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Part 1: A Guided Meditation and Discourse on Consciousness Lower arms. Both lower arms and your elbows are very relaxed. Upper arms. Shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Feel and relax your neck muscles, your face muscles, your lips, your eyelids. Gently close and feel your head, the forehead. The whole body, from the toe to the top of the head and from the top of the head to the toe, is comfortable and relaxed. And now, become aware of the motionlessness of the body. The body is relaxed. The body is comfortable. You are sitting straight upright. Feel the motionlessness of the body, kāya-sthairya, and now bring your awareness to the breath. Do not change the breath rhythm. Let it flow, your breath, as natural as it is. Just feel that you know you are inhaling, and you know that you are exhaling. It’s a very pleasant feeling. Our breath is life. Life is breath. At the time of birth, first we inhale. At the end of this life, we exhale. And we can’t then anymore inhale. Between is only the waves of the breath. Like the waves from one soul to another soul. Relax. Do not move your body. Feel the breath ascending and descending, breath consciousness. At the time of the inhalation, the trunk of the body is expanding. At the time of the exhalation, the trunk of the body is contracting. And with this, you feel the energy or aura around your whole body. I know that I am inhaling. I know that I am exhaling. I know that I am inhaling, and I know that I am exhaling. I know that I am relaxed, and I feel my breath inwardly. Now, bring your other knee to the center of the eyebrows and gaze at the back wall of the forehead. In this dark space, you can see your thoughts and feelings at the center of the chest, and visions at the eyebrow center. But at present, you may see only dark space. Observe your thoughts. For example, what am I thinking? What did I think? Why did I think? What am I thinking? And what should I think? Relax. Relax the whole body. What am I thinking? What did I think? Why did I think? What should I think? If it is too much for you, again bring your awareness to the center of the chest. Feel the relaxed breath and relax. Let it be. Everything, just let it be. Relax. Feel the breath. Feel your whole body. From the toes to the top of the head. From the top of the head to the toes. Be aware of your being here. The whole body is relaxed. And deep inhale and exhale, and become extrovert slowly. Take a deep breath in and out. Become extroverted. The noise in the street, the cars, the sound of the amplifier, your breath sound. And we will inhale and three times chant Oṃ. And after three times, go, "Shānti, peace." Inhale. Slowly move your fingers, close the fists and open the palms, close the fists and open the palms, and stretch your elbows. Rotate your shoulders a little bit, and your head a little bit bent to the left side, slowly right side, and bend your head a little bit to the right side, and slowly bend your head a little bit to the left side, and slowly bend your head a little bit to the right side. Then, slowly, fold your palms, rub your palms, and place the palms on the face, and slowly massage your eyelids, face muscles, and open your eyes. That’s the first step. You were sitting nicely for 40 minutes. And now, one thing remains. I wish you good night. Thank you for coming. Salutation to the cosmic light. Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. His divine presence. Good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Hello viewers, nice to be here again in this hall. I don’t know if you were here last time. Beautiful place, beautiful Hyde Park, and beautiful people here this evening. Welcome, and the subject is very, very beautiful. Theory and practice both. Lucky are we. It is said tons of theory is nothing compared to a gram of practice. But without theory, there is no practice. So theory is inspiration, theory is motivation, and practice is achievement, realization. Without motivation, without theory, we will not come to practice. There are different theories about meditation. The word meditation in Sanskrit language is called dhyāna. Dhyāna means to be aware, to be alert, to be conscious. When you drive a car, when going from home, then your friends and family members will tell you, "Drive carefully." In Hindi language we will say, dhyāna se calanā. If you miss that attention, it can happen accidentally. Similarly, in yoga, those yogīs who have some aim to achieve, first need that attention. Dhyāna means to be one with it. Rājayoga is also called Aṣṭāṅga Yoga, the eight different steps of yoga. Yama and Niyama, which are ten principles, describe how to live life and what not to do. Like the Ten Commandments in the Testament, these are yogic principles, ten. Yama and Niyama: Yama means to withdraw yourself from external and inner forces. Niyama means to do it regularly, disciplined. And then comes āsana, steady posture, body, motionlessness of the body. There is water in this glass. You see, water is very peaceful, steady, and I can see what is at the bottom of the glass, or I can read what is written. But as soon as I touch it, then motion takes place, and you can’t see anything clearly that is inside. Similarly, Patañjali, a great saint, who wrote a very good book, it’s called the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra, is available in many languages, here also, definitely you can get it. First two principles. The first is called Atha Yoga Anuśāsanam. Yoga requires discipline. Without discipline, there is no success. After knowing the theory, you