“Dhyana satsang is a place to unload your mind, not a place to load your…”

Dhyana satsang is a place to unload your mind, not a place to load your mind. You can express through silence. Social gatherings and debates draw large numbers while Dhyana satsangs draw small numbers. The former stands for quantity while the latter stands for quality.

Arjuna asks Krishna in the Bhagwad Gita, “What are Brahma, Advaita, Karma, Gnanis etc?” when we ask a lot of questions, it only means that we are asking for the sake of asking. If you look deep inside, only one question will arise. One man asked me, “what is God?” I slowly changed the subject and enquired about his family and his business. We spoke for nearly two hours and never once did he get back to his initial question. At the end of it I told him, “Ayyah, you asked me a question as soon as you came in. I did not answer it because it was not a question from deep inside you.” If the question arises from deep inside us, we will never forget it. Some people ask questions, give the answer themselves and then ask me for an answer! Questions are really a scramble for gathering words and collecting within us. We get a certain great feeling about ourselves when we gather these words. But we miss the great Truth in doing so! We give more importance to words than truths. There are many Gnanis (Realised souls) or Masters who lived and are living now. They all talk and we take their words as truth. They talk on different topics ranging from vegetarianism to marriage and give different view points on them. If there be one point on which all the Masters concur, it is the point that ‘The Truth is in us and it eludes us all the time’. We actually permit it to elude us all the time. The Vedas say, ‘Aham Brahmasmi!’ (I am the truth). The Bible says, ‘Be still and know that ‘I am the truth’’. If all great Masters concur on this point, it has to be the Truth. We cant even take a vote on this point because there is no dual opinion on this! But somehow this point seems to elude us. Why is it? It is because we are playing with and gathering words all the time.

From Punjab, an agriculturist went to Texas. Texas is famous for farmlands. He stopped outside a farm house and asked for water. The Texan offered him water and made polite conversation. The Punjabi told the Texan that he has 10 acres of land each in the front and back of his house in Punjab. The Texan gave a silent laugh and remained quiet. The Punjabi asked him how much land he owned. The Texan replied, “I get into the car in the morning at one end of my farmlands and start driving and reach the other end at night time.” The Punjabi replied, “Oh! I too had a car like that!” Like this, we all correctly misunderstand the truth.

The Upanishad says, “If you actually see the truth once, your life changes.” We might ask, “But aren’t we seeing the truth?” Actually, you are not seeing the truth. Famous Psychologist says if there are a hundred things happening around us, we see only the truth. Ramana says, “Why then do I talk? Because If I don’t talk, you will start talking inside yourself. To stop that, I need to talk.” Dhyana satsang is an opportunity to free yourself of your inner chatter atleast for a couple of hours; an opportunity to feel peace and unload your mind. If you are able to do this, it means that you have successfully participated in the satsang.

Man’s inherent nature is to accumulate money and material things Once you realize that there are things that money cant get you, your pace in gathering wealth will automatically decrease. Man will at some point in time slow down his speed in gathering wealth. But somehow, man’s speed in gathering words never decreases. Because of this, the Truth eludes him. One who has stopped gathering words and wealth will start searching for true knowledge.

There are two things that happen. One is, presenting arguments and looking for a judgment, while the second is forming a judgment and then arguing with that forgone judgment in mind. The second is what we do most of the time. In marriage, within the first few months, the man or woman forms a judgment about the other and from then on, whatever the other does, he or she sees from point of view of that judgment. You search and collect arguments to maintain your judgment.

One man came to me and asked for blessings for a divorce. I told him that I will give blessings for a marriage but not for divorce. I continued and asked him what the problem was and if I could sort it out. He told me, “Swamiji, this morning, I asked for coffee. She came with the coffee with such haste and spilt it on my dhothi.” I told him that the incident seemed too trivial to ask for a divorce. He went on to say, “Swamiji, you don’t know, today she poured coffee today, tomorrow she will pour coffee.” I told him, “ayyah, why do you want to slip from coffee to acid without any reason? All she did was spill coffee in some anger and haste and in any case, she is going to be the one who is going to wash it!” he went to say, “Swamiji, during our marriage, there is a custom wherein three pots of water are kept and the couple are meant to leave their hands in all three of them to try and find a ring which has been dropped in one of them. As early as that time, she scratched my hand with her nail during the game.” In order to zero down the distance between the couple small games such as these are played. The man has been keeping a 10 year track of such trivial incidents! I told him, “Ayyah, if you maintain such a police track record, how can one live with you!” In this fashion, you form your judgment beforehand. You will therefore never be able to see the certain positive aspects of your spouse; you will see only those aspects that feed your judgment. This is like how when you are hungry, only hotels hit your eye on the road. Before killing a dog, we call it a mad dog and then kill it. We pass judgment and cling on to arguments that favor it.

A lion was on a river bank waiting for its prey. A deer came by and the lion pounced on it. The deer pleaded for its life. The lion gave a reason, “I was drinking water and you stirred it at that time.” The deer assured that it had not stirred the water. The lion insisted on its claim and ate the deer up. Our behavior is similar to this.

