1. UK 78-2 Gururaj. I must say something that just to make it clear, if people can hear - did I say it? Can you hear me at the back? Good. Fine. Well, who’ll start us off this morning with a question? Questioner. Gururaj, could you tell me what is the nature of time? Gururaj. Must I tell it only to you or to everyone else? (Gururaj laughs) Gururaj. What is the nature of time? Now, time as a concept cannot be self-existent. Time must necessarily be accompanied with space. Now when there is time and space, there also has to be causality. In other words, there has to be a cause, which causes time and space. Now, with what instrument do we measure time, and of what significance is time, and in the whole concept of creation, how important is time? Good. Now, time is measured only by comparing it to something else. So, therefore, time needs comparison, and whenever comparison is needed, then it would naturally be relegated to the relative sphere. So, it means that time and space are relative, and in the absolute scheme of things, there is no time and space. Good. Now, the instrument of measuring time would be one's mind, would be one's conception. Now all of you must have noticed that if you stand watching the kettle boil, it takes a long time. All of you will have noticed that if you were totally absorbed in something, the hours just go by and it is not noticed. So to know time and to measure time, we need the instrument of the mind. Now, when we have the instrument of the mind, we also have to take into consideration the condition of the mind, as we have now seen - watching the boiling kettle, or being absorbed. So, the mind is forever of changing nature. The mind is forever of changing nature. It changes, and changes, and changes. When you are happy time flies. When you are sad time drags. Now, even in the relative sphere, to take the best advantage of time, we have to uncondition the conditioned mind, because time has always been a bugbear to man. He worries about time, he worries about life, he thinks about the three score years and ten, and he says, "Oh, what a short life I have". A young man adds so much importance to time, thinking - 'The years ahead, this is what I am going to do'. All the hopes are there. And when he becomes old, he looks back and he regrets what a lot of time has been wasted. And he’s calculating all this as a young man, or as an old man, on the basis of three score years and ten. Now, in the concept of things, in the absolute sphere, there is no time whatsoever, and that which we regard to be of such great importance is not even worth the flicker of an eyelid. You find a man eighty years old and he is thinking of all the wealth he might have accumulated and he says, ‘Can't I live another eighty years to enjoy all that?’ And he says: ‘Gururaj, please, show me a way, I want to live more, to enjoy it’. So, here, time, and to evaluate time also creates in us a sense of attachment. We become attached to time and we become attached to time because we want to get the maximum benefit of time according to the limited conceptions of our minds. And the limited

2. UK 78-2 conceptions of our minds adds so much importance to time, that time is everything and everything is nothing. Now, that which we regard to be nothing, is really the everything and not the conception we have of what we regard to be time. Now, the relative aspects of life, the relative (Gururaj laughs) ah, this is fun. I hope I’m not going too - good. Now the relative aspects of time are important to us. We are physically embodied beings. We have a mind which is also physical matter. The physical body might be grosser matter, but the mind too is of a finer matter. As the body is governed by its various molecular atomic compositions, so is the mind. And people try to find the meaning of life, the purpose of life, within the boundaries of time. Now time is always encompassed within boundaries. Time, which is conceived by the mind must necessarily have boundaries. Now the purpose of life, consciously or unconsciously man is seeking for freedom, he wants to be free. He wants to be free of all shackles. He wants to be free, by shackles we mean suffering, he wants to be free of all sufferings, and he is attempting to do this within time. What a contradiction! It is, a contradiction, because the real freedom can only be found when we realise the meaning of timelessness. Real freedom can only be found when we realise the meaning of timelessness. So in order to realise the meaning of timelessness, we have to go beyond time. Now the human being and the little time he has at his disposal in this lifetime, he must remember that it is a minute fraction in a whole continuum, it is a minute fraction in a whole continuum and the time we think of today with our minds is necessarily conditioned by what has been in the past. And, because of that conditioning, and if we involve ourselves more in the factors and the mechanics of time, we will automatically be conditioning the other side of the continuum. In other words, the time we use in relativity at the present moment is conditioned by the time of the past, and the present time will naturally condition the time of the future. Now we are not going to discard relativity as illusion. To us relativity is real. If you have a toe-ache, it is a toe-ache. If your wife burned the toast this morning, it is burnt. And if hubby came home late from work last night, coming via, via, via - what do you call those places? (General laughter) - pubs, it naturally affects us. Just imagine that hour he was late, spending the time in the pub, one hour has taken so much out of you. It has driven you mad, crazy. What the hell is he doing? Shouldn't he come straight home? One hour. Fine. Meanwhile we can't say the husband was right. Neither was the wife right, she shouldn't worry so much. But if she showed him more love, tomorrow he might not come via that road. That’s a different aspect of things. Good. So, now accepting the fact that time to us is real in our relative existence, what do we do about the time on hand? You can put it on your wrist. Yes. What do we do with the time on hand and how usefully and how fruitfully it is used? So, although time is bounded and has to conform to boundaries, let us make good use of the boundaries. What's wrong with boundaries? What's wrong with bondage? Let us use bondage as a lever to find freedom. For the man who discovers freedom in bondage, and bondage in freedom, he is the realised man. To discover freedom in bondage, and to discover bondage in freedom is the realised man. Good. So, how do we discover freedom in bondage? Life itself is

