Simon G

When we are narrow-minded, we only think about our needs and what affects us. We don’t bother about how our actions or words might affect others. But when our awareness expands we become broad-minded. We start to think of a larger cause; how our actions can affect the country, the society, the whole world. A maturity is cultivated in the mind and our ego becomes less and less.

As Babaji says, ‘If the mind is in equilibrium, then always your actions will be for a larger cause.’

So our mind needs to be under our control, stabilized, in equilibrium. This can be achieved gradually as we practise meditation regularly. Instead of jumping into selfish needs without the ability to restrain oneself, we can become mature. We will be able to listen to others, be aware of other’s needs and always think of a larger cause – harmony and peace for all.

Everything in this whole creation is impermanent. The sun, the stars, this planet, our own physical body. An object has come into existence and one day it will perish. Is there anything that is not impermanent, which will exist at all times, no matter what happens to it?

This is what the great ancient sages of India pondered. Just like when we go to a doctor, we would not be satisfied with a temporary cure, we would want a permanent cure.
They wanted to know the reality, that peace which is there at all times.

So they looked within. They discovered that in fact the peace and happiness which we are looking for everywhere in the world is actually within us. For a permanent happiness we cannot depend on something which is impermanent. When the mind becomes quiet by itself it experiences the best peace and happiness, because that happiness doesn’t depend on anything.

As we meditate, our mind becomes more and more peaceful whilst living in this impermanent world. While we can enjoy whatever comes our way, we can understand its impermanence and maintain our peace even when that thing inevitably disappears.

There are three responsibilities in life – physical health, mental health and moral health.

We all know the importance of keeping our physical body as healthy as possible. We know we need to eat the right food, do sufficient exercise, etc., otherwise our body can become unhealthy and give us pain and suffering.

Equally as important but often neglected is our mental health. As Babaji says, mental health means being in control of your mind. You should be able to think when you want to think, and when you don’t want to think you should be able to keep the mind quiet.

A lot of the time the mind tends to go into worries and cravings. It becomes weak and easily affected. A strong mind would mean we can maintain our peace and composure even in a difficult situation. If we can restrain ourselves and be mature in how we think and act without thinking negatively then we can say our mind is healthy.

When our mind is healthy, we can exercise the third responsibility, moral health. The word ‘moral’ here simply means consideration for others. We would not like to harm others in what we say or do. We would realise that just like we want to be happy, others would equally want to be happy also. We would not like to disturb that happiness. We would want to make decisions to help a larger group of people, a larger cause, not just for our own selfish needs.

So all these three responsibilities can be fulfilled with a regular meditation practice. As we go on meditating, the mind is purified of its habits to think constantly and go into worries and cravings. It starts to become healthy and we start to regain and maintain that peace within ourselves.

The state of our mind is so important. No matter what others may think about us, actually what really matters is if our mind is at peace or not. If it is at peace, then there is nothing for us to worry about at all.

A Master goes beyond all such judgements and remains at peace. Whether they are praised or criticized does not affect them They are secure in the knowledge that they have realized the ultimate truth of their own existence.

There is a story about the Buddha which shows the state of composure of a true Master.

Once a man came to where Buddha was giving a programme and started shouting and hurling abuse at the Buddha.

The Buddha remained unaffected. He waited until the man had finished shouting.
Calmly He asked him, ‘If someone gave you something you didn’t want, what would you do?’ Slightly taken back by this question, the man replied, ‘I wouldn’t accept it, of course’.
‘Well, I don’t need your insults and abuse, please kindly take them back’.

This shows the level of composure and maturity of a Master. Unmoved by any difficult situation or what others think of them they can respond in a calm and rational way without losing the control of their mind. As Babaji says, ‘How someone else behaves shows their character and culture. We should not become a victim to that’.

This is possible through meditation as we go on practising day by day. We get the upper hand of the mind. The mind becomes stronger, more resilient, and also able to become less narrow-minded and self-centred. It can think of others, and a larger cause. It can keep its peace intact and not go into unnecessary worries and cravings. Finally we can achieve that security of the real Self.

