JUST HAVE AN OPEN MIND

 

TO BE ABLE TO KNOW THE WHOLE TRUTH, ONE HAS TO STAND APART

Everything can be explained in very high philosophical, metaphysical terms. But metaphysical and philosophical terms and philosophical language could just remain mental gymnastics. Therefore, we try to be as simple as possible. After taking the most profound philosophy into its most practical day-to-day value.

I teach that all these various kinds of meditation and all these paths that there are, are like rivers coming from different directions, which ultimately become one in the same ocean. There have always been fights and disputes between various religions, whereby one claims that “My way is right,” and the other says, “My way is right,” and they fight.

It is like a little story where four blind men came up into a forest, and there was an elephant in the woods. One blind man grabbed the trunk, the other one held the leg, the third one grabbed the tail, and the fourth grabbed the ear, and they started fighting. The one that grabbed the tail said, “Ah, I have found the truth; it is like a rope.” The other one that grabbed the leg said, “Ah, I have found the truth; it is like a pole,” They argued until a man with sight came along. He stood at a distance, and because he had sight and was standing a bit further away, he could see that these people only knew a fraction of the truth. They did not know the whole truth. To understand the whole truth, one has to stand apart. So, it was the man that could see the entire elephant that could say that this is the real elephant, and this has been the trouble with religions; they grab one section of a truth and claim it to be the entire truth.

MAN MUST DECIDE FOR HIMSELF WHICH PATH TO TAKE

I teach that whatever path you take, I am not interested. You might take a route from here to London with many traffic lights and traffic, which will delay your journey. It might take a long time to reach London, but there might be a very clear highway with no speed limits, and you can get to London much more quicker. So, man must decide for himself which path he wants to take. All ways are good. There is not a single path, nor a single worthwhile religion, that teaches you that you must not love, or you must not have charity, or you must not have compassion. All faiths and all teachings say this. So, the path a person teaches or the path a person practises, he practises because his temperament has a particular inclination towards that path.

What I would like to see is the upliftment of humanity. I am not concerned about paths. If one practises a particular form of meditation and does it honestly and sincerely, and if there is any value in his form of meditation and if he finds progress in himself, I do not convert him to my way of thinking. That would be wrong. If the man progresses well, by all means, do that. But I would say that we should all have an open mind. We knew one road to London before that was filled with traffic, and it took us four hours to reach there. There might be another path, a smoother one, that could make us get there in one hour, perhaps. So, man must decide by himself, and to determine by himself, he should have an open mind. That is the primary quality. Because when the mind is closed, he becomes dogmatic. He becomes fanatical, and becoming dogmatic or fanatical could impede his progress. His car might get punctured. So, one must have an open mind.

Each one teaching his method should be given all the opportunity and all the privilege to present his views, and it is us that must decide for ourselves, shall I take path number A or path number B or path number C or XYZ? That depends on us. But that also should come with a certain amount of rationality. Firstly, we rationalise, intellectualise, weigh the pros and cons, and base our judgements on experience. Because to find the Divinity within us, to make our lives smoother, the intellect only goes part of the way. The finite mind cannot comprehend that which is infinite. We know that. But the infinite can be experienced.

If there is a direct road to the infinite that is within ourselves, by all means, we should at least try. We should try, which is why I always say that we do not condemn or condone any path. The whole idea should be to let humanity be uplifted, allow their minds and bodies to be more and more refined, and let all humans improve.

Some teachers go up on a stage and say, “Everyone else is wrong; only I am right,” and perhaps he might be more wrong than others. The finding of a man and his salvation should always remain a very, very personal thing. If there are four thousand million people on earth, there should be four thousand million religions or ways of life. Each man must formulate his plan, his method, and his way to his salvation. Each man must do that, but of course, he can take the major religions as a guide, draw from them, and formulate his life for the more significant good. That is his dharma, the purpose of life, and how we reach the Maker.

