1. UK 83- 14 Gururaj. Good, questions? Questioner. Guruji, today on television and on video films there is an emphasis on pure sex, violence and hate which is watched by all ages, children included. When there is a division in the family as to what is suitable for children to watch, how does one cope? Gururaj. I was once invited to the International Association of Psychiatrists and of course we discussed various kind of psychiatric and psychological problems and this very same question came up. What shall we do with the violence that is portrayed on the screen? You might know that in America every child is subjected to thirteen thousand murders a year. Now the consensus of opinion when we did it - there were some that had a certain viewpoint and others another viewpoint - the first group said that violence is good on the screen because by watching the violence, the child would purge the violence out of him. That could be a method. And then we had a test group of children over a period of a month watching a lot of violent firms and we could distinctly see the changes in themselves the way, they walked, their entire faces changed. Before, when I was in business and chucked up everything to do the work which I was called to do, I was in the film business, and I do remember so well parking the car on the opposite side of the road and the people coming out there, and say for example if it was a western film, you'd find the children and even some grown ups having that swagger, the way the cowboy walked. So, all these things have a definite effect upon the child's mind. If you subject a child to hatred, hatred, hatred, he will become hateful. If you subject the child all the time with love, love, love, he will become very loving. So I totally disagree in the laxity that is happening in many, many, various countries by having excessive physical exposure and a lot of violence. It is definitely not needed at all. Look at our nursery rhymes. Look at the stupidity of them. Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Look at that rubbish. And then of course the baby on the - , can't remember the words, the baby on the cradle on the tree top and of course the whole thing collapsed and the baby died. Something like that. Now in the first one, why can't they have nursery rhymes where Jack and Jill can go up the h ill and fetch a pail of water? Good. A good service done for the family, at the same time at those wells there, little flowers could be growing. Why not have the nursery rhyme in such a way, where they picked a few of those flowers and took it to Mom at home, as an expression of love. How beautiful would that not be? The reason for all the delinquency we have today in the world and if you read overseas papers, like American papers, you have teenagers eleven, twelve, just driving in a car and shooting at anyone they see. They learn it from the media. You open up your newspapers, some of them like the Sun and the News of the World and utter filth, it’s just about sex and rapes and murders. And so the less this

2. UK 83- 14 could be, the better it would be. For the past twenty two years, I'm a consultant to the Censor Board in South Africa for books and films and things and they call me in for my advice once, twice a week, for a few hours and I always fight very hard to prevent a lot of violence going on the screens. I do that. Some do agree, some don't agree, but I get away with it most of the time. Thank God. So subjecting a child to this violence is not good for the child at all, because children, normally in the younger stages of life, they normally act by imitation. And even in your own homes for example, say the father and mother are at logger heads and quarrelling all the time, - I mean I've many, many people coming for consultations and the services are free, nothing is charged for it, a service to humanity - and from the explanations and things and after talking to the child, one finds out how frustrated the child becomes because the parents are fighting and squabbling and going at each other's necks practically. So, I'm in total disagreement with so much violence on the screen and sex too. A body is so, so beautiful, a human body is a temple of God, but you do not need to exhibit it provocatively. You see? And its like a vicious circle, one thing leads to another where people instead of becoming more love orientated, they become more lust orientated. And yet those years when I was still in the film business, I used to come to London twice a year, to England and to Europe - actually this trip to England is my twenty eighth or twenty ninth trip to England. So, I know England fairly well. So, one day I was walking in Soho and I had to go to Wardour Street in London, where most of the Film Company offices are. And going through the Soho area, I saw posters of this nudity and the titles and all that. So I popped into one cinema and asked for the Manager. And of course the Manager saw me and I said I'm from South Africa blah, blah, blah. He invited me into his office for a cup of tea and I told him, I told him, I say ‘Can’t you put on any decent films instead of all this pornographic stuff'. So he says 'If we put on decent films we'd have to close our doors. It is only these kind of films that bring people and we are in business'. Do you see? So from all sides, from the cinema to the TV, to the newspapers, people are hammered, you know into their heads, these thoughts are hammered, indoctrination we could call it and it is not very healthy. And the very proof of that is that look at the kind of society we are living in today. The crime rate has increased so much and so many other things because of the imbalance. So, therefore my mission round the world, living out of a suitcase, teaching here, teaching there, is to open people's hearts and feel love. And once you feel that, really experience it then you do not want to see these violent things. But there are so many vested interests, that the advertising people know and their sponsors know what audience they will have for the advertising. So it is all based on economics. But one thing one could measure from that, is the state of the mind and the mentality of the people of all the countries. England is no exception. America is even worse. So but what can one do about it?

