March 2

Why do we think of God? Why do we pray to God? Why do we meditate on God?

We may think of God, pray to God and meditate on God because the world around us has disappointed us or failed us. Our near and dear ones may have deserted us, and we need consolation. If these are the reasons why we think of God, pray to God and meditate on God, then God gives us fifty out of one hundred.

We may think of God, pray to God and meditate on God because we feel that we have made thousands of mistakes in this life. We either want to rectify these mistakes or at least not make any more mistakes, since each mistake undoubtedly creates pain and a sense of frustration and failure in us. Or we may think of God, pray to God and meditate on God because we have missed countless opportunities in life and we want to avail ourselves of all the opportunities that we are going to get in the future. If we think of God, pray to God and meditate on God for these reasons, then God gives us sixty out of one hundred.

We may think of God, pray to God and meditate on God because we feel a tremendous sense of fear and doubt in ourselves. We fear the world; we fear even ourselves. We don’t know what to say to people or how to behave; we don’t know what is going to happen to us. We are always afraid of others or afraid of our own actions. Also, we doubt others and we doubt our own potentialities, possibilities and capacities. Now, for these reasons if we think of God, pray to God and meditate on God, God gives us seventy out of one hundred.

We may pray to God for more love in the world, and for peace of mind. We don’t want to remain in anxiety; we don’t want to remain in anger and hatred. If we think of God, pray to God and meditate on God for these reasons, then God gives us eighty out of one hundred.

We may think of God, pray to God and meditate on God because we want Divine Love, Divine Concern from the world or from God. We want only the love that will expand us, the love that will fulfil us. We do not expect any outer success or fame or popularity. We wish to receive only God’s Divine Love, if we think of God, pray to God and meditate on God for these reasons, then God gives us ninety out of one hundred.

But when we want only to become what God is and what God has, by constant and unconditional self-giving, then God gives us one hundred out of one hundred. At this point we are not asking God for anything. We want only to be what God is, that is to say Infinite Peace, Infinite Light and Infinite Bliss. Nor do we want anything from the world. If the world tortures us, disappoints us or misunderstands us, that is up to the world. We do not expect anything from the world, but we do expect one thing from ourselves, and that one thing is that we will grow into God Himself. If that is our choice, if that is the reason why we think of God, pray to God and meditate on God, then God gives us one hundred out of one hundred. Otherwise, no matter how sincere our motive is, we will not satisfy God fully. If we want to improve the world or improve ourselves, these things all have value, but they do not have the ultimate value. The ultimate value we get only when we are ready and eager to grow into God and become what God is.

Now how can we grow into God? We must be ready every day to change, and not to remain prisoners of the past. When today is over, we have to feel that it is past. It will not be of any help to us in growing into the Highest Supreme. No matter how sweet, how loving or how fulfilling was the past, it cannot give us anything now that we do not already have. We are moving forward towards the goal, so no matter how satisfying the past was, we have to feel that it is only a prison. The seed grows into a plant, then it becomes a huge tree. But if the consciousness of the plant remains in the seed, then there will be no further manifestation. Yes, we shall remain grateful to the seed because it enabled us to grow into a plant. But we will not pay much attention to the seed stage. Once we have become a plant, let our aim be to become a tree. Always we have to look forward towards the goal. Only when we become the tallest tree will our full satisfaction dawn.

We must always remain in the present. This present is constantly ready to bring the golden future into our heart. Today’s achievement is most satisfactory, but we have to feel that today’s achievement is nothing in comparison to what tomorrow’s achievement will be. Each time satisfaction dawns, we have to feel that this satisfaction is nothing in comparison to the satisfaction that is about to dawn. We have to feel that every second brings new life, new growth, new opportunity. If we are ready to allow change into our life every second, every minute, every day, we are bound to grow. How will we know that this change is for the better and not for the worse? We will know it is for the better if we see that new light is entering into us. If new light is not entering into us, then we have to feel that we are doing something wrong or making some mistake, unconsciously if not consciously.

