2. UK 78- 55 and night, that I am feeling better and better and better and the person starts feeling better. This alone is proof that illnesses originate from some level of the mind. Good. So that in turn proves to us that the mind is a conditioned mind and conditioned to the illness that has its outward manifestation. So illness exists firstly in the mind and then it is translated to the body. Now, if all illnesses are of the mind only, we have to accept the fact that we are all mental cases. Yes. We are mental cases. We are mad. Yes. If they come from the mind - the word mental comes from mind and if all illnesses are of the mind then we are definitely mental cases. And I said the other day that if we could stand apart from this world, you'll see a massive asylum, (Gururaj laughs), you'll see a massive asylum. Good. Now the real cause of illness is a conflict taking place within the mind. The mind has not achieved that tranquillity or the balance. Now when the mind does not have balance, then it must have something else, imbalance. So if you are not all here, you must be somewhere else. That's why we say that 'Oh, that person is not all there'. But the problem is this, that he is not all there and neither is he all here. I don't know our visiting friends from Denmark if they are getting the nuances of the subtlety of humour. (General laughter). You see there is, there is so much logic in this logic. So much logic in this logic, that logic actually becomes illogical. Right. And if you define the word or look at the word illogical, it starts with 'ill'. And that's why we're ill. Yes. (Gururaj laughs) Oh what fun, what fun. Good. So, all illnesses stem from an imbalance, that is a principle that we have to accept. Now we have to discover what is the cause of the imbalance and what can be done to bring about the balance. Now, there could be many causes to the imbalance. Right. And there could be presumed imbalance which is even more dangerous. If there is a genuine imbalance in the mind, where the forces at play in the mind creates this imbalance and if that imbalance translates itself into organic terms, it would be an easy matter to deal with. But the most difficult matter to deal with, is where there is a presumption, an assumption of an imbalance in the mind and the translation of that presumption into a presumed illness that most people suffer from, there lies the real problem that we have to deal with. Good. Now the various causes, we shall look into a few of them because the list could be totally unending, because there are so many diseases and the funny part is this that the more doctors the world produces, the more diseases come about. Yes. Yes. There are diseases existing today that never existed a hundred years ago. Yes. Yes. But because our sciences are discovering all kinds of bacteria and all kinds of viruses and all kinds of things, that they have started attacking us. (Gururaj laughs) Up to then they did not attack. And this is very true because if you go back a hundred years, you'd find people that lived longer lives then than what they are living today. The lifespan has shortened itself in the true sense of the word. It has shortened itself where people's organs have become much, much more weaker. Now this is not necessarily to be measured in terms of years. But many people might lengthen their lives to three score and

3. UK 78- 55 ten, not healthily but in illness. And when a person incapacitates himself, he is not alive. He lives the life of the living dead. Now how to make them alive. How to bring about this balance, that is the problem we have to discuss. Now as I said before, all imbalances are caused by friction and friction is caused by knowledge. Now this will sound very funny. Friction is caused by knowledge. Knowledge, not in the truest sense but half-baked knowledge, where you know a little of this and you know a little of that and you know a little of that. And you put them all together and the mind creates a conflict within itself deluding itself into thinking that it is not well. You see how knowledge can be dangerous especially when knowledge is not properly digested, it causes indigestion. Yeah. And there's not only physical indigestion, there is mental indigestion too. Yes. That is the cause of all illnesses. Now the whole organic system of man going right back to the primal cell, you will find that there are always balancing factors. Now, at the cellular level of man there are billions of cells in our body and billions in our minds. Good. They are forever trying to create a balance because of natural laws. The laws of nature are there to bring together and preserve this balance. Man's thinking power sets them asunder and creates a separation and this very separation is the cause of illnesses. Good. So, the second principle is this that man creates within himself