Thus Spake Babaji - online Q and A, No.13

Thus Spake Babaji - online Q and A, No.13
A live online Q and A session, recorded on 24 October 2020.

In this session Shri Babaji gives guidance on the following:

0:00 Babaji's introduction
6:14 What does Babaji mean by 'do not define your dharma'?
9:43 How can one do Tapas in modern society?
12:16 What is the role of our mind, consciousness and the brain in sensory experiences?
14:38 What are the demons that Swamiji experienced in His Tapas?
16:33 The ultimate Truth and space
22:29 Agitations after a peaceful meditation
24:33 Disturbance in the throat during meditation
25:59 Consequences of previous actions of a Realized master.
27:49 How the mind's attention withdraws from the thoughts and onto the Self in meditation

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Transcript

 Discourse: Thus Spake Babaji - online Q and A No. 13
You tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwOuxK2UKjY
Recorded: 24 October 2020

Start of short discourse

   Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. On this auspicious day of the eighth day of Goddess Mother’s navaratras, what is known as; all over the world Indians celebrate as navaratras, and today is supposed to be the Ashtami, Durgashtami.

   Previously also I have spoken about the concept. The ninth day is like your fight with your mind's thoughts which are considered as, if not evil, at least the troublesome people type, your thoughts are, which has kept you away from your real Self because of your preoccupation with your thoughts. So, they are, for a while let us consider them like demons, troublesome demons, and within you is their Mother Goddess Durga who is fighting with the demons to put an end to them. And you are just now surrendering to Mother Goddess when you close the eyes and when you try to make your mind quiet. That is the right way to kill all the demons, to slay all the demons, who are the trouble-makers - I didn't want to use the word evil, thought that it might be too rude so I am just using it as trouble-makers, like the thoughts are. In the Mother's story also, I have told you before, the more she tries to slay him the more blood that gets spilled, so as many demons again crop up. So here the same way, if you try to get irritated, lose your temper, lose your patience and you try to react in any way trying to get rid of the thoughts, you are giving rise to the birth of more and more thought processes only. The best thing, the story says, finally, Mother Goddess as Jwalamukhi, she took out her tongue and took all the bloodstains on the tongue quietly, and just swallowed them. So, then the demons getting reproduced - that process stopped. Here, so what you are going to do is - you will sit simply in any comfortable posture, you keep your back and neck straight, and when I tell you (ah, we'll have another five minutes), so, you will gently close the eyes, and just go on simply watching. That is what you have to do. You do not react mentally or you do not try to use your intelligence here. Nothing is needed. Simply you will give rise to more birth of thoughts, thought after thought, visions after vision. Also, please do not get too much excited with any visions. If it is positive, if it can be helpful for you to feel motivated or inspired, just watch that vision or thought, otherwise simply, gently ignore. Just keep watching and do not react. Do not try to know why it is there, what is there. Because it will be waste of energy and time. You are delaying the silencing of the mind. So that is the important science and technology of the meditation. So once you are able to silence your mind, that is the real worship of God; that real aradhana, what we know call it as, worship. And you are going towards your Divinity, your real Self. So that is what is needed. Any other type of exercises hitherto you would have heard or you would have practiced; like worshiping, like chanting, like singing, anything, they are all to help you to make your mind concentrated, single pointed. That is all. Other than that, now this amazing technique, awesome, that Swamiji gave us. That  Swamiji my Guru obtained by the manifestation of the Divine Shiva, who came as a jangama sage and made him to sit. He just went on watching and He achieved Self-Realization, means you also can get it if only you firmly stick to just watching. Then your attention will turn to your real Self, you will know about yourself that is within. Mother Goddess is within; your peace and tranquillity  is within; the Guru's grace is within. Your prayers will be more effective the more you become non-violent, or in other words more silent. So, that is what is important.

<After thirty minutes of meditation>

   We will take questions now. Please be clear of what you want to know, what you want to ask.

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   I actually have a question if I may Babaji. You sometimes say “Do not define your dharma.”  Can You explain what that means please?

