2. SA77- 55 psychological effect upon the mind. So all these various forms are but for the mind, all these various forms are for the mind and body only, but the purpose of meditation is to go beyond the mind and body. Now if these various postures were a necessity to reach that deep within-ness, then what hope would a cripple man have? And yet there's not a single scripture in the world that will tell you that no hope is lost. So this is a matter, these various postures or various forms or various moods is a highly personalised individual thing. Someone might have to start off doing meditation, first going through a process of concentration and then only can they go into meditation. Fine! So as I said, it is a highly individualised thing and with meditation that is taught, there should also be some form of experimentation where a person being taught how to meditate goes with his meditation and experiments a bit on himself which is the best way for me. I know some meditators who could never sit down to meditate without lighting incense stick. That puts them into a frame of mind whereby they could reach in a depth. So to repeat this over and over again that meditation is a highly individualised thing. Therefore in our system of meditation, we teach individually and individual practices. There are hundreds of systems of meditation, but we try and teach the system best suited for the requirements, for the needs, for the evolutionary status of the particular person and that is where our foundation differs from all the se various movements and what have you around the world. So you will see that this being a highly individualised thing, no posture or no preliminary is a necessity, generally speaking. I could just sit down and in two seconds be completely far away and that could be done sitting right in the middle of Agnes Street with all the traffic noises around me. Another person might require quietude, might require a retreat, he might require going away somewhere where it is quiet and peaceful and more conducive to meditation. So what the mind and body is trying to do is to find the conduciveness; that is what the mind is trying to do. Now for individuals this will apply, but as a general principle, the posture is not a necessity or is not a necessary must for meditation. We have meditators that could only be successful in their meditations lying down and yet not fall asleep because meditation does bring that state of physical and mental relaxation and so if one is lying down, one could very easily fall asleep, but some of our meditators that meditate lying down do not fall asleep. So it’s fine for them, but other meditators again, if they want to meditate and if they do not meditate sitting up, they fall into sleep. So therefore this is where the experimentation comes in. Now ours is a path, a systematic way how to relax first the body and that is very soon noticeable by the way the breathing rate drops, the metabolic rate drops. Good. Ours is the way which is effortless where you don’t try and force or fight your thoughts, you allow the thoughts to come and go, but with one difference, you objectify the thought. Now this has been explained to all those that have learnt meditation that when thoughts rise in the mind, you watch them as if you are watching a cinema. Now while you are sitting in a cinema watching the screen, there's

3. SA77- 55 nothing you can do to influence what's happening on the screen, there's nothing you can do to encourage what's happening on the screen and there's nothing that you can do to discourage what's happening on the screen. So you are an observer. In objectifying thought -- in objectifying thought what happens is this that you become apart from the thought. There is a finer mind. Now the mind has various gradations. The mind, the conscious mind is at a grosser level, the 10% which we used and in the whole continuum of the mind, there are subtler and subtler and subtler levels. So one part of the mind, a subtler part of the mind is watching the grosser part of the mind going through its monkey tricks (laughs) yes. Now by being able to do this – by being able to do this, you would gradually learn how to control it without effort and when it comes to thought, when it comes to mind, the more effort you make, the more would it jump around like monkeys on a tree. So in our way we show that without effort, just by watching those thoughts come and go and using the practice that you're allotted, the practice that is prescribed to you, those thoughts they simmer down, they simmer down and as they simmer down, we reach deeper and deeper. So by trying to attack thoughts, by trying consciously to get rid of thought, you are using thought to get rid of thought and that makes thought more thoughts and you are bound to fail. What is required to get rid of the thoughts that are buzzing around in the mind is to substitute it with a far subtler energy and this is totally true and absolutely possible. Until the time comes and you reach a stage where you are totally oblivious of the entire body, of the entire mind and remember the mind, the extend of the mind, as I always say is as vast as the entire universe. So in meditation, in that half an hour, see what you are accomplishing. You are going beyond the entire universe, going beyond the entire universe, there is the area, there is the peace that passeth all understanding and that is what we want to experience, to find that peace that passeth all understanding. Now this experience could just be ve ry momentary, could last for a second and as one advances, the time gap goes more and more and more. Now it is said by sages that if a person stays in that state for more than 21 days, his whole body will disintegrate, but the amount of power that you are charged with in that one second is so vast, so great you have touched the feet of infinity, not only touch the feet of infinity, but you have become infinity itself. Now obliviousness of the universe is not a negation of the universe. Remember that we are not denying the universe, we are not calling this table is not a table, it is unreal, we do not say that, but what we do having reached that state is we find the real reality of the table. We find the real reality of the flower. We find the re al reality of the fragrance of the flower, because then we will not be smelling the flower with the physical sense alone, but you’d also be experiencing the fragrance, you become the fragrance. So the whole secret lies in becoming – in becoming and all these postures, all these various modes and moods are not a necessary must, as a general rule. So as we proceed in our meditations and one thing is for sure as with everything else that practice is required, regularity is required where you become more and more in tuned with what you really are. Good. The problem that lies with us, with the 99.999% of human beings is this that they put emphasis on the

