Guru Sri Subramanium — teachings

Pranayama

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

That is what Pranayama is about. Because people normally do not breathe properly and as I said before, most people are like fish – they are going around, opening and closing their mouth like a fish. And that encourages the body to be lethargic because the mind is not stimulated sufficiently with oxygen. And the more you increase the oxygen then you will feel better and less drawn to disease.

Even if a person has a problem physically, you can reverse it with the very fact that you are practising Pranayama. So initially, to reverse the old habits that are entrenched in a human being is one of the most difficult things to do.

When you take a correct amount of oxygen into your bloodstream it is distributed throughout the whole body. The cells in the body are stimulated by the very fact that you created that correct amount of oxygen in the blood. It is a healing process in the being. And that is why we encourage people first to do Pranayama before contemplation and meditation.

You have got so many beautiful mountains – go to those mountains and do Pranayama because the energy is high, the power will permeate through into your whole being and stimulate you and all of your senses.

That is why we say that the Lord is omnipresent and omniscient. Omnipresent and omniscient – the Shakti, the energy pervades the whole universe. And when you are in harmony and become integrated with the energy of the Lord then you are in harmony with all of creation. And that's what we refer to Maha Shakti. Any more questions?

Question: I have some difficulties with the incense while breathing.

Guru: Yes, some people find it difficult with the incense. If it does irritate you, if you want, don't burn any. Because I don't want to cause any unhappiness to anybody. The incense can irritate. It depends – the ones we use here are very, very heavy and can become a problem. Don't worry.

Question: I find it very difficult to only breathe in or out. I have the feeling that there is always a little bit of breathing out, if I count to twenty-five.

Guru: I'll tell you the reason for that; because we have got used to constantly being like fish. The fish, if you watch them they are going like this… in, out. That is a bad habit, to break it is very difficult. So persevere and slowly increase the time factor. And also the counting that I do to twenty-five is very small really. You can go up to seventy-five… a hundred [laughter].

Yes, you can! It is a matter of time. That is what real pranayama is; to control your breath. In other words, with your mind you exhale – ok? [Giving a demonstration for a very long time period]. If you concentrate, the amount of prana you are taking inside you is regulated by the mind.

And slowly the mind can say 'Now slowly, come on'. I show you how you can do it even easier [breathing in and out faster]. Then you have got enough oxygen – ok? Then you do your pranayama, calculating how much you can advance. Because you have taken a lot of oxygen and you are not short of that oxygen. So then you can regulate your prana into your system.

Slowing the breath

Question: When you make this, is it the same time you exhale and breathe in? Or do you breathe in a little bit longer?

Guru: You are breathing in a longer time. Not in and out, but slowly controlling your breath with your mind and taking it in slowly… steadily filling your lungs slowly. And then if it is possible, hold it for a little while. If you feel uncomfortable you must exhale immediately! Please! Because what will happen is that you strain your heart if you do not. You may well find that you are a little bit dizzy – feeling tipsy, but it is because you have got excessive oxygen in your bloodstream.

Question: What is the reason for holding your breath?

Guru: Now, one day when you have really concentrated and you have emerged in your divine consciousness to such a point, everything will stop. Including your breath, which will be just a fine consciousness; you are drawing the prana from the divine consciousness. You will find that. I wonder if any of you have gone to sleep in the night and suddenly woken up in the middle of the night and felt that you haven't been breathing – and you have to start your body all over again? Have you done that? There you are… another freak here!

Improved concentration

This is how it is; that if a person is in deep, deep, deep, deep sleep the rhythm changes. Your prana, your breathing rhythm changes. And what happens is it slows down all the reflex actions of the human being, and you are in one with the divine consciousness. That is when you have really concentrated and meditated. Initially, this is a process that you are starting your spiritual journey. Disciplining, applying yourself, getting the prana, the oxygen into your bloodstream to make sure that you are fully awake; the mind is not tranquilised.

You know some people fell asleep yesterday… two people were snoring away yesterday so I pick two flowers on my way out and I thought that would be fun to put one flower in one each of their mouth. That is because they did not have enough oxygen.

If you have oxygen then you won't fall asleep. Your mind will be very alert. If you feel that you are falling asleep then do pranayama; take a nice long deep breath and start again.

Don't be afraid to do that! Here possibly you are a bit inhibited because of that. I can understand that. But when you are alone, do pranayama. If you feel tired, that is because there isn't sufficient oxygen in your bloodstream. And that is what makes you feel like that [giving a demonstration of a flabby person]. I can't feel like that because I am constantly active. My mind is active because I have got prana in my body. And I am not a rare specimen, I promise you – it can happen to all of you. The more you practice pranayama the better it is.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Letting go of book knowledge

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I would like to ask something about books. You say you read only one book in your life?

Guru: Yes - don't ask me what.

Devotee: I don't know, perhaps for me, it's not possible to read only one book. Would you say it's better to stop reading? I often find that when I have a question or something then I take a book and find the answer in it.

Guru: Ok, if that is how it helps you, fine. But imagine, every place I go to, people ask me questions and constantly interact with me. If I had to rely entirely on book knowledge every time somebody asked me a complicated question I would have to say, “One minute, let me go to my library.” Then I’d have to look at the books to find out the answers, and it would become intolerable for me.

Connect to the universal consciousness

The Divine has given to me an enormous [blessing] - as you are formulating your question to me I immediately have the answer on my tongue. For that to happen to you, you must plug into Divine wisdom, universal consciousness. You have to totally surrender yourself to the Divine and this comes through time. Then you have the power, ability, and wisdom to deal with any problem that may arise.

So it’s a matter of time until you discover that there is an aspect within you that can plug into that Divine consciousness, that wisdom, which will enable you to survive at any level without any problem.

You are in a period of evolution where you have to rely on books to help you on your journey, but I'm saying don't rely on books. If you constantly rely on books you will never begin to step into that direction of Divine consciousness and open your mind to Divine direction.

If you want something [or you have a problem], why don't you sit down, pray to the Divine Mother and say, “I have this pressing question? Would you give me knowledge, would you give me direction, would you give me an answer?”

You will get that answer, but don't give the Divine Mother a time factor and say, “Right I have got this pressing question. I want a reply from you in the next ten minutes.”

It will come in such a way that you will be enthralled to realise that it has happened.

Devotee: You were saying always ask your question to the Divine Mother and then it may come through a book, or a person or anything.

Guru: Anything, anything, someone will give you a book or something. I'll give you an example. When I started the monastery I had never read anything. I had no function, rituals, or anything at all. Then the monks and nuns asked me how we will worship. What sort of rituals are we going to follow? They wanted to know what they should do.

I said, “Look, you've just asked me the question, and I've just asked the Divine Mother and the Lord so we'll wait and see what happens.”

Within a few minutes, and an hour, I was given the entire structure of devotion that has to be conducted in Sanskrit, [a language] that I have no knowledge about. I was able to give it to the brothers and monks and it came about differently.

Nothing that I want [to know] is inaccessible to me. As you know, in Kiental for one whole week I was literally being the instrument to give you all Vedic knowledge, ancient knowledge, which is in the scriptures. I knew nothing about what I was saying. I could sometimes feel and understand the response I was getting, and this was very exciting for me as well. For I was hearing the Vedas for the first time. I was hearing for the first time what I was saying to other people.

I hear a lot of things for the first time in this life which I brought with me from previous incarnations. So there's an element of amazing excitement. I welcome your challenge to me. As soon as you challenge me, as soon as you say something to me, I have this amazing feeling. Not frustration, not anger but this excitement inside me, and as I'm talking to you I listen to myself and I say you're amazing aren't you, and I see the funny side of it.

But that is the extent of knowledge. Until you come to that consciousness it is a big problem. You are on the threshold of belonging to universal consciousness but you also belong to the world you live in and you rely on it.

Now I'm saying something to you which may depress you. It is all second-hand information. Second-hand information is written by individuals to make money. They may have some idea of knowledge but you have to rely on it.

You have to go to Foyles bookshop in London. You come away dizzy because there are rooms and rooms and rooms of books people have written about spirituality and you come away completely confused, more than ever.

I am relating as the Divine Mother wants me to in this present age. In your status of evolution what can be beneficial without the trimmings and trappings of fear? It's very important.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Making time for your children

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I have a question about guilt. You said we should not feel guilty. Sometimes I talk with my mother and I feel that she feels very guilty about me, and I don't know what to say or do.

Guru: I can understand if parents feel guilty that they have not given their children all the things they want, and they feel guilty that they have not done their best to change the attitude and lifestyle of their children.

Unfortunately, it's sometimes a bit too late to feel guilty. That is why I remind all the members of the community that if you start a family and you have little children then spend time with them and give them love. Love is not just ‘throwing’ every item that you can imagine at the child. No, spend time interacting with your children, that is invaluable.

But I can also see how difficult it is if the father has gone to work and is a professional man; you have to spend a lot of time working and you haven't got the time. But one member of the family should spend a lot of time with the children. Between the ages of five and fourteen, you have the opportunity to build a special relationship with your children.

If you miss that time then you will find it more and more difficult to have an interaction with your children because the children become independent of you, and then they don't want to know what you're saying.

I know how difficult it is now in modern times because children go to school and they have a whole different relationship with the family. Children are brought up in so many different ways and that in itself is a big problem in our communities and societies today.

So you have to spend more time if you want to influence your children. If you don't do that, you will have many problems as you go along. It's very important.

I would also say that even though children may be grown up, they must have time for their parents.

I remember when my grandparents were there. I learnt an awful lot from my grandmother and my grandparents and their wealth of knowledge. My grandmother was over ninety years old, and it was so lovely to have that interaction between ourselves and my grandmother and grandfather.

Even after the children have got married and started a new life, grandparents have a very special role that parents don't play. You can spoil your grandchildren and this is special spoiling, you can do so much for your grandchildren that parents don't normally do.

I know what a joy it was to have my grandparents, so grandmothers, there you are, you can look forward to spoiling your grandchildren!

Devotee: But there is nothing I can do or say?

Guru: No sadly not. What you can show your mother is that you are very happy. If you are unhappy it reflects on your parents. Immediately they will say, “What's gone wrong? Why have I gone wrong? Why are my children unhappy? Why are they in this position? What can I do to help?”

They can do something to help, and that is not to worry about what has gone on in the past but to change what is in the present, very important, o.k?

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Be Divine!

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Don't run yourself down. There is a greater self embodied in you. What you see at the present moment is the self with all its sense objects that are making demands within you and you are finding it difficult to cope with. Sometimes you feel fed up [with yourself] but inside you, there is also a divine Self.

That divine Self is an extension of your vision, an extension of your hearing, an extension of your prana, an extension of your breath and your sound vibration, an extension of your hands, and all the energy within your body. Discover that. That extension, the extension of all the senses is the extension that gives you perception, your visionary eye.

To develop the visionary eye you need to discover the potential of all of your senses and that is, in itself, a spiritual journey. My advice to you is to try that out because it is very beneficial to you. Don't run yourself down. A lot of people are preoccupied with running themselves down. Don't do that.

Embrace positivity

You may not like the lifestyle that you are [currently living] but it is not going to be permanent, it is going to change. You have the ability to change. But don't spend time feeding negative thoughts. The more you think and feed on negativity, the more power you give to the negative. Be positive. Be positive all the time. Say, "Okay, I did this. Never mind. Now I have the power to change. I am divine."

You wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and say, "Oh my God." Don't do that.

Look at yourself in the mirror and say, "You are divine. In there is the embodiment of divinity and I, in this life, must discover that divinity within myself."

You might look at others and say, "Oh, that person is a holy man, but that other man isn’t holy.” Don’t worry about that. You must be divine. You must find that point of divinity.

I look at you with the amazing love that I have for you because you are divine. Never mind if you stand on your head and do things and you may think the world outside doesn't like you. But I like you because you are divine. You are the embodiment of divinity. You carry that divinity from one life cycle to another. The quicker you realise that the quicker will be the end of this passage of birth and death.

That is what meditation is about. Pain, anguish, suffering, all of these things will come to an end when the human being discovers and identifies himself with God. This is your discovery.

Don’t pretend to be holy

Don't worry. You will, like many others, make many, many, many mistakes. If you don't I'll be very surprised. You are some superhuman being I am not. I have a lot of fun watching people try to pretend to be good. They look at me like a rare specimen of humanity that has dropped like a plum from heaven and they say, "Oh, he is a holy man." With a lot of holes. I find it very, very interesting when people try to pretend that they are good. Don't do that. Be yourself. The secret of life is learning to be yourself. Have the power and conviction that you can change. You will change, and you must change. That is what you are here for and you will succeed.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

How different vibrations affect us

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: From one cycle of births to another we are purifying ourselves. We are like a lump of gold found in the river bed, beaten and washed, beaten and washed till we become pure gold.

Nobody just arrives on the path of evolution as a perfect being. Even Christ, even the great masters, rishis, and yogis have gone through many cycles of births and deaths to be ready to be a part of that divine consciousness. Hence every one of you, and there are thousands and millions of people in the outside world, are going through many cycles of births and deaths to discover their divinity.

So the task is an enormous one that you have undertaken in this birth, to begin to change your lower nature, master yourself and prepare yourself to identify yourself with the totality of God-consciousness. It is a daunting thought. So daunting. It is not easy for human beings to master themselves. When a person says to me they want to meditate I ask myself, "What do they want ultimately through their meditation? To integrate with God, to discover their divinity."

So, all of you who want to meditate must prepare the ground for a good meditation to interact with the Divine. That is why I emphasise again and again for you to contemplate, to purify yourselves before you begin your meditation.

Everything around us emanates different vibrations

When you sit next to each other you begin to share your karma. Your aura overlaps with that other person's aura and these impulses are shared between you. If you come close to each other and have a physical interaction then you are willing to share karma. These two people are sharing karma.

When you are in the outside world you don't realise that you come into contact with a lot of people and all of these people feed you. That is why sometimes you feel depleted and drained when you come home after an expedition into the city. You say to yourself, "My gosh, I feel really awful. I want to shake this off." How can you shake this off? The best way is for you to bathe. Water changes the aura because there is an impulse that is generated both within and without which can be neutralised by water as it is a good conductor.

Hence we say to people, if you feel under the weather and you want to meditate, go and stand under the shower and bathe consciously. There is a mantra we chant before doing the mahabhishekam to the Divine Mother,

oṃ amṛto pastaraṇam asi svā̱hā ॥

oṃ amṛtā pidhānam asi svā̱hā ॥

oṃ satyam yaśaś-śrīr-mayi śrīś-śrayatām svā̱hā ॥

We take the water and we purify our eyes. The same with our pranam, the voice and then we drink it. Then we use the water. It is a very superficial way of doing it but if a person wants to neutralise any of those vibrations they must bathe.

Your clothes also pick up vibrations. You wear a garment and this garment is carrying all the vibrations from the outside world because it registers everything. The body is a very powerful instrument. It generates such power. Can you imagine what happens when you get angry? Just visualise in your mind for a moment when you get angry the energy that is generated in the whole body, and the brain.

The impulses that are generated in the brain all form colours around you. That is what we see as your credentials. When I look at you I see the different colours and shades [in your aura] - your anger, your love, your compassion.

When you purify yourself, your aura becomes very powerful

The more you purify yourself, the more powerful your aura is. The more powerful your aura is the more the Divine wants to interact with you. This is what a person has to master.

You have to prepare the groundwork before you meditate, please consider that. Don't sit to meditate before you have prepared yourself. Wear loose clothing when you meditate. Use it solely for that purpose and don’t wear it for any other reason.

You must have your own place where you meditate. Nobody else should sit there and leave their vibration because it will disturb you when you start meditating.

What happens is, without you knowing it the person may be emotionally disturbed, or the person may have lost his temper or her temper. [That vibration will stay there] if they come and sit in your place of meditation. This place is exclusively for you to contemplate and meditate where you know the vibrations you have set in motion.

Devotee: If I invite a good friend of mine to meditate with me in front of my shrine and they are angry or whatever is that a bad idea?

Guru: Well, you must know your good friend. When you say ‘good friend’ it means you know the person well. Are you willing to share karma with that person? That person will come and bring a vibration with them. You have to take a lot of precautions.

You might be ready to have a good interaction with that person but then you might suddenly pick up their vibration. Then the whole meditation will have an element of distraction. This should not happen. You must protect yourself all the time. No one should come and disturb your meditation. It is important that you maintain that standard for yourself all the time.

Once you have done that you must chant. It can be any chant that you like and that makes you feel good. It will protect you when you are leaving your physical body and suspending it. This is very important for you. Without that, I would not advise anybody to start meditating because the person is vulnerable when they start meditating.

You are opening all the chakras. If there is a mischievous spirit like me hanging around they can cause a lot of problems for you. My advice to you is to keep away from people like me! That is why you chant and as we proceed on these few days of contemplation and meditation I will teach you many chants. Every night at 9 o'clock we will do a little puja here and some prayers. The ‘gayatris’ are for the various aspects of the Divine and if you learn them then you can chant them.

God's manifestations are many and you can choose whichever one you want for yourself. You have an affinity. From one cycle of birth to another you have a feeling for an aspect of the Divine. Don't let anybody impose an idea on you.

You choose. You have every right to choose but there is a feeling that gurus can give you a mantra. This guru doesn't like it. He's very shy about giving mantras purely and simply because people change their minds and then it becomes an obsession in their mind.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Why should we identify with the Divine?

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

What is this Divine Self we are talking about? The Divine Self is the extension of your vision, identifying your vision with God. It is identifying your hearing with the vibration of the Divine, identifying sound, and vibration with God. It is identifying your love, the heart chakra, with God; identifying your hands and work with God; identifying your energy, the kundalini, with God. In other words, the way of life that you're walking identifies with God. Then you lose your identity in identifying yourself with God and discover your divinity - your power. Hence, when people have identified themselves with God, God takes them over. You become a vehicle of the Lord. You become the chariot of the Lord, in the path of evolution.

You become part of God-consciousness

You cease then to become a separate entity from God and a lot of people in the East will regard that individual as a God. This is often said of holy men and women, and in a sense it is right, but they have to caution themselves so that they don’t become egocentric, having identified themselves with God. They are not the totality of God but they are part of that God-consciousness.

You have to be very careful once you have recognised the divinity within yourself. You have total power - yes. You can do what you want - yes; but you have to be cautious not to exceed that boundary and become egocentric and say, ‘I am the greatest thing that ever happened.'

This is the caution I give to people when they start on a spiritual journey. They discover the potential within themselves, the divinity, the power. They discover how they're wielding that power and projecting it to others, helping them to realise their divinity. With that realisation comes responsibility. That responsibility is not to misuse the power that you have discovered within yourself. It is my responsibility to show you by example as much as I can by projecting the divine consciousness to you. I cannot misuse it. I should not misuse it, and will not misuse it because all the time I say to you - God, God, God - I am secondary.

The fragment of God-consciousness that exists in me is infinitesimally small in comparison to the whole of the universe and Shakti. I am sitting here having discovered that divinity, as you will do in your cycle of births and death, but always be warned - you must be cautious. You can't say, 'I am so powerful that I can be clumsy and vicious, and not command or control myself.'

That is the path of divine consciousness. You totally identify yourself with divinity, with God. Hence you have the power to use your eyes, and you will use them with compassion. You will use your eyes with love, you will use them to project the power and grace of God into the lives of others. You will use the power of hearing to hear the voice of God because you have ceased to be involved in the superficialities of life; you will hear the voice of discrimination and understand. You will hear that vibration that compels you to the totality of God, taking all of your life to God. You will hear that vibration, and that vibration is ‘jnana’. Jnana means wisdom.

Wisdom [means] you are not controlled by the knowledge of books, but by universal knowledge. As you ask me a question, that wisdom reveals itself in my inner hearing and slowly it unfolds itself as I start talking to you and I hear it myself. I say, 'Amazing, isn't it?' So, you are also amazed by the extent of your involvement with divinity. I want you to do that on this journey of excitement with spirituality. To extend and identify all of your senses [with God]. Learn to make utterances of great value, spiritual value, and great benefit to mankind. When you make utterances, it's to harmonise.

It is better that you love than to be loved. It is better that you give rather than receive. In that way, you identify yourself all the time with divine consciousness and you will forget your human nature. You forget ultimately that you have a body and are separate from God. For God then dwells within you. Your heart will beat with the compassion and love that you have identified with God. Forgiving, caring, helping, and establishing the link between God and yourself all the time. You forget 'I' and 'mine'. There's a universal consciousness in a human being as he progresses to help others discover this mystery that lies dormant in all of us.

I feel so excited when you question me and make me dwell deep in this divine consciousness to understand and also find out for myself what I'm telling you about God. That simple question that I was asked started another consciousness in my mind, to answer fully about divinity. About who you are, and what you must do to sustain that divinity, and forget your egocentric nature.

You will pay more attention to your divinity when you find the power and extension of your real Self. In all of your senses, there's power. There is that energy, that Shakti that you were referring to earlier. You have the power and you identify this power, this energy, with the power of God. In other words, there is an extension of the energy that you have inside you, which is also divine. You can then share this shakti with others. You're able to say to people, 'Come, I will give you a little bit of help - Shakti - of the divine.' But first of all, you must have the power to go and give [your energy] to the Divine. Then you can get a boost for that energy, share it and carry it with you to others. That is what healing power is about.

Doctors start this journey in the ward rounds. When they go around the ward, they don't realise that they are not themselves going around the ward in the physical, but also in the spiritual. They have a dual purpose - one is to heal the body and the second is to heal the mind that is hosted in that body. In other words, you possess the duality of being able whilst you're working with your hands and all the facilities available to you to bring the grace of God and the power of God to humanity. This is the task, not of doctors, gurus, swamis and yogis, but you, yourselves.

You have the power to bring that grace to people, to heal them.

Identify all of your senses with the divine. Look with the compassion of God upon humanity. Constantly identify yourself with the way God hears; listen with tolerance and amusement.

It is said that Lord Shiva in his meditation is immersed in the fun of Krishna. He's so amused by the joy and fun of Krishna he doesn't want to stop his contemplation and meditation, for he sees Krishna playing with the whole of creation. Be like that in the way you hear and see. Extend your vision so that you see the amusement of God in the drama of life. Don’t be critical, understand. Don’t be imposing, but be able to give of yourself with great flexibility to help an individual who's on his journey to spiritual evolution. All is but an experience until you identify yourself totally with God.

Recognise your senses as part of God

Divine friends, rather than your senses being a burden in your life, they must become a great help to you and a great enhancement for you to advance through your experiences in life to discover and identify yourself totally with God. Then you will be free. Then you are not governed by cause and effect. Then you are separate from the opposites of happiness and sadness. Then you are free of birth and death. At every given moment you will live in divine consciousness. That is what liberation is about. A lot of people say to me, “Gosh, Guru, I can't do this because that means I won’t have a personality.”

I start laughing - what is this personality? People come and talk about this personality to me. They say, “But I want to be angry and to be able to say no.” Good for you. Keep on saying ‘No’, keep on getting angry. Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself - where have you got to?

Free yourself. Anger, hatred, viciousness, meanness, ruthlessness, and aggression are of no consequence. If you have such qualities, just bounce it to the Lord. Bounce it to the Lord and ask the Lord a question, “If you display the same anger I project now, what will you be doing to me and the world?” If I were to look at you with envy and greed as I do, what will you be doing to the world? You will be so worried. If you got the same answer that you are projecting to the world today. For that anger of the Lord was spoken about in the Old Testament, how he destroyed to recreate. Yes, the Old Testament is real. But we haven't passed that age yet. We are going to repeat the period of the Old Testament for we have created such negativity in the world.

We have become the architects of destruction - our destruction. Lacking discipline and orderliness, separating ourselves from the Lord we know. Realise the responsibility that is within us. You must say to yourself, “Enough's enough. Let me change and identify myself more and more with God, so I have an enormous oneness with God.” This egocentric 'I' wants to hand it to the Lord and say, 'This is your baby. You are mahamaya'. We always say to the Divine Mother - you are ‘mahamaya.’ You are tinsel and trash as well. You dangle this tinsel and trash in the eyes of mankind, and say, “Here you are. This is what you want - I will confuse you no end until you discover your divinity.” That’s the drama and play of the Divine Mother.

Divine friends, I want you to be wise about it. So that every time you are wrapped up in the world of illusion, Mahamaya, you say to the Divine Mother I don't want this rubbish, I want to identify myself totally with you.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Can we overcome our karma?

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I have a question about reincarnation. We learn that we are the product of our heritage, surroundings and education and that we also have free will. We also learn that there is reincarnation. So my question is, what traits do we have from our ancestors and parents, and what do we bring with us from our previous incarnations?

Guru: Well, I'll answer it very carefully. Take my life as an example. In my last incarnation, I was born in India, and I had Indian parents. I was very much a Hindu, I was a Swami in Swami Ramakrishna's order, as Swami Brahmananda. You might ask me where I was born this time. I was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Britain, and now I'm in Switzerland. This Idea that you must belong to a particular country to carry its traditions because you are born now is not guaranteed. It depends on your karma.

Karma means the causes and effects that you set in motion now. So you also have free will to choose in what direction you are going as a human being, whether to be positive or negative. Karma controls your life. If karma controls your life, you may well ask me, “Where is free will?” Free will means you can choose between that which is positive or negative. You have free will to say to yourself, “I don't want to go in a negative way of life but a positive one.” You have free will, by paying your karma, to go and seek the grace and help of the divine. Nothing is permanent, even karma is impermanent, because the divine can untie the knots that we have tied from one cycle of birth to another.

Now I will explain in detail what it's all about. As long as you are outside the kin of the Lord, the Lord you know, you are governed by karma. That is why Christ said, “Suffer unto me, come to me, through your suffering you will discover me. When you have discovered me, you are liberated, and you will not suffer the consequences of your actions. You will be pardoned for your sins. You will be liberated in this life only if you surrender totally to God.”

This is the catch twenty-two phrase. If you don't surrender, then you are governed by karma. You will have to pay your debts. That is why we say to people, “Okay, you are going to suffer, you are going to suffer the consequences of your actions.” Karma is there, and it’s governed by the nine planets. The nine planets control everybody's life, and they are totally outside of God's command. That is the law, which has been set out very clearly. God doesn't interfere with whether or not you are going to be born with blue eyes or grey eyes or whatever. The law makes you born like that and in the set of circumstances in which you will live.

The law is going to say what sort of parents you are going to have. The law says whether you are going to be successful or not and whether your parents are going to provide you with all that you require in your life and more. The law also governs your birth, death, marriage and everything.

The Divine can untie the knots of our karma

But you have the ability to say to the law, “I know I have a strange feeling this is my life, and there are so many influences that now I wish to change so I go to the divine.”

That is why when somebody is suffering from a problem we say, “Don't worry, come, we will go to the Divine Mother and ask her to untie the knots we have tied from one cycle of birth to another, that make us suffer the consequences of our actions."

Freedom is there for you, make the decision. The Lord is the silent witness. He witnesses everything we do, everything we want to do, and what we aspire to do and ultimately we suffer the consequences of our actions.

I understand how patriotic people are. Nationalism. I can understand. Because of nationalism, we have the Tigers (the Tamil Tigers) in Sri Lanka. They are killing each other (the Tigers and the Sinhalese). I met some of them one day and I said to them, “Friends, do you understand what you are doing? You believe that you are a Tamil, but I don't believe you are a Tamil. By some quirk you were born as a Tamil. What guarantees that in the next incarnation you are going to be born as a Tamil? I promise you, you won't be. And so whom are you going to fight next time? You will be an Irish terrorist. Or a Middle Eastern terrorist or whatever.

I remember taking Swami with me to Sri Lanka. As we entered Sri Lanka he said, “Gosh Guru, I belong here, I know Sri Lanka. I feel at home in Sri Lanka, I do not belong in Britain. You ask him when you see him how he feels about being in Sri Lanka. You have pulsating in your veins not just one country but experiences of many countries, many religions, many backgrounds, and many associations. This is what I have brought with me.

I will give you another example of that experience. When I first left Sri Lanka, I was on the ship and I saw our ship sail away with Sri Lanka fading in the far distance. I was a young boy, a young man, not a boy, and I said to myself, “Now I am growing up. I have never even washed a handkerchief in my life, now I have to change my whole outlook.” As I turned around I saw the Cardinal of Sri Lanka standing beside me. He said, “My son, I see that you have left home. Let's get together and have a chat. That we did and we became good friends because he understood what I was saying to him. When I went to the Vatican, he agreed to travel with me to Rome. One day we wanted to visit the Colosseum and see all the ruins. We were together and he said, “We'll get a guide.” I said, “No, I will take you around the Colosseum and Rome.” He said, “But you don't know anything, you must have read about it.” I said, “No, I have been here. I know what happened in Rome during the time of Christ. I was involved in some of what was happening here and I will give you every detail as I go along,” but it was too much for him.

At the end of it, he looked at me and he said, “You are a very strange young man.” I said, “That is pulsating in my veins, I know it.” I am now not a Roman but a Sri Lankan, but I belong to the world. This is what the problem is. Nationalism puts blinkers on us. Of course you must be proud of your heritage now. You have a background and protect it as you go along. It is your duty. It is my duty not just to protect Sri Lanka but to protect all of humanity, not one just nationality. My family is the universal family. I am here to protect the best in every nation. Love, compassion, understanding, service to life. That is my job. I know how difficult it is.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

How to give end of life care to others

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Yes, I'll tell you one of the most important things that you must realise. When a person is old, possibly they lose their faculties of consciousness, alertness, and mindfulness but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the things around them do not register; they do register.

Even if a person is unconscious and cannot talk to you, they do register [what is happening around them] and you can feel that they can hear people’s voices. When a person is unconscious, people come and visit them and say, “Poor fellow, he can't hear a word, he's unconscious.” Oh no, it registers, the vibration registers and the only thing they can’t do is convey it in their own words because the mind is a bit confused.

You must remember that every opportunity in old age and sickness, and whatever the person is going to go through, is an opportunity for the person to pay their karma. You must also take the opportunity to help that person to pay their karma, and to go through that life under a normal set of circumstances without terminating their life prematurely. That's a responsibility we have.

When somebody is ill or when we have sick animals, one of the brothers will come to me and tell me. We have at the moment a cow that has got cancer in her mouth but she's eating very well. We're looking after her, and you can see cancer developing.

The vet knows now that I will never allow him to put this animal down, no way. She's given us a lot of milk, has provided a lot of sustenance to the community and has helped us through many difficult times. Now is the moment for me to help this cow in this moment of difficulty. I will give it painkillers. I will do everything I can to prepare this cow to go through the difficult passage that is available. This is our way to say thank you to her. This is our way to pay our karma through service and to realise that life is sacred. We must do our best to help this animal.

Be willing to serve life at every level

This is an opportunity not only for animals but for human beings as well. Don't take a shortcut, don't look at life and say, “Oh he's only a vegetable who can't even react or respond.” My goodness, he or she may not be able to react or respond but you have the opportunity to look after that person. What a joy. You must be able to go and help them. That is a responsibility that we must have if we have love for God and all of life. We must serve life at every level, and this is an important part of spiritual development.

If you don't do that I’ll tell you what will happen. You will become very callous in your mind. [Society will say] that only when a person can give something to it [will they have the right to live.] We will have organised in our minds a system that is set out and we will say when you come to fifty or sixty years old you only have a right to live depending on your ability to react and respond intelligently and positively.

After this period will we then have the right to say in society send them to the gas chamber? No way! That is what we are doing if we begin to adopt these ideas in our mind - no way!

You must care for people, irrespective of what pressure or troubles they give you. For through that trouble and difficulty you will discover your divinity.

You [must have] tolerance and an ability to understand the pressures that are going to be born by the person who is caring. You have to learn what selflessness means. I can tell you through my own experience. One of the sisters had breast cancer. She came to me and said, “I've just had the therapy and it burnt my whole breast, what am I to do?” I said, “Nothing. I will look after you.” She said, “You can't look after me.” I said, “What do you mean? I can!” So every day, twice a day I cleaned her body which was full of cancer and helped her through this difficult passage.

Then one day she looked very quizzically at me and she said to me, “Guru, don't you get the smell of rotting flesh?” I said, “No. I serve God in you and it doesn't matter what I do but to serve you.” Every night we used to pray and pray, and we used to dedicate her life. She said to me, “Would you pray to the Divine Mother? I'm not asking to be cured because I asked to pay my karma in this life but can I just have the smell of this rotting body removed and then I will be able to tolerate this problem?”

So that night we sat and we prayed and I asked the Divine Mother, “Mother, Sister Topsy doesn't want to have the smell, but doesn't want you to take the problem away.” Then we did the puja as we did every night. When I was there a couple of days later, she nicely smiled at me and said, “Guru, you have not commented about something,” and I said, “No, why?” She said, “I have no smell, my body is neutral now.” The smell had stopped.

Today, even the doctors and nurses who came and looked after and cared for her, say to me when I go to the hospital, “Remember Sister Topsy? I looked after her, she had no smell from her cancer.”

Yes, the Lord will provide you with some element of relief when you appeal to the Divine Mother to give you the strength to handle a difficult situation. But first, you must be willing to handle that situation. That is very important. Without that willingness, there is no reason why the Lord should give you any relief whatsoever. You must be willing to dedicate yourself and say never mind what I have to go through. I will look after and care for the Lord in you, I will feed the Lord in you, I will clothe the Lord in you, I will understand the Lord in you. That is the most important part of the drama of care and help that is required of you.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Love and positivity

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

If you see something wrong with a person, if you don't like the mannerisms of the people, if you don't like the way they talk or the behaviour pattern, just ask yourself one simple question, “Was I ever like that? Did I ever behave like that?” The answer will come to you, “Yes, you were like that.” The only thing is that you may have advanced a little bit in a different direction.

Give everybody a helping hand. Look at people and say to yourself, “Gosh, I understand how difficult a life it is for your path of evolution, not just amongst human beings, but life as a whole.” When I see the birds I say to them, “My friends, you do not know how difficult a life it is and I appreciate this. Let me just help you by feeding you a little bit and helping you on this journey, [and by giving you] some water when the atmosphere is frozen.”

When I first took over Skanda Vale the [previous owners] had shot every single living thing, and it was dead silent, you did not hear anything. I stood with my hands in my head like this and said, “My God, what have they done here?” I vowed then that this will be a sanctuary for life, and I will return all that these people have destroyed.

Today, if you are there in spring, there is the most amazing chorus of thousands of birds and all the animals that are in the wild. They come and participate and have rather a cocky attitude toward us because they seem to think, “We've got you all sussed, you have to feed us, that's your duty!”, and they wait for it. What a joy that they have this relationship with you and life.

Be friends with all of life

I want you to think the same way as people are waiting to destroy, I want you to be positive in your manner and say I want to join you to help you to live well. My friends - the trees, my friends - the birds, my friends - all of life. I want you to see divinity not only in yourself. This is a big mistake man makes. Just because you can coordinate your mind and the vibration of sound, present it, and scream when you want something you believe you are more special than life outside. This is not true, all life is sacred. Every life is sacred.

Then the next question you will ask me is, “How are we to live - on air?” No, you are graduating, like every life that came to earth, from the lowest level of consciousness to the highest embodiment of consciousness and divinity that you are going to discover within yourself.

From being a carnivore to slowly becoming a human being. You will enjoy the simple things of life and they will give you great joy and satisfaction in your life. I am not going to tell any single one of you to become vegetarian. I am not going to tell anyone of you, you must do this and not do this.

But what I am going to tell you is, to be aware of the causes and effects that are set in motion. I want you to be mindful that there are very many things we take internally into our system that are poisonous for us. That is the consciousness I want to develop in you. I will never tell you, don't do this, that, or the other, because that is a violation in itself for me to imprison your mind. I am not here to imprison your mind, I am here to liberate your mind, to free your mind. Imprisonment means, Guru had a nice time for many life cycles, he has drunk and had a good time, now he comes into this life and makes my life miserable, and says don't, don't, don't.

I am not going to do that to you, you will anyway do what I tell you not to do so it is better that I tell you to do it your way. Say to yourself, “I am going to be mindful when I am going to do it my way. I am going to be mindful of the causes and effects I'm setting in motion. I am going to be mindful of what I do and how I am doing it and the way I'm doing it.”

If you can qualify all your actions with one simple thought - I want to do it with a lot of love - then you will never hurt or injure another human being. Do everything you want to do with love. Say it with love. Start the day with love, fill the day with love, and end the day with love. When you get an angry look at my picture and throw all the negative vibrations at me and I will bounce it back to you with love.

Because that is the way to God, God is love, love is God. We are the architects of both pain and pleasure. We are the people who are causing injury to ourselves. Don't accuse anybody else. You are the person who is going to do damage to yourself, or not so.

God is the silent witness, that is what karma is. I started with that thought of karma and soon I will stop and ask you questions, what do you want to ask me? Karma is about the cause and effects you set in motion. I see and teach this to all my members of the community including the monks and nuns. Start your day with love, fill your day with love, and end the day with love.

Love means caring, love means compassion, love means understanding, and love means giving of yourself selflessly without conditions. Not putting conditions in front of people and saying you observe this, these are the conditions of love. But then there are disciplines attached to that love. Because you want a sense of orderliness and conduct in your life that bears the fruits of love. That bears some resemblance to the divine love, the divine love which is pulsating inside you.

You are divine, you are born divine, and you will continue to discover your divinity through your experience of interaction with each other with love. You will then transcend that desire of attachment through your physical body to be selfless love.

This selfless love is what will be required of you as you proceed on your journey, spiritually. Giving of yourself, working towards that goal to make other people happy.

Make that your goal, and your job of excitement in life - to make other people happy. To be mindful of their desires and aspirations in life. Say to yourself, what can I do for you, how can I do it? Never mind what you do for me. If you want to do anything for me that's your business but I'm not expecting anything in return. That is the theme of our work in our community.

We are here to serve you, and with love, we are here to give you all we can.

I am not here to pick your pockets but I am here to pick your mind, and for that, I am here. I want to take the lack of direction from your mind and replace it with an air of direction. I want to take the sense of a lack of purpose and dedication in your life from your mind and implant in it a sense of dedication, purpose, and direction.

I want to give you in your mind a sense of well-being and [the ability to say] to yourself everything is impermanent. Sadness is followed by a sense of happiness; happiness is followed by a sense of frustration, unhappiness and sadness. This impermanence is the drama of our life.

This excitement when you say, “Oh, I am very happy!” When somebody says they are very happy I say, “When are you going to be unhappy?”

Find that level, that level that gives you a nice feeling of not going like a yo-yo, up and down. One minute high, next minute down, next minute high and down so you are going [out of] balance all the time and then you say, “I wish I could find a point when I am nice and fine.” That means that you are not affected by opposites.

The opposites of joy and sadness. I see this joy and sadness when people come to me and say, “Oh Guru, somebody's dead.” I say, “Really? You mean you don't see the person.” They say, “No, they died". I say, “Oh, you can't see but I can. There's a difference, they're not dead. That's a term used for the termination of life, but life is never terminated; there's a continuation of life from one cycle of birth to another.”

If your body is not functioning well, if your mind is not functioning well if you are suffering from disease and inner problems, and old age has set in. Your teeth have fallen out, your nose is just about to fall off, and your ears are about to fall off.

Do you want to live forever like that? Do you want to say, “Go on, change this model to a new model, possibly a Rolls Royce, but change it?” That's the excitement that you must have in your life. There comes a time when you want to say to yourself, I want to change this model. It's time I went and when I have to go, I have to go. No feeling of sadness and attachment to the world of illusion, for all is impermanent.

That is my advice to you, be ready to go at any time. I have been ready for a long time but the Divine Mother says, “No way are you getting up there. You are creating mischief down there and all the angels will be in trouble if you get up there.” So She is going to keep me down there as long as She can because I am looking forward to seeing all those lovely pretty angels up there but there's no chance.

But the fact of the matter is, be joyful, that is the environment I want you to create for yourself, not a serious life, for spirituality - a joyful one.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Should we allow abortion on the grounds of disability?

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I have a question concerning women over thirty-five. They must have a blood test to see if their child is healthy or not. I think it is a great worry for the parents about what they should do if their child isn’t healthy.

Guru: It is valuable to get professional advice. However, if you get that professional advice and if a person realises doctors have got a child that may cause them problems because the child is not wholly normal then the choice is thrown into the hands of the mother and [the doctors will] say, “Do you want this child or not? Do you want to abort it?” If I was the mother I would say, “No, I want the child because it is an opportunity to spend time and look after this child.”

Life is sacred

I think we are now on the threshold of playing God and this is what bothers me very much. Yes, you've got every modern technique to discover if the pregnancy is dodgy but there's a moral question, and not only a moral question. Are we going to go on changing the rules of morality to accommodate the financial pressures of how a child is to be looked after?

I would not want a child's life terminated, I have a responsibility to God. I would never advise anybody to terminate a pregnancy because a child may be born deformed.

I can't at any level agree so there may be an element of conflict between myself and professional doctors, they may say it could be dangerous to the mother. These are the things often talked about. Also bringing up the child and the pressures in society, schooling, and other problems. A multitude of things is thrown in our direction.

But I never will [agree to that], I use the word ‘never’ very, very clearly. I have a moral obligation and a feeling within myself that I have no authority to concede to the termination of life. No way, I would never, never agree to that. I am answerable to life, to God.

This is karmic. Karmic means the genes and so many things are playing a part in the birth of a child that is deformed and we are given an opportunity in life to serve that child.

There have been many occasions when such children have been born, and I have gone to the help of the parents. I remember one particular child that was born deformed and the mother said, “Guru, what am I to do with this child? (some recording missing) I said, “I will help you and the child."

The doctors had to operate on and restructure some of the organs of the body because they were disfigured. I told that mother, “I will give every power and grace of the divine to help you to restructure this child and that I did. From the moment I went and saw that child I gave materialised vibhuti and I helped the child and now the child is a grown-up young lady. I promise you, when I see that child, I am so joyful. The joy that child gives her mother, even though she’s not ‘one hundred per cent perfect' is amazing. She is so happy and I can look back on those days and say, “I did not make a mistake, I was right when I stood by those parents.”

But it’s an amazing problem.

There are many conflicts in the minds of people and I don't simplify this problem. Nor is it easy for parents who haven't got the funds to deal with the problem. But more than funds, opportunities and how we are going to handle a situation, it's life. Life is sacred.

