by Yogi Bhajan: Excerpts from a lecture on 3/27/88 in Los Angeles, CA
Once I had a chance to meet Mahatma Gandhi in a private environment. He was in Delhi and he came to Harijan colony. Harijan colony was very near our college and we were supposed to volunteer to do protection and I happened to sit down with him. I asked Mahatma Gandhi,
“Mahatmaji, I want to know, you are such a humble God-recognized and realized person. Why you shave your hair or beard?”
He said, “Bad habit.”
I mean he is a very straightforward man. That part I like.
He said, “You Sikhs know that, I have a bad habit.”
I said, “I am not asking this question to you as a Sikh.”
He said, “Then as a yogi, you should know.”
And I looked really surprised. But his answer was, “Bad habit.’ And then he very politely said, “Don’t ask me more or to change it.”
Sometimes we make it a habit to live with our habit. And when we make a habit to live with our habit, then we don’t want to change it. Then we make excuses. Then we need to go to a psychologist, psychiatrist, to friends. Then we need shoulders to cry on. Because once a human makes a habit to live with a habit, that human is done. Because to break a habit pattern, you need mind. To need your mind, you need Sadhana.
You are never weak. Money cannot make you strong. Walls and forts and armies cannot make you strong. Friends and beauty cannot make you strong. Your projection and power can never make you strong. Your strength is in your mind.
What will you do when you feel bored?
I will meditate. That is what meditation is for. When you are angry, you are frustrated, you are depressed, you need counsel, you need to cry, you need to call somebody, don’t waste any penny. The freeway to make mind strong is, sit down and meditate and clean it. What do you do when you feel hot? You go under a cold shower, don’t you? Simply when your mind is hot, cold shower is meditation. Put on a tape, listen to it, sit down, mind will fight. I am not saying mind won’t fight. Mind said, “Idiot, don’t listen to any tape. There’s a trip on you.” Go with the trip, but don’t drip for God’s sake. Don’t lose your strength before your own mind.
‘Oh mind, you are the light, because soul can come to you.’ If mind is foggy, mind is unfriendly, mind is neurotic, then soul cannot come to you. If your soul cannot come to you, how can the one who is the soul of all souls, God, come to you? Tell me, who is cheating who? One thing does work. The only thing that works is when you can see your own soul through your mind; when you see your own light through yourself. And how many of you sat down this morning and disciplined yourself to see that?
