‘Words of Wisdom’

-Rajyogini Dadi Janaki, Cheif of BrahmaKumaris

@Cambridge Public Programme

There’s a lot of benefit in understanding in a practical way the answer to the question: Who am I? You are seeing this body but I the soul am making the body function. I need to recognise myself as a soul, the driver of the vehicle. My body, is my car. A driver always drives carefully and is aware of the need to reach the destination on time. Go deep inside and recognise who am I? Become introverted. We are all now sitting quietly and peacefully. This is wisdom.

Secondly, in life, there needs to be the awareness of to whom one belongs. In a spiritual sense, it is the One who is quite separate from all human souls, all messengers and prophets. I belong to the One who is loved by everyone. People ask: What is love? They are hungry for love and thirsty for peace. When you recognise who you really are you can experience peace. Then one can pay attention to who is mine – the Almighty Authority, the Supreme among all souls. He is the Ocean of Knowledge, Peace, Love and Bliss and He is mine. He is my Mother, Father, Teacher, Friend and True Guide. Where did Dadi gain this wisdom? From experience. When I become combined with that One – there’s victory, and I become free from ego and attachment.

We need to live and work with people. The most rewarding way of living and working with people is to maintain an attitude that everyone is good. If God is my Friend, that makes everyone else my friend too. Understand one thing very well. Once there’s double victory (V+V), you’re able to have wisdom (W). W stands for wisdom. W should not stand for ‘why’ in my mind. Don’t keep asking why, why, why? People are constantly asking questions and crying out in distress. Our language is quite different; it is filled with pure feelings. Are you able to catch the vibrations of pure feelings? By asking questions we just waste time.

I, the soul, have found God the Father and have received so much happiness and power from Him. Any deficiency within causes sorrow to the self. Weaknesses come because a) desires and b) attachment to relationships or to things. This is the root of peacelessness and sorrow. We know we have to live in the world happily so let me not have any weaknesses that make me question why. I’m a child of God. God is giving me this wisdom. I’ve given God my companionship, so I’m not alone in my relationships with others – I have God with me. I, the soul am alone but I’m combined with God. I, the soul, am free – a carefree king (not even a queen, who’s under the influence of someone else). Not careless but carefree – by being careful. Caring for the self and others. Through love, experience wisdom and stay carefree – no matter what your health is like. This is also wisdom.

When my Teacher is also my Friend, it’s easy to learn from Him. He is the Almighty Authority and He wants us to have all His powers. We talk of eight powers – the power to tolerate, to merge, to pack up, for example – these are all things of wisdom that prevent us from going into the expansion of anything. When one can attain something in a short time it can be said that one is using wisdom in a worthwhile way.

People read the different scriptures to find God. I read the Gita. They want to attain the divine eye to be able to see and the divine intellect to be able to know and understand. In order to see I first need understanding. I’m seeing all of you. Just as God gave me the feeling You belong to Me. I’m seeing that all of you also belong to that One. It’s easy to have that feeling of belonging.

I had very little education; I don’t have any money, yet I travel around the world. How? It’s His wisdom that makes it possible. This is true income. No need to invest money in the bank, just stay carefree and don’t perform any action that creates burden on the self.

One is a blockage in the heart that prevents me from doing what I want to do. I cry out in distress and feel incapable and disheartened. God, the Surgeon comes and opens the arteries of the heart so that I have enthusiasm and inspiration to perform good actions. One is strength, the other is the powers. Human beings depend on four things: body, mind, wealth and relationships. These are the basis for everything. Whilst having all of these, let me be able to remain content – free from any desires. Take with one hand and give with the other. The head, hand and heart are all in different places. You perform righteous actions, when the intellect is good, then the heart is happy. They don’t teach this in the university, do they? Learn to do your accounts in such a way that, without any worry, you’re able to use wealth in a worthwhile way. I don’t need wealth to be able to make my mind happy. With simple food and simple clothes the body stays well. I don’t need anything; I have no unnecessary expenses and this makes my mind peaceful. I’m content with the virtues and powers within the self. There’s royalty, because there are no desires. When God sees I have that royalty and am real, He becomes very happy with me. With such an intellect, this wisdom and determined thoughts, I’m able to experience happiness in the mind, the body and all relationships. We don’t need to earn an income through lying or cheating in any way.

People have four defects: 1) telling lies and being afraid of telling the truth, 2) stealing – stealing even something little creates the habit 3) cheating: showing one thing externally and internally doing something else and 4) defaming others. The greatest sorrow is when someone is saying something about me that is not true. If I have any of these four, let me free myself from them now. Most people have done this during their life; often putting on a show to look good in front of others. Defaming is very dangerous and causes a lot of damage. I’ve learned that I’m my own friend. I don’t want to make any mistakes that will make me my own enemy.

