1. U S 83 - 110 BOURBONNAIS PUBLIC TALK: FEAR OF DEATH GURURAJ: .... [INAUDIBLE] There comes a time in a person's evolution where certain changes take place. Now, the reason for these changes are always that because of various changes that they have gone through in life. It's like making a pot of soup. You put in all your different kinds of veggies and what have you, and then in the end the soup is ready. But because of the various experiences that come in life a transformation comes with it carrots taste differently, peas taste differently, and so do beans and whatever else. Bu t the totality of it brings a totally different flavor to the soup, where the carrots are not noticed, neither are the beans, or the peas, but it is one total different thing together. And that is how changes come. Now, environment has a lot to do with i t. Environment, and with all the forces with which we become consciously or unconsciously influenced, they could bring about these changes. And then there comes a time also where things seem to appear to be so sudden, in an instant, like in your husband' s case. Hm? Am I right? VOICE: [INAUDIBLE] GURURAJ: You see. So when a person gets ill, like in this particular case, and then a person develops a fear. And the main fear the person develops in any form of illness, is death. When a person develops that fear of death, then one wants to be closer to one's source, or closer to one's maker. So fear, although it has ninety nine percent of it based upon negativity, there is one percent in fear as well, that is positive. Many times people do not want to do things unless they are forced to do these things. And they are forced by what? By the forces of nature. There was this minister that asked this man, who was on his dying bed, he was ill. He says, the minister asked that, "You are on the last lap now and aren't you afraid to meet God?" So the sick man replies, "I'm not afraid to meet God, but I am afraid to meet the other gent." [LAUGHTER] Do you see. Now, when it comes to fear, how can we use fear usefully? People always have a habit to try and a void fear, means running away from any circumstances which could be fearful. And people try to get away from fear. The better way is to get involved in the fear. And if you give your ear to fear, you'll hear a little voice within you...if you give your ear to fear, you will hear a little voice within you which will tell you, "What good can I find in this fear?" And there will always be something [????]. Now, if we find something good in that fear, then it could be used fruitfully. Here outside our gar den here there is no fence, for example. And of course, our children are grown up, but when they were smaller, you know, one would fear them running onto the road, a car would just, you know, come by. And you know what drivers are today. Hm? Then what do you do? You put up a fence. Right. So the very fear of the child getting hurt has made us put up a

2. U S 83 - 110 fence to protect our child. Now, is that not a duty that we are performing to do something to protect our child? So protecting the child means you ar e projecting something good out of you for the sake of the child. And when you project something good out of you for the protection of the child, what are you doing? You are expressing love. Is love not the greatest quality on Earth, or the greatest thi ng on Earth. For don't we say God is love, and love is God? So here in the act of building that fence we are expressing God. So when it originated from fear of the child being knocked down, look how we could analyze this and replace fear with God and lo ve. You see how beautiful it works? And yet, we are supposed to be the greatest creatures on this planet Earth, because we have a thinking mind. But you don't use that thinking mind for our benefit or for the benefit of others, and that is the real probl em. So a man who's lying sick in bed, his mind is turned toward Divinity. So that sickness, that illness, must be regarded as a blessing. We always say that in everything there is some good. In everything there is some good, hm. And here we have, I can't re member the exact words, but in the worst of us there is some good, and in the best of us there is some bad. Now, if these things can be explained to the ailing man, explain the blessings and not the suffering. For once the mind is attuned and could see t he positive things, could see the blessings, then suffering becomes less. Good. You cannot remove any negative thought by immediately replacing it with a positive thought, it is impossible. Because by trying to replace the negative thought with a posit ive thought, your greater attention is going to be on the negative thought, and thereby you're going to strengthen it. I've said this many times before, that when we have a negative thought going through our mind, we do one of our spiritual practices and we neutralize the mind. And by bringing it to a neutral, calm state, then slowly we introduce the positive thought. So any illness or any happening in our lives that make us more conscious of Divinity is good. For what you are doing is this, you are not going to Divinity, but Divinity's coming to you. How much more blessed can you not be? You never go to God, by the way. You never go to Divinity. Divinity comes to you, always. Because you have prepared the ground. Knock and it shall be opened. You j ust do the knocking, and He opens the door. Do you see how simple it is? So what we have to do is to prepare the ground for that Old Chap to enter. You know, you don't need to go and call the butterflies, but have a nice garden, lovely flowers, and the b utterflies come on their own, don't they? Because you have beautified the garden. Fresh air is outside. You don't need to go call it, "Fresh air, come in, come in, come in." You just open the window. [It's here?]