2. SA76-10 the small I, but the degrees of permeation of the big I depends entirely upon the openness or the development or the unfoldment of the small I and that is the aim and goal and strife of all human beings. Now the small I could be so merged in its material longings, but yet in that merging in material longings, there is a something that pushes one on. The small I, the ego I does not comprehend, understand what pushes it on, but there is an innate desire in the small I, the ego for its own betterment and the path to betterment or the result of the betterment is generally termed as happiness. So the small I with all its limitation, yet intuitively or basically, essentially recognises that there is that big I, some infinite power that is guiding the destiny of the small I. But even in the recognition of that infinite power, the small I is so conditioned that it is unable to accept the vastness of the big I. Why is it uncapable to accept the vastness is because the small I has its limitations. Now what must the small I do? The only thing it can do, it can gain understanding intellectually, it can develop devotion and various other things, yet how to let the fullest impact of the big I permeate the small I, that always remains a question and all striving of humanity is to find that mystery, to find the secret of every action and every thought. Now we know that we cannot lift a finger, we can’t wiggle our toes if there was not some other power. A flower cannot grow in spite of the rain and the sun and the minerals in the ground and the watering and everything. It will still not grow if there was not some inexpressible power of the big I to coordinate the various physical elements to make that flower grow. Likewise the human being grows and in its growth the most important part that is played is by that infinite power. Now we have discussed this many times that inherent in man the infinite power is there. So the duty of the person that wants to find happiness has to contact the big I. The big I can be contacted as we discussed this last week by these various yogas whereby contact is established. Of course in our foundation we have found, rediscovered rather ancient wisdom whereby by a very quiet silent peaceful means, we can contact the big I and we know, through experience , that by that contact, by drawing from that infinite reservoir, the quality of our bodies a nd mind improves. But the question still remains when? How soon? Why not now? So there is a way that one can strive very hard in purifying the mind. One can strive very hard in purifying the body. Now all say the body is a temple of god so we keep the body clean internally and externally. That is part of the way. By having good thoughts in our minds all the time where good thoughts are dominating thoughts of compassion, of love, of friendship, of deep feeling towards another. That is also a way where the mind is purified but that too remains a part of the process. So the physical body has a way which forms a part of the process, the mental body has a way which forms part of the process and these processes makes the mind and body more conducive to receive t he infinite power of the big I. Now the small I is so small that it cannot contain the infinity of the big I. So what do we do there? Now there are ways and means whereby even the limited small I, the ego, can be annihilated where the small mind and body can be annihilated or

3. SA76-10 rather sublimated or transcended. That is the quickest way because we want to experience these things in this life and we want it because we feel sure by our experiences and by the intuition, the inner voice that tells us that there is something greater. Now what happens, what are the mechanics? Does the small I merge away into the big I and what is – what are the mechanics of mergence? Is it a mergence? Is it a subduance? Is it a sublimation? Or is it annihilation? That remains the big question. Now the small I can be sublimated by force where we force the mind to go into a certain channel of goodness. We force the body not to put in things into the body which would be harmful to the body and create more toxins. There too force is required. We can sublimate the mind and the body, but in sublimation, we have to be very careful that it is not a substitution or a transference. There could be another process too where there is transmutation. You transmute certain physical energies into something else so that the physical and mental energies are not dissipated but they are used in another form. A person by nature is say, very aggressive, his mind is aggressive and his mind translate itself through his body in greater aggression and acts are violence. Now he can transmute that same energy. It is the same energy that works in good or bad. He can transmute all his violence and all his aggressiveness in another form of chopping down a tree and after he chops down the tree, believe you me, his anger would be gone, he’s taking it out in his acts. Right? He’s aggression is gone because there is an underlying factor of anger even in aggression and his violence disappears because though his acts too he is taking out of himself the violence onto the tree stump. Now that is transmutation but even in transmutation, what could happen? Does the seed remain behind the aggressive mind and is the mind and body involved in the transmutation getting rid of the seed that is there. Is the seed of those energies that are negatively used? Is the seed completely annihilated? There too transmutation can fall sort. Perhaps the surface anger, the surface violence, the surface aggression can just be taken out on the tree, but the bases, the root, the essence is there. Now what do we do? These processes form parts of the processes, but not the complete process. Now in our system we have found that by transcending the mind, by transcending the mind, going beyond the mind in our spiritual practices we draw upon that divine reservoir that is within us and let that current flow through the mind and the body. Now what happens there is that it automatically transmutes energies of the mind into positivity. Right. With this way, one would be wilful act, a forceful act of the mind to transmute that aggressiveness in another act but here with the flow of those divine subtle energies into that mind, it annihilates the aggressiveness because it fills it up and analogy I always use, if you have a jug of water, dirty water, put that dirty wa ter jug under a tap and open the tap. So as the clean water falls into the jug, the dirty water is automatically thrown out. The dirty water is automatically thrown out and eventually the jug will contain clean water.

