Meditation

The Muslims pray in the name of Allah, the Jews pray in the name of Jehovah, the Vaishnavites pray in the name of Phullabjaksha, and the Shaivites pray in the name of Sambho. That One, to Whom prayers are offered in this manner, He is God, and may He grant happiness and prosperity to everyone. God is One, though He is addressed and prayed to by different groups of people in different names.

Many of us use our education to earn a pittance of living and just to fill a tiny little stomach. What is the use of such education when it cannot give full and complete happiness to man? If man cannot show his fellow beings the way to reach the Divine, how shall he justify himself? Every rise will be followed by a fall. Elation will be followed by depression. You cannot avoid such antitheses in life. Affection that follows attachment leads to pain that follows separation. Affection and pain are the two things between which man is being tossed about. In order to escape from this tossing between affection and pain, the only way is to believe in and surrender to God. When man looks at the sun rising, he feels elated and very happy. The same man, when he looks at the sun setting, will be looking forward to the next day and will cheer up with hope. But with this process of sunrise and sunset, man does not quite realize that his life span itself is continuously diminishing day by day. Every man wants only good. Every man wants to experience good, but he is not considering how he can improve himself, how he can change his heart so as to reach and acquire this experience of goodness. From the early days of one’s life and till the very end, every person is only asking questions like, what is the profit that I can get out of this life? What is the pleasure that I can get out of this life? What is it that helps me? What is the benefit that I can derive from all these? But he is not giving any thought to another aspect of these questions, such as in what way can I be of use to the world? In what way can I be of use to the society? What good can I do to people with whom I come in contact? These questions, he does not ask. He is engaging himself and using his time only for his own pleasure and his own profit. If we make a proper inquiry into this situation and try to understand it, we will conclude that man is always ready to take and receive things for himself. It is the selfish attitude of life. He is not willing to give, hand over, or contribute something to others. Life is not a one-way traffic. Man should be prepared to give and take.

Bearing such sacred duties and obligations of man in view, our shastras have established and given us four 'Purusharthas' or goals of life. These four duties of man are Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Almost every experienced and learned scholar will tell us that among these four Purusharthas, the most important aim of our life, the ultimate goal of our life, in fact, the object on which we should concentrate, is Moksha or liberation. Then, we ask ourselves the question – if Moksha is the supreme and ultimate objective, why mention Artha and Kama also? There is an inner meaning, and it is not as if there is no meaning for these two words Artha and Kama. Moksha is the highest or most exalted position. That is our destination. In order that we may reach that exalted position, which is our destination, we have to take recourse to something that should serve as a ladder. Since we want to go and climb up to that exalted place, this ladder will be of much help to us in that process. This ladder, which consists of various steps, must also have some support. This support is the earth. That is sometimes also called Nature. Thus, we are making an attempt to have this ladder, consisting of two sides and the steps, Artha and Kama, supported on the earth, which we have called Nature or Dharma. By the help of this ladder, we want to climb up and reach this exalted position of Moksha. Support is the earth; destination is Moksha; the earth, which is the support, is like Dharma or our conduct. It is only when we take the support and our destination, Dharma and Moksha, as our primary objectives, the two intermediary steps – Artha and Kama – will be meaningful and will have some significance to us. But, if we neglect Dharma and Moksha, the basis, and the goal, then Artha and Kama will become useless.

Every individual who is born on this earth, who is born into this world, should to some extent understand the nature of this world and the meaning of this world. Dharma upholds this entire creation, and we should also follow Dharma or righteousness in our conduct. You have been told about the life story of Rama in a very lucid way. What is life? What is it that we understand by it? We are accepting that man’s breath, what he breathes in and out is his life breath, and we regard that as his life. But what kind of sound does this air, which is being breathed in and which is being breathed out, make? What is the inner meaning that is contained in the subtle sound we hear? Although we are breathing in and breathing out many times every day, we are not stopping and trying to understand the meaning of this breathing in and breathing out, nor even the significance of the number of times we breathe in and breathe out. Soham, that is the way we take the breath in and we leave it out. So stands for the word 'That'. 'That' means God or Brahman. So therefore stands for 'God'. Ham means 'I' or 'Me'. Thus, when we breathe in and when we breathe out, the sound that comes out means Soham – 'I am God', 'I am God'. In the sound, the one that is all-important is called Pranava. From this one single sound called Pranava, all other sounds are emanating. This situation is referred to by saying Ekoham Bahusyam – 'Out of the One come many'.