. So all these things in life that happ en to us is a blessing. Only thing we have to do is to prepare ourselves in such a way that those blessings descend upon us. (Any more sausages up there?) [LAUGHTER] We create the conditions within ourselves. All the blessings are there. If you become, say, money conscious, you have that burning desire to improve your business...what's another word for it, as well, hm? And if you...come, come, come. And if you prepare yourselves.... Now, we're giving you an example of money consciousness, and that your business must become prosperous, with

3. U S 83 - 110 proper planning, "skeduling," scheduling, no, "skelduling," [LAUGHTER] and with these preparations you'd find that business does not attract you, but it attracts itself to you. Same thing would happen if you feel...yo u have the condition within yourself to be happy, and you'll be attracting more and more and more, and the other way around. Feel miserable, you'll become more miserable. These are basic laws of nature, and they are unavoidable laws of nature. They func tion by themselves. It's like a watch, you wind it and it will keep on running the whole day. But you got to wind it. But nowadays people don't like to wind watches any more because of the quartz watches that you get that does not require winding. But o ur lives are not like quartz watches. You've got to keep on winding all the time. And in that winding we become unwind. So what are you unwinding? Your karma, your samskaras, all the dirt and the muck and the dust that's there. Feel it, unwinding? Lik e tying a piece of string around your finger and you can't pull it off. Unwind it. So these are the processes. So while you are winding your life and setting it into motion, you are at the same time unwinding it. Like a clock or a watch that runs on and on and on the mechanical process is this, that as the one wheel what would you call that, Bob? In a watch? VOICES: Gear? Second hand. GURURAJ: No, not the hand. I'm referring to the little wheel inside. The gear. Right. And these automatic wa tches before quartz came into being, you had these watches that used to go for days and days and days seven days, and three sixty five days. So the process there was the same. While the one is unwinding there's another cog attached to it that winds. So life is a process of winding and unwinding. So what we do we try to wind into the better things of life, and while we are winding ourselves into the better things of life, we are at the same time unwinding the negativities in our life. It works together . The teacher asked, "Why did Joshua stop the sun?" So the little boy replies, "Perhaps it did not synchronize with his watch." Right. So let's recap on a few points. Any happening in our lives has an advantage to it. The very cause of the laddie's husb and who became ill made him become more conscious, perhaps on the surface still, more conscious in his yearning to find his maker. And the reason he wanted to find his maker or that inner self, the kingdom of heaven within, is because of fear fear of lea ving the body because it's ill. And then the point we found from fear there must be something in any fear that if properly analyzed and looked at sanely, we can convert that fear into a blessing. It will inspire us to more and more blessings. Your life becomes so unwound that the complexities are not there and we become our simple, real selves. And when we reach from the complexities to the simplicity, so many virtues are added unto us. Right. The simple

4. U S 83 - 110 person, I don't mean a simpleton who belongs in a tin, but the simple person will always be humble humility. A simple person will always be kind. A simple person will always be compassionate. So here the teacher was questioning his class, and he was talking about kindness and charity. So he says, t he teacher says, "I walk down the road and I see someone whipping a donkey. What virtue am I expressing there if I stop a person whipping a donkey?" So the bright, young lad replies, "Brotherly love." [LAUGHTER] Yeah. And this class, talking of teachers , the teacher was having a discussion with the kids in class, and they came to the conclusion that birds eat fruit. So one little girl was not convinced. So she asks the teacher, "That might be true Miss, b ut how does the bird open the can?" [LAUGHTER] So you know the old saying, a mighty oak from an acorn grows. If we start with one little thing which you might regard to be virtuous, you will find it forever multiplies it attracts. Like the little story I told you of, have a beautiful garden you do not need to call