Is Spirituality Relevant in our Life?🔗

Q: What are the benefits of meditation in today's society? At any time and age, what does every human being need in life?

Strength and well-being of the body, mind and spirit. The strength of the body (sharirbal) keeps us free of physical diseases and helps the body maintain itself in such a way that we can carry on with our day-to-day activities without any problem. The strength of the mind (manobal) keeps our minds calm and balanced and helps us live life fully and joyfully. The strength of the spirit (atmabal) takes us beyond these both. With atmabal, there arises a sense of compassion, a spirit of tyaag (sacrifice), of service to society. While the other two are necessary for the continuation and well-being of the individual, atmabal is essential for the continuation and well-being of society and humanity.

With only physical strength, a man can become a thug, a rowdy, a nuisance in society. If he possesses physical and mental strength without the strength of the spirit, he becomes cunning, dangerous. He could become a criminal, a menace to the society. Only when man combines all three strengths does he flower as a complete individual. He becomes an asset to the society in which he lives, and to the world.

The single master key that can unlock all these strengths is meditation. It is now well known that meditation can work wonders for the body. Through meditation, one can cure diseases like low or high blood pressure, diabetes, and a whole range of ailments. Many have experienced these benefits for all kinds of pains; even intellectuals agree on this matter.

Meditation helps you cleanse your chakras. Have you all heard about the chakras? In our body, there are seven subtle energy centers which control our physical, mental and emotional activities. When all these chakras are functioning harmoniously, only then do you experience a sense of physical well-being. Meditation works on your chakras; it helps cleanse the chakras, to make them function harmoniously, to keep your body and mind free of disease.

On the mental level, meditation can free the mind from depression. It can help us acquire greater mental clarity, and guide us to live our lives more completely and with a sense of fulfillment, both individually and as a part of the family and society. Meditation helps us make fuller use of our time and energy, so naturally we get increased material comforts too.

In the same way, meditation helps bring out our atmashakti (strength of the soul) and creates a deep sense of peace. When bliss flowers within us, we naturally want to spread it in society. If we ourselves are miserable, how can we be of any use to the society? So meditation is the one route that gives us all these strengths.

Meditation benefits us on the physical, mental and spiritual planes. It enhances family and social life, and ultimately leads us to spiritual life. This is the wisdom gathered by the great enlightened masters over the centuries.

Q: A lot of people come to you for healing, not for meditation.

Yes. Healing is my visiting card. My real message is meditation. When I say that meditation can lead you to the ultimate, I need - or you need - proof, am I right? That is why I promote healing. When people see the miracle of healing, they become drawn to me; they want to know more about this path. Without that, do you think it is easy to draw people into spiritual life? Of the thousands who come for healing, if even a handful turn to meditation and spirituality in their personal lives, my purpose is served. And it is happening; it is happening everywhere.

I don’t consider it necessary to promote any particular technique as special. I promote the principle of meditation. If more and more people are inspired to practice meditation after listening to me, that itself is sufficient

But if you are asking about my method, you could say that it is a way of balancing our inner energies. There is an energy that pervades the cosmos that works the planets, the sun and the moon. We are also part of this same energy, but we have lost touch. My techniques help in tuning us back to this cosmic energy. The more we tune ourselves, the more at ease we will be with our body, mind and spirit.

I advise you to try out as many techniques as you come across. Everyone should try out some techniques, at least 4-5 techniques. See, everyone who preaches has a spark of truth inside – without that, it is impossible to come out and be a master. But different masters preach the same truth in different ways. Also, different people have different mental set-up. So they may fall in tune more easily with one master, than with another.

So try out the techniques and see. Whichever gives you the deepest inner peace and the greatest clarity, follow it and forget the rest.

Whatever problem there is, you have to make a beginning to solve it. Have determination and faith; that is the first step.

Spirituality is not just a personal thing. It can have definite repercussions on the social level also. Spirituality is not only meditation; it is also compassion and service to society.

Vivekananda said beautifully: Aatmano mokshaartham jagat hitaayache.

“Though we may attain enlightenment, to harness it for the service of humanity is true spirituality.”

Otherwise, it is only half spirituality, which causes even more trouble than agnosticism.

No, that is the wrong way of looking at it. From my experience, rather than cutting down desires, harness your inner energy better, so that you can fulfill your desires.

To reduce desires is to reduce the richness of life. As I said, the important thing is to create the energy inside to fulfill those desires. There is nothing wrong in having desires, but you should work hard towards fulfilling the desires. Even if they are material desires, even if you want to buy a Benz car, nothing wrong. Meditation can give you the energy to fulfill even materialistic desires.

