Do Your Duty

You do and enjoy everything as you like, but your duty is to remember Him. You will see nothing will affect you. Try to act your role in the drama on this stage of the world perfectly. Your Duty is to Remember Him What then are we to do? Just brave the world, bear destined events with fortitude and do our respective duties without any sense of ego. No restraint, no effort is necessary for Him. We have to be stripped of all mental obsessions and be naked. To feel God's presence everywhere, we have to be in a state of attunement, abjuring all sense of want. We have to feel that He is the Agent of all our actions, to feel and see Him and Him only, as the one integral Existence and through loving submission unite with Him. In short, to relish His Love while tasting Nature (the world) is our only duty. Passive remembrance of Mahanam through all the joys and vicissitudes of life is our only duty. Real renunciation is to be shorn of ego and to be in full attunement with Him. We are all full of Him. To install this consciousness in our empiric being is the only necessity. Your responsibility is to perform your actions, all your worldly affairs honestly and sincerely. Your only duty is to remember Him. The duty of all human beings is to carry out all activities of life with Him in view. Only do your duty, that cannot be avoided, the rest leave to Him. Remember Him Amidst Your Work The remembrance of Him amidst your work is an act of love. Love is the only path to Truth. This insures integrity of character and purity of conduct. Your work is His Work. Be in His Work most devotedly. Work itself is God, if it works of itself and you are a passive spectator. Just perform the duties with which you are entrusted, faithfully accepting His Will. Don't worry, for worry makes you the doer. Penance (work) is necessary for existence in this world, but not for Him. Remember Mahanam casually in the midst of your daily life. The rest, leave to Him, the Doer. Every bit of work is worship. But, the moment any kind of work grips your consciousness as the one thing indispensable, it stems the tide of your life, is invested with ego, and lacks spirituality. Let not your work bring in its wake an endless cycle of work. You should not be enchained by the work effort, rather, be with Him. Let work grow into your life as your duties. Let work, work itself out through you. Work belongs to Him. Enchained by blind habits, we fail to realize how hectic work may be embalmed with rest, how we can work without doing anything and its reverse. Your one hand is held by Him, and the other one is left free for your daily actions. So go ahead, no need for worry, Dadaji is always with you. Go through your daily activities, Karmas (actions). Whatever one does is Karma. Actions and reactions in the mind lead to one's activity. Let the fruit of action be decided and bestowed by Him, because the result comes from Him. Work is one's Dharma (Eternal Religion; the means of communion with God within). You must do Karma. There is no other way out without Karma. There is no knowledge without Karma. You are seeing, hearing, taking, doing . . . all this is Karma, and this Karma is knowledge. One cannot undertake any work without a pragmatic end in view. So, one has to do one's work with attachment, although with-out any desire for the results. No sooner has the work been finished than the attachment evaporates. That should be the mental attitude. Attachment & Detachment Can anybody work without attachment? On the contrary, one has to work with full attachment, but if that be with full awareness of Him, then it is detached. If you work with contemplation of the House you left behind, then it is work with detachment. Without attachment nothing great can be achieved in the world. The word attachment is mostly misunderstood. In its application there can be a difference of hell and heaven. Attachment is the driving force behind great works of art. Attachment or love of creation brings about a union of the artist and the work of art being created, into one identity. The union generates new forms of creation. You people do not realize the real meaning of the word unattached. You cannot do any work without attachment. You must do your work with devotion. Suppose I have a business, if I do not think about it and remain unattached, indifferent, it will fail. Without desire and proper planning you cannot address yourself to any work. Planning is for a goal, so desire is at the heart of all work. But, once you start working and are fully engrossed, all sense of fruitful results does not exist; although it (desire) may reappear again as optimism or pessimism. If this can be shut out, the work is unmotivated and you work under His patronage keeping in view your original Home. To undertake work in such a spirit (under