I have no right to advise anybody to take that life, any life. I know it's very difficult, and you may say, “Well you are not the one who is having this baby and you are not the one who is going to look after it.” But I have had the opportunity to do all I can to care for a child like that. I remember, when I first saw that child, her mother looked at her and said, “You want me to keep this child?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “So what are you going to do about it?” I said, “I'll tell you what I am going to do, I will give you materialised holy ash.”

She said, “But how can that happen?” I said, “You wait. I will make sure the doctors will find every way and assistance from the divine to put this child’s problems right,” and that's exactly what happened.

We have a duty, not just to give you a personal bland reply and say keep the child, but we must participate and make sure that that child is helped all the way along until it gets on its feet and is put in a special school. Everything went so well, and I promise you, one day I hope I can bring her [to Skandavale]. She is a grown-up girl now, she is about fourteen years old and she is quite a young lady, a very, very, very self-assured young lady.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

The conciousness of a master

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The consciousness of a master

Devotee: Guruji, do you have the same consciousness that you had in your last life?

Guru: No. A completely different version, a model has arrived. Totally devoid of involvement in I and mine. Totally. I can tell you that was the most difficult part of my life. In the time when I was young. Because my father was also a doctor, head of medicine, and he wanted all of us to be doctors. He wanted all of us to be professional people. I did not want to sit down even once and do any studies, because I thought, “What a waste of time, I am not going to do it.” It was the most difficult time for me if I hadn't had my mother with me.

With that knowledge and consciousness, I think it was the most aggressive period of my life because I had to fight my father in this battle of trying to turn me into a professional person, bearing in mind the knowledge and consciousness I have.

I thank God and thank my mother for the immense wisdom she had. She used to constantly tell my father, “Leave him alone, he has more power than you can understand, leave him alone.” I can understand how difficult it must be for people to visualize the extent of wisdom and knowledge you bear with you when you come to this life, it's a big battle.

Devotee: When you look back to your first incarnations, do you have ‘memories’ or do you just plug into the universal consciousness?

Guru: Plug into the universal consciousness. When you start questioning me, I immediately plug into that consciousness, it is in the ether.

Devotee: This is also the same for the last incarnations.

Guru: Yes.

Devotee: So when we die and come back, it's not a memory we take with us, it's the memory conserved in the universal ether.

Guru: When you use the word memory, it is not a memory, it's the Karmic Akashic record. Karmic Akashic record. Karma, which is the whole totality of your path of evolution in the vibrations that you set in motion, cause and effect, which is registered in the ether and they play a part in the structuring of your life as you go along.

Recently, I was meditating and playing around in my meditation, and then Mother appeared and said, “Come, I want to show you your family.”

At a stroke she showed me (a vision) - I thought I was on a motorway, but the motorway was my many, many, many, many, life cycles and families I have had. It was amazing. I recognised my grandmother and grandfather. Beyond that were so many peculiar people I couldn't even believe they were my family. But they were a part of the family that structured me to be what I am today. This is compassion and understanding.

Devotee: So is it right that we can play on different levels at the same time, past, present and future, if we plug into this consciousness?

Guru: Yes. Once you plug into that consciousness you have got an amazing view, an amazing vista. Now, you know, you are structured in a particular way. You have an ancestry of that structured physical manner throughout many cycles of births and deaths. You can bring various ailments, diseases and problems from generations as you look back and they are all covering the pattern of karma.

Devotee: Does it also mean that you are outside the law of patterns?

Guru: Who? Me? I don't know. I am going to die like anybody else. If you pinch me I will shout. If you throw anything in my direction I might try to catch it, if not it will bump me on my head. No different. But there is a slight difference and the slight difference is heightened mindfulness.

You don't see God, I can see God. There is the big difference. When I was a young boy, I assumed that everybody could see God, and talk to God. It was an amazing thing and I couldn't understand it. Nobody was talking about God, my friends were not talking about God, nobody was doing that. So one day I asked my friends, “Why don't you talk about God?” They said, “Who is God?” Then the penny dropped in my mind.

My little friends used to come regularly to see me and play with me. They were all poor people's children coming to see me. They used to come very early in the morning. I couldn't understand why the children were coming early to see me. My nanny used to tell me, “Look, you mustn't entertain all these children to play with you so early in the morning.” I said, “I didn't ask them, they are just coming to see me.” I asked one of the children, “Why are you coming so early to see me?” He said, “Oh we like to come and sit and play with you because every time we touch you we get a shock.” That was the extent of the consciousness of those little children. [They realised] that there was something unusual about this human being and that when you touched this little boy you got a shock. So they were sitting on my playmat and playing a game of touching me and getting a shock.

You know, this is the point of innocence that people are living in, that even when you are so sophisticated spiritually you don't realise other people have no jurisdiction to the same level of consciousness.

So you ask me a question of whether I have a special relationship with the universe. Yes, I have. I would be telling you an untruth [if I say I haven't got it]. Of course, I have the power to deal with a lot of things but I am very shy about those things. Purely and simply I know God but I wouldn't like to play God.

I am not God. We already have many people who call themselves God, and they have been demoted. I have already demoted myself. I am not God. It's good enough.

Devotee: How did you feel when you discovered that you weren’t like the other children?

Guru: To discover that was a disappointment for me. I'll tell you what the disappointment was - that the children did not know God. Even today sometimes when I talk with people about God consciousness and the power and human relationship with God I can see it goes well over the heads of people and they are unable to understand what I am saying. So I try as much as I can to bring it down to the level that people can relate to and understand. It's not difficult, it's easy. But you have to transform the minds of people to understand what I am talking about. But you see for generations I'll tell you something. There is a terminology we call ‘culachara’. ‘Culachara’ means exactly what Franz said, that traditions come from generations. But that doesn't necessarily mean that that soul came from those generations of people, it could be from somebody else, some other country, coming into that new generation. That is why it can change all the time.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

The nature of God is in the elements

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The nature of God is in the elements

The nature of God is in the elements. The personality of God is the elements. Nothing is separate from God, all the stars and planets are embodied in God. That is His nature and this vast power is changing, constantly moving and creating, for the nature of God is life. The nature of God’s personality is compassion and understanding, because He realises that is His nature and that is His drama, within Himself. All of life is evolving from the minutest cell which you cannot even see with your eye. Even the mountains and the stones are alive with power. Even that which you believe has no energy or you feel you've created [such as] this item here. All is a part of the embodiment of God. Every single aspect excluding none.

You cannot isolate God

That is why when people try to isolate God to a throne or a place up in heaven it is to me very amusing because not only are they doing it without knowledge, but they're doing it for a sense of purpose so that they can work with any part of creation for their benefit, without the respect of the divine in that particular aspect of life.

The mountains, the rivers, the sun - everything is the nature of God. Then you see that embodied in God.

I look at the Lord sometimes when I'm praying and I feel amused. I say, “We are trying so hard to contain you in a formula that a human mind could understand - a human mind can comprehend the vastness and depth of you. So that we can be comfortable with an idea and a concept that this is what we believe God is.

Hence, artists created God sitting on a throne with a nice beard - the God in judgement, the God in creation, the God who's preserving, the God who's destroying, all of these and more is the personality of God.”

So in Sanatana Dharma we have gone to a great extent to describe the personality of God. You are male, you are female, you are a duality in every single human being. Some people more than others, all learning to cope with life. All is embodied in God. That personality of God is there, within yourself. Look at the cells that make up your life. Everyone is changing, multiplying and being destroyed or created. Take your liver for example, it's not the same liver in six or seven weeks - it's changed; the cells have also changed. Everything is changing. It is the same drama that is occurring throughout the whole world which is embodied in God.

But there is an orderliness and sense of direction, a sense of purpose for that human body, as much as the whole of creation. If you forget that this is a human body and this human body has mountains and valleys, suns and energies, and a solar complex that can draw energy from the universe. The whole strata of life and structure - a million suns is the diadem of pure.... a million suns radiating for the person who's integrated with God merges with all of these facets.

Everything is embodied in God

Hence - we are drawn, you are drawn, all of us are drawn to the mountains for they are the replica of the energy of God. They summon us, to refresh us, to strengthen us, for the mountains within us are identified with the mountains outside. The valleys and the rivers within us are identified with the totality of God consciousness in the whole universe.

Mars, Venus, Jupiter, all of the planets and molten lava, all are the nature of God, and are embodied in God.

That is why we say to the human being when he says, “I want to know God”, your mind will blow if you see God in that embodiment. Krishna revealed himself (to Arjuna) as Dashavatar and the embodiment of all of creation in him, which was too much for his beloved friend to entertain in his mind. Arjuna said, “My Lord, I prefer you as a human being as I knew you - as my friend.” Then you say to yourself, “Yes, it is daunting for you and yourself in this state of evolution to discover the totality of God.”

When you start on your spiritual journey you start to identify yourself with the power and grace of God to that extent. You are able to draw from the energies, for God is Mahashakti. Mahashakti means the energy of creation. Mahashakti is you, me and everything. Without that Shakti there is no spring; there is no life; there is no beginning. Do you think that this Mahashakti is only exclusive to this world, to this planet? No. That Mahashakti is in all the planets that you can see and beyond. It is omnipresent and omniscient. It is embodied in God and that Mahashakti is changing and will change the whole structure of the planets and the stars as they proceed.

Man thinks that one day the world will come to an end. Which world are you talking about? Life exists in God. God's power, and Shakti and life-force will start many planets, not just one. So you have this life-force that the person is so worried about losing. Who knows how many martians sit before me at the moment. You could be from Venus, you could be from any planet. And which of these ones are you going to be nationalistic about?

You see, when you put it in the context of evolution – my goodness - I've already spent eight minutes talking and transporting your mind into that Divine consciousness. You see the power that you have and you identify yourself with that consciousness of universality of God within you. You are able to draw from that energy, that is the job we do. When I come to give you Shakti, I identify myself totally with Divine consciousness. I identify and bring that energy to you, transforming your whole being, so that you will be liberated in that consciousness of Divine Grace.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Create positive change!

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Sometimes people find it difficult to understand or accommodate in their minds the word karma. Karma means the law of cause and effect. Every action has a cycle of reactions. There is nothing which does not react. I speak to you, and it's a vibration that I am setting in motion, which is carried into the ether. It is registered as a vibration forever. It goes into the ether. Also, it has a bearing on the power and strength of that word I am saying to have an impact on your mind and it has a vibration that surrounds me as well. So I pick up this vibration and set it in motion, conscious of the vibration I want to create for you so that you benefit from what I say.

The power of love and harmony

That is the extent of cause and effect. Nothing is haphazard, everything has a vibration. That is why I say to you harmonise. Harmonise all the time, as you go along. You have the power.

If you make a mistake, or if you have done something that causes injury and a lot of disturbances in your relationships in life, you have the power to harmonise and change it and say, “No, no, I am not going to carry on in the same way. I want to change it. I want to create harmony.” Harmony and love are two facets of good spiritual conduct.

Love! Start with your family, start loving your family, your father, your mother, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts, your wives…did I say ‘wives’? (laughter), husband, many. You must learn to harmonise with every life. Create that love and power that you have inherited from your birth. You brought power from your birth [and past life], and that power is pulsating in your veins for you have immense knowledge.

Access your depth of knowledge

I have read only one book in my life yet there wherever I go there I have pulsating in my veins the immense knowledge that I brought from one cycle of birth to another. This is proof of the immensity of knowledge you have inside. It is playing a part in your life.

You have wisdom and knowledge of the past inside. This is a voyage of discovery in this life, in this incarnation, to find out how you can use your potential to the best of your ability. You'll be surprised that you don't use that because you are not challenged in life. It is only when you are challenged, or when you feel that your back is against the wall, and you have to survive in life that slowly your knowledge and wisdom manifest to help and sustain you in your life.

That is why people who have been challenged, or artists who have lived from hand to mouth are good painters and good. Poetry, books, and literature, have all come when people are challenged. Their resolve comes about to write and create something worthwhile for generations to come.

That is why we put people through the third degree as it were. To make them go through hardships, and make them realise that through their adversity they will become spiritual. They will discover that divinity within themselves, and the immense reserve of power and knowledge that exists within.

When you are sick, when you have a problem to overcome, or when you are challenged and the doctor says, “I am sorry I can't give you any hope,” you must say, “Phooey to you! I have plenty of hope and desire for myself. I have the power inside me, I can live and I will live and prove you wrong.”

You have the knowledge that is inherent in you, you have the power there lying dormant within you to heal yourself. You have the power inside you to change whatever you so will for your benefit and for you to advance spiritually.

If you say “No”, no it is; if you say “Yes”, yes it is. But you must change the course of destiny by your awareness and heightened mindfulness within yourself.

That awareness says to you, “I have power, I have not used it. My brain is not functioning well.” Learn to concentrate and practice meditation, contemplation, bhakti yoga, and karma yoga - all of these are to improve your quality of life. For you to concentrate, and make your mind work like a shaft to penetrate whatever you want, and I promise you, if you start practising it, you will enjoy the joy of bouncing your mind into other people's lives, homes, and lifestyles. Enjoying and understanding them.

When I travel in the car, Swami always says to me, “Well, your body is here, but you are not here.” Yes, I tell you what I do, I regard it as a privilege for me to travel on a particular road or area. I watch every home and place that I am passing in the remotest areas. I go in zooming around in my mind, into their lifestyles, and seeing what I can do to help them. The very fact that the Divine Mother is taking me on a particular route, is for me to help those people and give them grace and the darshan of the Divine Mother on their journey in life.

That is the excitement I have when I travel on a plane. Everybody has been well-screened by the time I have finished with them, including the air hostesses, and the stewards, everybody has had a thorough good going-over by the time I get off the plane. “Bye!” “Bye” means I have given them some power and the same when I get into a car. I slowly sit there and stir people up inside, and then you get a little bit of shakti and the car zooms away. It’s fun for me. That is the joy. You must also think like that.

Don't allow a moment to pass you by. Be vital, be excited by life. How can you have power? Spirituality is power. If your strength and energy are depleted in your body, you can't do anything with spirituality, it’s a fantasy world.

That is why we say to monks and nuns, “Abstain from sexual conduct if you want to set an example to mankind.” I won't part with my energy to anybody, because the Divine Mother comes and gives me such grace and power so that I can use it for the wellbeing of people. I am not telling you all to be monks and nuns, but if you are going to follow a spiritual path, conserve your energy.

People eat caviar, salmon and all kinds of meat and drink champagne because they enjoy it but also because it is a form of stimulus for their activities sensually.

If you want to control your sensual activity, then learn to choose the food that you are going to eat. You must understand what sort of food stimulates your life, and your body and you're the best judge. If you eat something and it stimulates you, and you find you cannot handle the amount of energy that is generated in your body, then you are the best judge to say to yourself, “Gosh, when I eat that it makes me quite hyper, and I cannot cope with myself. It makes more demands of me than I am willing to cope with or that I can handle.” Then cut down on that particular type of food.

There are many categories of food - tamasic, rajasic, sattvic. Rajasic food means the food I was just talking about earlier, which stimulates your activities in life that heightens the use of your senses.

Sattvic gives you a nice quiet mannerism in your conduct, hence a lot of yogis and a lot of people who are following a spiritual path, such as the Hare Krishna movement, never allow their sannyasis to eat garlic, onions, and so on because they say, “It is too stimulating.” But it has done nothing to me at all!

I am only going to open the door to you to choose if you want to eat garlic. I prepare a lot of food with lots of garlic to stimulate your appetite and heighten your consciousness a little bit more and make you feel high by the time you leave this place. You will be on cloud cuckoo land. But the fact of the matter is if you find something overexcites you, then be cautious. You are the person who is going to handle the situation. You must be able to say to yourself, “Gosh, this is driving me quite nuts, I better cut down my diet.”

What is the life of a monk or nun in Skandavale like?

Now, I can talk about the life of the monks and nuns in Skandavale because it gives you a good example. All the monks and nuns do a full day's work. We get up at half-past four in the morning every day of the year. We have devotions and then work. Devotions and work. Devotions and work and if you crawl to bed on two legs you should be very happy.

Karma yoga means you have to use all the resources of your body to push the boundaries of tolerance, as you work to the edge, to your breaking point. Then you will see how you are going to cope with your mind.

This is to make sure that you can handle any situation that arises in your life. That is the training for a monk and a nun in my community. Any of you who have the idea of joining it can see the regulars there and they will tell you that is how it is. You get discipline and orderliness from that, and people who are dedicated to serving humanity.

There is a marked difference between Buddhism and other faiths. Buddhism has a rule that the monks are served by the public as a must. They believe they have the power to liberate human beings just by getting food and luxuries that are given to them. I don't believe that at all. I believe that whether you are a monk, nun, guru, or pope, you need to do a day's work to pay for karma yoga. To serve humanity, to go to the assistance of people, to go to the people who are sick, who are dying. We have a job to do. That is the training of karma yoga in the monastery. To make the monks and nuns serve all life, including animals, birds, human beings, every life, and the environment and society.

Karma yoga means that we must grasp the opportunity to pay the karma that we have created from one cycle of birth to death. This life is not the beginning and end, it is a continuation of cause and effects that we are setting in motion. You are the person who is going to reap the harvest of your sowing, of your actions. It is only you who will suffer the consequences of your actions and also influence other people.

Serving others

You have the power to change through your positive dedication and service to life. Don't waste your time. Grasp the opportunity. If you are inclined to do a professional job, get a job that will be of service to others. For example, handicapped people, children of varying groups, and people who need help, counselling, advice, and consoling. Go to people who are dying, or who are lonely. Today is the most important ingredient in life, in an affluent society. We are creating places where people are lonely. That is the greatest luxury now waiting in an affluent society.

People are isolated and when they have a problem there is nobody for them to interact with and relate to. We must create the opportunity for people to have that interaction and relationship. That is counselling. Counselling means healing, understanding, and listening to someone’s expression from their heart.

Having all the money in the world doesn't solve your problems. Having all the money in the world creates a gap in your life, which requires you to have somebody or some interaction with people. When there is a pressurised moment you can have a point of communication. Nowadays luxury means having an interaction and hearing the pleasing voices of other people.

You can go to a shop and buy what you want. You can go to a shop and get what you want and feel, “Ok, I can eat what I want, and drink what I want.” But when there is pressure, and every human being has pressure from time to time, you must create in your circle of friends people who can come together. You can talk about each other’s lives and problems and have honest and truthful interactions. That is invaluable, that is what spirituality is about.

If you want to create a society where you are caring and understanding, that form of life is very important. Whilst you can be successful and make a lot of money, and I want you to make an awful lot of money, what you do with that money is very important. You can't take a farthing, not one penny of what you have made with you when you go.

You must create for yourself and for the society in which you live a place that is of beauty, love, service, and compassion. That is what you must do in your life, that is spirituality for me.

That is what I want you to take with you when these three days of activities with me here [are finished]. For you to be so generated with a desire to serve the community in which you live, to make it a better place for the next generation of people who come. Be caring, always consider not yourself, not ‘mine’’. We are growing into a very successful society in Europe. As we grow, there is a trend towards being isolationists.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

What is spirituality?

Fri, 06 May 2022 00:00:00 GMT

When I first came to Skanda Vale, there was only one flowering plant there and now I have flowers everywhere. I could not live without flowers. I could not live without life. Life teaches us not to divorce ourselves from life but to be involved in life. That is what spirituality is.

A lot of people think that as soon as you talk of spirituality, you have to put yourself in a cage and isolate yourself, and pretend to be holy. Don't do it, because that is not being spiritual.

Get involved in life Being spiritual means being involved, being involved in life. [It’s about] how you can purify yourself and have a perfect life. That is what spirituality means to me. There is nothing in the whole universe that is not graduating and advancing slowly towards becoming perfect. Nothing is permanent. We are in a state of impermanence, and like the seasons, everything is changing; the mountains, earth, atmosphere, all of life, the plants and trees, everything is changing. What we are going to do in that change does matter for the next generations to come. That is the responsibility that we have in our lives. If we abdicate our responsibility, then the next generation will also pick up the threads of irresponsibility and carry on through to destruction.

That is our job, everyone's job. Be so mindful of what you do. It is because of the mindfulness of many generations before you that you have beautiful avenues of trees, plants, fruit trees, and orchards. Anybody who plants a tree, or who does anything for the well-being of nature, is never there to reap the harvest of their actions. It is the selfless acts of people who think about what they can do to propagate and influence nature and life as they go along.

When you plant a tree you probably won’t be alive still to see it grow and to see the benefit of it. If you are lucky and it is a very fast-growing tree, then you will have some idea or vision of what that tree is going to be like. You must be a good gardener in life. My job is to be a good gardener. I have my ‘plants’ and ‘trees’ in you that I have to look after and care for. [I have] to nurture you and help you grow healthily, and become useful in the life you live. I am a gardener who is pruning you and making sure you grow properly, helping you, nourishing you, and that consciousness of nourishment is invaluable for the human being.

Those who are involved in education, therapies, or any other work are also gardeners, helping ‘plants’ to survive and develop themselves spiritually.

Recognise divinity is in everything What is spirituality? To recognize the divinity and the power of a human being or a life force and help it to advance towards that goal of oneness. This is a voyage of discovery for every single one of us. It’s a discovery in all of creation and you graduate in that discovery, to go further and further and excite yourself. Don't make yourself feel unhappy and serious because you started a spiritual life. That is not for me. As soon as you are serious I slowly say bye-bye because that is not for me.

I want you to be excited about spirituality! Spirituality means if you like to go dancing or to go to the cinema then take the divine with you. I take the Divine Mother with me wherever I go. When I have a glass of wine that somebody offers me, I say, “Cheers, Mum”, and I drink it. And she participates with me for that wine has been made with great care. That wine was made in the mountains with great care. The sun has shone on it and it has grown in the earth, it has been nourished. Don't disregard it as a drink that makes you tipsy, but that which enhances your life. Everything is like that. If you want to make life a sickness, sickness it is. If you want to have success in your life and see good things happen in life, you can change it. You can change the worst set of circumstances to make it a success.

That is the extent of detachment and responsibility. We have to learn how to work with what we’ve got. As you work with what you’ve got, you can challenge various avenues that stop you from doing what you want. Don't worry! Nudge them in the ribs when they don't give you what you want for the work. Hit them hard with a smile on your face - that is the art of spiritual development. You need to get what you want for the benefit of those who are unhappy, and who need help. You must be able to stand in front of people who have no interest in the well-being of the poor, and who are not interested in those who are deprived or sick. You have a responsibility towards them, that is spirituality. Don't worry, have a good fight, I enjoy it. My job is to fight for the people who are in an unfortunate state of living. That must become your spiritual sadhana.

A lot of people believe that spirituality is just meditation or being drab and dull. Spirituality means that you can not smile or have naughtiness on your face. Have all that and more.

Mother is the biggest flirt you can ever find in the world. She will enjoy flirting with you, flirt with life, and teach you how to become a flirt. My job is to flirt with life as well, to enjoy a flirtation with life as a whole, and to feel excited about life. That is what spirituality means to me. If I don't excite you into that consciousness of spirituality you will think, “God is sitting there with a mallet in his hand.” Round one - disobey me and then 'doink'. (Guru imitates God hitting people with a mallet because they have disobeyed him).

That is the element of fear that is being handed to mankind from inception to control human beings and make them subservient to the authorities of religion. That is not spirituality. That is why a lot of young people run away from spirituality because they are saying to themselves, 'If this is spirituality, I don't want it, this is not for me.’ I would do the same, I would run away from it. But I know the divine Mother, I know the mischief she gets into.

I was with Krishna and I can tell you the life of Krishna was not something very holy. He was a very naughty, powerful young man, growing up with me. He would get up to every conceivable mischief you can imagine. More so, and I can tell you if He knew something was wrong in the village, or the village elders were not doing what He wanted, He would say to us, His group of friends, “Let's go to the village.”

He would go to the village elders and stir them up and make them angry. He made them angry so that they would realise they were doing something wrong. They couldn't cope with the naughtiness of this young man. He wanted change, and He changed them - with love. When there was no love and people challenged his authority, He would take up any position that was required for him to defend righteousness. That is the life of spiritual people. You must be able to take up the position to defend righteousness. What do I mean by righteousness?

Righteousness means not allowing people to cause injury and harm to others. Not to kill, not to cheat, not to rob, not to cause injury to any life force, and to establish the dharma of your belief. I am not here to change you from Christianity to Buddhism or Hinduism or another 'ism' and confuse your mind. I am here just to tickle the carburettor of your mind and make it work properly. To help it to think positively, not to think negatively, not to spend your time worrying about that which is gone, ‘passant.’ It’s about the present! Now is the moment you have that power to change your life, the past is beyond recovery, you cannot even change the dot of an eye in the past but you can learn from the mistakes that you have made. You have the capacity to say to yourself now, “Gosh I had those experiences, and if I had another chance I would not repeat it.” That is the reflection I want you to have in your life, the power to change.

At the same time, you may have got into a set of circumstances that you find difficult to extricate yourself from. But you can change the complexity of a situation by your positive application in life. That is what contemplation is about. Contemplation is to review again and again and again from the moment you wake up. To [look at] the presentation of your life and not to miss anything out. Excite yourself about your life and say, “Gosh, I want to be really awake from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep.”

I don't know about you but from the moment I wake up, swami brings coffee to my bedside in the hope that he might see me up and about or going to the other world. He says, “Guru, are you up?” I say, “Yes, it is a lovely day, give me the cup of coffee and let's have a good talk.”

I am already ready for business and my mind is empty. I want to activate the lives of other people, I want to excite people into spiritual life. Don't feel sorry for yourself, divine friends, it is a waste of time. I promise you it is a waste of time to sit there and say, “Oh, my life is passing by, I don't know what to do with my life.” If you have nothing to do, come and join me in Skanda Vale, I will excite you to no end, you wouldn’t know what hit you.

Life is exciting, life is a challenge, meet that challenge. You have the most beautiful country in the world. I say this not because I am patronising, I am attracted to Switzerland because of the mountains and the beauty and the beauty that is natural within you. You are involved in nature, you are participating with nature. Your lifestyle is in nature; you still work in the fields, on the farms, and in a way of life, you have carried on for many centuries. It's endearing to me.

When I see the changes that have occurred in Sri Lanka over the last forty-five, forty-six years it saddens me to see those changes. I pray, beg of you, hold fast not to modernise, [or become] a materialistic society. Even though Switzerland is known to be a good banking society, you have preserved the simple nature-loving people that I see. When I look at your farms, and the simplicity of your farms and cantons I see that is changing now. You must stop that change because you are going to lose [the simplicity].

Spirituality and community are one Don't make it too modern. Driving from Geneva to Bern I saw the ugliest buildings, and I thought, “When did they put them up?” It is like a whole row of skyscrapers one after another. Of course, you have to house all these people, I understand that, but we have to find an ecological presentation acceptable to the lifestyle of people. I have seen it in Britain, forty-six years ago when I came. You might ask what on earth has this got to do with spirituality? It has to do with spirituality.

People were families and communities, they were together. Each square in London was a group of families together that knew each other. We had a lot of fun together, and slowly it all changed. Instead of these houses with families, they sold the houses which then became hotels [and high-rise blocks]. Those families moved out to the countryside. Then they built ugly structures as monuments to the ugliness of man's lack of imagination. What happened was children grew up in these high-rise flats, which had no facilities at all for them to play in, and they came out as vandals. Now we have more problems and they are trying desperately to solve those problems by pulling the buildings down.

Don't let your community and society do that. You have beautiful countryside. I know you have to house them, but it can provide facilities for people to live under nice sets of circumstances. I would even excavate some of the mountains and put some buildings inside them to hide the ugliness of buildings. Then put roads, I told you they are building one of those amazing roads, you know to carry traffic in the EC through Switzerland, with a tariff, that is good business, I enjoy that. All of this is about spirituality.

There is nothing you should not look at in terms of spirituality. Ecology means spirituality. How you can live, what work you do, what lifestyle you want to have; what you want to leave for your children, or what attitude or mindset you must have to hand down to the next generation that comes. All of this and more is spirituality.

Perfect yourself within. People say to me, “Guru, how can we change the world out there?” The world inside me first has to be changed, not the world outside. If I begin to change and show by example what way of life we are going to live, as we are doing in Skanda Vale, by showing the simplicity of life, then we make it possible for other people to follow. We make it as attractive as much as we can to be natural in the way we live. Then we have all collectively played a part to change the lifestyle of the people. It is important. This is why we say that each country has got karma.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Becoming mindful of everything we do

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: You will find that when you contemplate, your dreams will also improve because your contemplation will enable you to perfect all that you do. It will also calm the mind and that will be very beneficial to you. That is what contemplation will do for you and the types of dreams that you will have won't be disturbing in any way, you won't need to be bothered about them.

I can talk through my own experiences. When I dreamt it was usually my mother who came to have a long chat with me. She gave me so many instructions about what I should and shouldn’t do. After a little while, I thought, "This is no good because I can't listen to you. You have long since gone. This is my business now, not yours.” I am sorry I feel like that but I also have great sympathy for what she says. What you are going to do with your dreams? If they are nice and you would like them to be repeated, then you hope they will come back. I have never spent time worrying about dreams. Never.

Devotee: What is contemplation?

Guru: Contemplation is to be mindful of the causes and effects that you set in motion from the moment you wake up till the moment you go to sleep.

Consider what vibrations you set in motion

What vibrations do you set in motion? Are they positive or negative? What benefit are you to the people you encounter in life? Contemplate your actions and the reactions that you set in motion and see whether you are creating harmony or a disturbance for yourself.

Contemplate the food that you eat, the vibrations that you assimilate into your system, and the environment you live in; contemplate your lifestyle and the work you do, and see how positive or negative it is. That is what a person should be doing on a minute-by-minute basis. That is high mindfulness, which will enable the power of contemplation to better develop.

People often run away from their responsibilities. They push them away. Contemplation brings it forward, so you look at the things you have to do or that you have not done properly. Then you can make a positive assertion within yourself to change the whole structure and make it good. This will enable you to have a clear mind when you are meditating.

Be mindful of how you interact with others

It’s important to contemplate your day through mindfulness, at least ten minutes a day whether you meditate or not; you must have a review of what you have been doing in the day.

In other words, if you make a mistake at any time you have the power to change it. This feeling within will enable you to overcome the problem of feeling unhappy with a situation, or a relationship. You may have been rude to someone, so contemplate the causes and effects you set in motion, and on your relationship with that person.

Then you will be able to represent the next time you meet that person in a different light, a different manner. You will be able to take control of any situation and you will be the master of your ship. Contemplation enables you to transcend every level of life and be able to contemplate and meditate better. That is what contemplation is.

Devotee: But it is very difficult to concentrate. I know when I sit, it is such a lot of work to find out what is going on. I have to be very well centred to contemplate well and then let go of it.

Guru: I have every confidence that you can take control of every situation in your life and say to yourself, “I am going to change. My approach and mannerisms are going to change.” It is invaluable to contemplate your approach to people, your conduct with people, your presentation, what you say, and how you say it.

You will be surprised how powerful that weapon is for the person who does this contemplation properly for ten minutes a day. If you don't want to do that form of contemplation, I advise you to become mindful of every single thing you do and of the vibrations that you are setting in motion on a minute-by-minute basis in your life.

This is how I have to work in all aspects of my life. When I meet people, I want to look back at the end of the day and be able to understand the vibrations that these people set in motion; what my interaction with those people was, and how I presented everything.

Supposing I see a whole group of devotees coming into the Ashram, two or three hundred people. I look at them and then if I reflect immediately, I can look at all those people, all of them, and then have time to see whether I missed something. Whether or not I missed dealing with somebody’s problems, how well I dealt with them, my presentation and everything - it's invaluable. I make sure that my job is to perfect the art of work, the art of presentation, and the art of living with people so that I can help them to have more confidence and strength for their spiritual evolution.

If I don't contemplate, there is a possibility with all the pressures, and I appreciate what you said to me, there may be a possibility [that I missed something]. Now, I saw nearly over a hundred people yesterday in the evening and when I got into bed before I closed my eyes I brought [the image of] all these people in front of me. I wanted to know, did I miss somebody? Was there somebody there who I ignored? Was my presentation wrong? All of these things are invaluable to getting the best from me and from the people I serve. Not only for me but for you as well in your work. It will improve the quality of your work, it will help you to improve your relationships with other people, and this is invaluable.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Reincarnation and non-attachment

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Now suppose in this birth I am fond of this bottle. With my last breath, I think of this bottle and I die with the consciousness that it is this bottle that means more to me than anything else. Then I return with the immense power of this thought or desire for this bottle. I will hover around this bottle after I have gone physically but this bottle does not belong to me and the impasse of the desire for this bottle holds me in the world till the desire ebbs away.

That is why we say to people that you can have beautiful things but associate with life at a level where you can detach yourself easily. So that if by chance I have to die, I am not going to return worrying about the bottle that doesn't belong to me because somebody else has taken possession of it. He or she is going to do what they want with it and I will be running around in circles thinking, “That's my bottle, what on earth are you doing with it?”

Don’t let material objects own you

That is what happens to human beings when they die. They return to their homes to the valuables they possessed and longed for, and they look around and find that these possessions are no longer within their control. Very soon after their death, their valuables are thrown away.

Reincarnation for that human being takes longer; until the person realises they can have many beautiful things in life but they are only for you to use now. Use them wisely, make a lot of money, and be successful. But with your success, you must know that you are living in a transient state, an impermanent state.

All the material things are there for you to advance in your life; you have earned them through your positive karma. I am going to give you a very good example. Having created a monastery and being responsible for it with all its trimmings, trappings, and temples; with all the animals and everything, people say to me, “Guruji, what an amazing place”, and I say, “No, no, no, nothing to do with me. It is divine work.”

Swami drove me down from my place to the temple at the bottom so that I could take the car to come to Switzerland and when I got into the car he looked at me and said, “You are not even here now. You have already packed up and left Skanda Vale. I can feel that you are not involved in Skanda Vale at all.” I said, “I am ready to die anytime. If the Lord wants me to go it’s O.K. I have finished my job. I am not going to hang around looking at what you people are going to do here. This is your job now. If the Lord wants me to return to Skanda Vale then I will carry on my duty, but I am not presumptuous enough to think that I am indispensable. I don’t feel that anything in Skanda Vale is mine, no way, no way. It is a job I am doing. I am ready to go. This is also borrowed. That is why the Lord gave me an option, by making me lImy baggage.” (Guru lost his baggage on the way to Switzerland)

Whilst travelling to France, I was thinking I will stink by the time I’ve finished if my baggage doesn't come because I have no robes. But isn't it fun? It is terribly funny. I have all those lovely things wrapped up, and I have nothing to wear. How lovely! I will be coming in a sheet tomorrow, one sheet around me, one sheet over me. Why not? Why not?

Free, free yourself from the bondage to all the things that surround you in your life. Don't be governed by these things.

You must be able to say, “O.K, if I have it fine, if I don't have it fine, it doesn't matter.” This is the feeling about reincarnation. That is about death. Free yourself, and don't return. I see people whom I have known for a long time and I have blessed them, and after they go they hang around for their possessions. I constantly tell them, “Go away, what on earth are you doing here?”

This is nothing to do with you, this is a temporary job that we are doing. Learn that in your life. It is very beautiful when you are free, that is real spiritual freedom - to have it or not, and not to worry about the things that surround other people. They are obsessed with it. I want you to be free all the time, enjoy. I am not telling you to give all your beautiful things away, no, no, no. Have them, but don't let them govern and possess you. Very important.

What about being attached to other people?

Devotee: I think it is quite easy to feel unattached to material things, but you can also be attached to a person. How do we cope with that?

Guru: Keep on being attached to me, no problem. I understand that this is what graduation means. When you start on [this spiritual] journey you are attached. Then slowly you learn that you cannot possess another human being. It is just like a mother giving birth to a child. She has every right to say, “It is my child”, for she carried the child for nine months, nurtured it, and brought it up. But it isn't your child. You are given the child for a particular period and it is your responsibility to look after that child, to care for that child, and to help that child to freedom. Then you will be happy.

But if you are possessive of that child then you will be the unhappiest human being because you want that child to do the things you want.

You know damn well that that child is not going to do what you say. That child is free and if you bring it up properly with deep love and care, and if you have a continuous interaction in the early stages of the child’s life, then you will enjoy the benefits of that relationship as you grow up. You must be able to say, “'Yes, I have given you all love,” and enjoy the fruits of that love. I am free to see that you are free. This is the freedom I want to give you.

I want you to be free. Not governed and controlled, badgered and bullied into believing - that is not spirituality. That is when you will find it intolerable to advance spiritually, it is important.

If you have a partner, I want partners to have such understanding. Don't possess your partner. If you want one way to get rid of your partner soon, it is to possess that person. Equally, do not neglect your partner. Spend a lot of time, giving of yourself, and caring for your partner. It is very important.

If you begin that relationship you will enjoy standing back and allowing things to happen, sometimes mischievously knowing what is happening, I don't want to know. I arrive in a situation sometimes in Skanda Vale, and I know what is happening around me but I am blindfolded. I refuse to see or be involved. I pretend. I walk in, and I say (in a sweet voice) “Hello, how are you?” then I go around quietly giving them more love, more care, and more understanding. Why should I make it more difficult for somebody? I understand how difficult it is for people to advance spiritually. Why should I put more obstacles in the lives of people? No way. Love is selflessness. That is what I want you to cultivate.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

The shift in human consciousness

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: You spoke about earthquakes and so on. Have you also got the feeling that human beings will change? Can you tell us a little bit more about this change?

Guru: There is great awareness in human beings. We realise that we must change our whole attitude to life, and the environment in which we live. If we are not ecology-conscious, and if the food we eat and the resources we have got are not carefully measured and used wisely, we will be in real trouble.

The type of food that is being cultivated now is becoming more and more natural. All of these things are being highlighted now in Europe, [more so than ever] before.

But it is a problem. Europe is selling all its chemicals to developing countries to change that lifestyle. We don't want to allow those developing countries to become advanced in the use of chemicals to grow more food. This is a big problem. We have to be aware of this consciousness and see how we can improve, not just in the countries that are developing awareness in Europe, but all the countries as a whole.

This is a much wider problem when we think. I appreciate what you say, and yes I would like to see more and more people becoming conscious and mindful. Then our mannerisms will also change. One of the things that bothers me a lot in Britain, is that mindlessness is very bad at the moment. We are having so many problems, which saddens me a lot. I spend a lot of time talking to people, educating them, and trying to help them understand that they are responsible.

We've got problems, real problems, even in the Ashram. We get so many pilgrims coming to the Ashram. The woodland in the Ashram is so sacred to us, and sometimes at the weekends, we find young men coming and pulling up plants and big trees or pushing them over and destroying them.

These trees take an awfully long time to [grow, and we must] cultivate this sense of responsibility and fair play so that we leave an inheritance for the next generation. It is going to take a lot of work. I felt sad when someone said a couple of days ago that we had a group of people in Skanda Vale who pulled up a whole load of trees down by the river. It’s just a feeling of or a sense of vandalism. What can we do but educate these people?

Devotee: Do you think the shift in consciousness will come through education?

Guru: Yes, through education.

Devotee: We have to help that change come by using our awareness so that we see things as they are, and that we see the problems.

Guru: Yes. We should enjoy the beauty [of nature], not destroy it. I think teaching in schools has to change. We should not just learn a whole book and then absorb it. We have another book that we have to take from the archives. The archives of the books of behaviour patterns.

Children are not taught about their responsibility to respect the environment we live in, to contribute something to the well-being of the world and to the society that we live in. This must become a part of the training and teaching not only in schools but in families as well. Families must take on that responsibility, this is a must.

The family is responsible for bringing up a child from birth. After fourteen or so years, if you have not spent time with your children, then you have lost the advantage with them because they will not want to know. We are training children to behave in a manner which is unacceptable in our societies and this is what we have to emphasise.

The family unit must spend time together; don't abdicate your responsibility to the television set. If you hand your responsibility to the television set, then don't complain later on, “My daughter, my son, does not listen to me at all, is out doing what they want, I don't even know what they are doing.”

Please, let me explain that life is a partnership, not an imposition. Life must be a partnership where the father and mother, brothers and sisters can communicate and talk about their problems without one dominating the other. They must have confidence in the love of their relationships with their sons and daughters that they can come and say, “Mum, what do you think about this?” You must have the courage and ability to say, 'Tell me all about it, we will have a lovely discussion.”

Don't be shocked about it, or by life. After all, this is what life is about - raising a child. You must have the capacity to hear anything a child says to you and not be surprised by it, because that is the world outside. The child is going to school and there in that school will be several children who are going to tell your son about life in their way, presenting it in their fashion, surprising and shocking you and the child. Your child must have the ability to have an outlet to discuss it with you and you must have the courage to hear it.

If you don't do that, your child will become isolated. He or she will go to a corner quietly and do it his or her way and you will be surprised one day when somebody will say to you, “Oh, I saw your son or daughter doing that.” You will say, “Really? I don't believe it.” But don't be surprised. You must have your point of contact.

Start early. I have beautiful children in Skanda Vale, and it's so lovely to hear the conversations that go on between the parents and children, and I encourage this. I encourage it because I want them to be able to say what they feel. I always advise parents not to be surprised by what their children say. They are going to repeat what they hear at school. Now, you must have the capacity to have patience and discuss it with your children, and then you will help them.

Don't just knock them down. Wrong again. You are my children, if you come back to me one day and say the most absurd things, I will roar with laughter after all and say, “Well I hope you haven't hurt yourself, as long as you don't, I am there to help you.” This is most important. If I were to say, “You cannot follow a spiritual path unless unless unless unless don't, must, etc you will say, “This is not spirituality, you are imprisoning me.”

I want to understand your innermost thoughts and aspirations. I want to understand your feelings and at the same time I want to give you a little bit of a nudge into the right channel of consciousness, that's my job.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Forget your limitations

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Did I understand correctly that you said to discover the potential of the visionary eye we must first discover the potential of our senses.

Guru: Yes.

Devotee: What does that mean?

Guru: It means at the moment you are looking at your senses and allowing the senses to display their demands on a very superficial level. You must transcend that superficiality. When I look at you, I can use my eyes. I can look at you and look right inside you. In the same way, when I put my finger on your forehead I can go right inside you. When I do that my eyes are shut but I can see very clearly. My visionary eye is more powerful than my ordinary eyes. My ordinary eyes are blind, I can't see, I have to wear glasses. But I can shut my eyes and go anywhere I want, and see what I want, far more clearly than with my eyes.

Devotee: How can we practice this?

