“Be happy abhyasis, luminous. You should not only let your heart express itself, but also show that following a spiritual way is a noble undertaking that makes you happy, even if your material life is not easy. If you have understood well where this way leads to, you should live your unhappy experiences without being deeply affected…”

—Lalaji Maharaj, Sunday, June 27, 1999—10:00 a.m.

“Don’t think that spiritual elevation is synonymous with sadness; we

are joyful, don’t forget it.”

—Lalaji Maharaj, Monday, August 14, 2000—5:00 p.m.

“Be strong and happy, you know well that ‘joy attracts grace.’ Then,

remain calm and smiling for the love of me.”

—Babuji Maharaj, Sunday, June 14, 1998—11:30 a.m.

Pujya Babuji has identified willingness as the sole qualification to practice Sahaj Marg. To my heart, “willingness” means practicing with joy. A happy, joyous heart attracts grace automatically. In contrast, an unwilling heart, weighed down with bitterness, anger, and desires, deflects

the showers of grace from above. The Masters want us to be joyful participants in our transformation. The principles outlined below are given with the aim of fostering joyfulness:

Remove preconditioning by parents, community, and ourselves.

Our emotional state tends to remain conditioned by the likes and dislikes and the values inculcated from external sources, such as parents and the community, as well as from our life experiences. How can joy take root in a heart that can only be happy when certain conditions have been met?

Babuji said, “A happy man is he who is happy under all circumstances.” Joy is unconditional. It flowers when we place no demands that certain conditions must be fulfilled. In the state of desire, our happiness rests on the anticipation of fulfillment. If the desire remains unfulfilled, we are disappointed and discouraged. Our emotional pendulum swings away from happiness and toward misery. When our happiness is conditional, if that condition is unfulfilled, our happiness never arrives. Wise are the ones who realize the futility of desire. The seeker eventually realizes that real joy does not depend on any worldly object.

With yogic Transmission, the practitioner experiences higher states from the very start, automatically creating a lack of interest, a detachment from

lower pleasures. This natural discernment of the higher from the lower is the essence of Viveka. Detachment, in turn, automatically evolves intorenunciation, Vairagya. Traditional systems have failed because they have not been able to create higher conditions in their aspirants. Without the experience of something higher, renunciation brings no joy because the seekers find that their renunciation has only deprived them of worldly pleasure without supplanting it with something subtler. They succumb to FOMO, “fear of missing out.” The conviction that worldly people are having more fun and experiencing greater joys takes root in a heart that remains vulnerable to cultural and personal conditioning. That is why their renunciates traditionally spent their lives in the forest, far from any external temptations that could potentially awaken their samskaric receptors and draw them back into worldliness.

Expect not!

Seek no ideal perfection in others. Imagine couples fighting and fighting over minor mishaps. They do not have the courage to separate, and their life together remains joyless. Seeking perfection in others, especially in your loved ones, and not finding them to your liking, can quickly lead to dislike, and as a result love stops flowing. This frozen love is a kind of suicide. The other may try to change or pretend to be changing with fake smiles, fake etiquette, and false behavior, but then falsehood begins to dominate. This creates an environment that is the epitome of falsehood and pretentiousness. The conclusion is: To remain joyful, expect NOT.

Never barter.

This is a critical issue in our lives. Some declare, “I did what I could,” and wash their hands of further responsibility. Naturally, their own joy evaporates. Giving generously breeds joy, while being a miser depletes it. The more you do for others out of love, the more you want to offer. To withhold love or service until one’s demands are met creates a tsunami of misery. It is a sad scenario when one says, “I did love her, but she did not reciprocate.” I must understand that I can only give and must never demand anything from the other, or the giving becomes a mere transaction.Transactions may bring momentary pleasure but never true joy. People do not even spare gods and goddesses in the temple. There, too, bargaining remains the main activity: “Please, God, if you give this to me, I’ll do that for you.” Are you not ashamed of such a low-level transaction with the Deity you serve and love? Or are you doing it just for your selfish motives? When you inwardly know you are a cheater,is joy genuinely possible? Whosoever cheats another is only cheating themselves in the end.

Be grateful to all. 

Gratitude mainly arises when what we have received exceeds our expectations. How can we remain permanently in a state of gratitude? Have no expectations at all. Then, we experience everything coming to us as a bonus and receive it with thankfulness. To feel contentment is good, but gratitude is of a higher magnitude because it recognizes every occurrence as a gift, a gesture of love from the Beloved. To view all gifts as

To feel contentment is good, but gratitude is of a higher magnitude because it recognizes every

occurrence as a gift, a gesture of love from the Beloved. To view all gifts as Divine Blessings creates enormous bonding with the Giver and creates a profound outpouring of joy.

