The Light of Kirpal

Removing the Weeds -- Little by Little
February 21, 1971


    Hello. Going strong? That's good.

When I do my diaries in the evening, I forget the more delicate failures I committed all during the day. So what should I do?

    Do you remember the Pelman System of Memory--How to Improve Your Memory? That was written by one Pelman. So in the beginning this is what you have to do... I rose in the morning, I went to the bathroom, took my bath, then took breakfast, and went away to my office work, and so forth... Now further, when you rose in the morning, what thought was crossing your mind? During the day when you came to the bathroom what were you thinking of?. We simply watch the progress of the physical body, not the mind, and in that way man is asked to train himself to remember from morn till evening. The memory becomes strong, and there will be an improvement. This you also have to do for self-introspection; you have to weed out, recall what thoughts crossed your mind. In the beginning, you'll say "that's all right, everything was going all right, few failures." But if you go down deep into it, you will have to show that it was not right. Sometimes you'll remember, "he told me this and that thing, and I called him names. That was all right though. This was tit for tat." But later on you will say, "Well if he has done wrong, why should I?" Reactions come from failures, and that reaction strikes you more than once. All those reactions are your failures. This is how you have to weed out your hidden imperfections or failures. This diary is a court, a very hard taskmaster over your heads. It is not an ordinary thing. In the beginning you'll find very few failures. But as you daily go more deeply, you will find more and more, more and more. Really they existed, but we had never gone into weeding them out.
    I have read the lives of great men, many great men. Each one had some system of watching his failures and weeding them out. Hafiz was a great Saint. He used to throw one pebble in a pile for each failure. After a while there was a big mound. In the beginning man does not remember. But in the way I just described to you, your memory will also become strong. It is the way of the Pelman System of Memory. And further, you will know how many failures are there, how many scorpions are under your bed. At present we don't know how many there are. You have to weed out.
    Suppose there is some dirty water with weeds also growing on the surface. Then, how can you see your face? Just remove the weeds little by little. Throw them off. Weed out. The water will remain. When it is still, you will be able to see your self. This is most important: it is called purity of mind, and is very much necessary for meditation. Hitherto, as I told you, when people went to their Masters, to their Gurus, they first make the utensil clean, then put something into it. Ibrahim was a Saint, he was a king who left his kingdom and came to Kabir, lived with Him for three, four years. He was quite obedient and did not ask for anything. Whatever was given to him he would eat. He would do whatever he was told to do, like a bought slave. So Loi, the mother of the house, told Kabir,' 'Well, he is quite ready, will You give him something now?" And Kabir told her, "No, his vessel is not yet ready." She said, "What more is wanted.'? He is very obedient; he does not say anything; whatever you give him, he eats; he never grumbles." "All right, tomorrow morning when he goes out of the door of the house, you put all of the refuse of the house into a basket and throw it over his head. Then, listen to what he says." Next morning when Ibrahim went out of the house, Loi put all the house refuse over his head. Ibrahim said, "Now! Had this been Bokhara..." (He was the king of Bokhara, you see), "this would not have been." His ego was still there... "I am a great man living at His door." When she told Kabir, He said, "I told you, his vessel is not yet ready." Then some years passed. He remained there for more than ten years. Then one day Kabir said, "Now the vessel is ready." Loi said, "There is no difference outwardly." [Kabir:] "All right, tomorrow morning when he goes out, just throw all of the night waste over his head." The next morning she did so. Ibrahim said, "God, I am worse than that." And Kabir said, "Didn't I tell you? He's now ready, you see."
    So hitherto, these things were given to you for the purpose of preparing you, cleaning your vessel first. Where's the time now? Can you afford to spend years at the Master's feet? The times are changed. So, now you get something first! How great a concession it is. Then you are asked to weed out. Diary is only for that purpose. The more you weed out, the more you come in contact from within, the quicker the results will be. So it is a great concession given nowadays. This is a very dark age of course--what they call the Iron Age and much has to be done. Diary is very important.
    Do nothing more than to weed out all imperfections and you'll have transvision. But transvision is no spirituality, I tell you. You develop that naturally--it follows. Spirituality, as I told you, is a matter of self-analysis--knowing oneself and coming in contact with God overhead within you already. Yesterday i was telling you that you are mocking God. [Master chuckles] Is it not so? He says "I reside within you and you put me into temples made of stones. You drive people away from me, lighting candles and ringing bells, this and that. I am within you, I have told you." It is something like that, is it not? So seeing is believing. Mere feelings or drawing inferences are subject to error. You find so much time for other pursuits. Out of twenty-four hours, perhaps you are spending eighteen hours, twenty hours in other pursuits. What time do you devote to your own Self?. And this is the most important thing with you. a man who is unlearned at the time of death won't become learned after leaving the body, you see. He remains for years what he has become at the time of death. So that is the reason for the motto--"now or never;" "now or never." If you don't care for the present, then the future cannot be set right. Now further, live in the living present, and even further, the living moment. So this is a most vital question concerning our own self. All other things are related to give and take; you have to finish off, wind up. What you have sown you must reap. And one thing more: don't sow further seeds, that's all. This is a time when you can go back to your home, your true home. But what are we doing now? We are just like a prisoner whose term of sentence is coming to completion, telling his fellow prisoners, "Look here! 'Keep this article with you. I am coming again;" sowing seeds to come back again. Don't sow further seeds. Pay off what you have already sown.
    What I am talking about now, is it not most important?

