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Part 1: The Awakening of Consciousness: Kuṇḍalinī and Cakras Good morning, Swamiji. This year in May, the decision was made to share the pure outcome of the lecture held in Zagreb with the Association for Leukemia and Lymphoma, Zagreb. I would like to ask Mr. Emil Vibović of the Association for Leukemia and Lymphoma, Zagreb, to come to the stage and greet the audience. Dear guests, I am very pleased and honored to thank your leader, who has donated—a small part for him, but an extremely large part for us—to our patients with leukemia and lymphoma in their fight for life. We thank him from the bottom of our hearts, and we hope that this cup will fill our glass in the fight for patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Hvala još jednom. It is a great honor to be here today with you, with Mr. Samidze. I would like to thank the organizers of Yoga in Everyday Life. We all know how busy the world is today, how different the world is today, and it is especially difficult for us blind people to follow all that is happening around us. We have a different perception of the world. That is why yoga, together with the optimism we in the Guho Sepe have had for a long time, can help develop our personality and all of our Guho Sepe people. Thank you for being here today to teach me new things, to teach me how to improve physical strength, mental strength, spiritual strength, and the strength of society. Thank you. Śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ. Merciful Lord, lead us from unreality to reality. Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us from mortality to immortality. Peace, peace, peace. Salutation to the cosmic light, Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent, in His divine presence. Dear brothers and sisters, good evening. For me, it is a blessed evening to be with you and to serve you with my limited intellect through the wisdom of yoga. This is not my first visit to this beautiful country, and Yoga in Daily Life is well known here. This evening we have a very beautiful subject: we will recall Kuṇḍalinī and cakras. Many of you know about it, and many will know for the first time. The science of yoga is the science of body, mind, and consciousness. It is the science of the Self. Yoga is as old as this universe. It is endless. It is said in yogic scriptures, "Anant brahmāṇḍ sahasra sūryas"—endless universes and thousands of solar systems, all existing within one space. That endless, eternal space within which the Cosmic Consciousness resides, like an embryo in the mother’s womb. Therefore, for me, that entire universe is like a Cosmic Mother, and everything exists and develops in Her body, that eternal cosmic consciousness, which is not dormant but residing. And that consciousness awakens or becomes active through one principle that we call eternal sound—the resonance. It is through that resonance, through that vibration, that everything takes place in this universe in due time. Visible and invisible, all elements are balanced in a perfect way. And that balancing principle is what I call yoga. Yoga is not a religion, it is not a philosophy, it is not a dogma, but it is the eternal principle in this universe, like the cosmic consciousness itself. The creation of this planet and the creation of life on this planet, which are also connected with that cosmic vibration, is declared by yogīs as OM—eternal, everlasting bliss and light. That exists or dwells within us and outside of us. In every particle or in every atom, that eternal sound is present now too. In this human body, there is immense energy. The creation on this planet, we call it the circle or the cycle of coming and going, rebirth and death. Whether we believe it or not, belief does not change the reality. It is there. It is a process which is continuously changing, like a recycling process. Similarly, the consciousness on this planet is developing, and it has to develop until it merges this individual consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness. It has to travel or experience the changes. So we would not call it the date of birth, but it is the changing or the development of the consciousness. It is said that on this planet, the Creator has created all the creations of 8.4 million different creatures. One of them is the human, and again, this is a cycle of this revolution. Finally, it is said that the last point is human life, but it can be mistaken and it can be repeated again, so it is not only the last. Through our carelessness, through our ignorance, through our laziness, we may miss this golden chance. Definitely, every creature is carrying the light of God. One calls God, one calls life, one may call the truth or the light, whatever you call. It cannot be measured as an individual person. It is universal. That