Every time we think of God, we should feel that He is our Ideal, He is our Goal. At the same time, we have to know that to see the Goal is not the aim, to reach the Goal is not the aim. Our aim is to become the Goal itself. God expects nothing short of this from us. He wants us to be what He is. If this is our aim, then when we think of God, when we pray to God, when we meditate on God, God feels that our thought, our prayer and our meditation is absolutely right, absolutely divine.

Before I give a short talk on aspiration, I wish to offer my soulful gratitude to the soul of Australia for having granted me the opportunity to come here and serve her sweet children. I have been here for only twenty-four hours. During this very short span of time, seekers, friends and acquaintances have bestowed upon me their blessingful love, sympathy and concern. For that I am extremely grateful. Also, from the inmost recesses of my heart, I wish to offer my most soulful gratitude to the Dean of Perth. This morning I had the golden opportunity to be blessed by his august presence. His heart's magnanimity has touched the very depths of my heart. With all the sincerity at my command I pray to the Christ-consciousness to grant Mother Earth a few more sincere seekers and sincere lovers of mankind like the Dean of Perth, so that our planet earth can have a better peace, a more fulfilling heart and a more satisfying reality.

AUM AUM AUM

My dear Australian sisters and brothers, you are all welcome in my house. My house is my heart, my heart of aspiration and my heart of dedication. My heart of aspiration shall love the divine in you and my heart of dedication shall love the Supreme in you.

As you all know, there are two mighty forces that govern this world of ours. These mighty forces are desire-night and aspiration-light. Desire-night is the love of power and aspiration-light is the power of love. The love of power wants to destroy and devour the entire world. The power of love wants to feed and immortalise the entire world. The love of power is self-love; the power of love is God-love. When we utilise the love of power in our day-to-day activities, we consciously and deliberately bring to the fore the vital and destructive anger in us When we utilise the power of love in our multifarious activities, then God, out of His infinite Bounty, showers His choicest Blessings on us.

The life of greatness and the life of goodness. We aspire. Why do we aspire? If we aspire to become great, then our aspiration is not the real aspiration. If we aspire to become good, then our aspiration is real divine aspiration. Goodness is the aim of true aspiration. Greatness alone is constant competition. There is no satisfaction in it. By competition alone we can never achieve satisfaction. But if we become good, if we become divine instruments of God, then we achieve satisfaction far beyond our imagination's flight.

God is good. His goodness cannot be separated from His greatness, for true goodness always embodies greatness. The Christ, the Buddha, Lord Krishna — all spiritual Masters of the highest order — were Goodness incarnate. What do we see and feel in them? Greatness as well. So real greatness and real goodness go together. They are inseparable, like the obverse and reverse of the same coin.

The desire-night and the aspiration-light. If we walk along the road of desire-night, fulfilment will always remain a far cry. Our inner and outer expectations will never be satisfied. Yesterday we had a house; today we want two houses. If we get two houses today, we will not be satisfied. Tomorrow we will want to have one more. No matter how many things we possess, we will not be satisfied. Each time our expectation is fulfilled, a new expectation will come to take its place. But if we live in aspiration-light, when we achieve even an iota of satisfaction, we feel that inside that satisfaction one day will loom large infinite, boundless satisfaction. The aspiration-road must be followed. Each individual seeker must live in aspiration-light if he wants satisfaction. If he lives in desire-night, there can never be satisfaction.

Each individual on earth is crying for only one thing and that is satisfaction. But if satisfaction comes, it has to come through self-giving. Self-giving is the precursor of God-becoming. The more consciously and soulfully we can give our body, vital, mind, heart and soul to the Supreme Pilot within us, the sooner we can become an exact prototype of His divine Existence.

God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. But the sincere seeker is he who feels that God is most divine not because God is all Power, but because God is all Love. It is the love aspect of God that conquers the heart and soul of the true aspirant. When we live in desire-night, we become friends with human love. Human love is always the song of bondage. In human love, we try to bind others and others will naturally want to bind us. There is no satisfaction in this mutual bondage. Human love is eventually followed by frustration, and frustration is immediately followed by destruction.

When we live in aspiration-light, we make friends with divine love. At each moment divine love tries to expand its reality. Divine love is our continuous growth in divine reality. This divine love illumines us, liberates us and helps us to realise the highest Absolute. It illumines the obscure and impure life within us. It liberates the ignorance-bound and earth-bound realities within us. It satisfies the divine realities within us.

