Live in God’s Presence by Following His Will - 1st November 2024

So I wish you all a very happy Diwali from deep in my heart. Diwali signifies the return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya after the exile, and the meaning of the word Ram is the light of the Atma within. I haven't looked this up; I heard it from Chiv Ji in Shrimad Ramayan, so I'm not one to argue with Chiv Ji. I'll take that conveniently. So the light of the Atma within is Ram himself. So what would the significance of his return to Ayodhya be? Who did he vanquish and in a way, what did he vanquish? Maya, no? But the embodiment of Maya in the form of pride. Ravan symbolizes pride more than anything else. So of course it is Maya, but in the form of this pride and especially spiritual pride.

So besides the outer celebrations that we do today and yesterday, let us use this opportunity today to vanquish our pride so that the light of our Atma within can shine brightly in our hearts. And may the outpouring of that light of the Atma within be felt as the celebration on the outside. So from this Diwali to next Diwali, let's endeavor to remain as much as possible with this presence, with this holy light within. It is beyond the realm of perception; it is not a light which is perceivable. The outer reflection of that light may be felt in the heart and may be felt in the outpouring in the form of diyas and candles that we light today. But this holy unperceivable light of the Atma within that we know only intuitively, only in the discipleship of the Atma itself do we recognize it.

And to become a disciple of the Atma is to let go of the discipleship of the mind, let go of the discipleship of 'me'. So may this year be the end of a very convenient conceptual spirituality which is self-serving rather than self-sacrificing. May you vanquish that form of pride in the form of conceptual spiritual knowledge or reliance on past spiritual experiences. May you start every moment as a naked baby, as a full beginner in the light of the holy presence, the holy Atma, the holy spirit. And what is the way? It has been shown to us in the form of Lord Laxman, Lord Bharat, Lord Sita, Lord Hanuman. What is the way? What is special about them? That they learned to follow God's will. Ram's will was the highest for them, you see.

Hanuman Ji would not be Hanuman Ji if he just went on his own way, no? Lord Ram is telling him something, he's saying 'no, you know,' then he would not be Hanuman. Hanuman is Hanuman because Lord Ram just had to say and he was like 'Jai Shri Ram.' So that doubtless devotion which all of them around Lord Ram carry, that is what makes them special. So if we are to come close to the light of the Atma within, we have to learn to follow the will of God. That is the most important. So those around Lord Ram followed his will; that is an embodiment of the same statement. Sri Ramakrishna said that you don't have to worry about your life, you are living next to the Kalpataru which gives you everything that you could ever desire, you see. But he said to get everything in that way, you have to live next to it; you can't be distant from it. So you have to live in God's presence and to live in God's presence you have to follow his will.

Now this path seems very simple to most, but it's not actually. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi said that most say that Bhakti is simpler than Jnana because it seems to them that Bhakti only means that you have to say 'I surrender, I surrender' and you then go your merry way after saying just with your lips that 'I surrender.' But just saying with our lips 'I surrender' is not enough. We truly have to surrender and live only in God's will. And most people who do this lip-service surrender never meet God's will because they are just too busy after saying 'I surrender' following their own will. They are too busy to live in God's presence to know what his will is. So when Satguru says the same thing, to follow the will of God, the command of God, that is the highest. So let go of yourselves, live in God's presence, then we can know what his will is and then we can try and emulate Sri Hanuman in our lives, you see.

The problem is not right now. The problem is tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow evening. Will you still be in Satsang? That is a Satsang you have to inculcate in your life, because right now everybody is finding it easy to nod appreciatively. And tomorrow somebody tells you something rude, somebody spam calls you on the phone, then do you remember that you're living in God's presence? Can you live without irritation and anger and pride? Can we live in humility and treat every brother like a brother, every sister like a sister? All that is very important for us to live in God's life, live in his presence.

Some simple things I'm realizing at the age of almost fifty, which should be—maybe they are taught, but we don't pay attention when we are children—that the separation from God happens because of, it starts because of small things, you see. And we neglect the small things thinking that they're small things. So irritation leads to anger, anger leads to a great hellish separation from God. Small, small things: unkindness, selfishness, wanting more than others. All these small, small things sound like a moral science class and we were averse to it because it sounded like too much preaching. Entitlement—everyone thinks that they're better than everyone else. Is that possible? Everyone thinks, all of us think somewhere that we are better than everyone else and everyone feels like they've got it right, everyone else has it wrong. But do we really know?

