February 22, 1971 — heart-to-heart talk
(Light of Kirpal, chapter 61)
Master: When the whole house is in order, then you are free to think who you are, what you are. Now you’re dragged here, there, everywhere. You are to work regularly, that’s the point; It is not a question of accomplishment in a day. A strong man revels in his strength and a weaker man wonders how he got it.
Every Saint has his past and every sinner a future.
There’s hope for everybody. You’re not a sinner — you’re besmeared with sins. You’re gold… gold ore, you might say. When we are cleansed of all foreign impurities, we are gold. You’re great! Great is man. That will be a very good story to write. All these days you have been told how to meditate.
Keep your whole attention in the seat of the soul in the body, that’s all; all faculties will be controlled. It is you who give attention to the outgoing faculties. It is for you to stay up there. He gives you something to stay on — something substantial.
We are not to visualize anything. You have some light and something to stay on; let your small consciousness be merged into Higher Consciousness. This is what is meant by spirituality. That does not require drawing inferences or assumptions — No; you see.
Disciple: Even though I look to the middle, the mind fantasizes?
Master: Mind?
Disciple: Mind… I don’t know where it comes from. It comes and it doesn’t relate to anything in my daily life. It is just like fantasies, coming and going like a motion picture, and I have trouble stopping it.
Master: Do you look intently? — No. These thoughts only intervene when your attention is slackened. If you look minutely, intently, and penetratingly to find out what is in there — continuously without a break — then no thought will intervene. That’s all. If you see wide, that brings all this trouble. Our subconscious mind is already overflowing with all these thoughts.
Disciple: I have many thoughts in meditation.
Master: You have many thoughts? About what?
Disciple: Everything.
Master: Everything! Well, do one thing at a time. Do one thing at a time. When you sit by me, sit by me, all alone, with nobody else. When you think of your mother, no other thought should come. When you are at work, be fully at work; no other thought will come up. Do one thing at a time.
There is no problem. Do one thing at a time. Now you are here; forget everything; sit by me. Do one thing at a time. When you’re at work, be fully at work. It is not difficult. That will train your mind, that’s all. Why are so many things coming up?
An incident in Napoleon Bonaparte’s life illustrates this. The Waterloo fight was to begin at nine. It was eight o’clock. Napoleon Bonaparte was walking in the garden. The minister was running here, running about, “The battle is at nine; why are you here?” — “Oh, the battle is at nine. It’s eight now.” You see?
When you die, die; finish off, that’s all. So as I told you before, there is no problem. Is it difficult to do one thing at a time? Attend fully to the one thing before you just as you do your study work. When you don’t do one thing at a time, what happens? One friend comes to you. You don’t attend to him fully, only see him for a minute or two. Then you attend to another man, and he stands around you. You attend another man, although not completely. Then you go to the third, fourth, fifth; all are standing hanging around you. Finish off. So that is why all those unfinished things hover around your mind when you are doing something. Each point should be finalized, finished off in one way or the other. Then, no trouble will arise. What is wrong with you?
Disciple: Just a little negative today, Master. It will pass.
Master: What’s the trouble? A cold?
[Initiate: Yes]
Master: Did you take anything? Any medicine?
Disciple: It’s just a depression because I keep trying to do what You say and I don’t seem to succeed so…
Master: Never mind; just do what you can do and leave the rest. Why worry? It will go away.
What you cannot do, leave the rest to Him. “I have done my best, now I leave it to You.” What you do, do bouyantly, freshly with no burden on your head. What you do, do honestly. That’s all. You’ve done your best. There is nothing more that you can do. Pray now.
Master: Leave the results of what you have done to Him. Do your best and leave the rest to Him. You’re all right physically?
[Initiate: Yes.]
Master: That’s all right. I was afraid. So you know — one thing at a time. When you worship, worship. I think it is easier. Instead of having one thought, you have three, four, five. How many thoughts, new thoughts come up? New jobs? Only one, two, three. How many? I am not talking Greek to you. [Chuckles] Quite understandable. Do you understand me?
Disciple: Not quite well.
Master: Just make her understand please. [translated into another language] She’s got so many new points to be considered and none attended to properly. Now do you follow? [ Yes. ] All right, thank God for what you get. Thank God for what you get and hope for more. Yes, please, you?
Master: Going strong?
Disciple: There was a circular three or four years ago which said our lives were mapped out according to the Divine Plan in the minutest detail. And the other day we were talking about free will. I can see how we humans, from a limited point of view, might have free will, but I wondered if in reality there is any free will whatsoever for human beings.