Fear is the obscurity within us. Doubt is the impurity within us. When illumination dawns, fear is transformed into strength and doubt is transformed into faith: the life-saving, life-immortalising faith. Insecurity is the ignorance-bound reality within us. When illumination dawns, our insecurity is transformed into all-illumining confidence. Our doubt-reality is transformed into a willingness to open to the inner light and our fear-reality is transformed into a willingness to open our heart's door to the divine realities. Finally, when realisation dawns, the earthbound realities, which did not allow us to accept the divine realities soulfully, lovingly, devotedly and unconditionally, now soulfully surrender to the divine power of the divine realities. When our undivine part surrenders to the divine in us, our entire being becomes absolutely perfect.

Aspiration is the inner cry, the mounting flame. Aspiration is at our journey's start and it is also at our journey's close. Ours is not an ordinary, earthly, human journey. Ours is a divine journey; therefore, this journey has neither a beginning nor an end. It is a birthless, deathless journey. This journey has a goal, but it does not stop at any goal, for it has come to realise that today's goal is only the starting point of tomorrow's journey. Once we start consciously and sincerely aspiring, we feel that we are walking along Eternity's road and that we shall eternally walk along this road, receiving and achieving Light, more Light, abundant Light, infinite Light. We shall offer this Light to the aspiring humanity so that this world of ours can become a Kingdom of Heaven.

Here we are all seekers. We have made an outer promise and an inner promise. Our outer promise is to Mother Earth and our inner promise is to Father Heaven. Our outer promise is that we shall become inseparably one with the excruciating pangs of Mother Earth. Our inner promise is that we shall become inseparably one with the all-illumining and all-fulfilling Smile of Father Heaven. We shall become inseparably one with both our Mother Earth and our Father Heaven and then we shall become a direct link between Mother Earth and Father Heaven. The aspiration of Mother Earth we shall carry to Father Heaven and the Realisation-Reality-Light of Father Heaven we shall bring down to Mother Earth for manifestation. Mother Earth and Father Heaven are both of equal importance. We need Father Heaven for God's supreme Realisation and we need Mother Earth for God's supreme Manifestation. Both realisation and manifestation are of paramount importance. When we realise and manifest, we complete the cosmic Game.

Women have one common name: sacrifice. They can sacrifice everything that they have and that they are, either for their dear ones or for an unknown, if not an unknowable, supreme Reality. From time immemorial, Indian women have been revealing the supernal beauty of sacrifice. An Indian wife is synonymous with an Indian sacrifice-heart. The Indian goddess Sati could not bear the unending insults which her father Yaksha lavished upon her husband Shiva. Her love for her husband could only be felt and never described. Finally, she destroyed her life, for she felt that death was unquestionably preferable to enduring her husband's humiliation-life.

In the hoary past, Maitreyi, wife of the great sage Yagnavalka, received a call from the Absolute Reality. Therefore, she found it impossible to be satisfied with earthly riches and fleeting happiness. Easily she could have wallowed in the pleasures of earthly prosperity, but she chose the path of renunciation. Her immortal utterance will forever and ever reverberate in the Indian firmament: "What shall I do with the things that will not and cannot make me immortal?" In the Ramayana, Sita became an incarnation of sacrifice. She cheerfully and unconditionally accepted the life of exile for fourteen years in order to be with her beloved Rama. Urmila, the wife of Rama's younger brother, Laksmana, made a similar and ever-memorable sacrifice. She allowed her beloved husband Laksmana to follow his eldest brother into exile, although she could not go with him. She sacrificed the company of her dearest husband by cheerfully letting him fulfil his desire to be with his brother Rama.

Savitri's love for Prince Satyavan touched the very depth of Immortality. When death snatched him away, Savitri continued following the spirit of her husband until she proved to death that nothing in God's entire creation could stand between her and her husband. Finally, death had to return Satyavan to the world of the living, for the power of Savitri's oneness-love for her husband far surpassed the division-power of death.

