We should learn to remain quiet within, firm in the will to go through the process. These are the two attitudes basically, required. We should be quiet with a firm will to go through the process, refusing to be disturbed or discouraged by difficulties and fluctuations. There are difficulties in sadhana and there are discouragements also. This is one of the first things to be learned in the practice of Raja yoga. If we do otherwise it will be promoting the instability of consciousness. Ekagravritti itself is affected otherwise. A simple and sincere call and aspiration from the heart is the most important thing and is essential than capacities. Sincerity is what is required.

Also it is necessary to turn our attention inwards rather than outward to understand the inner call from the inner presence of the Lord. Our ways of thinking are externalised. Any thing that we talk is externalised. The misfortune or fortune of it is that we go by the Pratyaksha jnana. Pratyaksha jnana depends upon the senses, five senses. Whatever knowledge we get, we get it through our eyes, our ears, our nose, our tongue, and our touch. We are not aware of any thought or idea, which is beyond the capacity of these five senses.

The whole process of meditation is asking us to go beyond these five senses. That is why the knowledge gained through meditation is called Aparoksha jnana. For this we have to turn inward consciously and in the awareness of the inward consciousness also our thoughts are unfortunately constructs from sensory inputs. We are not capable of having thoughts which can go beyond these senses. Our consciousness is unfortunately confined to either direct inputs now or inputs that we have already received and stored in our heads as some ideas relating to certain things. Those ideas are again sensory in content and knowledge.

Non-sensory knowledge is some thing that we do not have. Secondly we have experiences of more than one sensory input at a time. We have got Multi-sensory inputs also. But non-sensory input is difficult and our demand is for the non-sensory. It is not multi-sensory. Multi-sensory knowledge is not equal to the experience we gain during meditation. It is basically non-sensory and it has got its own realm. We learn the logic of it.

The language of feeling starts. So far, language of senses was there. All the language that we talk about is sensory. Non-sensory language is feeling. Feeling heat is a wrong word. It is a sensation. We don't feel the heat. We use the word "we feel the warmth of friendship". It is the friendship that we are trying to refer to, not the warmth. Friendship is an idea that we have got in our head, which doesn't have sensory equivalent. It contains so many things. All senses provide the input and beyond that also we have non sensory inputs to understand the feelings. We have inputs from our hoary tradition also.

Why I am talking of this friendship concept is, that is the word we have used for God, Sakha. Sakha is the word that has been used for God. He is a constant friend of ours. He doesn't go away from us. He maintains his friendship with us. It is a bondage, which is very difficult to express in sensory words, that is why our words will fail. We will say that we have a friend. What is friendship? Nobody knows what it is. The word is very common for all of us. Fraternity for example that we are talking about is a construct that is not sensory. They are feelings and when we try to bring it down to that level of knowledge it becomes sensory and gets disturbed. So this inner feeling is what we should learn.

A spiritual atmosphere is more important than outer conditions of silence and quiet. As we progress in the path we breathe on our own spiritual condition and live in it. This is an attitude that comes by practice only.

We should learn to distinguish between desire and aspiration. Desire usually relates to lower levels of consciousness of body and vital parts. Aspiration relates to higher values for which, we want to live. Both are based on manomaya kosa the realm of mind only. The manomaya kosa thinks. It has got a two-dimensional approach. It thinks low and it can also think high. That's why Revered Babuji puts the heart higher and says the manomaya kosa thinks generally low. We have to think high. So our desire must become an aspiration. It is not desire to seek the ultimate. It's an aspiration. The word must be clearly understood.

Desire often leads to excess of effort resulting in much labour and limited fruit with strain and exhaustion. In case of failure to achieve, it results in despondence, disbelief and revolt. In some cases extraordinary effort is put in to pull down the higher levels of consciousness leading to violent reactions and very often wrong forces find their way into consciousness and the sadhaka confuses that to be leading truly to the Divine. A sort of shackles into which, the practicant gets into. I have seen this particularly in 2 or 3 abhyasis who are practicing meditation, who wanted to bring it by force. They got into states of almost madness, mere madness. Aberrations happen. We have to yield to the Divine. Coercing some thing will not work.

