2. SA77-44 find the right vehicle. Now when I talk of years, we are talking in our terms of years. The years that we know of while in that dimension, the dimension of the subtle body what might seemed to be a thousand years is only a moment, could be very fractional. Now we have discussed many times the state of being, the state of one's being in the other dimension when the physical body has been discarded. Now I’ve mentioned this many times before that that is the period of evolution where the subtle body which is composed of the mind and of the spiritual essence, it – in that period, in that dimension would evaluate all its existences that it has had in whatsoever form and the sum totality, when that subtle body adds up its totality and – and knows that this is my total value and to refine this value, to evolve, I have to be born again. So when we talk of the spiritual body of man, then that spiritual body is universal, the only bodies that are individual is the subtle body and the physical body. Now the composition of the subtle body is one of samskaras as we would say it in Sanskrit. In other words it would mean the sum totality of all experiences that individual being has gained. Good. Now can the sum totality of these impressions be brought to a grosser level? Now because it cannot be brought to a grosser level, it has to combine itself to a gross body. So what happens here is that there is an interpenetration of the subtle body with the gross body. They are separate and yet interpenetrated. That is why – that is why in meditation we can experience the subtle body, good. And the only reason why we can experience the subtle body is that – is because we loose consciousness of the gross physical body. It is only when we loose consciousness of the gross physical body that we experience the physical body and it is only when we go beyond the subtle body that we experience the spiritual body and that spiritual body, that air in that balloon is the same air outside the balloon, therefore the spiritual body of man is universal. So when man evolves to a certain stage of refinement and reaches the universal spirit, then he becomes one with the universe and that is the time when he loses individuality. Now the loss of individuality means that you are not necessarily loosing the ego or annihilati ng the ego. You are only refining the ego and we should use the analogy of a balloon made of latex rubber. Now the more you stretch the balloon, the more transparent it becomes and the stretching of that balloon can be stretched to the entirety of the entire universe. So man's ego, though now so individualised, has the capacity to reach the entire universe. But when it reaches the entire universe, it becomes finer and finer and finer until it even goes beyond the finest value of the fine substance. Good. So it would not be a question of annihilating the ego, but it would be a question of using the ego and using it in such a way to refine it. Now to go back to the analogy of rubber, you would know that as you stretch it more and more, the rubber becomes thinner and thinner and thinner and as the balloon becomes thinner and thinner and thinner, it becomes more and more transparent. So the entire spiritual self can shine through. Now that transparent – that fine rubber will always have to

3. SA77-44 remain. That fine ego will always have to remain as long as man if an embodied being. Good. But he, because of the fineness of the ego that has developed, he will realise – he will realise that the reality lies in the spiritual self and not in the ego self. He will accept the ego at its truest value, truest value meaning here that it is non-permanent, non-permanent in the sense that it will become more and more refined and it would be changing all the time. So man takes birth through the medium of two human beings and the purpose of the birth is to refine that ego self. Good. Now that subtle body can also be termed, that subtle body that takes birth can also be termed the ego body of man. The ego body of man is the sense of I in man. Good. Where the mistake lies is that man places more importance on that ego self than the real self that is within everyone, and that as philosophers would call, maya, illusion. So the ego self or the subtle body is not the illusion, it has its relative reality, but the illusion is in the fact of where emphasis is placed and man tries to preserve that ego self. He tries to preserve it in a manner whereby he would not like to lose that ego self and the reason for that is because his greater emphasis is on the ego self. Is on the ego self where he wants to preserve his identity. Now that idea of preservation of that identity is the illusion which man has to overcome. It is not an annihilation, to repeat again, or a denial of the ego, but it is the refinement of the ego where the ego becomes so entirely r efined. The glass becomes entirely clean so that while being embodied, the true self – the true spiritual self of man shines through to its fullest value and you will know, to use another analogy that, any fine material when bright light shines through, the material becomes or seems non -existent. Good. Now when the body is shed, when the body is shed and the ego has been totally refined, then it merges away with the universal self or the spiritual self. Now why does man cling to the ego self? Because he wants to preserve his identity and the preservation of that individual identity is because he thinks that it is only by the individual identity that all his pleasures are to be found. All his joys are to be found where he can enjoy life. Good. No one must not say that life must not be enjoyed. Life must be enjoyed to its fullest capacity and to its fullest moral value and if life is lived to its proper moral value, then he would have the happiness that will spur him further on and on and on until that ego self becomes more finer and finer and finer. Good. Now when man reaches that state of total refinement, there is still a little residue of the ego. Although in the mergence there is still a residue of the ego and because of that residue, he will enjoy the universal life. Let us try and formulate a story, a gardener – gardener works for a millionaire in his mansion and large ground and he enjoys looking after the flower and every time you speak to him he would say, “Aren’t my flowers beautiful?” is my cottage beautiful?” He does not realise that are these flowers really mine? Is this cottage on the grounds of this mansion, is it really mine? He does not think but he regards it as mine. We say, “This is my office, “although the building belongs to someone else.

