The day before, Christmas, was a feast day when Master allowed those visiting initiates lo literally stuff themselves. He fed them as much as they could eat, but the next day...

    How did you all find your meditations last night.., and this morning? . . . with what results?

I was sick last night.

    Are you better this morning compared with last night? We'll get you some medicine.
    You please?

Last night I saw blue sky Light. This morning I put in a little bit of time.

    And you, please?

Yesterday I over-ate, so I got sleepy. I was greedy yesterday...

    [Laughing] The real enjoyment is within . . . And you please?

I put in three hours this morning, but I didn't 'l have any Light again. But it will come. I'm going to devote today to eight or nine hours.

    It is there. It will come. Concentration is required. And yesterday?

Yesterday nothing either.

    You saw Christmas!

Yes, I think I got too involved in the outer...

This is why. So anyway you enjoyed Christmas--the outer. And you, please?

I've been oversleeping and I went to the doctor, and he gave me some medicine. I'm sleeping about five or six hours less.

    Sleepiness is due to something wrong with your stomach. Eat less, that's the only remedy. Do you remember once one doctor joined Prophet Mohammed. That doctor remained with Prophet Mohammed for six months. There were about forty men following Prophet Mohammed, here, there, and nobody became sick during these six months. The doctor came up to Prophet Mohammed and said, "I've been here for six months, but I'm not needed because nobody has fallen sick." Prophet Mohammed told the doctor, "Look here, my instructions to them are to eat one morsel less than they really hunger for. Leave the table a little hungry. They also do meditation and work hard. So, as long as they obey these orders, nobody can get sick. The doctor gave you something for digestion. It's better that you have a morsel less, that's all. That's the best remedy. When animals, dogs, go sick, they stop eating; they never eat anything. You'll find they've got innate sense. They select some grass to eat and that is their medicine. So the best prescription is, eat a morsel less than you really need. Leave the table a little hungry--not full.
    You must have paid a fee to this doctor? Did you pay?

Yes.

    What?

Just ten rupees.

    Ten rupees! If you had told me, that would have saved you ten rupees.

That's true, very true.

    You should not have gone there. You should have told me. You are here--you are not uncared for.

Master, for the last few years I've had a strong desire to see God but because I was not always happy and life was grief and now earth life is becoming very enjoyable and I've lost quite a bit of my desire to see God.

    Because you are indulging in outer things, that's all.

But maybe if I got sick again?

    Look here, outer things are for your help--not for enjoyment. Make the best use of them, that's all. You have begun to enjoy them, and naturally the tendency is changed. If you have got more desires for the worldly things naturally the other side will slacken. So the best motto should be, "God first and world next."

I don't desire anything outwardly. I don't want anything in the world.

