Daaji called the Secretary General of the Mission, Shri Umashanker Bajpai for breakfast at 8 a.m. Alain Desvignes of France joined in at breakfast too that day. Daaji requested Umashankar Bajpai to conduct the meditation in the main hall that day on the occasion of the book launch in India for his latest book, Spiritual Anatomy.

Later, Daaji gave a sitting to a few practitioners in his office. Some work-related updates and discussions with a few of the Kanha team members continued well into the morning. Mr. Anil Gupta, along with his family, came and spent some time with Daaji. After tea, Daaji once again gave a sitting to all those present there before having lunch with some of them.

In the evening, several abyasis came to meet Daaji. After spending some time in the office, he asked some of them to join him near the swing, where plans for the upcoming university work were discussed with Daaji. 

That evening, Daaji went to the comfort dorm to conduct the meditation, which was from 9.06 pm to 9.32 pm. After the meditation, he lovingly answered some questions collected earlier. 

Q:

I am sure I am doing something wrong, but I am unable to tap into the signal of the heart and get a clear answer to the question I put in bedtime prayer. How do I adjust myself to receive the signal from the heart? Please help me to understand. 

Daaji:

The heart gives the signal regarding what you are doing, just as well as it can stop giving you the signal if you stop listening to it. 

So even in small matters, whenever we refer to the heart, follow the heart. Only then can we get more and more signals and graduate to more and more refined signals. Many times, the heart pumps faster and faster when it signals to you that it is better you don’t do something you are about to do. And yet, we end up doing it. 

Sometimes, when your children approach you for advice, you tell them, with all sincerity and with all your heart, what is best for them. Suppose they ignore it. Won't you feel heartbroken?  Now imagine that they come to you a second time and ask you a question, and again they falter in following your guidance. What is likely to happen? You begin to feel that it is impossible to correct this person, so it is possible that you give up. It's likely that you don't feel like advising them anymore. 

That is what happens to our individual hearts. Unfortunately, we create distance between our conscience and our logic. The greater the distance, the more difficult it is for those two faculties to unite. This is what yoga tends to facilitate, and we go against that process when we tend to refuse to listen to our hearts. Most of the time, we exist in a state of duality; therefore, unity, harmony, and happiness elude us. Happiness arises only when we listen to our hearts and follow them. 

Indulging in superficial pleasures means sacrificing the greater good. We lose a lot in the process. If you keep in mind the distant goal, then you will understand that you should not indulge in these small pleasures of life.

These days, there is so much hype surrounding Lord Ram with the recent inauguration of the temple in India. We observe that people develop a sort of fan following for their gurus. We seek to have a glimpse of some God or another. 

The real issue is, in order to achieve it, are we willing to make an effort? Are we willing to change our consciousness? Our state of being? It is only then that we can have an actual darshan of whosoever we seek. If we want to become better, we must change ourselves. 

Unfortunately, we have a tendency not to exert ourselves. We like a comfortable posture, a comfortable position, and a comfortable state of mind. 

We want to meditate, but laziness prevents us from getting out of bed in the morning to devote time to it. Sometimes you may feel overwhelming transmission from the Master. We all go through such an experience. Such an overwhelming transmission that you want to close your eyes, be by yourself, and meditate. 

Yet something can deviate from this and distract us from our inward perception at that time. Masters often send transmissions during the day or night. It creates such a wonderful condition. At that time, we should take advantage of this natural state that is coming to us. We should grab that opportunity. 

Such sittings are the most powerful and most effective sittings one can ever have. When you do receive such a transmission during your waking hours, don't miss that opportunity. Even at the cost of losing a job, if you have to close your eyes, well, find a way to do it. If you want to take the extreme step of going into a toilet so that you can find privacy, then just sit there and meditate so that you can attend to that inner inspiration.

Q:

I have often heard you speak of meditating with one's back against a tree whose girth is less than the width of one's back. Is there any specific reason for selecting a tree with that girth? 

Daaji:

This process is a prayerful request to the tree that you would like to exchange energy with it. And this is generally to be done when you have a headache or such minor discomforts. Sit prayerfully with your back supported by the tree trunk. Sit just for two or three minutes. You may meditate while you are sitting there. You need not even meditate. Just be there. Experiment with it. The size of the trunk should be smaller than the back because the energy exchange will be too much for us to handle if the trunk is bigger than the girth of our back. It is sufficient when it is smaller than our backs. Nature has orchestrated a beautiful relationship between trees and humankind. Trees give us oxygen; they take in carbon dioxide and thus remove harmful toxins from the atmosphere. Likewise, when we sit with our backs against the tree trunk, the negative vibrations from our system are also drawn out from us, and the tree bequeaths positive vibrations in their stead. 

Babuji's research on people suffering from anger bouts led him to conclude that sitting for a few hours, ideally eight hours, under the peepal tree can be of huge benefit to them.

Q:

What is more powerful? Meditation with you or interaction with you? How do these two influence each other? 

Daaji:

Without a meditative mind, even if you are with the best Guru in the world, you will miss out on what is essential. 

Q

What challenges did you have to face to become the Master you are today? It would help all of us to know. 

Daaji

Well, first of all, I had no desire to become the Master. Since you already have some desire to become one, as is apparent from your question, you will never be able to become a Master. Take it as a permanent prediction. Guaranteed. One must not aspire to become the Master. We have to become like the Masters. 

The Master, according to Babaji Maharaj, is always one. That is God. Mastering oneself, for example, is the art of listening to the heart, and following it is itself an art. A Master is one who listens to his heart and follows it in every situation at any cost. That's the Master. He is not a slave to anything that can deviate him from his heart. So follow your own heart, and it will lead you to the goal.

With that, the question-and-answer session came to a conclusion. As he was leaving, several people met him on the way, addressing him with a few requests, giving him some gifts, and many of them greeting him in person. Daaji was in a fine mood and happy to engage with them before finally reaching his car and driving off into the night.