Guidance from the Veda; Getting what one wants; Successful Life (19 July 2004) - Audio

When I am face to face with the children, I’ve always asked the question: what shall I do that will help them in the journey of their life? It is not easy to meet children, I mean really meet children. Usually there is a home in which a child is placed, there is a school in which a child is imprisoned. Then there are books which surround them. Then there is homework which presses upon them. Then there is an examination which is coming sooner or later and it is also pressing upon the child. And then there is a demand on the child to prepare himself or herself for life, for a career and for shouldering responsibility. So when you meet a child, you meet a child that is surrounded by many walls. You rarely get a chance when you meet a child where there is a free breeze blowing, where there is no limitation of space and time.

There is a cryptic question put to me. What is desh-kala? One of you has asked this very important question. What is desh-kala jnana, desha is space, kala is time. You hardly meet a child who is not pressed by space and time. I always look forward to an occasion like this for example, where I feel that you are free at this moment and when you are truly free from all cares, all responsibilities, when you are yourself in that condition, what is it there that should be told to a child?

My answer to that question is my dear brothers and sisters. We are all in the same boat. This is my first answer to this question. What is it that we must tell children? You must say, O brothers and sisters, we are all in the same boat. We are on a voyage, we are travelling together. When did we start the travel? We do not know. What is the destination of the travel? We do not know. What is the direction of the travel? We do not know.

But one thing is certain we are all together, it is in that sense of togetherness or equal ignorance. Some may know about waters in which we are floating. Some may know more about the boat and the wood of which the boat is made. Somebody may say I know this, somebody may say O I don’t know this. We are like villagers who are looking at a cloud, and some said O it will rain now and some said no it will not rain and some said how do you know it will not rain when clouds are there. Somebody will say, no no I know many times when even with the clouds it doesn’t rain. Then we quarrel. Some say it will rain, some say it will not rain. We are all like that. We are uninstructed villagers looking at the cloud. Remember this formula when you quarrel with people, you think that you are like villagers, rustic villagers, uninstructed behaviours, who are quarrelling not knowing really but claiming to know.

Guidance from the Rig Veda

There is a very beautiful expression in the Upanishads which describes all of us: andhena andah niyamah, we are the blind led by the blind. So you can see what situation in which we are ourselves. It describes the whole of humanity andhena andah niyamah and we quarrel among ourselves as blind quarrel among themselves, each claiming that we know. It is in that state that we are, and in that state we are talking to each other more intelligently and let us not quarrel and travel together in what way? There are two words which are very important in the Rig Veda.

I don't know if you have ever seen that book called Rig Veda, but if you have not seen it you ask your principal to make an exhibition of the Rig Veda here, then we have a special place here where the book is exhibited. I think all the students of India should at least see the book called Rig Veda. We see many many books in the world, but this is the first book of the world and this book was composed in India. So we are very fortunate that the first book of the world was composed in India and this book is a huge book. It’s not a small book. There are ten thousand verses in this book, ten thousand. Who wrote them? How were they written? It’s a long story, but when you read them you feel amazed. A book of so long ago and yet it contains so much of wisdom, so much of knowledge.

Now there, at the end of this book, there is one piece of advice given to everyone. Now this advice is given not by andhena andah niyamah. There is one difference as far as the Vedic writers are concerned. They had gone beyond andah, beyond the state of blindness, they said that we are blind at present but we need not remain blind and this is the prescription:

तन्तुं तन्वन् रजसो भानुम् अन्व् इहि ज्योतिष्मतः पथो रक्ष धिया कृतान् |
अनुल्बणं वयत जोगुवाम् अपो मनुर् भव जनया दैव्यं जनम् ||

tantuṃ tanvan rajaso bhānum anv ihi jyotiṣmataḥ patho rakṣa dhiyā kṛtān |
anulbaṇaṃ vayata joguvām apo manur bhava janayā daivyaṃ janam ||

Rig Veda 10.53.6

It says to human beings, O human beings be human, that is to say in your presence state you have got a human body, but you are not human yet, we are still like animals. So, first of all, the first advice is O human beings manur bhava. You become human being when you become manu. What is a human being? One who possesses mind. So develop the mind but that is not the end. Even when you develop the mind, you still have something more to be done. When you become mental, you realise that you are blind. It’s a good stage of consciousness to know that you are ignorant is a very good stage of development and then janayā daivyaṃ janam, now you develop yourself daivyaṃ janam into a man who is illumined, who has got daivyaṃ. The daivyaṃ comes from the word div, deepa also comes from the same word. So when you become illuminated, then that is the goal of your life.

