3. U S 79 - 23 up on what we were doing. But anyway, that group of people now are all his chelas in South Africa. They've been all the close ones down there. So we had a lot of fun and it was in those days that he started to tell me about his mission and what he had to do; but he wasn't yet ready, the time wasn't ready, and so I had to just wait. And he suggested that I went on teaching what I was teaching 'cause it was the best thing I could do at the time, and that I should now return to England. And he sent me to a part of England which was very difficult to start meditation in, and later on he said he was simply testing me to see if I could actually get people to meditate in an area where there was simply nothing and probably be maximu m resistance. And I learnt such a great deal there because it was, you could say it was almost like a mini BMS or a mini AMS because all the isolated centers had to be built up and I had to travel and all that; and what we're doing now is simply the same thing but just on a larger scale. I fly from place to place instead of drive. So it was very formative years and during that time he continued to write. He came to visit me in England in '74, and when he got off the plane we were in the taxi and he gave me a ring, which is this ring, and he started to explain it. If you look at it closely it's a wedding ring and on top of it are two little coppe rheads. One is a closed copperhead and one is an open copperhead. He explained that they were the masculine an d feminine aspects of the universe and based on the wedding ring. And this part here was [hiranyagarbha?] I'm sure Amrit could explain to you more what [hiranyagarbha?] is it's like the golden egg of creation, isn't it? And that this stone represen te d the blood of his heart. I thought, "Now, what's this?" You know, all this there's masculine and feminine, and blood of the heart, and all that. And on that visit he explained that he was now ready to take his guru vows, that he would soon be coming out to do the work, and so on. He prepared me in a certain way. Then, in April of '75 I was going on a course, a TM course, and I won't tell you the whole story. I was going, and then I wasn't going, and then at the last minute I went. And when I got there and I asked who was leading this very special course, and they said, "Oh, it's a lecturer from America." Now, we had just been inundated by Americans who were going to save the British TM movement, and I thought, "Oh, how awful," you know, "having a n American lead the weekend." And they said, "Well, he's quite a good speaker" and I thought, "Well, I'm going to have to I'll believe it when I hear him ." So I sat at the first lecture feeling very resistant, and of course it was Amrit. And he was go od, in fact he was damn good, and by the end of the evening I'd even joined in the discussion and asked a question. And later that night this course was for the leading members of TM from all over the country and we hadn't seen each other for ages. So we were up in this little kitchen drinking cocoa and having lots of nice sort of chats and it was very very late. And later Walter, as he was named then, just walked down the corridor 'cause he'd been counseling someone didn't call it that in those da ys. And he said, "Does anybody know who Marguerite Causley is?" So I said, "Well, yes, I do. It's me." He said, "I have a friend in Los Angeles who you know you were in India with her and she said that I should look you up because we'd probably

4. U S 79 - 23 have lots of ideas in common." And we got talking and we really found we had a lot of things in common and we enjoyed talking and the philosophy was interesting. And so over the few weeks when he was living in London, we saw each other once or twice and just used to talk and talk. And then another weekend was coming up and I just had the feeling that I had to go on the weekend and I thought, you know, "What's this? You going to start running after that chap? You've been on the celibate path for years now, y ou've got this mission to serve Gururaj, and..." You know, I mean, my thoughts in those days were just crazy. They still are, but a different... Anyway, it was like a force made me go on that course, an d on the Friday just before it was about to start I managed to get through on the telephone to the secretary and she said, "We have a waiting list of twenty three people but someone's just canceled and as it's you we'll let you have the place." And so that weekend when everyone was meditating, we were tal king sitting in the library and I knew that I could show Amrit Guruji's picture. I hadn't told anyone about Gururaj and his mission at all for four years I'd kept that quiet. I mean, you can imagine well, I find it very hard to keep secrets, you kn ow, and to keep that without telling anyone. And so I showed Amrit the picture and what did you say? AMRIT: "I looked at the photograph and it was that feeling of immediate recognition. It wasn't like a big emotional thing it's just, I looked at it and thought, "Oh yeah, that's the man I was born to work with." And I mean, there wasn't any feeli ng o f doubt about that, it was just very clear that that was true. It was like picking up a ring or something that you'd lost an d looking at it and recognizing it. [Here follows a sentence that is too indistinct to hear] It was that kind of recognition. So that night I sat down and wrote a letter. GITA: Forty pages. Yeah, little note. And it was really beautiful because we put a photograph of Amrit in and we sent the letter. And we got a return by mail. Used to, in those days, get return letters by return of post. And he just put, "Beloved Walter, I recognized you immediately." And what happened was, we started to work together, we taught and we lectured together and so on. We had lots of letters. And then one day we were on a tour and we were on holiday for a few days and this letter came and we left it until we'd actually arrived at this little cottage where we were going to have a few days ' rest with some friends. And we opened the letter late at night and inside the letter were two envelopes, one for me and one for him. So he took his letter into his room and I took mine into my room, because reading letters from Gururaj in those days it was rather special. And I opened my letter and in it was, you know, a lot of information and there was one sentence that just went Brrrrrnnngg it said, "Walter is a good man. Try and get him to marry you." [Laughter] In his letter in the other room he was reading, "Gita is good for you. Take care of her for me." Well, I was so shocked, you know; I mean, I was not gonna have a householder path, you know, I was gonna do this great mission that Gururaj told

