Q       The doctrine of non-resistance, non-violence, particularly not taking life, has been an important part in Indian history. What is the teaching of Sant Mat on this point?

A       We practice non-violence. We do not kill birds or animals for food, nor are we to kill anything for sport. That is non-violence, and non=violence is based on the karma theory.

Q       Can the five perversions be overcome all at one time or overnight?

A       No, sister. By and by, the more we are attached to Shabd, the more we are being detached from the senses. It is always a slow process.

Q      Master, do the five enemies leave all at the same time, or is it possible for one to leave and the four to remain?

A      They go, slowly and slowly, one by one.

Q      Can one, for instance pride, can that be gone, and still you have to deal with the others?

A      They become ineffective gradually, one by one.

Q      Do the senses always misugide, or can the senses be of help?

A      As long as the mind is a slave of the senses, we are away from the destination. Our destination is upward. The trend of the senses is downward. Anything which keeps us away from the Lord, naturally, is misuigindg us. A lover never appreciates anything that keeps the beloved away. We make karma under the sway of the mind and senses, and our karma keeps us away from our Lord, the Beloved.

Q      My experience shows me that hte average person does not see above the five senses.

A      Every person is not meant to see all that.

Q      Is there any way that the average person can see more than through his five senses? That is the way people judge life and do not understand any other way. I have now got the way. I understand. I have read in the Radha Soami books that the average person should make an attempt of some sort to go in and try to learn more than his five senses show him or tell him?

A      Brother, you are yourself answering your own question.

Q      They should listen to us. I try to apologize, being that you are here, I should explain.

A      No, no, no, I am happy to explain. Do not bother. I have come all the way --- over eleven thousand miles --- to explain certain things.

Q      An individual in India would make better progress because there are less temptations?

A      No, I do not think so. As far as progress is concerned, the place does not make any difference. I, sometimes, find the Westerners are more sincere than the Indians. Whatever they do, they do sincerely, after they have satisfied their intellect. It does not make any difference whether you are born in India or America, in the West or the East or anywhere else. You have to pick up the thread where you left it. It hardly makes any difference.

Q      Do you think observation is cultivated by abstinence from excessive talk?

A      Well, we would have less trouble in this world if people would learn to guiard the tongue. When they probe into the affairs of others, they unnecessarily create trouble.

Q      I suppose it is just like saying. "If I had only kept my mouth shut, everything would have been all right?"

A      That is right. we learn by experience. This is what we learn by experience.

Q      Master, we speak about the love in the heart. How did this relationship between heart and love ever arise? This connection we talk of ?

A      The Lord has given every part of the body a certain function. Seeing is done with the eyes, smelling with the nose, eating with the mouth, and the feeling of emotion in the heart. So, love is felt through the heart. These are physical functions of the body.

Q      On that question, I sense more feeling in the solar plexus or in my throat than in my heart. Perhaps I do not know where my heart is?

A      Sister, they are all combined. when the heart feels, the throat is choked , tears come in the eyes, and the face is flushed. So, you cannot confine love just to the heart. Rather, you feel this sensation in the whole body---from the feet to the head===physically. You may feel it here in the throat, in the eyes or in the head, in fact in your whole being. That is different, but it arises from the heart. Of course the spiritual heart center is the eye center, and what we experience spiritually is felt with even greater intensity from there upward.

Q      Language creates problems of communication?

A      That is right but love has no language. You meet somebody and you do not understand each other's language, yet you are in love with each other. Do you need to explain with words? You both understand without speaking anything. That is what i always say, words are not the only means of communication. There is someunderstanding, some realization which comes with the help of love.

Q     Is there any danger of confusion in the normal use of words or language inside? If we try to communicate with our God, if we try for example to pray with wrods or to explain an idea to ourself?

A     We do not need any language to explain to ourselves.

Q     I read in the Sant Mat literature how a man was in the process of making a coffin when his own son fell from a roof and was killed. When someone came and told him, it did not seem to bother him at all. He just went on making the coffin for him and someone said, "Do you not love your son?" And he replied, "It was all planned that he should go and I had nothing to do with it." A man like that must have been very highly advanced?

A     That is right. That is a story of Guru Nanak's disciple, Lalo. He was a very advanced soul. You will find that incident related in spiritual Gems.

Q     Master, what is our position rearding spraying of gardens to prevent insects and so forth from eating or otherwise destroying vegetables and flowers?

A     Brother, some of these things are necesary in order to live in this world. We have to draw a line somewhere. If we analyze minutely, we will find that even now, as we are breathing, we are killing many insects. This whole room is filled with insects; as you walk on the ground, you kill many insects; when you drink water, you kill many insects --- what you call bacteria--or you may give them any name; but hte very air you breathe is filled with souls. So, it is impossible to live in this world without killing anything. One cannot even breathe or take a single step without doing so. Therefore, saints always advise us to have the very least load that is necessary to live in thie world, so we are
allowed to take vegetables, even though they also have souls. Now the scientists also prove that vegetation contains life.

