Jan 31, 2016, Shabad Surat Sangam Ashram, Mallke, Moga: This was the first Last-Sunday-Monthly-Satsang-Sabha for the year 2016. However, as chance would have it, neither Swamiji nor Sadhviji were present in person in the ashram.
However, Shri Maharaj Ji had recently left for the Himalayas and on the eve of his departure, Swamiji had recorded a message given by him to a family of devotees. It was this message that was played out in this satsang sabha, and it has been reproduced (in sufficient detail) for the perusal of English readers below. The Hindi listeners can ofcourse listen or download it through the links given below.
Maharaj Ji’s Newest Message – Listen or Download (Right Click and Save As)
Maharaj Ji begins by stating a fact that anything that we do in the world is in the hope that it will bring us happiness. Whether it is earning money, building a comfortable home, keeping the body healthy – nothing is for the sake of itself, but only for the sake of happiness that one hopes to achieve through them. Maharaj Ji illustrates it, “Suppose our child falls ill. We would tell the doctor, ‘Just make him well at any cost’. We don’t hesitate about the expenses and are ready to pay any price for the well-being of our child.” Another illustration is, “Say some robbers have entered our home. In a constricted breath we tell them, ‘Take anything you want, but spare us.’” The gist is: through anything that we do, we are just searching for happiness, for peace.
However, Maharaj Ji in his inimitable expression adds, “This happiness that we seek, it appears we don’t quite find it for we aren’t fully satisfied. We still crave for more, more, and more. The chase is still on, right from childhood to old age.”
Maharaj Ji elaborates further, “A child seeks happiness in toys. When he/she grows up a little, the focus of search (for potential happiness) shifts to studying (scoring good, better marks etc.) for some, while others get occupied in many kinds of things which need not even be all good. Now toys hold no value. The same toys for which one cried as a child, now appear trivial, childish.”
“A time comes when one has studied a lot, has become something (say a doctor). By this time we are bored of studying and want something else, something fresh. So the attention now turns to marriage and the search begins for a suitable match. By the time engagement happens, excitement levels are running high. But after 3-4 years, many grow bored of it and some even begin to see the relationship as a burden. So people have seen marriage, have had children, but still find themselves unsatisfied.”
“Now they may turn to growing their businesses in the hope that earning in lakhs and crores is the one last thing they need to achieve their rightful happiness. Some get it, some don’t. However, the condition of those who do find them is not any better than those who don’t manage to find it. After this, one says, ‘Money is a trivial thing. One should do something for the society.’ And so now someone turns to politics, someone becomes the chairman of some group and seek happiness there. But still satisfaction in life eludes us. People are now distressed by the rampant corruption in public life.”
“By this time, we reach a phase that our body begins to deteriorate. And situation may even become such that some may say, ‘Even a child is better than us.’ A child who cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot do anything! And, why do we say so? Just because the child is free from all the burdens that we have. But we must understand that if the child has no burden he is also incapable of doing anything. We want to become a child again, but ask a child instead about his desire. And he wishes to become like his Dad. And vacillating like this, our life comes to an end.”
Having presented in nutshell the gist of our pursuits in life, Maharaj Ji gently asks, “So consider this. Where all we are searching for our happiness and goes on to say, वस्तु कहीं, ढूंढे कहीं, केहे विधी आवै हाथ। – The object is someplace, we seek it somewhere else. Say, how can we attain it like this! Will we ever get butter if we churn water; oil, by crushing sand?”
Maharaj Ji caps off this part of the discussion by asking to consider the contrary case of some Mahatman who lives in a humble dwelling in solitude, his possession being only a bowl in which he begs his food – and yet many people of power and wealth go to him to seek shakti and shanti. How did this come about to be? A participant from the audience replies, “Because that Mahatman has Shanti, therefore people go to him” – to which Maharaj Ji asks, “This is what we are asking of you to think, wherefrom did that Mahatman get something that kings like Akbar go seeking it from him? For if it was to be found in wealth, all wealthy should have found it, in equal measure. If it was to be found by not having wealth then all the poor should have had it. But it is not to be. Neither the rich and nor the poor have it. So where does it come from?”
