I shall recite to you an anecdote, for your information; and there are many others of that type. There was a person, very poor, begging his meal from people around. But he was a great devotee of God and he knew that God will give him everything, that he will receive alms every day; that there would be no difficulty. He was an ardent believer in the proclamation of the Bhagavadgita: ananyas cintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate tesham nityabhiyuktanam yoga- ksemam vahamy aham (B.G. 9.22). "Undividedly devote yourself to me; I shall give you whatever you want and protect all your belongings." He believed in this proclamation intensely. He had no doubt at all. And he was receiving alms abundantly, every day, with no difficulty whatsoever. One day it so happened that he could not get anything. He was a poor fellow, with a wife and children. They were almost starving. He went hither and thither begging for food, and that day he could get nothing. This happened on the second day, and the third day, too. The children were crying due to the pangs of starvation. He could not imagine how this could be. "Has God forgotten me? He has forgotten me! He has not fulfilled His promise. No, I do not believe this proclamation. Tear out this sloka. Break this sentence from the Bhagavadgita." In those days, scriptures were written on palm leaves. There was no printing paper at that time. He took a nail and struck that sloka - tore it in agony. "This is a falsehood! I am dying of hunger and nothing has come to me!" In agony, he went out of the house.

A few minutes afterwards, when he was away from the house, a boy came with two bags of rations and threw them on the veranda of the house, calling out to the missus, "Mother, your husband has sent these things for you." His tongue was bleeding.

The mother came out. "From where have these rations come?"

"Your husband has bought these things and asked me to carry them. I have done so and am leaving them here," the boy replied.

"But what is the matter? Where are these bags coming from? He is a poor man. And what is the matter with you that your tongue is bleeding?" she asked.

The boy said, "I was a little delayed in bringing these things, and in anger he tore my tongue."

She cursed her husband, "You are a crazy man! This poor boy has brought these bags of rations and you tore his tongue!" In the evening when her husband returned, she exclaimed, "Have you gone crazy? You tore the tongue of that boy who brought rations."

He said, "I have not sent any rations. I have not torn the tongue of any boy. I don't know what you are talking about."

But there, the bags of rations were lying. He closed his eyes, and wept deeply for the mistake that he had committed and the distrust that he exhibited in respect of God by not believing in the truth of His proclamation. There are many other instances like this.

Faith is the miracle-maker! Faith is everything! Nothing can work except faith. Actually, in faith you are digging deep into the very structure of existence. Faith arises from the soul itself. It is an operation of your truest being, and so it touches the bottom of creation, and the whole thing shakes with your faith. Though it is difficult to gather yourself into this kind of devotion to God in the humdrum life of day-to-day activities, you have to hit your head with your fist and strike yourself saying, "Don't make a mistake!" You are one with this universe; you must remember that. Physically, ecologically, in the form of the working of nature, you are inseparable from the forces of the universe. So how will you lack anything? The forces will enter into you when you actually open the doors of your personality, and the energies will rush into you. Instead you have closed the doors by devoting yourself too much to the requirements of the sense organs. Open your gates!

It is true that whatever you ask shall be given, when you knock at the door of God it shall be opened, and whatever you seek you shall find. These three sayings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament are a wonderful recipe for the malady of the soul. You have to believe it, and you will see how it works. God is not even one inch away from you. The omnipresence of God precludes His distance from you. Many a time we are like children, thinking that God is far, far, far away in the heavens. An all-pervading being has no space inside it, so you cannot say that it is something away from you that has to take time to come near you. Timeless is the existence of God. Spaceless is His Being, so He does not take time to act; and He is not merely near you, He is you, operating from the source of your being. This is true love of God, bhakti at its supreme form - para-bhakti, as it is called.

You are not here in the Academy to hear something that is being told. You can hear it anywhere. Here, it is an occasion to remake yourself and be another person altogether when you complete this course. You have to become another person, and not remain same person that you were when you came. You have to unite yourself intensely, as you have felt the need for attaining perfection. You have to adopt several methods of spiritual practice. I mentioned to you the mode of japa sadhana. You may not be able to go on with this for a long time, due to fatigue of the exercise. Take to another method, which is the study of scriptures. Read the holy scriptures. When you study the scriptures, you are, at that time, attuned to the great masters who wrote the scriptures. You are attuned to the ideas expressed in the scriptures. It is also a kind of meditation of a different type. Japa, svadhyaya or study, and direct meditation - you can adopt any method you like to place before your mind a concept or a form of God, and it is up to you to choose what it is.