4. SA77-44 So through learning, through analysis, through realisation he would come to an understanding that this is not my flowers, this is not my cottage. I am working for someone else, I am working for the boss and because of his entire attachment to my flower and my cottage, if one little flower wilts, he feels intense pain and if one flower grows very beautiful, he enjoys great pleasure. But what would happen – what would happen if he gets noticed, he gets fired, then where is the pleasure of that flower and where is the pain of the flower that has wilted? What sense would that attachment make now to him? Now this is what happens to man, that everything he regards to be mine and it is because he tries to preserve his identity, he clings to the identity of the ego which could be evanescent, which is forever changing and non-lasting and he forgets who the real boss is, who is lasting. The forgets the spiritual self that is within him which is eternal, so all problems begin when there is a misplacement of emphasis in stead of placing the emphasis on the eternal, man places the emphasis on non -eternal. Good. It could happen that this man comes to a realisation that in reality these flowers are not mine, this cottage is not mine, but yet he goes on doing his work even more better than ever. He tries to please his boss in every way possible. He works hard. Fine. Now all bosses like discipline as divinity likes us to have discipline. The boss wants the flowers to be watered at certain times, the lawns to be mowed at certain times. Right, so this man has exercised discipline and discipline is not – discipline is not a word that many people are frightened of. They find that discipline is something that you have to force yourself into or force upon yourself. Good. But when man lives according to the laws of nature, then discipline becomes automatic. Good. Now the gardener would find joy in watering his garden, watering the flowers at its proper time. He would find joy in planting the proper seeds at the proper time. Good. That is discipline. Good. The discipline is joyful, he is doing his work according to the laws of nature and not according to his nature. Good. There lies – there lies the secret of joy. Man likes to live his life according to his nature but not according to the laws of nature. Now say for example a woman who is not good that cheats her husband. Now it becomes habitual in her to do it all the time and modern psychologists would tell you that you give in to your nature. So they find an excuse to do what she wants to do according to her nature. But does the law of nature demand that? No, a thief goes thieving, a robber goes robbing, a murderer goes killing according to his nature, but not according to nature, general nature where general nature says that you have to live in such a way which would be conducive to your evolution and nature is so supportive that if you allow yourself all circumstances around you would automatically become conducive for your personal evolution. Now we go back to the gardener. Right. The gardener has come to a realisation that I took so much pleasure when I saw that flower blooming so beautifully and I get so pained when I saw a flower wilting, but now he has come to a realisation that if the flower blooms I am doing my duty, I am watering my flowers, I am nursing them and yet if a flower should wilt it is not my flower but his flower, if the flower blooms, it is not my flower, but his flower. Good. Now that is how the ego self becomes more and more refined with the realisation that all this is not mine, the only thing that I am is that little ego, that

5. SA77-44 little subtle body which is now embodied in a gross body. Good. Now as man refines himself like the gardener and does his duties in life well honestly, sincerely, then it could happen – let us assume this that the boss passes away, leaves the world and because this gardener has been very – very faithful to him and went out of his way to do not only gardening but so many other extra duties. He – he leaves his whole estate to the gardener, the gardener inherits the whole estate. Good. Then that gardener would say, “ Ah , this is my estate now before he said you know, “my garden” now he says, “my garden too,” but look at the difference between the two my’s. If man goes around thinking that this is mine – this is mine – this is mine, he will, in time to come believe it is his because the mind is a cunning animal. If a person thinks that every Friday I am tired, keep on thinking that for a few years and every Friday you will be tired. The mind is like that, the mind is conditioned by our thoughts because we lack discipline. Good. And by lacking discipline within ourselves, we are harming others including ourselves too. For example I heard a little chid being very rude to the mother, oh mother this is ridiculous, oh mother this is that and that's that – very rude to the mother. Fine, but the mother as most mothers are, doting mothers, instead of correcting the child, disciplining the child to say, “no my child you don’t say things this way to me, you don’t