1. UK 78- 18 Gururaj. We’ll talk more tomorrow. This was a little chit chat. It was quite nice very relaxing, very enjoyable. But think of some of the words I’ve said. You as teachers should be in the position to understand them better than ordinary meditators. Think of some of the words and see the little task we have in hand. It's a small task, there's nothing really fantastic. If man can reach the moon, why can't we encircle the globe? Tell me, show me one good reason. As long as that sincerity and the honesty and the will to work is there, it shall be done. It shall be done. His will, will be done. Yes, it's guaranteed, it's written on the wall, can you see it? Turn round. Turn round. Aide. Twenty five, thirty seven, ninety six, she’d look like a pear, wouldn’t she? Left around out in the open where other people can handle them, and so forth, and he has very strongly emphasised that one should not do this, that these things are to be treated very much as a sacred object and a very private thing, for reasons which many of you have heard us speak about before in the Mandala checks. Now everyone here has the Mandala practice don't they? Is there anyone who doesn't? One, two, three, four, five, six, only seven that don't have it. Okay. Now remember that the Mandala has a charged metallic disc, yes? This will give you an idea of how concerned about this he is, he just sent Gita down to make sure that I emphasise certain things. He's very concerned about this. Now the Mandala as you know has a charged metallic disc which is placed just behind the centre of the Mandala and it's enclosed with a piece of black velvet, and on top of that there's a piece of masking tape which is placed to keep everything in place. Do not ever remove the velvet, the masking tape. Always leave them just as they are. There's nothing strange or remarkable about the disc itself, it's just an ordinary metallic disc like a washer, that sort of thing made of a good non-corroding metal, but nonetheless just a very ordinary piece of metal. Now the thing to understand about this piece of metal is that it's extremely delicate and sensitive to vibrations coming from various sources and I'm going to tell you some actual stories now that have come back to us. And by the way, in the initial stages, when these things were first passed out, we did not emphasise this very much, and therefore people might easily not have not understood how they should take care of it. But I think the interesting thing is, that when we didn't emphasise it, we got stories coming back to us by people who had not been, what should we say, conditioned to think that something like this might happen if they didn't treat the Mandala correct, that is people who had no idea of how to treat the Mandala, or that they should treat it in any special way, came back and gave this information to us. Now in one case, one of our teachers had a Mandala in his garage where he was going to frame it, put it in a frame to be used in his house, and someone came to visit him, one of the local meditators who was a person who was very, very stressed, that had a lot of inner tension, in fact I think he was coming for a counselling session at the time, anyway,

2. UK 78- 18 what he did is, he went up and he put his hand right over the top of the Mandala, right where the washer, where the metal disc is, and immediately, the next time he used it, he said he felt just terrible using the Mandala. He felt upset, and within about a week or so he was avoiding doing it, and about two weeks later he quit doing it altogether and didn't do it for several months until Gita, in a private discussion with him, discovered he wasn't doing it. And do you know it was only then that he thought about it and he remembered that incident that had taken place. There's no question about it, what happened here was by putting his hand over it like this he was upsetting the equilibrium of energy which had been placed into that thing and placing a certain amount of negativity into the disc, because the disc being very powerful like this would draw that out. It was very, very inconsistent with his personal vibration. Alright, now several people in the United States who have the Mandala practice took planes, that is they flew, and you know how they have to go through these X-ray machines at the airport? Their Mandala was run through the X-ray apparatus, and right after this happened, they said that it was as if the energy inside was just berserk, that is they felt this strange erratic feeling coming from the centre of the Mandala. In one or two cases this is how they reported it. In another case a person who had been on a journey with it and come back just said that it seemed to be dead afterwards, nothing was happening, it just seemed totally without any power to generate the experiences they’d been having previously. So I can't emphasise too strongly, this comes not from me but directly from Gururaj, take very good care of these things. When you're not using them, they should always be in a cover. Now obviously, one of the things that we have to do very soon is to have a standard cover made for these things that can be carried easily when you're going through Airports and so on. They should be carried by hand and they should always be passed around the X-ray apparatus. We'll have to get our heads together and think about how this can be done. There's someone here perhaps that can do this. The ones that have been made so far have generally been rather too heavy to carry, made out of a rather heavy board. If we could find some plastic material or something like that, that would be very light and yet firm and would make an adequate cover, and you could carry it around with a little handle on it or something, this obviously would be ideal. So we'll have to talk to Guruji about this, and see if he can come up with an ideal solution. Yes? Questioner. ........... (Inaudible) ......... rolling it into a cardboard tube? Aide. Rolling it into a cardboard tub, now if you do that a lot, if you travel a lot, I would think that would start to damage the shape, it would produce a kind of permanent roll.