Only when we start to live in God's presence we start to realize the areas of pride which are blocking us. So let's make an endeavor today to emulate Lord Ram in every way: in his peace, in his principled way of life, in his complete trust in God, in his Bhakti for Lord Shiva, every aspect, in his love for his parents and brothers and country people. Yes, it's a lifetime project and we can only deepen in it, you see. We can't say in this project that 'okay, I tried this, it's not really working, is there a plan B?' There isn't one. Just to have that wrestling match constantly itself is the spiritual quest, you see. But at least it's better than saying that 'I'm done, I'm sorted, I'm good, I am that.' But that is the end which you don't have to worry about. That end has always been that. On the other end of the leash in this antahkarana is the one that wants, the one that is proud, the one that wants to be seen, the one that wants entitlement, the one that wants people to recognize how good they are, how right they are. And we can truly with integrity say that actually that one doesn't play out in our life, then that one has to be kept getting dipped in the Ganga of God's love and presence at the cost of what it believes it wants. What it believes it wants, which we are calling self-denial, that is the cause. Like you believe you want something...

The one that is proud, the one that wants to be seen, the one that wants entitlement, the one that wants people to recognize how good they are, how right they are—if we can truly with integrity say that actually that one doesn't play out in our life, then that one has to be kept getting dipped in the Ganga of God's love and presence at the cost of what it believes it wants. What it believes it wants, which we are calling self-denial, that is the cause. Like you believe you want something; to let that go is to let go of your will. Now that seems like a self-denial, isn't it? That's called self-denial, but actually it is a denial of what the mind wants out of this life. That is the delusion that I am something. That is the Ravan. Now that I am something great, I am something which is the best, I am the highest—that can arise only from that 'I am something' first.

So I wrote to one child, I said to her as a blessing that may the next year for you be completely blessed by God's will, may you live in His presence and may His will only unfold. And she said to me, 'Everything is unfolding already in His will.' Yeah, so you have to be very careful about that because then Nanak didn't know everything is already unfolding in His will? All the sages said we must live in God's will, but they didn't actually—they missed that main point that everything is already unfolding in His will? How they said like that? They must have been a bit out of it or something.

So it's very important to recognize that His will is all-pervasive, but our love towards Him is not forced by Him. Now, your children, if you force them every morning to say, 'Good morning Papa, good morning Mama, I love you,' you see, after a few days it'll lose its value because you know it is forced. But if it came out of their own heart, even though they were getting late for school, they ran up to you and said to you that 'I love you,' then that has value. So as aspects of Consciousness, as beings of life, the aspect which is one with God, we have nothing to worry about that anyway. There's no need to make any claims about that part. The troublesome part is the 'I am something' part, and that somethingness will only go when we keep turning that something into love for God, into service to God, into Bhakti for God. And in that way, then Jnana and Bhakti are the two wings of the same bird.

So am I living only in God's will? Far from it. I have a long way to go, have a long, long way to go. So I was telling all of you that please, I know that you're doing it out of love, but please don't keep my photo next to God. This fool has a long way to go. I know it is your love and devotion, but if I allow that to happen in this life, it is not worthy of God to have this foolish one's photo next to Him. So let's not do that because I have a very long way to go. I don't live always in God's will, but I'm learning, I'm trying every day. Yeah, yeah, because what happens every moment is that I get an offer from the mind and many times I let go of that offer, but many times I take it also.

So are we living in a way that we do what we want in the guise of spirituality, under the pretext of God's will? Are we truly patient? Do we really wait for our heart to move us, for our heart to guide us? Okay, so the other way to look at it is that everyone only lives in God's will. True, correct. Then what is so special about Hanuman Ji? Why are we praying to Hanuman Ji? What is so special that he did? So we can get into this conceptual idea of spirituality. See that, just ask yourself this question: what is special about Hanuman? Am I Hanuman? I'm not, far from it. Why far from it? Are you Hanuman? You are not, far from it. Why? Correct. And a lot of times our spirituality itself provides enough defenses to keep our ego alive.

So saying that is understandable, and then he's saying that, but I have hope because His character is that to forgive, to have mercy. Now Hanuman Prasad Poddar said that it's very good for us that He is merciful and not just. It's very good for us that He is merciful and not just. Why would he say that? Why do we need His mercy? Because we are not yet Hanuman. So God is not forcing us to love Him, just like we don't force our children to love us, because that love would have no value. How you getting better? Same practice, it's the same thing. Notice patience, not getting angry, holding on to courage when life seems to attack you. Simple, simple thing. Being empty as much as possible of myself and remaining in God's presence—that is the key.