In our Bhajan, we use a musical instrument called the Harmonium. Sometimes, other people also use other instruments like the Piano. What is it that we do with the Harmonium? We fill air into the Harmonium, that is all. But when we press one reed, we get one sound. When we press another reed, we get another sound. So, out of one substance, namely air, by pressing different reeds, we get different sounds. The air that has been filled is only one. However, we are hearing a large number of different sounds. Wherefrom are all these different sounds coming? They are coming from one and the same air which has been filled into the instrument. The basis or the origin is air, and that basis is like the sound Omkara. Out of this basic sound Omkara, we get so many different sounds. Those sounds are mere transformations of the shape of Omkara. It is only in this context that the Maharshis have addressed Rama by saying, “Ramo Vigrahavan Dharmaha” – which means Rama is the embodiment of Dharma or Righteousness. Just as for this Omkara, there are three principal sounds, which go to make it up, namely A, U, M – Rama, Who is the embodiment of Dharma, also has three supporting characters, who are Lakshmana, Bharata, and Sathrughna. The analogy is that Lakshmana, Bharata, and Sathrughna together make up Rama, the Embodiment of Dharma. The sound A can be compared to Lakshmana, U can be compared to Bharata, and M can be compared to Sathrughna. The combination of all these three is the Omkara and that is Rama Himself. So, we have to recognize the inner meaning that Rama, Who is no other than Omkara and in order to establish Dharma or righteousness on the surface of the Earth, has taken birth on this Earth.

When we try and understand the teaching of our Upanishads, then we will learn that OM is Ekaksharam Brahma or OM is the one thing, which is the same as Brahman. Ekam Eva Advitiyam Brahma – Brahman is One and only One and there is no second to that One. When we think of our great Seers and these great Mahavakyas or great sayings, which have been taught by them, we will realize that the entire world is Advaita, one in which there is no dualism. It is just One and only One. Even though those who follow the dualistic philosophy do not accept and agree with the truth of non-dualism or Advaita, the philosophy of non-dualism does not suffer from any special drawback therefore. Some day or other, after some time, when proper inquiry has been made, the dualistic philosopher as well as everyone in fact, whether he is a believer or a non-believer, whether he is a yogi or whether he is one who is steeped in earthly wealth and pleasures, no matter who he is, all will have to accept Advaita as the truest philosophy. When we go deep and make proper inquiries about the world, you will realize that it really is one, there is no duality and the non-dual one will make itself evident to you ultimately in this world. The appearance of plurality is something, which is only a reflection of your own illusion. This is also being referred to by the word ignorance. The differences, the distinctions, and this plurality have started in fact from oneness. It has not started from the basis of plurality.

In our Upanishads, we have the story of one individual who was a very learned man and who was himself a guru. His name is Uddalaka. He had a son by the name Swetaketu. This son, Swetaketu, made several attempts to get his education at the feet of his own father, Uddalaka. But the father did not agree to such a procedure. The reason for this is, for a son, who moves freely with his father, it is rather difficult for both himself and the father to deal with and abide by the right disciple and guru relationship. The son will always be in the idea that the teacher is his father and the concept of father and son will persist. This is because of the affection that obtains between the father and son. Here, you will also have the justification for calling the son a Kama Putra, a son who was born out of affection. Where there is attachment, where there is affection, and where there is a feeling of belonging to, then there will be lenience, and it is not possible to impart education in its fullest measure and with the right discipline. Because Uddalaka understood and realized the situation that education cannot be complete and proper, when there is a relationship of attachment, he sent his son Swetaketu to another guru and desired that his son be taught and given proper education.

Looking at this situation, Swetaketu, being young and inexperienced, mistook and interpreted it to himself wrongly and got the feeling that perhaps his father is not quite learned and hence, has no competence to teach him, and hence, he is being sent to another guru for studies. For some years, Swetaketu stayed in the Guru’s house and completed all his education and came back to his father’s house with some conceit of high learning. Noticing this, the father asked the son, “What is it all that you have learned? What are the various systems that you have learned? Have you learned about Brahman? Have you learned that particular branch of education, which if one has learned, one need not have to learn anything else and will be knowing all?” Such were the questions asked by the father. While the father was asking these questions, the son was behaving in a rather queer and funny way. He was still showing superior airs and conceit as if he was far more educated and learned than his father and that the latter would not understand at all, if he started telling what all he had learned over those few years. The father could easily understand the false vanity and the immature state of his son. The son was trying to show off, replying to his father that God is like this, God is like that, and so on.