3. UK 83- 14 Questioner. ............... (Inaudible) Gururaj. Yes. It is. Sell the TV set. (General laughter). You know the greatest sickness, - we're talking about America -, the greatest illness in America today is not heart attacks or cancer but obesity, people becoming too fat. So this lady goes to a doctor and says 'Could you give me an exercise to reduce my weight?' So the doctor says 'Yes. You turn your head from left to right, right to left when they offe r you a second helping’. (General laughter). Next question. Questioner. Guruji, this is a question from Cheryl, - for centuries it has been foretold that some dreadful happening will happen, will life continue? Gururaj. Yes, I've been saying this in various Satsangs that round about the year two thousand and fifty, they'd be a great calamity on earth. Life will not become extinct. There will be life, but great damage will be done, millions of people will die, because of the vast researchers into greater and greater weaponry, nuclear energy for example. Last November, December, I was invited to a Conference in Boston, the World Peace Conference on how one could bypass the nuclear threat. It was actually a brains trust thing and people from the world were invited to attend the Conference. We could come to no solution because the Governments of these countries have billions upon billions upon billions of pounds invested in nuclear energies for example. And this is going to be to the detriment of the world. And when this great explosion, to call it that, takes place, it will not only damage the earth so much but it will have repercussions in the entire solar system. And not only the solar system but will effect the galaxy, and the one galaxy will effect the other galaxy. People phoo phoo the idea of UFO's but it is very true. There is, there are people from outer space that do come down in these rockets, machines to try and explain man the great dangers that there are. There are so many other inventions which I personally know of, which the Governments, the major Governments, the leaders of the world, they are suppressing this information so that if they had to release it, it could great panic amongst the peoples. So all this has been suppressed. Today, America develops a kind of nuclear bomb and tomorrow Russia develops a more advanced one. And then America develops another one that is still more advanced. What does it really mean? It means fear, that the method they are using for defence, is to plant fear to a alleged aggressor. But it does not work. When nuclear energy is

4. UK 83- 14 manufactured, there's a lot of radiation that goes up, people breathe it, it goes into the water, you drink it. It goes into the food, you eat it. And it’s a terrible state of affairs. So I've been saying this for the last ten fifteen years now, around the year two thousand fifty, there's going to be a great calamity. And how can we avert it? And the only way to avert it and especially with the present day technological progress that's going on, more and more things will be invented, so therefore, this mission of mine with the help of all my teachers in all these various countries, is to teach them spiritual practices that could open their hearts, develop more love. So if there's greater love in their hearts then the technological knowledge they are gaining, would be used in a better way rather than a destructive way. You see? So because of all these millions and millions of pounds and billions that has been invested in these projects, the Governments of the worl d are not just going to let go of it. But from the individual point of view, you could never change people collectively, but y ou can transform people individually. So as individuals more and more become more loving, hearts more opened, the danger would become less and less. Good. Next question. Questioner. Guruji, do you think that the use of the Tarot cards is helpful in ascertaining one's past and future and Gururaj. No. That's total rubbish, chuck it away. Rubbish. This person goes to the dentist and says 'Doctor, can you see me now?' So the dentist replies 'No, I'm so busy today, I've got eighteen cavities to fill' and immediately he picked up his golf bag. (Gururaj laughs) You know God created the Universe and He rested. God created man and He rested. Now after God created woman, nobody had a rest. (General laughter) Neither God, neither man, nor woman. Next question. Do not please believe in Tarot cards and things. It’s not necessary. The greatest belief one could have is in the power of Divinity. Questioner. Do you think they are of any use at all? Gururaj. No use at all. Why do you want to know, many people go to fortune tellers, use Tarot cards, use this that the other because they want to know what lies in the future. And wanting to know what lies in the future is a sure sign of their inadequacies and insecurities. Past is gone, you don't know the future but live in the present, in the here and now. In the here and now, that is what matters, not what the future holds. If we live in the here and now, every moment of the day, you can be well assured that your future would be good, because even in the future, you will be living in the here and now. That beautiful hymn, Lead Kindly Light, Lead Thou me on, One step at a time. I don't want to know how many storeys I've got to climb. One step at a time. Good.