4. SA76-10 So by we constantly doing our meditations, we are doing the same thing. We are adding this divine power into the mind and the body and the mind and the body has a limitation of containing just a certain quantity of energy. So the positive energy being more forceful and powerful, it pushes out the negative energies. So in this process it is not sublimation, it is not transmutation, but an automatic spontaneous annihilation. So the evil tendencies or the wrong, negative tendencies are painlessly removed. They are dissolved, they are thrown out. Therefore we have found our system the easiest system. There are other systems that require a person to go through various forms of paresis and where the body is – is put through so many tortures and a certain kind of discipline is enforced upon us. Now enforcing of a discipline, does it help? Does it help? Is it rooting out the basic tendency? Is it rooting out the tendency at its fundamental value? No. The fundamental value of an outward expression, a grosser expression is so subtle that the subtle basic value of the tendency can only be eradicated our annihilated by another positive subtle value. That is why we are so successful in our meditations because we are exercising the subtlest value of the mind to push out the grossness of the other parts of the mind and when grossness is put out, pushed out – annihilated, then it is filled with the subtle energies – subtle energy. Nothing can remain a vacuum. The body does not remain a vacuum, the mind does not remain a vacuum. What happens is a change of quality . The change of quality between grossness and subtleness and that is progression. That is progressive evolution where from the gross one reaches the subtle and then goes beyond it. And then when one goes beyond it, it does not matter but it is a systematic, scientific process. You have some systems in India, for example, where you’d find a yogi standing on one leg and staring into the sun until the eye sockets burn out and he stands on one leg because he's been told that this will take you to nirvana. Will take you to self realisation. In many cases if the person has sufficient faith, the faith alone can help him so much towards nirvana or self realisation. But what an <0:21:20.2> process. As we always say that if something can be done more easily, more joyfully and the same results are achieved, then why not that? I was using an analogy during the week when someone came to see me. Say in front of us there is a big boulder. Now we want to shift that boulder. Now it will require great – great physical energy not of one man, but perhaps of ten men to push that boulder away. Now if we use common sense and we use the lever, leverage, then one child, with the principle of leverage can push the boulder away. So if there are easier methods, more joyful methods, more pleasant methods, then we use the more pleasant and joyful ones. We do not decry any other method whatsoever. Some people with certain <0:22:29.1> tendencies, for example, would want sufferings inflicted upon them. Unnecessary – unnecessary because the infliction of suffering on a person is not going to rid him of suffering. He is reconditioning his mind to suffering so that eventually he will do everything that will bring suffering to him. Now if that man is a highly evolved man, not a wayfarer, then that suffering too can become joy. But wayfarers that have not reached the destination of self realisation do not need to go through these processes because the whole end and aim is to annihilate

5. SA76-10 the ego, the small ego so that the big I can permeate every action, every thought, every word, every deed all the time and then we act in life from that level of that great forceful subtlety that makes everything more and more joyful, more and more brilliant. More and more luminous. The awareness expands, the mind can perceive things at a far deeper meaningful level. The actions have a dynamic quality to it where even you think a thought and immediately your thought materialises. You think I want 10 Rand to pay a bill somehow or the other it just comes. Now that is acting from the deeper level. But to reach there, we have to go beyond the conditionings of the mind and a great part of the mind is ego. Ego is the sum totality of a person's personality. Ego has other counterparts. Ego is part of the mind. The mind is divided for the purposes of explanation into things like the intellect, the one that weights, right. We call it buddhi in Sanskrit. Then we have manas, the carrier of all past samskaras and impressions. Right and the sum totality of these things perceive a – the computer, the intellect, the carrier, the feeder of the information into the computer, all these things are those that go up to make the ego and therefore when we say – when we talk of the small ego, we talk in this instance of the man’s entire personality as it is expressed here and now. Now by certain methods of thinking, certain methods of – of analysis, we can, to a certain extent, direct the ego. But even in the direction of that ego, it is still remaining in the realms of the ego. One person has a kinder personality, another person has a crueller personality, fine, but they are still personalities within the framework of that ego. A person would do certain kind acts, fine. There might be ego involved in doing those kind acts. We have found many philanthropists perhaps, charitable people that we donate funds to building a school. Fine. But there is one condition that my little statue must be in the garden. This school was built by Mr. XYZ. So even in the greatest philanthropy, there could be the expression of ego because what this person is trying to do really, he knows that in 60-70 years, whatever the lifespan, he has to leave his body but he is so attached to his body that through a philanthropic act, he want to perpetuate his body and his name. It’s a great expression of ego. Fine. You have another person – another person that would do a very small act as handing a flower to someone and in the handling of that flower, his whole complete sum totality of the personality permeated by that big I symbolised here as love, and a person gives that flower in such a reverence that the totality of him is given with the flower. Look at the great difference between the philanthropist, the so called philanthropist and the giver of one simple flower. Now who is greater? The one has a greater measure of the big I penetrating the small I while the other has the small I so big that it doesn’t give the bigger I any chance whatsoever. So what we do is through many ways – through many ways depending upon our own temperaments we try and subdue or annihilate the small I and according to temperament, we start where we are. We use the mind, we use devotion, we use good living and this will lead there to a certain extent, but if it is backed up by our spiritual practices, by our meditations, all the thinking would become more powerful, all the action would become more powerful. The devotion will become more powerful and more sincere. So all