3. UK 78- 18 Questioner. The most satisfactory way is to take a piece of cardboard the size of the Mandala, paste the Mandala onto the cardboard and then make a cover round the outside of that... Aide. So you can just take it out and set it on a dressing table or something like that when you use it. Yes, Sybil? Sybil. ............. (Inaudible)....... Aide. No, we haven't, but as a matter of fact, when people have requested this, we've done it several times. Questioner. I just open it and all they see is a poster. Questioner. If you show them it’s a poster, why do they try and open it? Here's an artist's folio which opens in two. It has three flaps inside. I've stapled mine inside and when I want to use it, I open it and put it right angles and it stands absolutely bolt upright and you can use it wherever you are and I travel extensively. I bought one when I was here last time and it cost just over three pounds. Its seventeen by twenty two, you have to cut it. Aide. That’s a very good idea Ivor why don’t you stand up and announce it, that was a very good idea. Okay. Well there's quite a number of ideas. By the way, Keith just made a good point here. He said that when Gururaj goes back to South Africa this time, he's going to try having it covered with metal foil or some kind of metallic foil. Just say, I suppose its aluminium foil. No, it's lead. It’s specially designed to carry film. You know what happens with films if you run them through the X-Ray machine, it messes up the recording. So we'll try that and if it works, then you could cover whatever you're carrying it in with foil. Don't try it yet until it's been tested. Okay. Gururaj. The mantra is heard at a very subtle level which would be unutterable and inaudible. So if you could picture to yourself an ice cream cone where you pick up the mantra at the very subtle level and you bring it to the broader end of the cone, the grosser level, so that the sound could take formulation in word form. Now the reason for this is very apparent and obvious, that the mantra could be spoken and imparted and it could be heard. Now what happens after the mantra, the sound of the person, is perceived, now do remember this, that if there was any mechanical device that could reduce your entirety, your body mind and spirit, into sound value, your mantra would be the sound that would be heard. Your mantra is always harmonious to you because it is a reflection of your entirety.

4. UK 78- 18 Now the mantra has three aspects. Do not think of the mantra having three aspects because some mantras have three syllables, that's not important. The first aspect is this, that when you became an individualised being, when you separated from the source, in other words the Brahman became Atman and the Atman became Jivatman. So at that point of separation, a motion took place, and wherever there is motion, there is sound. That is the one aspect of the mantra. The second aspect of the mantra is your present state of evolution. Now that is a very wide term but the present state of evolution means exactly where you are combining all three factors of yourself, mind, body, and spirit. The present state of a person's evolution reflects how much the spiritual self in him has been unfolded. Now the third aspect is the range that is ahead of you, the range that is ahead of you, which you would be able to, by regular practices, achieve, and fulfil in this lifetime. Or else it would be carried forward on into other lifetimes. So the range is vast. Now when you start meditating with your mantra, as the Counsellors teach you, you will, with due practice, experience the mantra in a more and more subtler form. That very same mantra will become subtler and subtler as you dive deeper and deeper into the mind and nearer the source of yourself you will find the mantra. As time goes on the mantra will change. The essence of the mantra won't change, but the structure of the audible level of the mantra will change. I, for example, was given a mantra with thirteen syllables and I experienced all thirteen syllables as an impulse. So when man reaches the stage, the impulse stage, of really experiencing the mantra at its finest level, at its subtlest level, then you would have reached the finest and subtlest level of all relativity which embraces the entire universe. And once you reach the subtlest and finest level of all relativity then you are in the realm of the Absolute. Now this, with practice, can be done very spontaneously. With a proper understanding of how to meditate, one goes through all the various layers of the samskaras or blockages. It's a wrong word really. There are no words in the dictionary, in my dictionary called blocks and stresses. Fine. So we reach that level. We reach that subtler level, and when we reach that subtler level we do not come back empty-handed. If you spend half an hour in a perfume factory, you would come out smelling like perfume. So that happens. So gradually, according to our ability, and according to the depth of our meditation, we bring back with us to its more grosser levels the power and the energy and the joy of the deeper levels. So every person that starts meditating will go through certain stages. Now I get a letter from someone, my mail is about eighteen hundred letters a month at the moment, and of course the best time I could have with correspondence is sitting propped up in bed reading them I just had my glasses changed also. But I love these letters, they're very good. They must be written. Write more if you want to, it doesn't matter at all

