DISCOURSES & TALKS BY MEHER BABA

 

SANSKARAS

 

 

30th March, 1926

 

The whole world is enmeshed in the grip of lust for women and wealth, while the real aim of life is to achieve the Truth. Unless God is realized, the purpose of acquiring a human body is frustrated, and the real object of life remains unfulfilled.

 

But Realization is impossible until intelligence is purified and freed of imagination. This can only be achieved by keeping the company of saints. For this reason, intimate contact with a Master is essential for Realization. But such Real Heroes [Perfect Ones] are very, very rare, while the world abounds with fakes and hypocrites who pose as divine guides. How can one who has not had the Experience of Truth guide others toward it?

 

 

Lord Meher On-line page 647

Lord Meher Vol.3 p.787

 

 

 

19th May, 1926

 

While explaining about sanskaras, Baba stated:

 

By keeping company with a God-realized being, a person's worldly sanskaras get burned up through the Master's spiritual heat. That is why those near a Sadguru derive great spiritual benefit, and the merit of those who serve the Master is indeed immense.

 

But their contact can only be formed if you have good sanskaras and deep devotion — the preparedness of past lives. Whatever we are, it is because of our sanskaras. When we are completely free from the bindings of sanskaras, we realize God.

 

Take the example of a ball of twine with many knots in it. The twine itself is in illusion because it finds itself bound by knots. The knots are the sanskaras and the twine is the soul. Because the soul is unconscious of its own Self as God, its attention remains focused on the knots. To be freed from its knots, it must be taken hold of at both ends and twisted in the opposite direction — then all the knots will automatically come undone. The instant the twine is free of knots, it becomes conscious of the reality that it is twine (soul) and not knots (sanskaras), which had formed a snare of the body and mind.

 

Lord Meher On-line page 656

Lord Meher Vol.3 p.796-8

 

 

28th November, 1926

 

Baba commented about sanskaras:

 

It is the same with sanskaras. Every thought, word and action of a human being creates sanskaras. Good thoughts, words, and deeds create good sanskaras, and bad thoughts, words, and deeds create bad ones. But either way, sanskaras are being created. They can never be eliminated unless one is lucky enough to incur the grace of a guru and become Realized.

 

Even the great yogis with their years of penances — even those who have reached the sixth plane — are unable to rid themselves of their sanskaric impressions. What they can do during meditation and samadhi is to stop the production and growth of new sanskaras. But what of the past store of sanskaras accumulated for years and ages? They remain. Even a great yogi [of the fourth plane] cannot destroy them with all his might and powers. They can only be destroyed by the grace of a God-realized Master who destroys them by uprooting the mind and making a person Realized.

 

When such great yogis cannot manage to destroy their past sanskaras, what of you ordinary human beings? It is for this reason that a Persian poet has said: "If you ask my advice I would say, 'Do nothing.' And if you do anything, do it without caring about the result."

 

Over the ages, you have collected a mixture of good and bad sanskaras, like the black and white hairs on one's head and beard. Yogis can erase sanskaras superficially as done when shaving, but a Sadguru can root them out completely; and when they are plucked out permanently, advancement on the Path is possible. All sanskaras must be eradicated in the mind so that they may not reproduce again.

So to stop the creation of new sanskaras and to destroy the past ones, have the company and sahavas of a guru who is Realized. A guru who is God-conscious is like a living furnace, burning away everything — good, bad, past, and present — all sanskaras.

 

Lord Meher  O/L p 748

 

 

13 February, 1927

 

On 13 February, while discoursing about the mind, sanskaras and the manner in which they work, Baba explained:

 

The process of spending old sanskaras and creating new ones applies to ordinary people, the masses of humanity. For those members of his circle, however, the Sadguru stops this creation of new sanskaras and gradually destroys the old ones. And when all the sanskaras are wiped away, Realization is immediately given.

The working of the minds of the members of a Sadguru's circle is like a wheel turning in only one direction for the wiping-off process; the working of the minds of other human beings is like a wheel turning first in one direction and then in the other, like the balance wheel of a watch or clock. In short, the total destruction of sanskaras, old and new, enables one to be ready for Realization.

Baba sketched a diagram of two circles, and arrows around them, illustrating his point, about the minds of ordinary people turning in two directions, back and forth, compared to the minds of a Perfect Master's circle members turning in only one direction.

 

 

 

As far as Realized beings are concerned, it is only those who come down after Realization for duty to the universe who understand and realize the workings of the world and the mind. Compared to ordinary persons, it is the same as a child who is given a mirror. What does the child do? He looks into it, and being quite ignorant and unconscious of his own image, tries to strike the other face in the mirror which he thinks belongs to another person.

