Q: Will the process of purification today bring us temporarily out of negativity?
It will permanently bring you out of negativity. Just go into it.
Q: When my master clears my samskaras and takes care of me, my only duty is to do what he has told me. I do not need all this confusion about the layers; it is too much for a stupid disciple like me. Surrendering to the master is all I can do.
Understand, surrender the idea that you are a stupid disciple. That is an important thing. Here you have surrendered everything except for the idea that you are a stupid disciple. Surrender the idea that you are a stupid disciple. Then you will be able to understand what I said. Then you will not say this is too much.
People come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I'll do whatever you say, but not all these meditations.' What do you mean? Meditation is what I am telling you to do. So do that, otherwise it is contradictory. Surrender to me, guru bhakti is supposed to lead you to atma bhakti. That is the reason for guru bhakti.
If you say, I am surrendered to you but I am stupid, this is too much for me, then don't think you have surrendered to me. You have surrendered many things to me but not the idea that you are stupid. Surrender that and you will realize the truth.
The unique thing with enlightened masters is their immense practicality. When people come and tell me, 'I have too many worries. What to do Swamiji?' I tell them, 'Just worry and suffer! The suffering will teach.'
They come to me thinking I will give them some consolation. Consolation is the worst nonsensical thing to delay your growth. Just suffer. Suffering is powerful enough to teach. You see, either you be intelligent and learn from the master, or suffer and life will teach you, that's all. It is a little harder way, but no problem. Just suffer, life will teach, so do not try to avoid suffering.
When you decide I have to suffer, then naturally you will see one or two simple teachings, your mind will start picking up and start practicing. Usually when people come and ask me, 'I am suffering too much, give me some way,' if I give them some meditation, they will say, 'Oh! I don't know this meditation…' and if I give them some proper technique, after one month they will come and say, 'Now I have one more worry, I am not able to practice meditation.' They will only add more and more worries because their very tendency, their basic structure is to worry. Nothing can be done.
I tell them, 'Just suffer!' Then they start getting defensive, 'What! How dare he tell me to suffer! I will come out of the suffering.' I tell them, 'This is what I wanted. Please come out.'
You see, human beings have become such that if one has to do anything, it will start happening only with vengeance or with a challenging mood. We forgot doing something based on inspiration. Only with a challenging mood, violence, we even come out of violence! Even to come out of violence, we need a little violence. That's why I tell people, suffer, it is ok.
Sometimes, I make fun of people who are suffering. Then, immediately they come out of suffering. They just come out because they don't want anybody to make fun of their suffering!
Q: During your discourse, you said one can only reach the state of the fourth layer. Beyond that, one needs the presence of the guru. Why is it so? Is it possible for an ordinary person like me who desires to go beyond the fourth stage, even though I have mundane attachments?
What do you think you are doing? Have you given up everything to come and sit here? No! Now you can go into the fifth stage or beyond the fourth stage. See when I said that statement, it was a technical detail.
Sometimes, people think everything can happen just by their effort; just to tell that it does not happen that way I said so. But otherwise, you don't need to do much else. Just work on this fourth state, you will see the fifth state will automatically become cleansed.
Even before working on the fourth, they have already started worrying about the fifth. I've seen these people, they don't think about how to cleanse the fourth layer and work on it. The moment there is something which I said you can't do, immediately where does your attention go? No, I should do only that! That is why, many times I tell, you can't do meditation. That is only for intelligent people. Immediately they start doing, they just want to prove!
Anyhow… here is a question that I am not even able to read. It says, 'To seek…' after that I am not able to read.
There is a story I always tell:
One man gave an ad in the local newspaper, 'We need a person for the post of manager, who knows how to read and write French.'
One application came, 'I can write but I can't read.' The man who posted the ad was surprised, 'Who is this person who says that he can write but he can't read?'
He called that applicant for the interview. The applicant came.
The interviewer told him, 'I want a manager who knows how to read and write French.' The applicant replied, 'I already applied, I told you in my application that I can write but I can't read.'
The interviewer said, 'Please write'.
The applicant scribbled something on the paper. The interviewer saw the paper, picked it up but he was not able to understand anything. He said, 'What did you write? Read and tell me, I don't understand.'
The applicant who wrote said, 'I told you, I can only write, I can't read!'
So I think, somebody like that wrote the question. They can only write, they can't read!
Q: I don't know what the purpose of my life is, I feel good to bring smiles on the faces of needy people. But I don't know what the purpose of my life is. How can I know that?
I can tell you, first bring a smile onto your face. That is the purpose of your life. Then let that smile overflow, and bring the smile on every other person's face. Yes, if you don't have a smile on your face, and you are trying to bring it on another's face in the name of service, you will just be expressing and imposing your ego on others.