Guru: How can you practice it? You have the power of perception endowed in you as a human being. What has stopped you from using your power of perception? It is your superficial involvement in the world of illusion, Mahamaya. In other words, you have given greater credence to that which is superficial than that which is of greater value. You are not using your eyes. When you look at a human being the first thing you are looking at is the form of the person, the mannerisms of the person, and the conduct of the person.

You are involved now on the superficial level but you won't even stop for a moment to consider what sort of human being this person is and what vibration the person carries. You go back home and say, "Gosh, I met so and so, I have a feeling inside me that this is not what the person presents to me. I have a certain feeling that things are not quite as they are. What is this feeling?" Feeding into your brain are the impulses generated by that person to you. You have now had time to analyse them and you understand them. You must give time. Time is an essential factor for you to understand the vibrations that you are constantly having an interaction with [when you interact] with people.

It is not just understanding the superficial. I rarely look at a person physically. I look deep inside a person not only with my eyes but also with my hand raised. I can feel every impulse [emanating from them] which gives me an idea to what extent they have power. I can feel whether it is depleted or whether there is Shakti in that human being.

You know, if you want to evolve spiritually you will have to conserve all your energy and power. So, when I go to a person I am putting my antennae to feel the impulses that make up the structure of this person spiritually. It gives me an understanding. I not only use my mind, but also my mind's eye, and I can feel the impulses with all my senses. If I want to go to somebody I can go from a distance without touching that human being and see them.

As I undertake to look after people every day I go to them in my mind and give them Shakti from a distance. Take the divine power and distribute that energy to people so they can live on with the grace of the divine.

Transcend your mind-made limitations

Why not you? You have the power to do that. Just forget your limitations. There are no limitations within you. Only the limitations you put, yes you have those, but transcend them and go beyond this point. The brain has immense power. You have not even begun to discover the power of your brain. A very small proportion of the brain is functioning at the moment and I want to shake the dust out of your brain so that it can function well and make you feel powerful inside. Then you will begin to transmit Shakti with your mind.

Devotee: Can't you hurry it (this process) up a little?

Guru: I have to teach you how to let go. This is the most important thing. Have the beautiful things that tempt you in life around you but just let them be. Don't let them govern you. Don't let them distract you. You enjoy them but don't let them dominate your life. This is not important.

There is the higher self and the lower self. I am talking to two people. The duality in you. The higher self that I want to bring out in this drama. In reality, there are two people. You can't isolate the other person who is constantly making demands and the other person who is lying dormant to be discovered by that Self. This is the discipline. This drama exists in the human being's life and this is what I beg of you.

Don't be preoccupied with the hangups of life because you give more power to negativity.

You know, I'll tell you something funny I see. As soon as somebody comes to say hello to me, they say, "Oh my God, now Guru must know everything about me." My job is not a pastime to find out what monkey business you have got up to. My job is to see how I can stimulate you into thinking more positively rather than being negative. I am not interested [in anything else].

Find me a human being who is so good that he is going to come to me and say, "Guru, I am now divine." I'd have such a hearty laugh if he were to come to me and say that. I love my naughty family. Naughtier the better. Because those naughty people have some power inside them to be naughty and I can change their life with that naughtiness. Once they pretend to be good and walk around like this I think, "Oh my God, problem."

Because they are unreal. They are unreal. Look at the life of Christ. He did not choose to have holy people around him. Christ chose twelve disciples, twelve fishermen. The language and mannerisms of fishermen are not very polite, they are rough. Christ chose their company. He chose them and I chose you because of that company.

You sit here so beautifully presenting to me a picture of perfection. I don't believe anything you present to me because I see you as I am. You can work with this mould that people present to you. You can help them to discover their divinity. Through that mould of experience, they are going through. If they pretend to be good then what can I do for these people who are pretending to be so holy? I can't help them. There is no place for me. I look at these people who are trying so hard to find their divinity, so I work with them. I say, "Come on, let's change the whole stance. Let's work with your life so that we can find beauty and love in it."

That is what real meditation is - mastery of yourself. You are going to be a good archer and there you have got your bow and arrow. The bow is your vibration of sound and the mind is the arrow. You are learning to pull this arrow so that you can send it straight to the Divine, not going around like that but straight to the Divine and drawing that energy towards you.

You need patience to develop spiritually

This is what contemplation and meditation are about for every person - mastery. It won't happen overnight. If someone gives you a formula and pretends that overnight they will give you a mantra and bop, there you are, you are going to fly high and be a great spiritual being then I won't believe a word that person has said.

I still haven't met anyone who has been liberated through some formula. You cannot get God to come to you through some formula. No way. It is only through your love and dedication. Your selfless sacrifice and activity. Serve God in life. This is what karma yoga is about.

We have killed, caused injury, cheated and robbed from one cycle of birth to another. We have lived in different worlds, and I promise you now you are in a privileged position to come here and begin another journey of consciousness so that you can advance spiritually and discover the potential within you. But be realistic. There lying dormant inside you is a tiger. That uncontrolled tiger of desire. That uncontrolled tiger that has come from one cycle of birth to another and just when you think you’ve got your act together and you’re so marvellous that you are floating around and saying, "I can meditate now and I've got it all worked out", be warned.

As soon as you say to yourself that you have got it all together you are in dead trouble because that little monkey inside you is going to say, "Oh, just this once break the rules. Break the discipline." Yes, and you will break the discipline. Breaking the discipline is okay but you must have the courage and conviction to return to the discipline again. That is the most important thing. I will give you continuous support. I will bring you all the Shakti and power that is necessary for you to withstand the pressures that you will go through in your life. I will help you no end till you discover yourself.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

How can we love ourselves?

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Don't run yourself down. There is a greater Self embodied in you. What you see at the present moment is the self with all its sense objects that are making demands within you and you are finding it difficult to cope with. Sometimes you feel fed up [with yourself] but inside you, there is also a divine Self.

Embrace positivity

You may not like the lifestyle that you are [currently living] but it is not going to be permanent, it is going to change. You have the ability to change.

But don't spend time feeding negative thoughts. The more you think and feed on negativity, the more power you give to the negative. Be positive. Be positive all the time. Say, "Okay, I did this. Never mind. Now I have the power to change. I am divine."

Wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and don't say, "Oh my God." Don't do that. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, "You are divine. In there is the embodiment of divinity and I, in this life, must discover that divinity within myself."

You might look at others and say, "Oh, that person is a holy man, but that other man isn’t holy.” Don’t worry about that. You must be divine. You must find that point of divinity.

I look at you with the amazing love that I have for you because you are divine.

You may think the world outside doesn't like you. But I like you because you are divine. You are the embodiment of divinity.

You carry that divinity from one life cycle to another. The quicker you realise that the quicker will be the end of this passage of birth and death.

That is what meditation is about. Pain, anguish, suffering, all of these things will come to an end when the human being discovers and identifies himself with God. This is your discovery.

Don’t pretend to be holy

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

How different vibrations affect us

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: From one cycle of births to another we are purifying ourselves. We are like a lump of gold found in the river bed, beaten and washed until we become pure gold. Nobody just arrives on the path of evolution so perfect. Even Christ, even the great masters, rishis, and yogis have gone through many cycles of births and deaths to be ready to be a part of that divine consciousness. Hence every one of you, and there are thousands and millions of people in the outside world, are going through many cycles of births and deaths to discover their divinity.

So the task is an enormous one that you have undertaken in this birth, to begin to change your lower nature, master yourself and prepare yourself to identify with God-consciousness. It is a daunting thought. So daunting. It is not easy for human beings to master themselves. When a person says to me they want to meditate I ask myself, "What do they want ultimately through their meditation? To integrate with God, to discover their divinity."

Everything around us emanates different vibrations

We pick up a lot of impulses in our lives without our consent. You listen to the radio, watch the television, and watch what is happening in the outside world. All of these vibrations enter our being. When you sit next to each other you begin to share your karma. Your aura overlaps with that other person's aura and these impulses are shared between you. If you come close to each other and have a physical interaction, you are willing to share karma. These two people are sharing karma.

When you are in the outside world you don't realise that you come into contact with a lot of people and all of these people feed you. That is why sometimes when you come home after an expedition into the city, you feel depleted and drained.

You say to yourself, "My gosh, I feel awful. I want to shake this off." How can you shake this off? The best way is for you to bathe. Water changes the aura because an impulse is generated both within and without, which can be neutralised by water as it is a good conductor.

Hence we say to people, if you feel under the weather and you want to meditate, go and stand under the shower and bathe consciously. There is a mantra we chant before doing the abhishekam to the Divine Mother.

oṃ amṛto pastaraṇam asi svā̱hā ॥

oṃ amṛtā pidhānam asi svā̱hā ॥

oṃ satyam yaśaś-śrīr-mayi śrīś-śrayatām svā̱hā ॥

(Meaning: Immortal water, you are the substratum/foundation; Immortal water, you are the covering; Truth is glory and splendour in me, Waters assume the state of glory.)

Your clothes also pick up vibrations. You wear a garment and this garment is carrying all the vibrations from the outside world because it registers everything.

The body is a very powerful instrument. It generates such power. Can you imagine what happens when you get angry? Just visualise in your mind for a moment when you get angry the energy that is generated in the whole body, and the brain.

The impulses that are generated in the brain all form colours around you. That is what we see as your credentials. When I look at you I see what sort of different colours and shades [are in your aura], your anger, your love, your compassion.

When you purify yourself, your aura becomes very powerful

The more you purify yourself, the more powerful your aura is. The more powerful your aura is the more the Divine wants to interact with you. This is the mastery of the person.

You must have your own place where you meditate. Nobody else should sit there and leave their vibration because it will disturb you when you start meditating.

Devotee: If I invite a good friend of mine to meditate with me in front of my shrine and they are angry or whatever is that a bad idea?

Once you have done that you must chant. It can be any chant you like that makes you feel good. It will protect you when you are leaving your physical body and suspending it. This is very important for you. Without that, I would not advise anybody to start meditating because the person is vulnerable when they start meditating.

You are opening all the chakras. If there is a mischievous spirit like me hanging around they can cause a lot of problems for you. My advice to you is to keep away from people like me! That is why you chant and as we proceed on these few days of contemplation and meditation I will teach you many chants. Every night at 9 o'clock we will do a little puja here and some prayers. The ‘Gayatris’ are for the various aspects of the Divine and if you learn them then you can chant them.

You choose. You have every right to choose but there is a feeling that gurus can give you a mantra. This guru doesn't like it. He's very shy about giving mantras purely and simply because mantras never stay like that. People change their minds and then it becomes an obsession in the mind of that person.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Living in the consciousness of impermanence

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

I am going to talk to you this time about the ‘Tandava’ (the dance of Lord Shiva). The Tandava means, "I create to preserve, to destroy, to recreate." A lot of people don't want to look at this aspect of God. Purely and simply it worries them that there is dissolution. In Christianity God's destruction is never talked about, it is always about creation. But look at life realistically. Don't put blinkers on your eyes.

As the spring is beginning the summer will come but with the summer there is also autumn and winter. This spring is both autumn and winter. In this spring, we must have a consciousness, a mindfulness that in this Tandava, this creation, everything is changing. So is your mind, body, consciousness, and everything that surrounds you in your life. You must remember that this element of impermanence exists in all of life.

If you delude yourself, divine friends, that you are permanent, if you delude yourselves that all that surrounds you is permanent then you are going to be very disappointed in your life.

Live in that consciousness of impermanence. As God creates, he will preserve and give you opportunities, like all the little children that are born. The beginning of life is very, very exciting to see but with that birth come the changes that are going to occur in the lives of these little children.

Nothing is permanent. A baby isn't going to be like that forever. The baby is going to grow up and in five years the mother will say, "Gosh, I didn't realise, soon he is going to go to school." By the time the child goes away to school, very soon the mother says, "Gosh, now I feel I've nothing to do, let’s have another baby," and so it goes on. It is wonderful.

This is what the impermanence of life is. When you start your journey and get married, you talk of a family but you don't realise that very soon that family is going to grow up and fly away from the nest. Every time you think about it you say, "No, no, no, I push it away. They are my little children. They will continue to be my little babies. Even at twenty-five years old or forty years old, they are still my babies."

This is the problem with mothers and fathers. They are all my babies. If you are surprised that they are mothers' babies you are my babies as well. Because I see you growing up, born in this consciousness slowly developing yourself and I say to myself, "Ah, they are my babies and I want to see them fly out of this nest, protected so that they are identified with God." This is a journey. The drama that is being enacted is an amazing journey that I am watching. This impermanence that you are involved in helps me to realise all the time we have a job to do so that in this life you will identify yourself with God, fearlessly. So that you will integrate with God and get the grace of God.

Ask God to give you Shakti

How can you get the grace of God? That is why I am here. To help you get the grace of God, to get Shakti. Everything is Shakti. Shakti means energy, power. The embodiment of God is Shakti, the power that is within and without. The embodiment of God.

Even before the form of God existed there was Shakti. Shakti means energy. That power is the composition of the elements that you know and more. In other words, the Lord’s diadem is surrounded by a million suns. He absorbs all the energies from all the stars and mountains. Everything is registered in the Lord. When you begin your journey spiritually, divine friends, you begin to interact and get that Shakti and power from God and you will never be alone. That is the power that we pass to people when we give Shakti to them.

In other words, you must learn to concentrate and go straight to the Divine and say, "I want to pass this energy from You, through me to this person who needs grace." That is what you must do. You should be able to meditate and concentrate.

The power of concentration enables you to transcend the demands of the physical body and the mind to go to God. This is the mastery of the person. Your job is to master and take control of your body. That is what your job is, to be the captain of your ship. You cannot be the captain of your ship if you are not conscious of what vibrations you set in motion on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis.

You must be positive to the point that you can say to the Lord, "Here I am, just as I am. I am not going to pretend to be anybody else. I am as I am and I need your grace. I need your strength, and Shakti so that I can overcome the obstacles that lay in my path towards my spiritual evolution."

You have to come to terms with this consciousness. You can't just gloss over and pretend. There are certain aberrations that you set in motion in your life that you don't want to face. Face them. Look at them. Don't worry. Do you think if you have eaten too much and suffered from indigestion that it is the last time you are going to do it? No way.

I shouldn't have cream because I get fat but I always end up having cream because people will offer cream to me and I can't resist it. It is the same with chocolates. My cupboards are full of chocolates, I love chocolates. But the fact of the matter is learning to master yourself is your job. It is the same with drinking alcohol, eating, and sex. You must master all of these things. I can't live your life, nor can I tell you what to do. You must say to yourself, "No, this is not for me."

Okay, occasionally I will indulge. Maybe once a month. Start with once a month and then make it once every two months. I was about to say twice every month. But you are the best judge of it. Running Skanda Vale is not some fantasy. It is a real challenge to be able to work with the power of the Divine without being involved in materialism.

People are amazed when they come to Skanda Vale. What is read in the holy scriptures is enacted in Skanda Vale as a monastery and has been so for over thirty-odd years. We have more food than when we began. We feed everybody for free. We care for them and at the end of it we have much more than we can handle. Why should Skanda Vale be the only place to benefit? To free yourself is what you have to learn. The miracles that Christ performed in his life were not illusions. They were real and were to show mankind [God’s power]. He said so. You can do the same and much more if you believe in God. "If you believe in me," He said. Because through Him, through His example, through His discipline, you will realise your divinity. But don't be fearful.

Learn what ‘Satyam’ means - truth. Inner truth. Absolute truth. Then you can starkly look at God and say, "Lord, you made me. You know my nature, you know my activities. But I need to master and perfect myself as I proceed on this journey. Please help me. I need your Shakti."

This is what contemplation and meditation are about. Contemplate and master your lower nature. The lower nature means the senses that are making demands without mindfulness. That lower nature is going to tell you, "I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this." Say, "Hey, hey, one minute. Let me examine your needs."

Let your intellect play a part in this need that is arising out of you. Examine it. Find out for yourself and say to yourself, "Do I need this?" You go shopping and when you go shopping take your intellect with you. Don't put him in a box at home, let him understand what your demands are.

Your eyes suddenly look at something in a shop window and then for no reason whatsoever you go into the shop. Originally you had no intention of even buying it, you just wanted to see it. But then when you see it, you don't even realise you've bought it and you bring it home and it is one more object that is going to lay in the cupboard for a while.

You have spent money in the same way on electrical goods and gadgets. If you come to Skanda Vale you will be amazed, we have no gadgets. We have no television or any of the amazing gadgets people collect. You know, the other day someone gave me an electric gadget to burn sambrani.

This is amazing madness, to have an electrical gadget for incense. Instead of having some coal to put the sambrani on, you have an electrical gadget that you put the incense on. I said, "I wouldn't use it, we'll just auction it. There must be some mad person who will buy this."

Heightened awareness is what we have to begin to apply in our lives if we want to advance spiritually.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Master your senses

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The goal for every human being must be to master the senses. Mastery of the senses must be your preoccupation. When you master your senses, you perfect your vision. You find the extension to your vision and hearing. You perfect your breath and the utterances (expressions) that you make. Find out what vibrations you set in motion and what value they have.

Everybody talks about the heart chakra. What is that heart chakra doing? Is it governing your life with a load of emotion or is the head governing the heart? It is very important that you must blend the two together. I am not going to tell you that you must not have the heart chakra functioning well but if it runs wild, and is not brought under control by the mind then you have a problem because the emotions will stir you up so much that you will go astray.

Same with all of the energies in your body. The sort of lifestyle you are going to lead, and the food you are going to eat will affect your sexual energy. Everything has a part to play in spirituality.

Divine friends, spirituality is not a difficult thing as long as you work it alongside your life. Don't make it a sickness. As soon as you say spirituality a lot of people say, "Oh my goodness, so many don'ts and do’s. I find it difficult to cope with this."

Choose a suitable lifestyle

We are not going to tell you what you should do and what you should not do. My job is to enhance the consciousness of the cause and effects you set in motion in your life. You must decide and say to yourself, "This lifestyle is not acceptable for my spirituality. This food stirs me up." I want you to approach life intelligently, not unintelligently.

I don't want you to say, "Oh Guruji said this so I must oblige." No no, I want you to develop mindfulness, heightened awareness, and consciousness. It is so important you do that because then you are the master of your ship, not me. I am able to tell you some things that will bring forward your consciousness about things that you've glossed over and pushed away easily. You have appeased your conscience and sort of said, "I'm not going to look at this very much more than is necessary because it gives me a feeling of guilt.” Guilt is not what we are promoting for anybody. We are not interested in guilt.

I am interested in your power and your power of discrimination. Your ability to say to yourself, "This is not for me. This food is not for me. I don't need it. I don't require it. It forms a lot of confusion in my mind. It stirs my adrenalin."

This is the problem for most people - adrenalin. Adrenalin rises and many foods stimulate that adrenalin. So if you find some food that causes your adrenalin to rise very quickly then you must be the person who says, "No, I won't have that if you don't mind because it upsets me. I don't want it. I can't concentrate well when I have that particular type of food."

I have a lot of fun with people. I know some people can't drink. I know some people can't eat meat, fish, eggs, whatever. Then I watch them eating it and drinking it. I have a Sister in the community who can't take much wine. If she does have a little bit of wine she is quite high so I deliberately say to her, "Why don't you have some wine? It does you a world of good. It is grape juice, sunshine, and everything." Then she says, "Guruji, you are so naughty because you stir me up with this." I said, "Yes, you are the best person to say no, I will tempt you. "

It is my job to make sure you have the power inside you to say, "No." That is very important. If I don't do that somebody else is going to do it for you. So I will make it my business from time to time. I'll give you a little bit of a shock to see whether you have got your act together, to see whether you can cope with your senses and how you are going to work with them. Mastery over your senses is what this whole thing is about. Why it is so, I will tell you.

Techniques won't bring the Divine to you. No way. I'll tell you what will bring the Divine to you. When all your chakras from head to toe and above are cleared of all the aberrations and the vibrations that are alien to you, and which obstruct your spiritual progress. Do you understand what I am saying, or not? Because I have got a very good translator here.

Devotee: I don't understand the word aberration.

Guru: From morning to evening you are adding to the aura. Every day you are adding to this aura. The aura is your personality. When you sit there I look at each of you and understand what sort of life and what other vibrations you have set in motion. In other words, they are your credentials. Your credentials mean your visiting card to me. You say, "I am here, this is my visiting card to you. Guruji, I have come to call on you." Then I understand you, not critically. I have no right to criticise a single human being at any time.

I have that ability because I look at the vibrations that make up the aura and say to myself, "What can I do to help you? How can I change this aura? How can I develop the nature of divinity within you which is your inheritance at birth, to make sure that your whole being is open to divine consciousness."

Make a connection with the Divine

For the Divine to come to reside in you, you must clear all the obstructions that lay in your path. You can say you are going to meditate. You can say you are going to contemplate but ultimately what I want for you and what most people want through meditation is to link up with the Divine. To ask the Divine to come to you. To have a form of partnership developed between yourself and God. That is what Shakti is about. That is what the Divine Mother gives us to give to you - Shakti.

Then any obstruction or problems that lay in your path will be removed and you will be able to integrate with God. Once you are harmonised within, and the chakras are working well, then the vibrations that you set in motion immediately make it possible for the Divine to manifest.

What stops a person from having the Divine come to them as an individual? Anger, hatred, viciousness, meanness, ruthlessness, a sense of greed, and selfishness. Always saying to yourself, "I" and "mine". These are the obstructions for the human being to relate to God.

God is love. Love is God. If you have love, you can make a mistake and the Divine will understand but you must have that love inside you. Love for all the people whom you encounter in your life, starting from your family and all the others. That enables you to have a vibration of harmony around you.

Love can become a problem for an individual because most people in the western world are inhibited in love. Inhibited because they can't express their love, they are constantly troubled by the traditions and customs, and mannerisms that people are taught. From the early stages, they are walking in a straitjacket as well. Frightened to say, "Hello, how wonderful. I love you."

Rajneesh knew this and he started the love therapies, which became madness because unsupervised it became a very bad thing that he developed. But when he first started it was important for the western people. I was watching what he did. It got out of control because it left his control and went to other people who ran those organisations and they were wrong.

Expressing selfless love

The expression of love, the freedom of love, how you convey that love, the vibration of feeling selfless love, to serve God in humanity is a part of the nature of a human being. You are all graduating as human beings from the lower level of love through expression physically to transcend that love to become selfless love.

If anybody applies to me to become a monk or nun, the first qualification I ask myself when I look at them is, "What do you know about love? What relationships have you had? Do you know how you can express this love?" Because if you don't know this love how can you know Divine love?

This is why when you go on your journey in life you may think this is the first approach to love but when you have this experience of love you learn to give of yourself selflessly. You understand the mistakes of those whom you love. You are willing to be compassionate and forgiving through that love because that love is a powerful instrument as Christ showed you. It is a powerful instrument that enables you to relate to God in humanity. There, within yourself is the embodiment of God in every life force that exists. You begin to interact with God the moment you interact with each other with love and you say, "I love and I want to express my love". But you have within yourself that deeper consciousness of love that is inherent in you from the moment of birth to this moment which says to you, "There is something greater in this love."

It is like two people coming together first of all when they are young. They are wrapped up in their emotional love, this love of drama, the love of fantasy, the love of the physical. All the young couple will do for the first part of their life is act out the drama of love. You see, this drama of love enables you also to give that love to that inner being inside you, and slowly that inner being rises up and says, "There is something more than this physical love that the two of us are involved in. I want something more that makes me feel good inside." This is what challenges the person.

Sometimes they deviate and go in another direction to find another partner or partners, one after the other, but really, what the person is looking for is deeper love, selfless love. This is what the person is urged into by his divinity. His divinity is saying, "Okay, you have expressed your love, you can show that love, but there is something more within you and you have to find that love."

Sometimes it is exceedingly painful and traumatic for two people, or three people or whoever they encounter because one partner may want physical love but the other partner says, "I understand what your problem is but I don't want to be involved in this physical love, I only want a good warm relationship in time that will develop."

Time is a great factor for human beings. Time will make you realise that there is a quality in human beings when you first start on the journey of a physical relationship. There is a greater depth to that love than what you saw originally. That is what happens with a husband and wife. They slowly develop this feeling of immense trust and wonder in the human being. They both feel that they can rely on each other, and interact with each other. They will feel, “We have a telepathic communication and a special language." Just the look of the husband and wife when they exchange glances says an awful lot.

The same with people. Sometimes you meet somebody whom you have met for the first time and you say, "Gosh, I've known this person for such a long time. I have an amazing interaction with this person because this person speaks a special language with me. What is this language?" This language is the highest embodiment of love. Highest embodiment. And so you have a great rapport and an empathetic approach to each other. More than the physical love, the feeling that you want to give of yourself to that person. You develop that love that you have through your experience on a physical plane of love but I promise you, you will be so dissatisfied that eventually, you will transcend that physical love to the highest embodiment of God's love.

That is what Paramatma is about.

The Paramatma inside you is urging you to identify yourself with the selfless love of God. The selfless love of God is your invitation card to the Divine.

I have worked round the clock to help people, to give Shakti to people, to answer telephone calls from people and then Swami says, "You haven't even sat down for a moment. Why don't you sit down and have a cup of coffee? I'll bring it to you and you just relax." I say, "No, no, I've plenty of power in me and in my body. I'm here to do some work." In the night the Divine Mother will visit me. She will give me such Shakti. She will disintegrate my body, hold me in the palm of her hand as if to reassemble all the components of my being and hold it together and say, "Okay, here is another round for you."

Why only me? Why not you? Because you have to really work with that love to serve God, to serve humanity. Use all your energies to serve humanity. All of life, not just humanity. Love life, it is so beautiful.

From the Bern seminars, April 1992 · SEM-1992-04-Bern

Guru meets Native American Indian Chiefs

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: There is an energy in each mountain that you can recognise, as in every human being there's a power, and when you are one with the Divine it is like a call of courtesy from the mountains and the rivers, who come to say, “Hello!” to you.

When I was also in Yosemite, visiting various places, we visited another place in the mountains. Beautiful rock formations! I've never seen anything like it before!

Swami: Lovely lake.

Guru: Lovely lake. I was walking through that place and there, surrounding me, were all the old, ancient Indian chiefs to greet me. They were very concerned [about] what was happening in the country.

Swami: To their land. This was their ancestral land.

Guru: They were very concerned [about] what was happening in their land.

Swami: They never let go. Still, they are protecting it.

Sr. Maria: Did you see it as well, Swami?

Swami: In the evening, it was a very strong experience.

Guru: Very amazing experience.

Devotee: They came in their astral forms?

Guru: When I was walking I could see them all. They were talking to me. That is our job – to go to places and revitalise the energy. To give them an assurance that we have not forgotten them, and that the Divine is very much there to help them in revitalising their power and is supportive of their work.

Sr. Maria: So you could somehow bless them as well?

Guru: Oh yes. I have never forgotten them. I always pray for them, so that they will be successful.

The natural power of mountains

Devotee: Do you feel there are different energies from one mountain to another?

Guru: Yeah. As human beings - some are young; some are novices; some have been used for various purposes. But the ones that are really inaccessible are covered – (aside to Swami) when we were walking you remember in that beautiful place - by all the millions of particles of snow [that are] glistening. They were more brilliant than all the diamonds around the necks of beautiful ladies.

Glistening! Every particle is a power. Minute! Thousands! And you say, "My goodness! What a lot people miss when they can't be with this nature!" All of it is the elements – every minute facet of those particles.

I looked out of the window and saw the snow outside and I thought how lucky you all are!

How wonderful to see the power and energy that surrounds you in your life. Yeah! That power helps us to begin to live - revitalising us. If only we could go and learn to and absorb that energy and power!

Devotee: But there is so much commercialisation now – in the Alps – and I think it's a very dangerous situation we have.

Guru: Yeah. This is happening everywhere. Everywhere. You go to India; you go to every part of the world. There's commercialisation of all the mountains, and the beauty, and the energy that exists. Pollution is one of the biggest problems in the world.

Devotee: Do the different seas have different vibrations too?

Guru: Yes. Yes. But the sad thing about the seas as well - they're being polluted. Can you imagine the pollution that is taking place in the Gulf now? Oh, it's sacrilege! It's a terrible crime against all of creation. All of creation. This is madness - total and absolute madness. Terrible.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

How to deal with experiences in meditation

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I would like to know about the mantras. You told [us] yesterday that there is a vibration but what happens when you don't know exactly how to pronounce it?

Guru: Then you must catch the Guru by the throat and let him teach you! Very important and don't let him go until he has taught you.

Don't keep your doorbell and your telephone [on] when you start your meditation. Shut the door behind you and make sure nobody disturbs you.

Devotee: But it is very funny just to see how the body jumps.

Guru: Yes, because you have taken all the energy up to the top of your head and the power of concentration immediately is disturbed and the whole nervous system reacts to it. Instantly.

Devotee: When I realise that my concentration goes away and my mind goes back to sleep I try to recite the Gayatri mantra.

Guru: Yeah. I know. Chant the Gayatri, it will be inside you, and it will be very helpful. Very helpful. That is why a mantra is given to a person. When the mind slowly runs away you bring it back with the chanting. That is why I went especially today chanting a mantra to each and everybody – so that I give power with the mantra. So that if you listen to me it was never the same for each person. I gave everybody a different vibration of the same Divine consciousness.

Don’t be afraid of any passing experiences

Devotee: She says she has a good concentration for quite a while and then suddenly she feels like her energy is going into the body. She gets a bit dizzy and feels like she doesn't know what to do with this energy.

Guru: I can tell you that is exactly what I feel when I walk around. I feel I could collapse on you any time. Because the power is so intense that you feel the world is going round and you are going “Ohh!!” (Guru imitates dizziness)

Don't worry. Hold yourself steady. If not, hold onto the chair and say, "Here we go. Never mind, never mind. Don't be afraid. Never mind." The reason for that is the vibration of the Divine is like a prism. Can you explain that? Like a vortex. Yep, it is spinning towards you. So when it spins to you, you also spin in that same way, and you are absorbed in that energy.

Devotee: She said that she feels then that the concentration, the energy is mainly in the body. If she should take it...

Guru: Take it up. Yes. Never mind, here I come.

Devotee: You say the Divine is approaching in...

Guru: Yeah. Now, when I am doing the Mahabhishekam or chanting there is an amazing prism that comes rotating straight into my head. That is the moment I am really worried because I could fall down if I don't take my mind away. That is what she is experiencing. It is understandable. But don't be afraid.

I always tell the Divine, "Never mind if I die, I am with you." Liberation. Fearlessness.

Don't do any meditation in public because they will think you are drunk. Yes, the chakras are there and you are lifting the energy through those chakras straight to your brain as you go along - that is what kriya yoga is.

Devotee: She asks if when the chakras are open is it possible to get some bad energy coming to you?

Guru: You won't get the bad energies if you follow the system I told you [about.] You first chant and protect yourself with the vibration of the mantra. That is why it is necessary for you to say a prayer or a mantra [ ] in the area where you do your meditation and that enables you to be secure in your meditation.

Devotee: She asked if a prayer will be good enough?

The power of grace

Guru: Yeah. I will talk with you when we have a long discussion. Don't worry. Bliss is love. When you really experience bliss you forget to control your senses. The inhibitions of the human being are of no use when you are in the presence of the Lord. You cry and you cry and you cry. They are called tears of bliss. There is no means of holding back. Alright? Don't be afraid.

Devotee: When I am meditating I see patterns and sometimes I am afraid that I will become crazy if I look at them.

Guru: No, you won't be crazy. Those patterns are in the mind, they won't be permanent. They will change. You will see patterns come and go and then colours come and go and very many vibrations come and go. All you do is keep on looking and they [will] all change and become a vibration inside you. Okay?

Because when grace flows you have no control. The power is there. It flows into you and you don't know what is happening to you.

Devotee: You have answered her question.

Guru: I occasionally take shortcuts.

Devotee: Sometimes I can hear a vibration. Very high. Is that from me or...

Guru: No, that is a vibration of energy from the Divine Mother. Then when you hear that and concentrate on that you begin to do the jitterbug.

Devotee: Do the?

Guru: Do the jitterbug! (Guru sings and dances)

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

Transcending mental boundaries

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Sometimes I come to the person again and again to move the obstacles that lay in their path. That is what it is to teach. I'm there to come to you to remove the obstacles that are there so that you can become integrated with God. That is what ‘Shakti’ means: the power and energy to override difficulties.

Devotee: I feel very good when I meditate. I feel strong and I have no fear to fall, but still, my mind is waiting and speculating about what is happening.

Guru: Don't speculate; don't wait. Just open the door of your mind and consciousness, and let it happen. All that you have heard people talk about should never be superimposed in your mind. That is special for those people and not for you.

Devotee: My mind is used to thinking and thinking. How can we stop it?

Guru: You know, one of the things that is happening in the mind is it's working overtime.

Swami: Give your brain a holiday!

Guru: Give your brain a holiday. Relax.

Devotee: It's funny; sometimes when I think I'm too tired to meditate I just sit in front of the shrine and listen to the bhajans. I suddenly feel no walls around me.

Merge with the Divine consciousness

Guru: That is exactly what happens when the person starts to integrate with God. There are no limits. You transcend all matter; you transcend all boundaries and you can become integrated with God. There is no roof to your house. Sometimes it can be very daunting for that person. Because you realise that you're in an amazing power, and nothing exists around you except that power. Immerse yourself in it.

Forget everything and merge with that consciousness. It's very difficult. People are frightened; they're worried when they come to that, but don't worry. Just think that I am around you and helping you to pull you into that consciousness. Ok?

Devotee: It's funny; sometimes you meditate and you think you don't have success, and if you just sit there it comes.

Guru: It comes! It comes naturally. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Clear away undigested thoughts

Devotee: What is that when sometimes I have a very clear picture - clearer than reality - like washed. And sometimes it is cloudy and...

Guru: They're the interferences.

You see, our minds are like receiving stations. If there are interferences in that receiving station or if the receiving station is in any way influenced by other vibrations then you don't get a clear picture.

That is why contemplation is very necessary. You clear the deck so that your receiving station is [also] clear. Then you can receive the impulses, from outside from the Divine consciousness, to you very clearly without any problem.

Devotee: For me, all of these things (meditation practices) here are new. I try to concentrate. There are so many influences in my mind, so it's a bit confusing.

Guru: No - slowly, slowly. Slowly it will change. The purpose of that is those influences that have come to penetrate your mind will slowly fade away as you give time. They will fade away because they are undigested thoughts. Most often, or possibly, you will say to yourself, "I wonder what such and such a person is doing?" So many things come flooding into the mind! But if you do your contemplation first then that will be easier for you.

Devotee: I feel hot.

Guru: Hot? Eh. Get even hotter! And [let it] spread throughout your whole body, then you'll understand what I feel like. You won't need any heaters after that.

Devotee: I have a question about breath again.

Guru: Yes. You're [finding it] difficult because you have not practiced your breathing for a long time, and you're short of breath, and you feel insecure when you breathe. Right?

Devotee: Yes. I have to concentrate on two things: on the breath and on this point (third eye) and it brings me out of my meditation.

Guru: Well, shall we do this for you? You forget here (third eye) and you breathe first. Then you return [your focus] back here after your breath. Breathe properly.

Devotee: I understand.

Guru: Yeah? Alright? Fine. Then slowly you can coordinate the two and bring them together.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

True gurus

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

A lot of Gurus and Swamis come to the West. When the Swami or Guru comes, you find people coming in front of them sweeping the floor and saying, "Guru is coming! Swami is coming!"

It's not necessary. If he is a Guru or a Swami he must have deep, deep love. Love will change; love will heal; love will create an atmosphere for you to advance spiritually.

Swami: Like Christ.

Guru: That is the extent of the link between the bhakta (devotee) and the Guru. Who is Guru? Who is Guru? Guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara - the three persons in one God. He is father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, lover, beloved - anything that you choose, he is. He is cleaner and blockbuster.

Swami: Cleaner? Hoovananda?

Guru: Yes, he is a cleaner - Hoovananda!

He must have a very good sense of humour. If any Guru gets angry or any Swami gets angry, sack him! He must have a lot of love, understanding, and time for his devotees.

Yes, but, he must have everything very clearly set out for his devotees. No going around to answer a question - he must go very straight (be straight-talking) and go zzzzum! It is necessary.

I will play with my children! You are my children. The Divine Mother plays with Her children, as She has played with me. I will play all your games the way you want! But remember I am also a very good pickpocket. I'll pick your pocket - pick your mind's pocket - and put something else in it whilst I'm playing with you. Unlike the person who has lost his pocket, you have lost your mind!

You know, at the end of a puja I always go and join my brothers and sisters for the meal. They eat while I have fun with them! They are my little children.

True gurus have time for their devotees

You know, a lot of Gurus and Swamis come to the West. I'm sorry to say, but they have no time for their devotees. They float in and float out, they pick the pockets and off they go to another country. And the poor devotees are left high and dry.

A Guru is somebody who must be available to his devotees to question. You can question and ask me what you want... because I do not answer it, the Divine Mother answers that question. That is a must for the devotee; because if the person is not there then with all the problems that people have to confront, they are in a lot of trouble.

Problems - you must be able to go to the Guru. I go to the Divine Mother and I present all the problems of my devotees. I go to the Divine Mother and I'll give you a beautiful example...

True gurus are the link between you and the Divine

Once, just after the puja, there was a lady at the back of the temple and she was holding a baby in her arms and she was crying. I walked up to her and said, "Why are you crying?" She said, "The doctors have said this boy cannot be operated on because he is going to die." An amazing power came over me! I just picked the child up and I walked straight inside the sanctuary, and I held the child in my arms, and I said to Mother, "You can't do this to this child!"

Because of my love for the child and God, I was foolish enough to take the child and question Mother's decision! As I held the child in my arms the Divine Mother said to me, "Go and tell the mother to [arrange the operation]. I will be with the child; he will be perfectly alright."

The mother looked at me when I said that and I said, "Don't worry! I'll be with the baby whilst the operation is happening and he'll be alright." After a short time, she returned [to the Ashram] - not only with her baby - but other problems from the ward as well, so I got other babies' problems as well!

So, that is what you call a Divine play! The play was that through that child She (Divine Mother) brought the consciousness of God to other people as well. We cannot understand initially what is happening, and then the whole pattern changes!

That is our job - to appeal on your behalf.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

Master your life through contemplation

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Everybody who wants to evolve spiritually must first contemplate before they meditate. Do you know what contemplation is? Contemplation means to go through your actions from the moment you have got up to the moment you are going to sit to meditate. To understand the causes and effects that you have set in motion that are helpful to you, or unhelpful to you in your life.

Now during the day, you may have promised yourself to do something that you haven't done, or whatever you have done, you may not have done it properly. Contemplation enables you to find a solution to your problem.

Contemplate before you meditate

I will explain to you why it is necessary for you to contemplate before you meditate. As soon as you shut your eyes and say you are going to meditate, the undigested thoughts will come floating into your mind’s eye.

What is an undigested thought? An undigested thought is that which you have not perfected in the day that you have lived.

Good yoga is perfection. If you are an artist or a singer or a dancer; if you are a doctor or anything, you must perfect that art. Do it properly, and well.

A lot of people believe that to worship God you must become a monk or a nun. This is not true.

Good yoga is perfection in whatever field of work you do and [to] relate it to God.

That must be fulfilled first before you start your meditation. If not you will have so many thoughts coming into your mind, and rather than meditating you will be fighting these thoughts and trying to get them out of your mind.

Supposing you promised to do something, or you had some aggressive thoughts towards somebody, and you did not think about that before you started your meditation. All that will manifest in your mind, and you will have this playback about your life, and this will not help your meditation.

Master your ship

Regard your body as a ship in the ocean. Now, can you imagine this body, which is a ship in the ocean of the world, bobbing around in the ocean without a captain?

That is what life is about for a lot of people. The body and the mind are bobbing in the ocean without direction. You have to take control of your ship through your contemplation. You must become the master of your ship, directing [it] into calmer waters. That way you will take control of yourself, and your meditation will become beneficial to you.

Examine your thoughts honestly

Divine friends, don't run away from any thought that you have in your mind. Whatever the thoughts, you must bring them forward, look at them and understand the causes and effects that you are setting in motion in your life.

Half the problems for people who have depression, or unhappiness is because they are not willing to face up to the truth. [Yet] it is more painful for the person to run away from the truth than for him to face up to the truth and solve his own problem.

It's painful because it will continue to niggle you all the time. [This is] because you've put off the decision of making a firm assertion in your life.

Life is a challenge. Meet it! Don't run away from it. Then, you will find great inner satisfaction for your spiritual advancement.

Contemplate, and then begin your meditation. Even if you don't meditate, I ask you to do one thing. Every day, for ten minutes, sit down and contemplate.

Every one of us is going to make mistakes in life. If anybody pretends that they are not making mistakes don't believe him. But you must have the courage to face up to the mistakes you've made and also change and correct them.

Divine friends, that is spiritual evolution [and that] will help you reach the highest goal of divine consciousness.

You will have confidence. You will have success, and who knows when I see you next time you'll have the ability to tell me you have reached the goal of divine consciousness. It's true.

Question: Can you talk about how to deal with anger?

Guru: Why does one get angry thinking about the whole day? A person feels anger [and an] inability to do anything because it's just like pushing a brick wall, and when you can't change [something] you feel frustrated within yourself and you become angry.

Have you ever seen a little boy who's bumped his head on a wall, beating the wall? After the wall is beaten it's still there. But what you can do is to look at the wall and say 'Sorry I should have taken care not to bump my head on you.'

Anger comes because you are frustrated you can't change, and things are always bumping against you and you don't want those things to happen to you. Stand outside it. Don't be involved in it emotionally. Then you can change it.

I'll give you a remedy for it. If you are isolated in a room scream at me! Instead of screaming at anybody, or being angry, you scream at me and before long you will be laughing.

Devotee: Will you scream back?

Guru: No no, he's suddenly seen himself in the mirror of the door, or place, and it would look terribly funny.

Look at life with clarity

See the funny side of life. I beg of you because more and more people become so serious. They think the world is collapsed when the solution is very simple, and the solution is there for you to see when you step outside the problem and you're detached.

That detachment enables you to be freed of emotion, and be able to look with clarity. That is why people come to see us and to have a second opinion about the problem because we are outside of the emotions that you have got. To be able to look at things more with clarity rather than with the emotional side of life.

Rather than being a mind-bender, we are nothing but a mirror.

To show you how you are, and the way you should go.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

How to pray

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: When we help each other then we open the door for others to come and help us. But we must make an effort first. That is what Christ said, “Open the door and I will enter into you.” To open the door means to serve humanity. To serve humanity.