3. UK 78-2 nothing but a poem. Life itself is nothing but a poem. Now those of you who write poetry will know that it requires all the freedom of expression and yet within metrical bondage. Good. Now this kind of bondage in the poem of which life really is, can enhance the bondage, can bring out the beauty. You don't need to write free verse all the time. You don’t need to write free verse all the time. You don’t need to write free verse all the time. The freedom totality of your being is expressed in the poem of life, and let it be bound in symmetrical, metrical composition. That is the secret of a happy lif e. Now, how do we achieve this? The way to achieve this is to acknowledge to ourselves and accept the fact that ‘I am in bondage’. And I am in bondage, not bound by any external force, but I am in bondage because of the internal forces that I have used to condition myself. Once that factor is accepted, then you do not feel the shackles. You know, in South Africa, when you drive they had the - what do you call those straps, safety belts, safety belts, it was not compulsory and so the laws, the traffic department, made it compulsory. Now, the first few times you put on the safety belt you feel so bound, you feel strapped down. That's how I felt, you feel strapped down. But I accepted the fact that look this is the law and I have to do it, and now when I put on the safety belt I don't even know it is there. That comes through accepting the factor, accepting the fact that this has to be done. So, when we find this bondage, and if it is accepted within the boundaries of time, because life itself is governed by time. Life itself is governed by time and time is measured not only by the ticking of the clock, but time is measured by space, how long would it take me to reach from here to that door? Now when space is an integral part of time, there has to be a cause. Where does this cause come from? Now, the absolute is regarded to be the causeless cause, the free cause. Where does the binding cause come from? That cause has been created by us. I have caused the space around me and I have caused the time by which I perceive the space around me. Now this means that I have created my environment. Environment has two aspects, one's internal environment, and the external environment. And I have caused them both. Now what happens to most people is this, that they are tossed around in the sea of life; tossed around so much in the sea of life, by time and space, and not realising that me being tossed around is caused by me. So what do I do to my boat? I build a rudder, and that rudder comes about by proper understanding and meditation and spiritual practices, so that even in the movement of time and space I can be still. That is the secret of life, that even in the movement of time and space that used to toss me around, helplessly. Now, I am not the servant of it but the master of it and I, amidst the storm can stand still. That comes about through meditation and spiritual practices. So now we have seen what time does to us and what it can do to us, and what we can do about it. Good. We have been talking about the relative sphere of life. So once we become still and once we start controlling the factors that engender time, and in that stillness we will find the meaning of timelessness. That is found when realisations dawn. Now remember, time and space is for the individual and in the stillness that we find, we do not only find our individual self but we find our universal self. For the extent of every man is as vast as the extent of the entire universe. The entire univers e

4. UK 78-2 is within each and every one. It is only when the individuality merges away in universality, that we cross the boundary of time and we become boundless and timeless. To appreciate that timelessness which is within us, we have to reach that stage where we become timeless and eternal. So, man has within himself timelessness and eternalness, for is man's soul not immortal? And, immortality is synonymous with eternity. They cannot exist apart. Eternity exists because of immortality, and immortality exists because of eternity. Eternity is timeless, without boundaries, and immortality is the real existence of one's self in immortalness or timelessness. So, through meditational practices, as we gradually progress, as we gradually progress out of our shells, our shells of individuality, we merge away into the immortality. Therefore the Sanskrit prayer that we do, ‘Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya’. 'Lead me from mortality to immortality'. 'Lead me from the boundaries of time to timelessness' - means the same, it means the same. So by doing our spiritual practices, we begin to experience that within us. Many of you know that when you sit down to meditation, half an hour passes away, perhaps an hour passes, and you think you've just sat down. Good. Now, what is the effect of realising timelessness within the boundaries of time? Remember, as embodied beings we cannot escape time, as an embodied being. And yet, in spite of the embodiment, in spite of the boundary, we can still experience within ourselves, while still moving about and being alive, if we call this being alive, (Gururaj laughs) we can still experience the eternity, the immortality. And when we experience the depths within ourselves, the kingdom of heaven which is there, then our lives change. It changes automatically. It changes, and the individual being is so enhanced, that the individual is fully infused with the eternal. Am I going on too long with this question? No. Okay. I’ll carry on. Now, what are the mechanics, what are the mechanics of this happening? Now you will know, you will know that, that which bounds us, binds us, is nothing but our own egos. It is the ego that has the perception of time. It is the ego that has the perception of space, and all sufferings, and all our actions as we do as an individual, is nothing but feeding the ego for its self-preservation, because he wants to cling to life. The ego wants to cling to life because he thinks, or it thinks, that this time and space is permanent. There is the illusion. There is the Maya, thinking that by preserving the ego one has found the secret of preserving time and space according to one's selfish need. Now the ego itself cannot exist by itself. The ego is not self-luminous, but the being within man is self-effulgent, self-luminous. The ego borrows light, it lives on borrowed glory. And therefore the ego deludes itself in thinking that he can find permanency in time and space. Now, what to do about the ego? People say, ‘Annihilate the ego', people say, ‘Destroy the ego'. That is a fallacy. I am going to put to you today a totally new proposition, that the thought of the world up to now has not put forth. Are you re ady? (General laughter) Philosophies tell you, annihilate the ego, destroy the ego, and when the ego is destroyed, your real self will shine out. Destroy the small ‘i’, and the big ‘I’ is there. Fine. Good. Good. Good. I say, ‘Do not destroy the eg o, preserve the ego and yet find that which is egoless’. Now how do we do that? How do we do that? Good. Now to

