1. US 77-1 AMRIT: It's not terribly easy to do this because he doesn't often talk about himself in that way. You pick it up in little tidbits. It'll happen say at two o'clock in the morning just when he's getting ready to go to bed, and you're so exhausted you can hardly stand up. And all of a sudden he'll sit down, and he'll sort of turn his head at a funny angle and tell you two or three little tidbits about his past. Then, of course, you hang onto that, and you wind up staying up until four in the morning trying to draw out more. But you don't do it. So, then you go to bed at four in the morning. So what I'm going to tell you is made up of those little bits and pieces and tidbits that we've picked up over perhaps the last year or so. And then a little bit about how this movement actually got started in the West, in England and of course came to the United States. Gururaj was born in a little place called, Gujrat. Does everyone know where that is, by the way? Gujrat? In India. Where is Gujrat? CHELA: No idea. AMRIT: No idea. OK. You better ask him where it is. I don't know either. OK. Now, he was born anyway in a province in Gujrat, and he was born on December 12th, 1932. So, if you're an astrologer, you can at least get where the planets are in the astrological signs, but you can't get a house structure because no one knows what time he was born at. He's tried to get this information many times, and for some reason the doctors, for example, that were presiding at his birth didn't remember, didn't know, or they weren't there any more. They were deceased. Or something like this. But no one really knows exactly what time he was born at, but it was December 12th, 1932. And he was born Purushottam [Bonay?] Valodia. Not Gururaj Ananda Yogi. Now he lived in Gujrat until he was about fifteen years old. At the age of two, three years old when most children are asking questions about the most basic mechanics of how things work in a household or something like this, Gururaj was asking a lot of questions about God, questions that indicated that here was a child that in some way was very spiritually advanced. When he was five years old he ran away from home for the first time. Now this happened again later. He ran away from home, but at the age of five he ran away from home to seek God. Now imagine the situation. Imagine your child at five years running away from home to seek God. He was gone for about four and a half months at least that's what I understand and during that time was wandering through various villages in India visiting different ashrams and temples and so forth. Now this is not totally uncommon in India because, of course, there is a lot of poverty there and children are sometimes just left to fend for themselves at a very early age. So unlike the West where someone like that would be noticed and picked up, he wasn't. And it wasn't until four and a half years later, or four and a half months later rather, that his mother found him wandering ragged and

2. US 77-1 barefoot in some village. And when he was asked why he ran away, his answer was that he went out to seek God, that he had visited all the temples, that the gods there were all silent. They wouldn't speak to him and he was deeply disappointed. So he was brought home and of course his education from that time on did tend to be somewhat different than the average because it was clear that here was a child that had certain special spiritual qualities. When he was fifteen years old he ran away from home for the second time. This time he was gone for about a year, and he spent some of that time in Bombay and the rest of the time in the Himalayas where he was seeking for a master, for a spiritual teacher, that could bring him to where he wanted to be. Now in various conversations with Gururaj he has mentioned that at about the age of fourteen he began to have his experiences of higher consciousness, various things that we'll be talking about perhaps over these next several days or things that you may have heard about before. And yet, when he was fifteen after about a year of these experiences he still felt that he was very far from the goal. So, he ran away from home to seek a teacher. And he sought this teacher for about a year. Apparently he found him when he was about sixteen years old. His name was Pavitrananda. Pavitranandaji's about eighty four years old now, and Gururaj has promised that he's going to give us a chance to meet him before he dies. He's only got a few years left, but he's going to return to India once more before he dies. Anyway Pavitrananda became his spiritual teacher, and of course, Gururaj had it very much in mind that he wanted to stay in the Himalayas with his teacher and live a sort of monk's existence. Have a cave and not become involved in the sort of things that would drag him into the householder life. But his guru had different plans for him. He informed him that it was his purpose or his destiny in this lifetime to lead a spiritual movement, one that was going to involve Western and active people, householders, people that have children, families, that do work in the world, and so on. Therefore, it was important for him to prepare himself for a way of life that would be a householder's life so that he would have that experience as background so that when he began his teaching he would be teaching from the vantage point of experience rather than just from the vantage point of theory. His teacher, therefore, asked him to return to the university. Now at this point he had already begun his studies and he was asked to return from the Himalayas to university which was the University of Bombay and continue his studies. Now he took degrees in commerce, accountancy and English. OK. I don't know whether you realize this, whether it has been mentioned, but he actually is a very fine poet. I don't think Gita has any of his letters along right now but some of them read with extreme beauty. I remember once when I first told Rishi about Gururaj, we were sitting around a table in a lovely cottage way up in the northern part of England, beautiful fifteenth century farmhouse. We handed him a copy of a letter, and Rishi read it through. He said, "Well, whatever else this man

