1 00:00:06,430 --> 00:00:22,300 The coming of an individual into this world, hailed so much by every family as an asset 2 00:00:22,300 --> 00:00:38,260 come from the heavens, is a phenomenon not so simple as it meets the eye. 3 00:00:38,260 --> 00:00:52,489 Since matter is latent with a cohesive force within itself, and all matter stabilises itself 4 00:00:52,489 --> 00:01:09,130 due to this cohesive force immanent, present within itself, anything that is concerned 5 00:01:09,130 --> 00:01:18,940 with material existence may be said to be concerned, at the same time, the vast sea 6 00:01:18,940 --> 00:01:34,110 of matter pervading all space and constituting every blessed thing in the world. 7 00:01:34,110 --> 00:01:50,970 The event called the birth of an individual on this Earth plane is regarded by a prosaic 8 00:01:50,970 --> 00:02:02,240 mind as something suddenly come from nowhere, in a mysterious manner inexplicable to the 9 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:14,060 mind, and there the exhilaration of having a child is over. 10 00:02:14,060 --> 00:02:30,840 But, there are great secrets behind this tantalising event called the advent of a thing into this 11 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:45,840 world, because all material formation in the form of individualities of any creature whatsoever 12 00:02:45,840 --> 00:03:03,290 calls forth the potencies of all material existence -- so that, we may say, a single 13 00:03:03,290 --> 00:03:18,349 physical formation of an individual is representative of all the powers of the entire material existence, 14 00:03:18,349 --> 00:03:26,510 so that the mother of a child is the vast material universe. 15 00:03:26,510 --> 00:03:39,310 It is in the Chhandogya Upanishad wherein we have the description of a science called 16 00:03:39,310 --> 00:03:41,060 Panchagni Vidya. 17 00:03:41,060 --> 00:03:54,470 We have this wonderful narration of how anything is born at all. 18 00:03:54,470 --> 00:04:10,060 Birth is, first of all, a vibration that is generated in the superior space, beyond the 19 00:04:10,060 --> 00:04:14,450 visible physical space. 20 00:04:14,450 --> 00:04:29,620 This vibration, which dictates the particular formation of the body of an individual, congeals 21 00:04:29,620 --> 00:04:44,220 in the form of the location of the birth, the circumstances of the birth, the atmosphere 22 00:04:44,220 --> 00:04:56,500 around which this birth takes place, and several other incidental issues. 23 00:04:56,500 --> 00:05:08,199 The Upanishadic passage is very cryptic and not easy to understand by an open study of 24 00:05:08,199 --> 00:05:15,100 it, linguistically. 25 00:05:15,100 --> 00:05:28,319 The passage goes in this manner: There is, first of all, a movement in the high heavens, 26 00:05:28,319 --> 00:05:31,180 demanding the birth of an individual, 27 00:05:31,180 --> 00:05:38,910 something like an Incarnation or Avatara, you can call it, 28 00:05:38,910 --> 00:05:46,979 the difference being the coming of an Avatara, or Incarnation, and an ordinary individual being 29 00:05:46,979 --> 00:05:55,630 that the Avatara is conscious of what it is made of, while an individual ordinary mortal 30 00:05:55,630 --> 00:06:00,310 is not so conscious. 31 00:06:00,310 --> 00:06:08,650 The Incarnation deliberately descends of its own free will, whereas the mortal individual 32 00:06:08,650 --> 00:06:20,210 is forced to come down, and pulled towards the gravitational region of this Earth. 33 00:06:20,210 --> 00:06:31,110 Thus, that which is born into this world is a representation, first of all, of all material 34 00:06:31,110 --> 00:06:41,621 existence, because when the dissolution of the body takes place in the end of time, this 35 00:06:41,621 --> 00:06:55,690 material composition will be distributed to the original material source in the same proportion 36 00:06:55,690 --> 00:06:59,520 in which it was distributed at the beginning of creation. 37 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:10,009 But an individual is not merely body, or physical matter, is something well known. 38 00:07:10,009 --> 00:07:13,490 What are the components of a human individual? 39 00:07:13,490 --> 00:07:21,790 Briefly to speak, the body has to be enlivened, vitalised. 40 00:07:21,790 --> 00:07:35,910 There must be consciousness manifest in that formation called the child; and this consciousness, 41 00:07:35,910 --> 00:07:45,220 individualised, as it were, becomes what we call the mind, thinking through this little 42 00:07:45,220 --> 00:07:48,250 body into which the birth has taken place. 43 00:07:48,250 --> 00:07:59,409 This is not the entire story; there is something more about it. 44 00:07:59,409 --> 00:08:10,370 The connection of the individual with all material sources of creation and vibrations 45 00:08:10,370 --> 00:08:27,300 to which also the mind owes an affiliation brings about a very interesting truth before 46 00:08:27,300 --> 00:08:51,080 our eyes -- namely, the item that is manifest in this world is an unconscious spot in space 47 00:08:51,080 --> 00:09:02,130 and in time, under given circumstances of a great pressure exerted from the centrality 48 00:09:02,130 --> 00:09:05,100 of creation. 