universal one cannot be put into a limited form. But from time to time, those extraordinary cosmic powers enter our planet, sometimes through the human body, which we may call incarnations. Because that one has those natural abilities developed, which we do not have. The difference between a God incarnation and a normally born person or creature is like a guilty person being brought into prison. But the one who is working in the prison is coming with free will. In reality, both are in the prison. But being there in that same room, in the same building, is for a different reason, and that we call the karmic. So whatever we do, it reflects on us. The difference between animals and humans is that humans have a better intellect. That human intellect can be trained endlessly. Everything that is achieved in this life and developed is through the human intellect. That knowledge is in human consciousness. And so the Kuṇḍalinī, the science of Kuṇḍalinī and cakra, has its great impact on human consciousness, the human body, and on human development. Because in this body, there are also dormant abilities which can be awakened; they remain dormant. You have something under your chair where you are sitting, but you do not know what is there. Maybe something beautiful, precious, but when this lecture is finished, you will just get up and go. You will miss it because no one told us, and how should we know? So within us, within this body, is that richness, the treasure—the treasure of wisdom, the treasure of abilities, which are connected with the cakras, the energy centers in the human body. Therefore, the Kuṇḍalinī science is something very extraordinary. I will come back to the human body. I am talking according to yoga terminology. Before we enter this physical planet, meaning in the body of the mother, there is immense preparation in the astral world. We have different kinds of bodies, not only the physical body. And the different functions are given to us. The mechanism, everything is given to this body. So this body has consciousness. I will come to this point later. We have mind. We have emotion. We have memory. We have the ability to speak, and so on. So we have got the ten senses in this body: five karmendriyas and five jñānendriyas. Karmendriya means the five senses of action, through which we can do something in this material world. And five jñānendriyas, through which we can receive knowledge from the external world. There is no sixth one. So whatever we have learned, we experienced, we know, is received by one of the jñāna indriyas: our eyes, our ears, smelling senses, taste, and touch (the skin). And these are the senses which constantly keep us in connection, in contact with the external world. Our duty is to keep the senses healthy and protect them. It is said, "Dharma rakṣitaḥ." If you can protect your dharma, dharma will protect you. What is dharma? Dharma has a very big explanation. But dharma means obligation. Dharma means principle. Now, the principle of our eyes is to see. And we know how important it is. Unfortunately, a blind person knows how hard life is without eyes. So our dharma, our duty, our obligation, is to protect our eyesight. If we protect our eyes, our eyes will protect us too. So there are two kinds of dharma: svadharma and paradharma. Your own dharma, your own principle, and the principle of others. So we shall help someone else to keep their principles. Let us say there is a guard who is guarding some factory. His dharma is to guard that factory. Now, our dharma is not to disturb that person, not to do something against that person. If we do, we disturb his or her dharma, and that will create for us bad karma. So every sense has its dharma. So the entire body, all organs in the body, have their function, their dharma. And our duty, or our dharma, is this: that while eating, while drinking, and while doing something, we should think of the different organs and functions of the body. Then our healthy body will help us to enjoy life more. In this body, which has these indriyas, there are many other functions. Now, there is one called the Nāḍī system, the nerves. According to yogic science, there are 72,000 nāḍīs in the human body. And these nāḍīs are responsible for the transmission of consciousness and energy through the body. And these nāḍīs are very, very important for our development—physical, mental, or conscious development. Besides this, we have very powerful tools that are called mind and intellect. The mind is a function between the subconscious and the conscious. The duty of the mind is to take all the information which is received by the jñāna-indriya, the senses of knowledge. Whatever you listen, whatever you see, whatever you smell, whatever you taste, whatever you touch, all is transferred to the subconscious. Let’s imagine a tape recorder. The tape