A small story:
A rich old widow got married for the second time. One day her husband did something that upset her. The rich widow got very angry and started to shout, 'But for my money this furniture would not have YOU ARE NO SINNER! been here. But for my money this house would not have been here. But for my money you would not have such a big car. But for my money you would not have all these comforts. You are misbehaving with me!' Her husband calmly replied, 'But for your money I would not have been here. Your value is nothing but your money.'
We are judged by the paraphernalia we surround ourselves with. Because of the paraphernalia that surrounds us, we get value. Matter therefore adds value to energy in this case. In the case of people who live consciously, people who have become enlightened, value is added to matter by their energy. Whether matter should gain value through energy or whether energy should gain value through matter is our choice.
A man who is paralyzed is always weighed by matter. For a man who really lives, even his matter is valued by his energy like how Bhagwan's belongings were valued. When a conscious man touches anything, it becomes holy. Even small things like an old coconut shell, a piece of wooden furniture or a staff, even those things become objects of worship. These men receive respect because they lived consciously. Energy guided their lives. Conscious decisions guided their lives. When we actually decide to live, when we consciously decide to live, life starts happening to us.
A great enlightened master George Gurdjieff who was from the west, was a gift to the world. He once said, 'All of you do not have a soul. It has to be created.' In a way that is not the truth. But by saying this, he means to inspire us. The words used are part of a technique. He wants to imply that only when we start to live consciously, the soul is created! Actually when we start living consciously, only then is the soul expressed. Even if we have a soul, when we don't make conscious decisions, it doesn't matter. How does it matter whether we have a soul or not, if we don't live consciously? If we don't use it, whether we have it or not, is immaterial. The soul expresses itself and energy expresses itself only when we make conscious decisions. Conscious decision-making does not refer to decisions relating to our jobs or marriage or our lifestyle. It is not related to just big decisions. It is related to every moment of our lives.
Even while making ordinary decisions like sitting in a chair, sit consciously. Feel the comfort of the chair consciously. Sit not only consciously, but also listen to things happening around you; see the things happening around you consciously. When you do this, material things will no more create an impression on you!
When we don't decide consciously, samskaras are created. The word samskara should be understood. It is a beautiful Sanskrit term. If one understands the idea, then one can grasp the meaning. In English there are words - 'imprint' or 'impression', but I am not satisfied with these words; the closest words that can translate samskaras are perhaps 'emotion filled memories'.
Let us see how we can understand this concept. As we live, whenever we act, a print of that is created in us, a hangover of that activity is created in us: that is samskara. Samskara means that if, for instance one continuously drinks coffee, the idea or habit of that is imprinted in one's mind. Samskara has a powerful potential energy to make one repeat the action. People come and tell me, 'Master, at exactly 10 pm every evening, wherever I am, I am reminded of drinking. I am unable to control myself. I find myself being pulled towards the bar and then my mind makes a decision and I go to the bar.' That is a samskara.
Samskaras are powerful. It is almost like gun powder sprinkled or spread throughout our being. At certain times they affect us strongly; it is almost as if we have no choice to do what we want to do. They act on us making us do the same thing again and again. The more we repeat our actions the deeper the samskaras get inserted into our very being. It is a vicious circle. 'Doing' makes a samskara and repeating the action makes it deeper. In other words creating samskaras makes one do things, and doing things makes the samskara deeper.
When one understands samskara then one will understand what life actually is. As of now, we don't live, only our samskaras live through us. Imprints are made in our minds by social conditioning, by the way we are brought up in society, by our unconscious decisions; whatever is done creates a set of samskaras and these are living through us now. It is not as if we are living samskaras. If we cannot stop any habit, the habit starts living through us. If you eat what you want, it can be said that you are eating. If you eat without control of your mind, the food is eating you. First you start to drink a little alcohol; soon, alcohol will drink you. That is how samskaras work.
Initially, we create samskaras; later on samskaras live our lives. As of now our lives are pure samskara, habits. As I always say, the word 'habit' is the right word. If you drop the 'h', 'a bit' is left, if you drop the 'a', 'bit' is left. If you drop the 'b', 'it' remains. Only when you drop the 'i' will it die! The habit survives because of us, our mind.
When we decide to live consciously, life happens to us. Don't think life happens to us when we are born. When we are born, only the seed, the potentiality of life is given to us, never life itself. When we decide to live consciously, only then are we really born, or rather reborn. In Eastern mysticism there is a word dhvija which means a man who decides to be consciously reborn, a man who decides to give birth to himself consciously through strong intention of living consciously. If you are initiated into meditation, if you take somebody as your master and you are given a technique, you are called dhvija – reborn.
There is something called a Gayatri mantra. Once a person is initiated with the Gayatri mantra he is said to be a dhvija or twice-born. Being initiated with the Gayatri mantra does not mean that you become religious; no! The Hindu philosophy, rightly called sanatana dharma - a philosophy, a spiritual culture, a world-view and a way of life that is open to, and welcoming of all people without discrimination - is a beautiful system which makes no effort to condition anyone. So understand that the Gayatri mantra is not a religious thing or any baptizing. It says: let me meditate on the ultimate consciousness which awakens my intelligence. Let that intelligence help me to meditate on it. That is all! The Gayatri has no idea of form, of any god or goddess*,* or an idea that it is attempting to engrave in one's consciousness. One is simply initiated.