When the vital being is under play, impatience and restless disquietude creeps into aspiration also. Even in aspiration, when the vital beings are there, the impatience creeps in and the restlessness starts. These two characteristics are Rajasik in nature. So in order to avoid these characteristics we generally suggest not to take Rajasik food, not to move in Rajasik Company. Otherwise we will become restless. If your mind has been already put into enormous Rajasik stuff like watching a movie, your mind will not be calm. It will not undo it. Ultimately there is nothing right or wrong. What is appropriate? What is inappropriate is what we should know. The viveka of a person lies in deciding what is good for his sadhana, appropriate alone should be taken into consideration.

Aspiration should not be of the form of desire but it should be a feeling of one's souls need and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine. It is not easy to get rid of the mixture of desire entirely but with the help of the Master it should be possible for all sadhakas, if they work diligently towards this end. One has to work on himself.

Only by practice is it possible for us to develop calm, discrimination and detachment without indifference. This is the condition in Knots 1 and 1a. I changed this word from that of Babuji. He used to say develop due attachment, I say detachment without indifference. I thought that this expresses the idea much better. The same thought I am trying to express from a different set of words. Indifference is what we should avoid. Detachment has to go. Viveka has to come. What is Viveka? Viveka is to remain calm, quiet seeking him ultimately, waiting for him.

This leads us to a condition to live within in a constant aspiration for the Divine and to look at life with a smile and to remain peaceful whatever the outer circumstances are. Unless Viveka develops, unless particular amount of Vairagya also develops this equanimity of mind is not possible to the outer circumstances. Without developing detachment or keeping ourselves only to due attachment, we will not be in a position to move towards the higher plane. This is the Viveka which is a must. What are the planes? In all the five planes it will operate. In each one we should move towards the moderation. Moderation is the principle. Balancing is the principle. Balance means always two forces are there. There are two forces which may appear heavier at different times. Our effort should be to balance it. Balance is not a static condition. It is a very dynamic condition.

We should learn to yield to the method and the Master. In any field of activity we should follow the guidelines and then expect results. For everything there is a method. We have to follow the method sincerely. If we find the result we should continue it. If not, leave it. Find something else which works. But during the process don't try something else. When we are doing this method we should not try some other method.

We should be sincere in the method. There is no point in trying to ride two horses at a time. Sincerity means single pointed approach, Ekagravritti - Sincerity of approach. When we are trying to do a mathematics problem, let our mind be on the mathematics problem. Let it not go to physics. That is sincerity. If we attend sincerely to our work, we will definitely achieve it, because sincerity means only this much. Don't deviate from the task and the method that you have chosen, follow it. See the result. Sincerity is a must.

It is necessary to note that Divinity is the goal and the way to that also is Divine. We cannot reach Divine directly by our effort. We require Divinity to help us to reach Divinity. There are two aspects of the Divinity. One is, it is the goal and it is also the method and the means. That is why, thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that stage is brought as a prayer. It's not a prayer. It is an attitude that we are asked to develop. By repeatedly thinking about that particular thought we get into the attitude of seeking the Divine support to reach the Divine.

To serve means to love, to obey means to love, to sacrifice means to love. Without these three characteristics there is no point in talking about love. Love demands all these three.

To be consciously aware of the Master is not possible under all circumstances. Efforts in that direction may lead to insincerity in work and other relationships. Therefore we should develop a method of remembering him sub consciously. Trust and faith in the Master gives us such capacity for sub conscious awareness.

