1. SA79- 87 Public: Guruuji, can you tell us a little bit about a relationship between your teachings and orthodox Christian teachings? Gururaj: Um -hmm good. What is the relationship between my teachings and orthodox Christian teachings? Why only Christian teachings? Lets include all the religions because the basis of all religions is but one. If someone asks me, “Are you a Christian?” I would say, “Yes.” Someone asks me, “Are you a Muslim?” I would say, “Yes.” Someone asks me, “Are you a Buddhist? Hindu?” I would say, “Yes” all along. The reason why we can say yes that I am a Christian, I am a Buddhist, I am a Hindu is this that we do not get tied up in the dogmas of religion. It has to be remembered that all dogmas in religion were inserted afterwards for the organisation of religion. So in order to make religion go on for ages and ages, a certain kind of organisation was required and therefore one gets tied down to various kinds of rituals, various kinds of beliefs within certain confines, but behind it all, if we study Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, if we study the essence of these religions, then we come face to face of what truth really is. You get the bare facts without the trimmings. What we do in our teachings is this that we go beyond all dogmatic beliefs because there is nothing in the world that has caused more harm than religion and there is nothing in the world that has done more good than religion. In the name of religion, thousands and thousands of people have been massacred as you know, some religions rose with the power of the sword. Take the example of the crusaders, rivers of blood flowed. Now by following dogmatic religion, what happens is this that one develops a kind of fanaticism that my religion is right and your religion is wrong and the other would say the same again and all the conflicts begin between various beliefs while the true purpose of theology, the true purpose of religion is to resolve conflicts, not create conflicts. So that is how the purpose of religion has been defeated all along over these thousands of years. This has happened in every religion, even 5000 years ago if you study Hinduism, there has been conflicts and fights and fights and fights and fights. The Shaivites would say this and the Vaishnavites would say that and conflicts are forever created. Thus to repeat again that the purpose of religion has been defeated, what to do? The best way would be to go beyond these dogmatic creeds and regard them as this that we have to fall the tree, one says I’m going to use a chopper and the other says I’m going to use a sword and they fight. What do they fight about is not the purpose of bringing down the tree, but they fight about the axe and the sword. That is very narrow, very narrow. The purpose is lost. The purpose is to bring down the tree because it is an impediment in the past, okay? So therefore true religion is found when one transcends the dogmatism of religion, then the essence of the bible is known, then the essence of the Gita is know, then the essence of the Quran is known as well as others. So our purpose and what we teach here is this that let us go down to the basic essence of religion and the basic essence of religion is so simple, there’s only one word that covers every religion and the meaning of all religion and that word is love.

2. SA79- 87 Now show me one religion that denies love. All of them say god is love and love is god. Now to make the abstract quality of god a practical living reality, we have to practice love. Love thy neighbour as thyself. Now with that quality that can be consciously created and enhanced through meditational and spiritual practices, as through meditational and spiritual practices a greater integration takes place within us, the more are we able to give and portray love as a living reality. In other words, then we do not believe in god anymore, but we live god day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. That is the purpose of all religion. Religion promise you – promises you realised god, very fine, where am I going to meet him? Where am I going to meet that god? Some place, some <0:06:30.9> place called heaven, am I going to go there to meet him there? I want to meet him here and now for heaven and hell is here and now. Now when one develops this quality of love, at first consciously then with that is associated all the positive virtues that constitute or should constitute religion. If you can love, you become more compassionate, you become more kind, you become self-sacrificing, you become giving, right. With that love, when you start thinking in a loving way, your thoughts become positive and positivity attracts positivity, negativity attracts negativity. So by doing, following this one simple principle which is the basis of all religion, we automatically and very spontaneously gather to ourselves all the virtues that are required to live a religious life. And to live a religious life is to live the living god, for he is here and now. So this is the basis of our teachings, it is not in conflict with any religion. You have heard me say this many times before, if you're a Christian, become a better Christian, understand the essence of Christianity. If you're a Hindu, become a better Hindu , understand the essence of Hinduism and what I teach is the essence underlying all these religions that if I can say I am a Christian, I am a Buddhist, I am a Hindu and yet I’m above it all. Because we try to grasp religion. So I do not discourage anyone from having any kind of religion for the greatest disfavour one could do to another is to break his faith. Perhaps today his faith is a limited faith, perhaps his faith today is enmeshed in dogmatism, but from there be sure, once that seed is there, it will grow where he himself will go beyond all the dogmatism, all the dogmatism. So this is what we teach to live a practical living god and not denying the beliefs of others. We encourage them and at the same time by encouraging their religions, we also point out the essence of it. We also point out the essence and you do not need to have to make a big detour or send the man in the opposite direction. He’s walking on this road and just slight bit. It’s like the old analogy of the gun that when you point a gun here and you want to shoot the target, you might be out here, a fraction of an inch, but on the other side you are out by half a mile. So that is how, that is how we teach the person to develop a greater awareness. This greater awareness is developed through our meditational and spiritual practices so that the target is in view, but at the same time, everything else connected around the target, the entire environment is also perceived and that is what’s called altered states of consciousness and altered state of consciousness means that you're