So this one advice you must remember, it is a precious advice to everybody that the Veda gives to every human being: manur bhava janayā daivyaṃ janam. This is the first advice, and there is a last advice.

This is the last verse of the Rig Veda. You might have heard of it, but you may not know that it’s the last verse of the Rig Veda. It is the best advice to mankind. When do you know that you have become illumined. What is the sign that you are no more blind? There is a mark, a test by which you will find out that there are no more blind:

सं गच्छध्वं सं वदध्वं सं वो मनांसि जानताम् |
देवा भागं यथा पूर्वे संजानाना उपासते ||

saṃ gacchadhvaṃ saṃ vadadhvaṃ saṃ vo manāṃsi jānatām |
devā bhāgaṃ yathā pūrve saṃjānānā upāsate ||

Rig Veda 10.191.2

What does it mean? saṃ gacchadhvaṃ: walk together; saṃ vadadhvaṃ: talk to each other, have dialogue with each other; saṃ: harmoniously; saṃ vo manāṃsi jānatām: you share your knowledge together harmoniously. When you can do this, it is a mark that you are now illumined. Till that time we are like villagers looking at the clouds and quarrelling whether it will rain or not and each one saying that I know and as long as we quarrel remember that we are blind being led by the blind. This is one advice I would like to give to all the students of the world: as long as quarrel, you remember the analogy of rustic villagers looking at the clouds and arguing whether it will rain or not rain, and everyone claims that he knows when he doesn’t really know, and no one can say with definiteness that it will surely rain. And yet everyone believes that he knows. All quarrels are based upon this kind of confidence in regard to ignorance, remaining ignorant and yet claiming knowledge and fighting for it, that is a stage of quarrel. It is a sign that you have not reached, at the most you have just become aware that you are blind but you have not reduced blindness. When you can work together nicely, when you can dialogue with each other nicely humorously joyously, when you can have a laugh and when you can share your knowledge, not in ignorance, when you can share your knowledge.

I have therefore very often myself to speak to children when they are completely free from homework, from examination, from teachers, from books, from parents, from homes, when they are really really in their soul, then I would tell them what I have told you now. Because this is the moment all these children gathered here in a state of freedom, and this is the moment when I can tell the best that I can tell them, this is the best I’ve read:

manur bhava janayā daivyaṃ janam

Rig Veda 10.53.6

O my friends, O.. we do not know where we have started, where we are going, but please my dear friends don’t.. and listen to this great advice, admit that we are blind, admit that you have to grow towards the light and discover those lights, reach a point where you will walk together harmoniously, where you will have dialogue harmoniously and where you will share your knowledge harmoniously. This is the first thing I would like to share with all of you. I would like this to be written down not only in your notebooks, these two sentences from the Rig Veda.

I shall repeat once again, if you like, to write down a piece on your paper, you can write down:

manur bhava janayā daivyaṃ janam

Rig Veda 10.53.6

These two sentences are most important sentences for human life. Be first human beings endowed with the mind manur bhava, and then give birth, become human beings of light daivyaṃ janam* being of knowledge. This is the first message, and the second message is:

saṃ gacchadhvaṃ saṃ vadadhvaṃ saṃ vo manāṃsi jānatām |

Rig Veda 10.191.2

I am so happy that today your principal has given ample time to talk to you. We don’t get such a time with such beautiful children where you can talk to them not as a teacher speaks to children but as a brother speaks to you as brothers and sisters.

Let me repeat now what I would like to tell the children, I shall tell the same thing in different words what I would like to tell children as my brothers and sisters as freely who have no burden just now on their minds. I am not going to examine you, I am not going to ask questions. In that state of freedom I would like to tell you. O brothers and sisters remember you are free. Brothers and sisters remember that you are free. This is a sentence which we forget all the time and yet this is a sentence which we need to remember all the time. We are free. And what does it mean?