conflicting ideas and it is this very conflict that creates illnesses. As a matter of fact, the very conflict is an illness itself. So, principle number three, illness is conflict. And that very conflict would manifest itself according to the mental makeup of man. Most people imagine themselves to be ill. Now that is what we spoke about a little earlier where there is no genuine conflict but the conflict is created by imagination. I will tell you story, I think I might have said this before, about illness. It’s an experiment but don't do it. I'll just tell you about it. Don't try it. You want to play a joke on a friend. Good. So, say four of you get together and Mr X, you want to experiment on Mr X, so you make this plan. Mr A meets Mr X in the morning and says 'Oh you look terrible this morning. What did you do last night?' Mr A will not be taking much notice of it at that time perhaps but the seed has been planted that 'You know, X said this to me I might not be too well really'. That's in the morning. Comes a couple of hours later, B comes along, Mr B, and Mr B says, 'Hey X, what's wrong with you? You're not all yourself today'. This would start to make him worry more. That's at lunchtime. Tea time, Mr C comes along and he says 'Oh boy, you know, terrible, terrible, you look horrible, you look indrawn, oh!' Tea time. When it comes to five o'clock, nearly time to go home, Mr D comes along. He says 'Look my friend, you are my friend Mr X, I would advise you to go to bed because you are definitely ill'. And that Mr X is going to go home and he is going to go to bed and he is going to feel ill. What I am trying to

4. UK 78- 55 demonstrate here is the susceptibility of the human mind. Today nothing would affect me. Any person can say anything to me, but some years ago, if someone had to come and tell me you don't look too well today, I'd love to slap his face. Yes. So, the mind is susceptible to the suggestions put to it and those suggestions put to the human mind can work in a negative way or in a positive way. So please believe me that the major part of people's illnesses are imaginary, created by themselves. How many times don't we find that the wife has a quarrel with the husband and the husband goes to work or goes out and the wife you know, gets nervous in the stomach, starts a pain in the stomach. So now you ask a doctor and the doctor says 'Oh that's tension'. In the first place what is tension? Tension is not created by the stomach. Tension is created by the mind and the mind can be made strong enough not to suffer the tension. So the person has brought about that stomach ailment or stomach discomfort by being affected by the happening of the morning, that little quarrel. That little quarrel could have been turned into real fun. So the toast got burnt. You don't need to get wild abou t it. What's wrong with burnt toast? It can't be used, just don't eat it. You see? So we live our lives in such a way where we are creating unnecessary tensions over the most trivial of things. Over small trivialities we are creating tensions and these tensions build up and up and up until they form a real conflict in the mind. And in this case, about man and wife, these little things, these little things all the time, unwashed handkerchief, burnt toast, forgetting to bring flowers home, forgetting the anniversary or the birthday card, things like that and even very, very minor things keep on building up this tension and tension and tension. And this tension has a reaction upon the human mind where conflicts are created and then the major conflict comes - ‘Does he love me or not?’ Now, so this mental tension that has been created was first on a mental level and slowly the emotional, the feeling side starts creeping in, into the thinking level of the mind, so greater tension starts. Thought and feeling, thought and feeling combined creates emotion and emotion is synonymous with explosion and they really explode. Good. Now, this is definitely more fragmentation of the mind. So we, starting from the littlest, minutest, smallest trivialities, we keep on building it and building it and building it until an explosion occurs and that whole home is shattered. Now in the shattering of the home, in the shattering of the home, so many things happen. There is not only the broken home that started from the trivialities but so many illnesses are produced. Right. The first illness would be a sense of inadequacy, second illness, the sense of insecurity, third illness, the feeling of guilt. Now these are mental conditions that intensify the conflict in the mind. Now, when the mind hasn't got the way of shedding these conflicts or getting rid of these conflicts, it cannot store them in the mind all the time because everything requires self expression. Everything has to be expressed even if you want to or you don't want to. Right.