Uddalaka felt that his son will not be able to grasp anything at all, if he tried to tell him the Truth about Brahman in words. He thought it better to teach him by example. So, he brought a pot filled with water. He brought also some sugar in his hand and he showed the sugar to the son. After showing him the sugar, he put all that sugar into the water in the pot. Then, he stirred the sugar till it was completely dissolved in the water and then, looked at the son and asked him, “I have brought the sugar with me and you have seen the sugar yourself. I have put it into the vessel. Can you tell me where in this vessel does that sugar lie now?” The son looked into the vessel, and of course, did not find any sugar remaining as such in the vessel. The father put a few drops of the contents of the vessel from the bottom, on the tongue of the son and asked, “How do you find the taste? You can take a drop from anywhere within the vessel and taste it.” The son had to agree that sugar was there now, in every drop of the contents of the vessel and that it was present everywhere in that vessel. Then, the father explained, saying, “Just as you have now seen this sugar being present everywhere, so also Brahman assumes the form of a Saguna or one, who has attributes and comes into this world and resides in every being, in everything, in everything that you see around you in this world. It is not possible to see Him separately with your eyes, it is not possible to get hold of Him separately with your hands, but it is only possible to cognize Him by experiencing Him in the state of the world. You cannot do anything more with your gross body than to experience Brahman, Who is omnipresent and all-pervading.”

It is only after you have attained this rich experience that you will be in a position to talk of Advaita and give expression to the nature of God, His omnipresence, etc. It is only after such an experience that you will have any claim, right, and authority to talk about the omnipresence of God. Otherwise, just with mere book knowledge and prattling like a parrot about God and His omnipresence, as if you truly know all, is all untruth. Only after the non-dual experience of Divinity can you talk of Advaita or non-dualism. It is not possible in common parlance, in ordinary work that you do around yourself in the material world, to teach or to expound Advaita. When you put your finger in your mouth and when you take out the finger from the mouth, you want to wash it with water. If there is so much difference between the limbs and the organs of one individual, how is it that we are going to expound unity and oneness of the entire world? That there is only one God in all the beings of the world, in all the living things in the entire world, is something which you learn, which you can believe, in which you can build your faith, by listening to experienced people or by reading texts or by listening to our Shastras and so on. But, unless you yourself have experienced it, you cannot truly convey this to others.

Taking the one truth that God is present in all the living things in the entire world and if we examine it, we will find an ocean of difference between one Jeeva and another in our experience and in their external appearance. Take the case of an ant. If the ant comes near you, you just push it away. Take the case of a snake. If the snake comes near you, you get terribly afraid about it and you run away from it. The fact that you behave in so different a manner towards these two living things, shows that you are not able to experience the feeling that God is present and is the same in all living beings. How can we expound what we do not practice in our daily life? You should, therefore, not be merely content by using words and quotations to understand and explain Advaita or non-dualism. You must make an attempt to experience this feeling. Otherwise, there will sometimes be danger too. It may land us in a situation, which is totally contrary to what we are understanding by the term Advaita.

One individual, who was always talking of Advaita, once went into a village. He went near a house and asked for alms. The lady of the house came and told this individual, the scholar who was asking for alms, “What is the point in my giving you uncooked rice? Why don’t you go and have a bath and come back? I can then give you cooked food, which you can eat.” This Pandit, who was well versed only in dialectics, in talking and in describing Advaita in words, said, “Govindeti Sada Snanam,” which means mere utterance of the name Govinda is equivalent to having a bath. He said that he did not have to go and have a bath. The lady of the house then replied, “Ramanamamritam Sada Bhojanam,” which means that just the thought of Rama and repeating the name is equivalent to having taken food always. So, she asked him to please go away. If in truth the utterance of the name Govinda is equivalent to having his bath, why should that be not also equivalent to his having food? Thus, to depend only on these words, to be argumentative with these words, and to understand only the word meaning of what Advaita is, may lead you into very difficult situations. The proper thing to do is, at the beginning, to accept a Saguna Brahman, that is a Form with some attributes, and so on, and through practice and through sadhana, gradually get over the situation and reach and attain the Advaitic experience. For the Saguna, that is one with attributes, and for Sakara, that is one with a Form, there is always a predetermined place. So, at first, in that predetermined place and at that fixed time, you will have to take to it and derive the pleasure and benefit.