    Your own statement is contradictory. You say now your desire for God is lessened, is it not? Have I followed properly? Before it was very strong. The reason is apparent--your tendency has changed more toward the worldly things. If all desires are stopped, then that is good. But that will come  only when you come n contact with the God-into-expression Power, not before. Upanishads say, "What is that by knowing which all other desires are finished?" That is by coming in contact with the Way you have been given.
    Perfection walks slowly. Time factor is necessary. Go on, regularly; after some time you'll find that you are on the way up. Sometimes you advance a little, then recede, then again you get some advancement. So diary is meant for that purpose. Keep your diary very strictly, like a hard task master. Don't spare yourself. As you criticize others, so you must criticize your own self. By leading such a life, in two or three months you'll change, sure and certain. We spare our self. We see we have something wrong, but think, "Don't tell it. Who knows it?" But the God in you knows it. You cannot deceive Him. So that is why I always say, Be true to your own self. God is within you and the Master Power is there. You cannot deceive Him. Be sincere to your own self. l don't say, "Be sincere to me." That God Power is within you already. You cannot deceive Him.
Why do you loiter away--waste--fritter away time in useless pursuits. You're here only for that Purpose. l have told you, l think, more than a dozen times this very thing. Make the best use of your time here. Stop all thinking of past and future. Forget. Be here wholly, solely; live in the living present. Live in the present moment. If you continue; that will continue for eternity.
    The child does not learn running all at once. He wants some support in the beginning. He then wants to stand: after attempts, falls. Then the mother helps him. After some time he begins to run. So go on with it regularly. To meet God is not difficult. To make man is difficult. You must make a man out of your own self. God is after finding such men. He's going around, "ls there any man?"
    Kabir says, "l'm so much purified from within that God is running after me, "Oh, Kabir, Oh Kabir where are you? Come up." So God is very near and Master is running very close behind you all calling, "Wait, wait, wait," if you purify yourself. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Purity lies in what? You know? Purity of mind lies in the fact that no other thought than God should remain, come up. God is in every heart everywhere, we are swimming like fish in the Waters of Life. You may have many things in your brain. You may fill up your whole brain with all the libraries, and the scriptures of the world, but that won't help you. Only that much will help you which you have formed as the very part of your life.
    The food you digest, gives you strength, buoyancy, freshness. That which is not digested, sleepiness. You see? Your mind wanders away. One man came to Shiv Lal, a devotee of Rai Saligram and said, "Well, look here, I get sleepy." "So take care of your stomach," he replied. Another man came, "My mind wanders away." He said, "Take care of your stomach." Sheik Saadi tells us if you want proper meditation progress then keep half the stomach filled with food, one fourth with water, and let the other fourth remain vacant.
    Whatever dreams come up from indigestion will rake up and affect your brain and cause laziness. And the very prescription I have told you--leave the table when you're still a little hungry; don't eat until you're full. And Swami Shiv Dayal Singh says, "Those who want to prosper wonderfully on the way should have one meal a day." The highest thing for those who are solely for that purpose--one meal a day. The more the stomach is empty, the better. As I told you the other day, first is a meatarian, then a vegetarian, then an airarian. They go up like that. I quoted an instance yesterday. There was once with our Master a lady about thirty years old; she would not take any water or food and she was working all day long. The real Bread of Life is within you. But you come up to that in due course, not all at once. So all these troubles can be avoided if you leave your table having eaten a morsel less. If there is something tasty, you take too much, and the result is?

Yesterday I wanted one chapatti and when You came You said, "take half, for me."

    All right.

But I think it's an example--live your own way like you live in the West, but leave a little bit for me.

    Yes.

So the, food didn't mean anything.

    That's your understanding, right understanding. That's all right.

I understand so many things which I already practiced before and everybody says I'm wrong and they don't feel so good but now you're approving these things...

    Thank God. Thank God. That's all I can say. Any others also? You please?

You want to know about my meditations?

    What else am I here for? Are you better today, after you enjoyed Christmas yesterday? That's all right. And you? Can I ask you? I think you must not have taken any Food. That's Bread of Life, be regular. Let no day pass without giving Bread to your soul. That is within you already. That is why Christ said, "Man cannot live on bread alone." Outer bread is only to sustain your body, a good horse to ride on. That's all. If the horse is strong he will even carry a broken carriage. Is it not? So on spiritual health depends the life of mind and body both. We give food to the body, to the intellect, but we care little for the soul. So you are here only for the Bread of Life and Water of Life. And it is not lying outside; it is within you already. It is a matter of inversion. You have to pay nothing for that. Have you had to pay anything for that? No outer fees are required. It is a gift of nature, like other gifts of nature, you see.

It seems the people that have the Truth burn with passion to share it with others.

    Why is this so? God has sent them for that very purpose--to distribute to His children. Remember when I went to America for the first time in 1955? There, as everywhere, talks were given all free. Hitherto, these places had donation boxes and sold tickets. I told them that we didn't want these things. On the first day when I gave a talk one man stood up. "Where is the secretary?  Why do you want him?  I want to donate $5,000." "What for?  You've given a wonderful talk." I replied, "It is a gift of nature and like all the gifts are it will be given free." You have not to pay for air, sun, do you? So when I left people offered some bags of money. I told them to just spend it in this Mission here. They were in tears, telling me, "It would have been much better if you had taken away dollars, you're taking away our hearts." So this is your gift--free within you. Who is retarding you from that?
    "God does not change the life of a man who does not like to be changed," the Koran says. If you have a little inkling that way, He will help... If a child wants to stand, the mother comes up to help him. If he is lying, sleeping, no help is given. She has many other children to look after first. So we're all children of God. The Master is there to help you--the God in him.