Every day this practice has to be continued. You should not miss the link by forgetting to do it on any particular day. It is like taking medicine for curing an illness. The doctor says you must take these medicines at regular intervals and you should not miss taking them on any day. Otherwise the link will be broken; the effect will not be there. Practice should be done every day - at a particular hour, if possible. The power of the time cycle helps you when you sit for your practice at a specific hour or time of the day. If possible, it should be at the same place in your house, facing the eastern direction or the northern direction, as it has been prescribed to us. The energy of the sun rises into action from the eastern horizon and you absorb the energy of the sun when you are facing the east. The northern direction is also prescribed because of the magnetic energy that goes from the North Pole to the South Pole. These are good prescriptions: same place, same time, same method of practice, and facing the same direction. Never expect a result immediately, because to expect a result would be to bargain with God. "I have done something for you and you are not giving me anything." This feeling should not be there. Everything has its own time. "In due time you shall have everything," says the Bhagavadgita.

There are three types of meditation to which you can resort: internal, external and universal. It is your predilection to choose which one is suitable for you. Many devotees feel like placing God in their own heart, or in the middle of their eyebrows, because they find that is convenient as it is easier to love that which is nearest than to love that which is away or far from yourself. The nearest thing is your own self, and you, to some extent, love yourself more than you love anybody else. So in order not to neglect your personality totally, place the presence of God in some location within yourself. During waking hours the mind operates at a point between the two eyebrows. In dream the mind operates in the throat, through certain nerve channels. In deep sleep the mind enters the heart. During meditation, during sleep and at the time of death, the mind is in the heart. This is one form of internality of the concept of God and the placement of the great vision in yourself. It is quite good.

Otherwise, you can have an external arrangement for the purpose of meditation on God - an image that you place before yourself, any kind of form which you would consider as suitable for your particular sentiment and need. It can be a portrait, an image, even a shaligrama stone or a lingam - whatever it is, to your satisfaction. You should not think of the image at the time of meditation. It is only the placement which you have conceived in your mind for bringing the Universal Being into this point. The centre of the universe is said to be everywhere. Where is the centre of the universe? Is it far, far away in the skies? Everywhere, at every point, is the centre of the universe. Can you conceive of this? This is a feat of the exercise of the vision. Everywhere is the centre. If everywhere is the centre, there cannot be a circumference - which is another way of saying everywhere is the Soul, and all is Soul.

The image that you place before yourself is itself not to be regarded as God. Everywhere is sunlight, and you can focus it through a lens at any particular point. You do not bring God down to the form of the image, but raise the image to the form of God - the other way around. In the beginning you may feel that there is a location for God: God is in a temple, on an altar, etc. But later you expand your vision of God from the point that you have chosen at a particular place to something which fills all space everywhere. Everywhere you see that vision, just as you see the sun everywhere after you concentrate on it for a long time with your eyes open. As the centre of the universe is everywhere, the image that you take up for your worship is also everywhere. Anything can be taken as a point of concentration. You can touch your body by touching any part of your body. Here, you will consider yourself as a person having the vision of God in this form. You observe, you see, you have a vision of God as a devotee, as a performer. That Being is to be considered as something in front of you, though it is everywhere.

One of the stages of devotion is this - where you do not identify yourself with That which is everywhere, but look at It spreading Itself everywhere. Everywhere you are seeing One Thing. This is an external form of meditation that is prescribed. The universal form of meditation is a still higher stage where the universe itself is contemplating itself. You are not meditating, because you have gone into the universe, as it should be. Who contemplates? The whole cosmos is being aware of itself. The highest meditation is the awareness of That which is everywhere - awareness of Itself only. The whole world, the whole cosmos, the whole creation is vibrating with the consciousness of itself. You are not meditating; That which is everywhere is contemplating Itself only. "I am what I am." This is the universal meditation that is prescribed in the paths of yoga.