1. UK 77- 23 Gururaj. Thank you. Good. Shall we have our five minutes Med.? Good. I'm ready. Questioner. Guruji, in Yogananda's books, it says that the karmic law requires that every human wish will find its ultimate fulfilment. If this is so, what happens when we wish or have wished contradictory things, which have not been fulfilled yet? Can they cancel each other out? Gururaj. Good. Now Yogananda says that 'Every wish has to be fulfilled'. Now that is very true. But it is not only the wish that we have to take into consideration but what caused the wish. There must have been a whole set of circumstances that had taken place within the mind, within the body, or in the environment that had formulated the wish. Good. Now if a wish is very mundane, then it would have to be expressed or fulfilled in a mundane manner. If the wish is more in tune with spiritual life then that too will be fulfilled in its spiritual aspects, but in the mind so many things have gone on to formulate that wish. Good. Wish can be converted into desire. Now, a wish is something very superficial. Good. Perhaps the wrong terminology has been used. It’s just a matter of grammar really. A wish is something very superficial and a wish could not create the impression that the subconscious mind needs to express itself and thereby gain fulfilment or that which is contrary to fulfilment, if the wish is not in accordance with the laws of nature. But even if it is not in accordance with the laws of nature and that wish is being drummed into our subconscious all the time over and over again, then the wish becomes a desire. Good. Before the wish becomes a desire, the wish first turns into an affirmation where you would affirm the wish so many times over and over again within yourself that you are affirming to yourself now that such and such a result should come about. Good. That affirmation turns into a desire. Now the desire that is created by the wish in this process also requires strengthening. Now what strengthens desire is the yearning that is backing up the desire so that desire becomes a burning desire. Good. Now when a desire becomes a burning desire, we are blasting the subconscious mind in such a way that the burning desire burns into the subconscious. Good. Now the subconscious mind is composed of what we know as samskaras or impressions and any impression in the subconscious mind must have its expression. All the impressions in the subconscious mind must have its expression and that is why that wish turned into affirmation turned into desire, desire becoming a burning desire, gets impressed indelibly into the subconscious mind and the subconscious mind, the nature of the subconscious mind is not forever to contain that which is impressed upon it. It has to express itself in some form or the other. It could express itself in a very tangible form or in an intangible form.

2. UK 77- 23 Now if that desire, now this is a basic principle of success or failure in any undertaking, if a person has a burning desire to accumulate five million pounds within a certain period of time, he can do it. Each and everyone sitting here can walk out now making a decision that in nineteen eighty-five I will have five million pounds and he can do it. Fine. If the thought force involved in the burning desire is strong enough then everything can be brought to reality. That is why we say that there is nothing impossible. Good. Now there is nothing impossible and people that believe in impossibility have one very simple device. Right, instead of impossible, he just puts an apostrophe between the I and the M and calls it 'I'm possible'. Good. Right. So when one believes that, when one has faith in that and when only finally knows that I'm possible then all impossibility ceases because possibility starts with us and not with external circumstances, because man is definitely a master of his destiny. Man has been given freewill that within the limitations of the human being, he has the freedom enough within him, inbuilt in him to be master of himself the human self. Good. So, therefore any wish that one has, if it is backed up by the various factors we have talked about, does become a possibility. The second part of the question was that can one wish cancel out another wish. Good. Now that depends upon the intensity of the wishes. Those wishes could be contrary. Now the one that will gain ascendance would be the one that is more prominent. There could be contrary wishes that I want to own five million pounds on the one hand and on the other hand one would want to say that I want to live a life of poverty, asceticism perhaps. These are contrary wishes. One is a life of wealth while the other is a life of poverty. Now you do find many people having these contrary desires, people that just cannot make up their minds. And people that cannot make up their minds do nothing else but just drift along. Good. But yet where the wishes are concerned or the desires are concerned, it will depend entirely which one is the stronger. The one of wealth or the one of poverty. But this we're using of course as analogy but the principle applies to every situation in life. Now if the wish, if the desire for worldly wealth is more powerful than the desire for spiritual wealth, then worldly wealth will manifest itself. Worldly wealth will manifest itself because firstly we said 'I am possible' and if I am possible everything around me, everything connected to me is possible too. So, the wish, going back to square one, the wish is conditioned by various factors in our life, by our upbringing, by our environment, hereditary factors and even going beyond that to those that believe in past lives and the various conditionings we have come to within this life. Therefore, you woul d find some people that would ignore the spiritual side of life completely and would just involve themselves into totally mundane things. Yet deep within us there is a desire for spiritual wealth. How much we fight against, it that desire is