5. UK 83- 14 I don't know if you have it in this country but in South Africa you have something called Swap Shops, where people meet and you swap your something for the other person's something. And then of course they arranged ‘Ladies Night’, a ladies night, a Friday evening, good. And they were asked, this little ladies’ society was asked that 'Bring with you, next Friday the things you don't need for swapping, someone else might need it. So bring with you the things you don't need'. And most of the ladies brought along their husbands. (General laughter) Next question. Questioner. ............ (Inaudible) Yours. Karen's. This is Karen's question, so I'll ask it yet again. If you say that God is an abstract word then why do you feel it necessary to praise Him in chants and songs? Why praise Divinity in any name? Would it be better that you direct those energies to within? Gururaj. Very true. This question could form the subject of a two hour lecture. Now, the God we pray to, is the Personal God. And then beyond the Personal God, we have the Impersonal God, that energy. The entire manifestation or the emanation of the universe. Everything radiates something, emanates, the flower emanates fragrance, everything. You yourself are emanating something all the time. So as this group is emanating something. A city will be emanating, a country will be emanating the entire world the entire universe is emanating and the totality of that emanation is what we call the Personal God with attributes. But the Impersonal God which is the source of the Personal God is attributeless. You see. Now this subject is very deep and very long. As a matter of fact, I gave a talk on this on the last Course, the Personal God and Impersonal God, the one before. We have a tape. Perhaps you'd like to lend that tape and listen to it. Yes. Because the Impersonal God which is the finest of the finest energy, sub sub sub sub, a million times sub-atomic energy and that Impersonal God has not created this world, but it was its very nature, it manifested the Personal God. Like the flower does not create fragrance, its nature. The sun does not create heat, it is the nature of the sun to give light and heat. So that is how from the Impersonal came the Personal God or the Universal mind. And when the universal mind came into being, came into manifestation, - I rather like to use the word the Manifestor and manifestation. So that was the primal universal mind which through various factors, which I could explain to you scientifically, diversified and many of those minute atoms joined together and multiplied and they were replicated and duplicated. And that is how, through a long process of evolution, the world and man as we know man today came about, over millions and millions of years. And then of course this present cycle of the universe, because the universe too functions in cycles, as the human being does, as the body uses the body for a while and drops the body but the soul within remains eternal to assume another body. So

6. UK 83- 14 man too works in cycles. The world works in cycles, the universe works in cycles. And then from - you might have heard of the Big Bang of the great explosion, from which point the next cycle began, the evolution began which again will be drawn into what we call the black hole. And yet there'll be fine vibrations there in the Black Hole, which will build up and up and up, a form of combustion which will explode and bring forth another universe. And that is the meaning of eternity because it is an eternal process. And the totality of the process is the Personal God with attributes. So we reach through our meditation and spiritual practices the finest relative, which means the superconscious level and then you have reached the Personal God. You feel him, experience him and after that, you just melt away into the Impersonal energy. So, who are we praising? We are praising the Personal God. We are praising the Personal God because being the primal manifestation, we are part and parcel of Him. So, there is something, and Christianity for example teaches of love, peace and hope all the time. So everyone will find that salvation. But that process can be expedited. And then of course when you pray to an object which is outside you, then you lose consciousness of yourself and project it to something outside. You see? So you in that way gradually, you become free from bondage. Because people, everyone thinks that they are the centre of the world and the whole world revolves around them, which of course it does not. So prayers are necessary in the proper systematic way. Meditation is necessary and the spiritual practices that lead you within is necessary. For once you can be totally within, then that which is without outside becomes one, becomes unified and then you can say that 'I am Thee'. 'Thou art me'. 'We art but one'. No separation. Separation s tems from creating boundaries. And we are the ones, misusing the mind, creates the boundaries. So we've got to go beyond that. So, for certain people at certain stages they need that, ninety nine point nine percent of the world's population, needs a Personal God, who we can worship as Krishna or Buddha or Ishvara, Allah, Christ whatever way. But it still remains the same consciousness. So, by worshipping and by having that devotion to the Personal God, we reach that stage of consciousness which can be described as Christ consciousness. And once we reach that stage, then after that, very automatically we go to the stage of Brahman, as the Sanskritists would put it, the Impersonal God. And then when you reach, you realise that the Atman or the individual soul is but one with the Brahman, the universal entity. Do you see? Little Margaret was having her birthday party, so the friend asks the mother, 'Oh, what did little Margaret get for her birthday?' So the mother says 'Four books, six handkerchiefs and measles'. (General laughter) Next question.