His patronage) is called meditation (Dhyana). To work is penance (Tapas). And, to complete the work, without any sense of agency (ego or self-interest) is sacrifice (Yagna). You must complete the sacrifice of mind/ego (Rajasuya) by transcending mental modes and egoistic claims. And, you also have to complete the experience of naturally letting your senses run their course until they turn inward (Asva-Medha). That comes to pass only when you are a complete Void, though full to the brim with Him (Sunya-bhavita-bhavatma). How to achieve that full state? You have nothing to achieve! You have come here full to the brim with Him, all you need do is remember Him and do your work. Worldly Wealth is Temporary Truth is negation of all fancied possession. You need not be over excited in profit or be depressed in loss. Both are His gifts. So go ahead in His Sharan (remembrance). We think we will become happy by receiving so many things of life, but later we find it does not bring real happiness as expected. To safeguard against such recurrences of unhappy situations in life, the all-merciful Lord helps His children to withstand the impact of unforeseen jolts. Remember Mahanam with full devotion. Whatever has to happen, will happen. Humans can do nothing, have no power of their own and cannot get things always according to their expectations. God bears the burden of those fortunate ones who depend on Him. We are constantly occupied with money matters, and this and that. When do we think of Him? There are endless materials in Nature for our enjoyment, but we have turned them into objects of greed and aspiration. This is the cause of the schism between people everywhere. Whatever you have received in life, take that as His Blessings or Grace, and the road to peace is assured. Greed and love for power are to be conquered. Whatever you get is transitory, mundane merchandise and egoistic tapestry that goes away in no time. Take Him as the Doer, and do whatever comes your way with perfect planning, motivation and execution. Leave the thought of outcome to Him. You can really do nothing. Your hopes and aspirations in life are not in your hands. To live successfully is a great challenge. Every moment in different activities of life we are enhancing our problems, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. Results of such actions gradually become unbearable and fill our mind with despondency, in-security and failure. Worldly affluence and wealth are of no help. Everyone faces this challenge individually, in his or her own capacity. But, the one who can completely depend on God residing in one's heart, will find that the Lord carries the burdens and eases all difficulties.

He is rich, she is poor. It's temporary. That's His Leela (Play). You need not concern yourself. Your sincerity will take you to living naturally with Him, where any sense of poverty, wants, confusions and nervousness of mind has no place. No question of rich or poor. It does not matter. Nobody is rich other than those who love Him. Put God at the Helm Without God's Love there is no character. All that really matters is one's character, not one's wealth or eminence in society. My job is to guide people to build their character. I have nothing to give but the Mahanam. Character means proper perspective. It is doing our duties keeping Him in mind. That is proper perspective and character. Inner and outer experiences must be the same or else it is hysteria, self-hypnosis or hypocrisy. Real character means to put God at the helm of one's affairs. No one should, under any circumstances, shun Him for any worldly interests. That is real strength of character, strength of mind.

Relationships All are equal. No one is a relative or a stranger. All are He, all are pervaded by Him. One wishes to tightly embrace one's Beloved. Through love, two become truly one. One then embraces his or her own near and dear person and joy arises. Love must be present. If one can love properly, the entire experience is centered inside. If you separate and do not want to embrace, that is not love. You embrace within yourself only Him, who resides within the body. That is Joy, beyond the body, although sheltering the body. That is love, where with one intention, one wish, there is complete merging with Him. Getting married, setting up a household is not the way to self-destruction! It is His Creation. Whatever He has sent us to do, that alone we keep doing, as in a theater play. Isn't this His Joy? One's family, father, mother, relatives, and friends are created solely to give us the varied taste of His Love through them. Instead, we get too much attached to them, forget Him and suffer ultimately. It is like enjoying the outer husk of a coconut, the tasteless part, while overlooking the inner substance which gives the real taste.

