9. Thinking as God Thinks
(Darshan given on February 3rd, 1997.)
A visitor: It seems to be one thing to realise it, and it seems to be another thing…
Swamiji: So you make a distinction between realising and enlightenment? You make a distinction between enlightenment and the realisation of it?
Visitor: It is one thing to realise it, and on the other hand I should be able to express…
Swamiji: In order to realise, you have to meditate. Mere listening to a discourse is not sufficient. You have to sink your mind in the Ultimate Being. That is the way to what you call Self-realisation. And in your daily life, in your practical conduct of business in the life of the world, also this meditation should have an impact. You should not live two kinds of life – a divine and godly life in in the meditation room and an ordinary useless life in the marketplace. That will not work. Even in the railway station, marketplace, vegetable shop, hotel – everywhere you are have the concept of God entertained in your mind. You are a divine child wherever you go. You are not a divine child only in the classroom – everywhere. If you can transmute every activity of yours into this kind of meditation on God, then you are blessed. But is it difficult to do that? Is it a difficult thing?
Visitor: It's a difficult thing.
Swamiji: Why should it be difficult? If what you call God is the Ultimate Being, and it is universally present everywhere, then it is everything also. It is not merely present everywhere; everything that you see with your eyes also is That. So when you are handling anything, you are handling That in various forms of manifestation. Something may look like a vegetable, another may look like a dollar, a third thing may look like a railway train and a fourth thing like an aeroplane. They are different modus operandi of the operation of the One Being, and you have to handle it in the same way as you will handle God – in a universal compass of your comprehensiveness. In other words, it is the art of thinking as God Himself would think.
God is thinking something just now. Now what does He think, in your opinion? Stretch your imagination to the highest heaven and imagine that God is looking at you. What does He think about you? Can you tell me what is He thinking about you? That is your worth. Your worth depends upon what He is thinking of you. That is your value. Whatever God thinks you are, that you really are, and whatever He thinks you are not, that you are not.
Now you may say, “I have not seen God and so I cannot answer this question.” But yet God has planted Himself in your heart, and your heart will give the answer to this question. God is not sitting only in high heaven. He is in the recesses of your heart, so your conscience will tell you what God is perhaps thinking of you. Have you any doubt about it? Do you feel that He is perhaps thinking not well of you?
Visitor: No.
Swamiji: God is thinking well of you?
Visitor: Yes.
Swamiji: So all are blessed. If everybody says that, you are blessed. Be sure that God is thinking well of you. “Good child, I am happy to see you.” Let God say that; then you have no problem. But don't doubt: “He may criticise me. He may say this is no good. He may find fault with me.” Do you think there is anything in you for which He will criticise you? Or you will say, “No, there is nothing wrong with me. I am in perfect alignment with God's thought.”
Meditation is freedom from every kind of doubt. With a dubious mind you cannot meditate. When you close your eyes in meditation, feel the Absolute is in front of you. You are meditating not inside a room, but in the presence of the Absolute. With its millions of eyes, it is beholding you. Then close your eyes. “Millions of eyes are seeing me. The eyes of Eternity, the eyes of Perfection, the eyes of the Absolute, the eyes of God Almighty, the eyes of the Creator of the universe, they are looking at me.” Will you feel unhappy if you are beheld like that by millions of eyes of the Eternal Being, or will you feel blessed: “I am bathed in the protection of the power of this Almighty. I am blessed. I am very happy. I shall have whatever I want.” God has the capacity to give you whatever you want. Instantaneously God will give you whatever you want. He will not tell you to come tomorrow. He will say, “It is here. Take it.”
But you must know what you are asking. When you are asking from God, be careful as to what you are asking. Don't ask God to give you anything; ask God to give you Himself. I read a humorous story the other day in a book of Jalaluddin Rumi. There was a person who went to Moses and said, “Please teach me the language of the animals.” Then Moses said, “I will consult God.” Then Moses asked God, “This gentleman is wanting me to teach him the language of the animals.” God said, “Give him what he wants.” Then Moses said, “He may get into trouble by this blessing.” God again said, “Give him what he wants.” A third time Moses said, “He may even die by the consequences that follow from this kind of knowledge.” Then God said a third time, “Give him what he wants.” Then Moses came and told this gentleman, “It is done.”