5. U S 79 - 23 me about, and marriage had no part of that. So for about two days we didn't talk to each other. He was on the same theme 'cause he'd written to G uruji about celibacy and that, because, you know, in that organization it was encouraged. Anyway, over a series of weeks we went through this thing: "Is he testing me? Does he really mean it?" You know. Oh, the agony, you know. And then one night, we realized he meant it. And so we just decided to surrender to it, and to what he wanted. And it was lovely, we were like little seventeen year old kids, weren't we? We still are, but.... And so he wrote some beautiful letters to us about how happy he was and that he had been asking Amrit to come to England for two years to find me. And that he had this tremendous feeling of wanting to be drawn. And so, about the time we met each other, that's when Guruji got sick and when he went in to have the heart op eration. When we decided we would marry, that was about the time that he had his heart operation and we know the rest. We came to America for a honeymoon; he told us to take some holiday because once after that we wouldn't get any time any more. And t hat after our honeymoon he would write and tell us how we would start the organization. But we already started the organization because we taught Doug and Betty how to meditate with the prep practice before we even knew what it was. And then we started B MS when we came back, about April '76. And we came over here for a few trips and helped AMS to get going and then we came over here permanently March of last year. Also in those early days we went to Spain and Denmark and Germany and got those groups sta rted. It really has been very very interesting. As he said, in I think one of the last letters of that phase that he wrote to us, he said, "A husband and wife team can go anywhere in the world and do anything for good." And I'd like to acknowledge that my own idea of helping Guruji to change the world on my own would never have worked. You have to have a partner by your side. And it really has been fun. It's been hard work sometimes, but it's been fun. And really, I'm going to enjoy sitting down and writing out all that story in detail and then, you know, quoting from the letters all the various things, because Guruji writes so beautifully, it's just like poetry. I know it will uplift many a heart just before you go to sleep at night, when those boo ks are written. Namaste. [Tape clicks off and back on.] CHELA: Beloved Guruji, two questions about samskaras. You have said that samskaras cannot be dissolved but only sublimated, since nothing can be created or destroyed in the universe. If this is t he case, how can we create or pick up samskaras? Can you elaborate on the idea you have touched on that samskaras and thoughts are floating around independent of people and are attracted to those who deserve them? Could it be said that karma and samskara s are formed by the energy created in the clash which occurs when, let me see, Divine energies pull us in one direction and we

6. U S 79 - 23 push ourselves in the other? And you have said that the incarnation has no samskaras. Surely he must have the structure of sams karas to exist, think, or function at all. GURURAJ: Do you want an answer to that? CHELA: Just a short one. GURURAJ: Shall I make it shorter than the question? CHELA: Easy. GURURAJ: Now, the entire universe functions because of samskaras. Sams karas, or impressions, is also another name for motion. And where there is no motion there could be no samskaras. Now, when it comes to individual samskaras... is there an echo on here? When we talk of individual samskaras, we mean all the impressions th at are gained by that individual person. In other words, the samskaras are contained in the universe individual mind, which is like the bubble or the wave on the ocean. In reality there is only one mind, as there is only one ocean. So all the waves on the ocean, not being of the same size and shape, would have its own peculiar and particular samskaras, which are formed by their karmas. Now, I've said before that samskaras may not only be good, but they can be bad also, and it depends where and how the samskaras are formulated and expressed. If they are formulated by a greater amount of tamas, which is inertia or darkness, then more negativity would be apparent, because of greater darkness. If these very samskaras which constitute the individual mind is dominated by sattva or the forces of light, then naturally life would assume that light and become more pleasurable. Now, these two gunas, tamas and sattva, has to be activated by the third element, which we know as rajas. There is a continual interac tion between tamas, rajas, and sattva. Now, these three gunas are the basis of all samskaras and samskaras or impressions are the basis of this entire universe. Whatever constitutes a grain of sand would also constitutes the entire universe. In other wo rds, the principle that is involved in a grain of sand is the same principle involved in the entire universe, but on a larger scale. So when these individual samskaras, like the waves on the ocean, form a continuum in the ocean, that we call the universal mind. So in reality the individual mind is only seemingly so. But the basis of the seemingly individual mind is the universal mind, the entirety of the ocean. So if you stand at one end of the ocean and stir the waters there, the effect of the stirring would be felt at the other end of the ocean, perhaps in a very subtle form because of time and space. And all these things function within the realms of relativity.