5. UK 78- 55 Now, some people feel that these feelings of guilt and insecurity and inadequacies must be kept at mind level, not to let it out. So what occurs - you are pressing them down deeper and deeper into the mind which results in repressions. And the more those feelings gets repressed, the mind becomes more and more burdened and it explodes itself into physical values. Like the very energies contained in a seed explodes and expresses itself into a beautiful flower. Everything else, everything else in the whole of existence must find expression and that is the nature of things that constitutes nature. Nature is nothing else but expression. So, when all these things, all these various conflicts from whichever level it starts gets bottled up in the mind, then, then it expresses itself organically. It gives you all kinds of physical ailments, where something goes wrong with some organ, it expresses itself in its grosser aspect. The illness first exists in its subtle aspect which is in the mind and then it expresses itself in its grosser aspect. Now, we must be very glad that it expresses itself in its grosser aspect, in the physical aspect because if that mechanism was stopped, if that expression was stopped, then what would happen is that the building up of these tensions would land a person in a mental asylum. The person loses his head because there is a blockage whereby these tensions cannot be expressed. When you have a headache, be very thankful. Be very thankful that you have the headache. Because if that was not manifested outwardly, it would still be bottled inside the mind and the mind as peculiar as it is, could create inner explosions rather than outer explosions or outer expressions. And that is why people land up in asylums because the blockage has occurred and they can't express the build up of tension that is within. Good. So when we have a headache and we think in these terms, I guarantee you that the people that manufacture Aspros will go out of business. Because the very realisation that my headache is caused by this inner tension within myself, your headache will disappear. You have come to the cause of it. And as you practise this more, at first it'll take a little time but as you practise this more, all this migraine nonsense, all that will disappear. And then you will really start thinking back in saying 'Now what tensions have I produced within myself today'. Good. That is one of the cures to all kinds of diseases. I was in a hospital once. Next to my bed was a person who came to the heart unit and his bed was next to me. Now, being next to me I started chatting with him. He had to undergo a heart operation. The poor man was so worried - he came from five hundred miles away - he did not have a wife, his wife has passed away some years earlier - he had three children that he had to leave behind in the care of neighbours - and of course neighbours are neighbours. You have some good neighbours and not so good neighbours. You have my brother's keeper and you also have my brother's undoer, unkeeper. So this man was worried. Now these doctors came along and examined this chap, you know sort of

6. UK 78- 55 wired him up to various instruments and all kinds of things. Meanwhile this chap was so, so worried about his children - the things that had to be done, is that someone had to go on Friday, every Friday - now that is the pay day in South Africa for weekly paid workers. I don't know how it works in England. Friday is the payday for weekly paid workers. He was worried about his children, that would the children be given - getting money from his job so that they could have their bread. Poor man. These doctors were examining this chap just organically. They were just not interested in his problems. So I spoke to them, I said 'If you want to treat a man, treat him as a whole being not just organically'. And I explained the position to them about this man's worry and this poor man, he did not have the power of expression or be able to talk about his problems to these people. So I demanded immediately a social worker to come to his bed and I said 'I want that Social Worker to come to this man's bed within the hour'. And the Social Worker came. You must just be forceful enough, you get a lot of things done, believe you me. Yeah. Yeah. Why the devil do we pay all these taxes for? That's besides the point though. So the Social Worker came, the Social Worker came and the Social Worker phoned Port Elizabeth, that's about five, six hundred miles from Capetown, phoned this man's firm - phoned another Social Worker rather and this Social Worker went to see this man's firm. And she made arrangements for the wage packet to be delivered to this chap's home every Friday. And this was in the morning - in the evening the reply came back, that all that has been arranged. What a sigh of relief in this man's mind, there was a relief that ‘My children are cared for’. So, here comes the mind again. His mind was put at rest. His major worry there, although he was going to undergo a heart operation in two or three days time, his major worry was not his heart that had to be worked upon but his major worry was his children, he loved his children very much. Fine. So once that problem was taken away from him, I could notice how pleasant he became, how jovial he became, how free of worry he became and when he had to go for the heart surgery, he approached it with a very positive attitude. And his operation was very successful. He survived it. You see so; it is treating the whole man. Medical science treats people organically. And when a person has this problem or that problem or a nervous problem which is the most common problem today, you know, so what they do, they don't understand the problem. They don't treat the cause of the problem and they start prescribing Mogodons and Valliums and all these kinds of things. In other words they keep on giving you tranquillisers, tranquillisers, and tranquillisers. I believe that is one of the biggest businesses in the world today, manufacturing tranquillisers. Now, it could be good for a little while just to get the person over a hurdle, over a momentary hurdle where tranquillisers could be necessary. But I've known of people that do not need breakfast, neither lunch, neither supper and their whole meal consists of tranquillisers in the morning, tranquillisers in the afternoon, tranquillisers in the evening. You see. You see. You see how medical