speak like this to me,” right. But no, she won't do that because of her own weaknesses. Now by not disciplining the child because of her weaknesses, she is doing herself two things, making herself weaker on the one hand and making the child weaker on the other hand. Good. And doing the child a disservice. Now the child too would get into the pattern or the habit of speaking rudely, yet she might end up in school where she is rude to the teacher and the teacher will take it out on her with a stick. Oh ye s, then she grows up – she grows up, right. And because of her rudeness, how many women does not feel when they grow up that, “oh why did my mother not teach me this?” every woman feels it at certain times, “I wish my mother taught me this” good. Then – th en this child grows up and perhaps gets married. Okay. In the marriage, that partnership might be fraud with so many problems and troubles because of the lack of discipline. Good. And that is how we find in the western countries mostly that there are one divorce in every three marriages and the root of it all was the discipline that was required when the child – that person was young. Good. Now this gardener was -- was very disciplined and he did his work well and in appreciation the vast in his world gave the whole estate to the gardener. Now where in lies the greater enjoinment, bluffing oneself saying this is my flower or when reality comes and then really saying this is my flower. So many people are afraid to loose their identity because they do not want to lose the pleasures of life, but this is not a loss of the ego or identity, but an expansion of the identity of the ego and in that expansion, the expansion is so vast that it could embrace the entire universe and then one says, “ha, not only this estate is mine, but this universe is mine”. So the happiness of the person before it was temporary because of his emphasis on the ego self, now it has become permanent and of a far – far infinitely vaster range. Many people would think that if I merge away with the supreme divinity, then there’s nothing left for me, how am I gonna enjoy the lovely cooking

6. SA77-44 my mother does or my wife or the lovely clothes or how am I gonna enjoy that? No, the enjoyment is enhanced , the enjoyment becomes far greater because while being embodied, there's still has to be that sense of personal identity the individual identity, but what dominates is the universal identity and when the universal identity dominates, it overshadows the individual identity. Individual identity or sense of ego has now become transparent until the time comes when the physical body is shed and the subtle body too is shed where it would merge away into its original elements and it merges away into its original elements because of lack of emphasis. The emphasis of things in the beginning was things temporary, now the emphasis is on that which is permanent and that is what every man, woman and child is striving for. Now at the time of conception, at the time of conception, all this is in that moment. Man is bor n with the capacity of all that, he is born with the capacity of the little individual self and the capacity of the universal self. Now as the child grows up and if the parents have sins in training up the child, disciplining the child towards a steady, stro ng , good life, then greater we are doing the child a great favour. We are doign the favour in the sense that we are putting the child on the path of strength and not on the path of weakness and that is meritorious action. Those are the duties that one has to perform and the performance of those duties is the discipline of life, it’s the discipline and those disciplines can be joyous. An erring child can be corrected very joyfully as any mother would know, so at the moment of conception when the entirety – w hen the entirety of the person's evolutionary status is being formulated, the individual soul has entered the body of the mother and father, mostly the father. The father is the seed, the mother is the ground wherein the seed is planted. Good. So every sperm contains the potentiality. Now science would talk of genetics and chromosomes, how they combine. So in those sex that are combined, the soul is there in every set, or the potentiality of the soul is in every set. Now you know that the human body changes all the time, the cells are changing all the time. Man as he sits today within him contains so many souls in a far – far finer dimension, in a different dimension. So at the time of conception, the soul does not come down from some other place, it has come down already in that man and as conditions changed, he discard souls and other souls penetrate him all the time, all the time because picture to yourself as man being porous and all the souls are passing thorough him – passing through him continuously, continuously passing – passing – passing. Good. And when the right moment is there and the right soul is there, that soul definitely germinates cost taking into account healthy beings, healthy people, healthy men, healthy women. Good. Does that answer you? Yeah right. This is a completely, this is a completely new conception that you've heard today, you would not find it anywhere else in the annals of philosophy (laughs) good. Public: < 0:37:00.1 >I mean for the person --

