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Yatra
Yatra is a Sanskrit word meaning journey, a travel. So any journey
is a yatra. And then in spirituality we have the inner journey
of the self, whether it is a real journey or not, I do not know,
but it is there, and therefore in the Sanskrit language the spiritual
journey is called a spiritual yatra. So this yatra, unless it
begins there is no progress, you see.
So the true yatra is the yatra of the soul from one region to
the other by moving from one point to the next point, to the next,
to the next, to the next, and so on. Inevitably, at least in modern
times, you cannot possibly find anybody other than at the first
point. The only person who ever came to Babuji outside of the
first point was this one single case in his entire lifetime. Then
he told me the secret: that to move from the first point requires
the power of the Master. You may never move from that point.
So yatra may never take place, you see, except by the grace of
the Master. The yatra has to be begun by a master, and then, once
the yatra begins, once this motion is set into being, or has been
created, you can say that now, for the first time, the soul is
active.
So without movement we cannot grow. That which has become motionless,
ignorant, inconscient, sunk into itself in a mire of oblivion,
it becomes active. Through activity, it gains. What does it gain?
Not a thing, not a state, but its position on the evolutionary
path, onto which it steps for the first time after who knows how
many aeons of time of blissful ignorance. So, that is the importance
of the yatra.
Without cleaning there is no yatra. It is not possible. Therefore
the importance of the preceptor.
Heart region
Now the heart region Babuji described as the gutter of humanity.
And the cleaning is absolutely the most difficult in the heart
region. Babuji once told me that he sometimes felt as if he was
under the sewer systems of a big metropolis-nowhere to go, dark
everywhere, stinking. And Babuji's face took on such an expression,
you would have pitied him if you had seen it.
So I cannot sufficiently emphasize the importance of cleaning.
It is of the utmost importance, there is nothing more important
than that in Sahaj Marg. Transmission comes only after cleaning.
The heart region is spirituality, you see. Beyond it, it
is…like when you leave the earth's gravitational fields, you
are free. Nothing can stop you. That is why the heart region is
of such utmost importance, because in it are embodied the principles
of the earth, the water, the fire and the air. Strangely enough,
the fifth principle of the Western mystics, the European mystics,
the ether principle is missing. But in its place we have the atman,
the soul. And here is embodied the known universe. And one who conquers
this and goes beyond is free.
Mind region
The mind region, as Babuji has said, you know, it starts actually
at point six, but we do not touch it. This is the point where,
as my Master has discovered, the entire power distribution system
is located. Everything that pertains to power and energy in the
system, the distribution point is this.
Therefore, you find in the yogic literature of our great Eastern
traditions, especially India, more especially Sahaj Marg, this
suspicion of all that pertains to material existence, especially
of power. Therefore, Babuji has said, "Transmission is forceless
force, there is no power in it."
Babuji has said again and again, "Think of Him and He is
there." Now this thought is obviously from the mind, therefore
the importance given to the mind region in spirituality, what
we call the cosmic region. That is why the mind region is so important,
but you cannot come to it until the tendencies are cleared off.
Here comes the great position that psychology, or at least yogic
psychology holds: that the mind is the first instrument of the
soul. It is an instrument which is intangible, which has no physical
existence, which cannot be located in space or in the body or
even perhaps in time. It goes, it seems to go, with the soul.
It is that which uses everything else, the senses, through the
medium, perhaps, of the brain, the nervous system. So the mind
is an intangible part of that intangible existence which we call
the soul, the Self. And the region that it is supposed to control
or regulate is what we call the mind region.
Now you, in English, you say mind region. We distinguish two halves
of it, actually, the brahmanda and the parabrahmanda, you see.
That is the cosmic and the super-cosmic, or the mind and the super-mind.
And this (super-)mind is also important, because Babuji has said,
"It is the landing ground of the gods." That means it
is perhaps that neutral territory where you and the divine can
meet. And all your foreplanning, forethought, everything, occurs
here first before it descends down into the physical realm of
physical existence, physical achievement, physical execution.
Therefore, the importance of the mind region.
And because we cannot go to the mind region without cleaning the
heart, because there lies the samskaras which make our tendencies,
therefore the even perhaps superior importance of the heart region.
Until I transform this, remove the samskaras to the necessary
extent, not totally, but necessary extent, purify it, purify my
tendencies, there is absolutely no use in acting upon the mind
region. It cannot respond. Therefore, this sequence of heart region
to mind region. In the super-mind, the super-cosmic, the parabrahmanda,
is a yet further refinement. Now we have, technically speaking,
gone beyond the gods.
Now if everything emanates here, the landing ground of the gods
is here, divine action itself emanates from the cosmic (not from
the Centre, you see, please remember this, the Centre is inoperative),
if we wish to change our destiny, as we call it, our future, build
it afresh, renew it, we have to work with our thought, with the
mind. Therefore, raja yoga operates with the mind, through the
mind. That is why we have to meditate. That is why meditation,
though it is only regulation of the mind, is very necessary, very
vital. Because the mind has to be under our regulatory control.
Otherwise, it runs amok.
Therefore, Babuji said, "The mind is the only thing that
can redeem the human being. It is also his only source of self-destruction."
Like everything on earth, it has two edges, you see, a double-edged
sword. Powers are always double-edged things. Therefore Babuji's
greatest piece of wisdom was to avoid power totally. Absolutely,
there is no power system in Sahaj Marg.
So you see, that is the immense importance of the mind region.
Central region
And then we come to the central region where, as Babuji said,
we are now swimming in the ocean of bliss, the seven rings of
splendour. It [the soul] is now in direct contact with the source,
the Centre. Questions of progress cease, because it is an ever-swimming-it
can never end. We are ever going towards the Centre, and as Babuji
said on several occasions, "My Master is swimming before
me, and passing on his achievements to me." There is still
this question of achievement, you see, not in the sense of worldly
achievement, but in some higher mystical, spiritual sense.
