1. UK 78- 54 Gururaj. I can look after the baby for you if you bring it here. Fine. Shall we start off with some questions? Questioner. Guruji, what can you say to those of us who are beginning to realise from experience that peace, strength, happiness and love can only come from within us and that for these things we shouldn't be reliant on external circumstances or other people, especially those closest to us? How can we grow in this realisation? Gururaj. Beautiful question. It is a definite fact that peace, understanding and realisation can only come from within yourself. No external force can create it for you. The creation of that peace and self-realisation and understanding wells up within yourself. And the reason for that is this, that the peace and se lf -realisation is inherent in you. It is your birthright. It is there. Every human being is born with that Divinity within him. Now why are external circumstances required? Why are teachers required? Good. When you go to school to start schooling, to learn to read and write - I have yet failed to meet a child who could do it on his own - so we have the teacher teaching you how to read and write. And once you have mastered the art, the alphabet and a bit of the grammar, you can read and write on your own. Until then, as you might have experienced yourself when you were at school, that you needed the assistance of the teacher. Now, no teacher can teach you, but a teacher can make you learn. The teacher would create certain circumstances for you whereby you will learn the lessons that are necessary to uncover and rediscover the peace and understanding that is there already within you. Now if you are at a point of realisation where you have become one with that Divinity within you, then by all means discard all the teachers, all the books, discard all the external circumstances, they are not necessary for you. But show me how many self-realised people are there in this world that is capable of doing that? When you climb the stairs, you ha ve the railing to hold on to. You might be strong enough to climb the stairs without the railing, yet the railing is there a s a protection to grip onto, lest your foot slips. So when this knowledge is given to you to make you rediscover that which you really are, it plays an indispensable part in your life and that cannot ever be denied. And this is proven by all theologies. Why was there a Buddha? Why was there a Krishna, or a Rama or a Christ? They were teachers and they came to awaken that which is already within you. To repeat again, you cannot be taught. The knowledge is there, but the important thing is the rediscovery, and the reawakening of that force, that Divinity that is there. Now outward circumstances could be very, very necessary. Many times your environment could prove to be a catalyst that would help you to awaken that which is within you. Let us take the example of a married couple, husband and wife, the household might not be very happy. Now, even that, if viewed in its proper perspective, could be an

2. UK 78- 54 opportunity. For in every adversity there is an opportunity. Now those that deny the teachers could never be able to see the opportunity in the adversity. That is why all these teachers, all the Scriptures of the world, all the Sages, their sayings, what they have said, what they have taught, are so, so necessary, so that whichever circumstances we are placed in could play an integral part to make our life run smoothly, joyously, happily. And when that happens, you will answer the Biblical proposition, you will understand the Biblical proposition, 'Man Know Thyself'. And man to know himself is at libert y to use whatever is offered to him in his circumstances, to learn from it. This is very, very important. Now when a man closes himself to the knowledge of the world or the wisdom of the world, then that person would start stagnating, because instead of having an open mind, he closes his mind. And by closing the mind, there is stagnation and stagnation means no progress. And you will find that in all stagnation, there is festering. The sore festers. Let us take another example of illness. No doctor can cure you. No doctor can cure you, can cure your ailment. The human system, the organism which we call the human system, is equipped with various factors that forever tend to balance themselves, so that good health can come. What the doctor does is, he would give you medicines perhaps, so that it would expedite, restoring the balance and you feel well. The same applies to knowledge, that man, because of the imbalance within himself, because of the lack of integration of mind, body and spirit goes through this suffering and then great teachers come along and it is their duty, their dharma, their job, to show you the way how to restore the balance between mind body and spirit. And when a person understands that then will he truly understand that 'I am the way, I am the life, I am the truth'. How can you deny such a teacher? Can such a teacher be denied when he shows you the way and his own life is modelled in the way for man to follow? Now when man says that he needs no outside assistance, the true self of man does not say that. But his ego self says that. The ego self assumes a self-importance that 'I am it all and nothing is greater than me' and when the ego self thinks to itself that it is self sufficient, then no progress is ever made. And examine the life or lives of such people tha t would say no external aids are necessary, examine their lives. They must examine it themselves and if they can truly and truthfully answer that ‘My life is totally smooth without any friction whatsoever', then they don't need the teachers. And yet the true guru would always say that 'I, as the external guru, am there to awaken the internal guru within you'. The true guru will always say that. The job of the true guru or the external circumstance that has been mentioned, the external circumstance is just for one purpose, is to awaken that innerness, that inner teacher, for all knowledge of the universe is contained in every man, in every woman. That wisdom, that knowledge is forever there. It is eternal, beginless, endless. But the ego self which is forever changing, day to day changes occur in the ego, and within the turbulence of the ego, a pride takes place. And that very pride which in reality is non-existent assumes the form of the big 'I'. In other words, the