7. SA77-44 Gururaj: Yes Public: < 0:37:06.2 > Gururaj: It will always be the right souls because the wrong cells would not enter your body. It has to be genetically perfect, perfect match that is why in the subtle state, your subtle body has to wait sometimes for thousands of years to enter the body of man because that very sperm is a living entity and nothing can live – nothing can live without the gross, the subtle and the spiritual self. Those three have to be together, those three have to be together to form the entity of that one minute sperm that germinates. So never fear that the wrong souls will enter your body, they can't (laughs). Public: < 0:38:12.9 > Gururaj: What is your question? Public: < 0:38:19.7 > after some cosmic entity or some spirit? Gururaj: The soul is life. Public: What is the tool? Gururaj: The soul can be interpreted as the spirit. Now in Sanskrit, the subtle body is known as the Jeevatman, atman which is the spiritual self mixed with the subtle body or covered by the subtle body of man. So soul is a word that is used sometimes as the spiritual self and sometimes as the subtle self and that soul contains within itself the life force, the jeevatman which means the – the subtle body with the spiritual body in it is the life force. Now the subtle body cannot exist without the spiritual body in it because the spiritual body is the life force which gives life to the subtle body and from there to a grosser level of the physical body. That's a life force. The question there was what happens to a mentally retarded person? Good. What has happened to the mentally retarded person is this ,this is what doctors would tell you that something goes wrong in the mother's womb and growth stops. Doctors have not found the answer to that yet. Then you have retarded children who might have some brain damage at the time of birth and doctors call that an accident. That is as far as their knowledge goes. But there are no accidents, there are no accidents. That retarded child that is born is born retarded because of its own karma, because of its own samskaras and it has to have a period of retardation for its own

8. SA77-44 evolution. Man is never standing still. There is always movement. Even as I am sitting here, there’s so much movement taking place in my physical body. As I am sitting here there's so much movement taking place in my subtle body. As I am sitting here there's so much movement taking place in this subtle body, now this subtle body too has various states, states of impressions. The subtle body is a collection of all those impressions. Now when we divide up the subtle body, we can divide it up into categories if we like and the two main ones would be impressions that are distant or fading away and impressions that are in the foreground and that are strong. Good. So when the subtle body takes birth, it will draw to itself or it will express firstly the characteristics which are the strongest . The strongest impressions will be portrayed first and when they are portrayed first, that would be the factor in determining the state of the person's mind. As for example the person that's born with a retarded mind. So that retardation of that person is not by accident, that retardation is for a purpose and the purpose is to evolve. The child has committed no sin when it is born. Why must one child be born retarded and another child a genius? Why? Good. Because every entity is responsible for his own actions and that retardation is not an accident but it is a reconditioning of previous lives that demanded and required this experience of tha t person so that he can evolve. Now we could never say that the retarded person is not experiencing anything. It too is experiencing it and in his experience whatever the retarded person experiences would be evolutionary for him. Good. Now the retarded person would lack certain di scriminative faculties and lacking that discriminative faculty, it will not be committing things which are devolutionary. It is only the thinking man that can move backward but the unthinking person would forever move forward would always be evolving. Now the totally retarded person is the same in a certain sense to the animal. Now an animal is forever evolving, not having thinking power it is evolving by its own propulsion, a certain direction has been set for that person and it evolves in that direction. Now that is exactly the same that happens to a person who’s retarded. Even a person who is in a state of coma and is vegetating, that person too is progressing with this propulsion of evolution. There even in the person in the coma or that is vegetating, in him too there are forces at work, forces at work that makes him experience himself in the state of a coma. So therefore that too is evolutionary. Good. Now why we try to help the retarded child is because if it can start thinking, its evolutionary process could be quickened, could go faster, that is why we try and help the retarded child and try and teach it certain ways so that of course he or she could live full life, but the primary concern would be the person’s evolution. Okay? Good. I think we have time for one more short question. Public: < 0:46:46.2 > Gururaj: Say that again, from your accent I can’t --