But I don't—I'm not emphasizing that because many of you will feel that you've not found His presence yet. So to live in it seems difficult, especially those who are not used to this kind of Satsang. So how to remain in God's will is to first remain in His presence constantly. So please don't—we don't have an unlimited amount of time, so please don't fool yourself that you are to find God and to live in His light. See, the thing is that many of us have got into like a Godless spirituality without realizing it. What does that mean? That when we make a spiritual report about us, there's no mention of God. We spoke about this last time also, that to do it without God's grace is not possible.

You are empty of your mind, okay. Suppose you're a Maha Yogi, Maha Jnani, you're empty of your mind, okay. Now in spite of that, if God's grace is not there, what will you get? Nothing. His presence, His Atma has to reveal itself to you. You cannot force it. We are not entitled to it. We spoke about entitlement, you see. So focus on His grace more than the methods or the tactics that you're using. Okay, so suppose that, let's say that the famous example: the lane is narrow, huh? The lane is narrow, the lane is narrow. Now suppose that you're somebody full of yourself, full of yourself, but God's grace is upon you. And suppose that you are a great yogi, you're a great practitioner of the art of keeping your mind empty, all of that, but grace is not upon you. Who has a better chance of being with God? And history is full of these examples.

So rely on His grace, on His guidance, more than trying to do this project yourself. That is the being of spirituality in today's world, because it is mostly become Godless. Godless spirit is what? Spirituality—spirit is what? Spirit is a worldly thing? Spirit is not a worldly thing. So what is it? It is the presence of God Himself. It is the Atma. So just to rely on that and say, 'I bow down to you, holy presence of God.' That's why in the prayer I said, 'Bless my heart with the light of spirit.' Knowing fully well that if that blessing is upon us, then everything is fine. It's not operating under the presumption that we've already found it. So the prayer is not reliant on that.

Or if you remain open and empty, do it with a devotee's heart. What is the difference between open and empty like this and open and empty like this? Be empty of all of that and have the power of love, have the power of devotion, have the power of surrender. Krishna said that first you'll get prema, love, then you'll get bhava, which will be a deepening of that, and you remain devoted to God, then that will become mahabhava, which means that you will—we talked about this—you will feel the parama vyakula of being away from God if you are going with your own will, with your own mind.

So you must inculcate these things on Diwali. Don't get into any notion that your spirituality is in your hands. You must put everything that we feel we have into it, but know that the outcomes are only with God. Otherwise, in the textbook it would be written: you chant Ram ten million times, you have to find God. Can anyone give you that guarantee? Nobody can give you. You do the inquiry ten million times and you will come to self-realization. Can anyone give you the guarantee? Nobody. Because the big variable is God's grace. And in recognizing that, you will see that actually what we take ourselves to be is powerless, is nobody, and that takes away our pride.

But then if you fall into the trap that then there is no point, Bhagavan is saying there is. So the one who is doing the lip service surrender, you see, what is he saying? 'I surrender,' which means everything is God's will. He's saying that, no, it's easy to say. Then why did Bhagavan say Bhakti is as difficult as Jnana? What is the difficulty? You have to be surrendered to God's will. So that's already the case, what's the difficulty? So we're not realizing that everything is God's will, and yet within God's will, in the design of this play, that aspect of ourselves which we still think we own has to be kept immersing in God's love and God's light, either in the form of consistent practice in inquiry or consistent surrender of Bhakti.

So stay away from spiritual pride, spiritual complacency. Always try to love your brothers and sisters. Stay away from anger, from greed, from grabbing from others, wanting to have more than everyone else. The simple things they teach us to do in holidays: be kind to everyone, love everyone, treat everyone happily, don't get angry with them. These are indicators of how we are meant to live. The more we do that, the more you deepen. The more you deepen, the more you do that. It is a virtuous circle. But if you tell lies, if you get angry, if you're quietly hiding your bad habits, then you're just distancing away. Whatever, just your heart compass will tell you. But till you feel like you can't find your heart compass, follow what I'm telling you: Ishvara Pranidhana. Live in the adheen of God. What does that mean? Under Their rule, under God's rule.

