Darshan: Answering Questions

Darshan: Answering Questions

June 04, 1977 am

[Gurudev chants Krishna Jai].

As we decided yesterday, Bapuji will answer some questions. I have some written questions from you. First question is, I have heard that you said that to be successful in yoga one needs strong prana. How can I develop strong prana? There is a difference in the physical and mental condition of every sadhak. So, if one experiences, one uses one tool. It is not necessary that the same tool could be as equally useful to another sadhak. The prana can be made powerful in many different ways.

The guru has to see what kind of sadhak is the one who is practicing, what are his capacities. Then according to that he may suggest. It is our experience that one kind of a vehicle is not useful to everyone. Even though the plane flies with a great speed, yet there are individuals who can not use it.

As soon as they begin to sit in it, they begin to feel giddy. Some people sit in a train and they begin to throw up. Under these circumstances, the tool of travelling should be selected properly. Only guru can decide what vehicle to give to whom.

There are five senses to intensify the power of prana. The power of prana can be increased through the eyes, through the ears, through the nostrils, through the nose, through the tongue, or through the skin, any one of those five senses. So one has to think as to what particular tool the sadhak has adapted. The tool has to be one of these five senses. The power of prana that is increased through pranayama, breathing exercises, is the speed of an airplane.

But everyone cannot digest that speed. So it is better that one grows slowly and steadily. Are you all awake or asleep? Now I’ll have to keep asking you often because of what you asked yesterday [about why they fall asleep in his presence]. Do you have any further questions in this, what Bapuji said?

Second question is, what are some practical ways to control desires? That is how do I stop thinking of the foods I want? How do I control my thoughts from going into images that are detrimental to my growth?

Self-analysis and self-observation is the source of entire progress on the spiritual path.

As long as the sadhaks and sadhakas, they do not objectively study their problems, they will never find the answers. Self-observation and self-analysis are the tools to find out the entire treasure of mind. Through that you can find out what are your good qualities and what are your bad qualities.

One cannot attain to this ability of self-observation all of a sudden. It is gradual. There is a need for constant practice. In order for you to successfully do self observation, peace of mind or balance of mind and honesty are most important. If you havent done self-observation, then whatever decision you come to will not be true.

Yes, in the beginning you will have to accept faulty self-observation. Then you will be able to grow gradually. When a baby first begins to write one, it is very crooked in every different way. Then gradually he can draw a straighter line of number one. So also in your self-analysis you gradually progress.

One must learn to be objective, and if you do not know how to be objective, there is no possibility of self-analysis or self-observation. In that, you have to be your own judge. So gradually go on practicing self-analysis. Just as film catches the movements of the body, so also our self-analysis catches the movement of our mind.

`The next question is, please explain the significance of brahmacharya on our spiritual path. How can I practice brahmacharya, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally?

In order to build a dam, whatever ingredients and materials are necessary, if they are not planned and collected ahead of time, the building or process becomes difficult, filled with great difficulties. The great power that you can attain through the spiritual path, it is only available through brahmacharya. Just as without finances we cannot do the business, so also without brahmacharya there is no possibility of spiritual progress. Brahmacharya becomes easier in proportion to what you understand as its value.

The more you understand its value, the easier it gets. Just as urine and feces are things that the body naturally must do, these urges are naturally present, so sex is also natural in the body. When someone drinks too much water, he has to go to bathroom more often. When somebody eats too much he has to go to bathroom more often. When somebody keeps thinking of the sensual images a lot or lives in such a stimulating surrounding, then also sexual urges become stronger.

And yet you must remember that the necessary elimination of feces and urine is different and sexual urges are different. After the purification of the body, a tremendous amount of energy is being generated. And when this energy, or sexual energy tries to go up, it also creates sensual desires.

Thus, in growth, purification becomes a hurdle. It so happens that the sadhak experiences a much stronger desire for sex than the average person. Then the question is, the tools, the spiritual tools, like meditation and japa, are they the tools that awaken sensuality? Bapuji says no, it is not true, that the purification that normally takes a week, two weeks or a month, happens in a day. And that purification manufactures a tremendous amount of energy in the body. This is why we feel the sexual desires.

Gradually that sensual desire goes on increasing. This is why this path becomes extremely difficult for every sadhak. The complete knower of this path can only be a complete yogi and no one else. Purna yogi means the complete yogi is only that who has a divine body.

The divine body is the sign of urdhvareta, means one whose all sexual energy is completely transformed and rising upward. It is a very long journey. For completing this journey, not just one life is enough, even 25 incarnations are not enough. It is a very long journey. Even after 25 years, if you are successful, then you must know that really you could accomplish it really quick.

