Khama karo

Part I — Forgiveness song

1. Jiban debata

Jiban debata daki animesh

Ogo sumahan jagater tran

O my life’s Lord Supreme,

To forgive me today.

O great One, O world’s reality-salvation,

In purity’s auspicious dawn.

Part II — Talks on forgiveness

Forgiveness¹

Some of you have been with us for many, many years — God knows, from the very beginning of our mission. But you are not satisfied with your progress. You see that you have in front of you more hurdles than before. Why? The immediate answer is because you are not aspiring as you once did. Why are you not aspiring? Because you have done quite a few things wrong over the years. Consciously and unconsciously you have made mistakes, so you have created new difficulty-hurdles to surmount.

Sometimes these hurdles come from the hostile forces. Many times the hostile forces attack seekers for absolutely no rhyme or reason and try to ruin their aspiration. If you have been attacked, you may say, "How is it that God did not protect me?" But God will say, "Were you sincere all the time? Did you care for My Protection all the time?" Unfortunately, the answer is no.

But sometimes the reason you are not making progress is because your own soul is displeased with you. You have to know that there is someone within you who wants your constant perfection, and that is your soul. Some souls are stricter than other souls. These souls want the body, vital, mind and heart to have more perfection, so when the seekers make mistakes, very often their own souls punish them.

I always say that your imperfections are my imperfections, so I struggle this side and that side on your behalf and fight with your souls. I am stronger than your souls and many, many times I have interfered to minimise or diminish the punishment. Again, in many cases I had to surrender to your souls because your crimes were very serious.

So when you make mistakes, you have to be prepared to suffer — not only in the world of aspiration, where your progress is blocked in various ways, but also on the physical plane from sickness, injuries and other problems. You have no idea how often your own souls punish you with all kinds of ailments, which can last for just a few months or for many years. And not only your own souls but also the souls of other disciples punish you. If somebody is most sincerely, devotedly and soulfully aspiring, and if you show your emotional attachment to that person or in some way disturb his or her aspiration, then the soul of that particular person may take revenge on you. It is like entering into somebody else's territory when that person does not want you to enter. Because you are intruding, the other person's soul punishes you.

I cannot say that the people whose aspiration is being disturbed are my best disciples. Far from it! No, in many cases they also have many difficulties. In fact, in the spiritual life they may not be superior at all to those who are disturbing them. But their souls do not want them to descend further than they have already descended. Their souls want them at least to stay where they are. So when others disturb their present standard of aspiration and dedication, the souls get mad.

When you deliberately commit some inner spiritual crime, you may think that nobody knows. But your soul knows and the other person's soul knows. If somebody has committed a theft, he may not get immediate punishment. There will be a trial and this and that. Sometimes only after two or three years he will get the punishment. Similarly, sometimes you don't get the punishment for your inner crimes immediately, so you may think that the crime was not serious or that perhaps you didn't even do anything wrong. But no, the punishment is only waiting. In many cases, after four or five or six or ten years people have started getting punishment in the soul's world. In the meantime, they may have totally forgotten that they had committed a crime in the world of aspiration. But the punishment still comes.

So often I plead with the souls and even threaten them, but they want perfection from you. They don't want to be attacked by the wrong forces of other disciples, or of their own body, vital and mind. I won't be able to tell you openly that this person's soul did this and that person's soul did that, but in general I am telling you how often the boys' souls have punished the girls and the girls souls’ have punished the boys. Then you people suffer like anything in the world of aspiration or on the physical plane. You are suffering not because the hostile forces have attacked you but because you have allowed yourself to cherish wrong forces. Even now the physical, vital and mind of many disciples are still affected.

On the one hand, hostile forces do attack you. Some of those who are suffering are not involved in the emotional world at all. But many of you are also getting punishment from your own souls or from the souls of others whom you have disturbed. You may just be infatuated with this boy or that girl for a short time, and then it goes away. After two or three months you don't even like that person. But while you are disturbing that other person with your emotional thoughts, your souls are recording it and becoming very disgusted. Then later, in so many ways and for so many months or years, they continue punishing you.

So please be very, very careful. If you have emotional thoughts and you allow yourself to enjoy them, after three months or six months or six years you will see what happens. At that time, even if you are leading the purest life, the best life, you will suffer. At that time you may say, "Now I am at the height of my aspiration. Why am I suffering this way physically, vitally and mentally?" You have totally forgotten, but a long time ago you consciously and deliberately sowed the wrong seed, and now the seed has germinated and become a plant and a tree.

So many of you are not making any progress in your spiritual life because of the wrong forces that you have consciously or unconsciously allowed to attack you. During the year you have made most deplorable and destructive mistakes many, many times. You cannot count even the conscious mistakes you have made, let alone the unconscious mistakes. But unconscious mistakes are as dangerous and destructive as conscious ones, so you have to take them very, very seriously. If I touch fire unconsciously, the punishment is the same as if I touch it consciously.

So you cannot care only to be forgiven for your conscious mistakes. Some useless disciples will curse God and say, "O God, why did You allow me to make this mistake? Why did You allow this punishment in my life?" So poor God is to be blamed. But He will tell you, "Why did you have to remain unconscious?" If you have accepted the spiritual life, it is your bounden duty to be conscious all the time. If you become conscious and do not allow yourself to make mistakes, then your progress in the inner life and in the outer life can be faster than the fastest.

