The Enemy Within
by
Sant Ajaib Singh Ji
This talk was given at Sant
Bani Ashram, Sanbornton,
New Hampshire, in May 1977.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "How can I tell you all the tricks of
the mind? The mind has so many ways in which he can deceive us that
we cannot describe all his tricks." What does he do? He destroys
the love in the satsangis, and instead of that love, he fills them
from within with jealousy, with duality, and people start hating
each other.
What does Maya do? Maya brings illusion within us, and Kal
colors that with the color of dirt. And then we also behave like
ordinary worldly people, after giving up our meditations.
What does Kal do with us? Whatever good thoughts we have
had by attending the Satsang, whatever meditation we have done,
whatever knowledge we have achieved through the Satsang - when the
time comes, the Negative Power tries his level best and plays all
his tricks to take those things away from us.
If someone has achieved a little bit of love and the Will of
the Master or Saint, the Negative Power tries to take that away
from him also in due course of time.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "It is a surprising thing that when
the Negative Power attacks us, we forget the forgiveness which
we have received after attending the Satsangs."
How does Kal or the Negative Power affect us? We are
called satsangis and we are satsangis, and we are all brothers
and sisters in Master. But Kal sits in us and makes us fight
among our brothers and sisters. He creates dryness within us
and tells us, "What is in meditation?" Coming into the Satsang
also he disturbs us. He does not leave us even for a minute.
Once the Negative Power came to Guru Nanak and said,
"You are giving grace to many people and liberating them. So
give me some room in your sangat so that I can also get something
from you." Guru Nanak said, "No, there is no room for you. But if
you still want, you can sit in the place where the shoes of all
the people are kept." That is why, when we are sitting in Satsang,
after hearing the talk of the Master, we make up our mind that we
will do whatever Master has told us to do. But as soon as we come
to the place where the shoes are kept and we put on our shoes, the
Negative Power starts affecting us, and we forget everything we
have learned in Satsang.
If the satsangis are loving and respecting each other and
doing their meditation, then if the Negative Power cannot do
anything to the meditators, he goes to the sevadars. And sitting
in the sevadars, he will pull their minds in different directions.
He will tear the sevadars apart, and he will not allow them to
make their seva successful. If he is not successful in using any
of his tricks on us, then what does he do? He takes whatever
seva we have done. Guru Nanak says, "It is easy to do seva, but
it is difficult to maintain it."
How does he dwell in the sevadars? He comes and sits in
the minds of the sevadars, and that's why some of them think that
they are very good sevadars, that they are doing very good
seva, and that nobody else is competent like them. And some
people think that they are very good at organizing.
So sitting in their mind he creates this type of thing
within the sevadars. Because if a few people start praising us and
folding hands to us, then we do not want to stay on the ground;
we start flying. We think, "We are also something."
Now when the sevadars go in different directions and
start fighting with one another, Master warns us and rebukes us,
"What have you done? You should not do that." And then the
satsangis realize and they repent. But they do not understand
the tricks of the Negative Power.
When the sevadars start fighting with each other and
becoming angry with each other, Master rebukes us and tells us,
"Your work is to do seva, and you have to set an example for
other people." When Master is telling us that, then our mind
starts making excuses to the Master and people start arguing
and explaining to the Master, "No, this is right," or "this is
wrong."
This is the Law of Nature: the soul which is affected by
the tricks of the Negative Power, and who starts finding faults in
Master, goes back into the cycle of eighty-four lakhs births and
deaths.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "It is a pity that ten years, five
years, twenty years have passed by doing Satsang, but we have never
recognized our Master as the Form of God. We have never had love
and respect for each other, and we have never had any effect from
the Satsangs which we have been doing. We were supposed to make
our minds humble by doing seva; but instead of that we have got
egoism in our minds."
If you cannot do anything, at least request your Master,
"O Master, we are helpless in front of Negative Power, but the
Negative Power is not stronger than You. You help us, save us
from the effect of the Negative Power." Do the Simran which
He has given to you, take the medicine which He tells you to
take, keep the abstinence which He is telling you to keep, and
the disease will go away.
When we call our Master, what does Master do? He purifies
the minds of the satsangis who are torn apart and are fighting
with each other. When Master makes their minds pure, they
start loving each other, and everything becomes as it was before.
And when we do meditation, we again get the same love for each
other, and we start living in love as we were doing
before.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "What is the duty of satsangis? To
live in love for each other, and to always maintain that love.
This is the order for all satsangis: to love each other, to be
united, and to meditate. If the satsangis are not loving each
other, if they are not remaining united, if they are not meditating,
that means that they are surrendering to the Negative Power."
