Sahaj Marg

Let’s be very clear, in “Sahaj Marg”... For spiritual progress & liberation, Rev. Babuji spoke only about RESTLESSNESS (tadap) - NOT Relaxation. And nothing to do with body or body parts other than heart. So should we not follow the Founder Master/Guru and his words & principles? Rather than do something else that other people ask you to do? THINK about it. Rev Babuji never ever asked anyone to do or ever wrote about doing “relaxation”. Check for yourself. Reflect on “why”; meditate on it. Pray. The Answer will come. So NO Relaxation in Sahaj Marg! It’s clear - there is no absolutely no confusion on that. No two-ways about it.

Rev Babuji wrote: Hatha Yoga lays down mostly physical practices to effect cleaning, some of which are too hard and tedious for all and sundry, while under the system of 'Sahaj Marg' it is accomplished by easy mental practices, aided by the power transmitted by the teacher. Some of the teachers of religion often insist upon the people to devote as many as eight hours a day to practice certain mechanical exercises in order to keep their mind occupied in Divine thoughts. I strongly condemn the type of training which enforces practices that tax the brain or overburden the mind. The natural result of such training is that mind finds no scope for expansion and consequently the power of realization grows dull. It is just like thrashing a boy in order to induce him to concentrate. Strenuous labour with long and tedious physical practices as commonly recommended by teachers in order to effect the moulding of mind or the cleaning of the Chakras, is consequently not of much avail. “Reality at Dawn” book by Shri Ram Chandra (Babuji), Founder – President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission

Q&A Session with Master Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari on September 1, 1996. If during meditation you are thinking of experiences that you might have, then that is imagination. But if you are totally absorbed in yourself and things come out, it is experience. You know, one is like a well in which there is no water and you order trucks of water to fill into it, and then pump it out all over again and say, "This is well-water." The other is where there is a spring from, you know, down under. Q: What about... books that you read? PR: Read and forget! [laughter] I read for pleasure, not for knowledge; even science. All this Einstein-Podorsky-Rosen business I read for fun. My Master [Babuji Maharaj] said, "Work as if you are playing, and play as if you are working." It's a good philosophy, you know, because we are too serious about both. You are willing to give your life to be the Wimbledon champion, and you are burnt out by the time you are twenty-six, twenty-seven. What is so hot about a cup? I mean, most of us could make one out of our own money [laughter]. Isn't it? I give myself a cup [laughter]. You see, our ego is keeping a tight hold on our knowledge, so that I can say, "Oh, I am educated. I am a PhD in math," or whatever it is. You know, "I am a doctor, I am a neurologist, I am a psychologist, etc." This is ego-fulfillment. But we don't have the satisfaction of solving existential problems of life with our knowledge. Try to give up and see. You know, I have always admired Swami Vivekananda and when I read about his walking all over India with nothing in his pockets, I had the desire to emulate him by going out with a hundred rupees in my pocket, but I first had to ask permission of my Master. So I went to my Master and I said, "Babuji, I want to go alone for a month, on foot, with a hundred rupees in my pocket." He said, "If you have faith, why do you need a hundred rupees? And come to think of it, how long do you think a hundred rupees will last?" I mean, I could step out of Babuji's house and the money is lost, pick-pocketed, anything could happen. My hope was that if I got stuck somewhere I could send a telegram home [laughter]. You see? Q: Master, as you said, if everything happens by divine Grace, then don't you think the destruction of place or the way the human evolution of today is also because of Him? So how could you blame whoever discovered the... whatever the destruction... PR: I'm not blaming anybody. Q: But if it had to happen it had to happen by divine Grace? PR: I don't think it had to happen by divine Grace. This is a very specious argument indulged in by people who don't want to face realities, that God does not intend to be destructive. He gave us the head. The purpose of our intellect is to decide what is right, what is wrong. And he gave us the will power, which is in the heart, to help us to follow the right, and avoid the wrong. So how is God responsible? You can as well say that Adam, when he was tempted by the snake in the Garden of Eden, why did God create an apple? I mean, if He was wise, he could have refrained from creating an apple, you know! [laughs] Isn't it?