2. U S 82 - 15 If you put a yellow flower behind the crystal the crystal appears to be yellow. So the crystal is clear, but the conditionin g gives color to the crystal. So at the highest level, all is but one, and there is no differentiation betw een that which is outside and that which is inside. But at the level of the intellect, we perceive things. Now how to perceive things as they are from the intellectual level is only one way, and that is to neutralize the intellect. Our intellects are lik e a loaded scale. And I've seen this where a scale is loaded and you do not get the proper weight. Many shyster shopkeepers do that. They load the scale so instead of getting 16 ounces to the pound, you get 15 ounces. Our intellects work in the same wa y: they are loaded. So, if they are loaded more, then your perception is less. You get less goods. But if the intellect, like the scale is in proper balanc e, you'll get 16 ounces to the pound. Now from that level of the intellect, what is the validity of what you perceive? I see the bookcase over there. Now is that bookcase real, or is it unreal? That is the question. How do I know it is real? Because my eyes see the bookcase in front of me. And because of my sight, I see it is real. But then it c ould be a bookcase projected from a projector behind me and gives the illusion of the bookcase being real. How am I to judge that now? Is the bookcase real, or is the bookcase a projection from an outside projector? How do I judge that? So until we get the intellect into perfect balance through spiritual practices, we cannot differentiate appearance from reality. For appearance too has reality and reality too has appearance. Where is the balancing line? How do we balance it? Because if you go to a ma gic show, you'd find a lady sawn in half or an elephant disappearing on stage. It is illusory. The elephant has not disappeared and neither has the lady been cut in half. Illusion. How to distinguish the real from appearance? How to distinguish the rea l from illusion. The senses cannot do it. The eyes with it's jnanindriya or the organ of perception, cannot do it. So in order to know reality, the totality of yourself has to be put into use. And by tot ality I mean the totality of the mind, the consci ous mind which can take appearance for reality, the subconscious mind which compares with other experiences it has had before, and the clarity of the superconscious. Now, when all these three factors of the mind are combined, then only can we know that thi s is real or this is appearance. Otherwise, what is real might be an illusion and that which seems an illusion could be real. I am sitting here in front of you. Am I really sitting here in front of you? Where am I at this very moment in time and space? What you are seeing is the physical appearance that Guruji is sitting in front of us. But my mind could be in South Africa, and my spirit is dwelli ng all over the universe. At this very moment, the spirit in me is speaking to another audience on some ot her planet. So, your perception of me sitting here is partial. But if you could combine the conscious, the subconscious, and the superconscious and see me sitting here, then you will be with me in the body here and with the mind in South Africa, and

3. U S 82 - 15 with the spirit on some other planet, then you will know who I am if I am real or not. And that applies to every object of perception. True perception can only occur when your totality is involved in the object of perception. And when your totality is inv olved in the object of perception, then the object ceases to exist for you. It is only on the relative level that all this seems to be real. You call this a pitcher, this is a clock, this is a glass, that's a table. What is it in essence? What i s it in essence? It is nothing else but atoms formulated in different structures. It is the same. This table, this pitcher, this gla ss is of the same essence. So what you are perceiving is form, and whenever you perceive form, you've got to give it a name. Now when language was formulated, and if they had called this chair a table, you would be calling it a table now. If they had called the table a chair, you'd be calling the table a chair. So there too you have been led to believe from childhood and even fur ther back that a certain object is this and another object is that. So from childhood you have been taught, and very wrongly taught, to discriminate and put a name and form on things. Therefore, you are called James and you are called John, and you are c alled Jean. And that differentiates you. But in reality there is no difference between John, James and Jean. They are but one: little bubbles on the same pond. Now, when you look at the pond, and you see all these bubbles on the pond, are you gong to give all the bubbles different names? No, you don't do that. You just call them bubbles. So why can't we all just call ourselves humans? And by doing that, you pu t a different angle to your perception. You find that oneness in humanity. And then when that oneness in humanity is found, that the bubbles are all water, all of the same essence, then the heart opens up in love. Then you don't say, "This is my house, m y table and my chairs and my son and my daughter and my wife and my husband. Then nothing is mine. So in this beautiful play of life, when differentiations cease, then love begins. So, having these instruments of perception, we are obliged to perceive. We cannot help it, but we can change the angle of perception. How to perceive in totality. That can be done by us. And this kind of perception can only come about through integration. Then discrimination ceases, for what do you discriminate? The major factor discriminated upon is what is termed as good and bad. This is good and that is bad. That is the fundamental discrimination. This is blue and that is black or this is green and that is red these are all secondary matters. But the fundamental dis crimination is between good and bad. And who tells you what is good and what is bad. Are you saying what is good and what is bad? So your perception is conditioned by your environment, by your parents, by your teachers, by your church ministers. So you are not functioning independently, but you are made a tool of function, a tool of perception. You are governed by all the rubbish implanted into your head. One mother says it's bad to eat potatoes. Another mother says it's good to eat potatoes. So the child grows up with that thought and, because of these things thrown into him all the time, he will grow up with likes and dislikes, where there should be neither likes or dislikes.

