1. U S 80 - 26 GROWING WHEAT AND WEEDS TOGETHER GURURAJ: What shall we talk about tonight? Nirmala? DOUG: Nirmala has a question. Do you want to come up front? NIRMALA: It says in the Bible that we may let the tares and the wheat grow together. Tares seems to be a Biblical word for weed. Could you give us your spiritual interpretation of this saying? Does it mean there must always be the bad with the good? And if so, why? GURURAJ: Thank you. Beautiful question. Should there always be bad with the good and if so, why? Now what is good and what is bad? Neither exists. For good or bad are but the interpretation of man's limited mind. Now, things that are no t conducive to nature or things that do not flow with nature are regarded to be bad. Why is it regarded to be bad? Because it is not in accordance to man made laws. As far as the spiritual self of man is concerned, he is totally untouched by that which i s good or by that which is bad. Now goodness and badness according to our interpretation, interpretation of our minds, both have a binding effect, while the goal of man is to lead himself to total liberation. When we talk of goodness, we are talking of mo rality. And from time to time and clime to clime, different places, different geographical situations, the definition of goodness differs. For example, we in the West say monogamy is good while there are many other countries in the world which say that p olygamy is good. So they differ. Here in the West if we hear a cat sneeze they say it's going to rain. In some countries of the East if a cat sneezes they say it is bad luck. So these are all limitations that are put upon ourselves of goodness and badn esses, and this is one of the great obstacles towards man's liberation. You have to free yourself and rise above that which is good and that which is bad. Now an apparent act which might outwardly seem to be bad, might really be good. For example, if I am sitting in my office consulting with a person, say a woman, and you know she is in a state of hysteria, and I would give the person a slap, and you are passing by outside, you would say, "Oh, Guruji, he is such a cruel man. He slapped a woman. That i s very bad." But the person passing outside the window does not know why this was done it's to shock the person out of the hysteria, bring about a calmness, so that whatever I have to tell that person could sink home. So what is the determining factor h ere? The determining factor is your judgment, your attitude, and what you have observed. So what is the criteria? The criteria of any action is motivation. The criteria of any action is motivation.

2. U S 80 - 26 I know the history of a woman who was totally frigid. And the very imbalance that caused this frigidity had to be corrected. So she meets a psychologist. Now, the psychologist handled her in such a way that she lost all fear of sex with her husband. And he had to go out of the way to do that. I'm sure you get my meaning. He had to go out of the way to do that to free this woman from her imbalance which caused her so much unhappiness. And after that the husband and the wife lived very very happily and could respond to each other totally. Now the question is this, did that psychologist in the role of a guru at that time, did he do wrong, or did he do right? What was his motivation? Was his motivation lust, or really to help someone? Motivation. And if it is a highly developed person then the action beco mes non important. But the motivation is important: how much he can help and in what circumstances and how can he do it. Because every person is a unique person, every case is a unique case, and it has to be dealt with on its merits. There was an enlight ened guru and he went to jail twenty times. Twenty times this enlightened guru went to jail. The whole town and the state he was living in, as you would call it in this country, the province, all said, "Oh, what a terrible man this is." This was an enli ghtened man. What a terrible man this is, he went to jail twenty times. But those who were very close to him knew him and said, "Guruji, don't get into trouble anymore." And he used to go to jail for very petty minor things. He would pass a sweet shop, s weetmeat shop, in the village, and he would pinch a sweet. And he used to do this when he saw a policeman was around. And like that he used to take a stone, throw a stone into a window, but he made sure a policeman was nearby so that he could be arrested . Why did he do this? So one day one of his very very close disciples asked him. He says, "Gurumaharaj, we know what state you are in, you are so close to God. And look at what the world is talking." So the guru replies, he says this, that "All tho se people in jail there, how am I going to reach them? And they need me more than you need me. So when I get locked up, I teach; and I bring those very people, those prisoners, those convicts to a state of realization, so when they come out of jail, they will be such wonderful people." He says, "Do you think that little sweetmeat, [Jelabe?] [misuba?]..." these are lovely Indian names, lovely sweets. "Do you think I needed that?" Motivation, that is the key word. And then, after all, how can we judge su ch an enlightened man? Only those few were so close to him really know him, but the whole world is talking what a bad person. Every time he is put in jail, "how terrible, " huh? Ah! But how much did he not accomplish. You see. So to repeat again, it is not the action, it is the motivation behind the action that is important. And that should be the criteria for every man unto himself. So when this guru was told that the whole world was talking this that and the other about you, so he says, "I will do m y work, never mind what others say. I am doing my dharma." Now in the relative field of life there are always opposing forces. The greater the spirituality that comes into this world, the greater the resistance would there be. And the purpose is this, t hat the greater the resistance, the harder you push.