3. SA79- 87 – you are more aware, at first it was in a narrow channel, but now the very mind, the very consciousness takes in its view a bigger, greater panoramic view of what life and the universe is all about. And when we have that, when we develop a wider view, then automatically the recognition of all religions dawn to us and we are all religions. We are flowers of all religions because we deny none. Good. Now as this awareness develops in man, many things happened to him, firstly the quality of love that is awakened in the heart, in the core of one’s personality joins hands with the mind, the limited mind, because of its narrow scope, hasn’t got the awareness to recognise that quality called love that is within. You can call it the heaven that is within, call it by any name, it still remains the same. So with the expansion of awareness, simultaneously the heart expands and when the two join hand in hand, awareness in other words, a conscious recognition what life is all about, that is why I lecture to give the conscious recognition. The spiritual practices gives clarity and strength to the mind to develop that consciousness more, bring it to a greater awareness and when that power of love flows through one, it enhances awareness and awareness enhances love. I will hate a person only if I see him from a very narrow channel, but if my awareness is wide enough and see every aspect of the person, then I will not only see the bad, but I will also see the good and when I start seeing that, then hatred in my heart ceases because good is always more powerful, more scintillating, luminous than that which is supposed to be bad. If my awareness is expanded enough, I would see goodness even in that badness. I would be able to see that this person has done this particular action, now what was the motivation? Many a vile deed has been – has been done because of limited love – because of limited love. There’s a great connection for love and hatred has a thin dividing line as we know and it is the same energy that is used, same energy. It is like the electricity I always talk about, take it to the fridge and you have cold, take it to the heater or the stove and you have heat, but it is the same energy of electricity. So divinity is that neutral force, that neutral power that man can use because he has free will. God does not punish or reward, he does not punish or reward. Man punishes himself, man rewards himself because he has free will and punishment or reward comes from how he uses that free will. That is why Christ said, “Forgive thy enemy.” Now it’s a lovely statement, “Forgive thy enemy,” but how? If I haven’t got the awareness to see the totality of man, then how can I forgive the enemy? I will only see the badness in the enemy and not the goodness. A man is my enemy, I will analyse to myself why does this man hate me? Why is he my enemy? I must have done something wrong, but the majority of people always put the blame on the other. He has done wrong, but have I not perhaps created the atmosphere? Have I not perhaps created a negative vibration emanating from me for man emanates all the time whatever is in his heart and mind, have I not created that to bring about the reaction in the opposite person. When the awareness develops, then that man’s

4. SA79- 87 action, I will take to be not an action engendered by him, but a reaction created by me and I have no right to hate. That is why – that is why as the awareness expands and recognises these factors, the very love that is produced in me will create that emanation and transform that man so that he will love me and not hate me. You see how practical it is, that is t he practical living god that we want, that we want to know, that we want to live with night and day or that lives in us all the time. There’s not a moment of separation during sleep, waking or dream, always there but the reason why we cannot realise is always there, is because of our state of consciousness, our state of awareness. So spiritual practices and meditation develops that awareness within us with the integration created within us, we can see the integration in the man. Is the man really the doer? Or is he just an instrument? And if the man is just an instrument of action, what right have I to hate that man? He is not the doer. How do I know that that very action of that man has been brought about by my karma and I need that action by that man so that it could make me think it would create a greater awareness in me, it could take me into deep self analysis, a deep understanding of myself and when I do that, I learn to accept the action of everyone. So I cannot hate, I can only love, for every misdeed against me is for my benefit, always for my benefit. Now that is the attitude everyone has to develop and that is the essence behind all religions. We understand these things when we go beyond dogmatism. So our teachings do not differ at all, call it an extension of that which is presently existing and when we call it an extension, then we develop in us a humility. We don’t say we are teaching something new, no, we are enquiring deeper and deeper and at deeper levels of religions that exist today and we are grateful to those theologies for giving us the opportunity to delve deeper into those philosophies, into those theologies and at the same time to delve deeper within ourselves. Okay? So we are thankful for these theologies for without them what will man be capable of thinking? Will he be capable of thinking these thoughts that are given to us in these theologies has made us think and the difference between man and animal is only one that the man can think because he can think, he has a free will. Good. And when he thinks and uses the freewill according to the laws of nature so spontaneously created within us by our meditational practices, takes little time, Rome was not built in a day, they say. Takes little time, but all our actions become spontaneously loving and with all the virtues that are associated to this deep love that is created within ourselves, then we really know what religion is all about. Man has to learn to live with himself first. That means man has to learn to love himself. Now when I say man has to learn to love himself, it does not mean to become self-cantered because that is not love. Man learns to love himself when he starts recognising that within me resides that divinity and with the expansion of his awareness, he realises that the divinity existing within me is the same divinity existing in the other and when one reaches a deep level, through meditational practices and comes to the essence of all existence, he will find that all is but one. That is why theologies say there’s one god . Yes, that all existence is but one and when we realise this, when we realise the god-hood in man, then everything flows with us, to us, for us all the time, all the time, it is all there for