5. UK 78-2 use an analogy, let us take a rubber, latex rubber. Now if the rubber is stretched, and stretched, and stretched, there comes a time when the rubber becomes transparent. Now when the ego assumes a form of transparency, then the light of the real self shines through. Then the light of the real self shines through because the ego has been expanded to its highest relative value, to its highest transparent value. As long as man is embodied, he will still have a trace of ego, he will. Even the self-realised man, even the man who is the living free, Jivanmukta, still has a trace of ego. It will be there but his ego has become so transparent that the entirety of that divine light shines through. That ego, at its highest transparent level, is but the running off, running off of the momentum that was created through all these existences that he has lived. He might be self-realised, but as a top is spinning, and has reached its peak in the spin the very momentum must turn off. And until it is has not turned off completely, which is impossible while having a body, it still has ego, but a refined ego. The rubber of the ego is so expanded that it is transparent. It becomes transparent as a film put across the light. Pure, white film, and you only see the light, the film is not seen. And this is a possibility. This is a possibility, if a person practises the true tenets of his own religion. Now, we can go into the mechanics of this, how to take the ego to its fullest refinement without destroying it, and that could be a subject under Raja Yoga. Who would like to listen to Raja Yoga, and the mechanics of Raja Yoga? Let us have that as a subject tonight. Because it would be long we have to speak about an hour on that. So let’s have that subject, how it works, how one progresses and how all these limbs of yoga, which was by Patanjali, these yoga sutras, many of you must have read Patanjali, the aphorisms of Patanjali and the various limbs of Yoga. We can speak about that this evening. It would be interesting, because many of the ancient Scriptures have been so, so misinterpreted. That, as a matter of fact, is going to be a great part of my life's work, to bring about some proper interpretation in these misinterpretations. Many of ancient knowledge has not really being well understood. We'll talk of Raja Yoga tonight. Okay. Fine. Good. Another question? Gururaj. Oh yes, Gita makes a suggestion. How many people have read Patanjali, Yoga Sutras? Oh, quite a number. No. Not so many. Aide. So you would have to do some basic ....... Gururaj. No, no. We’ll develop it from its basic theme to its highest level. Fine. Because it’s all connected with meditation. Questioner. Gururaj, if meditation seems to be all thoughts, can it mean