So Swami Ji Maharaj says, "If, obeying our requests, all
the satsangis could love other satsangis and meditate, they will go
to the Court of Sat Purush, and there is no obstacle which will
prevent them from going to His Court." So don't let your intellect
come between you and God, do the devotion of Satguru, and don't keep
any worries in your mind. Because now you have the Naam Initiation,
and Satguru has given you the opportunity to do the seva, to
meditate and earn that Naam. So do the seva, and always remember
Satguru with each and every breath.
But if you have any skill with which you can do seva,
don't let egoism come in your mind. When you do any seva, always
understand yourself as the low one, and always understand another
as the higher person. Don't expect that after doing seva, people
should pay you. And you should never think about praise from people.
You should never go on repeating your own praise to the people about
your seva, that you have done this seva; but always keep humility in
your mind. Many people have this habit, that unless they repeat their
own praise, it goes on increasing in their stomach and they can't
digest it.
Baba Bishan Das used to tell this story. There was a king
who had two horns on his head. He had a special barber who did not
tell anyone about the horns, because that was the question of his
trust. But when that barber left the body, the king was very
concerned. He thought, "Now another barber will not be able to digest
this information; he will tell other people, and that is not good."
So he called another barber, whose name was Vir Barbaru. He asked
him, "Do you know why I have called you?" Vir Barbaru replied, "Yes.
Because I am a very good barber and I can cut your hair beautifully;
that's why you have called me." The King said, "Well, that is one
thing, but there is one more reason why I have called you here." Vir
Barbaru replied, "I don't know that other reason." So the King took off
his cap and showed him: "You see, I have two horns; but you should
not tell this to anyone. If you tell it to anyone, I will kill you,
also your family, plus the person to whom you tell this secret. So
beware that you don't tell this to anyone." Vir Barbaru said, "Okay,
I will do that."
But that man had the habit that if he could not tell something
to others he would not feel good and he could not hold anything else
in his stomach. When he went back to his home, and he was not allowed
to tell this thing to others, his stomach went on increasing and
increasing, because that thing was still in his stomach. Eventually
he became sick, because he could not tell it to anyone. Many doctors
were called, but that was not a disease that a doctor could cure.
Some wise people were called, and they thought that it had something
to do with his mind. They asked him, "Tell us the truth. Why is this?"
He said, "I have one thing; but if I tell this thing to anyone, then
I will be killed, and my family will also die. But if I don't tell
it, then you see my condition, and I will die in either case."
So one of the wise men told him (he was lying on a bed, he
could not walk) to tell four people to take his bed into the forest
and then go away from him; and, facing any tree, he could tell
it whatever he had on his mind. In that way he could get rid of
it, and his stomach would become all right.
So he went there and facing toward one tree he said, in
a very impressive chant, "Vir Barbaru says this: The king has
two horns." It so happened that later that tree was cut down,
and the wood was used in making a harmonium and tabla. Then
the king's wife gave birth to a son, so the king called all the
musicians to celebrate. It so happened that the musicians were
using the same harmonium and tabla. Before starting a program,
they tuned their instruments, and when they started tuning the
harmonium, the sound came - "The king has two horns!" The people
were amazed and asked, "Who says this?" And when the tabla player
started tuning, it said, "Vir Barbaru."
The harmonium was sounding like, "The king has two horns!"
And the people would say, "Who is saying this?" And the tabla
would sound like "Vir Barbaru." So then the king took off his
hat and said, "It is true, I have two horns." So people like Vir
Barbaru cannot hold anything in their stomachs, and this thing
happened.
If we people get the opportunity from God to do the seva,
we should hold everything within us, but not like Vir Barbaru, we
should not let our stomach go on increasing and increasing; we
should digest it.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "Why are you proud? Who knows at
what moment death will come? Whatever seva we do, only that
is counted in our devotion. You see the beggar, how much
people are taunting him and giving him a very hard time. But
he is so humble that he never replies to that treatment. No
matter what anybody says, the beggar will not give any place to
that bad feeling in his mind."
Without Satguru's grace a soul cannot be successful.
That's why we should always remember that it is Satguru's grace
which is working and helping us in our every single work.
One other thing also comes up here - some people show
love and humility from outside, but from within they are jealous
and hate others. For them, purification is almost impossible.
Master Sawan Singh Ji used to say that it is not a good thing
to remove one veil, and hide in another veil. It is not good to
purify from outside, but from inside leave all the dirt uncleared.
That beggar has not attended any Satsangs but still he is
pure. But you have attended many Satsangs, you have done many
things, but still you have not given up your egoism, still you
have not developed humility. Then what have you done after
attending so many Satsangs?