You will see in your life, you have a constant complaint. Complaining is a disease of human beings. We complain, what is the content of a complaint? or when somebody else complains to you, what is the content of it? If you analyse anybody’s complaint in the world, his complaint is: I want to do this, I am nt allowed to do it. You see any complaint in the world: I want to do this, I am not allowed to do it, you take any complaint in the world and analyse it. The bottom line is this: I want to do it, I am not allowed to do it.

Now what does it mean? Our complaint is that I am not free and yet I told you and the message that I want to give you is: dear brothers and sisters, remember, you are free. But we are full of complaints. That means that we are not able to do what we want to do because we are not allowed to do it. Our complaint is that there's a bondage on me. That is when you remember this message, you are free. If you still say, O no, people are pressing upon me, I am not able to do what I want to do. I will still say: please don't complain, you are free. You are going to see all around pressures coming on you, remember you are free.

That means, as long as you complain, you have not found out a door in your own surroundings which is open, but you are not able to find that door. There is always in human life, a door around you which is open, but blind as we are, and as we are blind led by the blind, we do not see where the door is open in our life.

So remember these words: You are free. There is a door in your circumstances where, if you knock rightly, you will enter into a freedom where we will lose a chance to complain. To complain is to admit that we have still not found the door to freedom which is free, which is open. It may seem to be closed, but you just have to push it and it will open immediately. This is the secret of man. If you therefore are in a state of complaint, then you have to make an effort: where is that door which is open and you just have to push.

You remember the famous words of Christ. You might have heard:"Knock and the door will be opened." These are very precious words: knock and it will be open. He also says ask and it will be given. We are not asking. That’s why it is not given, what you really want we are not asking.

Getting What One Wants

There is a very nice question that has come from one of you. I will read out the questions that have come to me, I must say that these questions are very nice questions. I would like to congratulate all who have put the questions, extremely nice questions. This is written by Sunandha from 11C:

Q: Why a person cannot get what he really wants?

It’s a very good question. I would like to give a good praise to the person who has put the question. Excellent, thank you, it's a very good question.

My first answer is that one does not get what he wants because he is not asking. Now remember asking is not easy. When I was a child I did not know what is called a lump in the throat. Every child experiences a lump in the throat. You want something but you don’t know what you really want. My mother used to scold me a lot in my childhood. Many parents do it in a wrong way and I do not like parents scolding children at all. Because I was myself a victim in my childhood of a lot of scolding. And I always tell teachers, parents why? Why do you scold? Why? When you need to scold the child that means you are a barbarian, and this I can tell every elderly person in the world, if you are scolding your child, you are a barbarian. In any case this was my experience when I was scolded, I used to ask without telling anybody: why do scold me, can’t you take me in your heart, can’t you kiss me and tell me what I should be doing, why do you need to scold me? Why don't you take me in your bosom, I want to be loved, I want to be kissed, I want to be embraced, why don’t you take me in your heart? Just whisper into my years, I will do it! But why do you have to scold me? This was my cry in my childhood and since then I had decided that I will become a teacher in my life and when I will become a teacher in my life, I will never never never scold a child. This was a promise I gave to myself when I was 12 years old, when I had a lump in my throat, and I could not complain because I did not know what to complain, how to complain? What is it to complain? You know when I went to Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry in 1956, I did not know much of the Mother. I had heard about her, I had seen her and even without knowing I was in love with her. Now very often, you love somebody without even knowing why you love, but then, when you begin to talk when you begin to know more and more, your love increases even more. This is what happened to me in regard to the Mother. I did not know what she would teach me, what she had to teach me, and one day I went into the school that she had created. This was my first visit to the school which she had created. And as soon as I entered into the school the first wall that confronted me there was a huge sentence in a few words but huge sentence because it was written in big words:

Do Not Scold. Never.

I was so thrilled. It was a thrilling experience of my life. This was written by the Mother in big words in the central wall of the school:

Do Not Scold. Never.