3. UK 77- 23 there because even the workings of the subconscious mind and the conscious mind is effected by the superconscious mind and the superconscious is the realm of the Divine and the realm of the Divine is spiritual wealth. Good. So everyone in spite of how bad he is, how all his thoughts are led completely to mundane things, yet even within him there is this flicker for spiritual wealth and the flicker for spiritual wealth is because spiritual wealth is happiness, true happiness. The other mundane wealth, the wish or desire for the mundane things of life is very superficial. But yet the superficiality can be brought to its reality. It can be materialised. Good. So, within every person we have the saying 'That there is no one so bad that he has no good in him'. Everyone has the good in him and when we say that everyone has the good in him, we mean that he has inwardly a yearning for that spiritual wealth because that spiritual wealth, that spirituality is permeating everything he does. But the difference lies in the fact that which wish is the most strongest and if the wish for mundane thing is very, very strong, then the light of the spiritual wealth does not shine through as it should shine through and it is blocked. Good. So one wish can cancel out the other wish depending upon the intensity of the desires. Of course the ideal position, the ideal way would be to have two wishes. One for the material and one for the spiritual and superimposed above those two wishes should be the third wish which could combine those two wishes and that combination leads one to a richer life. That third wish is how to combine the material with the spiritual. That constitutes a third wish. Good. So when one wish becomes more powerful than the other, a human being has the mechanism built in him to bring about the balance. Good. And the balance should be such that you want fullness in the material world and within that fullness we want the fullness of the spiritual world also to be permeating it. Good. So there are not only two contrary wishes but the two contrary wishes must be the basis of forming the third wish, the third desire and that unwritten desire is the most important desire of all where the spiritual and the material are existing together, permeating each other so that the true wealth of the spirit is automatically conveyed in the temporary wealth of the world. So here is the way where the permanency is brought about into the impermanency of things and by doing that, we can learn to appreciate even that which is impermanent. It is not necessary according to certain philosophies to discard that which is impermanent. Because first of all what has brought about the impermanency? It is the permanency; it is an aspect of permanency to show itself in its impermanent form also. So impermanency and permanency are but two aspects of the same thing, but viewed from different angles. Now if our vision, if our awareness through our practices become broad enough, wide enough then we have the panoramic view, the complete view of seeing the permanency and the impermanency and neither has to be sacrificed. But a beautiful compromise could be reached

4. UK 77- 23 between the two. I would never advocate to anyone, that throw away your wealth and become an ascetic and put on pauper’s clothes, rags. Why? That is not the way to spirituality. That is not the way to Divinity. Divinity does not deny you anything whatsoever. Divinity says have everything but infuse me in it so that whatever you take on would be enhanced and you will enjoy it more. So that is how life becomes more and more joyous. If you have a job that pays five hundred pounds a month, there's nothing wrong in taking on another job that would give you a thousand pounds a month. That does not mean that you are becoming more material and less spiritual. What you do with the extra money that you might not need, that is a different question. If it is used usefully as long as mundane things do not allow or we do not allow mundane things to stagnate then the acquisition of all mundane things assumes a purpose. Because life itself is not stagnating. Life itself is forever in motion. Even as we are sitting here, there are billions and trillions of cells in our bodies that are forever in motion, forever in motion although we are not aware of it and yet we are sitting here so still. That is what the combination of relativity and with combination of relativity with the absolute is all about. That in spite of me sitting still here there is so much movement within me. That movement is forever changing, yet I am sitting here changeless, not moving. So the change forms an integral part of that which is changeless. That leads a person to the realisation that all is one, that even within the changeless, there is change. The billions of cells moving around swirling around within me that is so still, has to be a necessary part to form my stillness. This table standing here has millions of molecules swirling around in it yet the table is still. So when we can realise the changeless or the stillness of the entire universe or the conception behind all things then the molecule swirling in the table becomes unnoticeable to us. And yet it is a necessary component to form the wholeness of the table. Because without those molecules swirling there, this table will disintegrate. And when the relative disintegrates, the absolute will disintegrate too. Because the absolute cannot exist without the relative and the relative cannot exist without the absolute. And all conflict rises as in the wishes and desires is to try and separate things. That is where all conflict rises because conflict is of separation and harmony is of togetherness. So when we have desires in our minds that might seem contradictory, we can take two opposites, two contradictory desires and using them together form a third desire and the third desire would be to combine the two opposing desires. So when one desire for materiality is there and the other desire for spirituality is there, those two can be fused or infused within each other and that is the ideal of life. So it is not a matter of just wishful thinking but turning the wishful thinking in a strong sustaining desire until it burns into your very heart and soul. And then that desire whatever it is, could be fulfilled.