It is possible that you may be getting a doubt that while God is present everywhere and anywhere, why should one go to a specific place, or why should one go on pilgrimages and seek God only in those specified places. When you have been able to imbibe the essence that is contained in the words, which describe Advaita and transform them into your experience, then you need not have to go to a specified place at all – you need not have to go anywhere at all. But, so long as you are content only with using words and just talking about Advaita and you have no experience at all, it is necessary that you should go to certain places. You have to make pilgrimages. Yes, for whatever you call Saguna, for whatever you call Sakara, you are seeking some Form. There is a place and time for that. But, once you have got over this feeling, if you are seeking the Nirguna, the ONE without attributes and the Nirakara, the One without Form, then there are no limitations of space or time.

Here is an example, which all the students know. Let us take the case of a cow. Inside the cow right through, there is the blood which is flowing in its body. It is this blood, which is flowing in the body that gets converted into milk. We can infer that milk, in its essence, is present all through the body of the cow. But, if you get at the ear of the cow and twist it, are you going to get milk? Or if you get at the tail of the cow and twist it, are you going to get milk? If you want to get milk, you can do so, but there is a chance of your getting milk only from a specified place. So also, while God is omnipresent and is everywhere, if you want to see Him, if you want to realise Him, then you have also to choose a place and a time.

But, in the teaching, which Uddalaka gave to his son in the beginning, sugar did appear as if it had a specific shape. It is only by taking the sugar, which had a shape and which had some attribute, and by putting it into water thereafter, it had lost its shape, it had lost its taste also to some extent, and Uddalaka could teach this shapeless, formless, attributeless thing by starting from sugar, which had a taste and which had a shape.

If you, as a young person, start your life by fixing a time and by fixing a form and begin your worship and gradually, by your practice, you reach a stage when out of that worship, you can just pick out a drop, a drop which has got a shape and taste and so on and put it into the large ocean, then the drop will mix with the large ocean and that will appear to you later on, as one infinite thing. For this, I will give you an example for what you initially experience as one, which has an attribute, which has a time, and which has specific shape, as against what you experience later on, as one which has no shape, which is present everywhere, and which is not bound by time. Let us take our own congregation at present, as the basis. I am now standing and talking and you are listening to what I am talking. But, I and all of you are all inside this Pandal. The talk, which I am now giving, you can listen to it for about one hour. The time is one hour. Look at this place, it is a small Pandal and it is contained in a vast area and all of you are also grouped together as a body. In all of you, I am also one and am in every one of you. After this, all of you, each one of you will go to your own place or your own village. When you have gone back to your village and at some moment, when you think of what happened now, you would say to yourselves that on such and such an evening, Swami was speaking to us, we were all sitting there, and He was saying the following things and so on. At that instant, when you recollect it, then all of us, including Myself, will all have gone into you. Thus, this picture, which has gone into your mind now, will stand as a picture, which is known to you all through your life. But this particular discourse, with a shape and with an attribute, has given you some experience and pleasure only for one hour. Because of the experience and the pleasure, which you have derived in one hour, looking with your eyes at the shape and hearing the discourse, this experience is going to remain in your heart and in your mind for all your life. But, if this did not happen for this one hour, if you had not witnessed all this, this will never have got imprinted in your memory. So, you should not speak lightly of and should not neglect the Saguna and the Sakara aspect. You have to accept and take it and with the help of that, reach the goal of Nirguna or Nirakara.

This process is called Meditation or is referred to as Dhyana. However, today, in the world, many people are teaching in many different ways the meaning of the word Dhyana. What is the meaning of Dhyana? What is it that we are going to meditate about and who is going to do it? For what purpose are we going to meditate? If we make a proper inquiry in this manner, unless there is an object on which you could meditate, it is not possible to meditate. Such an object, on which you meditate or do Dhyana, is referred to as Dhyeya. Without the object of concentration, you cannot concentrate. There is an object of meditation, but who is meditating? Therefore, there must be a third thing – Dhyata, which is you. You, who would be called Dhyata, through the path of meditation or Dhyana, you have to reach and experience the object of meditation or Dhyeya. These three are being referred to as three factors, one who receives the obeisance, one who gives the obeisance, and the process of giving obeisance. When the man, who meditates, takes to the object of meditation and goes through the process of meditation, then all these three, one who meditates, the one which is the object of meditation, and the process of meditation – unite and coalesce into one and only then, you achieve oneness. The one who loves, the one who is being loved, and the process of love are three factors. In prema – one who gives prema, one who receives prema, and the process of prema – we should regard all these three as one, through which the prematatwa or the aspect of love is flowing. Even if any one of these three is missing, it is not possible to realize the completeness. If two, the one who loves and the process of love are there and there is no one to love, then it becomes useless. If the other two, the one who loves and the one who can be loved are there, but if there is no love between the two, then that becomes useless. On the other hand, there may be the process of love and there may be one who will be loved, but if there is nobody to love, then also it becomes useless. So, it is the oneness of all these three – one who will love, one who will be loved, and the process of loving – which will be referred to as Dhyana or meditation. In all these three, prema is present to the same extent. This is referred to by saying, “Love is God – Live in Love.”