Don’t ever think of a contented life as a spiritual life. Sattva (goodness) and tamas (lethargy) may look the same on the surface. Do you think that anyone who wears simple clothes and sits on a mat on the floor is more sattvic and contented? That could be only the external appearance. It could also be that simply because he doesn’t have the energy, he may make do with whatever he has. Resignation and contentment are not the same, though they may appear to be so.

That kind of mind is the natural by-product of spirituality. Don’t think that it can lead you to spirituality. It happens as a natural by-product of spirituality. It happens from within. You can’t learn the attitude of contentment and try to make that a stepping stone to spirituality. People always ask you to learn to be content. Be very clear, you cannot learn to be content, you cannot acquire the attitude. Contentment has to flower within you as a natural result of spirituality, of meditation. Through meditation, you get a deep satisfaction from life, which allows you to be content with whatever you have.

Nothing is an advantage or a disadvantage. Ultimately, people are interested in what I have to offer. No one is bothered by such details. As far as spirituality is concerned, the ordinary ‘life experience’ is immaterial.

See, there are two kinds of experience – anubhava and anubhooti. Anubhava is acquired over a lifetime. It is like learning that fire burns, after testing hundred kinds of fire all your life. First you touch a log fire and find that it burns; then you touch a gaslight and find that it burns; then you try an oil lamp, then a match – and finally by the time you realise that fire always burns, it is time for you to go to the burning ghat! This is anubhava. But my experience is anubhooti. It happens when you learn from the very first fire. All fires are like this, all desires are like this. That leap is spirituality. If you learn through anubhava you need a lifetime to become wise. Anubhooti needs intelligence, not age.

So age is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage for me – it is such, that's all!

Certainly. We should definitely make these attempts. These places have become centers of negativity. Meditation can definitely do a lot in this area because ultimately the change has to come from within the individual. Before you can see the change in society, the transformation should take place in every individual, in every potential criminal. Meditation can not only transform individuals; ultimately it can ultimately bring down the crime rate in society.

Whatever fills you with love and joy, expands your personality, whatever makes you feel love and compassion for others, is punya.

Whatever withdraws you from others, makes you feel unhappy and depressed, is paap. Joy is your true nature. Whatever takes you away from that, whatever turns you into a masochist or a sadist, whatever makes you feel unhappy for yourself or others, is paap.

As long as we are not a nuisance to anyone else, as long as we don't interfere with the functioning of their lives, there is no need to bother about others' opinions.

At one time, this path was meant to be traveled alone. Today, I feel it is my responsibility to spread the joy and benefits to all. Of course, you may say this is not true spirituality. All I can tell you, from my deepest personal experience, is that as Vivekananda says, true spirituality is not just to get enlightened but to spread the benefits of enlightenment to all. That is what I took this birth for! For that, whatever is necessary - including an establishment - I need to maintain.

It is relevant in all times. Where would our country be today without the spiritual tradition? For centuries, they have been the protectors of our entire culture – from Sanskrit and scriptures, to bharatanatyam and kalaachara, to ayurveda and siddha, to religion and spirituality, it is the legacy protected by a handful of these people.

As the Bhagavata says, the very existence of the earth is because of enlightened masters. They have protected these sciences and arts by pouring their lives into it. Almost everything that civilization possesses today, all that you enjoy in the name of culture, is their gift. Even in our century, they were responsible for preserving the learning in an untainted form and maintaining the continuity. That is equally important.

Ok, let me ask you a question. When Harshad Mehta – I am sure you remember him from the Mumbai stock-market scam – when he cheated the country of millions, he was wearing trousers and shirt. Does that mean that everyone wearing trousers and a shirt is a Harshad Mehta? And if you think so, is that the fault of those who wear those clothes, or a fault in your perception? There have been cases where hundreds of false doctors have been arrested for defrauding the public. So do you now look at every doctor with suspicion? Have you stopped going to the doctor? COME OUT! Forget the old arguments. These are just escape routes.

The spiritual masters don't lose anything because of your ignorance. If you miss me, you lose me, that's all. In every field there will be frauds. Use your intelligence, check out and choose properly, instead of denouncing the whole community as frauds. Because of this misconception, even the genuine masters are not recognized.

See now, how much clearing work I have to do – sorting out your false concepts, working past your prejudices, giving proof, etc., etc. I have to establish my credentials first before I can get to the point and give you the new religion, which is spirituality. It is a gradual change, but it must happen. Our social concepts about spiritual figures have to change. Otherwise the masters will be forced to turn their attention to countries where people are ready to receive their message with an open mind. That will mark the decline of the Indian society.