6. SA76-10 these must be backed by those meditational practices to make all these various aspects, to make all these various temperaments of mind more powerful and dynamic and being more powerful and dynamic, the quicker it progresses and the quicker the goal, the faster you progress. You come quicker to the goal. So many times you find a person doing a certain act and he says, “Oh, in retrospect, he say, ah that was my ego”. Fine and then instead of doing something about the ego that caused hardship, he does nothing. he said, “ah, that was ego ,” and discards – discards it. Very good – very good. Discard it by all means but what should we do to see that in future the ego does not express itself in that way again? What we do is we do our meditational practices and we use those practices to strength the areas in our lives which are strong and amplify them. A man has a great analytical brain, use the inner forces through meditation to make that brain more thinking, more thinking in greater dynamism, a person has great devotion so we use that inner power and infuse it into the devotion which we are portraying to –to divinity. Owe to man, owe to our wives, our husbands. That is the way – that is the way because ego is a very tricky thing – very tricky. Just as tricky and just as cunning as the mind is. The small ego is nothing but seeking self preservation. The small ego, the dharma or the karma of the small ego is seeking self preservation. There was an experiment conducted where they took a chimpanzee and put it in a pool of water. The chimpanzee had a small baby and slowly they started filling the pool so the water reached upto the knees and then to the stomach and then to the chest and neck and here upto the mouth and it start coming to the nose and the chimpanzee could not breathe and as the water was rising, it was pushing its baby higher and higher and higher up, just protecting the baby because the mother has the protective instinct. But when the chimpanzee found that it is going to lose its life, she immediately put the little monkey, the little baby under it and try to stand up on it. So this is a scientific experiment conducted. So a person for self preservation will even sacrifice its own flesh and blood and that is the state of today’s humanity. That is the state of today’s mind. Mind of man. Preservation of the ego. What are they preserving? That is to be questioned. They are preserving this frail little body, this stupid little mind that one moment thinks this way and one moment thinks that way. One moment thinks he loves someone and the next moment he thinks he hates another one. That fickle mind is he preserving this body which means nothing and – and will parish away or fall off tomorrow. He is preserving that. He is preserving a mind that is so fickle and so non -consequential. So the values of preservation are even wrong and the values of preservation are wrong because they are preserving something which is not permanent. Yet, everyone knows as I first said that there is that quality within us, the big I which is changeless and eternal. So in the preservation of the small ego, we, instead of annihilating the ego, we are annihilating divinity. That's what we do. We become oblivious of divinity and yet as we said that without that divinity, we cannot even lift a finger. Without that energy we cannot do it. That is the state of

7. SA76-10 the world’s mind. So we proceed by trying to annihilate the – and annihilate the ego, its not an overnight process. It has been conditioned for millions of millions of years, but it can be annihilated, it can be subdued and once the subdual or annihilation comes, it automatically disappears. Disappears in the sense that even the mind and the ego is made of matter. It is matter. Thought is matter. Emotion is matter. It is not an abstract quality. It is matter in a subtle form so when that same matter is made even finer and finer and finer, it cannot but help to merge away into the infinite quality and that is how those are the mechanics of how the ego is annihilated, sublimated, transmuted in that subtle form. Then thes e words, annihilation, subduing, transmuting, sublimating, then only these words become meaningful. Otherwise it is a children’s exercise. A children’s exercise doing it in a very – very gross way and yet we have the ways where these things can be done instead of tackling it by controlling these things, we rather dive deep within ourselves and bring that energy out, that automatically controls and subdues and sublimates. Does that cover your question? (laughs) fine – fine. Public: Gururaj, I wanted to know, well its asked about enlightened people. Can an enlightened man live – umm – in everyday activity in a state like Samadhi. Now we understand Samadhi to be that which is completely beyond the changing. But is it not possible to l ea ve that divinity completely infused in everyday activity such that there’s no real break in consciousness or real significant change between say, living in daily activity and going into a Samadhi. Gururaj: So basically the question is that can the self realised man live a ordinary life in daily activity? Fine. Now he can. A self realised man is a person who is beyond the attachment of all the qualities of daily living but the self realised man still being embodied has to perform his physical and biological functions. He has to eat, he has to have rest, he has to go to the loo. Fine. So all these functions, even the self realised man performs, but his performance has that subtle quality to it that his very breath is meaningful to the atmosphere of the world. His very breath he breaths is meaningful. A self-realised person can choose to go and sit in the Himalayas and there being in his Samadhi and by the time so that the momentum created by his past karmas just have to wear off gradually. Like a top, we spin a top and – and – and after the top spins, it still has some momentum that it has to run off and when that momentum runs off, he discards the body. Then you have another kind of self-realised person that identifies himself with every action in the world, every action of society. He identifies himself with every human being, with every animal, with every creature, with every plant that the heart beat of the plant is also his heartbeat. That the heart beat of a human being is also his heartbeat. Now he does this, he does this for the purpose of teaching. He, before taking birth, had a choice to merge away into divinity. This you will find in Buddhism if you study it. He has the choice of merging away into the nothingness. Call it nothingness although that nothingness is a great something. Umm— by that nothingness, let us explain – let us tell a very well known story. The story goes, a chela goes to a guru and the chela wanted to find the secret of all this energy that controls the whole

