Akhand-Mandalakaram vyaptam yena characharam.
Tatpadam darshitam yena tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.
Agyan timir-andhasya Gyananjan Shalakaya.
Chakshur-oonmeelitam yena tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.
Gurur-Brahma Gurur-Vishnu Gurur-Devo Maheshwarah.
Guru-sakshat Para-Brahma tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.
Shri Gurubhyo Namah
“There is confusion as to which language I should speak in. Maybe we will stick to English, the link language. I have got used to speaking in Hindi on the Walk. So, we are here for Gurupurnima. I think in the evening we have Satsang, right? So, what are we doing now? They told me I have to sit here, so I am sitting here. If I speak anything now, then there will be nothing to speak about in the evening, no? I am never short of words…but what about deeds?
“So, we are here for Gurupurnima. I want to make it very clear to you that Gurupurnima is not concerned only with ‘M’ who is sitting here. It is celebrated in all parts of India nowadays, as also in many parts of the world, for paying respects and giving thanks to all the great teachers who have existed since the beginning of time. It is not just this ‘M’ for whom the Gurupurnima is a larger concept. It is meant for all the great Gurus – starting with Adinath, Shri Guru, Shiva, Krishna as Jagad Guru while teaching the Gita, all the great teachers, including the great Christ who walked in the streets of Jerusalem. This is meant for all the Gurus. We are just remembering the essence of “teacherhood”, let’s put it that way. All the Gurus who have been with us from time immemorial, they all bow down to the Supreme Being as the Guru. There’s nobody who does not bow down to the Supreme Being. In fact, according to us, it is the Supreme Reality – whatever be the name you want to use – which manifests itself in a teaching mode in somebody whom you call a Guru. So, this man sitting here is not so important as that which manifests itself as a teacher through this form. Not this. Don’t get too dependent on this because after a few years this will also disappear. All great teachers have gone. Shri Guru Babaji is a different matter. All teachers. So, after some time, this fellow will also disappear. So, then how will you conduct yourself? Will you always be dependent on me who is sitting here? Or will you develop some system by which you are independent and are able to handle it yourself? This is a key issue to be worked out. Don’t worry! I am not in a hurry to go but I have a lot of work to do but, I mean, eventually we need to go.”
“So this is what I want you to think about. When you say you are following the teachings, it does not mean that you can sit everyday and close your eyes for hours together – not that the mind is still – and then think that we have done the job. The spiritual teaching includes looking after people who are less privileged and who are suffering; unless you do that, I do not think that you can sit and meditate. It’s not possible. Well, you can go into a hypnotic trance and think that you have gone into meditation, but you have to improve your life, you have to become less self-centered. Move outside your self. When we say that the Guru is all pervading – ‘Akhand-Mandalakaram vyaptam yena characharam’ – which means it’s available in all the things around this Earth, pervading everywhere. Is it enough if we simply chant it or don’t you think we should also slightly move from our centre and expand as much as we can? The more you expand, the more I look at you as me, the more I am going nearer to the Guru. Simply by washing my feet and drinking the water nothing is going to happen. I might have a skin disease. You might be sitting like this. So, the most important thing is to understand what we have to do, how we have to do and how we should lead our lives. So can you keep this in mind? Then our Gurupurnima is sorted out.”
“You know what is Purnima – the full moon. In the daytime, you can’t see the Purnima; yesterday night we saw it, hiding behind the trees. We are saying – can we see it also during the day and not just during the night. Is it possible to see that moon shining in our hearts? If we can, then we are moving towards the teachings. To love my own child and look after my child – it is all great, it is wonderful, the monkeys also do that. No big deal. It is built-in biologically. It is a chemical process. There is not much love involved actually. It is like sex. Hormones increase and you say I am in love. Suppose, I say I love my neighbour’s child, haa! That is something. Then I am moving out from my center. I am not saying you should not look after your children. Please do. I do look after my kids. Sometimes, even now when they are grown up, you feel like looking after them. That is a different matter. I am only saying that all animals do that, including the gorillas and the monkeys, no big deal. What is also built-in and which is not evident, is that I am ready to look after somebody else’s child. So, the moment the human being moves from looking after only what is mine to also looking after that which is not mine – and in the larger context, the ‘that’ which is not mine is also mine. So, when I say “I”, normally I say I, you think that I am talking about this “I”. When I say I, I mean you. So, if you say that you consider me as a Guru and continue to lead a life that is diametrically opposite to what I teach, the effects of what you do may not affect you, it may affect me since you have said I am your Guru and I have accepted it. Fortunately, I have broad shoulders, don’t worry, but I am just saying.”