When you make a serious mistake, conscious or unconscious, immediately you have to cry for forgiveness. If you do not ask the Supreme for forgiveness, then the hostile or negative forces will increase and increase the power of your crime until it becomes an inner cancer and destroys your whole system. Then your own wrong qualities will intensify and become worse and take the form of arrogance, false pride, callousness and carelessness. So with your aspiration, your prayer-life, your meditation, your dedication-life and your oneness-life with God's Will, you have to ask God to forgive you for all your mistakes, conscious and unconscious. You also have to ask Him to illumine your unconscious mistakes so that you will become aware of them and not make them again. Then God will illumine you so that your unconscious mistakes will come forward and you will say, "This was the thing that I did not take as a mistake or a weakness in my life." Through this kind of illumination you will be able to understand your unconscious mistakes and avoid repeating them.

Unfortunately, many disciples do not believe in forgiveness. But if your mistakes are not forgiven, you will never have purity in your heart, body, vital, mind and you will not be able to receive anything from God. The soul is always receiving from God, because the soul is always pure. But the heart is not always pure and the body, vital and mind are all a dark jungle. So if mistakes are not forgiven, then purification cannot take place in the body, vital, mind and heart. And if purity is not there, then there can be no receptivity in those parts of the being, and the divine forces that you are praying for will never be able to enter permanently into your life. Only if God forgives your mistakes and you do get purity in your entire consciousness will you be able to increase your receptivity and receive God's divine qualities in abundant measure.

If your aspiration is very strong and intense, the Supreme will cherish you, your soul will cherish you and I will cherish you. If you never do anything wrong, then God will only show you the sunlit path. But otherwise, you have to have Forgiveness-Light. So the best thing is every day, before you go to sleep, to pray to the Supreme to forgive you for the things that you have done wrong. This is not the Christian philosophy that says we are all sinners. No, only I am speaking of the conscious or unconscious mistakes that you make in your daily life. You have to ask the Supreme to forgive you for these mistakes. Today in particular [Christmas Day] is a special day. Light in boundless measure has descended today. So pray to the celestial Light, pray to the Supreme, for forgiveness and for the illumination of your unconscious mistakes.

As you know, I have written many songs on forgiveness. But one particular song, Jiban debata, is absolutely of the highest height, like the sacred Sanskrit mantras. If this one song you can sing from the very depths of your heart, you will get not only forgiveness but also real purification and real illumination. Illumination and purification go together; they are inseparable. If there is purification, then illumination comes. If illumination comes, there has to be purification as well. So you have to cry for purification and illumination simultaneously.

Especially when you sing the words daki animesh ["I invoke You sleeplessly"] and jagater tran ["O world's Reality-Salvation"], you have to give your whole heart totally. At that time you have to feel that you are nothing but the heart, the aspiring heart. Feel that throughout the centuries you have been aspiring and now, while you are singing these words, you have become the heart. I am begging you all to sing this song most, most, most soulfully so your Beloved Supreme will forgive you and give you new hope, new inspiration, new aspiration and new dedication.

When you sing my songs, many of you carry the tune perfectly. But if you do not sing soulfully, then you receive next to nothing. Even if someone is an excellent singer, if he doesn't sing soulfully and devotedly, then his divinity is not coming to the fore while he sings and at that time he is nowhere near God. Many famous musicians and singers are nowhere in terms of spirituality. According to their standard, according to their way of understanding or realising music, they play perfect music. But where is the purity, the divinity, the ultimate reality in it?

Some of the Indian pandits chant the Sanskrit mantras like parrots. That is why they are nowhere, nowhere, nowhere near God-realisation! Again, there are some sincere seekers who may mispronounce some of the Sanskrit words, but they chant and sing most soulfully. Those seekers are getting from God His highest Delight and Peace.

Only if you want consciously to make progress and if you feel the constant necessity of progress will you get tremendous joy and real delight from your spiritual life. If a weightlifter can lift today five pounds more than he lifted yesterday, he gets tremendous joy. If now you can sing one song more soulfully than you have done previously, you get tremendous joy. Again, there are some callous disciples who want to stay in the boat but who don't want to make progress. As long as they are in the boat, they feel that it is enough. But they have to know that they will get joy only in making progress — even if it is only an iota of progress. Some excellent disciples feel that they have reached their highest height and can't go any farther in terms of self-giving and aspiration. They become complacent and say, "I have done so much for my Guru. How can I go beyond this?" But that idea is absolutely deplorable. If you are working twenty-four hours a day, then God will give you twenty-five hours each day. No matter how high you have come, your mind has to be convinced that this is not your ultimate goal. The spiritual life is a birthless and deathless journey. I have realised God, and now I am struggling and struggling for God-manifestation. There is no end because the Supreme Himself is constantly increasing His own capacity; His own Eternity, Infinity and Immortality He is increasing. Everything is increasing.

This year [1987] you will be able to make unprecedented progress in the aspiration-world. Even if you have been with us for ten, twelve, fifteen or God knows how many years, in this one year you can make unprecedented progress compared to the progress you have already made. And in terms of manifestation in your life, collectively and individually also you can have unlimited success.

Before the year starts I see with my third eye inwardly what is going to happen. Do not think that what I am saying only applies to me. No, no, nothing applies to me! I don't need unprecedented inner aspiration-progress and unlimited outer manifestation-success. I don't need these things; I don't need anything. If you really participate, if you become part and parcel of my mission and my vision, then what I say definitely applies to you.

I may tell you to get 13,000 people for a concert and to do this or that. But for whose progress? Christ did not give concerts or anything, but his light has spread throughout the length and breadth of the world. It is the same with Krishna, Buddha and other spiritual Masters. But when you set up concerts and do other things to spread your Guru's light, you have the golden opportunity to bring forward your own divinity. You do have divine qualities, and I want them to increase in boundless measure. So by becoming part and parcel of my manifestation, you bring to the fore your own qualities and multiply them astronomically.

