There are any number of fantastic stories in India how women became mystics simply being dedicated to their husbands, because they did not see him as a man. In India this has been a practice, it’s now gone of course, where they referred to the husband as “Swami,” and he also lived up to it. It needs a corroboration.
So, when this was so, initial hormones are there, they will act up and do certain things, emotions are there, they will act up and do certain things, after that, you’re looking at him as a doorway to the beyond. And because everybody had some kind of spiritual training at one time, naturally they became guides for each other to grow, and largely from this kind of arrangement, it is thousands of women who became mystics, men did not become, because they were just doorways. Those who pass through the doorway get somewhere, the doorway doesn’t get anywhere. The doorway is there only, people come and go, isn’t it? There are so many fantastic examples in India how women became mystics, simply because of unidirectional emotion. Simply one – did not even, you know, alter for a moment.
See, because of this nature of this education that you’ve been through, you believe you can focus your mind on something, but you cannot, isn’t it? Hello? Can you keep your mind focused either on me, or your husband, or your wife, or your children, or your God, or whatever? Or even on your business, or money, can you keep your mind totally focused for 24 hours? Hello? No! So, this is the nature of your intellect right now. So, if you want to train this intellect that it can stay like this [focused] for long, long periods of time, that’s fantastic, that’ll need lots of work.
But your emotion is capable of like that. There have been times in your life when you were emotionally very strong with somebody, 24 hours only that, isn’t it so? Has it happened, or no? So, you’re more emotionally competent than intellectually competent. I’m just trying to put it gently across to you. Hello? Is it okay? Ladies will say okay, it’s easy for them. Men are struggling – “What?!” Whether you’re a man or a woman, this is true for you, look at it and see. Maybe your love is not focused, but your anger at least is focused. That is an emotion.
If you look at the temperature, or the intensity, how many moments of your life have you known that kind of thought which is burning hot intensity, but you’ve seen such emotions, isn’t it? Hello? Easier to crank up the intensity of your emotion than to crank up the intensity of your intellect, because that takes a lot of work. Maintaining intensity of intellect takes enormous amount of work.
The problem on the spiritual path is just this – You are focused like this [forward], then you see your destiny starts organizing itself in that direction, then you become like this [left], then you become like this [right], then you become like this [left]. Then it starts dismantling itself. Every one of you who have come to Inner Engineering program have experienced this at some moment, that when you came to the program, suddenly it looked like your life was on a trajectory ‘boom!’. But then [left, right, center] you slowly distracted yourself, it dismantles itself. You need to understand – when you set a trajectory, you should stay if you want to fly. If you do this, this, this [go in different directions], anyway this [down] way all of us are going. Hello?
No, everybody thinks they’re going like this. [up] There’s no proof for that. For this [down] there is proof. Yes, or no? Do you have proof that you’re going up? No. There is proof that you will definitely go down, unless you’re one of those who can afford to be buried in Mars. No, no, the planet needs you. Even if you’re not useful when you’re alive, when you’re dead, planet likes you. Yes, really, Mother Earth wants to get you back. Please, don’t deny her that.
When we talk about devotion being the way – people think devotion means going to the temple, going to church, or mosque, people think devotion means religion. No, no, no. Devotion means you’re organizing your emotion in such a way that it works for you, absolutely. Because it is only in emotion, it is only in moments of emotion, have you touched the sweetest part of who you are, isn’t it so? Hello? Have you intellectually touched that? Very few in the world, believe me. Very few in the world intellectually touch a sweet spot. Most of you have touched the sweet spot of your life only in emotion, isn’t it? Hmm?
Most beautiful moments of your life are moments of emotion, isn’t it? Well, it might not have lasted – that’s another problem. That may be lack of management. You’re not able to manage the situation the way you want, because your emotions, your subjectivity is enslaved to the objectivity of the world. And I want you to understand, nobody in this world ever manages their objective world absolutely. We can manage it to some extent. Sometimes it works for us, sometimes it doesn’t work for us, isn’t it so? Hello? Sometimes it works for us. We want it to work for us, but not always it works for us. But our subjectivity should work for us always, because this is ours. These people may work for you sometimes, sometimes they’ll turn against you, sometimes they’ll ignore you. Is this so? Even if you are having a grand love affair? Hello? Even if you’re having a grand love affair, sometimes they are wonderful to you, sometimes they ignore you, sometimes they trouble you seriously. Yes, or no? Hmm?
So, devotion means organizing your subjectivity in such a way, the emotional dimension of who you are is always for you, never against you. For this, you need to hitch it there and leave it – destiny is fixed.
I must have told you this story. An old yogi came to Velliangiri Hills. Velliangiri hills means, it’s at the foothills of Velliangiri that Isha Yoga Center is. It’s a hard climb, about 5,800 feet, but steep climb. Over 80 years of age, slowly he was wanting to climb the hill to go up, because there is a sacred space up there. The shopkeepers who are sitting there, the idiots never went up the mountain, they sit at the foothills and do business. So, they are selling this and that, some eatables, and beedi, you know, tobacco, and this kind of stuff. Sitting there, smoking, they look at this yogi and say, “Hey, old man! Do you know how high this hill is? Even we have not gone there. You think you old coot can go up this mountain?”
The yogi looked at them, and smiled, and said, “See, I have already put my heart up there. The rest of the body anyway will follow. You don’t worry about me. My heart is up there already. I will anyway go.” Where your heart is, anyway you will go there, isn’t it? Hmm?
So, this is what using your emotion to handle your subjectivity means – that you fix your heart there, no change about it, it’s already there. If you look this [left] way, if you look that [right] way, do whatever, this [heart] just keeps pulling you in the same direction.
