Author: Mandala

March 4, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om

Gurave namaḥ.
Parama-gurave namaḥ.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namaḥ.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namaḥ.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.

Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.

Om śham.

---

I have the privilege of introducing someone whose books many of you have read, an author, lecturer, spiritual sādhaka, spiritual guide, author of dozens of books – very popular ones – Dr. David Frawley. You may greet him personally afterwards. Are you staying with us tonight? He’s staying with us tonight. I am not going to ask him to speak this time because I’m being very selfish and I need to complete this course. We are working on a very tight schedule. He visits this ashram every year in the month of March, so he has kept his word. So we will benefit from him with a personal gathering or meeting, or maybe if the organizers agree, before the dance program tonight, he could maybe he could address up for ten or fifteen minutes. Let’s do it that way. Let him address us tonight for just ten or fifteen minutes before the dance program begins tonight; would that be alright? Just a short, brief message for people. (Discussion). Or tomorrow morning. Is it possible tomorrow morning?

Tomorrow we have these very special organizational meetings from 10:00 am. Don’t forget. All the different arms of AHYMSIN are gathering together. The AHYMSIN past executives, new executives, center leaders, Dhyana Mandarin Trust trustees, TTP representatives, swamis and mantra initiators, and youth leaders are all meeting to draft out the program for the future. It is on the decisions that you make tomorrow that I’ll know whether I have the freedom or do not have the freedom. That is the purpose of tomorrow’s meetings: to work out the programs for AHYMSIN’s strategic programs and make decisions. So that is very essential. Don’t forget that you are not deciding AHYMSIN’s future; you are deciding my future tomorrow.

Some people have asked: “If Swamiji is going into silence and he is not so well, why does he have to still keep thinking of planning for travels?” As my organizers have told you, we are thinking of once a year, or once every two years for three months of the year, to travel to three continents, two cities in each continent. Why does Swamiji have to travel? Because I just can’t abandon you; because not everybody can come to Sadhaka Grama. So the idea is that people will meet me there in these various cities, and I will sit in silence while other teachers do the teaching.

The other part is a very practical one that I need to share with you before I get on to the main topic.  Just this place, this ashram, takes $30,000 a month to run. Where does it come from?  And that does not include the charities I do, the research scholars, their travels, those who are helping me to write the Yoga-sūtras, those kinds of things. It also does not cover my medical expenses.  And very frankly, candidly, I still have not arrived at how all this funding will continue. One way to continue it is that you people keep coming here.

Don’t say, “Well, Swamiji has gone into silence. Who will teach us?” Let me answer that question also:

Citraṁ vaṭa-taror mūle vṛddhāḥ śiṣyā gurur yuvā, guros tu maunaṁ vyākhyānaṁ śiṣyās tu cchinna-saṁśayāḥ: Under the banyan tree, the young teacher – not that this teacher is young (this refers to the cosmic teacher Dakṣiṇāmūrti) – the young teacher sits in silence, and the elderly disciples sit surrounding him. The silence is the teacher’s lecture, and the doubts of the disciples vanish. That is the yoga tradition.

Other teachers will teach you. If they are stuck, they will ask me. And, above all, suppose I die today; then who will teach you. I’m 80 years old.

The Tradition teaches you, not I. My Master teaches you, not I. The forces teach you, and they guide you, and they take you to the source of the teaching. You have not come of your own will.  You have come because the forces have brought you. And they have created the surroundings and they have created the environment, and the means and the will in you and the desire in you to come.  The one who has done that for you so far is the one who will teach you, besides the physical instrumentation.  Did you ask that question 30 years ago? – “Who will teach me?”  Somebody taught you.

Alright, we’ll continue. And tonight be here on time. We will still ask Dr. David Frawley to say a few words, and then we’ll see about tomorrow’s program. And don’t miss this highly important meeting, which means the future of this swami. You free me of all the concerns that I normally carry. Okay.

Shrīm Gurave namaḥ.
Shrīm Gurave namaḥ.
Shrīm Gurave namaḥ.
Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.

Om sham.

---

We have been covering the course on the signs of progress in spirituality and in meditation, and I have given you a few indications.  First of all, with questions like this, as I’ve explained: when a light, an energy, a force occurs in you, don’t say, “What do I do next?”  Keep doing what you are doing.  The experience that is presented to you by your inner Guru, go into that experience, and dwell in there at that time.  Do not say afterwards, “That was a good experience; how can I go back to it?  What was it I was doing the cause of which that experience happened?  What do I do with these forces in me?” You do nothing; the forces will do it.  Who are you?  Even in your spiritual life do you have to keep this “me, me, me” going?  Let the forces take you, and follow.  But make sure – and this is very important – that you are not concocting something from the emotions that are hiding in your unconscious mind which are triggering some neurological and psychological symptoms.  Those are not signs of spiritual progress.  And you need to be very careful about that.  And wherever you arrive at that point, do not say, “Well, now I’ve seen God.  I’m a great saint now.” People have one little glimpse and they think they have seen the whole of God and they are great prophets now.  It saddens me when I see so many people putting behind their names the titles of “Yoga Rishi” or “Yoga Acharya.”  I was raised to think of the rishis from Satya Yuga.   Where are we compared to that?  So be very careful that your ego does not step in. But otherwise, if it is a pure spiritual experience, just go there, savor it, dwell in it, become absorbed in it.  If it is a one-time glimpse, take it as a grace, in gratitude.  Do not struggle to have it repeat itself.  The Guru-force within you will decide whether it wants to come back or not. Or if it becomes constant, just dwell in it. That is all. Go with it.  Flow with it.

Repeating something I told you earlier: certain things will happen in your body. Your body will become more flexible. If you have stiffness in your body, you have not made spiritual progress.  If you are making spiritual progress, your body will become flexible, resilient.  The āsanas will happen naturally for you, as I’ve explained in my book, Philosophy of Hatha Yoga.

Siddhāsana will form naturally. Even if you are sitting on a chair, something will happen with a flow of inner energies that will want you to cross your legs and will say, “I am not comfortable.  I need to cross my legs – now how do I do that?  It will happen for you, and siddhāsana will form naturally. Siddhāsana is the best asana for meditation as Swami Rama has told us. Siddhāsana will form, and the spine will become naturally straightened.  The spine will become inclined to become straight. And you don’t have to say, “Am I sitting straight or am I not sitting straight?”  The energy inside you will pull and straighten you. You may start your meditation slouching, but when you start your mental practices, slowly the body will straighten up because something from inside you will straighten your spine. It will become a natural inclination, not an effort, not a training.

Mūla-bandha and asvinī mudra will happen naturally.You are all familiar with the terms, “mūla-bandha” and “asvinī mudrā.” If you are not, what have you been doing? And what have your teachers been teaching you? So mūla-bandha and asvinī mudrā will happen naturally. In time, the tongue will tuck itself into the pallet and kecharī mudrā will happen naturally; you don’t have to make an effort. When you do the mūla-bandha and kecharī mudrā with an effort, you often create a tension in the areas. When it happens by inner, natural forces, then those tensions do not occur.  I have seen many people trying to form kecharī mudra, and their jaw is all tensing up.  That’s not the way.

