Change your Habits now

II

In Swami Ji’s Shabd, He laments over the situation:

Many days of attendance at Satsang have passed; now give up your old habits.

Oh man, it is the time now to discard your old, disreputable habits and adopt new ones. Habits are formed by repeatedly doing the same things, so we should first unravel all the bad actions: lies, hypocrisy, cheating, criticism of others, enmity, avarice, malice, backbiting and various others. If you do not intend to change these ways, what is the use of attending Satsang?

Your steps are forward, but your mind is retrogressing.

Satsang is the means of making us into something beautiful, but not by merely repeating God’s name. Change your habits now into good ones, for habit turns into Nature with time. cast away all negative thoughts, and instil positive ones in their place. If a person does wrong, forgive him, and he in turn should forgive your misdeeds.

In the Koran Sharif, it is written,

Even God has no thought for him who has no inclination to change.

How can we expect other people to show excellent examples? If we ourselves would change, the whole world would change with us. It is a message for all. One of the worst habits is that of criticising others. All virtues exercised in righteous living are good, but that of ahimsa parmo dharma – non-violence of thought – is the highest. It can become a daily habit, for it lies inherent within us all, and although other thoughts are there, yet consciously or unconsciously it is working and will rise to the surface one day. That is why you are told frequently in Satsang that the past is past, forgive and forget, and do not make a foundation of bad thoughts or there will undoubtedly be reactions. You will be the loser, for again you will revolve on the cycle of births and deaths. So with Love the Master’s encourage Their children to change their habits while there is still time.

With great compass for humanity, Swami Ji is telling us:

For how long will you try to deceive your Guru? Now recognise what He is.

Hiding the true facts you think, ‘What does the Guru know? What we want to do is correct.’ You get hold of an idea and place it above all else, considering everyone else to be wrong – even if your Guru tells you something different. How long will you keep this up? Make no mistake, He watches our every action, for the Guru-Power is residing within our very being. But we foolishly think that He is not present to see us, so we can do anything and He will not know. He entreats us to try and realise what a Guru is. The Guru is not the physical form – He is not the Human Pole but is the all-impotent Power of God, which has manifested therein. It is accepted that God is everywhere and sees everything. Give full attention to learn what the Guru is, and then come to know it. He has Love for everyone – for His own, for all others; even for those who are against Him. His wish is to do good to all, and even though a knife were put to His neck He would not think ill of the wrongdoers. He is different and expresses this wealth of Love and forgiveness because of the Guru-Power in Him. So He says we should stop all this deceit – if one thinks of one’s Guru as a Guru, then obey him. After all, he does not give bad advice.

Sometimes it is possible that two idiots can be bound together in love breaking the chains of the creeds that are binding them, whereas intellectual people would snap the silken threads of love – without hesitation.

Gurumukh loses, and lets the world win.

He who loses out of Love and humility, in actual fact wins the day, for he has saved what he has stored, otherwise in the fire of anger his precious store would have been consumed to ashes. If there is no ire in a person, not even a wisp of smoke will be seen. Try to recognise your Guru, for Satsang is concerned with the Guru, not with a mere human being. When you go to Satsang, go in His remembrance for He is God in human form; be present there in His remembrance and when you take leave take that remembrance with you.

We should exploit those qualities, which will assist us to join back to God and discard all traits, which are liable to lead you away from Him. It is not difficult to realise the Lord, but it is most difficult to become a man – a True Human Being. One hundred times and more we bow our heads and say ‘yes, yes, I will do it’, but in action we do just as we please. This indicates that as yet we do not truly understand the Spiritual Path. If you have not as yet changed your old habits, then do so at once. Make a start now. To have bad thoughts for others, to take sides in enmity, like a lawyer criticising the lives of your fellow beings – would you not expect the fire to flare up within you? The Guru sees all events with a different eye, for every man sees from his own level. If you have accepted someone as being superior to you, then obey him.

A teacher who has not reached the higher level can easily be the cause of further downfall. Those from higher levels always strive to reunite all humanity. You came to Satsang to realise the Truth, to be free from your miseries. To fulfil this, whatever you learn must be adopted and reflected in your homes and daily livings, that peace and happiness may blossom forth in you and in those who surround you. The Satsang is a very place of special purity, and even your thoughts should be pure as long as you are here. No other thoughts save that of the Lord should enter your head, and whatever advice you hear, live up to it. If you obey, without exception you will change for the better; if not, you will suffer the consequences.