8. SA76-10 universe. So the guru says, “Go to that tree and bring a fruit.” The chela did that. He says, “Open the fruit and take out a seed.” The chela did that. Took out the seed. And he says, “Now break open the seed.” The chela broke open the seed and he says, “What do you find in the seed?” The chela says ,“Nothing,” but yet it was that nothing within that seed that so called apparent nothing within that seed that formed that seed, that grew that tree which bore fruit. So the realised man has the choice of becoming that nothingness, that so called nothingness in that seed. He has that choice. But he thinks, “No, no, let me not merge away, let me not prick this balloon so my air in this balloon becomes merged in the air, the universal air. No, let me remain individual, let me be born. There is lot of work to be done.” And this happens with some people through a certain magnetic attraction. The universes or say this world’s atmosphere creates a certain magnetism. In other words, all the karmic and dharmic values of this world form a certain demand and because of the magnetism radiated by this planet, it automatically calls upon someone, pulls down someone who is likewise inclined to help and brings down that personage onto the earth to help and that is what is meant by avataras. Yet, the magnetic pull has been so strong, but the self realised person in that state had the choice to come or not, could refuse magnetism. It could create a barrier not to be influenced by the magnetism. But there in that state it says that realised man hovers on the brink – hovers on the brink of unity. Can merge away, sit on the fence. Merge away into unity or come this way into the world, but he feels sitting on that bridge that there is so much magnetic pull here and I am needed and this magnetic pull, this call – this call that has come has come to me for a purpose to help. So let me go through voluntarily the pains of rebirth so that I can help and bring a message to the world, better the lives of people. That is why the Gita says from age to age I will come again and again. These are avataras and they come by free choice to help and therefore their teachings, their messages have always remain eternally true because what they teach are universal laws. Irrefutable, undiscoverable, discovered, yes in that sense like as you mentioned the – the – the law of gravity was there all the time. Newton just sort of formalised it, put it in a system and they call it rediscovering. He never invented i t. Likewise, universal teachers, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, universal teachers; they worked on the same universal principles which are existing from eternity, from infinity and what they do is take those same universal principles and formulate them in such a way which is more conducive to the sum total mentality of the world. In other words, they use those teachings, universal teachings so that they could be readily applicable to the conditions of the world and when such people come, there is always some betterment in the world, always some betterment, always -- always the – the world becomes a better world, always, because of this message and so therefore the self- re alised man has that choice of coming back. He has the choice. Now when an avatar comes because of the pains of birth, because of having to descend from very subtle state to a grosser state, he is – he has taken upon himself all the dirt and the mud proceeding through that dirty street. He get