have to practice discipline. There is someone who has taken this slogan in America, one company which gives courses for management and business, and so on. Self-discipline is key to success, and this is what Patañjali said: "Atha yogānuśāsanam." Your success begins, or will be, with your own discipline. If we miss the discipline, everything is gone. If you don’t follow the traffic discipline, you will get a ticket. And if you make more mistakes, then you will get into an accident. And if you drive on the wrong side, then you will get a one-and-a-half meter by fifty centimeter space in the earth. Discipline. That’s in family life, in student life, in yogic life, in spiritual life. Everywhere, discipline is the first. After that, yogaḥ citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ. Then your yogic development meditation will begin if you can control citta-vṛtti. Chitta means our consciousness. Chitta means that space in which our intellect is residing. Consciousness has many levels. The level of the unconscious, where our destiny from past life is dormant. The level of the unconscious. All our deeds from past lives are stored there. According to Kuṇḍalinī Yoga, the awakening of the chakras and Kuṇḍalinī, when we research all the eight major centers from Mūlādhāra till the Sahasrāra, then Mūlādhāra is that place where all our karmas, or destiny, or luck, or bad luck, are dormant there. Through the practice of Kriyā Yoga with some mantra, prāṇāyāma, concentration, and some mudrās, these are the combination of a few techniques which make what we call a Kriyā practice. And that can purify and awaken those dormant karmas, good or bad. When the bad karmas awaken, they will bring the bad waves. Good actions bring out the good. But in that practice which you do, or will do, or are doing, if you use your mantra and spiritual thoughts, then that awakening, which is like a darkness, will immediately be enlightened. For example, in this hall where we are sitting, it is completely dark, very dark. We enter the room and we turn on the light. So this is the Kriya, where we press the button. What happens? We awoke, we connected that energy which was blocked, let’s say, for example, it was dormant. With pressing the switch, energy came in and became light. Within no time, the darkness disappeared. You don’t see darkness anywhere. Similarly, when we do the very correct kriyā or techniques of meditation, then after certain discipline, after disciplined practice, our mūlādhāra cakra is purified. For this, we will talk next time or tomorrow. The second is called the subconscious. And the subconscious begins in our existence. We are all individually existing. Our soul is an individual soul. And in the entire universe, the endless universe, it must not be only this planet; it can be anywhere. No restriction. You don’t need any passport. When you enter the astral world, within no time you are somewhere, but still in the astral body. When we get enlightenment or we clear up all the levels of consciousness, what we call then in yoga is self-realization. Who am I? From where do I come? Why did I come here? Am I doing the things for which I came? And where will I go? Ko’ham, katam idam, jatam ko’va, kartasya vidyate? Theoretically it is very clear, but practically it’s not clear at all. So we need that realization to come out of the cycle of birth and death. There are 8.4 million different creatures. So it means that there are many different kinds of lives. The soul is traveling as an individual. Destiny is individual. Karma is individual. Problems are individual, as well as the general. Collective. So our subconsciousness begins from the first day of our existence, coming into this physical planet again. That means through the nourishment to the body of the father. And your life begins already there as the seed existing. Manifestation takes place, that the first milestone of our destiny in this universe, in the manifestation, begins from that minute or second when the mother is conceiving or when the mother and father are together. Now, at that time, your subconsciousness—first, what kind of situation the father had, physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and what kind of nourishment he was consuming—that is genetic, what in medicine or science they are saying. That is because that reflects on you; it has a shadow over your life. So the father’s life influences and makes his design the same model in your astral body already. And then the first milestone, or this second, is when you get a place in the mother’s body, in the mother’s womb. Now, that time becomes very vivid already. Which situation was there? How was the mother? How was the father? Was he happy? Was he unhappy? Was he forced? Was he drunk? And so, fear. There are many situations that begin to expand our subconsciousness. So, our problems, what nowadays modern psychology says, the psychic illness, feeling of loneliness, anxiety, phobias, and many other things, because it’s all, as you and me, as a soul, in astral form. We see, we hear, we feel, we know, we experience, but we can’t do anything. And in a physical form, we can do something according to the ability of our body, every creature. Then, how was the mother’s time during the nine months? So the husband, or the father of the child, has the prime duty to give all kinds of comfort, happiness, protection, and warmth during the pregnancy. Never should your wife have tears because you are not there. If you behave differently with her, her pain, her disappointment, it will affect the subconsciousness of that child also. And that’s why it’s called