I don't have to write one more poem or song or give one more talk. I don't have to do a thing, and still my light will spread. But if I do not encourage you to manifest, you will be worse than you are. So my encouragement is taking this form: I have the wealth; you spread it, spread it, spread it. But if you do not spread it, then others will spread it after I leave this world. If you do not do or cannot do it while I am on earth, then others will do it. But I feel that you can do it. Therefore, I am all the time encouraging you and inspiring you.

If you love your progress and if you get joy from it, then the things that are necessary for progress you have to do. One thing I am telling you to have is enthusiasm, enthusiasm, enthusiasm. As long as you are in the boat, every day you have to increase your enthusiasm, eagerness and determination.

Whenever an idea comes, if you do not act upon that idea, then you are lost. You will say that tomorrow you will get higher and deeper inspiration and more enthusiasm, but you are just fooling yourself. So if you are inspired to do something, do it immediately. And if you are not inspired, you have to create inspiration and enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is receptivity. God's Compassion has acted in and through human beings in the form of enthusiasm. Some disciples used to drive for hours to come to the Centre. At that time there was no wife, no husband, no children, no friends. Their whole life was only to be with their Guru. Now that our meeting place is only a few blocks from their house, all the time they are thinking of their children, their parents, their friends, their relatives. And they are not only just keeping in touch but actually creating more friends and more obligations. So now they have no time for the spiritual life. This is what happens when enthusiasm goes. When there is enthusiasm, there is nothing we cannot do. We are willing to cover the length and breadth of the world for God. Again, when enthusiasm goes, even the smallest effort is too much.

The New Year has started with such tremendous hope, inspiration and aspiration. This is the time for you to regain the enthusiasm that you once had when you just joined the path. And with new enthusiasm and new determination, conquer your weaknesses. Some people surrender after making mistakes because they feel that it will be impossible for them ever to succeed. For them, their spiritual life has ended. But even if you have failed for years and years in one particular thing, don't feel that you are doomed to disappointment. Just because you have failed for so many years in conquering your insecurity or jealousy, or in achieving oneness with God's Will, or anything, you cannot say you will never succeed. Just feel that it is a challenge to conquer your weakness. And once you overcome it, you are bound to succeed again and again and again.

This room, let us say, was unlit for so many years just because it was not lucky enough to have electricity. But when the room finally got electricity, the light came on in a second. In your case, you have a real spiritual Master who is like an electrician. If only you allow me to enter into your unlit room and work there, then one day in a twinkling I will be able to illumine it. But you don't allow me to enter into your heart-room. You don't allow me into your depths; you resist like anything!

Again and again I am telling you to meditate, meditate, meditate and pray for Forgiveness-Light. If your aspiration and receptivity are strong enough, definitely God's Compassion will remove the wrong forces that are causing you so many problems and will increase your soul's light so that it will prevent these forces from attacking you and ruining your aspiration and dedication. Aspiration is your part and Compassion and Forgiveness are God's part. No matter how many mistakes you make, God is eager, eager to forgive you if you give Him the chance and have the enthusiasm and determination to do the right thing and not make the same mistakes over and over again year after year. Once you are forgiven, you will have the sweetest feeling inside your heart and inside this sweetness you will feel real purity. If you have this tremendous sweetness inside your heart, then you will know that God has forgiven you. With this sweet feeling you will have tremendous eagerness and determination to please the Supreme in His own Way, and you will feel that you are only for Him. So once you feel this sweetness and eagerness to please God, you will know that God has forgiven you. Then, once He has forgiven you, you will see how much of the suffering that you have on the physical, vital and mental plane will disappear.

When you make the right decision and care only to please God, your Beloved Supreme, you can feel how much Joy the Supreme gets from you. To please God is what you really want. Just because this is what you really want, God is not fulfilling your earthly desires. God is omnipotent. In the twinkling of an eye He can easily fulfil all your human desires put together. But if He does, it is you who will feel most miserable. Each time He fulfils your desire-life, you move one step further away from Him. So if He listens to you and fulfils your desire-life, you will blame God. It was you who wanted it, but you will say, "O God, if You are so kind and compassionate, why did You grant my desires? Now my aspiration-life is destroyed!" That is why God wants to give you only what your aspiring heart sincerely wants and what your aspiring life inwardly needs.

You may ask how you can distinguish the desire-life or clever human life from the aspiration-life. It is very, very easy. The desire-life is "my" way; the aspiration-life is God's Way. "My" way says: "O God, you please me now, and then one day I will please You in Your own Way. First satisfy me and then, when I am satisfied, I shall start pleasing You." But this is such a stupid way of trying to please God! For when God pleases you in your own way, on that day the little aspiration that you had will be totally destroyed. And those golden days when you are going to please God in His own Way will never come. I tell you, they will not arrive, they will not arrive!

The aspiration-life, which is God's Way, says, "O God, please give me the capacity to please You always in Your own Way. And once I have started pleasing You in Your own Way, never, never allow me to try to please You in my way." So if you have real aspiration, you will say to the Supreme, "You have given me the capacity today to please You in Your own Way. Do give me the capacity to please You every hour of every day in Your own Way."

Unfortunately, the disciples please the Supreme for five seconds or for one hour, and then for the rest of the day or for the next ten days they ask and expect God to please them in their own way. If after you have pleased God for twenty days, you ask Him to please you in your own way for five seconds, He may do it. But while He is pleasing you for five seconds, you will lose all the divine things that you got by pleasing God in His own Way. For twenty days you worked so hard to get something, and in five seconds you can lose it all! Then again you will have to start your journey from the beginning. You gained some money and then you lost it, so again you became a beggar. Every day you can become rich, and by evening you can become poor again.