5. UK 78- 18 because it in itself is a therapy and not only that, as I read the letters, prayers and energy are sent to the person, and most of you here can verify how that works and how it benefits, and many people tell me that even before the letter reaches me, the answer has been received. Good. Fine. That's beside the point. Nevertheless, so, depending upon the depths we can reach, some could reach these depths quicker and some would take a longer time, it is immaterial as long as the start is made. Fine. When the start is made there are some people, some movements that tell you that you can go into the transcendental state just by two or three practices. That is absolutely false. It is false. You cannot reach the transcendental by sitting down for three or four hour sessions. It is not possible. There are all those samskaras that have to be penetrated. But, practice, regularity, is so important that you penetrate these samskaras and reach the deepest level. And every time you sit and meditate, we have done something of going slightly deeper every time. And then that also depends upon a person's chemistry. You might have eaten something which is not suitable to your system and that produces grossness, and of course at that time you will not be able to reach that level. Now when some teachers tell you that at the very first three or four lessons you will reach the transcendental state, that is false. What happens there is this, that with a relaxation technique in other words, you can do in twenty minutes listening to good music, the same thing, the same effect. This has been tried and tested by Psychiatrists who did an ex tensive search on this. But what does happen is that in that relaxed state when the mind feels a bit calmer and you feel that now you have really reached the absolute level, you have not. You are mistaken. That calmness produced through a relaxation technique, fine, good, but it has nothing to do with reaching the Absolute immediately. It takes a bit of time. Some quicker, some slower, but every time you sit and meditate you make some progress. Now, that is the whole basis of mantra meditation. Now why is a mantra not suitable for some people? That was the second part of the question. Good. Now this you'd find, as teachers you should know this, that this you'd find perhaps one person in every hundred, in every two hundred perhaps, in about one person in every two hundred who would not be given a mantra immediately. The reason being this, and the most important reason, that that person might have a kind of mental imbalance. Imbalance is the wrong word because all of us are not really balanced yet. But there's a certain chemistry of the mind that would not make mantra meditation good for the person. It will aggravate, it will accentuate that which is wrong there at the moment. So when a certain balance is received, then the mantra is giv en.

6. UK 78- 18 On many Forms, you will notice that I write down practices and then I make a note that this is the mantra of the person, but this mantra is not to be given for the next three or six months. I write that on the Form and then also the Counsellor must use his discretion. But meanwhile these are the practices that this person has to carry on with. That is the reason why one person out of a few hundred is not given a mantra immediately. But the other practices that are given are equally helpful to bring the person to a certain state of mental levelness perhaps. (Baby cries) That's quite right baby? A certain mental state, thereby the mantra could - does she have to go out? No, I don't get distracted, but I'm thinking of people's concentration. Nevertheless, I love babies. Do you know a funny thing? I was one too. (Gururaj laughs) So the other practices that are given brings a certain mental level and then that person could definitely start off with a mantra. So that is fine. What was number three on your list? Questioner. How does our mantra meditation affect our daily lives? Gururaj. Yes. How does mantra meditation affect our daily lives? Now, even if a person does not reach the transcendental state with each meditation, it is not important, because we know that we only use ten per cent of our minds in our waking state. Ninety per cent is lying dormant. It's like the iceberg, one eighth on top and seven eighths at the bottom. Good. Now, when we start meditating, we are going into the deeper layers of the mind, and the deeper layers of the mind, as we enter them through our practices, they are more subtler states. So the mind is also composed of states, and by states I mean that the mind goes from the gross level of the ten per cent conscious to a very fine subtle level that reaches the subtlest point of relativity. Good. So when we do meditation, even at what stage we reach of the ninety per cent, we are using ten percent of the mind, and in meditation we dive say twenty per cent deeper, so that we have now activated thirty per cent of the mind. Now that twenty per cent below the ten per cent surface, being of a subtler nature, becomes more powerful. Everything that is subtle is definitely more powerful than the gross. If you throw a two ton or ten ton bomb, it'll make a big hole here, but if you split an atom, the energies released would be immensely more powerful. In the same way, the subtler the thing, the more powerful it is. So even if we have just gone twenty per cent beyond our normal, we are bringing back to the normal self, we are bringing back to the ten per cent conscious mind, those subtle energies. And, the deeper we go, the more subtle and more powerful energies we are bringing to the conscious mind, and the conscious mind starts expanding in awareness. Fine.