The next morning when this gentleman woke up, he found a dog and a hen talking to each other because he could hear and understand their language. The hen was plucking a little piece of bread, and the dog was saying, “Why are you pecking this bread? Why don't you give it to me? Because you have got a beak, you can peck grains anywhere, but I cannot peck like that. So I want this bread. You give it to me.” The hen and said, “Don't bother. Tomorrow the cow of your master will die. Eat it.”
When the master heard this, he ran and took the cow, and sold it to somebody. A very clever man he was. The cow was going to die the next day, and such a thing he is selling for a price. He wanted to make capital out of this knowledge. The next day the dog asked, “Where is the cow?” The hen and said, “I have told you the truth, but what can I do? Your master has sold her to somebody.” “Oh, I see. So I am deprived of my food.” Then the hen said, “It doesn't matter. Tomorrow the bull will also die.” When the man heard this, he immediately ran and sold the bull. Then the dog asked, “Where is the bull? Your prediction is not okay.” “No, I have told the truth, but he has sold it.” Then the third day the hen and said, “Tomorrow the horse of the master also will die. You eat it.” Then the master ran and sold the horse also. Then afterwards the hen said, “His camel will die.” Then the last day it said, “His slave will die, and you eat him.” He immediately also sold the slave to someone.
Finally what happened was, one day the hen said, “Tomorrow your master will die, and you eat him.” The master ran from there. He ran to Moses and said, “Save me, save me, save me, save me, save me!” Moses asked, “Why have you come? Do you want more knowledge of animals?” “No, I don't want anything,” he said. “I don't want to hear anything from animals. They have already told me something. Bless me, bless me, bless me.” Because they have told some terrible thing, he said, “I don't want to hear any language of animals.” Jalaluddin Rumi is right. Foolish asking is not good.
There was another man who wanted that everything that he thinks should materialise. He asked God, “Bless me. Whatever I think, it should happen.” “Okay.” Oh, he was very happy. He sat under a mango tree. “Mangoes,” he thought, and mangoes started falling. He looked to the side. There was forest everywhere, all forest. He thought, “Oh, some tiger may come and eat me.” Immediately a tiger came and ate him. Now what is the good of this blessing? When you have no control over your mind, you should not ask for blessings from anybody.
So what you should tell God is, “Give me whatever You consider as best for me.” Don't say, “Give me a sword. Give me a fountain pen. Give me wealth. Give me children.” Don't ask. You will get into trouble by these things. When you go to a king, tell the king, “I want you only.” Don't ask for gold and silver. If the king asks you what you want, reply, “I want you, your Majesty.” Well, then the whole kingdom is yours. So if God asks you what you want, say, “I want You only, God.” Then He will take you to Himself. These are all titbits and humorous stories about the wonder of meditation on God, the difficulties on the path, and the puny desires of the human being which persist even at the gates of heaven.
So briefly I am telling you, meditation is nothing but trying to think as God thinks, that's all. You don't have to read any book. What is God thinking? What can He think? He will think the whole universe at one stroke because He has manifested it. What is God thinking just now? The whole universe in its entire unlimited compass He is contemplating as His own body, in which you are also included because you are included in the creation of God. Therefore, when God contemplates the whole universe as His own body, you have also gone into it. You don't exist separately. So what is God contemplating? The answer is very difficult. Is God contemplating you or contemplating Himself or contemplating the universe? All the three mean one and the same thing. When a body thinks of the feet, is it thinking of the feet or is it thinking of itself? It is thinking of itself only, though it looks as if it is thinking of the feet. If I think of my nose, I am not thinking of my nose; I am thinking of myself. So if God thinks anything, He is thinking Himself, and if He thinks you, then also He is thinking Himself. If you can train your mind to think in this fashion, you will feel a pervasion of your spirit everywhere, and you will walk on the road like a majestic divinity.