Master: Our present life, present life — so far as life and death is concerned, so far as wealth or poverty is concerned, richness or poorness, so far as your trend of mind is concerned — these are all fixed. But you are free within certain limits to lay your lines further. You may decide that by discrimination or by right reading (scriptures) or in the company of Awakened People. All scriptures say man is the highest in all creation next to God. He is of the same essence as that of God. So you are to make the best use of the man-life. That is why you are to decide what to do further by discrimination. What you have done in the past, you are reaping. What you do now with ego within, you shall have to reap. “As you sow, so shall you reap” — that wheel will go on.
Action, reaction, action, reaction . . . until you become a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, conscious that He is the doer, not I. He decides our further trend of mind. Some are more ready to begin, others are less ready. Some are more intellectual, some are not so. So these things are a reaction. You can develop further, but within that area of freedom as far as the present reactions are concerned. You can lay your future line anyway you like.
During the great war here, the government used to pay a learned man fifty seven dollars for his crop. I have seen this. Then there was an unlearned man who could not even sign his name; these grain people gave him one hundred fifty dollars. So when two men do the same job, one gets profit and the other loses; these things are already fixed. But you can have the freedom to lay further wherever you like. That can also be decided be discrimination or reading scriptures or in the company of the Awakened People. I sent another circular yesterday about meditation, diaries. I asked them to give you copies. Yes?
Disciple: I think there is less freedom than we think, than we imagine… that it is more fixed.
All grains which come between the two parts of the grinding machine are ground like anything to flour. But any wheat which sticks to the handle is not ground. Do you follow? If you become conscious of the Hand moving and you stick to it, then you won’t be ground; you’ll be free.
So in man-body we have one concession: we can go back to our home if we become conscious co-workers of the Divine Plan — we lose our ego — and ego will be lost only when you see some Power is working through you.
Disciple: When that Power works through a person who is not awakened, when the Power works through a person that doesn’t realize It, who is still under the illusion, does it mean freedom for that person to do this and that within the limits You described?
Master: Trend of mind goes on as a reaction of the past. You see.
But if you use discrimination or go deep down into the Scriptures or sit by some awakened man, you can see.
Even the dacoits (robbers) will become very saintly.
There was one dacoit who would plunder away, take away everything from a man first, then kill him. He would then carry on his family affairs. Once he met a Saint. He was just going to rob him of his clothes, rob him and kill him, but the Saint asked him, “Why are you doing all this, dear friend?” . . . “This is my job. I have to earn money, you see. This is the way I have to do it.” — “Do you think it is all right? Is it not a sin?” . . . “I do realize it is a sin.” If a man knows what he does is not right, and he still does it . . . “But I have no other occupation, no other way of earning a livelihood.” — “All right, I will just request one thing of you.” He told him, “Go and ask your family members, your wife, your children, if they will share with you in this sin you are committing.” Each man looks from his own angle of vision. The dacoit thought, “This is a very strange man; if I go home he will run away.” The Saint told him he wouldn’t run away, to just bind him with a string tied to a tree — a strong rope — and go so that he might ask his people. He bound him to a tree, went home, and asked his wife, Well, do you think what I do is not right?” She said the same thing, “It is not right.” — “Will you share in this sin with me?” And she said, “Why! You have married me; it is your duty to bring the food.” He then asked his children; they also replied in the same way. So he came back and he loosened the Saint, wept, and begged His forgiveness. Eventually he became a Saint, you see. A man can turn. There are many instances like that.
Once we went to a place, Pili Bhit, and in the morning we had heart to heart talk. One dacoit, head of the dacoits, was there sitting in the front. I repeated these things. I said, “There’s hope even for dacoits, I tell you.” What he knew he would tell to other dacoits. There’s hope for them too. “Is there really any hope for dacoits?” . . . “Yes,” I told him. Next day was Initiation day. He came up, “Give me initiation.” So I gave him initiation. What happened? He got the highest experience. He brought others, those dacoits under him, to be initiated, to get the same thing. He is now earning his livelihood by selling.
So man can change, you see. A strong horse is required. An unruly horse will run like anything, but one direction is required. So man, a strong man, (in whatever way), will work wonders, only if direction of his line is changed, rearranged. Idlers are nowhere.
