Is Knowledge some kind of evolved mental process?

It’s not a mental process, it is the process of concentration. Also, evolution means to be reborn, to come out. See, we are already spiritual beings, the spiritual entity is already inside us. We have to evolve in order to really taste it. It’s like having food ready, but you have to go inside the dining room in order to taste it. Then your understanding will be a balanced understanding. It is called the middle path. The will then has a spiritual inclination. Or you can call it a spiritual baptism. These are all different words, but they mean the same thing. www.manavdharam.org

DEVOTION TO GOD EMBRACES EVERYONE

It is said that once Darkness arrived at the Court of Lord Vishnu with a complaint: “Lord, wherever I go, the Sun always follows me.” The Lord asked his courtier to call Sun. The Sun came and Lord Vishnu said, “I have received a complaint against you. Wherever Darkness goes, you follow him, you vex him.” Sun replied, “Lord, I have not so far even seen Darkness. It would be very kind of you, if you could let me see Darkness.” The courtier repeatedly called Darkness but how could he come before the Sun? Likewise, when we kindle the Divine Light within, then we can be protected from the various troubles and hindrances of life.

Mahatma Gandhi said that one lit candle wipes out all darkness, however dense it may be. Likewise, we all should take a pledge to eradicate the darkness of ignorance so that each human being may experience Divine Light within, our country may be all light and the light of Spiritual Knowledge may thus enlighten the whole world. So it is said, “ Jot se jot jalate chalo, prem ki ganga bahate chalo. Ishwar allah tero nam, sabko sanmati de bhagwan. Raghupati raghaw raja ram, patit pawan Sita Ram.”Light all unlit candles with a lit one. Let the Ganges of Love flow. Your Name is ‘Ishwar' and also ‘Allah'. May God grant good sense to all. You are the redeemer of all sinners and outcastes”.
The Holy Name of God purifies all sins. There is only one name for the Almighty. ‘Ishwar' and ‘Allah' are adjectival names of God, but the empirical Name is only one. St.Tulsidas has written in the Ramcharitmanasa, “ Nam prabhaw jani ganarau, pratham poojiyat nam prabhau.” “ Ganesh knew the influence of the Name, due to which he is worshipped first amongst all deities”. It is further written, “Sumiri Pawansut pawan namu, apne bas kari rakhe Ramu.” The son of the Wind (Hanuman) captivated Lord Rama by remembering the Holy Name. He got so much power from remembering the Name that he had the Almighty, Lord Rama, under his control.
We also have to remember the Holy Name and captivate the Lord. St. Kabir expressed his experience thus, “Koti nam sansar mein, tate mukti na hoy. Adi nam jo gupta jap, bujhe birla koy.” There are thousands of names for God, but they will not grant salvation. There is one secret primordial Name which is known by only a rare soul.” There are many adjectival names of God. Saints and great Divine Personalities called the true name of God the ‘ Adi Nam ' (Primordial Name). Guru Nanak Dev Ji said, “ Shabad hi dharti, shabad akash. Shabad hi shabad bhayo prakash. Sagli srishti shabad ke pachhe. Nanak shabad ghata ghat achhe.” Earth, sky and the entire creation have been made by the Word. Light is also produced by the Word which is within everyone's heart”.
We accept the scientific formula E=mc 2 , which means that the entire physical world has been created by the power of the Word. If you split the minutest particle of matter, energy comes out of it and we all are made from that energy. So our saints said, “Jarre jarre men hai jhanki bhagwan ki, kisi sooojh wali ankh ne pahchan ki . God is omnipresent but only he who has the eye to see can perceive it.. A spiritual person understands this. Knowledge means to manifest the omnipresent. Knowledge of the soul is the instrument by which we know who we are. So St. Surdas says, “Apan ko ap hi mein payo. Shabda hi shabda bhayo ujiyaro, Sadguru bhed batayo. Apan ko ap hi mein payo.” “Within myself, my Self I see. The Word alone was there, emanating the blazing Divine Light. My Satuguru revealed the secret.”