Even an ordinary Indian woman can be an emblem of sacrifice. A certain Rajput king was killed in battle by another king, and the enemy's soldiers entered into the palace to kill the king's family. The maid Panna, seeing the grave situation, carried away the infant prince and put her own child in the prince's place. She said to herself: "I am an ordinary human being, and my son will always remain an ordinary human being. But this infant will one day be a king. The king and queen were always kind to me. Can I not do them favour now? If God takes care of this infant prince through me, he will grow up and someday may be able to regain his kingdom. My sacrifice is no sacrifice when I am doing something for a noble cause."

The soldiers came and killed Panna's infant immediately, but in the course of time the real prince did regain his father's kingdom.

Satisfaction can be achieved in various ways. These women, by their matchless sacrifice, got satisfaction. Some present-day women, especially in the West, try to achieve satisfaction in another way. They try to achieve satisfaction by equalling or transcending men. Achieving satisfaction by sacrificing or serving is the Indian way. Achieving satisfaction by equalling or surpassing is the Western way.

To get satisfaction, you can stand on someone's head, you can be at his feet or you can be inside his heart. Some women want to compete with men and defeat them. If these women want to get satisfaction by surpassing others, then they can, provided they are not affected by others' jealousy. Some want to get satisfaction by becoming equal with others. This is another way.

Again, by remaining at the foot of the tree, a woman can also get satisfaction. When she remains at the foot of the tree and serves others, no one is jealous of her. Those she is serving show her all love. At that time, she does not feel that she is inferior. In a family, if the youngest thinks that he is inferior, he feels miserable. But if he feels that God wanted him to play the role of the youngest, and that the older children are not superior to him but merely have a different role to play, then he will get satisfaction. Similarly, these women get satisfaction by fulfilling the role of serving and sacrificing.

Satisfaction can come by serving others, by equalling others or by surpassing others. But the satisfaction that comes in these ways will not last. In India they tell about three kinds of disciples. An absolutely useless disciple will try to stand on top of his Master's head. A foolish disciple will feel that he is one person and his Master is someone else, and that they are equal. A devoted disciple will try always to be at the feet of the Master. But if someone is a devoted disciple and, at the same time, wants to conquer insecurity forever and live all the time in oneness-joy, then he will try to live in the heart of the Master.

The satisfaction that one gets by serving, equalling or surpassing others will not last. Only oneness-satisfaction will forever last. In the heart's oneness, there is no superiority or inferiority; there is not even equality. There is only oneness-joy. Here it is not a competition-game but a oneness-game.

Today we hear a lot about women's liberation. Many women are trying to equal or surpass men. But I wish to say that real liberation does not lie in equalling or surpassing others, but in becoming one with them. Liberation is satisfaction, and satisfaction is found only in oneness.

Man's inner strength is his poise. Woman's inner strength is her love. When poise and love blend together in oneness-game, at that time true satisfaction, constant satisfaction, perfect satisfaction, infinite and immortal Satisfaction will dawn on earth.

I go to bed from twelve-thirty to three o’clock in the morning. Either at three o’clock or at three-thirty I get up. Then I do my meditation. Then I do singing and I draw. At six-thirty I go out, again to pray and meditate.

Nothing gives me real joy except prayers and meditations. When I pray and meditate, at that time I am my true self. When I am not meditating and praying, the problems of the whole world descend upon me. But when I meditate, at that time there is no problem. My outer life and my inner life become one. When I am not meditating, they are like the North Pole and the South Pole.

If you can get up early — at two o’clock, three o’clock or three-thirty — you can do many things. Believe me, I do six or seven things! I take exercise with heavy weights, 1,200 pounds. And I take stretching exercises. Before seven o’clock I do exercise for two hours. Again at nine o’clock I exercise for an hour or an hour and a half. Daily I take exercise for three and a half hours, including stretching. Upstairs, nine exercise machines I use. Downstairs I come to use four or five machines. I do heavy, heavy weightlifting.

I get joy when I am in my own world, alone. It is only me and nature. Nature is helping me. When I come out of the house, the hustle and bustle of the world takes away all my joy! My joy is night, from three o’clock or three-thirty. At that time there is no disturbance, no interference. That is the greatest joy.

Meditation! My joy is only meditation.