So never refer to yourself truly without God being in the center of the narrative. Then what happens to our stories? He becomes our focus. Then the life of this little old me is not that important, and we get away from our lip service spirituality, which is still me, me, me. In spite of even if the topic is to be empty of the me, it is still me, me. It's like poison, antidote, poison, antidote, poison, antidote. And how many years will we do it? Sometime we have to let it go. Let go of this me and surrender to God. Otherwise, this body will be seventy, eighty, whatever, we'll have the same conversation. All of us, this one will be on the dying deathbed, we'll have the same conversation. Just bring God into the main frame of your life. Nothing will happen without that. Everything can happen in God's grace, but most likely nothing will happen unless you try to surrender your narratives to Him fully.

How? Make Him the narrative. Live as if God is always here, because He is. How to make Him the center of the narrative? Is God here right now or no? Are we living like that? Is our story like that? Never, hardly ever. See, so that is the denial of the truth. That is what I mean, that's what I'm raging against: a Godless spirituality. So we are just in denial that He's here. So just like, 'Okay, what should I do? What should I do?' Ask for His help, because He's here. It's not easy to explain these things. I hope I'm making some inroad somewhere at least.

So back to the question: am I always living in God's will? No, I'm not. And the trigger could be anything. Somebody at work comes and says, 'But they said something else five minutes ago.' I could forget about God in that moment. So more and more we have to deepen in His love, in His remembrance. One child had a good question. They said that if I don't get angry or irritated, then what if my children get spoiled? So that is symptomatic of the Godless spirituality. She didn't intend it like that, but sometimes we forget that God is aware of everything. He knows that we are not getting angry and irritated because we are working hard to be with Him. So do you really feel like because we did that, He'll allow our children to get spoiled? That's just to claim that He's just powerless, so He doesn't care, He doesn't love us, He's not Dayalu. Please have your trust in Him that if you really resolve to make the changes so that you can be with God, then don't think that God is not with you, He's not watching, He's not aware, He doesn't care, or He doesn't have time. All this is nonsense.

Getting angry and irritated because we are working hard to be with Him—so do you really feel like because we did that, He'll allow our children to get spoiled? That is just to claim that He is just powerless, so He doesn't care, He doesn't love us, He's not capable. Please have your trust in Him that if you really resolve to make the changes so that you can be with God, then don't think that God is not with you. He's not watching, He's not aware, He doesn't care, or He doesn't have time. All this is nonsense. So, no excuses for bad behavior. Can we resolve this? This Diwali, let's make this a resolve that we will not have any excuses, especially not spiritual excuses, as excuses for bad behavior. You try.

Second thing is that don't use this as a weapon on the outside. So, some of you couples are here; don't use it on the other one, like, 'See, Ananta said you're not doing...' Use it for yourself. Use it for yourself inwardly. Apply it to yourself. When Guruji had said that this knowledge is not to be used as a sword to attack another, it is to be used as an umbrella to protect yourself. So yes, you have faith in God. If you are in the right—it is very difficult to know when we are in the right. Firstly, all of us feel like we are right, so then everybody can't be right, you see? So it's very difficult to know when we are right. So just have your trust in God that He knows. If He knows what is right and He's allowing this to unfold in my life—this pain is there, this suffering is there—then we can trust that it must be teaching us something. Okay? Okay, I have spoken much more than I felt to.

I have a query. Yes, it's good we can talk now, right? Last time you had mentioned, you know, to seek for God's will. Whatever will you have, you drop it and then wait for God's will. I tried it, though may not be intensely. No response.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. So let's see where we can meet. Firstly, do you feel that He is here?

Right now I feel, but I don't know what will happen after twenty minutes.

Yeah, yeah, that's okay. But right now you feel like He's always here, isn't it? That feeling may change from our side, but at least as long as we can see right now that it is an intuitive, heartfelt knowledge that He's always with us. Okay. So firstly, it is that. Then now you're saying that you surrendered your will. It can seem like a sacrifice. 'I really wanted that and I let it go because I did not feel it was coming from His will.' So that can seem like a sacrifice. So you sacrificed your will first, yes? Then you waited and you did not get a response. Now, would you not say that that silence was God's response?

Is it so?

When we learn to trust that seeming non-response which the mind is clamoring for, but we trust that silence of God's presence more than the clamoring of the mind, we are starting to follow His will, you see. So it is not a dial-a-God service. Sorry, it's not a dial-a-God service that 'I let go my will and then...' That's like a 1-800 number. 'Just let go of my will, I've done my part, now it's over to you,' you see? It's not. It is a development of faith. It is a development of patience. It is a development of trust, you see? Because we are learning to let go of our false way of life and coming to a true way of life. And that true way of life is full of patience, is full of courage. So that deepening of faith, deepening of trust—and you will see more and more as time goes on, if you give it enough time, that that silence was the best response that was needed at that point of time.