5. SA79- 87 the taking. Why is everything not there for the taking is because we have not lost our selfishness. Selfishness is based upon our own ego. Now what is ego? Ego is nothing but a putting together of thoughts which has created a pattern. That is why we say this one’s ego is such and that one’s ego is such and the other one’s ego is such. Now through meditational practices, as this ego is more and more refined, he becomes less and less selfish, he does not think of himself only, because all the conflict in the world, all the strife and turmoil and trouble is only for the preservation of the ego. Man is trying to preserve something which is nothing but a concoction of thought that he himself has created. Now with putting all these various different thoughts together and creating this cloth, it naturally takes on some dirt and dust and sand. Through meditational practices and spiritual practices, we are washing this cloth and as it becomes clean, then the conflicts become less because the combination of these various thoughts of all these various elements put together creating one conflict after the other, against each other is the dirt of the mind. So we are clearing that away and when that is cleared away, then we know what god is, then we know that is-ness for here with the clear mind, the expanded awareness, with the expanded awareness, we see that cleanliness everywhere, we realise that that man’s actions that seems so vile to me, but underlying those actions is a clean sheet, the clean screen in the cinema that is projected upon with all these pictures. So when you go to the cinema, you watch the pictures, you watch the film, forgetting totally that the screen is totally white behind the pictures. So what we are doing is recognising value of that screen for if the screen was not there, there could be no projection. So we do not deny the projection, we do not deny the film on the screen, we accept it, we enjoy it, but at the same time we are always aware, consciously aware that there is a white screen there. So daily living, living a godly life, the living god means to develop the awareness that he is always there in all actions, in – the screen is neutral, it does – do nothing , it is just there. So we do realise that we do nothing at all. The screen does nothing, it is the play on the screen, it is the play of the projector. Now the film remains in the projector, you have forgotten the film in the projector, you are involved only in the projection. Put on the lights, the projector could be running and yet there’s be nothing seen on the screen, the projection disappears. You see how evanescent this is, how temporary the projection display of life all is, and yet one does not deny the existence of the projection why should it not be enjoyed? Yet, we know that the screen, pure white is there all the time, all the time and the projector as the instrument does its work, for it would be useless without having the object of projection. So here the subject is the projector, the mind of the subject is the film that plays the trick on that screen and the screen is divinity itself. Do you see the analogy how these various factors work? The subject with his mind, the projector, the mind conjuring up things on the screen because of its conditioning of what’s on the celluloid that has been

6. SA79- 87 created by himself by his mind and covering up that beautiful screen. Now all these has to be, all these has to be. Let the subject be there, let the object be there and let the interchange between the subject and the object be there too and that interchange is the projection. Realisation means to know the value of the projection. That is realisation. Not to deny, not to annihilate it, let it play, let it play, yeah but to be able to stand apart and know that it is a play, to be in the world and yet not of the world, that is what is meant by that lovely – lovely phrase, yes and that is how joyousness increases in man. Joyousness increases in man because he is not attached to the projection, he is not attached to the projection, the emphasis is not on the projection, the emphasis is on the object on which the projection is displayed, that is the secret of life, that is the secret of joy in life and when we experience this joy, when all these becomes one, the subject and the object, the knower and the known and the knowledge becomes one. For he is all, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. It is all there here and now. So there – to repeat again, there is no difference at all between our teachings and the teachings of these various theologies. What we try to do is to unfathomed the basis upon which this edifiers of theology was built and builders can make mistakes, builders can use more sand in the cement. The edifiers could be weak, but that foundation, the basis, hte foundation of truth is forever strong. So man with his free will builds a weak building, he will also know, as he experiences all these various forces of conflict that he has made a mistake, there is going to be a crack in the wall and he makes all his effort to fix the crack but the foundation has to be strong. That is what – on which all life is based and all life is based solidly on that foundation, true life, not the projected life, not the life that is projected by our own minds thinking that this is life. That is not the life, that is the pattern created by your thought and that is how we learn to live true to ourselves, all theologies teach that. When man learns to really know himself, then he gets away from all the tricks the mind plays, he enjoys them, it becomes fun, it becomes joyous, then he says, “Oh mind, how wonderful you are, play more, I’m watching, I’m enjoying it, I’m enjoying it.” Now that is what our teachings are all about. Okay? Fine (Laughs) Public: Guruji -- Gururaj: Okay. Good, next question. Public: < 0:31:47.5 > could be yoga and one is more about releasing things out of you rself and the other one is more < 0:32:03.5 > what actually is the difference between < 0:32:22.4 >