“So, when you do something which you think is not what “M” would teach, then understand that you are in a way lucky that the effect is not going to come to you, it is going to come to me. So, if you feel bad, don’t do it. What I am trying to say is be also kind to me; this is Guru Purnima. I am trying to be kind, be also kind to me. This is very important to note. The other thing is since I learnt and walked, slept and studied with a great teacher like Maheshwarnath Babaji, my teaching mode is like – even though now there are so many people and it is difficult to meet people one-on-one – I have a one-on-one relationship with everybody sitting here. Believe me. I don’t consider you as one crowd of people who are sitting here; I have a one-on-one relationship, I am confessing this to you, it is a fact. I know what she is thinking. I know what she is thinking. I know what Nandu is thinking. What I mean to say is from our understanding – there is only one mind. There are no many minds. There is only one mind. We have divided it into my mind, your mind, his mind, and her mind. You begin to understand this fact that there is only one mind and that it manifests through different centres in different ways. Then what happens? Then, you are responsible for everybody. You can’t be responsible only for so called your self. There is only one mind.”
“The other thing is, since there is only mind and when the mind calms down and my individuality except for functioning has ceased to exist except for practical day-to-day existence, then if it is one mind, what thought goes on there should also be understood here, right? Or no? But then, it’s like crown of thorns. So, you should know how to differentiate and get only what you want, otherwise it is like bombardment. Everything that is going on is sounding here. You come to a point where you don’t care anymore; it’s okay. Long ago, when I was a young apprentice to the Himalayan Master, I told Babaji one day, “Babaji, you know some people are saying that they can read thoughts, know thoughts and things like that, so what about me, I also want to know the thoughts.” He said, “Are you serious?” First, he called me a buddhu and then he said, “Are you serious?” I said, “Yes” Then he said, “Okay.” He said you do such and such a thing every day, for forty days. So, I lit a lamp and placed it in front of a smoked glass and looked at the flame and so on under his instructions. Don’t go and sit from tomorrow because it will be a problem for me. I was sitting and staring, and one bhooth came out; it has possessed me, now please help me. So, after sometime, there are people who are very close to me sometimes; every time they go to a dentist, they have a tummy ache and they send me an SMS. I can’t handle it, I am telling. So, somebody even told me that the piles are paining, what am I to do? I said the Atman couldn’t enter that cavity. I put the lamp and sat down and looked at the flame and did some pranayama. Even before forty days, just a few days into the practice, strange things started happening – like you suddenly started getting bombarded by thoughts. First, I thought something is going wrong with me, and I am going crazy. It was other people’s thoughts. You go near anybody, it happens. The worst thing was it was not the thought. I do not know if you know this, each thought becomes a form. It has a thought form. So some thought forms, which have a horrible-looking leg, a combination of a crab and a lobster with a human face and other horrid things start coming towards you. Then, when you look carefully you see that it is coming from somebody. Then you know that this guy is thinking about something terrible. After exactly one week of these terrible experiences, I went to Babaji, fell at his feet and said, “Can you take this away from me, I don’t want this.” He said, “I told you before you started, you have not reached this stage where you can do this. But you were in a hurry. So what can I do? So, now you keep it.” I said, “Please take it off. Don’t put…” Then after great deal of pleading, he said, “You don’t want this?” I said, “Babaji, I don’t want it.” “100%? Don’t ask me afterwards..” I said, “100%.” He gave me one shot on my head, finished. But now, after so many years, the mind has I think matured enough to deal with crabs and lobsters.”
“There used to be a great Sufi saint in Delhi, whose name was Nizamuddin Aulia. There is a railway station also called Nizamuddin. He had this very peculiar habit of going to the Friday prayers with a blindfold on his eyes. He had an assistant who used to guide him. The strange thing is he went only on Fridays for the prayer. That particular day, he would tie a blindfold and a boy would lead him to the mosque to pray. So, one day, this boy asked him, “Sir, why are you wearing a blindfold when going for prayers?” He said, “Do you want the blindfold?” He said, “Yeah. I also want to see why.” He took it out and said, “This Friday, you tie the blindfold and I will lead you to the mosque.” So, that Friday, Nizamuddin Baba led him to the mosque. They sat down. Just before the prayer started, people were just sitting and praying by themselves. Suddenly, this blindfolded boy started shouting loudly. So Nizamuddin Baba asked him, “Why are you shouting?” He said, “No, I can’t bear this.” “What happened?” He said, “With this blindfold on, I am looking at all the people sitting here for prayer. Only their bodies are like human beings while their faces – some are like jackal, some are like horrible creatures, dogs, pigs, what is happening to me?” He said, “Now you know why I am tying this blindfold? Because there are many with human body, but the minds are still like wild animals. I am looking for a good disciple. I want to find one who has a human body and a human head. Now you know.” he said. Just like that we have human bodies. We think we have evolved, that we have human faces. Deep inside, we have to examine if we are cats – cats are okay, soft and nice – jackals or wolfs or dogs, also there are some good dogs. Our dogs are very gentle creatures. So, this is very important to know.”