4. U S 82 - 15 So from the very moment you are born, you are thrown into this whirlpool, and your perception becomes lopsided. So, you have two factors there. Firstly, before you were born, when you chose your parents, you have chosen them because of your conditioning, because of what evolution has conditioned you to be and where to take bi rth and through whom to take birth. So, your conditioning starts from there, and then as you grow up, society around you, the environment around you, conditions you more. So I say, you have no perception but projected perception, reflected perception not of yourself, but of others. So to truly perceive, and to repeat this again, you have to become integrated and throw off discard all the conditionings inflicted upon you by the environment. So what have we become? Creatures of conditioning. An d therefore, we are not real humans. We become sponges to conditioning. A sponge is that which takes in. But rather be like the river that gives out. And that can only be done when reality is perceived. And when one reaches the ultimate reality, then there is no taking and neither giving, nothing to be perceived, for you are the master of perception and perception only lies at a very lower level on this vast ladder of evolution. So where does understanding fit in with perception? Where does understand ing fit in? Understanding is also conditioning. What I'm saying to you now, different people will find different meanings to what I am saying. Because of your understanding, you are standing under. And what are you standing under? You are standing und er your conditioning. So the main object of man is to unconditioning himself. Although I believe in religions and the basis of religion, the word "religion" means to bind back to your real self. To bind back to your source. But that is not what religion is doing. Religion is conditioning you more by creating these various dogmas, and you put one step out of the groove and you are eternally condemned. That's what the ministers say. Only one can save no one else. That is very true. But who saves? Yo u save yourself by unconditioning yourself. The rest are but crutches, which you might need according to your understanding, according to your perception, which is governed by your understanding. So, the Hindus will say, "Believe in Krishna, he only can save you." The Moslems will say, "Believe in Mohammed, only he can save you." The Christians will say, "Believe in Jesus, only he can save you." Very true! Very true! Only Krishna can save you, only Buddha, only Mohammed, and only Jesus can save you. B ut are they not just labels to your inner self that can save you. So who saves? You save yourself. And what do you save yourself from? You save yourself from all the further conditionings that are thrown upon you night and day. To be saved means to ha ve salvation. And that salvation that salvaging is done by you and no one else. Teachers, spiritual masters, are but guides to try and make you pick up the pieces salvaging pick up the pieces that you have dropped on the way. Where all the trut h has been dropped that is originally you and picked up in its place are all the conditionings, for you could never remain a vacuum. Think about this while I try and find something here.

5. U S 82 - 15 Oh yes, Charles and Linda. They reach the airport in London Heathro w to come to America. So they start counting the baggage that Charles has six suitcases, Linda has one. [He laughs] Fine. Charles tells Linda, "We should have brought the kitchen table with us." Linda says, "The kitchen table? What do you want that for ?" He says, "Because I forgot the air tickets on it." [Laughter] Yes. And then of course the woman always gets blamed, that you forgot the tickets. So one fellow goes to a bookstore and says, "Have you got a book with the title How to Master Women? S o the clerk behind the counter says, "Sir, you are in the wrong department. Go to the fiction department." [Laughter] So, we are creatures of conditioning. Is creatures the right word? In the first place, were we created? Who created us? For creation requires a will and to answer that the theologians would say, "By the will of God." Now if God has a will, then we are limiting him, for all wills are limited. To be able to will requires conditioning too. Now, if Divinity is quality l ess, shapeless, f ormless, [Sanskrit] then how could it have a will. To have a will requires a mind, and who can say Divinity has a mind? For if Divinity has a mind, then naturally that mind too would be conditioned. No wonder when things go wrong people blame God. Becau se they think He has a mind. So, we are being created in only one sense. We are not created by the impersonal God, but we are creatures of the sum totality of this universe. We are the creatures of the sum totality of this universe, and you are part of that which is the sum totality of the universe. So in this dual form of thinking, in this duality, it would mean that you have been cut up from that totality, made into millions of pieces, and one is called John and one is called Jane and one is called Je an. In reality the impersonal God does not create, it can only manifest. Because it is the nature of the Manifestor to manifest. So, going to the highest level, you have not been created. But the Manifestor too, that manifests like fire manifests heat, it is is part of itself. It too has to manifest by itself without will. The flower does not give off fragrance because of will. It is its very nature to give off fragrance. And being tied up with the various things of the fragrance of the manifestation , a mind was created. A mind came into being which pervades the entire universe and that mind is the superconscious mind. So when we reach that level through our spiritual practices, every time we contact the superconscious level of the mind, be sure to know that you have contacted the primary cause or the primary manifestation. And that is the highest you can go. And when the totality is contacted, you feel and experience that totality. Then your perception is real. Otherwise, it is all an illusion. So, to be able to perceive from the unconditioned self within us is true perception, though it has to be interpreted through the levels of the subconscious, which by now is clear, samskara less, and then flows through to the conscious mind with its various organs and instruments. So there is only one way to have true perception of truth and that is by spiritual practices. Another question.