Divine Blessings creates enormous bonding with the Giver and creates a profound outpouring of joy.

Fulfill your commitment to its fullest, toward yourself and your loved ones. 

You cannot fully enjoy something that has been stolen. If you steal a mango, its taste will not be as sweet as one rightfully attained. Some try to mask this inner heaviness with pride and enjoyment in having stolen, but that is only to whitewash their guilt. Similarly, neglecting our sacred duties toward ourselves and others robs these responsibilities of the essential resource of time needed for their fulfillment. The activities we engage in instead will now lose their sweetness and be accompanied by some level of grief for lost evolutionary possibilities.

Conversely, fulfilling sacred duties allows for a boundless expression of joy. Joy is considered a sattvic condition. It is associated with subtle activity, as opposed to the tamasic pursuit of pleasures or the rajasic pursuit of ambition. Any activity becomes sattvic when performed in divine consciousness. This point is critical because, as embodied spiritual aspirants, we keep one foot in the Brighter World and one foot on Earth. Not every mundane activity can be inherently sattvic, yet through Constant Remembrance, we may conduct all activities in a sattvic manner, with joy. In a state of inner detachment, our actions are free from transactional motives. We engage in activities with a pure sense of playfulness, performing them for their intrinsic value rather than expecting personal gain or pursuing hidden agendas. The life of one who is detached is filled with playfulness and joy. This is a facet of nishkam karma, desireless action.

Learn to forgive. 

Can joyfulness coexist with bitterness or vengeance? We must learn to forgive. Forgiveness means generosity, a quality dwelling in the noble heart of the true renunciate. Remember the famous story of Lord Krishna, Karna, and Arjuna: Arjuna, Karna’s enemy, questioned Lord Krishna about why Karna possessed a reputation for generosity. Lord Krishna created two mountains of gold and asked Arjuna to give all the

In a state of inner detachment, our actions are free from transactional motives. We engage in activities with a pure sense of playfulness, performing them for their intrinsic value rather than expecting personal gain or pursuing hidden agendas. The life of one who is detached is filled with playfulness and joy. This is a facet of nishkam karma, desireless action.

gold away within a single day. Arjuna struggled to give away the gold. No matter how much he gave away, the mountains seemed to remain the same size. By the day’s end, the two gold mountains were still standing. Lord Krishna summoned Karna and asked him to give away the two golden mountains. Karna told the first two people who passed by, “This mountain is yours, and that one is yours.” He completed the job in seconds through a single act of renunciation. A true renunciate is totally devoid of “mine-ness,” so their generosity becomes boundless.

Forgiveness is also an act of generosity in which we have no attachment to that which has been stolen away from us. In the presence of detachment and renunciation, bitterness cannot persist. Forgiveness becomes natural and automatic.

Harbor neither jealousy, nor envy, nor prejudice. 

We must not harbor such poisons in our hearts. When another person possesses the object of our desire, it reminds us of what we lack, and we may begin to harbor bitterness toward that person. Enmity is the result. This problem, too, is a consequence of “mine-ness,” an expression of ego.

Babuji referred to prejudice as “the greatest obstruction on the path.” It arises from pride and is another expression of ego. Babuji counsels us to develop humility instead, reminding us, “God resides within everyone, so there is no ground for treating anyone with hatred.”

Seek more and more of less and less. 

Joy is lightness. It is to be unburdened, unconditioned, free from desires, and indifferent to their objects. This is the lightness and freedom that saranagati brings in its trail. It is nothing but joy. The whole flow of life is toward detachment, or freedom. Only a desireless heart carries no hint of burden. Therefore, we seek more and more of less and less. 

The method is surrender. Why is surrender necessary for the blossoming of a joyful heart? Only in surrender can we release our burden, letting go of everything we have depended upon, which weighs so heavily upon our hearts.

Lord Krishna: “… take refuge in me alone. I shall liberate you from all sins…”

Lord Christ: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” 

      Babuji Maharaj: “… remain calm and smiling for the love of me.” 

