Is the mankind subservient to the era or the era is subservient to mankind? And should one forget the past and the future to stay in the present?

The Gnani Remains in the Present

Questioner: In the definition of time cycles, was there ever a Kaliyug before?

Dadashri: There is a Kaliyug in every time cycle. Kaliyug is like the night that follows the day. Does it not? That is how Kaliyug is. It is because of Kaliyug, that Satyug (Age of unity in mind, speech and action) is called Satyug. If there were no Kaliyug, Satyug would have no value.

Questioner: Is man subject to yug (age of time cycle) or is yug subject to man?

Dadashri: Man is presently subject to time. But the muda samaya (time as an eternal element) has arisen because of you (because of the belief I am this non-Self). ‘You’ (the Self) yourself are the king, and all this has come about in the king’s wake.

Questioner: Is samaya (time) God, and is samaya (time) Parmeshwar (absolute God)?

Dadashri: Time cannot be Parmeshwar. Other wise, people would go around chanting, “Time, Time...” (Instead of God). You yourself are Parmeshwar, and you need to know that Time is just a nimit (instrumental) in the middle.

How much difference is there between ‘Us - the Gnani Purush’ and You? ‘We’ have conquered time. People are consumed by time. ‘You’ still have to conquer time. How can you conquer time? The past is forgotten. The future is in the hands of scientific circumstantial evidences (vyavasthit); therefore, You need to remain in the present. So then time can be conquered. As You go on to do our ‘Akram’ samayik, You will learn how to hold onto the present. It does not come straight to you. When You do samayik (being the Self and ‘seeing’ the self) for an hour, You are in the present (vartaman).

What does it mean, to stay in the present (vartaman)? When you are writing down your financial accounts, don’t you stay fully focused on your accounts? If you (your mind) drift off into the future, you will make errors in your accounting. If you remain in the present, it is possible not to make a single error. What I am telling You, is that You should experience the present that is before You. The past is gone. Even intellectuals would not stir up the past. And to think about the future is to worry.

Therefore, remain in the present. While the satsang is going on now, listen to it with concentration (ekagra) of chit. When you are balancing your books, do it with such concentration (ekagra) of chit. And when you are swearing at someone, do it with the same concentration (ekagra) of chit. He who perpetually remains in the present, is a Gnani. People cannot enjoy the present, because they worry about the future and the past. They even make errors in their accounting. The Gnani Purush will never ruin the present.

Questioner: Do we have to forget about the past and the future?

Dadashri: No, you do not have to forget, you just have to remain in the present. Forgetting is a burden. You cannot forget even if you want to, and besides, the more you try to forget something, the more you will remember it. One man was telling me, “When I sit down to do a samayik (meditative introspection) I think to myself, ‘Today I am not going to be reminded about the shop’. And on that very day, the first thing I see in my samayik is the shop!” Why does that happen? It is because, when he said he did not want to be reminded of it, essentially he showed contempt towards it! You should not be contemptuous of anything.

There is only one thing, and that is to remain in the present. You have nothing what so ever to do with the past or the future. Remaining in the present is immortal state (amarpad). ‘We’ remain exactly as ‘we’ are in the present. If you wake ‘us’ up at night ‘we’ will be the same, and if you wake ‘us’ up in the day, ‘we’ will be the same. Whenever you see ‘us’ ‘we’ will be just the same as ‘we’ are now.