We don’t have to borrow that patience. You don’t have to buy that patience if you have a great love in sadhana. This patience comes from the Lord himself as a grace. This subject is very profound, but in short, we can say that brahmacharya will become easier in proportion to how much you love it. And actually, what Bapuji said is your love would be according to how much you understand it.

You will not be able to progress on the path of brahmacharya if you just keep believing that it is impossible. We all accept that from birth until the youth, there is no sensuality. If it was part of our life from our very birth, why cant we continue that? Only thing is that you must remain alert in order to prevent the difficulties that come in your path.

Just because of physical purity, the sensuality increases. So also by physical impurities sensuality increases. The key to all this is self-observation. To whatever extent that you master the art of self-observation, to that extent you will be successful. The great masters, the best tool that they have used on the spiritual path is self-observation. It is such a light, it exposes truth as truth.

I asked Bapuji which Shastra has been written that says that every 500 years a yogi comes who reaches to the divine body. This is not written in scripture, but this is proved by history. If you look at history, it shows that after one complete yogi, that is another yogi who has been born, at the distance of sometimes 500 to even thousand years. This is how, through history, that you can know.

How is spiritual growth affected by being a householder that is married with children?

For the spiritual progress, only you get married. In other words, in India marriage is not done for any other purpose but for spiritual growth.

[Gurudev: If that is done the other way, you do it that way. This is my addition.]

The householder, Bapuji says, must follow the controlled or balanced approach to sensual life. He also said that animals just follow their instinct in sexual life. The scriptures are only created for man. So if man doesn’t follow the scripture, then he will be considered among the animals because he is not able to control.

The great rishis and yogis of India have very closely examined and studied brahmacharya. They explain that the only purpose for getting married is to bring in the highest kind of a son, the highest kind of a daughter, so that the whole country be filled with the very high individuals.

The householder’s life was accepted or the purpose of the householder’s life was to receive the highest daughters and sons. After receiving a son and a daughter, the life of a householder is over. This was the teaching of (rishi) munis of long ago. But as the times changed, that has changed also.

One who wants to progress spiritually, they must give lots of thought to this and practice as much discipline as they can. Last one.

I asked question to Bapuji, if there was a woman in the past who has attained to the divine body. Bapuji says yes. There have been the wives of rishis who have been considered to be rishis and reached to that level.

There was a rishi, a female rishi named Loka Mudra, and she attained to the divine body. She was the most beautiful in the entire world. She has attained to the eternal life. Male and female, those separations are our creations. But if the qualities that man has, if the female has those qualities or samskara, then this can happen.

It is possible for everyone.

One who wants the highest treasure of the world, and if he goes to buy it with one dollar in his pocket, do you think he will find that gem? He will need lots of dollars for that. So you first have to earn the dollars then you can find that.

There are many sadhak yogis that come to America. They give lessons in asana, pranayama and satkarma. They charge $2.00 an hour. See if there are 25 individuals they get $25. and hour. But Bapuji says I haven’t come here to get any dollars because I have to collect lots of dollars. Where I want to go, I have to collect the tools. I have to create, I have to earn that kind of wealth, spiritual wealth. Yes, that is the meaning. I have to earn spiritual wealth to go where I want to go. That is what I have to collect, not dollars.

These dollars are useless there. Even if I have those papers, those dollars in my pockets, they can’t be useful for that purpose at all. For that you need dollars or currency of character. Only that will be helpful there. Bapuji says I have given you the answers in very short. And I have particularly given you only the important points.

`Please talk more about the pain of separation from God, from Guru, and explain ways that I can become more devoted to you? [A written question].

The best tool for increasing your bhakti that is very well known, is to get physical purity and mental purity. For this very reason yoga teaches yamas and niyamas in the very beginning. Just as after you open your eyes, the light becomes visible. So also after physical and mental purity, love automatically begins to grow.

That is so beautiful. Knock the door and it will be open. All you have to do is knock on the door. All you have to do is make an effort to knock on the door and the hidden God will automatically open it, because beloved Lord knows all the feelings that are coming from a heart.

Don’t think you are the only one who loves God. God loves you very much. We love him only because he loves us. So go on increasing your love for God, love for Guru, and love for spiritual progress.

There is one great difficulty in love. There are many different tests that you go through in this world and some tests you go through in one year or two years. But in the matter of love, the sequence is very different. Whatever you have studied in two years, you expose it in eight or ten days. It is reverse in the matter of love that in other cases you study eight years or two years and give test in eight days.

Here you study eight years and keep giving test for the rest of eight days you study in love, but you live it the rest of your life. Tests are always ongoing, so study is very little. But tests are too many, all the time. You have to pass the test every moment in love. Bapuji will chant one dhun.

[Bapuji chants Shiva bol dhun].