Devotee: I think bhajans are very important for a group.

Guru: Very.

Devotee: It brings a common unity.

Guru: Oh yes.

Worship is very important because people come and become one.

But whilst bhajan is very beautiful, it can become competitive. This should never happen. You must always be mindful of that. We are not here to compete, but we are here to sing and bring the 'anandam' - the grace of the Lord - to each other. Sharing everything.

Devotee: There are many aspects of God - there is the Divine Mother, there is Christ, there is Shiva. There are so many...

Guru: Aspects, yes.

Devotee: If you pray for world freedom, for instance, is it better to pray to the Divine Mother or to another aspect?

Guru: All the aspects that you know of the Divine Mother are embodied in Rajarajesvari - of the Divine aspect of the totality of the Divine - Parvati. You can name many aspects that embody the totality of Divine Mother. [Then] there is the Father - Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara - and all of them are embodied in God the Father and the Shakti, so instead of going from one to the other, you can pray to Almighty God.

If you want to specialise in any avenue of spirituality, then you can go to a particular field. Supposing you want to make a lot of money, my advice to you is to pray to Maha Lakshmi; if you want knowledge, my advice to you is to pray to Sarasvati. She's the embodiment of that aspect of Knowledge - Universal Knowledge.

If you feel that you are ever threatened by very bad vibrations, you can always approach Divine Mother Durga and Kali. If you chant the name of the Divine Mother Kali, no bad force can ever come near you. The moment you start chanting the Divine Mother Kali's mantra - or Durga - immediately, the force that has come to interfere with your life immediately leaves.

So, my advice to a lot of people who want to conquer the difficulties in life is to begin to chant Her name when you have problems. Just chant Her name.

Om aim hrim srim klim camundayai vicce camundayai vicce maha-bhadra-kalyai namah

Devotee: What is a Kali mantra?

Om aim hrim srim klim camundayai vicce camundayai vicce maha-bhadra-kalyai namah

Or,

Om kalikayai ca vidmahe smasana-vasinyai dhimahi tanno 'ghorah pracodayat Om maha-bhadra-kalyai namah

Or you can chant,

Om kali namo namah kalika-kali namo namah kali namo bhadra-kali namo ugra-kali namo smasana-kali...

And by that time the demon has vanished through the air!

Devotee: Can people pray just as powerfully in Swiss?

Guru: Why not? Why not? You know, what is prayer? Prayer must come from your heart, not from your lips. You can say, "I love you, my God; my Father; my Mother" without a whole string of words.

Can you imagine if you go to your mother or father and stand in front and say, "Mother... Om aim hrim srim klim..." Your mother would look at you and say, "Don't be funny!" You can stand in front of your mother and say, "Aaaah! I love you!" and put your arms around your mother, no problem. It's come from your heart. That is what we have to do.

From all that format of formality, we have to change it to the feeling of the rapport of love.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

What is unconditional love?

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I think Saint Peter says in The Bible that love is the most important thing with which you can have power. () When we are in love we work in love though our emotions and thinking are completely controlled. Why is it the highest?

Guru: Because love is compassion; love is understanding; love is forgiveness; love is to integrate — to become one — and without that love, nothing else functions.

Devotee: But love is something natural. Everybody has this.

Guru: This is a different sort of love St. Peter was referring to - selfless love; giving of yourself without any conditions. If love is returned, okay! If love is not returned, it’s still okay!

Devotee: How can we progress in this love?

Guru: By slowly realising that emotional love has conditions. It also creates certain aberrations of the mind, which will make you selfish. You will always think of yourself.

When somebody says they are going to love they always want something in return. If that condition is not met the person becomes aggressive and sometimes unhappy; they create great disharmony.

Love means giving of yourself and never mind if you get anything in return! Never mind! That is the same feeling when Swami and I board a plane to go to see people. I am there to give you divine love. I am there to wrap you up with understanding and care, and to make you feel good at the end of our journey.

To make you realise that you are very special! Because you are special I'm here to give you that divine love and make you realise that there is divinity within yourself.

Love the divine within a person rather than their form

“Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your might, and with all your strength.” You know, a lot of people look at each other and only measure the love to give to that person in relation to how they feel [about] the form that the person possesses. Then they say, "Oh, you know, I can't give love to that person because this, that and the other, the form is different - the vibration's different."

There's divinity inside every human being. That is the divinity that you're giving that love to, not the form. Here's this devotee sitting in front of me with this form, but my love to him is identifying my love with his divinity. So then the form doesn't matter! It's that divinity, his and mine, that becomes one.

In the same way, I look at each and everyone and I pass that immense love. Of course, there's an interaction between the physical bodies in the mind and [you] say, "Oh, it's lovely, Guru's looking golden today! Guru's looking blue today! He's looking green today! Guru is looking red today! He's worn his war paint! He looks rather cuddly!" But never mind; it's the *love *that matters!

Devotee: I always imagine if we hopefully, one day, become this all-embracing love then we will feel at home, and not before.

Guru: You feel free! Free, free, free, free, free! Now, you are inhibited by love.

You see this devotee is organising a Rock 'n Roll concert. Do you know why that is? Because he wants to create love through music that will bring people together and lift them up.

That is why I go everywhere where there is music and people because I see this great desire to be lifted up in the consciousness of love. Wherever there are people [gathered] together, they're there for one simple reason - not to be separate, but to love; to feel that mood of love; to break the barriers of inhibition.

The fear is removed, because when the music starts playing, first the couple enters the dance floor, everybody's coming to see. Then, when the music starts, slowly aaaah, everything changes!

Now he's not afraid [of] being watched by somebody else. Slowly, the inhibition is removed. And by the time the music has played from nine to midnight, there's no more inhibition. The bottled spirit also has played a part in the evolution of the human.

My goodness! Things have begun to happen! There is such a joy for the person there, and normally, you would've taken much longer to go to another person and say, "May I dance with you?"

He doesn't wait anymore, and he says "Come on, let's dance!" This was the breakthrough that the human being was waiting for! People go on holiday from one part of the world to another to forget themselves. Yes, this devotee will tell you! She forgot herself in India! And there she travelled all the way to India to forget herself.

Devotee: To find myself!

Guru: Yeah! To forget the tradition to find yourself! Oh, so easy! Come to my dance! No problem!

Swami: Guru is the compère.

Guru: Mm. Find yourself! Free yourself! Don't chain yourself and inhibit yourself. Love, love, love.

Guru: If a person really loves and I'm talking in terms of selfless love, it means giving of yourself unconditionally. Serving humanity and all of life without any return whatsoever. I can hear in some of your minds, thoughts such as, "Oh, how can I cope with that?"

Selfless love starts in the family

Very easy! Start with the love that you know. The love that you [already] interact with. The warmth, care, and understanding that you have between your family, your mother, your father, your brothers, your aunts, uncles, and everybody you have an interaction with. You start with that love.

When you start that association, you will slowly want to be caring, understanding, and give of yourself. Then slowly you will graduate in your spiritual love.

A human being who has no experience of earthly love will not know divine love. It is like a couple who are madly in love in youth. They know nothing else but that physical attraction to each other.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

What is an aura and what creates it?

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Question: I would like to know more about the aura. Can you tell us something about it?

Guru: Every vibration that you set in motion is fed into the brain as an electrical impulse. Supposing you lose your temper. Can you imagine how the whole body is disfigured by that vibration of anger? True anger will even make the blood hot. Adrenalin will race to the brain and you will become blind with madness.

That [happens when] a person really loses their temper and the people are mad when that happens. The impulses generated by the brain immediately create an aura around that human being. That is how we recognise diseases in people as well.

Now supposing a person is having a problem with the body. You’ve knocked your body or some ailment occurs in the body. You will find the temperature in that part of the body is different from the temperature elsewhere. Then the aura of that person is [also] affected in that part of the body and we can see it. Nothing so extraordinary [in that] because the temperature has created a different aura to that in the rest of the body.

What makes an aura golden?

If a person has deep love, compassion, and understanding, all of these will make up the aura. If a person is spiritually powerful the aura extends and becomes golden and different colours are given by the different attributes of the person.

You will find that the person who has got energy and power in his body also generates a different aura. It gives [anyone] looking at that person the opportunity to realise that there is a lot of shakti in the body.

The person who has lost their power also [shows] a different colour in the aura. We are able to look and accurately assess and say, “This person has burnt his energy unnecessarily.”

How does self-discipline affect the aura?

That is why it is necessary for a person who wants to follow a spiritual path to retain the power and energy within their body. That is why in a lot of monasteries, monks are advised to follow a path of abstinence. That sexual abstinence enables the person to conserve their energy and becomes a power within himself to advance spiritually.

People who constantly have a lot of sex will find it difficult to meditate. The power of concentration diminishes. The minerals and metabolism of the body are lowered. It is necessary for the person to assess themselves and to have the power of conservation of energy. That immediately creates a different aura and power around the body - this ability to concentrate.

The mind is far more acute than if the person has no energy. [Have you ever] seen a horse in a field that has no power, no energy? Nobody will tie a cart or ride it and that is because there is no power in that animal.

If a person wants [to follow] a spiritual path, the invitation to God is the conservation of his energy. That energy is valuable. Then Divine Mother looks at that person and says, “I have something to work with in this human being. I can immediately give power to that human being to advance spiritually."

That self-discipline immediately enables [you] to issue an invitation card to the Divine to say, ”I am preparing my house, this house that I have for you to reside in.” Where you have power, where you have discipline, your aura becomes golden. The opportunity for a person to advance spiritually is there when you have disciplined yourself and your aura is golden.

This is a very important thing that I am going to say. Each person’s aura is about that wide (Guru gestures about an arm's length) at times and fades as it goes further away unless it is a spiritually strong human being.

Does karma affect the aura?

The karma of the human being also has a vibration in that aura. Anger, hatred, vengeance, all of these things have a different colour in that aura. Greed, envy, viciousness also have an effect on that aura. When two people meet you must be willing to share the aura and the karma with that person if you become intimate with them.

That is why sometimes even if you haven’t had anything to do with a person but you have gone close to them you feel very down. That is why in Asian customs and traditions gurus, swamis, and monks don’t shake hands.

I am quite different because I love to take the karma off people. I deliberately go and shake hands because I’m in a Western country.

I want to take your karma and release you from the bondage of cause and effect. I am willing to share your karma [with you] so that you can be liberated.

That is what I am trying to say to you. If you are willing to share someone else’s karma then come close and then you also suffer the consequences of that person’s karma.

Husband and wife merge into oneness in karma because they are willing to share it. Boyfriend and girlfriend also, slowly begin to share the karma. But if you are a butterfly and you go from one flower to another, then God help you because you will be picking up so much karma and you will be like a man with a sack on your back.

Analyse causes and effects

We are not spoilsports for anybody but we are always looking at the causes and effects. We say to people, “Don’t do this because it has an adverse effect on your life.” We are very happy that people are happy. We are very happy that people have love. At the same time, we are most unhappy if a person goes from one flower to another. You will have bad diseases, bad mental aberrations, depression, and unhappiness from somebody else. That is how you spread one problem to another person.

Now supposing a person has a really big problem physically. Just looking at a person, if you are sensitive enough, you would say, “I don’t want to get involved in that person.”

Stand outside, not critical but protect yourself.

Your survival depends on the acuteness of your perception. Develop that perception for that is the sensitivity that will help you in your living. You will be able to cleanse yourself and protect yourself.

If you feel, at any time that you have come in contact with a lower vibration, and if you are feeling depressed, go quickly and take a shower.

How can you protect your aura if you are a therapist?

There are lots of ladies and men who do massage and all sorts of therapies and come into close contact. I know you are going to ask me this question, that’s why I’m going ahead to answer it for you.

That is your profession and you must continue doing it. But there is a way for you to protect yourself. Before you start your massage change your garment into something that you are going to change after dealing with that customer. Make your client relax by telling them any story, to get the mind away from hypertension. Perhaps some soft music or something to get the mind to begin to relax. When you have finished the therapy don’t forget to go and put your hand under running tap water. You’ll begin to transfer the negative results from your body through that water, for water is a good conductor.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

How to approach meditation

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: The mind is amazing. When it knows that it is going to be disciplined it will put every obstacle in your path to avoid you from disciplining it. You must insist upon the mind that you are going to win and that you will take control of it and apply yourself as necessary. You will never be successful if you don’t do that because the mind will play many games to get you off that power of concentration.

Spend a little time contemplating before you start your meditation

Now I’m going to say something that is very important for you. Before you start your meditation, contemplate. What is contemplation? For you to go and make an assessment of all you have done from the moment you woke up to that moment of meditation.

Have the power within yourself to see that which you have not done perfectly. That will enable you to digest the undigested thoughts. If not, what will happen to you is that as soon as you sit down to meditate all the undigested thoughts will present themselves to your mind.

Supposing you know within yourself before you start the meditation that you have not done some things - not written a letter, or your work was not done properly. That would present itself.

The mind is like blotting paper. It absorbs everything and begins to re-present itself when you least want it to. So you must give time to the mind to re-present what has not been digested by you.

Your conscience is going to say to you, ”Hey, you didn’t do that job very well. You promised you’d do the ironing but you didn’t do that”. Your mind will tell you what has not been done and there begins a discipline for yourself.

Aim to perfect yourself

Every day, contemplate. Then you will perfect your life and begin to change your destiny. You will also have the capacity, if you’ve made a mistake, to have the courage to change it.

That is necessary for you to perfect yourself. For you then can say, “No, I was rude to that person, I was angry with that person. Next time I meet that person I’m going to have a different approach towards them.”

Your whole personality will change. You will be calm and collected. When you know there are moments when you will be stressed and aggressive you will begin to change that as well – because you will know you had a vision of that in your previous contemplation. You have the power to change it yourself the next moment you meet that person.

If you are somebody who is just going to start your meditation and have never done it before, be patient with yourself. Lots of people will come to you and say, “Oh, in my meditation I get so many experiences,” say, “Good for you!”

Don’t compete with others

Don’t go into competition with anybody because that won’t do you any good at all. You’ll be frustrated. What that person experiences is for him and not for you. You will have your own experience and you hold on to it, that’s yours.

If you don’t do that and you share your experiences I’ll tell you what you will be doing. As soon as you sit down to meditate you will think, “Oh, Jane said that I have to think that. She experienced that, so let me also experience that.”

No, no, that will be a total fantasy trip. Don’t fantasize. [For] experiences, the chakra here (points to third eye) is the best visionary eye you have. It’s the best television set [you have] and I want you to develop that.

Develop your powers of perception

I went to an optician this morning and he said to me, ”You don’t use your glasses.” I said, “No because they are no use to me.” So he said,” Why have you come to me?” I said, “I want you to examine my eyes. I’m sure something is wrong with them.”

He compared my eyes with the glasses and they were quite wrong. Then he posed the question to me, "How do you see?” I said, “Not with my eyes or glasses.” He looked at me very strangely, [as if to say] “I’ve got a real case here”.

That is true. I find I am so lazy to put on my glasses. Thank goodness because those glasses were no good. He’s given me fresh glasses and I am looking forward to looking through them. Although I can see much better from here (points at third eye). Far more acutely.

When I am looking at somebody I go over that person straight into their home. Then I know exactly how they are. I want you to develop that. You had that when you were primitive. That was your power of survival - perception. You were hyper-sensitive to protect yourself from being devoured; you had that impulse within you and you reacted.

Don’t you think that living in the modern jungle you need it more than before? You need it more because your power of perception enables you to realise what is going to happen and will enable you to protect yourself from attack.

Nobody will be able to mislead you for you will know well in advance what is going to happen. You can feel and see far more than your opponents are going to. That hyper-sensitivity is necessary and will grow.

I want you to make it your business to keep on looking from that point until you can see more, and more. Then you won’t have to say to yourself, ”I need to meditate.” You will want to look through that point.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

The sadhanas of japa mantra, meditation & pranayama

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Now, here you’ll find beads around my neck. I promise you it is not to be fashionable! It is only for me to concentrate and know that I am chanting the name of the Lord or the Divine Mother 108 times.

Can you imagine me with some other beads around my neck if I were to say, “I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate, I’m angry, I’m vicious, I’m mean, I’m brutal?” Now the vibration I’ve set in motion is different from the one that I’m going to chant now.

Guru chants: Om Maha Lakshmyai Cha Vidmahe/Vishnu Pattrinyai Dhimahi/Thanno Lakshmi Prachodayath/Om Maha Lakshmyai Namah/Om Maha Lakshmyai Cha Vidmahe/Vishnu Pattrinyai Dhimahi/Thanno Lakshmi Prachodayath/Om Maha Lakshymai Namah

How does chanting a mantra affect us?

That’s a mantra to the Divine Mother. Now, the whole system of the human being becomes mild, sweet, and gentle.

It changes the aura around the human being because the impulses generated by the mind, the electrical impulses, are far better for you than when aggression and anger are stimulated in the mind.

That is why we call these [beads] japa mala. Japa means to chant the name of the Lord. You can chant the Lord’s Prayer and all mantras on this very same mala, 108 times.

On the same [mala], you can chant any holy text again and again. What it does for the human brain is that slowly the aggressiveness diminishes and is pushed away and the higher nature surfaces in a human being. That is why we say to people if they have a little bit of time, chant the name of the Lord.

If you have a little bit of time before your meditation and your worship, chant the mantras that you know in whatever religion you know.

That is why as soon as I came down the stairs and I sat here I said, “I want to see how many of you I know.” Do you know what that meant? Not the people I knew before (ie: the names and faces of the people sitting there).

Become embodiments of love

I wanted to look at your aura. What anger, what love, what compassion, what sweetness do you have in your life? For those are the credentials you give me to know who you really are. That is my job - *to know who you really are *so that I can slowly change your whole manner and your aura until you are the embodiment of love.

God is Love. Love is God. You will transform all your [lower] natures until you know love. Love is what you must aim to reach out to get, for it is compassion. It is understanding. It is forgiveness. It changes your whole nature to become sweet.

I say this to you - the past is beyond recovery; the present is at hand. Sanctify it.

That is what I want. [That] through whatever devotion you have, whatever mantra you have learned, [that you] chant it, apply it, be successful, and experience the Divine - that is invaluable to you.

Tips for meditation

Find a place where you are going to meditate. Reserve it especially for yourself and don’t allow other people to go into that room. The reason for that is that other people will come and leave their vibrations there. As soon as you begin to meditate you will pick those vibrations up.

You will be inclined from time to time to have your friends to supper or dinner. Don’t take them on a conducted tour of your meditation room. I wouldn’t even entertain gurus in there. I would keep that very close to your heart because that is where you go to talk to God.

Choose whatever picture, image, or light that you want to put in your little shrine or altar that will stimulate your thoughts and take your mind away from the world of illusion.

When you have [sat down and] found a place, get clothes [to wear] especially for meditation. Don’t wear them elsewhere. Have a bath, because you will remove the vibrations that surround you in that aura because water is a good conductor. It will remove the obstructions to your meditation.

If you have driven on the motorway and return home give about half an hour before you go to meditation. If you have lost your temper or you are deeply in love give time to cool off. Because you won’t be meditating, you’ll be seeing stars!

Take your shoes off and when you remove your shoes I want you to practice one important facet. Leave the world with your pair of shoes outside your door. Then go inside and sit quietly for a few minutes before you begin to do pranayama.

How does the practice of pranayama affect us?

Why does a person do pranayama? Most people breathe badly; they are like fish, they go round like this *(sounds of imitation), *occasionally going to the surface to get a bit of air.

I want you, by taking your breath properly, to stimulate each and every cell and also your brain.

The level of oxygen that is carried through you, into your bloodstream, and into the brain is too little for meditation. That is why a lot of people feel drowsy and go to sleep in their meditation.

The brain is not active enough. The brain is deprived of oxygen. How am I meant to concentrate when my mind is elsewhere?

You have all the good reason in the world to have a lovely, comfortable, warm room!! I love the fresh air. Keep your room less warm and it will be very good for you. If you are too comfortable you will go to sleep and your brain will have a job coping with this battle that is going to rage within yourself saying, “I want to meditate, I want to still the mind and now I’m falling asleep!” Then you give up and go.

Now, after you have practiced your pranayama, then you chant any name of the Lord – or any prayer that you know of the Lord or any aspect of the Lord that you worship. Chant that. Very important. See how important it is to have a bit of fresh air, you won’t be yawning very soon.

Why is it necessary to do that? To protect yourself from the outside forces that may want to interfere with your meditation. You will be more vulnerable at that time. If a mischievous person like me were to see you meditate I will get into your mind and create havoc! There are naughty people out there waiting to get into your mind.

There are many vibrations that can influence you at that time of meditation.

Chant the name of the Lord.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

Joyfulness on the spiritual path

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Now I’m going to talk to you about something that is very important to you, please listen very carefully. In the West, everybody has been educated into a life of guilt.

It’s no use being guilty. What you have done is over. What is present you have the power to change. Don’t live in self-pity. It’s of no consequence to anybody. If you take control of your whole life now and begin to live and sanctify your life then your tomorrow will be good.

Wrap yourself up in love and joy

I have not come here to create fear in your minds. I have come here to create love for you - so much love that I want to wrap all of you [up] with love and joy – not fear.

Joy! That is the vibration of God. Miserableness is not a passage to God – joy is. The Lord has created us to realise the Divinity within us. Being miserable you will never realise God.

Start the day with love; fill the day with love; end the day with love. If you have nobody to love, look at yourself in the mirror and say, ”I love you!" Then you will start laughing to yourself.

Master your mind

Divine friends, many people want to meditate. If your friends tell you that they are meditating, smile and walk away. I’ll tell you why. If they can only control their mind for five minutes it’s a miracle.

Your job will be to control your mind for five minutes – not half an hour, or forty-five minutes but to master your mind and make it obey you for five minutes.

If you want to have a nice journey in daydreaming, join me and we will worship the Lord. Because when you begin to worship the Lord your mind begins to enter the dimension of Universal Consciousness. You have no boundaries. You transcend all boundaries to merge with God.

Take advantage of the Kali Yuga

This period is called Kali Yuga. Whilst there is killing and destruction around the world it also has a great advantage. It is a period when you, through your devotion to God, can find liberation. For God is willing to understand the difficulties that we have, and to give an experience of God rather than a belief in God.

God is there. His manifestation is what we call ‘shakti’. And what is ‘shakti’? Energy. You couldn’t find a better place than to be here in Switzerland with all the beautiful mountains that you can draw the energy from... and of course the chocolates!

You see the chocolate floating in front of you all the time. They were heart-shaped this lunch-time. It doesn’t matter what shape they are, they’re lovely. They are the best people at making chocolates – and the Belgians. Be joyful.

What affects our spiritual well-being?

Now, this is another very important thing. I want you to remember this.

Every bit of food that you put into your system or whatever you put into your system that is in the form of drink or drugs has an effect upon your spiritual wellbeing.

There is a cause and effect for everything. Now I’m not going to tell you what to eat and what not to eat because I’m not a jailer to imprison you. I’m here to educate your minds sufficiently to know the causes and effects of every single thing that you put into your system.

Now let us start with drinks. If a person consumes a glass of wine, depending on the percentage of alcohol in it, I’m sure most of you will be able not to be influenced by it.

If by chance you graduate to the bottled version of spirituality and it is about 15-20% strong then that is a different matter!

You must know immediately that [alcohol] will go into your bloodstream and affect your mind. If it does affect your mind then don’t drink it. Now similarly, if there are foods that stimulate your body and create adrenalin inside your system, bringing out the aggression, anger, and hatred inside you, reduce taking that food.

Use your own discernment

You are the best judge of it. Start as you are today and intelligently approach your spiritual life by asking yourself [about] whatever you put inside your system, “What does this do to me? Do I really need this food? Is it healthy eating? Is it calming my senses? Or is it exciting my senses?”

Those questions are best answered individually by yourself because I do not wish to write a common prescription for all the problems that you have. Each one of you is a different world evolving and each one of you has different aptitudes and desires for spiritual evolution.

Your application is different. Your understanding is different. Your approach is different and your desire for total liberation is different. Yet there is a common goal; the common goal is to become merged with God.

Slowly you are going up a ladder. Each person is on a different step on the ladder towards spiritual consciousness. Recognise your level. Understand what you want inside you. Don’t let others impose it on you. Then apply yourself on the level that you believe is best for you.

I have not come here to change your spiritual ideas. I have come here so that *you *will share with me *your *desire for spirituality.

God is omnipresent and omniscient so your ideas of God are also my ideas. Whatever you want to worship-if you want a mountain to worship-God is also in the mountain. That is the way I want you to think.

Not to convert people but to have inside you the conviction you want to know the God you know. For then your life will begin to change.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

Discover your Divinity

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Divine friends, the mind is an amazing instrument. It builds up so many pictures about the unknown. When you come through that door, and if you have not yet met me, I could be anything from a demon to a glamorous model.

The mind is a monkey. We have to take control of that mind. That is what everybody wants to do in order to progress spiritually. Everybody talks about meditation but most of the people I know who practice meditation, daydream. Because to meditate really well is to master the mind.

The nature of the mind

The mind is like a butterfly; still better, like a little puppy. When you think you have taught the little puppy how to behave himself and you've got him to walk to heel he is off again. Don't worry about that. From birth to death our job is to master the mind. Don't be frustrated by that. What you want in your path of evolution is a partnership between yourself and God.

Now as soon as I use the word God some people say, "Oh No!” because fear comes into the heart of the human being.

For me God is not imaginary; as I can see you I also can feel, experience, and see God. That is not an exclusive club; you also belong to that club.

Dissatisfaction with life leads to your search for the Divine

From birth, one important facet in you that binds us all together is your Divinity. That Divinity within you urges you on to become merged with God. Even though all of us love drinks, many luxuries, and food, how much can you eat? How much can you drink? At the end of it, you are dissatisfied.

That is the mechanism inside you. Whatever you do you are dissatisfied. You wait for each day and you want more and more and more because it doesn’t satisfy you. That urges you on to find something better and greater for yourself.

You will never be satisfied until you have discovered your Divinity. You will always say to yourself, ”Yes, I have all things that I want. I have a good job and a very kind wife who makes good food for me. Yet there is something inside me that makes me irritable.”

That is why you are here. You want to find out what it is that people are talking about; what is it about meditation that would help you - how can you discover the link between yourself and God...

No charge for discovering the Divine

Divine friends, I’m going to ask you to do one thing for yourself. There are many organisations everywhere in the world that have made religion a business.

God is as free as the air you breathe. Whatever we do must never be tainted by involving ourselves with money. That is how we run Skanda Vale. If people want to voluntarily donate something - fine. But there is no charge for bringing God-consciousness to man.

Some of my friends who were in Kiental for the last meditation course will remember coming to me and saying, “What we paid for the Kiental meditation course was only a deposit.” I said to them, “No, that was all for your own stay and food that we charged you.”

Discipline will support you

Don’t run away! I am going to use a word that frightens most human beings. Discipline. It frightens most people as soon as you say, “Discipline.”

Discipline must be your second nature. You must know inside yourself what you want and you must say to yourself, ”Right, I am going to arrange my program and I’m going to practice what I have learned.”

There are two people living in each and every one of us. One is called Mr. Lower Nature and the other is called Mr. Higher Nature. These two people are going to do battle as soon as you say you are going to start on a spiritual journey. I want you to be the silent witness of these two people battling. You should be able to stand aside and say, “Yes, yes, you can fight; I know what I want to do”.

God, the silent witness

That is called mindfulness. What does mindfulness do to you to help you advance spiritually? It helps you to know the cause and effect that you are setting in motion; to be a judge, and to change the course of destiny for you. For you are the architect of both pain and pleasure. God is the silent witness.

If I overeat, like I have done just a while ago because it was such good food, then I am the one who is holding my stomach and saying, “Oh, I have to wait a little before we start the next program.” It’s not a complaint about the cook; it is a complaint about myself for being greedy.

I can blame God for that. But you hear somebody who has overeaten, or has done something which they have the power to change, and who says, “Oh my God.”

God is the silent witness. We have the choice to say to ourselves “No, I’m not going to do that.”

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

Guru’s relationship with the Divine Mother

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru tells a story about how he fell ill

Guru: [Recently] I had the most amazing pain in my back which came to the front. Then it went up to my heart and I told Swami about it. I said, "Something's gone wrong. You'd better inform the hospital." When I got there [the doctor said] I'd had a most serious heart attack. What was amusing was that when the doctor came in to take my blood, he looked at me and said, "You've got more cream in there than blood!"

It was terribly amusing because of course, the poor man was trying to tell me, “It’s no use! I'd better come later and take your blood because at the moment it is full of cream!” (Guru had high cholesterol from devotees offering him rich foods)

I was taken into the intensive care unit. For five days Swami was getting ready to bury me. Absolutely true. I was laughing and joking with everybody (in the hospital). All the doctors came and looked at me and said, "Why are you laughing? Other people who have heart attacks just curl up and are very sick." I was put in the general ward after five days. This story that I am telling you is absolutely true!

Guru chants to Mother in the hospital

This was the first opportunity I got to do ‘japa’ and chant the name of the Divine Mother. It was about six or seven o'clock in the evening. Nobody was in the area where I was; everybody was watching television. I went and sat in a side chair by my bed and started chanting; the room was completely dark.

Mother visit Guru

Suddenly, while I was chanting, I felt my whole face light up. I thought a sister from the ward had come to see how I was, so I opened my eyes to say, "I’m okay." But instead of that, I saw the biggest bumblebee coming through the window - straight at me! Only then I realised that it was the Divine Mother because you couldn't have a bumblebee that big!

Immediately I felt better. Everything changed. And that was the first holiday I've had for nine years. After that, I went home. That same night we had a special Mahabhishekam to the Divine Mother for full moon. Swami said to me, "You shouldn't do the Mahabhishekam. I'll put your picture by the chair and I'll do the puja." I said, "No, I will do the puja."

If you have ever been there and seen the puja [you will know] it is a most strenuous puja that lasts about two and a half hours.

Guru Purnima

The next day was Guru Purnima. Swami said to me, "You did last night's puja. Why don't you rest?" I said, “No. My devotees have come to see me for this Guru Purnima celebration. I must be there." I can tell you there must have been about one hundred and fifty people waiting to do special puja to me. I had garlands all over me.

All the ceremonies went on for five hours. Swami was like Mother standing over me. He was terribly worried in case I fell down dead. After that, I looked at him and said, "Now I will go and rest." I had such a shakti and power from the Divine Mother that I was able to carry on as if nothing had happened. I promise you, my programs over the last four years are three times as much since then.

Mother plays with Guru!

Let me tell you something about my life. The Divine Mother thinks I am the biggest toy She has discovered. She comes to play with me, with Her child. Her play, if you have any concept or idea, is like putting your finger in a high voltage plug!

She thinks it’s funny. She comes into my room, and Swami will tell you, I'm up in the air more than I’m down on the bed. She disintegrates my body and holds my consciousness in Her hands. She reassembles the body and does what She wants. I can tell you that every day is a new experience for me with Her.

I was telling Lillian and the others about five days ago. I had done so much work and I put my feet up. She arrived and took me away from everything and showed me what evolution was.

I saw miles and miles and miles of my mothers and fathers [from previous incarnations] out there going into the distance. She held my hand and with the most lovely smile on Her face she said, "But I am your Mother."

Mother expands Guru’s consciousness

In this way, She educates the human being to realise who God is; what our life's journey is about, and to see for ourselves what is expected of us. This is not exclusive to me. What was amazing was that having gone through the universe with Her, seeing the creation of every single thing, I returned back to my body.

As soon as I came to my body I jumped out of bed because I thought, ‘This is the end. I am dead.’ Swami was sitting on the chair because he had been relaxing on the chair and had fallen asleep. When I jumped up he looked at me and he said, "Are you alright?" I said, "Am I? I feel quite strange now." He said, "You look it!"

I had an amazing feeling that I was free of involvement. Totally free. She must have picked up the anguish and concern inside me for the Gulf [war] and she looked at me and said, "Don't worry, I've got the Gulf well under my eye."

One of the most amazing things for me was to suddenly return back from Her and discover I was still alive. The first thing I thought to myself was, 'Oh, I haven't taken my vitamins!’

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

The best time to meditate

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: [When you meditate] all your senses are very acute and heightened. You don't want a telephone or a doorbell to ring at that time. That will bring you down. [You don’t want] somebody in the house to come and disturb you. You must meditate quietly by yourself and give time for you to return to your body in your *own *time.

Create a quiet space

Translator: He says that he shakes his head during his meditation

Guru: Yes, the kundalini, the energy has gone to your brain.

You will soon find that if you keep on meditating the Divine will give you such a power, the whole body will vibrate. That is the real proof of your meditation - that you have taken your concentration to the top of your head and the kundalini has risen. It’s very powerful.

It can be dangerous if you allow somebody to disturb you. Make sure nobody comes and taps on your door and that you are there till you come out in your *own *time. That is one way in which you can shut the whole world away from you.

Choose a suitable time

Question: Is there a good time in the day when people can meditate?

Guru: I think you have to find your own time – purely and simply. Don't try to meditate during the midday period. It is not a good vibration. Find a time; early hours of the morning or late in the evening. You get better results because the atmosphere is slowly steadying and calming you. If you are tired, go and have a good sleep, and put on an alarm clock for about an hour later maybe.

I'll give you a very good way of doing it, which I think is absolutely wonderful; you get very good results. After you have had your evening meal, go to sleep before midnight if you can. Then, set an alarm for three o'clock in the morning. Then you start your meditation for about half an hour and then when you have finished your meditation you return to bed.

I promise you, you will never fail to meditate again because you get good results. The atmosphere and the house where you live will be quieter (at that time). The telephone [won’t ring] at three o'clock in the morning. The doorbell won't ring - I hope! I think that is a better time to meditate.

Swami does that regularly. We start our devotions at 5 o'clock every day and the results are really good. Isn't that right?

Devotee: Yes.

Guru: You like it. You like discipline. It is so lovely. Once you have got used to that meditation, once you have got used to that devotion you look forward to it. It is amazing.

Devotee: I find that five o'clock is a good time.

Guru: After five o'clock in the afternoon? You have chosen a time which is acceptable to you. But you will find you get a wonderful response and a vibration if you do it in the early hours of the morning, sometime before sunrise.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

The purpose of meditation

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Question: How do you know when you must stop meditating?

Guru: Stop meditating? Naturally, you will stop. I'll tell you why. Mr body is going to complain after a little time and send messages to the brain saying, "Hey, what are you doing with your body? It is aching. I can't sit like that anymore!” You will be frozen stiff.

Devotee: But what about the stories of people who meditate for many hours and many years.

Guru: I'll give you a good reply. Those people who say they meditate for many hours and many years - just try to have a glimpse of their life and you will find out the truth about that meditation. If a person has meditated for years and years he will be in control of his ship. He will be calm, collected, less neurotic, self-controlled, and very, very much projecting love.

Meditation leads to self-mastery

If I were you I would say something very naughty to see whether the person is going to get angry. If the person gets angry you can say, "Go back to your meditation. And double the hours!”

To meditate is to take control of yourself. Meditation masters your lower nature. Meditation reduces your aggression.

Devotee: There might be people who put on a good face but inside they are reacting.

Guru: You’ll soon find out. You don't have to do much. Just sit back and watch people!

People who are meditating are very quiet and composed. They are able to do things in a very orderly fashion.

You get very good results. Please believe me. That is the proof. The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

The sage and the bee - a story about meditation

There was a very great sage and this great sage went to God one day and said, "My Lord, I have controlled my whole self and now I am ready to be liberated. Please come." The Lord said, "Really?" The sage went again and again and again to the Lord and said that he had perfected his meditation and his spiritual sadhana and he was now one with the Lord.

This time he went to the Lord and said, "Why don't you come to see me? I am there in deep meditation, one with you." He literally twisted the arm of the Lord to come. So the Lord said, "This time I promise you I will come to see you."

Now this man who said he was perfect in his meditation was expecting God to be like himself. He arranged himself very comfortably, sat in a perfect pose in meditation, and waited for God to come.

Instead, a bee came to him. The bee was going “Bzzzzzzzz!” around the ears of the sage and going all over the place. With every minute that the bee buzzed around, the sage was getting angrier and angrier and angrier. Just as he was about to take his hand and knock the bee out the Lord appeared before him and said, "I thought you had control of yourself?"

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

The cost of unrighteous wars

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Question: What can we do in a positive way to change things? For example, with the problems in the Gulf at the moment. What can we do from our side?

Guru: Don't get involved in it. Don't listen to the rubbish that comes on the radio and television. It is all slanted. It is a method of public relations to brainwash your mind and after a little time, you think you are mad listening to what is on the radio.

When it started, I listened to some of it and I thought, "My gosh". You become aggressive, *you *become angry when you hear people are being killed or about what is happening. Then you wrap yourself up in this rubbish. Don't listen to it. I've stopped listening to anything and I've said, "Okay, you want to kill yourself, happy Christmas."

Two wrongs do not make one right. Did you know that? Two wrongs do not make one right. What we have to do is to try to solve the problem and the problem has to be solved amongst Arabs - not by a Western alliance.

Now, I am going to put a question to you which is important. Here is an alliance, a Western alliance, a world alliance that has gone to save Kuwait. Thousands and thousands of gallons of oil are poured into the ocean. Thousands and thousands of birds have been destroyed and life has been destroyed. By the time Kuwait is liberated there won't be a Kuwait.

Once you've liberated Kuwait you have held onto a ‘tiger's tail’ because that man (Saddam Hussein) can cross the border after the army has left. So what are you going to do? You can’t let go of the tiger’s tail because the tiger will bite you.

Iraq has a madman and we have also got madmen elsewhere - it takes two to tango and it is causing great unhappiness and destruction. I'm very worried. I have told the Divine Mother about it, I've drawn Her attention to it. Her reply to me about five or six days ago was, “Leave it with me, I know what to do,” so I've left it with Her and now I don't even listen to the news because I don't want to.

Pray, pray, pray. Pray for peace. Pray because we have a weapon much greater than the bombs they are dropping.

Can you understand? Never before, since the Second World War, that twenty thousand tons of bombs have been dropped on Kuwait. Far greater than was dropped on Germany. Now, these bombs are supposed to have eyes - they go looking for the soldiers, not ordinary human beings.

You drop twenty thousand tons of bombs to find those places - in this country you will destroy large proportions of the community. You cannot help but do that and nobody must be under the illusion that innocent people are not dying. It is tragic. It is a very unhappy situation and we must not join with that.

Question: There is a principal discussion here [in Switzerland] about military service.

Guru: That is a duty every human being must follow. It is a part of the tradition and the rules of the game in this country; you have to protect yourself from unrighteous behaviour and that is necessary.

Devotee: But I think another devotee mentioned a point which I missed very clearly, that when Arjuna has to fulfill his duty he must be guided in what he is doing by Krishna.

Guru: Yes, by righteousness. You see you have to be very careful when you translate that into ordinary practice.

Devotee: Yes, because we are thinking about whether or not to have military service again, or is it better to forget about all these things? And what about protecting a country?

Guru: Where there is unrighteousness, where there is a possible threat and, you know, the defense mechanism of this country is really very slim. It is nothing to challenge the other countries anyway if there is a war. In the Second World War, Switzerland was neutral; I think that neutrality is defended by your army. This is very important, very important. I welcome it, I hope more countries will be neutral and not be involved in all this rubbish.

When you look at this nonsense, billions and billions of pounds are spent on this war and we have no money to feed the poor. We have no money to house the poor. We have no money to clothe the poor. It is immoral. Totally, utterly immoral.

I am saddened that people do not think like that. Hospitals have no money. The beds are being reduced. Britain is literally in a terrible economic state... a terrible economic state and all the hospital beds are full. Before we came, one of our brothers was operated on for a hernia. He went to the hospital on Wednesday. He was operated on, and on Thursday he was let out to go home because they are thinking in terms of economics and not for the benefit of the people.

Now that, I think, is the worst way we can think. It’s not in any way civilized to behave like that. Why? Because we are saving money for things we shouldn't be doing. Very sad. Very, very sad. So our brothers have had to look after him because normally he would have spent about ten days or two weeks after such a very serious operation.

Our values have to change, friends. Our values have to change; not in terms of economics but for the wellbeing of humanity. It is very important.

Don't let other people think for you

You must remember that this is world economics. You must understand... why is it possible that a man like Saddam Hussain had so many armaments in his possession? Who gave those armaments? That is the question you must ask.

Who gave those armaments? Americans? French? British? Swiss? German? Or anybody. Why? It is a good business. And having given and sold those armaments now you bomb him. Crazy.

Don't worry… wait till the war is over. Everybody, all the business people who manufacture armaments will be on his doorstep and will equip him. In order to knock Iran, they equipped Iraq. In order to knock Iraq, they equipped Saudi Arabia. It is a crazy situation. Very crazy. And that is good business?

Don't get involved in this. Look at it critically. Examine it. Analyse it. Don't let other people think for you. *You *have the ability to think and understand what you want for your country. It is very important. Every one of you must play a part.

Don't abdicate your responsibility. That is good yoga. Don't say, "Oh, it is not my business." It is your business. You have power in your vote. You must think wisely about how you are going to use that vote and you must exercise that right of freedom to choose what you want. It is very important.

Exercise your right to vote

The collective voice will have a general influence to make this come to an end. We must all think positively. We must appeal to the Divine to help us to solve this problem in a peaceful manner. We should not allow the world to go into a terrible state of destruction. It is happening and it is very sad.

You know there is a thought that in the name of righteousness you can take up arms. But I can't see any righteousness in any of the wars that man has fought. To defend righteousness, the human being must upgrade his values and defend them. I can’t see that what has happened anywhere is righteous. It’s very worrying to see it happen.

From the Bern seminars, February 1991 · SEM-1991-02-Bern

Applying what you learn on the spiritual path

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: All people want to evolve spiritually. Spirituality means knowing in your mind how you are going to advance. Look at it intellectually, work alongside each other in partnership, and understand how you can apply yourself every day with discipline.

The effects of Kali Yuga

Discipline is one of the most essential things for you. Meditation alone won't achieve anything.

This is Kali Yuga. Kali Yuga means the age of everything being in a fluid state.

What you believe is well-established in your mind is going to change very quickly with a lot of emotions from outside and interference in your life.

What I would say to you is to be steadfast in your spiritual feelings. Apply it in your life. Don't just make it a philosophy, but a way of life. There are many, many intellectuals in the world – so many intellectuals but none of them have applied anything that they have discussed in their life.