Immediately I realised that the author of that sentence was the greatest teacher in the world. She had summarised the greatest complaint of the children of the world. This is the greatest complaint of the children that they are being scolded and she had gone to its quintessence and given advice to all the elders, to all the teachers:

Do Not Scold. Never.

Now when there is no scolding then what is the answer? I tell you, many parents do not want to scold and yet a time comes, children are like small animals and they do all kinds of mischief, so troublesome. And the parents come to the end of their temper and they really feel like beating the child. It’s a fact. Psychologically particularly when you have two three four children in the house, all mischievous, equally mischievous or more mischievous than the other ones. You really feel that these children can’t be controlled. It’s a fact. All educationists face this problem, even the most loving mothers, even if you are like Yashoda, and even if you have a child like Krishna, the most handsome, the most sweet, yet the most mischievous. If you have a child like Krishna, you still and when you receive the complaint from others particularly that your child is so mischievous and troublesome, you really feel like tying up the child and beating him, scolding him. It is at that time that the parent needs to be told: Do Not Scold. Never.

At that time, when you do not want to scold when you really love your child, love him deeply and yet you are put in a condition when you feel you must beat your child. At that time remember this golden rule. Mother said to the mother of one of the students. That student was my student and his mother had beaten her up one day and then the Mother told that mother: I would not see you at all in my life and so this was the punishment Mother gave to that mother because she had beaten her child she loved very much. Mother said I will never see you in my life. And imagine the punishment that Mother gave and then that mother was so much in agony and she wrote to the Mother: please, I want to see you. But she said when you beat your child, remember you are beating your soul, your own soul. Until you repent and repent to such an extent that you take a vow, that you will never never never beat your child again. Until you come to this point I will not see you.

Now why I am telling you in such detail this particular story, because I want to answer the question, why a person cannot get what he really want. The answer is, we are not really in need of what we want. If you really want something, please want it sincerely, do not beat others, because we are not getting it. Do not scold others, because we are not getting it. Want it. There is a way always when you really want something, you knock and the door will be open.

So my answer to the question as to why a person doesn't get what he really wants. Why? Because, first of all, he has not yet known what he really wants. As long as your want is inarticulate, as long as what you want is not clear in your mind, you need something, but you do not know what you really want. There is a very important advice given by many wise people in the world. The advice is, if you really want something you should be able to pray, is a big science of prayer. I don't know if anybody has spoken to you of prayer. Your prayers are always in every school, and everybody knows that we should pray and prayers are recited, but do we know ourselves truly what is a prayer.

There are three conditions of a good prayer, true prayer. First condition is that in your state of consciousness, there must be a great demand. It is the first condition: there must be a great demand. Second, that demand must be extremely serious or what we call extremely sincere. Now remember, it is not easy to guess in a state of great seriousness, if your mind, if your consciousness is scattered, if it is not absolutely centred, if your demand is mil gaya to thik hai, nahi mila to koi baat nahi if that is a condition of your consciousness, of your demand, it is not prayer, it's not serious. A true prayer is a demand which is extremely serious, truly sincere, one pointed.

Then there is a third condition and that is a very important condition. You should be able to articulate your demand in clear terms. There are many kinds of demands we have, they are half-hearted, half-articulated, we are not able to express it in clear terms. There is an example of a great prayer in the history of India, a prayer of Sri Ramakrishna. His first experience of Kali as you know he was a great worshipper of Kali. He was a priest in the temple of Kali. He was worshipping Kali all the time. He was uttering mantras after mantras all the time but he was dissatisfied. In that dissatisfaction one day he asked himself: today I must see Kali face to face. I have never seen her, I have spoken her prayers again and again but I have still not seen her. And that day he decided, I must see Kali today. And that day when he went to the temple, this was his decision, I must see Kali today and this prayer in his heart became more and more clear, articulate. He went to the image of Kali and said: I must see you today, very clear articulation, it was a prayer. There was a sword in the temple and he took out that sword and said to Kali: if you do not manifest, I will use this sword to cut off my head. And Sri Ramakrishna said, Kali manifested. He saw Kali face to face. Now you can see the prayer, the force of the prayer asking.

