Extracts Waiting For Pages To Be Developed
#5 Property and Auspiciousness - from Chapter 2 "Choices"
If you ask an enlightened soul, "What would you like to have for yourself?", he may start thinking, "What could I possibly need?" He already has everything. On the contrary he will think, "If I really have to go shopping, then I must buy something by which I can express my love to others". An enlightened soul will purchase something only if it is a thing of spiritual value because there are certain very beautiful things created by human beings, which do emit divine cool vibrations and relax enlightened people. Alternatively he might support some artist, or poor person, who is trying to make a living by creating something artistic. So, underlying his purchase, there is not the principle that "I like it" but there is the principle that "My spirit enjoys it".
But in those choices behind which the chanting of "I like it" resounds, one finds nothing more than a big collection of junk, that is, random pieces of matter. The cluttered accumulation of this junk makes you very upset and very angry with yourself, that you have wasted so much money on something you did not want and now you have to waste more money getting it taken away and thrown in some rubbish dump. The acquisitive instinct in human beings goes on acquiring things but when the polarity of choices starts manifesting itself, the very same things, for which one has made all the effort and paid all the money, start haunting one. One does not know what to do with them.
#6 The Power of the Spirit - from Chapter 1 "Modernism and Rationality"
Reality and truth are not products of rational or linear thinking. They are derived from absolute wisdom as it manifests itself spontaneously, coming from the light of the spirit. Prior to realisation one may or may not agree but the truth is that the spirit is the reflection of God Almighty in our heart. Only after self-realisation, and only then, is there a direct experience of the spirit. It then manifests its powers in the human personality and it's light enlightens the consciousness into a new awareness.
The divine intelligence of the spirit radiates on all sides. It does not have a linear movement, like rational thinking. It is not partial, tendentious or manipulative but is simply like the rays of the sun. It enlightens every area of darkness and ignorance. The power of glowing reality radiates from the spirit on all sides and penetrates into all the deepest questions and problems. The power of the spirit is unlimited and it continues enlightening every area, even the most difficult and obscure. There is no question of it reaching a point where it must recoil and lead the mind into confusion and error, as the linear consciousness inevitably does. On the contrary, it enlightens wherever one's attention goes and one sees reality with complete clarity in a balanced and tangible way. That is because reality is what it is. Unlike the limited ego, blind consciousness, the spirit neither wishes nor needs to manipulate any idea to fit in with rational projections, to suit the demands of an argument or of some mental construction. The trouble is that truth cannot compromise. It stands on its own foundations of deep, pure love.
#7 Freedom and the Media - from Chapter 3 "Democracy"
The democracies allow all kinds of horrible films and videos in the name of freedom. As long as those films do not criticise anyone in power, they can perpetrate whatever vulgar, demoralising and violent ideas they like. The problem is that such films become models for people's behaviour, so that all these imaginary violent and cruel actions have become actual and contemporary in our societies. The nightmare and the horror scenes have become realities in our cities and private homes. Those who can reproduce most luridly the full horror of contemporary themes are given the highest awards by the judges. For example, recently there was a film that really became a hit about a man who was psychotic and a cannibal. The film was meant to entertain people by showing how he killed human beings and ate them. In any decent society, this film could never have been made or, if by some aberration it was, it would have been banned. But instead of that it has been applauded and acclaimed by the critics...
There is a tendency, built up in the West since the time of Enlightenment and the democratic revolutions of the 18th century, that we should be free to absorb all of the unrighteous, unholy, inauspicious and destructive ideas that we can find in every film, every book and every newspaper, whatever the source. Somehow people want to take up the challenge to become the evil force themselves. People have now to decide if they want to stop this democratic derailment by understanding what must be done. The progress that the West is proud of is to complete destruction, as human beings have the freedom to achieve heaven or go to hell and also they have the tremendous power of rationality to justify their doom.
#8 Illusion and Identity - from Chapter 5 "The Culture in the West"
I happened to visit an exhibition in Rome where modern artistic endeavours were being exhibited from both the developed and undeveloped countries. When we reached the British pavilion, we found that they were selling punk colours, punk hats and punk dresses. There were many Italians standing next to the pavilion and laughing. I asked the lady accompanying me, "Why are they laughing?" She said, "Italians still have a great sense of the ridiculous."
This modern idea of punks is ridiculous, no doubt, but later, when some punks came to see me at one of my programmes, they complained that their eyes were losing their sense of vision. I told them, "Don't use these dyes on your head. Maybe they are affecting your vision." They answered, "What's wrong? At the most we may become blind. So what does it matter?"
I was really surprised to see at what terrible cost they were indulging in the cult of these practices, just to establish their so-called identity. I felt like telling them that the identity of every personality is within and not outside in your dress of hair style. Unless you know your self, there is no identity whatsoever. Whatever identities you may have without self-knowledge are just superficial and they drop out as soon as you take to some other style of life.
