2. SA78- 86 because of the aggregate of the Samskaras of which we are made, we will have to face -- we will have to face our weaknesses, we will have to face the mistakes that can be created by our actions. But if the attitude is there, that from these very things happening in my life, I am going to learn. Let us not be like the moth that flies to the flame all the time knowing very well that it will burn itself and end itself as a moth. But the very first inkling of the warmth, the heat of the flame should turn the moth away, but yet the moth is so patterned that it is forever drawn -- drawn -- drawn to its own death. Now man having some discriminating power, not total discrimination, but some reasoning power, he accepts himself that whatever comes, I am going to face it and by facing it with courage, the very negative experience that might come will loose its sting. It will not be as powerful as it would have been otherwise so with the courage that one has, one will naturally have greater acceptance. The one feeds the other, acceptance gives courage, courage en genders greater acceptance and that is how man's attitude towards life and man’s attitudes to his environment gradually changes. Now total self transformation cannot come overnight. We are patterned, conditioned creatures. We have to uncondition. So with the change of attitude, greater hope is born. When greater hope is born, it helps greater courage again. Greater courage helps greater acceptance. It all is interconnected with each other. So very consciously and with the help of our meditation, we change our attitude towards life and experiences are necessary in life to bring us to the attitude, to the understanding that all these is, and whatever experience I am having has been brought upon myself by myself. In other words, we develop another quality. The quality of taking responsibility upon ourselves for ourselves and for the environment that has been created around us. The environment has not created you, you have created the environment and if the environment has negative forces in it and if you are strong enough, those forces will never effect you, but because we are weak, those forces can attack us. But with this attitude that I stand firm as a rock amidst all these dashing waves, then all the negative experiences, unpleasant experiences looses its power, looses its force and then we can say in the words of the poem Nicholas was reading in the offices that the whole world around me can turn mad and I don’t loose my head. Well, those are not the exact words, but that's a gist. That’s a gist of the meaning. So with acceptance comes courage. With courage comes this beautiful attitude, with that attitude is created a sense of self-responsibility, the recognition that I am what I am because of what I have been. Now, when one creates this attitude, automatically our eyes open. Automatically, the intuitive flow starts flowing, a clearing up of the Samskaras start taking place and when that clears up and you stand at the fog, you will spontaneously that the right road. That is the other way which comes about even before a great level of integration is reached and even through this road, even through this path, a greater and

5. SA78- 86 So good association, good reading instead of cheap novels helps to influence the mind to a better attitude towards life and that, as I said before, does not require great intellect or it does not require great discriminatory powers or great intelligence. It is not necessary. If it was necessary, then what hope would there be for the totally illiterate? But each and every one remember literacy or illiteracy, great intelligence or no intelligence, a highly developed intellect of an Einstein or th e street sweeper. All these things are matters of the mind, they are not matters of the spirit and wherever we are standing, we can reach and touch and be touched by the mortal spirit within us. If we understand these very simple principles, our attitude changes. We feel elated that his stop is running, but someone had sp in it , there is a force there that keeps it spinning and spin it must, for that is how the entir e universe functions, motion -- motion -- motion all the time for if it stand still one second, one fraction of a second, the entire universe will collapse. So this will be there all the time and as I said, to have the attitude to rise above it, to be <0:23:45.9> in one's meditations and become one with that universal force, then life is transformed. Life is none else but joyous, blissful. I have said this many times that all this -- all this is but a preparation for that moment of total bliss and once you have tasted that bliss, then all these becomes nothing -- nothing -- nothing -- nothing -- nothing. Not that we are, that we extricate ourselves, not we involve ourselves more and more and more, but we have the attitude that I am in the world but not of it -- in the world, but not of it. That is attitude. That is strength. That is how one stands still amidst all the motion and commotion. You stand still for “Be still and know I am God.” What could disturb it? What could disturb it? Let the world go to hell. What could disturb the stillness in me and once I find that stillness, my whole idea changes and I try to take the world that is in hell, I try to move it up to heaven, to my heaven that I am experiencing, attitude. These are simple moral ethical procedures to develop those attitude but by having the acceptance, come what may, I am not going to allow it to disturb me or spoil the equilibrium that I am striving for. It is not going to detract, attitude. So a big quarrel happens with your wife. Something went wrong, perhaps she wasn’t so good. Am I going to let that disturb me? I will be disturbed on the surface, but yet within the knowledge of the surface, I do know too the stillness that is within me, that is beyond all disturbance. For even the greatest sage is disturbed, greatest sage is disturbed for he too is subjected to the laws of nature. He too is governed as long as he has a body. He too is governed by the law of the three gunas. But his anger is momentary, his disturbance is just a flicker. The flame, this wave is a little and then immediately it comes still again. Now by the practice of all these things, firstly, acceptance; secondly, assuming responsibility for ones self, it changes the attitude towards life and that attitude which is changed breathes in us a love so over powering that I will even start loving the one that does me wrong. What do I love? I do not need to love, I do not need a person, I love a person for the sake of loving the person and not because of need. That is in family life, one reaches that. In work, I do work for the sake of work;

