1. U S 81 - 16 AWARENESS OF LIFE GURURAJ: This surgeon with respect to Robin Barnard a surgeon, an architect and a politician got together and they were discussing creations. So of course the surgeon says, "You know, Eve being made out of Adam's rib so it was a surgical matter." So the architect says, "Well, there was a lot of chaos and somebody had to bring order into it. So it was something architectural." But the politician says, "Who created the chaos first?" [Laughter] Good. What shall we talk about tonight? QUESTIONER: T he other evening I was transcribing one of your tapes from last November on the Asilomar course and when I finished it, I was impressed by some of the things that you said there. It struck me as if I was hearing them for the very first time. And then I t ook up one of the tapes which was from the Eastbourne Course back in 1976, listened to it, and you were saying exactly the same thing five years ago and yet I hadn't heard it and I presumed you've been saying it all the time and between the two it took me five years to hear what you were saying. And I wondered if you could talk a little bit about why it is we have such resistance to hearing stuff that you're saying to help us. GURURAJ: Good. Fine. Lovely. I could cover quite a number of questions toge ther. Are there any more? DOUG: Okay, if somebody else has another one, Guruji will blend them together. GURURAJ: Seeing that we're only having one satsang here... QUESTIONER: I would like to know [Inaudible]. GR: I could write a lot of books on t hat. [Repeating the question] Basically what she means is how does one relate to what is going on in this world today. QUESTIONER: [Inaudible]. GURURAJ: Good. We do all know that those who want to hear shall hear. I remember when I was a boy of 14 and when I read the Bhagavad Gita I understood it a bit. When I was 21, my understanding of it was far different. When I was 31, I

2. U S 81 - 16 still understood more about it. It reminds me of a child. At the age of 12 he said, "You know my father's so very stupid ." But when the boy reached 20 he said, "My father has really learned a lot in eight years." [Laughter] So, it all depends upon one's awareness how much one is aware of things. And if we, through meditational and spiritual practices, develop our awareness, we would be able to view anything in its more larger perspective. At present, as happens in the wo rld, we might find many things to be so wrong. But are they really wrong or are those things really required to teach man some lesson for his personal evolution, for his personal progress or for the development of awareness? So therefore, many people mig ht view the same object and yet would find different meanings in it. And that applies to all scriptures as well. There are so many eternal truths, and truth will forever remain eternal. But why do people interpret them differently? And that has been th e cause of having so many denominations in one faith. It is because people interpret things differently. Now where does interpretation arise? What is the difference between awareness and interpretation? Interpretation is solely of the mind, of the anal ytical ability one has, but how complete or how pure is your power of analysis because most things of life is not a matter of 2 and 2 makes 4 or 4 and 4 makes 8. There are deeper and more subtler levels where no amount of mathematics could ever answer a q uestion or probe into a problem. And yet it is the very mind, the analytical power, the intellectualization of things that creates problems where no problems exist. So, here in interpretation the quality that would be added to it would be discrimination. Now, how do you discriminate between things that you wish to interpret? How can one really discriminate in the things the mind is already interpreting because interpretation depends a lot upon discrimination. You discriminate this to be this and that to be that, but how valid is that discrimination? How valid is that interpretation? So, with a limited mind naturally discrimination or interpretation would have its limitation. So in other words, we view something in its limited aspect depending how much we are aware. If you stand outside this building you'd only see the frontage, but if you have the ability to stand high up o n some tall tree, you'd see the entire building. And that is how differences begin in this world where there are no differences at all. It's the old story of four blind men going through a forest and they come upon an elephant. So one touches one is at the tail, one is at the trunk, one is at the ears, another at its legs. So the one at the tail says, "God or truth is like a rope." The other at the legs of the elephant would say, "Oh truth is like a tree stump." And like that each and every one had a different viewpoint of truth and they were quarreling and that is what is happening in religions today that I am right and you are wrong. And then a man with eyes came along and explained to them that, "You are all right and yet wrong, for you are only having a limited view of that which is." You see?