3. UK 78- 54 small 'i' starts thinking it is the big 'I' and it is this very assumption and presumption that creates the friction in life. So to make life friction free, to make life free from bondage for the ego self of man and during the past two Courses, we have done many lectures on what the ego-self is, what constitutes the ego-self. And those of you who have not been here in the past Courses, I'm sure Keith would just be too glad to play those tapes for you. So man creates friction or finds friction in his life. Man finds unhappiness in his life because that which he regards to be permanent is in reality, impermanent. We have said before, over and over again that the ego is nothing else but a totality of thought, a totality of impressions that have come together, not only in this lifetime but through so many, many lifetimes perhaps. And the totality of those impressions is nothing else but the ego. Now an impression has no substance. An impression has no substance because an impression can be erased or it can be substituted by another impression. You are thoroughly impressed with one circumstance and tomorrow your idea will change and you will get impressed by another circumstance. The idea changes, the ‘i’, the word idea contains 'i', that small insignificant dream like 'i' which thinks everything is real. If man could only realise that the machinations of his mind, the thoughts of his mind are but just conditionings of the mind. Now if the mind is nothing else, if the ego-self is nothing else but conditionings that it has brought upon itself through its various internal and external experiences, then he does need other external experiences to overcome those experiences which he has gathered from his environment and from external circumstances. So the way is very simple. It is really simple. And the simplicity lies in the acceptance of the fact that I do need help. I need help because my life is not complete. My life is dependent upon the impressions that I have created upon my mind. In other words, my life has become dependent upon a conditioned mind. And when man accepts that principle, that I have conditioned my mind and I have become dependent on that conditioning, then only with that acceptance, with that admittance, will he try and do something about it. Then he will cease to stagnate. He will start doing something about it. And what has he to do is to uncondition the conditioning. How is that done, to uncondition the conditioning? The way it is done is the way we teach, of meditation and spiritual practices. And as man dives to the deeper and deeper le vels of the mind, one draws greater and greater force from the subtler levels. For we have always said that all existence at a subtler level is infinitely more powerful than anything at a grosser level. We have also used the analogy that a two thousand-ton bomb if dropped from an aeroplane might cause a hole a mile wide, but the splitting of one tiny atom can destroy a whole city. What this means that things at a subtle level, is infinitely and definitely more powerful.

4. UK 78- 54 So as we go to the deeper recesses of the mind and gather there greater force and power, we use this strength to overcome the conditionings of the mind. So in actual process, what is happening is this that we're using a strength from the deeper levels of the mind to overcome the conditionings. That is very necessary. And that requires a certain kind of dependence, not dependence upon oneself, but dependence upon a way. And by following the way, you know what life is. And when you know the 'isness' of life, you know the truth. And the truth is this, what we assume to be real is false. That is the truth. Now with the acceptance of this factor, that my conditioned mind is small, insignificant, immediately tha t realisation dawns then we develop humility. And in that humility, in that humbleness, a surrender takes place to a greater power and man stops boasting that 'I can do everything'. Then he starts questioning who is really the doer. Who is the doer? And that is where the enquiry starts. That is where the question, 'Who am I' really begins to have some significance. Who is the doer? Who am I? And when we know who the doer is, then we lose that sense of individuality which is causing all the problems. Now by losing the sense of individuality, does not mean you are losing self-identity, but you are converting that small self, that small identity into the universal identity. That is what mergence is all about. That is what Christ means when he says, 'I and my Father are one'. The individuality has merged away in the universality of the entire existence. So therefore, therefore in the lives of men and mice perhaps, we need teachers, we need guides. You need it every day in London. I have sat in motor cars where people have taken me from place to place and every time I have seen without exception, that they take out a map. They take out a map - London being such an old city, so many roads turning and twisting and even people that live in London, that have been born and brought up in London, still have to have a map in the car. That is the teacher and the guide to take you to your destination. And without having the map, you would still be riding around in circles and circles and circles. Where is the independence? Where is the independence? Now we do not want total independence. We do not want total dependence. What we want is interdependence, the interdependence of the relative with the absolute. And that is why the Teacher teaches that through spiritual practices, through meditations, we form the union with a higher force, a higher being. And this is so tangibly proved in people's lives, with thousands of meditators we have throughout the world and thousands of letters pouring in daily, every month a few thousand letters do come. It is shown in their lives, that by the practice of meditation this interdependence is achieved. And man does not need to annihilate his ego. He does not need to sublimate his ego, because this is just a matter of transference. You're transferring one thing to the other. You're transferring the headache to a toe ache! No, no, no. What we need is the expansion of the ego, and expanded in a proper way, so that the ego becomes entirely transparent and the full force of reality, the full force of the light shines through. I used an analogy during the week, that if