7. SA78- 86 Gururaj: Um-hmm Public: -- that would be from the outside < 0:32:30.2 >? Gururaj: An enlightened person is a person who is beyond the laws of nature and those that judge the enlightened person have no right to do so whatsoever because the unenlightened would be judging from their level, from their patterned limited minds, from their sense of right and wrong, judge ye not that ye should be judged. Is it not said? And that applies to unenlightened people. That applies to the average man in the street. How much more should it not apply to the one who is a law unto himself? For the man who is a law unto himself will create laws to uplift others. At first it might seem difficult, might seem harsh. I know as a young man with my guru that struck me awake with a cane 4:00 o’clock in the morning because I was 10 minutes late, at that moment I felt it as oh enlightened man is -- beats my back side with a cane to wake me up instead of gently waking me, please my boy wake up, wakey -- wakey (laughs). Yeah -- yeah -- yeah -- yeah, that time I felt that way that I love my guru so much, enlightened man. I sleep -- I overslept 10 minutes; couldn’t he shake me gently instead of the cane? Come -- come -- come -- come -- come what is this? It’s 10 minutes past 4:00, but in retrospect, I know I see that he was teaching me discipline. He was teaching me control of my own mind. He was teaching me how to discipline myself so that I could achieve what I want to achieve and nothing in life can be achieved without some discipline. Yeah. So do not judge the actions of an enlightened man. He knows what he does. The ordinary evolving person sees as far as his nose. The enlightened man sees behind corners. His sight is so vast that he can sit in one corner and know and observe the entire universe in a total sense of knowingness. So these rare enlighten ed souls should never be doubt, should never ever be doubt. They are a law unto themselves because being a law unto themselves; they would create laws for those -- for those that he loves. It might be a bit difficult but the end result -- does the ground feel hurt when you dig it with a spade? Must be terrible for all that ground to be broken up, it’s murder you murdering the ground. You're beating it up, you're hurting that ground. Do you think that soil is insensitive? It has sensibility; it could feel as science has proven that plants could feel. So I tell you this for sure that even a dead piece of wood or a piece of clay has feeling within its own framework of evolution and you as a highly evolved person is beating up this ground, so terribly cruel people. But you're not cruel, you're going to plant in there food or flowers or whatever so that beating up was necessary to create greater beauty. To let the very soil itself do its dharma and you are instrumental in allowing the soil to do its dharma. What a great Karma haven’t you produced for yourself? Credit balance, yes (laughs).

8. SA78- 86 See, so for the enlightened man, he must not be judged. We are incapable of judging. The ground will say, “oh look at this big man butchering me there with his spades and picks and ploughs and tractors, all these things”. Good, that is how it works -- that is how it works, for all the enlightened man does is done with love, such overpowering, regenerating, uplifting love -- love -- love. It’s not necessary for your actions or your words to say I love you -- I love you -- I love you. No -- no -- no , it is nothing wrong to smack your child, strap your child if he does not listen, you're doing it with love so that he does not repeat the same mistake again so that he tries to better himself because he knows daddy is watching me. Until he passes the stage where daddy has not watch -- is not watching anymore. Until he has gained that discipline because of the strap of the daddy, that he does not need daddy’s strap anymore. Everyone is a good driver if there is a traffic cop behind him (laughs) -- everyone is a good driver. He won’t exceed the speed limit, he won’t go across the stop street, he won’t go across the red light. You see -- you see, but with this discipline, we automatically then start observing the rules of the road, you see. So the enlightened man is a law unto himself, whatever he does is done with love for he knows that these are the weaknesses, these are the lack of disciplines. These are the neurosis or psychosis this person is going through. He sometimes can take a chela and break the chela down completely because that is what the chela might need to bold up the chela again. Done with love, that is the guiding factor, that is the principle, that is what the enlightened man lives on, that's his food. He is composed of that food of love and then he is love. Nothing else but love, okay? (Laughs) Oh well, its tea time I think, fine? Okay.

