The topic for the English Satsang on Sunday, 14th April, 2013 was ‘Saints of India.’
Following is the transcript of the Q & A between the audience and Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.
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Q. Please throw more light on unconditional love for God.
Dr. J: See, these are intuitive feelings and throwing any amount of light and such like does not help. This has to come from within.
Smt. H: There is not much to say about this, it does have to come from within and a person develops this slowly when he sees that nothing that happens in life is in our hands. Slowly faith increases and later even becomes unconditional but that is a process of development.
Q. I keep feeling scared when doing business with anyone. Why is that so?
Dr. J: Don’t do such business.
Smt. H: If your business begins with fear, how will you do business? Not everyone can do business. Those who do business have a different personality than those who do service. So be careful and if you are feeling fear, then do not do business.
Q. Should we go to temple even though at times we forget its existence?
Dr. J: Then why to go at that time? If you believe in Him, then go.
Smt. H: I would say that leave the temple for those people who are simple in thinking and cannot look at the world from any other logic or reasoning. You sit quietly at home, close your eyes and try and see the God within you. We are supposed to do that, rather than join in with the crowd in temples.
Q. It is right that you should not only remember God once a day, but a true devotee has God within himself. Then why should he remember God throughout the day?
Dr. J: Because, see, he forgets. He has got a very poor memory. That is why he has to be reminded.
Smt. H: And I would put it the other way round also, that you need not remember God, but don’t get lost in the world also. If you get lost in the world and forget that there is something like God, then the whole problem starts. Look at the world very objectively. Take neither happiness nor pain from the world. Take nutrition out of the world and that is how the lotus is. The lotus is a great symbol of yoga. It is born in muck. The world is muck. But the lotus is a separate entity coming out of it. The lotus is above all that. So somehow if we can live this way, we don’t need to specially remember God, do your work. Work itself is worship. Don’t live your life for selfish reasons. Do whatever you can for others.
Q. You said, do not do tension. I am a student. When I am not tense, I don’t study at all. When tension comes, real study begins. So what should we do? Tension is a part of a student’s life.
Dr. J: You yourself say that tension is a part of a student’s life. If that is the case then there is no problem. Tension will keep coming, you keep studying.
Smt. H: I would not call it as tension. During exam time it is time pressure. Some things have to be completed in certain amount of time. This is necessary in life. They gave you an example here in one of the stories (skits). A man was told he will die in seven days, so there was time pressure on him. How did he live those seven days? Forget all the tension. Give yourself pressure, not tension. In those seven days, the man learnt so much – no worries, no anxieties, just living life happily and remembering God. He learnt to do that and throughout life that lesson was useful for him. So don’t mix tension with pressure. I would say apply time pressure to everything in life, everyday, for all routine work. So this is how you can train yourself. It is just a question of that. So tension is something different, it means you are emotionally involved – “what will happen if I don’t finish?” Here comes that stupid free mind which can imagine anything and create problem. In place of tension, have faith that whatever will happen will be good. “I will remember the right answer at the time and write it.” So understand this, separate these two things and work in life.
Q. Faith heals us. What is the mechanism of this healing?
Dr. J: See, it works on the mind. The mind completely gives itself up to God, or to Higher Process or to Faith and submits. And when complete submission comes, the individual’s own worries go.
Smt. H: Exactly. The mind which is destructive – tension, worries, anxiety, likes, dislikes – that mind is stopped from creating destruction. You stop being negative and worrying. Then we only benefit from it.
Q. Inspite of so many great saints in India, why is the situation so miserable morally, socially and economically. Kindly throw some light for improvement.
Dr. J: See now that you have started thinking of this, you will yourself help in creating that kind of feeling.
Smt H: Actually I was discussing with you people that the thinkers of old time were telling me that these things were present in those days also. Rape, womanizing etc. used to happen in those times also. In Ram’s time itself, Ram had to promise that he would have only one wife, it means that that was a rare thing. It was a very common thing to have more than one wife. Now these days, those things are being highlighted. In those days it was done discretely, but it used to happen because human weaknesses were there right from the beginning. Don’t think that people were stronger earlier and not people have become weak. Now wrong things are being highlighted more and our education and lifestyle have gone so much in the wrong direction. These things are seen right from childhood. Now if we have become aware of what is wrong and right and are clear about it, things will definitely improve, I have full faith.
Satsang is an open meeting held every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:30 am at The Yoga Institute, Santacruz East, Mumbai. It involves an interesting presentation to the public, made by the students of the Teacher Training Course. Each week, a new presentation of a Yogic concept is made in a simple way through skits and decoration for the general public, followed by a short speech from our Gurus, Dr. Jayadeva and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.