  If we stop that one, and we merge with the ocean, when we merge with the ocean, all ego disappears, because the droplet did not become the ocean; ocean already existed.  The droplet simply became one with the ocean.  It realized it is also one with the ocean.  So, then the idea of the droplet gets dropped.  When it is dropped, ocean doesn't keep thinking that “I am the ocean, I am the ocean.”  It is simply there.  That is the Ultimate Truth.  That is the oneness.  

Question:   I see.  So, it is a continuous process as I understand, because if, let's say I go into a meditation for a while, one hour let's say.  Though it was very beautiful, I didn't want to open my eyes after one hour, and it takes energy to talk, because that was so blissful.  But then we have to come into the real world.  And then we see what we see, we do what we do – associate ourselves with all the materialistic things.  Then you have desires, then you have anger, then you have greed, then you have love, attachment, all kinds of things.  And then again, you are back to this world.  How constantly we stay in the state of oneness, while being in this world?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, we have become habitual, I would say. Habitual to be like this into the world, which is in my opinion unnatural, because we are dreaming, and we have become preoccupied with our own imaginations.  Now, you look inside your mind.  The mind has created with imaginations thoughts, visions, hundreds of characters, stories, traveling, everything; optical illusion is created.  So, a person seldom thinks about the mind itself.  He's so preoccupied with those imaginations.  And forgets that even as the mind, “It was me, who has imagined all these things.”  Instead of that, consciousness considers those imaginations as a fundamental reality.  It gets involved into its own illusions.  

That's how I tell, when you mind thinks, a thought appears. Watching the thought, mind, forgets “It is there because of my own imagination.”  Instead, it gets involved with the thought.  Like, “This is good, this is bad, this is mine, this is not mine.”  Like that, it produces another thought, another thought, another thought; like that millions of thoughts go on getting produced, and it forgets itself.  Mind forgets about itself.  

See, now, we come to the point, everybody knows they have a mind.  But they seldom think about the actual mind.  They think about the thoughts and visions that are in the mind.  They tell “My mind wants to do this.  I want to go there.  I want to be like this;” whatever is in the mind.  But what that mind itself is?  Like in the space, astronomers, every now and then they come across; “An exoplanet has appeared.  A star has appeared.  A galaxy has appeared.”  A never-ending process.  But hardly anybody bothers about the space itself.  Means here, instead of going into the immediate cause or nearby cause, we try to go to the root cause.  

That was the greatness of the ancient sages of India who wanted to go to the root cause.  “From where did these things come?”  So thus, when they reached that One, they realized “The ‘I’ doesn't exist; which hitherto I was thinking as ‘I’ does not really exist at all.  This is the existence.”  And that existence of the Ultimate Truth, the fun is that can be experienced as eternity only in a duality.  As long as you have an imagination, you are separate from that, then you experience that as eternity.  Once you merge with it, all ideas get dropped.  The eternity idea also loses its significance.  

Question:   So, we have thoughts, many thoughts.  So, if we keep observing our thoughts on a continuous process, that thought knows that somebody is watching.  So, thought disappears? Or we take control of ourselves by watching our thoughts?

Babaji Maharaj:   Both simultaneously happen.  When you watch the thought in meditation, thoughts disappear, they dissolve into the mind.  Thus, you take control of yourself.  You become the master of your mind.  Or in other words, you control yourself.  You can restrict, restrain yourself.  Thus, when you want to think, you can think, when you don't want to think, you can keep yourself quiet, at peace.  

And at that time you become aware of that truth of the mind also.  That is revealed, consciousness of existence is there.  

Question:  So, truth of the mind is not the truth.  

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, what we have been thinking hitherto is not the truth.  

Question:   But that's okay with let's say an hour, or a couple of hours.  But then what happens when we again come back into the reality?  What we see as the reality, as You said.  

Babaji Maharaj:   When we thoroughly practice that state, which is known as the tapas, means, tapas is once for all you burn out that habits of the mind, which had lost to itself and its creations.  Now, you are fully aware.  When you come back to this world, now you are fully aware inside the dream that this is only a dream.  This is only created by a higher consciousness just like my mind had created.  Thus, that clue comes how it appeared and it disappeared.  So, impermanence of the world also you become aware of, and you become aware of the higher consciousness in which all this world will disappear one day.  

So, this truth you become aware of it.  So, now you are an expert.  As long as you just want to keep quiet, you can keep yourself quiet.  When you want to think, you can think and deal with the world.  But you will not absorb imprints, and you will not get carried away with imaginations anymore.  You will just use it to deal with the world.  

Question:   So, what practice dissolves the sense of separation most effectively?  Is meditation enough or self-inquiry is necessary on a regular basis? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Actually, self-inquiry is first.  After that, once you start meditating, you don't need the self-inquiry also.  You just have to meditate, means you just have to practice keeping quiet mentally.  That's what in meditation, you have to ‘just watch’ means you have to just keep quiet.  No target is given in the meditation – what it is that you have to watch.  Eventually, you will realize mind is trying to watch itself.  You are trying to watch yourself.  That is possible only when all thoughts and visions disappear.  

Question:   So, who is the one practicing if ultimately there is no separate self? 