In these few days, you have heard a lot. We've covered a lot of ground, now put it into practice. Every day, make up a program and apply it. Both of you (husband and wife) will enjoy that.

Live in love. Apply it in your life. God is love, love is God. Love is caring, love is understanding, love is compassion, and giving of yourself selflessly. That is my message to you.

You will have a lot of people coming to you, telling you how it is done (how we can evolve spiritually) and about the ‘magic.’ There is no magic. You have to apply yourself if you want to become a doctor, soldier, sailor, or anything; so the same applies to spirituality.

When people come and say, “Oh, there is a new guru, and a new swami, and a new..." Yes, yes, they're all new. But what is not new is the ‘Paramatma' (ultimate reality), your ‘Atma' (soul), your spirit, and the divinity within you. That has existed in you, for a long, long time. Now that is urging you to want spirituality.

Relax and focus on the divinity within you

I don't need to tell you, but I am telling you to discover your divinity. You are divine – realise your divinity. Behave in the fashion and manner of a divine human being, and every day chip some of the old habits away. Push them away every day so that you discover your greater Self and your divinity. Then you will have great peace of mind, alright?

Can I tell you something? What you should not do. Please listen to me carefully. Don't feel sorry for yourself. I beg of you, don't spend time thinking how sorry you are about yourself. The past is beyond recovery, you can't change the past. The 'now' is at hand, you must make an effort.

I'll tell you what you are doing, which is harmful to yourself. Always thinking about yourself and creating a rhythm in your body that is stirring here in your stomach. The gastric juices that you have got inside your stomach are being created by that fear element, the element of loneliness, and of not knowing where you are going.

All these things are heightening and creating this feeling inside you - calm down. The human being starts the problem here [Guru points to the stomach], then it spreads to the mind and you must make yourself aware of that.

You need interaction with somebody, and until you find somebody, a young man, whom you can trust and rely on and have that interaction with, develop your relationship with good friends and people who can listen to you.

Don't always think inwardly, think outwardly. Inwardly means you are preoccupied with yourself and you blow aeverything out of all proportion - don't do it. Don't continue to do it. You've done it, okay, that's over. Now you begin a new time for yourself. Alright? That is my message for you.

I am always happy to see you each time I come. Each time I come I see the intensity of your desire for spirituality. But relax a little bit. Being too intense puts blocks in the way, and I want you to advance spiritually, to be free, to feel free. Be a bird in the sky and fly freely with the currents of the wind, in the mountains. That is what spirituality is for me, and you can join me flying up there, okay?

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Avoiding relationship patterns

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: I was nine years old when I knew the power I had, and how much knowledge I had. I had to face the ideas of my father who was the head of medicine. He wanted to make me a professional person as well.

That was the most difficult thing for us. If there was a battle going on anywhere in the world it was between me and him. When he said "right turn", I said, "left turn". I said, “There’s no way am I going to put rubbish in my mind.”

You explain that to parents. Parents believe they know it. With all their love they want to do what they believe is in the interests of their child. Those are the things that sometimes recur in your mind and make you question why you had to have this battle, but this battle was necessary for you to grow up.

Because of that battle, you have learned that you should not do battle when people try to do something good for you.

We can learn from the mistakes made in family relationships

What you should not do is enact that same feeling with your boyfriend. If the father-son or the father-daughter relationship didn’t work well, then it has some effect on the relationship of the husband and wife. They bring it into play.

You must learn from that mistake, and say to yourself, “No, I will not allow that same relationship to develop with my boyfriend," because it could happen. This feeling of, [Guru imitates aggression] “No, I know it.”

I had no girlfriend to develop that with, but I have a big family, so I have this ability to understand how they think and to understand this amazing relationship that I had with my father.

I am able to understand through my family and friends, and the mischievous boys and girls that are growing up. I enjoy that interaction and I quietly get into the minds of the fathers and mothers and then say, “Now, come on. Cool down, don't worry. They are alright.”

The past is beyond recovery, the present is at hand. I am very happy that you often think of all the good things and not the bad things.

This is what matters. Go and live on and give your relatives the love that they need from you. They understand now better than they did before, alright?

You can push the boundaries of your mind further and further. Don't allow it to be in a small container but advance and expand the boundaries of your mind.

Every human being has got narrow concepts that they hold. Over the last three days, I have been pushing those boundaries for you; liberating your mind and your consciousness, giving you the experience that you are free to fly, and that you are the master of your ship. Nobody else is going to tell you what to do - be free.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Becoming spiritually mature

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

In order to love, great power and energy must come from within yourself – you don't want it to come from outside. You have all your senses. Initially, you will begin to use your senses in order to love. People get together, express their love, bring up a family with love, and transcend that physical love to selfless love.

First, learn to love each other

Divine friends, you will not know what spiritual love is until you have learned how to interact with your fellow human beings with love. That is the cornerstone of life. If a person hasn't got that interaction of love with another, then they will not know divine love, selfless love.

You know, young people coming to our community say to me, “Can I become a monk or nun?” The first question I ask my mind is, “What do you know about your interaction of love with humanity?” If you do not know or have that interaction with love, how can you serve God with love? Then I send the person back into the world. I say, “Go on, you spend some time [in the world]. Never mind what you do. You will make mistakes but you will learn through that love and experience.” That love is very important.

Devotee: You told us to discriminate, and to look for things that are valuable to us. What is valuable to us?

Guru: That which will enable you to distinguish the Paramatma in you. Now until you grow up as a young man you are literally crawling on the ground trying to evolve. To stand and then grow up you need the assistance of your mother and father.

When you grow up, you throw away the things that you played with as a child. What matters then as you advance spiritually is that all the things that other people are attached to, you will soon push away. You think, “They are not for me. What satisfies me?” Why are you here? Why are you feeling within yourself a sense of satisfaction to come and have this interaction with me? Why?

Because all the material things that you have achieved for yourself in your life, and your family and your children now, whilst they are important and necessary, have taken second place in your life.

Life is impermanent

What matters to you most is that you want something worthwhile because you know the impermanence of life. You know inside you time is running out, and you have to say to yourself, “At the end of this journey what have I got?”

Isn't that what made you come and sit before me?

Devotee: But how to develop it? How to get to the point where you can feel satisfied with the belongings you have.

Guru: You have already developed it, purely through your evolution in this world at the moment. You were a young man. You got your job and got married and had a family, you looked after them. They are all on their feet, and about to fly high. All these things teach you an element of detachment, of fulfillment.

You're fulfilled inside you, seeing your little chicks have flown out of the nest. And once they've flown the nest, this is the true moment when the person says "I have time now to think. I have time to consider the things that really matter because I know full well that none of these things that surround me in my life I can take [with me] when I go."

Then your values begin to change. You alter them and this is why I say to people don't give up anything, please don't. You must not want it.

If you give [something] up Divine friends, that means you've given it up because I've told you so – but I've never told anybody to give up anything. I want you to say through your own intellectual examination, that you do not want any of these things and they are of no consequence.

People ask me, “Guruji, do I have to give up meat?”

I say, “No, don't give up meat.” If you have given it up because I told you so then what you will do is whenever you go to a restaurant or you are invited by your friends, they will be eating a nice rump steak and you will be standing there googly-eyed, thinking, “Why on earth did I promise Guruji that I should give this up?”

You may as well eat it because [you're thinking about it] but if you say, “No. Through my own reasoning, I do not want this, because it excites my body and my mind. This brings out my aggression and I have no control of my senses.”

This is a good reason why you have said to yourself, I am not eating it because it gives me indigestion. It causes a lot of emotional stress.

I want you to use your mind, not to tranquilise your mind. I want you to reason within yourself, and that is vital. Giving up is easy in words, to sustain it is almost impossible.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Can we progress when we feel sceptical about spirituality?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: You know, I would love you to come to Skanda Vale. None of you needs an invitation from me. Come, spend time, and let us look after you for a change. Let us cook for you, feed you, and accommodate you for free. You just discover yourself, and we will wrap you up with a load of cotton wool called love. That is what you need.

Devotee: You know I'm a great sceptic and I'm very intellectual. In my head I know I can arrange all these [practical] things. I understand you. My problem is how to develop more love. You speak about love a lot and for me it's...

Guru: Difficult?

Devotee: ...I don't know exactly what to do to love more.

Guru: Right, I am also a great sceptic so that makes two of us. Now having two of us as sceptics, let's see what you have done with your life and let's see what I have done with my life, as a sceptic.

For example, when somebody tells me something, if somebody gives me a cake and says it is very tasty, I will say, “Oh come on I've tasted so many cakes!” Then they say, "Oh no, this is the best cake of all." I'll put my finger in it and then put it straight into my mouth, and say, “Hmm, not bad, I'll try another piece because I'm willing to try.”

All philosophies are given to people with the hope that they will try them and apply them in their lives. Philosophies are given sometimes without people even trying it out themselves.

We must apply what we learn

I promise you anything that I have said in this room, I have applied, and I have experienced Divinity. I know what I am talking about, it is not what somebody else has handed to me on a plate.

God must think that he has created the biggest buffalo in the world in me, because every time the Lord has appeared to me, I have doubted even his very presence. Not only doubted but questioned, till ultimately the Divine Mother came and gave me ‘shakti’ and turned me upside down.

Now I enjoy scepticism, but that scepticism must be followed by trying out and applying some of the things that you know are true. The mind uses scepticism as a block purely and simply because it's too much of an effort to change the course of your ship that is used to a certain way of life. Not to change the course of events in your life that have gone on regularly, quietly, complacently because you use the terminology ‘sceptic’, is not good enough.

You know one day you have to turn the ship around. Let us both do it together. Come and spend time with us, find out for yourself whether I have talked a load of rubbish, or whether I do not apply it in my life. Come and see for yourself and take what you want for yourself.

There is no compulsion, there is no sense of feeling that you must do it. If you want to do it, okay! If you don't want to do it, still okay!

But I will be excited, don't you think? if I can change some part of my life too. So during this journey here I have also learned something. I could walk out of this house and say, “Okay that's all, hmm, fine I am going.” But I am interested to know what you're going to do with yourselves as I leave. How are you going to carry on in your life and begin to make it good so that life will be better tomorrow? That's how I want you to do it for yourself.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Cause and effect

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: What is positive thinking? What is protecting? How can we protect?

Guru: Very good question. Every action has a reaction - a cycle of reactions. Positive and negative thoughts interfere with our lives. Non-constructive vibrations - vibrations that are interfering and which are an impediment to your own wellbeing - are negative.

I don't like the word bad, I prefer the word negative; I prefer the word positive rather than good. [‘Good and bad’] are two clichés that have become a difficult thing for young people to accept. Young people run away as soon as their parents say, “Don't do it, it is bad."

I always want little children to grow up with this consciousness. Parents can teach them what is negative and positive and explain to the child right from the start, intelligently. Don't think that the child is a dummy. The child has high intelligence and you must bring out that intelligence by explaining the causes and effects of whatever the child does.

That something is positive or negative. If you put your hand in the fire you get burnt; that is a negative action. You will do something injurious - and we all do it in various ways - we overeat and suffer the consequences of our overeating. That is a negative reaction for our bodies.

It varies in degrees and we have to look at life intelligently, not unintelligently. I prefer that you talk to people in that stance of negative and positive because [for example] if you eat that food, it can enhance you or make you feel bad. This cause and effect are what I want you to teach your children, and this is very important for you.

And at the same time learn that one man's meat is another man's poison. Understand that very clearly. You can't write a common prescription for every human being. No, you have to understand and study every person's lifestyle – what the person has surrounded him in his life, the way of life, what he or she is used to, and all of these things have to be taken into consideration as we help people. It's very important that we do that.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Conserving sexual energy

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Could you speak a little bit about the future, about the population explosion? Also about the environmental problems, the traffic and so on. Do you see a chance for human beings in the next one hundred years? Or if it's very bad, maybe there will be ten million people in fifty years. It’s only a prognosis but the situation is terrible. You know, we have trouble in Switzerland too with population expansion. What do you think can be done?

Guru: Education is very important. You know, contraception is not a solution to the problem. Contraception is only a part of the solution to the problem. Education of the mind and how to control it [is also a part of the solution]. How not to be impulsive and react impulsively. It's a very good question because it takes us into the most important part of spirituality.

Conserving energy

The body, I was [saying earlier], is the instrument for spiritual evolution. What does that mean? The conservation of your energy, the kundalini as we call it. Now, for example, I bless that girl. What does blessing mean? When the body is run down and the mind has the incapability of working for itself then we get in there and go ‘zoom’, raising the kundalini. The power and energy of the body go to the brain to stimulate it. That is both the grace that flows and the energy from me. I must have something to give you.

Can you imagine flogging a dead horse to make it walk? If you're a monk and you've burnt yourself out then you have nothing to offer to a pilgrim when they come to you and say, “Please bless me.” I must have power and shakti in my body to give you that power, the grace of the Lord. That means conservation and this is what we are trying to teach people - conserve it.

The more you conserve your energy, the more spiritually powerful you will become. This helps control our population as well because, you know, instead of going zoom, out, you say “No, no, no, this is mine. I'm not going to get rid of this energy. No way! You go away”.

People often ask me, “How do the brothers cope?” I am very frank with my brothers and when I look at them, and when I look at a person, I say, “Don't walk around like a zombie with no life because it's spent energy.” When I look at a person, I'm looking for the energy inside that person. I want to educate people now from schools to say, “You want to be powerful inside. You want the brain to function at its best so conserve your energy.”

Contraception is not an answer but a partial answer. However, preserving your energy and working with that energy must be an education for the human being, so that the person has so much power and ability to work within every field that he undertakes in his life. Though he will work with his mind, he will coordinate his mind and action to get the best. He will be able to get that energy within and without himself from Divine power so that his whole body is vibrating within himself.

What we have to teach people is to gain that experience and say, “Come, I'll show you what you can do with your power. Come on, I'll give you a little bit of power to help you.” That is what a guru's job is. We have to change the educational focus from choosing an ‘easy way’ to discovering something valuable in abstaining from sexual appetite and over-sexual appetite.

The food we eat is very important. The food we eat overstimulates us. You know, if you go to some countries, the human being has been turned into a mechanized unit because the appetite for sex has to be sustained by an appetite for food that will stimulate the body for more sex.

An excessive amount of sex causes degeneration within the body

It’s a process like this; there's something you cannot replace, and that is certain minerals and the power inside the body. The person ultimately shows signs of degeneration much faster when they have excessive amounts of sex. We have to teach people this.

Spirituality is to teach you to conserve your energy; to use it for your own spiritual advancement, and to master your lower nature. You have an animal inside you, as I do. We have to say to that animal every time it raises its head, “Now, come on. I know what you want. You want me to express this desire just to exhilarate my sexual appetite. Come on, cool down.”

This is what spirituality is for me. The more power you have, the more you invite me towards you for spiritual progress. The less power you have, the less you invite God into your system.

I know it is a big problem. You're worried that the population in Switzerland is going to increase to ten million. India has already done so now while we're talking.

Devotee: But it's a problem with immigration. It's a problem here in Switzerland you know. What can you do in Africa, or India, when you are against contraception? The Catholic Church is against contraception. What can we do at the moment? The only solution is contraception at this moment.

Guru: I'll tell you something. The Catholic Church will have to fly a kite as soon as you offer £50 per contraception. Money talks. You can say to people if you accept contraception or sterilization, “Now, here is an incentive for you to accept contraception. You can have only one child, no more in your family.” There begins economic survival because you saved money by giving that money to those people, they need for their survival. I know it's a naughty way but it's the only way. Until you educate people you have to give them an incentive for their survival, it's very important.

I'm trying to say to you that we have passed that inhibition of using contraception in the western world. Now we have to go a step further in educating people that that is not the only answer to the solution to the problem. Conservation of energy [is also part of the solution]. It’s also important for us to say that using contraception encourages you to be promiscuous. That is not acceptable to me.

Real ‘contraception’ is responsibility. Responsibility means that you choose one partner, settle down in life, and be responsible. We want to see that responsibility because [nowadays] people are using contraception as a way to enable more and more promiscuity. It's like a form of encouragement to say there is AIDS so use contraception to avoid AIDS. That is a problem. That’s a problem.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Developing sensitivity and awareness of everything you do

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Can you talk about contemplation?

Guru: Contemplation?

Devotee: Yes.

Guru: Awareness is contemplation. You must be sensitive and aware of everything you do. When you begin to yawn and it develops in your tummy, it registers in my brain and you will see me looking in your direction as if to say, "Are you tired? I will give you shakti from here."

In other words, your mind must be alert and active all the time. I say to you again – when you sleep, sleep. When you eat, eat. When you work, work. When you play, play hard, never mind. When you laugh, laugh.

You must be aware of all you set in motion in your body and mind. You must be acutely alert then you will develop your senses more and more to register the impulses from around you.

Know the causes and effects that you set in motion

You must become aware of everything that is happening inside you first before you think of what is happening outside you. Perfection is what you want for yourself. Perfection means to make everything orderly within yourself. Know the causes and effects that you set in motion.

The [point] is to heighten your awareness [Guru greets someone who enters the room]. That awareness is heightened when you [for example] place your hand on your leg, then I know the reaction and the action that you are having in your body.

I can feel all your vibrations as I look around. If I want to transport some of my vibrations to you to give you shakti then I do that slowly and you don't even realise I am doing that. I go ‘zhhh’ and slowly move my hand like that because in here there is a volume of energy and all my fingers are tingling with shakti and power.

Why not you? It is my job to awaken you from inside so that you also have power. But you have not discovered your power. You put your mind to sleep from the moment you were born and have very nicely tranquilised it.

My job is to wake you up and shake you like a tree full of fruit until the fruit drops from the tree. I shake it and shake it and shake it until every fruit drops. Okay? Mindfulness. Be aware. I can feel how you feel.

I can understand how you are. I can understand your innermost thoughts. I can understand what you want to aspire to ultimately and then help you on your spiritual journey.

This identifying means that I recognise your divinity and I also know what obstructs you from realising your own divinity. That is what a guru's job is. A guru's job is to find out what is stopping you from being your real Self, your divine Self.

[Guru is offered a drink of some kind].

Guru: Is that laced with cognac? I'm very naughty, you must never take me too seriously. What to do? I was born naughty.

Divine friends, I am going to give you a formula for life. And that formula for life, I want to tell you, is that we are in an impermanent state. Nothing is permanent. Don't blow life out of all context to make it unreal. It is real. Live each moment with love. Fill the day with love. Live the day with love and end your day with love. End the day with so much love around you that you are very peaceful and content within yourself.

Difficulties are also impermanent

If something disturbs you remember that it is only temporary and it depends on you. It depends on you, on how long you want to foster a difficulty within yourself.

We are all together now, but already it is over. Already it's another dream and soon you will have to pinch yourself and say, "Did that man ever exist? Yes, or is it a dream?" But live that dream fully and aware. Each minute must be sanctified, made good.

Don't calculate how you can work your way to absorb other people's wealth or prosperity. You have power within yourself, use it. That is what you are here for in this life, to discover your divinity. That is my job. If you give me a chance I will creep inside you and slowly go ‘zzzz’ and stir it up for you.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Disarming anger with love

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: What is your opinion about the armed protection of life? Can I protect myself physically or can I say no, it is not my function and speak to Sai Baba? Do I pray for help or I can take my gun and shoot, for example. What is your philosophy?

Guru: I'll answer it with an experience I had. Once there was a young man who came to the Ashram. I looked at him and I thought, "This is trouble," because he had such aggression. Amazing aggression and so I asked him why.

He said, "I don't like you. I want to beat you up." I said "Really? Come round and I will give you an opportunity to do what you want."

So he came round and I was sitting in the ladies’ room. I said, "Sit down," and he sat down and said, "I dislike you immensely." I looked at him and I said, "I love you immensely. I love you so much you cannot understand." He said, "I want to beat you." I said, "Be my guest."

He was sitting there screaming at me and I said, "Why don't you get up and beat me?” He said, “ I can't get up, why can't I get up?" I said, "Because I love you."

What to do? So he sat there screaming for about fifteen to twenty minutes. I said to him, “Screaming won't do any good.” Only when you love will you be able to get up. So he sat there and I could see his whole being. He was a young man, a redhead. His face was absolutely blue with anger, and I said, "Now, calm down, learn to love. You love and you will be free."

The longer he waited the more his anger slowly subsided. He could feel that he was better. He looked at me and he said, "Do you think I can stand up now?" I said, "Yes because you have love in your heart."

That love is the most powerful weapon. You have got a weapon that is more powerful than a gun. You can disarm people with love. He became such a devotee. He wouldn't do anything without ringing me up. He used to call me up two or three times a week and if he found a new girlfriend he had to ring me to get my ideas and it went on for years. Love is the most powerful weapon a human being has.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Do we have the right to die?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Do we have the right to die?

Guru: The right of dying? It’s a natural phenomenon.

Devotee: I have a child that is a year old. That child is ready to die but medicine keeps him alive. Do you understand? Through infusions. I think this is very sad; you take away the right of dying from the child.

Guru: Now let me put it the other way. If you are the baby, and you register the impulses of the nurses who are caring and loving, and if you receive the attention that is necessary for those few years of survival, would you say to the nurse, “Please switch me off because I want to die?"

Devotee: I would.

Guru: You won't because inside you, you will have a feeling of wanting to survive. For various diseases such as MND, how has [research developed]? We've advanced. There is a possibility that somebody will make a discovery or somebody will find a medicine that will be helpful to that child. You think it's a disadvantage.

We can pray to God to help others in both birth and death

I want every opportunity for every life. My advice to you when you see such a child is to go to the child, clasp your hands together, and say to the Divine Mother, “Mother, I can't understand the totality of karma that this child is born with. Please help this child. I pray that you are the best judge of all this and that you will help to assist this child in birth and death.” That is the best solution to the problem. I have such cases that come to me.

I never give up. I never give up. I tug at the arms of the Divine Mother. I've had people who have been on a ventilator for three months and the doctors are just about to switch it off. Then they suddenly discover some mad guy in the hills of Wales who they think will come to the assistance of this individual. They come and say to me, “Guruji, can you save this person?” I say, “No, I can’t. I will only do one thing. I will go to the Divine Mother and ask her what we should do but I will obey her implicitly.”

If she tells me that this young man’s machine should be switched off, I’ll pass on a message to you to go and tell the doctor to switch it off and that's that. But you must obey what I say. If you don't, don't ask me such a question. I send the person away and I say, “Come back in a few days and I will give you my answer.” Then I talk to the Divine. I say, “Please tell me what you want me to do with this patient."

Faith in God’s will is imperative

I am not God. God gives me the answer and then – now this is the point – there is and has to be an amazing dedication of the people who believe in God. Mother would say, “In three days I will give life back to this boy.” But you will have a job to convince the doctors for three days to stop their hands from switching off that machine. [Imagine if] you go back to a doctor, a group of doctors, who have been looking after a patient for three months on a ventilator and say to them, “I want [you to keep the machine on for] three more days.” Just because some mad guru in the mountains says in three days he is going to come back to life. You try it.

Become spiritually mature

This is the play of the Divine. This play is the way human beings grow up spiritually and learn to surrender to God. I had the unenviable task of sitting there waiting to receive the reactions of the parents. They went back to the doctor and said, “Look, can you give us three more days because our guru says not to switch the machine off for another three days?” These three days were an amazing drama in their life; to learn to grow up spiritually, and to move the responsibility from themselves to God. Also, the inquisitiveness of doctors to know that they are not God but that God exists.

Each day passed, and on the third day, we suddenly saw a reaction in the eyes of the patient. Then the doctor sent a message saying, “That is not good enough. That's a reaction from maintaining such a long period of treatment.” Then I had to go back again and again and again to the Divine. Each step that I took the patient slowly got better. So that is how your power and interaction with God also increases because this is the drama of spiritual evolution.

You're working for somebody else, and working for God, and you have to convince people that that is the right thing. I'll tell you when the most wonderful moment is; when the doctors suddenly realise that the impossible has happened.

I've seen how karma affects patients and I want to change it more and more. This is the joy you have working for God and not for your ego. It's an amazing drama.

I've enacted this so many times that for me it is second nature because I can relate to God so easily. That is what our job is. We represent you and we are your council. You have a problem and we take that problem to the Divine but we must obey the will of the Lord.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

How can contemplation change emotional patterns?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: How can contemplation change emotional patterns?

Guru**:** Through contemplation, you become aware of the causes and effects that you set in motion with your emotions. That reminds you to say to yourself, "I have been behaving in a particular way, which has caused a lot of disturbance within myself and with my partner or friends. I have the power to change it so I am going to change my whole attitude."

You are the architect of both pain and pleasure. You can change your whole aura and attitude. Nobody else but you alone can do that. Look at it every day for ten minutes.

Sit down and say, "Right, from the moment I got up what was my behaviour pattern? What were the vibrations I set in motion? What did I do? How did my friends react? Was I critical? Was I aggressive? Was I understanding? Was I acting with loving-kindness?"

Create harmonious vibrations

So through that process of understanding that you have set in motion, you can correct yourself. That must be the way. Then your emotions are mastered by you and not the emotions mastering you. Alright? That is contemplation. Then any mistakes you have made, and all of us make mistakes, you can correct and change.

When you proceed on this journey [initially] only your mind is working. Then you come into partnership with the Divine and the Divine will then say to you, "You made an effort. I will take over your ship and run it for you."

Then I will have to come to another guru. You will be my guru because you have wisdom! Bring out the wisdom from within you. Your intellect has been pushed aside and you are mindless, that is why it behaves in that fashion. Be mindful and let the intellect say to the mind, "Now, come on, you can't behave like that. You have to be orderly and you must create vibrations that are harmonious."

That is how I want you to develop yourself. Each day say to yourself, "Where am I going? What do I want? Am I achieving my goal?” These are the questions you must ask. You must answer them with absolute honesty.

Self-belief helps us to become calm

‘Satyam, dharma, shanti, prema.’ Absolute truth. God is the embodiment of truth. God is a mirror holding it in front of you and saying, "Come on." Through your discovery of absolute truth, you will know who you really are and what you really want to do.

I want you to develop that feeling inside, "I know who I am. Nobody needs to tell me who I am." That is what spirituality is for me. You must follow dharma. Dharma means your philosophy of life. I'm not going to change it or say what you must do. But you must have a philosophy of life that you have developed through your own reasoning.

You could be Christian, Hindu, Muslim, anything you want to create but start and get on and do it. Do it you must for that is your base on which you will establish your work and your spiritual advancement.

If you have no beliefs whatsoever but inside, you believe in yourself, that is sufficient. But believe in yourself. If you have no belief in yourself then begin to question and ask yourself, "Where am I going and what do I want after this life? What do I want to leave behind when I go for the benefit of humanity and all the world?" These are the foremost questions that must be in your mind.

All experiences of life form our character. You must never get involved in the emotions that surround you, whether it is a member of your family or your loved ones. Love the mind to become mindless.

When you are in control of your ship and the ocean is beating on your decks, you have failed if you desert that ship and are unable to steer it to calmer waters. Your ship is going to be bounced in the ocean of samsara - beaten regularly - but you must have that inner power and conviction within yourself, "I am the master of my ship. I am going to steer it into calm waters, and I am going to help others to do the same."

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

How to deal with the loss of a parent

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Today it is two years since my father died. He died of cancer. It was a very difficult time. I am wondering why...

Guru: All people who die, die with some problem. Someone rarely dies without any problem. Like a fruit that ripens on a tree, it drops to the ground. We are all ripening in different ways. Sometimes we get a grub that penetrates the fruit and then prematurely or otherwise, the fruit falls from the tree.

All of these things are methods for the person to pay their karma.

We are all going to pay our karma one way or another. Karma is the cause and effect that was set in motion for many cycles of births and deaths. He has fulfilled his karma. Don't relive in your life that experience that you had together in the time of his suffering because that means you are not allowing him to go. You are always pulling him towards you.

Have within yourself and your well-being the thought, "Okay, you have now paid your penalty, like all of us will have to do. Go. Go and live on with my love." That is how you must associate yourself with your father.

In our lives, we are all going to experience one or two members of our family whom we are going to lose; don't just remember their suffering but remember the good things that you knew. Remember the things that brought you together when you were a child.

You've grown up and you have had that interaction and that is what I want you to do. "Go on. Thank you for my birth even if you had other ideas. Thank you for all you did for me at an early age. And now you have to live on with my love. Go on."

Have the courage inside you to say "Right, that is over." On the anniversary of his birthday, not his death, go to a church or a temple or place and put some flowers and say, "Thank you, this is in remembrance of you. May God grant you peace so you live on in the grace of God." That is what I would ask you to do.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

If we are created from love how can we commit evil acts?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: The whole creation comes out of love; we are created from love and from God and we are coming from God. Why are we built in a way that we are able to commit evil acts, and where does evil come into the world? This is sometimes...

Guru: Puzzling?

Devotee: Difficult...

Guru: It’s not difficult at all. I will explain it to you. You have come from the lower nature of life. What is the lower nature of life? If I give you sufficient shakti you will revert back to being an animal. You will soon start growling and snarling, and it won't take you very long to revert back to that old self.

The impulsive nature leads to wrong actions

That lower nature is what you have evolved from and you are evolving all the time.

When you see people being vicious and behaving in an uncivilised manner it's not because they don’t have goodness in their hearts. It’s because they've allowed mindlessness to prevail over their intellect. Their intellect has not played a part and their impulsive nature has taken over.

So instead of judging them, you must want to help them on their journey because nobody is going to be the same way indefinitely. Our whole nature changes from one rhythm to another. You must be able to say to yourself, “I lost my temper. I see that, now why did I do that? I must control myself. I must become aware and mindful, and then I am will be in charge of my whole being. I become depressed, I'm unhappy, I want more. Why? I am the master. I am the person who is free.”

I'll tell you something I've learned from coming together here, and seeing all of you. I would love you all to have a group that meets regularly so that you can share your feelings and have a human relationship. So that you have the ability to say, “Today is such and such a day, we can all go and have a nice [cup of tea together].” You can even forget about your meditation. The very fact that you can come together, have a cup of tea, laugh, joke, talk and even play some music.

That is therapy. That is therapy for loneliness, therapy for isolation. That is what I would love you to do. I've learned something from this trip and I am trying to say to myself, how can I organise this so that all of you can meet together regularly and come to share your life - which means Satsang - and interact with each other.

Getting together and sharing removes feelings of isolation and loneliness

This sharing is what is needed in this isolated world of yours. The more materially successful you are the more isolated you are mentally and physically. I would love you to think like that and it is left to you, to some powerful, energetic person like yourself, to say come on let's meet, and let's see how we can utilise ourselves.

Make it possible that we all get together and visit a place where [for example] children are suffering and see how we can spend a few hours together, and help them in their lives. I would love you to do that. Come together and have a cup of tea or coffee, bring together a few sweets or sandwiches, and say, “Come on, let's share this and eat it.”

You'll find it invaluable for yourselves. You won't be alone, and that is what I would prefer for all of you, alright?

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Immerse yourself in the Divine

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Now everybody you talk to wants to learn meditation. These last two days I've been talking about [it in] general, what you should do and what you shouldn't do, and how you can improve yourself.

I know you are in a hurry to master yourself and the mind. To master the mind means you must get rid of your undigested thoughts. Why are they undigested? Because you have not spent time perfecting them or your actions. [Analyse] what you should be doing, how you should be doing it, and be aware of the causes and effects that you set in motion in your life. You have to perfect your thoughts to digest them.

Be where you are

In other words be where you are, not somewhere else. If you are going to eat, eat your meal, and enjoy it. When you work, work. Be where you work; perfect it. When you play, have a lot of fun and be where you are. If you make love to your partner and your mind is somewhere else you will be bumped on the head by her. Because she will say, "Good Lord, you are not here." The same with the girls, they will say "What are you up to? You don't know what you are doing."

Everything has a vibration and if you are sensitive enough you will pick it up. Your job is to perfect whatever you do. Be where you are.

Be like a good postman in your life. There are pigeon holes in the Post Office and the postman collects all the letters and puts them in an orderly fashion so that he can deliver them to the right addresses. He does not want to go backwards and forwards, backward and forwards, ultimately coming to the decision that he is fed up delivering the post and it ends up in the gutter.

The mind is like that. You quickly get fed up with what you are doing if you don’t have the power to concentrate and you are not present.

A lot of you are doing a particular job, such as therapy and you are also studying. How can you absorb what you are doing? I'm going to give you a good way of etching that into your mind. Create a picture in your mind relating to that which you are trying to absorb into your system. If you are studying a particular subject, as you go from one word to another, create a picture, concentrate and develop that power of concentration as you go along.

At the end of it go back and see whether you can remember that picture. A whole picture will emerge in your mind. This picture will stay in your mind far more than if you read without any concentration as you won't absorb anything at all.

That will enable you to study with greater success than if you just say to yourself, "Well, I'll read.” People read, hoping to complete their whole program and achieve what they want in their examination. But half the stuff you have read you have not absorbed at all because you have not created a picture of what you are reading in your mind and assimilated it. [You haven’t said], "Ah, that statement says this. I want to create that image in my mind." That is the power of concentration.

Worshipping God is like that. You create an impression of God, a picture of God [in your mind]. It may be Christ, Krishna, Maha Lakshmi, Saraswati, or any aspect you have chosen. Having created that picture in your mind it stays and you can concentrate on that image at any time.

You have to look at this picture [in your mind] and say you are Maha Lakshmi, you hold two lotuses and you sit in this fashion. One hand is blessing people and from the other hand money is pouring out. So you have this very clear image of Maha Lakshmi.

Then you have the image of Saraswati playing the veena. You shut your eyes and say, "I want to concentrate on the Divine Mother as Maha Lakshmi, Saraswati, Durga, or Kali. Or it might be Christ or any aspect of Krishna and you immediately bring this impression of the Divine straight into your mind. Don't waver. Say, "I want to see Krishna, I want to see him play the flute."

Use your powers of concentration

This power of concentration enables you to link up with the Divine through the ether. [Initially] it is play-acting on your side. Try to imagine how you can apply yourself to get the best results. When you begin to concentrate more and more and more what happens is the Divine watches you concentrating and says, "He is trying. Let me give a little bit of shakti and power."

Then the Divine gives you a much clearer picture, not the picture you originally wanted to see because that would fade anyway. But soon that picture will become a different picture presented by the Divine to you.

In other words, you have opened your chakra, your mind's eye and the power of that concentration will enable you to send an invitation card as a word to the Divine. It will say, "Come to me, I need you. This is the part I am playing and the concentration of relating to you, my Lord."

You must say to yourself all the time, "I am not going to daydream. I am going to concentrate.” If you are going to daydream then stop it. Because you won't get anywhere. You will only develop a bad habit and ultimately say to your friends, "Oh, I meditate for forty-five minutes. Oh, I meditate for one hour, two hours. Mmm, meditation."

I want results from your meditation. I want success so that your mind is able and capable of concentration. Don't fool yourself. You won't fool God. You won't fool yourself; you won't achieve anything. You will just waste time and get involved in a bad habit.

I've seen people who call themselves monks. They meditate and they start with all the goodwill in the world. But if you sit back and say, "Oh, you are meditating," after a little while you will see them (Guru does an impression of someone falling asleep and then jerking awake.)

The reason for that is the oxygen level in your bloodstream has dropped and you need to stimulate the brain. The brain needs that stimulus so that the person will be acute and active in his mind.

Pranayama helps your mind to become one-pointed

The first thing you must do, having contemplated on all the vibrations you have set in motion is to begin to improve the quality of oxygen in your bloodstream. You must do pranayama. You must do breathing exercises which are very important and that must continue whilst you are concentrating as well.

Keep your spine straight. These are mudras. This is the way you should sit and meditate. This is a receiving posture for you to get grace for yourself and this is how you must sit. Relax and sit in a position that is comfortable so you are not conscious of your body.

Always choose a place that is only for meditation. Not a public place where you draw other people's vibrations into your life. You are opening the chakras and if you open the chakras you become vulnerable. If there is a very strong vibration, or there is aggression, that vibration may become an impediment to your meditation. So choose a place where you want to meditate at all times and keep it exclusively for yourself.

Don't take your friends to show where you go to meditate because they will leave a time bomb when they go. You don't know where they have been. All the time say to yourself, "This is my special place and I do not want anybody near this place."

If you have been out and you have come in contact with outside vibrations then have a bath or a shower, and change your clothes because all those vibrations have registered themselves in the fabric of your life. Water is a good conductor, it removes those vibrations and neutralises the effect of those vibrations.

Prepare yourself for meditation

You must then begin to prepare yourself for meditation and if you are excited, or angry or you've been on the motorway or you have been involved in watching television, give time for those impulses that have been registered in the mind to quieten down - at least about half an hour.

Then slowly, sit in a posture of meditation as I have told you and chant the name of the Lord. Chanting the name of the Lord - Hari Om - or any mantra that you know that is beneficial to yourself and you like, chant it. Chant it so that it vibrates in your whole body. You must wrap that vibration around you so that it insulates you from outside influences. That is an important [thing to do] before you meditate.

Don't go into a public place where there are groups of people trying to meditate. If you have been meditating, if you have learned meditation and are successful you will only confuse your mind because you will pick those vibrations up from the restless minds around you and it will come into your own mind and take a long time for it to digest.

If you want to meditate in a group, choose the people you are going to meditate with, with great care. Don't choose them because you like them but because you know they are sincere and their lifestyle is the lifestyle of a person who is evolving spiritually.

Examine it and say to yourself, "Is this person really practicing good meditation and yoga? Or are they just talking for the sake of talking?" I want to see results in the person's lifestyle, it must change. The proof of the pudding is in its eating and the proof of good meditation and discipline will show in the face and lifestyle of an individual. All human beings are evolving but you will not continue to make the same mistakes.

You have the capacity to change only when you are concentrating and applying it in your life.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Is evil an illusion?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Is evil an illusion? Is it something which is only in our minds and lower nature?

Guru: I don’t like to use the word ‘evil’. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are very unintelligent methods of looking at life. I would like you to look at the causes and effects you set in motion, which are positive or negative. Positive or negative means you realise what you are doing and the consequences of your actions.

It means that you realise what the results of your actions are. It means that you realise whether or not there is love or whether you are hurting people, or yourself in the process. This is what I want you to study. Every person must understand what he is setting in motion. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ is a blank way of shutting out the results of your action.

Devotee: Is the world in the state it’s in because of people who can’t handle the causes and effects of things?

Guru: Yes, because they have not become aware of the results of their actions, not just within themselves but outside themselves in their environment. The air you breathe, the water you drink, and the way people live are as they are because we have done so much damage. After all, we have not considered for one single moment what action and reaction are about.

Use your intelligence to understand action and reaction

I don’t like to educate people on the idea that things are good and bad. I want to educate people by saying this particular action will have many reactions. I want you to be intelligent enough to understand what they are. The more you apply yourself in that way the quicker you will change your destiny.

If you have got used to a bad habit, then you can change it by your awareness and consciousness. This is very important.

Somebody from outside can’t change it and say this is good or this is bad. They can only criticise, but that is of no consequence. If I have something to say to somebody, I will say, ‘Come, sit with me. What are you doing? Let me examine it with you.’

This is the right way, and this is what a mother must do with her child. Have patience with your child. They’re intelligent people. They have come from an immense cycle of birth and death and brought with them a lot of knowledge. Don’t treat children like dummies. Explain to them.

I’ll tell you why you’re frightened if you are questioned by your child – because sometimes you feel inadequate to answer the questions that the child asks you. Be strong inside and have the ability to say, “Yes, darling, let me explain it to you. This is what I think. If you can contribute to my way of thinking I am open to any of your suggestions.” That is the wise way for you to win your child over. You will be successful in what you do. Don’t impose a concept in your mind of good and evil.

Mindfulness can help us to overcome our lower nature

Devotee: But then who did Jesus fight with, in the desert?

Guru: Jesus fought demonic forces that people called ‘evil’. Those evil forces are also within ourselves; they are our lower nature. That lower nature can rise within ourselves at any minute when we are mindless and we may kill, cheat, or steal. We may be aggressive and uncontrolled in our senses and behave in an uncivilised manner.

That is what heightened civilisation means. It is when you become exceedingly mindful and controlled in your mannerisms, and you say, “No, I’m not going to behave like that.” Then when you advance spiritually, you will realise that you are in harmony with yourself, creation, and God. You must have the courage within yourself to say, “I am wrong. I must change it.”

Devotee: Will there always be this unevolved part in us, in ourselves?

Guru: Until you have surrendered yourself totally to God. There will come a time when you will say to yourself, “This is a world of illusion. Why am I involved in this lore of fantasy that I am creating in my mind? What am I doing with myself?”

I go to God and ask the Lord, “Please dwell in me. Dwell in my mind. I give myself up totally. I want You to inspire me with all my thinking and living. I don’t want all the attachments that other people want.” But this, divine friends, takes time. Don’t suddenly jump out of the third story before you can fly and hope to land comfortably on the floor. It takes time.

You must evolve in the world through the experiences of life. You must learn to say to yourself, “This is not for me. I don’t want it.” Don’t give up anything. Through your reasoning, you must say to yourself, “This is not what I want,” because your intellect has told you it’s a load of rubbish.

That must come from you, not from somebody else. Hence, I have never once told you during these three days of talking to give anything up. I’ve not once told you to follow a particular religious belief. I have not once told you to come [to me because] I am the only one that can teach you. No way.

I have only done what is my duty. My duty is to improve the quality of your thinking and your consciousness so that you will develop your own ability to reason within yourself and say, “This way of life is suitable or unsuitable for me.” It is for you to decide that, not for me to tell you.

Many pundits say this is the only way. Then, they don’t know the other ways – for Christ taught one way and all these ways ultimately will lead you to the summit of divine consciousness.

I want to improve your quality of life. I want you to make use of the faculties of your mind. I want you to use your intelligence that is your birthright. Don’t tranquilise yourself at all. If you make a mistake through your living, then you can change your destiny through your exertion. You can change it. Everything is moving all the time. Nothing is permanent. We are in a state of impermanence.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Is illness always karmic?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Is illness always karmic?

Guru: Yes. What is that? It’s cause and effect. Somewhere down the line of birth and death, you have picked up this karma – something positive, or something negative. From birth to this consciousness, we have created karma both positive and negative. We are going to have to be accountable for that and suffer the consequences of that. This is very important. We are the architects of both pain and pleasure. So, look at it.

