Joining Sri Chinmoy's Path

I see some sincere seekers here tonight who are not my disciples. You are most welcome to join us in our meetings and meditations, but there are a few rules and regulations. After you have come here once, twice, three times or even four times, you have to make your decision as to whether my path will satisfy you or not. If you feel that my path will not satisfy you, then the best thing for you is not to come. But after four times if you are still not sure whether you care for my path, and if you want to continue coming for a while longer to find out if this path is meant for you, I wish to say come, but please try to come to a decision very soon.

Even if an aspirant outwardly meets my requirements, I may accept or reject him, and the aspirant also has the same choice, to accept or reject me. The relationship between the Guru and disciple must be one of mutual acceptance and mutual satisfaction. A person may be a brilliant student and he may want to study, but he may not care for a particular school even though it teaches the subjects he wishes to study. Similarly, a soul may have aspiration but, at the same time, it may not care for my particular help. When a student comes to study with an ordinary teacher, the teacher allows him to study as long as he pays the fee. In my case, I do not ask for money; my only fee is aspiration and regularity. When I concentrate on a soul, immediately I know whether it can be helped by me. If I feel that my help will be of no avail to that particular person, then I don’t want to waste either my time or his time, although I do appreciate his aspiration. Sometimes I reject people and tell them that some other path is more suitable for them. I make this decision on the strength of my oneness with the soul: I see its possibilities, its aspiration and its union with my soul. I can easily tell if a person is ready for my instruction or if he is meant for me.

There must be an inner harmony of acceptance on the part of both of us if I am to be able to help the aspirant run towards his goal. During the first six months or so with me the aspirant has the chance to demonstrate his sincerity. At any moment during this trial period, if I see that he is not suited for my path, I will tell him so. At the same time he, too, has the right to reject me if he finds that my way does not suit him.

During this early period, both the teacher and the student examine each other. The student examines the teacher to see if the teacher is right for him and the teacher also has the right to examine the student to see if he is going to stay. During this time I am usually very strict with the seekers. I do not give any interviews; only for a second or two I may say “Hello” and that is all. I get the best results by being strict. Those who are really sincere go very fast and those who are not so sincere in the beginning try to become more sincere. Finally, there comes a time when they either have to accept me wholeheartedly or reject me totally.

When seekers accept me wholeheartedly I take full responsibility for their life of aspiration. At that time I am proud to say, “He is mine, she is mine.” If a seeker doesn’t accept me wholeheartedly and goes from one group to another, he then brings all his confusion to me. He says, “This teacher has said this, that teacher has said that,” and so forth. So I tell him, “I want you to keep only what you have learned from me and I will tell you only what I see in you. What others see in you is their business; what I see in you is my business. When I am ready to take you wholeheartedly, you also have to take me wholeheartedly. God gave you the opportunity to leave me from the beginning. There is no compulsion to stay.” In this way I get wonderful results from my disciples.

Some people I consider as members of the Centre and some as disciples. If you become a member, you can participate in our functions and you may attend our meetings. You may attend irregularly; you can come once in a blue moon if you want to and I will not blame you. If you become a disciple, however, you have to feel more committed. A disciple is totally committed to the Centre whereas a member is not. The more you commit yourself, the more you get. If you become a disciple, I expect you to become part and parcel of the Centre and please me in every way. At the same time, as a disciple you have the right to expect everything from me when it is a matter of peace, light, love and concern. So, to become a disciple is a very serious commitment. Members are like very good acquaintances; they have aspiration, but disciples have intense aspiration and also dedication.

My path is quite strict. I want only those disciples who feel an urgent need for God-realisation. Some people enter the spiritual life for other reasons: they want to be satisfied with a little peace, light and joy in their lives. Their aspiration does not go so far as Self-realisation. They have every right to their own limited goals, but in such a case I have to say that my path is not the path for them. I am not the right Guru for them. I only wish to have as my disciples those seekers who are crying for the highest Truth and Light.

To those of you who are pulled by the outer life, I wish to tell you that this is not our first or our last life. If we do not accomplish something in this life, we will have ample opportunity to accomplish it in another lifetime. But if we try to do everything at once, we will not be able to do anything well. So let us be clever and make a promise that for the next forty years or so, for this one lifetime at least, we shall do everything divine, we shall try our utmost to realise God. Each year of this lifetime let us keep the same promise, the promise that we shall have faith in ourselves, in our path, in our Master, in the Supreme. At the end of this incarnation the Supreme will know what is best for us. If we have missed some significant experience in the outer life, He will give it to us in some future incarnation. In the meantime, let us devote ourselves wholeheartedly to one goal in this incarnation.

Vibrations

Before I accept someone as a disciple, if I am not able to speak with him and see him directly, I ask him to send me a photograph of himself and a short resume of his life. When I look at the picture, it is not because I get certain vibrations from the picture, as with ESP. No, in my case I do not care for vibration. There is something deeper than vibration and that is a conscious awareness of the soul. That is to say, I can enter into the soul and see if your soul is meant for me, for my path. I can also get a vibration from a picture, but a person’s vibration changes from day to day. Today you may like me very much and I will get one vibration from you, but tomorrow you might not like me at all and the vibration I get from you will be totally different. A person’s vibration does not remain the same; constantly the vibration is changing. Today someone may have a good vibration and tomorrow he will give a bad vibration, but the soul of the person remains the same. The soul’s potentiality, the soul’s aspiration and the soul’s awareness will not change like the vibration. If the soul has real aspiration and, at the same time, if the soul wants my particular help, then I immediately help the soul.