Babaji Maharaj:   It was all the same one which had come out in imagination.  And that imagination needs to be closed to realize.  So, in that imagination only, you realize that you exist eternally as that and then you merge; then that idea also goes.  So, when you merge, that status you have to simply experience and there is no definition for that.  

Question:   That's very blissful when you realize ‘Tatvam asi’, ‘I am That’.  That blissful, I practice.  But constantly we have to work.  We are all action-oriented people and without action a human being cannot live, and that action leads us to sometimes wants, desire.  Then again, we land into the same vicious circle.  But I understand that practice will make it most to realize on a constant basis even whatever we are doing.  So, that means You are saying when we are aware and very conscious about that, that ‘I am That,’ then we will not fall into the trap of desires?  We will not be dishonest, we will not be cheating, we will not be angry, we will not be trying to take other people's things and make more profit out of our business or vocation?  

Babaji Maharaj:   When you become contented; because like our Guru used to tell, in this world you do everything for yourself, for that imagined yourself.  So, first try to know who you are.  Then you will know what you need, what you don't need.  Once you realize you are that truth for the existence of which, for the Supreme Peace of which you don't need anything.  Because in this world you get into desires, you get into all thinking, hoping for a peace, hoping for a happiness.  Knowingly or unknowingly everybody is looking for happiness.  Once you understand you don't need anything of this world for your happiness, for your peace, all desires disappear.  You become contented, automatically.  

Question:   So, Babaji, we can take it from its premise, like we have a physical body and we have a sukshma sharira, where this body is basically identified with five elements.  The Brahmand, all is made of, all what we see.  You know, we say, Prithvi, Agni, Jal, Vaayu, Aakash.  There's space, there's fire, there's earth, there's water.  All these elements made the body.  But body without consciousness is nothing.  It will drop dead.  They both need to work together.  So, let's say to be in peace, we have to identify as one with everyone, another human being, because that another human being is also created from those five elements.  I'm also created with those five elements, when I talk about the body.  If I say that, that we are all one, because we are particle of God, that's what we say?  

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly, you know, in earlier days, I used to give an example, how the consciousness can expand into oneness.  Say, in the town where you live, if you are asked “Where are you from?” you will give your house address or street name.  When you go out of your town, you tell the name of the town.  And if you go out of your state, you tell the name of your state, “I am from Uttarakhand.” “I am from Karnataka.”  When you go out of the country, you tell the country's name, “I am from India.”  See? The consciousness from a small home, it has expanded to a big country. Means all people of India appear to be your own brothers, like; universal brotherhood comes.  

So, like that, when you go out of the world one day to some other planet, you get a chance, if you meet somebody else from the Earth also, they tell, “I am from planet Earth.”  You become so excited.  “You are from planet Earth, I am also from planet Earth!”  See, from the small home, now your consciousness has spread into a whole world.  All the world is we.  We are all one.  We are all one.  All of us live in one planet, that is one home for us.  Within one home, that is what is ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’.  One day when we realize we all belong to one space.  Only one space is there; there is no second, or there is no third.  In that one space – that is what is known as ‘Brahmanda’, to which to Adi Shankara, the legend says, Kashi Vishweshvara came as an untouchable person to remove a small iota of ego.  He was bringing a country-made alcohol.  As Shankara was going to have a bath in the Ganga, His disciples were all egoistic and they said, “Give way, my Guru is going to Ganga.”  To that, that person says, “Is there any place beyond this space?”  Means He addresses it as Brahmanda.  “Show me that place, I will go away there.  You also live in the same Brahmanda.  I am also living in the same Brahmanda.  Where do I go?  If there is any place, you show me, I go.”  Then Adi Shankara tells “This is not an ordinary man.  The one who has this jnana, this knowledge, that oneness is equivalent to my Guru,” He prostrates. The story says He disappeared.  So that is how that oneness is practiced or understood.  You see? From a small home, when your consciousness expands, you belong to the space.  

Question:   One can detach; suppose, you know, I am trying to realize myself that I am one with the Lord Almighty, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’, ‘I am that.’  But then your loved ones, your relationships, your ambition, basically relationship; they are not ready to, you know, go on to that path.  And you have become detached.  Or you can say that you have become one, but they have not become one with you in your journey.  How to solve that? 

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, everybody brings their prarabdha. By living in this world, if fifty-two years ago, if I thought my mother also needs to come with me, my sister also needs to come with me, my brothers also need to come with me, I would never have made this journey.  I just picked up my towel and said, “Mom, I am leaving to my Guru, and just left.”  This may appear a little bit rude.  I don't mean it actually.  So, we can love people around us, our own people.  But within the mind, inside, we have to practice this.  Because when death happens to the physical body, it will not wait for anybody else.  If you tell that “My loved ones are there, I need to meet them for ten minutes.  Can I do that one?”  It won't wait like that.  “I am an emperor.  Can you allow me to stay for a few more days?”  The death will not wait like that.  So, this is the fundamental reality that the great masters like Ashtavakra have always spoken.  So, realizing this; while trying to love everybody around us, we have to keep practicing that thing within us quietly.  

Question:   I want to cite an example, Babaji, from my own life here, which will be very insightful for my co-brothers and sisters who have joined here.  So, when I started this journey, I had a lot of detachment with my children, my wife.  And then I was constantly struggling with how to convince my family so that I can be more in peace, I can follow this path.  And why not if I can take along my family on this path, maybe they will also realize that path I am going to and it's so blissful.  