Aren't your relations His manifestation? Should you not serve them devotedly, though without attachment? Mother, father, everything is His. I have come here only for certain acting. That's all right. Then I shall have to go. Everybody shall have to go. So how can you say he is my son, she is my daughter, he is my husband, she is my wife? That is all destiny. Nobody is anybody's anything. That is all farce. Human love relations or companions bring disappointments, uncertainties, confusions and disturbances of mind. Never pine for anybody who leaves you. There is no point in worrying so much. He is always with you. A person cannot truly love another person. The mind, attached with the body, automatically develops self-interest, attachments, attractions, distractions, come tiredness, depressions, differences, until as a result of various trials, the mind becomes conscious of and gets yoked with Him, who resides within as the holder of the body and mind. Until then, we cannot relish the taste of constant Bliss. Being born in this world, we forget the existence of our real best Friend and Father, the Lord. We place confidence in others, thus inviting our suffering, grief and restlessness. Our Nearest and Dearest is He, Truth, beyond actions and reactions, beyond death, Eternal Love Omnipotent. You have the capacity to judge? Because when you are within mind, today you say "I love him like anything, he is my life, I would sacrifice my life for him." After three days, some differences arise and you say, "He is notorious, he is the worst man in the world." So we do not know what is correct, what is incorrect. Don't bother for all that, just do what he (Dadaji) says, just do your duty and Name, because we do not know anything. You have no right to harm anybody. You have no right to exploit anybody in any sense, politically, economically or spiritually. Do not say "I love you" to any person unless it is free from good or bad, or any other conditions. Worldly love is tainted with selfishness and falsehood. Today's love will be upset tomorrow when interests clash and differences come up. Human love is selfish; it is not steady and constant in degree. That is why sorrows, blows and jolts come that cause hurt and make life burdensome. Human love is fickle and fragile, and imbued with egoism. Love that is of the world is a great mental disease. Remember Him, His Love is pure and everlasting. Individuals try to put down others out of jealousy, contempt, anger or fear, but those who depend on God with full faith, none can make them small or harm them. Go ahead with this in firm faith. It is the habit of many people to criticize and comment, but do not bother with that. Whatever people say, the gossip gets reduced and dampened. So don't indulge your mind. If you indulge your mind, it becomes more restless and confused. Patience is the only solution. Due to emotions or impatience we often misunderstand our acquaintances and intimates. We curse them and feel remorse. Caution yourself, don't accuse or find fault with others. If you have respect for patience, in the course of time, God extricates you or gets you to pass over the untoward situations that beset you. To hold on to or keep faith in a person with expectations is to be led into frustration ultimately. A person's mind is blind, fickle, self-centered, selfish, unsteady, in constant want, full of desire, and swayed by waves of conflicts. But within a person He exists as the vibration of Existence and He is steady, unchangeable, waveless, and full of constant, desireless love, mercy and beauty. He is Truth. Trusting in a person, one ultimately gets jolted and suffers. Hold on to Him, who is within as Prana Rama (God of Life; Source of your breath), the Eternal Existence of all being. Expectations of others, calculations of give and take are redundant. There is a pleasure in giving with no question of return, but this is most difficult. You must expand your vision and consciousness. You feel pain or concern for a few people in your life, but when this feeling transcends to humanity, then human birth is successful and worthy. Satisfy the needs of physical life. Let there be your family, spouse and children. Perform your duty to them, but that should not be all, remember Mahanam at the same time. Your Body is His Temple Without this human body no other beings can taste His Love. In a person's body resides God. So the body is to be taken care of and treated as the Temple. There is only one substance and It is constantly changing form. This is He, without name or form, yet containing all names and forms. This chemistry is beyond mind. We are not just chemicals; we are Temples of the Divine. The body chemistry may break down or be out of balance, the mental chemistry may become disoriented; however, the chemistry of the spirit can never break down. It is untouchable. No fire is hot enough to burn it, no nuclear weapon is powerful enough to destroy it, no flood deep enough to drown it. So why be nervous? Why be afraid? Just try to remember Him. He is both within and without, giving you life and loving you constantly. Having come into the realm of Nature, you have to fulfill the duties of the body. By not paying Nature's taxes, by practicing austerity, by suppressing natural desires, and by fleeing from one's own nature, will