Similarly, in life situations also, when you face a challenge and you make the
other person yours, the challenge is gone.
Then Nature will make sure that you have another bigger challenge.
You solve that, another bigger one will come.
So, life is like that.
And that is the beauty of life.
I am able to meditate only on Lord Krishna.
How do I meditate on different forms of God?
You see, we have this respect, honor, reverence and love towards the great
personalities, avatara purushas [divine incarnations] like Lord Krishna,
Lord Rama, Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha, you name them, they are all great.
What is real about Lord Krishna or any Gods or Goddesses?
What appeals to us is their quality first.
Further, we do not know much.
So we have to wait.
In meditation we remain prayerful, prarthana mayi, without any expectations, that
“God, whosoever you are, I do not know you.” I have to accept that thing first.
Does anyone know God?
No.
So our prayer should be that, “God, I am sorry.
I do not know you.” That is the first - acceptance.
Second thing, we proceed with meditation - waiting.
“Whatever you are, I would like to experience your presence and
become like you.” That is all.
So slowly we start changing, little by little, little by little, to the extent
we can tolerate that level of purity.
Instantly if your personality is changed, what will happen?
Your brain will not be able to withstand that change.
So slowly our system, the entire physical, mental, emotional, spiritual,
it has to align with the pure vibrations that God is all about.
So what do we learn from this, from what I have said?
Just remain open-minded, waiting, little by little - “God yes, I would
like to eventually become like you”.
Being a layman without meditation, can we reach God with our deeds and activities?
It hurts me personally, when we all think ourselves to be ordinary, a layman.
The soul that is in you, in me and in Lord Krishna then, they are not ordinary.
We become ordinary because of our own samskaras [impressions] and
samskaras are our own creation.
As you correctly say it, our deeds, our actions, thoughts, our attitude, basically
our ‘conditioning’, makes us what we are - rajasik [egoism, activity, and desire],
tamasik [inertness and procrastination] or satvik, [peace, calmness, and
nobility], in broad category, you see.
Our Heartfulness way is there to remove this conditioning, free us, so that the
real nature of the soul is perceived, ‘real nature’ of atman is perceived.
The greatness of the soul then manifests itself in us.
So we have to recognize the greatness of that.
We are not ordinary, we are not lay-people.
If you continue to think that “I am weak, I am a layman, I am ordinary’”
then you will reinforce this.
So it is good to think that “I am on my way towards God, my father, and when I meet
Him I will make Him proud.” That is all.
And we are trying to meet Him every morning, every evening, every moment,
rather, through our thoughts and actions.
Constant Remembrance is one way of always associating ourselves with that ‘inner
deity’, ‘inner force’, whether you call it atman [soul], or you call it ‘rooh’ [soul].
How to focus on meditation when feeling stressed?
I give a mundane, very small example, like where you want to build muscles,
or when you want to lose weight.
You go to the gym.
And what do they teach you there?
They create resistance.
They make you lift weight.
And all those exercises are to create resistance and build your muscles.
Of course the first few days you will have a lot of pain.
But as you start seeing the results that, “Oh, I am having my good biceps and my ‘six
packs’ are developing”, it encourages you.
“Okay, let me do more and more.” Similarly, in life situations also when you face
a challenge and you make the other person yours, the challenge is gone.
Then nature will make sure that you have another bigger challenge.
You solve that, another bigger one will come.
So, life is like that.
And that is the beauty of life.
What happens to people who evolve themselves like the Great Masters,
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Kabir saheb, Buddha, Guru Nanak saheb, you name them.
Everyone had their own problems.
But then, they were not shaken by their personal problems.
Then they borrowed the problems of their devotees.
Then the other problem comes : “How can I change the world and make it
a better place?” Earlier, you were limited to your own individual problems.
Then you got married, then you have invited many other problems, right?
And then you become a saint out of the sufferings.
And then you start worrying about world problems.
They do not end.
Imagine God’s problems.
I mean you have first prayed to Him, “Please help me, please help
me, please help me.” Imagine even two people coming to you for help.
What happens to you?
Even small help ,you will say, “saala beggar aagaya mere ghar pe [this beggar has
come home]; aatha hi rahta hai, aatha hi rahata hai [keeps coming, keeps coming]”.
So it all depends on us, how we resist or accept problems.