7. UK 78- 18 Now when the conscious mind starts expanding in awareness, it must have some physiological effect, because, as we have said over and over again, there is no difference between mind and body, it is just a matter of grossness or subtleness. So when we bring these extra added energies to the mind, and being energies of a subtler nature, they do have an effect of calming the mind. And you would have circumstances at certain times where, at a certain level beyond the conscious level, the mind has certain amounts of turbulences too, and that could also be brought, could also be brought to the fore. And when we receive the recognition that 'Ah, here are these skeletons, I can see them now', with the conscious mind, then we can do something about them. That people call un-stressing other people, not us. It is not unstressing. There is no such word. There's not such a word at all. We are just taking out certain of those samskaras that are there, bringing them to a conscious level, and with the power of Divine grace, or call it gurushakti, or whatever name you want, we dissolve them. I think there would be a question on that a bit later. Fine. So nevertheless that is what happens, and that is why a meditator's life becomes better and better, some faster so, some gradually so, but definitely some effect is felt, and those effects are more important. If you take a walk down the street, just take a look around sometimes. There might be a meditator in Eastbourne, and you live in Carlisle, but going down that street and you see the person, immediately you'll recognise that here is a meditator. Immediately you recognise a person who meditates. There is a certain something that can be observed on their faces. You can call it a glow, you can call it calmness, you can call it a peace. So, even in troubled times, even when the mind is troubled, or so many problems are faced with, we are still in the background we still feel the impulse of the mantra that has been vibrating in our system all the time. There are other forms of meditation that just use ordinary bija mantras, which have nothing to do with your individual vibration. Now what happens in our mantra meditation is this, that the vibration started off when you sit down for half an hour in the morning or evening, that does not end there. That is just cranking the shaft, starting the engine, an d that vibration is permeating you throughout the day. And, if that happens, as would be obvious, our spiritual progress becomes much, much more swifter. It becomes much, much more swifter. Some people are given the practice to swirl the mantra at certain chakra levels. Good. The reason for that is this, that otherwise everything could be fine with the person, but at a certain chakric level in the subtle body, the flow of those vital forces, of those vital energies, are not as they should be. They're not flowing powerfully enough, they're lagging. So what you do is, you use your vibration, you use your mantra, as a lever or as an injection to create that flow that should be there. So, although the effect of your morning meditation or evening meditation lasts throughout the twenty three hours of the day, here is a booster, and that is required for some people. They are necessary, and they benefit immensely by it.