#9 Immorality in Life is a Mistake - from Chapter 2 "Choices"
However, the worst type of freedom we are suffering from in modern times is the freedom to lead an immoral life. You can marry one person, sleep with another, flirt with a third one and create children with a fourth...
If promiscuity were a very natural, normal and good thing, then why is it that people are now suffering from life-destroying diseases, which are directly due to this kind of lifestyle? Why is there jealousy? Every day the very newspapers that support and defend the freedom of permissiveness are full of reports of violence, of women killing their husbands, of husbands killing their wives, of lovers killing their lovers' lovers...
It is quite obvious that promiscuity leads to unhappiness, disease and death and that we have to do something to check its spread. But the problem is that legislation and education can only achieve very little. People just have to know where to stop. But this control, this compulsion, has to come from within. This means you have to have a spiritual awakening. The spirit has to come into your attention.
A person who is a realised soul doesn't like anything that takes him to extremes. A realised soul is actually a person whose life is in balance. He is in the centre because whenever his attention gets out of balance, it is brought back to the centre by the light of his spirit. And such a person has his feet on Mother Earth. Such a person, by his very nature, has to be practical, pragmatic, wise and detached. Such a person simply cannot form habits and cannot take to something that is stupid, idiotic and destructive.
#10 The Recognition of Truth - Chapter 1 "Modernism and Rationality"
A Western gentleman, who had come to me for the first time to learn Sahaja Yoga, found that it was very easy to get self-realisation without any effort and without paying any money. He was so filled with ecstasy that he went out into the garden shouting, "I have found it." When he came back, he was nearly dancing with joy and said, “Now I am going to write to all my friends who have been ardently seeking the truth for ages, to tell them that I have felt this all-pervading divine power as the cool breeze of the Holy Ghost on my fingertips. Now I know what the truth is, that one has to become the spirit and that the all-pervading power of God's love exists, which we all have to feel through this evolutionary breakthrough on our central nervous system. With full confidence, I will tell them that it is a living process, that you cannot get it out of books and that you cannot pay for your evolution.”
He got very excited and wrote many letters to his professors, his friends and his colleagues who had all been discussing and reading books about seeking, day and night, for many years. To his great surprise and disappointment, the response was rather lukewarm. Some did not answer him. Others answered saying, "All right, we are happy that you have found it but we have to seek in our own way. We hope that we will also find it, but in some other way." Some could not believe that it was so easy. Others said, "You can't lead a normal life and find it. Because of one's bad deeds, one has to suffer and detach oneself from society, from all human ties, before one can even begin to find it." No one would listen to him when he said that he had found out the truth by Kundalini Awakening. With a typical twist of modern advanced thinking, that never likes to arrive at any conclusion, they said, “Yes, this may work for you but this cannot be the only way and there must be other paths."
He was deeply shocked to see that these people who had spent hours and hours meeting together, talking, reading and writing to each other, discussing how to find the absolute truth, were not even willing to listen to him when he told them that he actually had found the truth. It is after all, not everyone, who is strong and meek enough to face the truth. They all tried to wriggle out of it, to escape the truth, by giving some "Yes, but..." explanation or other. However, as people say, "The truth will come out by itself."
#11 Mistaken Developments in Religion - from Chapter 6 "Religions"
One can understand why Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all these three religions, became extremely aggressive. In the beginning when they started, there was a lot of turmoil, disturbances and aggression to the point of destruction. As a result, to preserve and to protect themselves, they started a religion based on war. They talked of love but revenge became the hidden mainstream of their religions.
There was a development in India also, on the same lines. When the Hindus were oppressed by the invading Muslims, the need arose for a new force to fight this scourge. As a result the Sikh religion emerged. Every Hindu family in the Punjab was asked for a son, perhaps its eldest son, to join the Sikh religion and to fight Muslim aggression. The rest of the Hindus remained passive and in the pursuit of their ascent. There are other religions like Buddhism and Jainism. These religions believed in suffering and in tolerance. They also believed in compassion. Despite this, gradually some of their followers who had become very mentally equipped by reading books or ritualism went into many divisions. ... ... The Hindus believed in tolerance. But after some time they too became very oppressed by the Muslims and Christians and started to take to a very defensive attitude of fighting.
Then there are the Chinese religions, which believe in non-violence more to animals than to human beings. So all these religions, so great, so sublime, were brought to some sort of a new form, which had aggression built inside it. These conditionings of religions have separated human beings. The only way to solve this problem is by understanding that all religions in their essence are the same and all the religions must be respected. One person should not belong to one religion but to all the religions or to the religion which is within himself, innate and enlightened. And this religion is in everyone, so we can call it a universal pure religion.