There is a need for us to make a proper inquiry into this path of meditation. This is a very good path to reach the Infinite. Although all these days, you have been listening to what is contained in many of our scriptures, like the Upanishads, like the Vedas, like the Darshanas and Shastras, and so on, if you have not understood what is meant by Dhyana, the path by which to reach the destination, then all these may remain as book knowledge and may create an allergy in you. For Dhyana, the time is important. This time, which is important, is referred to as Brahma Muhurta. You will have to choose whatever form you like for the purpose of meditation, and during the time interval called the Brahma Muhurta, which is from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., you will have to meditate on that at the same time, every day. There are also some methods and disciplines for this. You should not neglect and feel that there is no need for such specific methods.

There is a small example for this. We have put up a small fruit tree. When it is a small plant, we want to protect it by giving it fences. When it is a young plant, why do we put a fence around it, and why do we try to protect it? It is because we feel that goat, sheep, and such other animals will come and probably eat it up and destroy the plant. We want it to grow well and we keep a fence around it. But, when that plant has grown and become a big tree, then we remove all that fencing. Why are we removing all the fence and protection at that time? The meaning of removing this fence is that the very same animals like goat, sheep, and cattle, which would have eaten up and destroyed the plant when it was tender, will then come and will seek shelter and shade, which the big tree now provides. The practice, which ultimately gives you moksha or liberation, should in the initial stages be regarded as a plant. For this practice, the fence, which we shall call discipline, is absolutely necessary. The reason for this is that bad company, bad ideas, bad association, and such other things may come and may destroy this young plant of practice. In order that they may not come and may not destroy, we will have to accept and observe discipline as the fence, which will protect us. When this young plant, which is seeking moksha by Dhyana, when it grows and becomes a big tree, then even though such bad ideas, bad company, and bad thoughts come close to the person, the big tree is such that all these visitors will only get pleasure and happiness out of that tree.

They cannot do any harm to that tree. That is why when we commence Dhyana and when we want to be in meditation, we should try and put ourselves in what is called a Padmasana. For today’s Padmasana, although there are not bad qualities and bad thoughts but the type of trousers, the drain-pipe pants which you are wearing are coming as an obstacle for you sitting in Padmasana. Maybe tomorrow, the person, who is giving you instruction in Asanas, will tell you what Padmasana is. You will have to abandon the pant, you will have to wear a dhoti, and you will have to sit in a Padmasana as has been shown by the teacher, who gives you the Asana lessons. Not only that, you should not sit on bare ground. You should sit on either a wooden plank or on a mat, or something like that. Not only that, you should not sit on a bare wooden plank. You should spread a piece of cloth over it. In the beginning, you should attempt to make a start with a wooden plank, which is above the ground by at least half an inch. There are some reasons for taking a wooden plank. The reasons are that the earth has got the power of conduction and diffusion. When we are sitting in meditation, because through you is passing the current of divine strength on account of your Dhyana, on account of the attraction which the earth has, you should not get disturbed. Therefore, you have got to have a plank. When we lay on electric wire inside a house, we also have a specially constructed wire, which is called the earth wire and which is put into the earth. So, we should regard our body as our house. While thus in the house of our body, we are in the process of giving rise to and establishing the divine current, then we should take all precautions that are necessary by isolating ourselves from the earth and by preventing the power or the strength in you from flowing away or dissipating into the earth. That is why our ancients have taught us that we should sit on a plank.

