On this day of your receiving initiation into Karma Sannyas, I wish you good experiences in your life, advance. I know that it Is very difficult to understand the role of Karma Sannyas in one's life, and it is much more difficult to put the ideas into practice while maintaining the natural process of life.
Our minds have been built in such a way that we are not able to integrate the two opposite forces within us. Either we become attached to the mundane experiences and just live a mundane life, neglecting the spiritual experience, the inner experience, altogether, or we go headlong and neck-deep into a transcendental way of life and neglect the mundane, empirical experiences.
Examples of these two are not difficult to find. On the one hand we have the recluses, the renunciates who completely deny and reject the empirical side of life. They totally reject that area of life which is related to the senses, the body and the mind, and only follow the transcendental process - a life of rejection, a life of negation. On the other hand we have those people who do not at all understand, or care about, the higher and transcendental values of life. What they understand is just the body and senses. They are absolutely soaked in the sensuality's of life. For them nothing is beyond the senses. For them total creation and total existence is what can be seen, what can be perceived, and what can be touched.
By accepting initiation into, and the philosophy of Karma Sannyas, we are trying to integrate both of these elements of life, because, according to the Laws of Nature, neither is the empirical world untrue, nor the transcendental experience difficult. As a householder, every experience you are going through, every experience you have already undergone, every experience you will be going through, will be part of your spiritual life. It will not be opposed to your spiritual life. That is what a Karma Sannyasin, has to understand, there is nothing to give up, there is nothing to reject.
As you evolve, many habits, many addictions, many experiences are left behind. For example, when we grow old our teeth fail out. It is a natural process, we do not have to extract them one by one just to make ourselves old. As we grow old our hair becomes grey, we do not have to dye it while. In the same way, what we call the sensuality's of life, the infirmities of will power, the habits, the weaknesses, will fall off one by one, without us becoming involved. As a snake throws off its skin at the proper time, in the same way, various skins in your life concerning your bodily habits, concerning your sensual and social habits, will automatically drop away without your disturbing yourself about it.
A Karma Sannyasin has to respect his life. A Karma Sannyasin must have respect for, and acceptance, appreciation and understanding of his lifestyle, this is important. Once someone went to Winston Churchill and advised him not to smoke cigars. He said 'Why not? It is aromatic, refreshing, gives me pleasure, and releases my imagination'. The other man said, 'It Is bad for the lungs. You may get cancer'. Churchill said, 'All nonsense!' That is the attitude one should have about oneself' Not, 'I have bad habits. My mind is very limited. I am a very hopeless person.' No! A Karma Sannyasin should not be egoistic, but he does not have to suffer from these mental conflicts and complexes.
As I told you, you are subject to the Laws of Universal, Cosmic Nature. According to those Laws, at any one time you have one kind of personality, one kind of thinking, one type of conviction, one type of weakness. If you have patience you will find that in the course of time, like a snake, you will throw off these skins automatically. They will automatically fall off because habits are perishable, addictions are transitory. All of the thoughts that go through your mind are not permanent, they are transitory. They keep moving. They are like a flowing river.
A Karma Sannyasin must respect his own personality, in toto. You should never suffer from the complexes of guilt and negativity. You are an integral part of the cosmic drama. You are playing your part. I assure you that once you are convinced about your place in life and have respect for yourself, for your physical body, for your wife, husband and children, for your state of mind, for your philosophy of morality, ethics and religion, you will find that your spiritual progress will be very fast. You do not need to suffer from inferiority complexes, saying. 'I am not a good person. I am an evil-minded person. I am a weak person. I am not fit for the spiritual life'. These kinds of thoughts do not belong to, or refer to, or relate to a Karma Sannyasin at all!
You must, from today, respect yourself as a whole person. Whether you are sensual, a-sensual, anti-sensual, hyper-sensual or hypo-sensual, it does not matter. Whether your mind is quiet or restless or nervous, it does not matter. Accept it. Then your sadhana, your spiritual practice of Kundalini yoga, or Kriya yoga, or Mantra yoga, or Hatha yoga, or any other yoga, whichever from of yoga you are practising, Will produce astounding results and will give you very prompt spiritual experience.
