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When
you are five years old, your parents look after
you. When you grow older and you feel that you
can look after yourself, you leave your parents
and work for yourself. Your parents are happy
when you start to be independent. If you have
trouble, you can always go back to them for help
and advice, and you will always be welcome. Why
am I telling you this? There is an energy, a grace,
which nurtures you and looks after you. You can
go back to it at any time for sustenance. That
reservoir is the source of all energy. It is the
source of electricity and the source of your own
energy as well. Don't forget that all your energy,
the energy through which you do work, comes from
atman, from grace. When you tap into that
source, you will have two hundred percent more
energy to work with than you have now. Go back
to your country and see for yourself.
When
you let this grace run your life, you will know,
'This is coming from grace. It is my good luck
that I have seen this grace working. Through it
I have been given the opportunity to look after
my children, my wife, my relations, my society,
my country.' When you function from that place,
you will have a new life. Many people who leave
here write to me: 'Where does this energy come
from? We were busy before but now we have taken
on more jobs and we still don't fatigue ourselves.
We feel very young now. It is as if we were thirty
years younger than when we came to Lucknow.'
Then
I would be eight years old. A good time for an
awakening!
Yes,
yes. Otherwise you will be too old. It has to
be got in childhood or youth. In old age there
are responsibilities. Children will trouble you,
society will trouble you, diseases will trouble
you. The body is a disease itself. It is full
of complications. When you are old, your mind
will be dwelling on your diseases. It will not
be able to concentrate. There will be mental ailments,
physical troubles, relationships — so many
things. So you have to do it in your prime, in
your youth. Childhood is the best time, but youth
is also good. Some old people have also come here.
They will be all right next time.
Yesterday
a woman came and saw you. She was a bit older
than I am and she seemed to have a wonderful visit
with you. When I saw her, I was very confident
because I thought, 'I still have time'.
Why
time? What for? You get rid of time here. Why
depend on time? Time is the past. When you go
from here, you throw away time. You don't need
time.
This
has actually happened here. A man about fifty
years of age came from L.A. because he was not
happy that his son was always here. He was a rich
man and wanted to take his son away and make him
work in some business. He had brought hundreds
of questions and wanted to fight with me. He wanted
to know why I had taken his son from him. They
had three rooms in the Clarks Hotel and spent
the night there before coming to see me. The next
morning his son introduced him to me. He sat down
in front of me in my house.
The
father said: 'You came to me last night. You sat
by my bed in the Clarks Hotel and you answered
all my questions. Now I have nothing to ask.'
He
had a watch on his wrist which he placed next
to me, saying, 'I don't need time now'.
He
stayed here for twenty days. Have you ever seen
an American with no watch? Even while going to
sleep they have a watch under the pillow. Even
when they go to the bathroom the watch is there.
They are so careful, so punctual, even in the
bathroom.
When
he was leaving, I said to him, 'What about the
time? If you don't have a watch, you will have
to ask other people the time.' He replied, 'No,
it is all the same. Getting up and sleeping —
now it is all the same. I have forgotten time.
I don't need it anymore.'
I
told him, 'No, take my time now,' and I fastened
the watch on his wrist.
When
you have time, the mind and all these other things,
you have to be responsible for them yourself.
But when you know the beauty of no-mind and no-time,
who will look after you? If you rely on the supreme
power, it will take care of you very well.
Papaji,
nearly all of us are very well-to-do people from
free countries. Visiting you in Lucknow is a privilege
that all of us can afford. For many people, though,
freedom still means relief from political oppression,
from imprisonment, from torture. Is external bondage
an impediment to internal freedom, and if it is,
do you see a place for political activism in the
world?
External
circumstances are no impediment. The impediment
is the ego. Impediments are created by the ego.
'I have to do this.' 'I must not do that.' This
idea that you are doing something is the impediment.
If you act without feeling that you are the doer,
there will be no impediments. The supreme power
is working through you. It will guide you as the
circumstances arise.
I
spend some time working for human rights. People
in other countries like Burma and Tibet are being
terribly oppressed. They are being killed or hurt
by people who have taken control of them. You
say that the body itself is a disease and that
sometimes, in old age, the body exerts a tyranny
that makes it very difficult to wake up. There
are some places where one could be killed just
for attending satsang. There are places where
meetings like these are prohibited. In these places
the government agents would gun us down if we
tried to assemble for a satsang. These external
circumstances must be an impediment. And since
they are, there must be a need for people to take
action against their oppressors. You yourself
did that in your twenties, if your biography is
accurate. How do you deal with that kind of action?
The
world is moving towards disaster. We are moving
towards the destruction of the human race itself.
Atom bombs and chemical weapons are taking us
there. This is not the way to go. Let us try instead
broadcasting compassion and love towards all human
beings and to all other beings. Let us try this.
Here in satsang we are making a trial. We are
spreading the message of peace and love. I hope
that the message will spread. All those who are
here are ambassadors of their respective countries.
They will give this message to their parents and
to the people in their country. This fire will
spread. One day you will see its results. You
yourself are going home. You will speak to your
people, to your friends, and they will find out
what is happening. You will see a tremendous change.
I am very sure about it. These times are now coming.
We
have to learn the lessons that previous destructions
have taught us. We have still not forgotten Hiroshima
in Japan. People are still suffering there. We
can't forget.
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