God is for those who are absolutely sincere and absolutely determined to become His choice instruments. If you are absolutely determined to become His choice instrument, then He will inspire you, help you and guide you to the Highest. So you have to decide what you actually want. The Highest, the Deepest, the Ultimate and the Absolute are not mere words. They are realities, absolute realities, that can be achieved only by pleasing God in God's own Way. True, because you are still on the path, your soul is pleasing God twenty-four hours a day. But it is not enough if just your soul pleases God. No! Your heart, your mind, your vital and your body must also please God.

Most of the time the heart does listen to God, but there are many, many cases in which the heart does not listen to God's Will. Because the vital is near the heart, the vital enters into the heart and takes away the heart's oneness. And it is even more difficult for the mind to receive God's Light than for the vital, since the roguish mind is infinitely worse than the vital. Quite often the vital at first is restless. Then it becomes tired and surrenders to the heart. But the mind always feels that it knows everything and has everything that it needs and wants. The mind feels that it is beneath its dignity to take anything from the heart. So disobedience starts from the mind. The heart obeys the inner divinity and surrenders to God's Will infinitely more than the mind, the vital and the physical consciousness. But even the heart does not always listen to God the way the soul listens.

Again, you have to know that not all souls have the same capacity; some souls are limited. Your soul may not be as developed or advanced as somebody else's soul. But if, according to its capacity, your soul pleases God in His own Way, then because of your unconditional surrender, gradually, gradually your soul will become more developed and be able to please God in a more advanced way.

It is like this. The souls that are not as mature or developed as others are like young children. The father will ask the child to bring him a glass of water, whereas he will ask his grown-up son to bring him something heavy. But if both obey him cheerfully and devotedly, he will be equally pleased with them. The child has only the capacity to bring him a glass of water, but he does it cheerfully, devotedly and unconditionally, so the father is very pleased with the child. But one day this child will become an adult. At that time if the father asks him to bring him something heavy, like a typewriter, he will bring the typewriter. But if the child does not use his capacity to bring the glass of water cheerfully, devotedly and unconditionally, will he ever be able to do something infinitely more difficult?

I am telling you, the soul is not a mental hallucination. When spiritual Masters and others who have realised God talk about the soul, it is more real to them than the body, vital, mind and heart. The awakened part of reality is the soul, and that is the part that is always listening to God. So take your soul very, very seriously at every moment in your life. You cannot see the soul with your eyes because you are not yet trained, but I can see it because I am trained. An expert in any field can do quite a few things that someone else cannot do. A scientist can see quite a few things that I cannot see, but I do not say that these things do not exist. They do exist. So you do have a soul, and you can have free access to your soul the way I have. It is only a matter of development, development, development.

This is the year of unprecedented inner aspiration-progress and unlimited outer manifestation-success. Try to repeat these phrases every day: "Unprecedented inner aspiration-progress, unprecedented inner aspiration-progress, unlimited outer manifestation-success, unlimited outer manifestation-success," and feel their reality, depth and power. In so many ways, known and unknown, you will be helped from the inner world. No matter how many times you have failed in the past, in this year you will get tremendous inner strength. Again, no matter how many years you have succeeded in any field, in this year you will be able to increase your progress strikingly. Even if you have succeeded for years and years in something, there is no end to the progress you can make. Because this year is such an important year, you have the capacity to increase your aspiration and your dedication far beyond your imagination.

I am telling you the positive side, but also there is a negative side. I always say that a knife has the power to kill someone and also it has the power to cut fruits to be shared with someone. Here also the divine Light that is inside us in very small measure has the capacity to give us the fastest progress. Again, if God sees that some children of His are not taking full advantage of this opportunity, He will be disappointed and disgusted and He will withdraw this Light. Then we become a total failure in the spiritual life.

This year you have been given a golden opportunity, so I hope that you will make the fastest progress. You are definitely, definitely chosen by God, so you cannot sleep the way countless other people are sleeping. Ignorance-sleep you cannot have! The divinity, the power, the love and the divine light that you had, you still have. This is what is keeping you on the path. But you have to increase these things, and this year you can easily do it. I have said these things many, many times. But each time I talk, an extra power, an extra force, enters into you. So, dear ones, take me seriously and this year do it, do it, do it!

Forgiveness and gratitude²

But there is another way to look at forgiveness. God wants us to be at a certain height so that we can receive His Affection, Love, Compassion and Blessings, but right now we are not at that level. So God is begging us: "Just raise your consciousness an iota and come up to this level. Then I will be able to give you My Love, My Compassion and My Blessings." Our human mind may call it forgiveness, but God is not thinking about our inner and outer crimes. He just wants us to raise our consciousness so that we will increase our receptivity and oneness with Him. Then he will be able to give us more Compassion, more Light and more Love.

So when I ask you to cry for forgiveness, I am begging you to come up to a certain level so that the Supreme in me can give you something. If you are an excellent disciple, you will feel sad if you do not listen to your Guru and come to that level. But what do you do? In many cases you just look around and see that somebody else is already at that level. Then you become sad and miserable. So you make two mistakes. First, you do not try to come to the place that I want you to be, and then you become jealous and miserable because you have seen somebody else there.

If I want to give you something, you have to come near me to receive it. If I am above you, then you have to come at least to a certain height so that we can talk to one another. You have to come to the first rung of the ladder, let us say. Sometimes I see that you people get so much, so much from me — or let us say, from the Supreme through me — and then you do come up to that level. At that time, I am the happiest person. You may say, "Oh, Guru has forgiven me, or he would not be so kind and compassionate to me." But I am not even thinking about what you have done. Only I am happy that your consciousness is a little bit higher and I am now able to offer you more love, more affection, more blessings.