the butterflies. They will all come on their own, and make your garden even more beautiful with beautiful colored and varied hues, flitting around in the garden. [It's a pleasure to watch?] So, mother, I was with her yesterday and toda y, these past few days, and she puts out bread crumbs on the porch at the back, and these beautiful birds, the robins, they come and peck at it. So we did not need to go and call those birds, those lovely robins, but we placed the bread, the crumbs there, and they came. Likewise, in our lives if we cultivate, if we do our spiritual practices regularly, if do our meditations regularly, you would find your entire life can change. Because with our practices the mind becomes more calm. The conscious level ta kes you deeper and deeper into your real self the kingdom of heaven within, which we talk about always takes you to your deeper self. And when you go to your deeper self the energies you draw from there would naturally make your thoughts more powerful, m ore positive. And by having more powerful and more positive thoughts, you can become a master of the world. Not only the master of this world, but the master of the universe. And you try to [??????] you have would be fulfilled, always. And the most bea utiful part of it is this, that the more deeper you draw from within, your desires will become unselfish desires. They will become selfless desires. So you are not only adding happiness and joy to yourselves, but also to the environment to others. Beca use you become selfless. Our main problem in life is because of this non selflessness. We are always too centered upon self, the little self, the small self, instead of the big self which you really are. I was giving a talk, I don't know where it was. I go around the world talking everywhere. But I told them, we were talking about crucifixion, the cross. I say, whenever I pass a church or even when I see a cross, the first and only thought that comes in my mind is the vertical bar that stretches up th e absolute. And balanced upon the absolute is the horizontal bar which is the relative. So without the combination of the absolute and the relative there would be no cross. Do you see. So life can be lived on both levels simultaneously to form a wholen ess. The cross can never be whole without the vertical

5. U S 83 - 110 and the horizontal bar. And it is that vertical that supports the horizontal. And because we forget that, our minds and energies are centered on the little self which is so transitory, so impermanen t here today and gone tomorrow. The only thing that's immortal is that vertical bar, the spirit of man, the absolute. Only that is unperishable, unperishable, eterna l and immortal. Don't want to tax your minds too much. See if I can find another joke. Oh, Albert came home with a book under his arm. So mom asks, "What is this?" He says, "Oh, I got a prize at school today." She says, "For what?" He says, "Well, the teacher asked how many legs has an ostrich?" She says, "Well, what did you say?" He says, "An ostrich has three legs." So mom says, "No, but an ostrich only has two legs, not three." So little Albert replies that, "Everyone else said four, and I was the nearest." [LAUGHTER] Everyone else says four legs, you know? We only have two, don 't we one of the small self and one of the big self. You've got to use both of your legs to walk. Do you see the importance of Divinity? And do you see how we, with little understanding, you can become so close to God with these little understandings. But I need the leg of the absolute, and I need the leg of the little self, I need the relative, and I need the absolute in order to be able to walk or march or run or jog, even through life's thickest fog. That 's an English word. What do you call it here ? VOICE: Fog. GURURAJ: Fog. Good. So be not discouraged by the haze and fog. You have both your legs. And as that fog might seem so dense, but as you approach it and into it, you'll find your way clear. And the more you can enter deeper within your self through spiritual practices, the light of the path comes by entering the deeper self the kingdom of heaven. Is that not the way? Is that not the truth? Is that not the life? Hm? Good. So in every adversity there is an opportunity. In the illnes s of this gentleman, he has been turned by grace to center his mind upon Divinity, or think more and more of that which is Divine. Yeah. And perhaps you might have played a very big part in it, consciously or unconsciously, hm, which is very good. For e verything we do non selflessly, anything we do to lead someone to Divinity, it gets returned to us ten fold in some way or the other. Perhaps, financially. Perhaps a greater calmness, a greater stability, a greater peace. But none of these efforts ever get unrewarded. The thing is this, never to think of the reward. There is the secret. Do the effort, the reward will come. I've used an analogy so many times. You go to work and every day while you're at your job you're not thinking of the paycheck, t he paycheck, paycheck, every hour of the day. You do your work well, end of the month your paycheck is there. Hm? Like that life should be lived in the same way. We do our efforts to the best of our ability.