When the mind starts to become more and more quiet in meditation, thoughts of needing this or that subside – it becomes composed and settled in itself. Your mind becomes under your control.

The mind is our conscious energy, meaning whatever we apply the mind to we become aware of. If the mind starts to be aware of itself only then it settles down and becomes composed. Then the peace comes. This the great masters realized was the true Self, who we really are – all imaginations subsided and they settled into that state effortlessly at all times.

If we can practice meditation every day our mind becomes concentrated and is able to gradually settle. We can cool the mind down from being like a red-hot iron ​and make better decisions and judgements in our daily lives. We can become its master and achieve that peace and contentment which we are all looking for deep down.

The mind is infinite, like a boundless ocean.

When we gradually give up the habitual thinking which limits us, which gives us stress, tension and fear, we become broad minded, thinking of others and a larger cause. Eventually we can go back to the original Self of who we really are.

As the Masters say, that real Self is supremely peaceful and doesn’t need anything for its existence. It is contented in itself.

There is a story which Babaji gives to demonstrate how when we are consumed into our habitual thinking, we forget that this peace is within us at all times and think our narrow minded view of the world is the only reality. We are like a droplet out of the ocean, getting frustrated and disappointed when things do not go according to our wishes. But when the habits are let go and purified we can merge back into that ocean, settled and at peace. Meditation is the practical way to achieve this.

The ocean frog

A frog that lived in an ocean once happened to reach a small pond. Some frogs were living in that pond with their king. The king frog was informed of the new arrival. The king sent for the newly arrived frog. When the ocean frog was brought to the king frog, it looked arrogantly at the ocean frog and asked, “Where have you come from?”

“From the ocean, your majesty,” said the frog.

“Oh, nonsense,” shouted the king and, jumping a little bit in the pond, the king said, “Is your ocean this big or smaller even?”

The ocean frog could not help but laugh and said, “Your Majesty, I said I am from the ocean. You cannot simply imagine how big it is.”

“Shut up!” shouted the king. “Don’t teach me lessons, you liar! I will throw you out!”

Then the king thought for a while and with all its strength jumped a little more than the first one and said, “Tell me the truth. This is your last chance. Is your ocean this big?”

With all its humility and peace on the face, the ocean frog said, “Your majesty, this pond is just a small drop in the ocean which cannot be shown or explained here. I invite you to come to the ocean. See and you will experience the truth yourself.”

“Throw this frog out,” ordered the king and shouted, “There is nothing called ocean! How dare this idiot ocean frog invite me to see the ocean to teach me, as if I don’t have any knowledge or wisdom.” “Yes! Your Majesty, there is no such thing called ocean. Your wisdom is the ultimate. Hail the King of Pond!” shouted all the frogs of that pond.

‘Mind has become habitual and it plays tricks with itself. It wants to remain in that imagination world which is not true, which is not giving you any real happiness, but yet it wants to keep fooling itself because it has become habitual. This is what you have to understand, then in meditation you just watch’.  ~Shiva Rudra Balayogi.

Here is an ancient story from India that Babaji gives to demonstrate this.

Vikram and the ghost

Once there was a king Vikramaditya who was asked to bring a ghost to his master. Every night he used to bring the ghost. The ghost used to tell a story and at the end of the story it used to ask the king, ‘You have listened to the story, now if you know the answer you must tell me. If you speak I will run away. If you know the answer and don’t say anything, your head will break into a thousand pieces’.

So every night, Vikramaditya used to listen to the story. He always knew the answer so he had to speak, but then the ghost used to run away. Then finally after hundreds of days of doing the same thing, Vikram realised, ‘If I listen to the story of the ghost, then I will always know the answer because of my wisdom, and I will be forced to answer. Tonight I am going to ignore the ghost, I won’t pay attention to the story at all. If I don’t listen to the story, I won’t have to answer’. So that’s what he does. He had practised meditation so was able to do this. The ghost goes on telling the story but Vikram’s attention is on himself and he doesn’t listen to the story at all.