Babaji Maharaj:   The word dharma means obligation, your duties. So, what Lord Krishna teaches and Swamiji also told - ‘Do not define your dharma’ means you do not, in a narrow-minded way, do not try to give a definition – “this is all my dharma and beyond this, I will not do anything else.”  That is not proper. Sometimes you may have to give a priority. Like in Mahabharata, during the disrobing episode of Draupadi, she came to Bhishma, Dronacharya, all elders. They all refused, telling that their obligation towards the king, towards other duties; they had taken oaths of dharma. So they said that they cannot help her. They were sad though. They were righteous people, noble people who knew what dharma is, yet they failed to think it is priority that we must protect this woman from getting disrobed first. The rest of the things come afterwards. Whereas Sri Krishna showed always that he was ready to help anybody who was in need, setting a priority, even if it was that he had to lose his own glory, the world might blame him. So, that is the thing. When during the war, when Arjuna refuses to fight, then Lord Krishna says “We need to kill all of them even if they are noble because they have sided with the wicked people. So we cannot afford to keep quiet. Arjuna, if you are not going to kill, I will kill them.”  He takes the wheel of a chariot and starts going. Before the war, Lord Krishna had taken an oath that “I will not take up weapons during the war. I will remain on one side and all my yadavas, my community army will fight from another side.”  So Arjuna requests that Krishna be with him and Duryodhana was very happy to have the entire yadava army so that they would be fighting. But then Arjuna reminds, “Krishna, You have taken an oath that you won't take up any weapons.”  Krishna says “I will lose my glory and the people of this world might blame me, but I would have established dharma for the welfare of the entire society, entire region, all the entire world.”  So, that was how Sri Krishna taught. So, this is what I mean when I say that “Do not define your dharma.”  It should not be just held within a periphery with a narrow mind. So dharma, you will know at that time, what is my dharma - protecting others, helping others, a larger cause, that type of things should be the dharma. That's what I meant. 

Same questioner:  Thank You very much Babaji. Lovely.

Question:   Pranams Babaji, I had a question. So, it was about someone's tapas question from last weekend. I live in Australia, so I don't know if doing extended hours of tapas…I'm not even ready for it but even if I was, is feasible because I don’t think the government's going to support me financially if I do tapas in western society. And another thing is how can you manage your social health if you're doing tapas? Won’t you get really lonely just meditating all day?

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, first thing, if at all you do tapas, after the tapas, suppose you become self-realized, you can be living like a normal person. Say for five years you want to do tapas, or ten, twelve years. So that period you will have to remain aloof and in seclusion and with the total sadhana, that is necessary. Just like if you want to do a degree or a course, during that period you will have to remain in university; you will have to be studying, focus your mind and all your brains into the studies. You cannot afford to keep telling, “How will I socialize, how will I go to bars, how will I go to malls, how will I go to movies?  So, I am not going to take up any course.”  That will not happen. If you are going to take up the course, during that period you will have to give up all nonsense, unnecessary things for a while. After the course is finished you can socialize. Like after the tapas, it is your choice what you want to do. You want to help others also to become aware of the truth perhaps that you would have acquired, become aware of, or you just want to go ahead and enjoy your own life. It's up to you what you want to take the mission. Like after the tapas, I didn't want to go. I never had any wishes to go to any socializing, malls, this, that one. I just wanted to help everybody to gain the awareness of the Self and gain that happiness and peace which is everybody's birth and existence right. So, I just go around, try to help people. So it will be your choice what you want to do finally.

Question:   Hi Baba, nice to see You. My question is related to how we experience the world. We experience the world through our sensory experiences. But what is the role of the mind, the consciousness and the brain in this experience we have of our surrounding world, in everyday life so to speak.

Babaji Maharaj:   In my experience and opinion what I have observed, you know, brain helps the consciousness to be in touch with this universe, world. In turn brain receives the message through nervous system, all the sensory organs, and it passes on the order also, whatever it wants to. In this process brain reflects, means it is somewhat like making a judgment of ‘this is good, this is bad, the world is not good, the world is bad, these people are bad, this is good.’  Something like that it reflects. The consciousness as mind is watching, gets to watch whatever it reflects because the brain decodifies and shows the thing as a thought process or a visual effect; a vision it gives. Catching that, the mind registers the things in itself, and often becomes a victim by firmly believing what the brain says as the fundamental truth or reality. But mind, if you have the control of your mind, your consciousness, you will be able to discriminate and try to understand in its right sense what it is. So this becomes possible for you. This is the role of consciousness when it becomes mind, brain, nervous system and sensory organs. 

Same questioner:   Thank You Baba, very clear.

Question:   Pranaams Babaji. My question is - in the stories of Buddha when he did his tapas, it said that there was lots of demons that put him off, tried to put him off tapas, but he went through it. Will You please describe the demons that were there, like what they do.