So, we talk about love.  In my opinion, it's a contract.  It's a transaction that “You will do this for me, and then I love you.”  Or, “I do something for you, you love me in return.”  And then the same thing was happening in my family.  So, I told my wife that the true love – correct me if I'm wrong Babaji – the true love, I was trying to become one with my wife, my life partner, the true love is the love between Lord Krishna and Meera.  The true love, where there's no expectation; it's sheer love. Whether I would make love to my wife or not, whether I participate in the chores of the house or not, whether I work in the family or not, but I love truly not as a transactional relationship, contractual relationship, what we see around the world, but as a true love.  

I told her that if that is the love we are sharing, then that is the love.  So, why we can't all reach that love?  Because we can't become one if it's a transaction.  Because expectation would lead to transaction.  And transaction in this world has led to a world at this stage where everybody is trying to get something out of other people.  The true love feeling for even husband, wife, children and their relationship with the parents have become so transactional.  It's very difficult to understand loving anybody on the road going.  Rather, it's very easy sometimes, loving the person you don't know rather than the person living in your house.  

Babaji Maharaj:   See, all things depends.  The priorities that you set, preoccupation that you've become to.  Like we all learned, “Go in quest of knowledge only for sake of knowledge.”  Means we won't use that knowledge for anything else.  We just want that knowledge.  Like we love for sake of love.  That is all.  We don't expect anything else.  I love you all because I want to love you all.  That is all.  I don't expect anything.  You want to criticize.  No problem.  I will continue to love you.  You can criticize me.  “My Master, You can scold me.  I will continue to love You.  You can discard me, my Master.  I will continue to love You.”  That's how as a student also I adopted this method everywhere.  “What you want to give, you give without expecting.”  Like charity begins from the home; you adopt this thing within you.  And then you will find your peace, then others will definitely feel inspired from you also.  When you go on doing this, when you go on doing this.  Simply love.  Simply love.  

One day everybody will understand.  Let us not think about others that “They are unable to fit with this, they are not cooperating, they are not doing this.  Let me cooperate with myself first.”  You achieve this within yourself.  Then automatically others will be inspired from you.  They will learn from you one day, so you can counsel also.  So, all the things that you are thinking just now will fall in its place.  Whatever has to happen.  Finally, whatever has to happen it happens.  You can only try to tell people, like, I go on teaching everybody in the world.  I love everyone.  This is all I can do.  I may not be able to transform each and everyone in the world.  Everybody who comes to me I may not be able to transform.  A hundred times I tell, they end up behaving in the same way.  But I do not feel hurt.  If this is the script of the Divinity, it's fine.  “I want to be retiring from this world.  My Lord, You want to do whatever You want to do in this world.”  Like that we surrender, finally.  

So, that is the only way we can do it.  And finally, you will achieve your own peace.  That's what Sri Krishna… I learned that lesson from Sri Krishna in K. M. Munshi’s book.  In the end, Balarama says, “Krishna, You did so much to the Bharata Varsha, Indian subcontinent, helped Pandavas.  Why don't You help our own Yadavas?  They are fighting with each other.  They are killing each other.”  Krishna says, “It is their prarabdha, Baldau.  They never considered me a Guru.  They never wanted to learn from me.  For them, I was only an uncle, tau, chacha, this, that.  They wanted wealth, I have given them wealth.  Now they have that wealth.  Keeping that wealth, now, see what is happening; they are killing each other.  Now, before death claims our own bodies, it is time that we go into practice of samadhi as deep as possible.”  

Such a wonderful great soul like Krishna in the fag end of life took His brother and retired to forest and consistently practiced and He left the body in mahasamadhi.  Balarama also left His body in the practice of samadhi.  Means, practice of samadhi; quieten yourself as much as possible, as deep as possible, as deep as possible.  Quieten, quieten, quieten, quieten – that is the only way of salvation, finally, liberation.  That’s how Sri Krishna was in samadhi actually.  He didn't know that somebody shot an arrow on Him and excessive bleeding happened and the body got dropped.  He was in samadhi.  He became one with the Ultimate Truth.  

When I realized this, such was the hair-raising thrill for me.  Such a great soul, whom we consider as Divinity, He practiced it in the fag end of life like that, sacrificing everything.  So, this is how we have to look into the world.  Before that, you can try your best.  I tell people, today this body is there.  Tomorrow it may not be there.  So, today when you are all sitting from meditation, pay apt attention to the instructions and meditate accordingly – just watch.  Don't get involved with the thoughts.  And when question and answers are happening, it is for everybody.  For anybody who wants to learn things, about bhakti marga, all such things, pay apt attention when the question is being asked, pay much more apt attention when the answering, when I am answering that question.  It is for everybody.  So, that is what Ashtavakra says, “I will tell once, you have to pay attention.”  Yama Dharmaraja tells Nachiketa also, “Only once I will tell this amazing truth, it is up to you to absorb.  If you don't absorb, it is your loss, Nachiketa.”  