3. US 77-1 is, he certainly is a poet." And this is true. He writes beautiful poetry and some volumes of it are already collected, written with their introduction and so forth, just waiting to be published. But I think we're going to publish it through our movemen t rather than through a regular press. So, this is something you can probably expect within the next year to a year and a half. Anyway, he finished his university studies at about the age of twenty. Now there's one story that stands out in his life as of ultimate significance. This happened when he was about eighteen years old. At least, this is what we gather. He was with his guru one very hot, summer, Thursday afternoon. Thursday is the day called ["gurufahr"?], the day of the guru, and usually gurus fast and go into silence that day. Fast, excuse me, I'm in the United States now. And they go into silence that day, and this is what he did with his guru. Sometime in the late afternoon, they went into meditation together. And he said that the moment he went into meditation, he slipped into a very, very deep meditation where time and spac e and all of his surroundings just disappeared completely. He was immersed in a golden light and bliss. He emerged from this state about two hours later. And when he emerged from this state, he opened his eyes, and as he looked around him everything was covered in a golden luster, a luminous quality that seemed to emanate from within the object and on the surface of the object. What he saw in fact looked something like a photograph that you might see done with Kirlian photography except he said that doesn't really capture it either because there was something about it that the quality of the goldenness seemed to permeate everything in the universe and was part of everything in the universe and it seemed to connect everything in the universe. So when he emerged from that state he realized that he was in a state that he had long sought. We won't go into any details describing it, but it's called nirvikalpa samadhi. This means a permanent samadhi, a samadhi of a full state of enlightenment where the divinity within and the full conscious apparatus of the personality are connected, are linked together. These things can be talked about later, but this was the major experience in his life. And this state, as he says, has remained with him all the rest of his life although certain other powers have developed since that time. But the basic state of consciousness itself has remained the same. So he left at the age of twenty. When he finished his university studies he left South Africa, or left India rather, and went to South Africa, began a series of businesses, and built up actually quite a successful business career, the last one being films. He and his business partners were supplying about three hundred and fifty cinemas in South Africa with films. As he said, films from the action market. OK? Spaghetti westerns and Atlas, you know, the Atlas ones and so forth. Then in 1975 he contracted a chest cold having to do with his heart, and I'll tell you just a little bit about that now. He contracted a chest cold and became very ill. His doctors examined him and said that he was going to have to have immediate open heart surgery because the arteries that were leading into the heart were severely blocked. Now, of course, this was no

4. US 77-1 new news to Gururaj because he was born with a congenital heart defect. That is, the arteries leading into the heart were blocked right from the time of birth. It was so bad that at several intervals in his life when he was examined by doctors, they were really quite amazed that he was living. On several occasions, he says, doctors made comments to him that he must have some special qualities to him or inner resources that most people don't have because something was keeping him alive, and [it] certainly wasn't the two arteries that were leading into his heart. In fact, this did erupt and become a problem some ten years ago, but finally the major eruption took place in about April of 1975, which also is just about the time when I happened to meet my now wife in England who was then Margritte Causely, now Margritte Bellin or Gita Bellin, as many of you know her. But right at that time his heart flared up. It was discovered that many of his arteries were very badly blocked, and he was told he had to have immediate open heart surgery. Now Gururaj, like everyone else in the universe is part of a chain of spiritual beings, you might say, part of a chain of spiritual intelligence and being. He has those who bring knowledge and understanding to him just as he brings knowledge and understanding to us, although, as he said, they're not on the physical plane. They are not physical beings. At this point when he was told that he should have open heart surgery, it was his plan to go to India and to spend about six to nine months going into a special meditation state where he would stop the breathing and the heart beats. In that state he would dissolve by process of inner concentration he would dissolve the old arteries and produce new ones. But he was told.... He brought this to the attention of these beings, and he was told that he should not do this because if he did it would bring him into a state called "unity." Now in the state of unity a person achieves a total state of completeness and bliss every moment. Now in this state o ne can't have any motivation to do anything because to a person in that state everything seems perfect. I mean you can't see imperfection. Everything, just as it is, is perfect. Therefore, there's no motivation, no carrot if you like, to project out in front of oneself to keep oneself moving and doing things. Of course, many spiritual teachers in the past have been confronted with that choice as to whether they wanted to take that route which would lead them directly into unity or choose to stay in the world and be active until their time of physical death. There is the example, for instance, of Buddha. If you remember Buddha under the Bodhi Tree went into this blissful state and in this state, this nirvanic state, he sat in that state for about two weeks. After about two weeks the tempter, Mara, came to Buddha. Mara said, "Alright, you've got what you want now. It's very nice. Why don't you just stay in this state, go off into a cave by yourself, and live in bliss for fifty years, and finally your body will drop away? And you'll just continue to exist in that bliss for eternity." Buddha said no that he had a job of work to do, that he had to go back into the world and that he couldn't take that step. And therefore, he refused to go completely into unity which is essentially the choice that Gururaj had to make.