What we are teaching is the path of sahaja – things that happen naturally, easily by the awakening forces within you, without the effort and without the technique. Techniques, again as I have explained in my book, are preparations of the body to receive these forces and the way they flow, so that when these forces flow within you, the body does not resist them. At present, your body is resisting them, and that is why nothing is happening – because you have not trained the body to receive the forces that will make you flexible and will make you resilient. Swami Tat Sat can teach you much more about the flow of the forces. Do we have a program by him? We must! What are you doing! You’ve got to! Such a big gathering – people should benefit from his presence.

So these things will happen naturally in you. So then diaphragmatic breathing will happen naturally. It will not be an effort, and your breath will slow down… and the breath will slow down… and the breath will slow down by itself. As your breath begins to slow down, you will slowly begin to understand and experience the five elements of breath: the earth element, the water element, the fire element, the air element and the space element.

The five elements of the breath, the five stages of the breath, are closely related to the chakra system. There are special texts. Swami Rama often talks about them but doesn’t say much about them. He has given some indications about them in his two volumes titled Path of Fire and Light. They are special texts of what is known as Svara Shāstra, Svara Vidyā. Now very strangely, the word “svara” means “breath rhythm” and the word “svara” also means “a vowel,” and that is where silence comes in. But that is a whole different topic.

Another thing that you need to aspire for is the ability to change your svara. For example, a student is sitting here.  His left nostril is breathing.  Check.

You need to learn to change it, and that is a whole different science also. Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you whose nostril is open and how to change the nostril breath. It is very important that you can do this, and Swami Rama has given some teachings on that in his books, and some have been given orally, and I have taught this also.

Then there is the sushumnā breath where both nostrils flow with equal force. You train yourself through the techniques and concentrations, you train yourself through the techniques of āsana, mudrā, prānāyāma, and concentrations so that when the forces flow, your body is not resisting them. That is the whole point. But if you just continue your practice of meditation, these things will happen, if you really meditate and if you are a serious sādhaka.

In India, I have a society which is in this way very weak: “Swamiji, your grace will do it. It can’t happen by myself; grant me the grace.” They want the swami to do all the work, and they don’t want to sit to meditate, and they don’t want to practice silence. The one thing I like about Western people is that they do, and people in Korea and Taiwan and China, they do. They do the practice. Very few people in India practice meditation. They want grace, kindness, let it happen: “Just touch me on my head and I’ll get enlightened.” It is a very lazy society. I ask the forgiveness of my Indian friends. They always accuse me of being an Indian and always criticizing India.  India has other strengths.

Then, in the process, you will begin to feel what a chakra is. As I was explaining yesterday, there is a system of push and pull. Elsewhere I have taught the methods, by discerning your chakra, the transcripts of which can be appended to this series that you do not know you are preparing for me, Savitri – the transcripts here as well as the other ones — methodically.

And as I was explaining yesterday, there is a system of push and pull: the energies of lower chakras push upwards; the energies of higher chakras pull upwards, and the two combine and become settled in the heart center whose symbol is an upward triangle and a downward triangle because that is where the forces of the push and pull meet. Those who have experienced this, they know what that this upward and downward shiva-shakti triangle truly means experientially.

And please don’t go from here and start teaching all this without having experienced it yourself and just showing off how much you know. There is a strong temptation to show off.  Experience it first. Realize it. Let it become real for you. Then you teach. Then your teaching is effective and it is correct. Otherwise, you will teach somebody, and his energy will go in all different directions: “Oh, since I started doing this practice, I have shoulder pain. I have back pain” – because the teacher has not put the energy in a smooth, direct path, and the energy has gone into the wrong places.

So, in the chakras, initially, you will feel three kinds of experiences: a feeling of pressure in that area – I said that yesterday – and some sensations in that area, or the sense of a flow, something flowing, energy flowing. These are three initial experiences that happen with the chakras.  Along with that, please remember that these chakras are your psycho-neuro-physiological centers; and all of your different emotions, all your different emotional patterns are connected to different chakras. Different psycho-neuro-psysiological attitudes and reactions are triggered from the forces in those different chakras. If you are making spiritual progress, these emotions will be purified.  And we have spent decades talking about emotional purification, so I will not go deeply into it this time.

After you have found that the spine has now the natural inclination to be straight, some people then begin to feel the flow. In the Tantric texts they call it pipilika, as though ants are crawling in the spine. There are no ants there; it’s an energy plug that is triggered, with a different wattage that you can handle. If there is any more wattage, you will go crazy because your container does not have the capacity at the moment to take a stronger content. So you will receive only what you have trained your system for and now you have to learn to absorb that, you have to learn to assimilate that.

To many people, we teach the breathing as though the breath is flowing through a hollow in the spine. So some people ask this question: “Swamiji, when I am doing that, sometimes I feel as though breath is flowing: with the exhalation, the energy is going up; with the inhalation, the energy is going down.” Other people say: “I feel it reversed: with the exhalation, I feel the energy going down; with the inhalation, I feel the energy going up. Which one should I do?”  Whichever one happens to you naturally, you do that.

I’m going to say something and I’m going to leave you puzzled, and you can study it ten years from now.  One of the purposes of breath practices the way we teach then is to change the So-ham into Hamsa mantra.

Swami Prayag asked me a question at one time: “There are two versions of that verse that occur in different Tantras and different texts. Some versions say, “sakāreņa bahir yāti hakāreņa viśet punaḥ.” Other versions say, “hakāreņa bahir yāti sakāreņa viśet punaḥ.” Some versions say that with so the breath flows outwards and with ha it enters inwards. Other Tantra texts say the opposite: with the ha the breath flows outwards, and with the sa the breath flows inwards. Our practice is to start with the hum with out-breath, and the so with the in-breath, but later, as you progress, the reverse will happen, and it will become the Hamsa mantra. You don’t have to make an effort for that. And there is a whole science to that.

When you begin to experience and understand what I am saying about the five elements of the breath and your breath slows down – because I feel that I’m leaving you puzzled. You’re asking yourself: “What are those five elements?  What happens with each element?” Stay here another year, and I’ll teach you. People want 10,000 years of knowledge in 10 days because they came from all those distances and spent so much money – well, of course. So take what you can here.

So the breath slows down, and then it will happen that you will enter the path of sahaja.  So then the sahaja kumbhaka happens. It just happens. You don’t practice sahaja kumbhaka. It happens.  The breath becomes soooooo subtle and it vanishes into ākāsha tattva.  For a moment, it ceases. When it ceases even for a few moments, when that happens, become absorbed in it.  These are not things that happen by your effort; they happen by the forces that are responding.  Forces that are responding to what?  Responding to your aspiration, to your commitment to meditation, to your practice of meditation – not go to your meditation, hurried, hurried, hurried, and go sit down for 10 minutes: “Oh, is it 10 minutes yet?  I’ve got to rush. Let me go.” That will not work.

