Swamiji explains the gradual process of disciplining the mind for meditation. Disc 145 track 2.
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Swamiji: But the absolute truth is God himself, which cannot be destroyed, that which was in the past, is now, and will be in the future.
Devotee asks Swamiji: Where’s the point of having to force yourself to do something? Swj: Well, if your child doesn’t want to have a bath, Angeni, what do you do? You don’t put him in a bath? There is the chance. Even by force, if you make it [do something] the mind acquires certain purity. So you should do it.
Your mind you must treat like a little child. Let it do, even if for one minute it does it [obeys] it is good. You’d be surprised, I told one man, he said, ‘Swamiji, I can’t think about God.’ So I answered: Why can’t you? He said, ‘No, I can’t, the only thing, I like you!’ I say, well, if you like me, why don’t you think about me? He said, ‘I can’t even think about you. I say, Every morning and evening swear [at] me [then]. Now he says he can’t swear at me. I say why? He says, I’ll feel bad. I say, no swear [at] me! He says: No, I can’t do it. So now he’s continuously thinking about me, so naturally, his mind is getting purer, (chuckles). Do you see that?
Judas hated [the Lord Jesus] Christ, and then loved him, the others loved him, but nevertheless, Judas was given liberation, just like the other disciples, because Christ had forgiven him. If Christ forgave him, then who are we to punish him? Forgive means forget, forgive means: forget, Christ forgot all his faults, he only knows: he is my child, that’s all. So, I ask people: where do you think Judas is sitting? He must be sitting on the right side of Jesus the Christ. He’s Christ’s child, Christ forgave him. It’s only we that are thinking it’s bad, but He [the Lord Jesus] doesn’t think it is bad.
Like someone’s daughter runs away, with another man, so other people look at it: hey, she ran away. But to the daughter’s mother and father: that is my son in law, and that is my daughter, they don’t think: my daughter ran away. [Swj chuckles] after a little while, it is forgotten. Understand what I mean?
You can’t manoeuvre the world, but you just manoeuvre your own thoughts. That’s meditation. You can’t take other people’s thoughts away, but you can do one thing, take your thought out – of wrong things, and put it on the right things. When you go into the church, the statue doesn’t change, you become a great saint. [The outside doesn’t change, the transformation is internal].
In my world, it’s a struggle to remember God, what it is? Struggle to remember God! That’s meditation! Right? And also while remembering Him, you have love for Him. You feel tremendous love for him. Now in normal [regular daily] life, when you’re doing anything, you must have this kind of feeling, and think, you are doing it for Him [God]. If you can’t do that, then after doing the work, mentally offer it: ‘O Lord, it was your strength, that I used to do this work, now I offer the fruits to you.’ That also becomes meditation.
Devotee asks: Why I am not in meditation during my work? Swj: That is the right thing to do, but there’s a starting point: you must start somewhere, so then you start morning and evening to sit, it is like filling petrol in a car, you fill the petrol, the car must go. You see, if I go to a doctor now, the doctor gives me an injection, right? He gave me the injection now, you think the effect of this injection will be finished then? [immediately]. You think the effect of this injection, if he takes the injection [needle] out, will be finished? [Devotees say no]. It will last a couple of days. So, meditation is like that, like giving that injection, so that feeling must last the whole day, when the feeling starts coming down in the afternoon, we meditate again, so it will last the whole night, until the whole of life becomes one long meditation.
Swj: We also must remember the mind can make excuses. It says, ‘Oh, no, no, everything is meditation so don’t sit! It’s [the mind] lazy! The one thing in Yoga is discipline, what? Discipline! Right? So, if this is meditation, if I can work and meditate, alright let me see ….? If I can do that and that, [both work and meditation together] then I am happy.
Meditation means you must [be able to] attach yourself and detach yourself, anytime you like, you understand? Devotee: Attach yourself… Swj: and detach yourself, whenever you like. Devotee: Ah! Swj: That’s meditation. If I like to think of you now, then take it out [stop thinking of you]. Then think here [of you again]. Take it out, think there [i.e. moving the mind-focus at will]. That will be meditation, then I am not a slave, otherwise I am a slave, it will want to do only one thing.
You see, discipline is a funny thing, The judge walking on the road, will say: Well I am a judge, I pass the sentence. Can he pass a sentence [while walking] on the road? When he is walking on the road, can he say: You are guilty? Devotee: No! Swj: He must sit in the seat [in court]. Devotee: Yes. Swj: Meditation is like that, you sit in your seat first, get the power first. Do that, and then do that [first the one, then the other].
Swamiji to devotee: You know Shiva? The deity called Shiva? Devotee: Yes, yes. Swj: He sometimes sits in meditation and sometimes he’s dancing, Swamiji repeating to devotee: Shiva sometimes sits in meditation and sometimes he is dancing! So, activity, inactivity. Inactivity in activity is His. Both are His!
Devotee: It’s not clear, for me – it’s not clear! Swamiji: Never mind it’s not clear, but that’s an exercise. When you do [position or move] your hand like this [Swamiji clearly positioning hand in a certain way] it pains in the beginning, huh? But when you keep doing it, when you get used to it, no pain comes. So, your mind, never mind, it’s [right now] not clear, but you must do that [regardless], otherwise your mind is playing hide and seek. Just like now it says ‘Don’t meditate, do it tomorrow, oh, don’t think about God.’ [To devotee] You understand that? Devotee: Yes. Swj: So you must make your mind do that, it’s very important, even if it’s for two minutes, it does not matter, but you must do it.
Swj: Lots of people say, ‘You know a rolling stone, gathers no moss’. So let it not roll [let it remain still] for a few minutes, let it gather a bit of God’s Grace [kripa]. I’ll ask you one more question: When you want to shoot an arrow, bow and arrow, you [first] pull it [the string]? Devotee: Yes. Swj: And then let go. When you’re pulling and then let go, it gets power, huh? So, in meditation you pull your mind back? Then when you let it go, it does everything perfectly? At night-time, that’s what you do when you go to sleep, you pull everything inside, and when you wake up, you’re fresh to do work.
Devotee: Sometimes, meditation is very natural, because it comes by itself, and it’s very beautiful, but it’s not always [like that]. Swamiji: right, you’re getting it! Because that depends on the state of your body, it depends on how tired you are and how restful you are, it also depends on what you’re eating, hey? It also depends on what people you meet, it also depends on what you’re reading, so many things that are different.
Devotee: And in this case it’s very beautiful, because I don’t think I am meditating. Swamiji: Ja [yes], that’s good, if you are living in an ashram, you understand? But you are living outside, that’s because you don’t get it every time like that [have that spontaneous feeling], therefore you must force your mind morning and evening. Otherwise in the ashram it’s alright, now if you want to meditate, you sit and meditate, if your mind says: don’t meditate, do something, you do something. That’s a different story, but they [people] don’t do it, not in the world. In the world you must have a filling station – a petrol station – you fill the petrol, a resting place. In meditation you rest. After that, it will become natural. Devotee: But when? [laughter]. Swamiji: It depends on your intensity, how much, intensely inside, you want it, it depends how impatient you are to get to God. [Paramahamsa Sri] Ramakrishna, for12 years, he rubbed his face [in the dirt] and cried. For 12 years! [That’s] dedication…
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These recordings were made from the 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.