Question:   So, Babaji, that means that if someone’s time has come because of journey of the soul, because ultimately it starts with what all we do in one birth after birth after birth, doing all sorts of things, the soul is going to a path where ultimately it has to realize with Brahman.  So, that means I have to be selfish about it, that my time has come.  Or I can say that it is prarabdha, which You said got me here, where I am realizing my true Self, or anyone who is realizing.  And then the other people, my near and dear, my friends or the world at large, who was not realized, they will get their time in due course of time? 

Babaji Maharaj:   It will definitely happen.  So, for this, one thing, you are really not selfish.  Like when you went to get educated academically, were you selfish?  Today you are able to deal in this world, because you got educated.  So, when you become Self-Realized, you can deal with people in a much better way.  You can educate them in a better way.  You can influence and you can inspire them in a better way.  So, you are not selfish.  This is one thing.  

Another thing, means you don't have to ignore any of your dear ones.  You don't have to be rude with any of your dear ones.  Just be loving, continue to be the same.  But within, inside, let the transformation happen.  Inside, quietly, keep the mind quiet.  Let the mind not absorb anything as serious of this world.  This world is not a serious thing to be absorbed or to make it a big puzzle.  Hundreds of times, we simply let go of the things.  It's only a trivial issue, that's all.  We don't have to take it so seriously into the mind.  We get to hear, “Somebody was criticizing Babaji.  So, this is what he says, you are this, you are that one.”  First thing it doesn't go to our head at all as anything that is so serious.  Serious mamla [issue].  It's a trivial issue.  “O, I see.  Somebody was criticizing.”  That's it.  And then we forget and we become busy with something else.  Means, I tell, we are so busy preoccupied with the Self that I cannot afford to feel sorry for myself.  No time.  

Question:   By your blessings, Babaji, my family has come around and they are with me on this journey together.  Maybe their time also is here, their prarabdha.  

New Questioner:   Hello, Babaji.  My question is regarding Your experience when You first touched the lotus feet of Your Guru, You lost your sense of ‘I’.  Why, in that case, was it necessary to continue doing tapas?  Because I understand the sense of ‘I’ removes all thoughts and makes the mind silent.  So, why is there a necessity for doing tapas after that? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Perhaps my Master thought that tapas will give a transformation in the appearance also.  Thus, you can assume to become a teacher.  He trained me to become a teacher.  Before that, though the ‘I’ had gone, settled in the Self, everything was okay for myself, now, to teach others, my Master wanted me to train so that I can appear as a teacher.  So, that is the reason He would have made me to appear like this, do a tapas.  It was like a doing a course of PhD finally, and you would become a teacher now, “You are qualified.”

Same Questioner:   Once You have merged and you have reached the Nirvikalpa samadhi, what do You do nowadays when You go into samadhi? It must be something that is deepening every time, isn't it? It's not just a static sense of bliss.  

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly, exactly.  You are right.  It's deepening, more deepening, more deepening, more deepening.  

Question:   So, since our topic is on ‘Oneness’, sometimes in life we encounter arrogant or rude people, even in family situations.  So, due to my meditation practices and following Babaji, I understood that sometimes people, even loved ones, can be rude due to their own unawareness, due to their own ego, insecurity of fears.  But I still try to remain unaffected by such people, I accept them for who they are.  And what I do is sometimes I just try to meditate to just not let the mind and self get affected.  But sometimes as a normal human being, it's hard not to be affected.  So, how do you then achieve oneness with such people? 

Babaji Maharaj:   More practice is required.  So, you realize your practice is not enough.  Mentally, you must not get affected.  Outside, if you need to show an anger, like a hissing noise a little bit to keep them at distance, you can always act upon.  But inside, you must practice not to get affected.  It's important.  If you get affected, you are losing, you are the loser.  So, you become the casualty.  So, practice more meditation.  More meditation.  It will come one day.  Don't lose hope.  Have faith in yourself.  

Same Questioner:   I usually don't get angry now, even when people give me a very mean or a sarcastic remark, I will never show my anger outside.  But sometimes, I get affected internally.  

Babaji Maharaj:   So, outside if you show a little bit of anger also is no big problem.  But internally, you must not get affected.  Nobody should be able to create that for you.  So, you need to strengthen your defense forces.  My prayers and blessings are with you. Keep practicing. 

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.  Thank You.  

Question:   Namaste, Babaji.  My question is, when we are meditating and the ego subsides, the noise subsides, the mental chatter, then we feel a sense of existence, right? ‘Sat’.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  Yes.  

Same Questioner:   And the ‘Chit’ is the consciousness.  

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  

Same Questioner:   And that's when we feel the oneness with everything.  The existence and consciousness, that is everywhere.  That is the oneness we are talking about?  

Babaji Maharaj:   Right, exactly.  

Same Questioner:   So, when we say existence, we are talking about the sky.  You see existence in space.  There is something called space.  A house may be destroyed, but there is still existence.  Like, body may be destroyed, but there is still existence.  

Babaji Maharaj:   Space is there.  Yes.  

Same Questioner:   And when the mental chatter is gone, you experience the silence.  And you say, “Wait a minute.  I'm not the thoughts.  So, I am the silence.”  

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah.  That is the connection between you and the space that you realize.  The space is also consciousness of existence.  Not simply a void place.  

Same Questioner:   So, space and silence or sky and silence the same?