It can work. Sometimes it can work: one can attain in 10 minutes what others can attain in 10 hours, but then you have to be that, okay? So with your breath, that is your goal: to reach that sahaja kumbhaka or kevala kumbhaka, and then these things will happen – alright?

I’ll continue. Today was March 4th. Six, seven, eight; four more days. I will see how much I can finish in four days; the rest will have to come on the computer – because on the 9th I have something else to give you.

How is everybody’s forehead doing?  Some foreheads are doing well. Some people forget about it. Some do remind themselves, and I am happy for those. I will ask Swami Tat Sat to not only give a demonstration, but tell people what that energy is that we use. In five minutes – out of  his forty years of practice – tell them everything. Make them a Master.

And are you managing to remember your three minutes of repeated self-awareness?

One thing more that will happen is that the experience of Atma Tattva Avalokanam will happen for you.   You will become aware of the true Self. You will begin to become aware, you will begin to get glimpses of what the true Self is beyond the body, beyond the breath, beyond the senses, beyond the sentiments, beyond the emotions, beyond your ego identifications.

Bring your mind’s attention to yourself.

Relax your forehead.

Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils, with your mantra in each breath.

Without breaking the flow, gently open your eyes.

Resolve to enter your spiritual being this way many, many times through the day.

May God and Guru bless us all. Thank you.  God bless you.

March 3, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namaḥ.
Parama-gurave namaḥ.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namaḥ.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namaḥ.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.

Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.
Om śham.

---

Is everybody happy in spite of any discomfort? It must be a bit hard for the people who have to stay off campus and have to go back late at night and come back early in the morning with no time to rest and not enough sleep. I don’t know what kind of breakfast you are getting over there and how you are managing with the food here. Sometimes it is a little too spicy or a little too salty. I have a principle of tasting the food every day. It is brought to me to check. And I eat a little of what you eat. So I imagine with your international taste it might be too salty or too spicy. But you are managing. Okay. So, thank you. Thank you for your tolerance and your patience.

And maybe we should have one day where there no activity and there is total silence. What do you think? [Reply] Oh, you mean you get the rest and I don’t get the rest. I was trying to wriggle out of one lecture. [Laughter]  You can figure it out; you can let your opinion be known. But on that day, then really resting and not going about chatting and socializing; just relaxing and resting, and staying put and meditating.
I’ve been asked to cut this talk a little short today, because I have some business things to take care of with planning for the future. You know, all this organizing and putting up all these tents and so forth, and you know how much effort goes into that and how much planning we have been doing for the past three years. But here now it’s a question of the continuity of the teaching and the tradition, which apart from the purity of the tradition, requires a certain material, physical, relational, social, organization base. And you are here to take care of both parts: the pure spirituality and the applied spirituality in your organization. And so there are some times when you need to pay attention to that, and I’m asked to close ten minutes early so we can discuss the question about whether this swami will be traveling during his five years of silence; there are some tricks to that. And my committee of four ladies, who take care of me day and night to keep me alive, will present a plan for you – if the traveling is workable – if it is workable. Because it’s not easy; it’s really not easy. So feel free, and please don’t feel burdened, that demands are being made on you. If I cannot travel, I’ll stay put, and you travel and come. And even if I do travel, you travel, too, and stay put and relax here at Sadhaka Grama.

Many, many years ago, maybe ten years ago, I taught a series called Signs or Marks of Spiritual Progress.  I suggest you use that series to always check to see whether you are making progress. That is one step. Then read Swami Rama’s The Art of Joyful Living over and over and over, and see if you are  truly applying the principles that he has go generously, so lovingly, so beautifully, and so effectively presented to us. And then comes this little book that has been presented to you: Sadhana in Applied Spirituality, in which I have given, hopefully, some practical suggestions on your thought patterns, which result in a change in your communication patterns, which result in a change in your relational patterns, not only in the family, but even in the workplace. And I would like these three to be your study, your contemplation, your discussion and especially your application over the next five years. I still have not managed to do the recording that I promised would go with it, but I will do it before you leave, within a day or two. I’m not getting the time.
Yesterday we spoke of the grand, cosmic presence of the Divine Mother and how from a few specks from the dust of the feet of the Divine Mother – now, if that is just a few specks from the dust of the feet of the Divine Mother, what is the Divine Mother like? – from those few specks, flung – creating spaces, not flung into spaces, but flung and creating spaces – this multi-billion-galaxy universe arises, in whom it continues, into whom it dissolves. And the ashes of that burning fire, that burns the products of this universe, Shiva rubs on his body, and you rub on yourself as ashes. That is where the Christian idiom “sackcloth and ashes” comes from. I suggested to you to expand your consciousness, to expand your consciousness so that this piece of paper can lead you to enlightenment. As I explained to you yesterday, the smallest fiber in a piece of your clothing can lead to you to enlightenment if you understand its reality, but not by sitting there and imagining.

Don’t get trapped by the very captivating net that your imagination, arising out of your unconscious mind, weaves for you. Do not get captivated by that. Many people who are the arm-chair spiritualists, who sit there and let themselves be caught in this very captivating net of imaginings arising out of their rajasic and tamasic and very confused unconscious minds; that is   not what we are talking about. Spiritual progress is the field of sattva, the brightest light, the purest, the clearest, the most luminous, the most pacific, the most benign; it leaves no confusion.

Every now and then I receive a letter: “Swamiji, I am having this revelation. I am having this experience. So what do I do next?” And my reply is, “Well, if I am driving from here to Delhi or from New York to Los Angeles, what do I do next? Well, you were going to go to Los Angeles, weren’t you? Do you want to settle down in Chicago now? You don’t want to go any further? Well, so carry on in the same way as you have been driving.” What’s the problem? What’s the question? Okay?

Today, and for however many number of days it takes, I will mark for you a few stations that you will pass through. You just need to recognize them when you are at that station; you don’t have to do anything about them. People write me: “I am at this station; what do I do about it?” You are to do nothing. Just look at the station: “That is what it looks like” and carry on.

There are these stations in many different dimensions, not in just one dimension. A one-dimensional growth is incomplete. The multidimensional growth that I will describe for you, whether it takes thirty minutes or whether it takes three lectures, you will keep with you, and you will learn to recognize those stations. Some of them are very interesting stations. When we did here the study of the Shiva Sutras, we came across a phrase. A few of you were here; most of you were not. Can anyone remember that phrase that we popularized? Smera, smera stimita. Does anyone remember from that course? Can you say it? It has a very nice musical sound. Smera, smera stimita. Smera, smera stimita. Smera, smera stimita. And the commentator who is writing on the Shiva Sutras says that as you come to these stations, you smile in amazement; you smile and you will become stilled. It is not that you become all excited. It is not that you become a dancer. Stimita: you become stilled, stopped in amazement. That is, the effect of those stations at times in your spiritual progress is this smera, smera stimita.