3. U S 81 - 16 So, the awareness there of these blind people were limited to the things th at they were touching. Now awareness is something different. Awareness is that quality which everyone has within him. It might be dormant, but it is potential and in some cases, it is developed to a lesser or a greater degree. Awareness has nothing at all to do with mental analysis. It is only when we go beyond thinking that we really become aware of the truth. When we look at this beautiful flower and try and analyze it, what would we see? Beautiful yellow center, beautiful white petals, the green s talk that comes within the range of our five senses: seeing, touching, feeling, smelling, hearing for even flowers could speak; if you have ears to hear, you will hear. But being aware of the flower is a different thing altogether where you would se e the entirety of the flower and yet not exclude your five senses. You would be aware of the energy of this very same flower. You'd be aware of its molecular structure; you'd be aware of the life which is pulsating, pulsating, pulsating in this flower. And, your awareness being able to feel its very pulse, identifies its pulse with your pulse so you find a oneness with the flower as with everything else with this glass, this table, these chairs you'd find that oneness for now awareness is not of in tellection or analysis, but awareness stems from the deeper THAT which is within the Kingdom of Heaven that is within. For now through meditation and spiritual practices you touch that area which is your inherent right. You are made of that sap of Div inity that is within you just as this flower is made of the sap the invisible, colorless sap, and yet assuming different forms and different aspects in its pedals and its stem and its roots. So, everything in this world has its place. The mind has its place, and within the mind that quality which we call the intellect, too, has its place. But the misplacement is this that we assume whatever the mind can analyze; we assume what the senses can perceive or conceive to be the totality of things. And th at is why, not being aware of the essence of things for awareness brings the essence so close to you that you are identified with the essence that is in a thief, a murderer, a prostitute. And then you will not judge. Discrimination is gone. Intelle ctualization is gone. But a deep feeling would remain; not a feeling of the emotions, for emotion is also a part of the mind, but from the core, the central point of your personality which is connected with the entirety of this universe, and you're aware of the universe because you are aware of that which is within you. For the entire universe is existent in you and you in it. So, when our awareness unfolds awareness does not expand, it only unfolds for all is there within you. Man is divine and when t hat awareness unfolds, your perspective changes and then the murderer and the rapist are no more that to you for those are surface values. Those are the waves upon this vast ocean of divinity. And then you perceive it in totality. You do not miss the oc ean for the waves and discriminate this is a big wave and that's a small wave, for they are just waves playing, frolicking, enjoying on this vast ocean. How beautiful that is awareness. So, through spiritual practices and meditation, one becomes aware of the essence of things. Then you do not say this man is good or this man is bad,

4. U S 81 - 16 this man is a murderer or this man is a thief, or this woman is a street walker. You do not say that. You say, "He or she i s also the child of Divinity as I am." And whe n I say he or she is as I am, very spontaneously we would stop judging. Judge ye not that ye be judged. Very spontaneously it is no effort of the mind. It is not a thinking process that we go throug h but a spontaneous act, and when judgment is not the re nothing is a vacuum. What comes in its place? Love. Love comes in its place for there is no vacuum in this universe. Every bit of it in the measurement of space and time according to your minds is filled, forever full. But to find fulfillment in th is fullness which is ever filled, that is the secret of life. So here, bypassing the mind through meditation, experiencing that Divinity in the form of grace or love, then only truly can we practice the injunction, love thy neighbor as thyself. If you try to do it with your mind, you are a hypocrite. It is not true. Because the neighbor has been kind to me, because he did not throw the garbage over my fence, he is a good man, I love him. Tomorrow he might just whisper some word which you might not lik e; then the neighbor is no good. The love is gone. So is that love or just pure mental analysis of things which are pleasing to you? Why must things be pleasing to me only? It must be pleasing to all. But then again, why pleasing or why pleasantness, f or that is only the other side of the coin. Pleasantness is always accompanied by unpleasantness. Happiness is the other side of misery. So we have to go beyond happinesses and unhappinesses, for both are transient. One is the blood brother of the other . So going beyond that we enter the land the area of joy which has no opposite. And that is the essence of everything existent. That is the essence and that essence is love, that essence is truth, that essence is God. So when the awareness expands unfolds when the awareness unfolds, we become aware of everything and find within itself the true essence of what all this is about. Then the question that everyone has in his mind spoken or unspoken "Who am I?" that will be answered. Who am I? And the answer can only be one: that I and my Father are one. That am I. Tat Twam Asi Thou art That. Brahmasmi I am That. We all are That without quality, without quantity, without attribute: a neutral energizing divine force. And whe n things go wrong, we blame our wives, we blame our bosses, we blame our children. We blame this one, we blame that one. And when we are tired of blaming everyone, we blame God. What does that? This cunning little animal called the mind. So, as we grow in this awareness, in this beautiful unfoldment, everything assumes a different aspect. Everything assumes a different glory. Then we would truly know the glory of God. When you say these words, your blood must pulsate, your heart must quiver in the be auty of that glory, for you are not perceiving glory. That is a matter of the mind. But you are experiencing this glory this glory divine inexpressible, inexplicable, unexpressable, ineffable. But experiential. Yes. So, when we find and I've h eard this many many times "Guruji, we listened to that tape of yours three years ago, we loved it very much. And now we listen to it again, we find more meaning to it. We find a greater depth to it. Why?"