one attain salvation? No. If one is unable to look upon both desire and desirelessness with equanimity, one will remain deprived of all things. Has He sent us here with a physical body and natural desires to spend this life practicing deprivation? In physical enjoyment, work, power, in everything one has only to be aware of Him. Only for performing bodily duties have the riches of the body been given. Eat, drink, do everything, but remember Him who is inside the body. To move according to one's own nature is the only safe course. Do not go beyond the limitations of body. If you do not respect the body, will it not retaliate? Human beings have their individual shape (male or female) according to His Will, in spite of the fact they both originate from the same natural elements. Both male and female are dictated by the prompting of mind and ego. As long as human beings move and act in the plane of mind, they are all essentially female and their only goal in life is to realize the Supreme Male. Whoever comes into this world is female. The mind is female. Your psychosomatic (mind/body) existence is essentially feminine, responding back and forth to the bipolarity of life like a dog haunted by a bit of flesh. You can't come here without being wedded to Truth, the Mahanam, the two sounds of which are being chanted within your heart around the clock in rapturous spontaneity. That Mahanam is the Lord within everyone, your body is the Shrine of God. Male, female . . . female, female, what do you mean by this? All are the same. That Power is within each and everybody, so each is the same. Nobody is female, nobody is male, that is only for the theater, the stage, His Play. Do not shun the needs of the body. Satisfy the wants but at the same time be aware of their triviality. Remember the body, but Who is beyond, That alone can bring salvation. Everything has Jiva (Life Force). You can eat meat, fish, and vegetables, whatever you like. All are the same. Fasting is not good. What is required for the body that must be eaten. Know that whatever He has created on this earth is for the sustenance of the living creatures. Food is only for the sake of the body. Has He done all this for nothing? All these (religious) rules for eating and drinking are mere superstitions. There is no connection between restricted eating and drinking and being with Him, for He is above and beyond it all. You cannot enter Heaven by the kitchen door. Is there anybody (priest, preacher, guru) who can say, don't take this food or don't take that food and you give me something (money) bi-monthly. All bluff! Remember, He is always with you, even during your sleep. Dreams are mind function. But, when He comes, although you are sleeping, you are awake to His Darshan (vision of God). God is within you. You don't need to seek Him. Fulfill your duties, do your work, and enjoy your days. Whiskey, cigarettes, love as you like, then you will feel within you that which no guru or priest can sell you, the living true God, who has created you and loves you.

This body itself is Prarabdha (destined unfolding of life). Unconsciously and inevitably our bodies develop and decay in their own way. After all, the human body is perishable and has various problems. But, whatever He does is for a great cause, all for good. Take care of your body, which is the channel for experiencing His Love. He only gives us physical form and mind. Never forget your duty to be healthy. Health is most fundamental. Without it you will not be able to perform all the other duties. This body is His Abode. You need this body to taste His Love. The body is His Temple and you have to take care of it. Your Senses: For Tasting His Love We have come here to do all sorts of acting, we have come here as guests. I am here with this body. Just maintain the body, nothing else. The body is not mine, I have taken that body as a temporary place to enjoy Him in the Maya (Creative Power behind Nature). When we have come here, we have come with mind, senses, desires and attachments. We shall have to give something to them. If you stop everything, they will revolt. When one is born with a body, the mind comes with all the senses and drives one forcibly, blinding the vision, so that one fails to assess things in the right perspective. One who undertakes all activities while remembering God, will be able to tolerate whatever blows life brings. And then one finds the senses and desires become his or her best friends, giving the feeling they are all beneficial. Otherwise one would be helpless in madness and grief. You are the worst criminal if you starve your senses. These are your guests, come to help you relish His Love and Bliss! Follow your desires. Do not force them into a social pattern. Lust and desire are being destroyed from within. The moment you are with Him, lust and desire are not. God is the sound of your heartbeat making love to you 24 hours a day. Sexual orgasm is temporary and cannot compare to orgasm with Him. Wedded to Him, you reach Divine orgasm becoming united with your True Nature. At the time of birth, sexual urges have been invited, they have come with us. You should not bother for that. We should not disturb them, automatically He will take them over. If you disturb them, ultimately there will be difficulty. Neither resist nor indulge.

