Purification...is there any end to this!

Dear associates in the Path,

I am happy to be with you all again on the auspicious occasion of the birthday of Pujya Lalaji Maharaj. We have been treading the path assiduously and progressing in the path. Most of us attend to the routine meditation practices and find certain amount peace and calm settling in us. We do feel the influx of Pranasya Pranaha and are immensely pleased about it most of the time. However when we contemplate over the thoughts that do come to us during meditations and even otherwise during our daily transactions we find certain thoughts hovering over us all the time.

We do find ourselves perambulating in a continuous circle, retracing the same steps year after year after year. Last Basanth the same thoughts, in the earlier one the same ones and now too! We all have areas in our lives where we are locked into patterns of behaviour that we have not been able to break. Each of us knows at some level, where we are stuck. The longer these behaviours exist, the easier it is to get used to living with them, and in a way, give up on ourselves and say O! Master help me!

We should be clear in our determination that change is possible and we shall attain the desired condition soon. The change is possible with the tools provided by the system of Rajayoga that we are practicing. We can work to create a fresh start, to change our circular path into an upward spiral towards new experiences, instead of repeating old patterns. The path is not easy, but it is true and real and worth the effort. But even as our Master has stressed determination is required. We should like Spartans attempt the goal with courage and confidence. It is necessary that when we practice the path we should have no doubts about the methods given to us. We should not try to approach the problem as a trial and error attempt. We should have the courage to say "I want this, and I am willing to work for it."

We do have imperiences of Ground, Void, Silence, Absolute, and Oneness during our meditations and during congregations like the Birthday celebrations of our Masters. They may be few. They may occur occasionally without any notice. They are of the very nature of our being that we are not aware of what it is most of the times. But we do have such Oneness and Suchness. Dr. K.C.V. says "The command of God or the vision to execute in the temporal context the intuited truths of the supramental vision is an imperative, a sacred calling which the mystic or the religious seer cannot even think of disobeying." (Reference: vol x - pg 510) To Imperience is not enough. We should attend to the call of the imperience with courage and confidence. It is an imperative or a sacred duty. It is not enough that we realise; we should enable others to realise as early as possible. That is the greatest service we can do.

It is not enough to say that we meditate and follow the other meditational practices as prescribed. Perhaps it is true that nothing more needs to be done if we meditate as prescribed. There is nothing better to improve our spiritual well-being than meditation. Regular contact with the divine promotes radiant health, inspired thoughts and profound peace. Throughout the ages regular meditation has been considered a praiseworthy practice by the enlightened. But today's times are unique. With the increased pace of life and the many more responsibilities we must shoulder, most of us do not have the luxury of spending years in cloistered solitude, gradually increasing our spiritual capabilities. There is absolute necessity to reduce the time to be spent on the spiritual practice and the system of our Master is the best we have today to offer humanity.

It is very clear for anyone who pauses and reflects on the conditions of our living, that humanity is crying out for inner fulfilment, for awakening. Simultaneously, the paradigm war of "love vs. fear" is being fought in people's minds and hearts with a greater intensity than ever before in the history of our civilization, We find it is absolutely necessary to have massive amounts of love and divine wisdom to descend from above as in the case of our imperience of Pranahuti and this should spread throughout the world. The time is now for each of us to increase our spiritual bandwidth and the size of our spiritual containers that is our hearts.

During our meditations we dive deep into our hearts and access the divine impulse to the extent our vessel or heart permits. Such a tapping into our divine self is, of course, always good. But we need to improve our access to the divine self more and more. With the love of our Master backing us all the time we can access ever-increasing amounts of love, energy and wisdom more quickly and easily than ever before, if we are oriented to the task of human transformation. The impulse that we carry is enough for us, for our family, and for our spiritual brothers and sisters who are crying for help. This is the confidence and courage we shall have when we pray at 9 P.M. for the good of humanity. Even as Dr.K.C.V. puts it " It is necessary to condition the consciousness of the individuals all through the world by a systematic, consistent, and uniform method of substitution of universal ends in place of the narrow parochial and patriotic motives must be conceded if life should evolve to a better order and plane." (Reference: vol x - pg 514) All our practices are meant for this purpose only. Such a state of mind cannot be achieved unless we purify our hearts and souls.

Many aspirants have reported that after taking a sitting from their trainer or other trainers they feel lot of energy and power poured into their hearts and the Pranahuti was very intense and engulfing. It is my understanding that more the trainers work on others the more they are centred on the Master and therefore better facilitator of Pranahuti energy. The cleaning sittings we have from the trainers cannot be treated as a substitute for ones' own prescribed spiritual practice. The sittings had from the trainer will enable one to do better ones' meditation practices because then one would be clear, calm and energized. And the benefits will not only come to the aspirant but through him/her to the entire family, friends and co-workers and spiritual brothers and sisters. This is because spiritual light will be radiating from persons who have moved into the higher realms of spirituality. The movement into the higher realms is not a myth or impossibility. Due to the grace of our benevolent Master it is easy for sincere and committed aspirants to move to higher realms radiating spiritual energy simultaneously effecting transformation of humanity to some or more extent according to ones' own sphere of movement in spiritual path.