5. U S 81 - 16 Because your awareness has expanded. For tr uth forever will remain the same. Truth never changes. For if truth changes, then it is not truth. It has to be eternal. But we change. The mind changes in its unfoldment of awareness. This world has not changed at all. The same things that happened in the time of Krishna five thousand years ago, the same things that happened in the time of Jesus two thousand years ago, are the same things that are happening today. People are non different than they were non different. Technological progress does n ot mean expanding the awareness or becoming closer to Divinity. As a matter of fact, technological progress has done a lot of harm to the world. It has its other side as well because with every harm there is also something beneficial. So it is an ongoin g process, an unending process. Now the question would be, where are you placed in this process of the universe? Not where you are you are the process. For in the realms I talk of, of the Kingdom I talk of, there is no point in space and neither any point in time, for all is here and now. This entire little solar system we exist in which exists in a greater galaxy which in turn millions of them exist in one universe continuously operates in cyclical form to find beginning, to find preservation, and to find dissolution. And you are with it all. You are in this process, you are this process, for you or within you, everything about you is etern al. Even when this body collapses this bag of bones and blood it, too, dissolves and goes back to its or iginal elements. It is not destroyed. And when the gross body goes and the mental body that goes on a bit longer, when that dissipates its energy created by this vast momentum of creation or manifestation when that energy dissipates, it also goes b ack to its original elements. And that can be done here and now. We do not need to wait for what is going to be in the afterlife. It is a common thing and so true that purity attracts purity, impurity attracts impurity. So any impure thought going from the mind is not destroyed but will be attracted to those that have made themselves conducive to its attraction. And any pure thought issuing from your mind also goes to that area where it finds its brother: birds of a feather flock together. That is why it is always enjoined upon us to have thoughts of purity always in the mind. And that thought hah! here comes the rub: that thought does not need to be good and neither bad, just a remembrance that all is Divine. I swim in this ocean of Divinity. I am that bit of salt thrown in the ocean that does not make the water saltier, but I'm absorbed in its saltiness. That remembrance of that grace that allows you to merge into the divine. And that the mind says that, too, that I want to merge into Divinity . But how can you merge when you have not ever been separated? Where have you come, friend? And where goest thou, friend? Nowhere. If Divinity is omnipresent and present everywhere, where is there for you to go to or come from? You just are. And the secret to true joy is just to be, for you are here and now. You come from nowhere and you go to nowhere. Now listen to the spelling of this word: nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere. Just shift the w to the side of the no now here. So all that nowhereness a nd all the uncertainties and all the insecurities that the mind puts you through takes you