If you ask an enlightened soul, "What would you like to have for yourself?", he may start thinking, "What could I possibly need?" He already has everything. On the contrary he will think, "If I really have to go shopping, then I must buy something by which I can express my love to others". An enlightened soul will purchase something only if it is a thing of spiritual value because there are certain very beautiful things created by human beings, which do emit divine cool vibrations and relax enlightened people. Alternatively he might support some artist, or poor person, who is trying to make a living by creating something artistic. So, underlying his purchase, there is not the principle that "I like it" but there is the principle that "My spirit enjoys it".
But in those choices behind which the chanting of "I like it" resounds, one finds nothing more than a big collection of junk, that is, random pieces of matter. The cluttered accumulation of this junk makes you very upset and very angry with yourself, that you have wasted so much money on something you did not want and now you have to waste more money getting it taken away and thrown in some rubbish dump. The acquisitive instinct in human beings goes on acquiring things but when the polarity of choices starts manifesting itself, the very same things, for which one has made all the effort and paid all the money, start haunting one. One does not know what to do with them.
#6 The Power of the Spirit - from Chapter 1 "Modernism and Rationality"
Reality and truth are not products of rational or linear thinking. They are derived from absolute wisdom as it manifests itself spontaneously, coming from the light of the spirit. Prior to realisation one may or may not agree but the truth is that the spirit is the reflection of God Almighty in our heart. Only after self-realisation, and only then, is there a direct experience of the spirit. It then manifests its powers in the human personality and it's light enlightens the consciousness into a new awareness.
The divine intelligence of the spirit radiates on all sides. It does not have a linear movement, like rational thinking. It is not partial, tendentious or manipulative but is simply like the rays of the sun. It enlightens every area of darkness and ignorance. The power of glowing reality radiates from the spirit on all sides and penetrates into all the deepest questions and problems. The power of the spirit is unlimited and it continues enlightening every area, even the most difficult and obscure. There is no question of it reaching a point where it must recoil and lead the mind into confusion and error, as the linear consciousness inevitably does. On the contrary, it enlightens wherever one's attention goes and one sees reality with complete clarity in a balanced and tangible way. That is because reality is what it is. Unlike the limited ego, blind consciousness, the spirit neither wishes nor needs to manipulate any idea to fit in with rational projections, to suit the demands of an argument or of some mental construction. The trouble is that truth cannot compromise. It stands on its own foundations of deep, pure love.
#7 Freedom and the Media - from Chapter 3 "Democracy"
The democracies allow all kinds of horrible films and videos in the name of freedom. As long as those films do not criticise anyone in power, they can perpetrate whatever vulgar, demoralising and violent ideas they like. The problem is that such films become models for people's behaviour, so that all these imaginary violent and cruel actions have become actual and contemporary in our societies. The nightmare and the horror scenes have become realities in our cities and private homes. Those who can reproduce most luridly the full horror of contemporary themes are given the highest awards by the judges. For example, recently there was a film that really became a hit about a man who was psychotic and a cannibal. The film was meant to entertain people by showing how he killed human beings and ate them. In any decent society, this film could never have been made or, if by some aberration it was, it would have been banned. But instead of that it has been applauded and acclaimed by the critics...
There is a tendency, built up in the West since the time of Enlightenment and the democratic revolutions of the 18th century, that we should be free to absorb all of the unrighteous, unholy, inauspicious and destructive ideas that we can find in every film, every book and every newspaper, whatever the source. Somehow people want to take up the challenge to become the evil force themselves. People have now to decide if they want to stop this democratic derailment by understanding what must be done. The progress that the West is proud of is to complete destruction, as human beings have the freedom to achieve heaven or go to hell and also they have the tremendous power of rationality to justify their doom.
#8 Illusion and Identity - from Chapter 5 "The Culture in the West"
I happened to visit an exhibition in Rome where modern artistic endeavours were being exhibited from both the developed and undeveloped countries. When we reached the British pavilion, we found that they were selling punk colours, punk hats and punk dresses. There were many Italians standing next to the pavilion and laughing. I asked the lady accompanying me, "Why are they laughing?" She said, "Italians still have a great sense of the ridiculous."
This modern idea of punks is ridiculous, no doubt, but later, when some punks came to see me at one of my programmes, they complained that their eyes were losing their sense of vision. I told them, "Don't use these dyes on your head. Maybe they are affecting your vision." They answered, "What's wrong? At the most we may become blind. So what does it matter?"
I was really surprised to see at what terrible cost they were indulging in the cult of these practices, just to establish their so-called identity. I felt like telling them that the identity of every personality is within and not outside in your dress of hair style. Unless you know your self, there is no identity whatsoever. Whatever identities you may have without self-knowledge are just superficial and they drop out as soon as you take to some other style of life.