We cannot help killing insects and rodents by spraying or otherwise protecting a crop, but naturally thre is a difference in the degree of karma incurred, just as there is a difference in degree of crime  in our worldy laws. We should not try to find a justification for killing nor should we kill unnecessarily. Where we have to, we may, for we have to in order to live and exist in this world. This whole world is full of crime and of creatures killing one another. As you have just heard in the discourse, this whole world is nothing but darkness, and one cannot live without killing. The eating of vegetation and protection of crops is more or less "innocent killing", as we have to live in this world, and in order to live we have to do all sorts of these things. The main thing is that we must do the least possible killing for our existence ---  only as much as is absolutely necessary to maintain a healthy body.

Q      This may be a very silly question, but it has troubled many minds. IN the lower animal kingdom, which does not have the power to discriminate between what is right and what is wrong, what power has placed in the lion or the tiger, the instinct to kill other helpless animals in order to survive, and why is it so?

A       Brother, this whole world is a field of killing and being killed. You cannot live in this world without killing something. There is a constant struggle for existence, and all creatures are always killing and being killed. That is why all the saints tell us that this world is not worth considering as our permanent residence at all, and we are simply passsing through it in order to pay off our karmas, and at the same time trying not to make new ones so that we may not come back again,. In this world, one is either killing or being killed. So, the saints say, "Leave this world and come back to the Lord with us." We cannot reform this world, and this world will never become a heaven, but will remain at daggers drawn and there always will be killing in this world. They just come to take us away from this world. (At this place Maharaj Ji related in detail how this world is a place of struggle, of good and bad, and how to find peace in this world while doing our wordly duties and attending to our spiritual practice --- refferring to that as the strong shoes which permit us to go through and walk over the thorns of this world without being affected by them --- all of which is mentioned elsewhere, so it is not repeated here. ) We should not be concerned with this world. It will continue like this, for it is a place of imperfection and has to remain that way as long as it exists, as I have explained many times. But through the help of the saints, we have the opportunity to detach ourselves from it and go back into the lap of our Father, the Original Home of Perfect Bliss, never again to return to this field of struggle and killing.

Q       My son has a ranch and they have a lot of toruble with moles, gophers and so forth getting into the irrigation ditches and they cannot farm the ground. What is the proper procedure when we are not supposed to kill things?

A       Sister, we should try to avoid killing as much as we can, but sometimes we just cannot help it. There is a certain type of amount of killing which you cannot aovid for your existence in this world, but one should not try to justify that killing. You should not go out of your way to kill these things, but whre you ahve to do it for your existence, you cannot help it.

Q       If a child is born mutilated, paralyzed or terribly deformed, and survives, as some children just existbut have no control over their own movements, or some cannot even move, and are bedridden all the time, would mercy == killing be allowed, if it is allowed in that country? If you were a satsangi doctor, would you kill that child ti mercy-killing were legal?

A       I do not believe in mercy-killing at all, and I think it is not legal anywhere in the world, yet, Though I know little of the law, mercy-killng is not allowed. Mercy-killing is definitely wrong from a spiritual point of view. In mercy-killing, we are trying to take something into our own hands that we think is mercy. If we had to follow such a a line of thougt, I think half the world would be killed tomorrow. Everyody is suffering; everybody is in agony; everybody is in pain; people are starving; people are diseased; people are unhealthy in this world. That doe snot mean that we should start killing right and left. If we did, we would have to kill ourselves too, for we are in agony with ourselves. So, the question of mercy-killing does not arise. The Lord knows best when to take life---He gives it and He takes it. Nature always keeps its level. The Lord knows best how and when to kill. People are killed in wars, in storms, in earthquakes and so many other ways that He alone can control. Why should we try to be His rivals? We shold be helpful to the handicapped to the best of our ability andnot try to take away their life.


Q       Master, if one finds an animal or a bird that is badly hurt and is in agony, is it wrong to take it out of its misery?

A       Brother, if we start analyzing like this, probably we will have to put an end to three-fourths of the world. Who is not in agony? We should analyze within ourselves as to whether we are at war within ourselves or not. Are we happy in this world? Are we even physically or mentally happy to be in this world? If we will just analyze our own self, we will find that every one of us is most miserable with himself, Everybody is playing to the tune of his own karma, and despite all that, no one likes to die. So, whether human beings or animals or birds, we should try to help them, not put an end to their life. When you go to hospitals you find people are crying in physical pain. Do you think they should all be killed, straight away?

Q       No, I mean an animal that was obviously dying?

