1. UK 80- 11 Gururaj. It's indeed a joy to be here. I see a lot of new faces in the physical but I've been very close to you in another plane of existence. But it is good to meet people in the physical because all the various planes of existences do merge into each other. Good. Shall we start off with questions? Questioner. Guruji, when we're talking to people, how do we know what we know and if our minds fool us into a non truth area, does it really matter? Gururaj. How do we know that we know? This is a question based on knowingness, which are the mechanics of knowingness. How many people could delve into the realm of knowingness? That is the question, for mostly we are subjected to thought and through various analytical processes that keep on going in the mind, intellectual pros and cons, brings us to certain conclusions and certain decisions. But how do we know that those decisions are right and that they are absolutely correct? Now here, practicality is involved in mundane existence. Man has the ability of discrimination by which he could see that a certain thought or an action or what I tell someone, could be of some benefit. Now, what is the value of that thought or what is the value of that benefit? Good. You go to a Psychologist or a Psychiatrist, he wants to see you, he would want to have many clients, as many as he could handle and his first motivation is how much fees I'm going to get and then only after that, would he think how can I help this patient. Now is this person operating from a sense of knowingness or just from a sense of knowledge? Now there is a great difference between knowledge and knowingness. Knowledge is established by various studies, by the accumulation of various facts, by the accumulation of all kinds of information that is presented to us through various studies at University or whatever, colleges etc. Good. But that is not knowingness. That is acquired knowledge based upon the experience of other people. So Jung has said this, so this must be it or Freud has said this, so 'I will pursue that line of thought and go into the various aspects of the patient's mind, the client's mind and I will weigh up his problems not according to what I know in knowingness but what I have learnt, what I have acquired'. So when you tell someone something, a doubt would remain. You would be totally convinced in your mind that what I'm saying is truthful because you are backed by an inner sincerity. But a person can be very, very sincere and yet that which he imparts could be erroneous. As the saying goes 'The way to hell is paved with the best of intentions.' So a lot of damage can be done. Yet in this mundane world of every day existence these people could be useful. Now when we operate on acquired knowledge or that which we have learnt from books, we cannot be one hundred

2. UK 80- 11 percent sure that this is the answer to the dilemma. Now we have found, through various studies and statistics, that although the intention of the person who has knowledge could be good, he can also create a lot of harm. This applies in every field. In the field of law, of course if they lose a case, they hang their clients, and doctors if they prescribe wrongly, they bury their patients. See. And yet the person is not lacking in sincerity whatsoever. So the knowledge he has acquired is erroneous because his interpretation has been wrong or the interpretation of his tutor might have been wrong and this person has accepted what is told to him by the tutor with faith. He has trust in his tutor and because of that, he feels that this man has studied law and what I have studied and therefore he must be right. Now he must be right, means it is an assumption. You are assuming that he is right but without any concrete proof. And then as the person goes into practice in whichever field it might be, he might find himself successful in some cases and there might be other cases where he would be totally unsuccessful. Now all this comes about in the realm of acquired knowledge and not knowingness. We will come to knowingness in a moment. So, to gather knowledge could be like a donkey as I always say with a whole load of books on his back and this acquired knowledge he uses as a tool or tools to achieve which he thinks he can achieve. If a person is ill and if that knowledge is totally true, then you can try this yourself. You go to five different doctors and each and every one of them will prescribe a different medicine for your illness. Why? Because it is acquired knowledge and a lot is dependent upon the interpretation. Why should one doctor prescribe a certain medicine for your illness and another doctor would prescribe something else and the third one something else? Why? So how true is that acquired knowledge? So, in the acquisition of knowledge which is required in this world as I said before, is quite necessary but it lacks completeness. There is something lacking there because the practitioner in whatever field you can think of is working on the level of the mind only and the mind can only conceive of things and form opinions according to the awareness of the mind. Now one person might have a greater awareness, while another person might have less of awareness. So here it's not a question of sincerity, as I would repeat again but a question of awareness. How aware are you, that is the question? Good. The lesser the awareness, the greater is there a chance for distortion and the more expanded the awareness, the lesser the chance of distortion again. Good. But yet how far can man's mind working on the mind principle only, how far can the mind be aware? Can the mind achieve the totality that is required to form a judgement or make a proper decision? We see court cases every day where many times an innocent person is incarcerated or hanged or whatever the case might be. So, here what we require is acquired knowledge to a certain extent but combined with it a knowingness. Now how do we reach that stage of knowingness?