big, big responsibilities. First, marry, and then have a child. If you can’t do this, then it is better not to have a child. Especially for humans, we bring that soul again after this, who knows how many times, or how long he was just traveling, wandering in the astral world. And finally, it came to this world, to you. And it is the mother. She is our manifestation. Now the fourth milestone begins. You are born. How happy! Wow! Everybody was happy. Sometimes an ambulance came to take you quickly to the hospital. No, you were in a hurry to come out. But a mother has two things: she has pain, and she has happiness. Boys, girls, you don’t know. Only the mother knows who gave birth to the child, who carried the child for nine months. It is something. Great, beautiful, but responsible detainer. And now, as your life grows, so the subconsciousness begins from there. From that time until now, in these minutes, past minutes, it is recorded in our level of subconsciousness. And that is known as a psychic reaction, or what people call psychic illness or anything. Śrī Śrī... Our colleagues, partners, and children, whatever you call them. So, there is one beautiful song I will not sing now. Maybe I will translate tomorrow. Very nice. It is a song about one world which is in the case. O world of the case, terā dharad na jāne koya. Nobody knows your pain. That song is a very beautiful song, but it is also very painful. So this means we, this body is a case, and the soul is now inside. Nobody knows our own pain. Even if someone is sitting beside us, holding our hand, only you know. To liberate from this is the biggest achievement in the universe. So in the subconsciousness, we came from the unconscious out. Unconsciousness is a border between the animal level of consciousness and humans. That is the border between animals and humans. And the border of, when we reach our ājñā cakra, near the eyebrow center, here you see my tilaka, till that, from human quality begins, till here is a human, and above is then divine. And then above this sahasrāra is the universal, the cosmic quality. And that practice should lead us; kriyā should lead us to purify all our unclarities. So meditation is the technique; it is there to do it. After comes the third level, which is called consciousness. And consciousness is that of a presence of life, just presence. Now, what I am telling you: through your intellect, through your senses—there are five senses of knowledge and five senses of action, karma. And this knowledge means that we get knowledge through these five senses. So one is the vision, our eyes. We see colors and objects. We don’t know the value of our eyes, and we pray to God, Lord, no creature should be blind in this world. So we don’t know the value, what our eyes mean. So we get knowledge through our eyes, we get knowledge through our nostrils, the smell. And we get knowledge through our hearing, the ears, and the fourth through the taste: sweet, sour, bitter, salty. And the fifth one is the skin, the touch. There are only these five keys to put anything into the computer of our brain, the intellect. Part 2: The Mind, Meditation, and the Need for a Guide These five [senses] are very present when we are conscious. We are conscious now. The intellect has its good friend or worker: the mind. Immediately, it takes over from the intellect and from these five senses and brings the impressions to store in the subconscious. And what is the function that brings messages from the subconscious to the conscious? That function is called mind. So the mind is that tendency which is pendulating from subconscious to conscious and from conscious to subconscious, bringing the message in and bringing the message out. Now, during meditation, when we are sitting with closed eyes or before going to sleep, we are in one space. That space is known as chidākāśa, citta-ākāśa. Citta means consciousness. Ākāśa means space. What does it mean? It means you close your eyes, you are sitting here, but you are thinking about something else. There is a little story. A man, about 75 years old, was going to his meditation room to meditate. He had his daughter-in-law. He told her, "My daughter, at 10:30 I have an appointment with someone. If he comes here earlier, please give him a warm welcome. Give him a nice seat in the living room, some water or tea, and tell him that I am meditating and soon I will be with him." Who said this? The father-in-law. The man came at ten past ten. He should have come at ten-thirty, but he came at ten past ten. He knocked on the door, ringing the bell. The young woman opened the door and said, "Welcome, sir." He asked her, "Is your father at home?" She said, "No, my father is not at home. He went shopping for shoes. Very soon he will be here. Please come in, make yourself comfortable. What can I offer you? Some coffee, or tea, or water, or juice?" He said juice would be okay. But her father-in-law was sitting beside her in one room, meditating, and he heard that his daughter-in-law was lying. "I told her that I am meditating. Why did she say that I went to buy shoes?" So he was restless. Anyhow, he was disciplined, practicing a half-hour meditation—meaning half an hour, not 29 minutes. After that, he finished and came. He met his friend. The friend went away. Then the father asked her a question, "My daughter, why did you lie?" She said, "When, father?" "I told you I am meditating, and you said to my friend that I went to buy shoes." She said, "Father, I didn’t lie. It was true." He said, "No, you know that I am sitting in the meditation room." She said, "Yes, father, you were sitting in the