9. SA76-10 full of dust. So even the avatara, though born enlightened, has to spend some years shedding off that dust and dirt and taking a bath and then the avatar too becomes ready to teach his real message, but he has to go through the process of shedding off the dirt that he has purposefully taken on him and then they are ready. Buddha, Christ, Krishna never started teaching since the day they were born. Christ started his ministry when he was 30, fine. Buddha started his ministry when he was about past 40 I think, if I'm not mistaken, somewhere there, dates are not necessary really. And same thing with these great – great personages that came to the earth as persons and that are, in reality, the embodiment of divinity and that is why Christian people regard Christ as a god, that is why Buddhistic people regard Buddha as a god, and that is why the hindu people regard Krishna as a god. These are the reasons for it and it the – these reasons are properly understood, they form a channel of analysis, devotion and they teach practices and what have you? And thereby man can be uplifted – uplifted to that beautiful sublime level where it can only be interpreted as bliss, that beautiful joy and it is the birthright of everyone. I've repeated this over and over, it is the birthright of everyone to be joyful and the path to joy too with proper understanding and proper perspective can be joyful always.<0:48:41.0> good, fine. Who’s next? Public: I'm interested in what – what in fact is the kundalini? Is it a physical fact or a spiritual experience or what – what is it? Gururaj: What is the kundalini? Is it a physical fact or a spiritual experience? Good. Kundalini is a form of symbolism. Kundalini is described as a serpent at the base of the spine sitting down there, coiled in three and a half coils or something and according to the tantric literature, it must uncoil itself. It’s symbolised as a snake. It was uncoil himself a nd rise through the various chakras. Now the chakras in a person can also, there are many interpretations to this, I’ll give you a few of them. The rise of the chakras proceed through the rise of the kundalini power, serpent power someone has called it too. Rise through all these various chakras and there are seven in man. You have the muladhara chakra which is the lower one, then you have the swadhisthana chakram, from there you proceed to the chakra at the naval which is the manipura, from there you proceed to the chakra of the heart which is called the anahata, then you proceed to the chakra of the throat which is called the vishudhha and then you proceed to the chakra here in the forehead which is the ajna and then the very top corner of realisation is the sagasrara. Now in kundalini yoga, they take into consideration these various chakras. Now they maintained that as the power of the kundalini rises. Now the kundalini power is always there through two psychic nerves. They call it the ida and the pingala which are forever flowing in spiral form. But to wake up the real k undalini shakti, it is to take the power from the ida and the pingala’s nervous system and have it proceed through the – the most vital nerve, most vital psychic nerve called the sushumna. That is a Sanskrit term, I'm using them so that you could perhaps familiarise yourself with them in case you want to make some deep study into this.

10. SA76-10 Now the purpose is – what they say is this that as that power, as that snake rises up the sushumna, it opens up all these various chakras that we have talked about and in opening up these chakras are the blocks towards self realisation and as by a certain of tantric practices, as the power of the kundalini is raised, it pierces through all these various chakras. Right. Now this could be very – very symbolic. We can put another interpretation to it that in the human system, divinity can be portrayed through this energy and as we activate this energy, we are activating, as we activate the energy and making it rise in ourselves, we are activating these various subtle chakras. Now we know whichever positions have been given to us are very high nervous complexes. For example the naval, the heart area, they are very high nervous complexes and the idea would be to purify these nervous complexes and by the purification of these various chakras or nervous plexuses, this energy within man can express itself more fully. That is one of the ideas. Now in tantric literature, they describe it very beautifully that at the sagasrara resides Shiva, Brahman or god and within man's system is that energy, the kundalini which is also known as shakti, that shakti could be raised so when shakti and shiva merge into each other, become one with each other. Then there is illumination, self realisation. Now this shakti is in everyone. What we have to do is heighten the shakti or awaken the shakti so that it merges away into that which is called divinity and becomes one, joins a union between shiva and shakti. This is another way of them looking at it from a scientific angle we can readily see and these various subtle solar complexes, solar and other nervous complexes can be perceived by the third eye or the psychic power or the sixth sense. It can be perceived as a very luminous light that is within man that power, that electricity is there and as the electricity proceeds through the wire, in that wire of the psychic system, we have all these various complexes which are nothing but distribution agencies. Like an electrical distribution board. Now from the one complex as the electricity current reaches that complex, it automatically shoots into various spheres of, say for example the, the abdomen, the naval system, it shoots out into all those various organs connected to the abdomen where you have your stomach and liver and spleen and – and all those things. And it also adds a certain purification to it as the energy, the current goes through on that wire, the wires of ida and pingala, they purify the other areas in turn until the whole physiology, biology and psychology of the man is so improved and its psychic -ology, it’s a new word and its psychic-ology is improved then one merges away into divinity. Now these are systems, these are systems and it is not even necessary to believe in these systems, it is not even necessary to believe in these systems because there – in our methods – in our methods, although we do make use of the chakras where we do find that the current is going to this one distribution point of the heart, for example, and in this electrical distribution box, there are some wires loose, and that energy is not going through. So we give some practices to screw up, tighten up those wires so the energy can flow. That we do by our certain psychic practices, we do that. Right. But the believe in it is not necessary. The practice of it is