If men have long hair and beards then, forgive me, this is not the place for them. Moustaches I allow in rare cases, but not long hair and beards. These create a wrong vibration. Anything can create a wrong vibration, even a word or a look. If you look at a flower with an evil thought, you immediately create a wrong vibration; but if you look at the same flower with pure thoughts, immediately you feel something divine in your life, in your very eyes and face. When somebody looks at a woman with impure thoughts, immediately the woman feels, “Oh, he is just devouring me.” But when a saint looks at a woman, then the woman comes and touches his feet. Why is this? It is because we have both animal propensities and divine propensities within us. At each moment we are being guided either by a divine force or by an undivine force. If you are a spiritual person in a good consciousness and aspiring, then naturally the divine forces will come to you. But if you are behaving in an unspiritual way, then undivine forces will come. Who can remain without thought? We are victims to thought at every moment. Either we have good thoughts or bad thoughts and each thought creates a world of its own. Then you have to live in that world, I have to live in that world, humanity has to live in that world.

Spiritual names

Before you can be eligible for a spiritual name, you have to be a member of your particular Centre for at least a year or two. I will observe your inner progress right from the beginning, from the day you accept me as your spiritual guide and I accept you as my disciple. After a year or two I will see if you are ready for a spiritual name.

There are disciples who have been with us for three, three and a half or even four years who have not been blessed with a spiritual name. The reason is very simple: I am not fully satisfied with their inner progress, their inner achievement. There is an inner standard which I won’t be able to explain to you outwardly, but if you come to that inner standard you are bound to get a spiritual name. You will feel the necessity of bringing your soul’s predominant qualities to the fore and thus make the fastest progress toward realising the highest Supreme. Sometimes husband and wife have come to me together. But I wish to say that although you have come together, it does not mean that I will give both of you your spiritual names at the same time. If both partners have made the same progress and have satisfied me equally, then naturally both of you will get your names together. But if I see that only one of the partners is in a position to receive a spiritual name, then only that particular person will get it. If the wife has made most satisfactory progress, then the wife will get her name and the husband will have to wait. Similarly, if the husband has made tremendous progress and the wife is lagging behind, then the wife will have to wait.

It is like running a race. A runner wins the race when any part of his body touches the string first. All the limbs don’t have to touch it together. If one foot has reached the destination, that is enough; he is the winner. So both partners are inseparably one, but one has reached the destination a second earlier than the other. In that way, the partner who doesn’t get a name can divinely console himself or herself. There is much truth in this. Each one has to wait for his own time, for God’s Hour.

To get a spiritual name is really important. At that time you consciously know the meaning, the significance of your soul. If you know what your soul’s main qualities are, then only will you one day be able to bring them to the fore. If you do not know what you are trying to bring to the fore, then it is more difficult. But the moment you know what you are expected to do, what you are going to bring to the fore, then there is not only every possibility but every assurance that you will do it eventually.

The Master's presence

Where your consciousness lies is of paramount importance. No matter where you are, you should feel my presence inside your heart. If you are concentrating on me or on your Inner Pilot, then you will get the utmost benefit. But if your mind is roaming, then even if you are in my physical presence you are getting, nothing.

Some of you are afraid of becoming attached to my physical presence, but I wish to say that you are not doing anything wrong if you feel more inspiration in my physical presence. Instead of using the word ‘attachment’ we can use the word ‘devotion’. The devoted feeling that you have when you see that I am physically in front of you is legitimate and correct in every way. The physical has great importance. As I have told you many times, it is the greatest boon when a spiritual Master is in the physical. Then you are getting the spiritual along with the physical. You get more affection, more concern, more compassion because here in the physical world you have easy access to the Master. If you don’t get his message spiritually, you will get it physically. But when you have to get the message spiritually after the Master has left the body, it is really difficult. It is like getting only half of what you got before.

Again, you have to know that the physical is not all. Whether I am physically here or not, I will try to bring your soul to the fore, to bring down Peace, Bliss and divine Power in abundant measure for all the seekers here. A short time ago I was visiting another country, but most of you felt what I did for you during my physical absence. When you meditate you are bound to feel my presence, because at that time you have entered into me and you are establishing your oneness with me. During meditation you can expand your physical consciousness in the same way as you are expanding your soul. At that time you are with me because you are feeling my divine presence. When you are not meditating, often you are in the mind, you are in the vital or you are in the physical, so you do not feel my presence. But if you stay in the soul, you are bound to feel my inner presence because the soul is illumined. If you can bring the light from the soul into the mind, the vital and the physical and illumine them, then in every part of your being you are bound to feel my physical presence with you. If you can establish this kind of constant inner meditation in your life of aspiration, then our inner bond will be very solid, very strong. At that time, even if you are walking along the street, you will feel I am walking beside you.