7. U S 79 - 23 So I have always said that reformers have come and gone, and the mistake, the biggest m istake they have made was to reform society as a whole. The real way to bring any kind of reformation in society or to put society on the path towards Divinity would be on the individual basis. For the greater sattva the individual acquires, the greater amount of force he draws from the superconscious level of his mind, which is sattvic, the more a better person he becomes, and the more a better person he becomes, the vaster and the subtler and the better influence he has on that which is around him. So if the water stirred in the superconscious level would carry, the water that is stirred in the superconscious level would carry throughout the universal mind, and the more the sattvic life is the more one is in touch with the superconscious mind, the great er the effect would it have on the universal mind. That is why every mind is, every individual mind, so to say, is connected with every other mind. So to repeat again, in reality there is only one mind, the universal mind, the universal ocean in which th ese little waves jump up and down. And it is because of these waves caused by samskaras that the universe is set in motion, for without motion the universe cannot function, the universe cannot be active, and the universe would not be in the state of flux, of contraction and expansion. That is the construction of the universe. Now, the universe is nothing else but mind. Now, this mind is nothing else but matter existing in various gradations from the range of totally subtle to the totally gross. So when one person thinks a thought, a good thought or a bad thought, it must affect his environment. Now, the more powerful the thinker, the vaster the range of his thought. That is why an enlightened person, a person who is forever dwelling on the sattvic leve l, can think a thought here and affect someone that is ten, twelve thousand miles away. That is how, for example, healing is done. That is how, for example, a question is answered even in the absence of the master. You think a thought and just somehow t he answer dawns on you. Because you by thinking that thought sincerely and powerfully you are in contact with the universal mind, and the universal mind in its various gradations naturally would touch the finest level which is the sattvic mind, of w hich the true master is composed. This happens not only in healing or the answer of thoughts, but also in telepathy. I find a daily occurrence of this amongst my chelas here. I think of tea and here Savita or someone would walk in with a cup of tea. So that just goes to prove that the connection is there all the time. This means that all samskaras created in the individual minds of man are interconnected. That is why, if I am a good person, I would spread, without any effort, goodness around me. So I' ve always said this over and over again, that it is the nature of the flower to be beautiful. But that is not the only thing it does, it also enhances the beauty of the garden. That is why every person is responsible for the other. That is why it is said , "I am my brother's keeper." That is why it is said "love thy neighbor as thyself." For thy neighbor is not separate from thyself. These little blooms of individuality are tied, and all the strings are in the hand of that which Is.