4. SA77- 55 manifestation and not the manifesto. Manifestation is emphasised and undue reality is given to it. The fire gives off heat, we don’t see the fire, we don’t experience the fire in its true form, but we feel a bit of heat. Th is very life throbbing within us, this very heart beating within us, this very flow of blood with millions of cells doing its own job in a very precise manner, all that too is but a manifestation, it is the heat of the fire. Now what the human mind tends to do because the mind too is composed of the heat, although the essence is the fire, but what the mind tends to do is to give the heat all the emphasis and take that to be the only reality and the fire, the manifesto of the heat is forgotten. So all problems begin in life when undue emphasis is given on the manifestation. Now manifestation has its own peculiar form of relative reality. This relative reality is always of a changing nature. Relativity too is eternal because once you take eternity out of relativity, once you destroy the light or the heat, you will destroy the fire because the two can never exist without each other. Fire can never exist without the heat and heat cannot be there without the fire. Fine! So in the form of this manifestation, now all manifestation are necessarily composed of name and form. So what the human mind tries to probe, what philosophers try to probe is just what manifestation is. They try to analyse name and form, yet forgetting that all the names and forms, all the heat that comes from the fire could be used in so many different ways. Heat can be used to power a steam engine; heat can be used to power a fridge, good. So what philosophers try and do is to find the essence of the manifestation and that is where the problems of philosophy begin because reaching the essence or the real quality of manifestation is not the end. It is not the end, there is something beyond the manifestation and that is the manifesto and that is the point on which scientists too fail because they are concerned with manifestation only. They are concerned only with that which is tangible and yet all tangibility has proceeded from that which is intangible. What a paradox! What a paradox! But the intangibility exists -- intangibility exists. Now I think I have given you this little story before to illustrate this point. A guru goes to – a chela goes to a guru and asks questions about creation and what is behind the creation. He asks questions about the – the nothingness from which everything has come. So the guru says, “You see that tree over there? Bring that fruit to me.” The fruit was brought. He says, ”Cut the fruit,” fruit was cut, “Take out the seed”, the seed was taken out, and he says, “Now break the seed” and in breaking the seed, there was nothing in the seed. So the guru explains that it is from this nothingness that the seed was formed and the seed evolved into a tree – evolved into a tree from which this fruit came. So that which is regarded as nothing is everything, but it cannot be proven in a test tube, it has to be experienced. Now that is the purpose of meditation, is to experience that nothingness which is everything – which is everything and it is a real experience, more real than this table and this flower and this tape recorder. It might be called intangible and yet most tangible of all. Now having reached the core from which everything came, having reached that, having experienced that, we start experiencing that in tangible things so that which was intangible is now made tangible. When we feel the heat, immediately we can feel