Idlers are nowhere. There is no place for those who procrastinate. Procrastination is the thief of time. For those who put off till tomorrow. . . you’ll do later on, later on, there is no progress. You must be decisive. One wife used to be very worried. The husband asked her, “Why are you worried?” She said, “I’ve got one brother, the only man in the family and the only earning family member. He says he’ll leave the world and go away and become an ascetic.” — “How long has he been saying that?” the husband asked her. “For three or four years. We are dreading any moment he will go and never come back.” — “If for three or four years he has been talking like that and he has not gone as yet, he will never go.” His wife said, “We are worrying and you say he will never go.” He replied, “Do you want to see how man can go?” . . . “Yes.” By way of a joke, he said, “All right, I’m going.” He left the house, went out one door, and on the other side he sat. The wife said, “All right, come back now.” — “No, I am gone.” You see, there is no place for idlers; no place for those who have procrastination. Procrastination is the thief of time. Those who put off, “We’ll do later, we’ll do later, we’ll do later” and that later never comes up.
Have you read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress? John Bunyan used to write something daily; Pilgrim’s Progress is the book he wrote. He finished it by writing something daily. His motto was that. There was one man, Stanley, who used to finish something daily, you see? This I learned from Stanley — finish something daily. When I go up, I finish everything. I may go until twelve, one, two, three o’clock, never mind. So when I lay down, I am fresh and have no burden on my head. I know what to do. You learn from greatness, great men, you see. It is easier to finish something daily. The Gurmat Sidhant is a big voluminous work, with over 900 pages in one volume and 1,100 pages in the other. I used to write on some subject until maybe five or six o’clock in the morning. So this is what I learned from these men. John Bunyan was a good man.
Pilgrim’s Progress is a very good book. You learn many things from great mens’ lives. Finish something daily, finish off. Sit in meditation and unless you’re satisfied, don’t leave it. “Now half and hour has passed, now one hour has passed.” You are watching the clock. You won’t die, I tell you. In this attempt you won’t die.
You might have heard of Rama Krishna Paramahans. Vivekenanda was his disciple. Once Vivekenanda came to his Master. Rama Krishna Paramahans told him, “This is one plate full of honey. Well Vivekenanda, it is a sea of immortality. If you were a bee, from which end would you eat?” . . . “Sir, I would eat only from the margin so that my wings would not become besmeared with the honey.” The Master said, “Look here, it is a sea of immortality, plunge headlong into it; there is no death.” You see? So your attention at meditation is into the sea of immortality. You won’t die. Finish something daily. Doing something daily is also good but I think it is still better to finish something daily. Go on. Do it until you get fully satisfied. Then go. You won’t die; it is a sea of immortality, you see.
I have learned many things from great mens’ lives. I have read more than 300 great mens’ lives from the East and West both. Biographies pay. When I was studying in seventh primary, I read one book about Saint Ramanuja who got something from his Guru. He came out, stood on a mound and called for all the villagers of the place. “Look here, I’m going to give you what I’ve got, a very valuable thing from my Guru.” — “You are going to give without permission of your Guru? You will go to hell.” . . . “Well, dear friends, I alone will go to hell; you will be saved.” So at that time, it struck me: If ever I will get something, I will give it. Though I’ve not done anything without the order of my Guru, but still, that had struck me at the time; it is free, all free. These are the things possible for you to get.
Don’t do something daily; finish something daily. That is actually much better. To do something daily is also good, but if you take up the other motto, I think you’ll be much better off. I’ve got so much correspondence to attend to, more than one thousand letters a month, from all parts of the world. There are interviews, newcomers, so many things. People are writing for all reasons, for guidance. That is why I do one thing at a time. Some days I finish at three at night. I’ve got no letters on hand today; finished — you see? If I leave one or two, I finish them the next morning. In this way you’re always buoyant, fresh, nothing burdening you. This is not spirituality — this is a general helping factor in life which makes you fit for everything.
When I was writing that book Gurmat Sidhant, one writer came to visit and was sitting by me at night. I started at nine o’clock, went on writing, writing as fast as possible. He was sitting watching me. It was ten, it was eleven o’clock, it was twelve midnight, one o’clock. “From where are you writing?” he said. “There’s nothing before you to copy.” I told him, “My Master dictates to me. I’m writing so fast because I cannot keep up to Him.” [chuckles] Whatever thoughts come up without thinking are always perfect.