49 00:09:05,100 --> 00:09:20,570 Therefore, truly speaking, one cannot say who is the parent of a child. 50 00:09:20,570 --> 00:09:22,960 There are layers and layers and gradations of manifestation of 51 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:30,730 originality of an event that takes place. 52 00:09:30,730 --> 00:09:43,029 Above matter there is vitality, or energy, which pervades the whole of creation; transcendent 53 00:09:43,029 --> 00:09:55,060 to the vital or energy potential of the cosmos, there is the thinking, mental process. 54 00:09:55,060 --> 00:10:00,600 Above that is rarefied understanding, called buddhi. 55 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:10,630 Still further, transcendent above all things, is the Cosmic Consciousness. 56 00:10:10,630 --> 00:10:22,870 All these levels of reality get concentrated into a particular form as is required for 57 00:10:22,870 --> 00:10:27,290 a specific purpose in the process of the evolution of the universe. 58 00:10:27,290 --> 00:10:41,120 Therefore, we are not our own, and we do not seem to be belonging to any particular family, 59 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:50,020 or a social group, or a linguistic or regional limitation. 60 00:10:50,020 --> 00:10:56,850 Vibrating within ourselves is the energy of the whole world. 61 00:10:56,850 --> 00:11:04,450 That is the reason why we, as individuals, are unable to contain within our minds the 62 00:11:04,450 --> 00:11:11,310 potentials within our own selves. 63 00:11:11,310 --> 00:11:21,410 The body, physical though it be, can demand infinite comforts. 64 00:11:21,410 --> 00:11:28,139 Anything that is provided for its satisfaction will be inadequate for its purpose. 65 00:11:28,139 --> 00:11:34,190 The modern equipments of physical comfort provided to man are indications of the infinitude 66 00:11:34,190 --> 00:11:40,100 of physical desire and the longing for physical comfort. 67 00:11:40,100 --> 00:11:53,980 Therefore, there is an area or an atmosphere of infinitude even around the physical existence 68 00:11:53,980 --> 00:12:06,000 of an individual, carrying the tentacles of human individuality up to the borders of creation, 69 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:17,630 as it were -- which is the reason why physical desire is insatiable and it can never be satisfied 70 00:12:17,630 --> 00:12:28,529 by any finite presentation that can be made from the resources of this world. 71 00:12:28,529 --> 00:12:33,029 But within the body, there is the mind. 72 00:12:33,029 --> 00:12:42,519 Even as bodily requirements are infinitude in their nature, the mental longings also 73 00:12:42,519 --> 00:12:46,930 are of a similar nature. 74 00:12:46,930 --> 00:12:55,690 The reaches of the mind touch again the corners of creation, we may say. 75 00:12:55,690 --> 00:13:05,660 Just as physical requirements are endless, and nothing on earth can fully satisfy the 76 00:13:05,660 --> 00:13:15,410 desires of a physically constrained person, the mind also cannot be satisfied because 77 00:13:15,410 --> 00:13:24,529 its longings are weird and heavenly in their nature. 78 00:13:24,529 --> 00:13:35,709 Any person who can find time to think over the needs of the mind of a person will realise 79 00:13:35,709 --> 00:13:44,640 a fathomless sea of longing vibrating at the bottom of the little mind that seems to be 80 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:49,220 within our brains. 81 00:13:49,220 --> 00:14:03,740 Infinite physical longing and infinite mental operation -- two of these phenomena are enough 82 00:14:03,740 --> 00:14:15,720 to point to us that physically and mentally also we are not located in any particular 83 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:31,520 place. Our mind is not in one place, and even the body, which appears to be in one place only, 84 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:39,020 is really not in one place because its parent, which is the body of matter that is universally, 85 00:14:39,020 --> 00:14:46,320 ubiquitously distributed, pulls it from all directions and tells it that "You have come 86 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:49,320 from me and you have to come back to me." 87 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:55,110 This is the reason why there is infinite longing physically. 88 00:14:55,110 --> 00:15:03,339 And because the mental operations also are not limited to a little activity of the brain 89 00:15:03,339 --> 00:15:12,350 of the individual -- it is also a borrowed stuff come from a cosmic nature -- the mental 90 00:15:12,350 --> 00:15:20,120 aesthetic longings also are endless in their nature. 