We may make mistakes, our body and mind, but the soul remains ever pure. The soul is a witness to the action. It is not affected by any action that we might do. We all make mistakes.
The baby soul—we are all baby souls, otherwise we would not be on earth—inevitably makes mistakes during the process of its evolution. The purpose of coming to earth is to learn from these mistakes. Mistakes are our best teachers. Without mistakes, we do not grow. Each time we make a mistake, pain comes as a consequence. We learn to avoid the painful experience, like a child. The other day I saw a little girl sitting by an oil lamp looking at it longingly. She wanted to pour oil into it, but her father said no. She kept quiet, but the moment her father looked away, she tried to pour oil in and was burned. She now knows to keep clear of the lamp. We all learn like this, through suffering. Without suffering, we do not grow. Through suffering, we learn the difference between right and wrong and we start to question what it is that we are doing wrong.
We often try to find a way to escape suffering the consequences of our actions. We may think we can do anything we want and get away with it, that no one has seen, there’s no witness. But there is a witness who watches our action always, even when we sleep. That witness is God or soul or Self—we may call it what we wish. We can never escape from this witness however hard we try. However much we try to camouflage our actions, there will be a witness and there will always be a karmic reaction. That is the law. We cannot escape our karma, our action. Whatever action we do, there will be a reaction, the action will come back to us. Today Bharata was kind and gave me some sweets; at some point in the future when he is in pain or in difficulty, someone will be kind to him. But if he had instead stolen my sweets, then at a later date there would be a reaction that would bring him suffering.
There are ways you can escape from this suffering. One of these is to follow the path of jnana yoga. In jnana yoga we identify with the Self, the pure Self, the soul that witnesses. Let me give you an example. If you write a beautiful poem, we don’t praise the pen and the hand for the poem. People think it is you, your mind, your intellect that is creative, intelligent and sensitive to have written such a poem. The jnani goes one step further and says that even behind the intellect there is something—the witness, the soul, the Self—the mind and the intellect are just a reflection of this Self. The jnani does not identify with the mind, the body or the action. He sees them as separate from his true Self. The jnani separates the actor from the acting.
Once you realise that you are the Self, the concept of ‘sin’ rolls away like water off a lotus leaf. The Self, like the lotus leaf, is not affected by any wrong or right, good or bad action. The problems come only when we do not identify with the Self. We identify with our mind, our body, our actions. We see ourselves as doing good actions or bad actions, or we blame ‘karma’ for our situation. This is a big mistake. Gurudev Swami Sivananda used to exhort us to exert. “Do purushartha (effort). Do tapas (discipline). Make an effort, be disciplined. Concentrate, purify, meditate.”
When we look at karma, there are two aspects to consider: firstly, there is the karma which is the action you perform and its result, as in “my karma has brought all these problems to me,” and secondly, purushartha, which is the action you perform through willpower, effort. We know that once we have performed an action we can’t change the result, we will reap the fruits. But we have full control over the action we are going to perform right now or in the future. The mistake, the wrong action we did in the past has put us in the painful place we are now in. Remember that if we do a negative action, we will have pain. The trick is to avoid doing the negative action. We have full control over the actions we are going to do, just as the man who has arrows in his quiver has full control over where he is going to shoot. He can shoot anywhere he wants—right, left, above, or he can decide not to shoot at all. But once the arrow has been shot, he has no control, it is too late. As long as an action is not performed, then we still can control that action by not doing it. But once the action is performed, we have no control over it and it will bring a reaction.
So you need to use purushartha, free will, effort to exert. You promise yourself you will get up early to meditate. But you wake up, blame karma, roll over and go back to sleep!!! This is wrong. You have full control over your present and future actions. So purushartha—exert. Exert! Never say karma. Otherwise, you will suffer. No one can suffer for you. You can go to a party, get drunk and eat all the turkey you want but it is you who will get sick. No-one else. So, it’s up to you. We suffer so we can avoid the actions that cause the suffering. We are all free. We are here to work out our karma. If a thing has to happen, it will. If not, it won’t. It depends on our past actions, on what we have done in the past. We cannot change that. We cannot run away. Don’t be a fatalist. Don’t give in to inertia. Don’t bleat like a lamb. Swami Sivananda used to tell us to roar OM OM OM like a lion of Vedanta. You can change your karma through your will. You can perform an action understanding the consequences or you can act blindly, with no heed to the future.