Dadi’s wisdom is in the book Companion of God. Make God your Friend for a short time to start with; then with that experience you’ll want to do it forever. Being my own friend, let me not have any bad habits. With God, the Almighty Authority, as my Friend, I experience power in myself. I never dreamed when I was young that I’d have the fortune to be serving the world in this way and it all happened just through friendship. You all are also my friends!

Have meditation with the awareness of being God’s friend. Who am I, who is that One, who are all of us here? We belong to the same One. The attitude and vision filled with love and honesty. Feeling the power of truth…

…This is Raja Yoga meditation, which makes the mind and senses so peaceful. People generally meditate with their eyes closed but we keep our eyes open. The attitude inside is very pure, the mind peaceful, the intellect is working well – it doesn’t have anything wasteful inside, because of the relationship with God. Some say they are not able to meditate. Why not – what’s stopping you? Realise: I am the master – a child of God and my own master. This awareness is so firm within that even if I were to die now, I’d not feel any sorrow through attachment to things that I think of as mine. There’s no pull. My mind, vision and attitude all give happiness. There’s no fear of anything, no matter what happens. Physically I’m 97, I’ve been on the path of Raja Yoga for 77 years and have experienced many things but I’m still not afraid of anything. God has given such wisdom that, when we do something wrong there’s the fear that something else will happen. When we perform righteous actions, there’s no fear of anything.

Because I’ve not wasted time, money or energy, I’ve been able to accumulate power within the self. From God we receive power to finish our weaknesses and also power to live together happily. I may be sitting far away but the words that emerge from the self are filled with wisdom. I’ve seen how understanding that victory is my birthright and not having any doubts about that works in so many situations. It’s in the Gita: victory though having faith in the intellect. Doubts in the intellect lead to destruction.

There’s no ego about the wisdom God is giving. We just know that that is very useful wisdom, which makes our vision divine. This is the study that God is teaching us. This is the homework Dadi is giving all of you. We study for an hour every morning at the centres. We need to give ourselves that one hour. First we study in class then there’s homework for the day. Whilst coming into action and relationships, not allowing those four things Dadi spoke of earlier (lying, stealing, cheating and defaming others) and instead inspiring others to perform good actions. Even now I’m studying in this university. Someone asked Dadi: for how long will your study continue? I’m going to study till I die. In fact I don’t teach; I’m just studying all the time. When I meditate in the early morning hours I receive power from God. Sleep early and wake up early. Some people need cigarettes and coffee as soon as they wake up. They want different types of food everyday – one day Chinese, another day Indian, etc. Wake up early and connect with God. We get asked: Why do you have to wake up at 4am, not 3am? We have to rest properly so that we wake up refreshed, then at 4am we say good morning to ‘Baba’, our sweet Father, God. There’s an especially sweet feeling connecting with Him in the morning. The morning time is a time of nectar. You can then start doing what you need to do at 5am but first connect with God and keep your mind free.

There are positive thoughts and negative thoughts. Never allow yourself to have negative thoughts. Be aware of the contrast. Negative thoughts are like poison and cause damage. Positive thoughts are like nectar; they give life. Some people say they don’t have negative thoughts but they have wasteful, unnecessary thoughts – which means they have no power. Some people have ordinary thoughts, yet have the ego that they have very good thoughts. When there are positive thoughts, there’s realisation within the self. So, with such thoughts, being in my incorporeal stage, connected with the One above, in such a state of purity that there are no vices inside – no anger, greed, ego, attachment or lust.

In India there’s a character called Ravan, the 10 headed demon. They burn Raven before Diwali and this brings a lot of happiness. Why does he have 10 heads? They represent the five vices in every human being – five in men and five in women. The five main vices mentioned have five subtle companions. Having a connection and receiving power from God we are able to conquer those vices. With anger, for example, I may speak sweetly most of the time but if I get angry just once, the effect of that won’t be forgotten by others for 6 months. Never get angry, or no one will be able to experience love from you or for you. Who would come and see me if I sometimes get angry?

There are a number of subtle vices. One of these is jealousy… Many people have jealousy in them. It is important to appreciate what one has instead of being jealous of what others have. Jealousy makes you unable to bear seeing another one being happy. Appreciation makes one happy. I don’t need anything; I’m just happy God has given me enough within my own self. I don’t want to look beautiful or have a big home or a smart car; I have enough. If someone is jealous of me then let them take whatever I have. Let me just perform good actions and earn my own fortune. There’s often jealousy between children in a family and sometimes between husband and wife. Then there’s conflict inside and this becomes your nature. If you don’t consider anyone to belong to you then others won’t be able to help you feel that you belong to them. Another subtle vice is laziness. People don’t make the time to become good, to develop the self in a good way. Rather than focusing on internal beauty, they go to beauty shops. Here you don’t have to pay money – everything is free of charge and you don’t have to go anywhere else. Laziness brings the habit of giving excuses. If you are careless or lazy you will need to give excuses. If I’m constantly carefree, there’s no burden in anything. Let me perform good actions and help others to do the same. Let me experience happiness on seeing others happy.