Each one of us, we think, well, this is me. I know me. I, me, mine.
That's what I know. That's what I am.
But we forget that the sum total of that that makes you exactly what you are today
is a conglomeration, kind of a chaotic conglomeration, sometimes, of all of the things
that you have thought and done and desired over eons of the incarnations.
Not only do we gather karma or the effects of our good and erroneous actions, you all know that,
and you know that Kriya and energizing, stimulating, magnetizing consciously
that life force in those spiritual centers, helps to dislodge, to erase
a lot of the effects of the actions that we carried with us through incarnations.
But there's also a subtler part that we don't always want to take responsibility for
and that is what the scriptures would call samskaras.
Those are the little traces of past life - thoughts, actions, habits
and they influence more than we can begin to conceive or that we would want to conceive
what we are and what we do.
There's a little bit of what we call it an analogy in India.
Master loved to speak about it and tell the tale.
He said that you know, of course, it's a sacred rite ritual to bathe in holy waters in the Ganges.
But it is also said that when one goes to take a holy dip
then because his bad habits or his sins don't like that vibration
they jump out and they sit on the bank
and they wait until he comes out and then they catch him again.
And he wonders - now I've had my holy dip why am I irritated because my wife doesn't have the food ready,
my children aren't doing what I've asked them to do? I don't like my job. What? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Well, it's these funny little things that are called samskaras that make up our character
and our behavior and they're very much influenced by just thought. What we think. They are activated.
Master was very stringent about anyone coming around him in a mood, in a dark or negative mood.
He wouldn't even need to look up to see who it was,
but if they came into his presence, into his room, he would say, "Go."
"Don't bring that mood around to me. Go until you have gotten over that mood." And you did.
It was a wonderful way of learning to overcome. So that's the same way when you're doing your Kriya,
you're having your meditation. And don't think something isn't happening on that deep level,
the deep spiritual level of your consciousness.
You are being changed every time you practice meditation deeply.
But Master says when you leave your meditation take the effects of your meditation with you.
That means don't let life, he liked to say quote that "Don't let life get your goat."
He said your goat is your peace, your goat is your relationship with God.
Don't let life and its irritations take that away from you.