Not only this, that you are having the practice of getting up at 4:30 a.m. at the Brahma Muhurta, is also a very good habit. You are young and if while you are young, while your mind and body are still very sound and sturdy, if you do not start such good practices and get used to them at this age, when you grow a little older, when your body becomes a little more infirm and stiff, it will not be possible for you then to do so. It will be very difficult for you to acquire this practice at a late age. Truly, this age of yours is such that it is quite possible to understand many sacred things. It is quite possible to understand the Divine spirit. It is only in this context that we say, “Start early, drive slowly, reach safely.” It is at this early age that you should begin early enough and reach safely. But, if you grow a little older and start practices late, you may not be able to get the happiness and benefit out of the practices. There are many people, who think that they will do all this after they retire. Before they retire, they always say duty is God, work is worship, and they go on doing all kinds of work, taking all kinds of jobs either under the Government, or under some private agency. But, this is not right. It is much better that you should do these things then and there, and not go on postponing. This has been told to us in the Bhagavata. When the servants or the attendants of Yama come and pull you with a rope and ask you to move on, when they drag you with their rope and ask you to be quick and go along, as your time is over, your own relations will say, “Now, there is no hope, put this body outside the house,” and your wife and children will simply cry and say, “Now, it is all finished. There is no more hope.” Under such conditions, is it possible for you to utter the name of the Lord and offer your devotion to God? So, at this young age, I am very hopeful that you will understand the significance of Dhyana and start Dhyana and become an ideal example for the rest of the country.

As I told you a little while ago, before you take your Padmasana and before you sit on the wooden plank, have a small Jyoti – a candle light – in front of you. You look at that Jyoti, the light, well with open eyes. After one minute, close your eyes. After you have closed the eyes, feel that the light that you had seen before closing your eyes, is in your heart. You get the feeling and you have the feeling that inside the lotus of your heart, right at the center is this particular Jyoti. If you are not able to picture the Jyoti in the lotus of your heart and get that feeling, then open your eyes, look at the light again, close your eyes, and try to picture it inside your heart once again. After that, you think of it and you picture to yourself, fix it in your mind, and feel that that particular Jyoti is put in the center of this lotus. After that, you take this Jyoti from the center of the heart and move it to each part of your body; bring it to your neck; from the neck, bring it to your mouth; from the mouth, bring it to your hand; from the hand, take it to your leg; from the leg, take it to your ear; take it to your eyes; take it to your head; from the head, bring it all around you; when you have brought it out of your head, you imagine that you have taken this Jyoti and give it to those, who are related to you; those, who are affectionate to you and your friends. Not only that, spread the light even amongst your enemies. After that, you picture to yourself that you have taken this Jyoti and given it to all the birds, the beasts, and everything around you.

Where this Jyoti or light has moved, there will be no darkness. It is in this context that all our Upanishads have said, “Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya.” Since this Jyoti has reached your eyes, you will no longer have any bad vision or bad sight. Because this Jyoti has gone to your ears, you will not hear evil. Because this Jyoti has reached your tongue, out of your tongue will no longer come any bad words. Since this Jyoti has reached your head, evil thoughts should no longer go into your heart, nor will they arise in you. Since the same Jyoti has gone into your heart, bad ideas should no longer enter your heart. Since the same Jyoti has also touched your feet, your feet should no longer walk into bad places. Because to your hands, the same Jyoti has reached, your hands will no longer engage themselves in bad acts. The word bad is synonymous with darkness. In truth, if you have allowed this Jyoti to spread everywhere, there is no room anywhere for this darkness or bad to persist. If, while engaged in such Dhyana or meditation, you are still doing something bad, it simply means that this Jyoti has not reached that particular organ, which is doing bad.