Babaji Maharaj:   You see, actually there are no external demons present. The demons are within the mind. Sometimes, you would have experienced your mind thinking of a good thing and thinking of a bad thing also. When you think of a bad thing you would have seen bad people appearing to your mind whomever you would have considered as bad. In that way to Buddha also, to anybody also, mind going into dualities - one mind was trying to tempt him not to continue the tapas, come out and go to kingdom, or go to anywhere and enjoy the life - why should he be doing?  Whereas another was the good one, which remained determined and firmly disciplined, wanted to know the truth of birth, death and the Self, so he continued. That dominated, that commanded. So, like that he could overcome the demons.

   When people tell stories, they try to decodify things. Symbolically, they use the words like ‘demons were there, and he did not bother,’ but there were no demons actually. Nobody was there. Everything was happening within the mind.

Same questioner:   Thank You Babaji. Thank You.

Question:   Pranaam Babaji. Could You say something about the Ultimate Truth and Space because I think you had an experience where you recognized it was the same.

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, you see the Truth is simply all pervaded. Just like, first clue we will start - your mind has its own imaginations, stories. So, within the mind characters, stories, are all created. So for every character your mind appears to be simply all pervaded. There is no limitation. In the same way for us, for this universe, this world, the Ultimate Truth is simply all pervaded. This is one thing. Most of the scriptures talk about this – omnipresent, omnipotent, Divine or God as they all have spoken. So now for our intelligence we have to think if the Truth is all pervaded, so whatever is all pervaded, that must be the Truth. Like this as a youngster I used to think. Finally, before going to tapas also, when we read the Yoga Vasistha Ramayana, as my Guru recommended, Yoga Vasistha has my philosophy in it. I have told this story - in this Vasistha gives the teaching to Lord Rama about the Ultimate Truth, Self, mind, consciousness, mind and its imaginations, how the mind's imaginations build up attitude and can make you to see the world through that attitude. Like a friend might appear as a foe, a foe might appear as a friend, truth might appear as a false thing, a false thing might appear as a truth depending on the imagination of your mind. Just like, I have told, in a room whatever space is there we can call this room is void with space. Also in other words we can call this room is filled with space. That is how absolute is zero, zero is absolute. When there is no beginning and no end that is what is absolute’s criteria. So, zero also is like that one, and in Yoga Vasishta one special thing He talks which impressed me about forty years ago when I read that book. Apart from omnipresent, all- pervadedness, Vasishta talks, “It exists in itself. The truth exists in itself.”  So I was trying to understand what is this, then suddenly it flashed my intelligence mind - this space…  If you observe space and the matter, entire universe everything, galaxies or whatever is being there. All the galaxies, all the matter, everything exists in the space. It cannot go out of space. You remove the entire universe, I will show the space is there, but you try to remove the space and send it somewhere else, you cannot do it. You try that one - you will agree that space remains there. Whereas now, space does not need anything else for its existence. It exists in itself. You cannot tell this space is existing in the pillar, this space is existing in the universe. Though for sake of understanding sometimes that language is used, scientifically, technically it is not like that. You remove the pillar, the space is there. The space does not need pillar for its existence. If you can remove this earth or universe, you remove and see, space will be there. So you will understand this space does not need universe for its existence. You remove oxygen, still the space will be there. This space, just now for naked eyes appears as a void place and nothing else seems to be there, but through your consciousness when you undertake meditation, eventually reach the stage of tapas, of intense meditation for more than ten hours, eight to ten hours, so then you will always see that consciousness of existence is there, and you will get to experience that expanse, that consciousness. That consciousness expands just like if you are in London you belong to that street or a home number. If you go out of England, out of Europe you belong to a larger place. The consciousness also expands, gives you the idea of belonging to that oneness. So like that if you go out of this world also you will tell “I am from planet earth.”  So one day you will realize we all belong to one space. There cannot be two different spaces, that you have this blue space, I will have this yellow space. Things doesn't happen like that. There is only one space. So that is some points about the Ultimate Truth you are asking. 

Same questioner:   Thank You very much.

Question:   Nice to see you Babaji. My question is related to after the meditation. When I have a good, strong meditation, I focus and really bring my mind into stillness. I experience sometimes that after the meditation my mind is very agitated, very negative thoughts coming up, and desires cropping up and I feel uneasy in me. Why are we going through this experience then?  What is the relation here?  