3. U S 80 - 26 Because spiritual masters can also take a nap sometimes. They too have to make effort to be alert all the time, to carry out their work, to carry out their dharma. So you would always find that you hav e in South Africa especially if you have six or seven days of good sunshine, you can be sure that you are going to have rain. Do you see. Because the sun has evaporated enough water, formed them into clouds, and those clouds have to be dispersed in the form of rain. So in the relative world there will always be this expansion and contraction. There will always be this push and pull and the resistance will always be there. Now, in face of this, how must man act? Now these various moral laws are necess ary, necessary for one purpose only, to bring about a certain stability in society so that society could run smoothly. This, of course, is an assumption, because I have seen no society in the world anywhere that really runs smoothly. Ya. Nevertheless, th e greatest moralists are the greatest sinners in this world, if we like to use that term. Because those that preach morality are the ones that know more about immorality than what you and I know. What brings them to the idea of certain kinds of morality? It is because they know what immorality is all about. If their mind was pure enough, then those thoughts would not ever exist. So it is always the one side that brings on the other side. So we are involved in the law of opposites all the time, all the time. You have a high one week, next week you will see, there is a low. So how does man proceed is to bring about a balance to accept that which is good and also to accept that which is so called bad. When man rises above that, in that state of balance there is no such thing as good or bad. No such thing as good or bad. That is when you have risen above it. Until then, until then the denial of good or bad could become a license 007, License to Kill. That is wrong. But when man has risen above the polarities, then all actions, good or bad, are non binding to him. They are just judgments of others, projections of the minds of others. He is unaffected, it does not create any samskaras. It does not create any bondage whatsoever. For what is man try ing to find is that total stillness. Now, goodness produces motion and badness also produces motion. So both are bondages. Now when it comes to goodness and you force yourself to be good, what are you achieving? Do you think you are achieving a great de al? No. A bit, yes. A bit, yes. It gives you a little satisfaction of the mind, because good and bad are products of the mind, nothing more. Now by doing good acts with good motivation, by having good motivation, which is also a product of the mind, i t brings about a certain amount of mental peace. So that is your reward. Now, the motivation has to be correct. The motivation has to be good, the action doesn't matter. And once the motivation is good, it will still create a samskara, an impression up on the mind, which will have to be worked out. But in working out that samskara, there is far greater pleasure. While any action not conducive with nature it also creates an impression in the mind, a samskara, and working that out would cause pain. So y ou are still there in the relative field of the mind with pleasure and pain, still involved in the law of opposites. With spiritual practices and meditation, one transcends the law of opposites.