A       But, whether man or animal, we do not know whether he is obviously dying or he is getting  a new birth. It is for that individual to clear his own karmas. We have to help him, whether it is medical aid or whatever is humanly possible. We should give all the help we can, but we should never try to take it in our own hand to do away with his life. We have no right to do so. There is no mercy in killing. We should help to the best of our ability, wherever we can, but still, with our best intentions, in certain situations, we really cannot help. They are paying for their karmas -- whatever they have sown, they shall reap. But we have to help them with our best intelligence, capabilities and resources. It is  for the individual to cleaer his own karmas. We have to help him, whether it is medical aid or whatever is humanly possible. We should give all the help we can, but we should never try to take it in our own hand to do away with his life. We have no right to do so. There is no mercy in killing. We should help to the best itnentions, in certain situations, we really cannot help. They are paying for their karmas --- whatever they have sown, they shall reap. But we have to help them with our best intelligence, capabilities and resources. It is only to the extent that He wants ut to succeed that we will be able to help them. So, we shold od our best to help them and leave the results to Him.

If we start from the point of view of mercy-killing, as I told you, I do not know how many people we might have to kill. Politicians throw bombs, wiping away humanity, and they also justify that killing. But whether the Lord justifies it or not, remains to be seen. Whether we have done good or bad. He will tell us. We can judge only with our intellect. We may think we have saved many humans by killing a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand. But these are all justifications for our own weaknesses. We should help, not kill. Christ said, "Love one another." He also said that if some-one slaps you on one cheek, you should turn the other. What does that mean? It means that we should have no maline against anybody, not even against our enemies. We have to show them love, decotioin, mercy, and give them love for hatred and not hatred for hatred. We will help them practically by giving them love, by giving them help, by giving them service. We do not help anybody by taking away his life.

Q      Master, while using leather from animals for shoes, we are not consuming flesh, but we do voluntarily give consent to the death of these animals. Is that sanctioned?

A      Yes, sister, that is right. There are no restrictions on wearing apparel. We have to take a practical, objective view in this life, and to collect the least possible load, which should be cleared by meditation and devotion to the Lord. Our main purpose of living in this world should be God-realization. Then we can justify wearing leather shoes, wearing clothes, and eating fruits and vegetables, but all the same, the karmas are there.

Q      But, could we not give up these things?

A       If you can do without, there is nothing like it. But if you even do without shoes and clothing, it does not make much difference as far as incurring karma is concerned, for, as I told you, even when breathing, walking or drinking water, you are killing. So, we have to take a practical view in life and try to collect the least possible load, which should be cleared by meditation and devotion to the Lord.

Q     Master, when we are working daily with our colleagues, and criticism comes and others join in against us, could we accept this strictly as due to us or should we ever attempt to hold our own? Or --- ?

A     Brother, if we think we will be able to solve the problems of the world, of the people around us, not one whole life time or even a hundred lives would be sufficient. We just have to rise above these things, these problems, and not be affected by them at all. What is to happen, let it happen around us. That is why the saints often give us the example of the lotus flower. Its roots are always in the water, but the flower itself is above the water. With the help of meditation and the Sound, we have to rise above these things. WE cannot solve the problems of the world. History records that so many saints and social reformers as well have come to this world, but it has not improved in any way. Rather, there is more evil, in spite of the best efforts of the saints and the reformers. But saints do not come for that purpose. No saint comes to reform this world. He just comes to collect his own sheep and take them back to the Lord, as Christ has also done in his time. He, too, said that he did not come to bring peace into this world. Saints always advise us to remain in the Will of the Lord, to submit ourselves to Him. That means that we should face both, the happy and unhappy situations, which are our good and our bad karmas --- boldly and cheerfully. We should neither be so much affected by the bad that we forget the Lord, nor should we be too elated over the good karmas that we forget the Lord and turn to the worldly pleasures. Whether god or bad, in both conditions we are always to remember the Lord,. So, the atmosphere around us will never change; it is we who have to change.

Q     Maharaj Ji, would you tell us, besides being on the diet, not taking alcohol and so forth, and besides not killing and the regular abstinences, what some other karmic actions would be that we could avoid in this life?

A     Nothing else. All other good qualities will come automatically with devotion to the Lord. If we make the Sant Mat principles a part of our life, then we abstain from meat, fish, fowl, and eggs or anything containing them, we do not take alcoholic drinks, we have a good moral character and we are devoting time regularly and punctually to the spiritual practice. When we do that, I personally feel and think that all other good qualities of a human being appear in us like cream on milk. You do not have to do anything else to get or develop those qualities, for they naturally will come in you. The nearer we are to the Lord, the more devotion we feel for the Lord, the more the good qualities automatically will come within us. We will become part and parcel of those qualities, without doing anything else.