6. U S 81 - 16 nowhere because you are now here forever in the presence, for you are the presence. How can you separate the bubble from the pond? Is the bubble but just not an expression of the pond? The expression, the joy, the dance of the pond, the currents in the pond which are an integral part of the pond creates those bubbles, do they not? Is it not the dance, the play of the pond? You are the play. You are the player , the same water. And you are the playwright. So, from where comest thou, friend? And to where goest thou? It remains no question. Philosophy is good. Very good. They're good for philosophers. Yes, and religions of course, different religions are not really different. They are all but the same the essence, the basis, still remains the same all the time. For example, every religion has its form of baptism. The Hindus have it where they have this [Gimersesinskriti (?)], [Gimersanskariti (?)]. The Islamic Moslem people have something of the same nature. And of course in Christianity we have baptism also. It reminds me of a little story. Good. So, this Italian man approached the clergyman and says, "I want to have my son baptized, but sir, la st time you made a very big mistake." The clergyman asks, "Why? What? Tell me." So he says, "I wanted to have my son called Tom, but you made it Thomas." A few years passed. Another boy was born and he reminded this to the clergyman. He says, "Now I bring my second son to you and I want you to baptize my second son not like before, Tom into Thomas. Now I want Jack, but you must not make it Jackass." [Laughter] Exercises of the mind. That's what we are doing and that is what's happening in this w orld this exercising in the mind and how you relate to the world and the world's happenings depends a lot upon you. Are you with me, love? Good. What you do to yourself and how you relate to the world depends upon you and not of the world not to t he world. You can be in the world and yet not of it and be totally non attached to the happenings of the world where it will not affect you . Well, attachment and non attachment is a different thing altogether. But there, too, mind comes into play where some kind of exercise is necessary. Like a friend of mine was telling me. He says, "The doctors suggested that my wife should have exercise." So this fellow says, "Oh but that's very easy. She does jumping and she does running. She jumps to conclusion s and runs up the bills." [Laughter] You see, so how we exercise our minds that is important, for joy is forever there. Joy is not something apart from you, but joy is a part of you. The most so called unpleasant scene can be interpreted by you with proper awareness into something of real beauty. So therefore we say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Simple saying, but really not understood. So the man of true awareness will not be ruffled by the happening around him, will not be ruffled at all. For what is happening is part of a pattern a pattern which you cannot entirely control. You can control the exercise to a certain degree. You can go on a diet and lose some weight, or eat more and put on weight. Certain things are within the cyc lical framework of the mind, but yet so many many things cannot be controlled by the mind.

7. U S 81 - 16 People pride themselves on having a free will. How free is your will? Because you have developed a certain amount of consciousness to be able to think, you think you are free. Are you really free? No. Where is free will? There is no free will. The will which you think is free will is bondage will a will that is bound by your experiences, impressions that you have gained over many many ages perhaps, and that has set a pattern for you. That has set a pattern for you. So all happenings are but effects of the causes that you have brought into being, that your mind has brought into being, and all our actions are determined by the amount of awareness we have unf olded within us. They are determined by that. But, when we say "The Lord is graceful," what does it mean? He is not going to take the miseries away just like that. But He gives you the opportunity of removing those miseries. He gives you by using the mi nd in a proper way, by lifting yourself from the grosser conscious level of the mind through the conscious mind and then to the deeper layers of the superconscious mind at its most purest and subtlest level, you can change the pattern of your life. For wh at seemed miserable yesterday can be so joyous today. For here, through meditation and spiritual practices, you are tapping that source of that pure level within yourself and bringing it out so that it, too, will find expression and make everything aroun d you glorious and joyful. And by doing that you still have to go through the effects the law of cause and effect, the law of retribution: you shall reap what you sow. You will have to go through that. You will, but by the law of grace that you have no w invoked or expressed from the deeper levels of yourself, you can do it on the easy payment plan, as I always say. No cash on demand. Easy payment plan, so that you do not suffer by it so much as you would have suffered. The sting is taken out. The balm of grace covers the wound. You see. And yet it is not an anesthetic that puts you away from consciousness. You are still conscious of all your surroundings, but it becomes beautiful. Your surface consciousness starts appreciating the beauty, but we hav e to become beautiful ourselves first. How do we do it? By tapping into, in a methodical systematic way, that vastness that is within us. Then you become beautiful. It is the nature of the flower and I've said this a million times it's the nature of the flower to be beautiful, but it also enhances the beauty of the garden. It makes the garden beautiful, too. And, is that not what man should do? So we start with ourselves first. We make ourselves beautiful through spiritual practices and medit ation by becoming closer and closer to that which is within: seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven within and all else shall be added unto thee. All else, all else is there. No addition is even required, that is just expressed for the sake of language beca use language is so incomplete. How can it express the inexpressible? So, if we want our environment to improve, if we want the world around us to improve, we make ourselves better. And then after all, have you ever thought what your world really is? How many people do you really know? You know half a