When finally the ghost asks him, he thinks, ‘I didn’t listen to your story, so I don’t know anything’ – he doesn’t open his mouth at all and just keeps quiet. Then the ghost has nothing to do and surrenders to him.

So like that, if we don’t listen to the story of our mind which is our ghost then we don’t have to answer, we don’t have to make a judgement, we don’t have to analyze – we are quiet. Then we have peace.

Click here to watch the Q+A with Babaji where he recounts this story

We may have things we want to happen in life. Things to achieve for ourselves or for others.

We can go on working in that direction if we believe it to be the right way. If we want something for our children, our family, we go on working. If we want to earn, we work to earn, if we want to achieve something, we work to achieve. But the important thing that is alerted is, when the result comes, we don’t feel any disappointment ever, we don’t feel frustrated, we don’t go into a depression. If we can simply accept it, keep smiling and think, ‘next time I will try again’ then the result doesn’t affect us negatively – we can remain positive.

If like this we can simply keep going then our mind becomes unconfused and at peace. We just do what we think is right, and don’t get affected by the outcome. This is what is practised in meditation. The attitude of just applying the technique and going ahead, without bothering if there are many thoughts or no thoughts, good thoughts or bad thoughts. So then the mind just gets into the job of doing it and starts to become concentrated, eventually receding and becoming quiet and at peace.

It is the habit of the mind to want to define things in a particular way. This is like this and it is a good thing, I like it. That is like that and I don’t like it. Constantly we are defining everything we come across in certain ways, based on how they appear to us. It is important to define things in the world for communication purposes. But these same definitions can also become a hindrance to gaining peace in the mind.

In order to experience true peace we need to be able to let go of those millions of definitions that are filling up our mind. They make our mind restless and constantly into cravings – it is this which gives us stress and takes us away from the truth. Meditation is a purification process where all the definitions that we have made rise up in the mind and disappear as we just watch them but don’t get involved.

As we allow this process to happen, the mind recedes as it has no job to imagine. When the mind recedes that is when we gain true clarity and peace. As the great masters of meditation went on meditating in this way for a long, long time they stopped making any definitions at all and realised the Truth of their own Existence. As Babaji says, ‘it is a dumbfounding experience’. They realised it was the Truth because you cannot define it in any way. If we were to try and define it, we are limiting it to our own definition, like trying to measure the all-pervading space with a measuring tape. They simply called it ‘That’ (Tattva).

In ancient times meditation was adopted as a way of life. It wasn’t a separate thing that one did on top of daily things, it was one of the daily duties of life.

When we embark on a practice such as meditation, it may be hard to find the motivation to practise it every day, even though we would recognise the need for it. At the first sign of difficulty we may feel like giving up. ‘Oh there are so many thoughts, it is too difficult to make this mind still, meditation is not for me’.

But when we take the first step and just start doing it at the same time every day, then it can become natural to us.
Just like we may get up, shower, have breakfast then start our work or chores, you would get up, shower, meditate, have breakfast then start work. So then it becomes part of your daily life.

We won’t have expectations; ‘this must happen in meditation, my mind must become peaceful every time’. All our job in meditation is just to keep putting in efforts in the technique that has been recommended, then our mind goes into the practice.

At work we don’t give up at the first hurdle if something doesn’t happen as we wanted. No matter, we keep trying, we keep putting in efforts because we recognise the need for it – we need to earn our livelihood. Just like that, when we recognise the need for our mind to be under our control, for that elusive peace and contentment, then we would keep going with it and not be fazed by the obstacles that may come in our way.

Without thinking or analysing, if we can go on practising every day, not minding what happens in our meditation whether there are many thoughts or not, then the real benefits of meditation come, the purification happens. And before we know it meditation will have become part of our lives.