Om Shanti,
And welcome soul to soul.
God is my best friend.
So how is it that God is my best friend?
When I sit in silence with God,
With thoughts about God,
I can see the truth about myself,
With calmness,
Coolness and no emotion.
The Divine gives me the opportunity to see what I could not see before.
So I need stillness and silence to see what's inside of me.
It might be things I need to hear rather than lots of praise.
Ego makes me want others to love me rather than love God.
It's very interesting.
If I try to make people love me,
Appreciate me,
There will always be a feeling of non-success.
That's the way the energy works actually.
There are so many complications for everyone at this time that people have no space for more and more attachments.
We're full up,
Full up with all these attachments.
We can share with other souls.
We can inspire other souls to uplift others.
The very best thing I can do is to point them in the direction of the One Above,
The Divine.
True love is to want the best for all souls,
For everyone I know,
Everyone in connection with me.
Everyone can develop close relationship with the One Above.
So what gets in the way?
So don't let anything come between you and the One Above.
Make God your best friend.
And so the practice of Raja Yoga is to teach ourselves to become still and peaceful.
And for that,
I see the self as light in the centre of the forehead.
I am a soul.
And it's also the practice of seeing that others are also souls,
Beings of light,
Conscious beings,
Conscious energy.
And the highest soul is the soul of God.
And as a human being,
We have lots and lots of things that we've gone through.
And we all our energies used up in all the attachments and the worries and concerns and responsibilities of our physical lives.
And to practice Raja Yoga,
We sit in silence for periods of time to do our best to see ourselves without the attachments and the worries and the troubles.
And so to clear a space in our energy to become soul conscious.
And the more I practice that,
The more and more I understand myself as this being of light,
Of energy.
And I understand the different qualities that belong to me.
And I understand the One Above is the all powerful One.
And I understand that to be so conscious means I can be kinder and more considerate and loving to others.
But we have so many different characteristics.
But I can't remove all the things that are harmful in me by myself.
I need the energy of the Divine,
The One Above,
To help me.
You said that I can see what I couldn't see before.
So how does meditation,
And specifically soul consciousness,
And the awareness of God as a soul,
How does that help me to see with more clarity what I didn't see before in myself?
Because it's like a search light almost.
It's like a powerful strength that comes and shows me that I was not maybe not thinking in such an unselfish way,
That I was still having attachments,
And even still trying to make those that I was more attached to get more benefit than those that I didn't like.
We still have all the relationships of like and dislike.
And when I have the light of the One Above,
I see that this isn't what it's all about.
This is not what I want even.
I want to be of use to everyone.
Yeah,
Because you mentioned if I keep going on the wrong path,
I'll always feel non success.
It's like that thing.
I keep doing the same thing over and over thinking.
If I just keep doing it long enough,
I'll get a result.
Yeah,
But you can't if you're going the wrong way.
So it's like that connection helps me set my direction again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like a compass,
Which is another way people describe conscience is like a compass.
So how is it that God being my best friend is like the ingredient I need to make my conscience work properly?
How could I not just fix it myself?
I don't have the strength.
And I have too many complications and too many pools taking me on the wrong track all the time.
So I have the strength to see that I'm on the wrong road half the time.
So I do need the strength and support of a powerful energy to keep pulling me back on what that one knows I wish to do.
It's my desire to get it right.
There's no point setting off for somewhere and being on the wrong road and being okay about it.
It's a waste of energy if I'm on the wrong road.
So my best friend keeps pulling me back on to the right track.
So as I'll feel success.
So I feel that I did feel love for everyone at that point to time,
Everyone,
Not just a few of my pals.
Yeah,
Because you also said ego makes me want others to love me rather than love God.
So I think not knowingly we don't do that knowingly because we really want people to love God.
But if I'm so busy focusing on a way that they would like in a wrong way,
They would like the things I'm saying and the things I'm doing.
So therefore praise me at the end of the talk or the journey,
Then that's not really success.
Success is if something has touched their hearts to allow them to look inside themselves to feel that what they want to do is to see clearly.
And for that it has touched their heart that they need an energy that's above any human being they know.
And if they can connect with that energy,
They also can see the correct track.
So it's not being just a people pleaser?
No.
I'm just saying how it's almost quite delicate too,
Because unless you are attractive in some way yourself,
Then people are not going to be interested in what you have to say.
Or,
You know,
And be able to even see the signposts that you're saying,
You know,
Go this way,
This is a good thing to listen to or look at or have you tried meditation?
If you're not,
Does meditation make you attractive in some way,
So that people are attracted even to the signpost to what could benefit them?
I think the very fact that you have studied the information and if you're light hearted and happy,
It's quite unusual in today's world.
So where did you get your happiness from?
And where do you keep your information?
Where did you get that from?
So where is it all coming from?
So maybe that will,
And your own self-respect will make you look reasonably pleasing in a simple way.
Because raj yoga teaches us to have a very simple lifestyle.
And so it's not that we go to huge extremes of simplicity that,
But we stay in a sort of middle path.
And cleanliness and simplicity is very important.
But sincerity is important.
And people can tell if there's sincerity coming from your heart.
And so if you're sincere,
And you really,
Really want to touch people's hearts for their sake,
Not for your sake,
Not that they'll become your best friend.