7. UK 83- 14 Questioner. This is the question that John wrote. We learn and teach that thoughts form a natural part of our meditation. We also learn that we must get beyond thought, the product of the mind to achieve the nowness we seek. Can you give us some brief understanding of the thought process in our attempt to get beyond thought? Gururaj. As far as you are embodied, the mind will always be related to the body, for there is no separation between body, mind and spirit. It’s just a matter of gradation from the grossest level of the physical body to the subtlest level of the superconsciousness. Good. Fine. In meditation they tell you, some schools of thought tell you, your mind must become totally blank and that is an impossibility unless you become unconscious. That's easy to do. You don't need to meditate you just ask your husband to bop you over the head with a - (General laughter). We do not want to become unconscious but we want with the mind, with the higher level of the mind, appreciate through its transmission to the lower level, appreciate the joy and the ecstasy that is within us. So in meditation, the mind does not need to be blank. It should not be blank, it is not meditation. It’s not Dyana. Good. Now, if you are on mantra meditation then you will find that as your mantra recedes away, a thought will come up and a thought is like a story, it has a beginning, middle and end. And when it reaches the end, you, very gently pick up your mantra again and then you dive deep within with the mantra - and you can't stay under water all the time, you'll drown - you can't breathe, so then you come to the surface level again. So meditation is a rhythmic procedure, thought, mantra, thought, mantra, thought, mantra. And every time you dive down, you are bringing up something the calmness of the depth to the surface level where thoughts become conscious. So it is necessary to have thoughts. This, we would call in Sanskrit Cervikalpa Samadhi, which means meditation with form because thought itself is also a form. So it is normal and natural. The only thing one does, you don't force the thought, you don't analyse the thought and you don't force the mantra. No w as I said a moment ago, that a thought is like a story, beginning, middle and end. So if it comes, you, the higher self of you, the subtler level of your mind watches the conscious level of the mind, the thought that is in the conscious level, you watch it objectively, like as if you’re watching a cinema screen. When you go to a cinema and watch a film, you cannot change anything in the film. You just watch and you just observe the story that is happening. And that is what we learn to do with our thoughts. We become the observers of thought and not participants of the thought. So, when you are not a participant of the thought but an observer of the thought then that very thought does not leave an impression upon the subconscious areas of your mind. So what we are really doing in meditation and to find that Kingdom of Heaven within, is to get rid of all those impressions and samskaras, as I said before, clearing away those

8. UK 83- 14 veils. And the best way to clear away the veils when the thoughts come up, like on the screen again, you observe it without becoming a participant. For example, say an angry thought comes up in your mind, then you watch the anger and let it play out its game there as anger, but you do not become emotionally involved in the anger. And if you have to be angry, as I have said many times before, be angry with anger. You see? That is how it works. So thoughts when they come, let them come and let them go, dive down, come to the surface, dive in, come to the surface. Then the other form of meditation that goes beyond that is Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Samadhi without form, or without thought, without kalpa, Nirvikalpa. Then you are in the area of the Impersonal God. You can't remain in that area. For example, Ramakrishna, a great Sage that died at the turn of the century, said that if you stay in Nirvikalpa Samadhi for twenty, twenty-one days, your entire body will disintegrate. So, by meditation, we dive deep down, draw from that energy and it helps us in living a more harmonious life because it too requires, all energies require some kind of expression. So if you bring forth that pure energy, that powerful energy then all your actions become pure and they become powerful, because it is harmony and you become more and more harmonious. And when you are in harmony within yourself then automatically everything around you becomes harmonious too. Good. Next question. You know this chap got married so his friend asks him, 'What does it cost for a Marriage Licence?' So this chap that got married, says 'It costs ten pounds down and the rest of your salary you pay for life'. You know if people had common sense, they could prevent so many divorces. So the friend says, 'If people had common sense, it could prevent so many marriages.' (General laughter) Next question. Its going on to ten now, is it? Nine fifty three. This man walks into a bookshop and asks the sales girl, 'Have you got the book, 'Man is the Master of the Woman', have you got that book?' So the sales lady points out, 'Sir, the fiction department is down that way'. (General laughter) And these two authors that got married, so after a while, the friend asked another friend 'You know James and Joan got married, do you think they're well mated?' So this friend says 'Yes, they're very well mated. He snores and she's deaf'. (General laughter)

9. UK 83- 14 You know some wives can be very thrifty. This man was telling his friend. He says, 'Do you know this tie I'm wearing?' He said 'Lovely tie'. He says 'My wife is very thrifty, she made this tie out of one of her old frocks, one of her old dresses'. Good. So the friend say 'Oh but that's nothing, my wife takes my old tie and makes a frock out of it.' (Gururaj laughs). I got many more here but - (General laughter) leave it for the next time. Good. Thank you. It was so nice to meet you - because we have a dinner engagement, don't we, at five to nine, five to ten, rather. Good. Lovely to meet you and when I come again, hope to see you in bigger, greater numbers. Good. END