Q&A: Meditation in action

How can I bridge the gap I feel between my spiritual life, which is full of joy, and my life in the office, which is totally unaspiring?

The spiritual life does not mean that you will always be sitting in meditation with your eyes closed. When you do something in the outer world, if you can feel that you are doing it for God, then everything you do will become a part of your spiritual life. Otherwise, when you are meditating in your room, you will feel that you are doing the right thing, and the rest of the time you will feel miserable. Dedicated work is also a form of meditation.

In the morning the Supreme wants you to enter into your highest and offer your love and devotion to Him and receive His peace, light and blessings. Then He wants you to go to your office and do your dedicated service. In both cases, if you can feel that you are doing something because you have been asked to do it from within, then you will have the greatest joy. You are not the doer; you are only a dedicated instrument serving a higher reality. If you can feel this, then you will get joy no matter what you do. Even if you are doing something mechanical, something intellectual or something which is absolutely uninspiring, you will get the greatest joy because you are serving a higher cause.

You have to know that you can feel God's presence in anything you do. If you can be conscious of God while you are doing something-whether it is cleaning or cooking or working-then you will feel that God has entered into what you are doing. If you can feel God's presence within your activity, then whatever you are doing is with God and for God. If you can keep your consciousness high and maintain peace of mind while working, then your work itself is a true form of meditation.

Each devoted moment prepares a beautiful sunrise and a fruitful sunset.

Q&A: Meditation in action

Do both activity and meditation form the essence of your teaching?

Our philosophy does not negate either the outer life or the inner life. Most human beings negate the inner life. They feel that the inner life is not important as long as their outer life is pleasant. Again, there are a few who think that the outer life is not necessary. They feel that the best thing is to enter into the Himalayan caves and lead a life of solitude, since the outer life is so painful and uninspiring.

We do not believe in living either a life of solitude or an ordinary human life-the so-called modern life that depends on machines and not on the inner reality, the soul. We try to synthesise and harmonise the outer life and the inner life. The outer life is like a beautiful flower and the inner life is its fragrance. If there is no fragrance, then we cannot appreciate the flower. Again, if there is no flower, how can there be any fragrance? So the inner life and the outer life must go together.

A sea of tranquility

Meditation is like going to the bottom of the sea, where everything is calm and tranquil. On the surface there may be a multitude of waves, but the sea is not affected below. In its deepest depths, the sea is all silence. When we start meditating, first we try to reach our own the inner existence, our true existence-that is to say, the on bottom of the sea. Then, when the waves come from the outside world, we are not affected. Fear, doubt, worry and all the earthly turmoil will just wash away, because inside us is solid peace. Thoughts cannot trouble us, because our mind is all peace, all silence, oneness. Like fish in the sea, they jump and swim but leave no mark. So when we are in our highest meditation we feel that we are the sea, and the animals in the sea cannot affect us. We feel that we are the sky, and all the birds flying past cannot affect us. Our mind is the sky and our heart is the infinite sea. This is meditation.

Q&A: Fruits on the path of meditation

When meditating, inside I feel very strong and outside I feel very soft. But as I go deeper, I start expanding. What does that signify?

That is excellent. You feel strong inside because you are bringing down divine peace, light and bliss into your system. The more you consciously and devotedly bring down these divine forces, the stronger you become inwardly. And these blessings from above are helping you to expand your consciousness.

Outwardly you are feeling soft, but this is not actually softness. It is inner peace and inner confidence that are growing in your outer being. When you have boundless inner strength, you do not have to display it outwardly. You do not have to clench your fists. You are relaxed because your inner strength has given you confidence. You are like a divine hero. At any moment you know you can defeat your enemy or surmount any obstruction, so you are outwardly relaxed.

There is nothing is more powerful than peace.

Q&A: Fruits on the path of meditation

I once felt during meditation that my soul came out of the body.

The soul can come out of the body during meditation. In some cases the soul comes to the fore so powerfully that the physical consciousness either leaves or becomes submerged or totally illumined and transformed by the soul's light.

Q&A: Fruits on the path of meditation

How do we know what plane of consciousness we are in during meditation?

A seeker can be aware of the planes of consciousness only when he is on the verge of realisation. An ordinary aspirant will not be able to know, and also it is not necessary for him to know.

There are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds. A spiritual Master can easily be in all these fourteen worlds at the same time and see things that are happening in all the worlds. An aspirant can also be in more than one world at a time, but he will not be able to know which worlds they are. Only someone who is advanced in the spiritual life, someone who is about to step onto the highest rung of the spiritual ladder, will be able to see in which plane of consciousness he is staying during his meditation. For realised souls it is very easy.

Your spiritual Master can tell you which plane a particular experience has come from. If he tells you that a particular experience comes from the vital world or the mental world, then in the future when you get a similar experience you will be able to know that it comes from that world.

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