8. U S 79 - 23 So you see, all is connected, broad at the base of the pyramid and ending at the point in oneness. What we fail to recognize is that we remain at the base, where we find the breadth and a certain kind of expansiveness which creates and gives us the impression of separation . As we climb to the pinnacle through our meditation, meditation and spiritual practices, we reach the pinnacle, we reach the point where we find all to be one. For then our individual mind loses itself in the universal mind and cognizes the universal mi nd and yet retaining its individuality because of its embodiment. Now, I have said this too, before, that everything emanates. Man is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, and his particular bundle creates this individuality. Now, everything from the grossest to the subtlest has to emanate a force; like fire emanating heat, flower fragrance. Now all these emanations put together forms the emanation of the universal mind. Because, as we have explained, that all minds are connected and interconnected to each other. So naturally, all these emanations from these various in dividual sources throughout all the planets and solar systems and galaxies of the universe, has its own particularized form of emanation. Now, the word "universe" could be used in many senses. By universe we could mean the totality of it all, and by unive rse we could also mean a particular universe which is interconnected with other universes. Now there are Sanskrit words defining these different universes, but of course in English we don't have these words. So, these universes, too, are connected to eac h other. So as there are millions of planets, billions of planets, billions of solar systems, billions of galaxies, so there are billions of little universes in which these galaxies and solar systems, et cetera, are contained. And that is what makes the totality of the universe indestructible and eternal and infinite. For the particularized universe that we are in, being of a relative nature, is still subjected to time and space, but all these universes put together being infin ite and eternal, is beyond time and space, for eternity and infinity cannot be measured in the terms of time and space, because time and space as its requirement must have substance. And that substance is matter. So now, in this particularized universe that we talk of, also has i ts own particularized emanation, and that particularized emanation from the totalness of this universe is what we know as the personal god. He contains the personal god contains within himself all the samskaras of the entire universe but in a refined, sattvic form. For sattva, too, is subjected to relativity. So when the time comes in this universe where certain imbalances are occurring and where great balance is required, this total emanation solidifies itself, embodies itself, to come to this planet Earth. Now, he has to embody himself as human because he's dealing with the highest creature on this planet, which is human. When that totality of emanation known as the incarnation has to go to another planet where beings exist in a different form, then he embodies himself in that form. Because it is only the embodied that could provide the impulse to another who is also embodied. Say, for example, there is a planet called XYZed, and in that planet people have two heads and six legs and twenty arms. Th en when this emanation of the universe incarnates there, he will incarnate in like manner, with two heads and six feet

9. U S 79 - 23 and twenty arms. That is how that is why you find in many mythologies you have these gods and goddesses with six arms, and pictures y ou have seen of men with ten heads, things like that. These are mythological descriptions of things on other planes or levels of existences which the sages have cognized. So now, coming back to the incarnation, it is worth repeating that he is the embodim ent of all the samskaras of the universe but at its sublest sattvic purest level, and therefore that incarnation emits such great power, force, in the form o f love, or any of the other great virtues that you can think of. Now, as this incarnation comes t o right the balance at various points in the universe, he is not ridding the universe of samskaras, but he, being of light nature, being of sattvic nature, he infuses by his very presence and teachings the sattvic values, or the higher values, or the subtl er, purer values of life, in the darkness that exists, and that very darkness which has created this imbalance. So, therefore, the incarnation is none else but, as we would say, the bringer of light. That is the incarnation. Now, with the functioning of the incarnation, who is the totality of this emanation, which I'm repeating over and over again to drive the point home [END SIDE ONE], he also retains the samsakric values of the entire universe in order to individualize himself. But in his individuality and the individuality of others there is one difference, and the difference is this: that he is dominated, totally dominated, by sattvic, lighter values, while the ordinary man is always in a state of turmoil between the three gunas. One day he's up in s attva, the other day he's down in tamas. So that is the difference. So, with the infusion of this light he corrects this balance and the balance would be an equilibrium of tamas, rajas, and sattva, where all this motion which creates the friction is brou ght to a still level. And when that is brought to a still level or to a state of equilibrium, then you go beyond the personal god and you recognize the impersonal God. So self realization is limited to the finest relative where you are still the individ ual self but limited by the boundaries of the finest relative. But knowing the entirety of the small self and its various ramifications from the grossest to the subtlest, you become free of them, you become free of them and you can stand apart from them b ecause of the state of equilibrium. So no disturbance occurs. Yet to preserve the self within this state of equilibrium, the currents for future emanations are there in a very fine subtle form which does not create disturbance. That applies to every per son who has reached that state of equilibrium in that little individualized way, while the avatara, or the incarnation, has achieved this state of equilibrium too, but in a universal way. That is the difference. Now, when the avatara is in this state of e quilibrium and forever will remain in this this state of equilibrium, he is still the master that controls the gunas. He controls the gunas because he has risen above the gunas. You can only control something when you are above it or away from it. And y et there still remains a paradox that you are in it and yet out of it. One on the small individual level, the incarnation on the universal level. Good. So the incarnation, to bring about a balance by his own will, which is the first manifestation of the impersonal God now being personalized as the emanation