is constantly moving because it is ready to take new sound. And the sound that is already here is already preserved. So the mind is that process which constantly, when we are awakened and we are aware, or we are conscious, brings all impressions to the subconsciousness. At the same time, the mind brings from the subconsciousness all desires to the conscious mind. So what we see, what we hear, or what we receive from the jñāna-indriyas, the senses of knowledge, is called impression, and these impressions, as raw material, go to the subconscious, and that becomes desires. Vāsanā, we call it. But those desires, those vāsanās, which are still not clear, after some time, these vāsanās come up, like smoke comes from a fire. So, this vāsanā, the dormant or the hidden desires from the subconsciousness, is brought to the conscious mind. And the consciousness is constantly connected with the intellect. The principle of the intellect is to give judgment. The dharma, or the principle of the mind, is to make a saṅkalpa, a resolution, and dissolve the resolution. The mind doesn’t keep the thoughts constantly. The mind is changing constantly, so therefore do not trust your mind. And the mind cannot remain steady. The mind must work. The mind is a principle which is a pendulum between subconsciousness and consciousness. So the mind takes the vision, puts it into the subconsciousness, and gives up, because the mind has to be alert to take the next impression. But when we are peaceful, inactive, meditating, or when we have more time, then the mind has more time, so the mind begins to function in another direction. So it brings the thoughts which are dormant and stored in the subconscious mind. And it comes to the conscious mind. And the conscious mind is connected with the intellect. Dharma, the principle of the intellect, is to give judgment. Let’s say you have some desires. And your mind brings something filling up, but the mind doesn’t know what it is. But it comes to intellect. Intellect gives the judgment: this desire is a desire for eating ice cream. And that judgment is given, and transfers this desire to that indriya of tasting. And now you want to taste the ice cream, but your health condition doesn’t allow you to eat ice cream. But you see beautiful pictures of ice cream. But you say, "No, I don’t eat because my doctor said I should not eat." And you sleep. In the dream, desires come out again. So the dream is our reality, our own reality from past time, our intensive desires, and in the dream you go to the ice cream shop and you buy the ice cream. And you take the spoon, and you take the ice cream. You bring the ice cream near your lips. Unfortunately, the alarm is ringing. The ice cream is gone. So even in the dream, we couldn’t fulfill our desires. What happens to those desires which we can’t fulfill? Due to some circumstances, they return again and again to the subconsciousness. Then one day, they will become what we call psychic problems: unexplained fear, anxiety, and that is stored in the subconsciousness. We are normally pendulating in 24 hours in three levels of consciousness. And that’s called conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. Or we call it conscious, sleep, and dream. And all these three levels of our consciousness have great meaning for us. Now, according to yoga, there are many cakras, which I will show you after, that there are different times of our actions, our karma. It is said that the first is what creates our destiny. And then, according to our destiny, life is given. Do not blame anyone. No one is guilty for it. It is our own destiny, and that destiny we caused. Prārabdha means the destiny, and destiny is all deeds of our past life. From the past life, destiny is something like unconsciousness. We don’t know at all. If we know our past life, maybe we will be happy, or maybe we will be very unhappy. Thanks to God that we do not know, and do not try to know your past life. We are not able to master this life, the problems of this life, and when you will come to know the problems of several past lives, I do not know what will happen. Therefore, the past is past. We shall do something so that we can purify those karmas. The subconsciousness begins from the first day of our life in the mother’s womb—the very first second, first minute. And the psychic, or mental and physical, condition of the mother in that situation, as well as the father, has a great impact on our subconsciousness. And after that, during the nine months of pregnancy, the dharma of the man is to take care and be always there for her. It is not only for her, but for the new life. And so on, all past things that happened directly and indirectly through our parents and through our beings, till now, are stored in the subconsciousness. And the consciousness, the intellect, is circling around the