5. UK 77- 23 Now the purpose of spiritual teaching is not to take a person away from his material desires, not to say become ascetics, go to the Himalayas go sit in the caves. No, no, no, that is totally wrong. Be in the world, be in the world, enjoy the world, enjoy everything the world can offer enjoy it. But behind that enjoyment the sense of something greater should always be there. Even if we sit down to have a meal. Now while we're eating that meal, if there's just a feeling within us that, look at all the things that went in, in making that slice of bread. How much of Divinity and of man is not involved in making that slice of bread? Good. First you have the seed. Fine. Man plants the seed. After the seed is planted, all powers of nature goes into letting that seed sprout. All the minerals in the ground work in a manner to bring its energies to that seed. The sun has to shine to send forth its seeds. The rains have to come. The oxygen in the air has to be there. So many factors are involved, in that slice of bread, the whole of nature is involved. Okay. That is the Divine expression in that slice of bread. Right. Then man takes over. Fine. The man harvests. Good. It separates the wheat from the, what do you call it, the chaff. Right. Now I believe, I don't know anything about farming, I farm with human beings. Good. Right. And then the flour has to be ground and then the housewife has to make the dough and it has to go into the oven. And yet in cutting that slice of bread, look at the tremendous amount of labour that went into making that knife where all the elements of the steel the iron had to be brought about and put into a certain combination. That piece of wood on that knife, all the lumberjacks were so busy cutting that wood – yeah. You see how much is involved, how much the whole of nature is involved, the whole of man's ingenuity is involved in that one slice of bread. 'Oh just chew it and thank you very much and good bye'. But if we really think how much is involved in that one slice of bread, with so many resources of man and nature and God has been put together in that slice of bread. So in eating that slice of bread, if there is a slight remembrance of all these various factors. Oh you don't need to work out grain by grain what happened, that is impossible right, but that awareness, how much went into this slice of bread for me to eat the slice of bread. Then how thankful don't we feel, how thankful don't we feel. Now that in a simple way, in an analogy form is to illustrate that the hand of Divinity is in everything, even in the slice of bread. When I say to you that a King's feast is just the same to me as a dry piece of bread, now this is what is meant, that even in that King's feast the same amount of that energy has gone into it as in the dry piece of bread and knowing the essence of the King's feast and the dry piece of bread, I find no difference between the two. And this comes at a level of recognising Divinity and not only recognising Divinity but by infusing that recognition in day to day every day living. And then you just can't help being happy, that's the end product. The end product of the whole process is to find stability within ourselves is to find self-integration, and to find self-happiness.