Does the Centre, therefore, represent our goal? It would appear
from a reading of Master's books, especially this Efficacy, you
know, that the Centre is our goal. Very confusing, because I have
known people who are in the central region having missed their
way, subsequently fallen, because they thought the Centre was
the goal.
Here comes the great secret of Sahaj Marg, of our spiritual way.
You can never do without the Master. What is the need for
the Master? Well, to start the process, to clean the heart, the
regions, the points, to give transmission, to improve their quality,
the essence of their existence, put Himself into them. It is called
the prana-ahuti because he is pouring his life into our life. It
is an offering of his life into our life.
Here, our heart is the flaming heart, flaming with desire, flaming
with lust, flaming with so many things, you see, into which, from
his divine heart he pours his blessings. And I suppose he cools
and puts out these fires and normalizes this heart, makes it human,
then makes it begin its commencement of the divine yatra which,
incidentally, is what he meant by saying, "From animal man
to human man to divine man is the path." This is the secret,
that starting there, even after he puts you in touch with God,
he is a very necessary person. We cannot afford to forget him.
Because, God again, remember, has no mind. He cannot welcome you.
He cannot recognize your presence. We need the Master till the
ultimate completion of the yatra. That will show you where the
real goal lies.
So you see, the prayer indicates very, very clearly, very unambiguously
what is the real goal of human life, and the words 'real goal'
must be taken particular note of…
Now what happens here? God, as a religious symbol, is set aside.
"Thou art the real goal." Of course, Babuji himself
says, in all his humility, which we know very well, he says in,
I think, Reality at Dawn, He [God] is the real goal, we are
only His representatives on earth. But it is my direct experience,
you see, I have no hesitation in saying it, I have experienced the
presence of my Master as the presence of the Ultimate!
And this mistake of thinking that the Master and God are two separate
things, and having got God, I could negate my Master and leave
him behind, was made by several persons, many of whom do not know
Sahaj Marg today.
And to my experience, my personal experience, absolutely convincing,
I have no doubt about it whatsoever, the Master's heart is my
goal, you see. Not the Master, because the Master is a physical
form, and, as I told you yesterday, it is bound to go, but his
heart is eternal. That is why Master has said, and which many
have misunderstood when he says, "The heart extends from
the tip to the toe." You see, he did not mean that it is
the region of the heart. Why only the tip to the toe of this existence?
Of the divine existence itself. The heart has to expand until
the universe is within that heart. And then you can say you and
I and all of us are there. In one sense we are already in that
heart, his divine heart, his immense universal heart.
Then what is the journey about? Why are we struggling with spirituality
and cleaning and transmission and seminars? What for? We have to
realise that we are there. Therefore, the spiritual path talks of
realisation, not of achievement or anything else-realisation,
self-realisation. The realisation that I, who am looking for someone,
have that someone within me, and that someone is Him and myself
too, this realisation dawns at the end.
Merger
So we come next to the stage of realisation. Where we have realised
that the Master in me, and the Master outside me, and I, we are
all the same, you see. It is an act of realisation, not of becoming,
not of growing into something. The ultimate veil of ignorance
is removed from our consciousness, and there we are. But nevertheless
we are still separate from him. See, as long as we have to say,
"He and I are one," the 'He' and the 'I' are still existing.
Therefore the final state is the one we call merger, in Sanskrit
it is called layavastha, becoming one. The two becoming one. The
grand climax of spiritual life, indeed of all life, is that merger
in the Beloved.
You see, here comes the important message of the Master: that
development according to the points and regions has nothing to
do with the ultimate climax of spiritual existence, the merger.
The merger can be today, even if you are the worst sinner in the
universe, if in that instant you have this total love and the
total longing to be one with him, he opens the door.
This Ultimate which transcends even realisation (realisation is
a very high feature of yogic practice, yogic self-achievement,
the knowledge of the self), but the Ultimate thing is this mergence
in the Master. It is within our control. It is something which
we can aspire for, which we can achieve.
So you see these regions have nothing to do with the actuality
of the spiritual adventure, its romance, its beauty, I do not
know what word to use. It is a romance, you see. Spirituality
is a romance; but a romance full of misery, where the soul of
the aspirant is torn with longing, love, separation. And when
you do achieve the union with the beloved, you find you are lost,
you are no more there to, shall we say, enjoy the union. It seems
to be stupid, you know, that two people who are longing to be
together, to become one, in that very act of becoming one, the
yearning one has been annihilated, as it were. But you know, how
can you be annihilated when you are in the Master now?
Now all that is left behind, He and I are one. You all remember
that famous Persian couplet quoted in, I think, Reality at Dawn,
where Babuji has written in Persian what Lalaji told him, "I
have become you and you have become me." See, both are being
used, it is not enough if I become him, he must become me.
So when the Master merges with his servant, his devotee, his lover,
each has become the other. That is the beauty of the spiritual
ultimacy, the ultimate goal of spiritual endeavour, the merger,
the layavastha, that not only do I become him and become complete,
he becomes me and completes that thing.
You know, that is the miracle of love. In the real love, who is
the beloved? Who is the lover? And when that love is finally united
together in one grand culmination, of oneness by mergence each
into the other, the lover is gone, the beloved is gone, even loving
is gone. Then comes that unified unity of existence which knows
nothing, not even its own identity, not even its own existence.
Now we are at the goal.
(Condensed from two talks given by Master at Courmettes, France,
12 and 13 July 1988, published in the revised edition (1994) of
What is Sahaj Marg, chapters 4-5, p 71-132.)
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