Physically I meet with the disciples and you can see me, true; but the physical is always at one place whereas the soul is everywhere. It is like the feeling the mother has if, let us say, she is in India and the son is studying in America. The mother feels that the son is inside her heart, and the son will say that his dearest mother is not in India but right inside his heart. Physically, the son is thousands of miles away from the mother; but spiritually, with their inner oneness, with their affection and love, they are in each other’s hearts.

If you have the feeling that I abide twenty-four hours a day inside your heart, then any distance between your home and your Master’s home will be transcended and nullified. Otherwise, I may be right in front of your nose, but if there is no inner communication, then it will be as though I were millions of miles away. The son is studying in college with a professor. Every day he is seeing his professor and listening to him. He has no real connection with his professor; he is just mechanically following the professor’s instructions. But his mother’s mind and his mind are interlaced together. So it is the feeling of inner oneness that lets the son transcend the outer barrier. Once the inner oneness is established, the physical separation, the geographical boundary, can easily be overcome. But if one has not established this inner oneness, the geographical boundaries can never be overcome.

Again, if you are in my presence, then here is the greatest test. If you run in a race and come in last, at that time try to feel your oneness with the winner. I may be appreciating someone else and praising him to the skies, but instead of allowing jealous and envious thoughts to enter into you, try to become one with us. Once you have established your oneness with me and with the winner, then you will feel my love for you as well. To become universally one is very important. Then you will be able to identify with the good things in others. It is especially hard to identify with the good side of people, but it is the inner oneness which makes it possible.

If you are one with me, then there will be no doubt, fear and jealousy. At that time, do not feel that your position is superior. There is great danger in building up your ego. But if your oneness comes forward, then you are safe. If you have established your inner oneness, then when you see me physically it becomes really meaningful. Otherwise, I can come to see you every month or twice a month, but if you are not going to make any progress, what am I going to do? God has a special purpose for keeping you where you are. If the inner oneness has been established, the effect of my physical presence will be like a miracle. And no matter where my physical is, once you have established your inner, inseparable oneness with me, that oneness lasts through Eternity.

Accepting prasad with devotion

Whenever I offer you a gift, please take it as a blessing, even if I give it in a joking manner. When I bless one of you or give you anything, it is absolutely meant only for the person to whom it is given and not for anyone else. I know of a spiritual Master who used to become absolutely furious when disciples gave to others things which they had received from him. If you are in a very, very high mood and you feel that I would be equally happy if you shared something with someone else, only then may you give it to your absolutely dearest one — your husband or wife, your child, your brother or sister.

What I give is for your soul, and your soul gladly receives it. Your soul is always hungry for light, whereas the other parts of your being are often hungry in a negative way. The mind, heart and vital can be very jealous, insincere and undivine. When you are captured by undivine forces, at that time you are not hungry for my love; you are insecure and depressed and you stand in front of me in a negative way. But if you can stay in your soul, you will feel very hungry for my Light and my Compassion, and you will always get everything that you need.

If what I give you outwardly you receive with devotion, then your soul can eat the full quantity. You are taking all my blessings from me and offering them to your soul. But if you don’t take prasad devotedly, the soul does not get the necessary nourishment.

You may say, “I don’t need that candy,” but if you take it with devotion, like a magnet you are receiving from me. Otherwise, it is absurd. If you don’t take the prasad with devotion when I give it to you, even if you eat it later on when you are in a better consciousness, you won’t be able to feed your soul wholeheartedly. I always say that you should receive prasad with both hands, but if you take it even with one finger it doesn’t matter so long as there is devotion. And this devotion is not going to the human in me. No, the Supreme in me is getting it. Yesterday I gave away a small booklet with some of my paintings in it. Some people thought it was just a silly book worth only twenty-five cents. They said to me that they would share it with their wives or their girlfriends. True, those booklets were silly, but anything you get from me, please take devotedly.

Please, please, in this incarnation take whatever I offer you devotedly — even if it is a blade of grass. You are not getting merely a blade of grass. No, the moment you touch it you can also get Peace, Love and all my divine qualities, which can never be bought. No matter how much love, devotion and surrender you have, they don’t qualify you to get my love. You may offer me every penny that you have, but if I don’t want to give you my soul’s infinite love, then what help are they? If you can get my love, there is nothing on earth or in Heaven which can compare with it. If you come to me and take my blessing-gift with a soulful attitude, what I give you during the second that you stand in front of me you could not get on your own in ten or twenty or God knows how many years! When I give you something, please take it with that feeling. I know of a spiritual Master who used to give blessing-gifts in a funny, childish way. Sometimes she even used to throw them and the disciples had to be real catchers. But even then the disciples used to receive the gifts with such love and devotion. If this Master was displeased with anyone, when that person’s turn came she used to throw the blessing-gift on the ground. Then, like a dog the person had to go and get it. I don’t do that, but out of the one hundred disciples to whom I gave my drawings yesterday, I could have thrown the booklet on the ground for at least forty people who had a wrong kind of attitude.

Also, if her disciples had any kind of silly desires, this Master would expose them like anything. Once, someone wrote the Master a note asking for butter and tea. Later, when hundreds of people were queuing up to receive a blessing from the Master, she asked that person to read out what he had written. Poor fellow, he had to read out that he wanted butter and tea and he was exposed. But in this way hundreds of people learned from his mistake. I, too, could expose people. Hundreds would learn from it if I threw the blessing-gift on the ground after I saw that the consciousness of the disciple was bad, or that the disciple was not receiving the gift with devotion. So when I give material things, please change your consciousness even if it is only for a few minutes. If this is unnatural, then be unnatural for a few minutes when you receive; afterwards you can go back to your usual normal consciousness.