See, you are journalists. You are going to carry this message to society. Before you do that, I want you to be very clear about what I am saying. I want to know whether you yourself are convinced about what I say. If not, question it. Please question it.

The only thing is, keep an open mind. Don't come with your prejudice and foregone conclusions. Alright, so are you convinced?

Q: [One journalist] No, I am not. I once surrendered to a guru but it didn't work out...

Did you really surrender?

Journalist: Well, I tried my best to surrender.

One thing you need to understand. When you say you tried your best to surrender, it means surrender did not happen. If surrender had truly happened, this question, this doubt would not be there. It is only a means to hide confusion and hypocrisy.

We all happily keep some beautiful idea of religion in our minds, but carry on with our practical life in any way we please. Religion is something you have to tune your whole life to; it is not a part-time amusement.

The truth is, whatever life you are leading, that is your true religion. It may be money or power or sex. That is your religion. That is why you are living your whole life according to that ideology!

Do you understand? Try and find out what your religion actually is. To keep your ideology and your life separate is hypocrisy. Whatever you call your religion, you must be willing to practice it completely in your life.

Journalist: But I had a strong belief in this particular guru's ideology. Still...

A: See, I told you, religion is not that which remains a belief. It should turn into your very life. To keep religion and life separate is a kind of schizophrenia. Hypocrisy takes over our being. If you believe that a certain way of life or a certain ideology is right, you should be willing to transform your whole life in that way. Otherwise, search for whatever you feel is the truth.

Something that does not change your life cannot be the truth to you. If something is the real truth, a mere touch itself can transform your life. If it doesn't transform you from within, let go of it. Don't hold on and complain. That ideology was not the right one for you, that's all.

Q: Up to the 1970s, many spiritual institutions were doing excellent service in maintaining the places of culture and religion, temples, sacred books, etc. But this has declined. Is it due to external interference?

Again, since agnosticism has taken hold of society, the number of people who come for this service has drastically decreased. Instead of removing the flaws in the system, the whole system itself has been destroyed. It is a sad thing ultimately for society itself. It doesn't realise that. Try to understand the reality of whatever I am saying. Whether you use these ideas in this article or not, try and follow it in your own life. Use your pen to spread these ideas to the public. It is your privilege and your duty.

Let me give you an example. Suppose you are standing at the side of a busy road. Look on either side of you. You can see the movement of traffic for say, 200 metres.

Now suppose you climb onto the terrace of a nearby house. You will be able to see the movement of traffic for a much further distance, is it not? In the same way, the ordinary mind can perceive the past and future only in a very limited way. The elevated consciousness (that comes after enlightenment) can see infinitely further into both past and future. It is a simple thing. The truth is always simple. Only the ordinary mind can’t comprehend these things, so it seems like a miracle. Jnaanis (masters) and jnaanshakti (the energy of enlightenment) don’t have any limitations of time and space. That is how many of my patients get healed in countries which I have never even visited. All over the world, people who have never seen me before, see visions of me in their meditation.

The misery of man is that when great truths are presented in a simple manner, he refuses to accept them. He can only understand complicated rituals because the mind is complicated, and it loves complicated things.

If I ask people to do half an hour of meditation, just sitting silently, they cannot do it. But if I ask someone to do 108 pradakshina (circumambulation) of a certain temple, they will do it happily, because doing complicated things gives much ego-satisfaction. But enlightened masters are not concerned with the methods, they are only concerned with results. While you are busy doing rituals, your mind is engaged in that. At that time, your inner being is left open to me, and I can give you whatever I have to offer. It is a subtle technique. The mind that questions, the mind that resists, is kept engaged in some other activity. Then my actual message is allowed to sink into you. At least in this way, if I can get through to the maximum people, if I can benefit them, then so be it! To enter into meditation for its own sake requires a very mature mind. It requires an elevation in the maturity level of society as a whole. But it is happening. Slowly but surely, around the world, a subtle change is happening.

One more thing: rituals when done with deep understanding and intensity, can cause a solid integration to happen within you. This integration is needed to pursue your journey in the inner and outer worlds with untiring will and inspiration.

OK, I think we are running out of time. Last question?

Of course. Especially in today's society, when stress is too much, family relationships are failing, meditation can make a tremendous difference. And it doesn't require too much of your time and effort. These days everybody is too busy to think about spirituality. I understand! But keep aside at least half an hour every day for meditation – any meditation is fine. It is not necessary that you should follow the techniques I am giving you. Follow whatever suits you best, whatever you feel tuned to. You will surely see a transformation, not only in your own life, but also in the ways you reach out to others and bring about a definite change in society.

Thank you.