Maharaj Ji explains the reason for our predicament. The reason that our eyes can only see the world outside. If we close them, there is nothing but darkness. And naturally we will run only after what our eyes can see. If you are asked to run backwards, you will stumble and fall. So the thing boils down to changing the vision, changing the goal.
From here on, Maharaj Ji begins to share the way in which this aforementioned change in the goal can be brought about. If we understand, he says, that happiness is not to be found in wealth, then let us atleast drop our greed for wealth. All it means is not to cheat anyone for earning wealth; not to usurp others’ rights etc. Because by doing so, though we may earn wealth, but alongside we also invite much pain and suffering for ourselves. But if we have cemented the thought that wealth will bring us happiness, then we are running in the wrong direction. The result will be suffering.
The second thing is that though we drop greed for wealth, but we are not to become lazy, inactive or distressed. We have to continue to work hard, even harder than before, do all that needs be done with the greatest respect and dedication, just without harbouring desires for getting more and more of this and that.
Maharaj Ji adds that what we seek as happiness is a really rare thing and is not attained so easily. But if one does one’s work with full vigour and without being greedy then atleast he will be freed of suffering brought by anger, depression, attachment-aversion etc.
In this way, suffering that is self-invited is stopped. Hereafter, begins the journey of finding happiness. Doing our works in this way, when outward-drives end, a time can come when a bhava arises to do one’s work as service to God. Then along with that, japa happens, dhyana happens. Through this our mind goes inside. When the consciousness travels inwards through the eyes, and the ears, it is then that we come to know what happiness is.
Thereafter, Shri Maharaj Ji describes what happiness is. He illustrates it by the phenomenon of sleep. In sleep we don’t get anything from outside, and yet we get something from inside which gives us immense pleasure, health, and power. In sleep we get a glimpse of happiness. But it is still elusive, because we get it unknowingly. It is through the grace of God. Without sleep we cannot live. We can live with a lesser amount of money, but we can’t live without sleep. In sleep, we go to that place where there are treasure houses of bliss. Otherwise going to temples and tirthas will not bring happiness. They are just a means to help us go within ourselves.
So first we should know that there is nothing in the outer objects. What is due in our prarabdha, we will get it anyways. But simultaneously, we should not become lazy and inactive and should do our works with greatest zeal.
Only one who has the power to do his works with complete dedication can go inside consciously. Because one needs great power to travel inwards. He who can’t even do outer works properly cannot go inside. So do your works selflessly – this is the first step.
Devoid of these those who do religious practices will get nothing out of them. So we should know that this karmabhoomi is not for the attainment of wealth and other goods. Household duties, as told by saints, are not for attaining wealth, but to increase one’s power, intelligence, capacity, and activity. When this will happen then the mind will be tuned inwards. Right now a little wind flows against us and we frown and get depressed.
Maharaj Ji says that he wonders, why these days we are begging for one or the other thing from others; why we complain so much – starting right from children asking their parents, ‘What have you done for us?’ But the truth is we get as per our prarabdha, as per our works. But not knowing this, we beg or even snatch, rob etc. and people still hope for peace in their lives, despite all this.
“Yes, there is one happiness in the world indeed but that happiness is very dangerous. It is the happiness of ahamkaar. Inside, there is everything – anger etc. but still we think special about ourselves. At night, we can’t sleep, and yet we brag, “Look at my business empire.” This happiness is just from false show-off. And the more we go on showing-off, and burying our negativities inside ourselves, the more discontent we go on becoming. Even here, whatever masks of bragging and show-off we may wear before the world, but the spouse knows fully well the truth about our condition.”
For the sake of showing-off, people have even destroyed their businesses. So that people might not come to know that our business is failing, we take loans and then totally go dupe ourselves. Instead So search for real happiness, and not just a happiness that is just a show-off. For this one’s thought has to be changed.
Instead, search for real happiness, and not just a happiness that is just a show-off. But for this one’s entire thought needs to change. There has to be a re-think, and a re-assessment of our goal for life.