I told him, “Just try. You have been trying your way, and it has failed. Now try my way; and you can see that it has been successful with me.”

He was not ready for it, and he didn’t believe it; but there was no other way, so he tried. And within five minutes he was fast asleep, and snoring. So I went and shook him up, and I said, “How are you sleeping? How is it possible?”

If you accept, nothing can distract you. It is the very rejection in you that creates the distraction. So, if you want to meditate without distraction, don’t reject anything. The traffic noise has to be accepted – it is part of this world, and perfectly okay; the child crying and weeping is part of this world, and perfectly okay. Once you say that everything is okay, just watch the feeling that everything is okay and accept it. Something within you melts. Then nothing distracts. And unless this happens, you can go anywhere you like and you will be distracted by one thing or another.

“As I understand, most yoga masters teach that withdrawal from the world is necessary.” It is not necessary at all. Not only is it not necessary, it is harmful because who is withdrawing? In withdrawal, the ego will be strengthened. Don’t withdraw; rather, melt. I teach you just the opposite. Melt.

“Most yoga masters teach that withdrawal from the world is necessary for a period of time, once kundalini starts rising, until one is totally established in samadhi; at which time one can really be in the world, but not of it.” No…if you have not been that way from the very beginning, it is not going to happen suddenly in the end. If it has been that way from the very beginning only then will it flower in the end. If you withdraw from the world, you will never be capable of coming back to the world, and being in the world and not of it. No; because it cannot happen suddenly; it is a gradual process. By and by you have to imbibe the spirit of it. It is just like a small seed sprouting, becoming a plant, and becoming a tree. You say that suddenly – first, we will withdraw from the world, and then we will come back to the world. In the very withdrawal you will be disconnected from the world; you will become afraid to come back.