I’ll give you a very good example of karma. A young man came to see me. He rang me up and said, “Guruji, I am suffering from serious rheumatoid arthritis. I’m in a wheelchair and I can’t walk. What am I to do?” He said, “Do you think you can heal me?” I said, “I can’t heal anybody, but come to see me. Let’s work together and see how we can help each other.”

Swami and I went to [collect him from] the train. We lifted him from the carriage, put him in his wheelchair, led him to a car, and brought him home. He was going to stay with us for about a fortnight.

The first thing I told him he had to do was to like his disease. You try telling that to a young man who hates the idea that he is in a wheelchair. He said, “Why should I like it? I can’t go to the toilet. I can’t get up and walk. I can’t do anything.” I said, “That’s your problem. Every time you feel you have to do something, you hate yourself. You hate what is happening to you, and so the disease is going to take hold of you more and more because you hate it. Accept it as a part of paying your karma. I’m going to teach you how to do that, and every time you hate every minute of it and swear inside, I will be beside you and tell you how to accept it."

Slowly in these ten days, I changed his whole attitude and we began to work together. He learned how to live again with his ailment so that his life will be better. After about twelve, thirteen days, he said, “I’m ready to go home now.” I said, “Good for you. Now, you will get rid of your arthritis with the help of whatever you are taking. Your mental attitude has changed. You have removed the obstructions that you created for yourself and you’ve accepted the fact that you were the person who started this from the first instance.”

He went away and I didn’t hear from him for about two or three months. Then one day, I had a call and I heard his voice ringing with laughter and joy. He said, “Guruji, I am going around the hospital ward teaching people how to live with these problems and you will be happy to hear I am on my feet, and not in a wheelchair anymore.”

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Letting go of material desires

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I know I must take a distance from this world that I've grown up in and at the same time I feel I must love it. How do you bring those two things together?

Guru: Right, now let us go on a nice shopping expedition in our minds.

You have entered an amazing shopping precinct. Your bag is full of money and cards and you can just pass anything and everything. You arrive in the shop and say to yourself, “Gosh, I've got so much money, I've got so many credit cards. I can go boom, boom, boom!”

Now let us be two people inside you. One is the human being who just has no control and buys and buys and buys, which is the average human being. You arrive there and he says, “Isn't that lovely, a beautiful plant. I'll have that.”

You don't even take it home. You put it on an account so that all the stuff you want that you think is wonderful and beautiful and that you want in your house, will be delivered. Can you imagine, by the time you have gone through the entire precinct of little shops?

Let's say there are two hundred little kiosks and from each one of them, we buy one item. There are thousands more but [we buy] just one item and we ask them to deliver it to the house.

The other [person inside your mind] arrives with the same amount of money with all the credit cards she's got but she knows what she wants for her living. [She will not buy things] to go into competition with other people, or [buy the same things] that she’s seen in other people's houses. She will buy what she wants on a day-to-day basis for living.

Only buy what you really need

You go into the shop. You walk past all of these things, for they are but tinsel and trash. They are dangled in front of your eyes to tantalise you so that you want them. But in your mind there is a person who is [walking] through that shop, realising the element of impermanence.

For everything, this is the panacea I would give to you. Your cure, and your way of life. All is impermanent.

[We can think to ourselves,] “I will only have what I need to have, for living and for my family. I will not complicate my life, my home, and my house.”

Those two hundred things that the other individual [inside our minds] would have bought, [they would have done so] through mindlessness.

This heightened awareness, this acute sense of responsibility for yourself enables you to say, “No.” You will have that feeling inside you, “No, I don't want it, this is not for me.” Develop that feeling inside. I know it is difficult because you are pressured.

Television encourages us to buy

Remember, from the moment you get up to the moment you go to sleep if you watch that television set it will insidiously plant a vibration in your mind to register in your mind's eye to tell you what to buy, and how to associate that item with your life.

[It will tell you] how important it is that you must have a particular gadget such as a tin opener. Even if you've got twenty more tin openers in the cupboard [you will think] that tin opener transcends all others.

See the funny side of it. My advice to you is don't watch that television set. God has given you intelligence – use it. God has given you the power to discriminate – discriminate. God has given you the power to say to yourself, “This is not for me, I don't need it.” That’s when you begin to change your lifestyle.

Enjoy yourself when you go shopping with friends. You must have a sense of humour, and when your friend says to you, “Isn't that lovely, don't you think it would be nice in my house?”, you should say, “Yes. I'll tell you there are other things as well.” Tell her I'll pick them up for you but by the time the person goes through the shops, you show the person through action and awareness, that buying is all a fantasy that is being created by the mind.

Don't allow yourself to be carried away by fantasy. See the funny side of it. Have a sense of humour in your life, don't be too serious.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Liberate yourself!

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: We have different aspects of the Divine Mother we love. For example, Shakti, Lakshmi, Durga, Kali. Can you give some information about the different aspects and what they are for?

Guru: Yes, I would love to.

If you go to a hospital and you look at the board there are names of doctors, but they all come under the heading of ‘general medicine’.

[The heading is] ‘general medicine’ but if you dig deep there is a doctor of gynaecology, a doctor of psychology, and there are also surgeons; but they are all doctors. They have specialised in the field of medicine and they are all under the umbrella of medicine.

God is the many facets of this very same idea and concept.

The Divine Mother is Lakshmi, for the human being who wants wealth, prosperity, and success in their life. The Divine Mother is also Saraswati, who is knowledge and liberation. The Divine Mother is Durga and Kali in the cycle of dissolution, to destroy within ourselves the lower nature, for we have to go through these aspects. The Divine Mother Pattini is the same Divine Mother, but [She is] a facet for the healing process for the human being. There are thousands of names for the Divine Mother.

When you are going to battle against the asuras, the demonic forces, you have the Divine Mother of Mahishasura Mardini. To go to battle she emerges out of the Divine, the Trinity of God – Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara. She emerges out of the eyes of God so that we will be preserved from destruction.

Every human being will have a very special relationship with one particular aspect of the Divine Mother. You can feel that when you go into a temple or a place of worship. You can find that you have a special rapport with a particular aspect.

You may be born as a Christian, a Hindu, or a Buddist – whatever "ism" you like. But you have emerged from a vast empire of evolution, birth, and death. You have a lot of experience behind you, hence you are not like ordinary people. I use the word ordinary [in the sense of] getting up in the morning at nine o'clock, going to work, coming back, and eating a meal.

You want something different. Inside you, there is something urging you on, and that is your divinity, saying, “I want something more than this. I am rich. I've got money. What am I doing? This is not enough for me. I want something that satisfies my inner nature. What is this inner nature?” This inner nature is your divinity. You are shrouded by your attachments and your desires, you are cloaked in that.

You are like a grub that has built a cocoon around itself. You have grown up and are struggling inside the cocoon, saying, “I want to break this cocoon and fly out of it because I want liberation." So you push your way out and eat yourself out of this cocoon, and then suddenly you see the world and you find a sense of freedom, of liberation.

All the silk threads that made the cocoon are of no importance to you. [They are only] important to the man who wants the silk road. They are only important to the man who is running after those silks and satins. But the butterfly which has grown out of that grub and woven that cocoon says, “This is not important to me anymore. I want to be free. I want to liberate myself.”

That is what life is about. You want to liberate yourself, to discover your inner power, and your divinity. That is the drama that you are going through. You are fighting for survival. None of your attachments will help you to become liberated.

Yes, it helps to have a comfortable home, but it is impermanent. You have a nice car but it is impermanent. From the moment you bought it, it was already second-hand. The moment you buy your television set, fridge, or anything it is second-hand.

You must feel amused inside when you go to the showroom and your wife says to you, “Darling, isn't that car nice?” You say, “Yes, very nice, but once I drive you out of this showroom it is second-hand. It has already lost about a thousand pounds.” Then after about three years, she will say, “Darling, we need another car.” You must see the funny side of this ‘darling’ process because you are going to be ‘darling'ed’ until you are old!

Everything is impermanent.

‘I’ and ‘mine’ do not exist. What is yours? What is mine? I wear a robe. I borrowed it. It's been given on a temporary basis for me to wear. It could be gold lamé, it could be any rag I put on my body [but] when I die, that's it. You must be in that mindset. I will do all I can to achieve success, but it is not mine. I will do all I can with that success to pay my karma, and to help others, to help them build a better life for other people, [and do] my duty.

You must then through that success be able to build around you a vibration of love, kindness, compassion, and understanding.

Divine friends, there's a big mistake many, many people make. They think spirituality is poverty, which is untrue. Spirituality means detachment, not poverty.

Spirituality means, you know, this is very nice (Guru looks at an object), full of stars, I may like it but I can't swallow it. It's very beautiful and that is my realisation. I may have many valuables, but what am I going to do with them?

It's nice to see beautiful things. Do you know my pastime? Every Wednesday Swami and I go shopping for the community, and I go window shopping. I stand there watching and I wear a nice pair of slacks and a shirt, and nobody knows who I am.

I'll tell you what my greatest amusement is. I stand by a shop window that is marked ‘sale’. I watch the ladies pass by and you can see the mind goes quite gaga. The word ‘sale’ means madness. The word ‘sale’ means: buy it even if you don't want it.

You haven’t even thought, “Is it really necessary for me to go in there to buy it?” I stand there and watch them in amusement and say poor husbands and wives, they're buying a load of rubbish.

We are in a state of impermanence. Every single gadget that is invented by man doesn't have to be in my house or yours, because what'll happen is that slowly it will encroach on your privacy. It encroaches on your privacy so much that you are terrified to leave it because the thieves will get in and clear it all.

You're frightened to move because you will say to yourself there is so much stuff around me I don't know what to do. They are all demanding more expenditure, and so ultimately the mind is mindless.

What you have to do then and what you do normally is you go to see your doctor. The first thing the doctor does before you arrive through the door is to write a prescription for tranquilisers. You need tranquilisers and sleeping pills because you've spent so much more money than is necessary and you've got so many gadgets that make demands above your income. You don’t need a doctor but a mind-bender.

There must be a time when you have to find amusement in your life and find amusement in the stupidity of other people. See the funny side of it, and say to yourself there you go and buy, buy, buy, buy. Bye, bye is exactly what it is. Bye, bye to your mental stability. You don't need tranquilisers, you don't need sleeping pills. What you need is to discover your sense of reason and an element of detachment.

Simplify your life. Make it a part of your policy in life to simplify it. That is what our job is, to teach you not to complicate your life, but to simplify it.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Managing emotions

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I sometimes have so many emotions and thoughts.

Guru: Thank goodness you have them, if you didn't you'd be dead. Let each emotion come one by one. If they flood into your mind say, "Wait, wait a minute." Put them in a queue. Tell the emotions...

Swami: Make them take a ticket!

Guru: Yes, [tell them] “You wait till I call you," as I am doing now for you. Don't let them flood into your mind because it is uncontrolled. You tell them to wait. You see, this is what contemplation is about. Tell the mind, “Normally when I sit down to meditate, I can't do it because undigested thoughts flood my mind. Now mind, I'm going to give you an opportunity so that all these undigested thoughts about what I have not accomplished in my life will have an opportunity to air their grievances.”

Then they will come to your mind and say, “Don't forget the job you did, you did not do it well.” Your guilt, your conscience then dictates to you and says, “Come on I want a better reaction from you and a good action.”

Start by contemplating

So you are able to deal with it but you have to have absolute consciousness within yourself saying, “I have to be mindful of what I am setting in motion. I’m not allowing all the thoughts to pour into my mind.”

You will find that once you have started contemplating on a regular basis, you won't have that problem because you will have cleared your deck on a daily basis and it will become easier for you to meditate and contemplate.

Devotee: He says that he's listening to your answers and they touch him but all your answers contain that element of inner control. It needs inner control and concentration.

Guru: Which is difficult for him?

Devotee: Concentration is very difficult in our daily lives when there is so much distraction and tension. How to deal with that?

Guru: There are so many questions in one, never mind, I will try to answer one by one. I will talk to you about contemplation. Contemplation means you're looking at your lifestyle.

Devotee: I understand.

Look at causes and reactions

Guru: You're looking at your lifestyle from the moment you get up to the moment you go to work; at what you do, how you do it, the way you do it, the results of what you do, what tension you have inside you, and what you want out of life.

When you start that journey, you'll find it much easier to take control of your uncontrolled emotions, calm them down and proceed on a journey of harmony and well-being.

In other words, [to understand the outcome that occurs when] you are in a situation in which you would normally react impulsively, or react without any reason or understanding. To know the results of such a reaction when you are at work and to stand back, look at the work you're going to do, and say, “How can I do it in a way that gives me satisfaction inside?

Not that you should be a robot but just to know how you can contribute through this job you are doing to make it a success.

This satisfaction comes when you have become very analytical within yourself, and don’t allow your emotions [to dominate]. I understand you have a lot of power and energy inside your body, I can feel that when I am sitting here. But whilst you have that energy and power, don't let it dominate your whole intellect.

Your intellect must govern that energy which is in your body and say to it, "Now, come on I know you are very strong, I know you are powerful.” Learn to use that energy and harness the goodness of life. You can only harness the goodness of life when you know how much power and energy you are putting into a particular project you have undertaken.

If you put more than is necessary into that project then it is daunting for you and that project. Then you will feel that you are not getting anywhere. Learn to conserve your energy and learn how to direct that energy to no more than is necessary.

It is just like having a hundred franc note in your hand. You want to spend this hundred franc note, not just once, but many times before it is consumed. You've got a hundred francs of energy inside or a thousand francs of energy inside. You must learn how to use that energy wisely, how to work with it. If not, it is overwhelming for you. That is what is happening at the moment.

Withdraw out of yourself, look at yourself, look at the projects and the things you want to do, and ask yourself, “How much of this energy am I going to use on this project? I'm not going to just go ‘unngh’ (Guru imitates someone jumping in). No, I'm going to say to myself I'm going to conserve [my energy]. I'm going to work it wisely, and achieve what I want.”

Your relationships will also be better. At the moment you have this volume of energy, and other people can't relate to it.

The emotions have an extension to them. First, you have to experience your emotions then you will discover your divinity through those emotions. I'll tell you why I am saying this.

Use the energy of the heart

[Through the emotions and what you express] you will find suddenly that there is something more than what you can do with your hands or your eyes; that there is something more than what you can do with your hearing or with your prana and the sound that comes from your lips and throat. When you begin to use the energy that you have got in your heart you will slowly and steadily realise that there is a power greater than just the superficial use of your emotions.

You will transcend the superficial use of your emotions to discover the sixth sense. The sixth sense is the extension of all the senses that enables you to perceive and realise divinity. That enables you also to discover your intellect. At the moment you are only doing things with your mind.

The mind can become mindless at any moment without your power of intellect. To discriminate, to understand what you are doing, and to be able to say no this is not for me, I'm fooling myself by pretending that this is divine.

The senses within yourself will always try to play a game with you. They will slowly bombard the mind with ideas saying, “This is divine, this is very important for you, you must have this.” Then you must halt that thought and say, “Why is this divine? Who is sending this message? Why am I thinking like this?”

Then you will soon discover there is a little monkey in your brain that is playing a game. That is the monkey you have to take control of and develop as you go along, for the mind is a monkey.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Powers of perception

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: When I am meditating there are thoughts and pictures passing by. Am I daydreaming?

Guru: No. So, what is your form of meditation? The one I taught you? Yes. You will see many, many images. That is your television set, a real television set. Once you improve your vision in that television set you will never, ever want to do anything else but look through that television screen. That is my television set and that television set tells me every single thing in detail, all about life and people and all the things I have to do.

So develop that power of perception. Do you know what the power of perception means? To feel how things are going your way or what is obstructing you. That was how human beings were before when you were primitive, so-called primitive.

Now you are more primitive than before because now you have no defense mechanism. Your defense mechanism has been removed from you because your powers of perception have diminished.

Your survival when you were so-called primitive depended on how perceptive you were. Other animals would prey on you and your perception said to you, "Gosh, I must survive," and the vista opens in your mind. This is what shakti means. Energy.

Divine friends, if you want spirituality – I have to word this carefully because the girls and boys will be angry with me – don't have too much sex. Don't burn up your energy within because if you do you will be like a squeezed lemon peel; all the juices will have gone out and it will be dry. No power. You want power inside.

You must talk it over because you may want sexual interaction but your partner may not want it so find a good ground for your relationship and say, "Let us both aspire to meditate."

Look at the foods that you are going to eat and say to yourself, "Is this exciting my senses? Is this making me more inclined for sex or making me more uncontrollable in my senses?" You are the best judge on that. You must have within yourself that ability to discriminate - that’s very, very important.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Preparing the body to receive divine energy

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Preparing the body and mind to receive divine energy

Guru: The body is the dwelling place of the Lord. What does that mean, the dwelling place for the Lord?

[The body] is an instrument with which we work to discover the potential within ourselves, which is Divine. Your eyes, ears, voice, actions, and energies – all are but instruments with which to discover the highest embodiment within yourself.

Now people have the most amazing concept that you can do what you want with the body and then allow God to come into it as well. You must prepare the body to receive the energy of the Divine – Shakti.

That means you must find out what you put inside yourself. Whether it is injurious or harmful to you, where it is grown, and how it has come onto your plate. Be intelligent enough to question all that surrounds you in your life, to find out whether it is harmful or injurious.

Everybody's talking about ecology, but what is ecology? Ecology means that you want a better lifestyle in the environment in which you live, [to know if] the water you drink, the air you breathe, and the food you eat [is natural]. Also, to find out whether the food that you grow in terms of vegetables is grown naturally or unnaturally.

Whether the element that is introduced to the growth of life, and to the grass that you grow, is a chemical. All of these create an imbalance in the body and eventually an imbalance of the mind. Ultimately the human being finds it difficult to cope with those imbalances.

But fortunately, the EEC has been making it a must that all chemicals and whatever is introduced into food is well catalogued in the sale of the food.

We have to question all of these things.

Consider what you eat and where it comes from

You know you eat cheese. Have you questioned how that cheese was made? There are two substances you use for the making of cheese, rennet, and renelazy. Now rennet comes from the extract of calves' hooves and stomachs. Renelazy is a chemical [that is] produced [and then] introduced into making cheese.

The vibrations of those two are distinctly different. You always have to ask yourself how it is made. Nowadays there are more and more shops selling vegetarian cheese. Vegetarian cheese is cheese made out of renelazy, not rennet. They have introduced it more and more because people are saying, “No, I don't want this.” (cheese made from rennet)

We have to ask ourselves what has been introduced into the food chain that is going to interfere with our lifestyle.

I was asked a very important question - is wine good or bad for you spiritually? You know, if you drink five cups of tea, it's bad for you. If you drink ten cups of coffee, it's bad for you. If you drink anything in excess it's bad for you. If you eat everything in excess, it's bad for you.

You must monitor the amount of drink whatever it is and say to yourself when I take too many glasses of port, gin, or alcohol, it interferes with my clear thinking and the alcohol in my blood has some adverse effect.

You must have the ability to say to yourself, “Right, I will have one drink and that's quite enough for me.” If it’s not harmful, maybe two. By the third, you're getting into the nice, happy stage. After four you see butterflies!

You are the best person [to decide] whether you want to see butterflies or have a nice drink.

I am not going to tell you not to drink. But if you drink, be wise about how much you're consuming, and whether or not that can be tolerated by the body. Be the judge of it and assess it for yourself.

I said the body is the dwelling place of the Lord. You must prepare it. When the Divine comes to you, you must be ready to handle the power and energy of the Divine in your body.

If there are any impurities in that body you will really find a reaction that absolutely blows your mind. Hence, there is a safety mechanism within the body that stops you from advancing to the Divine until you've prepared your body. This safety mechanism in the body is there for the evolution of the human being spiritually. In other words, until you've prepared the ground and the dwelling place of the Lord, you have no accessibility to the total energy of the Divine. Slowly we are growing up. The world is growing up to discover this. Hence, you will find that great yogis and rishis and a lot of masters abstain from things that disrupt the body.

We overstimulate ourselves. You don't have to overstimulate yourself. Anything that is unnatural [such as] drugs - no way! I've heard young people say to me, “But yogis smoke hash." They are bogies that smoke hash. Yogis don't need hash. They are stimulated by divine power. They don't need any foreign material in their brain.

The brain is an amazing mechanism. You want it to function without any interference or foreign substances going through your brain because it's an impediment not to get it functioning at its best. You want it to be alert.

What does the brain do? It is like a receiving station collecting all the impulses around you. To discover those impulses you must be heightened in your awareness. Any foreign matter that goes into that disturbs your equilibrium, your mind, and the proper functioning of the brain.

All the senses must be able to send impulses to the brain that are registered in the brain and your reactions must be very swift. We want our reflex actions to be so swift that [for example] I can put my hand like this (Guru puts his hand near a devotee's head) and go ‘zoom’ and I have a feel of you, with my fingers like that. Hence, I can feel you and get you in my whole system and it registers in my brain.

Cultivate a heightened awareness

This is how you were in your early, what you call primitive, state when your survival depended on heightened awareness and consciousness. That heightened awareness and consciousness diminished as you called yourself civilised. You became uncivilised really.

What happened was that your heightened awareness and your sense of preservation diminished because you became complacent. The mind was tranquilised with a sense of security. But you need to survive in the world you live in by heightening your senses and awareness.

If you pick something up in your hand, you should be able to feel how it has come about, the way it has come about, and the whole story about it. You must feel. Look at the young bird flying underneath the hovering hawk. Its survival depends on its alertness and awareness. If not, it will be killed.

We are destroying ourselves by tranquilising ourselves from being receptive to the vibrations that exist around us. We have put a lot of substances and vibrations into the mind that impairs its proper functioning.

That is why we say to people, “Look at the food you eat. You are the food [that you eat] and that which you have put into your system. Then you manifest it. Your aggression, your fear, and all the vibrations that stimulate you in your life you have put into yourself. The environment you live in, and the water you drink also affect you.

When I go to London, I always drink bottled water. Because when I see the water flowing through the taps I say to myself, “Five times recycled." You may have been able to get the impurities out of the water but you have not been able to take away the vibrations. You want purity in your bloodstream, not a vibration. Vibration cannot be analysed through this process of eliminating the bacteria. That vibration comes from how it came through the tap that you drink it from. You must be conscious of all these things. This for me is spirituality.

Use your awareness to change your life

Spirituality means [being aware of] what you eat and drink, and the way your lifestyle is. Spirituality means the vibrations and calmness that exist inside you, the power that you have in your mind, and the functions and faculties of your brain. The totality of that enables you to discover your divinity - the power within yourself. That is what yoga means to me. Yoga means par excellence in every single thing. I want you to be able to say to yourself, “I've started a journey on the spiritual path. Let me examine the causes and effects that are set in motion. I want to improve the life-cycle within myself and my surrounding environment.”

Live in a place that isn’t crowded [if you can], and have accessibility to pure air. We call it ‘prana’. Prana means the oxygen level that is coming into your bloodstream that enables you to combat any impurity that exists in your body. All the cells of your body need oxygen and if you live in an area close to the mountains, or you go regularly to the mountains, you will feel much better inside and you will be able to combat any problem that the body has to overcome.

Nobody is going to live indefinitely. But whilst we live, let us take advantage to improve the quality of our lives and the lives of our fellow beings. [To improve] the air we breathe, and the environment we live in. Let’s improve the quality of food we have and the sort of relationships we have with other people. [And to understand] that the amount of pressure that is borne by us stops us from having time to truly relax and discover our own power.

In the silence of your own thoughts, you will discover God. It is not in the hubbub of activity that you will find God. There must be a time for every human being before they go to bed at night to withdraw for at least five or ten minutes. Reflect on your day's activities, and your lifestyle, and then say to yourself, “I have made these mistakes.” Have the courage of your conviction to change it. Nobody else can do it for you. You must say to yourself, “I want to change.”

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Spiritual siddhis

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I think you have experience with spiritual healing. What do you think about healers who operate with their fingers without using a knife? Do you know the healer in the Philippines?

Guru: Yes.

Devotee: I saw a videotape of it. He removed a tumour from someone. But I can't understand whether or not this is possible. Is it perhaps a trick?

Guru: No, it is a possibility. It's a possibility that the mind transcends the physical and that's what he's doing. He’s doing it with his mind and he’s able to do it. That is his grace; he's received that grace and he can do that. It's very difficult to put it in a form of analysis so that you can understand it.

For example, I can sit here and at the same time just do that and be somewhere else. People can't understand that. I can see in detail what people are doing in Skanda Vale, whilst I am sitting here.

Once you have trained your mind like that, you can do so many things and that’s why I want to share my excitement with you and say, “Come on, sit with me and discover the power which exists within you.”

There are many facets to that work. People can materialise. Each siddhi is a special boon granted by the Lord for that individual and some [masters] can transport themselves from one place to another – and it's the mind again – transporting from one place to another.

[There are two different ways of materialising objects.] One is to materialise something by collecting the energies of the mind and making those energies into what the mind wants.

The other is to move an object from one place to another, and this is what most people do. Very rarely do they materialise in a real way. So, they can do that. I can understand it. I think it would be more difficult for modern doctors and scientists to understand it because they haven't got the ability to comprehend that the mind has great abilities within. It's a natural feeling inside the person to be able to do that. It's a part of his evolution and ability.

Devotee: Is God behind these people?

Guru: Energy. Shakti. Divine people have the power to do that.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

The importance of tolerance and understanding

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Why do we mostly pray to the Divine Mother as a group rather than Divine Father? Is the Divine Mother better for us at this [present] time? Why is it like this?

Guru: Now can I pose a problem to you?

Devotee: Yes, please.

Guru: If you had a problem who would you go to?

Devotee: Father....no to mother, yes, yes it's right!

Guru: Because your mother has carried you in her womb and there is an umbilical cord that, although it's severed, creates a special relationship with you for she has given birth to life. The Father may be very nice, he's a banker (for example), and he can supply you with all the funds, but yet when there's a real problem you run to your mother and say, “Ma, here I am, I'm in terrible trouble, please help.” At the same time, you must not forget the male aspect which is very much a part of the duality within ourselves. You think you are female or male, but you are a duality.

A balance between the masculine and feminine within is important

You have both inside you. That good balance enables you to be gentle. Can you imagine a man here who is masculine, ninety percent masculine? You would hate to look at him because he would be so gross in his mannerisms. It's because there is a refinement in the balance of a man and a woman that you can interact with each other.

[Similarly, imagine] if there was a woman who identified herself completely with the male aspect within she walks along with long breeches and two guns by her side. That is the attitude of a lot of women today for their liberation movement. They have lost the most wonderful power that they have. You are a woman. You have a magic potion that can tantalise man. Use it! You throw that overboard and you are in dead trouble.

Devotee: It must be in balance.

Guru: It will be in balance, it must be in balance. Men don't like to show the female aspect of themselves, they always want to show how masculine they are. That's a part of the nature of man. My advice to all the women is to say no matter how wonderfully manly he is see the soft side of him, and butter him up.

Devotee: Butter?

Swami: It's a very English expression.

Guru: Yes, there is a sweetness in man. Why don’t you want to get that? If you have a good balance in your marital life then you can be very successful in your spiritual life as well because one will be complementary to the other. One without the other just doesn’t work well.

Devotee: A big part of our society is homosexual. Do you think that homosexuality is a kind of board/bridge towards spirituality because you are not involved in family life? Because usually somebody has to bring up a family, and only afterward you can have your spiritual life as you say. But homosexual people cannot have a family. Is that an invitation towards spirituality?

Guru: Well we have to try to teach people that they have a difficult life to learn how to cope with the demands that are made by the senses and how to master them. You have to teach people from an early age when they are little children growing up, that there's a duality in them so sometimes one aspect of that duality will make more demands than the other.

We put tags on people who have those feelings and either we condemn it or we have some element of understanding. The understanding is that the balances [of duality] in the human being have become a little bit more [masculine or feminine] and so they express that desire.

The prettiest girls from Germany came to see Swami and me and we were talking. They were being pretty honest with us and said, “Do you know, my brothers always wanted to be girls and we wanted to be boys. We thought that would be the best thing that could happen to us because we had a wonderful feeling inside [when we thought about what it would feel like] if we could be boys.”

This desire exists and sometimes it is carried to the point of having a sexual interaction with the same gender. But understanding and education are important rather than condemning. I don't like condemning anybody.

I like to see the background of people to look at their lives. You would find that in their early youth there were some aberrations [for example] of lack of love or the mother may have overpowered the lifestyle of the son and the son adopted more feminine aspects because he has become very mother oriented. There are so many psychological factors that you have to take into consideration. Also, the imbalance of the body’s hormones that make up the male and female sometimes makes it very difficult but essentially we have to have understanding.

No need to categorise people

Ok, what about lesbians? What about the other people who have different approaches in life? Are you going to be so ruthless and turf them out of their livelihoods because you don't like them?

Then you slowly graduate into narrowing the whole family of the world into just an exclusive group of people who you like or you do not like, and, and you approve or you disapprove, and here begins a lot of dissension with yourself.

You then say to yourself, “Now we have excluded the people who have got AIDS. We will isolate them in a camp far away in the mountains so that nobody can have access to them. Then you go to the next stage and say, “There are people who have got tuberculosis, we will put them in that mountain.” Then you put another group of people on another mountain because they have got another disease.

By the time you have finished, you're on a dangerous journey, because you have put people into various categories and not for once questioned what makes a human being as they are. It is because of his frailty in his nature. He's evolving all the time. Nothing is permanent.

If you sit down with somebody who has a particular way of life you can ask them if they are really satisfied with their life. For example, if you ask a married couple, “Are you happy? Is this what you want?” [They will say] “No, no I want a change of partner now, I've been with this partner for ten years, seven years, twelve years,” and it goes on like that.

Swami and I went to the states and I saw about two hundred people in that time I spent in the States, nearly one week. I never heard anything so mad. I couldn't believe that such a complete contrast to marital life existed, as in the States. I couldn't believe it.

The most beautiful woman came to see me and she was really beautiful. She had photographs [of her family and friends with her] and she had a lovely daughter who was equally beautiful. She was very rich. She had come from L.A. and she was living in Big Bear.

I said, “What can I do?” She said, “Well, I'm married but I want to leave my husband.” I said, “Really? What for?” “I've found another man, he's got more money and he lives very nearby to where I live.” I said, “May I have a look at your pictures first?” So she brought me the two pictures and I looked at each one. I said, “So, that's your husband and that's your boyfriend and you want to give up him for him. Why do you want to give him up? He's a lovely person, he's got a lovely nature, he's a superb human being.” She said, “No, he's getting a little bit bald. I'd rather have a man that isn't bald.” I said, “He's more ugly than the other person who is your husband.”

So we had this dialogue going for a little while. Then she said, “Well, I can live in the centre with my husband on the right and my boyfriend on the left.” I looked at her (the photo of the daughter) and said, “What about her?” She said, “Oh she likes both of them.” So I thought well that's another lifestyle. So you know not only are you being educated but I am also being educated in the most amazing way to life.

I'll share another amusing part of that journey. Two women came to see me. One of them said, “We are lesbians.” I said, “Good.” She said, “But my girlfriend wants a baby.” I said, “What? Are you telling me that you want a baby with your girlfriend?” She said, “No, she's found a boyfriend, and I'm willing to look after the child once it is born.”

I said, “Really? What have you decided? You talked about it to your girlfriend?” I can tell you, be a guru! We have amazing entertainment. You have to have a sense of humour and ultimately I said talk it over with your girlfriend and that is my solution to your problem.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Treating animals as sacred

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: During the week I met several Tibetan Buddhists. I was in the seminaries and I appreciated their teachings very much but I was the only vegetarian there. I wondered how all these Lamas travelling around the world don't tell people to be vegetarian?

What you said makes sense, that we need to prepare a healthy, pure body for God to enter but they continue to eat junk food in Zurich. There are some that I really appreciate, but they just eat meat and I couldn't join them in what they eat. Does that meat not affect their mind? Or perhaps it doesn’t because they are very spiritual…?

Guru: Now, let me take you on a journey to Tibet – to the lifestyle in Tibet, and survival in Tibet under the most adverse conditions. There are no vegetables grown in Tibet. It’s brought into Tibet. In the winter it’s very difficult for them to survive because they have to live on animal produce.

The yak is, as you know, their staple diet. The yak milk and whatever else, once they've got used to it, it becomes a part of their lifestyle. I'm not here to condemn that lifestyle. I'm here to educate you sufficiently so that you can look at it and say, “I’ll take what is good from the Tibetan monastery and I'll discard that which is gruesome and ugly from it.”

Devotee: Well what I noticed, is that they always say a little prayer or blessing before eating. They say, “When I bless the meal, I don't have to think about what is in it.”

Swami: It's a little bit like Eskimos I suppose. I mean, they don't really have much choice.

Guru: I'll tell you that I always feel amused when I see Buddhists. They say, “Look, what has been offered to me I cannot refuse. I must take it.” I'm very mischievous when that is said to me. I want to be the person who offers the next meal for that person. My best meal would be to offer that individual a gin and tonic. I want to see him refuse that.

Meat products fuel your lower nature

The Buddhist mantra, ‘Sura-meraya-majja-pamadatthana’, means, ‘I abstain from intoxicating liquor.’

The meat you eat is also intoxicating. It interferes with your equilibrium, your whole attitude to life, and your aggression. Do you know what the purpose of a monk's life is? It is to master the lower nature, not fuel it. You fuel your lower nature by introducing meat products into your system, which is full of adrenaline and fear.

You try to imitate the Buddha in his lifestyle and say to yourself, “I want to emulate the Buddha and I want to do everything possible. But the most important thing I must do, I don't do, because I like my chicken, I like my pork, I like my beef.” That is a very difficult compromise for me to accept because it is a devaluation of your spiritual values. You must be able to say “No, my monastery won't have any meat products. If you want to eat it it's your privilege.”

We feed a lot of people, as some of you know. I've got some brothers in the community acting as sniffer dogs. As soon as produce is brought into the community my sniffer dogs get into action and they sniff and read the labels, even on the biscuits. If animal products have been used in that, it is never offered in the sanctuary. It is kept until we find carnivores who will eat it, including our dogs - they're given that.

We never allow any animal products to come into Skanda Vale. But please, please, I beg of you. I'm not writing the rules for other monasteries. What I'm doing is, I'm trying to educate you so that next time, when you go to the Tibetan monastery, have a quiet chat with the Lama. Wink at him, flirt with him but make him a vegetarian!

Devotee: And there's another reason for not eating meat, ‘Thou shalt not kill’.

Guru: Of course. I made a new rule in Skanda Vale. A lot of people want to come for devotions in Mother’s temple. I've made a rule that they have to abstain from meat for three days before they come to the temple because it takes that length of time for the putrefying material that is inside your stomach to be pushed out of the system.

The entire system has to be cleansed before the person comes into the temple for worship. I have made that rule and the brothers stand at the doorstep of the temple and say, “If you haven't eaten meat and have abstained from it for three days, you may come for the devotion.” I feel rather terrible that I have to say that but that's my way of saying, “Now come on, get your act together. If not, you don't come in.”

Devotee: I have a question. Do we have the right to kill an animal if it’s very sick?

Guru speaks: Can you tell me something? Your mother is here, is she?

Devotee: No, she is not.

Guru: Thank goodness for that! What I'm going to say is, when your mother is ill and very sick, do you make up your mind that you're going to bump her off?

Devotee: No.

Guru: No, you don't, do you?

Devotee: No.

Animals are part of our family in Skanda Vale

Guru speaks: Because you have such love for her. All our animals in Skanda Vale are my brothers and sisters, my family; and they have given me great joy. They’re the happiness that we grow up in. I have a doggy that is twelve years old now. He is my little son and he's deaf. He's totally gaga! Velu can't hear where I'm coming from.

But the fact of the matter is, he lives in my aura and our aura and orbit and his breath is ripe! When he comes into where we sit in the night and have our meal the atmosphere is amazing and Swami says, “Can you wait for him to come until after we have eaten the meal?” I say, “Yes, okay”, but the fact of the matter is, he is my child. He belongs to my family, to the Divine.

I say to people, “Oh, what a long journey you have made to be what you are.” Give him a chance! Give him a chance and say, “Life, I come to your assistance in your path of evolution.” This is the partnership that we have to build between ourselves and life.

What a joy it must be to you, to see an animal who needs help. Our vets have ultimately realised that we do not use this terminology, “Put to sleep an animal that is sick.” You don't ‘put an animal to sleep.’ You kill it. We must use this terminology starkly. You are deliberately killing that animal. You have no right to do that.

We care for all the animals and what a privilege it is, I can tell you! Sometimes we have cows and bulls which have been operated on and have been cared for, for a long time. It is costly. Yes, we love to spend that money on those animals. Sometimes they have dislocated their bones and they can't stand so we put a harness on them and three or four times a day turn the animal – big animals – and make sure that we lift the animal, feed it and care for it. That is a spiritual sadhana.

Spiritual sadhana means caring for all life. Not only for animals but human beings as well. This is the way we pay our karmic debt. We have killed, caused injury, cheated, and robbed from one cycle of birth to another. Now we have the opportunity to pay our karmic debt. Grasp it!

When you have an animal or anything that is suffering say, “Come I will look after you.” Don't put yourself before an animal or life that is sacred. All life is sacred. When you begin to think like that, then you open the window of your heart for the Lord to dwell in it.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

We are always connected

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: I love to hear your words, and sometimes I think it is a very high level of spirituality that you are talking about. [When I am here with you] I think it could be possible [for me to practice and so on] but if I look back at my life I feel like I am a little mosquito. Sometimes it really is a problem to understand what you are saying and to practice a little bit of that at home. It is always the same question, I know, but...

Guru: No, you know, I often think about that and I ask the Lord if he could make a few models of myself so that people can carry me in their pockets! We could call it a pocket edition with the capacity to slowly pinch the person from time to time and say, "You are going the wrong way. Turn left instead of right.” I wish I could do that. But accessibility is very important. Dialogue is very important.

That is why I say to you and all the people whom I know from Switzerland and many, many parts of Europe that I want to travel to. I want to be with people because whilst you are sitting here you must remember I am also playing another game with you. I am energising you with the grace of the Divine. I am changing your whole outlook in life without you even knowing it. I am slowly removing the obstacles that you have in your lifestyle – and that is my job. It’s not about what I say. What I am up to is another matter!

Devotee: We feel this Guru and we can understand it. Sometimes we have to come to Skanda Vale again to recharge but can we also phone you?

Guru: You can phone me, you can always approach me, you can talk to me or you can send me a letter. It’s better still to sit down quietly and say, "Guru, where are you? Help.”

There is no separation

You are connected with me, you are connected with each and every one of us in this room through your divine form. The ‘paramatma’ links us together, nothing separates us, we are one. There is no difference, no way. Only the physical separates us, and when you transcend that then we have the ability to come in contact and harmony with each other. That is the grace that the Lord has given us.

We must discover it and I must make you stand on your own feet.

Only through the difficulties that you are going through in life, will you master your lower nature. You must go through those difficulties and I must help you to stand on your own feet and not lean on me.

One day I am going to die. I always remind the brothers in the monastery, "I'm going to die, I am not eternal. When I die I don't want to leave a big gap so that you are going to be alone. I want you to stand on your feet now, not tomorrow. Now." I want you to stand on your feet now. Have confidence within yourself. You have the capacity and the ability to do exactly what I do and more by being able to link yourself, plug yourself into that divine consciousness. You have to discover that ability. That is what it is all about.

Devotee: Something helps me sometimes and I would like to share that. When I think of you in a problematic situation, for instance sitting in front of a dying person, then I ask "What shall I do?"

Guru: Stop there and I'll answer that first part of the question. When you think of me you are thinking of the physical body in me. You are not thinking of the divine energy within me. That is why you think like that. You immediately trigger that divine consciousness within me and that divinity within me comes to the assistance of you and that person.

People say they think of Sai Baba, I think of Guru Subramanium, I think of Ganapati Satchidananda, Swami Premananda, all the yogis, and whoever. They are the form but within that form is the divinity. So you can call the divinity without even referring to me.

Devotee: I think so. The body must have form and through this form, you discover [the divine]. It can help in this situation.

Guru: Okay. But I must also make it my business for you to shift a little bit in the other direction. Turn to God. Turn to God, it is very important.

Devotee: But can we use an aspect, a divine aspect similar to a teacher? If we have an experience of a teacher and I think he is a manifestation of this aspect.

Guru: Yes.

Devotee: Do we have pictures so that we can imagine God better? Why do we chat to pictures and pray?

Guru: If you can find a stone that gives you a feeling of satisfaction then use it. It is for you to distract your mind away from the world of illusion. That is what it is all about. That is a reservoir.

A reservoir is a place, picture, temple, or a corner in your house that you have specially kept where no outside vibration comes and it is a place for you to meditate and find yourself. Yes. There are thousands and thousands of images, pictures, and forms. There is also formlessness, and if anything would stimulate your appetite for spirituality use it.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

What is Christ consciousness?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Guruji, could you explain to us something about ‘Christ consciousness’. Paramahamsa Yogananda talked a lot about that and I read it in a lot of books. What does that mean for us?

Guru: As you can see I have not once talked about changing your beliefs. I have always sustained you in your thinking to follow the way of spirituality that you have been brought up with, for it is also a facet of the Divine.

What I would say to you is, don't be governed by dogma but follow the way of Christ. [Follow] the way of his life, the example that he gave to mankind. That is Christ consciousness for me. One of the most amazing things about Christ is his immense love; his love for mankind.

People believe, and they are right to believe because the church has taught them so, that if you believe in Christ you will be liberated.

Live your life with compassion and love But that's big nonsense to believe. Just believing is not enough. Applying your belief in your life is very important. The compassion and love of Christ must be displayed in the way you live – that is Christ consciousness.

Christ was forgiveness; Christ was understanding; To be a Christian is not to accuse another person of being something that you are as well. To realise that every human being has an opportunity to be liberated, in Christ. For liberation means that you have begun to change your lifestyle, to absorb the energies of Christ, to make your heart the temple of Christ.

It is not just for the human being to say I have been born again and now I am liberated. When people use the term ‘born again’ Christian, I immediately dwell into their hearts and ask myself – have you discovered your love, your divine love, your selfless love? Have you discovered the compassion, understanding, and forgiveness that Christ is, within you? These are the qualities of Christ.

If I can [now] take your mind to Christ. When they wanted to stone a woman who was accused of behaving badly, Christ looked at those people and said, “Yes, you can cast the first stone against this woman if you yourself have not committed a sin.” They dropped the stones and walked away.