Every day, without fail, with absolute regularity, you must devote a minimum of ten minutes to your sadhana. Whether you are well or ill, whether you have faith or not, whether you understand or not, whether you get results or not - ten minute. You must sit calm and quiet, with your body absolutely steady, eyes closed, and fix your inner gaze at either the nose tip, or the mid-eyebrow centre, or the heart centre, or the navel centre, and practise whatever you like for ten minutes. You can practise your mantra, or meditation on a form or a symbol, or you can think something nice, or you can concentrate on your breath, or you can concentrate on the light at the mid-eyebrow centre, or you can concentrate on the heart lotus or the lotus at the navel, just for ten minutes.
Even if your mind does not co-operate with you for days, weeks or even months together, if it is constantly restless, just continue the practice. Do not complain, 'Oh, my mind is restless. My mind is not tranquil. My mind is not one-pointed!' Sadhana is the most important part of Karma Sannyas initiation. If you have time, practise more. Practise yoga postures or whatever you like.
The most important thing is regularity. If you practice something for six months, then give up for a few months and then start again, that is not regularity. Whenever you stop your practices the regularity is broken, the regularity is disturbed. It is not the quantity of the practices, it is the regularity of the practices which will ultimately give you inner experience.
Many people begin to develop psychic experiences very quickly. They experience lights, forces, sounds, forms and so forth, but one thing I must tell you is that you must not run after these experiences. Do not follow them, not at all! That is the key! If your point of meditation is the sound of 'Om' or the form of 'Om', then that is all you concentrate on. Say 'No!' to any light, any energy, any force or anything else that cornea along. Nothing but 'Om'. You should not lose touch with the symbol which you have chosen. No experience is greater than the experience of your own symbol. This is the most important thing I have to tell you, and which you must understand.
Do not wish for experiences. Only one experience is of great importance, the inner experience of your outer symbol. If your outer symbol is fire then the same fire should be experienced inwardly. External experience of fire, inner experience of fire, intermediate experience of fire, astral experience of fife, causal experience of fire, spiritual experience of fire all have to be the same. Only the depth of awareness will be different, there will be no difference in the form of your symbol. This is a point which you have to understand.
Many of us make a simple mistake. We sit for meditation, and suddenly we see lights, forms, hear sounds, see beautiful landscapes, and we go on flowing with the experiences until we become lost and ultimately come back to the sensual world. Most people do this because it is very pleasant to roam about within these experiences. To see the lights, to see a triangle, to see landscapes and oceans and mountains and to hear music - 'Ah!', it is inner pleasure. This is what everyone must avoid, but it is very, very difficult to avoid it. Do not become lost in your inner world, because the field of inner consciousness is infinite. There are no footpaths, not to mention freeways. You can go in any direction. In every direction you will have an experience. Whichever way you turn yourself, you wilt have an experience, and that experience leads you away from the practice and you become lost. You have to realise that these experiences mean nothing. They are called psychic experiences.
Sometimes these psychic experience give you a little bit of extrasensory perception, but only for a limited period of time, not for all time, a clairvoyant is clairvoyant only for a short time. You cannot he clairvoyant for years together, it has a limited time. Like a flower which blooms for a few days and then dies, in the same way the psychic faculties bloom and die. Nobody can be a telepath for many years together. I was a telepath for a few years, but I am not now. You cannot be a clairvoyant for many years. I practised clairvoyance with a crystal. I could see things clearly, but I cannot do so now. Those faculties bloom like flowers for a few months or a year or so and then automatically they die, because no experience is imperishable, no experience is immortal. Every experience has birth and death, it has a limited span. Psychic experiences have a limited span.
What I am talking about is the experience of yourself in the form of 'Om', the experience of yourself in the flame of fire, the experience of yourself in the form of a triangle, the experience of yourself in the form of a candle flame or any other symbol. That symbol, your symbol, must be kept in mind all the time.
So, about Karma Sannyas I make two things very clear. First, have respect for your lifestyle and your personality. Second, be regular in your sadhana - at least ten minutes every day, at any cost!