6. U S 83 - 110 They say, be motiveless. That's another in junction from many of the theologies which is wrong. You can never be motiveless. Even going to the bathroom there's a motive involved to feel more comfortable. You can never be motiveless. But we can have our motives in such a way which could be benef icial to others, and you'll see how beautifully it rebounds back on you. That is, having motive and yet living motivelessly. Life is so filled with paradoxes. Give me any two opposites, any two opposites, and I will show you they are but one if we under stand the basis of them. That's important. And, after all, in the final analysis the basis is is base is base is. So let that is be our base. Aha! And act from that base. That's where we operate from. From that base which is the true permanency, t he true reality. All that is true just is. You know, Milton.... I've got school jokes today. I always choose a different theme every time. The teacher was telling the children that Milton was a great poet, he wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Gained. I' m sure some of you must have read that. The teacher explained that Milton was blind, which he was. So the next day the teacher questioned the class again, to find out how much they had grasped. So the teacher says, "What was Milton's affliction?" So on e child replies, "His poetry." [LAUGHTER] So you see, in life there are so many good things. We forget Milton's poetry and call that an affliction. So beautiful. Wh o is really blind then? Not Milton. But I am blind, because I regard his poetry to be an affliction. Same thing in life. Life is filled with poetry. Life is a poem itself. And you know how a poet, a good poet, a great poet, composes poetry. Otherwise.... There's a difference between a poet and a limerick or doggerel writer. A true poe t writes poetry to express his inner [feelings?]. Things that well up deep within himself and brings it out. All are not born to be poets, but all can draw from deep within themselves that which is Divine. You can take any principle in life and connect it up to your own personal life. Because everything is connected. So to see things in its positive light, that is important. And don't you th ink that you can take away something negative and plant something positive just like that. No. It requires to b ring the mind to a neutrality, where the positiveness can be introduced. You know, [LAUGHS]. I have to laugh at my own joke. [LAUGHTER] The teacher was teaching geography, and the teacher asked the class, "Where can we find mangoes?" So one bright child replies, "Wherever woman goes." [LAUGHTER] Yes, why not? Why not woman, God's greatest creation? So great, because He has created in her the reproductive ability. Isn't that God's greatest creation, hm? Women have far greater devotion. They have sy mpathy. They have kindness. They have compassion. They have to be born with that in order to look after children. Procreation. Because if a woman does not have that quality of compassion and kindness and.... So it's not surprising. Where can we find m angoes? Where woman goes. [LAUGHS] Have I got another one here?

7. U S 83 - 110 VOICE: [INAUDIBLE] GURURAJ: Good. I think that was nearly...nearly, an hour. Thank you, very, very much, indeed. I had a very, very pleasant stay in America. I've been on the road for two months now, as some of you might know. I did England first, with some courses and public talks and what have you. And then did Spain, courses and public talks, and TVS4 and public media and what have you. And then came back to England again to do some more talks. And then from there came here. First stop was St. Louie. Talked at a few universities, public talks, a TV show, and a radio talk I think it was we did there. And you know, of course here in Chicago, and to Las Vegas, and all over the show. On the merry go round of life, as long as the machine does not break down, the whe el will keep on turning and turning and churning to extract the butter from the milk to extract [beauty?]. So, my beloveds, thank you. I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'm just about bushed physically tired, you know. I'll see you all again in August. Fine. So thank you all once again. And thank you for coming this evening. [?????] this is saying good bye. Good bye comes from the word, God be with you. That's how the word good bye came around, came along. So, God be with you. Au revoir. See you soon. Thank you. **** END ****