Picture: Master walking with disciples at Lake Shrine
“He touched on many topics, and counseled us to be more grave, but cheerful. ‘Don’t waste time,’ he said. ‘No one else can give you the desire for God; you must cultivate that yourself. The Lord Himself can’t give it to you. Learn to want Him. Don’t intellectualize and rationalize, and never doubt. Give your time to meditation and to experiencing inwardly the Divine Power.
“’Don’t sleep a great deal. Sleep is the unconscious way of contacting God. Meditation is the state beyond sleep. Don’t joke all the time with each other. Be happy and cheerful inside. Why waste your perception in useless words? Words are like bullets; when you spend them in idle talking, your supply of inner ammunition is wasted. It is like a milk pail: when you fill it up with the peace of meditation you ought to keep it that way. Joking is often false fun, which drives holes in the sides of your bucket and allows all the milk of your peace to run out.
“’Wine, sex, and money—these are the three greatest delusions. Some men are weak, but what of that? If they will meditate they will get a sense of comparison with something better, and will automatically forsake their bad habits. You can conquer these delusions only by experience of Reality. Sex seems attractive, but if you could learn the real spiritual union, how much more wonderful you would find it!
“’Don’t waste time on distractions, reading a great deal, and so on. Reading is good, if it truly instructive. But when reading takes the place of meditation, then it is spiritually worthless. Read a little for inspiration, but spend most of your time in meditation and silence. Just think: every week 100 books are printed. You couldn’t read them all if you wanted to. The most brilliant person in the world can learn only the merest fraction about the world around him. The scientist knows so much, but he can’t explain how ever a leaf was made. Why chew other people’s ideas by reading all the time? I always say, ‘If you read one hour, then write two hours, think three hours and meditate all the time.’ No matter how intensely the organization keeps me busy, I always practice my Kriya Yoga and meditate.
“Develop your powers of devotion to God. If you pick up even a straw and give it to God, He will accept your devotion. And the respect that you give to me, give to one another. Be kind to one another, just as you have been kind to me. To see evil in someone is to desecrate him, because the Lord is behind even the evil. To see good in others is to see God there.
“If others fool away their time, you be lost in God. You will go ahead. Prepare yourself. This work will spread all over the world. Love people with divine love and be only with those that love the Lord. Let your example be the way to change others’ lives. Reform yourself and you will reform thousands. Don’t think of yourself. Egotism is the hardest thing to overcome. When people say good things about you, give the credit to Him. Love Him. Cry for Him. What does anything matter, so long as you find Him! Throw yourself into God, be filled with His love and joy. If you could feel even a little bit of the bliss I know, you would understand what you are missing.”