Though the statements above may appear to be egotistic, masters are themselves free from ego. In the act of surrender, they are transformed. Prayer is impossible without gratitude and saranagati. A lack of saranagati means there is still some barrier between the seeker and God. This wall creates separation between the Creator, the Existence, and the created. With this in place, is it possible to have osmosis between these two dimensions? If the simple exchange mechanism of osmosis is not

Joy is lightness. It is to be unburdened, unconditioned, free from desires, and indifferent to their objects. This is the lightness and freedom that saranagati brings in its trail. It is nothing but joy. The whole flow of life is toward detachment, or freedom. Only a desireless heart carries no hint of burden. Therefore, we seek more and more of less and less.

possible, how can we expect to have complete merger? The totality is always available from the Creator. The crux is: “Am I equally available, with humility and love”? The real initiation occurs when we move from a mere state of abhyas, as a follower of the path, and flower into one who is completely surrendered.

Babuji once wrote to Chariji, “I would like to see glitter in the hearts of abhyasis.” As a practitioner of Sahaj Marg, I ask myself, “How can I make that happen within myself? How can I create this glitter in my heart?

Why are glittering stars within the sky of my consciousness still obscured by clouds?” 

The clouds of various densities are formed, some due to ego, some due to ignorance, and some due to relentless outbursts of smoky dark desires of all sorts. We remain busy all our lives playing with this colorful landscape of the sky of consciousness. Tragically, it keeps us occupied, dependent on one thing or another. When we surrender, letting go of ego, the clouds dissipate and we become truly independent.

How do we surrender? Babuji responds, “Create dependency.”

When we depend on Him alone, all else loses its sway over us. Our conditioned existence becomes unconditioned, and we attain freedom. When we surrender in the real sense, dependency on the mundane dissolves. Only then do the heart’s glitter and glow start emerging. From such a heart emanates the fragrance of joy.

Be in tune with Nature. 

Being in tune with Nature is the result of “more and more of less and less.” “Nature is the very essence of simplicity,” Babuji writes. During our evening cleaning, we remove impurities and complexities. By removing impurities, purity remains. By removing complexities, simplicity remains.

Let compassion be for others, not only for yourself. 

As justice must be impartial, so must compassion. It must extend to all without prejudice, preference, or discrimination. Self-compassion is but one of its manifestations. But many people go only that far, content to be compassionate only to themselves, while remaining insensitive to others. This is not “compassion” in the true sense, but only selfishness. Is it even possible to remain joyful while others suffer around us? A human heart cannot remain untouched by the misery of others. The world’s spiritual traditions ask us to cultivate compassion and other altruistic attitudes of benevolence. For example, in I.33 of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali counsels us to develop friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference to wrongdoers.

Buddhism knows these same four qualities as the brahma-viharas, or the immeasurables. These four qualities are also listed together in the Bhakti and Jain traditions. They may be considered universal values.

Let joyfulness, gratefulness, and humility become your intrinsic climate. Intentionally choose such a climate that can only make your heart expand. 

The following qualities, as stated by Sage Ashtavakra, are hallmarks of an evolutionary inner climate: 

“If you are seeking liberation, my son, avoid the objects of the senses like poison and cultivate forgiveness, sincerity, compassion, contentment, and truthfulness as the antidote.”

—Ashtavakra Gita |1.2| 

There are different spectrums of joy, each nourishing us at a particular level. Anandam, or bliss, is its pure, unadulterated state. While the opposite of joy is sorrow, and the opposite of pleasure is pain, bliss has no opposite. When bliss is reflected at the physical level, it is experienced as pleasure, which nourishes the gross body. When reflected in the subtle system, it is experienced as joy, nourishing all the subtle bodies. In its authentic form, anandam nourishes the causal body, the anandamaya kosha. The expression of bliss in the anandamaya kosha is due to its proximity to the atman, which is pure potentiality.

The grosser the expression of bliss, the less fulfilling the experience. For example, the memory of past pleasure often leaves a person frustrated. It fuels the desire for repetition of that experience. In contrast, the memory of past joy tends to recreate that same joy in the present. Before starting our spiritual journey, we tend to identify with pleasure at the bodily level before shifting to an identification with joy and finally to an identification with bliss. But to move onward to the atman, we must transcend our identification with bliss, as atman is beyond bliss.

To accomplish this transition is the work of the Master. It is not possible to renounce bliss because the condition of renunciation would produce further bliss. So, we must leave that work to the Master. We should focus on creating joy in ourselves using the methods listed above. It is only by arriving at the perfection of joy, the state of anandam, that we may have the opportunity to transcend even that and move beyond into the realm of potentiality and nothingness. 
With love and respect, Kamlesh