6. UK 77- 23 So when these contrary, contradictory wishes come, whichever is powerful can cancel the other, but that is not the aim, is to take both of those contradictory wishes and superimpose those with a third wish to combine the material with the spiritual. Then so much beauty is found, so much life is found in it. And even that dry piece of bread jumps up laughing at you. It does because it is alive and wherever there's life, there's laughter, there's joy, okay, a pleasure, my joy. Next. Questioner. Guruji, parents have responsibilities to children in terms of food, clothing and education, love and moral guidance and often parents have to give up a lot - for instance during the war they had very, very difficulties and yet they give all to children and have to suffer themselves. Now in turn children have responsibility to parents. Would you kindly give us your views on the reciprocal responsibility of parents and children? Gururaj. Beautiful, beautiful question, a very beautiful question and a very practical one too. Good. It is normally assumed that parents have responsibility for their children. Now who assumes this? The parents assume it. It's not the children that are thinking that my parents are responsible for me. They start thinking that when they grow up and things are imposed upon their minds, thoughts are thrown into their minds. When the minds become conditioned then the children will say, ‘Yes, my mother and father is responsible for me’. But the thought originates from the parents themselves to say that 'I am responsible for my children'. For practical purposes, this has some truth in it, but the real truth, that the parents are responsible for themselves. And when parents are responsible for themselves then, when parents are responsible for themselves, then everything else becomes a duty. So what we are doing is performing a duty. We are performing a duty to our children and we are calling it a responsibility. Don’t worry about that because the air gets my eyes. Good. So we assume that we are responsible for our children, in reality we are responsible for ourselves. We must understand one thing that we must be grateful to our children for affording us the privilege to understand and know what responsibility is. We should be grateful to our children for understanding what responsibility is. In other words instead of we maturing our children, our children are maturing us. Our children are maturing us. Our children are developing in us a sense of caring. Our children are producing in us a sense of selflessness because we do. We do. Our children, we don't realise this, we don't realise this that our children are affording us so much pleasure. How pleasant is it not to play with your little baby? It takes your mind away from all the worries and cares of the world even while you are changing its nappy. Yes. Yes. It does that. Our children are doing us a favour and we don't realise that. They're doing us a wonderful favour. Good. It is giving us the sense of responsibility and the sense of responsibility is reflected in

7. UK 77- 23 so many ways. It is opening up our hearts in love. I'm talking of true parents. It's opening up our hearts in love unselfishly. It is making us work unselfishly to provide for the children. Fine. It is making us work unselfishly to provide them with education, to see to their every need, to see to their clothing, to see to everything that is required in bringing up a child. Now in seeing and providing for all that is required in bringing up the child, what is happening to us is that we are evolving. So we must be thankful to our children that they are aiding the process of evolution, our evolution, not their evolution. And by giving them guidance, by giving them guidance on a good and moral path, what we are actually doing is reaffirming to ourselves the goodness that we know of, or that we have heard of. No mother or father will encourage a child to go and do something wrong. Right. Now if we keep on affirming that to ourselves then we will naturally do the things that we are talking about. You see the natural law of suggestion that any psychologist can tell us about, that by telling someone something, we are also telling it to ourselves. So it benefits us more than our children. It teaches us the various duties of life and life is composed mostly of duties. And when man can fulfil his duties, duties towards his children, duties towards his wife, duties towards his parents, when we look at it the other way round, we are gaining immeasurably. And it is because of these duties that we become responsible people and by becoming responsible people, we are becoming human and not just an animal mechanism. Fine. So, people think, they have the idea that they are doing so much for their children. Good. Have that idea, but remember that you are doing more for yourself, and you are doing your children no favour. Good. Now by having that idea that you are doing your children no favour, you will not have expectations of what the child will do for you. And by not having expectations, there will not be any disappointments. 'I expect my child to look after me when I become old'. That's an expectation. But now if the child turns out to be a rotter and does not (General laughter) - I'm learning the English expressions, I'm learning, I'm learning - and if he does not look after me then I feel disappointed, I feel dejected and I bring upon myself untold suffering and those sufferings are in my mind. But if I had to care for my responsibilities in a proper manner, I would have no expectations and I would have no disappointments. Now if the child turns out in such a manner where if he looks after you, regard that as a favour from the Gods. Because the gods, because of your karma, the gods are expressing themselves to return to you the fruits of your karma. So that is the way to become responsible, to say to ourselves we are not doing our children any favour. And that is the way not to have expectations and not having expectations, we don't have disappointments and we take life as it should be for us or take life as it comes. Good. Now that's the parents. Good.