9. SA77-44 Public: < 0:46:53.0 > Gururaj: Doctrine of karma to? Public: < 0:47:00.2 > karma. Gururaj: So you must speak more clearly to me. Public: Is there < 0:47:09.4 > I mean that if a man, for example, has lived a very good life, will he reincarnate in a even better life or will he reincarnate in maybe something that he has missed in his good life so to finish to her < 0:47:27.3 > Gururaj: Oh yes – oh yes, lived a good life, he will always incarnate in a better life. Evolution progresses in spiral form and every step is always higher and higher and higher and even in a higher state, the man might still not be conscious that I am in a higher state and he might find certain difficulties trust upon him and those difficulties that are trust upon him is for the purpose of evolving him even faster to take him to the next rank on the ladder, but when man has lived a good life and has found a mental equilibrium or an equilibrium of the physical subtle or mental body with the spiritual body, then his next life would be one of a quality that will carry the integration that he has achieved in this life. Now when he is born in a more integrated state, he would have greater strength within himself to face the forces of evolution that is pushing him forward, because man, even if he wants to or not has to evolve. Man as in everything else as the smallest atom or sub-atomic particle is in this force, evolutionary force of nature and no one can stop it because once the momentum had been generated, there is no stopping. So even if man does not consciously want to evolve, he is still evolving, he is still going forward. There might be a period because of a lot of wrong doings where there is a bit of stagnation, good. But even in the stagnation there is a force working that will free itself to go onward. A piece of driftwood floating in the river might get stuck momentarily at a rock in the river, but more force of water will come and that piece of driftwood will start drifting and going forward again. So it is a necessary must that if the quality of this life is improved, then be rest assured that the quality of the next life would be good, there’s no turning back, always going forward . Okay, it's about 12:00, we’ll break for tea.

1. SA77-44 Satsang 44, 27 th of August, 1977, Satsang 44 Gururaj: Has anybody got a cold? Good, who will start us with questions this morning? You mustn’t mind my sniffing. Public: Gururaj. Gururaj: Um -hmm. Public: < 0:00:30.6 > again, what p oint does it enter the n ew body at conception? Later? And what is the mechanics of entering a new body? Gu ruraj: What are the mechanics of entering a new body and at what point does conception take place? The conception of the soul. Now there are many theories regarding this, th ere are some people that believe that when the sperm meets the ovum, at that moment, the soul descends and enters the being that is formed, that is one theory. Here is another theory that such a thing does not occur at all. Some philosophers would postulat e that the sperm itself and the ovum itself contains the soul of the part of the person that is to be reborn. In other words many would say that the essence of the entire human being of the father and the mother, the essence. The seminal essence contains so many souls. Good . Now when the soul and the ovum combines, there is no soul descending from anywhere but the whole constitution of the seminal fluid is made up of the soul. Good. Now when a person gets born, he in another dimension waits for the proper vehicle to be born through and when that vehicle is ready for him or her, it would, through food matter enter that person and form his entire constitution. Now there are certain hereditary factors involved which science admits to. Good. Now if a child th at is born inherits from the parents, then it – what would it inherit? It would inherit the make up of the parents and that make up should be such or would be such that would be conducive for the subtle body that is existing in another dimension to bring itself through into this world and assume a gross body which is the physical body. Now that physical body is a necessary must as a vehicle for the subtle body to acquire and it is a must because it is only through the physical body that it can experience it s own self meaning the subtle body. Good. So what is born is the subtle body and it partakes of the parent's physical qualities and the parents’ mental qualities and the parents’ evolutionary status as well. All these three factors combined and the combination has to be so precise that the subtle body can find the conveyance. So therefore we do find that children take on the characteristics of the parents. Many a time the subtle body has to wait for hundreds of years, thousands of years to