This is not a fiction, it doesn't matter. People have the habit of quarrel when they say one thing. They said no, no, I didn't have one, some other people say no, it doesn't happen. Himself he said when he prayed with his clear words. This was his demand, so the acuteness of his demand and he said. He is like a thirsty man. You are walking in a desert, scorching sun is harassing you and you have thirst and, as you walk on and on, there is no hope of getting any water anywhere at all and miles and miles and miles and miles to go and thirst. The pain of the thirst only water can quench and suddenly he asks for water. You may believe it or not, but in a seconds time, he says my thirst is quenched. You may say it is hallucination. There’s no water around that. I was prepared to cut my throat in my neck. Now, whether we believe in it or not, doesn't matter. We can't worry about it, but at least in his own mind, in his own heart, in his own sense, he said he is so calm and peaceful. It’s a tremendous experience of a man. Whether it can happen or not, is a difficult question and we can raise this question separately.

At present. I’m only answering a question about why a person cannot get what he really wants. My answer is: three conditions should be fulfilled. You must make a demand, make a demand in a state of complete seriousness, not interest. It is to demand seriously and sincerely, and then it must satisfy a third condition: a true prayer is a prayer that articulates itself clearly. There is a promise given to the world by the Divine Mother. Every sincere prayer is answered instantaneously on the spot. Every sincere prayer is answered. On this point I’ll give an example from my own life. I resigned from the IAS in 1956, one year after I joined the IAS, and when I went to the Mother she accepted me, to guide me, to be my teacher and she gave me the tasks after class. For my education, she was a great teacher. And soon after my joining the Ashram, she gave me a task.

She said you go every morning to the library, take a duster in your hand and dust the room. This is the task she gave to become a duster boy in the library. It was a very great education for me for an IAS officer to be told that he had to do one duty in life, and that is to dust the books in the library. It was as if a condition in which the prime egoism of the man is smashed, that your task  is of a duster boy. Seven months passed and I went on dusting the books day after day, day after day, and there was a book given to me as a result of this seven months of dusting the books. What is the book? The book was, I Felt Free. What I am telling you today “be free”, at the age of 26 when an individual is told, you have no responsibility at all. It’s a great boon when nothing is asked of you, nothing is expected of you. When you are a dusting boy in a library there is no limit by the way of time. Not every work will give you time like this but when your work is only of a duster in your hand and you go to the library and just clean up the books, you don't need any planning at all. So my mind was free from planning activity. There was no responsibility. In that condition I achieved what is called a tremendous tranquillity of the mind.

Many people say I want peace, peace, peace in life and within seven days, Mother gave an experience of that peace. But this was not all, a second boon came to me. One evening when I was in a great state of peace, great state of silence, there was nobody around in the library. I was alone. And I saw myself separate from myself when you grow up and you will learn what is called Sankhya philosophy, there is a description of an experience. What is called sakshi, witness, when you can witness yourself, when you see that you are yourself different from yourself, you stand behind me. It’s called sakshi purusha. You realise that you are a being separate from all activity, above all activity we are witnessing. So I experienced myself as different from myself. This was the second boon that came to me.

But that was not all. I saw that there was somebody else than me, than what I thought me. There was another me which was in a state of prayer. Somebody in me was praying. It was not, I was not praying. Somebody in me was praying and what was the prayer? Mother, I want to teach, very clear words, articulate, absolutely clear: I want to teach. I did not share this experience with anybody. These are only my words, which I saw coming out of my being, other than my being and lo behold the next day the principal of my school, of my library, he came to me and said: Mother has told me that you should teach, but she wants to know what is your response.

Now this is an example to show that I had prayed and there was an immediate reply, the very next day every true prayer is answered instantly. Yes, so to conclude, why a person cannot get what you really want: my answer is because we are not making that demand, because we are not making a demand in a state of sincerity and because our demand is not in the form of prayer, articulated clearly. Once you reach these three conditions, it is my experience that tells me that you will get what you are asking. As I told you, I like this question very much because it is one of the central questions of human life. Everybody wants and everybody complains that I have not got what I want. So one should answer why one does not get what one wants.

Successful Life

Now there is another question: this is written by Akanksha Yadav. Good question. What is that question?

What, according to you, is a successful life in the true sense?