No one is given special status by God. There is no doubt that whatever others have done you can also do. You create your own standing and you can change it because you created it yourself. And you can change your nature. You are the master of your own destiny. If things go wrong, you can always change direction. You can work miracles if you apply yourself to Sadhana such as tapas and meditation, repeating the Om Namo Narayanaya mantra and pranayama. When you practice these, you automatically increase your willpower. Develop a program for your life. I’m not talking egoistically now, but had I left India thinking that someone would help me, I would never have left. There was no money. But I knew that by hard work—not only hard physical work, but also mental work—by intense pranayama and intense japa, I would be able to go. All these things strengthen the mind and body and then everything comes to you. Nothing happens by accident. Once I was in London and we badly needed some money for the Centre there. Suddenly, at midnight, a call comes telling us that we had received a donation of $80,000. I didn’t know the donor and I didn’t know why he was giving. All I knew was that we needed money. It was and is all God’s grace.
Do intense pranayama, japa, asanas, service, karma yoga and things will come to you. It is not money that brings you what you want. It is the power of thought. When you do something negative, instead of having the next meal, do ten japa mala. Your willpower will increase, and your mind will strengthen. And the power is stored; it is never lost. Because his motive was pure, the student who gave $80,000 will receive dividends in this life, as well as in the next life, and the next. If he had put the money in the bank or bought stocks and shares with that money what would have happened to the stock…… Crash!
I have just created a bank in Gangotri, on the top of Vishnu Peak, called the Om Namo Narayanaya Bank!! I have put all the Om Namo Narayanaya mantras written by students into the bank and buried them in a cave there. And I am quite sure that dividends will come out of them from which you also will benefit. Everyone’s thought in the form of the written mantra is buried there. And because we know that mantra has power, all those Om Namo Narayanaya mantras are continually radiating power. Most people do not understand this power. They understand only money, diamonds, gold. Today the diamond is valuable, the next day—finished. Today you own lots of dollars, the next day—gone. Is it not better to meditate, repeat Om Namo Narayanaya, have no money and worry about nothing? Even if everything collapses tomorrow, you will still have your clothes. If you can say that you are richer than a billionaire. With all the money they have, they cannot buy the peace you have, the freedom, the inner strength you have. You don’t have to run for tranquillizers, sleeping pills, wake-up pills or fight alcoholism. How free you are. Understand this freedom that you cannot buy. I have nothing. Even so, with only this pair of clothes, I can go anywhere in the world. Remember, all that you give comes back to you. As you start giving, everything starts coming to you in a different way. Your mind becomes stronger and more powerful. Your thought becomes powerful. Things will materialize for you by mere thought alone. Have renunciation. Do everything in the service of the humanity. Then you will have everything.
Become desireless. If you have no desire, you are the king of kings. Even Indra, the king of the heavens, is like a beggar. He wants all the comforts and conveniences. He achieved his position through good action and charity, but that will also disappear. He worries about who will take his post, like a worldly man. But I can sleep comfortably in my house with no worries. I always pray to Gurudev not to give too much money. Money is the worst thing; all you need is just enough to keep your head above water—that is enough. Then you will have to work and through work you will learn the right path. You will learn that the future is dependent upon God and not on a bank balance or the stock market. The stock market collapsed yesterday, and yet no one here despaired. Instead we have peace and love and compassion. Help others and do not worry about money. If you have money, use it for the good of humanity. Here life is taken care of through Gurudev and God. Have full faith in God and Gurudev. There is nothing to worry about. When you give, everyone starts giving. Then the world becomes heaven. That’s Gurudev’s message today. May Lord bless you all.