1. UK 78- 13 Gururaj. They're good. I'm ready. Questioner. Guruji, what part do the Scriptures play in following the spiritual path and how should they be studied and applied? Gururaj. What part do the Scriptures play in following the spiritual path and how should they be applied and studied? Now the purpose of all Scripture is to follow the spiritual path. Because the spiritual path can never be divorced or separated from the teachings of ancient seers. They have cognised certain truths and those truths have been put forward to us to put into practice. Fine. Now when we talk of Scriptures - now Scriptures is a very wide term. For example if you take ..............(inaudible) ........ Scriptures, you'd find in there the philosophical aspects, the mythological aspects and the karmakand or the practical aspects in the Scriptures. So if a person is theologically minded, he has to make a thorough of all aspects of Scripture. Now when it comes to Scriptures, one also has to use discrimination according to one's own understanding. There might be certain things in certain Scriptures, which might just not go with your understanding. And if it does not go with your understanding you do not need to follow it blindly. Now that does not mean that the Scriptures are wrong. Perhaps your understanding is limited. So when the understanding expands then a greater and greater appreciation of Scriptures do take a hold upon us. What has happened with most Scriptures and this applies to every religion in the world that many of them has been misinterpreted. We can take a Sanskrit example of a word called ‘Jov’. Now ‘Yo’ means barley and it also means a goat. So in the scriptural injunctions in the ritual portions of those Scriptures it is said that ‘Yov’ must be sacrificed at the sacred altar. Good. So it has been so misinterpreted that instead of giving as oblations barley, they started killing goats. So Scriptures from time immemorial has been subjected to misinterpretation. Good. Now to apply Scriptures to the spiritual path is a thing, which is quite different. Scriptures to be properly understood and applied to the spiritual path one has to learn the essence of the Scriptures and when one does not understand the essence of the Scriptures by oneself we go to someone who understands the essence. And yet the person that you go to that explains to you or interprets Scriptures that too must not be taken on blind faith. Therefore you'll find many seekers like I have done. I went from guru to guru to guru, until I found a guru who could give me the explanation which was at par, at level with my stage of evolution. Good. Now, as we said the spiritual path is so connected with scriptural injunctions. Let us take the Ten Commandments, they form part and parcel of Scriptures and they show you how to live a good life with its various injunctions. The other day we spoke on Raja Yoga which showed us the principles of Yam and

2. UK 78- 13 Yamma, how to live a good life a proper religious life. You could call it a scriptural life, because Scriptures and religion, the two are not things apart. So we take the scriptural injunctions as a basis to progress on the spiritual path, because we have to take this as a basis for the spiritual path, because the spiritual path is the basis of Scriptures. Now in Scriptures as time went on so many things have been added on to these various Scriptures in various religions. If you take a piece of iron and leave it out in the rain, sun and snow for a long while that piece of iron can get rusty. And what people tend to do is to take the rust for the iron. So we, with our intellect and the powers of discrimination or with the advice and the teachings of those who know, we go beyond the level of the rust that has accumulated and come face to face with the genuine article, the iron. So when we come face to face and appreciate what the essence is behind the rust, then Scriptures and the spiritual path become one. Good. The whole idea is to be able to understand our religion properly, what our religion has really meant and what the religion has really taught. That is to be understood. It is nothing wrong for a person to follow Hinduism or Buddhism or Christianity. Those are all paths. They all lead to the same goal and they are all spiritual paths leading to the spirit that dwells within. So we do not make any distinctions between the spiritual path and scriptural injunctions. Now, the validity of Scriptures is in the fact that it has endured over thousands and thousands of years. If it was false, if it was essentially false then it would not endure. Like a great piece of literature - Shakespeare lived three hundred years ago and yet we read his works today and for the next three hundred years his works will still be studied. While some small author not of much worth might have published a book at that very time when Shakespeare lived. He is gone forgotten and the book is not even there anymore. So, the purpose of Scripture is to point to us truth, show us truth in its varied forms. It shows us the truth from various aspects. Now the height of the spiritual path is reached only when we can view all the aspects of Scriptures as a whole. And in order to be able to do this we have to rise above Scriptures. If we stand at the bottom of the mountain our view would be very limited, but if we stand on top of the mountain we have a vast panoramic view. Now this applies to Scriptures. Fine. You have Scriptures, which could be very dogmatic. Now to really understand what the spirit is all about, we have to rise beyond the boundaries of all dogmatism. Now to be in any form of dogmatic faith or belief is nothing wrong. It might be what is required by us for that moment in our spiritual path. But the spiritual path and the study of all dogmas and dogmatic creeds only finds fulfilment when we transcend the boundaries of dogma. All the problems in the world that has taken place is because of dogmatism where religions war against each other and says that