5. UK 78- 54 your window is clean and the full light is shining through, you will not notice that there is a glass and yet the glass exists, but so suffused, empowered with that light that the glass becomes non-existent and purposeless. That is the mergence we want. There are many schools of thought that will tell you that this entire existence, this world, is a dream. It is Maya. It's a dream, it's non existent. For who is it non-existent? lt is non-existent for the man who has reached the absolute and can view it from that viewpoint, that 'Ah, I've been dreaming. All these problems and all these sorrows, and all that, was a dream, was a dream'. That can be said by the person that has reached the Absolute and has become one with the Absolute. But the person on this level of relativity, must admit to the reality of relativity. You have to admit that you are sitting there and I am sitting here, speaking to you. It is no illusion, for how can an illusion speak to another illusion. So there is relative reality and there is absolute reality. And the goal and purpose of life is to merge the relative reality into the absolute reality. For know for sure that the absolute cannot exist without the relative and the relative cannot exist without the absolute. God exists because you exist. You exist because God exists. Nothing in this universe is ever destructible. Nothing is ever destroyed. Even a single thought you have in mind cannot be destroyed, for thought itself is a form of subtle matter. Today's science verifies, proves this factor, that no matter is ever destroyed. lt can only be transformed in a different element. The entire existence, the entire composition is nothing but matter and energy, and matter and energy is nothing else but the same. In its grosser manifestation, it could be called solid matter. In its subtlest form, it can be called energy. So all existence is composed of that oneness and that oneness can be called Divinity, or any other name you like to choose, but there is only one and all the differences which we see is just name and form, name and form. You take some clay and with the clay you mould the figure of a cat and you mould a figure of a dog. Then you will say, this is a cat, and that is a dog. But if you look at it, if you look at the reality, it is nothing else but clay and the differentiation lies in name and form. Because of its form, you have given it a name. In reality it is all but one. Good. So the teacher's required to teach you of this oneness, to teach of the oneness that is within you. And that oneness can be found, can be felt, can be experienced, can be experienced when the guru and the chela ceases to be apart, but they become one. And once that happens in the concrete form, then that too happens in the abstract form. For who can conceive of that which is abstract? It is so much easier to conceive of it through the concrete, so through the concrete we become one with the abstract. Okay.

6. UK 78- 54 So these things, external forms, means, are necessary. They are necessary. And even the atom we spoke about, an external force, an external instrument was necessary to split it. Even the very bread you eat, you need an external force, a knife to cut the slices. Everything, everything, requires an external force. The realisation has to come that the external force and the internal force is none other but the same. And when that consciousness dawns, all the friction disappears because the friction or the cause of all problems and troubles is because of duality. When there is duality, then friction is sure to be there. But when duality ceases and subject and object becomes one, then there's unity. Then man can say that 'Ah, I do not need anything else for me to find that peace and self realisation, because everything else that seemed external to me is now really internal within me'. And that is why I say 'Man know thyself'. And these are the ways, these are the methods, among many, for man to know himself. That's all, so easy. Good. Next question. Questioner. Gururaj, Gururaj. Oh, thank you very much. You see I also need external water to survive. Perhaps some of the people sitting on the floor over there might like to move into the seats here. If you just come over. We have taken forty-five minutes for your question. Another question, fifteen minutes more. A lot of you people have travelled long distances and require some rest. And from tomorrow morning we start working. And we use the external means to awaken the internal. Questioner. Gururaj, my question is about decision making. When we have to make decisions in life, Gururaj. Just a moment, have you decided to read your question. Ah, good. Questioner. (Cont’d). When we have to make decisions in life, how should we go about this? Often if one has to decide between two courses of action, one is very torn. Often even after carefully weighing up all the advantages and disadvantages of each possible road, one still does not know which is the right one to take. The whole process seems full of worry and strain. Can you say something about how we should make decisions about our lives? Gururaj. Why must I say something, why don't you ask me to say everything about it? (Gururaj laughs) Beautiful question, lovely question, lovely, lovely, lovely. Lovely. Decision-making, do we really make decisions? That is the question. Who decides? That is the question. Are we capable of deciding? That is the question. Should we decide?

