THE ESSENCE IS MEDITATION
by
Sant Ajaib Singh Ji
The following Q & A session was given on
Apr. 3, 1976 at Sant Bani Ashram, Village
77RB, Rajasthan, and was published in the
July 1976 issue of Sant Bani magazine.
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[Q]: May I ask you some questions Sant Ji?
[MASTER]: Whatever you like.
[Q]: I have general questions and personal questions. I'll just start
with personal. When I sit for meditation Master is very loving to me and He
gives me something, but I'm not worthy of it. I have difficulty with being
chaste, with brahmcharya. I have trouble being pure. For a short period,
a few days, I am okay. I remember the Master. And I have no desire for
sex, for kam - lust. But then after a few days my mind demands and I am
weak. I need help. My wife is very beautiful and she has no trouble with
this problem. So it is really my problem. I want to become pure. But it
seems... I don't try hard enough. I lack the strength. I lack the love
for the Master. So I am praying for that.
[MASTER]: Well, when you are feeling kam (lust or sexual desire) you
start meditation. You have mind on one side and Satguru on the other side.
If you are diverted toward mind and your own feelings then you are going
to be a slave of mind. And if you divert your attention toward Master
then you can get Master.
Meditation is just like lighting up a light within. And if you go to the
light that will go on increasing. And in the place that is full of light,
no thief is going to come. The thief of kam will not come to you if you
are meditating properly and meditating for a long time. If you are going
to meditate continuously for a long period then you will be getting more
love from Master. And if you have left meditating after ten or fifteen
days that will not bring so much love.
Unless you give time for meditation, two and a half hours or three
hours, you don't get to eat anything. As it is necessary for our body to
have diet it is also necessary for our soul - the diet of meditation. So
first you give food to your soul, then afterward to your body.
The knot that is tying up all those things, kam, or lust, krodh, or
anger, etc., that knot lies behind our two eyes, where the soul resides.
And when the soul gets free from this body and we rise above Trikuti,
then this kam, krodh, are not going to destroy anything. They are not
going to come attack our soul. That stage has nothing to do with these
things. All these things are tied at that place behind the eyes. If you
go riding up and up by doing meditation daily you are not going to feel
anything about kam, or krodh, or the other passions. And it is necessary
for a satsangi to do meditation and to be free from these diseases: this
is one type of disease, having kam, and krodh.
Because of kam or lust the souls comes down again in the body. And
because of anger the soul spreads all around. Where there is kam there
is no Naam. Where there is day there is no night and when there is
night there is no day.
So one who is desirous of kam, krodh, or one who is greedy, he can
never do meditation. Meditation is done only by the brave people. In
meditation we have to give up all our mind and our heart to Master. We
have to wander in search of Master. And if you have given up your heart
or your mind to Master then why do you think about kam or krodh? Or
why do you give your mind to kam or krodh?
If you want to be a true disciple of Master you will be away from
this kam, and the way of being away from kam is meditation. If you
meditate you will be heading away from kam. And if you are going to
meditate for two and a half or three hours in the morning and the same
time in the evening also, three hours; if you are going to give that
much time for meditation you will be happy. And you will not be having
any desire of kam.
If you are doing meditation properly you will not be getting
anything in dreams also. When you are not stable in this world,
then what are you going to do on the inner planes, where there are
temptresses and spirits who are very much more beautiful than
anything in this world?
So there is one shabda of Kabir that says, if you are going to do kam
with your own wife, or with any other's wife, or any other woman, you
are definitely going to suffer. It is the same thing: if the fire is
burning then if you put your hand inside, definitely you are going to
burn your hand. All fire is one. So if you put your hand in fire you
are definitely going to burn. This was said by Kabir.
Woman is a life companion but not for kam. We can get children by
having it once. Afterwards you are to clean your mind and go towards
the path of Truth. And neither the woman should look at you in that
way nor you should have any desire after having the child.
Take the example of a dog. He is desirous of kam only at certain
times, and the other times he doesn't go to any bitch. But man is
always desirous throughout the year. It is a very dangerous disease.
And to prevent this disease, whenever you have desire of kam you sit
for meditation. If you meditate you will never have such problems.