MEDITATION IS A PROVEN SCIENTIFIC PROCESS

We might have people in the audience here who are not interested in religion, which is fine, and I do not think any man should have the right to shove Divinity down their throat.

I have started to talk from the angle of Divinity because we have some people here whose faces I could see very, very clearly, that they are very devout. It is so evident and apparent on their faces that I spoke from this angle. But if I had to be amongst a crowd of agnostics or atheists, I would not even mention the word, God. I would say practise meditation; through meditation, you will achieve a calmness of mind. Meditation is a scientific process that will take you – step by step to peace of the body and mind, and they want all that because most atheists’ minds are in turbulence and troubled.

We show them how their metabolic rate drops through meditation, all scientifically proven. They like charts; they want these things. Everything must be in a test tube. We give that to them as well. We show them how the metabolic rate of the body drops, which signifies complete relaxation of the body. When the body relaxes, the mind relaxes; when the mind calms, the body relaxes, and the person becomes happier because the mind and the body gain deep rest. Then we tell them their high blood pressure will drop with this deep rest. They like that. The high blood pressure drops. Because of this created balance, many of their illnesses will disappear because of organic diseases, and most of the conditions of the body are primarily psychosomatic. They stem, they root from the mind. When the mind finds an equilibrium, when the mind finds a lovely calmness, then that is the way where many of the neurosis disappear. So, their minds benefit. There is greater clarity of thinking.

MEDITATION HELPS OUR MIND AND BODY BECAUSE OF SOME POWER WITHIN

When the mind is calm, they can think better. Through the practices of meditation, their powers of concentration improve. Because of the deep rest gained in the body, they become more vital and more energetic. The agnostics, the atheists want that; they want things for the mind and body. Meditation helps those areas too, and at the same time, they might not believe in Divinity; they are very steadily and slowly led to Divinity. So all these things, all these curative powers of meditation, how meditation helps the mind and body, are done by some force within us. Man can acknowledge or not acknowledge it, but that Divinity that Power exists permeates every cell of our body. In our body, billions of cells and galaxies exist, and each minute cell works on a system. The cells that belong to a specific organ, the liver cells, for example, will not get mixed up with the cells of the heart. The circulatory system functions as it should function.

A scientist told me that if the human body had to be reproduced in machine form, it would require a factory occupying four square miles of space. Such a great factory would have to be built to accommodate the body’s workings.

So, to those people, we show the benefits that could be accrued to the mind and body, and later they might start thinking that this has happened, there must be something. With all these systems in the body, he will start thinking about how this is regulated. There must be some regulator; he will start thinking. And as we know who the regulator is, you can put any name to it. You can call it a law, or you can call it a Divine law; those are labels, but the regulator, that regulates all these things within our systems is there. So the unbeliever, or the atheist, too, slowly recognises a regulator within the system that governs the mind and body. Because now his body has improved, his mind has improved. Because of activating through meditation, those powers resident in him, he becomes more integrated. An integrated person is a balanced person, and a balanced person can live a life more harmoniously. And when man, through meditation, finds harmony within himself, he automatically becomes harmonious in his environment. A month ago, daddy was very horrible, so irritable. We could not come near him, but a month after meditation, daddy was so lovely, the children wanted to sit on his lap. He becomes more loveable. He has become more loving because he is now a whole person. He is a self-integrated person. These are the purposes of meditation, and man must find his way.

HAVE AN OPEN MIND

Spiritual teachers, gurus, are there to show ways. In our methods of meditation, which is a scientific method, it is not necessary to accept the teachings of a particular guru. You can get the teachings of any guru if they suit your temperament, and having an open mind, you analyse which could suit your temperament the most.

We have hundreds and hundreds of meditators, and within a brief period, within seven days, people do find some benefit, and that has nothing to do with me. I am just an interpreter of eternal laws and how eternal laws can be used, how they can be activated within ourselves, and how they can be displayed or used for the common good of man and his environment.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1976- 2B