Surrender is very difficult to practice without learning the principles of 1.Love, 2.Devotion, 3.Faith, and 4.Obedience. This is the Master's message today. My experience tells me that as

a. We tend to think, we are independent and not interdependent, the process of surrender becomes difficult to start. Interdependency alone allows us to yield to somebody else. Surrender becomes possible only then. Independent people cannot surrender. Only when we know our relationship of dependency on somebody we can surrender and interdependency is a vital truth of existence. The plane whose noise we hear is also dependent on us and we are dependent upon that. That is the extent of knowledge that we should go, to understand interdependence. Nothing that is there in the universe is something that is disconnected with us. For all process of perception or sensory knowledge it may appear so. But we are connected to it. One of the wisdom's of our land is the sakuna sastra. Sakuna sastra asks us to understand how much dependant we are, on other things. We need not accept a particular faith or belief, but we have to accept the point of interdependency.

b. We tend to believe we are the doers of any action and refuse to accept the participation of others. Every effort that we have put in any field. For that matter there is a joint effort. Some body else is also involved. But we tend to think that its our own work and put a spoke to surrender

c. We always tend to enjoy the results of any effort exclusively and do not share with others and thus put a spoke to surrender. This is one of the principles that we have learnt in our country by tradition itself. We go to some thirtha yatra or pilgrimage we get prasad, we distribute to all. We don't keep it to ourselves. We do not accept some thing that has come to us from the Divine as some thing as our own. It is something to be shared, is the consciousness that we have developed, an attitude that is a must in the field of surrender.

d. We tend to think that everything is from God and do not yield to the master trying to distinguish between them on rational grounds. Gurudevo bhava is another concept that we should understand. We cannot distinguish between a guru and God. Basically this has led to many problems of gurudom. The Gurudom theory is not being substantiated here but we should know there is part of the Master also in the Guru and we should never think that we have got direct relationship with Divine without this interdependency on one more person or many more such persons in the middle. Each person is a Guru.

e. We tend to enjoy the Divine attributes as if they are our own to the exclusion of the Master. We get Divine attributes, many attributes, many qualities we get, of trying to help others, General tendency of tolerance. All these things we think are ours. We try to enjoy the results also. Refusing to think that it is Master's. That is how the gurudom develops. These are all the problems of surrender.

It is necessary to learn that Master is the a. Doer b. Enjoyer c. Knower of every action and thought of ours. That is the meaning of total surrender. This is possible only if we move on to the knot 4 initially and much later in knot 9. Pranahuti helps us achieve this condition provided we put in necessary effort through the meditation on points A and B.

The balanced condition comes when we

a. Live in the thought of Master always from birth as some saints have done

or

b. Live in the company of Master physically when avatars/prophets come into existence.

When we do not have these two possibilities

c. Live working and doing everything according to dharma and instruction from the Master. Live as if everything is an instruction from the Master. We do everything, then a balanced condition is possible

or

d. Live working and doing everything according to dharma as if the Master himself is the doer.

These are the 2 alternatives that we find in "The Reality at Dawn" given by Master to us. First 2 are not ours, actually they relate to some extraordinary persons like Sukha, Nammalvar. These are the people who are born with the thought of the Master and lived like that. They never thought about anything else in their lifetime. They were born Brahma Jnanis and they were not even dependant on food for others. When questions were put about food, they simply ignored it. They said we live in the Divine, we breathe the Divine, and we eat the Divine. The other type of people are like Lakshmana, who used to be with Rama always to the exclusion of anything else. They are not bothered of anything else. That is possible only when the avatar is there. The other two above mentioned points are possible for us. These are the four conditions that are given in Bhagavat Gita, as the conditions of Sthithahprajnatva. Who is a kaba or Sthithahprajna? He answers like this. A series of 20 slokas are there. We should know He is the doer. He is the enjoyer. He is also the person who does the action. Kartrutva, Bhoktrutva, Jnatrutva, knower of things. These attitudes are a must. Once we know this, then we don't grant ourselves certain knowledge that we have got through meditation. We will never start thinking that we have advanced this much. God himself in us is advancing in his own way to his perfection and that is the meaning of our life. Our life has no meaning by itself except as opportunities for the Divine to express itself through us. It is the opportunity God himself has provided for him to show his greatness to the world. All our capacities must get exhibited. We can't simply ignore our capacities, our capacities are used for the good of others. Try to say that it is the Master who himself is expressing. I think that is the attitude, then we get a balanced condition.

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE KEPT IN MIND FOR EFFECTIVE SADHANA