meditation room. Your body was here, but mentally you were in the market buying shoes." His mouth remained open. "How do you know?" "Yes, my daughter, I was thinking, 'Which shop is a good one?' and there was one good shop. I saw good shoes there, and I was thinking I would try these shoes." So she said, "Your body was here, but in reality you were not here. What did you practice? I am practicing such long meditation that I don’t even know what I am thinking. What did you practice?" And what was her answer? So I practiced yoga and deva. So, chitta vṛtti nirodhaḥ. That citta, that golem, when we close our eyes, and now our thoughts are there. That is called citta, and vṛtti means the thoughts. So the space within this glass is the citta, the water is the consciousness, and now the motion is the thinking with this. Now you see, the water is moving. What I want to tell you is that during meditation, we should have only one thought. All other thoughts, we should filter out. Otherwise, it’s not a meditation; it’s called dhāraṇā, āsanas, exercises, and a steady body, motionless, prāṇāyāma, breath control, breath practice. Prāṇa, we will have tomorrow. And then comes dhāraṇā, concentration. Concentration means that we should not forget our aim. You are driving a car, you know: beautiful trees, forest, meadows, oncoming traffic, someone is overtaking, you are listening to the radio or talking with the co-driver, everything. These are the vṛttis, but the main aim of concentration is that you are concentrating on your road, driving, and you are aware of your aim, where you want to go. So there must be feeling. If there is no feeling, no love, it will not be successful. So motivation through the theory. Now these are the theories. Yes, theory is very sweet, very good. But now to put it into practice, that’s hard work. The theory is that the mentor plans. You are planning this building, designing on the piece of paper. Now, practically, you construct this building. Then how long will it take? So first you decide you would like to know what you want to achieve, what you want to do in your life. And then you get the practice for that. Even if you come for yoga only for your health—maybe you have neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, joint pain, all different problems, high blood pressure, restlessness, stress, and so many things—your yoga teacher should give you those kinds of exercises, very gentle ones, that can really help your body. So theory must be. Without theory, we cannot. And to realize that theory in practice, we need a master. There is one book, and this book is for what you call the surgeon. A surgeon who is a very, very well-known expert for heart operations. A book was written by that surgeon. And he wrote everything about the heart, all techniques about operations, transplanting of the heart, and so on. His beautiful picture is in the book. Everybody who reads it is inspired. But now he is not alive anymore. The book is there. Everything is written step by step, what to do. Now your father has a problem with the heart. You say, "Father, I read this book, I will go to buy the instruments, and tomorrow I will transplant in your heart." Will your father allow this, or will you dare to do this? No. We need another surgeon, one who is experienced and has practiced for many, many years. And so, there are many, many yoga books in the market. Many, many very good books, and nicely written. But that’s a theory. We need a practice. Now we said, "Yes, we know we can have a practice." You need that experienced teacher who really speaks the language of your heart, who can inspire you and can guide you gently, safely. You read the holy book, and it is also read and explained by holy men. Or a priest, let’s say, in the church, when you go for a ceremony or prayer, and he reads or she reads the Bible and explains something, it has a different effect than when we read it ourselves. So that’s why the teacher, the master, is needed. In English, they say teacher or master. Who has mastery in this, that is a master. And in Hindi or Sanskrit, we say guru. So the difference is only language. If it is written "guru" or "a teacher" or "a master," that is the same. Now, different kinds of masters, different kinds of teachers. You also have teachers in nursery school, kindergarten, primary school, middle school, high school, college, and university. And I don’t know what you tell, you said "caretaker of the house," but in German we say "housemaster." The one who is the caretaker of the house is called the housemaster. And who is cleaning the chimney? That’s called the coming master, the chimney master. So, a master means one who takes care and who can bring you to that explanation and to solve the problems. Therefore, my suggestion, my advice to all of you—it doesn’t matter where you practice, where you will practice, where you will come from, where you are coming—take the books, read the books, but if you want to practice, then join and come to some teachers. They will explain to you exactly what to do and how to do it. I buy a car, I give you the car, I give you the key, and I tell you, "Here is the road, bye-bye." But you don’t know how to drive. So, to buy the book is like you bought a car, you have the key, everything, but now what? So meditation is that practice, and when we have this practice, then it becomes easier for us to enjoy. Now, you will say that I have been practicing for ten years, but still I cannot meditate. Yes, I agree with you one hundred percent. Ten years is nothing. Wait fifty years, maybe something will happen. How many lives, how many lives