91 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:29,630 From childhood onwards, till we reach old age and are prepared to depart from this world, 92 00:15:29,630 --> 00:15:39,520 we realise that we have not understood what our mind really requires, this because there 93 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:46,570 is an infinite background of the mental operations of even a single individual. 94 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:59,190 Beyond aesthetic thinking of the mind, there is an intellectual activity of the superior 95 00:15:59,190 --> 00:16:10,330 reason also, which tells us what a thing is, and what a thing is not. 96 00:16:10,330 --> 00:16:22,370 This is a rarefied form of the mind itself, and the desire for knowledge is symbolic of 97 00:16:22,370 --> 00:16:24,949 the potentials of the human intellect. 98 00:16:24,949 --> 00:16:35,230 Any amount of learning is not going to satisfy a person: he does researches over and above 99 00:16:35,230 --> 00:16:43,630 the possibilities of himself; goes to various places of research and learning and finds 100 00:16:43,630 --> 00:16:49,500 that still his knowledge is insufficient. 101 00:16:49,500 --> 00:16:54,709 The mysteries of nature defy the understanding of man. 102 00:16:54,709 --> 00:17:03,180 Scientific observations and logical analysis have not brought an ultimate answer to the 103 00:17:03,180 --> 00:17:08,839 mysterious processes of the universe. 104 00:17:08,839 --> 00:17:20,240 All this is a brief statement of a peculiar infinitude of potentiality in our own selves 105 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:30,460 telling us loudly through the language of the mystery of the world that we do not belong 106 00:17:30,460 --> 00:17:37,230 to any place, and we are not friends of any individual. 107 00:17:37,230 --> 00:17:39,450 We are not children of any particular parent. 108 00:17:39,450 --> 00:17:50,230 There is a series of comings and, therefore, our parenthood lies in the centrality of the 109 00:17:50,230 --> 00:17:57,320 Creator Himself. To whom do you belong then, finally? To the whole world. 110 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:07,440 It is the Yoga Vasishtha that tells us: ayam nijaḥ paro veti gananā 111 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:14,000 laghuchetasām, udāracharitānām tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam: 112 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:23,360 "Poorly constituted minds, ignorant as they are, say that this is my relative, this is 113 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:30,680 my friend, this is my family, this is mine, and this is not mine. 114 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:41,830 But a large-hearted individual whose perceptions have exceeded the limits of ordinary thinking, 115 00:18:41,830 --> 00:18:45,920 such a person, vasudhaiva kutumbakam: the whole world is a family." 116 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:52,049 There is no one unconnected with you, finally. 117 00:18:52,049 --> 00:19:03,419 I think I mentioned once, on an earlier occasion, it is said that if you could by chance remember 118 00:19:03,419 --> 00:19:07,850 all the five hundred births through which you have passed earlier, before coming to 119 00:19:07,850 --> 00:19:17,400 this world now, those relationships that you had during those five hundred births will 120 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:22,169 reveal that there is no one to whom you do not belong. 121 00:19:22,169 --> 00:19:25,230 All are your relatives only. 122 00:19:25,230 --> 00:19:32,730 In one incarnation, in one birth, in one life or the other, someone was your relation. 123 00:19:32,730 --> 00:19:37,110 And so, there is no one who is not your relative. 124 00:19:37,110 --> 00:19:47,620 There is none who does not belong to you, and yet, none who really belongs to you. 125 00:19:47,620 --> 00:19:56,340 This is a poignant truth revealed to us by a careful analysis of our own situation in 126 00:19:56,340 --> 00:20:04,200 this world, and it is up to every person to probe into oneself and find out one's own 127 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:14,280 potencies. Glibly, like idiots, to walk on this Earth, by believing what the eyes present as 128 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:20,650 the realities of life, would be a great travesty and a tragedy to the individual. 129 00:20:20,650 --> 00:20:31,520 One cannot believe one's eyes, because they produce illusions. 130 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:38,990 Today I read somewhere that in Delhi there is a flood. 131 00:20:38,990 --> 00:20:44,800 I was wondering what kind of flood it is. It is heavily raining? No. 132 00:20:44,820 --> 00:20:58,560 It is a flood of a deceptive water-like radiation arising out of the street, due to the heat of sun. 133 00:20:58,570 --> 00:21:07,530 Such is the heat of sun in Delhi these days, they say, so that the road itself starts 134 00:21:07,530 --> 00:21:13,120 shining as if it is a flowing river. This is what they call mirage. 