Let me end with a funny story. There was once a spiritual Master who used to say to his disciples, “Take difficulties as prasad. Take them as blessings of the Supreme. The more difficulties you have, the more progress you will eventually make.”

Now, one of his disciples assimilated the Master’s philosophy in his own way and he began stealing and doing all kinds of undivine things. He felt that he would realise God by doing wrong things and getting into difficulty, since doing the right thing was so hard.

One day the Master called him and said, “My son, do you have to create more problems for yourself? You have already inherited so many problems from the world. You have no many difficulties which you cannot cope with. Why do you want to add to them? What I meant by taking your problems as prasad is that you should not be disturbed by them or try to destroy yourself over them. Feel that the problems which you already have inherited from the world are from God, and that God definitely knows how to perfect and illumine you. Identify yourself with God, you will always be able to cope with your problems.”

In gratitude the seeker bowed to the Master and began a new life, with new illumination.

Devotion and familiarity

Sometimes when I leave my shoes outside the meditation hall, I see that some of my disciples rearrange them with their feet. Bharata placed Rama’s wooden sandals on his heart when he had to rule the kingdom in Rama’s absence, and my disciples sometimes kick my sandals! My realisation will not be affected if you touch my shoes with your feet; but because of your lack of devotion, you may delay your own realisation for one more second. When you lose devotion, you lose everything. Devotion is like a magnet. When you show devotion, it pulls something good and divine from me.

Here when I show my human aspect it is easier for you to show devotion, but you should not misunderstand me. Feel that our relationship on the physical plane is the sweetest thing, but it is not all, because tomorrow if you die you will say, “Oh, everything is gone!” Sometimes if certain disciples stay with me for two or three hours, they become tired because they feel that I am doing all kinds of ordinary things. But I wish to say that I am doing many, many significant things inwardly at that time. Whenever you are with me in the Centre or anywhere else, please feel that it is an opportunity in your spiritual life. Today you are getting an Indian feast for an hour or so, but tomorrow you may get only a morsel. Again, if you see me for an hour or more today and tomorrow you have the opportunity only to catch a glimpse of me, you should not say, “Why should I bother to see him? Yesterday I had a grand feast!” Please feel the importance of even one morsel of food, since that particular morsel will add to your inner strength in the spiritual life, and the day after tomorrow you may not even get that morsel.

The more you can approach me inwardly and outwardly, the closer you can become and the faster will be your progress. But you have to know that there are different ways to make progress. If you are not close to me outwardly, it is for your own progress that I have to do this. I know what is best for you. One person needs one kind of treatment, someone else needs another kind of treatment.

At times I become the disciples’ worst enemy. Most of the time you love me but sometimes when I look at some of the disciples, I feel that if I were left alone with them, they would do something to me. They are so displeased and furious with me that if I were to give them a knife, they would stab me. God has not supplied them with a knife and that is why I am still alive. I am dealing with omnipotence, while they have only a needle, which is their hydrogen bomb. I also have a hydrogen bomb, but not the one that destroys. No, my hydrogen bomb is Compassion.

You will use your own weapon, your needle, to try to destroy me, to kill me inwardly, and I will use my weapon — my Compassion — to perfect you. Unfortunately, sometimes when I show you abundant Compassion, either you feel that you have become the emperor of spirituality, or the Ignorance-King Satan attacks you and you think that now is the time to kick me right and left. God has not opened up your third eye for you to see how some of my disciples literally kick me if I don’t fulfil their desires. But you do not know that if I used my indifference-power, it would be your death blow. When I am indifferent to your inner life, feel that you have already gone to the other world. But I can’t use this indifference-power unless the Supreme says that you don’t belong in my boat. Otherwise, unless and until a disciple has accepted another boat, it is my duty to carry him.

Some of the disciples find it beneath their dignity to behave like the other disciples. They always have to do something different, to have their own individuality. If some of you sit down, they have to stand up to prove that they don’t belong to your group. If you want to apply this kind of will-power, you can; but the power that tells you that you also can act and be like the others, that you can remain in a group — that power requires tremendous discipline, will-power and capacity.

If someone says, “Please sit down!” why should you sit down? If someone says, “Please stand up!” why should you listen? Or, if someone says “no”, why should you try to see eye-to eye with him? It is like this. The force that you cherish in order to remain separate from others is a very bad force. To remain separate is called individuality or personality; but why don’t you treasure the other force that enables you to be in a group? Why don’t you use the other will-power that enables you to go together with others? “United we stand, divided we fall.” If we have this kind of will, then our mission will really be fulfilled. How can we cultivate this feeling of oneness? Early in the morning when we meditate, we have to feel that we are a river. The nature of a river is to enter into the source. Morning, noon and evening it is continuously flowing towards the sea. If we can feel this, then easily we can cultivate the feeling of oneness.

Humour and appreciation

I eat with you, I talk with you, I mix with you, I joke with you, I do everything that you are doing. You should say, “Since Guru is doing the same things that I do, how is it that I can’t realise God?” Everything that you do, I do. But again, that very thing that I have, sometimes you feel you cannot get.