Don't go against your nature. Let your inner drives lead your senses wherever they will. Be a passive spectator to the drama. No asceticism, no austerity, no penance, no physical calisthenics, no mechanical muttering of mystical syllables. All these are egoistic activities. Your inner Fullness dawns only when the ego is fleeced off. Only then are you in the wantless state. It is the limited mind that constantly suffers from wants. God does not fill; instead He takes away cravings for material and sensual needs. The belief that the senses are our enemy is absolutely incorrect. The moment we have this physical body, we have invited the senses and we cannot exist a second without their help. The senses have an essential role. Unless they are satisfied, we can hardly expect their cooperation in helping us rise above the physical level of body consciousness. The senses may be suppressed for the time being, but the time comes when they take inescapable revenge. Those who are conscious of the role of the senses know that in time, these very senses will turn inward and become the internal ladder to help them climb to the plane of Divine Consciousness. I tell you: Follow your desires. Why be against them? You are born with them and they are His gifts. They have come with you and you should be thankful for them because they are very helpful. Never go against your desires, or else your desires will kill you. Feed them properly and always remember Him. He will solve your problems, and your desires will help you to obtain Him. Why disagree with yourself? You have come here to relish the taste of His Love, to enjoy life, and to love Him. Everything you have come with is a precious gift. Looking at desires from that point of view will help you lead a balanced life. At the end only one desire is left, the desire for Him and His Love. Physical Nature: He Appears as Many Have no fear; the entire paraphernalia of Nature is the creation of the Supreme Being, the all-pervading Truth. For the relish of His Play, He has appeared as many in the mirror of the mind. The Play is intrinsically bipolar. The positive and negative, ups and downs, good and bad, and the oscillations between them provide the basis for all the creative possibilities of this Play. When the Play is over, two poles coalesce into Existence. His Supreme Science is the ruling factor over Nature. When Nature is manifested, it follows laws. You talk about Sattva (essence), Raja (energy), Tama (mass), and so on, but your Dada says the thing is One. The difference lies only in the stages of manifestation. Where there is essence, energy and mass, there is matter and visa versa. Actually they are not separate. Faith proves itself much as science proves physical facts. Physical and spiritual Nature obey their own laws, which meet at a point. For the world-maker and the mind-maker is the same Supreme Being: God, as physical, cosmic laws and also as moral and mental laws. These work in different ways, but converge at a distant point. Apparent contradictions resolve at a far end. Don't you know Nature moves at a furious rate? There is no beginning or end of this movement. It is Eternal. Certainly there is a chain of action and reaction, is there not? If I discard physical Nature, why should she submit in love to me? Nature can certainly be controlled with love. The World: Playground of the Almighty The world is not an illusion; it is the Vrindavan Leela of the Supreme (playground where you relish the taste of God's Love). The world is real and is in no way a prison, dungeon, or a purgatory. We have come here to taste the blissful rapture of His manifestation. By doing our duties, which come from His Will, we relish His Love and Bliss. Why not accept the saying, "God in His Supreme playfulness, by mere resolve, has been inclined to create the worlds and they were created forthwith." No, no! The world is not non-existent. The reason is that only on this earth have human beings the right to savor tasting His Love. That being so, how can the world be illusory? Whatever you may call it, Maya or Yoga-maya (God's Power that creates Nature, the changeable world), it also has existence. Nothing is without existence. The world of Maya is also a manifestation of the Supreme Energy. The strength to make progress on the path of emancipation, realization and salvation, free of the hold of this Maya, is also given by Him. It is Mahajnana (Supreme Knowledge) that flows along encircling countless worlds. The substance is One. You talk about the material and the spiritual, try to change