I can tell you, there is no journey more interesting than your spiritual journey. For your worldly journeys you need to pay for a sea cruise, you need to buy airline tickets, you need to service your car, but for this journey: free of charge. Everything is free of charge. The whole cosmos: free of charge. And I don’t know why people don’t take the offer. It’s a free lunch. The spiritual universe is a free lunch. Don’t you want to enjoy this transcendental free lunch? Learn to enjoy it, and wait for that smera, smera stimita. At every revelation a smile, your mind smiles and goes further – stilled.

(Coughing) This daily speaking is not good for my body. My cardiac muscle gets tired. Please forgive me.

So, enjoy whatever little smile of the mind that comes in your view, comes in your way, and every moment of whatever relative stillness and amazement that touches you. You know, sometimes you see that you are amazed and for a moment you are stopped still. That is the way it is in your spiritual journey. You are stopped still. And if one of those moments – Don’t ask me when; there is no clock; ask my guru – if it once happens and Mother Infinity reveals her glimpse and all her cosmic music pours into you, if even for a fraction of a second, even that fraction of a second, which is a fraction of a second by your worldly clock, feels like an infinity passed, because Infinity showed one of her multiple faces.

These are not false promises. This is not a pep talk. That is the way it goes. And there begins to come in you gradually, gradually, gradually, a sense of fullness. And wherever there were empty quarters in your personality, in your heart and in your mind, they begin to fill and you begin to sense and fullness. Then what do you do with that fullness? It pours out of you to others, and you become a teacher; you become a healer. You don’t get a teacher by getting a teacher training certificate; you become a teacher because there is this fullness in you, and this stillness is overflowing and touching the hearts and minds of others, and you cannot help it; it’s just there. And the more you progress to the next smile, the more you progress to the next station in stillness, the more it pours into you and overflows from you. Don’t waste it; be creative with it; channel it. Don’t waste it; be creative with it; channel it.

“Bahu-jana-hitaya, Bhau-jana-sukhaya.” When the Buddha sent his first batch of monks to go teach in the world, he said in the Pali language in which he spoke: “Charatha bhikkavo charikam bahu-jana-hitaya, Bhau-jana-sukhaya.”  “Wander, O monks. Wander a great wandering for the benefit of the many, for the comfort of the many.” If your spirituality does not benefit many and if it does not comfort many, what is the difference between a worldly material, selfish life and a spiritual life? So: “for the benefit of the many, for the comfort of the many.” In your stations of progress, this will arise in you naturally. You don’t need to try. You are helpless. You cannot help it. If there is a space under a tree, you will sit under a tree and, like Socrates, people will gather around you, because they are thirsty and you have the potion of elixir, or water. That depends on how diluted your elixir is. Dilute it less and less over time. Dilute your elixir less and less over time and serve it in its purest forms.

Many times I spoke to my master and I said, “Master, I am very jealous of all those great yogis who sit in the caves.” He said, “Tell me of what benefit are they to the world?” Of course, that is his way of answering. I know of what benefit they are. Sitting there, they are of greater benefit at times than shouting and yelling like me here. But something will happen in you. And if there is space under a tree, you will fill people there, or whether you sit under a tent, or you sit in a palace or an ashram or a monastery or wherever, this teaching will flow from you, healing will flow from you – healing of minds.

One of the things that begins to happen is that the mysteries of the universe begin to unfold before you. You begin to understand the principles and the laws by which the whole universe operates. There is a meta-science about which I have indicated in one of my writings,     the science of sciences by which all the sciences operate. The principles are the same. When I talk to an architect, I tell them to learn music if they want to improve their architecture. Have you heard that before? Because architecture is music. And music has its own architecture, so architecture has to have its own music too. So we had a musical performance by a master architect yesterday, and he could tell you what the structures are of that architecture – what are the pillars, what are the roofs, what are the floors, what are the spaces in it? So, this happens for you. You begin to understand the science of sciences in which all sciences become one science. It is not something multidisciplinary that you create – that you gather this discipline, this discipline, and this discipline, and you create a concoction. But there are some fundamental principles by which all the science and all the arts operate, included in your theology and your philosophy, and these begin to unveil themselves to you. And the next then, then you begin to understand the relationship of this cosmic science with yourself, with your entire being, with your interior being. You begin to understand the architecture of your internal music of which there is a whole orchestra in you.

So, as the sciences reveal themselves, you learn to apply them. I know of a great yogi who studied only up to the fifth grade, and then went off to devote himself to the Grandmother of the Universe. And when his sādhana had reached its fructification, the Divine Mother ordered him to go to someplace which is all very rough-looking and establish himself there. So he went and he sat down under a tree outside a village in a very rough-looking area. Well, all he has to do is sit down, and next somebody put a tin shed over his head and the villagers started coming. Next, someone built a little room, a little chamber for him. And if you take a 30-minute drive from the Delhi airport to the Chattarpur Temple complex, what he created is a wonder of architecture by guiding the architects about how each pillar was to be adorned and decorated. And when my master and I went to see him, he said the same thing: “I have reading instruction only up through the first grade, but I have designed all this architecture.”

And, you know, I will tell you something: I don’t know what people do in schools. I don’t know because I’ve never been to one. I have no idea. What do they do year after year after year? All you have to do is close your eyes, and the knowledge will reveal itself to you. Listen to a language once and you will speak it. But . . . that requires a mind that is free of all this green stuff that accumulates on the surface of the water. Your mind needs to be like clear water, sattvic and pure, so that the full moon can reflect in it unbroken and not in fragments. At present in your sciences you are studying only those fragments, and one who knows just one tiny fragment does not know the rest of the fragments. As your purification occurs, this happens naturally.

I’ve been told to close at 5:50 today because my keepers, mothers are waiting to give you ten minutes of explanation over the other questions.   I promise I’ll continue with these talks. So God bless you all.

March 2, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namaḥ.
Parama-gurave namaḥ.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namaḥ.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namaḥ.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.

Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.
Om śham.

---

Om. Hari Om.

We have been discussing the stations in spiritual progress and the stations in the progress in meditation also.  Because many times people inquire: “How do I know whether I am making progress?”  So I have given you some readings and some recordings which will help you. And we have covered some ground in the last several days.

