Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

This is a subject I have spoken about many times. On coming to know of behavioral patterns of our people, I feel I have to speak about it more. Everyone who has come here in this Ashram has done a very amazing degree of renunciation. They have left their home; some of them have been very young when they came here. Normally speaking, all worldly things they have left and they have come here not possessing anything, only to be dispossessed of everything. The only link that keeps them here is their fondness for me, also for Nutan Swamiji and Ma. This is very, very appreciable and admirable. But what I find is that in the same way that they accept us, they are not able to accept each other. I really don’t know why is this so.

Do you want to live peacefully in a place, joyously in a place, contributing to its welfare, advancement etc.? Then where is the question of hating or not tolerating the others? By developing intolerance, you only spoil your mind and you get into trouble. I don’t want to quote or narrate any instance. Everywhere I will not be there but I come to know of whatever is taking place. When other visitors are there, even then, in your talk between yourselves, why is it that you are not a little guarded? Can the dislike that the mind feels drive you to such a level of not being aware of environments even?

The other day I was pointing out in a language that could not be understood by the others. “Please keep quiet. Do not say anything.” If the other person is younger to you, you can at least bang upon the point that “I am elder and the other person is younger. Therefore let me tolerate him or her.” Suppose the other person is elder, then you can say “After all, he or she is elder. Let me not mind it.”

People go into such kind of behavioral pattern, I am not able to understand this! The whole picture can be changed by one attitudinal change. Why don’t you love others? Why don’t you be sympathetic to others? Why don’t you be considerate to others and sacrifice whenever necessary? Somebody is sick. So the person is given meals from here. It is being reached. We have some discipline and standards to reach them. Sometimes, in order to fulfill those needs, we cannot send anybody else. So, one of the inmates takes it. But it is taken in a very emergent situation. That emergency has to be understood, both by the one who goes and the one who is served. The person who is served must see to it that the other party does not feel that the facility is being overused.

I think everyone will have to be careful. What is called good behavior? Why do you have a tongue to speak? “I am very sorry. I want to come to the dining room but I am not able to. Will you mind one or two more days more?” What is the harm in talking to? I don’t say whether they talk to or not. I am only suggesting a way by understanding many things that are going on. Unless we work in a team, the whole world talks about team spirit, team spirit, team spirit. Whether it is Jamshedpur, whether it is New Delhi where the centers are left to their own people for manning, there also what I hear is this displeasure, this intolerance. Cannot every one of you change your attitude of loving others?

X is good for a job. When such a job comes, let me ask X, “This is something that you will do best. So will you please do it?” “This is something that I can do. If you like me to do, I shall do” you can say. It is all a question of speaking a few words courteously and lovingly. What for are our words, our tongue? Is it not to speak something very good, sweet and palatable?

Who is a leader? A leader is not merely a man of knowledge. He is a man of behavioral nicety. If people are shouting, if you can simply smile and keep quiet, allow the person to shout, keep quiet, I think the other man will be humbled. Suppose you counter shout, then both of them will shout and counter shout and the roof will break, that’s all. And in the heat of the moment, you have no awareness of the surroundings, who are there, who are not there.

So I am wondering how to bring about this amity, friendship and sharing in the minds of the people. I am ashamed of talking on this subject. I generally speak about three important virtues - Love, sympathy and sacrifice. Ma and Nutan Swamiji are there, we discuss matters, we have our own behavior. I think there is sufficient critical observation on the part of, in my case it may be a little less, but sufficient critical observation is there on the part of Nutan Swamiji and Ma. We are able to get along only because these observations are there and they are being welcomed and heard by one another. But all observations are done in a lot of love and fondness. There is no hatred or intolerance. Why don’t you overcome this hatred and intolerance in your mind?

If you go to the Himalayas, if the mind is intolerant, you will be intolerant of a particular deer or a squirrel. Intolerance is not going to leave your mind. Why not we like each other? Is it not a sadhana for you? What is meant by behavioral sadhana, characteral sadhana and interactional sadhana? At any point of time, you should not lose your contentment. At any point of time, you should not become a victim for hatred or unpleasantness or intolerance. There will be inattention, carelessness, sometimes you may shout. Only when others are there you don’t shout, but after shouting you should go and say “I am very sorry. I shouted. It was a tension or something that I have been carrying for a number of days. Please don’t mind.”

Even the other day when I told somebody “Please keep quiet. Please keep quiet.” three, four, five times I said. Even then, the other party was not prepared to listen to. I don’t know what is this sadhana. The sadhana is only meditation? It is only solitariness? Sadhana is behavioral. It is interactional. If one person is there to make some adjustments for others, to accommodate them,  I think he will be accepted by all as a leader. Not that I want you to become leaders  straightaway.

