Q    Master, I have heard that pain is curative. Are we to endure pain as much as we can or are we allowed to take medicine for pain?

A    If we are ill and we have pain and we think that we should not take medicine because it will interfere with our karma, that is absolutely a wrong conception of karma. We should always try to take an objective view of life. All the scientific achievements and all that we have available to us should be put to use for our physical comfort, not forgetting the end, as I said yesterday. There is no harm in consulting a doctor to try to get relief from the pain. If it is in our karma to get relief, then only will we get relief from the pain. If it is in our karma to go to a doctor to get relief, naturally we will go to a doctor, follow his instructins and use that medicine or remedy. So, we should not think that we will interfere in our karma if we try to get rid of this pain. That is not a practical objective outlook. We have to live in this world.

Q    Is it also equally possible or proper to administer help when we find others in similar circumstances?

A    We should try to help anybody and everybody in that situation, whether by medicine or by advice or by consoling them. We should try to help everybody.

Q     I am aware of the requirements of a satsangi and the reasons for these are clear. I wish to know whether medication is permitted and , if not, the reasons.

A     Sister, there is no harm in taking medicine. We do not want these medicines for sensuous pleasures, and it is wrong to take them for such purposes. We only want to preserve or regain our health so that we can devote ourselves to the Lord. So, there is absolutely no harm in depending upon medicine in the time of need.

Q      Do you believe that certain chemicals that they are using now inmodern psychiatry for transcending the ego, so you believe this is possible to give us a certain amount fo spiritual experiences?

A      They will not give you spiritual experiences. They put you to sleep, or you may feel that  you are in a trance, or you may not know where you are, or have some sort of hallucinations. You would not have any power to go up or to come back. Just as intoxicating drinks put you out and you have no control over yourself, similarly, those tablets or capsules of that drug may have the same effect as that of alcohol or other drugs, as far as the mind is concerned.

Q       I have met many people who claim that by using these chemicals they have gone into a region of ecstasy which they believe is the Supreme. Some claim they have gone into another world and have drawn pictures of creatures they have seen....?

A        I think these must be the advertisements of the commercial firms for selling these chemicals.

Q        I do not think so. These things are on the black market. I have heard that Hindus use these things for various spiritual purposes.

A        We have in India what is called bhang, which is another name for hemp. Some people drink it and they become inebriated. It is another way of intoxication. One may say that he is not drunk, but it is all the same; there is absolutely no difference. The use of any narcotic for sensual pleasure is a definite hindrance to spiritual progress.

Q        If someone was tired of life and asked the Master for a release, could the Master release his death?

A        Well, sister, one should never be tired of life at all. We should try to make the best use of this life. Whatever life-span the Lord has given us, we should try to live with the best possible means, in the best way possible, and always keep our path and our goal, our objective, in view. We have to travel to reach that destiation, but we generally become tired because, due to certain circumstances, things are not happening according to our desires. If we get rid of this body, we do not know what type of body we will get, whether we would be better off, or it would be still worse, we should always try to make the best use of the present and never wish such a thing at all.

Q        Is there any karma involved if a person resorts to surgical sterilization? Or to effect birth control?

A        If it is in his karma to go through a surgical operation and not to get any children, he will have to do that. Nothing happens without karma. So, that was his karma which led him to that.

Q       Last night somebody asked me if Sant Mat advocates divorce?

A       I am sorry if anyone has that impression about Sant Mat. Sant Mat rather unites families, tries to create harmony in families. I always advocate that meditation makes one a better husband, a better wife, a better son, a better father. If it does not, then it is we who have failed in our meditation. It should bring us together. we should understand our responsibilites, our duties in life, not to espcape them, but to face them, to face reality. I hate to see people getting divorced, especially if they are satsangis. I actually pains me.

Getting divorced, as far as marriage is concerned, is not right. Divorce, in a bigger sense, we all get by meditation or divorcing ourselves from the worldly attachments. We are divorcing ourselves from wordly roots and taking our midn and soul upto the Lord. We are getting divorced from the world and getting attached to the Lord. That you can say, but in the family life I am very much against divorce. that is my personal view. I never force anybody.

Q       Even in our daily life we all face problems. If it is not the work that we want it to be, should we try and force the issue or just sort of go along with it and take it as it is? Things will come?

A       We should do our best and leave the results in the hands of the Lord. We should not feel dejected if we cannot achieve that for which we have worked. It simply was not destined for us. In that case our destiny was only to work and not to get its fruit. Other people do not work, and yet they get the fruit. That is their destiny. It is all individual karma.

Q       A lot of us here have children and grand children. They come to us and want to know what we are doing when we meditate and so forth. How far can a young child go before beign initiated in this work? I mean, how would you answer them?

A      You can just explain the principles to them and tell them to try to have devotion to the Lord in their mind. Children naturally pick up from their parents, but I think we should in this modern age at least, make them feel that they are making their independent selection to follow Sant Mat. WE should guide them, explain to them be good examples to them and let them grow up to make their own decisions as to what they want when they reach maturity.

Q      Do you think the motivatin of the people who commit suicide is because they get tired of the world and want to meet the Lord?

A      No, no. They do not commit suicide to meet the Lord. They are cowards not to face the world. They commit suicide because there are certain desires which they cannot fulfill, and they cannot stand that. So, they will have to come back to fulfill those desires.

Q     Is suicide the greatest sin?

A      I think so, We do not get the human form so easily, and just to waste it is the greatest sin, no doubt.

Q      Do you not think the suicidal tendency is sometimes sublimated into wanted to leave the body, such as in meditation?

A      No it is not wanted to leave the body. It is rather not getting what you want while being in the body.

Q      I mean, is meditation a sublimated way?

A      No. One should never have this approach to meditation. That is a cowardly approach and a betrayal of the privilege of having the human body.

Q      If satsnagis develop supernatural powers, they are not advised to use them, are they?



A      If we use the supernatural powers that we have gained through meditation, we do it always at our own expense. We lost what we have gained. The Lord does not bestow that power on us to become His rival. He just gives it to us for our own benefit, to clear our own karmas, to clear our own path, to go back to Him. If we start using these supernatural powers for other purposes, we inflate our ego and we lose what we have. So, I personally advise satsangis never to dabble in these things at all.