Before I move on someone has asked me a question. Someone received a Shri Vidya (Śrī Vidyā) mantra from our tradition elsewhere. One has to decide which mantra one should be doing and which Guru-tradition you want to follow. Sri Vidya is a vast topic. I’ve looked for someone to whom I could teach it, but no one has come around. And the Shri Vidya we teach here is not the external worship, but the internal path. If one receives a special mantra and one also wishes to follow the tradition in which one is initiated here, one may add that special mantra. But then you have to learn, find out how that particular mantra is to be used, how is it to be practiced? And even those who give the Shri Vidya mantra do not know, or do not teach, how to do the internal processes of the Shri Vidya mantra.

I have the privilege to welcome Prince Indra of Bali. Is he here? Will you stand for a moment, Sir? It is an honor and pleasure to have you here. Thank you. They paid us a visit a little while back, and there was a wonderful Bali dance performance and the sharing of many things.
As you make spiritual progress, some things unravel, unveil, open up inside you.  Some things begin to change. If those things are changing, then you know that you are making spiritual progress. For example, your need to speak will become less. When you speak, your speech will be softer and will not cause resistance in other people. One example: You will be able to say the same thing in fewer words.

People are asking me: “Will you answer e-mails during your silence?” Learn how to ask a question. Narrow it down to what your real question is. If you are sending me a three-page letter with the whole history of your emotions, I will not answer. I am not in the business of being a psychotherapist; I am a meditation guide. Find out first. We call it in Sanskrit manthana (“churning”) and pulling the cream up.  What exactly is the question? Half the answer is in knowing what the question is, and then write the question in one line; then I will answer. So it’s up to you, whether you want the answer or don’t want the answer. Sometimes it takes me four hours each night to answer all the e-mails. I cannot continue to do that. So your need for speech will become reduced. Your voice will become gentler.

I find that people speak too fast. Your speech will slow down. Before you notice it, other people will notice it. Your speech will have a calming effect on others, not an agitating effect. That does not mean that you will become uncommunicative. As you make spiritual progress, you will become a better communicator because your communication will be positive, beneficial, measured, [and] pleasant. And in fewer words you will communicate much.
If you are making spiritual progress, the words of the ancient scriptures, of the sages, of the saints and the prophets will reveal themselves to you as to what their meaning is. At present, if you are reading them – because some people do not read – but if you are reading the scriptures of whatever religion or whatever philosophical or spiritual tradition, at present you are understanding them in the terms and the terminologies of the common language that you use for your worldly purposes, full of resistances, full of fears, full of anxieties. When you are making spiritual progress, those words will reveal themselves to you. In the Rig Veda we are told:

uta tvaḥ paśyan na dadarśa vācaṁ uta tvaḥ śṛṇvan na śṛṇotyenām.
uto tvasmai tanvaṁ visassre jāyeva patya uśatī suvāsāḥ…(Rig Veda, 10.71.4)

The word in the Vedas for the “word,” in the sense that you read it in the Bible – “in the beginning was the Word” – is vāc, which means speech, which is a feminine word. So the feminine gender is used for the “word.”

uta tvaḥ paśyan na dadarśa vācam  “There are those who seeing yet do not see the word.”

uta tvaḥ śṛṇvan na śṛṇotyenām  “Hearing, they do not hear the word. But to some – uto tvasmai – she reveals herself, like a beloved bride reveals herself to her lover.”

So the meanings of the scriptures, of the Upanishads, the Bibles, the Qur’ans, of the Avestas and other lesser-known words of revelation will reveal themselves to you, and you will see a depth, a deeper layer. And as you make further progress, the meaning will change and another layer will come.  And thus you will communicate with the rishis, with the sages and the saints and the prophets. They will speak to you, as it were, and they will say to you, “All this time, for thousands of years we have been speaking to you, but you have not been hearing. Now hear.” As Jesus said, “Those who have ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9, 4:23; Revelation 2:17, 3:22). Long before that the Rig Veda said, “They, hearing, yet do not hear; they, seeing, yet do not see.” (Rig Veda, 10.71.4)

As you make further spiritual progress, you become a seer.  You begin to see truth. Here and there a sentence comes out of your mouth which is immortal. Sometimes people ask me to autograph their book and I write these blessings. One of the blessing is “May the words you speak today become the scriptures of tomorrow.” This is not merely an empty wish; it can be so. If you reach that status, the words you are saying will be remembered a thousand years from now. So, with the gift of speech, the gift of the meaning of speech, then you will become among the ranks of those rishis and sages, someday, sometime.

“Friends,” I always say, “Be ambitious.” You have no ambition. The only ambition you have is to buy a car and get a promotion in your company. What kind of ambition is that? Have real ambition. This is the ambition.

As you make spiritual progress and as you progress in your meditation, you begin to feel some changes inside your body. Your posture becomes firm. Once you sit down, you don’t want to move. That is a sign of spiritual progress. Not out of lethargy and laziness, but because your ādhāra (the region from the navel down) has become firmly established in the pṛthvī tattva, in the ground, in the earth, and you become stable. The posture becomes stable by itself without you struggling. I have five ruptured discs in my back. I have had a broken meniscus for the last fifteen years in my knee and torn ligament in my knee. And the doctors tell me: “You can’t sit with crossed legs. Stop sitting that way.” I can sit here and speak to you for the next three hours and will not change my posture.  No necessity. So these changes occur. Your spine becomes inclined to being erect. Instead of having to remember “Oh, I should be sitting erect,” your spine becomes inclined to be become erect. Something from inside you, that snake that rises up, the snake of the kuṇḍalinī, lying coiled up at the bottom –ahirbudhnyaḥ  it is called in the Vedas, “the snake in the fundaments,” rises up and becomes steady. And your spine becomes inclined to be straight. Your posture becomes inclined to be firm. It is no longer required to practice, struggle – fighting with the body, sitting there and saying, “Maybe a massage will help my legs so I can maybe sit for half an hour without moving.”  No need. These things will happen. If that is happening, you are making spiritual progress. But not if you just sit for fifteen minutes and do quick, quick, quick mala (mālā), and in the middle of the mala checking to see “Well, how much is left now?” I’m sorry, that’s not meditation.

You have to know the meaning of meditation. So stability, stillness of the body, erectness of the spine – at present we teach you that as a technique for correct sitting. But at a certain point in your development the techniques fall off. The techniques – tell me, how many of you have my book The Philosophy of Hatha Yoga? Well, I’m happy: 90%. Shall I give you an exam on it? I have explained these processes that happen in you because of the way the energy channels begin to flow.

Then, at a certain point, you will begin to feel the natural mūla-bandha, the natural root-lock. At present we are teaching these as a technique for you. When they cease to become a technique and become your mind-body-prana natural inclination, then know that you are making spiritual progress.

In the chakra system, as I have explained in my lectures on kundalini and the chakras, there are two forces: the push-forces and the pull-forces: the lower energy concentrations pushing up, and the higher energy concentrations of the chakras pulling the lower ones up. That is the secret of the words prāṇa and apāna, the kundalini meaning of those words. Don’t forget to get my book Kundalini Stilled or Stirred?, which has just been published.

