1. UK 78- 46 Gururaj. Good let us hear some brand new questions. Thank you. Questioner. Guruji, in the light of your talk yesterday morning, could you talk to us about the experience we call tr anscending in meditation and perhaps generally some of the other experiences we have? Gururaj. What do I - do transcend. Yes, why not? Ask half a dozen and we can go through them. Questioner. Guruji, many of us are constricted and restricted in our lives and inside ourselves by fear. When I look at my own fears, I find that most of them are due to insecurity, fears of what people think, fears of not being loved, fears of losing someone else’s love, fears of financial insecurity, job insecurity, fear of losing status in the relative world. Can you speak of how one can be with these fears? Gururaj. The answer is very easy. It is to transcend your fears. (General laughter) Yes. The question revolves round one fact and that factor is what is the basis of fear? In other words the question contains, the basic question what is fear. Now if we analyse what the basis of fear is then we can answer the outward manifestations of fear such as loss of love, loss of financial security, loss of respect from others plus the various things that were numerated by Sybil. Man only fears because he fears to lose himself. The importance man attaches to himself is not his real self. He attaches importance to the superficial self or in our terms the ego self. So when man learns to transcend or go beyond the ego self then all fears automatically disappear. If a person fears losing someone’s love. Why does the person first of all need to be loved? Does he really need to be loved? Where there is a need then that person misinterprets the word love. What that person is really looking for in that so-called love is some form of dependency, dependency for the purpose of perpetuating and keeping alive his ego because basically he fears to lose the ego. Is that clear? Right. When a person feels threatened as far as his job is concerned, he feels financially insecure. Now if we study that problem, we will find that say a man earns a thousand pounds a month, now that thousand pounds a month has given him a decent home which he thinks in his own idea of a nice home, because every home is nice. It does not need to be a mansion, it could be a hut, and that hut could be very, very nice. So we're talking of this particular person’s idea of having a nice home, nice clothes, all the various kinds of foods. He can have his own idea about foods. The local cheese which is just as healthy could be half the price of the imported one and it could taste the same also. What is the difference between English cheddar and the cheddar cheese that come from Antarctica? Do you see, you see ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas? If a man puts on a suit that costs thirty pounds and another person puts

2. UK 78- 46 on a suit that costs three hundred pounds, anyone from three feet away will not know the difference. That he has paid thirty pounds for it and that one is three hundred pounds. He will not know the difference from three feet away. But the person wearing it, knows the difference, (General laughter) ‘Ah, do you see I'm wearing a suit of three hundred’ and it gives him a sense of confidence. He has to go and see an important person and by putting on the suit, he feels confident. Right. That is false confidence which he has brought to himself or created for himself imaginarily. He imagines he's confident and sometimes it works, sometimes it works but it does not fill the gap that is within him. So all those factors and we can sight hundreds of instances. You put on a pair of shoes that cost five pounds and you put on a pair of shoes that cost eighty five pounds and believe you me out of every hundred people you meet, perhaps one might notice it, ninety nine don't. But you feel that confidence, ‘Ah eighty-five pounds shoes’. So what we are doing daily in our lives is that we are feeding the ego and feeding the ego with false values and it is only false values that create fear in us, create all the insecurities in us because our ego is nothing else but a togetherness of false values. The ego in itself for itself and by itself is valueless. It is valueless because it is a whole concoction of false values. Now how is the ego formed you might ask. The ego is formed by the various samskaric values we have that are brought forward into this life. The tendencies are there, the impressions are there, the weeds are there and the environment and the false world that we have created around us feed the weeds and the weeds grow. Instead of weeding out the weeds we make the weeds flourish and not only flourish but stifle all the beautiful flowers that are growing in the garden. The flowers are in the garden, the weeds are also there and because of our false values of life that which has to be stifled is not stifled and that which has to be kept alive is killed. Ah, how wonderful we human beings are? So the basis of fear is the instinct of self-preservation. Now this is natural for the average man. It is on this principle that we have the theory Darwinism survival of the fittest. But Darwin forgets to tell us, he might have not known who is the fittest. What is the fittest? What constitutes the fittest being or fittest creature? Does ego value constitute that fitness for survival? No. No. No. The more the ego is subdued, that's a wrong word but we'll use it today the more the ego is subdued or the more the ego is refined. That’s a finer word refined, the fitter we become to face life as it is. The purpose and goal of this life is to be able to face life as it is and then to go beyond it, transcend it. Now how is this to be done? You see one question is always the mother of another question and then when that question is answered the first question becomes a grandmother of another one. So the original question becomes a great, great, great, great grandmother all the time. Poor girl. What is the way? How can we stop allowing that sore called the ego to keep on festering? We have seen that the ego has never ever in anyone’s life or anyone’s lives throughout the whole course of recorded history brought happiness and security to anyone whatsoever. All these wars we see in this world, be they hot

