the inner light.
That light is definitely there
and once it is met all darkness in life disappears.
Each step taken within
peels away the darkness layer by layer
unfolding a world of light in which everything is new.
This experience cuts away all bondage –
and then comes the realization that it was never there!
Liberation happens to that which is eternally free!
I am pleased with your progress.
Your letter was received long back
but as I was busy there was delay in replying,
but my memory of you is always there,
along with all those eager for the light.
My good wishes flow for ever towards them.
We have to keep going.
Many times one becomes disheartened on the path
but ultimately the thirsty pilgrim reaches the spring.
In fact the water is there before the thirst.
My kind regards to all.
6. My respects to you.
I was away, but your letter followed me here.
I am pleased to have it.
I see life as full of bliss.
Ordinarily, we do not have the eyes to see this
and so are deprived of it,
but this seeing can be created.
Perhaps it is not correct to say it can be created;
it is already there,
it is only a matter of opening the eyes,
and then – everything changes.
Meditation achieves this.
Meditation means: peace; emptiness.
This emptiness is there
but is concealed by the flow of thoughts.
As thoughts cease it comes into view.
It seems difficult to become free of thoughts
but it is very simple.
The mind seems very restless
but it can easily settle.
The key to this transcendence is witnessing.
One has to be a witness,
an observer of the mind.
One has to watch it,
just watch it.
The moment the witness state dawns,
that very moment one becomes free of thoughts.
This in turn opens the door to bliss
and then this very world changes
into a new world altogether.
Keep meditating.
Results will come slowly.
You are not to worry about that,
their coming is certain.
My kind regards to all.
7. Love.
It is a long time since I received your letter.
I am happy that you long for peace –
but drop this idea that you are way behind.
Nobody is lagging behind.
It is just a matter of turning in –
and the drop becomes the ocean.
Actually the drop is the ocean
but it does not know it –
that is the only separation.
In the emptiness of meditation even this separation goes.
Meditation is the center of life’s sadhana.
The thought process will slow down
and in its place will come peace and emptiness.
When thoughts vanish
the seer, the witness, becomes visible
and the complex of the unconscious disappears.
This complex is the cause of bondage.
In the beginning it appears as hard as stone
but the seeker who practices patiently
finds one day that it was just a dream,
a puff of air.
May the seed of your meditation
blossom into the flower of samadhi!
My kind regards to all.
The rest when we meet.
1963
8. My respects to you.
Moving around for the whole of May affected my health so all
programs for June – Bombay, Calcutta, Jaipur – were canceled.
I am glad to hear you are experimenting with
samadhi yoga.
Don’t worry about results,
just be with the experimenting.
The return is bound to come one day – not gradually
but all of a sudden, effortlessly,
without one’s knowing, it happens.
Within a moment life becomes wonderfully different!
I am not writing anything on
Bhagwan Mahavir at the moment.
There is no urge whatsoever in me to write.
But if you persuade me it is a different thing!
Everything else is fine.
9. Love.
I read your letter on the way here.
It has touched my heart.
If your desire to know life’s truth becomes strong
then what is longing today
becomes one day the attainment.
Burning desire is all that is needed
and nothing else.
As rivers seek out the ocean
so man if he wants to can find the truth.
No peak, no mountain can stop him,
in fact their challenge awakens his sense of adventure.
Truth is within everyone.
Rivers have to find the ocean
but our ocean is inside us –
it is a wonder that so many remain thirsty still without it.
Actually they cannot really want it.
There is a saying of Christ’s: Ask and ye shall receive.
But if you don’t ask, whose fault is it?
There is no better bargain than the attainment of God.
We have only to ask, nothing more.
As the asking grows stronger and stronger
so he who asks starts vanishing.
A limit is reached,
a point of evaporation is reached,
where the seeker utterly disappears
and only the asking remains.
This is the very moment of attainment.
Truth