5. SA77- 55 the fire within it, experience the fire within it. As we see the light, we experience the electricity that creates the light. That is the purpose of meditation. So to reach the infinite being that is within, its not only a theory, but that theory has to become practical and it becomes practical becaus e having experienced that, we experience it also in all the manifestation, although as we said before, manifestation is nothing but name and form. Manifestation too, as I said, is eternal, but the eternity of manifestation lies in the wholeness of it and not in the paths of it because the paths are forever changing. The paths are forever changing and yet in the ever-changing-ness of the paths lies the changelessness and that changelessness is the power which empowers the change. Now that is the mystery of the universe and man can conquer that mystery. His mind is still too small to analyse it, but his heart is so big he can experience it. So there comes a time when all manifestation assumes only one form and that form is love. That form is love. That is the way how it is experienced and that is such a powerful force that it overrides – it overrides all the manifestation or all the various mixtures of moods and emotions, all those things which are normally regarded as negative is overridden. So we do not try to destroy negativity, we cannot. We cannot destroy all the negativities in this world or this universe, but we can go beyond it and even going beyond it empowered knowing, having experienced that kingdom of heaven within, we even look at anyone’s negativity with love. Then we do not see name and form only, but we see beyond name and form in the realm of the divine and that can only be experienced and that can only be seen if we have experienced that power within us. Without having experienced the power within us, it would just amount –amount to mental gymnastics and turning and twisting the intellect, that is of no avail. Even those that follow the path of the intellect have to overcome the intellect by the intellect. There is an easy where even the most unintellectual person could experience, could experience that power, it is here and now, it is not something far away or beyond. It is here and now even in its beyondness. So you see how closely connected the absolute is with the relative existence and every man can experience that. If something is approached with sincerity, if something is approached with real deep yearning, these things can be experienced. Good. Now the least meditation can do would be to give you relaxation of mind and body and the most meditation can do is to bring in you the atonement where the kingdom of heaven that is within. So when – when we experience those few meditational experiences, we become more sober people, we become more sober, saner people because we are now activating the spiritual force within us and bringing it to a conscious level and by bringing it to a conscious level, we could see the divinity existent in everything and only when we can see the divinity existent in everything can we truly love, then we don’t see negativities or hatreds because that force of love is so powerful it overcomes. Then you can see the essence of every creature and having experienced divinity within yourself, you see and experience the divinity in others, then

6. SA77- 55 where is the time or place for hate within you? So now objectification of thought brings one to the stage of the observer, the real I within which can experience the small I that is without. And by knowing, observing the small I and all its meanderings, you become untouched by the effects of the doings of the small I. It does not leave an impression the mind. What we are doing now, the way we live is only living according to the pattern that we have created in our minds. Our system of meditation is to take you beyond those patterns and when you go beyond those patterns, the patterns subside or they disintegrate – they disintegrate into their original elements. So that is the purpose and no posture or – or anything is necessary to achieve this. You can meditate sitting up, lying down, standing on your head, anyway, it's unimportant – unimportant. It is just to follow the method which is prescribed to you and as you are regular – as you are regular, you will find a greater and greater joy and happiness developing. Now this does not come all of a sudden. If anyone promises you heaven in five minutes or in an instant, stay far away from such a person. Yeah. There’s little story about Vivekananda when he was with his master Ramakrishna, most of you might know the story. Vivekananda spends a whole night in meditation and experienced nothing. Then he goes to Ramakrishna and says, “The whole night I've -- I sat up and haven’t experienced Nirvikalpa Samadhi” which is the highest form of meditation. Ramakrishna had to laugh, he says, “ It took me 12 years to experience something, and here you wanted in an instant. ” You see, so but one thing is sure as we are regular in our meditations, one thing surely happens; it makes us face the mirror squarely. It makes us look into our eyes squarely, it makes us examine our faults honestly and when we examine our faults and recognise our shortcomings, when we accept our shortcomings and faults, then the diagnosis is half the cure. Many people do not accept their shortcomings, they sweep it under the carpet as we always say. It is to know what our shortcomings are and then question no. 2, what am I going to do about it? Now when man proceeds on this path of “What am I going to do about my weaknesses?” That is the time his progress begins. That is the time he tries to mould his daily living in a more moral, ethical manner. That is the practical side of meditation. Now in order to do that, you need energy, you need an awakening of the mind, you need a greater awareness. Now meditation achieves this for you, gives you the energy, gives you the awareness whereby you are more empowered to tackle the daily problems of self betterment, and that is religion. That is what true religion teaches and every religion teaches that. Every religion says, “Be good, do good” all the time. But how? How? When a person does meditation with practicing moral, ethical principles during the day, his actions becomes more smoother and as his actions becomes more smoother, it strengthens his thinking mind. Now it works in a circle as the mind becomes more and more refined, one's actions too become more and more refined. One helps the other, but for this – for this, the energies gained from meditation are the energies that are required to live a full practical life on the road, on the paths of joy and happiness which is the search of everyone. Okay? So meditate whichever way you like, sitting down, lying down, standing on your