5. US 77-1 So it was recommended, therefore, that he have the open heart surgery. This was done at the end of July, 1975, and he had quite a rapid recovery. One more point about this. Very often things that exist on the physical plane, say in terms of physical bodies or events that take place externally and physically, are symbolic of something which is taking place, are both expressions of and symbolic of something which is taking place on a deeper inner or subtle level or spiritual level. One of the inner or subtle planes. And in this case the fact that Gururaj was born with a congenital heart defect is not an accident, is not something which is just a freak of nature, freak of birth. It was symbolic of his mission, his purpose for being on this planet at this time. And that is that at the present time the major problem in the world is not that we lack say creative intelligence or knowledge, but that we lack a certain kind of wisdom that is based on an expanded heart. That, in fact, people's hearts are contracted, restricted, that they can't flow with feeling, with love. His job was to come and to whatever extent was possible to help heal the human heart. So he was born with a heart which on the physical level, on the physical plane, was constricted. The blood couldn't flow through it; the life giving blood couldn't flow through. This was symbolic of this spiritual purpose of his being born. At the time when he came to do his work, to actually begin his spiritual work, he had been, of course, teaching meditation for years and studying these things for years. He had been going into samadhi and learning how to meditate on people, to pick up their essence and so forth for years. But he didn't begin his teaching in earnest as a spiritual teacher until 1975, and at that time when the time was ripe and he had the surgery, what was happening is he was using very, very precise instruments of modern physiological science, of medical science, to make incisions in these arteries. To remove them, of course, they take new arteries from the leg, usually from the thigh, replace them in the heart and in this way, once again the heart can flow with blood. So using the most precise instruments, scientific instruments of modern physiological science, the heart was healed. And in the same way this was symbolic of his work which he was to begin at this point, which was the work of using precise spiritual laws, laws of the spiritual planes, to cut away the restrictions in the human heart, to heal the human heart so that it could flow once again. So I just thought that you might be interested in hearing this and having some idea of why this has all come about. Now he has said that his heart will always be for the rest of his lifetime that he is going to be in very precarious health always that he will always be quite weak, and that he's going to have to take very, very careful care of himself. So this is the reason that Rishi was coming on rather strong tonight which is important that we should be careful not to make too many demands on him. This, I think, is not something that is not going to change in the future. It's going to continue this way. He does have a lot of pain there often in the heart still. He can't walk very far. OK.

6. US 77-1 RISHI?: Let me interrupt there. I just want to say something too about that. In making demands upon Gururaj, conversely he really loves for you to make intellectual demands on him. So if there're some tough questions about something you personally have experienced or something about meditation in general ... And Gururaj is the consummate philosopher. He has a very extensive background in philosophy, and he loves deep and penetrating questions. Real gut questions. So don't be meek in that regard. If there's anything at all that you'd really like to ask, don't say, "No, no. This is too controversial." Or something like that. Let's just do it. But again the only thing we really want to do is, uhh... Well, this course is so small we're not going to have to worry. It won't be a problem. Often on the large courses we try to weed out some of the questions that keep getting asked over and over. I don't think we'll have to bother with that though. AMRIT: OK. Yes, this is true. So do be probing with your questions. And you know a good idea is to write them down in moments of quietness when you can really think about them and express them really articulately and well. This will make you more bold in asking the question because you will have thought more deeply about it. And it will probe Gururaj more deeply also. OK. Just a couple of words about how we got started... RISHI: One more thing about questions. Gururaj prefers to answer all questions spontaneously. He doesn't like to know about them ahead of time. So don't say, "Oh, Guruji, I'm going to ask you about this. What are you going to do about this now." Just spring it on him. AMRIT: This is the way many of the classical Vedic and Indian scriptures were written. I suppose this is true of other religions too, but they were written by people just asking questions, and someone would just start talking. So do that. Yes? CHELA: Do you ask them here or anywhere you meet him? Or... AMRIT: Ask them here. See, if...

7. US 77-1 CHELA: What if it's a personal question? AMRIT: A personal question? No, then you would ask that in a private interview if that can be arranged. OK? CHELA: What if it can not be arranged? RISHI?: See that's what we're trying to avoid. We're trying to avoid a number of people stopping him in the hall or here for personal things like that. So you see if you are not scheduled to see him, please see me or Amrit. And you don't have to divulge the details of it. AMRIT: You can even write it... RISHI?: Then we'll see if we can arrange that for you. AMRIT: Right. You can even write it on an envelope, and we'll take it with us. He could meditate on your form and maybe give us an answer to the question which will be given to you. So don't ... I mean, that could still be done. He does not get tired going into samadhi over forms like this. I mean, he can do this for hours on end, and he feels marvelous while he's doing that. He can sit in meditation for hours on end. So that part of it I don't think you should worry about. Just write it down on a piece of paper, and give it to us in case you don't get an actual private interview. Some will here. Some people will. Now a couple of words about how things got started in England. Many of you I've met years ago when we were involved in another meditation organization. And I had gone to England to do a lecture tour. In fact, some of the people sitting in this room supported me to do that. They even helped financially to support me to get over there to do that. Anyway, while over there I met Margaritte at just about the time that Gururaj's heart problem came to the surface. When we met there was an immediate sense of tremendous rapport between the two of us. We started having from the very first meeting a series of very deep and very probing conversations with each other. Now both of us at this time were on very strong, sort of celibacy and self purity trips and this sort of thing, and we had no interest in getting married. We were celibates, and we were going to be life celibates and all this sort of thing. I don't know if we really believed this, but anyway this is t he trip we were on at the time. OK? So we never really thought of each other as potentially being man and wife. This just wasn't anything that came to our minds. Our relationship was purely one of having a very deep sort of mental and intellectual and spiritual rapport. So we had a series of deep conversations that went on for a period of a couple months.