8. UK 77- 23 Now the same thing applies to children because the children too will become parents. Good. And they have to act and behave in the same way. There should never be a sense of the children, when they grow up and when they become parents, that they are doing their children a favour. They are not. They are not. How many children born into this world have asked to be born? That is an argument which the youngsters would give you when you tell them something. They'll tell you that, that ‘I didn't ask to be born’. They don’t realise the meaning of that of course, but there is some truth in it that is more in a sense of defiance when they say that. Right. And what has caused that defiance in them? We, we have caused them to be defiant not they themselves. We have given them that training while they were small, their minds are susceptible and we ourselves have implanted these things perhaps inadvertently yes, but we are the ones that have made them defiant. That is the problem when we talk of generation gap. There is no gap at all really. There’s no gap at all, that is natural, where the gap comes naturally, the gap is artificial, but we have created because the parents are forever trying to superimpose their ideas upon the children. And the children become rebels, that we shall not listen to authority. Now there is wrong in both, both are wrong. But if we ourselves are integrated people then we will not superimpose our ideas because what will happen to an integrated person that the child will become part and parcel of our idea. There is no question of superimposition. You only superimpose an idea to something that is extraneous, there is something outside. But when the child is part and parcel of our idea of life then there is no superimposition. And when the child is made to feel that he or she is part and parcel of the idea of life that exists, then there is no rebellion from the child’s part. Now these are the things that is so sorely needed in society today and it does not only apply to the Western world but also to the Eastern world. And that is why we teach these methods to find the self integration, to find the oneness in all separation and yet knowing, living a relative life, the apparent separation is there. Right. But it is apparent and anything which is an appearance can also become an apparition, an illusion. So what we are trying to do is to go beyond the seeming illusion of separation and finding that the relationship between myself and my child is all in within the framework of one idea. Now if the oneness of that idea is strong in the trunk of the tree then that strength is naturally brought forth into the branches of the tree. And where the branches does not feel itself separate from the trunk of the tree. Good. Now that is the relationship between parents and children and the so-called gap, I would still like to see a tree where there is gap between the branch and the trunk. All nature shows us this that there is no such thing and this very separation, this very so called gap is just because of an idea too, but a wrong idea. So we have to right the idea by integrating ourselves and that is the way relationships with parents and children could improve. And if this happens in every home hopefully so, then society as a whole would improve. We can never better society as a whole, but we can

9. UK 77- 23 better individuals and individuals are units of the collective whole. And when individuals are improved then automatically society can be improved. And that is the relationship between parent and children. We do them no favour. They are doing us favours by making us more responsible people. And by setting that example of our responsibility, we hope that they too will be just as responsible when they have their children. Okay. This is an entirely different view from that whic h is normally accepted. Questioner. At times one may be aware of the connection or a responsibility towards the person, alive or dead, often dead, perhaps a relative, perhaps that person is trying to influence one; perhaps one might help the situation by praying for that person. How may one do so, pray also generally for the welfare of deceased friends and relatives or is this unnecessary? Gururaj. Good. Good. We’ll give you a chance to sit down first. The question, the question loses its force because of the word that was repeated in there a few times, ‘perhaps’. Why ‘perhaps’? Yes. Why perhaps? Why cannot be a real solid belief, a knowingness that the prayers we utter for the departed ones can be helpful for the departed one? Good. Now basically this will not change the karmic value or karmic pattern of the departed one. It cannot. Because the departed one is responsible for his own karma. But there is a period of time a transition period, which we discussed in a previous lecture, where the departed one has a time to formulate its coming existence. It has to evaluate and assess and work out what it has to do to evolve, what tests it has to go through in any planet in the universe, that would be conducive to it to reach enlightenment, to progress on the path. So when a person passes away, when a person passes away, there, we could help by sincere prayer. Good. Now the mechanics of that help is this that every thought we think reaches the furthest corner of the universe. Every thought we think is indestructible and it is eternal. Nothing, nothing whatsoever is ever destroyed. Every thought we think has set up a vibration, has set up a vibration which is perpetuated by itself, by the force with which that thought was sent out. Now this is known, this is known here on this world and many people pray for a sick friend and somehow or the other they get the news that the sick friend is feeling better. Sometimes they call it absent healing. Right. Now the process here in absent healing would be this, in this world that you see in your mind’s eye, you see in your mind’s eye the person to be well. If the person has a sore foot, you don’t see him limping around, but you see him walking around normally without any pain. So here you are visualising in your mind your friend to be well. Good. Now by sending those positive thoughts in seeing him well, those thoughts are directed to that person and they help to alter the vibrations that have been set up within him and around him of illness. So the vibrations of illness is now attacked with the