Now a grown-up adult, whose senses are much more developed, would never behave like that. He would see the image of his own face in the mirror and would realize and understand that the self-image is reflected only because of the mirror, and that the image is false and himself real — existing.

 

It is the same with those who are Realized and have come back down to the world for the sake of duty to the universe. To them, you are all like children.

 

Lord Meher On-line page 780-1

Lord Meher Vol.3 p.910-1

 

22 February, 1927

 

On 22 February, Baba again spoke about the enormous amount of past sanskaras that all accumulate through evolution and involution. "Even for the Sadguru," Baba stated, "time is required for the wiping away and annihilation of the past sanskaras of his circle members, which he must do if he is to give them Realization."

 

Giving a simile, Baba said:

 

If you are to be awakened from a dream in which you had been enjoying a pleasant ride in a motorcar, you need something like a tiger or a demon whose terrifying aspect would frighten you and thus jolt you into wakefulness. And when you are awakened, you find that there is neither the ride in the motorcar nor the tiger. In short, a "tiger" must come, which means that your sanskaras must be reversed if they are to be destroyed.

These sanskaras are like a huge ball of twine whose threads are interwoven with each other in such an awkward way as to make it very difficult and at points impossible to disentangle all the interweaving.

 

If you exert force, you run the risk of breaking the twine. And in the state of Realization and Perfection, this twine must be preserved quite intact, unbroken, and free from knots along its length if the one who is realized is to be made conscious of the world and brought down for duty. The abrupt and haphazard breaking of threads here and there in the effort to disentangle the knots or the complete destruction of the threads by burning would render the realized person unconscious [of the world] and would thus make him a majzoob, as the original string of chaitanya [consciousness] would thereby be destroyed.

 

Giving another example, Baba continued:

 

If you hold an umbrella over your head on a sunny day and shout aloud, "Oh, where is the Sun? Show it to me!" — how absurd this would be! For the sun does actually exist and it shines over you and everyone, even at the time when you are shouting. It is only the umbrella held firmly in your hands that prevents you from seeing the sun.

 

Just as the umbrella held in your hand prevents you from looking at the sun in the sky, the "umbrella" of your sanskaras prevents you from seeing the Sun of Truth. And mark the contrast! Of what consideration is a tiny umbrella when held up against such a vast ball of light as the sun which shines upon and brightens the whole universe! And yet the umbrella does prevent the sun's rays from reaching your sight. This umbrella is held so firmly in your hands that consummate skill and great lengths of time are required for the loosening of your grip. Only the Sadguru is capable of this. Only the Sadguru can help to loosen this firm grip of yours through your absolute surrender and submission to his orders.

 

Lord Meher O/N p.784 - 785

 

 

 

 18 November, 1927

 

To illustrate the working of sanskaras, Baba took a mirror out of his coat pocket one day and explained:

 

Suppose this mirror represents the mind's sanskaras while chaitanya [consciousness, awareness] is unconscious consciousness. Now the moment chaitanya is created in the unconscious mind, it arouses the sound sleep state of God to know its Self. Also at that moment sanskaras begin. The mirror, which was placed aside, now begins to move toward the eyes.

Drawing a diagram on a chalk board to illustrate his point of a mirror lying flat, then gradually being tilted to an upright position, Baba continued:

 

One of the first movements of consciousness takes the mirror to the stone form where only a corner of the mirror falls within the boundary of one's vision [the mirror is raised only slightly]. The next movement, to the vegetable form, brings a greater area of the mirror within sight. The next, to the worm, fish, bird and animal kingdoms, brings a still greater area into view. Then the final movement, toward the human form, brings the entire area of the mirror before the eyes and one sees his own reflection therein and believes the reflection — the shadow of the Self — to be the Real Self or I, which is not true.

So the mirror, which was slanted with the evolution of forms, is slowly brought upright with heightened consciousness.

 

 

But the soul, instead of seeing itself inside and toward its own body, sees into the reflection in the mirror and what it sees is illusion.

 

So what should it do now to see the Self? It must remove the mirror; not only remove it, but destroy it! That is, one must destroy the sanskaras which create illusion. If you do not destroy them, they remain as they are and present themselves again and again whenever you take birth. In other words, the mirror is there, even when you have left bodies after bodies and taken another. Therefore, remove this mirror of sanskaras and see your own Real Self.

 

 

Lord Meher On-line page 857

Lord Meher Vol.3 p.977

 

 

18 December, 1927