4. U S 80 - 26 But then one can never live in the transcendental state all the time. That is an energizing field that one contacts. When the battery starts running down, you plug it in the socket to recharge the battery. That is what happens. Now people... and all the moral philosophies and ethics of the world tell you: be like Christ, be like Krishna, be like Mahavir, be like Buddha. But no one tells you, "Be yourself!" You can be like Buddha, you can be like Krishna or Christ, you can emulate him, you can imitate him, but remember, you are an imitation Christ or Buddha. Who wants imitations? But if you are your genuine self, that's what we want original self. I am Sujay. Right. And I am what I am. You see. A great difference. They don't tell you to be yourself. They tell you to be this or that or the other. That is wrong. If you learn to be yourself, you automatically become a Christ or a Buddha, because you are being totally honest with yourself. Your mind clears itself. And then gradually you proceed towards higher and higher levels where all actions become s pontaneous, all actions become spontaneous and you act in a manner that would be motiveless motives. In that spontaneity, motiveless motive in that spontaneity. Then you walk in the street, or you are with friends, and you just be yourself. Just be your self and you act, and that act of yours without thinking will just be good, will be conducive with nature, will be good for others, will be good for yourself. You'll be serving people without even the desire to serve. That is proper service. There are ma ny people who serve who join all these various organizations to help. "Oh, I'm helping, I'm helping." What are you helping? Are you really helping people, or are you helping your ego to expand? There, too, motivation! I've seen little old ladies on s treet corners with a tin, "This is for charity, please help." They are doing something good. There is some value in the action, but, but, but, as soon as they reach home, "Oh, you know, I collected twenty dollars today for the orphanage, and my collecti on was the most, I beat them all." Ego! So when man learns to be himself, backed up by spiritual practices and these understandings teachers give, backed up by that, such a beautiful humility is produced, where you even stop thinking of what you do. Ther e is no premeditated thought behind it. It is just acting. Just working for the sake of work. And so as the wheat grows, if the field is well t illed, then the weeds will also be just as powerful as the wheat. The weeds will be just as powerful as the w heat because the ground is well tilled and watered and fertilized. But what a wonderful purpose the weeds can serve. What a wonderful purpose the weeds can serve. Do you think the weeds would stifle the wheat? No, no, no, no, the weeds themselves enforc e that ground. They enforce that ground. And weeds don't need to be planted, they come up of their own. Now are weeds really bad? No, no. Weeds we regard as evil, and wheat we regard as good. There was a priest hurrying to the church one morning. A nd on the wayside was lying a man who was dying. He had an accident, he was

5. U S 80 - 26 lying there. Now this priest was late to the church, he had to give his sermon. But his conscious was bothering him. He thought to himself, "Must I help this man or must I hurr y to the church? What's important?" So he was in a conflict, but then something came over him and he thought, "Let me go and have a look at this man." And when he saw this man's face, it reminded him of a picture he had seen of the devil. So he says, " You are a devil, I can't help you, I must go to my church and help my flock. They are good." So he never helped this dying man. But while this man was lying sick and dying, he shouted out, "Yes, I am evil, I am evil, but through me you are producing goo d." For if there was no evil, how could you produce good? The evil is inspiring you to do good. So therefore all these things are necessary in the relative field of life. If there was no degeneration in man, why do spiritual teachers come to regenerate ? Krishna has said in the Gita that when evil arises, I come age after age to create a balance, to bring about good. Now if there was no evil at that time of the Kauravas those of you who have read the Mahabharata would know then the force, the spirit ual force of a Krishna would have not been drawn to earth. So evil draws goodness. Or else there would not be any necessity. If you were not ill, you would not call the physician. There would be no need for the doctor if you were not ill. So these are f actors that have to be accepted in this relative state of existence. And acceptance of these factors is the most important thing that a man can attune his mind to. Not that we just let it be. We do our best to correct them. Everyone is given to error; fine, we do our best to correct them. But how do we correct these errors? And this man must judge for himself only, and not what others would say that is right or wrong. Man's own self, individual self, must tell him, is my action right or wrong? Is it conducive and in accordance with the laws of nature, or is it not? Am I swimming against the current of nature, or am I swimming with the current of nature? That a person can only judge for himself. Now when a person is incapable of deciding or judging , then that person, if that person is a sincere person, would go to someone, a very good friend or a teacher, and pour out his or her heart and say I am here in a conflict. I don't know what to do. What do you advise? And not to false advise, of course. They have to be people who know their business, that know their onions, and that could separate the onions from the potatoes. That is how one helps oneself. Now, if any person thinks that there will only be good in this world, then that is a pipe dream. Because good can never exist alone. There has to be an opposite force. And all moral philosophers will agree to this. We do not want morality. All the do's and don'ts that has been taught by all the scriptures and philosophers of the world has done m ore harm than good. Do not do that, do not do that. How many times does a mother not tell the child you don't do that and you don't do that. It happens all the time, all the time. Rather by example let the child learn of the do's and don'ts of life wit hout instilling it, hammering into the mind of the child. You're damaging the child's mind. There has to be discipline, yes, but discipline by example of how we live in our homes. From that the child learns far more than the preaching.