I started moving with people from the age of, say as you know 23. In how many houses I have lived, with how many people I have moved! All of them were elders to me. I perhaps did not have an occasion to chat with somebody of my age. I was always  moving with people because elderly people used to come to me. Whom do you find as a seeker less than 23 years old? Very difficult to find. Without displeasing people, giving them sufficient respect, attention etc. And I was very jovial, I was very happy, I used to smile, laugh etc. very free person I was, but equal freedom I had given for the others. Nobody has asked me – “Swamiji, at such a young age you became a sannyasin and you started moving about with people. How did you get along?”

When I got into their car along with Dr. Sreedharan to visit DMRC, within seconds or minutes I asked him a question,“Sreedharan, You have been entrusted with a  great job and you are doing well as it is. Can you tell me what are the qualities which have stood well for you to deserve this merit?” He said, “Swamiji, only one word ‘Integrity’.” he said. Why am I telling you this? I was interested in knowing.

To Anandakrishnan , I asked many years back – “Anandakrishnan, you have been looking after so many countries as a bank official. You must have travelled a lot, interacted with many country people. Can you tell me what is the quality which helped you to do all this and to rise to such a position?” He told me at one time “I am controlling about 36 or 40 countries, I am in charge of. And every day I get  two hundred, three hundred emails. There is no difference between office and home. Every time I have to act into emails that come on the mobile and all that.” So his answer to me was that “Whenever I go to a country, mix with the people, I have accepted their ways and methods. I have never criticized them. I just assimilate whatever they do, never find fault with, do as they do and then carry on.” So the opposition is taken from the mind, conflict is taken from the mind. Why don’t you appreciate others? Everyone will have some quality. And that quality why don’t you use for this job ‘X’?

This Subha has come here. I had specially asked her to come. We have a number of addresses. She belongs to Kerala. Jaya told me that “Kerala addresses I am not able to understand and avoid duplication.” So I told Subha. She said “I will come when the schools are closed. Then I will do it”. In between, some other job came. So I asked her “Subha, can you not stop this and take up this work and do it?” And she devoted the whole of it, took it to her house, got assistance from her sister and somehow she did the job. I cannot say it was delayed, though it was delayed by two or three days beyond what I had expected. Because these addresses were entered, letters were printed with individual names and labels were printed, all of them had to be put in position. The envelope itself had three papers to be enclosed and we had to post it before a certain period, otherwise the addressees will not get the communication. Without speaking a word, she did it. She has that job. I found that she is from Kerala, she will be able to do it. Why don’t you depend upon others? Why don’t you accept wholeheartedly the ability and skill of another? If Jaya can do something we will tell her. If Namrata can do something we will tell her. If Vinaya can do something we will tell her. If Sumesh is all right, okay we will accept. If another person can do something, well and good.  Why don’t we be courteous, courteous? Admit that “I don’t know”. Admit that you know and it is not in wrath or anger but in sweetness and fondness and love. I am very disappointed to see that this kind of an amity is not built. The same reports come from Jamshedpur. The same reports come from Delhi.

In Malaysia, to the extent we are able to understand, they don’t have any problem. They make a roaster and many people are coming and doing things very well. They run their programs very well, regularly, regularly, regularly, retreats are held, special programs are held when we go. Everything is going on well. Can we not develop this mutuality, this fondness? How happy you will be when you have love for others, love for others? Suppose with your love you feel hurt, why don’t you tell the man “I am very much hurt” and start crying? Tears are to be used!

So I only have to say something - Please love each other, love. You don’t wait for the ideal person to be loved. Such a person may not be there .How much of trouble Krishna as a child caused to Yashoda and the others, but still they had fondness for him. Every time it should be like that. How much Krishna stood with Pandavas? You should read Mahabharata. He used to  say “I will myself go, Yudhishthira and kill all the enemy including Bheeshma and Drona. Give me a word. I will go. Don’t worry.” Why should Krishna speak like that? It is up to us to encourage others, to strengthen others, to stand by the side of others. Suddenly “No. He is like that. She is like that…” What is this? Every time you try to overcome and sublimate your dislike, sublimate your intolerance and grow within yourself in your own manner.

Shall I buy a special barometer or thermometer for you to measure the tolerance attitude, the tolerant attitude that you have, the loving attitude that you have? All of you have come here seeing me, seeing us. It is paining me when I find that you are not able to get along with each other with love, joy and contentment. Make me a focal point around which this mutuality, mutual fondness, love and joy will emerge.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.