your angle of vision then everything will be clear. Ultimately the general and the particular become identical. Note: Holding one in each hand, Dadaji used a cigarette box (Wills brand) and a small box of wooden matches to show the relationship between God and human beings in this world. He moved the boxes toward each other and just at the moment they would touch, he drew them apart, then together, again apart and so on. Just so is a person drawn toward Truth, then pulled away by desires and attachments, to and fro, back and forth impulsively, thereby creating the story of our lives. This ebb and flow becomes dynamic when we remember Him in all our movements. The mind then becomes yoked to Him and the movement continues, blending and merging one's being with Him. The Truth (cigarette box) and mind (match box) are within each of us. Dadaji said, "We are all two in One." When the two sounds of Mahanam, Gopal Govinda, coalesce, we are off (die). So life in this world is the back and forth movement in Vrindavan Leela (playground where you relish the taste of His Love). Acting in His Divine Play This whole life is His Play. We have come to enjoy it, remember Him with love and remain in a natural state, attuned with God. We have come here to taste His super-abundant relish of love. The playground of His Love can never be manifest anywhere else except in this world. It is a stage, where we are to enact our respective roles for a stipulated period of time. You are a role set by the Great Designer. Do play your part well, alive to the fact that you do whatever He chooses you to do. He is the pilot of your life and you have come here at His Will to taste of His overflowing Love. Play your part well in His Divine Play, shaking off desires and obsessions. Be always in a natural state attuned with God, free from all sense of want. Our duty is to watch His Play as passive witnesses. The essential thing about life is to see it and enjoy it as His Play. You understand that, don't you? The time of the body is temporary. We are actors and are paid according to our performance. It is not a journey; it is a play of the Almighty. A play, too, is part and parcel of His manifestation. He is the Poet, we are His Composition. This is exactly the relationship between the Creator and His Creation. Space & Time Exist in Mind The world is an escapable reality. Space and time have infinite dimensions. Every segment of space is present in every other. Space and time are ubiquitous. Time is a ceaseless duration; different times appear here and now. The repetitive calendar year is a human creation. The space-time complex exists in mind, but He is beyond that. The destined evolution of space and time is supervened when a so-called "miracle" occurs. It is a most difficult task not to think of past, present and future. A person nurses past recollections, thinks about future security, but does not take care of the present and throws away its gifts. One who can relish the present or the past or future, without worrying over it; he or she cannot be affected by blows and really enjoys the state of His Love.

Reality is One Unity is real, diversity is unreal. Reality is One. He is all-pervading. Other than Him, there is nothing. Whatever you see, all that is an illusion created due to the influence of Yogamaya (God's Power that creates Nature, the changeable world). We sometimes use the word Maya yet we do not know the exact meaning. This misuse is unfortunate. In its narrow sense, Maya refers to that which is subject to change, hence illusion. In its fullest sense, Maya is the creative force of God which manifests in Nature and is His Grace to us. Everybody harshly comments on Maya, calling it illusions of mind, which cause suffering. But, Maya is the cause of forgetfulness. Maya makes us forget the unbearable blows of life's events, obliterates the impact of so many strains and humiliations of life, and we get energy to rise again with old memories brushed off. He alone has form, we are all formless. We have no eye, we are blind. Had we eyes, we could realize what we see as having form is really formless. Oh, how fortunate people are! Maya itself is their fortune. Worldly attachments, the play of Maya, are very strong. So in consequence come innumerable problems. Unseen, unpredictable, unbearable events of life cause burdens and bondage, full of suffering and misery. Your intensity of devotion for Him is there; now leave the rest to Him. Constant practice of love with Name, that is none else but the Absolute, leads to Supreme Knowledge or Reality.