It’s a very beautiful question. What, according to you, is a successful life in the true sense. Now this question is totally connected to the previous question. This question goes deeper than the previous question. The previous question simply said: why do I not get what I want? This question goes deeper, it says: should you really get what you want? There are many many kinds of bonds inside us because people want money, people want fame. Is it really what you really need, what you ought to need? Everybody says I want to succeed. Akanksha says: what is really success?

What do we mean by success? What is a successful life? There are many many figures in human history. Actually, when you study history, it is a tremendous variety. So many people who have fought, who have won, so many people have thought and written, so many people who have served and have been punished by those who have served, so many people in the world who are striven and striven in faith, never got what they have striven for. So many people were just laboured a little and got so much. All kinds of experience in the body of human history.

And therefore like Akanksha we ask this question: what is the real meaning of success in life? When can you say I have succeeded and she asked me the question: what, according to me means a success. So I will give you my answer. There are many answers to this question, but I shall give you what I think is success in life.

First of all, I believe that god exists. This is my personal belief. I am not arguing at present. I believe that God exists. Secondly, I believe that I am like all others in the world, a child of that God. All of us are children of God. This is my second proposition. Third is that God has whispered into my ears as he has whispered into everybody's ears and asked me what I should be able to do. In other words, there is a will of the divine which he has whispered into me. He has told me what I should be doing, what he wants from me, as he asked from everyone, so I believe that every one of us actually has been told by the divine as to what is expected of them. But I have forgotten. This forgetting is a very important proposition.

You know some of your questions which are there are concerned with the story of Shakuntala. Shakuntala’s story is known to all of you and the most important event in Shakuntala’s story is? What is that important event? Tell me, you all know the story of Shakuntala, the most important in Shakuntala’s life is connected with the phenomenon of..? Can you tell me?

Forgetting.

Correct. Dushyanta forgets that he ever met Shakuntala, that he had ever seen Shakuntala. Now it is a fictitious story where a king of the stature of Dushyanta, he is a great king, a popular king, he meets such a beautiful woman like Shakuntala, falls in love with her, marries her although secretly and then, when she appears after some time before him in the court of Dushyanta, Dushyanta says, I have never seen you. What are you talking about? He has completely forgotten. Now this is a fictitious story but this is a story of every one of us.

We are all like Dushyanta. The lord is like Shakuntala to all of us, we all have loved Shakuntala, the supreme divine and the lord has told us something, given a promise from me. All of us have forgotten. Today if we are asked, remember what God has spoken to you. We really don’t remember. We don't even know if God presents himself before us. We won't even know him that this is God, totally forgotten. So, according to me, that if I can recall, this itself is a great success. If I can recall my promise that I have given to God, what God has told me, which I have forgotten if I can recover, if I can remember what he has told me, then, according to me, is a success in life.

First thing, in fact, according to me all of us are working in the world to recover, all of us, whether we like it or not, whether believe it or not, we know It or not, all that we are endeavouring in our life, is to recover what God has told us. I believe that God has told all of us. This is my belief. I am not at present discussing my belief, I’m only telling you what I believe. God has told each one of us what he or she is supposed to do. What he wants you to do. And all that we are doing is a great effort at remembering.

There is a great philosopher in the history of the world called history of the world called Plato. I don’t know if you have heard his name. Plato, have you heard his name?

Yes, Sir.

Plato was a great philosopher, one of the greatest. In fact it is said the whole history of western philosophy is nothing but footnotes to Plato. That is the greatness of that great philosopher. Now even that Plato, that great philosopher has said that we all have forgotten, we are in a state of forgetfulness and according to him all knowing is remembering. What you say, I am knowing is nothing but remembering. Knowledge is remembrance and I fully agree with him. All knowledge is remembrance, reminiscence. So this is my second statement. All that we are trying to do is an effort to remember.

The first statement is: God has whispered into me what I am supposed to do, which I have forgotten. The second statement is: I am trying constantly to remember, all that I am doing in life is nothing but an act of remembering. The third thing is something of the kind that happened to me when I told you a prayer came out of my heart, and I said I want to teach, it is as if god has told me that in this life you have to be a teacher. As I told you I had tried to become an IAS officer, God had told me to teach. I said no, I want to be an IAS officer.