8. UK 78- 18 And, the effect of activating that particular chakra has a wider ranging effect because each and every chakra is inter-related to the other. Just as these six lights in this room is interconnected with the same wiring system, and those wires are led to the power-house, in the same way all our chakric system, all those vortexes of energy are connected to the source, which is the spiritual self. And, at certain places, if there is a breakage, then a certain light might not burn. Or, if the current is not flowing through as it should, then there would be discrepancies in the electrical system. The same thing applies to the human being, and that is why, to activate certain areas, we swirl the mantra. In other words, we are directing the energy of our mantra, which represents your total self, to that one particular point, and thus activating that particular area. What was more on your list, or have I covered all? Good. Fine. I'm sorry Keith, I couldn't do it in five minutes (Gururaj laughs) Do you know of the story, - don’t sit down, this will just take half a minute - someone had to be in Court, right, and this chap started answering questions lengthily, so the Lawyer got wild and the Lawyer says, ‘Please answer yes or no’. Now they are not many questions that could be given such an answer yes or no. So then the person in the dock says to the Lawyer, ‘Sir, can you answer one question for me, do you still beat your wife?’ (Gururaj laughs). So if he had answered yes, it would mean he beats her, and if he had answered no, it means he used to beat her. Good. Carry on. Aide. Guruji, we had on our Counsellor's teaching weekends, some excellent talks on Tratak, which you made in America. Unfortunately, because of the poor recording quality, we are unable to use these, to incorporate them in our teaching courses. I wondered if you would be good enough to give a talk on this, and why is it such an important form of meditation and the effect it has on the brain and the consciousness? Gururaj. Right. Fine, beautiful. We people in the world and especially with all the tensions and the various duties that we take upon ourselves in modern world in the twentieth century do tend to scatter all our mental energies. So our minds are scattered. How many of us can really sit down in contemplation and take a thought from A and lead it systematically to Z? Very few of us. You'll start with ABC and then you'll start thinking of lunch. Right. EFG and then another thought will come, and like that, and then later another thought will come, my wife asked me to bring a pair of stockings but I've forgotten the size, things like that happen all the time, because our minds are not concentrated. Now what happens with the practice of Tratak, which is a very, very important practice, what happens with the practice of Tratak that without concentrating, we are developing the powers of concentration. When we look at the flame

9. UK 78- 18 of the candle, we are focusing our attention to the flame, right, and in focusing our attention to the flame, we close our eyes and we visualise the flame. Now when proper visualisation takes place, then do know for sure that all your mental energies are now focused, because without visualisation, and just looking at the flame, you will still have all kinds of things going through the mind. But when it comes to proper visualisation, thoughts will still come, but you would be apart from the thought. Like in mantra meditation, you become the mantra. I forgot to mention that, you become the mantra. In Tratak you become the flame. Good. So the purpose of Tratak meditation is to take all our scattered energies of the mind and bring it to a focal point. Now, this is very practical in one's daily life. The difference between success and failure in any undertaking is due to lack of concentration or proper concentration. A person who has a concentrated mind can be successful, and a person whose energies are scattered will find failure, depending how much the energies are scattered. So it has a very practical effect in our daily living. Now that is not the only thing that happens, that is just one side of it. Good. The other side is this, that we have here the Ajna Chakra, or else known in layman's language as the third eye, the eye that can perceive things which the ordinary two eyes cannot perceive. Fine. Now as you progress from the candle, and when you are fully established in visualising the flame, then you progress to a more difficult object, then you take, say, a flower. Now when you look at the flower with open eyes, and you close your eyes and visualise the flower, you're doing Tratak on the flower, then the details that you have missed with open eyes will be seen with closed eyes, will be seen with closed eyes. Because you have activated the subtle sense of perception, and here again that which is more subtle is definitely more powerful. Good. People that want to develop the art of clairvoyance for example, we don't want that, but just to mention it, would do very well starting off with Tratak, because the details missed in the flower with open eyes and so well captured with closed eyes, is nothing but clairvoyance, the insight into things. Fine. Now that is another aspect. Another aspect would be that science has a hypothesis that the Ajna Chakra is connected to the pineal gland. Unfortunately, science has not been able to dissect the pineal gland, because the only way they could reach the pineal gland is when a person dies, and when the person dies, the pineal gland becomes calcified and they cannot really find anything in it. I have a young lady, one of our meditators in Cape Town, who is busy at the moment doing a PhD on the pineal gland, and of course I give her assistance from the yogic point of view and her professors are helping her from the scientific point of view. So I do hope she would become successful. And if she is, it would be a major breakthrough in the knowledge of the world as it stands today. Fine.