6. U S 82 - 15 QUESTIONER: You said in the satsang that when distinctions fade away, then love begins. In the creation story in the Bible, and in all religions, it seems like the creation is the making of distinctions: light from darkness, water from dry l and, and God says, "That is Good." GURURAJ: Did He tell you that? Or does the book tell you that? QUESTIONER: It seems tha t the creation is the making of distinctions, rather than the ending of those distinctions. GURURAJ: So, you do not go back to creation. Because creation takes place at a far lower level than the impersonal God. Now, for this universe to function, as I said before, you've got to have the opposites. You've got to have light and you've got to have darkness for this universe to function. But at the totality of it all, you rise above the law of opposite s. For the law of opposites only end up in conflict. Whenever there is the law of opposites there will always be conflict. So our perceptions too are ruled by the law of opposites and are forever in conflict with ourselves and with what is the truth. Now when we refer to the scriptures of any religion, we rely upon what the book says. Why not rather rely upon your personal experience. There are a lot of things that were put into the scriptures by man as he perceived the truth, and you are accepting it in blind faith, blind belief and that conditions you even more. Because the book says this, it is true. You ask any Hindu priest or Moslem imam or Christian pastor or any one of them, and when he cannot answer you, he will quote you chapter and verse. The books says this. Do you live your life according to the book? And if you do, you are the living the dead. You can take guidance from it and experience things for yourself. Who has experienced creation? For nothing is ever created. Everything was, is, and will be. Changes take place. When a person di scards the body, the body is not annihilated. For wherever there is creation, there has to be destruction. For creation too is ruled by the law of opposites. But here we find and have discovered that when the body is discarded, the body disintegrates and goes back to its original elements: dust to dust, water to water, ether to ether all the elements. The body goes back and yet retains its eternal self, even of matter, but in a different form. So if you wish to call or regard forms as creations, th en that kind of thought would have some validity. You take gold and from some of the gold you make bracelets, from some of the gold you make necklaces, from some of the gold you make earrings. And you call them bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. But wh at is it in essence? It is gold. So the differentiation and the distinction is created by man's mind. You say it night and day. Fine. But when it is night here, it is day in South Africa. So where is your distinction? When it is day in South Africa, it is nighttime here. So, night and day

7. U S 82 - 15 coexist all the time. There is no distinction. But it depends upon your angle of perception governed by time and space. So you create the distinction when there is no distinction at all. The sun is not aware of the clouds that it has formulated. You are aware of the darkness that the clouds cast upon this planet Earth. And yet, when you fly up in a plane, the sun is clear, the clouds are below. Coming here, I was sitting in the plane and the plane is flying at 500 odd miles an hour. When you look down, you will notice the motion that the plane is flying because the scenes are changing. But if you change your angle of vision and just look at the wing, for example, or above it, you think the plane is standing st ill. [END SIDE ONE] What is the distinction between the stillness and the motion. From one angle the plane is standing still, and from another angle it is moving at 500 miles an hour. So the distinction is in your mind, the distinction is in your per ception. Otherwise, motion and stillness becomes the same. For is there really motion? No. There is no motion. There is only stillness if you look at it from the Absolute aspect. But from down here, from the relative level, everything is in motion. Everything is in motion and creating a commotion in your mind. Do you see how that works? So for the purpose of language, we say we are created. We are not created. We are manifestations of the Manifestor. And going through this vast process of evolu tion. And evolution is only on the relative plane. There is no evolution on the Absolute plane. But the manifestation, the fragrance of the flower being made into perfume, becoming solidified or condensed, there is where the trouble begins. But in its original form, it is just there. It is. The fragrance is. It is only when we start manipulating the fragrance, we've got to be so careful that we preserve the perfume and the container of the perfume. For if we drop the bottle, the perfume is all spill ed. And in trying to take care of the container, how much trouble don't you have to go through? You have to wrap it in whatever you have. You have to put it in a case if you are traveling. You start protecting. And what protects? Your mind tries to p rotect it. In other words, your mind is trying to protect the fragrance which you have no right to do, because it does not belong to you. The fragrance belongs to the flower. But you have captured it. You have encapsuled it within yourself, and cre ate problems for yourself. So creation is a word used in all theologies because theology has been aimed at the masses. Theology has been aimed at conditioned minds, and they are unfortunately conditioning the minds more and more. They promise you freed om, but the way it is done does not lead to freedom, but to greater and greater bondage. You go from one bondage to another bondage, and then to another bondage, and forever imprisoned in bondages. So, when the mind becomes unconditioned, you are free. Y ou become the Manifestor himself, which knows of no bondage. And yet from that angle you can enjoy bondages, you can enjoy the law of opposites. For you will see that in truth opposites is but a projection when you rise above it. [TAPE BEGINS TO FADE] B ut once you are in it you cannot see it and you are forced to discriminate between night and day, between black and white.