So these are the things to be adopted and lived up to; that will make you a success in any line you take up. In my official career I tell you, the job of comptroller was very intricate. I had about forty-two officers in the whole office working under me. Any intricate cases that went to the head for orders, he sent to me. I would just open and set them in order. So this habit worked wonders in all my affairs. When I retired, the Military Attorney General came up, “Well we had a wonderful man like you in our department.” I’ve got it recorded in my report. Generally when officers are there, bosses are there. Sometimes those who work under an officer are not pleased and some over him are not pleased. If the bosses are pleased, those under are not pleased. In my case, both were pleased. So these are things which make you fit for everything, you see.
I only read three novels throughout my career. One which I would recommend: Ivanhoe, perhaps you might have heard of that. The other was The Last Days of Pompeii, and the third one, Westward Ho . . . that’s all. All the rest were biographies or life stories. So God teaches, you see. Just do one thing at a time wholly and solely and finish something daily; that will be all right. That will give you a very good subject for your story, will it not? Yes.
Disciple: Master, I copied out the talks You gave the other night about God’s Complaint.
[ Master chuckled, “All right.” ]
Disciple: Most wonderful topic. And some people want to copy that talk. They want to make a copy of the copy that I made. Is that all right?
Master: I would say so, but show it to me before passing it on to anyone. In places, it might not have been interpreted correctly. Put it into a manuscript if you like and send it to me. I’ll find time to go through. With all I’ve got to do I’ve still more time, you see. Yes?
Disciple: Should I give it to you exactly the way it came off the tape and then…
Master: Whatever is there in the tape, write out exactly. I’ll see to it. Put it in a manuscript and give it to me.
Disciple: There were certain, at certain points because I was writing it for my own self, I changed…
Master: No, no, no, exact words, exact words. The “Morning Talks” were given to me from the tapes. I went through them. You know, all those talks you have got will make very wonderful books for you, on all subjects. Yes?
Disciple: I have taken exactly word for word the talk you gave on “Ojas” (January 27, 1971) and I’ve given it to … and she’s going to go over and type it neatly to be submitted to You.
Master: Yes, that’s all right. I know what I’m talking, but put it in writing. So many other men who came here have had a hundred and one questions, very valuable information on all different subjects. You got something. So why do I give all this to you? Why don’t I keep it reserved with me? Do you know? I wish each one of you to become like me and even more than that. I wish you progress even more than me. I wish you, each one of you, to become ambassadors.
Disciple: Master, when we get discouraged a little, is this the ego involvement that I am doing it?
Master: Again keep one thing in view. Rome was not built in a day; you cannot do everything in one day. A wrestler becomes a wrestler by working day and night for months, for years, not in one day. I will tell you my ignorance when I was reading in third primary. I heard one man talking very fluently, giving a lecture and thought, “From where is he reading?” I was a very voracious reader of books. I read one full library of my college — one full library on all subjects. I have read about three libraries altogether. You gather so many things. You have to work for it, it will not come in one day. Don’t be discouraged. Go on with it; you’ll become that.
These things should become an incentive to you to work for, not discourage you. I won’t tell you that I fell down from heaven direct. I was born as a man, you see. So man is made; he is in the make. Regularity pays, mind that. If you do something daily like John Bunyan, even then you’ll give to the world a Pilgrim’s Progress. If you finish something daily, then still more wonderful. I’m not talking to you about spiritual matters now; this is daily living. Is it not?
I told you the other day when I was writing in the high class, there were examinations given. I used to take foreign history. British history was one part of the subject. My point was, I read not one but two, three, four histories of the same country by different authors. All don’t agree in detail. Some give more, the others less. The teacher gave notes on the main points, facts, then the examination was given. There was a maximum of 55 marks to be given out. I replied from references I had read in my own language. Another man gave out word for word from the notes dictated to him by the teacher. So he gave me 54 marks out of 55 and gave that man 35 out of 55. He complained, “I’ve given every word that you have dictated to me. Why did you give him 54 and not me?” . . . “Because you have given word for word what I dictated. He [Kirpal Singh] has said what all historians say.”
Teachers love you when you do work for them. Parents will love you. Your Guru will love you. Yes, in my official life too, in my student life too, I was loved. The teachers were proud of me. The teacher would even leave the class to me. I was reading in the tenth class when the teacher left the class and asked me to teach them. In my official life they were also confident. “Any new things that come up?” the officer said, “Give them all to him [Kirpal Singh].” My Master would also say, “Go to him [Kirpal Singh]. He will open all parts of the bayonette and then reassemble it and tell you how it works.” This was through the greatness of Him, of course.
So your parents will be proud of you, your teachers will be proud of you. Would you not like that? But all phases have to be developed. All right, God bless you all. Go wiser to your beds. God bless you.