135 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:19,809 If you can believe the water is present on the road in this manner because the eyes 136 00:21:19,809 --> 00:21:33,250 are actually seeing it, then you can believe your sensory perceptions elsewhere also. 137 00:21:33,250 --> 00:21:44,529 The scriptures, the Yoga Sastra, is the awakening message given to us by telling us repeatedly 138 00:21:44,529 --> 00:21:57,130 that we have come from an all-inclusive potential creative force, and through degrees of coming 139 00:21:57,130 --> 00:22:08,520 down we have reached this present state of sensorially perceived human individuality, 140 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:20,500 like the apex of a triangle whose base is above, wider than the pointing apex. 141 00:22:20,500 --> 00:22:33,240 Perhaps, it is in this light that the Bhagavadgita tells us that the creation is like a tree 142 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:42,080 which is inverted in its position, with roots above and its trunk, branches, and leaves, 143 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,430 etc., are spread out downward. 144 00:22:45,430 --> 00:22:55,600 That is to say, our origin, the origin of each and every one, human or otherwise, is 145 00:22:55,600 --> 00:23:07,120 the root thereof, which is high above in what you call the heavens in our ordinary language; 146 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:19,400 and what we see with our eyes are the branches, the twigs, the leaves, and the 147 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:26,040 fruits in the form of our experiences. Why is it that we are born? 148 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:34,100 Who has called us to come down to this earth? 149 00:23:34,100 --> 00:23:39,490 This is the mystery which the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and such scriptures have 150 00:23:39,490 --> 00:23:42,580 tried their best to explain. 151 00:23:42,580 --> 00:23:52,720 It is a condensation of Cosmic Existence -- physically, mentally, intellectually, 152 00:23:52,720 --> 00:24:01,040 aesthetically, and in every way -- into a localised point in space and time. 153 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:15,120 For what purpose? For playing a joke or enacting a drama. It is all right. 154 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:28,750 Very good actors in a theatre put on costumes and behave as something which they are not, 155 00:24:28,750 --> 00:24:31,059 actually, in themselves. 156 00:24:31,059 --> 00:24:43,129 They can descend into a little act from the high stature that they perhaps occupy in society. 157 00:24:43,129 --> 00:24:50,220 But in the case of a human actor in a theatre, the difference is that the actor is conscious 158 00:24:50,220 --> 00:24:52,659 of what he really is. 159 00:24:52,659 --> 00:24:59,170 Though he has changed his costume and behaves like something quite different from what he 160 00:24:59,170 --> 00:25:10,830 is, his consciousness of what he really is made of does not convert him into the ruse 161 00:25:10,830 --> 00:25:14,640 of the actorship which he assumes. 162 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,860 But in this drama, a reverse order takes place. 163 00:25:18,860 --> 00:25:27,330 As you put on the costume of a human individual, you do not remember who is it that has put 164 00:25:27,330 --> 00:25:31,299 on this costume. 165 00:25:31,299 --> 00:25:37,140 The costume assumes that it is itself the individual. 166 00:25:37,140 --> 00:25:48,799 It assumes a reality, and struts about on earth, overruling the reality which has put 167 00:25:48,799 --> 00:25:59,200 on this costume, and it looks as if the person who has put on this costume is dead completely. 168 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:06,740 and only the parading costumes look like living realities. 169 00:26:06,740 --> 00:26:15,940 Sometimes, life in the world is compared to a theatrical performance. 170 00:26:15,940 --> 00:26:23,179 Poets have gone into great detail in their description of the dramatic character of human 171 00:26:23,179 --> 00:26:38,120 performances -- finding out thereby that the entire performance in this world is a play, 172 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:47,820 a diversion, an entertainment, as it were, to something which is much greater than what 173 00:26:47,820 --> 00:26:52,390 is presented in the theatre. 174 00:26:52,390 --> 00:27:06,200 But intense identification with the formation can compel the source of this performance 175 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:18,909 to forget itself, in the same way as concentration of a sense object intensely 176 00:27:18,909 --> 00:27:26,440 for a long time makes one forget one's own self, and one runs to the object as 177 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:31,920 if one has poured oneself on the object itself. 