One such question about the difficulty to meditate due to thoughts and external noises from surroundings & other disturbances was posed. To this, Daaji answered, “We have to be very gentle with our approach. When we try to focus with a lot of force and try to avoid – oh, such and such thoughts should not come – they will come, because your attention is on preventing the thoughts. It's like – oh, I will never think of, I will not think of, I will not think of – and you will think of it again and again. You have to just let it go. Drop it. If thoughts keep continuing, gently remind yourself that ‘I am meditating at the moment on the presence of Divine Light’, and be receptive towards the transmission that descends from above into our heart. Be receptive to that feeling. So that feeling, openness, will take over instead of a focused mind.”
Daaji reached the meditation hall around 10 am to conduct a meditation session for all gathered guests from different events taking place in Kanha. This included students from DPS Amaravathy, teachers from Delhi Public School, participants from the Brighter Minds training program, students from NCC, participants of BM Restart program and all the residents of Kanha. Heartfulness Relaxation followed by Meditation lasted from 10.10 am to 10.30 am for around 1,491 members gathered in the hall.
After the meditation, Daaji answered a few questions from the teachers of Delhi Public School.
One such question about the difficulty to meditate due to thoughts and external noises from surroundings & other disturbances was posed. To this, Daaji answered, “We have to be very gentle with our approach. When we try to focus with a lot of force and try to avoid – oh, such and such thoughts should not come – they will come, because your attention is on preventing the thoughts. It's like – oh, I will never think of, I will not think of, I will not think of – and you will think of it again and again. You have to just let it go. Drop it. If thoughts keep continuing, gently remind yourself that ‘I am meditating at the moment on the presence of Divine Light’, and be receptive towards the transmission that descends from above into our heart. Be receptive to that feeling. So that feeling, openness, will take over instead of a focused mind.”
“Often people have misunderstood the idea of meditation. When we look at the Oxford Dictionary and say ‘what is meditation’, it shows – it is focusing your mind on one object, one thought, one idea, one concept. Dhyan, according to our Indian philosophies, is to transcend the mind – exactly opposite of what the Oxford Dictionary says, versus what our culture says, what our tradition says. Transcending the mind means dropping the very function of thinking. Transcending the mind means going above the mind. Try to feel the presence on which you began your thought. You begin a thought that, ‘oh Divine Light is present in my heart’. But we need to move away from this. Have we seen the Divine Light or the Source? We have not seen. So how are you going to focus your mind on things that you have never seen? If you had seen it, then you would not need to meditate. So we begin with this idea that, ‘I don't know what this light is all about, what this divinity is all about. Whether it is there or not, that too I don't know’. So, we sit with open mind. ‘If it is there, let me experience the presence’ – and keep waiting. Meditation is nothing but waiting patiently, try to experience the presence and in that we remain somehow defocused from the whole thing. Our awareness then becomes very light.”
“Though you had a lot of thoughts during meditation, though you were disturbed by the surrounding sounds, at the end of meditation you will always feel lighter. It's like, you know, when you are going to the gym, for example, every day you go to the gym. In the beginning it's tough. All these friends who are here from NCC, in the beginning, it's tough. Afterwards, it becomes child's play. You enjoy it. Not having that, you will feel disturbed, ‘oh I'm not having it today’. Meditation, to me, just as the gym is at a physical level, meditation is at a mental level. It's a mental gym. Slowly and slowly, we develop our mind and train the mind to settle on the Divine. This is a slow process. It will happen eventually. And whatever you have said in your question – about the thoughts and sounds, all of these things – a lot of people have experienced such things. I have also been disturbed by thoughts. I have also been disturbed by the surrounding sounds. But then we had to practice and practice and practice. And one day, despite the sound, despite the planes and bombardments, still you will be at peace in your heart. That's the power of meditation. Slowly we change from inside.”
Answering a question on the ongoing Israel–Hamas war, Daaji said, “Dear brother, the current situation is not anything new. Wars have been happening on this planet for a long, long, long, long time. There has never been peace. Peace, shanti ki anubhuti (the sense of peace), it depends on us. Lord Krishna was, even during the war, in stith pragya (to remain steady under all circumstances). He was settled with his wisdom within himself. We all can attain that. You read the Gita properly, he is advocating one simple thing – every religion, be it Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam – they all focus on one fundamental thing, love in your heart. When you have love in your heart, when you have peace in your heart, both are the product of right understanding.”
“You cannot have peace; you cannot have love without right understanding. Meditation helps us develop that. When you think of the war situation, could Lord Krishna avoid war? He could not. Can you avoid the war? Can PM avoid the war? No one can. Accept the situation, there will be peace. You mind your business. And what is your business? What is my business? What is everybody's business? We should stick to it. If I'm a teacher, let me do my job as best as I can, that is my swadharma (individual duty). If I am a student, let me put all my energy into learning new things and become a better human being. I will not be the same person I was yesterday. And tomorrow, the day after, I will be even better. We should establish this trajectory. I can work only on myself.”
“Then saying that we are not able to change the ones within our family; if that so, how can we change the situation in the war? And why to think of the things which are not in our limitations? Our duty is just to pray to lord that may all be bestowed with correct thinking and right understanding and may there be peace in everyone.”
After many such eye-opening answers, Daaji left to go home.
At around 1 pm, Daaji eagerly awaited the arrival of the newest family member, little Princess Radha, his fourth grandchild. He lovingly and joyfully shared the excitement with Laya, saying, "Laeticia mummy is bringing the baby. Have you seen baby Radha? She's coming now." Around 1:30 pm, Daaji, accompanied by Laya, went to greet the little princess. As the car arrived, Daaji took Laya to see Radha and then, with immense joy, carried the precious new born inside. He offered a prayer to Babuji Maharaj and shared prasad with everyone to mark this joyous occasion.
Later in the evening, Daaji was met by Shri Polsani Muralidhar Rao garu, National General Secretary, BJP. After a short discussion on the current situation of politics, Daaji offered him a meditation session. He gently replied, “Yes Daaji I came for the meditation only.” Daaji then noticed that some practitioners (from Hosur) were waiting outside and asked them to also join the meditation. He conducted the meditation session from 6.27 pm to 6.56 pm.
After meditation, a couple from Hosur presented Daaji with their wedding invitation. Lovingly Daaji asked them if the wedding was planned in Kanha or outside. When told that it was planned outside and will be a grand wedding, Daaji suggested, ‘why don’t you go for the spiritual wedding in Kanha without wasting too much money?’ He then went on to explain to them that instead of wasting money in a grand wedding party and reception, they could choose to deposit that amount in the name of their son or daughter-in-law, so that it could be useful for them in the future. He then said, ‘even after making it a grand one you would need to listen to comments from some guests about how the food was not good enough, or the music was not up to standard, or how the decoration was lacking’.
Daaji then said, “You need to have courage. That's why they say the path of spirituality is for the courageous ones, not for cowards. If you want to follow the trend which is going on blindly, continue with it. Tradition means, blind following the blind. Wisdom means you have to find your own path.”
Later, Daaji bid good bye to all the guests and went for a short walk.