3. UK 78- 13 'My way is right'. The other says 'My way is right' and the third says 'My way is right'. Now this causes conflicts because dogmas always produce boundaries. And when we live within a boundary it would be like the story of the frog of the well. The frog lives in the well and thinks that it’s all there is until the frog of the ocean comes visiting and says 'Friend, com e along let me show you my well'. So the frog of the well sees the ocean and realises that there is so much beyond the boundaries that I have so far lived in. Now that means going beyond dogmatism. It could very well be a starting point, but it is never the ending point. So that is the whole meaning, that is the whole meaning of Scriptures. Now when Scriptures too are understood properly then those very Scriptures will take you beyond dogmatism. Scriptures have never been there to create boundaries. But man has created boundaries around the Scriptures that he believes in. It became so organised that he had to create a boundary. It is like business. You have a certain product and to prevent another company from using your formula you register it, copyright it and that very copyright is the boundary you have created for some valuable product that you might have put forward to the world. So, we come to the conclusion that, although Scriptures could be boundary-less, man for his own ego or to promote his own personal belief has created boundaries and therefore Scriptures have been most misinterpreted. It is because of Scriptures and religions that rivers of blood has flowed. Now there is not a single religion in the world that does not teach of love. Yet it has been so misinterpreted that in the name of religion and in the name of God and this has happened in every religion, in the name of God rivers of blood has flown. What great misuse, what great misinterpretation? There are places in the world where in the house of God, which we could call a church or temple, - the outward house, the real church and temple is inside - nevertheless in churches and temples there are some countries where, because of colour differences, skin pigmentation people are not even allowed to worship together. What a miscarriage of justice and what a misinterpretation of Scripture! So, when Scriptures are misused and misunderstood man is to blame. So, therefore, therefore he has to transcend the boundaries created by man and find the real spirit in Scripture and finding the real spirit of the Scripture becomes the spiritual path. That's how it works. So essentially speaking there is no difference between Scriptures and spiritual paths because the aim and the constituents of all Scriptures is nothing but a spiritual path. Okay. Fine. Good. Next. Questioner. Gururaj, would you tell us of the nature and the workings of the third eye? Christ in the Gospel said ‘And if thine eye be single, then is thy body full of light’. Would you comment on this? And Guruji, there are also a number of questions, related questions about chakras and swirling energies. What are they? Where are they? And how does each one influence us?

4. UK 78- 13 Gururaj. Have you got enough paper here, I want to start writing a book. When Christ said ‘Let thine eye be single’, it had nothing to do with the third eye. It had nothing to do with the third eye, which in Sanskrit terminology is called the Ajna Chakra. Fine. When Christ said ‘Let thine eye be single’, he meant be onepointed. That is the meaning. You see how Scriptures again can get misinterpreted. Good. Let thine eye be single. May you be onepointed in your quest to find the Father, to become one with the Father. Nothing in life can ever be achieved without onepointedness. Many of our practices for example are designed to focus all the scattered mental energies into onepointedness. You'd find this in business. You'd find this in every aspect of life. The saying goes, 'That man has too many irons in the fire'. Good. That means he is not onepointed in whatever he is doing. Now in every aspect of life be it the love aspect, if man has onepointed love for his wife and the other way round, then life could become very, very happy because all the mental and physical energies are directed focused to one object. So therefore let thine eye be single. And this does not only apply in the attainment of spiritual realisations but it applies to daily practical living. Onepointedness is required for success in any undertaking. Now if we should talk about the various chakras and the various functions of the chakras that would lead us into Kundalini Yoga. And I think I've made a very long tape on this subject haven't I, on Kundalini Yoga, in California and one in Capetown also. So I wonder if you wouldn't like to listen to that tape. Perhaps Keith could organise that for you. Let me just give you a brief outline. It is my duty to make everyone happy. Good. Now with the physical body as we said during this week that the physical body is supported, activated by the subtle body. The subtle body in turn is empowered by the spiritual body. Good. In order for the spiritual self, the pure conscious self of man to reach the physical self, it needs an intermediary and that intermediary is the subtle body. The energies of the spiritual body are so fine that it has to go through a process of becoming more and more grosser to reach the physical body. So what happens is this that the fine spiritual energies condense themselves, condense themselves into the subtle body within man and the subtle body in man conveys the energies to the physical body. And that can also be termed the life force that is within man. The analogy we can use is water vapour. Now water vapour, which is subtle, cannot be turned over into a solid block of ice immediately. Water vapour has to be condensed and made into water. That water in turn could be condensed further and made into a block of ice. So the water in our analogy is the subtle body. Now, the physical body has various nerve centres, nerve complexes, glandular complexes. Now these have to be activated. And is it not only, it cannot activate itself by itself; it needs a subtler force to activate it. And this is where the subtle body of man plays its part, where it activates the physical body. Now wherever there is a nervous complex in the physiology of man, it has to have its counterpart in the subtle body. Good. The subtle body, the nerve, the subtle nerve