10. UK 78- 18 Now, when one does Tratak, one activates the Ajna Chakra. Now the Ajna Chakra has a physiological counterpart in the pineal gland, so by activating in Tratak, by activating the Ajna Chakra we are also stimulating the pineal gland. Now when the gland is stimulated the pineal gland secretes a hormone called melatonin. Now, this is secreted in very minute quantities, but this secretion, this melatonin, has a regenerating, rejuvenating effect on the entire glandular system of a person. So here we have seen that through Tratak, we benefit mentally, we benefit psychologically, we benefit psychically, and with having added melatonin to the glandular system, we benefit physiologically. So it has an all round benefit. Now I don't want to go into how Tratak should be taught, because the Counsellors are very well capable of doing that, how Tratak should be taught. Instead of using a mantra, one uses the flame, and when the thoughts come and go, we allow them to pass, and through that, people write to me and they tell me of the various experiences they have, all the ranges of various colours and the things which they perceive. But they're not important, if you don't see all those colours and things and some people have beautiful visions doing the Tratak. For example, on that one trip to Greyshott, this one nun doing her practice, had a very clear vision of the Madonna and child. Because even through Tratak, we are penetrating the deeper layers of the mind. Good. Now Tratak is a general practice, given to practically everyone, with a few exceptions, and there are reasons for the few exceptions. It is given to everyone. Now with a concentrated mind, with a concentrated mind with all the energies being used as a totality, your mantra meditation improves. So when a person has a programme of practices, most people have three, four, five, six practices as a program and each practice is interrelated to the other. In other words every practice helps the other practice. So when the mental energies are concentrated, with some practice, then your meditation becomes much, much deeper. Now I would really like you all to listen to the two tapes I made on Raja Yoga. They are not very extensive, because I would at least have to speak for four hours. But as soon as I reach back to South Africa, with the little time tha t I might have, I want to do a systematic talks, which will take about three or four tapes, four hour tapes or four hour and a half hour tapes, which will give you the entire conception and the proper, a lot of the Scriptures have been misinterpreted, the proper interpretation of what Raja Yoga is all about, and how, what the mechanics are, and how all those steps, or the limbs, of Raja Yoga can be correlated with the discoveries of modern science, and not only that, what is even beyond it, which science perhaps will reach one day.

11. UK 78- 18 So Tratak serves many, many purposes. So why I mention Raja Yoga is this, that in Raja Yoga, some of you might have read Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, where you have Dhyana, Dharana and Samadhi. Samadhi is the ultimate aim. Now there is one tape on that section. I believe they have listened to Yama and Niyama, right living? That Dharana and Dhyana has to do with concentration and contemplation. So by doing Tratak, we develop our powers of concentration, and by developing the powers of concentration, we develop the powers of contemplation. Concentration develops contemplation and from contemplation you go into the various forms of Samadhi, two of which, as you have listened to in the tape, are important; Sarvikalpa Samadhi, that is meditation with form, and meditation which is formless, which is a higher stage, Nirvikalpa Samadhi. So you see how vast the range, how vast the range of Tratak is? So most people have been given Tratak as an exercise and do it. Many people might not want to sit down and we have, one woman writes to me that looking at the candle for a few minutes, won't it destroy my eyes? Good. So I've had various enquiries made with people, eye specialists and what have you, and they say that, that few minutes of looking at a flame does no damage whatsoever. As a matter of fact, when you walk outside, that sun the rays you get from the sun etc. is far, far, far more powerful than that little flame, so there is no ocular damage whatsoever. I mean this science has proven and agreed with. Now the reason is this, why do we use a flame? Now using the flame, you might as well have a white sheet of paper and a black dot on it to do Tratak. Or you could use a black sheet of paper with a white dot, and still do Tratak. But why I recommend the flame it is this, that the eyes has the capacity to have something called after image. It has after image. Now that is a great help for the beginner, because from that little after image that is retained momentarily, one could slip into visualisation much, much more easily. That is why we use the flame. But when a person has advanced, anything can become Tratak. I could close my eyes now and see her so, so clearly. Anything, anything, can be used for Tratak. So this practice is very important, and the reason why we use a flame is not only to support the candle industry. (Gururaj laughs) Does it cover you, Norman? Good. Next. Aide. Guruji, we know that Pranayama has a very purifying and cleansing effect upon the system. Could you speak more specifically about the different kinds of Pranayama we teach, namely the four, sixteen, eight after the meditation, and the transference of the energy from one chakra to another, and also 'watching the gap'. We've found in teaching, just a few of us have, that some people when they do the 'watching the gap', have difficulty, and it's a technique that needs a lot of perseverance and some help.