Our saints said to remember the primordial vibration, because that is the basis of the entire world. So it is said, “Kaliyug kewal nam adhara. Sumari sumari nar utarahin para. ” In Kaliyuga, the Dark Age, the only support is the Name of God, by remembering which one is redeemed. After acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, our new life begins, the life of our second birth begins, the life of knowledge begins. So, we should take a pledge here in satsang to tread the spiritual path.
Once a holy man visited a businessman. He asked him, “How old are you?” The businessman humbly replied, “Mahatma Ji, I am only five years old.” After a while, some children came there and said to the rich man, “Father, we are going for a walk.” The saint asked the rich man, “How many children do you have?” The businessman replied, “I have only one son.” Then the saint further asked, “How wealthy are you?” The rich man replied, “Mahatma Ji, I am worth 10,000 rupees.” The saint said, “That's not how it seems to me. You are doing business worth millions by phone. You tell your staff to purchase in thousands then sell for millions. I also don't understand what you mean when you say that you are only five years old, you have only one son and only 10,000 rupees. Please clarify this for me.”
The businessman replied, “Mahatma Ji, it's like this. I got an opportunity to attend satsang about 5 years ago. I acquired Spiritual Knowledge and then my consciousness was awakened. Due to that alone I am remembering the Holy Name and doing meditation. So I believe that my true age is only five, as the rest of my life was wasted in worldly and illusory things and was spent in vain.
A short time ago you saw five children here. They went away without seeking my permission. If I tell them to bring a glass of water for me, they reply that they are very busy and that they do not have time and they further advise me to ask the servants to bring water. So they are not my sons. I have only one son who obeys me. If I ask him to bring a glass of water, he will bring it with his own hands. That is why I said that I have only one son.
“I have a business worth millions of rupees, but I have so far invested only ten thousand in the service of saints and hence that is my real wealth. Only what I have spent in the service of saints, to help spread of Spiritual Knowledge, is my real wealth.”
If people want to take and accept the message of spirituality, then it is a matter of great pride that even today that message of spirituality is available in India . India and China are becoming economic super-powers in the world. India also has spiritual wealth. So let us all join to strengthen India with spirituality. Only when Spiritual Knowledge spreads will India be strong. When goodwill spreads everywhere in our country, then India will be strong. Today, due to ignorance we are fighting in the streets. Men are killing other men. While I was travelling on foot through Gujarat , from Dandi to Ahmedabad, (a distance of 350 kilometres) I saw that, simply due to ignorance, hatred was flourishing in society. We have to eradicate this hatred and we can wipe it out only by spreading love and goodwill.
So, let us come together, tread the spiritual path, understand the influence of the true name of God which has been described as the indestructible Word in the Bhagavadgita. That Word is indestructible, which cannot be destroyed, which is the primordial vibration, which sustains the entire creation. That is why it is written in the Bible, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.” To understand that, we have to find the Spiritual Master. “And you shall know the truth and truth shall make you free”. When you know the Truth, then Truth will redeem you from desire for illusory things. That is why it is written in the Ramcharitmanas: “Bhakti swatantra sakal sukh khani. Binu satsang na pawahin prani.” Devotion is independent and is the treasure house of all happiness and bliss, but no one can get it without satsang.” Devotion to God is independent. It is dependent on nothing and it embraces everyone.
During his period of exile, Lord Rama visited Shabari. She was very poor and downtrodden. Nearby was Pampa Lake which had become stagnant and dirty. Lord Rama told all the rishis living there to put their feet in the water and purify it. Accordingly, all the Rishis put their feet in the water but the water did not get purified. Lord Rama then asked Shabari to put her feet in the water. Shabari, very hesitatingly, put her feet in the water and it was totally purified. It was very strange that such knowledgeable sages who had done a lot of meditation and penance could not purify the water of Pampa Lake, whereas it became pure the moment Shabari, whom people considered low-caste, put her foot in it.
It is said that Vishwamitra was jealous of Rishi Vashishtha. Whenever Vishwamitra visited Vashishtha Ji, the latter would address him as ‘Rajrishi' (royal sage). He never called him ‘Brahmarishi' (divine sage). So Vishwamitra became angry and killed Vashishthaji's hundred sons. Vishwamitra had decided to kill even Vashishtha if he did not address him as ‘Brahmarishi'. He hatched a plan to kill Vashishtha Ji.
Late one night Vashishtha Ji was talking to his wife Arundhati. She asked him, “Maharaj, look how bright the moon is shining tonight.” Vashishtha Ji replied, “The moon is indeed shining brightly, but our rishi Vishwamitra shines even more brightly.” When heard Vashishtha Ji, whom he was going to kill, comparing him to the moon, he felt ashamed. He approached Vashishtha Ji and prostrated before him. Vashishtha embraced him and said, “Come, Brahmarishi!” It means that Vishwamitra became ‘Brahmarishi' by virtue of his feeling of total surrender. So, we should also develop the feeling of total surrender to the Spiritual Knowledge.
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How can one be selfless?