whole of our being that has freedom. Now, these Kuṇḍalinī and cakras are responsible for the development of the consciousness, meaning to free the consciousness from those tormented, unknown destinies which keep us back, and to become free from these subconscious fears. And for this, these 72,000 nāḍīs in the human body are very, very important. Now, here we begin the formulation of the cakras, so I would ask if we can have the slide of the nāḍīs. Somehow these nāḍīs are shown in this picture; they are not all 72,000, but the major nāḍīs, the major channels through which the energy is flowing. They are transmitting the energy through the whole body. And I used to say the 72,000 nāḍīs means we have 72,000 cakras in the body. There are 72,000 junctions where a new branch begins, like when we take a letter Y. The Y has a few points: the beginning, the trunk, the joint where the branch separates, and the top. So it becomes a few junctions. Now, we know the science of acupuncture. When we go to the expertise of electroacupuncture, and they find the reflex zone, when they touch the reflex zone, then on the monitor, the needle moves. If they do not find the real point, the monitor will not react. Similarly, this reflection zone in the body, you can say, is a cakra. So likewise, throughout the whole body, the cakras are spread, and the nāḍīs, the nerves, are connecting channels through which the consciousness is flowing. In yoga, we have exercises that are called prāṇāyāma, breath techniques, and the very first technique, which is called nāḍī śodhana prāṇāyāma—purification of the nāḍīs—is very gentle. Everyone can do it. That means to purify the nerves. The systems purify the cakra system, and the advanced one is—there are advanced prāṇāyāma techniques, which you have in your Yoga in Daily Life book. Now the picture is gone; it’s a different picture, okay. I was surprised; the nāḍīs changed. Out of these 72,000 nāḍīs, I don’t have some indicator, but anyhow, you see on the top: Sun, Moon, and on the top another like a sun. These three nāḍīs connecting to three channels, that’s called Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. Iḍā is connected to the left nostril, or to the left hemisphere, and Piṅgalā is connected to the right hemisphere. And Suṣumṇā is the center of the nervous system. The left is connected to the moon principle. And moon means emotion. Moon means the mind. The moon never rises equally. The moon is always changing. Similarly, every day, every minute, our mind is changing. Our thoughts are changing. Our emotions are changing. Our feelings are changing. Our decisions are changing. Sometimes we are angry, sometimes we are happy, jealous, greedy. These are all different kinds of emotions. The right one is connected to the sun, and that is connected to the activity, the creativity, the temperament. That sun system is connected to the intellect. So this is mind and intellect. Now we cannot be only emotional, or we cannot be only on the level of the intellect. Therefore, these both systems automatically in our body change several times during 24 hours. Whether you know or you do not know, this is an automatic system inside, so that’s balancing our emotion and our intellect. Now we have heard one word, Haṭha Yoga. So "ha" means the moon and "ṭha" means the sun. Yoga means uniting or balancing, so Haṭha Yoga means uniting or balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic principles in the body, and that’s called Haṭha Yoga. There are different techniques to achieve this level of being. And the central nerve, which is connected—we will see on the top, like a sun, you see—that is connecting to the consciousness, alertness, wisdom, the light: the awakening of the Kuṇḍalinī śakti, the awakening of the cakras. It means the awakening of wisdom, becoming wise, becoming calm, becoming clear, self-control. So, awakening of Kuṇḍalinī is divine. Now, Kuṇḍalinī means śakti. "Kund" means a deep place, a tank. And it is something like when we put a lot of things in a tank; after a few years, the things will change. It will become mud, or we do not know what is inside. Similarly, those deeds which are dormant in the subconsciousness, we do not know what they are. Therefore, some call it a snake power. We call a snake a cobra. "Call" means the past time, or "call" means the time, and we do not know what time will bring. We do not know what is hidden. So when the Kuṇḍalinī awakens, then all the hidden, dormant things will come up in your conscious mind. But before that, you should activate your Ājñā Cakra, where we will come after, to understand the life situation, that you are strong enough to digest the truth. We can digest, but the knowledge is very hard to digest. As long as we did not know, we were relaxed and happy. And when we came to know, we were very sad. Why were we