10. U S 79 - 23 of the universe, exercises his will; and by exercising his will, he manipulates the three gunas. At certain places a bit of tamas is required, so he will instill, send forth tamas there. At certain p laces sattva is required, so he will send sattva there. And the very act of sending is rajas. The activation. But normally, in most cases, in ninety nine point nine nine ni ne percent of cases it is always sattva that has to be infused because there's too much tamas around. Now the reason why the universal spirit, or the personal god, can do this is because he has risen above the ramifications of the universal mind, which is the workings of the three gunas. He is established in self. He is established in the Absolute, which is the impersonal God. So, the incarnation, or this emanating force of the universe, by will can merge away into the impersonal God, the Supreme. Nothing beyond the Absolute because there could be nothing beyond the Absolute. Abso lute is Absolute. But the universe needs help. Everything in this world needs help. The plant that grows needs help: water, sun, various minerals. As we look around us everything needs help, everything needs assistance. So this force, which we call th e incarnation, is there forever to help and assist. Too, these great incarnations, like Buddha, Christ, Krishna, it was not a job that had to be done. The help rendered, the guidance given by them, is an expression of themselves, an expression of the uni versal emanation or universal entity. So, those great men that seemed to have worked so hard have really just been playing. Because it's a joy and all joy is play. It is not work. So who enjoys himself the most in this universe? The incarnation. Yeah. For him everything is play. He sees a little darkness here, a little light there. He lights up a bulb here and lights a candle there. He jumps around and like a child always laughing and joyful. Because he is light born of light. Born of that sup erconscious state, and by choice can merge away into the Absolute. But he chooses to sit on the fence. He chooses and he plays around there sitting on the fence. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. He sits there and he sees "Something is happening down the re and they're calling. Let me go and play in that playground." And when he's finished playing there and everything is nice and all the children are happy to a certain extent, or at least he has shown them how to play on the see saw and on the swings and on the roundabout, he moves on and he says, "Ah, another playground down there, let me go there now." So therefore he is the eternal wanderer. And when we say eternal wanderer, it would mean apparently that he has no peace, for he's wandering around. B ut his very wandering around is peace itself. So that is why an incarnation is so difficult to understand for the ordinary mind. For the ordinary mind is fixated within t he workings of the three gunas. How can that which is tied down in this bondage of the gunas could ever comprehend that which exists in total freedom of free will? That free will is totally attuned to Divine will because that incarnation is Div ine will himself. For at the absolute level, at the level of the impersonal God, there is no will at all. It is just a force, a power, an energy. But only when this energy grossifies itself in the form of emanation in other words, the impersonal God does

11. U S 79 - 23 not create. The impersonal God just manifests and his first manifestation is the subtle st level of the universal mind. And the subtlest level of the universal mind is another name of the personal god. So when the personal god comes into being he's always been there, but we're talking of cycles now. When the personal god comes into bein g, and having the personality, it is he who exercises will. It is he who creates. So all this creation you see around you is not the creation of the impersonal God but the creation of the personal god. If you come upon a Buddha or a Christ be sure to kn ow that he has created you. Right. Now, the universe is the garden of the personal god and he does not neglect his garden. He goes about watering and tending the plants. The little saplings okay, he'll prop it up with a stick until it becomes strong a nd grows by itself in its own strength to merge away. The individual mind to merge away in the universal mind, to become one with the personal god. That is why the scriptures say no one goes to God but through me. That me is the personal god, so no one approaches the impersonal but through the personal. I always say, "through the concrete to the abstract." These are the mechanics of the functioning of the universe. These are the processes. So from the impersonal to the personal god as a universal min d. Now the very act of manifestation, the very act of the flower giving off the fragrance, a motion is caused, there is a stirri ng. Because of this stirring, the individuality of the universal mind is formed; that we know as the personal god. When that is formed it exercises will, and when it exercises will it has to translate this will into a more tangible form. So the next st ep from there would be sound. That is why scriptures say, and all