6. U S 80 - 26 Now we do not want morality, that is something secondary, man made, impermanent. The ways of morality are changing every day. Today, one thing is good, then tomorrow that thing is no good, another set of rules are brought in. There are countries in this world, there are governments in this world, for example, where two people of different races could love each other very much, totally, but yet could not be allowed to marry each other because of they being of different races. That's called immorality. O f course when we hear of such things happening... and of course if they do, they go to jail. When we hear of such things happening, we get amazed, astounded, that such things really exist in this world. So these standards are made by man, and most of the moral laws in the worlds that are supposed to guide society, to pattern society, or to put society in a straight jacket rather, have not really been helpful. So what we want is not morality, but what we want is purity. Ah! That is something different. M orality is temporary, purity is permanent. What do we mean by purity? Purity means to express oneself as one is, with that spiritual force that is within us. And if one expresses oneself via the means of the spiritual force, then every action is a pure a ction. When one has purity within oneself, then every action becomes a good action because there is no hatred, no malice, no grudge, no need, no power hunger, or money hunger. No, purity knows not of these things: only morality knows of these things. To be pure is to be, just to be. But today's world is such that a man of great mental achievement, intellectual achievement, would be recognized ah! this brilliant, intellectual man. But nobody, or very few seem to recognize the state of being of a p erson. And only purity can recognize that. For if I am pure within myself, then everything around me will seem pure. And that purity which I speak of is connected to your spiritual self; and when we recognize our spiritual self, or dip into that vast oc ean of spirituality, then we really take a bath, we really cleanse ourselves and move away from man made laws. Although we do not need to be nonconventional. We can be totally nonconventional within ourselves. After all, convention is man made too. The re is your straight jacket. So the observances of people are based only on surface value. The observances are not based on the inner value of a person. To me, a murderer, a rapist, the worst sinners, you would call it, or the greatest saint is just the sa me. Exactly the same. Perhaps that murderer has far more spirituality in him than the professed great saint. The saint has to put on the so called saints have to put on an outward show. The man that has erred who knows the circumstances, who knows t he circumstances of that person committing such an act? Who knows that? What provocation was there, what happened there? And yet he could be a very, very spiritual person. But we judge outer, temporary values. So the weeds have to be there with the w heat. And every person existing within the boundaries of opposites have those weeds and they also have the wheat. What are we to look at, the weeds or the wheat? I prefer to look at those lovely golden cobs filled with sunshine and health and grace, so beneficial. Every person in this world is such a divine person.

7. U S 80 - 26 Why say this person is no good or that person is no good. But who am I to judge of his goodness or no goodness? But I do know that every person is Divinity incarnate. Perhaps the man that did some act which is anti society needed that for his own evolution. Perhaps his circumstances were such, perhaps his background karma and environment, background karma of previous lives and his present environment might have been such that a certain ac t was committed. [END SIDE ONE] [REWIND TO BEGIN SIDE TWO] GURURAJ: A man came to see me some years ago, I was still in business, and he was a multi, multimillionaire. His father bought up about half of a suburb in Cape Town at five pounds a plot. And creating a township, he sold all those plots for ten thousand, fifteen thousand each. And he paid five pounds for it those years. Like that he became a multimillionaire, and of course the son inherited it. The son was in big real estate business, cons truction etc. Good. It happened once that his wife was somehow unfaithful to him, his wife was unfaithful to him. She left him on some excuse to meet her lover at a distant place about three hundred miles from Cape Town called [Misna?]. And of course, he, knowing this and being of a jealous temperament, he had her followed with private investigators. When she came home, he lost his mind entirely. Total blankness of mind, and he picked up a heavy candlestick and hit her with it. The woman died. So he was in prison, and of course he had the best lawyers and advocates and things like that. He sent for me. I had a long talk with him. I say, "This action you performed, you had no right to do it. If you had found your wife to be unfaithful to you, perh aps there is something wrong with you. Did you ever think of that? Did you ever think of that? And if you couldn't find anything wrong with yourself and only found something wrong with her, you could have ended the relationship." He started realizing h is error, but he said, "I was totally out of my mind." He was such a lovely, kind person, I knew him for years. His name was Cohen, Jewish. And he came to those realizations that he had performed a wrong act. His only answer was this, that I was not mys elf. I was so provoked that I lost my mind, because I loved my wife very very much. Now is that man's action justified or unjustified? Sixty four thousand dollar question. The man committed an act when he was totally out of his mind, provoked by his wife, is his action justified or not? No, his action is not justified at all. Because firstly, if he had a different attitude, then he would not have performed the action that he had performed. But then again let us look at it from another point of view. Aren't we doing post mortems after the act: if his mind was right, if he had a different attitude. Who is to judge? How can we really judge what happened to his man? So of course he went to jail and got a twelve year sentence for it. In mitigation h e pleaded this mental amnesia, or something like that.