Yes, indeed, important.

    Then? We leave, we have to leave the body someday. But when, nobody knows. Even on the way, we could be cut off, then? We are nowhere. And that is why Saints tell us, laying great stress on that which is your Bread of Life and Water of Life. So on spiritual health depends the life of mind and body both. This is what we mean. This is the gist of all scriptures.
    You do not have to leave the world. Pay off what you have to pay.  Wind up all give and take and direct your way back to God. Man is the highest in all creation. If we don't make the best use of this time, then, we have to come again like that prisoner, "All right. Keep this with you. I am coming here again." So it is high time to go back to our home. But we just keep paying off and sowing new seeds to come back. Do you want the other life after death only to have to come back again? Why not go back to your home? And for that we have done little.
    So God says, "I am the Light; I reside in you." And we, what do we do? God lives in the body which He has made, this man body. It was made in the womb of the mother by Him and we make His homes of stone and direct people to go there. So we are dragging people away from Him. Excuse me, if I say so, [Master chuckles] but outer things are only symbols to show that suchlike Light is within you. Well really that Light is within you. So body is the temple of God. Those whose eyes are open see the Light within, not outside. We light lights outside, ring bells outside. They are but the symbols of Nada and the Light within you. So these are only imitations; imitations sometimes are more attractive... and people are deluded. Real diamonds are very few, but imitation diamonds are plentiful. This is the difference between Apara Vidya and Para Vidya. We make symbols of Light our friend; raise the dead body. It is within that we have to turn to see the Light.
    You people who have ample resources for that--time, convenience, and can make arrangements, but most of us are so much given up to outside things we have little or no time to think about our inner development.
    Anything? Any questions? Yes.

Master, in my profession, I do a lot of traveling.

    Yes, that's all right.

And I have to spend many nights in hotels.

    That's all right.

Is it right if l go to the room where I have to live for many clays that I pray to Master that He will purify and clean this room from the bad radiation or bad thoughts or whatever?

    In the West of course you do not carry your bedding with you.

No.

    Because they are supplied there. One thing can be done. Turn within. You know how to meditate.

I try to.

    At least you know how. You may have had some experience within you, have you not? So pray and go within. That will work as a sheet anchor against any outward influences. That's the only way. Generally in traveling, we forget meditation. That's a pity. When you go to any place where you have to rest for the night, put in more time for meditation. When you have constant remembrance you become as an air-conditioned room. So by regular practice you will have that. Regularity pays. Habit turns into nature.
     I remember Emerson, a great man, said that when he wanted to be all alone, he used to go to an inn. "Hundreds came and hundreds went--nobody cared for me; I did not care for anyone. I was all alone to my own self." He said when he wanted solitude, he did not go to the woods but to some inn. There you are left to your own self. People coming and going; nobody knows who you are. We strike acquaintances with others. What do we generally say, "How do you do? From where have you come? What are you, what are you doing here?" Why not leave all these things? This is what Emerson said, you see. All great men have something special in their lives. He wanted solitude in an inn or a hotel, where there is regular coming and going, and nobody cares who is who. This is a training you see. The whole pity is: we don't come to our own Selves. That's the point. If you live within your own self, nothing from outside can affect you. You may use your outgoing faculties for any particular thing you want to do. These slaves should be under your orders, not enslave you, that's the point. We simply formed the habit of being enslaved. Now as I explained to you, is it not like going to an inn where nobody cares who you are unless you strike friendships?--and you live within your own self and go on with the work you are given to do. So we can live in the world and yet out of it.
    Hello. Hello. How have you come? How? By...

By train.

    By train. All alone or with anybody else?

No. Fine. Oh! Just me.

    All right. Everyone else is okay.

Yes. They're all okay.

    That's all right. You, you have made the best use of your time there?

Yes.

    In meditation.

Yes.

    That's all. One man left from here. So our one shortage is made up now. Have you brought any news from Delhi?

No, nothing special.

    All right. Glad to see you. Have your breakfast now. Nine twenty-five. Time flies on like anything. All right.



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