3. UK 78- 46 or cold are just because of insecurity and the ego by trying to preserve itself tries to gather, tries to gather. A miser tries to gather hordes of great wealth why? Because he wants to feel secure and by he, we mean the ego. Now the way to get out of this trap that we are trapped in is to expand the ego to its finer limits. I think we spoke about this. We have gone into length about it on this question and one of the methods of doing this and about the best method in today’s world is to meditate, to do spiritual practices. Now we know that nothing can remain a vacuum as far as a person’s life is concerned or anything else that is concerned nothing remains a vacuum. Everything remains filled with something. So when we push one thing aside, we fill it with something else. Now we have the habit of pushing one thing aside and filling it with something else just as negative. I had an experience where a person came to me who was troubled with alcoholism, he was an alcoholic. He went through a programme, he even had psychiatric treatment and one of the things that the Psychiatrist prescribed for him was a form of tranquilliser. So he got rid of one addition and became addicted to the other equally negative. Perhaps the Psychiatrist made a mistake or whatever we don't know. But this happens in daily life where we supplant one negativity with another negativity. But if we, if we can supplant the negativity with some form of positivity, ah then progress has been made. That is how the ego becomes more and more refined and as it becomes and more refined, it becomes more and more receptive to greater and greater positivity. What is the cure for a sense of insecurity is to bring upon ourselves security. Now how is that brought about? You, yourself that are involved in the ego itself can never create security by the means of the ego. So you got to have reliance on something else and anything which is called positive is always called something higher than ourselves. Because we are negative and something else that is positive so naturally the positive value, the positive values are definitely higher. Now here is also the case of transference that we spoke about. Earlier we said that we transfer one negativity by another negativity. Now we are trying to say that we are transferring a positivity to replace the negativity. Now positive forces are always more powerful. That is why all theologies they are not wrong in saying that good always conquers evil, truth always conquers untruths. All the religions say that and that is very true. But now here when we are so involved in that ego self the ego is so trapped that on its own it cannot find a way out of itself it requires a lever, it requires an outside power, it requires a positive power. Now this positive power can be had in so many different ways. It can be found through the influence of a good friend that loves you and wants to see you advance. It will show you that this insecurity you feel that you are going to lose your job. So is the world lost if you lose this job, is the world really lost? In a country like this, are you going to suffer of hunger? Are you going to suffer of thirst? There's such lovely Social Security here and you will survive and that Social Security, you're not getting for nothing, you have paid for it. And you're not even getting back the interest in all that money accumulated. That fund is growing bigger and bigger. So you won't go hungry. So

4. UK 78- 46 stop worrying about that. The more you keep on worrying I'm going to lose my job, lose my job, lose my job, what will I do, what will I do, what will I do, it’s going to make you more and more negative and more and more depressive and depressed and you'll think life is not really worth while. But if you have the thought that look what is lost so it’s only a job and Divinity has given me inner strength to find another job. Now in approaching the other job if a person has that idea then the other job will come so easily and so smoothly. Many a man has gone apply for a job with the idea in his mind that I'm going to be rejected and believe you me ninety nine point nine, nine, nine times he will be rejected because he is approaching the whole situation with that negativity. Now here we come back to the friend a real friend, a friend in need is a friend indeed. We say that. Now a real friend will not feed your ego. A real friend will not feed your ego nor pat you on the back. A real friend is he who will look you straight in the eye and tell you the truth about yourself as he sees it. That is a real friend. Fine. So now this friend says stop worrying, a job will be found. You have your qualifications, your abilities in particular things and there are many jobs like that. And if you're a pen pusher, how many millions others don't push pens. Okay. Yes. If you're a street sweeper, okay, fine more and more streets and there's more and more dirt accumulating. Yes. That is very true. There was less dirt twenty years ago than there is today. Just ask the Municipality, they'll tell you that. With all these false wrappings and supermarkets you know that. If you're a street sweeper, you'll find a job