7. UK 78- 55 science today instead of uncovering the cause of the disease, they are just covering it up by giving you a false sense of tranquillity, a medically, clinically induced tranquillity which is harmful. You are not eradicating the problem. Now, we have our method and as you would know, the method is meditation and spiritual practices. Meditation in our experience through thousands of people in the world that are meditating, have cured more diseases than all the tranquillisers in the world put together. This is a proven fact. Because most diseases are of mental origin and therefore of nervous origin, because the mind can only express itself through the channel of the nervous system. And through meditation, a greater strengthening takes place because we start drawing from deeper levels of the mind, from a more tranquil level of the mind and infuse those energies to the conscious level, which in turn transmits that through the nervous system to every organ in our body. So it is a great help and I do wish and many countries are realising this now, that meditational and spiritual practices could be part and parcel of treating the man as a whole person and not as a part of a person. So organic diseases if combined with meditational practices could be of inestimable value because all diseases as we have said, ninety nine per cent of them, are of mental origin and if we tackle the mind, if we bring about a greater tranquillity to the mind, not by chemical and artificial means but by its own natural process, because the mind as we have said, also contains all those billions of cells that are rushing around trying to create the balance. What meditation does, is it helps to bring about the balance in a more speedier manner where all those billions of cells can work in co- ordination, in Cupertino. They cooperate, they work in the systematic manner in which they should be working and that is called balance. Now for that we need to draw from deep within ourselves those energies that could bring about the balance where there is no balance. And by having that, any emotional problem, any nervous problem can be righted. And when it comes to minor organic problems, that can be righted too by the mind sending powerful forces, powerful impulses through the nervous system to those organs whereby a cure takes place. Now some organs are beyond repair because of our own doings and when they are beyond repair, naturally medical aid is required. Sometimes surgery is required. So we do not condemn medical science. They do their job. Psychiatrists do their job, at least they are trying in any case. Good, and meditational practices does its own job too. So to treat a man holistically, if all the sciences could be combined, sciences combined as far as the body is concerned, its nutritional values, proper eating, proper method of living, proper ways of thinking, all can be helped by the drawing of this most powerful universal force which is there for the asking. It is there for nothing, just to take and use, and use. So, that is the cause of all illnesses and that is the real cure for all illnesses. And when man reaches the stage of his real self and even if the body, because of the past years he has lived, he might have lived a very, very strenuous life that might have caused organic problems and then after that if he reaches

8. UK 78- 55 that stage of mind when all the organic impairments mean nothing to him and he still lives a beautiful normal, joyful, happy, blissful life. That's life. Okay. Good. Next question. Questioner. Guruji, Reality, that's relative Reality, that you were talking about last night as a game playing of consciousness, Divinity hiding from itself purely for fun. Should our attitude be that our activity is a sport and if so, ho w can we achieve this playing attitude to life? Also, when we have fully realised what we really are and the game is over, do we start to play a new game? Gururaj. That's quite a complicated sentence there. Would you like to read it again? It’s very interesting. I like the sound of your voice also. Many wise men have said that life is a game. Fine. Shall we play the game or not? Questioner. (Cont’d). How shall we play? Gururaj. How shall we play? Fine. Questioner. (Cont’d). How do we regard our lives as a play? Gururaj. Good. Yes. Questioner. (Cont’d). And when we reach the state when we know what we are, when we are no longer hiding from ourselves, do we start to play a new game? Do we start to hide from ourselves all over again? Gururaj. Good. Lovely question. Good. Life is a game. Life is a game but to who is life a game that is the question. You have given the answer to the question that wise men say life is a game. It is a game to the wise man, but what about the other people that are not so wise. Is it a game to them? Now, so many things can happen in this conception. You know Shakespeare said 'The world is a stage and we are all actors on the stage'. Right. That's fine, there is some truth in this. Now if we accept the principle that life is just but the game, but a game, it could have two effects - one of delusion and one of realisation - depends who the player is. You can be deluded into saying 'Life is a game, so who cares?' Who cares? Then it will give you the licence – 007 - (Gururaj laughs) after all it’s just a game, you just do what you like. Yes. You just do what you like, after all it’s just a game. What