3. UK 80- 11 This stage is reached by meditational and spiritual practices, where you do not function in the area of the mind alone, for the mind is incomplete and in any case we use a very small portion of the mind. A vast portion is lying dormant and as I've said many times you might have listened on tapes that the extent of the mind is as vast as the universe. So man has the capacity within himself to have total universal knowledge, because it is not an activation of the brain cells only. The brain is but an organ through which the mind flows. And after all, what is the mind? It is a form of fine energy . Now through meditational practices and diving deep within oneself to an area, which goes beyond the mind, we draw upon that energy to activate more and more cells in the organ called the brain. We are only using one-millionth part of the brain. This lump that weighs two and a half pounds and which contains twelve billion cells and we use only one-millionth part of it. You see. So in acquired knowledge your tools are so limited, one-millionth part of twelve billion cells. So how can your conceptions be totally true? How can your conceptions be real? It might have a tinge of reality, a tinge of reality and when it comes to very mundane matters, your judgement can also be true with the limited tools you have. If you have to take out a small screw from the floorboard, you can use a small screwdriver. Fine. And that is what you have, a small screwdriver for the small screw. But if it is a six-inch screw, you need a bigger screwdriver and by that we mean that greater awareness. A greater awakening of the brain cells has to come about and this cannot come about by intellectualisation because rationalisation, intellectualisation does not expand. A child is born and at birth his I.Q. is determined. He is born with a certain capacity in this lifetime and because of environment and circumstances and education, he can have a bit of expansion but the inherent limitation is there. The environment can help to expand that a few degrees more. So, now through meditation and spiritual practices, we awaken the dormant cells of the brain throug h which that energy called the mind can flow through and be brought about to actuality in daily practice. So with a greater awareness one can see, one can feel much more and more and more. It depends how much we devote ourselves. Now this energy which we call the mind and which comprises the entire universe. Remember there is never, one mind, never individual minds or four thousand billion minds in this world, there is only one mind, the universal mind or the cosmic mind. And there could be, according to the world's population four thousand billion brains, organs, but there is always one universal mind and everyone can draw from that universality into individuality. So the process here is this, that we are encapsulating the entire universe into this little brain box and this is a possibility. So as man evolves more, this will happen, this will happen where greater and greater areas of his brain will be developed. More of the cells will be awakened and a greater amount of that force will be penetrating. But now this is only as far as the mental universe is concerned. This is totally on the physical plane, for the mind too is matter, but in a very fine form. So all that we se e

4. UK 80- 11 and observe around us even in our limited way by the senses, is matter and all that that we cannot observe, that we cannot feel, touch, see, smell etc is also matter. Now there is no difference between matter and energy. Matter is but a condensation of that energy, for nothing else can exist but the energy. Now in the various planes of existence, the physical, mental and beyond that the spiritual plane, is there from which we can draw by spiritual practices. So what happens is this, that because you have a body and the body with its various organs gives you individuality. Underlying that individuality is that universality, the entire universe in a fine form called the mind, which can be grossified and put into daily practice. But now that energy that the universe contains is not enough. The universe lives on borrowed energy or reflected energy. The real energy lies in the realm of the spirit. So that is why the spirit, you can call it God, Brahman, whatever name you want to call it, these are labels, but that very energy reflects or rather permeates the entire mind which is the universe and through the mind, it comes to the physical self. Now that energy being so subtle and so fine that it cannot come to the body direct, it has to have a vehicle. Like you cannot create a block of ice from water vapour. The water vapour first has to become water. The gaseous substances first has to come into a liquid form before it could go into a solid form. Likewise, this energy within man that is there, the spiritual energy, can be consciously brought forth into the mind and the body. And by doing that, by consciously allowing that reservoir, that Kingdom of Heaven within, by consciously allowing that energy to permeate the mind and the body, one finds and cognises that these three aspects of man had never been apart in the first place. You could never separate the body from the mind and neither the mind from the spirit, as long as man is living - these three aspects - there's a trinity in everything. These three aspects co-exist but because of nescience, because of ignorance, because of the blockages that we have created by ourselves in this life or through previous lives, whatever you believe, for millions of years these blockages have been created, not allowing that spiritual force to shine through in its fullest glory. So it is with spiritual practices that we wash away the dirt, we open up the veils so that this force could shine and shine and shine. Now we have spoken about acquired knowledge, which is always incomplete because I might have said this before that with every answer you get to a question, another half a dozen questions will be born. And when you answer those half a dozen questions, another dozen questions will be born and like that it will go on and on and on. So the mind could never find the solution to the totality of life and the totality of life is the cognition that the mind, body and spirit are one and this must not be a mental process. This must be an experiential thing where you experience the oneness in the three aspects of yourself. Because the mind can conjure up all kinds of philosophies, all kinds of theories, all kinds of metaphysical theories which in most cases they're not even theories, they are just hypotheses. It cannot be proven. The mind can never prove the existence, in spite of all its analytical power, the mind can never prove the existence of that