#9 Immorality in Life is a Mistake - from Chapter 2 "Choices"
However, the worst type of freedom we are suffering from in modern times is the freedom to lead an immoral life. You can marry one person, sleep with another, flirt with a third one and create children with a fourth...
If promiscuity were a very natural, normal and good thing, then why is it that people are now suffering from life-destroying diseases, which are directly due to this kind of lifestyle? Why is there jealousy? Every day the very newspapers that support and defend the freedom of permissiveness are full of reports of violence, of women killing their husbands, of husbands killing their wives, of lovers killing their lovers' lovers...
It is quite obvious that promiscuity leads to unhappiness, disease and death and that we have to do something to check its spread. But the problem is that legislation and education can only achieve very little. People just have to know where to stop. But this control, this compulsion, has to come from within. This means you have to have a spiritual awakening. The spirit has to come into your attention.
A person who is a realised soul doesn't like anything that takes him to extremes. A realised soul is actually a person whose life is in balance. He is in the centre because whenever his attention gets out of balance, it is brought back to the centre by the light of his spirit. And such a person has his feet on Mother Earth. Such a person, by his very nature, has to be practical, pragmatic, wise and detached. Such a person simply cannot form habits and cannot take to something that is stupid, idiotic and destructive.
#10 The Recognition of Truth - Chapter 1 "Modernism and Rationality"
A Western gentleman, who had come to me for the first time to learn Sahaja Yoga, found that it was very easy to get self-realisation without any effort and without paying any money. He was so filled with ecstasy that he went out into the garden shouting, "I have found it." When he came back, he was nearly dancing with joy and said, “Now I am going to write to all my friends who have been ardently seeking the truth for ages, to tell them that I have felt this all-pervading divine power as the cool breeze of the Holy Ghost on my fingertips. Now I know what the truth is, that one has to become the spirit and that the all-pervading power of God's love exists, which we all have to feel through this evolutionary breakthrough on our central nervous system. With full confidence, I will tell them that it is a living process, that you cannot get it out of books and that you cannot pay for your evolution.”
He got very excited and wrote many letters to his professors, his friends and his colleagues who had all been discussing and reading books about seeking, day and night, for many years. To his great surprise and disappointment, the response was rather lukewarm. Some did not answer him. Others answered saying, "All right, we are happy that you have found it but we have to seek in our own way. We hope that we will also find it, but in some other way." Some could not believe that it was so easy. Others said, "You can't lead a normal life and find it. Because of one's bad deeds, one has to suffer and detach oneself from society, from all human ties, before one can even begin to find it." No one would listen to him when he said that he had found out the truth by Kundalini Awakening. With a typical twist of modern advanced thinking, that never likes to arrive at any conclusion, they said, “Yes, this may work for you but this cannot be the only way and there must be other paths."
He was deeply shocked to see that these people who had spent hours and hours meeting together, talking, reading and writing to each other, discussing how to find the absolute truth, were not even willing to listen to him when he told them that he actually had found the truth. It is after all, not everyone, who is strong and meek enough to face the truth. They all tried to wriggle out of it, to escape the truth, by giving some "Yes, but..." explanation or other. However, as people say, "The truth will come out by itself."
#11 Mistaken Developments in Religion - from Chapter 6 "Religions"
One can understand why Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all these three religions, became extremely aggressive. In the beginning when they started, there was a lot of turmoil, disturbances and aggression to the point of destruction. As a result, to preserve and to protect themselves, they started a religion based on war. They talked of love but revenge became the hidden mainstream of their religions.
There was a development in India also, on the same lines. When the Hindus were oppressed by the invading Muslims, the need arose for a new force to fight this scourge. As a result the Sikh religion emerged. Every Hindu family in the Punjab was asked for a son, perhaps its eldest son, to join the Sikh religion and to fight Muslim aggression. The rest of the Hindus remained passive and in the pursuit of their ascent. There are other religions like Buddhism and Jainism. These religions believed in suffering and in tolerance. They also believed in compassion. Despite this, gradually some of their followers who had become very mentally equipped by reading books or ritualism went into many divisions. ... ... The Hindus believed in tolerance. But after some time they too became very oppressed by the Muslims and Christians and started to take to a very defensive attitude of fighting.
Then there are the Chinese religions, which believe in non-violence more to animals than to human beings. So all these religions, so great, so sublime, were brought to some sort of a new form, which had aggression built inside it. These conditionings of religions have separated human beings. The only way to solve this problem is by understanding that all religions in their essence are the same and all the religions must be respected. One person should not belong to one religion but to all the religions or to the religion which is within himself, innate and enlightened. And this religion is in everyone, so we can call it a universal pure religion.