Take this instance of a man, more than 70 years old who has lived in the same forest throughout his life. A young man, a person new to the forest comes to him and asks, 'Sir, how can I cross this forest. Please help me.' So the old man starts giving directions, 'Go one kilometer further. You will find a lion. Then take a left, travel three kilometers and you will find a big snake. Then escape from the snake, go three kilometers and you will find a valley. Cross the valley, go four kilometers and you will find a river. Cross it and you will reach the other side.'
Is this guidance going to help the young man? No! Instead of that if he is given a torch, the torch will give him a clear view of the road and that will be enough. The guidelines are of no help because the forest is continuously changing. Life is more like a forest. It is difficult to live by guidelines, by rules. We need understanding, clarity. All we really need is a torch and we will each be able to find our own unique path to the other side of the forest.
When you are given a set of concepts, beliefs, it is very much like spoon feeding. When you have been told to follow a set of beliefs, you cannot live in a natural way. Most of us are given just an ideology - only a set of guidelines; go this way, that way, you will find this; you will find that. When we go there and don't find what we are looking for, we feel, 'What is this? There is nothing here, or did I go the wrong way. What should I do now?' We get stuck at some point or other. Instead, if we are given guidelines, if we are given a torch, we will see that we can walk through life by ourselves. Initiation is like giving you a torch.
The Gayatri does not belong to any religion. It is just a decision to live consciously. The emphasis on consciousness is given to you through it. You are made to understand what consciousness actually means. The Gayatri mantra has no other religious connotation attached to it. Of course later on some perceptions may have been added, but originally it meant only one thing - a conscious decision to live consciously. When we start living consciously, life happens to us; we are reborn, dhvija. A man who is reborn in this way is a conscious being - a man who decides to live consciously. In the Upanishad they call him a paramahamsa - a man who decides to live consciously; one who goes beyond karmas.
When we decide to live consciously, our samskaras do not have any role to play in our lives. Our samskaras can never play any role in our lives then, because samskaras are from the past. Our being is in the present; samskaras are more or less like ghosts. The past is dead!
When I was wandering in Bharat, I had a nice time. For more than nine years I traveled. I wandered throughout Bharat, mostly by foot. I always stayed in graveyards! If you see my pictorial biography, you will see many photographs of me in different graveyards. People ask me why I stayed in graveyards. I tell them, 'First of all, I never needed to make any reservations there! Secondly, almost every village has a graveyard. Thirdly, nobody stays there! All the inhabitants are dead; they never disturb others.' Others ask me, 'Master, weren't you bothered by ghosts?' I said, dead people never disturb others; only living people disturb others.
Ghosts are lower level beings. Ghosts are more or less like samskaras. If we don't have the awareness to live consciously, they take advantage and rule us. If we are able to live consciously and make conscious decisions, they have no ability to live through us as they are lower than us. As long as our consciousness is awakened, as long as our individuality is awakened, as long as we have made the decision to live, neither ghosts nor samskaras can disturb us; because both are dead and are from past memories..
The power of ghosts does not lie in the ghosts themselves; it lies in the way we empower them. It is our belief in them that makes them powerful, much like the character, Vali, from the great Hindu epic Ramayana. Vali had been granted a boon that anyone facing him in a fight would lose half his power to him. That is how it works with ghosts; when we start believing in them, they get half our power. Otherwise neither samskaras nor ghosts have any value.
Many people come and tell me, 'Master, I know smoking is a bad habit but I am unable to stop because it has become a habit.' One man came and told me, 'Master, last week I read a book of all the bad things that happen to us when we smoke; not only the effects of smoking but also the health problems caused by second-hand smoking. I read a big book about smoking and then I stopped.' So I asked him, 'Oh, that is good. So you have stopped smoking?' The man replied 'No, no, master! I have stopped reading those kinds of books!'
Many times we consciously understand that something is wrong but we say, 'It has become a habit. I am unable to stop.' I tell you, habits have no value. If we decide to be conscious, habits have no power over our consciousness, . It is just your conscious choices that have made the habit deep. When we decide to live consciously, our choices can be changed. That is why it is usually said, that a man decides to become enlightened. I use other words. I say, 'Man chooses to become enlightened!'
Buddha became enlightened on his birthday. Buddha Purnima is the day on which he was born and the day on which he became enlightened; of course years later, but on the same day. There was a question asked of Buddha, 'Master, how did you become enlightened on the same day as your birthday? How did that happen?' Buddha replied, 'When I say I have become enlightened, don't think something special has happened to me. I decided to live out my natural state that is enlightenment. That is all! It is just a conscious decision. So when I take such a decision, I can consciously choose, 'Oh! It is my birthday; it is a good day. Let me live out my enlightenment.'
We need to understand only one line of an aphorism from the Hindu scriptures. It is a secret, the master key of one's own enlightenment. When you decide consciously, you simply express your enlightenment. When we decide consciously, we can simply walk over our samskaras because neither our samskaras nor ghosts have any value as they are. It is only we who give power to them.