have we stored in our unconscious level? How many things do we have at the subconscious level? What brought us to yoga? Must be something. And we are lucky that we got this inspiration, that we would like to know ourselves, to know our life better, know our body better, know our problems better. And we would like to do something different, which gives me peace inside, which can give me relaxation. This life is not like a machine, only working, working. Evening going to sleep, morning quickly get up with the clock, quickly to bathroom, to the kitchen, breakfast, coffee, take the handbag, run to the bus, in the bus, in the office. My friend, relax. Just relax. Let me be one with myself. Relax. So this is a little instruction for meditation or yoga-nidrā. And develop your concentration. Listen. So there was a question. Many of the disciples know this answer, and many who do not know should play with us to know how much you can store in your citta-vṛtti, in your consciousness, your concentration. I will, for example, you will hold hands like this, and I will tell you, now clap your hands. So it is the things that we forget so quickly. So many things we have, and this is because now, in this modern way of life, there is a complete restlessness and stress and stress and stress. So we listen, we have so many things, and we forget again. So, anyhow, let’s make an experiment, okay? So hold your hands like this and don’t be late. You have to, because it is going like one, two, like this, okay? And I will tell you, clap hands now, okay? Very good. So, hold your hands like this, and I will begin with three, two, one, okay? So, three, two, one. Clap your hands with it. You see, you waited. So that was, I said, I will tell you. You clapped your hands, one, two, and three, and you forgot it. And you waited. That’s it. Okay, anyhow, but you are very good. Now, just to give a rest to your brain, you have a little interval, 15, a good 15 minutes. My watch is a quarter past eight, so let’s say 8:35 we meet again. Is it okay? So, enjoy your interval. Adio. So, we will have a little meditation practice. That was a theory. And now we try to put the theory into practice. Of course, do not expect that you will be levitating already today, but it is the way to that levitation. We need long practice. So, generally in yoga, we used to sit on the floor on the yoga mat, but according to the climate situation, here is a cold climate and people used to sit on the chair, and it is a lecture hall, so I cannot ask you to sit down, but push yourself a little back. Like this, so that your body is straight. One of you can come there, okay? Hence, these two fingers, the index finger and the thumb, when they are together, it is said that they calm down our vṛttis. One day I was in a rehabilitation center in Śrīvākīya. There are many who practice and teach, utilizing yoga and their life for rehabilitation centers. And that teacher gave me some practice, and then she said, "Relax and put these two fingers together," she said to me, "and hold it here, lie down." So I said, "Why?" She said, "Yes, because these are the points which will help you to relax and calm yourself." I said, "Yes, I will try to relax and be calm." So it has. And you see, if you roll your fingers like this, you will feel like you have a small scent cone inside. Or, if you are on the palm, with these three fingers, if you go like this, it awakens the kind of center’s feelings. It’s relaxing. If one is very nervous, just while sitting, you do it like this. And deep inhale and exhale. So, the tips of the fingers have those energy centers which are connected directly to our thinking process. So you can hold like this or like that. Both this is better, but like this is also good. That means that with a nail, the index finger’s nail, we place the acupressure point here. And that affects our thinking process. Now, second, either we put our hands like this on the thighs or the knees, or you can put them like this, with your palms touching your knees. Or you can put it on your lap like this, so however you feel comfortable. First thing is that you feel comfortable. Okay? If you take off your shoes, you will feel more energy, and you will feel freedom from the whole day’s life. Immediately, you will feel that your foot soles are breathing. As we, before we spoke about jñāna-indriyas, our eyes are also known as cañcala. Chanchala means restless. Every object that our eyes see creates a thought. So anything you want to see in this hall, you can do it now, and then we will close our eyes. And be sure, until we open our eyes, nothing new will come here. So, there is nothing to see. Okay? So, make yourself comfortable. And now, take this Chin Mudrā. Make yourself comfortable. Adjust yourself in such a way that you will not feel discomfort. And now, gently close your eyes. We will chant Oṃ three times altogether. And during Oṃ chanting, withdraw yourself from the external world and come into your inner world. Very consciously bring yourself into this room where you are sitting, and become aware of your being here. So, take a deep inhale, and we will all chant together. Many of you know how to chant Oṃ. Inhale. Relax and feel your breath. Be aware of your being here in this hall. Feel and relax your whole body. From the toes to the top of the head, and from the top of the head to the toes. Relax. No tensions at all, either physically or mentally. The whole day has passed. You were working physically and mentally, but now it is time to relax. Relax the whole body from the toes to the top of the head and from the top of the head to the toes. Relax.