1. SA78- 86 Public: < 0:00:03.4 > after we’ve been following our practices correctly for a time, we will spontaneously do what is right. In the meantime, we have to decide what to do. Gururaj: That’s right. Public: And very often it happens to me that < 0:00:27.1 > Gur uraj: Beautiful question. Now, the purpose of meditation is primarily to integrate ones self, integrate the three aspects of ourselves; the mind, body and spirit. Now, this can never be accomplished overnight. It takes time where a gradual integration takes place if we do our spiritual practices regularly. But now the question reverts from the fact that until we find that integration, what are we to do? So therefore, we insist on the program of self-help. Now, self-help requires a lot of discrimination where one has to discriminate which road to take when we reach the fog. Now, this cannot just come about on its own. Now total integration or being quite high on the ladder of integration, one very intuitively would take the right fork in the road, but when we are still floundering and finding our way, we are stuck at the fog. What shall I do? That is the question. Fine. Now one of the ways is to use one’s discrimination. Now is one's discrimination always right? Is one’s reasoning always right? Can one's reasoning supply the right answer in which road to take? Now discrimination also increases with greater integration simultaneously with the intuitive abilities we have, but if we are now stuck and not have the discriminatory power, what are we to do? Now that's the most difficult question that could ever be asked and over which philosophers through the ages have flaunted. One principle comes to the fore; that is a question of acceptance. We accept two factors firstly that I am not totally integrated and I haven’t got the power of discrimination to choose which road to take. Now when this acceptance begins, a force is activated within us that even that force that's activated within us gives us courage. With the acceptance comes courage, the courage to realise that even if I take the wrong road; that will still be the learning process for me. Now, our minds have been conditioned throughout the ages by all our thoughts and deeds, from the primal spark when man began through his whole evolutionary process, all the experiences that were gained through ages and ages and ages, this has formed a conditioning to the mind. Now the mind could be conditioned in such a manner that it would find difficulty in recognising the truth or the right road. How do we unconditioned the mind? There again, we rely upon discrimination , meditation and acceptance. So when ones mind is so patterned, one has to go through because of the laws of karma, because of the patterning of our minds,

3. SA78- 86 greater integration comes about and there is nothing in life that hasn’t got some positivity in it. You know the old saying, “Every cloud has a silver lining”. How do I accept it? How do I accept it? Everything we do has something very beautiful in it. You know the story of two men digging holes. One said, “I'm digging a grave,” the other said, “I'm digging for the foundation of a cathedral,” attitude -- attitude and to develop a positive attitude towards life does not require great discriminatory powers. It does not require a great intellect. Now as the attitude changes, everything becomes more and more beautiful. Good. This flower is beautiful to me now, but if my attitude towards it changes that, “ah, how did this flower grow? What powers of divinity has come together to make this flower so beautiful ?” Then this flower becomes more and more beautiful to me because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, attitude again. Now with this change of attitude, with this idea of being self responsible for all experiences and all happenings, a great faith develops in us. We come to a little inkling, littlie recognition, there is something more than what I am just experiencing. What is that something? What is that something that energises my destiny? I know my destiny is formulated by my karma, whatever I've sown that I must reap. I am the product of the experiences of millions of years. I am a bundle of impressions; I'm a bundle of Samskaras, fine. But underlying that -- underlying the mechanism of worldly life, we come to this recognition by accepting self responsibility, we come to this recognition that there is an underlying force that makes karma work. There is an underlying force that gives truth to the principle that whatever you sow, you will reap. Now, as we gain some recognition or some faith of the underlying force, a greater hope is born and that hope gives you more courage again, more acceptance again, more self responsibility again. So you see, all these qualities are interrelated, interdependent all the time and it all starts off with acceptance. If I am blind or lame, I should not sit and <0:14:45.2> that “Oh, I'm lame, I'm lame, I'm blind -- I'm blind”. I accept my position that I am blind today; I'm lame today because of my own karma. I have brought it upon myself. I accept it. Now how do I use the limitations? Take the example of Helen Keller, the blind woman. What great work she did in this world. Take the example of so many people; so many great men that with deformities or distinct disadvantages turn them into advantages for know this to be true that in every adversity there is an opportunity -- in every adversity there is an opportunity, but accept the adversity first in its true value that this adversity has come about because of my own doing and accepting that, a calmness dawns in one’s mind. Right I'm this, I'm that. Okay. And then when that calmness comes about by the acceptance of the adversity automatically you get the inkling of the opportunity . And then, action -- action act upon the opportunity that is there. See the silver lining and not the darkness of the cloud and that is how all our sufferings diminish. They become less and less and less and as they become less and less and less, the greater and greater integration comes about. These very ideas of acceptance and the action that follows, the very self