Babaji Maharaj:   Same, same.  

Same Questioner:   But when we speak of silence, we are talking about the mental noise or just no sound.  And then when you sit deeper, go deeper and deeper, then you even lose the consciousness of existence.

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly.

Question:   Namaste, Babaji.  Babaji, I had a question which my previous Guruji, he is a Bhante.  He had guided me to come under Your guidance.  I had recently practiced putting your attention in the center of the eyebrows.  And I was in Himachal, and suddenly, I don't know, I was with some people and I was meditating.  And I had an experience which I couldn't explain.  And after that, I was advised not to do it.  And again, you know, I had this feeling of doing it.  I don't know why.  Something, every cell in my body is telling me that I have to do and I want to do it.  But I had been advised that first I should come to You.  And then start with the meditation of third eye.  So, I just wanted to ask as to whether I should meditate or not. 

Babaji Maharaj:   You can meditate.  No harm in it.  Have faith in yourself.  Simply do it in a gentle way.  Don't be in a rush.  Gently close your eyes.  And just like I instructed today, you can sit in any comfortable posture.  Try to keep the back and neck straight.  And gently closing the eyes, try to watch the front portion.  In the beginning, sometimes it may be difficult to exactly concentrate in the center of the eyebrows.  Because the eyeballs move parallelly.  Doesn't come easily into one direction.  However, without losing any hope, without getting agitated to locate the central point, just watch the front portion.  Because steady the eyeballs; its movement should be stationary.  It becomes quiet.  And then it slowly starts coming into one direction towards the center.  That can hold the mind strongly.  And that is how the mind gets purified there.  It loses all its thoughts and visions.  Then one day you will achieve the peace.  Peace descends as you progress more and more.  Then you will notice the consciousness of existence in that mind.  Mind itself is you.  All this gets revealed.  So, you can definitely meditate every day.  No problem.  

Same Questioner:   Absolutely.  Thank You so much.  

Question:   Namaste, Babaji.  I want to know about this oneness among the Gurus.  So, I have read in spiritual books many times that all Gurus are connected.  Like, when we go to different Gurus, they are not different.  They are essentially the same.  Now if I am into bhakti marga and I am devoted to a particular Guru, who is not in His body right now but we believe, we have faith that He is there, out there.  And now if I am talking to You, or if I come across any other Guru who has left His mortal body, then I consider all of you to be the same being?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah.  Definitely.  It is your faith and devotion which matters.  When you consider like that, you will receive the grace of your Guru, who has left his body also.  His grace will always be there.  His blessings be with you.  So, whenever you talk to anyone of us, it is all the same.  No conflict in it.  

Same Questioner:   Okay.  Because sometimes the mind kind of creates this conflict.  Like, even though I stay with the same reference, I keep convincing the mind, saying that it is the same, like when I am talking to You, I am talking to my Guru.  My Guru is responding through You.  When I am praying, let's say I am going to another Guru's temple, I see the figure there as the same Guru.  They are all one and the same.  But the mind still creates this confusion saying that, “Maybe you are not being very honest to the Guru.  You are disrespecting this Guru.”  Something like that.  

Babaji Maharaj:   No, no, ward off any such doubts and start thinking, “I am seeing my own Guru.  My own Guru's grace is always with me.  And I love my Guru.  When I talk to anybody,  I just try to see my Guru only.”  So, like that you think and have faith.  You will receive your Guru’s blessing.  No Guru will ever get angry with any of the devotees.  They are like father and mother.  So, you will get your Guru’s grace and blessings.  

Same Questioner:   Thank You, Babaji.  Thank You.  

Question:   Pranaams, Babaji.  How is getting hardship in life related to progress in meditation or spiritual path, as it seems like humans feel more strongly to pray or pull to the path of peace when in pain?

Babaji Maharaj:   You practice the meditation regularly in the technique that we teach.  Just watch in between eyebrows.  Thus, if you practice the silence, slowly you will see your mind will not get hurt easily.  Outside, the situation, circumstances might be the same.  For a hardship also it will not think it as a hardship.  It will simply keep going.  Like for a soldier, a battlefield is not at all a hardship.  He knows he will do it or he will die.  It's okay.  Just like that he goes.  This life also is like that for all of us.  There is good.  There is bad.  There is easy.  There is hardship.  We have to face.  But if we don't keep thinking about it as hard, it will not appear as hard.  And the time will simply pass by.  We will do it.  Sometimes some bad period might come.  We get anxious.  But it will be over.  Good times also will come.  You need to have faith in the Guru, in God and in yourself.  So, then you can overcome easily.  Practice like this.  Either in bhakti marga or through practice of meditation you can overcome.  

Question:   Namaskaaram,Babaji.  I was fortunate enough to read Bhagavad Gita.  Then Yoga Vasistha, then Ashtavakra Gita.  So, I know the difference of mindfulness and mindlessness.  And I often practice mindlessness.  And I understand that Ashtavakra even says you should not even wish for mukti; that even is an ego or desire.  So, I understand that.  That being said, I have a question, mind is a physical form or memory gone with death.  Will the soul be able to hear, see or communicate with its family?  What is form of this soul?  