there's always a job for you. That is how we go on. Fine. We do not lose hope and the other job is found. Now if we don't have a friend like that then what do we do, we might have a guru, whose heart is so big enough just give him your troubles - ‘Look Guruji, look after that, it’s your business not mine’. Of course it is your business or why the hell are you my guru? (General laughter) Yes. Yes. Now what this means, (Gururaj laughs), now what this means is this, now let us look at this what I've said now from a psychological and a spiritual angle. From the psychological angle, you are taking the burden off your mind, you’re taking the burden off and there is a transference. That's all the Psychiatrists do by the way, they do nothing else. They'll sit there behind their desk and they make you talk and you talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and when you leave you got to give th e reception twenty pounds. You see it takes all the burden away from you including the back pocket. (Gururaj laughs) We have such a lot of fun here, philosophy is just not being serious. Philosophy is also finding the ability to be able to laug h and what we teach my dear lady is how to laugh. So in transferring that problem sitting down quietly and saying ‘Guruji, this is my problem’, you'd find such an immense relief and most of you have experienced this. Has anybody not experienced this? Put up their hands. (General laughter) There you are. (Gururaj laughs) Good. Fine. You see? Now it has a psychological effect. Now by having

5. UK 78- 46 this, by bringing a certain calmness by this transference by bringing that certain calmness to the mind you become linked with a universal force. A guru is nothing but a bag of flesh and bones. That's all. He does everything you do eats, sleeps, everything. Fine. But the only thing where he differs perhaps from the man in the street is that through so many, many, many lifetimes he has found communion, he has found communion with Divinity and his life is lived in communion with his Father. So now it is so difficult to conceive of Divinity in its abstract form. It is so difficult to conceive of Divinity in its abstract form. So here is a channel, here is an objectification of your problem. You see how you objectify your problem in this process, that by taking the problem to the guru and the guru is nothing else, nothing more than just a channel and he has become a channel because he has found oneness with God. That's all. That's all and everyone can do that. Everyone has the ability within them to do that. Some might need another life, this lifetime, another lifetime, tw o hundred lifetimes, two thousand lifetimes. Everyone reaches there, everyone will reach Divinity and become one with Divinity. It is a matter of time. It’s a matter of time. Fine. So here by putting the problems to the guru, a certain calmness descends, number one. Number two, by externalising the internal problem, by putting it to the guru, you objectify the problem. And when you objectify the problem, the problem loses its sting. It loses its sting by not seeming so huge and large. I remember as a younger man I loved mountaineering. I was taken to a mountain and the pass that we were going to climb was called the Skeleton Gorge. Standing down here it looked so difficult. This was my first venture into mountaineering and of course after the first mountaineering experience, I had to be in bed for three days because every muscle was stiff, and did my friends have a laugh. Good. Nevertheless from down here the climb seemed so, so steep I say, ‘How am I going to do this, these friends of mine must be mad in attempting this’. But do you know as we started climbing it looked so difficult from down here, but as we started climbing it was so easy, so easy. It looked so steep like that, but when you start climbing there was no difficulty at all and we climbed the mountain. So by objectification while you're involved in that ego self of yours, the problem seems so large, so big, the molehill becomes a mountain. So when we objectify the problem you will find that it is not so bad as you thought. The man is going to lose his job, so for a month or two he will be on Social Security and he'll find another job and it might even be a better job. So to recap, because this is very important it’s a wonderful question Sybil, very good, because this applies to everyone's daily life. We are mixed up in this thing all the time. So here there is giving away the problem, making the mind calm by doing that you are objectifying and by objectification the problem does not seem so huge as it is. When I started life, I started practising as an Accountant. Good. A man I knew, a friend, who was not a client of mine at that time had a lovely job very well paid, nice home everything was rosy for him. That's what he thought, actually of course and

6. UK 78- 46 then he became redundant. All of a sudden he had to leave his job. He came to see me. He says, ‘What shall I do I've lost this job?’ I said, ‘Well, look, you've been a sensible man and you have put away a few pennies’. If any man that earns say two hundred pounds a month and does not ever think of putting away two pounds, then he's not using his sense really. He's not using his sense, he hasn't got common sense. And I always say that common sense is really not so common. Right. But I told him ‘You have a few pennies and you'll find another job’. But do you know what this man did with that money he had saved through his work he bought a small property, there was only ten per cent deposit required ninety per cent he got on bond, you call it mortgage in this country, mortgage, we call it a bond. Fine. He came to ask me, I worked it out for him, I was an accountant, I said, ‘Look the returns are very, very good do that, and you can occupy one of the shops yourself’. And he progressed that way. Now there is a street in Capetown called Whale Street, do you remember that Whale Street at the top of Addley Street, the one that goes up. So this man owns half of Whale Street today and he became a wonderful client of mine. Because it is only prosperous clients that make the Accountant prosper. You see? So, the meaning here is this that in every adversity, there is an opportunity. In every adversity, there is an opportunity, it is how we look at things. Two men in the street were digging holes when one was asked, what are you doing? He says, ‘I'm digging a hole’. When the other one was asked what are you doing, he says, ‘I'm digging to lay a foundation for a Cathedral’. Look at the conception. One was just digging a hole, the other was thinking of this vast Cathedral. See the lovely attitude towards life. Good. Now let's get back to our story. In putting the trouble to a guru or objectifying the problem to a channel, you are very automatically tuning yourself to a universal, healing, uplifting, sublime force. So in that very act there is a sense o f self surrender that is being produced. And to whom are you surrendering? You are surrendering to the Divinity. All these other things the guru, the friend, the objectification are just means, just the stepladder to reach Divinity. So it actually means that you're surrendering yourself to God. So you develop self-surrender. And when you keep on doing this, your ego becomes more and more refined and you transcend the ego. You transcend the ego. That is the practical way of, would you mind if they come to lunch at three o'clock. Good. That is the practical Karma Yoga way of getting rid of insecurity, inadequacy and all the fears because the basis of fear is a sense of self preservation and the sense of preserving that ego self is always, always false. For know this to be true that that ego is non-lasting. It never lasts forever changing, changing, changing all the time. That ego is based in impermanency and that which is impermanent can never be true. Because its very nature is to change all the time, while truth remains constant. Examine yourself. You'll know that the ideas you had about yourself ten years ago are not the same ideas you have about yourself today. Your ego has

7. UK 78- 46 gone through certain modifications, it has changed either for the better or for the worst. But the real self of man the Divinity in man never changes. Truth is one, truth never changes. So with this self-surrender that is produced in us, you become a true Karma Yogi and then you feel the glory and the greatness and the beauty of Divinity itself. That is how the ego becomes more and more refined, finer and finer, and finer and with the force of that light that shines through all you inadequacies and insecurities and fears disappear. For fear is nothing else but a shadow. Fear is nothing else but a shadow. You know the kinds of fears people have, if you can just stand apart, if you can just stand aside from this world, just stand apart a few feet, or a few miles apart and watc h the world and all this four million beings, four thousand million beings in this world. Do you know what this world would look like to you? An asylum. Yes. That is how people behave. But that is necessary too, its part and parcel of evolution and as soon as man starts examining himself, examining his fears, recognising his insecurities, inadequacies and all that which goes with it there his progress starts. Because progress can only start by facing yourself. Facing yourself means, admitting to yourself that this is my insecurity. Admitting that to yourself you will accept yourself as yourself, as the small ego self and then you ask yourself another question what am I going to do. And the practical way we have shown just now is just that which you have to do. And that as to repeat again over and over and over again that is living life and not just existing, not being just a piece of driftwood in the river shuffled here and there, not being a person that's moved from or kicked around from pillar to post. It is not necessary because man has the power within himself for self-propulsion. And the more a person is pushed around, remember that is a weakness and we succumb to that weakness by letting the environment influence us. By letting the environment influence us in such a way that what are they or he or she going to think of me. Remember that person, if that person thinks whatever of you that person is judging you. And what right has that person to judge you. Judge ye not that ye be judged. That person has no right to judge you and whatever judgement that person passes upon you, that is his karma and his fault and it is the boosting up of his own ego. Now we know the weaknesses of people. Why do people criticise other people? Why? The basic reason for one person criticising or condemning or judging another person is to give himself a false boost, that I am better than him. Really he's not, you're all in the same, same boat, same boat, same boat, yes. So that is why we do not take any notice of others who wants to judge us for they know not the sin they commit. They know not great karma they bring upon themselves by boosting up their own egos and they shift away and away and away from the source of light, instead of being the friend leading a helping hand, extending the hand the hand of love. They produce hatreds. See now how this also multiplies? Every negative quality is associated with a thousand other negative qualities. They are all blood brothers. They are all belong to the same blood grouping. Is that right Dr. Aldridge?