8. U S 80 - 26 So therefore there are circumstances in people's lives, the weeds and the wheat are coexistent. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, as you would know, a very thin dividing line. And take awa y that slight veil and you have the other side on view. Who are we to judge? Because they are there. They are there in the opposite person as well as in us. And because it is in us we see that in the other person. But if we can rise above the law of o pposites, then we don't see anything at all. We don't see the transient nature of people's actions. We see the eternal spiritual purity because we are pure. And when we see the spiritual purity in other people then only can we love. There is no forgive ness required. You don't even need to be compassionate. Now what I mean by this is you don't need to be consciously forgiving or consciously compassionate or consciously kind. If you just really love, then you are automatically kind, automatically compas sionate. It is not an effort, it becomes your nature. And that spontaneity is what we want to achieve. Where it is just so spontaneous, automatic, you don't even think about it. You are just kind. Many times we meet people and we say, "Oh, how kind th is person is. Every action the person does is filled with kindness." And we feel that kindness, we feel that compassion. Why? Because those acts, that kindness and compassion of the person is not motivated. Motiveless motivation. You see. It is the n ature of the person. When a person shows kindness or compassion with thought, then it is a mental action; but when the person shows kindness, compassion, forgiveness and all these things without thought, then it is a spiritual action. Do you see the diffe rence between mental action and spiritual action? Now mental action requires thought, as I said a moment ago, and thoughts can change. There you are in the boundaries of man made laws that governs your mind, that patterns your mind. But when you are in the spiritual field, those are God made laws. that is the difference between man made morality and God made purity. That is what we are striving for, that is what our spiritual practices are aimed at. Then we can say, Sujay, be yourself, be your true sel f! Not your surface self. Your true self, which is Divine: I am that I am. You see. Now these are the realizations that we are aiming at. This is the goal, the goal to reach purity which is infinite and etern al and existing within you. Existing with in you eternally. Ah! Eternally! What a word! E TER NAL LY! Powerful. If you could only grasp within your hearts the meaning of the word eternally you are out of this world. Away from all these clashes and these... nothing can hurt you. You are too pure to be hurt. Surface yes, you'll have a little hurt, you are still governed by the three gunas. Tamas has to be there, the weeds, sattva has to be there, the wheat, and both interact through rajas, the activating factor. So you get temporarily hurt, but you are not touched. There is the difference. Hurt on the surface passes away, because everything on the surface is transient, temporary, but when you get touched, that's dangerous. Then the karmic impressions start rolling around in your mind. Bu t if you allow your mind not to be touched, then you are not affected. Your true self is not affected.

9. U S 80 - 26 So let the wheat be there, the weeds be there, and I stand on the hill observing the interplay. Ah! Beautiful between the weeds and the wheat. So nic e, both are necessary. For aren't the weeds also created by Divinity? What's wrong with the weeds? I do wish people could put weeds to good use. Yes. It could become a food. Yes, it could. At least I believe they are doing something with sea weed. Hm? Hm? We must do something with ground weed. Yea! So that which we regard to be as evil can be redirected, the same energy can be redirected in such a way that it could be beneficial, fruitful . Why rely on the wheat alone? If I'm in a place where th ere is only weeds and wheat, I'll take the wheat and make bread; and I'll take the weeds and make curry. Yes. You know how many kinds of plants people can eat? Leaves. Very, very nourishing, very good. More than an hour. It is so nice to be here and mee ting old friends and old faces. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. **** END ****