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, mind is not a physical form.  It is a spiritual form.  You know your mind simply based on thoughts and visions, “My mind wants to think, my mind wants to go there.”  But you practice meditation and quieten the mind.  If you just keep watching the thoughts and visions, they will all disappear one day.  Then you will experience the consciousness of existence, which is in the infinite form.  It is no form, but it is there.  Just like you cannot show what is the form of your mind, what is the color of your mind.  Nobody knows this.  Nobody has seen it in the naked eyes.  That is the beginning of the soul's formation, it gets revealed.  Now, what Ashtavakra is telling.  Until the last moment, you hold on to that.  You want the Self-Realization so that you can get rid of all other thoughts.  Finally, abandon this thought also and just become quiet.  So, you have to practice to become quiet.  Then the Self is automatically there.  The mind and Self, they both are same.  You will realize that only when you practice, you can experience.  This is not a thing which can be explained.  No color, no shape, no naked eyes, no such thing is possible.  

Same Questioner:   After death, is that possible?  Because somebody very close to me died.  And we get to hear so many beliefs like they are hearing us.  We are doing a lot of karmas.  Are they seeing us or hearing us?  Is there any transaction happening? 

Babaji Maharaj:   These are all myths.  It cannot happen.  Once the soul leaves the body, with that the previous life’s memory is lost.  Simply, the soul carries in a symptomatic way of the habits that it had acquired in the previous life.  Based on that a basic nature forms, and it assumes next incarnation, next birth.  Then a basic nature of understanding, observation all differs.  Then it will carry on.  Like, you would have died fifty times, suppose.  Do you remember any of your kith and kin who might be crying for you?  They are dead there and you are living happily with your own people here – it's all over.  But simply, we pay tributes to the departed soul, remembering their good qualities, so that we receive their blessing, so that our mind also becomes purified.  

You know, when the body dies, we need four people to carry our body for cremation.  As long as we are in the body, we alone can be carrying eighty kilograms, hundred kilograms.  But once we are gone, somebody else has to carry.  That's how the next generation pays tribute, next generation pays tribute.  So, like that only, otherwise you cannot know anything.  It's over.  

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

Question:   Namaste, Babaji.  Babaji, I have a question about the one who obtained the nature of mind by samadhi.  I was confused about that.  That a God is more Divine, or the person, let's say, in this our group, who had attained the nature of mind, who is more Divine?  

Babaji Maharaj:   They both become one.  They merge.  The mind merges with the Divinity.  The mind does not become God itself, just like the droplet merges with the ocean.  The droplet did not become ocean.  Ocean already existed.  God already exists.  You call it God, Divinity as Ultimate Truth, Nirvana, anything; different religions, different teachers called it in different terminologies.  The mind merges with It, losing its identity.  That is what happens.  So, that becomes purified.  

Same Questioner:   I also noticed that some saint, or the God – God is already divine as You said – and then some saint who spent whole life in a forest, and they do samadhi or tapasya.  And then let's say one blind lay person comes and then he destroys his samadhi or something like that.  And then that saint gets angry.  And that lay person is already blind.  But he has to use the wisdom.  And he keeps doing like this [mimics throwing], and then he keeps doing the shaap (curse).

Babaji Maharaj:   Ah, these are all shown in the movies –  myths.  Actually, sages never get annoyed.  They don't get angry, Self-Realized people, samadhi people don't get angry.  They understand the people of this world fully.  Buddha never cursed anybody.  Buddha was so loving and caring, right?  In the same way, all Self-Realized sages of our India also, they don't curse anyone.  Sometimes myths get created, stories are written, and that is shown in the movie.  People start believing that to be the truth.  It's only shown as a myth, as a story, that is all.  It is not true.  Nobody really curses like that one.  

Same Questioner:   So, that means God doesn't have any ego, or they don't have any anger?

Babaji Maharaj:   They don't have any ego.  They are very loving.  They understand all souls.  They understand, just like you will understand your small child if it is making noise, “O, it is after all a child.”  Like that the saint will understand, “O, after all this person is like a child, doesn't know.”  Like Jesus Christ, when He was about to be crucified, He forgave all those tormentors, telling, “Forgive.  They know not what they are doing.”  That is the nature of the saint always, Self-Realized souls.  So, nobody curses.  They always forgive.  They bless everyone.  Have faith in this one.  My blessings to you.  

Question:   Pranaams, Babaji.  My question is about the meditation technique and the eyes.  If I'm understanding, it's really the stabilizing of the eyes, that's the key part rather than where they're looking?  

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, stabilizing is much more important.  Once that is stabilized, there is no need that you have to be looking anywhere.  You try to look to use the eyeballs so that it can help stabilize the mind.  So, that is the idea.  

Same Questioner:   So, if I'm looking straight ahead, stabilizing them or looking towards in between the eyebrows or even looking towards the heart, as long as they're stable, that's the thing?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes, finally.  

Same Questioner:   Thank You.  

Mata Ambaji:   So, Baba, I have got two questions.  One is that when You talk about the oneness...  So, oneness what I understand, you become one with the entire cosmos; when there is no duality, when there is no separation between, even the iota of ‘I’ dissolves fully, and there is no separation, and you just exist.  So, Baba, could you please explain it more?  That how, how is it possible to drop all the ideas of the mind?  As long as the mind, ‘I’ exists, the mind exists.  When the mind exists, you are in separation.  So, could You please explain this to me, Babaji? 