11. SA76-10 necessary. You can believe you are a king and still be a pauper. So we have to do, do or die (laughs). Yes, and by dying I mean, I don’t mean a physical death, there’s no death, we know that, it is just postponing of that which is inherently made for us, good for us that we really are, we are that divinity. We – with our gross bodies we also incorporate within ourselves a subtle mental body and with that we also incorporate within ourselves that spiritual body and is just for us to give vent, clear up the mud, clear the snow so that the car can go through. The snow is blocking the road, clear up the snow to the sides and the car goes through, the vehicle of the spirit infinity is within us and we give it vent to clear, go through the road, the road of life in all greater and greater joy. That’s what we do. Okay? (Laughs) Public: Gururaj Gururaj: Yes. Public: < 0:58:37.4 > develop or unfold in a perfect order or can they develop any – any order? Gururaj: The chakras now, there are some schools of thought, let me explain you a few of them. There is a school of thought that would tell you that the energies can proceed only from one direction and that is from the lowest chakra, the muladhara chakra. From the muladhara to the svadhisthana, from the svadhisthana to the manipura, anahata, etc. right. They believe that because they feel that these various chakras represents the various stages of evolution of man. There are seven existences. They say there are seven plains of existences and every chakra represents a certain plain of existence. So to proceed, the muladhara is the lower plain of existence, from the svadhisthana is in little higher plain of existence and then the manipura, anahata, etc. right. So they believe that one has to go through these one by one to reach the destination. To reach the sahasrara. That is one school of thought. There is another school of thought that you do proceed not only from down up, but there is something that comes from up down. This sahasrara which is regarded to be shiva or the sum total, the Brahman also comes down as soon as you start activating the lower and as soon as you start bringing it up, that divine energy from top also comes down. That's grace, and meets, and where is the meeting point? At the heart. The meeting point is at the heart complex, the heart chakra where the heart so unfolds, but here the lower self and the higher self come join hands, the lower chakras require some effort to develop, to open. Right and we discussed that last week in raj yoga that the – the various principles of yam niyam – yam niyam asanas, pranayam, we left out pranayam last week but pranayam forms part and parcel of asanas. It is practically one school really, but it can be differentiated. So we do our bit and from on top, the greater bit is done and they meet yet in the heart.

12. SA76-10 Now the heart is the core of one's personality and when we raise the power from downstairs and the big power comes from upstairs and meets in the heart, what a great beautiful explosion of joy and love and god is love is there – is there practically, practicality. The sahasrara, the Shiva or the Brahman, there is useless alone. The Brahman or god is useless sitting up there alone. It is only useful when the absolute merges with the relative and becomes one, part and parcel and fu nctions together as one entity and that is what we are trying to do. We are trying to function as one entity which is combined with the absolute and the relative so that no demarcation is left and the divinity or the absolute becomes so one with the relative, light, sand and water, becoming one, forming mud, unseparated within one another, within as one totality. We live half, our lives are only half. We only live reality, relativity. Yeah, but if we can draw more and more power from upstairs, what a richer life – what a richer life. Oh yes, how blissful, how – how – how blissful, yes. Okay? (Laughs) Yes – yes – yes, we always aim at – even discussing I have repeated this many times, even going to the depths of the highest philosophy of metaphysics, we must bring it down to practical levels, the level of day to day living. Otherwise philosophies are of no use, they are just mental gymnastics, exercises for the mind. Yeah, and you find so many philosophies in the world, each one contradicting the other and each one say this is my god and this is my god and this is my way and that's your way. Fine! But the greatest ways to combine them, all of them, and where do we combine them? What do philosophers do? They combine them in the minds. I say combine them in the heart, let it explode there. Take the lower powers and the higher powers, merge them, merge them. Let the explosion be in the heart and then the love just enfold, encompasses entire universe. Ah, its breathtaking! (laughs). Yes, yes, yes. Good. Anyone else? Public: Guruji, I was reading this story and I' d – I’d like to < 1:04:52.2 > Gururaj: Good. Public: < 1:04:54.8 > about two people who become Buddhists. They did not realise yet that Buddha’s very eagerness to free himself from pain and sorrow is in itself a sort of greed. Gururaj: Yes, two – we have some trouble with people hearing questions. Can I read that passage so that it can go into the recorder better? Public: < 1:05:20.0 >