1. U S 82 - 15 PERCEPTION AND PROJECTION NIRMALA: When you speak about projection and what is called the "waking dream." Is it true that our entire e xperience in this life is projected from ourselves alone as is a dream while sleeping. In other words, we are putting everything out there and there is really nothing out there excepting what we put there. If this is so, how can we take control of what w e project, so as to mold it more to our liking? GURURAJ: The crux of this question is, "Is there anything out there?" For the first part, and "is there anything in here?" Now, is there a differentiation between what is out there and what is in here. At the highest level it is all one, for what is out there is in here and what is in here is out there. The reason perception changes from person to person is that the person is not using his higher faculty, but he is using the conditioned reflexes that he i s accustomed to. Therefore, the projection would differ from person to person. One would perceive a certain thing in a certain way, while another would perceive the same object in a different way. So it is conditioning of ourselves that we perceive. Now , when we reach the stage of finding the subject and the object to be one and the same, then that is the time perception disappears. Because who is the perceiver? The senses in this instance let us take the ears we are busy doing something or so en grossed in reading a book that the doorbell rings and we do not hear it. The sound is there, the ear is there, yet we do not hear because the organs of hearing which is beyond the instrument called the ear is preoccupied, and therefore the doorbell is not heard. But when you hear the doorbell, those very impulses of sound enter to the [jnandriyas?] (as it is called in Sanskrit that organ of perception) and there too it cannot respond until it sends it further back to a deeper layer of the subconscious where a comparison takes place. It goes to the intellect, which weighs the pros and cons: did the doorbell ring and what was its sound. But still it does not stop there. It still goes further to the deepest layer of ourselves to the superconscious level , which tells you in return or gives you the impetus or the energy or the power which goes to the intellect and shows it how to judge. That in turn sends it back to the jnanindriya, which is the organ of perception, which, in turn, sends it back to the i nstrument of perception, the ear, and then the sound registers that you have heard the doorbell ringing. You see the vast process, and it is done instantaneously. Now, when the ears or the eyes are cut off the organs are cut off, the jnanindriyas are cut off the intellect that analyzes when that is cut off, then you are in the field of the superconscious where the object and the subject becomes one. So then projection ceases and we see things as they are. It is only from the intellect onwards that we can talk of perception. And, because we talk of perception, there must necessarily be projection, and projection is none else but the coloring or conditioning of the mind. It is like using a pure crystal. If you put a red flower behind the crystal, t he crystal appears red.

8. U S 82 - 15 I think that's about an hour. Let's see. This fellow goes to his minister and says he was a great baseball fan, and he goes to his minister and says, "Look, you are in contact with God every day, will you do me a favor. Do they have baseball in Heave n?" So the minister says, "Look, I'll ask the Old Man if there is baseball in Heaven. Come back next week and I'll get you the answer." So this baseball fan, this baseball fanatic he would never miss a base ball game goes back to the minister and a sks, so the minister says, "Yes, they have baseball in Heaven, and you are reserved for next Saturday night" [Laughter]. You see, with discrimination you form a lot of attachments. I do not say get rid of discrimination. You, having a mind, must discrimi nate. You must not annihilate discrimination, but you must rise above discrimination and by rising above discrimination, you observe what discrimination is doing. This man was on his dying bed, but he begged the doctors and told the doctor that "I must se e my business partner before I take my last breath." The doctor says, "No, you are in no condition to see anyone at all." So he says, "My soul will not find peace if I do not have a word with my business partner." So the doctor says, "Ok, but don't take too long." So the business partner comes to the bedside and this dying man says, "I have a confession to make to you. That for the past 3 years I've been stealing money from the company." So the partner says, "I know all about it. Who do you think poi soned you?" [Laughter] Well, we've done an hour and fifteen. ****END****