If you’re selfish for God, if God becomes the prime target in your life, then you will have no selfishness for the world or worldly things. How does one do that? All through meditation - meditation is the key. If you turn the key and open the lock, you have access to everything

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What do you mean by ‘mind’?

Mind cannot be defined as can a worldly object. Mind is very subtle matter. It is partly physical and partly paraphysical. That’s why the mind has the capacity to go through a wall. It’s like a magnet - the magnet has a physical limit, but the force of the magnet has a wider range. The magnet is a piece of metal, but you can move a pin with it, can’t you? That means that it has a dimension, but its force extends beyond that dimension. The mind is more like the force of matter. Mind is like a negative magnetism. It is like the magnetic power of the body - the body is like the magnet and the power of the body is the mind. The magnet is solid but the magnetism is not solid; it can go through things. I could be sitting in a closed room, but the mind will go out. You have to control the mind, because it can go and roam about, but it can be used if you control it.Let me explain further. The mind is like a gate that stops everything, like the gates of a dam. When you open the gates, the water flows, and if the gate is closed, the water doesn’t flow. Water is the energy, but that energy is still be controlled by the gate, which is the mind. So without the mind, the energy simply flows and completely engulfs your life. But if the mind is there, the energy will be blocked. So if you actually want to have more experience, you won’t get more, you’ll get less, because of the mind. www.manavdharam.org

Once I get Knowledge, that’s it, isn’t it?

You plant a seed in the ground, you don’t plant a huge tree. Automatically, that small seed grows and becomes a tree. Spirituality, or the path of Knowledge, is not like a trip that you get into for may be three or four years. It is a way of life. Once you are initiated, then actually you have to live that life and evolve spiritually and finally merge into the infinite, because merging into the infinite is salvation. It’s like a sugar cube - the cube has length, breadth and height. Now, if you put it into water, what happens? the length dissolves, the breadth dissolves and the height dissolve. In the same way, these dimensions totally dissolve in infinity.

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Can you meditate while doing other things?

You can meditate 24 hours a day. You can actually go shopping and meditate at the same time. That’s feasible. Have you ever ridden a bicycle? Have you ever taken another person along with you? Now, you are pedalling, you are talking, you are balancing yourself, you ring the bell and look here and there. So many things are happening at the same time. But where’s your mind? It is on the road, your attention is on the road. In the same way, your organs could be doing what they are assigned to do - your eyes could be seeing, your mouth could be speaking, your ears could be listening - and at the same time, your mind could be in unison with God. Each organ has a different function, and the function of the mind is to meditate. You can think about your friend, your money, your business, and this thinking causes problems. So the best thing is to think about God, and be in the world, but not of the world. Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” The problem is, that we all know that God is within us, but we are not in God. Only through meditation do we go in God, merge in God. This is the climax of human life. www.manavdharam.org

Isn’t having a family, living a good life and trying to be a good person what life is all about?