I have Dr. Vyas with me and he was telling me that he had a very good teacher in his life. You know he is a renowned philosopher of our country, Dr. Vyas. He is the secretary of the council of which I am the chairman. And he was educated by a very wise man and when he started his career of education, he wanted to be an IAS officer, and his teacher told him no, no, no, it's not meant for you, you have to be a teacher and he became a teacher and therefore his life is full of smile. You can see him smiling all the time because he got the right advice at the right moment. He gave up the desire to become an IAS officer.

In my case, it took me some time and I had the experience where God spoke to me saying I want to be a teacher so because it was as if I remembered. If anybody asked me the question, have you succeeded in life? My answer is that to this extent I succeeded, I recovered my real command that I have received from the divine to be a teacher. But that's only a small success. I cannot say this is all that God has asked for me. I don't think that God has asked only this much from everyone. Not at all. God asks different things from different individuals. Little by little, bit by bit a great message has to be found out.

That message I have been in search of myself since years and years and years and years. I started my journey first when I got this revelation: I want to teach, it was the beginning of my journey of life, so decades have gone and I have been constantly asking. What is it that I have to do? What is it that divine wants from me? It took me many years even to know intellectually. I was asking my teacher, the Mother.

One day you should know about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother more fully. I'll request your principal to give me time where I can talk to you about my teachers Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In my heart what I want to share with you, because I always think that the children should know what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have done for us. So one day I will get a chance. I have already told Anjaliji here and I am sure she will transmit the message to give me time when I can talk to you of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

But I continue now, a little I was asking the Mother. Please tell me Mother what I am to do and once when I was deep deep in my question, what am I to do? Suddenly, a letter came into my hands which Mother had written to somebody else. It was completely unexpected and that person brought the letter to me. It was written in Mother’s own handwriting. And what was written here was actually a revelation from the Mother as to what she wants from everyone. This is the message that she has given to everyone in his heart, in his mind, in the body. What is that? And remember this came to me when I was asking the Mother deeply, most deeply. What is it that everyone should do, as I said, knock on the door, and this answer came into my hands. I was sitting in my office and that person came and gave me this letter and Mother had written only a few words which are engraved in my heart.

Everyone is given a body so that in the cells of the body Sachchidananda vibrates consciously.

I shall repeat the great message that I received:

Everybody is given a body so that in the cells of the body Sachchidananda vibrates consciously.

Sachchidananda is the word for the divine. The divine consciousness is the Sachchidananda consciousness. That consciousness should vibrate in every cell of the body. And this is a work that the divine has given to everyone. Now it took me how many years? My first message had come to me in 1956, and this message came to me in about 1967, so so many years were taken in my life to find out one answer to my deep question of my life. Since then, my life took a turn. I have been in search of the consciousness of the cells in my body. We all know that we have got cells in the body but to become conscious of the sense of the body. I have not yet reached that point where my cells, I can say, are conscious. I cannot say that my cells are praying to the divine please manifest in myself, and what the divine wants is that my self must pray to such an extent that the divine consciousness Sachchidananda should vibrate.

Now I conclude my answer: what is success according to me? If I succeed in making my cells of the body conscious to such an extent that they can pray to the divine at this level, pray means really pray. As I told you, a demand which is absolutely sincere and which can articulate itself into unquestionable terms. When that state is reached, I will say that I have succeeded fully in the beginning because of prayer, but I know that if that prayer is sincere, it will be answered. I am waiting for that time and all my life even now, when I’m talking to you, this is the prayer in my heart. Let all the cells of my body vibrate sincerely and truly. So that the divine consciousness, Sachchidananda consciousness manifests fully. When that will be achieved then I will say I have succeeded.

So this is my answer to your question. Akanksha, I am very very grateful to you for having put this very beautiful question and I have told you from the depth of my heart what I believe is the real success. Thank you.

You have also put very good questions but now you will answer those questions, relation is different.

She has asked this question: what, according to you, should be the aim of life. Is it getting name and fame? Is it going to be the target? This is what we should focus on?

It’s a very good question, and now I would request you to come here where I am, sit by my side and I shall try to answer the question along with you.