If I always remain serious, then everyone will be afraid of me. But I do enjoy the humorous side of life; otherwise I could not remain on earth. Humour is the salt of life, but we also have to know the other side: the serious side, the sublime side. Sometimes my consciousness comes down to enjoy humour, but even then another part of me — which is really the illumined consciousness, the divine consciousness — stays in the highest Height. It remains static, while the other part of me goes up and comes down. One has to know how much capacity one has. In the case of spiritual Masters there is no backward race. If spiritual Masters climb down the tree for their disciples, at any moment they can go back up. But for the disciples it is very difficult to go back up after they descend. It is easy to climb down, but hard to go up. Sometimes I appreciate the disciples and tell them that they are good and great but the next day, believe me, they fall like anything. After being at the top of the tree, they touch the foot of the tree. A disciple will be doing so well but then if I appreciate him and say, “Soon you will be a first-class disciple,” quite often on the following day that disciple starts his backward march. Then I say to him, “Instead of going backwards, just stand in one place at least.” But it does no good.

Sometimes the Supreme wants me to appreciate people. He says, “The person whom you are appreciating may fall, but others who are hearing your appreciation will be inspired to run forward. They will be inspired because they see that he is not different from them and they will ask themselves why they cannot make the same progress.” So when I appreciate someone, others can get much joy if they don’t become jealous at that time.

Beyond the disciple's experience

There are two significant experiences in your life of aspiration which you will one day get, but which right now are beyond your imagination. One is the experience of unconditional love. Have you loved anybody unconditionally or has anybody loved you unconditionally? No, only God has loved you unconditionally. So, right now, unconditional love is beyond your experience.

The other experience is that of not being affected in your inmost depths by any outer occurrences. Now you do not even see that inmost corner where your true wealth is. When you do see it, you will then feel it and finally grow into it. But right now, in the outer life there is not a single day when you are happy for twenty-four hours. There is not even one hour in which you can say you were continually happy. You may say, “Not so!” But I will beg to differ. Your happiness is judged like this: Yesterday if you felt terrible and miserable, you make a comparison between yesterday and today. Then you say, “Today I am very happy.” But when it is a matter of real happiness, if you become sincere you will say, “No, today I am not totally happy.” If I ask you, a hundred times out of a hundred you won’t be able to say that for a whole hour you were happy.

Your happiness-sun is eclipsed almost all the time by clouds of fear, clouds of doubt, clouds of anxiety, clouds of worry and other things. This is what you are experiencing every day in your outer life. But you have something deep inside you called the inner life. If this inner life or soul, let us say, is totally illumined, it will not be affected by outer disturbances.

I become totally one with you people in your suffering, in your frustration, in your anxiety, in your divine thoughts; in everything I am one with you. But if my inner Peace, Bliss and Light were affected by my oneness with you, by this time you would have seen our whole mission totally collapse. In the outer world when you do something wrong, I scold you and act concerned because I am totally identified with you people. But in the inner life, where I am absolutely one with the Supreme, I am as detached as the Himalayas. Usually I won’t be at all affected, no matter what kind of unthinkable, unimaginable, stupid or bad thing you do. If I am not affected in my inner existence by someone’s wrongdoing, that person can still have hope that he will be able to make progress and realise the Truth. Again, it has happened that somebody does affect the inner existence of a spiritual Master by doing something unpardonably wrong in the Eye of the Supreme. Then the life of that particular person is totally lost. If I am affected in my inner life, the responsibility for that person I just cast aside.

Right now, ordinary experiences in the outer life will affect you. But if you bring Peace, Light and Bliss from the inner life into the outer life, then you will not be affected. It is like someone in the kitchen who smells food but does not eat the food. Even if the food is poisonous, the smell will not affect him or do anything harmful to him. Similarly, there will come a time when you have made so much progress that in the inner life you will not be affected at all by the outer life. You will not be affected by either a good thing or a bad thing, just as spiritual Masters are not affected in their highest realisation. If they are affected there, then they are not real spiritual Masters in the inner life. That is why although I get colds, fever and all kinds of human ailments, these outer disturbances do not take away my Peace, Light and Bliss. When you get a fever or any illness, you can’t meditate at all. In my case, even with the highest fever of 104 or 105 degrees, I will be able to do my best meditation because my meditation can never be affected by my fever. I can easily separate the body from the soul, but the disciples cannot.

Disciples leaving the boat

Recently some disciples left our boat and today I had to ask two or three more to leave the boat. People come and people go, but I have only one request to you: don’t mix with the disciples who have left us. No matter who you are, no matter how spiritual and how divine you think you are, even if you think you will realise God tomorrow, please listen to my request. People who have left the Centre also have power. The force that took them away has tremendous power. In this case, it is negative power, an undivine power, but don’t think that negative power is not strong. If you mix with them, without fail they will influence you, tempt you and try to take you away. And this has been happening during these last two weeks.