So, because of these changes happening by way of a slight, beginning-level awakening of energies, the mūla-bandha, the root-lock, forms by itself in meditation; you don’t have to remember to form it. Most people who form the root-lock do it with an effort with the result that the ādhāra part becomes tense. Tension is not supportive of relaxation and meditation. When the root-lock happens naturally because the energy is pushing up and the energy is pulling up, then that tension does not occur in the muscles and the organs of that region. Similarly in the course of your meditation khecarī mudrā [the tongue-lock] will form by itself; the tongue will go up. Sometimes it forms even while you are walking about because you have no more inclination to speak, so you tuck the tongue away. So mūla-bandha forms and khecarī forms.

Many times I have seen people in the beginning who sit down to meditate, and because they have seen in the books and have been taught in the classes to form the mudrā and the chin mudrā and the jñāna mudrā with their fingers. Half their attention is on their finger and their thumb – “Am I forming the mudrā correctly?”  As you make spiritual progress, the mudrā forms by itself because the energy curves and circles and forms these mudrās and molds and shapes the body accordingly – and that happens to you naturally.  So your posture becomes firm; your spine becomes inclined to be erect.
My body is very weak. Sometimes when I sit down, I need to get a lot of support. But as my meditation progresses, the body becomes inclined to move away from the support and the spine becomes straight – because my guru has taught me to respond to that which is happening in the energy realm. These are things that yoga teachers need to learn. The root-lock forms, khecarī forms, the need for speech changes.

Then, a lot of times I get letters from people: “I feel pressure at this point” or “I feel a pull at this point” or “I feel a sensation at this point,” and “When I meditate . . .” and so on. This is a natural phenomenon. When that happens, simply respond to it. Where you feel the pull, let the mantra go there as though you are breathing from there, as though your mantra is arising there. Let your mind go there as though you are breathing there and as if your mantra is arising there.

We have taught elsewhere how to recognize which is your chakra. That’s a little bit different topic, a separate topic. There are recordings available.  Five thousand hours of recordings have been made over the last 42 years. Swami Ritavan has been keeping these recordings, and the archives here have them, and there is a group of volunteers internationally who are transcribing them. I am told by Swami Ritavan that when the transcribing is completed there will be 45,000 pages. If you people help with that, that work will go on long after I’m dead. First making the 45,000 pages of transcripts, and then looking through them and making them readable is a lot of work, and we need that work from you. We need volunteers for that work.  This Michelle [Kinsey] here is doing a lot, who is just sitting here quietly, designing CDs and all of that. So I really, really deeply appreciate what people are doing, but a lot more needs to be done.

So, in the initial stages, there are three phenomena that are experienced in the chakras: (1) an inward pull, not an outward pull, in that region, or a pressure, (2) a feeling or sensation – something vibrating, something happening, and (3) the feeling of a flow, as though a stream is passing through that region or the stream is flowing upward from that region.

Also, when the spine becomes naturally inclined to be erect, the next step will be a sensation as if ants are crawling over your spine, or the base of your spine is plugged into an electric socket and is receiving the current. But don’t go about connecting it to the socket in the wall; you would be dead.

These things are not written anywhere. They are not written even in my commentary on the Yoga-sutras. They are given indications in the texts. But when the ancient ṛshis were teaching, they would not only give a lesson in philosophy, they would give an experience! They would alter the consciousness of the disciple and let him see! And then in the Upanishads we can read phrases like etad vai tat (“This is that!”). araṇyornihito jātavedā garbha iva sudhito garbhiṇībhiḥ; etad vai tat  “This experience that I have given you, that is this mantra, this recitation.” But you have been reciting it, not experiencing. And only though that experience will you understand the meaning of the Upanishads or Vedas or the Bible or the Avesta. And you would become a teacher, even without a teacher training certificate. I don’t have a teacher training certificate! Nobody ever gave me one. My master never gave me one. I should complain? Because then you will teach from experience. My master said, “Don’t teach from the books.” And I don’t.

Every now and then I teach a text for your entertainment. On October, 2014, I’ll be teaching a course on the Mahā-vākyas, the Great Sentences of Vedanta. They are installing a little computer screen in my room, so I’ll type the lessons on that.

People are asking me, “Who will teach us?” Don’t worry, the teaching will go on. The same one who has brought you here, the same one who has brought you to the Guru’s ashram and the Guru’s seat, the same one will guide you. The guidance never ceases for a disciple. The problem is that there are no disciples. There are no disciples with commitment to self-purification.

Along with these pulls and pressures, sensations or feelings of a flow, if you understand the science of the chakras, you know that each chakra carries powers, elements which constitute your personality, so the awakening happens in those faculties of your personality and in the constituents of your personality.  Different changes happen when your navel chakra begins to open, and different changes happen when your heart chakra begins to open, and so on. But mind you, every little emotion is not the awakening of a chakra.

There is a time I used to be available to people 24 hours a day, and I would tell them to call me anytime. Now I am a night person and I do my meditations at night, or I do my japa at night, or I do my e-mails at night, and I work at night. And at The Meditation Center in Minneapolis we had a 6:00 a.m. meditation every morning. So at 3:00 I laid down in bed to rest for couple of hours, maybe to get two hours sleep, because I had to be at The Meditation Center at 6:00. And at 3:30 the phone rings. It was a lady calling from California: “You said I could call you anytime, Dr. Arya. My heart chakra is opening; what shall I do?” And I heard her voice and I said, “Tell me one thing: did you have a quarrel with your husband last night?” “What does that have to do with it?” So every flutter of your heart is not the opening of your heart center.

It is time to stop now. I will continue tomorrow over the next three or four days. God bless you all.

[A group of people from Bali come up to give gifts to Swamiji.] Siddhartha [Krishna], there is something? I was told to be ready for this kindness. Oh, Prince Arjuna! How beautiful! Oh, look at that: a Ganesha from Bali! Thank you so very much. I really appreciate it!  Alright. Oh, what book is it?  Oh, this is the Ramayana. Is it the Uttara kāṇḍa?  Araṇya. I’ve been looking for the Uttara kāṇḍa. This is part of the Ramayana in the Balinese. Is it in Kabir or present Bali? And I’ve asked them to bring me a lontar, a palm leaf manuscript which they are preparing for me. I am so grateful. Thank you so much. Om svasti! Om svasti! Om svasti! I must go for the ārati.

Remember all those details that I am giving you. Alright. Siddhartha, thank you.

March 1, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namaḥ.
Parama-gurave namaḥ.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namaḥ.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namaḥ.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.

Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.
Om śham.

---

Om. Hari Om.  How is everybody’s forehead doing?  Are you a little bit more free of worrying and anxieties? We would like your visit here to be a success. And what will be your definition of a success? If you can go with one or two new habits, if you can drop one or two old habits and cultivate one or two new habits, then your visit and all the money you have spent, and all the time, and all the discomfort of sleeping here and there, it will be a success.

