Do not check them. To become angry sometimes is in a way good. You get excited, and if you do not express your excitement, you get an opportunity to consider why you got angry. You get lustful thoughts. They will come. Let them come. But do not express them through actions. There is no credit if thoughts do not come. They will come. But you should not check them. Through the evolution of consciousness through the lower stages [of animals], the human mind is subject to anger, lust and greed because of the impressions. It is due to these impressions that we get these thoughts. You can check them temporarily, but they are sure to express themselves. And these impressions express or spend themselves through thoughts. But if you commit actions, you create bindings. Yet this binding is in the Nothing [illusion]. Everything is zero.
Suddenly you become angry, and if you do not express the anger, what will happen? Your mind gets angry but your heart should not know about it. For that there is a way, and that is of no expression — not to express thoughts. As soon as you get angry, immediately remember Baba, and your heart will not be affected by your anger. Do the same with lustful thoughts. Remember Baba wholeheartedly. This is the greatest thing. It is not child's play to remember me when you are excited. Suppose you forget to remember me. Then there is the third way — seva [selfless service]. If you cannot obey Baba, cleanse your hearts; if you get angry, remember Baba.
Hearts are not purified by following the external practices of religion. This is the essence of the three principles of Zoroaster.1 Baba himself enunciated these principles during Zoroaster's Avatarhood. These precepts are good thoughts, good words and good deeds. While doing the kusti [sacred thread], it should be done sincerely. A single impure thought means we are not worshiping God but offering worship to the thought.
I remember an incident of my childhood. My mother was insisting on my going to the fire-temple once, while I wanted to play marbles and fly kites. On her insistence I went to the fire-temple, and taking the Avesta [Zoroastrian holy book] I just skipped over its pages contenting myself that I had prayed. But if you want to pray to God, do it sincerely. I did my duty to placate my mother, but it was devoid of pleasure. Better not to perform ceremonies and offer prayers, but if you want to do these, do them sincerely.
Footnotes
- 1.Most of those who attended the Gujarati sahavas were Zoroastrians.