Having a family, having a social life, having a job, having an education, all that adds up to a human life. But what is human life for? Ultimately, the answer is that it is for achieving total satisfaction.Take for example, the process of induction. Induction means, if we have a north pole, then automatically a south pole will be existing. If we have a south pole, then automatically we will have a north pole. That’s logic. In the same way, have a coil of wire, and if we pass electricity through that, then it becomes a transformer, it’s induced to a higher or a lower potential. In the same way, because we are south poles, we are automatically looking for a north pole. It has to be somewhere, and that north pole becomes the unknown factor, like a mysterious or mystical experience. So being in the physical world, we automatically project spirituality and recycle that, just as in a magnet the polarity, the magnetic force, oscillates from north pole to south pole and then back again. So we want to complete that cycle. That’s why we seek harmony between materialism and spirituality. Everyone wants mental peace and to be perfect in the world. You cannot say that a man is like a cog in a wheel or that man is like a robot - you cannot say that. Human beings are something more than that, because we have spirit, we have mind and that mind wants satisfaction. www.manavdharam.org

Is your effort determined by previous karmas?

Yes, by previous karmas and karmas which are present now. Listening to satsang is a karma. Now, if you are encouraged spiritually, if you get satsang, if you get your doubts removed, and you sit in meditation, apply all your energy and your mind becomes concentrated, then you’ll have a good experience. But see, meditation should be for the sake of meditation alone. Good experience comes when you don’t want anything. When you go above your wants, then you can have a good experience. www.manavdharam.org

HUMANITY DEFINES A HUMAN BEING

In this world, someone reads the Bhagavadgita daily, another reads the Ramayana, and still others read the Koran. Is it written in any religious scripture to fight in the name of religion, to kill your own brother? It is nowhere written, so why are we still fighting in the name of religion, community or rituals? That is why it is most essential to understand Spiritual Knowledge.

We see how chaos and disturbance has spread all around. We read in the daily newspapers how school children were kidnapped, or how a villager killed another man from another village, or of brothers fighting among themselves. Just think about how rampant vices and criminal activities are today!
Where did the terrorism originate that we see in society? Our great Masters and saints tell us that all these firstly appear in the mind of man. If we want to wipe out malice and disturbance of mind then we have to look within and bring forth true transformation. Only when turbulence and instability are wiped out from the mind, will malice and unrest be banished from our society. When we are upset mentally, then our nature automatically becomes irritated and we say bad things to someone and hurt his feelings. If bad and malicious feelings do not crop up in our mind, then we will never be angry. Our life has to become a source of inspiration.

Great divine personalities come into this world from time to time. We tell stories about them to our children, we recite verses from the Ramayana in our homes so that the next generation can learn how such Masters led through their great self-sacrifice. Today we all need this same guidance. If we want to eradicate the darkness of ignorance, then propagation of Spiritual Knowledge is most essential. Only when we understand this are we true human beings.
What does it mean to be a human being? One can be called a ‘human being' if there is ‘humanity' within him. Don't think that we are human beings just because we nurture and expand our family, because we have feelings of love and kindness for them. Animals also have this potential of nurturing their offspring with love and kindness. Animals also feel love. Then for what do we call ourselves human beings? What is the difference between a man and an animal? If we examine it, we find out that one lion does not kill another. He may fight with an elephant but not with his own species. Only humans kill other humans.
We have broken all the rules of Nature, so how can we call ourselves human beings? True humanity is when feelings of love and kindliness have developed so much within us that we care not only for our problems or grief but also for the problems and grief of others and try to solve those. By the grace of the Almighty we have got this human body which is rare even for deities. God has given us the power of reason with which we have been able to accomplish impossible tasks. With the power of reason, man has reached the Moon. So we should always utilize our reason for good and positive work.
One has to develop the inner urge to know what Spiritual Knowledge is. This is the first step, but ahead of this is a long road. We have to receive Spiritual Knowledge from the Master and do as much meditation as possible. Then, by and by, desire, anger, lust, temptation and ego will be eradicated from our minds. Only then will we be able to understand the importance of Spiritual Knowledge.
So let's find out what our true human religion is. Let go of deceit and cunning and follow the path of Spiritual Knowledge revealed by the true Master.
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