8. US 77-1 Within a few weeks actually, a week or two of meeting Margaritte, she showed me a picture of Gururaj. She told me a little bit about him and showed me a picture of him. Now at this time she wasn't even using his name. She just called him Perry, which was his householder's name, the westernized version of Purushottam. So I wasn't thinking about him as a guru. I just knew she had described his own descriptions of his own conscious experience to Margaritte, and I found that interesting and impressive. But she showed me a photograph of him, and I've never had an experience quite like that before because I took it in my hand. It was a photograph of him in a business suit. I took one look at it and I knew that this was the teacher that I had ... That I had ... Is he here? Gururaj here? OK. Just a minute then. I just knew that this was the teacher that I was here to work with in this lifetime. And it is quite odd because that perspective or that perception or that intuition that came at the moment of looking at the photo never once changed after that. It was just clear and absolute. And I had never gone through an experience like that before. I had met quite a number of gurus actually in the West, but I had never any special feeling like I had any connection there. But here there was just that immediate sense. So I sat down and wrote a letter to Gururaj on about the 23rd of June, 1975, just saying, "OK. Here I am. I'm already. Let's go." He wrote a letter back and in his letter told Margritte and I that it would be good for us to become very close and then the next letter after that just out and out said go ahead and get married. So we had to alter our relationship somewhat, and we did get married in the autumn on November first of 1975. Then we came to this country, and we spent four months here on honeymoon. Meanwhile, of course, we knew that Gururaj had written to us and he wanted us to go back to England and start this movement, open up a center once our honeymoon was over. He said to take a long holiday because probably that will be the last one you will be having for quite some time which is proving to be true. OK? In any case, we went back to England in late March of 1975 [1976], sent out a newsletter to some of our friends, and the first group of thirty five or forty people came to a lecture. I had to give a lecture on practices which at this point I didn't know anything about because at this point he hadn't even told us how we were going to be teaching or what we were going to be teaching only that we were going to be teaching meditation. So I remember that giving that first lecture and not knowing what I was lecturing about, but I gave it anyway. About forty people signed up, and we had our first course. And as the practices came to us, the descriptions of the practices and the significance of the practices and so forth came along with the practices. So everything has been built in that way. Then, of course, he came to England for the first time in November of 1976. Rishi came over to be with us during that time, and he said to Rishi, "Alright. Go back to the United States and get things started." Actually Margaritte and I flew back to the United States,

9. US 77-1 you remember, in late '76 and at that time taught some of you, instructed some of you here in the preparatory practice. You and you were in that first group. Right? And Joan was there. You were too. No, you came to England, didn't you? Right. And you were there too. Right. So quite a number of people here that we actually started at that time. From that point on, we went back to England and things continued to grow. We've got about fourteen hundred meditators in England. The movement is well underway. There's about sixty or sixty five teachers in training. So the American movement, or rather the English movement, is pretty much self sustaining and self generating at this point. So that's basically it. And I think we have a visitor now. RISHI?: We have a visitor. Like to welcome Guruji. AMRIT: Like to sit on this side of me? Could I have that brown jacket there for a foot rap? Want to keep your feet warm? GURURAJ: I don't think I need that now. Perhaps a little bit later. With my American family. Shall we start with a little prayer? And then have about five minutes of meditation. Then we can start the discourse. OK? [Prayer in Sanskrit followed by meditation.] [Long pause.] GURURAJ: Om shanti, shanti, shanti. Peace be with you all. I'm sure you know the meaning of this greeting, when we join our hands together and bring it up. It means that with thought, word, and deed I salute the Divinity within you. Good. Now, I have not come to lecture to you, but rather to communicate with you. And in the communication, minds and hearts flow in a beautiful togetherness and oneness so that I could understand you better, and you me. Right. The best way to do that is to ask questions. And, of course, questions will be answered in the same vain as to the question that is asked. So let's hear some of your deep philosophical questions. AMRIT OR RISHI: Anyone who would like to start? Something you would like to ask Guruji? Joyce? CHELA: I would like to know what would be of benefit to us as individuals from your technique. Specifically, will this help us in our daily lives to be able to handle situations that come up and problems that come up in our lives?

10. US 77-1 GURURAJ: True. That's a very good question. Such questions are normally dealt with by counselors in the introductory talks. But seeing that you have asked the question, I should answer you. Hmm? Good. What would meditation benefit you? The purpose of meditation is to achieve a certain measure of self integration which is a gradual process until one reaches full integration. Now what is there to be integrated? There are three aspects of man: the mind, body, and the spirit. And what happens is this, that man lives a life very fragmentedly. Man does not live a life in full totalness or in his full potential which is the totality of existence. So through meditation, which is a scientific process of going deeper, deep down within ourselves, we do bring together the three aspects of man so that they could function harmoniously. Now if a person achieves harmony within himself which is mind, body and spirit, then his harmony reflects also in the environment. So he is benefitting himself. And harmony is just another word for joy where life becomes more and more happier. Good. Now it is the nature of a flower to grow beautiful, but it does something else as well. It enhances the beauty of the garden. So by gaining integration within ourselves, by becoming harmonious within ourselves, we automatically create a harmony with the environment, with our loved ones, with our friends, with our work mates, with the entire environment. So it is a great benefit to us sociologically. Now we all know that through meditation we gain a deep rest. So physiologically and biologically, there are benefits. Now with the body gaining rest, the mind also quietens down. In that quietness we benefit psychologically. Good. And it is only when the body and the mind achieve a certain state of quietness can we really touch the essence, the core of our being. The Bible says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven within, and all else shall be added unto thee." Now the only way to find the kingdom of Heaven within, the only way to open the doors of the kingdom of Heaven within is to be able to still the mind and the body. In Sanskrit there is a very beautiful word. It is called "pratyahara" where one goes beyond mind and body and into the realms of the spirit. So you benefit spiritually. And the way to benefit spiritually is by opening those flood gates and allowing those spiritual energies to permeate our minds and bodies so that it could be of practical value in daily life. So we have seethe benefits of meditation, that it benefits us physiologically, biologically, psychologically... Hmm? Good. And the spiritual unfoldment comes about. It is not important that you meditate a half an hour in the morning and a half an hour in the evening and gain all kinds of experiences. Now some people look forward to having flashy experiences, visions and colors and things like that. That is not even necessary because that has nothing to do with the unfoldment of the spiritual self. Those experiences are still on the level of the mind, perhaps on a deeper level. And as all would know, man uses only ten percent of his mind. Ninety percent is dormant. So through meditation, we explore the deeper layers of the mind. Hmm? Now with our