[Q]: I have difficulty taking more than three hours a day for
meditation because of all the things I'm involved in. Should I leave
off some of the things I'm involved in?
[MASTER]: If you're going to take time for all these worldly things
then you should also have time for meditation. You can carry out the
things in which you're involved and side-by-side you can also do
meditation. There's no need to leave off these things.
[Q]: I also have trouble with lust, and with my mind. Sometimes I
don't seem to have any control over my thoughts, or very very little.
And I'd like help with that.
[MASTER]: Well, the helper is residing inside you. And if you are
going to give attention to Him He is going to help you. Whenever a
Sant initiates us, the Sant always resides above all the nine openings
of our body. If you take your soul above these nine openings, then
you will meet the Satguru. When you get above the nine openings it's
the duty of Master to take care of you, just like a good mother cares
for her child, that he should not put his hand in the fire or go out.
She looks after him.
Once somebody came to Master Sawan Singh and bowed down at his
feet and the Master told him to go away. The other devotees said,
"Master, give mercy." But the Master said, "At three o'clock in the
morning I go to each and every door with a basket full of mercy but
everybody's sleeping then and there is nobody to receive mercy from
me." That is the time of giving mercy, early in the morning.
There is one verse of Kabir: "A Satguru is always meant for giving
and not for taking. He always gives all things to others, to His
devotees." Master used to say that the Saints are always coming for
giving to people, not to take. And there are very few people to
receive from them.
We see the physical body yearning in this world. But that is going
to be destroyed one day. And if we go and see in Sach Khand, we see
the form of Word, the form of Naam. Because we are the slave of our
mind and of our body we think that Sants and Masters are also slaves
of their bodies when we see them in the same form. But they are
entirely different from us. They go to Sach Khand and come back while
living in the body. So neither the body of a Sant nor the body of a
devotee is going to remain for a very long period.
The form of Satguru is Shabda or Naam and the form of the devotee is
soul. So our soul is the servant and our Guru is the Shabda. The soul
and the Naam are not going to be destroyed anytime. They are immortal.
The Kal power has attached mind to the soul; and the reign of mind is
given to all these indriyas, all the organs and faculties of our body.
Whatever the mind wants us to do, we do. And it doesn't allow us to
take the name of Satguru or to do meditation.
Whenever Satguru comes to this world, He always teaches how to
fight against this Kal power. The biggest enemy in this world of all
mankind is our mind. There is nobody else who is the enemy of man. So
we are not to bow down to our enemy. We are to fight against him. You
be brave and fight with mind. So the weapon to fight against the mind
is the Naam. Satguru is always ready to help you. Remember Satguru,
every difficulty will be removed. So you are to give more time for
meditation. Any other questions?
[Q]: I have some questions about meditation. Master said that we should
meditate two and a half hours a day. But I'm not initiated. So when I
try to meditate for a long time I get very bad headaches and have to stop.
So one question is how should I meditate? What should I use for Simran
and how long should I sit at a time? Also, sometimes the sound comes
into my right ear or it just seems to pour down from the top of my head.
Should I try closing my ears and listening to that sound even though I'm
not initiated?
[MASTER]: You will be initiated before long - I promised to Russell and
all other satsangis, so at that time all your difficulties will be removed.
Because you don't have that inside you right now, the power which is to
guide you is not residing in you just now, that is why you are having
some difficulties. Don't leave this sitting for meditation, just
remember the form of the Satguru. And if you are going to sit daily
you can control your mind or you can divert your direction of mind
towards Satguru. And if you sit daily you will be helped within
yourself.
[Q]: I will be helped within?
[MASTER]: It is just like working. If you are working for a man or if
you are working in a company, the company owner is going to give you
some wages. And it's just like if you're going to work for Master, that
is you're going to sit for meditation, Master will also pay you for your
sitting in meditation. If you are getting desserts, if you are getting
fruits of doing sins, then you will also be benefited by the fruit of
doing bhajan. Don't think you are simply sitting and the Master is not
listening to you. Each and every one of your feelings is listened to
by Master and He does reply to your questions. But as you're not guided
by that Power you are unable to hear that. He is replying to each and
every thing. Any other questions?
[Q]: I'm so happy to be sitting here and looking into your eyes.