First of all, develop humility, and keep that humility within
you. And if anybody commits any mistake, others should try to forgive
him, and the person who is doing the mistake should repent. If anyone
is doing something wrong - talking or saying bitter words towards
others - it is the work of the one who has done that to go and ask
for forgiveness from the others.
Any heart in which jealousy and enmity is there, when looking
at other people's seva and meditation, is very difficult to purify.
That heart himself feels that pain, and it is very difficult to get
rid of that pain.
Whoever has jealousy in him, he should understand that he is
losing too much. If he himself cannot do anything about that, he
should ask for Satguru's help, and only with the Satguru's help and
grace, he can resolve that problem. But he who has this thing in
his heart, he himself should give some attention to purification.
And we can purify ourselves from within only with the help of Simran;
Simran can do that.
If the satsangi cannot be successful by using his own efforts,
he should start requesting Satguru: "I am helpless, I am powerless;
please help me." He is our eternal grace; He definitely helps us.
You should not hide any faults from the Satguru, because He
is All-Conscious and knows everything. Whatever faults you have, you
should tell Satguru, and you should always feel the presence of the
Satguru around you, and when you confess in front of Satguru, make up
your mind that you will not repeat those faults again. It's not good
to request from one side, and then keep repeating the same thing on
the other side.
Request to Satguru in this way: "O Satguru, Swami, I am
blessed in front of You, and You are Light; You help me, and
You enlighten me. O Satguru, when You shower grace on me,
only then I can be successful." There is no other remedy for
this; without Satguru's grace no soul can become successful.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "You don't understand that no enemy
is coming from outside; mind, our enemy, is residing within us."
Mind is within everyone. You should not think that only the other
person has the enemy, the mind, and that you don't. Everybody has
the mind, everybody has his enemy within. And that enemy is the
agent of Kal, and he has the duty from Kal not to allow any soul
to do Satguru's work. That's why he is holding us.
So what is the medicine for this? Do Satsang and get the
earnings of the meditation of Naam, and receive the grace of
Master. With the help of and grace of the Master, all our bad deeds
and thoughts will go away from us, and we will become pure. But those
who hide everything from their Satguru, and after going to the Satguru,
even if they have many faults say, "I have not done any mistake, and I
am doing so much meditation -" for such people, what can be done?
Such a person never understands that Master is looking at his
every thought, his every action. He always takes the Master as an
ordinary human being, and that is why he goes on commiting mistakes,
under the impression that nobody is there to see them.
Swami Ji Maharaj says that those who understand Master as
an ordinary human being and do not understand Him as God, and those who
always think that Master is not looking at their bad deeds, for them
there is no remedy. They have that kind of disease that is incurable.
Truly speaking, such people are not able to attend Satsang.
And those who have the perfect Master, and after attending their
Satsang, if they understand the reality of the Master, and if they
obey the commandments of the Master, and copy the example or the life
of the Masters - then one day they will also become pure, and will
also be able to get rid of all the evils, which they have within them
at present.
Satsang is very pure water, and one who bathes in this water
will get rid of all the filth he has within him. That's why Master
Kirpal always used to say, "Give up a hundred urgent works to attend
Satsang." Guru Nanak says, "Without Satsang, whatever effort we are
doing is like taking the pure water from one side and putting in dirt
from the other." Swami Ji Maharaj says, "We cannot praise Satsang;
there is no other means to purify our mind except Satsang. God says,
'No one can attain me through japa, tapa or any other practice; He can
realize me only with the help of Satsang.'" There is no other way for
the liberation of the soul. You cannot be liberated if you will not
attend Satsang. Swami Ji Maharaj says, "In the Kali Yuga there
are only three means for liberation: Satsang, Naam and the perfect
Master. Those who have the perfect Master, and those who are meditating
on Naam, and those who have made their Satsang, they should understand
that now they are redeemed." But if we are doing any japa, tapa, or
any other practice, instead of making our minds small and thin, we make
our minds stronger; because after doing all those things, we become full
of ego.
It is true that in the previous yugas or ages, the japas, tapas,
and austerities were the worship of the time, and the Rishis and
Munis performed them. But we cannot do them because now we don't live
long enough; if we somehow manage to do a little bit of them, then we
cannot get the real truth. The scriptures say the austerities and the
worship of the Rishis and Munis were meant for the Golden Age, and in
this Iron Age, if we practice them, they won't work for us because we
have less life and less health.
That's why, in this Age, Saints came and They discovered
Satsang and set up Satsang for the benefit of the souls.
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