The gifts of God are life and free will.

    Yes. This is what I am telling you.

I think man's position should be, since he has got free will, to will such a life of praise to God--acceptable to God.

    That comes when a man is fed up, when he comes to that ultimate urge within him. Naturally that would be a most fortunate day in the man's life when this urge comes up within him. Then naturally the help will come. Where fire burns oxygen comes to help. So it is a matter of your decision--decide one way or the other. When I left my school, educational career, I had to decide. What? There were two things before me--God and the world. It took me about seven or eight days, all alone at night, in a very lonely place, reflecting on what should be the aim of my life. I am speaking to you about a question that came up in 1912. I decided: God first and world next. God first and the world next.
    So if you have got some definite aim before you, even if you take one step towards that, you will be nearer the goal. But sometimes you are for God, sometimes for the world. Plus--minus nullifies everything. So decide finally what is your aim in life.

Decision is important.

    Surely. We have not decided yet. We are trembling here in the way. Sometimes here, sometimes there. And mind comes in like a very good gentleman. "Look here, this is your duty, why don't you do it?" Help your children, that's all right. I also will help your children. God has united you. Why have not others been united to you? It is the flowing pen of God that has united you, as brothers, sisters, wives, husbands. Attend to them properly. Pay off give and take. And? You have got the human life to know God. That's our ultimate goal. Don't sow more seeds. Wind up all your affairs. And Master helps you in that winding up, give and take, that's all. You simply live up to what He says.

It seems so easy, simplicity leads you to eternity and complexity will lead you to perplexity, because you have too many things to distract you.

    Simple food, simple living, simple life are helping factors. Once there was a chief minister of Akbar the Great, a great emperor in India. One day, as was the usual course, ministers keep standing up while the king comes in and sits down on his throne. But in that overcoat which he was holding over his arm there was a scorpion. Now out of respect, he could not move and the scorpion bit him here, there, then again. He could not move because that would have been disrespectful. When the king sat down, he said, "Well, look here, out of devotion to the king I have not even cared that the scorpion bit me so many times." Then he threw off his overcoat and ran away. "Thank God, God I will be your devotee." Akbar the Great said, "This is my chief minister, I rely on him for everything. Why has he run away?" So he sent a minister to request him to return. The minister pleaded, but he wouldn't return. "Oh no, I was Once his servant. I was doing everything he wanted. And now I have become the servant of God." Then the king himself came and told him, "Well dear Welli Ram, you are my chief minister. You are the big wheel of my empire." "Dear King, I was fully devoted to you for the time I was there; now I've changed my devotion to God." "How will you eat? .... I've got hands to eat. I don't need any plates." Yesterday morning--perhaps you were there--some people were eating vegetable on leaves, there were no plates.  "Well what will you have for your pillow?" the king asked. "My hands." The king then asked, "Tell me what you want?  Well I want you to be away from
me."
    So simple life is the ultimate. We take hours to make ourselves ready. We take hours to adorn ourselves. Give rest to the body, save it from cold or heat outside. That's good. Give it food. Give rest to the body, so that it may work properly, but not all twenty four hours. If you take too much work from a horse, you see, it will not help you.

If you work too hard, that's not good?

    Not too hard, but as much as the body bears. Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the good of others, that's another thing. That's the law of sacrifice. Love knows service and sacrifice. Give rest to the body, save it from heat and cold outside so that it may be strong enough to carry on your work, that's all. But all the time you spend in getting ready, well, you're wasting time. Keep the body clean, that's all right. It's a temple of God. Keep it clean outside and also inside. See things in their right perspective. Simple life and high thinking will work in no time. Simple life and high thinking. That's all. These are only subsidiary questions. The main thing is to come in contact with God who is within you already. You have not to go anywhere. Outer temples are made after the model of manbody. Why leave the original temple and go to the temples made by the hand of man? God resides in the temple which He has made, in the womb of the mother. Is there any machinery lying inside there? That's God's work.
    So you see, take a little less, one morsel less. Keep that thing which is more delicious to be eaten at another time, not necessarily at the same time. Because if you go amiss, you have to pay for it in some other way. Food that is digested will give you strength.