178 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:37,920 Totally, the subjective side has become the object of attraction. 179 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:47,700 In a similar manner, the creation of the individual seems to have taken place. 180 00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:57,809 The littleness of human individuality, the finitude of it, cannot survive merely with 181 00:27:57,809 --> 00:28:05,090 the consciousness of finitude, because to be finite is to be an untruth. 182 00:28:05,090 --> 00:28:09,920 Satyameva jayate nanritam is a well-known saying. 183 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:14,240 Truth triumphs, and anything else will not. And what is the truth? 184 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:22,070 The cosmic relationship of human individuals, of all things, is the truth. What is the untruth? 185 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:33,210 The feeling that one is this individual, come from a chosen pair of parents. 186 00:28:33,210 --> 00:28:43,049 Because of the suffering caused by this erroneous outlook of the finite nature, it creates a 187 00:28:43,049 --> 00:28:52,039 heaven out of hell, as it were, by projecting sense organs, apertures through which it can 188 00:28:52,039 --> 00:29:05,990 peep outside through space and time, and contact the world as if it stands totally external 189 00:29:05,990 --> 00:29:10,260 to it, to be handled in a particular manner. 190 00:29:10,260 --> 00:29:13,600 Do we not think in this manner? 191 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:19,299 The world is something in front of us, totally unconnected with us, and we have to deal with 192 00:29:19,299 --> 00:29:26,280 it in some way or the other, in this way or that way, for our personal satisfaction or 193 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,570 group satisfaction. 194 00:29:29,570 --> 00:29:33,159 But the truth is not that the world is standing outside you. 195 00:29:33,159 --> 00:29:38,740 It is an integral part of your own self. 196 00:29:38,740 --> 00:29:48,650 The suffering continues because the senses insist on emphasising that your reality is 197 00:29:48,650 --> 00:29:59,919 this physical location only, and the pain of this kind of existence is mollified, as 198 00:29:59,919 --> 00:30:08,590 it thinks, by contact with what itself is not. 199 00:30:08,590 --> 00:30:14,710 To be one's own self as a finite individual is the greatest of sorrows conceivable. 200 00:30:14,710 --> 00:30:20,740 That is why no one can sit alone somewhere without coming in contact with things. 201 00:30:20,740 --> 00:30:26,600 You would like to talk to somebody, go to the market, do this, do that. Be alone 202 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:32,760 to yourself. It would be veritable death to be alone to oneself. 203 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:39,299 This is because the truth is not in this localisation of human individuality. 204 00:30:39,299 --> 00:30:48,240 To perpetuate this foolish clinging to this body as if it is the only worthwhile thing 205 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:56,639 in the world, the sense organs are projected gradually, even during the child's placement 206 00:30:56,639 --> 00:31:00,440 in the womb itself. 207 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:11,600 All the future of a child, of the personality, is hidden in the mother's womb, and it only 208 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:18,360 intensifies itself when it comes out into the world. 209 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:28,779 To free ourselves from this tragic condition in which we are placed, Yoga Sastra prescribes 210 00:31:28,779 --> 00:31:37,070 techniques of absolvement from the sorrows of life -- that is, a retracement of our steps 211 00:31:37,070 --> 00:31:42,870 in the fashion in which we came down. 212 00:31:42,870 --> 00:31:54,410 How we came, and in what manner have we to go up is the subject of this Panchagni Vidya 213 00:31:54,410 --> 00:32:03,880 narration in the Chhandogya Upanishad, which describes only the process of coming down 214 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:05,269 and the sorrows of life. 215 00:32:05,269 --> 00:32:15,120 But the way of ascent, going back, is a succeeding chapter in the very same Upanishad, which 216 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:21,452 goes by the name of Vaishvanara Vidya. 217 00:32:21,452 --> 00:32:28,760 So, the Panchagni Vidya and the Vaishvanara Vidya act as the obverse and the reverse of 218 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:37,809 a same coin of life -- one describing the seamy side of things, and the other the positive 219 00:32:37,809 --> 00:32:44,960 glory which life is. Intense study of these 220 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:54,080 chapters of the Upanishad is necessary, but you will find a casual reading of it will 221 00:32:54,080 --> 00:33:04,170 not bring out its truth, because the Upanishads are famous for pithy statements and enigmatic 222 00:33:04,170 --> 00:33:15,710 sayings which require to be probed into carefully, with the guidance of a competent teacher. 