Because imagine what would happen if anyone just let go of their will and they just wait for God and God starts speaking to them like that movie Bruce Almighty or something, you know? Then he can't hear so well, no? Diwali crackers are bursting outside, right? So then just let go of your will. What you wanted, that instant God starts talking to you. It's just there like everyone. So then imagine, it's like everyone's feeling like they've got access to a magic genie now. Immediately they turn and now, you see? So no patience, no humility, no faith, nothing. It's just instant noodles type exercise that we let go of our individual will and God has presented Himself to us, you see, almost in obligatory fashion. But it's not like that.

So silence implies I can continue with my... I mean, option B is just so bad. Like the other option, which is to go with my will and to go with the mind, is just so bad that silence is anyway a thousand times better than it, right? I mean, I think I had asked, so if let us say, should I drink water? And the response is silence. So should I not be drinking water?

Yes, you will notice that guidance doesn't only come in the form of words. You will notice, like right now I noticed that these words are coming from my heart. There is no individual, or very little individual volition or agency about what is being spoken. It is just unfolding from my heart. So our day-to-day life is being taken care of in that natural unfolding as well. You don't have to wait for like a God's voice to have to come and say, 'Now go drink water.' You don't have to. It's not like that, you see? It's more that you will find that you're not applying yourself from an egotistical place and your life is unfolding from a deeper, heartfelt place.

See, the more you do this in God's name, in God devotion, He will shine the light on the next steps. He'll keep guiding you in the form of so many different forms—in some satsang and something that you could see—but you will learn to gauge from your heart instead of gauging from the intellect. And remember that the heart is not an emotional center; it is the spiritual center. The heart that we speak of is not what your emotions are feeling, because many times to be patient and wait for God can feel like our throat is being squeezed because we really want to take some action based on what the mind wants, you see? We want to respond to anger with anger; we want to respond to insult with insult.

So, just like in the movie Man of God, Saint Nectarios is attacked very, very unfairly, very badly for no fault of his own at all. And then some police people come and, you know, push his children to the ground, are abusive with him, and there's a scene in the movie where he just tells one of his students, which means, 'Don't worry, He's with us. He's watching, He's listening.' So if your intention is to be with God, don't worry, you will be taken care of. And my feeling is you will not go thirsty for too long.

One more question, though. Bhagavan also mentions this at some place, but one I recollect, this is one of the two things must be done: either you go to the source of the thought and merge the mind in the heart, or the second one is you accept your inner and your helplessness and you rely or seek guidance from God or surrender, something like that. And then he says God never forsakes one who has surrendered. Can you please explain this verse and especially what exactly surrender means?

Yeah, it's quite clear. He's saying either dissolve yourself fully—the false sense of identity, dissolve it fully through your self-inquiry. Get to the origin of any reference that the 'I' can make, which is the 'I'-thought: 'I am this, I am that.' All this, get to the source of where this 'I' comes from and you will find that it is the Absolute reality. And if not that, if your temperament is different, if you're attracted to another way, then just surrender your will to Him. What is to surrender your will to Him? It is the same at the end. You realize that that individual doer which seems so important, the mind's ramblings about 'I want' and 'I don't want'—it seems so alive and important—once you start to let it go, you will realize more and more that only He is. And whatever of me still seems to remain, it is best lived in refuge to Him, at His holy feet, in His holy presence.

So ultimately both lead to the same place of the dissolution of the false identity and the union with God, you see? Now many times what happens is the mistake we make is that we take an experience or an insight about our oneness with God and make a conceptual reality out of that for ourselves, you see? Suppose you did inquiry really well and in that inquiry you saw that there really are no two, there is no distinction. So you remain like that for some time. Then when you step out of the inquiry, then there may be silence for a long, long time, but slowly the mind tries to make something out of that experience and says, 'Okay, now you have seen the greater reality,' you see? Or 'You have had an insight about the truths.' That is the beginning of coming back into the false identification, you see, when you're able to make a claim like that about yourself and not for all your brothers and sisters.

