(Excerpt from a satsang Swamiji gave in the UK in 1984)
(Swamiji sings “Govinda Krishna Jai…” even though his throat is sore.)
Today you tried to get me to sing, but I am not really able to. However, when I saw all of you, especially the young people here, and your interest in bhajans, I felt like singing too! At the same time, your singing is much better than mine and it makes me happy to see that.
I want to bring you all forward on the spiritual path. In this world there are many paths a person can follow. A human being can live in any way he or she likes. No one came to this world to live hundreds of years. Life is very short, at most 90 or so years, and then we have to leave this world again. A person will pray to God asking to have children. After having children they ask God that their children should be good children. Then they ask God for the children to study well. After that they ask God that they should get a good job and want their child to become a doctor. Will they now finally leave God alone? No, next they will ask God that their child should have a good partner. As soon as a partner is found, they want them to get married. After the wedding they want them to have beautiful children. And so the person has now become a grandparent. After some time she begins to feel that her children aren’t doing enough for her and that her grandchildren aren’t looking after her. She feels bad and hurt and then passes away.
If you think this is the right way to go, then continue! This is what we see and experience between the time we are born until the time we die. Is there nothing beyond this? There is… earning lots of money! You try and earn money to satisfy yourself, your children and your grandchildren. You accumulate all this wealth and then pass away. Is this all that you aspire to in this world?
These are also the things that you ask me. Even from the interviews I have with you, I can say that these are the only subjects you talk about. I have travelled from Sri Lanka to the UK to solve all these material problems you have and it doesn’t matter to me if you use me for that, but I want to remind you not to stop there. For example, you believe in me very strongly, but do you believe in yourself as much? Why am I asking this? When a person does not believe in him or herself, their mind feels sad. That mind then in turn creates many diseases and problems and difficulties for that person.
Do you all think that you are bad people? Is there anyone here who thinks they are a good person? You should always think that you are a good person. You should believe in yourself because there is a divine energy within you. If you would have a talk with yourself you would understand. Shall we try it?
“Oh mind, why is it that I don’t believe in myself?”
Your mind replies, “Whatever I do, whatever action I take, I never seem to do it properly, and it always turns into a failure. That’s why I don’t have any faith in myself. I even applied for a job and didn’t succeed in getting it. Whatever I do, nothing seems to work out for me. That’s why I am angry at myself.”
To this the mind again replies, “Be a little patient. If you want to achieve something you have to have faith in yourself. To do that, you need some patience. Since you have lost faith in yourself, you cannot do anything boldly. When you have lost your courage how can I help you find a job?”
You have to have faith in yourself, in the divine within you. In other words, in the jeevatma’s paramatma. The divine soul within you is the jeevatma and the supreme soul that is everywhere is paramatma. You believe in the paramatma but you don’t believe in the jeevatma. You have only been listening to what other people have been telling you and they tell you only to have faith in the paramatma and so that is how you live, but you must also have faith in the jeevatma!