223 00:33:15,710 --> 00:33:25,039 Finally, the outcome of this study and the teaching of the Upanishad is that our salvation 224 00:33:25,039 --> 00:33:34,980 consists in a reconditioning of ourselves, recollection of our forces, mustering 225 00:33:34,980 --> 00:33:44,690 in a new energy within ourselves by placing our inner selfhood in the context of what 226 00:33:44,690 --> 00:33:53,030 is potential in us, known as the Atman, a word well known to everybody. 227 00:33:53,030 --> 00:34:05,080 The rootedness of yourself, in the recesses of your being, that is the meditating principle 228 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:12,089 -- not the body, not the sense organs, not the mind and the intellect, but the whole of 229 00:34:12,089 --> 00:34:17,030 what you are. 230 00:34:17,030 --> 00:34:27,840 Disciples went to a teacher requesting for initiation into Vaishvanara Vidya, or the way 231 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:35,350 of salvation into the mysteries of cosmic living. 232 00:34:35,350 --> 00:34:43,490 The great teacher questioned each one of them, asking them what it is that they were already 233 00:34:43,490 --> 00:34:47,450 doing: "Let me hear what is the practice you are undergoing already. 234 00:34:47,450 --> 00:34:52,429 After that, I shall tell you what I have to tell you." 235 00:34:52,429 --> 00:34:57,750 Each one had something to say -- I meditate on this, I meditate on that. 236 00:34:57,750 --> 00:35:05,320 From earth to heaven, every blessed thing was described by different persons who went 237 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:16,940 for initiation, but each of the methods of meditation was found defective. 238 00:35:16,940 --> 00:35:23,960 The great master, who was a king himself and a Brahmavidya master, told each one of them: 239 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:31,840 "You are sincere students, no doubt. You are highly purified persons. Obeisance to you, 240 00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:40,720 prostrations to you all, Brahmavidya seekers. But your meditations are defective and, 241 00:35:40,720 --> 00:35:47,040 therefore, you have achieved nothing through years of practice. What is the defect? 242 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:56,000 Your meditations have two faults. One of the faults is that you think that what 243 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,720 you are concentrating upon is totally outside you. 244 00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:08,360 The other fault is that you are wrongly thinking that the thing on which you are meditating 245 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:13,870 is in one place only. 246 00:36:13,870 --> 00:36:22,050 The object of your meditation is really pervading all space, so you cannot project your thought 247 00:36:22,050 --> 00:36:30,610 in a spatially directed manner to any particular object. 248 00:36:30,610 --> 00:36:39,400 The other defect is that you are thinking it is outside you. Unless you are involved 249 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:45,840 in the process of meditation, the object will not yield to your requirement. 250 00:36:45,859 --> 00:36:56,099 It is friendship that finally counts, and works miracles in this world. 251 00:36:56,099 --> 00:37:05,120 The friendship that you have to establish with the objects of meditation is to commingle 252 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:19,590 oneself with the nature of that object in such a manner that you turn the tables round 253 00:37:19,590 --> 00:37:27,830 and practise the same method that you adopted when you are concentrating sensorially on 254 00:37:27,830 --> 00:37:36,400 an object of desire. Divert that consciousness to this object that 255 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:40,270 you are contemplating upon, and merge yourself in it. 256 00:37:40,240 --> 00:37:49,260 The difference between the object of meditation and the object of sensory satisfaction is 257 00:37:49,260 --> 00:37:58,010 that the object of sense longing is in one place only; it cannot be everywhere. 258 00:37:58,010 --> 00:38:02,000 Totally different is the object of meditation, because it is everywhere. 259 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:11,150 That is why you can rest assured that whatever you are meditating upon as your object of 260 00:38:11,150 --> 00:38:20,480 devotion can take you to the highest heavens, because it is pervading everywhere in its 261 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:24,880 basic structure. 