(Laughter and some conversation ensue.)
[MASTER]: Well, they are saying that before you get to Sant Ji you
have many questions arising in your mind but when you see Sant Ji you
forget all these questions.
Jim Russell also told me that, "When I'm not with you I have many
questions to ask you and I make up my mind that I should ask each and
every one of the questions which I have. But as soon as I see you I
forget all these questions."
[Q]: Oh, I have another question. (Much general laughter) I just
looked in my book where I wrote some. Should people who are not
initiated try and keep the diary daily the same way that initiates do?
[MASTER]: It's necessary. It's good for each and everybody. To raise
the spirit is the goal of education. Everybody knows how to read and
write. But in the old days there was a Moslem Saint. He used to throw
one stone in a ditch whenever he did any wrong thing. And once he got a
lot of stones.
And he tried to reduce them. Diary makes the man perfect; it makes
the man's life. Because we are not remembering the Saints, that's why we
are going on doing sin. And diary is the thing which can tell us the
part we are doing wrong. If we are noting down all the sins which we
are doing by mistake, knowingly or unknowingly, then we are going to
reduce or at least we are going to prevent ourselves from doing those
mistakes. And when we are going to write down with our pen what
mistakes we did we will be ashamed to think that, "I am so much
downward that I am doing this type of mistake." So that's why you
keep writing diary.
[Q]: I have a question. Master Kirpal Singh said that it was
important to try to have a ruling passion in one's life. And I'm
wondering if you could say more about how to develop a ruling passion
for God ... a controlling desire for God?
[MASTER]: The essence of it is meditation. You develop after
meditation. The answer to all questions is meditation. The more time
you give to meditation the more happiness you find.
Master Sawan Singh used to say to his servant, "You prepare my food
and put it on the shelf and whenever I would like to I would have that
food. No need to ask me for eating." And whenever he came from his
office he started on meditation. After four or five hours his mind asked
him to eat some food, and he started eating. This is how he controlled
His mind - first He gave diet to His soul and then to His body.
We are like dead bodies before our mind. Whatever mind wants us to
do we do. And the work of the Satguru is to give life to us so that we
can fight against mind. Because life comes from life. If we are going to
remember the true holy man we can at least get some of his qualities. We
can get radiation from him.
Well, there are a few who are slaves of Master or are like a dead body
before Master; they are doing what Master wants them to do. But there
are many who are dead bodies before the mind and they do according to
the mind's will.
So there is one verse of Kabir that says there are many people who are
working according to their mind's will. And there are very few who are
working according to the desire and will of Master. So we eat, we
drink - whatever we do in our daily life we are all doing according to
our mind's will.
Meditation is the medicine to control mind, or to destroy your mind's
feeling. We have got this man's body, and we have to use it in diverting
our attention towards Satguru. It is the form in which we can get
Satguru, and not in any other form. There is a verse of Guru Nanak that
says: "You have wasted your day in playing, you have wasted your night
in sleeping, and this life is as precious as a diamond." You have to use
it in meditation and searching for God.
There is a verse of Kabir Sahib: "The birth as man is very precious to
us; in the same way that if fruit falls down from the tree, it is not
going to get again to the tree" - it is very precious. If you are not
using this body for meditation you don't know where you are going to
go in another life. It may be possible that we will not be diverted
towards Satguru in that form. So these devis and devtas (gods) - they
are also waiting for this man-body so that they can meditate and get
Satguru. So the only benefit, the only special thing about having man's
body, is the search for God and getting Satguru. You can get everything
else in any other form. If we are beasts, wild animals, we can still
eat and sleep, and we can do all these things - kam, krodh, lobh, moh
(lust, anger, greed, attachment) - but we don't have such a mind -
such a feeling - as will enable us to get Satguru within us. That we
have only in the man-body.
Kabir described the form of cattle: they have four legs, they are
dumb - they don't know how to speak, how to remember - they don't
have such type of mind. So how can they get God? How can they get
Satguru within? The owner of a cow will always give a strict blow in
order to make the cow stand up, or sit down, or in order to carry
the burden. In that situation, how is the cow going to remember God?