You should not even think of them, because when you think of them, unconsciously or consciously you are bringing their present consciousness into your aspiring life. You have enough problems of you own to solve. Do not try to deal with the problems of others as well. If you carry news about those who have left our path or bring gossip about them, you are only taking poison into yourself and throwing it into others. You are doing an injustice to the Supreme. Do not be in touch with them even in a mental way, unless it is absolutely necessary. Even if you just indulge in hearing from them yourself and don’t spread a word to others, you are equally guilty. Even if you don’t open your mouth, if you open your ears, you are guilty. If they approach you, simply say, “As you are not in our boat, we are not in yours.”

Otherwise, you are only digging your own grave. Those who leave a path often try to take more people away by sharing their doubts and dissatisfaction. If you really want to be loyal and faithful to your Guru, if you sincerely want his boat to take you to the Golden Shore of the Beyond, then have no unnecessary connection with the ex-disciples of your Master. Just feel how sincere and devoted you are, and then in your actions you will prove it. If you really want to be loyal, then you will neither think of these people, talk of them, nor have any connection with them. Two weeks ago one disciple left and now three or four other disciples have left just because of this one individual. We know who wins; the divine in us eventually wins. But I am telling you that only on the day you realise God will you be absolutely strong. If you mix with disciples who have left us, to be sure you may also leave our path. You are also weakening yourself even if you mix with others who are about to leave. They may tell you their problems — not for consolation but only to share their burdens with you, to add to your own problems — and these last few weeks this has also happened.

Sometimes there is a wave of hostile attacks. Often we use a very mild term: undivine. But there is a great difference between undivine and hostile. A hostile attack is an immediate attack: “I have left, and I want to take ten people with me.” This is what is happening now. So please be very careful if you want to stay in our boat to the end of your life. This is only one life and it is like a fleeting second. If you take this incarnation as one fleeting second, you can easily offer it to the Supreme in me. When people leave and make you feel that they are now doing extremely well, far better than when they were with us, I wish to say that they are fooling themselves, and this I am saying on the strength of my own realisation. When disciples leave, most if not all of them go back to their ignorant life. When some of them say they are going to some other path, rest assured that they are just fooling themselves. After following a real, well-established path, to go to another path is very rare.

Previously you were in the sea of ignorance. Now you are in the sea of Light, according to the amount of Light you are able to receive from the Supreme in me. If you go back to your old life, at that time you can’t say that where you presently are is the sea of Light and that this path is the sea of ignorance. If you say that, you are only fooling yourself, as some people are now doing. I feel sorry for them and I feel more sorry for those who are being converted back to ignorance. Again, in my absolute Highest, I don’t feel sorry; I offer everything at the Feet of the Supreme.

Who is our enemy? Ignorance. We have to conquer ignorance in our life. Before we come to the spiritual life we are in ignorance; we stand against the light. At that time we are fighting against light and trying to devour light. But when we are in light, we stand against ignorance, not to devour it but to transform it. Night wants to devour light as soon as it conquers light, but light feels that as soon as it conquers ignorance it will transform it into light. We ourselves were against light, we fought against light; but now that we have become spiritual we consciously take the side of light and try to transform the ignorance in and around us. We now feel that ignorance is something foreign to us.

So after accepting the spiritual life, if we still consider ourselves to be totally in darkness or swimming in the sea of ignorance, than that is a total mistake. It is only false modesty and I don’t approve of this attitude. We have to know we are now in the sea of light. We may swim slowly while others who are more expert swimmers may swim fast. But although you may not be an expert swimmer like someone else, please feel that once you accept my path or someone else’s path you are on the side of light, fighting to transform darkness. When we are on earth, we have to feel that it is absolutely necessary to get everything sooner than at once, because we have three goals. Our first goal is realisation, our second goal is revelation and our third goal is manifestation. There is no final end to any of these goals, but still we can call them our first, second or third goals. Even the first goal is a far cry, not to speak of the second and third. So, when we are here on earth, each fleeting second is very important. But if we don’t take the goal seriously, then we have to wait. We have waited for millennia and, if we choose, we can go on waiting for millennia.

The Master's chosen instruments

All of you have come with aspiration — some with more, some with less. You have heard me say that we have first class disciples, second class, third class, fourth class and so on. We also say that some people are disciples, some are followers. Followers are not the same as disciples; disciples are far more intimate than followers. After the followers we have admirers.

Among the disciples, some possess me or are trying to possess me. Again, there are other disciples whom I possess as my very own. But I wish to say that there is a great difference between these two. Those who are trying to possess me sometimes adopt foul means. By hook or by crook they want to be close to me; they use trickery and all kinds of false ways and undivine methods. Then, they finally do possess me, but what happens? A few days later, a few months later, or even a few years later, worldly temptation comes and captures them, captures their mind. When they are caught by temptation, they are lost. They leave the spiritual path and go away, or sometimes I am compelled to ask them to leave.

I will give you an analogy. A father is standing with his two sons right in front of a well. One child is possessed by the father. The father is holding the child’s hand. The other is possessing the father, he is holding the father’s hand. Now, up in the sky a beautiful kite is flying. The child who is holding onto the father’s hand sees the kite and is so delighted that he starts clapping his hands. While he is doing this he loses his footing and falls into the well. Now, the one who is held by the father also sees the kite and is also happy and delighted. He is admiring the kite but, at the same time, he is caught and held by the father; so he does not fall into the well.