Then there is the question of degree — your degree of receptivity. I may want to give you ten dollars, but you are satisfied with only two dollars. Then how cleverly you justify your lack of receptivity! You tell the world, "Guru wanted to give me ten dollars, but I took only two dollars because that was enough for me. I can manage with two dollars, so I don't need ten dollars." I am talking about this in the form of money, but in the form of affection, compassion and blessings it is exactly the same. I want to give this much, but you say, "No, if I get an iota of compassion, that is enough for me." I want to give you a very large quantity, because I know that only then will I be able to give you an even larger quantity tomorrow. But you want to take only a drop. And your clever mind convinces you in such a clever way that you are doing the right thing. But if your wisdom-heart comes to the fore, you will say, "Since he wanted to give me $10, why should I be satisfied with only $2?I have to take the $10 if I want to please him in his own way." So if you are really sincere and feel your oneness with me, you will feel sad if you do not receive everything that I want to give you. You will say, "He wanted to give me so much, and I took so little. The reason I did not receive the utmost is because my receptivity is so weak. I am fooling myself if I say I can manage with that." You can't manage with that.

At every moment this kind of give-and-take is going on between God and human beings. God is giving and we are receiving. The human mind will say, "God will be pleased and happy that He didn't have to give me so much." But God will not be pleased. If the giver is an ordinary human being, he may say, "Oh, I am so glad that I met such a stupid fellow who is satisfied with $2. I am so happy that I didn't have to give him $10. And the stupid fellow who receives only $2 is also satisfied, because he can tell the world, "I can manage." Here the giver is a rogue and the receiver is a stupid fellow.

But in God's case, God is sad when we do not take the quantity that He wants to give us. For at that time we are not showing the gratitude that will increase our receptivity. God is not dying to receive our human gratitude. When an ordinary human being gives something to another person, immediately there is a sense of separativity. He feels that just because he has given such and such a thing, the other person has to be grateful. But God's idea of gratitude is totally different. When it is a question of giving and receiving in the soul's world, or between the divine parts of ourselves, the one who gives is equally grateful as the one who receives.

When I want to give you my blessings and light, I am so grateful if you can receive it, for that shows your oneness with me. And I am really grateful and really proud of you if you take the entire quantity that I want to give. Again, when I see that you don't take it, I feel sad. So you see how gratitude comes on both sides. I show my oneness-gratitude with you by giving what I have, and you show your oneness-gratitude with me by taking what I give. Here there is mutual gratitude and mutual oneness. It is such a sweet thing!

Every day we have the golden opportunity to offer our gratitude to our Lord Beloved Supreme in everything we do. There is not a single second when we cannot offer gratitude to God. Look at me. Physically and mentally I am suffering so much because of my oneness with my disciples and humanity. But even though I have such unbearable pain, in the inner world I am telling God, "I am so grateful to You that I am able to bear this pain cheerfully. You are having an experience in and through me, my Lord, and I am so grateful that I am not revolting against You. Then again, I am so grateful to You that I have disciples who will massage me 24 hours a day if I want. They may not cure me, but at least they can give me some relief, and I am grateful to You for this." And even if I had no disciples and were living like an ordinary human being, still I could say, "O God, no matter how bad my pain is, it could have been infinitely worse. I am so grateful to You that I am not in the hospital."

For good things naturally we offer gratitude to God. But even if we have bad experiences, like bad thoughts, still we can show gratitude. There are two ways. One way is to immediately compare what is happening now with a time when we had an even worse experience. We will see that the wrong, undivine, impure thoughts we are having today are nothing in comparison to what we were experiencing on that other horrible day, when we were suffering so terribly. Then we can say, "Right now I am bad, but I am so grateful to God because my consciousness is still much higher than it was on that horrible day." Or we can compare ourselves with the way we were ten years ago. Then we will say, "Oh God, I am so grateful to You that today I am not as bad as I was 10 years ago." This is the best way — to compare our own life now with what it used to be.

Another way is to compare ourselves with the ordinary people who are around us. We can look to this side and that side and immediately see unaspiring people who are infinitely worse than we are. Then we can say, "O God, because of Your Compassion, I am infinitely better than these people. I could have been so bad — like him or her — but You have kept me much better. You are so kind, so compassionate to me."

So we can offer gratitude to God no matter what kind of consciousness we have. If we are having good thoughts, we can say, "O God, I am grateful to You because no matter how bad I am now, I was infinitely worse a few years ago. Because of Your Compassion I have become at least a human being."

Again, we have to know that if our consciousness is low, immediately we can stop our bad thoughts with our will power. And if we have good thoughts, with our will power we can strengthen them. Will power can easily destroy our bad thoughts and negate the wrong forces in us. And with will power also we can increase the power of our good thoughts and increase our good qualities. So if we use our will power properly, we can perform miracle after miracle in our lives. And even if we do not, through our prayer and meditation, develop our will power, still with our sincere aspiration and sincere inner cry we can also do these things. So pray and meditate and develop your aspiration and gratitude. Then you will really see the difference in your lives.

Part III — Questions and answers on forgiveness

4. Question: Do we truly reap all we sow, from every thought, from every action?³

If a child goes and strikes another child, he knows that this child will come and strike him back. So what will he do? He will immediately go to his father. The father is stronger and he protects the child. In this case, the Father is the Supreme. If you mix with ignorance and then ignorance wants to devour you, if you run to the Father before ignorance can devour you, the Father will show His utmost Compassion and save you from ignorance. It all depends on how much Compassion you can receive from the Supreme.