The owner puts a ring in the hole in the nose; and the cow has to
carry a plow with its shoulders. They have to do a lot of hard work,
and in that situation they are unable to remember Master. It gets
cattle feed for eating, and not good proper food. After working for
the whole of the day on the farm, he is tied up in the owner's house
- then also he doesn't have any free moooment. So he is always bound
just like a slave. He doesn't have any special mind to think about
Master or anything else except his work. The form of that cow is got
because in the former life he did not work according to the will of
Satguru, so he is now getting such troubles.
Kabir used to say to one old man who was sitting there, "Old man,
you go and meditate." That old man always had some work at home to
do first: "Well, I should give water or feed for the cattle." He
always put his cattle before meditation. So in the next life, when
he died, he came in the form of a calf in the same home. Kabir was a
very knowing man and he saw that that was the same old man in the
form of a calf. He told that calf, "Well, now you have become a
calf. As soon as you will be grown up you will be sold away to another
man to pull a cart so that he may ride. And you will have to carry
heavy burdens. And afterward those people will sell you to those who
take oil from seeds, so you will have to go round and round on a
treadmill. And afterwards, when you will be useless, they will sell you
to the butcher. The butcher will cut you up and will sell your skin to
the drum makers, and they will beat you every morning, playing the
drum." So Kabir told him that, "Well, you have earned so much bad karma
that after you have died, all of your flesh is eaten up. Then also you
are getting a beating daily."
So we have to use our human body for meditation because we can get
each and every thing in any other body, but not this gift of
meditation. We can get children in each and every form. When we are
going to die then nobody will come to our rescue - neither wife nor
our sons nor our brothers - nobody else. Moreover all our wealth will
remain here - no one is going to keep us from dying. The One who helps
in crisis is the true friend; Satguru is the true friend. That's why
Guru Nanak said that you don't make friends of this type of people -
you make only one friend, and that is Satguru. And that true friend
will never leave you even after you die. All these worldly friends are
going to leave you when you die, but will continue in the other world
also.
Whoever is an initiate of the Master will go to Sach Khand. Masters
come into this world with responsibility to carry people to Sach Khand.
They don't come to build any new religion. They only come to unite the
soul with the Oversoul.
The false gurus teach us to attach ourselves to all these temples.
They teach us that you go to temples, gurdwaras, and churches, etc. So
Satguru sends his man (the Guru) to prevent us from attaching ourselves
there, because if we go to the temple and do this sort of thing, we are
not giving any time to our soul. That we are doing because our body
needs it. So the Satguru sends someone in the form of Master for us -
to take us to Sach Khand. So that's why the Master [Kirpal] always used
to say, "Oh man, you have seen all your surroundings - all temples and
churches which are surrounding you - but you have never seen within. So
now you look in yourself and you try to know what you are. Man, know
thyself."
The Master used to say that you have read all these books and
experienced all about your surroundings. Now it is time that you should
have knowledge from inside.
Well, we have kept clean all the temples which we have made for
Satguru. We make temples that Satguru may come and reside in this
temple, and we put the incense there and keep them very clean. But
Satguru is residing within our own self, and in our body we go on
drinking and eating meat and wine, and all these things. So how is
it possible that Satguru, who is living in Sach Khand - so clean and
pure - could come into our body if we are eating all this stuff?
We used to clean the temples and all these things which we have made
for the Master to reside in, but the place that Master has made for
Himself in our body, we don't clean that place. And He always used to
say that there is no Satguru in the temple. Satguru resides within us
and we have to clean our body by not having such food and drink. We
are like the patient who goes to the doctor and has some medicine
from there, and when he comes home he puts away the medicine and
doesn't take it. Then he abuses that doctor: "Oh, he is not a good
doctor. I am not cured." So in the same way we have the knowledge
of Naam and we don't meditate. We abuse all these holy men - we are
not benefited. Unless we use that Naam, how can we get benefit of
that?
When we are on a treatment and we take medicine, then we are not to
take heavy food. Similarly, if we meditate sometime and also keep on
eating and drinking all this stuff, we are not going to clear
ourselves. So we have taken medicine of the knowledge of Naam of the
Master. We have to use that in order to make ourselves clear and very
good. That will help us to fight against mind and prevent us from
succumbing to kam, krodh, and all the other passions.
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