12. UK 78- 18 Gururaj. Right. Good. Now, Pranayama, four, sixteen, eight, is a rhythm, a basic rhythm. A person that cannot do four, sixteen, eight can do half of it, but maintaining the ratio two, eight, four. Fine. A child can do two, eight, four perhaps or some people with some little chest problem or whatever can do that. When four, sixteen, eight becomes very easy for you, you can double that. But the ratio must always be upheld. The ratio must be there. Now it is discovered by ancient Seers. By the way, the Tratak practice that we spoke about is thousands and thousands of years old. It's no invention of mine, I am like the doctor prescribing a medicine that has been discovered by other scientists. Fine. Now if one has the ability to stand apart from this universe, you will find the universe in a state of flux and beating to the same rhythm, four, sixteen, eight, the same ratio. At certain places of the universe it is more accelerated, at certain places it is slower, bu t the ratio is maintained. Fine. Now when we do Pranayama, when we do Pranayama, we are attuning our little individual selves with the universal self. The purpose of attuning our individual selves with the universal self, is because our little consciousness has to expand, to its universal level, which is called universal consciousness. So we start off, we start off at the primary beginning, whereby we gradually expand our consciousness to a universal consciousness, and we start off from the physical level of attuning the rhythm of our bodies to the rhythm of the universe. Fine. That is one aspect, a physiological aspect. Fine. Now in prana, as most of you know, it is not only the breath. The breath is but a grosser expression of prana. Prana, at its subtle level, is vital force, vital energy, or you could even call it life force, and that is contained everywhere, within us, outside us and to remain alive we need this vital force all the time. This vital force, if fully captured, you do not even need to breathe. I don't know at what Course I spoke about certain Hatha Yoga exercises, at some Course, where a person does certain operations on his tongue, was that at the Hayes? Where one breath is taken and in that one breath, so much energy is taken in, in the form of that vital life force, in that prana, that that person can be buried underground for thirty or forty days at a time and would not require the grosser breathing because the whole system can be maintained through the force of prana. So what we are doing, in addition to getting this rhythm in our system, we are also, because of the rhythm, receiving the maximum effect of that life force, which is invigorating. Now there are many forms of prana, and prana can be dissected into its various categories. There are many forms of prana, where a very small experiment would be, if you go outside and you feel very cold, do the Bastric Pranayama, which is fast breathing in and out like a dog panting, and you'll see how you'll warm up. You're drawing more, faster, of that life force and thereby accelerating the flow and the circulation of the blood and you would feel warm. If the climate is

13. UK 78- 18 too hot, and you want to feel cooler, you can decrease the circulation and decrease the metabolism and feel cooler. That is the secret of it. So Pranayama has, as you have said, a great purifactory effect. For example, when we do our chanting, and we do it forcefully, we are expelling, have you got a question on chanting as well or shall I cover it here? Now when you do chanting, when you reach the higher speed in the chant, if you will notice very carefully that the syllables - time, yeah. Good. Fine. Twelve fifty now. Your time is wrong, this is accurate. (Gururaj laughs) So when we are doing chanting, so when we are doing chanting, you will find that the words are so spaced in certain syllables that will give us a maximum amount of exhalation to its maximum value. Good. Fine. Now when we reach the stage of chanting faster, then we allow ourselves a lesser intake of breath, lesser intake of oxygen and allow a greater output of the carbon dioxide in the system, and by doing that, and by doing that you'd find that the body, this is also Pranayama, you’d find that the body becomes lighter. You have a more lighter feeling. That always works. There are many other aspects to chanting as well, where the very sounds are based on the bidja mantras, are based on the manifested world, and through that we experience the finest level of manifestation. And, that is why, when many people do chanting, the chanting just happens automatically, and you are sitting back as if you are watching yourself chanting. There you experience the duality which is a necessary must to experience unity. So in Pranayama, in Pranayama the whole system gets purified, the whole system gets purified and I think I told you that if you want to do all those little magic tricks like levitation and things, so many hours of chanting, so many hours of Pranayama and so many hours of meditation would produce that effect. It is very simple if you wish to do it, but I don't recommend it. Good. Fine. I think in trying to hurry I've left out quite a few points on Pranayama, but nevertheless that is more or less a brief idea of what Pranayama does; creates the rhythm of our individual self, to attune it to the rhythm of the universal self. It has a purifactory effect on the whole body and we are drawing vital prana, the vital life force, which in turn helps us to activate the various chakras of the subtle body. And when the chakras of the subtle body are vibrating at a higher level, all the effects of the subtle body are felt in the physical body and then the subtle body, then heightened vibrations of the chakras would start dissolving Samskaras. And, life becomes smoother and the quicker we reach that stage of pure consciousness, because when the wheels inside start turning faster, and at a higher rate of vibration, they clear away all the dirt and the muck that we have within us. What’s next? END