13. SA76-10 Gururaj: They did not realise yet that Buddha’s very eagerness to free himself from pain and sorrow is in itself a sort of greed. – Yes, yes, here the – the whole – this whole sentence depends on this one word, himself. Who is himself? It can be interpreted in two ways. Now by himself, does he mean his individual ego or by himself does he mean the universal ego? Now, if he meant to free himself from pain and sorrow, he is doing it for himself. Now that is greed, in a sense it is greed. It might not even be greed if he wants to free himself from pain and sorrow with the purpose of evolution in mind to find Buddha-hood, to find nirvana. Then there is a good purpose to it. That greed can be condoned. It still remains a greed. But if this passage is taken in the context that he wanted to free himself from pain and sorrow, and by himself if he means the entirety of existence, then it is good. But if the man, if the Buddha wanted to free himself as the universe from pain and sorrow and a man can only say that, if he is the universe, where is the place for pain and sorrow? This passage is contradictory. This passage is very – very contradictory because once you become the entire universe, you are not reconditioned of becoming everything, becoming the entire universe, the condition and the quality is bliss, pain and sorrow are only conceived by the small self. So this passage might be, I have not read your book, but it might be the process of <1:07:57.4> trying to reach Gautama Buddha-hood and these might be the experiences he had in the path that let me first free myself of pain and sorrow so that I could show the world how to free themselves of pain and sorrow. So it is valid. It is valid. It depends what interpretation we put on it, it depends from which angle we study the matter. Yes, now it is good if it was in his process. I mentioned earlier that even a realised man, by having taken the process of birth, he has taken on himself a certain momentum that through some years of living, he has to work off that momentum , and go through many things in life. He has to go through many experiences to awaken in himself, to come to a recognition of himself to be able to portray that exactly in his teachings to the world. So there is validity if it’s his progression in that path to enlightenment. It is true because Buddha experimented a lot, up to the age of 29, he lived in lavish palaces and had all the joys and worldly material joys of the world, mundane things and then he realised that this is not all, it did not satisfy him and then he became a mendicant and – and we know Buddha’s story. He – he meditated and went through very severe hostilities and then when he was illumine, he came to the conclusion that these hostilities are not necessary and that is how Buddha advocated the middle path, the middle path. Take nothing to extremes. Now the middle path could have, according to our philosophies, very beautiful connotations, the middle path to me could mean so well, the combination of the absolute with the relative, and for them to come into the middle. The middle of life and daily living. Okay? (laughs) beautiful – beautiful. Good. Who shall ask us more questions? Public: Gururaj, could you tell us little bit about the third eye and what sort of meaning it has < 1:10:41.2 >?

14. SA76-10 Gururaj: You want to know a little about the third eye? Fine. Is there anything specific you want to know about it? Public: I don’t know much about this. Gururaj: I see < 1:10:51.3 > general question and you would know that a general question can only be answered generally. Fine? If it's a specific question , then we answer specific ally. Now what we mean by specific question is that we take one mass or one concept and we analyse the concept in his various facets. So a facet of a concept could be a specific question. But now here your question is very good. It is a general question on what is the third eye ? Fine. The third eye is equated very much so now where we call it the Ajna chakra in Sanskrit which means that beyond the physical eyes, there is also a psychic eye and the physical eyes can only perceive physical things while the ps ychic eyes can perceive things which are super physical, s upra physical is that the word? Beyond the physical? Public: Yes. Gururaj: Supra physical yeah. So the third eye can perceive things which are supra physical. Now by activating, developing the power to be able to use the third eye, we can fathom subtler layers of existence. We, now with the physical eyes, know only of these mundane things which we see, but with the opening of the third eye or the ajna chakra, we can perceive more subtler levels of existence. Do these perceptions help us? That is a specific question. Do these perceptions help us? It helps us in the sense that it will dawn on us that this is just not all that matters. All these things of the five senses are not – is not all that matters. Hearing, tasting, seeing, smelling, tasting, that is not the entirety of one's life. In the totality of life, there are finer levels of existences and by having – by opening the third eye, we practically witness and see the finer levels of existence. And by seeing the finer levels of existence, it encourages us to proceed further, to probe further. Today, human beings are just satisfied, they get up in the morning, they go to work, they sleep at night, next morning they get up, go to work, sleep at night, eat in between and what have you? And that constitutes the whole life. Now if there are practices to open the third eye, it will create in them the earning, the wanting. It will convince them that there is something more in life than just this that we know about. So that has a specific practical value and we have practice which some of you are doing in opening the third eye. And nowadays we have heard from scientists and this is still hypothetical which will, I hope, soon be made into theory that the – the third eye has a definite effect upon the pineal gland and by the activation of the third eye, one automatically activates the pineal gland and with the activation and stimulation of the pineal gland, a substance is secreted, called melatonin and this melatonin according scientists have a great general beneficial values on the entire human organism on all the glands and – and all the organs and muscles and