11. US 77-1 systems of meditation, which are highly individualized and tailor made, which means that if you wear a size 32 suit, a size 36 is no good for you and neither is a size 26 any good. It has to be your size so that you can feel good in it and enjoy wearing that suit because it is tailor made. So with the tailor made practices that we have, individualized practices, one does not only expand the awareness of the mind, but one also expands the heart. The heart unfolds. The core of the human personality unfolds. We know today as a fact the world is orientated more toward intellectualism. Now that is good. That is good. But what is happening is that people are becoming intellectual morons. That is bad. Now if there is a simultaneous development of the heart and if the heart and the mind could work together, then there won't be intellectual morons but lovers with an intellect. Hmm? Lovers with an intellect. Because the nature of the heart is love. And if that love, the full force of tha t love, could be portrayed, could be translated, could be interpreted, could be put forth through the human mind, how much more richer can life not become? Not only to ourselves, but also to the environment. So briefly these are the few [a few of the] benefits of meditation. Now as I was saying, the flashy experiences are still on the mind level. A meditator came to me a few months ago and he says, "Gururaj, I've been meditating now for about six, eight months, and I sit down to meditate and just nothing happens! Nothing happens." So I said, "Oh, sit down and let's discuss it." I told the secretary to bring us some tea. Hmm? Started chatting. In ours, there's always the personal touch, the personal communication that should take place in any spiritual movement. I don't like the word "movement." It sounds of something too organized. Well, well, there has to be organization. There has to be a system to get anything going. But there what is most important is the person to person, heart to heart, mind to mind communication. And in that communication the joy and the beauty and the bliss is felt. Hmm? Good. So this person... We started talking about his daily life, about his work ... And it is very easy for a person to start talking about his work. If you ever want to get someone talking to you, start off with his work. So. Good. So he is a sales manager in a big company, and he has a general manager. Now before he started meditating, this is what he says, that there was not a single day when he did not feel like punching his general manager in the nose. After starting to meditate and achieving a certain measure of tranquility in himself, he says, "Oh, my general manager still shouts, but I don't take any notice of it. It doesn't hurt me." He, in turn, used to shout at his subordinates, at his sales staff. He says, "I don't shout anymore. If I see something is wrong, I call them and have a nice chat with them and say, 'Look, John, Jack, Joe. Do it this way or that way or approach the client in this manner. Let this be your sales presentation.' And productivit y increased." That's his work life. We started talking of his home life. He says, "My wife used to get so irritable with me, and I used to get irritated too. And then of course there wasn't a single day when we didn't have squabbles. And now

12. US 77-1 what's happening is this, that when my wife gets irritated, I start laughing and I say, 'Honey...' (That's the American word, isn't it? I'm learning fast in two days.) He starts joking and then she has to laugh. Who can combat laughter if laughing is sincere, joyful, it is contagious and so efficient to overcome anyone's irritability. Hm? Fine. His children used to be a source of annoyance, and they used to make a noise and do this...[END SIDE ONE] So his home life improved, his social life improved, and he became more loved by people. Now the secret of being loved is to start loving. If I love you then automatically I become lovable. Hm? Good. So his social position became much much more enjoyable. And then, after finishing the cup of tea, while chatting about all these things, I said, "Did your meditations not benefit you? Hmm? " You see? So it works. The idea is this, that it is not the half an hour in the morning and the half an hour in the evening, the one hour that is so important. The important part is the twenty three hours. Hmm? Fifteen or sixteen hours in the waking state and seven, eight hours in the sleep state. The sleep, the quality of sleep, must improve because of the deep rest we are getting through meditation and a greater tranquility takes place within us. Fine. The waking state must improve where all our relationships and all our communications and all our actions become right actions. And right actions only come about because of right thought. Now the mind is a very, very cunning animal. Hmm? How t o tame this animal? The more you fight with this animal, the more it fights back. Now if there are a whole lot of monkeys jumping on a tree and if you want to keep them quiet, it won't help going to shake the tree. They will jump more. Hmm? The mind does that. We leave the tree alone, and the monkeys settle down. Now by doing meditation we are giving the mind a chance to settle down. Now in the half an hour the mind settles down, it has an effect over the twenty three hours of the day. It has an effect over the twenty three hours of our waking and sleep state. And it has a beneficial effect. Now you might think that the half an hour is so little, but it is a lot. Hmm? If you touch two open electric wires, you don't need to hold it for ten hours to get a shock. You just need to touch it. So in that half hour meditation if we touch being momentarily, only for a few seconds, it revitalizes, regenerates us. And that flood gate of divine energy fills our entirety . So that meditation is important. If you go and spend half an hour in a perfume factory, you will come out smelling like perfume. Yes, yes. So these are briefly the benefits of meditation, and it has been so, so successful with thousands and thousands of people throughout the world wherever we are established. OK. Next. CHELA: It is my feeling that each one of us comes here with a purpose, for whatever purpose it is. Whatever it is. What is the best way of finding out what it is?

