Table of Contents
Part I
Part II: Mundane, funny and illumining questions and answers
- Question: Is there spiritual significance to body-building?
- Question: Was the Vishma of the Mahabharata a bad person for fighting against Sri Krishna?
- Question: Are there individuals among your disciples today who have a soul's connection with Vishma? How does it compare with the soul's connection we'll have with you in our next incarnation?
- Question: Who made me a space cadet? Did God make me a space cadet or did I make myself a space cadet?
- Question: Guru, why do you tell us not to touch paper with our feet?
- Question: Sometimes the boys fool around in physical ways like in wrestling. Is that okay to do at certain times or is it not good to do at all?
- Question: How can we get instant, automatic inspiration? A lot of times, when you are meditating one by one on all the disciples, I notice that my mind is wandering when you are about to concentrate on me. How can I get instant inspiration to be receptive in any situations
- Question: The other day I was walking by the United Nations and I saw a little baby in a baby carriage. He was about a year or a year and a half old. The baby had sort of a blank expression, but somehow I saw in this expression great anxiety and perplexity, as if the world were a very painful and bewildering place. I was very moved, very pained by this experience, and whenever I think of it I still feel very moved. What can I learn from this experience?
- Question: It made me feel that I wanted to help the suffering of the world, but I didn't know how.
- Question: When you meditate you become very, very still. Even if you are standing up, your physical doesn't move at all. You can become like a statue if you want. How can you do that?
- Question: May I ask something in relation to that? When you sit on your throne you will be absolutely still and all of a sudden you will move your foot.
- Question: You don't really shake it, you just move it up and down once or twice.
- Question: The smoke from the fire got into everything in my store and it made everything smell. My question is, did it also get into the soul of the store?
- Question: Occasionally I see a little flash of light, a tiny light that goes in your eye and travels all around. Sometimes it travels in a definite pattern and I watch it while I am meditating on your picture. What does it mean?
Part III: Questions and answers
- Question: Guru, you once said that if you come two minutes late to God, then He will not even open the door for you. This makes me unhappy.
- Question: Could you speak a little about how a new disciple should handle the pleasures and problems of daily life?
- Question: Why do we sometimes think that we are in a bad consciousness or a good consciousness and later you tell us we were in a different consciousness?
- Question: How can we deal with the discouragement that comes from trying to sustain a lot of activities after we get physically exhausted from the pace?
- Question: When we set our alarm and we don't get up to meditate, what should we do?
- Question: When we meditate you ask us to keep our eyes open and look at you. But so many times the physical world disappears and I have to make an effort to bring it back into focus.
Part IV — The jewel of humility: an interview
- NAC: It is a great honour to meet you; we've heard a lot about you over the years. What does your work generally consist of?
- NAC: What shape does your activity take in that service?
- NAC: Do you relate to the politicians at the United Nations?
- NAC: Are there many politicians seeking actively?
- NAC: From the point of view of a lot of people, the world is a very cruel and negative place and their consciousness is not in a position to absorb the negativity. What can you say, or what service can we perform ("we" in the largest sense of the word) to help with that situation?
- NAC: When one is engaged in a way of life which is not satisfactory to the person and one feels the first tug to begin seeking (I am asking this question because a great many people who will be reading this interview will be in that position), one has the impulse to do something. The philosophy and the ideals and so on make some sense, but here in the West people have the impulse to do something and make it happen. Is there anything practical, direct, that you can suggest for someone to do?
- NAC: Most of our minds are so confused and our bodies so tense that we can't listen to the inner self, or even if we can, there are so many conflicting voices that we don't know which one is true. How can we cut through all that?
- NAC: Are you optimistic about the future of humanity?
- NAC: Do people look to you and bow to you as Master?
- NAC: What shall we do with these characters who go around calling themselves "perfect Masters"? How shall we talk to them?
- NAC: You appear in the Vancouver Airport as an ordinary, middle-aged businessman in your summer suit. Why is that? Why are you not clad in your Indian robes and all that?
- NAC: I don't know if it is possible, but do you feel any sort of urge to create a song right now?