8. SA79- 87 or Buddha or Krishna. With him in mind, and the action to be performed as an instrument of divinity, it becomes an offering and if an offering not taking a refuge, that is why we say, “Thy will be done.” That is why we say, “thy will be done” in Christianity, that is why we say in the Hindu scriptures, “I am not the doer, he is the doer,” and that is what we say in every other theology. So there is the meaning of refuge. Refuge be had from various different angles for it is forever there. Who says you must seek refuge – refuge? You are there already, so close to him, so in him, you don’t need – you do not need to go to him, he is there. What you need to do is to develop the realisation, the understanding that I do. What we need to do is develop the realisation, the understanding that he is forever there and whatever load I put on him is still but the same essence. Therefore we say he is omnipresent. Divinity can be described in the form of Christ or Buddha or Krishna, it is the same, no difference, no difference and yet that divinity has to take human form from time to time as the GIta would say, “to bring about a balance in this world.” When there’s an imbalance between negative and positive forces, then that divinity embodies himself to bring about the balance and the embodiment, the embodied Christ or Buddha or Krishna does not only teach knowledge, but because of his force and power that he brings within him, being the embodiment of all these universal energies, he gives freely of these energies, for those that want to hear will hear, those that want to see will see and those that want to accept will accept. So that acceptance too is refuge. So the more we can accept, the more through that Christ or Buddha, the more spiritual energies we draw to ourselves, we open the door, we open the door. That is refuge. Good. By opening the door, we find refuge. But then it says, “Knock and then it shall be opened,” but if you do not want to knock, how can it be opened? So we’d use this cunning little mind w have, it’s a cunning little animal and we guide it, direct it, the game strengthen a greater integration in it, a greater calmness in it through spiritual and meditational practices and then that instrument becomes our friend. It ceases to be our enemy that keeps on leading us into greater and greater conflicts for all conflicts are in the mind, created by the mind , attracted by the mind, engendered by the mind. So when we have control over this, and that does not mean a blank mind, not a blank mind, but a thinking mind, but controlled thinking, spontaneously controlled thinking, without putting on the brakes it stops itself, without putting on the accelerator it goes itself. That is control. That is mastery of the mind and then we use it and direct it to whichever road we wish to take it and when we take it on the right road, are we not taking refuge? See it is so simple, yeah you understand, yes of course, yeah <0:40:28.2> fine, it’s tea time now. Okay? Fine!

7. SA79- 87 Gururaj: There is no difference between tantra and yoga. The method differs. One takes it from one particular level, while the other takes it from a different level. Now this is is a very—very profound question and I’d like to spend at least an hour discussing this. The difference between tantra and yoga. I’d like to tell you the mechanics of tantra, I’d like to tell you of the mechanics of yoga and how tantra and yoga both could be synthesised into a wholeness. So if you like, next week start me off with that question, I’d like to spend about an hour on it, because we’ve got only about 15 minutes left. I wouldn’t do justice to your question and then we’ll combin e that there is tantra in Christianity, there is tantra in Buddhism, there’s tantra in Hinduism and so is the yoga in all these theologies too. We’ll discuss the essence of it next week. So start me off with that question, do not forget. Public: I won’t. Gururaj: Right, okay – okay. Decide a short one, we’ve got about 10 minutes I think. Public: Guruji. Gururaj: Uh -hmm. Public: In order to understand the essence of Christianity, is it not necessary to take refuge in Christ? In order to understand the essence of Buddhism, is it not necessary to take refuge in the Buddha? Gururaj: Aha, to understand the essence of Christianity, is it not necessary to take refuge in Christ? To understand Buddhism is it not necessary to take refuge in the Buddha? Good. Now that depends entirely upon your personal temperament. Now if you are of a devotional temperament, then refuge in Christ or Buddha is absolutely necessary. If you are of the intellectual temperament, then you would say that Christ is within me, so let me take refuge within me for if it is not a living Christ, then no refuge is required and where is the living Christ? That universal spirit that resides within you, that is Christ itself, that is why he says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven within,” for where else could Christ abide if not in heaven? So you can approach it from a very devotional aspect and find the refuge. You can approach it from an intellectual aspect and find the refuge too because you realise, with the expanded awareness, you started realising that he is within me. Now this applies to Hinduism and their Krishna and Rama as well. Good, fine. Now say if you are not devotionally inclined and neither intellectually inclined, then every action you do, regard it to be inspired and as an offering to Christ. That too is taking refuge in him. Good. Every action perform with him in mind and you can use any name, Christ