8. UK 78- 46 (Side 2 starts) qualities bring to themselves, draw to itself a thousand other positive qualities. So that is the secret. That is the secret how to transcend in practical daily living. Now the transcendence we speak of in meditation that is a different thing altogether and if there is any teacher in this world that tells you that you will transcend within five minutes or in your first, second, third or fourth session that is not true. Take that from me. It’s a false promise to people. It’s a delusion, deluding people. The human mind being so tied up in knots with its own ego cannot just transcend like that. It requires a bit of practice. Every time we sit into meditation, we go deeper and deeper into our mind. We go to deeper and deeper layers of the mind and as we go to the deeper and deeper layers of the mind greater and greater calmness comes to us. For the deeper you go, the calmer it is. Do you see? Any psychologist or psychiatrist can prove to you ...... can be verified in our own meditations. So that is the idea, that is how the quality of life improves. Forget transcending for the moment. As we go to the deeper and deeper layers of the mind the more power, we gain from it because we are going to the subtler and subtler levels and as I've said a million times over that the subtler the thing the more powerful it is. The subtler the thing the more powerful it is. And as we go to the deeper layers of the mind and draw from there all our actions become more powerful. Our actions become more positive because the subtler levels of the mind are far nearer to Divinity than the grosser level of the mind. So therefore the subtler level of the mind being closer to Divinity, can reflec t that light more clearer. So all the improvements we have found in our lives through meditation and spiritual practices, is that we have been going to subtler and subtler levels. And some of us have transcended the entire area of the mind which is as vast as the universe and touch the source of being where the body has disappeared, where the whole mind has disappeared, the whole universe has disappeared where there are no emotions, no sensations, where there's no white, there's no black where there's no heat, there's no cold. But there is just that ‘Isness’. Just that isness of Divinity, the being I am that I am. We can all experience this, oh yes and some of us have but only a glimpse. That glimpse is good enough. You don't need to touch live electric wires for two hours to have a shock, (General laughter) just a little touch and you've had it. And sometimes you can have it in such a way that you could be transported away into a different dimension. Thank you very much. What a wonderful Secretary, she always reminds of things. Nevertheless another couple of minutes please? You see. So do you know the greatest Yogis in the this world, the greatest Yogis past and present in this world can never remain in that transcendental state for more than twenty one days or their whole body will disintegrate. Their whole body will disintegrate. So what we do in our meditation is go to the subtler and subtler levels of the mind and that is brought t o

9. UK 78- 46 the fore automatically which smoothens out through that calmness and strength gained smoothens out the surface problems that were so large before. Now they become smaller. Gaining the strength, they make us admit our faults to ourselves, to our guru he can be thousands of miles away, it doesn't matter because the guru sees no fault in anyone. The real guru. He sees no fault in anyone. For how can this ocean exist if they were no waves, there has to be waves. Some waves subside and as some subside others rise. It’s all part and parcel of this whole game of life. For life is but a play isn't it and we are all actors on that stage, poor Shakespeare. Yes. Yes. So there is not a single person that I have found to be a sinner. Everyone is Divine. Why must I look at the surface value of people, the surface turbulence? O Lord give me the strength to look at the inner self of a person and find you there. Why must I look up there when I can see you here? That is what is done. So there's no fear left in facing the problem or surrendering the problem to that higher power which we call God. And this is the way very easy way, very easy way, very comfortable way also. Where even if it’s a mountain it becomes a molehill, reverse instead of the molehill becoming the mountain. See. Good. Now I think I better obey the commands. Thank you very much. Now I believe a few of us are leaving this Course and not coming to High Leigh, about ten people. It’s just a pity you can't come to High Leigh, it would have been so nice. It’s lovely being close to loved ones. It’s so beautiful, so, so joyous. But nevertheless you know your circumstances and you have your reasons for having to go wherever you have to go. You have the Lord’s blessings with you. Be happy. Be good. Do good and if you can't, just try. (General laughter) Okay. All blessings and Namaste. END