13. US 77-1 GURURAJ: Ahh. Very good question. I'll answer you as soon as I wipe my eyes. What is the purpose of life, hmm? Those are eternal questions that man asks. What is the purpose of life? What am I? Who am I? That is the question that is to be asked. Now how to find the purpose of one's life. There can only be one purpose in life, and that purpose is to become one with your maker. We come from a divine source, and we want to go home. That is the purpose of life! And all problems that occur in achieving this purpose, in achieving this purpose, is bec ause we lose our way in reaching home. We get sidetracked. Now why do we get sidetracked? Why do we get sidetracked?! Why do we flounder? Why do we not reach directly home? Why do we lose the path? Hmm? There could be many reasons for that. And one of the reasons is man's karma. Now most of you have heard the word karma. Karma literally means action. The actions we perform in life determines our path in life, and it could take us nearer home, or it could stagnate us, or it could into a wrong path which makes it more difficult to reach home. So, the purpose... CHELA: My question was how do we know the path? GURURAJ: I'm coming to that. Let me give you a general ... If you want to know your path, your personal path, that would have to be a private interview, my dear. It's not nice for me to talk of your personal path amidst everyone. So, let me talk about it generally. Fine. Now, when we lose our way from reaching home it is due to karma, the actions we perform in life. So here again, coupled with meditation, coupled with meditation, we have to ... We have to with effort do right thinking and right action. Now thought is the mother of action. Thought is the mother of action. And if our thinking, if our minds are permeated by that divine energy, then automatically our thinking becomes right. Our thinking becomes unlabored. Our thinking becomes spontaneous, and in that spontaneity there is a beautiful rightness where we flow with the current of nature and not against the current of nature. And that is what is meant by losing the path and not achieving the goal is by going in the opposite direction. Now nature demands of you nature demands of you because you are part and parcel of nature and that is why it demands of you to flow with it and not against it. Hmm? So here again the cunning animal, the mind, becomes the stumbling block. Now all nature is governed by what is called in Sanskrit the three gunas. I'm sure you must have heard of the three gunas. We have the sattva which is light. We have the tamas which is darkness or inertia. And then we have rajas which is the activating force between tamas and sattva. Sattva being the force of light, and tamas being the force of darkness,

14. US 77-1 and the activating force is rajas. Now those three are the constituents of nature. Nature is just as eternal as divinity because nature is the manifestation of the unmanifest. Or for this moment you can say it the manifestation of the manifestor. [Baby crying in background] Good. Now you, to reach your goal, to reach your purpose of life, you have to bring about an equilibrium in those three aspects, in the three gunas. And it is by right thinking and right action which is strengthened by our meditations and spiritual practices that life assumes a greater sattvic value. Hmm? Assumes more and more light. More and more light starts shining in our daily living. Now when we go against nature, we are veiling that light and therefore there is darkness. So in the path to our goal, to our purpose.... There is only one purpose, to become one with Divinity. That's the only purpose. That's the only purpose why we have life. Now on the path we could use the analogy of say an electric bulb. This electric bulb is wrapped around with many, many layers of rags so the light does not shine through. And with meditations and spiritual practices, right thinking, and right action, we are peeling off all those veils one at a time. And the more those veils are peeled off the more the light filters through until all the veils are gone . Through our meditational practices, right thinking, right action, and self help, we reach the stage of naked light, and the light shines in its full glory. Then we can say that we have achieved the purpose of life. Now this might sound very difficult: how to peel off those veils. Hmm? It is not so difficult as it sounds. Good. When man goes to sleep at night, if he can keep a reckoning, a book of accounts, and he goes to sleep with a credit balance, then that day is well lived. Now what we mean by that is this, that say for five seconds your mind is filled with negative thoughts. Hmm? Good. Now for the next six seconds if your mind can be filled with positive thoughts, you have one second credit balance. Now for the next ten seconds there's negative thoughts. And then for the next twelve you consciously bring your mind to positive thinking. So credit balance two. So now we have three seconds to our credit. Now if the whole day passes that way, and as you lay in bed going to sleep, you will feel the effects of that positivity, tha t you have a credit balance, not a debit balance. Hmm? Now that is good karma. That is good karma. The other day I used an analogy that if you have killed twenty people ... There has been a terrible misinterpretation of the law of karma. It is so misinterpreted that people would think that if you killed twenty people, you will be killed twenty times in return. Now we know that there's a law of retribution which works infallibly. It is so. But one can balance it off as one does in a ledger or cash book. Hmm? So if you have killed twenty people, try and save the lives of twenty one. You have one credit balance. And you have overcome the effects of the negative karma you have done because the positive karma outweighs it. One step enough for me. Yes. And that is how life becomes better and better and better. Now where comes ... This applies not only generally. It is put generally, but it applies to everyone individually. Individually. Living a life, living this life, requires effort. If anyone tells you that twenty minutes of meditation in the morning and twenty mi nutes of meditation at night and all your problems are over, do not believe it! Meditation definitely gives you the