And it's very easy to fall into that trap. Then the mind wants you to just rely on that experience and say, 'See, last week you saw that you are one with the true Self, there is no distinction, everything, the truth is non-duality.' So now you're no longer living in the freshness of that insight, but you're living in a conceptual reliance on past experience. And that one has the propensity to become spiritually proud, to make something out of himself: 'I have seen something special, therefore I am special.' So allow that one to remain subservient to God's will, serving God's love and light, and then you will not have the danger of spiritual pride engulfing your life again and keeping you away from God.

And Bhagavan says another thing also: if you surrender, then you don't have a right to complain, and he even says you don't even have a right for prayer. Can you please say something on that?

If you surrendered, then He has to do the prayer and He has to do whatever expressions are unfolding through us, whatever experiences that we are having. But remember that even that is not what Bhagavan said, but this what I just clarified is also half surrender. Full surrender is that He is the doer and He is also the experiencer, you see? So the prayer, the object of the prayer, and the impact, the outcome of the prayer are all Him. That is true surrender, you see? But till we come to full surrender, we must keep praying, you see? So remember that surrender is not just saying, 'Oh, I surrender.' It's like, 'I surrender. Okay, what's for lunch? Where do I go? What is not good on TV?' you see? It's not just like bold. The surrender is not surrender, no. It is just lip service surrender.

To really... 'Okay, now I have surrendered, so I'm not alive anymore. I don't exist,' you see? 'I don't exist anymore.' So now you surrender. 'I don't exist. What is to move this body? What is to move the things in the world? What is to unfold what my family will say or do?' All of that, because you don't exist anymore, you see? But the waking state still appears. So allow the one that makes the waking state appear to move what in the past you took to be yourselves. Do I live like that 100% of the time? I don't. I don't live 100% of the time as if I don't exist, or even if I do exist, I'm only existing as a servant of God or as a devotee of God. Many times I'm devoted to me.

And I feel that for this one at least, it'll be a lifetime project or maybe multi-lifetime project, who should know? But there was a time where I did not recognize that there's a propensity to rely on some past experience and to just forget about God moment to moment. Now I see how many times a day I forget about Him and I feel like there's such a long way to go. I'm just a beginner in this process. And to forget that God is here is the same as to say that I forget that I don't exist. Many times I forget I don't exist.

I mean, you forget that you exist?

No, I forget that I don't exist. The 'me' doesn't exist. I see where the confusion is coming from, because it is Him. It is His light which is truly existent. But what I mean to say is that many times I feel like there is a man, Ananta. Many times a day, many, many times a day. And especially when it comes to surrender, when things go south, you know, health is...

That God is here is the same as to say that I forget that I don't exist. Many times I forget I don't exist. I mean, you forget that you exist? No, I forget that I don't exist. The 'me' doesn't exist. I see where the confusion is coming from because it is Him; it is His light which is truly existent. But what I mean to say is that many times I feel like there is a man. And many times a day, many, many times a day—and especially when it comes to surrender—when things go south, you know, health is down, situation around is difficult, the tendency to complain keeps coming up because we've forgotten that You are the doer and You are the experiencer. So, 'south' for whom?

So, this is what I call surrendering with one eye open, which is that we surrender, surrender, but we are tracking the results. What is now happening? You see, that is a very normal deal-making type surrender that most of us end up doing. That, 'I'm going to surrender my life to You, God, but I will still watch out, keep an eye on You, how are You doing?' You see? So that is not called surrender; that is called delegation. This is called upward delegation. Have you heard the term? So we're not delegating to a subordinate; we're delegating to a higher power, but we're still delegating, like outsourcing something. This is a delegation in the wrong direction.

We're trying to use stronger words. We must come into servitude of God, but we feel the method of surrender is to get Him in servitude of us by saying that, 'I will still keep an eye on the outcome, whether it is going north or south, but You better take it, not otherwise I'll take my surrender back from You.' It's a very human sort of human mind tendency to be like that. And the other thing is there are times when the mind feels boredom. I think that's also a symptom of Godless spirituality that way you said. Yeah, you're right, you're right. It becomes just me, me, me. And is the 'me' having a good time? Is it being engaged? Is it too much emphasis on the 'me'?

Boredom can seem like one of those very simple, harmless things, but boredom is very vicious actually. It leads to so much trouble. Most trouble in the world starts with this idea that 'I'm bored.' It can be even in Satsang, that 'He just says the same things over and over again, I'm bored, so let me just find another way to do this.' Then we start looking here, there, confuse ourselves in so many different ways. So Maya's trick, this boredom, is a great trick of Maya.

