[Master has welcomed the dear ones from abroad and then asks... ]
    So, any questions, please? All sitting mute and dumb won't do. Come up.

I received a letter today that there has been a great earthquake in Los Angeles. Fifty people were killed, bridges were knocked down, and a dam burst...about two weeks ago.

    How many killed?

Fifty.

    Los Angeles?

Center part of the city. But it didn't fall into the ocean. Haven't they written you that California would fall into the ocean?

    They were afraid it would sink. [pause] So catastrophe is over now, is it?

When the Light gets very bright my eyelids start to flutter, then open ... whenever the Light gets bright...

    The remedy for that is repeat Names. Recover your attention to repetition of the Names. Then that Light will become quite bearable.
    You! Something rankling in your mind? She has something rankling in her mind.

When we are initiated and we die, we are calm. But when we have to come back on earth, reborn again, there is much more pain . . . when the soul must come back on the physical plane.

    What for? After death, after you are initiated, if you have no attachment for the world, that soul will never return.

Yes, but when attachments are...

    When there are attachments that cannot be wound up, then he has to return, but not below the level of man.

Yes, when the soul comes back, then it has much pain...

    How do you know? When the soul comes to earth, is reborn, birth is from the womb. At the time of birth, there is trouble to the mother, of course, but not to the child, you see. By remaining in the womb, they are saved by the Light within, Light and Sound Principle. After the child cries, is born, just show him light or give him some sound and he will become quiet... that was his support in the womb. So in the womb, he has no trouble. But when he is born, he is ignorant, helpless. But how does it affect you? What do you want to say... tell me... be clear.

It is difficult for me to explain.

[translated] If one is born again, if there are attachments left and one is born again, is this painful to the soul!?

    Painful. In ignorance... painful.., naturally. When you come to the earth as a man born in a new form, you pass through childhood in a quite helpless state. That of course is no pain. It is difficult, of course, but you are not conscious at the time. You are besmeared with filth; you cannot do anything. How very helpless a state you pass through--you cannot sit, you cannot stand, you learn slowly. You also learn a language which will make calling less painful. Of course that is not what you call blissful, is it? If you have pain in the stomach, you cry; you cannot express yourself if you have pain--very helpless state. You have to pass through that state, until you come up to the very life past. Then you can develop some sense... you are more inquisitive and more discriminating--then again you will be put on the Way, that's all. Do you follow me? The first years are of course a helpless state.

Has Kundalini Shakti got anything to do with God Realization?

    That is a way of the Yogis. We are not concerned with it.

But has it got anything unconsciously to do with the Path?

    No... this is a natural Way on which you are put. Kundalini is a very dangerous way. The whole body burns like fire. You cannot bear it. That is not our way. There was one astrologer who came here who was a victim of that for two or three years. He came up to me in Deolali, near Bombay, and said, "I am in burning fire. Kundalini is awakened." When he was initiated [into Surat Shabd Yoga], it was all right. That's not our way.

I am not meditating well at all...

    Why not? Then do it accurately. Nobody else has to do it for you. What do you see?

Yellow light.

    What else?

Just that.

    The dim light. Then Iook into the middle. That will grow bright. I spoke to you the other day. If you had done ... Look into the middle, not the whole of it. That will grow bright. Sound is all right.
[to another] You? Going better? What do you see?

No. Today I am sick; I cannot concentrate.

    Today that's all right. Yesterday you told me you were getting better...

[translated] Saw a luminous form with changing Light around it.

    That's all right. Scintillating Light. That's all right. What is wrong with him today? Has he got some disease?

He has got fever.

    That's all right. Fever does not stand in the way. In fever, man has more time for concentration. Have you got any medicine?

He has got some with him.

    All right. That's OK. You will get better. Thank God.
    How many questions can there be? The only thing remains: to do meditation accurately.

[Translated] Sometimes she sees bright gray color and sometimes it appears like clouds going and passing by.

    Cloudy sky. Just look into the middle; then that will burst. Clouds will be subsided. Light will come from behind.

She says she finds it difficult to define that.

    To define that? You get cloudy sky with Light behind, whitish, palish, reddish.

She sees only clouds without Light behind, grey behind.