15. US 77-1 strength. Oh, yes, it does. It does. But during waking life we have to have conscious effort. And if anyone denies the conscious effort, then all theologies of the world are nullified. All scriptural injunctions, for example, the Ten Commandments, would be nullified if we don't make a conscious effort in our daily waking life. Now to come back to your question, the purpose of life is to reach Divinity. We come from Divinity, and we proceed back to Divinity. Now how to find the way to reach that purpose is a very individual matter. Now they have found, ancient seers have found that people are of varied temperaments. You'd find a person with a devotional temperament. So they would follow what is called bhakti yoga. Then you might find a person with an intellectual temperament, and he will go through all kinds of philosophical analysis until he reaches the stage and says, "Oh, not this. Not this. Not this." Because for every answer there's half a dozen questions coming up, and when you answer those half a dozen questions, there would be a dozen questions coming up. Because the finite mind can never comprehend the infinite. The infinite is to be experienced and not analyzed. Hmm? But if a person is born with that sort of temperament, he follows what we call jnana yoga which will lead him to a certain level. And from there he can start experiencing too. Then you find some person with a temperament that does not want to know what lies beyond. He just wants to live a good, moral, ethical life. Hmm? He would follow the injunction: Do unto others that you would expect to be done unto you. Hmm? That is karma yoga. Now all these yogas combine at a certain stage into raja yoga which gives you meditational practices. All these yogas of devotion, of knowledge, analysis, intellectualism, of living a good life, all these merge into one yoga, the universal yoga. And what is the universal yoga? God yoga. That is the real yoga. But man must start from wherever he is. If you are in standard six, you start from standard six and proceed to seven, eight, nine, ten. If you are in standard ten, you proceed to university and do your B.A. and M.A. and Ph.D., and what have you. But man must begin from where he stands. And that is why individual spiritual practices are so important and so necessary. So the best way to find how to reach the goal of life and the purpose of life is to start, is to analyze one's own temperament. And if a person is incapable of knowing what path to choose, then you go to a person that could tell you which path to choose. If your tap is broken at home, you go to a plumber. If your roof is leaking, you go to a roof repairer. If you are sick in body, you go to a doctor. If you are sick in mind, you go to a psychiatrist. But when your yearning starts for the spiritual life and really wanting to know not only to know with the mind but to experience, to live the spiritual purpose and if any confusion occurs there, you go to the spiritual teacher. Hmm? And he guides you. He studies your spiritual temperament, and he tells you you start from this path. So that is how you yourself would have to answer the question: Who am I? What am I? Let no man answer that question for you! Let no man answer that question! Let no man answer it. That must be a self discovery. And when man can truly

16. US 77-1 answer for himself, who am I, what am I, then that man, once he answers that question, he becomes self realized. He becomes illumined. Hmm? He becomes illumined. Because the judgment passed upon you, who you are and what you are, is limited by the mind of the man that judges you, that advises you. He has to judge you to advise you. But judge ye not that ye be judged. OK. So that path is to be found by oneself. But then we have to take the aid of spiritual masters, of gurus that have trodden the path, that have reached home. Why did it go home? To find his own fulfillment. And then when he comes back from home, he brings the biggest lantern he can to lighten your way. Come follow me. Did Christ not say, "Lay down your nets and follow me." He had the lantern in his hand. And what was that lantern? The lantern of love and compassion and truth. What a beauteous life! Christ said in those times, "Believe! Have faith!" In these times we say the same thing. Have belief. Have faith. But we say it in different ways. Hmm? The language is used according to the needs of man, according to the needs that are today. Today you have to speak in a more logical ... Hmm? You can't even tell a child today, "Don't touch the stove. Believe me. It'll burn!" He's going to touch the stove. Man's mind is like that today. We are going through a transition period. We are going through a transition period, an imbalanced period where, as I said before, a greater emphasis has been put on the mind. And the mind being a cunning animal, just does not believe. It wants to intellectualize. It wants to analyze. It wants to rationalize. It wants to find all the answers which is impossible. Totally impossible. I said before, the mind is finite. How can the finite ever grasp that which is infinite? So we have our limitations. But when we reach the core of our being, when we reach the heart, the Kingdom of Heaven within, all limitations cease. And even mind and intellect is not required. Did Christ not say, "Be simple as a child." Hmm? It meant You do not need mind to discover the truth within. N o. Now we have in our meditational practices a very, very systematic way whereby we can reach deep down within ourselves if practices are properly given and if practices are properly practiced. Then we can reach deep within ourselves and experience the joy and the bliss of the one who is indefinable, who is inexpressible. But so, so enjoyable. Hmm? And we have the mechanics within us to enjoy that joy. You see. So coming back to your question, the purpose of life is to discover the divinity that lies within us. We have to find our path according to our temperament, according to the tendencies we are born with. And if any confusion exists there, we take the assistance of a person that knows the way. If I want to reach from here to San Francisco and I do not know the way, being a stranger here, I will ask someone, "How do I reach San Francisco, 100 Paloma Avenue?" And I get guided. I get guided, and I use the guide. And after I have...the guide might take me to 100 Paloma Blvd. He will take me to the door. Fine. And after he has taken me to the door, I do not need the guide any more. The housewife goes to the supermarket and wants to buy things. She first makes up a list of the things she wants to buy, and after she has bought all the things,

