Higher qualities always transcend the physical, and this we see in the life of bhaktas. After all, who is a bhakta? Generally, people translate bhakta as a devotee, yet it is a gross translation.
In reality, a bhakta is that person who has purified their heart, who has cleaned their mind, and their focus is now not on the senses or sense objects, but on the higher experience.
In the 1940s and 50s, there was a saint in India, Meher Baba, and he was a ‘mast.’ Mast means intoxicated, God-intoxicated. He established an organization, called the Mast organization. People who used to go to him, used to be completely intoxicated by his divine aura. Not around him, but inside them. They used to get connected to that. Similarly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, another great bhakta, used to inspire thousands and thousands of people who used to be totally intoxicated by his presence and the mantras. He would only sing the Mahamantra. Due to the influence and intoxication that would be created in people, many of the cut-throats of the time, completely changed their way of life. There is a saying that by singing the name of Hari, even the worst of people like Jagai and Madhai, were liberated. So, that is a different state of mind.
The entire experience of life is based on mind. We have a gross mind, a tamasic mind, yet the expressions of tamas have to change into expressions of sattwa. How will the sattwa expressions be experienced? The intellect is gross; it is material, it is worldly. When this gross, material, worldly mind is applied to the spiritual dimension, the realization is identified as a philosophy. The mind cannot grasp the experience which is beyond the tamasic mind.
Even in life it is difficult and challenging to adopt a good nature, as it contradicts your nature. Are the people who claim to be spiritual able to experience that purity? Are they able to experience that harmony? Are they able to experience peace? It is difficult and challenging, so spirituality only remains an idea, ‘I want to be That, but I cannot become That.’ If we want to transform the mind, the intellect from being tamasic to sattwic, then how much time do we give it and how much time do we give to our worldly environment? People give more time to family, profession, household, friends and society. The majority of time is spent in that. For half an hour you close your eyes and expect transcendental experiences through meditation; that is not going to work. That will never happen.
The weight of the negative scale is much more than the weight of the positive scale. It is completely lopsided. The negative scale is more heavy; the positive is lighter. So make this positive scale heavier, so that the negative side goes up. Do you spend any time in making sure that it happens? Do you think that fifteen minutes to half an hour of meditation is enough to remove the dross of the mind?
Nobody has been able to experience purity of mind. That is the reality. It is the ego which defies who I am. There are thousands of people who wear orange, there are thousands of people who claim to be gurus, there are thousands of people who can speak good sentences and words. Do they live them? Do they apply what they say to others to themselves? In six decades of my life, I have not found a single sannyasin who has actually applied what they have said, on themselves. They are good orators, no doubt. People can say there are good people who can explain and talk about things, yet oration or explaining something is totally different to what you experience within.
So, nobody has been able to transcend even the basic quality of their mind. Those who have, have had to cut off all connections with the external world. Swami Sivananda had to cut all his connections and ties to everything that was his in material life, including family, friends, associations and contacts. He had to die, to live again. Swami Satyananda did the same; he had to die and disconnect from everything that he was in the past, to become Swami Satyananda. Is anybody willing to die? If nobody is willing to die and cut, then why expect anything? You should not expect anything, because you are not leaving your grip on the material world and still you want to be fully enlightened and spiritual.
25 January 2025, Ganga Darshan, Munger