scriptures, "First was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word is God." They're referring to the personal god. So, in this very act, in this very motion of emanation or manifestation, there is motion and all motion has to have sound. Therefore it was with God and it is God the primal sound. Now sound h as to further solidify itself. Science has not reached that stage yet, but sound can be solidified. Science has not proven that yet, they have far to go to prove it in the test tube; which they will one day, I'm sure of that. As technology progresses. But the discovery could never be up to the impersonal and neither the personal god, but the further grossified states of the personal god. So this sound has to be solidified, and in the primal stages these vibrations which constitute sound solidifies itse lf or congeals itself in very inanimate matter: in the mineral kingdom. And from the mineral kingdom that which the personal god is composed of, that consciousness, is slowly instilled until that very atom develops and brings to the fore consciousness, a lthough the consciousness is contained within the atom itself, but in the state of [sushukti?] which means dormant. Like the whole oak is lying dormant in the acorn. It requires expansion. Now, when this process of expansion takes place, certain laws cre ate themselves in the process of expansion. And the combination of all these laws of expansion and contraction is what we call nature. In other words, that very atom is expressing itself in its most natural, logical, perhaps, or in the wa y

12. U S 79 - 23 in which it sh ould function. And the very functioning of this atom creating its own laws as it proceeds in evolution, duplicates itself, replicates itself, multiplies itself, and by this very replication further combinations occur. So it is t hese combinations that for m these different kinds of matter. Like for example, hydrogen and oxygen mixed together creates water, H20. So here's another substance created water. Like that it is these various combinations and permutations of that primal atom that expresses itself in all various forms. Its essence is the same, but its expression is different as a table, as a chair, as a human being, as an animal. So therefore, we recognize everything in terms of name and form. So what man has to do in the process of this cycle is to return to the essence, to return to the primal form. That is the process. And that is the process of evolution. For every atom within itself is forever creating this combustion, is forever creating this explosion within its own laws of rhythm. A nd, with these various permutations, these clashes occur in a rhythmic manner whereby different, so called different substances come about. So from the mineral to the plant to the animal and then to man and then to god man, and from god man, oneness with the personal god, and from there "I and my Father are One." The personal god is at one ment with the impersonal god. And that is the end of the story. Now it all depends when you want to reach there. Let me know. Send me a note. That took an hour? Such a simple subject it took a whole hour. Yeah. The idea the best way to do it really I tell you this, every word I say to you in every satsang joking apart I like to laugh and make others laugh; it's an expression o f the joy within me but believe you me, every word I tell you is from personal experience. I've traveled all these layers, through all these layers of existences. I have known what it is to be one with the Father. I know. So whatever I tell you is not theory. I never sp eak from the mind. If you ask me half an hour later, "What did you speak about?" I won't even know. Unless Bill over there plays the tape for me. Then I get amazed myself, saying, "Did I say that?" And this is a regular occurrence, you can ask all the people that are so close to me, they'll tell you. So I speak from experience and I could tell you that through all these various experiences the simplest way to come to these realizations, to come to this joy of existence, this bliss, this absolute exist ence, absolute bliss, absolute ananda, the easiest way is meditation. Meditation and spiritual practices. There are so many other practices, like very severe forms of asceticism, as ceti sszzzzmm. Various other forms of self denials and tortures and I don't know what all people go through in the name of God. This is the middle way. And meditation and spiritual practices trying to better ourselves daily... look, we can't become perfect overnight... trying to better ourselves as much as possible; conscious effort, which will in turn would make our thinking processes right, gaining the strength from inside will minimize the workings and the turbulence of the three gunas until you, too, can stand apart and watch them play. That's the easiest way. A nd its outcome, it reflects itself in love. Dante has said, "The greater the man, the deeper can he love." If you want to judge how evolved a person is, there's only one

1. U S 79 - 23 GITA: .... telling you a little bit about how it all started. Some time ago, well, about ten years ago, I was actually trai ning to be a teacher of meditation in India with David and Ruthie and Claudette. We were all there together. And Kathy Lewis, whom some of you might know from the Los Angeles area. And after I'd trained as a teacher of meditation I came back to England; and whilst I was in India I'd made a friend who was the national leader of this particular organization in South Africa, and we were corresponding. Now, after about eighteen months of being back in England, he wrote me a letter and said, "You know, I really need help here in South Africa, and if you'd like to come you could help me teach." So I arrived in June of '71 in South Africa and I was teaching meditation in Cape Town. And it was in those days when the halls were simply packed with people wanting to learn to meditate. The two of us, my friend and I, would tea ch something like nearly four hundred people over a weekend to meditate. And one day in November '71 we were giving a talk in this hall in Cape Town now you