“All I am saying is since it is Guru Purnima. Before you go for bhojan, look at yourself and see where we are. And how do we find out? Before every act, look at the motive. Why am I doing this? That’s all you need to do. Very simple. Before you act, before you speak, when a thought enters your mind, hold for a second and see what is my motive, why am I doing this. I am telling you – mostly 99% you will see you are not doing it for moksha, hundred percent, it will be something else definitely. The moment every activity and every thought is directed towards attaining the truth or attaining liberation, you can leave me. There is no need of instructions. That is one thing.”
“If you are serious and you are listening carefully, one listening is enough. You don’t have to come back again. That one is coming back again and again means the listening has not taken place. So, in the evening we will talk about something, now this is the talk about examining yourself. So this Gurupurnima, decide that I am going to look at myself in a mirror, which is not clouded by my own prejudices, in which I can actually see my image. And if I see some flaws, I should start correcting them. If that correction starts, then the Gurupurnima is great. So I am here to enter your hearts, not the piles, and teach you how to move forward and the first step is examine yourself. Don’t blame others. Look at yourself. The problem may be you, not the other person. It is so easy to blame another person. I am a good person and this guy is not behaving properly. Can we look at ourselves?”
“Kabir Das said,”Bura jo dekhne main chala, bura na milya koi, jab dil khoja apna, mujhsa bura na koi.” If Kabir can say that, then what about us? Mortals? So, the spiritual path is not about having healing workshops and healing the well-heeled, or doing things like that. Spiritual path is to examine yourself first and do some honest job to earn your living. Yeah, if you know Ayurveda, you can massage, but that’s a different matter. So I think, the message has got in or it has not…”
“If we start examining thoughts, we cannot actually speak, because most thoughts are not towards spiritual evolution. So it is best not to speak, to keep quiet. Very often, I meet Mouni Babas, who don’t speak and I am very happy. It is better to keep quiet than to utter nonsense and open your mouth. So, I always tell them, “Thank you very much.” So, it is good not to speak. You came alone? Then, what to do? Why do you think I am speaking? There are lots of new people here who have not seen me before? Yes, lots of people. Do I look strange or…? Okay, especially when people read the autobiography and then come to see me for the first time, they expect that I will be coming from the room above the trees like this. They are quite disappointed that this fellow is walking. And, I am glad that people don’t think that I exist in thin air and provide foods sometimes. Yoga and meditation in the spiritual path – it is not practiced to fly in the air, or to walk on water, or to sit in the fire.”
“The other day, somebody said that he is sitting inside the homkund; I got quite worried. I went to see because I thought that he must have been having some kind of a protection on his bums or something. Just wanted to see, so I just went. It so happened that the homkund is so huge, and homa is going on in one corner and this fellow is sitting in the other. So all these are just… See, the greatest miracle, is when you plant a seed in the earth and look at it everyday. How does it sprout – it is a great miracle and then it becomes a tree and then it in turn gives you seeds. What better miracle is there on this earth? Do we have to do anything? Can’t we see it around us? Few years ago, this peepal tree was planted. It was very small, now it’s become big, it is giving us shade to sit under it. See the leaves are heart-shaped. They make a lot of sound when the wind comes. In fact, in Telugu we call it Raagi Maanam. The maximum sound you get is from this. What do you call Peepal Tree in Telugu? Raagi Maan.. Correct, no? Raagi means what.. Gaali.. Raavi.. Naaku Telugu Anta Raad Andi Koncham Koncham Maatladtanu ante (I do not know Telugu well, only very little. So anything else or we just look at each other and just smile.)
Ganesh said why do we don’t talk. I was actually wondering why you are not saying anything. As soon as I came, I saw he was sitting at the left. I said now he is going to say something. I think you also matured.
“You have a doubt. Very good. People say that we take our birth based on what good and bad deeds we have done. At the beginning, how were we? In the beginning, was everybody human beings, or everybody animals or how was it?” “I will tell you after four years. Sit down. What class are you now?”
“Degree First Year.”
“Haan, you finish you degree, then we will discuss this matter seriously. Why I am saying, is that by that time, you would have already got some clues. Now, you wont know. Then, you give me the clues, then we will work from there. You know, everybody knows here, you also know that that I don’t provide readymade answers. I give food for thought. So that people will think. When they think and find the answer, you can discuss with me. I can say if it is right or wrong. Right? Then you will completely understand it because it will be your answer, not mine. When I give you an answer, it will be a second-hand answer. What if I explain this to you right now? You will say, “Haan, Sri M said like that, I don’t know.” Let it come. Okay? But I am glad that you already started asking these questions. Very important. You should ask. We appreciate people who ask. Nothing can be found without asking. Thank you.”
“I also have a doubt. Which class are you in?”
“Zero.”
“Okay great, then you can start something.” “Shoonya Kaksha”.
So, shall we sit for a few minutes quietly? Like he said. We can chant Om together a few times and sit quietly. Just quietly. Don’t do anything. Hmm? Let me see if I can enter the whatever. So, first let’s chant Om together. You all chant with me. Om, Om, Om.
Video of the Satsang