1. Maha Yoga – A Key to Success
Thank you so much for that introduction.
I have been asked to speak to you about how Maha Yoga can become a key to
success, i.e. how the practice of Maha Yoga can help you become successful.
This is somewhat of a difficult task, because success, like beauty, is in the eye
of the beholder. What might seem like success to one might be perceived as
abject failure by another. To some of you success might mean having good
things happen to yourself, i.e. having a good education, having a great job or a
career or a business, having a lot of power, having a wonderful family life,
making lots of money. Others might see success in making good things happen
to others, i.e. helping others get educated, helping others out of poverty,
taking care of the sick and injured, helping lead communities and societies
improve their lot, etc. Still others might not care so much for their own
material growth, or for the material uplift of others, but might define success
in terms of their own spiritual growth as well as the spiritual growth of others.
Regardless of these distinctions in how we define success, we tend to be happy
only if we think we are being successful in achieving our goals, whether they
are material or spiritual, for the uplift of ourselves or for others; and are
unhappy if we do not achieve them. So in all our actions we strive to become
successful in achieving our goals, whatever they may be! But there are two big
traps waiting for us in such a goal-oriented success-driven life.
The first trap is Newton’s Third Law! Those of you who are familiar with basic
physics will know that this law states that for every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction. This law is not so severe in our day-to-day lives, i.e.
the reactions to our actions might not be exactly equal and opposite, but those
of us who have been knocked around a bit are quite aware that every action or
initiative we take becomes a struggle to overcome the reactions of forces that
oppose it. Sometimes our actions succeed, sometimes they don’t. But if we
tie our happiness to our day-to-day successes and failures, whether they are
material or spiritual, whether they are for ourselves or for others, we are
bound to go through life being ecstatic sometimes and being depressed at other
times.
The second trap is that the more we perceive we are successful the more we
desire of what we think is success. So, if we define success by our careers, the
higher we rise up the corporate ladder the higher we want to go. We won’t be
satisfied unless we become the Managing Director or the CEO. And if we
become the CEO of the organization we have been working in we want to
become the CEO of a larger, more powerful organization. If we define success

2. by the amount of money we make, when we think we have achieved the goal of
making our first million, we want to make ten million. If we make ten million,
why stop there; we want to make a hundred million, and so on. And there is
nothing inherently wrong in that, other than the fact that as we move the goal
posts further, we become more unhappy if we do not achieve the next target.
If we define success by the impact we have on others, when we have achieved
the target of helping a small community of people, we want to help a larger
community. If we are successful in doing that, we might set our sights on being
political leaders, of course with the intent of helping others. And if we fail to
achieve our specific objectives and goals we set for ourselves we become
unhappy. And again, there is nothing wrong with that other than the fact that
we tend to define our happiness in terms of the ever increasing impact we have
on others and the recognition we receive from others for our good deeds.
The same applies even when we define success in terms of our spiritual goals!
When we have a particularly enjoyable spiritual experience (Kriya), we get
attached to it and we want it to happen over and over again. Or if we hear
that our Sadhak friend has had a specific wonderful experience and we haven’t
had it, we want to experience it as well. Again, there is nothing wrong with
that other than the fact that we become unhappy if we do not have that
particular experience and we write to P. P. Kaka Maharaj complaining that we
haven’t had the experience our friend had. And to make matters worse, we
feel that we have not been as blessed by P. P. Kaka Maharaj as our friend has
been, or we are not doing something right! All such behavior is the antithesis
of Maha Yoga!
Having said all these negative things about how we define success, and the
traps that a singular focus on goal-oriented success poses for us in terms of our
happiness, how then can we say that Maha Yoga is a key to success? The
answer to this puzzle lies in the nature of Maha Yoga itself. Maha Yoga does
not require that the Sadhak actively and intentionally do anything, other than
become aware of the Universal Life Energy, the Mother Prana Shakti within
himself, and to give her the freedom to do what is needed for the Sadhak’s
spiritual progress. This is the essence of Maha Yoga Sadhan (meditation), the
surrendering of the Sadhak’s intent to the Prana Shakti within. When the
Sadhak does that, the Mother Energy within him becomes the “doer” and the
Sadhak assumes the role of an observer. With diligent Maha Yoga Sadhan, the
Sadhak is able to actively experience the process of cleansing that the Mother
Energy puts him through. He is able to observe the involuntary actions of his
body (physical Kriyas), the involuntary flow of nervous energy through him
(Pranic Kriyas), and the involuntary coming and going of thoughts through his
mind (mental Kriyas). Gradually, with diligent Sadhan, he will find his physical
and Pranic Kriyas diminishing and the interval between successive thoughts
(mental Kriyas) beginning to increase. It is the interval between successive
thoughts when the Sadhak begins to experience the bliss of Maha Yoga, and as

3. that interval begins to increase he will increasingly exist in the blissful state,
eventually reaching the state of Self-Realization.
What is amazing about this process is the fact that way before he reaches the
self-realized state, the Sadhak will find his ability to concentrate on any
subject of his choice will have increased considerably. While Maha Yoga
Sadhan does not require a Sadhak to focus on anything; in fact Sadhaks are
asked not to intentionally focus on anything but to simply observe what
happens; as a by-product of Maha Yoga meditation the Sadhak’s concentration
will show considerable improvement. Not only that, during and after the
Sadhan the Sadhak might find himself magically coming up with solutions to
problems, personal, professional, you name it, which might have been vexing
him. He will find that the solutions he comes up with are very creative and
even Sadhaks who have not considered themselves to be creative at all will find
themselves developing creative solutions all of a sudden.
While this might seem magical, it has nothing to do with magic! It has been
borne out by western science, where in trials conducted at MIT and other
major universities in the US and in Europe, the practice of meditation has been
shown to improve powers of concentration as well as creativity.
Further, as the Sadhak grows spiritually, his self awareness also increases. He
understands himself better and knows fully his strengths and weaknesses. Not
only that, he begins to develop a sense of self confidence, not a superficial one
that might come out of insecurities and bluster, but one that is based on a true
sense of self that comes out of confidence that no matter what happens, his
inner peace will remain unaffected by the ups and downs of day-to-day life.
It is these qualities of concentration, creativity and self-confidence, which are
the byproducts of Maha Yoga meditation which become the key to a Sadhak’s
success, no matter how he defines success!