Sayings of a Paramahamsa

Message for Karma Sannyasins

On this day of your receiving initiation into Karma Sannyas, I wish you good
experiences in your life, advance. I know that it Is very difficult to understand
the role of Karma Sannyas in one's life, and it is much more difficult to put the
ideas into practice while maintaining the natural process of life.

Our minds have been built in such a way that we are not able to integrate the two
opposite forces within us. Either we become attached to the mundane experiences and
just live a mundane life, neglecting the spiritual experience, the inner
experience, altogether, or we go headlong and neck-deep into a transcendental way
of life and neglect the mundane, empirical experiences.

Examples of these two are not difficult to find. On the one hand we have the
recluses, the renunciates who completely deny and reject the empirical side of
life. They totally reject that area of life which is related to the senses, the
body and the mind, and only follow the transcendental proem - a life of rejection,
a life of negation. On the other hand we have those people who do not at all
understand, or care about, the higher and transcendental values of life. What they
understand is just the body and senses. They are absolutely soaked in the
sensuality's of life. For them nothing is beyond the senses. For them total
creation and total existence is what can be seen, what can be perceived, and what
can be touched.

By accepting initiation into, and the philosophy of Karma Sannyas, we are trying to
integrate both of these elements of life, because, according to the Laws of Nature,
neither is the empirical world untrue, nor the transcendental experience difficult.
As a householder, every experience you are going through, every experience you have
already undergone, every experience you will be going through, will be part of your
spiritual life. It will not be opposed to your spiritual life. That is what a Karma
Sannyasin, has to understand, There is nothing to give up; there is nothing to
reject.

As you evolve, many habits, many addictions, many experiences are left behind. For
example, when we grow old our teeth fail out. It is a natural process, we do not
have to extract them one by one just to make ourselves old. As we grow old our hair
becomes grey, we do not have to dye it while. In the same way, what we call the
sensuality's of life, the infirmities of will power, the habits, the weaknesses,
will fall off one by one, without us becoming involved. As a snake throws off its
skin at the proper time, in the same way, various skins in your life concerning
your bodily habits, concerning your sensual and social habits, will automatically
drop away without your disturbing yourself about it.

A Karma Sannyasin has to respect his life. A Karma Sannyasin must have respect for,
and acceptance, appreciation and understanding of his lifestyle, this is important.
Once someone went to Winston Churchill and advised him not to smoke cigars. He said
"Why not? It is aromatic, refreshing, gives me pleasure, and releases my
imagination". The other man said, "It Is bad for the lungs. You may get cancer".
Churchill said, "All nonsense!" That is the attitude one should have about oneself'
Not, "I have bad habits. My mind is very limited. I am a very hopeless person." No!
A Karma Sannyasin should not be egoistic, but he does not have to suffer from these
mental conflicts and complexes.

As I told you, you are subject to the Laws of Universal, Cosmic Nature. According
to those Laws, at any one time you have one kind of personality, one kind of
thinking, one type of conviction, one type of weakness. If you have patience you
will find that in the course of time, like a snake, you will throw off these skins
automatically. They will automatically fall off because habits are perishable,
addictions are transitory. All of the thoughts that go through your mind are not
permanent, they are transitory. They keep moving. They are like a flowing river,

A Karma Sannyasin must respect his own personality, in toto. You should never
suffer from the complexes of guilt and negativity. You are an integral part of the
cosmic drama. You are playing your part. I assure you that once you are convinced
about your place in life and have respect for yourself, for your physical body, for
your wife, husband and children, for your state of mind, for your philosophy of
morality, ethics and religion, you will find that your spiritual progress will be
very fast. You do not need to suffer from inferiority complexes, saying. "I am not
a good person. I am an evil-minded person. I am a weak person. I am not fit for the
spiritual life". These kinds of thoughts do not belong to, or refer to, or relate
to a Karma Sannyasin at all!

You must, from today, respect yourself as a whole person. Whether you are sensual,
a-sensual, anti-sensual, hyper-sensual or hypo-sensual, it does not matter. Whether
your mind is quiet or restless or nervous, it does not matter. Accept it. Then your
sadhana, your spiritual practice of Kundalini yoga, or Kriya yoga, or Mantra yoga,
or Hatha yoga, or any other yoga, whichever from of yoga you are practising, Will
produce astounding results and will give you very prompt spiritual experience.

