How does one act always as the Master's agent in order toavoid current karma? How can he force his mind to stop and think in this manner before acting?
A     We have to submit to 'Thy Will', His Will. And that we can do only if we meditate. The Master's wish is that we should be firm on the four principles, which are pre-requisites before we can travel on that path. So long as we are firm on that, we have submitted ourselves to the Master. Then, automatically, our mind develops to that extent that it starts submitting rather than expecting, or not adjusting to a situation.
We will submit only if we have love. Without love, we cannot submit to anybody. Love is such a thing which makes one submit to anybody. Love is such a thing which makes one submit. Love drives out ego from us. That love we have within ourself; it does not come from outside; it does not come from anybody; it comes from within. And, when Love comes in us, all the good qualities of a human being come up, life cream in milk. All that we have to fight for with ourself now in order to tbe good, to be honest, to behave rightly, to do this or that, will automatically come in us when we feel that devotion within us for the Lord. Instead of trying to train our mind to pick up good qualities one by one, the cream of all those qualties automatically will come in us. When we are devoted to Him, we are devoted to everybody.

We have no ego. Then we do not want to assert; then we do not want to offend. Automatically all those good qualities are manifested in us.

Q       During the course of the day we probably spend thousands and thousands of seconds and have thousands of actions that we do. Some of them are reactions. These actions that we do. Some of them are reactions. These actions are seemingly very quick. How can we do them in the name of the Master? Is this automatic to a satsangi, or does it have to be an automatic projection of some kind to perform everything in the name of the Master?

A       To do everything in the name of the Master is to remain within the principles which he has laid down for us, to live our lives according to the principles of Sant Mat and devote our time every day, regularly and punctually, to meditation. If we do everything with that Sant Mat atmospherer around us, then we are doing it in the name of the Master. We do it in the name of the Master when we take our 'self' our of ourself. As long as the self is in us, we try to justify our actions in the name of the Master. Actually, what we are doing is following the instinct of the mind. When you will withdraw yourself from themind, then you will subdue your mind with the help of meditation and submit yourself unconditionally to the Master inside, and whatever you will do will be in the name of the Master. As long as we are slaves of the mind, and the mind is a slave of the senses, and we are running about outside, how can we say we are doing it in the name of the Master?

Q       It is automatic then, after one has accomplished?

A       Yes.

Q       Maharaj Ji, Guru Nanak enunciated an aphorism that we have used frequently, and if it is your pleasure I should like your comment. He said to the Supreme Father; "If you send me hunger, I shall be filled with Thy Name (Nam); if you send me miseries, I shall accept them as pleasures; if you send mehappiness, I shall try to propitiate Thee."

A       The idea behind this is that in whatever condition or state the Lord keeps us, we should always remain in His Devotion. If we are rich, we should not forget Him, we should give our time to meditation. That is a part of karma that has been given us to pay for. If we happen to be poor, we should not be frustrated; we should not be unhappy; still we should strive to devote our time in meditation, in His memory. The idea is, in whatever position He places us, we should make the best use of this opportunity of being in a human body, to reach our destination, to follow that way, to follow that path and merge back into the Lord.

As I explained yesterday, this whole world is filled with rich and poor, happy and unhappy people, according to each individual's karma. We get this human body due to both, good and bad karmas. We have sown good seeds and bad seeds. While being in his body, we have to reap the fruit of those good seeds and also of the bad seeds. So, naturally we will have happy moments in life and we will have sad moments in life. If we have more good karmas and less bad karmas, we will be more happy and less unhappy in this world. If we have more bad karmas and less good karmas, we will be more miserable and have fewer happy moments in life. But, good and bad, this combination gives us the human form. If we had only good karmas we would have been in heaven. If we had only bad karmas we would have been in hell. If, while reaping the fruit of good karmas we are given to enjoyment and luxuries and sensual pleasures, and forget the Lord, and if when reaping the fruit of bad karmas we are so frustrated, so unhappy that we cannot even think of the Lord, we are always miserable. Even then we do not remember  the Lord. When are we going to remember Him? We have to experience both, happiness and unhappiness, and remember the Lord under all circumstances. Being in this world, we have to reap the fruit of good and bad karmas.

Guru Nanak meant that we should remain in His Will. In whatever position He places us, whatever we have to account for our good or bad karmas, under every circumstance, in every condition, we should not forget the Lord. We should always keep Him in view, keep our destination in view, try to give the account of good and bad karmas, being in this body but not forgeting the destination that we have got to achie3ve. That path we should never forget. That is why He said, in effect, "Oh Lord. In whatever position you will place me, I will never forget You becauswe this human birth I have got just to remember You, and I can achieve the purpose of this human birth only if I give my decotion to You. If I do not do that, I am not making proper use of the human form."

Q      Would you discuss obedience and the part it plays in our spiritual teachings? Many people have job conditions that require obedience of many types in their varied duties at work.

A      Obedience is another word for submission. And submission is another word for driving out the ego. When we are proud or full of ego, we do not like to submit to anybody, we do not like to be obedient to anybody. In other words, obedience means merging your will in the will of the other person. Driving your 'self' out of yourself and merging your will with the will of another, that is obedience.

This is the first lessons which is given to our children in our Indian Homes. They must be obedient to their parents and do what the parents tell them. There is no question or reason 'why'. They must learn to understand in life, how to drive out their ego, how to respect the elders and be obedient to their wishes. Then it is for the parents to come up to that standard to demand obedience. But children are always taught to be respectful and obedient to their elders. When we go to school, we must be obedient to our teacher. We must submit our will to the teacher's will. And we have to practice the same thing whenwe come on the path, which is obedience to the Master. But obedience will come only when there is love within us, for without love obedience can never come.  

