Until then the men's resentment had not subsided, but Baba's soothing words produced the desired effect and the mandali realized the truth behind them.
While having tea on the verandah of the bungalow that day, Baba and the mandali were discussing shaving. One man said, "Shaving gives me a headache! It is such a nuisance. The more you shave your whiskers the more they grow. Instead of shaving them off, they should be plucked out! Then they won't grow back."
Hearing this, Baba commented about sanskaras:
It is the same with sanskaras. Every thought, word and action of a human being creates sanskaras. Good thoughts, words, and deeds create good sanskaras, and bad thoughts, words, and deeds create bad ones. But either way, sanskaras are being created. They can never be eliminated unless one is lucky enough to incur the grace of a guru and become Realized.
Even the great yogis with their years of penances — even those who have reached the sixth plane — are unable to rid themselves of their sanskaric impressions. What they can do during meditation and samadhi is to stop the production and growth of new sanskaras. But what of the past store of sanskaras accumulated for years and ages? They remain. Even a great yogi [of the fourth plane] cannot destroy them with all his might and powers. They can only be destroyed by the grace of a God-realized Master who destroys them by uprooting the mind and making a person Realized.
When such great yogis cannot manage to destroy their past sanskaras, what of you ordinary human beings? It is for this reason that a Persian poet has said: "If you ask my advice I would say, 'Do nothing.' And if you do anything, do it without caring about the result."
Over the ages, you have collected a mixture of good and bad sanskaras, like the black and white hairs on one's head and beard. Yogis can erase sanskaras superficially as done when shaving, but a Sadguru can root them out completely; and when they are plucked out permanently, advancement on the Path is possible. All sanskaras must be eradicated in the mind so that they may not reproduce again.
So to stop the creation of new sanskaras and to destroy the past ones, have the company and sahavas of a guru who is Realized. A guru who is God-conscious is like a living furnace, burning away everything — good, bad, past, and present — all sanskaras.