Every day, without fail, with absolute regularity, you must devote a minimum of ten
minutes to your sad liana. Whether you are well or ill, whether you have faith or
not, whether you understand or not, whether you get results or not - ten minute.
You must sit calm and quiet, with your body absolutely steady, eyes closed, and fix
your inner gaze at either the nose tip, or the mid-eyebrow centre, or the heart
centre, or the navel centre, and practise whatever you like for ten minutes. You
can practise your mantra, or meditation on a form or a symbol, or you can think
something nice, or you can concentrate on your breath, or you can concentrate on
the light at the mid-eyebrow centre, or you can concentrate on the heart lotus or
the lotus at the navel, just for ten minutes.

Even if your mind does not co-operate with you for days, weeks or even months
together, if it is constantly restless, just continue the practice. Do not
complain, "Oh, my mind is restless. My mind is not tranquil. My mind is not one-
pointed!" Sadhana is the most important part of Karma Sannyas initiation. If you
have time, practise more. Practise yoga postures or whatever you like.

The most important thing is regularity. If you practice something for six months,
then give up for a few months and then start again, that is not regularity.
Whenever you stop your practices the regularity is broken, the regularity is
disturbed. It is not the quantity of the practices, it is the regularity of the
practices which will ultimately give you inner experience.

Many people begin to develop psychic experiences very quickly. They experience
lights, forces, sounds, forms and so forth, but one thing I must tell you is that
you must not run after these experiences. Do not follow them, not at all! That is
the key! If your point of meditation is the sound of "Om" or the form of 'Om", then
that is all you concentrate on. Say "No!" to any light, any energy, any force or
anything else that cornea along. Nothing but "Om". You should not lose touch with
the symbol which you have chosen. No experience is greater than the experience of
your own symbol. This is the most important thing I have to tell you, and which you
must understand.

Do not wish for experiences. Only one experience is of great importance, the inner
experience of your outer symbol. If your outer symbol is fire then the same fire
should be experienced inwardly. External experience of fire, inner experience of
fire, intermediate experience of fire, astral experience of fife, causal experience
of fire, spiritual experience of fire all have to be the same. Only the depth of
awareness will be different, there will be no difference in the form of your
symbol. This is a point which you have to understand.

Many of us make a simple mistake. We sit for meditation, and suddenly we see
lights, forms, hear sounds, see beautiful landscapes, and we go on flowing with the
experiences until we become lost and ultimately come back to the sensual world.
Most people do this because it is very pleasant to roam about within these
experiences. To see the lights, to see a triangle, to see landscapes and oceans and
mountains and to hear music - "Ah!", it is inner pleasure. This is what everyone
must avoid, but it is very, very difficult to avoid it. Do Dot become lost in your
inner world, because the field of inner consciousness is infinite. There are no
footpaths, not to mention freeways. You can go in any direction. In every direction
you will have an experience. Whichever way you turn yourself, you wilt have an
experience, and that experience leads you away from the practice and you become
lost. You have to realise that these experiences mean nothing. They are called
psychic experiences.

Sometimes these psychic experience give you a little bit of extrasensory

perception, but only for a limited period of time, not for all time, A clairvoyant
is clairvoyant only for a short time. You cannot he clairvoyant for years together,
it has a limited time. Like a flower which blooms for a few days and then dies, in
the same way the psychic faculties bloom and die. Nobody can be a telepath for many
years together. I was a telepath for a few years, but I am not now. You cannot be a
clairvoyant for many years. I practised clairvoyance with a crystal. I could see
things clearly, but I cannot do so now. Those faculties bloom like flowers for a
few months or a year or so and then automatically they die, because no experience
is imperishable, no experience is immortal. Every experience has birth and death,
it has a limited span. Psychic experiences have a limited span.

What I am talking about is the experience of yourself in the form of "Om", the
experience of yourself in the flame of fire, the experience of yourself in the form
of a triangle, the experience of yourself in the form of a candle flame or any
other symbol. That symbol, your symbol, must be kept in mind all the time.

So, about Karma Sannyas I make two things very clear. First, have respect for your
lifestyle and your personality. Second, be regular in your sadhana - at least ten
minutes every day, at any cost!