Religion makes one do rituals. Spirituality enriches one’s life. From the ashram to the City Centre, I used to travel everyday with the same driver. I wanted to go to particular street and recalled it to him with a mosque that was near the street. He claimed that there was no mosque in that place. I tried recalling to him a famous hotel near the mosque, but then too he failed to acknowledge. I finally told him that there was an Hanuman temple in that place. His face immediately lit up with recognition. He then went to that street and I showed him the mosque that was right there next to the temple and five times as big; he was shocked! His was such a staunch Hindu that he had not even seen the mosque in all those months. Don’t be fanatic or clinging about anything in life. Think of a river. When you put your leg in the first time and take it out and put it in the second time, the river has changed faces, the same water is not there anymore, fresh water has flowed in! Don’t strive to identify yourself with any religion or anything for that matter, life is ever changing. I am not giving this to you as a virtue to follow. It needs to become the inherent nature of your personality. Because of your narrow scope of beliefs, your spiritual growth gets stalled and curbed. It is like how a horse has a limited view because of its saddle***. You simply lose it. A broad perspective is essential in life. Its like when you are in a locked room, you will not know about open air and breeze. Compassion to all will not blossom. Buddha was asked, “what hell will be given to non-compassionate one?” Buddha replied, “They cannot be put in any hell because they are already in hell!” Only when you are in hell, you create hell for others, because only what you have you can give.

A Mother asked her son, “Do you have any brains?” The son laughed. When asked why, he replied. “My mother asked me if I have brains. You only ask for what you don’t have!” It is just like how we ask people for small change when we don’t have it. When we don’t have peace in our minds or if our stomach burns, we throw out on others. An American asked me, “Swamiji, do I have to become a Hindu to become enlightened?” I said, “Not at all.” Don’t permit any thought that curbs or shrinks your field of perception. Drop all notions of ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’. Keep your life open; this is the basis for spirituality and you will become enlightened.

Sigmund Freud says, “Our thinking is never clear. It is mere association.” Let me explain; you see a dog on the road and immediately all the dogs you’ve seen from young age of which you were afraid of come to your mind; next as your mind is dwelling upon your young age days, one of your teachers in your school comes to your mind. In this fashion, out thoughts have no logical connection with each other; there is only association happening all the time. The thought is not clear and you miss the truth. Another example, in the morning you wake up and see a rose flower bloomed on the rose plant. Immediately your mind goes to someone who gave you a rose flower sometime in the past; your thought then dwells upon your reaction at that time to the flower. In effect, you miss enjoying the rose in front of you! The truth eludes.

Try this small meditation. Simply gaze at a flower or a tree with absolutely no thoughts about it. Don’t allow thoughts or words such as ‘red flower’, ‘brown bark’ to arise. Don’t label it at all.

People say, ‘I want peace’. Ramana Maharishi says, “Drop ‘I want’, then only peace will remain!” Because you play and live with words, you keep missing the truth. A child thinks through pictures whereas a man thinks through words. The former is visual thinking and the latter verbal thinking. The latter dulls your life. You will never be able to encounter a situation spontaneously. You will always encounter it with your past judgment.

3 monkeys found a mango but couldn’t decide how to divide it. They went to a Rishi for intervention. The Rishi told them to plant it, wait for it to become a tree bearing fruits which they can then eat. They agreed and planted it. The first monkey took charge of watering it everyday, the second took charge of putting manure for it regularly and the third took the role of watching over it. Months passed and no results were seen. They came together again with the Rishi for investigating the matter. The first monkey claimed that he was watering diligently. The second swore that he applied manure everyday without fail. The third monkey said, “I have been keeping a close watch over it. Infact everyday I dig in to see if it is alright!” Animals have only programmed instincts. Only Man can act spontaneously. The more spontaneously you react, the more you grow as a man, else, you will never grow like how the mango tree never grew. Because of man’s preconceptions, he who is meant to turn into a fruit remains a seed.

Our mind is like a monkey jumping from one thought to another. Even the jumping has a pattern to it. Like the pre-recorded gramophone plate, our mind runs thoughts. You form a judgment about your wife and live with that judgment instead of with your wife. The relationship never grows. One man asked me, “What do we do about the terrorism prevalent in the country?” I replied, “First you stop the terrorism in your house; don’t bother about the country.” At our houses, there is terrorism associated with the mind and body. We keep talking about the things that we are not able to achieve. One man says, “I love the whole world.” It is easy to love the world, it is difficult to love your wife. When you say that you love the world, you need not to anything tangible to prove it. When you say you love you wife, you need to prove it.

When you go back home, your wife will ask you what you have achieved after listening tot his discourse. If you talk about the terrorism in the country, you can keep debating and conclude that kali (the fourth quarter of time) has become grave. When people hear truths like this, they immediately say, “My wife should hear this.” When man hears truths related to the field of medicine, he applies the words spoken to compare them with his own medical condition. When he hears words truths related to the mind, he applies them to compare them with the condition of others! Man’s inherent nature is to let the truth elude. It is like this. You read a hundred page book; you lose 98 pages of it, hold just the last two pages of it and try to reconstruct the entire book. You will get only 2% of the truth of the entire book.

Drop your opinions. Man evolves every second and there is no meaning in holding onto opinions. When your son comes home late one day, you assume that he has probably been with bad company and that’s why he is late. This becomes a recording inside you. Next, even if he comes home late after classes, this recording in you surfaces and an CID enquiry will perhaps follow. When you believe in man’s evolution, a certain growth or maturity happens in you. It is easy to live with imagination. 98% of what you believe is wrong and 2% is not your own. You will realize that there is a big screen between yourself and the other person. If you wear spectacles tinted green, you will see the whole world as green, that’s all.

Dharmaraja and Yudhishtira were sent to find a Bad man and a Good man respectively. Both came back empty handed. Mohammed Nabi says, ”When you see the world as something, that something is ‘You’”. When you talk or complain to me about someone, you are clearly showing your own mind. Eluding truths form the basis for lack of gnana (lack of true knowledge). Children live in imagination. Older people do not need imagination. Drop all your judgments and play of words with respect to Man, events and the world. Move spontaneously and don’t let the truth elude you.