8. U S 81 - 16 dozen people very closely. I'm talking of the average person. You belong to some organization, so 200 people or 500 people know you in acquaintanceship. This is Ms. XYZED, or Mr. ABC. That's all, that's all. And are you to be so influenced by those few hundred people that just know you by sight or those half a dozen people that know you perhaps more intimately? And they really do not know you, really speaking, they only know the exterior of you. If yo u do not know yourself, how is someone else to know you in reality? So for all that we change our patterns of life to live a false life to pretend, to live up to the Joneses. Only the bank manager knows the truth. Yes. My car must be better than you r car. Yet the essence is this, that the car is made to take you from point A to point B. That is the meaning of a car: transport. But you get transported into other realms of personal ego ah! yeah! You see? You see? So the world is what we make i t, what we make it. How many people do you know in China or in India or in Japan or even in the next state or even in the next road? I've heard many people living next to each other for years and not even knowing their names. So, just be. Just be. Just be honest, sincere to yourself, and automatically that power emanates like the flower giving off fragrance and it affects the environment. Your sincerity, your love, affects everything around you. And, it rebounds back to you . It's a profitable business. [END SIDE ONE]. Ah! Very profitable. Take one step towards me and I take 10 steps towards you. All the sages have said that. Divinity and the sages are only echoing that which Divinity expresses: take one step towards m e and I take ten steps towards you. And that is more than an hour, isn't it? Yeah. So, what do we do? We have to decide. So, at first the mind is activated into making a decision. Now that decision could be totally wrong, but do not worry about that . For the central point can be approached from any angle, but that decision must have one quality: I want to be what I am, and I am that I am. I am what I am. So, that is the starting point, and from there on you'd find once that thought starts permeat ing the thinking mind and sinks lower and lower into the subconscious mind, you will draw from various experiences lodged in the subconscious mind to strengthen that resolve. So we start with that, and as our awareness expands, we will think of starting t o meditate. We will think that how to meditate? What spiritual practices to do? If I am ill, I will go to a physician to prescribe the medicines required for me. He will know what to prescribe. If the tap is leaking, I will go to a plumber. If there is something wrong with the roof, I will go to a roof repair man. So like that, when we really decide to meditate, the start might come from thought, and when we find that thought does not provide all the answers thought produces questions to which ans wers come and every answer will produce another half a dozen questions. And when you answer those half a dozen questions, another half a dozen will come from it. It's an unending process and takes us into this whirlpool. So start with thought, but if yo u can find the physician that will show you how to go deep within yourself, bypassing the thought, how to become an observer of those thoughts very methodically and systematically so that those thoughts don't hurt you until those very thoughts that were hurtful could be turned into something joyful and how you could connect your conscious mind to the deeper levels

9. U S 81 - 16 within yourself. Now, if you have such a doctor, it would be an easy way to get the proper prescription instead of trying to use all differen t kinds of medicines on a trial and error basis. So, being a teacher of meditation, I emphasize these things. Those who would like to learn to meditate, we have Doug and Linda and several others living nearby. You have just to contact them by telephone an d you'd be shown something that will lead you to the inner depths of yourself and also create more and more understanding; also lessen the confusion in the mind, so that instead of confusion you will have a profusion of that which is beautiful. And these things are so so simple. It is only we with our thought processes that compound things and make them complex. And in reality the essence within man, the essence within everything, is uncompounded, not complex, but so very simple. So it is only when we re ach the simplicity that we would know, for simplicity is synonymous with innocence. And when we find within ourselves this beautiful innocence, it will be good. (Come my child, come, come, come, come bless you). [to a child] They feel. They feel. W e think and they feel. Oh, some jokes I had written down [Laughter]. I don't need to... I never plan a talk, but I can't remember some of the jokes so I make a little note. It says here "daily bread." Now what was that one about? Oh yes, this child was praying. He says, "Oh Lord" you know our Lord's Prayer Give us this day our daily bread. So someone asked him, "Why not ask bread for the whole week?" [Laughter] So the child says, "No, if I ask it daily it will be fresh." Shall we end up this ev ening with a prayer? Join me, hm? [Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi] Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where ther e is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; To be understood, as to understand;

10. U S 81 - 16 To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardon ing that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. ****END****