262 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:32,380 This was the answer which the great Brahmavidya teacher imparted to the disciples. 263 00:38:32,380 --> 00:38:43,730 And all our discussions during the past several days have been practically a concentration 264 00:38:43,730 --> 00:38:51,080 on these issues in different ways, from different angles of vision -- namely, that we have to 265 00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:59,839 learn the art, not of being some person, but of being all persons. 266 00:38:59,839 --> 00:39:10,440 "Look at me, Arjuna. I am the All. All persons are in this one Person." 267 00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:14,320 It is an illustration of what everyone is. 268 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:21,070 That Vishvarupa is potentially present in every one of us, and each one can say, "Look 269 00:39:21,070 --> 00:39:25,040 at me; and all the persons are in me." 270 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:30,360 If all the persons are in you, what do you lack in this world? 271 00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:35,760 Why are you weeping and crying and clinging and running about here and there, 272 00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:41,801 searching for what you cannot get in this world? 273 00:39:41,801 --> 00:39:50,450 This is the message of the Bhagavadgita and the Upanishad -- hearing which, our heart 274 00:39:50,450 --> 00:39:56,980 should melt, mind should be composed. 275 00:39:56,980 --> 00:40:07,320 Anger, greed, etc., should subside, make us different individuals, stage by stage every 276 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:15,850 day, making us happier and happier as days pass -- not getting up in the morning with 277 00:40:15,850 --> 00:40:22,870 a mood of grief and despondency that something is lost, and something is wrong. 278 00:40:22,870 --> 00:40:31,260 You will realise on these kinds of meditations that nothing is lost, and nothing is wrong. 279 00:40:31,260 --> 00:40:38,310 The perception has to change completely in the positive direction. 280 00:40:38,310 --> 00:40:43,359 This practice is the quintessence of yoga practice. 281 00:40:43,359 --> 00:40:45,510 This is meditation proper. 282 00:40:45,510 --> 00:40:53,600 It is the art of reaching God, the Creator of the universe, Who is latently present in 283 00:40:53,600 --> 00:41:06,930 each one of us as Antaryatmin, Who through this little spark of divinity within us speaks 284 00:41:06,930 --> 00:41:10,310 to us what He really is. 285 00:41:10,310 --> 00:41:18,680 "All things I am and infinitude is I am," what He says. 286 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,890 That is why we are restless in this world. 287 00:41:20,890 --> 00:41:29,280 We are restless because nothing that is finite can actually satisfy us. 288 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:43,050 Yoga sadhakas, searchers of Truth, seekers of God, practitioners of the secret doctrine 289 00:41:43,050 --> 00:41:52,230 of inner attunement should realise this mystery of human creation and you should not just walk 290 00:41:52,230 --> 00:42:00,180 about like foolish people woolgathering, thinking that whatever is visible to the eyes is exactly as 291 00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:06,589 it is. You will realise one day the world is quite different from what it appears to your 292 00:42:06,589 --> 00:42:12,190 eyes, and you will be startled to know that, at the end of time. 293 00:42:12,190 --> 00:42:18,960 And before the end comes, it is better to be wise, and be guarded so that we may not fall into 294 00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:23,560 the pits of error. And spend every moment 295 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:29,960 of our life in this guarded consciousness of our belonging to a wider 296 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:43,119 order of creation, to God Almighty Himself, Who shall protect you for ever and ever, and 297 00:42:43,119 --> 00:42:52,160 provide you with all things so that you have to rejoice perennially, and again rejoice 298 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:58,530 forever, so that there is nothing that you lack afterwards. 299 00:42:58,530 --> 00:43:02,040 Not only is the world a belonging of yours, it is yourself. 300 00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:09,619 The whole world will dance around you, the nucleus of creation, as the Gopis are said 301 00:43:09,619 --> 00:43:15,080 to have danced around the central nucleus of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. 302 00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:22,220 Such is the glorious attainment of spiritual realisation towards which everyone should 303 00:43:22,220 --> 00:43:31,570 strive, heart and soul, without a moment's sluggishness of attention. 304 00:43:31,570 --> 00:43:35,440 This is a great message for everyone. Hari Om Tat Sat.