7. UK 78- 54 That is the question. Why must we decide? That is the question. What a business? (Gururaj laughs) Yes, yes, yes. This has always been perplexing and very perplexing on a relative level. Let us use some illustrations. A girl has two boyfriends. In the first place she shouldn't have two. To our visitors here, I believe we have some people from Saudi Arabia, and from Denmark and Spain, America, South Africa, I come from there, yes, fine, to, to those of our visitors that have not been to any of our Courses, I'd like to remind you that we believe in the three L's, Life, Love and Laughter, so we have our laughs in between. Good. Fine. So don't hesitate if you want to laugh, just burst out laughing. Be yourself, you don't need to decide on it. Just laugh. Okay. Good. Now let's get back to this little girl, she has two boyfriends. Now she thinks she should get married. Now John has certain qualities and Jack has certain qualities. Now she likes John for his qualities and for what he is and she likes Jack at the same time also. Now when it comes to the question of marriage she has to make a decision, 'Who shall I marry, John or Jack?" Like this, so many circumstances there are in life. Two jobs are offered, shall I take this one or shall I take that one? You want to go somewhere and like the English song, it says 'Shall I take the high road or shall I take the low road?' lt is Scottish? Oh, why do they have to divide up all these countries? Whichever - it is Scottish, lovely people, they have a wonderful exporting business there I believe. Yes. And of course partaking of the export products, it makes decisions more difficult. (Gururaj laughs) I don't know how many got that. It refers to Amrit's red eye. Nevertheless, the question is very valid. Now, I have to decide how to answer it. I'm waiting until ten o'clock. That's the idea. Let's get down to business. Good. Now these things crop up in a person's life all the time and it makes it very difficult for a person to be able to decide what to do. Now why does it make it difficult for a person to decide, is because the person is a totality of his experiences. Now this person and everybody has had experiences which has been pleasurable in similar circumstances as far as the one decision is concerned. In the other factor, the person has had experiences where it might have also been pleasurable. Good. Now when these experiences that one has had in this lifetime, or perhaps other lifetimes, they come to the fore in this lifetime within a certain context of thought and circumstance whereby certain conflicting matters arise. Now people will tell you that you cannot analyse because you are not aware of the conflicting factors, because if there was no conflicting factor, there would be no question of decision. A decision is something that puts you into a position where you take this or you take that. You take the penny or you take the bun. Yes. And that is produced by past experience or by past karma, where you are put into a position to make a decision.

8. UK 78- 54 Now whichever decision you take always remember, now if you weigh the factors and you find them equal on the scale, that both have a similar value, perhaps with different elements. One side of the scale might contain sugar, the other side salt, but they weigh the same. In such a circumstance, just decide anything which appeals to you. For any decision made where there is a balance of factors will always be evolutionary and none stagnating. Now here you obviously would have to exercise free will. It is your will, your choice, your free will to decide what to accept or what to reject. Now you would say that by making a certain decision, 'I have brought to myself greater suffering'. If I had to make the other decision, there would be less suffering. But the biggest word there is 'if'. How would you know that that job would be better than that job? How would you know that John would be better than Jack or Jack would be better than John? Because you evaluated and they are in a balance. If they were not in a balance then decision-making would have been easy. But because they are in a balance, to make the decision becomes hard and free will is to be exercised. Now free will is a very strange creature. It is a strange creature, but at the same the greatest gift given to mankind by Divinity for his own progress. Now exercising free will only might lead you to the path where there might be greater suffering, but that greater suffering could be more evolutionary for you. You might learn more from that suffering because behind your free will there is a Divine will that guides the destiny of man, that guides the destiny of man. Now this does not mean that you must be a fatalist. Your past karma, your past doings, your past actions, all the samskaras or impressions that have been gathered within you, will make you decide what road to take, when you come to the fork and that is Divine will. So here too, this question is very closely allied to the previous question. So here when it comes to an equal balance, take that whichever you want to take. Now here is the advantage of the meditator, because one's mind is very turbulent and when the mind is turbulent, decision-making becomes more difficult but the meditating person that could reach to calmer levels of his mind, has a greater chance of making a decision which is more conclusive. That is one way. The other way is surrender, 'Thy will be done'. Who am I to decide? And in that fervent prayer, in that deep meditative state, that little voice inside you will tell you, 'Marry John or marry Jack'. Yes. This is very practical and every theology has taught this principle. And here we have the ways and means to make contact with the Divine will, where free will is surrendered to Divine will, and we say, 'Thy will be done'. So when we meditate and when we do spiritual practices, you do not need to decide. Who decides? Why decide? When we reach that quiet state and start off with the conscious mind with the problem and then lead the mind through the practice given to you to that deep quiet state, the answer just dawns. And that is why the old saying which we use when we have a problem you say 'Oh, let me sleep over it'. There is truth in all those little sayings but man does not want to understand it. Let me sleep over it means let me view this

9. UK 78- 54 problem in a quiet state of mind. And there is nothing that could bring about this quiet state of mind than the calmness that is brought about by meditational practices. Now when man habitually, through his meditational practices, is in touch with the quietude that is within himself, then every action he performs is a right action, every action he performs is a righ t action because that very powerful force just pushes him on, into the right path all the time, all the time, all the time. Okay. Fine. Good. We've made it - one minute past ten. END