5. Question: How does the Supreme illumine the past?⁴

6⁵

7. Question: How do you receive God's Forgiveness?⁶

This will be your only credential. In the ordinary life people have many credentials. They have this university degree, that degree and so on. But a spiritual seeker will say that he has only one credential. He will say either “I am my Lord’s Forgiveness,” or “I am my Lord’s Compassion,” or “I am my Lord’s Love.” So, if somebody asks you what your credentials are, immediately you will say, “My Lord’s Compassion is my only credential,” or “My Lord’s Forgiveness is my only credential.” It is not just false humility, for in the inmost recesses of your heart you do feel that your only credential is God’s Compassion or God’s Forgiveness. This is what all seekers must feel.

8. Question: If I do something wrong and ask the Supreme to forgive me, how do I know whether He has forgiven me?⁷

Another way is to ask your spiritual Master if the Supreme has forgiven you. The Master will be able to tell you. He will be very frank. Or you can go deep within for an hour or half an hour, and then you will be able to tell. Don’t allow any thought to enter your mind. Each time a thought comes, kill it; or feel that a fly has sat on you and you have chased it away. When another thought comes, chase it away, too. After a while, the thought-fly will feel that it is beneath its dignity to bother you, so the thought-process will stop. After you see that no thought is coming, just ask the question. If the answer is “yes”, then He has forgiven you. If the answer is “no”, then He has not forgiven you. So you can do it that way or you can ask your Master. To repeat the first method, when you have stopped doing that very thing for good, then also you will know that He has forgiven you.

9⁸

10. Question: If a person feels that God is all forgiving, won't that make it easier for the person to commit mistakes?⁹

But in the case of the spiritual Father, the divine Father, it is different. When the aspirant makes a mistake and runs towards the spiritual Father, the spiritual Father will protect the child, the aspirant, without doubt. Then immediately the Father will try to enter into the heart of the aspirant with Light. The human father will scold secretly, but the divine Father will not scold; He knows that scolding is of no use. He tries to see what is wrong in the aspirant. He sees that darkness is there, ignorance is there, and says, “Now, if I enter into the aspirant with Light, the Light will chase away the darkness. Then the Light will illumine the ignorance and transform it into knowledge and wisdom.” This wisdom will make the aspirant feel that he should remain peaceful, calm and quiet, and not run into conflict or strike anybody. The divine Father accomplishes this with Light, inner Light, by pouring inner Light into the aspirant. The human father will protect openly and then scold secretly because the human father does not have that pure Light, divine Light to illumine our darkness or chase away the wrong forces in us.

In both ways the temptation will be conquered: the divine Father will conquer it through Light, and the human father through strict discipline. But that does not mean that we will continue committing mistakes and then go to our Father for forgiveness, because some day we will shed bitter tears if we hear somebody say that our Father was partial to us.

11. Question: How do you forgive injustice?¹⁰

These people whom you feel are very unjust have done something undivine, true. But look at your own promise. You expect from these people perfection; you feel they have to do everything in a perfect way. But perfection comes only when we fulfil our promise. Our first and foremost promise was to God, to please Him and fulfil Him on earth. We have not fulfilled our promise; yet we expect others to fulfil their promise. As spiritual people, we should always see what we have done wrong. Millions of things we have done wrong. If we do millions of things wrong, then naturally God is forgiving us. Otherwise, we would not be able to exist on earth. If He is ready to forgive us in spite of our countless defects and mistakes, how is it that we cannot forgive someone else?

A spiritual seeker immediately claims himself to be a chosen child of God. An unaspiring person, a person who is wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, would never dare to claim this. He does not dare to claim God as his very own. But you do dare to claim that you are God’s chosen child, just because you have got an iota of God’s good qualities. God is good, God is divine, God is perfect, and all His divine qualities you have to some extent. So if one of God’s qualities is forgiveness, and if God forgives you twenty-four hours a day, can’t you forgive a person for one second? If your source has the capacity to do something in infinite measure, naturally you also should have the capacity to forgive or illumine others who have done something wrong, according to your standard.

12. Question: How can we remember to forgive the world for its defects and to forgive ourselves for our own defects?¹¹

If others do something wrong, if we don’t forgive them, if we harbour undivine thoughts against them or want to punish them, we will never find true satisfaction. In order to satisfy ourselves, our reality, we must forgive others, too. Forgiveness is illumination. We have to feel that by forgiving others we are illumining ourselves, our own enlarged, expanded Self.

If we do not forgive, what happens? We place a heavy load on our shoulders. If I have done something wrong and I don’t try to forgive myself or illumine myself, I will harbour the idea that I have made a mistake. And each time I think of my wrong action I will only add to my heavy load of guilt. Similarly, if others have done me an act of injustice, the more I think of this the heavier becomes my load of anger and resentment. Now, I have to run towards my goal. If I place something heavy on my shoulders, how am I going to run? I will see that others are all running very fast, while I can hardly walk.

It is always advisable to forgive others and to forgive oneself. Again, we have to know who is forgiving whom. I as an individual have no right to forgive others or even to forgive myself. It is the Divine within me that is inspiring me to raise my consciousness to Light, to higher Light, to highest Light. An act of forgiveness means a movement to a higher reality. And when we reach the highest Reality, we become one with the omnipresent Reality.

We are all integral parts of a living organism. If I have only two arms, I am incomplete; I need two legs, too. I need everything in order to be complete, perfect and whole. So I have to accept others as my very own. First I accept them and then I transform them. And whom am I transforming if not my own expanding, enlarged reality?

13. Question: How do we know when we should forgive a person who has injured us, and when we should retaliate?¹²

ourselves.