Babaji Maharaj:   During the meditation it stirs up the mind. Mind has everything in its subconscious state - all the acquired habits. So, slowly if you can continue a little more time, slowly and slowly, then that stirred up things when you simply watch, do not react, they all get evaporated. Then when you come out of meditation you will be able to experience that one because if throughout your meditation, if your effort had been just to remain silent and quiet and just watching that silence, then when you come out, so these things will decrease slowly. You will experience, continue experiencing the same peace. In fact you wouldn’t like to talk to anybody, you would like to remain in solitude and quiet for some more time, as much as possible unless you have any responsibility or duties to fulfill; you need to get up talk to someone. Otherwise you would like to remain like that one. So slowly this will be alright. By practice only, you would be able to overcome. Just continue. Do not bother about this problem also when you come out of meditation. Just you will remain as a witness.  

Same questioner:   Good, Thank You very much Babaji.

Question:   Babaji, I've noticed a few weeks now, whenever I do my meditation just like how we did just now, I feel that some energy is in the throat and I have to gulp a lot and try and breathe so that I'm able to continue with my meditation otherwise there's something like a disturbance in the throat. Can you please help me Babaji?

Babaji Maharaj:   This could be due to the breathing. The breathing needs to keep going smoothly. So at that time, if necessary you take a long inhale and exhale by trying to keep the eyes closed and concentration in between eyebrows take that inhale, and if still continues then sip a little bit of water and then continue with the small breathing. So that breathing needs to keep going. If that gets stopped somewhere then the starving for oxygen makes you to feel like that one then the energy gets stuck, so that's what happens. So if you take this long inhale and exhale or if necessary a little bit sip of water it will be all right

Question:   So I was wondering Babaji about people who become realized.  Thinking of people like King Janaka, Valmiki. So King Janaka from the story he actually killed people who couldn't give him the truth, and Valmiki, I don't know if he killed people, but he was a robber. So what happens to the consequences of their actions? Do they just get wiped out when they find the need to become realized or become good as we know it?

Babaji Maharaj:   No, when they meditate and they do tapas and become realized, their consciousness has become purified, has become one with the Divine, but the physical life, body will undergo whatever prarabdha. If they had committed any such mistakes it will undergo in the form of some illness or some other trouble, something can always come. So that will not simply get wiped out. So, simply the consciousness has become purified, so in their consciousness they will not experience anything. They will not have any evil designs, wrong impressions, any such thing. That is purified. But the body and the physical life will undergo in some form or other. So that also they will not bother. They will tell if at all we have to pay the penalty. it's no problem. Let the accounts be cleared. Like that. So, the prarabdha will get cleared in its own way.

Same questioner:   Thank You Babaji.

Question:   Pranaams Babaji. Baba has talked before about the way that the mind's attention when it's on the thoughts, it goes into further analysing and making judgments, but when the mind is no longer on the thoughts, the attention is not on the thoughts, automatically it goes to the Self; it goes on to the mind itself. Could Babaji give an insight into why this happens, why the mind's attention goes on to the Self and becomes aware of the nature of the Self?

Babaji Maharaj:   Consciousness, wherever it gets applied it will make you aware of existence of that thing. Just like you are sitting on a chair in a theatre. As soon as the movie starts, till then you are sitting on the chair and you are aware that you are sitting on the chair, then that movie sucks your consciousness. Then all in your consciousness mind, only that movie is there. Often you are likely to forget that you are sitting on the chair in that body. Now after those points what we understand, consciousness which is the basic nature of the Self has this power that it can become aware of anywhere that it gets applied. This is one definition. Now it is our job where we want to apply. If we apply to our thoughts, we are aware of only the thoughts because it further analyses and goes on making judgments, creating another thought, another thought - like that, millions of thoughts. Then it will make us forget about our real Self. That is how since time immemorial people have forgotten their real Self and are aware of only the created things or that are impermanent available. Now the realization occurs - all the created things are impermanent. So we need to go back to permanent. That's how we try to shift the attention. How to shift the attention of the consciousness from thoughts?   If you simply watch. That is why meditation is taught as a technology that you are able to shift the attention of the consciousness from its own imaginations back to itself. So, that is how one has to try. Because this power already exists. That is how we tell; the Self is the combination of both consciousness and energy. Energy enables it to perform all these things. And consciousness enables it to become conscious of the truth of itself.

End of Questions and Answers

End of Session