9. UK 78- 55 does it matter, win or lose and never mind who suffers? That is a delusion. Yes. And it can do very much harm. Every criminal thinks that life is just a game. He might not think it consciously but unconsciously within himself, he regards life to be a game. In other words it means that it is all a unreality and he tries to take reality and convert it in himself into unreality. So he takes a knife and puts it into someone or he robs some poor person. He robs a pensioner who has just come from the Post Office to draw the pension for her, the old woman, for her food for the month and snatches the bag. Now look at the game he is playing. Look at the game, how much suffering he is causing people. So regarding life to be a game could be a sign of imbalance. It could be madness. That kind of play is a madness. It takes man from illusion to delusion all the time. Such a man requires revolution. Yes. Yes. Now, this principle that the wise man says 'Life is all but a game' is meant in a totally different context. It has a theoretical value and it also has a practical value. But life can only be regarded as a game if you understand what game means and if you understand what life means. Until then life is still not a game. When you say life is a game, then you play the game with non-attachment - win or lose matters none. Then you are playing the game. Otherwise you are not playing the game. If you have the real sense or the real non-attachment within yourself that I am playing for the sake of the play, there is the secret of the game, to play for the sake of playing. Then life is a game. Otherwise it is not a game because you want to win and the very idea of wanting to win is filled with selfishness. I want to win. Who is that 'I' that want's to win? And when that 'I' says that 'I want to win', the game ceases to be a game. It is not a game anymore. It is a sore that starts festering and festering and festering and assuming the huge proportion of that almighty ego that man worships, almighty ego. What an idea! What a shame that he calls the ego almighty and forgetting the real Almighty. So, when man thinks life is a game and at the same time panders to his ego, then it ceases to be a game. Then you even cease to be a player, the real player. Then you become a reflection, a false reflection of the real player. You forget the doer and think that you are the one that is doing. You are the one that's playing the game. You are the player - it is your Lila - Lila means play. That is a misconception, a self-delusion to the man who has not achieved total non- attachment. Life can only become a game to the wise man that has risen above it all. Win or lose the game goes on. Who is playing? Am I really playing? Am I really kicking the ball? Firstly, where does the energy come to the leg from, to kick that ball? Where does the thinking power come from, so that impulses are sent to the leg to move the leg in kicking the ball? Where does the ball come from? What is the ball made of? Is it just leather and rubber? Ah. What constitutes that leather and rubber? Ah, the scientist will say all the atoms got together that makes this ball, this leather, this rubber. But what is there that keeps all these atoms together? How is it made into a ball? Right. How does it assume this shape? And firstly where did the man get the brain from to invent this ball and the rules of the game which he thinks he

10. UK 78- 55 plays? Ah. When man starts thinking himself to be a puppet, then he will start playing the game, then he will really play the game. I'm the puppet. Who pulls the strings? The power is in the Puppeteer and not in the puppet. The puppet is lifeless. The Puppeteer is the one that infuses life into that which is lifeless. Then you play the game. Then the puppet plays. You see. So, the emphasis, the question lies on emphasis - what are we emphasising? Are we emphasising the play or the player? Are we emphasising the motivation of the game or are we emphasising that the game is being played because it is just a game, and not played by me, played by some higher source. Now that is the wise man where he says 'I am not the doer'. I am not the deed either. I am not the doer and I am not the deed. I am not the cause of the deed and I am not the creator of the deed. Then life is a game. So regarding life to be a game could be a form of escapism. And regarding life to be a game could be of the greatest reality, if the attention is on the factor that 'I am not the player - I'm the ball. I am the ball, not the player'. The player kicks the ball, the player creates the momentum of the ball. The ball itself has no momentum. It is The Player, capital T, capital P, who kicks the ball and I am part of his play. He is the Director. He is the Producer and I am an Actor on the stage directed by the Director. He taught me the lines. He is also the scriptwriter. Then you'd enjoy the game. Then the game has fun. Yes. Yes. So it is a total transference from this that I call myself ‘I’ to 'That'. A total transference from this 'I' to 'That'. And when one realises that, you would appreciate that Sanskrit phrase 'Tat vam asi - Thou art That'. But that's not the end. The game is still to be played, the game goes on. But as far as the individual is concerned, there is an end to the cycle - you have half time in between, to have a rest. So. Good. Good. Good. Have the rest - some orange juice also and the game starts again with renewed vigour. Why did you need the rest? So that you could sit down and evaluate the game that has been played, evaluate the mistakes that you have made, during half time, during interval and say 'Ah the next part, this is going to be the strategy'. So all the chances are given to man at every moment of his life to know and understand the meaning of the game. And then in the end - No, it can't ring yet. Right, I thought I heard a bit of a bell. Voice. It’s a warning. It’s a bit of a warning. Gururaj. Is it a warning? Good. Right. And in the end, the finality would be this, that the scriptwriter, the Director, t he Producer, the Actor, the Stage, the Audience is but all of the game and in the game. Do you see the difference there? The audience too is in the play. It is not only you on the stage acting in the play because all your acting, all the work of the Director, Producer and Script Writer is of no avail if you cannot form the rapport with the audience, the communication.