It is not enough that we move into higher realms of spiritual life but it is our duty to give call to others around us through such means as we are capable of, to move to spiritual way of life for the sake of peace and prosperity of this world. Thereby we will be deepening our own self-realization and simultaneously contributing to humanity's progress on the spiritual path. The process of our purification is a never ending workout on our selves. The more pure we are the more balanced do we become. We can always measure the extent of our purity by analysing ourselves regarding the negative energies we have and the positive energies we possess. The negative energies of hate, ill-will, envy, jealousy, wrath etc., have to be given up and the positive energies of love, empathy, commitment to truth, non-injury, sharing and balance are to be possessed more and more. Our conscience is our best guru who teaches us thoroughly what to have and what to eschew. There is no end to this vigil and such a vigil gets rewarded abundantly.

Many times I hear from the aspirants that they are so pure and so confident about their purity that they find no necessity to attend to purification processes or the need to go to a trainer for purification. They feel they have progressed to such an extent that their master would be amazed in the fact that they have surpassed him in purity. They do find lapses in his philosophy and the practices he prescribed and in fact they try to improve on them. This is sheer Spiritual Arrogance. They feel that they had developed capabilities that were not only greater than those of others and their status and acquisition of states is generally beyond the understanding of the average associates in the path.

It is true that our Master desired the aspirants to move to higher realms than that of his and my understanding this approach of the Master indicates the extent of humility we have to acquire. However the issue is not our level of development, but the fact that we are striving to develop. One of the keys to growth is recognizing that there is always room for improvement. In any field, whether it is sports, the arts, our profession, or spiritual growth there are always going to be some people that are farther along in their development than others. We live in a society where real estate moguls are idolized. Inevitably, there are people who feel the need to tell us how much better they are. In the area of spiritual development, this is known as "spiritual arrogance."

Unlike the spiritual understanding that All is One, people suffering from spiritual arrogance will tell they are advanced, implying that others are not. Some of the worst offenders are those who have some understanding of the spiritual laws and who have opened some of their inner senses. While moving in the path of enlightenment they somehow go astray and proclaim themselves to be gurus. This is the worst impurity one can ever acquire and Master has warned that those persons who feel even once they are Masters are unfit to train others. When someone feels that he is the Master another misfortune arises in thinking: one often assumes genuine difference of opinion to be an attack on their mastery. There is another type of spiritual arrogance which we have called in our Game of Life as sadahankara. The arrogance is such they consider themselves to be guardians of divinity and almost stake a claim of possessiveness over the Lord. This impurity once developed does not go easily and one has to learn the necessary halls of learning.

Spiritual arrogance makes one think they know everything that needs to be known. There are two major defects arising out of this attitude:

It inhibits one's development. When we already know everything, there is no room for additional wisdom. This should be self-evident: but just giving the appearance of knowing everything can deter people from sharing their knowledge. This shuts off sources of new knowledge. It is wise to remember that a wise man can learn more from a fool than a fool from a wise man: the ancient Vedic wisdom says ' let wisdom come to me from all directions.'

This attitude of spiritual arrogance wastes energy. Anyone who has staked out a position as a guru is forced to conform to this new self-image. This places an unnecessary burden on them. Why anyone should himself with having to live up to the expectations of some image? Why waste energy trying to uphold such an image? Why not be exactly who we are, so as to let our true inner self shine in its original and pure lustre?

In contrast to spiritual arrogance, humility is the trait of a real man. I have not come across a better example of humility than our beloved Master Babuji Maharaj. It should be clear to us that attuning with Master or God is not a competitive sport. There is no need to live up to exaggerated claims or false images, which are thrust on any one who tolerates as it invariably promotes sycophancy. A perfect and pure personality recognizes that he/she is a part of the ONE. Purity lies in being a student for ever learning every second contemplating on the amazing oneness of existence. Pure ones see themselves as students, helping those that might not be as far along in their studies, just as their masters have helped them in their sadhana. The pure being recognizes even the "spiritually arrogant" as merely passing through a phase. True humility involves the willingness and open-mindedness to accept help and insight from all sources and move on the path with conviction and faith in the Just One. Needless to add that this attitude of eternal learning from all sources is not an act of greed but an act of fulfilling one's own destiny of spiritual well being.

It is my prayer that all the associates in the Path move on cleansing ourselves as we progress dropping our various sheaths of being and stand naked before Master for such further treatment that he may decide.

Pranam.