10. UK 77- 23 vibrations of being well, of well being. Good. And the vibrations of well being, being positive are naturally more effectiv e and more powerful than the thoughts of not being well. And that is how the friend is helped. Good. If the friend is not helped organically as dramatically as we would expect, the friend is still helped by our positive thoughts entering the realms of his mind, whereby the ill person will start thinking more positively of his or her illness and that is the greatest help one can give. If a person has had a leg amputated and you can send as many thoughts as you like for him to have a leg grown on, that will not work. Right. But if your thoughts are positive, positively sent to him and seeing him well then those thoughts will penetrate his mind, right, whereby he will take the absence of his leg in a more positive manner. I have seen people that are deformed yet so, so cheerful, so, so beautiful that you would love to spend hours, and hours in their company. And most of us must have had that experience. Good. So we are helping the person’s mind. Now this happens here on this world. Now when a person passes over, do not think, do not think that it is a different world. It is a similar world in a different dimension. And these thoughts, these thoughts as we said being eternal, being all penetrating, can reach every vibration, can reach every vibration everywhere. So by our positive thoughts directed to the person that has left us, would make his path smoother because he is surrounded now by positive vibrations that will help him in his own assessment and evaluation. And that is how our prayers help the departed one. Good. Fine. Most times when we think of a departed one, the major thought that comes to our mind is of the good times we had together. Yes. And we are not doing anything for that person with those thoughts because those thoughts are selfish. When we think of a departed one and the good times we had together we are only agonising ourselves at the thought of the loss of the good times we had together. Now that is not positive. That is not prayer. That is just us, our selfishness. But if we want to be unselfish and we love that person in the truest sense of the word, not because we need the company of that person, not because we need the company to fulfil our needs, but just because we love that person and we send good positive thoughts to the departed one and they do not miss, they do not fail because they are directed to that individual soul, which is composed of the spirit and the subtle body which we had talked about in a previous lecture. Fine. And the subtle body is capable in that dimension of picking up our thought here. Oh yes it is capable of picking up our thought here because our thought too belongs to a different dimension. Our thought belongs to a different dimension because it is not tangible. It is not tangible in the physical sense. It is far more refined. It is of a far-refined state and what we call different dimensions is just a degree of refinement. When a thing is more refined then we call it to be in a different dimension. Fine. So we ourselves here, although existing in a three dimensional physical world, we have within ourselves the fourth, fifth, sixth and the umpteenth dimension here and now. So in the sincerity of thought directed to a loved one, we can

11. UK 77- 23 surround the loved one with these positive thoughts and thought is a thing, although in a very refined form and this does help. Therefore, there’s not a single scripture in the world that does not say pray for the departed one. And that is why memorial services are held. That is why memorial services are held. Now for how long after a person’s death should we pray? Good. There is no time to that. There is no time to that because our sense of time is so, so different from the sense of time in a different dimension. And we find it here and now. How many of us has not lived a whole lifetime in a dream? Dream too is thought. We live a span, a whole span of seventy years in a dream and really speaking that dream only took a minute or two. Do you see? You see. So, so our conception of physical time is far different in that dimension. So we can keep on praying all life long for a departed one. All life long for a departed one because what seventy years afterwards here, could be just a flicker of a second there. So we should not, not ever forget those that are loved ones to us, that were loved ones to us, we should never forget them but it should not be in the form of attachment. And attachment is caused by need, but by true remembrance, true love is the basis of unattachment. It is selflessness not selfish. So the power of prayer is important and it does have its effec t. Okay. Gururaj. We have time for a short one. Questioner. This is a short one, Guruji. Can you please tell us what is the meaning of Aim Hrim Krim Chumundi Yai Viche Che? Gururaj. (Gururaj chants in Sanskrit) Aim Hrim Krim Chumundi Yai Viche Che, Aim Hrim Krim Chumundi Yai Viche Che, Aim Hrim Krim Chumundi Yai Viche Che, Aim Hrim Krim Chumundi Yai Viche Che. (Everyone chants with Gururaj). Have you got your answer? (General laughter) Normally I don’t know why, I just realised now, normally I don’t know, at every Course I always start off the Course by leading the chant. I don’t think we did it this time. Did we? Oh tomorrow morning is the last one, well I could lead the chant tomorrow morning and yeah, and of course after leading the chant I go into an explanation of it, as many of you people that have been on a previous Course know that. But those that are first time on the Course require some explanation. So tomorrow morning I’ll lead the chant and then we’ll go into some explanation of it. Will that make you happy? Good. I think the bell rang. END