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, first you realize your mind and all the things of thoughts and visions, characters and stories that are in the mind only.  So, everything is in the mind.  The source is the mind.  Means you are the mind.  In you, all those thoughts and visions are there.  In every character, actually your consciousness only is working.  You are watching that.  You are one with those characters.  You might be the hero, you might be the villain, you might be suffering, you might be enjoying – in your own story of the mind.  For that, the consciousness power is only the mind.  That is the oneness you have to realize.  It is you who is doing all these things.  If you simply become quiet, all those thoughts and visions and stories will disappear.  Then you are in yourself.  You have reached yourself.  You have attained yourself.  It is there.  

So, that oneness is what we are talking.  So, when you come out of that also you will realize when you see all those characters and all these stories, that it is you only.  Just like the space realizing it is the space which is inside everything.  Every object there is space.  That is what, sometimes some sages like Purandara Dasa talks; “O Divine, are You in your illusion, or is illusion in you?  What a wonderful magician you are.”  “Kaise jadugar hai tum,” like that they asked.  So, this is how the mind is illusion created like that.  But once you realize the oneness of yourself, then you will realize the same thing is everywhere.  

Mata Ambaji:   Baba, but when You say ‘the mind’, in my understanding ‘mind’ is just full of thoughts.  So, what I am understanding, You are saying that my thoughts are not me.  And all those illusions, all of those pictures, all of that imagination is not me.  It's in my thoughts? 

Babaji Maharaj:   See, one thing you have to understand, thoughts and visions, they are in the mind, just now.  They are in the mind.  You will realize “In my mind, this thing is coming that I go there.  In my mind, this thing is happening that I try to scold this person.”  Like that you come, in the mind it's happening – then what this mind itself?  On one side we can accept mind is a bundle of thoughts, as Ramana Maharishi said.  When thoughts are there, the same substance, which is the pure consciousness, is known as mind.  When all thoughts and visions disappear, we, the same mind, we start calling it as ‘pure consciousness’.  Then, ‘consciousness of existence’.  Some teachers call it as the ‘I’;  “Observe from where the ‘I’ is coming.”  I try to simplify the terminology so that the present-day people can understand easily.  It is the consciousness of your existence.  You always have the feeling that you exist.  

So, that becomes visible for you in the mind, not to the eyes, naked eyes.  Then you become aware of that one.  You realize that was the oneness that which was in every character that which had been created in the mind.  In the same way, the space is the higher consciousness which has created the entire universe.  When this realization comes; by the practice of quietening the mind only this comes.  Till then, the mind is habitual.  It cannot realize by just listening to a talk or listening to a theory or reading in a book.  It doesn't come by practice.  Just like by reading how to bake a bread, it won't come.  You have to start baking.  So, like that, here also you have to start meditating; quieten your mind.  Then the practical experience comes.  Then you will understand at that stage if I explain – “Can you realize that there is a consciousness of existence when your mind is quiet?”  Like that you will realize that.  

Mata Ambaji:   So, Baba, the second question is, I just recently read in the Ashtavakra Samhita, where Ashtavakra says, “Self cannot be experienced as long as the mind is clinging to.”  

Babaji Maharaj:   Exactly.  Mind is clinging to some other idea.  Thus, the mind is unable to experience itself.  That's how it becomes known as the mind as if it is a separate entity, whereas it is not a separate entity.  It is you.  As long as you are clinging onto some other idea, some other imagination, you cannot experience yourself.  That's why you have to drop all ideas, just become quiet, and there you are.  Once you are there, there is nothing to experience also.  Experience is always in relativity, in a duality existence only.  You say, “O, I experienced this beautiful scenario.”  When you yourself become that scenario, there is nothing to experience.  You get to see a tiger.  You tell “I experienced the sight of a tiger.”  You become the tiger, there is nothing to experience.  It may experience fear when it gets to see others.  Only in duality these things are experienced.  

Mata Ambaji:   So, my last question is how do You see God?  What is God for You? 

Babaji Maharaj:   When I am in duality that ‘I am,’ an imagination comes, then I see that all-pervadedness is the Divinity.  For me, the space is God.  Because the space is the only thing which has a special quality to exist in itself.  It doesn't need anything else for its existence.  If you understand this, it will be a hair-raising thrill for you.  Because the rest all needs space for its existence.  That is what in Yoga Vasistha, Vasistha talks, “It just exists in itself.”  That is what it is.  No other experience.  For me, everything is God as everything is God.  And simply when there is nothing also it is God.  There is something also it is God.  It is all God, everything.  As separation also it is God.  When there is no separation also it is God.  I don't think about God also.  All the time I don't think about God; I become quiet.  When I start thinking that the Divine is everything, I start becoming quiet and the thinking of that God also disappears.  

Mata Ambaji:   Sorry Baba, it leads to one more thing.  Do You ever objectify God as an entity?  Or it just exists for You  eternally? 

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, eternally it exists.  Not one entity.  I've always told God is not one person type existing somewhere in the space.  God is simply all pervaded.  That which is all pervaded is to be the God.  Now, scientifically if the God is the one who is all pervaded, anything that is all pervaded has to be God.  So thus, everywhere God is visible for me.  How can God escape when He is all pervaded?  