Develop your higher consciousness These are the examples I want you to take from Christ's life. To be resurrected within yourself again and again, from the depths of the lower nature to the higher consciousness that exists within you.

Christ lives in each and every one of us [when we] discover his sweetness and gentleness.

Can you see him in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying to the Father, and saying to the Father, “Is it possible that this immense responsibility that has been put upon me can be lifted so that life would become easier?” Then you suddenly discover that responsibility is that which makes up your personality. Through that experience, hardship, and difficulty, your higher nature will be discovered by you.

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane where he had trusted his disciples to pray that this moment of terrible action would be made easier for him. They were so tired and weary they fell asleep again and again, only to be reminded by Christ, “This is the hour that is the most important for all of us. Stay awake and pray that you will be liberated.”

Then again I take you to the Garden of Gethsemane because these are examples that I can give you [of his] tolerance, compassion, and forgiveness. He said, "You raise your sword and by the sword, you will perish." We have seen that happen [in the world] not once, but many, many times. The sword you live by you will also perish by because your love and compassion will fail.

These are the attributes of Christ.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

What is Maha Shakti?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: Please tell us about the Divine Mother.

Guru: Who is the Divine Mother? The Divine Mother is ‘Maha Shakti’. Maha Shakti means universal energy. Form and formlessness. The formlessness that encompasses the whole universe.

That formlessness is in the mountains, rivers, Earth, and throughout the whole universe. The stars, moon, and sun are all a part of the energy of the Divine Mother. She can take that form at any time she wants, and how she wants, to manifest in relation to the evolution of the human being.

In simple terms, She can take the highest embodiment of a form, or forms.

That is why we say to humanity, don't try to contain God in your concept of God. Transcend form and allow the Divine to manifest in the form the Lord chooses when and how he wants to do so. Don't listen to other people's ideas about God and try to superimpose them in your mind.

You can see from time immemorial, the concepts and ideas [people have of] God have changed and [become] dramatised; for the spirit of God pervades the whole universe from the most primitive peoples of the world to the present consciousness.

Everything is the omnipresence and omniscience of God, but the graduation of consciousness of God becomes refined as the human being evolves spiritually.

Enable Maha Shakti to come to you

The refinement and experience of God increase as you master your lower nature. It is that lower nature that impairs the human being to discover the totality of God. Human beings will only experience that with the grace of God. There is no formula that I or any Guru or Swami can give you and say, “This is the formula - when you follow this, God will come to you.” This is not true.

We can tell you how to organise yourself, your world; how to organise your life so that you become the lotus that opens for the Lord to reside in. In other words, your heightened consciousness and awareness enable the Maha Shakti to come to you.

If God were to manifest to an ordinary human being his mind would blow. It's not easy to experience and comprehend the energy of God. I have had the experience of the Divine Mother, and so has Swami, for four years running on a daily basis, and manifestations of the Divine Mother in varying degrees.

It's daunting, exceedingly daunting. With all the experiences and power, every time it's a drama unfolding, and sometimes I don't know whether I am in this world, or another world, and what has happened to the world.

Because there is no roof, there are no walls, everything has just vanished when her energy, her shakti comes. Your body begins to vibrate and that is what the kundalini is about.

What happens when the kundalini rises?

That kundalini immediately begins to rise when she looks in your direction to give you grace. Then it rushes like a big torrent of the Ganga, the river of divine energy, up your spine and straight to your head. Then you're in another world of awareness.

That is why we love the mountains, that is why we come to the mountains, the mountains call us. I come because I love you, and also I love to be by the mountains. The mountains come to greet me in the night for some Maha Shakti, and energy.

Last night whilst I was lying there I thought, “Everybody is asleep so no problem”, and then Haresh was looking at me from his bed and he could see. I said, “Look at my toes. I have no control of the minutest muscles in my leg. The energy from the mountain is flowing now. All of the energy of creation is flowing through me, through my body.”

I have no control over that. The toes go up and down, they go this way, sideways. All the muscles in the toes and the body just ripple like the sea for the Lord is a million suns. That is the energy that flows into all of us, not just me but all of creation.

If you want to evolve spiritually forget that the material world that you live in is going to live on in the same way as it is now. Changes are going to occur. You have to transcend that change, and you have to merge with Divine energy and consciousness. Free your mind.

This tape recorder will only register what I say, but I can also correct it without moving a muscle, [just by] looking at it because I can do that as well!

When people take a photograph of me I have fun. Sometimes I look at the camera and I blank the photo. The person comes and says, “Do you know all my photographs - it has never happened before - they're all overexposed”, and I say, “Oh really?”

Have fun in life. This is what energy, shakti, and power are about.

You want to practice yoga. Yoga is to master the body and control the mind. To discipline it, to learn how to work with it. You have a fine instrument and you have to learn to handle it. [You have to] transcend and *learn *how to get that universal energy within yourself.

The Divine Mother is creation itself, so we call her Mother Nature for she is creating life all the time.

The male aspect of God, like all men, is very lazy. The woman is doing all the work! She's (Maha Shakti) going about – look at your plants, look at all of life – it is She who's working very hard. She is creating all the time.

The male has performed his duty in the Tandava. I create, preserve, destroy, recreate. This impermanence is a part of that energy, the Maha Shakti of the Divine Mother. In creation, there is another part of the Divine Mother, for she bears the energy of life.

Having given birth to life, her entire idea is to preserve life. So there is a drama of knowledge, of light, of success, and pleasure, and all the luxuries that you can have in your life.

But the human being who thinks that that is a permanent aspect of his life is living in a state, another world.

Change is a permanent state

You have to realise that all the material things that are available to life and humanity are in a state of permanent change, for as they come, they will go. This element of dissolution begins to set in motion and this is the best time of year to know that. We've had spring, we've had summer and we are coming to autumn. Autumn is a time when all the leaves are shed and a new beginning is there before us.

Only if we realise that our minds and our bodies are also like the rhythm of autumn, spring, summer, winter and there will be another spring and summer waiting for us in our life.

What we have to realise is that this is a part of that Tandava. I create, to preserve, to destroy, to recreate. Don't be afraid of that destruction. Within ourselves each cell is being changed, our minds are being changed, our mannerisms are changed. You think you're going to be the same person that walked through those doors early morning but by the time I've finished, I will have stood you on your head.

The body is changing, the mind has the ability to change and create within itself the opportunity to advance spiritually. That is what shakti is. These plants and all these things are about shakti; flowers are about shakti. There isn't anything that surrounds us in our lives that is not the Divine energy, Maha Shakti.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

What is real healing?

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Devotee: How can you give weight (importance) to family and living in a family and also give importance to the healing process, and the healing profession?

Guru: You know, what you just asked me is a very loaded question. I use the words ‘very loaded’ because wherever I go in Europe, I haven’t found many people who are not involved in either healing, massage, or other therapies.

Now, if somebody were to come to me and want to give me some form of therapy, then even before that person puts their hand on me, I will ask, “What sort of lifestyle have you got? How do you know what you are going to give me?”

That person is going to convey that vibration to me in my body. I want somebody capable of removing any obstacle that I have got with an energy that is not just theirs but one that is fed by divine power.

If a person wants to heal, then he or she must prepare the ground for healing. Healing is not something anybody can do. It is a grace that flows from the Divine.

Real healing means the removal of karma

What is healing? Healing means you are going to remove the karma that the person is suffering from. Why is that karma there in the first instance? It’s there because they have created that karma and are suffering the consequences of their actions.

A person must be pretty foolish to go and interfere with karma and expect not to absorb some part of that karma into their own lives, [especially] if they have not prepared themselves to be ready to receive that karma.

There are many methods by which you can dissolve that karma yet not all of that karma. Some part of that karma you have to wear. That was what Christ did when he was on the cross and He took the term, ‘sins of the world’ upon himself and suffered death on the cross.

Anyone who tries to oversimplify that and say that they have got an easier solution to karma than wearing it and suffering its consequences or asking divine grace to help heal is on the wrong track. They are giving the wrong impression that they can heal.

We can minimise the effect of karma with counselling, and with helping. But sometimes the body is longing for another human being to put their hand on it and ease the pressure on their body. If you can call that healing, I understand that, but that is not really healing.

This is a form of manipulation because the nerves are all screaming; they are tight and rigid. If you want to get your hands in and then, go ‘zzzzz’ and start moving things, and slowly helping to dissolve the crystals that have formed in the fabric of the body then that is a technical job. You can’t classify that as ‘healing’.

If a person has a real problem physically and you want to help that person and say, “I want to heal you”, that means you want to share your karma with them. I want to take that karma from you and wear it, and if possible with the grace of God He will take some part of that karma from you. It’s a big responsibility, not an easy one.

People use this term ‘healing’ very glibly, superficially. I would love to get into that very carefully. When somebody says, ‘I am going to heal,’ I Iike to know how they will do it. I am a sceptic. Ok? Or do you want me to talk more about it?

Devotee: Yes, please. Would you then say it’s better to massage someone physically to release the tension rather than do, for example, a chakra balancing?

Guru: Yes.

Devotee: Better to do massage?

Guru: Massage.

Devotee: Is chakra balancing interfering with karma?

Guru: ‘Chakra balancing’ is a term used by people to dramatise something they don’t know. Do you know what the balancing of chakras means? You must be a pretty good magician to do that. There are chakras throughout the whole body. You must have such a power to move the energy from one chakra to another chakra, and all the time make the person realise that he is opening and shutting the chakras naturally.

Devotee: So what happens if you lovingly put your hand on somebody’s chakras or sacred polarities? Is that helpful?

Guru: Very helpful, very helpful but I would like to modify the terminology used by people more and more.

I can place my finger/hand, anybody can do it, and if you concentrate hard enough you can raise the Kundalini from one point to another without any difficulty at all. It’s not a problem raising the Kundalini. Having raised it, how are you going to get it down if you don’t know? You disturb the human being completely and leave the person more confused than ever.

That is a worry for me because I’ve had a lot of devotees who come to me whose Kundalini has been raised and they’ve paid a hundred pounds for raising this Kundalini and they have a hundred pounds of problems - mentally disturbed.

You must have confidence in the person whom you’re working with. You must know the person who is going to work with you. You must understand full well that whatever a human being does unless they are connected with divine consciousness, there are limitations.

Devotee: I feel that bodywork cannot heal but it can make us more open and aware and these could be the first steps.

Guru: These are the first steps. Now you’re speaking my language.

Devotee: Yes but I meant something different when I asked. I meant what to give more importance to - healing or having a family?

Guru: Having a family?

Devotee: Yes.

Guru: Have both. Have a family and work with it. No problem. Psychotherapy is very good, but also remember that it is a dangerous subject.

Devotee: That’s what I wanted to ask you just now, and now we talk about it!

Guru: I thought I’d answer it without you asking me!

Devotee: That means having simple devotion and going to God at the shrine we have and praying. Can that give us what we need?

Guru: If you are by yourself relying on your own abilities but sometimes you need to share your difficulties with other people, you may go to a psychotherapist.

Devotee: But when I am by myself and I have trouble and want to know something, I can work with devotion as I learned in the Bhagavad Gita.

Guru: Absolutely. You can go to God. Absolutely. I’m not knocking your profession in any way, but I’m cautioning you to put so much complete trust in one thing or the other. You must be able to say to yourself, “If it works, ok. If it doesn’t work, ok.”

It depends on the individual who is giving you the therapy, how dedicated and disciplined the person is, and how the person is able to deal with the complexities of the mind. You must remember the mind is a complex mechanism, very complex. You can’t oversimplify this complex mechanism.

From the Bern seminars, September 1991 · SEM-1991-09-Bern

Accepting suffering

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: Whilst meditating I have a lot of problems with my body. I feel so much pain and I can’t let the pain go. And that happens often to me that I feel pain and cannot stop it.

Guru: I tell you how you can deal with it. First of all, accept it. And you have a bit of courage and say to the Lord "I want more." I will tell you, psychologically as soon as the pain comes, you want to get rid of it. Thereby you resist the brain making the morphine that is necessary to kill the pain. The brain has the capacity to make that morphine when it is free to do so. But as soon as you are obstructed your mind sends a message to the intellect "Oh, it needs some medicine, quick, quick, quick – pill!" And stops the brain acting and putting it right.

Anger & acceptance

A much more complicated person came to see me once. Not one, many! I had a young man who had severe osteoarthritis and was in a wheelchair. He could not walk. And he was in that chair absolutely angry with everybody, everything and he didn’t like what was happening to him. But for an extraordinary reason, he had heard about me. And he thought I was going to heal him. So he rang me up and said "I have heard about you – would you heal me?" I wanted to check him and I said "Never! But come and see me and we will see what we can do."

I tell you why I said "never". Because he wanted to put the responsibility on me and wash his hands. We went and picked him up from the station, he was in the wheelchair, we carried him, put him in the car and brought him. And he said: "When am I going to see you and you heal me?"

I said: "No, no, not like that. I want you to change your whole attitude of mind in your life. I want you to accept any minute of the day as a great treasure for you that you are alive. That God has given you this opportunity to pay your karmic debt. And you must be joyful to do so. If you have a little bit of pain don’t blow it out of all proportion. Never mind, there are people who are worse than you are."

This serious young man spent some weeks with me and I stood him on his head. He changed his entire outlook in his life and approach to it. And when he was able to laugh about every single thing that was happening to him and he was inwardly joyful, I said: "Now I will tell you, you will walk again." And I said, "Now you go back." He said, "But I am not walking!" I said, "Go back, don’t complain! Don’t worry, you will walk." I will never say that to somebody if I am not sure.

And he went and after about two months he rang me from the hospital to say "I am now going around the hospital teaching people how to accept pain. I am on my feet again."

Divine friends, if there was an easy solution to karma then Christ would not have come to earth and suffered death upon the cross – if there was a quick solution to the problem. Whenever I see something that is intolerable for man, whilst I give thanks to God that we have the opportunity to pay our karma I also appeal on behalf of that person to the Divine Mother and say "Please give some relief so that this person can evolve spiritually."

Please do not think that I am heartless, I understand your question, I equally feel your pain but at the same time, I want you to begin to change your attitude towards that pain.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Angels

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: What do you think about angels and archangels? Have they some meaning?

Guru: I’ll talk about that, that is very important to. I never, ever believe about anything. In the same way that I am trying to tell you to make inquiries and find out for yourself... I am never one of those people – I am very sceptical inside me. Even when I see the Divine Mother. I have been throwing pillows at Her (and I had to apologise to Her). That’s my nature, and that is me. Because I say to myself 'You have given me intelligence, I am not going to accept anything'.

And so I was walking in Skanda Vale one day, completely free. My mind meditating and praising Good in all of creation – the wonderful things that God has given us in our lives. And there was the most beautiful beam of light; all clouds and just one beam that came out of the sky on Skanda Vale. And I looked at this beam and I said 'Oh, how beautiful this beam is!' And I was enthralled by its intensity, and whilst I was looking, I saw the most amazing revelation. That whole beam turned into angels with wings – all of them like a whole beam, from heaven to earth, unfolding themselves.

You know, it is not only you who are sceptical; I am also sceptical. I am also very analytical and I do not accept anything. And I stood there just enthralled by this immense power that floated from heaven to earth. And after that I thanked God and I said 'You know we are fools not to accept some of the things that our forefathers have given us in knowledge. And we are fools not to realise Your ability to manifest when and how You choose'. And I was so happy that I was able to see those Divine forces.

Question: Guru, do you think, that we should pray to these angels?

Guru: No, no, no – no spirits, no angels. If the Lord wants to send a guardian to the person for protection, that is the will of the Lord. You don’t need prayers to lower forces. You want to go higher, directly to the Boss! My job is to take you to the Boss. No half mission.

Question: But when you go through Christian tradition, it is a hard thing to put this all away. Because you have grown up in the tradition that there are angel Rafael and Gabriel and all these and…

Guru: Yes, it is very nice for them to be our Rafaels and Gabriels and whatever, that is their success. Now I want you to achieve that success for yourself. Because they can protect you anywhere.

Question: Can they help?

Guru: As soon as you start on a spiritual journey there are protecting forces around you.

Question: So you can thank them for protection not pray to them.

Guru: Yes. What I am very careful not to do is to mix with direct consciousness of God and to divert the mind into areas that can cause confusion. Because a lot of people practice different types of spiritualism on the grounds of help.

Question: In the Hindu religion there are all those many names of Gods – aspects of God. I think in the Christian religion the same are the angels. They are aspects of God.

Guru: They are messengers from God, not God's manifestation.

Question: But you said that when we are born then there are angels; that means forces, influences... guiding us, helping us, protecting us, coming out – you said.

Guru: I’ll tell you why I discourage people from doing that: if you put your entire consciousness on an angel, and not on God, you can quite easily delude yourself in believing that you don’t have to make an effort because the archangel or angel is going to protect you. If I drive fast and I am at the steering wheel of a car, and I am driving exceedingly fast, no amount of archangels or angels will be able to protect me when I go off the road and smash into somebody else’s car. We need the grace of the Lord to protect us from ourselves.

People leave their homes wanting to come to the temple. Lord Subramanium is the composition of the elements and they are absolutely certain that God is now going to protect them on this long journey; 240 miles from London to Skanda Vale, and another 240 miles back. They have done the puja and they become wild men. Because they have been to the puja they received the grace. Now they have got the protection, so they think they can do what they want.

Divine friends, to be just a little bit frivolous if I were an angel I'd have to insulate myself, learning how to blush about what people get up to and what they do. We have to not disassociate the human being's behaviour pattern with divine consciousness or not divine consciousness. Because everybody is evolving and, in varying degrees, people are experiencing life. And these high divine beings who are going to protect you will only be able to cope with our lifestyle if we are in harmony with them.

From life to death, we create for ourselves the vibration that either attracts or dispels those high vibrations – whatever you wish to call them; angels or divine forces. If you do not live a spiritual life then that which attracts you in your life and your conduct in life will be negative forces. And the same: if the person is living in a spiritual consciousness you attract the forces that are spiritual guiding you. And this also happens when we die. That is the law.

When we are on our deathbed there is a very distinct demarcation line for those who are going to claim us at our moment of death. That is the moment when the spiritual forces will come and take you in the direction of the Lord for rehabilitation, reincarnation or liberation – or the other forces will drag you around in Maha Maya.

All the attachments; the greed, the desires, and the involvement will come there starkly in the face of the person. He will want to drink the things he wanted to drink, he wants to eat things he loved to eat. He will want the possessions he had, he will want his relationships and the way of life where he was happy and enjoying himself. All of these, and many other aspects, will be denied of him and he will find hell on earth.

That is why you find places haunted. That is why you find spirits restlessly wandering. They wander because of their attachment to places and individuals; they are attached to food, drinks, whatever they wanted and loved, and they keep on in the state of tremendous mental upheaval – this upheaval within themselves. Yet they can’t have any of it and they are disturbed; they continue to be disturbed until that vibration of desire diminishes in time. That is called hell on earth.

Now – that is why I am very careful not to encourage people to consider too much about angels. Because they could make mistakes and refer to these forces who are waiting on the wings to take part in the lifestyle of other people. I want you to create a powerhouse around you, insulating you against all forces that would distract you from your path of spiritual evolution. As I said before, that is my speciality. That is the power the Lord has given me to annul and move those forces, without consideration for them, but for you for your liberation. They have had a chance – hard luck, now it is your chance.

I am here to defend you against those forces. That is the authority of the Lord, for He knows that there are many forces in the world today that are so negative and demonic. They can cause a lot of destruction and problems for humanity in their spiritual evolution.

Divine friends pray! Pray and create for yourself the power and energy around you that will protect you on your spiritual journey. You must do that before you start your meditations. You need to insulate yourself strongly against those forces, for they will distract you and come in many ways and forms to mislead you away from God.

Before we start meditation there is one plea I make to you: respect yourself, develop respect for others, sanctify your living. As you go on your journey purify every moment of your life. You are the architect of both pain and pleasure. Go to the Lord in your mind and ask forgiveness, for we have offended the Lord in many ways. We can receive the grace of forgiveness if we can only have the capacity to forget our ego and seek divine grace.

Angels, archangels and all the company of the higher vibrations that are associated closely with God will manifest to heaven, when the human being is very closely associated with God. They will never come down unless there is a special message for that human being. The destruction of evil, the hindrances to humanity for the progress of spirituality – yes the archangels will come to deliver a decisive blow against evil propensities.

Angels are there as messengers, guarding and protecting people against influences. Those angels will only again respond if the human being has truly, honestly, sincerely set sail in a spiritual path. If a human being were to follow a negative path of life – do you honestly believe angels will come to help him? No, he will be attracted by other forces that are negative and will pull him down.

Dark forces are there and those dark forces will constantly try to come into the play of the human beings life. To get the help of the Divine forces, the human being has to make a positive assertion to stay on the road of spiritual evolution. The disciplines for spiritual evolution cannot be devalued and cannot be changed easily, just to satisfy ourselves.

That is the invitation card that we give to the angels, archangels and the whole company of heaven – what we really are doing and what is happening for our own spiritual advancement. Sathyam, absolute truth, embodied in you is a sure sign of your being able to draw the attention of the Divine to come to you. The Divine knows we will make mistakes but if you try with all your abilities to convince the Divine that a wrong is right – that is a mistake we make. What happens is that after trying to convince the Lord that you are right then He will turn towards you and say 'I knew it wouldn’t work!' Nothing will work if you haven’t discovered inner truth.

Nevermind what mistakes you have made, but you must have the courage of conviction to present yourself at the lotus feet of the Lord. For the Lord understands your innermost thoughts. The idea that man is carrying in his mind that God has a mallet in His hand, waiting to give you a doink on your head every time you do something wrong is absolutely incorrect. There is such love, there is such compassion, there is such understanding from the Divine because the law of karma has been set. You are the architects of pain and pleasure and it is only by your wanting to change your life that the Lord will give you some element of relief.

When I look around sometimes I see such element of feeling 'But oh, how can I? I have not been a good girl or a good boy to go to God'. That is the very reason I am here – not for good people! The Divine Mother has around Her neck all the demons She has destroyed. I have around my neck all the naughty ones. All the time they remind me what I must be doing for them that I should not stop till I slowly push people in this area of divine consciousness.

Don’t classify me as an archangel but a naughty angel. Naughty because we are here to understand you. We are here to allow that rhythm of your life to vibrate in us. We've not been judging you, but helping you through all the pressures of life towards a path of evolution.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Attachment to possessions

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Divine friends, supposing all of us here had one desire to have possessions in our lives. And there is one item that you love very much – my gosh you wouldn’t give it to anybody. You don’t wish to share it with anybody, you possess it and you say to yourself: 'Gosh I won’t part with this item whatever happens'. And the person dies. Where do you think the person is going to come first to? To that very object that he was obsessed about.

That is why we say to people: Have all the beautiful things and enjoy them, but don’t hang on to them. One day you have to let go. And so begin to let go now, before it is too late – so that the person is free at any given moment to say: 'Ok, now it is over and somebody else is going to take possession of this item'. Somebody else who may not put the same value that you put to that item, that you thought was the most important thing in your life.

You will soon find that you have to be the silent witness – watching somebody else dispersing the very goods you collected in your life. I see that happen in the lives of many people. But I want you, in this time of meditation and contemplation, to master that.

Free yourself! I am not asking you to give anything up, except to put it in its right context and value. So that you will be able to use all the resources that you have got wisely for your own spiritual advancement. That is what liberation is about.

All are vibrations. What we have to set in motion is a vibration of harmony – harmony throughout all our lives. And those impulses that you generate in your life are not just forming a clean pure aura around you, but also they permeate and penetrate into the fabric of your home and life. The more power, spiritual power, you gain for yourself (instead of having just a small aura around the individual that is dull, blue-black, grey in colours, turquoise) you expand and become light. So that you can, even when you are travelling about in a bus or in a car or anywhere you want, you can encompass all the world that you want.

The light, the Divine light that shines from your heart is full of love. That Divine light that emanates from yourself will be a healer, a consoler. The Divine light that comes from you then will be full of brightness – golden. I want you to generate that golden quality in your life.

If not, the area of consciousness that you have developed will be about no more than a foot in length either way. Muggy, heavy. And that is our job – when I look at people and I say to myself: 'Where is your love?'

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Contemplation

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: You talked of contemplation in the morning and I would like to know what it really means.

Guru: Contemplation is mindfulness. Contemplation about all the causes and effects that you are setting in motion in your life. Contemplation is not only when you sit down before you meditate – it must be a recurring process in the human’s being life, that he is heightened mindful enabling him to correct any mistakes that he or she is making.

It will also heighten your awareness because you are aware of a lot of vibrations that are been set in motion – so you know how to handle those vibrations. Instead of the vibrations mastering you, you will be the master of the vibrations.

In the world we live in, people are mindless. Hence we make many mistakes: cause injury, unhappiness, harm. Even when you drive, the person drives mindlessly. When the person really becomes heightened in mindfulness, you are gentle to life; you are gentle to all of creation.

Now there is common terminology used by people about ecology. This was not invented yesterday. It has existed for many, many centuries. The mindfulness of the human being means they are conscious that the spirit of God pervades the whole universe, so we are careful how we treat it.

Vandalising takes place in different forms. That is when the human being conveniently says to himself (because he wants to be distracted) 'God doesn’t exist, He only exists in his cupboard'. He says to himself that God only exists in the church, so he goes on Sunday, airs him, holds some incense and says 'How marvellous God you are!' and shuts the door and puts him there until next Sunday.

But we have to change that outlook. Because the spirit of God pervades the whole universe we have to walk very carefully, sensitively, with love and care towards all of God’s creation.

Awareness of cause & effect

Divine friends, mindfulness is the cornerstone of spiritual evolution. I hear people say that they are meditating without contemplating. I find that very difficult to accept. Because whatever profession you belong to, you will be that much better, you will be that much more dedicated as a human being to the work you do, if you contemplate.

Divine friends contemplation does not actually tell you to become guilty. It is no use being guilty because you are going to give more power to the negative thought. What you have to do is to say to yourself in truth 'I have gone wrong here, I have the ability to change it and I am now going to change it'.

If not, what will happen is you will, like most people, go to the confessional to make a confession, knowing full well you are going to do it again. That is no good. I want to improve your consciousness to say to yourself 'I am the master of my ship, I have the ability to change it, I need the grace of God to do so and I surrender myself at the lotus feet of the Lord'.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Demonic forces

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: What are the three worlds?

Guru: The low world (demonic field) the earth world and the heavenly spheres are the three worlds. They exist – don’t think they do not exist. They have very much evidence. When you meditate, one day with that vision you will see many forms, many heavenly forces and you will also see the earth forces. And if an event or catastrophe is going to occur in a part of the world, that will immediately come and register in your brain. The same – you can see people who have degraded their lives, suffering tremendous sadness in their lives.

I have seen in one of my meditations people were dying, literally encapsulated by a flame – dropping into a vast flame, screaming. I have seen that. And you will encounter that as you go along and experience more and more of the three worlds. And that reminds us that these are not illusionary. Then when you will meditate you will also see demonic forces. Because remember this: You are a challenge for them because you have decided to change your destiny – you have decided to go on a spiritually conscious level. So they don’t want to allow you to do that.

Protection before meditation

That is why it is necessary to insulate yourself before you start your spiritual journey. And sometimes you may well have a good stomach to look squarely at a demonic force and say: 'What are you doing here? Get out!' And you have to have that courage within yourself. 'I don’t want you!' And that is the drama that is going to be enacted in your mind. And your perception will not just see the lovely flowers, and the lights and the colours that people say they are seeing... you will see more than that. You will see things that you couldn’t believe ever existed.

Can I say something to you? What I have just told you is not something that I have created, or cooked up as I went along. But it is a lot of experience that I have had in dealing with negative forces. If there are five Gurus or Swamis, all five Gurus or Swamis would have had five different boons granted by the Lord. Now my boon that the Divine Mother has given me is to bring Her power to you and to annul demonic forces.

Question: Can we safely assume that when we are safe in our shrines? We light a candle and chant, and we are completely fearless – I have never felt any fear in my shrine.

Guru: If you are really serious and have a great devotion to the Lord, then the power and energy of the Lord will protect you.

And you chant the mantras. Whatever you chant, I can tell you through my own experience, I had to deal with so many people’s problems and see also demonic forces. I am talking generally. When we talk of the lower forces, they are very real.

Question: We have heard from teachers that sometimes when we meditate that our chakras will open. Then we have to learn to close them. What does that mean? Or is it just what you say is it the better way to do it before, to insulate it?

Guru: Yes

Question: And then to close or to open is not a thing of doing, but just to be in the presence of the Lord.

Guru: Yes, I have never closed my chakras ever. There are two schools of thought: One school of thought believes that you have the ability to close your chakra. Close the chakra means you have to distract your mind from your spiritual consciousness to the physical consciousness. Now if you distract your mind from the spiritual consciousness into the physical consciousness, you will soon find that to revert back to the spiritual you are going to find it more difficult.

Question: It is the interaction between the demons and ourselves. Is it simply a matter of observing them and saying: 'Off!' That’s it? Is that the reason? That the more of a forcefield we have, the stronger the devotion is, the more powerful demons are going to try to penetrate it?

Guru: No, what they will do is find a moment when your guard is lower and you are full of sensuality, and they will make hay while the sun shines!

Now you would have encountered in your own life people whom you know who are gentle, who are nice, who are kind, and then for some unknown reason, they suddenly become very aggressive. Uncontrolled in their nature and they react in a very unkindly way. Their chakras are there open because of their devotion to the Lord. And they have not protected themselves and insulated themselves from the effects of forces outside them.

And that is what I would say to you: that you have an interaction going all the time with the Divine, to protect you. You should always say: 'I am going now on a journey, I am going to this place. Be with me, I am going to do such and such a thing, be my strength and my guide and my protector'. And this dialogue must go on all the time with you, for you need that assistance and protection as you go on your spiritual journey. Then you will not be in that position where people have even killed with such a force.

Negative energy in houses

One way I will tell you; you can find out when you go into a house, or a place where there are lower forces – the smell in that place won’t be sweet. You enter that place and there is a funny smell. Because the fabric of the whole house has been penetrated by fear, by anger – and it is the dwelling place of lower forces. The vibration is not a pleasant one.

And if a person is hypersensitive, he can enter somebody’s house and be welcomed by it, or repelled by it. You would have done it so many times; gone to a house or a person’s home or environment and said to yourself 'Oh, this is most unwelcoming'. Because people don’t understand that the lifestyle we live is not just a lifestyle that we are interacting with; ourselves and our friends. But we also feed it into the whole fabric of our dwelling homes.

And if there is a person who is sensitive enough enters that house, then immediately (if you are sensitive enough) you will pick up these vibrations and respond to them, and feel an element of disturbance within yourself. Don’t push it away because it is a reminder for you that things are not what they seem to be there. It is necessary that you protect yourself from those influences.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Divine Mother

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

The Divine Mother

Guru: All these things you will realise as you advance spiritually. Between my last incarnation and this birth was nine years. Nine years the Divine played, and on the birth of this incarnation and for nine years after that I was waiting for the power of the Divine to come into me. I always felt incomplete inside me. And that was the time when parents were able to say things to me. And after those nine years, I was totally intolerable.

I was a Swami in Sri Ramakrishna's group; as Swami Brahmananda. And as Swami Brahmananda I had this incredible consciousness of Krishna in me, and at the same time, I brought that same consciousness with me now. I do not believe about Krishna – I know Krishna. If you read the life of Brahmananda you will read the life of Guru Subramanium now. No different.

Except with a difference: Having brought that grace of the Divine into this incarnation, I never was in this incarnation a worshiper of the Divine Mother. I was the worshiper of God – the Lord, Lord Subramanium. I lived, I ate, I drank for the Lord. Until people used to ask me 'Why don’t you worship the Divine Mother?' I said 'I never have been involved in this aspect'. Until the devotees sent me a small image of the Divine Mother, and in my meditation, I was shown that the Divine Mother was going to come to me.

You can understand how even Gurus can be pig-headed! As soon as the image came by post, I stood outside the door, opened the box and I called Swami and I said 'Come, I’ll drive you to the river. I am going to throw this image into the centre of the river'. That is the extent of peoples prejudices – that is the extent of people's own feeling that 'I know it all' and nobody else. Because you have such a love for the male aspect of God, you forget the female, until the Divine Mother started appearing to me.

The arrival of Divine Mother at Skanda Vale

There is a long drive from my house, and there is a bend before you go down from the temple to the valley. From that point, from the bend to my house, the Divine Mother used to follow me on the tiger every day for three weeks. And I told Swami 'I can see the Divine Mother riding a tiger. I don’t know what She wants from me because I am not one of Her devotees'.

If you think you are sceptical and unwilling to accept anything you can understand me! Until one night, after three weeks as I was meditating I thought 'Funny... Swami will not come and sit on my bed?' Because I could feel the whole bed going down. And then I was so weary I thought 'Now, what is going to happen?'

She swung around and put Her knee on my back. She wasn’t very wrong... She thought 'This buffalo needs only shock-treatment nothing else'. My whole body was just vibrating and vibrating and vibrating... I was up in the air not on my bed.

And then I said to myself looking at my shrine 'Who are you? What do you want out of me? I would love to see you'. And I could hear the shrieks of laughter from Her and She came round shaking Her head. Her hair was so wide; shaking Her head, She thrust Her head of hair into my face. And all the hair-like tentacles wrapped around me.

Still, I did not see Her face. So I said 'I don’t know you!' And She turned around laughing, yet laughing; She was an old lady. Very old with a lot of lines and very severe. And whilst I was looking at Her, Her whole face was changing to become the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life.

Up to that time, all the pictures and images that I have seen of God, Divine Mother and God manifesting – with so many arms and hands was just a figment of my own imagination and the artists. But I saw all the weaponry, all the power and the radiance of many suns in the countenance of this Lady.

From that moment my plea to Her was 'Humanity does not believe you exist. They think it is a figment of our imagination when you come. Give us your Shakti, your energy, give us your experience so that humanity can live and evolve spiritually in your consciousness'.

Maha Shakti

Within four, five years my plea has been answered. She has come, disintegrated my body (and possibly put it upside down together!) But She has created great power – She handed to me power to give you. If you think that this has happened just once or twice you are wrong. It has been a continuous drama for the last five years.

And if you think that I am the only person who experiences... when I told Swami what had happened he said to me 'I don’t think She will come to me'. I said 'How do you know? You ask Her'. And the only way I could tell Swami was 'Come and sleep beside my bed'. And so he brought his mattress and put it beside my bed.

He has not left there for five years. And he told me last night 'I feel terribly sleeping in that room by myself'. So I very casually asked Swami 'Why?' He replied 'Because your shrine is there and I feel terrible not sleeping by the shrine. For the Divine Mother always comes'.

She has an incredible sense of humour. She comes from me to Swami. Swami jumps one bit, I jump and then She goes back and Swami sits down. Then She comes back to me. So we are up and down like a bouncing ball. Swami is terrified of spears and swords, and that is exactly what She does to him; She brings the spear and brings it through him like that... and there is Swami terrified. And I can promise you if anybody says they are not frightened, including me, don’t believe him.

As I hear Her come, rigour mortis sets in my body. I freeze, waiting what She is going to do with me next. So I allow some part of it to permeate into your lives as well. She is having fun – I am also having fun.

Divine friends, this is real. This is real and I want you to experience it. This is not an exclusive club for Gurus and Swamis. Talk to Her. Talk and explain your life to Her as I am talking with you. Have Her as your partner in life and your partnership of spiritual evolution.

There is only one facet of you She wants, to start Her coming to you and that is love. Love the Lord thy God in all of life, all of creation! And wrap everything with love. If you have that love whatever you do, nevermind; She understands, She will forgive you and She will help you on your spiritual journey.

Have confidence in yourself. Spend time in association with you and God, the Divine Mother. Get Her Shakti, don’t be afraid. After all, if She does come to you and you have a shock – you can only die! That is what I say to myself every time She comes.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Doshas & lunar phases

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: I’ll take this opportunity today to talk about the rhythms, the rhythms of the human being.

Now, we always suggest to people that if they are going to meditate, it is better to meditate after midnight because the rhythm of the body is changed. Before midnight you must sleep, before twelve o’clock. After that, whatever sleep you get is less than what you would get before midnight.

Now, if you go to sleep early, and you know you have to meditate, leave your alarm on and then wake up at about three o’clock in the morning and start your meditation. It is very beneficial; it will register and your mind will be active. But you must get to bed about ten o’clock if you are going to do that. The rhythm and the power and the energy changes after midnight. You will find that up to about four or five o’clock in the morning your meditation is that much better, if you can work yourself during that time to achieve your para-meditations.

After you pass about seven or eight in the morning, then up to midday it’s all right for you to meditate, but there are a lot of atmospheric interferences in the air. These would permeate through into your highly conscious mind and make it difficult for you to concentrate.

From twelve midday, until six or seven in the evening – this is the most difficult time for anybody to meditate. You will find that whatever you try to do you will be picking up all the noises and everything that happens around you. The vibrations are that much lower for you to be able to draw the energy from the universe for yourself. There is a net of interference that is spread right around the world at that time that doesn’t allow the power of the universe to penetrate, to enter you. What comes is mixed up with those other vibrations and you are most dissatisfied in your meditation.

You stick to after sunset, still better, as the night goes on – if you want to meditate at about seven o’clock in the evening – better. And if you go to a hospital and there are doctors and nurses and you ask them how do patients react during this time? 'Oh, very ill' – they are always waiting for a person to die who is very sick after midnight. The rhythm has changed and you are expecting problems. You will always find nurses and doctors going doing the ward-rounds late at night to see how their patients are faring because that is the time things begin to happen.

Divine friends – don’t expect your body from one day to another to be the same. The rhythms change, your desires change, your feelings change and it would be really unrealistic for you to expect everything to be exactly the same.

Now the Divine Mother also wants me to tell you that there is a rhythm in the change of the moon phases. The change of the moon phases from the dark to the new moon is different. From the new moon to the full moon is the beginning of the evolution of the human being spiritually, and even the elements will help you on that journey.

I’ll give an example; the tides in the sea change. The tides are affected by the moon phases. Not only the tides, but even the shellfish are also affected by it. And people who are very fond of eating shellfish are told not to eat shellfish during this period because the shell becomes very soft. And that is the period they change the shell.

If there is a tendency for the person to become a bit mental that is the time also; the moon phases – the person becomes a little bit high. The rhythm of the moon and the energies of the moon and the sun have got a bearing upon the human mind, though they do not realise it. If you were to look at the phases of the moon and keep a check on the rhythm of your body, you will find a decided effect upon it.

All our festivals that we arrange are from new moon to full moon. Because the mind is able to absorb the power, draw from the energy of the universe, and create a constructive atmosphere for the worship of God. It is very effective at that time for your worship. You will find whatever you do has got tremendous power, and according to our work, we never start anything until that period begins.

Also, I know, sometimes I forget what day when it is but I know immediately as soon as the new moon is coming the energy and the power in my body has just trebled. It is not only for me it is also for you. That power is easily accessible for your spiritual evolution during that period from the new moon to the full moon. Then you will find about two days after full moon slowly the energies are veiling inside you, until you come to the new moon again.

If you are proficient in black magic that is the period you will begin to function very efficiently. Because the demon doesn’t like the light; the demon likes darkness. And the rhythm is acceptable for the demon while the Divine forces are saying 'Well I understand that you are going to have your time but I will ultimately conquer what you are doing'.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Emotional attachment

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: You said that it is not possible to meditate as long as there are undigested thoughts. But my head is full of undigested thoughts.

Guru: I know, I know exactly the whole background of your mind. Now let me explain it in the nicest way without making your feelings public: Remember attachment and fear cause you to continue to have those indigested thoughts. Though you may say that you are detached from things you are not detached. You are emotionally tied up inside you and that stops you from letting go. Just regard yourself as an impermanent volume of energy. At any minute we can leave and go. So what is the purpose of this emotional attachment?

What you have to learn to do is to master that emotional attachment - that is what everybody here has to do with himself or herself. Whilst you have love, know that that love must be governed by the head. If not, the emotional side of the heart dominates the head. The head must control the heart.

If I did not say that to you, you will say to me: 'But how can I now have a relationship with other human beings? Because I have to have that love physically'. Of course, have that physical attachment but you cannot possess anybody. I can’t possess anyone of you, you are free! And at any given moment the person whom you thought is yours, a mother or a father, you will have to let go. And then you hear the mother and father say 'my child'.

Family relationships

No, it is not your child – you come to ten and twelve, the little bird is just about to fly out of its nest. And the mother says: 'But that is my baby!' Yes, the mother is entitled to say 'my baby' purely and simply because she carried that child for nine months and knows the anguish and pain and love that is in that child. But the wise mother and the wise father will help the child to grow and fly out of the nest with every assistance that you can give. That wisdom is necessary.

There comes a time where you find that there is a lack of interaction between two human beings, that there is no common ground that the two people can be together. Then you must have the courage to say: 'Come on – let us in the nicest possible way – go our own way with love'. That is how you can master the senses. Don’t bear hate. Don’t bear malice or ill will to anybody for anything they do. For we are the architects of both pain and displeasure. If you are unhappy about a set of circumstances, it is you who are going to change the vibrations in your being.

It won’t affect me if I refused to accept that vibration. I will smile and walk away and say: 'Happy Christmas!' Have that courage within yourself to say: 'I am not going to allow the aura that I possess to be interfered by anybody'. Be free; free yourself from the bondage of attachment. That is my advice to you. The senses will always demand.

Be mindful of your senses. The more you are mindful of your senses you will develop greater perception, you will know what is going to happen around you and you are the master of your ship. You must be the master of your ship if you are going to advance spiritually. Because then you can steer the ship to calmer waters. You can steer the ship in the direction you want rather then it bouncing in the ocean of Samsara, where it will end up on the rocks.

We are able to control it. Except that we don’t wish to allow ourselves that luxury of mastering our lower nature and our senses.

Reply: But the more I try that, the more it comes.

Guru: But when you are with me in Skanda Vale you free yourself. So my advice to you is: come and live with me. Very simple remedy. We will turn Skanda Vale into a little Swiss village.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Form & formlessness

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Now, there is always a battle raging between orthodox people that one knows that the other doesn’t exist. That is through ignorance people say that. I have seen the Divine Mother in formlessness, that is why I can explain it to you. I saw Her in a volume of energy first, literally pulsating in front of the picture of Hers. I thought I was in Mars because the power and energy were moving around very fluid until it lifted the energy up and went into the temple next door.