You may ask, “How is it that you have possessed certain disciples and claimed them as your very own while others you do not claim as your very own?” It is the disciples fault. When you came I did not make a selection, saying that you will be possessed by me or that I will be possessed by you. All were given the same opportunity and will always be given the same opportunity. But some of you make faster progress with regard to the divine qualities in our path: love, devotion and surrender. I see that some of the disciples are really ready for our path: their whole life revolves around our mission. They are destined to do everything for us in the outer world and in the inner world they have already done everything: surrender and consecration have already taken place. Their inner life is constant consecration and dedication. Not only have they made the inner commitment, but in both their daily acts and the inner world they are actually living their commitment. When I concentrate on them, I see that in the outer world, the field of manifestation, at every moment they can do what I ask. These people have given me the assurance of their inner capacity and I have possessed them, not in a bad sense, but in a very good sense. I have not grabbed them; I have gladly taken them into my heart. I claim them as my very own, for I know that they will be the real chosen instruments of the Supreme. Because they would like to be my very own, they will say, “Give us anything you want.” With that idea they have accepted the spiritual life and entered into our path, and now they are being fulfilled.

I have also given others the same opportunity, but they did not take it; they wanted to possess me for their own use. They wanted to give their love, affection, concern and everything, but with the idea that if they gave to me, I would give something to them. They feel that they can either give or not give; it is up to them. But those who have possessed me or who are trying to possess me can also enter into the world of real dedication. Within six months or a year or two, if they do well, we shall see their progress.

These are my secrets that I am letting out. Some I call my very own. Why? Because they deserve it; they are doing well. Others who are not doing well are only possessing; they are only playing tricks with me and thinking that by doing or saying certain things they can possess me. But they are mistaken. Your Guru is a very, very clever fellow. If you say that you can play tricks on him, that you are a rogue, I will say I am an infinitely more clever rogue. You cannot deceive me. Sometimes I keep my eyes shut only because I don’t want to enter into more problems. When you deceive me I say, “Go ahead and deceive me.” But you have to feel that I immediately see right through your deception. So please do not try to grab me with your desiring mind, but allow me to possess you with my heart — my heart of joy and pride that you are doing everything for me both in the inner and outer world. When you do this, you truly become my chosen instrument.

Surrender and realisation

Seekers on some of the traditional Indian paths of love and devotion say, “O God, whatever I need, You know better than I. If I need realisation, You will know it better than I. If I need liberation, You will know it better than I.” If that understanding comes to a seeker, that God or the spiritual Master knows better than he does, then the Master is able to guide the seeker in the best possible way. Otherwise, according to our own ideas we will feel that we know what is best for us, and we will think that if we don’t get this either through desire or aspiration, then we won’t be able to fulfil the Master. But what the disciple calls the highest may or may not be the highest for the Master: the revelation and manifestation of the Supreme.

Realisation is not the highest thing for spiritual seekers, although it is a necessary stage. After realisation there are other stages, and it is the manifestation of the Supreme on earth that is the highest. As I always say, first you receive food and then, when you yourself grow up spiritually, you climb up the realisation-tree. Then you have to pick fruits and come down and manifest the Supreme. But if you feel that immediately after your realisation you are going to be able to manifest, I wish to say that it is not possible.

The Master knows best how we can fulfil him, when we should fulfil him and the way our true self wants to fulfil him. That is why complete surrender to the Master is necessary. If the spiritual Master can work in his own way, then our aspiration becomes most effective. Otherwise, spiritual people very often cry for realisation as their goal and then after reaching their goal they leave the Cosmic Game; they practically desert the Supreme’s Game. They say, “Enough, enough, enough!” They have climbed up the tree, but although there are many who are hungry for the fruit, they do not care to bring the fruit down from above. They say, “It was so beautiful to climb up. Let us stay here on the top and eat the fruits for ourselves.” They stay with their realisation. But the Supreme feels, “No. After realisation, revelation has to take place, and then manifestation has to take place. Only then the Game is complete.”

So, it is very good if one serves in the Supreme’s own Way. If one wants what is really best for oneself, one should say, “I myself don’t know what is best for me. I don’t know what the Game looks like, I don’t know the rules and regulations of the Game. Only allow me to serve You so that I can complete the Game in Your own Way. If I have to climb up, I shall climb up. If I have to come down, I shall come down. What is best for me only the Master knows.” When one has that kind of attitude towards the Master, his surrender becomes really unconditional and in unconditional surrender he gets what is truly best for him, which is something far, far beyond his imagination.

When the disciple’s unconditional surrender to the Guru comes, the Guru is bound to give the disciple the highest. When the disciple is aspiring, he has to feel that realisation is bound to come to him automatically if his dedicated service is given properly. A sincere seeker will naturally feel in his mind that he has to realise God, but if the Master is pleased with him, the Master can grant realisation even before the person is surrendered in every way. If the mother asks the child to do some work, the child may expect something from the mother — a dollar or two — according to his effort. But if the mother is really pleased, totally pleased with him, then she can give him ten dollars or one hundred dollars. The child’s expectation of one dollar is not wrong. If he wants this, certainly he will get it because it is what he worked for. But when he feels his complete oneness with his mother, he feels that she will give him as much as she wants to give him, or what is best for him.