Also, for your information, there is, or is going to be from tonight a mauna kaksha (a silence chamber). It’s somewhere on that hilltop among all those big houses in a corner where you can go and be silent. That is not the place you go for a bed. So sometimes you can go and use that silence chamber. Enjoy.

One thing more: this is one rare occasion when so many people are going to be practicing silence together. Swami Rama’s legacy is to merge science and spirituality. So we have a lab on this campus. We have something like 3,000 titles of articles published in medical and scientific journals on the subject of the effect of yoga breathing, meditation, mindfulness, and among all those titles we have not come across one single article on the effects of silence. So we are using this opportunity of the 200 people who are participating in the silence together from the 10th of March. Around 50 have chosen to be accepted as subjects for testing, that is, the brainwaves before you begin the silence and brainwaves and other physiological effects after nine days of silence, and what a difference that makes. So a list will be given out on the topic of when your turn is for that brainwave testing. And you need take it a little bit more seriously, not as a fun thing: “Oh, I had all these electrodes hooked into my skull.” That is not the purpose. We are not in a position to give you immediate results. All this data is being collected and is being sent to the scientists for later analysis. We have already had one research paper published based on the research that has been done in our lab, and one Ph.D. thesis that has been done in France has come out. So we have been moving ahead with that.  Do be prepared, and a schedule will be given for when you are scheduled for that test.

I am also asked to announce, people ask me, “After you go into silence, will you still travel?” The answer is a complex one. And the answer does not depend on me; the answer depends on you. And there is a small committee who will explain to you what is planned and where you come into that planning. So, center leaders and traveling teachers, please attend tomorrow, March 2nd, at 2:30 p.m. to discuss the plans for that. I’m certainly not traveling until mid-2014, but some possibility is there. But the possibility depends entirely on you – the more practical side of things. [Note: Swami Veda has subsequently moved the possibility of traveling to mid-2015.]

Some foreheads are still wrinkled! What happened? Did I say something worrisome? What are you worrying about? Whatever you are worrying about there is nothing you can do about it sitting here. You might as well forget it and enjoy a worry-free life for a short time. You don’t always get such opportunities. Use the opportunity!

As one progresses spiritually, all the layers of one’s being are revealed. You are not just this jumble of bones wrapped up by a plastic wrap, tied up with some strings inside, nerves and pipes. That is not what you are. That is only the outermost container. And you have begun to mistake yourself to be the container instead of the spirit-content. Between the container (called the body) and you the content (the pure spirit) there are many layers.  Here I go into the very ancient science of Sāṅkhya and Vaiśeṣhika. These are two of the six Vedic schools of philosophy. There are layers upon layers, whether you read the theory about them or not, whether you can list all those categories by heart or not, as you begin to move your consciousness, your awareness, your mindfulness, your realization.  What does the word “realization” mean? Something becoming “real” to you! When that which was previously merely a theory, which was previously a speculation or a hypothesis, when that becomes real to you, that is realization. That realization, that is a form of revelation, revealing. That which is covered with veils is unveiled.

One of the prayers in the Veda is:

Hiraṇmayena pātrena satya-syāpi-hitaṁ mukham,
tattvaṁ pūṣanna-pāvṛṇu satya-dharmāya dṛṣṭaye.

“With a golden lid the mouth of truth is covered. O Nourisher of the Universe, please remove this cover so that I may have the glance and the vision, the sight of the true dharma, the true nature of things.” (Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, 15).

That is why as we progress the penultimate samādhi is called the dharma-mega samādhi. Dharma-mega: the raincloud of virtue and the nature of all things.

(The electricity went off here and with it the sound system.  When it returned, Swami Veda said, “We’ll get the generator working.” “Sorry, I wish I could shout.” “Well, enjoy the silence.”  “Is it working?”  “Can you hear?”)

The samādhi of the raincloud of virtue and of the knowledge of the nature of all things, that is called dharma-mega samādhi. So, along with the revelation of your true nature, your true essence as atman the pure spiritual self, the nature of all things is revealed to you.  So all these layers of prakṛti, all the layers of nature, matter of which your composite being is composed, one-by-one-by-one, they reveal their essence, what they are, how they function, how they operate. And by knowing that, you know the nature of the universe, because the components of your being are the same as the components of the universe. If you understand your individuated mind, you will understand the universal mind.

If you understand the atomic energies at the sub-cellular level of your physical composition, you will also understand the atomic energies in the whole universe. If you will understand inside you the birth of a cell, the continuity of a cell, and the dissolution of that cell, thereby you understand the birth of the stars, the continuity of the stars, and the dissolution of the stars.

And it is thus that when I read…. I am an avid reader of scientific magazines. I do not miss out on the latest scientific discoveries. I have no training in science, but I keep up with the scientific news. I am looking for some news, but I am not finding any. Really! I’m looking for some new discovery in science, but I’m not finding anything. It’s been known to me from childhood, from the texts – not the technology, but the science.

Science – what is it the science of? What is the science the science of? Einstein answers: “I am trying to find out how it is that God runs the universe.” Learn to find the God within you. Learn to find how you, the God of this body-universe, how you the spiritual being, the God of this body-universe, how you run this universe, and thereby you will find out how God runs the universe.

And this is the message of Yoga and Tantra and the beautiful texts like Saundarya-laharī. Gurudev Swami Rama often referred to these texts, Saundarya-laharī (Youtube) and Ananda-laharī, the Wave of Beauty and the Wave of Bliss. What is this Wave of Beauty and the Wave of Bliss? The entire universe is a stream of forces that come in waves. An interaction of the waves is the universe. And those waves are the same ones by which you, atman the spirit, utilizing the instrumentation called the mind, run your body-universe. When you understand that, you will understand how the universe is run. You will understand all its mathematics.

Sometimes people ask, “What is the contribution of India to the world’s civilization?” You want to know my answer? The contribution of India to the world’s civilization is “zero.” Only the meditation masters could have figured out what “zero” was. And what is the common Sanskrit word and Hindi word commonly used for zero? Shunya! That is the word for zero. And going into that shunya within, from there they understood what the value of zero is and how all the numbers revolve around this reality of zero. That is how the zero was invented – no, discovered.

Why am I saying this? What is its practical application for you in your spiritual life, in your daily life? Anything you touch, anything you sense, anything you feel, anything you experience, that you act upon or react to, find out its metaphysical connection. This piece of paper with scribbles on it can lead you to liberation. This little piece of paper, this object in my hand can lead you to liberation. This [other] object in my hand, what is it? What do I have in my hand? A cell phone. What is a cell phone? Its geometry, its dimensions, its subatomic particles, its energies, its interactions of energies – it is waves, it is interaction of waves. It’s poetry! That is why one of my lectures is that science is the most beautiful spiritual poem ever composed. And here is the poetry in my hand, and here is all the metaphysics: dimensions and what is beyond dimensions. What are the waves and what is beyond the waves, and from where do those waves arise?