6. UK 78-2 Gururaj. If meditation seems to be? Questioner. (Cont'd.) full of thoughts, can it mean too demanding a life style, job, etc.? How can one decide the correct balance between opportunities for growth from a demanding environment and opportunities for thought, etc from more relaxed living? Gururaj. Good. If meditation is full of thoughts, if meditation is full of thoughts, then it is not meditation. It is a process towards meditation. It is contemplation. Now, this falls within the realms of Raja Yoga, where one progresses from concentration to contemplation, to meditation. As far as opportunities go, opportunities do not fall down in your lap, opportunities are created. The human being is the greatest magnet in the world. He attracts to himself what he deserves. Man attracts to himself what he deserves. Many a person would say, ‘Why has this befallen me? Why did I have four punctures in a day?’ When last did you have your four wheels checked? (Gururaj laughs) Yes, everything that befalls us, please remember we are responsible for it and no one else. I have said this before, when we have problems, we always shift the blame. We shift the blame to our wives, to our husbands, our children, our bosses or to friends, to the guru, yeah, yeah, and when we can't succeed in this at last we blame God. Yes, I have said this many times. Good. But man does not realise that all fortune or misfortune is attracted to him, by himself. Good. Now, what could be fortune for one could be a misfortune for the other. There is a saying, 'What is meat for the goose is sauce for the gander' or 'What is meat for one is poison for the other'. I'm sure we could find a lot of sayings that would match these. Fine. Now to be able to know what an adversity is, to be able to know what an adversity is would be a lot of trouble. We go through a lot of trouble dissecting the adversity, and that is a major fault. Yes. We examine any situation; we examine the environment from the viewpoint of faults. What is wrong with it, all the negativities? But do remember that within every adversity there is an opportunity. So why not use the same advantage in looking at the various facets of the opportunity? The opportunities are there in everything. Oh, yes! A man had an accident and broke his leg. It was an adversity. But while he was three weeks in bed and started analysing himself - it is nice to be ill, oh yes, it makes you think - so while he was three weeks in bed, he started analysing all his faults. And when he got out of bed, away from hospital, he was a changed man, because he had been so busy, so busy looking at all the adversities in his life, so busy and mixed up with all the trials and tribulations and the turmoils that he could never sit back and reflect. He could never sit back and reflect. So here he was forced to sit back and reflect upon the happenings of his life. So look at the beautiful opportunity in the adversity. So when he came out of the hospital, not only was his leg healed but his heart was healed and he lived a better life.

7. UK 78-2 So opportunity or adversity is six of one and half a dozen of the other. That is what it means. There is no adversity in life. There is no adversity. There is only opportunity. That which we regard to be adverse might be the very lesson we need to learn. That might be the very lesson we need to learn. Sometimes we get rebuked by a friend, and we look not with good thoughts at friend. But that friend with those words might have wakened in us, might have made us look into the mirror and see our faults. And even if the friend is spiteful and we recognise the whole thing of the friend to be spiteful, now instead of looking at the friend's spitefulness, let us analyse spitefulness. And by analysing spitefulness, we do not become spiteful. You see how it works. Look at all the opportunities. At every turn and every corner there is an opportunity to learn, learn, learn to evolve, evolve, evolve, because, it is inherent within us to evolve. We cannot stop evolution. There is a force that carries us on and on, and on. And even all the trials and tribulations of life are nothing but an opportunity. Now when we view these adversities in this light, with this mental attitude, the whole sting of the so-called adversity disappears. Because what makes us suffer is our own minds, nothing else. There is no external thing, there is no environment that can make us suffer, if we don't accept it with our minds. Our greatest suffering in life is our mind. Friend X says a bad word, so you will sit the whole night moping about it. Friend X is not suffering, you are suffering. If you would just say, ‘Oh well, he said that according to his little understanding’. Just to have that affirmation, his little understanding perhaps you understand even less, it doesn't matter. (Gururaj laughs). According to his understanding he said this. Why must I allow myself to be hurt? After all, what can be really done? He cannot prolong my life or shorten my life. The very thing which I am clinging to, and the very thing that is hurting me now, and which I can use to soothe the hurts. So, attitude, attitude, attitude. Proper attitude can turn any adversity into an opportunity. And no man is so poor, not to be able to do this, for divinity has given us all the tools, all the riches to achieve this. And it is not difficult. We are creating difficulties. It is all so simple. We are creating the complexities. Even in the simplest situation, we create complexities. Friend X says a bad word. Fine. So now we start analysing that, we start going into the motives of Friend X's words. Friend X said this. Did she say this because of her husband, or perhaps her sister, Aunty Mathilda was involved, I remember. And we build, we build, we build a story around something which means nothing. So on to nothing who has built the something to create the misery within us? We! So you see, so you see. Everything in life, every compounded thing can be brought down to its simplest formula. And it is only when we learn to bring these problems down to its simplest formula, we will see that it just means nothing at all. And this life is so short to worry about all those things, by making it unhappy. How stupid we are, how stupid! That’s what we do. That’s

8. UK 78-2 what we really, really do. If we just stand up and say, ‘Ah, come what may, come what may, I am not standing alone, come what may. The essence within myself is Divine, without that Divinity I cannot lift a finger, I cannot breathe a single breath.’ And that essence is so simple. So by analysing problems around us and bringing it down to their simplest value, we are automatically touching that simple Divinity within us. And then we say, ‘I am not standing alone. Hand in hand I walk. Hand in hand relativity walks with absolute. Hand in hand, I am not alone, who can harm, what can harm?’ And when we realise this, when we affirm this to ourselves, when we feel this within every bone in our bodies, within every drop of blood in our system, then everything is an opportunity. You do not need to create them. It is there. Opportunity is beauty. It is beauty. And we have been gifted with the greatest opportunity of life and that is being able to live. That’s the greatest opportunity. Okay. Good. Fine. END