1. UK 78- 55 Gururaj. Good. Fine. What, what shall we talk about this morning? Questioner. Beloved Guruji Gururaj. Lovely coloured paper, lilac Aide. We were just trying to sneak in so you wouldn't see us. Gururaj. I met you in Oxford. Beautiful. Lovely. How are your studies getting on? Good. Nice. Nice. Sorry, Amrit's interruption. Questioner. It is now an accepted belief that many illnesses are just a reflection of our mental Gururaj. Sorry, I missed that word Questioner. (Cont’d) Many illnesses Gururaj. Illnesses ah ah Questioner. (Cont'd) are just a reflection of our mental and emotional state. So often however, we are ill yet feel well mentally and emotionally. What are the different aspects of illness in physical, emotional and spiritual terms and what is the relationship of illness to karma? And also could you let us know how we can best cope with illness? Gururaj. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Now it is a well-known fact that eighty per cent of beds in any hospital are of people that suffer from psychosomatic diseases. In other words it would mean that a mental imbalance is interpreted in organic terms. So that is also in the area of mental illness and as you have said it is a well known fact that all illnesses and diseases have their origin in the mind. But that is not completely true. The origin of diseases is not necessarily from the mind but the origin is through the mind. The basis that lies behind the mind is free of all illnesses, but how that ligh t could penetrate through the filter of the mind that creates whatever kind of illness you could think of. So in a way, it is true to say also that illnesses originate in the mind. Now we have used the example many times of Emil Cohey where he has prescribed one form of treatment in all his various clinics where the person tries to repeat and affirm to himself morning

11. UK 78- 55 And once the communication is formed then the audience too are part and parcel of the play. You see how the play widens its scope, its range is wider and wider and wider as man's understanding develops. The very moment you utter a line in the play 'To be or not to be, that is the question' - how do you say it - I am no Shakespearean actor. Now if that very question could stir an audience, the truth and the meaning of that phrase, immediately the hearer becomes part of the play, becomes a participant in the play, perhaps not the active one, the passive one. So the play requires activity as well as the passivity. And that is all within the framework of the Director and Producer because the Director and Producer has to take all that into account including the casting. And he has to create the effect not only in the actor but also in t he audience because he uses the actor as the instrument to communicate with the audience. That is the work of the Director and Producer. So you see how all this combines. There is nothing separate from anything. And when man understands this communication, when man really reaches this understanding, this knowledge, then this whole world, this whole universe is but a stage and we are all the little puppets in the hands of the Master Puppeteer. And then that's not the end - ah, still more to come. A few more minutes. Still more to come, where the audience and the player, the audience and the puppet and the Puppeteer become one. Here on the relative plane as you have mentioned, the communication is between the puppet and the audience. The Puppeteer is not seen, he is hidden away. So with this communication in the relative sphere of life, slowly but surely the audience starts realising that these puppets are motivated or are put into motion by some other force. Now, let us try and find out what that other force is. And that is how the mind is awakened and in its awakening, it discovers the value of the Puppeteer. Then the Puppeteer, the puppet and the audience become one. Then the observer, the object of observation becomes one. And the very act of observation is also part and parcel of it all. So it is true when the wise men say that life is but a play. Good. But the unwise man must not say that, must take it seriously. You must take life seriously even if you can't get out of it alive. You see? It’s beautiful. Very beautiful . Good. One minute left. We'll have an early break. Fine. END