By this meditation, not only bad traits, which are in you, will have been removed, but in their place, noble and sacred ideas and sacred actions would have entered; not only that, you would be able to get the glorious Darshan of Ishwara or you would experience Advaita, the experience of oneness, because the light that is in you is present in all human beings, because the light that is present in you is present in all the birds and animals, the light is everywhere. By realizing this, you will also have established the truth of the saying, “Geetavakyam Idam Dharmam.” Some of you may get a doubt and say to yourselves, “Well, we like Rama, He is our God; we like Krishna, He is our God; we like Swami, He is our God. Why should we not take and meditate on one of these Forms? Why should we have a light in front of us for meditation?” But, a shape or a particular form is not a permanent thing. That is a changing thing; that is also a fleeting thing. It is not right that you should put your concentration on something, which will change, which is not permanent. You must have something, which does not change. That is why you have to take the Jyoti. Having the Jyoti, which does not change, in your meditation, you can certainly put into it the Roopa or form, which you want and which you want to pray to. There is nothing wrong in doing that. In this form of Roopa, there is always a growth and decline. This is also referred to as a change as a transformation. Here is a small example for this. We fill up a tank completely with water. If each one takes a tumbler of water from that tank, to some extent the water level will come down in that tank. On one side, if we get some sand and put it up as a mound, and out of that sand, if each one takes a small quantity, then in time, the volume of that sand will also diminish. So it is that this body is something, which has been made up of the combination of elements, such as water, sand, and so on. That is the reason why this body is being referred to as something, which is made up of earth. On the contrary, if we have a Jyoti – or a light in one place, it does not matter how many people may come and light up their lamps from this one Jyoti, this Jyoti which is the source, is not going to diminish or lose anything. This first Jyoti, the source, is called the Akhanda Jyoti. Those, who come and light up their lamps, are called Jeevan Jyoties. So many Jeevan Jyoties, all of them have started from one single Akhanda Jyoti only. By putting this Jyoti in our heart, in each individual Jeeva’s heart, then the result of the meditation will be that this single Jeevan Jyoti will go and merge itself in the Akhanda Jyoti and will teach you the nature of Advaita or the oneness of this world and the entire creation.

For this, a time, a process, and a place are very essential. The place may change. Today, you may be in Brindavan, tomorrow you may be in Bangalore, the day after that, you may be in another place like Madras. For this body, which is traveling from place to place, it is not possible always to have a fixed place for the purpose of meditation. Even if there is a change with regard to the place where you meditate, you must take great care to see that the time, at which you meditate, does not change. In Brindavan, you can start your prayers at 4:30 a.m. Tomorrow, at 4:30 a.m., you may be traveling in a train. At that particular time, whether you are in Brindavan or whether you are in the train, you must take to meditation. Thus, at 4:30 tomorrow, in the train, if in your mind you recollect the place in Brindavan, where you sat the previous day, and start your meditation, then your mind will leave the train and will certainly come back to the place, where you started your meditation in Brindavan. It does not matter whether you are sitting in a train, or whether you are sitting in a plane, or anywhere else, if in your mind you recollect the original place where you started this meditation and stick to the time, then the time, the procedure for meditation, and also the place, which has gone into your mind, will all coalesce together, and they will certainly give you peace and equanimity. Because the time is also as responsible as a servant, you should not change this time. Even a dog, which is like a servant, if you start giving it food say at 12 o’clock today and do it for four or five days like that, does not have to be called at 12 o’clock. The dog will come at 12 o’clock and will ask for food. So also, at the time that has been fixed for your Dhyana, if you, out of your heart, are willing to offer prema through your meditation, then surely at the appropriate time, God will come and will receive your prema and will give you all happiness. What you have to give God is prema. It must be prema coming from within your heart. It must be at the appropriate time. So, if you give heartfelt prema at the appropriate time, then God will certainly receive it and God will shower on you all happiness.

You must also have heard that God is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Satchidananda). I have now to tell you the meaning of BABA. BABA is B.A.B.A. The first B stands for Being; A stands for Awareness; the third letter B stands for Bliss; the fourth letter A is for Atman. The first B – BEING is Sat; the next letter A – AWARENESS is Chit; third letter B is BLISS or Ananda. The last letter, the fourth letter, is Atma, that means Satchidananda is Atma. You also know the meaning of Sathya; Sathya is Truth. It is something, which is unchanging during all the times. The word Sai has three sounds in it – SA, AA, YE. SA stands for the sacred and Divine; Aayee means mother. In different languages, we have for the mother, Aayee, Mayee, and Tayee. Like that Aayee means mother, baba means father. Sai Baba is the Divine Mother and Father; SA Aayee BABA – Divine Mother and Father. In the same way, we use the letter SA for Divine, for mother, we can use the word Amba, for father, we can use the word Shiva, SA AMBA SIVA (Samba-Shiva). Samba-Shiva or Sai Baba are exactly the same; there is no difference between the two. Therefore, it becomes evident that this is ‘Shiva-Shakti-Atmaka Swaroopa’. So, if you want to taste and experience this Divinity, if you want to taste the nectar of bliss, then from tomorrow, you start on meditation, and I am blessing you, and I am hoping that you will be able to get the happiness and bliss of Divinity by such practices.