Equally, I have seen Her in the form. What happened at that moment, when I saw that volume of energy, I said to Her: 'What is that!?' Because I haven’t seen a volume of energy as I described you. And then She said: 'Can’t you see? Look at my picture!' All those elongated volumes of energy that have arms and hands all manifesting in the form of light. So that incredible battle that rages in the minds of people that one is more superior to the other is a figment of ones own self-importance. Transcend all of these things! Realise that there is in the whole universe such power and energy undiscovered by the human being. Form and formlessness: Form, the human being can interact with.

Formlessness is more difficult to visualise the enormity and power of this energy. Because you cannot quantify, you cannot contain it within the mind because you have to transcend all limitations to understand the enormity of energy. That is why we tell people more and more to start with form. Then you will transcend even form to become formless because it is much easier to have that interaction with the form.

There is a beautiful image of the Buddha. When the Buddha reached enlightenment and He had this very energy in himself, you see the Buddha with one of his hand on his lap like that and with the other, He sends the energy to the earth. And that is because He could not give that vast power to any human being. It is not possible. And that is why people have to go very carefully as they progress spiritually because there is a tendency for the person to say: 'I want more power, I want more power!'

If this container, this human form, cannot properly handle that energy you will burn up. And that is why the Divine is reluctant to come to people, not because the Divine doesn’t want to come to people. The karma will make possible that if that energy came to that human being unprepared – it will burn out. Not that it would matter very much to the Divine but it will literally unnecessarily shortcircuit the birth and death.

Question: Can you visualise while you are meditating on the Divine Mother?

Guru: You can! You can.

Question: So you can basically just concentrate and see Her?

Guru: Yes, that will help you, enable you to concentrate better. But always remember: you can’t tell the Divine Mother how She is going to appear to you. It would be presumptuous of me or anybody to say to the Divine Mother: 'Today I am going to see you as Maha Lakshmi so this is how I want you to come to me'. That is the biggest mistake a lot of people make.

Yes, you may have a special affinity with Maha Lakshmi because She is light and energy and power and success. But She will decide that this time you need a sort of a booster into your system and come more forcefully in a different aspect of form. So you must be willing to have that vision transformed from form to another form or formlessness. Be open-minded! Also, try to start your meditation concentrating on the form if you want to. But don’t hold on to it because it will restrict you in your own progress.

I understand some of you are practising the formlessness of God. Now, you don’t have to change your outlook, nor be confused by the thought that I am talking about the form of God. And often, if you listen to me, I am also talking about the formlessness of God. In this form that is sitting here, we will substitute for this lady the form of God. In this form are the mountains, are the rivers, all the gases, all the stars, all the moons, all the suns embodied in this form of God which is also the spirit that pervades the whole universe. That is what we call 'Vishnu Maya'.

Now if a person looks from one side of this form, and sees vast energy and power emanating from this whole atmosphere of God, you will swear that that is all that exists. Then you may find out of this very formlessness and form, emerges great Avatars like Krishna, Christ, Rama who have realised that they have emerged from the form and that they have come from the Father.

It is no different from that which people have claimed who have come from the formlessness. They knew what truth was as the Buddha, they knew what truth was as those who practice Judaism, Mohammedism or Hinduism. They would never, I am absolutely certain, have misdirected human beings in any way.

There is one consciousness flowing from God or Godlessness. If you combine all the philosophies of the world, put them together, you would never be able to find any difference. Truth is truth. Thou shall not kill! Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your might, with all your strength! Thou shall love thy neighbour. Do not lie, do not cheat, do not cause injury! All these are a common basis on which human beings have to base their life. Understanding, compassion, giving of yourself selflessly is the base on which all religions have begun and will end.

Liberation is the foremost thought for the human being whether he is Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or whatever. To be liberated from this karma that we have brought with us. All this and more is what we call Sanatana Dharma; the timeless consciousness of God. Timeless... and that means even those who worship stones, those who worship trees, those who worship the spirit of the human being. Those who worshipped from the most primitive times to the time now when we are exceedingly sophisticated in the worship of God.

God in His Universality

That is why, divine friends, we are drawn to the worship of nature. So we rush to the mountains, for in the mountains is the energy of the whole universe brought down and born there. We want to go and drink from this consciousness. We are drawn to fire, we are drawn to water, we are drawn to the wind, we are drawn to ether, we are drawn to earth. We are drawn to all of the elements who subscribed to our lives. Those are the personalities of God who manifest in the form and formlessness.

They gave a form to the personality of wind to convey to the human mind what God looked like. Men gave a form to fire so that he could convey the power of Gods manifestation in fire. Men gave a form to the earth as Mother earth so that men could understand the vastness of power and the manifestation of Her. Wind and ether – all of these things in Greek mythology and many others – God was portrayed.

Man has tried to convey the intensity and power of the formlessness. It has been made difficult because you are always evolving. So what was relevant for the period when man was in his early stage, is not now acceptable for some people in this consciousness.

Satyam, Dharma, Shanti & Prema

I understand your predicament. I understand why you do not sometimes wish to be associated with the form of God because it has many connotations. But I always think to myself: If I want to transcend my lower nature and need assistance and the power of Almighty God, I would prefer to have somebody who will stand above me and say to me 'You are wrong, you are going the wrong way'. I am more answerable to Almighty God than to myself.

I always want to feel within myself and experience the presence of God in the form and formlessness. And for that unknown reason, the Lord has chosen me. But I am happy to have that consciousness that whatever I do I have to answer to Almighty God. I cannot make a mistake and pursue that mistake for my own egocentric satisfaction.

That is the element of Satyam I have in my heart; that I do not want to con you by pretending to be God. That is the biggest mistake a lot of people have made and fall foul to their own egocentric nature. Divine friends, whilst you pursue whatever spiritual path you wish to follow, enthrone the thought of Satyam, Dharma, Shanti and Prema.

Sathyam; absolute truth. Whatever dharma you are going to follow; practice it diligently. From it will come shanti; peace and [prema:] immense love. It is very important that we go on this spiritual journey. I cannot thank you enough to come to share with me my innermost thoughts, and above all bring to my own consciousness divinity. I have not read any books except one. And it is only when you are there, questioning me, that I discover the enormity of my own divine consciousness.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Kundalini

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: I often have a spasm in my arms during the meditation. What is that and can I leave it as it is?

Guru: It is quite normal, it is not the spasm, it is the kundalini energy rising and you have no control – it goes like that. Thank goodness it is not anywhere else because you would be jumping around. I have two friends here from Skanda Vale who have different reactions to kundalini. There is no one single rule to kundalini, people try to fly, they jump around and they want to swim. There is a reference to the lifestyle they had earlier and they begin to react. Occasionally they growl!

I want all of you to meditate, I will teach you, but you must apply it. In these few days that we have got here, it is only if you apply it then you can question me and ask me if you have any problems. Then we have a good partnership, working partnership. Question, find out, I am here and I will help you.

Devotion & trust

Question: Guruji sometimes when I am sitting I feel the energy coming up to here and then I get frightened, I think I'll lose my head. And then it is like running away.

Guru: When you have that energy rising, think that the Divine Mother is the energy. And you look at the Divine Mother and say "Oh!" She will really start coming up, don’t worry. She will never run away. She will go straight to your head and create more problems for you – but that is what you need. Those are problems that teach you to master yourself. Look at Her constantly. Never take your eyes away from Her in your mind's eye. You know the aspect of the Divine Mother you like, or you have an association with, and you say "Please come, be with me, travel in my whole being."

I will share an experience with you... not one many experiences: When I go to sleep, She regards me as Her play child and so She comes and stands at the foot of the bed. I say "Here we go!" and slowly any single muscle of my body starts rippling like the ocean. Can you imagine? Even the toe muscle – all of them are rippling. You know that is Her energy. You have to watch this energy rising. I have learned now to sit back and say "Here we go." I am watching this coming through my whole body, engaging every tiny minute cell in the body. Yes, enjoy it.

And sometimes you may well feel an inadequacy. Do you know why that is? Because you are not in control of your ship then, the Divine Mother is. Hand it to Her. Never mind if you die. It doesn’t matter. I always say to myself "Here we go – never mind if I die, I am so happy with You!”

Give of yourself, surrender, free yourself! Don’t worry! Think of me if you want to laugh. The experience of the Divine – gain for yourself. She is not a figment of the imagination. Everybody thinks that God is male only – that is for the chauvinists. God is also female, Shakti. I can’t see God going around laying eggs! I can’t see God being the Mother, except a Mother who is God and God is Mother. Both are duality. You are also a duality and this energy is a part of the whole universe.

If men think that they are so male then I can tell you – if you see a real big burly man – there is nothing nice about it. Because it is not tempered with the gentleness of the female aspect. The same with the woman: You have the woman but it is tempered by the male aspect within the woman. And both go side by side and you need that power inside you. And that is why I refer to the Divine Mother as Shakti because She is the power who is working in the whole universe and you refer to its nature.

You talk about nature, Mother Nature, the earth – yes, She is Mother. She is nurturing the whole universe and caring for it. And that is the process which we are evolving to integrate with Her. Don’t be afraid.

A funny story about kundalini moments in public

It is terribly funny; Swami and I go shopping for the community every Wednesday. And like any other human being, we are very happy to get into the car and drive and I know that everything is ok. But then when we arrive in the car park we are discussing how and what we have to do, and Mother thinks that She should keep an eye on my activities, so She decides to come into the car to see me.

And from that moment I am not in control of my body. And my body shakes and so Swami sits and says: 'We wait a little while'. And when I think I can control it and handle the situation then I go shopping. And it is rather amusing to see somebody arrive who is absolutely in a sense normal, shaking his head in front of the greengrocer and says: 'I’ll have two pounds of onions'. I have no control and the poor man looks at me in the weirdest fashion thinking 'Oh poor chap, he is suffering from epilepsy or Parkinson disease, he cannot be quiet'.

So really you have no ego, your ego is really crushed by the Divine consciousness. I am very bad company to be out with. I tell you why, because it raises the kundalini of a lot of people. It energises people and some people find it difficult to handle. That is why we withdraw away from people because sometimes it can become too much.

Other people, in spite of all the persecution, they want more. A little and often does you good.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Learning how to say ’No’

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: A have a question about the negative forces. I often hear negative voices and while meditating they get stronger. They hinder me.

Guru: Because they do not like the disciplines that you are going to set in motion. And they will tempt you to get away easily from the disciplined, orderly life because a lot of people have the misconception to believe that you can gain great spiritual height without discipline. Who are those forces? Who are those voices within you talking? They are all a part of the sense objects that exist within you, that you have tended to for a long time. What we have to do is to begin to say 'No'. Learn to smile and say 'No'. And if you can say 'No' to yourself with a smile on your cheek, then you will understand that a force within you will realise you have begun a spiritual journey in real terms.

I will share with you something that happened to me. My father was very authoritarian. When I was six years old I went to the toilet, closed the door, took a mirror and exercised to say 'No'. So I sat there, looking at the mirror and practised 'No' in any form and loudness. My parents wanted to go to the toilet, but I wouldn’t let them in! Instead, they heard a permanent 'No, no, no' ... And I didn’t stop until I could say 'No' with a nice smile on my face. Of course, my parents were worried and angry.

After quite some time I came out of the toilet. My father and mother were going about their business. I was prepared now to say 'No'. And the first thing my father said was 'Have you been naughty?' No was very easy. 'Have you eaten your food?' I said 'No I am not going to eat any food'. And my father was quite mad with me. So you have the choice within you to learn to say 'No' to these forces inside you and master them. For you must not be a prisoner of your sense objects.

I started so young to train myself to say 'No'. Often I have to say 'No' to people who come to Skanda Vale, who want to behave in an awkward way. But my way of saying 'No' is with a lot of love. And sometimes I even go and stroke the person’s cheek and say 'Sorry'. When the senses are making demands on you, you say to the senses 'Sorry, I can’t agree with you'. I promise you they will start blushing!

I know how difficult it is. I promise you because as soon as a human being starts on the spiritual journey, and begins to discipline himself, a lot of obstructions are placed on the path of that human being. It is by the senses demanding that you reduce your devotion and dedication.

Can you imagine me inside you? How mischievous I will be in your senses? If I want to stop you from meditating? It will never be anything like the comparison you are making inside you at the moment. I will be totally and absolutely mischievous. That is how you must think. Every time you have got those voices inside you misleading you, remember it is me. So you have a battle with me inside you. Because that is how you are going to evolve.

Imagine if everything was nice and rosy? You will never make an effort. Every person who evolves spiritually, who wants to evolve spiritually, has to do battle with the lower nature.

There was a very great saint, he had meditated and done great spiritual austerities for a long time. And he went to the Lord and said 'My Lord, I have mastered all my senses. I am so sure of myself now; please grant me some boons so that I can be with you'. And he went on doing this, constantly badgering the Lord. So the Lord said to him 'Go back. You go and carry on your spiritual sadhana; I will keep an eye on you.'

So he was so convinced and happy that the Lord was ultimately going to watch him; his great spiritual sadhana. So there he was under the tree, in immense bliss, expecting the Lord to come. But what happened to him was a bee came. It was going around his ear 'zzzzz...' and all the time trying to enter his nose. And he was getting more angry every minute until he was literally hot with rage. He lifted his hand and would give a swipe at this bee. And when he did that, the bee stood in front of him – as the Lord – and said 'I thought you had controlled your anger?!'

I am only giving you an example. That, when the person thinks even that he has been liberated, that is a warning for himself not to delude himself. Because the senses will make demands.

That is why we put people through the third degree! Giving them more and more agitation until the ugliness of the human being surfaces. That is why all Gurus are born with a wooden spoon; stirring things up, not allowing it to stay in the same way – to get all the poison which is inside the human being out. Not corked.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Mantras & ’Om’

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: Can you explain to me once again 'Hari Om?'

**Guru: '**Hari' is the name of the Preserver. 'Om' is omnipresent and omniscient; one and everything. That is the sound of a vibration that encompasses the whole universe – 'Om.' When you start chanting, you identify yourself with the totality of the whole universe because that vibration enhances your consciousness so that you can become one with the creation. This identifying with everything is the chanting of 'Om' qualifying every name of the Lord. When you chant any mantra, you always start by using the word 'Om.' [Guru then chants to Subrahmaṇya]

oṃ ṣaḍānanāya vidmahe | śakti hastāya dhīmahi | tannaḥ skanda prachodayāt || || oṃ subrahmaṇyāya namaḥ ||

'Om' predominantly plays a part in all the mantras that a person is going to chant. In other words, identifying the totality of creation with God's presence in any particular form. You can literally chant 'Om' and say: 'Om Ganga' – river, 'Om tree' – identifying yourself with the tree. Because the spirit of the Lord pervades the whole universe and is embodied in all of life.

If you were to take a shell from the ocean and hold it to your ear you have this hum of 'Om' in the vibration of that shell. The vibration penetrates the ether, that vibration penetrates all negativity created inside the human being – just chanting the name of 'Om'. Ommmmmmm, Ommmmm... there are Yogis and Rishis who only chant 'Om.' So, if you chant 'Om' and you attach another aspect of the Divine to that word you have got a bonus!

Question: And 'Namaha' at the end?

Guru: 'Namaha' means 'that is your name' you are known as '…' This is a very congenial way to express and extol the virtues of God. And that is what the hundred and eight names or thousand and eight names of God are about. Saying: 'Oh Lord, you are the power of the sun, oh Lord you are the power of the moon, oh Lord you are the power of creation, oh Lord you are Ganga.' That is what we are saying.

A lot of people want to meditate. But meditation is more than just sitting down to concentrate. To meditate is to transcend the physical body and become immersed in the totality of God. To leave this block (the body) on earth and go into the ether. That is the purpose of the meditation so that this karma that we have brought with us will be slowly removed and made good for the human being to become one with God. To transcend the physical and become emerged with the spirit that pervades the whole universe. That is why I am teaching you the meditation of perception – to improve your visionary eye.

Guru: If you think you have a problem in your body, chant 'Om'. And make it resonate in every single cell of your being. Bring that consciousness to the top of your head and go and identify yourself with the totality of Maha Shakti. If you have got a problem with a leg or an arm or body, concentrate with your mind and chant 'Om'. And send that vibration to the particular part of the body that you have a problem, so that you create a power in those cells that can reorganise itself to make it better.

When you have done that then go to the specialised facets of the Divine and draw the power of preservation. Then also draw from the power of the Lord of disillusion, destruction to destroy the negativity in the cell that is causing injury and harm to that individual.

Every human being has, from time to time physical problems. Whilst all the facilities are available with good medicine, they are all toxic. First, try with your mind – how you can change the whole structure of the cells with positive thinking. People always talk about healing. What is healing? It is to gain the energy from without and transfer it with concentration to the area that is affected by disease and problems.

If a person is worried you create more problems for yourself because the adrenalin feeds a problem. My advice to you is to have somebody like me in your cupboard that would make you laugh first thing in the morning! Because instead of adrenalin you create another substance in your body which will immediately heal the body. Laughter is a cure! Laughter is for the heart and for the whole being a power. That is why there are many therapies today where people are made to scream and laugh and be joyful because that is very helpful for the human being.

If St. Peter is at the gate of heaven and you are miserably entering the gates of heaven, I am sure He will shut it tight. If I have anything to do with it I will tickle everybody until they scream with laughter. Be joyful! And that joyfulness enables you to chant with a great love for the Lord. Free yourself from bondage. We have not come to put more bondage to the people; we have come to liberate, not to create aberrations of the mind.

If you go to the top of the mountain dragged by Aina stand there on the top with your arms stretched up and say 'Hari Om'. And down below there will be a van waiting to take you to the 'Irrenhaus!' [Translation – lunatic asylum].

Swami: Which is called Skanda Vale!

Guru: Because nobody can understand what you are doing. Except you will feel free, absorbing all the energy from the mountains; from air, from the Divine gift that God has given you in the beautiful mountains. God is energy! At the same time, practice pranayama at the top. At the same time concentrate from your visionary eye. Wherever you can – if you can go to a height free of the interference of the lower vibrations, then go find peace and tranquillity. For there you will find an energy that you do not find in the valleys. Yes, 'Hari' and 'Om' is the totality of creation.

Question: 'Om' is like the holy spirit in Christianity?

Guru: Yes, identifying yourself with the Paramatma. It is a vibration.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

No charge for spirituality

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Any Guru or Swami or teacher of any worth will never charge you money for spiritual knowledge. Do not pay any money for spiritual enlightenment. It is a sin for us to get involved in monetary remuneration. We are here to serve you. I took this opportunity, when we planned to get together here in Kiental with Sister and Aina, I made absolutely certain that whatever charge was really for this building and the food was not going to be bounced up to make my trip or Swamis or Sisters free. I made absolutely certain that we also contributed towards that.

The Divine Mother gives me everything. And I am here to serve you and free you from that bondage that people have created in spirituality. And more than that, we chose people, some of them, who wouldn't normally have afforded to come from Skanda Vale to Switzerland. Unfortunately, they were not able to come, so we made sure that their air passage and all their subsistence were paid by the community.

Our job is to help you. Our job here is not to see how we can extract anything from you. If you do anything, if you want to give anything, it must be totally voluntary without any reference to how we can extract funds from anybody. It must come from your heart for that is the way of giving. Then with the same dignity of giving, we will receive it. No other way!

I am free, my mind is free. The devotees of Skanda Vale and also the monks are free because they are not involved in Maha Maya. It is a wonderful, clean feeling inside us that when I see somebody I do not calculate how I can relieve a few pounds or thanks from that human being. I am free, I serve the Divine Mother. And if somebody wants to give something – that’s their problem, that’s their karma, they are fulfilling their own karma. And I am not involved in that.

Sorry for that deviation, but I thought that I take this opportunity to say how important it is for us to be disciplined. Not only you but for us, to be disciplined in our whole outlook. Religion must be a way for your liberation, not bondage. That freedom for you to make a choice about which way you want to go. Whilst we are giving advice to you, there is no imposition on you at all. We are here to guide you, to protect you, to help you on your journey. We are here as the servants of the Lord to help you through the hazards of living and tasks that you have to perform.

Yes – we want to share your karma so that your burden will be lessened, not made more for you. That is what we are here for, and I want you to take advantage of that and join us. Whenever you can – not only here but in Skanda Vale, when you come.

I’ll share with you a recent experience. We have an offer from a devotee in Italy who has got a monastery that they have renovated completely – nearly fifty rooms and want to give it to me. So I said to them: 'I’ll let you know'. And my next thought was to the Divine Mother: 'What do I want this ego-trip for? If You are not there in that monastery I don’t want it. So I want you, Mother to show me that You are going to be in that monastery'.

And from that moment onwards She took over that monastery, and that poor lady was going from one room to a room, shaking and getting Mother’s Shakti. She couldn’t understand what was happening with her. And she rang me up and said: 'Guruji, I can’t understand what is happening. Since I spoke to you I am getting Shakti from the Divine Mother and I can’t even cook!'

I said: 'Ah now we have got it right'. Because I don’t want to be anywhere where She is not going to be, I don’t want a grand palace. Because every time people create in their minds some fantasy of buildings and places – immediately what comes in my mind is: 'How are we going to run it? Will the Divine Mother be there? If She is there, She will provide for us'.

And if I create restrictions by saying: 'Oh, I want a nice building, I want a nice place...' After you get the nice building and nice place then you have to have the running costs of that place and here begins the art of picking pockets. You impose such conditions and restrictions on your devotees. But they must be free. And that is why I say to you divine friends:

Free yourself from anybody who promises to give you enlightenment and spirituality, but who is attached to the conditions of monetary gain for themselves. Free yourself because God is free. The power of God is free. The energy of God is free. You can get it for yourself if you so desire.

The experience of the monks and nuns gives me the courage to hand everything to them so that they – I know they won’t make mistakes. I went to Germany last year and I wrote to the people in Germany and I said: 'Don’t charge devotees for meditation! I will be so angry if you do so'.

And when I arrived Swami and I had a little chat and I said 'Things aren’t right here!' There were charging hundred and twenty marks from each devotee who was coming for a class. And immediately I gave a discourse to the devotees and I said 'I have nothing to do with this charge that is happening. If the organisers have done so, it is entirely in their hands and I am not going to be associated with it'. They have been trying now to get me back to Munich – it will be another lifetime before that happens. No way! No way!

If I want money I tell the Divine Mother. She is the mountain of gold, She is the moonbeam on the mountain of gold and there are people whom She inspires to help us. And that is good enough.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Talking to God

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: I have a picture of Holy Mother, so I can have a talk to Her. I can come into the room and sit down, just having a conversation to get into contact with Her, to feel the atmosphere and then start to meditate.

Guru: Yes – I never complete my day without a conversation with Her. Never! I present all your faces to Her and then have an interaction with Her, presenting all your problems, your aspirations and what you hope to achieve in your life and seek Her grace. I cannot give anything to you without Her giving something to me – so that I can give it to you. Because you are in an awkward position to be able to go and get it for yourself, until such time you stand on your own feet.

Now, that is the ability for you to sit there and start this conversation. I never go anywhere without telling Her. To come here for three days I was telling Her: 'Mother I am going now to Switzerland; I don’t know what you want me to do.' Because I never preplan anything I say or what is going to happen because it is an interaction going on with Her all the time. And so I say: 'Please be with me, I need your Shakti, I need your energy and help me so that this task that I am going to take on your behalf will be fulfilled properly'. Offer that conversation in that way to Her.

Let Her be the architect and designer for your life. Let Her sanctify all of your thoughts, for the success and failures are also Hers. Because She will alter them as She wants – that is what surrender means. When we say 'Surrender to the Lord', you make an effort in whatever industry or whatever you do. And then say to the Divine 'Mother, now you make whatever adjustments you want and I bow to your will'.

That is what I do with Her. I make every effort to serve Her. The moment when I serve Her best is when I have been used from half past four in the morning until next day... and another day... and another day. And I am literally trying so hard to find a moment to go into my room and shut myself up. That moment I go into the room saying: 'I am going to have a rest', She will come as if to say: 'I watched you, I know what you have been up to... now here is the grace you are looking for'.

It all comes down to effort

That is what we all must do. Laziness has no space in spirituality I can promise you! We have to make an effort. We must work hard and advance ourselves spiritually. There is no automatic switch you can put on and off for spirituality. Because now we are in the age of pills, people think that there is a spiritual pill. That you can wake up in the morning and swallow it as well with all the other pills. There is no such thing.

The effort you make is how you will progress. Yes, I have been teaching you since yesterday but it is you who will achieve success. I can only bring knowledge to you. But it is you who must sit down, apply it and find out for yourself in these next few days before I return back to London whether you have any questions. And you will never know if you have any questions until you really apply yourself. And I want you to come back to me again and again until you have got in your mind clarity of thought. This is very important.

Can I just say something? When I see people disturbed with some of the things I say I promise you I will stir it up more. Because I want the poison of displeasure to come out and install love in your heart. I am exceedingly mischievous because I know what would stir a human being up. And then I get in there with a nice long wooden spoon and stir it up.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

The guru / disciple relationship

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: It is very important whilst I am teaching you, that you put into practice what I have taught. Only then you can find out in essence whether it is working for you, or whether it is obstructing you. If it is, then I will find a solution to the problem.

Don’t wait without meditating after we have finished the class, at least once in the day. Have the ability to say to yourself 'Right there is a lot of fun and games going around... let me go quietly, sit and meditate, and find out for myself what Guruji is talking about... if I can work with it'.

As I said before, lots of you have been to other Gurus and Swamis and learnt techniques from yogis, bogies and rogies – lots of them! You know, we are of no consequence. Please dear friends, what matters is that your link between yourself and God must be established. The various ways each Guru or Swami teaches is to push the person on a spiritual course. And if possible, for that Guru or Swami to take from you your karma, and reduce it.

Guru blessings

Students often contact me, including students of medicine or doctors. They want to get through their finals or whatever examinations they want to get through, and say to me 'Please Guruji, make sure that I get through the examination'.

Now it would be false for me to help somebody who hasn’t even studied. Because I will let loose a person into society who is not qualified to look after a patient. But if the person has worked very hard, and at that moment of the examination has got excited and his mind has got confused.. then I will make sure that that person will get through that examination.

You want to know how I do it? The examiner, when he takes that paper in his hand will be full of ananda [bliss]. He will be so high and very compassionate. We will only do that if the person has studied; if the person has worked hard and we know a special set of circumstances prevented that person from doing his examination well.

Earn liberation yourself - no shortcuts with drugs

Now, that is the same with meditation as well. If you have fooled yourself, don’t think 'We have been fooled'. You will do yourself enormous mental damage to believe that one Guru or another can give you liberation. That will be totally dishonest.

Divine friends – conserve your energy. For your energy is required for your spiritual advancement. Without that energy, it is like lighting a lamp without fuel in it. Conserve your energy because it is important to send that volume of power to your brain to concentrate. Don’t continue your bad habits by smoking. And if you take any drugs – this is the time when you can wean yourself out of those bad habits. Every action has a cycle of reactions.

You want alertness in the brain and the mind. You want hypersensitivity to register the impulses surrounding you. If you dull your mind and your brain with artificial substances it will do it irreparable damage.

If a person takes excessive alcohol the brain becomes so addled and soft that it cannot function sufficiently. If you take hash or any hard drugs it does the same and ultimately destroys that human being. As I am going along I pick up your mind and answer your questions. There are yogis and bogies and rogies in India who smoke hash and dope. Their dopy character has nothing to do with God.

Divine friends, this is a very serious thing I am telling you because there is a misconception about 'believing'. Because those people take drugs, you think spiritual experience can be gained with some form of drug – this is not true. I want alertness from you. I want you to be in control of your senses and not some drug or some outside influence. I want you to be the master of your ship, and not for it to bounce in the ocean of Samsara.

I love all of you. But my love does not allow it to falter in any way with what I have to do for you, to help you on your spiritual journey. I will accommodate every idea of yours only to change them.

Like you, I too know many yogis and spiritual people, and they have all got different physical features and abilities. These are all facets of the Divine. Those facets of the Divine cannot be put in one entity. Whilst you go and see them and experience the anandam, the love and direction from them, know this well: do not be attached to them. Including me.

Because it is futile. We have come to do a job of work and not to create special relationships with you. Yes, we love you but at the same time, when we see anybody coming too close to us we push them away because we want you to stand up on your own legs.

I know your innermost thoughts. I understand why sometimes you are drawn to some special person of spiritual experience and content. I understand that, but that won’t liberate you. What will liberate you is your own hard work. By doing as much karma yoga as you can, combined with bhakti yoga. There is no easy way.

From one cycle of birth to another all of us have created karma. And the negativity that brings you back to earth again and again through suffering, pain and displeasure. If you really want to evolve spiritually, then begin to let go. How can you let go? You can look at your life. Understand the vibrations that you are setting in motion; find out the causes and effects that you are setting in motion in your life.

That is why when I look at you, you think that what you have thought, what you said and what you have done in your life has gone away. No! It still exists around you in the form of your aura. That is your visiting card to me. So I accept your visiting card, understand it and look at your qualifications. And that is the basis on which I have made my diagnosis about the various maladies that the human being suffers from. Not critically, not emotionally but with a deep sense of commitment and love.

Divine friends, if a person cries, or is in unhappiness... or whatever it is, we understand that unhappiness and the problem that the person has to go through. But I cannot believe I can find a solution to any problem if I also sit with that individual, open the floodgates of tears and join that individual.

Yes, I cry for you. I cry for you because you are not trying to discover your divinity. I cry inside myself knowing your potential and you are not using it. I see you in a beauty and yet you expose the outer ugliness. Discover that inner beauty! For it glows like beautiful millions of suns. When you discover that divinity... that is what meditation is about. Then it will burn and dispel all the darkness that impairs your progress.

Yes, we want to help you. Yes, we will nod in the direction of you when you want help. Yes, we want to be kind and gentle on your spiritual journey but yes, we are the stirrers for you to evolve spiritually.

I know the flying doctor Gurus come and go – Swamis come and go to the West. They give various prescriptions but they are not there to see how the aftercare medicine works. If you have a Guru or if you have a Swami, or if you have anybody whom you are taking instructions, go to him and tell him you are one of the squatters on his doorstep! And you are not going to get up from there until he has given you liberation!

Swami has just started a union called 'the devotee's rights union'. I really mean this because it is no use having a Swami or a Guru who has made his money, has gone to a comfortable chalet or something and never answers the phone, and his assistant has to do all the work – that’s the sort of Guru or Swami you don’t need.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

The heart chakra

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: We say intuition is something that happens with the view in the third eye. But I have heard also that our heart must be open to having intuition. What is intuition and where is the seat of intuition?

Guru: Now, let me take first the heart chakra. Often people refer to the heart chakra, which is a very emotive chakra until you discover selflessness. Most people only can relate to the association between human beings and life on an emotional basis. That is not a very good thing to cultivate if you are only going to look at your heart chakra. The head must govern the heart and be detached!

It is wonderful to be able to exercise the use of the heart because to know the Divine is to exercise your love in human relationships and the world you live in. Yes, that is a good starting point. But there comes a moment when the person has advanced beyond that point and says 'Ok, I had all my relationships now sorted out I am ready to go on my spiritual journey. I want to be integrated with the totality of the universe, the whole consciousness'.

I am deliberating using that because there are some of you here who prefer the formlessness to the form. So, let go! Don’t let the heart control your head. When the heart controls your head you are a slave to your senses. But let the head control the heart and be wise that you are conscious of the vibrations that you set in motion with the heart.

Only when the human being has graduated from the physical consciousness of interaction between each other with love, then you can transcend to selflessness. A lot of people talk about love and want to have that interaction with God. But they really have not that accurate interaction with each other before they go to God.

Family life is the training ground to learn selfless love

That is why we promote and always tell people: build up your relationship with your wife, your family, your children, your grandparents and don’t ignore anything that surrounds you. If you ignore any of them, you ignore the Lord. Yes, God is love, love is also God. For one without the other, there is no God. When you realise that the senses are involved in that emotive heart, then the intellect will take over.

Now to the next part of your question. It will dominate and say 'Hey, alright for you to talk about love, but where are you going?' Yes, it would be most unwise, and I say this very deliberately for husbands and wives to practice this selfless love because one or the other is going to complain, and I may be bumped on my head for saying anything. A human relationship will grow. As it grows you will cease to think physically and you will transcend the physical to the higher being, the Divine consciousness.

To the young people who want to get married I will say this to you: Don’t even consider it! Get married, settle down, fill your house with children, full of love and evolve spiritually alongside till all your children are grown up and you have cared for them and you have helped them in their lives and ambitions. If you have worked in your life alongside husband and wife and family, meditating, contemplating, then you will slowly step from one phase of consciousness to the other, without problems and aberrations.

This is Kali Yuga. During the Kali Yuga is the easiest time for people to evolve spiritually. The Lord is sending many mind benders to the world to help people to evolve spiritually quickly with the grace and power that is given to us.

Whilst all of you here want to learn meditation it is the most difficult thing for a person to do. I don’t want to discourage you but it needs a lot of concentration, discipline and orderliness for you to achieve that goal. The quickest and the easiest way for the human being to evolve very quickly is to get the grace of the Divine by chanting – by spiritual Sadana, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga.

Instead of people saying: I hate, I hate, I hate you say: I love, I love, I love. And I love you my Lord, and you chant the name of the Lord and let the Lord’s name resonate inside you. Your lower nature will be dominated by those vibrations. Whichever religion, whichever practices you follow, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism – never mind. You chant, those vibrations, those slokas, those mantras are invaluable for you.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

The visionary eye

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Now you have meditated, you must be able to tell me what your problems are.

Question: Sometimes we don’t see any more with the third eye. It is just being.

Guru: Being and experiencing what you can see with that visionary eye. Because the world is surrounded by impulses, and those impulses (when your mind becomes a receiving station) will register those impulses. You translate that in your visionary eye and you could see them very clearly. That is why I say to people: 'If you are going to meditate, and reach out and gain some experience, stop what you are doing and let your mind calm down quietly – before you start on a spiritual experience'.

Contemplation before meditation

If not, what will happen is that you will replay whatever you have been doing. Because it is unnatural for you to think otherwise, purely and simply. Supposing you are walking down the street and you see so many things happening – as soon as you sit down those things that have drawn attention to your mind will begin to replay again. And so you may well think that is a tremendous thing that is happening to you. It isn’t – what is happening is that there is the replay of the vibrations have been picked up by your mind's eye.

That is how advertising on television works. You don’t realise when you are watching the adverts on television that your mind is absorbing those adverts and taking directives from the people who are advertising. And one fine day when you are in a shop, and you are going to make a purchase, then that very thought that you heard is now playing a game with you – giving you directions what to purchase and how to purchase.

That is also the way politicians work. When they come on television and say certain things to you – at the moment you may think that you are not listening, that this is going over your head. But it is actually registering in your subconscious mind. And at any given moment the replay will begin and you will, without you understanding, begin to react and respond to the information that has been fed through your mind – for you to respond to whatever goods, or mannerisms, or material requirements that may wish to purchase.

Question: But sometimes the focus is much wider, with all the senses – not only with the vision.

Guru: Yes, but you must try to lift your consciousness to that point.

Don’t allow your consciousness to be lower than your heart chakra. That is the level that you don’t want to go below. Because when you go into the lower chakras that means your sense objects are making demands on you. Lift all the time your consciousness to the heart chakra, and to the head chakra, and to the thousand petal lotus of your mind.

The more you do that then you will see that you are going to dominate your lower chakras. More and more and take control of them. There is a tendency for people to experience that all the other senses say: 'What about me, why have you forgotten me? I need also to be expressed.' And so slowly lift that consciousness to the visionary eye.

If a person wants to evolve spiritually, there is one thing he has to make sure: He or she should try to develop the consciousness about the heart chakra. The heart chakra is the level where you want to associate with life, as much as you can. But when it comes to the lower echelons; the stomach and the sensual organs, then you enter into a different drama completely.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

Vegetarianism

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Guru: Divine friends, we have an instrument in the form of a physical being. That instrument has to function at its best, heightened in consciousness. That is why we emphasise and try to infuse into the minds of bhaktas that they must eat sattvic food and not rajasic food. Now – a lot of people say it doesn’t matter what you eat, it doesn’t matter what you drink.

Ok – but it does matter. If you understand the type of food you put in – supposing it is meat, fish, eggs, wine – don’t stop because I am telling you, but just pause for a moment and be analytical inside you and say "Now, how do I feel inside me?"

And if you are really honest with yourself, you will feel that if you have eaten meat and heavy food that the digestive system does not assimilate the meat easily. If you want to calm your senses you must make sure that you are the best judge what is going inside you. You are going to put things inside you that will calm you, not stoke you like an engine going up the hill! You put all the fire and expect nothing to happen? Surprise, surprise!

Become mindful of your diet

I am not trying to develop a guilt consciousness inside you but I want you to understand every cause and effect you have set in motion – which is either an enhancement or a hindrance for you spiritually. You judge – you say to yourself "Gosh I ate that, that stirred my emotions up, I was angry so easily, why?"

Answer those questions: I did so and so, I went and drank and ate – yes. What I normally tell my devotees, is, if you are going to the pub take the Divine Mother with you. And let Her share some of that drink you are going to have. And then you will understand what it is like. You have a choice between the Divine Mother bottled spirit or the real one.

Moderation – the middle path is what I prescribe for all of you. Not extremes. Extremes are for mad Gurus and Swamis and Yogis. Extremes because we have chosen those extreme ways to enter to Divine consciousness and we are there involved in. But you are living in the world. I appreciate this very much. I appreciate the pressures on you, your families and relations who are eating all sorts of things and drinks and making all sorts of things and you are invited to participate in them. So find moderation! Find a level that you choose which will be no extreme, which will help for your own spiritual path.

A lot of people, when they drink a lot, they take Alka-Seltzer the next morning because they have got a bad head. Don’t let it happen to you, you don’t need that but at the same time have moderation instead of the Alka-Seltzer. I didn’t say don’t use wine to cook.

Question: Guruji, you say "Try to be truthful" and on the other hand you say "Try to say I love, I love, I love." But sometimes I just hate, and then this is the truth.

Guru: Now – I tell you a good cure for that hate. Stand in front of a mirror look at yourself hating and ask yourself whether you like it. Then the vibration of hate that you have set in motion, you will soon change. The damage you do to the person or persons you hate is far less than the damage you do to yourself. And for that reason I say to you: don’t waste your time, it is not worth it. Send me some of that hate, I will wrap it up and float it down the river.

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental

What happens when we die?

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Question: Where do we go after we have died?

Guru: Supposing you are a young man who is only attached to the world. And you have desires, feelings and attachments to the superficial things of life. You paid a lot of attention to those things in life... where do you think you will go first, as you will leave your physical body?

You will immediately be racing around. I see it happen when I look after people who are dying; they immediately come looking for me or the people they loved. They are torn from the physical body that they have left behind, and they rush to their loved ones – to the things they loved. And they go backwards and forwards in an intensely confused state.

Depending on the intensity of the attachment of that person's consciousness he will go on wandering. They are the wandering spirits for a long time, timelessness. It is a natural thing for a person who has been attached to the world not to want to return back. So it takes a long time for their rehabilitation spiritually. For them to be reborn again takes that much longer.

There was a very clever man once. He knew that chanting the name of the Lord was such an important thing before he died. So he named all his sons and his children by the different names of God. So that at least when he was looking at each person, waiting that he is dying, he would be calling 'Krishna, Lakshmi!' And so he had it all worked out beautifully because it is said in the scriptures that if you have the name of the Lord on your lips you will go to heaven.

They were running a very successful business. So there came the time for this man to die, and all the children came round him and they were waiting to be called by their names. And the father looked up and counted them; one, two three, four, five... and just as his last breath he said 'Who is in the shop?'

So where do you think he went? Back to the shop! There is a mistake a lot of people make in life. They think living in the world they can compromise sufficiently and hope at the last minute they will be pulled up to the divine consciousness. My advice to him, if he lived in this period, would have been to call the shop a divine name as well! And if he was worried about the money I would have called it Lakshmi as well!

So we have to recognise divinity in every single facet of our lives. You who are living in the world outside; you who have to pay your taxes, pay your bills, pay your rents, rates and food... I understand your involvement to make a success of your life. That is spiritual sadhana itself.

It is very difficult for me to try to write a prescription for your life to blend easily, for it must come from you and not from me. I understand how difficult it is. And because of that, I will keep on coming back to you, urging you on your spiritual journey, so that one day you will want what I want for you.

If you want spirituality, let go!

What does 'letting go' mean? You have a slab of chocolate; don’t eat it until you feel sick. If you love somebody; don’t eat the person up. Have a sense of moderation for your life. There is a time to live and there is a time to die. For all of us that is going to happen. Nobody knows when.

You cannot say: mañana, mañana, mañana... I will die later. Before I go on any journey I make absolutely certain I have finished all my business in Skanda Vale. There is nothing I have not left undone. I leave Skanda Vale, even when I am going on a small journey to London as if I am never going to return again.

As I have not been invited to stay here indefinitely! I am going back. That is the extent of my commitment to God. Oh Lord, when You want me I am ready to come. I am not attached to the results, nor to the work that I have to do for You. You can do it well without me. There are many in Your family who are growing up spiritually, and I would love to give them the opportunity to take my place.

The position of Guru will be advertised in your papers very soon! And if you want me to recommend you, I will do so. First of all, develop an immense sense of humour. Free of yourself of attachment and be willing to be abused by others. Then I will consider you for the job. Because I intend to, I hope with divine grace, that one day Switzerland will have a wonderful centre where we can help many, many, many more people.

Yes, when a person is attached, he is reborn into the spirit in the world of attachment. When the person has detached himself, or in a semi-state, then for a period the person will be wandering the earth planet, and then move away – being attracted by divine consciousness. That is also a period of time before reincarnation.

If a person started on a spiritual journey and made every effort to advance spiritually, then the reincarnation period will be that much shorter. And he will re-enter the world bearing with him great power and a future for his own spiritual advancement.

There is a premise in the mind of people that because he is Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist that automatically the person is going to be born in that particular faith. That is not true. In our minds, in people's minds, there are demarcation lines and that is how it is going to happen... but it will never happen like that. The universality of God makes you be born in any consciousness that is required. You expand your mind's consciousness to accommodate all spiritual consciousness.

And you end up with a mixed-up bag like me!

From the Kiental seminars, May 1990 · SEM-1990-05-Kiental