Q&A: Do not give up

What happens if we are meditating next to someone who is thinking worldly thoughts?

If your meditation is very high, very powerful, at that time inner fire emanates from you. If someone who is cherishing worldly thoughts sits with you, he will be compelled to give up those thoughts. Many times I have seen this when three or four people are meditating together. If one of them is in a very high meditation, then those who are cherishing worldly thoughts either have to leave the place or they are compelled from within to meditate soulfully.

When you are right, everything around you is right, for the beautiful flow that is inside your heart has the capacity to spread its fragrance of oneness-light all around you.

Q&A: Do not give up

What happens if, after meditating for a few months or a few years, you decide you want to take a rest and then continue your journey at a later time?

In the ordinary life, after you have covered one mile you can remain where you are for a while and take rest before continuing your journey. But in the spiritual life it is not like that. In the spiritual life, once you take rest doubt enters into you, fear enters into you and suspicion enters into you. All kinds of negative forces enter into you and destroy your possibilities. Your potentiality remains the same; eventually you will realise God. But the golden possibilities that you once had are lost. You will fall back to your old ways and be lost in ignorance, and the progress that you made will be destroyed.

However, the essence of the progress that you made will remain inside the soul. The essence is never lost, even though in your outer life you cannot use it. The quintessence of the progress that you made will remain inside your heart, and after five or ten years, or in your next incarnation, when you want to meditate again, this quintessence will come to the fore. At that time, if you pray to God most sincerely to enter into the spiritual life again, your previous progress will loom large in your life.

Q&A: Do not give up

My life of progress is the result of my heart's little cry and my Lord's big Smile.

My aspiration seems very feeble, and I'm worried it won't get any stronger in the future.

Let us not worry about the future. Let us think of the present. As you sow, so you reap. In the past perhaps you have not sown the proper seed. Let us say your inner cry was not intense in the past, and that is why your aspiration is not strong right now. Right now you are not crying for God all the time; you do not have the feeling that without God you cannot exist. You feel that as long as there are interesting things in the world, as long as you have friends, as long as you are comfortable, you can go on. But when you feel that you can exist without water, without air, without everything, but not without God, at that time you can be certain that you will find fulfilment in the future.

If you sow a seed now, it will eventually germinate and become a plant. If we sow the proper seed-that is to say, aspiration-then the aspiration-tree will bear fruit, which we call realisation. But if we do not sow the proper seed inside ourselves, then how can we get the proper fruit? So let us not worry about the future. Let us only do the right thing today, at this moment, here and now. Try to aspire today, and let the future take care of itself.

Q&A: Do not give up

Is there anything wrong with seekers meditating together if they follow different Masters?

It is not advisable for seekers following one path to meditate with seekers of another path. If you are following one path and the person sitting beside you is following a different path, in spite of your best intentions there will be an inner conflict between your aspiration and his. When you are ready to fly, the person next to you will pull you back. Unconsciously each of you will have the urge to surpass the other. He will try to go beyond you, and you will try to go beyond him. Even if you consciously say, "We are not competing," this does not help. There is an unconscious competition. You feel that your path is better than his, and he feels that his is better than yours.

It is always advisable that the disciples of one spiritual Master meditate only with those on their own path or with those who have not yet chosen a path. It is not that you are being mean; far from it. Only you feel that you live in your house and somebody else lives in his own house.

But when it is a matter of inspiration, if you want to talk with spiritual people who follow other paths, you can. You are trying to reach God, and they are trying to reach God. That means that you and they both possess inspiration. So if you speak with them, you will both get inspiration.

Q&A: Do not give up

How can we maintain a good standard consistently, instead of going up and down?

Please feel that every day is equally important. Your difficulty is that when you do something well you feel that you deserve some relaxation. Today you do a wonderful meditation, and then you feel, "Oh since today I had a wonderful meditation, tomorrow I can relax." You feel that your meditation will maintain the same speed, but it doesn't.

Every time you meditate, you have to feel that this may be your last chance. Feel that tomorrow you may die, so if you fail today, then zero will be your mark. When the teacher gives you the examination paper today, please don't feel that tomorrow again he will give you the same examination. The past is gone. The future does not exist. There is only the present. Here in the present, either you have to become divine, or else you will remain as undivine as you were yesterday. Since you want to become divine, you should do the right is thing here and now. This should be your attitude.

You should make yourself feel that today is the last day for you to achieve everything that you are supposed to achieve. If you fail today, then tomorrow again you have to feel that this is your last day. No matter how many times you fail, you should feel that each day is your last. If you feel that opportunity will come back and knock at your door tomorrow, then today you will not try. You will feel that you don't need to aspire today because you have so many tomorrows. But before those tomorrows come, the aspiration that you have today may be lost.

Do not give up. If you persist, tomorrow's peace will come and feed your mind today, and tomorrow's perfection will come and touch your life today.

Q&A: Do not give up

How can someone achieve the strength to go forward on the spiritual path?

You have to constantly ask yourself one thing: do you want God or do you want ignorance? Both are standing right in front of you at every moment, and you must make a choice. Everybody knows that one cannot serve two masters. So when these two masters stand in front of you, you have to decide immediately which one you want. If you choose God, then you must come to Him and enter into him. And each time you find that you have come out of a divine consciousness, you have to enter into it again. If you can re-enter into God's Consciousness faithfully and quickly every time you come out of it, then eventually you will reach the point where you will not come out of it and enter into ignorance anymore. A day will come when your conscious choice of God will be permanent, and you will be totally merged in God forever.

As you begin your spiritual journey, always try to feel that you are God's child. Early in the morning you can soulfully repeat, "I am God's child, I am God's child." Immediately you will see that whatever is dark, impure and ugly in you will go away. Later in the day, when ignorance comes to tempt you, you will feel, "I am God's child. How can I do this? I cannot enter into ignorance." By repeating, "I am God's child," you will get abundant inner strength and will power.

When you have the courage to try, you have everything, for God-revealing reality loves you and needs you.

Q&A: Do not give up

How can I maintain the peace that I feel at a group meditation when I get home?

If you meditate at home every day, then it will be very easy for you to maintain that peace. It is very important to meditate every day without fail. Early in the morning is the best time, before the day dawns, Every day begins with new inspiration, new hope. New life is entering into us every morning, so morning meditation is indispensable for anybody who would like to follow the spiritual path.

Also, if you can mix with spiritual people, they will be able to help you. You will not ignore or hate others; far from it. Spiritual people do not hate mankind, but they have to be cautious. You have to know that your power, your capacity, is very limited. As long as your capacity is very limited, you cannot mix freely with all and sundry. So try to mix with spiritual people and meditate regularly. When you have enough inner strength, then you won't lose anything no matter what you do. Whatever you get from group meditations and whatever you get from your own meditation you will be able to preserve.

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