But they'll understand you must have a best friend somewhere,
You must have some energy coming from somewhere.
And to touch them that they want that energy.
They want that same energy that's transforming you.
As you feel better,
You keep attributing it to a higher power.
And I know that they have that tradition.
Like for example,
In Islam,
There's always any praise that is received is always instantly,
There's words that are said to instantly put the praise to God,
You don't take it yourself.
Is that the kind of awareness?
Yeah,
It's very like that.
Yeah.
In that I could not be like this without having practiced Raja Yoga meditation.
I couldn't be the way I am right now.
Without Raja Yoga meditation.
I couldn't look the way I look right now without Raja Yoga meditation.
So a close relationship.
Some people have a fear of God,
And I wouldn't want to come close to somebody I feared.
What has been your experience of coming close to God?
And how do you feel so comfortable and natural like a best friend?
Well,
I feel that I can show what I know of my weaknesses.
And I'm not disliked for them.
That I'm comforted no matter what.
And I'm accepted for who I am.
And this gives me the courage to become the best I can be.
And I get the strength to become the best I can be.
And I can see areas that could be better than myself every day,
Something else comes up and gosh,
I never noticed that.
But I could make that better.
And I only notice it because of doing meditation.
And I know that your understanding of God is that God is an individual unique being,
Not an omnipresent energy that pervades the entire universe.
How does that help you develop a close connection?
Knowing that it's a being you're connecting with not an omnipresent in every pebble and stone.
I feel that when you focus on Baba,
It gives you the respect to totally focusing on you.
You're His world.
Whilst you're making Him your world,
You become His world.
Yeah,
There's all the human beings in the world.
But at that moment in time,
You're His world.
And it gives you such a feeling of comfort and safety.
And that you know,
You can do more.
You can make yourself better and better into the image that you want yourself to be.
And you just referred to God there as Baba.
How do you use that word?
It sounds very sweet.
Baba is Father.
Okay.
But everybody seemingly in some cultures are called Father.
But we know that it's Shiv Baba,
The highest Father.
And the wonder is that being able to have this incredible fortune in knowing that one.
So if you were visualizing Shiv Baba,
How would you visualize?
A point of light.
Just a point?
Yeah.
Point of light.
It's more to the story,
But I think people would find that out if they really got involved.
And then the last part you said,
And what gets in the way,
You know,
It sounds beautiful,
You know,
That when you connect with God,
With Baba in this way,
A point to a point,
There's only you and only seeing your best and if there's weaknesses,
They're not judged.
So why would I not do it?
Why do I forget what gets in the way?
What stops me from this relationship?
Emotions.
Emotions that just come up and tell you it's not,
That's not,
That's not right.
It's better this way.
Emotions are very powerful and say you're fine the way you are.
You're lovely,
You're great,
You're good.
You're very loving.
You've always been very loving and that's maybe it's not really true,
But you'd like to believe that.
So the old ways come in the way.
Which goes back to the bit we said about complications and attachments.
It's like there's no space.
Yeah,
Yeah,
Yeah.
So what can help me make this space?
What helps me make that shift?
Or is it just when it's my time,
It's my time?
Or how does it,
How does it happen that I'm ready?
You're ready now.
This is your time now.
Now you're listening to this now.
So it's the time if you want to make a change,
You make a change and you can do anything you want,
Your energy,
Your power.
But because we don't focus on that,
We focus on weakness.
Then we have no power,
No strength,
No say,
Full of attachments.
And if God's your best friend,
How do you be a best friend to God?
Because like best friends you think it's a two way thing.
So it's not just asking God to gimme,
Gimme,
Gimme,
Be the best friend to me.
What do I need to do?
Trust him,
Love him,
Be faithful to him.
Put him to the top,
Put him to the top of your list.
Okay.
So practically how do you put God to the top of your list?
I think what would he want me to do?
What has he already given me?
Where does this inner happiness come from?
Where does the difference,
This huge difference in me,
Where does that come from?
Not from me,
Although I put it into place,
But I didn't have the energy to do it without the assistance of that one.
Shanti.
So we'll have a minute of meditation.
So focusing on the center of your forehead,
You are the soul,
You are the energy of light,
And you are the child of the one above.
And you can also make him your best friend.
Just don't let anything come between you and the one above.
So you're given the opportunity to see what you couldn't see before.
And there might be things you need to hear rather than lots of praise.
No one else would be able to tell you these things and you would not be able to take it from,
Even from yourself.
And ego makes me want others to love me rather than love God.
That was a good talk.
You were very good.
You were very kind.
Where did the goodness come from?
Where did the words come from?
From the teachings.
If I try to make people love me,
There will always be a feeling of non-success because inside my heart I would know that it wasn't me and that they didn't get it even though I was saying it.
And so it would be like,
Well,
That didn't quite work.
There's so many complications for everyone at this time that people have no space for more and more attachments.
We can share with other souls.
We can inspire other souls to uplift others.
The very,
Very best thing I can do is to point them in the direction of the Divine.
Point of light,
The One above,
The Father of all souls.
I am a soul,
I am peace.
A point of living life,
Energy,
All chanting.
A point of living life,
Energy,
All chanting.
