17 August 2006
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Last night we had a meeting of Ashram inmates. It was primarily about our people complaining that they are not getting enough time to work because of frequent disturbance from others. They feel that they will be able to do things faster, if they are allowed to work without any interruptions. There was a lot of reasoning, justification etc. towards this end.
I think the need to know how to handle disturbances or interruptions is something applicable to all – not only to the inmates of the Ashram but others as well. At your office, workplace or at home, if you do not know how to manage your time and environment, you will certainly find it difficult to perform.
If everybody feels that undisturbed work is better, then it is up to the sensitiveness of all concerned not to disturb others. Be observant and sensitive to know whenthe other person is working with concentration, so that you do not disturb him. This kind of a behavioural adjustment is natural and necessary. Why are you not doing it?
I have always been emphasising one point – the feeling that you are getting disturbed is more harmful than the disturbance itself. Physical disturbance is one thing.Mentally reacting to it in a tense manner is different.
I will tell you my experience of what took place years back. I was in Delhi. As usual, people used to come and see me almost continuously right from morning and I had to spend a lot of time holding Satsangs. Early in the morning I used to conduct a session from 7 to 8 am. After my breakfast, till the time I took meals around 12 noon, there always used to be Satsangs. There were days when I wanted to have some rest – just close the door and be in my room. I would not be sleeping generally, but I just wanted that rest.
People would discuss with me spiritual and other matters and then they would go. Just then, when I was about to go for rest, many times it used to so happen, my host would come and tell me that some devotees have arrived and they would like to have 5 or 10 minutes. And every 5 minutes used to extend to 15 and then to 50 and so on. This is how it always is during personal interviews.
One day I was so tired that I simply wanted to have that rest. But I could not go to my room – my host told me that somebody had just come to see me. And then I thought: “If anybody wants to see me and I feel that I want to have some rest and a little seclusion, my flair for this seclusion should not stand in the way of other people wanting to see me”. So I decided: “From now on, I will never think in terms of seclusion as such. Whenever anybody wants to see me, I will allow myself to be seen”. This decision I took decades back and ever since – do you know what happened? – I have no disturbance at all! What do you understand by this?
Dr. D of Malaysia was here. He is an extremely busy person and he gets calls from the hospital any time of the day or night. When we stayed in his house, many times I found that by the time I went to bed he would not have returned; by the time I came out from my room next morning, he would have already left for the hospital. Only on some days he could arrange matters specially so that he would be home by around 9 pm and we could be together for one or two hours.
I asked him: “Whenever there is a call at night, how is it that you go immediately?” He said in a very simple manner: “The telephone is by my side. Whenever the telephone rings, I take it. People at the hospital ask me for some suggestions. If I have to go, I immediately get up and go. Or, I give instructions. But they have said that my response and suggestions have been very fast and precise.” This is his version.
If a person who was sleeping, tired after a long day’s work, feels like this, what about others? So I am telling you that there is a way of not becoming tense about your disturbance. And why do you call it a disturbance at all? “I am disturbed, I am disturbed” – is such a reaction called for? When you are running fast and suddenly there is an obstruction – like a stone or something – don’t you turn aside? Or, when you are driving and if, suddenly a vehicle comes, do you consider it to be a disturbance? After all, we are living together. Other people are there and someone may have something to ask you.
It is the necessity of others to seek your help that make them come and seek your help. When they come and seek your helpful nature, you consider it to be a disturbance! I do not think that there is anything more sinful than this! This is what I have to tell you from the spiritual point of view. All of you require a rebirth on this point.
We have installed intercoms. There is a purpose behind it. It is meant to be used! Somebody makes a call. You attend the telephone, give him the answer and then continue with your work. Why do you call it a disturbance? Why don’t you try the method that I am suggesting? From today onwards you resolve: “I will not feel disturbed by anybody!”
During daytime I do not sleep like at night. When I am resting at mid-day, what is the harm if you call me? Nothing wrong there! After all, in the Ashram, we are such restful people! Even when we work fifteen or sixteen hours a day, we are the most leisurely people in this world! This is what I want to tell you, because, we are not under any pressure or any tension. Not at all!
But you create all the pressure within you. I cannot understand this philosophy. I will not accept it. I will not approve of it also. Let me be very clear about it. Let me register my protest and total disapproval of your attitude.
All of you should henceforth have a new attitudinal orientation. Why don’t you resolve today: “I will not feel disturbed”? Mark my words: “I will not feel disturbed whenever anybody comes and asks me something.” In fact, is it a disturbance? Or is it a helpful element? This is what Arjuna was told: “Aśocyaan anvaśocah – you are grieving over something that should not be grieved about!” You are getting disturbed for what you should be happy about.
I wonder. May be I am a loner in my proposition. But I am not going to leave this point of view. So, I want to ask you: Is this what you know of your mind? Don’t you have a better way of handling your mind? Don’t you think that you have to know more about the intricacies of your mind and find out why it feels like this?
Remaining within the mind we excel in spiritual wisdom and God-realization. This mind is a friend; it is not an enemy. You have to use it as a friend. So I think that all of you require a re-orientation. I am very, very sorry that you are creating a cocoon around you, like the silkworm. Think about it.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
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