But you know what? Something here wants to be really boring for all of you. Something here wants to really be super boring for all of you, you see? Because I don't want to spend this life and you coming to me just in this sort of need for some sort of entertainment under the guise of spirituality. That's the worst-case scenario: that I died a spiritual performer and not really leading you to God. So many times when we do meet, if by God's grace we do meet, we will try to keep this spirituality so much about God and as non-performative as possible. Because I won't wish the life of a spiritual performer on—if I had some enemies—on my worst enemy also.

This is a story that's very popular these days about a ten-year-old boy who's been obviously put up by his parents to be a spiritual performer, and I've just been like almost in tears thinking about the life of that boy. He's ten years old and we've taken his childhood away from him just to put him on a pedestal and make some money out of it and do spiritual oratory and spiritual influencing as a business. How it is, it is beyond comprehension. And it's a very good example of a Godless spirituality where it is just God in words, but really no sense that God is watching us, He's seeing what is happening in our lives.

Not to just sharpen your nose more and more, see where it is coming from. Like in an egotistical masquerade, we can say 'I'm the worst.' And in the Tulsidas Ji way, we can say 'I'm the worst.' Kabir Ji said it. So that hopefully came from a very, very authentic place, you see? So the great sages say that, and the spiritual performers may say that, or those who are caught in pride may also say 'I'm the most foolish,' you see? So it's very possible to come from here in that way as well, that maybe it is a new pride which is saying 'I'm so foolish, I'm so foolish.'

So we have to really keep offering it to God, keep smelling from the heart within whether it's coming really authentically. If it is coming from a place that you can really see how many times you still go with 'I want' rather than waiting for what God wants, then that is a sign of error or foolishness. And we can notice that this life is about living in God's will. Hanuman Ji said so. We still notice, I still notice so many times where I go with what I want and not what God wants. I don't have the patience or I already presume I know what is right, you see? So that is an act of silliness or foolishness, and every day there are so many of those.

So the question really is that—go ahead, bless—really is that what is there for us to learn from Hanuman Ji? Hanuman Ji on Diwali, what is it we can learn from the Bhaktas of Lord Ram? What made them so great? The sheer reliance on God's will. I don't recall Hanuman Ji ever being shown like Ram Ji has said 'Just go get the Sanjivani' and Hanuman Ji is like 'No, I feel like, you know, a better plan would be if you just go do this' or him saying 'Actually, you know, there's something I feel like I have to pay attention to that other thing first.' Not relying on his own mind, on his own intellect. He's just so much trust in God, so much trust in God's life. That is what we had to learn. And the complete absence of pride of being a devotee.

So I posted a fictional account just before Satsang of a contemplation that I was doing reading the words of C.S. Lewis. In which, so if somebody says that 'You've done a really good job, that you've been very good, thank you for doing such a good job, thank you for being such a good person,' all of that, there's some pleasure in that, you see? There's some pleasure in that. So is that pleasure pride? No, it isn't. It can lead to it, I'm coming there. So that pleasure itself is very natural. Everyone likes being appreciated, everybody, you see? So if you are able to take that pleasure and then to offer it to God and say 'Thank You God, it is only Your will that made it happen like this,' then we remain in humility.

That doesn't mean the pleasure of that appreciation or the pleasure of being loved will stop, but the minute we start to think that 'Maybe I am so good, maybe I am that great, I did help you a lot really,' you see, that is when we get into pride. So to be able to dissect these things at such a subtle level. Somebody says, 'Thank you, thank you my friend, you've done so well and really appreciate it.' You feel good that you helped a brother or sister. Some goodness is there. So kindness always feels good, compassion always feels good, and the other one in front of you hopefully will be appreciative of that and then the feeling of goodness is shared on both sides.

But the minute we start to say, 'Oh yeah, see actually I did help quite a bit, I am pretty good,' that is when it becomes... when we are able to offer it back to God like the temple priest, you see? Somebody comes to the temple, says 'Thank you, thank you Maharaj' to the priest and says 'Thank you, thank you Pandit Ji that you've really blessed me last time and my life is sorted, my children are better,' something. So if the priest says, 'Ah yeah, I did bless him last time, I'm glad something is working,' you see, it starts getting to you as somebody. But if you remember to offer it back to God and to offer the Prasad back to God, from God to that one, then authentically that's what it is.