But when the Christ saw that his own people were constantly fighting, he said that there are some people of a good nature whom we should forgive because they sincerely try to do the right thing. If somebody of this type has done something wrong and we forgive him, then he will not do it again because he will know that he has done something wrong. If we tell him, “Alright, you have done it. Now don’t do it again,” he will be ashamed and embarrassed. He will feel repentant that he has done something wrong. Since he has a good nature, he will not do it a second time.

But if somebody has the nature of a scorpion or a monkey, we can give him as many chances as we want, but he will not change his nature. So with him we have to be very strict. If somebody is by nature like a scorpion and we give him a chance, he will simply kill us.

14. Question: Is there any limit to God's Forgiveness?¹³

Part IV — Poems on forgiveness

15. Two hopes

Two hopes are constantly singing

I shall one day start loving

My Lord Supreme will secretly tell me

16. Forgive and forget

Forgive,

Forget,

Forgive and forget,

Within and without.

17. My heart-home

My heart-home is a place

In front of my heart-home

God’s Compassion-Tree

God’s Forgiveness-Tree.

18. If to forgive is divine

To err is human.

Do not overdo it.

If to forgive is divine,

You can never overdo it.

19

I keep on praying and praying to God

God keeps on forgiving and forgiving

God’s Heart and my soul feel

And illumining game.

20

Between your justice-light

I shall have to make a choice.

That I will take your side?

Not only do I long for

Indeed, this is my only goal.

21

Not my Master’s smile,

Not my Master’s compassion,

Is my life-breath,

22. God's magic Wand

Although you yourself

You are now dying to forget

Lo, God’s Forgiveness-magic Wand

23. O forgiveness-light from Above

O forgiveness-light from Above,

My crying and bleeding heart,

24. Endless talking

You indulge in endless talking

Do you realise what you do to yourself

You just load up troubles

Until you are totally confused and totally lost.

God’s Compassion-Eye,

And Illumination-Heart.

25. You have not forgiven me

You have not forgiven me.

You have not loved me.

26. My conscious self-glory

God is always anxious and eager

But do I care for His Forgiveness?

What do I want from Him?

But my conscious self-glory

27. Appreciation for my prayer

I ask God for forgiveness

But then I come to realise

That I actually wanted from Him.

Was nothing but appreciation

28. I am ready to weep

I am ready

Until I am completely engulfed

29. God's Forgiveness-Eye

God’s Forgiveness-Eye

Over all your excruciating sufferings.

For God’s choice Hour.

30. Every time I run away from You

Every time I run away from You

I see Your Eyes

And I feel Your Heart

31. Teach what you are being taught

Teach what you are being taught

A forgiveness-song

Of your Beloved Supreme.

32. Your chastening Eye

My sweet Lord,

Intensely and unreservedly love.

Your chastening Eye I unmistakably,

33. Two places to hide imperfections

There are two places to hide

One place is inside

And the other place is under

34. He who fears

Do not fear.

God’s Compassion-Eye

35. Man's ingratitude

God’s Compassion-Eye

Work even in the face

36. My life is forgiven by God

My life is forgiven by God.

To forgive the world around me.

37. Love can enlarge

As forgiveness can illumine

Even so love can enlarge

38. Comfortable but not soulful

Do you not see

But not soulful

Such being the case,

Will never knock at your heart’s door.

39. What you are doing right now

My Lord,

Of what I do,

What I am doing.

What You are doing right now.

And forgiving me.

40. When I choose

When I choose

My divinity-sun immediately increases

When I choose

My humility-moon immediately increases

41. To become a perfect instrument

To become a perfect instrument

You need only two things from Him daily.

You need His Compassion

Your searching mind can succeed

During the night

Because unconsciously, if not consciously,

42. A different drink

Forgive me, my Lord Supreme,

I have drunk doubt-poison

Now I want to change my drink.

Immeasurably and spontaneously.

Will You not?

43. A different friend

Forgive me, my Lord Supreme,

I have made friends

Consciously and deliberately.

I want to accept wisdom-light

Immediately and permanently.

Will You not?

44. I have not loved you

Forgive me, my Lord Supreme,

I have not loved You

Will You not give me another chance, my Lord,

45. I have not served you

Forgive me, my Lord Supreme,

I have not served You

Inside the hearts of the pilgrim-seekers

Will You not give me another chance, my Lord,

46. I have not spoken to the world

Forgive me, my Lord Supreme,

I have not spoken to the world about You

Will You not give me another chance, my Lord,

47. I have not manifested you

Forgive me, my Lord Supreme,

I have not manifested You here on earth

Will You not give me another chance, my Lord,

48. God's Forgiveness finds me

God’s Forgiveness finds me

God’s Compassion takes me

49. His life's early morning

His life’s early morning

His life’s late evening

50. God's Compassion-Heights

God’s Forgiveness-Depths

Secretly.

God’s Compassion-Heights

Openly.

51

My Beloved Lord Supreme,

But Your Forgiveness-Sun does know

52

I always pray to God for forgiveness

If God forgives me,

53

If you can make

You will definitely have a way

54

Alas, I did not know

Such a heavy debt

55

Be careful of the past!

To powerfully control

But also the entire future.

56

The most difficult thing on earth

Is that yesterday’s misdeeds

57

Will you ever realise

Will be unmistakably followed

58

Again and again

And asking others to forgive you.

To expect and demand their forgiveness

Making the same mistake?

59

My Lord Supreme,

And give me another chance,

I deserve forgiveness

You want your entire creation

60

If you think

You must also realise

61

Every day God writes

To those who have failed

And Compassion-letters

To sit for the examination once again.

62

God’s Forgiveness-Heart

Of your remorseful tears

Of your tears.

63

My Lord,

What happens You know:

Inside my heart,

That Your Compassion-Universe

64

If you can cry like a child

You will win the Supreme’s Forgiveness.