Can you learn to connect every smallest particle of your experience – of the taste buds or the smells, or what you see with the eyes, or what you touch with the skin, or what images you form in your mind – can you take any one of these are find their trans-physical resource? And so also your relationships, even more so! It is not by denouncing relationships that you will find renunciation. Renunciation is not denunciation. Some people think that renunciation is denunciation. It is not by denouncing the relationships, but by bringing them to their fullest conclusion, to their richest level. And then you will transcend to the next level – because that is where God is, because that is where love is. You keep hearing “God is love. God is love. God is love.” Have you brought your little love to the level where you say, “Yes, this is God.”

So do these internal, mental, spiritual exercises. Every experience, anything you see, you hear, you observe moving, anything that moves in you, where is it in me? And where is it in the universe? And how are the spiritual contents moving these containers?

The second verse of Saundarya-laharī, Shankaracharya’s text, the Wave of Beauty. I wish I could sing for you, but that is one thing I have not been able to do all my life. I can pray in the name of singing, so I only recite:

Tanīyāṃsaṃ pāṃsuṃ tava caraṇa-paṅke-ruha-bhavaṃ
viriñciḥ saṃcinvan viracayati lokān a-vikalam;
vahaty enaṃ śauriḥ katham api sahasreṇa śirasāṃ
haraḥ saṃksudyainaṃ bhajati bhasitoddhūlana-vidhim.

You read, you hear, you see pictures, you see icons of these Hindu gods, but you don’t know what they are. I have a shrine to Mother Divine.  Some people think it’s just a statue. What is it a statue of? According to the texts and the poetry composed by the realized beings the Divine Mother is unending, fathomless. The verse that I have just recited, listen to it: “O Mother Divine, O source of all beauty.” Because sometimes we give mantras as to explain the Divine Mother dwelling within all things, all entities, all beings, shapes them and beautifies them from within. That is the secret of evolution – but that’s a different topic. “O Mother Divine, Brahma the creator god (God in his creator mode) takes tiny bits of the pollen dust of your feet, that is, all of the prakṛti, matter, anti-matter, all the millions of galaxies and black holes spinning close to the speed of light, all of that: a few particles of dust, a few particles of the pollen dust at the feet of the Divine Mother.

What the extent of the Divine Mother in infinity is we cannot fathom. “God in the creator mode as Brahma takes a few particles of the pollen dust of your feet, and from those he shapes – lokān a-vikalam –unending and unbroken chains of all the universes, viracayati lokān a-vikalam – creates the unbroken, unending chains of all the universes, so that even the vast galactic serpent with a thousand hoods cannot easily bear the weight of this universe. And God in his dissolution mode takes it and blows it, and it turns to ashes and blows the ashes all about and rubs the ashes on himself, and that is how Shiva is shown as wearing ashes: the remnants of the dissolved universes.

So when we have these yagñas, on the last day we take the ashes and rub them on ourselves – agnir iti bhasma vāyur iti bhasma.  “The fire is ashes,” we recite. “The air is ashes. The earth is ashes. Ashes are merged into ashes.”  You have the English phrase “ashes to ashes,” but the original is in that particular mantra. This is the vision by which a cosmic master walks. In their grandeur this is the way they look at the universe, and this is the way they look at themselves, and this is the way they carry themselves, and someday, sometime, by way of an incredibly high level of initiation may impart that vision.

But this vision cannot be imparted to everybody. I have seen a case of a very, very dear Guru-brother of mine – I will not name – who kept begging for higher initiation, begging for higher initiation, and kept on asking me: “Intercede on my behalf to Swamiji, intercede on my behalf to  Swamiji.” And made the mistake of interceding and pestering him on behalf of my friend, and so he received the initiation. And then Swami Rama left me to attend to him. And here now this disciple is writhing on the floor and says, “Please, beg the master to withdraw the power. Please, beg the master with withdraw the power. I cannot withstand it.” So first create in you the capacity.

When you will read my little book on kundalinī, you’ll understand what I have just talked about. This part that I have just spoken of I have not covered in that book. People talk of energies flowing in them, touching them; they are blessed! What more do you want? Just become absorbed in observing them. This is for those who are writing me day and night, okay. Just let them absorb into observing and flowing wherever the energy goes, whichever layers it bursts. There is nothing to fear. It’s the pathway; it’s the Waves of Beauty and the Waves of Bliss. Enjoy! And those who have not yet been touched that way by the invisible masters, keep aspiring, keep contemplating this universe as the Wave of Beauty and the Wave of the Universe, and this object that you call the cell phone can lead you to enlightenment; this piece of paper in my hands can lead you to enlightenment, if you understand its reality. What is it? Waves – nothing more.

Ask any physicist and they’ll tell you what the reality of this piece of paper is. It’s waves! It’s atomic waves imbued by another layer of waves, and that is consciousness; that is chaitanya; that is I the Self, the indweller of every particles of this body, the indweller of every particle of this universe, which has been created from a few grains of the pollen dust from Mother’s feet and flung into space, forming millions of galaxies, unbroken, unending chains. And in time, as the wave subsides, so Shiva, the power of dissolution, dissolves the waves and rubs the ashes on his body and keeps them till the next time: another universe.
You are living in that universe. You are part of that system of waves. That is what you are. Learn to enjoy your true existence. God bless you all.

Just a moment. Those who ever wish to learn more about our lab and our scientific work, please, Dr. Prabhu, will you stand? Dr. Prabhu is our fulltime senior scientist who is working fulltime developing the lab, and you can ask him any questions anytime. I think he is making a brief presentation sometime about the lab, too. Thank you, Dr. Prabhu.

And remember that we’ll give you the schedule for your testing. And do remember tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. the meeting to discuss further plans. On the third of March there is the election of AHYMSIN office-bearers. And on the 5th we have whole-day workshop on the future of this family and how to keep all its arms working together, and your thoughts and your contribution to that is most invaluable because I am in the withdrawal mode, okay? And so it’s you who carry the responsibility.

How many people remember to do two or three minutes of meditation many times in the day?  [Some people raised their hands.] A few. You come, you listen to the lecture, and you walk out. And the lecture you gather in your apron, and before you leave, you just shake it off.

Form this new habit, every two or three hours for two or three minutes wherever you are, standing, sitting, lying down. Just relax your forehead, feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils. Breathe in slowly, gently, smoothly. Exhale and inhale with your mantra.  Maintain the flow. Let your entire consciousness become an even-flowing stream. Remaining in this wave of consciousness, gently open your eyes, and may you walk in life aware that you are a wave in the ocean of the Waves of Beauty and Bliss.

God bless you all. Thank you. Please accept my apologies for not being able to see my friends personally. The spirit is willing, but the body has its limits. It cannot do it anymore. I’m sorry we meet this way. God bless you.