5. UK 80- 11 Divinity. Even Einstein gave up. Even Einstein gave up. In his theories, he said that "Although we operate within the laws of relativity, there is something beyond". There is something beyond. So the greatest brains in the world have tried from the area of knowledge to find the true answer to life and they have failed. So with spiritual practices, when the heart opens - by heart as you know I always mean the core of the human personality - when that is opened up, there resides that force and by opening the heart, automatically it affects the mind. So a simultaneous process goes on that the heart is opened and the mind is expanded, a greater awareness dawns, greater realisations come. So, acquired knowledge on the spiritual path could be fine for those who might have that analytical temperament but there comes a time when the mind has to be left behind, all acquired knowledge have to be left behind. Therefore I don't read books anymore, throw them away, because they lead you to more and more confusion. Everyone has a particular theory. You study Spinoza and Hegel and Spencer and Schopenhauer and all those guys and instead of finding clarity you get more confused because many of their philosophical theories are opposed to each other, and not only opposed but they show you diverse ways which confuses you. So we want the direct approach. Now if there was no direct approach and if one only had to delve in the area of knowledge, acquired knowledge, then what about the illiterate person - is there no hope for the illiterate person? There is so much hope for every person on earth to become one with God. So the illiterate person that has not read a single book or would not be able to understand these high- faluting, philosophical theories, what about that person? And yet I have met, I'm sure most of you remember the story I told you of the potter, so I won't repeat it again. You might have listened to it on tape. Right. So even the illiterate person can find that oneness within himself, can find that totality which he has been born with, but only realisation is required an d realisation comes from the area of experience, where you experience a totality within yourself and with the entire universe because now the individual body, the individual mind has merged away into the universal mind and the universal mind has merged away in that indescribable spiritual self that is in all. Now here we come to the area of knowingness. Good. In the area of knowingness, it would be like food that you have eaten - that's acquired knowledge, you have eaten food - but when that food is digested and assimilated and turned into blood and bone, then you are in the area of knowingness and you just know without any rationalisation. And this comes about through the practice of meditation and other spiritual practices, where even without thinking whatever you do is just right and by right, I mean you are flowing with the laws of nature and not against the laws of nature. And that is how we gain greater and greater harmony in our lives because we are functioning now in totality and when man functions in totality, all his thinking and all his actions automatically just become right. Sometimes within the framework of these natural laws of appearance and disappearance, you might find things not too conducive but when you look at it in

6. UK 80- 11 retrospect, you'll find that that was the thing that I needed. That was the thing I needed. The doctor gives you medicine and it’s so bitter and you say "Oh, who wants this bitter medicine?" But that might be the medicine that might be needed to cure your illness. Similarly all circumstances that might seem adverse for the moment might not really be adverse. So with the expansion of the mind and heart, one's attitude changes and after all everything in life is just a matter of attitude. And attitude is created by widened awareness, expanded awareness where you see nothing wrong. You see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil - the three monkeys; you must have seen that. Yeah. So, then life becomes spontaneous. Then every action does not require deliberation, does not require rationalisation although some little thinking is required that 'Look, I am going out from here, its cold, so I must put on a coat.' These are small mundane things but the real spontaneity of life lies in the harmony that we ourselves can create within ourselves. So that is the area of knowingness, digested knowledge and then the word knowledge disappears. The word that comes into play would be wisdom. So one might start with knowledge and end up in wisdom where you are wise, you do not need to think and whatever you do is just right. Like blowing my nose now was just right for me. Not now, thank you. Caught a bit of a cold coming from a hot climate into your mid-Winter. When I left South Africa it was thirty-three Celsius plus. Good. So we land up in this area of knowingness and that does not require half a dozen Degrees behind your name. It requires nothing. It requires just you just being. And when you know the value of being then you are becoming. And becoming, is a spontaneous process, for the area of the mind that you would now know so much about, you will find all these waves dancing in the ocean, small waves, big waves, yet you do not lose that tranquillity within you. You stand still and yet move around. What is the difference between movement and stillness? You are both. You are doing both at the same time. You are sitting still there. There are billions of cells in your body that's moving around all the time. So here a combination forms that to live in this world there has to be movement, there has to be motion, for without motion this universe or the universe, the physical universe or the universal mind cannot exist. It is forever shifting energies from one place to the other and yet knowing that these energies are being shifted, you are still, tranquil, peaceful and that kind of peace does not require any understanding. You can't understand it in the first place. You think that you understand it but you can't. 'The Peace that Passeth all Understanding', you can't understand that peace. It is there. It is one's inherent right, for if that Divine force that we speak about is omnipresent, then it is present in every cell of your body and its waiting to burst out. Why stop it from bursting out? Yes. Why stop it from bursting out and why limp around like sick people? If you have a thorn in your shoe, you're not going to limp around, you will take the thorn out. So let us

7. UK 80- 11 remove these thorns of self-limitation which we impose upon ourselves. Let's remove them. So to remove them we require meditation and spiritual practices, self help, making some effort, conscious effort in daily living to better ourselves and when that is done, Gurushakti is always there to push you along. The trouble is this that Gurushakti is always too graceful and too kind and too compassionate and too loving or else it would kick everyone's backside. Yes. Yes. Remove the thorns. Remove the thorns of self-limitation, self-imposed limitations and feel that Divinity, experience it, experience that. And then life is a joy, Ananda, Bliss, indescribable. Okay. I think it was forty-five minutes, wasn't it. I think a lot of you people have travelled from far distances and would be tired perhaps and would like to have a rest. And I have a bit of a cold too. So tomorrow morning, we start working. Okay. Fine. END