Inner guidance

To know how much inner guidance you as a seeker are receiving from me, first you have to see if your physical mind has accepted my path or not. If you accept my path and you make an outer commitment to it, then I wish to say that in the beginning, if you are really sincere, you will be receiving seventy per cent of my inner guidance. More than that you cannot expect, because on the physical plane there is not yet a free exchange and sharing of thoughts, ideas and ideals between us. Then gradually, as you grow spiritually, it will develop into one hundred percent.

The amount of inner guidance that somebody receives does not increase if he comes and listens to a teacher from a distance and gets a high experience, but makes no commitment. You are not compelled or forced to make any commitment, no, it is only that the teacher would like to know on the physical plane that someone is approaching him to become his student. Then the teacher has the opportunity to accept or reject the seeker and the seeker can also accept or reject the teacher. When I use the word ‘commitment’, I do not mean it in the sense of giving money, that you have to give one hundred or one hundred fifty dollars per month; far from it. Money here is not the fee. My fee is aspiration and regularity. If you are regular in attending meetings, if you make an outer commitment along with your inner commitment, your aspiration, this is the kind of commitment I am speaking about.

Anybody can receive my inner guidance to some extent if he has faith in me. But when the seeker and the Master know each other on the mental and physical planes, then it becomes infinitely easier for the seeker to have a free access to the Master’s consciousness. Otherwise, the seeker will try to judge the spiritual Master or try to get light from him in his own way and not the Master’s way. A seeker feels it difficult or almost impossible to identify himself with the Will of the Absolute, but when he becomes a disciple, he knows that his Master is one with the Will of the Absolute. He comes to realise that the Master’s way and his way are not the same, and he feels it is his bounden duty to please the Master in the Master’s own way.

As a disciple, he is a passenger seated in the boat of the spiritual Master. While in the boat, the passenger can sleep, dance or do anything that he wants to do as long as he does not jump out of the boat. It is the boatman who is carrying the passengers and who has to know everything. The expert pilot knows how he will be able to best guide his passengers and what kind of difficulties he will encounter on the way. But only if the passenger has implicit faith in the boatman is it possible for the pilot to guide him. Otherwise, it will not be possible for the seeker even to remain in the boat.

I wish to say that I am in no way asking you to be my disciple. One has to go deep within to find one’s own Master. If someone has established a sixty percent connection with me after seeing me a few times, it may happen that if he sees someone else, he will be able to establish a one hundred percent connection with that person overnight. Or he may feel that here his aspiration is not increasing, and he will feel the necessity of finding another path. But if someone feels that he can develop a connection with me, a close relationship, a oneness with my inner will, then eventually he may try our path.

My advice to all seekers is this: If you wait indefinitely for a path, you are not only wasting time but also belittling your inner potentiality. Please follow a path, any path. In this city alone there are seven or eight spiritual Masters whom you can go and see. If you have seen me a few times, say four times, then it is more than enough. After that, I assure you that you don’t have to see me again to make up your mind whether you want to follow our path. You don’t have to judge your own ability to follow our path. After four times you can just go to another spiritual Master. After you have seen that person four times, see if you are in a position to give him a mark of at least eighty to eighty-five out of a hundred, if you can’t give him one hundred out of a hundred. You are like a teacher in school. When you are in a position to give a Master eighty-five percent, then you can safely accept that Master as your own. Mine is not the only path; there are many paths. Today I have inspired you and my only request to you is that you will try to have a path of your own. That is to say, if you really want to reach the Goal the fastest, you should follow a specific path under the guidance of a spiritual Master. Without a path you won’t be able to reach your destination, no matter where your destination lies. If you want to study, you go to some school — either this school or that school. And then, once you have completed your studies, you won’t need a teacher. At that time you become the master of knowledge; you yourself become the teacher.

Everything and everyone here on earth cares for time. If you can reach your goal in one day, why have you to wait for ten days? But the only thing is that you cannot reach the highest Goal in one day. If anybody tells you that you will reach your Goal in two hours or in ten days or in one month, then I wish to say that he is fooling you. Nobody can realise God in one day or in one month; it is impossible. Just to get a Master’s degree you need to study eighteen or twenty years; and to achieve God-realisation is infinitely more difficult than to get a Master’s degree. Please do not go to a Master who tells you that you will get God-realisation in a few days or months, because God-realisation is not so easy. I know; I have realised God.

Again, you should not feel that you are doomed to disappointment: “Oh, I won’t realise God; I have done so many things wrong.” Far from it. You are God’s child. You have gone through some experiences which you call mistakes. But if you feel that you will never realise God because you did a few things wrong in your life, then you are mistaken. No, God-realisation is your birthright. You have to leave those unhappy experiences behind you. You must not commit those mistakes anymore. From now on if you always do the right thing in both your inner life and your outer life, then you are bound to realise God.

So, on the one hand, don’t be discouraged or disheartened and, on the other hand, do not be over-optimistic and think that in one day you will realise God. Everything has its own time. Slowly, steadily you will reach your Goal. In the spiritual life you need aspiration, you need concentration, meditation, contemplation: all these things. Then you will realise God. Please be sincere and serious in this matter. Then you will see that God-realisation is not something impossible. On the contrary, it is possible, practicable and inevitable. But you have to have inner and outer guidance from a Master whom you accept as your leader and guide.