7. SA77- 55 head, ly ing on your side, until the day comes when everything, 24 hours of the day becomes a meditation. While I'm sitting speaking to you, to me this is a meditation. I'm very seldom aware of what I talk about, its only when I listen to the tape afterwards that I say, “Oh, did I say this?” or “Did I say that?” it is a meditation – meditation because as you are sitting here, I could feel, experience and see the divinity within each and everyone just a radiating and it is not apart, it is all in a oneness. That is what is meant by atonement. That is the state. Everyone will achieve, have to achieve, but try and do it in this lifetime, don’t wait for another 200 lifetimes. Okay? ( Laughs). Good. Fifteen more minutes, another question? Public: Could you please explain to us < 0:35:58.5 > between self - realisation and god - realisation? Gururaj: Ah, the difference between self-realisation – okay – the difference between self-realisation and god-realisation is just this, six of one and half dozen of the other (laughs) but we can, if we like to analyse this, if we like to analyse this, we can go into some detail about it, fine. Now when we say self-realisation, which self do we mean? Do we mean the small I? The small self or the big I? The big self? Our real self? Now it is possible for man in facing his small self completely, he can face himself completely, the small self. The – the manifested self. He can face that completely and when he comes to the idea that even this small self is eternal, when he comes to the idea and realises that even the small self is eternal and why is it going through all these turbulences? As soon as he realises that idea, the turbulence within him ceases, so he has conquered his small self, the ego self. And when he has conquered the ego self, automatically he becomes a god- realised person because the thing that stands between man and god is his ego and ego is man. Ego is man. The real existence is the absolute. So conquering man by man himself, he comes to the realisation that I in essence am divine and that realisation or that revelation can only occur, can only come about when he has known the full scope of his ego self and when he knows the full scope of his ego self, then he also knows how transient it is. This is self-realisation, knowing the value of the small self. Good. Now knowing the value of the small self, automatically you are one with the big-self which is the god-self. So that is one of the paths, that is one of the procedures, that is one of the yogas whereby divinity can be realised, but that is still not the end. When we conquer the universe, the small self, and I am the universe, every man can say that, when he concurs that, he comes to the totality of the universe and that is the field where he finds the personal god. The personal god is the totality of the universe, but he still has another place to go, is to even transcend the personal god and become one with the impersonal god. So it’s quite a procedure, it’s quite a distance to travel and yet, that distance is from here to here. Yes, realisati on – realisation dawns – realisation dawns not on its own accord. We have to meditate and we have to make effort in daily living. Now that which brings you to realisation is what we call the power of grace, that we spoke about last

8. SA77- 55 week. You attract grace; you cannot create or manufacture grace. If the field is well-tilled, the seed will grow, but we have to do the tilling and sometimes the tilling is quiet toiling. You have to work hard, oh yes – oh yes – oh yes. Meditation is effortless, but using those energies that we have activated requires some effort, good. So one can known the full value of the small self, that is the small self realisation of the ego and what the worth of the ego is and knowing that you automatically know the worth and the power and the force and the grace and the love of the big self wit hin man, so self self-realistion then becomes synonymous wi th god-realisation. Okay? Fine! Good, its 12:00 now, shall we break for tea ? Good.

1. SA77- 55 December 1977, Satsang 55 Gururaj: Let us hear some of your earth shattering philosophical questions (laughs) . Public: < 0:00:20.3 > earth shattering (laughs) Gururaj: Oh definitely, definitely < 0:00:24.3 > Public: Bapuji, it’s a very simple question but it arises out of what people have asked about meditation. Is there any inherent relationship between one – the depths of meditation that one can achieve and the posture of the physical form because there are various ways that one can sit either lie down prono sit up or the Muslims sit with their head lower than the trunk. Now is there any connection between psychic energy and perhaps environmental energy like the earth's gravitational pull? Gururaj: None. Public: None? Gururaj: There is no connection whatsoever. Now there’re various schools of thought that would approach the inner being of man through various different methods. Good. For example in hatha yoga, they would believe that by tuning the body in a certain way and tuning with the body the mind as well, they could go beyond the mind and body. So that is a method where you begin reaching the kingdom of heaven within from outside physical means, but it is not a necessity. Now hatha yoga could be necessary for some people, right. Sometimes you find some people are extremely tensed, some people are extremely tensed and to get rid of that tension, they could just sit still and feel relaxed. Some people again would have to go through certain modes of exercises to shake off the tension and just relax the body. Good. There are other methods, as you mentioned, the Muslims, fine – umm –there is a great psychology involved in different forms of prayers and different attitudes. Sometimes to reach the peace that is within, the many methods teach you to start with wood making. When you go to church, you woul d hear the bells ringing, that is conducive to the mood. You have the alter well decorated that is conducive to the mood. You go to a Hindu temple; you go to a Greek orthodox church and various other institutions where you would have perfumes burning incense sticks. Now this has a decided psychological effect. This has a decided