So if we are thinking that 'Oh actually it is me' and you're just going through the motion just for namesake, then that is not true spirituality. So what is important in that is, suppose you ended up fooling the whole world with your lips with spirituality, nobody made out, everybody thought you were being faithful to God, but actually you were just building in your pride. Is it? So then you fool the whole world and that can seem unfair, but that is again taking God out of the equation. God is aware of our every single intention, every single heartbeat, or every single breath. And God is not that powerless that we can just be happy. We cannot fool God just because we fooled the whole world.

Now suppose you do this and you go back and check the comments, happy what has benefited, and then you offer to God and say that this is not me, this is You. Act of going and checking on Facebook, suppose—I'm not saying you do, example is that—some to say let me see what my people...

It depends. It depends with the intention. If you're talking about this one, it's very possible that it's from pride. But if you could do it like if a sage was doing it, then maybe they just wanted to see if there's a question for them or there's something that needs their attention, like to just move in a heartfelt way can bring us back. We can't determine the inner state of someone always by their outer action. Like checking your Facebook comments, most likely especially in my case could be pride. But for many, if there was a great sage who was sharing through Facebook and they went and checked on and gave love to those who wrote back, it could come from a place of love also.

Don't you think this whole social media thing is only...

That's exactly what I'm saying, that it's not in the action by itself that we can say. It is only in our own hearts that we can really know. But of course, speaking generally, yes, social media... it's also like, you know, when we are listening to you and thoughts are coming up, anybody asking question, why to ask question when there is silence and then...

No, it's a good question. So Bhagavan had a very good metaphor for this. He said that you need a thorn to remove another thorn. So sometimes the words of Satsang, the concepts, can pull out like a tweezer the other concept and leave us empty of that conditioning that we had. But many times it can become—again, there's no black and white—many times it can just become a pride thing.

Because for example, if Father's videos were not on YouTube, if somebody didn't post them, then you would not recognize the ignorance that was still playing in this one and I wouldn't have come to Satsang.

So many times, that's why I'm saying the thorn is needed to remove the other thorn as well. So how many of us really go to the heart for the answer? And to learn that the answer is in the heart, probably we need to learn it in some way. Something has to guide us. So that is why for time immemorial, for people to come to God, they've needed the help of a teacher, of a Guru. And if the only way for us to come to God was through silence, then all Gurus would never have spoken. But so many have spoken. What about God? Is God the center? What does God want right now?

Answer came really fast. You must be in full communion with Him. Don't presume what He wants. Stay with Him, stay with Him. He'll tell you what He wants. How are you serving God now? It is very easy to say 'I'm in servitude to God,' but moment to moment to check, how are we serving God now? How are you serving God now, now, now in this moment? So serve Him. How will you serve Him? At least make yourself fully available to serve Him. Getting the switch? See, because many times we get into a place where our spirituality unwittingly, without realizing, becomes in service to ourselves instead of service to God.

He'll show you, show you that thought. You being, you want, you just like you made yourself a decision. He's always showing us based on how open we are. We listen or we don't listen. So that's an option. Just you became, became easy. It's such an absurd thing in Maya that we're doing a spirit... like many of us get stuck in a spiritless spirituality. It's like having lemonade without water. Strange. Okay. Is solitude required to be with God? What is the role of being in seclusion?

God shows you. He shows you that thought. You being you, you want what you want, just like you made yourself a decision. He's always showing us; based on how open we are, we listen or we don't. Listen, so that's the option. It just became easy. It's such an absurd thing in Maya that we are doing a spirit—like many of us get stuck in a spiritless spirituality. It's like having lemonade without water. Strange.

Okay. Is solitude required to be with God? What is the role of being in seclusion?

You have to judge for yourself. If around people you can stay with Him, then around people is fine. If you need to be by yourselves to be with Him, then be by yourselves. Your life is constantly simply showing you these things. You can rely on that. You can rely on what you find in your heart.

Father, thank you so much for calling us today.

I was saying the other day that right now I'm not sure which way things will go. It could be that we have more satsangs, like satsang every day, twice a day, or it could be that we don't have satsang for months. And honestly, I have no idea. I mean, I realize that it's not easy for so many of you, but I have to be true to what's in my heart. And right now, this is the feeling that, like, I don't know next week onwards how it is going to play.

I pray for twice a day! Twice a day!

Thank you. I have received also so much love, so many tantrums—in the form of some very blatant tantrums, some very subtle tantrums, some just love. Thank you. Thank you for all your messages and sweetness. I've received all of them in my heart. So, maybe we sing the Hanuman Chalisa.