Even one fleeting minute is enough,

Compassion-King

Forgiveness-Emperor.

65

God

His Forgiveness

But do you really want God

Or do you want to continue

This is the question

66

Every day

For the breathless breath

67

The more I try

From God

Compassion-Forgiveness-Radar

68

My Beloved Supreme tiptoed

And left behind on my bed

And His Forgiveness-Heart.

69

When God forgives you

That He will also forgive

70

To stop your desire-fire,

Of God’s Forgiveness-Light.

71

The only place to discard

Is in God’s Forgiveness-Heart.

72

Everything of God

But His earth-visiting

I love most.

73

Far beyond my “yes” and “no”

Infinite Forgiveness-Light

74

There are two ways

One way is to tell God,

I shall not do it again!”

“My Lord,

To live consciously in You

75

His vision-eye

His compassion-heart

His forgiveness-oneness

76

My Lord,

What happens, You know:

Inside my heart,

That Your Compassion-Universe

77

Do you know

God has taught him

And unmistakably

His own unforgivable life.

78

My griefs and my sorrows

When I received a Forgiveness-Letter

79

If you can make

You will definitely have a way

80

If you know

Then God also knows

81

The sunlit way to realise God

And wisely forgive

82

God has forgiven me.

He has not yet forsaken me.

God has not forsaken me.

For me to be His perfect instrument

83

Even before I knew

God started painting my life

84

You want to know

On His day off.

He spends all His time

85

Forgetfulness

And at times blissful.

Is always and always blissful —

86

Humanity’s Saviour,

We bow to You

We love You

Our beautiful souls are of You,

For You alone.

87

Inside His Heart is Compassion.

At His Feet is Forgiveness.

88

Follow, follow every day

Of God’s Compassion-Eye

89

If you are ready

Soulfully and cheerfully,

That God will grant you enlightenment

90

There is only one place

And that is inside

Compassion-Eye.

Part V — 50 songs for forgiveness — composed during Christmas 1986-1987

91. Khama tumi karbe jani — You will forgive me

Khama tumi karbe jani

You will forgive me, with that hope

92. Prabhu taba khama — My Lord, your forgiveness

Prabhu taba khama taba madhumoyi ankhi

My Lord, Your Forgiveness is Your nectar-sweet Eye.

93. Shasti kothai — Where is punishment

Shasti kothai shasti kothai

Where is punishment, where is punishment?

94. Ke amare ogo karibe ajike khama — Who will forgive me today

Ke amare ogo karibe ajike khama

Who will forgive me today

95. Basana duar ruddha kariya — Close my desire-door today

Basana duar ruddha kariya

Close my desire-door today,

96. Khamar jogya nahi ami jani — Forgiveness I do not deserve

Khamar jogya nahi ami jani

Forgiveness I do not deserve.

97. Shato aparadh kariyacho khama — Hundreds of crimes of mine You have forgiven

Shato aparadh kariyacho khama

Hundreds of crimes of mine You have forgiven

98. Khama lagi kandte habe — In the depths of my heart

Khama lagi kandte habe

In the depths of my heart,

99. Bahire nehari — In my outer life

Bahire nehari bidhata tomar karuna plaban

In my outer life, My Lord, I see Your Compassion-Flood.

100. Puratane khama karite haibe — I must forgive my own past

Puratane khama karite haibe

I must forgive my own past

101. Param pitar khama jani — My Absolute Lord's Forgiveness

Param pitar khama jani amar lagi

My Absolute Lord’s Forgiveness, I know,

102. Param prabhur khama bina — Everything is far, very far

Param prabhur khama bina

Bahu dure

Everything is far, very far,

103. Bishal hriday nahi jage — A vast heart can never be awakened

Bishal hriday nahi jage

A vast heart can never be awakened

104. Tumi tomar kripar ankhi — You are Your Compassion-Eye.

Tumi tomar kripar ankhi

You are Your Compassion-Eye.

105. Jibaner bhore kariyacho khama — At the dawn of my life You forgave me

Jibaner bhore kariyacho khama

At the dawn of my life You forgave me.

106. Dhire ati dhire man jangal — Slowly, very slowly in my mind-jungle

Dhire ati dhire man jangal

Slowly, very slowly in my mind-jungle,

107. Ati druta gati hridaya kanane — Speedily and speedily, in my heart-garden

Ati druta gati hridaya kanane

Speedily and speedily, in my heart-garden

108. Param pitar nitya nutan — I am alive in this world

Param pitar nitya nutan

Nitya ami dharar kole benche achi

I am alive in this world

Everyday, ever-new Forgiveness.

109. Bhagabaner khama chhara — Without God's Forgiveness

Bhagabaner khama chhara

Without God’s Forgiveness my life

110. Shasti tomar tomar khamar — Your Punishment is another form

Shasti tomar tomar khamar

Your Punishment is another form

111. Tumije anadi khamar baridhi — Always You are Your beginningless Forgiveness-Ocean

Tumije anadi khamar baridhi nirabadhi

Always You are Your beginningless Forgiveness-Ocean.

112. Manaser bane aparadh kari — In my mind-jungle I commit crimes

Manaser bane aparadh kari

In my mind-jungle I commit crimes.

113. Khamar lagi kendechilam — I cried for forgiveness

Khamar lagi kendechilam

I cried for forgiveness, forgiveness I have achieved.

114. Hai hai hai hai — Alas, alas

Hai hai hai hai bhul kareo khamar nabhe

Alas, alas, even by mistake I do not want to

115. Animeshe kandbo ami — Sleeplessly I shall cry today

Animeshe kandbo ami

Sleeplessly I shall cry today