sad? Because it was very unpleasant news of some tragedy. And we are not able to digest that. It is human feelings. It is true. But we should have enough wisdom to understand the destiny and the nature of the destiny, or the natural law. So the Kuṇḍalinī is this way. And secondly, serpent, snake energy, is like this: what we call the small of the brain, from there these two channels begin—Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and the central nervous system, which controls our whole body, as well as the brain activities. Part 2: The Journey of Consciousness: Understanding the Chakras and Kuṇḍalinī The left hemisphere, which we call Iḍā Nāḍī, and the right one, Piṅgalā. As soon as they depart from their origin, they make a crossway. They cross near the vocal cords, at the joint of the neck, and that junction becomes one mighty chakra. We call it the Viśuddhi Chakra. There, the left nāḍī goes to the right, and the right one goes to the left. Therefore, what we call the left hemisphere influences the right part of the body, and the right one influences the left part. Similarly, after a while, they cross again, and that becomes the heart chakra. The center, Suṣumṇā, is a strong pillar, and that is the path of consciousness. These two nāḍīs travel around the central nāḍī. Their serpentine attitude of movement is why the name "snake power" is given—not a literal snake. When people speak of the Kuṇḍalinī awakening and say they feel something like a snake going up, my God, that I don’t want. That would be a horror dream. Can you imagine something moving through the spinal column up and down? Some say, "I feel something climbing up, tickling, like ants are going up." I tell them it is high time to brush your body clean and change your dress. The awakening of the Kuṇḍalinī is a divine process; you don't feel it as a physical sensation. You feel happy, as if in the lap of the mother. Likewise, the chakras are created where there are crossways, where strong energy is connected. Every chakra has its principles, and chakras can become blocked. Some mental or physical illnesses begin there, and the awakening of the chakra means healing. Now, this is a picture of the Prāṇāyāma Śakti, the subtle energy which moves or transmits through the chakras. That is called the transcendental process of the fine energy, or consciousness. Our consciousness is not stored only in one place; it is throughout the whole body. If a little mosquito sticks on our small toe, we immediately know. It means we are completely one with our body; we are conscious. If certain nerves are dead or damaged and become senseless, you don’t feel. Through Prāṇāyāma techniques, we can bring in life again without feeling—except if it is operated on, then we cannot grow new nerves. There is a technique to grow new nerves, to completely renew it in the next life, so we have to wait till then. Therefore, be nice to your mother, and to your father, and also to your future parents whom you do not know, but pray unto God that you will have blessed parents, as you also have now. These different chakras are also connected to different organs of the body. We see that around the whole body, our aura or the Prāṇa Śakti is radiating. These chakras can be damaged—not physically, but in their psychic or subtle functions—and this energy can be blocked through wrong nourishment, negative thinking, a wrong way of life, and many other things. We must think to lead our life in such a positive, noble way. I am 100,000% sure we can manage. Nothing is impossible. With pure nourishment, we have that purity. Our chakras and our aura, our energy radiance, will be pure. As we are pure, we will think purely. Our thoughts and words will gain power and energy. Each thought we think will have a great effect. Whatever is thought, created by the human brain, sooner or later will come and affect itself. Like in Australia, they have what is called a boomerang. When you throw it, it comes back to you. Any thoughts you send out of your brain return to you. In modern psychology, they say negative thinking means poisoning oneself, and positive thinking means enlightening oneself. Nothing can be hidden; we cannot hide. Every situation in our life immediately influences the same chakras under certain circumstances. Someone feels a strong sensation in the stomach, someone in the throat; different chakras are influenced. Pure, sāttvic, organic nourishment will help us purify our body and maintain a long, healthy human life. The human body is the most precious diamond, which you cannot buy and cannot borrow. It is only the chance in this life to have this precious diamond. Therefore, with all our efforts, we shall keep this diamond shining throughout the world, and as long as possible, we shall preserve it. Those chakras are shown in different locations on the body, located