Love always helps us in merging our will with the other person's will. We take our self out of ourself and become the other person. Love helps in that. Without love there can be absolutely no obedience. So, when love comes, all these qualities rise in us, like cream on the milk. We do not have to fight for these qualities in ourselves. When that love for the Master, for the Lord, comes within us, all other qualities just come automatically within us. If these qualities have not come within us, we can presume that we have absolutely no love for within us, all other things are driven out. Then there is obedience; there is submission; there is understanding. All good qualities automatically take shape.

Q      Obedience very frequently takes the form of blind submission, so that there is no awareness there. It is just a blind submission. How do you relate that?

A      I do not think there is any bilind submission. Love does not creat blind submission.

Q      But there are many job conditions where the employee is just required to give blind submission.

A      That is something different from what I am talking about. That is from the worldly pint of view. That is our duty. We are being paid for it and we have to be obedient. But in this path we are not paid at all for obedience. Love is the only payment, the devotion, the understanding; that is the reward. There people buy our loyalty, our sincerity and our obedience with money. And here, we buy it with Love.

Q       The real nub of my question was, what does one do to his own spiritual advancement if he is obedient to orders that have in them some characteristic below his standards of morality or ethics?

A       He can escape from the situation. He should try to escape from the situation if he is not able to live with his job, if he is not happy there.

Q   I have found a very good remedy in a particular case of aggressiveness. I try to find out the month and day of that person's birth and then see, more or less, what his traits are. Sometimes you will see that they are completely antagonistic to the particular sign that you were born under. And this will help you to understand the person, when you know his traits. And I know it to be almost excellent, because sometimes it is almost a complete impasse and I realize it and bring his horsocope ...?

A     But sister, you will only know by that horoscope the trend of that man towards you, which you already by physical experience.

Q    Yes, also, but it does help though?

A    The question does not arise to know when we have to improve ourselves. In every situation, whatever the other person's view may be, we must improve ourselves. That is all. It should not affect us even if the other person slanders or otherwise abuses us.

Q    But I think if you know what sign he is under....?

A     I think the other person makes you know him much better than you try to know by these methods. When you meet a person, you know where you stand as far as he is concerned, as far as his likings for you are concerned. Sometimes these scientific or mathematical calculations may deceive us, or may be wrong, but hte human touch does not deceive us at all. We know where we stand.

Q     If we slandered another and the other person does not forgive us, though we ask for forgiveness, what should we do?

A     Sister, the most important thing is that you have to forgive yourself for that behavior, If you have honestly tried to make amends and are truly sorry, then it should not bother you whether the othe rperson has forgiven you or not. And the other person will only be convinced that  you are really sorry, by your behaviour. The mere word 'sorry' does not solve any problem. He has to know from your behavior that you are really sorry. You can always express, not by mere words, but by deeds, how much repentance you have for that attitude of yours. That is how you forgive yourelf, and when you forgive yourself, you become happy.

Q     How can we forgive ourselves when we hurt others? If there is a misunderstanding between two people should not the guilty person apologize in order not to lay the blame on the other, and perhaps not make him feel badly? These are two questions. The first one is: How can we forgive ourselves when we hurt others?

A     We can forgive ourselves only if we cease hurting others. If If we are repeating the same thing, it is self deception to say that we have forgiven ourselves. In order to forgive ourselves, we must cease repeating that mistake. When we really repent and do not repeat that mistake again, then we can say that we have forgiven ourelves. But forgiving ourselves means not to repeat that mistake again and absolutely forget what we have done to another person. That sense of guilt should go away from us when we have informed ourselves.

We should never hesitate or feel ashamed to apologize if we have hurt anybody, if we have injured anybody's feelings; whether the other person forgives us or not, at least that helps us. When we have apologized,  we feel light, we feel much better with ourselves. It is for the other person to forgive us or not, but at least we have forgiven ourselves by apologizing and sincerely showing our regret.

Q     The second question: If there is a misunderstanding between two people, should not the guilty person apologize in order not to lay the blame on the other, and perhaps not make him feel badly?

A      When we want to clear a misunderstanding, the question of pinning down the blame on one person or another does not arise. When we want to finish that topic, when we want to forgive, we should never try to decide whether you were wrong or whether I was wrong, We should always try to say that you forgive me and I forgive you, and we had better forget whatever unplesantness has happened between us. The question of thinking and trying to analyze, whether you were wrong, or whether I was wrong will lead to another type of trouble again. So, if we want to forgive ourselves and forget, it is better to express our regrets sincerely and then forget what has happened between us.

Q      Man has to redeem man, so what part does man play in this evolutionary process?

A      Brother, man is only to help himself. WE can help others ony when we have helped ourselves. If we are not in a position to help ourselves, we cannot help others at all. If we have nothing, how can we give anything? Sometimes we try to help others, but instead of helping others, we are making ourselves miserable. We mix with them so much that we share their misery instead of sharing our love with them. We do not have anything within us, so we cannot give what we do not have. By trying to be helpful before we are able to help, we find that we have made ourselves miserable with their plight. We must help ourself before we can help anybody else. We must have something within us to give and to share with others. If we are empty, how can we give. In order to help humanity, in order to help anybody else, we must rise to that stage where we fcan help and shower our grace right and left. Then only can we help them, otherwise, it is self-deception and we will only share their agony and misery, without being of any help to them at all.