5. UK 78- 13 complexes, being a subtle body it has to have subtle nerve complexes. These complexes are interconnected to each other. Now Yogis have discovered, by direct perception and through the sight of the third eye, they have seen and they could very clearly be seen of vortexes of high-powered subtle energy within our system. Good. Now the purpose of activating these vortexes or chakras - chakra means a wheel and anything which is spinning would always seem like a wheel that is spinning. Now what happens that due to all the past lifetimes that we have lived, the subtle body can get clogged up by samskaras, by the impressions that are gained through various kinds of experiences in all these lifetimes. Now when we talk of mind, we must remember that the mind is not the brain. We could not say that the mind is located in the head or in the chest or in the big toe. No. The mind permeates every part of ourselves. It permeates the entire organism. Good. Now when the subtle body is clogged with all these impressions, the subtle body is part and parcel of th e mind, Manoinayakosha, the mental body. Good. Now that too is matter, but of a very subtle nature. The difference between the subtle body or the mental body or the physical body is just a matter of degree. The physical body is gross while the subtle body is much finer, but still matter. Good. Now being composed of matter, being composed of matter it can be activated. Although there is motion there all the time, the motion could be clogged like a dirty engine. So through spiritual practices what we do, is we clean up the dirt in all those cog wheels, in all those cogs. And the purpose of doing this is to allow the spiritual self of man to shine through clearly into daily living. And that is why I always say that the absolute, or Divinity can never exist without the relative. The relative means all aspects of life, which are tangible. All aspects of life which are tangible and even at a finer level where it might not be perceptible by the five senses, yet there is substance there and therefore there is tangibility. Fine. So the purpose of clearing up these chakras, the purpose of clearing up these chakras is to allow the spiritual self in man to shine through so that his daily living becomes purified and happy, joyous, blissful. This is a way of taking an abstract value to its concrete form. It can be done through various kinds of yogic practices, where we concentrate, or rather the word is attention, where we bring our attention to the various chakras and activate them and bring them to a heightened vibration. Now any heightened vibration naturally assumes a more finer level than a vibration which is clogged up. A heightened vibration means that the dirt of samskaras has been cleared out. And the clearing out process can be achieved through our yogic and spiritual practices. There's another way how this can be done and this can be done through pure devotion, pure Bhakti where, where you start off from the grosser level of man, through the physical level of man finding an object of devotion, it could be anything, anyone, and then proceed to the subtler level of

6. UK 78- 13 oneself and with that force created by intense devotion the subtler self of man is cleared up allowing the spiritual self to shine through. So the process can be worked in two ways, one from the exterior the other from the interior. Good. That is one aspect of Kundalini Yoga. Now when we practice Kundalini Yoga, we do it in a systematic manner where the one that knows, could see which chakra has to be worked on first. There is no such thing as a higher chakra and a lower chakra, because there is no differentiation. You could not say that the toes on my foot are of a lower level than the fingers on my hand. You could not say that. Fine. So here is a process whereby activating these chakras - and activating one chakra would naturally have its effect on all the other chakras. Now, by bringing, heightening the vibratory rate of a particular chakra, it naturally must affect all other chakras and heightening the vibratory rate, a cleansing process takes place. When this cleansing process takes place, the mind cognises certain of the cleansing. Now if cleansing is done unguidedly, the impact upon the mind could be too powerful. So that is why it is always recommended that do not indulge in any form of chakric practice without proper guidance from one who knows. Because if it is imbalanced and the chakric practices are done without proper guidance, so much force can be generated that certain portions of the brain or the mind can be affected. So guidance is absolutely necessary. This is a path, which could take one much quicker to self-realisation because an interior cleansing is taking place. With the interior cleansing a person also needs exterior cleansing. A person needs exterior cleansing, a person needs exterior cleansing and the exterior cleansing we have covered in the principles of Yamma and Yumma, which we spoke about during this week. Good. Now in the chakric system, they say there are six chakras, and the seventh is the Sahasrara. The six chakras, I'm sure you know the names. You start off with Muldahara, Swadhistan, Manipura, Anhata, Visuddha and Ajna. These are Sanskrit names. Now each chakra has a direct bearing on one's spiritual self and one's physiological self, a direct bearing. By the proper activation of these various chakras, energies are made to flow more smoothly. Energies are flowing all the time in us. We cannot be devoid of these energies. There is such a misconception that Kundalini is like a snake and lying in three and a half coils at the base of the spine in the Muldahara chakra. Now that there's no snake there and there's no energy lying dormant there. This is pure symbolism. This is symbolism. Fine. The energy, the purpose is this to allow the full force of the energies within us to be totally activated. And in the mythology it is said that this energy known as shakti must reach Shiva. Good. So a union takes place between Shiva and Shakti. Shiva is the Hindu God. You might have seen pictures that has a snake as a garland round his neck and the River Ganges flows through his head. Very symbolic. Very symbolic. Fine. What it actually means is this that manifestation must merge into the Manifestor. That is the meaning of it. Or in other words creation must again merge