have to remember that in Cape Town there's the apartheid system and this particular hall was t hree floors up and you had to get past a doorman and go in an elevator. When I walked up onto the stage I just saw a sea of faces and the gallery was full of faces, you know, the hall was packed. And about the third row back, down the stairs, a little way in, was an Indian gentleman sitting, and my first thought was "How on earth did he get in?" Later on, getting to know him, I realized he could probably get in anywhere. So at the end of the talk in those particular days we used to interview everyone ind ividually before we taught them meditation. So we offered the people who wanted to learn the opportunity to learn, and my friend had his chair on one side of the stage and I had my chair on the other side of the stage. And all these people started to get up and talk and some left the hall and some stood in that line and some stood in this line. I had a look at my line, and lo and behold, the little Indian gentleman stood himself at the end of my line. And he had a young boy with him who I later found out was his eldest son. And so anyway, it took a long time. It was about one o'clock in the morning before I finally came to this little Indian gentleman, and I sat down to interview him to ask if he'd like to learn to meditate. And you know, he said to me , "You must be very tired." And I said, "No," I said, "because the work is so uplifting and you get so much back that, you know, you just don't get tired." It seemed to be the right thing to say. We had a nice conversation and he signed up to learn to m editate. [Laughter.] And there were so many people in this particular course that we had agreed to start at Wednesday at one p.m. and go right through until Sunday night. Teach all these people and then do the checking sessions. And he the funny thing was that the one o'clock appointment on the Wednesday was free, so he took that. Which meant that he would be the first person that I was going to teach in that whole time. Now, I'd never done this before, but I just had a feeling on Monday and Tuesday t hat this man was rather special. Didn't know why. So I started to clean the room that the initiation was going to go in and I took such a lot of trouble. I polished the floors and I changed all the linen and I changed the curtain s

2. U S 79 - 23 and I wiped the walls down and I absolutely made the room pure and spotless. And I mean, it was incredible. I didn't know why I was going to all that effort. And on Wednesday morning I was so nervous and frightened all morning that I even got diarrhea because... And I just t hought, "I can't possible teach this man meditation." Now, I'd never felt like that before. In fact, with teaching Indians meditation before, normally they think they know so much, and you teach them and you realize they don't know anything at all. But this particular person seemed different. And I'd only spoken to him for about fifteen minutes. So anyway, he came in with his fruit and flowers and his handkerchief and his donation and I proceeded to teach him. I'm telling you, I never made such a bos hup job of initiation before. I forgot the puja. I made every mistake possible in the Sanskrit prayers, and my hands were like two foot gloves in all the little ceremony and I wasn't dare looking at him but I'm sure there was this big grin. And he threw me, because he decided to sit cross legged on the cushion rather than in the chair where he was supposed to sit and I proceeded to give him a mantra. [Laughter.] And he had a beautiful meditation. Actually, in later years, about four years later, he to ld me that in that experience he had such a very fine and fascinating experience that he didn't understand that he went back to India to see his guru, Pavitranandaji, to get an interpretation on the experience, and later on he explained what that experienc e meant, which was the meeting of Amrit and I and him to do the work. He had seen an inverted golden triangle which was very powerful and he explained that it was like him with us making the triangle which would bring the teachings out. So after that, o f course, it was natural that he would come to the center a lot; he came to checkings and so on. And we became to be friends. And very very soon we used to ring each other up every morning at ten a.m. He started his office work at ten and I started m y meditation center work at ten, and we always used to have our fifteen minute telephone conversation before we started our day. We used to have lots of other phone calls every day as well, but that was our morning one that started. He started to write l etters to me, then and all over the years. And recently in the last few days he has ordered me to get on with that book, so I'm going to get that done soon. A book on all the letters that he's written and a kind of autobiographical account of how we met and how everything started, and also his poems that he wrote for me and things like that. It'll be fascinating. And photographs of him in those days and things. So it'll be fun, I think, and the letters are so beautiful because just in a paragraph he gi ves you, like, the understanding and knowledge that you'd find in a huge volume on philosophy and it's really beautiful. So anyway, he used to come into the center and he'd join in the talks and so on. And I was teaching a thirty three lesson course then , and I had a wonderful group of people who were doing that course. And he came and did the course with us. And it never really took the form that it was supposed to have taken. But we were sufficiently far away from the international organization Cap e Town nobody could check

13. U S 79 - 23 criteria: just see how much he can truthfully love, just see how much he can unself ishly love. There you will find that what state of evolution he is. Just try and see how selfless he is, how all giving he is, even if he's surrounded by the world th at are all just takers. He would still keep on giving. He'd never think, "Aaaahhh, so? " After all, it's only a play. Judge him that way and you'll find. Good. ****END****