parallel to or exactly where the spinal column is. Still, they are energy centers, psychic centers. We cannot influence them through physical operation; that is not possible. They can only be influenced by our psychic or concentrated environment. Yet, the yogī advises us that these cakras are located at the spinal column, and the spine is very important, the pillar of our life. So when a yogī sits in meditation, he is concentrating on different parts of the body. Now we can see very clearly the path of the nerves. The central nāḍī, shown as white, is the path of consciousness, clarity, wisdom, light, and freedom. Then we see the red and blue, the moon and sun systems. We see how they change, traveling from the top to the bottom, to the last end of the spinal column. The chakras are located, as I said in the beginning, throughout the whole body. The major centers are these. The chakras are divided into different categories. There are chakras which belong to the foot-soul. Those that belong to the lower world or level influence our whole body, all organs, including the brain. These centers, connected with our foot-soul and foot, are called the earth chakra, the earth element: mother earth, solid, very stable, and nourishing. But though it is like that, we should not concentrate on the foot chakra; otherwise, the practitioner may experience depression. The second chakra is called the Paśu Chakra. These are animal centers, and they begin from the ankle joint till the hip joints: animal qualities, animal habits. These should be mastered, not concentrated upon or awakened, but not neglected. The border between the Paśu Chakra and the human chakra is where the spinal column begins, from where we no longer have a tail. From there, the human chakra begins. These are connected strongly again to the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. These are the five chakras belonging to the five elements, and they have a great influence on our body. After these five chakras is the border of the human chakras and the devik chakras, the divine chakras. The divine chakras begin from the center between the eyebrows; it is called the Ājñā Chakra. That is called the seat of consciousness or the seat of knowledge. It means command, order, giving order, and so guiding, controlling, and observing entire feelings and being. That is from where the intellect is connected. Above the Ājñā Chakra, from the eyebrow center, the divine chakras begin. There are also many chakras there. Out of these many chakras, one is called the Bindu Chakra. Bindu means it is not a chakra; it is a drop. That drop is called ambrosia. That makes a yogī immortal. When that is received by a yogī, awakened, then a long, long life is attained. That Kāya Kalpa begins again; what we call becoming younger and younger. I was thinking that my Bindu Chakra is already awakened, but when I see my grey hair in the mirror, it is very clear that the Bindu Chakra is only a little bit awakened. The Bindu Chakra has its own impact on our age; it can slow it down. Finally, it is called the Sahasrāra Chakra, which is on the top of the head. It is called Brahma Randhra. Brahma is the supreme God without form, without any elements: that omniscient, omnipresent one, without a second. This chakra is the door to become one with Him. When a child is born, we can feel for a few months the fontanel, the very soft part here. That is the Sahasrāra Chakra, which we call the seat of Lord Śiva. Shiva means consciousness. Shiva means liberation. Shiva means the truth. Shiva means beauty. Shiva means light—not some physical form. Shiva means pure consciousness, liberated consciousness. That chakra has thousands of petals, illuminated. Thousands of diamonds are illuminating. Now, the Śakti, the Kuṇḍalinī, is residing down at the bottom, at the Mūlādhāra Chakra. And Shiva, the consciousness, is on the top. The individual soul, quality, that is called Prakṛti or nature, is down in the Mūlādhāra Chakra. And consciousness, the Puruṣa, is on the top. So matter and consciousness, those dormant destinies, karmas, of that individual, must reach the top. That is called the union of Śakti to Śiva—but not in the way of female and male. Not like many people misunderstand Tantra. Tantra is presented in such a negative way in the Western world. Tantra means completely different. "Tan" means to expand, and "trā" means to liberate. So whatever you are doing in your life, it is tantra. Well, we are not talking about Tantra today. So, Puruṣa and Prakṛti, this individual consciousness and cosmic consciousness, their unity means liberation, means to become free, to step out from this cycle of rebirth and death, from these 8.4 million beings. Human life is the chance for us to do it. It does not matter through which way you want to do it; in the world, there are many beautiful ways. You