4. SA78- 86 sense of self responsibility stirs this force, it activates the spiritual force that is conducive -- that is conducive to this integration, to this wholeness that we always talk about. And then, even if the road has fogs, we say, “So what? So what?” Now there are two kinds of people that can say, “So what?” the totally irresponsible, he says, “So what?” and the totally responsible that I accept that there is some power behind all these. So what if this happens to me? What is the worst that could happen to me? I will die. Is that really death or is it just a changing from one body unto another? And perhaps I need that and that is how, with this attitude the fear of taking the wrong road disappears and when that fear disappears and you are on the wrong road, the recognition dawns this is the wrong road and it will make you turn to the right one. You might have to make a little detour, but that detour is the very experience you need because of your karma. That is the very experience you need to obliterate those Samskaras, that is the very experience you need to re-pattern the mind into the positive channel for when positivity increases, negativity decreases. When negativity increases, positivity will decrease. If you can picture two wedges upon each other, at the thin end of negativity, the wedge of positivity will be thicker in this rectangle and same the other side where positive is little, negativity is large in this rectangle. So as we proceed through these various principles I have outlined, the path becomes clear. One comes to the recognition of the underlying force which is none else, but divinity and as the saying goes, “If God is with you, who can be against you? -- If God is with you, who can be against you?” I get pricked by the stem of this rose. Do I think all the time of that thorn or do I observe and look and enjoy the fragrance an d the beauty of the flower of the rose? Perhaps that prick of the thorn was necessary for me to take my attention to the rose? I accept that fact. That’s what I want. I want a rose, not the thorn, but yet the rose was not possible without the thorn, I accept that they will always be as long as this universe exists. The play of the three gunas that we have spoken about so many times before, there will always be a negative and a positive force, there will always be this contraction and expansion all the time and by being involved in it, we rise above it. We experience these things, all these things will come, all these things will come because we too are a product of those opposing forces, but the attitude, that is of prime importance. This other little stanza which I'm so fond of and I've quoted it a million times, two men behind prison bars, one saw mud, the other saw stars, attitude. That is the secret of life, the attitude we had developed. And how do we get the attitude? By Satsang, being in the association of truthful people, being in the association for the enquiry into truth. This can be achieved through persons getting together with a common purpose. Does the Bible not say that “if two are gathered in my name, I am there?” This is gained, this is so -- so beautifully gained and this changes one’s attitude more and more to a greater and greater positivity.

6. SA78- 86 it is my job, my duty. There might be influences there in the office, you know, I always say if you put five animals in a cage, they can live together harmoniously, but put five humans together in one room and they’ll start fighting (laughs) yes. So in the work life -- work life, if it is not very conducive, we observe it all. We are a witness to that and I am not going to be disturbed, I will keep on doing my work as faithfully, as sincerely and as adequately as I can. Good. Family life, work life, these are the two most important factors that consumes all our time, except the some hours that is spent in sleeping. If these are brought to a balance, by family life I mean not only the wife or husband, but the parents, the children. Good. Now if these two are in balance because of my attitude towards life, then automatically, my social and environment is also improved because if I can be still within myself in my home and work, then I can be still anywhere in the world, in any circumstances in the world because I have the strength of acceptance, I have the courage to accept. Does the bible not say if you're smacked in one cheek, give the other? Am I going to be disturbed by that one slap? No, take the other too. Take the other too for what is this after all? Am I going to be affected by your anger? I must be angry within myself first to be affected by your anger, or I have the seeds of anger within myself. I am trying to protect me, me -- that self centred me, that self centred me has over powered me so much that I built this wall around me so that nothing could affect me. Good. But the secret lies, is not in building the wall, but breaking down the wall and allowing everything to effect and not be affected. That is the secret. Too beautiful -- too beautiful -- too beautiful for words. That comes from inner stability. Inner stability means integration. Now through meditational practices and through this program of self help, which start s with acceptance and courage and being self responsible and change of attitude and all these things comprised and composes self help. Now if we have a certain amount of integration within ourselves through our meditational practices, if we have the self help programme which we do consciously in the waking state of life, we automatically draw this great force, we call it Gurushakti. This grace we draw it upon ourselves where it in turn feeds our self help programme which in turn strengthens our meditations. So these three things work together. There is your trinity of practical living. There is eternity of practical living all the time, all the time -- all the time. Okay? <0:31:55.9> Good, next question? Public: < 0:32:05.5 > an enlightened person then < 0:32:12.1 >? Gururaj: For an enlightened person? Sorry. Public: To do something --