    Just look into the middle; that will grow bright. Later on the clouds will subside. Simply look continuously without break with full attention. Nothing more than that. You are not to differentiate, not to discriminate. No clutching on your part to have one thing or the other. Simply continue looking, that's all. Leave your intellect for a while. Don't judge. Look continuously, that's all. When you differentiate, or discriminate or you think you have got this, you have not got that, that stands in the way. Continue looking continuously without a break--intently, minutely. Everything will come all right. When you put your intellect in there, the whole thing goes wrong. Until the outgoing faculties are controlled, mind is controlled, and intellect also is stilled, only then you will have more experience. Do you follow me? Your intellect works now. Leave it for a while. Look continuously, leaving everything aside. When you get some sun, some Light, some this, some that, you differentiate, "This is not that, this is that." Leave it all. Look continuously without a break, intently, minutely to find out what is in there. Nothing more. Sweetly, with no intellectual wrestling going on there. Do it accurately. The more you will do it in that way, the more progress you will have. Now you get something. Sometimes less, sometimes more. Sometimes you get more but again intellect comes and again further progress is retarded. Follow implicitly what you are told, leaving your whys and wherefores and intellectual attainments. Look continuously, like a child. That's all. When child looks, his gaze is fixed continuously. When the gaze is fixed, the mind is also fixed. This has to be done regularly--regularity, time factor, is necessary for progress. As it is now, sometimes you progress, then recede, again progress, then recede. Diary is a necessity. Every moment you are judging what is going on. Just as when a seed is put underground, and after an hour you dig it up to see if it has sprouted forth. Later you dig it out of the earth. Again you see. If it is there, water it continuously, as I told you the other day, by regular, continuous attention. That will sprout forth. If you dig it up to look al the seed, again cover it, then dig it up, that spoils the seedling, does it not? Follow implicitly without any intervention of your intellect. You know there is Light. Are you sure there is Light within? Have you ever seen Light?

She is not sure...

    What nonsense you are talking. Who else can be sure? Follow implicitly what you are told to do. Then you will have it. Always be grateful for what you get and hope for the more. It is you who sees, not I or anybody else. Be definite and have definite things. On account of your intellectual wrestling, this and that thing, sometimes you go up and again come down. If you follow implicitly from day to day, you will have more progress. Some days you are very happy, gaining. Some days there is something wrong in your mind; you are thinking of the past, future, this, and that; that spoils the show. You are here only for meditation. Then you will go on all right.
    It is a matter of seeing. How much ability or intellectual attainment is required for that? Even a child sees. How simple it is and how difficult we have made it, is it not so? And what is it that makes it difficult? Our intellect. Intellect is all right for understanding. I am not altogether denouncing the intellect. It is for the purpose of understanding. When you have understood, then do it. You may study for years to acquire understanding, but once you have understood and have seen proof for your own self, that there is Light, then why all this coming and going, receding and progressing? How much ability is required in seeing? Is any ability required? Is any Ph.D. degree or scientific degree required for that? Look. See. The child sees; is it not easy? Don't let your intellect stand in your way. Look sweetly into what comes. What is given to you --receive. And you will see the same thing about which the Scriptures have told you. You have by now received some experience of It, there is no doubt now. There's no doubt about it, you see. But I wish you to progress in days what would ordinarily take years. Put in your whole time. You are here for that purpose. Forget everything--past, future, here, there, relations, your body, even your intellect. Leave it all aside. How long does it take? You are to absorb your attention into Light or Sound. That's all. It is the yoga of the attention, you see. Surat Yoga, not Gyan Yoga, nor Hatha Yoga, nor Bhakti Yoga. It is Surat Yoga which even a child can do; I think a child can do even better. This is why when children are given a sitting, they see Light. They simply see. "All right, look." They look with no intellectual wrestling. This is what is required. Intellect is a good thing--again I will say--it is not to be denounced altogether. But it is only for understanding. When you have understood, then leave, leave it aside. Go do it. So this is, I think, the biggest problem we've got--intellectual wrestling. The man with intellectual attainments can explain the same things in so many ways. Intellectual attainments are like a garland of flowers around the neck of a practical man. But if he doesn't have any degrees, he'll explain from his own vocabulary using examples around him. Bulleh Shah went to his Guru who was a gardener, putting saplings here and there, and asked him how to find God. Oh, very simple; just take the saplings from here and put it there, that's all. Just as you are directing your attention from one side to another, that's all. He explained in a very simple way what a learned man would explain in so many books. After all, we have to do the same thing. So make the best use of your intellect. I do not denounce it, but when once you have understood, follow it. So feelings, emotions, and drawing inferences are all subject to error as I told you. Seeing is above all. It is a matter of seeing. How simple it is to look sweetly. I look sweetly. Eyes speak to eyes. That darkness will be thinned. You are Light. You will be absorbed in Light still more. You are already Light. You will become bigger Light.
    I think you have followed. I have explained the same thing to you in so many ways. If you want regular, continuous progress from day to day, do as I tell you. Every Saint has his past and every sinner his future. You are the same as I am or anybody else. The only difference lies there. The only difference between a learned man and an unlearned is that the learned man can explain to you in so many ways, quoting quotations from here, there, and everywhere to bring home some evidences of what he saw. An unlearned man says, "All right, take the sapling; put it there." After all, this is to be done, is it not? It appears a little difficult in the beginning, but this way is not difficult, I tell you. The very simplest way--quite natural; even a child can do it. When the child is absorbed, he looks wholly; he forgets everything. He enjoys everything; that is why a child can be wholly, solely there, in what he sees, what he eats, whatever he does. A child is more happy than a grown up man. Why? He is wholly, solely there in what he does. That is why Christ said to be like little children--"Suffer little children to come unto me." You follow me what he meant there? "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You will have to become a child, that's all.
[Master has apparently given out some parshad.]
    The other parshad will grow more and more. What you have already got within you, that will grow more and more if eaten up in a few minutes, you see.