choose what you like, but think that all are balanced, and it speaks of your qualities. Like this, each chakra has its qualities, its nature, its principles. Now, about this chakra, that is called Mūlādhāra. Our entire past lives, from the stone time till the first second when we came into the mother’s body, are beautifully preserved here. There are many symbols according to Vedic mythology. Of course, each cakra would require one weekend program. Every symbol has its beautiful meaning in our life. We say lotus. What does the lotus mean? The elephant. The seven trunks of the elephant, the Shiva liṅgaṃ, mantras, some deities—these are not physical; these are all psychic symbols. I decided that if you invite me again—I do not know if you like to invite me—then with every visit I will take one chakra, because it is such a huge knowledge and has to be carefully, correctly informed, studied, and practiced. I thought this book is in the Croatian language, but it is in German. It will come soon in your language also. Then you can read very much in it, and also how to practice. They also have beautiful calendars; all these pictures are there. So you shall study this now: the subconsciousness. This is the Mūlādhāra Cakra, the root cakra, and it has too many principles. I will not tell you all now. If I tell you everything now, next time you will not come, or you will not digest it because you will be very tired. So quickly have a look. This is the Svādhiṣṭhāna Cakra. Now we see the petals are increasing, the color is changing, the mantra is changing, symbols are changing. The beautiful elephant is gone; the crocodile is coming. This is a beautiful chakra, but it is where a lot of qualities are hidden which we do not want so much: passion, anger, hate, jealousy, greediness—all these negative qualities. That is why the crocodile is there. There are so many qualities, and that is the problem of our life. If we master this, I tell you, we will be immediately enlightened. But at present, we are limited only. So this chakra is beautiful but very complicated. The third one is called Maṇipūra. "Maṇi" means the jewel, and "pūra" means the city: the city of jewels, the beautiful qualities of life. Also, what we Buddhists repeat: "Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ." The center is there where the Hara Śakti is. This is the center where our life begins; the embryo begins to develop from here. We are connected to the mother’s body from this center. Our body is nourished from the mother’s body from this center. The prāṇa—next time we will speak about prāṇa—the mighty power in the body: prāṇa and apāna, are connected to this center. It is the center of fire, a very sensitive and important center in our body. So no center, no chakra, can be neglected. It is difficult to achieve this center, but to go through it means to walk through fire flames. Then we come finally to the fourth center, that is called the Anāhata Cakra. Oh, blue, blue, full of temptations. It is the residence of our soul: moon, emotion, love, many good qualities. But it can make you blind, and it has many talents of poetry. If you are writing poems or beautiful articles or books, you need this chakra. We need the heart. We need something to do good in the world. This is the center of our feelings, and this center should remain awakened in universal love. Love your neighbor; it begins here. Selfish love begins in Mūlādhāra or Svādhiṣṭhāna. Svādhiṣṭhāna love creates problems, and Anāhata love creates joy. So the love which creates joy and freedom is divine love. And love which creates doubts, jealousy, and fear is not love; that is emotional confusion. But of course, we are human beings. We also have a body; we are connected with nature, and we have all kinds of feelings. But we have different centers in the body to master everything. It is difficult to go from here up, because this center can make us fanatic. This center can create immense religious confusion and dualities. This center can create the duality of "my" and "yours" if it is not understood properly. To achieve this level of consciousness, it is harder to come above. Therefore, there is the fifth chakra, called Viśuddhi. "Viṣ" means poison; "śuddha" means purification. We humans have swallowed so many good and bad experiences in our lives. All are within us; it is not easy to forget. We may forgive, but we will not forget. To forgive and forget are two things, because evidence never dies. So we will forgive. Lord Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Often we do something out of our weakness, our emotion, greediness, and we believe and pray that God will forgive us, or they will forgive us. That we expect, yes, they will forgive us. But the question is, will they forgive us? From here to go up is not the job of every man; it is not the job of everyone. But