O’ Lord ! O’ My Lord ! May I never forget You !

God has bestowed upon man a lot of material for God. Realization. He has got a long life of many years, while God-Realization can be attained within minutes. He has been granted a lot of thinking power. God has bestowed man with so much material that he may attain God-Realization several times, but after attaining once, there is no need of attaining Him, the second time. God has given us a variety of very wonderful stuff. As you have known since childhood "I am the same". This is a simple fact. The places, time, things, men, events and circumstances all have changed, but I am the same. I am the same but the body and the companions are not the same. If you give up that which changes and grab hold of the one who does not change, you are relieved of all the worldly distress right now, at this very moment. Whatever changes, is not I (myself) and what does not change is I (myself).

You are the same in different circumstances and events. You are the same after roaming several countries and after the passage of a very long time. Everything changes, but you are the same. If you see the kaleidoscopic world as different from you, you get real joy and metaphysical knowledge. But if you mix the two and see as one, that is ignorance.

The strivers whether they are brothers or sisters want to make their mind free from defects and alterations. They think that if the pleasures and pains, favourable and unfavourable circumstances don't have any effect on their minds, they have achieved metaphysical knowledge, otherwise not. Try to understand this important point in the right perspective. Who have their effect? The mind, intellect, body, sense have their effect, but you are the same. When there is a profit, there is happiness in the mind, but when there is a loss of money, there is sadness in the mind. The mind has two kinds of effect in case of profit and loss. But you are the same. Were you different when there was a profit?

Were you different when there was a loss? If you have not been the same, who might have known the profit and the loss? You remain even and the same. You are not affected but the mind and intellect are affected.

The body, senses, mind and intellect all these are kaleidoscopic. If they are affected and changed, so what? But the error that you commit is that you accept yourself happy and sad, when they are affected. Stick to the fact-"I am the same in both happiness and sadness". To get established in yourself is to be healthy (Swastha), viz., to be established in self (Swa). To be happy and sad means to be established in Matter. By being established in Matter you have to experience joys and sorrows. Why? Because you get established in Matter and accept the effect on the body, senses, mind and intellect as effect on you. You intentionally get established in Matter while you are not actually established. You are different from pleasure and pain, profit and loss, birth and death. You intentionally identify yourself with Matter and experience joys and sorrows, and then say, "Sir, we have not attained spiritual perception". Only stick to the fact that you are the same. You are established in the self that is all. Self is always unaltered and uniform. There is no defect or alteration in the self. The defect can be there in the inner sense but by identifying yourself with it, you accept yourself as defective and experience pleasure and pains.

Sometimes I am very much surprised to see the obstacle. I don‘t talk about sinful actions. It never comes to my mind that the people, who have association with the good, commit a sin. You have come here, for the association of the good, for listening to Spiritual discourses, and for adoration, meditation and benediction. If you commit sins, why have you come here? Never commit a sin even by mistake. Don't do any unjust action even in dream. Give up the idea of sin totally. Even then if evil or good propensities such as sadness, worry, attachment, jealousy or happiness come to your mind, get established in yourself, don’t identify yourself with them.

To identify yourself with them means to be established in Matter. By getting established in Matter you will be responsible for the sins, will face the shackles of birth and death and also face sorrows; everything will happen. This "union with the constituents of Matter is responsible for the birth of the soul in good and evil species" (XIII. 21).

The things are made and perish, the objects appear and disappear. See them but continue to be established in yourself, because you are the looker-on. This is a rule that the locker-on is different from the objects to be seen. You see the favourable and the unfavourable circumstances. You also see the attachment and detachment. But is there any difference in the looker-on? You as the locker-on remain the same.

Suppose we are standing on the bank of the Ganges. There so many wood logs floating by and we burst into laughter that thinking what great joy! The next day we don't ‘see any logs of wood floating that way and we start weeping. If anybody asks us, "Why do you weep?" And we say, "Today no floating logs of wood have passed this side, all have floated on the other side." Think over it what difference does it make to you, if they float this side or that side? You don't touch them, they don't live with you. They flow while you are standing. If the logs float near you, you feel happy but if they float far away from you, you start weeping. This is nothing but folly.

Similarly suppose a son is born, you feel happy, but if he dies you start weeping. If a son is born to anyone else and dies, you are neither happy at his birth nor sad at his death. In the same way if anyone earns money and then loses it, you don't weep but if it happens to you, you lament for it. Why do you lament? It was not yours in the past, you got it afterwards and again it has gone away. You are the same as you were in the past without the money. Then why do you lament?

If you get established in yourself, nothing can touch you. Why do you weep? If you attach yourself to the passing events, circumstances, objects and persons, then, uselessly you will have to weep. You have caught the sorrows yourself without any reason, just like catching a shooting arrow. God has not created sorrows, actually sorrows have no existence. But you feel sorrowful yourself by having affinity with the perishable things. You are very fond of it.

You may feel your identity with them but don't identify yourself. See that you are different from them. When you see yourself clearly different from them, no defect will remain in you. But if you identify yourself with them, the defects and alterations will continue to exist.

Answer:- You are not merged at all. If you had been merged, you might have also changed with childhood, youth and old age. But you say that you are the same while the childhood, the youth have passed and the old age has arrived. You know the three stages. The knower is different from the stages to be known. Therefore, are you different from them or one with them? Actually you have no identity with them, and you know it, yet you accept your identity with them. Therefore don't accept your identity with them from today.

Answer:-- You should respect your experience and the Words of the Gita. It may seem that they are merged and are one, but accept the fact that you are different from them. You have experienced that the body has changed from the childhood to the present age but you are the same. Therefore, accept it on the basis of this experience that the body is different from you. If you don't feel your separation, pray to God restlessly, "Great-Sire, I am not feeling that I am different from the worldly things." But have a firm belief that you are different. If you are not different, the body should not live here but should go with you or you should live with the body. But neither you live with the body nor does the body go with you. Then how can they be one? They are different. As I go out of the house, it means that the house and l are different. Similarly the body, senses, mind, intellect etc., are the house and you inhabit it or go out of it, you have no identity, you have only assumed your identity. This is everyone's experience.

When you are ill, you take the dose of a medicine such as worm-wood which has the bitterest taste for recovery. Similarly to restore your real health, drink this medicine, that --- "I am separate from the body". Even then if you don't feel them as separate, you get restless. If you have a keen restlessness, you will feel the separation instantly. But if you go on relishing the worldly pleasures, you may study numerous sacred books, including Vedas, may become a scholar. you will not feel the separation. If you get restless to feel this separation quickly, you will not feel them as one because it is an error to accept them as one. If you have a firm determination not to commit this error again, this error will perish in no time.