17. US 77-1 s he can throw the list away. She does not need the list any more. Hmm? Now that is the job of the external guru, which I have repeated over and over again. The job of the external guru is to awaken the internal guru within you. It is all there. Man is essentially Divine. If Divinity is omnipresent, which means present everywhere, then He is present in every cell of your body. Hmm? He is present in every cell of your body. But man, having a free will, it depends a lot upon his freewill how to coordinate, how to bring into harmony, how to observe and take at face value this diversity and out of the diversity, how to bring that unity. And that unity is harmony. And when we harmonize ourselves within ourselves, mind, body, and spirit, then you are face to face with God. You enjoy Him. You experience Him. Hmm? You speak to Him. And when man discovers divinity within himself, then only would he see divinity in others. Otherwise, it's just intellectualizing. When we say, "Love thy brother as thyself," it is the greatest injunction in all scriptures. And all scriptures say the same thing. But what is thyself? Man has to know that first to really love thy neighbor as thyself. And that thyself, that I which means thyself, is divine. So through meditation and spiritual practices we discover, we rediscover rather, and experience that divinity there. And that divinity is so vast that it embraces the entire universe! So there is no conscious effort left in loving thy neighbor. It becomes spontaneous because that neighbor is within the framework of this universality. And that is how the individual becomes universal. That is how Christ would say, "I and my Father are one." That is the potentiality of every man, and having that potential, the only goal man could have is to reach divinity, to discover divinity. Then the question, what am I, who am I, is automatically answered. And the purpose is there clearly seen. No one can deny that man has any other purpose than to reach its source, his source. There can be no other purpose. None other! None other! None other! And the whole of evolution is propelling us to achieve that. Hmm? The whole process of evolution. We are in this continuum that consciously or unconsciously man is proceeding in the direction of that eternal silence. Hmm? Man is proceeding in that direction. How hard you try not to go, but the propelling force is so powerful that you might tarry a bit , you might tarry a while, but then, too, no hope is lost. You might get mixed up in the whirlpool, but yet no hope is lost. The energy will push you on into this ocean divine. And you will reach the shore. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Because the potential is there within you. Man is essentially divine. And the whole process of evolution is only this: that man must rediscover himself to be divine. Now the body and the mind can be used as instruments for man to rediscover himself. But these instruments are limited. We have to use them to their fullest potential, and then after that we even go beyond the body and the mind and in the

18. US 77-1 realm of the divine. And then the rivers become one with the ocean. All these different rivers, four thousand million rivers in this world. Four thousand million human beings, they all have to reach sooner or later that ocean. Hmm? They all have to reach it. Now some rivers might take a winding turn. Some rivers stagnate for a little while, but then the currents arise. The wind blows. And the sails are unfurled in your little boat. And there you go. You are pushed on by the law of grace. But we have to do something to invoke the law of grace that will push us on to the destination. That is the purpose of life. AMRIT OF RISHI: Thank you. We didn't want to keep you up late tonight. GURURAJ: It doesn't matter. RISHI: If we could ... if we could end with just a short comment on how a course such as this more quickly propels us along the irresistible course. GURURAJ: Ah, yes. Good question. A course such as this.... It's very well known, an old Biblical saying that where two people are gathered in my name, I am there. Hmm? Good. When so many minds get together for one purpose, the purpose of self unfoldment, spiritual unfoldment, when many minds get together, there a certain force, a certain power is generated. You must know that thoughts are things. Thoughts are tangible things. And thoughts could even be seen by the one that has the ability to see them. Thought, too, is matter but in a much more subtle form. So on a deepening course, on a deepening course people's thoughts are put into one direction. And when so many thoughts, so many minds are put together in one direction, how much greater the force there would be. Hmm? That is one of the reasons. Second reason would be if a guru should be present, he can because of this close communication impart certain spiritual energies, impart certain spiritual energies which some of you could feel. When you would leave this hall you would feel lighter. Not enlightened yet! But you'd feel lighter, much happier at heart because every word that is spoken here contains one force. But it's apart from the mind, apart from the mind where some words of wisdom perhaps could be heard, but there is a force of love that is conveyed through the medium of a voice. Hmm? Through the medium of voice, of sight, of touch, hearing. Hmm? Good. Then of course, group practices are very important, are very important. Sometimes a person has a slack period in meditation. And when a person has a slack period in meditation, if that person will go and meditate in a group, it will zap the person up. That's an American word. Fine.

19. US 77-1 So there are so many, many other benefits. And the greater benefit is this, that people meet. There is a closeness being developed. The whole world after all is nothing but a family. Hmm? But yet the families are so structured that even brother doesn't know brother. Sister doesn't know sister. Child doesn't know father. But in a deepening course like this people intermingle. There is an overflowing of love from their hearts, and that overflow comes because there is a force, a power regenerating love that issues forth all the time. All the time. Hmm? Every man is filled with love because the nature of everyone is love. Because love is just another word for Divinity. Now what we do in a deepening course is we open the can and let the love ooze out. Yes. That's what's happening. Sometimes it's bottled, bottled down. The can is not open. It's closed. So like this there are very, very many factors where deepening courses are very helpful. A great communication takes place between heart and mind with various people together in this big, wonderful family which we call this world. You see? Any more questions? AMRIT: No, not tonight. GURURAJ: Not tonight. OK. Fine. Good. Lovely. Shall we end up with a prayer? Hmm? [Prayer in Sanskrit] ***END***