Jesus said, "If someone gives a slap on your left cheek, show the right cheek." We only read. Are we able to do this? Till today, I have not come across someone able to do this. Do we follow the words of the Lord? We do only what we like. Therefore, this center is not easy to cross. If you cross this, then let us come to the next one. What is waiting for us? The Ājñā Chakra? Oh my God! The seat of consciousness, the third eye, observing everything. Whatever you are doing, consciously or unconsciously, in dream or in sleep, you cannot hide in front of this eye. There are only two persons who know your reality; nobody else knows. These two are here in this room. One is yourself, and the second is God. They know everything. We feel, what we think, what we will do—everything you know and He knows. This is the seat of your intellect. This center can put you down to the Mūlādhāra. It makes you very intellectual, and when the intellect is dry intellect, negative intellect, then it becomes destructive. This intellect has to be mixed with the quality of the Anāhata Cakra, the heart. This is the chakra where you can work, decide, think clearly. They are both forces, Shiva and Shakti, male and female. You see, the Shiva half-form is female and half is male. This is our both sides, our emotion and intellect, sun and moon. From there, either way can bring us up or down—Uttān or Patañ. We have to be very careful here. But you have reached the peak of the mountain. Now where will you go? When you are on the top already, you will go down again. But we do not want to go down again; we would like to go higher. These are different chakras and different techniques, and the mantras, which are a very powerful guiding energy. A person practicing a spiritual path without a mantra is lost. Yes, you will achieve something, better than nothing, but still not that which we want to realize. Therefore, the major thing is guidance, and that is the mantra. It keeps us alert, protects, and is like a torchlight to walk through the darkness. The next center is the border of the human and divine centers, and this is what you call the Bindu Chakra. It is located here on the top of the head. If you cut your hair very short, you will see a circle there. Some have two, and some have one. That I will explain when we talk about this chakra. This is very near, close to the Sahasrāra Cakra, the light. The nectar which is dripping should be caught through one practical mudrā technique in yoga called Khecarī Mudrā. Otherwise, this ambrosia will reach the Maṇipūra Chakra. In Maṇipūra is fire and dharma; the principle of fire is to burn everything and purify everything. Whether it is an old newspaper or thousands of kunas, it does not tell you, "Please take it out quickly." It is money, so fire is doing its dharma; we have to respect its dharma. So these drops which are falling, we have to catch them through that mudrā, through concentration. It is not so big like what we see here; it is like a drop of fog, so fine, so little. Then you are in divine intoxication, Mastānā: divine, fearless, enlightened, happy. Then you come to the Sahasrāra Cakra, where you unite. That Śiva is dancing with you on the peak of the mountain. That is called the Śiva consciousness. It is you. It is you who are dancing out of joy, happiness, and freedom. This is the divine path, called the path of consciousness, the hidden powers in humans, the awakening of consciousness. And that is only possible through human life and by those experienced masters. It needs practice; it is not possible in one or two years. I cannot promise you. It is a lifelong job. Never hurry. Do it slowly, step by step. And it is not that first you will purify one chakra, then the second one, then the third one. No, all goes together, and that we will hear next time. Next time will be about the Mūlādhāra Chakra. I do not know when, but whenever I will come, dear brothers and sisters. Thank you for listening so peacefully. I hope I was clear enough. I did not make a mistake; if a mistake happened, please forgive it. I am happy that I could give you a glimpse of Kuṇḍalinī Yoga, so you can begin to think: it is Divine Śakti, Divine Mother. It is not dangerous at all. It is said, "Mātā bhavati na kumātā"—a mother can never be a bad mother, except in some individual cases of psychic illnesses. Therefore, the Divine Śakti within you is the fountain of joy, within you is the ocean of bliss, within you is the divine consciousness, and within you is the immortal one. Just try to know, dear brothers and sisters. I wish you all the best and good health, long life, and God’s blessing. I pray to the Almighty that He guides you, and that those tormented divine śaktis awake in you, and you become that channel through which that cosmic light can work to guide and help others. God bless you. Thank you.