In His Own Words: A Conversation With Eager Followers

The following conversation was recorded in English and appears as it was in the original:

[In early 1968 Sri Sri Babathakur moved into the residence late N. C. Chakraborty (Senior Advocate, Calcutta High Court) and his wife, late Srimati Bani Chakraborty and lived there until 1996. Srimati Bani Chakraborty, with the active support and encouragement of her husband, dedicated her life at the service of Sri Sri Babathakur. As a fiercely protective mother she took care of Him, as Iswar Atma Brahma Guru, with utmost love, affection, care and dedication. Srimati Chakraborty, however, was already spiritually initiated by Srimad Hansha Baba Abhadut when she met Sri Sri BabaThakur. Single-handedly fulfilling the responsibility of His bodily care, Srimati Chakraborty meticulously recorded the sayings, lectures, revealed songs (bhajans), the Divine ecstasies, and the numerous spiritual experiences of Sri Sri Babathakur for almost three decades. Her memoirs capturing her experiences with Sri Sri Babathakur first came out as a series in the spiritual quarterly, Sri Sanai, from 1982 onwards and were subsequently published in two volumes, SmritiGantha Volumes I (2003) and II (2009)].

13th January, 1974, Sunday: Many people come to see Sri Sri Babathakur in the weekends. Today the visitors are Suhrid Dasgupta, Saroj Kar, Uma Raychaudhuri (the writer's cousin), Mr. Menon, and Mr. Khandelwal. Sri Sri Babathakur engaged in a spiritual conversation with them and answered their questions. In course of the dialogue, Babathakur responded to a question posed by Mr. Menon as follows:

‘Though all individuals are potentially divine, yet they are not all conscious and aware of their true divine nature, owing to the fault of their own intellect. Intellect is inner nature which gets qualified by triple gunas, namely tamas, rajas, and sattva. Like gunas like samskaras. Of the three gunas the predominant one characterizes the samskaras. Innate nature of life is called swabhaba which is constituted by the guna which is predominating. That is why every individual differs from others and the cause of difference is the characteristic of predominating guna or quality. Other gunas remain subservient. Characteristic of guna is to dominate others. There is a triangular fight among them in order to get preponderant. According to the nature of guna, samskar of life takes shape and thereby individual behaves.

‘Men of tamasic nature characterize tamasic qualities mainly, those of rajasic nature characterize rajasic qualities mainly and men of sattvic qualities qualify sattvic qualities mainly. Human society consists of innumerable individuals of varying qualities according to their constitutional nature. Each individual strives to attain higher and better qualities. For that he/she has to struggle hard against so many contradictions, oppositions and demerits, which are verily the products of triple gunas. Of the triple gunas, rajasic and tamasic ones constitute the outer and lower nature called prakriti of life, while the sattvic one constitutes the inner nature called swabhava of life. Outer nature/prakriti constitutes the physical body and senses of life together with diversities of innumerable names and forms, which are the objects of enjoyment as well as the field of actions of the individuals. Hence, swabhava dwells on and rules over the lower nature/prakriti. Swabhava has got double functions, one with the lower nature called prakriti and the other with the upper nature, which is called swabodha, the inmost Self of life individual. In ordinary life swabhava is predominant. Among them some individuals, though small in number, tend to serve the upper nature swabodha in stead of lower one, prakriti. They characterize mainly trait of sattvic qualities. They possess superior qualities, divine qualities and act and behave with the help of such qualities. Seekers of truth, perfection and realization of life develop from men of all such sattvic divine qualities.

‘Besides the men of above mentioned nature, the rest or other men of the society, prompted by their inner-desire nature, follow the doctrine of action according to the integral need of their inner nature. They are mostly struggling agents meaning struggling for survival. Out of them, by natural course, men of refined qualities develop and they follow the super human and divine nature in and through the culture of darshan, vijnan, and dharma, the three in one and one in three, called the ultimate reality. By such culture they are capable enough to attain integral truth, perfection and realization. Realization means supreme Self identity and oneness with the Absolute.

‘Human nature, conditioned by triple gunas, gets refined very slowly in and through normal evolutionary process of both outer and inner nature. Evolutionary development of the physical nature follows that with the inner spiritual nature. Spiritual nature, being subtler than the outer physical nature, gets refined and purified rapidly in and through the cultivation of spiritual discipline under the guidance of a perfect Realizer (Sadguru). Those who are prompted by inner spiritual nature, seek perfection, realization and absolute freedom from the relative process of life. Individual life follows the relative process of life till the development of perfect dispassion, detachment and intensified urge for the perfection and realization of its infinite eternal immortal true divine nature, which is real identity with the Absolute Reaity ‘at-one-ment’. ‘

Menon — It is very difficult to attain such realization and perfection in the worldly life.

Babathakur — Yes, perfection and realization is always for the seekers of the best qualified nature and order no doubt, yet the supreme divine grace can make that difficult task easily accessible in and through regular attending real satsanga and most honestly and sincerely following the instructions and guidance of a perfect Master, who unfolds the supreme science of Divine Oneness in his own unique process in such a methodical and scientific way that the perfect and real seeker, only through listening to the words of the Master, immediately can grasp the implied meaning of the same and gets fully enlightened. Very rare is such a Master and such a seeker no doubt, the supreme realization and identity dawns on the heart of the seeker without any difficulty and rigorous sadhana. In fact, realization by no means is the result of sadhana but is already with each individual life as their true nature — ‘Self identity is I-Reality’ which is ever perfect, ever realized. But the individual has forgotten that owing to the fault of his own intellect. Only a perfect Master unfolds such Reality and makes the true seekers realize That instantaneously. Blessed is such a great soul who realizes His/Her real self-divine nature only through Guru’s grace. Real Guru alone is supreme Divine Self — verily Absolute I. Thus Self-I begets Self-I. This is the supreme glory of the Absolute Self-Guru, the eternal I-Reality.

At noon Babathkur took his leave and the rest left one by one after partaking of prasadam.

The passages above are excerpts from Smritigantha Vol. II (Garland of Memories), memoirs of Late Srimati Bani Chakraborty (Calcutta: Saccidananda Society, Manashi Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-81-86571-30-9; pp. 204-206)