15. SA76-10 everything. And – and with the substance it makes one’s physiology better, one’s biology better and one’s psychology better. Now this third eye you're talking about is a – is the eye that has extra sensory can perceive. That has extra sensory perception of things beyond the physical level into a far finer physical level. Yeah, yeah the activation of that helps to develop this sense and this has worked where you have people with the powers of clairvoyance, power of clear audience and various occult sciences. But then the sciences are not important at all. They are not important. Sometime they can be a stumbling block. In Sanskrit we call them sidhis, these occult powers and I always use an analogy that if we leave our front door and want to go to the gate, so we walk through the garden path and on the way we would find flowers and shrubs and beautiful lawn, so we don’t get lost in the flowers and the lawn, but we proceed to the gate because we have to get out of the gate and onto our business. So one should never lose the goal of self realisation, self integration because these occult powers are very elementary powers. They are very – to us it seems supernatural, to many seems that because they don’t understand it. 60-70 years ago if you tell someone that a 2,000 tonne piece of metal can fly though the air, they would say, “you are mad!” Now things seem super natural to us because we don’t understand them and the human mind in an evolutionary process will begin to understand them more and more and more. Today only people with, mystics, as we can call them, understand them or experience them although perhaps not being able to explain them, but they experience them and they know that these are truths. Perhaps time will come when these things could be measured by electronic devices and the start has been made in this field where the Kirlian photography has start ed – Kirlian’s method has started photographing the human aura and things like that I read in a book recently. So these progresses are being made but they are not super natural. They are all natural, all within the means of nature, all within relativity bu t perhaps at a more subtler plain. Now the third eye activates those power, activates those powers of subtler perceptions and it’s a good exercise. It’s a good exercise <1:18:14.6> because it also activates the pineal gland that helps one physically, oh yes. By activating the third eye, the practices brings upon one the exercise helps one to focus all of one’s mental energies to one focal point. It aids concentration and the most important thing in life and in work is concentration. The difference between success and failure is concentration. Now if a person is totally concentrated on something, naturally that action becomes powerful and successful. So in every way, the practice of opening the third eye has very very many benefits. So some of you are doing it and carry on, it’s good, very good – very good. Right? Good. Do we have anyone else or shall we break for tea? Let’s talk another 10 minutes make it half past twelve.

16. SA76-10 Public: < 1:19:30.3 > Gururaj: Yes. Public: Some of us are meditating for a long time, some have just started. How do you realise if our meditation is successful or <1:19:44.7> Gururaj: Good. Some of us are meditating for a little while and some for a longer while and how do we know if our meditations are successful? Fine! That is very easy. After initiating a person, we always insist on checking the meditation. We always insist on that and by checking the meditation, we are asking various questions or sitting down. Sometimes it’ s not even necessary if the practice is going right and then we sit down meditating with the person and – and from there we could very easily see if the meditation is done properly and if it is done properly, by the very experiences one can gage if any progress has been made. Fine? And how fast is the progress made, that can be gage, should the progress be faster, that can be gage and very important thing is checking. So of course I tell everyone that the checking is very important and even after that, if they want to pop in after a few weeks or a month to have their meditations checked and have a discussion about their meditations and their practical daily life and how it is affecting them, what’s happening, what not. It would always be to the benefit of the meditating always – always – always and I have found and others have found that even if a person comes for a little chat, we sit and - -and discuss and there’s flow communication even in that there is a benefit. Oh yes, definitely (laughs), yes.

1. SA76-10 Gururaj: There’s something’s so vibrant in the air today and it just shows in how a communal prayer could influence the vibration so much. We know today is the Jewish new year and the Mohammedan new year and at this time they are in prayers and if not in prayers their minds are led to a far better le vel to a better quality of life and that does influence the environment and as we know ourselves that through our meditation, our environment and circumstances are so beautifully improved. So when there is a collective meditation or even a depth into some form of prayer, it has great effect on the environment. Today, for example, while I was meditating, I didn’t feel like going out of meditation and would have sat there for two hours. So beautiful. So there is so much to say for groups getting together. When we find that two dozen minds are to a certain extent reach a deeper level and – and they become calmer than automatically the whole atmosphere becomes calm and in that state of meditation, I see to myself each and everyone sitting here with eyes closed so clearly and a prayer <0:01:47.4> in that prayer an energy force is exuded which reaches every mind, heart and body and thereby we have found that these group meetings are so –so important specially when we are trying to evolve spiritually and also of course to evolve in the material world and in the environment and make life more smoother. So this getting together has great value. Even the Bible has said that if two people appear, get together in my name, I am there. So when the minds are stilled through meditation, we do find that in that stillness, never mind to what extent or how deep the stillness goes, it does have such a beautiful effect on the environment and everything seems so peaceful. Beautiful! Good, let us start with questions. Public: Guruji, what I wanted to ask was about a self < 0:03:04.5 > quite often you mentioned to us that – or you asked us or what have you said at the satsang because some – some I is speaking which in a sense is forgetful or is beyond the normal I that asks the question what have I said and what I wanted to know is if it is the same I -- the same I that talks the – about the universal self and what actually is the apparently more gross I that asks what has been proceeding bec ause we’ve understood that the two were meant. So I just want < 0:03:53.9 > Gururaj: Now as we all know that the human being is composed of two eyes, you have the small eye which can be equated with the ego or rather is the ego and then the big I, the small I has its limitations, it has its boundaries and the boundaries are created by its own physiology, biology, psychology and all the conditionings that has gone into the existence of man from times past. Now all those constitute the small I, but behind the constitution of the small I is the big I and the big I is limitless, it is like, in a motor car you have a limitless tank of petrol. The small I is the engine and the works, the gas, the pistons, the body, but yet that would remain useless and would not be put into any motion if the big I was not there or rather in this case, the petrol was not there. So big I permeates all actions, all thoughts and all doings of