Mata Ambaji:   Thank You, Baba.  It's answered my questions here.  Thank you so much Babaji for clarifying.  

Question:   Babaji, I was thinking of all these questions.  Thank You very much for all Your knowledge and all Your love and blessings.  When I listen to satsangs, my mind listens very attentively.  And that's when the one-pointedness comes.  And I feel very much at peace.  But when I close my eyes and sit, I can't concentrate that much.  I've got many questions, but maybe I can ask You about this one.  So, if I sit and watch the space...  

Babaji Maharaj:   I understand.  I understand what You are talking.  This experience gives you a temporary feeling of the Divinity, and a temporary relief.  Not a permanent, because still in the subconscious state that chronic disease of the worldliness is there.  That is why whenever you try to meditate, that gets stirred up.  At that time, you must not think that I cannot meditate.  Let it happen.  Just keep watching.  They will all get stirred up, and slowly they have to get evaporated, cleansed up.  Then finally, at all times, this experience will be there for you.  Not simply by listening; you get a temporary relief.  But if you practice this in meditation also, permanently you can always, at all times, enjoy this one.  You will become one with it one day.  

Same Questioner:   So, Babaji, satsang has helped, but there are certain samskaaras which keep coming again and again, and I keep falling, to the extent that I feel guilt.  And maybe they are coming from me, and I have been told there are samskaaras of our ancestors that you are carrying as well.  When the enemy is so strong, how can we win, is my question. 

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, samskaaras are coming by you only since so many lives.  Not necessary to be ancestors.  It is your observation capacity which has absorbed, so that is what is happening.  So, now, first thing, you must not think that enemy is very strong.  Do not underestimate the enemy; that is a different thing.  But you strengthen yourself.  That is why I am telling; the practice of meditation, of keeping just watching in between eyebrows, you can strengthen your defense forces.  Now, war is going to be declared between you and those enemy forces.  You have to strengthen your defense forces.  That's what is sadhana, that is important.  Just listening to a satsang gives you a temporary relief for a while, and that will not last forever.  You have to practice.  

That appears a bit difficult in the beginning, because the mind has gone out of control since time immemorial.  You have to practice dedication, offer yourself, set a priority every day, sit and practice.  Like this on Zoom if you come, you will get a chance to practice and pick up the practice.  And then you can go on doing at your home also.  Be disciplined to practice at the right time, and have patience.  It will come.  Assure yourself positively always.  “It will be done.  I will be able to win over.”  Don't always keep telling “The enemy is strong.  I cannot do, I cannot do.”  So, don't belittle yourself.  You can do it.  Our prayers and blessings.  

Same Questioner:   Jo man sahara chahta hain andar aur pyar chanta hai [the mind which wants help (support) inside and wants love], so, when you keep on staring at the space, there is nothing there.    

Babaji Maharaj:   [Babaji chuckles] That is the everything.  That is the Divinity.  And the Divinity, you have to imagine this as Divinity.  You will realize this only when you go deeper into the mind.  Just now it appears to be nothing, because that's what has been fed into the brain to us since childhood.  A void place.  The teacher said, “The void place in between these two walls is known as space.”  Then we went on learning space as void place, space as void place.  It is actually supreme consciousness of existence – kehte hain “kana kana may hain bhagawan…”  isiliye [they say ‘God is in every atom’.  That’s why].  So, that's what it is.  You have to imagine that the Divine is everywhere.  And positively as you go on thinking, your mind will get tuned into it.  Our best wishes.  Blessings.  

Question:   Pranaam, Babaji, it is Your kindness and grace that You have made yourself available since so many years on Zoom and initiated us into this practice.  You would still recommend that it is ideal for us when the circumstances allow to get initiated by You in person?  And what is the importance of the physical presence of Guru?  Because in olden times, it was disciple’s duty to come and You and Your compassion are making Yourself available.  So, if You could talk about physical initiation and presence of a Guru.  

Babaji Maharaj:   In the present day, if at any time if it's possible, because we also keep traveling.  So, one more time you can sit.  But more than this, your faith that you have already been initiated is the important thing.  Just carry on with the practice.  Your devotion and faith will win for you always.  More than Babaji, your faith in Babaji is more important; like that you have to practice.  A physical presence sometimes we have felt with the advent of everything as available online…  So, in olden days people used to travel thousands of miles to meet a Guru.  Sitting with a Guru, a Guru can train you to lose the ego, service to the Guru, seva, all these things might be missing sometimes.  But however, if it's not possible also, no need to worry.  At least we are available live on these Zoom classes.  So, you can enjoy participating.  Consider this as live. Our blessings are always with you.

End of Questions and Answers

End of Session

SUMMARY

This Q&A session explores oneness, ego, meditation, and Self-realization. Babaji teaches that the imagined “I” dissolves when attention turns fully to Divinity, revealing the mind’s true nature as pure consciousness. Through disciplined meditation, self-inquiry, faith, and inner quietness, one can overcome desires, attachments, mental impressions, and hardships while living lovingly in the world. The discussion emphasizes non-duality, universal brotherhood, devotion to the Guru, forgiveness, and the understanding that God is all-pervading existence itself.