7. UK 78- 13 into the creator. So that is how shakti or the energy has to merge back into the producer or the Manifestor or the creator of the energy. Now Divinity, call it Shiva, call it God, call it whatever you wish to, can only function in the universe in the form of energy. That Divinity is an impersonal Divinity. It has nothing to do with man's ordinary peccadilloes and idiosyncrasies, his goodnesses, and his badnesses whatever you wish to call it. It is a neutral factor. And that neutral factor has to manifest itself in the form of energy. In other words the manifestation of the Manifestor is in the form of energy and that energy is called shakti. So apart from Divinity, here a separation has taken place where Divinity has reflected itself in the universe as energy and therefore the universe is called the reflection of Divinity. Right. Now when this subtle fine energy is sent forth, good, this subtle energy too condenses itself from its most subtlest form to its grossest form and the grossness of that subtle energy we know as matter. This matter constitutes everything that is in this universe or of which this universe is composed. That is the matter but matter cannot exist alone, it has to have the activating force of energy. So, if we look at this closely, we will see that there is no difference between matter and energy, they are two sides of the same coin. So according to the tantric system of philosophy, they say that the dormant Kundalini, the dormant serpent must be awakened, the manifestation must be awakened so it becomes one with the Manifestor in Divine union and that is the goal of man, and that is called self realisation. This is the tantric point of view. Now if energy or shakti is lying dormant then this entire universe cannot function, entire universe cannot function because it is that energy, that shakti that makes this universe function. So it is a fallacy to believe that this energy is dormant. This energy is forever flowing. Now through the practice of Kundalini Yoga, what we are doing is using the same energy in a concentrated form. And by using the energy in a concentrated form, it could more powerfully, more directly, more quickly become one with the Manifestor. That is what is actually meant. You see again how Scriptures are misinterpreted. Fine. Good. Now the practices that are involved are these that would activate the various chakras in the subtle body. Now when these various chakras in the subtle body, chakras in the subtle body are activated, the vibratory status of them is heightened to an immense degree and in that heightening all the dross of samskaras is burnt away, is dissolved. And by that being dissolved, the energy has a free full, full powered flow. That is the purpose of Kundalini Yoga. Now do not ever think that that shakti is lying dormant in the Muladhara chakra. It is not dormant. It is forever working in our system, but being to use an analogy an eight-piston car, an eight-cylinder car is functioning on four cylinders or three cylinders. So what we are doing is repairing the pistons and the cylinders. That is what we are doing.

8. UK 78- 13 And by clearing up these chakras, by giving it its proper vibratory status, the energies flow through us in its full force. It is like a torch, a flashlight, if it’s turned one way you'll have a wider light, but the light is diffused and there's not much power. And you turn it the other way, you are focusing it pin-pointedly and focusing that light pin-pointedly they have described a nerve in the system which they call Sushumna. Sushumna really means - there is such a nerve in the subtle body - but its real function and real meaning is so that this very light, this very energy can ascend or function in a pin-pointed, concentrated manner then we receive the maximum benefit of that energy. And that energy becomes one with the force and the power that initially created the energy. So from that dualism of Shiva and Shakti, Manifestor and Manifestation, we, through our practices, bring the two together in that oneness where Divine bliss is felt. This is one system of the various forms of yoga, which is Kundalini Yoga. And very briefly we have described to you the proper meaning of what these chakras are for and what functions they perform. Okay. This was a different talk to the one in - I could never repeat the same thing twice in any case. Quarter to ten. I believe they have organised a concert and we're going to hear the maestro again tonight. Good. And we have a wonderful Oboe player, Kristine is it? Yes. Lovely. Good. And of course a wonderful harpist and singer, Marigold, that's right. That's right. So shall we have a fifteen-minute break? The loo's on the other side. END